The Carthaginian expedition commanded by Hanno the Navigator may have reached Cameroon or Gabon.

Donald Harden notes the description of Mount Cameroon, a four thousand and ninety-five-meter (thirteen thousand four hundred and thirty-five foot) volcano, more closely matches Hanno's description than Guinea's eight hundred and ninety meter (two thousand nine hundred and twenty feet) Mount Kakulima.

Brian Warmington prefers Mount Kakulima, considering Mount Cameroon too distant.

At the terminus of Hanno's voyage, the explorer finds an island heavily populated with what are described as hirsute and savage people.

Attempts to capture the males fail, but three of the females are taken.

These are so ferocious that they are killed, and their skins preserved for transport home to Carthage.

The interpreters call them gorillae, and when European explorers first encounter gorillas in the nineteenth century, the apes are given this name on the assumption that they were the "people" Hanno described, though it is unknown whether what these ancient Carthaginians encountered were truly gorillas, another species of ape or monkeys, or humans.