ularly on the Gulf of Guinea, many travellers have pointed out
the presence of tribes of a light colour, a well developed head,
an abundant hairy system, which seem to come from a relatively
recent crossing between Negroes and Negrillos, sometimes with
a predominance of the latter element. It seems very certain that
these are the remains, destined to diminish from century to
century and perhaps one day to disappear totally, of a
population which was formerly much more extensive.
There is no accord as to the point which marked the terminus of
the famous voyage accomplished in the 6thcentury BC by the
Carthaginian general Hanno along the west coast of Africa.
Extreme estimates place it, at farthest, in the neighbourhood of the
island of Sherbro, between Sierra-Leone and Monrovia, but the
more rigorous not far from the mouth of the Gambia. However it
may be, this hardy navigator terminated his so-called periplusin
a region where Negrillos are no longer found today, but where
they still existed in his time. For it is impossible not to identify with
the Negrillos that we know, whose arboreal habits have been
mentioned by all who have studied them, those little hairy crea-
tures similar to men and living in trees, described by Hanno
towards the end of his voyage out and called gorii by his inter-
preter. Of this word, at least as it has come to us from the pen of
Greek and Latin authors who revealed to us the adventures of
Hanno, we have made “gorilla”; we have applied it to a species
of anthropomorphous apes, which are not met with, at least in our
day, except very much to the south of the southernmost point that
was attained by the Carthaginian general, and we have
supposed that the little hairy creatures resembling men, which this
navigator mentions, were gorillas, without considering that the
gorilla, even seen from a distance, has in no resemblance the
aspect of a little man, but indeed much more that of a giant.
Perhaps it is not presumptuous to recall that gorii or gor-yi, in the
mouth of a Wolof of Senegal, corresponds exactly to our
expression “these are men” and to suggest that Hanno’s inter-
preter, probably hired on the Senegalese coast, spoke the
language that is still employed there in our day.
In the following century, the Persian Sataspe, condemned to
go around Africa in order to escape the death penalty
pronounced against him, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and
took sail during many months in the direction of the south. He
could not complete his periplusand, on his return to the court
of Xerxes, was crucified by the king’s order. Before dying he
recounted that, on the farthermost coast he saw, he perceived
“little men”, clothed in garments made of the palm tree, who
had abandoned their cities and fled to the mountains as soon
as they saw him approaching. These little men were most likely
Negrillos, but we cannot know at what point of the western
coast of Africa Sataspe met them. The story is told by
Herodotus (Book IV, § XLIII).
Rock engraving (San), c. 2000-1000 BCE.
South Africa.
Andesite rock, 48 x 52 x 12 cm.
McGregor Museum, Kimberley.