Transcription complète de Chapter 2 Part 1

--> 00:04:41.319 just as the manager was saying, no one, as far 70 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:44.519 as I know, unless a species of wandering trader, a 71 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:49.240 pestilential fellow snapping ivory from the natives. Who was it 72 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:53.560 they were talking about? Now? I gathered in snatches that 73 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:56.639 this was some man supposed to be in Kurtz's district, 74 00:04:56.920 --> 00:05:00.800 and of whom the manager did not approve. We will 75 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:03.560 not be free from unfair competition till one of these 76 00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:07.560 fellows is hanged. For an example, he said, certainly grunted 77 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:11.319 the other, get him hanged. Why not anything? Anything can 78 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:14.519 be done in this country. That's what I say. Nobody here, 79 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:19.319 you understand here can endanger your position, and why you 80 00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:23.360 stand the climate, you outlast them all. The danger is 81 00:05:23.399 --> 00:05:26.000 in Europe. But there before I left, I took care 82 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:29.920 to They moved off and whispered. Then their voices rose again. 83 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:34.079 The extraordinary series of delays is not my fault. I 84 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:40.519 did my best. The fat man sighed very sad, and 85 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:44.560 the postiferous absurdity of his talk continued. The other he 86 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:48.319 bothered me enough when he was here. Each station should 87 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:50.800 be like a beacon on the road towards better things, 88 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:56.439 a center for trade, of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing. 89 00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:01.519 Conceive you that ass and he wants to be manager. No, 90 00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:06.040 it's here. He got choked by excessive indignation, and I 91 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:09.639 lifted my head the least bit. I was surprised to 92 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:12.600 see how near they were right under me. I could 93 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:16.079 have spat on their hats. They were looking at the ground, 94 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:19.480 absorbed in thought. The manager was switching his leg with 95 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:24.319 a slender twig. His sagacious relative lifted his head. You 96 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:26.920 have been well since you came out this time, he asked. 97 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:31.720 The other gave a start. Who I oh, like a 98 00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:34.720 charm like a charm. But the rest, oh, my goodness, 99 00:06:34.839 --> 00:06:37.800 all sick. They die so quick too, that I haven't 100 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:40.040 the time to send them out of the country. It's 101 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:46.199 incredible hum just so grunted. The uncle. Ah, my boy, 102 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:49.720 trust to this, I say, trust to this. I saw 103 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:51.920 him extend his short flipper of an arm for a 104 00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:55.439 gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, 105 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:59.720 the river seemed to beckon with a dishonoring flourish before 106 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:03.240 the sun unlit face of the land, a treacherous appeal 107 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:07.160 to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the 108 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:12.920 profound darkness of its heart. It was so startling that 109 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.040 I leaped to my feet and looked back at the 110 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:17.759 edge of the forest, as though I had expected an 111 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:21.319 answer of some sort to that black display of confidence. 112 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:24.879 You know, the foolish notions that come to one sometimes. 113 00:07:25.639 --> 00:07:29.000 The high stillness confronted these two figures with its ominous patients, 114 00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:34.040 waiting for the passing away of a fantastic invasion, They 115 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:37.040 swirl out together out of sheer fright, I believe, then, 116 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:39.959 pretending not to know anything of my existence, turned back 117 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.000 to the station. The sun was low, and leaning forward 118 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:46.800 side by side, they seemed to be tugging painfully up 119 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:50.759 hill their two ridiculous shadows of unequal length that trailed 120 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:53.360 behind them slowly over the tall grass without bending a 121 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:57.680 single blade. In a few days, the El Dorado expedition 122 00:07:57.800 --> 00:08:01.240 went into the patient wilderness that closed upon it as 123 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:05.439 the sea closes over a driver. Long afterwards the news 124 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:09.360 came that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing 125 00:08:09.399 --> 00:08:12.439 as to the fate of the less valuable animals. They, 126 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:15.319 no doubt, like the rest of us, found what they deserved. 127 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:19.319 I did not inquire. I was then rather excited at 128 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:22.639 the prospect of meeting Kurts very soon. When I say 129 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:25.839 very soon, I mean it comparatively. It was just two 130 00:08:25.879 --> 00:08:27.800 months from the day we left the creek when we 131 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:31.439 came to the bank below Kurtz's station. Going up that 132 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:34.159 river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of 133 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:37.879 the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth, and the 134 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:42.639 big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, 135 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:49.360 an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. 136 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:54.320 There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The 137

