The Adventures of Cliff Allen

Preface

I am Cliff Allen, an explorer seeking to discover new nations in this world. This is a journal that will keep accounts of my many expeditions and adventures.

January 1, 1698

France

France is by far the most beautiful country I have ever been in! Well, it is the only country I have been in, apart from my home country, England. But it is still the most eye-catching, alluring place I have ever been! As nice as England is, my breath has been taken away by the awe this country has struck me with.

Although my goal is to discover somewhere new through my expeditions, I have always wanted to visit this wonderful country. Now that I have, I could leave and pursue the rest of my dreams, but... I am not ready to leave just yet. I shall remain here for just a fortnight more, then perhaps I will go. But for now, I will dine on exquisite French cuisine and see the rest of this divine city.

January 15, 1698

Somewhere... I am not of the exact location.

I just recently left Paris, and I am now traveling to wherever this dirt road takes me! I do not have much; all I have is my loyal horse, map, and compass. However, this mysterious road could lead me somewhere new, and that is my intention.

My purpose for exploring is to find something new and share it with the rest of the world. I want to make history. I want to be remembered. Everyone shall know my name, Cliff Allen! 

However, if no one knows my name, then perhaps somebody will discover this journal and share what adventures I did go on with the world. That way, if I never find somewhere new, I will still be remembered. I might be known as the foolish explorer who failed to do his job, but I will still be remembered!

January 1, 1699

Portugal

I have been in Portugal for nearly a fortnight now. For the first few days, I had genuinely believed that it was a new, undiscovered place. But once I dug a little deeper into the depths of this country, I found that it was not new at all. 

I feel rather clueless. How am I finding so many places that have been around for centuries? I have a map and several other tools that should assist me, but they are doing nothing! You would think that by now I should have found somewhere new, but I have not. 

It is almost as if I am holidaying around the world, but that is not my intention. I do not want to waste my time on such foolish errands. I have left my home for a purpose, and I will fulfill that purpose! I am unsure of how I will do that, though...

January 1, 1700

England

My adventures have come to a close, or at least to a point of abeyance. I have explored many places and seen many things, but my time is over. I have discovered nothing new. If I continue attempting to discover new places, then people would look down on me with such disapprobation, and I would not appreciate that.

As much as I would love to continue seeing the world and seeking new places that no one has seen before, I have not the funds to do such a thing. I will only exacerbate things for myself if I continue pursing my foolish dreams of becoming a successful explorer.

I have no chance. How am I to find a new place in this world that is full of successful adventurers? They have already discovered every place possible. What is left for me? Every significant place that this world cares about has been found. Not a single person would hear about anything I found, if I were to find something.

So not only am I lacking funds to send me off on another expedition, but I also do not have a place to explore. No one wants to hear the tales of a man who just saw the places people found centuries ago. People want to hear something new! However, people have been exploring this world for centuries, but they also didn't leave much for me. I came too late; I have nothing new to find.

It is hopeless. There is nothing left for me. I cannot pursue the thing I love most. My dreams are crushed, and there is nothing I can do about it. I will not be remembered, and no one will know my name. Now I am just a foolish, halfwitted man who thought he could be something great.

July 1, 1700

The sea

This is unbelievable. I am aboard a ship with a group of fellow explorers who are seeking to discover a new world, just like Christopher Columbus did! I cannot believe that I, of all people, was invited to join such an inimitable, laudable cohort of men. I am sure that we will be able to discover something great together.

I will admit, I the weight that despair had put on me just mere months ago was quite heavy, and I thought that I would never recover from such a time. However, when the leader of the group, a rather aloof, laconic man by the name of Monty, came to me with the offer to join his band of explorers, I immediately accepted. How he discovered me and why he wanted me I did not know, but I was still exceedingly grateful for such an opportunity.

This trip has not been everything I had dreamed it would be, though. The ship we are on is rather small, and our bedchambers are not nearly as private as I would like. Everyone shares one small room, and each of us gets an old, ragged hammock to sleep on. It is not comfortable--especially when the ship rocks back and forth and nearly dumps me out of my hammock. Not only that, but the other men are a little... malodorous. Clearly they have not washed themselves in quite some time. It is not pleasant sharing with such foul-smelling men, but I suffer through it. I make it out of that tight little room every morning somehow alive, so their smell must not be as poisonous as I thought.

