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Literature in English, British Isles English Language and Literature

2000

Caught between Worlds: British Captivity Narratives in Fact and

Fiction
Joe Snader
Lincoln University

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CAUGHT BETWEEN WoRLDS
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 AUGHT
BE'IWEEN
ORLDS
British Captivity Narratives
in Fact and Fiction

Joe Snader

THE UNMRSITI PruESS OJF KENTUCKY

Publication of this volume was made possible in part
by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Copyright© 2000 by The University Press of Kentucky

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Club Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky

663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008

04 03 02 01 00 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Snader, Joe, 1964-

Caught between worlds : British captivity narratives in fact and fiction I
Joe Snader.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8131-2164-7 (alk. paper)
l. English prose literature-18th century-History and criticism.
2. English prose literature-Early modern, 1500-1700-History and criti-
cism. 3. English fiction-18th century-History and criticism. 4. Captivity
narratives-Great Britain. 5. American literature-English influences.
6. Narration (Rhetoric). I. Title

PR769.S64 2000
828' .50809355-dc21 99-089786

This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting

the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

For Fran, with love and thanks
This page intentionally left blank
Contents

List of Illustrations viii

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1

Part 1: Narratives of Fact

1. Travel, Travail, and the British Captivity Tradition 13
2. The Captive as Hero 62
3. The Perils and the Powers of Cultural Conversion 94

Part 2: Narratives of Fiction

4. Mastering Captivity 127
5. Resisting Americans in British Novels of American
Captivity 172
6. Utopian Captivities and other "African" Paradoxes 224
Conclusion 270
Notes 291
Primary Bibliography 308
Secondary Bibliography 320
Index 329
Illustrations

Frontispiece to Okeley's Eben-ezer 36

Captain Robert Knox 45
Illustrations from Rare and Most VVonderfull Things 54
Torture scene from The Sufferings ofJohn Coustos 77
"Execution by an Elephant" 78
Robert Drury as a child captive 118
Robert Drury as a Malagasy 119
Frontispiece to Aubin's The N able Slaves 154
Frontispiece to Chetwood's Richard Falconer... 185
Frontispiece to Chetwood' s Robert Boyle 241
Acknowledgments

I owe a debt of gratitude first to Vin Carretta, Paula McDowell, and Sue
Lanser. The three made for an intriguing combination of divergent perspec-
tives and constructive advice. Also important were the helpful and encouraging
contributions of Cal Winton and James F. Brooks. The feedback, insights, and
suggestions of Sharon Groves, Eliza Child, and Nancy Shevlin in the early
stages of this project helped form some of the deep bedrock within these
chapters. An important moment in the evolution of this project was Laura
Brown's positive and useful response to the earlier version of chapter 4 that
appeared in Eighteenth-Century Fiction. Copy editor Noel Kinnamon
worked hard and well on converting the notes to fit the chronological
bibliography; for this and his other contributions to the project I am grateful.
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction

The early modem era witnessed the birth, flowering, and metamorphosis
of many Western literary genres. Among these is one that literary scholars
have called the captivity narrative, the text devoted extensively or exclu-
sively to documenting a real experience of subjugation in a foreign land.
Today, however, we do not think of the captivity narrative as an early mod-
em genre, but rather as an American one, largely because literary scholars
have defined the captivity genre in terms of Anglo-American captives and
Native American captors. But the captivity narrative, like the novel or the
encyclopedia, is a genre whose roots stretch back to the European Middle
Ages, and whose initial flowering belongs to the early modem vernacular
press.
The captivity narrative became a significant, popular, vernacular genre
when European cultures began to explore the rest of the world with an eye
to exploiting it. Texts documenting the experiences of British captives held
by Native Americans formed one important strand within a larger
Anglophone tradition of captivity narratives that began with the earliest
British ventures into alien seas, during the late sixteenth century. Through-
out the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British press witnessed
texts documenting personal experiences of captivity in a variety of lands,
from America to Malaysia, from southern Africa to the steppes of Russia.
During that era, as the British built two overseas empires and lost one of
them, the English captivity narrative became increasingly long, increas-
ingly complex, and increasingly ambitious in its claim to document the dif-
2 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

ferences between allegedly modem and allegedly uncivilized peoples. As

the British narrative tradition reveals, the captivity genre, far from belong-
ing to any particular nation of origin, grew out of the tensions surrounding
several early modem historical developments of global significance: not only
the expansion of European colonialism and trade, but also the rise ofliberal
individualism and the elaboration of the self-consciously modem intellec-
tual systems of enlightenment. The evolution and variety of this narrative
tradition are the focus of this book.
Literary scholarship has often investigated the captivity genre, but it has
done so through an exclusive focus on American material. Centered espe-
cially on printings from the New England colonies and the fledgling United
States, this scholarship has nearly always defined the captivity narrative as a
genre whose unique origins were coeval with the supposedly unique origins
of Anglo-American culture. In assessing the genre's relationship to Britain,
and to the world more generally, scholars have imagined the export of an
indigenous American product to an avid Old World readership, the sale within
an international literary marketplace of a genre expressing a uniquely Ameri-
can experience or consciousness. In the introduction to a prominent anthol-
ogy of captivity texts, for example, Alden T. Vaughan and Edward W. Clark
have described the captivity narrative as "one of America's oldest literary
genres and its most unique," even while acknowledging that the earliest cap-
tivity texts with American settings first appeared in European presses. 1 This
is a position fostered by generations of American scholarship, especially as it
has traced a foundational moment in the genre's emergence to the first ex-
tensive English narrative unified by an experience of captivity among Native
Americans: Mary Rowlandson's Soveraignty & Goodness of God (1682). 2
Under the force of Rowlandson's impressive example, one prominent pat-
tern of critical interpretation has defined the genre in terms of a single nar-
rative formula, built around several key events and characters: a Native
American attack on a frontier settlement, the forced journey and consequent
introspection of an isolated captive (most often a female), a faceless mass of
alien captors, and a return to Anglo-American civilization. According to an-
other prominent pattern of critical interpretation, the captivity narrative fur-
nished uniquely American material for the development of the American
novel, especially as represented in the fiction of James Fenimore Cooper,
with its myth of cross-cultural brotherhood.
Although scholars have undertaken extensive studies of the American
captivity genre, they have not recognized the worldwide scope of British
captivity narratives, their place in the English literary tradition, or their im-
pact on their American successors. Nor have scholars recognized the extent
 Introduction 3

to which early British fiction adapted the material of captivity or the varied
contribution of the British captivity tradition to the generic evolution of the
English novel as a whole. Long before Rowlandson, the British press pro-
.duced extensive, factual, separately published narratives that were unified
by the theme of captivity under a foreign people. Long before Cooper, Brit-
ish novelists adapted and transformed captivity narratives from across the
world, developing a broad array of imagined encounters between British
characters and various dangerous, exotic, and putatively inferior peoples.
Far from a genre that we can define in terms of any geographical limit,
the captivity narrative was an adaptable, expansive genre. Initially the genre
expanded by exporting a set of plots and stereotypes that were born in Medi-
terranean power struggles to a global range of settings. In terms of geographic
distribution, the earliest and most significant predecessor for the American
setting was the "Orient."3 Like other early modern forms of Western writing
about Eastern lands, the English captivity tradition tended to handle a vari-
ety of locations and cultures with the aggressive rhetoric that Edward Said
has called "Orientalism."4 Many early British captivity narratives portrayed
North Africa, the Middle East, or southern Asia through astandard set of
rhetorical strategies and cultural stereotypes that grew from centuries of re-
ligious strife and expanded with Europe's early modern military ascendancy.
Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as my first two chap-
ters will show, these strategies and stereotypes migrated from captivity nar-
ratives set in the Mediterranean to captivity narratives with more easterly,
southerly, and westerly settings, including America. For a little-known set-
ting such as Ceylon or Madagascar, a singular narrative could exert an enor-
mous influence on the scholarship and imagination of Britons at home. Often
the captivity narrative's rhetorical appeal lay in its promise of unmediated
access to cultures outside the usual run of Western knowledge, but it tended
to treat such cultures according to a common set of expectations about for-
eigners.
In addition to portraying captivity among non-Western peoples, many
early modern narratives portrayed British captives confined by other Euro-
peans. Several narratives portrayed captives held in colonial environments
by competing European powers. Others portrayed British prisoners of the
various Catholic courts of Inquisition. Still others portrayed the experiences
of British captives detained by their fellow Britons. One important line of
development for this type of narrative was the Protestant martyrology, a nar-
rative form that itself drew heavily from the ancient genre of the saint's life.
The most important English martyrology, John Foxe's Actes and Monuments
(1563), took the form of an extended catalogue, detailing the individuated
4 CAUGHT BETWEEN WoRLDS

experiences of various Christian martyrs, beginning with the early history of

the church, and concentrating especially on Protestant victims of their fel-
low Englishmen in the reign of Mary. A more secular subgenre document-
ing the experiences of Britons captured by Britons arose during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when several texts adopted the per-
sonal voices of American indentured servants, the "white slaves" who formed
the bedrock of colonial American labor before their replacement by black
Africans. 5 All of these varied strands in the captivity tradition relied on the
same literary and ideological formulae as British narratives of non-Western
captivity; all portrayed the world outside the modem British isles as perme-
ated with subjugation, tyranny, debasement, and transgression.
That this variety of settings and captors exceeds the concept of an "Ameri-
can captivity narrative" is the basis of my title phrase, "British Captivity N ar-
ratives." For this study I have chosen to concentrate on texts published initially
in the British isles (primarily in London) and organized around the experi-
ence of captivity among a foreign people. Thus my title applies not to texts
recording experiences of captivity in the British isles, but rather to texts por-
traying foreign captivity from a metropolitan perspective. I apply the term
"British" to texts published well before the 1707 creation of"Great Britain,"
not because I want to emphasize the place of Irish and Scottish publishing in
the creation of the captivity genre, but because I want to emphasize the
metropolitan perspective of a tradition that first blossomed in London, as
opposed to the creole perspective of the American colonists. The protago-
nists of these London-based texts returned to Britain after their foreign ex-
periences, received help from British editors who never saw the lands of
captivity, and addressed the metropolitan audience of Britain rather than an
audience of colonial settlers. My choice of title is guided by both clarity and
polemic, since I want to assert the temporal and indeed the logical priority of
the British tradition over the American in order to examine how the former
influenced the latter as well as the points of divergence between them.
In its range of themes, character types, and rhetorical modes, the British
captivity tradition greatly outstrips the abjection and religiosity that scholars
have often placed at the heart of the American captivity genre. Whatever its
setting, whether New England or Morocco, Ceylon or Madagascar, the cap-
tivity narrative was never simply a record of imprisonment. Instead of allow-
ing British captives to waste in dungeons, foreign cultures made them into
household servants, family members, gang laborers, or sometimes even gov-
ernment functionaries. As a result of this immersion in a foreign culture, the
captive often gained, and certainly claimed, a more intimate experience of
 Introduction 5

the foreign than would a mere jailbird. A captivity narrative would carefully
document the abject yet intimate experiences of an isolated European cap-
tive and organize these experiences as evidence for the full ethnographic
truth about the alien culture of the captors, and about the nature of any
cultural interaction on the newly opened global stage. Much of this docu-
mentation worked to define non-Western peoples as by nature given to des-
potism and slavery, while the captive's struggle to escape often defined an
inborn liberty within the British people. As British thinkers codified theories
of natural rights and the liberal state during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, the captivity narrative offered a vehicle for imagining such theo-
ries in less abstruse and less incendiary terms. The libertarian individualism
of the captive's struggle, furthermore, often seemed to produce concrete
economic results. In many a captivity narrative, the isolated protagonist
emerged as a man of science, an entrepreneur, or an agent of colonial expan-
sion, a figure of self-consciously modern rationalism whose intellectual skills
could turn the abject experiences of foreign captivity to positive account. On
the other hand, the captive's heroic potential often seemed to depend on an
ability to immerse himself within the alien culture that detained him. In
many a narrative, captivity provided a means of exploring both the allures
and the perils of culture-crossing, a means of raising and finally rejecting the
possibility that captives or other European travelers might abandon civility
and redefine themselves within the terms of alien cultures.
The captivity genre's truth claims, heroic paradigms, and cultural ten-
sions became even more complex as metropolitan authors began to fictional-
ize them. Within the early modern British press, the captivity narrative
emerged as a "factual" genre because its authors employed a marked rheto-
ric of historicity and empirical evidence typical of the era's rapidly changing
notions of truthfulness. But even the earliest British examples of the "fac-
tual" captivity narrative also revealed a marked tendency towards fictional
embellishment. On the other hand, British writers began to introduce epi-
sodes of foreign captivity into fictional texts as early as 1665. In the eigh-
teenth century, British authors created a substantial tradition of fictional
captivity narratives, texts that mixed the narrative patterns and imagery of
the factual accounts with fictional protagonists and plot lines. Experimenta-
tion with fictional captivity narratives was especially prominent in the 1720s,
a crucial decade for the development of the English novel. Throughout a
century when 13ritish readers turned first to travel narratives and then also to
novels on an unprecedented scale, the specialized subgenre of the captivity
narrative was an important conduit for the expansion of both these larger
6 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

genres. Thus the connection between factual and fictional versions of the
captivity experience is much clearer and richer in the British context than in
the American.
Based on the transition from factual to fictional captivity narratives, my
study argues that the experience of captivity among an allegedly savage or
barbarous people posed a fundamental challenge to British concepts of their
own national liberty, character, and civility. Captivity was a colonial experi-
ence that demanded imaginative revision from Britons at home. One re-
sponse to this demand was to intensify the captivity narrative's potential as
an allegory of freedom, to make the captive into a figure of natural liberty
and social oppression in a manner that remains central to Western popular
narrative. At the same time, fictional versions of the captivity experience
provided a means for eighteenth-century Britons to question and even criti-
cize their rapidly changing relationships with the peoples of the non-Euro-
pean world. While some novels imagined captivity as a crucible for the
development of a spectacularly successful colonial heroism, others imagined
captivity as a sign of the potential dangers, failures, and iniquities of the
colonial project.
In order to analyze the transition from factual to fictional captivity nar-
ratives, my study adopts a two-part structure, with the first part devoting
three chapters to the factual accounts, and the second part devoting three
chapters to the fictions. Chapter 1 follows the emergence of the captivity
narrative's generic identity within the London press, tracing the develop-
ment of varied rhetorical modes for shaping the captivity experience at an
aggregate level, the level of titles and organizational patterns. Rather than
base the captivity narrative's identity in a foundational text or ideal of generic
perfection, this chapter considers the generic flux and epistemological con-
flicts that resulted as former captives and their editors mixed a set of variable
appropriations from other genres. The chapter focuses especially on the cap-
tivity narrative's struggle to incorporate two conflicting Western impulses,
the first to render personality in terms of abjection, endurance, and salva-
tion, and the second to develop intellectual schema capable of mastering
through representation the exotic features of any alien culture. These two
divergent impulses led to two incongruous rhetorical modes: the travail nar-
rative, which organizes an individual traveler's experiences as a sequence of
abjections, and the ethnographic travel description, which organizes the
traveler's observations into a seemingly timeless and impersonal register of
an alien space. As my first chapter argues, the captivity experience furnished
particularly useful but also particularly troubling and unstable material for
both these narrative patterns.
 Introduction 7

Whereas my first chapter considers the captivity narrative's rhetorical

structures at an aggregate level, my second more closely analyzes the con-
tent of the local images and events organized within these structures. As
Britain gained a wider place on the colonial stage, the captivity genre experi-
mented with a broad and malleable range of methods for representing inter-
actions between captive selves and ruling others. Often the situation of
captivity was transformed into an agonistic drama of colonial struggle, and at
one level the genre might seem to rest inevitably with an opposition be-
tween the captive as isolated Western individualist and the captors as repre-
sentatives of an amorphous, alien, all-encompassing horde. As my second
chapter reveals, a narrative might celebrate a captive's insular resistance to
forced proselytism, his transformation into an agent of colonial revenge, or
her successful mastery of an alien economy. But many of the captive's heroic
behaviors involve some level of participation in an alien culture, and my third
chapter turns to a variety of discursive tensions that arise as captives portray
their willing or unwilling accommodation within allegedly inferior cultures.
The chapter analyzes these tensions primarily through an extensive reading
of the narratives of Robert Drury and Thomas Pellow, two of the longest and
strangest captivity narratives in the English language. Because these cap-
tives spent decades among their captors and attained positions of respect
within alien cultures, their narratives throw into particularly sharp relief the
captivity genre's inherent tensions between general and particular accounts
of experience, between abjection and liberation, between ethnographic ag-
gression and cultural accommodation.
After my first part analyzes tensions within the scientific, individualistic,
and colonial ideology of the factual captivity genre, my second part shows
how British fictional adaptations sometimes intensified and sometimes dis-
rupted this ideology as they reimagined the captivity experience, linking it to
new locations, cultures, and captors, and subjoining episodes of captivity to
larger structures of novelistic plotting and social commentary. The second
part follows a geographical as well as a thematic plan of organization, so that
each chapter concentrates on a particular setting, either the "Orient," America,
or sub-Saharan Africa. Each chapter briefly identifies the distinctive fea-
tures of the factual narratives associated with one of these settings before
moving into a fuller account of the fictional narratives that either adapted or
resisted those features. For each setting a dominant fictional structure
emerged in relation to the dominant mode of British colonial practice in that
area. For narratives set in the "Orient," the dominant fictional structure in-
tensified the patterns of plotting and heroism evident in the factual tradi-
tion, while for America and sub-Saharan Africa, the dominant fictional
8 CAUGHT BE1WEEN WoRLDS

structure repressed or criticized the ideological implications of the factual

tradition. As I show in chapter 4, "Mastering Captivity," an aggressively
handled "Orient" furnished the setting for the first and most popular wave of
fictional captivity narratives in English literature, which crested in the 1720s
with novels by Penelope Aubin, William Rufus Chetwood, and Eliza
Haywood. The first two of these authors produced highly popular male and
female versions of self-reliant, adventurous protagonists, who endure sla-
very in various Middle Eastern lands but then master them mentally, physi-
cally, and economically, so that captivity seems to provide an apprenticeship
for colonial heroism. In a sharp riposte to this approach, Haywood offered
several captivity episodes that reversed her precursors' colonial and sexual
ideologies.
My final two chapters tum to novels that further departed from the he-
roic individualism celebrated within the works of Aubin and Chetwood. Af-
ter the 1720s British captivity fictions almost always concentrated on the
figure of a captive male rather than a captive female, and they depicted him
not as a masterful proto-colonist but rather as a passive victim. These fic-
tions, furthermore, often clothed the captive male in a language of emotive
sensibility, so that he appeared a man at odds with an aggression that seemed
endemic to the colonial landscape, affecting both British colonists and colo-
nized males. This narrative pattern became especially pronounced within
the novels that form the basis of chapter 5, "Resisting Americans." There I
consider the dominant mode of representing American captivity in British
fiction, in novels by such authors as Charlotte Lennox, Henry Mackenzie,
and Charlotte Smith. Each of these novels includes an episode that begins
by invoking the stereotypical terrors of the factual American tradition but
quickly displaces such terrors by focusing on the Native American custom of
adopting captives as tribal or family members. From the 1720s to the 1790s,
these novels persisted in representing both the failure of Amerindian efforts
in cultural conversion and the failure of the adventurous Briton in America.
I interpret this emphasis as an ambiguous metropolitan opposition to the
colonial project in America, based primarily on fear that the seemingly en-
demic aggression of the American landscape would transform sensitive Brit-
ish males so that they resembled the land's natives. Although sometimes these
novels granted subjective depth to the colonized, they concentrated more
thoroughly on recommending British withdrawal from what they represented
as a debasing outside world. Through this character and plot structure, eigh-
teenth-century British novelists produced a myth of American cultural inter-
action that represents nearly a direct opposite to Cooper's influential American
myth of cross-cultural brotherhood.
 Introduction 9

Of all the varied metropolitan responses to the material of captivity, the

most paradoxical occurred in three novels that mix African captivity and uto-
pia, by Simon Berington, Robert Paltock, and George Cumberland. My sixth
chapter, "Utopian Captivities," investigates how the widely divergent mix-
tures of captivity and utopia developed in these works produce widely diver-
gent visions of the interaction between Enlightenment and non-European
cultures. Each novel includes an early episode of African captivity that leads
to a European protagonist's discovery or formation of a perfect polity. Each
novel, moreover, frames this narrative structure through a rhetoric of para-
dox, treating captivity as a metonym for a personal discipline of self-restraint
that enables psychological and political perfection. But if these novels cel-
ebrate similar versions of the personal enlightenment conferred by captivity,
they develop very different visions of the relationship between enlighten-
ment and colonialism. Paltock's protagonist uses what his novel represents as
African ideals in order to build an idealized colony on a fictional south seas
island, involving a total material and intellectual transformation of the colo-
nized to British cultural ideals. The other two works set enlightened utopias
south of the Sahara in order to develop a critique of British culture and
politics that extends even to the point of imagining an "African" colonial
project in Europe. In each case the satiric theme of an African influence on
European culture extends a broader paradoxical potential that is always in-
herent in the captivity plot.
This intensive experimentation within British fictions of colonial captiv-
ity reflects not only the varied settings and approaches of British colonialism
nor only the various attitudes of metropolitan Britons to the activities of their
colonial counterparts. The variation within British captivity fictions also rep-
resents an imaginative outgrowth of the unstable, contradictory, and hybrid
character of the factual captivity genre. For the captivity narrative was a genre
that based its protagonist's status as author and hero on an experience of
alienation and abjection, and it reinforced the captive's unstable authority
through an aggressive, and somewhat chaotic, assimilation of materials from
other genres. We can gain a better understanding of the captivity genre's
flexibility, ambiguity, and ideological impact by moving beyond restrictive
definitions built on notions of American experience and identity, by tracing
the British captivity tradition through all of its settings and back to its earliest
single-text exemplars, and by exploring the rhetorical and ideological varia-
tion that marks the genre from its inception. Through this broader focus, we
can develop a more effective analysis of the fundamental tensions within the
captivity genre, produced as their authors tried to harness a particularized
experience of abjection for ethnographic and nationalist purposes. As these
10 CAUGHT BETWEEN WoRLDS

tensions reveal, the captivity narrative is more properly conceived as a genre

that belongs to the troubled emergence of a particular political disposition,
liberal individualism, and a particular intellectual disposition, philosophical
modernism, than as a genre that belongs to any particular nation of origin.
For British readers and writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
the captive provided an early and vivid model for the modem individual,
freely born yet self-actualizing, subject to an alien-seeming society and per-
haps made abject by it, yet capable of mastering its complexities through the
modem intellectual schema of science, and capable of turning an alienated
experience of cultural abjection to personal and national triumph.
PART I

Narratives of Fact
This page intentionally left blank
ONE

Travel, Travail, and the

British Captivity Tradition

In 1567, according to the narrative that bears his name, Job Hortop's quiet
life as a powder maker ended when English seamen pressed him to join
what would later become known as one of the great Elizabethan voyages of
trade and plunder, led by John Hawkins and Francis Drake. The 1590 text
that records Hortop's experiences follows the voyage from Africa to America,
as the Englishmen weather storms, seize the ships of other European pow-
ers, pursue trade and slavery in Africa, and finally raid some strongholds on
the Spanish main. But this account of English glory comes to an end when a
difficult battle isolates Hawkins's ship and leaves the crew hungry, forcing
him to strand Hortop and nearly one hundred other volunteers on the Mexi-
can shore. After a brief, violent encounter with some Amerindians, the
stranded Englishmen reach a Spanish settlement, where they receive food
and lodging but are later forced "to carde wooll among the Indian slaves,
which drudgery [they] disdained, and concluded to beat [their] maisters." 1
Thus begins for Hortop a series of subjugations, accommodations, and re-
bellions among a variety of Spanish authorities. First he spends two years in
a Mexican prison. Then, on a transport ship back to Europe, he briefly in-
spires the captain's favor before an escape attempt lands him in the stock-
ades. In Seville he spends one year in prison before escaping, but after
recapture he spends another year moldering in an inquisitorial prison, then
twelve years rowing a Spanish galley, and finally four years wearing a "cote
with S. Andrews crosse" in the "everlasting prison remedilesse" (28-30). He
eludes this final pit of extreme degradation through three years' service as a
14 NARRATIVES OF FACT

"drudge" for a Spanish official, and the increased liberty of this service en-
ables him to sneak aboard a Dutch ship and return home to England.
This highly varied and highly ambiguous text foregrounds a number of
important problems affecting our recognition of the first English captivity
narratives. The most obvious problem is that scholars have sometimes erro-
neously identified this text as the first account of an Englishman in Ameri-
can captivity, apparently through an interpretive inflation of what Hortop
describes as the crew's "robbery" at the hands of native Mexicans. 2 If the
dedication intimates that Hortop and the other volunteers "were constrained
to be set on shore ... amongst the wilde Indians" (A2r), the text makes clear
that the force behind this constraint was not the Indians, but the ship's empty
larder and Hawkins's decision to abandon his men. Although the natives kill
some of the stranded Englishmen and steal their clothing, this narrative se-
quence includes no details or even intimations of forced detention. Far from
capturing the Englishmen, the natives give them directions to the nearest
Spanish settlement. Once the Englishmen meet the Spanish, however, Hortop
documents his experience as an extended captivity narrative, a sequence of
events dominated by images of bodily suffering, occasional instances of com-
fort or accommodation, and constant efforts to escape. His experiences in a
variety of Spanish prisons include many motifs that will later stand as hall-
marks of the captivity narrative, whether British or American. He must resist
efforts in proselytism, endure the humiliating ritual of an inquisitorial auto
da fe, and suffer the rigors of forced labor in what Europeans regarded as
one of its most terrible instances, rowing a galley. This portion of his narra-
tive pays especially close attention to details of close quarters, poor clothing
and bedding, "hunger, thirst, cold, and stripes" (29). Contact with the Span-
ish, far more readily than contact with Native Americans, furnished the ma-
terial of the captivity narrative at this early stage of its development.
But if the label of captivity narrative seems appropriate for some por-
tions of Hortop's work, the text as a whole is framed according to very differ-
ent generic formulae, those of the travail narrative. Typical of much travel
writing in the early modem period, but especially important in popular chap-
books such as the Hortop narrative, these formulae sit somewhere between
our modem conceptions of the separate genres of travel narrative and cap-
tivity narrative. Both the generic imprint and the generic ambiguity of the
travail narrative are evident in Hortop's title: The Trauailes of an English
Man, Containing His Svndrie Calamities Indured by the Space of Twentie
and Odd Yeres in His Absence from His Natiue Countrie; Wherein Is Truly
Decyphered the Sundrie Shapes ofWilde Beasts, Birds, Fishes, Paules, Rootes,
Plants, &C. With the Description of a Man That Appeared in the Sea, and
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 15

Also of a Huge Giant Brought from China to the King of Spaine. As the
primary generic signal, the word "travail" carried a double meaning, sug-
gesting both the painful labor and the curious adventure of journeys far from
home. The word neatly encapsulates the tension that lies at the heart of this
particular narrative, as it simultaneously promotes national pride and com-
miseration in the traveler's experiences. On the one hand, in keeping with
the title's promises, the text includes much detailed description of alien flora,
fauna, and cultural items within its autobiographical framework. To the eyes
of twentieth-century readers, these descriptions range from the familiar to
the fanciful, from plantains to sea monsters. Advertising itself partially on
the basis of such curiosities, organized as autobiographical proof that an En-
glishman had experienced them, and set within the context of English mari-
time expansion, the text promotes national pride in the experiential capacities
of a single English seaman.
But within this narrative, as in the "travail" narrative more generally, the
explicit appeal and implicit pride of the traveler's experience extend from his
discoveries to his tribulations. Hortop opens his narrative by framing his ex-
periences as proof of the fallen, miserable state of humanity, "that man beeing
borne of a woman, living but a short time, is replenished with many miser-
ies," a theological position that he learned to accept "by experience in myselfe,
as this present Treatise insuing shall shew" (A3r). Illustrating this proposi-
tion throughout this tersely phrased narrative, Hortop's positivist identifica-
tions of charming curiosities alternate with positivist descriptions of abjection
and confinement. Within a single sentence, for example, he describes two
years of imprisonment in Mexico and a giant skeleton sent as a gift from
China to Spain (23). If the text introduces the wonders observed by Hortop
rather haphazardly within its loose autobiographical structure, it turns to
more formal documentary strategies in treating his imprisonments. His nar-
rative closes with a schematic "Computation of my imprisonment," a chart
tallying the years he spent in various prisons (30-31). Hortop's text thus seeks
a high ranking in the scale of travail literature by formalizing its narrative
"account" of an overwhelmingly lengthy and far-flung series of captive "tra-
vails." Within this tally of imprisonments, Hortop's encounter with the Native
Americans does merit inclusion, but only under the heading of"robbery." Even
so, the radically inclusive drive of the travail narrative easily assimilates a vio~
lent encounter with Native Americans amidst its vision of global misfortunes
and curiosities. The English narrative of American captivity, to the extent that
it can be described as a separate genre at all, initially emerges as a curious
addition within a narrative system focused on Mediterranean travails.
As the Hortop narrative reveals in a particularly telling manner, the quest
16 NARRATIVES OF FACT

for a uniquely American captivity narrative has led scholars to obscure the
global range of settings evident within the earliest British captivity narra-
tives. But the Hortop narrative is also important for highlighting other im-
portant features of the captivity narrative that scholarship on the American
tradition has tended to obscure, most notably the genre's wide-ranging mix-
ture of rhetorical conventions. On the rare occasions when scholars have
discussed accounts of captivity published primarily or exclusively in Britain,
they have tended to assimilate such material to what is often described as a
fundamental structural unity within the American genre, typified by such
famous accounts as Mary Rowlandson's. In order to reverse this tendency,
the current and following chapters focus on the fundamental variety of the
previously established British tradition, interpreting the American material
as a branch, rather than the central root, within this tradition. Part of this
effort involves locating the captivity narrative's roots in generic features, such
as titling conventions, that were originally established in the British press.
Instead of replacing an American unity with a British one, these chapters
will locate the genre's roots in a broad range of rhetorical strategies for nego-
tiating an oppositional experience in any foreign land. Thus these chapters
will resist the notion of an American captivity genre not only by turning to
captivity narratives set in a broader geographical context, but also by arguing
that this context calls for a more flexible definition of the captivity genre. As
we shall see, the genre's varied rhetorical strategies often mingled in uneasy
juxtaposition rather than in perfect harmony. At bottom, the captivity narra-
tive incorporated a number of discursive conflicts reflecting its involvement
in several large-scale, gradual, discordant transformations in the early mod-
em intellectual climate, including the rise of liberal individualism, the cre-
ation of a scientific ethnography, and Western Europe's increased intervention
into the affairs of foreign peoples. As the current chapter will show, the most
important of these conflicts involved a mismatch between the captive's per-
sonal narration of abject experience and his intellectual mastery of an alien
culture.
The captivity genre places a premium on empirical inclusiveness, on
capturing a broad range of experience, everything that the captive can re-
member, everything he or she witnessed or heard reported from other cap-
tives, and further, on shaping that material as the full truth about an alien,
allegedly archaic people. From the late medieval period through the eigh-
teenth century, captivity narratives provided increasingly detailed and influ-
ential sources for Western knowledge of alien cultures. From the late sixteenth
to the early eighteenth century, with the steady expansion of British colonial-
ism, captivity narratives attained a prominent place in English writing on the
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 17

foreign. Such narratives offer a crucial point for understanding enlighten-

ment strategies of representing the allegedly savage on the eve of their sys-
tematic implementation within the burgeoning science of anthropology. Many
of these narratives employed the lists, hierarchies, and other discursive schema
of travel description, and these schema enabled the development of detailed
portraits of alien cultures as tyrannical, barbaric, and superstitious foils for
the modernity of Western civilization.
In these early efforts to develop systematic forms of cultural description
and evaluation, however, British captivity narratives ultimately prove far more
ambivalent than systematic, revealing fundamental instabilities within en-
lightenment strategies for documenting the alien. Published from the early
years of British expansion, such narratives offer an early and particularly vivid
register of the fundamental conflicts of articulation and authority that Homi
K. Bhabha has associated with colonialist discourse in general. 3 The captivity
genre's most basic epistemological conflict stems from its claim to mount a
generalized cultural description on the experience of a single captive. Even
if a captive does not explicitly undermine this epistemological equation by
suggesting that his experience ran counter to the ethnographic norm, the
extreme violence and strangeness of the captivity experience tends to weaken
its potential for dispassionate empiricism. Within the advertising and pre-
sentational frameworks of titles and prefatory material, captivity narratives
often stress the uniqueness of the captive's experience and its general ethno-
graphic utility in the same breath. As a result of such conflicts, many narra-
tives resort to complex mechanisms of extratextual authority, such as
certifications of the captive's truthfulness, carefully documented editorial
frameworks, and citations of parallel reports from competing ethnographic
accounts.
Including reports from other witnesses forms one element within a
broader pattern of restless inclusiveness that marks the captivity narrative's
anxious struggles for sales and cultural authority. If we examine captivity
narratives set across the globe, the genre reveals both the multiple generic
borrowings and the multiple narrative voices that Bakhtin has associated with
the novel. As a recent overview of the American narratives has acknowl-
edged, "more often than not the individual captivity narrative constitutes an
amalgamation of voices and input, each with its own agenda and design."4
Even more extravagantly inclusive than the American texts, English narra-
tives set in other locations often tum to the generic formulae of the sea jour-
nal, the spiritual autobiography, political history, and even, in one case, the
picaresque novel. Although some texts rely on first-person narration exclu-
sively, others tum to omnibus narrative structures incorporating multiple
18 NARRATIVES OF FACT

autobiographical voices, plural first-person voices, and shifts between first-

and third-person narration. The captivity genre's claims to ethnographic truth
thus sit within an uneasy juxtaposition of multiple voices and multiple dis-
cursive modes, which blur the boundaries between fact and fiction, and be-
tween general and personal accounts of experience.

In tracing the formal outlines and naming conventions of the captivity genre,
we must begin with texts produced before the expansion of European colo-
nial power, even before Columbus's journey to America. Before the
westernmost European cultures produced narratives of captivity in foreign
lands, the genre's earliest exemplars came from the pens of central Europe-
ans. These narratives, moreover, resulted not from European colonial ex-
pansion but from the early modern spread of Islamic power within eastern
Europe, an advance that culminated with the first siege of Vienna in 1529. A
particularly early and widely distributed account was that of the Bavarian
Johan Schiltberger, whose 1396 capture led to twenty years of travel in Eu-
rope, Asia, and Africa before his return produced a narrative that crossed
the face of Europe in a dozen editions and countless manuscripts during the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 5 Another international best-seller was the
account of Bartholomew Georgijevic, first published in1544 and republished
in eighteen subsequent editions, including translations into German, French,
Dutch, Polish, and English. 6 In addition to these central Europeans, Ital-
ians, Frenchmen, and Englishmen began to produce accounts of Islamic
captivity with the increased power of the Turkish navy and the Mediterra-
nean corsairs throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The early continental narratives employed a variety of naming conven-
tions, but from the sixteenth century they increasingly relied on terms such
as "captive," "slavery," and "customs." While the generic imprint of Schilt-
berger's title was carried by the keyword Reisen, or travels, Georgijevic's ac-
count appeared in English as The Ofspring of the House of Ottomanno, ...
Whereunto is added Bartholorneus Georgieuiz Epitome, of the Customes,
Rytes, Ceremonies, and Religion of the Turkes: with the Miserbale Affliction
ofthose Christians, whiche Liue vndertheir Captiuitie and Bondage. A simi-
larly generalized ethnographic focus was also paramount in such titles as
George of Hungary's Tractatus de Moribus Turcorum, which resulted from
his 1438 capture, and in G.A. Menavino's Trattato de Costume et Vita di
Turchi, printed in 1548. 7 On the other hand, the experience of captivity itself
dominated the title of Alfonso de Dominici's Trattato della miserie, che
patiscono I fideli christiani shiavi de' Barbari ... (Rome, 1647), and the
experience of a particular captive came to the fore in the anonymous L'Esclave
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 19

religieux et ses avantures (Paris, 1690). As the shifting patterns of these titles
suggest, the early modem era witnessed both a long-standing tendency to
exploit the captive's knowledge of alien cultures and a steadily increasing
interest in the experience of captivity itself, culminating with the production
of an individuated title at the end of the century.
During the same period, a similarly gradual movement from general-
ized accounts of captivity to the perspective of a single captive is also evident
in another important element within the captivity tradition: a genre record-
ing the experiences of inquisitorial martyrs and captives. Such narratives
played a prominent role in Protestant propaganda directed against the vari-
ous Catholic courts of inquisition from the sixteenth through the nineteenth
century. Out of the very different courts operating in various eras and cul-
tures of southern Europe, Protestant polemic imagined a monolithic Inqui-
sition as the ultimate seat of European tyranny, injustice, and torture, the
product of a Popish master plot designed to impose a tyrannical ecclesiastic
authority on the states and consciousnesses of Europe. 8 In promoting this
myth, British propagandists relied at first on translation and plagiarism of
continental histories and martyrologies focused on continental victims. From
the mid seventeenth to the late eighteenth century, however, Anglo-Ameri-
can propaganda increasingly relied on lengthy, particularized narratives fo-
cused exclusively on the experiences of individual, isolated Britons, such as
Katharine Evans and Sarah Chevers (1662), Isaac Martin (1724), and John
Coustos (1746). Each of their texts builds an extensive personal narrative
from experiences of capture, interrogation, and torture within an inquisito-
rial court, represented as an alien space, illustrative of a broader cultural
division between Britain and southern Europe. This kind of tension between
general truth and individual experience, as we shall see, posed a problem for
the British captivity tradition from its inception.
Drawing primarily on Middle Eastern and inquisitorial settings, the first
flurry of factual English captivity narratives initially developed, at the close
of the sixteenth century, in the form of particularly telling episodes within
longer travail narratives such as Hortop's. Organized primarily as a travail
narrative, the first factual English captivity narrative, produced by an En-
glish author and focused exclusively on the experiences of Englishmen held
captive in a foreign land, concerned not America but the Barbary Coast.
First published in 1587, this twenty-four page chapbook introduced auto-
biographical and ethnographic data primarily in order to document a gener-
alized experience of travel misery, as indicated by the title: A True Discription
and Breefe Discourse, ofa Most Lamentable Voiage, Made Latelie to Tripolie
in Barbarie, in a Ship Named the Iesus: Wherin Is Not Onely Shevved the
20 NARRATIVES OF FACT

Great Miserie, That Then Happened the Aucthor Hereof and His Whole
Companie, Aswell the Marchants as the Marriners in That Voiage, Accord-
ing to the Curssed Custome of Those Barbarous and Cruell Tyrants, in Their
Terrible Vsage of Christian Captiues: But Also, the Great Vnfaithfulnesse of
Those Heathnish Infidels, in Not Regarding Their Promise. Together, with
the Most Wonderfull Judgement of God, vpon the King of Tripolie and His
Sonne, and a Great Number of His People, Being All the Tormentors of Those
English Captiues. Set Foorth by Thomas Saunders, One of Those Captiues
There at the Same Time. Although the title initially places the work within
the genre of voyage narrative, the repetition of"captive" rather clearly marks
the importance of captivity to the publication's conception, purpose, and
advertising.
Despite the title's promise of eyewitness testimony, Saunders himself
seems largely absent from the text, which concentrates on the sufferings of
the crew in general and on the key historical figures whose actions lead to
the drama of captivity. The text begins according to the framework of a voy-
age narrative, with an account of the ship's financing and construction, its
departure from Portsmouth, and its journey to Tripoli. Once there, an En-
glish trader incites the wrath of a local monarch, who offers a reward to his
slaves for taking the ship and thus ultimately inspires a Spanish captive to
capture the Englishmen. When the Spaniard's reward evaporates and the
king returns him to prison, the narrative cites these events as evidence for
cultural opposition, as details "whereby may appeare the regard that a Turke
or Infidell hath of his word."9 In describing the suffering of Saunders and
several companions as galley slaves, the narrative initiates what will soon
become a standard pattern within the captivity genre. Like many of its suc-
cessors, the Saunders text provides details of sordid accommodations, paltry
food, abject labor, and harsh punishments for trivial offenses, although in
this case these details concern several sufferers rather than a singular, iso-
lated protagonist. The narrative closes with the galley's capture by European
ships, and with examples of providential punishments meted out to the king
in particular and to Tripoli in general. Through its generalized narrative per-
spective, the captivity genre's earliest exemplar thus initiated several rhetori-
cal patterns that would remain important for its successors. In addition to
devoting careful attention to the details of captive abjection, the Saunders
text also took care to organize its material as evidence for a general contest,
sanctioned by providence, between Western and Oriental cultures.
During the century following the Iesus text, the English narrative of
factual captivity was a London publishing phenomenon, focused on mer-
chants and seamen who traveled to Mediterranean and Oriental settings,
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 21

and advertised by titles that oscillated among the closely associated concepts
of adventure, travail, captivity, and slavery. The Saunders narrative preceded
a handful of similar chapbooks, including the Hortop account and other works
set within the context of Mediterranean shipping. In 1614, for example, ap-
peared A Trve Relation of the Travailes and Most Miserable Captiuitie of
William Dauies, a work exhibiting not only a particularly early use of"captiv-
ity'' within the generic imprimatur of the main-title, but also a close equation
between the abstract concepts "travaile" and "captivity." It is difficult to as-
sess the cultural impact of such early chapbook captivities, and we cannot
know how many chapbook editions and titles have disappeared into the
dustbin of history. Still, chapbook narratives such as Hortop's often achieved
wide cultural distribution through reprinting in the massive and enormously
influential anthologies of travel writing published by Richard Hakluyt in 1589
and Samuel Purchas in 1613. 10 Other early English captivity narratives ap-
peared as brief episodes within longer texts focused on travel or history. Six
years after John Smith's Generall Historie of Virginia portrayed his now fa-
mous American captivity and rescue by Pocahontas, his 1630 True Travels
included a section focused on How He Was Taken Prisoner by the Turks,
Sold For a Slave. The title of Smith's "Oriental" work advertised the experi-
ence of captivity whereas the title of the American text, often cited by schol-
ars for its early captivity episode, did not mention the subject.
Thus the titling convention of the English captivity narrative emerged
within the London press around the tum of the seventeenth century. Not
only did the early modem captivity texts rely on title keywords such as "cap-
tive" and "captivity," but they also established the convention of highlighting
the specific, named identity of the captive, as well as his tie to the English
nation and even to a local region. The importance of nation is evident in
Hortop's main title, The Trauailes of an English man, as well as in a 1590
main title, The Rare and Most Wonderfull Things vvhich Edvv. Webbe an
Englishman Borne, hath Seene and Passed in his Troublesome Trauailes. An
emphasis on local identity is evident in the 1595 title, Strange and Wonderfull
Things. Happened to Richard Hasleton, Borne at Braintree in Essex, in His
Ten Yeares Trauailes in Many Forraine Countries. Such individuated titles
rather clearly promoted pride in the experiences of ordinary, representative
Englishmen. The name or national identity of the individual captive quickly
became so important for the genre's titling convention as to help separate it
from other kinds of travel narrative. Whereas the titles of travel narratives
more generally tended to focus on the identity of the observed land, captiv-
ity titles gave equal if not greater weight to the national and individual iden-
tity of the isolated captive-observer. The cumulative effect of this convention
22 NARRATIVES OF FACT

can be measured in the parlance of scholars who work on the American nar-
ratives, which are usually distinguished by the captives' last names. 11
After the titling conventions of the captivity narrative took root in the
London press over the course of the seventeenth century, the American press
did not initially recognize these conventions when it began printing texts
focused on local experiences of captivity at the end of the century. Instead
American printers adopted titles invoking sectarian theology; thus the
Rowlandson account, in its first Boston edition, appeared under the main
title, The Soveraignty & Goodness of God. When British publishers printed
versions of narratives that had previously appeared in America, they chose
titles .that more clearly placed the texts within the genre of captivity. The
most famous instance of such adaptation was the Rowlandson account, which
in its first London printing carried the title A True History ofthe Captivity &
Restoration. When American printers began to reprint this narrative in the
last quarter of the eighteenth century, they returned to the titling conven-
tion established in the British press. 12 The various titles of Elizabeth Hanson's
account underwent a similar evolution. Whereas the original1728 and 1754
American editions were named God's Mercy Surmounting Man's Cruelty, a
different version of her experience appeared in several British editions be-
ginning in 1760, under the main title, An Account of the Captivity. In this
latter version and with this latter title, Hanson's narrative gained its widest
distribution in an American anthology of the nineteenth century, entering
the canon of American literature after a generic reformulation in the British
press. That we now describe the Rowlandson and Hanson texts as captivity
narratives indicates that we have come to accept the generic assessment of
the British publishers, who recognized the affinity of these accounts with a
previously established genre focused on captivities in other lands.
But the British captivity tradition's precedence over the American one is
not simply a matter of titling conventions. Compared to early modem cap-
tivity texts set in North America, British captivity narratives set in other lands
commanded not only greater priority but also greater length, broader pro-
duction and distribution, a more consistent generic identity, and a larger
impact on metropolitan culture. In the middle decades of the seventeenth
century, just prior to the publication of the Rowlandson narrative in 1682,
the British captivity narrative began to grow beyond the confines of the epi-
sode and the chapbook, reaching lengths that enabled the genre to stand on
its own, separated from other kinds of narrative within a text focused exclu-
sively on one person's single experience of captivity in a foreign land. In 1640
appeared Francis Knight's fifty-six page Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie
under the Turkes of Argeire, suffered by an English Captive Merchant . ...
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 23

Over 250 pages were needed for the 1670 printing of The Adventures of (Mr
T. S.) an. English Merchant, Taken Prisoner by the Turks of Argiers, while
William Okeley's narrative of Algerian slavery, which borrowed several con-
ventions from spiritl~al autobiography, carried over one hundred pages in its
1675 and 1676 printings. Another high-water mark was reached with Robert
Knox's An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, based on the author's
twenty years of captivity in that island. Published in 1681, the year before
the Rowlandson narrative, Knox's work exceeded two hundred folio pages,
and it stands as the longest and, as we shall see, the most ethnographically
ambitious captivity narrative of the seventeenth century. During the century
from 1640 to 1740, captivity narratives produced in Britain greatly expanded
in length and complexity, while texts produced in America generally lagged
behind in terms of detail, structural refinement, and subjective exploration.
Only in the mid eighteenth century did the American narratives surpass their
British counterparts in terms of quantity, and only in the nineteenth century
did the Americans match the British in terms oflength and complexity. Until
then, no American narrative matched the length of the narratives by Joseph
Pitts (283 pages on Algeria in 1738), Thomas Pellow (396 pages on Morocco
in 1739), and Robert Drury (480 pages on Madagascar in 1729). 13 Until well
into the eighteenth century, British readers would have regarded American
captivity narratives as faint, distant echoes of more substantial pronounce-
ments from British authors concerning other lands.
It might be objected that the variety of British captivity texts does not
constitute a coherent tradition or genre but rather a collection of disparate
threads within the larger generic cloth of travel narratives. This objection,
however, applies equally to American captivity texts, at least prior to the war
for independence. Scholars of the American genre often trace its tradition
back even to the early days of Spanish exploration and settlement, but the
American captivity narrative did not acquire its own generic identity until
after independence. From that period the American press saw a fairly regu-
lar stream of reprints and new compositions, and from that period a set of
narrative conventions driven by expansionist ideology and heightened edito-
rial supervision streamlined the production of individual texts, especially
through the medium of anthologies. Before the war for independence, how-
ever, American captivity narratives, just like their British predecessors, en-
tered the press in a random, piecemeal, and inconsistent manner. Some
American narratives appeared as anecdotes within sermons or jeremiads,
while others, such as John Smith's famous account of captivity and rescue by
Pocahontas, appeared within general histories, travel narratives, and autobi-
ographies. Only a few, like the Rowlandson account, appeared as individual
24 NARRATIVES OF FACT

texts, with a specific generic identity, and even her text, in its initial printing,
was combined with a sermon by her husband. Some captivity narratives set
in America appeared in the British press but not in the American, while
others entered the American press but not the British, and still others ap-
peared on both shores. In gathering these disparate narrative strands under
a single rubric, scholars sometimes throw early Spanish and French texts
into the mix. 14 If scholars prove willing to grant the genre an international
linguistic framework as long as the setting is America, they prove unwilling
to acknowledge the global framework of settings that the evidence demands.
In reality, the varied strands that compose the colonial American genre of
the captivity narrative fail to match the consistency of earlier captivity texts
published in Britain.
Several factors have prevented us from recognizing the British prede-
cessors and parallels to the American captivity narratives. One factor is sim-
ply that scholars have put more effort into separating American captivity
narratives from larger generic categories such as travel narrative. As a subset
of this larger category, however, American narratives were no more promi-
nent than British narratives until the nineteenth century. The study that schol-
ars use as the standard bibliography of colonial American captivities, R.WG.
Vail's Voice ofthe Old Frontier, actually documents only a smattering of them
amidst a much larger number of travel narratives set in America and pub-
lished on both sides of the Atlantic. The ratio of captivity narratives to travel
narratives is perhaps somewhat larger in the American publishing world than
in the British, but in both cases the percentage is so low as to make the
difference negligible. The work of separating British captivity narratives from
other genres is no more difficult than that needed for the American texts. In
both contexts, short accounts of captivity sometimes appeared within longer
texts framed according to very different agendas, such as Cotton Mather's
Magnalia Christiana or Adam Elliot's Modest Vindication of Titus Oates.
Even when publishing texts focused exclusively on captivity, authors and
editors in both contexts sometimes chose main titles invoking frameworks
other than captivity, such as Mary Rowlandson's Soveraignty & Goodness of
God or Robert Drury's Madagascar. Since these issues arise with both pub-
lishing traditions, it is less intrinsic difficulties than scholarly priorities that
keep us from recognizing the British texts as captivity narratives.
Another factor blocking scholarly recognition of the British captivity tra-
dition is a scholarly penchant for exaggerating the impact within the British
press of captivity accounts originally published in the thirteen colonies, es-
pecially the Rowlandson narrative. Exaggerated descriptions of avid British
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 25

readership create the impression that American captivity offered Britons

something that they could not find in texts treating other colonial lands. In a
fairly typical case of such exaggeration, Nancy Armstrong and Leonard
Tennenhouse have described Rowlandson's text as "without question one of
the most popular captivity narratives on both sides of the Atlantic."15 In real-
ity, however, her narrative's only entry into the British press before the twen-
tieth century was the London edition of 1682, and the most thorough study
of her early editions interprets this fact as evidence that the reading public
"apparently was not overly receptive in England." 16 Many American best-
sellers of the eighteenth century, moreover, such as John Williams's narra-
tive and the Manheim anthology, never interested the British press at all.
Rather than import texts previously published in America, the British
press, when it turned to the topic of American captivity, tended to concen-
trate on producing its own, original, domestic narratives. Not only did these
narratives usually reflect the American experience of protagonists resident
in Britain at the time of publication, but they also often reflected a British
social, political, and conceptual perspective. Because of this perspective,
narratives that originally appeared in Britain tended to interest American
printers, if at all, only after the war for independence. The autobiographical
perspective of Henry Grace's History ofthe Life and Sufferings, for example,
earned two printings in Reading during 1764 and 1765 but never reached
the American press until Garland's 1977 series of facsimiles. Instead of flow-
ing from America to Britain, some of the most popular captivities with Ameri-
can settings originated in the British press and then migrated to America. Of
the three narratives that Vail calls the "most popular stories of Indian captiv-
ity," two produced sensations in the British press long before they inspired
American printings. 17 From a British perspective, the domestic best-seller of
American captivity was Peter Williamson's narrative, first published in 1757
under the title French and Indian Cruelty. Assessed by Vail as "the most
popular of all Indian captivities," with a grand total of forty-one printings,
this narrative earned a dozen British printings and plagiarisms during the
eighteenth century, before American printers quietly joined the flood of Brit-
ish reprints at the turn of the nineteenth century. 18 Williamson framed his
text largely within the contexts of local Scottish politics, British law, and the
cross-Atlantic concerns of an Anglo-American empire. Despite his British
frame and publishing success, American editors and scholars have often pla-
giarized his narrative, trimmed it, retold it, and placed it under the rubric of
the American captivity genre, so that it seems to stand as a record of Ameri-
can experience. 19 The Williamson text is a particularly telling example of
26 NARRATIVES OF FACT

how the broad rubric of "American captivity'' hampers our recognition of

the British captivity tradition by reframing texts that initially reflected a Brit-
ish metropolitan perspective so that they reflect the crucible of American
experience.
While concentrating on domestically framed accounts of American cap-
tivity, the British press only rarely turned to accounts first published in
America. The most prominent exceptions, the Quaker narratives of Eliza-
beth Hanson and Jonathan Dickinson, only prove the rule of broader sepa-
ration. While the former was reprinted in four British pamphlets from 1760
to 1791, the latter was the true cross-Atlantic best-seller of American captiv-
ity during the eighteenth century, with nearly a dozen British printings and
retellings beginning in 1699. But the frequent appearance of both texts in
the British press reflects a broader mobility within the cross-Atlantic world
of Quaker publishing more than the particular mobility of individual captiv-
itytexts. With only such occasional exceptions, then, the American and Brit-
ish presses produced separate threads within the weave of captivity narratives
set in America. Even the publishing record of the "American captivity narra-
tive" militates against its definition as an American genre and instead reveals
its emergence as a cross-Atlantic publishing phenomenon.
By the time of the Rowlandson publication in 1682, the British press
had already established the generic identity of the captivity narrative. The
genre's conventions emerged not through the influence of a particular foun-
dational text, whether of British or American origin, but rather through an
evolutionary process in which a wide range of texts borrowed, isolated, and
transformed key elements from earlier genres. In the Anglophone print world
of the 1670s, the captivity experience no longer simply added lively episodes
to general histories, travel narratives, and martyrologies. Instead British print-
ers and pundits saw great potential in isolating the experience of captivity in
a foreign land as the central focus of a text, and they signaled this focus
through title keywords that highlighted confinement and identified the names
of individual protagonists and foreign lands. But if this unification around
the experience of captivity provides a baseline for defining the captivity genre,
we should not make this unification overly restrictive by insisting on a defini-
tion of the genre in terms of a single protagonist held captive within a single
foreign land. Such a definition cannot encompass Job Hortop's narrative,
which achieves closure by gathering his captivities in a variety of settings
within a unifying tally. Such a definition also fails for the Saunders narrative,
which focuses on the experience of a group in captivity. These early chap-
book narratives, moreover, do not represent final moments of multiplication
within a genre that was afterwards uniformly individuated. Despite a marked
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 27

tendency towards individuated narrative, the basic notion of the captivity

narrative permitted a wide latitude for including not only a variety of foreign
lands, but also a multiplicity of captive voices, speaking in a variety of rhe-
torical modes.

Recognition of the broader generic context underlying the Anglophone cap-

tivity narrative requires abandoning one of the central tenets of the literary
scholarship that has evolved in relation to the "American captivity narra-
tive." In claiming an American center for the genre, literary scholars have
created an exaggerated impression of its structural unity, centered on the
experience of Anglo-American settlers. As early as 1943, Phillips D. Carleton's
first self-consciously literary treatment of the American texts insisted that
they carried an essential "uniformity'' of style and structure, based especially
on several standard events: an Amerindian attack on an English settlement,
a capture, a journey away from the settlement, an escape or release, and
finally a return to the settlement. In an explicit response to Carleton, Roy
Harvey Pearce declared only a few years later that the genre carried several
"significances" that varied widely according to the time and purpose of pub-
lication.20 Despite Pearce's caveat, and sometimes explicitly rejecting it, the
most influential treatments of the genre have continued to stress its struc-
tural unity. One of the most influential has been a mythic reading of the
genre, initiated by Richard VanDerBeets and developed most thoroughly by
Richard Slatkin, whose Regeneration through Violence interprets the uni-
fied structure as an archetypal expression of heroic transformation with pe-
culiar significance for American identity. More recently, in Kathryn
Derounian-Stodola and James Levernier's 1993 study of the genre, although
the authors cover an unusual variety of textual examples, they still agree with
Carleton that, "not only did the content of captivity narratives provide unity,
but their standard formal elements of attack, capture, and escape or return
also gave them coherence and definition as a group."21
Scholarly insistence on the unity of the American texts helps to trans-
form the captivity narrative into an American literary genre, with an Ameri-
can consistency, a precise origin in a particular text and a particular cultural
moment, and a unique place in the global literary archive. Defining the genre
in terms of the standard formal elements of attack, capture, and return is a
way of insisting on the preeminence of the Rowlandson narrative, female
captives in general, and the American pattern oflarge-scale agricultural settle-
ment. The American settlement pattern, much more than other early colo-
nial ventures, provoked sudden, random raids on colonial households, and
thus contributed to the narrative formulation of these attacks as the sudden
28 NARRATIVES OF FACT

incursion of a random external savagery into the ordered interior frame of

domesticity. An impression of sudden external violation is particularly marked
in the vivid opening lines of the Rowlandson account: "On the tenth of Feb-
ruary 1675 came the Indians with great numbers upon Lancaster. Their first
coming was about sunrising. Hearing the noise of guns, we looked out; sev-
eral houses were burning and the smoke ascending to heaven. There were
five persons taken in one house; the father and the mother and a suckling
child they knocked on the head; the other two they took and carried away
alive."22 Quoted repeatedly from one study of American captivity to another,
these terse, compelling lines have come to define the initial context of the
captivity plot in terms of a native attack. More broadly, the continued critical
and popular appeal of the Rowlandson text lies partially in its relative unity
vis-a-vis other captivity narratives, as it concentrates more tersely, rigorously,
and exclusively on her personal suffering.
In defining the captivity narrative's structural unity, scholars tend to treat
the early Puritan accounts, especially that of Rowlandson, as models of aes-
thetic or generic purity from which the vast panoply of disunified American
followers has degenerated. A fairly standard chronology of the American
texts appears in Richard VanDerBeets's introduction to his anthology of them,
where he describes "an all-important sense of authentically human experi-
ence that characterizes the earlier, genuine captivities," before the increas-
ing sensationalism and propaganda of late eighteenth-century accounts led
to excessive "stylistic embellishment," an "infusion of melodrama and sensi-
bility," and the production of sentimental fiction, a development that "cul-
minates ... in the travesty of the penny dreadful."23 In this view as in many
others, the humanistic literary potential of the American texts is most fully
represented in their original, Puritan exemplars, while the discursive variety
of the later accounts is dismissed as alien to the genre's defining qualities,
even if such variety eventually becomes predominant.
Because such assessments often take Rowlandson as their standard, the
textual power and authorial context of her account have in many ways dis-
torted the broader literary history of the captivity narrative. In many literary
histories, her narrative engrosses a chapter of interpretation that establishes
the core features and standards of the captivity genre, so that the more briefly
handled narratives written by later authors come to stand as digressions,
degradations, and failures. Moreover, because her narrative builds an im-
pression of unity through rigorous application of a providential interpretive
framework, this framework can seem to provide the conceptual ground on
which the genre rests. Conceived in this way, the captivity genre can offer
material even for a historian of religion, Gary Ebersole, whose recent book
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 29

on the genre treats it as a secular dilution of an initial sacred impulse housed

most purely and transparently in Rowlandson. 24 If we consider captivity nar-
ratives from a global range of settings, we can observe not only that many
narratives invoke the providential interpretive framework of British Protes-
tantism, but also that the genre emerges amidst the competition between
this framework and a variety of secular impulses, as my next chapter will
demonstrate. Exploring the global range of captivity settings also permits us
to observe the competition between a terse style and a more florid style, as
well as multiple possibilities for plotting the captivity experience.
The captivity genre's supposedly unified, American structure, based on
standard elements of attack, capture, and return, holds neither for captivity
narratives set in other lands, which British settlers did not invade on a large
scale until the nineteenth century, nor even for some of the most famous
American narratives. With nearly every captivity text first published in Brit-
ain, whether set in Asia, Africa, America, or Europe, the initial frame narra-
tive involves a voyage of trade with an alien people, a journey outward from
a seat of British civilization, most often in the British Isles. With a voyage
outward at the beginning and a voyage home at the close, a circular structure
often informs the British captivity tradition from late sixteenth-century chap-
books such as those of Hortop and Saunders to the longer accounts pro-
duced through the eighteenth century and set in Barbary, Madagascar, Ceylon,
or Malaysia. Most of these narratives came from the pens of traders and
seamen rather than settlers, and their efforts to address a domestic British
audience found a natural shape in the circular structure of the voyage narra-
tive, a much more prominent genre. The frame of the voyage narrative also
structures the accounts of Jonathan Dickinson and Peter Williamson, the
two American captivities most frequently printed in Britain before Ameri-
can independence. Dickinson organizes his account as a sea journal, a daily
log of nautical minutiae beginning with his departure from Port Royal in
Jamaica and closing with his party's long-delayed arrival at their original des-
tination, Philadelphia. 25 Similarly, Williamson precedes his captivity experi-
ence with a fairly long discussion of his childhood in Aberdeen and his youth
in American indenture, and many editions close with his attempts to seek
economic security in Scotland. Many later American accounts employ a struc-
ture beginning with an adventurer's penetration of an unknown wilderness
rather than with a native attack on the seat of domesticity. John Filson's popular
and influential account of Daniel Boone's captivity, for example, entered the
press as an appendix to a historic account of The Discovery, Settlement and
Present State of Kentucke (1784).
The frame of the voyage narrative was one of many strategies that cap-
30 NARRATIVES OF FACT

tivity writers borrowed from other genres, along with elements of spiritual
autobiography, ethnography, and martial and political history. Most captivity
narratives juxtapose these variable narrative structures within an uneasy ten-
sion instead of sticking closely to a single paradigm or archetypal structure.
The generality of American narratives, even an early account such as that of
Puritan minister John Williams (1707), incorporate multiple discursive forms
and styles. After opening with a native attack and a forced journey, Williams
draws from spiritual autobiography in documenting his personal experience
but soon shifts to a more inclusive framework, recording the experiences of
other captives and especially the struggles of his family and congregation
against Catholic proselytism after they reach Canada. Williams adds not only
some of his own poetry but also several long letters between himself and a
son, including one letter allegedly forged by the French. There is also much
casuistic assessment of French successes in conversion, and Williams closes
with an account of French colonial difficulties at Detroit. 26 A similar inclu-
siveness marks Peter Williamson's best-seller of American captivity, as he
documents not only his personal detention but also several others that he
witnessed or simply heard reported, as well as his experiences as a kidnapped
servant, a frontier planter, a colonial soldier, and a litigant in a Scottish court.
Amidst a welter of anti-French and anti-Indian propaganda, he assembles a
collection of travel descriptions, schematically organized ethnographic ma-
terial, and proposals for colonial military strategy. Far more distended than
unified, these accounts do not represent a departure from a simpler struc-
ture lying at the heart of the captivity genre so much as a return to the devel-
opmental problems that mark their British predecessors.
Working against the earlier scholarly emphasis on the generic unity of
the "American captivity narrative," more recent scholarship has explored
discursive tensions within the accounts of Rowlandson and other female cap-
tives, especially as they develop perspectives that conflict with the Puritan,
authoritarian, and colonial ideologies of their culture. 27 That such discursive
conflicts characterize the captivity genre as a whole and not merely its great-
est exemplar or the narratives of female captives becomes clearer if we ex-
pand the critical frame. Reaching beyond American shores forces us to
recognize that the central discursive conflicts of the captivity genre stem
from broad-based cultural developments affecting all English-speaking
peoples and not simply from the specific cultural tensions of the Puritan
community or even of American settlers more generally. When we attend to
the many captivity narratives published in Britain from the earliest days of
its colonial expansion, we can recognize that the genre's instabilities stem
not only from the secularization of the Christian worldview represented by
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 31

the notion of providence but also from the interrelated developments of in-
creasing cultural contact, increasing British power overseas, and increasingly
scientific standards for ethnographic discourse.

The varied rhetorical strategies and purposes indicated by the continental

titles of the Renaissance continue to mark those of the first English captivity
narratives. Since the long titles of early modem publishing served the same
purposes as the advertisements, prefaces, and dust jacket blurbs of our own
publishing world, they illustrate the conflicting agendas of the travail narrative
with especial clarity. Titles suggest that the travail narrative carried a particu-
larly early and a particularly strong pitch towards the documentary strategies
that Michael McKeon has labeled "naive empiricism" in describing their place
in the seventeenth-century epistemological conflicts underlying the rise of the
noveJ.28 For McKeon the period's increased emphasis on direct experience
emerged in tandem with an increased skepticism towards documentary strat-
egies. The documentary impulses of the seventeenth-century travail narra-
tive developed as writers anticipated their readers' potential skepticism
towards the foreign, the exotic, and the extreme, categories of experience
that were most clearly instanced within these texts by the situation of captiv-
ity itself. Rather typical of the documentary impulse was the Hortop narra-
tive, whose title promised a text Wherein Is Truly Decyphered the exotic
features of alien lands, including a Man That Appeared in the Sea, and Also
... a Huge Giant Brought from China. Other titles also resorted to claims of
transparent presentation and direct experience in support of their efforts to
document the fabulous truths of the world outside of Europe. We have al-
ready noted the 1595 text Strange and wonderfull things. Happened to Rich-
ard Hasleton, home at Braintree in Essex, in His Ten Yeares Trauailes in
Many Forraine Countries. The main title promises its readers a direct appre-
hension of wonders and guarantees their veracity through the strategies of
naive empiricism, emphasizing direct experience and even a locally established
identity. The narrative itself, however, stretches plausibility by asking readers
to believe that its protagonist endured three consecutive captivities, first in an
Algerian galley, then in a Genoan galley, and finally in the Inquisition. Whereas
Hortop's narrative included other categories of the exotic, this text's primary
instance of strangeness is the experience of captivity itself.
Captivity experiences provided particularly significant instances of tra-
vail because, in comparison with ordinary travel experiences, they involved a
much greater emphasis on both the abject miseries of subjugation and the
possibility of intimate access to the curiosities of alien cultures. The ambigu-
ous potential of captivity is especially evident in a 1614 account titled A Trve
32 NARRATIVES OF FACT

Relation of the Travailes and Most Miserable Captiuitie of William Dauies,

Barber-Surgion of London, Vnder the Duke of Florence. Wherein Is Truly
Set Downe the Manner of His Taking, the Long Time of His Slauerie, and
Meanes of His Deliuerie, After Eighte Yeeres, and Ten Moneths Captiuitie in
the Callies. Discouering Many Mayne Landes, Ilandes, Riuers, Cities, and
Townes, ofthe Christians and Infidels . ... Although the title initially concen-
trates on the abject details of Davies's captivity, the opening of this brief
pamphlet works in support of the title's promise to retail documentary infor-
mation, by supplying a four-page list of towns visited by its errant narrator.
The list promotes a sense of the potential for English accomplishment over-
seas, a potential evident in the breadth of knowledge shown by this ordinary
London citizen, in the textual schema he employs, and in his ability to sur-
vive so many potentially hostile lands. After opening with this unabashed
pride in Davies's experiences, the bulk of the text focuses on ethnographic
description of towns such as Algiers and Tunis. But the matter-of-fact tone
that accompanies Davies's peaceful visits to these towns ends when he en-
ters galley slavery in Florence. This section of his narrative concentrates on
captive debasement, especially when he contemplates the expected punish-
ments for an attempted revolt: "we should presently have lost our nose and
eares, and received a hundred blowes on our bare backe, and a hundred on
our belly with a double rope."29 But this section also claims to document the
nature of an alien people, as Davies declares the Florentines a "very decietfull
people ... yet they are very cowards being naturallltalians: their women are
altogether wicked and lewde."30 The disposition to rest general truth claims
on the experience of a single captive remains constant even as the ease and
pride of peaceful travel decays into the debasement and hostility of captivity.
Even when a protagonist suffers abject subjugation, the travail narrative
often evokes pride in the exoticism of such an experience. A sharp emphasis
on documenting the exotic appears in the main title of Edward Webbe's ac-
count, published three times beginning in 1590: The Rare and Most
Wonderfull Things VVhich Edvv. Webbe an Englishman Borne, Hath Seene
and Passed in His Troublesome Trauailes, in the Cities oflerusalem, Damasko,
Bethlehem and Galely and in the Landes of Iewrie, Egypt, Gracia, Russia,
and Prester Iohn, Wherein Is Set Forth His Extreame Slauery Sustained
Many Yeeres Together in the Callies and Warres ofthe Great Turke, Against
the Lands of Persia, Tartaria, Spaine, and Portugale. 31 After the title's initial
promise to convey a direct apprehension of strange things, it then appeals to
eyewitness testimony as a guarantee of the knowledge it provides. The docu-
mentary impulse continues in the list of fabulous lands that extends even
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 33

after the protagonist's slavery would seem to vitiate the appeal of the fabu-
lous. Within the text itself, the impulse to document the exotic leads to the
inclusion of short sections of pure description, focused on geography, fauna,
and culture rather than autobiographical events, and covering topics from
Turkish government to unicorns. The exotic can incorporate both an empha-
sis on cultural alienation (the Turks "doe wonderfull thinges, as going upon
Ropes, and thrusting their swords in their naked flesh") and an emphasis on
the hideous details ofWebbe's torture ("fine Lawne or Callico [was] thrust
down my throat and pluckt up againe ready to pluck my hart out of my
belly''). 32 Both as a miserable experience and as an opportunity to delineate
the strange customs of foreign peoples, captivity thus constitutes the ulti-
mate fulfillment, rather than the termination, of an exploratory "travail."
In their titles and the varied impulses of their contents, early travel nar-
ratives carry an implicit tension between the enormous personal success of
the traveler's multiplicitous experience and the potential for abject slavery
that travel always seems to entail. This tension finds concrete expression in
John Lithgow's enormously lengthy and popular travel narrative. After the
early editions of his narrative had brought him international fame as the
author of a constantly expanding record of his peregrinations across Europe
and the Middle East, a later edition of 1632 introduced an account of his
capture, interrogation, and torture at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition.
In Lithgow's self-portrait, he vents a sudden burst of euphuistic speech, ap-
parently addressing his captors after they have shackled him to the ground:
"remarke in me the just Judgements of God; and loe how the Heavens have
reduited me to this meritorious reward, and truely deserved; for I have dearely
and truly bought it; that I whose legges and feete the whole Universe could
scarcely contayne, now these bolts and irons keepe them fast, in a body length,
of a stone-paved Floore. 0 foolish pride, 0 suppressing ambition! and va-
porous curiosity! woe worth the fury of your aspiring vanities; you have taken
rnee over the face of the earth, and now left me in a Dungeon hole."33 As this
outburst reveals, captivity provides an instance of travel that throws its cen-
tral tensions into sharp relief. On the one hand, captivity here seems to offer
an inevitable end and the most fitting punishment for the sinful pride of
traveling overseas and desiring to know alien cultures, and thus it stands as
an imaginative reversal of the momentum that had propelled both Lithgow's
travels and the narration built upon them, halting and even invalidating the
narrative accumulation of foreign experience that constitutes the bulk of his
text. But on the other hand, captivity still provides one of the most successful
means for coming to know foreign cultures, even when that knowledge con-
34 NARRATIVES OF FACT

cems a disposition for tyranny and torture, and it still provides a source of
national pride, represented at the very least by the captive's power to endure.
The conflicting impulses of the travail narrative became more fully de-
veloped over the course of the seventeenth century, as long, individualized,
separately published accounts of captivity drew closer to the unified, nar-
rowly focused structure that we find in female-centered American accounts
such as Rowlandson's. In the English travel writing of this period, shipwreck
and captivity came to stand apart from other experiences of travail as the
most terrible fates that could possibly befall the traveler, fates worthy of treat-
ment in separately published accounts. The most prominent form of captiv-
ity narrative no longer strung together a loose series of subjugations but instead
focused extensively on a single experience in captivity, permitting both a
more substantial exploration of captive psychology and a more substantial
documentation of a single foreign culture. Because of these two competing
impulses, captivity narratives throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries continued to reflect the central tension of the travail narrative,
posing abject miseries against wondrous curiosities. Proud declaration of iso-
lated wonders gradually transformed into long, systematic, and comprehen-
sive descriptions of alien cultures, with a calm tone of skeptical distance and
standardized discursive schema serving as guarantees for the veracity of
strange data. At the same time, the rhetoric of wondrous admiration for the
strange gradually transformed into a rhetoric of scorn for the alleged inferi-
ority of the alien. As a result of these transformations, the central tension of
the captivity narrative no longer resulted from the gap between the abjection
of captivity and the pride of the traveler's experience, but rather from the
conflict between the captive's personal narrative of abjection and the gener-
alized, triumphant discourse of systematic ethnography.
Increased length afforded increased scope for an intensive focus on the
protagonist's degradation and his conflict with the religion of his captors.
The potential for developing these themes brought the captivity narrative in
line with spiritual autobiography, that most crucial of seventeenth-century
genres, centered on the spiritual degradation, psychological conflicts, and
final redemption of a self-reflective protagonist. In comparison to the Puri-
tan and Quaker captivity narratives of America, the British captivity tradi-
tion tends to downplay elements of spiritual autobiography, but one important
exception, William Okeley's 1675 narrative, may have provided a model for
the production of the Rowlandson account, published in 1681. Okeley's title
is unique in British captivity literature in carrying the initial generic imprint
of spiritual autobiography: Eben-ezer: or; a Small Monument of Great Mercy
Appearing in the Miraculous Deliverance of William Okeley ... from the
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 35

Miserable Slavery of Algiers . ... The main title's invocation of a biblical

identity marks the work as a spiritual autobiography, as does also the subse-
quent move to interpret the captive's release as a providential blessing.
Okeley's text displays a number of parallels to the Puritan captivity nar-
ratives and the spiritual autobiography more generally. First, Okeley often
cites biblical texts that match his experience in captivity, and he shares a
favorite comparison with the Puritan captives and many other spiritual auto-
biographers: the Israelite captivity in Babylon. Second, Okeley's text projects
an image ofhis interiority by documenting inward debates, minutely rehearsed
cases of conscience, which in his case center on the problem of conducting
himself as a Christian while in the power of Moslems. One prominent case
of conscience, for example, results from his forced service on a pirate vessel
whose primary prey will be his fellow Christians. 34 Another results from his
difficult choice between two unpleasant options, either working for his Mos-
lem masters or resisting them by surrendering to laziness. 35 Third, like the
spiritual autobiography more generally, Okeley's text creates a sense of spiri-
tual progress through stages of doubt and inner turmoil, but in his case the
internal struggle climaxes in distinctly secular terms. Mter he finds that he
can maintain a circumspect Christian practice while in Mosiem slavery, his
central problem becomes the possibility of growing accustomed to slavery,
of losing a desire for liberty. Conquest of this lethargy provides the climax of
his narrative, along with his successful organization of an escape project. As
Okeley's narrative suggests, the British captivity narrative, even when framed
as a spiritual autobiography, does not embrace the Puritan strategy of inter-
preting the protagonist's captivity as a sign of personal or collective sinful-
ness. Instead, as the next chapter will show more thoroughly, the British
narrative of Islamic captivity typically defines Christian freedom of conscience
against the alleged oppressiveness oflslamic governments.

While showing less interest in spiritual autobiography than its American coun-
terpart, the British captivity tradition tends to show more interest in the
genre's ethnographic potential. The scholarly tendency to research the cap-
tivity narrative as an American genre has downplayed, if not completely ob-
scured, its heavy reliance on the discursive strategies of ethnography. Although
scholars of American captivity narratives have occasionally described them
as important sources of ethnographic information, critical discussion of this
information has primarily involved documentation of specific categories of
images, such as images of native women or images of native religion, rather
than analysis of the rhetorical strategies that organize the information. 36 This
obfuscation of ethnographic method partly results from the heavy emphasis
Torture is the primary sales pitch in William Okeley's frontispiece
graphy and the heroic rationalism of escape. (This item is repro-
Marino, California.)
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38 NARRATNES OF FACT

on the early Puritan accounts as generic exemplars. Unlike their British coun-
terparts of the seventeenth century, the Puritan captivities only occasionally
included ethnographic details while organizing their texts within a frame-
work of providential interpretation based on personal and communal struggles
of sin and salvation. But this framework largely receded as ethnographic strat-
egies of documentation became increasingly prominent within American
accounts of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Within some
later American accounts as within many of their earlier British counterparts,
the ethnographic impulse is so strong as to overwhelm narration of the
captive's personal experiences, which are organized in some cases as appen-
dices or prefaces to scientifically framed documents. As captivity narrators
from many times and many places attempt to apply the self-consciously sci-
entific standards of ethnographic discourse to the captivity experience, their
variable methods of application and the fundamental epistemological ten-
sions raised by these methods reveal that ethnography played a central and
recurring role within the captivity narrative's process of generic formulation.
For early modem European readers, knowledge of alien cultures was
often closely tied to the experience of captivity. Former captives or Europe-
ans working to release captives produced some of the most fully documented
and influential accounts of Islamic lands. Fra Diego Haedo, a former pris-
oner at Algiers, produced a body of work that a recent historian of the region
has described as "fundamental to all subsequent western histories of Algiers."37
With a broader territorial sweep, a former Moroccan slave, Luis del Marmol-
Carvajal, produced a geographical and historical Description General de
Affrica in 1573. Another influential early modem account, the Histoire de
Barbarie et ses Corsairs (1637), came from Pere Pierre Dan, superior in the
convent of the St. Trinity and Redemption of Captives at Fontainebleau.
Ethnographically sophisticated narratives by former British captives joined
these continental predecessors from the late seventeenth century, often reach-
ing a level of documentary plenitude that inspired respectful citation. Al-
though Robert Knox's account of his Ceylonese captivity inspired only one
printing in 1681, its ethnographic portrait of the island gained such notoriety
that John Locke could cite it ten years later as an easily accessible instance of
tyranny. 38 Furthermore, as a bibliographer of Western writings on Ceylon
has attested, Knox's work was regularly "pillaged" for its ethnographic infor-
mation during the nineteenth century. 39 Another ethnographically influen-
tial account was that of the former Algerian captive Joseph Pitts, which, after
its 1704 publication, stood for many years as the only firsthand English de-
scription of Mecca. The influence of this text alone has led one scholar to
describe Pitts as "the Englishman who contributed most to the popularisation
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 39

of the themes of slavery and piracy."40 A similar assessment applies to Robert

Drury's 1729 narrative of captivity in Madagascar. Judging the ethnographic
influence of this text, a late Victorian historian of that island observed that
"not a single work on Madagascar has been published since which does not
quote, one way or another, largely from Drury's observations."41
Captivity narratives not only influenced the production of European eth-
nographic knowledge, but, as their titles suggest, ethnographic knowledge
played an important role in understanding, organizing, and selling the cap-
tivity experience. Titles often advertise captivity as an effective means of
intellectual access to alien cultures. Although the Drury narrative observes a
strict autobiographical chronology, his title initially promises an ethnographic
account: Madagascar; or, Robert Drury's Journal, during Fifteen Years' Cap-
tivity on that Island. After the main title proclaims that the text has captured
and epitomized Madagascar as a fixed essence, the subtitle suggests that the
experience of captivity is fully adequate to providing knowledge of that es-
sence. Even more confident than Drury in the sweeping ethnographic au-
thority conferred by captivity, Joseph Pitts records his experiences as an
Algerian captive under the title True and Faithful Account of the Religion
and Manners ofthe Mohamrnetans. A similar title advertises an ethnographic
narrative edited by the Orientalist Simon Ockley in 1713: An Account of
South-West Barbary Containing What Is Most Remarkable in the Territo-
ries of the King of Fez and Morocco. Written by a Person Who had been a
Slave. What makes this text particularly remarkable is that it contains no
section of autobiographical captivity, but only a standard Orientalist ethnog-
raphy, at the close of which Ockley explains that his anonymous manuscript
source expressed an unfulfilled intention to append a narrative of his or her
personal experiences. The mere idea of a personal captivity experience, then,
could authenticate an ethnographic text even when that experience itself
remained undocumented. Captivity narratives continued to carry ethno-
graphic titles in nineteenth-century America, as evidenced by two very popular
and influential works, Alexander Henry's Travels and Adventures in Canada
and the Indian Territories (1809) and John Dunn Hunter's Manners and
Customs of Several Indian Tribes Located West of the Mississippi (1823). In
the very frameworks of their self-presentation, captivity narratives from many
lands carried an implicit claim that the captive could offer a unified, com-
plete, and accurate vision of an alien culture because of the nature of the
captivity experience itself.
To fulfill such promises of ethnographic documentation, captivity narra-
tives over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often turned
to the discursive strategies recommended by Western intellectuals who wished
 40 NARRATIVES OF FACT

to formulate an objective standard for characterizing alien cultures. In the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European writers began producing
longer, more detailed, and more systematically organized accounts of alien
cultures than ever before, and European theorists often matched this evolv-
ing practice by developing explicit guidelines designed to help travelers sys-
tematize their observations. Such guidelines came to occupy an especially
influential position under the auspices of the Royal Society, the general acad-
emy of science given a royal charter in 1662 and treated to a considerable
vogue in the Restoration decades. The society published an intermittent se-
ries of guidelines for travelers in its periodical Philosophical Transactions,
beginning with the first volume of 1665 and 1666, which included a three-
page section of"Directions for Seamen, bound for Far Voyages."42 The soci-
ety published such directions because it considered the observations of
travelers to hold crucial importance for the development of a national re-
pository of scientific information concerning the entire world, including all
· of its inhabitants and their customs. The directions were expanded and re-
printed by later authors, most notably by the Churchills in the "Introductory
Discourse" to their 1704 Collection ofVoyages and Travels, one of the most
popular exemplars of one of the period's most popular genres. 43 Frequent
resort to these directions testifies to the society's influence in teaching Brit-
ish intellectuals to associate travelers' reports with the progress of a global,
systematic, and objective ethnography.
One of the central features of the society's advice for travelers concerned
systematic organization of observations within a set of standard headings.
For example, one of the society's most famous luminaries, Robert Boyle,
published a set of"General Heads for a Natural History of a Countrey, Great
or Small" in the first volume of the Transactions. Aspiring to the kind of
systematic rigor that would later produce biological nomenclature and the
periodic table, Boyle's plan outlines a standard framework of broader head-
ings and narrower subheadings. Beginning at an abstract level, apparently
dictated by the order of nature itself, Boyle identifies three "General heads
of Inquiry," the "Air; the Water; or the Earth," before turning to narrower,
"Subordinate subjects" within those broader headings. 44 Ethnographic ob-
servations fall under the category of earthly products, and Boyle further di-
vides them into several subcategories: "there must be a careful account given
of the Inhabitants themselves, both Natives and Strangers, that have been
long settled there: And in particular, their Stature, Shape, Colour, Features,
Strength, Agility, Beauty (or wartt of it), Complexions, Hair, Dyet, Inclina-
tions, and Customs."45 A similar set of headings forms a key element within
the expanded guidelines for travelers developed within the Churchill collec-
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 41

tion: "The principal Heads by which to regulate their Observations are these,
the Climate, Government, Power, Places of Strength, Cities of note, Religions,
Language, Coins, Trade, Manufactures, Wealth .... "46 The goal of such head-
ings, rather clearly, was to establish a standard, objective system for organizing
the disparate experiences of individual travelers so as to avoid the vagaries of
personal style and inclination. For the Royal Society, a set of standard head-
ings would ease the formation of a national repository of scientific informa-
tion. The society's program, moreover, exerted direct influence on the practice
of late seventeenth-century travelers, as R.W. Frantz has demonstratedY
Although the travel narrative did not metamorphose into a fully scientific
document overnight, or ever, still the Royal Society's program represents an
emergent intellectual understanding of a broad but never complete shift in
the practice of travel writing from the fabulous to the scientific.
As travel writers, with former captives among them, tried to adhere to
the expectations of the Royal Society and of readers in general, they tended
to include in their works increasingly ample sections of formal description,
usually organized by the kind of headings recommended by the society.
During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, formal travel
description became an increasingly common discursive strategy, turning up
in novels and political histories as well as in texts that openly advertised them-
selves as travel or ethnographic literature. Within the space of a travel de-
scription, the past tense and personal references that normally mark such
genres are all temporarily suspended, as the narrator turns to a series of
descriptive sentences in the present tense, mostly simple, declarative sen-
tences, and mostly beginning with abstract or plural nouns, which serve to
mark headings. The description is clearly separated from the normal flow of
narration, if not by an introductory heading or spacing, then by an introduc-
tory sentence that identifies the name of a town, island, or some other dis-
crete and manageable unit of geography. The sentences that follow mostly
begin with some variant of the vague reference, "they" ("They have ... ";
"Their religion is ... "). Depending on context, this broadly inclusive refer-
ence might cover the most important property owners, a dominant ethnic
group, or all of a region's inhabitants. Within the flow of such generalizations
appear several sentences that mark transitions from one important compo-
nent of culture to another, as indicated by abstract nouns: "Their religion is
... "; "Their government is ..."; "Their women are .... "Although the par-
ticular selection and arrangement of these abstract cultural categories vary
from text to text, the steady repetition of practice across an enormous num-
ber of texts meant that readers could expect a travel description to contain
certain generally established categories of cultural analysis, especially geo-
42 NARRATIVES OF FACT

graphic situation, physical appearance, religion, government, military de-

fenses, and economic patterns. At the close of a particular section of travel
description, the next paragraph or section begins with the name of a new
location, indicating a new description, or with a resumption of the past tense,
indicating a return to personal narration. Thus within a longer narrative, a
travel description stands as a hermetically sealed unit of scientific practice,
purporting to capture the timeless essence of a particular locality by divorc-
ing it from the temporality and contingency of narration. With the problems
of temporality carefully concealed, the plain style of travel description, with
its plodding repetition of simple declaratives and its clearly signaled topical
transitions, creates an impression that a rigorous method has captured a for-
eign culture in all its plenitude and strangeness.
That such discursive practices influenced the authors of captivity narra-
tives can be measured in the anxiety they sometimes expressed concerning
their adherence to the generic expectations of ethnography. In his 1729 ac-
count of Madagascar, Robert Drury echoes the Royal Society's agenda for
ethnographic discourse in declaring his "purpose, which is to give all the
account [he] can of the different customs and manners of this island as may
be useful to traders and navigators" (230). But Drury also reveals consider-
able anxiety about his failure to meet the society's ethnographic standards:
"If my observations are not so many, or so just and good as they should be,
they must not be looked on to come from a man, but a boy; for as I grew in
years, it will appear, I grew in knowledge and courage, was capable of mak-
ing more proper remarks" (4 7). That Drury imagined such an apology nec-
essary suggests that by 1729 the captivity narrative had developed enough
generic uniformity that audiences could expect a modicum of ethnographic
rigor. A similar apology appears in the preface to the fourth edition (1738) of
Joseph Pitts's highly successful and ethnographically influential account of
Algiers. Although Pitts boasts that he has heard his book called "the best
Account of the Mahometan Religion we have extant in our Language," his
preface also includes a modest disclaimer of ethnographic rigor: "I do not
pretend to give an exact and methodical Account of what I have observ'd."48
Especially when we recognize that travel description structures the bulk of
Pitts's narrative, the combination of modesty and pride here suggests an anx-
ious attempt to match a difficult, widely accepted, and highly valued stan-
dard of scientific discourse.
Some explanation for the anxiety of Pitts and Drury lies in the difficul-
ties of forcing the often agonistic material of captivity into an objective frame-
work. One method of handling this central tension of the captivity genre was
to bifurcate the experience of captivity into two sections, one focused on
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 43

personal suffering and the other on ethnographic description. In employing

such a division, captivity narratives paralleled what Gordon M. Sayre has de-
scribed as the central discursive strategy of colonial French explorers in Canada,
who routinely divided their texts into two sections, one for an autobiographical
narrative of exploration and the other for a schematically organized ethnogra-
phy.49 Nineteenth-century American captivity texts continued to employ this
strategy; John Dunn Hunter's 1823 narrative, for example, offered an autobio-
graphical narrative as a lengthy preface to the ethnographic description adver-
tised in its title, Manners and Customs of Several Indian Tribes. This practice
embraced not only the high cultural sanction of French travel literature but
also the more direct precedent set by British accounts of captivity in various
Oriental lands. Francis Knight's 1640 account was the first English captivity
narrative to attempt such a bifurcation, developing two separate but equal
sections, as indicated in the title. His experiences in captivity come to the
forefront in the main title, A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie under the
Turkes of Argeire, suffered by an English Captive Merchant . ... The subtitle,
however, indicates that a second book contains an ethnographic Discription of
Argeire, with its Originall, manner of Government, Increase, and present flour-
ishing Estate. In keeping with his two-part title, Knight's text devotes roughly
equal sections of twenty-seven pages to each of its goals, first a narration of
captivity experience and then an ethnographic description. A similar split struc-
tures Robert Knox's 1681 narrative, titled An Historical Relation of the Is-
land Ceylon, in the East-Indies: Together, With an Account of the Detaining
in Captivity the Author and divers other Englishmen now Living there, and
of the Author's Miraculous Escape . ... This text strives to fulfill its main
title's promise to represent the plenitude of an alien land, which it organizes
into a rigid hierarchical framework. Parts 1 to 3 divide Ceylon into sections
concerning geography, political organization, and social customs. Part 4 adds
the author's experiences in captivity as a seeming afterthought, apparently
divorced from the hard facts of Ceylon itself.
In both texts, however, the rigidly imposed dyadic structure breaks down.
Knight begins by fulfilling his main title's promise to record his personal
experience of Algerian slavery, adopting an autobiographical framework, with
a strict chronological sequence, until he enters galley slavery. Thereafter he
mixes occasional personal details with a more developed history of political
events that occurred in Algiers during his captivity. At the end of this osten-
sibly personal section, he explains why general history has subsumed his per-
sonal experience: "I have recorded a plenary memoriall of my seven yeares
bondage, but not the severall accidents of my indurances; there wanting in
me the abilitie to devulge them" (28). The pain that underlies this incapacity
44 NARRATNES OF FACT

seems particularly acute in the case of Knight's galley slavery. At the end of
this first part (ostensibly personal and chronological) and just before the start
of the second part (ostensibly timeless and generalized), Knight provides a
lengthy, detailed, and horrifying description of galley slavery (29). Organized
as a discussion of Christian slaves in general and thus ostensibly divorced
from his own experience, this account nevertheless seems an impersonal
reflection of the personal "accidents" that Knight could not narrate on his
own behalf. Knight seems capable of describing the horrors of his personal
suffering only by generalizing them into an ethnographic framework of na-
tional oppositions, involving Christian slaves and Algerian despots in gen-
eral. \Vhat cannot be narrated at a personal level thus seems to reemerge at
the ethnographic level, even to provide a transition to the text's ethnographic
section, an initial ground for understanding Algerian culture. \Vhereas a
macrocosmic framework of national history constantly subsumes the avow-
edly personal section, the avowedly scientific section seems haunted by a
personal experience of agony and hatred.
Epistemological conflicts emerge even in Knox's account, the most care-
fully bifurcated and the most scientifically rigorous of captivity narratives. As
the text's prefatory material proclaims, Knox's memories reached the public
through an exacting editorial process designed to render them through the
objectifying standards of the Royal Society. In Knox's 1681 captivity narra-
tive as much as in any other text in travel literature, the Royal Society ex-
erted a direct influence in the process of textual production. The opening
pages include official imprimaturs from a functionary of the East India Com-
pany and from Christopher Wren, then president of the society, followed by
two dedications from Knox to the East India Company and a preface by
Robert Hooke, another of the society's luminaries. Hooke's preface adopts
the Royal Society's standard line concerning travel writings, lamenting the
imperfection of ethnographic knowledge that results from its publication in
small, ephemeral tracts (such as travail narratives) and from the lack of suffi-
cient standards for travel writing (such as the subheadings printed by Boyle).
More specifically, Hooke laments the "want of fit Persons both to Promote
and Disperse such Instructions" to travelers, and suggests that socially re-
sponsible experts can help "by examining the [travelers] more at large upon
those and other Particulars. And by separating what is pertinent from what is
not so, and to be Rejected" ([a]2v). That Knox required such expertise and
indeed received it becomes evident in an autobiographical manuscript, where
he wrote that the book needed the "assistance of my Cousen John Strype a
Minister who Composed it into heads & Chapters for my papers were pro-
miscuous and out of forme woth several inlargements one such heads as I
In the frontispiece of Robert Knox's narrative, the author poses trium-
phant above a map representing the land of his former captivity. (This
item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.)
46 NARRATIVES OF FACT

had but touched briefly which then my memory was fit to doe haveing the
very Idea or representation of what I wrote so perfectly in my mind, by my
lange detainment and Conversation thare as if they had bin visible to my
sight."50 Hooke's preface similarly proclaims that the former captive had
"Transport[ed] the whole Kingdom of Cande Uda in his Head" ([a]3r), but
even if captivity placed transparent knowledge into the mind of the captive,
Hooke clearly regarded some level of institutional intervention as necessary
in helping the captive avoid the pitfalls of earlier captivity texts.
With the inspection, official sanction, and editorial assistance of such
august institutions as the Royal Society, the East India Company, and the
Anglican church, Knox's personal experience in captivity reached print
through the mediation of several self-consciously modem conceptual sys-
tems, confident in their ability to render knowledge of an alien culture in a
transparent text. At one level this complex editorial framework suggests the
production of an authoritative text within a unified institutional setting, stress-
ing the concepts and values of science, various forms of religious dissent,
and the middle-class professionalism of clergymen, scientists, merchants,
and publishers. But at another level, the mixture of institutions suggests a
mixture of motives, as the Royal Society's claim to an interest in objective
knowledge seems attuned to the colonial interest of the East India Company
and the evangelical interest of the Anglican church. And at another level
still, the vast institutional effort needed to translate Knox's allegedly perfect
knowledge into print suggests some anxiety about the reliability of captive
knowledge.
In Knox's second dedication to the East India Company, he attributes
his production of the text to his friends' inquiries concerning his ethnographic
knowledge, and their request that he "digest it into a Discourse" ([b]lr). In
response to this request for systematic organization, Knox indicates, he de-
voted much effort to developing a "Method," and finally settled on digesting
his experience of Ceylon into four parts: "The first concerning the Countrey
and Products of it. The second concerning the King and his Government.
The third concerning the Inhabitants, and their Religion and Customs," and
the last concerning his captivity ([b] 1v). Nat only does Knox adhere to this
plan, but he divides each part into smaller chapters, and each chapter with
several subheadings. A list of these "contents" requires nine folio pages, and
the term "contents" seems peculiarly fitting in this case, as the majority of
the subheadings are nominal, at least in the first three parts, so that a nomi-
nal standard comes to dominate the headings, creating impressions of per-
manence and particularity. Part 3, for example, contains eleven chapters,
including the following: "CHAP. VII. Of their Lodging, Bedding, Whoredome,
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 47

Marriages, Children," "CHAP. VIII. Of their Employments and Recreations,"

"CHAP. IX. Of their Lawes and Language." Knox gives chapter 6, concern-
ing domestic routine, twenty-three subheadings, beginning with the follow-
ing: "Their Houses mean. No Chimneys. The Houses of the better sort. Their
Furniture. How they eat. How the great Men eat. Discouraged from nour-
ishing Cattel." Even when a subheading is not couched as a nominal phrase,
the italic type emphasizes the nominal standard. The subheadings do not
establish an air of systematic rigor merely within the initial table of contents,
but they are also retained as marginal notations within the body of the text
itself, so that Knox's textual practice foregrounds its adherence to an initially
determined system of nominal identification.
Although Knox's text is much more stable and thorough than Knight's in
its separation of personal narrative from ethnographic account, the two divi-
sions still tend to confirm each other and to reveal their common origin in an
experience of captivity. At one level both sections seem to confirm Western
possession of a modem system of knowledge formation capable of docu-
menting the obsolescence of Ceylonese society while asserting the captive-
knower's distance from this society, and thus his objectivity and modernity.
The ethnographic section describes the people as given to "windy protesta-
tions" and "customary lying," "in design subtil and crafty, in discourse cour-
teous but full of Flatteries" (64--65, 106). The captivity section confirms this
assessment when the natives use the "craft" of deceptive diplomatic mes-
sages in order to capture the English (118-19). Furthermore, the ethno-
graphic section labels the people "very proud and self-conceited" and
"Ambitious of their Titles, having but little else that they can boast in" (64,
95). Knox's captivity narrative reinforces this account when he blames the
capture of the English on their failure to treat the haughty monarch with
"sutable State" (120). Another key tenet of the ethnographic section finds
"Nothing so common as whoredom," and the text illustrates this tenet through
detailed description of "The Womens craft to compass and conceal their
Debauchery" (91-92). This description receives further support from the
captivity section's account of Knox's resistance to cohabitation with Ceylonese
women. Even as the captivity section provides concrete examples for the
generalizations of Knox's ethnographic sections, the generalizations create a
heightened impression of personal danger for his captivity section. Despite
this mutual reinforcement at the level of details and events, the autobiogra-
phy ultimately undermines the epistemological authority of the ethnographic
sections. Although they posit an unchanging Ceylon, apparently captured
and epitomized for all time through the rigors of scientific method, the final
captivity section locates the imputed features of this culture within the limits
48 NARRATIVES OF FACT

of one person's experience, within a sequence of contingent and perhaps

isolated events. The personal hostilities revealed within the captivity section
suggest that a former captive may not make the most objective of reporters.
As captivity narrators continued to apply ethnographic standards to for-
eign lands over the course of the eighteenth century, their efforts continued
to produce distinctly ungainly and unsettling moments. In 1714 appeared
Walter Vaughan's The Adventures of Five Englishmen from Pula Condoro ...
Who were Shipwreckt upon the little Kingdom ofJehore ... and detain'd for
some Months ... Together with an Account of the Mannors and Customs of
the Inhabitants . ... Following the strict format and careful dating of a sea
journal, Vaughan narrates his personal experience of shipwreck, several short
journeys, and a series of captivities in various petty Islamic states. In an ex-
tremely terse style, he records even the most uninteresting of personal mi-
nutiae in a relentlessly inclusive manner, apparently eschewing criteria of
selection and organization in his zeal for narrative plenitude. Near the end
of his narrative, however, Vaughan suddenly turns to minor sections of travel
description for Pulo Condoro and Jehore, fulfilling his title's ethnographic
promise with schematically organized assessments of native geography, flora,
fauna, people, economy, and military forces. Rather than include these de-
scriptions as an initial preface or background to his experience, Vaughan
appends them as a seeming afterthought, so that these city-states seem to
exist in some timeless realm completely separate from his own experience,
as if he were a captive somewhere else, not in the places so carefully codified
in his hermetically sealed descriptions.
Ethnographic schema begin to penetrate the American narratives, often
in an equally ungainly manner, beginning in the middle of the eighteenth
century. The first inclusion of ethnographic sections within an American cap-
tivity text, as Gordon M. Sayre has pointed out, occurred with John Gyles's
1736 account. 51 Although Gyles organizes his narrative according to an auto-
biographical line, he suspends personal narration near its midpoint in order
to include several haphazard chapters of ethnographic description. As marked
by its headings, the organization of this section first treats native "powwow-
ing," then "An Instance of the Devil's Frightening the Indians," "Two Indian
Fables," and several local animals such as the beaver, before he turns to
native feasts, mourning, and marriage, back to feasts again, and finally to
"Their Extraordinary Ways of Getting Fire and Boiling their Food." Simul-
taneously pulled towards the disparate appeals of wondrous curiosities and
the scientific schema of ethnography, this middle section seems distinctly
disorganized both internally and with respect to the text's larger autobio-
graphical framework. Randomly intruded scientific schema also seem an
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 49

important appeal to readers, as well as a source of textual disorder, within

the best-selling account of Peter Williamson. The first edition includes stan-
dard travel descriptions for Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, a catalogue
of friendly American tribes, footnotes explaining such alien cultural features
as the wigwam, the tomahawk, and scalping, and finally a lengthy, inset de-
scription of native dress, cookery, and military strategy. Later editions adver-
tise improvements such as a series of travel descriptions for the principal
American states and a geographic plan for invading native territories.
Williamson's drive towards ethnographic inclusion is so strong that he ap-
plies ethnographic schema to the cultures of both the colonized and the colo-
nists. His continuous revisions, moreover, thwart the captivity narrative's
generic claim to offer a unified and completed vision of an alien culture, and
the variable discursive schema that equip the revisions sit within an uneasy
and haphazard juxtaposition, especially as the timeless present ofWilliamson's
travel descriptions encounters both the many phases of his past and his vari-
ous proposals for the future of British colonialism.

