"The Hunt for the Man-Monkey", written by English essayist Percy Longhurst in 1901, is a very curious account of a cryptozoological expedition, said to have taken place in Borneo during the 1880s, that ended in violent tragedy.


Longhurst was a prolific author whose works ranged from textbooks on wrestling and self defense to juvenile adventure stories. "The Hunt for the Man-Monkey" is not presented as fiction, however, but rather as a sober account of an actual event, as related to Longhurst by a Captain Bywater, who was present during the hunt.

Bywater had been asked to captain a steam yacht owned by a wealthy gentleman who wished to take his friends on a cruise among the Malaysian islands. One of the party had heard stories about the Mai-as, a large, reclusive and dangerous ape-like creature said to inhabit the dense jungles of Borneo, and they decided to try to capture one for the London Zoo.


After an uneventful journey, the expedition party steamed up to Sarawak and sought permission to hunt the Man-Monkey from the local Rajah, Sir Charles Brooke. Brooke was intrigued and joined the party himself, and so, accompanied by about one hundred guards, porters and "beaters", they set out on foot into the jungle. After an exciting close encounter with a very large python ...

... they neared the locality wherein it was supposed was the home of the Mai-as. The Dyaks and Malays spread themselves out in advance of the party of Englishmen, beating the forest, and all the while keeping a sharp look-out for the dreaded man-monkey. All moved with the greatest caution, and the keen, anxious faces of the natives showed that they considered the business in hand to be no child's play. Presently a loud shout from one of the Dyaks brought the party up all standing, and with their fingers on the triggers of their rifles (for there was no telling how the Mai-as might resent their intrusion) the Englishmen advanced to where the native had perceived the hideous animal standing at the foot of a tree. Slowly the Mai-as began to climb the tree, in the lower boughs of which could be seen his house, constructed of thick branches cunningly interlaced. Then began the trouble to induce him to descend, and if possible to drive him to the open country; for in the dense forest there was but small chance of surrounding him and taking him alive, as the Englishmen wished. Stones, clods of earth, and sticks were hurled at him, and then he leisurely descended. As his assailants hurriedly retired he reached the ground and disappeared along one of the forest paths.


At first glance, the "Man-Monkey" narrative reads like an expedition to capture an orangutan. However, the Mai-as is presented as being a rare and little-known animal, and specifically not an orangutan. Like gorillas, orangs had been comparatively well-known in Europe for at least a hundred years by 1901, being described and illustrated in numerous books and articles throughout the 19th century. An orangutan is even revealed as a murderer in Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which was published in 1841.

The words mias, myas, mawas, etc. are given as cognates of the term "orangutan" in the Dayak language in numerous late-19th century journals. The European literature of that period also frequently glosses orangutans as "man-monkeys".


So; what, exactly, was being hunted?

It may be that Longhurst's story is a basically accurate recollection by Captain Bywater of an attempt to capture a large ape in the Bornean jungle, but that Bywater and his associates mistook the Dayak name Mai-as as the name of a rare species, and were so unfamiliar with orangutans that they believed that the animal they encountered was unknown to contemporary science. The Dayaks themselves, told that they were hunting Mai-as, would presumably have taken everything else for granted.


On the other hand, it seems unlikely that Sir Charles Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak, would not have known an orangutan when he saw one, and yet he was reportedly curious enough about the Mai-as to join the expedition and apparently did not identify the animal they found as an orangutan. Also, Bywater's detailed descriptions of Mai-as behavior, physiology and locomotion do not really resemble those of orangutans, and indeed, Longhurst took pains to compare and contrast the Mai-as with other large primates:

In strength and bulk, although not in height, he is superior to the terrible black gorilla of Central Africa, while in appearance, at a short distance, he looks like a short and very broad native, being a brownish-black, and standing about 4 ft. high. In the face he is far less repulsive than his neighbour the orang-outang or the chimpanzee.


Regardless of what they were hunting, the hunt ended in tragedy: