Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad.-7.-

I did not want to see any more, and I made haste towards the station. When near the buildings, I met a White man, in such an unexpected elegance that I took him for a sort of visión. I shook hand with this miracle, and I learned he was the Company s chief accountant. He had been our nearly three years, he told me and I could not help asking him how he managed to spot such linen.











He said modestly...I ve been teaching one of the native women about the station. It was difficult. She had a distate for the work.











I had to wait in the station for ten days...an eternity. I lived in a hut in the yard, but to be out of the chaos I would sometimes get into the accountant s office. It was hot there too, big flies buzzed. I sat generally on the floor, while. he wrote and wrote. Sometimes he stood up for the excersise.










One day he remarked, in the interior you Will meet Mr Kurtz a first class agent. He is a very remarkable person, a very important one. Sends in as much Ivory as all the others put together…










Next day I left that station at last, with a caravan of sixty men, for a two hundred mile tramp. Paths, paths, everywhere, through the empty land, through burnt Grass, hear and solitude.








Day after day, there was a great silence around and above. Perhaps, on some quiet night, the tremor of far-off drums was Heard, a tremor vast, faint appealing, suggestive and wild and perhaps with a profound a meaning as the sound of bells in a Christian country.










I had a White companion too, not a bad chap, but annoing you know. I could not help asking him once what he meant by coming there at all. To make money, of course. What do you think? he said, scornfully.








Then he got fever, and had to be carried in a hammock. On the fifteenth day I came in sight of the big river again, and finally got to the Central Station. The manager himself was there. All quite correct. Everybody had behaved splendidly…..you must he said in agitation, go and see the general manager at once. He is waiting!

Heart of Darkness.- Joseph Conrad.-6-

Instead of going up, I turned and descended to the left. My idea was to get them out of sight before I climbed the hill. You know I am not particulary tender. I ve seen the devil of violence, the devil of greed and the devil of hot desire, but by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and down men.











Finally I descended the hill, towards some tres I had seen .Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the tres, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment and despair. They were dying slowly -it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now-nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation.











Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. I saw a face near my hand. His sunken eyes, looked up me,enormous and vacant. The man seemed Young-almost a boy. I found nothing else to do but to offer him one of my biscuits I had in my pocket. His fingers closed slowly on it and held. Another one of these creatures rose, and went off on all fours towards the river to drink. Then sat up, and after a time let his head fall on his breastbone.

Heart of Darkness.-5-

I left in a French steamer, that called in every port. I watched the coast. The idleness of a Passenger, my isolation amongt all these men with whom I had no point of contact, the oily and languid sea, the uniform somberness of the coast, seemed to keep me away from the truth of things, within the toil of a mournful and senseless delusion. It was like a weary piligrimage amongst hints for nightmares.

It was more than thirty days before I saw the mouth of the big river.

We anchored off near the seat of the government. My work would not begin till some two hundred miles farther on.

I had my passage on a Little sea-going steamer. Her Captain was a Swede, and knowing me for a steamer. Her Captain was a Swede and knowing me for a seaman, invited me on the bridge. Been living there? he asked. I said yes. It is funny what some people do for a few franes a month. I wonder what becomes of them later on ? I said to him I expected to see him son.

The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too. Hanged himself! Why ? I cried. Who knows?The sun was too much for him or the country perhaps

At last we opened a reach. A rocky Cliff appeared. A lot of people, mostly black and naked, moved about like ants. 

There s your Company s station. I will send your things up. Farewell, said the Swede.

I found a path leading up the hill. Behind me six black men advanced in a line. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads. They were extremely thin, and all were connected together with a chain between them. These men could not be called either enemies or criminals. They passed me without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. Behind them one of the settlers, was carrying a rifle.

Hearth of Darkness-Joseph Conrad.- 4.-

Before forty-eight hours I was crossing the Channel to show myself to my employers, and sign the contract, In a very few hours it was all ready.











There was yet a visit to the doctor. The old physician felt my pulse, and then asked me whether I would let him measure my head. Rather surprised I said yes... I always ask leave, in the interest of science, to measure the crania of those going out there, he said. And when they come back, too ? I asked .I never see them, he remarked, and moreover, the changes take place inside, you know. he smiled. So you are going out there, Interesting. Ever any madness in your family? he asked.I felt very annoyed.











Is that questions in the interest of science too? It would be, he said, without taking notice of my irritation, interesting for science to watch the the mental changes of individuals, on the spot, but...Pardon my questions, but you are the first Englisman coming under my observation...Avoid irritation more tan exposure to the sun. Good bye-













One thing more remained to do- say good by to my excellent aunt. I had a cup of tea with her-the last decent cup of tea for many days-and we had a long chat by the fireside. It appeared I was to her something like an emisary of light, like a lower sort of apostle. She talked about weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways-















She made me quite uncomfortable. It is querer how out of toach with truth women are, They live in a would of their own.













After this visit, a querer feeling came to me that I was an impostor. For a second or two, I felt as though, instead of going t the center of a continent, I were about to set off for the center of the Earth.