This is a sentence from Huckleberry Finn.
"I wanted to go and look at a place right about the middle of the island that I’d found when I was exploring; so we started and soon got to it, because the island was only three miles long and a quarter of a mile wide."
Would the bold-faced part be correct if I replaced it with "I found when I was exploring"? I think "when I was exploring" makes it clear that it happened before "he wanted to go and take a look", so I think it would be correct to use the past simple as well. Thank you.
Comments
Your question is good. I also want to know the correct answer.
To me, I think it's correct to use past perfect. Because when I go back, I find that they used Past Perfect tense after Simple Past tense. (Tow actions happened in the past, one happened before the other. )
"I wanted to go and look at a place right about the middle of the island that I’d found when I was exploring;"
If I made it short, I'd say: "I wanted to go and look at a place I had found."
So I found the place before having a desire to go to look at it.
Yes, I agree. However, including "when I was exploring" in the sentence makes the sequence of events even clearer, and as far as I know, the past simple can be used when that is the case.