374 QUADRUMANA. 



fruits and nuts, and possessed such muscular power, that the strength of ten 

 men was insufficient to hold one of them ; and that, upon the death of a 

 member of their community, the survivors covered the body with leaves and 

 branches of trees. According to the same traveller, they were known, in 

 the neighbourhood of Angola, to crowd shivering around the remains of the 

 fires lit at night by those who travelled through the forests of that country, 

 for the purpose of keeping off the more ferocious wild beasts ; but they 

 retreated into the woods when the last embers had expired, without at- 

 tempting to renew the source of comfort. 



Bosnian * (who calls them Smitten) affirms that they attacked and 

 destroyed such Negroes as they met with in the woods, carried off the 

 women, pelted with stones those who disturbed them in their retreats, and 

 drove away even Elephants, either with sticks, or with their fists alone. 

 Once, he states, a number of them attacked, overpowered, and were pro- 

 ceeding to poke out the eyes of two slaves, when a party of Negroes 

 arrived to their rescue. 



Froger (see Relation du Voyage de Gennes) states that, on the shores 

 of the river Gambia, are Apes of greater size, and more wicked, than in 

 any other place of Africa ; the Negroes fear them, and cannot go alone 

 into the country without running the risk of being attacked by these 

 animals, which present them with a stick, and oblige them to fight. Often 

 have they been seen to carry children, of seven or eight years old, up 

 the trees ; and it has required incredible trouble to rescue them. The 

 common opinion of the Negroes is, that these animals are a strange 

 people, which have come down to settle in their* country, and that if they 

 do not speak, it is because they fear being made to work. Francois 

 Pyrard (Voyage de Fr. Pyrard de Laval., Paris, 1619, torn. ii. p*. 231,) 

 relates that, in the province of Sierra Leone, is found a species of animal 

 called Baris, very stout and muscular, and so industrious that, when taken 

 young and educated, it may be made to work. These animals, he adds, 

 generally walk on the hind limbs only. Whatever is given them to pound 

 in a mortar, they pound ; and they will take small vessels to the river 

 for water, bringing them back full, on their head ; but as soon as they 

 arrive at the door of the house, if the vessels are not immediately taken 

 from them, they let them fall, and, on seeing them broken, commence 

 weeping and lamenting. Le Pere du Jarrie, quoted by Nieremberg 

 (Hist. Nat. Peregin., lib. ix. cap. xlv.), says the same; and Schoutten 

 (Voyages de G. Schoutten), and Le Guat (Voyages de Fr. Guat, torn, ii.), 

 speak in terms as extravagant of the Indian Orang. 



In Barbot's Guinea the Chimpanzee is called Barrys, and Quojas 



* " A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, &c. Written originally in Dutch, by W. 

 Bosman, and now faithfully done into English." London, 1721. 



