"The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled a the decline of day, after ages of good services done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. " Page 66
The Congo as well rested at night, there were no steamboats sailing on it, it would be far too dangerous and it definitely leads to the uttermost ends of the earth.
What specifically caught my eye about this quote was the middle part, "after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks", the word service is very foreshadowing and allusive to the story of the Congo that Marlow is about to share. It is also very interesting that it says to the race, not the europeans or englanders, race. Conrad does not say the race that lived there, but the race that peopled its banks. That is just like what happened in the Congo. The white race came in and forced the African's to do "service" for them. Not only did our English teacher slow down and emphasize that paragraph but the teacher also did so with the next three or four times the narrator used the word service or serve. This sentence was the beginning of a very powerful allusion.
The choice of the word dignity is also interesting as the natives received no dignity from the white people. But the reference to the uttermost ends of the earth is an allusion to the Congo River, which just keeps going and going and going. I did not really fully understand the significance of the last part of the sentence.
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