Between Man and Beast
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1 Instead, almost everyone subscribed to a “miasma theory”: For a good overview of the theory and its demise, see Johnson, Ghost Map.
2 “all the authorities on this subject”: Reade, Savage Africa.
3 In the mid-nineteenth century, 2 grains of quinine: “The Use of Quinine in Malarious Districts,” Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Oct. 1, 1863.
4 “And when the system becomes accustomed”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 323.
5 In recent years, medical researchers have determined: Combiz Khozoie, Richard J. Pleass, and Simon V. Avery, “The Antimalarial Drug Quinine Disrupts Tat2p-Mediated Tryptophan Transport and Causes Tryptophan Starvation,” Journal of Biological Chemistry, no. 284 (2009).
6 distorted states of perception that he labeled “ecstasis”: Fabian, Out of Our Minds.
7 “Today {August 20} I sent back Dayoko’s men”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 48. In this case in his book, Du Chaillu transcribed his journals in the present tense.
8 “Peering into the darkness”: Ibid., 112.
9 One of the men told Paul a story: In Gabon in 2010, I spoke with numerous Gabonese residents and hunters in the Fernan-Vaz region who told me stories about relatives or acquaintances who, they said, had been abducted by gorillas. Some admitted that the stories were likely legends, but others swore to me that they were true, illustrating that the same forest folklore that Du Chaillu recorded still thrives today.
10 “Yes,” one of the Mbondemo men told Paul: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 61.
CHAPTER 10. BETWEEN MEN AND APES
1 “It is astonishing with what an intense feeling”: Huxley to William Macleay, Dec. 13, 1851.
2 “his destiny as the supreme master of this earth”: Richard Owen, “On the Characters, Principles of Division, and Primary Groups of the Class Mammalia,” Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society 1–2 (1857).
3 a vindicator of “the dignity of the human race”: “A Monkey, Not a Man,” London Lancet 1 (1859).
4 “As these statements did not agree”: T. H. Huxley, Man’s Place in Nature.
CHAPTER 11. MAPS AND LEGENDS
1 “The dry season is delightful in Africa”: Another present-tense journal entry transcribed in Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 37.
2 Before someone like John James Audubon: Rhodes, John James Audubon.
3 He had catalogued and named: “John Cassin,” Bulletin of the Essex Institute 1 (1869).
4 had already shipped him more than one thousand specimens: Secretary’s records in the Archives of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
5 He had never heard a sound so unsettling: In 2010, I visited Josephine Head, who runs a gorilla research station in Gabon. Her project, which aims to habituate a group of lowland gorillas to human presence for scientific observation, requires her to passively observe charging silverback males. “It’s a huge roar. Absolutely terrifying! I’ve heard it hundreds of times now, and every single time I hear it, I shake. A gorilla will hide silently, then suddenly out of nowhere you get this massive roar. Everything about it is designed to intimidate, and it works.” She added: “You have to just stand there and try not to move, because if you run away, he will chase you and grab you and bite you. So you have to withstand.”
6 appeared to stand almost six feet tall: Du Chaillu was struck by its height and, after measuring it, first reported that it was “two inches short of six foot,” and in another reference he listed its height as five feet eight; the latter is probably more reliable, because male lowland gorillas rarely exceed that height.
7 “Luckily, one of the fellows shot a deer”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 71.
8 cheap, African-made flintlock muskets: Information about the character and quality of native muskets can be found in Reade, Savage Africa; Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures; and Gavin White, “Firearms in Africa,” Journal of African History 12, no. 2 (1971).
9 In 2001, scientists split gorillas: Caldecott and Miles, World Atlas of Great Apes and Their Conservation.
10 But they are also the least studied in the wild: Much of the information about lowland gorillas comes from interviews with Josephine Head, a lowland gorilla specialist based in Gabon with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. I also consulted several books concerning gorilla behavior, and the most helpful were Schaller, Year of the Gorilla; Weber and Vedder, In the Kingdom of Gorillas; and Fossey, Gorillas in the Mist.
11 “a wicked man turned into a gorilla”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 298.
CHAPTER 12. A LION IN LONDON
1 “the distinguished traveler we have this day”: “Farewell Livingstone Festival,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 2–3 (1858); and Owen, Life, vol. 2.
