And is it possible that this can excite your vengeance, my most reasonable Mr. Fritz? To say the truth, I am not myself a patron of the race of monkeys, who, as you say, are naturally prone to be malicious. But as long as an animal does us no injury, or that his death can in no shape be useful in preserving our own lives, we have no right to destroy it, and still less to torment it for our amusement, or from an insensate desire of revenge.
We could as easily roast a monkey as any kind of game.
Many thanks for the hint! A fine repast you would have provided us! Thanks to our stars, too, we are each too heavily loaded to have carried the dead body to our kitchen, and I shrewdly suspect that it would not have found the way thither of its own accord. Does not your large bundle of sugar-canes convince you that I speak the truth? But the living monkeys we may perhaps find means to make contribute to our service.—See what I am going to do;—but step aside, for fear of your head. If I succeed, the monkeys will furnish us with plenty of our much desired cocoa-nuts.
I now began to throw some stones at the monkeys; and though I could not make them reach to half of the height at which they had taken refuge, they showed every mark of excessive anger. With their accustomed habit of imitation, they furiously tore off, nut by nut, all that grew upon the branches near them, to hurl them down upon us; so that it was with difficulty we avoided the blows; and in a short time a large quantity of cocoa-nuts lay on the ground round us. Fritz laughed heartily at the excellent success of our stratagem; and as the shower of cocoa-nuts began to subside, we set about collecting them. We chose a place where we could repose at our ease, to regale ourselves on this rich harvest. We opened the shells with a hatchet, but not without having first enjoyed the sucking of some of the milk through the three small holes, round which we found it easy to insert a knife, and let the milk escape. The milk of the cocoa-nut has not in reality a very pleasant flavour; but it is excellent for quenching violent thirst. What we liked best, was a kind of solid cream which adheres to the shell, and which we scraped off with our spoons. We mixed with it a little of the sap of our sugar-canes, and it made a delicious repast; while Turk obtained for his share, what remained of the sea-lobster, which we now regarded with disdain, and to which we added a small quantity of biscuit. All this, however, was insufficient to satisfy the hunger of so large an animal, and he sought about for bits of the sugar-canes and of the cocoa-nuts.
Our meal being finished, we prepared to leave the place. I tied together such of the cocoa-nuts as had retained the stalks, and threw them across my shoulder. Fritz resumed his bundle of sugar-canes. We divided the rest of the things between us, and continued our way towards home.
CHAPTER IV.
Return from the voyage of discovery. A nocturnal alarm.
My poor boy now began to complain heavily of fatigue; the bundle of sugar-canes galled his shoulders, and he was obliged to move it from place to place. At last, he stopped to take breath. No, cried he, I never could have thought that a few sugar-canes could be so heavy. How sincerely I pity the poor negroes who carry them in even larger quantities, and to a greater distance! I should however be so glad, if my mother and my brother could but partake of our booty!
A little patience and a little courage, dear Fritz, replied I, will enable you to accomplish this wish; recollect Esop’s bread-basket, which at first was so overwhelming a burden, but which at last became so light. We can cause it to be the same with your sugar-canes, if we consent to diminish them by sucking a certain number of them on the road; as a precedent, you may dispose of one to me, and I will use it at one moment as a walking-stick, and at another as a sugarplum. Take you one, also; the rest we will bind together and put at your back, hanging them upon the barrel of your gun, by which means you will carry them with ease.
In such a situation as ours we must learn to call forth all our intelligence; reflection and the faculty of invention must be made to compensate our want of means.
While we were conversing and proceeding on our way, Fritz perceived that from time to time I sucked the end of my sugar-cane, and he would needs do the same. It was in vain, however, that he tried; scarcely a drop of the sap reached his eager lips. What then is the reason, said he, that though the cane is full of juice, I cannot get out a drop?