DATE: August 8, 1897
EVENT: Tarzan was put ashore on Jungle Island. The ape-man made contact with the apes of Akut.
SOURCE: "The following day, the hatch was removed from Tarzan's cell, and as he looked up he saw Paulvitch's head framed in the shade of light above him." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
CHAT: It is here that ERB informs us, "The two years that had elapsed since Tarzan had come out of the savage forest with his rescued mate had witnessed a slight diminution of the
mighty powers that had made him the invincible lord of the jungle." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
We also discover that the ape-man has taken up boxing and/or other forms of martial arts. He most probably learned them while in Algeria with the French Foreign Legion. "With a low snarl the beast now hurled himself at Tarzan, but the ape-man had found, among other things in the haunts of civilized man, certain methods of scientific warfare that are unknown to the jungle folk.
Whereas, a few years since, he would have met the brute rush with brute force, he now sidestepped his antagonist’s headlong charge, and as the brute hurtled past him swung a mighty right to the pit of the ape’s stomach. With a howl of mingled rage and anguish the great anthropoid bent double and sank to the ground, though almost instantly he was again struggling to his feet." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
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| J. Alen St. John |
DATE: August 11, 1897, through August 14, 1897
EVENT: Jane was locked up for several days and saw no one except the ship's cook Seven Anderssen.
SOURCE: "He went on the deck then, locking the cabin door upon his prisoner, and for several days she did not see him." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
CHAT: Although ERB gives us the vague description of 'several days' in this passage we
know in reality it was only three actual days. The events describe Jane seeing Tarzan put ashore on Jungle Island, and then ERB tells us three days later the Kincaid came to anchor in the mouth of the Ugambi River
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| J. Alen St. John |
DATE: August 11, 1897
EVENT: Three days from Jungle Island, where Tarzan had been marooned, the Kincaid came to anchor in the mouth of the Ugambi River.
SOURCE: "Three days from the spot where Tarzan had been marooned the Kincaid came to anchor in the mouth of a great river, and presently Rokoff came to Jane Clayton's cabin." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
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| Kincade |
DATE: noonday August 11, 1897
EVENT: After being physically attacked by Rokoff Jane is saved by the Swede cook, Sven Anderssen, with her noonday meal.
SOURCE: "Outside the door, Sven Anderssen paused with the noonday meal he had been carrying to Lady Greystoke." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
CHAT: The question here is, where is the location of the Ugambi River? Is the name Ugambi a real river, or is it coded to protect Tarzan's identity? ERB described the Ugambi 'as a great river that flowed into the ocean', 'broad', 'broad stream', large watercourse', and 'has tributaries'. Despite this description of a large broad watercourse, I was looking for a Ugambi River in Africa. Therefore, the name is either fictitious or Ugambi is the river's Waziri name, thus not printed by that name on white men's maps. Since ERB's given name, Ugambi River, could not be found I studied the other great rivers of Africa that flowed into the sea. Through a list of deductions based on ERB's provided information, the most logical location for the Ugambi on European maps would be the Belgian Congo. The reason I believe this is because of three statements ERB makes.
(1) "After long thought Tarzan decided to continue toward the northeast in the general
direction of German East Africa until he came upon some natives he could question," ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
(2) "From the direction of Anderssen's flight with Jane and the child Tarzan was convinced that the man had purposed attempting the tremendous feat of crossing the continent to
Zanzibar; but whether Rokoff would dare so dangerous a journey or not was the question."
ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
(3) "Tarzan questioned the fellow closely, and learned that Rokoff and his safari were in terror-stricken retreat in the direction of the far East Coast." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan. If you
study a map of Africa you will quickly discover the Belgian Congo lies directly west of German East Africa and Zanzibar. If the events in The Beasts Of Tarzan occur in the Belgian Congo the native Ugambi River is what we know as the Congo River. If you follow the main course of the Congo it runs into Lake Tanganyika which is just west of Zanzibar. This is the same route Henry M. Stanley followed in 1874-1877 except from east to west. In this 1872 chronology. I will continue using ERB's Ugambi River which is not listed on real-life maps, with the location being in Portuguese Angola.
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| Zdenek Burian |
DATE: evening of August 11, 1897
EVENT: When the Swede brought Jane's supper he informed her he would help her escape that night.
