“I was at Jaffna, at the northern extremity of the Island of Ceylon, in the beginning of the year 1819:  when, one morning, my servant called me an hour or two before my usual time, with, ’Master, master! people sent for master’s dogs—­tiger in the town!’ Now, my dogs chanced to be some very degenerate specimens of a fine species, called the Poligar dog, which I should designate as a sort of wiry-haired grayhound, without scent.  I kept them to hunt jackals; but tigers are very different things:  by the way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon; but leopards and panthers are always called so, and by ourselves as well as by the natives.  This turned out to be a panther.  My gun chanced not to be put together; and while my servant was doing it, the collector, and two medical men, who had recently arrived, came to my door, the former armed with a fowling-piece, and the latter with remarkably blunt hog-spears.  They insisted upon setting off without waiting for my gun, a proceeding not much to my taste.  The tiger (I must continue to call him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, as those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small door, about four feet high.  The collector wanted to get the tiger out at once.  I begged to wait for my gun; but no—­the fowling-piece (loaded with ball, of course) and the two hog-spears were quite enough.  I got a hedge-stake, and awaited my fate, from very shame.  At this moment, to my great delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we should have cut without them, as the event will show.  I was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute afterward.  The whole scene which follows took place within an enclosure, about twenty feet square, formed, on three sides, by a strong fence of palmyra leaves, and on the fourth by the hut.  At the door of this the two artillery-men planted themselves; and the Malay captain got on the top, to frighten the tiger out, by worrying it—­an easy operation, as the huts there are covered with cocoa-nut leaves.  One of the artillery-men wanted to go in to the tiger, but we would not suffer it.  At last the beast sprang; this man received him on his bayonet, which he thrust apparently down his throat, firing his piece at the same moment.  The bayonet broke off short, leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained in the animal, but was invisible to us:  the shot probably went through his cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, as he instantly rose upon his legs, with a loud roar, and placed his paws upon the soldier’s breast.  At this moment, the animal appeared to me to about reach the center of the man’s face; but I had scarcely time to observe this, when the tiger, stooping his head, seized the soldier’s arm in his mouth, turned him half round staggering, threw him over on his back, and fell upon him.