the creature,
pronounced it to be (as we already know) a full-grown specimen of a
kind of ape, called by the Africans "the wild man of the woods," and
by naturalists the _jocko_ or chimpanzee.

"It is naturally very savage," added Becker; "but this individual
seems already to have received some degree of education."

As a proof of this, the chimpanzee seated himself amongst them very
much at his ease; he scanned the faces surrounding him with an air of
curiosity, and seemed to search for a particular countenance that it
annoyed him not to find. Some fruit and nuts that were given him put
him in excellent humor.

"He has, without doubt, been on board some ship, wrecked on the
coast," said Wolston, "for I recollect having read that his kindred
are only found in Western Africa and the adjacent islands; do you not
recognize him, Willis, to belong to the _Nelson_, like the plank of
the other day?"

"No, sir."

"So much the better."

"We do not ship such cattle on board his Majesty's ships," added the
Pilot.

The girls, ashamed of their fear, now came peeping in at the door,
and, seeing that nobody had been devoured, took refuge by the side of
their mother.

"Look here, father," said Ernest, feeling the creature's crania,
after having facetiously begged pardon for the liberty, "its head is
precisely like our own; that is very humiliating."

"Yes, my son, but his tongue and other organs are also exactly like
ours, yet he cannot utter a word. His head is of the same form and
proportion, but he does not for all that possess human intelligence.
Is this not a very striking proof that mere matter, though perfectly
organized, neither produces words nor thought; and that it requires a
special manifestation of the Divine will to call these attributes into
existence?"

"True; but, father, some writers say that apes have been observed to
profit by fires lighted in the forest, and have gone and warmed
themselves when the travellers left."

"That, my son, is instinct, nothing more; the operation of keeping up
a fire, by throwing a few branches upon it, is exceedingly simple, but
their instinct has never been known to rise to that amount of
intelligence."

"You recollect, father, that heathcock we saw some years ago
displaying his glossy plumage to the dazzled hens; is that not a
well-marked proof of coquetry? and is not this coquetry an indication
of something more than mere instinct?"

"You will permit me to believe,