The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-01-02

S great animal dealer at
Hamburg. The craft and crew were
under the charter for four months.
The captain was a Singapore half
breed, and his three sailors and q
cook were Borneo born. l had my
man Thomas with me, and the only
cargo we carried consisted of cages
and articles for traffic.
We had been knocked about for
several weeks, landing on various isl
ands in the Borneo Sea to make
captives, and were at anchor besides
q small island called Kui, when a
trader from the Mindanao Peninsula
came along and gave us some inter
esting news. His craft carried only
three men, but had run short
water and been obliged to put in at
an island thirty miles to the east for
water. The island was about three
miles square and thickly wooded,
and entirely without settlement.
When at anchor in sheltered bay,
and just as they had hoisted in their
cask of water, they were set upon by
several hundred apes of large size
and terribly frightened. The craft
was only twice her length from shore,
and the apes bombarded her with
clubs and stones. A score of these
animals had been preserved as proofs.
The trader gave lis warning to look
out for ourselves five went that way,
and we made him a present OF to-
bacco and at once set sail. The apes
he described were just the species I
was locking for, being what is
called in the east "gorillas' children. :"
They are found only in Sumatra and
Borneo and on a few of the islands
in the Borneo Sea. tits an establish
ed fact that every seven years these
apes are subject to an epidemic
which sweeps them off in large num-
bers, and for this reason they have
been scarce tor many years past. In
the year 1864 trader who landed
on the island OF Kriem, about 200
miles from Manila, discovered over
500 dead apes along the beach.
We reached the bay the trader had
told us of about nine o'clock next
morning. The shore pitched off into
deep water, and we anchored with
just room enough for her to swing
to the tides. This brought the
stem of the craft within forty feet of
the trees when the tide came in, but
of course we had to use the yawl to
go ashore. We neither saw NOR
heard anything except the gaudycol-
ored parrots flying about, and after
we had been at anchor about an hour
I took my man and went ashore.
The island was perfect tangle. The
trees grew almost as thick as they
could stand, and the ground was
covered with creepers and rank veg
tation. We were a quarter of g
mile from the beech before the ground
cleared, and then we failed to get
sight of an ape. As it was a very
hot afternoon the chances were that
they were asleep in the thick of the
forest. We had brought along with
us some pieces of cloth of various COL
ors and these we now hung on limbs
and bushes and scattered along on
the ground to "bait" the apes to
the landing.
We had made our way quietly as
possible, as l fully believed in what
the trader had told me. When we
reached the landing l got my monk
ey traps from the schooner. These
are steel traps with padded jaws.
We set six of them opposite the
craft, and the only bait we used was
a red rag tied to the catch. Going
on board we had dinner, and then I
brought out a heavy rifle and fred
three shots into the woods. That
was to wake up the apes, and it
wasn't ten minutes before we heard
from them. Shrieks and cries and
calls resounded through the forest
and then the apes fairly swarmed
down to the shore. The colored
clothes angered and excited them to
the highest pitch, and their coming
was like that of an enraged mob OF
human beings. The advance guard
had scarely appeared before they
rushed upon the traps in great fury,
and to their own great sorrow. Ev-
cry trap recsived q victim, and every
victim screamed and shrieked and
jumped about in the most exciting
manner. 49, a., ss.,s....e.,
Ths number al apes dumbiounded
me-. I honestly believe there were