We are Shipwrecked.—I alone escape.—I find myself on an unknown
island.—A strange form appears to me and vanishes.—A deluge of
Apes.—I am cudgelled with a rattan cane.—Am saved at length by
my cravat.—I am parched with thirst.—I discover water.—Four
thousand of us drink in company.—Ingenious way of procuring
fruit from the top of a tall tree.—Two valets-de-chambre, such
as are seldom seen in Europe.—I miraculously escape their care.
At last the day broke, and we saw land only a quarter of a mile distant.
But this quarter of a mile was only a chain of shoals white with foam
from the sea incessantly breaking over them. It was inevitable that ere
many minutes elapsed poor crazy junk would break itself as the sea was
doing on the rocks, covered with foam and bearded with patches of slimy
sea-weed, which lay direct in our course. We had no time to reflect on
the fate which awaited us. Two sudden and frightful concussions, two
blows of the heel, to use sailor’s language, shattered the ribs of the
poor junk, whose poop at the same time was carried away by a terrible
sea, and with it five of the crew. We scarcely heard the cries which they
uttered as they disappeared in the watery abyss.
The other sailors at once sought to possess themselves of the only boat
we had, in order, if possible, to reach the land. They had, however, no
sooner commenced lowering it than a frightful struggle arose as to who
should occupy it. It would scarcely have held more than half-a-dozen
persons, and there were fifteen desperate men eager to fill it. Knives
were drawn. A cutting of throats commenced; but the theatre of the
struggle was about to disappear beneath the feet of conquerors and
conquered alike.
Having kept clear of this desperate struggle for the possession of the
boat, I caught sight at this moment of danger of one of those buoys
fastened by a rope to the cable of the anchor, and which serves to mark
the exact point where the anchor has been let go. I at once pull out my
knife and cut the rope at a certain distance from the cable, and then
seizing the buoy in both my arms, threw myself with it into the midst of
the hissing waves. Engulfed an instant beneath the surge, on rising again
to the surface, I turn my head to see what has become of my companions.
They and the last remains of the junk have disappeared!
For three hours I fought with death. What agony I suffered! Every time
I endeavoured to hook myself on as it were to the branches of coral
which projected above the waves, I was driven back by the surf: and my
gory hands let go of their painful support. My strength failed me; I had
scarcely sufficient left to seize the rope attached to the buoy. I had
lost all energy, and almost the desire for existence, when a last wave
enveloped me, and carried me with my buoy to the bottom of the sea. I
felt myself getting weaker and weaker, then I became cold, and recollect
nothing more.
When I re-opened my eyes I found myself lying extended on a shore covered
with sea-weed and marine plants. I fancied too that trees were not far
distant. My astonishment was that of a person waking from a trance—I
hadn’t strength enough to rise. The storm no longer raged. The sun,
which appeared to my still weak sight to have attained a certain height
in the heavens, spread a general glow around, and the sand grew warm
beneath my touch. By degrees the sensation of life returned to me. I
sought for myself, I asked myself if it were really I, and whereabouts I
was; I saw for certainty that there were trees—in fact a forest at some
little distance off. My lethargy passed away like a fleeting cloud, and
I endeavoured to rise and walk a few steps; but my legs bent under me.
Nevertheless I held myself upright. The sun, which had risen still higher
in the heavens, now shone down almost perpendicularly on the ground. The
heat diffused throughout the air was so intense that I fell faint and
exhausted at the foot of a palm-tree whose cool and refreshing shade
served to revive me.
Gradually my eyes grew heavy, and I fell fast asleep. I do not know how
long I remained plunged in this second and more refreshing lethargy; but
when I awoke, I judged by the position of the sun that it was afternoon.
From the degree of comfort which I felt, I concluded that I must have
slept altogether something like eight hours. I can, however, say nothing
positive on this score, my watch having stopped from the various shocks
my whole body had received since the preceding evening.
