which it is not conceived necessary, here to enumerate. They had now, after about seven months' diligent labour, though interrupted at intervals, so far finished the hole as to reach the outside of the prison walls. A few minutes would complete it so as to enable them to pass out. About this time one of the prisoners, Mr. Jeremiah Powell, received a pardon from the king of Spain, and was discharged from his imprison ment. On or about the 7th of November, 1807, about 11 o'clock at night, after the usual hour of rest, they prepared to take French leave of their old sergeant. They divided the number of prisoners, who were willing to risk the danger, into different companies, for better safety after they were out. Mr. Lippincott and Sherman formed one company by themselves. They then drew lots to ascertain who should first venture out, and the order in which they should proceed. The principal immediate danger to be apprehended, was from the sentinels s upon the top of the wall, who might not happen to be asleep upon their post. The person who drew the first chance to go out, happened to be a prisoner who was unwell, and accordingly declined going. Mr. Lippincott and Mr. Sherman agreed with him to take his chance off his hands. Mr. Sherman having taken off his irons, first went out. Immediately Mr. Lippincott followed, and the rest pursued in their order. No noise was made, and the sentry remained undisturbed. Lippincott and Sherman crept round the walls of the town, until they came to a river, on the other side of which was a small village. After travelling up and down the shore of this river, they discovered a canoe hauled up before the door of a Spanish hut. This with great difficulty they dragged into the river, notwithstanding they were molested by dogs, whose noise was near thwarting their attempt. After et fecting this, they crossed over, landed near a guard-house, and were near falling into the hands of the guard. Owing to the darkness of the night, however, they avoided them. Here they travelled about in search of a place where they could be concealed for the ensuing day, until being weak and fatigued with the difficulties they had encountered, their strength failed them, and they sat, or rather fell down in the street. It was nearly daylight; and they had but a short time to provide for their safety. At length discovering a light, in a small hut at some distance, they ap proached it, made themselves known to the poor tenants, as prisoners in distress, and immediately offered them two or three pieces of gold. They shook their heads, but upon doubling the sum, they consented to receive, and secret them for a short time. They remained in this situa tion until the next night, when they made their escape to another place, where they remained secreted for se. veral weeks, when they made another move, trusting to their friend, which they carried in their pockets. The other sixteen prisoners took a course along the edge of the shore, except Moses Smith, who being somewhat unwell, and unable to proceed, concealed himself in the bushes, where he lay until the second night, during which time the cavalry and other soldiers passed by, and were near falling upon him in pursuit of the prisoners. He crept out, and taking the course that Mr. Lippincott and Sherman had taken, crossed the river, where he again concealed himself until the ensuing night, being two days without eating. The next day he came across a friend who informed him where he could find Mr. Lippincott and Sherman. They received him in with them and afforded him their assistance. Shortly afterwards all three, Mr. Lippincott, Sherman, and Smith, embarked on board of a boat, that they procured for that purpose, and put to sea in expecta tion of being picked up by some English vessel off the harbour. This expectation was realized, though not by an English vessel; and after a voyage of 31 days, they arrived safe in the United States in January 1808, when they proceeded to their homes at Philadelphia and New York, having been absent more than two years, and nearly two years in prison. The other fifteen prisoners pursued the edge of the shore for about ten miles, when their progress was intercepted by a river or ferry. In pursuing this river up and down, in or der to cross, they happened all to meet at an old Spaniard's house, for the purpose of procuring means to cross over. The Spaniard immediately knew who they were, and be gan to ask them some questions, and offered his services to assist them, which they gladly accepted. He engaged with them, that upon their giving him what money they had, he would conceal them that night, and the next ensuing night would carry them to the Indian Territory, about 40 miles from Carthagena, where they might easily make their escape. This agreement they concluded, and paid him what money they had, being in the whole about 50 dollars. The next day the Spaniard was informed that the governour had offered ten dollars a head for them. This reward he found would amount to more than he had received from the prisoners. Accordingly, he went and most treacherously made an agreement with the government to give them up. The next day, towards evening, he, together with two or three other Spaniards, took the prisoners on board of a boat to carry them to the place agreed upon. After passing along by the town, he rowed them to the shore, under some pretence or other, when immediately appeared about 50 armed soldiers and horsemen, according to appointment, ready to receive them, and instantly took them into custody, and carried them back to their prison. Observations on the Stratagems, &c. of Apes and Monkeys in a Wild State, and in Captivity. INDEPENDENTLY of the general form of these animals, and of their external and internal organization, which in many respects present a striking and humiliating resemblance to those of men, their playful ness, their frolicks, and gambols, have in all ages attracted the notice of mankind. Some naturalists have asserted, that they are capable of reasoning and reflecting; and that they are guided by an