Island of Dr. Moreau from Montgomery perspective

The voyage back to Moreau’s island has been a difficult one. There has been trouble with the men on the ship, and the captain especially. That captain is a behemoth and a mess with little regard for his cargo. There is little to do for the next several days while we await our return home, however the journey is almost finished now. We have had trouble on several occasions with the men’s reactions to M’ling which I wish to recount here, as to remember them when Moreau is being difficult with him.

I woke late and saw my glass of whisky lying in its home on the stand next to me. I took a quick drink to wake myself, and on hearing a commotion upstairs, moved to investigate. M’ling was obstructing the view, his frame large as ever, despite the lack of good food presently. With the hair covering his body and his size, he made for an easy target of the crew’s hazing, something which I tried numerous times to dissuade the captain of. I shifted M’ling out of my way and climbed up the ladder, blinded by the glare of the sea. The day was scalding as ever, and the waves added a nausea to the humidity. As my eyes adjusted, I saw what had caused the commotion.

What I found was a group of the men, sitting together shouting insults to my companion, now hidden below. The menagerie of animals on the deck were riled up by all the energy of their jeering insults thrown past me onto M’ling. The men called him a beast, a monster, and yet when I recount my experiences of the civil society they come from, it is no different. Men waiting in the universities for any opportunity to strike down the great sciences we were uncovering on the island. I called out to the first mate.

“get your men under control,” said I, “they are riling up the cargo.”

“perhaps instead, you should keep your beast where you promised he’d stay,” responded the mate.

There was little to be done here, short of avoiding waking the captain, or things would shortly become worse. I stumbled back down below deck and shouted for M’ling to follow me. As we returned, I heard a loud stumbling from the cabin ahead of me. A large man covered in red hair stumbled out. Seemingly matching the size of M’ling short a heads worth of height, he towered over myself and shouted some nonsense about getting out of his way. He shoved M’ling aside and passed to go to the deck as I stared in silence. “confound him!” I said, looking to M’ling. He responded with more silence, the green glint in his eyes unmoving. As we began to settle back in the room, the howling began again, and I returned above. “damn that howling.”

I climbed the ladder and found the captain, drunk enough to make me consider abstinence from drink, if only for a moment. He was pulling at the dogs, trying to thrust them into the cage with the puma.

“captain! This won’t do- I will not have you killing off my cargo again!” said I

“Wha’ ‘bout it won’t do?” said he

“those animals are the cargo you were paid to transport, if they kill one another that comes out of your payment”

The captain, still sleepy from his drinks looked confused at my request, and after a moment turned back to the dogs. I went to call at him again but decided against it, instead I moved to remove the dog’s chains from his hands. At this, he went to strike me in a drunken fury. The fear I felt in that moment was true, and for a split second, I considered he may send me overboard tonight, only days from our destination. He had been known to keep quite the temper for those passengers on his ship, however the price we paid for the transport was all we could afford. Unfortunately, science on a deserted island does not bring in the profit I might like these days. Right as the captain went to bring down his fury on me, M’ling scurried up from below deck and the captains anger swived with a new target present. M’ling, hunched over, looking nervous. The captain staggered over to him and began jeering, throwing insults, and looked to the mate for some sense of gratitude.

I called the captain to stop again, repeating that he was as much a part of the cargo as any of the animals he came with. The captain gave me a gruff look and was only calmed by the mate who entered the conflict out of necessity more than anything. At the threat of losing payment, he had rushed out to the captain’s aid, and looked the closest to frightened I had ever seen him. The captain stumbled away after losing interest as everything returned to normal as quickly as it had all been threatened. M’ling had returned to the underside of the ship, a little battered. I considered that he took the pain in my place and wondered why. I knew he was always fond of Moreau as his creator and as his master, but in his gruff silent nature, he had used what can only be described as empathy. I must continue to consider what this means. We have known for some time that the beasts were capable, if only for some short time, to exhibit human emotion, but I never considered it would show itself in the face of the potential pain which he had confronted in my place. I will have to consult Moreau on what this means for the humanity of his creations, and perhaps soon it will lead to some improvement on the vivisection which so dominates my life on the island.