Adventures in the Pacific: The Influence of Trade on the South Seas Novel

Abstract

The second chapter explores the transition from missionary texts to a more secularized portrayal of the islands in adventure fiction. I begin with George Vason, an LMS missionary who “went native” and lived amongst the islanders, which serves as a transition between conversion narrative and adventure fiction. The emerging genre of “boy’s fiction” emphasized entertainment rather than moral edification, while the works of authors such as Frederick Marryat and R.M. Ballantyne act primarily as propaganda for the growing empire. Marryat deliberately rewrites The Swiss Family Robinson in his novel Masterman Ready both to offer a more “authentic” representation of British trade and to showcase the ways in which boys could best serve the growing empire. R.M. Ballantyne’s first Pacific novel, The Coral Island, also focuses on boys as “men of empire” but, through the character of Bloody Bill, warns against the dangerous implications of Pacific trade. In his later works, Gascoyne, the Sandal-wood Trader and The Island Queen, Ballantyne explores other alternatives for the future of the British presence in the Pacific, transforming pirates into productive traders and evaluating the effect of female leadership on the masculine tradition of Pacific fiction.