I should be imprisoned for typhus, besides being
handed over to the straighteners for having run away with Arowhena: an
even darker fate, to which I dare hardly again allude, would be reserved
for my devoted fellow-labourers. It is plain, therefore, that some other
way must be found for getting at the Erewhonians, and I am thankful to
say that such another way is not wanting. One of the rivers which
descends from the Snowy Mountains, and passes through Erewhon, is known
to be navigable for several hundred miles from its mouth. Its upper
waters have never yet been explored, but I feel little doubt that it will
be found possible to take a light gunboat (for we must protect ourselves)
to the outskirts of the Erewhonian country.
I propose, therefore, that one of those associations should be formed in
which the risk of each of the members is confined to the amount of his
stake in the concern. The first step would be to draw up a prospectus.
In this I would advise that no mention should be made of the fact that
the Erewhonians are the lost tribes. The discovery is one of absorbing
interest to myself, but it is of a sentimental rather than commercial
value, and business is business.
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