The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2013) - full transcript

[ Woman Reading ]
As I think back upon it all,

I see the ways in which
life can make a poor end...

of fine
and admirable beginnings.

Five years ago, we came to
make an Eden on these shores.

And had things gone as we hoped,

I truly believe we would have
remained here happily,

dying peacefully in old age.

When Friedrich
and I left Germany,

ours was a flight
to total solitude.

At the time, neither of
us could have imagined...

that others would intrude
upon our island paradise.



Nor could we have foretold
the strange and sinister drama...

that would be unleashed
upon us all,

a drama
that over five short years..

Would leave our dream
in fragments...

and send my dear companion,
Friedrich, to his grave.

[ Man ]
I find it very mysterious.“

how on a little island like that
all these people can disappear.

[ Woman ]
You can't rule out the fact..

That somebody actually took
the law into their own hands..

Because it was the only way
to bring sanity back to the island.

[Man #2 ] That is the passion of the whole
thing is that it just never got solved.

[ Woman ] Floreana is just
one mystery on top of another.

[Speaking Spanish]

[ Train Approaching ]



[ Man Reading ] Patience,
as Nietzsche says,

is the most difficult
of virtues.

My decision to leave behind my
lucrative practice of medicine...

and go into solitude
is not a rash inspiration.

For 20 years, the idea has
been maturing in my mind.

Now, at the age of 43,
my time has come.

Organized society appears to me
as a huge impersonal monster,

forging ever new chains with
which to shackle its members.

Civilized man works only
for money,

while the world chases madly after
the ephemeral and the valueless.

Fortunately, in Dore,
I have found a woman..

Who fully embraces
my point of view.

[ Reading As Dore ] With all
the strength and obstinacy in me,

I have defended myself
against preconceived notions...

of bourgeois homemaking.

The German woman
has been content...

to model herself through
the ages as the hausfrau,

her horizon bounded by the
four walls of a few stuffy rooms.

The emptiness and frustration of
such an existence poisons the spirit.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] Dore and I
are turning our backs on civilization.

We have mapped out a plan
to permanently migrate...

to an uninhabited spot
on the earth's surface—...

The Galépagos.

The explorer William Beebe has declared
these islands to be "the world's end"...

and it is this isolated archipelago
on which we have set our hopes.

[ Reading As Dore ] To the consternation
of all our friends and relatives,

Friedrich has left his wife,
and I, my husband.

Love, in the ordinary meaning
of the word,

does not convey my feeling
for this man.

Friedrich is my teacher
and my guide.

Friedrich is my fate.

[ Man ] Because my
grandfather told it to me...

and my father told it to me,

I have to tell the truth.

Friedrich was a genius.

But he, without any doubt,
like all genius people,

he had also his dark sides.

He was influenced
by the philosophy of Nietzsche,

that you only have yourself.

He wanted to go away because
he didn't love the human being.

Nietzsche didn't love
the human being.

But he should have known also
what Goethe said,

that you cannot Ieavethecivilization
without being punished.

You will be punished.

If you go alone on an island,

there can happen terriblethings.

And though I think the—...

The Galépagos tragedy
was programmized,

like a movie,

from the beginning
to the tragic end.

[ Reading As Dore ]
On July 4, 1929,

Friedrich and I sailed
from Amsterdam,

and we rejoiced as the
world disappeared behind us.

A four—weekjourney across the open
seas brought us to Guayaquil, Ecuador,

where we were forced to spend
the entire month of August waiting...

for the only schooner that sailed
between the mainland and Galapagos.

Then, at last, we were truly
on the way to our promised land.

Seeking total isolation, we
avoided the island of San Cristobal,

for it serves as an outpost
of the Ecuadorean government.

Nor did we choose Santa Cruz,

whose shores were already dotted with the
houses of a dozen or more European settlers.

Instead, we sailed to the
uninhabited island of Floreana,

where our nearest neighbors
would be more than 60 miles away.

As I caught my first glimpse
of Floreana's rugged shore,

not a shadow of fear or regret
clouded my certainty...

in our decision to settle here.

It was September 19, 1929,

and we were alone at last.

[ Squawking ]

[Chirping]

[ Reading As Friedrich ] The
shore was a dead and thorny waste.

But an hour's walk inland
revealed to us...

a leafy sea of greenness.

In the center of this fertile
basin welled up a clear spring,

to support a lush growth
of vegetable life.

We had found the ideal spot
for our future home.

[Octavio Speaking Spanish]

[ Reading As Friedrich ] Our immediate
concern is to tame this wildjungle...

and to make from it a garden.

There we will plant the seeds
we've brought from Germany,

which are so crucial
to our sustenance.

Dore and I are both vegetarians.

We do not eat meat
as a matter of principle.

Although this work is the
hardest I have ever undertaken,

I approach it
with the utmostjoy...

for it is the fulfillment
of a dream.

[ Reading As Dore ] Friedrich's
herculean achievements...

rouse my ambition
to do likewise,

but I find that
my efforts pale beside his.

My weakness and infirmity
frustrate me.

When I first met Friedrich,

I had been diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis..

And told
my illness was incurable.

But Friedrich was not
like my other doctors.

When he took over my care,

he talked about
the power of thought..

And told me that
I need not submit to illness..

If I would learn to think in a
way that would make me well.

That was all well and good
in Germany,

but here on Floreana,

sometimes I find myself
literally unable to go another step.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] I must
frequently remind Dore that Nietzsche says,

"To live is to suffer.

To survive is to find some
meaning in the suffering."

We cannot expect
to find a paradise anywhere...

unless we are willing
to create it.

[ Reading As Dore ] I pull
myself together and struggle on,

resolving to let no trifle interfere
with the fulfillment of our great mission.

[Birds Squawking]

[Insects Buzzing]

I would have a very hard time
leaving family, friends,

the place I grew up and all that
and just departing forever...

to some godforsaken corner
of the world.

Like my parents did.

Why would people do that,
you know?

To leave civilized world
and come out to a rock.

[Chirping]

[ Woman ] Well, you asked me
what brought us to the Galépagos.

Our life had no meaning.

We wanted to leave Europe.

We wanted to leave Belgium.

You know how you live in a city.

You have to be your rank and
your work, and you buy a car.

And we didn't like that.

It's a utopia.
It's a desire.

It may be naive.
It may be, um,

a dream.

Probably it was a dream,

but we made it very real.
[ Laughs]

[ Barking ]

[ Man ] As far as I understood, my
father said he went out to find paradise.

To get away from
the glittering shit, he said.

Get away from the world
and get away from Hitler.

My father was very anti—Hitler.

Hitler was coming to power.

And my grandfather, he
wanted his boys out of Germany.

He had read
about the Galépagos Islands.

So he sold his little farm,
gave the boys the money,

and they went
over the border to Denmark...

and they bought this boat
and sailed away.

My father was a real islander.

He didn't want all this movement
towards, you know, civilization.

[ Man ] My father, yeah, he
was very, very independent.

She was a real pioneer type too,
obviously.

I think it applies to most
people coming to a place like this.

They——
They left everything behind.

There is a certain winnowing
process, you might say,

of people moving
to a place like this.

Lots of times it's going to be
people that don't really fit in,

don't find it easy
to be part of a regular society.

Which is probably gonna
make it not as easy...

for them to get along
with other people.

[ Reading As Dore ] We've
now been here a year and a half,

and Friedo has begun to assume
the appearance of a human habitation.

Yet, though our aim was
to lead a life of contemplation,

the ceaseless manual toil has
dulled the edges of our spiritual life.

Our Eden is no place of rest,
as I had thought it would be.

And neither is this Eden
a peaceful one.

Friedrich is seemingly eternally
dissatisfied with everything I do...

and at times the conflict between
us bursts out into something horrible.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] I want to see Dore
as more than other frail and cowardly women.

