Tarzan

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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Title: Tarzan of the Apes

Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Release Date: June 23, 2008 [EBook #78]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TARZAN OF THE APES ***

Produced by Judith Boss. HTML version by Al Haines.

Tarzan of the Apes

By

Edgar Rice Burroughs

CONTENTS

I Out to Sea
II The Savage Home
III Life and Death
IV The Apes
V The White Ape
VI Jungle Battles
VII The Light of Knowledge
VIII The Tree-top Hunter
IX Man and Man
X The Fear-Phantom
XI “King of the Apes”
XII Man’s Reason
XIII His Own Kind
XIV At the Mercy of the Jungle
XV The Forest God
XVI “Most Remarkable”
XVII Burials
XVIII The Jungle Toll
XIX The Call of the Primitive
XX Heredity
XXI The Village of Torture
XXII The Search Party
XXIII Brother Men
XXIV Lost Treasure
XXV The Outpost of the World
XXVI The Height of Civilization
XXVII The Giant Again
XXVIII Conclusion

Chapter I

Out to Sea

I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to
Any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon
The narrator for the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity
During the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale.

When my convivial host discovered that he had told me so much, and that
I was prone to doubtfulness, his foolish pride assumed the task the old
Vintage had commenced,

and so he unearthed written evidence in the form
Of musty manuscript, and dry official records of the British Colonial
Office to support many of the salient features of his remarkable
Narrative.

I do not say the story is true, for I did not witness the happenings
Which it portrays, but the fact that in the telling of it to you I have
Taken fictitious names for the principal characters quite sufficiently
Evidences the sincerity of my own belief that it MAY be true.

The yellow, mildewed pages of the diary of a man long dead, and the
Records of the Colonial Office dovetail perfectly with the narrative of
My convivial host, and so I give you the story as I painstakingly
Pieced it out from these several various agencies.

If you do not find it credible you will at least be as one with me in
Acknowledging that it is unique, remarkable, and interesting.

From the records of the Colonial Office and from the dead man’s diary
We learn that a certain young English nobleman, whom we shall call John
Clayton, Lord Greystoke, was commissioned to make a peculiarly delicate
Investigation of conditions in a British West Coast African Colony from
Whose simple native inhabitants another European power was known to be
Recruiting soldiers for its native army, which it used solely for the
Forcible collection of rubber and ivory from the savage tribes along
The Congo and the Aruwimi. The natives of the British Colony
Complained that many of their young men were enticed away through the
Medium of fair and glowing promises, but that few if any ever returned
To their families.

The Englishmen in Africa went even further, saying that these poor