instinctive sagacity much superiour to that of the brute creation in general. They are, how ever, certainly destitute of every essential faculty of man: incapable as well of thought as of speech, there is an immense interval betwixt the creature formed in mind after the image of God, and these mere brutes, bearing some rude traits of the elemental parts of the human frame. Every one will acknowledge that, in general, both apes and monkeys are excessively ugly. Their limbs are peculiarly strong; and they have great delight in breaking, tearing in pieces, or stealing whatever comes in their way. In all their operations and manœuvres, their agility is astonishing. Whenever any thing offends or throws them into a passion, they indicate their rage by chattering violently with their teeth. Many of them, if beaten, will sigh, groan, and weep, like children; but most of them, on these occasions, utter dreadful shrieks of distress. They make such ridiculous grimaces, place themselves in such strange and whimsical attitudes, and in other respects conduct themselves so singularly, that few persons, even of those who most dislike them, can, on these occasions, refrain from smiling, and nearly all even by captivity. In some houses must be amused by them. we see the Wanderu [Simia Silenus of Linnæus) a cunning and audacious monkey, much inclined to ridicule and grimace. He may be taught to dress and undress himself; to spin; to poke the fire; to push a wheelbarrow; or play on a tambourine. He will wash earthen vessels or glasses with. out breaking them, and carry light burthens from place to place, whenever he is ordered to do so. A monkey of this species has been ob served to turn a spit with one hand whilst with the other he held a piece of bread under the meat to receive the gravy. It is, perhaps, needless to remark, that he immediately afterwards devoured it. It is said, that there are some races of monkeys which keep up a certain discipline among themselves. Though active in the highest degree in pillaging plantations and cultivated grounds, they seldom go on important expeditions for this purpose but in numerous troops. If they meditate an attack, for instance, on a melon bed, a large party of them enters the garden. The animals range themselves, if possible, under a hedge or fence, at some distance from each other, and throw the melons, from hand to hand, with astonishing rapidity. The line they form usually terminates in a mountain or forest, and all their operations are executed during the most profound silence. Wafer tells us, that when he was on shore in the island of Gorgonia, he observed several monkeys, of the four fingered species, come down, at low water, to the rocks of the seacoast, for the purpose of devouring oysters. They got at the food contained within the shells, by placing one oyster on a stone, and beating it in pieces with another. The Malbrouk of Bengal [Simia Faunus of Linnæus] is reported to do the same. Many of these animals, and particularly the preacher, and four fingered monkeys [Simia beelzebul and Simia faniscus of Linnæus] have sometimes dreadful contentions, in which great numbers on both sides are frequently slain. They employ weapons in their combats; and often arm themselves with stones and pieces of wood, which they throw with sure aim, and astonishing violence, at each other. They have, on these occasions, neither deserters nor stragglers; for in times of danger they never forsake each other. They run along the plains, and even leap from tree to tree with surprising rapidity. The instincts and sagacity of these animals are, in many instances, such as not to be injured or diminished A wanderu was exhibited at Bourdeaux, in the year 1762, which by his actions excited much astonishment in the spectators. When mounted on an extended cord, he first stretched out each of his feet to have them chalked; then, taking in his hand a pole weighted at each end, similar to the balance employed by ropedancers, he walked backward and forward, cut capers, and executed numerous other tricks, with infinitely greater ease and celerity than the most expert rope-dancer that had before been seen. The monkeys, however, that are trained and educated by some of the Indian buffoons, are reported to be by far the most agile and adroit of all animals that are reared in capti vity. Some of the apes, such as the oran otans, the patas, and the dog-faced apes, are said always to place a sentinel on the top of a tree, or on some other elevated situation, to keep watch when the rest are either about to sleep or to engage in any marauding expedition. The motions or the cry of this animal are a signal of danger, and immediately the whole troop scampers off with the utmost rapidity. It has been asserted, but few persons will be inclined to credit the assertion, that the sentinels are often punished with death for neglecting their duty. The Europeans at the Cape of Good Hope sometimes catch young apes by stratagem, or by previously killing their dam, and bring them up with care for the purpose of rendering them afterwards service able. When they have attained their growth, they are taught to guard the house of their owner during the night, and on all occasions of his absence. This they do with great fidelity; but as they increase in age, their mischievous propensities develop themselves, and they oftentimes become extremely illtempered and ferocious. These apes, which are of the ursine species, are so much inclined to imitation, that they seldom see any thing done without attempting to do the same. Some of them are very stubborn and perverse; but many are readily susceptible of education, learning, without difficulty, almost every thing that is taught them. Condamine and Bouger saw, in Peru, some domesticated monkeys of large size, which had been admitted into the apartments of the academicians, during the time they were employed in making observations in the mountains. These animals greatly excited the astonishment of the academicians, by afterwards, of their own accord, going through a series of imitations. They