Whilst he was very successful in procuring specimens of most of the animals and birds in equatorial Africa to a distance of several hundred miles from the coast, he devoted special attention to hunting the ape, and was more successful in killing the species commonly known as the gorilla than any one else of Christendom has ever been. The greater difficulty of hunting the animal considered, he was as successful with the gorilla as Mr. Cumming had been with the elephant.
The _troglodytes gorilla_, or great chimpanzee of the equatorial region of West Africa has long been the most dreaded, perhaps, of all the wild beasts of that continent. And it is probably true that in unmixed ferocity when assailed he does not have his equal. The nature of this fierce animal--much like man in some particulars of physical formation, totally dissimilar in all other respects--may be learned from an instance or two of Mr. Du Chaillu’s hunting him. The account of his killing his “first gorilla” is as follows:
“We started early and pushed for the most dense and impenetrable part of the forest (this was in the country of the Fan negroes, cannibals, a little more than one degree north of the equator and something less than two hundred miles east of the mouth of the Gaboon river), in hopes to find the very home of the beast I so much wished to shoot. Hour after hour we travelled, and yet no signs of gorilla. Only the everlasting little chattering monkeys--and not many of these--and occasional birds. In fact, the forests of this part of Africa are not so full of life as in some other parts to the south.
“Suddenly Miengai uttered a little _cluck_ with his tongue, which is the native’s way of showing that something is stirring, and that a sharp look-out is necessary. And presently I noticed, ahead of us seemingly, a noise as of some one breaking down branches or twigs of trees. This was the gorilla, I knew at once, by the eager and satisfied looks of the men. They looked once more carefully at their guns, to see if by any chance the powder had fallen out of the pans; I also examined mine, to make sure that all were right; and then we marched on cautiously. The singular noise of the breaking of tree-branches continued. We walked with the greatest care, making no noise at all. The countenances of the men showed that they thought themselves engaged in a very serious undertaking; but we pushed on, until finally we thought we saw through the thick woods the moving of the branches and small trees which the great beast was tearing down, probably to get from them the berries and fruits he lives on.