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An Inland Voyage
         by Robert Louis Stevenson



 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION



To equip so small a book with a preface is; I am half afraid; to  sin against proportion。  But a preface is more than an author can  resist; for it is the reward of his labours。  When the foundation  stone is laid; the architect appears with his plans; and struts for  an hour before the public eye。  So with the writer in his preface:   he may have never a word to say; but he must show himself for a  moment in the portico; hat in hand; and with an urbane demeanour。

It is best; in such circumstances; to represent a delicate shade of  manner between humility and superiority:  as if the book had been  written by some one else; and you had merely run over it and  inserted what was good。  But for my part I have not yet learned the  trick to that perfection; I am not yet able to dissemble the warmth  of my sentiments towards a reader; and if I meet him on the  threshold; it is to invite him in with country cordiality。

To say truth; I had no sooner finished reading this little book in  proof; than I was seized upon by a distressing apprehension。  It  occurred to me that I might not only be the first to read these  pages; but the last as well; that I might have pioneered this very  smiling tract of country all in vain; and find not a soul to follow  in my steps。  The more I thought; the more I disliked the notion;  until the distaste grew into a sort of panic terror; and I rushed  into this Preface; which is no more than an advertisement for  readers。

What am I to say for my book?  Caleb and Joshua brought back from  Palestine a formidable bunch of grapes; alas! my book produces  naught so nourishing; and for the matter of that; we live in an age  when people prefer a definition to any quantity of fruit。

I wonder; would a negative be found enticing? for; from the  negative point of view; I flatter myself this volume has a certain  stamp。  Although it runs to considerably upwards of two hundred  pages; it contains not a single reference to the imbecility of  God's universe; nor so much as a single hint that I could have made  a better one myself。 … I really do not know where my head can have  been。  I seem to have forgotten all that makes it glorious to be  man。 … 'Tis an omission that renders the book philosophically  unimportant; but I am in hopes the eccentricity may please in  frivolous circles。

To the friend who accompanied me I owe many thanks already; indeed  I wish I owed him nothing else; but at this moment I feel towards  him an almost exaggerated tenderness。  He; at least; will become my  reader: … if it were only to follow his own travels alongside of  mine。

R。L。S。



ANTWERP TO BOOM



WE made a great stir in Antwerp Docks。  A stevedore and a lot of  dock porters took up the two canoes; and ran with them for the  slip。  A crowd of children followed cheering。  The CIGARETTE went  off in a splash and a bubble of small breaking water。  Next moment  the ARETHUSA was after her。  A steamer was coming down; men on the  paddle…box shouted hoarse warnings; the stevedore and his porters  were bawling from the quay。  But in a stroke or two the canoes were  away out in the middle of the Scheldt; and all steamers; and  stevedores; and other 'long…shore vanities were left behind。

The sun shone brightly; the tide was making … four jolly miles an  hour; the wind blew steadily; with occasional squalls。  For my  part; I had never been in a canoe under sail in my life; and my  first experiment out in the middle of this big river was not made  without some trepidation。  What would happen when the wind first  caught my little canvas?  I suppose it was almost as trying a  venture into the regions of the unknown as to publish a first book;  or to marry。  But my doubts were not of long duration; and in five  minutes you will not be surprised to learn that I had tied my  sheet。

I own I was a little struck by this circumstance myself; of course;  in company with the rest of my fellow…men; I had always tied the  sheet in a sailing…boat; but in so little and crank a concern as a  canoe; and with these charging squalls; I was not prepared to find  myself follow the same principle; and it inspired me with some  contemptuous views of our regard for life。  It is certainly easier  to smoke with the sheet fastened; but I had never before weighed a  comfortable pipe of tobacco against an obvious risk; and gravely  elected for the comfortable pipe。  It is a commonplace; that we  cannot answer for ourselves before we have been tried。  But it is  not so common a reflection; and surely more consoling; that we  usually find ourselves a great deal braver and better than we  thought。  I believe this is every one's experience:  but an  apprehension that they may belie themselves in the future prevents  mankind from trumpeting this cheerful sentiment abroad。  I wish  sincerely; for it would have saved me much trouble; there had been  some one to put me in a good heart about life when I was younger;  to tell me how dangers are most portentous on a distant sight; and  how the good in a man's spirit will not suffer itself to be  overlaid; and rarely or never deserts him in the hour of need。  But  we are all for tootling on the sentimental flute in literature; and  not a man among us will go to the head of the march to sound the  heady drums。

It was agreeable upon the river。  A barge or two went past laden  with hay。  Reeds and willows bordered the stream; and cattle and  grey venerable horses came and hung their mild heads over the  embankment。  Here and there was a pleasant village among trees;  with a noisy shipping…yard; here and there a villa in a lawn。  The  wind served us well up the Scheldt and thereafter up the Rupel; and  we were running pretty free when we began to sight the brickyards  of Boom; lying for a long way on the right bank of the river。  The  left bank was still green and pastoral; with alleys of trees along  the embankment; and here and there a flight of steps to serve a  ferry; where perhaps there sat a woman with her elbows on her  knees; or an old gentleman with a staff and silver spectacles。  But  Boom and its brickyards grew smokier and shabbier with every  minute; until a great church with a clock; and a wooden bridge over  the river; indicated the central quarters of the town。

Boom is not a nice place; and is only remarkable for one thing:   that the majority of the inhabitants have a private opinion that  they can speak English; which is not justified by fact。  This gave  a kind of haziness to our intercourse。  As for the Hotel de la  Navigation; I think it is the worst feature of the place。  It  boasts of a sanded parlour; with a bar at one end; looking on the  street; and another sanded parlour; darker and colder; with an  empty bird…cage and a tricolour subscription box by way of sole  adornment; where we made shift to dine in the company of three  uncommunicative engineer apprentices and a silent bagman。  The  food; as usual in Belgium; was of a nondescript occasional  character; indeed I have never been able to detect anything in the  nature of a meal among this pleasing people; they seem to peck and  trifle with viands all day long in an amateur spirit:  tentatively  French; truly German; and somehow falling between the two。

The empty bird…cage; swept and garnished; and with no trace of the  old piping favourite; save where two wires had been pushed apart to  hold its lump of sugar; carried with it a sort of graveyard cheer。   The engineer apprentices would have nothing to say to us; nor  indeed to the bagman; but talked low and sparingly to one another;  or raked us in the gaslight with a gleam of spectacles。  For though  handsome lads; they were all (in the Scots phrase) barnacled。

There was an English maid in the hotel; who had been long enough  out of England to pick up all sorts of funny foreign idioms; and  all sorts of curious foreign ways; which need not here be  specified。  She spoke to us very fluently in her jargon; asked us  information as to the manners of the present day in England; and  obligingly corrected us when we attempted to answer。  But as we  were dealing with a woman; perhaps 

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