OLIPHA.NT'S JOURNEY TO NEPA.UL. * Mx. Ourialres journey to Katmandu, the
capital of Nepaul, was made with a more definite object than Captain Egerton's ram- bles, which we noticed last week. At Ceylon Mr. Oliphant met Jung Bahadoor, the Nepaulese Ambassador, returning home, and, like Captain Egerton on a like occasion, was invited to Katmandu; which invitation he accepted. So far as regards route, Mr. Oliphant pursued nearly the same road as the Cap- tain; but the latter was pressed for time, pushed on before the prime minister of Nepaul, and met him approaching Katmandu as the gallant sailor was leaviiig it. On the other hand, Mr. Oliphant stuck pretty closely, to his host, and not only saw many things en route, which the other regretted to have lost, but was a resident at court under the auspices of the de facto sovereign. The prejudices of the people were too strong to allow of Mr. Oliphant's traversing the country, but he explored the capi- tal, visited the neighbourhood, was presented at court, and enjoyed sundry entertainments. Moreover, he collected some information about the country and the people, including an account of the career and exploits of his friend Jung Bahadoor—and a more ruth- less ruffian it would be difficult to imagine. Without even the plea of necessity or danger to himself, he murdered his own uncle and benefactor, prompted by no other motive than ambition ; and besides lesser deeds of blood, the usual routine of an Oriental court, here he is at a battue of nobles. The grounds of quarrel are of no
importance to the scene, except that Bahadoor contemplated the seizure of his antagonists, suspected of abetting a murderer, rather than their death, though evidently quite ready for the latter.
"He had no sooner decided upon his line of conduct than he displayed the utmost resolution in carrying it out. On the same night, and while at the palace, the suspicions which Jung already entertained were confirmed by his observing that Abiman Singh ordered his men to load. It was no time for hesitation. The two colleagues, with many of their adherents, were assem- bled in the large hall, where the Queen, in a highly-excited state, was in- sisting upon an immediate disclosure of the murderer of Guggun Singh, who was supposed to have been her paramour. At this moment Jung gave the signal for the seizure of Futteh Jung. The attempt was no sooner made than his son, Kan* Bikram Bah, imagining that his father's life was at stake, rushed forward to save him, and, seizing a kukri, had already dealt Bum Bahadoor a severe blow, when he was cut down by Dere Shum Shere Bahadoor, then a youth of sixteen or seventeen. "Futteh Jung, vowing vengeance on the murderers of his son, sprang for- ward to avenge his death ; and in another moment Bum Bahadoor, already seriously wounded, would have fallen at his feet, when the report of a rifle rang through the hall, and the timely bullet sped by the hand of Jung Ba- hadoor laid the gallant father by the side of his no less gallant son.
"Thus Jung's coup d'etat had taken rather a different turn from what he had intended ; the die, however, was cast, and everything depended upon his coolness and decision in the trying circumstances in which he was placed. Though he may have felt that his life was in most imminent peril, it IS diffi- cult to conceive how any man could attain to such a pitch of cool desperation as to enact the scene which closed this frightful tragedy. There still con- fronted him fourteen of the nobles, whose leader had been slain before their eyes, and who thirsted for vengeance ; but the appearance at his side of that faithful body-guard, on whose fidelity the safety of the minister has more than once depended, precluded them from seizing the murderer of their chief. It was but too clear to those unhappy men what was to be the last act of this
• A Journey to Nepaul with the Camp of Jung Bahadoor. By Laurence Oliphant. Published by Murray. tragedy. Jung received the rifle from the hand of the man next him, and levelled it at the foremost of the little band. Fourteen times did that fatal report ring through the hall as one by one the rifles were handed to one who would trust no eye but his own, and at each shot another noble lay stretched on the ground. Abiman Singh alone escaped the deadly aim : he managed to reach the door, but there he was cut almost in two by the sword of Krishn Bahadoor.
"Thus in a few moments, and by his own hand, had Jung rid himself of those whom he most feared. In that one room lay the corpses of the highest nobles of the land, shrouded by the dense smoke still hanging in the con- fined atmosphere, as if to hide the horrors of a tragedy that would not bear the light of day. The massacre now went on in all parts of the building. One hundred and fifty Birders perished on that eventful night, and the panic was wide-spread and general. Before the day had dawned, Jung Bahadoor had been appointed prime minister of Nepaul, and had placed guards over the arsenal, treasury, and palace."
From the author's having more time to observe and inquire, the matter in the .Tourney to Nepaul is of a more solid and inform- ing kind than in the Winter Tour in India. There is also more adventure and novelty as respects men and things. By passing ra- pidly over unimportant events in his journey from Calcutta to Ne- pea and from Nepaul to Bombay, Mr. Oliphant too is much briefer in his narrative than Captain Egerton, though traversing a similar route, and frequently seeing the same things. In fact, he packs up his observations in a single volume of "hurray's Railway Beading."
