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KING SOLOMON'S MINES
by H. RYDER HAGGARDCHAPTER I--I MEET SIR HENRY CURTISIT is a curious thing that at my age--fifty-five last birthday--I should find myself taking up a pen to try and write ahistory. I wonder what sort of a history itwill be when I have done it, if I ever cometo the end of the trip! I have done a goodmany things in my life, which seems along one to me, owing to my havingbegun so young, perhaps. At an age whenother boys are at school I was earningmy living as a trader in the old Colony. Ihave been trading, hunting, fighting, or mining ever since. And yet it is onlyeight months ago that I made my pile. Itis a big pile now I have got it--I don't yetknow how big--but I don't think I wouldgo through the last fifteen or sixteenmonths again for it; no, not if I knew thatI should come out safe at the end, pileand all. But then, I am a timid man, anddon't like violence, and am pretty sick of adventure. I wonder why I am going towrite this book; it is not in my line. I amnot a literary man, though very devotedto the Old Testament and also to the"Ingoldsby Legends." Let me try and setdown my reasons, just to see if I haveany.First reason: Because Sir Henry Curtisand Captain John Good asked me to.Second reason: Because I am laid up hereat Durban with the pain and trouble inmy left leg. Ever since that confoundedlion got hold of me I have been liable toit, and its being rather bad just nowmakes me limp more than ever. Theremust be some poison in a lion's teeth,otherwise how is it that when your wounds are healed they break out again,generally, mark you, at the same time of year that you got your mauling? It is ahard thing that when one has shot sixty-five lions, as I have in the course of my
 
life, that the sixty-sixth should chew your leg like a quid of tobacco. It breaks theroutine of the thing, and, putting other considerations aside, I am an orderlyman and don't like that. This is by theway.Third reason: Because I want my boyHarry, who is over there at the hospitalin London studying to become a doctor,to have something to amuse him andkeep him out of mischief for a week or so. Hospital work must sometimes palland get rather dull, for even of cutting-up dead bodies there must come satiety,and as this history won't be dull,whatever else it may be, it may put alittle life into things for a day or twowhile he is reading it.Fourth reason and last: Because I amgoing to tell the strangest story that Iknow of. It may seem a queer thing to saythat, especially considering that there isno woman in it except Foulata. Stop,though! there is Gagaoola, if she was awoman and not a fiend. But she was ahundred at least, and therefore notmarriageable, so I don't count her. At anyrate, I can safely say that there is not a _i_ petticoat _i_ in the whole history.Well, I had better come to the yoke. It's astiff place, and I feel as though I werebogged up to the axle. But "sutjes, sutjes,"as the Boers say (I'm sure I don't knowhow they spell it), softly does it. A strongteam will come through at last, that is if they ain't too poor. You will never doanything with poor oxen. Now, to begin.I, Allan Quatermain, of Durban, Natal,Gentleman, make oath and say--That'show I began my deposition before themagistrate about poor Khiva's andVentvo"gel's sad deaths; but somehow itdoesn't seem quite the right way to begina book. And, besides, am I a gentleman?What is a gentleman? I don't quite know,and yet I have had to do with niggers--no, I'll scratch that word "niggers" out,for I don't like it. I've known natives who _i_ are _i_, and so you'll say, Harry, myboy, before you're done with this tale,and I have known mean whites with lots
 
of money and fresh out from home, too,who _ i_ ain't _i_. Well, at any rate I wasborn a gentleman, though I've beennothing but a poor travelling trader andhunter all my life. Whether I haveremained so I know not; you must judgeof that. Heaven knows I've tried. I'vekilled many men in my time, but I havenever slain wantonly or stained my handin innocent blood, only in self-defence.The Almighty gave us our lives, and Isuppose he meant us to defend them; atleast I have always acted on that, and Ihope it won't be brought up against mewhen my clock strikes. There, there; it isa cruel and a wicked world, and, for atimid man, I have been mixed up in adeal of slaughter. I can't tell the rights of it, but at any rate I have never stolen,though I once cheated a Kaffir out of aherd of cattle. But then, he had done mea dirty turn, and it has troubled me ever since into the bargain.Well, it's eighteen months or so ago sinceI first met Sir Henry Curtis and CaptainGood, and it was in this way. I had beenup elephant hunting beyondBamangwato, and had had bad luck.Everything went wrong that trip, and totop up with I got the fever badly. So soonas I was well enough I trekked down tothe Diamond Fields, sold such ivory as Ihad, and also my wagon and oxen,discharged my hunters, and took thepost-cart to the Cape. After spending aweek in Cape Town, finding that theyovercharged me at the hotel, and havingseen everything there was to see,including the botanical gardens, whichseem to me likely to confer a greatbenefit on the country, and the newHouses of Parliament, which I expect willdo nothing of the sort, I determined to goon back to Natal by the _i_ Dunkeld _i_,then lying in the docks waiting for the _i_ Edinburgh Castle _i_ due in fromEngland. I took my berth and wentaboard, and that afternoon the Natalpassengers from the _i_ EdinburghCastle _i_ transhipped, and we weighedanchor and put out to sea.Among the passengers who came on
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