2 “that higher wisdom which is not of this world”: “Farewell Livingstone Festival.”
3 “That is the will of David Livingstone”: Blaikie, Life of David Livingstone.
4 Murchison had personally micromanaged: Overview of Murchison’s background before meeting Du Chaillu comes from Stafford, Scientist of Empire; Geikie, Life of Sir Roderick Murchison; and Mill, Record of the Royal Geographical Society.
CHAPTER 13. THE MAN-EATERS
1 Today they’re the dominant ethnic group: Hombert and Perrois, Cœur d’Afrique. Although Du Chaillu and most other nineteenth-century writers referred to them as “Fan,” I’ve complied with the modern spelling, “Fang.”
2 It started with Herodotus: Herodotus, Histories.
3 In his journal on November 23, 1492: Journal of Christopher Columbus. A good overview of Columbus’s views of cannibals can be found in Peter Hulme, “Columbus and the Cannibals,” in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin (New York: Routledge, 1995).
4 described by everyone from Captain Cook to Herman Melville: A good overview of cannibal reports can be found in David F. Salisbury, “Brief History of Cannibal Controversies,” Exploration: The Online Research Journal of Vanderbilt University, Aug. 15, 2001.
5 Queen Isabella of Spain issued a decree: Ibid.
6 “Mbene is in great glee”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 76.
7 “Today, several hundred Fang from the surrounding”: Ibid., 80.
8 “Why do you come from nobody knows”: Ibid., 491.
CHAPTER 14. D.O.A.
1 Owen and a taxidermist named Abraham Bartlett: “Wild Men of the Woods.”
2 “Whether we shall ever be treated”: “A Monkey, Not a Man.”
CHAPTER 15. SPIRIT OF THE DAMNED
1 “Looking upstream almost any time”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 196. Hombert and Perrois, in Cœur d’Afrique, located the present-day site of Du Chaillu’s “village” and provide a corroborative history of the slave trade in the region.
2 “They seemed terrified out of their senses”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 145.
3 “The place had been used”: Ibid., 180.
4 Most of the coastal tribes: Ibid., and Wilson, Western Africa.
5 “Even in this rude Cape Lopez country”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 181.
6 “The young one, hearing the noise”: Ibid., 207.
7 ‘All the hardships I had endured”: Ibid., 205.
8 “He sat in his corner”: Ibid.
9 “As soon as he saw his mother”: Ibid., 244.
10 “Though there are sufficient points of diversity”: Ibid., 277.
11 “I imagined this repulsive aspect originates”: Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle.
12 “It was as though I had killed”: Du Chaillu, Explorations and Adventures, 434.
CHAPTER 16. ORIGINS
1 “massive popular success”: Katherine Haddon, “Darwin at 200: Modest Father of Biology,” Cosmos Magazine, Feb. 11, 2009.
2 John Murray originally printed: A good overview of the sales history of On the Origin of Species can be fou
nd in David B. Williams, “Benchmarks: On the Origin of Species Published,” Earth, Nov. 23, 2009.
3 Almost half of British adults of marrying age: Woods, Demography of Victorian England and Wales.
4 “probably all the organic beings”: Darwin, On the Origin of Species.
5 “I {should} be a dolt not to value”: Darwin to Owen, Dec. 13, 1859.
6 Owen asked how, if all life-forms: “Darwin on the Origin of Species,” Edinburgh Review, April 1860, 487–532.
7 “Mr. Darwin abhors mere speculation”: “Darwin on the Origin of Species,” Times (London), Dec. 26, 1859.
8 “I am prepared to go to the Stake”: Huxley to Darwin, Nov. 23, 1859.
9 “I am sharpening my claws”: Ibid.
10 When word spread among London’s scientific community: The knowledge of Owen’s authorship is evident in letters exchanged in 1860 between Darwin, Huxley, and Asa Gray.
CHAPTER 17. IN THE CITY OF WONDERS
1 a city pulled in two different directions: Spann, Gotham at War.
2 But at seven o’clock on the evening: Descriptions of the event and press clippings come from Official Report of the Great Union Meeting Held at the Academy of Music (New York: Davies & Kent, 1859).