The captivity genre's restless and random inclusivity produced a number of

inconsistencies that threatened to undermine the ethnographic authority of
a unified captivity experience. One important set of complications resulted
from the captives' claim to a plain, objective, scientific style, a transparent
medium capable of capturing their personal experiences, and even the truth
of an alien culture, and rendering them pristinely on the printed page. The
plain style occupied an increasingly important place in rhetorical theory and
practice over the course of the seventeenth century, especially under the
auspices of the Royal Society. Thomas Sprat's official History of the Royal
Society developed probably the most influential formulation of plain style
theory, praising the society for making their writings adhere to plain matter
of fact: "They have exacted from all their members, a close, naked, natural
way of speaking; positive expressions; clear sense; a native easiness: bringing
all things as near the Mathematical plainness, as they can."52 Like a number
of English writers from Bacon to Locke, Sprat defined an objective standard
of plain discourse against the pitfalls of personal inclination, contentious
wrangling, superstitious fables, and rhetorical figuration. 53 Advocacy for a
plain style became particularly pronounced in the case of travel writing be-
cause of its notorious mixture of the factual and the fabulous. Endorsements
of a plain style for travelers often appeared in the guidelines that the Royal
Society intermittently published in the Transactions. In the volume for 1676-
1677, the society praised "Some late Travellers, who have made more accu-
rate and faithful reports of the Countries they have travelled ... than formerly
50 NARRATIVES OF FACT

was done," before asserting that "in our designed Natural History we have
more need of severe, full and ptmtual Truth, than of Romances or
Panegyricks."54 Juxtaposing rigor and plenitude against fiction and bias, the
passage recommends empiricism as a suppression of the subjective.
Throughout the Anglophone captivity tradition of the seventeenth cen-
tury, a prefatory apology for a "plain" style or a "plain" author functioned as
a shorthand declaration of scientific rigor. When merchants, seamen, and
American settlers apologized for a style that suited their humble social posi-
tions, their ostensible humility acted as a claim to empirical truth, a promise
to follow widely recognized standards for the scientific project of document-
ing alien cultures. While these apologies appeared occasionally in American
narratives such as Williamson's, they provided a standard topos in Barbary
narratives. For example, Thomas Phelps concludes a 1685 narrative of an
Algerian captivity with an apology for the "rough and unpolish' d" style of a
"blunt Seaman, acquainted with nothing so much as Dangers and Storms,
yet I do profess I have Penn' d this Narrative with all the sincerity and truth,
that becomes a plain-dealing English-man."55 Plain speech thus comes to
reside both in the experience of maritime travel and in the seemingly natural
truth of the English people, suggesting that even, and perhaps especially,
the plebeian Englishman possesses a natural aptitude for documenting the
alien. The plain style thus offers an important point for selling captivity as an
experience that confers an authority to evaluate cultures, no matter what the
status or education of the author. That the former captives largely succeeded
in producing a plain style is often evident in the praise of literary critics. For
Pearce and especially for Richard VanDerBeets, the American captivity nar-
ratives of the late eighteenth century corrupted the initially pure and simple
style of earlier captivity narratives with rhetorical flourishes and sentimental
excesses. George Starr offers similar praise for the plain style of seventeenth-
century narratives of Barbary captivity, linking the calm tone in which the
narrators describe horrific events to the prose style ofDefoe. 56
But if an unadorned style is effective in establishing an ethos of calm
objectivity, it can also drive readers to maximal impressions of horror, shock,
and alienation. Even in sections narrating first-person suffering, the captives
often describe their tortures, humiliations, labors, and other forms of abjection
in a laconic manner. A particularly telling example appears in the narrative
of John Coustos (1746), describing his tortures at the hands of Portuguese
inquisitors:

First, they put round my Neck an Iron Collar, which was fastened to the
Scaffold; they then ftx'd a Ring to each Foot; and this being done, they
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 51

stretched my Limbs with all their Might. They next wound two Ropes
round each Arm, and two round each Thigh, which Ropes pass' d under
the Scaffold, through Holes made for that Purpose; and were drawn
tight, at the same time, by four Men, upon a Signal made for this
Purpose.
The Reader will believe that my Pains must be intolerable, when I
solemnly declare, that these Ropes, which were of the Size of one's little
Finger, pierc' d through my Flesh quite to the Bone; making the Blood
gush out at the eight different Places that were thus bound. 57

Plain by any standard, the passage consists largely of single-syllable words

and gives especial attention to details of size, number, and material. The
logical process of the torture method is explained through a carefully orga-
nized series of additive clauses, signaled primarily through the transition,
"then." In the only rhetorical maneuver with any prominence, the paragraph
break briefly engages the reader's empathy and the problem of veracity only
to return to the direct simplicity of the previous description. Plain style thus
seems to guarantee ethnographiC veracity even as it maximizes the horror
produced by the naked facts of bodily suffering. With its potential for both
maximal objectivity and maximal subjectivity, the plain style can invoke its
readers' revulsion for extreme suffering as a seemingly necessary response
to the ethnographic truth that is ascribed to cultures where inquisitorial courts
flourish.
Despite their claims to the plain style and their relative success with it,
captivity narrators cannot maintain it uniformly, and sometimes they fore-
ground its limits and failures. Several pages after Coustos describes his tor-
tures, he glances back at this section as a "very imperfect, though faithful
Narrative," suggesting both the constant struggle for empirical rigor and the
peculiar difficulties of empiricism in circumstances of extreme pain.58 In many
narratives, moreover, sections of terse autobiography and ethnographic dry-
ness alternate with passages of astonished indignation and rhetorical bom-
bast. While Puritan writers wax passionate over the fate of God's people,
British captivity writers celebrate the virtues of English liberties with height-
ened patriotic fervor. The possibility for a dispassionate, rational assessment
of an alien culture often seems overwhelmed by the captives' open acknowl-
edgment of the powerful emotions that result from recollection of personal
subjugation or that drive particular argumentative goals. Knight's preface
evokes powerful emotions for both author and readers in framing his captiv-
ity narrative as a "Treatise, expressing my ardent affection for the inlargement
of the Multitude of my poore Country-men, groaning under the mercilesses
yoake of Turkish thraldome" (A3r). Even so methodical an account as that of
52 NARRATNES OF FACT

Robert Knox stresses, at one point, "that grief and sorrow I had undergone
by being so long detained from my Native Countrey," a time when "I scarcely
enjoyed my self. For my heart was always absent from my body" (151). With
its simple yet vivid metaphor, this passage momentarily reveals Knox as a
victim of chronic psychological pain rather than as the unflappable and ob-
jective reporter required by the tenets of the Royal Society, described in
Robert Hooke's preface, and modeled in the book's ethnographic section.
Adherence to a plain style further collapses as captivity narratives from
all over the world express astonished indignation at the cultural practices of
the peoples they describe, or simply stress their extraordinary nature and
the strangeness of the captivity experience, phenomena that sometimes seem
to exceed the power of language to provide a transparent mediation of the
real. Against the impulse to dominate alien cultures by rendering them known
runs a contrary impulse to render them strange, and this impulse produces a
rhetoric of excess that sometimes overwhelms the plain style. Because the
early travail narratives organize themselves as catalogues of wonders, they
often treat foreigners as fabulous rather than intelligible. Even when later
narratives tum more rigorously to the plain schema of ethnography, they still
sometimes pause to insist on the strangeness of the material that their schema
encompass. Although Francis Knight displays knowledge of Algerian char-
acter elsewhere in his text, he also attests that his captors are "a people
unknoWne, monsters more like than men" (2). That the Algerians lie beyond
knowledge forces Knight into bald paradox. An equally virulent portrait of
ethnic alienation appears in Robert Knox's account of his first days in
Ceylonese captivity. Although at first he finds comfort in the company of his
fellow English captives, eventually "it came to pass that we must be sepa-
rated and placed asunder, one in a Village, where we could have none to
confer withall or look upon, but the horrible black faces of our heathen en-
emies, and not understand one word of their Language neither" (121).
Memory of this isolation completely overwhelms the normally calm distance
and unflappable demeanor of Knox's narrative voice, suggesting a cultural
gap so terrible as to preclude ethnographic objectivity.

Because the world outside England could attain levels of strangeness that
seemed to exceed the powers of the plain style, captivity narratives often
resorted to extratextual methods of documentation as a means of reinforcing
the authority of the unitary captive voice. But a tension arose with the intro-
duction of multiple and even conflicting perspectives as editors played a
prominent role in respelling, revising, and even reshaping the narratives re-
counted by the captives themselves. In some cases the former captives lacked
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 53

the skills of professional rhetoric if they could write at all, and prominent
professional writers, especially clergymen, often composed literate versions
of narratives as told by illiterate captives. The input of editors and ghostwrit-
ers probably contributed to some level of generic uniformity but also pro-
duced internal conflicts within many narratives. As we have seen, even the
early travail narratives often advertised themselves in the manner of Richard
Hasleton's 1595 account, Penned as he deliuered it from his ovvne mouth,
but their early editors could not prevent themselves from spicing the bland
reports of the captives with anecdotes and prints retailing fabulous beasts,
monsters, and the wonders of the East. A penchant for bland facticity in
Edward Webbe's 1590 narrative suggests that an actual experience underlay
the title's loud promise to document wonders with eyewitness testimony, but
the text also includes a section describing the mythical kingdom of Prester
John. This section, moreover, contains several extremely brief references to
fabulous details, such as a unicorn, an elephant, and a hairy "wild man,"
apparently as justification for including some of the standard illustrations in
Renaissance publishing. As this evidence suggests, an editor enhanced
Webbe's narrative by adding the Prester John section and several narrative
details that could justify inclusion of a readily available set of images for
documenting the fabulous.
More overt but still problematic editorial frameworks often produced
epistemological tensions in later and more substantial captivity narratives.
As studies of early American captivity narratives have long recognized, Puri-
tan clergymen such as Cotton Mather played a central role in editing written
accounts, writing verbal accounts, and generally shaping the production of
personal experience towards the goals of strengthening the Puritan commu-
nity.59 Scholars studying these narratives have conducted a long-standing and
lively debate over the extent and effects of such editorial revision.
Rowlandson's account, for example, has produced widely varying critical as-
sessments of her relationship with Puritan culture, ranging from claims that
her narrative subverted Puritan ideology to claims that Puritan culture of-
fered a religious framework that her narrative readily embraced. 60 Other schol-
ars have pointed to the fundamental conflict entailed in Cotton Mather's
multiple attempts to subjoin Hannah Dustan's captivity experience to a Puri-
tan framework of communal sin and salvation. Rather than submit to the
divine will or interpret her captivity as a sign of divine anger, Dustan escaped
by killing her captors and then scalped them in order to collect a bounty
from the colonial government. The violence of her actions has produced a
tradition of troubled retellings by American men, beginning with Mather
and continuing with Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Leslie Fiedler. 61 Because the
 webbehis tt(u1ailes~
~~,-alouer dJUI:IJot~iaftJe!t.Jau~,
-~,*'- fd1rtl)ent*,alls.tl,
:fi*lldt?lleiGur 1m! lnfiJeirnadJ.

Standard illustrations of a unicorn and a "wild man" give an

captivities. (By permission of the British Library. G.6931.)
exotic flavor to Edward Webbe's series of abject
56 NARRATNES OFFACT

captivity experience verges on the extreme, the disturbing, and the implau-
sible, it often seems to demand the editorial intervention if not the ideologi-
cal reformulation of cultural pundits.
Editorial intervention remained a factor even when late-seventeenth-
and eighteenth-century narratives came to advertise themselves as ethno-
graphic documents based on the eyewitness testimony of the captive. Like
many of the travail narratives, the 1670 account ofT. Smith was fitted for the
Publick View by an editor, whose contribution suggests the insufficiency of
the captive's personal observations, methodical organization, or prose style.
A much more prominent editorial hand is evident in Robert Drury's narra-
tive, especially when his terse review of autobiographical facts suddenly shifts
to speculations in comparative theology and political theory. In the editor's
prefatory defense of his intervention, he declares that, "in all those Places
where religion is touched on, or the Original of Government, [he] is only
answerable for putting some Reflections in the Author's Mouth." The editor
defends his additions by insisting that "he could not pass such remarkable
and agreeable topics without making proper Applications, and taking useful
Instructions from them" (31). To these "Applications" we can attribute the
text's shifts in conceptual register and the erroneous scholarly speculations
that Drury's entire captivity experience sprang entirely from Defoe's imagi-
nation; in this case intensive editorial intervention has continued to under-
mine the text's veracity over two centuries after its publication. 62 An even
more overtly problematic editorial framework encompasses Thomas Pellow's
1739 Barbary captivity narrative. Pellow's editor includes many footnotes con-
firming the captive's authority and extending his descriptions, providing, for
example, a description of Sallee when the author fails to give one. Against
Pellow's description of the palace of Sherres, the editor juxtaposes a parallel
description from a contemporary competitor, and this text runs for several
pages beneath that of Pellow, overwhelming his in its length and detail. When
Pellow documents an emperor's cruelty, the editor feels compelled to support
his author with a footnote. Mter the note recognizes that "these most shocking
Accounts of Cruelty appear incredible, as seeming too barbarous and inhu-
man for any Man to commit," it then adds one of many citations of parallel
authorities confirming the author's testimony. 63 The longest excursus from
Pellow's authority involves thirty pages of extracts from the contemporary pub-
lication of an English ambassador. While such persistent and multiform edito-
rial incursions certainly provide some parallel support for Pellow's authority,
they also call attention to the need for such support, to the potential contin-
gencies of his experience, and to the limitations of any single perspective.
That believability represents a problem within these narratives is evi-
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 57

dent especially when the captives themselves appeal to extratextual authori-

ties. Near the beginning ofWilliam Davies's 1614 narrative, he lists names of
ship captains and surgeons who relieved him during his sufferings, and who
can thus supply further "proof of what I have herein written, concerning my
slauery and thraldome."64 One hundred years later, Drury's account of cap-
tivity in Madagascar opens with a standard affidavit, this time from the cap-
tain who brought him home: "This is to CertifY, That Robert Drury, Fifteen
Years a Slave in Madagascar, now living in London, was redeem' d from thence
and brought into England, his native Country, by Myself' (28). Drury's edi-
tor, moreover, admits in a preface that he initially doubted the captive's story
but then details a series of meetings with witnesses who verified his testi-
mony (29-30). At the text's close, finally, Drury promises further verification
of any particulars that a reader might question: "I am every day to be spoken
with at Old Tom's Coffee-house in Birchin Lane, where I shall be ready to
gratifY any gentleman with a further account of anything herein contained,
to stand the strictest examination, or to confirm those things which to some
may seem doubtful" (313). Such anticipations of skeptical reactions on the
part of English readers suggest that the single voice of plain documentation
cannot encompass the extraordinary demands of captive experience.
Inquisition narratives rely on similar kinds of extratextual authority. Isaac
Martin's 1724 account ends with an affidavit from several divines, who verifY
that the narrator lived in Portugal and suffered confinement in the local
Inquisition. A similar affidavit appears just prior to Coustos's main narrative,
as several physicians declare that they have examined his bodily scars in or-
der to confirm that they resulted from violent injury. A much more devel-
oped documentary framework encompasses the 1662 account of Katherine
Evans and Sarah Chevers, two Quaker women detained by the Maltan In-
quisition on their journey to preach in Jerusalem. In addition to their sepa-
rate accounts of personal captivity, their editor includes "A Copy of a Writing
from their hands" sent to a local friar; a letter written from Evans to an in-
quisitor; precisely dated letters from the captives to their relatives at home;
and letters the editor exchanged with the captives during his efforts to se-
cure their other writings. To these documents, moreover, he adds a per-
sonal narrative of his own difficulties with various Catholic authorities,
recounting, for example, his troubles obtaining and copying some of the
letters. 65 His perplexed efforts to obtain such personal testimony create a
sense of its preciousness and precariousness, enhancing the value of mul-
tiple voices. Within all of these narratives, multiple witnesses, as well as
multiple forms of evidence, seem to speak more powerfully than the single
voice of plain documentation.
58 NARRATNES OF FACT

Another type of multiplicity occurs as individual narratives from many

lands document the sufferings of multiple captives or shift perspective from
one captive to another. Scholarship on the American narratives, whether based
in a religious, feminist, or mythopoeic perspective, has tended to stress an
isolated narrator as a crucial feature of the genre, and this stress is certainly
warranted by the rhetorical strategies of narrators such as Knox and
Rowlandson, as well as by the generic emphasis of titles and prefaces on the
unitary authority of the single captive voice. Not all narratives stress isola-
tion, however, and many develop a rhetoric of common struggle among a
group of captives, positing captivity as a collective or national rather than an
individual experience. The title of William Okeley's 1675 narrative of Alge-
rian captivity, for example, includes the names of several other captives,
William Adams, John Anthony, John Jephs, John Carpenter, in addition to
the author himself. In Walter Vaughan's 1714 narrative of Malaysian captiv-
ity, the English captives unite in a struggle against Islamic conversion: 'We
endeavored to confirm one another in unmoveable Resolutions to see un-
dauntedly Death's Frightful Face for the Sake of the Christian Religion."66
In other narratives, a national or communal perspective sometimes over-
takes the most fundamental grounds of narration, so that most sentences
begin with "we" rather than "I." An extremely impersonal mode of narration
marks the first English captivity narrative, recording the capture of the Jesus
in Tripoli. Although the text advertises itself as written by one of the escaped
captives, Thomas Saunders, its initial perspective focuses on the ship's own-
ers, its financing, and the crew in general, and it recounts the experiences of
the English captives less as separate individuals than as a group. On the one
occasion when the text records the peculiar experiences of a single captive,
the incident does not concern Saunders himself, but another captive who
suffers forcible proselytism and circumcision. Narrative closure results from
the release of the entire crew through the intervention of European ships,
and the text reinforces this nationalist climax with examples of providential
punishments meted out to the king and people of Tripoli. 67 The captivity
tradition in English, then, starts from a perspective of religio-political com-
munity rather than individualist isolation.
A partly nationalist but more palpably religious community grounds the
multiple narrative voices within the 1662 inquisitorial narrative of Evans and
Chevers. As their editor describes his efforts to visit them in prison, promote
their release, and obtain their writings, he offers a third voice of individual
experience in addition to the personal voices of the Quaker women. Beyond
these three individual voices, the personal account of Evans sometimes shifts
to a first-person plural voice in recounting experiences that she shared with
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 59

Chevers. An image of the unity underlying their separate voices enters the
narrative itself when the inquisitors place the women in separate prisons and
try "to entangle us in our talk," to catch the separately interrogated women
in a contradiction; Evans, however, declares that "we were guided by one
spirit, and spoke one and the same thing." 68 With its multiple voices seem-
ingly grounded in the spirit of Quaker belief, this text envisions captivity as a
common struggle for unity in multiplicity rather than an experience of abso-
lute abandonment and isolation.
A similarly multiplied perspective characterizes another Quaker captiv-
ity narrative, the popular account of Jonathan Dickinson, which ranked sec-
ond, among texts with American settings, in terms of its impact on the
eighteenth-century British press. 69 Like the Saunders account, Dickinson's
strictly adheres to the format of a sea journal as it recounts the fate of an
entire crew. Throughout their shipwreck, their multiple captivities, and their
struggles to reach a British port, Dickinson relies on the pronouns "we" and
"us," even when describing conflicts within the group. A particularly fre-
quent and puzzling locution is the phrase "some of us," used especially to
describe the reliance of some captives on providence while others proved
less pious. Dickinson's plural narration grows most confusing when the cast-
aways divide into groups that travel separately. On one occasion, he ex-
plains, "The rest of our company had left us, expecting not to see some of
us again." 70 The narration grows most individuated when he uses the third
person to describe the experiences of captives other than himself, such as
a crew member temporarily separated from the group, or his own wife, the
only Englishwoman among the captives. Constant shifts from an immedi-
ate yet plural perspective to distanced reflections on the experiences of
other captives create a mobile subjectivity defined through the variation
within the party's experiences.
Even when an autobiographical rather than a plural perspective formed
the primary ground of narration, captive narrators often introduced the per-
spectives of captives other than themselves. The Saunders narrative initi-
ated one of the central strategies of the captivity genre, the grisly account of
another captive's victimization, abjection, or torture as witnessed by a narra-
tor who faced the threat of similar treatment. This strategy is central to Francis
Brooks's 1693 narrative of captivity in Morocco, Barbarian Cruelty. Although
Brooks details no personal experiences of torture or proselytism, he offers
many anecdotal accounts of other captives, including third-person descrip-
tions of a male slave tortured to death because "he would not tum Moor,"
and of a female slave who finally surrendered to conversion and concubi-
nage after several pages of tortures and deprivations. 71 Brooks's strategy for
60 NARRATIVES OF FACT

organizing a catalogue of torture scenes within a loose autobiographical frame-

work inspired several later American narratives, beginning with Peter
Williamson's similarly titled French and Indian Cruelty in 1757. In addition
to his own torture, Williamson fills his text with scenes of carnage and mal-
treatment, culminating with a full page of emotive description triggered by
his discovery of a female captive, "Her lovely tender Body, and delicate Limbs,
cut, bruis' d, and tom with Stones and Boughs of Trees as she had been dragg' d
along, and all besmear'd with Blood!" This tableau not only furnished mate-
rial for readers to speculate about the untold horrors of the woman's experi-
ence, but also enabled Williamson to interpolate his own subjective depths
as pained witness and memorialist: "The very rememberance of this Sight,
has at this Instant such an Effect upon me, that I almost want Words to go
on."72 The doubled perspective that results from such narration simultaneously
represents both variation within the experience of different captives (in this
case, variation along gendered lines) and a commonality within Anglo-Ameri-
can identity that overrides such variation.
The captivity narrative identifies its protagonist with other captives not
only through scenes of witnessed suffering, but also through scenes of con-
solatory reunion that permit an exchange of stories and a sense of communal
struggle. In a device common to narratives set in many lands, the narrator
meets a compatriot, and the two exchange personal histories and sympathy.
When Robert Drury describes a meeting with another isolated Englishman
after a decade of captivity in Madagascar, he devotes a page to detailing the
other's experiences and notes the extraordinary pleasure of meeting even an
unknown countryman: "we were more glad to see each other than relations
who live at a distance" (273). American accounts often similarly explored the
experiences of a range of captives. The settlers usually entered captivity in
groups, as Amerindian tribes abducted whole families and towns before sepa-
rating the captives among their own families. Accounts such as Rowlandson's
portray anxious inquiries into the fates of neighbors and family members,
fear of their permanent cultural transformation, and moments of consola-
tory reunion. A vision of anxiously retained community is particularly evi-
dent in the narrative of John Williams. From the perspective of a Puritan
minister, Williams recounts his persistent efforts to speak with his captive
congregants despite the constant observation and interference of French
authorities. As Williams includes multiple conversations with his flock, sum-
maries of their varied experience, anecdotes of his efforts to meet them, and
letters between himself and his proselytized son, he creates an impression of
a community strained by isolation yet unified by a common struggle. That
the captivity genre could support such a collective vision enabled leading
 Travel, Travail, and Tradition 61

Puritans such as Cotton Mather to adapt it for sermons and writings de-
signed to fortifY the Puritan community, especially through a connection
between the subjugation of a singular captive and the community's collective
captivity to sin. 73 Thus even the captivity genre's potential for supporting the
communal perspective of Puritanism reflects the crucible of a peculiarly
American experience no more than the mobility of the rhetorical methods
developed within the earlier tradition of British captivity narratives.
As the British tradition of captivity narratives developed from the late
sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, the genre began to take as one of
its most basic grounds of self-presentation the claim that the experience of a
single captive, when organized according to the standards of scientific eth-
nography, provided a unified and complete understanding of an alien cul-
ture. But at the heart of this claim lay a pair of basic contradictions: first,
between an individual experience of extreme strangeness and the general,
normalized content of ethnography, and second, between an individual ex-
perience of rapid transitions and a cultural content represented as unchang-
ing. While captivity narratives marshaled a wide array of rhetorical strategies
in an effort to resolve these contradictions, many of these strategies, such as
spiritual autobiography and schematic travel description, or the plain style
and ethnic vituperation, undermined each other in their very juxtaposition.
Often, moreover, the variable and contingent patterns of captivity experi-
ence forced narrators to acknowledge exceptions to their ethnographic gen-
eralizations. In their variable methods of plotting the captivity experience, as
we shall see in the next chapter, many authors departed from what literary
scholars have sometimes taken as the genre's defining organizational device,
an opposition between the captive as isolated, civilized, passive reporter and
a faceless mass of alien, uncivilized, aggressive captors.
Two

The Captive as Hero

Just as the generic signals and formal structures of the Anglophone captivity
narrative took their primary shape in the London print marketplace before
migrating to American shores, many of the genre's common patterns of char-
acterization emerged initially within the global context of British colonial
travel before reaching their most prominent development within American
settings. When defined through its earliest American exemplars, the captiv-
ity narrative often seems a genre particularly given to exploiting a binaristic
rhetoric of "self' and "other," where "self' refers to the radically individu-
ated subject of Western discursive authority, while "other" refers to those
objectified within that writing as foils for the ideal qualities of the self. This
model of the genre's cultural dynamics works especially well for the early
Puritan texts, which place heavy emphasis on the captive's spiritual trials in
cultural isolation, sequestered from the Puritan community amidst an ex-
tremely alien people. 1 Although studies focused more broadly on the Ameri-
can texts sometimes reduce them to similar formulae, the most recent studies
recognize that the genre ranges from virulently racist propaganda to deeply
troubled accounts of extensive transculturation. 2 Considering captivity nar-
ratives set all over the world, the current chapter will place their efforts to
build a stable opposition between a Western self and an alien other within a
broader context of multiple and ambiguous relationships among British cap-
tives and their foreign captors.
As former captives reconstructed their experiences in alien cultures for
homeland audiences, they developed a variety of patterns for portraying cul-
 The Captive as Hero 63

tural interaction, from colonial heroism to cultural conversion. The basic

situation of captivity in an alien land suggested for British readers a national
struggle, with the captive acting as a representative of the homeland, and his
or her captors acting as representatives, not only of a particular alien culture,
but of alien cultures in general. Although the Anglophone captivity tradition
involved some variation in content as a result of the enormous differences
among captive-taking cultures, it also tended to rely on a set of cultural ste-
reotypes that originated in the early modem struggles between Islam, Prot-
estantism, and Catholicism. At one level every English captivity narrative at
least implied the narrating subject's potential mastery over the foreign even
if this implication did not crystallize into an aggressive colonialist agenda.
Because a captivity narrative recorded a Briton's subjugation at the hands of
a supposedly inferior culture, it created a sense of cultural imbalance, a vio-
lation of the imagined national hierarchy that placed Western above non-
Western cultures, northern European cultures over southern European
cultures. But in the very fact of its publication, a captivity narrative marked
the restoration of this imbalance by implying both the happy ending of the
captive's release and the possibility of knowing and recording the captive-
taking culture. 3 Many narratives developed this implicit cultural victory at
more explicit levels, celebrating a captive's capacity not only to endure what-
ever an alien culture could impose, but also to tum such impositions to ad-
vantage, whether of increased knowledge, economic benefit, colonial
endeavor, or simply escape. Thus one of the genre's most basic strategies
involves transforming the situation of captivity into a basis for a heroism of
resistance and reversal. In the British narratives, this pattern of heroism
emerged as early as the late sixteenth century and continued to develop over
the course of the seventeenth century, although it did not become important
in the American context until the mid eighteenth century.
The heroism of captivity often takes shape through sharp reversals of
the basic situation of detention in an alien land. The captive gains liberation
after confinement, actively escapes after forced passivity, returns to the seat
of civilization after experiencing the "savage" or the "barbaric," and achieves
mastery over the culture that had formerly enslaved him. But the terms of
these oppositions permit extended struggles as well as abrupt reversals. While
captivity narratives set in many lands and times organize whole texts or small
portions of narrative around such nationalist oppositions, many individual
narrators also distinguish variable personalities among their captors, isolat-
ing particular tyrants from their more genial subjects, observing ethnic varia-
tions, or praising some natives while blaming others. Captivity narratives,
furthermore, do not all establish the consistent oppositions between a civi-
64 NARRATIVES OFFACT

lized self and a savage other, or between a passive self and an aggressive
other, that studies built around the Rowlandson account might imply. 4 In-
stead conflicts between captive agency and abject passivity develop across
and even within specific accounts of captivity, and some accounts even un-
dermine the opposition between European civilization and non-European
savagery. As a genre, then, the captivity narrative opens multiple possibilities
for constructing relationships between a subjugated self and an overruling
other.

In its inception as a central motif within the travail narrative, captivity did
not stand as an experience that marked a particular relationship between
two racial groups, Amerindians and Euramericans, on a particular frontier,
in the eastern seaboard of North America, but rather as an experience that
marked the nature of travel in any ocean, as one of the many travails that
could result from voyages of colonial exploration, trade, and plunder on any
coast. In the early stages of the British captivity tradition, no stable relation-
ship developed between a consistently captive-taking culture and a consis-
tently captured culture, and no consistent pattern of blame attached to any
particular people. Instead every people, even the English, seemed intent on
taking captives within a framework of global competition. Not only did the
notion of a "just war" authorize British enslavement or sale of captured en-
emies, but the travail narrative often gave voice to Britons whose subordi-
nate status in their own community led to the kind of experiences that we
associate with the captivity genre. In a pattern that recurred with several
later Anglophone captivity narratives, both factual and fictional, Job Hortop's
1590 travail narrative opened with his capture by fellow Englishmen, who
pressed him into maritime service on one of Sir John Hawkins's voyages of
semiprivate plunder.
Other travail narratives of the early modem era likewise undermined
what might seem the standard cultural oppositions of the captivity genre,
those between civilized, unjustly captured Europeans and savage, tyrannical
non-European cultures. The previous chapter has already noted the role of
inquisitorial captivity in narratives such as Hortop's, one of several travail
narratives that portrayed captivity in southern Europe's religious or even
secular institutions. In the early modem Mediterranean, Christians as well
as Moslems filled their galleys with captives of other faiths, and Protestant
travelers feared the galleys of the Catholic powers as much as those of the
Islamic corsairs. In the 1614 account of William Davies, for example, after
he peacefully visits Algiers and Tunis, he meets capture and galley slavery
with the Duke of Florence's navy. 5 Similarly, Edward Web be's 1590 narra-
 The Captive as Hero 65

tive records his youthful capture by "Tartarians" while traveling through

Russia, his subsequent years as a court slave, and his entry into a "greater
slavery'' in a Turkish galley, before he suffers a final captivity when accused
as a spy in Naples. 6 In a 1595 narrative, Richard Hasleton exposes the ironic
potential of such plotting after he suffers a series of captivities, first in an
Algerian galley, then in a Genoan galley, and finally in the Inquisition. In the
midst of an inquisitorial interrogation, he indignantly denounces his perse-
cutors, declaring "that when God by his mercifull providence, had thorow
many dangers, set me in a Christian countrie, and delivered me from the
cruelty of the Turkes, when I thought to finde such favour as one Christian
oweth to another, I found them now more cruell than the Turkes." 7 A similar
overthrow of the opposition between Christians and Muslims occurs in Wil-
liam Lithgow's account of inquisitorial captivity, as throughout his confine-
ment he gains food and encouragement from a Turkish slave and an Mrican
slave, and at one point expresses the hope that an Islamic invasion would
destroy the power of his captors. 8 With their variable forms of cultural oppo-
sition and alliance, early British captivity narratives often reversed what Would
later emerge as the genre's definitive cultural binaries.
Later captivity narratives, even to the end of the eighteenth century,
also occasionally blurred the conceptual boundaries between Western cap-
tives and non-Western captors. In the 1704 narrative of Joseph Pitts, imme-
diately after he returns home from a lengthy sojourn in Algiers, he meets
imprisonment at the hands of an English press gang. In Peter Williamson's
1757 narrative, his journey into Native American captivity begins with his
kidnapping and sale into indentured service as a child in Aberdeen. 9 Other
reversals of what were becoming the captivity genre's standard cultural op-
positions resulted from military contests between European powers in colo-
nial lands, especially in the northern forests of America. Stimulated by the
various colonial wars between the British and the French, anti-Gallic propa-
ganda reached an apex in the captivity narratives of Williamson and Robert
Eastburn (1756), both of whom blamed native captures on the instigation of
their colonial competitors. As they foment native violence, Williamson avers,
the French "render themselves as obnoxious, cruel, and barbarous, to a hu-
man Mind, as the very Savages themselves" (26-27). During and after the
war for American independence, however, the target of propaganda shifted
from the French to the British, especially in texts that blamed native cap-
tures on British instigation, such as the anonymous Narrative ofthe Capture
of Certain Americans at Westmoreland (1780) or A Narrative ofthe Capture
and Treatment of John Dodge (1779). In the latter text, republished that
same year in a British periodical, Dodge endures both native capture and
66 NARRATIVES OF FACT

British prison, and he labels some British officers "barbarians" while citing
several Amerindians who resisted the extremities of British violence. 10
If the captivity genre permitted such reversals of British assumptions
about ethnic hierarchies, the evolution of the genre over the course of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries meant that these reversals represented
increasingly rare occurrences within an increasingly Eurocentric and nation-
alist regimen. An explicit rhetoric of reversal characterizes Williamson's equa-
tion of Frenchman and Indian, as he expresses horror at the violation of
what seems a natural boundary between civilized and savage. By the middle
of the eighteenth century, captivity authors assumed that the Christian cul-
tures of northwestern Europe shared common bonds of civility that sepa-
rated them fundamentally from non-European cultures. Although captivity
narratives sometimes observed differences between non-European peoples,
they relied on a common repertoire of images, rhetorical patterns, and nar-
rative structures in describing the "savage" natives of America, the "barba-
rous" natives of the Middle East, and the "tyrannical" institutions of southern
Europe.
Within a variety of settings, the captivity genre leant itself to nationalist
agendas. Scholars have long recognized the nationalistic drive of the many
American captivities that served as propaganda during the Anglo-Gallic
struggle for North America, during the war for American independence,
and finally during the later wars of American territorial expansion. 11 Scholars
have sometimes described this nationalist impulse as an unfortunate addi-
tion to the psychological and religious purity of the seventeenth-century's
originary American texts, but from a British perspective, expansionist propa-
ganda surfaced within the earliest accounts of Islamic captivity at the end of
the sixteenth century. Often these accounts frame the captivity experience
in terms of the protagonist's identification with the English state. Edward
Webbe, for example, opens his 1590 narrative with a dedication to Eliza-
beth, declaring that memory of her happy rule comforted him "even in the
middest of my greevous thraldome in Turkey"; his preface, moreover, frames
his text as an act of political homage and subjection: "I do in all humbleness
prostrate myself, and this plaine discourse of my travels to your most excel-
lent Majestie." 12 The captivity narrative's prefatory materials, however, cel-
ebrate monarchy less often than ordinary British citizenship. When Thomas
Phelps dedicates his 1685 narrative to naval secretary and diarist Samuel
Pepys, the captive subscribes himself as "a poor, yet honest Sea-man, who
have devoted my Life to the Service of His Sacred majesty and my Country,
who have been a Slave, but now have attained my freedom, which I prize so
much the more, in that I can with Heart and Hand subscribe my self ... Your
 The Captive as Hero 67

most Obliged and Humble Servant." 13 As captivity narratives celebrate the

relative freedoms of subjection within the British state, they often promote
pride in the national contributions of the state's humbler subjects. Pride in
the contributions oflaboring men verges on class consciousness in the dedi-
cation of John Rawlins's 1622 escape narrative, addressed to the Lord High
Admiral of England. Speaking as a representative of his fellow seamen,
Rawlins celebrates their contribution to the English state: "for by such men,
as my selfe, your Honour must be served, and England made the happiest of
all Nations. For though you have greater persons, and more braving spirits
to lie over our heads, and hold inferiours in subjection; yet we are the men
that must pull the ropes, weigh up the anchors, toil in the night." 14 Within
such dedications and prefaces, the captivity experience seems to authorize the
claims of the lowbom for a prominent position within the English nation.
The most common nationalist argument developed within Islamic cap-
tivity narratives draws a lesson of appreciation for the benefits of life in the
British state. Such an argument provides a frame forT. Smith's 1670 narra-
tive of Algerian captivity, as he begins by blaming his capture on a Crusoe-
like "vain-glory of being named a traveler" before captivity teaches him the
value of his homeland's liberties: "Liberty was sweet to me that was taken as
a Slave."15 Barbary captives promoted their accounts not only as records of
their own education in appreciating English liberty but also as a means to
convince their neighbors to share their appreciation, by forcing them to con-
template the absolute authority, partial justice, and intolerable subjugation
attributed to alien political systems. In the preface to William Okeley's 1675
narrative of Algerian captivity, the former captive intones, "Let the Reader
Learn from our Slavery, to prize and improve his own Liberty." 16 Published
ten years later, Phelps's preface similarly enforces the value of British sub-
jectivity, both in emotional and political terms. As he insists, his "Country-
men ... of all the Nations of the Earth are possessors of the greatest Liberty,
but least sensible of the happiness." Although he himself may have once
lacked such sensibility, his experience in captivity has prodded its develop-
ment: "now that I enjoy the immunities and freedoms of my Native Country,
and the Privileges of a Subject of England, altho' my circumstances other-
wise are but indifferent, yet I find I am affected with extraordinary emo-
tions, and singular transports of joy; now I know what Liberty is, and can put
a value and make a just estimate of that happiness, which before I never well
understood .... Liberty and Freedom are the happiness only valuable by a
Reflection on Captivity and Slavery."17 As the introductory framework of the
preface suggests, Phelps hoped that his captivity narrative would help his
readers to interpolate the subjective depths of nationalist identification, sym-
68 NARRATIVES OF FACT

pathy, and pleasure capable of ameliorating a subordinate position within

the English polity.

That captivity narratives did help their readers conceive the nature of liberal
subjection is especially evident in the most important early modem exposi-
tion of liberal theory, John Locke's Two Treatises of Government. Written
from 1680 to 1682 but first published in 1689-1690, and thereafter exerting
an enormous influence on liberal political thinkers from Rousseau to Jefferson,
this work develops its argument through a partial reliance on examples of
European captives in Eastern lands. Mediterranean slavery first enters the
more important second treatise at its very opening, where Locke outlines
the analytical grounds of his argument. After the first treatise has finished
attacking the theory of divinely ordained monarchy, the second treatise be-
gins by suggesting "that the Power of a Magistrate over a Subject, may be
distinguished from that of a Father over his Children, a Master over his Ser-
vant, a Husband over his Wife, and a Lord over his Slave," and that, conse-
quently, "it may help us to distinguish these Powers one from another, and
shew the difference betwixt a Ruler of a Common-wealth, a Father of a Family,
and a Captain of a Galley." 18 Here and throughout the treatise, Locke's refer-
ences to "slavery" suggest less the American context of plantation slavery
than the Mediterranean context of galley slavery, a context that would assist
·his argument the more because he addressed its potential victims.
Captivity is central to Locke's argument. The figure of the captive or
slave, subject to an arbitrary power as spoils of war, helps to define the rights
of the ordinary citizen, subject to a sovereign power only by his own consent,
through an unwritten social compact: "Captives, taken in a just and lawful
War, and such only, are subject to a Despotical Power, which as it arises not
from Compact, so neither is it capable of any, but is the state of War contin-
ued. For what Compact can be made with a Man that is not Master of his
own Life? What Condition can he perform? And if he be once allowed to be
Master of his own Life, the Despotical, Arbitrary Power of his Master ceases.
He that is Master of himself, and his own Life, has a right too to the means of
preserving it, so that as soon as Compact enters, Slavery ceases, and he so far
quits his Absolute Power, and puts an end to the state of War, who enters
into Conditions with his Captive" (383). 19 Throughout Locke's text, the con-
trast of the captive, the person owned by another, helps to define the liberal
subject by setting the very grounds of political identity in terms of property,
including both the pursuit of private goods and the possession of the self.
These definitions acquire further particularity through Locke's descrip-
tions of arbitrary governments, often supported by examples that he expected
 The Captive as Hero 69

his audience would immediately understand as cultures given to the taking

of captives, such as Middle Eastern cultures. Locke defines a proper govern-
ment, like that of Britain, as one subject to law, whereas a despotic governor
respects no guide but his own arbitrary will, as instanced especially by sum-
mary execution and seizure of private property. Throughout the Second Trea-
tise Oriental governments provide examples of tyranny that can be denoted
without gloss. Insisting on a people's right to depose an alien government of
occupation, Locke asks rhetorically, "Who doubts but the Grecian Chris-
tians descendants of the ancient possessors of that Country may justly cast
off the Turkish yoke which they have so long groaned under when ever they
have a power to do it?" (394). In a chapter defining "Civil or Political Soci-
ety," Locke's argument that "Absolute Monarchy ... is indeed inconsistent
with Civil Society" resorts to the abrupt and undetailed example of the "Grand
Signior," ruler of the Turkish empire (326). Both with this example and with
another that soon follows it, Locke assumes his readers' ready familiarity
with the stereotype of "Oriental" tyranny. In order to produce a rapid invo-
cation of the concept of monarchical tyranny, without the burden of defini-
tion or description, Locke relies on a brief citation of an Oriental captivity
narrative: "For what the Protection of Absolute Monarchy is, what kind of
Fathers of their Countries it makes Princes to be, and to what a degree of
Happiness and Security it carries Civil Society, where this sort of Govern-
ment is grown to perfection, he that will look into the late Relation of Ceylon,
may easily see" (327). Locke feels no need to include his own description of
what he regards as a perfect example of tyranny because he expected his
readers to accept and to recall the ethnographic production of this example
within Robert Knox's An Historical Relation ofthe Island Ceylon. In the year
of its publication (1681), this was the longest and most ethnographically de-
tailed captivity narrative in the English language. Locke expected his read-
ers to accept its ethnographic documentation as enormously powerful
evidence, fully adequate, through the vaguest of citations, to defining abso-
lute monarchy against a moderate, civil government such as Britain's.
Oriental captivity surfaces again, finally, at the transition between Locke's
penultimate chapter, "Of Tyranny," and his ultimate chapter, "Of the Disso-
lution of Government," where he argues for the rights of subjects to depose
unjust authorities. The final, transitional paragraph of the penultimate chap-
ter consists of a single rhetorical question, designed to invoke a chain of
circumstances denoting a progressive movement from just government to
tyranny and demanding the ordinary subject's recognition of the need for
rebellion: "how can a Man any more hinder himself from being perswaded
in his own Mind, which way things are going; or from casting about how to
70 NARRATIVES OF FACT

save himself, than he could from believing the captain of the Ship he was in,
was carrying him, and the rest of the Company to Algiers, when he found
him always steering that Course, through cross Winds" and a host of other
physical obstacles? Although a modem editor must gloss this passage for
twentieth-century readers by explaining that Algiers referred to a "slave
market," Locke contents himself with a bare reference to the city's name,
assuming his readers' readiness to accept the city as a self-evidently appro-
priate background for imagining a natural, laudable compulsion to resist unjust
tyranny (405). Ideas of captivity in a variety of Eastern lands, then, lie at the
basis of some of the most influential Western definitions of despotism, sla-
very, and the rights and freedoms of the liberal subject.
The nationalist drive of the Barbary captivity narrative continued in the
eighteenth century, adapted to the patriotic language of liberty, property,
and law that reigned after the revolution of 1688 and the publication of Locke's
Two Treatises. 20 In a preface to Thomas Pellow's 1739 account, his editor
declares that "Here ... the Reader will have a true and lively Picture of the
vast Miseries which those who are subject to an Arbitrary Government, con-
tinually groan under; and will, by that Means, have a higher and more de-
lightful Relish of the exceeding Happiness he enjoys, in living under an
English Government, where his Life and Property is always secure, where
he is subject to the Laws only, and where he cannot be violated by Arbitrary
Power."21 As so often in eighteenth-century British political discourse, insis-
tence on the arbitrary power of Oriental potentates helps to define and cel-
ebrate the British constitution as a moderate balance of national and private
interests. Spurred by the examples of texts such as Pellow's, Barbary captiv-
ity narratives, whether factual, novelistic, or dramatic, became popular in
the fledgling United States shortly after independence. As the new nation
sought to assert itself as a nation, it turned to a narrative pattern that had
already helped to enforce British nationalism, during a time when the Brit-
ish themselves found this pattern less appealing. 22
Drawing from an equally prominent topos of British political discourse,
eighteenth-century narratives of inquisitorial captivity often adopted a frame-
work that juxtaposed the moderate subjection of the British constitution
against images of Catholic absolutism. Dedicating his 1724 narrative to George
I, Isaac Martin thanks the king's intercession for his "Deliverance from the
House of Bondage," and declares that his publication aims to give "those of
Your Majesty's Subjects, who have not been Abroad and seen the cruel Ef-
fects of Popish Tyranny, a just Abhorrence for the Spirit of Bigotry and Per-
secution" evident in the Inquisition, and an appreciation for the "inestimable
Blessings they enjoy under Your Majesty's auspicious Reign." 23 In John
 The Captive as Hero 71

Coustos's account, published a year after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, the
nationalist implications of inquisitorial captivity relate directly to domestic
politics, as the narrator's preface upbraids the rebels as misguided subjects:
"I only wish that those mistaken Britons, whose hearts may be alienated from
His Majesty ... had seen the Inquisition."24 An even more explicit connec-
tion between the domestic, "Catholic" uprising and the experience of an
inquisitorial victim appears in a second preface, written by Coustos's editor,
"On Occasion of the Present Rebellion." The editor offers a broad assess-
ment of the captivity genre in terms of its potential contributions to Protes-
tant propaganda and liberal ideology: "every new Treatise of this kind, is an
Addition of Strength to the Protestant Cause; as such open more and more
the Eyes of Mankind with Regard to their natural Rights."25 Authors and
publishers produced such narratives because they believed that individu-
ated experiences of captivity in alien lands would grant readers a direct ap-
prehension of a contrast between liberty and tyranny, Britain and southern
Europe, Protestantism and Catholicism.
Framed by the interpretive guidance of such prefaces and dedications,
British captives in many lands came to stand as representatives not only of
their nation but also of modem peoples in general, and individuated experi-
ences of captivity often stood as proof of a colossal struggle between alleg-
edly modem peoples, who embraced the laws of nations and liberties, and
allegedly archaic peoples, whose practices flouted such concepts. The con-
trast between the captives' modernity and the archaism of captive-taking
peoples resulted both from the deployment of implicitly modem ethnographic
schema and from a standard repertoire of cultural oppositions. Within neatly
schematized ethnographic sections or within offhand comments interrupt-
ing chronological sections, captive narrators treated a variety of cultures with
the same set of cultural stereotypes, centered especially on the topics of
government and religion. These stereotypes emerged with especial force
and priority in early captivity narratives describing the Middle East before
later captivity narratives applied them to points all over the compass.

According with the general tendency of early modem ethnography, captivity

narratives set in many lands build a consistent opposition between a highly
cultivated British civilization and the archaic, degraded, or less cultivated
counterparts represented by captive-taking cultures. Many narrators por-
trayed the Middle East as a fallen civilization, corrupted by a false religion
and the oppression of tyrannical governments. T. Smith's 1670 narrative, for
example, declares of the Algerians that "Arts and Sciences are almost extinct
among them" (146). Narratives set across the globe create a sense of the
72 NARRATNES OF FACT

captors' cultural inferiority through a common strategy of ethnographic de-

scription, the reductive equation, in which a native custom or technology is
described as an inferior version of a recognizable feature of British life. Re-
calling his life as a Ceylonese captive, Robert Knox's 1681 narrative scoffs
that a cot and a mat "in their Account is an extraordinary Lodging."26 Simi-
larly, John Gyles's 1736 American narrative briefly mentions "Indian barns,
i.e., holes in the ground lined and covered with bark and then with dirt."27 At
one level this strategy renders the strange familiar, but it does so by trans-
forming a lacuna in the reader's experience into a cultural opposition, an
instance of one culture's superiority to another. Despite occasional admira-
tion for alien customs, captive narrators generally describe them in reduc-
tive terms.
One common point for ethnographic censure is religion. While early
American narratives tend to concentrate on the captives' spiritual affliction
and offer few observations on foreign religions, their British counterparts
give less weight to exploring the private religious experience of the captives
and more to documenting the religions of the captors as debased foils for
Protestant Christianity. Despite immense variation in Islamic, Native Ameri-
can, and Catholic religions, British captives rather consistently describe them
in opposition to the implied modernity and rationality of Protestantism, as
archaic systems of superstition built on native dispositions for subjection to
material impositions. T. Smith links his captors' superstition to powerful
priestly impositions, insisting that the Algerians "listen very much to the
Reports and Whimsies of their Soothsayers," who "make a great advantage
of the Peoples Folly" (146). Within many portraits of alien religions, super-
stition comes to stand as a failed approximation of Christianity. Thus Peter
Williamson's 1757 narrative describes Native American religion: "Although
they have but a very faint idea of a Deity, yet they are very superstitious, in
their way" (104). The topic of Ceylonese religion requires three chapters
and fourteen folio pages within the long ethnographic analysis that forms the
bulk of Robert Knox's 1681 text. When first introducing the topic, he abruptly
declares, "The Religion of the Countrey is Idolatry" (72), as if such phrasing
involves a bald statement of fact. Portraying the Ceylonese as "subjected to
the Devil," Knox represents their religion as fomenting a loss of mastery
over self and world, so that its adherents become "possest" and "run mad"
(77). He anticipates many other captives in viewing superstition as a subjec-
tion to the contingency of the material, declaring that his captors "are very
superstitious in making Observations of any little Accidents, as Omens por-
tending good to them or evil" (64). Within the Protestant self-promotion
that undergirds many captivity narratives, the religions of captive-taking cui-
 The Captive as Hero 13

tures often stand accused of conflating the sacred and the ordinary. Captives
such as Knox often scorn a native interest in connecting material minutiae to
a broader framework of the sacred while failing to recognize the parallels to
their own interest in the particular signs of providence.
Even more than alien religions, alien governments provided a frequent
site for cultural opposition. When ethnographic sections turned to the topic
of government, they described what seemed inevitable systems of despotism
against the implicit standard of the self-consciously modem political system
of Britain. Captivity narratives set across the globe relied on a standard as-
sortment of images, including a corrupt political hierarchy, a luxurious but
ineffectual court, a despotic but unproductive monarch, and fawning upstart
ministers, all given to cruelty, intrigue, hypocrisy, and rapine. By linking the
political tyranny they described to a false epistemology and a misuse oflan-
guage, captivity narratives defined the British constitution, parliament, and
legal system as modem and rational. These images and oppositions devel-
oped with especial vehemence in accounts of Islamic captivity before later
captivity narratives applied them with less facility to the political milieus of
other lands.
The widespread European image of the Orient as a land of seemingly
inevitable despotism, enforced by an ancient set of type characters from the
Bible, heroic romance, and political history, surely must have influenced the
captives' portraits of the social and political environments in which they had
found themselves enslaved. 28 A hoary language of Orientalist vituperation
surfaces in Thomas Phelps's 1685 description of a Moroccan emperor as a
"Monster of Africk, a composition of Gore and Dust, whom nothing can
attone but humane Sacrifices," and whose "Tyrannical humour" makes "him
Butcher many thousands with his own hands," while even an "inconsider-
able circumstance, will raise such a caprice in the Emperours Noddle, with-
out any other provocation, as to endanger all the Heads before him." Like
the superstition attributed to captive-taking peoples, such despotism seems
based on an improper evaluation of the ordinary and the significant, whereas
the epistemological reassessment performed by modem, Western systems
of law seems to have properly divided capital from trivial crimes. The ar-
chaic epistemology of tyranny receives further emphasis when Phelps de-
scribes the emperor's ambassador as "a great Master in the art of Dissimulation
and Flattery, a qualification, which seems very requisite in a Courtier of such
a Barbarous Bloody Tyrant as his Master is." The danger of this antiquated
manipulation of language is illustrated when the ambassador travels to En-
gland: "by his fineness and Moorish subtilty, he stole into the Inclinations of
the well-meaning and good natur'd English," and this "deep dissimulation"
74 NARRATIVES OF FACT

assisted his abuse of English slaves in Barbary.29 The alleged tyranny, subtlety,
and irrationality of Oriental government help to define, by implicit contrast,
the liberty, honesty, and rationality of the English people, especially as rep-
resented by the former captive himself, whose preface takes pride in his
"plain-dealing." In the accounts of former captives, not only does the Orient's
archaic epistemology buttress its tyranny, but its tyranny in tum stifles the
progress of civilization and economy. According to T. Smith's account of Al-
geria, "the great swallow the little ones, as Fishes; they feed upon them, and
from their Labours derive a maintenance to their idle Bodies: a sad encour-
agement to Laziness and Vice, and the grand Cause of the Disorders of [the]
Nation" (46). From the perspective of this captive merchant, the Orient car-
ries a seemingly natural disposition for trade-stifling tyranny.
The standard patterns for describing Middle Eastern states also found
ready application in captivity narratives describing points further east and
south. Applying the standard portrait of Orientalist despotism to Malaysia,
Walter Vaughan's 1714 narrative focuses on the arbitrary justice oflocal gov-
ernments, especially on the possibility of death at "but a Word of the King's."30
When Robert Knox's ethnographic account of Ceylon turns to the topic of
politics, he shifts the motifs of Orientalist despotism from the Islamic Mid-
east to a Hindu-Buddhist island. Like Smith, Knox attributes the low state of
the civilization he describes to its despotic government. He finds the "People
discouraged from Industry by the Tyranny they are under," especially as the
king wastes their labor in vast ornamental projects, so "that he may inure
them to Slavery" (32, 44). As in many other early modem descriptions of
Islamic states, the implicit standard of modem British law underscores this
portrait of native political despotism: "here are no Laws, but the Will of the
King, and whatsoever proceeds out ofhis mouth is an immutable Law" (101).
Knox handles the king with the standard Orientalist vocabulary for describ-
ing despotism, calling him immeasurably proud, "crafty, cautious, a great
dissembler," "naturally disposed to Cruelty," even though his people "give
him divine worship" (38-39). In this typically Orientalist account, the con-
centrated power of despotism does not produce effective government, and
the king represents an antitype of an ideal Western monarch and Western
standards of order: "So far is he from regarding the good of his Countrey,
that he rather endeavors the Destruction thereof' (45). Knox, furthermore,
describes the king as "most pleased with high and windy Titles" (38), and this
foolish predilection weakens his power, allowing the sycophantic and ma-
nipulative Dutch to gain a foothold in Ceylon. As in portraits of Oriental
governments more generally, corruption spills from the leader down through
 The Captive as Hero 75

the hierarchy of his underlings, so that Ceylonese soldiers employ "Craft,

more than ... Courage," while "Inferior Officers commonly get their Places
by Bribery," and the state constantly suffers because of conspiracies and
mutual incriminations among subordinate officials (52-56).
In contrast with captivity accounts from Asia and Africa, American nar-
ratives generally failed to distinguish a developed political system among the
Amerindians, reflecting the contemporary European tendency to reduce
Native American social structures to an anarchic state of extreme liberty.
American captives found it easier to invoke the language of tyranny when
describing the French Canadians, drawing on a long-standing British ten-
dency to associate the French with absolute monarchy, military aggression,
and papal authority. 31 Within John Williams's 1707 narrative, the duplicitous
proselytism of various captors confirms a more general portrait of the French
as naturally proud, "boasting, triumphant"; one Frenchman speaks in a "lofty
manner of great things to be done by them and having the world . . . in
subjection to them" (Vaughan and Clark, 192). As anti-French propaganda
increased with the wars of the mid eighteenth century, captivity narratives
such as Peter Williamson's could attribute American captivities to a combi-
nation of "French Chicanery and Savage Cruelty," ultimately caused by
"Schemes for gratifying the Ambition of a tyrannic Monarch[, Louis XV, and
by] the weak Contrivances and indolent Measures, of blundering Ministers"
(10, 77). With a strong emphasis on trickery, sycophancy, and a corrupt hier-
archy, the stereotypical vision of the French polity allowed American captiv-
ity narratives to deploy the same images that previous captivity narratives
had drawn from early modem Orientalism.
Inquisition narratives produced similar portraits of the judiciary meth-
ods of Catholic tribunals. Prefaces and editorial comments often directly
attacked Catholic absolutism and championed the British political system,
citing the experience of the individual captive as an instance of judiciary
practices that allegedly pervaded southern Europe, and thus furnishing an
interpretive framework for the events of the captivity experience. Within
many of these narratives, the primary method of documenting the judicial
depravity of the Inquisition involves long, schematically organized dialogues,
in which the inquisitors, apparently hoping to force the captives into confes-
sion or conversion, drill them with a series of seemingly random, absurd, and
pointless questions and accusations. Such dialogues provide a circumstantial
dramatization of Protestant and Enlightenment attacks on the improprieties
of inquisitorial method. A particularly vivid example occurs in the 1724 nar-
rative of Isaac Martin, which devotes over three quarters of its length to
76 NARRATIVES OF FACT

inquisitorial dialogues. As Martin handles himself with an air of scornful con-

fidence and forceful honesty, these dialogues portray inquisitorial language
and knowledge as a system of fundamental irrationality, especially in con-
trast with the self-evident proof that Protestant inspiration or enlightened
argument seems to grant the captive. Martin scoffs at his persecutors' tech-
nique of asking questions to which they already know the answers, such as
questions about his name and background. When the inquisitors ask ques-
tions about the fundamental tenets of Protestant belief, such as whether he
worships the Virgin Mary, his simple responses to these questions give this
Protestant exemplar an air of natural candor and uncomplicated truth while
the inquisitors seem conniving and disingenuous. 32
Whether set in an inquisitorial court, an Islamic state, or the American
wilderness, a captivity narrative's most precise register of alien tyranny was
its detailed documentation of torture. Throughout the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries, torture occupied a crucial place in the distinction that Eu-
ropean intellectuals increasingly drew between Europe's enlightened
modernity and its barbarous past. In the same period, moreover, English-
men took particular pride in the absence of torture within the common law
tradition. 33 Within Anglophone captivity narratives set across the globe, tor-
ture helped both to augment the ethnographic evidence for the depravity of
archaic, captive-taking cultures and to establish the character of the captive
protagonist, as one capable of withstanding the threat or the actuality of physi-
cal coercion. As the previous chapter has shown, many narratives took care
to document torture through personal testimony in the plain style. Some
narratives, moreover, were organized as catalogues of individuated torture
scenes even if the captive narrator did not suffer personal victimization. In
Francis Brooks's aptly named Barbarian Cruelty (1693), for example, docu-
mentation of torture provides the central rhetorical impulse, leading to the
inclusion of several particularized narratives of the tortures undergone by
other captives. Torture scenes also command a prominent place among the
engravings in such narratives. Francis Knight's 1640 narrative of Algiers, for
example, opens with a particularly gruesome frontispiece. The first edition
of John Coustos's 1746 inquisitorial narrative includes only three plates, all
depicting tortures that he documents in five and a half pages of personal,
closely detailed, and schematically organized narration. Although neither
Robert Knox nor his fellow captives suffered torture in Ceylon, three of the
plates that illustrate his ethnography display gory images of native techniques
for punishing malefactors, such as crushing them under elephants' feet and
full-body impalement on a vertical pole. 34 Thus, even in narratives where
 The Captive as Hero 77

The torturers in this image from John Coustos's inquisitorial narrative seem both
animated by innate, passionate cruelty and guided by the impassive oversight of
authority. (By permission of the British Library. 50l.d.5)

torture does not provide a title, framing principle, or autobiographical inci-

dent, the threat of torture always looms over the captivity experience, help-
ing to document alien cultures as debased opposites for the modernity of the
British polity.
The rhetorical strategies for documenting torture as a feature of alien
cultures migrated from British captivity narratives to American ones in the
mid eighteenth century. In the midst of John Gyles's 1736 narrative, after he
documents one method of torture as practiced on another captive, he sus-
pends narration in order to list five other methods (Vaughan and Clark, 101).
According to Gyles, torture was an inevitable feature of Amerindian culture:
"A captive among the Indians is exposed to all manners of abuse and to the
utmost tortures unless his master or some of his master's relations lay down
a ransom" (Vaughan and Clark, 100). Torture is central to the most frequently
published American captivity narrative, Peter Williamson's French and In-
"Execution by an Elephant" occupies a much larger place among the
graphic images accompanying Knox's text than it does amidst his own
description. (This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.)
 The Captive as Hero 79

dian Cruelty, which followed not only the format but also the naming con-
vention of Francis Brooks's 1693 Barbarian Cruelty. 35 Williamson's text ful-
fills the promise of its title not only by documenting his own torture in a
first-person voice, but also by including a host of particularized third-person
scenes that he purportedly witnessed both before and during his captivity. In
a typically gory and ethnographically reductive example, he describes how
the Indians "not only scalped [one victim], but immediately roasted him,
before he was dead; then like Canibals, for want of other Food, eat his whole
Body, and of his Head, made what they call'd, an Indian Pudding" (21). After
Williamson's precedent, American narratives were often organized as cata-
logues of torture, which came to stand as a definitive feature both of Native
American culture and the American captivity experience. Williamson's text
was not the only American torture catalogue to imitate the titling conven-
tions used by British predecessors, and the quick migration of these conven-
tions suggests the enormous advertising and ideological weight that torture
carried on both sides of the Atlantic. Two American reprints of Coustos's
Inquisition narrative carried the main title, Horrid Tortures (1798 and 1800),
while a similarly phrased title, Horrid Indian Cruelties, headed a 1799 print-
ing of a particularly gruesome American catalogue of tortures, the Manheim
anthology. Even today, torture dominates popular understanding of the cap-
tivity experience, furnishing one of the most common visual images of Ameri-
can cultural contact, that of an aboriginal death dance around a burning
European.
As the global context of English captivity narratives reveals, the genre
constantly resorted to a set of cultural stereotypes that created a narrative
dynamic centered on the forced imposition of an allegedly inferior culture
on the representative of an allegedly superior culture. The most important
areas for cultural scorn, government and religion, were precisely those that
most directly affected the captive's sense of cultural identity. Captives in many
lands encountered compulsory proselytism, and their descriptions of alien
religions portrayed systems of coercion, deception, and submission to the
material. Nearly all narrators, moreover, resented their captivities as unjust
subjugations, and they often matched their resentment with portraits of na-
tive governments as systems of insatiable tyranny and abject slavery. At one
level these stereotypes represent foils for the qualities that the British wished
to see in themselves, modernism, rationalism, and liberty. But at another
level they represent a harsh reaction to the fundamental crisis of identity
produced by the situation of captivity, by the captive's subjugation and par-
ticipation within an allegedly inferior culture. The next section will consider
the genre's variable methods for handling this crisis through narrative struc-
80 NARRATIVES OF FACT

tures that produced variable patterns of captive agency and even of captive
heroism.

Captivity narratives set across the globe celebrate the liberties and Protes-
tantism of Britain against the cultural systems of captive-taking peoples, por-
trayed as naturally prone to the machinations of despots, priestly charlatans,
and physical impositions, and therefore necessarily reduced to forcible meth-
ods of conversion when faced with the seemingly natural freedom and ratio-
nality of a captured Briton. Against native systems of governance and belief
that seem fundamentally lacking in ideals of personal mastery, captivity nar-
ratives often develop a heroism of resistance, insularity, and self-control. But
this represents one among many varieties of captive heroism. Instead oflead-
ing automatically to a single, consistent model of the persecuted self, the
captivity experience raises fundamental crises of identity by dramatizing a
series of personal transformations. After an initial agon results from the
captive's transformation from the status of free Briton to the degraded posi-
tion of slave, commodity, or object, the protagonist undergoes further inter-
nal struggles, perhaps in reconciling such abjection with the doctrine of
providence, perhaps in fortifYing the self against external compulsions, or
perhaps in marshaling the scattered resources of effective action. Often these
struggles coalesce in various forms of heroic aggression, ranging from escape
to warfare and economic activity, and often these behaviors resemble the ac-
tivities of British colonists, whether settlers, soldiers, or traders. In its global
context, the captivity genre does not reveal a persistent opposition between
the protagonist as passive, disembodied observer and the captor as active force
of nature; instead a tension between abject passivity and the potential for he-
roic action arises as a basic condition of the captivity experience.
The heroism of passive resistance developed as early as the first English
captivity narrative, the 1587 account of the Jesus' detention in Tripoli. After
the capture of the ship's crew, a local tyrant commands his subordinates to
impose forcible conversion on one of the English captives, "to make him
Turke, and they did so, and circumcised him, and would have had him speake
the words that thereunto belonged, but he answered them stoutlie that he
would not: and although they had put on him the habit of a Turke, yet said
he, Christian I was borne, and so I will remaine, though you force me to do
otherwise."36 This pattern of stalwart resistance to physical coercion soon
became a standard pattern within the captivity genre. Many narratives de-
veloped an opposition between the forced imposition of outward cultural
forms, such as clothing, speech, and gesture, and an inner personal essence
that remained true to its cultural origins despite outward alterations. Other
 The Captive as Hero 81

narratives simply defined the inner strength of a Christian soul against the
coercion and torture of the body. In the 1595 travail narrative of Richard
Hasleton, for example, an inquisitor threatens the captive protagonist with
death ifhe does not embrace Catholicism, but he retorts, "you cannot prevaile
though I be now in your hands, where you have power over my body, yet
have you no power over my soule."37 Similarly, Edward Webbe's 1590 narra-
tive records his efforts to resist his, captors' Islamic proselytism, "though by
them greevouslie beaten naked for my labour, and reviled in most detestable
sorte ... but I give God thankes he gave me strength to abide with patience
these crosses." Webbe fortifies himself by recollecting Scripture, a "comfort"
that makes him inwardly "resolute" and capable of resisting outward tempta-
tion. As his preface boasts and his narrative illustrates, he might have lived in
"prosperitie" if he had embraced Islam or served the Spanish. 38 The heroism
of resistance encompasses both a struggle against forcible conversion and a
struggle against the material temptations offered by systems of government
and religion whose seeming archaism dooms them to such expedients.
Later Islamic captivity narratives extended this model of heroism through
increasingly detailed episodes and more overtly political oppositions between
the cultures of captive and captor. When Francis Knight declared in 1640
that he and his fellow Algerian slaves felt a "resolution to attaine libertie or
death," he provided an early formulation of what was to become a constant
refrain in the literature of Barbary captivity. 39 Smith's 1670 narrative details a
variety of sexual and monetary temptations offered by his Algerian captors in
their efforts to convert him, but he manages "to prefer the Life of a Slave
with Honour, and my Religion before the greatest Riches and the most pleas-
ant Life" (216). A particularly lengthy (twenty-page) account of heroic resis-
tance to apostasy surfaces in Vaughan's 1714 narrative of captivity among the
Moslems of Malaysia. Constantly tempted, cajoled, and ordered to embrace
Islam and "turn Malaya's," Vaughan and his companions resist offers of wealth,
power, and wives, but suffer particularly from threats of circumcision, pun-
ishment, and death: "if the Case were so that we must either die, or yield to
their wicked Impositions, we had all resolved upon Death."40 Although his
companions relent somewhat, Vaughan continues to resist even when his cap-
tors threaten to "bind me Hand and Foot, and Cut or Circumcise me by Force,"
but he declares that while his inner "Resolutions remain' d firm and unshaken
it would avail nothing."41 As with other captive-narrators, Vaughan's account of
suffering and resistance enhances his heroism by separating him from other
British captives who could not match the fullness of his resistance.
American captivity narratives also celebrated their protagonists' heroic
resistance to the material impositions of seemingly archaic religions, espe-
82 NARRATIVES OF FACT

ciallywhen, as in the account of John Williams (1707), the captives reach the
settlements of Catholic Canada. Like many other French settlers and French-
influenced Indians portrayed in these narratives, Williams's native master
tries to impose a material conversion on his captive, forcing him to cross
himself and attend mass. There the Puritan minister sees "a great confusion
instead of gospel order," and later he derides a procession as given to "great
pomp, carrying (as they said) as an holy relic one of the bones of St. Paul"
(Vaughan and Clark, 185, 193). In addition to superstition, ceremony, and
disorder, Williams also associates his "popish captivity" with the "subtlety,"
"wiles," and "witty strategems" of the many "cunning crafty enemies" who
try to convert his fellow English captives (Vaughan and Clark, 205, 208). An
extended narrative example of these strategies involves a complex hoax by
the French, who claim that Williams's children and neighbors have converted
and produce a fake letter from his son as corroboration (Vaughan and Clark,
204-8). While French religion thus seems a chaos of deceptive appearances
and superstitious attachments to the material, Williams's resistance to such
forms defines a heroism of orderly self-fortification and rigid adherence to
the intangible.
Beyond a passive adherence to British culture, the heroism of resistance
often develops as a struggle to embrace more active efforts to reverse the
impositions and abject conditions of captivity. Michelle Burnham has ana-
lyzed the tension between passivity and activity in several American captivity
narratives as a function of gender, resulting especially when female captives
adopt aggressive behaviors in violation of cultural prescriptions for female
passivity. 42 Another kind of tension results when narrators describe their pas-
sivity under abject conditions, a passivity that seems to violate the self-direc-
tion, or at least the self-possession, that readers expect from an author,
especially when the author is an overseas traveler and a male. Captive narra-
tors often adopt a voice of anguish in exaggerating the conditions of captivity
through such techniques as likening themselves to animals. When Robert
Drury and his companions are shipwrecked and detained in Madagascar,
they must remain passive in their captivity because they lack the weapons
and numbers for resistance, and "it galled us to the quick, to think how we
were forced up the country at the pleasure of heathenish negroes, like a
flock of sheep, without power to make terms for ourselves like men."43 As
suggested by such images of animality, the passivity that results from captiv-
ity seems tantamount to a loss of civilization and manhood.
Images of animality often arise at the moment of sale, as the captive
narrators bitterly lament their transformation into commodities. In James
Wadsworth's 1629 account of captivity in Sallee, he describes how he and his
 The Captive as Hero 83

companions were "crammed like Capons, that we might grow fatter and bet-
ter for sale."44 Sale in a public market place is a standard motif within Bar-
bary captivity narratives, and the abject commodification of a captive can
raise considerable tension even within accounts of captivity in America, where
regular slave markets never developed: John Gyles, for example, mourns his
sale from an Amerindian to a Frenchman, declaring, "The word sold . . .
almost broke my heart!" (Vaughan and Clark, 125). Another troubled motif
of passive abjection within the American accounts is the running of the gaunt-
let, as former captives painfully describe their entry into a tribe or village
through two rows of Amerindians who reviled and beat them, although some-
times in only a perfunctory manner. 45 A similar custom often surfaces in ac-
counts of Islamic captivity. In Adam Elliot's 1682 account of his arrival in
Sallee, the captives "were forct like a drove of Sheep, through the several
streets, the people crouding to gaze upon us and curse us."46 Like the Ameri-
can gauntlet, this custom provokes moments of distinct tension within the
captivity genre, recorded in a highly emotive language that suggests not only
cultural animosity but also the fearful recognition that the subordination and
passivity imposed by the captivity experience permit total absorption and
debasement within an alien culture. 47
As a narrator plots his experiences in captivity, its abject conditions can
seem to threaten permanent damage to the active drive that many texts pre-
suppose as a grounding feature of British character. After a lengthy captivity
in Algiers, William Okeley comments that, even though he and some fellow
captives had achieved a moderate livelihood as traders, still "the Truth is, in
time we were so habituated to Bondage, that we almost forgot Liberty, and
grew stupid, and sensless of our Slavery ... like those Israelites in Babylon,
who being once settled, forgot Canaan." In this case economic adaptation to
an alien land seems to threaten the captive's attachment to his native soil and
to his concomitant liberty. As Okeley struggles to regain his active drive for
liberty and homeland, he describes himself as forced to muster "those few
Wits Captivity had left me."48 Although he manages to overcome the lassi-
tude entailed by captivity, this happy outcome closes a lengthy, detailed ex-
amination of the psychological damage inflicted by passive subjugation.
A similarly detailed account of the unnerving effects of captivity appears
in Adam Elliot's 1682 account of his captivity in Sallee. While still aboard
ship, he and his companions are tied to a mast and whipped, then put below
decks, where their captors indulge themselves in beatings, "insulting most
intolerably over us, lifting up our dejected heads and spitting upon our Faces,
not vouchsafing us any other Name than Dogs. I must confess this inhumane
usage was very hard to digest at first, but a little time and the discipline of
84 NARRATIVES OF FACT

our skillful Tutors, easily reconcil'd us to it." Here and elsewhere, Elliot's
rhetoric anticipates perplexed or skeptical reactions and tries to forestall them
by evoking sympathy for his suffering or contempt for his captors. Once the
captives reach shore, they undergo a forced march through a desert and
become so weak and hungry that "our condition of life must appear very
pitiful, seeing we long' d for the place of our Captivity, and panted after our
Affiictions." When subsequently locked in a particularly noisome prison, Elliot
even looks forward to his sale. After this sale, when his new owner regularly
beats him, forces him to labor for a "black-moor," and assigns him "harsher
and severer tasks" on a daily basis, the resulting "lassitude" threatens to undo
his will to escape. 49 Although he eventually rouses the active faculties of hero-
ism and manages a solitary escape, his narrative progress through abject rec-
onciliation to defiant self-preservation builds on an implicit contrast with the
alternative represented by the majority of captives, who could not match his
heroic progress or return home to tell their stories, who apparently became
inured by harsh treatment to subordination and alterity.
Despite the always present threat of abjection, captivity protagonists
exhibit a variety of heroic activities. Beyond the effort devoted to escape,
one particularly surprising form of heroic action, given the abased condi-
tions of captivity, involves economic success. In a famous instance of such
success, Mary Rowlandson manages to support herself occasionally by sell-
ing her sewing skills among the tribe who captured her; several feminist
readings have contrasted this relative economic "independence" with her
economic coverture under Puritan patriarchy. 5° A somewhat different vision
of captive entrepreneurial skill appears in William Okeley's Algerian narra-
tive. After his master forces him to adapt to the labor of a seaman and a
weaver, he arrives at economic independence as a trader in tobacco and wine.
His success fulfills an implicit nationalist and colonial agenda, suggesting
that even subjugated Britons can display a seemingly natural economic acu-
men within environments that seem ripe for its application. A captive's eco-
nomic progress often stands as a reversal of the abject conditions of captivity,
as in William Vaughan's Malaysian narrative. At the court of a petty poten-
tate, Vaughan first finds a means of supporting himself by entertaining the
natives with a common "trick of cutting a String in Two." After a brief period
of service as a court clown, he eventually arrives at the more impressive
social standing of a doctor and finds himself "mightily in Favour, enjoying as
much Freedom in the whole Compound as if I had been at Home with my
Relations."51 Thus develops a plot in which an improperly subjugated cap-
tive seems to demonstrate Western superiority, as he obtains a limited free-
 The Captive as Hero 85

dom within captivity through the seemingly natural effects of European knowl-
edge, registered from the depths of clowning to the heights of medicine.
In one of the fullest visions of a captive's economic success, Knox's
Ceylonese narrative establishes a sharp contrast between his commercial
activity and a stagnated native economy. At various points in his ethnographic
section, he declares that "the Chingulays are Naturally, a people given to
sloth and laziness," that "their Manufactures are few," and that "their Learn-
ing is but small" (32, 96, 109). In contrast with this alleged failure to tum the
native environment to productive use, Knox and his fellow captives rise to
rapid capitalist success. They begin on the small scale of knitting and selling
caps but soon progress to lending com, trading other goods, and buying land.
Eventually the author and a partner amass so much profit that their neigh-
bors must come "to beg or borrow" (149). On a small scale Knox comes to
emulate the patterns of economic colonialism, beginning in the typically
British manner of selling cloth manufactures before securing the economic
dependence of his former trading partners. His text rationalizes this success,
moreover, through various tenets of colonial ideology. On the one hand he
attributes his success to a divine sanction of his people, one that raises the
English above other foreign peoples resident in Ceylon: "by the blessing of
God our Nation hath lived and still doth, in as good fashion as any other
People or Nation whatsoever" (146). On the other hand, he recognizes that
the success of the English also depends on their "having the Language, and
being acquainted with the Manners and Customs of the People" (140). Since
an extended captivity enforces such a developed acquaintance, the accultur-
ated captive comes to seem an ideal colonist.

