196 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
history, speak of the gorillas as among the most 
powerful and ferocious animals on earth. And this 
reputation is so firmly established in the popular 
mind that our plan of taking ladies with no previous 
hunting experience of any kind into a gorilla country 
in Central Africa was looked upon as madness. But 
to the general theory of the ferocity of wild animals 
I have never been a convert. And the more I have 
seen of wild animals in Africa the less I have believed 
in their ferocity. Consequently, I explained my creed 
concerning the gorillas in this fashion: 
I believe that the gorilla is normally a perfectly amiable and 
decent creature. I believe that if he attacks man it is because 
he is being attacked or thinks that he is being attacked. I be- 
lieve that he will fight in self-defense and probably in defense 
of his family; that he will keep away from a fight until he is 
frightened or driven into it. I believe that, although the old 
male advances when a hunter is approaching a family of gorillas, 
he will not close in, if the man involved has the courage to stand 
firm. In other words, his advance will turn out to be what is 
usually called a bluff. 
I believe, however, that the white man who will allow a gorilla 
to get within ten feet of him without shooting is a plain darn 
fool, for certainly the average man would have little show in the 
clutch of a three or four hundred pound gorilla. 
My faith in the general amiability and decency of the gorilla 
is not based on experience or actual knowledge of any sort, but 
on deductions from the observation of wild animals in general 
and more particularly of monkeys. There are few animals that 
deliberately go into fight with an unknown antagonist or with a 
known antagonist, for that matter, without what seems to them a 
good reason. In other words, they are not looking for trouble. 
The lion will fight when the maintenance of his dignity de- 
mands it. Most animals will fight only when driven to it through 
fear, either for themselves or their young. 
