ANIMALS. '^'^^ 



tience exliausted by the obstinacy of the stupid natives, and his 

 iitile provisions daily plundered without redress, in such an 

 exigency he found more faithful services from the monkeys than 

 the men ; these he had taught to attend him, to guard him whilM 

 sleeping, against thieves and rats, to comb his head, to fetch hi? 

 water ; and he asserts, that they were even more tractable than 

 the human inhabitants of the place. It is indeed remarkab'.e, 

 chat in those countries where the men are most barbarous and 

 stupid, the brutes are most active and sagacious. It is in the torrid 

 tracts, inhabited by barbarians, that such various animals are 

 found with instinct so nearly approaching reason. The savages, 

 both of Africa and America, accordingly suppose monkeys to 

 be men : idle, slothful, rational beings ; capable of speech and 

 conversation ; but obstinately dumb, for fear of being compelled 

 to labour. 



As of all savages, those of Africa are the most brutal, so, of 

 all countries, the monkeys of Africa are the most expert and 

 entertaining. The monkeys of America are, in general, neither 

 so sagacious nor so tractable, nor is their form so nearly ap- 

 proaching that of man. The monkeys of the new continent may 

 be very easily distinguished from those of the old, by three marks. 

 Those of the ancient continent are universally found to have a 

 naked callous substance behind, upon which they sit ; which 

 those of America are entirely without : those also of the ancient 

 continent have the nostrils differently formed, more resembling 

 those of men, the holes opening downward : whereas the Ameri- 

 can monkeys have them opening on each side ; those of the an- 

 cient world have pouches on each side the jaw, into which they 

 put their provisions ; which those of America are without ; lastly, 

 none of the monkeys of the ancient continent hang by the tail, 

 which many of the American sorts are known to do. By these 

 marks the monkeys of either continent may be readily distin- 

 guished from each other, and prized accordingly. The African 

 monkey, as I am assured, requires a longer education, and more 

 correction, than that of America; but it is at last found capable 

 or more various powers of imitation, and shows a greater degree 

 of cunning and activity. 



Mr Buffon, who has examined this race of imitative beings 

 with greater accuracy than any other naturalist before him, makes 

 but nine species of monkeys belonging to the ancient continent ; 



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