270 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
Here we found the tree by which they descended 
from the heights above when they visited the banana 
swamp—an immense fguzer, which had grown out 
of a cleft in the rock, and had established itself on the 
face of the cliff by a hundred roots and rootlets, 
aerial and terrestrial, covering the rock with a mesh- 
work; from the upper branches hung long lianas, like 
twisted cordage, down which monkeys would take 
delight in swinging themselves. Down this great 
natural ladder — the monkeys’ highway — they always 
came, whence they scattered through the plantain 
groves. Often have they been hunted while there; 
but upon the approach of any one, no matter how 
silently, their noise ceased at once, though they were 
grunting and barking noisily before; and in a few 
minutes they could be heard hundreds of yards away. 
It is difficult to find them if wounded, as they hide, 
and cling tenaciously to bush and tree. While travel- 
ing (always among the tops of the highest trees) 
they grunt and bark like dogs, and while feeding they 
have a peculiar, low, murmuring chatter. They are 
invariably led by the oldest monkey, who 1s exceed- 
ing sly. 
The negro examined the ground where the monkeys 
seemed to have held a last sitting over their harvest 
of plantains, and declared they had been gone several 
hours. He thought they would return in the morning, 
as they have regular circuits of travel, appearing in 
one section in the morning, and in another miles away 
in the afternoon ; among the wild plantains and nut- 
trees of the mountains in the evening, and carrying 
destruction to the cacao and nutmeg groves at dawn. 
I have seen heaps of cacao-pods, each with a small 