I cannot relax the sternness
of her education.

For us,
there is only discipline.

We must conquer by will.

[ Fritz ] The letters that
Friedrich wrote home—...

He never wrote in his letters
any nice thing about her.

He was only describing
her disease.

My father was shocked...

because there was nothing
written of love.

Even nothing about, uh—...

Pity.

Yes?

Look, for Dore,

Friedrich was something
like a god.

But, Dore surely began...

to have another image
of Friedrich.

[ Reading As Dore ]
Friedrich does not see...

that I need to be loved
and treated kindly.

He spends each hard—earned minute
of spare time on his philosophical work...

and is unconscious
of everything else.

As solace, I turn to my burro,

lavishing on him all the care
and attention I have to give.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] Dore's
attachment to wild creatures...

is a source
of great disappointment to me.

She thinks that her love of
animals is good and admirable,

but her affection for them is...

nothing but a flattering
of the animal within herself.

[ Reading As Dore ] I confess
that I do spend a great deal of time...

with my dear burro.

Sometimes, however,
even he is not enough.

Often I feel that
I should go mad with joy...

if any other human being
should come into sight.

Even a cannibal.

Even a bloodthirsty buccaneer.

[ Woman ]
No school.

No doctor.

No stores.
No medicines to be bought.

No communications hardly at all.

If the world had gone under
out there,

we wouldn't have known a thing.

[ Blowing ]

I'm Carmen Angermeyer
from Galépagos.

I'm a housewife here.

And I've lived here, I think,

74 years.

My father was a
very practical person.

And my father said—...

"There's going to be war,"
he said.

"I can smell it," he said.

He came out to the Galépagos
because he read some...

of Dr. Ritter's articles
and stories.

So he decided to have a look.

He thought for him
it was very nice,

but for women and children,
it was no good, he said.

And my mother thought
that she might like it here.

And so we came in '34.

I was six.

The only thing I didn't have
was playmates.

That was about the only thing
that was missing.

Occasionally a fish boat
would come.

And of course the ship,
once in a while,

went to take some cargo,
some foodstuff and so on.

Mail, which is so important.

That made everybody furious—...

A ship came
and had forgotten the mail bag.

And then you got
the letters later.

They were almost a year old
the next time the ship came.

[ Reading As Dore ] The cargo
boat put in at Post Office Bay...

for the first time
in six months,

bringing a parcel of mail from
Germany, as well as several newspapers.

It seems that our letters home to
Germany have been leaked to the press.

People in many countries have read
garbled and exaggerated accounts..

Of who we are and what our aims
have been in fleeing civilization.

I feel as if the things
we hold most sacred...

have been dragged mercilessly
through the mire...

and that Friedrich and I
have been made to look..

Like a pair of eccentrics escaped
from some psychological zoo.

[ Man Reading ] Log
entry. January 3, 1932.

Aboard the research vessel
Velero III.

[ Chattering ]

We are a crew
of 20 scientists...

under the command
of Captain Allan Hancock,

Los Angeles oilman, banker,
expert seaman, philanthropist...

and patron ofpure science.

I am John Garth, entomologist,

known to my shipmates
as "Bugs."

Our mission here
in the Galépagos...

is to collect and document the
rarest of biological specimens.

But today, we are stopping on the island
of Floreana for a very different reason—...

To visit the modern—day Adam
and Eve rumored to be living there.

Accounts of this hermit couple
describe them...

as nudists, cavemen,
eccentric philosophers.

We look forward to meeting them
with much curiosity.

We were shocked to find that,
contrary to all the lurid reports,

the Ritters are actually one of the
most clever couples in the world.

Dr. Ritter has devised
many tools and methods..

To wrest what they can
out of this arid land.

Many photographs
and moving pictures were taken.

Indeed, when Dr. Ritter
demonstrated his new shower bath,

at least six cameras
covered the event.

Call them freaks, if you like,

but they have had the courage
to put their theories to the test...

and make a practical experiment.

We insisted they pay a visit
to the Velero,

and despite their professed
dislike of human society,

they eagerly took us up
on this invitation.

We welcomed the Ritters aboard
with classics of German music.

Dore was moved to tears
by our concert...

and seemed more than a bit
nostalgic for her native land.

The doctor, on the other hand,

looked uncomfortable
with her emotional display..

And tried to distract her with a lecture
on the psychological unity of music.

Before sending the Ritters back
to shore,

Captain Hancock pressed them to
tell him of any provisions they lacked.

Initially, Dr. Ritter would only admit
to needing lamp oil by which to write.

But in the end, he also
accepted gifts of soap, rice,

chocolate, cooking oil,
a stove...

and even a Winchester rifle.

For all their claims
of self—sufficiency,

they both seemed quite glad as they
left the ship, laden with this bounty.

[ Reading As Dore ] As the Velero
crew took us back to Floreana,

I thought wistfully
of the lovely music..

That we should
probably never hear again..

And of the sympathetic new friends
who were leaving us all too soon.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] The visit by
Captain Hancock and his scientists...

was well and good.

They are like—minded people.

But should others turn up
intending to disrupt our solitude...

in a more permanent fashion,

we will not be so hospitable.

We shall resolutely resist the
establishment of any community.

[Jacqueline] We certainly didn't
come with the same attraction...

that nowadays the thousands
of visitors that come here.

That was not why we came here.

When we came here
in the Galépagos,

We were on our OWFI.

It was just rocks
and a few houses.

We could take land
what we wanted.

People told us that, um, people
who come here and want to have...

a piece of land,
it's about 200 hectares.

Free.
Just take it.

[ Man ] What I always felt
from Mom and Dad was..

They wanted a place
that was primitive enough...

to not have people tell you
what to do or what to not do.

To find that kind of paradise,

you have to look for a place
you never hear of.

Because if you hear about it—...

It doesn't exist. It's
obviously out to the world...

and it's bound to be sentenced
to not be a paradise anymore.

[Jacqueline] I don't like to
use that word "paradise."

Why the people
are always using that—...

Well, you were looking for—— No.

We were not looking
for a paradise. Please.

No, not a paradise, but——
We were looking for a place..

Where we were our own masters
and that it depends on ourself.

[ Gil ] And that's
exactly what you found.

Well, I don't know. If there is a
paradise, I hope it's nicer than this.

[Birds Singing]

[Bird Calling]

[Chirping]

[Chirping Continues]

[ Squawking ]

[ Reading As Dore ]
I do not know why it is...

that certain events cast ominous
shadows long before they come about.

But so it was with me
before the Wittmers came.

The weather was perfect.
The garden growing well.

And yet, something within me
refused to be quieted.

Then, one morning, far out
at sea, we saw a schooner,

which seemed
to be approaching Black Beach.

[ Woman Reading ] I felt terribly
alone that day in August 1932..

When we first landed
on Floreana.

Surely no more forlorn and forbidding
place could be imagined than this island.

My husband, Heinz,
and I did not speak.

We felt too downhearted.

Yet, there was no going back.

We had invested all our savings
on equipment and supplies...

and in so doing
had burnt our bridges.

It might be months
before another ship put in here.

And even if a ship did come,

we could hardly get back to Germany
on the 20 marks we had left between us.

[ Man Reading ] I must admit that
this landscape is not encouraging.

It is certainly
no South Sea paradise,

and the weight of the decision to
come here rests heavy on my shoulders.

My son, Harry, from my first
marriage, has always been delicate...

and last spring his health
took a turn for the worse.

It was then that I came across Friedrich
Ritter's articles in the Cologne newspapers.

While reading his words, I realized
that the Galapagos is our solution.

If the Ritters could do it,
so could we.