00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:58.519 long stretches of the waterway ran on, deserted into the 138 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:04.919 gloom of the overshadowed distances. On silvery sand banks, hippos 139 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:09.519 and alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening waters 140 00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:12.879 flowed through a mob of wooded islands. You lost your 141 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:14.759 way on that river as you would in a desert, 142 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:18.360 and budded all day long against shoals, trying to find 143 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:21.879 the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off 144 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:25.840 forever from everything you had known once somewhere far away, 145 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:31.159 in another existence. Perhaps there were moments when once past 146 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:34.200 came back to one, as it will sometimes when you 147 00:09:34.279 --> 00:09:37.559 have not a moment to spare for yourself. But it 148 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:40.919 came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, 149 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:45.720 remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange 150 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:52.200 world of plants, water and silence. And this stillness of 151 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:56.440 life did not, in the least resemble a peace. It 152 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:59.720 was the stillness of an implacable force, brooding over in 153 00:09:59.720 --> 00:10:04.120 its scrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect. 154 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:08.360 I got used to it. Afterwards, I did not see 155 00:10:08.360 --> 00:10:11.919 it any more. I had no time. I had to 156 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:15.360 keep guessing at the channel I had to discern, mostly 157 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:19.200 by inspiration, the signs of hidden banks. I watched for 158 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:22.759 sunken stones. I was learning to clap my teeth smartly 159 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:26.320 before my heart flew out when I shaved by a fluke, 160 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:29.120 some infernal sly oled snag that would have ripped the 161 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:32.399 life out of the tin pot steamboat and drowned all 162 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:35.639 the pilgrims. I had to keep a look out for 163 00:10:35.720 --> 00:10:37.919 the signs of dead wood we could cut up in 164 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:40.960 the night for next day's steaming. When you have to 165 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:43.919 attend to things of that sort, to the mere incidents 166 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:49.559 of the surface, the reality, the reality, I tell you, fades. 167 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:56.399 The inner truth is hidden, luckily, luckily. But I felt 168 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.639 it all the same. I felt often its mysterious stillness 169 00:11:00.039 --> 00:11:02.919 watching me at my money tricks, just as it watches 170 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:06.519 you fellows performing on your respective tight ropes. For what 171 00:11:06.679 --> 00:11:10.840 is it half a crown a tumble, Try to be civil, 172 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:13.600 Marlowe growled a voice, and I knew there was at 173 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:18.159 least one listener awake beside myself. I beg your pardon. 174 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:20.279 I forgot the heartache which makes up the rest of 175 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.320 the price. And indeed, what does the price matter? If 176 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:26.320 the trick be well done, you do your tricks very well, 177 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:28.960 and I didn't do badly either. Since I managed not 178 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:31.879 to sink that steamboat on my first trip, it's a 179 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:35.720 wonder to me. Yet, imagine a blindfolded man set to 180 00:11:35.799 --> 00:11:39.279 drive a van over a bad road. I sweated and 181 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:43.879 shivered over that business considerably, I can tell you, after all, 182 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:46.440 for a seaman to scrape the bottom of the thing 183 00:11:46.519 --> 00:11:49.399 that's supposed to float all the time under his care 184 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:52.919 is the unpardonable sin. No one may know of it, 185 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:56.240 but you never forget the thumb eh a blow on 186 00:11:56.279 --> 00:11:59.960 the very heart. You remember it, you dream of it, 187 00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:02.960 You wake up at night and think of it years after, 188 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:07.080 and go hot and cold all over. I don't pretend 189 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:09.840 to say that steamboat floated all the time. More than 190 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:12.480 once she had to wait for a bit with twenty 191 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:16.480 cannibals splashing around and pushing. We had enlisted some of 192 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:19.200 these chaps on the way for a crew. Fine fellows 193 00:12:19.240 --> 00:12:23.759 cannibals in their place. They were men one could work with, 194 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.960 and I am grateful to them. And after all, they 195 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:29.960 did not eat each other before my face. They had 196 00:12:29.960 --> 00:12:32.799 brought along a provision of hippo meat, which went rotten 197 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:36.039 and made the mystery of the wilderness stink in my hostels. 