In order to dissipate the heaviness which held possession of my senses
after this prolonged sleep, I rose and took a few rapid steps straight
before me. I had scarcely proceeded twenty yards in a direction
immediately opposite to the sea, when I caught sight of something like
a human form at the end of a long avenue of trees. Naturally enough, my
first impression was that this must be some inhabitant of the island on
which I had been cast by my unlucky shipwreck. I was already rejoicing
at the discovery, though, I must confess, not without a certain amount
of inquietude as to the possible nature of the companion whom fortune
had sent me. I walked straight in the direction in which I had first
seen him; but, to my intense surprise, after the lapse of five or six
minutes, I failed in encountering him, or even in discovering what had
become of him. Had my eyes deceived me? Had the numerous mirages of the
sun assisted to produce some kind of hallucination? I knew not how to
explain the affair, which left upon me a certain disagreeable impression.
Nevertheless I continued to walk on.
I had proceeded no very great distance, when all at once another view
opened to my sight; and, to my intense satisfaction, I again saw the
figure which I had observed a few minutes previously. Ah! how truly happy
I felt at this second discovery! I could manage to distinguish him far
more clearly than I had done before, although the distance between us
was very much greater. I watched him with the utmost attention, and was
surprised to find how excessively quick and lively all his movements
were. He was continually disappearing and appearing again, passing
as quick as lightning from one point to another. After a time I felt
convinced that he had seen me, and that he was afraid. I thereupon
advanced towards him with increased boldness, and had just arrived at
the spot where I had last seen him, when something—indefinable at the
first glance, a kind of hairy and sinewy form, uttering noisy, guttural,
and savage cries, which were taken up and repeated by the many echoes
around—suddenly descended from the top of a tree, almost at my very feet.
It was an ape. With one bound he mounted the tree again, then sprang
down, and ended by placing himself immediately in my path, as though to
prevent me from proceeding.
This pretension on his part was not at all to my mind; I therefore broke
off the first branch of a tree which I could manage to reach with my
hand—it was, I believe, a small stick of cane—and threatened the animal
with it. My action evidently displeased him. At a second cry, which
he uttered as a call, judge of my consternation to see rushing from
the four points of the compass, through the openings in the forest,
clouds upon clouds of apes, of all forms, colours, and sizes, who in an
instant, clambering up the trees, rolling themselves among the branches
like squirrels, or taking possession of the ground about me, proceeded
to regard me with quick and menacing glances, and to overwhelm me with
hissing cries, and gnashings of the teeth, so fierce, so noisy, so
positively deafening, that I became quite dizzy and bewildered. I was
compelled to clap my hands over my ears, so as not to lose all sense of
consciousness in the midst of this infernal commotion. Nothing like it, I
believe, had ever been heard before in the forests of Oceania.
[Illustration: Clouds upon clouds of apes, of all forms, colours, and
sizes, clambering up the trees, rolling themselves among the branches
like squirrels, or taking possession of the ground about me.—_Page 30._]
My Macao experience with regard to apes was not lost upon me at this
supreme moment. In spite of my trouble, and of the danger with which I
was menaced, I managed to recognise, without difficulty, the different
kinds of apes in which I had formerly dealt. I noticed the duks, with
their long tails, smooth faces, black feet, and red ears; the wanderoos,
such troublesome fellows that they are obliged to be kept in iron cages;
lowandos, with hairless flesh-coloured faces, and all the rest of their
bodies as black as their noses, possessing long claws, and having on
their heads large wigs of grisly, bushy, compact hair. I saw monkeys
with purple faces, and with violet hands, trailing behind them tails
terminating in white tufts of hair; capuchins, covered with a flowing
down of a yellowish black tint, which serves them for a kind of hood;
monas, with white bellies and wide open eyes surrounded with circles,
black as their feet, hands, and wrists; then coaïtas, or spider monkeys,
with tails that they can turn to much the same purposes as the elephant
does his proboscis; then black-crested simpias; then ourang-outangs;
then hundreds of mangabeys, monkeys with long tails, and known as apes
of Madagascar. I recognised them by their naked eyelids, their striking
whiteness, their long grey muzzles, and their eyebrows of coarse and
bushy hair. In the same way I recognised the gloomy macaques, the
turbulent pinches, the malbroncks, and the pig-tailed macaques, which
gambolled, frolicked, danced, kicked, stamped, capered, and wheeled about
on every side. Hundreds and hundreds more pressed forward to catch sight
of me, but they were too far off for me to distinguish them, as I had
done those of whom I have just spoken.
