G C l r L m 'S 7R.

AW S AND CONSTRUCTS OF THE PRIMITIVE

IN SWIFT'S TIME

James Gerard Saivucci

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of English
University of Toronto

Q Copyright by James Gerard Salvucci 2000

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 Grrlliver 's Travels and Constructs of The Primitive in Swift's Time

Doctor of Philosophy, 2000

James Gerard Salvucci

Graduate Department of English

University of Toronto

The purpose of this thesis is to interrogate constmcts of The Primitive in

seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Bntain and to consider how these constnicts

inform Jonathan Swift's works, particularly Gdliver 's Trawls (1 726). Pnmitivist

constmcts pervade English ideas in the period as voyagers retumed with stories of strange

peoples, which upset the stability of anglocentrism. Changes in scientific and

philosophical methodology interacted with a new interest in travel writing, and thinkers

such as the scientist Edward Tyson and the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury effectively evoke this

symbiosis. In general Iiterature The Primitive tiinctioned temporally as a pre-historio-

graphic or infantile past of the writer's present or spatially as a contemporary but

geographically distant other. Writers sometimes idealized The Primitive, as in Dryden's

Mexican tragedies, The b~dianQtreen and ï%eIndiart Emperow. In t rave1 writ ing-bot h

experiential (e.g., William Dampier, Thomas Herbert, Lady Montagu) and imaginary (e-g.,

Tom Brown, Daniel Defoe, William R. Chetwood)--constructs of The Primitive consist of

three types: The Exotic (such as the refined but heathen Turks), The Barbarous (such as

the admirable but unlettered Native Amencans), and The Savage (such as the fascinating

but seemingly irredeemable Hottentots). Pnmitivist types also occur in Swift's works, as

when in A Modest Proposal Swift champions the Irish but also constmcts them as a
negatively different other. Gzilliver 's Truvels consists of duai pnrnitivist narratives: one

with Gulliver as a conventionai traveler-observer and his hosts as constructs o f The

Primitive and the simultaneous other with Gulliver adopting his hosts' perspectives and

ihereby appearing as The Primitive himself As a primitive type, he moves fiom land t o

land and cycles through the three primitinst constructs-The Exotic in Lilliput, The

Barbarous in Brobdingnag, and The Savage in Laputa-while revening to his Civilized

s t a t u at home. In Houyhnhnmland Gulliver becomes trapped between his longinç to

becorne more Houyhnhnm and his knowledge that he is more Yahoo, and he finally

eschews his liminal humanity to degenerate into bestiality. In the Travels Swift critiques

the colonial imperative even as he acknowledges its appeai, and by creating a dual man

living in a dual narrative, Swift reifies the subjective tension of self and other.
 TabIe of Contents

Part 1: The Primitive in Swift's Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2: The Primitive in Science and Philosophy:

TysonandShaftesbury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Chapter 3: The Primitive in English Literature

in Swift's Tirne. a Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Part 2: Constructs of The Primitive in Travel Wnting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Chapter 4: A Primitivist Taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Chapter 5: The Exotic~Barbarous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Chapter 6: The Barbarousw Savage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Chapter 7: The Savage-Bestial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Part 3: The Primitive in Swift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Chapter 8: The Primitive in Swift's Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Chapter 9: The Primitive in Gulliver 's Trawls:

The Colonization of Gulliver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Works Consulted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Abbreviated References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Secondary Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

 List of Figures

Figure 1 : Shaftesbury's human constnicts plotted on b i s e h g axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Figure 2: The Primitive relative to The Civilizeâ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

 PJach Boo)ie, sent into the World, is
like a Barke put to Sea and as liablc
to censures as the Barque is to foule
w g a k . ( H e h r t , Some Yemes
TrawiIe 1)

PART I : The Primitive in Swift's time

Chapter 1: Introduction

Constmcts of "The Primitive" are a major focus of this thesis. The "Age of Swift"

is the period in British history that encompasses Jonathan Swift's Iife (1667-174~)~'It

aiso suggests a place, Europe or more specifically England and Ireland. The period

extends fiom the end of the Renaissance to the era of heightened sensibility that preceded

the work of Rousseau and the French Enlightenment. It is a tirne of increased scientific

rationalism, of philosophical and theological revision, and of the expansion of geographical

and proto-anthropological exploration, al1 of which create, consider, and employ

constmcts of The Primitive. Period literature reflects these new ideas and experiences in

important ways, and Swift's writing in particular addresses many of these concerns,

including The Primitive. The Primitive constmct is significant in G d i v e r S Travels, but in

this thesis 1 treat constnicts of The Primitive that were prevalent at the time particularly in

travel writing and demonstrate how these play out in Swift's work and how they culminate

in Gulliver's final voyage. In short, 1 respond to three principal questions: (1) How did

earIy eighteenth-century England construct and observe The Primitive, principally non-

Swift's time climaxes with the publication of Gulliver 's Truveis. Since 1 am most
concerned with how Gulliver 's Travels fits into its cuItural wntext, most of the works 1
will treat in my thesis predate 1726, the publication year of Gulliver 's Travels. By Swiji 's
fime 1 am not suggesting that Swift is the dominant figure of the penod; I am merely using
Swift--his lifetime, his reading, his knowledge, and his writing-as a benchmark for my
study of the period and of GdlÏver 's Travels. 1 mean the phrase to be less provocative
than "The Age of Swift."
Europeans? (2) How do these constructs and observations manifest themselves in the

writing, especiaily the travel writing, of the penod? And (3) how does The Primitive

constmct manifest itself in the writings of Swifl, partiailady Gulliwr 's Trowfs? By

opposing constructionism to essentialism 1 am not suggesting that the essences of peoples

who do not readily reflect established European values do not exist. My focus is on the

experience and perspective of Europeans, primady the British of Swift's ~ g e . ' The

anglocentric construct of The Primitive is a reality, but not an essential reality. The

Primitive are important to many controversies surrounding Gdliver 's T r m l s , and a

çreater understanding of Swift's society's preoccupation with new and diverse peoples

can only contribute to our understanding of the narrative. As 1will show in my last

chapter, GuUiver LF Travels consists of two simultaneous narratives. In one, Gulliver

presents a conventional travel narrative in which the author-explorer offers his

dispassionate observations of new peoples. In the other, Gulliver adopts the perspectives

of his hosts and is himself the observed--a status analogous to The Primitive.

Part of my "underlying notion" roughly corresponds to Edward Said's in his 1994

Merward to Orientalism: "that human identity is not only not naturai and stable, but
constructed, and occasionally even invented outright" (332). Of course, my study is a
study of the constructors and their constructs, and in a lirnited way within that context, the
constructed. Therefore, like my subject, my point of reference is self-consciously
eurocentric or, more specifically, anglocentnc. In his Conguesf of America, Tzvetan
Todorov makes a point relevant to my study:
In a way, the reception of the statements is more revealing for the history
of ideologies than their production; and when an author is mistaken or
lying, his text is no less significant than when he is speaking the tmth; the
important thing is that the text be "receivable" by contemporaries, o r that it
has been regarded as such by its producer. From this point of view, the
notion of "false" is irrelevant here. (54)
Todorov is refemng specifically to Spanish chronicles of the Mexican conquest, and 1 am
less concerned with "ideologies" than with common assumptions, but there is no denying
that assumptions and ideologies are inextricably intertwined. For me falsehoods are not
entirely irrelevant, but they are less important than contradictions.
 3

The tenn primitive, while somewhat less pejorative than m a g e , requires some

delicate critical unpacking. In Gone Primitive Marianna Torgovnick usefully sums up the

rneaning ofprimitive: "[PJrimirive dways implied 'original,' 'pure,' 'simple7-as the

dictionary says, 'with implications of either comrnendation or the reverse.' Its references

to 'aboriginals,' 'inhabitants of prehistoric times,' 'natives' in non-European lands date

from the end of the eighteenth century" (l9).' Primitive currently has a dual meaning-l .

ancient and implicitly pure; 2. outdated and implicitly crude-and can be used t o indicate

one or the other or both. Throughout this thesis 1 refer to temporal and spatial o r

geographicai distancing of The Primitive. Temporal constructs emphasize the perception

of The Primitive as atavistic or infantile while spatial constnias emphasize physicai

distance and often a perceived cnideness inherent in the productions and cultures of The

Primitive. Torgovnick indicates, and the OED confirms, that Swift's time predates the use

of the term primitive in reference t o aboriginals, but 1 use the word in its carrent definition

since no early eighteenth-century phrasing is a suitable substitute. The term m a g e was

prevalent in the penod, but it is entirely pejorative now, and 1 avoid it except in reference

to the primitivist construct The Savage.' Commoniy, Europeans referred t o non-

Europeans in specific ethnic, national, or geographical terms, such as Hottentot, Mohawk,

See Sprat, Histoy of the Royal Society 1 13.

'Smage is a loanword fiom the OId French sauvage and, primady as a noun and
verb, has replaced the native English word, wild (from Old English wilde). As a noun,
savuge has some more currency with regard to people. As a verb, wild in this sense has
become obsolete. Both words are interchangeable for most of their adjectival uses, but
wild currently has some more exclusive applications in cornmon usage, such as in
reference to animals and nature.
Mindanaon, Afncan, or ~merican.' Of course the application of these t e n s was less than

exacting and an Afncan native could be an "Indian" just as readily (and inaccurately) as a

native of the ~ m e r i c a d

To observe Torgovnick's and others' stniggles with the term "primitiven is to

begin to grasp the inadequacy of our language to cope with ;iie subject, and,

concornitantly, the limitations of our thought. Even now the temiinology to describe

native peoples as well as non-natives is imprecise and unsatisfactory.' Those who usually

identi& themselves as Westemers" use tems such as Mtiws, uborigritals, and

indigenous peoples-well-intended language that dl1 imprecisely generalizes small groups

and individuals and perpetuates a sense of othemess.' Swift's own use ofprirnifiw is to

In A Modest Proposal, for example, Swift famously cites the authority of "a very
knowing Ameriwt' on the pleasures and practice of feasting upon infant flesh (1 11). This
"American" is a cannibalistic native, whose expertise would arise From his "fiequent
Experience" (1 13).

See Hodgen 34. Gulliver himself. upon arriving in Houyhnhnmland off Australia,
follows a crude road in hopes that it will lead "to the Cabbin of some itldian," a genenc
term for aboriginal (GT224).William Dampier in his three-part Voyages and
Descriptions (1699) refers to the complexion of the "Tonquinese" (modem Vietnamese)
and remarks, "you may perceive a blush or change of colour in some of their faces, on any
sudden surprize of passion; which 1 could never discem in any other Indians" (1: 40).
Dampier regards East Asia as India (see 1: 42; see Greenblatt, Marvelms Possessions
122). Abraham Cowley refers to the hostile natives of Guam as "Indimts" as well(16).
On dificulty with the "p!urality of names" of peoples and places, see Gordon Sayre, Les
Satr vuges Américains Ai-xviii .

' See Ashley Montagu's me Concept of the Primitive (1968), a collection of

essays solely on the meaning and propriety of the terni primitive. See also Margaret
Hodgen, Ehiy Anthropology in the Sixteenth und Seventeenth Centwies 360-1.
' In reference to European collections of Amerindian artifacts, Stephen Greenblatt
wri tes,
the viewers carry with them to the exhibits, as to the lands from which the
exhibits have been seized, a powerfbl set of mediating conceptions by
which they assimilate exotic representations to their own culture. These
conceptions are at once agents and obstacles in the drive to possess a
denote the "amient," "first," and "pure"-most laudatory applications-and is usually

applied to church or religious topics as in the phrase "Primitive Records" (A Tale of a Tub

200) or "Primitive Christians" (PW9:174 and 249) or "more primitive ages" (PW5 : 3 1)
or to traditions as with the Lilliputian rejection of the more "primitive Way of breaking

Eggs7' on the big end (GT 49).9 SwiA and his age mon otten used sovoge,heathen,

cannibal, or even barbanun t o refer to non-European or native peoples, who were dmost

always regarded as wild, degenerate, compt, or, wntradictorily, Edenically pure and

noble. In the Voyage to Brobdingnag, Gulliver waxes philosophical on the relationship

between s u e and savagery:

[AIS human Creatures are observed to be more Savage and cruel in

Proportion to their Bulk; what could I expe* but to be a Morse1 in the
Mouth of the first among these enormous Barbarians who should happen
to seize me? (87)

The term "Primitive" is nearly impossible to avoid in anthropological writing, and since

this thesis explores The Primitive (and The Civilized, for that matter) as a construct, 1

capitalize such phrases when used collectively in order to distinguish the construct fiom

the essence of any really existing peoples and to accord some distance fiom the

secure knowledge of the alien; they are bound up with the prima1 act of
witnessing around which virtually the entire discourse of travel is
constructed. (MarvelousPossessions 122)

In the scathing lampoon A Trip to Norlh-WaIes (1701), an imitation of Ned

Ward's popular Thps to Jamaica and New England, the anonyrnous author uses the word
primitive to describe the alleged lack of eating utensils among the Welsh: "Forks they
never use, looking upon Fingers as the more Primitive Institution7' (Ward, Five Travei
Scripts 5 : 6; 1treat the separately enumerated pieces of Fiw Truvel Scr@ts as five
volumes). Here, in keeping with the sardonic tone of the piece, the staid quality of
"Prirnitive Institution" burlesques the actual procedure depicted. That the phrase could be
used ironically to send up churlish behavior demonstrates the subsequent change in
meaning of primitive- In current usage primitive could describe manual feeding with little
or no native irony.
 6

preconceptions underlying the constructs. 1have no illusions that by so doing, my usage is

significantly l e s vague or troubling.

1 should mention here the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works I have

chosen to treat fairly extensively in my thesis. Wath such an expansive topic as The

Primitive, one could pense a limitless number of primary texts. In part 1, 1 have selesteci

works that are arguably representative of their genre or discipline but (more importantly)

that are influentid or popular in the p e n d ifneglected now. For instance, Edward

Tyson's Orang-Outung was a welI-known comparative anatomy of some methodological

importance, and has recently been enjoying an upsurge of attention. Tyson himself was a

familiar, if eccentric, figure who ran afoul of the Scriblerians. His appearance seems

entirely appropriate in a study of Swüt's writing and of The Primitive in the era before the

(more or less) scientific analysis of race and ethnicity. The questions he asks and his

overall cultural significance have some bearing on my topic. Similarly, as the most

popular moral and aesthetic philosopher of his day and beyond, the 3rd Earl of

Shaftesbury warrants treatment here. Shaftesbury was largely reacting to Hobbes and

Locke before him and reflects some of the intellectual tumioil of the period. Shaftesbury's

dualistic approach to The Primitive exposes the ambivalence of early eighteenth-century

thought on the subject. Furthemore, Swift complained that some readers attributed

Shaftesbury's anonymous Letfer of Enthusim to the author of A Tale of a Tub (Tale 6)!

In my third chapter, 1 address a literary selection intended to cut across genre, audience,

and purpose. Addison's and Steele' s essays, Thomson's poetry, and Dryden's tragedia

provide a broad sense of the s t a t u of The Primitive in the penod's literature.

In part 2 - 1 adopt a more empirical approach to the literature of The Primitive and
 7

look at many English travel works, especially those known by Swift. For the most part, 1

Limit myseif to the mid-seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, but 1barely distinguish

between experiential travels (ostensibly based upon an histofical joumey) and imaginary

iravels. In terrns of prunitivia representations, there is little distinction t o be made. I have

consciously chosen to exclude extensive treatment o f major works (namely Behn's

Oroonoko and Defoe's Robimn Crusue)simply because they warrant more consideration

than 1 can provide here. Still, 1 make clear their pertinence t o my argument whenever

possible. 1 reserve part 3 for Swift's relevant works, including letters, semons, and so on.

The 1 s t chapter is devoted entirely to Gulliwr 's T r m ï s and marks the culmination o f my

research. Throughout the thesis, of course, 1 address many other works by other authon

of the period, most notably Scriblerian satires and classical writings.

Those who highly value their own civilization have long concerned themselves

with things primitive. Artifacts and customs, peoples and stones--these residua of The

Primitive have preoccupied those who regard themselves as civilized and have engendered

a "pnmitivist discourse" (Torgovnick 8)." The Primitive other represents for The

Civilized self a glimpse into the supposed past and an alternative to the present and helps

'O I use primitivisi and primiiivism rnuch as does Torgovnick: to indicate that
which is c o n c e d with The Primitive. 1do not mean t o i m k e the primitivism of
Rousseau and Enlightenment thinken. The primitivism of the early eighteenth century has
little t o do with the promotion of atavism. Although for some The Primitive represented a
natural o r pure or idealized state of humanity, The Civilized nostalgically viewed such a
state as unattainable o r lost.
shifl f m s and desire fiom the known and finite us-fiom the interna1 rival or the "self"-to

the innumerable extemal and potentially hostile hem, or more simply fiom subject to

object." Spatial or temporal distance, often verging on the uonic or on the nostalgie, is

necessary to contemplate any beings deemed "The Primitive." Sometimes such a view is

through the (hypothetical) eyes of a (speailative) primitive, as in GulIiver 's Truvek The

Civilized perceive The Primitive as the antithesis to their own essence, but their

observations and descriptions of The Primitive and of themselves are constructs,

amalgamated emanations of their desires, fears, expectations, and observations. The

construct of The Primitive usually has everything to do with the constmct of The Civilized

and little to do with the essence of real peoples, ifit in fact refers precisely to any essential

beings at d l . As such, these constructs are neither merely relativistic nor purely fictional.

For instance, George Shelvocke writes in his Voyage ruund the World ( 1 726):

It has been observed of the Indians of the kingdom of Chili, that they had
two articles in their way of living different fkom al1 other nations that have
yet been heard oc and the first is, that they have no notion of a God of any
sort, and of consequence pay no worship to any supreme power (1 IO),

Here he cedes to authorities other than his personal experience, but his daim may as well

be true for dl his contemporary reader knows. The peoples The Civilized describe are real

enough so long as the people who create and promote these constructs continue to act on

and react to them.

%y the end of the seventeenth century, European voyagen had visited much of the

" See Torgovnick 157. Winthrop Jordan in his Whire over BIack refers to
foreigners as the "social mirrors" of the English (40), but his rnetaphor is impenect. If
foreigners are analogous to "mirrors" refiecting elements of The Civilized, then they are
Fun house mirrors. Constructs of foreignness, as with constructs of The Primitive, are
more like tnck lenses trained (and fiizzily focused) on essential beings.
world. Europeans had long before invaded the Americas and had continuously exploited

and colonized the New Worid. Even the mysterious Austral region had been contacted by

Dutch exploren and by William Dampier Jthough it would fa11 to later explorers to take

possession and begin European colonization. Peoples al1 over the planet had been

encountered and attacked, conquered, c a p t u r a enslaveci, displaced, or befiiended by

Europeans, and now Europeans even began to imagine other planets peopled by other

After centuries of rumor, speculation, myth-making, and hoaxes, here for the
exotic~.'~

contemplation of Europe was The Primitive in the flesh dong with the promise of new

encounters with even more primitive peoples. Voyagers delighted in describing the

"foulness" of nations they encountered and usudly distinguished the Hottentots (the Khoi-

San) of the Cape of Good Hope as the "f~ulest."'~Fears of invasion by these 'natural'

peoples were allayed by the simple fact of their technological limitations and their own

ready conquest by Europeans. The idea of The Primitive provided evidence for and

against al1 sorts of ideas and beliefs as these travelers applied almost scientific methods to

their documentation of newly discovered worlds." But a new threat arose, the threat of a

l2 See Lovejoy, Great Chain 108, 133-5.

I3 See for exarnple Cowley 33.

" See Frantz, me Englsh Trmeller 13. James Spencer, in his Introduction to
William Dampier's Voyage to New HoIlLxnd, observes that Dampier's voyage to Australia
was conunissioned as the first voyage of exploration of a purely ''geographical and
scientific nature" (23). Spencer writes,
The relevance of the voyage's exploratory accomplishment has also been
questioned. In the narrow sense of new lands charted, the contribution to
the map of the world may have been small; but for the first time a deeper
scientific dimension had been incorporateci. (29)
He dso notes that scientists such as Sir Hans SIoane and Sir Robert Southwell collected
and studied Dampier's joumals for their empincal value (19). On Dampier in Australi%
see be1ow 166.
conquest from within by cntics of established society and by rationakt thinkers who were

now informed by and m e d with new knowledge and beliefs regarding The Primitive."

As voyagers reported their encounters, thinLas of al1 stripes mined these narratives for

facts supporting philosophical positions. In England this was of particular use to the new

empirïcal scientists, ascending deists, and emerging Lotitudinarians. R W . Frantz in l

k
Englsh TrmeIIer md the Mowment of l&as (1934) charactentes this correlation as a

direct "relationship between the Royal Society and far-voyagers" (28). In fact, Frantz

argues that the rational-empiricist principles underlying the Royal Society in turn provided

an implicit methodology involving "objectivity, skepticism, and precision" for Restoration

travelen and explorers to use in their observations and records (30). The reliance of

travelen on the principles of the vimiosi is syrnbiotically repeated in the use that these

vimiosi and other rationalists made of voyagers' records. Fellows of the Royal Society

even presented papers treating the encounters of voyagers.16 This symbiosis is especially

1s
In a more recent but longstanding context, Claude Levi-Strauss writes,
The fact is that these primitive peoples, the briefest contact with whom can
sanctie the traveller, these icy summits, deep cavems and impenetrable
forests-al1 of them august settings for noble and profitable revelations-
are d l , in their different ways, enemies of our society, which pretends to
itself that it is investing them with nobility at the very time when it is
cornpleting their destruction, whereas it viewed them with terror and
disgust when they were genuine adversaries. (Tristes Tropiques 4 1 )
Christian Marouby, in his "From Early Anthropology to the Literature of the Savage," has
suggested that the constmct of the Noble Savage emerged as part of a strategy to protect
Europe from "the most radical implications of the discoverf' of the historical or essential
savage (290). This is no doubt partially tme, but one cannot dismiss the surge of
sentimentalism that coincided with the penod's new rationalism. On the contrast between
the threat of the "barbarian" fiom without and of the "Wild Man" fiom within, see Hayden
White, T o n n s of Wildness" 20.
l6 For instance, see "A Relation of the Pico Tenenffe" in Sprat, History of the
Royal Society 200-27.
characteristic, according t o Frantz, of the newly emerging deists who looked t o travel

witing for rational and unbiased reports of other cultures and religions (73-4) and for

proof that the precepts of strictly revelatory religion and the interpretation of scriptun

constitute a conspiracy of divines againsi the lay public (81).17 But al1 sides of this issue

would cite the supposed evidence of The Pnmitivetraditionalists by emphasiring savage

corruption and non-traditionalists by emphasizing primitive punty.

The anti-clerical stance is a partiailady Protestant position, which privileges a

reliance on an authoritative text, the Scnptures, over clerical intervention. If the text is

paramount and unassailable, then interpreters of the text becorne interlopers and their

elucidations suspect. At best, clerical guidance could help individual lay readers absorb

the plain truth of scripture with little interpretive mediation. John Drydm aruggled with

this presumption. In Religio Laici (1682), his poem in defense of an Anglican rniddle

ground between pure faith and pure rationality, he resists priestly authoxity as well as the

religious subversion of the rationalist deists (Harth, Contexts of Dryden 's Xbought 267-8,

290). Here he describes the laity's emerging suspicions o f the Catholic clergy:

At last a knowing age began t'enquire

If they [priests] the book, or that did them inspire;
And making narrower search they found, though late,
That what they thought the priest's, was their estate.

" For instance, the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury in his Miscell'ems Reflections ( 1 7 1 1)
cites the "political arithmetic" of forma1 religion and cynically contends that "in every
nation whatsoever,"
the quantity of superstition (if 1may so spealc) will in proportion nearly
answer the number of pnests, diviners, soothsayers, prophets, o r such who
gain their livelihood or receive advantages by officiating in religious flairs.
For if these dealen are numerous, they will force a trade. (1 84)
While Shaftesbuiy is no virtuose, his stance is indicative of the rationdist position.
In his prose preface to the poem he closely links revelation with scripture and cautions

against the deists' use of reason to resolve religious quandaries:

Let us be content at last to know God by his own methods, at least so

much of him as he is pleased to reveal to us in the sacred scriptures; to
apprehend them to be the word of God is al1 Our reason has to do, for al1
beyond it is the work of fith, which is the seal of heaven impressed upon
Our human understanding. (91)

Dryden expresses concern with the problem of peoples who have had no exposure

to scripture and therefore no direct means to salvation. In the preface he stresses his belief

that primitive natives who never hzar of the Scriptures are still capable of salvation (88).

Under such circumstances he imagines "nature*' revealing the path of essential goodness, if

not of Christ:"To nature's plain indictment they shall plead, / And by their conscience be

condemned or fieed" (204-5).l9 Nature inspires natives with laws, and personal

l8SwiA plays on the trope of the religious "estate" in the Peter-Martin-Jack

allegory in Tale of a Tub.
'' John Toland, in his Chrislanity Not Mysterims (1 696), ponders the same
dilemma and detennines that reason, not nature itself but a natural human endowment,
would guide heathens to religious righteousness:
So that if1 would go preach the Gospel to the Wild lr~dians,1 must expect
the Ideas of my Words should be, 1know not how, inîùs'd into their Souls
in order to apprehend me: And according to this Hypothesis, they could no
more, without a Miracle, understand my Speech than the chirping of Birds;
and ifthey h m not the Meaning of my Voice, Ishould even fo them be a
Barbarian, notwithstanding I p k e Mysteries in the S m . But what do
they mean by consisting with themselves, yet not with Our comrnon
Notions? Four may be call'd Five in Heaven; but so the Name only is
chang'd, the Thing remains still the same. And since we cannot in this
World know any thing but by Our cornmon Notions, how shall we be sure
of this pretended Consistency between our present seeming Contradictions,
and the Theology of the World to corne? For as 'tis by Remon we arrive
at the Certainty of God's own Existence, so we cannot otherwise discem
his Revelatiom but by their Conformity with Our naturai Notices of him,
which is in so many words, to agree with Our cornmon Notions. (29-30)
conscience stands in for God as judge. Dryden here awkwardly conflates "nature" or

innateness with divine revelation and suggests that righteousness is part of human nature."

Thus Dryden avoids a ftlly rationalist argument without condemning The Primitive for

their lack of faith. He assails the hubris of the deists who deny the possibility or necessity

of revelation, as he attacks the dogma of the priests who locate salvation strictly in

If ignorant heathens (presumably the opposite of refined rationalists) are

do~trine.~'

capable of goodness and therefore salvation, he irnplies then salvation starts with inbom

or natural revelation and does not rely on reason or even ~ c r i p t u r e .He

~ chides the deists

Toland's task, as the title of his work indicates, is to prove that the doctrines of Christian
scripture, except "several wondemil Matters of Fact, as the Creation of the World the
last Judgment, and many other important Tmths" (40-l), can be denved inductively (see
23 and 60). The radicalism of his overall approach is evident in the reversal in this
passage; her he imagines himself a bbBarbarian"in the eyes of The Primitive. And words
("the Name"), like human perceptions, are constructed.

Swift's Houyhnhnms partially operate under Dryden's natural morality: "Nature

and Reason were suscient Guides for a reasonable Animal," they believe, but they lack
scnpture and faith (248).

" Dryden makes a sirnilar point in 7he Indm Emperour (1665) when Montezuma
contends wit h a Spanish cleric (perhaps significantly listed generically as "a Christian
Priest") and suggests a compromise for the w d i a between Christian and Mexican
beliefs. To his own High Priest and the Christian Priest Montezuma says,
to Mankind
One equal way to Bliss is not design'd.
For though some more rnay know,and some know less.
Yet al1 must know enough for happiness. (5.2: 73-6)
The Christian Priest replies,
If in this middle way you still pretend
To stay, your Journey never will have end. (77-8)
The priest continues to argue that Montezuma requires faith in Christian doctrine to
achieve salvation. For the Spaniard, Montezuma's "middle road" smacks of a dangerous
relativism (see Pagden 35). but this very relativism is what Dryden inadvertently promotw
here and in Religio Laici and it l a d s toward the same relativist conclusions based on
expanding world experiences that Shaftesbury would corne to resist.

In "Swifi and the Definition of Man,"Douglas H. White defines natural religion

as "the proposition that human reason, unaided by revelation, could arrive at a usefiil and
and argues that their rationality and Modem self-reliance is more limited than they reaiiue

and, what is more, strictly contingent upon revelation:

Revealed religion first infonned thy sight,

And resson saw not till faith spmng the light.
Hence all thy natural worship takes the source:
'Tis revelation what thou think'st discourse.
Else how com'st thou to see these tmths so clear
Which so obscure to heathens did a p w
Not Plato these, nor Aristotle found,
Nor he whose wisdom oracles renowned [Socrates]. (68-75)
Furthermore, divine revelation can be scriptural. Dryden describes the unique role of

scripture, which surmounts human weakness:

This only doctrine [scripture] does our lusts oppose,

Unfed by nature's soi1 in which it grows,
Cross to our int'rests, curbing sense and sin;
Oppressed without, and undermined within,
It thrives through pain, its own tormentors tires,
And with a stubbom patience still aspires.
To what can reason such effects assign
Transcending nature, but to laws divine? (158-65)

Revelation, then, can be either natural or scriptural. Furthermore, because of the

confùsion between "nature" and "revelation," the association of "nature" with compting

lust in lines 158 and 159 above appears contradictory. Dryden suggests that revelation

(nature) can inspire one to goodness and misguide one at the same time. Ultimately

Dryden is attempting to elucidate and prioritize tluee distinct but interactive means toward

Christian salvation: scriptural revelation, faith, and reason? Each of these inspires human

valid set of ethical a d o r theological beliefs" (S49). In his sermon "On the Testimony of
Conscience," SwiA dismisses "natural religion"--what he calls "MoralHonesry"-as one of
two "false Principles" (PW 9: 152). Louis Landa, in his Introduction to the Semons,
posits that "On the Testimony" is "an oblique answer" to Shaflesburian conceptions of
conscience (1 14).

" See Harth, Confexfs289.

 15

goodness, but scriptural revelation is alone sufficient for full salvation while faith and

reasoned belief in God both follow out of it and reinforce it. At the same time, natives

with natural revelation but without scriptural revelation can be good, and therefore saved,

but they are not sufficiently Christian. In a sense, as with the experimenters of Swift's

Academy of Lagado, Dryden's is an attempt to buüd a house from the roof down, but

since he conflates revelation and nature, which also compts, the revelatory roof seems

somewhat lealq. Dryden has describeci a fiIl process of salvation, of which only the first

step (naturai revelation) is necessaty; the others are superfiuous but still somehow usefiil.

His implication here is that the purity of The Primitive, by precluding scnpture and

rationalism, happily negates the undermining influence of priest and deist alike. ReIigro

Laici is a nostalgie plea for a more primitive church, but the means of this expression is

the idaikation of The Primitive in nature: the Noble Savage.*'

Besides poets, scientists, theologians, and philosophers, utopians and satirists also

found plausible or at least newly familiar material to build their fictions of other worlds.

These fictions oflen reflect a writer's own wortd fiom a critical distance in an attempt to

destroy the reader's complacency. Swift's Houyhnhnms represent just such a critique.

They are an equine version of the Noble Savage, in this case superior beings who inspire

24 The oxyrnoronic phrase "noble savage" originates in English in Dryden's

Conques?of Grmuab (1670). On Shaflesbury's own stniggles with The Primitive as pure
and The Primitive as compt, see chap. 2 below. For a discussion of the nchness of the
Noble Savage "trope," see Sayre 123-9. Sayre argues that the Noble Savage is "a
fonvard-looking utopian image" as opposed to temporal constructs, which conceived of
The Primitive as an historicai remnant (129). While partially m e , Sayre's theory ignores
the Edenic implications of the Noble Savage.
 16

Gulliver to degrade his own culture, species, and even self * This period proved

particularly nch for ernpiricist and a p M thinkers alike as a new reality or newly

expansive aspect of the old reality, a New World, was discovered to run parallel but

counter to the old European reality.

As the idea of the savage helped define and delimit civilization, it also raised

questions about the nature of humanity itself if the people of Western Europe, with their

strictly hierarchical post-feudal societies and wmplex and well-grounded political and

religious systems, were human, what were the peoples scattered throughout the world

who maintaineci entirely dissimilar and obscure systerns? While things European seemed

nomal or even natural to Europeans, The Primitive appeared altogether different. Still,

few Europeans hlly doubted the humanity of The Primitive, and questions generally

centered on the degree or kind of their humanity and their relation to Europeans and

Chnstianity. In the travel works 1 will be treating in part 2, The Civilized is a mostly

anglocentric constnxt while The Primitive ranged outward fiom this center: from the

similar but still different and primitive Exotic (such as the Turks) through the crudely

"naturai" but sometimes admirable Barbarous (such as the Amerindians) to the wholly

bewildering Savage (such as the Australians). It was not until the later Enlightenrnent that

race, originally a term to denote animal generations, was reconstmcted and commonly

1argue for this assertion in my final chapter. In the "Voyage to the

Houyhnhnms" words like barbarous, m g e , and wild occur far more fiequently than in
the rest of the Truveis and, at least with regard to the first two, always in reference to the
Yahoos or Europeans. Furthemore, other significant ternis such as nation, fame, naturaf,
and unnaturaI al1 achieve their greatest usage in the last voyage. Book 4 is where SwiA
most thoroughly scrutinizes the themes suggested by wch words. Brobdingnag, the other
arguably "utopian" land visited by Gulliver, is the second heaviest user of most of these
words.
applied to humans in Our current sense (Hudson 248,2534)." The OED traces a now

defbnct application of race to a single nation or people to as early as 1600, a usage Swifi

generally makes of the word, most fmously in the King of Brobdingnag's speech to

GuUiver: "1 cannot but wnclude the Bulk of your Natives to be the most pemicious Race

of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth"

(132)? But the use of race to denote ethnicity or even larger geneaiogical

" W~nthropJordan traces the use of "white" as what we would now cd1 a racial
designation back to 1680 (95). Nonetheless, Jordan in no way implies that the present-day
construct of râce existed in SwiA's time (see also 147). In 1775 Johann Blumenbach, the
so-called Fzther of Physical Anthropology, developed and refined the categories we now
routinely accept as biological races (see Ivan Hannaford, Race: me Histov of an Idea in
the West 206-8; on the premises that gave rise to the modem construct of race, see 57-8).
Nonetheless, Blumenbach's classifications had their origins in earlier works, such as the
Journul des S a v m (1 684). Carolus Linneus developed the biological classification
scheme stiU in use today in his Systema Naturœ (1735). Later, in F w ~ Suecica
a (1746)
Limæus classified humans "scattered over the whole of Sweden" into four categories, the
last of which was any mixture of the first two and al- immigrants (excerpted in Bendyshe,
"The History of Anthropology" 446). Thomas Bendyshe adds,
Linnæus himself was content with the firm conviction that man, on moral
grounds done, was of one descent, and of a distinct species fiom al1 other
animals. But there cari be no doubt that the candid way in which he stated
the scientific objections which are opposed to such an assertion, have been
the foundation of those modem ideas which demand, as an alternative,
some specific difference between the lowest man and the highest apeyor
the division of man himself into different species. (448)
Hannaford associates the anthropological studies of the body closely with race and wams,
It is unhistorical to perceive the concept of race before the appearance of
physical anthropology proper, because the human body, as portrayed up to
the time of the Renaissance and Reformation, couId not be detached fiom
the ideas ofpolis and ecclesia. (147)
Hannaford distinguishes pre-modem human distinctions fiom modem race on the basis of
the ancient and medieval conceptspolis and ecclesia. Earlier human categorizations are
always marked or govemed by Hellenic notions of politics or Christian religious criteria.
See also "race" in the Oxjwd CI-cul Dictionary.

z7 For a more obscure use of race, see Swift's phrase "a Vein and Race of
Thinking'' in A Tale of a Tub 80. Behn uses race in reference to direct genealogid
descent. For a full discussion of the developing constmction of race in the eighteenth
century, see Nicholas Hudson's "From 'Nation' to 'Race': The Origin of Racial
 18

commonalities, much as we use it now, does not appear until the late eighteenth century?

Previously peoples were distinguished by the less inflexible but narrower tem, nation in

both a politicai and strictly ethnic sense. The British attributed European supenority over

primitive nations prirnarily to the predominance of Christian society, but many cultural

factors (institutions, Literacy, technology, etc.) and physid attributes (complexion,

strength, sexuality, etc.) helped to distinguish The Primitive fiom The Civilized and to

distinguish the categones of The Primitive fiomeach other. I will treat these factors in

subsequent chapters, primarily in part 2. Many European thinkers, reacting against

Hobbes and his followers, perceived The Primitive as a paradigm for a rationalist stoicism.

1 will discuss Shaftesbury in this context in the next chapter. Of course, the reality of

these other peoples rarely matched the rationalist construct and, indeed, could serve as an

antiparadigm.

Classification in Eighteenth-Century Thought," particularly pages 248, 250, and 257.

Jordan appends a useful 'Wote on the Concept of Race" to his Whiie over BIuck (583-5).
See also Schiebinger throughout and Hodgen 214.
a Londa Schiebinger in Nature's Bu& cites a 1684 French work as the earliest
such usage, and the OED credits a 1774 usage by Goldsmith as the fint in English.
Another early definition, used sometimes by Swift, was "species." Swift also, somewhat
sardonically, refers to such professions as lawyer and servant as races, as though such
vocations indicated a biological disposition to absurdity and comiption--beings distinct
fiom the rest of humanity. Such an assumption, no matter how whimsicai, is at play in the
genealogical class distinctions maintained by the Houyhnhnrns (256). In the long poem
On Pueby: A Rhqpsudy, SwiA classifies the profise community of hack poets as
"creatures of the rhyming race" (402).
Chapter 2: The Primitive in Science and Philosophy: Tyson and Shaftesbury

The scientist Edward Tyson, F M ,and FRCP, and the moral philosopher Anthony

Ashley Cooper the 3rd earl of Shaflesbury were arnong the rnany British thinkers who

wntemplated the nature of humanity in SwiA's tirne. Although Tyson and Shaflesbury

appraised voyage aceounts differently, they both considered wch reports in their

rationalist approaches to physics and metaphysics: Tyson as a source of empirical

observation, and Shaftesbury as a reflection of his moral aesthetics. The problems

inherent in relying on travel reports to round out scientific inquiry or to furnish

philosophical proof are similar to those of relying on classicai tradition: al1 human

observation is skewed by subjectivity.

Tyson's most famous work, Orang-Outang, i v e Homo Sylwstris: or, the

Anatomy of a Pygmie (1699), descnbes his dissection of an immature chimpanzee, the

"Orang-Outang" of the title, and sets out to prove t h this creature is in fact an example

of what the Ancients described as a pygrny race of humans? Due to tradition and law,

place of humans as far back as Galen's work in ancient

simians had been dissecteci i t ~

Greece (see "anatomy and physiology," Oxford C I ~ c aDictionary),

l but Tyson' s

dissection was a most thoroughgoing and systematic attempt to compare simian and

" Pygrnies appear in such Classicai writen' works as Ctesias, Megasthenes, and
Hecataeus in Iands as diverse as India and Egypt. Thomas Bulwer in his
Anthropme~amo'phosis(1 650) declares that "Pigrnies" are 'hot a meer fable" and
suggest that they are Satanic products (494, 502). Stephen Greenblatt in M m e l m s
Possessions observes,
The discovery of the New World at once discredits the Ancients who did
not know of these lands and, by raising the possibility that what had
seemed gross exaggerations and lies were in fact sober accounts of radical
othemess, gives classical a m n t s of prodigies a new life. (22)
The work of Tyson and other natural scientists bridges these two conclusions.
hurnan anatomy. By attempting to debunk the legend of the pygmies through scientific

inquiry, Tyson hoped to replace faith in myth and story-what Thomas Sprat calls "fiaming

Romances,instead of solid Histories of Nature" (2 14)-with trust in rationalist

verification, and his efforts informed scientific thought through Charles Darwin (Montagu,

Introduction 1O)? As with most Modems, Scriblerian claims notwithstanding, Tyson did

not casually seek to dismiss the reports of the Ancients but challenged easy acceptance of

speailative or interpretive descriptions." Furthemore, to his comparative anatomy he

" See below 24. Interestingly, M.F.Ashley Montagu, Tyson's most awestruck
champion, reports that Tyson and Darwin were blood relations:
the man who, in 1699, first drew the attention of the learned world to the
fact that in the Great Chain of Being the anthropoid ape was the nearest
link to man, was an ascendant relation of the man, who in 1871,
systematically set out the facts which eventually served to convince the
greater part of the Western world of the tmth of that linkage. For Edward
Tyson (1650- 1708) and Charles Darwin (180% 1882) had in Richard Foley
(1580-1 657) a common ancestor. ("Tysoniana" 105)
Whiie this coincidence alone holds a less than mystical relevance, the degree of the two
scientists' blood comection is roughly proportional to the correlation between Tyson's
advancement of the Great Chain of Being theory and Danvin's elaboration of evolutionary
theory (promoted by his grandfather, Erasmus-a closer relation to Tyson and Charles than
either is to the other). That is, the two theories are steeped in the observation of minute
differences arnong living beings, but one did not necessarily descend from the other; they
are cognates. Similarly, in reference to French theories of "quasi-evolutionisrn" of the
mid-eighteenth century, Foucault writes that they seem "to presage equaily well" the later
work of Darwin and Lamark. "But," he cautions,
this is an illusion of hindsight: for this fonn of thought, in fact, the
sequence of time can never be anything but the line dong which al1 the
possible values of the pre-established variables succeed one another.
Consequently, a pnnciple of modification must be defined within the living
being, enabling it to take on a new character when a natural revolution
occurs. (153)
Nonetheless, the verb "presage" (chosen by Foucault's translator) strikes me as broad
enough to cover what these early theories (and Tyson's) did: in a literary sense, to
foreshadow Darwin's tiilly developed theory of natural selection.
'' An exception: the natural historian Fabricius in 1721 casually dismissed reports
of pygmies. He concludes "fiom investigation, that there are no such things as whole
nations of pygmies, as some have feigned, although according to the variations of climate
appended ''pidologicaï' arguments against not only the humanity or quasi-humanity not

only of classical pygmies, but also of cynocephali, satyrs, and sphinxes. In A Philological

anil Sphinges of the

Ecvry Conceming the Pygnries. the CynocephaIi*the Safy~~,

Ancienfs he compares the h t t e n record of such creatures with his own expenence and

with anatomical descriptions of various primates written by others, and he concludes that

ali of these mythical creatures existed and still exist in fact. However, far fiom being

degenerate, monstrous beings, they are types of apes. Although Tyson's approach in A

Philologicai Eruiy is more literary than scientific, Montagu credits it with constituting

"the first scientific discussion of the nature of the knowledge of the ancients relating to the

apes and to apelike creatures" ("Knowledge of the Ancients" 54 1). Tyson writes that his

"chief Business is to enquire, how Nature hath formed them [legendary monsters]; and not

how the Poets, Painters, or Statuaries have, according to the Luxuriancy of their Fancie,

feigned or figured them" (PhiIologicaI f k s q 57). Nature here is the rationalist's

surrogate for the truth, which for Tyson "is always easie and plain" (PhiIological fi-ray

33). The distinction he draws between objective nature and subjective artifice may seem

strained or naive, but Tyson was offerhg to correct the record, which he imagined was

informecl by little more than innuendo and mmor and reinforced by uncritical adherence to

ancient authority3*

some men are in one place of shorter stature than others" (1738 trans., reprinted in
Bendyshe, "The History of Anthropology" 409). Clearly Tyson's methods are much more
rigorous than Fabricius', even if his conclusions are equally erroneous.

'' Strange races, monsters, and bizarre animals occur in such authonties as
Aristotle and Pliny. Herodotus, for instance, seemed to accept the existence of such
creatures; he repeats Libyan claims about fabulous beasts including cynocephali "and the
creahires without heads, whom the Libyans declare to have their eyes in their breasts; and
also the wild men, and the wild women" (4.188). Lucretius, on the other hand, thought
 He would inevitably make mistalces, such as basing generalizations about the

nature of primates on a single sample, but h* erron tend to materializcjust at the limits of

his personal knowledge and of European experience, where he must speculate or draw ill-

informed conclusions. His was, aAer aU, the first chimp on record to be dissected in

England, and knowledge of the natural habitats and behavior of primates was limited to

d o r s ' stories and tradition. Some more experience with these animals would have

shown him that he was dealing with an infant chimp, which has more superficial

cornrnonality with humans than does an adult? A h , he bases much of his own

such reports fancihl and antithetical to his notion of Epicurean atomism:

Don't suppose atoms link in every way.
You would meet fi& and monsters wherever you turned:
Races of half-beast men would spring up, tdl
Branches rnight sometimes sprout from a living torso,
And land-dwelling members link with the life of the sea,
And Nature, mothering anything anywhere,
Would feed Chimeras snorting stench and flame.
None of this happens, we know, for evetything
1s made of certain seeds, by certain parents,
And in their growing they preserve their kinds. (2: 700-9)
As late as the 1634 Thomas Herbert could seriously speculate that the Cape Verde Islands
"were the Heprides, so famous for the Garden of golden Apples, conquered by Alcides,
in despight of that hundred headed Dragon, engendered by aspinng Typhon and Echyd,td'
(7). While Herbert does not state that mythology is historically accurate, he does diffuse a
strong sense of its geographical authenticity. As Europe moved deeper into the age of
exploration, travelers learned to look less for monstrous races and peoples. Certainly the
eighteenth-century fascination with monsters was intense, but the monsten were singular,
not signal, examples--individual freaks and not representative of a body; see Todd,
ImaginingMon.sîers 156. On classical reports of monsters as well as modem reports such
as Purchas' and Herbert's, see Bulwer's Anthropmetamorphosis throughout; Bulwer dso
provides a nonscientific cornparison between humans and apes (44 1-2).

" Reporting on Tyson in the British M e d i d Journal Charles Newman corrects

Tyson's error here by explaining that as an infant the chimp "had a brain a good deal
larger, proportionately to its size, than it would have had if it had been an adult, and so
Tyson missed one of the things which most clearly differentiate apes frorn men" (97; see
also Wokler, "Tyson" 2301-2). Schiebinger notes that Tyson's assessment of his ape's
age was "based on the writings of the ancients" and not "reports by native peoples who
knowledge of his ape, such as its extraordinary affection for humans (Ormg-Outmg 7),

on reports by the officen of the ship that brought it? And while claims by sea captains

that they have seen many of the same creatures in the wild convince hirn that this ape is

not a "Product of a mkt Generation" (that iq human and beast), he refrains from directly

denouncing the tradition that such interspecies breeding is possible." In short, he comrnits

errors precisely when he deviates tiom his ernpirical rationalism.

ms comparative anatomy is a masterpiece of canny observation, minute

description, thoroughgoing research, and scientific speculation, and his thesis would be

utterly convincing but for Paul Du Chaillu's mid-nineteenth-century encounter with actual

human pygmies as described in his Joumey to Ashango-Land (1867). But even if Tyson's

erroneous asnimptions have relegated hirn to a position of mere histoncal curïosity, his

methodology and early influence belie his irrelevance. Richard Nash neatly summarizes

Tyson's actions: "~]elocatethe figure of myth in the discourse of science, position that

figure between man and ape as a lirninal figure of science, and then denying the possibility

of liminal status, demote it to the status of ape" (98). In so doing Tyson not only reduces

the pygmy of the Ancients, but also squarely positions the ape as a bridge between humans

had actually seen these animals alive" (208). The suggestion in Orang-Oufang,though, is
that the sailors who previously owned Tyson's subject told hirn it was &Il grown.

Y At times Tyson indulges in desultory proofs of natural morality, in this case

founded upon shipboard reports:
Once it [his Pygmie] was made Drunk with Punch, (and they are fond
enough of strong Liquors). But it was observed, that after that time, it
would never drink above one Cup, and refiised the offer of more than what
he found agreed with him. Thus we see Instinct of Nature teaches Brutes
Temperance; and intemperance is a Crime not only against the Laws of
Morality, but of Nature too. (30)

" See Orang4utung 2 and 42.

and beasts on the Great Chain of ~eing."

The pygmies themselves, at least as portrayed in mythology, held almost as secure

a position in the eighteenth-century imagination as the theory of the Great c h a h 3 ' This

respect for the pygmy tradition was authorized by the repons of the Ancients, most

famously a simile in the I l i d that occurs prominently at the start of battle in book 3:

Thus by their Leader's Care each martial Band

Moves into Ranks, and stretches o'er the Land.
With Shouts the Trojam rushing fiom dar
Proclaim their Motions, and provoke the War:
So when indernent Wsnters vex the Plain
With piercing Frosts, o r thick-descending Rain,
To wanner Seas the Cranes embody'd fly,
With Noise, and Order thro' the mid-way Sky;
To Pygrny-Nations Wounds and Death they bnng.
And ail the War descends upon the Wing. (Pope translation, 1- 10)

Although Tyson in his PhiIoIogicaI Essuy makes much of this simile, he does not take it

literally: Homer is f i e r al1 a poet, and

Such an Expression is very dlowable in a Poet, and is elegant and

signifiant, especially since there is so good a Foundation in Nature for him
to use it, as we have already seen, in the Anatomy of the Orang-outang.
Nor is a Poet tied to that strictness of Expression, as an Historian o r
Philosopher, he has the liberty o f pleasing the Reader's Phancy, by Pictures
and Representations of his own. (3)

Furthermore, "He only expresses himself, as a Poet should do; and if Readers will mistake

his meaning, 'tis not his fault" (5). Aristotle aiso mentions the pygmy-crane legend in his

History of Animals and maintains that it is not fanciful(8.12). Another ancient source of

" See Wokler, "Tyson" 2305.

"Swift mentions pygmies in his 'Vigression in Praise of Digressions " fiom A Tale
of a Tub. H e cites Photius on "the Indian Pygmies; whose Stature did nof exceed above
two Fooi; Sed quomm pudenab crassa, & ad talos usque pettintgentrio" ( 1 47; see below
note 268). Strabo in his Geography catalogues monstrous peoples such as pygmies and
cynocephali fiom earlier classical sources (1 -2.35).
 25

knowledge of the pygrnies is Herodotus. In book 2 of his Hiskwy he cites a tale of the

Nasamonians, who while traversing Northem Afnca were carrïed off by "some dwarfish

men" (32). Herodotus later cites a report by the Carthaginian Sataspes, who describes "a

dwarfish race, who wore a dress made fiom the paim-tree. These people, whenever he

landed, lefi theu towns and fled away to the mountains7'(4.43). Nowhere does Herodotus

credit or even mention the annual battle with the cranes? The Scriblerian production, An

Essay of the Lemed Mmrims Scrîbferus, Conceming the Origin of Sciences, satincally
combines the crane legend with a convenient confusion between Tyson's pygmy and

histoncal reports (41 1). In Samuel Garth's mock-heroic, m e Dispensaqv (1699), Tyson

appears unflatteringly as Carus with "An Oran Outang o'er his Shoulders" (5: 150).~' In

its final canto, in open defiance of Tyson's theory, appears a homage to Homer's pygmy-

crane sirnile:

So when the Pigrnies, marshall'd on the Plainsl

38 That Swift greatly admired Herodotus is evidenced by this marginal note from
his own copy:
The archliar Ctesias accuses Herodotus of being a greater liar, but, to my
mind with very few exceptions he should be absolved on a11 counts. Yet
the numerous digressions in this Our Father of History do break off the
thread of his narrative to the point of tedium; with the natural result that his
readers become contùsed and then forget what has preceded. Moreover
the narratives in themselves are perhaps more profuse in detail than their
subject-matter demands. For the rest, 1 rank this writer arnong those who
deserve the very highest praise. To neither Greek nor foreigner is he over-
partial or less than fair. His set speeches are mostly short, straight-
forward, and not too numerous. He writes, too, not without statements of
belief fiom which a cultivated reader will be able to draw wisdom, both
moral and political. (PW 5 : 243)

" During the preparation for the poem's mock battle Garth ponrays Tyson as
"pacifick" and cowardly and having very poor taste in literature. In the ensuing battle, he
is one of the few named physicians who is killed.
 Wage puny War against th'hvading Cranes;
The Poppets to the Bodkin Spears repair,
And scatter'd Feathers fluner in the Air,
But when the bold imperial Bird ofJove
Stoops on his sounding Pinions fiom above,
Among the Brakes the F a j r Nation crowds,
And the Strimonian squadron seeks the Clouds. (25-32)

Clearly, the traditionai authority of the Ancients had blended with the discovery of new

and very different peoples. While many creatures of ancient legend were patently absurd

and would never be discovered, the pygrnies at least were credible, certainly more so than

Swift's Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians. Although the nineteenth century confirmed the

existence of a race of small Africans (though not so small as to be oppressed by birds),

Tyson's was a sensible effort to explain away such ancient legends.

In his dedication to Lord Sommers, Tyson clearly ststes one of his working

assumptions:

fiom Minerals. to Plrmts;fiom Plantss to A nimals; andfrorn Aitirnais* to

Men; the Transition is so gr&aI* thut there qpears a very greaf
Similitude, as well beîween the meanest Plant, and sume Minerais; as
between the Iowest Rank of Men. m d the highest Kind ofAi~imals.

This concurs with the theory of progressively gradated creation, which originated wit h

Aristotle and describes the variety of nature as immutable links in a Great Chain of

Being* Unlike evolution, which it antedates, gradation perceives similarities among life

40
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. identifies the one of the ramifications of belief in this
scale:
So, while the Enlightenment is famous for establishing its existence upon
man's ability to reason, it simultaneously used the absence and presence of
reason to delirnit and circumscribe the very humanity of the cultures and
people of color which Europeans had been "discovering" since the
Renaissance. The urge toward the systematization of al1 human
knowledge, by which we characterize the Enlightenment, in other words
led directly to the relegation of black people to a lower rung on the Great
Chain of Being, an eighteenth century metaphor that arranged al1 of
forms as proof of the onenes and SimuItaneity of creation rather than the protracted

development of one form fiom another. Gradation is less concerned with the generation

of species than evolution is, because gradation presumes a common generative source and

moment. But it also presumes the necessity of plenitude, that is, the concurrence of al1

things that can possibly coexist. By the early eighteenth century this notion o f a static

chah in which each being could only occupy one assigned space began to be accompanied

and even replaced by speculation about creation's steady progress up the chain, by then

more of a ladder (Lovejoy, Great Chmn 246). The evmtual infiuence of this

reinterpretation on theones of evolution is obvious. Robert Wokler lauds Tyson for

possibly being the first anatornist to claim cleady that the ape is the link in the chain

between human and lower animals ("Tysod* 2305).

