an account told to the Brazilian writer Paulo Saldanha Sobrino, by a half-caste called Inocencio, who in 1930 went on an expedition up the Uatuma towards the sources of the Urubu.
When their boat came to an impassable waterfall they cut across the jungle to reach the Urubu watershed. After two days Inocencio became separated from the rest of his party. He shouted and fired his gun, but there was no reply except the chatter of monkeys and squawks of angry birds. So he began to walk almost blindly, feeling he must do something in such a critical situation, until night fell, when he climbed into a large tree and settled himself in a fork between the branches. As it grew dark the night was filled with jungle noises, and Inocencio rested happily enough until suddenly there was a cry which at first he thought was a man calling, but he realized at once that no one would look for him in the middle of the night. Then he heard the cry nearer at hand and more clearly. It was a wild and dismal sound. Inocencio, very frightened, settled himself more firmly into the tree and loaded his gun. Then the cry rang out a third time and now that it was so close it sounded horrible, deafening and inhuman.
Some forty yards away was a small clearing where a samaumeira had fallen and its branches had brought down other smaller trees. This was where the last cry had come from. Immediately afterward there was a loud noise of footsteps, as if a large animal was coming toward me at top speed. When it reached the fallen tree it gave a grunt and stopped.. . . Finally a silhouette the size of a man of middle height appeared in the clearing.
The night was clear. There was no moon, but the starry sky gave a pale light which somehow' filtered through the tangled vegetation. In this half-light Inocencio saw a thickset black figure ‘ which stood upright like a man’ . It remained where it stood, looking perhaps suspiciously at the place where I was. Then it roared again as before. I could wait no longer and fired without even troubling to take proper aim. There was a savage roar and then a noise of crashing bushes. I was alarmed to see the animal rush growling toward me and I fired a second bullet.
The terrifying creature was hit and gave an incredibly swift leap and hid near the old samaumeira. From behind this barricade it gave threatening growls so fiercely that the tree to which I was clinging seemed to shake. I had previously been on jaguar hunts and taken an active part in them, and I know how savage this cat is when it is run down and at bay. But the roars of the animal that attacked me that night were more terrible and deafening than a jaguar’s. I loaded my gun again and fearing another attack, fired in the direction of the roaring. The black shape roared again more loudly, but retreated and disappeared into the depths of the forest. From time to time I could still hear its growl of pain until at last it ceased.
Dawn was just breaking. Not until the sun was well up did Inocencio dare to come down from his perch. In the clearing he found blood, broken boughs of bushes, and smashed shrubs. Everywhere there was a sour penetrating smell. Naturally he did not dare to follow the trail of blood for fear of meeting a creature which would be even more dangerous now that it was wounded. Taking a bearing on the sun he at last reached a stream and rejoined his companions, who fired shots so that he should know where they were.
Mokele-mbembe — a surviving dinosaur in the Congo
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