An Encounter with a Gorilla

Europeans didn't really know the gorilla as a distinct species until the 19th century. (They often confused it with the chimpanzee and debated whether it was a type of orangutan.) Accounts of it from that time are mostly folklore, emphasizing its habit of murdering people. It wasn't until the 1950s that field observations finally laid that myth to rest.
But as early as 1897, an explorer named Mary Kingsley told of a perfectly harmless encounter with gorillas. In the jungle one day, her guide m...