Immediately after we heard the barking of our dogs, followed by the tremendous yells of defiance and fight of a huge male gorilla “Whoah, whoah;” then roars that filled the forest with their din, and seemed to be like the sound of thunder along the sky. These roars almost entirely drowned the fierce barking of the fourteen dogs. “It is a man ngina,” whispered Oshoria. “His mate has fled. Let us prepare ourselves for a fight.” Instinctively we came still nearer together and looked at our guns; my hunters’ guns were loaded with plugs of iron, plugs which they use to kill elephants. I looked at “Bulldog” and said: “Thou faithful rifle, which hast never failed me before in time of danger, be true to me to-day, be true to me!”
“Let us go and fight this man ngina,” shouted my men with eagerness in their eyes and a sort of ferocious joy. This time they were not afraid of being heard, for they knew that the huge beast was brought to bay and would not run away, but attack. We advanced through the plantain trees, many of which had been pulled down by the two nginas. Every step forward increased the terrific din made by the fierce barking of the dogs and the angry roars of the ngina. We came nearer and nearer the border of the forest, and soon caught sight of the dogs. Looking in the direction where the most forward and daring of them were barking, we saw a huge male gorilla with his back against a tree and following with his eyes the dogs that surrounded him. Evidently the huge fiendish creature had never been attacked by dogs before. He was bewildered by their number and did not know what to do except to yell and roar at them. He was seated, ready to use his powerful long arms or his feet, catching the dogs with his terrible manlike hands if they came near him. The dogs knew this and were cautious in their attack; they advanced and retreated, led by “Bloodthirsty” and “Pouncer,” closely followed by the others.
Suddenly the gorilla’s yells and roars stopped. He had seen us, and he did not know what to make of these new enemies. His eyes glanced from the dogs to us—he seemed to know that if he went after one of the dogs the others would fall on him from everywhere.
What a sight! The huge creature seemed the incarnation of ugliness. “No other creature in the world can look so ugly,” I said to myself. His legs were short and bent, he had such a broad chest and such a protruding abdomen, that it appeared to contain at least a barrel of the food he had devoured. He had big, powerful, muscular long arms, and huge paws, of which the fingers were short and thick. His huge foot had four toes and one thumb. His body was thinly covered with hair, his face was intensely black—blue-black—his eyes were deeply sunken in his head, and he looked straight at us, as if he were a human being. Tigers, lions, dogs, and other animals never can look in that way. The sockets of his eyes were evidently like those of man, allowing him to look in the same manner. His hair stood erect all over his body owing to his rage—and that on his head moved up and down, and he beat his breast. But in spite of all that he had an anxious expression in his eyes, which were looking all round, for he had never been surrounded by so many enemies before, dogs and men, and this was the reason he had put himself against a tree—so that no dog could attack him from behind—and thus placed he could see all his foes.
Our guns were pointed at him in the direction of his heart, and at the least advance he made towards us we would have fired. The only thing I feared was that instead of advancing erect to attack us, he would drop on all fours, being surrounded by so many enemies, and would run towards us in that posture; then it would have been far more difficult to shoot at and wound him mortally. I noticed blood on one of his hands and then I saw at about five or six feet from him the prostrate form of one of the dogs. It was “Fierce.” My men saw the dog at the same time—“Fierce” was one of the most intrepid of their dogs. They shouted to the ngina: “You have killed fierce ‘Fierce.’ We will kill you also.” The gorilla became so hard pressed by the dogs that he had no time to yell, for he was too busy looking round for them; he only uttered now and then, when one came too near, a “Whoah wah.” The dogs were ready to spring on him as soon as they had an opportunity. They watched their time, but the huge ngina was watching them also; he knew what they were about, and as soon as they came within his reach he would, by a sudden motion of his long arm shoot it forward and try to catch the most daring one that came near him, sometimes using his legs and feet instead. My hunters were cool—but they were on the war-path and had met their enemy. Oshoria, Ngola, Ogoola, Quabi, shouted words of defiance to the gorilla such as—“We are men. Yes, we are men. Come towards us, if you dare. We are
"The big monster ... seized 'Bloodthirsty' and threw him dead on the ground"
ok at us straight in the face. We laugh at you. How do you dare to yell at the Oguizi. Soon you will hear ‘Bulldog’ talk to you. Our guns will talk to you also. Ngina, you are a coward—come towards us if you are not afraid. You have only a short time to live; soon you will lie dead at the feet of the Oguizi.”
Then they gave a terrific war-cry, the one used before attacking their enemy, and the gorilla uttered a terrific yell of defiance in response. The dogs had become bolder and bolder, and more and more angry. Suddenly “Bloodthirsty” came too near the ngina, and before he had time to retreat, and quicker than the eye could follow, the big monster had sent his powerful arm forward and with his huge hand seized “Bloodthirsty” and threw him dead on the ground. At this the other dogs, enraged by the loss of their two companions, lost control of themselves—forgot all prudence—and as they were on the point of jumping on the huge beast, which now was uttering terrific yells, I, not wishing the men to lose more dogs, said “Fire!” and we all shot at the same time. The huge monster fell forward on his face, shot through the heart. In the twinkling of an eye the dogs jumped on him and he was torn to pieces.
Poor “Fierce” and “Bloodthirsty,” were dead. Regundo was right when he said that if we met with nginas all the dogs would not return.