Heart of Darkness and the Congo Diary (24 page)

2.
Gosse
: Joseph-Louis-Herbert Gosse had recently been made manager of the Matadi Station of the Société Anonyme du Haut-Congo.

3.
Casement
: Roger Casement (1864–1916; knighted 1911) was at this time working for the Compagnie du Chemin de fer du Congo as a supervisor of the railway that was planned to connect Matadi with Kinchasa. Conrad later elaborated: ‘For some three weeks he lived in the same room in the Matadi Station…He knew the coast languages well. I went with him several times on short expeditions to hold “palavers” with neighbouring village-chiefs. The object of them was procuring porters for the Company's caravans from Matadi to Leopoldville' (24 May 1916,
Letters
, vol. V, pp. 596–7). In 1898, Casement became British Consul for the Congo Free State and in 1903 prepared a widely publicized report on atrocities committed by Belgian colonists. After a distinguished diplomatic career, his involvement with the Irish National Volunteers and collusion with Germany during the First World War led to his arrest and execution for treason in 1916.

4.
Hatton & Cookson
: A Liverpool-based trading company, operating in the Lower Congo area.

5.
Simpson
: James H. Simpson of the Australian shipping firm Henry Simpson & Sons. Conrad had captained one of its ships, the
Otago
, from January 1888 to March 1889.

6.
Gov. B
.: Tadeusz Bobrowski (1824–94), Conrad's maternal uncle and guardian.

7.
Purd
.: Richard Curle identified this person as ‘Captain Purdy, an acquaintance of Conrad' (
Last Essays
, p. 161).

8.
Hope
: See
Heart of Darkness
, Part I, note 1.

9.
Cap Froud
: Albert George Froud (1831–1901), the secretary of the London Shipmaster's Society, whose Fenchurch Street office Conrad had often visited in the later 1880s. A Somerset man by birth, he retired to Bristol. Conrad recalls him in
A Personal Record
.

10.
Mar
.: Marguerite Blanche-Marie Poradowska (née Gachet de la Fournière, 1848–1937), widow of Aleksander Poradowski, a distant relative of Conrad, was the ‘aunt' who had used her influence in Brussels in 1890 to help him obtain his post in the Congo. Conrad wrote to her from Matadi on 18 June (
Letters
, vol. I, pp. 56–7), but if he wrote again on 24 June, this letter, like the others mentioned here, has not survived.

11.
People speaking ill of each other
: Cf. the account of life at the ‘Central Station' (
Heart of Darkness
, 29–30).

12.
Harou
: Prosper Harou, a Belgian agent of the Société Anonyme du Haut-Congo, had arrived from Europe in the same ship as Conrad.

13.
Danes
: As
Heart of Darkness
also indicates, Scandinavians commonly served as officers in the Society's steamboats.

14.
Mosquitos
: Spelled in this form throughout the diary.

15.
andulating
: The ‘beginning “u” in “undulating” is pronounced like the Polish “a'” (Zdzisław Najder, ed.,
Congo Diary and Other Uncollected Pieces
, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978, p. 48).

16.
the missionary
: Rev. Charles E. Ingham, author of
Congo Reading Book
, 2 vols. (London: East London Missions Institute, 1890–91).

17.
Backongo
: Properly ‘Bakongo', the name of a large tribe inhabiting the coastal regions of the Congo and Angola.

18.
Zanzibari
: Natives of Zanzibar were often employed by the Congo Free State to act as soldiers or policemen.

19.
Palma Christi
: The Latin name, meaning ‘the palm of Christ', for the castor oil plant.

20.
cal
[
a
]
bashes
: Various species of gourd and pumpkin-like fruit.

21.
malafu
: Palm wine.

22.
ressembling
: After the French
ressemblant
.

23.
accidented
: A Gallicism, from
accidenté
(‘uneven, hilly').

24.
manioc plantations
: The ‘stuff like half-cooked cold dough' that Marlow sees the Bangala crew eating (
Heart of Darkness
, 50) is made from the tuberous roots of the manioc.

25.
Messrs Heyn & Jaeger
: Agents of the Société Anonyme du Haut-Congo. Reginald Heyn, an Englishman, managed a transport base at Manyanga.