Tyson immediately notes of the animal he is dissecting that "in the Orgmzization of

abundance of its Parts, it more approaches to the Structure of the same in Men: But where

it differs fiom a Man, there it resembles plainiy the Common Ape, more than any other

Animal-" These cornparisons among various forms of life exempli@ Tyson's ongoing

exploration of physical relationships and human distinctions and reflect the basic

creation on a scale fiom animais and plants and insects through man to the
angels and God hirnself. By 1750, the chah had become individualized; the
human scale rose fiom "the lowliest Hottentot" (black South Afiicans) to
"glorious Milton and Newton." (Sign~Bng Mot~key129-30)
The classic work on the Great Chain is Arthur O. Lovejoy's The Great Chain of Behg
(1936). He too notes the hierarchical potential of the chain, which "could be used as
weapons against social discontent and especially against al1 equalitarian movements" (205)
While Gates and Lovejoy refer to later developments in the penod's formulation o f the
Great Chain, the implication of these developments had always been latently present. In
part 2,1 will map the three constructs of The Primitive employed by English Travellers in
the early eighteenth century. D a k e r peoples were indeed constructed as The Savage, the
farthest fiom The Civilized; see below 181.
framework of the theory of gradation. Physical ditFerence, Tyson imporiantly concludes,

has less to do with defining humanness than with Jome "higher Prhciple' (55). In fact,

he finds remarkable anatornical similarities between the anthropoid and the homo sapiens,

and his methodology in describing t h e r is one of his greatest contribution~.'~While

Orung-Outang is pnmarily a comparative anatomy-a descriptive lin of the several parts

of the specimen he dissects with m u e n t references to those of other species, particularly

Tyson also indulges his other pursuits, literature and

humans--in his Phiioiogicai l3.q~

metaphysics, and occasionally speculates on the origins of pariicular legends and o f human

exceptionality. Thus, Richard Nash notes of Tyson that

By proclairning his essay 'philological,' he aligns himself with Richard

Bentley and those other 'verbai critics,' who by seeking to establish the
study of literature on a rnaterial basis, challenged the aesthetic cnterion of
taste and judgment long accorded to the poets. ("Tyson's Pygmie" 57;
"Satyrs" 100)

Thus Tyson opens himself to criticism fiom the Scnblenans, Bentley's t ~ r m e n t o r s . ~ ~

Clearly Tyson has more than a mere factual anatomy as his goal. In dissecting and

describing this chimp, he also seeks to define and distinguish the human. He constructs his

tmths both fiom mechanical details and from speculations on transcendent and spiritual

mysteries that could dari@ the essence of creation--"a dualistic perspective on the nature

" See Montagu, Edward Tyson 227 and 243.

42 In "A Digression in the Modem Kind" fiom his A Tale ofa fi16 (1 704), Swift
satinzes the modem meticulousness of Tyson's peers (1 23;see note 45 below). Bentley
was a favorite Scriblerian target. For instance? a piece entitled "Critical Remarks on
Captain Gulliver's Travels" and attributed to 'R,Bentley" appeared in 1735. Possibly
written by Arbuthnot, the work is a philologid proof that the Houyhnhnrns were known
to the Ancients and throughout much of Europe (published in Swifiiana 7). Swift himself
wrote a punning Discourse to Prow the Antiquity of the Englsh Tongue in the same vein
some time d e r 1727 (PW 4 23 1-9; see Davis, Introduction xxxviii).
of man" inspired, Wokler contends, by the ideas of Claude Perrault and René Descartes

("Eniightening Apes" 92). This "dualistic perspective" is especially compelling when one

considen that Tyson had a wide reputation as a celibate. As Nash maintains,

"Constructing Tyson as a paragon of science requires him to sacrifice hurnan bodily

pleasures for the more refined and solitary pleasures of the mind" ("Tyson's Pygmie" 54).

Reputedly Tyson eschewed a fair portion of his own dual nature (physical and spiritual) in

order to theorize about hurnan nature in general.

Tyson accepted the sailors' reports that his ape had enjoyed imitating humans by

wearing clothing (8). and just as wearing clothes would make the ape seem more human

to the British imagination, disregard for European standards ofdress was oflen cited as a

reason to dismiss many native peoples. such as the Hottentots, as bestial.') A piece

attributed to John Arbuthnot or Swift, II Cannot Rain but It Pours (1726), satirically

describes Peter, the Wild Boy of Hanover, who was exhibited to Swift by Arbuthnot

(Swift, C o n 3: 128). Peter, like the Houyhnhnms, m o t at first differentiate between

clothing and flesh:

1 cannot omit his first notions of dothes, which he took to be the natural
skins of the creatures that wore them, and seemed to be in great pain for
the pulling off a stocking, thinking the poor man was aflaying. (Arbuthnot

" In superficially elevating the ape, though, Tyson also broached old biases.
Raymond Corbey observes,
Since antiquity, traditional views of apes have generally been
condescending and unflattering. Apes and monkeys were seen as funny,
foolish, impulsive, obscene, hideous, homble. Common Christian images
were those of the monkey asfiguradiaboli, and that of the monkey as
sinner-an image of man in a state of degeneracy. (Introduction 3)
Thus Tyson's observations upon anthropomorphic behavior would incite satirists to
further attacks on the virtuose. Primates, primitives, and monsters cannot win; they are
either naked or Iaughable. See below note 175. On the '~isson"of monstrosity and
nomality, see Todd 157-8.
Peter had the protection of the king, but public shows of monsters and curious beings

Nash notes the direct correlation between such fie*-show

were ~ornrnon.~ displays of

feral humans or monstrous beings and scientific matter:

[TJhe discourse of pre-primate primatology was a discourse of monstrosity

and monsten. The subject Tyson anatomued and preserved for permanent
display (now in the Bntish Museum of Natural History) was already o n
display in Bartholomew Fair. The elite culture of science was
appropnating the popular culture displays of marginal humans. ("Tyson's
Pygrnie" 53)4s

Trinculo in Shakespeare's The Tempesr asseris that in England "When they will
not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they wilJ lay out ten to see a dead Indian" (2.2).
On exhibitions of monstrous humans, see Todd, Imagining Monsters 145-8; on how
monsters collapse human boundaries, see 156; on exhibitions of monkeys and apes, see
159.

" While the skeleton of Tyson's Pygmie is still on display, Swift's Taler Rom A
Tale of a Tub offers a different kind of scientific spectacle. One of Swift's favorite
satirical devices is the literalizing of metaphor, and in his Tale's "Digression in the Modem
Kind" the Taler assures us that he has dissected and studied "the Carcass of Humane
Na~ure"and a£ter "great Expense to fit up al1 the Bones" he is "ready to shew a very
compleat Anatomy thereof to al1 cunous Gentlemen d others" (123). In Swift's satire,
the modem scientific practice of preservation and display naturally extends from the
physical to the metaphysical. See also 173-4 on the farnous flaying of a woman and
dissection of a "Beau." On some human spectacles in Swift's time, see Hawes (191). A
passage in L i ~ ~ uAnthropomorpha
s' (1 760) illustrates eighteenth-century scientific
interest in feral humans. After listing severai famous examples dating back to the Middle
Ages, though, Linnæus chooses to "pass ovei' examples he finds strikingly similar.
Among these is the puer Hmnoveramrs, or Peter. L i ~ o u concludes s that the "multitude"
of wild humans similar to Peter have three qualities in common:
1. That they could not speak at all.
2. That they were al1 hairy.
3. That they ran about on the hands and feet, climbed up trees in moment;
were astonished at the approach of a man; were more like beasts and apes
than fhose animals fhemselves: whence it follows, that it would be
excessiveIy difficult to find any natural distinction between thern and the
race of apes. (Reprinted in Bendyshe 450, my italics)
The point 1 have highlighted is a wonderfully convoluted tautology and recalls the antics
of Swift's Yahoos.
Nash elsewhere relates this "transgressive challenge to boundaries" to satire itself

("Satyrs" 103). In addition, we cannot overlook Tyson's position as physician to

Bethlehem Hospital, where for a smaii fee the public was welcome to view and taunt the

inmates. Tom Brown, while aliuding to this practia in Amusements Serious md Cornical,

specificdly places Tyson at the scene and mocks his reputed "tacitumity" (26-7). The

Scnblerians also exploit the convergence of science, spectacle, and satire in the "Double

Mistress" section of The Mernoirs of Martinus Scnblerus in which Martin, who scours the

side shows looking for material for rientific inquiry, falls in love with one of two

conjoined sisters who are shown for money.

A fiirther intersection between the primate male and The Primitive male or, in this

case, the degenerated Wild Man construct is a supposed attraction between such and

human, particularly white, fernales? Tyson, based upon "infinite Stones related of them,"

speculates that apes are "rnost amorous of fair Women" (42), not surprisingly the

European beauty standard of the time." He continues with reports of women pursued by

apes and reprints the story of a woman who bears an ape's children although he suggests

that he doubts this outcome and elsewhere utterly denies the possibility of generative

compatibility (42; see also î)." The Orign of'iciences posits, Tyson-like, that "the

"Depictions of women, of course, evoke similar associations themselves. Laura

Brown explains in Endr of Empire, "As figures of difference, women are connected with
sema1 insatiability, class instability, natives, the colonized, and the potentially threatening,
unassimilable other" (19).

47
See Jordan 8; on sexual attacks by apes on women of a/l races, see 3 1-2.
u Tyson indicates his ambivalence on this point by reprinting the story verbatim
and with little comment. This tale appears in the middle of a discussion of his Pygmie's
genitalia and of the "great saiacio11~ltessthis Spcies of Animais are noted foi' (42). The
following is a translation from Tyson's reprint of the original Latin. A woman is stranded
fabulous story of the gods cornpressing women in woods under bestial appearances," is

reaIly a conflation of distorted accounts of assaults by sage-apes on human women.

"[Tlhe love these sages are known to bear to the fernales of our kind" is a proof of the

tmth of the thesis (4 13). In "The Double Mistress" chapter of Scriblerus' Memoirs, the

hitherto tame manteger-described by its keeper as the original of the Cynocephalus (145)-

-is driven into a sexual fienzy by the sight of Lindamhlndamora stripped to the navel(s)

(152). So here we have a dog-faced madbeast, the manteger, sexually aroused by a

"monstrous" wornan, the conjoined si~ten.'~

It Camtot Rain suggests a similar attraction

on a desert island where an ape "Coaxing and caressing" offen her food:
nodding, he invited her to fepst. At length, she was forced into a bestial
coupling, which evü intercourse [siupmmr]continued many days. In time
she gave binh to twin boys. And so the miserable woman lived for some
time (better for her was death).
Eventually the woman is rescued by Portuguex d o r s , but not before the ape sees her
escaping:
Roaring mad, he tried to recall the spouse not his spouse. When he saw
the sails filling with wind, quickly he brought one of the sons and showed
him to the mother, al1 the time threatening to throw the child in the surf
unless she returned, which he did. (unpublished translation by Leland D.
Peterson)
He does the same with the second son. Once in Portugal the woman is sentenced to bum
at the stake for her misfortune, but her sentence is later comrnuted to life in prison
(Orang-Outang 42-3)
Tyson's only direct comment on the veracity of this report is a parenthetical "if
tme" (42). The original teller has embellished a mere beast with anthropomorphic agency:
the calculated lure of the feast, the seductive nodding, the inevitable rape, the implicit
monogarny, the possessiveness verging on jealousy, the anger at the betrayal, the carefully
enacted huin threats, and finally the brutal revenge. Perhaps these embellishments were
merely dramatic or perhaps they served another purpose, but Tyson uncntically represents
the story and thereby tacitly endorses it: both its assumption of cross-generation and its
anthropomorphized ape. On cross-generation and transference of souk among humans,
devils, and animals, see Bulwer 5 15 and 52 1-2.
" Richard Nash observes. "The monsters of satire. like the constructions of the
wild man, are impotent in that word's dual construction--weak and ineffectual, yet given
to unrestrained sexud excess and satyriasis" (95). This "impotence," 1 would add, aiso is
otten the condition of The Primitive connnict in Swift's time. See part 2 below.
between wild Peter and some English women although Peter's preference is a ait against

Robert Waipole:

His being so young was the occ8sion of the great disappointment of the
ladies, who came to the drawing-room in fiil1 expectation of some attempt
upon their chastity; so far is true thaî he endeavoured to kiss the young
lady Walpole, who for that reason is becorne the envy of the circle; this
being a declaration of nature in favour of her superior beauty. (827)

This passage expresses the same fantasticai assumption hinted in Tyson's cross-generation

story-that white women and monsters dong with apes, ferai humans, and (implicitly) The

Primitive felt a mutual attraction. The assumption itself obscures either the tension

between male sexud desire and semal disdain or the interaction of sexual and racial

bigotry. A mutual passion between white women and wild males of whatever species links

them in degradation while contrasting their iust with the supposedly refined desires of

European gentlemen. Furthemore, a lack of sexual restraint marks both apes and The

Primitive and implicitly ranks them very near each other on the Great Chain."

WhiIe the ail-male British sailing crews had few opportunities to test their

See Schiebinger 78. Schiebinger notes the discrepancy, even double-st andard,
between eighteenth-century studies of race and of gender:
racial science interrogated males and male physiology, while sexual science
scmtinized European subjects. As one might imagine, eighteenth-century
comparative anatomists and anthropologists were overwhelrningly male.
What is especialfy revealing, however, is that they developed their theories
about race by exarnining male bodies. Females were studied, but only as a
sexual subset of any particular race. (146)
An exception would be Blumenbach's Caucasian women. The philosopher-apes of the
Ongin of Sciences are eventually s h u ~ e d by most women and must "mix with beasts"
(414), but "there were a few [apes] who fell not under the common calamity; there being
some unprejudiced women in every age, by virtue of whom a total extinction of the
original race was prevented" (41S), again an assertion of the ape-woman sexual topos.
Here, as Schiebinger generalizes, the apes are exclusively male--no females are mentioned
or imagined-and their wou1d-be mates are human women. With their sex unspecified the
apes are male both because they are under scientific scrutiny (Matinus' account) and
because they are sages. The male default is standard in travel writing as well.
assumptions about the universal appeal of white women, the fantasy of European women's

irresistible attractiveness to male apes and primitives penisted." In contrast, the sexual

commerce between white sailors and Primitive women is very real. Reports that Primitive

men offered the use of their i v e s and daughters in exchange for trinkets, cheap

wmmodities, or money are t w numerous to catalogue here? The Hottentots of

southemost Anica regularly appear in travel writing as (unlikely) initiators of such

transactions, but British writers are usually caretid to note tbat oniy non-Britons would

intermingle with Hottentot women? In fact, most voyagers on the authonty of foreign

sailors merely mention sexual encounters with The Primitive and rarely implicate

themselves, their shipmates, or their w m p a t r i o t ~ Bartholomew

.~ Sharp's journal is

apply similar presumptions in determining that

" Later Blumenbach would
Caucasian women are the most beautifbl in the world (see Schiebinger 130-1).
See below 97-98, 141-142, and 176-177. For instance, In his Captain
Singleton, an irnaginary voyage likely based upon published and unpublished accounts of
travelers, Daniel Defoe's pirates take advantage of fnendly native Afncan women without
paying first: "mme of our Men had made something fîee with their Women, which, had
not our new Guide made P a c e for us with one of their Men, at the Price of seven fine
Bits of Silver" (130). The atîack on Gulliver by a swarthy Yahoo girl, of course,
cornically invens the desirability of white women (GT 266-7).

" For instance, Abraham Cowley reports of the Cape of Good Hope in the mid-
1680s:
This day came down four of the Natives of the Place; they (being the
foulest Men that ever I saw) dancing Naked, and shaking their Privy Parts,
with an offer to the HoflcIltcters, that they should lye with their Wives for a
bit of rolled Tobacco. They had nothing to cover their Bodies, but a
Sheeps Skin hung over their Shoulders. (33)
He never explains why this offer is made only to the Wollmtders.~' Cowley later goes on
an expedition to observe the " H o d m d d * town, but he never implicates himself or his
English shipmates in any sex-for-tobacco transaction.

Y The exception would be hints at anonyrnous past English profligates. For

instance, in a history of English activities in the Bay of Campeachy in William Dampier's
Voyages and Descriptions, he mentions that the pirates "ofien made Sallies out in small
Parties among the nearest Indian Towns; where they plundered and brought away the
unusually fonhnght about issues of personal sexual intrigue. While he does not visit

Africa, his 1680 land joumey across the Darien isthmus puts him in contact with

"handsorn" native women, "Who are also exceeding lovhg and fiee to the Embraces of

Strangers" (2), the only "strangersn present beiig himself and his crew." Sharp later

exercises his pecuiiar sexud bluster by euphemistically intimating that he has seduced or

raped a (presumably Spanish) woman on an isolated island: "but soon f i e r 1 was yet a

more pleasing Guest to her, when she understood what Country-man 1was" (1 1). While

his fiankness is atypical, we can be sure that unfettered sexual behavior was not.' In

virtuaily al1 such reports of sexual enterprise-imaginary or real-initiation is a male

Indian Women to serve them at their Huts, and sent their Husbands to be sold at Jarnaica."
M e r a time these "01d Standards so debauched" the puates that they lapsed into anarchy.
Moral retribution came in the form of the Spanish, who "fell upon them, and took m o a of
them singly at their own Huts" (2: 54). In the "Voyage to Laputa, etc." Gulliver describes
the women of the flying island as being "exceedingly fond of Strangers" and as regularly
indulging in dailiances with men tiom the continent below, but he, like most other literary
voyagers does not implicate himself in available pleasures (165; see Boucé, "Rape" 103).
''For another rare example, see Dampier, NV 268-9.
" Of course, senial encounters among the sailors themselves are implied even less
fiequently in these dl-male voyages to nearly dl-male settlements; see Burg 9 1-3. Sharp
again is more blunt than most when he mentions that a sailor was put into irons for having
"acted the Sodomite" with a servant, but Sharp makes this report to shame the man who
had just usurped Sharp's command. As mon as the new captain took over, sodomy was
"the first thing he had to exert his unjustly-gotten Power upon" (46). B R Burg maintains
throughout his Sodomy and the Percepriori of Evil that sodomy was extremely common
and not controversid among pirates. If his thesis is correct, then the actions of Sharp's
usurper must be al1 the more arbitrary and aimiess. In an article on piracy and sexuality
Defoe's Cqtain Singleton Hans Turley argues that the relationships between Singleton
and Harris and, later, Quaker William have a strong homoerotic content. Furthermore, he
suggests throughout that the "homosociai" nature of pirate life set pirates widely apart
fiom conventional society. For a thoroughgoing though flawed study of shipboard
homoeroticism in the seventeenth century, sa B.R Burg's monograph; see below note
122. That ships were enclaves of maleness is unimpeachable. Witness William Dampier's
blunt reference to women and children as "useless People" during a sea battle ( W 3 4 9 ) .
prerogative, but Swift reverses this trend in Gulher 's ~ravels." He does so most

famously when the Yahoo girl amorously attacks Gulliver but also earlier when Gulliver is

used against his will as a sexual instrument, probably a dildo, by a young maid of honor at

the Brobdingnagian court (1 18-9)." These two female-on-male sema1 assaults suggest

Gulliver's ridiculous vulnerability @th times he is naked) and his classification as

nonperson in a superior society (Houyhnhnrn and Brobdingnagian). While Gulliver

expresses disgust at the incidents, he is repulsed less by the violation o r even the act than

by the semai nature and bodies of the fernales-in one case wild and imbnxted, and in the

other gigantic and grotesque. Contrarily in Lilliput he seems flattered by a mmor that he

''While the prerogative remained with his men, Woodes Rogers places the burden
of chastity on a black slave woman on his ship as well as women on his consort ship, the
Duchess:
1gave her a strict Charge to be modest, with Threats of severe Punishment,
if she was found otherwise. One of the Duchess's black Nymphs having
transgressed this Way, was lately whip'd at the Capston. This 1 mention to
satis& the censonous, that we don't countenance Lewdness, and that we
took those Women aboard, only because they spoke English, and begg'd to
be admitted for Landreses, Cwks and Semstresses" (279).
Rogers often lauds the virtuous restraint of his crew. For instance, afker Rogers and his
men take "Guiaquii," the men search some Spanish women for valuables:
Some of their largest Gold Chains were conceal'd, and wound about their
Middles, Legs, and Thighs, &c. but the Gentlewomen in these hot
Countries being very thin clad with Silk and fine Linnen, and their Hair
Dress'd with Ribbons very neatly, our Men by pressing felt the Chains, &c.
with their Hands on the Out-side of the Lady's Apparel, and by their
Linguist modestly desir'd the Gentlewomen to take 'em off and surrender
'em. This 1 mention as a Proof of our Sailors Modesty, and in respect to
Mr. Connely and Mr. Selkirk the late Governour of Juan Femandoes, who
cornmanded this Party: for being young Men, 1 was willing to do 'em this
Justice, hoping the Fair Sex will make 'em a gratefùl Return when we
anive in Great Bntain, on account of their civil Behaviour t a these
charrning Prisoners. (178-9)
" See below note 364.
has compromised the Mrtue of an officiai's teeny wife (65-6)." Interestingly?the attack by

the young Yahoo helps establish that Gulliver is indeed findamentaily Yahoo. Sexual

wmpatibility suggeas biological relation, just as the supposeci attraction between white

women and male primates and savages is a suggestion of their shared lower nature.

Similady, for male voyagers, unsavory associations with Primitive women would be an

incentive to conceal such relationships. A sexual association with The Primitive would

lower one's own status among The Civilized.

While one measure of humanity is sexuaiity, physical attributes provide plenty of

quantifiable distinctions. Tyson remarks on the hands of his primate and the similar design

of its feet and observes that it cm use its feet as hands. This and the animal's difficulty

with walking on al1 fours cause him to describe it as "a four-handed [rather] than a four-

footed animal" or "Qu&-mmn& (13)? Hands, Tyson notes. had long been thought

the feature which most distinguished humans tiom beasts, and h e cites the authority of

Anaxogoras, Aristotle, and Galen on this belief (5 1)? The human hand, though, bean

little distinction from that of his Pygmie, which can use its hands "almost with as much

" See Ryley 59.

60
Tyson's opinion on the naturai posture of the ape can be ambiguous. For
instance, he chose to depia his ape standing upnght but holding a walking stick, a pose
commonly used in rendenngs of apes at the time (see Schiebinger 85; Wokler, "Tyson"
2302). 7ne Origin of Sciences alludes to the walking stick motif in specufating that Pan
was a philosopher-ape: "shaggy-bearded, hairy al1 over, haIf a man and half a beast, and
walking erect with a staff, (the posture in which his race do to this day appear among us)"
(412). Of course, the primary way that apes would "appeaf' in England would be in
drawings such as Tyson's.

'' Gulliver at first does not recognite the Yahoos' hands as such and calls them
"fore Paw" and "fore Feet" (224, 229). It is not until he begins to discem physical
similarities between himself and the Yahoos that he sees they have hands (230), and even
the Houyhnhnrns have manual dexterity (230). Guiiiver surprises the Houyhnhnms by
doming gloves on his own "Fore-feet" and then removing them (23 1).
perfection*' as any person (5 1). The major physiological difFerence occurs in the thumb of

the Pygmie, "which was so dender and smali, it resembled the Ape-krnd' (73). Therefore,

for Tyson., the human hand is not the anatomical feature that differentiates the human h m

the animal since such similar features appear among anthropoids.

Moreover, Tyson considers the simian larynx and the brain. The larynx in his

specimen has virtually the sarne structure as a human's, and yet the creature cannot speak

a word. Even some birds, Tyson observes, "have been taught to irnitate Humune Voice,

and to pronounce Words and Sentences," but the primate never, "abating the Romances of

Antiquity conceniing them" (51). So since his Pygmie canuse its hands like a human but

cannot speak, "Speech is an Action more peculiar to Mom. and which more disfingtrishes

him from Brutes thon the Hand' (5 1)." More significantly, the brain, if the seat of the

human soul, would have to be physiologically unique, but Tyson finds that his orangutan's

brain is proportionally equivalent to a human brain, and his m i e ' s brain is so large in

relation to its body that unlike other primates it even "more resembles a Man" (54).

Hence, Tyson attempts to prove scientificallythat the animal's brain, despite its close

correspondence to the human organ, does not endow it with the human faculties he

attributes to the soul. He concludes,

there is no reason to think. that Agents do perjionn mch and such

Actions, because fhey are fou& with Orgms proper rhereunfo:for
then our Pygmie might really be a Man. The Organs in Animal

62 On the issue of speech, apes, and their relation to humans in the eighteenth
century, see Wokler, "Tyson" 2307-9. The lack of speech is one of the principal
characteristics that distinguishes the Yahoos fkom Gulliver (see Frantz, "Swift's Yahoos"
5 1). See also The Spectator, No. 494, for 26 September 1712, in which Addison
maintains that laughter and mirth are what set hurnans apart fiom animals. In his Hinfs
towards an Essay on Conversation Swift declares that conversation "is held the great
Distinction between Men and Brutes" (PW4: 94).
 Bodies are only a regular Complges of Pipes and Vessels, for the
Ffuids to pass through, and are passive [. . .]. But those Nobler
Famfties in the M i d of Man, must certainiy have a higher
PrincipIe; and Matter orgmtzed wuld never produce them; for
why else, where the Orgm is the same, should not the Actions be
the same too? and if ail depended on the Organ, not only Our
Pygme, but other Brutes likewise, would be tao near akin to us.
This DEerence 1 cannot but rernark, that the Ancienfswere fond of
making &tes to be Men: on the contrary now, most
unphilosophicaiiy, the Humour is, to make Men but meer Brutes
and Mutter. Whereas in tmth Mm is part a Brute, part an Angel;
and is that Link in the Creatim, that joyns them both together.
(59
In short, Tyson perceives the progression of minute difFerence in the Great Chain of Being

and h d s support for his faith in the existence of the soul; the empirical method provides,

to his mind, rationalist evidence for the soul's existence, a belief he initialiy bases on

authority and tradition. He notes the similadies between his specimen and hurnans, but

consciously chooses to emphasize the differences and thereby seeks to avoid the

accusation that his observations link humans "too near akin" the brutes. He dissects,

observes, weighs, and measures his Pygmie and its parts and concludes that there is

nothing physical that would prevent the creature from displaying the same rational and

creative abilities as a human. So Tyson fails back on his faith to explain what his science

fails to. He surmises that since organs are incapable of producing a ski11 by themselves

and he is unable to determine the actuai source of physical skill, he has incontrovertible

proof of the existence of the soul and against atheism (52)."

me Origin of Sciemes targets t his very reasoning. The Scriblerians invert Tyson' s

thesis and reconstmct his Orang-outang as a superior, if hirsute, human thinker. M e r

positing that apes are brilliant but misunderstood human sages and "the origin of learning"

" See also Wokler, "Tyson" 2305-6

(4 13), the authors larnent the abuse of a leader of these "people" by explorers and

materialist scientists:

Nor let me quit this head, without mentioning, with al1 due respect, Oran
Outang the great, the last of this Line, whose unhappy chance it was to fa11
into the hands of the Europeans: Oran Outang, whose value was not
known to us, for he was a mute philosopher; Oran Outang, by whose
dissection the learned Dr. Tyson has added a confirmation to this system,
from the resemblance between the homo syivestns and Our human body, in
those organs by which the rational soul is exerted. (4 17)"

The satire asserts that the race of sagacious anthropoids originated in Ethiopia, and it

offers proof that some Ancients such as Aesop ("short, deformed, and alrnost savage,

insomuch that he might have lived in the woods") and Socrates Cbald, flat-nosed, with

prominent eyes and a downward look") were philosopher-apes. In accord with Tyson's

assertion that the truth "is always easie and plain," the wisdom of these creatures is

described as natural and simple, much too simple for "puuled" humans to receive easily

(4 15), and consequently the apes refiise to speak to muddle-headed people (4 15-6).

Toward the end of the satire, the authors refer to Amerindians as the brother-species of

the mute sage-apes and imagine that the apes will not talk to Spaniards because of the

cruel treatment of the Indians (4 18-9). As the Scriblerians suggest, ape abuts Primitive on

the Great Chain hierarchy.

Evoking the prevalent Great Chain theory requires Tyson to veri@ his beliefs

through the new scientific method while justifjing his scientific methodology b y

associating it with authority and his faith. According to the theory, the s a l e of creation

" In his Memoirs, Martinus Scriblerus locates the seat of the soul in the pineal
gland (1 37), but later, in order to Kwre a legd viaory, he allows Dr. Penny-feather to
argue that the soul resides in the "member of Generation" (157). This last presumption
satincally confounds theories of interspecies semai compatibility.
progresses by degrees nom minera1 to angel, and Tyson seeks to account for each level of

~ ~ genus and subgenus itself consists of a progression that improves

the s ~ c c e s s i o n .Each

gradually toward the angelic so that, for instance,animais range fiom the mite to the

. ~ ~ highest ünks on the chain, as Tyson indicates, represent purely spintual

a n t h r ~ p o i d The

beings, angels progressing in ranks. In between animals and angels are beings at once

corporeal and spiritual, humans, who implicitly range fiom the wildest of The Primitive to

the most refined of The Civilized. This human hierarchy places a nation of civilized

Christians below the lowest order of angels o r spirits and above a savage people, who

would link it to the tailless apes immediately below? Where Tyson speaks of the "very

greaf Similitude, as well between the meanest Plant, ond some Minerais; as behveen the

lowest Rank of Men. and the highest Kind of AnimaIf in his Epistle Dedicatory, he

Lovejoy notes the wide acceptance the theory of gradation received in the
eighteenth century (Great Chain 183). AI1 the degrees of humanity fa11 sornewhere far
beneath the multitude of spirits and much closer to the lower ranks of beasts, plants, and
inanimate objects (see Lovejoy, Great Chain 189-90). For example see Locke, Essay
4.3.17.

In I! Cannot Rain, the author satirically inverts this typical order:

Other animais are sensible they debase themselves by mimicking laughter;
and 1 take it to be a generai observation that the top felicity of mankind is
to imitate monkeys and birds; witness harlequins, scaramouches, and
masqueraders; on the other hand, monkeys, when they would look
extremely silly, endeavour to bring themselves down to rnankind. (827)
According to Lovejoy, distinctions like "genus" and "species" were for some, antithetical
to the perfect continuity of the Great Chain (Great Chain 228-31). Still, 1 continue to the
use the terms as we commonty understand them today.
In his Voyage rio Surat (1696), John Ovington writes of the Hottentots:
"
[O]f al1 People they are the most Bestial and sordid. They are the very
Reverse of Human kind, Cousin Germans to the Halalehors, only meaner
and more filthy; so that if there's any medium between a Rational Animal
and a Beast, the H o m r ~ lays
r the fairest Claim to that Species. (284)
The pnnciple that a copious creation forrns a continuous scaie or a chain l a d s t o the
assumption that some forms must link more distinct types (see Lovejoy, Great Chain 23 1 -
2)-
 42

reveals the kemel of his presumptions about new peoples encountered by voyagers."

European Christians would rank somewhere between these heathen primitives and

idealized rational humans if such e x i d '

" Famous lines from Swift's On Poetry: A Rhqsody mock the trend of
documenting a seerningly endless pienitude of parasitic animalcules:
So, naturalists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller yet to bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum. (353-6)
In Brobdingnag Gulliver contemplates proportional gradation and relativism:
Undo~btedlyPhilosophers are in the Right when they tell us, that nothing is
great or little othenMse than by Cornparison. It might have pleased Fortune
to let the Lilliputimzs find some Nation, where the People were as
diminutive with respect to them, as they were to me. And who knows but
that even this prodigious Race of Mortals might be equally overmatched in
some distant Part of the World, whereof we have yet no Discovery? (GT
87)
Pope, in his Esray ou Mm, refers to humanity's lowly position in the array of plentifil
creation when he speculates,
So Man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps acts second to a Sphere unknown,
Touches some wheel, or verges to some gole;
'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. (1: 57-60)
Pope also expresses the relativity of perspective and the pointlessness of human pride in a
bountifil universe:
Superior Beings, when of late they saw
A mortal Man unfold d l Nature's Law,
Adrnir'd such Wisdom in an earthIy shape,
And shew'd a NEWTON as we shew an Ape. (2; 3 1-4)
For a near-angelic Newton, see Thomson's nie Seasom, Sumner 1560-63.

" Hudson asserts that "ethnographic" writers were not directly concemed with the
Chain of Being but that their descriptions were motivated by cultural rankings, "the
relative sophistication of the political and social systems established in other countnes"
(250). As Darwinism has been metaphoricaily applied to social and economic selection,
the Great Chain had its own, even more literal, social implications. Although humanity
would be represented by a single ïink in the Great Chain metaphor, we can imagine the
human hierarchy itself as a chain: a Great Chain of Human Beings.
 Shattesbury attempted to structure his short life as supremely rational despite his

frai1 health and quotidian concems. Still, his rational aesthetic, steeped in sentimental stoic

faith in the supremacy of r e m n as ordered by natural afkction, provided a universalid

theory of the development of human taste. Pope's gloss of Shaftesbury's moral aesthetics,

"Whatever is, is right," captures or even instigated an erroneous popular perception of

Shaftesbury's writings, but it also accurately wnveys his association of the natural with

actuality. For Shaftesbury, more precisely, whatever is in nature is right. Shaftesbury

also tautologicaily emphasizes the beauty of nature: nature is beautifiil, and beauty is

natural. As the direct production of the creator, nature also represents moral goodness

and tmth. Therefore, morality and beauty are different aspects of the same truth. And

since nature is universai, so are tmth, beauty, and morality. Shaflesbury assumes that

beauty is inherent in an object, and he spends some time struggling with a question at the

center of aesthetics: how do we krow that something is beautiful? He describes the

mechanics of nature as the smooth and harmonious interaction of diverse elements before

he concludes that the beautifil and the harmonious are closely related, even synonyrnous.

Of course, it follows that if aesthetic harmony occurs in or mimics nature, then social and

moral harmony must represent the same universai tmth. The state of natural humanity is

marked by social accord, reason, beauty, and morality. Anything short of this is, for

Shaftesbury, u ~ a t u r a l . ~ ~

Shaftesbury modeled his private PhilosophicaI Regimen on Marcus Aurelius'

'O
Medirarot~s.These provided Shaftesbury with a mode1 of stoic acceptance and human
harmony and the kernel of moral aesthetics he develops throughout his works. Aurelius'
writes,
1 who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad
that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me,
not [only] of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in [the same]
 Shaftesbury positions The Primitive, "raw and inexpenenced mankind" (1 : 157),

somewhat differently fiom Tyson. In S e w s Cornmunis Shaftesbury presents an amusing

hypothetical scenario:

If a native of Ethiopia were on a sudden transporteci into Europe, and

placed either at Paris or Venice nt a time of carnivat, when the general face
of rnankind was disguiseci, and aimost every creature wore a mas4 'tis
probable he would for some t h e be at a stand, before he discovered the
cheat; not imagining that a whole people could be so fantastical as upon
agreement, at an appointed t h e , to transform themselves by a variety of
habits, and make it a solemn practice to impose on one another, by this
universal confusion of c h a m e r s and persons. Though h e Mght at first
perhaps have looked on this with a serious eye, it would be hardly possible
for him to hold his countenance when he had perceived what was carxying
on. The Europeans on their side, might laugh perhaps at this simplicity.
But our Ethiopian would ceriainly laugh with better reason. 'Tis easy to
see which of the two would be ridiculous. For he who laughs and is
himself ridiculous, bears a double share of ridicule. However, should it so
happen that in the transport of ridicule, our Ethiopian, having his head stiil
running upon masks, and knowing nothing of the fair complexion and
common dress of the Europeans, should upon the sight o f a natural face
and habit, laugh just as heartily as before, would not he in his tum become
ridiculous, by carxying the jest too far; when by a silly presumption h e took
nature for mere art, and mistook perhaps a man of sobriety and sense for
one of those ridiculous mummers? (Characteris~ics1: 5 7)

Shaftesbury presurnes that The Primitive would either share European rationalist standards

of "sobriety and sense" or be "ridiculous." There is no hint of cultural relativism."

intelligence and [the same] portion of the divinity, 1can neither be injured
by any of them, for no one c m fix on me what is ugly, nor can 1be angry
with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we are made for CO-operation,Iike
feet, like hands, like eyelids, Iike the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To
act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against
one another to be vexed and to tum away. (2.1)

" The placement of The Primitive in judgment of The Civilized has a nch histoiy,
which Anthony Pagden describes in "The Savage Critic: Some European Images of the
Primitive." Other examples of this topos would be Tom Brown's Indian in Amusemen~s
Serious and Comical(1700), Oliver Goldsmith's Chinese philosopher in Citizen of the
Worid (1762) and Addison's musings on the famous visit of the four Iroquois "kings"
(Spectator 50, 27 April 17 1 1). Richard Terry in "GuIIiver 's Traveis and the Savage-Cntic
 45

Shaflesbury's assumptions differ from Tywn's. While Tyson positioned humans in a

cornfortable Mddle range between ape and angel in light of his own Platonic inclinations

Shaftesbury would h d the contemplation of spirits and angels pointless. And while

Tyson more typically offers The Animal as both a foi1 t o and an aspect of humanity, half of

humanity's dual nature, ShaAesbury here doubles The Savage instead into dual antitheses

to Europeans: both as a naturally rational observer and as a c o m p t and befuddled

observer of the harmonious nature of truth. Shaftesbury's doubled construct of The

Primitive reflects the duality Gary B. Nash identifies as generaiiy British: the "conflicting

images of the Indian [that] were wrestling for ascendance in the English mind as the first

attempts to colonVR in the New World got undenvay" (60). For Shaeesbury the truth is

not "always easie and plain,?' as Tyson would have it, but it is harmoniously present in the

unified complexities of the universe? Shaftesbury declares, "al1 beauty is truth"

11: 94) and asserts that the azts and refined tastes of civil society "express
(Charac~eris~ics

the harmony and numbers of an inward kind, and represent the beauties of a human sou1

by proper foils and contrarieties, which serve as graces in this limning, and render this

Topos" identifies Swift's Brobdingnagians and Houyhnhnms as examples of Pagden's

savage critic. See also Percy Adams, Travel Literature and the Evoir~tionof rhe Novel
234. Swift extends the savage-critic topos in the Travels by having Gulliver adopt the
perspective of his hosts and in effect become primitive himself See chap. 9 below.

While Shaftesbury did not necessarily discover inherent credibility in ease and
plainness of style, simplicity itself, as Lois Whitney observes in Primitivism and the Idea
of Progress, "was his great god" (38). In A Proposcifor Correcting the Englsh Tongire
( 1 7 12). SwiA calls simplicity "one of the greatest Perfections in any Language" (PW 4:
15). Moreover, a "plain simple Style" (GT 3) was a well known hallmark of period travel
writing, and as Percy Adams remarks, novelists often claimed a simple style "to
accompany a profession of truth" ( T m e l Literature 258).
music of the passions more powerful and enchanting" (1: 91)? So beauty is manifested in

true proportion @dance, symmetry, and demonstrable logic) and, as true proportion is

harmonious with rational morality, balanced rational morality serves as the hallmark of

civil order.

Embracing civil refinement, Shaftesbury explicitly fondemns the modem taste for

the philosophical contemplation of newly dimvered peoples. In a passage directed

against the potential relativist excesses of Locke's Ecwy Conceming Himan

S.haflesbury writ es,

Cl~rders~artdiing

We care not how Gothic or barbarous Our models are, what ill-designed or
monstrous figures we view, or what false proportions we trace or see
described in history, romance, or fiction. And thus Our eye and ear is lost.
Our relish or taste must of necessity grow barbarous, whilst barbarian
custorns, savage manners, Indian wars, and wonders of the terra inmgnita,
employ Our leisure hours and are the chief materials to fùrnish out a library.
(1 : 221-2)"

The Primitive potentially reverse or limit the development of taste and morality in the

observer. Therefore the senous consideration of such a creature rather than of the

beautiîùl and the good is dangerous; it is immoderate relativism. Since only the

harmonious and beautifd are worthy of moral contemplation, the lawless savage must be

eschewed. For "tame" Shaftesbury, al1 wildness opposes right sense (Broadbent 88).

This revises Locke's potentially relativist declaration: "Nothing being so

beautifid to the eye as truth is to the mind" (Essay, 4.3.20, 157).
" See Voitle, "Shaftesbury's Moral Sense" 35. Frantz notes that "[tlhe reliance on
travel-literature, whether native or foreign, was, on the whole, quite common among the
freethinkers, for travel-literature fimished the best evidence available of the natural, the
original, and the universal in religion" (Englsh Truveller 152; see also 139). While
Shaftesbury rnight find the suggestion of universal innateness attractive, he rejected
repons of wretched people choosing to exist in wretched conditions; nature is not
wretched nor is beauty relative.
Shaftesbury elsewhere attacks Lockean proto-relativism while deploring modem

philosophers' references to the Literature of travel. In one passage, for instance, a reversal

of the savage-critic topos, he argues that if moralists must discuss distant peoples, they

could at least find examples, negative paradigms, to dissuade European fiom their own

vices:

One would imagine that if they tumed their eye toward remote countries
(of which they aEect so much to speak) they should search for that
simplicity of mannen and innocence of behaviour which has been oflen
h o w n among mere savages, ere they were compted by Our commerce,
and, by sad example, instnicted in al1 lcinds of treachery and inhumanity.
'Twould be of advantage to us to hear the causes of this strange corruption
in ourselves, and be made to consider of our deviation fiom nature, and
fiom that jua purity of mannen which might be expected, especially fiom a
people so assisted and enlightened by religion. For who would not
naturaily expect more justice, fidelity, temperance, and honesty from
Christians than fiom Mahometans or mere pagans? But so far are our
modem moralists from condemning m y unnaturai vices o r c o m p t
manners, whether in our own or foreign climates, that they would have vice
itself appear as natural as virtue, and from the worst examples would
represent to us 'that ail actions are naturally indifferent; that they have no
note or character of good or il1 in themselves; but are distinguished by mere
fashion, law, or arbitrary decree.' Wonderhl philosophy! Raised frorn the
dregs of an illiterate mean kind, which was ever despised among the great
ancients and rejected by al1 men of action or sound emdition; but in these
ages imperfectly copied from the original, and, with much disadvantage,
imitated and assumed in common both by devout and indevout attempters
in the moral kind. (226-7)

Consider also his early correspondence regarding the treatment of Native Carolinians by

English colonists: "Shall wee cal1 ourselves Civiliz'd People & those Barberouse to whom

wee have been thus Learning and Teaching dl this Treachery Barbarity, by acting it to

such a degree on them?" (Letter fiom Anthony, Lord Ashley to Andrew Percivall, May

27, 1691, rpt. in Voitle, Shoflesbury 57)." Shaftesbury writes, "Tme rational life (which

" While Shaftesbury cites no specific travel works in his Charac~eristics,

he
appears little moved by what Frantz observes in his rationalist predecessors:
 48

for the human is the only true Iife) is when the will, mere will or fancy, is subject to

reason" (PhilosophicafRegimen. "LW' 254). Clearly, though, Shaft esbury doubles The

Savage constnict into the two antithetid types irnagined throughout the hiaory of

Western prirnitivism: one in a Shaflesbwan natural state-ideally ascetic and rational-and

the other (similar to the Hobbesian naturd state) wild and unrefined, in this case corrupted

by European contact." In this formulation, accounts of the more idealized savage are

impossible since those seamen who would report are precisely those who would influence,

subjugate, and c o m p t a naturai people. Pagden makes a similar observation: "The

greatest il1 which civil man can i d i c t upon the savage whom he has colonized is simply

Yet in spite of these distastetll, and ofien revolting, qudities d l too

evident among uncivilized men, certain voyagers discovered, or thought
they discovered, traces of a universal and fixed morality and the prevalence
of three cardinal virtues-piety, benevolence, and self-control-which
seemed to be fundamental in al1 peoples, whether serni-civilized or totaily
savage. (Engiish Truveller 104-5)
Frantz further remarks, "Some voyagers were quite outspoken in the belief that the rules
of conduct exist independent of religion and are followed by man in the remotest corners
of the globe" (1 05). With the universality express& by these voyagers, at least,
Shaftesbury's writings concur. Voitle in his "Shaflesbury's Moral Sense" succinctly
sumrnarizes Shaftesbury's notion of endowed morality:
Virtue remains basic in Shaftesbury's new moral faculty. It is because his
secondary affection is drawn to reflected images of justice, generosity,
gratitude, and other virtues, because he "likes" them, in other words, that
the individuai sees beauty in them. (3 1)
Trecisely what The Savage, as construaed by travel writers and their readers, lacks are
Shaftesbury's refined standards for beauty and morality, but if such be naturally universal,
then some other, uncorrupted, example of The Primitive must exist.

'' Montaigne, who drafled the famous civilized-barbarous-savagetaxonomy, offers

an early signifiant expression of this latter sentiment in his "Of Coaches": "1 feare, that by
our contagion, we shall directly have fùrthered his [the inhabitant of the New World]
declination, and hastened his ruine; and that we shall too dearely have sold him our
opinions and our new-fangles and our Arts" (142). On Surinam natives who "understand
no vice, or cunning, but when they are taught by the white men," see Aphra Behn's
Oroonoko 150.
the knowledge of his own artificid world; and knowledge, however evil, is something men

find hard to unleam" ("Savage Cntic" 44). The antithetid duality of ShaResbury's

primitivist constmd, typifal throughout Western history but rareiy so conjoined in one

philosophy, remains an unresolved conundmm for him and helps drive his utter rejection

of travel-writing evidence."

Shaftesbury makes a clever attempt to resolve the dichotomy between his preferred

primitivist constmct, the Idealized Primitive-the Houyhnhnrn-like adherent t o the rule of

natural rationdity-and that oAen presmted in the testimony o f travelers, the Wild Savage-

-the undisciplined product o f human degradation. But in doing so he fails t o meet his own

cnteria of harmonious refinement and truth. His absolutist systern cannot rectify the

inwngmous coexistence of the two constructs and the slippage between them-largely

because he does not recognize them for the constructs they are. Rather than capitalke

In the "Deity" section of his Philosophicd Regimen, a pnvate journal of stoical

thought, Shaftesbury slips into a materialia argument while contemplating the universality
of principle:
If there are more such worlds, and independent of one another, they are
still so many intelligences, and must be eternal principles of that kind. But
since it is unreasonable and unaccountable thus t o multiply principles, as,
for instance, t o say that of the motion that is in the world, there should not
be one and the same principle, but severa!; so with respect t o what is
intelligent, it must be unreasonable to think that there is any more than one
common principle of intelligence, or that there should be intelligences and
thinking beings of several kinds produced anywhere by one such pnnciple,
and that there should not be one common one to al1 of that kind. Either the
whole therefore, is not united like this which we see, and then, however,
there must be either one intelligent etemal principle or several such; or else
the whole or i n h i t e of things is united and is one, and then it follows that
there is one wmmon principle of intelligence and wisdom--one etemal and
infinite mind. (16)
Obviously what applies to the universe holds true within the confines of this planet. It is
worth noting that this stance defies the pnnciple of plenitude, so crucial to the eighteenth-
century Chain of Being.
upon the possibility that voyagers' reports are themselves distorted, he shores his Eystem

of absolute rnorality against even the potential of relativism by avoiding the issue of

incongmity altogether. His contention that to encounter is to corrupt is a glib evasion.

Furthemore, as Whitney notes, whiie arguing that the natural state of humanity is one of

moral harmony and beauty and that the hallmarks of civilization-education, luxury, art,

etc.-are in themselves compting, Shaftesbury "forgets his centrai pnnciple that the social

afEections make man's life an end in itself' (35-7) and that human progress and refinement

are moral, rational, and social.

Shaftesbury's pnmitivist duality exposes another contradiction in his system.

While he ostensibly accepts his tacher Locke's arguments against imateness, he sketches

his own theory of inbred rnorality and aesthetics. He calls such natural inclinations toward

good "affections," "comrnon affections," and "namral affections"; negative inclinations are

"umatural Sections." These afktions are founded in emotion and are therefore

findamentally different from the innate iàéas Locke and Shaftesbury reject." In a typical

passage on the subject Shaftesbury states,

Whatsoever is done through any unequal affection is iniquitous, wicked,

and wrong. If the affection be equal, sound, and good, and the subject of
the affection such as may with advantage to society be ever in the sarne
marner prosecuted or afkted, this must necessarily constitute what we
c d equity and right in any action. For wrong is not such action as is barely
the cause of h m [. . -1.
Neither can any weakness or imperfection in the senses be the occasion
of iniquity or wrong; if the object of the mind itself be not at any time
absurdly tiamed, nor any way irnproper, but suitable, just, and worthy of
the opinion and affection applied to it. (252-3)

Shaftesbury substitutes imate ideas with imate emotions-inbuilt thought with native

" See Voitle, The ThirdEàri 339-40.

 51

sensibility. Again he ailows unShaftesburian duality and slippage to dirninish the absolute.

For Shaftesbury the truly beautifid is truly true and t d y natural, and dthough he

imagines The Primitive in a natural state as innately moral and hannonious, he also

generally argues that naturd reason UuPmu taste, which in turn refines Society. So nature

is ideal so long as it is untouched by The Civilid, but civilized refinements themselves

improve The Civilized. This is the c n y the interseaion of two opposed axes. If we draw

it, on one shaft Shaftesbury's constnia of the natural state of humanity (NaturaVRational)

contravenes the artificidity of the European (U~aturaüIrrationai)while on the other the

rational refinement of civilkation (Civilized/Social) counterbalances the unregulated

unsociableness of The Primitive (Uncivilize!dAJnsocial). If the first axis runs verticaiiy

from nature (NaturaYRational) down to unnaturd corruption (UmaturaVIrrational), then

the horizontal second axis would run fiom cmdeness (Uncivilized/UnsociaI) on the left to

refinement (Civilized/Sociai) on the right (see Fig. 1). Shaftesbury has offered two

constructs of The Civilized and two constructs of The Primitive, and these range fiom

most degraded to ideal: the comipted or Wild Savage (Uncivilized-Unnatural), the typical

European (Civilized-Umatural), the uncompted o r Idealized Primitive (Uncivilized-

Natural), and the sentimentally stoic European (Civilized-Natrual). Since these constructs

are gestures toward the paradigrnatic rather than fiilly reaiized, essential, and Iocatable

beings, their movement on the matrix is represented by arrows directed away from the

center crux and suggests the unresolvable tension of Shaftesbury's reasoning.

Respectively these construas appear in Shaflesbury's work as, among others, The Savage

rejected by Shaftesbury as compt (and unworthy of his consideration), the crude

European (particularly the explorer who comipted the first), the natural Primitive living in
 52

rational harmony with nature (Shaftesbury's transported Ethiopian), and Shaftesbury's

stoical ideal. The last two are privileged for their rationality.

Figure 1 Shaftesbury's human constructs plotted on bisecting axes

The simplicity of this matrix corresponds to the simplicity of Shaftesbury's absolutist

constructs of The Primitive and The Civilized. An ernpirically constmcted relativist matrix

would be a profusion of black dots plotted on and about the axes. The only largely empty

space in the empirical relativist matrix would approach the coordinates of ShaAesbury's

four constnicts-the wholly theoretical extremes. We can comprehend the coexistence of

the two types of The Civilized because the stoic's affection toward naturally rational

culture is a conscious attempt to break fiom the supposedly unnatural irrationality of the

European. But the rationality of the Idealized Primitive involves no such conscious
choice. It is naturd in origin, humanity's final cause, in a sense. By stubbordy privileging

his ideal, the stoic, Shaesbury is forced to ignore the contradictions, indeed the slippage,

among his other types, partiailady the dualism of his primitive." Shaftesbury's

absolutism, the intractability of his conviction, h e s its own indictment here. His

distaste for Lockean empirical relativism unites with his loyalty to Locke's opposition to

innatism. Together they fiay at the fabric of his absolutism and ultimately unravel the

cloth of his certitude.

The doubled prirnitivist construct ernerges largely from Shaftesbury's underlying

attack on Hobbes' stance that moral virtue is not a natural inclination and that "only force

and power" constitute right (Hobbes 1: 63). Shaflesbury counters that the very fact of

Hobbes writing Leviathan is proof that he was "under the power" of the natural inclination

toward good. '"Tis not fit." he wites, "that by nature we are al1 wolves. 1s it possible

that one who has really discovered himseif such, should take pains to communicate such a

discovery?" (1 : 63). He perceives in naturai virtue a funher inclination to preserve the

human species (1 : 74) and esteems trust in this inclination as a source of our willingness to

cede power to authority. Conversely, Hobbes writes, "in the nature of man, we find three

principal causes of quarrel. First, cornpetition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory" (1 85).

79
"Slippage" is an odd word to apply to a rigid matrix, but Shaftesbury's
constructs effect tension in four different directions of anti-essential unreality. Argument
itself slips from point to point unable to settle anywhere on this frame. Gulliver, in
concluding his Travels, avoids Shaflesburian slippage by relying on pragmatism:
It is easy for us who travel into remote Countries, which are seldom
visited by Englshmen or other Europecnw, to form Descriptions of
wonderfiil Animals both at Sea and Land. Whereas, a Traveller's chief
Aim should be to make Men wiser and better, and to improve their Minds
by the bad, as well as good Exarnple of what they deliver conceming
foreign Places. (29 1)
For Shaftesbury, a resistance to natural harmony becomes desire for tyrannical power, an

unnaturd desire he associates with the lawlessness of corrupted savagerym Trust in

natural goodness inspires goverrunent "by a nght division and balance of power, and by

the restraints of good laws and limitation, which may secure the public liberty" (1 : 64). So

again The Primitive, in a corrupted state, are anathema to beauty, order, and good while

the Hobbesian paradigm, with its qzical mistrust of human nature, disregards the human

affection toward natural order and is in effect the most puissant enerny of that order.

Shaftesbury dismisses Hobbesian science as a compt and vicious promotion of moral and

civil discord and enforced unanimity.

