Explanation: “To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.”
Exp. This extract has been taken from Joseph Conrad’s short but famous novel Heart of Darkness. Here, Marlow describes the real purpose of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, a group of explorers secretly associated with the Manager of the Central Station of the Belgian Trading Company.
At the Central Station, Marlow is told that he has to raise the wrecked steamer—of which he has been appointed the skipper—from the bottom of the river and make it afloat after proper repair. To accomplish this task, Marlow orders rivets. However, instead of rivets, a group of people arrives who call themselves members of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition.
These people arrive in five separate groups over the next three weeks. Each group is led by a donkey carrying a white man, and behind every donkey follows a quarrelling group of weary and irritable Negroes. The members of the expedition bring with them a large quantity of tents, camp stools, tin boxes, and other equipment.
Marlow notices that the members of the Eldorado Exploring Expedition lack any moral purpose. Their conversation reveals nothing but recklessness, greed, and cruelty. Marlow regards them as plunderers whose sole aim is to dig treasure out of the bowels of the land. In this sense, they are no better than burglars who break into an iron safe to steal hidden wealth.
Marlow soon learns that the leader of the expedition is the uncle of the Manager of the Company’s Station, where Marlow has been staying for months while trying to repair the wrecked steamer and set it afloat. The secrecy between the Manager and his uncle arouses Marlow’s curiosity, and he begins to suspect that there is some sort of conspiracy against someone.
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