1895 June The Return Of Tarzan

Date: June 1, 1895, through June 7, 1895

Event: The Oparians capture and lead Jane to Opar.

Source: "For many days they traveled through the dense forest." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "In a day and a night he covered the same distance that the fifty frightful men had taken the better part of a week to traverse." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan

Joe Kubert

Date: morning June 1, 1895 
Event: Monsuire Thuran's (Nickolas Rokoff) fever becomes worse. William Cecil Clayton goes hunting. Jane is captured by the men of Opar.
Source: "The next day Thuran was worse." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "The Englishman had extracted the heavy spear from the body of the lion, so that when he went into the forest to hunt that morning he had a feeling of much greater security than at any time since they had been cast upon the savage shore." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Frank Frazetta

Date: afternoon June 1, 1895
Event: The tribe of Kerchak comes to the amphitheater and discovers Tarzan.
Source: "On the afternoon of the third day he returned early." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Again, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, informs us Tarzan has been gone from the jungle for two years. "There were no greetings such as would have taken place among men after a separation of two years." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

The Return Of Tarzan

Date: June 1, 1895

Event: William Cecil Clayton returns from hunting and finds Jane gone. The Englishman searched for the missing girl until dark.
Source: "until dark the Englishman searched the nearby jungle for a trace of the missing one for a sign of the trail of her abductor." ERB: The Return Of Tarzan.

Joe Kubert

Date: June 1, 1895
Event: William Cecil Clayton is treed by a lion and forced to spend the night alone in the jungle.
Source: This put an end to his search for the balance of the afternoon, as the lion paced back and forth beneath him until dark. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Joe Kubert

Date: morning June 2, 1895
Event: William Cecil Clayton returns to camp.
Source: "The next morning he returned to the beach, relinquishing the last hope of succoring Jane Porter." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date: June 2, 1895, through June 9, 1895
Event: William Cecil Clayton hunted and tended Monsieur Thran (Nickolas Rockoff)
Source: "During the week that followed, Monsieur Thuran rapidly regained his strength, lying in the shelter while Clayton hunted food for both." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date: June 7, 1895
Event: The Oparians and Jane arrive at Opar.
Source: "Late afternoon she saw the ruined walls of a mighty city looming before them." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Joe Jusko

Date: June 7, 1895, through June 14, 1895
Event: Jane is held captive in Opar.
Source: "For a week she saw only some of the women whose duty it was to bring her food and water." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Christopher Schenck

Date: June 9, 1895, through June 14, 1895
Event: William Cecil Clayton was tossed with delirium but Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff)  would not care for him.
Source: "For days he lay tossing in delirium and suffering, but not once did the Russian come near him." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: "For days," is not enough information to provide an exact date for this event. Therefore, any non-Edgar Rice Burroughs provided date is merely speculation. My theory is since Rokoff's fever lasted a week that is approximately how long Clayton's would last. Since the description says "For days" that means less than a week. I used five days in the belief the described events are occurring rapidly back-to-back.

Thomas Yeates

Date: June 15, 1895
Event: A returning Mangani tells Tarzan about Jane's capture.
Source: "Half a moon since." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: The moon's cycle is twenty-nine and one-half days. Approximately two weeks.

John Buscima

Date: June 15, 1895
Event: Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rockoff) abandons William Cecil Clayton. The Russian finds the Greystoke cabin.
Source: "That same day he came to a little cabin by the beach." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: "That same day," is not enough information to provide an exact date for this event. Therefore, any non-Edgar Rice Burroughs provided date is merely speculation. My theory is that these undatable events are happening in back-to-back time sequences with little time passage occurring between each. 

Joe Kubert

Date: June 15, 1895, through June 16, 1895
Event: Day and night Tarzan raced to Opar
Source: "Day and night Tarzan of the Apes raced through the primeval forest toward the ruined city in which he was positive the woman he loved lay either a prisoner or dead." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Edgar Rice Burroughs does not offer an exact date for this event. Anyone that knows Tarzan, however, knows he would have left immediately in search of Jane no matter what time of the day or night it was. In fact, the ape-man "traveling day and night" show his urgency.

N.C. Wyeth

Date: nearly noon June 16, 1895

Event: Tarzan reaches Opar.
Source: "In a day and a night he covered the same distance that the fifty frightful men had taken the better part of a week to traverse, for Tarzan of the Apes traveled along the middle terrace high above the tangled obstacles that impede progress upon the ground." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "It was nearly noon when he reached the great boulder at the top of which terminated the secret passage to the pits beneath the city." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

The Return Of Tarzan

Date: June 16, 1895, through June 19, 1895
Event: Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) remains at the Greystoke cabin for a few days.
Source: But he did not know, and so he remained a few days to enjoy the security and comparative comforts of the cabin." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: These dates are not provided by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author. Many dates actually work and all are acceptable as long as they do not disagree with Burroughs' description. As (working dates only} I used three days for Rokoff's stay at the Greystoke cabin.

