The Gorilla Hunters: A Tale of the Wilds of Africa First published in 1861, is a boys' adventure novel by Scottish author R. M. Ballantyne, and the sequel to his hugely successful 1858 novel The Coral Island. Its main characters are the earlier novel's three boys: Ralph, Peterkin and Jack. Similar to those of The Coral Island, in which the boys testify to the positive influence of missionary work among the natives. Central in the novel is the hunt for gorillas, an animal until recently unknown to the Western world.