Despite those minor details, I have been enjoying this adventure overseas very much. I have never done much exploration across the ocean, so this is all very new to me, but I am not frightened at all. I look forward to everything that is to come, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

October 1, 1700

Still at sea

I am beginning to think that I failed to identify the differences between what is spurious and what is authentic. These men, especially Morty, are causing me to believe that they are not what I thought they were.

Have I been fooled? Have these men outwitted me? Now that I think of it, they seem rather supercilious and they have addled my mind. They made me believe that I belonged with them and that they were going to help me make history, but now I am not so sure. At first, their request to have me on their ship made me feel like the venerable explorer that I always wanted to be, but now I feel extremely chagrined. I have never felt like this, and it is not pleasant. Monty beguiled me with his invitation, and now I am trapped on this ship. There is no escape; we are in the middle of the ocean. I cannot leave until we are on land, and we are unfortunately not.

Was that Monty's plan the entire time? Did he captivate my attention enough to get me on his ship, only to keep me imprisoned here forever? That cannot be... but it does not sound unlikely.

I had an intense feeling of trepidation concerning what was going to happen. I feared that Monty would keep me here forever, but then I remembered something...

We would have to come across land at some point. It was nearly impossible to stay at sea forever. Monty would have to stop the ship somewhere in order to restore the perishable things like food.

Unless Monty's plan was for me to starve... but he would not do that because he, too, would starve. We all would. But what if that was his plan? Would he let himself die just to cause us all harm?

That was likely not the truth. I was almost positive that Monty would not do such a monstrous thing.

I need to stop rambling about such ridiculous things. I will stop writing... for now.

October 30, 1700

Nearing land... I hope

We have been sailing the seas for nearly another month. How much longer would this go on? I was anxious to get my feet on solid ground. I wanted to go back home, or at least anywhere but here. 

I tried not to fear the possibilities of what was to come; I believed that it was not very mature or manly of me to be scared of the future, but I couldn't help myself. I was frightened by Monty and the devious plans that were likely buzzing around his head. 

I hoped that Monty would not hurt me. To my surprise, he had not yet done such a thing. The only thing he has done was cut back the food rations we all got. We were slowly running out, and Monty often assured me and the others that we would reach land soon, but I had doubted his words for quite a while. 

When Monty invited me to join him on this ship, he had claimed that he was a highly experienced sailor and explorer, but I wondered if that was true. If he was such a good sailor like he claimed to be, then wouldn't we be on land by now?

This expedition seemed very strange to me...

November 14, 1700

Land!

Despite my many doubts, Monty has lead us to land! Solid ground! Oh, I feel as if I could kiss this disgusting, filthy dirt road that we are now on!

Monty claims that this place is not inhabited, meaning that it might also be undiscovered. Even though Monty was not the most trustworthy person, those words made my heart skip a beat. Perhaps this would be the day I made history! Maybe I really will be remembered!

I was giddy with excitement. I had never felt this good about an expedition in quite a while. Even though I have struggled to believe Monty while on this escapade, I am faking my belief in him until I really do trust him. 

November 18, 1700

Spain

After a fortnight of exploring this new land, we discovered that it is not new.

The moment we discovered that this area was Spain instead of somewhere unknown, an incredibly heavy feeling of disappointment hit me harder than a mighty ocean wave.

I thought that this would be the place that made me a well known explorer. I thought that this would be the year everyone realized who I was and what I had done. But it wasn't my time.

I felt so imprudent. Was this failed expedition because of me? Was I the reason none of us knew this was Spain?

Maybe I was.

Unless... it was Monty.

Who else could it be besides the deceitful leader of this expedition? I doubted any of the other men on this adventure would lead us to a country that was discovered centuries ago. 

Now that I think about it... Monty has seemed a bit suspicious lately, especially during this part of our adventure. He has been much quieter than usual; he only spoke to give us directions. He did not use a map, compass, or any such tool; he relied only on whatever came out of his mouth. When he did give directions, he would randomly say "left" or "right", rather than something more specific. He never said where they were headed, nor did he answer many questions that his fellow explorers asked. 

So this was all a trick...

That thought boggled my mind. How had I and the others fallen for such foolery? Why did Monty do such a thing to us? Why did he fail to tell us of his plans? How could he let us follow him so blindly?

Monty had a wicked soul, and we had all fallen for his tricks.

I felt doltish and dumb, but I refused to let things end this way. I would confront Monty and make sure he felt just as foolish as I. Even if it was a fight to the death, I would do it. I had to get that sweet, sweet revenge.