[The Lieutenant and Commander by Basil Hall]@TWC D-Link book
The Lieutenant and Commander

CHAPTER XIII
14/29

"Can you suppose the captain wished that anything should he done to the animal but just enough to prevent his biting the people ?" And, suiting the action to the word, he closed the fatal pincers, and nipped away the ends of the offending tusks, it is to be hoped without causing him any great pain.

But although poor Jacko probably did not suffer much, his rage knew no bounds; and no sooner was the canvas unfolded, than he sprang towards the after-hatchway, and catching the sergeant's hand in his mouth, closed his jaws with all his force.
Instinctively the soldier's cane was in the air, but a dozen voices roared out, "He can't bite! He has got no tushes left! Don't hit him!" And, sure enough, although Mr.St.Jago gnawed and struggled, he could make no impression on the well-tanned fist of the veteran, but, at length, slunk off quite abashed, amidst the shouts and laughter of the crew.
When the ship came to England, and was paid off, I turned over the monkey to the boatswain, who always remains in the ship, whence he found his way back to his old haunts in Exeter 'Change, after an absence of nearly three years; for happening one day, not long after the ship was paid off, to be in attendance upon a party seeing the wild beasts, one of the monkeys set up such a chattering in his cage, that he attracted the attention of the keeper of the establishment.
"That animal seems to know you, sir," said he to me; and upon going nearer, I discovered my old and mischievous friend grinning with delight.

I must own, indeed, that my heart smote me a little as I looked at the broken teeth, while the poor fellow held out his paw to catch my hand, in the spirit of perfect kindness and forgiveness.
A far different fate, I am sorry to record, befell another monkey of mine, in another ship, and in a very different quarter of the globe.

I was then in command of the Lyra, on the homeward voyage from China, after the embassy under Lord Amherst had been concluded.

We touched on our way to Calcutta at the Philippine Islands, and, amongst other live stock, laid in a monkey which had seen the world.


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