Tarzan's First Visit To France


Date:  early March 17, 1893
Event:  The Arrow sets sail with the French warship.
Source:  "Six days later Captain Dufranne announced that they would sail early on the morrow." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The Arrow
The Arrow

Date:  March 17, 1893
Event:  Tarzan began speaking little sentences in French.
Source:  "He was a most eager student, and in two more days had mastered so much French that he could speak little sentences such as "That is a tree," "this is grass," "I am hungry," and the like, but D'Arnot found that it was difficult to teach him the French construction upon a foundation of English." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Zdenek Burian
Zdenek Burian

Date:  March 17, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot set out for the cabin.
Source:  "On the third day after the fever broke Tarzan wrote a message asking D'Arnot if he felt strong enough to be carried back to the cabin." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan Of The Apes
Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:    mid-afternoon March 17, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot arrive at the cabin to discover everyone gone.
Source:  "Mid-afternoon brought them to the clearing, and as Tarzan dropped to earth from the branches of the last tree his heart leaped and bounded against his ribs in anticipation of seeing Jane so soon again." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan Of The Apes
Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  dusk March 17, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot accidentally shoots Tarzan.
Source:  "Dusk was falling, and the interior of the cabin was very dark, but the man could see the latch moving from its place." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.


Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert

Date:  March 24, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a week at the cabin.
Source:  "For a week they did little but rest, D'Arnot coaching Tarzan in French." ERB-Tarzan OfThe Apes.

Tarzan Of The Apes
Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  March 25, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot leave the cabin in search of whites.
Source:  "So on the following day they started north along the shore." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan Of The Apes
Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  April 8, 1893
Event:  Tarzan tells D'Arnot about finding and moving the Porter treasure chest, and about his father's diary.
Source:  "Go back?" exclaimed D'Arnot. "But my dear fellow, we have been three weeks upon the march." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. It is also important to note the age of the diary itself.  "Then he proceeded to read the diary that had been written over twenty years before." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Harold Foster
Harold Foster

Date:
  April 15, 1893
Event
:  Tarzan and D'Arnot walk the coastline in search of whites. Eventually, they happened upon a French mission.
Source:  "For a month they traveled north," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "A week later the two men came suddenly upon a clearing in the forest." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Zdenek Burian
Zdenek Burian

Date:    April 22, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a week resting at the mission.
Source:  "For a week they remained there," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.


1893 Central African Republic
1893 Central African Republic

Date:  May 22, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot reach a small river town.
Source:  "Another month brought them to a little group of buildings at the mouth of a wide river," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "Gradually he became accustomed to the strange noises and the odd ways of civilization, so that none might know that two short months before, this handsome Frenchman in immaculate white ducks, who laughed and chatted with the gayest of them, had been swinging naked through primeval forests to pounce upon some unwary victim, which, raw was to fill his savage belly." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Matadi, Congo River
Matadi, Congo River

Date June 22, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a month at the river town waiting for funds.
Source:  "He had also cabled his bankers for funds, and the enforced wait of a month, under which both chafed, was due to their inability to charter a vessel for the return to Tarzan's jungle after the treasure." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Matadi, Congo River
Matadi, Congo River

Date:  morning June 23, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot rent a boat and return for the Porter treasure.
Source:  "Shortly after the episode of the lion hunt, D'Arnot succeeded in chartering an ancient tub for the coastwise trip to Tarzan's land-locked harbor." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tugboat
Tugboat

Date:  morning June 24, 1893
Event:  The rented tub dropped anchor at the cabin's harbor.
Source:  "The trip to the beach was uneventful, and the morning after they dropped anchor before the cabin," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tugboat
Tugboat

Date:  late in the evening of June 25, 1893
Event:  Tarzan returns with the treasure.
Source:  "Late the next day he returned, bearing the great chest upon his shoulder." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tugboat
Tugboat

Date
:  sunrise June 26, 1893
Event:  The rented tub returns to the river town.
Source:  "and at sunrise the little vessel worked through the harbor's mouth and took up her northward journey." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.



