science. In an age of grand and glorious voyages of discovery, Du Chailluâs expedition to Africa was one of the grandest of them all.
Only a few white men had ever touched the shores of âthe Gaboon,â as the small West African country was then known; few, if any, had ever penetrated more than a few miles into the interior, which was bisected by the equatorâa steamy tangle later explorers called âthe green hell.â Even David Livingstone, who was mounting large-scale expeditions deep into the interior of southern Africa at the same time, never set foot in Gabon. But Du Chaillu, who had learned one of the local languages as a boy, plunged into the Dark Continent seemingly without fear. He traveled alone and on foot, not even carrying a tent, because he expected to be sustained by the native peoples he met along his way.
When he returned from Gabon, Du Chaillu published a bookabout his exploits, which had the swashbuckling title
Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa; with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the chase of the Gorilla, Crocodile, Leopard, Elephant, Hippopotamus and other Animals.
He maintained that heâd walked a total of about 8,000 miles on his trip. âI suffered fifty attacks of the African fever, taking, to cure myself, more than fourteen ounces of quinine,â he wrote. âOf famine, long-continued exposures to the heavy tropical rains, and attacks of ferocious ants and venomous flies, it is not worthwhile to speak.â 21
His book was written with such breathless vividness that it electrified the world. But it also provoked widespread derision, with his preposterous tales of cannibals and a race of forest people so tiny they could be described as dwarves or pygmies. But the thing that excited the public more than anything else was his account of his first encounter with the legendary hairy ape-man of Africa:
Suddenly, as we were yet creeping along, in a silence which made a heavy breath seem loud and distinct, the woods were at once filled with the tremendous barking roar of the gorilla. Then the underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently before us stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone through the jungle on his all-fours; but when he saw our party, he erected himself and looked us boldly in the face. He stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight I think I shall never forget. Nearly six feet high . . . with immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely-glaring, large, deep gray eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare vision: thus stood before us this king of the African forest. 22
Although the book was greeted with disbelief by many, others found it so thrilling that it permanantly changed their lives. Years later, in 1933, an American filmmaker named Merian C. Cooper, who had come across an old copy of the book when he was a six-year-old boy in Florida, made a movie inspired by Du Chailluâs adventures. It was called
King Kong
. 23
Henry Augustus Ward was now staring at a nineteen-year-old boy who seemed determined to outdo Paul Du Chaillu, one of the most famous explorers on the planet. Wardâs amusement began to fade inthe face of the unmitigated gall of this lad. He was seriousâdead serious, apparently. Well, Ward thought, the Establishment was always in need of specimens from Africa, and they were not easy to come by. What if he were to finance young Hornadayâs expedition in exchange for a share of the specimens he brought back from the field?
âAll right,â Ward said abruptly. âWhat if I were to allow you to take a leave of absence from your work here for this undertaking? What if I were to put up, say, half the money required to finance a collecting expedition? Weâd have to write a contract, of course, laying out our understandings, and freeing the Establishment of
Only a few white men had ever touched the shores of âthe Gaboon,â as the small West African country was then known; few, if any, had ever penetrated more than a few miles into the interior, which was bisected by the equatorâa steamy tangle later explorers called âthe green hell.â Even David Livingstone, who was mounting large-scale expeditions deep into the interior of southern Africa at the same time, never set foot in Gabon. But Du Chaillu, who had learned one of the local languages as a boy, plunged into the Dark Continent seemingly without fear. He traveled alone and on foot, not even carrying a tent, because he expected to be sustained by the native peoples he met along his way.
When he returned from Gabon, Du Chaillu published a bookabout his exploits, which had the swashbuckling title
Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa; with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the chase of the Gorilla, Crocodile, Leopard, Elephant, Hippopotamus and other Animals.
He maintained that heâd walked a total of about 8,000 miles on his trip. âI suffered fifty attacks of the African fever, taking, to cure myself, more than fourteen ounces of quinine,â he wrote. âOf famine, long-continued exposures to the heavy tropical rains, and attacks of ferocious ants and venomous flies, it is not worthwhile to speak.â 21
His book was written with such breathless vividness that it electrified the world. But it also provoked widespread derision, with his preposterous tales of cannibals and a race of forest people so tiny they could be described as dwarves or pygmies. But the thing that excited the public more than anything else was his account of his first encounter with the legendary hairy ape-man of Africa:
Suddenly, as we were yet creeping along, in a silence which made a heavy breath seem loud and distinct, the woods were at once filled with the tremendous barking roar of the gorilla. Then the underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently before us stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone through the jungle on his all-fours; but when he saw our party, he erected himself and looked us boldly in the face. He stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight I think I shall never forget. Nearly six feet high . . . with immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely-glaring, large, deep gray eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare vision: thus stood before us this king of the African forest. 22
Although the book was greeted with disbelief by many, others found it so thrilling that it permanantly changed their lives. Years later, in 1933, an American filmmaker named Merian C. Cooper, who had come across an old copy of the book when he was a six-year-old boy in Florida, made a movie inspired by Du Chailluâs adventures. It was called
King Kong
. 23
Henry Augustus Ward was now staring at a nineteen-year-old boy who seemed determined to outdo Paul Du Chaillu, one of the most famous explorers on the planet. Wardâs amusement began to fade inthe face of the unmitigated gall of this lad. He was seriousâdead serious, apparently. Well, Ward thought, the Establishment was always in need of specimens from Africa, and they were not easy to come by. What if he were to finance young Hornadayâs expedition in exchange for a share of the specimens he brought back from the field?
âAll right,â Ward said abruptly. âWhat if I were to allow you to take a leave of absence from your work here for this undertaking? What if I were to put up, say, half the money required to finance a collecting expedition? Weâd have to write a contract, of course, laying out our understandings, and freeing the Establishment of
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