198 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:40.519 Who I can sniff it? Now? I had the manager 199 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:42.879 on board, and three or four pilgrims with their staves, 200 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.879 all complete. Sometimes we came upon a station close by 201 00:12:46.919 --> 00:12:49.879 the bank, clinging to the skirts of the unknown, and 202 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.440 the white men rushing out of a tumble down hovel 203 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:56.519 with great gestures of joy and surprise and welcome, seemed 204 00:12:56.600 --> 00:13:00.519 very strange, had the appearance of being held there by 205 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:04.120 a spell. The word

ivory would ring in the air 206 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:07.200 for a while, And on we went again into the silence, 207 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:12.759 along empty reaches, round the still bends, between the high 208 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:16.360 walls of our winding way, reverbating in hollow claps, the 209 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:24.039 ponderous beat of the stern wheel. Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, 210 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:27.639 running up high and at their foot, hugging the bank 211 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:31.200 against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a 212 00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:34.480 sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. 213 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:39.720 It made you feel very small, very lost, And yet 214 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:44.159 it was not altogether depressing that feeling. After all, if 215 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:47.759 you were small, the grimy beetle crawled on, which was 216 00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:51.159 just what you wanted. It to do where the pilgrims 217 00:13:51.159 --> 00:13:54.200 imagined it crawled to, I don't know, to some place 218 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:57.639 where they expected to get something. I bet for me, 219 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:02.480 it crawled towards kurts exclu lusively. But when the steam 220 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:06.919 pipes started leaking, we crawled very slow. The reaches opened 221 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:10.559 before us and closed behind, as if the forest had 222 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:13.399 stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for 223 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:17.600 our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart 224 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:24.159 of darkness. It was very quiet there at night. Sometimes 225 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:27.440 the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would 226 00:14:27.480 --> 00:14:30.759 run up the river and remain sustained, faintly, as if 227 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:33.759 hovering in the air, high over our heads till the 228 00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:38.840 first break of day. Whether it meant war, peace or prayer, 229 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:42.159 we could not tell. The dawns were heralded by the 230 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:46.120 descent of a chill stillness. The wood cutters slept, their 231 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:49.440 fires burned low. The snapping of a twig would make 232 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:54.919 you start. We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on 233 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:57.559 an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet. 234 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:00.799 We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking 235 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:04.200 possession of an accursed inheritance to be subdued at the 236 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:09.159 cost of profound anguish and of excessive toil. But suddenly, 237 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:12.000 as we struggled round a bend, there would be a 238 00:15:12.039 --> 00:15:16.720 glimpse of rush, walls of peaked glass roofs, a

burst 239 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:20.879 of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a mass of hands, 240 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:25.720 clapping of feet, stamping of bodies, swaying of eyes, rolling 241 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:30.480 under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage. The steamer 242 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:33.559 toiled along slowly on the edge of a black and 243 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:39.360 incomprehensible frenzy. The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, 244 00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:42.840 welcoming us. Who could tell we were cut off from 245 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:47.320 the comprehension of our surroundings. We glided past like phantoms, 246 00:15:47.720 --> 00:15:51.399 wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before 247 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:55.279 an enthusiastic outbreak in a mad house. We could not 248 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:58.919 understand because we were too far and could not remember. 249 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:01.480 Because we were traveling in the night of first ages, 250 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:05.320 of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign 251 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:12.039 and no memories, The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed 252 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:14.720 to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, 253 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.799 But there there you could look at a thing monstrous 254 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:23.000 and free. It was unearthly, and the men were no 255 00:16:23.080 --> 00:16:26.399 they were not inhuman. Well you know that was the 256 00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:29.759 worst of it, this suspicion of their not being inhuman. 