At the end of his Inpiry Concenring Virîue or Ment Shaftesbury examines the

passions or "unnatural affections" (as opposed to the "social and natural" affections),

which "are neither of any advantage to the species in generai nor the creature in

particulaf' (Characteristics 1: 330-1). The passions to which Shaftesbury primarily refers

appear most brutal: "inhuman delight in beholding torments, and in viewing distress,

calamity, blood, massacre aqd destruction, with a peculiar joy and pleasure" (1 : 33 1). The

most damning shortcoming that Shaftesbury perceives in such practices ("the reigning

passion of many tyrants and barbarous nationsT')is the neglect of "courteousnes; of

behaviour." In other words, such arbitrary cruelty lacks refined order and harmony. It is

perpetrated by those who act against the human inclination toward natural virtue, but their

immorality has less to do with brutaiity than with the defiance of natural order. Civil

order, Shaftesbury implies, is natural and needs no enforcement. Humans, left to their

" In my fifth chapter 1discuss the association of arbitrary power with the
primitivist construct I cd1 The Exotic.
 55

own devices, govern well and willingly allow themselves to be govemed. The bmtal

tyrant or the cormpted savage move in "opposition to the order and government of the

universe"--an iniquity that results in "inward banishrnent" and "estrangement from human

commerce" (335-6). Social interaction and civil feUowship are naturd and are their own

reward. Arbitrary govenunent leads to social discord and self-induced misery according

to Shaftesbury, therefore, the state of the tyrant and of The Primitive as descnbed by

travelers is untenable. Viciousness and force betray a lack of reason. Shaftesbury's

morality holds true for both the goveming and the govemed: natural reason is universal

truth and harrnony.

Despite his distaae for forcehl govemance, Shaftesbury sees no other option with

regard to willfùl unreason, speçifically resolute atheism. In The Moralists, Theocles

declares,

IW)here force is necessary, reason has nothing to do. But on the other
hand, if reason be needfid, force in the meanwhile must be laid aside; for
there is no enforcement of reason but by reason. And therefore if atheists
are to be reasoned with at ail, they are to be reasoned with like other men,
since there is no other way in Nature to convince them. (Characteristics 2:
48)

His statement recalls Dryden's admonition: "A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be

reasoned into truth" (Preface, Reiigio Laici 106). Theocles notes that there are "two

characters" of atheists, "his who absolutely denies and his who only doubts," and

professes that the latter is reformable while the former, recalcitrantly unreasonable, is

incorrigible. While the doubter can be approached with "philosophy," the denier may only

be confionted with the force of the "magistrate" aithough ShaAesbus, doubts that human
 56

punishment is sufficient (2: 49)? Theocles' severity reveals Shaflesbury at his most

harsh. Outright deniers, as the be~ghtedenexnies to clear reason and to natural affection,

are beyond persuasion. Their unnaturd inclination toward illogic recalls The Primitive

who have lapsed into corruption. Their treatment is simiiar as well: banishrnent from

setious consideration. Their retribution, ifnot d d t by the magistrate, is dealt by the

Divinity. The Primitive and the atheist are usenil only as antiparadigm.

" Not surpxisingly, John Toland rejects belief engendered by enforcement and has
the utmost confidence in the persuasive power of reason (1 62). Similarly, Swift in his
"Thoughts on Religion7' States that
To say a man is bound to believe, is neither truth nor sense.
You may force men, by interest or punishment, to Say or swear they
believe, and to act as if they believed: You can go no further. (PW 9: 26 1)
Chapter 3: The Primitive in English Literature in Swift's time, a Selection

Although constnicts of The Primitive have long pervaded philosophy and science

and have survived in Western literature since as far back as the poetry of Homer,

seventeenth- and eighteenth-century cognosmti in particular, awash in reports of new

lands and new peoples, were fascinated by Homer's pygmies and Herodotus' cynocephali.

The eighteenth-century European imagination tempered such reports and beliefs with

scientific hypothesis, philosophical principle, empiricai methodology, fact-based narrative,

and pure fantasy. In literary accounts The Primitive functioned either temporally or

spatially. Temporally The Primitive represent either the infantine or the pre-

historiographic past of the writer's present, as in Thomson's The Seasons; spatially they

are a contemporaneous alternative to The Civilized living at a geographical remove-

perhaps an unidealized savage critic, as in Addison's and Steele's treatments in ï'he Tafler

and Specfaforof the Iroquois "kings7' who visited Queen Both the temporal and

Montaigne constmcts The Primitive as an inhtine people in "On Coaches":

Our world hath of late discovered another [. . .) no lesse-large, fùlly-
peopled, dl-things-yeelding, and mighty in strength, than ours: nevertheless
so new and inhtine, that he is yet to learne his A B C . It is not yet fùll
fifiy yeeres that he knew neither letters, nor waight, nor measures, nor
apparell, nor corne, nor vines. But was al1 naked, simply-pure, in Natures
lappe, and lived but with such meanes and food as his mother-nurce
afforded him. (1 4 1)
Here Montaigne's metaphor of the infant demonstrates the subordination of The Primitive
(infant-student) to The Civilized (parent-teacher). The idealized forms of temporal and
spatial differentiation correspond roughly to Margaret Fitzgerald's tems "chronological
primitivism"--"looking back towards a lost age of golb'--and "cultural primitivism"--
"searching in contemporary life for a lost age of innocence" (vii). While the elements of
my terminology are certainly not exclusive, 1want to ernphasize the primary sense of
physical or geographical displacement in the word "spatial." Hayden White applies the
ternis "continuous" (of a piece with European humanity; a diachronie conception) and
"contiguous" (idenor or superior to Europeans; a synchronic conception) to pnmitivist
constructs of the penod (''Noble Savage" 132). While his tems do not correspond
precisely to mine, the linear implicatims of his "continuous" is related to my temporal, and
spatial differentiations of the primitivist construct allow for either noble o r ignobie

portrayals of The Primitive. The Idealited Primitive-the Noble Savage or the Enlightened

Heathen--particuIarly in fiction, could represent a utopian, uncorrupted, or at l e s t more

uncomplicated and honest humanity who acts according to duty and honor, as in Dryden's

Indian Queen and Indian Enrperour- The Idealized Primitive corresponds to

Shaftesbury's construct of The Primitive in nature-rational, moral, pure. However

constructed in literature, though, The Primitive principaily contrast with the self

knowledge of The Civilized. Whether presented temporally, spatially, o r ideally, The

Primitive provide anthropological distance £rom which to Mew the world of The Civilized.

Just as Tyson dissected an ape in order to gain insight into the physical essence of

humanity, cultural and physical ethnology in literature evoke in the writer and in the

audience a defining awareness of the self, a self-constntct.

The temporal or historicd dflerentiation of The Primitive is Likely the earliest and,

as Peter Weston notes in "The Noble Primitive as Bourgeois Subject," is marked "by the

sentimentdism of both terror and nostalgia." He explains: "The hitherto unknown races of

North America at first found their way into English culture, or b e m n e conceivable for

that culture, only through identification with earlier foms and ideas produced by that

culture" (59). The historical implication of the terrnprimiiive is the most common

association for that term: unrefined, underdeveloped, untamed, crudely archaic. The

the discomectedness suggested by his "contiguous" shares some commonality with my

spatial. Still, a dialectic such as White's continuous-contiguous does not account for al1
the variations of constmcts of The Primitive. In his "Forms of Wildness," White
differentiates the temporal distance of the "barbarian" fiom the spatial distance of "Wild
Man" (20- 1). See Margaret T.Hodgen 257; also, on the rhetorically "temporal, spatial,
and perspectivai" structures and their impacts in many travel writings, see Sayre 84 and
throughout .
temporal differentiation can be compared, as in Montaigne, to childhood, or to a pre-

civilied past, a pre-historiography. Either way, The Civilized represent the progressive

fùture of the temporal constnict, a fùture marked by taste, refinement, art, science, and

technology; The Civilized are the guiding example for those peoples who require

"taming." In The S e a ~ n s
(1 726-30) James Thomson clearly privileges a Bntain "Where

Wealth and Commerce Iift the golden Head; / And, o'er our Labours, L i b e q and Law, I

Impartial, watch, the Wonder of a World!" (Spring 846-8).* For the British,

industriousness is both a hallmark of progressive civility and the source of that civility.

Although Thomson generaily praises raw nature in the poem, in Autumn he lauds industry

as a "Raiser of Human Kind!" (47) in contrast to the idleness of humanity's natural state

(48-52). In Winter, Thomson depicts the condition of the Laplanders at length. He

contrasts them with the ancient Scythians, long denigrated as wild and bmtal conquerors,

"Who little Pleasure know and fear no Pain" (837) and who "gave the vanquish'd World

another Fom" (842): 'Wot such the Sons of iiptcmd: wisely They 1 Despise th'insensate

barbarous Trade of War; 1 They ask no more than simple Nature gives" (843-5).

Enveloped in peace and simplicity the Laplanders enjoy Shaftesburian harmony with their

surroundings. They are a "Thrice happy Race! By Poverty secur'd 1 From legal Plunder

and rapacious Powei' (88 1-2). Their distance fiom The Civilized secures their purity and

happiness. The Laplanders' relationship with nature is almost passionate: "They love their

83 The four parts of nie S e m m (Winter, Summer, Spring, and Anfzrmn) appeared
in 1726, 1727,1728, and 1730 respectively. Thomson extensively expanded the poem in
the 17401s,the edition fiom which 1 quote. The poem is as much a celebration of British
culture as of nature and was immenseiy popular fiom the publication of Winter through
the nineteenth century. Ralph Cohen in B e Art of Discrimina~iondetails several
explanations for the poem's popularity (412-5).
Mountains and mjoy their Storms" (846). The Scythians, on the other hand, have been

"pierc'd" by a w l d northwest wind (836), which drives them to destroy civili~ation.~

While the nomadic Scythians are the traditional enemies of The Civilized, they were also

imagined to be the anceston of Britain's earliest settiers, who have endured time to

supplant and then recreate the Augustan Age. If the pacific Laplanden are happy in their

simplicity, they, like the bbboiaerous"Scythians of old (836), are still fixtures of the p s t .

Thomson's juxtaposition of the two peoples advances that the Laplanders are as ancient as

the Scythians, yet unchanged--&ozen in time by the north wind as the Scythian barbarians

are fiozen in history. In another climate, the Afncans are an "Ill-fated Race" oppressed by

the Sun (Summer 875, 886) and mled by passion. They lack art, self-restraint,

"Progressive Truth," ernpirical discourse, Christian revelation, law, fieedom, and finally

"the Name and Dignity of Man" (877-84)."

But the Laplanders, for al1 their natural harmony, lack what Thomson describes in

Summer as the eniightenrnent of humanity: philosophy. He echoes Shaftesbury by

crediting philosophy as the foundation of progressive civilization and apostrophizes,

Without thee what were unenlighten'd Man?

A Savage roaming thro' the Woods and Wilds,
In quest of Prey; and with th' unfashion'd Fur
Rough-clad; devoid of every finer Art,
And Elegance of Life. (1758-62)

He answers his own question--'Wothing, save Rapine, Indolence, and Guile, I And Woes

In A Tale of o Tub, Swift associates "that Polite Nation of LqIanders" with the
wind and declares them "a most Authentick Brmch" o f his wind-worshiping enthusiasts,
the Æeolists (160).

" 1 discuss climatic and environmental thearies of racial behavior more extensively
in part 2.
 61

on Woes, a still-revolving Train!" (1771-2)--and compares philosophy to the wind, which

swells sails and spares humanity fiom plying oars (1777-8 1). While the Laplanders know

peace through nature, philosophy teaches humanity "Plans of Policy, and Peace; / T o live

like Brothers, and wnjunctive al1 / Embellish LiW (1775-7). Thus The Civilized, by

fostering philosophy, can have hannoniaus peace, aesthetic cornfort, and civilized

refinement-a wnsciously Shaftesburian construct of rational sensibility. Aside fkom

industry (in Autumn) and philosophy, mother element of Thomson's Shaitesburian

construct of The Civilized is govement. In Winferhe evokes the memory of Peter the

Great to credit government as he did philosophy:

What cannot active Governent perform,

New-moulding Man? Wide-stretching fiom these Shores,
A People savage fiom remotest Time,
A huge neglected Empire ONE VAST MIND,
By HEAVENinspir'd, fiom Gothic Darkness call'd. (950-5)

Of Peter, Thomson tells us, "While the fierce Barbanan he subdu'd, / To more exalted

Soul he rais'd the Man" (958-9), and he r a i d cities fiom desolation and cultivated crops

in deserts (973-4). He substituted sloth, ignorance, and vice with art, amis, and trade

(982, 985). Thomson's civilization is marked by advancement through time, in contrast to

stagnant pnmitivism. For Thomson, The Primitive are remnants of the past--historical

throwbacks, who require the progressive intervention of The Civilized.

While the very term "primitive'* connotes temporality, the spatial or the

geographicai construct of The Primitive is a m u e n t variant. Both constructs position

The Primitive relative to The Civilized, and both can either denigrate (as with Thomson's
untarned Scythians) or idealize (as with his Laplanders)." The spatial construct, though,

oflen presents The Primitive as uncorrupted or refieshingly naive savage critics." Joseph

Addison applies the savage-critic topos in The Specator, No. 50 (27 April 1711). His

paper consists of passages fiom an imasinary journal written by one of the four Iroquois

representatives visiting London in 1710.' The faux-Iroquois observations on London

seem charrningly ingenuous but, in the best savage-critic tradition, they implicitly offer

insight into the peculiarities of English society:

" The ignoble version of the spatial differentiation generally portrays The Primitive
as a wild savage coexisting in the historical time but not the geographical position of The
Civilized. The unidealid spatial construct of The Primitive is related to feral humans,
such as Peter, the Wild Boy of Hanover. The ignoble spatial differentiation also occurs in
such infamous constructs as the Wild Indian. On the application of the "wild man"
tradition to Native Americans, see Weston, "Noble Primitive" 60.

Weston, in his article on the 'WobIe Primitive," writes briefly on the influence of
outside pressures on Elizabethan portrayals of Native Americans:
Since, for example, the Virginia colony was a joint-stock Company with
shares for sale, there was a strong financial incentive for the presentation of
benevolent, passive natives and a fertile land of easy riches; on the other
hand, dangerous adventures among hostile, cannibalistic natives made more
exciting reading. Thus the conceptual problem manifested itself through
the mediation of econornic constraints and through narrative conventions.
(62)
Weston is refemng to the spatially constructed natives. On portrayals tliat lightened
Tndian complexion in order to encourage American settlement, see Jordan 239-40; on
travel accounts as propaganda to promote trade and colonization, see Percy Adams,
Travel Lirerat rrre 77.

" In his JoumaI to Stella, Swift daims to have given Richard Steele the original
"noble hint7'("and al1 the under-hints") for this paper. He laments that he himself had
"intended to have written a book on that subject" but that now Steele (actuaily Addison)
had "spent it all" (254-5). The occurrence of variations of the savage-critic topos in
Gulliver 's Travels, most notably among the Brobdingnagians and the Houyhnhnms,
suggests that Swift never fùlly abandoned the idea but instead novelly adapted it by
placing Gulliver in the role of The Primitive. In my final chapter 1 argue that while the
peoples Gulliver visits are The Primitive fiom an anglocentric perspective, Gulliver's
outlook shifls and he moves through his travels as the ever-degenerating primitive in the
eyes of his civilized hosts.
 It is probable that when this great Work [the building of St. Paul's] was
begun, which must have b e n many Hundred Yearo ago, there was some
Religion arnong this People; for they give it the Narne of a Temple, and
have a Tradition that it was designed for Men to pay their Devotions in. [.
. .] [T]hey et apart every seventh Day as saaed: But upon my going into
one of these holy Houses on that Day, 1could not observe any
Circumstance of Devotion in theù Behaviour [. . .] . (83)

Addison gestures toward the travel writers of his age who frequently report that they

spent a few days or even weeks with primitive peoples without being able to discem any

recognizable religious ntual (see, for instance, Shelvocke 110; Rogers, 57 & 116; Cooke

2: 17-8). To this point, at the end of his paper, Addison chides,

we are al1 guilty in some measure of the same narrow way of Thinking,
which we meet with in this Abstract of the Indian Journal when we fancy
the Customs, Dresses, and Mamers of other Countries are ridiculous and
extravagant, if they do not resemble those of our own. (84)

In Taller 171 (13 May 1710) Richard Steele addresses the more irnmediate ramifications

of the Iroquois visit. He imagines an argument between t w Englishrnen

~ over whether the

Indians' compliments to an ammrnodating London upholsterer were genuine or were a

paid advertisement. Many Londoners wmmerciaily exploited the sensation of the

Iroquois visit?' Neither Steele nor Addison specifically ennobles the Iroquois visitors

although Addison's journal writer appears naively vimious. While Steele implies that the

Indians are innocent beings lost in time and uncompted by the ages (439), Addison's

Iroquois sachems are no throwbacks to the European past. His displaced Iroquois do not

contact England fiom a lost time but oniy fiom a distant place. The differences of the

Richmond Bond in his Queen Anne 's American Kings lists numerous
commercial endeavors that capitalized upon the presence of the (unwitting) Iroquois
visitors. These include many performances in their "hono?' (3-6) and the renaming of a
shop that they visited from "The Jackanapes on Horseback" to "The Four Indian Kings"
(10)-
Indians are prirnarily geographical and are therefore readily diminished or redressed by

travel and contact?

While the temporal and spatial differentiations of The Primitive can define the

idyllic or the brutai, the Idealized Primitive or Noble Savage is worth treating separately

here. The terni "Noble Savage" can be traced in EngIish to Dryden's Conquesi of

Gr&, Pari f (1670):' but this characterization of The Primitive appears earlier in his

tragedies nte Indian Queen (1 664)and its sequel, 7he Indm Ernpermr (1 665). The

ideditation of things primitive was by no means new; it is closely related to the admiration

Europeans bestowed upon ancient civilizations and ta the nostalgie belief in a loa Golden

~ g e . " But handled by writen such as Behn or Dryden, the Idealized Primitive began to

gain hold as a literary type during the Restoration." Pagden points out that language is

On Addison's and Steele's papers, see Bond 78-88, 138-9n. In his "The 'Four
Indian Kings' and the Imaginative Construction of the First British Empire," Eric
Hinderaker exposes the false credentials of the Indian "kings" and the Tory advantage
gaineci by their visit (see particularly, 488-90). Hinderaker convincingly associates the
Iroquois' visit with a burgeoning effort to conceive and build a British empire (526) and
unpacks the imperial implications of calling the visiton "kings" when they would
previously have been h o w n oniy as "savages" (488). He demonstrates that "The kings
were received in exuberant, naive, and d a s e ways that suggest the fonnlessness of
imperial culture in this period" (5 18-9). The construction and reconstmction of these
native peoples not only aected cultural and philosophical assumptions, but also sewed
political expediency.

9' This is according to the O D . The phrase "noble savage" evokes an obsolete
meaning of "savage" as "Indomitable, intrepid, valiant," which had last appeared in the
fifteenth century. Now "noble savage" appears oxymoronic as its opposite, "ignoble
savage," appears redundant; consequently 1 eschew both terms.

See Fairchild 2; also Goetsche 344.

"1 largely do not treat Aphn Behn's constructs of The Primitive in her novella
Oroonoko (c. 1688) and Thomas Southeme's stage adaptation of it (1695) largely because
both works, particularly the former, warrant a more thorough analysis than is possible
here. Behn's Ormnoko has ernerged as something of a critics' touchstone, but the
ethnographic content of her work is ~mplicatedby her abolitionist agenda and by the
the main difficulty for natives who seek to understand European culture, and vice versa

("Savage Cntic" 39-40), but some authon who present the Idealized Primitive chose to

circumvent linguistic difTerences in their narratives. Their Noble Savages have the most

difficulty accepting the illogic and hypocrisy of European institutions. The subsequent

critique of European values can include critiques of Christian values and of their

propagation." Such a critique constitutes the climax of 7he Indian Emperour in which

Montezuma, tortured by a Spanish priest, proceeds to question the Spaniards' motives and

Dryden's perd in presenting a Noble Savage-a prince from a brutal nation who

nonetheless offers up reasonable and scathing appraisals of Christian establishment-is

slightly offset by the fact that the tormentor is Catholic; indeed, Pagden maintains that

Montezuma's rational culture is "essentially Anglican" ("Savage Critic" 34) and that

Montezuma "is reaily an English gentleman" (35). But the application of these same

question of her 1663 visit to Surinam, the setting of Oroonoko. 1 treat the distinction
between purely imaginary travels and experiential travels (ofien by those who have
themselves traveled) at lengh in my second part.

" Marouby writes of the paradox of rnissionaxy encounters with native cultures:
What they have discovered is that at the end of the series of negations,
when the savage has been deprived of al1 the institutions that were for
Europe the guarantee of humanity, he is not, as had been expected, less
human than his civilized counterparts, but in many respects, more. The
whole problematics of classical anthropology lies in this paradox, and in the
rnissionaries' desperate attempts to rescue the savage from its logical
impossibility. (292)
This is precisely the paradox that must have struck the earliest primitivists, the early-
modem purveyors of the Noble Savage myth. In me Indian Queen Dryden has the
Mexican prophet Ismeron speak of the predominance of rational thought over craft:
'Tis Reason only can make Passions less;
Art gives not new, but may the old encrease. (3.2: 135-6)
The character refers to artifice or stratagem, but the sense is analogous to the civilized
refinement later held so dear by Shaftesbury and his followen.

9s Behn's Oroonoko ridicules Christian teachings on the Trinity (192).

 66

arguments to al1 Christian institutions, including the Church of England, is unavoidable.

Both The Indian Queen and n>e I d i a n Emperour feature Mexican treachery, but

the dominant characters are al1 high noble, though flawed. In fact, most of the perfidy in

ï3e Indian Queen results from the actions of the usurping queen, Zempoalla, and, in n e

Indian Empereur, of the conquering Spanish. While Dryden does not explicitly wntrast

Mexican and English culture in 7he Indian Queen (except for the Epilogue's unfortunate

suggestion that the Mexicaru would prefer the onslaught of the conquistadors to that of

English critics), the monarchist theme is hard to miss. In this pre-conquest Mexico, the

true royals are al1 vimious heroes. Even Montezuma, though unaware of his royal

birthright, displays superhuman grandeur. Like Oroonoko, he is a natural-bom military

commander, who anonymously lads the underdog, whoever that may be at the moment,

into battle. Montezuma's mere appearance at the head of a succumbing army reverses the

balance of power, and underdog instantaneously becomes overlord and ironically

unworthy of Montezuma's aid. Montezuma's onIy challenger in native nobility is

Zempoalla's son, Acacis. When Acacis learns that his royal birttiright is fiaudulent, he

renounces his claim to the throne: he asks his nefarious mother, "What joy can Empire

bring me, when 1 know / That al1 my greatness to your crimes I owe?" (3.1 : 7 1-2). Later

he condernns Zempoalla's human sacrifices: "Hold, hold, such sacrifices cannot be 1

Devotion's, but a solemn cruelty: / How can the Gods delight in humane blood?" (5.1 : 92-

4). Acacis' speech against human sacrifice is Dryden's only stab at reconciling his

characters' nobility and the Mexican reputation for bmtalitys When Acacis finds that

%Sir William Temple offers the standard account of Mexican cruelty in his essay
"OFHeroic Virtue" (1672), one of Temple's Miscefl'miesedited by Swift:
Among other tributes imposed on the people, one was of men to be
both he and Montezuma love Orazia, his chivalry forces another crisis: he c a ~ ospum
t

Orazia by offering her to Montezuma, nor can he wrong the man who saved his life.

Acacis hits on an honorable compromise and challenges Montezuma to a duel:

If Friendship we profess,
Let us secure each others happiness;
One needs must die, and he shd happy prove
In her Remembrance, t'other in her Love. (4.2: 17-22)

Both men know that Acacis cannot defeat Montezuma in battle, but Montezuma must

retudantiy agree that fighting is the only honorable course. Of al1 the major characters in

this play, only Zempoalla and her lover, Traxalla, display any essential ignobility, but even

Zempoalla redeems herself in the end by sparing Orazia. Finally, the others including the

queen she overthrew, acknowledge her late rectitude and forgive her.

In this play, Dryden's Mexicans mostly reflect European values. The characters

and the plot could be set anywhere in any penod. Dryden's Epilogue suggests as much:

You see whar Shijrs we are inforc 'd to hy

To help out Wit with some Varieiy;
Shows may be fd that neiw p t were seen,
'Tis hord toJinde such Wit as ne 're h been:
You have seen all thai this old W d d cou 'à do,
We therefore try the fortune of the new. ( 1 -6)

This tragedy, unlike its sequel, is less a presentation of The Primitive than a bid at

romantic exoticism-an opportunity to delight audiences with bright costumes and novel

set pieces in the hope that spectacle will compensate for implausible characters and a tired

plot. Still, with its noble Mexicans unwittingly preparing for their world to "be sitbdrr 'd

sacrificed every year to an ugly deformed id01 in the great temple of

Mexico. Such numbers as the king pleased of poor victims were laid upon
such extents of cities or villages, or number of inhabitants, and there
chosen by lot, to satisQ such blwdy and inhuman taxes. (Works3: 337)
by one more old' (Prologue 1 2), The Indian Queen lays much of the primitivist

groundwork for its sequel. Notwithstanding the Prologue's evocation of Europe as a

world "more old,,"Dryden's I d e a i i i Primitives are geographicaliy displaced

embodiments of European ideals. His primary technique in n e Indian @een is the

relocation of anglocentric values and familiar stage themes."

While the plot of The Iradian Queen occurs before the Spanish invasion, the

historical fiame is l e s relevant than the exotic locale and the ahistorical plot. n e Indian

Empereur, on the other hand, is more a history play since its plot and characters are

loosely based on historical events. Furthemore. its Mexicans evoke a sense of a lost age,

a less conupt period forever unrecoverable, but Dryden's cornmitment to the temporal

construa is not strong. At the opening of the play, Zempoalla's late malevolent influence

has darnaged but not destroyed the Mexicans' noble temperament, and with the arriva1 of

the Spaniards the Mexicans have a clear choice: either continue dishonorably as Spanish

subjects, or die. Of the three principal Spanish characters, oniy Cortez acts nobly. The

conquest he leads is honorable-an honest effort to build a Spanish empire--and not

ignoble like Pizarro's drive for gold. Vaquez for his part is prompted to ignobility by his

love for Alibech, the late Zempoalla's younger daughter. Odmar, the most perfidious

Mexican, also loves Alibech and betrays his father, Montezuma, to possess her. Early in

the play, Odmar agrees to sel1 out his father in exchange for Vasquez's promise that he

9
' Stephen Greenblatt writes of
the utopian moment of travel: when you reaiize that what seems most
unattainably mamelous, most desirable, is what you almost already have,
what you couid have-if you could only strip away the banality and
corruption of the everyday-at home. (Marwlous Possessios 25)
Although it is far from utopian in theme, such is the motif of me Indion Queen.
can have the unnameci woman he loves (Alibech). Vasquez agrees but reserves an

u ~ a m e dwoman for himself(dso Glibech). In the ensuing confrontation between

Vasquez and Odmar, the Spaniard argues against the Mexïcan's c l a h on the woman:

V q . This Lady 1 did for my self design:

Dare you attempt her Honour who is mine?
O h . You're much mistaken; this is she whom 1
Did with my Father's loss, and Corntries buy:
She whom you promise did to me convey,
When al1 thing else were made your cornmon prey.
Varq. That pr0IIIi~made excepteci one for me;
One whom I stiii reserv'd, and this is she.
O h . This is not she, you cannot be so base.
Vmq. I Love too deeply to mistake the Face:
The Vanquish'd must receive the Victors Laws. (5.1 : 85-95)

Vaquez's evasive literalism uncovers the devil's bargain Odmar has made at the price of

honor, nation, father, and love. Alibech's deletenous influence, however unwitting, faintly

echoes her mother's perfidy just as her chaste corruption of Odrnar mirrors Cortez'

unintended corruption of Almeria and Cydaria. Odmar's doomed love also r e d i s

Montezuma's unrequited passion for Zempoalla's vindictive eldest, Almeria. Montezuma

and his children are relentlessly pressed from within by Zempoalla's offspnng and

compressed fiom without by the Spanish invaders. Still, Montezuma rallies in the end and

recovers his nobility enough to slay himsdf and deny the conqueror sucli glory-

Of course, the pnmitivist heart of this tragedy is the first half of act 5 , scene 2 in

which the Christian priest, under Pizarro's guidance, attempts to convert Montezuma and

his High Pnest upon the rack. The scene opens with Pizarro's demand for Montezuma's

treasure. When Montezuma calls for justice fiom his gods the priest remarks,

Mark how this impious Heathen justifies

His own false gods, and our tme God denies:
How wickedly he has refus'd his wealth,
And hid his gold, from Christian hands, by stealth:
 70

Down with him, Kiii him, ment Heaven thereby. (5.2: 5-9)

Dryden here considen the question of whether a vimious heathen can be saved without

full Christian knowledge, the same issue he would address seventeen years later in the

preface to Religio Laici. Montezuma's arguments with the priest and his noble demeanor

advance Dryden's opinion that a heathen who has led a good life in accordance with

nature and reason can go to heaven. Montezuma's spirit is as indomitable as his actions

are virtuous, with one exception: act 1, scene 2 suggests he has condoned human sacrifice

(5). While Dryden cannot ignore a sensaîionol item like human sacrifice, he also cannot

allow it to interfere with his theological design, so there is no nirther mention of this

practice. The Christian Priest contends, while Montezuma's virtue may corne fkom nature,

other means toward virtue are still better: "Though Nature teaches whom we should

Adore, / By Heavenly Beams we stili discover more" (71-2). Montezuma cannot perceive

any logic in the priest's argument. If one way to salvation be better than another, why is

this not evident in nature? And if the truth is so evident, why must the Spanish priest

reson to force. To Montezuma, the priest's moral words are nothing more, just words,

or as Pagden puts it, "linguistic tags" (41). Who needs moral words when the moral path

is self-evident and natural?

Eventually Pizarro grows impatient 4 t h the Christian Priest's inability to defeat

Montezuma's arguments. Pizarro rasons that the sooner the monarch is converted, the

sooner he will reveal the location of his gold, which for the Mexicans holds no intrinsic

value. With Pizarro's cornrnand to "Increase their Pains, the Cords are yet too slack"

(98). Dryden juxtaposes his theological critique with the obvious hypocrisy of the Spanish

- --

See Pagden, "Savage Critic" 37-8,

conqueron. Montezuma and his priest are aware that they suffer torture less for the

benefit of their souls than for the sake of the Spanish treasury and for Pizarro's personal

e~chrnent,a fact that is immediately clear to Cortez upon his entenng the room. M e r

freeing Montezuma, he addresses the Christian Priest: "how now, Religion do you Frown?

/ Haste holy Avarice, and help him dowd' (1 5-6). Pagden notes that the savage critic

views the Europeans' quest for wealth as "an artifice created by a select few in order to

secure power over the mass" (43). While Montezuma Unplies this perspective in his

tortured debate, Cortez explicitly articulates it in upbraiding the priest:

And you,
Who sawcily, teach Monarchs to obey,
And the wide World in narrow Cloysters sway;
Set up by Kings as humble aids of power,
You that which bred yoii, Viper-like devour,
You Enernies of Crowns----- (5.2: 115-130)

Beyond the inmediate political relevancy here, Dryden is unpacking the true motive

behind the pnest's actions and the larger actions of missionary colonization. While

missionary endeavors still played relatively little part arnong Protestant explorations at the

tirne, it was a crucial part of Iberian imperialism and would more frequently be used to

justi6 British exploitation and colonization.

So Cortez's principle complements Montezuma's role as savage critic. The play's

nostalgie longing for The Primitive in Mexico gives way here to a spatial construct: the

fact that Montezuma and Cortez coexist and the sense that they are al1 but

interchangeable. Drycien's ultimate vacillation between the temporal and spatial

constructs of The Primitive weakens the pnmitivist aspects of the play and pushes it more

toward a presentation of mere exotica. Neither Montezuma nor Cortez is more

engagingly good or more engagingly bad than the other, and the lack of fundamental
differencebetween the two enemies disengages the audience's sympathy. Dryden does

not fùlly exploit the predicament of two righteous nobles f o r d to battle, and he reduces

their confiict to the merely political. While the play advances an essential atnnity between

Mexican nobility and Spanish nobility, the triumph of perfidy becomes the dominant tragic

theme.

The Mexicans of The Indm Empereur represent a noble history lost to matenalist

interests, and to a lesser extent Cortez represents a European nobleness supplanted by the

onslaught of gold lust. Nonetheless, such temporal displacernent relies upon two incidents

of geographical transport. The first geographical displacement is embedded in the pre-

plot: the invasion of the conquistadors fkom across the ocuur. The second is the removal

of the Indian characters themselves, as embodied ut the tragedy's actors, fiom a fictitious

past Mexico to the London stage. The illusion of authenticity is completed by the use of

actual Amencan artifacts, feathered costumes and props, on loan fiom Aphra Behn." The

transformation of British actors into the Mexicans they play is more fùlly realized by the

accouterment of exotica. Perhaps part of the difficulty of this play is that Dryden blends

The Primitive with the merely strange and foreign and btends the temporal with the spatial

just as he blends nobility with baseness. While such complexity lends more superficial

reality to the scenes than in nK Indm Queen, the technique is still artificially tragic.
Dryden's noncornmitment results in 2 vague constmct of The Primitive that undermines

his verisimilitude but enables his tragic elements. The Primitive of me Indïan E m p r m ~ r ,

much like those in n e I n d m Queen. leave his audience hankering for feathers and beads

99 See Behn, Oroonoko 148. Bulwer compares English women's periwigs to

Brazilian feathered headdresses (533).
 73

and little more. Finally both plays commit acts of wlonization as playwright and actors

invade and assimilate the character, the world, even the very apparel of The Primitive.

Dryden's construct of The Primitive corresponds with that 1cal1 The Exotic in part 2. His

Mexicans, al1 but purged of their sensational reputation for blood lust, disclose many of

the marks of The Civilized-complex institutions, technological sophistication, refined

govemance--but they exist at a geographical and a historical remove. Most notably,

uniike virtuaily dl European foreigners, Dqden's Mexicans are not Christian: the prirnary

mark of d l that is The Primitive.

PART 2: Constructs of The Primitive in Travel Writing

Chapter 4: A Primitivist Taxonomy

Primitivist wnstnicts abound in travel narratives. The travel narratives 1 focus on

are primarily aecounts joumeys, almost exclusively by sea, to or from a new or distant

place in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. 1exclude travels within Europe as

they are mostly not relevant to The Primitive. Large collections, such as those of Hakluyt

and Purchas, were still imrnensely popular in the period, but their early vintage and their

wide-ranging nature make them too outdated and unwieldy for (though not irrelevant to)

an empirical sîudy of The Primitive in Swift's time. Smaller, latter-day collections, such as

Hacke's, offer considerable insight, but 1 rely primarily on large, individually published

narratives. Figuratively, the reality of traveling onginates the tropes of movement and

space. Traveling represents displacement, physical and culturai, and this displacement

results in the cultural slippage experienced by the traveler.

The travel writer explicitly or implicitly references three situations: home, transport

(usually shipboard), and abroad. The home situation generally fiames the voyage. The

traveler leaves home armed with the influence of a fonnal or informa1 education, a sense of

duty or a work ethic, moral conviction, and the influence of science and philosophy. The

sarne traveler eventually returns home to influence the same cultural factors that informed

the original voyage. Aboard ship, which 1(with many voyage writers) will not treat

extensively, issues of politics, personal loyalties, and reptation surface to affect the

character of the voyage and the tenor of a writer's observations. The quotidian demands

of sailing limit a writer's pnvacy and time for contemplation, but the infIuence of

shipboard incidents is perhaps most extreme when a mutiny or a blatant power struggle
 75

has occurred. Bartholomew Sharp's relation of his loss and recovery of control, William

Dampier's similar expenences as cornmon sailor and as captain, and the mutiny against

Lemuel Gulliver in book 4 al1 demonstrate how shipboard struggles affect both the course

of events and the tone and content of the travel work. Writers directly involved in such

incidents tend toward masculine posturing, but as in the cases of Dampier and Gulliver, a

loss of power may also provide more tirne and privacy for the writer to observe and record

extraordinary sights.

When the traveler arrives abroad, whether by accident or intent, his or her

displacement is most apparent. Motives for traveling Vary, but the building desire for

empire and the lure of colonial and mercantile establishment predorninate. Encounters

with other peopIes bring home the cultural slippage expenenced by the voyager as he

(rarely she) interacts with and observes and records foreign behavior. When this behavior

is deemed "primitive" in some form (as non-Christian societies virtually always are),

readers at home will most appreciate the novelty and allure of the observations. This

appreciation occurs partially because of the fashionable unfamiliarity of The Primitive but

also because of the enticingly threatening aspect of the unknown other. Finally,

encounters with The Primitive comfortably reassert the sense of superiority of the reader

at home (a conclusion upset in Gulliver's last voyage). The usual colonial mission,

intentional or not, is to establish the familiar and supenor home abroad and, perhaps, turn

a profit in the process.

For Swift and his contemporaries, The Primitive are an essential reality. With

notable exceptions such as the Laplanden and even sometimes the Irish, primitive peoples

occur primarily outside the Old World of Europe, so travels outside Europe will be my
 76

main concem. But primitivist discourse is relevant to constructs of such disenfianchised

European peoples as the Irish, and 1will discuss the Irish and pNnitivism in part 3. This

and the other chapters of part 2 are far less concemed with the actual joumey o r voyage

reported in travel narratives than with The Primitive as constmcted in these narratives.

The emphasis will be on a distant place and people, not the means or circurnstances of

transport or their associateci tropes.lm The travel-writing proto-anthropologists o r cmde

ethnographers of Swift's time and their interpreters fa11 into two categones, which are not

always distinct. The fim consias of those who have actually traveled somewhere and are

writing reports of where they have been (such as John Ovington) and those who are

writing reports on others' travels (such as Richard Steele, who includes in The

Englishman an account of Alexander Selkirk's ad~enture).'~'The second are those who

do not directly report their own experiences or others' but who write imaginary accounts

(novels, plays, and stories) of remote places and peoples based to varying degrees upon

the accounts of actual travelers. The second category may include writers, such as Aphra

Behn, who claim to have traveled themselves, but who then write predominantly imaginary

accounts. 'O2 1 will refer to works under the first category as experiential and the second

lm Some studies are confined almost exclusively to shipboard; for instance, see
Philip Edwards, The Story of the Voyage.
101
John Ovington was accused of having written his Voyage to Swat without
having ever left England (Rawlinson, Introduction xvi) when in fact, parts of Ovington's
Surat itself were plagiarized in 1715 (Frantz, "Gulliver's 'Cousin Sympson'" 332n 14).

lm For a review of the debate over whether Behn actually traveied to Surinam or
not, see Percy Adams, Trauel Lirerature 116-7. 1 do not extensively treat Behn's
Oroonoko or any other imaginary works by real travelers in this thesis.
as imaghary.'" Another exarnple of experiential accounts would be the works of Wllliarn

Dampier while an example of imaginary accounts would be Swift's Gulliver 's Trmek

Swift read Dampier and even inwrporated some of Dampier's prose into Gulliver 's

Travels (see Sherbo), but SwiA neither traveled beyond Bntain nor recreated the

experience of any real traveler. Similar to writers of imaginary accounts, experiential

writers fiequently reiterate previously published accounts or rely upon mmor, conjecture,

and secondhand information ofken without acknowledgment; also, we can surmise that

such writers are prone to exaggeration, assumption, self-aggrandizement, self-censorship,

and lapses of memory.

Interest in traveling and in encounters with other peoples increased in Renaissance

England under the influence of voyagers such as Raleigh and patriotic collectors such as

Hakluyt, whose collection was widely read and known.'"' New accounts of travels and

encounters with peoples cailed into question Europe's general beliefs and its knowledge of

the world, of the peoples who inhabit the world (the varieties and types), and of Europe's

status in the world. These new experiential wnstructs of peopIes informed and were

'O3 On the difficulty of defining the ab-genre "imaginary voyage," see Philip Gove,
nte I m a g i ~ i qVoyage in Prose Fiction 3-1 1 . Neil Rennie also remarks on the difficulty
of distinguishing expenential voyages from imaginary voyages: "The border between
factual and fictional voyages can easily be crossed and can even move" (73). On "the
illusion of truth" in travels, see Adams, Travel Lirerature 8 1 . Deborah Baker Wyrick
refers to experiential narrative with the loaded phrase "legitimate travel narratives" to refer
to experiential narratives (82). which l a d s one to conclude that imaginary travels are then
"illegitimate." Both expenential and imaginary travels have a tenuous claim to
"legitamacy."

Swift himself own a copy of hrchas' continuation of Hakluyt and owned

experiential reports from a variety of voyagers (LeFanu 27; Jones 1-3; on Swifl' library,
see, also, Arthur Freeman, F.P. Lock, and Harold Williams). Sir William Temple also
enjoyed reading travels and owned a number of travel books, which Swift no doubt
encountered (see Quintana, Mind md Art 296). On Swift's library, see note 114.
 78

informed by the emergence of relativism. Moreover, while expenentid reports reflect an

individual's estirnate of encounters and the period' s influence on that estimate, the

imaginary accounts largely represent the popular understanding, beliefs, and desires

associated with the culture's absorption of real encounters 4 t h The Primitive. Despite

Frantz's contention that the Cartesian mtionaiisrn of the Royal Society had a powerful

influence on the methodology and the professiodism of voyagen and their reports

(English Truveller, 28-9 and 73-4), experiential reports were less than sufficiently

empirical. In short, we cannot believe everything we rad. But we can look in imaginary

accounts at the reflection of these reports in the popular imagination, and we can interpret

the value of human constructs prevaient in Swift's time. As 1 maintained in my first

chapter, constructs of The Primitive inform and reflect one's construct of The Civilized.

For the next three chapters I will discuss the period portrayal of these constructs in

expenential travel reports and imaginary voyages. My primary f'ocus will be on those

pieces Swift knew or owned. These will include reports by actuai voyagers like William

Dampier and Lionel Wafer, as well as imaginary works of the period such as Gay's Po&

and Defoe's Captain Singleton. 1 exclude works written &er the publication of

Gulliver 's Travels ( 1 726) as these would include the GulIiveriiam and Swift's influence

on the genre itself, a subject vast enough for another complete study. One drarnatic

exception is John Gay's Polly, the 1728 sequel to ïhe Beggar 's Opera.

For English travel writen certain intuitively recognizable cnteria distinguish The

Primitive fiom The Civilized. The writer may comment upon the adequacy or inadequacy

of a primitive culture's law and govemment, religion, language, clothing, food, housing,
arts, physical capabilities, etc? The greatea distinction is the presence o r absence of

writing-not universal literacy, but a societd reiiance on letters. Indeed, letters can

differentiate a merely strange foreign people and peoples further d i s t a n d fkom The

Civilized. With a sophisticated writing system, a culture can produce legal code and

scripture--irrefÙtable evidence of govenwntal mle and religion, even if tyrannical and

heathenish.lM For instance, John Ovington in his Voyage to Surs (1696) provides lengthy

descriptions of Muslim and Hindu iife in and arwnd Surat, India. His descriptions offer

precise details on the religion, aiaorns, and laws of those people. Although non-

Christians offend his religious sensibilities and although he decries foreign practices, he

clearly admires the sophisticated culture he has taken as his subject. For Ovington, the

people of Surat disclose a large share of civilized (i-e., supedicially comprehensible)

behavior, achieved and exemplified by the codification of their culture: religion, law,

history. He even describes their handwriting, although he clearly has no knowledge of it:

'Os See Sayre 100-2; Jones 129-35.

'" See Jones 191. The propriety of language is more than just a mark of
advancement; it is a source and symbol of power. Swift dernonstrates this in book 1 of
Gulliver 's Travels when Gulliver remarks that after he has captured the Blefbscudian
navy, the ambassadors sent by that kingdom to sue for peace are required "to deliver their
Credentials, and make their Speech in the L i l l p t i m Tongue." By this obligation, the
Lilliputian emperor exercises "the Advantage he had got by the Seinire of their Fleet"
(551, perhaps a reference to the dominance of French as the language of diplomacy
starting with Louis XIV (see Ashley, Louis X N 8 6 ) . Writing itself, though, can also be
"fallen speech" (Wyrick xvii), a corrective for the babble of languages and the fallibility of
human memory. A pre-lapsarian, idealized, or Shaftesburian society would not need
writing. In as much as The Primitive are regarded as Edenic, a lack of writing may
suggest a lack of human failing-a suggestion often contradicted in the observations and
assumptions of travel writers. On the importance of language to ancient racial identity,
see "barbarian," OxfordCI&cal Dictiamay. Clement Hawes recognizes "lack," a
principal identifier in constructs of The Primitive, as a projection upon natives of the
European tendency to confound distinct peoples and individuals (195).
 Their manner of Wnting is neither directly forwards nor backwards, nor
in a straight Line downwards, Wre the Chinese fiom the upper to the lower
part of the Paper, but it is a Medium between both, nom the uppermost
Corner of the lefi to the lowennost Corner of the nght, slanting gradually
downwards; especially when they write any Notes or Epistles to one
mot her. (148)lm

Ovington, here, describes what 1 cal1 nie Erotic--the refined heathen, a society distantly

foreign and non-Christian but displaying many marks of The Civilized."

The society of The Exotic wiU include bizarre and even unsavory behavior, but

readers and writers deem it worthy of carefùl study and sometirnes cautious admiration.

Some writers occasionally suggest that European taste and refinement should imitate

certain customs of The Exotic. In his discussion on the purity of the languages of Surat,

'O7 Swift's Lilliputians write sirnilarly:

[Tlheu Manner of Wnting is very peculiar, being neither from the Lefi to
the Right, like the E u r o p m , nor from the Right to the Lefi, like the
Arabim, nor from up to down, like the Chinese; nor from down to up,
like the Cascagims; but aslant 6rom one Corner of the Paper to the other,
like Ladies in England. (57)
Swift's syntax here is remarkably close to Ovington's, and Frantz contends that Swift got
the idea indirectly fiom Ovington through "Richard Symson's" 1715 plagiarization of the
Voyage to Sirrat and hinted at such a pedigree in his prefatory "Letter to Sympson"
("Gulliver's 'Cousin Sympson"' 332-3; also Jones 33-4).

'O8 See Rousseau and Porter, Introduction 10. Period writers loosely use terms
such as barbaric to describe the mnstmct 1 cal1 The Exotic. Paul Rycaut in his
observations on The Present State of the Ottomm Empire ( 1 668) tries to make the
"barbarous" subject of his book more familiar to his readers. He writes in his Epistle
Dedicatory that barbarous people (The Exotic) are "differenced fiom us by diversity of
Mamers and Custom, and are not dressed in the mode and fashion of our times and
Countries" (3). He explicitly distinguishes The Exotic fiom other primitives:
[A] People, as the Turks are, men of the same composition with us, cannot
be so savage and rude as they are generally descnbed; for ignorance and
grossness is the effect of Poverty, not incident to happy men, whose spirits
are elevated with Spoils and Trophies of so many Nations. (3-4)
The Turks are The Exotic because, like the English, they are wealthy traders, success&l
warriors, and empire builders with a rich recorded history and sophisticated legal system.
The essential distinction is religion.
ûvington sardonically writes,

They have not many Leanied among them, to remove any Defects that
might be found in their common Stile, or to improve their Language, so
venerable for Antiquity. and presemation of its self for so many Ages
without any known Alteration Tt is otherwise in Europe, where Foreign
Words are naturalued for embellishing the Elegancy of Speech [. . -1.
(150)

Similarly, Lady Mary Wonley Montagu presents lessons for home in her letters fiom

Turkey. For instance, she characteristically downplays the treatment of Turkish slaves as

little different fiom the treatment of servants and of women in England (220). Montagu

often admires the Turks and enjoys disparaging England through unfavorable

Ovington, a Protestant minister, also expresses admiration for Muslim

comparis~ns.'~

'O9 Of al1 the travel works 1treat, only Montagu's is epistolary; on the inherent
verisimilitude of epistolary travels, see Sayre 86. Montagu's keen observations, her
irreverence, and her singular access to the women of Turkey make her letters uniquely nch
studies of the peoples she encounters. She alone is able to penetrate the Sultan's seraglio
and dispel some myths surrounding that institution (202). An example of her fearless
insight is her description of the Turkish smallpox inoculation: "There is no example of any
one that has died in it; and you may believe I am well satisfied of the d e t y of this
expenment, since 1 intend to try it on my dear iittle son'' (148). Montagu herself had been
badly scarred by smallpox two years earlier. Her reports are no less constmcts than those
of the men who also descnbe The Exotic, but she frequently makes an effort to interrogate
her own influences and prejudices and those of her predecessors. To the Countess of
Bristol she writes,
To what purpose should 1 tell you that Constantinople is the ancient
Byzantium? that it is at present the conquest of a race of people, supposed
Scythians? that there are five or six thousand mosques in it? that Sancta
Sophia was founded by Justinian? &c. 1 will assure you it is not for want
of leaming that 1 forbear writing al1 these bright things. 1 could also, with
very little trouble, turn over Knolles and Sir Paul Rycaut, to give you a list
of Turkish emperors; but 1 will not tell you what you may find in every
author that has written of this country. 1 am more inclined, out of a true
female spirit of contradiction, to tell you the falsehood of a great part of
what you find in authors [. . .] . (224)
Her ability to r e c o m e (though not elirninate) her own biases is related to the fact that
constructs of The Exotic of both sexes by European men bear some similarity to
conaructs of European women by these sarne men. Most obviously, in subverting the
conclusions of men who wrote before her, she argues that Turkish women "are, perhaps,
 82

reverence dunng religious ceremonies while deridimg the corrupted practices of English

Christians. H e describes the devout observation of Muslirns at prayer and cornments that

their

profound Respect cas& an obloquy and deserv'd Reproach upon some

Professors of a much purer Religion, and more Holy Faith, whose careless
Deportment and f h l i a r Address discountenance al1 the Religious decorum
of Prayers, and might tempt those Heathens to conclude, that Our
Devotions were rather some light Diversion, than the effects of senous and
sacred Thoughts. (146)

We may contrast this passage with Ovhgton's later description of "HoimioP' religious

rituals at the Cape of G d Hope:

They are sunk even below Idolatry, sn deaitute both of Priest and Temple,
and swing a little show of rejoicing, which is made at the Full and the New
Moon; have lost a11 kind of Religious Devotion. Nature has so nchly
provided for their convenience in this Life, that they have drown'd al1 sense
of the God of it, and are grown quite careless of the next. (284)

The passage conjures images of beasts baying at the moon and extends a moral

condemnation of the natives for losihg an abstract sense of divinity. The natives are at

once animals and fie-choosing humans who have rejected a 'natural' understanding of

deity and ngorous worship in favor of an easier homage to natural occurrence. Nature's

bounty in this part of the world has spoiled the natives, and, consequently, they l a d y

worship nature alone. For Ovington, as with so many other writers, the Hottentots

display the barest markers of humanity let alone of The Civilized.

Since no construct is static, the categorical degrees of primitivism are best

more fiee than any ladies in the universe, and are the only women in the world that lead a
life of unintempted pleasure, exempt fiom cares; their whole time being spent in visiting,
bathing, or the agreeable amusement of spending money and inventing new fashions"
(225), while dismissing the permanent confinement of Turkish women. Montagu
calculates that the seraglio's man-fiee sanctuary is sufficient recompense for women's
utter powerlessness outside its wails.
expressed as their cultural distance fiom The Civilued: The Exotic, The Barbarous, and

The Savage. As the construct closest to The Civilized, The Exotic appear primarily in

Asia and are generally non-Christian culmres with roots in antiquity. As with Ovington's

Surat, they may display admirable qualities, but accounts of The Exotic always distance

t hem fiom The Civilized. Simiiariy, The Barbarous, primarily the Natives of North

America, exhibit fewer marks of The Civilized and more of The Primitive. An example

would be the people John Lawson ponrays in his New Voyqe to CaroIim (1709), who

are ciearly capable of bewildering viciousness (see 59 and 205) but who also display

temperate sophistication. Sometimes The Barbarous are the Idealized Primitive, the

savage critic, as in Gay's play Po&. The most demeaned primitivist constmct, The
Savage--usually found in Afnca, Australia, and sometimes the Amencas and South

Pacific-are least Iike The Civilized and display the most marks of The Primitive. Travel

writers usuaIly assume the humanity of The Savage but infiequently emphasize it whereas

the humanity of The Exotic and The Barhous is rarely in doubt. The expanded headings

of this and the next two chapters--"The Exotic~Barbamus,""The Barbarous~Savage,"

and "The Savagee*Bestiai"-do not denote dualism but reflect the range of slippage within

each construct. The dual-headed arrows indicate the slippage within each category, but

for convenience sake 1 use the simpler though more static designators me f i o ~ i c ,ï ï ~ e

Burbarous,, and n e S 4 v ~ g e . "My

~ reho.sp?cfive taxonomy positions constructs of The

' I o In The Order of n>ings, Michel Foucault elucidates the problems with
eighteenth-century taxonomy (72-3). and 1proceed with the awareness that even a
taxonomy of c o l ~ ~ ~ r twould
r c ~ s be a construct itself. Still, the arbitrary artificiality of
tamnomia, when acknowledged with respect, can be countervailed by the general
usefulness of classification schemes. The scheme 1read back into the first part of the long
eighteenth century shows the universality of primitivist types in voyage writing and can
illuminate the singularity of more aesthetically sophisticated travel works such as
 84

Primitive relative to The Civilized. While writers in Swift's thne perceived a hierarchy of

humanity, best expressecl through the Great Chain metaphor, I mean to emphasii the

distance fiom The Civilized that each wnstruct ocaipied and to downplay irnpücit

rankings. The Civilized, for my purposes an anglocentnc construct, are at the center of

Figure 2's wncentnc rings.

Figure 2 The Primitive relative to The Civilized

The distance fiom The Civilized is measured by the presence--or absence--of the

marks of The Civilized. The Exotic display many pnmary marks of The Civilized (written

language, scripture, and code) and most secondary marks (including fashion, currency,

trade, and the arts); in short, The Exotic lack Chnstianity and Christian mores."' The

Oroonoko, Robinson Cnrsoe, and GulIiver 's Travels.

"' Edward Said writes of "narcissistic Western ideas about the Orient" and of
Europeans irnagining Eastern cultural factors that become "repetitious pseudo-
incarnations of some great original (Christ, Europe, the West) they were supposed to have
Barbarous usually lack letters and their products (record4 history, scripture, and statute),

but retain some secondary marks (made, some cumncy, crafl). Lawson's description of

Native money (fashioned fiom shells) helps categorize the people he describes as

barbarous rather than merely savage. For their part, The Savage have few if any of the

The distance between The Civilized and The Exotic is

marks of The Ci~ilized."~

constructed as primarily spatial; there is Little sense that The Exotic are an earlier stage of

The Civili~ed."~The distance between The Civilized and The Barbarous and Savage can

been imitating" (Orientahm 62). Said's later study on current joumalism and perceptions
of the Muslim Religion, Cowring Islam, traces the continued prevalence of similar
Western assumptions.

