The Island of Doctor Moreau | Page 3

no additional cost, fee or expense,
a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC or other equivalent
proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits you derive
calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you
don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association / Illinois Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each date you
prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax
return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning machines, OCR
software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright licenses, and every other sort of
contribution you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association /
Illinois Benedictine College".
This "Small Print!" by Charles B. Kramer, Attorney Internet
([email protected]); TEL: (212-254-5093) *END*THE SMALL PRINT!
FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

DR. MOREAU
by H. G. Wells
The Sun Dial Library Garden City Publishing Company, Inc. Garden City, New York
1896
Contents
INTRODUCTION I. IN THE DINGEY OF THE "LADY VAIN" II. THE MAN WHO
WAS GOING NOWHERE III. THE STRANGE FACE IV. AT THE SCHOONER'S

RAIL V. THE MAN WHO HAD NOWHERE TO GO VI. THE EVIL-LOOKING
BOATMEN VII. THE LOCKED DOOR VIII. THE CRYING OF THE PUMA IX. THE
THING IN THE FOREST X. THE CRYING OF THE MAN XI. THE HUNTING OF
THE MAN XII. THE SAYERS OF THE LAW XIII. THE PARLEY XIV. DOCTOR
MOREAU EXPLAINS XV. CONCERNING THE BEAST FOLK XVI. HOW THE
BEAST FOLK TASTE BLOOD XVII. A CATASTROPHE XVIII. THE FINDING OF
MOREAU XIX. MONTGOMERY'S BANK HOLIDAY XX. ALONE WITH THE
BEAST FOLK XXI. THE REVERSION OF THE BEAST FOLK XXII. THE MAN
ALONE

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

I. 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