Knowing by experience the thoroughly wicked nature of these animals when
congregated together, I resolved to beat a retreat. I was, however,
too late. On all sides of me were closely-packed ranks of apes, some
of whom seemed possessed of such strength, that any attempt at flight
would have been a grave imprudence on my part. I remained, therefore,
perfectly still, but not without some little anxiety. Suddenly, all
these apes which encircled me round about, commenced to sway to and
fro, making at the same time the most hostile demonstrations, although
I no longer held in my hand the unlucky cane branch, the original cause
of their furious irritation. That I might bear with patience this
opposition, which I was most anxious not to increase (thinking that
if I were permitted to proceed towards the interior of the island,
some inhabitant, friend or enemy, civilised or savage, might rescue
me from these insulting occupants of the woods), I amused myself by
recalling to mind the wearisomeness of the dull tints which overpower
the traveller on his arrival in the first commercial, and the most
densely-populated city in the world, that “province covered with houses”
called London, the thousand custom-house officers—honourable persons
enough, whom I should be very sorry to compare with apes, though they
are also at times equally tyrannical—that one meets with on landing.
I turned from one reminiscence of the kind to another, until I found
myself recalling how on a particular day, on my arrival at Calcutta, the
officers at the custom-house pierced with their iron gauge-rod a packet
of twenty Cashmere shawls, which were completely spoiled; but on which,
nevertheless, I was required to pay duty.
[Illustration: Quick as lightning, he seized the branch of cane which
I had thrown on the ground, and before I had time to place myself in a
posture of defence, showered blow after blow on my arms and legs.—_Page
33._]
After a time, finding the heat, striking on the open spot where I was
standing, somewhat oppressive, I endeavoured, while the disposition of
my guards seemed a trifle more to my advantage, to take a few steps in
advance. I was, in fact, frightfully hungry, and my lips were parched
with thirst. No sooner, however, had I prepared to change my position
than all these groups of importunate apes, gathering more closely around
me, recommenced their cries and their menaces. They did more, they formed
a square; and when they had taken up this strategical position, of which
I occupied the centre, one of them, leaving the ranks, advanced towards
me. Quick as lightning he seized the branch of cane which I had thrown
on the ground; and, before I had time to place myself in a posture of
defence, showered blow after blow on my arms and legs, my feet and
hands, my face and head, and on my back and sides. These blows followed
one another in such rapid succession that, not being able to run away,
I commenced bounding about, jumping as though there were blazing coals
beneath my feet.
I candidly confess that I suffered quite as much shame as pain. A vile
ape was belabouring me, an abominable brute was taking upon himself to
administer correction to me in broad daylight! Other miserable apes,
witnesses of my moral degradation, were making grimaces and grinning at
me, and showing their enjoyment by capering about. It was whilst I thus
performed a part in a comedy before their eyes, and they furnished me
an occasion of observing them more closely, that I was seized with a
singular idea; but the trouble I was in prevented me from following it
up. Ah! my position was indeed a painful one, to be thrashed by an ape
before an assembly of apes! It is only animals who can introduce such
a degree of refinement into cruelty. I know very well that at London,
which has the reputation of being an extremely civilised city, people are
ready to crush one another to death, when a criminal is hanged before the
door of Newgate; and that in Paris, people pay equally dear for places
to see a man executed; that it is the same at Brussels, Vienna, and
Berlin—nevertheless, spite of the attractions which an execution offers,
we neither hang nor decapitate apes; and the right which these animals
arrogated to themselves of cudgelling me, appeared to me to be founded
neither in reason nor in justice. For the moment they were of course the
stronger, and it was necessary that I should give in to them; and I did
give in. But it was melancholy to feel that there appeared to be no end
to this punishment; my tormentor never once relaxed his exertions, to
take even a moment’s rest; but continued laying on his blows, as though
he would never tire.