I l 2 One factor, h o t a mark, in determinhg the degree of civiiization is population

density. Exotic cultures, such as India, Persia, and the pre-conquest Aztecs, have fairly
large populations concentrated in a relatively srnall area and centered on urban areas.
Native Arnericans, representing The Barbarous, are ofien perceived as having a smaller
overall population divided into distinct units and dispersed over a wide landscape.
Travelers describing The Savage regard the Hottentots' population as scattered into
loosely organized units. The influence population has on the sophistication of culture is
not clear. While one may assume that management of a large population requires an
elaborate culture, one must also concede that the conveniences of a complex culture will
foster population growth. Population and sophistication coexist and complement one
another (see Locke. Two Treatses 2.108: 339-40). William Dampier in Voyages and
Descrip~ion.. ( 1699)associates population wit h poverty in "Tonquitt" (Vietnam), which is
"stockt with great multitudes of poor people, who work cheap and live meanly on a little
Rice; which if it is not very cheap, as it commonly is here, the poor people are not able to
maintain themselves" (1: 39). Despite their poverty and other disadvantages, though,
Dampier clearly treats the Tonkinese as The Exotic. The Barbarous and The Savage
represent a more "natural" human construct than The Exotic. With their sparse
populations their and wildemess existences they evoke Hobbes' famous assessment of the
natural state of humanity: "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and shon," (1 : 13, 186). On
Swift and the Irish population, see below note 144.

'13 Edward Said maintains that "In no people more than in the Oriental Semites
was it possible to see the present and the origin together." His Orientals, in this sense (a
later European construct), correspond to the construct of The Exotic I am describing.
Furthemore, Said notes that in nineteenth-century Orientalism 'Wo Semite advanced in
time beyond the development of a bclassical' period" (Orientalism 234). But perhaps due
to Iimited contact, The Civilized constnict The Exotic of the early eighteenth century with
no such stagnant ctassicism and no historical depth beyond occasional references to an
 86

be spatial or temporal, geographicai or historicai. Most oAen, though, The Savage are

spatially constructed-a distant and inadequate hurnan type. Only The Barbarous

constnia assumes with any frequency that it represents some earlier fomi (with dl its

implied potentiality) of The C i v i l i .

even more primitive past. The Exotic of the p e n d are distanced and lirnited by
geography and religion, not history.
Chapter 5: The Exotic-Barbarous

As 1have noteci, Swifl owned several books oftravels."' Besides early collections

like Purchas' and wntemporary reports such as Lionel Wafer's, Swift owned some older

individual mernoirs. Arnong the mon notable is Thomas Herbert's A Relation of Some

Yeares TravaiIe into AJnque, Asia, Indies ( 1 634) with notes in Swift's hand (Harold

Williams, Dean Swifrt 's Librmy 1O)."' Herbert occompanied an embassy from England to

India and published his observations on the peoples he encountered in his joumey.

Occasiondly appended to these personal remarks are secondhand descriptions of peoples

he had never visited, such as the account of Japan he aitributes to a Flemish cornpanion

(205). Herbert also offers brief historical accounts of some locations, such as the Canary

Islands (3). At the end of his Relation in an effort to "vindicate the honour of our

Countne, lost in the greater part by protract of envious time, or want of wel-willers to

defend it" (2 17), Herbert tells the story of the legendary Welsh "discoverer" of the

Amencas, Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd (217-22).'16 Herbert enjoyed displaying his

See "A Catalogue of Books, the Library of the Late Rev. Dr. Swift, Dean of St.
Patrick's, Dublin. To Be Sold by Auction"; Freeman, "Swifi Reconsidered," and "William
Street, 1746, Revisited"; LeFanu, A Catalogue of Books Be-ng to Dr. Jonafhcnt Sivfl;
Lock "Swift's Library"; McCann, "Jonathan Swift's Library"; Sherbo, "S wifi and Travel
Literature"; Williams, Dean Swvt's Library.

1' Opposite the title page in his mpy of Herbert, SwiA wrote above his signature
and the year, 1720, "If this Book were stript of its Impertinence, Conceitedness, and
tedious Digressions, it would be almost worth reading, and would then be two thirds
smaller than it is" (PW 5: 243). See Jones 34-5,

'16William Rufiis Chetwood mentions the sarne legend in his novel The Voyagesv
Dangerms Adventures. and Imminent Escapes of Cqvtain Richard Falconer ( 1 720) and
daims that the Welsh adventurers settled and intennixed with the hospitable Natives of
"Campeachy" (Campeche, Yucatan Peninsula) "and left among 'em severaI of their
Opinions and Mamers; which they retain'd till the last, when Cortez subdu'd 'em; but now,
by the Cruelty of the S'iards, the Natives are almost extinguished" (2: 52-3).
education by identifjing the sites of ancient batiles (13 1) and by speculating on the sites of

mythology (see, for exarnple, his discourse on Eden, 141-3). Since Herbert voyaged

around the Coast of Atnca and across the Indian Ocean, he describes a variety of The

Primitive, and his passages on the Persians and the Indians are fair portrayals of The

Exotic. For example, with ethnographie attention he describes Indian mamage and funeral

cerernonies (39). and he translates lists of Persian, Arabic, Malaysian, and Javan words

(43-7, 170-81, 202-s)."'

As The Exotic display marks of The Civilized, they simultaneously display some

marks of The Primitive. The geographical distance of The Exotic from England is

cornplemented by the quantifiable difEerences that formulate The Exotic's tantalizing

nature, which travel writers tend to emphasize. M e r dl, as Margaret Hodgen writes of

Herodotus, "Apparently, remoteness lent a kind of plausibility" (27). The differences of

The Exotic fiom The Civilized at once entice and repel and are the elements that render

The Exotic as The Primitive. Some differences are obvious: The Exotic have religion,

even zeal, but are non-Christian; The Exotic have statutes and an established government,

but they are tyrannical.'" Also physical differences-particularly complexion--and senial

practices set The Exotic apart fiom The Civilize~i.~~~

Religious differences are most

On the origins of this form of linguistic documentation, see Hodgen 305-6.

Aiso on the linguistic tradition in voyage writing (experiential and imaginary) see Adams,
Travel Literatzrre 260-3.

See Rousseau and Porter, Introduction 11. Claude Lévi-Strauss associates

writing with tyranny (300).

Ovington's Voyage to Suraf is a rarity arnong travel books. Since Ovington

was a minister hired by the East India Company to serve as chaplain in its factory at Surat,
he had the learning and luxury to observe and report his most interesting experiences in
careful detail while including little nautical detail. His book is rather lengthy, but his
account is denser than niost and ncher for its detail. For instance, while Ovington
notable when cited as corrections of English behavior, as in the Ovington passage quoted

in chapter 4, page 82. Descriptions of tyrannical government, thougk more oAen serve to

bolster English institutions. Immediately a h portraying the Persian king's

entertainment of the English ambassador (%-8). He- catalogues tales of the king's

certainly constnicts The Exotic as distinct €tom The Civilized in al1 the usual ways, he
does so with some precision. Here he describes some mundane trivia that set a selection
of Asian cultures apart fiom European:
For as theu Kingdorns, so are their Customs in these Kingdoms quite
opposite in many things to ours. The Teeth of their Saws, for Instance, are
made quite contrary to ours; their Locks are fashion'd and open quite
different ways; and the very Dispositions of some Irrational Creatures Vary
fkom the Genius they retain with us; as at Tunquin the vigilant Dogs watch
al1 Nght to devour the Rats and Mice, which are there very large and
troublesom; as our Cats do with us. (133)
Since Ovington never reports actually going to "Tumpin," we may presume that he has
based this passage on others' reports.

120 On his trip to "Tonquin," Dampier finds the people "low spirited: probably by
reason of their living under an Arbitrary Government" (V&D 1: 42; also 78). Swift found
anarchy preferable to "arbitrary Power." in "The Sentiments of a Church of England Man"
(1 71 l), Swift declares that tyranny is "a p a t e r Evil than Atwchy it self; as much as a
Sovoge is in a happier State of Life, than a S f m at the Oar" (1 5; see also "A Sermon
upon the Martyrdom of King Charles I" in P W 9: 228). Even so, at times the heavy-
handed nature of primitive govenunent is admired for its efficiency. In John Gay's The
Captives (1724) Orbasius declares, "Ingratitude's a crime the Persiuns hate; Their laws are
wise, and punish it with death" (1 -3). We may recall Gulliver's observation that for the
Lilliputians "Ingratitude is among them a capital Crime" (60). Montagu shows open
admiration for Turkish govemment:
1 am also charmed with many points of the Turkish law, to our shame be it
spoken, better designed, and better exeaited than ours; particularly, the
punishment of convicted lian (tnumphant criminals in Our country, God
knows:) they are bumt in the forehead with a hot iron, when they are
proved the authors of any notorious falsehoods. (195)
In his "Essay upon the Original and Nature of Government" (1672). Sir William Temple
offers an environmental explanation for tyranny by associating "single and arbitrary
dominions" with intemperate zones, such as "al1 the regions of Tartary and Muscovy on
the one side, and of Atnc and India on the other." Moderate climates, "especially in
Europe," he writes "have ever been used to more moderate govemments" ( W h1: 30).
On the practices of an imaginary tyrannical monarch, see Behn, Oroonoko 158-9. For
Shaftesbury on tyranny, see above 55.
"cruelties," none of which Herbert rnay have acnially witnessed (98-9). Later Herbert lists

the "blustering Epithites and Titles7' conferreci upon the Persian monarch, but notes that

such titles are "no new custom used arnong Psgans." He then mentions severai sovereign

titles from biblical and classicd sources (128-9).12' Ovington Lis&the flattering titles of

the "Great Mogul" of India aAa describing the absolute authonty of Indian and Japanese

mlers: "This flattery of their Subjects has made them fancy themselves more than Demi-

Gods" (1 1 1-2). '= Rycaut accounts nich elaborate titles as a demonstration of the

"absolute and unlimited powe?' of the Turkish d e r (5) whose subjects are "Slaves to the

lust" of their king (8). In the irnaginaxy Voyges and Adventures of Cqtlan Robert Boyle

( 1726), William ChetWood's protagonist declares that the emperor of Morocco "only

differs tiom his Subjects in a larger Propensity to their il Qualities, with the Addition of a

degree of Cnielty and Avarice" and that he is responsible for mass killings (122). Boyle

witnesses the emperor sadistically impaie two workmen as they labor near him, and he

m o t account for such cruelty, much less the abject submission of the victims. After one

is stmck in the shoulder, he returns the javelin to the king only to be struck again:

The Pool drew it out once more, and, cover'd with Blood, gave it to him
back again; but as he was stooping, he fell down with loss of Blood at the
Barbarian's Feet, who did him the Favour to pin him to the Earth through
his Back. (123)lU

12' Swifi burlesques pompous titles in the "Voyage to Lilliput" by applying to them
to the tiny Ernperor of Lilliput (GT 43).

ln On fictional Japanese tyranny over Europeans, see Defoe, Singleton 202-3; also
GT 2 16-7
Montagu ascnbes physicai stoicism to the Turks: dunng a procession in
Adrianople soldiers march with arrows poking from their limbs and heads while slashing
thernselves with knives as a sign of militw loyalty and to win the hearts of female
spectators (1 89). See also Behn, Ortwnoko 197,213, and 218.
Boyle, as a solid Englishman, would resist such a cruel monarch:

I thought the poor Feilow was a Fool; for if it had been my own Case, I
would have retum'd it through his Body the first Time, for he was sure of
Dying, and 1 thinlc it would have b e n oome Satisfaction to have sent the
Author of my Death the sarne Joumey. (123)12'

For his part, Ovington equates the arbitrariness oftyranny-"the pitch of siupidity and

madness"-with a lack of restraint (202).la Lady Mary Wortley Montagu sees a lesson in

o b s e ~ n the
g workings of tyranny. From Adrianople she writes,

1 m o t help wishing, in the loyaity of my heart, that the parliament

would send hither a shipload of your passive-obedient men, that they
rnight see arbitrary govenunent in its clearest and strongest light, where it
is hard to judge whether the prince, people, or ministers are most
miserable. (1 19)

Later the splendor and culture of Constantinople charm her, and Montagu relates

anecdotes to prove the innate benevolence of the Turks. She writes, "[TJhe people are

'Zl See Rycaut 8. Chetwood consistently presents The Exotic as dishonest,

vicious, arbitrary, overly emotional, over-sexe and illogical. Dampier writes on his visit
to the kingdom of Achin on the Island of Sumatra that "The Laws of this Country are very
stria, and offenders are punished with great severity" (V&D 1: 138). But while brutal,
these laws lack the extreme arbitrariness and wanton cruelty depicted in Chetwood's
fiction. Interestingly, rnost ofien when Rycaut uses the word "tyranny" it is in reference to
controlhng women, such as when he describes an historical coup against a domineenng
Turkish Queen Mother and her female lover by the Ottoman rnilitary, which was "not used
to this tyranny of women." Rycaut concludes that "thus order results offen 60m
confussion, and tumults in compteci Commonwealths have operated good effects to the
redress of several evils" (1 1). He also bewails "the Tyranny and Pride of an insulting
Woman" (71--the first of two consecutive pages enumerated "71"). As one may assume,
there is much overlap between anglocentnc wnstruds of The Primitive and male
constmcts of The Female. Richard Ligon, who was in his sixties when he traveIed to
Barbados, writes that 'Young beauties force, and so commit rapes upon Our affections"
(1 7). Hence, young women are by nature sexual aggresson, albeit passive, while men are
the helpless victims of their aesthetic assaults: women are naturally cruel tyrants.
'21 Montezuma's tyranny was generally given as the reason Cortez found willing
allies among natives living on the outskirts of Mexico. In the first volume of his Voyage to
the Sotd~Sea (1 712). Edward Cooke, an admirer of Cortez, gives the standard rendition
of this cornmonplace as retold by the Spanish (397-8).
not naturally cruel. Neither do 1 think in many other particulam they deserve the

barbarous character we give them" (228). To prove h a point, she oddly chooses the

story of a Spanish woman, taken by the Turks and raped. When her family ransomed her,

the lady very discreetly weighed the dinerent treatment she was likely to
find in her native country. Her relations (as the kindest thing they could do
for her in her present circumstances) would caiainly confine her to a
nunnery for the rest of her days. (228-9)

Finally the woman opts to many her captor, and he politely refuses to take any other

wives (229). Montagu oflen unironidly conmes the novelty of Turkish cunoms

regarding women with a sense of female liberation.

Apart fiom cruel tyranny The Exotic are often distinguished fiom The Civilized

through physical comparisons. Many travel writers dwell on clothes, tastes, and

adonunents, but these direrences cm be rernarkable arnong Europeans as ~ e 1 1 . lAS

~ ~one

rnay expect, the most important superficial distinctions are usually the most inalterable,

such as complexion. No degree of assimilation to European ways, no sincere conversion

to Christianity, no emulation of European govemment can completely eradicate physical

differences. While the most conspicuous and consistent of physical differences is

complexion, other relative qualities such as size, stature, beauty, and mannerisms can also

mark The Exotic. Assumptions about complexion are so cornmonplace that Herbert

Montagu delights in describing the clothing and opulence of the Turks--Y shall
only add, that the chamber destined for the sultan, when he visits his daughter, is
wainscotted with mothersf-peul fastened with emeralds like nails" (236). By contrast,
earlier she had declaimeci against the fsshions in Vienna, by offenng a minute dissection of
Viemese fashions and the ugliness of the Viemese women. We may recall Swifi's satire
of the Sect of tailor wonhipers, who maintain "the Universe to be a large Suit of Clmfhs"
(Tale 76-9). On the Irish craving for foreig fashions, see A Shori View oflhe Sfufe of
Ireiund (PW 12: 9). On the association of certain clothes with "civilized" heathens, see
Todorov 34.
mentions only that the various ethnicities of Surat "are alike in colour" without revealing

what that color is (36). We can d e l y imagine that contemporary readers did not suppose

the people of Surat were as "blacke and T e as the people Herbert describes in the
African island of Mohelia (24).ln Montagu, writing fiom Tunis about her visit to the ruins

of Carthage, relates an encounter with some "country people":

While 1 sat here, fiom the town of Tents, not far off, many of the women
flocked in to see me, and we were equally entertained with viewing one
another. Their posture in sitting, the colour of their skin, their lank black
hair falling on each side of k i r faces, their features, and the shape of their
limbs, differ so little fiom their country people, the baboons, it is hard to
fancy them a distant race; 1could not help thinking there had been some
ancient alliances between them. (25 1)'"

Montagu says nothing else about these nomadic country women, but her unnattering

sketch designates them as an example of The Primitive far removed fiom The Civilized-

farther even than The Exotic--and stained indelibly with the attributes of beasts (see, also,

249).lW The simian allusion most usually ocairs alongside The Savage (see, for instance,

Herbert 17), but here Montagu uses it to degrade fairly sophisticated nomads. In Tunis

Montagu thinks more highly of the women: "The women of the town go veiled fiom head

to foot under a black crape; and, being mixed with a breed of renegadoes are said to be

many of them fair and handsome" (250). "Renegadoes" are European sailors who have

'21 On the ''tawny Indian colour" of the "Tonquinese," see Dampier, V&B 1: 40.
'O In this passage, Montagu uses race to signify qxcies.

lW As a d e , the complexion of The Exotic is described by authors of the penod as

light-white, yellow, or tawny (the lm, a favorite descriptor of the period)-The
Barbarous as ranging from deeply tanned to copper-colored o r brown, and The Savage as
dark brown or black. While it is most likely that skin color infiuenced the designated
wnstruct, it may be that the designation itselfinfluenced the perception of skin color.
Either way, by Swift's time, a darker color was simply assumed in constructs of The
Primitive.
been taken by the Arabs and have converted to Islam and îumed pirates.'" Montagu, who

is generally most cynical and penetrating, never describes the women first-hand (they are

veiled) but accepts reports of their beauty solely based on their alleged descent fiom

Europeans. Her assumption r d s her earlier anecdote on the beautifil Fatima, a sultana

of Adrianople, who, when wmpared favorably to Christian women responds, "It is not the

first time 1have heard so: my mother was a Polonese, taken at the siege of Caminiec; and

my father used to rally me, saying, He believed his Christian d e had found some gallant;

for that 1 had not the air of a Turkish girl" (207). While stili in Turkey, though, Montagu

had indicated that she was quite taken with the fkskinned noble women of Turkey."'

She asserts the beauty standard of her own culture even as she tries to debunk other usual

assumptions about women.

John Ovington in his description of the " H o t . . t ~ t s "speculates on the cause of

pigmentation diEerences. l" He notes the comrnon assumption that "Blackness and

Whiteness are not suppos'd natural to any People whateve?' and that "Some are apt to

ascribe this to the Air and Climate or Earth" (285).13' Ovington dismisses such arguments

'" Like the light-skimed Tunisian women, Behn's Oroonoko has been "improved"
by The Civilized. His nobility is not imate but is largely attributable to "the a r e of a
Frenchmon of wit and learning" among others (1 53). See Chetwood, Falconer 3 : 1 16.
Dampier describes the Malaccans (of Malay), who range 'even fiom the coal-black to a
light tawney" due to mass rapes committed by the Portuguese (VdiD 1 : 16 1).

"' See, for instance, her description of a virginal brida1 procession, 226.
13* For a good overview of complexion theory in the period and the "confusing
mystery" of dark skin, see Jordan 11-20.

'" Climate and environment, of course, had long been regarded as a significant
arbiter of a given people's behavior. See Hodgen 56-7, on Bodin's theories in the
sixteenth century, 278-80. Set aiso Fabncius' consideration of complexion and his
conclusion that skin wlor is determined by environment in his Disrertatio Critica of 1721
( 1 73 8 tram. reprinted in Bendyshe; see 409- 13). In his "Essay upon the Ancient and
as "weak and unaccountable" and promotes a theory that Links skin color to diet:

[A]t Suratt, 1 observ'd a young Ilidan very Black, taken into the Englsh
, by tasting W m e and Eating Flesh, grew paier sensibiy than he
S e ~ c ewho
was before. The strong Aliment by a fiequent mixîure of its iively Juyces
with the BIood and Spirits, which for a long time had been kept low by a
Phelgmatick Nourishment, did actuate and purie them by degrees, and
thereby shew'd in sometime the effect of their fermentation by a faint
Vamish upon the Face. (285)

For Ovington and many others of the period, whiteness is the default and proper human

pigmentation, and darlcer colors are the result of impure consumption--not a matter of

race, but of c o n d u ~ t . 'He

~ shirks the inherent relativism of ailowing difTerent peoples in

different ciimates their own pigmentation in favor of believing that humans are essentially

pale skinned. On the Atlantic island of St. Helena he mamels that the European settlers do

not find the climate unhealthy and that they generally have "a Complexion fresh and

beautiful, equal to that of celebrated E n g d ' (59). He suggests that their health and pale

skin are due to their poverty "since Physicians tell us, that most Diseases arise rather fiom

Repletion than Emptiness; f?om too Luxuriant, than too spare a Diet" (59). It is tempting

to cal1 Ovington's predisposition to white supenority "racism" but for the fact that the

Modern Leaming" (1692). Sir William Temple writes, "1 know no circumstance like to
contribute more to the advancement of knowledge and leaming among men, than exact
temperance in their races, great pureness of air, and equality of climate, long tranquillity of
empire or govemment" (Wurh3: 443; see also 1: 29).
lY As with climatic influences on complexion, behavioral influences are
environmental and nonessential. A less conventional theory appears in two anonymous
"Essays Sent in a Letter from Oxford to a Nobleman in London" (1 695) in which the
author debunks complexion theories involving food and climate and rejects the biblicai
tradition that dark-skimed peoples were the cursed descendants of "Cham." The author
wisely concedes, "Theorigin of Negroes lies obscure" (excerpted in Bendyshe, "Histoiy
of Anthropology" 371).
current notion of race developed long d e r Ovington's joumey."' Some white writers,

t hou& baldly express disgust for darker-skïnned people. Rycaut suggests that

particularly ugly black eunuchs are lefl to guard the harem of the Turkish "Grand Signior"

becaise the lighter-skimec! women of the harem will not be attracted to "that AfBcclll

race"; meanwhile, white eunuchs attend the ' G M d Signior" himself (37). Chetwmd, in

his novels R i c M Falconer and Robert Boyle occasionally has his narrators express a

sexual preference for paie women (although a tawny woman will do in a pinch). He

pointedly juxtaposes a description of the Moroccan complexion with an account of

unsavory Moroccan behavior:

As to the Nature of the Inhabitants, they are most of a tawny

Complexion, of a lay, idle Disposition, and curs'd with al1 the Vices of
Mankind; mistrustfil to the last Degree, false, jealous, and the very Picture
of Ignorance. (Boyle 120)

His adventure novels are oflen so jingoistically pro-English and their physical depictions of

primitive peoples are so dismissive and derogatory, it is dinicult not to describe his work

as racist .136

While complexion is an obvious physical distinction between The Civilized and

The Primitive, sexuality is another important but much subtler differentiation.'" Most

travel writers of the period dwell on foreign sexuality to some extent if only to denounce it

or comparable European practices. But even when these reports use sex to launch a

13' See chapter 1. Nicholas Hudson traces the ongin of the modem concept of
race to the Enlightenrnent when it replaceci older discussions of "nations" (248).
'"If Chetwood is racist, then racism eaded before Linnsus' taxonomy of human
races. If so, then perhaps the social-cultural constmct of race existed before the scientific
constmct.

13' See Said on "the association between the Orient and ses" Orientaiim 188;
dso, 31 1.
sermon, they allure and produce a tension between the proper and the i m p r ~ p e r . ' The
~

sexuality of The Primitive can be deerned "naturai" (as it often is with The Barbarous and

The Savage) or depraved, but The Exotic are nwer constniaed as "naturai" peoples; they

share the sarne inclinations toward vice, though unmitigated by Christian mores, as The

Civilized. In fact, the very sophistication they share with The Civilied produces their

vices. Swift plays with this idea in book 4 of GuIfiver's Trmels where, &er the

Houyhnhnm rnaster has noted al1 the unpleasant similarities between the entirely bestial

Yahoos and Gulliver's depiction of English society, Gulliver expects his

Master would accuse the Yahoos of those umatural Appetites in both

Sexes, so cornmon among us. But Nature it seems hath not been so expert
a Schoolmistress; and these politer Pleasures are entirely the Productions of
Art and Reason, on our Side of the Globe. (GT264)13'

The sexual refinements of The Civilized and The Exotic are not "natural."

Much of the appeal of The Exotic for writers and readers rests in common

assumptions about the prevalence of sexual depravity in exotic society. Any lengthy

13' Ovington demonstrates this art of the vaguely titillating sermon fiequently:
[The Moors at Surat] admir'd the Christians Indulgence in such noble
Liquor, and such exquisite Fare, and believ'd that the unconfin'd Luxury in
Eating was equd to the pleasure of their desirable variety of Women; and
that the Carnal Excesses approv'd by Mohomet do not outvie the
unconstrain'd Liberty which the Christians take in sumptuous Repasts, and
such kind of Luxurious Sensuality. (144)
This passage presents both a gentle denunciation of European gluttony and a latent image
of unrestrained sexual license.

'" Hayden White makes a sirnilar point about sophisticated sexual practices and
the "Wild Man" constma of the middle ages. The "Wild Man,"White points out, may be
over-sexualized, but he is without "consciousness of sin or perversion (and therefore of
course deprived of the pleasures of the more sophisticated vices)" (2 1). Dampier
associates depravity with wealth. In Malacca he reports that Portuguese traders "fell to al1
manner of looseness and debauchery; the usual concomitant of Wealth, and as commonly
the fore-nimer of Ruin" (V&D 1: 161).
 98

portrayai of The Exotic almost requires a discussion of exceptional sexual behavior-

particularly open or ill-conded licentiousness, homosexuality, and doubled cultural

standards. These discussions serve as set pieces for a portrayal of The Exotic and usually

include at least a mention of the sunial favon avdab!e to strange visitors to these foreign

lands.'" Even Herbert's early account ouggests the perfiinctoriness of sexual chronicles in

travel writing. Herbert details the wide availabiiity of East Indian Mrgins for strangers "of

what Country soever," who "for a srnail price" WUperfonn "his domestique affaires what

ever, at bed and board" (40). and he salaciously describes "Their vilest ceremony," which

involves deflowering newly married Wgins by a "Devillish ~doll.""' Imrnediately after

detailing the sexual depravity of his subject, Herbert launches into a detailed description of

Indian currency and its English quivalent (41). While this juxtaposition is typical of

Herbert's fiequent disregard for carefiilly constructed narrative transitions (he precedes

the section on wives for hire with a description of burials), it dso represents the seamless

comection between peculiar sexual practice and the quotidian existence of The Exotic.

Without comment, Herbert contiguously presents two aspects of East Indian society that

pertain both to commerce among The Exotic and to exchange with foreigners.

Besides the entertainment of strangers, within the sexual construct of exotic

society plenty of practices existed that could hold the attention of an English audience.

'* In his 1929 Preface to Ovington's Surat H. G. Rawlinson remarks, "It is

astonishing that Ovington's racy account of Western India, as he saw it at the close of the
seventeenth century, has never been repnnted" (v). While Ovington's book is far from
"racy" by today's standards, his udagging interests in primitive sexual practices dilutes
the hjgh-rninded scientific and moral rasons for which he claims to write.
"' On a similar tempora~y-bride-for-hirescheme in East Asia, see Dampier, V&D
1: 51.
Polygarny, specifically polygyny, is another cornmonplace, which both Herbert and Rycaut

mention as a matter of accepted fact (Herbert 191;Rycaut 8 1 and 153). OWigton,

obviously no devotee of Hymen, brings up polygyny in a detailed section on marriage

among the Banians, but while this option is readily available to them, the husbands "are

not often so vexy Amorous as to proseate that Liberty, or rather Thraldom, to more

Wbes than one at once. [. . .] nor do they imagin that it's worth their while to satisfie the

fervour of their wandering Desires, that is attended with such a train of mischievous

Consequences" (191). Ovington presents it both ways: The Exotic are polygamous (as

readers would expect), and they are not polygamous (a novelty). Montagu makes a

similar claim about polygyny among the Turks, but she interprets it differently: "there is no

instance of a man of quaiity that makes use of this liberty, or of a woman of rank that

would suffer it" (128-9). Ovington tries to close the distance between the people of Surat

and the English by citing a tradition of cornmon maniage among the early Britons:

We read of a Custom among the Ancient Brituim which seems peculiar to

themselves, and not found in the Stories of any other Nations, either Civil
or Barbarous, not ofmany Wives belonging to one Husband, which is the
case of many Heathen Nations, but a Society of Wives among certain
numbers, and by common consent. Every Man manied a single Woman,
who was aiways after and alone esteem'd his Wife: But it was usual for five
or six, ten or twelve, or more, either Brothers or Friends, as they could
agree, to have dl their Wives in cornmon. But neither did this method
preserve an entire Arnity and Affection among them, but sornetimes
Encounters and Disputes happen'd. (1 92)"*

While Ovington reaches deeply into his people's history to find a cornparison, in no way

does he construct the Banians temporally, as an histoncal relic or replica of a European

"* Swift describes the same practice in his "Abstrad of the History of England"
(PW5 : 3). Swift bases his history upon Sir Wiliiam Temple's An Introduction to the
History of England (1695), which describes and defends the "society of wives among
certain numbers, and by common consent" (Works3: 75-6).
past. Polygamy, as he presents it, is not a precivilized institution but is a non-civilized

practice. In fact sometimes The Exotic were credited with having recorded histones

ncher than that of The CivilUed. Polygamy arnong The Exotic is the institutionalized

version of lasciviousness among The Primitive in general.'"

While polygamy was a cornmon wmponent of eonstructs of The Primitive, another

sexual practice associateci with The Exotic, homosexual sodomy, does not appear in

discussions of the more "naturai" sexuality of The Barbarous and The Savage perhaps

because sodomy has no reproductive value; it is a mere luxury. At the time in England

itself, the perception existed that, while illegal, male homosexuality had gained some

ascendancy arnong the fashionable-a perception augmented by the poetry of Rochester.

As Daniel Statt notes in his book on English population in the period, econornic wisdom

held that "depopulation was the greatest evil that could befdl a kingdom" (50)' a notion

often expressed by the maxim that a nation's greatest asset is its people.'" Depopulation

'" Tangentid to institutionaiized sexuality is the period's fascination with eunuchs

(see Wagner 56-8)-beings sexualized through their identifjing desexualization. Eunuchs
often appeared in portrayals of The Exotic, usually as set pieces, but Ovington adds some
detail, most notably that they are forced to urinate through a quill(127), a detail well-
known enough for a eunuch in Sir Charles Sedley's comedy Bellàmira (1687) to be named
Pissquill. See also Bulwer 354-66. Chetwood flirts with this fascination with the male
eunuch, and besides having Boyle attract and beftiend a eunuch slave in Morocco he
brings castration home in a gratuitous scene of domestic revenge: After young Boyle has
infomed his master in England that the master's wife is currently in bed with a lover, the
master and Boyle burst into the room accompanied by a surgeon. They quickly secure the
lover, and then the surgeon "soon depriv'd him of what Senefino and several ItaIim
Singers want, as well as Our Spark" (13). Later, in a scene designed to lend verisimilitude
to the novel, this same unfortunate gentleman tums up as a castrat0 singer on a ship
commanded by none other than William Dampier (163-4). Another related association the
Engiish made with The Exotic, particularly Muslims, is circumcision (see Herbert 20; on
male and female circumcision, Bulwer 366-81).

lu Swift was apparently quite fond of this proverbial wisdom, and it served as a
figurative engine to drive the literalist satire of A Modest Proposai. See Swift's Proposa!
had long been a serious concem (Statt 47-8; dso Wagner 58-9), and the belief that male

homosexuality was on the rise at home fomented fean that reproduction would wane,

particularly arnong the aristocracy, as noble husbands neglected their noble wi~es.''~

Added to this fear was the belief that male h o m o s e d practices, particularly sodomy, had

foreign origins and emanated from Italy o r Eastern Europe (Wagner 50; Stewart xv and

9); homosexuality was a foreign threat to English sovereignty.'" At the sarne time, many

for the Universal (Ise of Irish Mmdachwe, P W 12:15; a h , the second of the Drapier 's
Letters, PW IO: 16 and "Causes of the Wretched Conditions of Ireland," P W 9: 201;for a
period misapplication of such mercantilist theory to Ireland, see Clayton Lein, "Jonathan
Swift and the Population of lrelanâ" 45 1-2. In his last pamphlet, A P r o p w ifor Giving
Badges to Beggms, Swift ironically laments that M a n d '7s the only Christian Country
where People wntrary to the old Maxim,are the Poverty and not the Riches of the
Nat ion" (PW 13: 135; see also Mmirns ConfroIIed in I r e W , PW 9: 135-6 and A Letfer
to the Archbishop, PW 12: 66). In his Ewty upon the AdVancernent of Trarle in Ireland
(1673), Sir William Temple argues that the small population of Ireland was advantageous
to Irish prosperity (3: 8).

'" Rycaut makes this same point regarding the Ottomans. He describes
hornosexuality as widely practiced among women, arnong court pages, and by "The Grand
Signiors themselves" (33-4)-a decadent distraction from the business of procreation (8 1).
For Rycaut, the fears of depopulation had been realized among the Ottomans. Contrary to
Rycaut's reports of declining noble birthrates, Montagu finds the noble women in
Constantinople extremely fniitfil and remarks, "Without any exaggeration, al1 the women
of my acquaintance have twelve or thirteen children; and the old ones boast of having had
five-and-twenty or thirty apiece, and are respected according to the number they have
produced" (193). Most likely the tmth lies unsensationally between the facts reported by
Rycaut and the claims repeated by Montagu.

"Underlying the d e t y over depopulation was the story of Biblical Sodom.

Since most believed that the city of Sodom was destroyed in retnbution for sexual
aberrations, one could imagine that widespread indulgence in male homosexuaiity would
result in a similar punishment for London or for al1 of England ( s e Stewart xxi.nl4).
Female homosexuality apparently did not cause as much concem in the eighteenth century
and, in fact, was subject to merely mild censure or to outright praise among writers of the
penod (Wagner 59). Peter Wagner theorizes that the relative acceptance of lesbianism
came about because homosemial women presumably did not transgress gender roles in
their manners (60)-a hypothesis that relies on broad assumptions. As for the supposed
Italian origins of sodomy practices, in the Intelligemer, number 3 (1728), Swift contrast s
Gay's supposedly manly Beggar 's Opero with an "unnaturd Taste for ItaIian Musick
among us, which is wholly unsuitable t o our Northem Chmate, and the Genius of the
believed that homosexuality was encouraged in the Koran and rampant among Muslims

(see Said, Orientahm 62), and since Eastern Europe and Italy lay near and held much

commerce with the Islamic world, in the popular English imagination Eastern Europeans

and Itaiians must have leamed homosexud practices from Muslims. This belief clanfies

Rycaut's statement that "the Turks pretend to have learned [sodomyJ from the I t u i i d

(8 1). So d e homosexuality was not only a foreign threat but was a heathen threat as

well."' Many travel writers who visited Muslim nations mention homosexuality and the

Koranic comection. Herbert relates a bnef tale fiom Persia:

A Duke who is Vice-roy for Hyrcunia,seeing a Boy, whose Father was

poore (and under his comrnand) against the Boyes d l , his parents
knowledge and the Law of Nature, d e s him a Sodomite (which crying
sinne, though licensed by their Alcoran [Al Koran], yet force is not to be
used, and therefore have Ganymeds in each great Citie tolerated) [. . .j.
(99)

The boy's father pleads his son's case to the king, who orders the father to "Eunuchize"

the duke, which the father does. The duke returns to govern his domain, and "His

Seragilio o d y Iost most by that bargaine" (99).lU In this one bnef tale, Herbert has

People" and which is associated with "ltalim Eflemimcy, and IIalm Nonsense" (PR9:
36-7). He also repeats the assertion of "An old Gentleman"
that many Years ago, when the Practice of an unnatural Vice grew fiequent
in London,and many were prosecuted for it, he was sure it would be a
Fore-runner of ItaIim Opera's and Singers; and then we should want
nothing to make but Stabbing or Poisoning, to make us perfect Ita~ians.
(37)
Here in a typically Swifiian reversai Italian sodomy l a d s t o a worse offence: Italian opera.

'41 A fùrther subtext may be the assumed causal relationship between monastical
celibacy and sodomy (Stewart xv and 62; see also Bulwer 414-5). Thus, sodomy appears
a foreign, heathen, andpapist habit, not to be indulged by good Protestant Bntons.
On sodomy arnong Persian and Levantine boys, see Bulwer 4 13. Compare
'41
Ovington's tale of Turkish retribution for the homosexual rape of a boy with the fact that,
according to Alan Stewart, English d o m y laws in the early-modem period made no
distinction between the victim and the perpetrator of a sodomical rape: both had
associated sodomy, castration, and polygamy with cruel and arbitrary government. His

Persians betray the lasciviousnas and brutality of The Primitive, even as they display the

sophisticated decadence-semai and courtly-of The Civiliz+d. This middle position

occupied by The Exotic could render thmi exciting, fightening, enticing, novel, and

familiar al1 at once. in an imaginative take on the subject, Chetwood's Boyle suffers "a

great deal of Uneasiness" when hc and his new cornmon-law wife, Mrs. Villars, attend the

French Arnbassador on a visit to Morocco. For safety's &es Mrs. is posing as a

man when the emperor takes "a particular Notice" of her. Boyle observes, "it is as

dangerous to be a handsome Man as a handsome Woman in Morocco, if the Brute of an

Emperor should have a Fancy for 'em" (1 14). There are obvious psychosexual

implications in creating a beautifiil female character who, when disguiseci as a beautitiil

man, inspires homoerotic lust (in the ernperor) and, when appearing as a woman, incites

heteroerotic lust (in Boyle and just about every other man, except the eunuchs). More

significant is Chetwood's easy assumption that The Exotic would practice nonstandard

sexuality.

Male-for-male lust provides a heady mixture of prurience and fear encapsulated in

a thin shell of morality. Similarly, reports of male-female sexual wnduct arnong The

committed buggery under the law (100). B.R Burg relates a similar seveiiteenth-century
case in which a 14-year-old British cabin boy tells his father that he was raped repeatedly
by his captain while at sea. His father brings charges against the captain, but no
indiament ensues for reasons not on record. Burg argues that since the father and not the
boy or the other sailors brought the charges, this case supports Burg's central thesis that
seventeenth-century pirates largely tolerated sodomy. He also claims this incident is a rare
case of sodomy charges being leveled alone and not as padding for a series of more
serious, usually political, accusations (147). Other sources suggest that Burg overstates
his w e , and while J.M. Beattie does not treat sodomy extensively in his Crime und the
Courrs in England, he shows that the crime was sometimes punished with death (433-4,
459, and 5 15).
Exotic entice even as they cordemn, enthrd as they appall, and finally reinforce the

perception of moral superiority among The Civüized. Take Rycaut's passage on the

"BekraFchi," for example, a small persecuted sect in Constantinople:

Thex People against the instinct of nature use Camal Copulation

prorniscuously with their own Kindred, the Fathers mWng with theû Sones
and Daughters, without respea to p r o d t y of blood or nearness in the
degrees of relation, d & n g thanoelves to be transported contrary to the
abhorency of Nature, by a w d and iilogical cornparison of the lawfùlness
and reason, that he who engrafted the Tree, and planted the Vine should
rather taste of the Fruit, then resign the bmefit ofhis labours to the
enjoyrnent of others; and in this Argument act against the inclination of
imate modesty 1. . .]. (131-2)

Rycaut's discourse on this sect adds little to his account except the oppominity again to

tantaiize and moralize at once. Travel writers rarely treat The Primitive Female as

anything but a sexual being, specifically an overly-sexual being.'" Montagu offers an

exception, but even she, in her version of The Primitive Female, dwells on the particulars

of female beauty and the methods of clandestinely engaging in sexual intrigue (127-8)--a

cornmon feature of discussions of exotic female sexuality. Chetwood's Boyle finds the

women of Morocco both beautifid and "very amorous, and dexterous in contnving

Methods to satisfie their Desires" (125). He then, predictably, tells a story of a European

(probably French) whose Moroccan lover inge~ouslydisguises him as a woman to

lasOvington finds Indian women and men equally lascivious:

[Al11 the Women of Fashion in Mia are close pem'd in by their jealous
Husbands, who forbid them the very sight of al1 Strangers. However the
Watch is neither so carefùl, nor their Modesty so blameless, but that they
sometimes will look abroad for Variety, as well as their roving Husbands
do. (127)
He then relates an archetypally farcical story, wonhy of the Restoration stage, of an
unfaitfil woman who inadvertently arranges an anonymous assignation with her own
gallivanting husband. Upon discovering her blunder, she manages to make it seem as
though she had laid a trap to catch him in his infidelities (127-8).
facilitate their "Intrigue." Just in case the reader is not titillateci enough, Boyle assures us,

"He told me she was a delicious Creature, and Mistress of the whole Art of love" (126).

Many writen on The Primitive comment that Engiish Society is full of its own

senial intrigue, but the implication is t ? ? tthrough such intrigue, The Civilized can ape The

Exotic or The Primitive. Tom Brown addresses this issue satirically in Amlrsements

Serious and Cornicul. He imagines an Amerindian who, similar to Shaftesbury's Ethiopian

observer, has "dropped perpendicularly fiom the clouds7' (1 1) and "has never seen

anything Iike what he sees in London" (10). Brown constnicts his savage critic as The

Barbarous while the Indian perceives himself as The Civilized and constructs the

inhabitants of London as The Primitive-an anticipation of Swift's method in Gulliver 's

Travels. Brown serves as narrator and guide and takes his Indian guest to Pal1 Mall. Here

Brown discourses on the different types of women he sees and represents them as

"nations," a precursor to present-day "race":

Nay, how many different nations are there of our English ladies? In the
first place, there is the politic nation of your ladies of the t o m ; next, the
savage nation of the country dames; then the fiee nation of the coquets; the
invisible nation of the faithfùl wives (the worst peopled of dl); the good-
natured nation of wives that cuckold their husbands, (they are almost
forced to walk upon one anothef s heads, their numben are so prodigious);
the warlike nation of intriguing ladies; the fearfiil nation of -O--- [virgins?;
maidens?]; but there are scarce any of them lefi; the barbarous nation of
mothers-in-law; the haughty nation of citizens' wives, that are dignified
with a title; the strolling nation of your regular visitants, and the Lord
knows how many more; not to reckon the superstitious nation, that run
after conjurers and fortune-tellen. (4 1-2)' "
That Brown defines so many of these "nations" explicitly or implicitly through sexuaiity

Note that the "country dames," geographically and behaviorally the furthest
from the polite society of the t o m (the epitome of The Civilized), serve as "the savage
nation." Note also that, sirnilar to pnmitivist distinctions, each "nation" is discrete, as
though a "coquet7' could not also be "superstitious."
reveals much about the female wnstma in the period. Just as women's sexuality and

primitive sexuality are clorly d a t e d within this passage, so too were they linked in

the English popular imaginati~n.'~'

A fair summary of the constnict of exotic women appean in Herbert's passage,

described above, on young East Indian girls being sold as temporary wives to foreign

visiton. Each girl replicates all aspects of deliness, including jealous possession of her

man, until that man makes to depart. Then the entire rnarriagette-the conjugal relations,

the domestic duties-reverts to its original: a cash transaction arranged with the girl's

parents.'" As Herbert's reports move east frorn Indis to places he most likely never saw,

he continues his episodic discourse on the s e d i t y of The Exotic Female. He tells an

almost identical story of sexual accommodation in the town of Patania near Siam.

Suspiciously, both in this place, which it is unlikely Herbert visited, and in East India, after

the girl retums home to her family "with her wages," she is honored for her exploits (198).

Of Macassar, he writes M e , but

"' For a more extensive exploration of this linkage, see Laura Brown, 'Xeading
Race and Gender."

'51 On Indian men's semal protectiveness and jealousy of Indian women, see
Herbert 41-2. Ovington relates an even more accommodating custom on the south-west
coast of India:
Jealousie is rnuch extinct among the Inhabitants upon the Coast of
Malabar, where the Husbands, even the prime Nobility, to compleat the
Welcom of their Entertainments, offer the Familiarity of their Wives; and
esteem the rejecting this Civility as an Affront. Two English Merchants
some time before 1 came to India, were invited abroad, and after Dimer
were tempted with this kind of Treat; but the Piety of one of them kept him
fiom it, whilst the irnmodest Frolicks of the other intic'd him on to the use
of an unlawfùl Pleasure. (128)
The direct indiament of an Englishman in foreign vice is rare, but here it is balanced by
the presence of the pious abstainer and distanced by the disclaimer "some time before 1
came to India."
 The women [. . .] weare a large long d e or sacke, lik net-worke, which
as a garment hides them wholy, and is so capacious that two more may
creepe into it, as witnesse the use of it, that as a stranger (not strange
enough to vice) goes in the streets, meets one, shewes her a piece of
Coigne, which without lnterpreter speaks her wished language. Shee
agrees, and receives him (hell-Ne) into ber sacke, or net, wherein they
keepe like Mcps and Venus, d pittie it is they have few VUICL~IS. (199)

The mechanics of such comrnodious clothing would be unworkable even to a wlcanian

Mnd. Rycaut forgoes detail to declare generaüy that Tudcish women have "no principles

of virtue of moral honesty or Religion" and "are accounted the most lascivious and

irnrnodest of al1 Women, and excel in the most refked and ingenious subtleties to steal

their pleasures" (153).ln The moral: women are more libidinous than men, and The

Primitive are more lascivious than The Civilied; therefore, The Primitive Female are

proportionably more wanton than The Civilized Male.

Just as Christian doctrine and tradition govern the sexual noms of The Civilized,

religion sornetimes plays a role in the sexuality of The Exotic. Christian societies

categorïcally condemn Islam as heresy, and Europeans fùrther attack the religion by

claiming that the Koran sanctions both polygamy and homosexuality.'Y Hinduism

receives similar treatment, based more on assumption than observation. Dampier

describes the "Tonquinese" belief in "an omnipotent, supream, over-ruling power, that

beholds both them and their actions, and so far takes notice of thern, as to reward the

good, and punish the bad in the other worlci"; neveriheless, Dampier finds their deity "very

obscure" and dismisses them as pagans (V&D1: 56). Dampier's observations are typical

lS3 See Herbert 42.

'Sl See Herbert 99; Ovington 191;Rycaut 81, 152-3; while Koranic law allows
polygamy under certain circumstances, homosexuality, particularly sodomy, most certainly
are not perrnitted.
of the backhandeci assessments afEorded The Exotic by The Civilized. Mon descriptions

of the religion of The Exotic are based on ill-infomed observation, indirect knowledge,

and biased conjecture joined with a fear of offendimg Christian reader~.'~'

Only Rycaut provides an extensive, albeit unauthoritative, discussion of religious

principles of The Exotic, a discussion which comprises almost one third of his book on the

~urks.'" He starts his conclusion to the d o n on religion by echoing the assumptions of

his own culture: "Though according to the preceding discourse, the character that may

thence result fiom the nature and temperament of the Twks, doth not promise any long

Treatise conceming their deep morality, vertues, and elevated graces." But he then notes

that even the Turks require peaceful coexistence with the rest of the world and that

interaction with Christian countries would have "refined their rninds in a good part of that

rude temper they brought with them out of Scyrh~a."'~

Rycaut concedes that there are

lSsNotably, while religious conversion ofien cornes up with regard to The

Baharous, The Exotic-with their scriptures and well-established beliefs--do not make
easy candidates for conversion. For a singular exception, see Dampier in "Tompin," V d D
1: 95-7. The Savage, on the other hand, are regarded as too unlike The Civilized to
benefit fiom conversion. The Barbarous-not refined but not exactly wild--remah the best
candidates for receiving Christian teachings and garner the most missionary attention.
'" Rycaut is bafiled by the number of religious beiiefs and practices throughout the
world and throughout history:
There is no consideration more abstruse and fiil1 of distraction, then the
contemplation of the strange variety of Religions in the world: how it is
possible that f?om the rational sou1 of man, which in al1 mankind is of little
difference in it self:and fiom that one principle, which is the adoration of a
Deity, should proceed such diversities of Faiths, such figments and Ideas of
God, that al1 Ages and ail Countnes have abounded with superstitions of
different natures [. . .]? (1 17)
Why, he wonders, should not rational beings seule on one rational religious tmth? The
thoughthil hstration Rycaut expresses in the face of dflerence and diversity is an
emotion oflen underlying general constructs of The Primitive.
'" In "Of Heroic Virtue" (1692). Sir William Temple describes the Turks as a
"race" of eastern Scythia and has the Scythians settling most of Europe, including
some "civil" men arnong the Turks "polished in al1 points of vertuous deportment," but

feels that other writers have praised the Turks too much. He asserts his belief. "without

partiality," that the Turks never display the virtues of Christians (166). In this paragraph,

Rycaut cedes little ground to the Turks. While he has found some virtuous individuals and

singular acts to praise, the b u k is compt. Withn the next three paragraphs he lists al1 he

finds praiseworthy, rnostly the treatment of travelen and of certain animals, but even this

latter raises contempt: dogs, which the Turks will not hami. run fiee and are "mangy and

foul, and no small causes of breeding the Plague" (167). We also learn that "it is a lighter

offence to deny bread to a poor Christian who is famished in his chahs, then to the Dogs

of their street, which are fit for nothing but to breed Infeaion" (167). Rycaut concludes

his book by reiterating the tenïfjing strength of the Grand Mogol, "this great Oppressor

of Christianity"; nonetheless, Rycaut encourages "fiee and open Trade, and an amicable

Correspondence and Friendship with this People" (2 17). Given his Christian bias and the

inherent danger of admiring a heathen religion openly, Rycaut's treatment of Islam is

almost remarkable. More typical of The Civilized's assessment of non-Christian religions,

Herbert in India simply portrays Hinduism as so much idolatry.

Rycaut's and Herbert's interests lay p r i d l y with diplomacy and trade, but

Ovington was a clergyman sent to India to serve in that capacity.'" On his way to Surat

Scotland and Ireland (Work 3: 3 50- 1;see below note 29 1).

'" While Rycaut advocates the establishment of mercantile colonialism and

Dampier considers the advantages of trading with Mindanao (the Philippines; W 238-4 l),
Ovington most directly considers colonization and empire-building. He served as chaplain
to the East India faaory in Surat, then the leading stronghold for English trade in the
region before the rise of Bombay. The factory itselfwas a walled fortress of Englishness.
and the Bntons within it need not venture forth except when their interests required.
Some natives of Surat, though, worked within the walls of the factory, and if Ovington's
 110

he aopped at the Arab Island of "khanna" near Madagascar, and he describes the

~ and superstitious" because they fear a wandenng

people's religious ideas as " v e dark

devil named "Gregoty" (77). Whüe Ovington treats the islanders as The Exotic, for him

they clearly ocaipy the less-civilized end of the d e . Unlike Rycaut, OWigton does not

trouble himself much with observations of reiigious principles, but he dwelis on the exotica

of The Exotic's religion, such as I d superstition and isolated sezts. Included in

Ovington's Voyage is a brief halfchapter on &du and Muslim Woly Mendicanto" or

"ashmen," who live in isolation outside Surat (2 10). Ovington's descriptions primarily

dwell upon the practices of the ascetics, such as going naked (2 12) or perpetually

maintainhg tortuous postures (2 13). He makes no effort to engage the Hindu or Muslirn

religions he encounters, but, as with the various discussions of sexuality, he only presents

bizarre behavior. His ventures outside the English factory are rnostly to view and gather

curiosities. The native practice of heresy, superstition, and fanaticism may appear to an

English cleric as somewhat analogous to the dissension and popery practiced at home, and

like al1 conamcts of The Primitive, Ovington's exotics have as much or more to do with

his own society as with a people living far away. Still, constructs of The Exotic generally

indude a degree of respect for a sophisticated foreign culture. The less respect evident

among a given people, the more the wnstruct tends toward The Barbarous and even The

Savage.

story about the Indian whose skin color lightened when fed an English diet is any indicator
(see above page 9 9 , then Indians who worked for the English led anglicized lives at the
factoxy.
Chapter 6: The Barbarous-Savage

A travel writer who expresses admiration for The Barbarous usually cites their

basic ingenuity, their adaptation to harsh conditions, and their seemingly natural or innate

practices and traditions.'" Few of The Civiiized advocate tiving as The Barbarous do,

though. The Barbarous have less in cornmon with The Civilized than do The Exotic, but

The Civilized fhd The Barbarous fkiendlier, more comprehensible, and more

comprehending than The Savage. The Barbarous, in contrast to the more urbane Exotic,

Iive in the wilderness, but they are usually not as isolated as The Savage; they are often

nomadic or semi-nomadic, divided into a tribal structure, and capable of interacting with

The Civilized. The most notable difference between The Exotic and The Barbarous is

written language. Peoples constructed as The Barbarous lack letters although some had

other means to record thoughts and history.'" Michel Foucault writes of language in

general in The Order of Things:

Language gives the perpetual disruption of time the continuity of space,

and it is to the degree that it analyses, articulates, and patterns
representation that it has the power to link our knowledge of things
together across the dimension of time. With the advent of language, the
chaotic monotony of space is fiagmented, while at the same time the
diversity of temporal successions is unifieci. (1 13)

If we consider the impact of language on time and consequently memory, we can see why

lS9 For instance, William Dampier in his New Voyage ruund fie Wudd (1 697)
praises the various techniques Arnenndians employed to create tools and implements
without the use of metal, specifically the innovative suMval met hods of a "MoskifoMan"
abandoned on the island of Juan Femandez for t h e years (66-7).
la In his Key into the tanguage o f Amerka (1643), Roger Williams mentions that
Native New Englanders "when they talke amongst themselves of the Englsh ships, and
great buildings, of the plowing of their Fields, and especiaily of Bookes and Letters, they
will end thus: Manibock They are Gods" (191). M e r s sometimes have a mystical
quality for The Bafbarous.
The Civilized would scom the relative instability of oraiity in favor of the seeming stability

of writing. Travelers ignore the symbols and glyphs of The Barbarous and perceive face

paint, visual memory aids, and such as so much childish decoration or as knavish tricks

played by false shamans.16' In fact, The Barbarous are oflen regarded as children-

inchoate versions of The Civilized-who need civilized, specifically Christian, wisdom.'"

