One of the merchants of the ship, who had taken me into his friendship, obliged me to go along with him, and carried me to a place appointed as a retreat for foreign merchants. He gave me a great bag, and having recommended me to some people of the town who used to gather cocoas, he desired them to take me with them to do the like. Go, says he, follow them, and do as you see them do, and do not separate from them, otherwise you endanger your life. Having thus spoken, he gave me provisions for the journey, and I went with them. We came to a great forest of trees, extremely straight and tall, the trunks of which were so smooth that it was not possible for any man to climb up the branches that bore the fruit. All the trees were cocoa ones; and when we entered the forest, we saw a great number of apes of several sizes, that fled as soon as they perceived us, climbing up to the tops of the trees with surprising swiftness. The merchants with whom I was, gathered stones, and threw them at the apes on the tops of the trees. I did the same, and the apes, out of revenge, threw cocoa nuts at us so fast, and with such gestures, as sufficiently testified their anger and resentment: we gathered up the cocoas, and from time to time threw stones to provoke the apes; so that, by this stratagem, we filled our bags with cocoa nuts, which it had been impossible for us to have done otherwise. When we had gathered our number, we returned to the city, where the merchant who sent me to the forest gave me the value of the cocoas I brought: Go on, says he, and do the like every day, until you have got money enough to carry you home. I thanked him for his good advice, and insensibly gathered together as many cocoas as amounted to a considerable sum.