20 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i 



Thus it was that Andrew Battell's " Engeco " 

 became metamorphosed into " Jocko/' and, in the 

 latter shape, was spread all over the world, in con- 

 sequence of the extensive popularity of Buffon's 

 works. The Abbe Prevost and Buffon between 

 them however, did a good deal more disfigurement 

 to Battell's sober account than " cutting off an 

 article." Thus Battell's statement that the Pon- 

 gos " cannot speake, and have no understanding 

 more than a beast," is rendered by Buffon " qu'il 

 ne pent parler quoiqu'il ait plus d'entendement que 

 les autres animaux; " and again, Purchas' affirma- 

 tion, " He told me in conference with him, that 

 one of these Pongos tooke a negro boy of his 

 which lived a moneth with them," stands in the 

 French version, " un pongo lui enleva un petit 

 negre qui passa un an entier dans la societe de 

 ces animaux." 



After quoting the account of the great Pongo, 

 Buffon justly remarks, that all the " Jockos " and 

 " Orangs " hitherto brought to Europe were young; 

 and he suggests that, in their adult condition, they 

 might be as big as the Pongo or " great Orang; " 

 so that, provisionally, he regarded the Jockos, 

 Orangs, and Pongos as all of one species. And 

 perhaps this was as much as the state of knowl- 

 edge at the time warranted. But how it came about 

 that Buffon failed to perceive the similarity of 

 Smith's " Mandrill " to his own " Jocko," and 

 confounded the former with so totally different a 