As the Knox text vividly illustrates, the captive was a figure who offered Brit-
ons particularly salient possibilities for imagining the nature of their colonial
activity, its origins, its prospects, its potential problems and dangers. At the
level of origins, captivity raised questions about who initiated c~ltural ag-
gression. Many a captivity narrative opened with a voice of innocence, posit-
ing the protagonist as a traveler interested only in fair exchange, before the
capture itself signaled an inherent disposition for aggression among the cap-
tive-taking people, evidence for an inherent tyranny that seemed to make
them an appropriate vehicle for European oversight. When the captive sub-
sequently moved from subjugation and passivity to liberty and economic suc-
cess, his transformation seemed to mark colonial aggression as justified
revenge in a manner that carried historic implications. Especially in the case
of seventeenth-century narratives set on the Barbary Coast, the movement
86 NARRATIVES OF FACT

from subjugation to aggression not only replicated the historical situation of

Christian Britain with regard to the Islamic states of Barbary but suggested
the possibility of further British advance in an area of great British interest.
But the very nature of foreign subjugation always carried a surplus sense of
terror and transgression that competed with the national pride evoked by
the captive's accomplishments. The captive provided a vivid, concrete for-
mulation of a paradoxical yet crucial tenet of colonial ideology: that the seeds
of colonial power lay in the abjection of the isolated adventurer.
Throughout the period covered by this study, the nature of British colo-
nialism led both its practitioners and the metropolitan populace to view the
project less with a sense of the colonists' systematic cultural domination of
other peoples than with a sense of the colonists' dependence, vulnerability,
and transformation when surrounded by alien cultures. The situation of the
early modem colonist, paradoxically, was something like that of the foreign
captive. The initial phase of European colonialism, notwithstanding the highly
visible exception of the Spanish conquests, largely involved the creation of
isolated trading outposts in foreign lands. Throughout the sixteenth century,
most British voyages to America focused on trade and exploration rather
than conquest and conversion. Even though the east coast of North America
would soon see the most extensive European settlement in the Americas,
the groundwork for this settlement developed through sixteenth-century
trade, in which British interlopers depended on the material and intellectual
aid of Amerindian rulers and adapted to their prescriptions for the processes
of trade. 52 Even after the coastal settlement, frontier encounters between
Amerindians and Britons still occurred in terms partially dictated by the na-
tives, who tried with some success to control European access to their re-
sources. Rapidly waning but still extensive Amerindian cultures posed real
threats to frontier communities, and the isolation of these communities oc-
cupied an inordinately large place in the colonial imagination. 53 Beyond the
American captivity narratives themselves, images of intransigent, energetic,
and hostile Amerindians are central to a widespread Puritan theme compar-
ing the New England settlements to the Israelite captivity in Egypt. Images
of a besieged, potentially backsliding Puritan community carried much in-
fluence outside the Puritan colonies and even after the Puritan decline, as
American settlers continued to interpret their expansion in Puritan terms. Even
as late as 1782, with the highly successful publication of Cr{wecoeur's Letters
from an American Farmer; American settlers could imagine themselves as iso-
lated interlopers, housed in scattered outposts, surrounded by a still extensive,
even robust native culture, with much appeal for uneasy settlers.
Outside of the thirteen colonies, the image of the surrounded, depen-
 The Captive as Hero 87

dent, and corruptible colonist was tied especially to the figures of the eco-
nomic diplomat and the colonial trader. The European colonial trader of the
early modern era was a self-supporting military agent and sometimes a pri-
vateer. When sailing far from home, he and his men faced a constant threat
of capture either from non-European natives or from European competi-
tors. In order to trade in alien lands, he depended on the conciliation of alien
rulers, always facing the possibility of capture, detainment, and execution.
Colonial trade, even the African slave trade, centered on "factories," for-
tresses tolerated only to the extent that they provided personal benefits to
native rulers. In the various lands of the "Orient," from the Barbary States to
Japan, European traders and ambassadors encountered highly successful
autocrats, who usually forced them into closely watched enclaves. The writ-
ings of British diplomats and traders often complain of the indignities to
which they submitted in complying with the forms demanded by "Oriental
despotism." Historians who study the earliest British settlers in the East high-
light their insularity from the alien cultures that surrounded them and the
psychological pain of extreme cultural isolation. 54 It was the colonist's ma-
neuvers within a position of subservience and alienation, however, that ulti-
mately produced the political and economic footholds underlying later
administrative power. Encounters between powerful native patrons and colo-
nizing clients led to increased European power, as British ships began to
supplant and eventually to suppress native ships, and as the very process of
colonial trade redirected native patterns of production and exchange to sat-
isf)r an increasing dependence on European goods and capital. Neverthe-
less, the conditions of early colonial trade could easily lead Europeans to
imagine the first colonists as relatively powerless figures, surrounded by hos-
tile alien cultures, dependent on powerful governments, and in many ways
analogous to captives.
Within the captivity narratives themselves, the advancement of protago-
nists within foreign societies often entails dangers as well as rewards, pro-
ducing a tense vision of the captive as a masterfully effective yet dangerously
subordinate subject. When captives achieve success within Oriental societ-
ies, colonial heroism can take the form of a wily management within the
strictures of a debased government, as the captives limit their advancement
out of fear that it will expose them to the tumults and punishments associ-
ated with Oriental politics. Among his Algerian captors, Joseph Pitts easily
masters the "Turkish character beyond their Expectation" but then prudently
limits his linguistic mastery in order to prevent promotion within the gov-
ernment (True and Faithful Account [1738], 225). Similarly, after Knox's
Ceylonese successes, he receives a summons to the king's service but avoids
88 NARRATIVES OF FACT

the call, not only because he fears it will interfere with his plans for escape,
but also because he believes that it will lead inevitably to the king's disfavor
and to summary execution, "as happens to all that serve him" (151). In these
accounts, the captive virtues that can afford pride to British readers, such as
a prudent mastery of personal inclinations, an intellectual grasp of alien cul-
tures, and an overwhelming drive for liberty, combine to enable both the
protagonists' successful mastery of alien cultures and their recognition of
the safe limits of personal advancement within such cultures. This recogni-
tion raises ambiguities within a success that might seem capable of offering
an unalloyed source of national pride, but that is ultimately revealed as a
degraded victory within a degraded, tyrannical culture.
For a captive colonist such as Knox, success amidst an alien culture re-
quires avoiding native systems of advancement and concentrating one's en-
ergies on the road home. In the early stages of his captivity, he finds little
prospect for escape because Ceylon lacks a modern road system, "here be-
ing no great High-ways that run thro the Land, but a multitude oflittle Paths"
(153). However, Knox and partner come to know this chaotic and alien sys-
tem, as a result of their economic practice, better than the natives them-
selves. Eight or nine years of itinerant trading enable the protagonists to
grasp the labyrinthine intricacies of the roads as their trade enables them to
penetrate further away from the center of Chingalay society and nearer its
borders. Not only does their geographical knowledge contribute to their eco-
nomic success, but this success further combines with this knowledge to
enable their escape. As Knox recalls, "every Voyage we gathered more expe-
rience" and "grew acquainted both with the People and the Paths" (154).
Their economic activity provides a cover for their inquiries about the lay of
the land and eventually for their escape, as the natives believe "we had made
these inquiries for the sake of our Trade, but our selves had other designs in
them" (153). Thus the captivity and escape of Knox and partner offer yet
another analogue for the activity of colonial traders, as they patiently wait
and plan for delayed rewards, as they exceed the natives in their knowledge
of the land, and as their easy economic success confirms the alleged laziness
of the natives. Like colonial traders, moreover, Knox and partner must bal-
ance conflicting drives towards penetration of alien intricacies and a return
to the British homeland.
Beyond the implicit equation between captive and colonist entailed by
common patterns of economic mastery, captivity narratives often more liter-
ally transform their protagonists into figures of colonial conquest, figures
who turn the tables of domination at both a personal and a national level.
Near the close of Francis Knight's narrative, he outlines a plan for colonial
 The Captive as Hero 89

intervention in Algiers, proposing the establishment of an English factory

and declaring that Algerian wealth "is sufficient to answere the charge of
that Navie and Annie that shall be sent to Conquer her." Knight recom-
mends both his colonial plan and his ethnographic knowledge through a con-
trast with recent English efforts in diplomacy, which failed because the
negotiators "wanted experience in the Country." The former captive's ardent
desire to enlist his experience in a national project to conquer Algiers be-
comes further evident in his text's peroration: "Oh that I might live to be an
actour in a Marshall way, to see her Conquest, they feare none so much as
our English Nation."55 Because the narrative closes by dramatizing Knight's
escape, this personal transition from captivity to freedom provides an im-
plicit analogue for the English nation's relationship with Algiers, as one of
past violation authorizing future conquest. Within accounts such as Knight's,
the former captive's personal experience of subjugation, conferring both a
comprehensive cultural knowledge and the motive of revenge, seems to au-
thorize his rise to colonial leadership, just as, on a national level, the alleg-
edly "barbarian" tactic of capture creates an imperative for British territorial
intervention.
Some narratives offer more literal equations between British conquest
of alien cultures and the intellectual mastery conferred by captive experi-
ence. When a captivity narrative concludes by showing how a captive's per-
sonal knowledge can contribute to British naval power and trade, this closure
offers a literal apotheosis of the ethnographic mastery demonstrated in the
text's portions of travel description. In the 1685 account of Thomas Phelps,
after the narrator escapes from a Moroccan port and meets an English war-
ship, he boldly proposes a plan to guide the English into port so that they can
fire the local navy, and his text expresses keen satisfaction at the fulfillment
of his plan. The intellectual mastery gained through the captive's personal
experience rectifies the seeming national imbalance entailed by the situa-
tion of captivity, as the plot moves the British protagonist from a seemingly
unnatural position of enslavement among an uncivilized people to a seem-
ingly more natural position of colonial aggression. Similarly, after Knox es-
capes from Ceylon, his vast expertise on the kingdom of Cande leads the
Dutch to consult his knowledge of the king's political strength. Even more
tellingly, after Robert Drury's escape from Madagascar, he guides an English
ship in a slaving tour of his former home, dresses in Malagasy costume, and
draws on his extensive personal experience as a slave when negotiating with
local slave dealers. Here even the slave status of the captive contributes to
his experiential mastery over an alien culture. The view from the bottom of
an alien system of despotism, it seems, grants the captive a particularly strong
90 NARRATIVES OF FACT

understanding of that system and an ability to manipulate it for European

ends. Through experiential mastery of an alien environment, the captive
becomes a leading participant in the colonial mastery of this environment,
whether through conquest, trade, or slavery.
Overt textual applications of captive knowledge to colonial situations
became important in the Anglo-American context during the second half of
the eighteenth century, with the aggressive propaganda that marks such nar-
ratives as Peter Williamson's French and Indian Cruelties (1757). After
Williamson's return from captivity, the authority conferred by his experience
receives official sanction when the governor of Pennsylvania "examined me
very particularly, as to all Incidents relating to my Captivity," and this testi-
mony is put into writing, sworn to, and deposited among the state's public
papers (36-37). Not satisfied without personal retaliation, however,
Williamson soon joins a local militia "with the greatest Alacrity and most
determined Resolution, to exert the utmost of my Power, in being revenged
on the hellish Authors of my Ruin" (38). Mter enlisting, he finds himself
chosen for an expedition to rescue a female captive from the Amerindians,
"as I had been so long among them, and pretty well acquainted with their
Manners and Customs, and particularly their skulking Places in the Woods"
(43). The captive's ethnographic knowledge grants him an authority within
the settlers' program for exploration, rescue, and revenge. Later editions of
Williamson's narrative tried to raise further capital on his military expertise
by including, as his title advertised, a Description of the most convenient
Roads for the British Forces to invade Canada in three Divisions, and make
themselves Masters of it. 56 When a former captive such as Williamson docu-
ments the potential colonial efficacy of a personal knowledge gained through
an experience of subjugation, this documentation reinforces the genre's dra-
matic narrative structure, its heroic reversal of the captivity experience's vio-
lation of assumed cultural hierarchies.
As the heroism of resistance fuses with various concrete forms of action,
it sometimes extends to a colonial violence that ruptures the captivity genre's
opposition between "alien" systems of aggressive despotism and the captive
as a representative of civilization and liberty. Within Williamson's narrative,
for example, the standard oppositional rhetoric of British civilization and
American savagery collapses with his zealous description of the results of his
scouting expedition. When the expedition slaughters some natives, he re-
ports that "our Men were busily employed in cutting, hacking, and scalping
the dead Indians," so that the British seem thoroughly capable of the "Cru-
elties" that the title ascribes to the French and Indians (46). Williamson's
rhetoric does not acknowledge this tension, but more overt moments of moral
 The Captive as Hero 91

confusion sometimes surface within other narratives. Soon after the capture
of Robert Drury in Madagascar, his fellow British captives seize a local mon-
arch and demand a ransom; recounting these actions, the narrator worries
that readers might regard them as somewhat "criminal."57 Although he quickly
resolves this moral dilemma, the incident allows a brief explication of what
usually remains an implicit problem within captivity narratives: that captives
regularly and sometimes gloatingly resort to the violence and aggression that
they cite as the hallmark of captive-taking cultures.
The aggressive heroism of individual action entails further conflict with
another of the captivity genre's central strategies, the discourse of providence.
In some scholarly accounts, a providential interpretive framework often seems
to stand as a unifying feature of the captivity genre, especially as studies of
the American narratives often begin with a focus on the Puritans, who often
interpreted the passivity enforced by the captivity experience as a sign of the
need for Christian reliance on God. 58 But the providential interpretive frame-
work provides not so much a universal formula for understanding the captiv-
ity experience as a set of variable strategies for conceiving relationships
between God, nations, individuals, and the contingency of events. On the
one hand, as studies of the American narratives have repeatedly emphasized,
the early Puritan texts framed the personal experience of captivity as an
exemplum of the Christian life. In the Puritan vision, captivity among the
heathen corresponds to the Christian's captivity to sin and to the world, and
the captive must learn that reliance on worldly satisfactions leads to inevi-
table disappointment, while reliance on God's providence furnishes internal
peace. 59 Like the bulk of early American accounts, narratives set in other
lands sometimes frame the captivity experience in terms of providential in-
terpretation. Vaughan's account of Malaysia includes a heavy emphasis on
the captives' efforts to resign themselves to providence, their "Hope that
God will give us his Grace, and so strong a Faith, as not to fear Dying for
him." When an English trader arrives and works to obtain the captives' re-
lease, they "could not but think it an extraordinary Providence of God in
sending so worthy-minded a Friend to our Relief."6° For Vaughan and his
companions, as for many early American captives, reliance on the disposi-
tions of providence seems concomitant with a passive acceptance of contin-
gency and captivity.
Other captives, however, harness the providential interpretive frame-
work in support of various heroisms of action, at both an individual and a
national level. Many narratives with Middle Eastern settings, especially, de-
velop the kind of secular application of providential discourse that marks the
material progress of Defoe's protagonists, provoking a conflict among liter-
92 NARRATIVES OF FACT

ary critics as to the relative weight of religious and materialist perspectives

within his novels. 61 Both material and spiritual impulses, both pride in per-
sonal achievement and a tendency to displace personal agency, mark the use
of providential discourse in captivity narratives such as Knox's Ceylonese
account. His dedication to the East India Company insists that his goal in
entering the press is "chiefly that I might Publish and Declare the great
Mercy of God to me, and Commemorate before all Men my singular Deliv-
erance," which manifests "so many notable Footsteps of his signal Provi-
dence" ([b]1r). 62 That such blessings manifest themselves within the success
of individual actions becomes apparent at the close of his narrative, when he
congratulates providence for his escape after a lengthy, tension-filled account
of an arduous overland journey. Although this account highlights his per-
sonal fortitude, ingenuity, and resourcefulness, he declares "the whole Busi-
ness ... a miraculous Providence ... the hand of God did eminently appear
to me, as it did of old to his People of Israel in the like circumstances, in
leading and conducting me thro this dreadful Wilderness" (169). That such
blessings manifest themselves at the levels of nations and economies be-
comes apparent when Knox boasts that the entrepreneurial success of the
English captives had forced their Ceylonese neighbors to "confess that Al-
mighty God had dealt far more bountifully with us than with them, in that
we had a far greater plenty" (149). In serving a nationalist and colonialist
agenda, the discourse of providence can support an ideological justification
for aggressive material action by displacing the responsibility for such action
onto God.
Other captives likewise frame their colonial success in providential terms.
After the escape of Thomas Phelps, when he contributes to the destruction
of the very ship that had taken him captive, this personal success leads him
to "admire the wonderful providence of God, to whom alone Vengeance
belongeth, in vindicating my cause, and making me an unwitting instrument
of revenge." 63 Providence seems to support the captives even if its workings
seem mysterious or ambiguous, as with Francis Knight's variable assessments
of the wellsprings of his personal heroism. At the conclusion of a section
where he emerges as the resourceful leader of a successful escape, he at-
tributes his achievement entirely to God, who "has done this great worke for
me in delivering me from such an inextrecable labarinth of misery." An ear-
lier comment, however, cites providence as an ingredient in a recipe for ac-
tion rather than passivity, suggesting that God's power works through
individual actions: "I account every Christian oblieged to use all possible
attempts for the effecting his libertie; for a man doth not onely discover a
pusilanimous heart, and indocible disposition in neglecting the least
 The Captive as Hero 93

opportunitie, but also commit a sinne against God, who hath not given us
wings to outflie our enemies, but reason to devise strategems and hands to
execute them."64 As a force that seems always to side with Christian captives
against their pagan captors, providence can motivate a rhetoric of active re-
sistance as easily as a rhetoric of passive endurance.
From ethnographic vituperation to providential interpretation, the cap-
tivity genre develops several rhetorics of generalization that often stand in
conflict with each other or with the contingent events of individual experi-
ence. Depending on the events of a captive's experience, a narrative might
develop a plot that offers an analogue for aggressive colonialism or a model
for passive dependence on providence, or the narrator might try to unite the
two perspectives. Individual captors might encourage initiative on the part
of their servants, carefully limit their movements, or force them to undergo
torture, proselytism, hard labor, or abject squalor. Furthermore, the harsh
conditions of subjugation might reduce the captive to psychological turpi-
tude or stimulate an active drive for escape, revenge, or success. Through all
of these variable conditions runs a fundamental tension between passivity
and action that stems from the debasement and subordination of the captiv-
ity experience and the difficulties of narrating it for a domestic audience.
Within that tension lies a potential for transforming the debased, subordi-
nate, and passive captive into a figure of aggressive, nationalist heroism, but
the heroism of the captive is always ambiguous. Although the captive's es-
cape and colonial activity reverse the terms of subjugation imposed by the
· captivity experience, such activity often depends on the captive's successful
participation and accommodation within an alien culture. All of these ten-
sions, as we shall see in the next chapter, become more pronounced with the
situation of transculturation, especially when narrators describe their con-
version and success within alien cultures.
THREE

The Perils and the Powers of

Cultural Conversion

If the captivity narrative is a genre particularly disposed towards a binary

rhetoric opposing self and other, this rhetoric always overwrites an experi-
ence of necessary intimacy between captive and captor, or at least between
the captive and the alien culture of the captor. Many British captives entered
systems of household servitude rather than gang labor, systems encouraging
familial intimacy rather than hierarchical distance. Even if a narrative does
not acknowledge such distinctions, the captive's situation as a household ser-
vant often produces moments of cultural intimacy that sit somewhat uneas-
ily amidst a rhetorical frame stressing liberty and oppression. Even when a
captive had joined an ethnically divided system of gang labor, his retrospec-
tive account would always raise the question of cultural conversion because
of his enforced separation from British culture and his participation, whether
willing or unwilling, in another culture. 1 Captive participation in alien cul-
tures runs the gamut from eating foreign foods to embracing alien religions.
The varied experiences of captivity necessarily "expose the captive and her
readers to the alternative cultural paradigms of her captors," as Michelle
Burnham has argued in discussing narratives focused on American women;
because of this exposure, such narratives "traverse those very cultural, na-
tional, and racial boundaries that they seem so indelibly to inscribe."2 But
with culture-crossing as with other captivity themes, the American captivity
tradition tended to follow the ambivalent patterns established by its British
counterpart. The fullest and richest accounts of American transculturation
emerged from the nineteenth-century press, whereas the British press pro-
 The Perils and the Powers 95

duced extensive accounts of transculturation in other lands during the first

half of the eighteenth century. Within the British captivity tradition, the texts
that most intensively engaged the problems of culture-crossing still struggled
to embrace the textual strategies of ethnography, colonial heroism, and the
early novel, and their struggle throws into sharp relief the ambivalent place
of transculturation within the captivity genre as a whole.
The ambivalence of the captive's culture-crossing lay primarily in that it
often seemed to confer enormous empirical authority but also tended to
undermine the oppositional grounds of ethnographic lmowledge. In promot-
ing the captive's ethnographic authority, some texts aggressively exploited
the ambiguities of his identity. In the preface to Thomas Pellow's 1739 ac-
count of captivity in Morocco, for example, his editor insists that other visi-
tors to the region had lacked "sufficient Opportunities of Observation:
Whereas, the Writer of this History, by his long Abode in the Country for the
Space of 23 Years, and by his outward embracing of the Mahometan Faith,
and becoming, as it were, one of the Natives, had repeated Opportunities of
lmowing and noting every Thing worthy Observation, or which would give
him a thorough Knowledge of the Nature and Temper of the Inhabitants;
and still the more so, as he was so long employed in the Palace about the
Emperor's Person, and afterward so much concerned in all their bloody
Wars."3 Here it seems that Pellow's deep involvement in Moroccan culture,
his penetration of its most intimate recesses, and even the transformation of
his cultural identity all serve to buttress his ethnographic authority. That a
hybrid cultural identity could carry appeals as well as anxieties for English
readers is further evident in the title ofJames Wadsworth's 1629 account of
his imprisonments first at a Spanish Jesuit school and then in a Salleean
galley. Despite its heavy doses of anti-Catholic diatribe, this narrative carries
the main title The English Spanish Pilgrime, advertising Wadsworth's expe-
riences in captivity through a hybrid identity that strengthens his authority
to speak against the Jesuits at the cost of highlighting the malleability of
English identity.
As a result of such fundamental ambiguities, even the most systemati-
cally ethnographic of captivity narratives register significant tensions in their
efforts to develop a stable opposition between Western observer and alien
culture. Even the most insular and resistant of captive-narrators record mo-
ments when they failed to resist their captors' efforts in cultural conversion,
moments of personal crisis that rupture the smooth veneer of ethnographic
description. On the other hand, narrators who admit to conversion during
their captivity reveal especially anxious attempts to prove renewed attach-
ments to Christianity and to Britain now that they are home. Captive-narra-
96 NARRATNES OF FACT

tors who achieved positions of relative comfort within alien cultures often
shift between a tone of satisfaction at their achievements and hostility to-
wards the alien means of their advancement. Cultural participation can raise
problems at the most fundamental levels oflanguage, such as when the former
convert Joseph Pitts describes his pilgrimage to Mecca, shifting uncomfort-
ably back and forth among the pronouns "I," "we," and "they," as if unable to
establish a grounded subjective position from which to narrate this alien ex-
perience.4 Such tensions result because Pitts is tom by multiple forms of
identification in the very process of recording his participation in an alien
culture for an English audience. He uses "we" to identify himself as a par-
ticipant in shared Islamic customs, and thus as a beneficiary of the augmented
cultural authority conferred through transculturation, but he turns to "they"
in conforming to the oppositional demands of travel description. "I" helps to
separate him from the culture he describes, especially when he wants to
convince his British readers that his religious observance was formal rather
than genuine. This divided narrating subject provides a particularly clear
instance of the epistemological conflicts that occur when narratives of exten-
sive cultural participation struggle to engage the captivity genre's framework
of ethnography and cultural insularity.
The importance of transculturation narratives within the captivity tradi-
tion can be gauged by their popularity and influence. Along with the Barbary
narratives of Pitts and Pellow, the 1729 narrative of Robert Drury's captivity
in Madagascar dominated the market for captivity narratives in the first half
of the eighteenth century, before the explosion of American accounts in the
second half of the century. At the time of their publication, these three ac-
counts of extensive transculturation among African peoples were the longest
and most ethnographically detailed captivity narratives in the English lan-
guage, and the fullness of their ethnographic information made them stan-
dard references for Western discussions of these cultures until well into the
nineteenth century. These early eighteenth-century narratives, moreover,
acted as direct precursors for the most successful and influential American
captivities of the nineteenth century, those of Alexander Henry, John Dunn
Hunter, and Mary Jemison, which recorded extensive transculturation among
Native Americans, won fame for their authors on both sides of the Atlantic,
and influenced the developing American myth of cross-cultural brotherhood.5
As attested by the length, influence, and popularity of these texts, whether
set in America, Africa, or the Orient, the possibility of cultural conversion
was a definitive point of interest for Anglophone documentation and con-
sumption of the captivity experience.
In an effort to understand the enormous yet ambiguous appeal of cap-
 The Perils and the Powers 97

tive conversion, this chapter will briefly consider the question of culture-
crossing within the captivity genre as a whole, before concentrating on an
extended reading of the Drury and Pellow texts. Despite external evidence
for the factuality of these texts, twentieth-century scholars have sometimes
taken them for novels, and certainly both show strong signs of editorial inter-
vention and even of outright fabrication. As the mixture of fact and fiction
within these texts suggests, accounts of cultural conversion not only disturbed
and excited British readers but also provided an effective means for experi-
menting with novelistic patterns of subjectivity, for playing with the bound-
aries and internal conflicts of national identity. Narratives of extensive
culture-crossing, then, in addition to helping us understand the captivity genre
as a whole, provide a good starting point for investigating the genre's rela-
tionship with the novel.

Of all the tensions that mark the captivity genre, the sharpest stem from the
possibility of transculturation that sits uneasily at its heart. Every returned
captive faced an audience suspicious of and yet intrigued by the possibility
that the author had gone native, forced by the very situation of captivity to
participate in the alleged depravities of an uncivilized culture if not to rede-
fine himself or herself as a member of that culture. Far from straightfor-
ward, untroubled records of cultural opposition, many captivity narratives
inscribe anxious struggles to prove that their protagonists' attachments to
Britain and to Christianity never lapsed. Although captivity narratives often
exploit their protagonists' extensive participation in alien cultures as a source
of ethnographic authority, nationalist pride, and colonial success, they also
take care to forestall any impression that such participation might have cli-
maxed with a complete cultural transformation.
These struggles are especially marked in the case of Islamic captives
such as Pitts and Pellow. In the most thoroughly researched study of English
literature on the Islamic world, Samuel Chew has suggested that returned
captives often exaggerated their captors' efforts in cultural conversion: "The
general impression in England that Moslems practised forcible conversion
was probably founded upon the reports of escaped or ransomed captives
who hid under the pleas of compulsion their voluntary lapse from Christian-
ity."6 On the rare occasions when captives admitted to conversion, their narra-
tives reveal sharp anxieties about their audience's reactions to this
transformation. Thomas Pellow's 1739 account, for example, abruptly departs
from calm autobiographical retrospection when he describes his first assump-
tion of Moroccan dress, his first "appearing like a Mahometan; and I make
no Doubt but some ill-natured People think me so even to this Day" (16).
98 NARRATIVES OF FACT

Even when captives did not convert, they faced suspicion and accusations
after their return to their natal culture. Adam Elliott produced his 1682 cap-
tivity narrative as the opening salvo of a text designed to vindicate himself
from a slew of charges made by Titus Oates. According to this former cap-
tive, the infamous fabricator of the Popish plot had labeled him "a Jesuit who
is no Christian but a Turk," and a "Mahumetan [who] had been thereupon
Circumcised"; through such labels, Elliot charged, Oates had rendered him
"unworthy of credit or reputation, uncapable of the advantages of converse
amongst Christians."7 To defeat a charge of a hybrid identity that would seem
to disbar him from the benefits of Christian civility, Elliot offers a straight-
forward account of his sufferings and escape in order to show that he faced
no efforts in conversion.
Even when a captivity narrative does not explicitly register a former
captive's anxieties about his reception within English culture, the tense pos-
sibilities of cultural conversion enter the narrative in other forms. One source
of tension is the narrators' concern with the conversion of other captives,
especially among Islamic captors. Former Islamic captives who had them-
selves converted or faced accusations of conversion would understandably
tend to exaggerate the number of other European converts. In many narra-
tives, emphasis on the powerful temptation, prevalence, and efficacy of con-
version helps to constitute the heroism of resistance as a heroism, an arduous
deviation from a normal failure to resist. Introducing his narrative of heroic
escape from Algiers, Francis Knight comments in his preface, "I have knowne
many who through the extremitie of their sufferings hath renounced their
Saviour, and imbraced the Mahomitan and diabolicall Imposture."8 The con-
version of other captives provides an opening framework against which Knight
defines his own experience of heroic resistance. Similarly, William Okeley's
1675 Algerian narrative, which devotes much attention to the psychological
tensions of the captivity experience, also cites the conversion of others as a
direct counterpoint to his own temptation: 'We were under a perpetual temp-
tation to deny the Lord that bought us, to make our Souls Slaves, that our
Bodies might Recover Liberty. . . . How many have made Ship-wreck of
Faith, that they might not be Chained to the Galleys?"9 Constantly repeated
across many captivity narratives and confirmed by other travel descriptions
of Islamic states, such comments sought to convince British readers that
Islamic captives were completely encompassed by proselytizers and converts. 10
Another source of tension results when former Islamic captives record
the results of conversion for those "renegadoes" who become accustomed to
alien identities and even achieve high social positions with the relatively open
hierarchies oflslam. In adopting Islam, a renegado can seem to have adopted
 The Perils and the Powers 99

the full ethnic identity, even the allegedly natural disposition, of a Middle
Eastern people, such as when T. Smith's 1670 Algerian narrative identifies a
Cornish convert with the hoary stereotype "Deceitful Turk." 11 In some ac-
counts of Barbary captivity, renegadoes seem entirely infected with the im-
puted violence and passion of the East, more Oriental than the natives
themselves. Smith describes a Spanish renegado as "animated with a strange
fury and desire of revenge," passions so strong that he cuts off and eats a
piece of a captive's cheek (22). Similarly, when Pellow describes an "Exeter
man" turned Moroccan executioner, he details the convert's considerable
pride and dexterity in mastering the cruelties so often ascribed to Barbary
cultures (102). If cultural conversion sometimes seems to result in extreme
mania or violence, captive narrators more frequently attest to the power of
renegadoes within Islamic cultures. Smith cites their power to support a claim
for the low state of Islamic civilization, insisting that they "are most skillful
because they are acquainted with the Affairs of Europe, and better able to
manage the Publick Business relating to that part of the World, and to give
Orders" (68). While such a comment enforces an impression of European
superiority, it also portrays conversion as an experience that enables a mana-
gerial success such as budding colonists might want to emulate. The mate-
rial success of renegadoes raises other kinds of tension within Joseph Pitts's
1704 account of Algiers: "these Renegadoes have a greater Blessing than the
natural Turks, for they commonly become great Men and bear sway" (107).
Nationalistic pride in the success of renegadoes here extends to the possibil-
ity that providence may have rewarded Christians for their apostasy. An-
other kind of tension arises when Pitts includes a reversed captivity episode,
the tale of an Irish renegado captured at a young age and raised as a Muslim,
but then recaptured and enslaved in Christian galleys. Pitts's report on the
Islamic perspective of this Christian captive directly parallels the language
commonly used to describe the plight of Christian captives in Islam: "he
passionately told me, that God had delivered him out of Hell upon Earth"
(153). The reversed application of a phrase so frequently used to describe
the Barbary states creates one of the strongest moments of reversed per-
spective in all of captivity literature.
Besides the tension produced by the third-person figure of the full con-
vert, other moments of textual disturbance arise through first-person narra-
tion of willing or unwilling accession to various aspects of an alien culture.
Although many captive narrators portray their captors as an undifferentiated
mass of tyrants, others offer praise for exceptional governments or portray
exceptional figures, beneficent masters, and exemplary leaders. Positive
masters often entail significant ideological confusion. Within Okeley's 1675
100 NARRATIVES OF FACT

account of his Algerian captivity, his final master proves so friendly that the
text fllls two pages with the captive's internal debates about the propriety of
escape, before the logic of natural rights and consent finally determines his
path. 12 Positive masters sometimes invoke the noble savage tradition of primi-
tive exemplars offering an implicit satire of the civilized. In his 1729 narra-
tive of captivity in Madagascar, Robert Drury praises one tribal leader whose
example can teach Christian princes "to be in reality so truly just, honourable,
and good as this gallant black prince was in all his actions; and yet I question
not but he must be called an illiterate heathen."13 The palpable goodness of
this native exemplar throws the narrator into doubt, ironically expressed as
certainty, as to the general English usage for labeling a culture such as that of
Madagascar.
When captives find happy relationships with their masters or with other
friendly natives, they sometimes introduce a language of familial relation-
ships that suggests a particularly intimate level of cultural participation. M-
ter Joseph Pitts's first masters torture him and force his conversion, he finds
a sympathetic final master, who raises him above his slave status and buys
him a slave of his own. As Pitts recalls, this final master "seldom called me
anything but Son," and "I had a great Love for him, even as a Father" (224-
25). Similarly, William Vaughan's 1714 Malaysian narrative is filled with suf-
fering for the captive protagonist until his adoption by a powerful native
couple, who ask him to "call them Father and Mother, as they did me Child."
This familial bond creates an impression of lingering tenderness when, at
Vaughan's departure, his "Syam Mother" asks if he will remember his adop-
tive parents. 14 Likewise, near the end of Robert Drury's sojourn in Madagas-
car, he finds a mistress whom he learns to call "my mother" and a master who
"spake as tender things to me as my own father could" (197, 282). Especially
when complemented by intimations of emotional attachment, terms of fa-
milial address suggest a happy adaptation to a transformed cultural identity.
A similar attention to the practice of cross-cultural adoption, likewise height-
ened by familial terms of address, later became a prominent feature of the
American captivity narrative, especially when, in the early nineteenth cen-
tury, the popular and influential accounts of Alexander Henry, Mary Jemison,
and John Tanner offered positive views of lengthy adoptions into Native
American families. 15
If some captivity narratives portray captives who occupied positions of
familial identification within alien cultures, every captivity narrative entails
an implicit yet pervasive sense of the protagonist's accommodation with a
culture treated as inferior. Coupled with prefatory claims of experiential au-
thority, the narratives' consistent devaluation of the foreign creates an am-
 The Perils and the Powers 101

bivalent vision of the protagonists' subjection to inferior cultures. While a

captive's scorn suggests a successful maintenance of British cultural stan-
dards during the period of captivity, the narrative occasion for such scorn is
often the captive's personal experience of the very objects of derision. Thus
the most ethnographic of captivity texts, Robert Knox's 1681 account of
Ceylon, expresses harsh scorn for native bedding at the point in his narrative
where he must first adapt to its regular use. 16 In a text published fifty-five
years later, the American captive John Gyles scoffs that "Indian barns" are
mere "holes in the ground" while describing native agriculture from the per-
spective of a participant, with the plural pronoun "we."17 Even when a cap-
tive scorns a native custom without an overt indication that it formed an
element within his personal cultural transformation, the possibility and even
the necessity that it did so always remains implicit within the narrative's epis-
temological framework, which grants the captive the authority to scorn an
alien culture on the basis of his forced experience of it. Within the broader
structure of a captivity narrative, scorn for a wigwam, for example, always
rests on an implicit understanding that the captive must have slept in one for
days, months, or even years.
Many objects of cultural scorn also entail an implicit pride in the breadth,
variety, and exoticism of the personal experience that encompasses such ob-
jects. A particularly concrete topos of mixed scorn and accommodation is
native foodstuffs. Captives held across the globe complain of hunger, criti-
cize native food production, and attribute their deprivation to the misman-
agement of uncivilized peoples. Remembering his Ceylonese sojourn, Knox
scoffs that a primarily vegetarian diet is "with them accounted Good Cheer,"
and records his terrible suffering at a time when general sickness revealed
the scanty capacity of native food stores. 18 Adopting a similar perspective in
describing Madagascar, Robert Drury finds the local fare inadequate and
blames widespread hunger on the constant warfare of petty tyrants. How-
ever, he also reports, "I began after a while to reconcile myself to their man-
ner of eating, seeing no better was to be had" (79). A more enthusiastic culinary
adaptation surfaces in Pellow's account of Moroccan couscous, as he declares
himself as "really so far of the Moors Opinion, as that I cannot but in every
Respect allow it truly deserving of their so very high Esteem" (31). Pellow
relishes the dish even after his escape, illustrating the wide-ranging possi-
bilities of cultural adaptation even in a case where the captive presents most
of his experience as a struggle against native culture.
American accounts are famous for the captives' commentary on the dep-
rivation imposed by native food preparation or times of scarcity, especially
during harsh New England winters. In some narratives both captives and
102 NARRATIVES OF FACT

captors starve for days at a time, and the captives blame their hunger on the
natives' level of civilization. As Elizabeth Hanson's 1728 narrative observes,
her captors possessed "no other way to depend on [meat] but hunting"
(Vaughan and Clark, 235). Like many an early European commentator on
American alimentary customs, she describes the natives' winter eating hab-
its as a foolish mismanagement: "for these kind of people when they have
plenty spend it as freely as they get it, spending in gluttony and drunkenness
in two days' time as much as with prudent management might serve a week"
(Vaughan and Clark, 237). American captivity narratives, however, are equally
famous for their protagonists' adaptation to what they portray as the wretched
fruits of native culinary practice, such as bear meat, deer fetus, beaver skin,
tree bark, and horse entrails. The locus classicus here is Rowlandson, who
like Hanson, deplores the "wast" of a native feast and describes native food
as fit for animals, although she too eventually finds it satisfying: "The first
week of my being among them, I hardly ate any thing; the second week, I
found my stomach grow very faint for want of something; and yet it was very
hard to get down their filthy trash: but the third week, though I could think
how formerly my stomach would tum against this or that, and I could starve
and dy before I could eat such things, yet they were sweet and savoury to my
taste" (Vaughan and Clark, 44). 19 This passage records the most telling mo-
ment within a lengthy process of psychological adaptation to native foodstuffs.
Similar processes of adaptation within many captivity narratives hint that Eu-
ropean captives can overcome the most palpable of cultural aversions.
A rather different case of a captive's proud adaptation to the very cus-
toms he scorns appears in T. Smith's 1670 account of Algerian sexuality. Like
many narratives of Islamic captivity, Smith's portrays the Orient as a sexual
snare, but one whose rampant, polymorphous perversity raises titillating
possibilities of cultural accommodation. According to Smith, the confine-
ment of the seraglio leads Oriental women to become "furiously debauch' d"
adherents of a "wandering" sexuality that takes "pleasure in variety'' (205-6).
Other allegedly Oriental forms of sexuality also earn the merchant's scorn.
Observing a vaguely described statue of a "bestial" sex act, he cites it as evi-
dence for the proposition that "it is necessary that the Moors should have
such signal Tokens of Gods Displeasure always before their Eyes; for they
are enraged to commit such filthy Actions more frequently than other Na-
tions" (240). The seemingly rampant sexuality of the Orient affects the mer-
chant personally as he resists a variety of sexual advances, especially since he
fears "that all addresses that were made to me of that nature were but Designes
to ensnare me, and oblige me to Apostacie" (204). At one level such .forward
sexuality supports a heroism of resistance in the form of sexual restraint,
 The Perils and the Powers 103

especially when one woman pursues him with such "tricks and inventions" as
are "not to be imagined," while Smith retains "constancy enough, and was
sufficiently wary, to frustrate all of her undertakings" (206, 219). On the other
hand, Smith also takes pride in his adaptation to the alleged forwardness of
Algerian women. After narrating his seduction by the wife of the Algerian
king, Smith turns to his purchase by the wife of another older man, and the
sexual interest of this new mistress grants the merchant a merely nominal
captivity, so that he "only wore a Chain out of Formality" (40). This enter-
prising captive gains freedom and a secure place in the ranks of Algerian
society through an accommodation with its alleged sexual freedom. Although
these incidents promote a national pride in the captive Englishman's transi-
tion to sexual mastery, they also represent, within the broader rhetorical frame-
work of Smith's comments on Oriental sexuality, a moment of accommodation
with what he represents as a degrading feature of an alien culture.
Although many narratives contrast the outward imposition of alien cul-
tural forms with the captives' inward adherence to Christianity, liberty, and
Britain, such outward forms also sometimes effect powerful changes in cul-
tural identity, and these changes sometimes endure, like Pellow's taste for
couscous, even after the captive returns among Europeans. In one motif
that surfaces in captivity narratives set across the globe, the physical appear-
ance of the returned captive, as a result of sartorial transformation or bodily
abjection, leads his fellow Europeans to mistake the European identity he
wishes to assert. In Peter Williamson's 1757 American narrative, after escap-
ing his captors, he meets a European who takes him for an Indian. 20 A simi-
lar case of mistaken identity threatens to undo the climactic resolution of
Thomas Pellow's narrative. After he escapes Morocco and reaches Gibraltar,
British guardsmen refuse him entry into the garrison, insisting "that till they
had Orders for my so doing, they would not suffer any Moor to land" (376).
Such skepticism about the captive's cultural identity often arises soon after
his or her escape, transforming a long-hoped-for moment of cultural reunion
into a moment of isolation, dislocation, and cultural confusion.
A similar experience of cultural dislocation occurs after the climactic
escape in Robert Knox's 1681 narrative of Ceylonese captivity, even though
his European rescuers immediately recognize him as a European. Mter he
and another escapee join the garrison of a Dutch governor, Knox recalls with
some perplexity, "we seemed not fit to eat with his Servants, no nor his Slaves,"
and "it seemed not a little strange to us, who had dwelt so long in Straw
Cottages among the Black Heathen, and used to sit on the Ground arid eat
our Meat on Leaves, now to sit on Chairs and eat out of China Dishes at
Table." Because their poverty prevented their assumption of European cloth-
104 NARRATNES OF FACT

ing, "all the Soldiers came staring at us, wondring [sic] to see White-men in
Chingalay Habit."21 Here the captives' psychological adaptation to an uncivi-
lized culture seems to match their assumption of uncivilized clothing, and
both seem to hold them separate from the European culture that they have
ardently wished to rejoin. As these various incidents suggest the permanent
efficacy of native clothing in shaping perceptions of cultural identity, they
emphasize the malleability of cultural identity, especially under the condi-
tions of forced adaptation entailed by captivity.
While isolated moments of heightened cultural malleability mark the
experiences of even the most insular and resistant of captives, other captives
offer texts that document extensive processes of cultural transformation.
Especially exciting and troubling for English readers, it seems, were narra-
tives of captives taken at a young age, narratives recording conversion to
Islam, and narratives documenting the creation of a successful lifestyle within
an alien culture. These themes are especially prominent in the three most
prominent Anglophone captivity narratives of the early eighteenth century,
the accounts of Pitts, Drury, and Pellow. First published in 1704 and revised
in three other editions until1738, Pitts's narrative records a lengthy enslave-
ment in Algeria, a conversion to Islam, and even a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Twenty-five years later, in 1729, appeared the first of four eighteenth-cen-
tury printings for Robert Drury's Madagascar, which followed its author's
successive enslavements and cultural adaptations among a variety of tribes
on that island. The 1739 edition was the first of four printings of Thomas
Pellow's aptly titled Long Captivity and Adventures, which detailed his
twenty-three years' captivity in the Barbary States, his conversion, and his
military leadership in the service of several tyrants. All three of these narra-
tors experienced nearly complete cultural transformations among peoples
that contemporary English readers would have associated with extreme bar-
barism, and yet all three texts not only acknowledged their successful adap-
tation to these cultures but even recorded with some pride their advancement
from positions of abject enslavement to moderate prosperity. All three texts,
furthermore, reveal distinct problems in constructing a relationship between
autobiographical voice and alien world. These problems result from their
juxtaposition of conflicting discursive modes, such as the documentary schema
of ethnography, the rhetoric of British nationalism and colonial expansion,
and personal accounts of cultural conversion and accomplishment.
For Pitts, the need to explain and justif)r cultural conversion creates sharp
tensions within his narrative structure and strategies of authentication. After
beginning his account in autobiographical fashion and then recording his
capture and sale, he quickly abandons this linear structure and turns to a
 The Perils and the Powers 105

series of travel descriptions, starting with Algiers, moving through Egypt,

and culminating with Mecca. But it is not until after he completes his de-
scription of Mecca, three-quarters of the way through his text, that he pro-
vides "An account of the Author's turning Mahometan." This personal account,
moreover, begins defensively: "The Reader, I suppose, will expect an Ac-
count, how I became qualified to write such an History as this ... and how I
was let into the Secrets of the Mahometan Religion, so as to be able to give
such an exact Description of it, and particularly of their Pilgrimage to Mecca"
(180). This offhand, accommodating tone backfires, however, because its
defensiveness foregrounds the chronological incongruity involved in placing
the early conversion experience after an ethnographic description of places
visited much later in the author's experience. If Pitts had placed his conver-
sion narrative before his travel descriptions, it would have enhanced his eth-
nographic authority. But removed from its proper place in a strict
chronological rendering, the conversion seems self-consciously buried and
self-consciously exposed, advertising itself as a secret and a problem. Similar
ambiguities occur as he justifies his conversion. like many captives, Pitts
attributes his conversion to torture, but like no other captive, he insists that the
Algerians rarely used such means for conversion: "it was my hard Lot to be so
unmercifully dealt with: They do not use to force any Christian to renounce
his Religion" (181). This account of conversion renders him an isolated case, a
unique instance, the only Westerner who could boast such an extensive knowl-
edge as could grant a legitimate claim to sell such a text. But there is some-
thing equivocal in Pitts's uniqueness, because his experience departs from the
very ethnographic norm that he wishes to allege. His careful, defensive han-
dling of the conversion material suggests the high ideological stakes that it
raises as a potential source of both the writer's authority and the reader's
suspicion, as a sign both of the heroic breadth of the author's experience and
his difficult accommodation within an allegedly inferior culture.

Even greater confusions in structure and voice attend the highly edited nar-
rative of Thomas Pellow, especially as it records his steady advancement
through a political system that he routinely attacks in the standard Orientalist
idiom for vituperating despotism. After his capture at the age of eleven, his
sojourn in Morocco includes some of the most widely varied experiences in
captivity literature, from his upbringing in the household of a tyrannical
emperor to a standard account of personal torture, from his leadership in the
Moroccan military to his picaresque wanderings as a medical charlatan.
Though the text narrates Pellow's religious conversion in terms of a heroic
but unavailing resistance, it records his subsequent cultural accommoda-
106 NARRATIVES OF FACT

tions with little overt impression of psychological disturbance and with much
implicit pride in the vast accumulation of his varied experience. His accom-
modations with Moroccan culture, moreover, are so thorough and so suc-
cessful that he arrives at a position of relative power in what he represents as
a barbaric system of political despotism. In attempting to position Pellow as
simultaneously superior to and part of this despotism, the text becomes
tangled both with the conflicting generic effects of its varied sections and
with basic confusions in narrative subject and tense.
Whereas Pitts struggles to maintain the organizational structure of a travel
narrative, Pellow and his editor develop one of the most ungainly, distended,
and disorganized captivity narratives in the English language. After begin-
ning in an autobiographical format, the text often shifts randomly between
personal narration and general schemes of documentation. Part of this con-
fusion seems to reflect the extreme length of Pellow's captivity. Captured in
his youth and writing over twenty years later, he produced an account whose
level of personal detail expands exponentially as he ages. Perhaps because of
the paucity of detail documenting his youth, his editor's footnotes and inser-
tions seem particularly extensive and intrusive in the early stages of the nar-
rative. The text attributed to Pellow includes some sections of travel
description but also sometimes refuses to employ such discursive schema at
moments when they seem appropriate. In recalling his first voyage, he dis-
claims the strict format of a sea journal because of his youth and inexperi-
ence. Later, recalling his arrival at Morocco, he observes that "it may be
expected that I should give a particular Description, and an Account of all its
Curiosities; which I could readily, and would as willingly do, did I not think it
altogether inconsistent with my main Point, and would enlarge my History
to very little Purpose" (94). Pellow's purpose here seems curiously inconsis-
tent with that avowed by his editor's preface, which proclaims the ethno-
graphic authority of the converted captive. The text moves closer to the editor's
purposes soon after this point, breaking from personal narration for a his~
torical account of a tyrant's reign, and thereafter mixing general political his-
tory with Pellow's autobiography.
Thus Pellow's narration seems expedient rather than rigorous, following
the trail of his memory and inclinations rather than the strict documentary
framework that the editor sometimes tries to interpose. A particularly dis-
jointed section begins with the promise to provide an account of "My Won-
derful Escape and Happy Return," but in its place either Pellow or his editor
inserts a section giving "some further Account of the strange Customs and
Manners of the Moors" (244). Immediately after this long, rambling, and
stereotypical ethnography, the climactic escape section finally arrives, but it
 The Perils and the Powers 107

resembles a narrative of captive heroism less than a picaresque novel. The

most painstakingly detailed and most overtly fictionalized section in the text
documents Pellow's wanderings through Barbary as a medical charlatan dur-
ing a period of political chaos, as he preys on the natives' putative credulity
but also suffers multiple beatings and hunger. In typical picaresque fashion,
the narrative devotes particular care to his efforts to secure food, his grue-
some abuse of gullible patients, and his avoidance of any political authorities
who might force him back into military service.
Amidst this disparate array of discursive strategies, Pellow's retrospec-
tive voice both vituperates the tyranny that he ascribes to Morocco and por-
trays his active participation in that tyranny. On the one hand, his text relies
heavily on a standard Orientalist framework of political, economic, and reli-
gious oppositions. In the midst of a section recording his experiences during
several ruthlessly repressed rebellions, the narrative pauses for a standard
opposition between British government and Oriental despotism: "Here we
may see the dangerous Consequences of ARBITRARY POWER, and thank
GOD that we are governed by such wholesome Laws, as are those of this
happy Nation; whereby every one is allowed fair Tryal in Matters of Life and
Death, as well as like Equity in the Recovering and keeping their own" (103).
This standard oppositional pattern continues for several pages, as Pellow or
his editor adds a contrast between the economy of Morocco, where tyrants
plunder their own people and destroy trade, and the prosperous economy of
Britain (104-5). In some ways, Pellow's text represents the nationalist capstone
of the Oriental captivity tradition, developing detailed descriptions of the
political and economic institutions of Oriental lands in order to support a
rhapsodic celebration of British institutions.
This generalized rhetoric of tyranny and freedom finds a concrete nar-
rative parallel in the description of Pellow's conversion. Given to an emperor's
son who tries forcible conversion, Pellow suffers close confinement, shack-
ling, and "bastinading" (15). In recording the moment of his surrender, the
text invokes a standard oppositional framework of bodily subjugation and
inner freedom: "My tortures were now exceedingly encreased, burning my
Flesh off my Bones by Fire; which the Tyrant did, by frequent Repetitions,
after a most cruel Manner; insomuch, that through my so very acute Pains, I
was at last constrained to submit, calling upon GOD to forgive me, who
knows that I never gave the Consent of the Heart, though I seemingly yielded,
by holding up my Finger" (15-16). Once the captive accepts what here seems
a merely physical adherence to Islam, other material forms of cultural adap-
tation seem to follow in course. Although at first he suffers imprisonment for
"refusing to put on the Moorish Habit," he later comes to regard this refusal
108 NARRATIVES OF FACT

as "a very foolish Obstinacy, since it was a Thing indifferent in its own Na-
ture" (16). Mter the early conversion scene, the subsequent narrative evokes
much less concern for Pellow's adaptations to what the ethnographic por-
tions cite as the defining features of Moroccan culture.
As a whole, the narrative depicts a captive's gradual, precarious, and vol-
untary rise through the ranks of a society ruled by tyrants, a progress that
involves acceptance of and adaptation to the norms of subjugation and vio-
lence that he attributes to this society. As a child he fills the difficult position
of servant to the Moroccan empress, who subsequently recommends him
"to the Emperor's good Liking as a careful and diligent Servant, and as in-
deed I really was, so far as I thought might be consistent with my Advantage
and Safety" (26). For all this wary self-interest, Pellow attains a life of rela-
tive comfort primarily by adapting to positions of subjugation. Elsewhere he
records his conformity to the degrading physical formalities that Orientalism
often cited as a hallmark of despotism, gestures such as "bowing twice, fall-
ing to the Ground, and kissing it, and after that the Emperor's Foot, (which
is the Custom of those who desire to be heard[)]" (71). Serving the emperor
also requires the captive's habituation to the violence associated with Orien-
tal despotism, as his master "used, on any slight Occasion, to knock his People
on the Head, as I had several Times the Pleasure of beholding; for in short
(although I did not know how soon it might have been my own Fate) I did
not care how soon they were all dead" (27). In this compressed, ambiguous,
and perhaps ironic phrasing, Pellow seems to have adopted the disregard for
life that Orientalism in general, Barbary captivity narratives in particular,
and even this passage itself all ascribed to Oriental rulers.
Pellow's accommodation with the violence that he depicts as the hall-
mark of Moroccan culture forms a central element within his narrative's largest
pattern of ambiguous adaptation, as he achieves a position of authority within
the emperor's tyrannical regime. When not suppressing various rebellions,
Pellow enjoys a life of genteel leisure as an officer within the emperor's mili-
tary establishment and system of collecting tribute, among an elite that "spen[t]
the best Part of our Time in shooting and hunting in the Woods" (106). De-
spite this rise to power and leisure, he still regards himself as a subaltern,
"always obliged to follow the Emperor's Pleasure" (98). As master and ser-
vant, given both to exploitative leisure and to degrading service, Pellow stands
as an Englishman who has accommodated himself to one of the most thor-
oughlyvituperated stereotypes in eighteenth-century Orientalism: the tyrant's
lackey, the tyrannized functionary who becomes a tyrant in his own turn.
Pellow's position as tyrannical lackey enhances the authority of his eth-
nography, by giving him ample opportunity to travel and to observe instances
 The Perils and the Powers 109

of despotism, but it also raises fundamental problems in narrative voice. In

collecting tribute and subduing rebels, he works to support the tyranny that
he ascribes to various potentates. Throughout much of a long section docu-
menting this career, Pellow's narration vacillates among a personal voice of
cultural distance, a personal voice of proud success, and a plural voice of
cultural participation. While personal phrases such as "my garrisons" and
"my troops" suggest pride in his personal power, plural phrases such as "I
and my comrades" firmly situate the narrator as a congenial participant within
a culture that he elsewhere repudiates as alien (83). More tellingly, Pellow
often distances himself from governmental tyranny by expressing sympathy
for the plight and valor of various rebels, but he also frequently adopts the
plural perspective of governmental organization, even when describing the
cruelties used to subdue the rebels, cruelties that he elsewhere cites in order
to separate himself, and the British in general, from the peoples of Barbary.
In recounting one revolt against a particular emperor, he praises the rebels
as a people "resolved to deliver their Country from his Tyranny, or perish
with it," a people who "fought us to the last with a noble Resolution" (194).
This passage closely follows another, however, where he describes "our cruel
Treatment of those we took alive, as unmercifully cutting some to Pieces,
and hanging others up alive by the Heels, till they were dead thro' Anguish
and Hunger" (193). Here and elsewhere a doubled perspective results from
Pellow's use of the first-person plural voice to describe the cruelties of the
government he served. At another point he describes his regiment as "ravag-
ing and plundering the Country all Round us of their Com, Fruit, Cattle, &c
after a most shocking Manner" (199). The narrator is both part of and dis-
tanced from such plunder, simultaneously recalling his participation in it
and marking its repugnant alterity.
Pellow often adopts the organizational perspective of his tyrant-masters
as a simple result of his efforts to assist English readers in understanding the
alien geographic and political context of particular rebellions. Despite his
sympathy for various rebels, he also repeatedly labels them "Malecontents."
In describing how one set of insurgents sued for peace after a bloody struggle,
he avers that they "were very reasonably answered" with a refusal, and he
implies that such rebels could hold no bargaining position (115). As thenar-
ration adopts the perspective of Moroccan government, this perspective some-·
times coalesces, quite ambiguously, with the documentary schema of travel
description. At one point Pellow interrupts his narration with a list docu-
menting the tribute paid to a particular emperor. Elsewhere he organizes an
account of a long journey, undertaken to quell yet another rebellion, as a
catalogue of towns that provided garrisons for his troops. The catalogue pre-
110 NARRATIVES OF FACT

sents each town in terms of its political allegiance, with one town ruled by a
leader "in very high Esteem with the Emperor," with a second "very friendly
to us," and with a third governed by "one of the Emperor's Sons" (110). At
one level Pellow's position within the Moroccan government augments the
ethnographic authority of his documentary schema, whether they list towns
or demonstrate tyranny, but the conflation of such schema and the organiza-
tional perspective of the government ultimately destabilizes the captivity
narrative's generic opposition between Western intellectual modernity and
Oriental political archaism. In place of this opposition, Pellow's narrative
suggests that systematic ethnography benefits from participation in political
tyranny. More generally, his impulse to portray tyranny as a keynote of Mo-
roccan culture leads to confusions in narrative voice when he records his
participation in such tyranny.
Another cultural dislocation in narrative voice occurs because of Pellow's
constant shifts between past and present tense. Many paragraphs open in
the present tense, with the word "now" providing an introductory signal, as if
the former captive, in the act of composition, has relocated himselfwithin a
past that seems tangibly present in his memories. When he describes a be-
sieging army, for example, he writes, "Now am I one in the above Number
before Old Fez" (165). When applied in the second person, moreover, this
narrative device thrusts the reader into the timeless present of the narrator's
memories: "Now might you hear, even in all Places, the Blacks threatening"
(226). After such present-tense openings, Pellow's paragraphs quickly shift
to the past tense and hold it for their duration, but these shifts often occur
with chaotic abruptness. Contemplating his escape, he recalls, "Now am I
soon about to encounter with this so hazardous and painful Undertaking;
and at the End of the eighth Day ... I set out" (289). In foregrounding the
process of memory, these shifts also foreground the singularity of Pellow's
perspective, and thus they overthrow the captivity narrative's structural op-
position between the pristine, timeless world of ethnography and the troubled
chronology of captive experience.
The text's troubled chronology reflects deeper conflicts in the represen-
tation of Pellow's cultural identity. A particularly odd sentence describes the
maneuvers of his army: "We are now ... 3206 on the Road, all well mounted,
the Men of fine Horse; which, as they are so famous for Goodness, it will not
be improper to say something of the Moors Method of managing them.-
The Moors take a great deal of Pride in their Horses, and order them after a
very different Manner from us" (79). Pellow begins the recollection with his
subjective position firmly imbedded in the timeless recall of the present tense
and firmly wedded to that of the Moors, who are marked by a curiously
 The Perils and the Powers 111

precise number. But then he, or perhaps his editor, breaks the timeless unity
of recollection in order to explain the differences between cultural forms,
and he does so in a manner that entails some confusion as to the precise
identity of "us" and "they." In this sentence the present tense of Pellow's
recollection briefly fuses with the timeless present of ethnography; more
generally, the constant use of the present tense throughout his personal nar-
ration produces a troubled equation between his singular, contingent expe-
rience and the timeless truths that his ethnographic sections purport to have
captured. This equation places the supposedly distant observer within the
same epistemological realm as the material he describes, constantly pushing
him into the frame ofhis timeless snapshots of Moroccan culture, highlight-
ing his participation within that culture.
Pellow participates not only in the tyranny that he attributes to Moroc-
can culture but also in its superstition, especially when he manipulates the
superstition of others for his own benefit, much like the priestly charlatans
so often cited in European ethnography. After he flees the Moroccan mili-
tary, the text metamorphoses into picaresque. A lengthy section recounts his
meeting with two Spanish mountebanks, who support themselves by "de-
ceiving the credulous Inhabitants with their Quack Medicines" and who en-
courage him to develop a similar practice, "the better to conceal my Intentions
in my Travels thro' the Country" (290-91). Even as this section celebrates
Pellow's rational mastery over native superstition, his success results from a
descent to what seems a native level of chicanery, as if he has come to emu-
late the impositions of the seers, magicians, and quacks that he elsewhere
vituperates as much as any Orientalist. Not only does Pellow manipulate
some native beliefs for his own benefit, but he also arrives at a full accep-
tance of other native beliefs. Despite his initial scorn for the "Fopperies" of
soothsaying, the text portrays a gradual conversion to wholehearted belief in
some local superstitions, especially after he hears some accurate predictions
and sees some impressive magical performances (243). His confidence in
soothsaying palpably augments with the dream interpretation of a black con-
jure-woman, whose predictions of an eventual escape overwhelm his initial
skepticism: "Notwithstanding my present State, and no hopes of a Vessel at
that Time, yet did my Mind daily tell me that my Captivity was running out
apace, and my nocturnal Imaginations were sufficiently stuff d with foolish
Fancies and Dreams about it" (325). The narrative's slight tone of ironic
distance from these beliefs does little to weaken their force within the plot as
a whole, especially when his dreams finally reach fruition with the aid of an
English captain who transports him to Gibraltar and whom he recognizes as
the centerpiece of a particularly prognostic dream. In this narrative the struc-
112 NARRATIVES OF FACT

tural climax of the captivity plot seems to depend more on the efficacy of
native belief systems than on the dispositions of providence or the rational
heroism of the captive.
Pellow remains a figure of ambiguous cultural standing even after he
rejoins his countrymen, when his position as knowing captive makes him a
potent but highly ambiguous colonial figure. Before he finally reaches
Gibraltar, he aids some English vessels on the Moroccan coast, acting as a
linguist and expert on the imputed dispositions of the inhabitants. He earns
the good will of the captain who finally transports him to Gibraltar by help-
ing him avoid several attempts to steal his cargo. These skills in cultural ne-
gotiation earn high praise from the captain after they leave Barbary, when, as
Pellow boasts, this newfound patron admits that "had he not very acciden-
tally and most opportunely happened to meet me there, he should not in all
likelihood have been permitted to come from hence himself' (375). Again
the former captive gains an ethnographic knowledge that transforms him
into a paradigmatic agent of colonial trade, a mediator capable of keeping
British merchants from falling into captivity themselves. But Pellow's knowl-
edge grows precisely out of the split in his identity. As part of his Moroccan
negotiations, he manipulates a recalcitrant official by suggesting that his
obstinance might provoke the retaliation of his superior, Muley Abdallah;
the official recognizes Pellow's suggestion as "very likely to be true, for that
as I had been brought up with Muley Abdallah from a Child, I therefore
knew his Temper" (358). Here the colonial expertise of the captive seems to
penetrate the deepest recesses of the Islamic state, but that expertise results
from a conversion so thorough as to engage a familial level of intimacy.
Both Pellow's heroism and the glaring inconsistencies of his text stem
from his potential definition as a member of two seemingly opposed cul-
tures. The text's internal inconsistencies suggest an attempt, whether per-
formed by authorial retrospection or editorial intervention, to smooth over
the anxieties raised by a narrative depicting an extensive, thorough, and even
heroic process of cultural accommodation. Pellow's potential apotheosis as a
colonial expert and hero stems from the vast knowledge granted to a captive
who not only joined the family of a Moroccan emperor, but climbed the
ladder of success within the Moroccan military. An attempt to soften the
appeal or the anxieties raised by this heroism of conversion seems to lie be-
hind the text's shifts in mood and voice, such as the sudden intrusion of pain
and indignation at the moment of Pellow's religious conversion, or the vacil-
lation between nationalist vituperation and calm acceptance of tyranny in
the account of his military leadership. But the heroism of conversion is more
severely undercut by the sections showing the most glaring signs of editorial
 The Perils and the Powers 113

intervention, such as the travel descriptions that the editor lifts from other
texts, or the picaresque plot, with its patent absurdities. Because the ethno-
graphic sections clothe Morocco in the standard motifs for portraying Ori-
ental governments, Pellow's heroism sometimes stands as a degrading
submission, if not a selfish accession, to a culture of tyranny. And by impos-
ing the picaresque plot in the text's later sections, the editor overwrites the
heroism of conversion with a heroism of roguery and alienation. As the Pellow
narrative reveals in a particularly telling manner, metropolitan culture needed
to fix the captivity experience, to reshape and even fictionalize its disturbing
materials in a rrianner that harnessed but also suppressed its potential for
exploring interior conflicts and the boundaries of cultural identity.

Although a question of cultural identity also lies at the heart of Robert Drury's
narrative, it does not surface through the manifest disturbances in voice,
chronology, and structure that mark the narratives of Pitts and Pellow. Com-
pared to the accounts of the former Islamic converts, the Drury narrative
holds more successfully to an autobiographical framework, so successfully,
indeed, as to produce a sustained debate over the possibility that the work
represents one of Defoe's fictions. The debate began when John Moore de-
veloped two extensive arguments, based primarily on internal evidence, for
Defoe's authorship. 22 Arthur Secord, however, much more convincingly dem-
onstrated that Drury had indeed suffered a lengthy captivity in Madagascar,
and that he provided at least an oral version of his story to an editor, most
likely Defoe, who added substantial commentary in fitting the narrative for
the press. 23 The text does resemble a Defoean bildungsroman in a number
of ways. Although somewhat plodding and repetitive in its detail, it plots an
organic vision of personal conflicts, growth, and adaptation to a complex so-
cial structure. The Drury text also exhibits the subtle conflicts between ret-
rospective voice, narrated experience, and ethical position that scholars have
located at the center of Defoe's contribution to the early development of
novelistic interiority. Whether produced by Defoe's revision of Drury's nar-
rative or by Drury's revision of his own experience, such conflicts are espe-
cially marked in this text because its drama of character formation is set
amidst the tribal society of Madagascar. If the Drury narrative does not ex-
hibit the same overt conflict between editor and captive that marks the Pellow
narrative, the two texts share similar patterns of ambivalence towards their
protagonists' adaptation as subordinates within alien systems of governments.
The tensions of the Drury narrative result especially from its portrait of
a successful adaptation to Malagasy society, an utterly alien one for English
readers, and from the conflicts of allegiance, ethics, and cultural evaluation
114 NARRATIVES OF FACT

that this adaptation entailed. Within a rigid autobiographical structure, the

text subjoins a barrage of ethnographic commentary as suggested by the se-
quence of individual events, and this commentary oscillates from high praise
for particular customs and individuals to the standard European idiom for
cultural vituperation. At times the protagonist's cultural adaptation seems to
have taught him a cultural relativism, but at other times the narrative voice
adopts a position of aggressive hostility towards Malagasy culture, and this
position finally subsumes the narrative's closure, when Drury the escaped
captive leads a British slaving expedition to his former home. Although the
text molds a complex vision of personal identity around the problems of
transculturation, its vision of cross-cultural identity finally splits when the
captive subordinates his adoptive people, and his adopted identity, to the
pecuniary impulses that rule his natal culture.
Ambiguities surround the construction of Drury's identity even when
the textual commentary is most negative and distanced from Malagasy cul-
ture, in its descriptions of native religion. On the one hand, the text dis-
misses native religion, in one summation, as "indeed, but little" (173), and
describes widespread superstition and quackery. But in interpreting the
people's credulity, the text offers multiple and somewhat conflicting expla-
nations. On one occasion, as Drury recalls the natives' veneration for a local
spirit, the retrospective voice scornfully rejects their justification of their
belief, declaring, "I think my reader may arrive at a more satisfactory knowl-
edge of the native disposition of the people in morals and religion from such
instances and occurrences, than from any set and formal description which I
can make" (178). Here a. single anecdote stands equal to the generalizing
and oppositional demands of ethnography. Elsewhere, however, the text at-
tributes the credulity observed by its protagonist to distinctions of class rather
than culture. Observing the practice of a Umossee, or holy man, the text in-
sists that this "wonder-working prophet" fmds his prey especially among the
"vulgar" (246). The skeptical narrative voice even speculates that some native
leaders, "who are men of sense, keep one of the Umossees out of policy only to
amuse the common people, who here, as well as in other places, must be
humoured in their bigotry, and captivated by such artifices which politic gov-
ernors know very well" (246). This effort to understand the logic of native
rule creates a common bond of rational mastery, available both to native
leaders and to British readers, who can equally recognize the superstition of
others as a means of subordinating them to a system of personal power.
Sharper ambiguities result from the text's presentation of native govern-
ment.24 Much in the manner of Defoe's fictions and political tracts, the Drury
narrative blends a liberal discourse of rights, freedoms, and slavery with a
 The Perils and the Powers 115

patriarchal discourse that contemplates ideal rule. 25 Within Drury's account

of Malagasy society, the tyranny of particular men destroys a cultural system
that seems not only moderately serviceable but also potentially instructive
for the British. The narrative depicts a land of natural abundance, easy labor,
"good-natured" people who share resources in common, and a workable sys-
tem of oral law. Not only does Drury praise "the general usage of the princes
here to converse very familiarly with everybody," but overhearing one such
political discussion makes "the Parliament in Great Britain run strangely in
my head" (144, 127). In the speculations of Drury or perhaps of Defoe, the
government of Madagascar offers evidence both for the antiquity of parlia-
ments and the character of government "in the state of nature, and the be-
ginning of men joining in societies" (128-29). If the government of
Madagascar represents a precursor for the British, it is not a savage state
marking an antiquated opposite for British progress but rather an original
and seemingly natural government offering a model for British reform.
For all the primal soundness of Madagascar's governmental institutions,
Drury maintains that "the epidemical evil of this island is their frequent quar-
rels with one another," especially those caused by cattle raids and petty ty-
rants "addicted to this kind of thievery'' (111-12). In their constant raiding,
these leaders often "follow the dictates of a blind passion, ... scolding at one
another, like women," and "always regard[ing] each other with jealous and
watchful eyes" (114, 119). Throughout the narrative, the captive protagonist
meets individual exemplars of this pervasive tyranny. One particular king,
because "glory was his chief aim," repeatedly indulges an inclination "to show
that he could act according to his own will" and thus often orders his subjects
"to immediate execution for very trivial, and sometimes no faults," leading to
the most "abject slavery" on the island (274-76). As so often in captivity
narratives, execution without trial provides a defining instance of uncivilized
lawlessness. Occasionally the narrative explains such tyranny as a result of
the people's natural disposition. When one king suddenly orders the captive's
immediate execution, he observes "the people idly lamenting my hard mis-
fortune, instead of turning on the monster and delivering themselves from
his tyranny" (287). The abject failure of the natives to resist tyranny seems to
stem from a natural disposition implicitly contrasted with the inborn free-
dom of the Briton forced to rely on them.
Despite Drury's frequent scorn for the natives' political behavior, his
narrative structure, like Pellow's, portrays captivity as a gradual process of
political accommodation. This process, however, creates an impression less
of systematic cultural tyranny than of a journey through a series of masters
who occupy various positions along a psychological spectrum of tyranny, gen-
116 NARRATIVES OF FACT

erosity, and paternalism. After Drury blames his initial slave status and ab-
ject labor on the particular cruelty of the tribe that first captured him, his
narrative documents a lengthy quest for an ideal patron. In a constantly iter-
ated pattern, he escapes from one tyrannical master and seeks the protec-
tion of another, who initially woos him with fair treatment, a comfortable
livelihood, and wives, but who then betrays signs of an oppressive disposi-
tion. Chafing under stricter oversight, Drury then undertakes a new search.
As the text follows a variety of permutations on this basic pattern, its
discourse of freedom, tyranny, and patriarchy mixes with Malagasy political
patterns in highly ambiguous ways. Drury's new or prospective masters some-
times become spokesmen for natural rights, especially when they criticize
his old ones in an effort to gain his allegiance. One declares that it was inap-
propriate "to keep free men against their will in a strange country," and an-
other that "it was natural for a man to fly for his life who was every day in fear
of it, and used like a brute" (194-95). Furthermore, many of these masters
undermine the text's general comments on the selfish tyranny of native rul-
ers. In declaring one master "generous and humane, of great authority, and
therefore an able protector," the text hints at the kind of deferential appre-
ciation that subordinates such as Colonel Jack express for good masters (229).
Drury's final master, moreover, treats him so well that, even after he has
escaped captivity and returned to Madagascar as a prosperous trader, he
retains a filial regard for this native, whose "former most generous and hu-
mane behaviour to me made me esteem him as my father" (312). Although
the captive rises steadily to positions of relative power and respect, as a mili-
tary scout and even "captain of my master's guard'' (264), he remains a depen-
dent within a traditional system of patronage and servitude. The retrospective
voice sometimes handles this system in patriarchal language but also some-
times tries to force it into a language of tyranny, freedom, and rights.
Because these varying perspectives emerge from a voice of personal
narration, their intermixture suggests a sustained interior conflict between
independence and service, British nationalism and cultural accommodation.
In contemplating his captive adolescence, the autobiographical Drury is some-
times proud of his service under idealized masters and sometimes outraged
by their subjugation of him. This conflict within the narrative voice, more-
over, seems to reflect a psychological conflict at the heart of Drury's experi-
ence in captivity. Like the plot of a bildungsroman, Drury's captivity
experience involves an internal struggle over social accommodation, ending
in liberation, but the text itself gives so much weight to the gradual improve-
ment in Drury's relationships with his masters that the narrative seems, rather
paradoxically, to plot a progress towards an ideal servitude. The text builds as
 The Perils and the Powers 117

much towards Drury's happy servitude under his final master as it does to-
wards the final escape. Within this text, a native of Britain, presumed seat of
modernity and freedom, grows into liberation and adulthood through a pro-
cess of accommodation within an alien system of patriarchal servitude.
Much of the ambivalence surrounding Drury's cultural adaptation at-
taches to a native custom in which underlings show respect for their masters
by crawling on the ground to meet them and licking their feet or knees.
Within the narrative, this custom acts both as a particularly concrete illustra-
tion of tyranny and as a particularly troubled locus of Drury's cultural accom-
modation. When his first master demands an initial performance of the
custom, the text verges towards a heroism of resistance, as the captive re-
fuses to kneel before his master, "thinking it an adoration that I ought to pay
to none but God" (84). But when his master grows violent, Drury accedes to
the ceremony, and after repeated performances he grows accustomed to it.
During his long search for an ideal master, the narrative highlights his careful
manipulation of the custom, as he uses it to charm potential masters with repu-
tations for benevolence or to appease angry masters whom he has offended.
That Drury the protagonist succeeds within native culture by mastering
such subordinate behavior constantly undermines the text's assumption of
cultural superiority. He embraces the custom not only as a subordinate but
also as a master, taking an apparent delight in receiving this homage from his
wives. His final performances of this ritual, moreover, create moments of
particular tension in the text. In describing his departure from one poten-
tate, he attests, "I licked his feet, and took my leave of him, and of this cus-
tom too; for this was the last time I licked a black man's feet" (293). Unadorned
yet highly emotive, the phrasing simultaneously evokes triumph and repug-
nance, relief and lingering hostility. The captive returns to this custom, fur-
thermore, even after his rescue by a British ship and his assumption of western
costume, when his favorite master does not recognize him until Drury jogs
his memory by licking his knee (295). Since Drury accedes to the custom out
of affection rather than force, the narrative's final image of this form of
abjection concerns an Englishman's eager acceptance of it.
During Drury's servitude, he manages a slow but steady economic ca-
reer, much like the protagonists of other factual captivity narratives or of
Defoe's Moll Flanders and Colonel Jack. But in Drury's case more than in
Defoe's fictions, economic progress depends on cultural adaptation. In an
episode that smacks of Defoe, Drury's economic progress begins when his
superiority to native laborers greatly impresses his first master, who boasts to
his fellows, "Look on that white slave; for looking after cattle, digging of wild
yams, and improving of honey, there is not the fellow of him" (164). If Drury
Robert Drury was a child at the time of his capture, but his
fellow Britons, who were all adults, seem equally childlike and
passive in this image from the early portion of his text. Drury's
face presents a clear image of unhappiness, and his posture is
clearly opposed to that of his captors. (This item is repro-
duced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.)
By page 345 of the narrative, Drury has spent years in
captivity, and this image portrays him as one of the Malagasy,
at home among them, now closer to them in skin colm~ and
almost as faceless as they are presented. (This item is
reproduc ed by permission of The Huntington Library, San
JJfarino, California.)
120 NARRATIVES OF FACT

surpasses native slaves, this accomplishment amounts to successful adapta-

tion within a position of physical servitude. But the captive soon demon-
strates intellectual as well as physical preeminence. As a trader in honey,
Drury gains as much wealth as any other slave, eventually owning a slave of
his own. Much of his initial rise to economic success, however, stems from
his manipulation of native superstition. Though he scorns a charm supposed
to protect bee hives from theft, he nevertheless learns the charm, pretends
to apply it to his own hives, and reaps much financial benefit because it
prevents native competitors from molesting his produce. Even more lucra-
tive is his manipulation of what he calls a "silly custom" stipulating that only
the son of a king can butcher meat (289). Because the natives believe that a
ship captain fathered Drury and that a captaincy is equivalent to monarchy,
they permit him to occupy this lucrative office. In explaining his initial mo-
tives for accepting the office, however, Drury seems ashamed of its status, if
not also of his means of acquiring it: "whatever mean thoughts I might have
as to the honour of it, I had too great an opinion of its value" (143). Although
at one level the captive's successful manipulation of Malagasy superstitions
suggests an intellectual triumph, the language here remains guilty, even apolo-
getic. Far from converting the natives away from superstition, this captive
profited from it, much like the harshly scorned Umossees. Within the text's
larger framework of scorn for native superstition, the captive's economic ca-
reer stands partially as a degrading accommodation to native culture.
Less heroic aspects of Drury's cultural adaptation tum up less often within
the text b.ut evoke unusual emotional intensity. By the end of the narrative,
the captive has undergone such a complete transformation that the grounds
of British identity seem slippery and malleable rather than stable. After many
years in captivity, he eventually forgets the English language, so that it "seemed
like unintelligible sounds of a strange language, which I could not form to
my own tongue to imitate, insomuch that I was in fear I should never be able
to speak my mother-tongue again" (233). As a result of similar cultural losses,
his reconnection with his native culture raises sharp anxieties about the ex-
tent of his transculturation. When he meets a Dutchman and some Europe-
anized Africans, they laugh at his adherence to such native customs as hiding
by himself to eat his meat. Here the grounds of cultural identity are doubly
destabilized, as native Africans adopt a position of European cultural superi-
ority in their mockery of a native Englishman's assumption of African cus-
toms. The text summarizes his behavior on this occasion with the comment,
"I found myself here a perfect negro in my way and manner" (232). The
bizarre phrasing suggests a crisis of self-division imposed by the experience
 The Perils and the Powers 121

of captivity, as if the captive Drury had unconsciously redefined himself as a

native of Madagascar until his contact with European customs suddenly forced
him back into his natal perspective, so that he perceives his transculturation
as a mysteriously completed fact but not as a process.
As the narrative charts the progress of Drury's cultural transformation,
the text often reverses the ethnographic perspective typical of English travel
description, as if the former captive has learned to judge Eurocentrism from
a non-European perspective. In its praise for particular individuals or cul-
tural traits among the Malagasy or in its criticism of British cultural traits,
the text destabilizes common assumptions about British cultural superiority,
the progress of civilization, and the goals of colonialism. For example, Drury's
attempt to teach the natives the Ten Commandments leads to his discovery
that "they have the purport and meaning of all of them by nature," and so do
not require his proselytism (151). An even greater repudiation of colonial
goals, and an even sharper reversal of cultural perspective, occurs with Drury's
observation that "the behaviour of English pirates, and others too, who are
not willing to be called so, has been very barbarous," so much so that among
certain tribes, who "have no experimental knowledge to distinguish that
wicked men are the production of every land[,] every white man is looked on
as not less a monster than we think a cannibal" (205). Here the text resorts to
the supposedly objective standards of"experimental" science in order to com-
bat the effects of a reversed cultural perspective whose very empirical weight
seems to compel its inclusion among Drury's observations.
The narrative's sharpest reversals of ethnographic perspective occur in
relation to Drury's fullest accommodation with native culture, his marriage.
To placate his wife's hostile mother, he tells her that, "though I was not a
black man, I had as tender a heart as any black man whatever" (170). The
text returns to this comment a few pages later, when its praise of native women
leads into a broad-ranging critique of European racism:

as to their fidelity, behaviour to their husbands, good-natured dispositions

and agreeable conversation, so far as their little knowledge extends, I
think the Europeans must not compare with them. We white people have
a very contemptible and mean opinion of these blacks, and a great one of
ourselves. They also have a great opinion of us, and think we excel them
vastly in knowledge, arts, and sciences. So far they are right, but if an
impartial comparison was to be made of their virtue, I think the negro
heathens will excel the white Christians. It will be remarked, I dare say,
that the best character I could give myself to my wife's mother was, that I
had as tender a heart as a black; for they certainly treat one another with
122 NARRATIVES OF FACT

more humanity than we do. Here is no one miserable, if it is in the power

of his neighbours to help him. Here is love, tenderness, and generosity
which might shame us; and moral honesty too. (172-73)
After reversing standard European stereotypes about Mrican women, the
text shifts immediately to a general critique of European cultural pride, be-
fore recalling Drury's personal, practical need to assert an Mrican identity.
Within the context of this praise for the Malagasy and this criticism for Euro-
peans, the repetition of the words with which Drury recommended himself
to a native wife suggests a moment of particular pride in his identification
with the alien.
The fullness of Drury's cultural transformation seems an especially posi-
tive outcome towards the close of the narrative. Just before his departure for
England, he explains, he had attained a life of such material comfort that
"had it not been for the hopes of seeing my father and mother, I don't know
whether I should have taken much pains to have come to England" (284).
Other moments suggesting positive transformation occur with the text's ef-
forts to capture the perspectives of natives. One Malagasy leader tells Drury,
for example, that he had changed so thoroughly that "I had none of that
barbarous disposition which some white men have; for he looked on me as a
native black man, I having accustomed myself to the manners of the coun-
try" (244). Here the narrator seems not only willing to adopt the reversed
cultural perspective of a Malagasy ruler but even proud that his cultural trans-
formation made him acceptable within that perspective. Elsewhere the
captive's cultural identity seems capable of controlled movement in either
direction, oscillating from natal to adoptive culture and vice versa. When he
first meets the Britons who help him to leave Madagascar, his rescuers at
first "took me for a wild man" (293). But he quickly doffs this wildness as his
rescuers clothe him in the western costume that prevents his favorite master
from recognizing him. When he licks his master's knee, the former captive
seems capable of establishing an identity within either culture, either as British
traveler or as African dependent, through voluntary manipulation of cultural
forms. Within the framework of the captive's psychological growth, cultural
malleability, after initially posing a threat to his identity, finally becomes a
source of cultural power, enabling him to perform variable cultural identi-
ties as occasions arise.
But the impression of a complete and happy cultural transformation fi-
nally ruptures with the narrative's closure, after Drury escapes from Mada-
gascar and returns as an active participant in the colonial system, revisiting
the land of his former captivity as an ethnographic expert, guiding a slave
 The Perils and the Powers 123

ship. As he explains, "my business was to assist in the trade which my knowl-
edge of the language and customs of the country had qualified me for" (304).
To perform this function effectively, he adopts native dress and matches this
appearance of cross-cultural identity with manipulation of cross-cultural
knowledge. When a native demands a high price for a slave, Drury "soon let
him understand that I knew the country, and that if they had none to sell us
I knew where to go" (307). Here the most aggressive depths of colonial ra-
pacity benefit directly from the experience of transculturation and the cul-
tural knowledge that it confers. Drury's hard progress in acquiring a malleable
cultural identity now seems to find its climax in its direct applicability to his
hopes for an economic independence that depends on reversing the terms
of his former captivity, making slaves of a people who had formerly enslaved
him. This final vision of cross-cultural identity marks a final, particularly reso-
nant, and particularly ugly moment of contradiction within the broader ka-
leidoscope of the text's conflicting views of the adopted captive and his
adoptive people. At one level this text expresses a measure of sympathy and
praise for the adoptive people, as well as a pride in the captive's identification
with them, that no other captivity narrative would match until the early nine-
teenth-century American accounts of John Dunn Hunter and Mary Jemison.
But Drury's transformation within native culture produces moments of shame
as well as pride, moments of abject compliance as well as successful mastery,
moments when he guiltily admits to deceiving his adoptive people as well as
moments when he triumphs in his ability to enslave them effectively.
As the narratives of Pitts, Pellow, and Drury reveal in a particularly tell-
ing manner, the captivity genre is a highly unstable, scabrous, messy genre,
one that permitted wide variation in exploring the dynamics of cultural iden-
tity. These narratives of extended transculturation are particularly sugges-
tive of the struggles over identity that underlie the genre as a whole, with
former captives and their editors always striving to organize the strange and
enormously varied experiences of captivity according to structures of plot
and rhetoric that might prove acceptable to curious but also skeptical, and
even hostile, audiences. That audiences turned to such narratives with espe-
cial excitement is attested by their relative popularity and influence com-
pared to other captivity narratives. After the initial success of transculturation
narratives within an eighteenth-century British context, their popularity, fic-
tionalization, and cultural impact became even more important within the
American context of the nineteenth century.
The transculturation narratives of Drury and Pellow are two of the long-
est, most complex, and most problematic captivity narratives in the English
124 NARRATIVES OF FACT

language, and it is not surprising that scholars have mistaken both for novels.
Produced during such crucial years for the novel's evolution, carefully re-
vised by editors who may have written novels themselves, and probably pad-
ded with fictional episodes, these narratives straddled the thin line that divided
fictional and factual narratives during the period. In their length and com-
plexity, moreover, these two narratives reveal with particular depth and clar-
ity that the captivity genre faced the same problems and harnessed the same
tensions as the novel in its early evolution, offering a parallel if not a model
for its development. Like the novel, the captivity narrative struggled to rec-
oncile general and particular versions of truth, and the doctrine of provi-
dence with various heroisms of individual action. Captivity narrative and novel
also shared interests in the new and exotic, in the juxtaposition of the ordi-
nary against the extreme, and this juxtaposition itself increased the power of
both genres to represent character in terms of interior conflict. While the
fluidity of both genres permitted wide-ranging exploration, broad inclusive-
ness, and troubling ambivalences, both also tended to ground their multi-
plicity in a common narrative structure pitting a persecuted yet autonomous
individual against an oppressive and alien social fabric. Like the novel, the
captivity genre succeeded because its manifold juxtapositions of cultures,
ideologies, and discursive forms permitted an extended, thick, and
unresolvable exposition of the problematics of identity.
PART2

Narratives of Fiction
This page intentionally left blank
FouR

Mastering Captivity

Published in 1729 and 1739, respectively, the lightly fictionalized narratives

of Drury and Pellow entered the English press at the close of a period that
witnessed the rise of the captivity plot in English fiction. The first important
group of English captivity fictions, whether set in domestic or foreign loca-
tions, appeared during the 1720s, with a sudden burst of novels based wholly
or partly on Oriental captivity. In this crucial period of expansion and con-
solidation for both the British nation and the English novel, Penelope Aubin
and William Rufus Chetwood combined to create a set of highly popular
fictions that directly incorporated, intensified, and recast the individualistic
heroism and colonialist agenda of factual captivity accounts. These novels of
colonial subjugation and individualist triumph achieved such prominence
that they inspired a pair of partly parodic versions from Eliza Haywood in
1727. As these three writers transformed the ethnographic motifs and meth-
odology of the factual captivity genre, they developed more elaborate ver-
sions of the captive protagonist, producing a range of character types, whether
male or female, mercantile or noble, who personified Western freedom, self-
assertion, and ingenuity, or in Haywood's works, a glaring absence of these
qualities. In the broad potential of its character structure for celebrating or
denigrating individualistic and colonialist ideologies, the Oriental captivity
plot provides an early and significant point for investigating the connections
among the captivity genre, colonial ideology, and patterns of identity forma-
tion that were crucial to the early evolution of the English novel.
Scholars have occasionally explored the generic connection between
128 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

captivity narrative and novel, but the predominance of the American critical
perspective has limited their insights. In arguing that the captivity genre
constitutes something like the "American Origins of the English Novel,"
Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse have suggested that the
Rowlandson narrative represents an important precedent for Pamela, since
both texts confirm the textual authority of an isolated, nonaristocratic, En-
glish-writing female in opposition to an alien and threatening environment. 1
More recently, Michelle Burnham has extended this connection by suggest-
ing that the captivity genre's transgressive models of female agency, espe-
cially as embodied in Hannah Dustan, reflect a larger parallel between the
captivity narrative and the sentimental novel as genres built on transgressive
self-fashioning and culture-crossing. 2 Each of these arguments overstates the
significance of a particular female captive, either Rowlandson or Dustan, but
even if we look at the American captivity tradition as a whole, it ultimately
contributed much less to the early development of English fiction than did the
prior tradition of British captivity narratives set in the Middle East.
Until more than a decade after thel740 publication of Pamela, readers
in metropolitan London would have associated the captivity narrative with
Oriental settings more than American ones. By the 1720s at least a dozen
Oriental narratives had appeared in print, so that Oriental settings, espe-
cially the Barbary Coast, had come to dominate the factual captivity genre
and to establish the generic features that would prove most amenable to
fiction. Factual accounts of captivity in Barbary employed what would soon
become a central feature of novelistic authority, as G.A. Starr has suggested,
in that they developed a persistent type of"narrator-hero," who recounts his
efforts to escape with an even-handed tone, a wealth of circumstantial detail,
and reflections on past experience in the manner of spiritual autobiography. 3
At the same time, the mercantile and artisanal captives of the Oriental narra-
tives greatly outdistanced their American counterparts in providing models
for one of early eighteenth-century fiction's favorite character types, the self-
reliant capitalist hero. 4 As the captives master the alien circumstances of the
Orient for their own advantage, whether for escape or profit, they simulta-
neously develop powers of self-control, self-preservation, and self-reliance,
and their texts confirm this narrative expression of progressive ideology
through explicit comments supporting economic and political individualism.
Finally, the basic situation of Islamic captivity acts as a continual source of
psychological tension, as the captives detail their efforts to maintain an insu-
lar integrity, an adherence to Christianity, and a secret agenda of escape,
despite the threats of despair and discovery and despite the putative corrup-
tions of Oriental institutions.
 Mastering Captivity 129

Compared to their American successors, moreover, factual narratives of

Oriental captivity much more explicitly engaged the imperatives of British
colonial expansion. U S!lally told by merchants and seamen rather than Puri-
tan goodwives or divines, Oriental captivity narratives included earlier and
more frequent portraits of captive protagonists as colonists in their own right,
and they produced earlier and more frequent assessments of captive-taking
cultures as enemies to trade and progress. Additionally, as previous chapters
have shown, the Oriental genre, much more than its American counterpart,
developed both an explicit rhetoric of native "English liberties" and a sys-
tematic representation of the captive-taking culture as debased and despotic.
Because the Oriental captivity narrative relied more heavily on the totalizing
ethnographic framework of travel description, it created a sharper opposi-
tion between the liberated Western knower and the alien culture as a de-
based object of knowledge. In depicting the captives' personal mastery of
the Orient, the factual narratives connected the alien-dominating subject of
Orientalist observation with the free, enterprising, and self-distanced sub-
ject of political and economic individualism, and this connection provided a
crucial site of elaboration and parody within the fictional adaptations. Both
the debased Oriental setting and the plot of subjugation and escape enforced
an expansionist ideology by suggesting that autonomous and self-reliant
Western captives possessed a natural right and a natural ability to control the
alien cultures that had enslaved them.
The most precise way to compare the relative impact of the two captivity
settings on the English novel is to consider their relative importance within
the eighteenth century's marketplace for suppositional narratives. Over the
course of the eighteenth century, as chapter 5 will show, the American cap-
tivity genre inspired a scattering of brief novelistic episodes, with only one
significant example appearing before 1767. These episodes, moreover, gen-
erally appeared in minor, relatively unpopular works, and they veered away
from the factual genre's primary focus on spiritual affliction. On the other
hand, the Oriental genre led to earlier, more extensive, and more popular
fictional imitations, some directly imitative and others quite elaborate in their
experimentation. After an early episode in The English Rogue (1665), and
the widely read episodes in Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Don Quixote (trans-
lated 1700-1703), the Oriental plot reached center stage with the fictions of
Aubin and Chetwood. Oriental captivity furnished the main narrative thread
for three of Aubin's popular novels, beginning in 1721, as well as lengthy
episodes in two others. Oriental captivity thus furnished one of the central
plot lines animating a body of fiction that scholars have described as an im-
portant precursor for Richardson's novels and a crucial element in English
130 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

fiction's shift from amatory plots towards piety, "virtue," and psychological
interiority. 5 In addition, captivity in Algiers provided the primary plot line
for Chetwood's Adventures of Robert Boyle (1726), which at twenty-three
printings represents one of the century's most successful fictions of colonial
adventure, certainly its most popular narrative of captivity under a foreign
people. Chetwood also included shorter episodes of Oriental captivity in three
less popular novels, published from 1720 to 1743. Additionally, minor epi-
sodes appeared in two popular fictional collections of the1720s, by Jane Barker
and Elizabeth Singer Rowe. 6 In that decade the Oriental captivity narrative
furnished one of English literature's most prominent plot formulae of ex-
tended subjugation and individualist triumph, amidst a fictional landscape
dominated by the picaresque and love intrigues. In that decade the captivity
plot acquired enough prominence to inspire a sharp rejoinder from Haywood,
in the form of three fictional episodes that radically undercut its aggressive
individualism. Later in the century, as chapter 6 demonstrates, Simon
Berington and George Cumberland used the Oriental captivity plot as a fram-
ing device for utopias focused on problems of liberty and self-control. In
addition, writers as diverse as John Shebbeare and Ann Yearsley occasionally
spiced their novels with minor episodes of Oriental captivity, while Robert
Bage once again centered a novel on the theme in 1787. At the end of the
century, during a comparable period of nation- and literature-building across
the Atlantic, American publishers began to print Barbary narratives with
American protagonists, and these texts, along with reprints of Aubin's and
Chetwood's novels, inspired Royall Tyler's Algerine Captive (1797) and other
fictional imitations.
In an effort to gauge how these fictions adapt and transform the Orien-
tal captivity plot, this chapter will briefly survey a few factual accounts and
some early fictional episodes before concentrating on the early fictional ver-
sions of Aubin, Chetwood, and Haywood. Continuing in the path of the earliest
fictional episodes, Chetwood intensifies and concretizes the captivity plot's
ideology of masterful individualism and colonial expansion, by celebrating
the transformative self-assertion of protagonists whose captivity teaches them
to know and dominate alien lands. On the other hand, Aubin introduces a
broader range of captive protagonists, especially women, aristocrats, and
priests, who embody the ideology of colonial individualism in a more sub-
dued, less transparent form. Her transformation of the captivity plot enables
not only a vision of moderate female self-assertion but also a critical depar-
ture from the aggressive individualism of the captive hero, especially in her
depiction of captive males as weak, passive, or at least pacific, in many ways
commensurate to her female captives. Haywood further complicates and
 Mastering Captivity 131

even ridicules the captivity plot's common patterns of heroism, particularly

by subjecting heroic male captives to the extreme violence of castration.
Through grim comedies centered on the figure of a castrated captive, her
narratives enact a caustic critique of both the aggressive masculinity and the
sexually victimized femininity that characterize the captives of Chetwood
and Aubin. Thus, within a single decade, the figure of the Oriental captive as
masterful proto-colonist inspired a variety of fictional enhancements, adap-
tations, and revisions, and the close development and interaction of these
varied character types indicate the pervasive cultural force, imaginative po-
tential, and ideological import of the Oriental captivity plot during this cru-
cial moment in the novel's evolution.
Despite the wide variation in these writers' ideological strategies, all three
capitalize on the captivity genre's opposition between a persecuted Western
self and an alien, debased, and despotic setting. All three writers mix the
captivity plot with elements of romance, defining idealized Western sexual
subjects through images of Oriental lust and dramas of besieged chastity
that anticipate Richardson's novels in their emphasis on the sexual constitu-
tion of identity and on individual freedom to choose a marriage partner. All
three writers also anticipate Richardson in complicating the subjective depths
of their captives through a sharpened focus on the psychological tensions,
conflicts, and transgressions produced by the situation of captivity in an alien
land. Thus these fictions of Oriental captivity produce early versions of sev-
eral crucial patterns of character development within subsequent English
fiction, precisely through a complication of the factual genre's basic narra-
tive pattern of an individual's exposure to, isolation within, and resistance to
an alien and oppressive environment. With further extensions, complications,
and revisions, this pattern continues to animate the English novel, whether
we consider Pamela's confinement in the various houses of Mr. B., the Lon-
don peregrinations of David Simple or the Man of Feeling, Evelina's experi-
ences in the fashionable world, or Emily St. Aubert's confinement at U dolpho.
In sum, a significant moment in the development of English fiction occurred
when the popular fictions of Aubin, Chetwood, and Haywood adapted the
colonialist discursive strategies of the Oriental captivity narrative for male
.and female versions of the persecuted, autonomous, and internally divided
protagonist.

Models of divided Western identity could emerge so forcefully within the

Oriental captivity plot because it developed them at least partially within the
already well-established yet highly ambivalent framework of Orientalism. In
Edward Said's influential formulation, Orientalism depends heavily on a to-
132 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

talizing ethnographic framework, which implies the intellectual mastery of

the Western travel-writer, but it also creates an impression that the imputed
pleasures, vices, and excesses of the Orient can undermine the traveler's
rational stability. 7 While Said's analysis originally focused on academic and
literary discourses of the nineteenth century, he also traced Orientalism's
roots in the centuries-long struggle between Islam and Christianity, and cer-
tainly the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed increasingly elabo-
rate strategies of discursive domination parallel to the West's increasing
economic and political intervention in various Eastern lands. British schol-
ars devoted extensive study to Near Eastern lands and languages well before
the rise oflndology at the end of the eighteenth century. 8 Although the total-
izing concept of "the Orient" belongs more properly to the nineteenth cen-
tury, British writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries employed
Orientalism's hierarchical framework and many of its standard stereotypes
in describing broad sections of Islamic territory, including the North Mrican
coast, Turkey, Persia, and parts of India. Throughout the early modem pe-
riod, images of excessively passionate, ineffectual, and despotic Muslims
helped to define and elaborate the Western self as a stable, rational, and free
political subject. At the same time, early modem writers also began to por-
tray Oriental cultures as exotically incommensurate to the West, capable of
offering Westerners alien pleasures, such as illicit forms of sexuality, but also
capable of overwhelming them with irrational excesses. Within early mod-
em travel descriptions of Oriental lands, such portraits often established an
opposition between, on the one hand, the rational mastery of self and alien
world revealed in the traveler's knowledge about and resistance to the Ori-
ent, and, on the other hand, the imputed features of the Orient and Orien-
tals, traits that seemed to disqualifY them for such mastery. 9 By suggesting
that the autonomous Western subject possessed a natural aptitude for know-
ing and ruling lands seemingly racked by political injustice, ineptitude, and
extravagance, these proto-Orientalist accounts created a justification and even
an imperative for Western colonial expansion.
The Orientalist vision of the Islamic world helped to shape the ideologi-
cal structure of the Barbary captivity narrative even as this genre provided in
its tum crucial illustrations for some of the most prominent Orientalist ste-
reotypes. The British saw the Coast as a bewildering chaos of petty states
and tribal powers, all more or less dependent on the Ottoman Empire, and
full of a bewildering variety of peoples: Arabs, Berbers, Moors, Turks, Jews,
African and Balkan slaves, even a number of"renegadoes," or Western con-
verts to Islam. British travel writers tended to lump these peoples together
under the broad headings "Turk" and "Moor," portraying them as altogether
 Mastering Captivity 133

given to tyranny, cruelty, lust, chicanery, immoderate passion, and supersti-

tion.10 This negative outlook at least partially developed in response to the
capture and enslavement of Europeans in Turkey and Barbary. By the early
eighteenth century, tens of thousands of Britons had entered Islamic slavery,
mostly in North African ports such as Sallee, Algiers, and Tunis. In these
city-states British captives sometimes gained freedom through ransom, but
more often they faced lengthy servitude and occasionally even galley slavery,
torture, coercive proselytism, or confinement in a seraglio.U As chapter 1
has shown, early modern descriptions of the Middle East and North Africa
often came from the pens of captives or ambassadors working to secure the
release of captives. Thus reports by and about enslaved Britons contributed
to the characterization of North Africa as a land of despotism, religious zeal,
and sexual predation.
For the British as for other Western trading nations, the Barbary cor-
sairs represented a particular threat to the spread of colonial commerce.
Until the mid nineteenth century, when the Western powers divided North
Africa into directly controlled imperial territories, British activity in the Middle
East depended on small-scale colonies, trade factories or coastal strongholds,
designed to open or protect the lines of Levantine trade, which returned
immense profits for British traders and simultaneously rendered local poli-
ties dependent on British finance. Even as British trade and power in the
region grew steadily from the late sixteenth ·through the eighteenth centu-
ries, the corsairs grew increasingly independent of the Ottoman Turks, while
internal troubles reduced the extent and power of an empire that had once
terrified the West. Despite British treaties with Constantinople or with the
Barbary states themselves, the corsairs frequently interrupted the Levantine
trade and even harried Britain's crucial oceanic route through the Atlantic
islands to the American colonies, the African slaving districts, and the Indian
factories. Although the British, like other Western trading nations, still some-
times sold captured Muslims in Mediterranean slave markets, they tended
to downplay their own predations while describing the peoples of Barbary as
devoted to slavery and plunder, inherently hostile to trade. Again like the
other Western colonial powers, Britain sent several punitive expeditions to
the Barbary Coast and managed occasionally to control strategic ports, such
as Tangier from 1662 to 1683 and Gibraltar from 1704. By the 1720s the
British and French had attained a nearly complete naval domination over
the Mediterranean and perceived the corsairs as pesky vestiges of an empire
now superseded by modern Western trading powers.
In that decade, as the early fictions of Oriental captivity began to imitate
the factual genre, the powerful colonial imperatives associated with the
134 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

Mediterranean basin led them to retain the aggressively antagonistic and

totalizing epistemological framework of Orientalism. Like the factual ac-
counts, the early fictions conflate Turks with Moors, Arabs with Egyptians,
and they produce detailed specifications of Oriental customs, behaviors, and
inclinations, representing these cultures as inverted models or parodies of
Western civilization. The fictional versions also sometimes borrow the hier-
archical framework and authenticating devices of travel description. Inter-
rupting Chetwood's fictional Adventures of Robert Boyle is along portion of
pure travel description, which analyzes Morocco through a catalogue of towns
and sections on religion, government, and physical appearance. When his
Adventures of William Vaughan (1736) turns to an episode of captivity in
Tunis, it includes several footnotes explaining details of Tunisian geography,
economy, religion, and dress. Even novels lacking the formal apparatus of
travel description often interrupt their narratives with minor ethnographic
details, such as a favorite food or superstition. Because a protagonist often
introduces such cultural traits only to scorn them, their presence in the nar-
rative underscores his or her cultural insularity. Traits such as superstition
and inebriation, adduced as typically Oriental, often assist a protagonist's
escape, further highlighting his or her rational superiority.
The epistemological framework of Orientalism provided one of several
means by which both factual and fictional narratives asserted the captives'
potential mastery over captive-taking cultures. Like their factual predeces-
sors, the fictional versions of Aubin and Chetwood routinely celebrate a hero-
ism of resistance to the imputed depravities of native culture. Whereas the
factual accounts occasionally literalize the captives' mastery over alien cul-
tures by showing that their knowledge contributes to British naval power
and trade, Aubin and Chetwood produce fantastic visions of former captives
turned into successful colonists. Furthermore, their novels develop a variety
of motifs, such as exotic jewels or happily converted natives, that for the next
two centuries would animate the fantastic colonial landscape of adventure
fictionP Thus their works provide a crucial point for investigating not only
the generic connection between captivity narrative and novel, but also the
place of colonialism in the early development of English fiction.

