Complex sentence: Professor J. Willard Gibbs, Sr. learned from the Africans to count to ten in their Mende language, went to the harbor of New York City, and counted aloud in front of sailors until he located a person able to understand and translate.
Split into simpler sentences: Professor J. Willard Gibbs, Sr. learned from the Africans to count to ten in their Mende language. He went to the docks of New York City, and counted aloud in front of sailors until he located a person able to understand and translate.