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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1867, by J. W. Burke Sc Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia. Vol. I. TALES OF A GREAT TRAVELER. NO. II. —JOCKO AND DOLL PARROT. ONCE made a long and dis astrous voyage—as you shall hear by and by—to °f Africa, as su percargo of a small vessel trading with the natives all along the coast. — p&aL When about to '£f return home, I bought as a present for my sister a beauti ful green parrot, fully ? grown, who, besides | talking parrot lan- I guage, could say some words in English— having belonged to an English trader, set l tied in Sierra Leone. I had also purchased, ; for my brother Tom, 5 a monkey, who I : think must have been ■ the most mischievous of his race. Jocko was frequently allow- I ed to run at large over I the decks, and there would be great racing and chasing after him I sometimes, when he 1 was caught at some | mischief. lie would run away when ho ft, saw the whip threat ening him, and then I got so far out on the masts and yard arms, that no one could approach him.— When the danger was past, he would steal down quietly, and hide himself away till I he thought his pranks were forgotten. Poll Parrot was kept in a large and I strong wicker basket or cage, generally on the deck, over which a sail was thrown MACON, GA„ JULY 20, 1867. in the middle of the day, to protect her from the great heat of the climate. Now, Jocko and she were not good friends. He was constantly teazing her, and when she had scolded him in parrot language until she found it would do no good, she would try what English she knew, some times without caring for the purity or appropriateness of her language. I re- member a great contest once between the two —which was followed by a long truce. Jocko had mischievously pulled aside the sail that protected Poll from the sun, and finding close at hand a bucket of water, that a sailor had set ready for some future use, he had brought it near the cage, and amused himself for some time by dropping his paw into it, and throwing water over the angry bird. She became furious, and scolded and screamed at him, while he grinned and mewed and chattered, and spattered her all the time. She tried English—“ Poll, poor, pretty Poll.” This did not stop him. “ Poll hungry.” No relief. “Poll sick”—“Poll gone to bed ” —and still it rained on her. She used, too, some bad language, that neither men nor parrots ought to use, and at last cried out in despair—“ Oh me ! Oh me ! Pretty Poll’s dead—dead —dead. Go home, boys. Bad boys—drunk— drunk. Poll’s dead. Here—here,” call ing dogs, “catch him! Oh! Oh! Dead — dead.” And then she quit talking Eng lish, as if she had exhausted her diction ary. But Jocko was not to be driven off by her scolding and outcry. He cared noth ing for the English language. He was an African, and he thought himself at liberty to harrass any parrot, even though she spoke English. But now a bright thought seemed to strike him. Bringing the water bucket pretty near the cage, he jumped on to the latter, and getting him self pretty firmly fixed, by putting his left arm through a large ring on the top of it, and clutching the edge of it, and setting his right foot firmly on some of the rounds, he then reached down with his left foot and seized the bucket handle and began to lift it with that foot. He . told me afterwards, when I asked him* what he was going to do, that he thought Poll was a dirty housekeeper, and he was going to pour the water on her floor, that she might scour it. He had seen the sailors do the like in washing up the decks of the vessel. - But Jocko had not provided against all accidents. He had hardly began to raise the bucket, than he felt such a nip at his tail, as made him drop it, in his surprise, and with a howl of pain, kick out his leg, No. 3.