Evidence as to Man\'s Place in Nature
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Thomas H. Huxley >> Evidence as to Man\'s Place in Nature
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EVIDENCE AS TO MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE
by Thomas H. Huxley
1863
[entire page is illustration with caption as follows]
Skeletons of the
GIBBON. ORANG. CHIMPANZEE. GORILLA. MAN.
'Photographically reduced from Diagrams of the natural size (except
that of the Gibbon, which was twice as large as nature), drawn by
Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins from specimens in the Museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons.
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE
MAN-LIKE APES
Ancient traditions, when tested by the severe processes of modern
investigation, commonly enough fade away into mere dreams: but it is
singular how often the dream turns out to have been a half-waking one,
presaging a reality. Ovid foreshadowed the discoveries of the
geologist: the Atlantis was an imagination, but Columbus found a western
world: and though the quaint forms of Centaurs and Satyrs have an
existence only in the realms of art, creatures approaching man more
nearly than they in essential structure, and yet as thoroughly brutal
as the goat's or horse's half of the mythical compound, are now not
only known, but notorious.
I have not met with any notice of one of these MAN-LIKE APES of earlier
date than that contained in Pigafetta's 'Description of the Kingdom of
Congo,'* drawn up from the notes of a Portuguese sailor, Eduardo Lopez,
and published in 1598. The tenth chapter of this work is entitled "De
Animalibus quae in hac provincia reperiuntur," and contains a brief
passage to the effect that "in the Songan country, on the banks of the
Zaire, there are multitudes of apes, which afford great delight to the
nobles by imitating human gestures." As this might apply to almost any
kind of apes, I should have thought little of it, had not the brothers
De Bry, whose engravings illustrate the work, thought fit, in their
eleventh 'Argumentum,' to figure two of these "Simiae magnatum
deliciae." So much of the plate as contains these apes is faithfully
copied in the woodcut (Fig. 1), and it will be observed that they are
tail-less, long-armed, and large-eared; and about the size of
Chimpanzees. It may be that these apes are as much figments of the
imagination of the ingenious brothers as the winged, two-legged,
crocodile-headed dragon which adorns the same plate; or, on the other
hand, it may be that the artists have constructed their drawings from
some essentially faithful description of a Gorilla or a Chimpanzee.
And, in either case, though these figures are worth a passing notice,
the oldest trustworthy and definite accounts of any animal of this kind
date from the 17th century, and are due to an Englishman.
[FOOTNOTE] * REGNUM CONGO: hoc est VERA DESCRIPTIO REGNI
AFRICANI QUOD TAM AB INCOLIS QUAM LUSITANIS CONGUS
APPELLATUR, per Philippum Pigafettam, olim ex Edoardo Lopez
acroamatis lingua Italica excerpta, num Latio sermone
donata ab August. Cassiod. Reinio. Iconibus et
imaginibus rerum memorabilium quasi vivis, opera et
industria Joan. Theodori et Joan. Israelis de Bry, fratrum
exornata. Francofurti, MDXCVIII.
FIG. 1.--SIMIAE MAGNATUM DELICIAE.--De Bry, 1598.
The first edition of that most amusing old book, 'Purchas his
Pilgrimage,' was published in 1613, and therein are to be found many
references to the statements of one whom Purchas terms "Andrew Battell
(my neere neighbour, dwelling at Leigh in Essex) who served under
Manuel Silvera Perera, Governor under the King of Spaine, at his city of
Saint Paul, and with him went farre into the countrey of Angola"; and
again, "my friend, Andrew Battle, who lived in the kingdom of Congo
many yeares," and who, "upon some quarell betwixt the Portugals (among
whom he was a sergeant of a band) and him, lived eight or nine moneths
in the woodes." From this weather-beaten old soldier, Purchas was
amazed to hear "of a kinde of Great Apes, if they might so bee termed,
of the height of a man, but twice as bigge in feature of their limmes,
with strength proportionable, hairie all over, otherwise altogether like
men and women in their whole bodily shape.* They lived on such wilde
fruits as the trees and woods yielded, and in the night time lodged on
the trees."
[footnote] *"Except this that their legges had no
calves."--[Ed. 1626.] And in a marginal note, "These great
apes are called Pongo's."
This extract is, however, less detailed and clear in its statements than
a passage in the third chapter of the second part of another
work--'Purchas his Pilgrimes,' published in 1625, by the same
author--which has been often, though hardly ever quite rightly, cited.