We too can leave city life
behind us...

and give Harry a healthy
Swiss Family Robinson existence.

[ Reading As Dore ] I confess
that I was sadly disappointed...

at our first meeting
with the Wittmers.

Frau Wittmer in particular looks to
be a rather ordinary type of woman...

who would like nothing more than
to devote herself to housekeeping.

It is clear that neither of the
newcomers share our spiritual goals,

and I am quite certain that life in the
wilderness will soon lose its charm for them.

[ Reading As Margret ]
Upon our arrival,

Dore immediately began discussing
the philosophy of Nietzsche.

I found this a bit absurd.

We want to be settlers
in a more ordinary sense.

Our equipment is not Nietzsche,
but perseverance and the will to work.

We felt rather out of place
and prepared to leave.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] They came
expecting to be treated like invited guests,

and the only way
we can deal with them..

Is to make it clear from the beginning
that we consider them intruders.

Wanting them
as far from us as possible,

I took them more than an
hour's difficultjourney up the hill...

and showed them some old
pirate caves with a nearby spring.

[ Reading As Margret ]
There were the caves.

Three of them together
under the slope of a hill.

I immediately began sweeping the interior
of the largest, which would be our new home.

How glad we are
that these caves exist.

And yet it concerns us that we are
now located so far from Dr. Ritter.

[Octavio Speaking Spanish]

[ Reading As Friedrich ]
I find it shocking...

that the Wittmers have come to Floreana to
take advantage of my skill as a physician.

I have made it eminently clear that I
do not intend to practice as a doctor...

and that I refuse to sit around the
caves all day attending to Margret.

I am highly resentful...

and would gladly put all of them
on the next boat back to Guayaquil.

[ Reading As Heinz ] Ritter's unwillingness
to assist us is a great disappointment.

It seems a pity
that he should be so unpleasant,

especially as we happen
to all be Germans.

[ Reading As Margret ] I wonder if Dr. Ritter
really grasps that if something goes wrong,

he will carry a heavy burden of
responsibility for refusing to give me help.

What kind of doctor
could be so heartless?

[Train Approaching]

[Whistle Blows]

N [ Clarinet]

[ Fritz] Dr. Ritter
came out of a family...

for which the emperor
and the fatherland...

were the most important thing.

So, when
the First World War began,

it was naturally
that he and also my father..

Go to war
to defend the fatherland.

They went with flowers
on their rifles,

singing, drinking beer,

thinking that this war
will be finished in six weeks.

But they ended
in these frontline trenches,

seeing the dead and wounded
people everywhere around.

Then they begin to understand
what really war is.

And, in his philosophy,

Friedrich said
that war is fixed..

In the genes of the human being.

It is fixed in the genes,

the character of human being.

Surely, he was scarred
by the First World War.

And I think
that this changed him a lot.

[Insects Buzzing]

[ Steve] "There's a race
of men that don't fit in,

a race that can't stay still.

So they break the hearts
of kith and kin...

and they roam the world at will.

They range the field
and they rove the flood..

And they climb
the mountain's crest.

Theirs is the curse
of the gypsy blood,

and they don't know how to rest.

They say,
'Could I find my proper groove,

what a deep mark
I would make.'

So they chop and change
and each fresh move...

"is only a fresh mistake."

"The Men That Don't Fit In."

That was one
of my father's favorite poems.

Robert Service.

[ Barks]

[ Reading As Margret ] Today
was a day of great excitement.

Our first visitors have come.

This morning
I heard our dog barking...

and through the trees, I saw a
small, slim woman of about 40...

riding up on a donkey
and carrying a revolver.

There were two German men
with her,

one thin and blond
and the other dark and swarthy.

Both of them appear to be
gentlemen—in—waiting, or perhaps even lovers.

What an extraordinary trio.

As the woman dismounted,

she introduced herself as Baroness
von Wagner from Paris, by way of Vienna,

and proceeded to make an announcement
that was more than a little alarming.

[ Woman Reading ] Darlings,
you know my plans, don't you?

I've come
to establish a grand hotel.

It will be called
Hacienda Paradiso.

Philippson is my architect
and Lorenz my engineer.

After long and mature analysis,

I've come to the conclusion
that my project is feasible.

After all,
woman is capable of everything,

from the highest to the lowest.

Certainly she is greater
and more resolved than the male.

[ Reading As Heinz ] What a
strange figure the baroness presents.

I think she might have dreams
of being a feudal queen,

with servants, retainers and
slaves to carry out her slightest wish.

Margret and I gazed
at her speechless...

as she announced that she and her
men would be living in our orange grove,

beside our little stream.

She said she wouldn't dream of living
anywhere else until her hotel is built.

We've hardly been here
two months,

and already there are unwelcome
neighbors living right outside our door.

[ Reading As Margret ] Foregoing
any of the normal courtesies,

the baroness
marched over to our spring.

She was followed closely
by the blond,

who took off her shoes
like a devoted servant...

and proceeded to wash her feet
thoroughly in our drinking water.

After this ceremony
had been completed,

the baroness took her leave to
pay her first visit to the Ritters.

[ Reading As Dore ] Without
waiting for an invitation,

she settled
in one of our deck chairs.

She then demanded a cup of tea
with an attitude...

that made it clear she regarded
Friedo more or less as hers.

The baroness told us
of her plan...

to turn Floreana into a kind of
Miami for American millionaires.

We are appalled
at this profit—making scheme.

The very idea of it casts a
sordid blight upon our island.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] I, for
one, am disgusted by her theatricals.

If she had a single proper man with
her, instead of a pair of servile gigolos,

she could be kept in order
without trouble.

As you can imagine, we weren't too pleased
to have her giving orders in our house,

and Dore told her so
in no uncertain terms.

In the end, the baroness
went off highly offended,

breathing fire and slaughter
against us.

[ Reading As Dore ] She is in
one way so trivial and frivolous..

And in another way so sinister.

But unlike Margret Wittmer, at least the
baroness is no little bourgeois hausfrau.

Even as an enemy, she is a
person worthy of one's steel.

[ Man, Heavy Accent]

[ Gunshot ]

[ Reading As Margret ] Today
we had a tremendous commotion.

Two Norwegians who live on Santa Cruz
Island dropped anchor in Post Office Bay.

One of them, Christian Stampa,
shot a small calf,

intending to return with it
to Santa Cruz.

Upon hearing the shot,
the baroness charged out.

[ Reading As Margret ] "That was
my calf," she shouted. "Philippson!"

And Philippson came out,
taking up a stand near her.

Both men yielded and fled.

[ Reading As Dore ] We were
awakened by frantic shouts,

and to my horror I saw Christian
Stampa staggering towards our house.

His clothes were torn to ribbons and
his face was white and set like iron.

Apparently the baroness had confronted
him with violent gestures and a rifle,

yelling that the island is now
hers, with everything upon it.

This story has shattered
even Friedrich's calm.

He has written up a detailed report
about the baroness's fantastic behavior.

Stampa is taking this report to
the governor on San Cristobal.

[Chirping]

[ Man ] You take 100,000 people and 1,000
people—— island life is exactly the same.

The same sort of mechanics
as to society are happening.

My name is
Daniel Fitter Angermeyer.

I suppose
I'm third—generation Angermeyer.

I was born here in Galépagos.

Small island environments,
you always had confrontations.“

and, you know,
problems going on for years.

"So—and—so did that to me years ago,
and so—and—so did this to me years ago,

and you never paid
me back that." Imean—...

Small island life.

Like the saying goes, "Little
town, big hell," basically.

Well, it was part
of that factor here too.

So the people who paid, perhaps, a
bit too much attention on that factor,

really got—— hit them hard.

There was nowhere to escape.

The people were very friendly,
but distant, and so on.

We talked about many things,
but each of us in your house.

