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From ‘The Times’-26th May 1851
It was in May, 1851, that the bark ‘Regatta’ arrived in New York from India, freighted with nine living elephants, a zebu or Burmese bull, 16 enormous serpents, including a brace of boa-constrictors, of 24 and 16 feet in length, besides a wilderness of monkeys, the fretted porcupine, and other live “varmints.” One of the most curious features of this Noah’s ark collection was a calf elephant, about nine months old, and weaned from its dam on the passage from Ceylon, being but three feet high, and as docile and playful as a kitten. Another is one of the native chiefs of Ceylon, who accompanied the show in charge of the elephants. This enterprise was the greatest, probably, since the days of the Flood. The elephants were hunted and caught in their native jungles by Messrs. June and Nutter, accompanied by 160 of the natives. Their capture was effected by driving 250 of them into a kraal or rude pen, constructed in the jungle, out of which they succeeded in securing 13, two having died on the passage, and another being stolen from the drove. The ‘Regatta’ made her passage home (13,000) miles stopping at the Cape of Good Hope and the Island of St. Helena, in 112 days. The elephant hunters were three months and four days in the jungles before they affected their object.
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