Certainly, with one of the two pistols which I had about me, and which I
had been prudent enough not to part with, I could easily have shot the
impudent beast through the head; but I remembered too well the accident
which happened to a certain president of the French East India Company,
to attempt any such thing. One day, when the celebrated French traveller
Tavernier accompanied the president on an excursion through some great
forest on the banks of the Ganges, the latter, being astounded at the
immense number of apes which he saw, and which suddenly surrounded
him just as they had surrounded me, stopped his carriage, and desired
Tavernier to knock two or three of them over. The servants, knowing
very well the vindictive dispositions of these animals, begged of the
president not to meddle with them. He, however, insisted, and Tavernier
fired, and killed a female with her young. At that very instant the other
apes threw themselves, with cries of rage and despair, on the president’s
carriage. They knocked over the coachman, the footmen, and the horses,
and would have strangled his lordship—torn him to pieces, indeed—if the
windows of the carriage had not been promptly closed, and the members of
his suite had not engaged in a regular fight with their assailants, from
whom they only escaped with an infinite deal of trouble.
The remembrance of the danger which menaced them restrained me from
discharging my weapon at the horrible animal, who still continued his
blows, spite of my ill-concealed rage, and the efforts which I made to
protect myself, Alas! I could do nothing. I was thrashed by him till the
blood flowed from me and saturated my garments. I should have assuredly
sunk under the constant succession of blows meted out to me, since the
cunning and wickedness of these animals went so far as to induce them to
volunteer to relieve my tormentor, when he at length felt fatigued with
his exertions; yes, I should certainly have fallen a victim to their
brutality, but for an idea, a really admirable idea, which occurred to
me; but which, unfortunately, like all excellent ideas, came very late.
The increased pain which I endured evidently freshened up my memory;
and, all of a sudden, it struck me that I had heard of travellers, who
found themselves in the same predicament as myself, escaping by means of
a ruse, which ruse I resolved for my part at once to employ. I therefore
proceeded to untie my cravat (a superb cravat, bought in Bengal the
preceding year), and, unfolding it, threw it among the crowd of apes,
who no sooner caught sight of my bright red neckerchief than they rushed
forward in a body to seize it, with loud chatterings, and other signs of
curiosity and delight. My tormentor followed the example of his fellows;
and, whilst they disputed among themselves the possession of the spoil
which I had resigned to them, I ran off, with all possible speed, towards
the interior of the island, where I reckoned on meeting with some of the
inhabitants, and certainly on procuring a little water, to quench my
intolerable thirst. After a breathless run of five or six hundred yards
I looked back, and had the satisfaction of finding that none of the apes
were following me. For an entire hour I continued to run in this manner
over a tract of soft sand, through groups of trees entwined together, and
forming bright masses of foliage of various colours, and which by-and-by
bowed down to the earth, indicating a hollow where I might possibly find
water. I was thoroughly fatigued, I was in a burning heat. Was I about to
discover the water I so ardently longed for?
On rounding a hill covered with a whitish green moss, I was suddenly
struck by the sight of a lake upwards of a mile in length, bordered by
tall trees, ranged in a series of terraces, as though they had been
planted thus by a professor of landscape gardening. A slight descent,
along the same soft silvery turf which I had just now passed over,
conducted me to the brink of a clear, sparkling sheet of water. I knelt
down to drink, and, placing my parched lips in it, my ecstasy was so
complete that I prolonged it for nearly a quarter of an hour, partaking
at intervals of draught after draught of the reviving delicacy.
My enjoyment was like a dream, it was so concentrated and so tranquil.
But the cry which escaped me on raising my head, was not altogether one
of gratitude towards Heaven, to whom I owed the delicious joy of having
been enabled thus to refresh myself. Intense surprise had something to do
with my exclamation.
