a triumphant shout as a compliment
to Stanley on his victory.

"I wish we could carry him to the camp," said Leo. "It would show Kate
and Bella that they need no longer be afraid of the monster."

"I expect a sight of it would not much tend to allay their fears," said
David, "for it would rather show them what sort of fierce beasts we may
expect to find in our neighbourhood."

"What! do you mean to say there are any more of them?" exclaimed Natty.
"When Senhor Silva was talking about him the other day, he called him
the king of the forest; and so I fancied, of course, that he had no
rivals."

"Where he exists we shall probably find others," said David; "though
their habitation does not reach further south than we now are: indeed, I
did not expect to meet them in this latitude. They chiefly inhabit the
country about the Gaboon and other rivers to the north of us."

We found, on measuring the gorilla, that it was within a few inches of
six feet in height, while the muscular development of its arms and
breast showed that it could have seized the whole of us in its claws,
and torn us to pieces without difficulty; but the art of man and the
death-dealing rifle were more than a match for it. Still, as it lay
extended on the ground, I could not help feeling as if we had killed
some human being--a wild man of the woods, who might, under proper
treatment, have been tamed and civilised. David laughed when I made
some remark to that effect.

"I suspect, if we were to catch a baby gorilla, and feed it on milk, and
bring it up in a nursery, it would prove almost as savage and fierce as
this creature," he answered. "He can feed himself and fight in defence
of his liberty, but he could never make a coat to cover his bade, or
light a fire to warm himself, though he might have seen it done a
hundred times. There is no real relationship between a man and an ape,
however much similarity there maybe between the outer form and the
skeleton. In man there is the mind, which, even in the most debased and
savage, is capable of improvement, and the soul, which nothing can
destroy. In the ape there is instinct, and a certain power of imitation
which looks like mind, but which, even in the tamest, goes no further.
The most enlightened mode of instruction and the utmost patience will
never teach an ape to read or talk; while we know that human beings who
have been born deaf and blind and dumb have, by a wonderful process,
been instr