And the leitmotif was, "We did it, we
had a hard time, and you have to learn."

[Carmen] People had
to get going on their own.

They could ask, everybody would
help them out.

But everybody expected also that the
persons would make an effort, you know,

and learn and go at it,

and not just sit there and ask and
expect somebody doing it for them.

I don't know.
Icannot give a name to that.

Everyone for himself.

[ Reading As Margret ] The first
labor pains began on December 30.

"Dear God," I prayed,
"let it all go well."

Heinz wanted to send for
Dr. Ritter but I refused to let him,

determined that we'd get along
somehow without his help.

The pains were very violent, but
the day passed and so did the night.

I got up, walked around a bit
and baked a New Year's cake...

before the pains became too
agonizing for me to do anything...

but lay and bite hard
into my pillows.

That night passed too,
and now it was New Year's Day.

It was 72 hours since
the pains had started,

and they were more than
flesh and blood could stand.

For a moment,
everything went black.

I screamed so loud for Heinz that my
own voice echoed back through the cave.

I could see one thing
quite clearly.

My life was in danger
and only a doctor could save me.

"Dr. Ritter," I muttered.
"Get Dr. Ritter."

Three long hours passed before
Heinz returned with Dr. Ritter.

Ritter examined me and was now
a doctor, pure and simple.

He washed his hands a dozen
times with antiseptic soap,

and then he performed
the operation.

The pain was so cruel, I could
have screamed my head off.

But somehow,
I managed to bear it in silence.

Then suddenly, I heard a cry.

A short, shrill cry.

It was the first cry
of our newborn child.

Dr. Ritter proceeded to
congratulate me on my baby son, Rolf.

[ Reading As Friedrich ]
Margret was very brave...

and Rolf is certainly
a fine, strapping boy.

I hope his upbringing
will be stern enough...

to make of him
a worthwhile character.

[ Reading As Margret ]
Shortly after Rolf's birth,

the baroness came to visit
with Philippson and Lorenz.

She had no revolver in her belt that day
and seemed in an unusually genial mood.

After congratulating me
on my son,

she presented me with clothes
she brought from her Paris boutique,

announcing that he must be the
"most dapper little man on our island."

J' O Tannenbaum J'

[ Reading As Dore ]
The coming of the baby..

Created an atmosphere
almost like Christmas.

Friedrich and I chose presents
for him—...

A two—year—old date palm,
vegetables, fruits.

For the baroness,
we gave kitchen herbs.

All differences and quarrels
were momentarily lost...

in a general warmth
and goodwill,

and I wanted very much that
we should all, from now on,

live in harmony
and avoid future conflicts.

M [ Ends ]

[Man Speaking Spanish]

[ Woman ] I was the first European
girl born up in the highlands.

And I was a surprise.

Mom didn't know I was on my way.

But then,
she celebrated her birthday...

and they all had potato salad.

And in the evening,
in the night,

she got a tummy ache
and she didn't feel well at all.

And she said,
"It must be the potato salad."

But it wasn't.

It was me who was coming.

I have some
very good memories, yes.

When I was a little girl,
I had two big wishes.

And that was first,
a hunting knife,

and then, the gun.

And when I turned 15,
I got the gun.

And I turned out
to be a good shot.

I only needed one bullet
to kill a goat or a pig.

So little by little,
I was discovering..

That it was great to grow up
like this in a very special way,

and all the liberty I had.

[ Woman ] As a child who grew up
here, the Galépagos was my oyster.

I often say that
I've reaped all the benefits...

of the decisions
that my parents made.

You know, I didn't have to weigh the
pros and cons of coming to live here.

I didn't bear the burden
ofresponsibility.

I didn't bear the risk
offailure.

I just lived it.

[ Reading As John Garth ]
Thursday, January 26.

We are back with our friends
in the Galépagos,

having returned
on our annual scientific voyage.

And this has turned out
to be a very unusual day.

Coming ashore on Floreana with
gifts and supplies for the Ritters,

we encountered a strange sign,
written in what appears to be red lipstick.

[ Reading As The Baroness ]
Friends, whoever you are,

two hours from here
lies the Hacienda Paradiso,

a lovely spot where the
weary traveler can rejoice...

to find refreshing peace and
tranquillity on his way through life.

In Paradiso, you have
only one name—— friend.

[ Reading As John Garth ] We
hardly had time to take in this sign...

before a flashing mirror signaled
to us from the Ritter homestead.

The captain raced up there
in all haste.

He returned about dusk
with a wild tale.

There is now a baroness
living on Floreana...

with several husbands
and a machine gun.

And not long ago, a Norwegian
had run to the Ritters for protection,

his clothes torn from his body.

This bears investigation
by all hands.

At Captain Hancock's request, Dr. Ritter
took the group to the baroness's camp.

The baroness speaks
eight languages...

and claims as her uncles no lesser musicians
than Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner.

The tales of machine guns
and terror do seem far—fetched.

However she has no ideas of
good housekeeping or sanitation.

We shuddered at the filth in
which she and her lovers live.

Taking leave of the baroness,

Ritter led us up a short trail
to a barbed wire fence...

separating her establishment
from that of the Wittmers.

Margret Wittmer is quite
a homemaker,

an assertion which could not be
made of Dore, nor of the baroness.

In the late afternoon,
we made the mistake..

Of bringing all three of the island's
groups aboard the Velero at the same time.

Dore immediately
spoiled things...

by mincing no words in telling the
baroness what she thought of her.

For a few minutes
I feared trouble,

until we averted this by keeping the
parties separate for the rest of the day.

Early the next morning, we set
ashore at Black Beach anchorage,

where Dr. Ritter appeared with a
donkey to pick up our huge pile of gifts.

[ Reading As Margret ] Captain Hancock had
brought generous presents for the Ritters,

things which we islanders consider
among the treasures of the earth.

But when the baroness heard
about these presents,

herjealousy was aroused
and a war broke out.

Going directly to the Ritters
with Philippson,

the baroness demanded
that Ritter arrange...

for what she called a
fair distribution of the gifts.

Dr. Ritter blew up and threw
Philippson headfirst out the door.

It is becoming more and more
uncomfortable on Floreana.

[ Fritz] The disaster for him
were the rich people who came.

The money. And money destroys
any paradise of the world, yeah?

They brought him
so many gifts...

and they turned him back
tocivilization.

And this is the reason, in the philosophy
of Friedrich, why people make war.

Only aggression.

And behind aggression,

the wish to have property..

And the wish to have money.

It's the same.
It was a war.

More nothing than a war.

[ Reading As John Garth ]
Sunday, February 6, 1933.

Today we leave Floreana,

and we carry away with us several
impressions regarding our friends.

First, the baroness seems
to be an accomplished, comely,

quite loquacious, if neurotic
and unconventional lady,

who could be very attractive
and companionable.

Second, the Ritters not only resent
competition in the hermit business,

but are inclined
to be troublemakers.

Thirdly, the Wittmer family is really
succeeding in living off the land 100%,

something the Ritters
have been unable to do..

Because of the generosity
of Captain Hancock and others.

Lastly, go where you may, you cannot
escape the problem of social adjustment.

[ Reading As Dore ] That Sunday,
following the departure of the Velero,

unannounced and uninvited,
the baroness paid us a call...

with the inevitable Philippson
as escort.

She was in a fever
of excitement...

at having met the first of the
millionaires she hoped to bait.

And, without offering more
than a perfunctory greeting,

she stared proudly at us and made
one of her silly pronouncements.

[ Reading As The Baroness ] Well,
Captain Hancock was absolutely charmed...

by my hacienda, and perhaps me,

and when he comes back
we're going to make a film.

It shall be called
The Empress of Floreana.

[ Laughs ]
That's me.

