5 
“The young Pongo hangeth on his mother’s belly with his 
hands fast clasped about her, so that when the countrie 
people kill any of the females they take the young one, 
which hangeth fast upon his mother. 
“When they die among themselves, they cover the dead 
with great heaps of boughs and wood, which is commonly 
found in the forest.” * 
It does not appear difficult to identify the exact region of 
which Battell speaks. Longo is doubtless the name of the 
place usually spelled Loango on our maps. Mayombe still 
lies some nineteen leagues northward from Loango, along the 
coast; and Cilongo or Kilonga, Manikesocke, and Motimbas 
are yet registered by geographers. The Cape Negro of Bat- 
tell, however, cannot be the modern Cape Negro in 16° %., 
since Loango itself is in 4° S. latitude. On the other hand, 
the “great river called Banna” corresponds very well with 
the “Camma” and “ Fernand Vas,” of modern geographers, 
which form a great delta on this part of the African coast. 
Now this “ Camma” country is situated about a degree and 
a-half south of the Equator, while a few miles to the north 
of the line lies the Gaboon, and a degree or so north of 
that, the Money River—both well known to modern natu- 
ralists as localities where the largest of man-like Apes has 
peen obtained. Moreover, at the present day, the word 
Engeco, or N’schego, is applied by the natives of these 
regions to the smaller of the two great Apes which inhabit 
them; so that there can be no rational doubt that Andrew 
Battell spoke of that which he knew of his own knowledge, 
or, at any rate, by immediate report from the natives of 
* Purchas’ marginal note, p. 982 :—‘ The Pongo a giant ape. He told me in 
conference with him, that one of these Pongoes tooke a negro boy of his which 
lived a moneth with them. For they hurt not those which they surprise at 
unawares, except they look on them; which he avoyded. He said their highth 
was like a man’s, but their bignesse twice as great. I saw the negro boy. What 
the other monster should be he hath forgotten to relate; and these papers came 
“to my hand since his death, which, otherwise, in my often conferences, I might 
have learned, Perhaps he meaneth the Pigmy Pongo killers mentioned.” 
