'They wanted...' and I began to see, 'More stuff.'

'Exactly, when they had, plenty of stuff! Why is that?'

'Because society is based around stuff...'

'Exactly. Therefore, societyís problem, is society.'

Kerry raves. This is not, I find, a bad trait. Especially, when Kerry's ideas are novel - as they can be sometimes. I see his point that day, but I do not see exactly what he means to do by it.

I stare at him for a mere moment. He shakes his head. 'You have a thinking friend, mate. You know what I'm thinking?'

'Of course not.'

'I'm thinking business is slow...'

'What of it?'

'How'd you like a little expedition to occupy your time?'

'I've known enough little expeditions.' Indeed, so should have Kerry, after the last one...the big one.

'This is different!' Kerry motions me to follow him into the main cabin, where he goes straight for the nautical charts of the river system near Thames, in the tropical jungles of Africa. 'Look here,' He says, and circles a small x he makes on a slight clearing in the thick layers of jungle.

'Eh, what of it?'

'This is the spot.' He points excitedly.

'Spot of what?'

'Listen, and listen good.' He sits back on the controls. 'Society is going to hell. We can support ourselves - eh - but for how long? How long will it be before something happens that wipes us all out? A nuclear war? The fall of the States? More war's in Europe? It could be anything? What is going to guarantee the survival of the human race?'

I am cynical. Kerry can be strange, but he is a good person, really. He was.

'Us! Don't you see, my plan is to gather a group of people together and go down to this spot, and set up an agricultural based society of intellectuals, workers, inventors, and artists to form a "better tomorrow" so to speak!'

I see Kerry is set in his ways, as he often is. He was once so assured of himself in a game of poker, that he lost three hundred dollars. He never admits to his failures though, but these are mere gripes; he truly is intelligent.

My interest is piqued however. Surely I knows of what he speaks. But - 'There is a great waterfall that falls into the Sanden basin - it is great, and we are not far from it.'

'Ach! A few days trip away!'

'But still a mis-calculation in judgment could send us off, if a storm blew, or fog were heavy, we could travel right up to our deaths and not know it.'

'This tug has a motor!'

'Eh, but not strong enough to fight that pull.'

'Such are the dangers. Aren't you willing to face them, though?'

Kerry is most persuasive. Within a week, he has begun to take the necessary stops to make this thing happen. I help where possible, but there is no doubt in my mind that this is Kerry's vision; and no one else's. He is most bent on creating a utopian society, and will hear nothing against it. He explains it, with a near euphoric sound in his voice. This agricultural utopian society, will be his dream child. I do not argue.

As Kerry always does, people begin to come in. They are from all walks of life, many of them much like ourselves; expatriates, having seen many of the same dangers in their walks of life. Iím amazed, Kerry has done as he said; he's drug in many people from walks of life ranging from inventors, to artists - to myself, a shipping captain with a foul mouth and blistered hands.

He becomes very excited. I have never officially committed to his cause, but he assumes that I am coming. I don't mind. I had not made up my mind then, but I knew I would come. Just like the last great adventure of my time - if I hadn't gone, I'd have always wondered what my friends experienced. Now, I sit on my ship, The Nellie and wonder why this damnable curiosity has done me in as such.

But then life was quite pretty. I remember one night - although it was not truly a night yet - walking along the pier, viewing the other ships in the waning light of a tropical sun. We were close to the