I then, advancing, took the proboscis of his elephant, and turning it against the rider, struck him repeatedly with the extremity of it on either side of the head, until I at length dismounted him.  Nothing could equal the rage of the barbarian finding himself thrown from his elephant.  He rose in a fit of despair, and rushed against my steed and myself:  but I scorned to fight him at so great a disadvantage on his side, and directly dismounted to fight him hand to hand.  Never did I fight with any man who bore himself more nobly than this adversary; he parried my blows, and dealt home his own in return with astonishing precision.  The first blow of his sabre I received upon the bridge of my nose, and but for the bony firmness of that part of my face, it would have descended to my mouth.  I still bear the mark upon my nose.

He next made a furious blow at my head, but I, parrying, deadened the force of his sabre, so that I received but one scar on my forehead, and at the same instant, by a blow of my sword, cut off his arm, and his hand and sabre fell to the earth; he tottered for some paces, and dropped at the foot of his elephant.  That sagacious animal, seeing the danger of his master, endeavoured to protect him by flourishing his proboscis round the head of the Sultan.

Fearless I advanced against the elephant, desirous to take alive the haughty Tippoo Sahib; but he drew a pistol from his belt, and discharged it full in my face as I rushed upon him, which did me no further harm than wound my cheek-bone, which disfigures me somewhat under my left eye.  I could not withstand the rage and impulse of that moment, and with one blow of my sword separated his head from his body.

I returned overland from India to Europe with admirable velocity, so that the account of Tippoo’s defeat by me has not as yet arrived by the ordinary passage, nor can you expect to hear of it for a considerable time.  I simply relate the encounter as it happened between the Sultan and me; and if there be any one who doubts the truth of what I say, he is an infidel, and I will fight him at any time and place, and with any weapon he pleases.

Hearing so many persons talk about raising the “Royal George,” I began to take pity on that fine old ruin of British plank, and determined to have her up.  I was sensible of the failure of the various means hitherto employed for the purpose, and therefore inclined to try a method different from any before attempted.  I got an immense balloon, made of the toughest sail-cloth, and having descended in my diving-bell, and properly secured the hull with enormous cables, I ascended to the surface, and fastened my cables to the balloon.  Prodigious multitudes were assembled to behold the elevation of the “Royal George,” and as soon as I began to fill my balloon with inflammable air the vessel evidently began to move:  but when my balloon was completely filled, she carried up the “Royal George” with the greatest rapidity.  The vessel appearing on the surface occasioned a universal shout of triumph from the millions assembled on the occasion.  Still the balloon continued ascending, trailing the hull after like a lantern at the tail of a kite, and in a few minutes appeared floating among the clouds.