The chapter is entitled, "The strange adventures of Andrew Battell, of
Leigh in Essex, sent by the Portugals prisoner to Angola, who lived
there and in the adioining regions neere eighteene yeeres." And the
sixth section of this chapter is headed--"Of the Provinces of Bongo,
Calongo, Mayombe, Manikesocke, Motimbas: of the Ape Monster Pongo,
their hunting: Idolatries; and divers other observations."
"This province (Calongo) toward the east bordereth upon Bongo, and
toward the north upon Mayombe, which is nineteen leagues from Longo
along the coast.
"This province of Mayombe is all woods and groves, so over-growne that a
man may travaile twentie days in the shadow without any sunne or heat.
Here is no kind of corne nor graine, so that the people liveth onely
upon plantanes and roots of sundrie sorts, very good; and nuts; nor any
kinde of tame cattell, nor hens.
"But they have great store of elephant's flesh, which they greatly
esteeme, and many kinds of wild beasts; and great store of fish. Here
is a great sandy bay, two leagues to the northward of Cape Negro,*
which is the port of Mayombe. Sometimes the Portugals lade logwood in
this bay. Here is a great river, called Banna: in the winter it hath
no barre, because the generall winds cause a great sea. But when the
sunne hath his south declination, then a boat may goe in; for then it
is smooth because of the raine. This river is very great, and hath many
ilands and people dwelling in them. The woods are so covered with
baboones, monkies, apes and parrots, that it will feare any man to
travaile in them alone. Here are also two kinds of monsters, which are
common in these woods, and very dangerous.
[footnote] *'Purchas' note'.--Cape Negro is in 16 degrees
south of the line.
"The greatest of these two monsters is called Pongo in their language,
and the lesser is called Engeco. This Pongo is in all proportion like
a man; but 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 it is of a dunnish
colour.
"He differeth not from a man but in his legs; for they have no calfe.
Hee goeth alwaies upon his legs, and carrieth his hands clasped in 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 fruit that
they find in the woods, and upon nuts, for they eate no kind of flesh.
They cannot speake, and have no understanding more 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. Many times
they fall upon the elephants which come to feed where they be, and so
beate them with their clubbed fists, and pieces of wood, that they will
runne roaring away from them. Those Pongoes are never taken alive
because they are so strong, that ten men cannot hold one of them; but
yet they take many of their young ones with poisoned arrowes.
"The young Pongo hangeth on his mother's belly with his hands fast
clasped about her, so that when the countrie people kill any of the
females they take the young one, which hangeth fast upon his mother.
"When they die among themselves, they cover the dead with great heaps of
boughs and wood, which is commonly found in the forest."*
[footnote] *Purchas' marginal note, p. 982:--"The Pongo a
giant ape. He told me in conference with him, that one of
these pongoes tooke a negro boy of his which lived a moneth
with them. For they hurt not those which they surprise at
unawares, except they look on them; which he avoyded. He
said their highth was like a man's, but their bignesse
twice as great. I saw the negro boy. What the other
monster should be he hath forgotten to relate; and these
papers came to my hand since his death, which, otherwise,
in my often conferences, I might have learned. Perhaps he
meaneth the Pigmy Pongo killers mentioned."
It does not appear difficult to identify the exact region of which
Battell speaks. Longo is doubtless the name of the place usually
spelled Loango on our maps. Mayombe still lies some nineteen leagues
northward from Loango, along the coast; and Cilongo or Kilonga,
Manikesocke, and Motimbas are yet registered by geographers. The Cape
Negro of Battell, however, cannot be the modern Cape Negro in 16
degrees S., since Loango itself is in 4 degrees S. latitude. On the
other hand, the "great river called Banna" corresponds very well with
the "Camma" and "Fernand Vas," of modern geographers, which form a great
delta on this part of the African coast.
Now this "Camma" country is situated about a degree and a-half south of
the Equator, while a few miles to the north of the line lies the
Gaboon, and a degree or so north of that, the Money River--both well
known to modern naturalists as localities where the largest of man-like
Apes has been obtained. Moreover, at the present day, the word Engeco,
or N'schego, is applied by the natives of these regions to the smaller
of the two great Apes which inhabit them; so that there can be no
rational doubt that Andrew Battell spoke of that which he knew of his
own knowledge, or, at any rate, by immediate report from the natives of
Western Africa. The "Engeco," however, is that "other monster" whose
nature Battell "forgot to relate," while the name "Pongo"--applied to
the animal whose characters and habits are so fully and carefully
described--seems to have died out, at least in its primitive form and
signification. Indeed, there is evidence that not only in Battell's
time, but up to a very recent date, it was used in a totally different
sense from that in which he employs it.
