CORRESPONDENCE.
The Imperial French family continues to reside in the Tuileries Palace. The Empress has ended her deep six-month mourning period for her sister. The Emperor and Empress, Mr. Walewski, and many other aristocratic households continue to host balls and dancing evenings as if it were carnival season. The Emperor and his family will not depart for their summer residence at the Palace of St. Cloud until the end of May, and later to Compiègne. The Empress’s journey to the Holy Land has been abandoned, although all preparations for it had already been made. Theaters and concerts are most active at this time and generate the largest revenues. One of our compatriots, Mr. Telesiński, a violinist, recently gave a concert in Pleyel Hall, in which Mr. Józef Wieniawski and many French artists participated. A few days later, Mr. Wieniawski again gave a concert in the great theater hall, but to a rather small audience. In Herz Hall, a musical society organized a grand concert for the benefit of poor workers, featuring our compatriots: Mr. Karol Kontski, violinist, and Stanisław Kontski, pianist.
—A certain American, named du Chaillu, with a numerous retinue of scholars and hunters, undertook an expedition to Africa with the aim of finding the sources of the Nile River, which have been sought for so many centuries. He spent three years in these wild and unknown regions, spanning an area two geographical degrees wide on both sides of the equator. He also produced a very interesting report about this land, which no European foot had touched until now.
“I found,” says Mr. du Chaillu, “in the land called Rambo Owengo, two species of apes very similar to humans: the kooloo-kamba (troglodyte kamba), and the so-called mbuwe (bald troglodyte). The first species was named after the prolonged cry it emits; kamba means ‘language’ in the dialect of the inhabitants of this land. The mbuwe is
a completely bald ape, not very large, but very cunning. It builds shelters from downpours and torrential equatorial rains by skillfully tying branches on trees thirty feet above the ground, which it covers with an umbrella-shaped roof. These tree-huts are never seen except in pairs. One serves the male, the other the female. The young of this species are completely white and have skin similar to the complexion of sickly children. Mr. du Chaillu acquired a young mbuwe, which after two weeks of living with him became so accustomed and tamed that it followed him everywhere like a puppy. But with the progress of civilization, unfortunately, a tendency to theft developed in it. Mr. du Chaillu, rightly judging that the principles of morality could only be instilled through discipline, ensured that punishment did not miss the culprit each time it was caught red-handed in theft. The entrance to the hut Mr. du Chaillu inhabited was closed with a woven mat. The monkey lifted it perfectly and entered the dwelling uninvited. If it noticed that its master was asleep, it quickly grabbed some bananas and quietly slipped away; if, however, at the moment of its snatching the fruit, Mr. du Chaillu opened his eyes, terrified by the consequences of its audacity, it fled deep into the forests and did not return home until night. The further influence of civilization and social interaction with humans manifested itself in an intense craving for rum and liqueurs. Mr. du Chaillu had a sizable bottle of arrack, which he kept, as he says, as medicine; one day the monkey sniffed out the delicacy and, curious to taste the forbidden fruit, and unable to pull out the cork, it smashed the neck of the bottle and treated itself so thoroughly that Mr. du Chaillu, upon returning home, found it rolling on the floor in convulsive tremors, vomiting, and emitting pitiful and painful groans. Guessing the cause of the paroxysm, the American administered a good thrashing to its head, which quickly restored it to a normal state of consciousness and health. In this journey, Mr. du Chaillu discovered several other species of animals, birds, and plants previously unknown to naturalists, such as: a beautiful antelope, whose graceful form no known animal can compare to; a giant elephant of a hitherto unknown species, and many other animals. But the most interesting part of his report the audacious traveler dedicated to a species of ape called the Gorilla, with which he constantly engaged in very dangerous battles. Mr. du Chaillu is reportedly the first man of our race
