198 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



large-eared ; and about the size of Chimpanzees. It may 

 be that these apes are as much figments of the imagina- 

 tion of the ingenious brothers as the winged, two-legged, 

 crocodile-headed dragon which adorns the same plate ; or, 

 on the other hand, it may be that the artists have con- 

 structed their drawings from some essentially faithful 

 description of a Gorilla or a Chimpanzee. And, in either 

 case, though these figures are worth a passing notice, the 

 oldest trustworthy and definite accounts of any animal of 

 this kind date from the 17th century, and are due to an 

 Englishman. 



FIG. 1. Simiie magnatum delicue. De Bry, 1598. 



The first edition of that most amusing old book, Parchas 

 his Pilgrimage, was published in 1613, and therein are to be 

 found many references to the statements of one whom 

 Purchas terms " Andrew Battell (my neere neighbour, 

 dwelling at Leigh in Essex) who served under Manuel Silvera 

 Perera, Governor under the King of Spaine, at his city of 

 Saint Paul, and with him went farre into the countrey of 

 Angola " ; and again, " my friend, Andrew Battle, who 

 lived in the kingdom of Congo many yeares," and who, 

 " upon some quarell betwixt the Portugals (among whom 

 he was a sergeant of a band) and him, lived eight or nine 

 moneths in the woodes." From this weather-beaten old 

 soldier, Purchas was amazed to hear " of a kinde of Great 

 Apes, if they might so bee termed, of the height of a man, 



