APES IN HISTORY 267 



Cameroon valley. The river that waters it empties into 

 the sea about four degrees north of the equator. Here 

 begins the first trace of the chimpanzee. As we pass along 

 the windward coast, casual reports are current to the effect 

 that gorillas and chimpanzees occupy the interior north of 

 there ; but when these reports are sifted down to solid 

 facts, it turns out to be a big baboon or a monkey upon 

 which the story rests. Its likeness to man, as described 

 by Hanno, was doubtless the work of fancy, and the name 

 troglodytes which he gave to it shows that he knew but 

 little of its habits, or cared but little for the exactness of 

 his statements. 



The account given by Henry Battel, in 1590, contains a 

 thread of truth woven into a web of fantasy. He must 

 have heard the stories he relates, or seen some specimens 

 along the coast north of the Congo. There are certain 

 facts which point to this conclusion. The name pongo 

 which he gave to one of them belongs to the Fiote tongue, 

 which is spoken by the native tribes around Loango. 

 Those people use the name, and it is commonly under- 

 stood to be synonymous with the name njina, used by the 

 tribes north of there. It is always applied to the gorilla. 

 To me, however, it appears to coincide with the name 

 7ityii, as used by the Esyira people for another ape, which 

 is described in the chapter devoted to gorillas. It was 

 from Loango that Dr. Falkenstein, in 1876, secured an ape 

 under that name. It is singular that Baron Wurmb, in 

 1780, makes use of the name pongo for an orang. I have 

 not been able to learn where he acquired this name, but 

 it appears to be a native Fiote name for more than four 



