My visitor has gone from the plantain grove without calling to pay his respects, but I am now being closely inspected by a young porcupine, who doesn’t appear to be so shy as his elders are; and just in the rear of my domicile is a large school of mangaby monkeys who come frequently to visit me. There are about twenty of them, some very large, and as I have never disturbed them, they seem to be getting more familiar. In fact, I am seldom without something to interest, amuse, or edify me. Parrots, toucans, and scores of other birds keep up a constant babel, and it is no longer such a novelty to me to hear a gorilla near my fort. At night I frequently have a leopard or bush-cat visit me; it is then too dark to shoot them, but my interest is centr——s—s—st!—s—s—st! Oh, the precious moment! I have just had a new and grand experience. I am a trifle nervous, but I must tell you. While writing the last few lines above, a large dog from the mission came to pay me a visit. He has become attached to me, and has learned the way to my retreat. He soon found a bone which I had thrown into the bush, and began to gnaw with great vigor. Within a few feet of my cage is a small, rough path cut through the bush to mark the boundary of the mission lands. Suddenly there appeared on the edge of this path a huge female gorilla, carrying a young one on her back. She was not more than thirty feet from me when I first saw her, and her tread was so stealthy that I did not hear the rustle of a leaf. She peeped along the edge of the bush with the greatest caution, with her whole attention fixed upon the dog. In a few moments she advanced very softly towards him, with the evident purpose of attack, until she was within a measured distance of eleven feet of me, without having observed my presence, I think. The dog was not aware of her approach, and she was now within fourteen feet of him. With my rifle at my elbow I was prepared for action in an instant, as I did not want her to kill the dog. As I cocked my gun she stopped, sat down on the ground for a few seconds, and gave me such a look of scorn that I almost felt that I had done wrong to interfere. She then turned away uneasily and retraced her steps with moderate haste, but she did not run, or betray much sign of fear. In an instant she was lost in the bush, and not the faintest sound was uttered. There were doubtless more of them near by, as the natives say it is very rare to find one female and babe alone, but so far as I could see she was all alone. She may have been a widow, and if so, I should think her chances to remain so were very fine, if beauty goes at par among her beaux, for she certainly was one of the most hideous-looking things I have ever seen.
The temptation to shoot her was almost too great to resist, and the desire to capture the babe made it all the more so, but I have refrained, so far, from firing my gun anywhere near my cage. I could have shot this one to-day with such ease and safety that I almost regret that I did not, but she may return.
I have had the pleasure this afternoon of hearing three others howling in different directions, one of which appears to be a very large one.
I have been told that the gorilla builds a rude hut or shelter in which he makes his home, but, so far, I have found no trace of any kind of structure built by them, nor can any native tell me where one can be found. I do not believe that he has the most remote idea of a home. He is nomadic in habit, and I doubt if he ever spends two nights in the same place. During the day gorillas wander about from place to place in quest of food, and wherever night finds them they remain till morning. They are not nocturnal in habit, and the stories of their howling and talking all night are not well founded. They do sometimes yell at 369 night, I have no doubt, but I think it is not common with them, though at the first sign of dawn they make their presence known, and no one will mistake the cause of the sound. One morning, about five o’clock, I was startled from my sleep by one of the most terrific yells, within about one hundred feet of my cage. It was not simply one great shout, but a long series of sounds of varying pitch and loudness, and at intervals of something like a minute they were repeated, for about ten or twelve times, and to my ear appeared to be exactly the same each time. I quietly turned out of bed and dressed myself; I took my rifle and sat down, and watched until long after sunrise, in the hope that they would pass by my cage. All the sounds came from one direction until the last two, which indicated to me that the author of them was changing his location. My interpretation of the sound was that it was from the king gorilla, to arouse his family, who were doubtless scattered off into different trees for the night. The sound did not suggest to my mind any idea of fear, anger, or mirth, but business, and I am inclined to believe that the chief of the clan summons all to the march when he thinks it time to move. The succeeding morning I heard the same sounds repeated in another direction, and, I suspect, by the same gorilla.
The usual pictures of the gorilla do not represent him as I have seen him. He has not only a crouching habit, but he walks on all four of his legs, and has the motion of most quadrupeds, using his right arm and left leg at the same time, and alternates with the left arm and right leg. It is not exactly a walk or a trot, but a kind of ambling gait, while the chimpanzee uses his arms as crutches, but lifts one foot from the ground a little in advance of the other. They do not place the palm of the hand on the ground, but use the back of the fingers from the second joint, and at times the one I have described above seemed to touch only the back of the nails, but this was when she was scarcely moving at all. I am now preparing to photograph some of them, and I think I can give a more reliable picture of this animal than I have ever seen heretofore.
As to the stories about their howling all night, I would add that there is a large bird here which makes a sound very much like one sound made by the gorilla, and it is a very easy matter to mistake it. When I first came I was often deceived by it myself, but now I can detect it very easily. This bird cries at all hours, and I think it has imposed upon the honest credulity of many strangers.
It is said that at night the king gorilla selects a large tree in which he places his family, and then takes up position at the base of the tree to ward off any harm during the night. I very much doubt this story. I think it quite probable that the gorillas habitually sleep in trees at night, but from all I can learn of the king, he looks after his own comfort and safety first, and lets his family do as they can. I have also heard that the king always finds a place of safety for them before he will attack a foe, but this is not confirmed by any fact that I can obtain. The gorilla will avoid an attack unless surprised or wounded, and in such an event he wastes no time in formalities.
Two stories of the gorilla are in stereotype, and every native will furnish you with a certified copy, without the slightest variation of the text. One is, that when a gorilla kills a man he tears open the breast and drinks the blood of his victim; and the other, that a gorilla seizes the barrel of a gun and crushes it with his teeth. The uniform version of these two stories is such as to make one believe that they have been taught by rote, and I am in doubt as to their authorship; they have a strong tincture of the white man’s yarns.
The thrilling stories about gorillas stealing women and holding them as captives in the bush, and of their taking children and holding them for ransom, are mere freaks of fancy, and I can find no native of the land in which the gorilla is found who believes that such a thing ever occurred, but all assert that man, woman, and child fare alike in the hands of this cruel beast. Such stories abound in the parts where no gorillas were 370 ever seen, but when you get into his true range his real history loses much of its poesy.
Many of the stories told of him, however, in his own land, are novel and curious, but conflicting, and some of them absurd; yet all agree in one respect, and that is that his savage instincts and great strength make him the terror of the forest, and I have no doubt that when he is in a rage he is both fierce and powerful; but I am still inclined to believe that both his ferocity and his strength are rated far above their true value, and it is stated as a current fact that in combat with the chimpanzee the gorilla always gets whipped, and often killed. I cannot testify to this, as I have not seen such a fight, and they seldom occur, yet I have reason to believe it to be true.