Trascrizione completa di Chapter 1 Part 1

00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:49.199 the sea with reverence and affection that to evoke the 69 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:52.279 great spirit of the past. Upon the lower reaches of 70 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:57.240 the Thames, the tidal current runs to and fro in 71 00:04:57.319 --> 00:05:01.959 its unceasing service, crowded memories of men and ships it 72 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:04.319 had borne to the rest of home, or to the 73 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:08.399 battles of the sea. It had known and served all 74 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:11.399 the men of whom the nation is proud, From Sir 75 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:17.120 Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin Knights, all titled and untitled, 76 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:21.800 the great Knights, errant of the sea. It had borne 77 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:24.680 all the ships whose names are like jewels flashing in 78 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:28.720 the knight of time, from the Golden Hind, returning with 79 00:05:28.759 --> 00:05:31.879 her rotund flanks full of treasure, to be visited by 80 00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:35.000 the Queen's Highness, and thus passed out of the gigantic 81 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:40.879 tale to the erebus and terror, bound on other conquests, 82 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:45.839 and that never returned. It had known the ships and 83 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:51.240 the men they had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith, 84 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:56.120 the adventurers and the settlers, King's ships and the ships 85 00:05:56.120 --> 00:06:02.040 of men on change, Captains, admir rolls, the dark interlopers 86 00:06:02.079 --> 00:06:06.600 of the Eastern trade, and the commissioned generals of East India. Fleets, 87 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:11.560 hunters for gold, are pursuers of fame. They all had 88 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:14.959 gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often 89 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.360 the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers 90 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:23.560 of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had 91 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:25.639 not floated on the ebb of that river, into the 92 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:30.000 mystery of an unknown earth, The dreams of men, the 93 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:36.040 seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires, the sun set 94 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:39.839 the dusk fell on the stream, and lights began to 95 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:44.519 appear along the shore. The Chapman Lighthouse, a three legged 96 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:49.199 thing erect on a mud flat, shone strongly. Lights of 97 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.439 ships moved in the fairway, a great stir of lights 98 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:56.279 going up and going down. And farther west on the 99 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:59.720 upper reaches, the place of the monstrous town was still 100 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:03.720 marked ominously on the sky, a brooding gloom in sunshine, 101 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:10.959 a lurid glare under the stars. And this also, said Marlow, 102 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:13.959 suddenly has been one of the dark places of the earth. 103 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:17.800 He was the only man of us who still followed 104 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:20.439 the sea. The worst that could be said of him 105 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:23.839 was that he did not represent his class. He was 106 00:07:23.879 --> 00:07:27.079 a seaman, but he was a wanderer too. While most 107 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:31.560 seamen led, if one may so express it, a sedentary life. 108 00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:34.720 Their minds are of the stay at home order, and 109 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:39.000 their home is always with them the ship, and so 110 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:43.920 is their country the sea. One ship is very much 111 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:48.439 like another, and the sea is always the same. In 112 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:53.079 the immutability of their surroundings, the foreign shores, the foreign faces, 113 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:57.720 the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by 114 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:01.319 a sense of mystery, but by a slightly disdainful ignorance. 115 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.120 For there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it 116 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:08.839 be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence, 117 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:14.079 and as inscrutable as destiny. For the rest after his 118 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:17.639 hours of work, a casual stroll or a casual spree 119 00:08:17.720 --> 00:08:20.680 on shore suffices to unfold for him the secret of 120 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:24.560 a whole continent, and generally he finds the secret not 121 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:29.920 worth knowing. The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, 122 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:32.799 the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of 123 00:08:32.840 --> 00:08:38.000 a cracked nut. But Marlowe was not typical. If his 124 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:42.039 propensities to spin yarns be accepted, and to him the 125 00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:45.240 meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel, 126 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:49.519 but outside, enveloping the tail which brought it out only 127 00:08:49.559 --> 00:08:53.039 as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness 128 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:55.840 of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made 129 00:08:55.960 --> 00:09:01.559 visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine. His remark did 130 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:04.960 not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlowe. 131 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:09.399 It was accepted in silence. No one took the trouble 132 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:15.000 to grunt, even and presently he said, very slow, I 133 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:19.320 was thinking of very old times when the Romans first 134 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:26.279 came here nineteen hundred years ago. The other day, light 135 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:30.799 came out of this river. Since you say nights, yes, 136

