i THE PONGO AND ENGECO. 3 



human gestures." As this might apply to almost 

 any kind of apes, I should have thought little of 

 it, had not the brothers De Bry, whose engravings 

 illustrate the work, thought fit, in their eleventh 

 " Argumentum," to figure two of these " Simiae 

 magnatum delicise." So much of the plate as 

 contains these apes is faithfully copied in the 

 woodcut (Fig. 1), and it will be observed that they 

 are tail-less, long-armed, and large-eared; and about 

 the size of Chimpanzees. It may be that these apes 

 are as much figments of the imagination of the in- 

 genious brothers as the winged, two-legged, croco- 

 dile-headed dragon which adorns the same plate; 

 or, on the other hand, it may be that the artists 

 have constructed their drawings from some essen- 

 tially faithful description of a Gorilla or a Chim- 

 panzee. And, in either case, though these fig- 

 ures are worth a passing notice, the oldest trust- 

 worthy and definite accounts of any animal of this 

 kind date from the 17th century, and are due to an 

 Englishman. 



The first edition of that most amusing old 

 book, " Purchas his Pilgrimage," was published 

 in 1613, and therein are to be found many refer- 

 ences to the statements of one whom Purchas terms 

 " Andrew Battell (my neere neighbour, dwelling 

 at Leigh in Essex) who served under Manuel Sil- 

 vera Perera, Governor under the King of Spaine, 

 at his city of Saint Paul, and with him went farre 

 into the countrey of Angola "; and again, " my 



