20 THE MAN-LIKE APES I 



Thus it was that Andrew Battell's "Engeco" 

 became metamorphosed into " Jocko," and, in the 

 latter shape, was spread all over the world, in 

 consequence of the extensive popularity of 

 Buffon's works. The Abbe Prevost and Buffon 

 between them however, did a good deal more 

 disfigurement to BattelFs sober account than 

 " cutting off an article." Thus Battell's statement 

 that the Pongos "cannot speake, and have no 

 understanding more than a beast," is rendered by 

 Buffon "qu'il ne peut parler quoiguil ait plus 

 d'entendement que les autres animaiix ;" and again, 

 Purchas' affirmation, " He told me in conference 

 with him, that one of these Pongos tooke a negro 

 boy of his which lived a moneth with them," 

 stands in the French version, " un pongo lui en- 

 leva un petit negre qui passa un an entier dans 

 la societe de ces anirnaux." 



After quoting the account of the great Pongo, 

 Buffon justly remarks, that all the " Jockos " and 

 " Orangs " hitherto brought to Europe were young ; 

 and he suggests that, in their adult condition, 

 they might be as big as the Pongo or "great 

 Orang;" so that, provisionally, he regarded the 

 Jockos, Orangs, and Pongos as all of one species. 

 And perhaps this was as much as the state of 

 knowledge at the time warranted. But how it 

 came about that Buffon failed to perceive the 

 similarity of Smith's "Mandrill" to his own 

 " Jocko," and confounded the former with so 



