CHAPTER VI. 



LIFE IN CAPTIVITY. 



The accounts given by the earliest observers of 

 gorillas would lead us to expect that the attempt 

 to tame even young apes of this species must be 

 fruitless. Du Chaillu tells us that he obtained a 

 young male gorilla, a creature of from two to three 

 years old, which was quite as furious and unmanage- 

 able as any adult specimen could have been. The 

 negroes of the district between the Eembo and 

 Cape Santa Catharina had surprised the mother 

 and her young one in the forest, and after killing 

 the former, they succeeded, with great diflSculty, in 

 capturing the latter by throwing a cloth over his 

 head. By means of a wooden slave-fork, fixed upon 

 its neck, the animal was transported to the village 

 in which Du Chaillu was staying at the time. 

 Young as he was, the gorilla displayed extra- 

 ordinary strength, and after he had been success- 

 fully fastened into his cage, he contrived to attack 

 his new master again, tearing his trousers, and then 

 retreating sullenly into a corner. He would only 



