Quotation from: Lost Continent

Written by: Edgar Rice Burroughs

I was born in Arizona, in the United States of North
America, in the year of our Lord 2116. Therefore, I am
twenty-one years old.

In early boyhood I tired of the teeming cities and
overcrowded rural districts of Arizona. Every generation of
Turcks for over two centuries has been represented in the
navy. The navy called to me, as did the free, wide,
unpeopled spaces of the mighty oceans. And so I joined the
navy, coming up from the ranks, as we all must, learning our
craft as we advance. My promotion was rapid, for my family
seems to inherit naval lore. We are born officers, and I
reserve to myself no special credit for an early advancement
in the service.