257 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:34.919 It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped 258 00:16:35.320 --> 00:16:39.679 and spun and made horrid faces. But what thrilled you 259 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:43.919 was just the thought of their humanity like yours, the 260 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:50.200 thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly, yes, 261 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.679 it was ugly enough. But if you were mad enough, 262 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.279 you would admit to yourself that there was in you 263 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:58.679 just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible 264 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:02.320 frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being 265 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:05.279 a meaning in it, which you, you so remote from 266 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:09.599 the night of first Ages, could comprehend. And why not? 267 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:14.160 The mind of man is capable of anything, because everything 268 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:16.880 is in it, all the past as well as all 269 00:17:16.920 --> 00:17:24.119 the future. What was there after all? Joy, fear, sorrow, devotion, valor, rage? 270 00:17:24.519 --> 00:17:28.759 Who can tell but truth, Truth stripped of its cloak 271 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:32.720 of time. Let the fool gape and shudder. The man 272 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:36.799 knows and can look on without a wink, But he 273 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:39.319 must at least be as much of a man as 274 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:42.440 these on the shore. He must meet that truth with 275 00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:47.000 his own true stuff, with his own inborn strength. Principles 276 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:51.720 won't do acquisitions clothes, pretty rags, rags that would fly 277 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:55.119 off at the first good shake. No, you want a 278 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:59.279 deliberate belief and appeal to me in this fiendish row? 279 00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:02.559 Is there very well? I hear, I admit, But I 280 00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:05.160 have a voice too, and for good or evil, mine 281 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:10.480 is the speech that cannot be silenced. Of course, a fool, 282 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:13.480 what with sheer, fright and fine sentiments, is always safe. 283 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:16.279 Who's that grunting? You wonder I didn't go ashore for 284 00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:21.160 a howl and a dance. Well, no, I didn't fine sentiments, 285 00:18:21.160 --> 00:18:25.119 you say, fine sentiments be hanged. I had no time. 286 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:28.079 I had to mess about with white lead and strips 287 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:31.079 of woolen blanket, helping to put bandages on those leaky 288 00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:33.759 steam pipes. I tell you, I had to watch the 289 00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:37.599 steering and circumvent those snags, and get the tin pot 290 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:41.079 along by hook or by crook. There was surface truth 291 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:44.160 enough in these things to save a wiser man. And 292 00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:46.799 between whiles I had to look after the savage who 293 00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:51.240 was fireman. He was an improved specimen. He could fire 294 00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:54.279 up a vertical boiler. He was there below me, and 295 00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:57.079 upon my word, to look at him was as edifying 296 00:18:57.119 --> 00:18:59.759 as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and 297 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:03.960 a other hat walking on his hind legs. A few 298 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:06.720 months of training had done for that really fine chap. 299 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:09.759 He squinted at the steam gage and at the water 300 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:13.480 gage with an evident effort of intrepidity. And he had 301 00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:16.359 filed teeth too, the poor devil, and the wool of 302 00:19:16.359 --> 00:19:20.680 his pate shaved into queer patterns, and three ornamental scars 303 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.759 on each of his cheeks. He ought to have been 304 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:26.119 clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank, 305 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:28.960 instead of which he was hard at work, a thrall 306 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:33.960 to strange witchcraft, full of improving knowledge. He was useful 307 00:19:33.960 -->

00:19:36.880 because he had been instructed. And what he knew was this, 308 00:19:37.799 --> 00:19:41.160 that should the water in that transparent thing disappear, the 309 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:43.839 evil spirit inside the boiler would get angry through the 310 00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:47.640 greatness of his thirst and take a terrible vengeance. So 311 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:51.240 he sweated and fired up, and watched the glass fearfully, 312 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:54.519 with an impromptu charm made of rags tied to his arm, 313 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:56.920 and a piece of polished bone as big as a 314 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:00.759 watch stuck flatways through his lower lip. While the wooded 315 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:04.119 bank slipped past us slowly, The short noise was left 316 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:08.759 behind the interminable miles of silence, and we crept on 317 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:13.759 towards Kurts. But the snags were thick, the water was 318 00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:16.920 treacherous and shallow. The boiler seemed indeed to have a 319 00:20:16.920 --> 00:20:19.880 sulky devil in it, and thus neither that fireman nor 320 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:27.759 I had any time to peer into our creepy thoughts. 