The sport [of taking of a wild Eliphant] being ended, a messenger comes from the King, which the Druggerman thought had been to have taken away his life. But it was to enquire how the strangers liked the sport. The Druggerman answered that they did cry it up to be the best that ever they saw, and that they never heard of any prince so great in everything as this King. The messenger being gone back, Erwin and his company asked their Druggerman what he had said, which he told them. "But why," say they, "would you say that without our leave, it being not true?" "It is not matter for that," says he, "I must have said it, or have been hanged, for our King doth not live by meat nor drink, but by having great lyes told him."

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 17th August 1666.