[ Friedel ] It was funny, when the
yachts started to come more often,

it was always a competition
who gets first on board.

And among the Angermeyer
brothers, there was rivalry.

So Karl complained that Gus
was always getting first there...

and getting the most presents,
and so on.

[ Teppy ] My mother, she
got everything from the boats.

She wanted luxury, you know. She
wanted all the modern life, you know.

My mother's from Ecuador.

She was quite a few years younger
than my father. And she had a big dream.

She married this German,
blue—eyed, blond—haired young man,

what she thought
she was going to Europe.

And she never went there. She lived in
the Galépagos Islands on the rock pile.

I think she even came
in high—heeled shoes.

My mother was only interested
in money, money, money.

The more you get, the better.

She took old rags on
to make herself poor...

and went out rowing on this dinghy
around from yacht to yacht in the harbor.

And said she had no milk, she had
no food for her kids, and everything.

She came back rowing into
the dock, put her nice clothes on,

went to town and sold
everything for high prices.

Money was everything
for my mother.

And my old man was
totally the opposite.

He lived off Luft und Liebe
und Sonnenschein.

Air, love and the sunshine.

He said money, he didn't need.

"These islands are mine," he said.
"I'm the king. I do what I please."

[ Reading As Margret ] Today the
governor of the Galapagos Islands...

came over from San Cristo'bal
with seven soldiers and an interpreter.

The purpose of his visit was to investigate
the accusations against the baroness...

made months ago
by Ritter and Christian Stampa.

The governor decided to hold his
court of inquiry in the Hacienda Paradiso.

It seems that South Americans are
easily impressed by a European baroness...

because in the end, he granted
her a title to four square miles of land..

For her hotel.

Afterwards, the governor granted
the Ritters and us a title too,

but only for 50 acres each.

Apparently we are only simple
settlers, not budding empresses.

[ Reading As Dore ]
One thing is now certain—...

The baroness has won access
to the spring at the Wittmers,

which the governor
has declared free...

for the common use
of both settlements.

Now the Wittmers
will have the pleasure...

of being overrun by her
and her men at all times..

And with all impunity.

[ Reading as Friedrich ] This decision
cannot fail to lead to open war...

between the two households
at the caves,

and it will only intensify
the baroness's mischievousness.

[Man Speaking Spanish]

[ Reading As Margret ] Mad things
are being said about the Galapagos.

Captain Hancock has returned,

bringing newspapers
and magazines...

containing stories
that astonish us.

Apparently the baroness
is not only an empress.

She also has
a court of 12 noblemen,

has created
a "terror regiment"..

And has had Dr. Ritter taken
prisoner and led away in chains.

We discuss it later with
Dr. Ritter, who laughs heartily.

The baroness laughs about it
as well and says...

she wonders who is responsible
for such tall tales.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] I told the
Wittmers that it is more than probable..

That the baroness herself
spread the rumors...

merely to gain attention
and create a sensation...

which should then
launch her hotel.

[ Reading As Dore ] She is
revealing herself to be a person...

whose love of sensation
will stop at nothing.

And now it seems she has drawn
even Captain Hancock into her web.

Friedrich and I are shocked to learn that he
really does intend to make a film of the baroness.

He says it is to be
a pirate film.

[ Reading As John Garth ]
January 21, 1934.

We came ashore this morning
at Post Office Bay...

where the baroness and
Philippson met us for the filming.

Our photographers
had planned a scenario...

in which she would figure
in more or less a pirate role.

All hands pitched in,

with First Officer Charles
Swett serving as cameraman,

Emory Johnson directing..

And playing
the baroness's paramour,

and Ray Elliott,
our student zoologist,

taking a secondary
female part...

in spite of his miniature
and as yet colorless mustache.

[ Projector Whirring ]

[ Reading As Margret ]
We have just received...

some very intriguing information
about the baroness.

Lorenz came to see us today..

And in the strictest confidence
explained...

that she is not really
a baroness after all.

Apparently, she is married
to a Frenchman named Bousquet,

who she left behind in Paris.

She and Bousquet
met in Constantinople...

where she was a dancer
before the war...

and claims to have been a spy.

Lorenz then met the baroness
in Paris...

and the two, with his money,
set up a boutique together.

In the course of events they
hired Philippson as a salesman.

Now, on Floreana,
the roles have been reversed...

and the rest of his party regards
Lorenz as being just good enough..

To take care of the livestock
and do house chores.

[ Reading As Dore ] Although
both men continue to sleep with her...

together in one bed
when she commands it,

Lorenz has been reduced
to little more than a slave.

Curiously, he remains blindly
and hopelessly bewitched...

by the baroness.

[ Reading As The Baroness ]
The man isn't born...

who can resist me,

and I am not afraid to say..

That I find variety
the spice of life.

[José Speaking Spanish]

It's a very special picture.

[Chuckles]

[ Fritz] I think this is the only
picture that exists from Friedrich...

where he is laughing a little.

Yeah?

And, uh, okay,

this—— this seems..

That there were...

other.“

things going on.

Yes?

That there are mixed—...

Not only hate.

[José Speaking Spanish]

[Clucking ]

[ Gil ]
It's interesting.

The human being isn't
as easygoing as nature is.

So growing here
in the Galépagos,

with so little human influence,
was very easy.

But inevitably
you become an adolescent..

And you start getting interested
in your own species,

which is of course
what happened with me also.

And I started getting lies.

I started getting,
you know, deceived.

I started getting all kinds of
things that Iwasn't used to at all.

And that was hard.

[Tui ]
Essentially, to varying extents,

I think all the kids..

That grow up in that situation..

Are to some extent misfits.

Icertainly feel like...

I'm still a social apprentice.

Just being superficiallycorrectm

is something that
doesn't come naturally,

that I never learned the—...

You know, I never went
to finishing school.

I didn't even go
to beginning school.

So how could I finish
if I didn't begin?

[ Laughing ]
You know?

And I see the pattern
reemerge...

in all sorts
of different people.

So...

once you become a grown—up,

how do you then identify with,

and most acutely,
who do you marry?

[ Friedel ] Marga was
married to Carlos Kubler...

and had the beautiful
daughter Carmen.

But Marga was very unhappy
with Carlos Kubler.

So Marga left him,

left Carlos Kubler..

And, um, later married...

Karl Angermeyer.

And then that was good
for Fritz, the youngest.

Fritz married Carmen.

[Gil ] One fine day, Carmen
just decided that was that.

She was going to be with Fritz.

And she brought her few
belongings along the cliff...

and just dropped them there and waited
for him to come back from—— from fishing.

And in the afternoon
when he came in,

he disembarked there
with Carmen waiting.

And Carmen said, "I'm
coming to stay with you."

And he looked at her and he
said, "Okay." And that was that.

So I married one brother
and she married the other one.

Karl was my father—in—law..

And my brother—in—law.

[Carmen Giggles]

[Man Speaking Spanish]

[ Reading As Dore ] The drought
began toward the end of February...

and the rains are now
months overdue.

Each day we scan the skies...

for some sign of a cloud,

but none come.

Heat such as we have never known
scorches every living thing.

We measure 120 degrees
in the shade.

The spring, our source of life,

has become
a thin trickle of water..

Wearily cra wling
out of its dry bed.

The strong plants
have all withered...

and the island is strewn with the carcasses
of animals the drought has killed.

It exhales the odors
of decay and death.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] Heinz
Wittmer comes to see us every week.

His spring too has been
reduced to almost nothing,

and his ground
is less good than ours.

But he tells us that
at the Hacienda Paradiso...

things are much worse.

Their garden no longer
produces foodstuffs...

and the baroness has run through
all of their supplies.

The generous yachts on which
her hotel speculation depends...

have stopped
visiting our shores.

