by Monte Reel
One of his offspring, a boy named André Raponda Walker, was born in 1871. Educated by Catholic missionaries, he grew into one of Gabon’s most esteemed twentieth-century scholars. Eventually, he was awarded the title monsignor by Pope John XXIII.
While researching a 1960 history book, Raponda Walker perused the writings of the Catholic priests who founded the first monastery in the interior of Gabon. The priests’ journals indicated that they explored the region around the monastery and climbed the highest mountain they saw. The Eshira natives told the priests that the mountain was called Mukongu-Polu.
In the local language, it means “Paul’s Mountain.” In his book, Raponda Walker wrote that on the top of the peak, the priests found a large boulder. A name had been etched into the rock many years before: “Paul Du Chaillu.”
Acknowledgments
Lots of people contributed to this project, and I’m grateful to all of them for their assistance and support. In Africa, the staff members of the Projet Gorille Fernan-Vaz (Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project) generously provided me an education in lowland gorilla behavior and their habitat in Gabon. Nick Bachand, a field veterinarian and the project’s coordinator, tirelessly answered my questions and introduced me to several other researchers who enriched my research and travels. Herman Loundou Ibouanga Landry, Mbembe Jean-Louis, Mbini Joseph-Banu, and Taty Makoty Joris Pierre offered insights into Gabon’s forest folklore and local perceptions of gorillas. Josephine Head, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, graciously welcomed my surprise visit to her campsite, then cheerfully shared her knowledge of lowland gorillas in the wild. Without the help and hospitality of Africa’s Eden tour operators in Gabon, I don’t think I would have found any of them.
I’m also indebted to Christopher E. Cosans, author of Owen’s Ape and Darwin’s Bulldog: Beyond Darwinism and Creationism, for commenting on parts of the manuscript and helping me understand some of the technical points of the debate between Owen and Huxley. Owen biographer Nicolaas Rupke (Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist) also generously reviewed parts of the manuscript and offered valuable advice. French linguist Jean-Marie Hombert provided me a copy of Cœur d’Afrique—a book of scholarly essays about Du Chaillu that he compiled with the support of the French National Center for Scientific Research and Omar Bongo University in Gabon. Others who generously donated their time and talents include Adam Lifshey, Eric Eason, and Calvin Sloan.
Larry Weissman and Sascha Alper aren’t only the best agents I can imagine, but they’re also indispensable advisors, discerning readers, and wonderful people. I’ve been very fortunate to work with some exceptional professionals at Doubleday, including Jackeline Montalvo, Phyllis Grann, Michael Windsor, Bette Alexander, Lorraine Hyland, Ingrid Sterner, Maria Carella, Todd Doughty, Andrew Sharetts, and Judy Jacoby. My editor, Melissa Danaczko, is an author’s dream—creative, smart, and inspiringly enthusiastic—and I lucked out bigtime when she decided to take on this book and shepherd it toward publication.
Finally, my biggest thanks go to the three loves of my life: Mei-Ling, who has given more to this book than anyone else; Violet, who was born somewhere around Chapter 7; and Sofia, who really wanted me to write a book about elephants.
A Note on the Sources
Paul Du Chaillu’s celebrity had largely faded by the time of his death, which meant that few took interest in systematically collecting the papers and letters he left behind. But some of his writings surfaced in the archives of contemporaries whose legacies were considered more secure than his.
The Royal Geographical Society provided me with the correspondence that Du Chaillu exchanged with its members in the 1860s. Du Chaillu’s letters to his publisher are housed in the John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland, and these proved especially helpful in reconstructing Du Chaillu’s activities in 1861 and 1862. The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia provided letters Du Chaillu wrote to its members in the 1850s, as well as the academy’s internal notes regarding its strained relations with him.
Some of the papers that Du Chaillu left behind upon his death are stored in the archives of Charles and Maria Daly, which I reviewed in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library. At the Wisconsin Historical Society archives in Madison, I read through the diaries and letters of the African missionary William Walker, which included references to Du Chaillu and letters regarding him, Winwood Reade, and Richard Burton.
