The Gorilla . 
9 
species of ape, known in modern times as the Gorilla. 
He says:— 
“The largest of these ape monsters is called Pongo , in their language, 
and the lesser is called Engeco. This pongo is in all proportion like a 
man, hut that he is more like a giant in stature than a man ; for he 
is very tall and hath a man’s face, hollow-eyed, with long haire upon 
his browes. His face and eares are without haire, and his hands also. 
His bodie is full of haire, but not very thicke, and of a dunnish colour. 
He dififereth not from a man but in his legs, for they have no calfe. 
Hee 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 
the trees, and build shelters for the raine. They feed upon the fruit 
that they find in the woods, and upon nuts, for they eate no kind of 
flesh. They cannot speake, and have no more understanding 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 pongoes will come and sit about the fire till it goeth 
out, for they have no understanding to lay the wood together. They 
goe many together, and kill many negroes that travaile in the woods. 
. . . When they die among themselves, they cover the dead with great 
heapes of boughs and wood, which is commonly found in the forrests.” 
( Purchas , vol. ii. p. 982.) 
The engeco here mentioned is possibly the Chimpanzee. 
The gorilla was known to the Carthaginians. It is men¬ 
tioned under this name in a Greek translation from the 
Periplus , or circumnavigation of Han no the Cartha¬ 
ginian. 
A Portuguese resident in Brazil, whose observations 
on that country are also recorded in Purchas’s collection 
(vol. iv. p. 1302), gives a curious account of an ape king. 
“ The Aquiqui are very great apes, as bigge as a good sized dog, 
blacke, and very ougly, as well the male as the female. They have a 
great beard onely in the lower chap. Of these come sometimes a male 
one so yellow that it draweth toward red, which they say is their king. 
This hath a white face, and the beard from eare to eare as cut with the 
scissers; and it hath one thing much to be noted, namely, that he 
goeth into a tree, and maketh so great a noise that it is heard very 
farre off, in the which he continueth a great while without ceasing, 
and for this, this kind hath a particular instrument; and the instru- 
