In this Opinion I was the more confirmed, because the most diligent
Enquiries of late into all the Parts of the inhabited World, could never
discover any such _Puny_ diminutive _Race_ of _Mankind_. That they should
be totally destroyed by the _Cranes_, their Enemies, and not a Straggler
here and there left remaining, was a Fate, that even those _Animals_ that
are constantly preyed upon by others, never undergo. Nothing therefore
appeared to me more Fabulous and Romantick, than their _History_, and the
Relations about them, that _Antiquity_ has delivered to us. And not only
_Strabo_ of old, but our greatest Men of Learning of late, have wholly
exploded them, as a mere _figment_; invented only to amuse, and divert the
Reader with the Comical Narration of their Atchievements, believing that
there were never any such Creatures in Nature.
This opinion had so fully obtained with me, that I never thought it worth
the Enquiry, how they came to invent such Extravagant Stories: Nor should
I now, but upon the Occasion of Dissecting this _Animal_: For observing
that 'tis call'd even to this day in the _Indian_ or _Malabar_ Language,
_Orang-Outang_, i.
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