00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.159 but it is like a running blaze on a plain, 137 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:38.440 like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live 138 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:41.639 in the flicker. It may last as long as the 139 00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:48.360 old earth keeps rolling. But darkness was here yesterday. Imagine 140 00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:51.799 the feelings of a commander of a fine what do 141 00:09:51.879 --> 00:09:55.840 you call em, trirem in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly to 142 00:09:55.919 --> 00:09:59.360 the north, run overland across the Gauls in a hurry, 143 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:03.120 put in charge of one of these craft. The legionaries, 144 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:05.919 A wonderful lot of handy men. They must have been 145 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.919 too used to build, apparently by the hundred in a 146 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:10.840 month or two, if we may believe what we read. 147 00:10:11.960 --> 00:10:15.600 Imagine him here the very end of the world. A 148 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:19.480 sea the color of lead, a sky the color of smoke, 149 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:23.639 a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina, 150 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:27.559 and going up this river with shores or orders or 151 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:34.440 what you like, sandbanks, marshes, forests, savages, precious little to eat, 152 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:38.279 fit for a civilized man. Nothing but Thames water to drink. 153 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:44.879 No Fellernian wine here, no going ashore here, and there 154 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:48.320 a military camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle 155 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:56.120 in a bundle of hay, cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile 156 00:10:57.919 --> 00:11:02.960 and death, death, skulking in the air, in the water, 157 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:08.960 in the bush. They must have been dying like flies here. Oh, yes, 158 00:11:09.320 --> 00:11:12.159 he did it, did it very well too, no doubt, 159 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:15.799 and without thinking much about it either except afterwards to 160 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:17.879 brag of what he had gone through in his time. 161 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:22.960 Perhaps they were men enough to face the darkness. And 162 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:25.200 perhaps he was cheered by keeping his eye on a 163 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:28.200 chance of promotion to the fleet at Ravenna, by and by, 164 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:30.919 if he had good friends in Rome and survived the 165 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:35.919 awful climate. Or think of a decent young citizen in 166 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:39.480 a toga. Perhaps too much dice, you know, coming out 167 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:42.279 here in the train of some prefect or tax gatherer 168 00:11:42.600 --> 00:11:46.679 or trader, even to mend his fortunes land in a swamp, 169 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:50.200 marched through the woods, and in some inland post. Feel 170 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:55.799 the savagery, the

utter savagery had closed round him, all 171 00:11:55.799 --> 00:11:59.320 that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, 172 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:04.440 in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's 173 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:08.360 no initiation either into such mysteries he has to live 174 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:12.000 in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable, 175 00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:16.679 and it has a fascination too that goes to work 176 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:21.799 upon him. The fascination of the abomination, you know, imagining, 177 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:27.480 the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, 178 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:37.240 the surrender, the hate. He paused mind. He began again, 179 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:40.039 lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the 180 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:42.919 hand outwards, so that with his legs folded before him, 181 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:46.240 he had a pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes, 182 00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:50.799 and without a lotus flower mind. None of us would 183 00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:55.320 feel exactly like this. What saves us his efficiency, the 184 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:59.960 devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account really. 185 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:04.399 They were no colonists. Their administration was merely a squeeze 186 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:08.799 and nothing more. I suspect they were conquerors, and for 187 00:13:08.919 --> 00:13:11.480 that you want only brute force, nothing to boast of 188 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:14.200 when you have it, since your strength is just an 189 00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:18.480 accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what 190 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:20.279 they could get for the sake of what was to 191 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:25.639 be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder 192 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.080 on a great scale, and men going at it blind, 193 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:31.480 as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. 194 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:35.720 The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking 195 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:38.360 it away from those who have a different complexion or 196 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:41.519 slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing 197 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:45.639 when you look into it too much. What redeems it 198 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:49.639 is the idea, only an idea at the back of it, 199 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:55.159 Not a sentimental pretense, but an idea and an unselfish 200 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:58.279 belief in the idea, something you can set up and 201 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:05.519 bow down before and for a sacrifice to he broke off. 202 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:10.919 Flames glided in the river, small green flames, red flames, 203 00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:17.799 white flames, pursuing, overtaking, joining, crossing each other, then separating 204 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:22.200 slowly or hastily. The traffic of the great city went 205 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:25.679 on in the deepening night upon the sleepless river. We 206 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:28.840 looked on, waiting patiently. There was nothing else to do 207 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:31.200 till the end of the flood. But it was only 208 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:36.639 after a long silence when he said, in a hesitating voice, 209 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:42.559 I suppose you, fellows, remember I did once turn fresh 210 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:46.919 water sailor for a bit that we knew we were faded. 