Within the factual accounts, the situation of slavery within a degraded

Orientalist environment seems to demand both the captives' assumption of
individualistic behaviors and overt textual reinforcement of such behaviors.
As the captives try to escape Oriental slavery, the texts bolster their efforts
with explicit endorsements of the British systems of limited monarchy and
mercantile capitalism, which are themselves reinforced by explicit condem-
 Mastering Captivity 135

nations of the political and socioeconomic practices of the Orient. The nar-
rators often complain of their slavery in the language of economic individu-
alism, especially as they express a desire to keep the earnings of their labor.
In the 1622 escape narrative of John Rawlins, for example, the hero resorts
to such language in order to persuade his companions to resist their captors:
"Oh hellish slavery to bee thus subject to dogs! to labour thus to inrich infi-
dels, and maintaine their pleasures, to be our selves slaves, and worse then
the out-cast of the world: is there no way of releasement? no devise to free us
from this bondage? no exploit, no action of worth to bee put in execution, to
make us renowned in the world, and famous to posteritie?" 13 Built partially
on an opposition between Western industry and Oriental luxury, the passage
enforces the value of individual "labour" and the need to seek opportunities
for personal renown.
Moreover, as the captives recount the hardships of their slavery and their
efforts to escape, they construct themselves as abducted from their native
environment but still maintaining its rationalism and intellectual dexterity.
Portrayed as alien to Oriental cultures, these principles appear all the more
positive, necessary, and natural for Western sojourners in Barbary. In their
efforts to escape, the captives exhibit what Starr describes as a pattern of
enterprise and mental "improvisation," a dexterous manipulation of alien
circumstances. 14 Under the various pressures of slavery, the captives often
mask hidden motives and attitudes towards their captors, adapt local objects
for useful ends, and even achieve some entrepreneurial success. When the
captives hide their internal intentions, secretly contrive escape plans, and
deceive their captors with elaborate subterfuges, the narratives depict guile
and dissimulation as positive Western traits, often contrasted with portraits
of Oriental captors as easily deceived dupes. Constant emphasis on the cap-
tives' efforts to maintain false appearances and inner resolves creates an im-
pression of psychological tensions and difficulties, suggesting a complex world
ofWestern consciousness, juxtaposed against a seemingly simple Orient, easily
known and mastered.
A particularly early and particularly clear case of active, improvisational
heroism appears in the Rawlins account, as this heroic ship's pilot leads his
fellow captives to freedom even before their captors' ship reaches port at
Algiers. Rawlins introduces the narrative with a dedication celebrating the
improvisational skills of the artisan, "ready for all impositions," as an impor-
tant contribution to the English nation (A3r). In its celebration of his ex-
ploits, the plot creates a sharp contrast between Western ingenuity and
Oriental luxury, sloth, and shortsightedness. The text repeatedly describes
Rawlins's careful deliberation and restless watchfulness as he waits for an
136 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

opportunity to escape. Finallyhe notes the utility of several crowbars that

might prove useful in locking the Algerian leaders in their cabins (C2v). When
the Algerians search their captives' cabins for potential instruments of rebel-
lion, they ignore the ostensibly harmless "crowes," which thus help to con-
struct an opposition between Oriental misrecognition and European
prescience in recognizing the utility of ordinary objects. Connecting such
misrecognition to the Orientalist stereotype of superstition, the text care-
fully documents a series of "foolish rites," especially a system for adjusting
sails, based on the directions of a "conjurer" and the position of two arrows
on a pillow. As the narrator scornfully notes, children, "Lunaticks and change-
lings" might randomly alter the arrangement behind the back of the credu-
lous conjurer (C2r). Such credulity makes Rawlins's captors easy dupes for
his ability to improvise a deceptive facade. In order to escape, he pretends to
join the interest of his Algerian captain and argues that they'll find good
pirating near the European coast, ultimately hoping to draw the ships be-
yond the reach of possible reinforcements (Dlr). More generally, his impro-
visational skills succeed because his captors exhibit opposite tendencies, sloth
and superstition in place of his activity and perspicacity.
Published eighteen years later .and also focused on Algerian captivity,
Francis Knight's narrative develops an equally concrete image of a national
heroism built around the virtues of careful observation, adaptation, perse-
verance, and leadership. After the failure of a first escape attempt, the En-
glish protagonist remains patient while his partner reveals a "French fury,
which my English resolution cared not for; its not the ill event of an action
that can disanimate a good Spirit, the weake faint with every succeeding
trouble, but the good heart recollects a double courage."15 This animated
resolution raises Knight to a position ~f leadership among a group of English
slaves, first as "treasurer" of their pooled finances and then as director of
their joint efforts to build an escape boat. 16 He further aids his countrymen
by projecting a false demeanor of complacency under bondage. When this
demeanor earns the trust of his guardian, Knight receives better treatment
and enough freedom and responsibility that he can free other European
slaves when his guardian embarks on a long voyage. After releasing the slaves,
the quick-thinking Knight deceives their gaoler by arranging a set of opened
locks so that they appear closed. The gaoler returns from a debauch, "well
fudled or well drunke, whereby no search was made to our Fetters," so that
the captives can easily escape. 17 In a pattern that will continue to animate the
fictional adaptations of the captivity plot, the English protagonist carefully
calculates opportunities and manipulates the appearances of the material,
 Mastering Captivity 137

whereas his captors seem susceptible both to the power of the material and
to the deceptive images that he creates.
An even more developed portrait of the English captive as dexterous
mercantile hero appears in William Okeley's 1675 narrative, again as the·
protagonist's individualistic drive and subjective complexity emerge in sharp
contrast to opposing tendencies in his Algerian captors. Okeley attributes a
hypocritical self-indulgence to his captors, dismissing the custom of fasting
as a mask for an inner compulsion to "Riot," "Lust," and gluttony. 18 While he
thus depicts Orientals as superstitious and unable to control bodily impulses,
he characterizes himself as a rational and resourceful Englishman, who adapts
to varied occupations in Algiers, first as a seaman and then as a weaver. Later
he transforms himself into a successful trader in tobacco and wine, arriving
at such a pitch of entrepreneurial acumen that he can advise another En-
glish slave about methods of earning a living. Within this portrait of captive
self-reliance, the circumstances of Barbary captivity and the urge to escape
create a complex world of enterprising, improvisational thought. A complaint
about the economic circumstances of slavery leads directly to careful delib-
eration on modes of escape: "it was difficult to raise increase out of no stock,
and to pay Interest out of no Principal; but there was no contending: It cost
me much Debate with my self, and I tum' d my thoughts into all forms and
shapes" (17). Deprived of favorable economic conditions, the merchant be-
comes an escape artist, whose enterprise involves a complex process of men-
tal adaptation to a wide variety of alien situations. Through such ingenuity,
Okeley, like Rawlins and Knight, attains a leadership role among a group of
English captives. First he forms a "rude draught, and general Model" for an
escape plan (43), and then he persuades his cohorts to constructive action
when they prove reluctant. Like Rawlins, he relies on individualistic ideol-
ogy in order to move his companions to action, as he argues that captivity
compels two alternatives, either active self-assertion or a contemptible ac-
ceptance of "Bondage" under an Oriental master: "Let us be up and doing,
and God would be with us. To begin is one half of our work: Let us make an
Essay, and Answer particular Objections as they Offer'd themselves, and as
we met with them in our work" (50). Okeley rejects his companions' passiv-
ity with a manifesto of improvisation, depicting "work" as a largely unplanned
process of adaptation to fit varying circumstances. When he pursues this
method in the construction of a boat, he makes oars out of "pipe-staves"
(57), and the boat's construction and transportation engross over ten per
cent of the text. Far from mere filler, this mechanical activity provides a crux
of dramatic tension and heroic triumph. Moreover, such resourcefulness,
138 NARRATNES OF FICTION

with its mastery of the external circumstances of an alien culture, appears as

a natural and inevitable response to the circumstances of captivity.
In addition to his resourcefulness, other complexities of Okeley's per-
sonality also take shape against the seemingly uncomplicated threat of the
alien Orient, especially as he struggles to conceal his escape plan and to
create a deceptive facade for his captors. On one occasion, when the obser-
vation of a spy forces him to dissemble his efforts to escape, he recognizes
the difficulty of masking his internal design, and wonders, "how boldly could
I hold up my Head to this Spie [?] .... The Reflection of my Conscience was
enough to write Guilt in my Countenance ... and this had betray' d me, had
I not suddenly pluckt up my Spirits" (58). Here, as in the captivity narrative
more generally, many opportunities for development of an opposition be-
tween external "Countenance" and internal "Conscience" result from the
dramatic tensions of captivity, the need for dissembling, and the threat of
discovery. Such dissembling often results from the captives' adherence to
Christianity in the face of proselytism and persecution. As chapter 2 has
shown, Okeley draws heavily from the psychological profile of spiritual auto-
biography: although his "whole outward man is in Bondage," he finds com-
fort in the thought that slaves can still "enjoy the freedom of their own
Consciences" (14). This constant play with oppositions between liberty and
slavery, internal consciousness and external appearance, contributes depth
to Okeley's construction of a narrated self. With its concern for liberty, eco-
nomic individualism, and the foil of the Oriental, his narrative, like other
Barbary captivity narratives of the seventeenth century, offered readers a
complex, nationalist model of English identity, opening an ample field for
experimentation within fictional adaptations.

Oriental captivity first entered English fiction in the form of brief episodes.
Although these episodes generally followed the narrative pattern established
in the factual captivity genre, their subscription within larger narrative struc-
tures often transformed captivity into something of a colonial apprentice-
ship for a picaro or mercantile hero. In The English Rogue, in Defoe's
Robinson Crusoe and Captain Singleton, and most thoroughly in Chetwood's
Robert Boyle, the traveling hero first encounters the world beyond Europe
through the threat of capture and slavery in Turkey or Barbary. In some
cases the hero enters Islamic slavery even in the act of escaping what seems
a more threatening form of confinement, such as a British jail, and the sub-
sequent facility of his escape from the Orient suggests that its seemingly
degraded institutions cannot contain the energy and ingenuity of a heroic
 Mastering Captivity 139

Briton. Often these narratives portray the easily mastered situation of Ori-
ental captivity as an initial provocation and test of the hero's colonial indi-
vidualism. After the Orient draws out his colonial skills, he quickly applies
them to what seem wilder, more dangerous, and more profitable colonial
lands further away from Europe.
The first instance of this pattern occurs in the first English fictionaliza-
tion of the Oriental captivity plot, in the first volume of Richard Head's popular
English Rogue. Here Turkish captivity serves as a crucial transition in the
narrator's roguish movement to colonial mastery. Towards the end of the
first volume's lengthy series of trickster episodes, Latroon finds himself in
prison and on his way to an American transportation. But after his domestic
rogueries thus reach a limit imposed by what seems a fairly successful sys-
tem of British justice, he escapes the rigors of American servitude through
an accidental shift to Oriental slavery, with the wreck of his transport ship
and his eventual capture by Turkish galleys. In recounting his protagonist's
Turkish slavery, Head draws several proto-Orientalist motifs from his factual
predecessors, including paltry food, abject labor, and cruel beatings. 19 Latroon
obtains release from this abuse and degradation through a characteristic rogu-
ery, by feigning a desire for suicide so that a particularly cruel master sells
him to one less cruel. Though the Oriental system of slavery temporarily
debases the roguish hero, it proves incapable of permanently confining his
aggressive self-assertion, ingenuity, and mobility. Eventually slavery opens a
broader field of opportunities for the rogue, when his new master starts him
on a colonial career through the East Indies.
This colonial world offers Latroon ample space not only for roguery but
also for exercise of another set of skills more transparently connected to co-
lonialism. After the brief episode of Turkish captivity, several chapters adopt
the framework of travel description for detailed specifications of Malabar,
Ceylon, Siam, and Bantam. This schematically organized section includes
several exorbitantly tall tales and several harshly racist stereotypes, focused
especially on the rampant sexuality of native women. In Bantam Latroon
finds a guileless culture seemingly suited to his roguish disposition, as he
cheats a native man of some jewels before having him killed, and then mar-
ries a native woman whose wealth permits him to set up in trade. This move-
ment into colonial trade marks a climax for the rogue's career, at least within
the text's first volume. When his talents have reached the limits of their ap-
plicability in England, he discovers a new field of application in a seemingly
homogenous Orient, as the degrading but easily outmaneuvered world of
Islamic slavery provides a gateway to the East, granting him access to a seem-
140 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

ingly limitless and easily mastered field of colonial opportunities, where he

can reach economic independence through the apparently interconnected
colonial skills of careful observation and ruthless trickery.
A similar pattern develops in the most famous English fictionalization of
Oriental captivity, the Robinson Crusoe episode, and to a lesser extent in
Captain Singleton (1720). In the latter novel the hero begins his colonial
career with a few journeys to Newfoundland before briefly falling into the
hands of Algerine pirates; his subsequent rescue by the Portuguese moves
him beyond the sphere of British influence into a broader colonial world of
fabulous wealth and piracy. Crusoe's captivity in Sallee similarly occurs after
an initial voyage on an English ship and similarly removes him from the
sphere of British influence. During his captivity, Crusoe emulates the cap-
tive escape artists of the factual accounts. Like Okeley, the captive Crusoe
seems to possess inborn skills in mercantile adaptation, and these skills first
lift him out of degrading bondage and then enable his escape. After a Sallee
rover takes him, he avoids hard labor by proving "nimble" for the Captain's
"Business," and later his fishing skills gain such a high reputation that his
master allows him access to a boat without supervision. 20 Seizing this oppor-
tunity, Crusoe attempts to improvise an escape plan, and, as with the factual
narratives, the text devotes much attention to the captive's patient cogita-
tions as he searches for expedients: "I meditated nothing but my Escape;
and what Method I might take to effect it, but found no Way that had the
least Probability in it: Nothing presented to make the Supposition of it ratio-
nal ... so that for two Years, tho' I often pleased my self with the Imagina-
tion, yet I never had the least encouraging Prospect of putting it in Practice"
(19). Oriental captivity thus impels two years of heroic rational introspection
at the opening of the most important rational career in English fiction. Fi-
nally the cogitating Crusoe benefits from the "odd Circumstance" of a can-
celed fishing excursion (19), recognizing its utility despite its apparent
insignificance. The text devotes nearly a page to his efforts to supply an es-
cape boat, noting such minutiae as a "Lump of Bees-wax" and "a Parcel of
Twine," items "which were of great Use to us afterwards" (22). As in the
Rawlins narrative, the improvisational captive recognizes potential utility in
commonplace objects.
Crusoe resembles both the factual captives and the roguish Latroon in
his ability to fabricate hoaxes that easily fool his captors. As he prepares his
escape vessel, his "first Contrivance" involves stocking the boat with extra
supplies on the pretense that he and his Salleean companion must not eat
their master's food (21). Next Crusoe gains powder and shot when "Another
Trick'' also fools his "innocent" companion (22). Finally, after Crusoe gains
 Mastering Captivity 141

control of the boat, he steers towards Africa rather than towards Europe, "as
indeed any one that had been in their Wits must ha' been supposed to do"
(23), in order to send any pursuers in the wrong direction. Crusoe's perfor-
mance of this archetypal adventure ploy involves a careful assessment of
rational and irrational behavior, as well as a careful manipulation of appear-
ances, and these skills seem to place him in a superior position of mental
dexterity, beyond the gullible simplicity of his captors.
These seemingly interrelated colonial skills of adaptation, planning, and
deception, first revealed during Crusoe's captivity in Barbary, find further
narrative fulfillment on his island. As Defoe's language itself attests, the iso-
lation and deprivation of the island create a more extreme version of"captiv-
ity,"21 providing greater scope for development of the improvisational skills
that Crusoe first manifests during his captivity in Barbary. When the hero
later finds his island filled with other peoples, both natives and potential
colonial competitors, he asserts his colonial governance through a roguish
game worthy ofLatroon, remaining hidden while his underlings build a myth
around his power. As in The English Rogue, the easily mastered Orient lays
the groundwork for a more substantial drama of isolated subjectivity and
mastery of the alien.
Within these late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century fictions, the
British hero's brief subjugation and escape in the Orient performed a trio of
complex ideological functions. The first involved a quick replay of recent
imperial history. The Briton's momentary subjugation, occurring at the start
ofhis colonial career, rehearsed Europe's sixteenth-century weakness in the
face of the Ottoman Empire. Then his quick and facile triumph over the
Orient, as a seeming initiation into a broader colonial career, suggested that
Barbary and Turkey no longer represented a legitimate empire, but had
yielded to new imperial powers. The early placement of this Oriental tri-
umph in the colonial hero's career suggested that reducing Islamic power
over the West represented a precondition for Western expansion, just as,
throughout the seventeenth century, suppression of Oriental shipping had
broadened Western naval power and Western potential for territorial con-
quest. The second ideological function of this narrative pattern was to pro-
vide a model for the skills of colonial heroism. For English readers of the
period, an Oriental captivity episode dramatized the hero's mastery of skills
in improvisation and dissimulation within the well-traveled setting of the
Orient, according to patterns already made familiar by the popular factual
accounts, before he graduated to more exotic and more profitable locations
such as a deserted Caribbean island. The third ideological function of the
Oriental captivity episode was to help legitimize the trickery or, in its more
142 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

mystified form, the intellectual dexterity of the colonial hero. When the hero's
colonial journey began with an episode of Oriental captivity, this most famil-
iar form of captivity among an alien people provided English readers with an
early reminder of the threat faced by colonists in any alien environment,
whether from natives or from European competitors for colonial power. Just
as Oriental captivity taught the hero to suspect alien cultures and to trick
them before they had a chance to capture him, it taught English readers to
respect antagonistic wariness and anticipatory guile on the part of the ideal-
ized colonist.

The clearest instance of this ideological agenda appears in the most popular
and faithful of the fictional adaptations: Chetwood's Robert Boyle. 22 After an
early and largely undistinguished episode of Barbary captivity in Chetwood's
first novel, The Voyages of Captain Richard Falconer (1720), this second
novel develops an extended captivity narrative as its central plot line. Not
only does the novel intensifY the Orientalist materials of its factual predeces-
sors, but it also creates a captive protagonist with a complicated subjective
life and a pronounced individualist drive. Far from an experience of abjection,
captivity transforms the young Boyle into a masterful colonialist hero, espe-
cially as prior to his capture he appears an unprepossessing, somewhat inept
youth. He first leaves England when a wicked uncle sells him into American
indentured service, and he enters Barbary captivity after falling overboard
during his transport ship's successful repulse of a Sallee rover. At first this
abject entry into captivity deprives him even of national companions in suf-
fering, but the novel soon transforms his isolated capture into an opportu-
nity for heroic self-assertion, with Boyle deciding that Oriental slavery offers
greater chances for a return home than a more distant servitude in America.
As in The English Rogue, this shift from American servitude to a seemingly
less threatening and less final captivity in Algiers suggests that the Orient
provides a more easily handled field of opportunities for the enterprising
young captive or colonist in the making.
Boyle's servitude, moreover, involves no recital of squalid accommoda-
tions and hard labor but rather opportunities to assume mastery over the
alien, as Chetwood sharpens the Oriental captivity narrative's opposition
between the protagonist's mechanical skills and the luxurious decadence of
his captors. Since the novel borrows its hero's name from a famous Restora-
tion scientist and since it further identifies its hero as a former watchmaker
and the orphan son of a West Indian merchant-captain, its representative
Englishman emerges as a figure with a natural disposition for science, me-
chanics, and colonialism, possessing inborn skills for mastering the alien cir-
 Mastering Captivity 143

cumstances of Barbary captivity. His first task in servitude involves restora-

tion of an "indifferently kept" garden, as his master laments the "want of a
Gardiner," and Boyle confidently offers to adapt himself to the position de-
spite his lack of experience (27). The text devotes several pages to his "Plans"
for improvement and repair, including his direction of his master's Moorish
servants, his importation of "European Seeds and Roots," and his restoration
of a fountain with statues drawn from Greek mythology (28-29). After the
garden's transformation, both the incapable master and his superstitious 'Work-
men were astonish' d to see with what Expedition I had compleated it, and
imagin'd I had dealt with the Devil" (29, 43). In presenting this restoration of
the garden to its original European splendor, the text projects an image of
the decay of Western design under Oriental caretaking. Moreover, the inci-
dent suggests that captivity can call forth an Englishman's seemingly natural,
interrelated skills in adapting himself to an alien environment, managing
mechanical projects, ruling Oriental servants, and reshaping Oriental land.
While Boyle himself appears as a rational and enterprising captive hero,
the novel constructs an intricate foil for him in his master, Hamet, a far more
complex villain than the tyrannical captors of the factual accounts. As an
Irish renegado, Hamet represents an alternative version of the Western self,
a Briton thoroughly saturated by the imputed vices of the Orient, made weak,
credulous, and rapacious by contact with the corrupting influence of institu-
tions such as slavery and the seraglio. In contrast with the self-reliant Boyle,
Hamet is surrounded by ineffectual servants, both natives and other
renegadoes, who share his superstition, gullibility, and inability to control
bodily impulses. Whereas the renegado's subscription within native culture
seems to render him unfit for management of his servants, Boyle's opposi-
tional insularity seems to enable his mastery over the natives and thus to
suggest that resistance to native culture represents a precondition for British
colonial mastery of the Orient.
The novel most sharply opposes Boyle's masterful subjective depths and
Hamet's limiting acculturation through the introduction of a romance plot,
which involves the captive's passion for a English slave, Mrs. Villars, con-
fined in the renegado's harem. By adding a female slave to the captivity plot,
the novel suggests that Oriental slavery can call forth not only the Englishman's
colonial aptitude but also his sexual energies. Prior to his capture, he "never
... had the least Regard to any of the Female Sex," but after Hamet's ser-
vants confine Boyle in order to keep him from the harem, an accidental
glimpse of Mrs. Villars in a "Turkish Undress" produces love in the formerly
aloof hero (30-31). This transformative initiation into sexual desire occurs
partially through the circumstances of captivity, through the confined posic
144 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

tion of the desiring protagonist, through his outrage at the thought of a

countrywoman's sexual confinement, and through invocation of the Orientalist
vision of the seraglio as a site of heightened yet perverse sexuality, of both
predation and promiscuity. The novel further heightens the sexual tension
through its image of Mrs. Villars in the seductive attire that marks her cap-
tivity, creating, as in Defoe's Roxanna, a paradoxically exotic and reassuringly
familiar sexual object by placing an Englishwoman in Turkish costume, de-
scribed as an "Undress," a tantalizing antithesis to Western covering.
But if such Orientalist details seem to induce Boyle's desire, the plot of
sexual confinement also contributes to the novel's contrast between his ra-
tionality and the depravity of his captors. After an initial moment of lover's
despair, Boyle struggles to "think with Reason" and to "manage my Passion.
I began to reflect the Moors were jealous of their Women even to a Degree,
and did not in the least doubt but my Irish Renegado had learnt that part of
their Manners" (31-32). Boyle's efforts to manage his passion first take con-
crete form with his recollection of an Orientalist stereotype and his efforts to
manipulate this imputed feature of Oriental culture. The romance plot pro-
vides Chetwood with many opportunities to celebrate Boyle's dexterous
manipulation of alien circumstances. Confined away from the seraglio, he
must first find peepholes to observe his love, then contrive a system for pass-
ing notes to her, and finally engineer her escape by intoxicating her guardian
eunuchs. In contrast with Hamet's rapacity, Boyle demonstrates sexual re-
straint in his own relations with Mrs. Villars, struggling to suppress his desire
even when they share a bedroom after their successful escape. Thus the
novel celebrates a rational sexual mastery in its Western hero by imagining a
Western villain corrupted by Oriental sexuality, whereas the hero feels its
allures but manages to control its effects.
As in the romance plot, the novel also more generally opposes Boyle's
rational mastery of self and world to contrary tendencies in his captors, who
appear vulnerable to the physical, unable to preserve a subjective insularity
against its appeals, and thus unable to properly assess and control it. The
novel portrays them as fond of and vulnerable to wine, despite "hypocritical"
laws proscribing it, as Boyle repeatedly inebriates Hamet's servants in order
to gain their confidence and reduce their watchfulness during key moments
of his escape. He also benefits from his captors' superstition, especially when
the scraps of a note to Mrs. Villars fall into the hands of a eunuch. Observing
his captors' general veneration for small scraps of paper, Boyle "ask'd the
Reason of all this Bustle, about a Thing we Europeans put to the most servile
Uses." When he learns that the Moslems believe that the paper will help
them "get to their Prophet" on judgment day, his contempt for this "whimsi-
 Mastering Captivity 145

cal Story" relies on a standard Western opposition between Oriental super-

stition and scientific or mercantile evaluation of the "servile Uses" appropri-
ate to ordinary objects (42). Superstition apparently prevents the eunuch
from recognizing the material resources of the Western captive. Through
this portrait of the captor's superstition, and of his appetites for flesh and
wine, the text constructs the Oriental as a subject susceptible to the power of
objects, so that he provides a sharp contrast for the Western subject's mas-
tery over objects.
Another key contrast between the masterful captive and his susceptible
captors involves management of narrative resources, a crucial concern for
Richardson, Fielding, and many other eighteenth-century novelists. 23
Chetwood transforms the Oriental captivity narrative's interest in dissem-
bling into an elaborate plot of masterful storytelling. From the moment that
Boyle falls into the corsairs' hands, he manipulates Hamet with flattery and
lies. The false assertion that Boyle chose to join the corsairs in order to es-
cape American servitude earns him their sympathy, ultimately enabling his
relative freedom of movement and the more elaborate deceptions that lead
to his escape. His dissembling continues with an effort to conceal his passion
for Mrs. Villars behind a feigned "Detestation of all Females" (32). This veil
of misogyny, buttressed by "several extravagant Tales of my own Invention,"
helps him to fool a eunuch into sharing information about Mrs. Villars and
into granting Boyle a free run of Hamet's compound (33-34). But Boyle
cannot always manage such complicated chicanery with facility and confi-
dence, and throughout the text the threat of discovery underscores the tenu-
ous opposition between his carefully calculated exterior image and the interior
truth of his passions for liberty and Mrs. Villars. His heroic efforts in "Dis-
simulation" require enormous mental labor, as he spends a "whole Night in
thinking of a thousand Expedients to forward my Designs, till I had thought
of so many that they were all confus'd like a Skein of Silk pull' d the wrong
way" (34). Thus dissembling provides the captive hero with an intricate and
difficult interior life, especially in contrast with his dangerous yet easily un-
derstood and manipulated captors.
The power of Western storytelling emerges most concretely with the
realization of Boyle's escape plan and his final transformation from slavery to
mastery. He escapes through an elaborate sham "project," which occupies
most of his time and energy in captivity, and which plays on Hamet's super-
stition and lust for Mrs. Villars, by promising him a love potion based on
putatively scientific "Experiment" rather than Oriental 'Witchcraft" (49). To
sell this project, Boyle improvises a senex amans tale that illustrates the power
of this "wonderful Arcanum" (50) and emphasizes its rarity, secrecy, and su-
146 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

pernaturalism. Blinded by passion and superstition, the renegado foolishly

agrees to absent himself for the duration of Boyle's project, granting him
enough time, money, and freedom to bring it to fruition. Boyle applies the
time to scouting out escape routes and applies the money to Moorish dis-
guises and other tools of escape. As the escape plan emphasizes both the
complexity of his intelligence and the gullible superstition of his captors, the
internal depths of the masterful Western subject take shape against the ap-
parent inferiority of the deceived Orientals.
Boyle's discursive mastery of the Orient enters a new, institutionally sanc-
tioned phase after he completes his escape and becomes a practicing
Orientalist. When a French ambassador recognizes in him a "Capacity fit"
for collecting "some Observations of the Customs and Manners" of this land
(116-17), the novel suddenly metamorphoses into an Orientalist travel de-
scription, as he documents the people, customs, government, and religion of
Morocco. The travel description relies on a standard scientific methodology,
schematically dividing Morocco into sections for different cities and cus-
toms, as the fictional captive fulfills the guidelines for travel description pub-
lished by his famous scientific namesake. With this sudden assumption of an
Orientalist framework, the text seems quite literally to restore the West's
imagined hierarchy of nations, as the former English slave achieves a scien-
tific mastery over an Oriental environment that had formerly subjected him,
but now lies subject to his scrutiny. Through this transformation of both text
and character, the novel literalizes the captivity genre's more subdued con-
nection between Western intellectual mastery of the Orient and the physical
mastery of the Orient that enables the captive's escape. In highlighting Boyle's
capacity to document the alien, Chetwood suggests an alliance of mercantile
or entrepreneurial capacity, observational or scientific capacity, and diplo-
matic or political capacity, all based on skills of adaptation and observation.
Like his Algerian captivity narrative, Boyle's travel description generally
presents Moroccan behavior as an irrational, impassioned, and excessive con-
trast to what is described as the normal rational subjectivity of the West-
erner. Mter a detailed list of Moroccan cities establishes a tone of scientific
rigor and documentary fullness, he shifts suddenly to a tone of ethnographic
vituperation: "As to the nature of the Inhabitants, they are most of a tawny
Complexion, of a lazy, idle Disposition, and curs' d with all the Vices of Man-
kind; mistrustful to the last Degree, false, jealous, and the very Picture of
Ignorance" (120). Boyle's travel description repeats many standard Orientalist
stereotypes, insisting on Moroccan cowardice, superstition, and disposition
for bodily indulgence. When he asserts that the women are "very amorous"
(125) and that the natives follow their religion "only like Children ... be-
 Mastering Captivity 14 7

cause they are order'd" (127), such imputed features of Oriental peoples
stand in implicit opposition to the heroic religious and sexual self-possession
of Boyle and Mrs. Villars. Several customs inspire explicit contrasts with
Western rationality, such as when Boyle observes some Moroccans stripping
naked and sitting on their clothes during a rainstorm: "If a Man were to do so
in England, he would be counted a Madman, or a Fool" (127). On another
occasion, typically Orientalist in its citation of extreme brutality as repre-
senting the truth of the Orient, Boyle describes an innocent workman's arbi-
trary punishment at the hands of the Moroccan emperor, who repeatedly
strikes the servant with a dart as he compliantly returns the weapon after
each blow. Imagining himself in the servant's place, Boyle declares that he
would have killed the emperor and accepted his own death as punishment
rather than tolerate such repeated abuse. Again Chetwood builds an image
of Western self-assertion by juxtaposing it with images of Oriental servility.
Given concrete intellectual form in Boyle's travelogue, his colonial apti-
tude enables worldwide travel and economic mastery when he resumes his
autobiographical narrative. As with Crusoe, the hero's early experience as a
Barbary captive seems to provide an education in the colonial skills that he
later applies to other alien lands. Boyle's Barbary experiences, moreover,
seem to offer a more explicit justification for his colonial drive. After his
escape and sojourn in Morocco, he becomes captain of a trading vessel and
immediately "long'd for an opportunity to be reveng' don the Moors," espe-
cially after hearing a false report of Mrs. Villars's recapture by Hamet and
subsequent suicide (153). When Boyle finds an opportunity for revenge
through a chance encounter with Hamet's vessel, the resulting struggle, cli-
maxed by the renegado's death and capture of his booty, both rectifies the
seeming national imbalance of the hero's captivity and serves as his first lu-
crative colonial transaction. Next, as he undertakes a longer colonial voyage,
he remains haunted by the memory of Mrs. Villars and even names a ship
after her, so that the radical colonial drive of the Western male seems
grounded in his radical devotion to a woman lost to Oriental captivity. As the
plot follows his career around the coast of South America, he offers a series
of travel descriptions emphasizing the natural resources and military defenses
of various colonial ports. The observational skills and colonial imperative
evident in these schematic descriptions find a parallel at the level of plot in
Boyle's Defoe-like itinerary, with its illicit trade and privateering among the
Spanish and Portuguese and its battles against Native Americans, which pro-
duce huge spoils and loyal slaves. Throughout these transactions Boyle relies
on the skills in dissimulation and assessment of alien peoples that he had
initially honed in Barbary captivity, and he reveals generosity in treating pris-
148 NARRATNES OF FICTION

oners and in sharing wealth with his multinational subordinates. His skill in
managing an enormous range of colonial peoples for an immense profit cre-
ates an image of an exemplary colonial master born in the crucible of Bar-
bary captivity. In fictionalizing the Barbary captivity narrative, Chetwood
transforms the defensively assertive captive into a radically aggressive and
enormously successful proto-colonist, through an intensification of the genre's
latent opposition between Western colonial skills and an Oriental culture
that provides the initial provocation for development of these skills.
In his final extended venture with this genre, Chetwood recoded the
colonial formula of the captivity plot in somewhat different sexual terms. A
lengthy interpolated tale in The Adventures ofWilliam Owen Gwin Vaughan
(1736) recounts the experiences of the protagonist's brother Jonathan, a
former captive in Tunis. Although the novel links the Vaughan family with
genteel pretensions, the captive Jonathan follows the pattern of mercantile
heroism developed in Okeley and Boyle, achieving a marked success in the
business his master assigns him while carefully concocting and concealing an
escape plan. His ordeal, however, resembles the captivity of Boyle less than
the captivity of Mrs. Villars, especially when he becomes the sexual prey of
his "luxurious, idle" master. When his master appears "possess'd with the
most hateful Passion Man can be guilty of," Vaughan enforces his refusal in
the standard eighteenth-century language of heroic sexual self-defense: "I
let him know, I would rather suffer Death, than comply with his infamous
Desires."24 What appears in Chetwood's fiction as the polymorphous perver-
sity of the Orient allows, then, for variations in the construction of the En-
glish subject. Here a masculine subject adopts a feminine pattern of
self-definition and self-preservation. After the novel plays with the threat of
sexual violation to the Western male, it restores an impression of his mastery
over the Orient in overtly sexual and covertly colonial terms, as the sister of
Vaughan's Tunisian master also reveals a passion for this appealing Western
captive. To provide Western sanctions for their transcultural romance,
Chetwood contrives her conversion to Christianity and emphasizes her sub-
jugated position within the predatory sexual system described by Orientalism.
Intent on controlling his sister's sexuality as well as that of his slaves, the
despotic brother plans to force her marriage to a friend. Despite the episode's
sympathy for the plight of a Tunisian female, its plot ultimately hinges on
defining a debased and predatory Oriental master as a foil for its devoted
hero. Mter Jonathan escapes from Tunis, his well-armed return enables the
sister's escape and the death of the despotic master who had variously perse-
cuted this cross-cultural couple. In its seemingly manifold despotism, the
Orient not only helps to define the Western male's heroic devotion to women
 Mastering Captivity 149

but also helps to justify both religious conversion and military force. In the
Vaughan narrative as in the Boyle narrative, such despotism compels vari-
able forms of self-definition and self-assertion, constant only in their insis-
tence on the force of British liberty, self-reliance, and colonial aptitude.

Further variations on this pattern characterize Penelope Aubin's adaptations

of the Oriental captivity plot, although her works, when compared to
Chetwood's, exhibit a less pronounced colonial agenda. In place of aggres-
sively mercantile English heroes, she focuses on continental captives, espe-
cially passive noblemen, proselytizing priests, and women, character types
that are essentially absent from factual accounts of Barbary captivity. This
shift in character types would seem to offer infertile ground for individualis-
tic or colonial ideology, especially since it seems consistent with Aubin's po-
sition as a woman and a Catholic, doubly removed from the circles of British
mercantile expansion. Nevertheless, her novels link even these character types
with tempered versions of the captivity plot's individualistic and colonialist
motifs. Here I will focus particularly on her captive heroines, characters who
demonstrate the captivity plot's broad potential for developing varied im-
ages of the Western subject's mastery of self and world.
Aubin's characterization of the female captive ranges from virtuous pas-
sivity to transgressive activity, but she shares, along with the male captives of
the factual accounts, common features of insularity, self-assertion, and self-
control, defined through the threats of subjugation and debasement in Ori-
ental settings. With her many female captives, as with Chetwood's Mrs. Villars,
threats of Oriental lust, bodily constraint, seduction, rape, and forced mar-
riage all help to reinforce the Western female subject's preservation of sexual
virtue, which represents, as it were, Western integrity and self-possession.
Such dramas of besieged virtue, situated within the Orient, provide the pri-
mary narrative drive for Aubin's first novel, The Count de Vinevil (three print-
ings, first 1721), for her most popular novel, The Noble Slaves (six printings,
first 1722), and for her final novel, The Life and Adventures of the Young
Count Albertus (one printing, 1728). Oriental captivity also figures promi-
nently in The Life and Amorous Adventures of Lucinda (one printing, 1722)
and in The Life of Charlotta Du Pont (four printings, first 1723). In these
works the stereotypical dangers of the Orient often force female captives to
improvise a variety of self-reliant, aggressive, and even mercantile behav-
iors, including many of those exhibited by Boyle and the heroes of the fac-
tual accounts. As the self-preservation of Aubin's heroines involved
transgression of gender roles in male disguise, a choice of active self-defense
over passivity, and even participation in a limited colonial economy, the cir-
150 NARRATNES OF FICTION

cumstances of Oriental slavery provided English readers with an imagina-

tive liberation from the period's increasingly domestic guidelines for female
behavior.
Aubin's echoes of the Oriental captivity tradition are especially pro-
nounced in the preface to The Noble Slaves, where she situates her plot of
female chastity and transgressive self-fashioning within a framework of
Orientalist and specifically nationalist oppositions. The preface offers a se-
ries of generalizations about Oriental government, economy, and sexuality,
all emphasizing their departure from Western standards of political and eco-
nomic individualism: "In our nation, where the Subjects are born free, where
Liberty and Property is so preserv' d to us by laws, that no Prince can enslave
us, the Notion of Slavery is a perfect Stranger. We cannot think without Hor-
ror, of the Miseries that attend those, who, in Countries where the Monarchs
are absolute, and standing armies awe the People, are made Slaves to others.
The Turks and Moors have been ever famous for these Cruelties."25 Aubin
further echoes the factual narratives of Oriental captivity in suggesting that,
whereas the English "Constitution will always keep us rich and free," Oriental
government, or "Turkish Policy," centers on a despot who ''beggar[s] his People"
and "fills his own Coffers with their Wealth" (x). The preface develops a spe-
cifically feminine role within this nationalistic and individualistic ideology
through its assertion that Oriental custom allows the tyrant sexual power over
many female slaves, including Western women: "There the Monarch gives a
loose to his Passions, and thinks it no Crime to keep as many Women for his
Use, as his lustful Appetite excites him to like" (x). Within the preface's frame-
work of oppositions between Oriental despotism and the free-born English
subject, chastity assumes national importance as a field in which a limited fe-
male autonomy can be defined against images of Oriental predation.
Although Aubin's plots place sexually predacious men all over the planet,
the longstanding Orientalist motifs of despotism and ferocious sexuality pro-
vide imaginative resources to which she repeatedly turns, whether she lo-
cates the captivity plot in Barbary, Turkey, or Persia. 26 Her novels multiply
episodes of besieged chastity and captive integrity through a complex, inter-
laced structure of interpolated tales, as a variety of captives arrive briefly on
the scene to announce their personal subjugations, resistance to sexual pre-
dation, and efforts to escape. Slight variations in the basic pattern, assisted
by common Orientalist stereotypes, build an image of the Orient as a world
of polymorphous, uncontrollable, and predacious sexuality. To explain the
aggressive desires of a Moroccan prince, Aubin declares in The Noble Slaves
that "the Moorish Nobility, and indeed the Whole Nation, are much inclin' d
to Love, very amorous and gallant" (107). In the same work a male captive
 Mastering Captivity 151

narrates his sexual coercion at the hands of an old female master, and an-
other male recounts a Tunisian governor's efforts to seduce him to "a use the
Mahometans often keep young Men for" (139). More often female charac-
ters narrate various masculine attempts at sexual constraint, whether per-
formed by a luxurious despot, an animalistic slave, or a vicious renegado,
whether enacted through rape, seduction, or simply imprisonment within a
seraglio. The most common pattern, involving a stereotypical potentate, re-
curs so insistently that it borders on the inevitable. As one captive husband
predicts to his wife, immediately following their capture by Algerian pirates,
"you will be ravished from me by some powerful Infidel, who will adore your
Charms" (42). Within Aubin's fiction, the potentate often develops an insti-
tutional system of sexual predation; one of her heroines finds herself bought
by the Bey of Tunis as part of his systematic purchase of "handsome Euro-
pean Virgins" at the local slave market. 27 In its seeming inevitability and con-
nection to an underlying cultural system, this recurring narrative pattern
imagines Oriental rulers as necessarily despotic, predatory, and particularly
interested in Western women.
Aubin combines this vision of the Orient with other aspects of the cap-
tivity plot in order to celebrate heroines whose piety and chastity stand equal
to the extremes of power, wealth, and depravity described by Orientalism.
Her works often define the heroic virtue of Western women against images
of the already fallen women of the seraglio, as powerful Oriental men re-
peatedly abandon their jealous and beautiful countrywomen for Western
slaves.28 Often the potentate, far from buying the Western heroine in a simple
economic transaction, sees in her a noble beauty commensurate to his power.
His failed efforts to seduce her with offers of freedom, extreme wealth, and
even political influence reinforce her heroic maintenance of chastity, which
itself often staggers him, increasing his passion but also sometimes enno-
bling and reforming him, even forcing him to grant her freedom. When the
potentate resorts to violence, the Oriental setting exacerbates the plot of
besieged chastity, as the heroine's distance from her homeland helps to em-
phasize her lack of any recourse to law, money, or family, while explicit com-
ments on Oriental despotism highlight her powerless subjugation. Within
the seraglio, the master, like Lovelace, often enlists the aid of his sexually
experienced concubines to help his rape or seduction. Like Pamela or Clarissa,
the female captive sometimes contemplates suicide and frequently threat-
ens or even performs violence against herself in defense of her sexual virtue.
Aubin's texts often voice Orientalist stereotypes to reinforce their heroines'
proto-Richardsonian defense of chastity. In The Noble Slaves the enslaved
Emilia swears, "I will die rather than live a Vassal to a vile Mahommetan's
152 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

unlawful lust" (42). Like many similar vows in Aubin's fiction, this declara-
tion compresses the drama of besieged chastity with the Orientalist vision of
the East as a place without the protection of laws, where absolute tyranny
can exercise political power over vassals and sexual power over virgins. Ulti-
mately, however, the potentate's continual desire for and failure to subdue
the Western heroine portrays the Orient, even in the very heights of its power,
as abject and impotent when faced with the seemingly inexorable appeal and
incorruptible resolve of Western self-possession.
However, these dramas of chastity and fidelity, far from defining the
female subject entirely in terms of resistance to sexual assaults, also grant
her a limited autonomy by depicting assertive behavior as demanded by the
situation of Oriental captivity. Often Aubin's heroines must assert themselves
because their male companions prove inadequate in dealing with Oriental
potentates, who easily isolate the women from any possible assistance from
their nominal protectors, sometimes even forcing the latter into degrading
bondage. In The Noble Slaves, for example, Emilia's male companions try to
prevent an Algerian potentate from separating male from female captives,
but his soldiers immediately reduce the men to passivity and debilitating
confinement. Such separations and confinements often contribute to the
romance motif of heroic male devotion to women, especially when the des-
pots punish Western men out of jealousy or when they suffer continued de-
basement in the Orient while waiting for the escape of their inamoratas.
Whereas Aubin generally depicts female slaves as surrounded by luxury, she
often describes the bondage of Western men according to a pattern well
established in the factual captivity narratives, with a wealth of particular de-
tails concerning locks and chains, humiliating drudgery, wretched food and
bedding. A captive nobleman in Charlotta Du Pont, for example, laments his
condition as a slave forced to "draw Water, dig, and labour hard all Day, at
Night chain'd like a Dog in a Hole," and eventually reduced by labor and
poor food to such "Fever" and 'Weakness" that his escape depends entirely
on the help of his master's daughter (109-10). When Aubin does include
more active Western males, they are hermits and priests such as Count
Albertus, men who master the Orient quietly rather than spectacularly, se-
cretly gaining a small livelihood, converting natives, and collecting escaped
slaves for return to Europe.
Because the Oriental captivity plot can render Western men abject, in-
effectual, or mild, it allows Aubin to imagine situations that demand a modi-
cum of female self-assertion. Deprived of male protection, her female captives
assume some of the autonomous, improvisational, and transgressive activi-
ties of the escaping captive hero. In Charlotta Du Pont, for example, the
 Mastering Captivity 153

brief interpolated tale of Angelina highlights a resourcefulness and "Wit,

which exceeded her Sex (tho Women ever were esteem'd more quick and
subtile than Mankind at cunning Plots and quick Contrivances)" (105). With
pointed irony, Aubin adduces a misogynist stereotype as justification for cre-
ating a heroine with the dexterous ingenuity of the captive hero. After
Angelina's capture by Algerian corsairs and sale to a lustful Tunisian ruler,
she shows a "heroick Spirit and consummate Virtue" as she "bravely resolv' d
to die, rather than submit to a Mahometan; and thus determin' d, began to
consider what to do to deliver her self' (101). The text moves immediately
from a standard vow of chastity to the careful deliberation of the Barbary
captive. Her planning showcases her observational skills, as she immediately
discovers the keys to her prison in the hands of a "Moorish slave," and then
carefully notes the advantage that her master's absence gives her. The es-
cape plot hinges on a series of problems that she easily overcomes, first climb-
ing out her window with some bed sheets, next breaking into a closet to
secure Turkish clothes, and finally fashioning these clothes into Oriental dis-
guises. To obtain the all-important key from the slave, Angelina plans to "stab
him with a Penknife I have hid about me" (145). However, this carefully
contained violence, so important for Clarissa as for many other eighteenth-
century heroines, does not become necessary for Angelina, who steals the
key from her drunken captors. The text justifies this contingency with a ste-
reotype concerning hypocrisy and alcohol: "Altho their Prophet does forbid
it them; ... few Mussulmen refuse it in Private" (105). In sum, this escape
parallels those of the factual accounts in several ways: in the captive's careful
deliberation on method, in her ability to recognize favorable circumstances
and the utility of ordinary objects, and in her ability to capitalize on the ste-
reotypical weaknesses of Orientals. By placing a triumphant female protago-
nist in an Oriental captivity plot, Aubin creates a transgressive heroine who
can approach male adventurers in their resourcefulness, observational skills,
and mastery of the alien.
Within Aubin's fictions, transgressive female mastery of the Orient ex-
tends even to colonialist motifs, although her heroines' modest and carefully
contained financial successes fall somewhat short of the masterful colonialist
aptitude registered in Okeley or Boyle. After Angelina escapes, she builds a
nascent colony on the Tunisian coast, along with a noble Spanish couple, also
escaped captives. Like many characters in Aubin's Oriental fictions, the hus-
band pursues a Crusoe-like existence as a self-reliant castaway, growing "well
acquainted with the Country" and adapting to its alien circumstances, even
building a home, complete with a fireplace, out of an abandoned mosque
(114). He obtains a more secure refuge in a manner typical of Aubin's male
Instead of portraying capture and torture, the frontispiece to
Aubin's most popular novel seems to invoke the Crusoe-like
survivial of some escaped captives in an abandoned mosque. (By
permission of the British Library. 125ll.CC.l4.)
 Mastering Captivity 155

escapees. Taldng advantage of supposed Oriental superstition, he masquer-

ades as a dervish and convinces a local fisher-couple to give their own home
to these budding Western colonists. These peasants eventually convert to
Christianity, prove "very serviceable" to the Europeans, and secure their es-
cape on a Spanish vessel (116). Within this episode, quick-thinking decep-
tion and more general skills in adaptation enable the former captives to fulfill,
at a microcosmic level, the colonial agenda of converting native peoples,
gaining their support, and appropriating their resources. Despite continual
fear of recapture, the colonists also achieve some economic success. While
in captivity the noble husband had adapted to the labor of maldng straw hats
and baskets, and after his escape these skills blossom into a cottage industry,
as he teaches the women to make such products "with great dexterity," sells
them in town, and receives "enow to supply them with Bread and Meat in
way of exchange" (116). Thus isolation within an unknown and threatening
environment compels the noble trio to alter themselves according to its de-
mands, as they transgress boundaries of gender and status while drawing on
the resourceful skills of the mercantile hero. Under the guidance of a West-
em male, the female escapees make what seem properly limited, even do-
mestic contributions to this mini-factory of colonial mercantilism.
Another important female economic contribution results from the sale
of jewels that the women had fortuitously discovered and prudently confis-
cated during their escape. Throughout Aubin's novels, female captives gain
wealth from their Oriental masters through such accidents; several heroines
obtain hordes of jewels from the luxurious costumes their masters had forced
them to wear. In the case of Angelina, when she examines her stolen dis-
guises, she discovers that, "instead of being mean, such as Slaves wear," they
contain a fortune in "Cloth of Gold," "Rubies," "Emeralds," "Diamonds, Pearl,
and other Jewels" (148). Thus Aubin grants her heroines one of the common
motifs associated with the adventurous hero of colonial fiction, translating
colonial appropriation of resources into images of fabulous booty gained
through accident rather than planning, as a chance by-product of the radical
self-assertion demanded by the circumstances of subjugation under a puta-
tively tyrannical and inferior people.
Within Aubin's fictions, subjugation within a dangerous Oriental setting
can force female characters to extremes of violent self-assertion from which
later fiction, with its focus on domesticity and sensibility, would tend to dis-
sociate its heroines. In The Noble Slaves, the Spanish slave Maria tears out
her eyes in order to thwart the lust of a Persian emperor, who, cowed by this
extreme defense of her sexual virtue, grants her freedom (33). Aubin's hero-
ines more often direct their violence against their aggressors. When an Alge-
156 NARRATNES OF FICTION

rian overlord threatens to rape Emilia, she kills him with a ritualized
declamatory vaunt like those that accompany male violence in epic or heroic
romance: ''Villain, I fear you not, I'll sacrifice you to preserve my Vertue; die
Infidel, and tell your blasphemous Prophet, when you come to Hell, a Chris-
tian spilt your Blood" (48). Next she kills a renegado in order to escape, but
the novel also tries to control the effects of all this carnage by highlighting
the heroine's mental disturbance, which appears in a "look that spoke the
Terrors of her Mind, and the strange Deed she had done" (48). While these
"Terrors" suggest a partial shift towards the ideology of female passivity and
sensibility, Aubin's fictions nevertheless repeatedly depict the "strange" ac-
tions of female violence as justified resistance to the subjugation of Oriental
slavery. One of her heroines, after threatening to kill her lustful Turkish cap-
tor, escapes by setting fire to his seraglio, and thus inspires another Western
woman, who had accepted concubinage, to reproach herself for lacking the
heroism of resistance. 29 The contrast between the two characters creates a
justification for female violence under such extreme conditions as those which
seem to characterize the Orient.
Aubin's Oriental settings demand other transgressive forms of female
behavior, signaled most concretely in their dexterous manipulation of dis-
guises. Like the heroes of the factual captivity narratives, her heroines achieve
and maintain their freedom by projecting false selves to deceive their cap-
tors, sometimes through the resourceful dissembling associated with male
captives, but more often through elaborate and carefully planned costumes.
Within her works, almost every iteration of the captivity plot involves the
female captive's adoption of native dress, sometimes because her master in-
sists that she wear the finery of "Turkish" costume, but more often because
she needs to disguise herself in order to escape. Whereas Chetwood em-
ploys Turkish costume as a sign of danger for his hero's inamorata, Aubin
celebrates her heroines' Roxana-like control over alien costume. Thus the
Oriental captivity plot helps her to develop a crucial motif in heroic romance
and in novels by Englishwomen from Behn to Inchbald, where female ma-
nipulation of costume marks an ideological fantasy or protest about female
power within the limits imposed by domesticity and consumerism. 30
Aubin's use of disguise intensifies the captivity plot's emphasis on the
dexterous self-mastery and subjective depths of the captive, especially as
contrasted with images of an exotic yet inferior Orient, easily understood,
resisted, imitated, and deceived. When masters force Turkish costumes on
their female slaves, the novels describe this clothing with a wealth of de-
scriptive detail and luxurious epithet, creating an air of exotic sexuality. De-
spite the temptation of this luxurious and provocative clothing, the women
 Mastering Captivity 157

remain uncomfortable with its imposition and indifferent to its allures, so

that their seemingly incorruptible essence of chaste purity resists redefini-
tion within an alien culture that seems to exist at the level of surface rather
than depth. An even greater sense of Western female mastery over Oriental
culture results when the captives choose Turkish costumes themselves. In
the tale of Angelina, for example, the heroine carefully deliberates over her
choice of a eunuch's costume and then switches to that of an Oriental lady,
finally reaching a perfect disguise with a darkened face. Through this skillful
assumption and alteration of disguises, such a narrative highlights the captive's
careful observation of her environment and her ability to adapt herself to its
demands. The narrative tension surrounding disguise continues after escape,
especially with the threat that any passing Oriental male will penetrate the
Western fugitive's seemingly unnatural disguise, seeing through outer ap-
pearance and behavior to the inner female subject in all her sexual vulner-
ability. Thus disguise helps to interpolate the depths of Western female
consciousness, constructed in terms of a division between an inward essence
and an outward image, so that the outward image can provide the basis for a
skillful and temporary play with boundaries of race, gender, and status, while
the inward essence retains its inborn, "natural" integrity. While Aubin's clever
Western females easily master the details of Oriental costume and behavior,
her Oriental characters remain forever fixed in such costumes as in the puta-
tive attributes of their culture.
When the circumstances of Oriental captivity require Aubin's heroines
to assume masculine disguise, this motif contributes to a heroism of trans-
gressive self-fashioning and masterful adaptation, most fully realized in
Lucinda. Throughout her sojourn in the Orient, the eponymous heroine wears
male attire in order to protect herself against various threats associated with
Eastern lands. Her assumption of masculine disguise both endangers and
transforms her, placing her in situations that threaten her chastity, but also
allowing her to abandon passivity for an array of cross-gendered resources.
As she explains, "The garb, I fancy, had inspired me with manly Resolutions;
I had no timorous Thoughts ... and applied my self diligently to attain their
Airs."31 This heroic process of adaptation reaches an apotheosis when she
easily adapts to combat with a Barbary rover: "no one who had been a wit-
ness of my Behavior, would have suspected me for any other than a finished
hero" (228-29). Once she enters Turkish slavery and confronts the putative
sexuality of the Orient, her disguise produces a set pf problems that she
handles with the improvisational skills of the resourceful captive. When her
Turkish master places this seeming male slave in charge of his personal apart-
ment, including his attire, much dramatic tension arises from the discrep-
158 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

ancy between an inward female essence defined by chastity and the cross-
gendered sexual possibilities of her outward appearance, behavior, and situ-
ation. Another test of her skills in impersonation arises after a chance meeting
with her long lost but still favorite suitor, now a fellow slave reduced to pas-
sive wealmess and abject bondage but still strangely attracted to this mascu-
line simulation of his lady love. A final complication plays on Orientalist sexual
stereotypes, as the disguised Lucinda excites a "fruitless Passion" in a "young
Turkish Lady" and consequently fears the "Fury of her Desires," especially
as "the Women of that Country were not framed of the coldest Mould" (244-
45). To preserve both her masculine disguise and her feminine "virtue,"
Lucinda blinds all of these potential discoverers of her identity by fabricat-
ing histories of a masculine past, and thus her impressive storytelling skills,
like those of Boyle, signal a Western ability to adapt and dissemble as they
allow her to maintain her chaste essence against the dangers associated with
Oriental slavery. While the romance device of a masculine disguise helps to
create a transgressive female subject and a concomitant liberation from femi-
nine social constraints, her most extreme moments of transgressive and
emancipatory self-fashioning result precisely from the extreme duress ofTurkish
captivity. The dangerous and alien setting of the Orient enables and even de-
mands female assumption of a masculine heroism along with a masculine dis-
guise, and thus the placement of the female subject within a narrative pattern
of Western self-preservation aligns her self-assertion to that of the heroic cap-
tive male, similarly defming her rational mastery of self and alien environment
against the seemingly irrational excesses of that environment.

To an even greater extent than Aubin, Eliza Haywood used the Oriental
captivity plot to create visions of male passivity and female aggression, as
part of an even more disruptive transformation of the plot's customary pat-
terns of character and incident. Haywood's first effort in this genre, a brief
episode in Idalia (1723), develops a straightforward reversal of audience ex-
pectations about Oriental despots and degrading bondage, while subsequent
episodes in The Fruitless Enquiry and Philidore and Placentia (both 1727)
offer a pointed response to the captivity fictions of Aubin and especially of
Chetwood. Published a year after Chetwood's Robert Boyle and at the height
of Aubin's popularity, Haywood's 1727 episodes enact parodic reversals of
her predecessors' plot lines, severely undercutting their celebration of ag-
gressive colonialism, masculine individualism, and female chastity. While
Haywood absolutely rejects the captivity plot's standard vision of European
men and women, she largely retains its vision of the Orient. In the Orientalist
vision of the East as a land of extreme despotism, slavery, and lust, Haywood
 Mastering Captivity 159

finds a setting that enables vivid emplotments of Western social problems,

particularly the multiple and conflicting connections between sexuality and
power.
Idalia resists the prevailing model of Oriental captivity by transforming
it into a positive experience, as the heroine discovers friendship among her
captors rather than despotism and sexual subjugation. Although at first she
fears the threat of slavery under an "uncivilized" people, her captivity leads
to a rapprochement with the alien when she finds herself captured, not by a
depraved and lustful tyrant, but by a mannered and genteel Oriental couple. 32
The heroine's happy captivity, moreover, follows an earlier series of subjuga-
tions, including kidnapping and rape, at the hands of European men, so that
her chaste and gentle Oriental captors provide an ironic counterpoint to
European sexual predation. Moreover, the novel grants this couple the sub-
jective depths of romance protagonists by presenting their history in an in-
terpolated tale, full of divided loyalties, arranged marriages, and the
imprisonments that result from a despotism still seemingly inherent to the
Orient. As this tale engages the heroine's empathy, she grows to respect and
admire her Oriental captors, and she even laments their loss by shipwreck,
despite her consequent release from a merely nominal captivity. Thus
Haywood replaces the standard plot of female subjugation and Oriental de-
pravity with a vision of Orientals as exotic but subjectively commensurate to
Europeans.
On the other hand, both The Fruitless Enquiry and Philidore and
Placentia retain standard stereotypes about Oriental peoples but employ them
in a manner that radically undercuts the captivity plot's colonialist drive and
celebration of masculine self-assertion. Each novel includes an episode that
transfers the Orientalist motifs of piracy, despotism, and vindictive passion
to locations east of the Ottoman territories and less familiar to British read-
ers. Set in the Maldive islands but probably indebted to Robert Knox's ac-
count of Ceylon, the captivity episode in The Fruitless Enquiry connects a
local governor with pomp and despotism, asserts that he is "worshipped as a
god," and describes the "savage inhabitants" as "wholly uncivilized." 33
Haywood attributes the natives' practice of taking captives to a sadistic "de-
light in triumphing over and detaining them," and she blames the natives'
refusal to exchange their captives on a general economic turpitude (69). Play-
ing on another set of Orientalist stereotypes in its portrait of Persia, Philidore
and Placentia insists on the natives' "luxury," their "haughty disposition," and
their devotion to "self-satisfaction."34 This latter trait, for Haywood, seems
connected with cool deliberation and duplicity; one European slave warns
another to beware the general "disposition of the persons of this country. If
160 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

they show you any favour, 'tis to please themselves" (198). But if Haywood
attributes the putative despotism of the Orient to a native disposition for
excessive self-indulgence and even for sadism, her exotic settings ultimately
serve to reveal in peculiarly stark terms her vision of cross-cultural connec-
tions between power and pleasure.
This vision develops partially through a parodic reformulation of the
heroic male captive. Whereas Barbary captivity narratives generally employ
Orientalist stereotypes to depict the East as a land easily understood and
mastered, just waiting for colonization, Haywood employs the same stereo-
types to depict the East as monstrous and unmanageable, a threat that En-
glishmen should avoid. Instead of focusing on captive merchants, artisans,
or priests, she follows the journeys of gallants forced unwillingly to visit the
Orient by the vagaries of courtship and economic dependence. In Chetwood's
vision of the East, the experience of captivity seems to call forth the sexual,
entrepreneurial, and colonial powers of the formerly feckless Boyle, but
Haywood's captives remain pathetically and even comically inept at handling
the circumstances of alien lands. She dwells on the abject details of their
slavery, and her captivity episodes climax not with their triumphant escape
but with their castration as a result of entanglements with beautiful women
of the harem. In connecting the harem to the castration of Western men,
Haywood suggests the impotence of Europeans in the face of institutions
that appear irrevocably despotic and barbaric.
At the same time, the castration narrative allows Haywood to flout in-
creasingly rigid British notions of domestic gender roles through a parodic
reformulation of the captivity plot's vision of the Orient as a sexual threat to
Europeans. Whereas Aubin and Chetwood employ the Orientalist vision of
the seraglio in order to characterize European females as chaste, autono-
mous, and free, Haywood imagines the seraglio as a site of female sexual
power and male victimization. In The Fruitless Enquiry, the enslaved male
suffers castration when he refuses the sexual advances of his master's wife,
Elphania, a European woman who has risen from Oriental slavery to des-
potic power through marriage to a local potentate. Thus the European woman
in the seraglio appears not as a suffering protagonist, not as a determined
captive fighting for her chastity and national integrity, but as a figure of illicit
carnality and despotism, corrupted and empowered by a dangerous sexual
system. In Philidore and Placentia, the interpolated tale of a "Christian Eu-
nuch" recounts this former captive's efforts to penetrate his master's seraglio
in order to pursue an affair with one of his wives, only to meet discovery and
the punishment of castration. Whereas for Aubin and Chetwood the seraglio
represents the Orient's despotic but usually conquerable threat to a Euro-
 Mastering Captivity 161

pean female's chastity, Haywood's vision of the seraglio focuses on the asso-
ciated image of the eunuch and its potential for ironically treating European
issues of male and female power.
Haywood's vision of the Orient as a land where pleasure and power re-
veal their interdependence allows her to imagine castration as an ironic ana-
logue for rape, as a violent sexual subjugation that defines the male as a
patriarchal victim. In The Fruitless Enquiry, as Elphania announces her pun-
ishment for her recalcitrant slave, she declares that "since he is no man for
me, he shall not for another," and the novel later describes the castrato as
"deprived for ever of the dear names of father and husband; robbed of his
sex, and doomed to an eternal sterility" (73, 75). The novel posits potency as
a male sexual essence, roughly equivalent to female "virtue" in that it defines
men as the objects of a female sexual competition and locates their position
within a patriarchal lineage. On the other hand, although Philidore and
Placentia also defines the essence of manhood at the moment of castration,
it does so by focusing on male sexual competition, as the castrato narrates
how the potentate's servants "deprived me of all power of ever injuring their
lord ... and left me nothing but the name of man" (206). In both cases
Haywood links the Orientalist vision of sexual predation to male rather than
female victims, and thus she parodies the images of male activity, female
victimization, and chaste virtue that characterized both contemporary cap-
tivity plots and the general movement of eighteenth-century fiction.
Haywood's revision of captive heroism also involves ridicule of the ro-
mance fantasy of radical male devotion to women. 35 Whereas the captivity
plot allowed Chetwood and Aubin to celebrate their heroes' devotion to
women in spite of the extreme separations caused by captivity, Haywood
mocks the ideal of male devotion by subjecting maximally devoted men to a
violence that radically undercuts their devotion. In each of Haywood's cas-
tration episodes, the violation of the male slave results from his radical devo-
tion to a woman, so that castration represents not only Oriental despotism
but also male subjugation within the empire of love. In The Fruitless En-
quiry, the enslaved Montrano refuses the addresses of the despotic Elphania
out of devotion to his own wife, while the "Christian Eunuch" enters the
forbidden ground of the harem because he so strongly loves one of its women.
When Haywood's Oriental despots castrate her devoted male lovers, their
victimization· indicates the extremity of their subjugation to women, and
Oriental despotism seems correlated with the power of the devotee over the
devoted. Although at one level these images support a fantasy of female sexual
power and maximized male devotion, this fantasy ultimately undoes itself in
the very extremity of its violence.
162 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

At bottom, this aborted fantasy comprises a grim parody of British gen-

der relations as idealized in contemporary captivity fictions. In Haywood's
episodes of Oriental captivity, maximally devoted male characters finally prove
incapable of satisfYing women or of handling the world's violent political,
economic, and social structures. This vision of masculine failure occurs as
each novel expressly reverses several of the captivity plot's central motifs
within an interpolated tale that reworks the larger themes of the main plot
line, especially those of sexuality, potency, subjugation, and dependence. In
The Fruitless Enquiry, the castration narrative is told by Iseria, the unhappy
wife of the castrato, and appears within a series of tales strung together by a
loosely organized frame narrative, which follows a central heroine as she
listens to the tales in her "Fruitless Enquiry" for a truly contented female.
Illustrating the unhappiness of a woman with a devoted but "fruitless" hus-
band, Iseria's tale begins with a focus on unhappy courtship, as the young
lovers marry despite her poverty and despite his dependence on an uncle,
who, outraged by his choice, kidnaps and exiles him to Ceylon. Eventually
Montrano finds himself shipwrecked in the Maldives, sold in a slave market
tci a local potentate, and finally castrated, so that his mutilation signals a
broader incapacity and the unhappiness of a wife forced to depend on a
feckless man.
This portrait of Montrano's multiple incapacities enacts one of several
parodic reversals of the Oriental captivity plot's heroic patterns of self-fash-
ioning. Unlike Chetwood, Haywood begins this captivity narrative by plac-
ing emphasis on the abject conditions of her captive's life as "a slave amongst
the most barbarous people in the world, condemned to offices with which he
was no way acquainted," repeatedly punished "by stripes," and further tor-
tured by "the belief, that his service was eternal" (61). Montrano rises above
such abject labor not through his own active exertions but through his pas-
sive physical appeal to the aggressive Elphania. Further reversals of the he-
roic captivity plot result from the characterization of this European female
antagonist, who, we learn, originally entered the Maldives as a criminal pun-
ished by transportation to an "eternal slavery," before her marriage makes
her the "greatest woman in the island" (62-63). Here a roguish female rather
than a picaro or merchant-adventurer finds opportunities for success in trans-
portation and Oriental slavery. After the female rogue rises to power through
sexual means, she rather than her husband fills the role of sexual tyrant.
Whereas Haywood's Oriental potentate earns mild approval for generously
raising a slave to monarchy, Elphania seems to have mastered an alien sys-
tem of sexual predation in her aggressive pursuit of the enslaved Montrano.
In describing her abuse of him, Haywood compares this female antagonist
 Mastering Captivity 163

to the stereotypical Oriental potentate: "the humour of the mistress he now

served, was more perplexing to him than the tyranny of his former masters;
nor had he less to expect from her revenge, ... than from the most inhuman
of his own sex" (66). When Montrano's punishment fulfills this suggestion
that Western men have more to fear from angry Western women than from
the terrible despots of the Orientalist imagination, Haywood employs the
Orientalist image of castration to develop a fantastically exaggerated and ul-
timately ironic vision of retributive female power, a vision that intimates both
the potential violence of female anger and the difficulties of acting on it in
Western society.
Montrano's castration not only signifies his failure to satisfY women but
also corresponds to a complete failure to develop the active, self-assertive
virtues of the captive or colonialist hero. Before his castration, he spends a
whole year in a manner typical of the captive hero, searching for "contriv-
ances" of escape, but he finds escape impossible because of native watchful-
ness and the threat of"the most cruel punishments imaginable" (68-69). In
a manner typical of the captive heroine, he tries to avoid despotic sexual
advances with a series of dissimulations, first "affecting a satisfaction" with
Elphania's desires (65), next alleging a two-year vow of celibacy that would
prevent their fulfillment. But these and other deceptions backfire. He sup-
ports his next ruse, feigned sickness, to the point of undergoing a native
cure, which involves "shoot[ing] arrows into many parts of the patient's body"
(70). Thus native custom and the captive's meager skills in self-preservation
combine for a grim exercise in bodily subjugation rather than a triumphant
escape. As a final ruse, he feigns madness, but Elphania easily sees through
this ploy and condemns him to abject punishment. Further failures to imi-
tate the virtues of the captive hero occur after his castration. He obtains
release not through his own exertions but because a repentant Elphania gives
him freedom and money. On his way home, he loses the money to thieves
and suffers a debilitating wound, which weakens him so much that he "ap-
peared more like a ghost than a living man" (77). As Montrano's castration
corresponds to a more general pattern of ineptitude, weakness, and depen-
dence, the plot suggests that fully realized male devotion would incapacitate
a man for negotiating alien lands and power structures. Within this novel,
then, Haywood's reformulation of the Oriental captivity plot amounts to an
attack on its related ideologies of radical male self-assertion and radical male
devotion to women.
Castration likewise connects to larger issues of gender, power, and de-
pendence in Philidore and Placentia; or L'Arrwur trap Delicat. In this novel
as in The Fruitless Enquiry, the Oriental castration episode provides an ironic
164 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

counterpoint to a frame tale set in the West. In the frame tale, the gallant but
impecunious Philidore falls in love with the wealthy Placentia and, in order
to be near her, joins her household as a servant. Linking the subjugation of
his devotion to the subjugation of Oriental slavery, the novel explicitly labels
him a "slave" and has him disguise his complexion to suit the "Egyptian breed"
(159, 166). Once his devotion earns Placentia's affection, he refuses to take
advantage of her wealth and forward sexuality, and this "too delicate" love of
the subtitle forces him to flee to Persia, where he plans to acquire a compe-
tency with a merchant uncle. Within this protagonist, Haywood unites the
themes of genteel destitution, masculine sexual forbearance, and the de-
graded status of an Oriental slave, so that the heroine's economic and sexual
powers seem to correlate to the absolute powers that Orientalism linked to
the monarchs of the East. Once again Haywood's connection between the
Orient and female power involves a playful irony that ultimately underscores
the unlikelihood that women might wield such power in the West. 36
As in The Fruitless Enquiry, the Orient appears a difficult and danger-
ous environment for such an unwilling and delicate colonist as Philidore,
who, like Montrano, encounters a series of disasters that reverse the stan-
dard motifs of colonial domination. Captured by pirates and marooned in
Persia, he and his companions suffer acute feelings of ignorance and inca-
pacity, and ultimately they must throw themselves on the mercy of the in-
habitants (185). When they ask a local potentate for aid, they "fell prostrate
on their faces, as is the custom in all the Eastern parts to do before the ruler"
(186). In its alterity and despotism, Persia appears as a land formed for high-
lighting the weaknesses of Westerners. In this landscape of abjection,
Philidore's amatory misery produces a disregard for life that, somewhat para-
doxically, strengthens him and allows him to assume a leadership role among
his companions. Here, ironically, it is the abjection of the protagonist rather
than his intellectual dexterity that seems to fit him for travel through the
Orient.
As developed within the main plot line, Philidore's colonial abjection
correlates with the sexual status of the "Christian eunuch," whose interpo-
lated tale engrosses a third of the novel and climaxes its vision of male abjection
and Oriental despotism. The correlation between Philidore and the eunuch
begins from the moment they meet, when the former rescues the latter from
a battle with some Persians, and then feels an overwhelming curiosity to
fathom the mystery of this "lovely stranger" in Persian costume (189).
Philidore's desire augments with a pair of discoveries. First he learns that the
stranger also loves a woman, a "belief, more uniting him to him by a kind of
 Mastering Captivity 165

sympathy of soul" (191). Next Philidore learns that "This beauteous person
had been deprived of his manhood," a discovery that renders the listener's
"curiosity doubled" (192). Some explanation for this multiple doubling and
sympathy of souls appears at the end of the novel, when we learn that the
eunuch is actually the Baron Bellamont, Placentia's brother. Through this
final narrative twist and through the plotting of the Baron's castration tale,
the novel ultimately subsumes its oblique intimations of same-sex attraction
within a formula that employs the eunuch first as an extremely illustrative
analogue for Philidore's "too delicate" love and then as a means for restoring
masculine sexual prerogative.
From the opening of the Baron's tale, Haywood introduces several re-
versals of the captivity plot's standard patterns of characterization. After "Per-
sian privateers" interrupt his youthful travels, the Baron finds himself sold to
a genteel bashaw rather than to a stereotypical tyrant, and "treated with a
kindness which left me nothing but the name of slave. All the others he was
master of were ordered to serve and obey me" (197). After this transforma-
tion from abject slavery to an exotically absolute mastery, further reversals of
the standard captivity plot result when the Baron falls in love with his master's
wife, Arithea. As he explains, his desire renders him foolhardy and opens the
possibility of extreme physical subjugation: "to be more her slave, I ran haz-
ards which madness only could have led me into," especially when he enters
the seraglio in disguise, an action punishable by "the worst of tortures" (199).
In order to attack the romance celebration of male devotion and its language
of mastery and slavery, Haywood imagines the Orient as an environment
where the language of devotion reaches an ironically concrete fulfillment.
The bashaw quickly discovers the Baron's penetration of the seraglio and
then confines him to a "dungeon," limits him to "bread and water," and lashes
him three times "with iron whips a hundred strokes on my naked back" (202).
Once again Haywood capitalizes on the motifs of Oriental captivity in order
to create a fantastically vivid, farcically exaggerated image of masculine de-
votion to woman as sexual object.
The Baron's inordinate devotion entails a further reversal of the typical
pattern of captive psychology, by destroying both the desire and the capacity
for escape. As he "abandon[s] all thoughts of ... religion, kindred, friends,
country, and freedom," he even rejects the bashaw's offer of liberty: "I threw
myself at his feet and conjured him not to discharge me from his service,
assuring him that I thought it greater honor to be his slave than to command
in any other place" (201). Whereas Boyle carefully controls his own behavior
and watches for signs of his captors' suspicion, the captive Baron "neglect[s]
166 NARRATNES OF FICTION

everything" and appears before the bashaw "with so wild and confused an
air, made answers to what he said which were so little to the purpose and
behaved in everything so unlike myself, or as I ought to have done, that he
imagined my brain was in good earnest disordered" (201). As a result of this
failure in self-control, the bashaw strengthens the watch on the motions of this
distracted slave. Whereas Boyle's rationally managed passion contrasts sharply
with the debasing passion of Hamet, the Baron's hysterical passion contrasts
sharply with his master's cool deliberation. As the Baron looks back on his
behavior, he judges himself against an idealized equation between mastery,
manhood, and the virtues of the captive hero: "Had I been the master of the
least share of soul or spirit, or had [I] been possessed of any part of that forti-
tude and resolution which every man ought to have, I should have ... ventured
everything for my escape rather than have tarried in a place where I was dou-
bly a slave" (203). But he finds the "shadowy joys" of occasionally seeing his
mistress "preferable to the real ones of liberty" (203). These passages explicitly
pose the Baron's lack of the usual captive virtues ("fortitude," "resolution,"
"liberty'') as a problem of gender, in terms of his departure from the substance
of masculine norms and his devotion to womanly "shadows."
Castration climaxes this descent into sexual slavery, abjection, and un-
manliness. The bashaw's servants discover the Baron in the seraglio at the
moment of sexual intercourse, so that his loss of manhood interrupts a com-
mon Orientalist fantasy about the Western male's final penetration of the
East's sexual secrets. Afterwards forced to attend the seraglio as a eunuch,
the Baron loses what seem associated desires for women, freedom, and home-
land: "as I had no longer the power of enjoying, [I] had very little of the wish
remaining. Slavery also seemed a less misfortune to me than it had been. I
quit all thoughts of ever returning to my country" (206). Even when he de-
cides to return home out of Christian devotion, he proves an ineffectual es-
cape artist. Not only does his departure depend on Arithea's financial support,
but he even lacks "foresight enough to have changed my habit"; his ''badge
of servitude," moreover, enables the bashaw's servants almost immediately
to track him down before Philidore finally rescues him (208). As with
Montrano, castration signals a character defined in terms of sexual devotion,
abjection, and incapacity to handle the alien.
As in The Fruitless Enquiry, the connection between the castration epi-
sode and the main plot line turns on problems of male and female power.
The captive Baron's castration through devotion to an Oriental woman doubles
Philidore's "enslavement" at the hands of Placentia, so that the Orient again
seems connected to a dangerous, exciting, and ultimately ironic form of fe-
 Mastering Captivity 167

male power. However, in this case a final captivity episode rectifies the prob-
lem of male impotence, at least within the main plot line, through a restora-
tion of Western male prerogative over both Western women and the Orient.
When the death ofPhilidore's uncle leads to a huge inheritance, this sudden
wealth, ultimately due to his uncle's mercantile success, raises the former
captive to a position of mastery over both the Orient and his inamorata, en-
abling him to return from exile and to claim the right to marry her. But his
power over her acquires a more concrete narrative form on his way home,
when he hears of a beautiful Christian lady recently sold in the slave market
(211). After buying this woman out of sympathy, Philidore discovers that she
is Placentia, who had lost her fortune through the sudden return ofher brother
and had then left England in search of her former servant. Part of Haywood's
gambit here involves the absolute reversal of master and slave within the
romance plot, as the formerly powerful woman finds herself first destitute
and then bought, under the absolute terms associated with Oriental slavery,
by her former "Egyptian slave."
A return to a female-centered captivity plot, with its standard images of
male sexual power and female subjugation, enables Haywood to give her
heroine a comeuppance that replicates the progress of English courtship. At
the beginning of the novel, Placentia is bold and presumptuous in her eco-
nomic and sexual independence, and the interpolated tale that recounts her
journey through the Orient plays with an Aubin-like vision of female self-
assertion before ultimately highlighting female dependence on the Western
male. Throughout Placentia's slavery she looks for ways to kill herself, and,
when a fellow slave shows sexual aggression, she tries unsuccessfully to kill
him with her master's scimitar. Even as she proves incapable of fully wield-
ing this phallic symbol, the novel elsewhere accentuates the dependence
that results from her journey to the Orient. For example, the text calls her a
"charming slave" even after Philidore's purchase has freed her from slavery
(220). Even more tellingly, when the formerly reticent Philidore discovers
the identity of the woman so completely in his power, "joy now gave him
boldness to seize what before he shunned out of too great a respect" (212).
At first Placentia tries to maintain some independence from this newly ag-
gressive suitor, but after their return to England, her brother comes to his
aid. Not only does the Baron's return home nullify her economic indepen-
dence, but he insists that she grant Philidore "full possession" of her hand
(227). Thus Haywood's novel finally contains the oddly paired powers of
woman arid the Orient. After subjugating its male protagonist to servitude
and his double to Oriental slavery, sexual abjection, and castration, the plot
168 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

closes by restoring masculine prerogatives, first Philidore's economic power

and then also patriarchal patterns of courtship and inheritance.
But the novel's neatly resolved conclusion does not entirely efface the
sensational narrative drive or the ironic sting of Placentia's initial indepen-
dence, Philidore's servitude, and the castration plot, with its violent disrup-
tion of captivity fiction's standard images of male activity and female passivity.
In this novel as in Haywood's other captivity episodes, the Orient, as an imagi-
nary landscape saturated with sexuality and despotism, provides an opportu-
nity for resisting the increasingly rigid gender ideologies of the early
eighteenth century. Rather than follow Aubin and Chetwood in opposing
European self-possession to Oriental carnality and female chastity to male
activity, Haywood proffers variable characterizations of male and female,
European and Oriental, whose variable interaction suggests a transcultural
interdependence of sexuality, power, violence, and subjugation. Haywood's
Orientalism, like that of the Oriental tale, focuses on despotism and self-
indulgence as traits that Eastern cultures distill in peculiarly rarefied and
satirically pungent forms. In her fictions of captivity, Oriental social struc-
tures provide extremely illustrative analogues and ironic counterpoints for
Western social structures, ultimately revealing limits and problems within
the character patterns that serve the West's domestic ideology.
Taken together, the fictions of Aubin, Chetwood, and Haywood mark
the 1720s as the apex of the Oriental captivity narrative in English fiction. In
1744 two fairly developed episodes within the anonymous Lady's Drawing
Room (1744) adapted the plot of Oriental captivity to Orientalized settings
in Malaysia and the Indian subcontinent. Following Aubin's vision of the
Oriental sexual despot, the persecuted European maiden, and the ineffec-
tual European male, these episodes earned steady reprintings through the
end of the century. 37 Much briefer episodes of Oriental captiVity also contin-
ued to dot the fictional landscape of the later eighteenth century, within
novels such as John Shebbeare's Lydia (1755), Alexander Bicknell's The
Benvolent Man (1775), and Ann Yearsley's The Royal Captives (1795). The
theme also surfaced in such popular pamphlet fictions as the Lives of Ambrose
Gwinett (1770) and Captain Winterfield (1798). The captivity episodes within
these fictions generally served as single instances within extended narrative
catalogues of affliction, so that Oriental slavery shared the spotlight with
other forms of captivity, in a Mexican mine, a French prison, or the woods of
North America.
When novelists once again turned to an extensive treatment of Oriental
captivity towards the end of the century, they approached the subject from
 Mastering Captivity 169

perspectives that diverged sharply from the fictions of the 1720s. A particu-
larly intriguing combination appeared amidst the many moral tales interpo-
lated in Robert Day's novel for children, Sandford and Merton (1783-1789).
Day juxtaposed an episode focused on a European's slavery in Tunis against
one focused on a Turk's slavery in Venice, with the clear agenda of creating
sympathy for injured merit across ethnic boundaries. On the other hand,
Robert Bage's The Fair Syrian (1786), shifting towards the satirically dis-
missive Orientalism of James Marier's Hajji Baba of Ispahan (1824), por-
trayed the Orient as decadent, effeminate, and weak, scarcely capable of
rumpling the unflappable demeanor of its urbane male captive. In a final
contrast, Royal Tyler's early American novel, The Algerine Captive (1797),
framed itself as a realistic counterpoint to earlier romances of Oriental cap-
tivity, insisting on the absolute abjection of the captivity experience as part of
a broader antislavery platform. 38 Despite this variety of perspectives, the
steady reprints of Chetwood's Robert Boyle, flowing well into the nineteenth
century, suggest that the popularity of this novel largely obviated the need
for newcomers, so that it came to occupy a definitive position within the
Anglo-American imagination of Oriental captivity.
The importance of the Oriental captivity narrative for the early evolu-
tion of the English novel lies not only in the popularity and ideological
transparency of Chetwood's fictions but also in the broader experimenta-
tion of Aubin's versions and in the ironic sting of Haywood's parodies. In
the very sharpness of their resistance, Haywood's reversals of the gender
paradigms employed by her predecessors indicate the powerful ideologi-
cal force of the Oriental captivity plot in the 1720s. Aubin's fictions, how-
ever, offer a fuller and clearer prototype for the subsequent development
of English fiction. Compared with her works, subsequent English novels
diminished the transgression and active self-preservation of female char-
acters. But as her works provide a particularly clear demonstration, the
Oriental captivity plot enabled a variety of characterizations that remained
important for the later English novel: the improvisational subject who
masters an alien environment, the insular subject who defends her or his
virtue, the divided subject who mediates internal conflicts and tensions,
and the transgressive subject who crosses boundaries of ethnicity, class,
and gender. In the 1720s the fictional plot of Oriental captivity provided a
prominent, even seminal mode of representing subjugation, alienation, and
individualist triumph in fiction.
Although after the 1720s the plot of foreign captivity inspired only occa-
sional episodes in British fiction, much more prominent narrative patterns
170 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

such as the virtue-in-distress plot, the Gothic, and the bildungsroman adapted
the plot of subjugation and alienation to increasingly domestic environments
of social tyranny. Pamela is one of many eighteenth-century novels that focus
in whole or in part on a domestic captivity plot. In many a novel of sensibility
or virtue-in-distress, heroines suffer from the sinister designs of libertines,
ranging from rape and kidnapping to forced marriage. And as literary schol-
arship has long recognized, the Gothic is another genre centrally concerned
with motifs of imprisonment and escape, such as a mysterious doorway al-
ways seeming to permit egress from the most dingy and formidable of pris-
ons.39 Other subgenres of eighteenth-century fiction address the theme of
captivity less obviously. The castaway novel, even if it does not also include
actual episodes of foreign captivity, still concentrates on physical confine-
ment as a figure for colonial practice, much in the manner of the captivity
plot. Increasingly within later eighteenth-century fiction, however, the
protagonist's alienation was no longer, as with the captivity narrative or the
castaway plot, a matter of forced exposure to a foreign culture, but rather a
matter of the individual's opposition to his or her own culture.
Like the early fictionalized captivity narratives of the 1720s, later eigh-
teenth-century fictions produce subjective interiority through representa-
tions of dependence, doubt, frustration, hesitation, internal conflicts and
resolutions. They thrive on tensions between subjugation and rebellion, con-
formity and transgression. In bildungsromans such as Fielding's Tom Jones
and Burney's Evelina, although the main plots avoid the melodrama of physical
confinement, the subplots still contain minor episodes of imprisonment, kid-
napping, and forced marriage. But these canonical eighteenth-century fic-
tions work more substantially to diffuse the concentrated constraint of physical
captivity into a multiplicity of minor constraints, a host of circumstances that
conspire to limit the self-assertion of the protagonist. An important aspect of
this development is the shift away from captivities in alien environments and
towards constraints within British society. Localizing constraint makes it more
familiar, more recognizable, and more immediately threatening. Localiza-
tion also permits a greater diffusion of constraint within a host of particular,
because familiar details. Burney's later heroines are endlessly trapped by a
host of picayune circumstances pointing to a sinister context of gender and
class relations, while concrete institutions such as the workhouse, the debt-
ors' prison, and the court of chancery fill the bleak, imprisoning landscape of
Dickens's novels. Nineteenth-century realism concentrates on individuals
struggling against strictures of marriage, gender, and class, while the histori-
cal romance retains a partial dependence on more overt episodes of kidnap-
 Mastering Captivity 171

ping and escape. Such continued revisions and transformations of the subju-
gation plot testify to its influential place in the evolution of the novel, a genre
continually obsessed with an isolated protagonist who is both alienated by an
oppressive social environment and internally divided by efforts to form an
accommodation with that environment. As the novels of Chetwood, Aubin,
and Haywood make clear, the plot of foreign captivity provided a significant
early means of imagining such a protagonist.
FIVE

Resisting Americans in British

Novels of American Captivity

The scholarly tendency to assimilate British captivity narratives to American

patterns becomes particularly problematic in the case of eighteenth-century
British novels that include episodes of American captivity. The most obvious
problem results from chronology, since London novels began to incorporate
American episodes as early as 1720, long before such novelists of the early
American republic as Ann Eliza Bleecker and Charles Brockden Brown
turned to captivity for what critics have often celebrated as "uniquely Ameri-
can material" in the formation of a nationalliterature. 1 Another problem
results because British episodes imagined the American captivity experience
according to a pattern that differed greatly both from later American fictions
and from factual prototypes published on either side of the Atlantic. Until
well into the nineteenth century, and with only occasional exceptions, fac-
tual accounts of American captivity tended to dwell heavily on the abject
bondage of the captive, a figure isolated from friends and family, forced to
witness the torture of other captives, often hungry and physically weak or
wounded, unable, finally, to comprehend the inexplicable language and cul-
ture of the natives. Conversely, the dozen episodes of American captivity in
eighteenth-century British fiction imagined such abject scenes only very
briefly, raising an initial fear and excitement before concentrating more sub-
stantially on displacing those emotions. This displacement occurred through
a consistent narrative pattern, one that represents a significant counterpoint
to the later American myth of cross-cultural brotherhood and adaptation to
the wilderness, as expressed in the fictions ofJames Fenimore Cooper, Conrad
Richter, or Dances with Wolves.
 Resisting Americans 173

In a metropolitan response to the terrors of the factual accounts, British

novelists rewrote the American captivity experience by focusing first on the
threat of native violence, then on the native custom of adopting captives, and
finally on the failure of adoption to effect permanent changes in British char-
acter.2 Thus eighteenth-century British novelists anticipated later American
novelists by taking an interest in the Amerindian custom of treating military
capture as the basis for an affiliation or alliance, with adopted captives often
serving as replacements for lost family members. Beginning with the influ-
ential 1711 Spectator tale of Inkle and Yarico, a wide range of episodes in
British fiction centered on the figure of a powerless male adventurer, who
escapes the threat of violence through native desire for an affiliative bond,
whether marital, fraternal, or filial. Imitations or transformations of the John
Smith narrative or the Inkle and Yarico plot, with their focus on cross-cul-
tural marriage, appear in William Rufus Chetwood's The Voyages of Richard
Falconer(1120), in the anonymous Female American (1767), and in the anony-
mous Adventures of Thomas Barry (1800). On the other hand, a genteel
British protagonist finds an adoptive father in Henry Mackenzie's The Man
ofthe World (1773) and an adoptive mother in Charlotte Lennox's Euphemia
(1790), while cultural exchange results from brothers-in-arms relationships
in Edward Kimber's The Life of Mr. Anderson (1753) and in Charlotte Smith's
The Old Manor House (1793). Curiously, this persistent narrative pattern
developed without published factual prototypes, since extensive narratives
concerning adopted captives did not enter the American press until the early
nineteenth century. 3 Even without such models, adoption seized the imagi-
nation of eighteenth-century Britons more than any other aspect of the cap-
tivity experience.
Over the century's course, these fictional visions of captivity and adop-
tion involved a persistent if somewhat paradoxical emphasis on cultural dis-
parity, and this emphasis helped to mediate a shifting range of anxieties about
the colonial project in America. The current chapter will analyze this conti-
nuity and change through a chronological survey of the novels. In pondering
varied forms of adoption, British writers throughout the century explored
the possibility that captives or other British colonists might "go native," aban-
doning their original culture and redefining themselves within the frame-
work of Amerindian culture. The novels might seem to take some pride in
native regard, or even find an initial excitement in the possibility of
transculturation. However, they nearly always close by rejecting native cul-
ture, and ultimately they reduce it to the level of surface trimming, figured
by the alien clothes which the captives don only temporarily. Although the
· natives formally adopt the captive Briton, these ceremonies fail to produce a
174 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

substantial cultural transformation. The novels portray an unbridgeable gap

between Amerindian and Briton, as the captive's interior essence seems to
remain palpably British, genteel, and civilized while struggling against the
imposition of a culture that appears irredeemably alien, barbaric, simple,
and archaic. While this emphasis on cultural disparity remained constant
throughout the century and implicit in the basic formula of the failed adop-
tion plot, individual novels turned significant variations on the formula as
they connected it to larger structures of novelistic plotting and social com-
mentary. For readers and writers in Britain, these variations soothed a range
of anxieties about the American colonial experience, from fears of Amerindian
physical and cultural power to uneasiness about the moral and political im-
plications of colonialism. While novels in the early part of the century tried
unsuccessfully to subjoin the adoption plot to narratives of colonial heroism,
later novelists harnessed its tensions for increasingly overt yet still highly
anxious criticism of the colonial project in America.
The most obvious anxiety expressed by the failed adoption plot concerns
the captive's subjugation among a putatively inferior and violent people. In
nearly every British fiction of American captivity, the capture of a male pro-
tagonist leads to an initial evocation of the standard horrors of captivity be-
fore the captive's adoption circumvents their fulfillment. Each of these novels,
sometimes long before its captivity episode actually begins, sets an initial
interpretive framework for the capture through stereotypical images of na-
tive violence. Characters might briefly attest to the "savage" disposition of
the natives, or the captors might temporarily threaten murder, torture, or
even cannibalism. A few novels even portray their protagonists at the point
of sacrifice, in the manner of the John Smith captivity. However, as with the
intervention of Pocahontas, most of these novels quickly rescue their British
captives from slavery, torture, and other forms of abjection. A famous excep-
tion is the very brief episode in Smollett's Humphry Clinker (1771), which,
in reporting Lismahago's experiences of captivity and torture among the
Miamis, delights in their monstrous mutilation of his body. But Smollett is
nearly unique among British novelists in actually subjecting a British charac-
ter to such violence. Most of these novels, after briefly raising fears of native
violence and power, quickly move to soothe them through what seems an
obsessively repeated insistence on the natives' desire for affiliation. Because
the Amerindians so readily eschew violence for afflliation, adoption seems in
many of these novels to furnish the British with political advantages over a
people given to such naive customs. At another level, adoption also acts as a
sign of a fundamental native regard for the British people, especially as the
novels rarely clarify the cultural logic behind the custom and instead treat it
 Resisting Americans 175

as an inexplicable vagary of native character. Thus these episodes translate

the Amerindian custom of adopting captives into a seemingly inevitable rec-
ognition of British merit, a reassurance that British captives stand funda-
mentally superior to the putatively inferior people who have only momentarily
gained power over them.
The physical and political powers of the natives ultimately pose a much
less important problem within these novels than do their cultural powers.
After quickly displacing terror of native violence, the failed adoption plot
turns to a more extended displacement of British anxieties about American
transculturation, by representing the custom of adoption as quaint, naive,
and fruitless. One function of this vision of cultural contact was to furnish
ideological compensation for British failures in America. Depicting adop-
tion as archaic and ineffectual compensated for metropolitan awareness of
British losses in what James Axtell has described as a three-way "contest of
cultures" among the natives, the British, and the French. 4 Although con-
verting Amerindians to Christianity and civility formed an explicit compo-
nent of Britain's colonial agenda from the days of the Roanoke colony, the
British largely failed in their slight efforts to fulfill this goal, especially in
contrast with the more spectacular Jesuit successes in Canada. While Prot-
estant missionaries could report only the most modest of evangelical suc-
cesses, Amerindian students at English schools earned a notorious
reputation for running away, and travel narratives and colonial histories
often commented on an "obstinate" adherence to ancient customs among
the natives in general. 5 Over the course of the eighteenth century, as Roy
Harvey Pearce has argued, the British gradually abandoned hopes for con-
verting the Amerindians, and contemporary observers of the American scene
increasingly acknowledged an invincible "integrity" within native culture,
citing the force of ancient customs as proof of an essential disparity between
the two cultures. 6
Even more disturbingly for British cultural pride, London received ac-
curate reports throughout the century that native Americans had proven far
more successful in converting Britons to native lifestyles than had Britons in
converting natives to British lifestyles. The French also managed to persuade
some British captives to embrace Catholicism and to remain in the small
settlements of Canada. But the most troubling and troubled reports on the
contest of cultures, at least from the British perspective, concerned "white
Indians," captives or other British travelers who had redefined themselves
as natives and even refused opportunities to rejoin white civilization. British
astonishment at the thoroughness of such transculturation often centered
on the prisoner exchanges following various treaties among the British,
176 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

French, and Amerindians. The contrast between native and British conver-
sion rates is formulated in particularly stark terms at the conclusion of
Cadwallader Colden's popular History ofthe Five Nations, a 1727 portrait of
the Iroquois that included a description of British difficulties in persuading
Anglo-American captives to rejoin the fold at a 1699 prisoner exchange:

No arguments, no Intreaties, nor Tears of their Friends and Relations,

could persuade many of them to leave their new Indian Friends and
Acquaintance; several of them that were by the Caressings of their
Relations persuaded to come Home, in a little Time grew tired of our
Manner of living, and run away again to the Indians, and ended their
Days with them. On the other hand, Indian Children have been carefully
educated among the English, cloathed and taught, yet, I think, there is
not one Instance, that any of these, after they had Liberty to go among
their own People, and were come to Age, would remain with the English,
but returned to their own Nations, and became as fond of the Indian
Manner of Life as those that lmew nothing of a civilized Manner of living.
What I now tell of Christian Prisoners among Indians, relates not only to
what happened at the Conclusion of this War, but has been found true on
many other Occasions. 7

A similar account of an Ohio valley exchange reached London in 1766, as

William Smith reported that many Anglo-American captives preferred their
adopted culture and even tried to escape from what they regarded as a sec-
ond captivity among the British. Smith struggled to explain away the prefer-
ence of these adoptees for native culture: "For the honor of humanity, we
would suppose those persons to have been of the lowest rank. ... For, easy
and unconstrained as the savage life is, certainly it could never be put in
competition with the blessings of improved life and the light of religion." 8
Smith was forced to invoke the category of social class in order to restore a
hierarchy of civility that the success of native adoption had forcibly disturbed.
But the most widely distributed and influential formulation of the con-
trast between British and native conversion rates appeared in Crevecoeur's
Letters from an American Farmer, whose first London edition of 1782led a
panoply of reprints through the end of the century. The farmer's famous
comments on native adoption mark a tense moment of hesitation in the cli-
mactic letter, the "Distresses of a Frontier Man." Tom between conflicting
allegiances to the British constitution and to the Anglo-American rebels, the
farmer resolves them by choosing to relocate amidst a native tribe, although
he fears the effects of this move on his children's development, as a result of
"some great intoxication among the Indians." His most concrete expression
 Resisting Americans 177

of this fear occurs when he considers the parallel case of adopted captives,
children "so perfectly Indianized" that they refused opportunities to rejoin
their British parents. Equally as stunned and bewildered by such captives as
Smith, he wonders, "By what power does it come to pass, that children who
have been adopted when young among these people, can never be prevailed
on to re-adopt European manners?" Compared to Smith, however,
Crevecoeur answers this question in a manner far more generous to the na-
tives and far more disturbing to the assumed superiority of European civili-
zation. He speculates that the adoptees find among the natives "the most
perfect freedom, the ease ofliving, the absence of those cares and corroding
solicitudes which so often prevail with us." He insists that "there must be in
their social bond something so singularly captivating, and far superior to any
thing to be boasted of among us; for thousands of Europeans are Indians,
and we have no examples of even one of those Aborigines having from choice
become Europeans! There must be something more congenial to our native
dispositions, than the fictitious society in which we live."9 Laced with para-
dox as with a Rousseauvian social vision, this passage imagines a "perfect
freedom" and an ideal "social bond" produced through the experience of
captivity. Despite the momentary hesitation produced by the thought of
adoptees, the farmer ultimately looks forward to finding a life closer to "na-
ture" amidst his chosen tribe. Thus the success of native adoption both ex-
cited and frightened the European mind, and the American adoptee provided
an important figure for meditation on the roles of European civilization, the
American landscape, and the American aborigines in the making of a new
American identity.
British anxiety about American cultural contact reflected a deep-seated
dualism pervading the most common European images of native Americans.
From the earliest reports of Columbus's first encounter, double images of
good and bad Indians marked European travel literature on the Americas,
and this dualism continued when the British press started to carry the first-
hand accounts of settlers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In
much the same way that visitors to particular Islamic cultures offered obser-
vations on Islamic peoples in general, European travelers in the Americas
generalized observations of local tribes into sweeping claims about the na-
tives of America. This general commentary, however, frequently mixed ad-
miration and condemnation. One traveler might describe cannibals while
another might describe noble savages. Depending on which locality a trav-
eler visited (and on which culture the traveler called home), he or she might
describe all native Americans as either consistently devoted to liberty, at-
tached to despotic government, or possessed of no government at all. Whereas
178 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

the French Jesuits favored images of the noble savage, the British empha-
sized indolence and violence, providing ideological justification for large-
scale settlement and encroachment on native lands. Beyond these widely
varying national responses, equally wide variations marked the responses of
British travelers as a group, and many individual texts, like those of Smith,
Colden, and Crevecoeur, integrated both positive and negative images. Some
Britons praised the simplicity of Amerindian lifestyle while others damned
its destitution. Travel narrators sometimes highlighted native hospitality and
generosity, but they also insisted heavily on native superstition, especially as
manipulated by the "trickery" of shamans. The British might admire native
courage, stamina, and ability to withstand torture, or they might deplore an
implacable disposition towards incessant warfare, revenge, and torture. If
travel writers often celebrated the liberty of Amerindian government, they
also protested that the freedom and indolence of native hunters depended
on the drudgery of native women. The liberty of Amerindian culture might
seem to entail a sexual liberation for British men, especially when assisted by
a relative lack of clothing and sexual modesty among native women, but the
British also condemned the natives for polygamy, promiscuity, and divorce. 10
Since native culture held both positive and negative qualities according to
the estimates of British writers, it seemed to offer appeals for British settlers
that metropolitan readers could comprehend, if not approve.
Like the broader anxieties expressed in such imagery, British anxiety
about cultural contact with the natives ultimately reflected the nature of the
colonial project in America, especially as it contrasted with British colonial
projects in other lands. In the Middle East or in India, British colonia) strat-
egy since the sixteenth century had involved the creation of small enclaves of
transient traders, soldiers, and bureaucrats, who tried to negotiate and even-
tually to commandeer existing political structures, while remaining firmly
British in cultural orientation. On the other hand, American colonialism since
the early seventeenth century had involved the transplantation of many per-
manent settlers, who survived in large part by exploiting the cultural strate-
gies of a rapidly waning native population, as historians are increasingly coming
to recognize. 11 Although British success in America resulted partially from
the unplanned ravages of old world diseases, it also depended heavily on
British mastery of such Amerindian cultural resources as the production of
beaver pelts, maize, and tobacco, as well as on the alteration of European
cultural resources to suit the American environment, resulting in such hy-
brids as the skipjack and South Carolina rice. Moreover, the success of the
American colonial project also depended on achieving military mastery in
the American landscape, especially a mastery of what the British described
 Resisting Americans 179

as native techniques of guerrilla warfare. 12 Because the British perceived

themselves as fundamentally civilized, they often described their own vio-
lence as unnaturally forced upon them by the demands of colonialism, even
by the alleged nature of the "savages" themselves. In a number of ways, then,
the British could interpret the success of American colonialism as a transfor-
mation of British character to suit American circumstances, if not as a resig-
nation of civility for an accommodation with native culture. Imaginative
exploration of this transformation was often facilitated by the figure of the
adopted captive, who aroused high anxiety in the writings of both metropoli-
tan Britons and transplanted Euramericans such as Crevecoeur, although
the two groups resolved this anxiety in very different ways.
In response to the troubling reports of cultural conversion rates in colo-
nial America, and to the even more troubling speculations about the cultural
implications of these rates, British novelists persistently reimagined Ameri-
can cultural contact according to the pattern of the failed adoption plot. One
effect of this focus on the native practice of adoption was to occlude the
history of British efforts in cultural conversion. If the novels considered the
negative results of British efforts at all, they blamed those results on the
natives themselves, as a sign of cultural inferiority or intransigence. More
pervasively and insistently, the failed adoption plot represented transcul-
turation as a foolish and alien custom, a sign of Amerindian depravity rather
than British civility. Within these works, it seems as if only savages would try
something that fails so consistently as cultural conversion, while the civilized
seem marked by an understanding that conversion must fail. What seems
the inevitable failure of native efforts in cultural conversion helps to cel-
ebrate British civility as capable of withstanding the effects of American cul-
tural contact. At the same time that these novels mediated fears of total
immersion within an alien culture, they also soothed fears that any level of
cultural contact or colonial experience might force Britons to adopt the im-
puted features of native culture or to alter themselves to suit the American
environment. Within these works, adoption acted as a figure for British ad-
aptation to America, a figure concerned especially with imagining the co-
lonial world's potential effects on that central agent of British expansion, the
adventurous male. As these novels repeatedly highlighted the adoptees' fail-
ure to adopt American customs and techniques, they suggested that truly
civilized British captives ran counter to the colonial environment and its
peoples, whether Amerindian or Euramerican. Thus fictional episodes of
failed adoption helped to posit British civility as potentially compromised by
the colonial experience but ultimately capable of resisting its threats, ap-
peals, and demands. At the same time, however, the anxiety expressed through
180 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

the figure of a passive and inept British adventurer often provided a vehicle
for more overt opposition to American colonialism. When British novelists
turned to the troubling material of American transculturation, their works
opened a site of tension and even of opposition within colonial ideology,
signaled particularly through troubled gender roles.

