“When we were lying in the harbor of Nagasaki, we opened our gun-ports, just as we always did when at anchor. One of the favorite jumping-places of the monkey was to go from the end of a yard down to the port on the starboard bow, and whenever they were chasing him, he would be sure to make in that direction. One day we got up steam, and prepared to leave; and of course our ports were then triced up. Just as we were starting, the monkey was full of play, and made for his favorite jump. He did not stop to see that the port was closed, and that in the place where he jumped there was nothing for him to light on; so down he went into the water. We threw a rope over the side of the ship, and he caught hold, and climbed up. He was always mighty careful after that about his jumping-place.
“Occasionally, when we were lying idle, and everybody was tired, the officers would get up a purse of five dollars, and then pipe the men to catch the monkey. The monkey would start up the rigging, and the men would go for him; and the first man that got him would have the money. You see, there would be over four hundred men in the rigging. The monkey could jump and run much better than they could, but they were so thick that almost everywhere he went he was in danger of lighting on a man. He seemed to enjoy the fun just as much as anybody else, and he would make a lively race all over the rigging. Sometimes he would go clear up to the main truck, and sit on the top. It was rather tough work to get him there, and it was no use climbing for him, because before a man could get hold of him he would be sure to jump somewhere else. So we had a rule, that when he got there, we tried to shake or frighten him off in some way; and if he was caught in that jump, the catch did not count.
“We had lots of fun that way. The officers would stay on the deck, and see the fun; and the men would do their best to catch the beast, as they knew that somebody would make five dollars out of the job. Every few days we had a race of this kind, but there came a time when we had the last one. The rule always had been that the monkey should not be hurt, but should be caught uninjured, and brought down.
“One day the captain had his charts out, spread over the table in the cabin—his very best charts, and things that were pretty important. He was studying them, and marking off his ship’s course, and left them a few minutes, to go into his state-room. That infernal monkey was around, and as soon as the captain was gone, he jumped on the table, dipped his paw into the inkstand, and began marking out a course on the chart to suit himself. He daubed that chart all over with ink, and when the captain came out of his state-room, and found what had been done, he was about the maddest man you ever saw. He made a grab for the monkey, but of course the monkey got away. He struck out for the deck, and shinned up into the rigging.
“The captain came out without his cap, and was perfectly white with rage. We saw that something had happened, but what it was we did not know. We were steaming slowly along, and the men were scattered all about the deck.
“‘Pipe all hands to catch the monkey!’ said the captain. ‘Ten dollars for anybody that gets him, dead or alive!’
“We knew there was business then, and we went for the monkey; and the monkey knew there was business too. He understood there was no time for fooling. I fancied that that monkey knew it was a race for life or death, and he never tried so hard before to keep out of our way. Every man who could be spared from the management of the ship was sent into the rigging. We chased him from mainmast to mizzenmast, and from bowsprit back to the stern. He went into all parts of the rigging, and had several narrow escapes.
SITTING ON A STEAM-PIPE.
“We were closing in on him, and had him in very tight quarters, when, all of a sudden, he played a trick which he had never tried before. He jumped to the top of the smoke-stack, and then to the steam-pipe, and there he sat. The smoke-stack was too hot for him, but the steam-pipe was cool and comfortable. Our ship, you know, was a low-pressure one, and we only used the steam-pipe when we let off steam, or had an excess of it.
“Of course nobody could shin up that steam-pipe, and there sat the monkey for at least a minute. While we were all wondering what to do, one of the boys went to the pipe, and pulled the string of the fog-whistle.