3 6 APES AND MONKEYS, 



also known under the names of Jina, N'Jina, or Indjina, or N'Guyala, while by 

 Europeans it is universally termed the Gorilla. The naturalist Buffon appears to 

 have given credence to Battel's pongo (NTungu, or MTungu, as it is variously 

 spelt); but his account was summarily rejected by the great Cuvier as a mere 

 traveller's tale. Still, however, vague rumours of the existence on the West Coast 

 of Africa of an ape of larger size and fiercer habits than the chimpanzee from 

 time to time reached Europe; and in 1819 Bowdich, in his account of the " Mission 

 from Cape Coast Castle to Ashanti," definitely stated that among the many curious 

 apes found in the Gabun district the ingenu (or gorilla) was by far the largest 

 and strongest. It was not, however, till the year 1847 that any precise evidence 

 of the existence qf this mysterious ape reached Europe. In that year, however, 

 Dr. Savage, an English missionary stationed at the Gabun, wrote to the veteran 

 comparative anatomist, Sir Richard Owen, enclosing drawings of the skull of an 

 ape from that district, which was described as being much larger than the 

 chimpanzee, and feared by the negroes more than they dread the lion, or any 

 other wild beast of the forest. These sketches clearly showed the bold bony crests 

 over the eye-sockets, which mark the skull of the gorilla as distinct from that of 

 the chimpanzee. " At a later date in the same year," writes Sir Richard Owen, 

 "were transmitted to me from Bristol two skulls of the same large species of 

 chimpanzee as that notified in Dr. Savage's letter; they were obtained from the 

 same locality in Africa, and brought clearly to light evidence of the existence in 

 Africa of a second larger and more powerful ape." In the following year these 

 specimens were described by the English anatomist under the name of Troglodytes 

 savagei. It appears, however, that about the same time that Dr. Savage forwarded 

 the sketches to Sir Richard Owen, he also sent a skull of the unknown ape, 

 together with a description of the animal itself, by the hand of a fellow-missionary 

 named Wilson, to Boston in the United States. And in an American scientific 

 journal for the year 1847, the new ape was described, and named Troglodytes 

 gorilla. Thus matters stood till the year 1851, when a Captain Harris presented 

 to the Royal College of Surgeons the first skeleton of a gorilla that had ever 

 been brought to England ; while in the same year another skeleton was sent to 

 Philadelphia by Mr. Ford. This at once made a great advance in our knowledge 

 of the creature ; and in 1852 a French naturalist came to the conclusion that the 

 gorilla ought not to be included in the same genus as the chimpanzee ; and he 

 accordingly proposed for it the name of Gorilla gena. By the rules of nomenclature 

 adopted among zoologists, he had, however, no right to supersede the specific 

 name proposed by Sir Richard Owen ; and the gorilla is accordingly now known 

 scientifically as Gorilla savagei. 



In 1856 the well-known African traveller, Du Chaillu, arrived at the Gabun, 

 preparatory to his expedition into the interior; and two years later the British 

 Museum received from the Gabun an entire gorilla preserved in spirits, the skin 

 of which was soon afterwards mounted and exhibited to the public. 



Such is the history of the gradual acquisition of our knowledge of the largest 

 of the apes. On his return from the Gabun to America, Du Chaillu set to work 

 to publish an account of his travels and adventures ; and in 1861 the world was 

 startled by the appearance of his. Explorations and -Adventures in Equatorial 