211 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:50.000 Before the ebb began to run to hear about one 212 00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:55.519 of Marlow's inconclusive experiences. I don't want to bother you 213 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:59.559 much with what happened to me personally. He began showing 214 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:02.399 in this room the weakness of many tellers of tales, 215 00:15:02.759 --> 00:15:06.000 who seemed so often unaware of what their audience would 216 00:15:06.039 --> 00:15:09.960 like best to hear. Yet to understand the effect of 217 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:11.759 it on me, you ought to know how I got 218 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:15.320 out there, what I saw, how I went up that 219 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:18.039 river to the place where I first met the poor chap. 220 00:15:19.559 --> 00:15:22.720 It was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating 221 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:27.000 point of my experience. It seemed somehow to throw a 222 00:15:27.080 --> 00:15:31.159 kind of light on everything about me and into my thoughts. 223 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:35.919 It was somber enough, too, and pitiful, not extraordinary in 224 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:41.159 any way, not very clear either, No, not very clear, 225 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:45.840 And yet it seemed to throw a kind of light. 226 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.639 I had then, as you remember, just returned to London 227 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:54.759 after a lot of Indian Ocean Pacific China seas a 228 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:57.679 regular dose of the East six years or so, and 229 00:15:57.720 --> 00:16:00.480 I was loafing about hindering you fellows in your work 230 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:03.000 and invading your homes, just as though I had got 231 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:06.519 a heavenly mission to civilize you. It was very fine 232 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:08.919 for a time, But after a bit I did get 233 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:12.840 tired of resting. Then I began to look for a ship. 234 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:15.960 I should think, the hardest work on Earth, But the 235 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.879 ships wouldn't even look at me, and I got tired 236 00:16:18.919 --> 00:16:23.399 of that game too. Now, when I was a little chap, 237 00:16:23.399 --> 00:16:26.080 I had a passion for maps. I would look for 238 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:30.600 hours at South

America or Africa or Australia and lose 239 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:34.200 myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time, 240 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:36.519 there were many blank spaces on the Earth, And when 241 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:39.200 I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map, 242 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:41.919 but they all look that, I would put my finger 243 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.799 on it and say, when I grow up, I will 244 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:48.559 go there. The North Pole was one of these places. 245 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:51.720 I remember, well, I haven't been there yet and shall 246 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:55.720 not try now. The glamours off other places were scattered 247 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:58.519 about the hemispheres. I have been in some of them, 248 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:02.000 and well we won't talk about that. But there was 249 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:05.839 one yet, the biggest, the most blank, so to speak, 250 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:10.480 that I had a hankering after. True, by this time 251 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:12.920 it was not a blank space anymore. It had got 252 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:15.960 filled since my boyhood with rivers and lakes and names. 253 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.119 It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery, 254 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:22.359 a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. 255 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:27.240 It had become a place of darkness. But there was 256 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:31.160 in it one river, especially a mighty big river, that 257 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:34.720 you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake 258 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:39.680 uncoiled with its head in the sea, its body at rest, 259 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:43.720 curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost 260 00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:47.519 in the depths of the land. And as I looked 261 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:50.079 at the map of it in a shop window, it 262 00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:53.359 fascinated me as a snake would a bird, a silly 263 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:57.440 little bird. Then I remembered there was a big concern, 264 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:01.000 a company for trade on that river. Dash it all, 265 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:03.559 I thought to myself, They can't trade without using some 266 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:07.160 kind of craft on that lot of fresh water steamboats. 267 00:18:07.559 --> 00:18:10.160 Why shouldn't I try to get a charge of one. 268 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:12.759 I went along Fleet Street but could not shake off 269 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:17.200 the idea the snake had charmed me. You understand, it 270 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:20.839 was a continental concern, that trading society. But I have 271 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:23.720 a lot of relations living on the continent, because it's 272 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:25.960 cheap and not so nasty as it looks. They say, 273 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:29.720 I am sorry to own. I began to worry them. 274 00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:33.359 This was already a fresh departure for me. I was 275 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:35.960 not used to get things that way, you know. I 276 00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:38.039 always went my own road and on my own legs 277 00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:40.680 where I had a mind to go. I wouldn't have 278 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:43.839 believed it of myself. But then, you see, I felt 279 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:46.279 somehow I must get there by hook or by crook. 280 00:18:47.319 --> 00:18:51.240 So I worried them. The men, said, my dear fellow, 281 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:54.680 and did nothing. Then would you believe it? I tried 282 00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:58.640 the women. I Charlie Marlowe, set the women to work 283 00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:02.440 to get a job. Heavens well, you see, the notion 284 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:05.960 drove me. I had an aunt, a dear enthusiastic soul. 285 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:10.359 She wrote, it will be delightful. I am ready to 286 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:13.720 do anything, anything for you. It is a glorious idea. 287 00:19:14.039 --> 00:19:16.079 I know, the wife of a very high personage in 288 00:19:16.119 --> 00:19:19.160 the administration, and also a man who has lots of 289 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:22.960 influence with et cetera. She was determined to make no 290 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:24.880 end of fuss to get me a pointed skipper of 291 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:30.160 a river steamboat. If such was my fancy. I got 292 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:32.559 my appointment, of course, and I got it very quick. 