Margaret Clifton at the Library of Congress showed incredible patience in trying to help me track down elusive newspaper articles, and I’m similarly grateful to Susan Duncan and Cinda Pippenger at the University of Illinois library. Joy Wheeler at the RGS helped me attempt to re-create the atmosphere of the organization’s meetings in the 1860s, allowing me to pin down the locations of specific RGS gatherings and then providing historical photographs and architectural details to aid my descriptions.
Additionally, I made frequent use of the Darwin Correspondence Project (www.darwinproject.ac.uk), which has electronically indexed the naturalist’s letters to and from many of the scientists mentioned in this book. Several other correspondence collections also provided small details in the narrative reconstruction, and I have referenced these individually in the Notes.
Newspaper coverage of Du Chaillu and his gorillas was invaluable, and of the newspapers I consulted via databases and libraries, the archives of the Times of London and the Athenaeum proved particularly helpful.
Because of Du Chaillu’s reticence and deceptions concerning the circumstances of his birth and early life, sources often contradict one another. In trying to sort them out, I am indebted to Henry Bucher Jr., whose digging through records in Gabon and France provided the first solid evidence of Du Chaillu’s early history. The Gabonese historian Annie Merlet’s research into the life of Paul’s father was also invaluable.
Throughout the book, dialogue that is set off by quotation marks reflects the exact transcriptions of the materials referenced in the Notes, with the following exceptions. Until the mid-twentieth century, Gabon was often referred to in print as “the Gaboon” or, less commonly, “the Gabun.” For consistency and clarity, I have standardized the spelling in most references throughout the book, including inside direct quotations. Also, nineteenth-century newspapers sometimes transcribed the minutes of public events and printed the words of the speakers using past-tense constructions—even though the speakers had used the present tense when addressing their audiences. In these cases I restored the present tense when directly quoting the speaker; I cite all instances of such changes in the Notes.
Notes
PROLOGUE
1 The only sounds seemed to come: The impressions, texture, and specific details surrounding Du Chaillu’s first glimpse of gorillas come from his own descriptions of his initial encounter. These sources include Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures; Du Chaillu, Stories of the Gorilla Country; and an unsigned dispatch titled “Rare Animals from Africa,” authored by Du Chaillu and reprinted in the Massachusetts Spy, July 6, 1859.
2 “like men running for their lives”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 60.
CHAPTER 1. DESTINY
1 Late in 1846, near the end of the rainy season: Gabon generally experiences two rainy seasons each year, the second of which runs between September and December.
2 But these men had been exploring: Descriptions of trade customs and native traders come principally from Wilson, Western Africa; Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures; and Aicardi de Saint-Paul, Gabon.
3 the traders carried something extraordinary: Details of Wilson’s acquisition of the skull from native traders come from DuBose, Memoirs; Wilson, Western Africa; Leonard G. Wilson, “The Gorilla and the Question of Human Origins: The Brain Controversy,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 51, no. 2 (1996); Thomas Savage and Jeffries Wyman, “Notice of the External Characters and Habits of Troglodytes Gorilla, a New Species of Orang from the Gaboon River,” Boston
Journal of Natural History 5, no. 4 (Dec. 1847); “Wild Men of the Woods,” Household Monthly 1, no. 6 (March 1859); and Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures.
4 He could spend hours marveling: DuBose, Memoirs, 175–76.
5 At first glance, that calcified mask: The weight, measurements, and physical details of the skull were provided by Savage and Wyman, “Notice”; Wilson, Western Africa; and DuBose, Memoirs.
6 The natives called it a njena: The Mpongwe term has been transcribed by visitors to Gabon using numerous spellings, including ngena, d’jina, engina, and other variations; I use njena throughout for consistency.
7 “pliancy of character”: Wilson, Western Africa, 31.
8 “descendants of Ham”: DuBose, Memoirs, 194.
9 “That this people should have been preserved”: Ibid., 199.
10 Wilson one day in 1848 spotted: Dates and details of Du Chaillu’s arrival at Baraka come from William Walker, diaries, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison; DuBose, Memoirs; and Helen Evertson Smith, “Reminiscences of Paul Belloni Du Chaillu,” Independent 55 (1903): 1147.
