“His flat nose was dilated to unusual width, and his ebony cheeks fairly glistened with delight, as he looked up at the gambols of a huge ape, which had been entrusted to our care to take to Plymouth, and which, clinging to the main-stay just above Jake’s, the big negro’s, woolly head, was chattering and grinning back at the ‘Darkie’ as if there existed some mutual intelligence between them.
“I was on watch on deck, and standing amusing myself by observing the antics of the black and his congenial playmate the ape, but at length tiring of the rude mirth, had turned towards the taffrail to gaze on the more agreeable features of that scene.
“Just at that moment, a shout and a curse burst upon my ear.
“Looking quickly round to ascertain the cause of the unusual sound on a frigate ship, I was horrified at what I saw.
“The commodore was on board that day with his wife, child and nurse.
“The nurse and child had just come out of the Captain’s state cabin, when Jacko the ape, being teazed by the negro, plunged wildly towards the nurse, broke his chain, seized the commodore’s infant boy, and with a terrific scream rushed up the rigging with it!
“This was a most horrible predicament, for the ape was only half tamed!
“A single glance to the main-yard explained the occasion of Jake the negro’s shout and curse.
“The nurse had been coming up from the cabin when Jacko perceiving her near him, broke his thin chain, dropped suddenly down from the main-mast and running along the boom cover seized the nurse’s cap from her head, frightened her into a fit, and seizing the child, immediately darted up the main-topsail sheet, and thence to the bunt of the main-yard, where he now sat grinning and screeching most horribly, tossing the child about and each moment threatening to kill it.
“But one of our young midshipmen, a great favourite on board, who was a sprightly active fellow, and called Ned, though he could not climb so nimbly as an ape, yet had no mind to let the child suffer or be strangled without an effort to regain it, and kill the monster.