16' John Lawson writes in his New Vopge to C d m (1709) of an Indian

"Conjurer" (1 85) who consdts
the Records of the Country, which are a Parcel of Reeds, of different
Lengths, with several distinct Marks, known to none but themselves; by
which they seem to guess, very exactly, at Accidents that happen'd many
Years ago; nay two or three Ages or more. (187)
Lawson never observes that the rnystical authority his "Conjurer" has over the Indians is
remarkably similar to the dominance enjoyed by the clergy and other literate classes in his
own society (nor, for that matter, the authority he claims as author of his study and as a
political leader). Nor does Lawson note the correlation between the reeds of the
"Conjurer" and ink markings on paper although both are memory-preservation media. See
Sayre 184 and 188-9; on Chilean knotted memory devices, see Edward Cooke, Voyage to
the Smth Sea 1: 75; on Mexican glyphs, see Woodes Rogers, Cruising Voyage round the
World 320-1. For the record, Lionel Wafer, who lived among the natives of Darien for a
time and even adopted their dress, takes his hoas' conjured predictions seriously, "Ail
which fell out according to the Prediction" (62), but he attributes the natives'
prognosticatory ski11 to "the Devil" (60). See Williams 245; Ward 2: 15-6; and Swift,
Mechanicaf Operation, in Tale 274; also 284. The idea that Indians worship the devil
stems tiom Biblical admonitions against worshiping false gods.
16* Roger Williams, dissenting rninister and the founder of Rhode Island, published
his extensive Key into the Language of America in London both to offer Britons a
sympathetic depidion of Native Amerkans and to provide a means of easily disseminating
Christianity among the natives of New England. He promoted his Key as an Indian
language primer to serve as a tool for saving Indian souls, primarily the c'Nanhigganéuck.
Massachuséuck, Cawanmséuck, Cowweséuck, Quintikoock, Qunnipiéuck, Pequttbog
&c" (85), but the language he transcribes is the most common of the region, the
"Narroganset paragansett] DiaIecF (90). See Lawson 244. Lawson's suggestion that
the English leam the native language in order to promote conversion recalls Williams'
earlier scheme (245). Swift saw proper English itselfas a powerfùl agent for civilization.
In his sermon "On the Wretched Conditions of Ireland" he writes of the benefits of
teaching English to the Irish:
This would, in Time, abolish that Part of Barbarity and Ignorance, for
which Our Natives are so despised by al1 Foreigners; this would bring them
to think and act according to the Rules of Reason, by which a Spirit of
 113

Through infantilkation The Bsrbarous become temporal construas, either holdovers fkom

early history or underdeveloped beings immobiiized by their imrnatunty and ignorance.'"

John Gay, in his Po& (1729), the sequel to î%e Beggiu's Opera, subverts the temporal

constmct with satiric irony. Set in the West Indies, the play presents Macheath as the

pirate Morano and Poiiy Peachum as a recent arrival; as nich the impact of travel and

displacement upon the drama is ni11 signifiant. In a sane that recafls Montezuma's

interrogation in the Indm Empermr, Morano (Macheath) and his lieutenant question

Cawwawkee, a native prisoner they regard as the I d e a i i d Primitive. Morano responds

to Cawwawkee's boldly principled declarations 4 t h wit: "Meer downright Barbarians,

you see lieutenant. They have our notional honour stiil in practice among 'em" (2.8), as

Industry, and Thrift, and Honesty, would be introduced among them. (PW
9: 202)
Swift openly equates English with virtuous qualities and implicitly associates the Irish with
"Barbarity and Ignorance." While his opinion of the efficacy of leaming Indian languages
is unclear, the sermon passage above, Swift's general disregard for philology, and the fin
he pokes at Gulliver's supposeci linguistic acumen would strongly suggest his opposition
to any such scheme (see Wyrick 80). On the seventeenth-century use of Irish to promote
Protestantism, see Moody 374-5.

The idea of The Barbarous as historical relics is manifest in the tradition that
Native Americans are descendants of the lost tribes of Israel (described in 2 Kings 17.6
and 18.11). On this tradition, see Hodgen 308-9and 3 13-5. By linking ancient Jewish
culture and conternporary Indian culture, theorists believed they could gain insight into
both the past and the geographicaily distant present. See Lawson 219 and 245; Williams
85-86,200,206, and 208; also Teunissen and Hinz 42-3; Sayre 130-1 and 3421129; for
passages debunking the Jewish-Indian myth, see Chetwood, C a s t l e m 357, and Rogers
320; on Jewish-like customs in West M c a , sec Ovington 50;on Indians and Britons as
biblical gentiles, see Diket 417. Williams mentions an Indian legend of "a man that
wrought great MirucIes amongst them, and waIking upon the waters, &c. with some kind
of broken Resemblance to the Sonne of G d (86; sec also Chetwood, Fukoner 2 : 5 1-3)
and hopes such a coincidence would ease Indian wnversion.
though honorable behavior were an archaic practice, outmoded and primitive.'" Tom

Brown, on the other hand, treats his Indian visitor in England as simply that, a primitive

from far away. Never does Brown offer a sense that his Indian is a historicai relic.

Brown's construct of The Barbarous is spatial, like others' consvuas of The Exotic; his

Indian has traveled a geographical, not hisioncal distance.

The rest of this chapter d l continue to dinerentiate The Barbarous f?om The

Civiiized and fiom other constnicts of The Primitive. Major differences include cumency,

trade, physical appearance, ornament, governance, aistoms and institutions, physicd

prowess, sexuaiity, and religion.

As with al1 constmcts of The Primitive, how they dEer fiom The Civilized defines

The Barbarous. One significant difference is the way The Barbarous regard precious

metals and such. In Po& the resolute nobility of Cawwawkee, their prisoner, hstrates

Morano and his pirates. Cawwawkee refiises to lead them to gold and silver and declares,

'%ut out of benevolence we ought to hide it fiom you. For, as we have heard, 'tis so rank

a poison to you Ewopeans,that the very touch of it makes you rnad." Jenny Diver

responds "By his seerning to set some value upon gold, one would think that he had some

glimmer of sense" (2.8). Defoe's Captain Singleton on a joumey across Afiica finds that

'" For a similar sentiment, see Swift, Hinis fowmdsan &.yon Conversation,
P W 4: 94. In the third act Gay neatly reverses this scene when he has Morano captured
and questioned by Cawwawkee's father. The ironic content of the latter exchange is much
the same, except that the Indians remark on the barbarïty of the Europeans. Benjamin
Bissel in his American Indian in English Literaîure dismisses the significance of Gay's
Idealized Primitives in Pol&: "the Iight playfid tone of the whole opera forbids us to
regard the idealization of the savage as having any serious purpose" (1 30). While Bissel
implies that the savage-critic topos had degenerated into a comic device by this time, his
own study and the later work of Hoxie Fairchild in The Noble Servage demonstrate
othenvise. Light tone or not, Pol& provides some scathing critiques of English values and
actions and vaIorizes the natives.
the natives overvalue cornmon (for Europeans) objects. His men buy their way out of a

war with African natives by giving thern "an inestimable Treasure": "seven fine Bits of

Silver, which our Artificer had cut out into the Shapes of Lions, and Fishes, and Birdsn

(130). While the value of the trinkets is srnail by European standards, these objects

would, of course, be rare curiosities among ipeople who did not produce fine shapes in

metal.'" Defoe nearly juxtaposes the natives' delîght with tnnkets to the pirates' decision

to prolong their difficult stay in Afnca to collect more gold, a contrast between native

simplicity and European greed (135)." For hW part, Ovington describes West Afncans

'" The overvaluing of trinkets arnong The Barbarous contains a hint of childlike
innocence. Children, such as Glumdalclitch in Brobdingnag, value such "little Toys" as
The Barbarous are reportedly fond of (GT 126). In Ormoko, Behn mentions collecting
native artifacts fiom Surinam in exchange for smail European objects (148).

'" The whole passage juxtaposes native disdain for gold with English gold lust
(135-7). Defoe's many imaginary accounts of travels and piracy, for which he relied
heavily on journalistic sources and real voyages (Turley 202; Borner 69 and 205; Rennie
65; Spate 15 7)' comprise a large and rich enough body to warrant a separate study.
Defoe's portrayals of The Primitive, particularly in Robinson Crusoe and The Fmther
Advenfures, can be as complicated as Swift's; therefore, 1treat Capion Singleton, almost
to the exclusion of Defoe's other works: not as representative of Defoe's work, but as an
individual example of the imaginary travel writing of the period. In Crusw,Friday initially
appears as the most reprehensible version of The Savage, a cannibal. Crusoe's mission is
to move Fnday doser to the position of The Civilized, a movement typically described as
an ascent. Friday's education in The Civilized and in Christianity happens in tandem with
Crusoe's own religious self-discovery. In a sense, Crusoe initially is andogous to The
Barbarous in that he is always potentially convertible. (Had he turned "renegado" with the
Turks, and therefore degenerated into The Exotic, he would have been inconvertibly lost.)
Friday, as The Savage, converts, but since he started as savage his is always a
pronouncedly differenced imitation of The Civilized. One hallmark of Defoe's portrayals
of The Primitive interacting with The C i v i l i d is the way he delights in showing The
Civilized at their worst wmpared to The Primitive, particularly in the travel section of me
Farrher Advenfures. In the same book, he aiso allows his pious Spaniards to outshine the
coarse Britons who populate Crusoe's island. Obviously Defoe wants to inject a dose of
modest self-reflection into his British readers' settled convictions. Note, though, that
when the British "beast," Atkins (155)' reforms he moves toward Protestantism, not
Catholicism, by default. Like Fnday, the Spaniards are civilized but always carefully
differenced and never quite up to British standards.
who unaccountably esteern hefi over market value; thus, "a Pewter Basin is prefened with

them to one of Silver of l e u quantity and sizc, a d a large Brass Ring to a small one of

Gold" (46-7)?' When the Afrcans reject an offer of a dollar for a chicken but instead

accept a half-dozen needles, M g t o n observes, "these t h y thought they might have use

for, but Our Money was an uselesf dead Comrnoditf' (47). The absurdity of metal having

intrinsic value seems lost on Ovington and his contemp~raries.'~

The Barbarous sometimes had f o m of ainency, but The Civilized did not aiways

recognize it as such. In an essay on Irish monetary woes in i!k Intelïigencer, number 19

(1 728), Swift voices the prevailing understanding of Native Amencan trade and currency:

If neither of these Projects [localized currency notes and halving and

quartering coins] will a v d , 1 see nothing left us, but to truck and barter our
Goods, Iike the Indium, with each other, or with Our too powerful
Neighboun; only with this Disadvantage on our Side, that the Indiuns
enjoy the Produa of their own Land; whereas the better half of ours is sent
away, without so much as a Recompence in Bugles or GIars in retum.
(PW 12: 58)

In the first Drapier's Letter, though, he acknowledges the "shell and leather" money of the

Amerindians ( P R 10: 8). Locke writes in his Skcond T&se on Govemment, "Thus in

the begiming al1 the World was America, and more so than that is now; for no such thing

'" On similar inclinations arnong Madagasuui natives, see 64-5; on Columbus and
the relative value of trinkets and precious metais, see Todorov 38.

'" See Behn 148 and 150. Foucault notes that in the period we see the emergence
of "natural history7' "generd grammur," "the tkory of money," and "the rheory of
value" (73). These epistemological means are used in some form or other to classifj. and
construct The Primitive. Foucault touches on the mystic qudity of money: "What the
soothsayers were to the undefined interplay of resemblances and signs, the merchants are
to the interplay, also forever open, of exchange and monqr" (173). Foucault treats the
intnnsic value of money arnong the many unquestioned absolutes of the eighteenth
centuiy. One can readily see how the clash between such established absolutism and the
residual relativism of empirical discovery could encourage the rise of new absolutes,
including the hierarchy of race.
 117

as Money was any where known" (49). As Lawson and others indicate (and as Locke's
"more so than it is now" implies), the Native Americans did have currency. Europeans

scoffkd at Indian shells and beads as lacking the "absolute and fundamental" value of

European coinage (Foucault 174). but as Foucault argues, "Gold and silver bave very linle

utility" and their abundance outstrips their usehiness. He locates the value of silver and

gold in 3 h e process of minting them into gold and silver coinage" itself (175). "Gold is

precious," he writes, ''because it is money-not the converse" (1 76). The metal itself lacks

intrinsic value, and it is "cirnilation and exchange" that give money its value (1 78).

John Lawson handles currency among The Barbarous more extensively than most.

In several places in his New Vopge to Carofim (1709) he dixusses the strings of beads

and carefiilly bored shells and other "comodities" the Natives use as money (27).

Lawson, while detailed, is neither thorough nor systematic in his discussion of Native

currency. While he descnbes the measurement, value, and labonous production of

"Fmprn" (203-4,he never addresses its distribution and regulation. '69 Travel writers

mostly omit any consideration of currency among The Barbarous or among any of The

Primitive for that matter. Ovington mentions that the West Afncans use "small Matts of

Grass" as money (47). Also Dampier is arnazed to see in the East Indies "among wild

Indians, as these seem to be," trading and a crude currency: "They have no sort of Coin;

but they have small Cnimbs of the Metal before described [iron], which they bind up very

safe in Plantain-Leaves, or the like." The people exchange these "Cnimbs" of iron for

goods ( W 2 9 3 ) . The general neglect of native conveniences is not surprising. For most

'" See also Roger Williams 210-4, and Lawson on European ''Indian Traders,"
190-2.
English travelers (imaginary and real) native currency when recognized would be valueless

and ridicuious, and travelers would be more interested in trade for wmmodities, such as

food, land, wata, and unusual g d s . In voyages, the English most usually trade trinkets

(like Singleton's animal cutouts) or processed items (nich as tobacco, alcohol, and

clothing) to The Barbarous in exchange for Native goods or services. These goods most

often provide irnmediate necessities or supply stores for voyages while s e ~ c ecould
s

include guides, labor, and sex.'"

Udike currency and trade, travel uniters carefilly document the appearance and

dress of The Barbarous. Indeed, writen delight in the appearance of The Primitive,

particularly The Barbarous and The Savage. Ovington, for one, expended some effort

unfiatteringly comparing West Anican hair to that of dogs and sheep (47). Lionel Wafer,

a ship's surgeon and shipmate of Dampier, is especially assiduous in documenting the

Darien natives (probably Miskitos) with whom he resided for four months while he

recuperated from a severe injury. He devotes a lengthy chapter to "[Tlhe Indian

Inhabitants; their Mamers, Customs, etc.," in which he describes the appearance of his

hosts, eveiything from the average height of the men ("5 or 6 foot") to the precise shade

of their complexion ("a Copper-colour, or Orange-tawney; and their Eyebrows are

naturally black as Jet"), fiom the women's single breech-clout to the penis sheath wom by

the othenvise naked men (131, 133, 137, 138, and 60).17' While Wafer is among the

'O For instance, see Dampier, W 18 1-2; Wafer 52; Defoe, Singleto~~
130; Behn
15 1;on trade for se% see below, pages 141.

"' Wafer details the presence of "Milk-white" Indians, albinos who live among the
"Copper-colour'd natives (133-5). He describes their "Milk-white" hair and eyebrows,
the "fine short Milk-white Down" covering their bodies their crescent-shaped eyes, their
physical weakness, their extreme switivity to iight, and their excellent night vision (134-
Darien natives, he finds favor with their leader Lacenta by curing Lacenta's wife through

bleeding, and is "in a manner ador'dw by the people (55). Wafer goes "naked as the

Salvages, and was painted by their Women," but not tattooed (58). Whether he sports

one of their wnical penis sheaths, he does not say, but he does mention he wears a "Nose-

piece" like the native men (64).ln

Wafer lives with Lacenta, hunts with him (56), and is reluctantly betrothed to his

daughter (58). To al1 appearances, Wifer has adopted the Darien natives' way of life, but

his motive and state of mind are mysterious. Whiie the prospect of remaining for good on

the Darien isthrnus rnay not appeal, his behavior seems wntradictory. Clearly Wafer

would have incurred Lacenta's disfavor ifhe did not act as the leader's companion, but

why go naked and Wear paint and a nose piece? Four English sailors accompany Wafer,

and none adopts Miskito ways. Like Wafer, none o f them rnay leave, so Wafer claims that

he was trying to win Lacenta over in order to make e clean departure (57-8). Still, by

5). He ais0 mentions that "The Copper-colour'd IrsdiLlltS', have little respect for the
albinos, whom they perceive "as somewhat monstrous" (135). While he attempts no
explmation for the presence of these albinos, he does scientifically declare that "They are
not a distinct race by themselves, but now and then one is bred of a Copper-colour'd
Father and Mother." He also dismisses any notion that they have been fathered by a white
European since few travelers ever corne to this place, and these albinos look distinct even
fiom Europeans: "And besides, where an European lies with an Indiart-woman, the Child
is always a Mostese, or Tawney, as is well known to al1 who have been in the West-Indies"
(1 35). Wafer's Durien may be a slim volume, but his observations are far more precise
than some other more-celebrated travel &ter. On the influence of Dampier's works upon
Wafer's Darien as well as on the writing of such voyagers as Abraham Cowley, Edward
Cooke, Woodes Rogers, and George Shelvocke, see Willard Hallam Bonner, Capfain
William Dampier, Buccaneer-Atrthor 38-4 1.
172
On men's and women's nose pieces, see Wafer 140-1. Possibly using Wafer as
a source, Chetwood has Falconer desaibe similar adonunents wom by the natives o f
"Dominio" (3 : 132). On "embroidered skin," scarification, and body painting, see Bulwer
455-66.
acting Miskito, Wafer makes himselfmore endearing and valuable to Lacenta. Eventually,

Wafer tricks Lacenta into letting them go (58), and Wafer expresses no remorse for such

perfidy despite Miskito hospitality and despite his delight in 'going primitive."" When

finally rescued by Dampier and crew, he boards the ship naked and painted like the natives

who awompany his Party. Then he squats with the Indians "for the better part of an

Hou? before his shipmates recognize him (64). Although he enjoys this masquerade and

has enjoyed imrnersing (if not assirnilating) himseifinto Lacenta's society, he continually

calls these people "wild I n d i d and "Sdvages." These last are simply cornmonplace

t e m s of the age. Dampier uses similar adjectives to describe the sarne people (NV 120),

and Defoe's Captain Singleton unironically writes of "wild Men" of Afnca (50) who break

bulls so that "nothing was ever so tame, so willing to work, or carry anything" (63); the

wild tame the wild.'" But such ternis distance WIfer fiom the very people to whom he

owes his life and so much intimate companionship. The Miskitos have their appealing

qualities. Dampier, who had been on the same joumey as Wafer but did not stay with the

Darien natives, describes them as wearing "good Cloaths" and taking "delight to go neat

and tight" when with the English, but only wearing a loin cloth when at home (A@' 17).17'

Elsewhere in his New Voyage round the Wodd Dampier describes the decorative

self mutilation (piercing and binding) of the impoverished Indians of the Corn Islands in

'" Sayre observes other instances of The Civilized wanting to "play Indian" (320).
'" See Sayre, 79-80, 112.
17' See, also, Dampier's open admiration for the mother-of-pearl ornaments
sported by the natives of Timor (NH 170). Behn mentions that the natives of Surinam
Wear colortùl loin cloths, "as A d m and Eue did the fig-laves" and display Edenic
modesty (1 48-9). By contrast, C h e t w d crudely mocks Indian ignorance of English
fashion by having an Indian try to Wear pants on his arms (Fakoner 3: 132).
the Caribbean (3 1-2). Throughout his three volumes of travels-New Voyage ((1 6W),

Voyages and Descriptions (1698). and A Voyge to Nou HoIIund (1 703-9)-Dampier

consistently describes the peoples he encounten in the most general tems. For instance,

these Corn Island natives

are People of a muui Stature, yet strong LUnbs; they are of a dark Copper-
colour, black Hair, fidl round Faces, small black Eyes, their Eyebrows
hanging over their Eyes, low Foreheads, short thick Noses, not high, but
flattish; fiil1 Lips and short Chins. (W 3 1)

While Dampier does not describe their culture at dl, he offers a major insight into their

condition by mentioning that they are "so often plundered by the Privateen that they have

little Provision7'and are miserable (3 1). In reference to Captain Singleton, Laura Brown

suggests "that trade, or the potentiai for trade, transfonns the natives fiom trees or beasts

into human othersY7

(164; see also 166); trade moves The Primitive more into the focus of

The Civilized. That these Corn Islanders had once had commodities enough to attract

m u e n t plundenng (the pirates' occasional substitute for trade) suggests they are The

Barbarous. Even when he has room to particulark, Dampier chooses othenvise as Wafer

had with his patron Lacenta. Dampier's afnnity for generaiization ir typical of travel

writers. When he travels through the Islands of Southeast Asia, he purchases fiom

another sailor a "painted Prince"--the Meangian slave named Jeoly-and his mother (NV

342-3). By the time Dampier writes his account, Jeoly had been a celebrated curiosity in

England. Dampier details Jeoly's tattws, his f e u of weapons and snakes, and his sadness

at the death of his mother (344-6). But since Dampier takes a quasi-empirical

anthropologicai approach, he maintains a scientific distance and reshapes Jeoly's

individuality into generalist assumptions about his Meangian ~ulture."~Since Dampier has

only seen the island of Meangis at a distance (238,343), and since Jeoly and his mother

are the only Meangians Dampier claims to have ever met, they (primarily the suNMvor and

the male, Jeoly) becorne his archetypal Meangians. For instance, Dampier describes

Jeoly's tattoos as though patterns for ail Meangians (344-5). Similady, Jeoly fears

weapons because "they had no Arms at Memigis, they having no Enernies to fight with"

(345); dl Meangians are afiaid of weapons, then. W e only learn of Jeoly's fear of snakes

because Dampier wants to debunk a report in England that Meangian tattoos could ward

off such creatures (346). In short, but for describing Jeoly's personal grief for his dead

mother, Dampier consistent1y recontextualizes the "painted Prince" as a Meangian

template. ln Dampier never even reveals on what authority he founded JeoIy's royalty. To

be fair, this type of generalizing at least Iooked more scientific (that is, based on empirical

principles) than reporting on individuals, and learning about individuals arnong peoples

would ofien have been difficult. Still, generaiization allows the observer to stand a

'" Thomas Sprat in his Hisfory of fhe Royal Sbciefy ( 1 667) condones the
accumulation and consideration of sensational stones if the evidence presented in such
stories is subjected to scientific rigor (21 5).

ln B .R.Burg in his Sadomy a d the Percepion of Evil, tries to prove Dampier's

fondness for boys by making much of the relationship between Dampier and Jeoly, to
whorn Dampier was "deeply attached" (123). That Dampier had some affection for Jeoly,
there is no doubt, and Burg is right that Dampier's description of Jeoly's tattoos verges on
the erotic, but that is as far as the evidence pemiits us to go. Unfortunately, Burg also
presents little more than speculation in imagining the homosexual activities ofother pirates
and by his own admission "relies heavily on behavioral theory and other devices fiom the
social and behavioral sciences that are ofken anathema to historians" (xix). We can
surmise that homoerotic contact arnong pirates was widespread, but if Burg's study
proves anything, it is that verifiable evidence of specifics remains scant. As Burg's
enthusiasm for his thesis suggests, modem observers can be just as keen to impose
meanings as seventeenth-century observers were.
distance above the object of study, but the distance of the observer in these cases, instead

of aiding the empirid process, can diaon it. The remoteness or proximity of the

observer is always problernatic.ln

One British observer who had somewhat spanned the gap beîween himselfand The

Barbarous is John Lawson. In his fiequent and lengthy joumeys about the Carolinas he

interacted with and lived among natives. But while his reports mention a wide array of

individuals and particulars, he too adopts the supercilious distance engendered by

unwarranted generalization.'" Lawson describes native women with evident admiration:

lWJhen Young, and at Maturity*they are as fine-shap'd Creatures (take

them generally) as any in the Universe. They are of a tawny Complexion;
their Eyes very brisk and amorous; their Smiles &ord the finest
Composure a Face can possess; their Hands are of the finest Make, with
small long Fingers, and as soft as their Cheeks; and t heir whole Bodies of a
smooth Nature. (189)'"

17' Stephen Greenblatt notes in MczlueIolls Possessions that "the problem of

mediation in the a a of eye witnessing is already M y present in the first great Western
representation of othemess, Herodotus' Histon'es" (122). The Heideggerian principle that
the observer inevitably affects and is in turn affecteci by the observed cornes into play here
as well. Mary Louise Pratt makes the point that castaways and captives make better
ethnographers than travelers who just pass through (38). 1 have avoided the rich genre of
experiential captivity narratives in large part because the participants are so utterly isolated
fiorn their own culture and have little to do with travel writing. The relevance of my
taxonomy to the ethnographie content of captivity narratives deserves a separate study.
Chetwood is fond of spinning captivity tales, but his characters (Boyle in Morocco and
Falconer in bbDominio")are not immersed in other cultures for very long the way Mary
Rowlandson and other real captives are. On North Arnerican captivity narratives ("The
POW as Ethnographef), see Sayre 258-64.
'79Percy Adams clearly overstates the case when he associates Lawson's benign
observations with the "Noble Savage tradition" (Travel Lirerature 233). Everett Emerson
is more correct when he dexribes Lawson's work as "a promotion tract that stresses the
pleasures of life in the Sun Belt" (53). Lawson hoped to lure British traders and colonists
to Carolinian settlements.
'" While exceptions in the period existecl, to be sure (most notably Chetwood's
Richmd Fakoner), most travelers, imaginary and r d , expressed aesthetic approbation for
native North Amencan and Caribbean women. Generally, this admiration had increased
No doubt, descriptions of even European women could be so genenc, but to iive among a

people for an extended time and then to aôstract widely d i s p e r d individuals (oflen of

distant origins) into a well-regulated composite can test a reader's trust. The quaiifjing

phrase at the beginning of Lawson's description ( W e them genedly") suggeas the

constmcted portion of al1 such depictions. For instance, although Ligon indicates

elsewhere that Barbadian slaves "are fach'd fkom s e v d parts of Afiica, who speak

several languages, and by that means, one o f them understands not another" (46). he

describes no physical diversity among the women:

The young Maids have ordinarily veiy large breasts, which stand strutting
out so hard and firm, as no leaping, jumping, o r stining, will cause them to
shake any mon, than the brawns of their arms. But when they corne to be
old, and have had five or su Children, their breasts hang down below their
Navels so that when they stoop at their common work of weeding they
hang almost down to the ground that at a distance, you would think they
had six legs [. . .]. (5 1)

Again, the disceming reader may be apt to think this portrait a little too broad to account

accurately for physical diversity.

1 do not want to exaggerate my critique of generalization or suggest that it is

applied more fiequently to The Barbarous than to other constnicts of The Primitive, nor

do 1 want to slight the obvious usefûlness, even necessity, of generalized observations-

hence their presence in my study. 1 mean to emphasize the broadly constructed festures of

The Primitive in the period. Generalization m o a often extends to the institutions of The

Primitive. Although the "Natives" with whom he connects are often semi-nomadic,

politically factionalized, and, like the Barbadian slaves, linguistically diverse, Lawson

facilely condenses the Carolinians' systerns of govemment: "The King is the Ruler of the

throughout the seventeenth century (Gary B. Nash 76).

Nation, and has others under him, to assist him, as his War-Captains, and CounseUors,

who are pick'd out and chosen fiom among the ancientest Men of the Nation he is King

of' to attend to various affairs(204). The tribal arrangement described here is typical of

constructs of The Barbarous. Lawson' s Caroiinians, like Swift's Houyhnhnms, "discharge

their Duty with al1 the Integrity imaginable, newr looking towards their Own Interest

before the Publick G d (Lawoon 204). His depiction of CaroSian govername is

typical of constxucts of The Barbarous: simple, sMtt, benignly oligarchie or patriarchal,

utilitarian, and unemotional-"without any Jars and Wrangiing" (204-5). "' The goveming
council meets only when decisions are pressing; othenuise, daily life appears regulated by

ceremony, tradition, and habit. Since the government of The Barbarous is usually

presented in experiential travels as genencally as Lawson presents it, writers of imaginary

travels did not have to strain to convey Indian government in their fiction.

Chetwood's Falwner finds himself stranded on the island of "Dominio," where the

natives "are most of 'em tall, lusty Men, well featur'd and well limb'd but poor Brains, for

an ordinary Glass of Rum will make 'em dmnk" (3 : 131-2).ln Several warring tribes live

on this island, each marked by differing degrees of ferocity, but ail are mughly of the same

stamp. The group Faiconer falls in with wants to kill him initially, but he is spared by the

intervention of a woman whom he later has to many (3: 139, 141). From then on,

Falconer's hosts follow prescribed but obscure rules. His captors have no letters, of

lu' See Roger Williams 201-3; on the almost Edenic system of the Surinam natives,
see Behn 150.

'* Later Chetwood's Faiconer refers to "Dominio'' as 4'Dominico" (3: 169). Most
likely he means the Caribbean island of Dominica. Generally in this and his other novels,
Chetwood's geography confounds although he rarely entirely fabricates a setting.
course, and he does not speak their language (fiequently described as "Gabbling")

anyway, so their rules or laws continue to elude him.Iu That he will accidentally

transgress an unknown law is inevitable. M e r he is compelled to marry a native woman,

he finds upon their first night together that he can overcome his abhorrence of her darker

complexion (a m u e n t challenge for ChetWood's heroes): "the old Proverb, Joan 's as

good as my kt& in the Dark,had like to have prov'd no Proverb to me" (3: 142).Iu

'" Some travelers, who have been immersed in cultures of The Barbarous, attempt
to record the language of The Barbarous. Williams, Wafer, and Lawson al1 extensively
document the vocabulary of Native Arnericans, and Dampier, who-like Gulliver after him-
-fancies himself a Iinguist, treats m o a foreign languages with studied respect. Despite
such examples, most treatments of the language of The Barbarous are less than flattering.
Chetwood offen a likely fabricated account of the language of Native Pennsylvanians in
his Richard C a d e m m (358). In Richard Falconer the natives of "Dorninio" speak their
language with a harsh "Gutteral Sound" (3: 146). For sirnilar descriptions of the language
of The Primitive (The Barbarous and The Savage), see Shelvocke 409; Cooke 2: 72;
Rogers 1 16; on the theory of a revelatory Adarnic language, see Kelly, Swifr and the
English Language 74-5; on language theory in general, see Foucault throughout. Wafer
indudes a comparison of Miskito pronunciation wiih that of "the High-Land, or Primitive
Irish Language" (170). He could "easily imitate" Miskito pronunciations because Miskito
and "High-Lad' language are both "spoken pretty much in the Throat. with fiequent
Aspirates, and much the m e sharp or circumflex Tang o r Cant" (171). Swift himself
associates "a Northent Ear" with "harsh unharmonious Soundsy'in A Proposa/for
Correcting the Englsh Torgue (PW4:11; see also 4: 12). Michel Foucault cites a 1765
volume by De Brosses on linguistic formation that places "unvoiced labials" in cold
environments and "guttural aspirates" in hot environments (1 10). Wafer's comparison of
northern Gallic and tropic Miskito seems to contradict De Brosses' conclusion. On how
the Irish language "rather grares than tickles" see the anonyrnous Trip to Ireland (Ward,
Five Travel Scripts 3 : 8); see also the anonymous Trip to North- Wales in the same volume
(5: 3).

The anonyrnous author of A Trip to Ireland (1699) cites the same proverb in
reference to Irish women (Ward, Five Travel Scrpts 3 : 5). A T q to Irefunci was written
in imitation of Ward's popular Trips to Jarnaka and to New England and reproduced in a
modern volume with them; see Howard William Troyer's Bibliographical Note in Ward,
Five Truvel Scripts- Similarly, George Pine, the hero of Henry Neville's short romance
The Isle ofPines (1668), expresses an aversion to having sex with a black slave with
whom he is stranded. Like Falconer, though, Pine finds that darkness provides sufficient
cover, and he is "willing to try the ditference? (232). Years with this woman on an island
cannot erase his fundamental disgust, and he never has sex with her except at night
Chetwood has no need to describe the govemment of this tribe since the reader would

already be wnditioned by experiential writem to expect many bewildering d e s and arcane

ceremonies. Chetwood's innovative contribution to the standard depiction of Indian

government is that no one person has any authority. "[Fleur of the Eldest Indionr" effect

Falconer's marriage (3: 141)' and aiter the forceci comubid night, the people make "mad,

rude, monkey Gambols" for the entertainment of the newly rninted couple (3: 143), with

no one pre~iding.''~Everything in this tnbe ocairs wl1ectively and mechanically in

response to tradition and rite. When Falcomr ülegally climbs a particular hiIl, apparently

the gravest of transgressions, he is sentenceci to death by a wuncil of "old Indians," who

seem unconcerned that Falconer could not know the hiU was forbidden (3: 150). Even his

wife, virtually a dranger, shows great affièction for hirn as though in response to a cultural,

and-a tme mark of The Barbarous-she is airious about Chnstianity.'" Both Lawson's

account and Chetwood's fiction describe native reliance on tradition and ceremony and

occasional councils. Unlike the elaborate government of The Exotic, that of The

Barbarous is simple and informal, a tribal arrangement. And although council decisions

"although she was one of the handsomest blacks" (233). On The Isle of Pines as a
political allegory, see Fausett, Wnring the New Worfd86-9.

lus The most cornmon word used to describe the energetic rituals of The Barbarous
is "antick." AIways in these accounts the ceremonies of The Barbarous and The Primitive
in general seem ridiculous (see, for instance, Dampier, W 93; VdtD 1: 146; Defoe,
Singleton 1 17; Wafer 156, 158). Significantly, Dampier uses the word "antick" also to
descnbe the excited actions of some Caribbean monkeys ( Y i2: 59).
lL6 M e n she is predictably kîlled helping him to escape, Falconer magnanimously
Iaments:
1was really as much wncem'd, as if 1 had marry'd one of my own
Complexion and Country; for 1 had great Hopes, ifever 1 cou'd have made
my Escape with her, and cou'd but have taught her English, to have made
her a good Christian. (3 : 157)
Falconer thus responds to his own cultural imperative.
among The Barbarous may appear arbitrary to outsiders the implication is that to the

native people thernselves they are a ben@ fonn of naturai govemance. The acts of

barbarous government are harsh, but they are rationai within the context of barbarous

existence. Barbarous cruelty spans the distance between the arbitrariness of The Exotic

and an indefinite idea of noble natural law.'"

In William Fahner Chetwood juxtaposes the pragmatic or utilitarian hmhness of

The Barbarous with the contnsting cwnterproductive auelty of the Spanish colonken.

When Falconer describes his time in Cuba he fiequently refers to Spanish brutality against

the native population and to native resentment.lU Faiconer kills plenty of Indians, but he

does so in defense of himself or other whites (including Spaniards). He relates a story,

fkom the Spanish historian Las Casas, in which a Spanish priest preaches to a Cuban

"Carick" whom the Spanish have "condemn'd to be bumt alive with green Wood, that his

Torture might be the longer and more exquisite" (2: 132). M e r being informed that there

are many Spaniards in Heaven, the Indian responds that he would rather live in hell with

devils than in heaven with Spaniards, "the Worst of Devils, [who] take Delight in nothing

but tormenting us" (2: 132-3).lm Faiconer editorializes,

Tho' the Fryar's Preaching was certainly true, yet Men of any Reason must
conclude, that no Religion can be propagated by Cnielty and the Sword,
which was always the SpmiimdF Method with the Indiam, where-ever they
came [. . .] so that in short, as Dr)rlen says in his Conquest of Mexico by
the Spaniards [The Indian Empereur], You threaten Peace. but you invite
a Wm. (2: 133)

la' See Locke, Two Treatiises 2.124-6; also Diket 420- 1.

la'See 2: 125-6. In Gay's Pol&, the pirate Vanderbluff proposes using a Spanish
approach to interrogating a native: "We must beat civiiiing into 'em, to make 'em capable
of cornmon society, and cornmon conversation" (2.8).

'- See Las Casas 45.

Later Fdconer graphically narrates a same of Spanish brutaiity against the Native Cubans:

"such a Sight 1 never desire to see again" (3: 2). Since the propagation of religion is

always a ready means to colonial expansion, Spanish treatment of Native Arnencans is

doubly faulty: not only is it vicious, but it is hpractical. We can see that Chetwood's

sober Bntish characters occupy the spacc betweea the fierceness of The Primitive and the

brutality of the Spaniards. While few experiential travet report Spanish cruelties toward

Indians as vividly as C h e t w d ' s fiction, the notion of Spanish mistreatment of the Indians

is a cornmonplace.'!"' Lawson describes Spanish actions in the New World as raising "our

Christian Banner in a Field of Blood" (246), but he also indicates that he is not

encouraged by British commerce with the Indians, who "have learnt several of the

Europeans, but not one Vertue, as I h o w of' (240).19' Lawson concludes his New

Yoyage with practical suggestions on how to convert Native North Americans. In

contrast to his peers, Edward Cooke cleariy believes that the Christian end justifies the

Spaniards' vicious means of assimilating the South Amencans. Working entirely fiom

Spanish sources in volume 1 of his Voyage to rhe .!ththSu, Cooke praises, for instance,

the civilkation of the Incas (74-5, 208-18), but his tone and perspective indicate that he

190 For examples of such rumors and stories, see Dampier, V&D 2: 115-6; Wafer
55-6; Shelvocke 106, 111-2,407-8; Rogers, xi& 226, and 329. Spanish atrocities against
Bntish settlers and buccaneers are widely dispersed throughout the writings of privateers,
but they are not as pertinent to my argument. Gay does not spare the English in his
indictment of European cruelty. In Po&, his Idealized Primitive, Cawwawkee, says of the
colonizers, "You are cowards too, for you are cruel" (2.1 1). Although Cawwawkee
always refers to his oppressors as "Europeans," the particular band with whom he is
contending is predominantly British. Williams is perhaps the most censorious of Bntish
Indian policies. He denounces the daim "that Christions have right to Heathen Lands" as
"a sinfùll opinion" (167). For an earlier critical take on Spanish atrocities in Mexico, see
Montaigne's "Of Coaches" (146-8) and Las Casas throughout.

19' See also Williams 203.

 130

sees the conquest of the New World as inevitable and nght-"the Hand of Divine

Vengeance" (394). While Cooke's lack of misgivings is unusual, no author questions the

colonial imperative itself: the replacement (and destruction) of the ways of The Barbarous

with the ways of Christianity and The Civilized.

Wtth Spanish and colonial oppression often came the destruction of the customs,

inventions, and conventions of The Barbarous. Usually these features of The Barbarous

are portrayed as simple, practical, and cmde-either naturally crude or crudely

underdeveloped. In dl, apart fiom body adonimmts and ceremony, the artifice and

practices of The Barbarous are well matched to the living conditions of the people. For

instance, Dampier details the outriggers invented and used by the natives of Guam: "they

sail the best of any Boats in the World" (W206-7)? These boats suit island commerce

and fishing perfectly since they are smali, fast, and easily handled. In Voyages and

Descr@tiora.s, Dampier tells of the natives of Beef Island in the Gulf of Mexico, who "fly

away whole Towns at once, and settle themselves in the untiequented Woods to enjoy

their Freedom" fiom Europeans (2: 94-5). Dampier sketches a harmony between these

people and their land:

They clear no more Ground than what they actually employ for their
Subsistance. They make no Paths: but when they go far fiom Home; they
break now and then a bough; letting it hang down; which serves as a Mark
to guide them in their return. (2: 95)

The Beef Islanders may live in communion with their island, but the extent of Dampier's

report suggests that they do not isolate themselves as much as he had earlier noted.

Since William Rufus Chetwood artlessly used reports Like those of Dampier and

'" See, also, Cooke 2: 19-20; on West-Indian Banshee boats see Dampier, NV
290.
other travelers to 611 his novels with detail, many of his depictions of The Barbarous r a d

like compilations of commonplaces. In Richard Cdïeman the hero sketches Native

Their Habitations are generaify mean and small, and their Utaisils a Pot,
and two or three Caiabashes, with a Bowl; and when they travel, they Lie in
the Woods about a Fire, to keep the wild Beasts from them. They are
People of a merry Disposition, continually laughing and singing, even at
theù Work. They have some particular Songs among 'em, though but
indifferent Tunes, and their Instruments of Musick are as Poor. They are
generally given to S o b r i m but if they once get Liquor of the Europeuns,
they never give over tiîl dead dnialr; and 1have seen 'em lye in the middle
of the Roads and Streets, iike so many Dogo. Assoon as ever they corne to
themselves, they plunge into the Water, and gather some Herbs, squeeze
'em into a Calabash, which they drink; by which Means they are recover'd,
and are never sick &er their Debauches. (359)

The particulars of this passage-the houses, the disposition, the music, the drunkenness,

the immersion, etc.-are al1 slightly sensationalized versions of hackney observations to be

found in most travels to North Amerka. John Lawson's New Voyage,among the most

detailed studies of The Barbarous in the New Worfd, is especialiy peppered with many of

the same items. lg3

The practices of The Barbarous seem "natural" and involve a good deal of innate

hardiness. Castleman assures us that Indians "throw their Children into the Water assoon

'91 See Lawson 65, 93, 103, 21 1, 2 17, and 226; Williams 93, 117-8, 122, and 244;
and Wafer 145-7, 15 1, and 158-9. Williams wntradicts the prevalent stereotype of
Indians who cannot resist alcohol by claiming he "could never discerne" drunkenness
arnong the Naragansett. Such a contradiction is to be expected fiom Williams, who
prornotes English participation in Indian conversion and presents moral paradigms for his
readers. The image of a drunken Indian serves neither purpose. The safest guess is that
the truth lies between the two extremes: some Indians did indeed drink to excess, and
others did not. For a Miskito Indian drinking Party, see Dampier, W 16-7; also Wafer
157-9. Peacetùl Indian drinking parties may be contraste. with Dampier's later account of
inebriated French sailors drifting obliviously to their deaths (45) and a wild drunken
quarrel among his own shipmates (49). See also Chetwood, Càdernan 343; and Ward 2:
16.
as bon, to harden their Bodies" (358).Iw Lawson asserts that "The Savage Women of

Americu, have very easy Travail 4 t h their Children" thm notes that "As soon as the Chiid

is boni, they wash it in cold Water at the next Stream" (196). Richard Ligon mentions

sirnilar details in a tale from seventeenth-century Barbados. An Indian woinen who

"chanc'd to be with Child, by a Christian servant" (54) but who was "loath to fdl in labour

before the men" wanders alone into the woods and gives birth near a pond in which she

immediately washes her newbom. The whole solitary delivery takes place "in three hours

time" (55).'9s Such practices as Native North Amicans washing or immening a newbom

and çuch inventions as the Guam natives' b a t s are always depicted as an imitation or

close adaptation of nature. Lawson calls the Indian wildemess expenence "Sylvian

Education" (244). 'Watural" practices and inventions (and 1 have only given a small

sample) differentiate The Barbarous fiorn The Exotic, whose institutions and artistry are

as elaborate, refined, and artificial as those of The Civilized.

The "naturalness" of The Barbarous is not only culîurd, but also physical. The

Barbarous, are often regarded as having extraordinary physical abilities, akin to those of

animals--the sarne abilities The Civilized have sacrificed to luxury and convenience. Such

physical prowess is a particular mark of The Barbarous. For instance, Henry Neville's

19* See Bulwer 335.

195
See also, Wafer 151. Sayre lists ease in childbirth as among "the mœursdes
sauvages recorded by colonial writers" in the Americas (123). M e r relating his Indian
childbirth story, Ligon abmptly launches into a briefversion of the "Inkie and Yarico" tale
in which an Indian maiden (Yariw) fdls in love with a young English sailor (Inkle) and
rescues him corn her blwdthirsty people only to be betrayed into slavery by him. See
Steele, Spectator 11 (1 3 March 1711). The tale was much rehearsed in the mid- and late-
eighteenth centiiry: for an extensive documentation of "Inkie and Y&" versions, see
Bissel 138-40 and 197-8. For another taie of English betrayal of trusting Xndians, see
Dampier, V&D 2: 5-6.
remarkably fecund black slave bears George Pine's "fine white girl" %th no pain at dl"

(233). Roger Wüliams is more thoughtfùl than most commentaton; he claims that Native

Arnerican women have a ïvonderfiill more spedy and easie Travell, and delivery"

because of the "hardnesse of their constitution, in which respect they beare their sorrows

the easief' and "their extraordinary p a ! labour (even above the labour of men) as in the

Field" (207). The association of The Primitive Fernale with ease of childbirth advances the

association of The Primitive with animals, which have relatively little difficulty in

delivering even multiple offspnng. Ease in labor is more "natural" while the luxunes of

civilization cany a high pnce for wornen.'% Since The Barbarous appear to live in tune

1%
The restrictive corsets wom by English gentlewomen altered their anatomy and
made their childbearing much more difficult. On difficult labor as a punishment for Eve's
disobedience, see Genesis 3: 16. in Swift's t h e , the variety of ailments and discornforts
suffered by the people expands as one moves up the social ladder. Poor eating habits, lack
of exercise, and a general misunderstanding of human physiology engendered many
common physical cornplaints among the upper classes of English society. In contrast,
Ovington writes admiringly of sorne West Afncan natives,
They Indulge not their Appetites with Excesses, nor force upon themselves
Diseases by over-loading of their Stornachs, but Eat according to the Rules
of Nature, for Health, and not for Luxury, and [ive according to Nature's
Periods, to Seventy, or Eighty Years of Age, Healthfùl and Sound. They
are wiser than to cut short the thread of Lift, by that Meat which should
prolong it. (50)
On the benefits of Gulliver's "very insipid Diet," see GT 232. Sir William Temple in "Of
Health and Long Life" claims that the ancient "Brachmans" of India and the Brazilians
when first encountered by Europeans "lived two hundred, some three hundred years."
Temple anributes such longevity to a moderate diet and "natural original living" (Works 3:
271-2). Disease was considered a consequence of leisure. In the poem "Pethox the
Great" (1 723?) Swift credits syphilis with physical decline over generations. (Pethox is an
anagram for ïhe Pox.) In line 74 he sarcastically praises the disease for having
"brightened and refined the English. Gulliver makes similar observations in Glubdubdnb
(201; see also Pat Rogers, Notes 734). Ironically, Europeans believed that syphilis first
appeared among the Amenndians, as SwiA speculates in 'Tethox" 23-6. In general the
contrast between the debilitated condition of The Civilized and the reputed hardiness of
The Barbarous was most pronounced. For a thorough treatment of medicine in the
period, see Marie Mulvey Roberts and Roy Porter, Lirerature ond Medicine during the
Eighteenrh Certtury.
with the wildemess, they must have animal-like sküls for tracking, hunting, and just

surviving. For instance,Behn's Surinam natives supply the colonists with game the

colonists could not othenrise catch (150). The CiviIkd and The Exotic can rely on their

numbers, technology, and expertise to fmd off most natural dangers at home and to

supply d l necessities. The Barbarous, living in tiny, isolatad communities can only muster

limited collective resources for &val, so The Bubarous must have the physid prowess

and instinctive cunning of aninliils. Of course, the logical pnce of this supenor physical

state is inferior mental development. The myth of the Wid Man who degenerates 6om a

mental being to a purely physical being was greatiy prevalent in Swift's tirne. '"

Of some importance to both experientiai and imaginary voyages, the legend of

Alexander Selkirk provides an euunple of physical enhancement accompanied by mental

confusion if not intellectual degeneration. Selkirk's is the voice of Cowper's poem "1 Am

the Monarch of Al1 1 Survey" (1782)' and his sensational experience is reputed to be a

source for Robinson Cmsoe.'" In 1 704 d e r quarreling with his captain, Selkirk is set

ashore alone on one of the Juan Femandez Islands. in 1709 Woodes Rogers visits the

island and rescues Selkirk.'" Rogers, Edward Cooke-who was an officer under Rogers-

'" See Dudley and Novak's Ilw WiIdMan Within for various studies of this myth.
'" See Bowen 152; on Selkirk's legend and literary legacy, see Adams, Trauel
Lirerature 127-3 2.

'" In 1684, Dampier witnessed the resaie of a Miskito ftom Juan Femandez. The
sarne crew had abandoned the Indian there three yean before and had suMved on his
"Sagacity" (65-6). In 1720 Shelvocke and his crew were also stranded on Juan
Femandez, but, with great diffiailty, they managecl to construct a new ship and sail away
five months later. Shelvocke lefi behind "1 1 or 12 of those who had deserted . . . with the
like number of M a c h and Indiam" (242). Juan Femandez was verdant and isolated and
therefore made an excellent way station for English and other expeditions. For another
visit to Juan Femandez, see Abraham Cowley's "Voyage round the Globe" (2).
and Richard Steele in nie Englshman 26 (3 December 1713) al1 write of Selkirk's resaie

and experiences. Selkirlq if a bit hotheaded, was an extraordllianry resolute and

resourceful man forced to make due with few provisions. The Spanish had abandoneci the

island, and feral goats and cats, which had descended fkom Spanish animals, dominated it.

In order to catch goats for food, Selkirk was forced, Oce the m d l y natives of Behn's

Surinam natives (150), to chase them down:

by long Practice, b]at length irnprov'd so much, that the most nimble
Goats could not escape him in their native Soil. He knew al1 the by Ways
and Paths on the Mountains, could trip î3om one Crag to another, and let
himself down the dreadhl Precipices. (Cooke 2: mdi)

Rogers deduces that Selkirk wuld evenhully perform these feats because "his way of

living and continual Exercise of walking and running, clear'd him of al1 gross Humours, so

that he ran with wonderfUl Swiftness thro the Woods and up the Rocks and Hills [. . .] "

(127)? Steele i n t e ~ e w e dSelkirk and concludes that "the Vigour of his Health,

Disengagement from the World, a constant, cheamtl, serene Sky, and a temperate Air,

made his Life one continual Feast, and his Being much more joyful than it had before been

irksome" (107). Rogers conjures "Reflections, which are more proper for a Philosopher

and Divine than a Mariner" and determines that Selkirk's story proves

how much a plain and Temperate way of living conduces to the Health of
the Body and the Vigour of the Mind [. . .] for this Man,when he came to
our ordinary Method of Dia and Life, tho he was saber enough, lost much
of his Strength and Agility. (130-1)

These reports al1 suggest that Selkirk cauld adapt to the natural environment of the island

and become a more "naturai" man. None of the writers credit Selkirk's resourcefilness,

mO On the extraordinary speed and endurance of The Barbarous, see W~lliams149;

Lawson 177; Chetwood, Faiconer 2: 24.
and they al1 present his physical adaptation as necessary, natural, and inevitable. Similarly

the perception of The Barbarous includes extraordinary physiul capabilities.

Dampier's description of the Miskitos is typical of this perception. He writes of

their remarkable skiil at launching projectiles and their abüity to swat arrows out of the air

"though they corne very thick at them." Both talents are leamed from a young age

through much practi~e.~'

They also have "extraordinary good Eyes" with which they

"will discry a Sail at Sea farther, and see any Thhg M e r than we" (1S)? Rogers,

repeating a report from Newhoc a s c r i i the longevity and extraordinary health of the

natives of Brazil to the climate; in fact, "many Europeans live here to above a hundred

Years old" (56), and Neville's fictional islanders grow "very fleshy" and are never sick,

"the country so well agreeing with" them (233)? The Barbarous were assumed to be

physically supenor to The Civilued. Temporaily the assumption of Barbarous physical

supenority has an analogue in the belief that prehistonc humans were much larger and

stronger than degenerated modem humans." Reports lingered of native prowess before

20' See aiso Rogers 367; Williams 237. Thoruis Sprat offers a less dramatic report
of the physical ski11 of the natives of Teneriffe, who "are generally very lean, tall, active
and hl1 of courage7' and who "leap fiom Rock to Rock, fiom a very prodigious height, till
they came to the bottom, sometimes making ten fathom deep at one leap" (2 12).
am A native hunting party in Carolina tells Lawson that they "strengthen7d the
Sight and the Brain exceedinglf' by blowing bezoar-stone powder into their eyes (54; also
176; and Diket 4 18).

203 For other examples of the extreme longevity of The Barbarous, see Sharp 5 and
Temple 3: 271-2. Lionel Wafer's report serves as a foil. He makes little mention of
extraordinary physical prowess, and despite fiequent hunting trips with his hoa, Lacenta,
he witnessed the Miskitos go "many times a whole Day" without a successfbl hunt (161).

2<YIn Genesis the Nephilim are the gigantic superhumans o f old (6: 4); Homer
mentions the ancicnt giants in O@ssey 7. See aiso GT 137; on the physical insufficiency
of Gulliver and his kind, 242-3.
the arriva1 of The Civiiiied. Rogers describes a preconquest Brazilian war ceremony

sirnilar to the TurLish parade depicted by ~ o n t a g u ?

To show their Courage, t h y would dmw Arrows thro the Skins of their
Belües, and they fought Duels with sharp Stones, stand'ig foot to foot, and
holding down their Heads to reccive the Blows fiom one another by tums.
He that struck first was reckon'd the most fearfiil: It was accounted
disgracefil to dress their Wounds, and the Conqueror was applauded by
hideous Shouts fiom the Spectaton. (90)

Similarly Lawson describes a gmesome regimen endured by Native Carolinian boys and

girls. The youngsters are locked in a darkened structure for five o r six weeks and fed fou1

m a t and intoxicating plants. During this "diabolical Purgation," the inmates "make the

most dismal and hellish Cries, and Howlings, that ever humane Creatures express'dn and a

number die. When released, "they either really are, or pretend to be dumb, and do not

speak for several Days." Lawson claims the rationale behind this practice is to instill

discipline, starnina, and strength and to weed out "those infirm weak Bodies, that would

have been only a Burden and Disgrace to their Nation," a policy that saves "the Victuals

and Cloathing for better People, that would have been expended on such useless

Creatures" (241-2). Such practices may explain the cornonplace that Native North

Americans were never disabled or infirm.206Only the most hardy survivors could endure

al1 the deprivations and dangers of wilderness Living.