293 00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:35.759 It appears the company had received news that one of 294 00:19:35.799 --> 00:19:38.799 their captains had been killed in a scuffle with the natives. 295 00:19:39.319 --> 00:19:41.559 This was my chance, and it made me the more 296 00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:45.119 anxious to go. It was only months and months afterwards, 297 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:47.160 when I made the attempt to recover what was left 298 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:50.480 of the body, that I heard the original quarrel arose 299 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:57.559 from a misunderstanding about some hens, yes, two black hens, Freslevin, 300 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:00.640 that that was the fellow's name. A dain thought himself 301 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:03.480 wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and 302 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:07.400 started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick. Oh, 303 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:09.119 it didn't surprise me in the least to hear this, 304 00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:11.640 and at the same time to be told that Fresleven 305 00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:15.359 was the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on two legs, 306 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:18.359 No doubt he was. But he had been a couple 307 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:21.039 of years already out there, engaged in the noble cause, 308 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:23.640 you know, and he probably felt the need at last 309

00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:27.680 of asserting his self respect in some way. Therefore he 310 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:30.440 whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of 311 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:34.200 his people watched him. Thunderstruck till some man, I was told, 312 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:37.480 the chief's son, in desperation, at hearing the old chap yell, 313 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:40.240 made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man, 314 00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:43.799 and of course it went quite easy between the shoulder blades. 315 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:47.720 Then the whole population cleared into the forest, expecting all 316 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:50.640 kinds of calamities to happen, while on the other hand, 317 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:54.359 the steamer fresleven commanded left, also in a bad panic, 318 00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:58.880 in charge of the engineer. I believe afterwards nobody seemed 319 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:01.599 to trouble much about freslee Evan's remains till I got 320 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:05.319 out and stepped into his shoes. I couldn't let it rest, though, 321 00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:09.160 But when an opportunity offered at last to meet my predecessor, 322 00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:11.880 the grass growing through his ribs was tall enough to 323 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:16.640 hide his bones. They were all there. The supernatural being 324 00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:19.920 had not been touched after he fell, and the village 325 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.640 was deserted. The huts gaped black, rotting, all askew within 326 00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:28.960 the fallen enclosures. A calamity had come to it, sure enough. 327 00:21:29.480 --> 00:21:33.359 The people had vanished, mad terror had scattered them men, 328 00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:37.119 women and children through the bush, and they had never returned. 329 00:21:38.759 --> 00:21:41.359 What became of the hens I don't know either. I 330 00:21:41.400 --> 00:21:44.960 should think the cause of progress got them anyhow, However, 331 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:47.519 through this glorious affair I got my appointment before I 332 00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:51.640 had fairly begun to hope for it. I flew around 333 00:21:51.720 --> 00:21:54.319 like mad to get ready, and before forty eight hours 334 00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:56.319 I was crossing the channel to show myself to my 335 00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:01.000 employers and to sign the contract. In a very few hours, 336 00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:03.000 I arrived in a city that always makes me think 337 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:06.680 of a whited sepulcher. Prejudiced, no doubt, I had no 338 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:10.240 difficulty in finding the company's offices. It was the biggest 339 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:12.640 thing in the town, and everybody I met was full 340 00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:15.119 of it. They were going to run and over sea 341 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:19.480 empire and make no end of coin by trade. A 342 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:24.400 narrow and deserted street in deep shadow high houses, innumerable 343 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:29.759 windows with Venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting right 344 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:35.640 and left, immense double doors standing ponderously. Ajar I slipped 345 00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:38.160 through one of these cracks, went up a swept and 346 00:22:38.279 --> 00:22:42.400 ungarnished staircase as arid as a desert, and opened the 347 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:46.440 first door. I came to two women, one fat and 348 00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:49.960 the other slim, sat on straw bottomed chairs knitting black wool. 349 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:52.960 The slim one got up and walked straight at me, 350 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:56.359 still knitting with downcast eyes, and only just as I 351 00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:58.480 began to think of getting out of her way, as 352 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:01.839 you would for a somnambulis, stood still and looked up. 353 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:05.920 Her dress was as plain as an umbrella cover, and 354 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:08.839 she turned round without a word and preceded me into 355 00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:12.720 a waiting room. I gave my name and looked about 356 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:17.519 deal table in the middle, plain chairs all around the walls. 357 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:20.759 On one end a large shining map marked with all 358 00:23:20.759 --> 00:23:24.039 the colors of a rainbow. There was a vast amount 359 00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:26.200 of red. Good to see at any time, because one 360 00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:28.079 knows that some real work is done in there a 361 00:23:28.119 --> 00:23:31.400 deuce of a lot of blue, a little green, smears 362 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:35.240 of orange, and on the east coast a purple patch 363 00:23:35.559 --> 00:23:38.039 to show where the jolly pioneers of progress drank the 364 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:42.480 jolly lagerbier. However, I wasn't going into any of these. 