[Illustration: The banks of the lake were covered along their entire
length by those very apes who had so pitilessly tormented, jeered at, and
beaten me.—_Page 36._]
The banks of the lake were covered along their entire extent by those
very apes who had so pitilessly tormented, jeered at, and beaten me. They
had all been kneeling just as I had knelt, had all risen at the same
time as I had done, and there they were with their muzzles dripping with
water. When I thought I had lost them, they had no doubt followed me
in silence through the wood, by the aërial route of the tall branching
trees, and on seeing me kneel down to drink had imitated all my actions.
Although my limbs ached with fatigue, and I was sore from head to foot
from the innumerable blows which I had received, and although I began to
experience serious inquietude, on finding myself, since my shipwreck,
in the midst of this constantly increasing crowd of apes, I could not
restrain a burst of laughter on seeing with what burlesque fidelity they
reproduced my most trifling gestures, my most accidental attitudes,
and even my involuntary movements. A new stupefaction took possession
of me at finding my burst of laughter immediately echoed by thousands
of similar cachinnations. Unable to control myself, I laugh my loudest,
they, in their turn, laugh louder still. This comedy threatened never
to come to an end. Terrified at the unaccustomed noise, the birds,
hidden in their nests of moss, dispersed among the ferns, swarming
through the network of creepers, or asleep under the leaves, the great,
the small, the invisible birds—birds whose names are known only to the
Creator, and of whose fantastic shapes and plumage the most comprehensive
human language could scarcely give an idea—birds clad in brocade, like
the ancient doges; others with triple embroidered collars, like the
princesses of the middle ages; others, the plumage of whose tails flashed
forth as many rays as the sun himself, rose, flapped their wings, and
took to flight, streaking the sky in frightened curves at the universal
thunder of laughter which rent the air. The apes themselves, accustomed
as they were to similar commotions on the part of the feathered tribe,
were, nevertheless, astonished at the strangeness and novelty of the
sight. They stood up on their hind legs in order to enjoy it the more
thoroughly. It was then that I remarked something which had before
escaped my notice: many of my hairy persecutors wore a kind of narrow red
collar, the meaning of which I could not at first possibly understand.
A brief reflection, however, made everything clear to me. Each of these
red collars was a fragment of the cravat which I had resigned to my
tormentors, and which, true to their imitative instincts, they had tied
under their chins; I never saw anything more comical than this piece of
finery with which several of the apes were strangling themselves, in
tying it so tightly that it could not come undone, or be stolen from them
by their jealous comrades. These apes in their scarlet cravats presented
a spectacle which, under circumstances more propitious to one’s personal
security than those in which I at present found myself, I should no
doubt have enjoyed immensely.
I had managed to quench my thirst, but my hunger had not been appeased.
Far from it in fact, since the satisfaction accorded to the one sense
only rendered the other more imperious. My hunger had increased
considerably during the last quarter of an hour, for I had noticed on
the trees, by the brink of the lake, certain fruits of a bright golden
colour, fruits delicious to behold, and no doubt more delicious still to
the taste, but situated so high, that never man, even though he were a
sailor of Java, could hope to reach and gather them. The trees were from
180 to 200 feet high, with no other branches shooting out from their
tall stems except those which clustered together at the summit, with
perfectly smooth barks, and offering not the slightest point of support
for either hand or foot for three-fourths of their entire height. My eyes
coveted this fruit, my stomach yearned for it; but how was I to obtain
possession of it? After all manner of sterile calculations as to how this
was to be accomplished, I decided to throw, with my utmost strength, a
few sharp flints into one of the trees, in the hope of detaching some of
the fruit from its stalk and bringing it to the ground. I knew that I
was sufficiently adroit to hit the fruit at which I aimed, but for all
that it did not break off as I anticipated. The flint, after striking
it, bounded from branch to branch with a loud noise—the slightest thing,
it must be remembered, produces a loud noise in these solitary isles,
the silence of which has not yet been broken by the restless activity of
man—encountering in its fall quantities of large leaves lightly joined to
the branches of the tree by their juicy stalks. The apes, who had been
intently watching all my movements, scarcely awaited the descent of the
first stone, before they collected together all the flints they could,
and flung them one after another at the topmast branches of the trees.