*Os See above note 123; on self-mutilating natives of Surinam, see Behn 204.
SM Lawson 176;Williams 15 1; Chetwood, FaIconer 2 : 29. Ned Ward offers
another reason:
They carry their Children at their Backs, lac'd to a Board in the form of a
Bmqack: which is said to be the reason their Children are never Rickety, or
shall you ever see a Bandy-leg'd or Crooked Indim. (2: 16)
Contrast the utilitarian unconcem Carolinians express for theü infirm with the relative
tolerance Wafer's Miskitos extend toward their sickly albinos (1 34-6).
 W~lliamsclairns the Naragansett have one weakness: 'bhmmaumpite~nck,"or

"i%e tmth-oke," "is the onely pahe will force their stout heprts to cry [. . .ln
(13 1).=

More typically, when a native man bums his kg while putting out a house fire, he

"undauntedly a i t his leg with a knife ta let out the bumt blood" (237). Such is the

stalwart nature of The Barbarous when faced with most any pain? From such repons,

Chetwood spins tales of the incredible endurance of Cuban Indians. Falconer Mtnesses

the torture and execution of =me Indians by the Spanish-the natives tied naked, dragged

by horses, and painted with boiling pitch. One Indian begins to swoon, but he is "rated by

another of his Fellow Sufferers in theu own Language, which none understood but

Indians, and the Fellow seem'd to bear it much better" (2: 3). Finally, when a pnest asks

thern to repent, a battered Indian gives a lengthy speech in Spanish and concludes, T o u

preach up Holiness and Righteousness, but you Practice Debauchery and Lewdness." He

tries to incite other nearby Indians to revolt, but the Spanish silence him by setting him

aiire (3 : 5).

Despite his respect for native mettle, Lawson generalizes about the Indians'

inability to bear heavy loads: "They are not of so robust and strong Bodies, as to lift great

Burdens, and endure Labour and slavish Work, as the Europeuns are; yet some that are

Slaves, prove very good and laborious" (1 76)? M e r Lawson disparages the Native

"By contrast, Lawson tells of a young Tuskeruro who wwers before his public
execution "for Killing a Negro, and burning the House" (220). For an exploration of the
usual Indian stoicism under the tonnent o f a n enemy, see Sayre 297-8. Sayre observes
that the torture 'tictim's proper role was t o defi and insult his captors."
See also Cowley 19.
209Much earlier, though, Lawson had written of a free "Sewee" who could
tirelessly bear heavy loads better than Lawson or his men (ZO), but Lawson does not
express surprise at the man's abilities. On the 'Zazy" contentment of New England's
Carolinians for never working "as the English do7' unless forced, he &tes that "In

Travelling and Hunting, they are very indefatigable; because that carries a Pleasure dong

with a Profit" (176). In other words, h W g and hunting are simply a part of the native

Cnaturai") way of Me-not effortles, but rtill more p l d l e than vimtous. On the

other hand, more onerous f o m of labor-those d a t e d with industry and profit-

require more determination and ambition to -te and are subsequently more virtuous.

The labor of industry and profit was already an integrai elernent of the English work ethic,

evoked in the opening to Thomson's Alrhmin:

These are thy Blessings, INDUSTR~!rough power!

Whom Labour sûll attends, and Sweat, and Pain;
Yet the kind Source of every gentle Art,
And ail the sofi Civility of LXe:
Raiser of Human Kind! By Nature cast,
Naked and helpless, out amid the Woods,
And Wilds, to rude inclement Elements;
With various Seeds of Art deep in the Mind
Irnplanted, and protiisely pour'd around
Materials int'mite; but ide ail. (43-52)

Moreover, God's condemnation of Adam fumishes scriptural validation of the inherent

value of toil: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. 2. 19). SuMva! without

apparent industry lacks virtue. Seemingly effortless subsistence is a cheat of the

established order of things. A life led without evident tedious labor ("Sweat, and Pain") is

a life of sloth.*1°

unacquisitive Indians, see Ward 2: 15.

210For the promise of more imrnediate temporal rewards for labor, see Swift's
sermon "On the Poor Man's Contentment," PW9:192. Swift's unpersuasive thesis is that
the honest poor have too many benefits of heaith, hearth, and restfil sleep to cornplain of
their poverty. On the "highest Degree" of Iaziness among the natives of Timor who are
also "very dextrous and nimble," see Dampier, A M 170; also, on cold-climate Indians'
need for toil vernis warm-clirnate Indiens' tendency toward "Divertisements," see NV
 While The Barbarous were not industrious enough by English standards, the virtue

of The Barbarous was on a par with that of Europe when it came to adultery, according to

Lawson. He writes of rnarried native women,

As for the Report, that they are never found unconstant, like the
Europem, it is whoUy faise; for were the old World and the new one put
into a Pair of Scales (in point of Constancy) it would be a hard Matter to
discern which was the heavier. (1 90)211

Lawson does not address the possibility of a husband taking a new lover although he does

describe the native marriage contract hwhich cithet party may reject the other iûter a trial

penod. Lawson assumes that the only ruson a woman would reject a betrothed during

their probationary penod is because she becomes involved with another man (41).

Most observations of sexuality arnong The Barbarous are, like Lawson's, second

hand or remote, and we rarely get details beyond preexisting convention^.^'^ More direct

information cornes from reporis of senial contact between Europeans and The Barbarous.

361-2. See also Sayre 103.

211 Such an authority as Lawson notwithstanding, fiAeen years later Chetwood

could still valorize Native Pemsylvanian Women as "very rnodest and chaste" (Cmtleman
358). Despite the extreme chastity of the women, unaccountably "Adultery is punish'd
with Death arnong 'emn (358). Ned Ward in 1699 describes native New-England women
as paragons of virtue (2: 16). Ward also lias the four "Eminent" virtues of the native
men: "Loyal to their Kings, Constant to their Wiws, Imfulgent to t heir ChiI'en, and
Fuithfil to their Trust" (15). In his T i to New-EngIÙnd, Ward dearly wants to contrast
the noble Indians with his satirical target, the Boston puritans, but he never indicates if he
has had much direct contact with the Indians.

212A.L. Diket condenses reports of travelers to the southem American colonies in

the period:
Visitors to tribes usuaIly found a native rnaiden beside them in their beds;
but she was there on orders fiom her chief. In marriage Indian partners
were constant and tme to each other, the squaw never deserting her
husband's bed without his expressed pennission. (420)
Gordon Sayre bnefly traces the development of a cornmonplace assumption regarding the
sexuai fieedom of Native Arnericans (105).
Sexuality among wnstruas of The Barbarous, as with so many other matters, is oAen

pragmatic (for instance, Ovington 51). Tom Brown reheames the -al pragmatism of

The Barbarous when his transported Indian visits a London Bawdy-House:

'In the Xndies,' says my Indian, 'it is no shame for the young women, before
their marriage, to make use of their own; but then it is not in this manner
trafncked for by broken and goas-between, who put an extortion of the
pleasure, and c h a t both the purchaser and seller.' (99)

of English prostitution is not its prevalence but

According to Brown's Indian, the f ~ l i n g

its inclusion of pimps, rnadams, and panders. But occording to Lawson's experientiai

travel, things may be little different in North Amenca. Writing nine years later, Lawson

twice describes the "trading Girls" of Caroüna who are rnarked by the "youngest and

prettiest Faces" and a "particular [though not described] Tonsure." These young women,

too, must turn "greatest Share of the Gain" to "the King's Purse," but "if it happens to be

an Indicm Trader that wants a Bed-feliow, and has got Rum to sell, be sure, the King must

have a large Dram for a Fee, to confinn the Match" (41, I ~ o ) . ~Besides
" straight

prostitution, sexual favors served as goodwill gestures. When Lawson and his expedition

are offered "two very handsome, proper, young Indan Women" to compensate for an

Indian attack, the explorers retain their virtue: "Those young Women were so ready to

corne into our Boat; that one of them crowded in, and would hardly be persuaded to go

out again" (75-77). Similady, among The Barbarous of the East Indies and of Afnca, an

offer of women for sex "is accounted a piece of Policy" when conducting business

213
Lawson also mentions one of his cornpanions who "would fain have been
dealing with some of the young Female Fry" but whom they reject for "having nothing
that these Girls esteem'd" (36).
transactions, awrding to Dampier (W268-9).2'4 There are some sirnilarities between

sexual business among The Barbarous and that among The Exotic, mostly concerning the

openness of sex-for money arrangements. The biggest difference is that nie Barbarous

are not purported to indulge in relative saaial deviation as The Exotic and The Civilized

are. Instead, descriptions of Barbarous s e d t y are marked by some immodesty and

much pragmatism with only a maitering of incest and polygamy evident and no

hornosexuality.

While most descriptions of semal contact between The Barbarous and Europeans

describe harmless relations, Defoe's Singleton twice mentions that his men had eamed the

ire of native men by having "made something fiee with their Women" (130). The first

time is in North Afiica, and there the Britons avoid war by offering tnnkets (130). In

Ceylon, though, they fight "a little Skirmish" because Singleton's men had "been a little

too familiar with the Homely Ladies of the Country" (2 18). Quaker William remarks chat

the men of Ceylon "acted no othenirise than as the Laws of Nature dictated," by attacking

Singleton's crew. Despite the hostilities, Singleton never discovers the precise offense his

men committed, "they were so true to one another in their Wickedness; but 1 understood

in the main, that it was some barbarous thing they had done, and chat they had like to have

2'4 In Chetwood's Falconer helpful Britons are offered Indian women for services
rendered, but Mr.Randall rejects the offer-not on moral grounds but because he does
"not much care for such a tawny Rib" (2: 28)-perhaps a slighting reference to Eve's
creation in Genesis. Generally, a wornan with a darkish complexion will fail to attract
Chetwood's heroes. For a unique contrast to Chetwood's typical distaste for anything but
the palest skin, see Ligon's several paeans on the beauty of Afncan slave women and
Indian women (1 2-3,15-6, 17, and 54); also, Ned Ward finds the skin cotor of native New
England women to be "tolerable" although he believes their use of "Red-lead' and
"Bears-grease" is no "advantage to their Beauty" (2: 16). On Oroonoko's beauty
"transcending al1 those of his gloomy race" and of the beauty of some black Afiican
women who " c m charrn of that colour," see Behn 152.
paid dear for it" (21 8). Defoe includes these tales of English-on-native rapes, in part, to

morti@ English pride, but some such reports also occur in experiential travels, sometimes

without obvious moral c~ntent.~"

The Barbarous seerned irnmodest by the standards of The Civilized. Of course

modesty can be relative. Many Barbarous peoples went naked or semi-naked with no

offense, of course, to their societies."' While English travelen were not necessarily good

at determining the mores of The Barbarous, they were often conscious of modesty's

relativism. No doubt their experiences (or their wish to appear experienced) dong with

their quasi-scientific distance fiom their subjects, inured them to shocking sights.

Nakedness is oflen treated as less of a curiosity than, Say, body painting? An added

advantage to maintaining a scientific distance when dealing with the nakedness of The

Barbarous and The Savage is that an author's descriptions of native bodies can titillate as

well as inform.*18 As I mentioned, when Wafer Lived among the Miskitos, he shumed his

clothes. He offers no reason why he did so, and none of his fellow Britons went naked.

Nevertheless, Wafer adopted the nakedness and the a d o m e n t s of the Miskitos so

215 See, for instance, Dampier, V&D 2: 54; Lawson 2 12.

216
On the long association between sauvage and nakedness, see Sayre 144.
''' See, for instance, Wafer 136-7.
218 An extreme example is Ligon, who is t w taken with women in general even to

pretend scientific detachment:

We had an Indian woman, a slave in the house, who was of excellent shape
and colour, for it was a pure bright bay; srnail breasts, with the niples of a
porphyrie colour, this woman would not be woo'd by any means to Wear
Cloaths. (54)
For examples of less-obviously sdacious descriptions of natives, see Rogers 82-3;
Dampier, NV 344 (on Jeoly); aIso Lawson 35, 189.
successfùlly that his shipmates did not remgnize him.*19 Wafer proves that he is not quick

to judge the modesty of 0th- peoples, but he is a fair oboerver of mores. For instance, he

observes of pubescent Miskito girls, "They are very modest; and tho' they will lay hold on

any part of a Man,yet they do it with great Simplicity and Innocence" (154). He also

describes the finer points of male Miskito modesty:

They leave the S r r o m cxpos'd, having no Sense of Shame with reference

to that, as they have with respect to the Penis, which they never shew
uncover'd: But the Men wili tum away th& Faces even fiom one another,
if by any accident it be w~cover'd;and when they would make Water, they
tum their Backs to theu Companions, and squatting down, slip off the
F u ~ e [penis
i sheath] with one Hand, and having done, put it on again very
nimbly. (1 38)-

This passage is remarkable among travel reports of the period for its anthropological

precision. In New England, Williams describes the limited clothing of the Naragansett and

explains the relativism of modesty: "Custome hath used their rninds and bodies to it

[nakedness], and in such a fieedom from any wantonesse, that 1 have never seen that

wantonesse arnongst them, as, (with griefe) I have heard of in Europe" (185). Williams,

never a hypocrite, seeks to preempt even the possibility that his description may arouse his

English readersa'

91' In his Trip 20 Jmaica Ned Ward mentions the temptation to "have gladly gone
Naked as our first Parents" as his transport ship enters the heat of the tropics (1: 12).
Generally, though, more seasoned voyagers do not broach the subject. Neville's Pine
family finds little sharne in their naked society (233).
220
In Anthropometamorphosis (165O), JOhannes Bulwer characteristically
compares Trinidadian penis sheaths to "Those filthy and Apish Breeches, that so openly
shew'd our secret parts" (539).

Ned Ward writes on perhaps the same New England Indians and describes their
minimal clothing. His comrnents on the women's nakedness echo Williams: "the modesty
of their deportment, makes it not look like Impudence but Necessir (2: 16). Behn
identifies "an absolute idea of the first state of innocence" in the naked Surinam natives
(149).
 Of course, various B,lrbaraus cultures d o w or disaiiow sexual practices that are

stridy forbidden in Christian society. Incest is rarely mentioned with regard to The

Barbarous, and then only hintedm Polygyny is oflen d a t e d with constructs of The

Barbarous, but is stiil not as prevaknt as among The Exotic; for instance, Behn matterof-

faaly describes polygyny among Surinam's natives (1 50). Wafer's Miskito patron,

Lacenta, for instance, has seven wives, and When he went a Progress or long Journey,

'twas so contriv'd, that he d l found one of his Wives at every new Stage he came ton

(154)" A grosser accusation of polygyny is Dampier's daim that the natives of Timor

"take as many Wives as they can maintain; and sometimes they se11 their Children to

purchase more Wives" (NH 170). Dampier has little direct contact with these people,

though, and gains much of his information fiom an unidentified source, possibly

Portuguese. Rogers, as we have seen, is usually far more ready than Dampier to present

credulous secondhand reports, and he does so in desaibing the men of Java, who "have 2

or 3 Wives besides Concubines" (405). The innovation of the Javanese is that the women-

-"many of them hansornV--retainthe upper hand: king "in general amorous, and unfaithfùl

Wafer is evasive on the subject as he explains a Miskito marriage custom:

When they marry, the Father of the Bride, or the next Man of Kin, keeps
her privately in the sarne Apartment with himself the first seven Nights;
whether to express an unwiliingness to part with her, or for what other
Reason 1 know not; and she is then deliver'd to her Husband. (1 55)
And Chetwood only once suggests that the natives of his "Dorninio" practice incest. He
describes their dwellings and adds, "Fathers, Sons and Daughten, lie prorniscuously
together," but he does not indicate what the mothers do (Fafconer 3: 133). Rogers
accuses the postconquest Meicans of incest, but he has had no contact with these people
and merely repeats a 1697 account by Gemelli (329; also 3 15). 1 have already mentioned
Rogers' propensity to believe Spanish accounts.
"Lawson writes of Carolinian "War Captains, and great Men,"who "very often
will retain 3 or 4 Girls at a time for their own Use" (41).
 146

to their Husbands or others, k i n g very apt to give Poison, whkh they do very cunnin&''

(406). Native Americans, on the other hand, reportedly d o not tolerate adultery. The

most broad-rninded people may be Lawson's Native Carolinians, who merely fine a wife's

lover:

The Husband is never so enrag'd as t o put his Adulteress to Death; ifshe is

caught in the Fact, the Rival becomes Debtor to the comuted Husband, in a
certain Quantity of Trifles vaiuable amongst them, which he pays as soon
as discharg7d, and thm di Animosity is laid aside betwixt the Husband, and
his Wife's GalIant. (4 1)

A Carolinian husband is oAen so gmerous af\a rrceMng his payrnent of "trifies" that he

lets his wife "out for a Night or two, to the Embraces of some other, which perhaps she

has a greater Liking to, tho7 this is not comrnonly practis'd" (4 1). Conversely, adulterers

arnong Williams' Naragansett receive harsh treatment. While "Single fornication they

count no sin," after man-iage "they count it hahous for either of them to be false," and

the wronged party may put away or keepe the party offending: cornmonly,
if the Woman be false, the offended Husband will be solemnly revenged
upon the offendor, before many witnesses, by many bIowes and wounds,
and ifit be to Death, yet the guilty resists not, nor is his Death revenged.
(205)

Williams never reveals whether a betrayed wife is more likely to "put away" or t o "keepe"

her husband. Wafer mentions that the Miskitos put both adulterers to death although "if

the Woman confesses the Fact to her Husband, and swears she was forc'd, she finds

Favour"; othenvise, "she is bum'd" (1 54)?' But none of these chroniclers of T h e

Barbarous ever really deal with the fate of a cheated woman. Travel writers handle male

infidelity among The Barbarous much as the same writers would handle it among the

=' See Chetwood, CastIeman 358; on the severe punishment for thefi and adultery
among the Madagascans, see Herbert (20).
English. Although The Barbarous are apt to punish male transgressions, male travel

writen ignore the wronged wives as they would Englishwomen, who may expect

unfaitfil husbands. Meanwhile, ali attention is on the wronged husband. Lawson

absolutely delights in evoking the comically antlered imagery of the cuckold as though

Engiish standards-and double standards-are trderable to the Carolinian wilderness. In

such a misogynist climate, we cannot expect a fair rendering of the fate of The Barbarous

wife who is wronged.

Despite the incomplete or unreliable presentation of Barbarous sexual mores, such

peoples ofien have a significant moral sense. Their various interpretations of good and

bad do not always correspond to English expectations, but constructs ofThe Barbarous

often include a ngorous ethical sense. As evident with the several approaches to adultery,

niles established by The Barbarous are to be obeyed and transgressions mercilessly

punished. Take, for instance, a singular instance of Miskito morality and its enforcement:

If a Man debauches a Viigin, they thmst a sort of Bryer up the passage

ofhis Penis, and then [154] turn it round ten or a dozen tirnes: Which is
not ody a great Torment, but commonly mortifies the part; and the Person
dies of it; but he has liberty to cure himself if he can. (Wafer 154-5)

While the methods may be brutd, the crime and its mandated punishment are clear.

Despite the presence of moral underpinning arnong The Barbarous, travel writers are ofien

ignorant or dismissive of Barbarous religious structures. A morally structured society

does not necessarily indicate the presence of religious belief,but moral practice often

coincides with established theology." Without sacred writings, though, worship among

Williams ironically links morality and religion in a verse:

Adulreries, Murthers, Robkries, n e p s ,
WiId Indians ptrnish these!
And hold the Seules of Justice sq
The Barbarous would be obscure to The C i ~ i l i z e d Wder
. ~ ~ ~ describes Miskito rules and

ceremonies, but he b i t s his discussion of Miskito religion his Iocating the devil's hand

behind the uncanny predictions of "conjurera" (60-2). Dampier, too, asserts that the

Darien natives have no religion but fear the devil (W 16).

Wafer's reports fiom Darien ofien resonate on the "Dominio" Island of

Chetwood's Richard Falconer, and Wafer's neglect of Miskito religion is no exception.

Although Falconer experiences an extensive and intricate matrimonial ceremony and finds

he has moral duties arnong the bbDominio"natives, he ail1 maintains that he did not "ever

perceive they had any manner of Worship to any thing" (3: 146). m e r he has been

rescued by more benign Indians, Falconer speaks to "Indian Wili" and Iearns something of

this latter group's beliefs. In a scene ineptly imitative of Defoe, Chetwood's Falconer

repeats his i n t e ~ e wwith Indian Will:

That no m m fothing leese

When Indians heare the horridfiiths,

Of Irish, English Men,
The h o r d Oaths anù Murthers iate,
lhus say these Indians then:

We weare no CImths, have many G d ,

And yet m r sinnes are Iesse:
Y m are Barbari-, P a g m wild.
Your Land'sthe Wil&rnesse. (204)
The reversal Williams enacts in this verse reprises the savage-critic topos.

Christianity's uncompromising self-construction as the "true" religion also

interferes with the recognition oiother religions. The Barbarous, by contrast, were often
reportedly indifferent to religious differences. See, for instance, Williams 189.
Chetwood's Falconer describes a tolerant polytheism among Native Newfoundlanders,
who leave the Christian god to the Chnstians (3: 44-6). The narrator of Swift's
Mechanicd Operation of the Spirit professes to admire Indians for "their Discretion, in
limiting their Devotions and their Deities to their several Districts, nor ever suffering the
Liturgy of the white God, to cross or intenere with that of the BlucP (Ta!e 274).
 He ask'd w e n my God live? His Throne is in Heaven, answer'd 1, pointing
upward, when He sits to Judge the Quick and the Dead. He live up dare,
high; how you get up high, no steps mach due. It is our Immortal Part,
added I, that ascends, Our Soul, which is cloath'd with the Grace of our
Divine Creator, and enjoys an Eternity of Blessings. You be de Whiie
Mm, you have Soul; we k no m e , we have no Soul; when we die, we
fling in Water, big Fish corne carry us to an oder place, den we live dare
and die agen, and Fish bring us upon back to an oder place. (3: 159-60)

Obviously the reader is meant to chuckie at WWs broken English, his inability to abstract,

and his piscine Charon, but Falconer's religious sophistication is as limited:

How are you assur'd of this (says I?) Have you ever seen any that have
been transporteci in the manner you tell me of? No (answer'd he) but me
sure it be su. But when we were carry'd by Fish to dat oder place, we eat
de Leafof Tree, dat we can no remember what we do in toter place, dat we
be bring from. AU the Arguments 1cou'd use was of no Effect; for
Heathenism was so rwted in him, and al1 the other Indians, that it will be
the greatest DitFculty imaginable to bring 'em to embrace Christianity. (3:
160)

Somehow Falconer (and possibly Chetwood) misses the irony that the corresponding

Christian beliefs sound no less absurd in this context than Will's. " Nonetheless, as with
the malevolent tribe, Falconer concludes that he "could not perceive that these hdiarts

worship'd any thing, except the Moon" (3: 161). Chetwood rarely resists the opportunity

to denigrate Indians, so Falconer describes the Indian ceremony: "When they had done

Stargnring,they would fa11 to Jumping and Capering like so many mad things. When that

was over, they would retire to their several Huts, and not stir out till Morning upon any

account" (3 : 161). From here the religious ceremony dissolves into private conjugal

fiolics, and Fdconer must rernain in his hut until morning under pain of death (162).

While the excessive tastelessness in his irnaginary details is his own refinernent, Chetwood

On Chetwood's debt to Defoe, see Bonner 183; on his debt to Dampier, see
Borner 186-9 1.
 150

here rnostly rnirnics experiential travel wrîters who report that such and such people have

no perceivable religion? Such observations reflect travel writers' lack of imagination

and their religious bigotry, but it also helps to distance The Barbarous fmher from The

Civilized.

Of course, many peoples constnicted as The Barbarous had easily recognizable

forms of worship. As one might expect, Roger Williams provides a most sympathetic and

thoroughgoing study of Native Amencan religion in the New England of his day. Since

the Christian proselytization is never far korn Williams' mind, he attempts to bridge the

gap between The Barbarous and The Civilized by Iocating the wmrnon ground of belief

The Naragansett believe in a retributive aflerlife, but the good have, "as the Turkes have,"

an expectation of eternal "camall Joyes" while "Murtherers thieves and Lyers [. . .]

wander restlesse abroad" (194). Williams, though, can only report on native religion "by

their owne Relation" because, as a Protestant clergyman, he "durst never bee an eye

witnesse, Spectateur, or looker on" of "Sathans Inventions and Worships, contrary to

Ephes. 5.1 1" (192).= He does note that the Naragansett are polytheistic and worship

natural "Creaîures," such as the sun, the moon, the sea, and fire (189-90). He also

descnbes some native religious ceremonies (19 1-2). Williams' Naragansett, not unlike

Chetwood's Newfoundlanders, feel their gods are appropriate for thern and leave the

European god to Europeans (189). As another extensive chronicler of Native Amencans,

Lawson also finds few similarities between Native Carolinian beliefs and Christianity. The

See Shelvocke 110; Dampier, W 292 and M I 170.

* In the East Indies, Dampier expresses similar compunctions when he refuses to
eat flesh sacrificeci to idols (W269).
natives have a notion of "the Country of Souls" and physical pleanires or susering in that

land (1 87), but their beliefs are Manichaeistic (219-20)? Other expenentiai travel

writers who treat the beliefs of The Barbarous usuaiiy have much less contact with their

subjects. These writers touch on native superstitions, such as a religious awe of lightening

in Africa (Herbert 24)' or they repeat secondhand reports of fervent beliefs and thrilling

"diabolical Worship in the night" (Rogers 57-8). Their reports stress an emotionai content

in both the essence and practice of native religions and merely reinforce prevalent images

of naked, f?entied savages dancing wildly in some sexualized satanic bacchanal. The

usefiilness of these reports to The Civilized is in literally demonking the religion of The

Barbarous as devil worship and in titillating the reading public.

Writers of imaginary travels do little with native religion, but Defoe and his

imitator, Chetwood, are exceptions. Defoe's Singleton witnesses an intense expression of

heathen zeal fiom an Afncan captive and remarks,

1 think it was the first time in my Life that ever any religious Thought
aEected me; but 1 could not refiain some Reflections and almost Tears, in
considering how happy it was, that 1 was not born among such Creatures
as these, and was not so stupidly ignorant and barbarous. (61)

Singleton rates irreligiousness over ignorance. Chetwood's Fdconer steds an opportunity

to rhapsodize Defoe-like about the bestial nature of a British "Atheisi or Deisz" and the

relative virtue of "those lrrdims that pray to the Devil" out of "Ignorance" (2: 99,but the

See also Ward, Five Travef Scripts 2: 15; also Diket 4 17. Lawson believes that
the Indians are incapable of appreciating Christian d b c t ~ without
e "some lively carnal
Representation, which may quicken their Apprehensions, and make them thirst after such a
gainful Exchange" (58). Rogers repeats reports that Spanish Jesuits must essentially bribe
the natives of "Buenos-Ayres" in order to effect conversion (88). Other writers, such as
W~lliarnsand Ovington-both clergymen-perceive some Christian-like native reiigious
beliefs as convenient inroads towards conversion. See Ovington 52-3; aiso Swift's
Mechmlical Operation in Tale 274.
argument is difficult to foliow. He maintains thaî non-Christian worship is satanic in

nature, but then praises not only the sincerity of native devotion, but also the logic behind

it. After Falconer baldly asserts that Miaiu worship the de* he rhapsodizes,

With what Devotion t h y Worship the Sun, who they take to be the
Superior Deity, because it rnakes the Earth green, and is the second Cause
of al1 the Good they enjoy? Then, with how much more Reverence ought
we to give Praise to thaî Power that laids Light and general Heat to that
Planet?

So the sun is at once the devil (or, at leaot, worshiped at the prompting of the devil) and

the "second Cause," which does God's magnanimous bidding. More successfilly, Defoe

and Chetwood in their fiction contrast the lirnited virtues of their invented natives with the

vices of their fellow Britons-again a variation on the savage-critic topos. The religions of

The Barbarous they depict are convenient composites of the cornmonplaces reiterated for

different reasons by experiential travel writers and do not reflect the theological and

ethnographie interest or sophistication evident in Wdiarns' and Lawson's treatments.

Always underlying considerations of the religion of The Barbarous is the issue of

potential conversion. As 1already indicated, The Barbarous were the best candidates for

conversion-not as settled into rigid tenets as The Exotic and not as far removed fiom the

sympathies of The Civilized as The ~avage?' While Williams saw religious propagation

as his primary cause, far less religious writers seriously advocated the conversion of The

Barbarous without considering that The Barbarous might not want to be converteci.

Lawson provides the best exarnple when he remmmends acting "As we are in Christian

Duty Bound" by showing "Tendemess for these Heathens." He wants to "cherish their

good Deeds" and gently correct their wrongful actions. He also recornrnends dealing

See note 162.

fairly with the Natives, "Without Guiie in our Trading with the-" and teaching them "the

Mysteries of our Handicrafts, as weil as our ~ e l i g i o n . "More

~ radically, he proposes that

colonias, particularly "the ordinary People, and those of a lower Rank," be encouraged

through financiai and property incentives to m a q Indians (244). He wams,though, that

according to "a certain Rule and Custom, amongst all the savages of Americu," European

men who "get Children by" native prostituta fodeit th& nght to raise the children as

Christians (1 92)? Ironically, despite Lawson's superficial regard for the Indian

population, the feelings were not entirely mutual. Since Lawson had ~ r ~ e y and
ed

planned the colony of New Bem in the Carolhas, the natives apparently held him

responsible for colonial encroachments and abuses. In 1711, two years &er the

publication of his Voyage,he was captured, trieci, and paintùlly executed by an assembly

of tribal leaders (Lefler xxxi-xxwi). The Indians recognized in Lawson the deletenous

effect of the colonizer who seeks to expand, settle, and assimilate. To be sure, Lawson

never interrogates the wisdom or necessity of colonial ideology. Colonial innovators like

Lawson, whatever their intent, inevitably leave the native people with two primary

choices: absorption into the colonizing culture or militq conquest. Either option l a d s to

the annihilation of the native culture and people."

"See Diket 42 1. Lawson's interests lay mostly in trade and the creation of
settlernents, but he offered Indian conversion as a means toward these. Dampier on the
other hand sometimes mentions the missionary efforts of others (for instance, AW 320),
but entrepreneunal interests are always foremost in his mind (see W 3 2 3 . 3 2 7 , 347; also
Woodes Rogers' "Introduction conceming the South-Sea Trade" in CNising Voyage vii-
xxi).
233 See also Diket 4 17-8.
234
See Lawson 79-80. Behn presciently obsewes that the introduction of religion
would "destroy that tranquillity" enjoyed by the fiiendly natives of Surinam. Their
"ignorance," she argues in anticipation of Shaftesbury, protects them corn knowing
 In Pol&, an exchange among Morano's pirates (idtrated by Polly) ironizes

colonial assimilation. The pirates refer to Cawwawkce's people:

Cqstem. But how can you expect any thing else from a creature who hath
never seen a civiliz'd country? Which way should he know mankind?
Jenny. Since they are made like us, to be sure, were they in Engicmd they
rnight be taught.
Luguerre. Why we soc country gentlemen grow into courtiers, and cwntry
gentlewomen, with a little polishing of the town, in a few months becorne
fine ladies.
Jenny. Without doubt, ducation and example can do much.
Poily. How happy are these savages! Who would not wish to be in such
ignorance. (2.8)

Laguerre's statement about country gentlemen and gentlewomen is the c m of Gay's

irony here. The daim is a standard argument by analogy and establishes the relationship

among links in a Great Chain of Human Beings: that country gentlemen can rise suggests

that The Barbarous can rise?' Gay bdsters his irony by having ruthless outlaws speak

the words. The twisted logic of k ~ yCapstem,

, and Laguerre is the logic of the colon

(another European type represented by the play's English settlers). But for the steadying

presence of Polly, the essence of colonial irnperative-as with Lawson-goes unquestioned

by the characten. Polly, in fad, is an aberration among the (mostly British) Europeans:

she is not motivated by material gain, such as land and wealth, as are the coIom and

Morano's roguish crew. Her sole motivation is her steadfast love for the unfaitfil

offense (149-50).

U" am using the metaphor of the Great Chain of Human Beings as an early
eighteenth-centucy antecedent to Social Danvinism. Of course, no one in Swift's time
specifically posited a Chain of Human Beings. Like Sociai Darwinism, the Chain of
Human Beings is not a particularly precise model. The Human Chain represents the scale
of human constnicts stretching nom The Civilized to The Near-Bestial. Therefore, on the
Great Chain of Being, the Human Chain is dso a single link-the human link with al1 its
gradations. Hodgen uses the phrase "hierarchies within hierarchies" to describe the
gradation on a single link of the Chain of Being (397).
 155

Morano. m e r Morano is executed, she is fke to consent to the entreaties of a

demonstrably noble rnind, and by finally marrying Prince Cawwawkee, Polly assimilates

into a virtuous West Indian culture. Gay reverses the normal colonial perspective by

having Polly leave her compted world of The Civilited to enter the ennobled world of

The Barbarous, here the Idealized Primitive. AU the whüe the audience understands,

having witnessed the ambitions of Morano and of the island's wwardly colons, that the

world Polly has chosen is doomed to be absorbeci or, more ükely, destroyed by the

Europeans. The English intent in the play and in the world is that the distance between

The Civilized and The Barbarous dirninishes either through assimilation or through

conquest. In short, the English want to close the gap without moving.
Chapter 7: The Savage++Bestial

The religious conversion and cultural assimilation of n i e Savage~Bestialrarely

receive consideration in the period." As the low end on the hurnan link of the Great

Chain and the most distanced from The CivilUsd (and approaching The Bestial), The

Savage are regarded as hopeless causes, utterly without leamhg, industry, or human

sophistication? On the Great Chain of Being, gradation between types is infinitesimdly

graduai (Lovejoy, Great Chain 90, 195). but on the human link (or on the Chain of

Human Beings) the sheer numbers of peoples and types between The Savage and The

Civilized span an immense, possibly unbridgeable, distance."' The Savage do not

represent a past form of The Civilized but seem almost separate beings. Usually. the

distance between The Civilized and The Savage is one of geography and not time. Defoe

proffers Friday, whose conversion gants redemption and moves him toward The

Civilized. But Friday never tmly assimilates; he enters the margins of The Civilized while

retaining the residue of The Savage. Finally he is neither of The Civilized nor of The

Primitive but is tragically unique. Fnday's broken English and limited understanding are

counterbalanced by purity of h m , but a purity necessarily enhanced by Christianity.

U6 See Jordan 2 1-2.

~ 3 ' The distinction 1 am making here between The Bestial and The Animai is one of
origin. The Animal are precisely that, creatures nonhuman in f o m and thought--animal by
nature. An example would be the chimpanzee. The Bestial are creatures human in form
but without or nearly without human rationaiity. They are apparently degenerated
humans-animai by devolution. An example would be Swift's Yahoos or the pre-Tyson
notion of homo sylvestris (man of the woods). Peter the Wild Boy of Hanover is another
example of The Bestial or feral human. The mentally disabled (iike Peter) could represent
degenerate humans to eighteenth-century observers, and the treatment of such people
certainiy indicates that they oAen did.

On Sir William Petty's seventeenth-century system of gradations among

peoples, see Jordan 224-5.
Fnday can never be English; he cari never be more than a converted savageeS9

While constnicts of The Exotic and The Barbarous are ofien distinguished by what

they have or do and how they are sirnilar to The Civilized, The Savage are most notable

for what they lack or how they dBer fiom The Cinüzed. They are generally without âny

attributes of The CiMüzed except hurnan commonalities of appearance, but even there

travel writers emphasize dSerences. Constructs of The Savage are much more

constricted than those of The Exotic or The Barbarous for several reasons. First, The

Savage are constructeci as the lowest strata of hurnankind-the farthest fiom The Civilized,

not redeemable and of little nonsexual use. Portrayais of The Savage, therefore, only

satise curiosity, less scientific than lurid. Although seerningiy incomprehensible, The

Savage were little more than a sensation and worthy of little study. For the most part, no

Lawson sought to trade with them; no Williams hoped to learn their language to promote

239 See note 166. In a short account of his 1684-6 joumey around the world,
Abraham Cowley mentions five Afiicans lefi to inhabit the West-Lndian island of "SzIt,"
who "were al1 black, but scorn to be counted any other than Portuguese; for if any Man
c d them Negro's, they will be very angry, saying That they are white Portuguese" (2).
These men equate race with culture in precise ways. Their cultural aflçiliations ovemde
any ontological, essential, or genealogical identifications. But no matter their own
perceptions, to white English sailors, these men are black: whether black Portuguese or
black Afncans masquerading as Portuguese, they rernain black. Like Friday, race and
origin forever difference their conversion and assimilation. Chetwood's Falconer makes a
similar distinction when he describes a former black slave who "tho' born in Cuinea,
wou'd always cd1 himself an Engfishman, as king brought over very young" (2: 118).
Falconer would not cal1 the man an Englishman. Horni Bhabha describes such
intermediate beings as "mimic man," who are "the effect of a flawed colonian mimesis, in
which to be Anglicized, is emphaticaffy not to be English" (128). In a characteristic
reversal, Behn mentions an English fishennan who trades with remote Surinamese Indians
and who has "by long living there, become a perfect Indian in colour" (20 1). Behn's
description of the trust the Indians place in this man and Wafer's expenences arnong The
Barbarous of Darien suggest that The Civilued sametimes had an easier time blending into
The Primitive than the other way round. On continued colonial mistrust of converted
Indians, see Sayre 17-8.
 158

their conversion; no Wafer lived among them; no Falconer married one of them. Where

The Barbarous have custom and camiony, The Savage have habit and reactive behavior.

While some among The Barbarous iisten to counsels ofelders, rnany of The Savage follow

a single tribal leader. And while The Barbarous demonstrate linguistic complexity and

display hints of visual records, The Savage have crude speech and no means or matter to

record. Second, while cornmonplace and ossumption idormed ideas of The Primitive in

general, particular ideas of The Savage seemed foreordained. The Savage construct was

often delimited by mmor and shrouded by ignorance-sometimes sirnply a result of

infiequent contact with the English. In other cases the Spanish or other Europeans had

eliminated entire peoples and relegated them to legend. The more contact one has with a

peuple, the less mystifling they seem as farniliarity expands the subjective and elides

distance. Conversely, the less contact one has with a people, the more likely they will

fùlfill expectations of difference. Mystique lends itseif to facile constmct. Third, in

Swift's tirne, the English treatment of The Savage was lirnited to a few specific groups.

Most ships rounding the Cape of Good Hope woulc! stop at the Dutch plantations there,

so the unassimilated Hottentots of Guod Hope (the Khoi-San) received much attention.

Dampier wrote of the Hottentots, but most notably he alone described the Australian

Aborigines in both New Voyage r d the World and A Voyage zoNew HolIa~td.Other

examples of The Savage appear only occasional throughout travel writing. Cooke and

Rogers, writing separately on the same voyage, and Shelvocke, writing on a later voyage,

depict the Native Baja Californians, and other writers describe srnatterings of various

remot e peoples, legendary o r extant.

Surprisingly, despite their sensational appeal, The Savage rarely appear in

irnaginary voyages. Partially, this absence concems the narrative imperative of fictional

travels. As novels or proto-novels, these voyages foais heady on cornplex human

interactions for which The Savage constmct offers extremely Limiteci oppominity. Again,

Defoe's Friday is an exception, but note that a dozen or oo pages of Robinson C~soe

pertain to Crusoe's efforts to communicate with Friday. Few writers could or would

devote so much text to such a cornplex task. ChetWood's Falwner, in a weak echo of

Crusoe, takes uIndian WiU' as a servant (3: 169)' but Wd already knows English and a

good deal of English cuaom by the tirne Falwner meets him. Besides, Wi11 has more of

the features of The Barbarous than The Savage.** The Savage~Bestialconstmct is

usually the most two-dimensional construct of The Primitive, so savages usually appear in

fictional narratives as cardboard enemies. When Singleton's shipmates discover a ship hl1

of black slaves adrift with no crew, his men irnpulsively want revenge because the slaves

have "murthered d l the white Men" (1 56-7). Quaker Wdliam counsels restraint, and the

d o r s soon determine that the slaves only revolted d e r the slavers raped a woman and

her daughter (161). Defoe bnefly humanizes what had till then been chattek Within a

few pages, though, Quaker William himselfarranges to sel1 the slaves to some planters

(164-5). The Savage, when they appear in irnaginary voyages--and often in experiential

travels-are eminently dispo~able.~''

240 See chap. 6.

2" Behn portrays two separate sets of natives in Surinam. The first interact with
the settlers "in perfect arnity" and have much in common with constructs of The
Barbarous. The second live more remotely and apart fiom a trader who lives near them,
are only encountered by an expedition led by O m n o k o (147-8.200-4)- The latter group
shows some marks of The Barbarous: willigness to trade, comprehensibility, medicine,
and a governing council. Still, their fierce appearance, limited understanding, and isolation
make them seem much like The Savage. Behn's portrayal is sketchy, but she constructs
 160

Among the occasional but persistent degations regarding The Savage is

cannibalism. The enemy islanders in Defa's C~soe

are cannibals, and legends persisted

regarding the cannibalistic activities of various peoples past and present. Herbert is the

only traveler 1 am treating who claims to have cncountend cannibals hunself In a lengthy

description of the Hottentots, he briefly describes their diet: '"tis dead Whaies, Seales,

Grease, raw Puddings, o r mans flesh, which rather than want they will digge Chnstians out

of their graves" (16). Of al1 the outlandish characterizations of the Hottentots, Herbert's

charge of cannibalism is arnong the most specious: afnrmed by no one else and

uncorroborated even by Herbert' s evidence. Accusations of cannibaiism are typically

secondhand. Cooke discusses, for instance, the inland inhabitants of Guam (those not

infiltrated by the Spanish), who "are said to eat white Men, if they take them, and dnnk

their Blood, devouring al1 they catch raw" (2: 17), but Cooke has never seen these people.

In his first volume of travels, as weii-aiiied mostiy fkom Spanish writers-Cooke writes of

the ancient, pre-Iman inhabitants of Peni, who "liv'd by Rapine, plundering and

destroying wheresoever they prevaiïd" (206). Some of t heir leaders "were mighty

Devourers of Man's Flesh, and so greedy of it, that before the slaughter'd Wretch were

quite dead, they would suck his Blood at the Wounds, having publick Shambles of human

Flesh, and making Puddings of the Guts" (206). As if this were not gniesome enough,

they also ate their own children and kept women "for Breeders to supply them with Sons

the remote Surinamese natives as the most distant edge of The Barbarous~Savage
continuum. As always, since Behn's situation and agenda are unusual, the peoples
depicted in her novel do not fit neatly into categories.
 161

and Daughters to eat" (206).~" Cooke's credulous sensationalism (he cites Peter de Zieza

as "an Eye-witness" source) is echoed in Woodes Rogers' repetition of an account of the

Amazons by "William Dovis a L o h e r who iiv'd in this C o u n ~ ysome time" (62). The

s an "abundance of peny Kings," who "decide their Quarrels with

Amazon ~ l e rare

Canoes." In the wake of battles, Rogers assures us, We Conqueror eats up the

Conquer'd; so that one King's Belly proves another's Sepulchei' (63). Again, neither

Cooke nor Rogers has ever seen these people. Eariier, in New Voyage, the more traveled

and sensible Dampier had denounced "the cornmon Opinion of Authropphgi [sic], or

Man-eaters" (325). In the midr of t e h g how he becarne stranded on an island, Dampier

digresses to explain why he was not anaid of the natives. Among other things, he is "of

the Opinion, that there are no People in the World so barbarous as to kill a single Person

that fdls accidentally into their Hands, or cornes to iive among them; except they have

before been injured" (325). More appalling collcerns, such as &bals, do not at al1

trouble his quasi-empirical mind: "Al1 Nations or Families in the world, that I have seen or

heard of, having Mme sort of Food to live on, [. . .] would scarce kill a Man purposely to

eat him." Dampier merely hints at the speculative ongins of cannibal reports: "1 know not

what barbarous Customs may formerly have been in the World," and denies that he has

ever witnessed even human sacrifice: "and yet, if they sacrifice their Enemies, it is not

necessary they should eat them too." He resorts to his bent for empincism and can only

"speak as to the Compass of my own Knowledge" (325) before he repudiates several

'* Sir William Temple, in his essay "Of Heroic V h e , " repeats similar if less
sensational legends of the early Peruvians but mainly dwells upon the virtues of the Incan
unifier, "Mango Copac" (Worh 3: 337-47).
"Cannibal Stories" about specific peoples ( 3 2 ~ - 6 ) . ~Dampier
'~ is a rare traveler for openly

disclaiming widespread cannibalism, but the vast number of travelers' reports that contain

no reference to cannibalism hirther diiuted @ut certainiy did not eradicate) rumors of

anthropo phagy.

Cannibais or no cannibals, The Savage generaiiy were accwnted irredeemably

brutish by traveler writen. Dampier's encounter with Native Australians inspires hirn to

declare them "the miserablest People in the World," a reputation usually enjoyed by the

Hottentots, whom Dampier declares "a nasty People, yet for Wealth are Gentlemen to

these" Australians (3 1 2 ) Of
~ ~the~Australians Dampier authoritatively concludes, "setting

aside their Humane Shape, they differ but little fiom Brutes" (3 12)-a sentiment that is

never so precisely echoed until the invention of Swift's Yahoos. But Dampier's is the first

extensive account of the Australians by a British sailor and the only in the period.

Excepting Dampier's Austraiians, experiential travel writers regarded the Hottentots as

the farthest humans fiom The Civilized. "[TJhe very Reverse of Human kind," Ovington

calls them, and the "medium between a Rational Animal and a Beast" (284). Winthrop

2" While Dampier disavows any personal knowledge of cannibalism among The
Primitive, ironically he may have m e veiy close to expenencing it arnong a pirate crew.
As the Cygnet plied the South Seas, provisions ran dangerously low and the pirate crew
"had contrived, first to kill Captain Swm and eat hirn when the Victuals were gone, and
d e r hirn d l o f u s who were accessary in promoting the undertaking this Voyage." M e r
the ship arrives at Guam 4 t h only three-days supplies left, Swan gibes his lean
accomplice, "Ah! Dampier, you wmM have d e them but a p r meaf' (NV 196).

2U Swift makes a sirnilar cornparison in his rhetondly ovenvrought '2etter on the

Fishery" (written 1734, first pnnted 1749): "1 believe the People of @land, or the
Hottentots, are not so miserable a People as we [living in Ireland]; for Oppression
supported by Power will infdlibly introduce slavish Pnnciples" (PW 13: 112; see also
Herbert Davis' Introduction to the sarne volume, x x x - d i i ; Jones 101-2). On Hottentots
being "even more unpleasant than Swift's Yahoos," see Jones 123.
Jordan in his White over Black identifies a similas comment by Thomas Herbert as a

"heresy" that contradicts Christian doctrine on the status of humans (23 1).*" Defoe

creates his own Hottentot quivalent in Cqp- Singleton, the Madagascans, whom he

tags "a Parce1 of Creatures scarce human, o r capable of king made sociable on any

Account whatsoevei" (21). but this portnyd is mostly a product of Defoe's imagination;

expenential writers were nwer so exercised by the Madsgascans? As for the

Hottentots, "They are" Cooke writes, "the most filthy beastly People of any yet

dismver'd, and harden d [sic] in their Brutality, for those who have convers'd with them,

say, it is impossible to reclaim them" (2: 70). Rogers confimis al1 earlier reports and

repeats that the Hottentots "scarce deserve to be reckon'd of the Human Kind" (420).

English writen stick closely to this üne.2"

Nonetheless some vestiges of reiigious worship and of other human peculiarities

are observable among the Hottentots and The Savage. M e r describing a Hottentot

custom in which the elderly are sealed in huts t a die, Cooke adds,

Amidst this Beastliness, they are not altogether ignorant of the Being of a

*" On Afncan beastliness, see Herbert 28.

For a much earlier example, see Herbert 20.

2'7 See Herbert 16-7 and ûvington 288. On the Barbadian slaves, "most" of whom
"are as near beasts as may beysetting their souls aside," see Ligon 47. 1 identiG Ligon's
Barbadian slaves as constmcts of The Savage here, but their status among constmcts of
The Primitive is much more ambivalent than that. These people have been thnist together
from a variety of Afncan homelands and have been subordinated to the slavers' will.
Their culture, language, and religion are a heterogeneous mix of innumerable factors.
Before capture they were The Primitive-possibly The Savage; now, considering their
status as chatte1 to the plantation owners, the slaves' very presence on the human link of
the Great Chain of Being is in jeopardy. Still, Ligon's depiction of the slaves is most like
depictions of The Savage with some minor variations 1 will discuss in their place.
Nonetheless, we can sense the beginnings of another human construct mon to emerge in
force: The Slave.
 Deity, whom they c d the Great Captain, and say he is angry, when there
happens any Storm of Thunder and Lightnkg. They pay some Worship to
the Sun and Moon, and when she shines at NÏght, dance and revel, in
Honour of her. (2: 7 1)

Cooke makes similar remarlcr regarding the unconverted natives of Guam (2: 17-8).

Cowley's cornrnents on the Hottentots conau with Cooke's (36) as do Ovington's

(284).2U Dampier concedes that Hottentot lumu revelries 4clooktas if they had some

Superstition about it," but he rernains unconvinceci that the rites are religious because he

recognizes none of the trappings he expects, "no Temple nor Idol, nor any Place of

Worship" (W 361)." Dampier earüer had fa& a similar dilemma in his first encounter

with the Australians--7 did not perceive that they did worship any thing" (W 3 14)-but

his stay in that country was extremely short. His unwilluigness to perceive religious

content in ceremonial rites is preferable to Cooke's credulous repetition of sensational

legends of the pre-Inan Peruvians. Cooke writes that these ancient wild people

worshiped "Plants, Trees, Flowers, Hills, Rocks, and Stones, and particularly, in the

Province of Puerto Viejo, they worshipp'd Emerauds," and some sacrificed humans and

some their own children (1 : 207). When face to face with a real contemporary people like

the Baja Californians, Cooke falls back on Dampier's formula: "1 know not what they

worship, unless it be the Sun" (1: 321). The lack of obvious worship among the

Californians is the only point of consternation George Shelvocke feels for them. For him,

their lives are idyllic and their happiness complete but for "the true knowledge of God, and

the right way of worshipping him" (413). This is closer than any of these writers gets to

"'See above page 82.

See Herbert 13.
 165

suggesting The Savage may or should be subject to conversion. To m o a chroniclers of

The Savage, the lack of sophisticated religion or institutionalized beliefs simply

accentuates savage contemptiblenessm

Compounding the contemptible state of The Savage, the Hottentots and other

savages sometimes appear hostile and dangerously proficient with weapons. The latter

assumption signais the perception thaî The Savage, like The Barbarous, are naturally

endowed with animai-like s u ~ v askills

l and physical prowess. Cooke finds the
Hottentots "extraordinarily dextrous" with bows and %Id enough arnongst themselves7"

but they avoid engagements with fireanns "unless it be in very wet Weather, when they

think they may be out of Order" (2: 71-2)-a wise policy. Rogers, who rarely shows

sympathy for The Savage refiises to land at Tacmes, South America, because he has

heard that the natives are brutal warriors (259). He never tries the Indians' viciousness

because the presumption of brutality is discouragement enough. Sometimes the

presumption of hostile encounters with The Savage can lead to disastrous situations. The

admiralty commissioned Dampier's 1699 mission to New HoIIand (the Austral Region,

Terra Aust ralis Incognit a, or, now, Australia) specifically as a voyage of exploration-a

peculiar bird, indeed. Dampier, the buccaneer, had accidentally visited Australia once

before (described in NY 3 12-5), but now as a legitimate pioneer and captain of the

Roebuck, he was to head there to make observations and improve English maps (Spencer

23)? The mission, culrninating with the rickety Roebuck sinking off Ascension, was a

UO On his problems with converting a particular Barbadian dave, see Ligon 50-1.

=' The Dutch had conducted most explorations of Australia and hoarded their
information-hence, the narne 'Wew Holland." Glyndwr Williams in her 'Wew Holland to
South Wales" observes that Dampier's orders nom the admiraity were "self-composed"
failure in many ways, not the least of which were the ümited encounters with the

Australian natives. James Spencer, though, emphasizes that in Dampier's voyage "for the

first time a deeper scientSc dimension had been incorporateci" than in previous

geographical efforts (29). While Spencer is correct, the engagement of the Australians is

anything but scientific. After first maLing Australia, Dampier decides to capture a native

so he "might learn where they got their fiesh Water," and one of Dampier's men chases a

group of natives, whom he hopes to overtake. When the natives stop running and tum to

engage his cutlass with their lances, the man is ovewhelmed and wounded on the cheek

(1O 1-2). Eventually, with the natives hurling lances, yeUing "Po& Pooh, Pwh," and

challenging the Britons, Dampier fires and wounds one. Dampier may have been "very

sorry for what had happened already" (102), but clearly British contempt and fear of The

Savaçe contributed to his rash assault. As it is, Dampier learns little of the ~ustralians.~~'

Of course, not al1 of The Savage seemed hostile even when they are physical

marvels. Magellan's sailors claimed to have enwuntered giants in Patagonia, and Rogers

repeats one of these reports (110-1). Although such claims had been discredited by that

time, legends of the giant Patagonians illustrate the fantastic element of constmcts of The

Savaçe? With a trace of animal nature, writers admired The Barbarous variously for

their health and endurance, their bravery, their eyesight, their swifhess, and their sense of

(127). For the actual orders see "Letters and Papers7' in John Masefield's edition of
Dampier 3 Voyages 33 1.

'" Dampier's encounters with the Australians are revisited in Gttlliver s.' Trovels.
After leaving Houyhnhnmiand in 1715 and making landfdl on "the South-Ebst Point of
New-Halla~ld,"Guliiver with no provocation is chased and shot with an arrow (284). It iç
as though Gulliver's Australians sought revenge for Dampier's earlier confrontation.
253
See Cooke 1:40. For an encounter with real Patagonians, see Wood 67; see
also Bulwer, 508.
direction-skills arnplified in descriptions of The ~ a v a g e ?

Still, The Savage were far less carefiiily observed than The Barbarous, and some

feats are more imaginary than r d . The swimrning abiüties of The Savage ment special

mention. Ligon details a water "sportw the Barbadian slavers engaged their Afncan slaves

in on some Sundays. This event involves men and women d i h g into a pond to capture

ducks floating on the surface. The task requim great a@ty and starnina, and Ligon

delights in the display (52-3). More sensitive than most, he ensures us that the slaves

enjoy themselves, which is no surprise considering the rigors of their existence on other

, instance, 48). On the other side of the continent, Rogers writes

days of the week ( ~ efor

of the Baja Californians,

Some of our Sailon told me they saw one of 'em dive with his instrument
[a spear or harpon], and whilst he was under Water put up his Striker
with a Fish on the Point of it, which was taken off by another that watch'd
by him on a Bark Log. (3 15)

Rogers tests the Indians' ski11 by having them retrieve "some rusty KMves7' he has thrown

overboard--"an extraordinary Proof of their Agility" (3 15). Rogers mistrust of his own

sailors' reports are in keeping with his strong contempt for the natives. Fourteen years

later, Shelvocke descnbes the Baja Caüfornians in much more sympathetic terms. He too

witnesses "a remarkable instance" of the natives' s w i d n g skills when the Indians

capture a giant ray offshore (414). The difference in tone between Rogers' and

Shelvocke's treatment of these particular Californians is ~onsiderable.~'

Cooke treats the

For instance Ovington 287.

