UNGKA APE. 



155 



stand : he seemed to have an extraordinary pen- 

 chant for the black fluid — would drink the ink, 

 (by placing his finger in the inkstand, and then 

 sucking it,) and suck the pens, whenever an op- 

 portunity offered of gratifying this morbid pro- 

 pensity : his black coat did not suff'er from 

 his dabbling in ink, unlike many of the human 

 species, who suff'er both in constitution and ap- 

 parel from meddling too much with it. 



There was a degree of intelligence in the ani- 

 mal, beyond what is usually termed common in- 

 stinct. These little miniatures of men,*' (as they 

 are satirically termed,) are said to possess more 

 sagacity than other animals, and to be a close 

 connecting link between the " powerful lord 

 of the creation," and creatures of an inferior 



* ''• Hanno sailed from Sierra Leone southerly to the equi- 

 nox, where he discovered an island, not far from the African 

 coast, inhabited by a rough and hairy people, to take one of 

 whom, he used all possible means, but could not : only two 

 women, being encompassed by soldiers, were taken and car- 

 ried aboard ; but being very savage, and barbarously wild, 

 could not be tamed, or brought to any complacency ; so they 

 killed them, and carried their stuft'ed-up skins to Carthage, 

 where they were a long time gazed upon with great admira- 

 tion. This island, which Hanno then found, can be no other 

 but that which we call St. Thomas ; and the hairy people 

 which he makes mention of were babeons, or baboons, which 

 Africa, in this place, breeds large, to the amazement of the 

 beholders." — Ogilbys America, p. 20. 



