- DESTRUCTIVE, on the upland sugar-groves
- The monkey-nation1 preys: from rocky heights, [35]
- In silent parties, they descend by night,
- And posting watchful sentinels, to warn
- When hostile steps approach; with gambols,2 they
- Pour o’er the Cane-grove. Luckless he to whom
- That land pertains! in evil hour, perhaps, [40]
- And thoughtless of to-morrow, on a die
- He hazards millions; or, perhaps, reclines
- On Luxury’s soft lap, the pest of wealth;
- And, inconsiderate, deems his Indian crops
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Will amply her insatiate wants supply.3 [45]
- FROM these insidious droles4 (peculiar pest
- Of Liamuiga’s hills) would’st thou defend
- Thy waving wealth; in traps put not thy trust,
- However baited: Treble every watch,
- And well with arms provide them; faithful dogs, [50]
- Of nose sagacious, on their footsteps wait.
VER. 46. peculiar pest] The monkeys which are now so numerous in the mountainous parts of St. Christopher, were brought thither by the French when they possessed half that island. This circumstance we learn from Pere Labat, who farther tells us, that they are a most delicate food. The English-Negroes are very fond of them, but the White-inhabitants do not eat them. They do a great deal of mischief in St. Kitts, destroying many thousand pounds Sterling’s worth of Canes every year.
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Monkeys are not indigenous to St. Kitts, but the vervet or African green monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops) had been introduced by the seventeenth century. Vervets most likely arrived in the Caribbean via slave ships from Africa. They quickly came to be considered pests because they established themselves in large numbers on the island and traveled around it in troops, raiding colonists’ crops. Today, the St. Kitts vervet population exceeds the human one, and vervets are still known for destroying farmers’ crops (and stealing tourists’ cocktails). Controversially, many of the vervets are now killed or trapped to serve in medical experiments. ↩︎
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Leaps or capers, as made in dancing or playing. ↩︎
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Grainger warns that despite the fact that sugar plantations seem like sure investments with guaranteed profits, they nevertheless require expert knowledge and labor to succeed. ↩︎
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Also droll, a buffoon or jester. ↩︎