Nineteenth-Century Travels, Explorations and Empires:
Writings from the Era of Imperial Consolidation, 1835–1910
General Editor: Peter J Kitson
Volume Editors: William Baker, Indira Ghose, Susan Schoenbauer Thurin, Nicholas Thomas, Neil L Whitehead and Tim Youngs
Travels, Explorations and Empires
978 1 85196 760 5: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
978 1 85196 761 2: 234x156mm: £350.00/$625.00
Building on the success of the first two parts of the Travels series comes this collection of writings on travels undertaken in the Victorian era.
A great consolidation of British imperial power began after the Romantic era, and the period 1835–1910 saw Britain emerge as the dominant world force for the nineteenth century. As the British empire continued to expand, so too did the range of travellers, explorers, soldiers, diplomats, missionaries and natural historians journeying to many distant parts of the globe. Many of these individuals published accounts of their experiences, perhaps drawn to the task by the possibility of a substantial financial return, as well as the gratification of having a substantial audience for them. The British audience was indeed eager for the exciting narratives of different worlds and cultures, complete with details of exotic lands and peoples. Among the events vividly depicted in this collection are the search for the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin, the Indian Mutiny and the opium wars with China.
Colonialism, exploration and travel are some of the most exciting current preoccupations in nineteenth-century literary studies, as shown by the substantial body of criticism now appearing on this subject. This selection of travel writings will provide the much-needed primary resource texts for students of British literature, history and colonialism. The new collection, which has been brought together by a well-respected board of scholars, offers a serious grounding for further research and will also provide a good basis for undergraduate teaching.
- Original rare texts from a broad range of archives
- Substantial extracts from all texts
- Texts reproduced in facsimile
- Introductions to each volume, general introduction and annotations
Contents
Volume 1: North and South Poles
John Balleny, ‘Discoveries in the Antarctic Ocean, in February 1839’, Journal of the schooner Eliza Scott, commanded by Mr. John Balleny, communicated by Charles Enderby, Esq., Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London (1839); Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842 by Charles Wilkes, USN Commodore of the Expedition, member of the American Philosophical Society &c. Condensed and Abridged (1845); James Clark Ross, A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions, During the Years 1839–43 (1847); Lieutenant Sherard Osborn, Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions in Search of Sir John Franklin’s Expedition, in the Years 1850–51. By Lieut. Sherard Osborn, Commanding H.M.S. Vessel ‘Pioneer’ (1852); Elisha Kent Kane, The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: A Personal Narrative by Elisha Kent Kane (1854); Charles Dickens, ‘The Lost Arctic Voyagers’, Household Words, (1854); Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic Explorations. The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin 1853, 54, 55 (1856); Sir Francis Leopold M’Clintock, The Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas: A Narrative of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and His Companions by Captain M’Clintock (1859); Captain Albert Hastings Markham, R.N., The Great Frozen Sea: A Personal Narrative of the Voyage of the ‘Alert’ During the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6 (1878); John Wilson Danenhower, History of the Adventures, Voyage and Terrible Shipwreck of the U.S. Steamer ‘Jeannette’, in the Polar Seas, together with a full and particular account of the death of Lieutenant De Long, and his brave Shipmates and the rescue of Danenhower, Melville, and their heroic companions carefully compiled from authentic records with numerous Illustrations (1882); George W. Melville, In the Lena Delta. A Narrative of the Search for Lieut.-Commander De Long and His Companions Followed by An Account of the Greely Relief Expedition and A Proposed Method of Reaching the North Pole by George W. Melville Chief Engineer U.S.N., edited by Melville Philips with Maps and Illustrations (1885); Robert Edwin Peary, Northward over the ‘Great Ice’: A Narrative of Life and Work along the Shores and upon the interior ice-cap of Northern Greenland in the years 1886 and 1891-1897, with a description of the little tribe of Smith- Sound Eskimos, the most northerly human beings in the world, and an account of the discovery and bringing home of the ‘Saviksue’, or Great Cape-York Meteorites (1898); Frederick A. Cook, Through the First Antarctic Night 1898-1899. A Narrative of the Voyage of the ‘Belgica’ Among Newly Discovered Lands and Over an Unknown Sea About the South Pole (1900); Robert Falcon Scott, The Voyage of the ‘Discovery’ … With 260 full page and smaller illustrations by Dr. E. A. Wilson and other members of the expedition … panoramas and maps (1905); Robert Edwin Peary, Nearest the Pole. A Narrative of the Polar Expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S. S. Roosevelt, 1905–1906 (1907)
Volume 2: North America
