"gorilla" from 1797 and 1715

[Joel S. Berson]

For "gorilla" OED2 has a bracketed quotation from
1799 ("Another island full of savage people ...
whose bodies were hairy, and whom our
interpreters called Gorillæ"), and then Savage's
"Troglodytes Gorilla" from 1847, generally
accepted as its introduction into English.

(1)  1797 quotations can be found in The Voyage
of Hanno Translated, and Accompanied with the
Greek Text ...", by Thomas Falconer (London: T. Cadell and Davies, 1797).

(a)  The bracketed 1799 quotation for "gorilla"
can be found on p. 15.  [The English text is
Falconer's translation from Hanno's
"Periplus".  I assume the 1799 quotation from
"Naval Chron." (a journal) is a crib from Falconer.]

(b)  This work contains another instance of
"gorilla", in essentially the same words, but in
Falconer's commentary and with additional context
that clearly identifies gorillas as a type of
monkey (not the modern classification, but ...).  Page 36:

"After a few days sail they reached an island
full of savage people, the greater part of whom
were women, whose bodies were hairy, and whom our
interpreters called Gorillae. Bougainville
thinks, that these inhabitants were pongos, or the large species of monkey."

"Pongo" is a term used in the 17th and 18th
centuries to refer to the larger of the two
anthropoid African apes, which today is called
the gorilla.  (See, e.g., OED3 "pongo, n.1", dating from 1625.)

Perhaps this quotation merits the removal of the bracket?

(2)  A 1715 quotation perhaps can become the new
bracketed earliest instance.  In "The Life of Mr.
Henry Dodwell; With an Account of his Works ...",
by Francis Brokesby (London: Geo. James, 1715), there are:

(a)  Vol. 2, page 330:  "Shews how little Ground
there is for his [Dodwell's] learned friend Dr,
Isaac Vossius's Fancy to make him as ancient as
Perseus who killed the Gorgons, founded on
Hanno's Garillae, [sic] whom he met with ...".

(b)  Vol. 1, page [unnumered; I count to 37, one
page before page 1, Introduction]:  "Errata. ...
p. 330. l. 9. r. [read] Gorillae".

Joel

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