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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF
come into use in the first half of the eighteenth century, but the only important addition made, in that period, to our acquaintance with the man-like apes of Africa is contained in "A New Voyage to Guinea," by William Smith, which bears the date 1744.
In describing the animals of Sierra Leone, p. 51, this writer says:—
Fig. 5.—Facsimile of William Smith's figure of the "Mandrill," 1744.
"I shall next describe a strange sort of animal, called by the white men in this country Mandrill,[1] but why it is
- ↑ "Mandrill" seems to signify a "man-like ape," the word "Drill" or "Dril" having been anciently employed in England to denote an Ape or Baboon. Thus in the fifth edition of "Blount's Glossographia, or a Dictionary interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language now used in our refined English tongue … very useful for all such as desire to understand what they read," published in 1681, I find, "Dril—a stone-cutter's tool wherewith he bores little holes in marble, &c. Also a large overgrown Ape and Baboon, so called." "Drill" is used in the same sense in Charleton's "Onomasticon Zoicon," 1668, The singular etymology of the word given by Buffon seems hardly a probable one.