Among the things seen by Mr. Oliphant in the journey to the capital, was a grand hunt; Jung Bahadoor being a keen sports- man. Some of the sport was rather insipid ; but the pursuit of wild elephants with tame ones seems to have been an exciting affair. After Jung Bahadoor had given his guests some lessons in activity on an elephant's back, that would require a professor of the circus to master, the advance took place.
"On each elephant there were now. two riders, the mahout and a man behind, who, armed with a piece of bard wood into which two or three spikes were inserted, hammered the animal about the root of the tail as with a mallet. He was furnished with a looped rope to hold on by, and a sack stuf- fed with straw to it upon, and was expected to belabour the elephant with one hand while he kept himself on its back with the other.
"This was the position I filled on this trying occasion ; but my elephant fared well as regarded the instrument of torture, for I was much too fully occupied in taking care of myself to think of using it. Away we went at fill speed, jostling one another up banks and through streams, and I fre- quently was all but jolted off the diminutive sack which ought to have formed any seat, but did not, for I found it impossible to sit. Being quite unable to maintain any position for two moments together, I looked upon it as a mira- cle that every bone in my body was not broken. Sometimes I was suddenly jerked into a sitting posture, and, not being able to get my heels from under me in time, they received a violent blow. A moment afterwards I was thrown forward on my face, only righting myself in time to see a huge impending branch, which I had to escape by slipping rapidly down the crupper, taking all the skin off my toes in so doing, and, what would have been more serious, the branch nearly taking my bead off if I did not stoop low enough. When I could look about me, the scene was most extraordinary and indescribable : a hundred elephants were tearing through the jungle as rapidly as their unwieldy forms would let them, crushing down the heavy jungle in their headlong career, while their riders were gesticulating violently, each man pushing hia elephant, or making a bolster of himself as he flung his body on one side or the other to avoid branches ; while some, Ducrow-like, 'and con- fident in their activity, were standing on the bare backs of their elephants, holding only by the looped rope,—a feat I found easy enough in the open country, but fearfully dangerous in the jungle. A few yards in front of us was a wild elephant with her young one, both going away in fine style, the pace being about eight or nine miles an hour. I was just beginning to appreci- ate the sport, and was contemplating hammering my elephant so as to be up amongst the foremost, when we, in company with about half-a-dozen others, suddenly disappeared from the scene. A nullah, or deep drain, hid- den in the long grass, had engulphed elephants and riders. The suddenness of the shock unseated me, but fortunately I did not lose any hold of the rope, and more fortunately still my elephant did not roll over, but, balan- cing himself on his knee; with the assistance of his trunk, made a violent effort, and succeeded in getting out of his uncomfortable position. "The main body of the chime had escaped this nullah by going round the top of it; but we were not so much thrown out as I expected, for we ar- rived in time to see the wild elephant charging and struggling in the midst of her pursuers, who, after several attempts, finally succeeded in noosing her, and dragging her away in triumph between two tame elephants, each at- tached to the wild one by a rope, and pulling different ways whenever she Was inclined to be unmanageable. I was watching the struggles which the huge beast made, and wondering how the young one, who was generally almost under the mother, had escaped being crushed in the malee, when a perfect roll of small arms turned our attention to another quarter, and I saw an elephant with an imposing pair of tusks charging down upon us through a square of soldiers, which had just been broken by it, and who were now taking to the trees in all directions. I ought to remark, lest the gallant riflemen should be under the imputation of want of valour in this proceed- ing, that they were only allowed to fire blank cartridge. The elephant next to use stood the brunt of the charge, which was pretty severe, while mine created a diversion by butting him violently in the side, and being armed with a formidable pair of tusks, made a considerable impression; the wild one was soon completely overpowered by numbers, after throwing up his trunk and charging wildly in Al directions. Of the violence of one of these charges I have retained visible proof ; for a splintered tusk, which had been broken short off in the combat, was afterwards picked up and given to me as a trophy. Having succeeded in noosing this elephant also we were dragging him away in the usual manner between two others, when he snapped one of the ropes and started off, pulling after him the elephant that still remained attached to him, and dashed through the jungle at full speed, notwithstanding the struggles of the involuntary companion of his flight. Fora moment I feared that the courage of the mahout would give way in that pell-mell career, and that he would slip the rope which bound the two animals together. But he held on manfully, and after another exciting chase we succeeded in surrounding the maddened monster ; my elephant jostled him so closely that I could touch Inn as we went neck and neck. It is a curious fact that the elephants never seem to think of uncurling their trunks, and sweeping their persecutors from the backs of their tame brethren : this they have never been known to do, though it has not unfrequently occurred that a wild herd have proved more than a match for the tame one, and then there is nothing for it but to turn and make off in an ignominious retreat as fast as the blows of the mahouts can urge them."
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