Philip Edwards in his study of the shipboard aspects of sea narratives (me Story
of the Voyage)refers to "Shelvocke' s breathtaking misrepresentations" and his penchant
for "romancing or misrepresenting the facts" (10'49; o n Shelvocke as an "embetzler," see
O.H.K. Spate, MonopIi~lsmdFreeboo1ers213and 3831127).Edwards does not
Californians only briefly, and his tone is much more generous than his fellow-privateer

Rogers' but less ebullient than Shelvocke's. For instance, Cooke describes the Indians as

"very dexterous at striking" fish and "excellent Marks-men" with their bows and arrows

(1 : 320)' but he is far more interested in descniing the natives' instruments for t h e x

activities than describing the natives themselves.~Perhaps as a substitute for inadequate

text, Cooke includes high-quality illustrations of the CaIifomians, their tools, the

topography, and the fauna and gives much more d*ailed descriptions of fish and birds

than he does of people.

Aithough none of the three writer-captains stayed more than a few days in Baja

Califomia, the natives that Cooke, Rogers (despite himself), and Shelvocke portray are a

friendly, generous people. Rogers wraps up his study in a few pages, but Shelvocke, who

is quite taken with these people, devotes weli over a dozen, including two detailed and

dynamic illustrations of the men and women he encountered. Shelvocke does not address

the illustrations in his text, and the pnnts themselves include only vague captions. For his

part, Rogers dismissively h t e s , "Ti11 now we thought the Spaniards had Missionaries

mention the Baja Californians since he does not concern his study with land narratives.
His denunciation of Shelvocke (48-52) consists of meagerly supported accusations based
primarily upon the daims of a disgnintled Shelvocke underling-William Betagh, whose
Voyage round the WorId appeared in 1728-and some textual evidence. That Shelvocke's
performance as captain was substandard is clear even fkom his own narrative, and
Edwards is accurate in identifjing SheIvocke's "romancing" tendency (rnost manifest in
the Califomia episode). Still, Edwards' argument is thin and unpersuasive, particularly
since he readily accepts Betagh's accusations while dismissing William Fumel's charges
against Darnpier-A Voyage round fkW d d (1 7O7)-as "repulsive" (40). Dampier was
likely a worse captain than Shelvocke. 1treat neither Fumel's nor Betagh's narratives
because they were both personal attacks on more important authors. Besides, Betagh's
book appeared two years adter the publication of GuJJiwr LF Travels.

216 See 3204,322.

among those People, but they king quite naked, having no sign of European

Commodities, nor the least Word of Spanish; we conclude they are quite savagen (284).

and Shelvocke includes an illconceaied reptoof of Rogers ("One of our late Navigators"):

"1 can't tell how that Gentleman and his People treated them" (408).

Rogers' disdain for the Indians is no doubt heightened by his lack of petsonal

contact (he did not leave his ship) a d by his M e assumptions. For instance, Rogers

limits his comments on native govenunent to "They paid a sort of Respect to one Man,

whose Head was adom'd with Feathers made up in the Form of a Cap" (3 16). Shelvocke

makes a sirnilar observation (391) but later adds,

It is impossible for me to say any thing in particular of their Government;

but this 1 may d e l y atnmi, that it is neither very strict nor ngorous; what
laws they can have amongst them rnay be reduced to very narrow bounds
where justice can have no employ but to revenge murder, which I am
perswaded they are never wiKUy guilty of. (4 13)

Shelvocke's biased speculation offers a sharp contrast to Rogers' uninformed disregard.

As for governrnent among The Savage in general, few writen address the topic, and then

they limit themselves to sirnilar observations of a stand-out chiefiain?' These

observations may have been accurate, but their accuracy would ody have been fortuitous

because they rely upon the assumption ttiat savage society would consist of tribal units

under the nile of a strongman.

Since most writers portrayeci The Savage as irredeemably brutal, Shelvocke's

assumption is that his Californians are passively good-natured is unique to the literature of

The Savage. His assumption is cousin-geman to the Noble Savage or Idealized Primitive

construct. While The Barbarous can appear noble (as in Gay's Polly), The Savage, so far

On the Hottentots, see Cwke 2: 7 1;on the Australians, Dampier, NH 102.

removed from The Civilized, are never better than (and only rarely) charmingly simple.

Always proud of his men's restraint, Rogers notes the timidness of the Californians:

We suppose they w a e rfnid to let any of their young ones corne near us.
but needed not; for besides the g d Orda we kept among our Men in that
respect, if we may judge by whaî we saw,they could not be very tempting.
(3 14)

Although his typically sneering toiie at the end dominates this passage, the shyness of

these '%Id Indians" impresses Rogers (284). Contrast his modest reference t o the

passivity of the natives with Shelvocke's impasioned admiration. Shelvocke entices the

timorous natives aboard (388) to regale their "genteel" leader and his people with "liquid

sweeîmeats," "the choicest Peruvian conserves." He carefÙHy observes that "the spoons,

which were mostly silver, they retum'd with great honesty, which they would doubtless

have done had they been gold, the value of those metals being, (and perhaps always will

be) unknown to them" (392). Although Shelvocke does express some apprehension at the

number of Indians (394-5) and fires five guns at departure "That we might appear as awfiil

to them as possible," he enthusiastically adds that "upon seeing our sails loosed, there was

an universal damp upon their spirits, which rnight be easily perceived by the lively sorrow

that was painted upon al1 their countenances" (398).

Shelvocke' s tone throughout is of benign condescension. He certainly enjoyed his

stay with the Californians but as one enjoys the wmpany of playhi1 children who share

their food and "go most by pairs, hand in hand" (406).= in an echo of Shaftesbury's

belief that explorers conupt natives and in an anticipation of Swift's Houyhnhnms,

Ligon expresses a similar parental m i o n for the black slaves of Barbados.

See, for instance, 49 and 50. Ligon did not own slaves, though, and the slave owners
have a much more pragrnatic regard for their property (see 50-1; on the economic
rationalization of slavery's immorality, see Dabydeen 28).
Shelvocke expounds upon the Colifornians,

In a word, they seem to pass th& lives in the purest shplicity of the
earliest ages of the world, before discord and contention were heard of
amongst Men. They as yet have never been tainted by the conversation or
intercourse of other nations, which might have pervated the innocence of
their mords, and have neva had their spirits chafèd by the oppressions of a
Conqueror, who by exercising cruelties over them, might have taught them
to delight in barbarity, as has happen'd to the Indians of Mexico and Pem,
who doubtless had their notions of inhumanity greatly augrnented by the
Spaniards [. . .]. As yet these Californians may be said to act according to
the dictates of Nature, whilst We act contrary to the jusî remosutrances of
our reason. (407-8)

Shelvocke imagines he has discovered the most natural humans whose "careless life" is

uncomplicated and unmrrupted by The Civilized (406). His imocent children live in an

Edenic world, fiee fiom "Luxury and Pnde" (406)-a r d departure fiom other portrayals

of The Savage. Implicit in his sentimental longing is a condemation of the decadence of

The Civilized, but he never conveys a sense that his readers should or could mode1 their

Iives upon those of the Califoniians. These people are not Gay's Cawwawkee, whose

denunciation of The Civilized offers an alternative to English hypocrisy. Cawwawkee is a

paragon. Shelvocke's Californians are temporai constmcts, the residue of anciently

yielded purity. To be sure, his bnef apprehension-finng waming guns-belies his

nostaigia, but he finally relishes his fantasy as the natives reiish his fniit preserves. Al1 the

while he must reaiize, dong Shaftesburian lines, that his very presence is the sort of

corrupting influence that wiil destroy this Edenic world.

Also, there is a downside to idyllic existence: fewer wants require less industry,

that burgeoning Bntish virtue. The perception of sloth among The Savage-idyllic or not-

--is even more pronounced than among The bu bar ou^.^^ Rogers detects native indolence

259 See above 138-139.

among the Californians right away:

They appear'd to be very idle, and seem to look &er no more than a
present Subsistance. They stood and look'd upon Our Men very
attmtively, while they cut Wood and W'd Wateq but did not care to lend
us a Hand at either, or indeed to do any thing that requû'd hard Labour.
(3 16)

But Rogers gives no reason the natives should help his men, who are d e r d l invaders of

the Indians' world. Rogers has done nothing for the Californians. He offers nothing and

he expects nothing, and, for the moa part, his expectations are well met. Oddly this dl

disappoints him. Shelvocke, who has welcorned and entertained the natives, has a

different experience among them:

They, at first, prov'd to be idle lookers on, till their naîural compassion for
the few of my men, whom they saw roliing of great casks of water over the
heavy sand in the sultry heat of the day, enclin'd them to help us, together
with the kind treatment they met from us, and the particular readiness of
their Chief to sente us [. . -1. (395)2M

Despite his general patronking tone, Shelvocke is open to developing a relationship with

the natives. He may not count on them to help his men, who are far more beleaguered at

this point in their joumey than Rogers', but he recognizes that a little kindness on his part

wiU eam the Indians' good will. Such exchanges with The Savage seem beyond Rogers'

grasp, and he imagines they shou!d help because he thinks himself superior. Shelvocke's

Californians are not the swarthy mbes Rogers takes them for: Shelvocke writes that so

long as there was "a white face to assist them, who, if he did but touch it with his finger, it

+M Contradicting Roger's report, Cooke mentions that the Californians "were

willing to assist us in filling our Watei' (321). Although he was part of Rogers' little
fleet, Cooke commanded a different ship and therefore his interactions with the natives
would be wholly autonomous. If Cooke received help nom the "lazy" natives Rogers
describes, we may wonder dong with Shelvockejust how Rogers and his men treated the
Catifornians.
 173

was sufficient encouragement for them to presetrvere in their labour [. . .]" (395). These

people are appreciative and kind, but they are not the naturai-bom servants of white-

Nor are the aborigines of AustrPlia m o n t s for cheap hire. Dampier, in his first

visit to Australia cornplains that &er the natives warmed up to the Europeans, and the

sailon "cloathed some of them, designing to have had some service of them for it" (W

3 15), the natives do not reciprocate. in exchange for "an old pair of Breeches," "a ragged

Shin," and "a Jacket that was -ce worth owning," the buccaneen hoped to have help

hauling barrels of water. Dampier remarks that the "finery" provided by the sailors

"would have been very acceptable at some places where we had been," but the Australians

just "stood there like Statues, without motion." Ironically, while expenential and

imaginary travel writers commonly scoff at The Barbarous and The Savage for accepting

sailors' scraps in exchange for goodq labor, good will, and sex, Dampier scoffs at the

Australians for just the opposite. Foreign stuEfor which they have no use just does not

impress the aborigines. In fact, Dampier marvels that they did not "seem to admire any

thing we had." Like a scolding parent trying to shame a child into action, Dampier writes,

"these poor Creatures seem not accustomeci to carry Burthens; and 1believe that one of

our Ship-boys of 10 Years old, would carry as much as one of them." With marked

contempt, Dampier describes them as grinning "iike so many Monkeys, staring one upon

anothef' (3 15). SimiIarly, in southernrnost Afiica, Dampier's disgust at the seeming

inactivity of the "'Nottanfofs" causes him uncharacteristically to cut shon a digression:

, are a l a q sort of People, and though they

As for these H o t ~ t o t sthey
live in a delicate Country, very fit to be manured, and where there is Land
enough for them, yet they choose rather to live as their Forefathers, poor
and miserable, than be at Pains for Plenty. And so much for the
 Hotfantots: 1 shalf now retum to our own Mairs. (W 362)

Rogers similarly cornplains that the "Hoieniotf are so ide that the Dutch have to import

slaves from Madagascar for plantation work: "for the Wotentots, who are very numerous,

and love their Liberty and Ease so much, that they cannot be brought to work. even tho

they should starve" (419)."' But according to travel writers, the Hottentots do not need

to labor rnuch for basic survival. Dampier writes that some keep cattle and that they

gather herbs and shellfish ( W 3 6 û ) , and Rogers notes that "there is nothing wanting at the

Cape of G d Hope,for a good Subsistmce" (420). Ovington had earlier catalogued the

natural bounty available to the Hottentots and concluded, "there is no need of Work, when

such innocent Diet offers it self daily without Pains, and on which they can live without

Care" (289). He also notes that the few Hottentots who do work are "made Slaves of by

the Dutch, and imploy'd in al1 servile Drudgeries." As promising as this is, though, "their

Native Inclination to Idleness and a careless Lie, will scarce admit of either Force or

Rewards for reclaiming them from that innate Lethargick humour" (288). Still, Ovington

is an optimist, and he rejoices that "the Governour of the Fort, and several h f c h

Inhabitants of the Town prevail upon some of them, and make converts of them to labour

and hardships" (289). While Dampier and Rogers denounce the relatively easy life of The

Savage, there is a t i n t of envy in their complaints, the envy more fully expressed by

Ovington?

26 1
See Cooke 2: 70; on the going rates for Hottentot services, see Dampier, W
361.

262 Just before he expresses his admiration for "The Industry of the Hoilanders" in
"this Delightfbl Fertile Cqpe," Ovington concludes his remafks on the bbH~fantots":
Thus the Hotanfofs have degenerated into the strangest kind of Rationals,
and have successively surviv'd the Noble and cornmon Instincts of
 One can also sense the frustration of the writers as they struggle to comprehend

the breakdown in the give and take they have corne t o accept as a "natural" human

process. The lack of avarice among his Californians impresses Shelvocke: "when any of

us gave any thing that was eatable t o m y one of them in particular, he always divided it

into as many shares as there were persons about him, and comrnoniy reserv'd the least for

hixnself" (406). But such behavior is uiathema t o British expectations. Rogers writes of

the same people, "when they exchang'd Fish with us for old Knives, of which we had

plenty, they gave the Knives t o any that stood next, and after they had enough, we could

get no Fish from them" (3 16). Simiiarfy, 'We gave one of the Natives a Shirt, but he soon

tore it in pieces, and gave it t o the rest of his Company t o put the Seeds in which they us'd

for Bread" (3 17). Whiie he could not condemn such charitable behavior, Rogers, like

Shelvocke, irnagined such universal sharing as rather b i e ? The nonpossesiveness of

the Ca!ifomjans is the precise opposite of the core practices of pirates and traders.

Dampier expresses hstration when he and his shipmates cannot placate the Australians

with trinkets and junk (see, also, Wood 67), but part of The Savage construct is an

Humanity; but in their Innocence of Life, the Customs of the Ancient

Britains did in many things resemble the Inhabitants o f this Promontory, in
their drinking Water, and the simplicity of their Food, which was upon
A c m s or Berries, o r such natural Productions; sometirnes upon Milk, or
what they could gain by Hunting. A great part of their Bodies too was
uncover'd, especially their Arrns and Legs, and their Cloathing was the
same with that of the Hotmtots, made generally of the Skins of Beasts.
(289)
Hence, Ovington generously constructs the Hottentots temporally and holds out hope that
they will some day delight in the tedium of labor as vigorously as his own people.

ZQ Cooke makes no observations of the Californians' disposition of possessions,

but he does remark that the people "seem'd very civil, trucking with us for any Thing they
had" (320; also 321), a factor that settles them closer t o The Barbarous.
indiifference toward most C i v i l i i possessions and toward al Civilized luxuries. The

Savage value only what they can use, such as the hiives the Californians accept.

In contrast to other examples of The Savage and despite theu status as near-

animal, the Hottentots have much in cornmon with The Civilized. The Hottentots'

proxirnity to settlements of The Civiiized contnbutes to a perception of superficial

commonality. Likely these traits w a e always present in the Hottentots and in al1 nie

Savage, but constant contact with the Hottentots made the Atncans more familiar to

Europeans than were other savage peoples. Primarily, the Hottentots indulge in

significant trading and willingly barter cattle for "strong Waters, Tabacco, and any Sort of

Beads" (Cooke 2: 71; alx, Dampier, W360)." Of course, after cattle, the major

Hottentot commodity for trade is s e x d Idventure. Cooke condemns their "Lust and

Debauchery" and gripes that "for a Dutch Doubleke" the wornen will display their bodies

"to the waggish Saiion, that ask them" (2: 70; dso Herbert 15). Cowley openiy describes

a simple cornmodity-for-sex transaction at Good Hope:

This day came down four of the Natives of the Place; they (being the
foulest Men that ever 1 saw) dancing Naked, and shaking their Privy Parts,
with an offer to the Hollmdes, that they should lye with their Wives for a
bit of rolled Tobacco. (33; see 35 )

More appalling to Cowley is that the ' ' H d a n d d men do not recognize class

distinctions when prostituting their wives:

If a Slave of the Ir)utch] Companies should have a Mind to have Carnal

Knowledge of one of their Women, let him but give her Husband a bit of
Tobacco-Roll of about three Inches long, he will fetch her forthwith to the
Slave, and cause her to lye with him. (36)

Nonetheless, the Hottentots do express scruples: "They are Men not given to the least

On the general lack of Afncan trade, see Jordan 27.

 177

Jealosie, yet they will beat their Wives ifthey lye with the Hadmm&& themselves; But

they value it not for them to do it with any M a n of another Nation" (36). Such arbitrary

scruples offend the anglocentric n o m of the sailors.

Besides senial trade among the Hottentots, the sexuality of The Savage receives

little exploration. Ovington notes that ody the ''Chier of the Hottentots "may entertain

three Wsves at once" while the rest are mowgamous (287). Cooke repeats reports of

violent male-dominated senial anarchy in pre-Incan P m (1: 2054,208), but, other t han

his vague reference to vices and 'Zust and Debauchery" among the Hottentots (2: 70) and

the unelaborated statement that among the Hottentots "Every Man has as many Wives as

he can maintain, which are debauch'd by others before they marry them" (2: 71)' he does

not treat the sexuality of The Savage?' Ligon mentions the chastity and jealousy of

(male) Afncan slaves of Barbados and adds, "And if any of their Wives have two Children

at a birth, they conclude her false to his Bed, and so no more adoe but hang her" (47)--an

event no doubt displeasing to the slave owners. Certainly, though, the behavior of slaves

coilected from diverse peoples in western Anica stands apart from other constmcts of The

Savage. Again, the little contact voyagen had with The Savage would limit knowledge of

sexuality. Cooke's cornrnents on the precivilized Penivians suggest an assumption of

licentiousness and sexual brutality, but usuaily writers do not broach the issue of sex.

While some sailors apparently had sema1 relations with The Savage, travel writers

linger over pronouncements of personal distaste for the minimal clothing, ornamentation,

and general appearance of The Savage. R e d , for instance,Rogers' densive remark that

"'Contrasting details such as between Ovington's and Cooke's obsenations are

attributable to several factors: among than, personal bias, credibility of sources,
differences among peoples, misinterpretations, faulty mernories, etc.
his men were restrained in Baja California because the Californians "could not be very

tempting" (3 14)? Most descriptions of the m d e or scanty garb of The Savage are

indistinguishable fiom those of The Barbamus and just as distanced fiom the elaborate

costumes of The Civilized or The Exotic. While the Hottentots adorn themselves 4 t h

determined elaborateness that rivals The C i v i i i i , their raiment is crude and repulsive.

They have "a Sort of Taylon, who sew the SUm they wear togethe?' (Cooke 2: 72). and

they oil their bodies with "the worst of Kitchen-stuff," a cornmon practice in Atnca

(Dampier. W 359).= Cowley d a i m the Hottentots are bom white "but make

themselves Black with Sut, and besmear their Bodies all over, so that by frequent

Repetition their Skins become almost as black as a Negro's" (35; also Cooke 2: 69-70).

Almost everyone mentions the strong odor (Cwke 2: 70; Cowley 35; Dampier, W 3 5 8 ;

Herbert 15; Ovington 287; Rogers 420). Cooke concisely describes the Hottentot

wardrobe:

They Wear raw Guts about their Necks and Legs, which look like
Puddings, having much Ordure in them, and these serve both for Food and
Ornament, being eaten by them raw as they are, and filthy, when tender 'd
by being almost rotten. Others wear greasy Thongs of stinking Leather.
The Women and better Sort of Men Wear generally a nasty untann'd Hide,
or a Sheep's Skin, or that of any other Beast, the haery Side next them, and
hanging about their Shoulders, Which k i n g rubbe'd over with Grease and
Ordure, they stink aborninably. The Women wind Sheeps Guts about their
Legs, which at a Distance look like Rolls of Tabacco, and about their
Middle have a Skin with a Flap hanging down before, sometimes with
Beads in it, which serves to hide what Modesty forbids to be seen. (2: 70)

Other writers concur with Cooke's catalogue in whole or part (Cowley 33, 35; Dampier,

266 See above page 170; also Cooke 1: 323.

267 See Rogers 420 and Ovington 286-7.

W 359-60; Herbert 14-5; m g t o n 286-7.289; Rogers 420)? Most of the evidence

supporting the degations of Hottentot brutidmess centen on the implicit contrast

between their crude rmi-edible appud and Mdious English sarioriai standards.

Ovington even briefly burlesques English fmhion at the expense of the Hottentots:

"Stinking Grease is their sweet Oii, and the Dust of the Streets the Powder oftheir Hair"

(287), and Dampier sirnilarly States that the soot and grease the Hottentots mb on their

faces "adds to their natural Beauty, as Painting does in Europen (W358). Of course, the

eiaborate raiment of the Hottentots is unique among The Savage, who generaily escape

such minute scrutiny. John Wood's account of the Patagonians provides more

conventional attire for The Savage: "As for the Apparel of the Savages, they have no

other, but Mantles made of Deer-Skins sewed together, wherein they wrap themselves up,

"The tradition of Hottentot women with distendeci genitaiia hanging down like
"aprons" really took hold in a later p e n d and was set by the infamous tour of the
"Hottentot Venus" of the nineteenth cenhiry. Still ancient rumors about the grotesque
genitals of distantly foreign women were prevdent. In A Tale of a Tub,Swift's Taler cites
Ctesias on "the Indian Pygmies; whose Stature did not exceed above two Foot; Sed
qrmwrn pdenrla c r m , & ad talos usque phgentid' (But aiso whose pudenda are
gross and extend al1 the way to their d e s ; 147). There is also a remarkable resemblance
between the edible entrails wrapped around Hottentot women's thighs and a bluntly
derisive passage in the anonymous A Trip to Ireland
[T]hey have a way of rnaking a Soupe, beyond al1 the French Potfuges in
Vogue; the way is thus, A M e of the better sort, having had the good
Fortune to boii a piece of very fat Pork,till a great part of it is mn into an
Oil swirnming on the top, she arips of her Smock, dips it therein til! it has
soaked up al1 the Grease; then puts it on her Body, and so wûus it some
days to Smoothen her Skin,and supple her Joint5 now if aflemards there
be occasion, and no store of other Provision about the Cabban, off cornes
this anointed Garment again, which being boiled in clear Water, and a little
Outmeal, and a srnall Fa- of Herbs; the melted Fat, and those other
Ingredients will be converied into a most savoury Mess of Irish Smack
& r d ,and then 'tis done in a Dish. (Rpt. in Ward, Five TruveZ Scripts 3:
7)
Like the Hottentots' entrails, the Irish wncoction is not fit for The Civilized to eat or to
Wear. Similady, Cowley compares Hottentot huts with those of the "wild Irish" (35).
and need no other Covering" (67).= As with The Barbarous, the minimal or nonexistent

clothing of The Savage is one of their most obvious disparities from The Civilizedm

Along with clothing, we should consider the presentation of the tools housing, and

crafts of The Savage. Treatments of such are minimol and seem mostly intended to

convey the wretched status of the peopk. Typical is Ovington's description of Hottentot

habitations:

The Huts they dweli in, which are d e of Bul-Rushes, or Branches of

Trees, are fashion'd round almost like a Beehive, reaching about five Foot
high, and nine broad, with a s d l Parsage in the side to creep in at, and a
Hole in the rniddle for the Fire. (287)n'

Dampier mistakes termite mounds for Australian houses before deciding that the

Australians have no houses or technology (hrH 100 and 103; also NY 3 13). The

Californians live in Wuts made of Boughs of Trezs and Rads, built like a Bowe?' (Cooke

1: 3 191, and ride crude "bark-logs" (Shelvocke 410). They also use spears or harpoons

that greatly fascinate Cooke; in fact, he descnbes them in detail and depicts them in plates

f69 See Cooke 1: 206-7, 3 18, and 383; Dampier, W 3 13; Rogers 62, 1 15-6, 3 14,
and 323; Shelvocke 391 and 405. The nakedness or semi-nakedness of The Savage is so
predictable that in his Voyage tu New HolhmiDampier never even mentions how or if the
Australians dress. Earlier, in Nov Voyoge, they wear a crude loin cavering (3 13).
noRelated to clothing is how The Savage mutilate, paint, or otherwise omament
their bodies. As with clothing, descriptions are mundane and not quantifiably different
from those of The Barbarous, so I will not treat them here. See Cooke 2: 70 and 71;
Cowley 35 and 36; Dampier, W 3 5 8 - 9 ; hW 102; Herbert 14-5; Ovington 287-8; Rogers
63; and Shelvocke 404-5. Most remarkable is that Hottentot men supposedly have one
testicle removed as boys (see Bulwer 354). Every chronicler of Good Hope 1 have cited
mentions this mutilation, except Rogers, who feels that the Hottentots have "been so
fiequently descnb'd by others," and so accurately, that he can contnbute no more details.
As it is, he oniy devotes one paragraph to these people (420). Ovington adds that the
women and "some fond Indulgent Husbands" ciip a finger at the joint when they marry or
remarry (287; also Cowley 35).

*" See Cowley 34-5; Dampier, W 3 6 û .

 181

dong with their raAs and bows and arrows (320-2; also Shelvocke 4 10). Rogers mentions

"Their Knives made of Sharks Teeth, and a few other of their Curiosities," which he has

kept "to shew what Shiffs rnay be maden (285). Despite Rogers' predictable disdain,

Cooke's fascination with the Californians' tools is small wonder since, as he depicts them,

these creations were well made and weil handled. Still, in terms of technology The

Barbarous had a decided edge over The Savage.

Somewhat dEerent from theu portrayals of The Barbarous, The English indelibly

paint The Primitive as unseemly dark. Whereas the complexion of The Barbarous ranges

from tawny to copper-colorexi (see above page 118) and The Exotic range from pale to

"tawny" (see note 93), The Savage range 6om the "Olive Complexion" of the Patagonians

(Wood 67; also Rogers 115) to the "Coal-black" Australians (Dampier, AW 3 13). In

short, the further removed a people are £rom The Civilized, the darker their skin? While

it is true that the present-day concept or wnstnict of race would not emerge until afler

Swift's time, we can see skin color emerging as a critical masure of a people's status and

of their distance fkom The Civilized. As 1 have stated already, complexion--unlike

behavior, beliet dress, or even other physicai traits-is difficult to conceal and virtually

impossible to alter. By mid-century, skin color would become the most prominent

determinant in Limæus' classification of the racesm Travel writers allowed complexion

Rogers' instant animosity toward the Native Californians may be based on

appearance since he describes them as "of a much blacker Complexion than any other
People that 1 had seen in the South Seas" (3 14). Cooke paints them with a "dark brown
Complexion" (1 : 320), and Shelvocke, typically more exact, maintains they have "good
countenances, but of a much darker complexion than any Inàicnts 1 saw in these seas,
these being of a deep copper colour" (404).
Y" See Hannaford 204.
to influence the placement of peoples on an informai Great Chain of Human Beings with

the light-skinned autornatically a the top of the chain ind the gradations of darkness

trading away toward the darkest b ~ t t o m . ~The

* Hottentots, as usual, were the -test

oddity in this regard. Both Cooke and Cowley beiiew that the Hottentots are bom light-

skimed and rub themselves with grease and soot to dye theV skin permanently dark."

No human behavior couid be more perverse to the English mind. To make oneself

pemanently darker is to chume to distance oneselffiom the paleness of The C i v i W . It

is to degrade oneseifon purpose, to reject one's own humanity or at least besmirch it.

Complexion helps determine status; it marks class distinctions and marks global human

distinctions.

Other physical traits associateci with The Savage Vary fiom the grotesque to the

admirable. Recalling Renaissance aesthetics and anticipating Blumenbach's aesthetic

methodology, Ligon formalizes physique. in a description of the Afiican slaves on

Barbados he writes,

for the men, they are very well timber'd, that is, broad between the
shoulders, fiili breasted, well filleted, and c l a n leg'd and may hold good
with Albert Durers rules, who d o w e s twice the length of lhe head, to the
breadth of the shoulders, and twice the length of theface, to the breadth of
the hips, and according to this rule these men are shap'd. But the women
not; for the same great Master of Proportions, ailowes to each woman,
twice the length of the face to the breadth of the shoulders, and twice the
length of her own head to the breadth of the hips. And in that, these

"'As important as skin color was to the English, complexion and ongin were an
obsession for the Spanish and Portuguese. Rogers rninutely elucidates the generative
distinctions maintained by the people of "Guiaquif." He concludes, "These 1 1 are the
cornmon Sorts, tho' some of 'em seern not very regularly distinguish'd: But they have
rung Changes so often in those Peds of Generations, that there is no End of their
Distinctions" (203-4).
See above page 178.
 women are faulty; for I have seen very few of them, whose hips have been
broader than theù shoulders, unless they have been very fat?

Ligon's disapproval of the fernale daves' proportions in relation to Durer's "des" does

not neutraiiie his obvious fondness for dark-skinned women, and he continues his

assessrnent with r tribute to the young slaves' breasts (5 l)? Ligon's erudition and his

sema1 tastes are unusual for voyagers. On the other hand, his generalizations based upon

singular examples are quite unexceptionai. Although "Nature pleases her self as well in

the variety of Individuals of the same kind, as in a great number of Species of ai1 sorts of

Animals" (Ovington 284), authors fhquently dictate the features of a people without

accounting for individual distinction. Otten, though, voyagers do not agree in their

judgments. Herbert describes the Hottentots as "well limrned and prope?' (14) while

Cooke vaguely comrnents, "their Limbs (are] indiierently well made" (2: 70). Dampier

finds the people "of a middle Stature, with small Limbs and thin Bodies, full of activity"

(NV 3581, and Cowley reduces Hottentot physique to ''Nasty Bodies" (3 5; also Rogers

420). Herbert's is clearly the rninority opinion. And although Cooke detests the

'"On Blumenbach's and later aesîbetic theones of race, see Schiebinger 131-3.
2nNonetheless, maturer slave women disappoint Ligon: on the distortion of slave
wornen's bodies by the pressure of children tyed to their backs, see above 124. Behavioral
explanations of physical features were cornmon in the period. Cooke, for instance, claims
the Hottentots' noses were "flat, because crush'd down in their Infancy" (2: 70), but
others noted that Hottentots did not have such flat noses (Dampier, W 3 5 8 ; Ovington
284). Edward Tyson specifically discounted such environmentai explanations of physical
feahires (Orang-Oufang9). On the other hand, Bulwer strongly advocated environmental
causes; on "Pap-Fashions" and elongated breasts see 3 10-2; on flattening infants' noses,
see 124-5; on environmental, internai, and cosmetic sources of complexion, see 466-72.
In his Mechanical Operoion, Swift cites Hippocrates on the "Macr~cephalr"~ or "Long-
headr' whose conical heads were originaily shaped in infancy by the efforts of "Midwives
and Nurses." Eventually the "Long&& were bom as such and needed "no Assistance
from the Nurse's Hand" (Tale 268; aiso Bulwer 1-8 and 13). Bulwer compares the
longheads to "our Sugar-Iode Hats" (530-1).
 184

Hottentots, he is impressed by the Guam natives, who are "most of them the largest and

the best limb'd Men 1 ever saw, and some of them very hairy and strong" while "The

Women are strait and taii" (2: 17). In C d e ' s assasment, between the physicdy feeble

Hottentots and the hale Guam islanders are the Californians, whose men are merely %trait

and well-limb'd" (1: 3 19-20). Cooke h d s the women unattractive (320 and 323) while

Rogers finds the whole lot of them unappealing and endowed with "large Limbs" (3 14).

Shelvocke's favorable observations of the Californians stand out fiom other presentations

of physical attributes of The Savage. For instance, he writes, "Some of both sexes have

good countenances" (404). His attempt at individuation here is slight but unique among

treatments of The Savage.

Nevertheless, even Shelvocke gives a sweeping treatment of the language of The

Savage. Of the Californians' speech: "Their Language is guttural and harsh to the cor,

they talk'd very much among themselves, but we never could so much as understand one

word" (409). The particulars ifnot the mariner of Shelvocke's account here agree entirely

with Roger's: "The Language of the Natives was as unpleasant to us as their Aspect, for it

was very harsh and broad, and they pronounc'd it so much in the Throat, as if their Words

had been ready to choak them" (3 14). As with al1 The Savage except the Hottentots, the

travelers do not spend enough time with them to leam or express interest in learning any

of their language. Both Rogers and Shelvocke wnsider abducting some Californians (in

Rogers' case) or enticing them aboard ship (in Shelvocke's) to take them to England "that

they might learn our language, and give us some information of their country" (Shelvocke

409; also Rogers 3 14), but the captains drop their rhemes without contemplating the
possibility of leaming the Californian l a n g ~ a g e Apart
. ~ fiom the languages of peoples

gleaned fiom others' reports-such as the "guttural and slow" speech of Sir John

Narborough's Patagonians (Rogers 116) or the "severai" and divisive languages of the

ancient Penivians (Cooke 1: 208)-writers M y ignore most other languages of The

Savage. Behn's remote Surinunese natives "gabble," and she translates a few words, but

the episode is brief (202). The language of the Hottentots receives the most attention but

still not much. Most writers do not botha mentioning Hottentot speech at ail nor do they

note if the natives speak any Dutch or English. Cooke states unhelptiilly that "Their

Language is extremely uncooth to our Ears, as ali their Course of Life is disagreeable" (2:

72). More helpfiilly, Herbert translates twenty Hottentot nouns. The nouns range fiorn

the mundane,

AM e ,D r q
A QuiIl, Gtmsaco.
A Hat, Twubba.

to the prurient,

Mens stones, Wchraej:

The wombe, Wchieep.
Paps, h i g w e .

Oddly he does not include :he Hottentot for "tobacco," supposedly their favorite

cornmodity. Perhaps since it is an entirely foreign product, they have no unique word for

nt Neil Rennie in his Fm-Fetched Facts observes generally, "The literature of

travel to distant, illiterate peoples cornes, by definition, fiom only one side of the world.
Savages speak to us, if at dl, ventriloquially-in our own words" (v). The desire to kidnap
natives and carry them back to Europe to learn one's own language dates back at least to
Columbus (see Gnenblatt 106). Swift subverts this inclination and reverses the savage-
critic topos by having Gulliver adopt the languages and subsequently the perspectives of
his various hosts. Gulliver effectively becornes The Primitive while remaining The
Civilized, a development 1will detail in chap. 9.
 186

tabacco. Significantly, Herbert translates only one Hottentot word, a v i d summary of

travelers' lirnited expectations:

Give me, Quoy. (1 6)

The perceived burden of the English tnveler among The Savage is always to give and

rarely to receive. ûenerally, the prime imperah of the Engüsh t r a d e r was mercantile

impenalism, and travelers fil1 their reports with appraisals of trade and colonial prospects.

Swift parodies colonial appraisals by having Cidiver openly weigh the possibilities of

conquering the lands he has visited (GT 293-4). Ail The Primitive, indeed dl foreigners,

over time had land to offer but straightaway could offer sex. The Exotic had also wealth,

knowledge, technology, and goods among other things. The Barbarous had provisions,

skiils, some wares, labor, and pliable heathen souls. The Savage had really nothing of

practical interest to The Civilized-nothing, that is, but land, sex, occasional provisions,

and sometirnes forced labor. The Savage finally could only take, and such neediness was

the perceived source of irredeemability, even inhumanity, in The Savage. The Savage are

a useless peop!e to The Civilized.

The perception that The Savage are useleu and that their behavior is reactive most

apparently marks the constwa. While The Civilized were usually ready to disparage any

of The Primitive, the relentless contempt The Civilized had for The Savage tainted

everything about them. Shelvocke's Californians stand out as uniquely near-idyllic, and

perhaps if Rogers and Cooke or Shelvocke had spent more time with them, they would
 187

have reconstructed the Californians as The Barbarous-accessible, understandable, and

therefore redeemable. Of course if more fpmiüar, they may not have appeared quite so

idyilic either. The Calirornians are far more engaging to their portrayers than are the

Hottentots and seern more orderly, leos iacomprebensibly reactive. The people themselves

would not have to change at ail to be reconstnicted closer to The Civilized; the shifl

would be the exclusive act of the constniaoro themselves, who would temper their

observations with familias interaction. Still, modifying a people's constnict is no light

rnatter. While slippage within the categorical continuum of each pnmitivist wnstmct (The

Exotic~Barbarous,The Barbarous-Savage, and The SavagewBestial) is inevitable,

slipping among the categories would involve a major alteration in the perceptions of The

Civilized. This alteration could be the result (1 .) of a findamental change in the actual

people considered (for instance, wholesale Christian conversion) or (2.) of some

reformulation entirely in the minds of The Civilized. The reformulation would be due

either (A.) to an abandonment or reworking of the actual categories of constnicts

(however unconscious) or (B.) to a significant recasting of the relationship between The

Civilized and the studied people due to increased contact and other factors.

The categories themselves are, of course, my latter-day ordenng of writers'

portrayals of nonChristian, non-European peoples in Swift's time. At the time words like

barburms, m a g e , and bestial were interchangeable. Exotic meant little more than

foreign or strange (OED). Nonetheless, the categories of construas withstand the

scmtiny of the reader of iravel writing of the period. Each categorical continuum is a

closed vessel, not forged and irnmutable Iike the Links of the Chain of Being, but allowing

for little leakage. Intercategoricai movement toward The Civilized is plausible, but
 188

unlikely. Movement between categories uway fiom The Civilized (that is, degeneration)

would be imperceptibly slow. AAa ail, the constructon would reason, why would a

people move so drastically uway from The Civüizeâ, partidarly since i t would require

abandoning and forgetting human development? Degression is not to be contemplated.

For instance, the baï-rjer between The Exotic and The Barbarous is set and virtually

impenetrable since the knowledge of letters reinforces the barrier. For The Exotic to

become The Barbarous, they would have to eschew knowledge of writing-that is, forget

literacy. For The Barbarous to shift into The Exotic, they would have to learn to write

their own language: not learn to write fiom The Exotic or The Civilized (that would be

imitation or assimilation, an inadequate means of category jumping, as we have seen), but

develop sophisticated letters to accompany their own languages. The bamer between The

Barbarous and The Savage is much more difficdt to perceive. Many superficial markers

(clothing, housing, food, etc.) are sirnilar when not identicai. A lack of the markers of The

Civilized denotes bot h constmcts. The distinction between The Barbarous and The

Savage is partially a matter of degree: a lack of Civilized markers marks The Savage. But

these categories are constructs, arnalgams of essential beings and the interpretations and

expectations of their observers. The observers or constructors have final control of

categories, and ail of the constructors 1 am treating are The Civilized in England in Swift's

time. Their perspective is anglocentric even at its most objective. Their paradigm is

superficially Christian, and their methodology is predorninantly empirical. Conversion and

assimilation of The Primitive are aiways, stated or unstated, an aspiration or expectation of

the constmctor, but the categories of constnicts themselves limit the degree of intent.

Any movement toward The Civilized is more than that; it is an attempt to become
one with The Civilued, or at least becorne in a limited way one of The Civilized, not just

to move nearer. As the closest constnict to The Civilized, The Exotic c m only assimilate,

but as 1 noted already this assimilation is highly uniikely. The very factors that mark The

Exotic construct are the factors that prevmt movement toward The Civiiized. Most

signifïcantly, the fact that The Exotic have sophisticated writing and its products-

scripture, statute, history--1imits their ability and willingness to abandon ways that they

have already established, recorded, and authorized. Inscription is more permanent than

oral tradition and cuaorn. Inscription ailows people to continue steadily in their ways or

nostalgically reinterpret and imitate the past.2m Inscription slows change and forestails a

fùture of drastic difference; writing reinforces the center of a culture and shores it up to

face the onslaught of foreign ways. Deborah Wyrick interprets the Struldbrugg episode of

Gulliver 's T r d as an acknowledgment of the "authority of memory": "without the

ability to think through time and to adapt to the inevitable changes of language, meanhg

has no meaning and the institution of language coilapses" (44). The Struldbrugg inability

to recall meaning over time parailels the nsk orality poses to linguistic memory and

anticipates Swift's own decline. 1 am not suggesting that wrîtten words are entirely stable

or stabilizing. Indeed, al1 words enact ongoing differenc~sin themselves and their cultural

conte~ts.~"Still while letters are a source of change, they can aiso slow change. They

279 In Swifl and the Vested W w d Deborah Wyrick glosses Swift's statement against
spelling English as it is spoken (Proposaijor Correcting J. . .] the English Totaglie, P W 4:
1 1) as "lnscription is the authorized, invested body of language" (40). Wnting supersedes
speech as the arbiter of authentic language.

UO Wyrick finds that "the idea of writing as inevitable betrayal is latent in Swift's
earlier works" and more pronounced in his later (168). On the reasons languages change,
for Correcting, PW4: 7-9. In the Pnposal, Swift argues that "it is
see Swift, Proposc~f
better a Laquage should not be wholly pe- than that it should be perpetually
are dilatory catalysts, more than rnitigators. They provide the illusion of absolute truth

even as their own authority undoes that truth. Case in point: The Exotic do not need

, they have their own divinely inspired religious texts; they do not
Christian d o c t ~ efor

need the wisdom of the Western Ancimts, for they have their own heroes in history and

myths (see P W 4: 32-3); they do not need the legal system of the Engüsh, for they have

theû own sophisticated system of justice. They will not easily a c d e to Christian

"truths," for they have their own Muslim, &du, Connician "tr~ths."~'
And while unsure

language expresses these "truths" and injects mutability into their interpretation, the

familiarity of language rnakes "tmths" seem stable even as it dissolves them. The Exotic

are not attractive candidates for conversion and assimilation because they have developed

sophisticated institutions on the stably-unstable foundation of written language.

For their part, The Savage have aimost as little potential to shifi categories as The

Exotic. For The Savage to becorne The Barbarous they would have to develop more

goods and trade. Their governance would have to becorne more obviously organized, and

their religion would need to be more pronounced and less seemingly reactive. Most

important, the perception that they are irredeemable would have to fade, but since

complexions c m o t fade, the sympathies of their wnstnictors would have to grow more

relative and colorblind. Unfortunately for The Savage, resistance to the presence and

corruption of The Civilized would be vain, and other than destruction, the result would be

changing" (PW 4: 14). On Swift's reasons for wanting linguistic standards, see Kelly,
Swifr and the English Language 90-5.

*" On "Mahomet"borrowing fkom Christian beliefs, see Swiil, Mechmica!

Operation, Tale 264; on Christ's divinity as "the great stumbling-block of the
Mohometans," see "Thoughts on Religion," P W 9: 262.
annexation to The Civilized? The Savage who suniive would become the servants and

slaves-and eventudy the underclass-of The Civilized. As the concept of race gained

force and acquired the patina of scient& mith through the taxonomy of Linmeus, The

Primitive in general soon would be locked in a hierarchy more rigid than even the Chain of

Hurnan Beings; it would be a pseudo-scientinc hierarchy of c o m p l e ~ i o n .The

~ Savage,

the people faxther fiom the p i n k - s h e d Civilized, would sufZer the greatest oppression

within this hierarchy. Winthrop Jordan observes that by the early eighteenth century,

'"Christianity' had somehow become intimately and explicitly linked with 'compleUon'"

(94), but with the infision of Christianity into the New World and among slaves,

Christianity and complexion would delink: a black Christian would be "black" first and

only perftnctorily Christian, a mimic of The Civilized. The Savage could not expect to

become The Civilized because The Civilized did not expect The Savage to. The possibility

of The Savage becorning The Civilized threatms the contours and perhaps the very core

of The Civilized construct. And so it goes.

On the other hand, The Barbarous are the most likely to assimilate into The

Civilized through constant contact and Christian conversion. The historical success of

assimilation is Iimited, particularly d e r notions of race were applied to Native Americans

"Swift has Gulliver describe the destructive process of colonization, first directly
(294) and then ironically (294-5).

Winthrop Jordan maintains that Linmeus' system of classification precludes the

hierarchy inherent in the Great Chain (222). While this may be txue of Limæus' intent,
there c3n be no doubt that his system was later used to draw rigidly racist conclusions. In
the interpretation of classification schemes, some items may have a higher value due to
their distinctive qualities or their distance 6om their genus (or fiom their interpreter).
A h , there is an arbitrariness of selection involveâ in taxonomy, and selection always
connotes rank. See Foucault 139-41.
and such, but the expectation of its potential was clearly present in Swift's time as the

writings of Lawson, Williams, and others indicate. While becornihg The Exotic would be

nearly impossible, The Barbarous w m encouraged to leap into The Civiiized, to join The

CiMlued (preferably in senlements on land that had previously been the exclusive domain

of The Barbarous). But The Barbarous were not welcome to bring their culture @ut for

some srnoky natural wisdom and handy cr&s and survival techniques) into that of The

~ ~ features of The Barbarous would not persid as they would contribute

C i ~ i l i z e d .The

nothing to conversion and fidi assimilation. Indelible complexion would remain a

signifiant sticking point, as would a lack of simple complicity arnong The Barbarous

themselves, but still the potenrial for absorption was present."' Potentiai would inspire

the deleterious esteem of those like Lawson who both respected and destroyed The

Barbarous.

No matter the status of The Primitive or of any of its categories, the constmcts

existed as a way for The Civilized both to define and to look beyond the limits of their

own construct. Notably, al1 the seeming positives (be they technology, nobility, stature, or

what have you) associated with The Primitive are potentially or really present in The

In the ironic voice of ï h e Mechonicol Operation of the Spirit, Swifl mimics the
admiration sometimes expressed for The Barbarous while discussing universal religion and
natural morality:
How this idea hath been rnanaged by the Indiuns and Us, and with what
Advantage to the Understandings of either, may well deserve to be
examined. To me, the difference appears little more than this, That They
are put oftener upon their Knees by their Feurs, and We by our Desire;
That the former set them a Prriyhg, and Us a Cursing. (Tale 274)
P5 Of course, Swift seerns to argue for the relativity of at leastfair complexions
when he has Gulliver reflect upon the pure skin of the Liliiputians and the "coarse" skin of
the Brobdingnagians of "our Englsh ladies" seen through a magnifjing g l a s (91-2).
 193

Civilized. As always, The Primitive are mostly d e h e d by what they lack, and the more

they lack the more distant they are tiom The Civiiized. The nexus between The Civilized

and The Primitive is analogous to that between the aacient Greeks and the barbarian: Le.,

the selfto the other. Whether the other in these cases is temporally or spatiaily distanced

(or both), it is a distance of diïerence. And ad dinetence is negatively defining. Think of

a black square on a white page. The square is define-by its own sides and angles, but it is

aiso defined by the negative geometricai space it creates (or which creates it) on the page.

Tt, like the construct of The Civilized, can be delineated by what it is not. Sirnilarly, each

construct of The Primitive is differenced Erom, and therefore defined by, the other as it

(and they ail) is differenced from and defined by (and in tum define)The Civilized. As

voyagers traveled the globe, whether by ship or imagination, they carriecl with them the

negative space of The C i v i l i i and saw aii the peoples they encountered as merely the

outer edges of that space. The Primitive, whatever their essence, would aIways be

principally dernarcated as the white page surrounding the space occupied by The Civilized-

-the self constmct. For that reason, The Primitive could not change its shape without

some corresponding-proactive or reactive-change in The Civilized.

PART 3: The Primitive in Swift

Chapter 8: The Primitive in Swift's Works

The Primitive were a prevalent topic in Swift's time and vimially a cornmonplace

arnong voyage writers and thinkers. Swift was aware of the literature of travel and of the

sorts of encounten travelers had. He himself had a widely traveled imagination but was

not othenvise an accomplished traveler. Most of Swift's real journeys were land joumeys

about Ireland, Englanâ, and Wales, and his experience at sea wss LMited to crossings

between Ireland and Wales? Yet if we accept his own statements, Swifi was a voyager

literally fiom his very infancy. Swift believed, despite conflicting memories, that his

&ectionate nurse had kidnaped infant Swift to England for several years (PW 5 : l92)."l

We can imagine that such a personal legend wuld produce a lifelong passion for the

literature of voyages and adventure, but travels had also infûsed the very culture of Britain

and Europe since the Renaissance and the European dixovery of the New World. Swift's

interest was unremarkable, and his great travel narrative merely employed and parodied a

c u l ~ r aconvention
l of the day?

2s S T m l s counts more than twenty Irish Sea

Joseph McMinn in J o ~ l h o n
crossings for Swift (105).
'* See Ehrenpreis 1 : 30- 1.
In her A 7'heoryof Paru&, Linda Hutcheon posits a general definition of
parody: "repetition with a criticai difference" (20). One major advantage of her definition
is that it eliminates the common and unfounded assumption that parodic fùnction is
necessarily pejorative or mocking. Hutcheon's new definition replaces this assumption
with the more sweeping yet accurate observation that parody merely critiques its object,
respectfùlly or othenvise. Quite oflen the object of parody is a figure of homage or
admiration and the parody itself is a playiùlly critical tribute to a predecessor. Guifiver's
Truvels parodies travel writing mostly in this way. While Swift's direct transcriptions of
the sailor's technical jargon effedively satirize the more tedious aspects of travel
narratives (see Greenberg, 64nl), his ovedl use of travel conventions often displays his
interest in voyage literature. His made therefore corresponds to Hutcheon's definition of
 While Gulfiver 's Traveî's most thoroughly treats The Primitive, throughout his

work, Swift uses The Primitive as a satinc device. For instance, he sporadically refers to

the Scythians, an ancient Eurasian people preswned in Swift's t h e to be the ancestors of

early settlen of the British Isles? The Scythians in the typical narrative were a wild
people, drinkers of human blood, and enernies to civilkaticmm The Scythians were

imagined either Celtic or Germanic settlers of the British Isles."' Swift ofien exploits the

dual association of Scythians with Celts and ~axons? When Swift overtly addresses an

Anglo-Irish audience, as in A Short Yiov of the State of Irelmd (1 728), a mention of the

Scythians glibly evokes the stereotype of the wiid Irish who m o t cultivate fertile land

parod y.

On the ambiguity of just who the Scythians were, see Oxford CImsicuI
Dictiorwy. On the Scythian account of their ongins and Herodotus' theory see Histories
4.6-12. For Strabo on the Scythians, see Geogrqhy 7.3.6-19 and 7.4.1.

See Herodotus 4.64-5. On Scythian cannibalism in a time of need, see

Montaigne's "Of the Caniballes" (Essqvs 1: 223).

Sir William Temple, in his Introrfucfionto the Histoty ofEngIand (1695), cites
the orihographic similarity behveen the words ''Skyths'? and "Scots" as proof that the
Scythians settled England (Works 3: 78; see also 79-80). On Scythian descendants called
the "Scutes," see Temple's "Of Heroic V i e " (1692) in Works 3 : 35 1. Swift, as
Temple's secretary and posthurnous editor, was certainly aware of Temple's theories
(Tale 9912). On other such presumptions, see Torchiana 197. When writing for an
English audience (as he most oAen does), Swift sometimes refers to 'our Skyfhiion
ancestors" as though the Scythians are the Saxons' ancestors (see, for instance, Tale 99
and 149). Rawson in Orderfiom Confision S p n g writes, "The Scythians were often
thought of as a generalised type of barbarian, rather than as a very precisely defined race"
(132). They served more as a representation of savagery and atavism than as an historicd
people.
On the modem usage of "Celts" to describe ancient Insh ancestors see -rd
CImicaf Dicfionary. On the tradition that the Scythians drank the blood of their horses,
see Swifi PW 12: 19 and 177-8. The Irish stood similady accused of drinking horse blood
(Rawson, "'Indians' and Irish" 34 1, 345; Or&rfiam Confision Sprung 131). On the
tradition that the Irish drank the blood of their enemies, see Haywood 470n7.
and who "by running into the Fancy of Grazing, d e r the Manner of the Sbyflhuns, are

every Day depopulating the Country" (PW 12: 8).

The distinction between the poor (and presumably wild) Cathoiic Irish and the

property-owning Protestants (both Anglican and Dissenting) of Ireland was Unportant to

Swift and his cornpatnots; indeed, Swift never d s himseiflrish. Nonetheless, the

English in England made little distinction and designatecl dl residents of Ireland as Irish?

On the other hand, with a piece addressed to a predoMnantly English audience, a

reference to the ancestral Scythians can be much more cornplex. In A Discourse

Conceming the Mechanicai Operoion of the Spirit, Swift not only associates the

Scythians with the English, but he finds a direct correlation between a legendary Scythian

sect called the "Long-heu&' and "a Generation of Men in this Island call'd Round-heu&"

(Tale 268), a derogatory nicknarne for Protestant dissenters? Almost every time Swift

links the English directly to the Scyihians, especially in his earliest works, he does so with

the sardonic "our Ancestors." A tense dichotorny anses between the flawed theory that

the Scythians begat the Celts and the equdly flawed theory that the Scythians begat the

Saxons. An English reader who assumes Scythian ancestry does so with the proud

knowledge that English civilization had tamed ail Scythian wildness long ago. In the oiher

formulation, the Scots, the Welsh, and partiailady the "wild" and distant Irish still

" Swift frequently laments the inferior stanis of Irish citizenry, including himself
Typically in a late letter to Lord Oxford (21 October 1735), Swift observes of a man who
has moved to Ireland and intends to bring his d e fiom England: "his Children will al1 be
Irish, while a Thief transportecl to Jamaica, and married to a battered Dmry-lane hackney
Jade shall produce tme Britons" (Corr 4; 407). Swift's bittemess at his own Irish identity,
inferior to the English and d l English scttlers in New World colonies, is evident.