The Return Of Tarzan

Date: late in the afternoon of June 16, 1895
Event: Tarzan rescues Jane and she regains consciousness.
Source: "Late in the afternoon Jane Porter regained consciousness." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.  "It cannot be that such happiness can be true after all the hideous things that I have passed through these awful months since the Lady Alice went down." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Here Jane tells us months (which is two or more) have passed since the Lady Alice sunk. This 1872 timeline shows a passage of four months since that event, so it agrees with Jane's provided information.

Thomas Yeates

Date: the night of June 16, 1895
Event: Tarzan and Jane sleep in the jungle.
Source: "That night Tarzan built a snug little bower high among the swaying branches of a giant tree, and there the tired girl slept, while in a crotch beneath her the ape-man curled, ready, even in sleep, to protect her." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Zedenek Burian

 

Date: June 17, 1895

Event: Tarzan and Jane set out for the coast.
Source: "It took them many days to make the long journey to the coast." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat: Other passages indicate a better part of a week. We know Tarzan and Jane did not linger on their journey. "Had it not been for their anxiety to reach and secure Clayton they would have drawn out the sweet pleasure of that wonderful journey indefinitely." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Thomas Yeates

Date: June 19, 1895
Event: Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) leaves the Greystoke cabin and travels north. Lord Tennington realizes he loves Hazel Strong. Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rockoff) finds the Porter party.
Source: "Then he took his northward journey once more." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "and to think all this time we have been separated by but a few miles - scarcely a day's march." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Chat: Although this passage again gives nothing for establishing an exact date, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, finally offers a dating clue. "He started lamely a couple of times, cleared his throat, became red in the face, and finally ended by remarking that he hoped the cabins would be finished before the rainy season commenced." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

     This passage clearly informs us that the rainy season has not yet set in, but is quickly approaching.  The rainy season in Portuguese Angola is September through April. From this info, we can conclude the described undatable events occurred sometime between June 12, 1895, through early August 1895.

Frank Frazetta

Date: June 22, 1895
Event: Tarzan and Jane run into the Waziri.
Source: "On the last day before they reached the coast Tarzan caught the scent of men ahead of them - the scent of black men." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "For weeks they had been searching for him, they told him." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. 

Thomas Yeates

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Over the past forty-five years, Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines. 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 accepted date, May 1888.

James Michael Moody also authorizes the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and Swordsman On Unium, published on July 15, 2024.

1895 May The Return Of Tarzan

Date: May 26, 1895

Event: Tarzan and the Waziri reach the land of the Waziri.                                    

Source: "But they bore their burdens uncomplainingly, and at the end of thirty days entered their own country." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. 

Don Newton

Date: morning May 29, 1895

Event: Tarzan led the Waziri and the stolen gold to a sight very close to the Mangani's dum-dum sight.

Source: "Here, instead of continuing on toward the northwest and their village, Tarzan guided them almost directly west, until on the mourning of the thirty-third day he bade them break camp and return to their own village, leaving the gold where they had stacked it the previous night." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Artist Unknown

Date: May 30, 1895

Event. Tarzan sent the Waziri home. The ape-man then buried the gold at the Mangani's dum-dum sight.

Source: "Leaving the gold where they had stacked it the previous night." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Jeff Jones

Date: May 30, 1895

Event: Tarzan spends the night at the amphitheater.

Source: "That night he slept within the amphitheater," ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Hal Foster

Date: May 31, 1895

Event: Tarzan returns to his cabin by the sea.

Source: "and early the next morning set out to revisit his cabin before returning to the Waziri." ERB- The Return Of Tarzan. "Finding things as he had left them, he went forth into the jungle to hunt."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Don Marquez

Date: May 31, 1895
Event: Tarzan spears a lion from hiding and saves William Cecil Clayton and Jane Porter's life.  Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) has the fever.
Source: "Nearly two months of this existence had passed when the first great calamity befell them.  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date: May 31, 1895
Event: Tarzan, without showing himself, heads toward the Waziri village. Jane tells William Cecil Clayton she could never marry him.
Source: "For several long moments Jane Porter and William Cecil Clayton stood silently looking at the dead body of the beast whose prey they had narrowly escaped becoming." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date: May 31, 1895
Event: Tarzan changes his mind about going to the village and instead spends a second night at the amphitheater of the Mangani.
Source: same day as William Cecil Clayton's rescue. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. "That night he slept again in the amphitheater of the apes." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Esad Ribic

Event: For several days Tarzan hunted and slept at the amphitheater.

Date: May 31, 1895, through June 15, 1895

Source: "That night he slept again in the amphitheater of the apes, and for several days he hunted from there, returning at night." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Simon Bisley

.ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Over the past forty-five years, Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines. 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 accepted date, May 1888.

