diff --git a/elasticsearch/connection/base.py b/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
index 5c55c8aa..e97d6169 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/connection/base.py
@@ -26,14 +26,15 @@ class Connection(object):
     """
     transport_schema = 'http'
 
-    def __init__(self, host='localhost', port=9200, url_prefix='', timeout=10, **kwargs):
+    def __init__(self, host='localhost', port=9200, use_ssl=False, url_prefix='', timeout=10, **kwargs):
         """
         :arg host: hostname of the node (default: localhost)
         :arg port: port to use (integer, default: 9200)
         :arg url_prefix: optional url prefix for elasticsearch
         :arg timeout: default timeout in seconds (float, default: 10)
         """
-        self.host = '%s://%s:%s' % (self.transport_schema, host, port)
+        scheme = 'https' if use_ssl else 'http'
+        self.host = '%s://%s:%s' % (scheme, host, port)
         if url_prefix:
             url_prefix = '/' + url_prefix.strip('/')
         self.url_prefix = url_prefix
diff --git a/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py b/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py
index 1e9d4816..866635f4 100644
--- a/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py
+++ b/elasticsearch/connection/http_urllib3.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class Urllib3HttpConnection(Connection):
             client_key=None, ssl_version=None, ssl_assert_hostname=None,
             ssl_assert_fingerprint=None, maxsize=10, **kwargs):
 
-        super(Urllib3HttpConnection, self).__init__(host=host, port=port, **kwargs)
+        super(Urllib3HttpConnection, self).__init__(host=host, port=port, use_ssl=use_ssl, **kwargs)
         self.headers = urllib3.make_headers(keep_alive=True)
         if http_auth is not None:
             if isinstance(http_auth, (tuple, list)):