" Battel had evidently not seen the animal, and
with his negro informants he confounds the gorilla and the
"bushman;" yet he possibly alludes to a species which has escaped
M. du Chaillu and other modern observers.
Mr. W. Winwood Reade ("Savage Africa," chap, xix.) has done good
service by reprinting the letter of a Bristol trader on the west
coast of Africa, first published by Lord Monboddo ("Origin and
Progress of Language," vol. i. p. 281, 1774 to 1792). Here we
find distinct mention of three anthropoid apes. The first is the
"Impungu" (or pongo?), which walks upright, and is from seven to
nine feet high. The second is the "Itsena," evidently the Njina,
Nji, Nguyla, or gorilla; and thirdly is the "Chimpenza," our
Chimpanzee, a word corrupted from the Congoese Kampenzy,
including the Nchigo, the Kulu-Kamba, and other Troglodytes. I
have heard of this upright-walking Mpongo at Loango and other
places on the west coast of Africa, where the Njina is familiarly
spoken of, and it is not, methinks, impossible, that an ape even
larger than the gorilla may yet be found.
James Barbot ("A Voyage to Congo River," Churchill, vol.
Pages:
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275