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 Centiiry many British ships visited Sumatra and Borneo, and 

 the Malay name Orang utan was in current use in scientific Europe 

 dui'ing the second half of the 1 7th Century, having been originally 

 definitely applied to the man-like apes of Sumatra and Boi-neo''''. 



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 Angola t. 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 Essex fishei-man. 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 retvirned 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 Centuiy. 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-knosvn Bantu 

 prefix cM {ki) 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, Buftbn, Linna?us, Lacepede, 

 and other zoologists had finally discriminated between the Gibbons, 

 the Orang vitan, 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 1 9th 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 

 Mr. Rothschild. 



* Though often misapplied to the African Chimpanzee in the 17th and 18th 

 Centuries by Englisli 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. 



t When I visited Angola in 1882 Cliimpanzees were still found in forested regions 

 inland south of the Congo and north of the Quanza River, especially in the old 

 kingdom of Congo. 