The failed adoption plot's concentration on an inept male adventurer marks

a significant departure from the patterns of colonial heroism that distinguish
the Oriental fictions of Chetwood and Aubin. In the 1720s their fictions
adapted the Oriental captivity plot to develop characters who actively mas-
ter the skills of colonial adaptation, trade, and violence within the most ad-
verse of colonial settings, amidst a culture that British trade had penetrated
only marginally and that had still posed a considerable threat to British ship-
ping in the previous century. In a telling contrast, British fictions of Ameri-
can captivity focused on male captives who prove unsuccessful colonists within
an environment that the British had exploited economically since the early
sixteenth century and that had provided their most populated sites of colo-
nial settlement since the early seventeenth century. While sometimes verg-
ing on the patterns of heroism that mark Chetwood's and Aubin's fictions,
these novels tum more consistently to figures who disrupt these patterns,
especially a passive British adventurer and an active Amerindian female. In-
stead of celebrating active colonial males, failed adoption episodes continu-
ally reduce the British adventurer to passivity if they do not also develop
overt ethical critiques of masculine or colonial aggression.
The figures of the passive male captive and the active native female pro-
duced sharp gender reversals within two of the most prominent Anglo-Ameri-
can legends of cultural contact, the tales of John Smith with Pocahontas and
of Inkle with Yarico. Each of these tales represents an early and influential
version of the failed adoption plot; in each case a powerless British adven-
turer finds rescue and affiliation through the energetic intervention of ana-
tive female, before he ultimately rejects her and returns home. 13 Whereas
the Pocahontas story offered independent Americans a myth of national ori-
gins and destiny, the tale oflnkle and Yarico offered eighteenth-century Brit-
ons a problem requiring continual resolution. After Richard Steele's Spectator
version adapted the tale from an incident in a contemporary travel narrative,
the eighteenth century saw a host of poems, plays, and prose retellings, most
of which tried to extend or transform his spare outlines. Steele frames the
tale through Mr. Spectator's visit to Arietta, a woman of "Taste and Under-
standing," who invokes the episode in conversation, as a counterexample to a
 Resisting Americans 181

misogynist's attacks on female "Levity'' and sexual inconstancy. 14 In Arietta's

telling, after Inkle travels to the West Indies as a colonial trader, his party
enters the wilderness and meets violence from local Amerindians. He es-
capes and hides in the woods, where he meets the young Yarico, they be-
come amorous, and she protects and sustains him. After she helps him to
find a British ship, he immediately sells her into slavery. Even in this sketchy
form, developed in only two pages, the tale already contains the rudiments
of the failed adoption plot. Although the text does not label Inkle a "captive,"
it applies the term "Confinement" to his situation in hiding, and the standard
horrors of torture and captivity would always lurk as possibilities for eigh-
teenth-century Britons imagining his situation. Furthermore, although Inkle
is never formally adopted, Yarico initiates an affiliation with him, one which
he ultimately rejects in the manner of the failed adoption plot.
Designed explicitly as an example of male perfidy, this seminal formula-
tion of the tale poses its crisis of manhood in specifically colonial terms, as
indicated by a fundamental disjunction in Inkle's character that subsequent
retellings would attempt to resolve. On the one hand, this representative
Englishman boasts a genteel form and manner, but this demeanor belies a
mercantile disposition, produced because his parents took "particular Care
to instill into his Mind an early Love of gain, ... giving him a quick View of
Loss and Advantage." This disjunction in his character affects the tone of
narration, as Arietta gives him the ironic labels, "the Hero of my story'' and
"Our adventurer." Within the context of her argument in favor of women,
these terms broaden the attack on Inkle into an attack on masculine heroism
and adventure in general. And indeed Inkle proves far from heroic in ne-
gotiating the American world, as his party first meets Amerindian violence
because they "unadvisedly marched a great distance from the Shore into the
Country." Following this attack, the inept Inkle gains from Yarico not only
food but also "a great many Spoils," as well as clues for eluding her violent
people. After she enables him to negotiate the colonial environment, the
disjunction in his colonial character finally forms the basis of narrative clo-
sure, as he sells his paramour after beginning "to weigh with himself how
many Days Interest of his Many he had lost during his Stay with Yarico."
Thus mercenary calculation comes to mark the nature of colonial activity in
America, and Inkle's failure to handle the wilderness serves to underscore
the depths of his moral failure in selling his benefactress. In an accurate
colonial critique, the tale suggests that Anlgo-Americans survived the colo-
nial world only with the aid of those they dispossessed. After beginning as a
tale of Inkle's potential subjugation, the episode ends as a tale of Yarico's
182 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

subjugation, and thus it rather neatly reminds eighteenth-century readers

that Europeans rather than natives were the principal subjugators in the
colonial world.
For the remainder of the eighteenth century, European writers tried to
resolve the colonial dilemma posed by Inkle and Yarico. In the many plays
and verse epistles that gave voice to Yarico's complaints or to Inkle's regrets,
European writers continually replayed the problem of his colonial failures,
both moral and physical. Some revisions tried to enact formal resolutions for
the plot's disjunctions, either by punishing the Englishman's perfidy with
prison, death, or remorse, or by rewarding his repentance with a concrete
consummation, such as the couple's happy reunion. 15 An altogether different
kind of resolution for the Inkle and Yarico problem developed in the many
novels that organized episodes of American captivity around the figures of a
passive British male and an active Amerindian female. Whereas the direct
revisions of Inkle and Yarico blame the English adventurer for spuming a
native desire for affiliation, later episodes of failed adoption portray the na-
tive desire for affiliation as fundamentally naive. Whereas the Inkle and Yarico
plot implies a connection between Inkle's moral and physical failures, later
failed adoption episodes adduce the captive's physical incapacity as evidence
for his opposition to an American environment that seems a proper sphere
for native energy even as it leads, especially in novels from the end of the
century, to British moral corruption.
Because eighteenth-century British episodes of American captivity re-
turn so persistently to the adoption of a male adventurer, they pose a caveat,
or at least a counterpoint, for what has become a standard point of literary
critical analysis of the American captivity genre: that women occupied a cru-
cial position in its formation both as historical and as imagined captives. 16
The female captive is especially important in the American context because
patterns of American settlement placed women in an unusual proximity to
an alien culture, heightening fears of their vulnerability to alien men, and
also because, as the spotty historical record suggests, female captives tended
to assimilate to native culture more successfully than did male captivesP
Both the possibility of female adoption and the possibility of rape and tor-
ture played prominent roles within the propagandistic captivity narratives
that became increasingly important with the colonial and revolutionary wars
of the late eighteenth century. Following factual and propagandistic proto-
types published in the colonial press, several early American novels of the
republican period developed images of passive, domestic, and innocent white
women in the power of Amerindian men, ending sometimes in violence and
sometimes in peaceful adoption. In Catherine Sedgwick's best-selling Hope
 Resisting Americans 183

Leslie, the heroine's sister enters captivity as a child, finds a happy marriage
with a native husband, and experiences such a thorough transculturation
that she forgets English and refuses an opportunity to rejoin her natal family.
Likewise, Cooper's Leatherstocking novels abound with female captivities
while celebrating the figure of an energetic and happily acculturated fron-
tiersman.18 By contrast, the few British novels that include female captivi-
ties, such as Lennox's Harriot Stuart (1751) and Gilbert Imlay's The Emigrants
(1793), take pains to avoid representing their captives amidst native culture.
In both novels the heroines escape the potential rigors of captivity not through
adoption but through more conventional contrivances of romance plotting.
The difference between eighteenth-century British and early republi-
can visions of captivity and gender becomes clearer when we consider one of
the first American novels, Ann Eliza Bleecker's Maria Kittle (1790-1791). In
a manner typical of many later American novels, Bleecker's work places a
female captive in a plot that closely follows the formulae of contemporary
factual accounts. 19 After a brief new world idyll sets an initial scene of do-
mestic happiness, Indian captivity intrudes and teaches the heroine a lesson
about the instability of worldly expectations and the need to rely on God's
providence. Not only does the heroine endure severe hunger and a long
forced march, but she also witnesses several graphically detailed scenes of
carnage, all much in the manner of the factual accounts. Throughout the
novel, as many critics have observed, the terrifying motifs of Amerindian
captivity furnish Bleecker with a means of defining her heroine's depths of
emotive sensibility.20 As this novel in particular demonstrates, American writ-
ers took an early and persistent interest in the experiences of the female
captive, and they quickly and easily married the captivity narrative to the
Gothic motifs of the virtue-in-distress noveJ.21 That British novelists largely
avoided this route indicates the force of metropolitan as opposed to early
republican views of captivity. Whereas permanent settlers feared the native
threat to the domestic, metropolitans feared the possibility of acculturation,
and thus they focused on the primary agent of colonial expansion, the colo-
nial male.
If metropolitan Britons resisted contemplating the experience of the
white female captive, they found a peculiar interest in the relationship be-
tween the passive British male and the active native female. Images of these
figures played a prominent role in expressing British anxiety about Ameri-
can acculturation, especially when focused on "Indian traders" who spent
years in isolation amidst native cultures and often took native wives. As early
as 1709, Londoners could read of such converts from civility in John Lawson's
Carolina travel narrative: "we often find, that English Men, and other Euro-
184 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

peans that have been accustom' d to the conversation of these savage Women,
and their way of Living, have been so allur' d with that careless sort of Life, as
to be constant to their Indian Wife, and her Relations, so long as they liv' d,
without ever desiring to return again amongst the English, although they
had very fair Opportunities of Advantages amongst their Countrymen."22 This
passage formulates the possibility of cultural assimilation in peculiarly sexual
terms of passivity and action, placing the European converts in a feminized
role of"constancy'' with regard to the closely linked, active "allures" of native
women and native culture. Both in eighteenth-century travel narratives and
in novels employing the failed adoption plot, British anxiety concerning
American transculturation often centered on the ideologically disruptive fig-
ures of the isolated, passive British adventurer and the active native female.

Even Chetwood, the creator of such an enormously aggressive colonial hero

as Robert Boyle, portrays British adventurers as passive and inept when faced
with American captivity, adoption, and transculturation. Building directly on
the materials of the Inkle and John Smith plots, Chetwood develops two
failed adoption episodes within the omnibus structure of his first novel, The
Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes of Captain Richard
Falconer (1720). 23 The first full-length novel to include a failed adoption
episode, this imitation of Defoe follows its protagonist through a series of
adventures in colonial lands, mostly the Caribbean islands, mixing inset sec-
tions of pure travel description with accounts of colonial warfare, piracy, and
shipwreck. These adventures help compose a persistent opposition between
British and Spanish national characters, linking the latter with torture and
tyranny, while the former earn the good will of the native Caribbeans. But if
this novel imagines ample opportunity and justification for British colonial-
ism, they both seem to vanish with the threat of capture and adoption by
native Americans. Whereas Robert Boyle represents Oriental captivity as the
hero's inauguration into a life of colonial mastery, Richard Falconer treats
Amerindian captivity as a fundamental problem for British colonial expan-
sion, one that the captive adventurers cannot solve. Robert Boyle portrays
Oriental culture as a parody of European civilization, relatively familiar and
thus easily assimilable and mastered, but the captivity episodes in Richard
Falconer suggest an unbridgeable gap between native American and Euro-
pean. Within this novel, the gap between cultures seems so large as to pre-
clude any possibility that the British might convert or rule the natives
effectively.
The novel's first captivity episode is an interpolated tale narrated by
The frontispiece and title page of Chetwood's first novel make
Amerindian captivity its primary sales pitch. What we now regard
as a standard image of American captivity and, indeed, of American
identity, here opens a 1720 London text concerned with defining
an English hero. (This item is reproduced by permission of The
Huntington Library, San Marino, California.)
186 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

Falconer's spiritual mentor, Thomas Randal. The episode begins by invoking

the standard horrors of native captivity, when a shipwreck on Cape Charles,
at the tip of the Delmarva Peninsula, leads to Randal's capture by a local
tribe and their immediate threat to bum him, "drink [his] Blood, and feed
upon [his] Flesh" (2:24). But the natives also explain that their violence stems
from a desire "to be reveng'd of your Brothers at Jamestown, who kill us
many Indians" (2:24). Although the novel portrays the natives as ferocious, it
also traces their violence to an originary moment of British colonial expan-
sion, the moment when British colonial methods most resembled the Span-
ish method of conquest over an extensive political power, in this case
Powhatan's empire in tidewater Virginia. In a pattern that recurs in later
failed adoption episodes, the novel suggests that British violence has both
initiated the extreme violence of captivity and compromised the possibility
of more peaceful cultural interaction.
In an early version of a heroic pattern more fully elaborated with Boyle,
Chetwood portrays the captive Randal as a shrewd and resourceful colonial
hero, a British man of science amidst ignorant and violent captors. The ex-
treme threat of native violence quickly evaporates when his captors discover
his medical instruments. When he explains that his lancets serve "to Bleed,"
an Amerindian demands "in a great Passion" if he uses them to kill native
prisoners (2:25). While the natives immediately interpret these seemingly
mysterious devices through the lens of"passion," as instruments of violence,
the man of science calmly details their function within the early eighteenth-
century curriculum of medical science, and later he demonstrates their prac-
tical efflcacy by curing the tribe's chief of a fever. As a reward for this scientific
mastery, the tribe invites him and his companions to join them, marry
Amerindian wives, and fight against whites. In this early version of the failed
adoption plot, the Amerindian desire for affiliation results from an intellec-
tual gap between cultures. The efficacy of the lancets seems to render the
natives eager for and dazzled by the benefits of science and civilization, and
thus susceptible to the influence of Europeans. Furthermore, because cross-
cultural afHliation here stems from the natives' misinterpretation of Randal's
scientific prowess, their version of intercultural contact appears hopelessly
naive in comparison with the modem systems of knowledge that guide the
Briton. With stereotypical premodern naivete, a chief observes this new tribes-
man taking a pulse and imagines that he can use this technique to gain knowl-
edge about the military goals of their common British enemies. The chief
not only misinterprets the captive's scientific abilities, but also falsely imag-
ines that the tribe's immediate cultural influence might outweigh his alle-
giance to the British nation. When the wily captive explains that pulse-taking
 Resisting Americans 187

requires physical contact with the British, the chief permits him to visit them,
and he seizes this opportunity to quit his adopted tribe (2:29--30). Ultimately
the novel portrays the Briton's faith-breaking as a commonsensical maneu-
ver amidst the threats of colonial violence. However terrible cultural contact
according to the native system may at first seem, the novel finally treats this
system as so hopelessly naive that it represents only a minimal threat to the
ingenuity of the British captive.
Chetwood further emphasizes the gap between cultures when Falconer
himself later enters a captivity that partially replicates the experiences of his
spiritual mentor. Even before this second episode of failed adoption begins,
the novel lays its groundwork through images of native violence and cultural
inferiority. Before recounting his captivity, Falconer offers a brief section of
travelogue that describes the friendly natives of Dominica and highlights in
particular their paltry housing, promiscuous sleeping arrangements, and in-
ability to negotiate the most basic elements of European culture. Fond of
liquor but easily made drunk, Falconer's Dominicans also show desire for
European clothing but prove comically incapable of putting it to proper use.
During his captivity, this native simplicity seems concomitant with an over-
whelming ferocity. Like Randal, Falconer prefaces his adoption narrative
with terrifYing intimations concerning the potential results of capture. At
several points before his capture, encounters with various Caribbean tribes
provoke immediate thoughts of torture. In the first encounter, he and his
companions adopt the heroic resolve typically celebrated in accounts of Bar-
bary captivity, determining "to defend our selves to the last Drop of Blood,
chusing rather to die by their Hands in Fight, than to be tartur' d after the
Manner as they inflict upon all the Whites they get into their Hands" (2: 110).
But Falconer's actual capture, after he wanders aimlessly into a village in-
habited by hostile natives, undermines this vision of heroic resolve. There he
hides and sees the torture of a friendly Amerindian in a scene that replays
both the violent imagery and the psychological profile of factual American
captivities. Witnessing a decapitation and a disembowelment renders Fal-
coner "so confus'd, that I might justly say I never thought at all ... but yet
when my Senses were compos'd, I put my Trust in God that he wou' d deliver
me from this Danger"(3:135). The torture scene serves as a reminder of the
standard British conception of Amerindian captivity, creating dramatic ten-
sion through an impression of the extremes of violence and abjection that
await the passive protagonist.
Escape from the extremes of premodern violence occurs in a fashion
typical of the failed adoption plot, not through the captive's own exertions
but rather through a young native woman's Pocahontas-like intervention and
188 NARRATNES OF FICTION

his subsequent adoption through marriage. In an incident rather clearly

modeled on the Smith story, the woman stops one of her tribesmen on the
point of killing the hero. Chetwood heightens the sexual component of the
Pocahontas fantasy when the natives insist that Falconer "shou'd take her to
be [his] Mate, or Bedfellow, or suffer Death" (3:141). The forced-marriage
motif quite clearly permits a carefully displaced European sexual fantasy
about native women, blaming European sexual predations on native interest
and even coercion. At the same time, however, this motif undermines the
hero's self-mastery by linking him to a feminized position of sexual victimiza-
tion. Falconer's release from his adopted tribe widens the gap between na-
tive and Briton, again emphasizing his incapacity and their connection with
violence. Falconer tries but fails to escape by deceiving his new family. He
tricks his wife by pretending exhaustion during a hunt, so that she lies down
to rest and falls asleep. But when he runs away, he finds himself "immedi-
ately seiz'd" by his tribesmen and prepared for death by burning (3:149-51).
After he weakly and vainly tries to break his bonds, he must finally depend
on others for release, first through the chance invasion of an enemy tribe,
and then through a second intervention on the part of his wife, who sud-
denly arrives to "put her head under [his] Feet" (3:152). When a hostile
warrior aims a sword at him, his wife throws herself in front of the blow and
receives a mortal wound. At one level her death gives closure to the sexual
fantasy by freeing the protagonist from any permanent emotional attach-
ment, but the marriage episode as a whole tends to separate him from the
realm of the heroic and to portray him as passive and ineffectual in handling
native culture on his own. Mter the invading tribe also decides to adopt him,
he escapes through the accidental arrival of some British sailors and the as-
sistance of a devoted Dominican, whom Falconer rewards by making him a
servant. The Briton and the Indian, it seems, can never meet on terms of
equality but only on terms of mastery and subjugation. Faced with what seems
an inevitable native disposition towards capture, the Briton must manipulate
the gap between cultures for his own benefit while seeking allies among his
countrymen rather than among the natives.
Falconer's extended sojourn among two different tribes would seem to
open ample space for acculturation, but the novel consistently highlights his
failure to adopt or even much appreciate Amerindian customs. He experi-
ences his wedding not as a ceremony of affiliation but rather as particularly
glaring proof of cultural distance. In recording the occasion, he scorns native
culture as a paradoxical, animalistic parody of European civilization. When
he suddenly hears a "rude Noise," it turns out to be an "Epithalamium," and
the wedding ceremony involves "mad, rude, monkey Gambols, that put me
 Resisting Americans 189

in mind of the mad Feasts of the Bachii in Virgil" (3:142-43). This palpable
impression of cultural distance seems to explain, within the logic of this novel,
the adoptee's rather implausible incapacity to "learn any of their Speech, but
here and there a common Word" (3:146). So strong is Chetwood's insistence
on cultural distance that he violates the standard European image of the
native division of labor by portraying Falconer's wife as a "very dexterous"
huntress while he himself remains "such a Bungler at it, that I cou' d never
do any execution" (3:145). His hero utterly failing in comparison with the
mastery of native culture celebrated in such heroes as Natty Bummpo,
Chetwood portrays adoption as an utterly humiliating and even feminizing
experience for the adventurous Briton.
Although Falconer's marriage fulfills a European sexual fantasy, the sharp
ambivalence that the novel attaches to the marriage partially deprives the
fantasy of its force. The cultural gap seems to preclude true affection for this
couple, as Falconer rather vaguely comments that his wife can only show her
"great Love" for him in "her Way" (3:145). Much of the apparent distance
between husband and wife results from an apparently unbridgeable gulf in
.intellect, signaled by disparity in language and religion. Just as he cannot
learn the native language, she cannot learn English, as "he cou'd never get
her to repeat whole Sentences" but merely to echo minor physical sounds,
"like a Parrot" (3:147). European religion seems equally baffling for the na-
tive wife. When he prays, she "look' d upwards too, with a kind of Concern
... as if she had a mind to see something as she thought I look'd at" (3:145).
Apparently limited to physical approximations of his language, spirituality,
and personal affection, Falconer's wife seems less a simple innocent than a
slave to the material, incapable of mastering what seem the higher forms of
European culture. Among his second adopted tribe, Falconer puts more
effort into evangelism but finds that he cannot convert this people because
"their Understandings are so infirm, that without a Miracle there will be no
curing 'em" (3:160). Again native worship seems bound to the physical, as
Falconer declares that he could never "perceive these Indians worship' d any
thing, except the Moon" and that their "Stargazing" leads to "Jumping and
Capering like so many mad things" (3:161). This portrait of native worship
serves partially as an explanation for British failures to convert the natives,
while the novel's broader portrait of American encounters suggests that no
true cultural exchange can ever occur between Britons and Amerindians.
Whereas Chetwood's Robert Boyle imagines the career of a colonial pri-
vateer as one of unlimited possibilities, Richard Falconer's failed adoption
episodes imagine a set of limits that accompany those possibilities, bringing
the tensions of colonial ideology to the forefront. Throughout this novel the
190 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

American landscape seems to offer much danger and little colonial poten-
tial, as Falconer's American captivities conclude a colonial career that falls
considerably short of Boyle's spectacularly lucrative success. Falconer and
his mentor might create an impression of cultural superiority over their cap-
tors by occasionally concocting a successful trick, but such apparent superi-
ority does not lead automatically to colonial success. Despite his extended
cultural contact, Falconer manages only one successful convert, gains no
spoils, and instead returns among his countrymen disheveled, filthy, and
broke. Large-scale conversion, peaceful settlement, and even trade all seem
impossible because of the extreme distance between British civilization and
native "savagery." Although the novel hints that native violence stems from
European aggression, the native inclination for violence and capture seems
so strong as to overwhelm the possibility that Britons might control the terms
of cultural contact. Within the natives' seemingly overpowering system of
cultural interaction, their·efforts to emulate European culture prove comic,
while their willingness to make the captive a part of their culture only serves
as a further illustration of their naivete, especially as Falconer's continual
failure to acculturate suggests the foolishness of any attempt at transcul-
turation. Thus although this novel touts the superiority of British civility, this
apparent superiority so completely separates the British from the natives
that key elements of the colonial project seem impracticable.
Thus the first failed adoption episodes in an English novel raised consid-
erable tension within its author's otherwise unified strategies for imagining
colonial heroism. Following the early lead ofChetwood's plot structure, British
novelists often imagined American captivity as marking an end to colonial
activity. Whereas the Oriental captivity plot imagined the protagonist's sla-
very as a colonial apprenticeship, British novelists generally placed episodes
of American captivity near the ends of novels and often used these episodes
to mark a final moment of danger and liberation at the end of a sensitive
protagonist's checkered colonial career. The persistent recurrence of this
pattern, linking a release from Amerindian captivity with a climactic release
from the colonial environment, indicates that the failed adoption plot pro-
vided an important means for metropolitan Britons to conceive of the colo-
nist as a captive. Separated from the seat of civility, the protagonists of these
novels often lament life in America as an isolation from friends, family, or
British society. Despite sharp criticism of British behavior in America and
despite occasional sympathy for its rebels, many of these novels ultimately
suggested that, ideally, civilized Britons were better off avoiding its prob-
lems entirely. In narratives celebrating the happy return of genteel protago-
nists to England, the closure of the failed adoption plot constituted a rejection
 Resisting Americans 191

of the American colonies and the systems of subjugation that seemed to typifY
both native and European practice there. Thus the plot enabled a critique of
the colonial project in America, but one that worked by trading on metro-
politan fears of alien peoples and by renouncing America as a world where
any level of acculturation might corrupt British civility. Linked to extreme
violence, cultural debasement, and cultural distance, American captivity of-
fered British novelists a more dismal and troubling prospect for imagining
colonial heroism than did Oriental captivity. After Chetwood's early effort,
North American captivity largely disappeared from English fiction through
the middle of the century, except for the very brief episodes in Edward
Kimber's Life of Mr. Anderson (1754) and Lennox's Life of Harriet Stuart
(1751). In the latter third of the century, however, British novelists found
significant ideological and argumentative potential in the tensions of the failed
adoption plot.

Even more clearly than Chetwood's episodes of American captivity, the epi-
sodes in Kimber's fiction provide an index of the ideological struggles that
mark British efforts to imagine the Anglo-American experience. Three de-
cades after Chetwood, Kimber included American episodes first in The His-
tory ofMr. Anderson (1754) and second in The Life ofNeville Frowde (1758).
Both of these episodes pose the native American practice of taking captives
as a threat to colonial trade. In the second, Frowde enjoys a lucrative career
as a globe-trotting merchant, although he constantly faces the threat of cap-
ture from Barbary pirates or Spanish miners, before finally enduring an ac-
tual captivity among the natives of the Argentine coast. This episode focuses
on the violence and abject drudgery of Frowde's captivity, which puts an end
to his colonial career, as he afterwards retires in order to become a model
country gentleman. Within this fairly straightforward vision of colonial suc-
cess, South American captivity seems to provide both an unambiguous warn-
ing of the potential dangers awaiting the colonial trader and a justification
that he will earn his fantastic wealth. Curiously, this novel represents a rare
case in which a British novelist imagined a South American captivity, and
also one of the few cases in which a British novelist admitted the standard
horrors of factual captivity accounts. 24 Kimber could reproduce the standard
patterns of his factual prototypes, even to the point of suppressing the possi-
bility of transculturation, when portraying captivity in South America, a land
where the British might trade but not settle, a land, as the novel suggests,
already ruined for the British by a history of Iberian "barbarities" and violent
native reactions. 25 Conversely, like most other British novelists concerned
with American captivity, Kimber proved unwilling to dwell on its stereotypi-
192 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

cal horrors and intent on the problem of transculturation when, in Mr. Ander-
son, he turned to a North American setting, one where a large population of
British settlers faced real questions of adaptation and cultural contact in an
alien environment.
Poised on the high stakes of a North American setting, Mr. Anderson's
brief captivity episode shares in the troubled colonial themes that mark the
novel as a whole. The episode occurs after Tom, the young hero, has over-
come a childhood of indentured "slavery," improved himself as an enlight-
ened plantation overseer, and finally acquired a position of colonial
prominence as a wealthy Indian trader and Indian fighter. The novel dwells
very little on his colonial successes and quickly ends his career as a frontiers-
man by subjecting him to captivity among "a barbarous gang of savagesl"26
Tom's captors, however, just as quickly veer away from the savage and to-
wards the ridiculous. When he plays a flute for them, they respond with
"ridiculous gestures" of enthusiasm, and his gift of the flute leads to a ritual
of exchange and friendship, "so sacred a compact amongst the Indians, that
it is never broken" (141-42). Like Chetwood's novel, Kimber's failed adop-
tion episode imagines the natives as childlike and gullible, easily placing trust
in Europeans, even forming an absolute, lifelong alliance based on the captive's
chance possession of a toy. Although the genteel Tom does not take advan-
tage of their naivete, it nevertheless serves the dual purposes of keeping the
hero from the rigors of captivity and of containing any threat posed by native
culture.
The novel later negates its rather brief and insignificant alliance between
native American and European, even as solemnized by its ritual of affilia-
tion, by creating a similar and more significant bond between English and
French gentlemen, involving a more permanently efficacious ritual of affili-
ation. Just before he falls into the hands of the Indians, Tom captures some
Frenchmen in a border skirmish and treats his prisoners "with the utmost
humanity" (131). He forms a particular alliance, moreover, with the Cheva-
lier du Cayle, based partially on the their mutual suffering from parental
courtship interference. This alliance with a nobly named Frenchman serves
to heighten Tom's standing within the genteel structures of romance plot-
ting, not only by creating a noble parallel for his own romantic suffering, but
also by giving him the opportunity to release the Frenchman with a treaty
based on the gentleman's word of honor: "Let my generosity make you a
friend to any English subject, you may see a captive with your nation" (134).
Tom's genteel treatment of the French redounds to his favor after his
Amerindian captors transfer him to the Quebecois, who grant him a merely
nominal captivity and then a happy trip to France. When several Parisians
 Resisting Americans 193

help Tom regain his liberty, his captivity ends with much less emphasis on
savagery and subjugation than on gallantry, generosity, and the brotherhood
of European gentlemen. In Kimber's novel as in later works that also follow
this pattern, episodes of captivity among the French serve to displace terror
of native transculturation, reassuring British readers that the power of civil-
ity outweighs the cultural impact of the colonial world.
But if this captivity episode foregrounds the gap between native Ameri-
can and European, the novel's multiple plots and subplots tend to confound
this opposition. Even before Tom's captivity actually begins, an interpolated
tale portrays a noble savage held captive by a depraved European. This
Amerindian proves passionately devoted to liberty and to the English, and
his wife's extended sexual persecution at the hands of a French officer ulti-
mately entails her death and her husband's reduction to "a secret and per-
petual prisoner" (122). Within this tale Kimberimagines an exceptional native
capable of meeting the British on their own ideological terms ofliberty, for-
titude, and limited respect for women, while the French seem naturally al-
lied with the novel's stereotypes about the native majority. At one level the
episode's chart of alliances and enmities supports an ideology of increased
British power in North America, but the variable captivities developed within
the plot as a whole so completely reverse the terms of this chart that a pro-
foundly confused ideological vision ultimately results. Not only does the novel
depict Amerindian capture of a European, not only does it depict a debased
European capturing a noble savage, but its main plot concerns a European
gentleman enslaved by colonial planters, and its attack on planters grows so
strong that it expresses considerable sympathy for the rebellion of African
slaves. Within this novel, neither tyranny nor liberty nor subjugation seems
attached to any particular culture, but rather all cultures seem capable of
despotism in colonial America, while only the exceptional gentleman, of
whatever cultural origin, can remain free of taint. The novel can resolve the
ideological confusion produced by these multiform captivities only through
a romance plot that withdraws its hero from colonial chaos to a genteel En-
glish home.
After American captivity episodes raised such ideological confusion in
the works of Chetwood and Kimber, subsequent British novelists attempt~d
a variety of methods for resolving it. The sudden flurry of American captivity
episodes that marks British fiction after 1767 tried to resolve the colonial
anxieties of the adoption plot by suppressing, rearranging, or recasting many
of its key elements. One pattern involved continued experimentation with
the gender roles associated with American captivity, as the novels increas-
ingly mollified or fully suppressed the active native female while more ex-
194 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

tensively connecting male captivity to the oppression of sensitive British hero-

ines. Several novels followed Kimber's lead in situating their episodes of
American captivity within serial patterns of colonial captivity, patterns that
align British debtors' prisons and military structures with native American
captivity as systems of subjugation typifying the colonial world. In a more
pointed attack on colonial endeavor, several novels followed Chetwood's lead
in attributing their captivity episodes as much to the aggressive violence of
European colonialism as to an inherently tyrannical disposition within the
natives. In 1767, for example, this variation on the failed adoption plot en-
abled the anonymous Female American to attack a masculine colonialism
driven by trade and violence and to recommend its replacement with a fe-
male-centered program of Christian evangelism. In 1773 Henry Mackenzie
similarly applied an episode of American captivity to a satiric attack on the
aggressive, violent disposition of The Man of the World. During this period,
just before and after the war for American independence, the failed adop-
tion plot became increasingly frequent, experimental, and critical of colonial
policy, suggesting an intellectual effort to mediate the rising conflicts be-
tween homeland and colonies.

In a vividly formalized resolution of British colonial anxieties, the anony-

mous Female American; or; the Adventures ofUnca Eliza Winkfield reframes
the failed adoption plot in order to deflect and redirect the ideology of colo-
nial individualism, by imagining a hybrid, mixed-race female as an ideal agent
of cultural contact. 27 Narrated in the first person by its eponymous heroine,
the daughter of a European male and an Amerindian female, the novel opens
with an account of the father's captivity and consequent marriage. Whereas
most other episodes of failed adoption occur as climactic moments, near the
ends of novels, this novel places its captivity episode near its opening, where
it serves as an initial frame tale that provides both an explanation and a sharp
contrast for the unusual life of the hybrid "Female American." The captivity
episode to which this protagonist traces her origin occurs soon after the Brit-
ish settlement ofJames town and largely replays while also transforming John
Smith's captivity among the Powhatans and his rescue by Pocahontas. Within
this novel, what seems the originary captivity episode of American experi-
ence does not represent a triumph for an Englishman's colonial prowess but
rather reveals a gap between cultures that women must take the lead in clos-
ing. To solve the problems of a violent colonial past, the novel suggests, women
must shift the colonial project from conquest to evangelism.
The opening captivity episode offers a sharp attack on the male-domi-
nated, secular, and exploitative colonialism of Jamestown. With considerable
 Resisting Americans 195

historical accuracy, the novel suggests that the Virginia project initially fo-
cused on trade and violence and fell far short of its lofty ideological justifica-
tion in terms of evangelism among the natives. Criticism of this most famous
of colonial endeavors begins with the novel's early scenes in Britain, just
prior to the ships' departure, when William Winkfield, the father of the "Fe-
male American," receives an ominous warning from his brother: 'We have
no right to invade the country of another, and I fear invaders will always
meet a curse" (1:8). As in Robinson Crusoe and a number of factual captivity
narratives, a warning against overseas travel initiates a providential interpre-
tive framework that treats captivity as a just consequence of worldly ambi-
tion. The brother's warning proves prophetic when William falls into captivity
as a result of a Powhatan massacre, but the novel somewhat mitigates this
stereotypical violence through an effort to fathom its motives. As the natives
explain to their captives, "the evil being who made you has sent you into our
land to kill us; we know you not, and have never offended you; why then
have you taken possession of our lands, ate our fruits, and made our country-
men prisoners?" (1:12). White violence and capture of natives, the novel
intimates, cause native violence and capture of whites.
The novel further develops its critique of aggressive male colonialism
through its failed adoption episode, which intensifies the gender reversal of
the Pocahontas plot, portraying the colonial male as utterly hapless and de-
pendent on the intervention of a native female. The captured father of the
eponymous heroine must depend on the aid of her mother, also named Unca.
Like Pocahontas, the elder U nca uses her position as the daughter of a pow-
erful chief to rescue a powerless English captive from the violent extremes
associated with native males. The novel repeatedly emphasizes William's
docility, first as the captives "were drove, like sheep, many miles up the coun-
try," then as U nca "pulled him by his chain" to signal her marriage choice,
and finally as the chief"gave him as a captive to his daughter, who, immedi-
ately breaking the chain from around his neck, threw it at his feet" (1:9, 15-
16). At first the transaction between father and daughter seems a ritualistic
exchange of property, so that the novel grants her considerable autonomy
within the tribe, enough, at least, to restore the passive Englishman to a
position of relative mastery. When she further distinguishes him with the gift
of native slaves, he follows the captivity plot's standard movement from sla-
very to mastery, but here this crucial structural shift occurs entirely through
the agency of a native female.
However, this cross-cultural marriage, far from suggesting the possibil-
ity of a happy transculturation, entails further threats to the passive Euro-
pean male, especially as the novel introduces a second sexually aggressive
196 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

native woman in the person of Unca's sister. While her sexual forwardness
once again fulfills a male fantasy about native women, this subplot also ulti-
mately reduces the Englishman to passivity. When he refuses the sister's
advances, she orders her slaves to "Seize that white infidel ... and in an
instant all power of defence or flight was equally taken from him" (1:25). She
reduces the passive William to further weakness through poison, but the
active and perspicacious Unca quickly rescues him: "her quick apprehension
soon suggested what had happened; and as the Indians are remarkable for
their knowledge of poisons, and no less so for their skill in antidotes, she
instantly sought, and as quickly found" the right one (1:27). These scenes
suggest the colonial male's utter incapacity to manage by himself the fea-
tures of the American landscape, from female forwardness to locally grown
antidotes. He can negotiate this landscape only as a result of his marriage, by
depending on a wife who already knows and controls the landscape. The
novel quickly ends this spectacle of masculine subjugation and dependence
when the sister kills Unca, leading the stricken husband to abandon the colo-
nial landscape, like so many male captives in the failed adoption plot, and to
return home with his daughter.
The doubled Indian sisters represent, respectively, a poisonously dan-
gerous and a moderately salutary version of female action. Modeling female
aggression and self-reliance in the figure of the native woman provided a
means of briefly fantasizing about the extreme possibilities of female action
before ultimately containing them. The novel aggressively deplores the sister's
sexual aggression and must even kill off the more moderate version of fe-
male action in the person of mother U nca. And because these two sisters
dominate the novel's early scenes of native culture, their sexual aggression
and exaggerated social power come to represent the Powhatans as a people
whose social structures pose a considerable threat to European colonization.
However, the novel solves both the problem of female action and the prob-
lem of cultural contact through the evolution of the main plot that follows
the early captivity episode. Through the figure of the mixed-race daughter,
the novel develops an idealized portrait of female action, by carefully cir-
cumscribing her physical activity to a coastal American island, and by care-
fully circumscribing her social activity to religious conversion of native
Americans.
At first, however, the uncomfortable conflict of cultures that Unca expe-
riences in England suggests that miscegenation entails problematic results.
In England, as she explains, "My tawny complexion, and the oddity of my
dress, attracted every one's attention, for my mother used to dress me in a
kind of mixed habit, neither perfectly in the Indian, nor yet in the European
 Resisting Americans 197

taste" (1:43). The physical activity encouraged by her native upbringing cre-
ates further problems in assimilation, especially when her cousin begins to
court her, and she erects a cultural and sexual roadblock for this quiescent
male by telling him that she "would never marry any man who could not use
a bow and arrow as well as I could" (1:50). In order to resolve the confusion
in identity patterns that surrounds this displaced hybrid, the novel shifts her
back to an Atlantic island, a point midway between American and British
cultures. As in Robinson Crusoe and other fictions of colonial captivity, ship-
wreck and island confinement provoke a revolution in the protagonist's cul-
tural identity. The novel portrays her as a moderately active and successful
female Crusoe, who achieves a life of adequate physical comfort through her
extraordinary application of the island's limited and alien resources, although
she occasionally succumbs to the qualms and fears typically ascribed to sen-
sitive heroines. Like Defoe's work, this novel frequently compares the cir-
cumscribed space of the island to a "captivity'' or a "slavery," and it punctuates
her life there with a series of physical traps and escapes. This novel also
follows its predecessors in Defoe and in spiritual autobiography by framing
the experience of physical captivity as an analogue for human life in the terms
dictated by a Christian god. Through a long internal dialogue, U nca gains a
renewed appreciation for a religious life of subjection to God's providence,
learning that such subjection entails a paradoxical liberation of the spirit,
that an island captivity "may be called a state of liberty'' (1: 113). As in Robinson
Crusoe, the situation of island captivity grounds the formerly errant and un-
stable spirit of the captive in a firmly established Christian subjectivity, al-
though here that shift involves some suppression of the captive's hybrid
character.
Another form of captivity threatens when, again as in Robinson Crusoe,
a group of Amerindians pay an annual ceremonial visit to the island, but the
novel transforms the threat of captivity into an experience of European mas-
tery over the native, albeit one that overtly displaces colonial exploitation in
favor ofa missionary ideal. When the Amerindians arrive, U nca takes advan-
tage of a gigantic statue that greatly magnifies her voice in order to speak to
them as a seemingly supernatural exponent of Christian doctrine. Like many
a European missionary in America, she thus adapts elements of native reli-
gion to serve Christian indoctrination, but unlike the typical British mission-
ary, she finds the natives "generally of a docile disposition" and soon gains an
entourage of faithful converts, "a whole nation, all ready to serve me" (1:148-
49, 2:56). The novel, however, carefully separates her position of mastery
from that of exploitative colonialism. When an English ship arrives and spoils
her evangelical idyll, she fears that her adopted people might suffer an ag-
198 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

gressively exploitative colonialism: "their country might be discovered, and

probably invaded, and numbers of the people be carried away into slavery"
(2:66). But the boat luckily contains her cousin, now an ordained minister,
who assists her missionary work, finally gains her consent to marriage, and
helps her plunder the temple of its golden treasure, which they use to buy
books and other goods for their adopted people. Once they stock themselves
for a life of Christian leadership, the couple work to isolate their island from
further European interference.
According to this novel, women must take the lead in diverting the colo-
nial project from aggression to conversion. The initial captivity episode sug-
gests that masculine colonialism inevitably backfires, as the intended captors
become the captives, as aggression finishes in violence, passivity, and de-
basement. Mter posing its failed adoption episode as a problem related to
the passive colonial male and the active native female, the remainder of the
plot acts as a solution to this problem. The mixed-race daughter represents
an idealized if bizarre mediator between cultures as well as a compromise
between female aggression and female passivity. Not only does she control
the terms of her courtship, but she also sets the initial terms of the conver-
sion project, and finally blocks the possibility of further aggression from other
European colonists. But if the novel makes a somewhat radical choice in its
cross-gendered and mixed-race heroine, it also portrays the native contribu-
tion to this character as limited to a moderate physical activity, one that must
be supervised, moreover, by Christian civility. To enforce the need for such a
limit, the novel depicts her conversion in captivity as a necessary apprentice~
ship for her leadership. The novel's final vision of an idealized society allows
for some cultural mixture but rests firmly on the British foundations of Chris-
tian conversion and the image of the colonist as captive.

Six years later Henry Mackenzie used the failed adoption plot for a different
kind of anticolonial argument, with an even more virulent condemnation of
masculine aggression, in The Man ofthe World (1773).28 Published two years
after his popular bible of sensibility, The Man of Feeling, Mackenzie's second
novel develops a foil for Harley, the "Man of Feeling," in Thomas Sindal, a
wealthy, powerful, and transparently named "Man of the World." Most of
the novel concerns the various tricks, thefts, rapes, and imprisonments per-
petrated by Sindal against a genteel, virtuous, and naive brother and sister,
William and Harriet Annesley. After Sindal seduces William to a life of crime,
the duped victim suffers a series of colonial misfortunes, beginning with trans-
portation to America and culminating with adoption by an American tribe.
Although William departs from other adoptees in his eager pursuit of adop-
 Resisting Americans 199

tion, Mackenzie uses this pursuit for satiric purposes, ultimately rejecting
both native culture and the colonial system because they foster a mind-set
that encourages worldly predation.
Developed as an interpolated tale near the end of the novel, William's
autobiography expands the scope of Mackenzie's satire of the aggressive,
masculine 'World" of social predation, as the broader world of the colonies
proves full of men like Thomas Sindal, and as William proves continually
duped by them. At one level, the novel employs its adoption episode as a
satiric counterpoint to British forms of social enslavement. William's incor-
poration into an astonishingly violent tribe climaxes a series of captivities at
the hands of various British institutions, from the judiciary to the military.
Mackenzie's satire, however, targets not only British systems of social organi-
zation but also William's naive adherence to men of the world and their false
values, especially the manly ideal of "resolution." When William's various
experiences of British enslavement lead to his hatred for British civilization,
his consequent endorsement of native savagery provides the final target of
Mackenzie's satire, which operates through sharp reversals of conventional
captivity plotting. Rather than resist Amerindian capture and culture, Will-
iam seeks native adoption and struggles to emulate native resolution by ea-
gerly embracing the stereotypical horrors of captivity. But these horrors are
so graphically portrayed as to undermine William's admiration for the na-
tives, who emerge as the novel's most extreme instance of the violent, preda-
tory disposition that marks "men of the world" across the globe.
In the first half of the novel, William follows the familiar novelistic pat-
tern oflearning the wisdom of resignation and self-control through the expe-
rience of physical confinement, which results directly from his failure to
negotiate the masculine "World." His youthful warmth of spirits makes him
an easy dupe for the conniving Sindal, who introduces him to metropolitan
corruption, gaming, debts, criminality, and prison. Prison effects a revolu-
tion in William's psychological disposition along the lines carved out in both
spiritual autobiography and novel. After his incarceration, he experiences a
brief "delirium" but then finds opportunities for extensive introspection;
through these he learns the kind of self-mastery that Defoe or Chetwood
would have adduced as necessary for mastering masculine landscapes such
as the colonies. Mter William receives a sentence of American transporta-
tion, he reveals at his departure a "determined sort of coolness not easily
expected from one of his warmth of feelings, at a time oflife when these are
in their fullest vigour" (1:225). At this point in the novel, calm acceptance of
the limitations imposed by colonial servitude seems to signal a mature rejec-
tion of a young man's aggressive appetites.
200 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

After disappearing for most of the second volume, William returns near
the end of the novel to recount his colonial experiences, including his so-
journ among the Amerindians. This interpolated tale has drawn little critical
comment, although one scholar has described the natives as positive, even
utopian figures. 29 But the episode serves ultimately to portray the colonies
less as a pristine environment of innocent rebirth than as an extension of the
masculine 'World." Like many a mid century interpolated tale of colonial
experience, Mackenzie's adoption episode represents the colonies as a land
of trial but not of triumph, a world that continually tests a hero's resignation
and fortitude but offers no concrete rewards except the possibility of a re-
turn home. Mackenzie pushes this narrative pattern to its satiric edge by
portraying the suffering narrator's experiences not only in terms of physical
abjection, but also in terms of psychological abjection, as he foolishly em-
braces the colonial landscape's nastiest forms of servitude.
Colonists as well as colonized form part of the larger world of masculine
aggression to which the misguided William seems attuned. In America he
shows such a strong disposition towards resigned submission that he joins
the colonial military after his master's death releases him from indentured
bondage. William's resilience under servitude seems to fit him for success
within the colonial military as well as within the physical environment of
colonial America. Although his extraordinary discipline earns advancement
through the ranks, the novel undermines this success by portraying it as a
result ofWilliam's subscription within a corrupt culture of violence, one whose
false ideals of honor, resolution, and fortitude ultimately recoil on its vota-
ries. He earns a court-martial for trying to uphold his "honor" by beating a
fellow soldier who has insulted him. After receiving a sentence of"five hun-
dred lashes" and suffering the first one hundred, he "resolved ... to escape
by an act of suicide" (2:170-71). William's experiences in the colonial mili-
tary unmask the masculine code of honor, discipline, and resolution as a code
of violence, one that promotes indifference to suffering and finally indiffer-
ence to life itself. Even his suicide attempt backfires, leading to escape rather
than death. In this novel the masculine resolution of the captive protagonist
seems transmuted into the depths of psychological abasement to which the
masculine world can push its victims.
When William's retrogression leads him to seek Amerindian adoption,
the novel develops the sharpest reversals of standard captivity plotting in all
of eighteenth-century fiction. After reaching and escaping the nadir of vio-
lence, debasement, and ineptitude marked by his suicide attempt, he imme-
diately "formed the resolution" to join the natives (2:172). Still impetuous
after all his captivities, William continues to form what Mackenzie repre-
 Resisting Americans 201

sents as bizarre and reprehensible resolutions, snap decisions that always

backfire, attempts to escape captivity that serve only to push him into fur-
ther captivities. Rather than heroically resist native capture and the features
of native culture that threaten to undo his own, William foists himself on the
Amerindians, tries to redefine himself as one of them, and actively chooses
to undergo the most feared trials of captivity. Within the context of his vari-
ous subjugations in British cultural systems, this eager pursuit of American
captivity and culture works partially to satirize British culture, by suggesting
that it might force its victims to seek its putative opposite. However, within
the novel's larger satirical economy, native culture does not offer a positive
foil, but rather a negative parallel to British culture. Mackenzie does not
represent native culture as a utopian system free of subjugations, but rather
as a society predicated on extremes of violent subjugation, far more savage
than noble. Only William's retrogression can explain his desire to embrace
the native culture represented by this novel.
Mackenzie portrays violence as the key to William's transculturation and
thus as the key to Amerindian culture. Soon after he meets the tribe, when a
native patriarch questions his reasons for joining them, he reveals the wounds
on his back and declares "my friendship to his countrymen and hatred to my
own" (2:174). Stripes of bondage signal William's opposition to the British in
a language of violence that seems immediately intelligible to the natives.
Despite his proven enmity to the colonists, he must further demonstrate an
ability to endure pain, an ability that will earn his right for adoption and
prove his connection with the native. To test him, the Amerindians place
some "oppressively heavy" baggage on his back, "whose flesh was yet raw
from the lashes I had received; but as I knew that fortitude was an indispens-
able virtue with the Indians, I bore it without wincing" (2:175). As William
uses ethnographic knowledge to withstand various bodily subjugations,
Mackenzie reverses the motif of the captive's ethnographic mastery. Where
Robert Knox or Robert Boyle would use ethnographic knowledge to resist
and capitalize on native cultures, William's knowledge of native Americans
helps him to make his way in.the tribe and presumably motivates his desire
to join them in the first place.
In its pointed insistence on violence as the key to native culture,
Mackenzie's novel depicts the custom of adoption as predicated on rituals of
torture and endurance, so that the natives' vision of personal and cultural
identity seems to rest entirely in terms of extreme bodily subjugation and
personal resolve. Although some American tribes did initiate captives through
rituals such as the gauntlet, although they often tested new adoptees with
rigorous treatment, and although initiation into adulthood sometimes involved
202 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

ritual torture, Mackenzie's portrait of native culture, like much Anglo-Ameri-

can writing about the Indians, tends towards an exaggerated and exclusion-
ary emphasis on torture and personal fortitude. William can join the tribe
only when he masters the extremes of violence and bodily pain that seem to
constitute the truth of native culture. During his initiation, the native patri-
arch becomes a father figure, schooling him in the violent customs of the
tribe. First he must witness the torture of captured enemies, described in a
vaguely exaggerated language typical of European writing on torture: ''You
can hardly conceive a species of inventive cruelty, which they did not inflict
on the wretches whom fortune had thus put into their power; during the
course of which, not a groan escaped from the sufferers" (2:177). Observing
these tortures constitutes a crucial lesson in William's education, as the old
Indian points expressively to one of the calm sufferers, "as if he had desired
me to take particular notice of his resolution" (2:178)-that word again. When
William himself undergoes torture on the next day, the novel lavishly de-
scribes the "experiments of wanton cruelty," endured through an extraordi-
nary "patience, with which nothing but a life of hardship, and a certain
obduracy of spirit, proceeding from a contempt of existence, could have en-
dowed me" (2:180). In this passage, as the storyteller reflects on his own
experience, he himself recognizes the falseness within the ideals of personal
fortitude and resolution that he had so arduously mastered and that had
merited his adoption by the old man.
Ultimately Mackenzie portrays William's enthusiasm for native culture
not as a reflection of its inherent attractions but rather as a result of the old
man's dangerous personal influence, which seems to hold the adoptee in
thrall. As William explains, during the life of his adoptive father, "scarce any
inducement could have tempted me to leave the nation to which he be-
longed" (2:182). However, when the old man's death ends William's subordi-
nation and makes him an "independent member of the community" (2:187),
he suddenly decides to return to civilization, as if uncomfortable with his
independence, or unwilling to endure native culture without the old man's
restraining influence. Like William's earlier tutors, Thomas Sindal and the
hierarchs of the colonial military, the old Amerindian is a man of the world
who takes advantage of William's manly character flaws, his impetuousness
and veneration for the false ideal of resolution. Each of these tutors gains a
masterful influence over William, forces him into some kind of bodily subju-
gation, and indoctrinates him into a false system of values that teaches him
to accept his subjugation. Under the guidance of these false tutors, William
undergoes a series of degrading transculturations, first remaking himself as
an Oxford playboy, then as a colonial soldier, and finally as a native Ameri-
 Resisting Americans 203

can. Thus the novel's episode of native adoption represents the most ex-
treme moment of the world's ascendancy over the mind of its feckless male
victim.
After he leaves the Amerindians, William's subsequent colonial experi-
ences further destabilize the standard oppositions between European civili-
zation and Native American savagery, with the ultimate goal of revealing that
savagery characterizes all men of the world. On his return to white civiliza-
tion, he undergoes a series of cheats and captivities, beginning with the chi-
canery of a self-styled Indian expert. Then another colonist, hearing of this
cheat, wonders "how a Christian could be guilty of such monstrous dishon-
esty ... no better than one would have expected in a Savage" (2:195). Ulti-
mately proving just as culpable as the man he criticizes, this next charlatan
helps William with food and shelter but then expects him to become a ser-
vant in return, and, when he refuses a task of"menial servility," commits him
to debtors' prison (2:197). After William's release and subsequent voyage
homeward, his ship falls into the hands of the French. However, unlike other
fictional episodes of French captivity, this one emphasizes the similarities
rather than differences between a European confinement and the Indian
captivity that precedes it. William's fellow British captives take consolation
in thinking, 'We are not ... among savages, as you were," yet he finds him-
self "thrust into a dungeon, dark, damp, and loathsome; where, from the
number confined in it, and the want of proper circulation, the air became
putrid to the most horrible degree" (2:200). Both before and after his
Amerindian captivity, William undergoes a series of European confinements,
from a London gaol to a colonial debtor's prison, suffering from both British
military discipline and French treatment of prisoners of war. Explicitly jux-
taposed against the captivity episode in an ironic counterpoint, such incar-
cerations under European legal systems suggest that Europeans can match
the horrors of Indian captivity and that masculine social aggression extends
from London to the colonies and from the supposedly civilized to the sup-
posedly savage, deeply penetrating every facet of the colonial world.
In a somewhat unsatisfYing attempt at sentimental closure, the novel
reunites William with his niece, Harriet's daughter, and marries her to an
idealized country gentleman. Because the novel concludes with this family
reunion and with the daughter's happy restoration to wealth and legitimacy,
it locates its moral center within the domestic, the genteel, and the femi-
nine, rather than with the Indians. The natives of America teach William no
moral lesson and make no improvements in his personality, but rather rein-
force previously established character flaws. All of his transformations under
false guides remove him furthe; from the female center of domesticity and
204 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

gentility in the English countryside, and all of them involve some form of
incarceration. His physical captivities parallel his psychological subordina-
tion to the false ideals propounded by men of the world, and native
transculturation represents the most extreme moment of this subordination.
Thus the natives stand as the ultimate men of the world, men physically
located, from a British perspective, in the greater world of the colonies, far
from the domestic seat of feeling and civility in the British countryside.
While Mackenzie's novel posits the natives as prototypically masculine,
it completely suppresses the figure of the native female and replaces her
with oppressed British women. In doing so the novel extends a pattern be-
gun in Kimber's Mr. Anderson and further developed in eighteenth-century
Britain's final spate of American captivity episodes, within three novels of
the 1790s. American captivity and European oppression of women are closely
linked in Lennox's Euphemia (1790), Smith's The Old Manor House (1793),
and Imlay's The Emigrants (1793), three works informed by the period's femi-
nist thought and engaged with the possibility of feminist, or feminine, trans-
formation among men. Within each plot a climactic captivity episode marks
a defining moment in the production of an idealized man who sympathizes
with oppressed women and even takes the lead in their liberation. Within
each plot the threats of captivity and transculturation precede a denoue-
ment focused on the reunion of a sensitive and genteel British couple. Thus
by the 1790s, within the evolution of the failed adoption plot, a passive Brit-
ish heroine of sensibility had fully supplanted the active native female as the
consort of the passive adventurer. Over the course of th~ century, moreover,
episodes of American captivity gradually transformed him from a tense fig-
ure of colonial failure to a figure of idealized and even feminized sensitivity,
while images of native female action gradually gave way to images of British
female oppression.
Within the novels of Lennox, Smith, and Imlay, moreover, American
captivity and female oppression are closely tied to the problematic after-
math of American independence. All three works reflect the politically
charged atmosphere of the 1790s, when the French Revolution transformed
the implications of American independence, producing heated debates on
the nature of government, Enlightenment, and women. All three novels de-
velop a troubled critique of British colonialism in tandem with their troubled
critique of eighteenth-century gender roles, although Imlay's approach to
these issues differs substantially from that of the women novelists. Like
Mackenzie, Lennox and Smith connect the problem of female oppression in
Britain to the problem of masculine transculturation in America. While
Mackenzie uses the adoption plot in order to satirize the masculine virtues
 Resisting Americans 205

of fortitude and aggression, the women's episodes posit the male captive as
an idealized figure of masculine sensibility. Not only does the captivity of
their male protagonists enforce a lesson of male identification with the op-
pressed women of Britain, but their captivity further marks an opposition to
the aggressive colonialism represented in other British males. While the
women writers produce sensitive, passive, feminized gentlemen by subject-
ing them to native capture, Imlay turns an already-enlightened quasi-femi-
nist into a romance hero, capable of moderate activity in rescuing a female
captive. The three novels adopt equally divergent perspectives on the ques-
tion of American independence, as Lennox baldly rejects America as a land
of deprivation and tyranny, Smith offers a troubled meditation on British
colonial iniquities, and Imlay celebrates America as the land of Enlighten-
ment progress.

In Euphemia, her final novel, Lennox returns to the American setting and
captivity theme of her first novel, The Life of Harriot Stuart, published forty
years before in 1751. Her debut rescues its heroine from the ostensible hor-
rors of Amerindian captivity by revealing that her supposed Amerindian cap-
tors are really a predatory European gentleman and his servant in disguise.
As Susan Kubica Howard has suggested, this very brief captivity episode
serves merely as a "red herring," which Lennox ultimately displaces through
the novel's protracted focus on "less exotic, more domestic figures of vio-
lence and cruelty," and on "the savage nature of relationships between men
and women" in Europe. 30 Like Haywood's Idalia, the bulk of this first novel
follows its heroine through a series of abductions, attempted seductions, and
near-rapes, and its captivity episode seems designed to transfer female read-
ers' fear of alien peoples to the more palpable threats of European men.
Lennox adapted the failed adoption plot for a different kind of feminist
argument in Euphemia (1790), 31 which treats the oppression of marriage
rather than the pitfalls of courtship. This novel also includes the most exten-
sive and intricately plotted episode of American captivity in eighteenth-cen-
tury British fiction, as well as the most carefully informed, if only occasionally
sympathetic, vision of native Americans and adoption. The failed adoption
plot allows Lennox to develop a limited feminist agenda by imagining the
production of a polite, modest, ideally feminized British gentleman through
experiences first in Indian and then in French captivity. When Edward, the
son of the eponymous heroine, himself undergoes a positive transformation
in captivity, he represents the promise of a feminine transformation of Brit-
ish culture, one that complements his mother's own liberation from a life of
marital bondage. But the happy outcome of his captivity results less from a
206 NARRATNES OF FICTION

successful adaptation to native culture than from the application of a moder-

ate French veneer over a resilient British essence, a combination that forms
a sharp contrast to the novel's array of male tyrants, both colonists and colo-
nized. Ultimately the novel forms its ideal gentleman by carefully displacing
the threat of native transculturation with the promise of a feminine trans-
formation that requires a rejection of colonial America.
Edward's experiences in captivity serve to replicate, complement, and
fulfill Euphemia's own life of subjugation through marriage to the tyrannical
Neville, a dissipated wastrel whose uncle refuses to recognize his nephew's
claim on his inheritance. Proud and overbearing, Neville exacerbates his
oppressive treatment of his wife by insisting on a colonial military career.
After they reach America, his love of rule leads him to drag the unwilling
Euphemia to an isolated wilderness outpost at Schenectady. While the novel
depicts the supposedly unpeopled American landscape as an attraction for
such colonial tyrants as Neville, for Euphemia it represents an utter banish-
ment from the pleasures of British society and female companionship. To
maintain these pleasures, she exchanges the letters that compose the novel
with a friend at home. This correspondence often laments their oceanic sepa-
ration and portrays Euphemia's colonial banishment in a language of injured
sensibility and virtue-in-distress, so that the colonial world seems closely al-
lied with patriarchal dominion. Despite Neville's attraction to the unpeopled
colonial landscape, he proves ineffective in handling it. His son's disappear-
ance and captivity result both from his father's desire to live in the wilder-
ness and from his failure to monitor the child's whereabouts during a
wilderness ramble. Later, Neville's foolish obstinacy strands his family at a
remote plantation with few supplies to carry them through a harsh winter.
When the novel describes this experience as a "captivity," it draws an explicit
correlation between the mother's subjugation and the son's (4:25). Within
this larger portrait of female subjugation, the captivity episode constitutes a
climactic moment of female suffering and endurance. Losing her son to the
Indians appears as the worst possible outcome of Euphemia's colonial ban-
ishment and the keenest affliction in her life of marital captivity.
Moreover, when Edward returns from captivity towards the novel's con-
clusion, his release parallels his mother's liberation from marital captivity.
The conclusion happily resolves the heroine's predicaments by returning her
home, where her sensitive treatment of the dying uncle leads him to alter his
will, granting her an economic independence from her husband. This happy
liberation shortly follows Edward's own release, which provides a climactic
moment of reunion just before Euphemia's return to cosmopolitan England,
her reunion with her epistolary friend, and her assumption of economic in-
 Resisting Americans 207

dependence. The son offers a parallel to the mother not only in that they
experience simultaneous captivities and liberations, but also in that his cap-
tivity links him with the virtues of female sensibility and virtue-in-distress.
Even before the captivity episode itself, images of Amerindians form an
important part of the novel's negative portrait of the aggressive masculinity
that marks the colonial world, especially as the novel assigns them several
ethnographic similarities that parallel the faults of Neville. As soon as the
heroine reaches the wilds of Albany, her letters home adopt a loco-descrip-
tive framework and echo common stereotypes about a native disposition for
overindulgence in sleeping, eating, and drinking. She repeats the standard
European characterization of the native distribution of labor, asserting that
the men indulge themselves in hunting while the women "work in the fields"
and "bring home heavy burdens, their husbands being too lazy and too inso-
lent to partake their labours" (3:191). 32 Within the violent, masculine wilder-
ness of America, peopled by European as well as native tyrants, the heroine
often finds a refuge in the enclosed space of the fort at Albany, which pro-
vides another metonym for her confinement both within a bad marriage and
within a violent masculine world. On one occasion, when Euphemia and
some female friends try to perform the domestic ritual of a tea party outside
the walls of the fort, the violent interruption of some drunken Amerindians
drives them back inside. An even more threatening image of the colonial
world arises when Euphemia mentions "an alarming account of an intended
insurrection of the negroes at New-York." Although she seems to sympa-
thize with the rebels when she abhors the resulting "prosecutions, tortures,
and death," ultimately she transfers this abhorrence to the colonial land-
scape as a whole, declaring, "There is no safety, I think, any where but in the
Fort" (3:195). Once again the confined space of the fort represents a domes-
tic refuge from an American violence that subsumes European and non-
European alike.
Adoption first enters the novel as an aspect of this landscape of fear.
Long before Edward's captivity episode begins, some local Mohawk chiefs
perform a ceremony of adoption for Euphemia and another European
woman, but Lennox's treatment of the episode creates an impression of cul-
tural scorn, distance, and finally fear. As Euphemia describes the incident,
an "Indian chief thought proper to confer the honour of adoption upon Miss
Clara, as his brother did upon me. This is considered as a high mark of re-
spect among them, which conferred upon us all the rights and claims of a
Mohawk by birth" (3:193). At first the epistolary heroine maintains a cultural
distance from the natives through this mildly ironic application of the ur-
bane language of British social forms, but her irony soon turns to fear and
208 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

concrete images of cultural distance when she recounts the details of the
ritual itself: "The ceremony concluded with one of their terrific dances," full
of heavy drinking, which "made them very quarrelsome, as usual; but we,
safe behind our walls, suffered no inconvenience from them" (3:194). Here
adoption seems not only quaintly naive but violently chaotic, a custom that
the colonists can suffer only to limited extent.
The terror surrounding this initial adoption multiplies when the novel
turns to Edward's more extensive experience of transculturation. After his
sudden and inexplicable disappearance, Euphemia imagines her son "tom
in pieces by wild beasts, or mangled by those savage hunters of men, who,
when hunger presses, devour their species" (3:215). An air of mystery and
Gothic supernaturalism surrounds his disappearance, his return, and the
broader motif of adoption. Young Edward bears the significant birthmark of
a bow and arrow on his chest, as if born under a sign of native identity or of
native violence. Moreover, Euphemia experiences portentous palpitations
before his disappearance and afterwards foresees his return in a dream about
his ghost. Such Gothic trappings serve to heighten the failed adoption plot's
initial moment of raw terror.
On Edward's return the novel follows the typical movement of the failed
adoption plot from creating fear of horrible death to raising fear and excite-
ment about the possibilities of transculturation. Much of this fear results
because the novel frames the captivity experience through the lens of femi-
nine sensibility. Rather than narrate captivity from Edward's personal per-
spective, the novel records his experience through several layers of emotional
mediation, as Euphemia's confidante, Mrs. Benson, takes over the heroine's
epistolary task, since her son's return leaves her too overwhelmed to write.
Mrs. Benson herself suffers from terror and misrecognition at the first ap-
pearance of the returned captive, because both Edward and his faithful ser-
vant William have temporarily assumed native clothing in order to escape, so
that the latter "appeared a perfect Indian, his hair being already cut in their
frightful fashion" (4:238). Fear mixes with attraction when she recognizes
the disguised Edward: "In the countenance of this Indian boy I perceived a
strong resemblance to my Euphemia" (4:197). This mysterious correspon-
dence is explained when he "bared his bosom, and shewed me the mark of
the bow and arrow with which he was born" (4:198). The birthmark now
seems to have signaled the young boy's exotic identity, his inborn connection
with the native, a connection now confirmed by his sudden appearance in a
native costume that neatly encapsulates a narrative of capture and
transculturation. The inevitability of this connection receives further confir-
mation when Euphemia first sees her son in Indian dress and exclaims, "the
 Resisting Americans 209

very form I saw in my dreams" (4:203). A mysterious fate thus seems to have
given Euphemia a son born for Amerindian adoption, connecting her through
her son to a pair of conflicting subaltern positions, the captive and the native.
After powerfully evoking British fears of going native, the novel then
undermines them by revealing that young Edward has managed to maintain
a seemingly incorruptible British essence. When the novel finally turns to
narrating the captivity experience itself, a happy adoption dissipates the po-
tential horrors of violence and subjugation. Ethnographic details suggest the
possibility of peaceful bonds between European and Indian, especially
through the mediating influence of a female sensibility that seems capable
of crossing cultures. The novel's invocation of sensibility begins with the boy's
adoption by a Huron woman, "on whom the beauty of little Edward had
seemed to make some impression" and continues as the frightened child
feels "encouraged by those signs of compassion that were strongly marked in
her countenance" (4:211-12). The novel represents such sensibility not as
an isolated case but as an ethnographic characteristic: "The Indian women
are extremely fond of their children, and take the utmost care of them while
they are young" (4:213). However, the novel quickly brings the adoptive
mother to her deathbed, where the final call of female sensibility forces her
to insist on Edward's return to his natural mother. In this reformulation of
the adoption plot, Lennox transforms the native female paramour, marked
by aggressive courtship, into a native mother, marked by energetic sensibil-
ity. What The Female American represented as the mediating influence of a
specific hybrid female character here becomes abstracted into a motherly
sensibility that crosses the cultural gap and resolves the difficulties of cul-
tural interaction as represented by the problem of captivity.
The novel further deflects British fears of going native through the com-
mon technique of shifting from confinement among the alien and "savage"
Americans to confinement among the French, who represent a more famil-
iar and manageable threat to British self-possession as well as a potential
improvement to British civility. After the death and legacy of Edward's adop-
tive mother reduce the possibility of native transculturation, he enters a
French captivity when the priest responsible for his return to British terri-
tory decides to take him in, educate him, and convert him. Although the
novel celebrates Edward's successful resistance to Catholic proselytism dur-
ing his double captivity, temporary transculturation still seems to provide
limited benefits for this young Briton's character formation. As a result of his
French captivity, Mrs. Benson declares, "our handsome Indian" has become
"a good classical scholar," acquiring "a polite as well as a learned education"
(4:209). Furthermore, she praises the "handsome Huron" in a language that
210 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

sharply underscores the value of mixing European cultures: "His French

education has given him an air and manner, so unembarrassed, so polite, and
even gallant, which, joined with a true English solidity of understanding,
makes him pass for a prodigy" (4:248). French cultural traits seem, like
Edward's Huron clothing, to reside at the level of a polished surface and thus
provide a positive overlay for the rational British base that enabled him to
resist the blandishments of Catholic proselytism. The novel's constant use of
the expression, "handsome Huron," suggests that native adoption also con-
tributed to his idealized character formation even if the novel never details
his native personality traits and even as it carefully delimits the potential
effects of native culture. After the family's return to London, a foolish old
gentleman comments that "our handsome Huron ... had not an outlandish
look; and piously hoped he never worshipped the devil when he was among
the cannibals" (4:253). Notwithstanding the novel's scorn for the stereotypes
of this cultural chauvinist, they help to show that the transculturated Ed-
ward can satisfY the most rigorous of British standards. Thus the novel un-
dermines fears of transculturation most forcefully by suggesting that Edward's
captivity allowed him not only to gain a properly genteel education but also
to achieve an ideal balance between cultures.
Edward's cross-cultural education in captivity produces an ideally femi-
nized gentleman, modestly adhering to what the novel posits as female au-
thority and female standards of decorum, presumably through the influence
of his feminine mentors, the sensitive native stepmother and the French
priest. Even on Edward's first appearance in Indian costume, he "yielded
submissively'' to the guidance of the women and "modestly drew back" when
his sister shows fear at their reunion (4:200, 205). His feminized gentility
takes further shape against the foil of his imperious and prodigal father, es-
pecially during a journey to London, where Neville tries to guide his son
through a brief education in the metropolitan enclaves of clubbish masculin-
ity. In contrast to his debauched father, Edward resists such temptations
with the help of his captive education, what the novel calls his "early habits
of study and retirement" (4:257). Further contrasts between Edward's pas-
sive gentility and the aggressive masculinity of the colonial world develop as
the novel narrates his escape from captivity. As so often in the failed adop-
tion plot, the protagonist escapes not through his own exertions but through
those of another, in this case the servant William. When the escapees at-
tempt to return to British civilization, they meet the villainous Lieutenant
Blood and must negotiate "the fierce and haughty air of this petty commander"
(4:228). By this point the novel has established Blood in the role of petty
military tyrant, through his jealousy of Neville's paltry power and through his
 Resisting Americans 211

abuse of the soldiers in his command. When Blood finds his rival's son in his
power, he decides to imprison the escaped captives, falsely declaring them
Canadian "criminals" and planning to return them, "under guard," to Montreal
(4:236). Far from rescuing captives, this colonial officer as petty dictator at-
tempts to return escaped captives to a second captivity. This episode leads to
another significant reversal of the standard captivity plot when some local
Amerindians come to the aid of the escaped captives. The garrison's doctor
helps them escape Blood's clutches with the aid of two Mohawks, "both sen-
sible and honest fellows ... highly provoked at the cruelty and injustice of
the Lieutenant" (4:237). For helping the escapees, the doctor himself faces
imprisonment but trusts that one of the natives will travel to the colonial
governor with an "account of Mr. Blood's tyranny and injustice" (4:239). Por-
trayed as reliable, rational, and devoted to justice and liberation, these Na-
tive Americans find ways of releasing captives rather than taking them.
Despite these positive native exemplars, the novel subsumes its occa-
sional suggestions of positive cultural interaction within a narrative pattern
geared towards a closure of withdrawal from the American landscape. With
very little to show for their experiences of native adoption, Euphemia and
her son ultimately settle into the British countryside for a life of gentility and
reunion with her friends. This pattern of withdrawal simultaneously serves a
feminist and an anticolonial critique. Within the structure of the failed adop-
tion plot, Lennox's placement of the heroine's son in the role of the passive
captive not only undoes the problem of male passivity, by explaining it as a
result of his youth, but also turns it to positive account. Edward's feminized
captivity, passivity, and happy withdrawal from the colonial world confirm a
gentility that stands in sharp contrast with his father's aggressive penetration
of the wilderness and the petty tyrannies of the colonial military. Further-
more, Edward's captivity not only distances him from his father's colonial
aggression, but also marks his connection with his mother's marital oppres-
sion. The experience of native adoption, especially as transmuted through
exposure to French urbanity, thus seems to produce a male feminist in late
eighteenth-century terms, a man who refuses to follow in his father's
hypermasculine footsteps and who thus seems destined to show greater re-
spect for women.

A similarly feminist plot and character structure animates Charlotte Smith's

The Old Manor House, 33 published only three years later. Like Lennox, Smith
places a· feminized gentleman into American captivity near the close of her
novel, and his captivity likewise proves analogous to the more protracted
captivity of a female protagonist. However, whereas Lennox fmally rejects
212 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

America as a land of subjugations, Smith shows more sympathy for its pros-
pects, even if her novel lacks Lennox's detailed knowledge of its landscapes
and peoples. Of all the writers surveyed in this chapter, Smith reaches fur-
thest towards the possibility of transculturation, but finally she too rejects it
as her conclusion simultaneously brings her captive home and resolves the
female dilemmas at the heart of her plot. When her novel ends with a hap-
pily feminized vision of ideal British gentry, it suggests that Britons can re-
main civilized only if they leave America to its rebellious colonists. Within
this variation on the failed adoption plot's anticolonial agenda, the novel mixes
an attack on British policy during the Revolution with a deeply ambiguous
portrait of the Amerindian place in America.
Female confinement and economic dependence provide the focus for
the main plot, which centers on the physical confinement of Monimia, the
impoverished niece of Mrs. Lennard, who is herself housekeeper to the
wealthy, proud, and elderly Mrs. Rayland. As a seeming vagary of her char-
acter, Mrs. Lennard locks Monimia every night in a turret isolated from the
rest of the house. This physical confinement results from and also symbol-
izes her economic and social dependence on her aunt and her degrading
position as household servant to Mrs. Rayland. Monimia's status as a depen-
dent, furthermore, eventually renders her liable to the sexual persecutions
of a neighboring gentleman, Sir John Belgrave. Despite her restricted situa-
tion, however, she also awakens the interest, sympathy, and love of a sensitive
young gentleman, Orlando Somerive, the son of a distant and less wealthy
relative of Mrs. Rayland. Orlando's feelings for this impoverished captive link
him to the feminine and the confined, as his love grows partly out of sympathy
for her dependence, and his attentions in tum lead her aunt to watch and
confine her more closely. Further feminized through his own economic de-
pendence, Orlando tries to accommodate his family's hopes that Mrs. Rayland
will make him her heir, and he agrees to her proposal to uphold the family's
honor as a military officer in the struggle with the American rebels. When he
falls into Amerindian captivity as a result of his aunt's military obsessions,
this physical captivity acts as a concrete realization of the twin "captivities" of
economic dependence that afflict him and Monimia. Even more thoroughly
than Euphemia, this novel identifies native capture of a sensitive young gentle-
man with female oppression in British social structures.
In the American episode itself, native violence and mastery of the wil-
derness seem to leave both the British in general and Orlando in particular
entirely passive and ineffectual. The episode allows Smith to portray the
British cause in America as mismanaged, treacherous, and debasing. She
links Orlando's capture to the fate of General Burgoyne's expedition and
 Resisting Americans 213

capitalizes on contemporary knowledge of its disasters, portraying the Brit-

ish army as poorly managed and incompetent in negotiating the wilderness,
so that they must rely heavily on native guides. Like a number of revolution-
ary and postrevolutionary captivity narratives printed in the fledgling repub-
lic, Smith's novel portrays British use of native troops as a betrayal of
civilization and a tacit endorsement of "savage" depredations among "inno-
cent" planter families (360). In Smith's account the British betrayal backfires
when their diplomatic failures with the Indians turn these former allies into
enemies who prey on Briton and Anglo-American alike. After Orlando's cap-
ture, he learns that the natives attacked because "the English had not dealt
fairly with them" (378). Smith's account of the capture emphasizes the pas-
sivity of both Orlando and his fellow Britons, who can offer only a "random"
and ineffectual resistance before a head wound robs him of consciousness
(377). The wound renders him "Giddy and disturbed," so weak that a friendly
native must support him on the long march through Indian territory (379),
and thus it acts as a metonym for British colonial mismanagement as much
as for his own subjugation.
Orlando's Indian captivity appears as one of several confinements that
interrupt his military career, eventually remove him from action, and con-
tinually undercut the standards of aggressive masculinity that his culture would
expect from a military officer. Even on the original transport voyage to
America, the young officer feels confined within "a little crowded vessel,"
and Smith compares the plight of his soldiers to "that which the miserable
negroes endure in their passage to slavery'' (345). After his capture andre-
lease from the Iroquois, he learns that American troops had captured his
regiment during his absence, giving him an ambiguous military standing:
since he is perhaps "included in their captivity," he is effectively disbarred
from further action (388). Then, on his return from Quebec to New York, his
vessel falls into the hands of the French, and he finds himself" once more a
prisoner" (388) and transported to France. There his generous captors allow
him to return to England with some smugglers, who take advantage of war-
time chaos by robbing him. Although he "yielded ... to this robbery with as
good a grace as he could," his sword falls overboard as a result (391). Through
the series of subjugations that constitute Orlando's military career, and espe-
cially through the absolute disappearance of the phallic metonym that signi-
fies his military prowess, the novel consistently feminizes its hero by forcing
him into situations that parallel the plight of its central female captive.
Given the novel's overt critique of British colonial warfare, we might
expect that Orlando's captivity would lead to some level of positive cultural
contact, but the novel's view of transculturation remains fundamentally am-
214 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

bivalent. Even before his capture, Orlando's attitude towards the natives mixes
attraction and repulsion: "Their savage appearance, and the more savage
thirst of blood which they avowed-that base avidity for plunder, with an
heroic contempt of danger, pain, and death, made them altogether objects
of abhorrence, mingled with something like veneration" (360). The novel
encodes this ambivalence more concretely through the figure of Wolf-hunter,
the native who supports Orlando in his weakness. From their first meeting,
Orlando distinguishes this Amerindian from the rest of his people, "remarking
his more open countenance-his more gentle manners .... The secret sympa-
thy between generous minds seems to exist throughout the whole human kind;
for this young warrior became soon as much attached to Orlando as his nature
allowed him to be to any body" (361). This carefully delimited gentility, si-
multaneously distributed through all human nature and opposed to Indian
nature, serves primarily to rescue the British hero from the horrors of cap-
tivity. In the typical pattern of failed adoption, Orlando, on finding himself a
"prisoner," initially "concluded he was reserved for those horrid tortures of
which he had heard so many terrific descriptions," but soon discovers that
Wolf-hunter "had saved him, and was his sworn friend" (377-78). But this
impression of cross-cultural brotherhood ultimately capitulates to an em-
phasis on Orlando's subjugation. When the captive asks if he can leave, Wolf-
hunter refuses with "some resentment" (381). The inexplicable behavior of
this native "brother" holds him in the realm of the arbitrary and the alien.
This ambivalent vision of the natives also affects Orlando's transcultur-
ation, as his experience among the Iroquois verges on the later American
myth of the "white Indian" who attains an idealized "brothers-in-arms" rela-
tionship with a native. Through contact with Wolf-hunter, Orlando learns
the local language and even manages "to acquire a good deal of the customs
of the Indians of North America" (362). But many aspects of his trans-
culturation carry notes of ambivalence, and he remains largely passive dur-
ing its most substantial moments: "His friend the Wolf-hunter had equipped
him like an Indian warrior. His fine hair was cut off, all but a long lock on the
crown of his head-and he was distinguished from the Iroquois by nothing
but his English complexion" (380). Moreover, his adaptation to Amerindian
behavior often results from crafty calculation, based on safety rather than
sympathy. He devotes particular effort to transculturation during his attempts
to obtain release, when he "endeavored to conform himself to the modes of
his savage hosts, and was indeed become almost as expert an hunter, in their
own methods, as the most active among them" (383). As in the later fiction
of Cooper or Richter, the white Indian masters native culture so well that he
becomes one of its most proficient exemplars, and his success creates an
 Resisting Americans 215

impression of the simplicity of native customs, especially since he emulates

them only in order to escape.
Although Orlando outwardly conforms to native culture, the novel por-
trays this change as external to his inward depths of sensibility, especially as
these depths permit the action of genteel sympathy across the boundary be-
tween Briton and Frenchman. Despite the novel's intimations of cross-cul-
tural friendship, at one point it emphasizes Orlando's heavy suffering at the
thought that he must spend an entire Winter "among these barbarians, de-
prived of all human intercourse, and in a kind of living death" (381). Here
even Wolf-hunter seems excluded from the realm of human interiority.
Orlando's release further enforces the distance between him and his native
captors, as he follows the advice of some French Canadians as to the "means
of conciliating this his Indian master," and negotiates his release by offering
the Iroquois trade in spirits and other goods (383). Any possibility of enno-
bling transculturation and cross-cultural friendship seems to dissolve with
the suddenly restored emphasis on Orlando's subjugated status, the degrad-
ing effects of colonial trade, and received European wisdom for handling
Amerindians. Further connections between Orlando and the French occur
when, as in Kimber's Mr. Anderson and Lennox's Euphemia, a French cap-
tivity follows the hero's Amerindian one. Among the French Orlando finds
that "his captivity was ... much less terrible than that he had formerly sus-
tained," as the commander proves a "generous captor" (388-89). Once again
capture by the French seems to offer a consolatory contrast to captivity among
Native Americans, suggesting that sympathetic bonds can form across the
barriers between European gentlemen even if the barriers between native
American and European remain impassable.
Orlando's captivities ultimately teach him to sympathize less with the
plight of Native Americans than with the plight of Anglo-Americans, espe-
cially as the novel suggests an identification of his subjugated position with
that of the rebel colonists in their struggle against Britain, and further, an
identification of the plights of his loved ones and their own. Before he enters
Indian captivity, he meets an Anglo-American prisoner concerned about the
fate of his family, suffering from an "anguish with which Orlando well knew
how to sympathise" (360). The prisoner's experience parallels his own in
America. Even before he falls into native hands, the novel constantly treats
his American journey as a captivity separating him from loved ones who need
him, and his capture exacerbates this problem. As he recovers from his physi-
cal wound, he "felt infinitely more miserable in supposing that he should live
in such insupportable anguish as his fears for Monimia and his family would
inflict upon him-condemned probably as long as his life lasted, to drag on a
216 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

wretched existence among the savage tribes of the American wilderness, and
cut off from all communication with his country'' (379). As a soldier captured
by "savages," Orlando learns in a particularly telling manner how colonial
warfare can separate men from their families, leaving them dependent, un-
protected, subject to capture. As he travels with the Iroquois, they "attacked
the defenceless villages of the English Americans, whose men were out with
the army; and destroyed the women and children, or led them away to cap-
tivity infinitely worse than death" (380). Orlando's identification with the
rebels grows more concrete after he returns to England, where he reads
newspaper accounts of the war, and "his heart felt for the sufferings of the
oppressed ... fighting in defence of their liberties" (450). In this novel, then,
native capture serves partially to illustrate the threat that British colonial
policy posed to its former colonists, and partially to ally its genteel protago-
nist with their sufferings.
Throughout his American experience, Orlando's strongest sympathetic
bond focuses on Monimia, and the novel constantly highlights the contrast
between his physical distance from her and her imminent presence in his
thoughts. After he reads a letter describing Sir John Belgrave's persecutions,
Orlando "started up to demand instant satisfaction ... when he found him-
self, by the distance of many thousand miles, deprived of all power of pro-
tecting his Monimia" (376). Dependent, persecuted, and confined, Monimia
provides a female center for the captivity episode as well as for the novel as
a whole. In this novel's treatment of the failed adoption plot, no native fe-
male appears as a figure of potential cultural mediation, and instead the pos-
sibility of transculturation attaches to a native brother. After rejecting the
violence of this brother and the violence of the American world, the novel
concludes by returning Orlando to the heart of the feminine in the English
countryside. Not only does he inherit the fortune of Mrs. Rayland, but the
novel's final image of his married life focuses particularly on the philanthropy
of this formerly subjugated couple. In this novel, then, while the active na-
tive female has completely disappeared, the passive domestic female attains
a power of sympathy over the British male that finally culminates with their
transformation into idealized gentry.
Like Lennox, Smith resolves both the problems of the passive adven-
turer and the possibility of transculturation by disclaiming America as a world
of masculine violence that threatens to reduce the Briton to the putative
level of the native. While her novel celebrates the formation of sympathetic
bonds across national, economic, and sexual barriers, the barrier between
Native American and sensitive Briton appears finally insuperable. The novel's
final impressions of the natives highlight predation and link them to other
 Resisting Americans 217

predators, such as Sir John Belgrave, the French smugglers, or the British
army in America. All of these figures, moreover, act as foils for the protago-
nists' pacific sensitivity, a quality most concretely produced, and ideologi-
cally enforced, by the experience of subjugation at the hands of such predators.
Such manifold captivities as the protagonists suffer, however, serve as an
apprenticeship for their final transformation into ideal gentry. In this novel,
the generosity of the ideal gentleman, even as much as his ability to identify
with the "feminine" experience of subjugation, seems to correlate with his
experience inN ative American captivity. As this experience confirms his sym-
pathy for dependent women, debtors, and other Anglo-Americans who suf-
fer oppression, his sympathetic nature emerges partially by contrast with
native capture, violence, and indifference to suffering.