For example, the second chapter of Purchas' work, which I have just
quoted, contains "A Description and Historicall Declaration of the
Golden Kingdom of Guinea, etc. etc. Translated from the Dutch, and
compared also with the Latin," wherein it is stated (p. 986) that--
"The River Gaboon lyeth about fifteen miles northward from Rio de Angra,
and eight miles northward from Cape de Lope Gonsalves (Cape Lopez), and
is right under the Equinoctial line, about fifteene miles from St.
Thomas, and is a great land, well and easily to be knowne. At the mouth
of the river there lieth a sand, three or foure fathoms deepe, whereon
it beateth mightily with the streame which runneth out of the river
into the sea. This river, in the mouth thereof, is at least four miles
broad; but when you are about the Iland called 'Pongo', it is not above
two miles broad.... On both sides the river there standeth many
trees.... The Iland called 'Pongo', which hath a monstrous high hill."
FIG 2.--The Orang of Tulpius, 1641.
The French naval officers, whose letters are appended to the late M.
Isidore Geoff. Saint Hilaire's excellent essay on the Gorilla*, note in
similar terms the width of the Gaboon, the trees that line its banks
down to the water's edge, and the strong current that sets out of it.
They describe two islands in its estuary;--one low, called Perroquet;
the other high, presenting three conical hills, called Coniquet; and
one of them, M. Franquet, expressly states that, formerly, the Chief of
Coniquet was called 'Meni-Pongo', meaning thereby Lord of 'Pongo'; and
that the 'N'Pongues' (as, in agreement with Dr. Savage, he affirms the
natives call themselves) term the estuary of the Gaboon itself
'N'Pongo'.
[footnote] *'Archives du Museum', tome x.
It is so easy, in dealing with savages, to misunderstand their
applications of words to things, that one is at first inclined to
suspect Battell of having confounded the name of this region, where his
"greater monster" still abounds, with the name of the animal itself.
But he is so right about other matters (including the name of the
"lesser monster") that one is loth to suspect the old traveller of
error; and, on the other hand, we shall find that a voyager of a hundred
years' later date speaks of the name "Boggoe," as applied to a great
Ape, by the inhabitants of quite another part of Africa--Sierra Leone.
But I must leave this question to be settled by philologers and
travellers; and I should hardly have dwelt so long upon it except for
the curious part played by this word 'Pongo'in the later history of the
man-like Apes.
The generation which succeeded Battell saw the first of the man-like
Apes which was ever brought to Europe, or, at any rate, whose visit
found a historian. In the third book of Tulpius' 'Observationes
Medicae', published in 1641, the 56th chapter or section is devoted to
what he calls 'Satyrus indicus', "called by the Indians Orang-autang or
Man-of-the-Woods, and by the Africans Quoias Morrou." He gives a very
good figure, evidently from the life, of the specimen of this animal,
"nostra memoria ex Angola delatum," presented to Frederick Henry Prince
of Orange. Tulpius says it was as big as a child of three years old,
and as stout as one of six years: and that its back was covered with
black hair. It is plainly a young Chimpanzee.
In the meanwhile, the existence of other, Asiatic, man-like Apes became
known, but at first in a very mythical fashion. Thus Bontius (1658)
gives an altogether fabulous and ridiculous account and figure of an
animal which he calls "Orang-outang"; and though he says "vidi Ego
cujus effigiem hic exhibeo," the said effigies (see Fig. 6 for Hoppius'
copy of it) is nothing but a very hairy woman of rather comely aspect,
and with proportions and feet wholly human. The judicious English
anatomist, Tyson, was justified in saying of this description by
Bontius, "I confess I do mistrust the whole representation."
It is to the last mentioned writer, and his coadjutor Cowper, that we
owe the first account of a man-like ape which has any pretensions to
scientific accuracy and completeness. The treatise entitled,
"'Orang-outang, sive Homo Sylvestris'; or the Anatomy of a Pygmie
compared with that of a 'Monkey', an 'Ape', and a 'Man'," published by
the Royal Society in 1699, is, indeed, a work of remarkable merit, and
has, in some respects, served as a model to subsequent inquirers. This
"Pygmie," Tyson tells us "was brought from Angola, in Africa; but was
first taken a great deal higher up the country"; its hair "was of a
coal-black colour and strait," and "when it went as a quadruped on all
four, 'twas awkwardly; not placing the palm of the hand flat to the
ground, but it walk'd upon its knuckles, as I observed it to do when
weak and had not strength enough to support its body."--"From the top
of the head to the heel of the foot, in a strait line, it measured
twenty-six inches."
