Description
Book SynopsisThe Travels of Hildebrand Bowman is an eponymous novel purportedly written by a midshipman left behind in New Zealand’s Queen Charlotte Sound after escaping the infamous Grass Cove massacre. The protagonist is a midshipman on HMS Adventure, the ship that accompanied Cook’s Resolution on his second voyage around the world. The two ships become separated off New Zealand, leading to a group of seamen being sent from the Adventure to gather wild greens at Grass Cove, where they are killed by Maori. The fictional Hildebrand escapes because he has gone off hunting. The remainder of the novel traces his travels through six fictional islands in the South Pacific; echoing eighteenth-century stadial theory, these societies represent human culture gradually ascending from brutish insensibility to the primitive savagery to idealized pastoral economy. The novel is a unique hybrid of historical events and the cultural satire of such works as Gulliver’s Travels.
Historical appendices provide an exceptionally broad range of materials on the Grass Cove massacre, the eighteenth-century stadial theory of historical development, cannibalism, and contemporary depictions of the South Pacific and its indigenous peoples.
Trade Review“Like a hologram, The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman refracts a variety of eighteenth-century concerns. In his remarkable edition, Lance Bertelsen shows how Bowman, inspired by James Cook’s sensational discoveries in the Pacific Ocean, travel literature, Scottish Enlightenment philosophers, and satire both social and political, explores what it means to be human. In this lively satirical allegory of England’s ‘progress’ over the past 200 years, Bowman asks whether an ideal state of nature can actually exist. Do cultural interventions caused by the global circulation of trade destroy what it means to build up? As humanity embraces ever more sophisticated stages of development, do luxury, decadence, and corruption inevitably lead to decline? A wealth of helpful and accessible knowledge illuminates this fascinating, prophetic, genre-defying book, the first fiction set in New Zealand and a major find for eighteenth-century studies.” — Jocelyn Harris, University of Otago
“Part adventure story, part allegory, didactic but never less than entertaining, The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman can be enjoyed on a number of levels. Bowman’s search for Utopia in newly discovered exotic worlds captures the spirit of the Enlightenment imaginatively. For anyone interested in late eighteenth century voyaging and discovery, and in the Old World reaching out towards the New, Bowman’s travels make captivating reading.” —Graeme Lay, Captain Cook Society
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Note on the Text
The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman
Appendix A: The Grass Cove Incident
- From Lieutenant James Burney, Log, 1773
- From Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, 16 July 1774
- From Frances Burney, Journal, 1774
- From Tobias Furneaux, Narrative, 1775
- From Lieutenant James King, Journal, 17 February 1777
Appendix B: Descriptions of Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific
- From Tobias Furneaux, Narrative, 1772
- From William Anderson, A Journal of a Voyage Made in His Majestys Sloop Resolution, 28-29 January 1777
- From Georg Forster, A Voyage Round the World (1777)
- From James Cook, A Voyage towards the South Pole (1777)
- From Frances Burney, Letter to Mr. Crisp, 1 December 1774
Appendix C: Cannibals
- From Michel de Montaigne, “Of Cannibals” (1580)
- From Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)
- From Voltaire, “Anthropophagi, or Man-eaters” (1765)
- From James Cook, Journal, 23 November 1773
Appendix D: Stadial Theory and the Scottish Enlightenment
- From Edward Tyson, Orang-Outang, sive Homo Sylvestris: or, The Anatomy of a Pygmie Compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape, and a Man (1699)
- From Adam Smith, “Lectures on Jurisprudence” (1762)
- From Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
- From Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767)
- From John Millar, Observations Concerning the Distinction of Ranks in Society (1771)
- From Lord Monboddo (James Burnett), Of the Origin and Progress of Language, 2nd ed. (1774)
- Lord Kames (Henry Home), Sketches of the History of Man (1774)
Appendix E: Luxury, Global Trade, and Cross-Cultural Satire
- From Bernard Mandeville, The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves Turn’d Honest (1705)
- From Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
- From Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village (1770)
- From Tobias Smollett, Humphry Clinker (1771)
- From An Historic Epistle from Omiah, to the Queen of Otaheite; being his Remarks on the English Nation (1773)
- From Omiah’s Farewell, Inscribed to the Ladies of London (1776)
- From William Preston, Seventeen-Hundred and Seventy-Seven; or, A Picture of the Manners and Character of the Age. In a Poetical Epistle from a Lady of Quality in England to Omai, at Otaheite (1777)
Appendix F: Flying Fashion and Macaroni Style
- Louis-Phillipe Boitard, “A Gawrey Extended for Flight,” from Robert Paltock, The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1755)
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The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Feathered Lady (1776)
- Sir Joshua Reynolds, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (c. 1775)
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Phaetona or Modern Female Taste (1776)
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Oh. Heigh. Oh. Or a View of the Back Settlements (1776)
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The Fly-Catching Macaroni (1772)
- From Yankee Doodle (c.1765-75)
Appendix G: Political Discussion of the American War Onboard Cook’s Resolution
- From Lieutenant James King, Letter to Jane Burke, 2 July 1776
Appendix H. The Great Southern Continent
- From Alexander Dalrymple, An Account of the Discoveries Made in the South Pacifick Ocean, Previous to 1764, Part 1 (1767)
- From the Admiralty, Secret Instructions for Capt Cook, Commander of His Majesty’s Sloop Resolution, 25 June 1772
Appendix I: Reviews of Hildebrand Bowman
- William Bewley, The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal (1778)
- From The Critical Review: or, Annals of Literature (1778)
- From the London Chronicle, 19-21 May 1778
Works Cited and Select Bibliography