who dared to hunt this Lucifer. The apes of Sumatra and Borneo, the famous Chimpanzees, which abduct women from the inhabitants of these islands and raid their gardens, are said to be gentle children compared to this monster. The gorilla ape is an animal of athletic build. A mature male exceeds two meters in height, and its back is over a meter wide. Its paws are enormous, three times larger than the hand of a strong man. Its strength equals the combined power of six men; the muscles of its jaws and the protruding skin that encircles its enormous forehead like a turban are reportedly endowed with astonishing power. Black, dense fur covers this great ape. Its neck and head are covered with long shaggy hair, which it can bristle at will, and even use to cover and conceal its entire maw. But most horrifyingly, this monster possesses an acuity, cunning, and understanding almost equal to human comprehension, combined with the cruelty, savagery, and unmitigated bestiality of a true devil. Gorilla apes are extraordinarily jealous, and the male, eager for a fight, is always ready and disposed to engage in fierce battles. When it attacks an enemy, it strikes its chest with its paw like a hammer, and this thud, like from a drum, can be heard, according to Mr. du Chaillu, for two versts. The roar of this beast and its terrifying vocalizations are similar to the scream of a human in wild despair. In the impenetrable mountainous forests of these lands, it reportedly awakens an echo that travels from peak to peak for four versts. In an encounter with an enemy, it first tries to frighten it: it foams with rage, stamps, and curses in a terrifying manner. Cold sweat breaks out on a person’s face before this monster. In its eyes, as in the gaze of a devil, a spark of intelligence glimmers, but at the same time, deceit, perfidy, and cruelty flash within them. This incarnate Lucifer, in anger, performs such wild antics that it strikes the bravest men with silent terror. Mr. du Chaillu lost six companions of his journey in battles with gorilla apes. One can imagine the incredible strength of this repulsive phantom, when with one blow of its paw, it breaks the legs and ribs of adult men like matches, and bites a rifle barrel in half, or twists it into a coil like a twig. This devil is reportedly more passionate than Jupiter, the satyrs, and Beelzebub himself. When it abducts women from the wild inhabitants of these lands, pursued by crowds, it can throw up to two women over one shoulder and, holding them with one paw, wields a huge club in the other, with which it
defends itself from the approaching throng of orphaned husbands and family. In this way, it slowly retreats into the forests and most often escapes with its victims with impunity. What a fate for a woman to fall into the possession of such a monster! This is somewhat worse than being sold into temporary imprisonment in Turkish and Arab harems. Mr. du Chaillu maintains that in the presence of a woman, this devil assumes an attitude of astonishing courtesy, but becomes implacable towards all animals that might then cross its path. Thank you for such encouragement… This opinion of Mr. du Chaillu, however, seems quite probable to me, comparing it with the descriptions of other researchers who believe and cite facts about the influence of women on the most terrible beasts. Famous is the story, which many of my female readers have surely read or seen a drawing of, of a mother in Florence who, kneeling, with only a pleading and magnetizing gaze, saved her child and herself from the jaws of a hungry lion that had escaped from a menagerie and, wandering the city streets, attacked the unfortunate woman. I have read several descriptions of similar examples of women’s influence on bears and other fiercest animals, and these in serious scientific works. It appears that the power of women, both in the moral and physical world, is undeniable. In Paris, there is a huge stuffed specimen of a gorilla ape in the zoological cabinet. It stands under a glass bell in the middle of a hall filled with the most diverse apes, holding a branch of a dry tree with one paw and showing the public its jaws equipped with two rows of the most terrifying fangs. This is an ape of new discovery. Buffon knew nothing, and Cuvier little, about it. Mr. du Chaillu, who killed several such apes, paints a terrifying picture of the agony and death groans of this giant. The inhabitants of these lands are mostly cannibals, and the brave traveler encountered thousands of difficulties among them with his small retinue. Many museums, particularly in London and New York, will be enriched by interesting collections from his journey. Mr. du Chaillu, however, reportedly did not reach the sources of the Nile.