i THE PONGO. 7 



It does not appear difficult to identify the exact 

 region of which Battell speaks. Longo is doubt- 

 less the name of the place usually spelled Loango 

 on our maps. Mayombe still lies some nineteen 

 leagues northward from Loango, along the coast; 

 and Cilongo or Kilonga, Manikesocke, and Motim- 

 bas are yet registered by geographers. The Cape 

 Negro of Battell, however, cannot be the modern 

 Cape Negro in 16° S., since Loango itself is in 

 4° S. latitude. On the other hand, the " great 

 river called Banna " corresponds very well with the 

 " Camma " and " Fernand Vas," of modern geog- 

 raphers, which form a great delta on this part of 

 the African coast. 



Now this " Camma " country is situated about 

 a degree and a half south of the Equator, while a 

 few miles to the north of the line lies the Gaboon, 

 and a degree or so north of that, the Money Eiver 

 — both well known to modern naturalists as lo- 

 calities where the largest of man-like Apes has 

 been obtained. Moreover, at the present day, the 

 word Engeco, or N'schego, is applied by the na- 

 tives of these regions to the smaller of the two 

 great Apes which inhabit them; so that there can 

 be no rational doubt that Andrew Battell spoke 

 of that which he knew of his own knowledge, or, 

 at any rate, by immediate report from the natives 

 of Western Africa. The " Engeco," however, is 

 that " other monster " whose nature Battell " for- 

 got to relate," while the name " Pongo " — applied 



