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way, they will attack and kill them : that they 

 always walk on their hind legs : that with stones, 

 large clubs, or even with their fists only, they 

 will drive before them the wild elephants; and 

 that they actually attacked two of the Slaves 

 near an Knglish Fort, in Guinea, and would have 

 poked their eyes out with sticks, had not some 

 other Negroes come to their assistance." Most of 

 the accounts I have seen of the larger ape tribes, 

 convey with them, as in the above instance, a 

 mixed proportion of truth, with very questionable 

 probability; and they serve to shew how little 

 We are actually acquainted with the natural ha- 

 bits of animals, whose secluded haunts and ex- 

 treme vvildness of character, render them, not 

 only difficult of approach, by which we could 

 satisfactorily observe their movements, but also 

 prevent us from capturing any of the species ex- 

 cepting, (as before observed,) an occasional young 

 one, whose character has not been fully deve- 

 loped ; and which, brought to Europe, from the 

 great difference of the climate, has never survi- 

 ved long enough to make up for this deficiency. 

 Under such disadvantages, all I can attempt 

 in my history of the Ourang Outang, is to avail 

 myself of the latest, and what may be considered 

 the most authentic information that offers ; and 

 I have accordingly, not only consulted systema- 

 tic writers on zoology of the first respectability, but 

 fortunately have before me some very interesting 