James Michael Moody also authorizes the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and Swordsman On Unium, published on July 15, 2024.

1895 April The Return Of Tarzan

Date:  April 21, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri reach the mountains where Opar lay.
Source:  "For days they marched up one river, across a low divide; down another river; up a third, until at the end of the twenty-fifth day they camped upon a mountainside, from the summit of which they hoped to catch their first view of the marvelous city of treasure." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Richard Hescox

Date:  early morning April 22, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri scaled the cliffs that surround Opar.
Source:  "Early the next morning they were climbing the almost perpendicular crags which formed the last,  but greatest, natural barrier between them and their destination." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  nearly noon April 22, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri reach the top of the cliffs and view Opar from a distance.
Source:  "It was nearly noon before Tarzan, who headed the thin line of climbing warriors, scrambled over the top of the last cliff and stood upon the little flat table-land of the mountaintop." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Autio Book

Date:  April 22, 1895
Event:  After an hour's rest Tarzan and the Waziri advance upon Opar.
Source:  "For an hour the little expedition rested upon the mountaintop, and then Tarzan led them down into the valley below." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

C. Edmund Monroe

Date:  still light April 22, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri reach the outer wall of Opar.
Source:  "Once in the valley their progress was rapid. so that it was still light when they halted before the towering walls of the ancient city." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  night April 22, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri camp outside the city and hear weird sounds.
Source:  "That night they camped outside the city." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  morning April 23, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri enter Opar:
Source:  "In the morning the effects of it were still visible in the fearful, sidelong glances that the Waziri continually cast at the massive and forbidding structure which loomed above them." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  noon April 23, 1895
Event:  Tarzan is captured by the Oparians.
Source:  "For a moment every eye was bent upon the noonday sun, and then in unison the people in the galleries and those in the court below took up the refrain of a low, weird chant." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Joe Kubert

Date:  shortly after noon April 24, 1895
Event:  Tarzan kills Tha and saves La.  She hides the ape-man until dark.
Source:  "I will return after it is dark." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Don Marquez

Date:  night April 24, 1895
Event:  La returns for Tarzan while fifty males go into the jungle after his trail.
Source:  "It was quite dark before La, the high priestess, returned to the Chamber of the Dead with food and drink for Tarzan." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Nicholas Elias

Date:  night April 24, 1895
Event:  La leads Tarzan to another chamber and explains she will return for him the following night,  Instead the ape-man escapes.
Source:  "You will be safe here until tomorrow night," she said. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

John Totleben

Date:  night April 24, 1895
Event:  Tarzan discovers a secret passage out of Opar.
Source:  "A mile away lay the ruined city of Opar, its domes and turrets bathed in the soft light of the equatorial moon." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  night April 24, 1895

Event:  Tarzan finds the treasure chamber of Opar.

Source:  Carefully feeling about, he found himself within a large chamber, along the walls of which, and down the length of the floor, were piled many tiers of metal ingots of an odd though uniform shape. To his groping hands they felt not like double-headed bootjacks. The ingots were quite heavy, and but for the enormous number of them he would have been positive that they were gold; but the thought of the fabulous wealth these thousands of pounds of metal would have represented were they in reality gold, almost convinced him that they must be of some baser metal. ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

John Buscema

Date:  sunrise April 25, 1895

Event:  Tarzan reunites with the Waziri. The ape-man discovers the Oparians looking for him. They unknowingly passed by and continued towards the coast.

Source:  "The sun was just rising as he gained the summit of the flat mountain at the valley's western boundary." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan,

Russ Manning

Date:  dusk April 25, 1895

Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri return to Opar.

Source:  "When Tarzan had related his adventures and told them of the yellow metal he had found, not one demurred when he outlined a plan to return by night and bring away what they could carry of the vast treasure; and so it was that as dusk fell across the desolate valley of Opar fifty ebon warriors trailed at a smart trot over the dry and dusty ground toward the giant boulder that loomed before the city."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  midnight April 25, 1895

Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri robbed the treasure from Opar and exited.

Source:  "By midnight the entire party stood once more at the foot of the bowlder." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  mid-forenoon April 26, 1895

Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri reach the summit of the cliffs.

Source:  "but with their heavy loads it was mid-forenoon ere they reached the summit of the cliffs."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Joe Kubert

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Over the past forty-five years, Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines. 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 accepted date, May 1888.

James Michael Moody also authorizes the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and Swordsman On Unium, published on July 15, 2024.

