Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-08-21

M~<i: SSMsMWW account Of ais
. WAtk e.. ehiss; fr 70 e
HEAD OF 35-YEAR-oLDs Ogore river. Ga
GORILLA. boon and Corisco
Mission, West Africa. He says:
The getting of great hope is like
the setting OF the sum- says Longfel-
low in the opening page of his Hyperion.
quote his sentiment apropos of my
giving up the hope of obtaining you
a gorilla brain. I have chung to the
hope and had the decided belief that
could obtain it, but now believe it i'm
possible; except for one like q traveller
or explorer or some one who would
make a business of it, hampered by
nothing else, who could sit down in a
native village for o. few weeks, hiring
the hunters to out daily. That is the
way Du Chaillu obtained his. l dosno
believe that he or any other white man,
unaided, can obtain a gorilla" oe,a.
After hunting calmly for brazil in
August, 1889, he determined to go 3nto
the gorilla region: o. made all my plans
with great forethought as tn detail" he
continues. ''The season would be the
cool day when ! could hunt with less
discomfort. There are scarcely any
gorillas in this Talaguga region.
know of but two being killed in the
1 eight years / have beensbere, SO closed
my house and went down the river
seventy miles to Kangwe. There l
chose good crew of eight young men.
Your carboy of chloride of zinc had been
carefully kept all these years. l took
jugful of it. Not to waste my alcohol.
ioh 20
should finally go to you. took along
several gallons of whisky. l took my
Winchester and double barreled gun and
shooter. The native hunters were also
armed.
"We took six-oared gig at Andinde
and went twenty miles down the river
Z to the village of man named Aveya.
There we ate dinner and took a man
to guide US among the innumerable
islands of Lake O-Nang@ and Ogemwe.
The islands are all covered with heavS
forests growing out of volcanic rocks.
The lake is very deep in places and
most of the approaches toe the islands
very rocky and unsafe. We found an
island protected with cows and smooth
sandy beach. There we pitched our
tents and took our supper. The island
was small and uninhabited. No wild
neutrality-suspicious. snakes. Startled at
our camp-fires, the hippopotami snorted
in the lake shadows. They attack in
the water only when wounded or while
in charge of their young. They never
leave the water to attack ashore. We
arose early and moved on to another
island where we were given lodging by
a native Okendo.
IN. Gacon and Ogula went on hunt
ing expedition and returned with the
report that they had seen signs of goril-
las, but not the animals themselves. A
council was held in the evening with
the villagers as to time, route sand the
art of hunting gorillas. Some two or
three old men and a half dozen yeung
men, whom i did not know, voluntarily
attached themselves to our party, evil
IDENTIFY for gain, and eventually for
babe them following US, for they ham.
y pered us. Everybody was sure / would
not be in the village four days without
succeeding. They told wonderful stories
of the numbers and audacity of the gor-
rillas. Not two days passed but some
one saw them in the gardens. As the
garden work is done principally by
women, it was they who most frequent
~ saw them, sometimes actually meet
ing them in thespaths and being pur-
sued by males. From all their accounts,
the gorilla is full Of arts and tricks of
the monkey tribes-quick to read faces.
The women being unarmed and afraid,
the animals were more daring to them
than to the men
''But they all said we white people
would have no chance of getting so
near; that the animals would detect our
strange odor and fear our white faces.
They hoped we would kill many, for
their gardens were devastated by the
\gorillas, pigs, oxen and elephants. Most
Of the men said though they often saw
these animals they were afraid to shoot
with their flint locks that often uncer-
tainly flashed in the pan, or whose slug
shots were not Immediately fatal.
for then they were at the mercy
of the wounded beasts. They
. male who dared to face us. not
70 fire till only few yards distant, and
even then not to aim at the head. for
the animal had the art-being acquaint-
ed with guns and all having informed
each other las the sailors believe)-oi
ducking its head down at the click of
the trigger. We were TO aim at the
abdomen. which from its size could not
fail to be injured, and the head or chest
would probably be pierced by the ami
NAL having ducked his head down to
dodge q shot aimed. as it supposed. at
its head.
1.-The next day we all. some fourteen
men and eight dogs, went III the boat to
. large island shortly after sunrise. My
own crew Of six were afraid and left