the riv-er— seemed to beckon with a dishonouring flourish before the sunlit face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurk-ing death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart.
Very repetitive about death the darkness of the river, but the darkness of the unknown. He is only afraid because the people of the forest behave different;y than him and his English friends.
https://telemachusunedited.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/colonial-powers-in-africa-c-1908.jpg
fifty feet below the doorstep I could see the still tree-tops of the grove of death
Very repetitive about death
They were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now— nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom
Even in death they are viewed as weak and slaves. They're only allowed to be free in death. Does seem racist but at the time that was expected. I feel in this passage he does feel a little sorry for them.
Light came out of this river since—you say Knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker—may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.
This passage make me think that Marlow is saying we were all savages at some point. at even as they stand on the river Thames he says that not too long ago there was darkness here. Not to long ago, in a flicker of light there were nights conquering the land.