Heart of Darkness pg 1-13

The men on the ship anchor right outside of the river waiting for high tide.  Marlow starts to tell his story of a dark time in the very same spot. Is this dark time when Congo people were being attacked? Marlow then tells a story about how he was stabbed by one of the village people and left there to die. Was this in the Congo? He says he got the job as the captain from his aunt. His aunt was friends with the people that ran the shipping company.  I found this entire section very confusing I did not understand the people knitting, was that some kind of symbol, also how his aunt was involved in the entire thing.  I think that maybe as the book progress I will start to understand it better, but I don't care for author writing style how the quotes are these long paragraphs that all marge together.