The Republican journal., 1871-08-17
A Shipload of Elephants

, Inc new L ork papers give an accoun
OF the arrival in that city of ten elephant
from Ceylon. They were brought OIL
! Saturday to the foot of Thirteenth street
: North River, on board the bark Nehemi
ah Gibson, Captain Smalley, which az
! rived after 4 four months voyage from
Ceylon.
The reporters of course, visited the yes
sell and in talking with Smalley abou
,, the elephants, he furnished the following
account of the trade in those beasts in thu
East Indias eff you want to buy ele
plants cheap in Ceylon," said the Cap
tain, ''you must 60 to your hotel, throw
yourself back in chair, stick you
thumbs in your vest, and say, | want tc
buy some elephants. The native dealers
will seek you out eagerly and tell yor
yarns about the fine beasts they have or
hand for your consideration. Stroke
your chin musingly and tell them to fetch
along the elephants for your inspection
and they will do it. If you want one you
will be showna hundred. The elephants
aboard my vessel, however, were bargain.
ed Tor at the jungle. They are all fine
beasts and no mistake. They were all
trapped in the ,jungles of the Mannah Dis
trict, in Ceylon, and all of them with one
exception, a chap about thirty years of
age, were freshly caught and wild. The
one referred to had been about two years
in the custody of the native dealers.
''We received the elephants at Colom-
bo, (Ceylon), and the beasts were got
on board by means Of canvas slings and
ropes and pulleys hung from the rigging
and main-sail boom. Eleven of them in
all We're safely slowed away between
decks. Forty-five natives were employ
ed in the work of hosting and lowering
them aboard ship. This number was
in Ceylon, and thought might us well
have enough of them while | was about
! it.
Il made good preparation for them;
| had stalls built of teak wood, strong
enough on all sides to resist pressure
of 2OOO pounds, and so constructed as to
keep each animal in his place securely
separated from the others in the toughest
weather. We sailed on the Goth of March
and experienced the best kind of wealth
Ell until we reached the Cape of Good
Hope. We had some little trouble and
anxiety about the elephants. Most of
them got sea-sick, which was manifested
in their refusing either to eat or drink for
several days, but they soon got over their
qualmishness and were able to eat as
heartily as when on dry land. At the
Cape of Good Hope we began to have
rongh weather. We had three tcrrif-
ic gales while rounding the Cape, and
the rough weather continued from the
| 1ith to the 22d of May. We all felt Il
great deal of anxiety about the elephants,
who sometimes set up u fearful roaring,
but luckily the bark weathered the gales
| successfully, and the elephants, thanks
to the excellent precautions taken to f;as-
ten them securely in their stalls, came
| through ii uninjured. As | showed You
when below, there were the two iron
ring-bolts driven and riveted into the
sides of the vessel, and the strong bar of
teak wood we'll lashcd to the front of the
stalls.
''Well, sir, in rough weather we used
TO tie their hind legs to the ring bolts,
and the beasts would themselves wrap
their trunks around the wooden bar be-
fore them and hold fast, and in this posi-
ton the waves might toss the vessel rs
much sls they pleased but they couldn't
throw the elephants off their feet Some
times, to be sure, an cXtraorl linary lurch
to one side or the other of the craft would
throw the elephants back up against the
deck overhead, but this did not happen
often enough to give them much annoy
ancc. We pul hi III 81. IIulona e. +al-n i,
u fresh supply Of water, and TO get some
green feed for the beasts. We took in
5000 gallons of water there and treated
the elephants to feast Of green grass,
which they eat with Il hearty relish, and
showed in their elephantine fashion the
livelest gratitude to those who fed them.
They used $4,000 gallons of water on
this passage, and eat up 125 bales of hay
averaging 215 pounds per day, which
food was in addition to two bushels of
gramm and paddy; the last rolled up in
the form of little balls or cakes, and fed
to them from the hands of their Singha-
! lese keepers.
Every individual on board would oc-
casionally give them 4 sea-biscnit, which
was esteemed by the. elephants to be 4
great luvury. We selected names for
some of the elephants on the voyage,
which | suppose they will always retain.
One of them was known as Mandoy.
This animal was the king elephant of the
whole crew Of them. He belongs to what
the natives call high caste, and all the
other beasts were afraid of him. He was
without doubt, with the exception of an
other high caste elephant that was my IA
vorite, and whom called Nehemiah Glib
son, the most knowing creature in the
whole lot. Mandoy was everybody's IA
vorite and | believe he will make his
mark in the States. Another one that we
called Rajah was the largest animal
\ tbap, an1 IUai0,S C0Dl mounds
Then there was the baby elephant, only
eight years Old and weig ching 800 pounds
The elephant that died on the passage
possible, but nothing would avail"
On Saturday the elephants were land
ed. The arrangements for hosting the
animals from the bark to the pier were
ropes and pulleys fastened in the rigging,
and canvas sings. There was no trouble
in landing the first three. The fourth
one was the elephant called Mandoy
This brute became quite unruly before
the sling was fixed, and roared and threw
his trunk about in rage. The men hand
ling him became frightened, and the cap
tain went below and finally succeeded in
pacifying HIM He was finally trapped
and as he was hauled up and suspended
in the air he tlapped his big ears, worked
his huge legs and threw his trunk around
wildly When he landed on the pier he
showed some signs of rage at the jeering
crowd who were looking on, and at the
same time the three elephants already
landed broke from their fastening to &,
post on the pier The animals were all
secured again, and were led off toward
the depot of the Hudson River Railroad,
and they We're lodged for the night in a
yard in connection with the stables Of
that railway, on Eleventh avenue.
On Sunday morning about 8 o'clock, it
was made known that they would lea7e
that place for the railway station between
Ninth and Tenth Avenues; and large
crowd assembled. Soon the largest
gates were thrown open, the elephants
marched out, and the distance to the de-
pot was soon accomplished. Five large
produce cars were drawn up for their re-
ception near the passengers platform,
which was surrounded by number of
employees of the Company, and few ia
vored outsiders who gained admittance
at the entrance gate.
The arrangements for moving the ami