FOUND AT LAST.

Thames Star, Issue 3666, 28 September 1880, Page 2

FOUND AT LAST.

We are glad to be able to record that the "missinglink" so long searchedfor by science is at length discovered. There has arrived at Liverpool au " African ._ gentleman" direct from Whydah. Not that he was the " missing link;" the gentle ethiop is, as all men now know, of " our own flesh and blood," and if we may believe some humanitarian folks, of rather better quality than ourselves. But this distinguished visitor brought with him two others more .distinguished than himself, in the persons of a "coola camba " and her baby. And what is a " coola camba ? " A man or woman monkey, as the case may be; nothing less. When fall grown, the animal stands nearly sft. high, thus being almost on a par in s tat ore with the modern British recruit. It has a clear, sonorous voice; and although at present the language it speaks is not intelligible to English ears, that little difficulty may be surmounted in time by science, as was the equally onerous task of reading cuneiform inscriptions. We make no account of the idle suggestion that a similarity can be detected between the accents of the "coola camba" when enraged or excited and those of some Home Rule members under similar circumstances. The creature came, wo .. know, from the interior of Africa, and not from Connaught or Munster. In form, it difrers greatly both from the gorilla and the chimpanzee, and it also wears a much more pleasing expression. This latter quality of course, brings it nearer to the human race, who are always to be distinguished from other animals by the benevolence and amiability stamped in* delibly on their countenances. We cannot therefore attach much weight to the theory that the "coola camba" is one and the same with the " soko"—the hugh manlike ape spoken of by Mr Stanley. For the latter was represented as greatly feared by the natives by reason of certain malpractices in jpoMit. it was wont to indulge, and howEr can we suspect a creature wearing/ " the child • like and bland " smile of Mr Ah Sing of such wickedness P We dispute this hypothesis because, were it allowed, the " coola camba," alias - soko," could not possibly be the connecting link between lordly man end the inferior creation. Human beings never smile and stab; to the Mr Carkers and Mr Littu ' mers of fiction is such duplicity left. Al~ together, there seems no reason why the new arrival should not be the longsearched for article. Ob the other hand, sceptics may possibly remark that they see no reason why it should be.—Western News.