Indeed, as weeks become months..

And still no ships
appear on the horizon,

the baroness's disappointment
has been driven to extremes.

[ Reading As Dore ]
Lorenz has told us...

of fearful quarrels
at Hacienda Paradiso.

He has received so many
terrible beatings...

that he cannot bear
to stay there any longer.

Yet if Friedrich and I
were to take him in,

it would only bring a mountain of
trouble upon us from the baroness.

[ Reading As Margret ]
After Ritter refused him,

we saw we should have to give
Lorenz the asylum he desires.

And now the baroness
comes to our gate each day..

Calling out for him.

Time and again Lorenz is enticed by
her and disappears to the hacienda.

Hours later he returns
and sits at our table, crying.

[ Reading As Dore ] It may be
that in a wild place like Floreana,

the primitive character
in each person comes out,

so that everybody shows
his own true face—...

A rare sight in this world,
and rather disconcerting.

Although Heinz Wittmer
is a quiet and thoughtful man,

yesterday he talked himself into
a raving fury against the baroness.

We had never seen him
in this state before,

and when he was done
he turned to Friedrich and said,

"We must all get together
and do something.

It is no use
appealing to the governor.

We've got to take things
into our own hands now."

Something has also changed
in Lorenz.

I now sense in him a fierce
and burning desperation.

I wonder whether there might
conceivably be a limit...

beyond which even this captive
cannot be driven.

[Octavio Speaking Spanish]

[Birds Calling]

[ Squawking ]

[Clucking ]

[ Reading As Dore ] We continue to
suffer under this oppressive drought...

and for months
we haven't seen a soul...

but for Heinz Wittmer
on his weekly visit.

There is an atmosphere
of gathering evil...

closing in upon the island.

Ten days ago, Friedrich and I were resting
in the stillness of the intense heat...

when all at once a long
shriek gashed the silence.

It was an outcry of such panic
and terror that it was hardly human,

and yet it was a woman's voice.

It froze the marrow
in our bones.

We expected to hear footsteps
rushing down the path toward us,

but no one came.

And I said, "Perhaps the drought
is playing havoc with our nerves."

The next day was the day
when Wittmer usually called,

but he did not come.

Then yesterday,

Margret Wittmer
appeared instead.

She was not with her husband,
but with Lorenz,

and she told us
the strangest story.

It sounded almost
to have been rehearsed.

[ Reading As Margret ]
Three days ago,

we heard the sounds of visitors
at the baroness's compound...

and soon after Madame herself
appeared at the gate, asking for Lorenz.

When I told her that Lorenz
was out with Heinz, she said,

"Please tell him that friends
of ours have sailed in,

and we're going to Tahiti
with them.

I hope that the South Seas will be
a better place to realize my plans.

Lorenz is to look after
the things I've left behind...

till I either return
or send word.

"Auf Wiedersehen,
or perhaps good—bye."

Then she turned on her heel and
strode away in her riding costume.

It seemed too good to be true,

and I told myself
that it was only talk.

But later that day Lorenz went to the
hacienda and the house was empty.

Deserted.

To convince himself
that they had really left,

he went to check
Post Office Bay.

After that we did not
see Lorenz for two days,

and when he returned
this morning...

he said that all he found
at Post Office Bay...

were footprints and
donkey tracks in the sand.

There seems to be
no trace of them on the island.

The baroness and Philippson
are gone.

[ Reading As Dore ] As
Margret Wittmer ended her story,

Lorenz assumed an oddly
matter—of—fact voice and coolly asked us...

if we would buy some of the
baroness's things from him.

He says she left him no money
and he is burning to get off the island.

I find it curious that he feels
free to sell her things so quickly,

but in the end...

Friedrich and I decided
to go to Hacienda Paradiso,

thinking there might be
something useful for us to buy there.

On our way we stopped to see
the Wittmer's new house.

It was the first time
I'd been there,

and almost immediately...

my eyes fell upon a beautiful
pink damask tablecloth.

I had seen it before——
At the baroness's.

[ Reading As Friedrich ] The whole
story seems like nothing but lies...

from beginning to end.

Certainly Margret's mention of the
yacht does not completely satisfy me.

I've not seen a ship in weeks,

and if there'd been one here
I'd surely have seen it.

[ Reading As Dore ]
The Hacienda Paradiso...

was hardly more than a stone's
throw away from the Wittmer's house.

Lorenz and the Wittmers
led us through the door...

and I nearly screamed
at the sight before my eyes.

[Octavio Speaking Spanish]

[ Reading As Dore ]
On her bedside table...

there was an ashtray
containing the remains...

of the long—stemmed Russian
cigarettes the baroness always smoked.

And, tellingly,
beside this ashtray..

Lay her most beloved possession.

[Octavio Speaking Spanish]

[ Reading As Dore ] The baroness had
often spoken of this one small possession.

She'd told me that she never
went anywhere without it.

And yet there it was.

Chilled, I hung back
in the doorway.

[ Reading As Margret ] Dr. Ritter
immediately began opening...

various chests and boxes.

Why has he taken it
for granted so readily...

that the baroness
will not be coming back?

Sinister suspicions...

have begun to surface
in my mind.

I wonder ifperhaps
Dr. Ritter and Lorenz..

Share some terrible secret.

[ Reading As Dore ] I no
longer have the least doubt...

but that the baroness
and Philippson were murdered.

I feel a great pity
for the baroness.

While she lived I would have given
anything to see her leave the island.

But now that she is dead,

I would give just as much
to see her back again.

And I know that henceforth..

I shall be possessed
by the dread...

that Friedrich and I
will be the next victims..

Of the murderer
who stalks Floreana.

It is plain to me that for the
moment our very lives depend...

on our keeping our suspicions
to ourselves.

[Claudio Speaking Spanish]

When you get down to it, everybody
had a motive to kill the baroness.

There are people
in this world...

that just beg to get killed.

[Octavio Speaking Spanish]

I don't think that
there's any doubt..

That Lorenz did away with them
some way or another.

[Chuckles] Simply, guns
are available, you know,

and suddenly,
bang, bang, you know—...

Well, Lorenz——
I doubt if Lorenz did it.

[ Gil ] Personally, I
could clearly feel...

that Margret Wittmer
knew a whole bit more.

She well may have had
to help out...

at precisely hiding the body...

or something of the sort.

Many things could have
happened, you know.

She could also maybe have gone off to Tahiti
and sank with the boat and never got there.

I would suspect that old
man Wittmer did it. [Chuckles]

[ Gil ] It's hardly mentioned
at all the possibility of suicide.

But looking at the way she lived and
everything, I think it's very possible.

[ Thunder Rumbling ]

[ Reading As Friedrich ] The
first rains came on April 21.

And we have come back to life..

Here on Floreana.

Lorenz's desire to leave the island
and make his way back to Germany...

has reached a fever pitch.

Today I helped him write
a few lines of English...

to be nailed to the barrel
at Post Office Bay.

His message—...

"There is a young man on
Floreana who begs any ship...

for an opportunity
to leave this island.

I live inland off the trail
that is marked in red.

Signed, Rudolf Lorenz."

[ Reading As Margret ]
Months have passed...

without a single ship
touching our shores.

But today a boat
has come at last—...

A boat for Lorenz.

It is the Dinamita,
a small fishing vessel..

Owned by a Norwegian living
on the island of Santa Cruz,

a man named Nuggerud.

Nuggerud has agreed to take
Lorenz as far as Santa Cruz,

where he'll be able to
catch the ship for Guayaquil.

Meanwhile, Nuggerud
has a journalist on board,

a Swedish writer
named Rolf Blomberg.

Blomberg wants to have
a look at Floreana...

and expressed the intention
of visiting the baroness.

