They loved short passages, good deck-chairs, its ships like toys, its bril iant activity resembling a holiday large native crews, and the distinction of being white. They pageant, with the eternal serenity of the Eastern sky overshuddered at the thought of hard work, and led precariously head and the smiling peace of the Eastern seas possessing the easy lives, always on the verge of dismissal, always on the space as far as the horizon.

verge of engagement, serving Chinamen, Arabs, half-castes—

Directly he could walk without a stick, he descended into would have served the devil himself had he made it easy the town to look for some opportunity to get home. Nothenough. They talked everlastingly of turns of luck: how Soing offered just then, and, while waiting, he associated natuand-so got charge of a boat on the coast of China—a soft ral y with the men of his cal ing in the port. These were of thing; how this one had an easy bil et in Japan somewhere, 12

Joseph Conrad

and that one was doing wel in the Siamese navy; and in al less) were driven on board of her as she lay with steam up they said—in their actions, in their looks, in their persons—

alongside a wooden jetty.

could be detected the soft spot, the place of decay, the deterThey streamed aboard over three gangways, they streamed mination to lounge safely through existence. in urged by faith and the hope of paradise, they streamed in To Jim that gossiping crowd, viewed as seamen, seemed at with a continuous tramp and shuffle of bare feet, without a first more unsubstantial than so many shadows. But at length word, a murmur, or a look back; and when clear of confinhe found a fascination in the sight of those men, in their aping rails spread on al sides over the deck, flowed forward pearance of doing so wel on such a smal al owance of danger and aft, overflowed down the yawning hatchways, fil ed the and toil. In time, beside the original disdain there grew up inner recesses of the ship

—like water fil ing a cistern, like slowly another sentiment; and suddenly, giving up the idea of water flowing into crevices and crannies, like water rising going home, he took a berth as chief mate of the Patna. silently even with the rim. Eight hundred men and women The Patna was a local steamer as old as the hil s, lean like a with faith and hopes, with affections and memories, they greyhound, and eaten up with rust worse than a condemned had col ected there, coming from north and south and from water-tank. She was owned by a Chinaman, chartered by an the outskirts of the East, after treading the jungle paths, deArab, and commanded by a sort of renegade New South scending the rivers, coasting in praus along the shal ows, crossWales German, very anxious to curse publicly his native couning in smal canoes from island to island, passing through try, but who, apparently on the strength of Bismarck’s victosuffering, meeting strange sights, beset by strange fears, uprious policy, brutalised al those he was not afraid of, and held by one desire. They came from solitary huts in the wilwore a ‘blood-and-iron’

air,’ combined with a purple nose derness, from populous campongs, from vil ages by the sea. and a red moustache. After she had been painted outside At the cal of an idea they had left their forests, their clearand whitewashed inside, eight hundred pilgrims (more or ings, the protection of their rulers, their prosperity, their 13

Lord Jim

poverty, the surroundings of their youth and the graves of High upon that journey, implored His blessing on men’s toil their fathers. They came covered with dust, with sweat, with and on the secret purposes of their hearts; the steamer grime, with rags—the strong men at the head of family parpounded in the dusk the calm water of the Strait; and far ties, the lean old men pressing forward without hope of reastern of the pilgrim ship a screw-pile lighthouse, planted by turn; young boys with fearless eyes glancing curiously, shy unbelievers on a treacherous shoal, seemed to wink at her its little girls with tumbled long hair; the timid women muffled eye of flame, as if in derision of her errand of faith. up and clasping to their breasts, wrapped in loose ends of She cleared the Strait, crossed the bay, continued on her soiled head-cloths, their sleeping babies, the unconscious way through the ‘One-degree’ passage. She held on straight pilgrims of an exacting belief. for the Red Sea under a serene sky, under a sky scorching

‘Look at dese cattle,’ said the German skipper to his new and unclouded, enveloped in a fulgor of sunshine that kil ed chief mate.

al thought, oppressed the heart, withered al impulses of An Arab, the leader of that pious voyage, came last. He strength and energy. And under the sinister splendour of that walked slowly aboard, handsome and grave in his white gown sky the sea, blue and profound, remained stil , without a stir, and large turban. A string of servants fol owed, loaded with without a ripple, without a wrinkle—viscous, stagnant, dead. his luggage; the Patna cast off and backed away from the The Patna, with a slight hiss, passed over that plain, lumiwharf. nous and smooth, unrol ed a black ribbon of smoke across She was headed between two smal islets, crossed obliquely the sky, left behind her on the water a white ribbon of foam the anchoring-ground of sailing-ships, swung through half a that vanished at once, like the phantom of a track drawn circle in the shadow of a hil , then ranged close to a ledge of upon a lifeless sea by the phantom of a steamer. foaming reefs. The Arab, standing up aft, recited aloud the Every morning the sun, as if keeping pace in his revoluprayer of travel ers by sea. He invoked the favour of the Most tions with the progress of the pilgrimage, emerged with a 14

Joseph Conrad

silent burst of light exactly at the same distance astern of the

CHAPTER 3

ship, caught up with her at noon, pouring the concentrated fire of his rays on the pious purposes of the men, glided past A MARVELLOUS STILLNESS pervaded the world, and the stars, on his descent, and sank mysteriously into the sea evening together with the serenity of their rays, seemed to shed upon after evening, preserving the same distance ahead of her adthe earth the assurance of everlasting security. The young moon vancing bows.