Stories Of Du Chaillu

STORIES OF DU CHAILLU

Famous Explorer's Encounter With His First Gorilla.

VIVIS DESCRIPTION BY AUTHOR.

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How the Ferocious Beast Was Killed by the Advice of a Trusted Guide. Du Chaillu's View of Death - His Love For Children and Manner of Amusing Them.

For nearly half a century the late Paul Belloni Du Chaillu, the American author and explorer, had been before the public, and once he was the center of a fierce controversy which raged over his assertion that there was an animal called a gorilla, says the New York Herald.

Here is the account which he gave of his encounter with his first gorilla:

"Suddenly an immense gorilla advanced out of the wood straight toward us and gave vent as he came up to a terrible howl of rage, as much as to say, 'I am tired of being pursued and will face you.'

"It was a lone male, the kind which are always the most ferocious. This fellow made the woods resound with his roar, which is really an awful sound, resembling the rolling and muttering of distant thunder. He was about twenty yards off when we first saw him. We at once gathered together, and I was about to take aim and bring him down where he stood when my most trusted man, Malaonen, stopped me, saying in a whisper, 'Not time yet.'

"We stood, therefore, in silence, gun in hand. The gorilla looked at us for a minute or so out of his evil gray eyes, then beat his breast with his gigantic arms - and what arms he had!- then gave another howl of defiance and advanced upon us. How horrible he looked! I shall never forget it. Again he stopped, not more than fifteen yards away. Still Malaonen said. 'Not yet.' Good gracious! What is to become of us if our guns miss fire or if we only wound the great beast?

"Again the gorilla made an advance upon us. Now he was not twelve yards off. I could see plainly his ferocious face. It was distorted with rage; his huge teeth were ground against each other so that we could hear the sound; the skin of the forehead was drawn forward and back rapidly, which made his hair move up and down and gave a truly devilish expression to his hideous face. Once more the most horrible monster ever created by Almighty God gave a roar which seemed to shake the woods like thunder. I could really feel the earth trembling under my feet. The gorilla, looking us in the eye and beating his breast, advanced again.

"'Don't fire too soon,' said Malaonen. If you don't 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. Malaonen only said, Steady!' as tbe gorilla came up. When he stopped Malaonen said, 'Now!' and before be 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."

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Du Chaillu left his home in New York city on June 20, 1901, for Russia. It was his belief, as expressed to his friends, that books of travel that had been written about the czar's domain did not give the public a correct impression of the conditions there. He intended to live among the people, and he had prepared himself for the trip by mastering the Russian language. On account of his advanced age - he was then sixty-six -- and the difficulties of the journey, his friends tried to discourage him from going alone, but unavailingly, says the New York Times.

"There is to me no such thing as an obstacle," he declared to Edward Sundell, editor of the Valkyrian. Then he drew from his desk a journal he had kept during one of his African Journeys. Opening it at the first fly leaf, he directed attention to this inscription, written by himself:

"Should Death overtake me kindly forward this journal to Murray & Co., London, England."

"Death, you see," he said to his friend, "is capitalized. It is the only important word to me. It Is the only thing that will interrupt my labors."

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Dr. S. Solis Cohen, to whom Du Chaillu dedicated his last book, "King Mombo," and who attended the explorer while he was ill in Philadelphia at the residence of George W. Childs about twelve years ago, expressed great sorrow at the news of his friend's death, says the Philadelphia Public Ledger. He said:

"I can only say that the world has lost one of its few cosmopolitan good fellows. One of the greatest characteristics of Paul was his love for children and children's love for him. People sometimes simulate an affection for children at the houses to which they go, but they can never deceive the little ones. 'Friend Paul,' as he insisted on being called, was never so happy as when he had one or two children around him, imitating for them the sounds of the various wild animals that he had met, or in a room prancing around like a boy to show the antics of the animals, while the children stood gaping, laughing and applauding."