321 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:32.039 Some fifty miles below the inner station, we came upon 322 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:35.839 a hut of reeds, an inclined and melancholy pole with 323 00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:39.119 the unrecognizable tatters of what had been a flag of 324 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:43.039 some sort flying from it, and a neatly stacked wood pile. 325 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:47.440 This was unexpected. We came to the bank and on 326 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:50.359 the stack of firewood found a flat piece of board 327 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:53.799 with some faded pencil riding on it. When deciphered, it 328 00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:59.319 said wood for you, hurry up, approach cautiously. There was 329 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:03.000 a signature, but it was illegible, not kerts, a much 330 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:09.400 longer word hurry up. Where up the river approached cautiously. 331 00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:13.599 We had not done so, but the warning could not 332 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:15.440 have been meant for the place where it could only 333 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:21.039 be found after approach. Something was wrong above, But what 334 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:25.720 and how much? That was the question. We commented adversely 335 00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:30.119 upon the imbecility of that telegraphic style. The bush around 336 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.200 said nothing, and would not let us look very far either. 337 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:37.640 A torn curtain of red twill hung in the doorway 338 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:41.240 of the hut and flapped sadly in our faces. The 339 00:21:41.319 --> 00:21:44.319 dwelling was dismantled, but we could see a white man 340 00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:47.599 had lived there not very long ago. There remained a 341 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:51.680 rude table, a plank on two posts, a heap of 342 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:54.599 rubbish reposed in a dark corner, and by the door. 343 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.920 I picked up a book. It had lost its covers, 344 00:21:57.960 --> 00:21:59.799 and the pages had been thumbed into a state of 345 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:03.559 it extremely dirty softness. But the back had been lovingly 346 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:08.039 stitched afresh with white cotton thread, which looked clean. Yet 347 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:13.519 it was an extraordinary find. Its title was an Inquiry 348 00:22:13.599 --> 00:22:18.680 into some points of Seamanship by a man Towser Tausen, 349 00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:23.920 some such name, master in his Majesty's Navy. The matter 350 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:28.279 looked dreary reading enough, with illustrative diagrams and repulsive tables, 351 00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:33.400 of figures, and the copy was sixty years old. I 352 00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:37.319 handled this amazing antiquity with the greatest possible tenderness, lest 353 00:22:37.319 --> 00:22:42.319 it should dissolve in my hands. Within townshen Or Towser 354 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:46.519 was inquiring earnestly into the breaking strain of ships, chains 355 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:50.799 and tackle, and other such matters. Not a very enthralling book, 356 00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:53.599 but at the first glance you could see there a 357 00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:57.079 singleness of intention, an honest concern for the right way 358 00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:00.640 of going to work, which made these humble pages, thought 359 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:02.920 out so many years ago, luminous with another than a 360 00:23:02.920 --> 00:23:07.039 professional light. The simple old sailor, with his talk of 361 00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:10.400 chains and purchases, made me forget the jungle and the 362 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:13.680 pilgrims in a delicious sensation of having come upon something 363 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:18.519 unmistakably real. Such a book being here was wonderful enough. 364 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:22.000 Still more astounding were the notes penciled in the margin 365 00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:26.240 and plainly referring to the text. I couldn't believe my eyes. 366 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:31.759 They were in cipher. Yes, it looked like a cipher fancy. 367 00:23:31.799 --> 00:23:34.079 A man lugging with him a book of that description 368 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:39.319 into this nowhere and studying it and making notes in cipher. 369 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:44.640 At that it was an extravagant mystery. I had been 370 00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:47.640 dimly aware for some time of a worrying noise, and 371 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:50.240 when I lifted my eyes, I saw the woodpile was gone, 372 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:53.680 and the manager, aided by all the pilgrims, was shouting 373 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:56.319 at me from the river side. I

slipped the book 374 00:23:56.359 --> 00:23:59.279 into my pocket. I assure you to leave off. Reading 375 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:01.599 was like tearing myself away from the shelter of an 376 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:06.079 old and solid friendship. I started the lame engine ahead. 377 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:11.119 It must be this miserable trader, this intruder, exclaimed the manager, 378 00:24:11.400 --> 00:24:14.519 looking back malevolently at the place we had left. He 379 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:17.400 must be English. I said. It will not save him 380 00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:20.000 from getting into trouble if he is not careful, muttered 381 00:24:20.039 --> 00:24:24.440 the manager darkly. I observed, with assumed innocence, that no 382 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:28.640 man was safe from trouble in this world. The current 383 00:24:28.759 --> 00:24:32.200 was more rapid now. The steamer seamed at her last gasp. 384 00:24:32.680 --> 00:24:35.799 The stern wheel flopped languidly, and I caught myself listening 385 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:37.640 on the tiptoe for the next beat of the boat. 386 00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:41.200 For in sober truth, I expected the wretched thing to 387 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:44.599 give up every moment. It was like watching the last 388 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:49.039 flickers of a life. But still, we crawled. Sometimes I 389 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:51.240 would pick out a tree a little way ahead to 390 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:54.400 measure our progress towards Kurtz by, but I lost it 391 00:24:54.440 --> 00:24:58.359 invariably before we got abreast. To keep the eye so 392 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:01.039 long on one thing was too much for human patience. 393 00:25:02.119 --> 00:25:06.480 The manager displayed a beautiful resignation. I fretted and fumed, 394 00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:08.680 and took to arguing with myself whether or no I 395 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:12.000 would talk openly with Kurtz. But before I could come 396 00:25:12.039 --> 00:25:14.799 to any conclusion, it occurred to me that my speech, 397 00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:18.119 or my silence, indeed any action of mine, would be 398 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:21.920 a mere futility. What did it matter what any one 399 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:26.240 knew or ignored? What did it matter who was manager? 400 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:31.240 One gets sometimes such a flash of insight. The essentials 401 00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:33.720 of this affair lay deep under the surface, beyond my 402 00:25:33.799 --> 00:25:38.960 reach and beyond my power of meddling. Towards the evening 403 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:42.000 of the second day, we judged ourselves about eight miles 404 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:45.680 from Kurtz's station. I wanted to push on, but the 405 00:25:45.720 --> 00:25:48.559 manager looked grave and told me the navigation up there 406 00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:52.119 was so dangerous that it would be advisable, the sun 407 00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:54.880 being very low already, to wait where we were till 408 00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:58.880 next morning. Moreover, He pointed out that if the warning 409 00:25:58.920 --> 00:26:02.400 to approach cautiously were to be followed, we must approach 410 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:06.440 in daylight, not at dusk or in the dark. This 411 00:26:06.599 --> 00:26:10.279 was sensible enough. Eight miles met nearly three hours steaming 412 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:13.039 for us, and I could also see suspicious ripples at 413 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:17.359 the upper end of the reach. Nevertheless, I was annoyed 414 00:26:17.400 --> 00:26:21.920 beyond expression at the delay, and most unreasonably too, since 415 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:24.960 one night more could not matter much after so many months, 416 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:29.119 as we had plenty of wood, and caution was the 417 00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:31.720 word I brought up in the middle of the stream. 418 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:35.640 The reach was narrow, straight, with high sides, like a 419 00:26:35.720 --> 00:26:40.279 railway cutting. The dusk came gliding into it long before 420 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:43.880 the sun had set. The current ran smooth and swift, 421 00:26:44.240 --> 00:26:48.319 but a dumb immobility sat on the banks. The living 422 00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:51.480 trees lashed together by the creepers, and every living bush 423 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:55.599 of the undergrowth might have been changed into stone, even 424 00:26:55.640 --> 00:27:00.279 to the slenderest twig, to the lightest leaf. It was 425 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:03.839 not sleep. It seemed unnatural, like a state of trance. 426 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:07.400 Not the faintest sound of any kind could be heard. 427 00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:11.359 You looked on, amazed, and began to suspect yourself of 428 00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:17.200 being deaf. Then the night came suddenly and struck you 429 00:27:17.319 --> 00:27:21.640 blind as well. About three in the morning, some large 430 00:27:21.640 --> 00:27:24.559 fish leaped, and the loud splash made me jump as 431 00:27:24.599 --> 00:27:27.200 though a gun had been fired. When the sun rose, 432 00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:30.400 there was a white fog, very warm and clammy and 433 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:34.440 more blinding than the night. It did not shift or drive. 434 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:38.279 It was just there standing all round you, like something solid. 435 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:42.960 At eight or nine, perhaps it lifted as a shutter lifts. 436 00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:46.599 We had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees, 437 00:27:47.240 --> 00:27:50.519 of the immense matted jungle, with the blazing little ball 438 00:27:50.599 --> 00:27:54.440 of the sun hanging over it, all perfectly still. And 439 00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:57.720 then the white shutter came down again, smoothly, as if 440 00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:02.319 sliding in greased grooves. I ordered the chain which we 441 00:28:02.400 -->