SOURCE: "She saw no more of Rokoff that day, nor of any other until Sven came with her evening meal." The Beasts Of Tarzan.
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| J. Alen St. John |
DATE: midnight August 12, 1897
EVENT: The Swede helped Jane and the baby, who she can't see for darkness, escape the Kincaid.
SOURCE: "She swore a dozen times that she would not leave the Kincaid without her baby, and yet she remained clothed long past her usual hour of retiring, and her blankets were neatly rolled and bound with stout cord when about midnight there came a stealthy scratching upon the panels of her door." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan. "Anderssen rowed on as though quite sure of his ground, and when after an hour the moon broke through the clouds there was revealed upon their left the mouth of a tributary running into the Ugambi. Up this narrow channel, the Swede turned the prow of the small boat." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan. "Even though the moon was full, the surface of the small river was quite dark." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
CHAT: It is here that ERB provides us with an excellent dating tool. The author informs us in the above three passages that 'the moon was full'. If we are on the right track our chronology should agree with ERB's description. I checked with the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department's Phases Of The Moon and there is indeed a full moon which occurred on August 12, 1897.
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| The Beasts Of Tarzan |
DATE: three o'clock A.M. August 12, 1897
EVENT: The Swede, Jane, and the baby reach a Mosulas village where they sleep.
SOURCE: "It must have been three o'clock in the morning that Andersen brought the boat's nose to the shore before a clearing where could be dimly seen in the waning moonlight a cluster of native huts encircled by a thorn boma," ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
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| J. Alen St. John |
DATE: morning August 12, 1897
EVENT: Upon awakening in the light of day Jane discovered the baby was not little Jack. She fainted from shock. After she collected herself Jane, the baby, Sven, and six Mosula barriers fled upstream.
SOURCE: "After warding off the attack Tarzan learns Rokoff attacked the natives three moons ago." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.
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| Frank Frazetta |
DATE: August 12, 1897, through October 9, 1897
EVENT: For many days the Swede, Jane, and the baby fled.
SOURCE: "The days and nights of torture that the young woman suffered were so merged into one long, unbroken nightmare of hideousness that soon lost all track of time. Whether they had been wandering for days or years she could not tell." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
For some time their progress inland was extremely slow. Word came to them from time to time through natives passing from the coast on hunting excursions that Rokoff had not yet guessed the direction of their flight." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
"They had commenced to make a little better progress when word reached them that Rokoff was but a few marches behind them, and that he had, at last, discovered the direction of their flight." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
.jpeg "The Beasts Of Tarzan") |
| The Beasts Of Tarzan |
DATE: August 13, 1897
EVENT: Jane and company flee from Chief Kaviri's village.
SOURCE: "After several hours of questioning and cross-questioning the ape-man learned that another party had preceded the Russian by several days - three whites - a man, a woman, and a little man-child. with several Mosulas." ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan.
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| The Beasts Of Tarzan |
DATE: August 13, 1897
EVENT: Upon reaching the first native village along the bank of the Ugambi, Rokoff attacks it, and forces natives to paddle his boat.
SOURCE: "After warding off the attack Tarzan learns Rokoff attacked the natives three moons ago." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes..
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| Joe Jusko |
DATE: August 13, 1897, through August 17, 1897
EVENT: Tarzan weaved a bark sailcloth.
SOURCE: "The next few days Tarzan devoted to the weaving of a barkcloth sail with which to equip the canoe, for he despaired of being able to teach the apes to wield the paddles, though he did manage to get several of them to embark in the frail craft which he and Mugambi paddled about inside the reef where the water was quite smooth" ERB-The Beasts Of Tarzan. These dates are working dates only and are not provided by ERB.
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| Joe Jusko |
DATE: August 17, 1897, through September 9, 1897
EVENT: Tarzan got the apes used to riding on the water.
SOURCE: These are working dates only and are not provided by ERB.
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| Thomas Yeates |
About The Author
James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines, over forty-five years. He also manages an unauthorized Tarzan blog titled, Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody. There the researcher chronologies the Tarzan books starting in May 1872 (known as the pushback theory) instead of the more excepted date May 1888.
James Michael Moody is also the author of the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, and Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022. Swordsman On Unium is going through the publishing process.
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