Sir Charles Lyell, A Second Visit to the United States of North America (1849); Alexander Mackay, The Western World; or, Travels in the United States in 1846–47: Exhibiting them in their Latest Development Social, Political, and Industrial: Including a Chapter on California (1849); George F. Ruxton, Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains (1849); Isabella Lucy Bird [later Bishop], The Englishwoman in America (1856); William Ferguson, America by River and Rail: or, Notes by the Way on the New World and its People (1856); Thomas H. Gladstone, Kansas; or, Squatter Life and Border Warfare in the Far West (1857); Clara Bromley, A Woman’s Wanderings in the Western World: A Series of Letters Addressed to Sir Fitzroy Kelly, M.P. by his Daughter Mrs. Bromley (1861); Samuel Phillips Day, Down South; or, An Englishman’s Experience at the Seat of the American War (1862); Robert Ferguson, America During and After the War (1866); Sir William Francis Butler, The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America (1872); Wyndham-Quin, Earl of Dunraven, The Great Divide: Travels in the Upper Yellowstone in the Summer of 1874 (1876); George Jacob Holyoake, Among the Americans and a Stranger in America (1881); George Augustus Sala, America Revisited: From the Bay of New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Lake Michigan to the Pacific (1883); Emily Faithfull, Three Visits to America (1884); E. Catherine Bates, A Year in the Great Republic (1887); Sir E. W. Watkin, Canada and the States: Recollections 1851 to 1886 (1887); William Garden Blaikie, Summer Suns in the Far West: A Holiday trip to the Pacific Slope (1890); Alexander Craib, America and the Americans: A Narrative of a Tour in the United States and Canada with Chapters on American Home Life (1892); Eyre Crowe, With Thackeray in America (1893); Lady Theodora Guest, A Round Trip in North America (1895); William Archer, America To-Day: Observations and Reflections (1900); Horace Annesley Vachell, Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope (1900); Paul Fountain, The Great Deserts and Forests of North America, with a Preface by W. Hudson (1901); James Bryce, ‘America Revisited: The Changes of a Quarter-Century,’ The Outlook, (1905); Alfred Russel Wallace, My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions (1908)
Volume 3: India
Alexander Burnes, Travels into Bokhara; Being the Account of a Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary, and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, from the Sea to Lahore, with Presents from the King of Great Britain; Performed under the orders of the Supreme Goverment of India, in the Years 1831, 1832, and 1833 (1834); Fanny Parks, Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque, During Four-and-Twenty Years in the East; with Revelations of Life in the Zenana (1850); Richard Francis Burton, Scinde; or, the Unhappy Valley (1851); William Henry Sleeman, A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, in 1849–50; by Direction of the Right Hon. the Earl of Dalhousie, Governor-General. With Private Correspondence relative to the Annexation of Oude to British India (1858); [Mrs. G. Harris], A Lady’s Diary of the Siege of Lucknow, Written for the Perusal of Friends at Home (1858); R. M. Coopland, A Lady’s Escape from Gwalior and Life in the Fort of Agra during the Mutinies of 1857 (1859); William Howard Russell, My Diary in India, in the year 1858–9 (1860); Emily Eden, ‘Up the Country’: Letters written to her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India (1866); Emily Eden, Letters from India, ed. by her Niece, the Hon. Eleanor Eden (1872); Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, India Under Ripon: A Private Diary (1909)
Volume 4: The Far East
George Wingrove Cooke, China: Being ‘The Times’ Special Correspondence from China in the Years 1857–58 (1859); Capt. William Gill, RE, The River of Golden Sand: The Narrative of a Journey through China and Eastern Tibet to Burmah, introductory essay by Col. Henry Yule, CB, RE (1880); Constance Gordon Cumming, Wanderings in China (1886); Archibald Little, Through the Yang-Tse Gorges or Trade and Travel in Western China (1888); Mrs Archibald Little [A. E. N. Bewicke], Intimate China (1899); C. Pemberton Hodgson, A Residence at Nagasaki and Hakodate in 1859–1860 with an Account of Japan Generally [and] with a Series of Letters on Japan, by His Wife (1861); Arthur Adams, Travels of a Naturalist in Japan and Manchuria (1870); Edmund Gregory Holtham, Eight Years in Japan, 1873–1881 (1883); Major Henry Knollys, Sketches of Life in Japan (1887); Hon. Lewis [Strange] Wingfield, Wanderings of a Globe-Trotter in the Far East (1889)
Volume 5: The Middle East
Richard Robert Madden, Travels in Turkey, Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, in 1824, 1825, 1826, and 1827 (1833); Julia Pardoe, The City of the Sultan, and, Domestic Manners of the Turks in 1836 (1837); Josias Leslie Porter, Five Years in Damascus: Including an Account of the History, Topography, and Antiquities of that City; with Travels and Researches in Palmyra, Lebanon, and the Hauran (1855); David Urquhart, The Lebanon: (Mount Souria) A History and a Diary (1860); William Hepworth Dixon, The Holy Land (1865); William Gifford Palgrave, Narrative of a Year’s Journey Through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862–1863) (1865); Henry Baker Tristram, The Land of Israel: A Journal of Travels in Palestine, Undertaken with Special Reference to its Physical Character (1865); Augustus Henry Mounsey, A Journey Through the Caucasus and the Interior of Persia (1872); Isabel Burton, The Inner Life of Syria, Palestine, and the Holy Land: From my Private Journal (1875); Laurence Oliphant, The Land of Gilead with Excursions in the Lebanon (1880); Mary Esmé Scott-Stevenson, Our Ride Through Asia Minor (1881); David G. Hogarth, A Wandering Scholar in the Levant (1896); Mrs W. M. Ramsay, Everyday Life in Turkey (1897); H. Rider Haggard, A Winter Pilgrimage Being an Account of Travels through Palestine, Italy and the Island of Cyprus, Accomplished in the year 1900 (1901)