365 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:46.960 I was going into the yellow dead in this center, 366 00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:55.160 and the river was there, fascinating, deadly like a snake. Ah. 367 00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:59.960 A door opened, a white haired secretarial head, but where 368 00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:03.759 ring a compassionate expression appeared, and a skinny forefinger beckoned 369 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:07.680 me into the sanctuary. Its light was dim, and a 370 00:24:07.720 --> 00:24:11.200 heavy writing desk squatted in the middle. From behind that 371 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:13.960 structure came out an impression of pale plumpness and a 372 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:18.559 frock coat. The great man himself, he was five feet six, 373 00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:20.720 I should judge, and had his grip on the handle 374 00:24:20.839 --> 00:24:24.160 end of ever so many millions. He shook hands, I 375 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:29.200 fancy murmured vaguely, was satisfied with my French bon

voyage. 376 00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:33.839 In about forty five seconds, I found myself again in 377 00:24:33.880 --> 00:24:37.319 the waiting room with the compassionate secretary, who, full of 378 00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:41.440 desolation and sympathy, made me sign some document I believed 379 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:46.039 I undertook, amongst other things, not to disclose any trade secrets. Well, 380 00:24:46.119 --> 00:24:51.480 I am not going to. I began to feel slightly uneasy, 381 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:54.319 you know, I am not used to such ceremonies, and 382 00:24:54.359 --> 00:24:58.039 there was something ominous in the atmosphere. It was just 383 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:00.799 as though I had been let into some conceit beer. See, 384 00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:03.920 I don't know, something not quite right, and I was 385 00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:07.039 glad to get out. In the outer room, the two 386 00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:11.359 women knitted black wool feverishly. People were arriving, and the 387 00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:15.400 younger one was walking back and forth introducing them. The 388 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:19.119 old one sat on her chair, Her flat cloth slippers 389 00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:22.279 were propped up on a footwarmer, and a cat reposed 390 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:25.799 on her lap. She wore a starched white affair on 391 00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:28.599 her head, and had a wart on one cheek, and 392 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:31.319 silver rimmed spectacles hung on the tip of her nose. 393 00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:36.039 She glanced at me above the glasses. The swift and 394 00:25:36.119 --> 00:25:40.599 a different placidity of that look troubled me. Two youths 395 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:44.279 with foolish and cheery countenances were being piloted over, and 396 00:25:44.359 --> 00:25:47.319 she threw at them the same quick glance of unconcerned wisdom. 397 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:52.279 She seemed to know all about them, and about me too. 398 00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:58.960 An eerie feeling came over me. She seemed uncanny and fateful. 399 00:25:59.720 --> 00:26:01.880 Off and far away there I thought of these two 400 00:26:02.039 --> 00:26:05.480 guarding the door of darkness, knitting black wool as for 401 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:10.799 a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, 402 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:15.519 the other scrutinizing the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned 403 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:25.119 old eyes. Av old knitter of black wool, morritui to sellutant. 404 00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:28.359 Not many of those she looked at, ever, saw her again, 405 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:32.599 not half by a long way. There was yet a 406 00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:36.799 visit to the doctor. A simple formality assured me the secretary, 407 00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:38.680 with an air of taking an immense part in all 408 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:42.799 my sorrows. Accordingly, a young chap, wearing his hat over 409 00:26:42.839 --> 00:26:46.240 the left eyebrow. Some clerk, I suppose there must have 410 00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:48.920 been clerks in the business, though the house was as 411 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:50.720 still as a house in a city of the dead. 412 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:55.039 Came from somewhere upstairs and led me forth. He was 413 00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:58.039 shabby and careless, with ink stains on the sleeves of 414 00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:01.480 his jacket, and his cravat was large and billowy, under 415 00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:03.599 a chin shaped like the toe of an old boot. 416 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:07.079 It was a little too early for the doctor, so 417 00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:09.960 I proposed a drink, and thereupon he developed a vein 418 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.319 of joviality. As we sat over our vermouths, he glorified 419 00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:18.000 the company's business, and by and by I expressed casually 420 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:21.720 my surprise at him not going out there he became 421 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:25.519 very cool and collected all at once. I am not 422 00:27:25.559 --> 00:27:28.519 such a fool as I look, quoth Plato to his disciples, 423 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:33.319 he said, sententiously, emptied his glass with great resolution, and 424 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:38.240 we rose. The old doctor felt my pulse, evidently thinking 425 00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:42.599 of something else the while. Good good for there, he mumbled, 426 00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:45.240 and then, with a certain eagerness, asked me whether I 427 00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:49.319 would let him measure my head. Rather surprised, I said yes. 428 00:27:49.720 --> 00:27:52.000 When he produced a thing like calipers and got the 429 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:55.759 dimensions back in front and every way, taking notes carefully. 430 00:27:57.079 --> 00:27:59.559 He was an unshaven little man in a threadbare cloat, 431 00:27:59.799 --> 00:28:02.880 like a gabardine, with his feet and slippers, and I 432 00:28:02.920 --> 00:28:06.559 thought him a harmless fool. I always ask leave in 433 00:28:06.599 --> 00:28:09.160 the interests of science to measure the crania of those 434 00:28:09.240 --> 00:28:12.920 going out there, he said, And when they come back too, 435 00:28:13.319 --> 00:28:18.359 I asked, Oh, I never see them, he remarked. And moreover, 436 00:28:18.519 --> 00:28:23.160 the changes take place inside, you know, he smiled, as 437 00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:27.000 if at some quiet joke. So you are going out 438 00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:31.720 there famous, interesting too, he gave me a certain glance 439 00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:35.720 and made another note. Ever any madness in your family, 440 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:39.680 he asked, in a matter of fact tone. I felt 441 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:44.359 very annoyed. Is that question in the interests of science too, 442 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.640 it would be, he said, without taking any notice of 443

