I drank off the milk from the holes on the top of the cocoa-nut, and found it very refreshing. As for the sailors, they appeared very fond of it indeed. But I very soon found that if good for de ’tomac, it was not very good for the head, as my men, instead of rolling the casks, began to roll themselves in all directions, and when it was time to go off to dinner, most of them were dead drunk at the bottom of the boat. They insisted that it was the sun which affected them. Very hot it certainly was, and I believed them at first, when they were only giddy; but I was convinced to the contrary, when I found that they became insensible; yet how they had procured the liquor was to me a mystery.
When I came on board, Mr Falcon, who, although acting captain, continued his duties as first lieutenant almost as punctually as before, asked how it was that I had allowed my men to get so tipsy. I assured him that I could not tell, that I had never allowed one to leave the watering-place, or to buy any liquor: the only thing that they had had to drink was a little cocoa-nut milk, which, as it was so very hot, I thought there could be no objection to.
Mr Falcon smiled and said, “Mr Simple, I’m an old stager in the West Indies, and I’ll let you into a secret. Do you know what ‘sucking the monkey’ means?”
“No, sir.”
“Well, then, I’ll tell you; it is a term used, among seamen for drinking rum out of cocoa-nuts, the milk having been poured out, and the liquor substituted. Now do you comprehend why your men are tipsy?”
I stared with all my eyes, for it never would have entered into my head; and I then perceived why it was that the black woman would not give me the first cocoa-nuts which I selected. I told Mr Falcon of this circumstance, who replied, “Well, it was not your fault, only you must not forget it another time.”
It was my first watch that night, and Swinburne was quarter-master on deck. “Swinburne,” said I, “you have often been in the Indies before, why did you not tell me that the men were ‘sucking the monkey,’ when I thought that they were only drinking cocoa-nut milk?”
Swinburne chuckled, and answered, “Why, Mr Simple, d’ye see, it didn’t become me as a shipmate to peach. It’s but seldom that a poor fellow has an opportunity of making himself a ‘little happy,’ and it would not be fair to take away the chance. I suppose you’ll never let them have cocoa-nut milk again?”
“No, that I will not; but I cannot imagine what pleasure they can find in getting so tipsy.”
“It’s merely because they are not allowed to be so, sir. That’s the whole story in few words.”