Full Description
The 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.
Contents
List 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)
The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Feathered Lady (1776)
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (c. 1775)
Phaetona or Modern Female Taste (1776)
Oh. Heigh. Oh. Or a View of the Back Settlements (1776)
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