11 a messy process that Wilson and Jane: French dealings with King Glass and descriptions of Baraka in the 1840s and 1850s come from DuBose, Memoirs; Wilson, Western Africa; Aicardi de Saint-Paul, Gabon; Rich, A Workman Is Worthy of His Meat; Patterson, Northern Gabon Coast to 1875; Meyer, Farther Frontier; and West, Congo.
12 “It is doubtful”: DuBose, Memoirs, 166. In the memoir, Jane was directly quoted, though her words were rendered in the past tense (“It was doubtful”); I changed it to present tense for clarity.
13 Wilson realized that he in fact had met Paul’s father: Walker, diaries; and Henry Bucher Jr., “Canonization by Repetition: Paul Du Chaillu in Historiography,” Revue Française d’Histoire d’Outre-Mer 66 (1979): 15–32.
14 The trader, named Charles-Alexis: Du Chaillu’s father’s name appears as Claude-Alexis in certain references, but I have used Charles throughout.
15 “delicate little attentions”: DuBose, Memoirs, 82.
16 he started calling them “Father” and “Mother”: Ibid., 153.
17 In the boy’s eyes, Wilson was a miracle: After Wilson’s death, Du Chaillu once was heard snapping at someone who suggested that Wilson was “narrow” by exclaiming, “He was as broad as this broad earth!!” (ibid., 147).
18 “The dog experienced no injury”: Wilson, Western Africa, 368.
CHAPTER 2. A NEW OBSESSION
1 Caroline Owen tried very hard: Descriptions of the Owen household and excerpts from Caroline’s diaries come from Owen, Life; and Yanni, Nature’s Museums.
2 “The presence of a portion”: Owen, Life, 1:296.
3 “himself smelt like a specimen preserved”: Ibid., 233.
4 “I have found the existence of an animal”: Savage to Owen, April 24, 1847, reprinted in Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, no. 3 (1849): 389.
5 “Great uncertainty however attends”: Ibid.
6 A naturalist in Bristol whom Owen knew: Details of Owen’s examinations and approach come from Richard Owen, “On a New Species of Chimpanzee,” Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 16 (1848): 27–35; Richard Owen, Memoir on the Gorilla (London: Taylor and Francis, 1865); and Richard Coniff, “The Missionary and the Gorilla,” Yale Alumni Magazine, Sept.–Oct. 2008.
CHAPTER 3. HANNO’S WAKE
1 The name “gorilla” was plucked: Although some sources give Wilson, who was familiar with Hanno’s story, credit for naming the gorilla and passing it to Savage, it was Wyman who chose the name. A concise overview of the naming process is included in Jordan, Leading American Men of Science.
2 “sound of pipes, cymbals, drums”: Hanno and Falconer, Voyage of Hanno.
3 “They goe many together and kill”: Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, 6:398.
4 “Its paw was said to be”: Savage and Wyman, “Notice.”
5 “It is almost impossible to give a correct idea”: Wilson, Western Africa, 367.
6 “It is said they will wrest”: Ibid.
7 “This act, unheard of before”: Savage and Wyman, “Notice.”
8 Wilson sent some letters: Bucher, “Canonization by Repetition.”
CHAPTER 4. DRAWING LINES
1 “Mr. Darwin was here”: Owen, Life, 1:292.
2 “ends are obtained”: Richard Owen, On the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton (London: John van Voorst, 1848).
3 Darwin pleaded with him: Owen, Life, 1:209.
4 The day of creation, it stated: Larson, Evolution.
5 The scientific evidence for questioning the Bible’s time line: For the brief overview of early evolutionary science, two particularly helpful books were ibid., and Bowler, Evolution.
6 “a real man in armour is required”: Owen, Life, 1:254.
7 His ideas about archetypes: For a more detailed study of Owen’s views on evolution, see Cosans, Owen’s Ape and Darwin’s Bulldog.
CHAPTER 5. AMERICAN DREAMS
1 Carmel, nestled between rolling hills: Descriptions of nineteenth-century Carmel come from Blake, History of Putnam County, N.Y.; George Carroll Whipple III, Carmel (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2007). The historical population figures come from J. H. French, Gazetteer of the State of New York (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2007).
