s theory should prove to be true!
However, I must see about getting Jocko rigged out properly in a decent
sailor's suit so that he may get accustomed to the clothing before we
come to the cold latitudes. I daresay my marine, who is a smart fellow,
can manage to cut down a guernsey frock and a pair of canvas or serge
trousers to fit the brute: I will give an order on the paymaster for
them at once and Smith can set to work on them without delay;" and he
bustled out of his cabin to carry his intentions into effect.

Not being intimately acquainted with even the rudimentary elements of
natural history, I cannot say to what order or genus of the monkey
family Jocko belonged; but, roughly speaking, I think he was a specimen
of chimpanzee or small gorilla, as he had no tail, and when he walked
erect, which was his favourite position, he looked uncommonly like the
"superior animal."

Tom Finch had shot the monkey's mother in the bush when on a hunting
excursion up the interior of the country, which he indulged in on first
coming to the coast; and having captured and nursed the youngster with
the utmost solicitude, Jocko repaid his master's attention by learning
so many tricks and imitating the deportment, of those with whom he was
brought in contact so carefully, that he was now, at the time of which I
speak, such a thoroughly educated and well-bred monkey as to be "um
purfit genelman," as Pompey, the cook, said--one "fit to shine in any
circle," especially on ship-board, where he was an endless source of
amusement to us all, from the lieutenant-commander down to the loblolly
boy aforesaid.

Pursuant to Tom Finch's directions and the exertions of his marine
servant Smith, before we left the mouth of the Congo our friend Jocko
was decorously habited in a smart seafaring costume; and, long ere we
had crossed the Atlantic and arrived at Monte Video, the intelligent
animal had got so habituated to his new rig that the difficulty would
have been to persuade him to go about once more in his former unclothed
state--and yet some sceptics say that monkeys aren't human! You should
only have seen him walking up and down the quarter-deck, or on the
bridge by Tom's side, he looked for all the world like a juvenile
"reefer!"

It was in the cabin, however, that Jocko's acquirements came out in the
strongest relief. Tom had taught him to sit at table and use a spoon or
fork in helping himself from his plate as naturally as possible; an