14 THE NATURAL HISTOEY OF 



It does not appear difficult to identify tlie exact re- 

 gion of which Battell speaks. Longo is doubtless 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, Mani- 

 kesocke, and Motimbas are yet registered by geographers. 

 The Cape JS'egro of Battell, however, cannot be the mod- 

 ern Cape J^egro 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 Yas," of modern geographers, which form a 

 great delta on this part of the African coast. 



]^ow this " Camma " country is situated about a de- 

 gree 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 localities 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 natives 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 " forgot to relate," while the name " Bon- 

 go " — applied to the animal whose characters and habits 

 are so fully and carefully described — seems to have died 



his which lived a moneth with them. For they hurt not those which they 

 surprise at unawares, except they looke on them ; which he avoyded. He 

 said their highth was like' a man's, but their biguesse twice as great. I saw 

 the negro boy. What the other monster should be he hath forgotten to re-> 

 late ; and these papers came to my hand since his death, which, otherwise, in 

 my often conferences, I might have learned. Perhaps he meaneth the Pigmy 

 Pongo killers mentioned." 