00:28:04.400 had begun to heave in to be paid out again 442 00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:08.319 before it stopped running with a muffled rattle. A cry, 443 00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:12.519 a very loud cry as of infinite desolation, soared slowly 444 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:18.519 in the opaque air. It ceased. A complaining clamor modulated 445 00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:23.480 in savage discords, filled our ears. The sheer unexpectedness of 446 00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:26.200 it made my hair stir under my cap. I don't 447 00:28:26.200 --> 00:28:28.599 know how it struck the others. To me, it seemed 448 00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:32.279 as though the mist itself screamed. So suddenly, and apparently 449 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:35.319 from all sides at once, did this tumultuous and mournful 450 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:41.279 uproar arise. It culminated in a hurried outbreak of almost 451 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:46.160 intolerably excessive shrieking, which stopped short, leaving us stiffened in 452 00:28:46.200 --> 00:28:49.440 a variety of silly attitudes and obstinately listening to the 453 00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:54.440 nearly as appalling and excessive silence. Good God, what is 454 00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:57.440 the meaning? Stammered at my elbow. One of the pilgrims, 455 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:00.799 a little fat man with sandy hair and red whiskers 456 00:29:01.079 --> 00:29:04.359 who wore side spring boots and pink pig pajamas tucked 457 00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:09.240 into his socks. Two others remained open mouthed a while minute, 458 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:13.000 then dashed into the little cabin to rush out incontinently 459 00:29:13.119 --> 00:29:18.440 and stand, to rush out incontinently and stand darting scared 460 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:22.960 glances with winchesters at ready in their hands. What we 461 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:26.400 could see was just the steamer we were on, her 462 00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:28.640 outlines blurred as though she had been on the point 463 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:32.240 of dissolving, and a misty strip of water perhaps two 464 00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:37.359 feet broad around her, And that was all the rest 465 00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:40.119 of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes 466 00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:48.519 and ears were concerned, just nowhere. Gone disappeared, swept off, 467 00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:53.480 without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind. I went 468 00:29:53.559 --> 00:29:55.839 forward and ordered the chain to be hauled in short, 469 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:57.839 so as to be ready to trip the anchor and 470 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:01.920 move the steamboat at once if necessary. Will they attack, 471 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:06.160 whispered an odd voice. We will all be butchered in 472 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:10.839 this fog, murmured another. The faces twitched with the strain, 473 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:16.039 the hands trembled slightly, the eyes forgot to wink. It 474 00:30:16.119 --> 00:30:18.720 was very

curious to see the contrast of expressions of 475 00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:21.319 the white men and of the black fellows of our crew, 476 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:23.839 who were as much strangers to that part of the 477 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:26.640 river as we, though their homes were only eight hundred 478 00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:31.960 miles away. The whites, of course, greatly discomposed, had besides 479 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:34.559 a curious look of being painfully shocked by such an 480 00:30:34.599 --> 00:30:40.240 outrageous row. The others had an alert, naturally interested expression, 481 00:30:40.920 --> 00:30:43.720 but their faces were essentially quiet, even those of the 482 00:30:43.720 --> 00:30:45.799 one or two who grinned as they hauled at the chain. 483 00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:51.279 Several exchanged short, grunting phrases, which seemed to settle the 484 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:55.559 matter to their satisfaction. Their head man, a young, broad 485 00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:59.839 chested black, severely draped in a dark blue fringed cloths 486 00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:03.039 with fierce nostrils, and his hair all done up artfully 487 00:31:03.279 --> 00:31:07.720 in oily ringlets, stood near me. Aha, I said, just 488 00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:11.160 for good fellowship's sake, catchum, he snapped, with a blood 489 00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:14.279 shot widening of his eyes and a flash of sharp teeth. 490 00:31:14.799 --> 00:31:21.200 Catch im, give em to us, to you, eh, I asked, 491 00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:25.960 What would you do? Then? Edam? He said, curtly, and 492 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:28.319 leaning his elbow on the rail, looked out into the 493 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:33.200 fog in a dignified and profoundly punceive attitude. I would 494 00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:36.039 no doubt have been properly horrified had it not occurred 495 00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:38.839 to me that he and his chaps must be very hungry, 496 00:31:39.640 --> 00:31:42.200 that they must have been growing increasingly hungry for at 497 00:31:42.279 --> 00:31:46.839 least this month passed. They had been engaged for six months. 498 00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:48.880 I don't think a single one of them had had 499 00:31:48.920 --> 00:31:51.200 any clear idea of the time, as we at the 500 00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:54.039 end of countless ages have they still belonged to the 501 00:31:54.079 --> 00:31:57.519 beginnings of time, had no inherited experience to teach them 502 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:00.400 as it were, And of course, as long as there 503 00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:03.240 was a piece of paper written over in accordance with 504 00:32:03.359 --> 00:32:06.200 some farcical law or other made down the river. It 505 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:10.920 didn't enter anybody's head to trouble how they would live. Certainly, 506 00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:13.400 they had brought with them some rotten hippo meat, which 507 00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:16.839 couldn't have lasted very long anyway, even if the pilgrims hadn't, 508 00:32:16.920 --> 00:32:19.960 in the midst of a shocking hullabaloo, thrown a considerable 509 00:32:20.039 --> 00:32:25.039 quantity of it overboard. It looked like a high handed proceeding, 510 00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:28.039 but it was really a case of legitimate self defense. 