FIGS. 3 and 4.--The 'Pygmie' reduced from Tyson's figures 1 and 2,
1699.
These characters, even without Tyson's good figures (Figs. 3 and 4),
would have been sufficient to prove his "Pygmie" to be a young
Chimpanzee. But the opportunity of examining the skeleton of the very
animal Tyson anatomised having most unexpectedly presented itself to
me, I am able to bear independent testimony to its being a veritable
'Troglodytes niger'*, though still very young. Although fully
appreciating the resemblances between his Pygmie and Man, Tyson by no
means overlooked the differences between the two, and he concludes his
memoir by summing up first, the points in which "the Ourang-outang or
Pygmie more resembled a Man than Apes and Monkeys do," under
forty-seven distinct heads; and then giving, in thirty-four similar
brief paragraphs, the respects in which "the Ourang-outang or Pygmie
differ'd from a Man and resembled more the Ape and Monkey kind."
[footnote] * I am indebted to Dr. Wright, of Cheltenham,
whose paleontological labours are so well known, for
bringing this interesting relic to my knowledge. Tyson's
granddaughter, it appears, married Dr. Allardyce, a
physician of repute in Cheltenham, and brought, as part of
her dowry, the skeleton of the 'Pygmie.' Dr. Allardyce
presented it to the Cheltenham Museum, and, through the good
offices of my friend Dr. Wright, the authorities of the
Museum have permitted me to borrow, what is, perhaps its
most remarkable ornament.
After a careful survey of the literature of the subject extant in his
time, our author arrives at the conclusion that his "Pygmie" is
identical neither with the Orangs of Tulpius and Bontius, nor with the
Quoias Morrou of Dapper (or rather of Tulpius), the Barris of d'Arcos,
nor with the Pongo of Battell; but that it is a species of ape probably
identical with the Pygmies of the Ancients, and, says Tyson, though it
"does so much resemble a 'Man' in many of its parts, more than any of
the ape kind, or any other 'animal' in the world, that I know of: yet by
no means do I look upon it as the product of a 'mixt' generation--'tis
a 'Brute-Animal sui generis', and a particular 'species of Ape'."
The name of "Chimpanzee," by which one of the African Apes is now so
well known, appears to have come into use in the first half of the
eighteenth century, but the only important addition made, in that
period, to our acquaintance with the man-like apes of Africa is
contained in 'A New Voyage to Guinea', by William Smith, which bears the
date 1744.
In describing the animals of Sierra Leone, p. 51, this writer says:--
"I shall next describe a strange sort of animal, called by the white men
in this country Mandrill*, but why it is so called I know not, nor did
I ever hear the name before, neither can those who call them so tell,
except it be for their near resemblance of a human creature, though
nothing at all like an Ape. Their bodies, when full grown, are as big
in circumference as a middle-sized man's--their legs much shorter, and
their feet larger; their arms and hands in proportion. The head is
monstrously big, and the face broad and flat, without any other hair
but the eyebrows; the nose very small, the mouth wide, and the lips
thin. The face, which is covered by a white skin, is monstrously ugly,
being all over wrinkled as with old age; the teeth broad and yellow;
the hands have no more hair than the face, but the same white skin,
though all the rest of the body is covered with long black hair, like a
bear. They never go upon all fours, like apes; but cry, when vexed or
teased, just like children...."
[footnote] *"Mandrill" seems to signify a "man-like ape,"
the word "Drill" or "Dril" having been anciently employed
in England to denote an Ape or Baboon. Thus in the fifth
edition of Blount's "Glossographia, or a Dictionary
interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language now used
in our refined English tongue...very useful for all such as
desire to understand what they read," published in 1681, I
find, "Dril--a stone-cutter's tool wherewith he bores
little holes in marble, etc. Also a large overgrown Ape
and Baboon, so called." "Drill" is used in the same sense
in Charleton's "Onomasticon Zoicon," 1668. The singular
etymology of the word given by Buffon seems hardly a
probable one.
FIG. 5.--Facsimile of William Smith's figure of the "Mandrill," 1744.
"When I was at Sherbro, one Mr. Cummerbus, whom I shall have occasion
hereafter to mention, made me a present of one of these strange
animals, which are called by the natives Boggoe: it was a she-cub, of
six months' age, but even then larger than a Baboon. I gave it in
charge to one of the slaves, who knew how to feed and nurse it, being a
very tender sort of animal; but whenever I went off the deck the
sailors began to teaze it--some loved to see its tears and hear it cry;
others hated its snotty nose; one who hurt it, being checked by the
negro that took care of it, told the slave he was very fond of his
country-woman, and asked him if he should not like her for a wife? To
which the slave very readily replied, 'No, this no my wife; this a
white woman--this fit wife for you.' This unlucky wit of the negro's, I
fancy, hastened its death, for next morning it was found dead under the
windlass."