26.
Stayed here till the 25
: Conrad never fully explained the reason for this protracted stay. For a detailed discussion, see Zdzisław Najder,
Joseph Conrad: A Chronicle
, trans. Halina Carroll-Najder (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 130–31.

27.
Nkenghe
: William Holman Bentley provides the key to the first two columns of this list, noting: ‘Markets in these parts are held once in every four days; the names of the days being
Nsona, Nkandu, Konzo, Nkenge'
(
Pioneering in the Congo
, London: Religious Tract Society, 1900, vol. I, p. 358). He later elaborates: ‘The Congo week consists of four days…The markets are named after the day of the week and the town near which they are held' (vol. I, p. 399). Here planning his itinerary for the next two weeks, Conrad converts the seven days of the European week into the four days of the Congo week, presumably to calculate when his journey would coincide with market-day. The places listed in the third column probably represent the camp-sites used on the journey.

28.
Mrs Comber
: Annie Comber (neé Smith), who had only recently arrived at the mission, would be dead before Conrad returned to Europe. She had come out from England in early 1890 and married Percy Comber, a Baptist missionary, at Matadi in June. After repeated fevers, she died at Banana on 19 December 1890 while waiting for a homeward-bound steamship.

29.
Davis
: Philip Davis, a Baptist missionary, arrived in the Congo with Percy Comber in 1885. From October 1886 he was stationed at Wathen, where he died in December 1895.

30.
Rev. Bentley
: The Baptist missionary William Holman Bentley (1855–1905), author of
Pioneering in the Congo
and several other works on the cultures and languages of the Congo. He and his wife Hendrina (née Kloekers) had gone to Tungwa, near Makuta (Bentley, vol. II, p. 341).

31.
much more trees
: An unidiomatic phrase, influenced by the Polish
wiele więcej drzew
.

32.
One wrecked
: The ship Conrad had expected to command, the
Floride
, was wrecked on 18 July, but was re-floated and brought back to Kinchasa within five days (Sherry, p. 41). Cf.
Heart of Darkness
: ‘One of them…informed me with great volubility and many digressions…that my steamer was at the bottom of the river' (24–5).

33.
shimbek
: An African term for a few huts occupied by people of the same employment (for example, railway builders).

34.
Ipeca
: That is, Ipecacuanha, a herbal medicine used to combat dysentery.

35.
Row…carriers
: Cf.
Heart of Darkness
: ‘Then he got fever, and had to be carried in a hammock slung under a pole. As he weighed sixteen stone I had no end of rows with the carriers' (24).

36.
speech…understand
: Cf.
Heart of Darkness
: ‘one evening, I made a speech in English with gestures, not one of which was lost to the sixty pairs of eyes before me' (24).

This glossary briefly explains all nautical terms used in
Heart of Darkness
. Admiral W. H. Smyth's
The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms
(1867; rpt. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1991) can be recommended as providing useful detailed description relevant to the period in which Conrad was writing.

 

bow
: the forward part of a ship, from the point at which she begins to curve to the stern

brought up
: halted and anchored the vessel

 

decked scow
: a large, flat-bottomed boat with broad, square ends, used for carrying freight

dug-out
: a canoe made from a hollowed-out tree-trunk

 

fairway
: navigable part of a river

float
: one of the blades of a ship's paddle-wheel

 

hard a-starboard
: as far as possible to the right

helm
: the handle or tiller (in large ships the wheel) by which the rudder is managed; occasionally extended to include the whole steering gear

 

offing
: the more distant part of the sea or river in view

opened the reach more
: sailed further round the bend into the open stretch

 

purchases
: leverage equipment for raising or lowering heavy objects

 

reach
: (a) portion of a river that lies between two bends; (b) as much as can be seen in one view

 

sheered
: swerved or changed course

snag
: a hazard to navigation, particularly a submerged obstacle

sounding
-
pole
: a pole used to measure the depth of water close to the land

sprits
: small spars set diagonally upwards from the mast, on which sails are extended on fore-and-aft rigged vessels

stanchion
: upright bar or post serving as a support

 

trip the anchor
: raise clear the ship's anchor from its bed

trireme
: an ancient Greek and Roman warship; a type of galley with three tiers of oars on each side

 

yawl
: two-masted sailing vessel, rigged fore-and-aft, with a large mainmast and a small mizzenmast (rear mast)

Adaptations of
Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness
. Dir. Nicolas Roeg. Perf. Tim Roth and John Malkovich. 1994. VHS. Turner Home Entertainment, 1994.

