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The Island of Doctor Moreau
by H. G. Wells
Contents
INTRODUCTION.
On February the First 1887, the Lady Vain was lost by collision with aderelict when about the latitude 1° S. and longitude 107° W.
On January the Fifth, 1888—that is eleven months and four daysafter—my uncle, Edward Prendick, a private gentleman, who certainly wentaboard the Lady Vain at Callao, and who had been considered drowned, waspicked up in latitude 5° 3′ S. and longitude 101° W. in a smallopen boat of which the name was illegible, but which is supposed to havebelonged to the missing schooner Ipecacuanha. He gave such a strangeaccount of himself that he was supposed demented. Subsequently he alleged thathis 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 ofthe lapse of memory consequent upon physical and mental stress. The followingnarrative 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 isNoble’s Isle, a small volcanic islet and uninhabited. It was visited in1891 by H. M. S. Scorpion. A party of sailors then landed, but foundnothing living thereon except certain curious white moths, some hogs andrabbits, and some rather peculiar rats. So that this