00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:52.680 my irritation. Interesting for science to watch the mental changes 444 00:28:52.680 --> 00:28:57.279 of individuals on the spot. But are you an alienist? 445 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:03.960 I interrupted, Doctor should be a little answered that original imperturbly. 446 00:29:06.039 --> 00:29:08.119 I have a little theory, which you may, sieur who 447 00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:10.599 go out there, must help me to prove. This is 448 00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:12.960 my share in the advantages my country shall reap from 449 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:16.720 the possession of such a magnificent dependency, the mere wealth 450 00:29:16.759 --> 00:29:19.680 I leave to others. Pardon my questions, but you are 451 00:29:19.759 --> 00:29:24.400 the first Englishman coming under my observation. I hastened to 452 00:29:24.440 --> 00:29:27.599 assure him. I was not in the least typical. If 453 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:30.319 I were said I, I wouldn't be talking like this 454 00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:35.519 with you. What you say is rather profound and probably erroneous, 455 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:40.200 he said, with a laugh. Avoid irritation more than exposure 456 00:29:40.200 --> 00:29:43.240 to the sun. Adieu. How do you English say eh, 457 00:29:43.720 --> 00:29:48.119 good bye, ah, good bye adieu in the tropics? What 458 00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:52.640 must before everything keep calm? He lifted a warning finger. 459 00:29:53.400 --> 00:29:59.200 Du came, du calm. One thing more remained to do. 460 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:02.319 Say a good bye to my excellent aunt. I found 461 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:05.279 her triumphant. I had a cup of tea, the last 462 00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:07.920 decent cup of tea for many days, and in a 463 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:10.759 room that most soothingly looked, just as you would expect 464 00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:13.480 a lady's drawing room to look. We had a long, 465 00:30:13.559 --> 00:30:17.759 quiet chat by the fireside. In the course of these confidences, 466 00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:20.440 it became quite plain to me I had been represented 467 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:23.480 to the wife of the high dignitary, and goodness knows 468 00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:26.359 to how many more people besides as an exceptional and 469 00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:29.759 gifted creature a piece of good fortune for the company, 470 00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.200 a man you don't get hold of every day, good heavens, 471 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:35.920 And I was going to take charge of a twopenny 472 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:41.359 halfpenny river steamboat with a penny whistle attached. It appeared, however, 473 00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:43.920 I was also one of the workers with a capital, 474 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:47.720 you know, something like an emissary of light, something like 475 00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:51.319 a lower sort of apostle. There had been a lot 476 00:30:51.359 --> 00:30:53.559 of such rot let loose in print and talk just 477

00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:57.240 about that time, and the excellent woman, living right in 478 00:30:57.240 --> 00:30:59.759 the rush of all that humbug got carried off her feet. 479 00:31:00.680 --> 00:31:04.960 She talked about weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways, 480 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:08.440 till upon my word she made me quite uncomfortable. I 481 00:31:08.559 --> 00:31:11.160 ventured to hint that the company was run for profit. 482 00:31:14.279 --> 00:31:17.440 You forget, dear Charley, that the laborer is worthy of 483 00:31:17.519 --> 00:31:21.599 his hire, She said, brightly. It's queer. How out of 484 00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:24.759 touch with truth women are. They live in a world 485 00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:27.240 of their own, and there has never been anything like it, 486 00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:31.279 and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and 487 00:31:31.359 --> 00:31:32.839 if they were to set it up, it would go 488 00:31:32.920 --> 00:31:37.039 to pieces before the first sun set. Some confounded fact 489 00:31:37.079 --> 00:31:40.079 we men have been living contentedly with ever since the 490 00:31:40.119 --> 00:31:42.240 day of creation, would start up and knock the whole 491 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:47.759 thing over. After this, I got embraced, told to wear flannel, 492 00:31:48.079 --> 00:31:50.359 be sure to write often, and so on, and I 493 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:54.160 left in the street. I don't know why a queer 494 00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:57.319 feeling came to me that I was an impostor ought thing, 495 00:31:57.440 --> 00:31:59.720 that I, who used to clear out for any part 496 00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:02.599 of the world, at twenty four hours noticed, with less 497 00:32:02.599 --> 00:32:04.920 thought than most men give to the crossing of a street, 498 00:32:05.319 --> 00:32:09.000 had a moment I won't say of hesitation, but of 499 00:32:09.079 --> 00:32:13.359 startled pause before this commonplace affair. The best way I 500 00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:15.799 can explain it to you is by saying that, for 501 00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:18.440 a second or two I felt as though, instead of 502 00:32:18.440 --> 00:32:21.160 going to the center of a continent, I were about 503 00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:24.759 to set off for the center of the earth. I 504 00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:27.200 left in a French steamer, and she called in every 505 00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:29.920 blamed port they have out there. For as far as 506 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:32.480 I could see, the sole purpose of landing soldiers and 507 00:32:32.480 --> 00:32:37.319 custom house officers, I watched the coast. Watching a coast 508 00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:39.480 as it slips by the ship is like thinking about 509 00:32:39.480 --> 00:32:48.759 an enigma. There it is before you, smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, 510 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:52.559 or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering. 511 00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:58.200 Come