1895 March The Return Of Tarzan

Date:  Monday, March 2, 1895
Event:  The Tennington yacht sales from Cape Town.
Source:  "And so it was settled that they should sail the following Monday."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Lady Alice

Date:  March 4, 1895
Event:  Hazel showed Jane a picture of John Caldwell and explained he had been lost at sea upon their recent voyage.  Jane recognized him as Tarzan.
Source:  Two days out the girls were sitting in Hazel's cabin, looking at some prints she had finished in Cape Town."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  March 4, 1895
Event:  The Lady Alice sunk and Jane, William Cecil Clayton, Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) and three sailors end up in a lifeboat together.
Source:  "two days out", ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

J. Allen St. John

Date:  morning March 5, 1895
Event:  Jane and her boat find they have been separated from the others.
Source:  "Jane Porter had been the first of those in the lifeboat to awaken the morning after the wreck of the Lady Alice."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

J. Allen St. John

Date:  March 8, 1895
Event:  The occupants of the other three boats from the Lady Alice land.
Source:  "While farther up the coast, a few miles beyond the cabin, in crude but well-built shelters, lived a little party of eighteen souls - the occupants of the three boats from the Lady Alice from which Clayton's boat had become separated."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.  "Over a smooth sea they had rowed to the mainland in less than three days."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Lady Alice

Date:  March 12, 1895
Event:  The first sailor dies aboard Jane's boat.
Source:  "Just a week from the day the Lady Alice went down the sailor died horribly in frightful convulsions."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Lady Alice

Date:  night March 12, 1895
Event:  Sailor Wilson attacks William Cecil Clayton, then leaps overboard the lifeboat.
Source:  "The moon had risen, and as he opened his startled eyes he saw Wilson creeping stealthily toward him, his mouth open and his swollen tongue hanging out."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Lady Alice

Date:  the following morning, March 13, 1895
Event:  Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff), William Cecil Clayton and Spider draw franc coins to see who is food.
Source:  "The result of his cogitation developed the following morning in a proposition he made to Spider and Clayton."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.  "The oldest date is eighteen-seventy-five, and there is only one of that year."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.  "The 1875 piece was a  hair thinner than the other coins, but neither Clayton nor Spider could have detected it without the aid of a micrometer.  When he brought forth his hand it contained an 1888 franc piece." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Lady Alice

Date:  March 20, 1895

Event:  Jane had not spoken in three days and Clayton and Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) draw coins again.
Source:  "The strain had exhausted those who remained to such an extent that they lay half unconscious for the balance of the day, nor was the subject referred to again for several days."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

Date:  March 20, 1895
Event:  The night Tarzan became chief of the Waziri Jane and company were floating in the Atlantic.
Source:  "The very night that Tarzan of the Apes became chief of the Waziri, the woman he loved lay dying in a tiny boat two hundred miles west of him upon the Atlantic." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat:  From this provided description, we now know the Waziri village is approximately two hundred miles east of the Greystoke cabin.

Zdenek Burian

Date:  March 20, 1895, through March 27, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and his Waziri warriors escort the Manyuema slavers to the northern boundary of Waziri.
Source:  "The week following the induction of Tarzan into the kingship of the Waziri was occupied in escorting the Manyuema of the Arab raiders to the northern boundary of Waziri in accordance with the promise which Tarzan had made them."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

J. Allen St. John

Date:  March 21, 1895
Event:  William Cecil Clayton and Jane are awakened by rain and land is sighted.
Source:  "With a start, he gained consciousness to find himself wet through by torrents of rain that were falling upon his body and his upturned face.  A tropical shower was beating down upon them."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.
Chat:  If you will notice ERB, the author, tells us William Cecil Clayton and Jane are awakened by rain.  The rainy season in Portuguese Angola is between October thru May.  Since Jane and William Cecil Clayton's lifeboat events occurred in March, my 1872 Greystoke timeline passes ERB, the author's hidden test.

The Return Of Tarzan

Date:  March 21, 1895
Event:  After making shore and eating fruit the three slept until dark.
Source:  "Here, thoroughly exhausted, they threw themselves down to rest, sleeping until dark."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

C. Edmund Monroe

Date:  March 21, 1895, through April 21, 1895
Event:  For a month Jane, William Cecil Clayton, and Monsieur Thuran (Nickolas Rokoff) lived on the beach.
Source:  "For a month they lived upon the beach in comparative safety."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

The Return Of Tarzan

Date:  March 27, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri began making preparations to visit Opar.
Source:  "Almost immediately upon his return to the village Tarzan commenced making preparations for leading an expedition in search of the ruined city of gold which old Waziri had described to him."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Richard Powers

Date:  March 28, 1895
Event:  Tarzan and the Waziri began their trek to Opar.The Return Of Tarzan
Source:  "So one glorious tropical morning Waziri, chief of the Waziri, set out at the head of fifty clean-limbed ebon warriors in quest of adventure and of riches."  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Russ Manning

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Over the past forty-five years, Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines. 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 accepted date, May 1888.

James Michael Moody also authorizes the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and Swordsman On Unium, published on July 15, 2024.