The noise thus made sounded for all the world like the crackling of hail
and grapeshot. Delighted with their occupation, they formed as it were a
chain, and passed the stones rapidly from hand to hand, so that those who
preferred to throw might not be kept waiting. One hears of entire fields
of maize being consumed in a few hours by voracious locusts coming from
Lybia; here, in a few minutes, fruit, leaves, and branches were detached
from the group of trees into the midst of which my flint had taken its
useless flight. The banks of the lake were covered with them to such a
degree, that I had only to stretch out my hand to grasp any quantity of
the fruit which I was dying as it were to taste. The very instant that
the apes, to whom I was indebted for this abundant harvest, saw me carry
one of these fruits to my mouth, they imitated my example all along the
line. A thousand arms were carried to a thousand mouths. The manœuvre was
executed as though in obedience to a military command, and with all the
precision of Prussian discipline. I raised my elbow—the elbows of the
apes were simultaneously raised. I spat out a pip—the air was riddled
with pips. The echoes of the lake repeated naught but the ludicrous
snapping and clattering of jaws. In a few moments its surface was half
hidden by masses of rind stripped from the fruits which I and the apes
had devoured with burlesque unanimity.
Although I was now completely at the mercy of chance, and destined
perhaps to escape one danger only to fall into another still greater, I
nevertheless desired to free myself from the odious restraint in which I
was held by this accursed assemblage. It was not without fear, moreover,
that I saw the day draw in and the night approach. I had no desire to
find myself, during the hours of darkness, beset by this legion of
demons, whose capricious surprises are not restrained within the same
limits which bound the human imagination. I had every hope that the next
day might bring me in contact with some of the native population, since
the island was evidently not a desert. If I could only penetrate some
distance inland, I should no doubt come across human habitations; but,
meanwhile, it was necessary to pass through this dreaded night. In my
feverish anxiety, increased by the intimate knowledge which I possessed
of the cruel ways of these detestable animals, the idea occurred to me
that, since they were so obstinately bent on exactly copying all my
movements, the best thing to be done was for me to pretend to go to
sleep. If I were clever enough to get them off to sleep by the mere
force of imitation, I might so far profit by their lethargy as to escape
from their surveillance and penetrate to the interior of the island.
I was ignorant, it is true, of its extent and shape; but in a whole
night’s journey I could certainly make sufficient way to put ten or
twelve leagues between them and me. The idea appeared a good one, and I
immediately proceeded to put it into execution.
I commenced by collecting several armsful of dry leaves, which I made
a point of putting down with all the noise possible, so as to provoke
the imitative attention of my guards. And, precisely as I thought, the
entire troop immediately rushed forward, and with the most comical
precipitation, proceeded to collect armsful of dry leaves, and spread
them, as they had seen me do, like straw upon the ground. Delighted with
this commencement, I afterwards heaped up a certain quantity of leaves
at the foot of a tree where I had chosen a spot for my couch; they
immediately did the same. Preparations for slumber being completed on
both sides, I extended myself leisurely on my bed. This time my imitators
did not move, which was of course a bad sign. There was evidently an
unpleasant hitch in the development of the plan by means of which I
had hoped that my tormentors would fall into my trap. With their feet
buried in the leaves, with outstretched necks and muzzles turned towards
me, and with eyes fixed steadily upon me, they followed eagerly the
slightest movements of my body, but not one of them laid down as I had
done. I began to think that they distrusted me; nevertheless, I pursued
my project so as to know for certain what I had to expect. I therefore
stretched out my arms as a man does who is about to fall asleep; I gaped
once or twice as wide as I possibly could, and at length closed my eyes.
Of these three movements, they imitated only one; they gaped enough to
dislocate their jaws, but that was all.
