Case file · Cryptid
Proyart's giant footprints in Loango
In his 1776 'Histoire de Loango, Kakongo, et autres royaumes d'Afrique', the Abbé Proyart reported that missionaries had seen the clawed footprints of an enormous animal, about three feet round, spaced seven or eight feet apart.
1776 CE · -4.65, 11.82 · status: legend
The account
Proyart wrote that the animal 'must be monstrous', though the missionaries never saw it. The passage is cited as the earliest written hint of the Mokele-mbembe legend. The point is the old capital of Loango on the coast.
The sceptical view
Elephant or hippo tracks, which can look clawed in mud, are the usual explanation; the account is second-hand.