Volume 6: The South Seas and Australia
John Williams, A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands; with Remarks on the Natural History of the Islands, Origin, Languages, Traditions and Usages of the Inhabitants (1838); Robert FitzRoy, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836, describing the Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle’s Circumnavigation of the Globe (1839); John Lort Stokes, Discoveries in Australia; With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers explored and surveyed during the Voyage of H.M.S Beagle, in the Years 1837–38–39–40–41–42–43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley’s Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea (1846); Charles Sturt, Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia Performed under the Authority of Her Majesties Government during the Years 1844, 5, and 6: Together with a Notice of the Province of South Australia in 1847 (1849); Mary Wallis, Life in Feejee, or, Five Years among the Cannibals, by a Lady (1851); John MacGillivray, Narrative of the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake, commanded by the late Owen Stanley, R.N., FRS &c. during the Years 1846–1850 (1852); John Elphinstone Erskine, Journal of a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific, including the Feejees and others inhabited by the Polynesian Negro Races, in Her Majesty’s Ship Havannah (1853); Thomas Williams, Fiji and the Fijians: The Islands and their Inhabitants (1858); Constance Frederica Gordon Cumming, A Lady’s Cruise in a French Man-of-War (1882); Julian Thomas [pseudonym of Stanley James], Cannibals and Convicts: Notes on Personal Experiences in the Western Pacific (1886); Charles Morris Woodford, A Naturalist Among the Head-Hunters (1890); William Wyatt Gill, From Darkness to Light in Polynesia, with Illustrative Clan Songs (1894); A. C. Haddon, Head-Hunters: Black, White and Brown (1901)
Volume 7: Africa
Mansfield Parkyns, Life in Abyssinia: Being Notes Collected during Three Years’ Residence and Travels in that Country (1853); David Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa; including a Sketch of Sixteen Years’ Residence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast; thence across the Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean (1857); William Charles Baldwin, African Hunting, from Natal to the Zambesi: including Lake Ngami, the Kalahari Desert, etc., from 1852 to 1860 (1863); John Hanning Speke, Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863); Richard F. Burton, A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome, [1864] (1893); Henry M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone. Travels, Adventures, and Discoveries in Central Africa; including Four Months’ Residence with Dr. Livingstone (1872); Anna Hinderer, Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country: Memorials of Anna Hinderer, wife of the Rev. David Hinderer, C.M.S. missionary in Western Africa (1872); Verney Lovett Cameron, Across Africa (1877); Amelia B. Edwards, A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877); Annie B. Hore, To Lake Tanganyika in a Bath Chair (1886); Henry M. Stanley, In Darkest Africa or the Quest Rescue, and Retreat of Emin Governor of Equatoria (1890); James Sligo Jameson, The Story of The Rear Column of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition by the Late James S. Jameson, Naturalist to the Expedition (1890); Herbert Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals (1890); Helen Caddick, A White Woman in Central Africa (1900)
Volume 8: South America
S. S. Hill, Travels in Peru and Mexico (1860); Charles Daniel Dance, Recollection of Four Years in Venezuela (1876); Henry W. Bates, The Naturalist on the River Amazons (1863); Frederick A. Ober, Camps in the Caribbees. The Adventures of a Naturalist in the Lesser Antilles (1880); Charles Barrington-Brown, Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana (1877); Henry Kirke, Twenty-five Years in British Guiana (1898); Richard F. Burton, Explorations of the Highlands of the Brazil: with an Account of the Gold and Diamond Mines (1869); Louis Agassiz, A Journey in Brazil by Professor and Mrs. Louis Agassiz (1868)
Reviews
'Kitson ... does a service to researchers by bringing together some important primary sources and contextualising them clearly and thoroughly.'
– Elizabeth Lane, Studies in Travel Writing
'Together, these four volumes unfold an impressive panorama of British travel activities in the seven decades before the outbreak of World War I. These travels and the men and women who performed them were diverse, and yet their texts also reveal a shared value and knowledge system of the imperial age. This is accordingly a series which deserves its place in academic libraries not only as documentation of the history of travel, but also for its more general relevance in the field of British cultural studies.'
– Barbara Korte, Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik