74 ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF THE ANTHROPOID APES. | May 16, 
by 1521 had placed more or less roughly on the map all the big 
islands of the Malay Archipelago. They were followed a few years 
later by Spanish, Dutch, and French adventurers. During the 
17th Century many British ships visited Sumatra and Borneo, and 
the Malay name Orang utan was in current use in scientific Europe 
during the second half of the 17th Century, having been originally 
definitely applied to the man-like apes of Sumatra and Borneo*. 
But towards the close of the 15th Century the Portuguese had 
already become acquainted with the West Coast of Africa and 
the Chimpanzee. They first noticed this creature in the southern 
part of what is now the colony of Sierra Leone. They called it 
in their earlier writings “ Selvage” (savage), and later ‘“ Barri.” 
Later still they came to know more of the Chimpanzee in dealing 
with the Lower Congo and Northern Angolay. It there went 
under the name of Pongo, which as already explained is the 
Angola name Mpongo. Andrew Battel, of the 16th Century, was 
an Hssex fisherman. Through being shipwrecked off Brazil he got 
conveyed into Portuguese captivity in Angola, Escaping, he 
travelled into the northern part of Angola towards the Congo. 
He returned to England and brought back with him stories of the 
‘““Pongos,” which obviously referred to the Chimpanzee. The 
name “Chimpanzee” does not seem to have come into vogue till 
the latter part of the 18th Century, or to have been much used 
until the 19th Century. I have no certain clue as to its origin; 
but I have been told that it is a Loango word of which the root 
would be -mpanzi or -mpangi (possibly, therefore, cognate with the 
Congo name for Chimpanzee, mpongi), with the well-known Bantu 
prefix chi (kz) added. This prefix is sometimes an augmentative, 
so that chimpangi or chimpanzi might merely mean a big ape. 
At the close of the 18th Century, Buffon, Linnzus, Lacépede, 
and other zoologists had finally discriminated between the Gibbons, 
the Orang utan, and the African Chimpanzee; and to this list was 
added in the period between 1847 and 1860 the definitely 
established genus (afterwards species, then again genus) of the 
Gorilla. ‘The discovery of the Gorilla was really due to the 
American Evangelical missionaries, who established themselves in 
the early part of the 19th Century in the Gaboon; but complete 
specimens of this Ape and a far more extended knowledge of it 
were brought to the civilised world by Du Chaillu. Stanley 
asserted the existence of the true Gorilla as far east as the forest 
between the Upper Congo and the Nile watershed; and this 
statement has seemingly been confirmed by the specimens received 
from that region by Dr. Matschie, and described and figured by 
Myr. Rothschild. 
* Though often misapplied to the African Chimpanzee in the 17th and 18th 
Centuries by English and Dutch sea-captains, who, having first made acquaintance 
with the Orang in the Malay Archipelago, saw Chimpanzees at the West African 
ports on their return voyage. 
+ When I visited Angola in 1882 Chimpanzees were still found in forested regions 
inland south of the Congo and north of the Quanza River, especially in the old 
kingdom of Congo. 
