OF THE MAN-LIKE APES 201 



It does not appear difficult to identify the exact region 

 of which Battell speaks. Longo is doubtless the name of 

 the place usually spelled Loango on our maps. Mayombe 

 still lies some nineteen leagues northward from Loango, 

 along the coast ; and Cilongo or Kilonga, Manikesocke, 

 and Motimbas are yet registered by geographers. The 

 Gape Negro of Battell, however, cannot be the modern 

 Cape Negro in 16 S., since Loango itself is hi 4 S. latitude. 

 On the other hand, the " great river called Banna " corre- 

 sponds very well with the " Gamma " and " Fernand Vas," 

 of modern geographers, which form a great delta on this 

 part of the African coast. 



Now this " Gamma " country is situated about a degree 

 and a-half south of the Equator, while a few miles to the 

 north of the line lies the Gaboon, and a degree or so north 

 of that, the Money River both well known to modern 

 naturalists as localities where the largest of man-like 

 Apes has been obtained. Moreover, at the present day, 

 the word Engeco, or N'schego, is applied by the natives 

 of these regions to the smaller of the two great Apes which 

 inhabit them ; so that there can be no rational doubt that 

 Andrew Battell spoke of that which he knew of his own 

 knowledge, or, at any rate, by immediate report from the 

 natives of Western Africa. The " Engeco," however, is 

 that " other monster " whose nature Battell " forgot 

 to relate/' while the name " Pongo " applied to the 

 animal whose characters and habits are so fully and 

 carefully described seems to have died out, at least 

 in its primitive form and signification. Indeed, there is 

 evidence that not only in Battell' s time, but up to a very 

 recent date, it was used in a totally different sense from 

 that in which he employs it. 



For example, the second chapter of Purchas' work, 

 which I have just quoted, contains " A Description and 

 Historicall Declaration of the Golden Kingdom of Guinea, 

 etc. etc. Translated from the Dutch, and compared also 

 with the Latin," wherein it is stated (p. 986) that 



" The River Gaboon lyeth about fifteen miles northward 

 from Rio de Angra, and eight miles northward from Cape 

 de Lope Gonsalvez (Gape Lopez), and is right under the 

 Equinoctial line, about fifteene miles from St. Thomas, 

 and is a great land, well and easily to be knowne. At 

 the mouth of the river there lieth a sand, three or foure 

 fathoms deepe, whereon it beateth mightily with the 



