20 ^ N A P. R A. T I V E O F A N 



CHAP, at the time they were ferving the colony m 1772. With 



XVI ' a J I I 



— -v~J ^^^^ veffel failed nlfo the officers whom he had put imder 

 an arreft, the i6th December. 1774. Never was an hof- 

 pital fhip fo ill provided with refreiliments. 

 i On the 2ift, Fourgeoiid reviewed with pleafure his 

 recruited little army, where I was forry the rangers 

 did not appear. He now difpatched one hundred men 

 as a patrole to reconnoitre the fkirts of his new en- 

 campmentj of which number I had the honour to be 

 one. During this time nothing remarkable happened, 

 except meeting with a large company of quatas\ which 

 being one of the moft remarkable fpecies of mpnkies in 

 the world, from their affinity to the human race, I cannot 

 tacitly pafs over. One evening walking with my black 

 boy Quaco w^ithout the camp, they came down fo low to 

 look at us, and threw fmall flicks and excrements at us, 

 ' that we flopped, and I had an opportunity thoroughly to 

 examine them. The quata, or quato, is very large, with 

 an enormous tail : their arms and legs being covered over 

 with long black hair, they make a very hideous appear- 

 ance indeed ; the more fo, as the creature's face is quite 

 naked and. red, with deep funk eyes, which gives it much 

 the appearance of an old Indian woman. It has fhort 

 ears, and only four fingers without a thumb on its hands 

 or fore feet, but it has five toes on the hinder feet, all of 

 which have black nails. The extremity of its tail has a 

 fpiral turn inwardly ; it is naked and callous, by its fre- 

 quently 