Another way of assessing the anti-American tendency of these novels is by

comparing them with Imlay's The Emigrants, a novel that paints America as
the land of freedom and the land of the future. Like Euphemia, this episto-
lary work opens with an emphasis on its correspondents' painful Atlantic
separation, as economic distresses force some of them to migrate to the "back
settlements" of the American frontier. But whereas the failed adoption plot
normally concludes with the captive's happy return to the seat of civility,
Imlay closes by bringing all his correspondents together in an America that
stands as a refuge from European tyranny. Couched in the language of 1790s
radicalism, Imlay's attack on the tyranny of European institutions focuses
particularly on female oppression under British marriage laws, as the impos-
sibility of divorce forces several female characters into a "savage" marital
captivity that the novel correlates with its somewhat anticlimactic episode of
Native American captivity. This episode works partially to sustain the some-
what contradictory agendas of feminism and romance, but ultimately it treats
captivity from the postrevolutionary perspective of the American frontier, a
perspective that tends to erase the natives from the landscape and to eschew
any possibility of transculturation. 34
Whereas novels with failed adoption episodes generally reject what they
represent as the "savagery" of colonial America, Imlay works to correct this
image after initially indulging it. Like these novels, The Emigrants initially
portrays emigration as a kind of captivity, focused in this case especially on
Caroline, the youngest representative of the impoverished family of genteel
emigrants. Although the novel initially describes her as "entombed" in
America, she soon finds romantic pleasure in the frontier landscape and a
host of cultured Anglo-Americans in Pittsburgh and Louisville, including a
romantic suitor, Captain Arl-ton; a wealthy sponsor, Mr. 11-ray; and a long-
218 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

lost uncle, Mr. P-. 35 These three emigrants act as the novel's political au-·
thorities, attacking such European shortcomings as monarchy, debtors' pris-
ons, and commercialism, so that America emerges as a land of enlightened
freedom rather than savage captivity. The novel's most sustained develop-
ment of this vision of American freedom relates to marriage. All of the corre-
spondents, male and female alike, deplore the effects of "tyrannical" and
"despotic" marriage laws. Uncle P- furnishes one of several subplots offer-
ing concrete dramatization of European marital captivity. He narrates his
love for a woman married to a tyrannical peer who forces him into debtors'
prison after discovering the affair before the couple eventually escape to
America. Several female characters find a refuge in America, freed from
tyrannical British husbands and married a second time to more equitable
American settlers.
But if America represents political and feminist progress, the novel does
not allow the natives to share in its vision of the future but rather cites them
as its most concrete instance of a despotism that seems to have corrupted all
the world's men except Anglo-American emigrants. As Il-ray praises "the
advantages ofliberty'' that England has enjoyed, he avers that "all the rest of
the world, for I will leave America out of the question, has been fettered and
groaning under the most diabolical tyranny" (299). This amorphous global
barbarism is illustrated most concretely through native capture of Anglo-
American women, a threat that pervades the novel from beginning to end.
P-'s tale of escape from British marital tyranny concludes with the native
capture of his wife and children, so that American captivity seems both to
complement and to fulfill the novel's attack on the marital despotism of Eu-
rope. On Caroline's first journey through the Appalachians, she meets some
settlers and speculates that they "perhaps have lost a wife, a mother, or a
child; for I am told that savages have no regard for age or sex?" (28). Caroline
does enjoy some peaceful encounters with Amerindians, but these moments
are buried under more vivid and terrifying images of native capture. After
she records a second encounter in a letter home, her domestic correspon-
dent responds with a rhapsody of terror: "I thought I saw you insulted, and
liable to be carried off by those Indians, whose image was so forcibly im-
pressed upon my mind . . . that I have never been able to obliterate that
impression" (201). After all these hints, Caroline is finally captured at the
novel's climax, and one correspondent labels her predicament a "barbarian
slavery" (305). Thus Native American capture of white women provides the
novel's clearest instance of the female oppression that Euramerican settlers
have supposedly left behind.
That the novel adopts such a frontiersman's perspective on the natives
 Resisting Americans 219

appears most clearly in its handling of Caroline's captivity itself. In a sharp

divergence from its fictional predecessors, the novel represents captivity
mostly through the correspondents' vague speculations as to the possible
experiences of the captive rather than through a precise narration of per-
sonal experience. Writing very much in the language of early republican cap-
tivity narratives, 11-ray wonders, "How will her sensible heart palpitate in
the agonizing dereliction? How will her tender limbs support the fatigue of
being hurried through briary thickets? How will her lovely frame be able to
rest, without other covering than the cloud deformed canopy of the heav-
ens? ... after the effervescence of our passions, our cooler judgment searches
for more stable ground to act upon; and it is from the loss we all have sus-
tained, we are bound to demand that Caroline shall be given up; otherwise
the whole race of savages, must expiate with their lives the robbery they have
committed" (246). Like much early republican writing on captivity, this novel
reveals not only a repetitious obsession with the wilderness's physical marks
on the body of a female captive, but also an overt contemplation, as a sup-
posed result of rational "judgment," of genocide. 36
From its frontiersman's perspective, the novel finally subjoins the cap-
tivity plot to the purposes of romance, bringing star-crossed lovers together
in a manner that underscores frontier heroism. The captivity episode serves
primarily to resolve their troubled courtship, which, according to the con-
ventional patterns of late-century novels of sensibility, stalls through a series
of misunderstandings, especially when a jealous sister forges a letter in
Caroline's name. All problems evaporate, however, when Arl-ton meets
and rescues Caroline while exploring the wilderness in an effort to forget
her. The novel's connection between captivity and romance becomes almost
laughably overt after her release, when one correspondent likens escape from
the natives to escape from the epistolary machinations of the jealous sister:
"how did I tremble when Mr. 11-ray related to me the particular and horrid
circumstances of your captivity with the savages, and the more wicked one of
the note?" (305).
Concerned with romance and frontier heroism rather than with the pos-
sibility of transculturation, the novel's account of Caroline's captivity offers
only the vaguest images of the natives and instead focuses on her rapturous
rescue at the hands of her frustrated paramour. It is 11-ray rather than the
female captive who assures British readers of what emerges as the most cru-
cial details of her experience among the Amerindians: "she never felt in the
least harassed, or alarmed for her safety, as she had, from the moment she
was captured, a presentiment that Arl-ton would retake her; and ... the
Indians treated her the whole time with the most distant respect, and scru-
220 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

pulous delicacy" (258). From the moment ofher capture, the novel suggests,
the impossibility of cultural interaction seems confirmed by the certainty of
masculine prowess within the romance plot. In the few pages where Caroline
herself recounts her captivity, she describes it as an experience of "explor-
ing" the wilderness rather than an experience of cultural contact (256). More-
over, she relies on the vague, ecstatic, and erotically suggestive language of
romantic landscape description, painting the environment in terms that largely
evacuate its native inhabitants. Writing to her sister in England, she traces a
climactic moment of her passion: "It was in the wild regions of the country of
the Illinois, where the sweetened breezes attune the soul to love ... and it
was at that instant ... when I felt an obligation for a deliverance from captiv-
ity, that made my high-beating heart at the recognition of Arl-ton, almost
burst from its confines-Yes, Eliza, he rescued me from the savages" (274).
The natives participate in this landscape only to the extent that they enable
the romance plot, which completely overwhelms any suggestions of cultural
contact.
As it subjoins the captivity plot to romance, the novel returns to romance's
linguistic games with captivity and sexuality, suggesting that Arl-ton has
replaced the natives as Caroline's captor. In describing the rescue, he dwells
at first on the overwhelming emotional prospect of "the most divine woman
upon earth, tom into shatters by the bushes and briars, with scarcely cover-
ing to hide the transcendency of her beauty, which to be seen by common
eyes is a profanation"; these lurid anxieties, however, quickly evaporate with
the announcement of his personal triumph: "Caroline has fallen into my
hands!" (251). The Emigrants raises sexual excitement by placing a white
woman in the hands of the natives and then transferring that excitement to
her unregulated contact with a white male in the wilderness. As Arl-ton
elsewhere exults, 'What a change has happened in the fortune of your
friend?-Every thing conspires to make me the happiest man living-I have
been almost three days alone, as it were, with Caroline" (254). Another cor-
respondent similarly plays with the language of captivity, referring to Caroline
as Ad-ton's "fair captive" (264). Within this novel, the vague but extreme
threat of Amerindian captivity serves partially to authorize a more moderate
sexual aggression for the Anglo-American male.
Imlay's novel adopts a perspective typical of many frontier captivities of
the early nineteenth century, celebrating the future possibilities of a land
whose native inhabitants enter the picture primarily as a threat to white wom-
anhood. In developing this perspective, he follows the failed adoption plot's
first pattern of displacement, raising but also quelling the terrors of subjuga-
tion. But he never even approaches the second pattern of displacement. In-
 Resisting Americans 221

stead of raising and displacing fears of going native, he completely suppresses

any suggestions of transculturation and even any of the captive's personal
thoughts on her contact with the natives. His focus on masculine concern
and effort for the female captive suggests a shift towards confidence in the
power of male republicans to handle the American world. This novel imag-
ines the Anglo-American male as a moderate yet still forceful agent of En-
lightenment progress, through his success in wilderness exploration and native
warfare, through his enlightened plans for equitable government, and through
his enlightened yet also directive sympathy for the plight of women. In this
view of the American future, the problems raised by the British plot of failed
adoption, including the passive British male, the active native female, native
culture, and the possibility of transculturation, all disappear.
The failed adoption episodes of eighteenth-century fiction anticipated
many of the narrative patterns that typified fictional accounts of captivity
published in nineteenth-century America. Many of the colonialist topoi that
characterized Chetwood's and Aubin's fictions of Oriental captivity did not
develop in novels with American settings until the nineteenth century.
Throughout that century, popular American fictions began to exploit the
Amerindian captivity plot in order to develop such character types as the
guileful male captive who tricks his way out of native culture and returns
home laden with booty, and the assertive heroine who maintains self-posses-
sion through a carefully circumscribed violence. Some nineteenth-century
American narratives also continued to explore problems in the gender ideol-
ogy of active male and passive female, though without the persistent obses-
sion with a single narrative pattern that marks eighteenth-century British
fictions. 37
But such parallels to nineteenth-century American patterns distinguished
eighteenth-century fictions of American captivity much less than a metro-
politan approach to the problem of transculturation, one that largely disap-
peared with the rise of three dominant American myths of cultural interaction.
Adopting a frontier perspective on cultural interaction, all three of these
myths explore the problem of developing a new national identity within a
colonial environment, through a vision of a transplanted people, severed from
its homeland and transformed in relation to the indigenous people it has
come to dominate. The first of these myths dwells on images of native vio-
lence threatening domestic femininity. Such images have long provided in-
spiration for male violence, as the perspective adopted in Imlay's British novel
has found a much wider distribution in American venues, from the visceral
propaganda of the late eighteenth-century Manheim anthology to "classic"
Westerns such as The Searchers. The second of these myths retells the story
222 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

of John Smith and Pocahontas as a prophecy of manifest destiny, suppress-

ing all traces of native adoption while transforming the active native female
into a figure of romantic love, cultural generosity, and divination of her people's
seemingly inevitable demise. 38 The third of these myths, initiated by the
Leatherstocking narratives and their images of a vanished cross-cultural broth-
erhood, transforms the material of native adoption into a positive vision of an
Anglo-American cultural transformation built partially through the broth-
erly contributions of the seemingly doomed native population. These myths
gained such cultural dominance in the nineteenth century, influencing Eu-
ropean as well as American visions of cultural contact, that they largely over-
whelmed eighteenth-century Britain's metropolitan vision of cultural contact
in America.
From a metropolitan perspective, British novelists of the eighteenth cen-
tury so strongly asserted the power and the value of British civility that they
denied the possibility of transculturation. Their accounts of the captivity ex-
perience were an.attempt to negotiate the disturbing images of cultural in-
teraction that emanated from the contact zone throughout the century,
undermining the assumed opposition between British civility and native sav-
agery. Reports of happily adopted Britons excited but also disturbed British
writers at home, inspiring them to recast experiences of captivity and adop-
tion in a surprisingly persistent manner. The failed adoption plot centered
on the figure of the passive male captive and the active native female par-
tially because the intermarriage of British colonists with native wives pro-
vided a locus for metropolitan anxiety about American transculturation. These
novels insisted on an unbridgeable gap between native and Briton in order
to explain away the embarrassing reports of British failure in converting na-
tives and the disturbing reports of native successes in converting Britons. In
suggesting that native efforts in transculturation would inevitably fail be-
cause of their protagonists' civilized superiority, whether of intellect or sen-
sibility, the novels offered fantastic counterexamples to the generally
acknowledged pattern of American cultural conversions. At the same time,
the failed adoption plot also suggested that British failures in conversion
resulted from an insuperable recalcitrance in native character. Within these
captivity episodes, the natives' foolish determination to impose their own
culture on Britons seemed concomitant with a refusal, or perhaps an inabil-
ity, to emulate or even approach British civility. Even if later writers aban-
doned Chetwood's insistence on native intellectual inferiority, physical
violence continued to dominate their portraits of native character,· and the
later novels increasingly used images of violence and the native ideal of in-
difference to pain as counterpoints to their protagonists' sensibility. These
 Resisting Americans 223

portraits of native character thus created an impression of a vast cultural

difference, which no efforts in cultural conversion, whether initiated by na-
tives or Britons, could possibly overcome.
This obsessively reproduced cultural gap raised ideological tensions in
the earliest versions of the failed adoption plot, by Steele, Chetwood, and
Kimber, before it contributed to an increasingly explicit but still highly am-
bivalent critique of the colonial project within the later British fictions of
American captivity. Whereas colonial fictions such as Robinson Crusoe, Rob-
ert Boyle, and the Leatherstocking saga suggested that Anglo-American
mastery of the colonial world depended on adaptation to it, the failed adop-
tion plot suggested that adaptation to the American world would bring ad-
venturous Britons too close to its indigenous inhabitants, turning Britons
into Americans. Within these novels, the natives acted as a metonym for
America and for the British colonial project there. Captivity, native adop-
tion, and intermarriage all provided figures for British attachment and adap-
tation to America. These novels subverted the colonial project by depicting
the colonial experience as itself a kind of captivity, both as a separation from
the seat of civility and as an experience that led inevitably to capture and
unwanted exposure to native culture. By portraying cultural contact as a de-
basing and empty experience for the captured Briton, and by insisting on the
impossibility of transculturation for genteel Britons, the failed adoption plot
suggested that they could not adapt to and succeed within the American
world because it would remain fundamentally alien to civility.
SIX

Utopian Captivities and

other (;~frican~~ Paradoxes

Nothing could more fully illustrate the close connection between classical
liberalism and the captivity genre than liberal utopias that draw heavily from
the plot structures of captivity. Three prominent English utopian novels of
the eighteenth century develop plots in which an experience of captivity under
an African people provides an important moment of crisis and resolution in
a protagonist's progress towards utopia. Captivity plotting provides a frame
tale for utopia in the first of these novels, Simon Berington's Adventures of
Sigr Gaudentio di Lucca, as its protagonist describes how enslavement in
Turkish Egypt led to his adoption into an isolated African utopia. First pub-
lished in 1737, this minor best-seller inspired twenty-five printings by 1821,
reaching four languages and both sides of the Atlantic. 1 Another important
mixture of captivity and utopia appeared in 1750, when Robert Paltock pub-
lished The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a Cornish Man, a work that
exerted an especial influence on nineteenth-century luminaries such as
Coleridge and Dickens. In Paltock's novel a brief episode of captivity in Angola
acts as a prelude for the main theme, the protagonist's creation of a techno-
logical and political wonderland in a fantastic setting near the South Pole. 2
At the very end of the century, George Cumberland partially followed
Berington's model in The Captive of the Castle of Sennaar, a novel that de-
scribes not one but two African utopias through the voice of a European
prisoner, incarcerated by a petty despot on the upper Nile. 3
Significantly, the utopian novels of Paltock and Cumberland were the
only two eighteenth-century English fictions to include episodes of Euro-
 Utopian Captivities 225

pean captivity in equatorial or southern Mrica, in contrast with the many

novels that portrayed European captives on the Barbary coast. Sub-Saharan
captivity carried particular appeals for authors of liberal utopias, not least
because a forced journey into the deep south could offer some explanation
for the protagonist's otherwise implausible discovery of a fantastic land pre-
viously unknown to Europeans. For each of these novelists, however, the
eighteenth-century understanding of Mrica and African captivity contrib-
uted more to the political than to the geographical rationale of the utopian
setting. Simultaneously stressing chaos, confinement, and cultural deprav-
ity, Europe's early modern images of Mrica furnished a setting that enabled
these utopists to explore the relationship between the self and the state in
extreme terms, especially through an ambivalent image of the subject as a
captive to the state. In each case the African material supported the devel-
opment of utopian ideals not simply by offering a foil for them but further by
initiating a constantly iterated dialectic, first an oscillation between the poles
of self and society, liberty and confinement, power and abjection, and then a
synthesis built around the paradox of liberty in confinement, the liberal
subject's ideal accommodation with social order.
In their mixture of captivity, utopia, and a European protagonist's pen-
etration of sub-Saharan Africa, these novels represent a significant depar-
ture from the more mainstream fictional pattern of setting captive heroes on
the Barbary coast. As we have seen in chapters 2 and 4, both factual and
fictional captivity narratives set on the coast often asserted the superiority
and inevitability of British liberties by demonstrating the captive's mainte-
nance of an internal freedom of thought and will against an alien environ-
ment represented as inherently corrupt and despotic. Although a similar vision
of captive heroism occasionally informs the novels of Paltock, Berington,
and Cumberland, all three novelists greatly complicate this basic cultural
opposition. Like Chetwood's Voyages and Adventures of Captain Robert
Boyle, Paltock's novel portrays captivity as an apprenticeship for colonial
heroism, but he extrapolates this narrative pattern onto a utopian scale, as
his captive protagonist defeats fantastic colonial obstacles, gains fantastic
colonial rewards, and finally perfects a morally cleansed version of British
colonialism that substitutes capitalist freedom for native slavery. And in an
even sharper departure from Oriental captivity fictions, the colonial progress
of Paltock's protagonist seems to depend on an internal discipline originally
inculcated by an African mentor. On the other hand, Berington and
Cumberland portray protagonists who fail to muster the aggressive impulses
of captive heroism and even come to embrace what seems its opposite. Un-
der the tutelage of their adoptive African utopias, each protagonist learns
226 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

that the ideal state rests within a paradox, as it guarantees freedom for its
subjects by teaching them, and the European protagonist, the internal disci-
pline of self-regulation. Each of these three novels celebrates a hero whose
individual progress in self-regulation is wedded to the progress of an ideal-
ized non-European state, and in each case progress advances as the protago-
nist internalizes concrete lessons taught by figures of Mrican wisdom. To
varying degrees, these novels contemplate the possibility of an Mrican cul-
tural influence on a European protagonist, and their willingness to do so
forms a sharp contrast with contemporary fictions of American captivity,
which, as we have seen in the previous chapter, struggled to deny the possi-
bility of cross-cultural transformation. In contrast, the novels of Berington,
Paltock, and Cumberland pose Mrican transculturation as a sign for a needed
disordering of European character. Each novel ties its protagonist's psycho-
logical career to a set of personal paradoxes that build on the central paradox
of the utopian genre, the placement of an ideal state within Europe's
antitypical landscape.
In order to envision an ideal society, the Western tradition of utopian
writing has long turned to unfamiliar and confined settings. Thomas More's
eponymous utopians initiate their ideal polity by creating their own South
Seas island, cutting it off from a depraved mainland, while the female sanc-
tuary of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Berland is hidden in a remote South
American valley, surrounded by nearly impassable mountains. 4 The isolated
geography of utopian settings serves a number of purposes. First, an island,
a desert oasis, or an isolated valley increases the plausibility of utopian narra-
tives by explaining not only the discovery of a previously unknown land but
also the perfection of a society whose isolation preserves it from the vices
attributed to other polities. Second, setting an ideal society far from Europe
helps to shock readers out of complacent acceptance of European social in-
stitutions. Producing tones of confusion and playful discovery, the geographi-
cal disjunction of utopia creates a sense of political disjunction, as the utopist
strives to dislocate an audience's imagined seat of cultural and political supe-
riority, and to remind them of the gap between European social ideals and
European social reality. This gap is also reinforced by the trope of geographical
confinement, which at one level suggests the limitation of the ideal in rela-
tion to the real. Imagined through a geography of isolation, the ideal seems
difficult to access, difficult to remember, and difficult to imitate, although
these very difficulties create moods of preciousness, urgency, and moral ob-
ligation. But a final reason for utopian confinement, and one most germane
to the novels discussed in this chapter, is that it serves to highlight the para-
dox of freedom that sits at the heart of many utopias.
 Utopian Captivities 227

Although a tension between subjective liberty and social order charac-

terizes the utopian tradition in general, this tension became increasingly
marked with the rise of classical liberal thought at the end of the seven-
teenth century. As Krishan Kumar has suggested, utopia was "born with
modernity" and thus shares "the central dilemmas of complex modem soci-
eties . . . the often conflicting pulls of the need for order and the desire for
freedom."5 Ideals of social regulation generally distinguished English uto-
pias of the seventeenth century, as they responded to the period's political
and social upheavals. By contrast, those of the following century turned in-
creased attention to individual fulfillment, especially as they mixed the static
narrative structure of utopia with the dynamic structures of the developing
novel. 6 This increased emphasis on freedom and fulfillment reflected the
rise of liberal individualism in late seventeenth-century political theory. In-
dividual freedom from governmental oppression and the rights of individual
property owners were equally important for the two most important strands
of late seventeenth-century political theory: classical republicanism as rep-
resented by James Harrington's The Comrrwnwealth of Oceana (1656) and
classical liberalism as represented by John Locke's Two Treatises of Govern-
ment (1690). Significantly, both of these enormously influential texts relied
on utopian strategies of conceptualization. Explicitly formulated as a descrip-
tion of an ideal but fictional polity, Harrington's seminal republican vision
imagined freedom from tyrannical violence and social chaos through a mixed
government or a separation of powers, a carefully regulated distribution of
political activity among various powerful segments within society. 7 Less ex-
plicitly utopian but even more influential for modem political thought, Locke's
work argued that the individual's rights to liberty and property provide the
logical foundation for his contractual submission to government. To demon-
strate the priority of those rights, Locke produced a rather utopian account
of their origins in a state of nature, one clearly modeled on contemporary
accounts of Native Americans. For each theorist, utopia helped to resolve
the paradox inherent in the concept of freedom as an aspect of social order
or government. In each case utopia served to explain how a government or
social order can guarantee individual freedom.
A paradoxical play with the languages of liberty and order dominated
English utopian writing in the eighteenth century. This emphasis partially
reflected the increasing dissemination and sophistication of liberal political
thought, but it also reflected the deep social ironies of an era signaled by
absolutism, revolution, the expansion of centralized government, and the
. growth of the slave trade. In general, eighteenth-century visions of the ideal
state still tended to favor classical republicanism over classical liberalism,
228 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

emphasizing the liberties of the subject less than the responsibilities of the
citizen, ideals of personal virtue, and the threat of societal corruption. But as
authors linked this corruption to such figures as James II or Robert Walpole,
utopian celebration of independence from tyranny often coalesced into vi-
sions of broader franchise and constitutional liberties, especially with the
increasing importance of democratic ideas amidst the late-century revolu-
tions. While constantly proclaiming ardent devotion to subjective liberties,
however, eighteenth-century utopias also placed much value on social defer-
ence. If they sometimes celebrated technological liberation from t;he sever-
ity of the material world, they also attacked the social consequences of
economic individualism and advocated technological simplicity, careful regu-
lation of desire, and even communal ownership of goods. Throughout the
century, the genre took much interest in the social position of women, and a
single text might advocate female liberation through the companionate mar-
riage while also vesting most social authority in a patriarchal hierarchy. Al-
though utopias such as Herington's experimented with deistic thought, others
based their ideals of virtue in Christian simplicity, which could encompass
both equality in the eyes of God and puritanical rigors of moral discipline. 8
Many of these particular tensions within eighteenth-century utopias may
ultimately reflect more fundamental contradictions within the utopian genre
as a whole. The unified harmony of its social architecture is insistently nor-
mative even for texts that celebrate deviation from the received norms of
their audiences; nevertheless this very deviation produces moods of playful
experimentation and liberation even in utopias that idealize the most conser-
vative and ordered of polities. 9 With such a wide-ranging potential for para-
dox, the utopian genre provided a field for exploring the intellectual tensions
involved in the eighteenth-century's faltering movement towards individual-
ism and democracy.
As eighteenth-century utopists explored the tensions between individual
liberty and social order, their omnibus narratives often juxtaposed utopian
materials against thematic and narrative elements borrowed from the cap-
tivity genre. Such mixtures entailed two important paradoxes: first, as the
European traveler finds a model for European social improvement in a non-
European landscape marked by the savage possibility of captivity, and sec-
ond, as he finds utopian freedom through the experience of captivity. Mixtures
of utopian and captivity plotting tum up in narratives with many different
settings, even in narratives with Australian settings. This is surprising be-
cause the period saw no factual models narrating Australian captivity, al-
though the ancient western myth of a southern continent lying at Europe's
"antipodes" had long furnished a vehicle for imagining Europe's cultural and
 Utopian Captivities 229

political antitype. 10 At the century's beginning, Hendrik Smeeks's 1708 Dutch

narrative, The Mighty Kingdom of Krinke Kesmes, included an interpolated
tale concerning the El-Ho ("free man"), a European traveler captured first
by the savage natives of a South Seas island and then recaptured by its uto-
pian colonists. A better-known example is Lemuel Gulliver, who experiences
variable mixtures of captivity and distopia all over the Pacific. Beyond the
South Seas, America, Africa, and the Orient also occupied important posi-
tions within the Western geographical imagination, and they could also play
the role of Europe's antitype or provide appropriate settings for mingling
captivity narrative and utopia. One such mixture appeared within Ambrose
Evans's 1719 novella, The Adventures, and Surprizing Deliverances ofJames,
Dubordieu. Mter the title character is captured by pirates and then marooned
on a voyage to the West Indies, he discovers a utopia happily isolated among
seemingly impassible mountains and characterized by a fantastic level of
personal liberty, as the people "had no form of government among them, but
liv'd ... without magistrates, or any rule, which might contradict the inclina-
tions of every particular or individual."11 Another mixture of captivity and
utopia appeared in the anonymous 1757 novel, The Voyages, Travels, and
Wondeiful Discoveries of Capt. John Holmesby. Mter the hero's kidnapping
and sale into North American indenture, a shipwreck strands him in South
America, where he becomes a "Servant to a Savage," but finds in his master
the venerable remnant of a lost utopian state. 12 Whatever its setting, the
captivity genre's simultaneous invocation of the themes of subjugation and
liberty made it a particularly strong vehicle for simultaneously engaging the
paradox of freedom and the paradox of utopia, the ideal but confined state.
Although eighteenth-century utopists routinely turned to settings be-
yond the reach of contemporary geography, Berington, Cumberland, and
Paltock could explore the paradox of freedom with particularly destabilizing
results by turning to African settings. Compared to Australia, South America,
or Siberia, Africa offered unique opportunities because Europeans associ-
ated it not only with the geographically unexplored but with the geographi-
cally, ethnically, and politically extreme. Africa, for eighteenth-century
Europeans, carried an especially strong reputation as a land of vast deserts,
raging rivers, impassable mountains, tyranny, carnage, and cannibalism. In
turning to Mrican settings, the utopists could count on their readers' famil-
iarity with a well-established tradition of European writing about the "dark
continent," which tended to generalize a wide range of Mrican cultures and
political entities under broad headings of despotism, superstition, and cul-
tural depravity. For many European writers, African cultures seemed an ex-
treme fulfillment of the stereotypes associated with the Orient, especially as
230 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

the tyrannical corsair kingdoms of the northern coast seemed to find equally
tyrannical counterparts in the slaving kingdoms of the Western coasts. Al-
though the European image of Africa retained the same broad outlines
throughout the early modem period, its particular uses and associations
changed with the increasing importance of the slave trade and with an in-
creased European interest in developing interior colonies within the conti-
nent. During the Renaissance, European commentators regarded. native
African polities as ineffective and anarchic, much in the manner of the most
common accounts of Native American government. Over the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, with the expansion of the slave trade, British com-
mentators placed increased emphasis on African tyranny, although they linked
this tyranny to unstable revolutions rather than to solid absolutism. Both
sides of the late eighteenth-century debate over the slave trade assigned its
origins, if not full responsibility for its continuation, to the violent despotism
of native slaving kingdoms. The West Indian planter Samuel Martin declared,
in a popular proslavery tract, that "all the kingdoms of Africa are slaves, from
the highest to the lowest, to the arbitrary power oflawless tyrants, who have
the lives and properties of their subjects absolutely at their disposal."13 Abo-
litionists often produced equally damning and generalized portraits of Afri-
can cultures, especially at the end of century, as they increasingly argued for
a liberal, Christian, and capitalist transformation of these cultures from what
seemed an inherent disposition towards despotism and slavery. 14
The potential for both African civilization and African depravity seemed
augmented when European writers imagined the little-known interior. Some
writers imagined that the interior would reveal greater virtue, civilization,
and opportunity than the coast, and even hoped to find modem counter-
parts to the medieval fable of Prester John's lost Christian kingdom. 15 Other
writers, however, especially slave traders, imagined that the peoples of the
interior must possess the same damning characteristics as their coastal neigh-
bors, but to an even greater degree. One of the most notorious legends of
interior despotism concerned the conquest of the coastal slave kingdom,
Whidah, by the interior kingdom of Dahomey, especially as described in the
oft-reprinted and clearly biased account ofWilliam Snelgrave, a slave trader.
In Snelgrave's version, the conquest occurred partially because the once for-
midable Whidah had degenerated to the stature of a petty Oriental king-
dom, ruined by luxury, polygamy, the king's "Effiminacy," and the tyranny of
his upstart subordinates. Turning to the invasion itself, Snelgrave portrays
widespread cannibalism, huge piles of moldering heads, and ritual sacrifice
for the sake of a "Fetish or Guardian Angel." Even after victory, the king of
Dahomey, according to Snelgrave, proved continually cruel to his own people
 Utopian Captivities 231

because he constantly feared rebellions, and the result of such government

was a "desolation" of all trade in the surrounding areas. 16 Dahomey retained
this reputation through the end of the century, in such texts as Robert Norris's
1789 Memoirs ofthe Reign of Bossa Ahadee and Archibald Dalzel's1793 His-
tory of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom. Because interior kingdoms such as
Dahomey could suggest to English readers both mysterious peoples and
horrible despotism, they offered particularly surprising and thus particularly
effective settings for utopia.
Setting utopias in sub-Saharan Africa gained additional shock value from
the widespread yet muted role played by captivity within European writings
on the region. Scenes of European detention and subjugation at the hands of
native rulers saturate these writings, even to the extent that there is no rec-
ognizable genre of African captivity narrative comparable to that of the Ori-
ental or American genres. Though the precise boundaries of these latter
categories are somewhat vague, we can still trace the persistent efforts of
writers and editors to center a genre on the concept of captivity as a violation
of what they implied should be a norm of free British access to Mediterra-
nean waters and North American soil. British writers could assume a norm
of free trade and travel in the Mediterranean basin because of British naval
power, while American captivity violated assumed rights of travel and settle-
ment in the "unpeopled" American wilderness, as supported by a network of
garrisons and militias. But the few early modem Britons who ventured south
of the Mediterranean coast of Africa could not rely on the support of signifi-
cant military or administrative intervention, and their texts did not assume a
norm of free travel. In early modem travel literature on sub-Saharan Africa,
captivity does not seem a violation of the norm meriting a genre of its own
but rather a constant and normal aspect of travel. With the single exception
of Robert Drury's Madagascar, English narratives of captivity south of the
Sahara appeared in the course of longer, more generally focused travel nar-
ratives and geographies. At the close ofWilliam Smith's conventional Voyage
to Guinea (1744), for example, appears a letter from the Dahomeyan captive
Bullfinch Lambe, which merely requests aid from a British governor and
does not construct the experience of captivity as a curiosity or an outrage for
English readers. 17 On the other hand, the general run of early European
travel writing on sub-Saharan Africa is laced with scenes of detainment, trial,
and coercion. From Jerome Lobo's early seventeenth-century Voyage to
Abyssinia (translated by Samuel Johnson in 1735) to James Bruce's 1790
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, and even in the reports of slave
traders such as Snelgrave, progress from one land to another often occurs as
a series of accommodations with rulers who assumed an absolute preroga-
232 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

tive over anyone in their domains, so that the threat of imprisonment looms
constantly rather than intermittently. 18 Even when not actually imprisoned,
the British protagonists of these texts seem to travel in a condition bordering
on captivity in its dependence on the sufferance of native rulers.
As European travelers in Africa, the protagonists imagined by Berington,
Paltock, and Cumberland face constant threats of subjugation. In each case,
the journey that brings the protagonist to utopia begins by passing through
parts of Africa known for wild geography and violent despotism, before reach-
ing points further south, in unknown lands of paradox and further extremity,
the improbable but still possible realm of the ideal. Paltock's protagonist
passes through Angola, a land known to Europeans for Portuguese slavery
and colonial wars, and there he meets captivity, a crocodile, and the African
mentor who embarks him on a career of utopian liberation amidst an imagi-
narywinged people living near the South Pole. Berington and Cumberland,
on the other hand, set their utopias in unexplored portions of Africa that
their narrators reach by journeying down the Nile past Egypt. Penetrating
an area that would provoke the curiosity of Europeans for years to come, the
narrators pass by immense deserts, along a river known for fertility and flood-
.ing, through a region envisioned by Europeans as formerly civilized but now
ruled by Ottoman despots. Berington sets Mezzorania and Cumberland sets
Jovinia, the second utopia of his narrative, within the fabled Mountains of
the Moon, a legendary geographical feature supposedly situated between
the Sahara and the West African jungle. Cumberland situates his first utopia
on an island in what he calls Lake Zambre, probably referring to one of the
great lakes of Eastern Africa. The extreme contrasts of African geography, in
all three of these novels, seem to match the extreme contrasts of African
politics, which place utopia against despotism in a mutually illuminating jux-
taposition. That the protagonists find utopias of freedom, self-regulation,
and Christian virtue within lands associated with despotism, chaos, and Is-
lam represents the most basic paradox of these narratives, one that fore-
grounds the notion of freedom through subjugation as their central concern.

Paltock's novel imagines an ideal society produced through European civili-

zation of a decidedly un-European world. Far more spectacular than even
the colonial career of Robert Boyle, Peter Wilkins's utopian project at the
south pole is nothing less than a fantastically complete transformation of a
fantastically alien world into a model society based on enlightened ideals of
liberty, economy; and progress. This extreme fulfillment of a European fan-
tasy of social perfection and personal power concludes a dialectic of freedom
and subjugation that begins, as in Chetwo.od's novel, with the protagonist's
 Utopian Captivities 233

captivity in an Mrican state associated with despotism and depravity. Wilkins's

Angolan captivity leads to a set of African experiences that are explicitly for-
mulated as his initial lesson in colonial agency, a lesson that comes to occupy
an enabling position within his psychological makeup during the novel's later
sections of utopian creation. 19
In portraying this transformation from African captivity to utopian colo-
nialism, Paltock imagines the colonial project as the fullest resolution of what
he portrays as an inevitable predicament for the world outside of Europe, an
inevitable dialectic of confinement and mastery. Wilkins's utopian colonial-
ism replicates the narrative structure of his captivity both on the small scale
of personal psychology and the grand scale of technology and government.
Within this early version of what we now call science fiction, the hero's po-
litical captivity anticipates a series of physical confinements imposed by the
fantastic possibilities of the natural world, so that political liberation becomes
closely correlated with scientific rationality and the liberation from material
abasement that it enables. At another level of the dialectic, the hero attains
liberation from material abasement through what begins as a mutually benefi-
cial colonial relationship, as both he and his colonized friends contribute to
the progress of liberty and enlightenment. Somewhat surprisingly, the impe-
tus for this progress often seems to originate with the colonized themselves,
especially with the Angolan mentor who befriends Wilkins in his initial cap-
tivity. After the protagonist internalizes the lessons provided by this mentor,
they enable him to obtain a role of decisive leadership in his colonial utopia.
This dialectic of confinement and mastery identifies the colonist with the
colonized even as the plot grants them separately scaled roles within its colo-
nial synthesis.
Paltock's novel begins by following colonial fiction's standard dialectic of
confinement and liberation but soon pushes that dialectic into sharper re-
lief, contradiction, and paradox. In the novel's opening picaresque frame, as
so often in narratives of colonial adventure, the voyage of colonial trade ap-
pears closely and ambiguously bound to a psychology and a political rhetoric
of personal freedom. Just like Robinson Crusoe or Robert Boyle, Peter Wilkins
suffers from a youthful desire "of seeing the World" (16). 20 In the standard
pattern of the voyage novel, his first pursuit of colonial freedom results in a
disaster formulated as a reversal of the poles of liberty and slavery. Designed
for the Mrican coast and thus implicitly for Mrican slaves, Wilkins's first
voyage ends abruptly when he enters a horrible captivity among some French
pirates. As he describes the fate of his crew, the pirates "chained us two and
two, and turned us into the Hold," where they "lie for six Weeks; till the
Fetters on our Legs had almost eaten to the Bone, and the Stench of the
234 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

Place had well nigh suffocated us" (38). Here the would-be slavers meet the
hardships of the middle passage themselves.
After a rescue by the French navy, the protagonist enters a second cap-
tivity in Angola, a land well-known to Europeans because its long-standing
Portuguese colony had penetrated the interior and fought a series of
internecine wars with various native rulers, producing much vivid material
for eighteenth-century geographical surveys. 21 Beyond the many captives
obliquely described in general histories of these wars, Samuel Purchas's huge
collection of voyages included a long personal narrative from Andrew Battell,
who experienced Angola as a series of captivities and accommodations among
a variety of tyrannical authorities, both native and Portuguese. 22 Battell's nar-
rative seems to have furnished a model for Wilkins's captivity in a number of
its details. 23 After his capture by the Portuguese, he finds himself "impris-
oned, and almost starved" in Angola, and finally "set to Work in removing
the Rubbish and Stones of a Castle" (43). Thus the novel initially represents
Wilkins's colonial career through a descending scale of minute particulars,
moving from youthful desire for familial liberation through an increasingly
abject series of captivities, with the nadir set in Angola. The protagonist's
Angolan captivity climaxes a series of reversals that seem to punish this para-
digmatic colonial agent with the effects usually experienced by the colonized.
Again in the typical pattern of colonial fiction, this seemingly inevitable
failure of the protagonist's initial colonial efforts soon provides the occasion
for his development of the colonial skills of self-fortification and improvisa-
tion, although this novel first models these skills within an unusual mentor.
Just as the feckless Wilkins seems resigned to slave labor, he meets Glanlepze,
a fellow slave of African descent who rekindles the Cornishman's smothered
impulse for liberty, and who eventually comes to occupy an important posi-
tion within his conscience, acting as a continually useful memento of liberty,
activity, and enlightenment. 24 During their captivity, Glanlepze becomes a
spokesman for liberal doctrine, voicing the standard formula for expressing
the core dilemma and the heroic resolve of captivity fiction: "for my part,
immediate Death, in the Attempt of Liberty, is to me, preferable to a linger-
ing Life of Slavery" (44). As a voice of liberation and a leader of their escape
effort, the African exhibits the typical virtues of the captive hero.
After their escape Glanlepze continues to support and educate the
Cornishman, especially when the latter proves incapable of handling the
daunting physical environment of Angola. As Wilkins admits to his friend, "I
was in an unknown World, and would follow wherever he should lead me"
(46). When they meet a crocodile, Wilkins remains passive ("My Blood ran
chill within me") while Glanlepze faces the beast "without the least Dismay''
 Utopian Captivities 235

and displays considerable wit and agility in subduing it (49). The episode
offers a crucial moment in Wilkins's education, as his mentor codifies his
heroic action within a system of rational planning worthy of Crusoe himself:
''Why Peter, says he, there is nothing but a Man may compass by Resolution,
if he takes both Ends of a Thing in his View at once, and fairly deliberates on
both Sides .... What you have seen me perform, is only from a thorough
Notion I have of this Beast, and of myself, how far each of us hath Power to
act and counter-act upon the other" (50). The African here becomes a spokes-
man for the skills of observation, assessment, and improvisation so often cel-
ebrated in the colonial or captive hero. When, much later in the novel,
Glanlepze's resolution returns to Wilkins's memory in a time of great per-
sonal anxiety, he declares that the memory "ought to be eng:raven on Brass,
as I wish it was on my Heart" (212). Glanlepze's guidance during Wilkins's
Angolan sojourn, moreover, extends from psychological resolution to ethical
standards, as mentor and protege refuse to join what seems the most promi-
nent local business: "as to Excursions for Slaves, which is a Practice in many
of those Countries, and what the Natives get Money by, since our own Sla-
very, Glanlepze and I could not endure it" (56). In this novel, it is an African
male whoinitially occupies the role of the native female within The Female
American, providing the narrative occasion for redirecting the ideological
impetus for colonialism from plunder to enlightenment.
After Wilkins leaves his mentor, his education in what seem the twinned
colonial impulses of liberty and rationality initially results in failures that
more or less explicitly correlate political confinement and the material chal-
lenge of the natural world. When the Cornishman hears of some European
sailors confined in a nearby Portuguese prison, his renewed zeal for liberty
inspires him to lead their escape and to confiscate a Portuguese ship, but his
plan to avoid all shores backfires when a storm leaves him alone on the ship.
After escaping from political tyranny, he faces a more terrible subjugation in
the fantastic power of the natural world to thwart human will, instanced
most concretely in a giant rock that acts as a lodestone and drags the ship
hundreds of miles into the Antarctic. Wilkins tries to escape the rock in the
ship's boat but soon finds himself sucked into a cataract that flows into a
cavern. Bizarre natural forces seem to thwart the will of the budding colonist
far more effectively than did the machinations of petty tyrants. The novel
renders explicit the equation between social confinement and human pros-
tration before the material when Wilkins describes spending five weeks in
the cavern, "like a poor condemned Criminal, who knows his Execution is
fixed for such a Day, nay such an Hour, and dies over and over in Imagina-
tion" (74). The natural world finally seems to produce a perfect prison after
236 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

Wilkins emerges from the cavern into a valley shaped "like an Amphitheatre":
"above all, appeared the naked Rock, to an immense Height," and "as per-
pendicular as a regular Building" (76-77).
The bizarre natural landscape ofPaltock's imagination is a fantastic am-
plification of the problems of confinement and resolution that his protago-
nist initially encountered in Mrican captivity. Trapped within his amphitheater
for a number of years, Wilkins emulates Crusoe in his ready production of a
comfortable, English-seeming home, even making bread, cheese, and lamp
oil out of the bizarre raw materials that Hll this most exotic and most confin-
ing of physicallandscapes. 25 Mter basing a limited material utopia on the
ingenuity of an isolated Western protagonist, Paltock's novel then turns more
substantially than Defoe's to developing a material and social utopia based
on colonial interaction and the problem of subjugation. For Wilkins, com-
plete freedom from physical confinement in an alien landscape occurs with
the introduction of a people native to that landscape, Paltock's famous winged
aliens, who look like ordinary Anglo-Saxons with wings. As with Crusoe's
man Friday, the novel first introduces its native population through a single
representative, creating a simplified portrait of cultural interaction. When
Wilkins discovers the beautiful Youwarkee, she is badly wounded, grounded,
and separated from her people, and he nurses her back to health before they
fall in love and marry. Despite the extreme fairness of her skin, this marital
connection carries overtones suggestive of a mutually beneficial colonial re-
lationship. Once his nursing restores her capacity to fly, she helps him re-
trieve crucial European supplies that remain stranded on his ship. Mter his
initial doubts concerning her capacity both to select useful supplies and to
manage their transportation, her subsequent success removes his doubts and
forces him to "admire" the "Sagacity" of native women (151). As an antidote
to colonial exploitation, the novel imagines an ideal relationship between
Briton and non-European along the lines of the companionate marriage, as
the husband carries a mild and seemingly benevolent authority over the wife,
and they share a mutual tenderness, respect, and obligation. 26
This colonial model develops through an ambiguous connection between
the winged female and other objects of British colonial interest. Wilkins's
reassessment of his wife's capacities leads to another important invocation of
the Mricail mentor within his conscience: "Alas! Thinks I, what narrow hearted
Creatures are Mankind? Did not I heretofore look upon the poor Blacks in
Africa as little better than Beasts, 'till my friend Glandlipze convinced me ...
that my own Excellencies might have perished in a Desert, without his Ge-
nius" (151). The implicit connection between Glanlepze and Youwarkee marks
an important shift in the novel's plotting of colonial relationships. Mter an
 Utopian Captivities 237

African male initially plays the role of native mediator, the novel develops
that role more thoroughly in the figure of a native woman. Glanlepze may
perturb the opposition between a British self and an African other because
he resembles a captive hero in his fortitude and devotion to liberty, but
Youwarkee pushes this disorder to a more extreme level. Like the "Female
American," she is a hybrid figure. While her pale skin makes her seem Euro-
pean, her wings mark an extreme form of racial difference. Furthermore,
while she behaves like a specific African, Glanlepze, the novel hints at no
racial connection. Combined with surprising and multiple signs of familiar-
ity, her fantastic otherness produces a puzzle of identity that destabilizes
British notions of colonial selves and others.
Through the novel's fantastic formulation of the relationship between
colonizer and colonized, it renders explicit what usually remains an implicit
connection within early modem colonial discourse, that between the colo-
nial trader's confinement within an alien world and his mutual dependence
with the native. Restoring Youwarkee to health earns concrete material ben-
efits for the confined Wilkins, as they come to resemble colonial and native
participants in a trading factory, often through explicit reliance on the lan-
guage of colonial shipping. While the native wife undertakes repeated jour-
neys to retrieve supplies from the distant ship, the husband remains confined
within the limited space of the "Arkoe," or natural amphitheater, like an Anglo-
African trader in a factory or fortress. Although she generally tries to follow
his guidelines in selecting particular supplies, she also makes some choices
of her own, before loading them into casks and tossing them into the flow of
seawater that runs through the cavern into the Arkoe. During these opera-
tions, Wilkins calls his wife his "Factor," and, with the arrival of a particularly
large set of casks, he declares that "any one who had seen the Arrival of her
Fleet would have taken it for a good Ship's Cargoe" (137, 237). The material
improvements produced by this "shipping" carry further colonial overtones
as Wilkins describes their work as a civilizing process, the fulflllment of his
earlier labors in Crusoe-like isolation: ''Youwarkee and I having fixed our-
selves by degrees into a settled Rota of Action, began to live like Christians;
having so great a Quantity of most sorts of Necessaries about us" (154). The
civilizing process thus seems fulfllled through a mutual interaction and de-
pendence between colonizer and colonized, as the colonist depends on the
people he civilizes even as he wins their affection with the sympathetic, ten-
der, and mildly paternal aid characteristic of a companionate husband.
The mutual dependence celebrated in this relationship results especially
from heightened emphasis on the always implicit problem of the colonist's
physical limitation, signified in this case through the contrast between
238 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

Wilkins's wingless confinement and the astonishing physical powers of the

natives. At one level the power of flight suggests limitless possibilities of
human action. The native word for their wings is "Graundee," suggesting an
aggrandizement of human potential. Such extraordinary powers as Youwarkee
possesses highlight not only her husband's physical weakness but also the
vicarious power conferred by her service. When he expresses anxiety about
his incapacity, she tells him, "Fear not ... for you have a Wife will hazard all
for you, tho' you are restrained: And as my Inclinations and Affections are so
much yours, that I need but know your Desires, to execute them, as far as
my Power extends; surely you, who can act by another, may be content to
forego the Trouble of your own Performance" (136). The colonist is thus
empowered by his very confinement, raised to a position of executive au-
thority by a skillful and empathetic handling of the gap between his physical
incapacity and the superior might of an alien people.
This vision of a mutually beneficial colonial pairing despite racial differ-
ence is later broadened to encompass Youwarkee's people as a whole, espe-
cially as Wilkins's winglessness leaves hiin anxious about his own insignificance
among them. His anxiety develops especially when his wife leaves him to
visit her family in their homeland, Swangeanti,27 hoping to establish a broader
level of contact between her European husband and her people. Fearing
that she will abandon him, he becomes obsessed with his winglessness and
its effect on their children, some of whom cannot fly and must therefore
remain "imprisoned" in the Arkoe (175). When his wife returns, he regrets
his inability to venture towards her homeland: "if I was as others here are, I
might make a better Figure than they, by my superior Knowledge of things,
and have the World my own" (211). Lack of flight now seems correlated with
the confined space of the Arkoe, both serving as signs of the physical limita-
tions of the colonist and his consequent dependence on the aid of natives.
Compensation for flightlessness and physical dependence, the novel
suggests, must come from the kind of wary intellectual acumen taught by
Glanlepze. When some ofYouwarkee's relatives first visit Wilkins in his Arkoe,
he allows them to believe that he can control the underwater movements of
fish, describing himself as "well enough pleased they should think me excel-
lent for something, as I really thought they were on account of the Graundee"
(195). Even an ostensible intellectual mastery offers compensation for physical
inferiority. When Wilkins's frustration with his physical limitation grows des-
perate, he once again recalls the resolute example of his African mentor: "0
Glaulepze, Glaulepze! says I, I shall never forget thy Speech after engaging
the Crocodile; that every thing was to be attained by Resolution, by him that
takes both Ends of a thing in his View at once, and fairly deliberates what
 Utopian Captivities 239

may be given, and taken" (212). Here an African spokesman for improvisa-
tion and resolution helps a confined European colonist to find the confi-
dence to begin subduing a physically daunting people. Wilkins overcomes
the problem of confinement through an intellectual device that both enables
his escape from the Arkoe and raises him to a position of social mastery: he
concocts a platform on which several native slaves will carry him to the capi-
tal. Thus European intellectual and social mastery seems an almost inevi-
table correlative of European physical dependence within a fantastically alien
landscape, even a solution sponsored by the colonized themselves.
Once Wilkins reaches Swangeanti, the novel formulates his rapid rise to
political leadership as an increase of liberation and enlightenment eagerly
sought by the majority of the natives. He becomes an agent of freedom par-
ticularly in helping a local monarch to subdue a set of rebels who seem in-
tent on emulating the stereotypical features of African despotism. As one of
the king's loyal supporters explains to Wilkins, the rebels threaten to "render
us all Slaves to an usurped Power.... We have no hopes but in your Destruc-
tion of the Tyrant-Usurper" (240--41). Wilkins's enemies emerge as a frac-
tious minority who favor political repression and idol worship, whereas his
role involves goading a docile majority to follow what seem their natural
impulses towards liberty and rationality. Although the novel celebrates the
natives' progress in rationality, liberty, and Christianity, Wilkins promotes
these values through the captive-hero's traditional skills of subterfuge and
manipulation. His role as liberator and enlightener seems to entail strata-
gem and self-aggrandizement even in its most concrete and far-reaching com-
ponent, the abolition of slavery. This project begins with his initial journey to
Swangeanti, when he suddenly seizes the authority to insist on the manumis-
sion of the slaves who will sustain his flight from the Arkoe. At this point he
declares "what an Enemy I was to Slavery; and ... as I am about to under-
take what no Man upon Earth ever did before; to quit my Country, my Fam-
ily, my every other Conveniency of Life, for I know not what ... I must insist
upon every Man present alighting with me in Safety, being made free the
Moment we touch the Ground" (252). The personal sacrifice of the colonial
traveler here seems to justifY his seizure of authority. A more transparently
self-seeking motive for this act surfaces when Wilkins explains to the reader
that he believed it "would make the Men more zealous in my Service" (253).
His efficacy as an agent of freedom always seems intertwined with his per-
sonal power as a demagogue.
This mixture of persuasion, manipulation, and outright confiscation of
authority continues when Wilkins introduces freedom to Swangeanti as a
whole. After he liberates the city, his plans to visit other territories within the
240 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

kingdom produce unrest among the citizens: "the whole City was in an Up-
roar, especially those who had been freed by me. What? says I, have they so
soon forgot their Subjection, to misapply their Liberty already? ... they all
said wherever I went, they were determined to go and settle with me; for if I
left them, they should be reduced to Slavery again" (313). When these citi-
zens promise to "obey [him] in anything" (313), it becomes clear that Wilkins's
role as liberator leads to nearly autocratic authority, gained both through the
populace's enthusiasm for him and through his ready judgment of the ways
they apply their liberty. With such a forceful political leader, Swangeanti no
longer needs the guidance of its king, who accepts his transformation to the
status of figurehead, calling Wilkins his "Father," and declaring to him, "I
have been frequently, since I knew you first, in doubt of my own Existence;
my Life seems a Dream to me; for if Existence is to be judged of by one's
Faculties only, I have been in such a Delusion of them ever since, that as I
find myself unable to judge with Certainty of any other thing, so I am subject
to doubt, whether I really exist" (366). Although at one level the king's words
celebrate the supercession of monarchy by liberty, they also suggest a crisis
of identity produced by the complete transformation of a native society un-
der an alien system of colonization.
Further elements of Wilkins's power develop as he replaces native sys-
tems of slavery with a European economic system built on mercantile colo-
nialism, a system that he imposes without the full understanding or even the
full awareness of the natives. In explaining his motives for abolishing slavery,
he outlines his plan for a capitalist system: "I would only have every serving
Man at Liberty to chuse his own Master, and every Master his own Man"
(301). The conceptual gap between native slavery and European capitalism
becomes particularly apparent when Wilkins tries to explain his plans in
greater depth to his father-in-law. When the Cornishman discusses the divi-
sion oflabor, he finds that the venerable native "could not well understand
all I said; and I found by him, that all the Riches they possessed were only
Food and Slaves; and, as I found afterwards when amongst them, they know
the want of nothing else: But, I am afraid, I have put them upon another way
of thinking, tho' I aimed at what we call civilizing of them" (215). 28 This
momentary regret, however, does not vitiate the otherwise triumphant tone
that suffuses Wilkins's economic transformations. Later he explains to his
father-in-law that "my Meaning in giving Liberty is ... for the Introduction
of Arts" (324), and eventually the people are fully "supplied not only with the
Conveniences, but Superfluities of Life" (372). The paradisiacal features of
Paltock's utopia take shape first through the language of liberty and then
The frontispiece to Chetwood's Robert Boyle develops a standard
early modern vision of colonial warfare, pitting superior technol-
ogy against vast numbers of primitives, all for the reward of a
beautiful, exotic, and undeveloped land. (By permission of the
British Library.)
242 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

through the language of trade and commodities. By representing the natives

as appreciative of such novelties despite an initial failure to understand them,
the novel offers justification for an aggressive policy of colonial penetration.
Under Wilkins's guidance, liberty not only promotes civilization for his
adopted people at home but also launches their colonial power abroad. 29
This process begins when he overhears a local myth about nearby Mount
Alkoe, allegedly a den of torture and slavery. When Wilkins discovers that it
is in reality a land of mines and smelting, he forms an immediate resolution
to "tum the Profit of the Country my own way; and make it pass thro' our
Hands" (331). This mixture of personal and national improvement continues
with his successful appropriation of this alien resource. At Alkoe he finds an
established slave system ruled by a tyrannical governor, who represents an-
other colonial power, the "Zaps" of the "Born Isles." This system closely re-
sembles the Spanish colonial program as described by British propaganda:
the mines cause a high death rate among the slaves, and the governor asserts
his power by torturing them to the point of death. 30 Once Wilkins overthrows
this governor, the latter reveals a "Roughness in his Nature, which drove him
to Extremities with the poor Slaves," and he defends his system by asserting
that, "where Slavery abounds, it is necessary to act, or at least be thought to
do so, in a merciless Manner" (341). Despite this hardened and rationalized
despotism, the enlightened Wilkins rapidly converts the tyrant to able and
lenient government by installing a wage system. Wilkins's first order is to
"maintain Freedom; but, says I, let no Man eat, who will not work, as the
Country and the Produce is the King's" (342). As for the Zaps, Wilkins ini-
tiates trade with them, buying their ships with the produce of the mines.
Both at the national and individual level, then, he replaces a system of baldly
physical compulsion with a system of economic compulsion under his dis-
tant but·effective management. His alterations lead to an abundance of trade
and an increase of settlement, with "scarce a Family but was of some Occu-
pation or other" (369). The novel portrays two other colonial ventures as
well, and in both cases Wilkins recruits colonists from among the formerly
enslaved, improving both their material prosperity and the defensive pos-
ture of Swangeanti. Thus the novel rationalizes colonial intervention by imag-
ining a utopia showing that European-style capitalism produces greater
economic abundance than native systems of slavery.
Drawing from the closely intertwined discourses of manumission, capi-
talism, and colonialism, Paltock imagines a utopian version of British colo-
nialism in a sanitized Africa of the imagination, an Africa made as perfectly
appealing to the British colonist as he himself is to its people. Despite their
fair skin and the markedly alien feature of their wings, the natives ofPaltock's
 Utopian Captivities 243

utopia resemble contemporary images of Africans in a number of ways: physi-

cal prowess, idol worship, tyrannical government, cultural simplicity. The
imagined culture of Swangeanti resembles that of Europe's imagined Africa
just as the bizarre natural landscape of Swangeanti resembles the startling
Africa of European travel literature. Paltock sets a colonial utopia within this
fantastic landscape, moreover, as an extension and fulfillment of his
protagonist's initial colonial experience in African captivity. Wilkins's personal
progress through subjugation, transformation, and resolution in Angola re-
mains an always implicit background as well as a sometimes explicit parallel
for the subjugations and transformations that he experiences in the course of
building his utopia. The twinned spheres of his colonial triumph, further-
more, encompassing both the material innovations of capitalism and its dis-
placement of slavery, occupy the same ground as his African debasement,
since he falls into captivity during the course of a slaving expedition. In por-
traying this transformation from African debasement to colonial utopia,
Paltock's novel turns a significant variation on the captivity narrative's causal
displacement of the colonial project. Whereas a novel such as Robert Boyle
simply blames European aggression on the prior aggression of a non-Euro-
pean people, Peter Wilkins splits the causes for European expansion among
the colonist's initially aggressive disposition, the harsh political and physical
realities that seem inevitable outside of Europe, and a voice of psychological
and moral rigor embodied in the exploited. As the novel juxtaposes these
factors in a dialectical process of personal and utopian development, they
combine to displace the actual evils of British practice in Africa to the
fantastical realm of the colonial ideal.

Although the utopian systems ofBerington and Cumberland similarly emerge

through a dialectic of mastery and confinement, their novels offer a decid-
edly different formulation of the relationships among Africa, Europe, lib-
erty, and enlightenment. Part of this difference results from the settings of
their narratives and the nationalities of their protagonists. By setting an en-
lightened Cornish protagonist first in a remote portion of the African inte-
rior and then in a fantastically sanitized analogue for Africa, Paltock represents
cultural interaction largely as the projection of British know-how into the
heart of the unknown. Building a sharp dichotomy between high civilization
and low, he only occasionally intimates that the high has anything to gain
from the low, and such gains occur primarily in terms of moral and psycho-
logical inspiration. Berington and Cumberland, by contrast, more thoroughly
subvert the national dichotomies of civilization and savagery. Both authors
focus on Italian protagonists, representatives of a land that English readers
244 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

would associate with high civilization but also with moral degeneracy and
political tyranny, with Michelangelo but also with the cicisbeo and the lnqui-
sition.31 In each novel, moreover, the Italian protagonist meets tyranny on
both sides of the Mediterranean, although he also reaches a nadir of despo-
tism with a captivity in the Nile region, similarly regarded as an ancient site
of both civilization and tyranny.
The North African setting permits the novelists to mix stereotypes of
tyranny and depravity drawn from contemporary descriptions of African and
Middle Eastern lands. Images of overlapping political authorities, social chaos,
and the threat of captivity often saturated texts centered on Egypt, the up-
per Nile, and Ethiopia. Johnson's 1735 translation of Jerome Lobo's narra-
tive hit the press two years before Herington's utopia, and a similar portrait
of the region characterized John Campbell's lightly fictionalized Travels and
Adventures of Edward Brown, published two years after Berington.32 In ex-
ploiting the region's reputation for chaos and confinement, Herington and
Cumberland borrowed several patterns from the Barbary captivity narra-
tive, and in both of their texts, as in captivity narratives more generally, the
threat of a tyrannical Orient provides the ultimate rationale for and valida-
tion of the possibility of enlightened freedom. Both authors, however, ex-
ploit the region's reputation for political chaos in order to develop a vision of
tyranny and depravity that threatens to engulf Europe as well as North Af- ·
rica. In Africa, moreover, the protagonists discover not only a nadir of despo-
tism but also a utopia of liberty, so that the continent offers starkly illustrative
examples of both political extremes. Whereas Paltock only briefly reverses
his prevalent opposition between British enlightenment and alien simplicity,
the utopias of Herington and Cumberland involve a constant conflation of
this opposition, most fully and consistently because they set their utopian
models of liberty and enlightenment within what English readers would have
imagined as the heart of tyranny.
Placing an ideal state in the presumed heart of tyranny is one of many
paradoxes that the authors exploit in constructing their visions of ideal and
practical politics. Each novel exploits the paradoxical potential of the captiv-
ity framework in order to develop a utopian model of liberty which is para-
doxically predicated upon subjection and restraint. At the concrete level of
novelistic plotting, each protagonist finds utopian liberty as a direct result of
falling into an abject captivity among a stereotypically debased African people.
The individual experience of the captive protagonist parallels the collective
experience of his adoptive utopian people, who appear as a captive nation
surrounded by a world full of despotic peoples, European, Oriental, and
 Utopian Captivities 245

African. Each narrative ensures the freedom of both its utopian people and
its European immigrant by secluding them from the outside world in an
isolated geographic location, a paradoxically liberating form of national cap-
tivity. The paradox of liberation through confinement, furthermore, is cen-
tral to each utopia's model of civil polity, as the pinnacle of human liberty
results from subjection within an ideal system of social organization, one
predicated on self-control and social deference rather than law and coer-
cion. After the protagonist's initial captivity isolates him as an absolute sub-
ject suspended among stark dichotomies of liberty and subjugation, the utopia
offers a vision of his accommodation within a system stressing moderation
for both the individual and the state. Such utopian ideals of moderation,
moreover, take further shape against a panoply of counterexamples furnished
by the variable motifs of captivity plotting: abject confinements, insatiable
predators, headstrong libertines, and semi-enlightened patriarchs. Each nar-
rator, finally, recounts his experiences of utopian accommodation while in
prison, a setting that enables him to demonstrate the continuing integrity of
a liberated mind through forthrightness, composure, and resignation under
the rigors of physical confinement. Thus in both cases the framework of the
captivity narrative serves to enhance utopian explorations of the limits, con-
flicts, and paradoxes of liberal thought.
This effort to destabilize Western political ideas works partially by dis-
rupting the dichotomy between an internally free European captive and non-
European despotism. Within Herington's utopia and within each of
Cumberland's utopias, the European traveler eagerly embraces the "alien"
culture of the utopian people and comes to occupy a position of respect
within it. The convert leaves his adoptive people only under compulsion,
and in each case he seems to internalize their cultural disposition, which
provides a source of inner strength if not an active political agenda after he
returns to Europe. The possibility of an "Mrican" cultural colony in the Ital-
ian countryside emerges with surprising clarity at the end of Cumberland's
novel, although this colony forms merely one strand within a broader uto-
pian project of Christian colonialism directed towards Mrica as well as to-
wards Europe. For both Herington and Cumberland, moreover, the
protagonist's conversion seems less an acceptance of African culture than a
return to a cultural perfection that originated outside of Africa, since the
utopian peoples first came from lands such as the Indus River valley or Italy
itself. Thus, although both authors broach the possibility of Europeans' learn-
ing from idealized African polities, they do so in a manner that carefully
limits the effects of this cultural movement to a calculated disruption of
246 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

European political complacency. Instead of advocating cultural pluralism or

even relativism, this project serves to measure the gap between the ideals
and reality of European society.

Berington's dislocation of received European social wisdom emerges espe-

cially from his paradoxical mixture of an Mrican utopia with an Oriental cap-
tivity narrative. Not only does an experience of Egyptian captivity enable his
protagonist to find a utopia, but other subplots further capitalize on the stan-
dard plotting of Oriental captivity in order to reinforce the text's paradoxical
themes. But if the novel draws many devices from the Oriental captivity
narrative, the protagonist (Gaudentio di Lucca, whose name suggests his
enlightenment) eventually comes to embrace a very different set of ideals
from those commonly celebrated in the captivity plot. Whereas Oriental cap-
tivity provides a colonial apprenticeship for protagonists such as the histori-
cal Francis Knight and the fictional Robert Boyle, Berington's 1737 novel,
like other utopian fictions of the eighteenth century, offers mild criticism of
colonial aggression. 33 While he places an aggressive desire for colonial mas-
tery in a minor villain, his protagonist openly rejects offers of imperial power
and instead easily accommodates to situations of limitation and even con-
finement. The closing vision of the protagonist is one of successful internal-
ization of his adoptive people's ideals despite his physical separation from
them, as he puts the doctrine of liberation through limitation into practice
north of the Mediterranean. Basing the hero's novelistic progress on his con-
version to alien cultural ideals forms a central component within Berington's
larger effort to complicate British political ideas by complicating the Orien-
tal captivity narrative's standard vision of heroism and cultural interaction.
Much of this complication results as Berington sets his utopia within the
frame of not one but two captivity narratives, the first an inquisition narra-
tive and the second a Barbary narrative. 34 The title concentrates primarily on
the protagonist's inquisitorial captivity: The Merrwirs of Sigr Gaudentio di
Lucca: Taken from his Confession and Examination before the Fathers ofthe
Inquisition at Bologna in Italy. Making a Discovery of an unknown Country
in the midst ofthe vast Deserts ofAfrica . .. Copied from the original Manu-
script kept in St. Mark's Library at Venice: With Critical Notes ofthe Learned
Signor Rhedi, late Library-Keeper ofthe said Library. To which is prefix'd, a
Letter ofthe Secretary ofthe Inquisition, to the same Signor Rhedi, giving an
Account ofthe Manners and Causes ofhis being seized. As the title indicates,
the initial inquisition narrative serves both as an authenticating device and as
a frame surrounding the utopia with an atmosphere of systematic, world-
ranging confinement. The text itself opens with further authenticating de-
 Utopian Captivities 24 7

vices, first a preface from the English "Publisher," and then a more extensive
introduction written by the Secretary of the Inquisition himself, so that the
captive's utopian narrative carries the weight of a juridical authority enhanced
by its very tyranny. In the course of this introduction, we learn that the in-
quisitors asked di Lucca for a full autobiographical narrative, insisting on
novelistic standards of verisimilitude, and threatened dire punishments if
they detected any falsehoods, so that di Lucca seems to provide a fully docu-
mented utopian narrative because his life depends on it. As a result of this
narrative frame, the authenticity, practical effectiveness, and cultural appeal
of the African utopia seem offered as counters for the injustice and subjuga-
tion of European institutions.
As the Inquisition's request for a full autobiography simultaneously in-
vokes verisimilitude and provides a pretext for the utopian narrative, the
meaning of the protagonist's life coalesces with the ideals of the Mezzorain
utopia, and both stand together against an inquisitorial atmosphere of tyran-
nical authority and panoptic observation. From the preface we learn that,
even before his confinement, the Inquisition spent time observing di Lucca,
reading his letters, and investigating his correspondents. The logic of this
panoptic frame continues to develop as he delivers his autobiography, strug-
gling to convince a hostile inquisitorial audience of his forthrightness by con-
structing a past life of integrity. Not only does the Secretary allude to their
efforts to "catch him tripping in his Story'' (39), but the text itself further
documents these efforts as the inquisitors constantly interrupt his narrative
with questions and comments. Through these interruptions of the utopian
narrative, the text constantly reminds its readers that di Lucca's act of narra-
tion occurs before an inquisitorial audience, in an effort to obtain freedom
from a tyrannical confinement. While subject to inquisitorial power, di Lucca
exudes moderation and composure as seemingly essential aspects of his per-
sonality. The publisher's preface, moreover, confirms that "the Man stands
to the Truth of it with a Stedfastness that is surprizing" (ix-x). As the plotting
of the subsequent narrative indicates, di Lucca's composure shows that his
conversion to Mezzorain cultural ideals holds against the most hostile inves-
tigations of the most suspicious and chauvinistic of European cultural au-
thorities, even compelling their admiration.
Berington mitigates the radical critique implied in this cultural conver-
sion by introducing a second frame tale, based on Oriental captivity, within
the frame of the inquisition narrative. Following the generic pattern of the
Barbary captivity plot, di Lucca's inquisitorial confession begins with a youthful
voyage of colonial trade, but his first voyage, like that of Wilkins, ends with
capture, in this case by Algerian pirates. The standard pattern of Barbary
248 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

plotting continues as the protagonist and his companions adopt the standard
resolution of the captive-hero, "that we had better die honourably than be
made Slaves," although they cannot escape transportation to the slave mar-
ket at Cairo (32). The Barbary captivity section characterizes the young pro-
tagonist as a headstrong agent passionately devoted to personal liberty, against
the background of a Mediterranean world that seems permeated with social
systems predicated on subjugation. However, the conventional captivity pat-
tern collapses as di Lucca learns that his sale into slavery will ultimately lead
to liberation. Whereas captivity teaches Robert Boyle the skills of colonial
mastery, di Lucca's captivity introduces him to a world where masters and
slaves do not exist. His buyer turns out to be a Pophar, patriarchal leader of
the utopian Mezzorains, who promises his new "slave" a life of absolute lib-
erty if he will journey to their homeland: "I know no just Laws in the Uni-
verse, that can make a Free-hom Man become a Slave to one of his own
Species. If you will voluntarily go along with us, you shall enjoy as much
Freedom as I do my self: You shall be exempt from all the barbarous Laws of
these inhuman Countries" (54). As in Oriental captivity narratives more gen-
erally, ideals of liberty take shape in opposition to the alleged practices of
Oriental peoples, but Herington's novel subverts the narrative logic of the
captivity plot. In keeping with their utopian ideals, di Lucca's new "captors"
do not keep watch over his movements, so that he could easily escape. Al-
though he feels a compulsion for liberty, he decides to remain with the
Mezzorains. This voluntary subjugation on the part of the formerly defiant
captive provides a concrete, individual fulfillment of the utopia's abstract
social vision of freedom through captivity. Later di Lucca describes himself
as made "fortunate by my Captivity" (233), after his voluntary confinement
within the ideal state has produced a life of material prosperity and personal
freedom. Such manifold departures from the conventions of captivity plot-
ting indicate a shift from an absolute, individualistic dichotomy of liberation
and captivity to a more complex vision of multiple tensions between liberty
and subjugation, the individual and society.
When di Lucca learns the history of his adoptive people after reaching
Mezzorania itself, their experience comes to stand as a collective parallel for
his individual experience of freedom through Oriental captivity. Their his-
tory involves an experience of national captivity, national escape, and na-
tional liberation. Originally peaceful residents of ancient Egypt, the
Mezzorains left their ancestral homeland because of attacks from the vio-
lent, rapacious Hicksoes, the apparent originators of Oriental despotism, in-
vaders who practiced a "Tyrannical way of Living" and "made Slaves of their
Brothers" (136-37). Adopting the captive-hero's resolve on a national scale,
 Utopian Captivities 249

the future utopians "resolv' d to fly to the farthest Parts of the Earth, rather
than fall into the Hands of those Inhuman Monsters" (123). As they plunge
deep into the Sahara in search of a safe haven, an oasis offers them "the
happiest Banishment they could wish" (135). Thus the origin of this utopia
of absolute freedom is directly and paradoxically related to the imagined
origin of Oriental tyranny, as the tyrannical ancestors of contemporary Ori-
ental despots threaten to imprison the Mezzorains on a national scale, and
their attempt to escape such tyranny leads to a happier national confinement
within their isolated utopia.
This vision of national captivity continues as the novel defines the rela-
tionship between the Mezzo rains and the surrounding lands of North Mrica
according to the standard dichotomies of early modem Orientalism. On their
occasional journeys to Egypt, the Mezzorains maintain a distinct insularity
from local corruptions, much in the manner of a captive hero: "They seemed
not only to have a Horror of the barbarous Manners and Vices of the Turks,
but even a Contempt of all the Pleasures and Diversions of the Country"
(60). In Cairo, particularly, they must defend themselves against the tempta-
tions of "the most voluptuous and lewd Town in the whole Eastern Empire,"
where "the young Women seem' d ready to devour us" (61). On their return,
much like escaping captives, they are careful to avoid any chance that Turk-
ish authorities might follow them and discover their hidden land. Like cap-
tivity protagonists, the Mezzorains travel through the Orient with an eye
towards its dangers, in order to resist them.
As an isolated outpost of enlightenment surrounded by what seems the
pervasive tyranny of the Orient, Berington's utopia occupies a political situa-
tion that parallels its geographic situation as a desert oasis, and both of these
situations serve as concrete embodiments for the cornerstone of his social
and political theory: the paradox of liberty through subjugation. In Berington's
complex narrative structure, this paradox appears as a necessary mediation
for the complexities of social organization. Whereas his novel portrays the
surrounding Orient as stricken by absolute hierarchies of mastery and sla-
very, his utopia represents a more practical, because more moderate, ac-
commodation with the tensions of liberation and subjugation that seem to
accompany every facet of human existence, affecting even his utopia's mate-
rial prosperity. The land itself is so productive that every Mezzorain can pur-
sue whatever occupation, or rather pastime, that he or she likes. While
surveying the country's material prosperity, di Lucca experiences "with infi-
nite delight the effects of Industry and Liberty" in permitting a profusion of
technological achievements (257). Despite this liberation from material con-
cerns, the Mezzorain religion seems predicated on a vision of life as a subju-
250 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

gation to the material. As di Lucca explains, a fundamental Mezzorain belief

envisions life as "a state of banishment and mourning; wandering in sun-
burnt Deserts, and tost with the storms of innumerable lawless desires, still
sighing after a better Country" (164). Here the external physical pressure of
the desert surrounding the oasis seems correlated with the internal physical
pressure of passion, both suggesting material limitations on the potential for
absolute freedom.
This humanist vision ofsubtle yet pervasive psychological conflicts be-
tween liberty and confinement lays the foundation for Berington's utopian
government, which mediates these conflicts through ideals of communal af-
filiation and internal discipline. When the Pophar is proclaimed ruler of the
people at his return from Egypt, the people "prostrated themselves before
him" (152), following a pattern of stereotypically Oriental subordination.
However, di Lucca observes that this behavior represents a moment of purely
voluntary and filial submission within an enlightened and liberated patriar-
chy. As he attests, "I never saw such an Air of a Freeborn People in my Life,
as if they knew no other Subjection but what was merely Filial" (104). The
text formulates this notion of freedom through filial subjection in a number
of paradoxes, some explicitly labeled as such. Di Lucca observes at one point
that the brotherly Mezzorains "are all Masters, and all Servants," and at an-
other point that "the Paradox of this Government consists in this, that they
are joint Lords, acknowledging no inequality" (214, 216). This principle of
classless equality guarantees everyone a seemingly absolute independence,
limited only by "natural" principles of affiliation: "What is most peculiar in
this Government, is, that they are all absolute in some manner, and indepen-
dent, as looking on themselves as all equal in Birth; yet in an entire depen-
dency of Natural Subordination or Eldership" (211). This paradox is explained
partially through an attribute found in many eighteenth-century utopias, al-
though not in the utopian tradition as a whole: the goal of keeping the laws
"as few, and as simple as possible" (235). Within this unregulated system,
authority naturally gravitates towards those best able to rule, such as the
aged Pophar, whose very skill in leadership entails that he will never rule his
subjects any more heavily than they naturally need or desire. Another para-
dox results as individual freedom from positive laws, even as much as free-
dom from tyrannical leaders, requires and thus promotes a strict discipline
of self-control. Di Lucca ultimately decides that this paradox renders the
Mezzorain government fundamentally alien, if not incomprehensible, to
Europeans: "every Thing they do is a sort of paradox to us, for they are the
freest and yet strictest People in the World" (232). Believing in the funda:-
 Utopian Captivities 251

mental goodness of human nature when unfettered by regulation, Berington

suggests that a natural limitation of selfish desire results from a natural de-
sire for social well-being.
The novel's most extensive illustration of the paradox of freedom through
self-regulation concerns di Lucca's courtship and marriage. 35 Although the
Mezzorains grant children, especially females, an absolute prerogative in
marriage choice, parents still interfere in courtship once they suspect their
children's inclinations, by creating "vast Difficulties, contrived on purpose,
both to try, and enhance their Constancy" (228). When the Pophar sees the
growing mutual affection between his daughter and di Lucca, he tests the
young couple by insisting that the newcomer "must either solemnly renounce
all Pretensions to her, or be shut up for ever without any Commerce with his
People, till Death" (277). Di Lucca passes this test of self-regulation by sur-
rendering himself to captivity and torture: "take me, shut me up, kill me, cut
me in a Thousand pieces" (277). Based on a notion of internal "constancy"
established through the separations and confinements of the lovers, the well-
judged interference of the Mezzorains paradoxically leads to a more perfect
fulfillment of the children's choices.
The novel further refines its ideal of rationally constrained freedom by
developing a subplot that illustrates the dangerous results of unrestrained
liberties. On an exploratory journey south of the utopian land, di Lucca and
his adoptive people discover an English hermit, a former captive who has
escaped from "some strange Barbarians," and sought refuge deep in an un-
inhabited stretch of mountains (293). After the Mezzorains save the En-
glishman from physical confinement and the threat of recapture, he proves a
"European Savage," representative of"Libertines" and "Free-thinkers" more
generally (293), especially in his efforts to corrupt and conquer Mezzorain
society. The novel links his efforts in social corruption particularly to the
appeal of unrestrained liberty: "his great aim, was to pervert our Youth, en-
ticing them into all manner of Liberties" (294). He tries to seduce di Lucca
with the appeal of unrestrained colonial power, insisting that the two of them
could easily "make our selves Lords and Masters of all" (294). But the Italian
has internalized the Mezzorain doctrine of self-restraint too thoroughly to
find any appeal in colonial despotism, and he immediately betrays the plans
of the Englishman. After the Mezzorains take the libertine to Cairo in order
to free him, another captivity plot develops as he reports them as a threat to
the local government. But the Turks soon recognize his machinations and
reward him with what seems a fitting punishment: "sent to the Callies for
Life" (304). As the libertine serves to demonstrate, excess of will, embodied
252 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

in colonial ambition as well as in an attempt to form an accommodation with

Oriental political systems, ultimately entails the most absolute of subjuga-
tions, as marked by the Turkish galleys.
With the return to the Mediterranean, the novel closes its utopian vision
and returns to the setting and plot structures of the captivity narrative, which
reaffirm the contrast between Mezzorain political ideals and Mediterranean
despotism. As di Lucca sails back towards Italy, he is again seized by the
Turks but luckily discovers that a former admirer has become the Sultaness
of the empire. She offers him "the first Post of the Ottoman Empire" as her
husband, and his refusal reveals a full adherence to the Mezzorain ideal of
liberation through self-regulation, as well as a full opposition to the aggres-
sive heroism commonly celebrated in the captivity plot (322). After the novel
rejects absolute power by projecting it onto the figure of a spumed
Turkishwoman, yet another subplot reframes the hero's resistance to seduc-
tion and absolute power within a European setting. After di Lucca finishes
his utopian narrative, the inquisitors enjoin a brief narration of his subse-
quent life in Italy, which, if verified, "might purchase him his Liberty" (326).
He complies by recounting a final episode illustrating the principles of free-
dom through self-regulation, as he avoids the "ensnaring Airs" of a courtesan
who had "enslav' d several Persons of the first Rank" (330). This lowly Euro-
pean counterpart to the imperial seductress serves to draw a parallel be-
tween Oriental and European failings. When di Lucca's story of resisting the
courtesan seems to assist his release from the Inquisition, the Mezzorain
doctrine of freedom through self-regulation seems again to grant its adher-
ent enormous powers of self-fortification, forthrightness, and autonomy. In
these parallel instances of di Lucca's adherence to Mezzorain ideals, the re-
turn from utopia through first an Oriental and then an Italian frame serves
to integrate Europe and the Orient within a mutual opposition to the osten-
sibly non-Western ideals of Mezzorania. .
In the long-standing utopian tradition of dislocating European compla-
cency about the value of European civilization, Berington's novel simulta-
neously undermines and reaffirms the standard opposition between European
civilization and Oriental depravity. On the one hand, the novel weakens the
opposition between Oriental slavery and European liberty by introducing an
interpolated tale concerning di Lucca's mother, whose abduction and sale to
a Corsican merchant remind us that Mediterranean slavery was a feature of
Christian as well as Islamic shores. That the most depraved figure of the
novel is an Englishman further weakens the opposition between European
civilization and Oriental depravity, especially as the libertine seems pecu-
liarly identified with the Orient both in personal disposition and in narrative
 Utopian Captivities 253

dispensation. On the other hand, the Oriental captivity plot that fills much of
the novel relies on a standard set of stereotypical motifs, such as circumci-
sion, rampant female sexuality, and the seductions of absolute power. More-
over, as the novel consistently defines Mezzorain principles of freedom in
opposition to Oriental despotism, these principles sometimes seem allied
with Europe. As the Pophar explains to di Lucca, "I have been informed ...
that your Laws are not like these barbarous Turks, whose Government is
made up of Tyranny and Brutality, governing all by Fear and Force, and
making Slaves of all who fall under their Power. Whereas, the European
Christians, as I am told, are govern'd by a Divine Law, that teaches them to
do good to all" (57). In its hopeful naivete, the passage carries an ironic po-
tential for upbraiding Europe's failure to match its ideals, but this potential
ultimately reflects Mezzorania's standing as an analogue for the mythical king-
dom ofPrester John, a fantastic reproduction of European ideals within the
heart of the non-European world. At one point di Lucca observes that among
the Mezzorains he "enjoy'd the same Liberty that I cou'd have had, if I had
been in Italy" (61). That Italy stands sometimes as a sign of liberty and some-
times as a sign of confinement reveals the novel's primary concern with mea-
suring the gap between European ideals and European practice.
Berington's critique of European institutions emerges through a con-
stant play with parallels and oppositions between Europe and Africa. Far
from celebrating a nationalist or pan-European triumph over Africa's im-
puted failings, his varied captivity plotting discloses parallels between the
protagonist's Oriental captivity, his European experiences, the national ex-
periences of his adoptive utopia, and, finally, the prospect for any individual's
liberty within society. Ultimately these parallels suggest that no people,
whether Oriental, European, or utopian, can escape the vexing and interre-
lated problems of liberty and subjugation. The novel's captivity plotting ex-
poses the flaws of resolving these problems in absolute terms of despotism,
slavery, libertinism, and self-will, while its utopian portion imagines more
complex and nuanced resolutions for their tensions. As a prelude to utopian
idealism, the opening captivity sections display absolute dichotomies of lib-
erty and slavery that both demand the resolution of utopian moderation and
define it as a mediation of these opposing extremes. In the denouement that
follows the utopian narrative, captivity plotting helps to reveal the successful
deployment of utopian ideals within the moderate frame of the protagonist's
psychological growth. Within the somewhat muted novelistic pattern of di
Lucca's life, captivity teaches him to reject youthful self-will and to embrace
utopian ideals of self-regulation as a necessary accommodation with the sub-
jugation imposed by any and all polities. The application of utopian idealism
254 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

to the individualistic reform of a novelistic life becomes an even more promi-

nent and explicit concern of Cumberland's work.

