"Don't fire too soon," said Malaouen; "if you do not kill him, he will kill you."
This time he came within eight yards of us before he stopped. I was breathing fast with excitement as I watched the huge beast.
Malaouen said only, "Steady," as the gorilla came up. When he stopped, Malaouen said, "Now!" And before he could utter the roar for which he was opening his mouth, three musket-balls were in his body. He fell dead, almost without a struggle.
He was a monstrous beast indeed, though not amongst the tallest. His height was five feet six inches. His arms had a spread of seven feet two inches. His broad brawny chest measured fifty inches round. The big toe of his foot measured five inches and three quarters in circumference. His arms seemed like immense bunches of muscle only; and his legs and claw-like feet were so well fitted for grabbing and holding that I could see how easy it was for the negroes to believe that these animals, when they conceal themselves in trees and watch for prey, can seize and pull up with their feet any living thing, leopard, ox, or man, that passes beneath.
The face of this gorilla was intensely black. The vast chest, which proved his great power, was bare, and covered with a parchment-like skin. His body was covered with grey hair.
While the animal approached us in its fierce way, walking on its hind legs and facing us as few animals dare face man, it really seemed to me to be a horrid likeness of man.
WE GO UP THE RIVER TO N'CALAI BOUMBA--A SEVERE ATTACK OF FEVER--THE TENDER CARE OF THE NATIVES FOR ME--ANGUILAI ACCUSES HIS PEOPLE OF BEWITCHING ME--I GO OUT AND QUIET HIM--A BOY CUT TO PIECES FOR WITCHCRAFT--A USEFUL IDOL--THE EBONY TREES.
With Quengueza I resumed the ascent of the river Ovenga. We were bound to the town of a chief named Anguilai. The place was called N'calai Boumba.
We left Obindji early in the morning. On the way we passed several Bakalai villages, the largest of which, Npopo, I afterwards visited. The river banks, all the way up, were densely wooded, but very sparsely inhabited by beasts. We saw no animals the whole day, except one monkey and a few birds.
Anguilai, who was one of the vassals of Quengueza, and a powerful Bakalai chief, and whom I had met at Obindji's, received us well.