524 WILD ANIMALS. 



Winwood Eeade, who spent five montlis in the gorilla country, 

 trying to find out personally something about the habits of the 

 animals, after pronouncing the name to be a blunder, says,^ " The 

 gorillas of Hanno were found, it is supposed, on Sherbro' Island ; 

 they scaled rocks, and they defended themselves with stones. 

 These could neither have been gorillas nor chimpanzees, but a 

 species of Cynocephalus, or kind of Baboon, commonly called the 

 dog-faced monkey. These animals, which I have seen often 

 enough in Senegambia, go in troops, which gorillas do not, and 

 actually defend themselves with stones — a fact which I assert not 

 only on the evidence of the natives, but on the evidence of white 

 men who have kept them in a state of captivity. They are also 

 very ferocious, and will always defend themselves when attacked 

 either by man or by beast." 



Accepting this statement as proved, it becomes probable that 

 an English sailor, Andrew Battell, was the first to see and 

 describe the gorilla. For some unexplained reason this man was 

 kept a prisoner by the Portuguese in Angola, which is situated 

 10 degrees south of the line, and near the home of these anthro- 

 poid apes. His travels constitute one of the " Pilgrimes," pub- 

 lished by Purchas in 1623. Battell met with two species of ape, 

 which he describes in the following manner : — 



" The greatest of these two monsters is called (by the Portu- 

 guese) pongo in their language, and the lesser is called engeco. The 

 pongo is in all proportions like a man, for he is very tall, and hath 

 a man's face, hollow-eyed, with long haires upon his brows. His 

 body is full of haire, but not very thicke, and it is of dunnish 

 color. He differeth not from man, but in his legs, for they 

 have no calfe. He goeth alwaies upon his legs, and carrieth 

 his hands clasped on the nape of his necke when he goeth upon 

 the ground. They sleepe in trees, and build shelter for the raine. 

 They feed upon the fruit that they find in the woods, and upon 

 ants, for they eate no kind of flesh. They cannot speake, and 

 have no understanding more than a beast. The people of the 

 countrie, when they travaile in the woods, make fires where they 

 sleepe in the night, and in the morning when they are gone, the 

 ' See "Proceedings of the Zoological Society," 1863, p. 171. 



