The Historian's Heart of Darkness: Reading Conrad's Masterpiece As Social and Cultural History by Larabee Mark D.;

Author:Larabee, Mark D.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 5208436
Publisher: ABC-CLIO, LLC

Stanley Falls (site of Kurtz’s “Inner Station”) by 1893 or 1894. Farthest point of Conrad’s journey upriver; he arrived on 1 September 1890 and left on probably 7 or 8 September. A major hub in the ivory trade, Stanley Falls was about 1,300 miles up the Congo River and at the river’s highest navigable point above Kinshasa. Above the settlement of Stanley Falls were the falls themselves (now Boyoma Falls). In contrast with the solitude of the “Inner Station” as portrayed in Heart of Darkness, Stanley Falls was a thriving trade settlement with dozens of buildings, cultivated fields, and a banana plantation. Now Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (From Albert Chapaux, Le Congo. Brussels: Charles Rozez, 1894, 447.)

“The manager stood by the wheel murmuring confidentially about the necessity of getting well away down the river before dark at all events, when I saw in the distance a clearing on the river-side and the outlines of some sort of building. ‘What’s this?’ I asked. He clapped his hands in wonder. ‘The station!’ he cried. I edged in at once, still going half-speed.

“Through my glasses164 I saw the slope of a hill interspersed with rare trees and perfectly free from undergrowth. A long decaying building on the summit was half buried in the high grass; the large holes in the peaked roof gaped black from afar; the jungle and the woods made a background. There was no enclosure or fence of any kind; but there had been one apparently, for near the house half a dozen slim posts remained in a row, roughly trimmed, and with their upper ends ornamented with round carved balls. The rails, or whatever there had been between, had disappeared. Of course the forest surrounded all that.165 The river-bank was clear, and on the water side I saw a white man under a hat like a cart-wheel beckoning persistently with his whole arm. Examining the edge of the forest above and below, I was almost certain I could see movements—human forms gliding here and there. I steamed past prudently, then stopped the engines and let her drift down. The man on the shore began to shout, urging us to land. ‘We have been attacked,’ screamed the manager. ‘I know—I know. It’s all right,’ yelled back the other, as cheerful as you please. ‘Come along. It’s all right. I am glad.’

“His aspect reminded me of something I had seen—something funny I had seen somewhere. As I manœuvred to get alongside, I was asking myself, ‘What does this fellow look like?’ Suddenly I got it. He looked like a harlequin.166 His clothes had been made of some stuff that was brown holland167 probably, but it was covered with patches all over, with bright patches, blue, red, and yellow—patches on the back, patches on the front, patches on elbows, on knees; coloured binding round his jacket, scarlet edging at the bottom of his trousers; and the sunshine made him look extremely gay and wonderfully neat withal, because you could see how beautifully all this patching had been done.

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