511 00:32:28.599 --> 00:32:32.039 You can't breathe dead hippo walking, sleeping, and eating and 512 00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:34.680 at the same time keep your precarious grip on existence. 513 00:32:36.039 --> 00:32:39.279 Besides that, they had given them every week three pieces 514 00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:43.240 of brass wire, each about nine inches long, and the 515 00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:45.079 theory was they were to buy their provisions with that 516 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:49.279 currency in riverside villages. You can see how that worked. 517 00:32:50.279 --> 00:32:52.920 There were either no villages, or the people were hostile, 518 00:32:53.400 --> 00:32:55.319 or the director, who liked the rest of us fed 519 00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:58.559 out of tins with an occasional old he go thrown in, 520 00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:00.759 didn't want to stop the steamer for some more or 521 00:33:00.799 --> 00:33:05.240 less reckoned it reason. So unless they swallowed the wire 522 00:33:05.279 --> 00:33:07.799 itself or made loops of it to snare the fishes with. 523 00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:11.079 I don't see what good their extravagant salary could be 524 00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:14.359 to them. I must say it was paid with the 525 00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:19.119 regularity worthy of a large and honorable trading company. For 526 00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:21.440 the rest, the only thing to eat, though it didn't 527 00:33:21.480 --> 00:33:24.359 look eatable in the least I saw in their possession, 528 00:33:24.519 --> 00:33:27.440 was a few lumps of some stuff like half cooked 529 00:33:27.480 --> 00:33:31.039 dough of a dirty lavender color. They kept wrapped in leaves, 530 00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:33.519 and now and then swallowed a piece of but so 531 00:33:33.559 --> 00:33:35.440 small that it seemed done more for the looks of 532 00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:39.400 the thing than for any serious purpose of sustenance. Why 533 00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:41.519 in the name of all the gnawing devils of hunger 534 00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:44.440 they didn't go for us? They were thirty to five 535 00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:47.400 and have a good tuck in for once. Amazes me 536 00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:51.119 now when I think of it. They were big, powerful men, 537 00:33:51.240 --> 00:33:54.880 with not much capacity to weigh the consequences with courage 538 00:33:54.920 --> 00:33:57.640 with strength. Even yet, though their skins were no longer 539 00:33:57.640 --> 00:34:01.519 glossy and their muscles no longer hard, and I saw 540 00:34:01.559 --> 00:34:06.160 that something restraining, one of those human secrets that bawful probability, 541 00:34:06.359 --> 00:34:10.000

had come into play there. I looked at them with 542 00:34:10.039 --> 00:34:13.199 a swift quickening of interest, not because it occurred to 543 00:34:13.239 --> 00:34:15.599 me I might be eaten by them before very long, 544 00:34:16.039 --> 00:34:18.559 though I owned to you that just then I perceived 545 00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:21.440 in a new light, as it were, how unwholesome the 546 00:34:21.480 --> 00:34:25.920 pilgrims looked. And I hoped, Yes, I positively hoped that 547 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:30.360 my aspect was not so what shall I say, so unappetizing, 548 00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:34.519 a touch of fantastic vanity, which fitted well with the 549 00:34:34.559 --> 00:34:37.199 dream sensation that pervaded all my days at that time. 550 00:34:38.800 --> 00:34:41.880 Perhaps I had a little fever too. One can't live 551 00:34:41.920 --> 00:34:46.039 with one's finger everlastingly on one's pulse. I had often 552 00:34:46.159 --> 00:34:49.079 a little fever, or a little touch of other things, 553 00:34:50.239 --> 00:34:53.760 the playful pas strokes of the wilderness, the preliminary trifling 554 00:34:53.800 --> 00:34:58.039 before the more serious onslaught, which came in due course. Yes, 555 00:34:58.679 --> 00:35:01.000 I looked at them as you would on any human being, 556 00:35:01.800 --> 00:35:07.239 with the curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses, when 557 00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:11.960 brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity, restraint 558 00:35:12.440 --> 00:35:21.639 What possible restraint was it? Superstition, disgust, patience, fear, or 559 00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:25.880 some kind of primitive honor. No fear can stand up 560 00:35:25.880 --> 00:35:29.840 to hunger, No patience can wear it out. Disgust simply 561 00:35:29.880 --> 00:35:34.280 does not exist where hunger is. And as to superstition, beliefs, 562 00:35:34.280 --> 00:35:36.840 and what you may call principles, they are less than 563 00:35:36.920 --> 00:35:40.760 chaf in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of 564 00:35:40.840 --> 00:35:47.320 lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its somber 565 00:35:47.360 --> 00:35:52.119 and brooding ferocity. Well, I do. It takes man all 566 00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:56.559 his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier 567 00:35:56.559 --> 00:35:59.920 to face bereavement, dishonor, and the perdition of one's soul 568 00:36:00.199 --> 00:36:04.679 than this kind of prolonged hunger. Sad but true. And 569 00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:07.800 these chaps too, had no earthly reason for any kind 570 00:36:07.800 --> 00:36:12.599 of scruple restraint. I would just as soon have expected 571 00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:16.639 restraint from a hyaena prowling amongst the corpses of a battlefield. 572 00:36:17.480 --> 00:36:21.519 But there was the fact facing me, the fact dazzling 573 00:36:21.559 --> 00:36:24.039 to be seen, like the foam on the depths of 574 00:36:24.119 --> 00:36:28.199 the sea, like a ripple on an unfathomable enigma, a 575 00:36:28.280 --> 00:36:31.000 mystery greater when I thought of it, than the curious, 576 00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:36.039 inexplicable note of desperate grief in this savage clamor that 577 00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:38.639 had swept by us on the river bank. Behind the 578 00:36:38.679 --> 00:36:52.159 blind whiteness of the fog, end of Chapter two, Part one,