and find out this one was almost featureless, as 512 00:32:58.279 --> 00:33:01.240 if still in the making, with an aspect of monotonous grimness. 513 00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:05.640 The edge of a colossal jungle so dark green as 514 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:09.400 to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight 515 00:33:09.599 --> 00:33:13.480 like a ruled line far far away along a blue 516 00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:18.359 sea whose glitter was blurred by a creeping mist. The 517 00:33:18.440 --> 00:33:21.799 sun was fierce, the land seemed to glisten and rip 518 00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:26.759 with steam. Here and there, grayish, whitish specks showed up 519 00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:30.680 clustered inside the white surf, with a flag flying above them, 520 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:35.440 perhaps settlements some centuries old and still no bigger than 521 00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:39.680 pin heads. On the untouched expanse of their background. We 522 00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:45.799 pounded along, stopped, lended soldiers went on, lended customs house 523 00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:48.240 clerks to Levy Toll in what looked like a god 524 00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:51.640 forsaken wilderness with a tin shed and a flagpole lost 525 00:33:51.640 --> 00:33:54.920 in it. Lended more soldiers to take care of the 526 00:33:54.920 --> 00:33:58.799 custom house clerks. Presumably some my heard got drowned in 527 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:01.319 the surf, but with whether they did or not, nobody 528 00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:04.880 seemed particularly to care. They were just flung out there 529 00:34:04.920 --> 00:34:08.800 and on we went every day. The coast looked the 530 00:34:08.840 --> 00:34:12.360 same as though we had not moved. But we passed 531 00:34:12.440 --> 00:34:17.800 various places, trading places with names like Gran Bassam, little Popo, 532 00:34:18.360 --> 00:34:21.320 names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted 533 00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:24.880 in front of a sinister black cloth, the idleness of 534 00:34:24.920 --> 00:34:28.400 a passenger, my isolation amongst all these men with whom 535 00:34:28.400 --> 00:34:31.800 I had no point of contact, the oily, languid sea, 536 00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:35.440 the uniform somberness of the coast seemed to keep me 537 00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:38.280 away from the truth of things, within the toll of 538 00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:42.599 a mournful and senseless delusion. The voice of the serf 539 00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:45.440 heard now and then, was a positive pleasure, like that 540 00:34:45.559 --> 00:34:49.000 speech of a brother. It was something natural that had 541 00:34:49.039 --> 00:34:52.960 its reason, that had a meaning now and then. A 542 00:34:53.000 --> 00:34:56.480 boat from the shore gave one a momentary contact with reality. 543 00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:01.519 It was paddled by blackfellows. You could see from afar 544 00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:06.159 the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang, Their 545 00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:10.719 bodies streamed with perspiration. They had faces like grotesque masks, 546 00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:16.559 these chaps, but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, 547 00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:20.760 an intense energy of movement that was as natural and 548 00:35:20.840 --> 00:35:24.719 true as the surf along their coast. They wanted no 549 00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:27.960 excuse for being there. They were a great comfort to 550 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:30.880 look at. For a time I would feel I belonged 551 00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:34.920 still to the world of straightforward facts. But the feeling 552 00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:38.559 would not last long. Something would turn up to scare 553 00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:41.400 it away. Once I remember, we came upon a man 554 00:35:41.440 --> 00:35:44.280 of war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a 555 00:35:44.320 --> 00:35:48.519 shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears 556 00:35:48.559 --> 00:35:51.079 the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. 557 00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:55.000 Her ensign dropped limp like a rag. The muzzles of 558 00:35:55.039 --> 00:35:57.719 the long six inch guns stuck out all over the 559 00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:01.880 low hull. The greasy slid me swell, swung her up 560 00:36:01.960 --> 00:36:06.480 lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts in 561 00:36:06.519 --> 00:36:09.960 the empty immensity of earth, sky and water. There she 562 00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:15.639 was incomprehensible. Firing into a continent, pop would go one 563 00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:18.519 of the six inch guns. A small flame would dart 564 00:36:18.559 --> 00:36:22.719 and vanish, A little white smoke would disappear, A tiny 565 00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:27.239 projectile would give a feeble screech, and nothing happened. Nothing 566 00:36:27.239 --> 00:36:31.559 could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the preceding, 567 00:36:32.039 --> 00:36:35.440 a sense of lugubrious drollery, in the sight, and it 568 00:36:35.480 --> 00:36:38.559 was not dissipated by somebody on board, assuring me earnestly 569 00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:41.400 there was a camp of natives. He called them enemies, 570 00:36:41.800 --> 00:36:46.519 hidden out of sight. Somewhere we gave her her letters. 571 00:36:46.880 --> 00:36:48.760 I heard the men in that lonely ship were dying 572 00:36:48.760 --> 00:36:50.960 of fever at the rate of three a day, and 573 00:36:51.079 --> 00:36:55.239 went on. We called at some more places with farcical names, 574 00:36:55.599 --> 00:36:57.719 where the merry dance of death and trade goes on 575 00:36:57.880 --> 00:37:01.760 in a still and earthy atmosphere, as of an overheated catacomb, 576 00:37:03.159 --> 00:37:07.079 all along the formless coast, bordered by dangerous surf, as 577 00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:11.039 if nature herself had tried to ward off intruders in 578 00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:15.079 and out of rivers,

streams of death in life, whose 579 00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:19.599 banks were rotting into mud, whose waters thickened into slime, 580 00:37:20.119 --> 00:37:23.119 invaded the contorted mangroves that seemed to writhe at us 581 00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:27.719 in the extremity of an impotent despair. Nowhere did we 582 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:31.239 stop long enough to get a particularized impression, but the 583 00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:34.480 general sense of vague and oppressive wonder grew upon me. 584 00:37:35.400 --> 00:37:38.440 It was like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares. 585 00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:42.880 It was upward of thirty days before I saw the 586 00:37:42.920 --> 00:37:46.000 mouth of the big river. We anchored off the seat 587 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:49.079 of the government. But my work would not begin till 588 00:37:49.119 --> 00:37:52.079 some two hundred miles further on. So as soon as 589 00:37:52.119 --> 00:37:54.199 I could, I made a start for a place thirty 590 00:37:54.239 --> 00:37:59.079 miles higher up. I had my passage on a little 591 00:37:59.079 --> 00:38:03.079 sea going steam. Her captain was a Swede, and, knowing 592 00:38:03.119 --> 00:38:06.239 me for a seaman, invited me on the bridge. He 593 00:38:06.360 --> 00:38:10.079 was a young man, lean, fair and morose, with lanky 594 00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:13.880 hair and a shuffling gait. As we left the miserable 595 00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:16.960 little wharf, he tossed his head contemptuously at the shore. 596 00:38:18.199 --> 00:38:22.920 Been living there, he asked? I said, yes, fine lot, 597 00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:25.920 these government chaps, are they not? He went on, speaking 598 00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:30.000 English with great precision and considerable bitterness. It is funny 599 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:32.079 what some people will do for a few francs a month. 