2 he spoke it with a soupy Parisian accent: Du Chaillu’s accent was the subject of much discussion and gentle chiding over the years; Evertson Smith, for example, wrote of him speaking of “My country, dese United States.”
3 He told his students that he despised: Evertson Smith, “Reminiscences.”
4 he visited the Putnam County Courthouse: Ibid., and Bucher, “Canonization by Repetition.”
5 “Mr. Du Chaillu’s diminutive size”: Evertson Smith, “Reminiscences.”
6 The editors agreed to publish: Vaucaire, Gorilla Hunter.
7 Thus, on October 16, 1855, Cassin stood: “Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,” reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, 3rd ser., 14 (July–Sept. 1861).
CHAPTER 6. TO SLIDE INTO BRUTISH IMMORALITY
1 Three were human skulls: Richard Owen, “Notices of the Proceedings of the Royal Institution,” 1855.
2 Chimpanzees had been known: Ibid.
3 orangutans had first been described: Beeckman, Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo.
4 “It is not pleasing to me that I must place”: Linnaeus to Johann Georg Gmelin, Feb. 25, 1747. The Linnaean Correspondence, available online at http://linnaeus.c18.net/Letters/display_txt.php?id_letter=L0783.
5 “The present age may be more knowing”: Owen, “Notices.”
6 “And of a truth, vile epicurism”: More and Descartes, Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.
CHAPTER 7. AN AWKWARD HOMECOMING
1 The captain’s charts showed: The description of the journey to Africa is from Du Chaillu, King Mombo. Additional descriptions of the surf around the estuary in the nineteenth century can be found in Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land.
2 “For five days”: Du Chaillu, King Mombo, 23.
3 “I had enough powder”: Ibid.
4 Shortly before Paul arrived: DuBose, Memoirs.
5 But the old man’s presence: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures.
6 Charles-Alexis Du Chaillu was interred: Burton, Two Trips to Gorilla Land.
7 “Their disappointment was great”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 3.
8 “It is really tanned a very dark brown”: Ibid., 61.
9 Thousands of yards of cloth bundled: Good overviews of the supplies carried into Africa by nineteenth-century explorers can be found in Burton, Lake Regions of Central Africa; Stanley, How I Found Livingstone; and Jeal, Stanley.
10 “But the more he called ‘stop’ ”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 53.
11 “A good day’s work”: Ibid.
12 “Dayoko thought my project impossible”: I
bid., 60.
13 Britain sent four major expeditions: Jeal, Stanley.
14 In Zanzibar, they were told: Rice, Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton.
15 “dig violently away at my tympanum”: Speke’s quotation was taken from an 1859 issue of Blackwood’s magazine and reprinted in Burton, Lake Regions of Central Africa.
16 “No one would tell me how he was to be killed”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 39.
17 “Oh yes,” one of the men replied: Ibid., 40.
CHAPTER 8. “UNFRIENDS”
1 John Edward Gray couldn’t stand: Gray’s animosity toward Owen is explored in Joel Mandelstam, “Du Chaillu’s Stuffed Gorillas and the Savants from the British Museum,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 48, no. 2 (July 1994); and Rupke, Richard Owen.
2 As a young man, he had wanted: Gunther, Century of Zoology at the British Museum; and G. S. Boulger, “John Edward Gray,” in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 23 (London: Smith, Elder, 1900).
3 product of its creator’s “prurient mind”: Gunther, Century of Zoology at the British Museum.
4 “One can easily understand that the circumstance”: “Biographical Notice of the Late Dr. J. E. Gray,” Annals and Magazine of Natural History 15 (1875).
5 Darwin was told that Gray: Darwin to Gray, Aug. 29, 1848.
6 “I felt anxious to know”: Ibid.
7 Gray backed down and continued: Gray to Darwin, Aug. 26, 1848.
8 Surrounded by lush gardens: Descriptions of Owen’s home at Sheen Lodge are from Owen, Life, vol. 2.
9 But in 1856, Owen was given another gift: Rupke, Richard Owen.
10 “In a year or two, the total result”: Huxley to William Macleay, Nov. 9, 1851.
CHAPTER 9. FEVER DREAMS