A Letter to the Port Moriarty HeraldDr Lars Storvald
c/o SS PikeDear Editor,
I would greatly appreciate it if you could publish this letter in your fine newspaper. I am seeking information about a good friend of mine, a Mr Colere, who disembarked in your fine town some months ago with the intention of joining an expedition to the interior. If any of your readers are in a position to know his whereabouts, I would be most gratified to hear from them. I am willing to recompense your readers for any expenses they may incur in terms of postage, missed business opportunities, and so forth, as I am very interested indeed in hearing of the whereabouts of my dear friend Mr Colere.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr Lars Storvald
Tarrant
Able Seaman Cornelius Jones, Dec 19th 186-
Charleston, South CarolinaDear Eustace,
I warrant you will be surprised to hear from me, seeing as we have not spoken since I went off to sea. Tell mother not to worry about me, it is no use anymore. I came down with some fever in the Southern Continent and the doctors say there is nothing they can do. My landlady Mrs Hastings is kind when she is around me, but when she is out of the room what I can hear makes me sure she thinks what has happened to me is God’s judgement for my wickedness. I know she is right, she is just wrong about which God, I have been cursed by a heathen God of the Southern Continent for defiling a tomb. I know it is too late now to make amends for my deeds but I cannot go to my grave without telling anyone, if I don’t nobody will ever know as the other two will never tell, they have souls as tight as chinese slippers.
In Jan 185- the ‘Delilah’ was near 49 S 111 W, following the coast of the country our captain had named ‘Beatrice Nash Land’. It was a rugged coast with many fjords and islands, and high green mountains behind from which numerous streams flowed down to the sea. We were running low on fresh water, so the captain ordered a boat to go ashore. Four of us were sent: Chester Arkwright of Savannah, Horace Whimsley of Providence, myself and a native of Terra Pascua known to all aboard as Little Joe. We got ashore in one piece at a beauty of a creek and filled our barrels, but on the way back our boat took a turn for the worse and tipped us all out. Well, I am still not clear what happened, but we ended up spending the night wet and cold on a little island about as far around as Washington Park, but rising up in the middle
Tarrant