600 00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:34.519 I wonder what becomes of that kind when it goes 601 00:38:34.599 --> 00:38:38.360 up country, I said to him, I expected to see 602 00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:43.639 that soon. So oh oh, he exclaimed. He shuffled a thwart, 603 00:38:43.719 --> 00:38:47.159 keeping one eye a head vigilantly. Don't be too sure, 604 00:38:47.400 --> 00:38:49.880 he continued. The other day I took up a man 605 00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:52.760 who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede 606 00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:58.599 too hanged himself. Why in God's name, I cried? He 607 00:38:58.679 --> 00:39:02.360 kept on looking out watchfully. Who knows the sun too 608 00:39:02.440 --> 00:39:07.719 much for him or the country. Perhaps at last we 609 00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:11.679 opened a reach. A rocky cliff appeared, Mounds of turned 610 00:39:11.719 --> 00:39:15.199 up earth by the shore houses on a hill, others 611 00:39:15.199 --> 00:39:19.039 with iron roofs, amongst a waste of excavations or hanging 612 00:39:19.039 --> 00:39:23.480 to the declivity. A continuous noise of the rapids above

613 00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:28.480 hovered over this scene of inhabited devastation. A lot of people, 614 00:39:28.679 --> 00:39:32.760 mostly black and naked, moved about like ants. A jetty 615 00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:36.480 projected into the river. A blinding sunlight drowned all this 616 00:39:36.719 --> 00:39:41.280 at times in a sudden recrudescence of Glare. There's your 617 00:39:41.280 --> 00:39:44.880 company station, said the Swede, pointing to three wooden barrack 618 00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:48.000 like structures on the rocky slope. I will send your 619 00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:54.039 things up four boxes. Did you say so? Farewell? I 620 00:39:54.079 --> 00:39:57.079 came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found 621 00:39:57.119 --> 00:40:00.400 a path leading up the hill. It turned as for 622 00:40:00.440 --> 00:40:03.679 the boulders, and also for an undersized railway truck lying 623 00:40:03.719 --> 00:40:05.840 there on its back, with its wheels in the air. 624 00:40:06.920 --> 00:40:09.920 One was off. The thing looked as dead as the 625 00:40:09.960 --> 00:40:13.760 carcass of some animal. I came upon more pieces of 626 00:40:13.800 --> 00:40:18.280 decaying machinery. A stack of rusty rails to the left, 627 00:40:18.320 --> 00:40:21.280 A clump of trees made a shady spot where dark 628 00:40:21.360 --> 00:40:26.039 things seemed to stir feebly. I blinked. The path was steep. 629 00:40:27.320 --> 00:40:29.440 A horn tuted to the right, and I saw the 630 00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:33.360 black people run. A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground. 631 00:40:33.800 --> 00:40:36.119 A puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and 632 00:40:36.199 --> 00:40:39.599 that was all. No change appeared on the face of 633 00:40:39.639 --> 00:40:44.360 the rock. They were building a railway. The cliff was 634 00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:47.559 not in the way or anything, but the subjectless blasting 635 00:40:47.679 --> 00:40:52.440 was all the work going on. A slight clinking behind 636 00:40:52.559 --> 00:40:56.840 me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced 637 00:40:56.880 --> 00:41:00.320 in a file, toiling up the path. They they walked 638 00:41:00.320 --> 00:41:03.840 erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on 639 00:41:03.960 --> 00:41:07.320 their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. 640 00:41:08.519 --> 00:41:11.920 Black rags were wound around their loins, and the short 641 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:16.000 ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could 642 00:41:16.039 --> 00:41:18.679 see every rib. The joints of their limbs were like 643 00:41:18.760 --> 00:41:22.079 knots and a rope. Each had an iron collar on 644 00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:25.000 his neck, and all were connected together with a chain, 645 00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:30.840 whose bites swung between them rhythmically clinking. Another report from 646 00:41:30.840 --> 00:41:33.360 the cliff made me think suddenly of that ship of 647 00:41:33.400 --> 00:41:36.840 war I had seen firing into a continent. It was 648 00:41:36.880 --> 00:41:40.400 the same kind of ominous voice. But these men could, 649 00:41:40.440 --> 00:41:44.199 by no stretch of imagination, be called enemies. They were 650 00:41:44.199 --> 00:41:48.760 called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, 651 00:41:48.800 --> 00:41:52.000 had come to them an insoluble mystery from the sea. 652 00:41:53.079 --> 00:41:58.000 All their meager breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, 653 00:41:58.480 --> 00:42:03.079 the eyes stared stone up hill. They passed me within 654 00:42:03.159 --> 00:42:07.519 six inches without a glance, with that complete deathlike indifference 655 00:42:07.559 --> 00:42:12.920 of unhappy savages. Behind this raw matter, one of the reclaimed, 656 00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:16.800 the product of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, 657 00:42:17.199 --> 00:42:21.119 carrying a rifle by its middle. He had a uniform 658 00:42:21.239 --> 00:42:24.079 jacket with one button off, and, seeing a white man 659 00:42:24.119 --> 00:42:27.440 on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. 660 00:42:28.599 --> 00:42:31.920 This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike 661 00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:33.800 at a distance that he could not tell who I 662 00:42:33.880 --> 00:42:38.440 might be. He was speedily reassured with a large white, 663 00:42:38.599 --> 00:42:41.719 rascally grin, and a glance at his charge seemed to 664 00:42:41.719 --> 00:42:46.119 take me into partnership in his exalted trust. After all, 665 00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:48.320 I also was a part of the great cause of 666 00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:52.960 these high and just proceedings. Instead of going up, I 667 00:42:53.079 --> 00:42:56.599 turned and descended to the left. My idea was to 668 00:42:56.679 --> 00:42:58.800 let that chain gang get out of sight before I 669 00:42:58.880 --> 00:43:02.679 climbed the hill. You know, I am not particularly tender. 670 00:43:03.320 --> 00:43:06.239 I've had to strike and to fend off. I've had 671 00:43:06.280 --> 00:43:09.239 to resist and to attack. Sometimes that's only one way 672 00:43:09.280 --> 00:43:12.719 of resisting, without counting the exact cost according to the 673 00:43:12.760 --> 00:43:15.800 demands of such sort of life as I had blundered into, 674 00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:19.599 I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, 675 00:43:20.440 --> 00:43:25.079 and the devil of hot desire. But by all the stars, 676 00:43:25.559 --> 00:43:29.599 these were strong, lusty, red eyed devils that swayed and 677 00:43:29.639 --> 00:43:33.440 drove men men, I tell you. But as I stood 678 00:43:33.480 --> 00:43:36.199 on this hill side, I foresaw that in the blinding 679 00:43:36.239 --> 00:43:40.159 sunshine of that land, I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, 680 00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:45.119 weak eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How 681 00:43:45.159 --> 00:43:47.800 insidious he could be too, I was only to find 682 00:43:47.800 --> 00:43:51.559 out several months later, and a thousand miles farther. For 683 00:43:51.599 --> 00:43:54.400 a moment I stood appalled, as though by a warning 684 00:43:55.559 --> 00:43:58.840 Finally I descended the hill, obliquely toward the trees I 685 00:43:58.880 --> 00:44:04.960 had seen end of the first part of Chapter one, 686 00:44:05.639 --> 00:44:10.159 for a Heart of Darkness,