3 Newspapers covering the event: Ibid.
4 “Hundreds and thousands are among us”: Ibid.
5 “the condition the Negro is assigned”: Ibid.
6 “Experience has shown that his class”: Ibid.
7 In the neighborhood of Five Points: Several sources contributed to the description of Five Points in the nineteenth century, including Asbury, Gangs of New York; Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery; and Dickens, American Notes.
8 “Debauchery has made the very houses”: Dickens, American Notes.
9 “To give you a correct and critical description”: Bobo, Glimpses of New York City.
10 “for a shoe clerk out of a job”: “Man Who Alone Captured Brazilian Navy Is Here,” New York Times, Oct. 20, 1912.
11 members of the academy were acting: Based on letters exchanged between Du Chaillu and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in Dec. 1859.
12 “possesses peculiar advantages as an explorer”: John Cassin report to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Oct. 6, 1855.
13 “Under the circumstances of the case”: Du Chaillu to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Jan. 31, 1860.
14 “French traveler who had advanced”: “Notices,” New-York Daily Tribune, Jan. 6, 1860.
15 “They died very easily”: Ibid.
16 Wyman in turn invited Paul: Vaucaire, Gorilla Hunter; and “An Editor Taking Notes Among Celebrities and Others,” New York Times, March 17, 1912.
17 “DU CHAILLU’S AFRICAN COLLECTION”: Advertisement in New-York Daily Tribune, Feb. 14, 1860.
18 It was marble fronted, with Italianate: Historical building details from New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Guide to New York City Landmarks.
19 “Hideous monsters with unearthly names”: “The Gorilla,” New York Post, March 29, 1860.
20 His ads during the first weeks of 1860: Based on recurring advertisements for Barnum’s American Museum in the New-York Daily Tribune in Jan. and Feb. 1860.
21 “If such a being as Zoe ever existed”: Adams, E Pluribus Barnum.
22 “warmly towards the sunny South”: His letter to the Times-Picayune was reprinted in an article called “The Octoroon Gone Home,” New York Times, Feb. 9, 1860.
23 The Sunday Times declared: All the newspaper praise was collected and reprinted by Barnum in an ad in the New-York Daily Tribune, March 7, 1860.
24 The truth, which the papers helpfully hid: More details about William Henry Johnson can be found in Bogdan, Freak Show; and Adams, E Pluribus Barnum.
25 “a certain museum proprietor in St. Louis”: Cook, Arts of Deception.
CHAPTER 18. FIGHTING WORDS
1 The famously gray skies: Specific details of the Oxford event were collected from a variety of sources, including contemporary newspaper accounts and the transcripts of the speeches delivered at the event. Particularly useful were British Association for the Advancement of Science, Proceedings of the Thirtieth Meeting, at Oxford (London: John Murray, 1860); “The British Association for the Advancement of Science,” Lancet 76 (1860); “The British Association,” Athenaeum, July 7, 1860.
2 In the twenty months after its publication: Desmond and Moore, Darwin.
3 “Let us ever apply ourselves”: Athenaeum, July 7, 1860.
4 “anxiety & consequent ill health”: Darwin to Asa Gray, July 3, 1860.
5 “Professor Owen wished to approach this subject”: Athenaeum, July 7, 1860.
6 Huxley “denied altogether that the difference”: Ibid.
7 But as several modern historians have since pointed out: A very good analysis and debunking of the myths associated with the meeting can be found in Keith Thomson, “Huxley, Wilberforce, and the Oxford Museum,” American Scientist, May–June 2000.
8 “the irresistible tendency of organized beings”: Athenaeum, July 7, 1860.
9 “This gave Huxley the opportunity”: Wollaston, Life of Alfred Newton.
10 “I think the Bishop had the best of it”: Balfour Stewart to James David Forbes, July 4, 1860.
11 “uglyness & emptyness & unfairness”: Hooker to Darwin, July 2, 1860.
12 “I think I thoroughly beat him”: Wilberforce to Sir Charles Anderson, July 3, 1860.
13 “My dear Sir, let me present you”: The letter is quoted in Owen, Life, vol. 2. The first letter that Du Chaillu sent to Owen was on Dec. 21, 1861, in which he informed Owen of his intent to place his specimens “at your service” (Rupke, Richard Owen).
