The baggage, if any, is commonly carried on some hired bullock, or in a _hackery_; some _sets_ are, however, so opulent, as to be able to keep one or two camels, and to purchase a tolerably good Hindostanee tent, that is, without walls, and supported by two bamboo poles, each about eight or nine feet long.
The baggage of Europeans is, ordinarily carried on elephants, camels, bullocks, _hackeries_, or _coolies_: of late years, a great improvement has been made, by taking off the body of a gig, with its shafts, and substituting a frame, made on such a plan as may serve to contain several trunks and liquor chests below, while a cot, with all the necessary bedding, having over them a painted canvas canopy, covers the whole, and keeps every part compact and dry. Such a conveyance, with a tolerably stout horse, is found to get on far more expeditiously than any of the others.
With respect to elephants, it may be said, that they are either the best, or the worst, carriage: in the low countries, where the soil is often soft for the greater part of the year, the elephant is certainly a most useful animal; his feet being broad, and his power so great as to enable his acting with decision and energy at the moment of difficulty, qualify him, almost exclusively, for the transportation of tents, and heavy baggage, in such parts of the country as remain heavy or swampy during the more settled part of the year.
Though we may suppose, that, previous to the plains of Bengal being cultivated, they were over-ran with elephants, the same as other parts of India, of which that animal is a native, still it should seem, that their principal haunts must have been along that hilly wilderness in which they are now found in a gregarious state. It is well known that the elephant thrives best near the sea, that in its vicinity he attains his greatest bulk, and is exempt from various diseases, especially the opthalmia and the dropsy, both of which attack at least four in five of such as are removed to dry soils. This circumstance, as well as the peculiar formation and substance of the foot, appear to render the elephant peculiarly appropriate to the use of such persons as have occasion for carriage-cattle (_i.e._ cattle that bear burthens) in the lower provinces.