Matadi, Congo River
Matadi, Congo River

Date:  June through July 17, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot and Tarzan remain in the river town.
Source:  "Three weeks later Tarzan and D'Arnot were passengers on board a French steamer bound for Lyons." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Matadi, Congo River
Matadi, Congo River

Date:  July 17, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot and Tarzan sail for Lyons, France.
Source:  "Three weeks later Tarzan and D'Arnot were passengers on board a French steamer bound for Lyons, France." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.


Lyons, France
Lyons, France

Date:  July 17, 1893
Event:  William Clayton and Mr. Philander go to Wisconsin.
Source:  When Jane arrives in Northern Wisconsin it is stated, "The farmhouse, which stood on a little elevation some hundred yards from the tenant house, had undergone a complete transformation during the three weeks that Clayton and Mr. Philander had been there." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Tarzan Of The Apes
Tarzan Of The Apes

Date:  July 23, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot arrive in Lyons, France.
Source:  Phil Farmer in Tarzan Alive credits the two's voyage as taking a total of five days in 1909. I do not have the means to research the ship's traveling time so I will depend on Farmer's research. One thing to keep in mind is that Phil's research is based on 1909 travel time, whereas this study is based on 1893. Since my 1872 chronology shows this travel occurring sixteen years earlier, I have added an extra day to Phil's to cover any extra length of time due to technological advances.
  

Lyons, France
Lyons, France

Date:  July 23 through July 27, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a few days in Lyons.
Source
:  "and after a few days in that city D'Arnot took Tarzan to Paris." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Margueritte Portier
Margueritte Portier

Date
 July 29, 1893, through August 5, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot and Tarzan in Paris.
Source:  ERB says, "One of the first things D'Arnot accomplished after their arrival was to arrange to visit a high official of the police department." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. At that meeting, D'Arnot states, "I had hoped to know at once. Monsieur Tarzan sails for America tomorrow." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. Note that no mention of time is given between the fingerprinting appointment being made and the actual fingerprinting taking place. We do know it was not immediate because of statements made in The Return Of Tarzan.
     In chapter one ERB writes, "They reminded Tarzan of melodramatic villains he had seen at the theaters in Paris." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. In chapter three ERB states, "Tarzan spent the two following weeks renewing his former brief acquaintance with Paris." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
     From this information, it is quite clear Tarzan spent at least a little time in Paris. We know for a fact that the jungle lord at least had enough time for more than one theater visit and had some time to go out on the town sightseeing. My personal research indicates the Paris visit to last shortly over a week.
     We also know that D'Arnot and Tarzan had the Porter treasure appraised. "The treasure was most carefully appraised by experts, but lest there should be any question in your mind, D'Arnot himself bought it and is holding it for you, should you prefer the treasure to the credit." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.


1893 Eiffel Tower
1893 Eiffel Tower

Date:  August 4, 1893, Friday
Event:  Robert Canler speaks to Professor Porter about marrying Jane.
Source:  "There is young Clayton, you know," suggested Canler. "He has been hanging around for months." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. Jane at this time also makes a statement that helps establish a time perspective. "I want you to be sure papa, to indicate all that you can do without until fall." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. In North, America fall is between September 23 through December 22. Therefore, we know this conversation must occur before or after those dates.

Robert Canler
Robert Canler

Date:  August 5, 1893
Event:  Tarzan was fingerprinted.
Source:  "One of the first things which D'Arnot accomplished after their arrival was to arrange to visit a high official of the police department." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "You forget that for twenty years the dead body of the child who made those fingerprints lay in the cabin of his father, and that all my life I have seen it lying there," said Tarzan bitterly. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.


Harold Foster
Harold Foster

Date:  August 6, 1893
Event:  Tarzan sails for America.
Source:  "I had hoped to know at once," said D'Arnot. "Monsieur Tarzan sails for America tomorrow," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

1893 Paris
1893 Paris







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 a span of 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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