THE GORILLA AND OTHER APES. 297 



where in this region." I must confess these inferences seero 

 to me somewhat open to question, and the account of 

 Hanno's voyage only interesting in its relation to the gorilla, 

 as having suggested the name now given to this race of 

 apes. It is not probable that Hanno sailed much further 

 than Sierra Leone ; according to Rennell, the island where 

 the " wild men " were seen, was the small island lying 

 close to Sherbro, some seventy miles south of Sierra Leone. 

 To have reached the gorilla district after doubling Cape 

 Verd which is itself a point considerably south of the 

 most southerly city founded by Hanno he would have had 

 to voyage a distance exceeding that of Cape Verd from 

 Carthage. Nothing in the account suggests that the portion 

 of the voyage, after the colonizing was completed, had so 

 great a range. The behaviour of the " wild men," again, 

 does not correspond with the known habits of the gorilla. 

 The idea suggested is that of a species of anthropoid ape 

 far inferior to the gorilla in strength, courage, and ferocity. 



The next accounts which have been regarded as relating 

 to the gorilla are those given by Portuguese voyagers. 

 These narratives have been received with considerable 

 doubt, because in some parts they seem manifestly fabulous. 

 Thus the pictures representing apes show also huge flying 

 dragons with a crocodile's head ; and we have no reason 

 for believing that batlike creatures like the pterodactyls of 

 the greensand existed in Africa or elsewhere so late as the 

 time of the Portuguese voyages of discovery. Purchas, in 

 his histoiy of Andrew Battell, speaks of " a kinde of great 

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

 but twice as bigge in feature of their limmes, with strength 

 proportionable, hairie all over, otherwise altogether like men 

 and women in their whole bodily shape, except that theii 

 legges had no calves." This description accords well with 

 the peculiarities of gorillas, and may be regarded as the 

 first genuine account of these animals. Battell's contem- 

 poraries called the apes so described Pongoes. It is pro- 

 bable that in selecting the name Pongo for the young 



