ANECDOTE OF MONKEYS. 221 



LETTER XXVII. 



FROM EMILY TO CAROLINE. 



DEAR CAROLINE, 



Mr. Hervey is often at the Lodge : he takes 

 pleasure in entertaining us with an account of the 

 productions of India, and, as natural history is his 

 favourite study, the instincts or sagacity of the ani- 

 mals are frequent topics of our conversation. He 

 agrees with you in thinking that many individuals 

 of the inferior classes of creation exhibit virtuous pro- 

 pensities that render them strikingly amiable. In 

 support of this theory, he told us, that as he was one 

 day shooting under the cubbeer-burr, a species of grove 

 I will describe hereafter, he chanced to kill a female 

 monkey, and carried it to his tent, which, in a short 

 time, was surrounded by forty or fifty monkeys, who 

 made a great noise, and, in a menacing posture, ad- 

 vanced towards the door. He took up his fowling- 

 piece and presented, upon which they retreated a 

 little, and appeared irresolute ; but one, who, from his 

 age and situation in the van, seemed the head of the 



