Tweede Deel. Derde Druk. 1826.

Palm's letter describing the capture runs thus:--"Herewith I send your
Excellency, contrary to all expectation (since long ago I offered more
than a hundred ducats to the natives for an Orang-Utan of four or five
feet high) an Orang which I heard of this morning about eight o'clock.
For a long time we did our best to take the frightful beast alive in the
dense forest about half way to Landak. We forgot even to eat, so
anxious were we not to let him escape; but it was necessary to take
care that he did not revenge himself, as he kept continually breaking
off heavy pieces of wood and green branches, and dashing them at us.
This game lasted till four o'clock in the afternoon, when we determined
to shoot him; in which I succeeded very well, and indeed better than I
ever shot from a boat before; for the bullet went just into the side of
his chest, so that he was not much damaged. We got him into the prow
still living, and bound him fast, and next morning he died of his
wounds. All Pontiana came on board to see him when we arrived." Palm
gives his height from the head to the heel as 49 inches.

FIG. 7.--The Pongo Skull, sent by Radermacher to Camper, after Camper's
original sketches, as reproduced by Lucae.

A very intelligent German officer, Baron Von Wurmb, who at this time
held a post in the Dutch East India service, and was Secretary of the
Batavian Society, studied this animal, and his careful description of
it, entitled "Beschrijving van der Groote Borneosche Orang-outang of de
Oost-Indische Pongo," is contained in the same volume of the Batavian
Society's Transactions. After Von Wurmb had drawn up his description
he states, in a letter dated Batavia, Feb. 18, 1781,* that the specimen
was sent to Europe in brandy to be placed in the collection of the