I had taken particular care to keep my eyelids lowered, whereas they kept
their eyes completely open. I had even carried the pretence of sleep so
far as to snore; nothing, however, came of it. Not a single ape, big or
little, yellow, black, brown, or grey, fell into the snare.
At length something like a truce was arranged between us. It was at this
moment that the idea, which had occurred to me during the thrashing which
I had received, came into my mind again. I fancied I could distinguish
among this crowd of apes, so attentive in watching my slightest
movements, certain faces which were not entirely unknown to me. The first
time this strange idea occurred to me I passed it by as the offspring of
a troubled brain, but now I felt impressed by its reality.
For a quarter of an hour, and such quarters of hours are centuries, I
acted this farce of sleep, and to my disgust discovered that I did not
succeed in making a single dupe. All at once, when my eyes were scarcely
half open, I perceived two of the biggest apes of the troop coming
towards me. They did not approach me walking on all fours along the
sand, but after the fashion in which they invariably move about in the
wandering and vagabondising kind of life they lead in the woods, that is,
by swinging from tree to tree, from branch to branch, and scarcely making
more noise than a bird. Having arrived above my head, and God knows if I
had them a single instant out of my sight, they slipped down without the
slightest noise to the ground, and immediately moved with the same silent
precautions, one to my right hand and the other to my left.
Having taken up their positions they remained perfectly immovable for
several minutes.
I had to do with two hideous ourang-outangs whose prodigious strength and
agility were shown by their short and compact bodies and sinewy limbs. I
judged, from these characteristic signs, that they were capable of easily
overcoming ten unarmed men. After having carefully observed me, in fact
studied me, and one may say, surveyed me all over with a gravity at once
droll and magisterial, as though to assure themselves that I was really
asleep, one of the two ourang-outangs placed himself at my feet.
The ourang-outang on my right now commenced smelling me under the nose
after the fashion in which deer sniff each other, then he examined my
hair most attentively, evidently with intentions which my English habits
of cleanliness rendered altogether unnecessary. The other ourang-outang
having first of all pulled off my shoes, next amused himself with the
ingeniousness of a child who wishes at any cost to discover how it is
that his spring doll raises and lowers its arms, by bending my toes
backwards and forwards, appearing perfectly astonished and somewhat
indignant, that a man was as well formed as an ape. These two terrible
valets-de-chambre bent upon bestowing their attentions on my person
caused me the most frightful distress; for the ourang-outang at my feet,
induced, no doubt, by his success with my shoes and stockings, next
essayed to pull off my trousers. I would willingly have let him done
so, but the ourang-outang at my head opposed him with all his strength,
evidently desiring to relieve me of these garments in his own way; a way,
I may observe, in which it is perfectly impossible for trousers to be
removed. There were first of all some sinister tuggings, then the strife
gradually became sullen and obstinate; and at last it was something
terrible. I was conscious of this from the successive giving way of
buttons, and from the stretching and cracking of the garments under the
efforts of these two formidable antagonists, whose field of battle
would, in a few moments, most likely be my own body; which would become a
prey to their remorseless instinct of destruction, and be torn to pieces
by their long, sharp fangs and harpy-like claws.
My death seemed inevitable—I resolved to defend my life to the utmost
of my power, and with this view gently slipped my hands into my pockets
and drew forth my two pistols without arousing the slightest suspicion.
As matters were progressing very fast, I forthwith pointed one of them
towards the ourang-outang at my feet, and the other towards his companion
at my head, hoping that if I were forced to fire I might succeed in
killing both my persecutors, whose deaths would, as a matter of course,
be immediately followed by my own. The fate which would await me after
this double murder was certainly not doubtful. The two or three hundred
apes who were present as spectators of this sight would certainly tear
me into more pieces than they had torn my cravat. The fatal moment seems
to be approaching! My nether garments give way—I place a finger on each
trigger. When all at once a shriek is heard, such a shriek as only a
locomotive with its breath of fire can send forth from its iron-bound
breast; and which was prolonged from echo to echo like claps of thunder
rolling down a valley.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]