https://padlet.com/olivia_mcgrath/nhgf02mw40je Made with the strength to succeed en-us 2019-05-12 19:52:40 UTC 2025-12-10 12:13:39 UTC hello@padlet.com olivia_mcgrath https://padlet.com/olivia_mcgrath/nhgf02mw40je/wish/359842555 Chapter I
Out to Sea

I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me,
or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old
vintage upon the narrator for the beginning of it, and my own
skeptical incredulity during the days that followed for the balance
of the strange tale.

When my convivial host discovered that he had told me so
much, and that I was prone to doubtfulness, his foolish pride
assumed the task the old vintage had commenced, and so he
unearthed written evidence in the form of musty manuscript, and
dry official records of the British Colonial Office to support many
of the salient features of his remarkable narrative.

I do not say the story is true, for I did not witness the
happenings which it portrays, but the fact that in the telling of it to
you I have taken fictitious names for the principal characters quite
sufficiently evidences the sincerity of my own belief that it MAY
be true.

The yellow, mildewed pages of the diary of a man long dead,
and the records of the Colonial Office dovetail perfectly with the
narrative of my convivial host, and so I give you the story as I
painstakingly pieced it out from these several various agencies.
If you do not find it credible you will at least be as one with
me in acknowledging that it is unique, remarkable, and interesting.
From the records of the Colonial Office and from the dead
man's diary we learn that a certain young English nobleman,
whom we shall call John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, was
commissioned to make a peculiarly delicate investigation of
conditions in a British West Coast African Colony from whose
simple native inhabitants another European power was known to
be recruiting soldiers for its native army, which it used solely for
the forcible collection of rubber and ivory from the savage tribes
along the Congo and the Aruwimi. The natives of the British
Colony complained that many of their young men were enticed
away through the medium of fair and glowing promises, but that
few if any ever returned to their families.
The Englishmen in Africa went even further, saying that these
poor blacks were held in virtual slavery, since after their terms of
enlistment expired their ignorance was imposed upon by their
white officers, and they were told that they had yet several years to
serve.
And so the Colonial Office appointed John Clayton to a new
post in British West Africa, but his confidential instructions
centered on a thorough investigation of the unfair treatment of
black British subjects by the officers of a friendly European
power. Why he was sent, is, however, of little moment to this
story, for he never made an investigation, nor, in fact, did he ever
reach his destination.
Clayton was the type of Englishman that one likes best to
associate with the noblest monuments of historic achievement
upon a thousand victorious battlefields—a strong, virile
man—mentally, morally, and physically.
In stature he was above the average height; his eyes were
gray, his features regular and strong; his carriage that of perfect,
robust health influenced by his years of army training.
Political ambition had caused him to seek transference from
the army to the Colonial Office and so we find him, still young,
entrusted with a delicate and important commission in the service
of the Queen.
When he received this appointment he was both elated and
appalled. The preferment seemed to him in the nature of a
well-merited reward for painstaking and intelligent service, and as
a stepping stone to posts of greater importance and responsibility;
but, on the other hand, he had been married to the Hon. Alice
Rutherford for scarce a three months, and it was the thought of
taking this fair young girl into the dangers and isolation of tropical
Africa that appalled him.
For her sake he would have refused the appointment, but she
would not have it so. Instead she insisted that he accept, and,
indeed, take her with him.
There were mothers and brothers and sisters, and aunts and
cousins to express various opinions on the subject, but as to what
they severally advised history is silent.
We know only that on a bright May morning in 1888, John,
Lord Greystoke, and Lady Alice sailed from Dover on their way to
Africa.
A month later they arrived at Freetown where they chartered
a small sailing vessel, the Fuwalda, which was to bear them to
their final destination.
And here John, Lord Greystoke, and Lady Alice, his wife,
vanished from the eyes and from the knowledge of men.]]> 2019-05-14 11:37:55 UTC https://padlet.com/olivia_mcgrath/nhgf02mw40je/wish/359842555