hat in the Voyage of Hanno there are many parts
worthy of considerate attention, I have judged that it would be highly
gratifying to the studious if I were here to write down a few extracts
from certain memoranda which I formerly noted on hearing a respectable
Portugese pilot, in frequent conversations with the Count Raimondo della
Torre, at Venice, illustrate this Voyage of Hanno, when read to him,
from his own experience." There are, of course, some erroneous notions
in the information of the pilot, and in the deductions made from it by
Ramusio; but the former had the sagacity to see the truth respecting
this _Gorgon Island full of hairy men and women_. I will not spoil the
_naivete_ of the narration by attempting a translation; merely premising
that he judged the Island to be that of Fernando Po.

"E tutta la descrittione de questo Capitano era simile a quella
per alcun Scrittore Greci, quale parlande dell' isola delle
Gorgone, dicono quella esser un isola in mezzo d'una palude. E
conciacosa che havea inteso che li poeti dicevan le Gorgone
esser femine terribili, pero scrisse che le erano pelose.... Ma
a detto pilotto pareva piu verisimile di pensare, che havendo
Hannone inteso ne'i libri de' poeti come Perseo era stato per
aere a questa isola, e di quivi reportata la testa di Medusa,
essendo egli ambitioso di far creder al mondo che lui vi fasse
audato per mare; e dar riputation a questo suo viaggio, di esser
penetrato fuio dove era stato Perseo; volesse portar due pelli
di Gorgone, e dedicarla nel tempio di Ginnone. Il che li fu
facil cosa da fare, conciosia cosa che IN TUTTA QUELLA COSTA SI
TRUOVINO INFINITE DI QUELLE SIMIE GRANDE, CHE FARENO PERSONE
HUMANE, DELLE BABUINE, le pelle delle quali poteva far egli
credere ad ogniuno che fussero state di femine."

Gopelin, also, in his _Recherches sur la Geographie des Anciens_,
speaking of this part of Hanno's voyage, says:

"Hanno encountered a troop of _Ourang-outangs_, which he took
for savages, because these animals walk erect, often having a
staff in their hands to support themselves, as well as for
attack or defence; and they throw stones when they are pursued.
They are the Satyrs and the Argipani with which Pliny says Atlas
was peopled. It would be useless to say more on this subject, as
it is avowed _by all the modern commentators of the Periplus_."

The relation we