Apocalypse Now Redux
. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen. 1979. DVD. Paramount, 2001.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
. Dir. Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola. 1991. DVD. Paramount, 2007.

Adaptations of Other Conrad Works

Lord Jim
. Dir. Richard Brooks. Perf. Peter O'Toole and James Mason. 1965. DVD. Sony Pictures, 2004.

The Secret Agent
. Dir. Christopher Hampton. Perf. Bob Hoskins and Robin Williams. 1996. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2005.

Victory
. Dir. Mark Peploe. Perf. Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill. 1995. DVD. Miramax, 2002.

Swept from the Sea
. Dir. Beeban Kidron. Perf. Ian McKellen and Rachel Weisz. Sony Pictures, 1998.

Nostromo
. Dir. Alastair Reid. Perf. Colin Firth and Albert Finney. 1996. VHS. Fox Video, 1997.

Films about Africa

Darfur Now
(documentary). Dir. Ted Braun. Perf. Don Cheadle. 2007. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2008.

Babel
. Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu. Perf. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. 2006. DVD. Paramount, 2007.

Blood Diamond
. Dir. Edward Zwick. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly. 2006. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2007.

The Constant Gardener
. Dir. Fernando Meirelles. Perf. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. 2005. DVD. Universal Studios, 2006.

The Last King of Scotland
. Dir. Kevin MacDonald. Perf. Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy. 2006. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2007.

Tsotsi
. Dir. Gavin Hood. 2005. DVD. Miramax, 2006.

Hotel Rwanda
. Dir. Terry George. Perf. Don Cheadle. 2004. DVD. MGM, 2005.

Tears of the Sun
. Dir. Antoine Fuqua. Perf. Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci. Sony Pictures, 2003.

Black Hawk Down
. Dir. Ridley Scott. Sony Pictures, 2002.

Amistad
. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, and Djimon Hounsou. 1997. DVD. Dreamworks Video, 1999.

The Ghost and the Darkness
. Dir. Stephen Hopkins. Perf. Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer. 1996. DVD. Paramount, 1998.

Congo
. Dir. Frank Marshall. 1995. DVD. Paramount, 1999.

Cry Freedom
. Dir. Richard Attenborough. 1987. DVD. Universal Studios, 1999.

Out of Africa
. Dir. Sydney Pollack. Perf. Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. 1985. DVD. Universal Studios, 2000.

King Solomon's Mines
. Dir. J. Lee Thompson. Perf. Richard Chamberlain. 1985. DVD. MGM, 2004.

La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers)
. Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo. 1966. DVD. Criterion, 2004.

Mogambo
. Dir. John Ford. Perf. Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly. 1953. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2006.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro
. Dir. Henry King. Perf. Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. 1952. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2007.

The African Queen
. Dir. John Huston. Perf. Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. 1952. DVD. Castaway Nw UK, 2006.

King Solomon's Mines
. Dir. Andrew Marton and Compton Bennett. Perf. Deborah Kerr. 1950. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2005.

King Solomon's Mines
. Dir. Robert Stevenson. Perf. Paul Robeson. 1937. DVD. MGM, 2001.

Films about Imperialism

A Passage to India
. Dir. David Lean. 1985. DVD. Sony Pictures, 2008.

Lawrence of Arabia
. Dir. David Lean. Perf. Peter O'Toole. 1962. DVD. Columbia Tri/Star, 2008.

Gandhi
. Dir. Richard Attenborough. Perf. Ben Kingsley. 1982. DVD. Sony Pictures, 2007.

The Man Who Would Be King
. Dir. John Huston, Lawrence Tetenbaum, Ed Apfel. Perf. Sean Connery and Michael Caine. 1975. Warner Home Video, 1997.