Like Berington's novel, Cumberland's two-part utopia emerges through a

complex narrative structure, organized as a dialectic of captivity and libera-
tion. After publishing the first part of The Captive ofthe Castle of Sennaar in
1798, he wrote a second part around 1800, but it reached print only in 1991.36
In the first part, an unnamed narrator speaks from the prison of the title,
recounting a series of personal misfortunes that culminate with his African
incarceration. This first-person narration provides a frame for his encounter
with a fellow prisoner, Lycas, whose name, like that of Berington's di Lucca,
suggests enlightenment. The bulk of Cumberland's first part focuses on the
life story of this mentor-narrator, especially his many years among the uto-
pian Sophians (people of wisdom). When the original narrator resumes his
personal history in the second part, he first identifies himself as Memmo (a
rememberer), and then records the death of lijcas, his own escape from
Sennaar, and a subsequent series of captivities that lead ultimately to a so-
journ among the utopian Jovinians (people of rule?). Like the enlightened
Lycas and di Lucca before him, Memmo must leave the utopian people he
so admires, and the second part closes with his efforts to create his own
utopia on an isolated Italian estate, based on both the Sophian and Jovinian
models. The utopia narratives ofLycas and Memmo complement each other,
with the Sophians offering a vision of an ideal polity based on natural reason
alone, and the Jovinians offering a distinct yet reciprocal vision of the ideal
state, this time based on biblical revelation.
This double utopian structure both imitates and extends Berington's
method for simultaneously developing a critique of European social institu-
tions, a concrete model for European reform, and a novelistic vision of per-
sonal progress. In Berington's manner, Cumberland mingles utopian and
captivity plotting in both of his narratives. Likewise, he organizes the social
structure of both his utopias around a paradoxical mixture of social libera-
tion and personal discipline. And much more clearly than Berington,
Cumberland poses his visions of utopian captivity as explicit models for per-
sonal mastery over affliction, where captivity and tyranny are identified with
the passions, and their restraint enables physical and political liberation. For
both authors, enlightened liberation is something lost to Europeans but ob-
tainable within the heart of a prison, within the heart of tyranny, within the
heart of Mrica, as long as one follows principles of moderation and self-
regulation. Thus at one level Cumberland's imagined Africa, like Berington's,
is a landscape devoted to exploration of tensions and possibilities in the Eu-
 Utopian Captivities 255

ropean mind. But Cumberland also gives more generous attention to con-
crete problems of cultural interaction in Africa, such as religious diversity
and the slave trade, and he develops a more overt critique of European colo-
nialism through contrast with a utopian colonialism based on moderation
and Christianity. As a fulfillment of this utopian colonialism, Cumberland's
second part closes with a vision of its African utopia developing a colony of
enlightened Christianity in Italy, and this colony itself represents Memmo's
fullest internalization of utopian ideals and the climax of his novelistic progress.
Whereas the utopian structure of Berington's narrative implies that the ide-
als of an imagined Africa can improve European society, Cumberland's novel
renders this implication concrete by imagining a process of utopian coloni-
zation that reverses the eighteenth-century expansion of European power.
Like Berington, Cumberland highlights the paradoxes of his ideal soci-
ety by setting its narrative within a frame tale centered on captivity within an
African land that British readers would have associated with the despotic,
the exotic, and the depraved. What little knowledge contemporary readers
might have possessed of the minor principality of Sennaar would have come
primarily from one of the eighteenth-century's most notorious travel narra-
tives, James Bruce's Travels to Discover the Source ofthe Nile. From its 1790
publication, this enormous journal gained its author a reputation for self-
promotion, exaggeration, and even outright fabrication, leading one scholar
to describe him as "perhaps the most widely read but also the most severely
maligned traveler to come out of the British isles."37 In recounting his jour-
ney among the region's minor states, this traveling doctor describes constant
rebellions and conspiracies, autocratic rulers, summary executions, terrified
subjects, and his own efforts to propitiate a constantly shifting spectrum of
petty potentates. When Bruce reaches Sennaar, near the headwaters of the
Nile, the "peevish" monarch asks him to examine some fifty wives in the
royal harem, and he feels "obliged to attend them." Monstrous imagery satu-
rates his description of the women, "corpulent beyond all proportion," with
stereotypically dangling breasts and bizarre, physically abusive jewelry. Al-
though known in Britain for his imposing stature and physical aggression,
the narrator nevertheless reaches a crisis of personal agency when his "pa-
tients" take the lead in stripping naked: "it was not without great astonish-
ment that I heard the queen desire to see me in the like dishabille ....
Refusal, or resistance, were in vain. I was surrounded with fifty or sixty women,
all equal in stature and strength to myself." Thinking that this situation may
entail the violent revenge of the king, Bruce feels "disgusted" at his own
powerlessness. 38 What is particularly striking about this incident is how the
traveler frames the material of triumphant colonial action-penetrating the
256 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

harem, gaining exotic and extensive sexual opportunities, displaying intellec-

tual mastery through medical practice-within a narrative pattern of deten-
tion, coercion, and accommodation. This contemporary image of Sennaar as
a land of exotic subjugation provided Cumberland with a particularly abra-
sive framework for a utopia of liberation, just as Paltock and Berington pro-
duced similar disjunctions by juxtaposing their utopias against other African
lands where captivity seemed always a possibility.
Like Berington's novel, Cumberland's first utopian narrative opens within
the framework of captivity. With the initially published title, The Captive of
the Castle of Sennaar, Cumberland clearly placed his work in the category of
captivity narrative, with echoes of Barbary captivity, African despotism, and
Gothic castles. The novel confirms this generic imprimatur with Memmo's
opening words: "Immured within the walls of a chamber constructed of Egyp-
tian granite ... how can a man, habituated to confinement, better pass away
some of his vacant hours, than by recording the singular relations of a de-
parted friend ... who partook, while life remained, of the same restraint;
and kindly taught the companion of his fate to mitigate its extreme severity?"
(5). While Cumberland thus frames the "singular relations" of Lycas's uto-
pian experiences as a means of teaching reconciliation to confinement, the
prison stands as a background against which the narration of liberty takes
shape. At one point Memmo describes how the light from outside, "arrested
by the bars of a rude grating, chequers the paper" he uses to write (5), and
his narration is often interrupted by reminders of its prison setting, such as
rattling keys, drawing bolts, and a falling drawbridge, which function in a
manner similar to the inquisitorial interrogation of di Lucca. Thus the prison
setting retains an implicit presence during the course of the utopian narra-
tive, suggesting that utopian idealism always emerges in relation to captivity,
not only that utopian ideals remain always available to any kind of prisoner,
but also that the inevitable subjugation within any social order requires such
an idealistic response in the first place.
The novel further frames its utopian principles as consolation for any
kind of affliction or subjugation with its account of Memmo's entry into the
prison and his initial encounter with Lycas. On entering his cell, Memmo
swoons under its burdens and the intensity of his passions, but he wakes to
find the elderly Lycas, who thus represents wisdom for the mind enthralled
by passion. The headstrong young captive asks, "Have confinement and chains
any thing to offer me in exchange for freedom, probably for ever lost?" (6),
but the elderly captive replies with reference to his own experience in cap-
tivity: "Yet am I now tranquil, easy, nay almost content, after a long and soli-
tary confinement" (9). A series of such questions and answers set a personal
 Utopian Captivities 257

level of interpretation for the utopian narrative, indicating that its ideals of
regulation within confinement apply at the level of personal psychology if
not of social practice.
Memmo's personal subjugation to passion results from a youthful expe-
rience of political tyranny, as he reveals to his mentor through a brief autobi-
ography. This account takes the form of a progress through increasingly
barbaric tyrannies, establishing a vision of global tyranny that seems to en-
gulfboth European and non-European and thus to provide a frame of con-
finement for the isolated outpost of the ideal state. Memmo's journey begins
as a result of familial tyranny in his native Italy. His parents try to arrange a
marriage for him, but he resists out of devotion to another woman. His par-
ents then force his paramour into a convent and even lock their son in "an
accursed state-dungeon" (11). Released four years later, and "Disgusted with.
every species of arbitrary power," he leaves Italy to see "the miseries under
which France groaned, the despicable state of the Spaniards, and the hor-
rors of African tyranny; the brutal stupidity of the Turks, and the stupid bru-
tality of the Egyptians" (12). Within the experience of this narrator, then,
European tyranny seems to provide an initial impetus for the passion that
drives him into lands of more extreme tyranny. At the climax of this narrative
progress through a world full of despotic states stands the minor principality
of Sennaar, ruled by a "Cruel, accursed tyrant" (8) and dominated by the
monumental prison of the title, which seems not only the fullest manifesta-
tion of this tyrant's power but also the defining feature of Sennaar as a local-
ity. Memmo despairs of escape from a land that so greatly outdistances
European modes of tyranny: "From the Bastiles of Europe, an escape might
have been meditated with some prospect of success; but here, where the
whole country is a prison, and its sovereign the jailor, what hope is left me[?]"
(13). Defined by imprisonment, Sennaar stands as a global nadir of despo-
tism and subjugation, as well as a personal nadir of unenlightened passion.
Memmo's autobiographical progress through a global landscape of tyr-
anny precedes Lycas's own life narrative, which encloses his utopian experi-
ence within yet another frame stressing personal subjugation and political
tyranny. As a Greek subject of the Turkish empire, Lycas represents a people
anciently free and wise but now captive to despotic overlords, according to
the standard enlightenment assessment of Mediterranean history. Within
the harem at Constantinople, he achieves a fairly powerful position that even-
tually leads to disgrace and a desire to journey far away from his native land.
Once he reaches Sophis, he describes the Ottoman state to his utopian lis-
teners in terms that frame it as the polar opposite of their ideals. He under-
takes to describe the Turkish military, as he explains to the Sophians, in order
258 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

"to confirm you in your mild customs," linking it with "the most arbitrary
power" and a reduction of "the most valuable privilege of our nature, free-
will" (76-77). Once he leaves the utopia, his narrative closes with his con-
finement within the prototypical Mrican state of Sennaar, which thus seems
to coalesce with the prototypical Oriental polity of Turkey as instances of a
global tyranny that surrounds the Sophian utopia both geographically and
within the narrative structure of Lycas's autobiography.
As in Berington's novel, the movement of the utopian narrator from sub-
jugation to liberty parallels the historical experience of the utopian people,
who inhabit a captive land, a limited territory surrounded by a barbaric world
and deliberately isolated from it. Physically the utopia rests on an island within
lake Zambre, an isolated locale known to British readers only as the stuff of
legend. 39 When the utopians detail their national history, Lycas learns that
the "customs" of "foreign nations" provided the original "reason of the
Sophians separating themselves from the world" (67). As the utopia's founder
meditated on the means of achieving an ideal state, "he had long perceived
that it could only flourish, free from interruption, in a perfect solitude" (75).
In his search for solitude, the founder led his people from their ancient home
in the Indus valley across "large spaces of sand" until he reached the lake
"(which so happily encircles our islands), and found himself free from the
persecutions of mankind" (74). Desert and oasis, lake and island all suggest
multiple levels of geographical enclosure, as well as the potential that such
enclosure offers for perfecting material and social well-being. Lycas con-
firms this vision of safe enclosure when he informs the Sophians that he has
found, "except in this island," an evil state of society "every where," with
"tyrants framing arbitrary laws, and by hereditary force, over-awing the mul-
titude" (78). In the national experience of the Sophians as well as in Lycas's
personal experience, recognition of the tyranny that seems to dominate glo-
bal politics fulfllls a necessary precondition for appreciation, if not creation,
of the ideal state.
Again in the manner of the Mezzorain utopia, the Sophian state achieves
liberation both through geographical confinement and through personal con-
finement, through a careful balance between individual freedom within so-
ciety and the moral restraint of self-control. Like the Mezzorains, the Sophians
cultivate both freedom and dependence through a reduction of restrictive
laws. Individual freedom extends only to what the utopians regard as the
natural limitations of reason and desire. Because they believe that human
reason is "circumscribed," they embrace the goal of"restraining themselves
to the proper enjoyment of the mundane natures," so that restraint becomes
a central component of their educational system: "prudence ... or the re-
 Utopian Captivities 259

straining art, must be inculcated early" (63, 73, 83). Inculcation of personal
restraint and the absence of restrictive laws mutually reinforce each other,
so that each individual is free to follow what seem the natural dictates of
social restraint. In practical social terms, these ideals entail a form of com-
munism that prohibits class distinctions and private property. Lycas observes
that some Sophians temporarily occupy positions ofleadership, but when he
asks an agricultural leader if a piece of land is his "exclusive property," the
Sophian wonders if Lycas regards him as a slave-driving tyrant (47). As an-
other leader explains, true liberty means that all social distinctions arise from
differences in personal merit: "Equal citizens of our free country, we can
conceive no distinctions, but those of superior beauty, virtue, talents, or ex-
perience" (70). Freed from regulations and rigid structures, the ideal state
becomes a communal meritocracy.
Like Berington, Cumberland develops an extensively detailed model for
his utopian vision of social freedom through a focus on courtship and the
position of women. Sophian devotion to freedom encourages courtship even
among the very young, and parents avoid interference because they ascribe
an essential goodness to natural impulses of affection and sexuality: they "re-
spect the innocent will in all things" and are "fully sensible of the dangers
arising from the suppression of the natural fires" (44). When the Sophians
ask Lycas about the outside world, they sicken at his description of Turkish
marriage customs, especially at the thought of"tyrants" who choose partners
for their children (67). As so often in the mild feminism of eighteenth-cen-
tury Britain, the bald subjugation of the harem provides a negative foil for a
less restrictive valorization of female character.40 Quickly converted to the
Sophian method of courtship, Lycas looks forward to an informal marriage
with his Sophian paramour, "if constant attention, tender regard, and ever-
lasting love, could bind her" (67, 71). Thus the novel formulates a utopian
ideal of companionate marriage as a liberating confinement, a less coercive
bond than a legalistic marriage.
When Lycas concludes his utopian narration, the text turns to the possi-
bility of spreading Sophian enlightenment throughout the surrounding world
of tyranny and depravity. After leaving Sophis from despair over his lover's
death, Lycas plans "to go out a missionary to mankind, to spread, if possible,
the noble customs of this select nation among my fellow creatures" (90).
Initially this project of cultural colonialism targets black Africans, who seem,
in this novel, most in need of its offerings. Lycas achieves some moderate
success until he reaches Sennaar, where "in proportion as I succeeded with
the people, I excited the jealousy of their cruel rulers. Liberty, justice, and
humanity were here almost unknown .... No sooner were my principles
 260 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

understood, than my liberty was in danger" (91). The selfish tyranny of

Sennaar's rulers marks not only the diametrical opposite of the self-regulat-
ing freedom of Sophis, but also the limits of Sophian colonialism.
But if political colonialism fails in the novel's first part, it suggests that
personal transformations are more successful and significant than social ones,
and this contrast in itself illustrates the Sophian doctrine of liberation through
limitation. Two personal transformations form the basis of the complex nar-
rative structure of the first part, as Lycas's account of the Sophian utopia and
his own transformation forms the key component of a wider effort to accus-
tom his pupil to the practice of Sophian wisdom. With the prison providing
an ideal setting for teaching the paradox of liberation through confinement,
Memmo must learn to accept his bounded situation, to achieve as much as
he can within its limitations, and even to resist the urge to escape. Cumberland
· provides some rather implausible details of the productive and comfortable
life attained by the prisoners in their "spacious" and "elegantly furnished"
apartment (7), their time filled with drawing, music, physical fitness, phi-
losophy, and philanthropy. Despite his confinement, Lycas remains "at the
station of humanity" by spending much of his time at a window overlooking
a dangerous rock in the current of a well-traveled river. As he explains to
Memmo, he had suffered heavy despair following his first imprisonment,
but after witnessing the fatal wreck of a riverboat on the hidden rock, he had
devoted himself to warning subsequent travelers to avoid it, finding in this
service "some compensation for perpetual confinement" (10). This highly
implausible example is meant to suggest not only that there are worse fates
than confinement, but also that philanthropic as well as personal discipline
can overcome personal oppression.
The novel documents Memmo's psychological education in such disci-
pline during the progress of Lycas's utopian narrative. At first the pupil
struggles to emulate his mentor's resignation to confinement, admitting his
fear that "it will be long before I shall possess sufficient resignation to keep
me from admitting, into my mind, flattering dreams of escape" (33). But the
plot soon rectifies his doubts by giving him proof of the dangers entailed by
the desire for liberty. From their prison window they see "a poor fellow-
prisoner," who had attempted to climb down a rope from his window, but cut
his rope too short, and thus hung suspended, "nearly exhausted, and ready to
drop into a deep and watery hole" (59). After rescuing the prisoner, they
interpret his dangling situation as an allegorical tableau teaching the lesson
that "imprudence may augment even the miseries of captivity for life" (60).
A further lesson in the same doctrine occurs when Memmo reveals an incli-
nation to accept his gaoler's offer of escape. In response, Lycas asks indig-
 Utopian Captivities 261

nantly, "have I, in imagination, conveyed you to Sophis only to see you return
to this ignoble selfishness?-Freedom is, doubtless, inestimably, immeasur-
ably sweet, but, in base society, there is no true liberty'' (60). Against a selfish
desire for personal liberty, Lycas opposes the Sophian doctrine of resigna-
tion, here posited as an imaginative journey to the isolated utopian land it-
self. He quickly clarifies the nature of his objection by pointing out that their
pursuit of physical liberty will entail the imprisonment of another, their gaoler
(60). Such wisdom in itself can immediately suppress Memmo's desire for
physical freedom, as he explains: "the magnanimous sentiment exalted my
soul, and seemed thereby to have softened my captivity'' (60). True libera-
tion results from the moral discipline of resignation to adversity, illustrated
here through a refusal to harm others in escaping adversity.
With such incidents framing the utopian narrative, the first part of
Cumberland's novel documents both a successful personal conversion to
Sophian enlightenment and the failure of broader attempts at cultural con-
version in the face of Sennaar, a defining instance of political tyranny. Part
two offers a second vision of personal enlightenment, this time through
Memmo's journey to the Christian utopia ofJovinia. After the death ofLycas
and a rebellion in Sennaar, Memmo escapes and decides to search for the
Sophians. But his path takes him to Jovinia, whose Christian version of the
doctrine of liberation through confinement seems to offer a more powerful,
if still limited, model of social transformation. Cumberland's second utopian
vision flirts with the possibility of an enlightened, Christian colonialism ex-
panding from the heart of African tyranny, but ultimately the novel retreats
to a more moderate transformation, one operating within the limits imposed
by a seemingly inevitable tyranny afflicting both Europe and Africa.
After Memmo's escape from Sennaar, his subsequent experiences re-
turn to the personal dialectic of liberty and subjugation, power and depen-
dence, that marks his autobiography in the original frame narrative. With
the support of a loyal native slave, he indulges himself in a leisurely idyll,
sauntering about an Africa that seems temporarily free of governmental in-
trusions and blessed with enormously satisfYing material comforts. But con-
finement quickly ends this idyll as the traveler undergoes a series of captivities,
first through his ineptitude at handling Africa, when he traps himself in a
cave, and then through the stereotypical problems of African government,
when he is captured by a native tribe. After destroying Memmo's idyll of
personal liberation, his abject captivity among a stereotypically depraved
African people provides the narrative prelude for his social accommodation
with a liberated utopian people. As captive to a petty king, Memmo finds
himself "stripped, and dressed in the costume of his servants," and forced to
262 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

"fatiguing and laborious employment" (121). The novel exacerbates this vi-
sion of captive abjection through a stereotypical description of the captive-
taking people: "fierce, warlike, cruel, and superstitious, dirty in their habits,
rude in their manners, overreaching and treacherous" (126). Nevertheless,
Memmo reconciles himself to his abject condition with the thought that even
if he escaped from this people back to Sennaar, "a second captivity less salu-
brious than this ... might have lasted to the end of my days" (121). The
overarching threat of more terrible captivities constantly haunts this section
of the novel, especially when Memmo's new owner mentions an even more
terrifyingly cruel and despotic people whose rapacity threatens even the first
utopia's nadir of despotism, Sennaar itself. Safe in a moderate captivity from
the threat of more terrible captivities, Memmo abandons his African wan-
derings. At this point in the novel, just as the threat of absolutely despotic
Africans establishes the limits of personal freedom, Memmo learns of the
utopian Jovinians in a manner that serves to crystallize the dichotomy be-
tween the two peoples. He learns of the two peoples at nearly the same time
and from the same person, his captor. The increasing enlightenment and
kindness of this captor, moreover, means an increase in social integration for
the isolated, exiled captive, especially when he is permitted to join the
Jovinians. Captivity under a moderate African patriarch not only provides a
refuge from dangerous extremes of despotism and personal autonomy, but
also initiates the final stage in the protagonist's transformation into a utopian
subjectivity of moderation.
As in Berington's novel, the protagonist's personal experience of libera-
tion through captivity parallels the utopians' historical experience and geo-
graphical position as a captive people. In this case, however, the experience
of collective captivity and escape initially emerges through European rather
than Oriental tyranny, as Memmo soon learns after reaching Jovinia. This
ideal polity originated as an "oppressed" Christian sect, who followed the
teachings of a heretical Italian monk, Jovinian, and whose flight to Africa
permitted their enrollment as God's "servants," in "an independent church"
(164). After the monk leads his followers south, they find a refuge "Shut up
on one of the highest plains of these mountains," surrounded by a "wild and
rocky ... barren region" (124, 136). According to the paradoxical logic of
utopian geography, this "sterile barrier" becomes a "happy circumstance which
has determined our settlements, and has afforded us that protection from
the dark nations" (136, 139). Once again the fantastic possibilities of an imag-
ined Africa permit a geography of confinement, sanctuary, and voluntary
withdrawal from what seems the region's defining political and cultural regi-
men. If temperate Europe provides the initial site of Jovinian persecution,
 Utopian Captivities 263

the extremes of Africa permit starker definitions of political depravity, politi-

cal sanctuary, and political potential.
The Jovinians imagine their geopolitical confinement in specifically Chris-
tian terms of subjugation, depravity, and cultural perfection. As they explain,
"we are crucified to the world and the world to us" (152), subjugated in their
isolation from the larger world but thereby saved from its depravity. Geo-
graphical isolation in the midst of pagans not only recalls the myth ofPrester
John but further supports an ideal of Christian discipline as a withdrawal
from the sins of the world. In the midst of "idolatrous and cruel nations,"
surrounded by "corruptions," the Jovinians yet manage to preserve "the whole-
some discipline of our religion and language in equal purity" (174, 237).
Christian discipline also suffuses this utopia's variation on the ideal social
balance between freedom and subjugation. In this case political freedom
results from "a genuine republic founded on Christian principles, freedom
of conscience, and equal rights, the imprescriptible privilege of man" (176).
Despite this emphasis on freedom, subjugation to the divine will enforces a
system of self-regulation that keeps citizens in their places: "All are capable
of perceiving their general duties and believing in a ruling power, and obey-
ing his laws; but it is only given to a few to combine these feelings with the
talents necessary to direct and govern for the general good" (232). At first
somewhat skeptical, Memmo soon learns to accept the paradox that serves
as a motto for this utopia: "here the service of God and man might with truth
be said to be perfect freedom" (236). As in Herington's novel, Cumberland's
formulations of utopian freedom rely heavily on a language of regulation,
limitation, and confinement.
Memmo resolves this ostensible conflict by recognizing that the Jovinian
social system relies on individually internalized precepts of self-regulation.
Even more than the Mezzorain and Sophian utopias, this one constitutes "a
system of self-denial," celebrating "Temperance" and "sobriety of manners"
as resignation to the divine will (149, 152). Jovinian freedom results from a
regulation of the passions because they impose a tyranny on the will. Once
again a concrete example emerges with courtship, as the utopians believe
that greater freedom results from rapidly arranged marriages than from ex-
tended courtship, because "we know the force of the passions, and endeav-
our to restrain their power by shortening the duration of their tyranny" (216).
The self-regulation that enables such freedom encompasses not only sexual
desire but also social decorum and material production: "Excess in all things
was positively prohibited," and "temperance" was "universally adopted" as
the "main spring" of social happiness (155, 236). As expressed in the Jovinian
utopia and in Memmo's personal progress, civilization involves an internal-
264 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

ized system of spiritual and social regulation, a personal accommodation with

material limitation.
The Jovinian utopia provides an alternative model for British society not
only in its inward structure but also in its outward intercourse with other
societies. Whereas utopian narratives generally stress the enclosure and with-
drawal of the ideal society from surrounding corruptions, the second part of
Cumberland's narrative, written on the cusp of British imperialism, com-
bines this stress with an emphasis on specific methods for exporting the uto-
pian ideal. Not only do the Jovinians serve as a model for a Christian variety
of colonialism, but colonialism seems fundamental to the origins and organi-
zation of the ideal state. Looking back at the utopia's infancy, one Jovinian
leader labels it a "colony" (167). Another connects the outlines of their social
structure and the effects of their material prosperity to a seemingly natural
process of colonial growth: "colonists are sent from all overpeopled districts,
and a new community is soon formed, resembling the works of certain in-
sects, from parents, to families, to colonies. Such is the general outline of our
civil polity" (210). Besides this internal expansion within the utopian enclo-
sure, the Jovinians feel a call for an external expansion directed at the sur-
rounding African peoples and built on the twinned goals of"civilization, and
conversion" (154). Within the text's framework of captivities, this Jovinian
project finds its justification and its concrete formulation as a divinely or-
dained reversal of their national captivity. As the utopians explain, "we hold
an opinion that we are reserved and placed in this sanctuary, with a commis-
sion to spread the genuine doctrines of our religion among the benighted
men that surround us" (143). The generic isolation of utopian geography
comes to stand, within Cumberland's rendering, as a sign of the necessarily
captive and necessarily colonial hd.ture of the ideal state.
Much of the Jovinian plan reflects British plans for Mrica at the end of
the century, building on widespread arguments concerning abolition, sav-
agery, Mrica, and the responsibilities of enlightened, Christian Europe. Imag-
ining their project as quiescent improvement rather than aggressive
exploitation, the Jovinians plan to build a "Propaganda-College" in order to
train "armies, not of soldiers, but of martyrs" (165). In their plans for im-
provement, as in those of Peter Wilkins, capitalism appears as an enlight-
ened substitute for native systems of despotism. Through a "liberal diffusion
of our superfluous products," the Jovinians hope to convince their neighbors
"to cultivate the earth" instead of pursuing "gold-dust and slaves" (153). Like
many abolitionist plans for the aftermath of the slave trade, Jovinian colo-
nialism appears as a solution for what were described as inevitable native
tendencies towards tyranny and disorder. The utopians quickly succeed in
 Utopian Captivities 265

their first colonial project, which concerns the small tribe of Memmo's old
master, the semi-enlightened Foozoo. Although Christian agency occupies
the leading place within the novel's vision of colonial progress, it also sug-
gests that enlightenment can draw from many cultures in a mutually benefi-
cial synthesis. Thus Foozoo emerges as the novel's most vociferous critic of
European slavery: "I abhor the trade, which is connected with every atrocity;
my family slaves constitute my support, and I provide for theirs .... But
report says you Europeans tear them from their relations to work them like
cattle, give them no instruction as to moral conduct or religion, abuse their
females and make drudges of their mixed breed" (251). Jovinian guidance
augments his progress in enlightened despotism, helping him to repress the
local aristocracy, and convincing him to take the role of benevolent "presi-
dent" rather than rapacious autocrat (246). While this reformed African au-
tocrat strives to conciliate the Christian colonists, they retain their cultural
insularity within a special enclosure, "guarded from all intrusions from the
ignorant natives" (245). Much in the manner of British missionaries, the
Jovinian colonists guide the natives but remain separate, retaining the insu-
larity that marks their geography and their history, representing a utopian
fulfillment of British colonialism.
When Memmo decides to transplant the Jovinian model of confined
colonialism to his European home, this decision provides a climax for the
progress in personal enlightenment that began with his liberating experi-
ence of African captivities. His conversion to the Jovinian principle ofliberty
through self-denial is so complete that it forces him, in yet another paradox,
to leave this land of liberty and to return to a life of seeming captivity as a
European reformer. He anticipates his role as reformer in terms that parallel
the national position of the captive yet colonial utopia, as he plans to "make
the cloister my home-from whence to send abroad my systems of reform"
(238-39). Whereas a captivity narrative normally projects the return to Eu-
rope as a return to freedom, Memmo's return is a journey from utopian libera-
tion to a world saturated with tyranny. After leaving Jovinia, he must first pass
through Darfur, a land dominated by "selfish merchants, slave dealers, and an
arbitrary government," and then through Egypt, ruled by "a despotism the
most coercive" (249, 260 ). Even when crossing the Mediterranean from Africa
to Europe, he must fend off the machinations of an Italian corsair.
The presence of an Italian rather than an African corsair marks the first
instance within a broader pattern of reversal that transforms Renaissance
Italy into the text's final scene of despotism and reform, one that serves to
shift the aim of Cumberland's social criticism closer to home. Whereas Af-
rica revealed occasional instances of isolated enlightenment amidst wide-
266 NARRATIVES OF FICTION

spread despotism, Italy seems at first a land of unrestrained tyranny, espe-

cially when the encounter with the corsair leads Memmo to a broad indict-
ment of"European government! And in what is it better on the seas, than in
an Indian forest among savages? And Venice? Venice my birth place, the
pride of Italy, the Mistress of the Adriatic, the polished comer of the temple
of politeness-in what is she better? A depraved moral government ... the
paradise of priests and tyrants, where the multitude are sacrificed to the
few-a republic in name, but a despotism in reality . . . a community of
slaves and tyrants, mutually detesting and detested" (263). Just as the Italian
corsair supplants African figures of predation within the novel's character
structure, European savagery comes to supplant non-European savagery as
the novel's final political target.
In order to accomplish reform within the overarching tyranny of Italy,
Memmo must imitate the captive, colonial, and Christian methods of the
Jovinians. Mter achieving personal liberation through his successive captivi-
ties in Mrica, he experiences his European homeland as a captivity entailed
by the difficulties of reform. The threat of "a solitary cell in the Inquisition"
constantly hounds him during his plans for reform and ultimately forces him
to abandon Venice for a family estate in a remote rural district (267). Perched
high among some remote mountains near the Swiss border, the estate be-
comes a miniature version of the Jovinians' captive utopia, a confined but
liberated sanctuary from the threat of imprisonment under a political despo-
tism that seems to pervade the larger social realm. His worldly Venetian
friends imagine the estate a confinement, but Memmo, on his first night
there, "tasted freedom and repose, and dreamed of the innocent and affec-
tionate Jovinians" (276). As Memmo's dream intimates, he follows a parallel
course with the Jovinians, voluntarily a captive through his refusal to form an
accommodation with the tyranny of European society.
In his recreation of the Jovinian ideal, Memmo introduces new levels of
social liberty to his familial dependents while retaining authority as an Old
Testament patriarch, enlightened autocrat, and colonial planner. In order to
render his fulfillment of the patriarchal ideal more concrete, the text sud-
denly reveals that his reforms follow the precedent of his grandfather; as
Memmo speculates, "I suppose I was born to carry on his plans of emanci-
pating the minds of all around him" (279). This simultaneous fulfillment of
his birthright and of Jovinian ideals entails some loosening of the estate's
social hierarchy, but the novel generally formulates Memmo's utopian pro-
duction of liberty as an autocratic imposition of reform through patriarchal
channels. He asks his dependents to treat him as a father, and he installs a
Jovinian system of discipline, what he calls a "grand scheme, of subjecting all
 Utopian Captivities 267

my tenants to a system of pure morality" (290). This mini-utopia resembles

the Jovinian even in the colonial ambitions consequent on its captive situa-
tion. As Memmo assesses the situation, "all we have to fear is the envy of our
neighbouring states-to repress whose jealousy we seek every occasion of
serving them, thereby hoping to enlarge our boundaries, and soften the line
of partition, by converting them to our institutions" (296). The Jovinian model
for colonizing Africa now clearly serves as a model for colonizing Europe
with political reform.
In imagining an African cultural colonization of Europe, Cumberland
introduces yet another political paradox to be resolved at the level of per-
sonal psychology and face-to-face relationships, just like the paradox of an
African utopia or the paradox of a utopian captivity narrative. The personal
resolution needed for these paradoxes becomes clearest with the novel's clos-
ing assessment of Memmo's life, his African experience, and his work as a
reformer. After settling in Italy, the narrator decides that his life story, punc-
tuated especially by his experiences in Africa, provides, "however slightly, a
foundation on which to build by degrees a reform" (247). Confining social
change to the moderate levels of psychological transformation and personal
contact, Memmo comes to regard his life as a powerful instance ofliberation
through confinement, with his various political captivities leading to a neces-
sary personal reform, a positive suppression of youthful passion that enables
adulthood liberation and assumption of responsibilities. Under the influence
of the Jovinians, the adult narrator assesses his captivities as fitting punish-
ment for the youthful passion that had led him to disobey his parents: 'What
intemperance, what follies· had I not committed, through giving way to ex-
citement, and self will?" (260). After his return to Italy, a like-minded re-
former soothes the protagonist's anxieties by inviting him to compare his
current situation with the role he would have played if he had followed the
dictates of his father: "you would now probably have been a Senator sworn
to promote the objects of a remorseless and intriguing government, chained
to a misalliance," but instead "your passions repressed flung you violently
out of a vortex of crime by their own eccentricity, and the Castle of Sennaar
by its coercion restored their equilibrium" (294). Even the central captivity
of the title, within a land posited as the heart of despotism, now stands as an
instance of the psychological reform that lays the groundwork for political
reform.
In their structural movement from personal confinement to utopian lib-
eration and then back to moderate accommodation, the two parts of
Cumberland's narrative repeat the pattern of Berington's while accelerating
the radical drive of its juxtapositions and paradoxes. The Captive of Sennaar
268 NARRATNES OF FICTION

likewise begins with a focus on problems of personal captivity and liberation

before reframing those problems in terms of what ultimately emerge as more
significant questions of social freedom, organization, and interaction. Much
more fully than in Berington, however, the social resolution of these ques-
tions within a utopian setting depends on an analysis of personal psychology
and personal reform, especially as Cumberland formulates the recurring
problem of captivity as one of learning to subordinate personal desires to
questions of social cohesion. The novel's explicit concern with social cohe-
sion, moreover, extends from the ideally confined and integrated polity of
utopia to the problems of interaction between polities, problems that are
imagined here in specifically colonial terms. Within this novel, envisioning
an African colonization of Europe enacts both a general critique of Euro-
pean polities and a specific critique of European abuses in Africa. By imag-
ining such a colony, Cumberland flouts not only the standard opposition
between European enlightenment and African savagery, but further the op-
position between European cultural agency and African receptivity. This
conclusion amplifies the radical critique implicit in his predecessors' vision
of cultural contact, broadening their paradoxical vision of African trans-
culturation from the level of an individual protagonist to the level of Euro-
pean society.
In the utopian novels of Paltock, Berington, and Cumberland, cultural
interaction in the contact zone begins according to a common narrative struc-
ture but then diverges according to varying political agendas. Each novel's
first vision of cultural contact involves a captivity. From the perso~al per-
spective of the protagonist, the opening framework of captivity creates a mood
of abjection as a contrasting prelude for the joy of utopian discovery. At the
same time, the captivity framework serves to define the protagonist as an
absolute subject, punished for excessive self-will, cut off from society, and
opposed to an absolutist government. In each novel the stark opening cap-
tivity provides the starting point for an extended dialectic of subjugation and
liberation, mastery and dependence. A synthesis for each dialectic results
through the utopian society's paradoxical mediations of the absolute poles of
liberty and subjugation, especially through internalized precepts of self-regu-
lation, societal accommodation, and patriarchal deference. Even the spec-
tacularly masterful Wilkins constantly remembers his paradoxical dependence
on an African mentor, met in captivity, while the utopian educations of di
Lucca and Memmo rest firmly on the paradox of social liberation through
self-regulation.
The three novels diverge in their visions of the process of utopian cre-
ation. In a fantastic fulfillment of colonial ideology, Paltock celebrates an
 Utopian Captivities 269

Englishman's personal creation of an ideal state in an alien land, and this

fantastic creativity seems to depend on the master's consciousness of what it
means to be subordinate, on his adherence to the kind of principles, such as
opposition to slavery, that seem best taught by an experience of captivity.
For Paltock an ideal master seems to guarantee an ideal state, and the ideal
state is fundamentally colonial in nature. On the other hand, Berington takes
a more traveled route within the utopian tradition, envisioning the utopian
state as a distant, unreachable ideal, fundamentally alien to European insti-
tutions and practicable only at the personal level. Thus his novel closes with
the protagonist unhappily separated from his adoptive people, still practic-
ing their principles on his own, but seemingly incapable of recreating them
at the societal level. For this protagonist, moreover, utopian ideals forbid
participation in empire. Although for Cumberland utopia seems a similarly
distant prospect, his vision of an Italian patriarch enlightened through expe-
riences in African captivity suggests, on a much smaller scale than Paltock's,
that a master conscious of the experience of dependence can recreate his
own utopia of self-regulating freedom. While Berington largely ignores co-
lonial issues, Paltock and Cumberland develop the two most complex ex-
periments with the colonist-as-captive figure in eighteenth-century fiction.
Both authors transform the captive into a utopian colonist. Whereas a series
of captivities marks the progress of Paltock's colonist in the twinned ideals of
economic prowess and resistance to slavery, Cumberland identifies the limi-
tations of captivity with the very practice of utopian reform. As these two
novels reveal in a particularly telling manner, the figure of the captive of-
fered eighteenth-century Britons opportunities for imaginative exploration
of the cultural consequences, moral implications, and final destiny of the
colonial project.
Conclusion

In 1759 Samuel Johnson's Rasselas revisited the same fantastic geography

explored by Berington twenty years earlier and revisited once again by
Cumberland at century's end. But Johnson's plot, characters, and agenda ran
almost directly counter to those of his utopian predecessor and successor.
The most obvious contrasts were, first, Johnson's creation of an African dys-
topia rather than an African utopia, and, second, his choice of Abyssinian
rather than European protagonists. Although his evocation of setting par-
tially reflected his research into the European literature describing Abyssinia
and Egypt, his handling of the material involved so many echoes and rever-
sals of Berington's narrative as to suggest that the older work had provoked a
direct response. 1 Berington's utopia, with its intricate mixture of captivity
and freedom, would have offered both attractions and problems for a civic
humanist such as Johnson. He might have admired Berington's treatment of
confinement as a metonym for the "human" requirements of personal disci-
pline and personal acceptance oflimitations. But Johnson would have found
unpalatable the suggestion of human perfectibility implied by utopia. And
he would also have found unpalatable Berington's use of an Oriental captiv-
ity plot, with its attendant visions of individualistic liberation, absolute gov-
ernment, and stark cultural oppositions. In fashioning similar narrative
materials, Johnson developed a plot that not only undermined Berington's
vision of captive utopia but also throttled the drive for individual liberation
so important to earlier captivity fictions, especially the enormously popular
Robert Boyle. In Rasselas we find a conservative, humanist response to the
 Conclusion 271

liberal individualism and cultural antagonism of the captivity plot, and thus a
brief discussion of Johnson's work offers a suitable route for beginning a
reassessment of the British captivity tradition as a whole.
Johnson's dystopia resembles Berington's utopia in several ways. First,
in Johnson's Happy Valley, the ostensibly paradisiacal abode of Rasselas and
other royal children, we find a more extreme version of Berington's isolated
geography. Johnson's valley is "surrounded on every side by mountains, of
which the summits overhang the middle part"; the only entrance is a con-
stantly guarded cavern "closed with gates of iron."2 More direct echoes tum
up when he describes those outside the enclosure as "slaves of misery," liv-
ing in "regions of calamity, where discord was always raging, and where man
preyed upon man" (11-12). In describing the blissful life inside the enclo-
sure, Johnson retains Berington's emphasis on paradox, but the trope now
works to support a dystopian rather than a utopian vision. On the positive
side, the inhabitants enjoy a "blissful captivity" in their "prison of pleasure";
outsiders wishing to join them are called "competitors for imprisonment"
(10, 164). On the negative side, two chapter titles refer to "The discontent of
Rasselas in the Happy Valley'' and "The wants of him that wants nothing"
(11, 14). And as Imlac declares of the valley's immigrants, "They envy the
liberty which their folly has forfeited, and would gladly see all mankind im-
prisoned like themselves" (55). Thus the most enduring paradoxes concern-
ing the Happy Valley treat it a symbol of one of Johnson's favorite themes,
the dissatisfaction that inevitably follows satisfied wishes. As Rasselas comes
to recognize, the valley is ultimately a "fatal obstacle that hinders at once the
enjoyment of pleasure, and the exercise of virtue" (18). Once he discovers
that free choice and the possibility of misfortune are necessary for human
happiness, he comes to view the valley as a prison and begins searching for
an escape route. The notion that an enclosed utopia would restrict the con-
versational benefits and moral complexities of social life is a clear rejection
of the utopian tradition as a whole, but Johnson's paradoxical Abyssinian set-
ting points to the more specific target of Berington's African utopia.
By placing his utopian prison at the opening of his tale, Johnson partially
recapitulates Berington's narrative structure and partially reverses its im-
port. Each plot opens with its protagonist trapped by confining institutions,
and each juxtaposes this initial captivity against his later discovery of a per-
sonal ethic based on tempering liberty with limitation. But the similarities in
plot structure end there. Whereas di Lucca's Oriental captivity precedes and
even enables his utopian discovery, Johnson reverses that sequence by be-
ginning with utopia, then turning to escape, and finally introducing an Ori-
ental captivity plot near his close. Furthermore, whereas Berington's novel
272 CAUGHT BE1WEEN WoRLDS

moves from Europe to Egypt and then down the Nile to a land whose geog-
raphy seems Abyssinian, Johnson begins in Abyssinia before moving to a
fuller exploration of the Orient. The interpolated autobiography told by
Rasselas's mentor, Imlac, allows for a brief itinerary of Middle Eastern lands
before Rasselas and his friends settle down for an extended exploration of
the varied social possibilities of the Nile valley. But the final and most impor-
tant contrast between Herington's and Johnson's plot structures relates to their
protagonists' political progressions. Whereas di Lucca moves from absolute
captivity to utopian liberty-in-confinement, Rasselas moves from a false lib-
erty-in-confinement to a sort of confinement-in-liberty, an apparently unlim-
ited geographical exploration undercut by the limits of human psychology. Di
Lucca moves from captivity to liberty through the vehicle of an idealized pol-
ity, based on a social enforcement of limitation on radically individuated sub-
jects. Conversely, Rasselas moves from captivity to liberty by escaping a falsely
idealized polity, and throughout the text Imlac enforces the Johnsonian dic-
tum that no political institution can achieve perfection, while the best bet for
human happiness involves individual recognition ofhuman limitations. Although
both authors stress the need to limit self-assertion, Berington does so by creat-
ing a perfected social model for personal transformation, while Johnson's skep-
ticism about the possibilities of complete social and personal transformation
lead him to reapply Herington's ethic through a reversed plot structure, one
that stresses constant striving for individual improvement.
Johnson's echoes and reversals of the Oriental captivity tradition are not
limited to its earliest utopian exemplar. Rasselas also echoes the rationalist
and individualist escape routines that are central to the Oriental captivity
tradition as a whole. As Johnson devotes two entire chapters to Rasselas's
attempt to escape the Happy Valley, the protagonist becomes something of
an Abyssinian Robert Boyle, spending "week after week" searching for an
aperture, receiving Imlac's guidance in cultivating "perserverance," and fi-
nally fixing a plan based on observation of animal behavior (21, 58). By as-
signing the heroic rationalism of escape to Abyssinian characters, Johnson
undermines the standard British association of such behaviors, in such lati-
tudes, with European characters. Rasselas's rationalist escape thus initiates a
narrative pattern that will continue after the journey to Egypt, as the text
includes some local echoes of Orientalism's stereotypes while working more
broadly to undermine its totalizing generalities. In Egypt Rasselas meets some
merchants who suffer fear oflocal tyrants, and his respect for the Bassa ends
with some typically Orientalist revolutions in government: surrounded by
"plots and detections, strategems and escapes, faction and treachery," the
 Conclusion 273

Bassa ends up in chains, before his successor is likewise deposed when the
Turkish Janissaries murder their Sultan (91). But Johnson employs such ex-
amples to illustrate the instabilities of human rather than Oriental life; he
loosens the Orientalist bent of these examples by developing prominent
counterexamples and a globe-ranging social analysis that ultimately work to
undercut standard European oppositions between Orient and Occident. As
Imlac declares, "Oppression is, in the Abyssinian dominions, neither fre-
quent nor tolerated; but no form of government has been yet discovered by
which cruelty can be wholly prevented" (32). For Johnson, the faults of Ab-
yssinian government are human faults, not Oriental ones. Even more tellingly,
Imlac's youthful journey through the lands of the East reveals varied disposi-
tions among different peoples, and his famous analysis of European techno-
logical success works to undermine European triumphalism: "The Europeans
... are less unhappy than we, but they are not happy. Human life is every-
where a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed" (50).
Johnson's humanism may have retained Orientalist stereotypes when it found
them locally useful, but his global definition of humanity required some re-
sistance to narrative patterns celebrating British nationalism.
This partial retention of Orientalist motifs in order to undermine them
is also typical of what stands as the tale's only true captivity episode, that of
Pekuah's kidnapping by an Arab raider. In its digression from the tale's main
themes, the episode has always somewhat mystified literary critics, although
it rather clearly participates in the tale's development of a mild form of
antiromance. This role becomes especially clear when we consider how the
episode resists the narrative patterns of earlier captivity fictions. On first
hearing of Pekuah's kidnapping, the sanguine Rasselas, like a romance hero
or one of Chetwood's protagonists, wants to ride off to her rescue, but Imlac
soon determines an alternative course of action, based not on aggressive plans
for rescue, but rather on prudent negotiations for ransom. The episode fur-
ther reverses the customary patterns of captivity romance after Pekuah rec-
ollects her experiences in confinement. Immediately after capture, she recalls,
she feared the effects of "perpetual confinement" and any passing "caprice
of cruelty," but she quickly found her captor "far from illiterate," knowledge-
able of the "rules of civil life," and willing to make her the "sovereign" of his
camp (132-37). Although he keeps a harem, this most Orientalist of motifs
provjdes little occasion for titillation but rather enables Johnson's protago-
nists to pity both the ignorance of the women confined there and the ennui
of the master exposed only to such women. Hints of his sexual interest in the
educated Pekuah occur in highly chivalric terms before finally vanishing with
274 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

some anticlimactic negotiations for her release: "The Arab, according to the
custom of his nation, observed the laws of hospitality with great exactness"
and "restored her with great respect to liberty" (131). Pekuah recalls her
captivity as moderately civil, even enlightening, but finally overlong and even
dull, certainly a far cry from the captivities of Aubin's heroines. Ultimately
Johnson's treatment of this episode rejects the standard plotting of Oriental
captivity, with its customary expression of radical self-assertion, and replaces
it with a narrative of negotiation and compromise.
Another important departure from the common run of captivity plotting
comes in Johnson's choice of an Arab captor, since there was no European
tradition of factual texts or fictional episodes exploring extensive captivities
among the desert Bedouins. The choice of a Bedouin captor was central to
Johnson's purpose in the Pekuah episode, bringing the theme of liberty to
the fore. Eighteenth-century travel literature tended to associate the Bedouins
with the freedom of a wandering life and to oppose them to the allegedly
degraded empire of the Ottoman Turks. Johnson plays on these associations
by making the Arab an exponent of liberty. Although Pekuah attributes his
depredations to greed, she also quotes his own explanation for his actions.
He identifies his goals with libertarian politics, describing his people as "the
natural and hereditary lords of this part of the continent, which is usurped by
late [Turkish] invaders, and low-born tyrants, from whom we are compelled
to take by the sword what is denied to justice" (134). As liberty and civility
overstrike false expectations of cruelty and lust, the Arab acts as a repudia-
tion of the stereotypical Orientals of earlier captivity fictions.
Pekuah's captivity episode is immediately followed by one that scholars
usually have a much easier time explaining: the episode of the astronomer,
whose excessive observation of the skies leads him to the notion that he con-
trols the weather, illustrating the danger of indulging the imagination. The
effect of closely juxtaposing the two episodes is to replace what Johnson re-
garded as a less significant kind of captivity with what he regarded as a more
significant kind, at least with respect to the moral education of his eigh-
teenth-century readers. For a civic humanist such as Johnson, a plot based
on captivity by another culture was an inflated myth, the stuff of romance
and escape fiction; for a civic humanist intent on educating a domestic audi-
ence, the greatest threat of captivity came from the weakness of the human
mind. Johnson fills his tale with expressions such as "tyranny of reflection"
(66), exploring humanist psychology in terms of liberation and subjugation,
and these expressions become most pronounced and most dense in the epi-
sode of the astronomer. Under the force of the astronomer's example, Imlac
insists that "airy notions" can "tyrannize" anyone's mind and that the "reign
 Conclusion 275

of fancy" can easily grow "imperious, and in time despotic" (150-52). Com-
pelled by this example, Pekuah and Rasselas confess and reject visionary
schemes for self-aggrandizement. Thus the astronomer provides the text's
climactic, most telling example of humanist psychology and moral educa-
tion, and the immediate precedent of the anticlimactic episode of Oriental
captivity acts both as a false lead and an ironic counterpoint to the tnie cli-
max. In sum, an ironic retelling of a plot that normally entails radical self-
assertion acts as a prelude for a plot illustrating the dangers of radical
self-assertion.
Like the utopian narratives of Berington and Cumberland, Johnson's
captivity episodes are intellectual revisions of a popular narrative form, at-
tempts to probe philosophical questions and to educate a leisured audience
by complicating a plot structure that must have seemed quite familiar to
British readers by the middle of the eighteenth century. As a form that reached
many middle- and upper-class readers in its own day and fired the imagina-
tions of intellectuals, the captivity narrative now sfts at the edges of our own
canon of eighteenth-century British literature. Fairly extensive episodes of
American captiVity tum up in minor novels by minor authors such as Char-
lotte Lennox, Henry Mackenzie, and Charlotte Smith, but the most famous
such episode is the very brief and very unusual one in Smollet's most famous
novel. The captivity narrative also occupies a small place in the Defoe canon.
The genre inspired minor incidents in Robinson Crusoe and Captain Single-
ton, provoked a controversy over the authorship of a major text, Madagascar,
and finally provided a source, in Knox's Ceylon, that Defoe retold once and
may have imitated more extensively throughout his fictions. But if the cap-
tivity narrative is somewhat marginal to our own literary canon of the British
eighteenth century, the genre inspired several eighteenth-century best-sell-
ers that have disappeared from our reading lists: Chetwood's Robert Boyle,
most notably, but also Berington's utopia and the bulk of Aubin's fiction.
Although the captivity narrative occupies a securer place in the American lit-
erary canon, especially as determined by the Rowlandson text, that canon has
ignored a number oflater best-sellers, most notably cross-Atlantic sensations
such as the accounts of Jonathan Dickinson and Peter Williamson, as well as
nineteenth-century transculturation narratives such as Mary Jemison's. The
captivity narrative thus occupies an important though not fully appreciated
place in the Anglo-American tradition of publishing for popular audiences.
Stories of protagonists held captive by powerful others are, of course,
important in many cultures, and they remain a potent force in late twenti-
eth-century film. As the cinema clearly demonstrates, the plot of an unjustly
subjugated rebel who single-handedly overcomes a tyrannical system remains
276 CAUGHT BETWEEN WoRLDs

one ofWestern culture's most cherished myths. Narratives of heroic endur-

ance and escape quite simply saturate the films that Hollywood dispenses to
much of the planet. Heroes from Rambo to Tank Girl resist elaborate forms
of imprisonment, graphically detailed tortures, and tyrannical systems of
oppression in the most thinly veiled allegories of freedom. Moreover, films
such as Gunga Din and its nostalgic reenactment Indiana Jones and the Temple
of Doom show that the Western narrative of resisting captivity can still serve
both as an allegory of freedom and as a displacement of colonial agency, one
that portrays Western adventurers as liberators rescuing native peoples from
their own systems of oppression. The latter film, particularly, in its nostalgic
zeal for recapturing the essence of colonial material, reaches gothic extremes
in its elaboration of a plot focused on motifs of exotic captivity. Not only does
it follow its predecessor in celebrating active Western heroes who rescue an
innocent yet passive Indian population from an ancient cult devoted to mur-
der, but in this case the cult's favorite mode of execution involves a cage that
immobilizes the body in the shape of crucifixion before lowering it into a
fiery pit. In this captivity narrative as in Chetwood's Robert Boyle, the alle-
gory of freedom is an allegory of Western freedom, posed as a modern inno-
vation that triumphs over the allegedly slavish and oppressive dispositions of
primitive, non-Western peoples. The colonial history of the captivity plot is
still very much with us.
The modern captivity narrative's significance for literary history lies es-
pecially in its transformation of what was, at bottom, a very ancient and wide-
spread pattern of storytelling. Stories of capture, subjugation, and escape
are fundamental to much of the world's traditions of myth and folklore. A
series of captivities marks the journey of Odysseus, for example: not only is
he captured by monsters and witches, but Penelope endures an extended
captivity in her own home. In cultures from the Mediterranean to Africa and
America and Oceania, the hero's archetypal journey and his status as culture
bringer often depend on captivity, whether he is confined in an underworld,
an otherworld, or a land of the dead. Sometimes a hero must rescue his wife
from captivity, as do Odysseus and Tiny Flower, the hero of a Tewa (Native
American) folktale; sometimes a heroine rescues herself, as does Yombo in
some versions of a Mende (African) tale. 3 But although the folkloric motif of
captivity shares some superficial similarities in plotting with the early mod-
ern genre of the captivity narrative, the intellectual and social significance
attached to the captivity experience differs greatly in the two contexts.
Both the mythic and the modern versions of captivity associate it with an
increase in knowledge. But whereas mythic narrative links captivity to sa-
cred knowledge, the modern captivity narrative transforms the captive into a
 Conclusion 277

bringer of mundane knowledge, rendered through the scientific schema of

travel description. In a pattern typical of mythic captivity, Tiny Flower's wife
is held by a thunder god, and her name, White Com, indicates that her cap-
tivity and escape represent the seasonal return of thunder, rain, and the plant-
ing cycle. Yombo, on the other hand, like many another culture bringer, steals
technological powers from the otherworldly spirit who confines her. Accord-
ing to the ethnographic rhetoric of the early modem captivity narrative, how-
ever, a captive can return with few cultural gifts from an alien, inferior,
captive-taking culture. The captive's primary acquisition is knowledge, but
of a kind very much unlike the cultural know-how obtained by Yombo.
Whereas a culture bringer obtains the technological knowledge that enables
the community to work, an early modem captive obtains a knowledge that
promotes the individual reader's interest in the Western state. Perhaps the
former captive's knowledge can demonstrate the horrors of life under a for-
eign government, lacking liberty, perhaps it can buttress comparisons favor-
ing the material benefits of Western civilization, or perhaps it can contribute
to colonial exploitation of an alien people's strengths and weaknesses. What-
ever the specific rhetorical application of the captive's knowledge, the wide-
spread reliance on scientific schema such as lists, standard headings, and the
plain style ultimately makes the captive's knowledge-gathering seem an or-
dinary kind of skill, practicable by any Westerner who falls into the extraor-
dinary situation of captivity in an alien land.
The difference between these two versions of captive knowledge, in the
folktale and in modem narrative, is related to a difference in their visions of
the alien. The women of the folktales are held by bizarre, enormously pow-
erful supernatural beings; the thunder god who holds White Com challenges
her husband to a series of grotesque and seemingly impossible contests. Simi-
larly, the protagonists of dream vision narratives often journey to mysterious
caverns where they sojourn with the ancient spirits of nature. Humans in
myth and folklore, then; are held captive by the powerful sacred forces ani-
mating the natural world. Even Odysseus is held captive by Poseidon's son.
As mythic motifs contributed to the development of European romance,
captivity continued to play an important role as a motivator of plot, a shaper
of identity, and a sign of the sacred. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the
hero suffers several debasing subjugations at the hands of a supernatural
whose bizarre powers mock the complacent chivalry of Arthur's court. More
generally, one of our most basic notions of Western romance concerns a
princess's rescue, by her knight in shining armor, from the castle of a terrible
knight. All of these narrative conventions portray humans held captive by
the supernatural, by the sacred, or at least by the mysterious. None of these
278 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

narrative conventions devotes much attention to detailing the experience of

captivity, by describing prison, labor, or other particulars of abjection, but
rather they paint captivity in a few quick brush strokes designed to launch
the heroism of the protagonists.
Like the folktale, the early modem captivity narrative portrays subjuga-
tion and escape in a location associated with alien power, but it portrays a
very different kind of alien. Myths and folktales represent captivity in a sin-
gular otherworld, the realm of the sacred; no matter who the captivating
spirit, no matter what the route by which the protagonist journeys to meet
the alien, the features of the otherworld itself remain constant in their oppo-
sition to the everyday world of community life. The modem captivity narra-
tive and the novel, on the other hand, represent a variety of specifically
distinguished other worlds; one goal of such genres is to define the specific
features of the captivating environment, distinguishing it from other envi-
ronments in its class. The otherworld of myth is bizarre, almost inexplicable,
comprehensible only as metaphor and allegory. The otherworlds of captivity
narratives and novels are foreign but easily explicable, easily documented
through such intellectual schema as travel description. The otherworld of
myth is experienced only through arduous efforts, such as the spirit quest or
dream vision. The other worlds of the captivity narrative are experienced
through accident, such as when Robert Boyle falls overboard, or through the
alleged degradation of an alien culture, its supposedly rare disposition for
taking captives. Although the captivity narrative's antagonist is still an alien,
the genre devotes much effort to rendering his strangeness familiar, as the
discursive strategies of travel description portray alien customs as debased
counterparts to European ones. Rather than portray the captor as a mysteri-
ous entrant from a sacred plane of existence that informs and determines
the real world, the early modem genre of the captivity narrative portrays the
captor as a debased competitor for the protagonist, from another part of the
real world. Rather than portray captive-taking as an inevitable yet inexpli-
cable aspect of the sacred, the modem captivity narrative portrays captive-
taking as a debased custom resorted to by cultures that are made to seem not
merely ordinary, but inferior. The protagonist of a modem captivity narra-
tive is held by degraded representatives of an allegedly inferior culture, just
as, within the larger generic field of the novel, the protagonist is usually held
by degraded representatives of an allegedly inferior class, belief, or procliv-
ity, such as Richardson's aristocratic libertines or Austen's insufferable boors.
Subjugation to the alien is closely related to cultural identity both in
folkloric captivity and in the modem captivity genre, but the captive's rela-
 Conclusion 279

tionship to his or her culture is utterly transformed in early modem narra-

tives and the novels and films that later imitated them. In folklore the
protagonist's escape implies a full reintegration with the tribal community,
even to the point of defining collective identity around the experience of
captivity. In the stories of Tiny Flower and Yombo, cultural identity is de-
fined through the technological devices or the natural cycles that seem to
originate with the captive's escape and reintegration into the community;
captivity thus helps to define the hero as one who suffers for the community's
benefit. In early modem narrative, on the other hand, subjugation among
powerful aliens serves to define individualistic liberty rather than commu-
nity integration. The difference is especially clear when we consider how the
two narrative types portray captive heroism. Although Tiny Flower, some-
what like Robert Boyle, effects his wife's escape by defeating her captor in a
series of contests, the secret knowledge that enables his victories comes from
a helpful deity, Spider Woman, who rewards his respect for her and for the
natural world that she symbolizes.
Conversely, the rhetoric of the modem captive hero celebrates absolute
self-reliance. Even as John Rawlins's 1622 escape narrative venerates the
contribution of laboring men to the English state, it formulates his captivity
experience as an opportunity for personal cleverness and personal renown.
Likewise, although Robert Boyle and Aubin's heroines follow Yombo and
Tiny Flower in taking important things from powerful aliens, the novels treat
such thefts as mere additions to personal riches. Culture heroes gain items
of community benefit, such as a ritual device or knowledge concerning the
proper means ofhandling the planting cycle, whereas Chetwood's and Aubin's
protagonists take gold, jewels, or slaves. Within the colonial careers of ad-
venturers such as Robert Boyle, an early experience of foreign captivity au-
thorizes an unlimited personal license for individualistic economic and colonial
activity. He starts on the road to captivity after serving a lackluster appren-
ticeship and inspiring his uncle to sell him into indentured service; in captiv-
ity he bests an Irish renegado, and in freedom he bests a number of Spanish
colonists in America. Thus his return home in wealth and triumph stands as
a victory over his European neighbors as well as a victory over the peoples of
the non-Western world. The depredations of this modem captivity protago-
nist seem to mark him as a successful challenger within an international frame-
work of competition that pits the English against other, seemingly inferior
opponents. Within myth and folklore, the plot of captivity, escape, and theft
represents the community's cycle of antagonism and harmony with nature,
but within the early modem captivity narrative, the plot of captivity, escape,
280 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

and theft represents a Western individual's successful mastery of what seems

his natural antagonism to the multiethnic operators of a modern, competi-
tive, colonial world.
It may seem surprising that the British captivity tradition tends towards
the scientific and the individual rather than the sacred and the corporate,
given the prominent role of religious rhetoric within the early American tra-
dition. But even the earliest English travail narratives, dating from the turn
of the seventeenth century, contain surprisingly little in the way of explicit
religious commentary. Captivity among Islamic or Catholic cultures may entail
brief descriptions of spiritual struggles or the comfort of Christian belief,
but these themes occupy relatively small portions of text. Both in their titles
and in the texts themselves, these narratives place primary emphasis on the
curios of their protagonists' observations and the details of their experiences
in captivity. Although the motifs of captivity and travail invited application to
Christian beliefs concerning sin and salvation, the texts only rarely make
these applications explicit. As the captivity genre grows beyond the confines
of the chapbook over the course of the seventeenth century, nationalist and
ethnographic perspectives become increasingly dominant, expansive, and
refined. Only one British captivity narrative, William Okeley's 1675 Eben-
ezer, is as explicitly framed within and as extensively committed to the ge-
neric conventions of spiritual autobiography as are the American texts of
Mary Rowlandson, Jonathan Dickinson, and John Williams. If Robert Knox
sometimes borrows motifs from spiritual autobiography, these motifs make
scarcely any impression within a text organized palpably as a description of
an alien land. Compared to our own textual world, early British captivity
narratives may show a greater tendency towards the spiritual. But compared
to the generality of English texts from the late sixteenth through the eigh-
teenth century, the British captivity narrative is a distinctly secular genre.
Understanding the secularism of the British captivity tradition helps us to
place in a properly limited context the distinctly spiritual variation devel-
oped in Puritan New England. Spiritual impulses were easily grafted onto
the captivity tradition, but its roots grew out of the modernist, secular im-
pulses of science, liberalism, nationalism, and individualism.
Another intriguing point of divergence between the American and the
British captivity traditions involves the gender of the typical captive. Although
the female captive has long played a central role in the scholarship on the
American captivity tradition, she has played only a minor role in my own
study. My treatment of gender has tended to concentrate on images of mas-
culinity more than on images of femininity, and this concentration has largely
resulted from an effort at broad coverage of the British material. That fac-
 Conclusion 281

tual captivity narratives focus on female captives much more often in aN orth
American context than in other geographical contexts should by now be quite
obvious. There are some intriguing exceptions. In 1769 appeared a London
text attributed to a Mrs. Crisp, titled The Female Captive: A Narrative of
Facts which Happened in Barbary in the Year 1756. And in 1806 appeared a
Boston text titled a History of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs. Maria
Martin Who Was Six Years a Slave in Algiers, Two of Which She Was Con-
fined in a Dark And Dismal Dungeon, Loaded With Irons. These are the
only published works in English focused exclusively on female captivity in
Barbary, with the Martin text occupying a much larger place among the few
American texts set there than does the Crisp text among the many British
texts set there. The female captive continued to play a greater role in the
American press than in the British over the course of the nineteenth century,
especially with the rise of self-consciously American fiction. With the promi-
nent exception of Aubin, British novelists of the eighteenth century tended to
portray female captives much less often than did their American successors of
the following century. An obvious explanation for this divergence lies in the
geographical differences in British and American colonial practice. Female
captivity would most likely occur, and would raise the most interest, in a set-
ting such as America, where large-scale familial settlement had determined
the shape of colonial practice and eventually of national identity.
The divergence between the American and British captivity traditions is
also important for assessing the captivity narrative's relationship with Ameri-
can slavery and the slave narrative. The British captivity tradition, since it
deploys the rhetoric of liberty much earlier, much more often, and much
more thoroughly than its American counterpart, reveals much closer paral-
lels to the slave narrative and implicates American slavery much more di-
rectly. With its plot of oppression, abjection, and climactic liberation,
combined with its explicit themes of cultural alienation, culture-crossing,
and national belonging, the British captivity tradition offers at least an im-
portant precedent for the American slave narrative, even if no captivity ac-
count initially published in Britain ever furnished a direct model for the
author or editor ofa slave narrative. Both genres, moreover, show significant
parallels to a third Anglophone tradition of writing about oppressed indi-
viduals: the discourse of indenture. Former indentured servants produced
accounts of personal abjection and American life as early as the mid seven-
teenth century, and these texts show many more parallels, such as the use of
travel description, with the British captivity tradition than with the Ameri-
can one. Since Anglophone indenture narrators sometimes claimed that they
were kidnapped, often described themselves as slaves, and directly compared
282 CAUGHT BETWEEN WoRLDS

the situations of black and white servants in North America, this tradition
offers an important point for investigating the connection between the slave
narrative and other forms of Anglophone writing about subjugation. Whereas
any narrative of foreign captivity addressed an audience already somewhat
predisposed to accept the captive's vituperation of an alien culture, an in-
denture or slave narrative lodged its attack on institutions practiced or con-
doned by its audience.
Despite this difference in rhetorical address, the British captivity tradi-
tion still offers closer parallels to the context of American slavery than does
the American captivity tradition. Although the most common pattern of en-
slavement for British captives outside America involved familial servitude,
they still sometimes endured conditions, such as gang labor or extreme forms
of corporal punishment, that offer modest parallels to the horrors of planta-
tion slavery. Explicit discussion of American plantation slavery, however, was
almost entirely absent from the British tradition of captivity narratives. Such
a discussion would be less likely in the earlier British captivity narratives,
which hit the press before the rise of the English plantation system on the
North American coast and its subsequent tum to African slave labor. But
even in captivity narratives published after this transformation, meditations
on British liberties and the tyrannies of foreign peoples developed almost
entirely without reference to Anglo-American practices of slavery and in-
denture. One prominent exception, Robert Drury's narrative of Malagasy
captivity, only provides a further illustration of the rule. This text acknowl-
edges no contradictions even as it repeatedly celebrates the protagonist's
deliverance from oppressive enslavement, sometimes proclaims the moral
worth of the Malagasy, and finally records his cheerful participation in their
enslavement. Even with narratives set in America, Anglo-American institu-
tions of servitude and the captive-taking practices of non-European peoples
seem to inhabit different conceptual plains.
The tendency to avoid a critical comparison of institutions continues in
eighteenth-century fictions of foreign captivity. Chetwood's fiction, in its treat-
ment of settings from Barbary to the New World, would seem to encourage
a comparison of slaving institutions, but his presentation reduces both Euro-
pean enslavement of non-Europeans and non-European capture of Europe-
ans to a personal contest of subjugation and advancement: A journey outside
of Britain, Chetwood's novels suggest, amounts to joining an inevitable game
of capture or be captured. If Englishmen succeed in this game better than
other cultures, their success results from individual prowess rather than in-
stitutional practice. A more common pattern of portraying European prac-
tices of slavery in captivity novels involves using black slaves for ironic
 Conclusion 283

counterpoint and narrative disjunction rather than institutional critique. For

example, Aubin's omnibus, globe-trotting plots sometimes include charac-
ters in the manner of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, black slaves who seem to
merit sympathy because of their noble births, and not because of any inher-
ent injustice within the institution of American slavery. The later British fic-
tions of American captivity tend to adopt settings in the northern colonies
and so address the question of black slavery in only the most oblique ways.
Lennox's Euphemia, for example, portrays a black slave revolt as a minor
incident of terror for its heroine, offering no possibility of comparison to her
son's captivity. Much of Edward Kimber's Mr. Anderson develops an am-
bivalent critique of American indentured service and even of American sla-
very, but the protagonist's brief experience in Amerindian captivity seems
entirely divorced from that critique. The eighteenth-century fictions of for-
eign captivity that invite the most direct correlation between African slaves
and European captives are two that portray Europeans in African captivity:
the utopian novels ofPaltock and Cumberland. Paltock's novel treats captiv-
ity as an implicit punishment for its protagonist's participation in a slaving
expedition; this strategy becomes much more explicitly and extensively de-
veloped in Royall Tyler's The Algerine Captive. No British captivity narrative
of the seventeenth or eighteenth century, whether factual or fictional, would
draw such an explicit parallel between the captivity of Westerners in foreign
lands and the enslavement of Africans in America.
The Anglophone tradition of foreign captivity narratives thus furnishes a
vivid illustration of David Brion Davis's analysis of the fundamental contra-
dictions in Western notions of slavery. 4 Within both factual and fictional ac-
counts of enslavement outside America, the rhetoric of national outrage often
grows so strong as to imply the injustice of any practice of enslavement, and
sometimes the rhetoric of native British liberties spills over into a discourse
of human rights. That this rhetoric implicates Anglophone slavery in America
is a question that British captivity narratives do not face. Perhaps some ex-
planation for the post-1739 decline of British captivity narratives, both fac-
tual and fictional, lies in the rise of British antislavery literature. Increasing
awareness of American slavery may have made the rhetoric of liberty seem
contradictory or hypocritical when applied to British captives in other lands,
or accounts of American slavery may have supplanted accounts of British
captivity in providing readers with a vehicle for identifying with abject expe-
rience, feeling the value of liberty, and rousing moral indignation.
In assessing the British captivity tradition's relationship with its Ameri-
can counterpart, we need finally to return to the question of the captivity
genre's relationship with the novel. In its modem, secular, British context,
284 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

the captivity narrative underwent an initial development and subsequent

expansion that paralleled those of the early novel. The captivity narrative
began, at the tum of the sixteenth century, as a chapbook genre, inhabiting a
medium that also provided an early home for popular fiction. Protagonists in
the early chapbook captivities gave little impression of psychological interi-
ority and instead served as neutral mouthpieces for curious observations; the
observational rhetoric might apply the same bland tone to nautical minutiae,
to myths inserted by an editor, or to the tortures undergone by the narrator.
Mter these inauspicious beginnings, the genre gradually expanded in length
over the seventeenth century, much in the manner of prose fiction, until
some captivity narratives commanded multiple volumes and novelistic page
counts in the eighteenth century. From the late sixteenth through the eigh-
teenth century, the captivity narrative, again like prose fiction, involved in-
creasingly sophisticated experiments with documentary strategies. Job
Hortop's tally of imprisonments gave way to the more fully developed schema
of formal travel description, which reached a capstone with Robert Knox's
1681 account of Ceylon. On the other hand, Robert Drury's captivity narra-
tive eschewed formal description in developing a verisimilitude that firmly
subordinated ethnographic observations to the psychological process of the
protagonist's experience. The Drury narrative thus climaxes a long process
of expansion and experimentation with narrative treatment of captive psy-
chology. After the empty mouthpieces of the sixteenth century, seventeenth-
century narratives gradually increased the emphasis on the psychological
struggles entailed by subjugation in an alien environment, with Okeley's 1675
narrative standing as the fullest British adaptation of a captivity experience
to the framework of spiritual autobiography. Compared to such a culturally
insulated captive as Okeley, however, transculturated captives such as Drury,
Pellow, and John Dunn Hunter often displayed even greater psychological
conflict, and their experiences provided the basis for the longest, richest,
and most popular captivity narratives in eighteenth-century Britain and nine-
teenth-century America.
But the captivity genre was more than just a parallel for the early novel's
experiments in narrative form. As a direct influence on the suppositional
plotting of eighteenth-century British fiction, the captivity genre played a
prominent role in the novel's early evolution. In the 1720s, Oriental captivity
or the threat of captivity could provide a novel's primary plot line, animating
several extensively detailed episodes, as is the case in Chetwood's Robert
Boyle and Aubin's Count de Vinevil. Oriental captivity could also provide the
most common thread within a multithreaded, omnibus novel, such as Aubin's
The Noble Slaves and Count Albertus. Although Robert Boyle and The Noble
 Conclusion 285

Slaves were among the most popular of all the novels that I have discussed,
they did not initiate a vogue for basing whole novels on the theme of captiv-
ity in alien lands. Instead novels after the 1720s generally followed the pat-
tern established by the earliest fictional episode of foreign captivity, in Richard
Head's The English Rogue. This pattern involved a brief captivity episode
marking an important moment of transition or counterpoint within a
protagonist's domestic career. For many a captive male protagonist, the Middle
East often seemed to provide a gateway from feckless youth to colonial hero-
ism. In utopian novels with brief episodes of African captivity, subjugation
marks the protagonist's transition either into or out of libertarian utopia. Brief
transitional episodes of captivity became more common in the latter half of
the century, within novels that treated American captivity as a sign that gen-
teel Britons should abandon America because its endemic violence would
threaten British character. After the eighteenth century, however, even such
brief episodes of non-Western captivity would become much less prominent
in British fiction, as extensive portraits of captive protagonists relied increas-
ingly on domestic, institutional, and Gothic settings.
The eighteenth-century shift from extensive treatment to brief episodes
of captivity in British novels is related to a contemporaneous shift from an
aggressively nationalist agenda to discomfort with the colonial project. Early
in the century, the most popular treatment of foreign captivity in British
fiction, Chetwood's Robert Boyle, also embraced the most aggressively venge-
ful and predatory colonial plotting and developed the most extensive section
of travel description in any captivity novel. Likewise, the constant iteration
of captivity episodes in Aubin's The Noble Slaves was introduced by a pref-
ace that cited the most sweeping and damning of Orientalist generalizations
as a key for interpreting the episodes. In these early works, lengthy portraits
of the indignities endured by European protagonists were matched by por-
traits of their heroic patience, perseverance, and rationality, themes requir-
ing slow and careful plotting. But the shorter episodes that followed these
early ones rarely devoted energy to ethnographic method or to detailing care-
ful plans for escape. A few bold strokes sufficed for painting the protago-
nists' passivity and abjection, and on the rare occasions that they engineered
their own escapes, the narratives did not concern themselves with detailed
contrivances. If the early Orientalist novels emphasized the captives' poten-
tial for rational mastery of alien lands, the later American episodes concen-
trated on brief evocations of sensibility.
To understand the cultural reasons for this shift in the imaginative revi-
sions of the captivity experience, we need to consider the broader role that
the captive, whether factual or fictional, might have played in British views
286 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

of colonialism. The colonial cycle of British intervention and non-Western

dependence proceeded at very different rates in different settings, and the
variable results of this process produced variable narrative shapes within the
British captivity tradition. The British initiated the process in the sixteenth
century, sending adventurers to America, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Per-
sia, and India. Although the process produced rapid and early political trans-
formations in the case of North America, several centuries of trading factories
were needed before Bengali rulers acquiesced in British seizure of political
power during the 1760s, and British trade in the Middle East, active since
the sixteenth century, did not lead to imperial administration until the nine-
teenth. In response to these regional variations, British novelists imagined
regional variations on the captivity experience. Novels that transformed the
captive into an aggressive figure of colonial heroism tended to adopt Orien-
tal settings, reflecting Britain's eighteenth-century relationship with Middle
Eastern lands as the sites of colonial footholds, trading factories that might
have formed the basis of territorial expansion. Novels that attempted an ex-
perimental mixture of captivity narrative and utopia adopted sub-Saharan
settings, choosing uncharted territory as a suitable vehicle for imagining not
only a perfected state, but also a perfected colonialism, in which the move-
ment of ideas outstripped the movement of peoples and material goods.
Novels that expressed anxieties about colonial iniquities or the effects of
cultural interaction on British colonists tended to take American settings,
reflecting metropolitan attitudes towards colonies with a long history, an
advanced institutional apparatus, and a large settler population. Where the
colonial project was already quite advanced, metropolitan writers were more
likely to contemplate its faults.
Even before the production of these self-consciously fictional revisions
of the captivity experience, the stories told by returned captives deeply dis-
turbed and excited metropolitan authors. Even before they responded to
the captivity experience with imaginative fiction, they felt a need to inter-
vene in the production of "factual" accounts of captivity experience. As a
result, the factual captivity genre incorporated not only the perspective of
actual captives, but also the perspective of Britons who never left home.
Metropolitan editors displayed a variety of responses to the experiences of
former captives in the course of polishing, retelling, and sometimes even
fabricating the material of captivity for publication. If the editors of the ear-
liest British captivity narratives occasionally embellished the plain tales of
the captives with references to already well-established features of the ex-
otic, a countervailing effort to transform captivity into a basis for scientific
knowledge became increasingly important over the course of the seventeenth
 Conclusion 287

century, reaching an apotheosis with the Royal Society's sponsorship and

direction of Robert Knox's account ofhis Ceylonese captivity. Whereas Knox's
editors helped him to mold his experiences into a scientific framework, other
captivity editors often surpassed their narrators in developing the signifi-
cance of the individual captive experience for an understanding of national
politics. An especially clear case of an editor's deriving political inspiration
from captive experience occurs with Robert Drury's narrative. The political
implications of Malagasy culture fired Defoe's imagination, leading him to
speculate on the origins of parliaments if not to place liberal sentiments in
the mouths of Drury's captors. In an even more telling sign of editorial inter-
vention, this text so greatly resembles a Defoean bildungsroman as to pro-
vide some justification for scholarly identifications of the work as one of
Defoe's novels. The picaresque sections of Thomas Pellow's narrative like-
wise suggest that editors sometimes could not contain their impulses to add
fabricated incidents and to draw from established fictional patterns in re-
shaping captive experience. Each of these varied forms of editorial interven-
tion involved an effort to render the strange familiar, by reshaping and adding
material that would fit recognizable generic conventions, but the resulting
inconsistencies in style, voice, and frame often ended up rendering the
strangeness of captivity even more fundamentally strange.
The captivity genre's situation at the borders between fact and fiction,
travel narrative and novel, reflects the fundamental extremity of the captiv-
ity experience and the consequent rhetorical exigency to render that extremity
plausible. The captivity narrative imposed a rhetoric of scientific rigor on an
experience whose very nature involved a violent deviation from Western
norms of peaceful travel, domestic comfort, and authorial autonomy. Some
texts turned the exoticism of foreign captivity to positive account, aggres-
sively exploiting the notion that captives, as servants and converts who wit-
nessed alien cultures from the inside, gained more intimate experiences of
them than did other travelers. On the other hand, the deep cultural insights
retailed in captivity narratives often served to illustrate extreme differences
between British culture and the cultures of captive-taking peoples. Com-
pared to other travel narratives, captivity narratives more thoroughly docu-
mented the outlandish, the shocking, and the brutal, often stressing the
enormity, even the implausibility, of customs such as torture. And since the
captives sometimes underwent torture themselves, often suffered other forms
of abjection, and always complained of their subjugation, their accounts docu-
mented crises of extraordinary personal experience as much as the quotidian
truths of alien cultures. These crises of personal experience often centered
on the problem of transculturation. Accounts of personal transculturation
288 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

created a vivid impression of psychological tension because the former cap-

tives struggled to organize their experiences within rhetorical frameworks
stressing British nationalism and ethnographic distance. The retrospective
imposition of such frameworks on the extraordinary experiences of foreign
captivity created an impression of a subject under siege, struggling to resist
the forcible imposition of alien cultural forms, but also tempted by their
appeal and even capable, sometimes, of forming an accommodation with
them. If the captivity narrative, like the novel, relied heavily on documen-
tary strategies stressing the plausible and the customary, the driving force
behind these strategies was often rhetorical justification for textual inclusion
of the implausible, the exotic, and the forbidden.
As a result of this fundamental tension, the captivity narrative was not a
genre that merely enshrined an aggressive colonialism, but rather one that
also registered, and posed in its tum, fundamental problems in national iden-
tityand character. For metropolitan Britons, the notion of a captive's forced
subjugation and submersion within an alien culture demanded an aggressive
assertion of national character precisely because it raised such troubling vi-
sions of divided, corruptible, transgressive identity. Celebrations of liberal
subjectivity, cultural allegiance, and contributions to national well-being could
grow from portraits of captive gentlemen and tradespeople, merchants and
seamen, Quaker women and emigrants from other European lands. Within
all of these representatives of British nationality, the experience of captivity
and escape could serve as an illustration of inborn liberty, whereas the rep-
etition of despotic motifs across a global range of cultures suggested that all
the world beyond Britain possessed an inherent disposition for tyranny. But
the very vehemence of the captivity genre's nationalist rhetoric often stands
as an attempt to smooth over a fundamental sense of crisis at the heart of
national identity . The effort to publish and sell captivity in the print market-
place was an attempt to exploit a set of questions and problems raised inevi-
tably by the experience of forced participation in an alien culture. Could a
captive retain a British identity when forced into a subordinate position among
an allegedly barbaric people? How would a British captive react when his
captor turned out to be an Irish renegado, proof of the benefits obtained
through cultural conversion? What if the captivity lasted twenty-three years?
What if the captive took a native spouse or occupied a position of power and
respect in a culture that Britons associated with savage oppressions? Other
implicit questions developed through recurring narrative structures. Was
there something peculiar in British identity that made it capable of with-
standing alien oppressions or abject experiences, even of turning them to
positive account? Could British gentility survive the experience of American
 Conclusion 289

colonialism, with its overwhelming pressure to savagery? Did the experience

of captivity imply a colonial destiny for the British people?
My goal in this book was to illustrate this variety of questions as raised
within the British captivity tradition. I have focused this book on "British
captivity narratives" and confined myself to texts in English partly out of
limitations on my scholarly resources, and partly out of the polemical goal of
undoing the notion of a uniquely American captivity genre. But this label
should not be understood as an attempt to restrict the genre to a nationally
or linguistically defined group. As briefly indicated in chapter 1, the earliest
European captivity narratives came from the pens of continental writers who
entered Islamic slavery. Whether covering the sufferings of captives in gen-
eral or limited to the experiences of a single captive, texts focused on Islamic
captivity appeared in Latin, German, Dutch, Spanish, French, and Italian.
Like their counterparts writing in English, continental authors also some-
times adapted the materials of the factual captivity narrative to fiction. Some
early examples occur in Alonso de Castillo Solorzano's La Garduna de Sevilla
(Spanish, 16??), Hendrik Smeeks's The Mighty Kingdom of Krinke K.esmes
(Dutch, 1708) and Simon Tyssot de Patot's Voyages et Avantures de Jacques
Masse (French, 1710). Much better known today are the Oriental captivity
episodes in Don Quixote (1605), as well as Prevost's explorations of Islamic
captivity in his Histoire d'une Grecque Modeme (1740) and of American
captivity in Le Philosophe Anglois; au, Histoire de Monsieur Cleveland (1731).
Krinke Kesmes and Monsieur Cleveland develop mixtures of captivity and
utopian plotting in a manner similar to that employed by Berington and
Paltock. Rather clearly, more research and a comparative study are in order,
and it may be that the captivity narrative is a far more international genre
than my own study has suggested.
For the captivity narrative is, finally, no more a British genre, nor even
an Anglophone genre, than a Western one. The captivity narrative is con-
cerned with Western identity as much if not more than with American or
British identity. From the central European narratives of the late medieval
period to Hollywood's retelling of the colonial oppression plot, the captivity
genre has defined an isolated Western hero against the Oriental, the bar-
baric, or the savage, primitive foils for the West's modernity. The captivity
narrative is a modem genre in the sense that it is a self-conscious celebration
of the modem, of new information organized in a new way, handled with the
sophisticated care of science, and framed as evidence for the superiority of
the modem West over the primitive non-West. But the modernity of the
captivity narrative is always an uncomfortable, tenuous modernity, because
the evidence for the West's modem superiority is offered by someone who
290 CAUGHT BETWEEN WORLDS

temporarily lost, or even discarded, his or her modernity. Although captives

could and often did plead compulsion, many narratives do not stop short of
expressing pleasure and pride in personal assimilation to the supposedly primi-
tive. The captivity narrative, then, is a genre that speaks as much to the per-
meability as to the rigidity ofWestern identity. It is a genre determined by no
nation's origins, progress, or triumph. Instead it is a genre that speaks to the
history of the modern West's exploration, exploitation, and interaction with
other cultures. This history largely concerns the West's exportation of many
modern beliefs and practices, such as the libertarian, individualistic, and sci-
entific impulses of the captivity plot. But this history also concerns the West's
importation of what it liked to describe as alien beliefs, practices, and expe-
riences. And it also concerns the West's own troubled assumption of a mod-
ern identity. The captivity narrative provides particularly rich and concrete
evidence that the conceptual systems of modernity were not simply a West-
ern imposition on the rest of the world, but emerged in tandem with the
West's colonial expansion in a process that transformed Westerners and their
others alike.
Notes

Introduction
1. This quotation comes from the introduction to the anthology by Vaughan and
Clark, Puritans among the Indians, 2. Although Baepler has recently acknowledged
that British narratives of enslavement in the Barbary states provided a precedent for
the American captivity tradition, his work still concentrates on the place of the Bar-
bary narratives in American literature. See Baepler, "The Barbary Captivity Narra-
tive in Early America" and White Slavery in Africa.
2. Even as recently as 1997, in a generally excellent study, Sayre has identified
the Indian captivity narrative as an "Anglo-American genre" and Rowlandson's text
as "the foundational captivity narrative"; see Sayre, Les Sauvages Americains, 258.
3. Earlier studies of captivity narratives set in the Barbary states have some-
times recognized their potential impact on the American captivity tradition but not
their full extent and distribution. See Starr, "Escape from Barbary," 35--52; Lewis,
"Savages of the Seas," 75-84; and Baepler, "The Barbary Captivity Narrative in Early
America."
4. Said, Orientalism. While Said concentrates on the fully developed Orientalism
of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, the concept of an aggressive rheto-
ric common both to academic and to popular literature is also quite useful in under-
standing the West's writing on the "Orient" in earlier centuries, as long as one
recognizes that Orientalism was still a rhetoric in formation during that period. De-
veloping gradually through the centuries when the West acquired an increasing domi-
nance of Middle Eastern lands, Orientalism came gradually to dominate other Western
modes for describing those lands.
5. Annesley, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Young Nobleman (1743); Kimber, The
292 Notes to Pages 13-25

History ofthe Life and Adventures of Mr. Anderson (1754); and The Adventures ofa
Kidnapped Orphan (1747). For a fuller discussion of indenture narratives, see Van
Der Zee, Bound Over; and Snader, "Caught between Worlds," 301-65.

1. Travel, Travail, and the British Captivity Tradition

1. Hortop, The Travailes of an English Man (1591), 23. Further citations ap-
pear in the text.
2. Vail initiated this misapprehension, speculating that the Hortop text was
"apparently the first story of the Indian captivity of an Englishman," based on a
description of the text as given in Jones, Adventures in Americana, 1:51. For Vail, see
The Voice of the Old Frontier; 8, 94. Americanist scholars have often accepted Vail's
assessment without investigation.
3. This theme runs throughout Bhabha's essays, collected in The Location of
Culture.
4. Derounian-Stodola and Levemier, The Indian Captivity Narrative, 11.
5. For a modem English edition, see Schiltberger, The Bondage and Travels of
Johann Schiltberger (1427), ed. Neumann, trans. Telfer.
6. Georgijevic, The Ofspring of the House of Ottomanno (1569).
7. For further discussion of these and other accounts, see Beck, From the Ris-
ing of the Sun, 26; and Wolf, The Barbary Coast, 341-42.
8. On both the history and the myth of the Inquisition, see Peters, Inquisition.
9. Saunders, A True Discription and Breefe Discourse (1587), B2v.
10. See Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations (1589), for the captivity of Thomas
Saunders (3:139-55) and the travels of Job Hortop (6:336-54). Purchas includes
many more captivities in Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes (1613).
See, for example, the narratives of John Rawlins (6: 151-71), Lewis Barthema (9:78-
83), and Nicholas Roberts (9:311-21).
11. See, for example, the effort by Derounian-Stodola and Levernier, The In-
dian Captivity Narrative (216-24), to establish a standard set of title abbreviations,
based primarily on the last names of captivity authors.
12. The first American edition to follow the British naming convention was
Rowlandson, A Narative ofthe Captivity (1770 ). See Vail, The Voice ofthe Old Fron-
tier; 290.
13. I have counted both preface and text, using the fullest eighteenth-century
editions.
14. See, for example, the anthology edited by Levemier and Cohen, The Indi-
ans and Their Captives.
15. Armstrong and Tennenhouse, "The American Origins of the English Novel,"
386-410; rpt. in The Imaginary Puritan, 196-216. The authors claim incorrectly that
Rowlandson appeared in thirty editions by the end of the eighteenth century (a sev-
enteenth imprint appeared in 1800), and that the "fifth" American edition of 1720
also appeared in Britain (for correct details, see Vail, The Voice ofthe Old Frontier).
 Notes to Pages 25-38 293

16. Derounian, "The Publication, Promotion, and Distribution of Mary

Rowlandson's Indian Captivity Narrative in the Seventeenth Century," 248. Derounian
cites some evidence of the text's promotion in England but acknowledges that any
evidence for English readership is largely "conjectural" (256).
17. Vail, The Voice of the Old Frontier, 328. Besides Williamson's account, the
other two most popular narratives were those of John Marrant (1785) and Mary
Jemison (1824), rather than Rowlandson's. Like Williamson's narrative, Marrant's
succeeded first in the British press.
18. Vail, The Voice of the Old Frontier, 263.
19. For a particularly Americanized version of Williamson's narrative, see Van
Der Zee, Bound Over, 209-27.
20. Carleton, "The Indian Captivity," 169--80; Pearce, "The Significances of the
Captivity Narrative," 1-20.
21. Derounian-Stodola and Levernier, The Indian Captivity Narrative, 40.
22. Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness ofGod (1682), in Puritans among
the Indians, ed. Vaughan and Clark, 33.
23. VanDerBeets, introduction to Held Captive by Indians, xx-xxiv. This intro-
duction encapsulates the stance taken throughout VanDerBeets's writings on Ameri-
can captivity narratives; his essays are collected in The Indian Captivity Narrative.
24. Ebersole, Captured by Texts.
25. Dickinson, God's Protecting Providence (1699), ed. Andrews and Andrews,
52.
26. Williams, The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion (1707), ed. Vaughan
and Clark, 167-226.
27. See, for example, Castiglia, Bound and Determined; Kolodny, The Land
before Her, 6-67; Gherman, "From Parlour to Tepee"; Person, "The American Eve,"
668-85; Namias, White Captives. Rowlandson's text plays a crucial role in these works
and has inspired two extended treatments of her retrospective efforts to impose a
Puritan discursive order on memories of extreme personal suffering, alienation, and
strangeness. See Howe, The Birth-Mark, 89--101, 123--28; and Breitweiser, Ameri-
can Puritanism and the Defense of Mourning.
28. McKeon, The Origins of the English Novel, especially 39--52.
29. Davies, A True Relation (1614), C1v.
30. Davies, A True Relation, C1r.
31. At least two reprints appeared, in 1592 and 1600. I have used the 1592
printing.
32. Webbe, The Rare and Most Wonderfull Things, D3r, D1v.
33. Lithgow, The Totall Discourse (1632), 56.
34. Okeley, Eben-ezer (1675), 15-16.
35. Okeley, Eben-ezer, 17.
36. VanDerBeets, introduction, xii.
37. Wolf, The Barbary Coast, 341. For a useful overview of early modem histo-
riography concerning the Barbary Coast, see 341-42.
294 Notes to Pages 38-53

38. For a fuller discussion, see chapter 2 below.

39. Goonetileke, introduction to Knox, An Historical Relation ofthe Island Ceylon
(1681), xv. See also Goonetileke, "Robert Knox in the Kandyan Kingdom, 1660-
1679," 81-151.
40. Nasir, The Arabs and the English, 31.
41. See Oliver, introduction to Drury, Madagascar (1729), ed. Oliver, 10. Fur-
ther citations appear in the text. For specific examples of Drury's influence, see Secord,
Robert Drury's Journal, 4, 62-63.
42. Philosophical Transactions, 1 (1665-1666): 140--43.
43. Churchill and Churchill, eds., A Collection of Voyages and Travels (1704),
1:lxxili-lxxvi. The directions for travelers were also expanded for Boyle, General Heads
for the Natural History of a Country (1692).
44. Philosophical Transactions, 1 (1665-1666): 186.
45. Philosophical Transactions, 1 (1665-1666): 188.
46. Churchill and Churchill, eds., A Collection ofVoyages and Travels, lxxv.
47. Frantz, The English Traveller and the Movement of Ideas.
48. Pitts, A True and Faithful Account (1738), xv, vi. Further citations appear in
the text.
49. Sayre, Les Sauvages Americains, 24-25, 79-143.
50. Knox, A Historical Relation of Ceylon ... , ed. James Ryan, xxx. For more
details on the work's publication, see Goonetileke, introduction to An Historical Re-
lation of the Island of Ceylon (1681), ix.
51. Sayre, Les Sauvages Americains, 259.
52. Thomas Sprat, The History of the Royal Society (1667), 62.
53. The voluminous scholarship on the plain style is conveniently summarized
and carefully reformulated in Robert Adolph, The Rise of Modem Prose. For the
plain style's importance in travel writing, see Frantz, The English Traveller and the
Movement of Ideas, 57-68; and McKeon, The Origins ofthe English Novel, 100-13.
54. Philosophical Transactions 9 (1676-1677): 552.
55. Phelps, A True Account (1685), 26.
56. Starr, "Escape from Barbary," 36-37.
57. Coustos, The Sufferings oflohn Coustos (1746), 62-63.
58. Coustos, The Sufferings ofJohn Coustos, 68.
59. For a particularly strong discussion of these issues, see Fitzpatrick, "The
Figure of Captivity," 1-26.
60. For particularly strident examples of either extreme, see Castiglia, Bound
and Determined, 45-52; and Ebersole, Captured by Texts, 15-60.
61. Hawthorne's retelling appeared under the title "The Duston Family," in The
American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge (1836), and Thoreau in-
cluded a brief retelling inA Week on the Concord and the Merrimack Rivers (1849).
They are reprinted and analyzed in Levemier and Cohen, The Indians and Their
Captives, 156-59, 224-30. Dustan's violence provides the crucial instance of what
 Notes to Pages 56-63 295

Fiedler has seen as a central archetype within American mythology; see Fiedler, The
Return of the Vanishing American, 91-108.
62. For sources related to Defoe's possible role in the Drury narrative, see Moore,
DeFoe in the Pillory; and Secord, Robert Drury's Journal, 1-71.
63. Pellow, The History of the Long Captivity (1739), 28-29.
64. Davies, A Trve Relation (1614), A4r.
65. Evans and Chevers, This is a Short Relation of some of the Cruel Sufferings
(1662).
66. Vaughan, The Adventures of Five Englishmen from Pula Condoro (1714), 71.
67. See Saunders, A True Discription and Breefe Discourse (1587), especially C2v.
68. Evans and Chevers, This is a Short Relation of some of the Cruel Sufferings
(1662), 17.
69. During the eighteenth century, Dickinson inspired a dozen printings and
retellings, split equally between Britain and America. Williamson inspired a dozen
in Britain alone. For details, see Vail, The Voice of the Old Frontier.
70. Dickinson, God's Protecting Providence (1699), ed. Andrews and Andrews,
52.
71. Brooks, Barbarian Cruelty (1693), 31-34, 84.
72. Williamson, French and Indian Cruelty (1757), 45. Further citations appear
in the text.
73. This use of the captivity narrative to fortify the Puritan community is espe-
cially evident in Mather, Humiliations Follow'd by Deliverances (1697), Decennium
Luctuosum (1699), and A Memorial ofthe Present Deplorable State of New-England
(1707). Scholars have long recognized this use of the captivity genre, but see espe-
cially Fitzpatrick, "The Figure of Captivity," 1-26; and Ebersole, Captured by Texts,
61-76.

2. The Captive as Hero

1. This understanding of the captivity genre is especially important for
Armstrong and Tennenhouse's argument for a connection between captivity narra-
tive and novel. See "The American Origins of the English Novel," 386-410; rpt. in
The Imaginary Puritan, 196-216.
2. This recognition is implicit in such broad surveys as Derounian-Stodola and
Levernier's The Indian Captivity Narrative and Namias's White Captives. It becomes
an explicit point of argument in Mitchell Breitwieser's American Puritanism and the
Defense of Mourning; in Castiglia's Bound and Determined; and in Burnham's Cap-
tivity and Sentiment.
3. As David R. Sewell has argued in relation to the American texts, captivity
narratives "are, at root, ethnographies. By describing and interpreting the experi-
ence of captivity, the captive reverses after the fact the 'natural' power relations be-
tween 'savage' and 'civilized' that imprisonment has temporarily reversed. The Indian,
296 Notes to Pages 64-72

whatever his actual power during the event, can be captured and tamed once and for
all in the written narrative." See Sewell, "So Unstable and Like Mad Men They
Were," in A Mixed Race, ed. Shuffleton, 42.
4. For a study that recognizes the tension between passivity and activity within
American accounts, see Burnham, Captivity and Sentiment, especially 51-60.
5. Davies, A Trve Relation (1614).
6. Webbe, The Rare and Most VVonderfull Things (1590).
7. Hasleton, Strange and Wonderfull Things (1595), B3v.
8. Lithgow, The Totall Discourse (1632), 468.
9. Williamson, French and Indian Cruelty (1757), 3. Further citations appear
in the text.
10. A Narrative of the Capture and Treatment ofJohn Dodge, 13; according to
Derounian-Stodola and Levernier (The Indian Captivity Narrative, 28-30), portions
of this text were reprinted in The Remembrancer in 1779.
11. Pearce, "The Significances of the Captivity Narrative," 6-13; VanDer Beets,
The Indian Captivity Narrative, 13-24; Denn, "Captivity Narratives of the Ameri-
can Revolution," 575-82; Sieminski, "The Puritan Captivity Narrative and the Poli-
tics of the American Revolution," 35-56; Derounian-Stodola and Levernier, The
Indian Captivity Narrative, 23-36, 63-73.
12. Webbe, The Rare and Most VVonderfull Things (1590), A3r-A3v.
13. Phelps, dedication page, A True Account (1685).
14. The Famous and Wonderfull Recoverie (1622), A2r-A3r.
15. T. S[mith], The Adventures of (Mr. T S.) (1670), 5, 13. Further citations
appear in the text.
16. Okeley, Eben-ezer (1675), A7r.
17. Phelps, preface, A True Account (1685).
18. Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Laslett, 268. Further citations ap-
pear in the text. For a similar discussion in Hobbes, see Leviathan, ed. Tuck, 141.
19. For other equations between slavery and captivity, see Locke, 284, 322-23.
20. For detailed analyses of this language, see Dickinson, Liberty and Property;
and Clark, The Language of Liberty.
21. Pellow, The History of the Long Captivity (1739), 2.
22. For an analysis of the American context at the turn of the nineteenth cen-
tury, see Lewis, "Savages of the Seas," 75-84. For a discussion of early American
dramas that employ the Barbary plot, see Montgomery, ''White Captives, African
Slaves," 615-30.
23. Martin, The Tryal and Sufferings (1724), A2r, A3r.
24. Coustos, The Sufferings oflohn Coustos (1746), viii.
25. Coustos, The Sufferings ofJohn Coustos (1746), xxvi.
26. Knox, An Historical Relation (1681), 123. Further citations appear in the text.
27. Gyles, Memoirs of Odd Adventures (1736), in Puritans Among the Indians,
ed. Vaughan and Clark, 105. Further citations from this anthology appear in the text
as Vaughan and Clark.
 Notes to Pages 73-91 297

28. For studies that adopt earher perspectives than Said's influential Orientalism,
see Doob, Nebuchadnezzar's Children; Methtzki, The Matter of Araby in Medieval
England; and Chew, The Crescent and the Rose.
29. Phelps, A True Account (1685), 8-9.
30. Vaughan, The Adventures of Five Englishmen (1714), 77.
31. Bumstead, "Carried to Canada!" 79-96.
32. Martin, The Tryal and Sufferings (1724), especially 23-34, 81-91.
33. Langbein, Torture and the Law of Proof; Peters, Torture, 74-102.
34. In Knox, An Historical Relation (1681), the plates face pages 22, 38, and 104.
35. Brooks's work first appeared in London in 1693, followed by an American
printing in Boston, published by S. Phillips in 1700.
36. Saunders, A True Discription and Breefe Discourse (1587), C2v.
37. Hasleton, Strange and Wonderfull Things (1595), B2v.
38. Webbe, The Rare and Most Wonderfull Things (1590), C4v, A3v.
39. Knight, A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie (1640), 26.
40. Vaughan, The Adventures of Five Englishmen (1714), 141, 73.
41. Vaughan, The Adventures of Five Englishmen, 84-85.
42. Burnham, Captivity and Sentiment, 52-91.
43. Drury, Madagascar (1729), 56.
44. Wadsworth, The English Spanish Pilgrime (1629), 40.
45. For examples and analysis of the gauntlet, see Axtell, The Invasion Within,
312-14.
46. Elliot, A Modest Vindication of Titus Oates (1682), 6.
47. Rowlandson's function as a "captive-commodity'' forms an important ele-
ment in Burnham's analysis of her cultural hybridity (see Captivity and Sentiment,
18-21).
48. Okeley, Eben-ezer (1675), 21, 42.
49. Elliot, A Modest Vindication of Titus Oates (1682), 3-10.
50. For Rowlandson's economic activity, see Vaughan and Clark, 52, 55. For
feminist interpretations of this activity, see Ulrich, Good Wives, 227-28; and Burnham,
Captivity and Sentiment, 28-30.
51. Vaughan, The Adventures of Five Englishmen (1714), 85, 106.
52. See the groundbreaking essay by Axtell, "At the Water's Edge."
53. Kupperman, Settling with the Indians, 171-81.
54. For India, see Spear, The Nabobs, and Marshall, "Taming the Exotic," 49;
for the Middle East, see Wood, A History of the Levant Company, 229-45; for M-
rica, see Davies, The Royal Africa Company, 240-64.
55. Knight, A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie (1640), 53, 55.
56. See, for example, the third edition of French and Indian Cruelty (1758).
57. Drury, Madagascar (1729), 63.
58. The providential framework is especially important for Ebersole's Captured
by Texts. This study reads even nineteenth-century texts largely in terms of residual
traces of providential discourse.
 298 Notes to Pages 91-100

59. VanDerBeets, The Indian Captivity Narrative, 1-11; Vaughan and Clark, 1-
28; Ebersole, Captured by Texts, 61-97.
60. Vaughan, The Adventures of Five Englishmen (1714), 142, 118--19.
61. For varying critical perspectives on these issues, see Watt, The Rise of the
Novel, especially 60--92; Novak, Defoe and the Nature of Man; Hunter, The Reluc-
tant Pilgrim; Starr, Defoe and Casuistry; Richetti, Defoe's Narratives; and McKeon,
The Origins of the English Novel, 315-37.
62. An instructive parallel to Knox's dedication is in the famous preface to Mary
Rowlandson's account, published a year after Knox's narrative and signed "Per
Amicum," most likely Increase Mather. See Rowlandson, The Soveraignty & Good-
ness of God (1682), A2r-A3v. See also the analysis in Ebersole, Captured by Texts,
43-49.
63. Phelps, A True Account (1685), 24.
64. Knight, A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie (1640), 27, 15.

