...she was shelling the bush. 1t appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. . . .1n the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there...was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, wonld go one of the sis-inch gons: a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would...

...carries Marlowe to Africa makes its way along the coast, he sees a French man-of-war "shelling the bush": "In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water,...firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile...

...was shelling the coast. It appears that the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. ... In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent.2 It is, of course, a symbolic image of futility: Europe with her puny technology trying...

...The ship's "ensign dropped limp like a rag," and her "thin masts" swayed on the "greasy, slimy swell there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile...

...One instance of this folly is seen in the image of the French man-of-war firing on the African coast: "There she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile...

...ship moves down the African coast, especially when they encounter a man-of-war "shelling the bush": "In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water,...she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. ... In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as...

...their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy,...firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile...

...anchored off the coast. "There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush," Marlowe says. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there...firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile...

...of their wars going on thereabouts," Marlow comments about a French gunboat off the coast of Africa; "In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water,...she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent" (HD 17). He also, however, notes the more effective forms of imperial violence, cruelty, corruption,...

...would turn up to scare it away. Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast ... In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there...she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent ... Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery...