The Island of Dr. Moreau
Chapter One
In The Dingey Of The "Lady Vain."
I DO not propose to add anything to what has already been written
concerning the loss of the "Lady Vain." As everyone knows, she
collided with a derelict when ten days out from Callao. The
longboat, with seven of the crew, was picked up eighteen days after
by H. M. gunboat "Myrtle," and the story of their terrible
privations has become quite as well known as the far more horrible
"Medusa" case. But I have to add to the published story of the "Lady
Vain" another, possibly as horrible and far stranger. It has
hitherto been supposed that the four men who were in the dingey
perished, but this is incorrect. I have the best of evidence for
this assertion: I was one of the four men.
But in the first place I must state that there never were four men
in the dingey,-the number was three. Constans, who was "seen by the
captain to jump into the gig," luckily for us and unluckily for
himself did not reach us. He came down out of the tangle of ropes
under the stays of the smashed bowsprit, some small rope caught his
heel as he let go, and he hung for a moment h ... read full excerpt from The Island of Dr. Moreau ebook
