142 GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES 



H ow could any one requite such integrity with any- 

 thing unkind ? 



To those who possess the higher instincts of 

 humanity, it will not be thought absurd in me to 

 confess that the conduct of these creatures awoke in 

 me a feeling more exalted than a mere sense of 

 kindness. It touched some chord of nature that 

 yields a richer tone ; but only those who have known 

 such pets as I have known them can feel towards 

 them as I have felt. 



I have no desire to bias the calm judgment or 

 bribe the sentiment of him who scorns the love of 

 nature, by clothing these humble creatures in the 

 garb of human dignity ; but to him who is not so 

 imbued with self-conceit as to be blind to all 

 evidence and deaf to all reason, it must appear that 

 they are gifted with like faculties and passions to 

 those of man ; differing in degree, but not in kind. 



Moved by such conviction, who could fail to pity 

 that poor, lone captive, in his iron cell, far from his 

 native land, slowly dying ? It may be a mere freak 

 of sentiment that I regret not being with him to 

 soothe and comfort his last hours, but I do regret 

 it deeply. He had the right to expect it of me, as 

 a duty. 



Poor little Aaron ! In the brief span of half a 

 year he had seen his own mother die at the hands 

 of the cruel hunters ; he had been seized and sold 

 into captivity ; he had seen the lingering torch of 

 life go out of the frail body of Moses ; he had 

 watched the demon of death bind his cold shackles 



