49 lines
2.3 KiB
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49 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
# INTRODUCTION.
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On February the First 1887, the _Lady Vain_ was lost by collision with
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a derelict when about the latitude 1° S. and longitude 107° W.
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On January the Fifth, 1888—that is eleven months and four days after—my
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uncle, Edward Prendick, a private gentleman, who certainly went aboard
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the _Lady Vain_ at Callao, and who had been considered drowned, was
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picked up in latitude 5° 3′ S. and longitude 101° W. in a small open
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boat of which the name was illegible, but which is supposed to have
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belonged to the missing schooner _Ipecacuanha_. He gave such a strange
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account of himself that he was supposed demented. Subsequently he
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alleged that his mind was a blank from the moment of his escape from
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the _Lady Vain_. His case was discussed among psychologists at the time
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as a curious instance of the lapse of memory consequent upon physical
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and mental stress. The following narrative was found among his papers
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by the undersigned, his nephew and heir, but unaccompanied by any
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definite request for publication.
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The only island known to exist in the region in which my uncle was
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picked up is Noble’s Isle, a small volcanic islet and uninhabited. It
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was visited in 1891 by _H. M. S. Scorpion_. A party of sailors then
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landed, but found nothing living thereon except certain curious white
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moths, some hogs and rabbits, and some rather peculiar rats. So that
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this narrative is without confirmation in its most essential
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particular. With that understood, there seems no harm in putting this
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strange story before the public in accordance, as I believe, with my
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uncle’s intentions. There is at least this much in its behalf: my uncle
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passed out of human knowledge about latitude 5° S. and longitude 105°
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E., and reappeared in the same part of the ocean after a space of
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eleven months. In some way he must have lived during the interval. And
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it seems that a schooner called the _Ipecacuanha_ with a drunken
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captain, John Davies, did start from Africa with a puma and certain
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other animals aboard in January, 1887, that the vessel was well known
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at several ports in the South Pacific, and that it finally disappeared
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from those seas (with a considerable amount of copra aboard), sailing
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to its unknown fate from Bayna in December, 1887, a date that tallies
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entirely with my uncle’s story.
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CHARLES EDWARD PRENDICK.
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The Island of Doctor Moreau
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(The Story written by Edward Prendick.)
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