William Smith's 'Mandrill,' or 'Boggoe,' as his description and figure
testify, was, without doubt, a Chimpanzee.
FIG. 6.--The Anthropomorpha of Linnaeus.
Linnaeus knew nothing, of his own observation, of the man-like Apes of
either Africa or Asia, but a dissertation by his pupil Hoppius in the
'Amoenitates Academicae' (VI. 'Anthropomorpha') may be regarded as
embodying his views respecting these animals.
The dissertation is illustrated by a plate, of which the accompanying
woodcut, Fig, 6, is a reduced copy, The figures are entitled (from
left to right) 1. 'Troglodyta Bontii'; 2. 'Lucifer Aldrovandi'; 3.
'Satyrus Tulpii'; 4. 'Pygmaeus Edwardi'. The first is a bad copy of
Bontius' fictitious 'Ourang-outang,' in whose existence, however,
Linnaeus appears to have fully believed; for in the standard edition of
the 'Systema Naturae', it is enumerated as a second species of Homo;
"H. nocturnus." 'Lucifer Aldrovandi' is a copy of a figure in
Aldrovandus, 'De Quadrupedibus digitatis viviparis', Lib. 2, p. 249
(1645), entitled "Cercopithecus formae rarae 'Barbilius' vocatus et
originem a china ducebat." Hoppius is of opinion that this may be one
of that cat-tailed people, of whom Nicolaus Koping affirms that they eat
a boat's crew, "gubernator navis" and all! In the 'Systema Naturae'
Linnaeus calls it in a note, 'Homo caudatus', and seems inclined to
regard it as a third species of man. According to Temminck, 'Satyrus
Tulpii' is a copy of the figure of a Chimpanzee published by Scotin in
1738, which I have not seen. It is the 'Satyrus indicus' of the
'Systema Naturae', and is regarded by Linnaeus as possibly a distinct
species from 'Satyrus sylvestris'. The last, named 'Pygmaeus Edwardi',
is copied from the figure of a young "Man of the Woods," or true
Orang-Utan, given in Edwards' 'Gleanings of Natural History' (1758).
Buffon was more fortunate than his great rival. Not only had he the
rare opportunity of examining a young Chimpanzee in the living state,
but he became possessed of an adult Asiatic man-like Ape--the first and
the last adult specimen of any of these animals brought to Europe for
many years. With the valuable assistance of Daubenton, Buffon gave an
excellent description of this creature, which, from its singular
proportions, he termed the long-armed Ape, or Gibbon. It is the modern
'Hylobates lar'.
Thus when, in 1766, Buffon wrote the fourteenth volume of his great
work, he was personally familiar with the young of one kind of African
man-like Ape, and with the adult of an Asiatic species--while the
Orang-Utan and the Mandrill of Smith were known to him by report.
Furthermore, the Abbe Prevost had translated a good deal of Purchas'
Pilgrims into French, in his 'Histoire generale des Voyages' (1748),
and there Buffon found a version of Andrew Battell's account of the
Pongo and the Engeco. All these data Buffon attempts to weld together
into harmony in his chapter entitled "Les Orang-outangs ou le Pongo et
le Jocko." To this title the following note is appended:--
"Orang-outang nom de cet animal aux Indes orientales: Pongo nom de cet
animal a Lowando Province de Congo.
"Jocko, Enjocko, nom de cet animal a Congo que nous avons adopte. 'En'
est l'article que nous avons retranche."
Thus it was that Andrew Battell's "Engeco" became metamorphosed into
"Jocko," and, in the latter shape, was spread all over the world, in
consequence of the extensive popularity of Buffon's works. The Abbe
Prevost and Buffon between them, however, did a good deal more
disfigurement to Battell's sober account than 'cutting off an article.'
Thus Battell's statement that the Pongos "cannot speake, and have no
understanding more than a beast," is rendered by Buffon "qu'il ne peut
parler 'quoiqu'il ait plus d'entendement que les autres animaux'"; and
again, Purchas' affirmation, "He told me in conference with him, that
one of these Pongos tooke a negro boy of his which lived a moneth with
them," stands in the French version, "un pongo lui enleva un petit
negre qui passa un 'an' entier dans la societe de ces animaux."