238 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
hellish dream creature—a being of that hideous order, half man, 
half beast, which we find pictured by old artists in some represen- 
tations of the infernal regions.] He advanced a few steps— 
then stopped to utter that [hideous] roar again—advanced again, 
and finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards from 
us. And here, as he began another of his roars and beating his 
breast [in rage], we fired, and killed him. 
With a groan [which had something terribly human in it, and 
yet was full of brutishness], it fell forward on its face. The 
body shook convulsively for a few minutes, the limbs moved 
about in a struggling way, and then all was quiet—death had 
done its work, and I had leisure to examine the huge body. 
It proved to be five feet eight inches high, and the muscular de- 
velopment of the arms and breast showed what immense 
strength it had possessed. 
These facts are no doubt accurate. Du Chaillu 
and his men pursued a gorilla in the forest. When 
they came too close he roared at them. I have seen 
little monkeys scold an intruder in similar fashion. 
His face twitched and he beat his breast. My motion 
picture shows a gorilla beating her breast when not at 
all mad. The gorilla advanced on them not in a 
ferocious rush but hesitatingly a few steps at a time. 
They shot it. 
I don’t blame Du Chaillu for feeling the way he 
did, for, under the circumstances in which he hunted 
the gorilla, most people would have had even much 
worse feelings than he had. Then, too, when Du 
Chaillu wrote, tales of African exploration were 
under an unwholesome pressure comparable to that 
to which African motion pictures are being sub- 
jected to-day. I have it on reliable authority that 
Du Chaillu was twice requested to revise his manu- 