[ Man Reading ] When no grim
pirate queen bearing a revolver...

came to greet us
in Post Office Bay,

we quickly made our way
to the Wittmers' house...

where Lorenz informed us that
the baroness had "disappeared."

I managed to get from them
the mysterious story,

which did not quite add u...

The yacht nobody had seen,

Lorenz selling the house and all its
contents to the Wittmers and the Ritters.

In any event,

it had been four months since
the island queen's disappearance...

and we appear to be
Lorenz's liberators,

come to take him away
from paradise...

and return him once again
to earth.

[ Reading As Dore ] Blomberg quizzed
us incessantly about the baroness,

and it was through this man..

That the story of her disappearance
went out into the world.

Friedrich and I hinted
at what we thought,

but we were careful
and did not feel yet...

that we could say much
on the matter.

For his part,
Lorenz looked gloomy.

Just before setting sail...

he whispered to me
in a low tone,

"I don't know why, but I'm
afraid of this trip somehow."

[ Reading As Margret ]
Dr. Ritter came to us today,

bringing some mail that was left
in Post Office Bay a few days ago.

Among the letters is an alarming
note from Blomberg in Santa Cruz.

[ Reading As Rolf ]
The three of us set sail...

for Santa Cruz Island.

However, along the way,

we passed a big ship on a
hard tack for San Cristo'bal.

Lorenz saw this ship as his
chance to get to the mainland quickly.

So as soon as we anchored here
on Santa Cruz,

he began begging Nuggerud to
set out at once for San Cristo'bal...

so he could catch the ship
before it left for Guayaquil.

[ Carmen ] Lorenz, I just saw
him when he came ashore.

It was a very unfriendly day
ofJuly.

Rough seas.

You felt that he wanted nobody.

He just stalked off, you know,
went off with his suitcase.

And he was very much in a hurry
to go on that boat.

And Nuggerud said, "I can't."

[ Reading As Blomberg ] Nuggerud
was not very keen on the subject,

for it was Friday the 13th.

[ Reading As Blomberg ]
However, Lorenz kept pleading,

and finally, after he offered 50
sucres for the trip if they left at once,

Nuggerud agreed.

Just at daybreak on the 13th,
we saw them set sail.

I am sorry to say that no one has
seen them or the Dinamita since.

[ Reading As Margret ]
We are shattered.

Boats have gone out
in search of the Dinamita..

In hopes that they have been
stranded on one of the other islands.

But so far there's been
no trace of them.

There has been no news either
from Tahiti...

where the baroness and Philippson
were supposed to be going.

Everyone seems to have
disappeared without a trace.

[ Seal Barking ]

[ Friedel ] I was dreaming
about leaving the island.

I had looked on the map...

and seen that the Galépagos
were there,

just like little spots
from a fly.

I was very keen on
seeing the world.

And on the beach I had a
friend—— Teppy Angermeyer.

We used to talk together
and discuss.

And he said, "I want to
get away from here."

And then I used to say,
"Me too. But how?"

And then he said,
"Well, we need a boat."

[ Teppy ]
My older brother had left.

He met a girl on a yacht and fell in love and
her parents helped my brother out of here.

So I wished to go out
and see the world also.

You get to that age where you
get curious and you want to see it.

[ Friedel ]
So we were dreamers.

But life was getting
sort of complicated for me.

Our neighbors, the Kastdalens,
had one son, Alf.

He was 15 years older than me
and he needed a wife.

In fact, we got rings on.

But I was getting cold feet..

And was wondering how can I
get out of this...

difficultsituation.

Because I did not love Alf.

And suddenly there was
a very special solution.

Here came this yacht sailing
with Forrest Nelson on board.

And he asked me to come with
him and he asked me to marry him.

And then I thought quickly,
"Oh. This is an adventure!

This is a good idea.
Why not try it?"

And, uh, so I did.

[Chuckles]
They were a bit upset.

"Oh, you are just adventurous
and you are irresponsible," they said.

Isaid, "Okay.

I'll accept that
and be irresponsible.

And I'm going. Bye-bve-"

And that was it.

I started a complete new life.

It was a great adventure
and he put me on as a sailor.

I thought it was quite romantic.

And from Galépagos we sailed
all the way up to San Diego.

It was great
and I was very, very happy,

and I thought he wanted
to continue sailing...

and maybe sail
around the world..

And stop and work some places..

And earn a little money
to go on.

But the reality was that in San
Diego he wanted to sell the boat.“

and he wanted to
come back to the Galépagosm

and start a hotel.

And so we did.

This was in 1960...

and there was not
a single hotel.

I felt sad.

But I couldn't say anything.

I was so young.

And so I just accepted it.

But my heart was bleeding.

[ Reading As Dore ] Only
four adults remain on the island,

and a strange mood
has come over Friedrich.

Yesterday he turned to me
and said,

"I think I shall go on
to my end on Floreana.

I have found here
what I came to find,

and this is
where I hope to die."

Happily, this new mood..

Has allowed us to find harmony
and peace together,

and Friedrich has become
considerate and tender.

A stillness that we have
never known before unites us.

[ Reading As Margret ] Dr. Ritter
visited today and confided to us...

that he and Dore
are always quarreling now...

and it is getting on his nerves.

He says that the poor woman's not
herself and has become extremely difficult.

[ Reading As Heinz ] Dr. Ritter tells
us that they are running short of food.

The rains that broke the drought
have come too late to save his crops.

Even their source of eggs
is gone.

Dore fed his chickens
spoiled pig meat...

and now they are all dead.

Margret and I
visited Friedo today...

and found the doctor boiling
these dead chickens for future use.

He offered us
a jar of the chicken,

insisting that the poison
had been boiled out.

We thanked him hastily
and refused the offer.

[ Reading As Dore ]
Yesterday, with great reluctance,

we decided that we must overcome
our aversion to meat...

and have one of the
boiled chickens for dinner.

We took every possible
precaution in preparing the poultry.

Friedrich tried only a little.

I ate more of it.

A few hours later..

Friedrich lay down, complaining
of feeling rather ill.

Soon nausea set in
and agonizing pains.

The whole of that night was spent
trying to stem the tide of poison,

which was overwhelming his body.

At dawn he asked me to
read Nietzsche to him...

and when I came to one of his
favorite passages he said in a faint voice,

"Mark those lines, Dore.

Remember them always
in memory of me."

Despair surged over me.

Friedrich was dying.

And what could I do
at Friedo alone?

[Octavio Speaking Spanish]

[ Reading As Dore ] By the time
Margret and I got back to Friedo,

Friedrich's tongue was so badly swollen
that he could no longer speak clearly.

I sat beside him
through the night,

praying that somehow
he might get well again.

At dawn, Friedrich
suddenly sat up.

He stretched out
both his arms toward me.

All trace ofpain and torment
had vanished from his face,

which was transfigured
with a look so lucid,

so triumphant,
so calm, so tender..

That I could only gaze and gaze
upon him like one who sees a miracle.

But then he fell back
on the pillows,

and before I was able
to utter a sound...

he was gone.

[ Reading As Margret ]
When Dore and I reached Friedo,

Friedrich looked as if he was
in excruciating pain.

His one comprehensible remark
was to point out the bitter irony...

that he, a vegetarian,

was dying from meat poisoning.

Then he made an immense effort,

felt for the pencil and paper
by his bed...

and wrote his last sentence—...

"I curse you
with my dying breath."

With that he looked up at Dore,
his eyes gleaming with hate.

He struggled against the shot
of morphine that Dore gave him...

and repelled
with blows and kicks...

every effort
she made to touch him.

Hours went by like this...

until he at last collapsed
on his pillows and was gone.

[ Reading As Heinz ] The next day,
Harry and I buried Dr. Ritter's body.

