66 START FOR THE INTERIOR. Chap. IV 



hearted Britisli nation who had so generously wel- 

 comed me when I arrived in England, an unknown 

 traveller, from my former arduous journey. One of 

 the male gorillas proved to be a much larger and 

 finer specimen than the former one, which many must 

 have seen at the end of the Zoological Grallery in the 

 museum ; it has therefore been mounted and set up 

 in its place, where I would recommend all who wish 

 to see a really fine specimen of this most wonderful 

 animal to go and see it. 



The large collection of skulls made in so short a 

 time will surprise many people, especially travellers 

 in other wild countries who find skulls of natives 

 generally very difficult to obtain. But with the 

 money and trade-loving negro many strange things 

 are possible. It was necessary first to overcome the 

 scruples of the Commi people, and this I did by 

 explaining to them why I wanted the skulls ; so I 

 told them that there was a strong party among the 

 doctors or magic-men in my country who believed 

 that negroes were apes almost the same as the 

 gorilla, and that I wished to send them a number 

 of skulls to show how much they were mistaken. 

 When I backed up this statement by the offer of 

 three dollars' worth of goods for each skull they 

 might bring, I soon obtained a plentiful supply ; in 

 fact, I was obliged afterwards to reduce the price. 

 The skulls brought me were almost always those of 

 slaves from the far interior, who had died in the 

 coast country; and, as corpses are laid simply on 

 the ground in the native cemeteries, the transaction' 

 was much simplified. Nevertheless, the sale of a 



