with great delight, he whom I likened to the
parrot exclaiming--"Weel, mon, what brought you here?" I answered in his
own words, for want of better--"Eh, sirs, it was aw' for the love of
the siller." He dropped his piece, and fled in consternation, calling
lustily--"Its auld clooty himsen, mon, its auld Horny, I tell ye; come
awa, come awa." His friend, who seemed more acquainted with our species,
encouraged him to return; and offering me some fruit from his basket,
said--"Why, Poll, you cratur, what brought you so far from home?" I
endeavoured to imitate his peculiar tone, and replied--"Why thin it was
for my sweet sowl's sake, jewel."--"Why then," said my interlocutor,
coolly (for I never forgot his words) "that bird bates cockfighting."
They now both endeavoured to catch me. It was all I wanted, and I
perched on the preaching-monkey's wrist, while he took up the basket
in his left hand, and in this easy and commodious style of travelling,
we proceeded. On approaching the settlement, a fierce dispute arose
between the friends; of which, by each tearing me from the other, I was
evidently the object; and I am quite sure that I should have been torn
to pieces between them, but for the timely approach of a person who
issued from a lofty and handsome edifice on the road side, attended by
a train of preacher-monkeys, of which he was the chief. He was quite a
superior looking being to either of my first acquaintance, who cowered
and shrunk beneath his eagle look. They seemed humbly to lay their cases
before him; when, after looking contemptuously on both, he took me to
himself, caressed me, and giving me to an attendant, said--"This bird
belongs to neither, it is the property of mother church:" and the
property of mother church I remained for some years. Of my two friends
of the palm-tree, one, the preacher-monkey, turned out to be a poor
Irish lay brother, of the convent of which my new master (an Irishman
too) was the superior. My yellow parrot was a Scotch adventurer, who
came out to give lectures on _poleetical economy_ to the Brazilians:
and who, finding that they had no taste for moral science, had become
a servant of all-work to the brotherhood. My dwelling was a missionary
house of the Propaganda, established for the purpose of converting
(i.e. burning) the poor Indians. The Superior, Father Flynn, had
recently arrived from Lisbon with unlimited powers. He was clever,
eloquent, witty, and humorous; but panting for a b