We wrapped it up
in a piece of linen cloth..

And transported it to a spot in the
garden where we had prepared a grave.

We then buried him
between the stones...

that he had removed from the
ground with so much trouble.

[ Reading As Margret ] As Heinz placed
a simple cross on Dr. Ritter's grave,

I wondered to myself..

About Dore's inexplicable delay
in coming to get us...

once she saw he was so ill.

Why on earth
did she wait so long..

When every moment was so vital?

Also, while Dore assured me
that she had eaten the meat too,

she never looked anything
but perfectly normal.

[ Reading As Dore ] The linen
I had brought from Germany...

made Friedrich's shroud.

The atmosphere was now
full of ghostliness...

and I became possessed
not only with the feeling..

That the island
was a haunted ground,

but that I should be
its next victim.

That night I took out
pen and paper.

"Friedrich is dead,"
I wrote to Captain Hancock.

"Please help me."

[José Speaking Spanish]

[ Teppy ]
I find it very mysterious.

And as a child, because we had very little
with deaths here and this sort of thing,

then you worry, you know.

You can kind of get afraid and
think, you know, "What's it all about?"

[Jorge Speaking Spanish]

[Laughing]

[ Reading As John Garth ]
Sunday, December 2, 1934.

Just before Thanksgiving, Captain
Hancock's telephone rang late in the night.

It was the press.

Two bodies have been found dead
beside an overturned boat...

on the black lava sands
of Marchena Island.

A few days later
we were on our way south,

our ship steering
straight for the Galépagos.

This time,
as the holidays are upon us,

several wives joined our crew.

At 2:00 p.m. today
we dropped anchor..

And climbed ashore on Marchena,

that strange, dead remnant
of an ancient volcano...

which stands 60 miles northward
of its nearest Galépagos neighbor.

Far above the reach
of the waves...

we could see the wreck of a
dinghy and a bamboo pole...

on which an old gray coat
had flown as a distress signal.

Slowly, soberly,

we climbed
the hard—packed sand...

and there in front of us a
gruesome sight presented itself—...

The mummified form of Nuggerud,
the Norwegian sea captain.

A short distance away lay
all that was left of Lorenz.

He was dressedjust as
when we last saw him.

I would have known
him anywher...

Knit sweater, gray vest,

overalls cut to shorts
and hand—stitched at the knees.

As I gazed on Lorenz's body,

[I could not help but wonder
if] was looking into the face...

of the murderer of
the baroness and Philippson.

But if so,
what swift retribution..

To overtake him in the very
act of fleeing from his crime,

and what seeming injustice...

to involve Nuggerud,
an innocent man,

in such a horrible death.

[ Reading As John Garth ]
Tuesday, December 4, 1934.

At 5:00 a.m.
we reached Floreana...

and a signal from Friedo showed
that our approach had been observed.

Captain Hancock
hurried up the trail..

And came back with the startling
news that Dr. Ritter is dead.

Dore considers it an act of
providence that our arrival is so timely.

When asked about the baroness
and Philippson,

Dore talks of hearing screams..

And alludes to the occurrence
of terrible events,

but she is too distraught to give
us anything in the way of details.

Unsa tisfied
with Dore '5 account,

we proceeded to the Wittmers so we could
hear their version of these happenings.

We were startled to find
the baroness's tin roof...

now residing
atop the Wittmer's home.

The captain queried
Heinz and Margret,

who maintain that the baroness and
Philippson boarded a yacht to Tahiti.

[I felt as if] were watching
Sherlock Holmes at work,

but after much relating
and many questions,

the captain reached
no definitive conclusions.

[ Reading As Dore ] I have decided to
leave Floreana with Captain Hancock.

I do not know what I will do
back in the world again,

but go I must.

I have packed the few
possessions that I treasure,

carefully gathering
all of Friedrich's writings.

I said good—bye
to Friedrich's grave,

but I did not feel as if
I were leaving him there.

In some strange way
that I cannot find words for,

I do not feel
that he is truly dead.

I have put Friedo under
the charge of the Wittmers...

as long as they might
stay upon the island.

They said they would look
after it for me well and truly.

We and the Wittmers
were never friends,

but we have been something
more than merely neighbors.

I wish them well on Floreana.

[ Reading As John Garth ]
Friday, December 7th, 1934.

Today we left Floreana
with Dore aboard the Velero.

Our first stop was Santa Cruz,

where we were met
by a German, Kubler,

and his little girl Carmen.

[ Carmen ]
I saw her.

I saw her when
she came on the Velero.

She went ashore with the
Hancocks and she seemed to be sad.

She must have been sad, just
suddenly having to leave like that.

[ Reading As Dore ]
My last act on the islands..

Was to meet with the governor,

who took my deposition...

and wrote out a death
certificate for Friedrich.

In doing so,
a great calm filled my soul.

I return to the world...

determined to publish Friedrich's
great philosophical manifesto.

It was his dearest wish,

and he was one of
the world's true geniuses.

He must live on through me.

[ Reading As Heinz ] The day
after the departure of the Velero,

we received
a copy of El Universo..

From a Guayaquil reporter.

In it is printed an article
written by Dr. Ritter...

in which the doctor,

in telling about the disappearance
of the baroness, says..

That "we," Margret and I,
know all about it.

Now we know that Dr. Ritter
was trying all along...

to direct suspicion towards us.

We would like to ask
many questions,

but as Dr. Ritter is dead
he can give no explanation.

His lips are sealed forever.

[ Reading As Margret ]
We have transferred...

all of the valuable things
at Friedo to our place,

and Friedo now looks
mournful and neglected.

The upkeep of its garden
is too much for Heinz,

who is depressed by our recent
experiences with human cussedness.

Indeed, it is hard for me
to forgive Dr. Ritter.

There are some things
you cannot forgive—...

Not at once anyhow.

Meanwhile,
the others have all gone..

And we alone remain on
the entire island of Floreana.

We do not mind this solitude,

for it is the life
we have chosen for ourselves,

and on the whole
we are well content.

When we look out over our land,

we become filled
with ajust pride...

and can truthfully say we have
accomplished something considerable...

in two and a half years.

Already there are two generations
of Wittmers on this island...

and a flourishing farm.

We have named our house
Asilo de la Paz...

after a settlement
that was here earlier.

It seems to be a fitting name,

for we have had peace all the
time we have been living there.

[Tapping]

[ Carmen ] It's changed very
much because the old people—...

A lot are gone.

The Divines are gone.

Andre is gone.

Karl and my mother are gone.

Gus is gone.

Fritz is gone.

Just about
from every household...

at least somebody is gone.

And, uh, now...

what were the younger people
are the old folks now.

I guess Jacqueline and 1,
We're the two oldest...

from the old times still.

[Jacqueline] I don't say that I
want to go back to that old time...

because I'm getting older.

You know?
It was not really an easy life.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And besides that, we never
found what we were dreaming of.

It was not complete.

[Gil] Paradise, in this
world, is duly unreal.

I think the people
are too easygoing.

They—— They come
and visit the islands.

They pay their ticket. They
come over. They live on a boat.

They go to the restaurant. They come
and visit me and they say, "Oh, beautiful."

They leave and they say,
"You live in a paradise."

Icouldn't agree any more.

Unfortunately, it
includes myself. [ Laughs]

[ Friedel ]
Paradise is not a place.

It's a condition.

That's my philosophy.

And, um, I think that was
one of the things...

that happened on Galépagos.

People found out that..

Paradise is not a place.

[ Fritz] Look, one
thing is very important.

Wherever you go,

if you go out of the society,

wherever you go...

you bring you rself.

And if you are the problem,

you can go wherever you want.

You will have problems.

Yeah. Because you
are the problems.

And you take
these problems with you.

Yeah.