planted the signals, ran to the pendulum, and then immediately to the table, as if for the purpose of committing to paper the observations they had made. They occasionally pointed the telescopes towards the heavens, as if to view the planets or stars, and performed numerous other feats of a similar nature. The whimsical occurrence which took place before the troops of Alexander the Great, is too singular and too amusing to be passed over in silence. The soldiers under command of this monarch always march VOL. II. ed in order of battle. They happened one night to encamp on a moun tain, that was inhabited by a numerous tribe of monkeys. On the following morning, they saw at a distance what appeared to be an immense body of troops approaching them, as if with the intention of coming to an engagement. The commanders, as well as the soldiers, were in the ut most astonishment. Having entirely subdued the prince of the country, they could not conceive from whence this new force could have come. They had not previously been informed of any thing of the kind. The alarm was immediately given, and in a short time the whole Macedonian army was drawn up in battle-array, to combat with this unexpected enemy. The prince of the country, who was a prisoner in the camp, was interrogated respecting it. He was surprised to be informed of such a force in the neighbourhood, and requested permission to behold it himself. He smiled at the mistake; and the Macedonians were not a little chagrined that they should have been such fools as to take a troop of these imitative animals for a band of armed men. All the apes and monkeys are reported to entertain a natural aversion and antipathy to the crocodile. It is said, that some of them will even faint at seeing or smelling the skin of one of these frightful reptiles. The animals of that subdivision of the tribe denominated sapajous have long tails, which they can coil up, and employ in some respects, but particularly in descending trees, as a hand. By means of their tails, they are also able to swing themselves backward and forward amongst the branches of trees. Monkeys are seldom known to produce young ones, except in hot climates. The Barbary apes, however, [Simia inuus of Linnæus] which are found wild at Gibraltar, bring young ones in great abundance amongst the inaccessible precipices of the rock. A female of this species has also been H known to produce offspring in a state of captivity, at one of the hotels in Paris. A striated monkey [Simia jacchus] brought forth young ones in the house of a merchant at Lisbon, and another in that of a lady in Paris. Female monkeys generally carry their young ones nearly in the same manner as negresses do their children. The little animals cling to the back of their dam by their hind feet, and embrace the neck with their paws. When the females suckle them, it is said that they hold them in their arms, and present the teat as a woman would to a child. Monkeys usually live in much more extensive troops than apes. The troops of patas, or red monkeys of Senegal, are reported to amount some times to as many as three or four thousand. Some naturalists believe that they form a sort of republick, in which a great degree of subordination is kept up. That they always travel in good order, conducted by chiefs, the strongest and most experienced animals of their troop; and that, on these occasions, some of the largest monkeys are likewise placed in the rear, the sound of whose voice immediately silences that of any of the others that happen to be too noisy. The orderly and expert retreat of these creatures from danger is an amusing sight to Europeans, unaccustomed to the native manners of such animals. The negroes believe them to be a vagabond race of men, who are too indolent to construct habitations to live in, or to cultivate the ground for subsistence. They sometimes commit dreadful havock in the fields and gardens of persons who inhabit the countries where they abound. The different species of monkeys are seldom known to intermix or as sociate together; but each tribe generally inhabits a different quarter. The negroes who have not been taught the use of fire arms, are said to kill them by shooting them in the face with arrows. But it often happens, when the sapajous are shot, that in the act of falling from the tree they seize hold of a branch with their tail, and, dying in this situation, continue suspended even for a long time after death. When a monkey of some of the larger species is wounded, the rest will frequently collect together, and with great fury pursue the hunters to their huts or lodg⚫ ments. It was formerly supposed that man was the only animal which could be infected by the smallpox and measles; but it is now ascertained that monkeys, kept in houses where these complaints prevail, are also liable to receive the infection. In the year 1767, the inhabitants of Saint Germain-en-Laie, near Paris, were witness to a monkey's catching the small pox, by playing with children who were infected, and the animal bore the marks of it for a considerable time afterwards. A circumstance nearly similar was observed also at Paris, M. Paulet, a medical man of some eminence, was called upon, in 1770, to attend a person who had the measles. As the disease was contagious, he requested that every possible precaution might be taken to prevent it from spreading; and particularly that a monkey, accustomed to play with the children of the house, should, on no account, have any communication with the invalid. The request was made too late. One of the sick person's sisters, and at the same time also the monkey, which had been accustomed to sleep at the foot of her bed, was attacked by the disease. The monkey, in consequence, was treated in the same manner as a human subject. M. Paulet, on examining the state of the animal's pulse, found it so quick that it was scarcely possible to count the pulsations. In the axillary artery these were much more sensible than in any other. And he declared that, as nearly as he could count them, they were about five hundred |