Charles W Sheldon clambered up his horse for a ride through his ranch. Paul, his five rear old son wanted a ride with his father, but Sheldon had another plan, so he wouldn’t take his son with him today. He persuaded his son to stay with his mother and have his breakfast. Martha held her son’s hand, as they watched Sheldon ride away from their huge mansion, at the western edge of their ranch. Before settling down on the Island along the northwestern coast of Africa, Sheldon worked as a carpenter in London. Prior to joining his college life, he had begun his career as an apprentice and continued with this profession, for almost ten years. His father wanted him to complete college. However, he had no interest in acquiring a college degree. Rift between father and son, eventually convinced Sheldon to move out of his father’s mansion. Soon afterwards, he got married to Martha Whitman, a young lady he had known since his school days. Both Sheldon and Martha had a strict religious upbringing. By the time they left London for their Island, they already had one daughter, while Paul was born on the Island. 

     Martha was not convinced that moving out of London was a good idea. Nonetheless, the atmosphere of the city had become so foul that she could not show any good reason not to move out of that polluted city. They had to constantly carry fragrance with them while traveling in London because of open sewerage. Sheldon had had enough of the city as he responded positively to one of his friends’ lucrative offer to sell him a ranch he had on an Island, along the north western shores of Africa. Ten years of carpentry gave him the affluence needed to make the purchase.

    The ranch was situated at the western edge of the Island. It covered roughly two square miles, with a steady supply of fresh water from a nearby waterfall. From its eastern end to the western end, the Island itself was ten miles long and roughly five miles wide. It had a low mountain in between Sheldon’s ranch and the town, at the eastern side of the Island, thus, separating the ranch from the greater part of the island, inhabited mostly by people of French descent. When Sheldon arrived with his family at his newly purchased ranch, it had only ten horses, among them six were mares and the rest stallions. His friend Trevor had sold most of the horses, before selling the ranch and moving to Canada to organize his new timber business.

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     Sheldon’s hard work and entrepreneurship paid off. Within the next five years, he turned himself into a flourishing rancher, supplying well bred horses to both, the Union Army and the Confederates in the US. It had been a year, since the two sides in the US declared war against each other. From the Berbers, Sheldon would purchase mostly Arabian horses, well known for their stamina and intelligence, and then reared them at his ranch, for supplying them to the European and American buyers. The year 1861 ended with Sheldon having fifty stallions, seventy mares, twenty fillies and twenty four colts. The western side of the Island received regular rainfall from the westerly wind, blowing in rain clouds from the ocean. On the other hand, the leeward side of the mountain was much drier. Hence, Sheldon also set up a farm, producing most of his needs and selling the rest to the town, on the other side of the mountain. The laborers who worked in the farm, all came from the town. Most of them were Portuguese, with a few Spanish and Africans among them as well.

     Everything in his ranch and the farm, was in tiptop shape. He spent half an hour in the stable, discussing with the stable master and his men, which horses were ready to be shipped out. Then he headed out for the Black Mountain. They named the mountain so, as it was mostly composed of black granite. However, the residents of the town had a French name for it. Sheldon always carried a beautiful time piece, he had purchased from London. When he reached the foothills of the mountain, it was already nine in the morning. He tied the reins of his horse to a tree, before ascending the mountain. The mountain rose at least two thousand feet into the blue Atlantic sky. It took him over an hour to reach the top; on his way to the top, he stopped several times and studied the mountain. He was told what to look for by one of his friends who had been a geologist, at a school in London. Sheldon couldn’t find any of those signs, he was looking for. The previous year when Smith visited his ranch, Sheldon gave him a thorough tour of his ranch and farm. Smith had shown him the sample of the soil which he claimed was nothing but fossilized lave from the nearby mountain. After Smith’s departure, Sheldon closely studied the mountain couple of times, but never ascended to the top. This was the first time he reached the top of the mountain. White clouds formed a blanket over the mountain, making it difficult to observe anything from a distance. The mountain ran from south to north, dividing the Island into two unequal halves, two thirds of it, on the eastern side and the rest on the western side of the mountain.