Year: 1877

"A voyage WITH a LOAD OF MONKEYS


A wealthy Liverpool shipowner having devoted
more time to the business OF money making than
to the cultivation Of any Of the unnecessary enl-
beishments Of the intellect was considered by
his business associates little of in his Orthogra
ply He sent an order to Bombay and among
other things, wrote for two monkeys which he
wanted to present to some friends but departing
from the usual mode Of spelling the word tro he
put it toe. Perhaps the handwriting was not very
legibe aS often the with Others than Hitter
ate shipowners At any rate the master of the ship
read il 100 did also the agents in Bombay.
There much astonishment at so strange or
der, but the master was bound to obey it Ac-
cordingly the services OF number OF natives We're
secured, the country round about was secured, and
in few days hundred monkeys of all colors and
previous conditions were secured There We're lit
tie black monkeys with eyes like beads, bigger
monkeys with whiskers. and baboous whose grave
expression of countenance presented ridiculous
contrast to their undignitied antics. The whole
crowd chattered, screamed and fought in the cage
which had been provided tor them in the ship, i'll
spite Of all the efforts to keep them quiet. IN Il
few days the homeward voyage commenced,
and with it the troubles Of the crew.


AS soon the motion of the ship felt the
monkeys redoubled their noise. making regular
pandemonlum Of the ship. Relays Of them shook
the bars of the cage without moments hcsita
ton for twenty three hours out of each twenty
four until the cage literally shaken to pieces
and the astonished sailors beheld a cloud Of mon
keys suddenly issuing from the hold, scrambng,
lighting and tumbllng over each other as If their
lives depended upon getting into the rigging i'll the
shortest possible time. From that moment poor
Jack had not a moments peace. The monkeys,
with mschievousness unparalleled, would steal
everything they could lay their hanIS If
clothes were hung up to dry. they would carry
them up to the highest point attanable and pick
them to pieces. 1t was necessary to set guard
over everything that was washed or dried W hen
the cabin boy swept the deck he had to lock mp
the broom, for if he hid it ever securely, his
back would be scarcely turned before an old ape,
half big as man, would have it, going through
the motions of sweeping the deck with an air of
ndescrlbable gravity. SO great was the annoyance
that it with the greatest difficulty that the
officers could prevent the men shooting their tor
mentors, and when the ship touched at Alden half
OF the crew deserted, preterrlng to take their
chances at this inhosptabe place than to endure
the prosecutions of the monkeys,


Finally the ship reached home. She hal been
signalled at Lands End, and the owner was Mt the
dock when she arrived. Shipowners generally
pride themselves on the trim appearance of their
ships and our friend was weak in this respect if
in others, What then was his establishment to
his ships rigging crowded with knots or
punches, with here and there testoon where
several monkeys had suspended themselves from Il
spar i'll a string, holding each other by the tail ,
Everybody about the docks viewed with wonder
the approaching spectacle The ship moved close
ly to her berth and presently her yardarms neared
those of several other vessels lying at the dock
In an instant the monkeys leaped from one to the
other and began a tour among the forests of masts
that frnged the harbor of Liverpool All the boys
and idlers around the dock were engaged and Il
grand hunt ensued, up and down the rigging from
ship to ship all over the harbor They were
finally captured.


The owner was furious but was after a while
Modified by an explanation over a bottle of wine,
and the difficulty satisfactorily adjusted. The
monkeys gradually sold off, realizing profit
of about fl0 fifty dollars) above all costs But
the master of the ship declared that he never
wanted to sail another voyage with cargo of live
MONKEYS.