t of fruit, after the exhaustion of my nocturnal
flight, I ascended a spacious palm tree, which afforded an admirable
view of the adjacent country, and a desirable shelter from the ardours
of the rising sun. My first impulse was to take a bird's-eye view of the
novel scene which lay before me, and I gazed around for some minutes
with intense delight; but fatigue gradually obtained the mastery over
curiosity, and, putting my head unconsciously beneath my wing, I fell
into a profound sleep. How long this continued, I know not; but I was
suddenly awakened by a strange muttering of unknown voices. I looked,
and beheld two creatures whose appearance greatly surprised me. They had
nothing of the noble form and aspect of our Indian neighbours. One of
them considerably resembled the preacher-monkey in countenance and
deportment; his head was denuded of hair, and his person was covered by
a black substance, which left no limb visible except his ancles and
feet, which were very much like those of an ape. The other had all the
air of a gigantic parrot: he had a hooked bill, a sharp look, a yellow
head; and all the rest of his strange figure was party-coloured, blue,
green, red, and black. I classed him at once as a specimen of the
Psittacus Ochropterus. The ape and the parrot seemed to have taken
shelter beneath the palm tree, like myself, for the purposes of shade
and repose. They had beside them a basket filled with dead game, fruit,
and honey; and the parrot had a long instrument near him on the ground,
which I afterwards learned was a fowling-piece. They talked a strange
jargon of different intonation, like that of the respective chatter of
the grey and the green parrots. Both seemed to complain, and, by the
expression of their ugly and roguish faces, to interrogate each other.
As soon as they went away, I endeavoured to mutter to myself the sounds
they had uttered, but could retain only two phrases. The one had been
spoken by the ape, and ran thus--"Shure it was for my sweet sowl's
sake, jewel;" the other was--"Eh, sirs, it was aw' for the love of the
siller." I was extremely amused by my acquisition; and, being convinced
that I was now qualified to present myself at the settlement, was about
to descend from my altitude, when the two strangers returned: they had
come back for the gun, which they had left behind them. As they picked
it up, it went off, and I was startled into one of my loudest screams.
The strangers looked at me
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