3. The Perils and the Powers of Cultural Conversion

l. Armstrong and Tennenhouse recognize the problem of the captive's mal-
leable cultural identity as a backdrop for what they see as Rowlandson's intense as-
sertion of Englishness; see "The American Origins of the English Novel," 386-410;
rpt. in The Imaginary Puritan, 196-216. For an interpretation of Rowlandson that
· stresses her participation in native culture, see Burnham, Captivity and Sentiment,
10-49.
2. Burnham, Captivity and Sentiment, 3.
3. Pellow, The History of the Long Captivity (1739), 2-3. Further citations
appear in the text.
4. See the fourth edition of Pitts, A True and Faithful Account (1738). Further
citations appear in the text. Rowlandson's text reveals similar shifts but in a much less
pronounced manner; see Burnham, Captivity and Sentiment, 22-23.
5. For studies of the popularity, significance, and influence of these narratives,
see Fiedler, The Return ofthe Vanishing American, 104-19; Drinnon, White Savage;
and Namias, White Captives, 145-203.
6. Chew, The Crescent and the Rose, 375.
7. See the ironically titled Modest Vindication of Titus Oates (1682), sig. Blr
andp. 22.
8. Knight, A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie (1640), A3v.
9. Okeley, Eben-ezer (1675), 21.
10. For commentary on captive conversion in travel narratives, see the examples
in Chew, The Crescent and the Rose, 373-77.
11. T. S[mith], The Adventures of(Mr. T S.) (1670), 20.
12. Okeley, Eben-ezer (1675), 47-48.
13. Drury, Madagascar (1729), 162. Further citations appear in the text.
 Notes to Pages 100-130 299

14. Vaughan, The Adventures of Five Englishmen (1714), 106, 108.

15. Henry, Travels and Adventures (1809); Seaver, A Narrative of the Life of
Mrs. Mary Jemison (1824); James, A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of
John Tanner (1830).
16. Knox, An Historical Relation (1681), 123.
17. Gyles, Memoirs of Odd Adventures (1736), in Puritans Among the Indians,
ed. Vaughan and Clark, 105.
18. Knox, An Historical Relation (1681), 123.
19. Other scholars have analyzed Rowlandson's emphasis on food; see Ulrich,
Good Wives, 229; and Derounian-Stodola and Levernier, The Indian Captivity Nar-
rative, 92-93.
20. Williamson, French and Indian Cruelty (1757), 35.
21. Knox, An Historical Relation (1681), 169-70.
22. Moore, Defoe in the Pillory.
23. Secord, Robert Drury's Journal, 1-71.
24. One of the foremost Western scholars on Madagascar has shown particular
skepticism of the work's political analysis, attributing them to editorial intervention;
see Grandidier, Histoire Physique, Naturelle et Politique de Madagascar, vol. 4, tome
1, pp. 498-505.
25. On Defoe, see especially Schonhorn, Defoe's Politics.

4. Mastering Captivity
Portions of chapter 4 originally appeared as "The Oriental Captivity Narrative and
Early English Fiction." Eighteenth-Century Fiction 9.3 (April1997): 267-98.

1. Armstrong and Tennenhouse, "The American Origins of the English Novel,"

386-410; rpt. in The Imaginary Puritan, 196-216.
2. Burnham, Captivity and Sentiment, 41-62.
3. Starr, "Escape from Barbary," 35.
4. Since Secord, Defoe scholars have recognized the importance of Knox's ac-
count of captivity in Ceylon as an important "source" or "influence" for Defoe's fic-
tions of capitalist and colonial expansion, especially Robinson Crusoe and Captain
Singleton. The arguments as applied to Knox could equally apply to Oriental cap-
tives such as Rawlins, The Famous and Wonderfull Recoverie (1622), and Okeley,
Eben-ezer (1675). For Secord, see Studies in the Narrative Method of Defoe. For
continued emphasis on the connection between Knox and Defoe, see Backscheider,
Daniel Defoe, 429-30; and Faller, Crime and Defoe, 116.
5. See, for example, Richetti, Popular Fiction before Richardson, 216-29. For
influence on Richardson, see McBurney, "Penelope Aubin and the Early English
Novel," 245-67; Zach, "Mrs. Aubin and Richardson's Earliest Literary Manifesto
(1739)," 271-85; and Beasley, Novels of the 1740s, 163-66.
300 Notes to Pages 130-142

6. Chetwood, The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes of

Captain Richard Falconer (1720), The Voyages, Travels and Adventures of William
Owen Gwin Vaughan (1736), The Twins: or, the Female Traveller (1742-1743); Barker,
The Lining of the Patch Work Screen (1726), in The Galesia Trilogy, 195-98. Rowe
included two episodes in the first edition of Friendship in Death (1728) and another
in part 2 of Letters Moral and Entertaining, added to the third edition of Friendship
in Death (1733). For the episodes themselves, see the Garland facsimile of the third
edition,26-29,61-62,123-25.
7. Said, Orientalism.
8. Khairallah, "Arabic Studies in England in the Late Seventeenth and Early
Eighteenth Centuries"; Holt, Studies in the History ofthe Near East; Netton, "The
Mysteries of Islam," in Exoticism in the Enlightenment, ed. Rousseau and Porter,
23-45.
9. Said, Orientalism, 62.
10. For a historical account of Barbary in this period, see Wolf, The Barbary
Coast. For further scholarship on British images of the Orient, see Oueijan, The
Progress of an Image; Beck, From the Rising of the Sun; Nasir, The Arabs and the
English; and Chew, The Crescent and the Rose. Kabbani's Europe's Myths of Orient
concentrates on British literary images of the nineteenth century.
11. For historical scholarship on Christian slaves, see Lewis, Race and Slavery
in the Middle East; Wolf, The Barbary Coast, 151-74; Blunt, Black Sunrise, 71-85.
For the sixteenth century, Braude! discusses both Christian and Moslem piracy and
slavery in The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World, trans. Reynolds, 2:743-
55,865-91.
12. The most developed analysis of these motifs appears in the work of Green,
beginning with Dreams of Adventure, Deeds of Empire.
13. [John Rawlins], The Famous and Wonderfull Recoverie (1622), B4v. Further
citations appear in the text.
14. Starr, "Escape from Barbary," 38.
15. Knight, A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie (1640), 14.
16. Knight, A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie (1640), 15.
17. Knight, A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie (1640), 26.
18. Okeley, Eben-ezer (1675), 27. Further citations appear in the text.
19. Head, The English Rogue (1665), 239-41.
20. Defoe, The Life and Strange Suprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
(1719), ed. Crowley, 19-20. Further citations appear in the text.
21. See Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 96, 137. At another point he laments, "I was a
Prisoner lock'd up with the eternal Bars and Bolts of the Ocean" (113).
22. Chetwood, The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Robert Boyle (1726).
Further citations appear in the text as Robert Boyle. Richetti (Popular Fiction, 212)
has described Boyle as a Crusoe-like example of"the resourceful European artisan-
technician."
 Notes to Pages 145-170 301

23. See particularly Spacks, Desire and Truth.

24. Chetwood, The Voyages, Travels and Adventures of William Owen Gwin
Vaughan (1736), 2:129.
25. Aubin, The Noble Slaves (1722), ix. Further citations appear in the text.
26. For a brief overview ofWestem images of sexually predacious Orientals, see
Kabbani, Europe's Myths of Orient, 14-36; see also Grosrichard, Structure du Serail.
27. Aubin, The Life ofCharlotta DuPont (1723), 100. Further citations appear
in the text.
28. Nussbaum has argued more generally that images of the "other" woman
played an important role in creating the domestic heroine, even in constituting eigh-
teenth-century feminism; see Nussbaum, Torrid Zones.
29. Aubin, The Strange Adventures of the Count de Vinevil (1721), 87-92.
30. For varying views on female disguise in eighteenth-century fiction, see Castle,
Masquerade and Civilization; Schofield, Masking and Unmasking the Female Mind;
and Craft-Fairchild, Masquerade and Gender. Brown has argued that female clothing
plays an important role in the mystification of colonial ideology; see Ends of Empire.
31. Aubin, A Collection of Entertaining Histories and Novels (1739), 22~29.
Further citations appear in the text.
32. Haywood, Idalia (1724).
33. Haywood, The Fruitless Enquiry. Being a Collection of Several Entertaining
Histories and Occurrences, which Fell under the Observation ofa Lady in her Search
after Happiness (1727), 57-59. The first edition appeared in 1727, and later print-
ings appeared in 1739, 1767, and 1769. Further citations appear in the text.
34. Haywood, Philidore and Placentia (1727), 19~200. McBurney reprints the
only eighteenth-century edition. Further citations appear in the text.
35. Haywood's fiction of the 1720s involves a broader effort to expose this fan-
tasy and to reveal the material reality of female subjugation that it helped to obscure;
see Schofield, Eliza Haywood, 43-81.
36. Schofield offers an insightful discussion of the novel's gender reversals but
ultimately forces them into an overstated reading of the work as a "woman-oriented
novel"; see Schofield, Quiet Rebellion, 38-41.
37. Subsequent printings of the full novel appeared in 1746 and 1748. The cap-
tivity episodes were excised and printed separately six times up to 1800.
38. Tyler's text seems at least partially directed as a response to the recent Ameri-
can reprintings of Aubin and Chetwood. Discussions of Tyler sometimes treat his
antislavery platform in relation to the general context of Barbary captivity, but they
miss the more specific context of earlier captivity novels; see Tanselle, Royall Tyler,
163-73; Davidson, Revolution and the Word, 192-211.
39. For older and more recent treatments of Gothic imprisonment, respectively,
see Raila, The Haunted Castle, 7-45; Richter, The Progress of Romance, 80-81,97-
100. Also relevant to the novelistic treatment of imprisonment is Bender, Imagining
the Penitentiary.
302 Notes to Pages 172-182

5. Resisting Americans in British Novels of American Captivity

1. See, for example, Haberly, 'Women and Indians," 431-41; and Derounian-
Stodola and Levernier, The Indian Captivity Narrative,185-91.
2. "Adoption" is a term used by anthropologists and historians to describe the
native custom, along with "transculturation" and "assimilation"; see Hallowell, "Ameri-
can Indians, White and Black," 519-31; Heard, White into Red; Axtell, The Invasion
Within. Eighteenth-century writers also applied the term "adoption" to the native
custom, as exemplified in quotations from Crevecoeur and Lennox below.
3. See particularly Smith, An Account of the Remarkable Occurences (1799);
Seaver, Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison (1824); James, A Narrative of the
Captivity and Adventures ofJohn Tanner (1830). These and other such texts are dis-
cussed in Derounian-Stodola and Levernier, The Indian Captivity Narrative, 73--85.
4. This argument is most thoroughly developed in Axtell, The Invasion Within.
5. See Axtell, The Invasion Within, especially 131-217.
6. Pearce, The Savages of America.
7. Colden, The History of the Five Indian Nations (1727), 181.
8. Smith, An Historical Account of the Expedition (1765).
9. Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer (1782), 218-19.
10. For general discussions of the European vision of native Americans, see
Berkhofer, The White Man's Indian; Kupperman, Settling with the Indians, 1-106;
Williams, "Savages Noble and Ignoble," in Marshall and Williams, The Great Map of
Mankind, 187-226; and Kiernan, "Noble and Ignoble Savages," in Exoticism in the
Enlightenment, ed. Rousseau and Porter, 86-116.
11. See especially Axtell, "The Indian Impact on English Colonial Culture," in
The European and the Indian, 272-315; and Jennings, The Founders of America,
167-207.
12. For an illuminating discussion of Anglo-American meditations on native
warfare, see Sayre, Les Sauvages Americains, 249-83.
13. Scholars have sometimes interpreted Smith's account of his experiences as a
failure to recognize a native adoption ceremony, leading to a national misapprehen-
sion of an adoptive sister, Pocahontas, as a romantic lead; for a recent overview and
affirmation of this interpretation, see Lemay, Did Pocahontas Save Captain John
Smith? 63-65.
14. Joseph Addison, et al., The Spectator (1711), 1:48. All further quotations
come from 1:50-51.
15. British examples include Moore, Yarico to Inkle (1736); Jerningham, Yarico
to Inkle (1766); a Young Gentleman ofTrinity College, Dublin, Yarico to Inkle (1771);
Weddell, IncZe and Yarico (1742); and, most popularly, Colman, Inkle and Yarico
(1787). Several of these are included in Price, Inkle and Yarico Album. Price also
provides a bibliographic discussion and considers several continental examples. Ac-
cording to Merchant, the Inkle/Yarico story inspired another kind of revision in Rob-
ert Paltock's Peter Wilkins (1750), which portrays a happy transracial marriage and a
 Notes to Pages 182-211 303

successful colonial hero; see Merchant, "Robert Paltock and the Refashioning of
'Inkle and Yarico,"' 37-50.
16. For studies that develop a strong equation between women, captivity, and
American fiction, see Haberly, 'Women and Indians"; Kolodny, The Land before Her,
6-67; Castiglia, Bound and Determined; and Burnham, Captivity and Sentiment.
17. Axtell, The Invasion Within, 304.
18. For other examples of early American novels that show an extensive interest
in female adoption and transculturation, see Child, Hobomok (1824); Hentz,
Tadeuskund (1825); and Sealsfield, Tokeah (1829). The female captive is central to
Barnett's analysis of the nineteenth-century frontier romance; see Barnett, The Ig-
noble Savage, 48-70. See also Pearce, The Savages of America, 196-236.
19. Written in 1781, the novel first appeared as a serial in the New York Maga-
zine; or, Literary Repository (1790-1791). It entered book form first in the Posthu-
mous Works (1793 ), and then in a separately published volume, The History of Maria
Kittle (1797). I have used the Garland facsimile of the 1797 edition.
20. Critical discussions emphasizing sensibility in the American narratives in-
clude Pearce, "The Significances of the Captivity Narrative," 13-14; Derounian-
Stodola and Levernier, The Indian Captivity Narrative, 186-87; Ebersole, Captured
by Texts, 98-143; and Burnham, Captivity and Sentiment, especially 92-5.
21. Examples include Holman, The Prisoners of Niagara (1810); and French,
Elkswatawa (1836). Suppositonal propaganda often drew from the techniques of
virtue-in-distress fiction; see especially A SurprizingAccount ofthe Captivity of Mrs.
Hannah Willis (1799); An Affecting Narrative ofthe Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs.
Mary Smith (1815); and the analysis of these texts in Derounian-Stodola and
Levernier, The Indian Captivity Narrative, 140-41.
22. Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina (1709).
23. Further citations appear in the text. .
24. An extremely fanciful episode of South American captivity, imagined along
the lines of failed adoption, appears in The Voyages, Travels, and Wonderful Discov-
eries of Capt. John Holmesby (1757).
25. The Life, Extraordinary Adventures, Voyages, and Surprizing Escapes of
Capt. Neville Frowde (1758), 172-73.
26. Kimber, The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Anderson (1754),
141. Further citations appear in the text.
27. The Female American (1767). Citations appear in the text.
28. Citations appear in the text.
29. Barker, Henry Mackenzie, 66-68.
30. Howard, introduction to Lennox, The Life of Harriot Stuart (1751), ed.
Howard, 44, 46.
31. Citations appear in the text.
32. For a discussion and an effective rebuttal of this stereotype, see Axtell, The
Invasion Within, 151-55.
33. Citations appear in the text.
304 Notes to Pages 217-228

34. On this postrevolutionary perspective, see Pearce, The Savages ofAmerica.

On its place in nineteenth-century American fiction, see Barnett, The Ignoble Sav-
age.
35. Imlay, The Emigrants (1793), 2-3. Further citations appear in the text.
36. The locus classicus here is the Manheim anthology, first published in 1793
and often reprinted and plagiarized thereafter. For discussions of this narrative and
other propagandistic accounts, see VanDerBeets, The Indian Captivity Narrative,
13-24; and Derounian-Stodola and Levernier, The Indian Captivity Narrative, 26-
36,63-73.
37. For discussions of the American texts, see Castiglia, Bound and Determined,
137-79; and Ebersole, Captured by Texts, 231-36.
38. Tilton documents the explosion of this myth in Pocahontas. See also Fiedler,
The Return of the Vanishing American, 69-90.

6. Utopian Captivities and Other ''African" Paradoxes

l. For details, see Harvey and Racault, "Simon Berington's Adventures of Sigr
Gaudentio di Lucca," 1-14. On the basis of its twenty-four printings before 1821,
the authors call Berington's work "one of the best-selling novels of the eighteenth
century" (2).
2. Mter inspiring nine eighteenth-century printings in four European languages,
the work entered its heyday in the nineteenth century. For a list of printings, see
Cove, The Imaginary Voyage in Prose Fiction, 321-24. On the novel's eighteenth-
century influence, see Prica, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe und Robert Paltock's
Peter Wilkins. On its nineteenth-century influence, see Roger Lund, "Robert Paltock,"
348-55.
3. Considering Cumberland's debt to Berington, Bentley discusses many di-
rect parallels of plot and setting in the introduction to his fine edition of The Captive
of the Castle of Sennaar (1798), xxvii-xxxvi.
4. More, Utopia, 35-36; Gilman, Herland. For an illuminating discussion of
the geography of More's utopia, see Marin, Utopics, especially 99-142.
5. Kumar, Utopianism, 51.
6. On the regulatory vision of seventeenth-century utopias, see Davis, Utopia
and the Ideal Society. Much of Fausett's work argues for a connection between the
rise of realist fiction and utopias with austral settings, especially those produced in
the tradition of the French voyage imaginaire; see Fausett, Writing the New World,
158-79, and Strange Surprizing Sources of Robinson Crusoe. On the integration of
utopia and novel in the eighteenth century, see Rees, Utopian Imagination.
7. On the political goals and influences of Harrington's work, see Pocock, The
Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law and The Machiavellian Moment.
8. See, for example, the selection in Gregory Claeys, ed., Utopias ofthe British
Enlightenment (New York: Cambridge, 1994). Claeys provides a useful introduction
and bibliography, vi}-xxxii. See also Rees, Utopian Imagination, which covers a very
 Notes to Pages 228-233 305

canonical and not entirely representative selection, but which offers a particularly
strong discussion of gender issues.
9. Scholarship on utopia is generally split between an emphasis on its regula-
tory social architecture and an emphasis on its liberating experiments, and this spht
often reflects differences in historic and geographic focus. In Utopia and the Ideal
Society, for example, Davis's focus on seventeenth-century British utopias leads him
to define utopia in terms of regulation (see especially 36-39). On the other hand,
Fausett's focus on austral utopias, especially those of the voyage imaginaire tradi-
tion, leads to an emphasis on playful, disruptive, and satiric imagery; see Fausett,
Writing the New World. Marin's Utopics is especially strong on the inherent playful-
ness of utopian discourse, while Kumar's Utopianism emphasizes its subversiveness.
10. On the Australian setting, see Fausett, Writing the New World, and Images
of the Antipodes in the Eighteenth Century.
11. Evans, The Adventures, and Surprizing Deliverances (1719), 79.
12. The Voyages, Travels, and Wonderful Discoveries of Capt. John Holmesby
(1757), 31-41.
13. Martin, An Essay upon Plantership (1773), 3.
14. For studies of British images of Mrica and Africans, see especially Barker,
The African Link; and Curtin, The Image of Africa, v-57. For analysis of abolitionist
discourse, see Sypher, Guinea's Captive Kings, and Ferguson, Subject to Others.
15. Curtin's The Image ofAfrica emphasizes British interest in the colonial prom-
ise of the interior. For discussion of the Prester John myth within European culture,
see Slessarev, Prester John; and Gumilev, Searches for an Imaginary Kingdom, trans.
Smith.
16. Snelgrave, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea and the Slave-Trade
(1734). Reprinted separately in 1754, the text also furnished material for continual
excisions, abridgements, and criticisms in travel collections such as the extremely
successful one edited by Thomas Astley, A New General Collection of Voyages and
Travels (1745-1747), 2:485-519. Curtin (The Image of Africa, 12) calls the Astley
collection "the inevitable mine of information for anyone concerned with Mrican
affairs during the second half of the century."
17. Lambe, "Letter on Captivity in Dahomy," in Smith, A New Voyage to Guinea
(1744), 171-89. Lambe's narrative was reprinted in the widely distributed Astley
collection; see 2:482-85.
18. See Johnson, trans., A Voyage to Abyssinia (1735), by Jerome Lobo, ed.
Gold. Gold's introduction includes a useful discussion of the original text, its transla-
tions, and background (see xxiii-xlii).
19. Critical interpretations of Paltock generally downplay the Mrican material;
see, for example, Bentley's introduction to his edition of Peter Wilkins (1750), ix-
xviii; and Fausett, Images of the Antipodes, 72-79. Rees (Utopian Imagination, 109)
briefly notes the importance of the African episodes to Wilkins's psychological devel-
opment, and Lund ("Robert Paltock," 353) discusses the place of slavery in his moral
development.
306 Notes to Pages 233-244

20. Further references appear in the text, citing Christopher Bentley's edition
of Peter Wilkins. Wilkins's Cornish identity might hint at the crucial role played by
such provincials as the merchants of Devon and Cornwall in British expansion over-
seas.
21. See, for example, the fifteen folio pages in Astley, ed., A New General Col-
lection ofVoyages and Travels (1745-1747), 3:268-82.
22. "The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell, of Leigh, in Angola and the
Adjoining Regions" first appeared in Purchas's Purchas his Pilgrimes (1613), 6:367-
406. Battell's narrative also appeared in the widely distributed Astley collection, A
New General Collection ofVoyages and Travels, 3:136-43.
23. For details on Paltock's debt to Battell and to other material from the Astley
collection, see Bentley's introduction and notes, Peter Wilkins (1750), xii, 384-85.
24. As the spelling of this name changes within Paltock's text, I will allow these
variants to stand within quotations, while adhering to "Glanlepze" within my own
text.
25. Comparisons to Robinson Crusoe go back to a critic in the Monthly Review
4 (Dec. 1750): 157. More recent comparisons include Bentley, ed., Peter Wilkins
(1750), x-xi; Lund, "Robert Paltock," 350-51; Rees, Utopian Imagination, 109-10;
and Fausett, Images of the Antipodes, 73-74.
26. Rees (Utopian Imagination, 111) describes the couple's relationship as a
companionate marriage but interprets it as a positive prescription rather than an
ambiguous vision of colonialism. For readings that recognize the colonial ambigu-
ities of the marriage, see Fausett, Images ofthe Antipodes, 197; and Merchant, "Robert
Paltock and the Refashioning of 'Inkle and Yarico,"' 48-50.
27. I use this term as the most convenient. Wilkins renames the country from its
original name, "Normbdsgrsutt," because he cannot pronounce it. The new name,
"Sass Doorpt Swangeanti," means the "great Flight-Land" (Peter Wilkins, 304).
28. Critics often give this isolated passage too much weight in arguing that the
novel criticizes colonialism; see, for example, Bentley, ed., Peter Wilkins, xviii; and
Lund, "Robert Paltock," 359. Rees (Utopian Imagination, 112-13) and Merchant
("Robert Paltock and the Refashioning of 'Inkle and Yarico,"' 48-50) more success-
fully support this position, but the evidence for it seems slight when compared to the
general drive of the novel's plot structures.
29. As noted by Rees, Utopian Imagination, 115.
30. Given the text's broader interest in utopian name-games, we might specu-
late that "Zaps" and "Born" are oblique anagrams for "Spanish" and "Iberia." On
British propaganda against the Spanish empire, see Gibson, The Black Legend, and
Maltby, The Black Legend in England.
31. For eighteenth-century views of Italy, see Kirby, The Grand Tour in Italy,
75-83; Mullenbrock, "The Politcal Implications of the Grand Tour," 7-21; Black,
The British and the Grand Tour, 112-15, 170-92; and Redford, Venice and The Grand
Tour, 5-80.
32. Campbell, The Travels and Adventures of Edward Brown (1739).
 Notes to Pages 246-283 307

33. In both Writing the New World and Images ofthe Antipodes, Fausett shows
that colonialism acts as a source of tension within early modern utopian fiction set in
Australia.
34. Further citations appear in the text. For a more detailed discussion of the
novel's complex narrative scheme, see Harvey and Racault, "Simon Berington's Ad-
ventures of Sigr Gaudentio di Lucca (1737)," 5-6.
35. As the works of Rees and Fausett reveal in particular, gender is a crucial
question in seventeenth and eighteenth century utopias. Rees concentrates on the
place of women in utopian visions of the ideal society, while Fausett considers gen-
der-crossing as a sign for culture-crossing.
36. For a more detailed discussion of the novel's genesis and publication, see
Bentley's introduction to The Captive of the Castle of Sennaar (1798), ix-x, xliii-lii.
Although Cumberland may not have originally begnn the work with two comple-
mentary parts in mind, the second part draws the rather unclosed materials of the
first into a fairly developed bildungsroman. Further citations from this edition ap-
pear in the text.
37. Adams, Travelers and Travel Liars, 210. Adams (210-22) also documents
the controversy that Bruce's reports aroused long before the publication of his book,
beginning as early as 1774.
38. Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790), 4:447-50.
39. Bentley (The Captive ofthe Castle ofSennaar [1798], 310) offers some use-
ful discussion of the contemporary British notion of the area.
40. See the examples cited in Nussbaum, Torrid Zones, 11-17, 192-93.

Conclusion
1. On Johnson's geographic researches, see Lockhart, "The Fourth Son of the
Mighty Emperor," 516-28; and Weitzman, "More Light on Rasselas," 42-58. For
another argument suggesting a direct response from Johnson to Berington, see
Bentley, "Rasselas and Gaudentio di Lucca in the Mountains of the Moon," 1-11.
2. Johnson, Rasselas and Other Tales (1759), ed. Kolb, Yale Edition, 16:7. Fur-
ther citations appear in the text.
3. "The Stolen Wife," American Indian Myths and Legends, 285-90; "A Com-
petition of Lies," African Folktales, 92-99.
4. The several books within Davis's project are well represented by the first,
The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture.
Primary Bibliography

This chronological bibliography consists primarily of captivity narratives, both fac-

tual and fictional, both British and American. For settings outside America, I have
included every captivity text that I am aware of. For America I have included captiv-
ity narratives referred to in my own study. In addition, I have included some periph-
eral materials such as travel narratives, general histories, and other texts that discuss
captivity. I have included occasional explanatory notes, especially for works that I do
not cover substantially in my own text. I have ordered the works by year of initial
publication, and then by author's name within the year. Some entries carry two dif-
ferent dates. In these cases, the initial date (used to place the work in chronological
order) is that of the original publication, and any subsequent publication date marks
the date of a later edition that I have used in my own text.

1427? Johannes Schiltberger. The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a

Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 1396-1427. Ed. Karl Friedrich
Neumann. Trans. J. Buchan Telfer. Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 1st
ser., no. 58. London: Hakluyt Society, 1879. Rpt., New York: B. Franklin, 1970.
1548. G.A. Menavino. Trattato de Costume et Vita di Turchi. Fiorenza: Lorenzo
Torrentino, 1548.
1569. Bartolomej Georgijevic. The Ofspring of the House of Ottomanno ... Where-
unto is added Bartholomeus Georgieuiz Epitome, of the Customes, Rytes, Cer-
emonies, and Religion of the Turkes: with the Miserbale Affliction of those
Christians, whiche Liue vnder their Captiuitie and Bondage ... Englished by
Hugh Goughe. London: Thomas Marshe, [1569?].
1587. Thomas Saunders. A True Discription and Breefe Discourse, ofa Most Lamen-
 Primary Bibliography 309

table Voiage, Made Latelie to Tripolie in Barbarie, in a Ship Named the Jesus:
VVherin Is Not Onely Shevved the Great Miserie, That Then Happened the
Aucthor Hereofand His Whole Companie, Aswell the Marchants as the Marriners
in That Voiage, According to the Curssed Custome of Those Barbarous and Cruel[
Tyrants, in Their Terrible Vsage of Christian Captiues . ... London: Richard
Iones, 1587.
1589. Richard Hakluyt. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques & Discover-
ies of the English Nation . ... 10 vols. London: J.M. Dent, 1927.
1590. Edward Webbe. The Rare and Most VVonderfull Things vvhich Edvv. Webbe
an Englishman Borne, Hath Seene and Passed in His Troublesome Trauailes ...
Wherein Is Set Forth His Extreame Slauery Sustained Many Yeeres Together in
the Callies and Warres ofthe Great Turke .... London: A[bel] I[effes], [1592?].
1591. Job Hortop. The Trauailes ofan English Man, Containing his Svndrie Calami-
ties Indured by the Space of Twentie and Odd Yeres in his Absence from his
Natiue Countrie . ... London: W Wright, 1591. Facs. rpt., New York: Da Capo,
1972.
1595. Richard Hasleton. Strange and Wonderfull Things. Happened to Richard
Hasleton, Borne at Braintree in Essex, in His Ten Yeares Trauailes in Many
Forraine Countries. London: A[bel] I[effes], 1595.
1608. [John Reynard]. The Admirable Deliverance of 266. Chistians by Iohn Rey-
nard Englishman from the Captiuitie ofthe Turkes .... London: Thomas Dawson,
1608.
1613. Andrew Battell. The Strange Adventures ofAndrew Battell, ofLeigh, in Angola
and the Adjoining Regions. Reprinted from "Purchas his Pilgrimes." Ed. E.G.
Ravenstein. Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 2d ser., no. 6. Nendeln,
Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967.
1613. Samuel Purchas. Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes: Contayning
a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and
Others. London: William Stansby, 1625. Rpt., in 20 vols., Glasgow: J. MacLehose
and Sons, 1905-1907.
1614. William Davies. A Trve Relation ofthe Travailes and Most Miserable Captiuitie
... of William Dauies, Barber-Surgion of London, Vnder the Duke of Florence .
. . . London: Nicholas Bourne, 1614.
1621. I. B. Algiers voyage in a iournall or briefe reportary of all occurrents hapning
in the fleet of ships sent out by the King his most excellent Maiestie, as well
against the pirates of Algiers, as others . ... London: B. Alsop, 1621. A factual
account of successful resistance to Barbary pirates.
1622. [John Rawlins]. The Famous and Wonderfull Recoverie of a Ship of Bristoll,
called the Exchange, from the Turkish Pirates of Argier: ... London: Nathaniel
Butter, 1622.
1629. James Wadsworth. The English Spanish Pilgrime. Or, a nevv Discouerie of
Spanish Popery, and Iesuiticall Stratagems. With the Estate of the English
310 Primary Bibliography

Pentioners and Fugitiues vnder the King of Spaines Dominions, and else where
at this Present Time . ... London: Michael Sparke, 1629. Facs. rpt., New York:
Da Capo Press, 1970. This factual text includes an Oriental captivity episode.
1630. John Smith. True Travels, Adventvres, and Observations ofCaptaine Iohn Smith.
London: Thomas Slater, 1630. Facs. rpt., New York: Da Capo, 1968. This fac-
tual text includes an episode of captivity in central Asia.
1632. William Lithgow. The Total! Discourse, of the Rare Adventures, and Painefull
Peregrinations of long Nineteene Yeares Travayles from Scotland, to the rrwst
Famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia, and Affrica ... Together with the Grievous
Tortures he Suffered, by the Inquisition of Malaga in Spaine, his Miraculous
Discovery and Delivery thence . ... London: Nicholas Okes, 1632.
1640. Francis Knight. A Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie under the Turkes of
Argeire. ... London: T. Cotes, 1640.
1647. Alfonso de Dominici. Trattato della Miserie, che Patiscono I Fideli Chistiani
Shiavi de' Barbari .... Rome, 1647.
1657. Richard Ligon. A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados. London:
Humphrey Moseley, 1657. This travel narrative includes the anecdote that in-
spired the Inkle and Yarico legend.
1662. Katharine Evans and Sarah Chevers. This is a Short Relation of some of the
Cruel Sufferings (for the Truths Sake) of Katharine Evans & Sarah Chevers, in
the Inquisition in the Isle of Malta . ... London: Robert Wilson, 1662.
1665. Richard Head. The English Rogue. Boston: New Frontiers, 1961.
1665. Royal Society of London. Philosophical Transactions giving Some Accompt of
the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious in many Con-
siderable Parts ofthe World. London: John Martyn, 1665. Facs. rpt., Amsterdam:
Graaf and Israel, 1963-1964.
1667. Thomas Sprat. The History ofthe Royal Society. ... 1667. Facs. rpt., Jackson I.
Cope and Harold Whitmore, St. Louis: Washington Univ. Press, 1959.
1670. T. S[mith]. The Adventures of an English Merchant Taken Prisoner by the
Turks of Argiers. ... London: Moses Pitt, 1670.
1675. William Okeley. Eben-ezer: or; a small Monument of Great Mercy . ... London:
Nat. Ponder, 1675.
1676. Thomas Overbury. A True and Perfect Account of the Examination, Confes-
sion, Tryal, Condemnation and Execution of Joan Perry ... Likewise Mr.
Harrison's Own Acount How He Was Conveyed into Turkey and There Made a
Slave Above Two Years . ... London: Rowland Reynolds, 1676.
1681. Robert Knox. An Historical Relation ofthe Island Ceylon in the East Indies . ...
London: Richard Chiswell, 1681. Rpt., ed. James Ryan, Glasgow: James
MacLehose and Sons, 1911. Facs. rpt., with an introduction by H.A.I.
Goonetileke, New Delhi: Navrang, 1983.
1682. Adam Elliot. A Modest Vindication of Titus Oates . ... London: Joseph
Hindmarsh, 1682.
1682. Mary Rowlandson. The Soveraignty & Goodness of God, Together; with the
 Primary Bibliography 311

Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed; Being a Narrative of the Captivity and

Restauration ofMrs. Mary Rowlandson. 2d ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Samuel Green,
1682. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North American Captivities,
vol. 1, New York: Garland, 1977. Rpt. in Puritans among the Indians: Accounts
of Captivity and Redemption, 1676-1724, ed. Alden T. Vaughan and Edward W.
Clark, Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1981.
1685. Thomas Phelps. A True Account ofthe Captivity ofThomas Phelps at Machaness
in Barbary, and of his Strange Escape . ... London: H. Hills, 1685.
1689-1690. John Locke. Two Treatises of Government. Ed. Peter Laslett. New York:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1960.
1690. L'Esclave Religieux et Ses Avantures. Paris: Daniel Hartmels, 1690.
1692. Robert Boyle. General Heads for the Natural History of a Country. ... Lon-
don: John Taylor and S. Holford, 1692.
1693. Francis Brooks. Barbarian Cruelty Being a True History of the Distressed
Condition of the Christian Captives Under the Tyranny of MuZZy Ishmael, Em-
peror of Morocco . ... London: I. Salusbury and H. Newman, 1693. Rpt., Bos-
ton: S. Phillips, 1700.
1697. Cotton Mather. Humiliations Follow'd by Deliverances. ... Boston: B. Green
and J. Allen, 1697. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North American
Captivities, vol. 1, New York: Garland, 1977.
1699. Jonathan Dickinson. God's Protecting Providence, Man's Surest Help and De-
fence. Philadelphia: Reiner Jansen, 1699. Ed. Evangeline Walker Andrews and
Charles McLean Andrews. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1961. .
1699. William Hacke. A Collection of Original Voyages: Containing ... IV Mr.
Roberts's Adventures Among the Corsairs ofthe Levant. ... London: J. Knapton,
1699.
1699. Cotton Mather. Decennium Luctuosum. ... Boston: B. Green and J. Allen,
1699. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North American Captivities,
vol. 3, New York: Garland, 1978.
1704. Awnsham Churchill and John Churchill; eds. A Collection ofVoyages and Trav-
els . ... London: Awnsham Churchill and John Churchill, 1704.
1704. Joseph Pitts. A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the
Mohammetans, in Which is a Particular Relation of Their Pilgrimage to Mecca,
the Place of Mohammet's Birth; and a Description of Medina and of His Tomb
There. As Likewise ofAlgier and the Country Adjacent, and ofAlexandria, Grand-
Cairo, &C. With an Account of the Author's Being Taken Captive, the Turks
Cruelty to Him and of His Escape . ... Exon: S. Farley for P. Bishop and E.
Score, 1704.
1707. Cotton Mather. A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New-England.
Boston: S. Phillips, 1707. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North
American Captivities, vol. 4, New York: Garland, 1978.
1707. John Williams. The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion . ... Boston: B. Green,
1707. 3d ed. Boston: S. Green, 1758. Rpt. in Puritans among the Indians: Ac-
312 Primary Bibliography

counts of Captivity and Redemption, 1676-1724, ed. Alden T. Vaughan and

Edward W Clark, Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1981.
1708. Hendrik Smeeks. The Mighty Kingdom of Krinke Kesmes. 1708. Ed. David
Fausett. Trans. Robert-H. Leek. Atlanta: Rodopi, 1995. This Dutch novel con-
tains episodes of captivity and utopia.
1708. John Stevens. New Collection ofVoyages. ... London: J. Knapton, 1708. This
. popular voyage collection includes some "Travels in the Kingdoms of Fez and
Morocco during Eleven Years' Captivity."
1709. John Lawson. A New Voyage to Carolina . ... London: n. p., 1709. Facs. rpt.,
March of America Facsimile Series, no. 35. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Mi-
crofilms, 1966. .
1711. Joseph Addison, et al. The Spectator. Ed. Donald F. Bond. 5 vols. New York:
Oxford Univ. Press, 1965. Vol. 1, pp. 48-51, contains the niost popular version
of the Inkle and Yarico legend.
1713. Simon Ockley, ed. An Account of South-West Barbary Containing What Is
Most Remarkable in the Territories of the King of Fez and Morocco. Written by
a Person Who had been a Slave. London: J. Bowyer and H. Clements, 1713.
Promises but does not deliver an actual narrative of captivity.
1714. Walter Vaughan. The Adventures of Five Englishmen from Pula Condoro . ...
London: C. Bates and A. Bettesworth, 1714. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1972.
1719. Daniel Defoe. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe . ... 1719. Ed. J. Donald Crowley. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1972.
1719. Ambrose Evans. The Adventures, and Surprizing Deliverances of James
Dubordieu, and his Wife .... London: J. Bettenham, 1719. Facs. rpt., New York:
Garland, 1972.
1720. William Rufus Chetwood. The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Immi-
nent Escapes of Captain Richard Falconer. ... London: Chetwood, 1720. Facs.
rpt., New York: Garland, 1973.
1720. Daniel Defoe. The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies ofthe Famous Captain Single-
ton . ... 1720. Ed. Shiv K. Kumar. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1969.
1721. An Account ofthe Extream Misery ofthe Christian Captives in Barbary. Lon-
don: J. Downing, 1721.
1721. Penelope Aubin. The Strange Adventures ofthe Count de Vinevil . ... London:
E. Bell et al., 1721. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1973.
1721. A Description ofthe Nature of Slavery among the Moors ... To which is added,
an Account of Capt. Stuart's Negociations for the Redemption of English Cap-
tives . .. written by one of the said Redeem'd Captives. London: J. Peele, 1721.
1722. Penelope Aubin. The Life and Amorous Adventures of Lucinda. ... Taken by
a Rover of Barbary, and Sold a Slave at Constantinople . ... London: E. Bell et
al., 1722.
1722. Penelope Aubin. The Noble Slaves: or; the Lives and Adventures of two Lords
and two Ladies. ... London: E. Bell et al., 1722.
 Primary Bibliography 313

1723. Penelope Aubin. The Life ofCharlotta Du Pont,an English Lady; Taken From
Her Own Memoirs. Giving an Account How She Was Trepan'd by Her Step-
mother to Virginia . ... London: A. Bettesworth, 1723.
1724. Eliza Haywood. Idalia. Or; the Unfortunate Mistress. 3d ed. London: Dan
Browne and S. Chapman, 1724. Facs. rpt. in Masquerade Novels of Eliza
Haywood, with an introduction by Mary Anne Schofield. Delmar, N.Y.: Schol-
ars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1986.
1724. Isaac Martin. The Tryal and Sufferings ofMr. Isaac Martin, who was Put into
the Inquisition in Spain, for the Sake of the Protestant Religion. ... London: J.
Osborn et al., 1724.
1726. Jane Barker. The Lining ofthe Patch Work Screen . ... London: A. Bettisworth,
1726. Rpt. in The Galesia Trilogy and Selected Manuscript Poems, ed. Carol
Shiner Wilson, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997.
1726. William Rufus Chetwood. The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Robert
Boyle . ... London: John Watts, 1726. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1972.
1727. Alonso de Castillo Solorzano. Spanish Amusements: or; the Adventures ofthat
Celebrated Courtezan Seniora Rufina Call'd, the Pole-cat of Seville . ... 2d ed.
London: H. Curll, 1727. This fictional collection includes Oriental captivity epi-
sodes.
1727. Cadwallader Colden. The History of the Five Indian Nations Depending on
the Province of New-York in America. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1964.
1727. Eliza Haywood. The Fruitless Enquiry. Being a Collection of Several Enter-
taining Histories and Occurrences, which Fell Under the Observation ofa Lady
in her Search after Happiness. 2d ed. London: T. Lowndes, 1767.
1727. Eliza Haywood. Philidore and Placentia; or L'Amour trap Delicat. London:
Tho. Green, 1727. Rpt. in Four before Richardson: Selected English Novels,
1720-1727, ed. William H. McBurney, Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1978.
1727. A Voyage to Cacklogallinia. London: J. Watson, 1727. Facs. rpt., New York:
Garland, 1972.
1728. Penelope Aubin. The Life and Adventures of the Young Count Albertus, the
Son of Count Lewis Augustus, by the Lady Lucy: Who Being Become a Wid-
ower; Tum'd Monk, and Went a Missionary For China . ... London: J. Darby et
al., 1728.
1728. Elizabeth Singer Rowe. Friendship in Death . ... London: T. Worrall, 1728. 3d
ed., with Letters Moral and Entertaining. 2 pts. London: T. Worrall, 1733. Facs.
rpt., New York: Garland, 1972.
1729. Robert Drury. Madagascar; or; Robert Drury's Journal, during Fifteen Year.s'
Captivity on that Island. London: W Meadows et al., 1729. Ed. Pasfield Oliver,
1890. Rpt., New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.
1733. Simon Tyssot de Patot. The Travels and Adventures ofJames Massey. Trans-
lated from the French. London: John Watts, 1733. The hero of this novel enters
both the Goa Inquisition and Algerine slavery.
314 Primary Bibliography

1734. William Snelgrave. A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea and the Slave-
Trade. London: James, John, and Paul Knapton, 1734. Facs. rpt., Cass Library
of African Studies, Slavery Series, no. 11, London: F. Cass, 1971.
1735. Samuel Johnson, trans. A Voyage to Abyssinia. By Father Jerome Lobo, a Por-
tuguese Jesuit . ... With a Continuation of the History of Abyssinia . .. By Mr.
Legrand. From The French. London: A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, 1735. Ed.
Joel J. Gold. The Yale Edition of The Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 15. New
Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1985.
1736. William Rufus Chetwood. The Voyages, Travels and Adventures of William
Owen Gwin Vaughan . ... London: J. Watts, 1736. Facs. rpt., New York: Gar-
land, 1972.
1736. John Gyles. Memoirs of Odd Adventures . ... Boston: William Dodge, 1736.
Rpt. in Puritans among the Indians: Accounts of Captivity and Redemption,
1676-1724, ed. Alden T. Vaughan and Edward W Clark, Cambridge: Harvard
Univ Press, 1981.
1736. Edward Moore. Yarico to Inkle. An Epistle. London: Lawton Gilliver, 1736.
1737. Simon Herington. The Memoirs of Sigr Gaudentio di Lucca. ... London: T.
Cooper, 1737. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1973.
1738. Joseph Pitts. A True and Faithful Account. ... 4th ed. London: T. Longman
and R. Hett, 1738. Facs. rpt., Farnborough: Gregg International, 1971. Greatly
expanded from the first edition.
1739. Penelope Aubin. A Collection of Entertaining Histories and Novels . ... Lon-
don: D. Midwinter et al., 1739.
1739. John Campbell. The Travels and Adventures of Edward Brown . ... London: J.
Applebee, 1739. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1973. A novel of travels in and
below Egypt.
1739. Thomas Pellow. The History ofthe Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas
Pellow, in South-Barbary. ... London: R. Goadey, 1739. Facs. rpt., New York:
Garland, 1973.
1742. Weddell. IncZe and Yarico: A Tragedy. London: T. Cooper, 1742.
1742-1743. William Rufus Chetwood. The Twins: or, the Female Traveller. ... Lon-
don: n.p., 1742-1743.
1743. James Annesley. Memoirs of an Unfortunate Young Nobleman, Retum'd from
a Thirteen Years Slavery in America. ... London: J. Freeman, 1743. Facs. rpt.,
New York: Garland, 1975. This roman aclef begins with an extended indenture
narrative.
1743. William Moraley. The Infortunate: Or, The Voyage and Adventures . ...
Newcastle: J. White, 1743. Rpt., ed. Susan E. Klepp and Billy G. Smith, Univer-
sity Park: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1992. This indenture narrative in-
cludes an interpolated episode concerning Moroccan slavery.
1744. Bullfinch Lambe. "Letter on Captivity in Dahomy." In William Smith. A New
Voyage to Guinea: Describing the Customs, Manners .... London: John Nourse,
 Primary Bibliography 315

1744. Facs. rpt., Cass Library of African Studies, Travels and Narratives, no. 22,
London: Cass, 1967.
1744. The Lady's Drawing Room. Being a Faithfull Picture of the Great World ....
London: M. Cooper and A. Dodd, 1744. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1974.
1744. The True History of Henrietta de Bellgrave. ... London: M. Cooper and A.
Dodd, 1744. This captivity tale also appears in The Lady's Drawing Room of the
same year.
1745-1747. Thomas Astley, ed. A New General Collection ofVoyages and Travels . ... 4
vols. London: Thomas Astley, 1745-1747. Facs. rpt., Cass Library of Mrican
Studies, Travels and Narratives, no. 47, London: Cass, 1968.
1746. John Coustos. The Sufferings ofJohn Coustos,for Free-masonry, and for his
Refusing to tum Roman Catholic, in the Inquisition at Lisbon. ... London: W.
Strahan, 1746.
1747. TheAdventuresofaKidnappedOrphan. London: M. Thrush, 1747. Facs. rpt.,
NewYork: Garland, 1974.
1748. John Norton. The Redeemed Captive. Boston: S. Kneeland, 1748. American.
1750. Isaac Morris. A Narrative of the Dangers and Distresses Which Bejel Isaac
Morris, and Even More ofthe Crew, Belonging to the Wager . .. on an Uninhab-
ited Part of Patagonia, in South America; Where They Remained ... 'Till They
Were Seized by a Party of Indians, and Carried above a Thousand Miles into the
Inland Country . ... London: S. Birt, 1750. Rpt., New York: R.M. McBride,
1927.
1150. Robert Paltock. The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins. Ed Christopher
Bentley. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1973.
1751. Charlotte Lennox. The Life of Harriot Stuart, Written by Herself. Ed. Susan
Kubica Howard. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, 1995.
1754. Edward Kimber. The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Anderson. ...
London: W. Owen, 1754. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North
American Captivities, vol. 7, New York: Garland, 1975. This novel contains a
short Amerindian captivity and a much more extended treatment of indenture.
1755. John Shebeare. Lydia; or Filial Piety. 4 vols. London: J. Scott, 1755. Facs. rpt., in
2 vols., New York: Garland, 1974. This novel contains a brief Oriental captivity.
1757. The Voyages, Travels, and Wonderful Discoveries of Capt. John Holmesby.
Containing a Series ofthe Most Surprising and Uncommon Events, Which Bejel
the Author in His Voyage to the Southern Ocean, in the Year 1739. London: F.
Noble and J. Noble, 1757. This travel novel contains moments of utopia and
captivity.
1757. Peter Williamson. French and Indian Cruelty. ... York: N. Nickson, 1757.
Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North American Indian Captivities,
vol. 9, New York: Garland, 1978.
1758. Edward Kimber. The Life, Extraordinary Adventures, Voyages, and Surprizing
Escapes of Capt. Neville Frowde .... London: J. Wren, 1708 [1758].
316 Primary Bibliography

1758. Peter Williamson. French and Indian Cruelty . ... 3d ed. Glasgow: J. Bryce
and D. Paterson, 1758. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives ofN orth Ameri-
can Indian Captivities, vol. 9, New York: Garland, 1978. Expanded from the
first edition.
1759. Samuel Johnson. Rasselas and Other Tales. Ed. Gwin J. Kolb. Yale Edition of
The Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 16. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1990.
1764. Henry Grace. History of the Life and Sufferings . ... Reading: printed for the
author, 1764. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North American Cap-
tivities, vol. 10, New York: Garland, 1977.
1765. William Smith. An Historical Account ofthe Expedition against the Ohio Indi-
ans, in the Year 1764, under the Command of Henry Bouquet.... Philadelphia:
William Bradford, 1765. Rpt., London: T. Jefferies, 1766. Facs. rpt., March of
America Facsimile Series, no. 45, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1966.
Describes American captives.
1766. Edward Jerningham. Yarico to Inkle an Epistle. London: J. Dodsley, 1766.
1767. The Female American; or; the Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield. Compiled
by Herself London: Francis Noble and John Noble, 1767. Facs. rpt., New York:
Garland, 1974.
1767. Henry Mackenzie. The Man of Feeling. New York: Norton, 1958.
1769. Mrs. Crisp. The Female Captive: A Narrative of Facts which Happened in
Barbary in the Year 1756. London: C. Bathurst, 1769.
1770. Isaac Bickerstaff. The Life, Strange Voyages, and Uncommon Adventures of
Ambrose Gwinett. ... 4th ed. London: J. Lever, [1771?].
1770. Mary Rowlandson. A Narative ofthe Captivity .... Boston: Nathaniel Caverly,
1770. The first American edition with the word "captivity" in the title.
1771. A Young Gentleman of Trinity College. Yarico to Inkle. Dublin: Stewart & Co.,
1771.
1773. Henry Mackenzie. The Man of the World. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell,
1773. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1974.
1773. Samuel Martin. An Essay upon Plantership . ... 5th ed. London: T. Cadell,
1773.
1775. Alexander Bicknel. The Benevolent Man. Or; the History of Mr. Belville: In
Which Is Introduced, the Remarkable Adventures of Captain Maclean, the Her-
mit. London: J. Lewis, 1775. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1974. Novel with
brief Oriental captivity.
1779. John Dodge. A Narrative of the Capture and Treatment oflohn Dodge. Phila-
delphia: T. Bradford, 1779. American suppositional narrative.
1780. John Kingdon. Redeemed Slaves: Being a Short Narrative of Two Neapolitans
Redeemed from Slavery on the Coast of Barbary. Bristol: W. Pine, 1780.
1782. J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. Letters from an American Farrner. Gloucester,
Mass.: Peter Smith, 1968. Includes famous comments on American captives.
1783-1789. Thomas Day. The History of Sandford and Merton. London: J. Stockdale,
 Primary Bibliography 317

1783--1789. Facs. rpt., New York: Garland, 1977. Children's novel with Oriental
captivity episodes.
1784. John Filson. The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke . ...
Wilmington, Del.: James Adams, 1784. Facs. rpt., March of America Facsimile
Series, no. 50, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1966. Includes the origi-
nal Daniel Boone captivity.
1785. John Marrant. A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings . ... London:
Gilbert and Plummer, 1785. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North
American Captivities, vol. 17, New York: Garland, 1978.
1787. Robert Bage. The Fair Syrian . ... London: J. Walter et al., 1787. Facs. rpt.,
New York: Garland, 1979. Novel with Oriental captivity episodes.
1787. George Colman. Inkle and Yarico: An Opera. London: G.G. and J. Robinson,
1787.
1789. Robert Norris. Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee, King of Dahomey. ...
London: W Lowndes, 1789.
1790. James Bruce. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in the Years 1768,
1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773. 5 vols. Edinburgh: J. Ruthven, 1790.
1790. Charlotte Lennox. Euphemia. 4 vols. London: T. Cadell and J. Evans, 1790.
Facs. rpt., London: Thoemmes, 1992.
1792. James Bristow. A Narrative of the Sufferings of James Bristow, Belonging to
the Bengal Artillery, during Ten Years Captivity with Hyder Ally and Tippoo
Saheb. Calcutta: the Honorable Company's Press, 1792.
1793. Ann Eliza Bleecker. Posthumous Works . ... New York: T. and J. Swords, 1793.
1793. Archibald Dalzel. The History ofDahomy, an Inland Kingdom . ... London: T.
Spilsbury and Son, 1793. Facs. rpt., London: Cass, 1967.
1793. Gilbert Imlay. The Emigrants (1793) Traditionally Ascribed to Imlay, but, More
Probably, by Mary Wollstonecraft . ... Facs. rpt., with an introduction by Rob-
ert A. Hare, Gainesville, Fla.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1964.
1793. Charlotte Smith. The Old Manor House. Ed. Anne Henry Ehrenpreis. New
York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1969.
1795. Susanna Rowson. Slaves in Algiers. Philadelphia: Carey, 1795. Oriental captiv-
ity in dramatic form.
1795. Ann Yearsley. The Royal Captives: A Fragment of Secret History Copied from
an Old Manuscript. 4 vols. London: G.G. and J. Robinson, 1795. Facs. rpt.,
New York: Garland, 1974. This man-in-the-iron-mask novel includes a very brief
episode of Algerian captivity.
1797. Ann Eliza Bleecker. The History of Maria Kittle .... Hartford, Conn.: Elisha
Babcock, 1797. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North American
Captivities, vol. 20, New York: Garland, 1977.
1797. Royall Tyler. The Algerine Captive. Walpole, N.H.: David Carlisle, 1797. One
of the first American novels.
1798. John Coustos. Horrid Tortures: or; the Unparalleled Sufferings ... . Putney, Vt.:
318 Primary Bibliography

Sturtevant, 1798. Rpt., Brookfield, Mass.: E. Merriam, 1800. American reprint

ofThe Sufferings, 1746.
1798. George Cumberland. The Captive of the Castle of Sennaar. An African
Tale . ... London: Egerton, 1798. Ed. G.E. Bentley. Montreal: MeGill-Queen's
Univ. Press, 1991.
1798. The Voyages, Distresses, and Adventures of Captain Winterfield . ... London:
Ann Lemoine, 1798. This pamphlet fiction includes captivities and other global
distresses.
1799. Horrid Indian Cruelties! Affecting History ofthe Dreadful Distresses of Frederic
Manheim's Family. ... Boston: James White, 1799.
1799. James Smith. An Account ofthe Remarkable Occurences in the Life and Trav-
els of Col. James Smith. Lexington, Ky.: John Bradford, 1799. American
transculturation narrative.
1799. A Surprizing Account of the Captivity of Mrs. Hannah Willis. Stonington-
Port, Conn.: S. Trumbull,1799. American narrative.
1799. The True History ofZoa. ... London: S. Fisher and T. Hurst, 1799. A captivity
tale from The Lady's Drawing Room, 1744.
1800. Narrative of the Singular Adventures and Captivity of Mr. Thomas Barry . ...
Sommers Town [London]: A. Neil, 1800. Facs. rpt., Garland Library of Narra-
tives of North American Captivities, vol. 24, New York: Garland, 1979. Fic-
tional.
1801. The Life and Travels of James Tudor Owen. London: S. Fisher, 1801. Facs.
rpt., Garland Library of Narratives of North American Captivities, vol. 25, New
York: Garland, 1977. Fictional.
1806. Maria Martin. History of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs. Maria Martin
Who Was Six Years a Slave in Algiers, Two of Which She Was Confined in a
Dark And Dismal Dungeon, Loaded With Irons. Boston: W Crary, 1806.
1809. Alexander Henry. Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territo-
ries. New York: I. Riley, 1809. Facs. rpt., March of America Facsimile Series,
no. 43, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1966. American transculturation
narrative.
1810. Jesse Lynch Holman. The Prisoners ofNiagara. Frankfort, Ky.: William Gerard,
1810. Facs. rpt., Berea, Ky.: Kentucky Imprints, 1975. American fiction.
1815. An Affecting Narrative of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs. Mary Smith.
Providence, R.I.: L. Scott, 1815. American.
1823. John Dunn Hunter. Manners and Customs of Several Indian Tribes Located
West of the Mississippi Including Some Account of the Soil, Climate and Veg-
etable Productions and the Indian Materia Medica, to Which Is Prefixed the
History of the Author's Life During a Residence of Several Years Among Them.
Philadelphia: J. Maxwell, 1823. American transculturation narrative.
1824. Lydia Maria Child. Hobomok, a Tale ofEarly Times. Boston: Cummings Hilliard,
1824. Rpt. in Hobomok and Other Writings on Indians, ed. Carolyn L. Karcher,
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1986.
 Primary Bibliography 319

1824. James Everett Seaver. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison.
Canandaigua, N.Y.: J.D. Bemis, 1824. Rpt., with an introduction by June N amias,
Norman, Okla.: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1992. American transculturation nar-
rative.
1825. Nicholas Marcellus Hentz. Tadeuskund, the Last King of the Lenape: an His-
torical Tale. Boston: Cummings, Hilliard, 1825. American fiction.
1829. Charles Sealsfield. Tokeah, or the White Rose. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey,
1829. American fiction.
1830. Edwin James. A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures ofJohn Tanner: ...
New York: G. & C. H. Carvell, 1830. Rpt., with an introduction by Louise Erdrich,
New York: Penguin, 1994. American transculturation narrative.
1836. James Strange French. Elkswatawa; or the Prophet of the West. New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1836. American fiction.
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Index

Abdallah, Muley, 112 71-72,89,102-3,135-37,142-46,

abjection, 83-84, 152, 162-66, 172, 247-48
195,196,234 Algerine Captive, The (Tyler), 130, 169,
Abyssinia, images of, 270-73 283,301
Account of South-West Barbary, An American captivity narrative: scholarly
(Ockley), 39 treatment of, 1-2, 16, 23, 25, 53, 58,
Actes and Monuments, The (Foxe), 3 66,91,127-28, 182,275,291;most
action and activity 80, 82, 85-93; in popular texts, 25, 123, 275, 293;
Native American female; 180, 183- publishing history, 26; mixture of
84, 188, 195-98, 204; in utopian discursive styles in, 30; voyage
female, 237-38 pattern in, 29; ethnography in, 38-
Adams, William, 58 39, 48; Puritan community in, 53;
adaptation, cultural, 101-3, 108, 111, food in, 101-10; transculturation in,
115-17 123; in eighteenth-century British
adoption, Native American custom of, fiction, 129, 171-223; in nineteenth-
8, 173-177; definition of, 173,302 century American fiction, 182-83
Adventures of an English Merchant, American settlement pattern, 27, 178,
The (S[mith], T.), 23, 56, 67, 71-72, 182
74,81,99,102-3 American war for independence, 204-
Adventures of Five Englishmen in Pula 5,212-13,215-16
Conduro, The (Vaughan), 48, 58, Angola, images of, 232-34
74,81,84-85,91,100 animals, captives likened to, 82-83, 195
Adventures of Thomas Barry, The, 173 Antarctic, 235-42
Africa, sub-Saharan: as setting, 9, 224- Anthony, John, 58
269; early modem travel in, 231 antiromance, 273
aggression, by captives, 89-92, 155-57 antislavery views, 169, 239-40, 242-43,
Algeria, images of, 31-32, 38, 43-44, 265,269,283
330 Index

anxiety: authorial, 42, 46, 97-98, 105; Bleecker, Ann Eliza, 172; The History
cultural, 174-78, 183, 193, 222 of Maria Kittle, 183
apostasy, resistance to, 58, 80--82, 95- Boone, Daniel, 29
99,102,105,107,175 Boyle, Robert (Restoration scientist),
Armstrong, Nancy, 25, 128 40
Astley, Thomas, A New General British: definition of, 4
Collection of Voyages, 305 Brooks, Francis, Barbarian Cruelty, 59,
Aubin, Penelope, 8, 127, 129--31, 134, 76, 79
149-58,161,167-69,171,180,221, Brown, Charles Brockden, 172
274--75, 279, 283; The Strange Bruce, James, Travels to Discover the
Adventures of the Count de Vinevil, Nile, 231, 254-55
149, 156, 284; The Noble Slaves, Burney, Frances, Evelina, 131, 170
149-52, 154-55, 284-85; The Life Burnham, Michelle, Captivity and
and Adventures of the Young Count Sentiment, 82, 94, 128
Albertus, 149, 284; The Life and
Amorous Adventures of Lucinda, Campbell, John, Travels of Edward
149, 157-58; The Life ofCharlotta Brown, 244
DuPont, 149, 152-53 capitalism, and capitalist hero, 128,
Austen, Jane, 278 240,242,264
Australia, 228 Captain Singleton (Defoe), 138, 140,
Purtell, James, 175 275
Captive ofSennaar, The (Cumberland),
Bacon, Francis, 49 224-26,229,232,243-45,254--70,
Baepler, Paul, 291 275,283
Bage, Robert, 130; The Fair Syrian, Captivity and Sentiment (Burnham), 2,
169 94, 128
Bakhtin, M.M., 17 Captured by Texts (Ebersole), 28, 297
Bantam, 139 Caribbean, as setting, 184-91
Barbarian Cruelty (Brooks), 59, 76, 79 Carleton, Phillips D., "The Indian
Barbary captivity narratives in the US, Captivity," 27
70,130,281 Carpenter, John, 58
Barbary Coast, images of, 19, 38, 85- Castillo Solorzano, Alanso de, La
86,99,128,132-33,141,225 Garduna de Sevilla, 289
Barker, Jane, 130 castration, 131, 160--63, 166
Battell, Andrew, The Strange Adven- Catholics, and Catholicism, images of,
tures, 234 30,57,63, 70-71,75,82
Behn, Aphra, 146; Oroonoko, 283 Central European captivity, 18, 289
Benevolent Man, The (Bicknell), 168 Cervantes, Miguel de, Don Quixote,
Berington, Simon, 9, 130; The Memoirs 129,289
of Sigr Gaudentio di Lucca, 224-- Ceylon, images of, 38,43-47,52,69,
26,228-29,232,243-54,256,258- 72,74,85,87-88
59,262-63,267-72,275,289,304 Charlotta Du Pont, The Life of (Aubin),
Bhabha, Homi K., 17 149, 152-53
Bicknell, Alexander, The Benevolent chastity, 149-52, 155-56
Man, 168 Chetwood, William Rufus, 8, 127, 129--
bifurcation, textual, 42-44 31,161-62,168,171,180,199,221,
bildungsroman, 116 273, 282; The Voyages and Adven-
 Index 331

tures of Robert Boyle, 130, 134, contest of cultures, 175

138,142-49,153,156,158,160, Continental captivity narratives. See
165-66,169,184,186,189-90,201, Central European captivity
223,225,232-33,241,243,246, Cooper, James Fenimore, fiction of, 2-
248,270-71,275-79,284-85,300; 3,8, 172,183,189,214,222-23
The Voyages of William Vaughan, Count Albertus, The Life and Adven-
134, 148; The Voyages of Richard tures of(Aubin), 149,284
Falconer, 142, 173, 184-91,193-94, Count de Vinevil, The Strange Adven-
222-23 tures (Aubin), 149, 156, 284
Chevers, Sarah 19, This is a Short courtship. See marriage
Relation of the Sufferings, 57-59 Coustos, John, The Sufferings, 19, 50-
Chew, Samuel, 97 51, 57, 71,76-77,79
Christian theology, 15, 35, 228, 263, Crevecoeur, J. Hector St. John de,
280. See also Puritans; Quakers Letters from an American Farmer,
Christians, as captors, 64-66, 99, 252. 86, 176-79
See also French Crisp, Mrs., The Female Captive, 281
Churchill, Awnsham and John, A Cumberland, George 9, 130; The
Collection ofVoyages and Travels, Captive of Sennaar, 224-26, 229,
40 232,243-45,254-70,275,283
cinematic captivity, 275-76
civic humanism, 270-275 Dahomey, images of, 230-231
civility, and civilization, 71, 190-93, Dalzel, Archibald, History ofDahomy,
222,243,252 231
civihzing process, 237, 239-40, 242 Dan, Pierre, Histoire de Barbarie et ses
Clark, Edward W, 2 Corsairs, 38
class, social, 50, 67, 176, 266 David Simple (Fielding), 131
clothing, 97, 103-4, 107, 143-44, 153, Davies, William, A Trve Relation of the
156-58,164,173,196,208,214 Travailes, 21, 31-32, 57, 64
Colden, Cadwallader, History of the Davis, David Brion, 283
Five Nations, 176, 178 Day, Robert, Sandford and Merton, 169
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 224 Defoe, Daniel: prose style of, 50; role
Collection ofVoyages and Travels, A in Drury's Madagascar, 56, 113-17,
(Churchill), 40 287; fiction of, 91, 116-17, 184,
colonialism, 49, 85-93, 133, 285-86; 199, 299; Robinson Crusoe, 129,
captive as colonist, 85-91, 112, 138-41,153-154,195,197,223,
122-123,129,134,155,190,223, 233, 235-37, 275, 300; Captain
269, 286; colonial apprenticeship, Singleton, 138, 140, 275; Roxanna,
138-42, 147-48, 225; critique of, 144, 156
174,181,186,194-95,198-200, Derounian, Kathryn, 27
203-5,210-11,216,223,246,255; Description General de Affrica
in America, 178-79, 286; utopian (Marmol-Carvajal), 38
visions of, 233, 236-37, 242-43, despotism, 68-70, 73-76, 87, 107-10,
255, 269; Christian, "Mrican" form, 115,148-152,159-68,206,210,
226,245,255,261,264-65,267-68, 217-18,230,239,242,244,247-62,
286 264-67,288
communal ownership of goods, 259 dialogues, in inquisition narratives, 75-
community struggle, 58-60 76
332 Index

Dickens, Charles, 170, 224 English Spanish Pilgrime, The

Dickinson, Jonathan, God's Protecting (Wadsworth), 82, 95
Providence,26,29,59,275,280 enlightenment, 204, 218, 221, 246, 249,
discipline. See self-regulation 254,265
Discovery of Kentucke, The (Filson), 29 "Escape from Barbary" (Starr), 50, 128,
disguise, 156-58. See also clothing 135
disorganization, textual, 43-44, 48--49. Esclave Religieux, L,' 18-19
See also multiplicity Essay upon Plantership, An (Martin),
dissembling. See guile 230
Dodge, John, A Narrative of the ethnography, 17-18,32,34-35,38--49,
Capture, 65 71-73,90,95-96,109-10,146-47,
domesticity, 203-4, 216, 301 201,277-78,295
Dominici, Alfonso de, Trattato della Euphemia (Lennox), 204-12,215,217,
Miserie, 18 283
Don Quixote (Cervantes), 129, 289 evangelism, among Native Americans,
doubling, in characters, 164-66 194-95, 197-98. See also colonial-
Drake, Francis, 13 ism
Drury, Robert, 7; Madagascar, 23-24, Evans, Ambrose, The Adventures of
39,42,56-57,60,82,89-90,96-97, James Dubordieu, 229
100-101,104,113-23,127,231, Evans, Katharine, 19, This is a Short
275,280,284,287,299 Relation of the Sufferings, 57-59
Dustan, Hannah, 53, 128 Evelina (Burney), 131, 170
dystopia, 270-71. See also utopia exoticism, 31-33, 52-55,101, 132, 143-
44,155-56,159,255,287-88
East India Company, 44, 46 extratextual authorities, 57
East Indies, 139
Eastburn, Robert, 65 failed adoption plot, 173, 179-82, 186-
Eben-ezer (Okeley), 23, 34-37, 58, 67, 88,192-96,205,207-8,211,221-
83-84,98-100,136-37,140,153, 23
280,284,299 Fair Syrian, The (Bage), 169
Ebersole, Gary, Captured by Texts, 28, familial identification, 100, 116
297 Famous and Wonderful[ Recoverie, The
economic success, 84-85, 117, 120, (Rawlins), 67, 135-37, 140, 279,
147, 155 299
editors, 52-56, 58, 105-6, 113, 124, Female American, The, 173, 194-98,
286-87 209,235,237
Edward Brown, Travels of(Campbell), Female Captive, The (Crisp), 281
244 female captives, 94, 128, 143-44, 149-
Egypt, images of, 272 58,182,219,280-81
Elizabeth I, 66 feminism, eighteenth-century, 204-5,
Elliott, Adam, A Modest Vindication of 211,217,259,301
Titus Oates, 24, 83-84, 98 fictionalization 5, 97, 113, 124
Emigrants, The (Imlay), 183,204-5, Fiedler, Leslie, 53
217-21 Fielding, Henry, Tom Jones, 170
empiricism, 16-17, 31, 49-51, 95 Fielding, Sarah, David Simple, 131
English Rogue, The (Head), 129, 138- Filson, John, The Discovery of
39,141-42,285 Kentucke, 29
 Index 333

Florence, 32 Gothic: sub-genre of the novel, 170;

folkloric captivity, 276-79 motifs, 183, 208, 256
food, 101-2 Grace, Henry, History of the Life and
Ford, John, The Searchers, 221 Sufferings, 25
Foxe, John, Actes and Monuments, 3 guile,135-37,140-42,145-46,158,163
Frantz, R.W, 41 Gulliver's Travels (Swift), 229
freedom. See liberty Gyles, John, Memoirs of Odd Adven-
French and Indian Cruelty tures,48-49, 72, 76,83,101
(Williamson), 25, 29-30, 49-50, 60,
65-66,72,75, 77,90,103,275 Haedo, Diego, 38
French, images of, 30, 60, 65, 75, 82, Hajji Baba (Marier), 169
192-93,203,209-11,213,215 Hakluyt, Richard, The Principal
frontier perspective in America, 217-21 Navigations, 21
Fruitless Enquiry, The (Haywood), Hakluytus Postuhumus (Purchas), 21,
158-64, 166 234
Hanson, Elizabeth, God's Mercy, 22,
galleys, 13,20,32,43,64-65,68,98- 26,102
99,133,139,251-52 harem,143-44, 150-51,155-56,160-
Garduna de Sevillla, La (Castillo 61,165-66,255,257,259,270
Solorzano), 289 Harrington, James, Oceana, 227
Gaudentio di Lucca, The Memoirs of Hasleton, Richard, Strange and
(Berington), 224-26, 228-29, 232, Wonderfull Things, 21, 30, 53, 65,
243-54,256,258-59,262-63,267- 81
72,275,289,304 Hawkins, John 13-14,64
gauntlet, 83 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 53
gender-crossing, 130, 148-50, 152-53, Haywood, Eliza, 8, 127, 130-131, 169,
155-58,161-62,166,180,184,188, 171, 301; Idalia, 158-59, 205; The
195-98,210-12,216-17 Fruitless Enquiry, 158-64, 166;
gender roles: critique of, 130, 159-68, Philidore and Placentia, 158-61,
181, 204-5, 211; utopian treatment 163-68
of, 228 Head, Richard, The English Rogue,
Genoa, 31 129,138-39,141-42,285
gentility, 192, 203, 210-211, 215-217. Henry, Alexander, Travels and Adven-
See also civility tures, 39, 96, 100
geography, fantastic, 232, 235-36, 262, Herland (Gilman), 226
271 heroism: of resistance, 63, 80-82, 98,
geography of isolation, 226, 235-38, 117, 134, 209-10; active forms of,
249-50,258,262-64 87,142-49, 152-53,157-58,279;
George I, 70 parodied, 160-61, 163; ambiguity
George of Hungary, Tractatus de of, 93; of conversion, 112-113; of
Moribus Turcorum, 18 sexual self-defense, 148-152; of the
Georgijevic, Bartholomew, 18 American frontier, 219
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, Herland, Histoire de Barbarie et ses Corsairs
226 (Dan), 38
God's Mercy (Hanson), 22, 26, 102 Histoire d'une Grecque Moderne
God's Protecting Providence (Prevost), 289
(Dickinson), 26, 29, 59, 275, 280 Historical Account of the Expedition
334 Index

against the Ohio Indians, An inquisition, 3, 19, 31, 33, 50-51, 57,
(Smith), 176-78 65,70-71,75-77,81,246-47,252,
Historical Relation of Ceylon, An 266
(Knox), 23, 38, 43---48, 52, 58, 69, interiority, psychological and inner life,
72-74,76,78,85,87-89,92,101, 80-81,116,124,135,137,140,
103,159,201,275,280,284,287, 143---45,169,174,197,260-61,
298-99 267-68,274-75
History ofDahomy (Dalzel), 231 intimacy, cross-cultural, 31, 94-95, 112
History of the Five Nations (Colden), introspection. See interiority
176, 178 Islam, and images of Moslems, 18, 35,
History of the Life and Sufferings 38,42,58,63,81,95,97-98, 104,
(Grace), 25 107, 132, 144
History of the Royal Society (Sprat), 49 isolation, 52, 62, of colonists, 87
llooke,Robert,44,46,52 Italians, images of, 32, 243-44, 246-47,
Hope Leslie (Sedgwick), 182 252-53,257,265-66
Horrid Indian Cruelties, 79
llortop, Job, The Trauailes of an James Dubordieu, The Adventures of
English Man, 13-16, 19, 21, 26,29- (Evans), 229
30,64,284,292 Jamestown, 186, 194-95
lloward, Susan Kubica, 205 Jefferson, Thomas, 68
humanism, civic, 270-75 Jemison, Mary, 96, 100, 123,275
Humphry Clinker (Smollett), 174 Jephs, John, 58
llunter, John Dunn, Manners and jewels, 155
Customs, 39, 43, 96, 123, 284 Johnson, Samuel, 231, 244, 270;
hybrid identity, 95, 98, 110, 120, 196- Rasselas, 270-75
98
Kimber, Edward, Mr. Anderson, 173,
Idalia (llaywood), 158-59, 205 191-94, 204, 215, 283; Neville
Imlay, Gilbert, The Emigrants, 183, Frowde, 191
204-5,217-21 Knight, Francis, Relation of Seaven
improvisation, 135-37, 140, 143-45, Yeares Slaverie, 22, 43-44, 47, 51-
153 52,76,81,88-89,92,98,136-37,
Inchbald, Elizabeth, 156 246
inclusiveness, 17, 48-49, 58-61 Knox, Robert, An Historical Relation of
indenture narratives, 4, 65, 192, 229, Ceylon,23,38,43-48,52,58,69,
281-82 72-74,76,78,85,87-89,92,101,
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 103,159,201,275,280,284,287,
276 298-99
individuation and individualism, 21, 34, Krinke Kesmes (Smeeks), 229, 289
124,128-31,134-37,142,149-50, Kumar, Krishan, 227
270,279
inept adventurer, 163, 180-81, 189-90, Lady's Drawing Room, The, 168
196,200,206,212-13,234-35,238 Lambe, Bullfinch, "Letter on Captivity
"Inkle and Yarico" (Steele), 173, 180- in Dahomy," 231
82,184,223 Lawson, John, A New Voyage to
inquisition narratives, and images of the Carolina, 183-84
 Index 335

length, of captivity texts, 22-23 Man of Feeling, The (Mackenzie), 131,

Lennox, Charlotte 8, 275; Harriot 198
Stuart, 183, 191, 205; Euphemia, Man of the World, The (Mackenzie),
204-12,215,217,283 173, 194, 198-204
"Letter on Captivity in Dahomy" Maria Kittle, The History of(Bleecker),
(Lambe), 231 183
Letters from an American Farmer Maria Martin, History of the Captivity
(Crevecoeur), 86, 176-79 of, 281
Levernier, James, 27 Marmol-Carvajal, Luis del, Description
libertines, 251 General de Affrica, 38
liberty, and liberalism, 67-71, 129, 177, marriage, 121-22,205-6,217-18;
218,224-25,227-29,234,239, companionate, 236-37, 259;
244-45,248-51,254,258,263,270, utopian courtship, 251, 259
274,279,288 Martin, Isaac, 19; The Tryal and
Life of Amhrose Gwinnett, 168 Sufferings, 57, 70,75-76
Life of Captain Winteifield, 168 Martin, Maria, 281
linguistic manipulation, 73-76, 82. See Martin, Samuel, An Essay upon
also guile Plantership, 230
Lithgow, John, The Totall Discourse, of martyrology, 3-4, 19
the Rare Adventures, 33 materialism, as theme of cultural
Lobo, Jerome, Voyage to Abyssinia, derision, 72-73, 81-82, 107, 136-
231,244 37, 144-45
Locke, John, 49, Two Treatises, 38, 68- Mather, Cotton, 53, 61; Magnalia
70,227 Christiana, 24
Long Captivity, The History of the McKeon, Michael, 31
(Pellow), 23, 56, 95-97, 99, 101, Mecca,38, 104-105
103-113,123,284,287 Mediterranean, 3, 15, 18, 20-21, 64,
Louis XV, 75 68,133,231,244,248,252,265
Lucinda, The Life and Amorous Memoirs of Bossa Ahadee (Norris), 231
Adventures of(Aubin), 149, 157-58 Memoirs of Odd Adventures (Gyles),
lust, 148-52, 155-56, 161-62, 193 48-49,72,76,83,101
Lydia (Shebbeare), 168 memory, process of llO
Menavino, G.A., Trattato de Costume,
Mackenzie, Henry, 8, 275; The Man of 18
Feeling, 131, 198; The Man of the method. See schema
World, 173, 194, 198-204 Mexico, as setting, 13-14
Madagascar (Drury), 23-24, 39, 42, mistaken identity, 103, 120
56-57,60,82,89-90,96-97,100- mixture, textual. See multiplicity
101,104,113-23,127,231,275, moderation. See self-regulation
282,284,287,299 modernity, 71-73, 76, 289-290
Magnalia Christiana (Mather), 24 Modest Vindication of Titus Oates, A
Malaysia, 74 (Elliott), 24, 83-84, 98
Maldive Islands, 159-63 Moore, John, ll3
Manheim anthology, 25, 79, 221, 304 More, Thomas, Utopia, 226
Manners and Customs (Hunter), 39, Morier, James, Hajji Baba, 169
43,96,123,284 Morocco, 105-113, 146-147
336 Index

Mr. Anderson (Kimber), 173,191-94, Odyssey, 276-277

204,215,283 Ofspring of the House of Ottomanno,
multiplicity, textual, 9, 16-17, 62, 64, The (Schiltberger), 18
123 Okeley, William, Eben-ezer, 23,34-37,
Mysteries ofUdolpho, The (Radcliffe), 58,67,83-84,98-100,136-37,140,
131 153,280,284,299
myth. See folkloric captivity Old Manor House, The (Charlotte
Smith), 173,204-5, 2l1-17
naivete, portrayed in Native Americans, Orientalism 3, 39, 69-70, 73-75, 99,
179,187,190,192,222 102,105,107-8,128-69,229-30,
narration, problems in, 96, 105, 109- 244,248-49,253,272-73,275,291
lll, l14 Oriental tale, 168
Narrative of the Capture, A (Dodge), Oroonoko (Behn), 283
65 Other, 62, 94, 301
Narrative of the Capture of Certain
Americans at Westmoreland, 65 Paltock, Robert, 9; Peter Wilkins, 224-
Nasir, Sari J., 38 26,229,232-44,256,264,268-69,
national captivity, 248-249, 258, 262 283,289,302,304
nationalism, 15, 21, 50-51, 63, 66-67, Pamela (Richardson), 128, 131, 170
70-71,92,107,138,150,288 paradox,225-29,232,244-46,249-51,
Native Americans: images of, 8, 13-4, 263,267-68,271
27,48, 72, 75, 77,147,177-78, parody, 158, 160-62, 169
186-89,195-96,201-2,207-8, participation, cultural. See adaptation
214-15; customs of, 60, 72, 75; passivity, 80, 82-84, 92-93, l18, 152;
relations with settlers, 86, 178, 182 passive male in America, 173, 180,
Neville Frowde (Kimber), 191 183-84,195-96,198,204,211-14
New Account of Guinea, A (Snelgrave), patriarchy, l16-17, 250, 266
230-231,305 Pearce, Roy Harvey, "The Significances
New General Collection of Voyages, A of the Captivity Narrative," 27, 50;
(Astley), 305 The Savages of America, 175
New Voyage to Carolina (Lawson), Pellow, Thomas, 7; The History of the
183-84 Long Captivity, 23, 56, 95--97, 99,
New Voyage to Guinea, A (William 101,103-13,123,284,287
Smith), 231 Pepys, Samuel, 66
Nile region, 232, 244, 254, 271 Persia, images of, 159-60, 164-65
Noble Slaves, The (Aubin), 149-52, Peter Wilkins (Paltock), 224-26, 229,
154-55,284-85 232-44,256,264,268-69,283,289,
Norris, Robert, Memoirs of Bossa 302,304
Ahadee, 231 Phelps, Thomas, A True Account of the
novel, generic relationship with Captivity, 50, 66-67, 73, 89, 92
captivity narrative, 124, 127-31, Philidore and Placentia (Haywood),
169-71,275,278,283-85 158--61, 163-68
Philosophe Anglais, ou Histoire de
Oates, Titus, 98 Monsieur Cleveland, Le (Prevost),
Oceana (Harrington), 227 . 289
Ockley, Simon, An Account of South- Philosophical Transactions (Royal
West Barbary, 39 Society), 40, 49
 Index 337

picaresque, 111 Relation of Seaven Yeares Slaverie

Pitts, Joseph, A True and Faithful (Knight), 22, 43-44, 47, 51-52, 76,
Account of the Mohammetans, 23, 81,88-89,92,98,136-37,246
38-39,42,65,87,96-97,99-100, relativism, cultural, 121
104-6,113,123 religion, images of foreign, 72-73, 111,
plrunstyle,42,49-52, 74 114,120,136,144-45,189,249-50
Pocahontas,21,23, 174,180,187,194- Renegadoes,98--99,143-44
95,222,302 republicanism, 227
positive masters, 99-100 resolution, 199-202, 235, 238, 248
Powhatans, images of, 186, 194-96 revenge,89-90,92, 147
Prester John, 53, 230, 253, 263 Richard Falconer, The Voyages of
Prevost, Abbe, Le Philosophe Anglais, (Chetwood), 142, 173, 184-91,
ou Histoire de Monsieur Cleveland, 193-94,222-23
289; Histoire d'une Grecque Richardson, Samuel, 129, 278; Pamela,
Moderne,289 128, 131, 170
pride,42,103-4,122 Richter, Conrad, 172, 214
Principal Navigations, The (Hakluyt), rights, 68-71, 116. See also liberalism
21 Robert Boyle, The Voyages and
prison setting, 256, 260 Adventures of(Chetwood), 130,
progressive ideology. See individualism 134, 138, 142-49, 153, 156, 158,
Protestantism, 19, 63, 71-72, 75 160, 165-66, 169, 184, 186, 189-90,
providential discourse, 20, 28--29, 91- 201,223,225,232-33,241,243,
93,183,197,297 246,248,270-71,275-79,284-85,
Purchas, Samuel, Hakluytus 300
Postuhumus, 21, 234 Robinson Crusoe (Defoe), 129, 138-41,
Puritans, and Puritanism, 28, 30, 35, 153-154,195,197,223,233,235-
51,53,61-62,86,91,280 37,275,300
rogues, 139, 162
Quakers: publishing world, 26; beliefs, romance, 131,143-44,149-59,161,
58-59 167,183,192,219-20,277
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 68, 177
Radcliffe, Ann, The Mysteries of Rowe, Elizabeth Singer, 130
Udolpho, 131 Rowlandson, Mary 2-3; The
Rare and Most Wonderfull Things, The Soveraignty and Goodness of God,
(Webbe), 21, 32--33, 53-55, 64-66, 81 2,16,22-30,34,53,58,60,64,84,
Rasselas (Johnson), 270-275 102,128,275,280,293,297-98
rationalism, as captive trffit, 135, 144, Roxanna (Defoe), 144, 156
158,235,239,272 Royal Captives, The (Yearsley), 168
Rawlins, John, The Famous and Royal Society, 40-42, 44, 46, 49;
Wonderfull Recoverie, 67, 135-37, Philosophical Transactions, 40, 49,
140,279,299 287
Redeemed Captive, The (Williams), 25,
29,60, 75,82,280 Srud, Edward, 3, 131-32,291
reductive equation, 72 Sallee,l40
reform, political and personal, 267-68 Sandford and Merton (Day), 169
Regeneration through Violence Saunders, Thomas, A True Description,
(Slotkin), 27 19-21,26,29,58-59,80
338 Index

Savages of America, The (Pearce), 175 Smith, William, A New Voyage to

Sayre, Gordon M., Les Sauvages Guinea, 231
Americains, 43,48 Smollett, Tobias, Humphry Clinker,
schema, textual, 15,40-41, 46, 146, 277 174
Schiltberger, Johan, The Ofspring of the Snelgrave, William, A New Account of
House of Ottomanno, 18 Guinea, 230-31, 305
Schofield, Mary Anne, 301 South American captivity, 192, 303
science,40-42,44,47,142,146,186 South seas, 229
Scotland,29 Soveraignty and Goodness of God, The
Searchers, The (Ford), 221 (Rowlandson), 2, 16,22-30,34,53,
Secord,Arthu~ 113 58,60,64,84, 102,128,275,280,
Sedgwick, Catherine, Hope Leslie, 182 293,297-98
Self and Other. See Other Spanish, images of, 13-14, 20, 184, 191,
self-defense. See heroism 242
sel~regulation,226,247,250-54,258- Spectator, The, 173, 180
61,263,270-72,274-75 spiritual autobiography, 34-35, 128,
Sennaar, 254-62, 267 197, 199
sensibility, 28, 170, 198, 204-5, 208-9, Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal
215,285 Society,49
sexuality, 102-3, 144, 148-52, 155-58, Starr, George, "Escape from Bar-
162,165-66,168,220 bary,"50, 128, 135
Shebbeare, John, 130; Lydia, 168 Steele, Richard, "Inkle and Yarico,"
"Significances of the Captivity Narra- 173,180-82,184,223
tive, The" (Pearce), 27, 50 stereotypes, 3, 47, 63, 79, 99, 132-33,
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 277 139,146,150,158-59,174,177-78,
slave narrative, 281--82 207,244,253,262,272-73
slavery: in liberal theory, 68-70; of Strange Adventures, The (Battell),
Africans,87,89,114,123,193,207, 234
213,230,233,235,265,281-83;in Strange and Wonderfull Things
the Barbary States, 133 (Hasleton), 21, 30, 53, 65, 81
Slotkin, Richard, Regeneration through Strype, John, 44
Violence, 27 Sufferings, The (Coustos), 19, 50-51,
Smeeks, Hendrik, Krinke Kesmes, 229, 57, 71, 76-77, 79
289 superstition. See religion, images of
Smith, Charlotte, 8, 275; The Old
Manor House, 173, 204-5, 211- Tanner, John 100
217 Tennenhouse,Leonard,25, 128
Smith, John, The Complete Works This is a Short Relation of the Suffer-
(Pocahontas), 21, 23, 173-74, 180, ings (Evans and Chevers), 57-59
184, 194, 222, 302; True Travels, 21 Thoreau, Henry David, 53
S[mith], T. The Adventures of an titling conventions, 14-15, 18-22, 24,
English Merchant, 23, 56, 67, 71- 26,3-32,34-35,39,43,292
72,74,81,99,102-3 Tom Jones (Fielding), 170
Smith, William, An Historical Account torture, 33, 36, 50-51, 59-60, 76-79,
of the Expedition against the Ohio 107,165,174,178, 187,201-2,242;
Indians, 176-78 plates of, 76-78
 Index 339

Totall Discourse, of the Rare Adven- Utopia (More), 226

tures, The (Lithgow), 33 utopias: in general, 226-27; in the
Tractatus de Moribus Turcorum eighteenth century, 227-28; with
(George of Hungary), 18 captivity narratives, 9, 224-26;
transculturation, 93-124, 173-223, 226, Samuel Johnson's response to, 270-
287-88 272; scholarship on, 304-5
Trattato de Costume (Menavino), 18 Vail, R.W.G., Voice of the Old Frontier,
Trattato della Miserie (Dominici), 18 24-25
Trauailes of an English Man, The VanDerBeets, Richard, 27-28, 50
(Hortop), 13-16, 19, 21, 26,29-30, Vaughan, Alden T., 2
64,284,292 Vaughan, Walter, The Adventures of
travail narrative, 14-15, 19-21, 31-33, Five Englishmen in Pula Conduro,
44 48,58, 74,81,84-85,91,100
travel description: defined, 41-42; virtue, sexual. See chastity
examples, 46-49, 109, 134, 146-47, Voice of the Old Frontier (Vail), 24-25
187, 207; in French writing, 43 voyage narrative, 29
travel narrative, as genre, 24, 31, 40-41 Voyage to Abyssinia (Lobo), 231, 244
Travels and Adventures (Henry), 39, Voyages o!John Holmesby, The, 229
96, 100
Travels to Discover the Nile (Bruce), Wadsworth, James, The English
231,254-55 Spanish Pilgrime, 82, 95
Tripoli, 20, 58 Webbe, Edward, The Rare and Most
True Account of the Captivity, A VVonderfull Things, 21, 32-33, 53-
(Phelps), 50, 66-67, 73, 89, 92 55,64-66,81
True and Faithful Account of the West, idea of the, 66
Mohammetans, A (Pitts), 23, 38-39, Western self, 131-32, 135
42,65,87,96-97,99-100,104-6, "White Indians," 175-77
113, 123 William Vaughan, The Voyages of
Trve Relation of the Travailes, A (Chetwood), 134, 148
(Davies), 21, 31-32, 57, 64 Williams, John, The Redeemed Captive,
True Travels (John Smith), 21 25,29,60, 75,82,280
Tryal and Sufferings, The (Martin), 57, Williamson, Peter, French and Indian
70, 75-76 Cruelty, 25, 29-30, 49-50, 60, 65-
Tunis, 148 66,72,75, 77,90,103,275
Turks, images of, 18, 20, 33, 69, 132- withdrawal from America, 190-91, 196,
33,139,157-58,251-53,257-59, 203-4,206,211,216
274 Wolf, John, 38
Two Treatises (Locke), 38, 68-70, 227 Wren, Christopher, 44
Tyler, Royall, The Algerine Captive,
130,169,283,301 Yarico. See "Inkle and Yarico"
Tyssot de Patot, Simon, Voyages et Yearsley, Ann, 130; The Royal Captives,
Avantures de Jacques Masse, 289 168

unity, generic, 16, 27-29, 34