CHAPTER 19. THE BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS
1 Abraham Lincoln checked in to the Astor House: Holzer, Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.
2 photographic studio that was known as Broadway Valhalla: Horan, Mathew Brady.
3 “Ah,” Lincoln said, “I see you want”: Meredith, Mr. Lincoln’s Camera Man, Mathew B. Brady.
4 “No man ever before made such an impression”: New-York Tribune, Feb. 28, 1860. 102 “Brady and the Cooper Union made me president”: Horan, Mathew Brady.
5 “incertitude, and absolute darkness”: Donald, Lincoln.
6 “After viewing these monsters”: “The Gorilla,” New York Post, March 29, 1860.
7 “in no way concerns the Academy”: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Du Chaillu archive.
8 “inexpedient to report the facts”: Ibid.
9 “A careful examination of its records shows”: Ibid.
10 He dropped the matter: Although he stopped pursuing repayment from the academy at this time, Du Chaillu continued to complain to friends in letters throughout 1861 that the academy owed him money.
11 Kneeland, who had extensive experience: Vaucaire, Gorilla Hunter; and K. David Patterson, “Paul B. Du Chaillu and the Exploration of Gabon, 1855–1865,” International journal of African Historical Studies 7, no. 4 (1974).
12 Wyman … had earlier written to his English counterpart: Owen to Wyman, Nov. 1861.
CHAPTER 20. THE INNER CIRCLE
1 2,803,921 human souls: The population figure for 1861 comes from Pardon, Popular Guide to London and Its Suburbs.
2 “London is the political, moral, physical”: Ibid.
3 Owen considered himself a self-made man: Owen, Life, vol. 1. Owen’s personality and positive attributes seemed to be more apparent to those outside his field. Some details of his physical bearing and lecture style have been drawn from the descriptions in McCarthy, Portraits of the Sixties.
4 “Let them, if within their means”: Owen, Life, vol. 1.
5 The young gorilla hunter quickly became: Ibid., vol. 2.
6 The organization had added 233 fellows: “Royal Geographical Society,” Times (London), May 28, 1861.
7 Captain William Sandbach, who ran a West Indies: Sandbach had just been
elected a fellow of the RGS when Du Chaillu arrived in early Feb. 1861. Sandbach had inherited a West India shipping company from his father called Sandbach, Tinné & Co. that traded in molasses, rum, and “prime Gold Coast Negroes,” according to the Archives of London and the M25 Area. But the slave trade had been banned and stopped by the time William took over in 1851. The firm’s primary trade was between England and Guyana.
8 “My first impressions of your Adventures”: Murray to Du Chaillu, Feb. 19, 1861.
9 a group dubbed the “four o’clock friends”: Paston, At John Murray’s.
10 “the literary forum of the elite”: Ibid.
11 “Yours of this day has been received”: Du Chaillu to Murray, Feb. 19, 1861.
12 Times of London, Feb. 25–31, 1861.
CHAPTER 21. THE UNVEILING
1 The gas lamps flared: In addition to details collected in newspaper reports and advertisements, I relied on several sources to re-create the scene of street life in the West End, including Thompson, Visitor’s Universal New Pocket Guide to London; Black’s Guide to London and Its Environs (Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black, 1863); Charles Dickens, “Arcadia,” Household Words 20 (1853); Fyfe, Images of the Street; and Picard, Victorian London.
2 a very particular breed of Londoner: Some details on the crowd at Burlington House come from Dallas, Series of Letters from London.
3 Inside Burlington House’s west wing: Building details from the diaries of George Mifflin Dallas, and also from Markham, Fifty Years’ Work of the Royal Geographical Society.
4 he stood about five feet three and weighed: The physical descriptions of Du Chaillu are composed from numerous sources, including newspaper reports and Hills, Author, vol. 1.
5 The crowd was thick with “savants”: Francis Galton, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 5 (1861).
6 “the lowest schoolboy in the school”: Ibid.
7 “I trust he will offer me his protection”: Dallas, Series of Letters from London.
8 Animated gestures gave shape to his words: Many newspaper reports about Du Chaillu in 1861 commented on his animated lecture style, as did Caroline Owen in her diary (Owen, Life, vol. 2).