See above note 277. On longheads and Scythian dogheads, see Bulwer 1-8.13,
and 17-20,
exhibited many traces of their untamed predecesson. Either way, English superiority is

pointedly established. "Our Scyihun Anceston* contains a dual sarcasm that shifis the

focus from humbling primitive origins to proud Engüsh accomplishment?

The mythical Scythian origin of some branch of British ethnicity has temporal and

some spatial ramifications. Any Scythian ernigration to Britain would span a geographical

distance, but the Scythians mostly evoked a distant past. To conventional thought, if

English Scythians had changed much, Irish Scythians had changed very little or had

changed back. The Irish Cathoücs, their language, d t u r e , and nature, are cast as

throwbacks to ancient, untarned tirna.% Their Christianity rnitigates the illusion of Irish

wildness slightly, but Protestants linked Irish Catholicism and Irish ~ u p e r s t i t i o n .The
~

"' Swift introduces a variation on his usual evocation of the Scythians in The
l k m i n e r 20 (December 2 1, 17 10). Here he presents an allegory regarding the previous
Whig administration in England and the Act of Scottish Union. The Scythians stand in for
the Whiggish English, and the Tartars (considered even more wild and dangerous than the
Scythians) represent the threat of the Jacobites (PW3:40). The suggestion is that the
Tories, whom Swift does not dlegorize, represent a rational alternative to Scythian
(Whig) cormption and Tartar (Jacobite) usurpation.

ra In the poem "Verses Occasioned by the Sudden Drying up of Saint Patrick's

Well" (c. 1729), Swifi in St. Patrick's voice predicts that Irish complicity will increase with
English oppression. He warns that a time will corne " M e n shells and leather shall for
money pass" (93), an indirect but obvious reference to Wood's haifpence and an echo of
the first of n e Drapier 's Letters (PW 10: 8). The imagery dso evokes the Amerindian
shell currency described by such authors as Wdliams and Lawson. SwiA's point in this
poem is that the Irish have degenerated since the time of St. Patrick, and the implicit
association of the Irish with The B d a r o u s of the New World strongIy suggests the
outcome.

On Irish Catholic "ignorance and superstition" in the period, see J.L.

McCracken7sessay on "The Ecclesiastical Structure, 1714-60,'' in The New Hisfory of
Ireland, eds. Moody and Vaughan, vol. 4,9809. Eric Haywood in "1s Ireland Wonh
Bothering About?" finds that Ireland did not "measure up to the ecclesiastical standards of
Francesca Chiericati, the papal nuncio at the court of Henry Vm,who paid a visit to the
country in 1517" (468; see aiso 476n2 1 and 483-4). In this case, even foreign Catholics
were unimpressed by Irish Catholicism.
Irish were natural, in the Hobbesian sense, and degenerate. Despite the constant buffeting

of The Civilized againsi their ways, the Irish seemed to remain true t o their past, remain

purely Irish. But their past was Hobbesian, and Irish purity wu i t s e l f m p t i n g . SwiA

plays with this paradox in ï k MechrrPticc~IOperatim of the Spirit, where he describes an

archaic, vision-inducing ceremony. The Irish, he &tes ironically, have presewed this

custom and "hath of al1 others, admitted f e w a Comptions and degenerated lem from the

Punty of the Old ThîrmS (Tale 272). Ireland, for the English, remained distant in time

and space, archaic and foreign. Still, Swift lived in Lnland and, as Carole Fabricant

argues, his frame of reference is "a specincaily Irish landscape" (19).

While some observers claim that on a clear day one can see from the hiils of Waies

to Howth Head just east of Dublin, Ireland languished as a remote, untamed European

frontier in the early eighteenth century? Ireland and its native people felt like the

western extreme of habitable Europe: just beyond lay Iceland, and Greenland, and the

whole of the New World?' Perhaps Ireland even felt a bit as if it were really the far east

of the New World, a Terra Hibemiu Incognitu?' But again, the geographical

displacement was an echo of the temporal or atavistic displacement. Like Lapland o r the

Cape of Good Hope, Ireland was a world apart in t h e . As he does in A Modes2

On the diniculties of crossing the Irish Sea in the penod, see McMinn 105.

L99 In "Swift and the Irish Tradition," J-C. Beckett slightly overstates Swift's view:
that the Irish natives "were no more a pari of the 'Irish nation' than the Iroquois or the
Sioux formed part of the British colonies in North Arnerica" (163). In "1s Ireland Wonh
Bothenng About?" Eric Haywood disaisses the understanding of Ireland in Renaissance
Itaiy. His assessment includes the observation that "the New World is assimilated to
Ireland by way of re-assuring the reader that the edge of the world has not moved fûrther
out, but has simply got thicker" (479).
See Rawîon, '"Indians' and ïrish" 346.
Proposal, Swift sometimes unfavorably comparecl the Irish with Laplanders o r with The

Primitive in M c a or the me ri cas.^' The shoctcomings of the Irish are more damning

than those of The Primitive because the Irish have had the "benefit" of English e ~ a m p l e . ~

Time and geography have trapped the Irish in a primitive condition, or so the English

would have it?

On the other hami, the Irish are vidms of their English overlords. Part kingdom,

part colony, part conquered temtory, Ireland's oppression was manifest in its irresolute

political status. The Anglican Insh of English descent, such as Swift,stood poised

between two nations-not really English and not truly Irish. The ambivalence of Swift's

position reflects so well the ambivalence of his own take on the Irish. Swift had

compassion enough to decry English abuses, but the preeminence of English power

captivated him, a power he readily wielded, expanded, and heeded. Nonetheless,

"' P R 12: 10, 116; 13: 112; Con 3: 116, 133, and 4: 230. The cornparison
between the Irish and The Primitive is a hackneyed trope, Little more than a cliche: for
instance, Thomas Herbert's observation that Hyrcanian "apparell [is] like the Irish
Trooses" (95). Interestingly, the Hyrcanians in Herbert's report suffer under Persian
hegemony and contempt the sarne way the Irish s d e r under the English (95-6).

* A poetic indictment of Ireland's supposeci degeneration appears in "The Sudden

up of Saint Patrick's Weli" in which Swift imagines St. Patrick larnenting,
Wretched Ierne! with what grief 1see
The fatal changes tirne hath made in thee.
The Christian rites 1 introduced in vain:
Lo! Iz~fidelityreturned sgain.
Freedom and Virtue in thy sons 1 found,
Who now in Vice and Slavery are drowned. (33-8)

YU In "The Sudden Drying up of Saint Patrick's Well," St. Patrick denounces Irish
capitulation and then foretells that
Thy greatest evils yet are scarce begun.
Soon shall thy sons, the time is just at hand,
Be al1 made captives in their native land; (88-90)
St. Patrick holds out little hope that Ireland will improve as he openly blames the Irish for
their own oppression.
knowledge of his Irish birth and early residence marked him indelibly, the mark of Cain or

of Ham's descendants?" No matter his service to the eminent patnot-statesman Sir

Wdiiam Temple or to the Harley adMnistration, to English eyes he was 1rish.- Like

Crusoe's Friday and Wce al1 The Primitive, he can never be more than a ''mimic man,"

Angiicized but never English. From his position he could only view the unjustness of

English govenunent in Ireland and consequent Irish subrnission with indignity, and he

directed his anger at ail the participants in Irish oppression: victirns, bystanders, and

victirnizers. Of ail his poetry, the poan simply mtitled "Ireland" perhaps most explicitly

expresses the rage and despair he felt at the t y m y practiced in and against his native

kingdom. "Ireland" is counted among the "Holyhead Poems," wrinen in Autumn of 1727

while Swift awaited passage to Ireland to visit Stella in her last sickness. The poem's

opening lines are staggering:

Remove me fiom this land of slaves,

Where al1 are fwls and ail are knaves;
Where every knave and fwl is bought,
Yet kindly seus himself for naught [. . .]. (Poems 330: 1-4)

The poem's rancor opposes Irish Catholics, Irish dissenters, Irish Whigs, and even

YY One later account Swüt gives of his birth is less than candid but expresses his
emotional ambivalence toward his native island: "As to my native country," he writes in
"A Letter on the Fishery" (1734),
1 happened indeed by a perfect Accident to be bom here, my Mother being
left here fiom returning to her House at Leicesîer, and 1was a Year old
before I was sent to EhgIQIICJ,' thus 1 am a Teague, or an Irishman, or what
People please, although the best Part of my Life was in Englcntd. (PW 13:
111-2; also Con 4: 229)
For a contradiction of the claim that Swüt's f h l y had settled anywhere other than Ireland
by the time of his birth, see his autobiographical fragment, 'Tamily of SwiA" (c. 1738-9).
P W 5: 187. For a modem rendering, see Ehrenpreis, Swifi 1: 27.
ws In a July 1709 letter to Swift, Anthony Henley writes "Memento Doctor, quia
Hibernus es et in Hiberniam reverteris" ( C m 1: 148).
 20 1

members of the Church of Ireland.

While "Ireland" is a possionate poem, of Swift's many poems, pamphlets, sermons,

and letters on Ireland's status, none is more powemil or more revealing than A Modes2

Proposal (1 729). in A M d s t Proposai, Swift most obviously chronicles and denounces

English abuses of the Irish, but, in satiridy sugeesting a vicious solution, he voices ever-

increasing English repugnance and nurar in what we may cal1 a discourse of

expendability. The Irish had endured English hegemony for long before SwiA wrote his

satinc proposai for the slaughter of the native infants of his homeland. Resistant to

mastery and given to rebeilion and subversion, the Irish continued to hstrate English

strategies for signifiant and permanent colonization beyond the Pale of Dublin and for the

effective destruction of Catholicism in the British islands. English tactics against Ireland

appeared to center on the economic seclusion, exploitation, and oppression of the Irish

people. Louis CuUen's Anglo-Irish Trode. 1660-1800 ( 1 968) argues that economic

disparhies between England and Ireland resulted more fiom Ireland's over reliance on

agriculture and limited mineral resources than fiom English economic restrictions: "The

real reasons for the poverty in Ireland in these decades were low agricultural prices, a

poorly regulated monetary system, and stagnant or only slowly rising markets in England

and on the conthent" (26). Indeed, Cullen sees a growth of Irish wealth in the century

(1 86). Still, whatever the economic reality in Ireland, readers of Swift receive the

perception that the situation was dismai, and there is no doubt that the beggary and

poverty (not to mention the political impotence) that Swifl witnessed existed despite

sanguine statistics.
 Meanwhile, Ireland's seeming aquiescence in its own oppression exasperated

Swift. The English delivered Irish destitution, and the Irish received and bore it. Any

resistance to English hegemony seetnecl to corne fiom the passive resistance of the wild

Irish, who remained resolutely not-English. To defy the anglocentric culture of rationality

was to de@ English hegemony, and the Irish scrved as a handy foü by which to gauge and

define British constructions of The Civüized. Irish weakness resulted fiom English policy,

but Swift insisted that Irish submission helped it dong. Thus, to borrow a phrase fiom the

title of a Swift sermon, the 'Wretched Conditions ofIreland" themselves became part of a

s e l f - s e ~ n gtautology and warranted further suppression and isolation in an endless round

of victim blaming and retribution. Ireland was wretched because the Irish were wretched,

and, therefore, the English had the right to keep them wretched.

In responsa to this hopelessness, Swift posits in A Modest Proposai that the native

Irish poor would be better off if they sold theu infants as food, for then the Irish would at

least receive better treatment, as livestock. The projected scheme, according to a passage

reeking of SwiAian irony, "would encrease the C u e and Tendemess of Mothers toward

their Children" and "Men would become asfond as their Wives, during the Time of their

Pregnancy, as they are now of their Mmes in Foal, their Cows in Calf, o r Sows when they

are ready to farrow" (PW 12: 1lS)? We aiso learn that the poor-old and young-are

306 In his last pamphlet, A Proposci for Giving -es to the Beggars in AU the
Parishes ofDublin (1 737), Swift also questions the Irish commitment to mamage and
child-rearing. He opens his shon cornmentary on Irish families with a loaded presumption:
"In al1 other Nations, that are not absolutely barbarous [. . .]." The bizarre culture of
Ireland reverses the practice of the civilized world in which
Parents think themselves bound by the Law of Nature and Reason to make
some Provision for their Children; but the Reasons offered by the
Inhabitants of Irez& for marrying, is, that they may have Children to
maintain them when they grow old and unable to work. (PW 13: 136)
"every Day &hg, and rotting" and "pine away for Want of Nourishment," and they would

be better off dead mon after birth than after a Lifaime of s u f f e ~ (1

g 14). The Proposai

parodies the discursive tradition of the helpfil economic pamphlet-a tradition fiequently

practiced by Swift hirnseKM In his sermon on the "Wretched Conditions o f Ireland,"

Swift is no less sparing in his description of Irish decrepitude and no les hanh in his

indictment of the causes, even if his solutions are more s e ~ c e a b l (though

e only slightly

more palatable) than in the P r o p o s u f . ~In both pieces and in his letters and various other

pamphlets Swift's irritation with the uish poor is apparent. He Ends the vast majority of

natives both brutally miserable and grievously useiess. They are expendable, and their

expendability falls just at the intersection of their misery and their uselessness, precisely

where their deprivation augrnented by seeming idleness cannot be contained by Augustan

rationality-that is, just where they appear least cidized and most savage? In "Wretched

According to this reasoning, the Irish family is an essentially selfish institution, marked by
the irrationality of barbarism.

Y" For example, see Swift's "Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture"
(1 720), in P W 9: 13-22, and the satincal response (spuriously attributed to Swift on its
original title page), "A Defence of Engfish Cornmodities" (PW9: 267-77).

Y* The similarity of phrasing and structure behveen the satincal M d e s t Propmf

and the more direct "Wretched Conditions," composed about the same time, is nnking
(see Nokes, "Swift and the Beggars" 218). Maurice Johnson calls the sermon a
"straightfoward, conventional prose" version of A Modest Proposal in his 1958 essay,
"The Structural impact of A Modest Props~r' (234). David Nokes overstates the
sermon's importance to the PropsaI in "SwiA and the Beggars"; see aiso "The Radical
Conservatism of Jonathan Swift" and A H p r i t e Reversed 273-6.

YR S a satiricaily voices Irish expendability in a paper published d e r his death.

In "The Answer to The Craftsman" (1 73O?) he proposes,
for fear of increasing the Natives in this Island, that an annual Draught,
according to the Number bom every Year, be exported to whatever Prince
will bear the Carriage; or transplanteci to the English Dominions on the
Americm Continent, as a Screen between his Majesty's EngIish Subjects
and the savage Indim. (PW 12: 176)
Conditions" Swift contends that the Irish are given to ''Barbaxity and Ignorance, for which

Our Natives are so despised by all Foreigners" and to acting outside "the Rules of Reason"

(PW 9; 202). They nonsensically r d s t The Civiüzed in order to remain ensconced as The
Primitive. In A Modest Proposal SwiA documents the sobering wnsequences of English

contempt but lucidly articulates the native basis for that contempt. The innovation of the

Proposal wmpared with his earlier Irish tracts is the M a g e of Irish contemptibleness

with human slaughta rather than with forced civilkation. Swift's rhetoric, fil1 of despair

and anger, seeks to champion Xreland but reckiessly voices a Final Solution of soris and

one that echoes the Houyhnhnms' plans to destroy the Yahoos and amplifies the general

disregard for The Savage?'

But A Mudest Proparal is, to a degree, a primitivist text. Not that primitivism

informs the theme or that The Primitive are characters, but primitivism is, as in several

other Swift texts, a major trope. Despite associations with Scythians, with barbarism, and

with cannibalism, the Irish clearly were not The Primitive. However backward seeming,

however apparently distanced and inscrutable, the Irish were still Christians, with a

He makes a similar point in The Intelligencer 19 ( 1 728) where he suggests that the
English initiate a project to populate the Arnerican colonies with unwanted Irish. He
explains his reasoning: "The Englsh established in those Colonies, are in great Want of
Men to inhabit that Tract of Ground, which lies between them and the wild Indim7 who
are not reduced under their Dominion" (PW 12: 60). This proposal, however sarcastically
intended, not only expresses the notion of Irish expendability, but also locates the Irish
somewhere between The Civilized and The Primitive. The Irish would serve the English
as a buffer against the crude Amerindians. What would be the case in the New World
could apply to the world at large. So long as the English have the Irish, their very own
savage race, the English are that much more removed fiom the barbarities they expect to
encounter while traveling the globe. If the Irish are lodged between the English and the
Indians, then the English must be at least two steps removed fiom savagery.
3 10
See also Sheridan, Intelligencer no. 18 .
 205

Christianity almost ancient in origin. But, üke ali constmas, the English constructs of The

Primitive and of the Irish are as mutable as the imagination allows. As Cnisoe's Friday

remained despite conversion a distanced and siill primitive being, so the Irish remainecl to

the English mind Christianized Scythians, barbuous Papists. When Swift projects

primitivism ont0 the Irish, he does so in a litaary mamer, as a tropologid stroke. Such a

stratagem keeps the Irish at a distance, on the edge of the New World. The Irish are the

remnants of the temporally distant Scythian past and the cousins of the geopphically

distant American continent. Their Christianity is mostly irrelevant and more a motivation

for them "tofightfor the Pretemkr in Spain" (PW 12: 109)than a defining mark of The

Civilized. Like the Scythians, who xrved more as genenc barbarians in the popular

imagination than as an hiaorical people (Rawson, Order 132). the Irish were metaphoncal

primitives whose primitive ways i n c r e a d or decreased as circumstance or perception

dictated.

As immersed in the prevailing primitivism as Swift and his Modest Proposai were,

Swift's satincal purpose had Little to do with prirnitivisrn. His primitivist tropes are merely

a means to fùrther his satiric end, and are therefore inconsistently applied-as they were in

most of his other works. Still, they remain rhetorical markers of Swift's own constructs of

Irish and English types. In GuIliver 's Travels, primitivist tropes and constructs have a

larger, more consistent role, since that book relies largely on the parody of travel writing.

But even there, as 1will explain in my next chapter, Swift's use of primitivist constructs is

unconventional. The PropomI contains direct references to The Primitive, such as the

Proposer's consultation of "a very knowing American" amibal, his reference to

cannibalistic Exotics on the island of Formosa, and his contrast of the unpatriotic
 206

inhabitants of Ireland with 'Zaplanders, md the Inhabitimts of Topinamboo" (1 11, 113,

and 116). In addition, the Proposer &es a Swiftian reference t o the Irish poor as "our

Savages" (1 11). While this is the Mt of his direct references to The Primitive, part of the

satiric method includes the strong imptication thaî Irish Catholics, some Irish Anglicans,

and the English share some marks of The Primitive or even of subhurnanity.

The most obvious mark s h e d among the targets of A Modest Propos~~I

is

potential canniialism or, more acarrately, the breeding, raising, and marketing of humans;

only the Anglican overclass would actually eat hurnan flesh. The Irish poor are

commodities to be sold, traded, and consumed among the English, the Anglican Irish, and

the Irish poor themselves. Swift reduces the stock indictment of former or current

anthropophagy among the Irish people to the sale of iive humans for slaughter and

consumption by others. The slightly stronger indictment--murder and cannibalism-

implicates the Anglican Irish and, by extension, the English. Of course, the accusation is

highly nuanced: the charge of cannibalism is only potentially literal but has already been

enacted figuratively. In short, Swift-not necessarily the Proposer-is saying, 'the English

through policy and the Anglican Irish landlords through practice have already wnsumed

the economic potential of Ireland and the Irish people, so they might as well consume the

most wlnerable people themselves.' The only thing stopping the English in England fiom

consuming Irish babies is that "this Kind o f Commodity will not bear Exportation; the

Flesh being of too tender a Consistence, t o admit a long Continuance in Salt" (1 17). But,

the Proposer continues in sornething doser to Swift's voice, "perhaps.1could nome a

 207
Country, which would &eglad tu eat rq> our whole N d - m without it [salt]" (1 17)."' The

Engiish need no seasonhg to savor Ireland as foodstuff.

Whiie readers may perceive the portraya1 of Engiish canni'bals and Irish victirns as

an inversion of The Civilized and The Primitive with the English as The Savage and the

Irish as their helpless victims, again Swift's use of the primitivist construct is more

nuanced than that. Among other things, even if the English are the cannibals, that does

not automatically reconfigure the Irish as The Civilized. Furthemore, wMe the Irish are

not portrayed as cannibalistic per se, occording to the Proposer they would willingly

participate in the trade of infant flesh, as though it were perfeçtly natural. It is important

here to sketch the distinction between the Proposer as speaker and Swift as satirist. Much

of the emotiond power of the Proposa1 stems fiom the way Swift-the satirist-

occasionally inserts his own voice into his speaker's text . Infkequently, Swift's

perspective disrupts the impeccable logic of the Proposer, as when he despain that his

"vain, idle, visionary Thoughts"-the proposais r d y offered by Swifi (Ferguson 172-3)-

will ever be put into practice (1 17) or when he declares England needs no salt to relish

Ireland (Ferguson 175). This is Swift's voice we here, a voice consistent in content and

sometimes tone with that in Swift's sermons, letters, and other writings. The Proposer, on

the other hand, is a typical economic projector but with a twist. Like Swift himself, the

Proposer is interested in practical remedies for the human shortcornings that contribute to

the Irish situation. To a small extent his design recalls the Christianizing schemes of

Lawson and Williams, who both offered projects to convert Native Arnericans to

"' On the separation of Swift's and the Proposer's voices see Phiddian, "Have
You Eaten."
 208

Christianity. Even more so, but stiii not much, the M&sî Props4I resernbles Lawson's

grander socio-economic scheme that sought the wmplete assimilation of Native

Carolinians into British Colonies-something üke what had already begun in the English

"factories" of Ovington's Surat.

Swift creates an infermi engine to lay siege to hopeless schemes?to Irish-Anglican

exploitation, to English tyranny, and to Irish-Catholic complicity. The truly rational voice

is the one we hear fiom time to time: Swifi's voice that amplifies the strain between

metaphor and literalness and declares roasted infant "very properfor LandIor&? who. as

they have already devoured most of the Parents, seem to have the best Title to the

Children" (1 12). The Proposer has little motivation to rnake such a statement, so we must

read it as Swift's attempt to skewer a particular group of miscreants who may have been

protected fiom his wrath up to now. It is also Switt's way of imbuing the satire with an

emotional tension that the supremely rational Proposer cannot f d let alone express.

Swift perceives reai urgency in the Irish condition, but his Proposer is too focused on his

scheme to convey the threat. Lest we miss it, Swift exposes the reader to the emotional

side of the Irish condition, and not because his voice is 4'inconsistent" and "momentarily

diverted the direction of his attack" (Ferguson 175). As we have seen, there is no single

focus of attack: al1 parties are under indictment. By interpolating or interloping as he

does, Swift increases the direct impact of his attack even as he expands its scope. The

reader can comprehend the enabling logic and emotions of a satire that is otherwise a droll

grotesquerie.

So the expansiveness of the Proposal helps to explain why the ostensible inversion

of human types-The Civilized and The Primitive-is not present in any precise way. Al1
 209

parties are culpable in the canniialjzation of the Irish, just as elsewhere dl parties-

English, irish, and Scot-are portrayed ss descendants of Scythian &bals. Ali pariies

are consumers (figuratively) of human flesh or (literally) of human resources. Irish natus

does not change to The CivilireQ but English statu does shift to The Primitive. At least,

though, the Scythians reputedly ate hurnan flesh out of necessity. Similarly, the Irish in the

Proposal would sel1 infants out of de~peration."~But the Anglican Irish would eat infant

flesh and, with the English, do eat up Ireland's resources out of sheer greed, malice, and

gluttony. In "Of the Caniballes," Montaigne daims that Brazilians use cannibalism "to

represent an extreme, and inexpiable revenge" against prisoners of war (223). But he

contrasts Brazilian cannibalism with "eating men dive," as he suggests the Inquisition

does, "not arnongst ancient enemies, but Our neighbours and fellow-citizens; and which is

worse, under pretense of pietie and religion" (223-4). Such are the English, Swift implies,

though he does not and would not strike fis religion so readily o r directly. In A Modest

Proposal, Swift evokes and expands upon Montaigne's admonition to the Inquisition that

"there is more barbarisme in eating men alive, than to feed upon them being dead [. . . 1"

("Of the Caniballes" 223).

As for cannibalism as a trope in the literature of The Primitive, 1 noted in chapter 7

that Thomas Herbert stands out arnong reality-based travel writers in clairning the

Hottentots are cannibals. Otherwise, cannibds are confined to ancient tales--"what

barbarous Customs may fonnerly have been in the World," as Dampier puts it (NV325)-

and to the plots of a few imaginary travels, such as R o b i m n Crusoe. As I noted,

Dampier relied upon the expansive "Compass of my own Knowledge" ( W 3 2 5 ) to deny

"* On Scythian cannibalism, see Montaigne, "Caniballes" 223.

the existence of cannibals anphere in the world. Therefore, cannibalism is more a literary

trope, as SwiA uses it, and less a serious possibüity or concem. Surely his readers vaguely

assumeci that cannibalism would exist, even widely, in the world and perhaps Swift made

the sarne assumption. But does he reaiiy Weve that cannibalism takes place or is even

rampant in Ireland? What is indisputable is that cannibalism suggests insurnountable

distance from The C-i, something at the o u t s edge of or even beyond The Savage.

Cannibais are bestial, Yahoo-like, worse than animals. Thqr are humans degenerated

beyond redernption, for they commit unthidcable acts. They are further removed from

The Civilized than even The Savage. As the Proposer writes, he has prescribed his

"Remedy for this one indivichral Kingdom of Ireland, catdfor no other t h ever war. is,

or I think ever c m be upon Earth" (1 16).

To be sure, though, other nations are colonized by neighbonng powers-for

instance the "Hyrcanians" described by Herbert. The Hyrcanians' Persian overlords tell

stories in which Hyrcanian men are

bmtish, and the women unchast, that they are very faire and amiable (which we
credit, finding so) and so kind and loving unto TraveUers, that upon any signal!,
they will receive them, and hold it a point of rudenesse in the Virgins, if they be
coy or disdainfit11 unto strangers [. . -1. (95-6)

These accusations are reminiscent of English reports of Irish crudity, but Herbert writes of

the Persian stories, "in al1 such reports, sure 1 beleeve them not" (96). No doubt many of

the Persians who repeat such rumors believe thern, as many Britons believed the worst of

the Irish, but Herbert retains a disinteresteci distance. He has no colonial investment in

degrading the Hyrcanians as do the Persians and as the English do the Irish. Still, and

most tellingly, he does associate the Hyrcanians with the Irish when he compares

Hyrcanian garb with "IrishTrooses" (95). As we have seen, the Irish ofien served as a
 21 1

familiar point of cornparison in English writing on The Primitive, and while Herbert can

distance himself fiom Persian colonial usumptions, at the same moment, he slips eady

into the English colonial association of the Irish and The Primitive. It is this sort of

association that drives the prirnitivist trope Swift employs in A Modest Proposai and in

other texts. No Primitive ever wears a hat that loolcs like a penwig unless the author

happens to dislike periwigs. (Bulwer most offen relies on this strategy.) Cornpansons

with The Primitive are dways negative. Whüe Swift and his Proposer explicitly portray

the Irish situation as unique and the Proposai itself as designed for "one indivkhai

Kingdom," Ireland's situation is fairly t y p i d of colonial possessions, like Hyrcania. At

the same time, Swift ofien gestures toward other versions of The Primitive in A Modesr

Proposal. So we c m see the Irish are like Herbert's Hyrcanians, but the Irish are also like

other Primitives, particuIarly The Savage.

Of course, as Swifi portrays them in A Martes1 Proposai, the English, the Anglican

Irish, and the Irish Catholics display one trait that is critical to The Civilized: trade.

Indeed. trade occurs among The Barbarous and The Exotic, but it is rarely associated with

The Savage. When Woodes Rogers exchanges old knives for fish, the Baja Californians

pass the knives around equally arnong their number (3 16). When he gives one an old shirt,

the native shreds it and shares the pieces with his people (3 17)."' The Californians'

communal possessiveness flies in the face of the aquisitive logic that inspires European

trade. Moreover, Dampier's Australians perhaps epitomize the backward trade of The

Savage, for they betray no regard, no curiosity even, toward the ragged clothes Dampier

offen them for their labor ( W 3 15). The peoples of A Moctesf Propsuf are in this sense

3'3 See also Cooke 320 and Sheivocke 406.

 212

most like the Hottentots, The Savage who barta cattle for liquor, tobacco. and trinkets

(Cooke 2: 71; also Dampier, W 3 6 0 ) . The Hottentots dso barter sexual favors (Cooke 2:

70; Cowley 33; Herbert 15)-a c a d commodity less taboa than the cannibal trade

recommended by the Proposer.

Stiil, this is A M d s t PropsaI and there is much irony to unpack. While the

Proposer suggests trade in infant flesh as a solution for "rhepresent deplorable Sfute of

the Kingdorn" (log), he also makes clear that the English are otherwise willing j u s to take

what they want: ''gadio est up our w h I e N&on." In short, to the English (and to their

Anglican-Irish surrogates), fair bilateral tracde in human flesh would simply be a refinement

of existing unilateral practices. Trade is something the English can understand and

appreciate--si& their teeth into-and the Proposer slyly hints that the English would be

improved by his gniesome scheme.

The English are worse, in their current Irish policy, than The Savage as portrayed

by other writers. Case in point, the Proposer farnously receives advice on the

wholesomeness and preparation of infants as f d fiom "a very knowing American" who

has visited London, as did the four Iroquois "Kings" (1 11). The cannibalistic Amencan

further advises against eating older male children because from his "fiequent Experience"

he knows "that their Flesh was generally tough and lean, Sie that of our School-boys, by

continual Exercise, and their Taste disapeable; and to fatten them would not answer the

Charge" (1 13). While cannibalism was not a feature of contemporary portrayals of

Amerindians nor of any of The Primitive, the Proposer successfùlly links his perception of

the Anglican Irish (his people) as potentiai cannibals with presumptive Primitive cannibals

in AmerÏca. The Anglicans in Ireland and the Engüsh, each in their ways Irish-eaters,
would raise the 'primitive' Irish to a more 'civiiized' level (relatively speaking) by

emulating a cannibalistic American. The Irish in this portrayai seem almost genteel

compared to the baby-eating Anglican Irish and the Ireland-eating English.

Swift heightens the irony by fbrther mocking English rehement and fashion. The

infant flesh would become styüsh and be served in tavems to "fine Gentlemen, who justiy

value themselves upon their Knowledge in good Eatingn (1 15). Vintners will "procure the

best Receipts for dressing it to Peifection," and the value of infants would be increased by

"a slcilfûl Cook who understands how to oblige his Guests, [and] will contrive to make it

as expensive as they please." The Proposer, an economic pragmatist, carefully anticipates

"the Profit of a new Dish, introduced to the Tables of all Gentiemen of Fortune in the

Kingdom, who have any Refinement in Taste" (1 15). Eventually, infant fiesh would

"make a considerable Figure at a Lord Mqiw 's Fe&, or at any other publick

Entertainment" and "al merry Meetings, partiailady Weddings and Christenings" of the

fashionable (1 16). The irony of ''Chn'stenings" is hard to miss in this bizarre mixture of

the sacred and the grotesque. Here the absurdities of English culinary fashion (enacted by

the Anglican Irish) meet the horron of the Proposer's design. Driven by fashion and the

habit of symbolically wnsuming the lrish poor, the Anglican Irish would delight in

sophisticated preparations of infant flesh.

Later, the Proposer claims that the Anglican Irish are only distinguishable from

"Laplanders, and the Inhabitants of Topinamboo" (of whom Montaigne writes) by their

lack of love of countiy (1 16). But the Proposer, or maybe Swift, writes of "lemning to

love m Country [my underscoring]." That "our" obscures the accusation somewhat.

The Proposer is presumably an Irish Anglican writing to an audience of peers-not the

 214

English, not the Catholics, and not even the dissenthg Protestants in Ireland; hence, "our

Country" is the land of the Irish Angiicans as well as of the Irish Catholics. So who is less

patriotic than northem European nornads and Brazilian primitives? The answer remains a

bit ambiguous, but he also writes that "Wew-theIrish Anglican author, Proposer, and

audience-"dffer evenfiom Laplanders, and rhe Inhabi~amtsof Topinamboo."

Furthermore, the association with distant primitives ocairs in a list of Swift's own

proposais for reforming Ireland-proposais thaî require policy reforms to be initiated

exclusively by Irish Anglicans (Ferguson 173). Neither England nor the Irish Catholics

need to act to facilitate Swift's real proposds for refom. Swift and the Proposer's own

people are culpable for Irish exploitation and, hence, capable of Irish reformation.

Furthermore, in one paragraph, the Proposer focuses his attack on girls of limited

means who flaunt expensive tastes. These are apparently Anglican Irish girls of former

fortune or of affected aspirations. The Proposer is reminded of their luxurious excesses

and their extravagant tastes by the story of ' ' S a I r n of

~ Formosa, who visited

London "above twenty Years ago" (1 13). Act~~ally,

''SaImanaasar" (George

Psalmanazar) was a French literary imposter (Williams, Notes 279n259.3l), which helps

explain why his Formosans display marks of The Exotic with sensational examples of

anthropophagy. Whether Swift was perfectly aware of this imposture is unclear, but the

fiaudulent source renders the reference ironic, intentionally or unintentionally. In fact, the

tone of the whole paragraph is packed with irony. For instance, the Proposer mentions an

ersatz Formosan legend regarding the fate of youngsters who "happened to be put to

Death"--1anguage that suggests that execution in Formosa is a fortuitous event. This tone

matches the Proposer's equal unconcern at the horror of his proposai and foreshadows the
 215

equanirnity of the subsequent narrative of "a plump Girl of fifteen, who was crucified for

an Attempt to poison the Emperor" of Fonnon. The girl is sold to the "great M b i m

of the Court, in Jointsfiom the Gibbet" (1 13-+"hot from the Knife," as it were.

By relating this taie, the Proposer hopes to mitigate the slight "Cruelty" of his

fiend ("am e Lover of his Country")who, inspired by the Formosan tale, suggests that

unemployed Irish Catholic youths rnight supply the '

Wato€VenisonW
n arnong "the

Gentlemen of this Kingdom" (1 13). Aude fkom moral objections 6om unjust "scrupulous

People," the Proposer sees his "Patriotn fiend's idea as "aLosr tu the Publick" since

young girls "soon would become Breeders themselves." The Proposer goes on to

speculate that "plump young girls in this Town" may better serve the comrnunity as food

than as idle consumers of foreign luxuries and as participants in decadent activities (1 14).

Clearly, though, Irish Catholics do not fare any better under Swifi's censure. They

also would be improved by the Proposer's scheme: "This would be a great Inducement to

Marriage" (1 15). And the PropowI has a byproduct the Proposer proudly mentions

twice: "lessening the Number of Pclpists among us7' (1 12; see also 114). Rhetorically, the

Proposer reduces the Irish poor to animals-cattle to be husbanded, "Breeders" valued for

their fecundity (1 10; 114). The Irish remain, as always, "ow SavageC-a rhetorical swipe

that recalls Lionel Wafer's stay among the fkiendly "'wildIndiam" of Darien (63). We

may also recall that Wafer compares Miskito pronunciation with that of "the High-Land,

or Primitive Irish Language" (170)--an intertextual relationship that, dong with the earlier

example of Herbert and Hyrcanian garb, suggests that Swift's rhetorical associations of

the Irish and The Primitive are neither unique nor insignifïcant. The Irish are a people of

few resources or skills. Swift again cuts both the English and the Irish in one swipe. The
 216

Proposer writes of the Irish poor t b t "we can neirher e&oy t k m in H d i c r d t or

Agriculture; we neither build Houses, (1 mean in the Country) nor cultivate Land" (1 10-

1). The Irish poor, he continues, are only good for steaüng (but not until they are six

years old); nonetheless, the previous sentence (on " H d i c r o f t or Agriculture") links Irish

inability to English neglect and suppression. One feeds off the other. Like The Primitive,

the Irish lack skills and cultivation, and for that reason the English deny them the means

toward skills or cultivation. Fwthermore, like The Savage, the Irish have no money and

have nothing of value to trade (1 14-5). and they lack proper shelter and clothes (1 18). As

one can recognize The Savage primarily by what they lack, one can also recognize the

Irish poor for what marks of The Civilized they have been deprived of. The Proposer's

plan would change that status somewhat at the price of Irish mords and future generation.

Still, ifthe Irish are The Primitive, or something like The Primitive, their portrayal

in A Modesr Pr0po.d is most like travelers' portrayals of the Hottentots. As 1mentioned

above, the Proposer expects al1 the peoples of the Proposai to trade human flesh in a more

extrerne way than even the Hottentots do. Hottentot men, we know, were infamous for

trading their wives' sexual wares for various commodities, usually tobacco. Irish men, the

Proposer expects, will rely on their wives to bear children for trade and therefore value

them for their productivity (1 15). Ifthe supposeci viciousness of the Irish is not already

clear, the Proposer mentions the "toojkequenP inclination of husbands "to beat or kick"

their wives, a practice that the Proposer hopes his plan would palliate. The general idea

here is that the Irish would be more civilized by marketing their infants for slaughter. Of

course, the standard of The Civilized here is English, and the English (or at leaa their Irish

colonial cousins) would be the ones to actuaIly eat the babies. Still, Swift has his Proposer
specifïcally sketch an image of the Irish as steeped in bnitality. They, even more so than

the Laplanders, are the Hottentots of Europe-at once f d a r and incomprehensible. The

Hottentots are the one example of The Savage who w a e so well observed-living in close

prorrirnity to Europeans-yet rmained so dturally distanced. The Hottentots represented

an extreme to The Civilized mind, and simüarly the Proposer can only envision the most

extreme Irish remedy: Irish parents bofiicking in infant flesh.

The Proposer reserves his penultimate pampaph for an estimation of the number

of 'bseless Mouths and Backs" (1 17)-the children of the Irish poor synedochically

reduced to their most basic needs. His gross calculation has so dehumanized his subject--

always a danger in economics-that the Proposer carmot even refer to the Irish as 'human

creatures' or 'people,' but only as "Creatures in human Figure": Yahoos in another world.

Among these "Creatures" he assesses a ' W t of two Miliions of Pounds Sterling" and

adds the "Beggars by Profession'' and the "Beggam in Effd-the latter mostly being

disfianchised farmers. Irish misery is such that adults would

think it a great Happiness to have been sold for Food at a Year old, in the
Manner 1prescribe; and thereby have avoided such a perpetual Scene of
Misfomines, as they have gone through; by the Oppression of Landfor& [.
. .]." (1 17-81

Here, as in the Stmldbmgg episode of GuIIiwr 's Travels, death is clearly preferable to a

iife of misery. Death is a liberating force.

So the primitivistlcannibal trope in A M i s t Proposal applies to al1 parties

involved. The Proposer's tone is aripped of a sense of horror because Swift has him

mimic the moral indifference of the English and of the Irish Anglicans as they exploit the

Irish poor. In this way, the Proposer is like his portraya1of his people, 'primitive' in

thought and act-incapable of grasping moral wmplexity and cultural refinement. His
 218

indiament of the Irish Catholics, though it jibes with Swiff's own complaints, shows that

his compassion is limited. But it also shows the desperation of the Irish situation-a cycle

of oppression and gluttony . That Swift uses a unnibai trope t o describe the Irish situation

is no surprise since the violation of taboo augments the sensational impact of his satire.

But more than merely amibal, the parties of the Irish cconomy are The Primitive. Their

salvation is in looking to an anthropophagie American. They would do weil to emulate

the supposed patriotism of Laplanders and B d a n cannibais. The tyranny of the

Anglicans recalls taies of the murderous Exotic ofFormosa. The tale itself, of a vmgefbl

and cannibalistic king, is sirnilar to William Rufts Chetwood's account of the tyrant

monarch of Morocco, who impales servants for fun. The primitivism of the Irish parties is

a figurative, if exaggerated, evocation of familiar accounts of The Primitive in literature of

the day. Primitivism was in the air, so to speak. Still, despite the indisputable power of

the Proposal, its contemporary reception is a mystery.

At first the pamphlet was extremely popular. Within a year of its publication in

Dublin, t hree editions had been printed in London, home of Swift's secondary audience

(and at least partially one of his discursive communities), and wmpilers had included the

pamphlet in numerous English and Irish collections (Davis, Introduction 12, xix-xx; see

also Teennk). Swift was certainly not pilloried for writing the Proposal. Nor was he

feted. And the Propwl was generally admired more for its p s i o n anà wif (read: irony),

and less for its satiric 'intent.' One early, but only slightly revealing, mention of the

Proposal appears in a playfiil letter fiom Lord Bathurst to his old fnend Swift: 'Wow you

m u a imagine that a Man who has nine Children t o feed can't long a o r d alienospascere
mmrnos but 1 have 4 or 5 that are very fit for the table [. . .]" (Corr 3: 372)?" The Tory

paper 7he C r ~ t s m mof 7 November 1730 makes an ironically understated reference to

the Proposal (PW 12: 3 17) to which Swift responds in his posthumousIy published

"Answer to The Craftsm~~~t."~~~

The dearth of serious canternporary commentary

regarding an obviously popular pamphlet intirnates that its readers rnay have wanted to be

in on the jest but not taste the bitter seriousness of Swüt's irony."16 One may even

speculate that many readers appreciated the ironic twists but felt repulsed by the naked

taboos and irnplicit indictment. Some, of course, were outraged but silent until afler

Swift's death. Such revulsion walesced in the mid-nineteenth century with Thackeray's

pronouncement that the Proposal is the work of "an ogre" (29). Thackeray's assessment,

however misguided, contains a tmtffil insight. An ogre is a giant being, a hideous

monster that feeds on human flesh. In ogre we have a mixture of physical monstrosity,

repulsiveness, and cannibdism. The similarities between the ogre of folklore and The

Primitive of cornmon construction are obvious. Calling Swift an ogre for writing A

"'See Nokes, H p r i t e 372; Phiddian in 'Wave You Eaten Yet?" eloquently

remarks, 'Tt is a depressing prospect to consider how so explosive a piece as the Proposa1
shouid have exploded in almost in almost total silence" (dl).
The lack (as it seems) of documentation of the initial reception of the Proposai
represents a serious shortcornhg in either eighteenth-century commentary or present-day
cntical survey (to say nothing of reception history). in fact there are no sources of such
information apparently extant and hence no ready way to reconstmct how Swift's
contemporaries responded to the pamphlet.

"'See Davis, Introduction 12: xxx.113on the discrepancy regarding the 1730
publication date.

3'6Writing in 1893 John Churton Collins reports (albeit without citation)

England's response to "the ghastly irony of the M ' S ZProposaf' was "that she
appreciated the humour and enjoyed the joke" (223). Nonetheless, a decade aRer Swift's
death, Deane Swift writes of the Proposu19"This humourous treatise, equally the product
of despair and benevolence, seemeth to have been written in the bittemess of his sou1 [. .
.]" (204).
 220

Modes! Propo~~7I
is certainly an overstatement, but the monstrousness of his satire and the

rnonstrousness of the Irish condition he perceives m e r s the charge. Thackeray's "ogre7'

adds another element of The Primitive to a satire already rife with primitivist tropes.

Perhaps Swift's clearest assessrnent of English (and sometimes of his own)

attitudes toward the Irish appears when he is moa vehemently charnpioning his native

land. In his letter to Middleton (the so-cailed 6th of I;he D r q i e r 's Letfers, composed in

1724 but not printed until 1739, Swift complains of English ignorance of the Irish. The

cornpanson he makes explicitly recalls standard wnstnicts of The Primitive:

As to Ireland, they know little more than they do of Mexico; further than
that it is a Country subject to the King of England, full of Boggs, inhabited
by wild Irish Pqists; who are kept in Awe by mercenary Troops sent from
thence: And their general Opinion is, that it were better for EngIand if this
whole Island were sunk into the Sea: For, they have a Tradition, that every
Forty Years there must be a Rebeliion in Ireland (PW 10:103)~"

Here açain we have Ireland as an absurdly displaced outpost of the New World. The

Drapier addresses letter 4 (1 724) To the Whole People of Ireland, but clearly the audience

of this open letter is first Swift's own Anglican Irish and then the English. In Letter 4,

"'In her essay "SwiA7sExplorations of Slavery in Houyhnhnrnland and Ireland,"

Ann Cline Kelly compares English ignorance of the Irish to Houyhnhnrn ignorance of
Yahoos. She sees ignorance as a shield utilized by oppressors "so they will not be
inhibited fiom treating [the oppressed] badly" (852). While the link between the Anglo-
Irish relations and Houyhnhnm-Yahoo relations is not as pronounced as Kelly makes it
out, her point is well taken. Kelly sometimes overstates her case--"The Yahoos, therefore,
can be seen as an emblem of the fate awaiting the Irish" (849)--but her emphasis on the
Houyhnhnms as garden-variety oppressors chums up some important issues of English
imperialism and colonialist and slavery discourse in W i v e r 's Travels.
Swift more explicitly expresses the English notion of the Irish as The Primitive:

Our Neighbors, whare Understcatdingsmejm upon u LeveI with Ours

(which perhaps are none of the Bdghtest) have a strong Contempt for most
Nations, but especidy for Iredand.. They look upon us as a Sort of Sovage
Irish, whom our Ancestors conquered seveml Hundred Yean ago: And if 1
shodd describe the B r i t m to you, as they were in C œ d s Time. when
they p - n t e d t k i r Bodies, or cimtlie themsefves with the Skins of Beasts,
1 should act fùil as ra~onablyas they do. (64)

Notice that Swift's indignity peaks at the Engüsh perception of ''us'7 as "Skwge"; he does

not openly exonerate the Irish Cathdics from the charge. In Letter 6 again he lampoons

English notions of the bestial nature of the Irish (who "would grow so tame, as to eat out

of your Hands") and of Ireland's strange foreignness: "upon the Arrivai of an Irish-man to

a Country Town, 1have known Crouds coming about him, and wondering to see him look

so much better than themselves" (103).'" To maximize his rhetorical eEect, Swift

purposely reiterates the English conflation of wild Irish Catholics with Anglicans in

Ireland. Nonetheless, ten years later in his ' U t t e r on the Fishery," he makes a more

typical contrast of the Irish and English: "as w m p t as Engimtd is, it is an Habitation of

Saints in Cornparison oflrelQllCj. We are d l Slaves, and Knaves and Fools, and al1 but

Bishops and People in Employments, Beggars" (PW 13: 112; also Corr 4: 230). Just four

years &er the last of The Drapier's Letters and a few months before A Modesr Proposal,

he wonders to the Archbishop of Dublin "whaher those animais" he sees walking about

Dublin "be of the same species with what 1 have seen very like them in England, as to the

In the mid-seventeenth century, Johannes Bulwer could still write seriously of

Irish Catholics with tails and of Irish women with breasts so pendulous ("fit to be money
bags for East or West Indm Merchants") they cari give suck to children clinging to their
backs (41 1 and 3 12). His association of the Irish with canniialistic Indians is not
accidental. On ancient reports of Irish d b a l i s m ("more savage than the Britons"), see
Strabo 4.5.4.
outward Shape, but dinering in their notions, natures, and intellectualls more than any two

kinds of Brutes in a forest.." He questions th& definitions of "Law, Liberty, Properiy,

Courage, Reason, Loyalty or Religion" (PW 12: 65)T9Swift's ovemding wncem is with

universal ethics; anything else, including national issues, is important only in as much as it

relates to ethics.

Since Swift was most concerneci with the suite of European ethos, he rarely

glances at The Primitive outside Ireland except in passing, as a means toward an end.

Outside Guiiiver 's Travei's,The Primitive constnict in Swift are little more than a trope, a

metaphor or analogy calculated to make some greater point. The fiagment Mechical

Operution of the Spirit is addressed to "T. H. Erquire. at his Chambers in the A d e m y of

the Beaux Esprits in New Holland" (261), for instance. Swift's obvious point is to mock

the leamed correspondence of the Royal Society. The author of the fiagment quickly

advances the sarcasm:

PRAY, Sir, in your next Letter to the Iroquois Virtuosi, do me the Favour

319 In the so-called Letter 7 of The Drqpier 's Letters (written 1725, printed 1735;
see P W 1O: 97; also, Davis, Introduction 10: xxvi), Swift locates The Primitive specifically
in the Irish poor. Among his proposais in this Humble A&ess to bath Hmses of
Parliamertt he suggests,
That some effectua1 Methods may be taken to civilize the poorer Sort of
Our Natives, in d l t h o r Parts of this Kingdom where the I a h abound; by
introducing among them our Language and Cuaoms; for want of which
they live in the utmost Ignorance, Barbarity and Poverty; giving themselves
wholly up to Idleness, Nastyness, and Thievery, to the very great and just
Reproach of too many LPndlords. (139; see also "On Barbarous
Denorninations in Ireland," PW 4: 280)
The Civilized establish themselves not only through "Language and Customs," but also
through industry, refinement, and wealth. English civilization-both in England and in
Ireland-will be the force to civilize the Irish. This passage is a direct cal1 for further
colonization and assimilation. The Irish, Swifl is saying, will only truly be The Civilized
when they c a s e to be Irish. Of course his own intermediate status as Irish-bom English
belies his assumptions.
 to present my humble S e ~ c toe that iîiustrious Body, and assure them, 1
shail send an Account of those Phemmern, as soon as we can determine
them at Gresham. (263)

The association of The Primitive with the science of the Modems continues in Martinus

Scriblerus' satire of the sage apes in "Ongin of Sciences." From the Southern

Hemisphere, Swift launches us to the northem reaches of the New World, but the

coverage ofhis global communication is still partial. In the next paragraph he evokes

Montaigne by complaining, '7 have not had a Line fkom the Literaîi of Tobinambou, these

three last Ordinaries" (263). The "Tobimmbotrnare the Brazilian tribe featured in

Montaigne's famous "Of the Caniballes." Swift's fiagrnent is a parody intended to deflate

the pretense and practices of the virtirosi of the age. Whatever erudition leamed

academies accrue is fit to be shared, Swift is saying, only with the cmde "Beaux Espirits**

who occupy the most remote parts of the globe. The ultra-refined leaming of the

Modems is absurdly fit only for The Primitive.

Such pessimism about the Modems always gets the better of SwiA. He fears the

deterioration of civilization as manifested by his fears of the deterioration of the English

language. In his Proposai for Correciing [. . .] t

kEngiish Tongue (17 12)' he proposes
an academy "for Ascertainhg and Fixing Our Language for ever" (PW 4: 14). While he

appears to have abandoned this project in later life, and while many of his own writings

would violate the linguistic principles he seeks to establish, we may recognize in this

proposal SwiA's pessimism bom of nostalgi~.'~He connects ''affecteci Refinements" with

Deborah Baker Wyrick sums up the diierences between Swift's conservative

linguistic privileges and his liberal linguistic practices: "Switt's wnservatism calls for
preserving langue xi it can provide strong and finn authorization for the licenses of
parole" (30; see also 2 1 and 184).
 224

"rnany Barbarities" (PW4:14), so the very refinements of The Cidized d l precipitate

degeneration. It is the sarne pessimism he expresses as a young man in his manuscript

resolutions, "When 1Corne t o Be Old" (1699). His expectations for his own fiinire

pardel his expectations for humanit.. AU is degeneration and inevitable decrepiîude. To

age is to decline. No w o n d s the morai of the Stddbnigg's episode in GuIIiver 's Truvels

is "to arm Our People against the Fear of Death" (214). Such a moral is Christian in its

faith in a rewarding Heaven, but it is also pngmatidy philosophical. Only a fool would

long to perpetuate the wretchedness of We.

Chapter 9: The Primitive in GuIIiver 's TruveIs: The Colonization of GuUiver

In Guifiver's Trawels Swift takes on British irnperialism outside Ireland and

broaches anglocentric constructs of The Primitive. UnliJce most tnivel writers, Swift's

Guiüver encounters his new worlds alone and with no witnesses. No one corroborates

aspects of his story the way Dampier c o n h m Lionel Wafer's Darien adventure; no

fiendly natives resaie him as the "Dorninio" Caribs resaie Richard Falconer. Gulliver

arrives in unknown lands alone and leaves alone, but unlike Alexander Selkirk or Crusoe

and Friday, he is not alone in his new lands. Crusoe offers an interesting contrast to

Gulliver. Gulliver 's Travels resurrects an ancient genre, the fantastic voyage, as ail the

places Lemuel Gulliver visits except the way stations-Japan, Holland, the Cape of Good

Hope, and Barbados-are implausibly fictional.'*' Crusoe's island is not implausible, and

Defoe's goals and approach are different fiom Swift's. Crusue features more adventure

than Gùlliver 's Truvels and dwells on mon of the pragmatics of wildemess survival.

Clement Hawes argues that Crusoe's self-sufficiency sets off his "proud individuality"

from the "subhuman 'Other"' (208), and Defoe presents a moral paradigm as Crusoe's

persona1 reflections and spintual evolution render his life ever more exemplary. The moral

paradigrn is clearest in the utopian experiment of the second volume and culminates in the

collection of moral aphorisms in the final volume. In Gulliver 's Trmels Swift suppresses

the adventure and voyage elements of Gulliver's expenences in favor of minute

"' In "Voyage to Nowhere," John Traugott sees Gulliver 's Travels as a parody of
"the fabulous adventure story, tuniing Ulysses into that drab fellow, Gullivef' (164).
observations of the peoples and beings Guiliver encounters? Notice how little of the

book takes place aboard ship and how little t h e Guiiiver is alone before encountering the

inhabitants of each new land. Action and rugged adventure take a back sait to mock-

ethnography and exotica, a prelude to Swift's moral satire. Guiiiver does not explore with

a shipload of English culture and guns. He is isolateci fkom home and compatriots and he

sufers chronically fiom a case of naive empiricism? These factors and his native modern

dullness make him seem as innocaitly observant as any Javage critic. As Gulliver

assimilates into Houyhnhnm culture in book 4, he describes England to his Houyhnhnm

master in the ironically naive voice of the savage critic and echoes the religious allegory of

A Tale of a Tub:

Difference in Opinions hath cort many Millions of Lives: For instance,

whether Flesh be Bread, or B d be Flesh: Whether the Juice of a certain
Berry be B l d or Wine: Whether Wnisilhg be a Vice or a Virtue:
Whether it be better to kiss a Post, or throw it into the Fire: What is the
best Colour for a C m , whether Black, White, Red, or Grey, and whether it
should be long or short, m o w or wide, dirfy or cteun; with many more.
(246)

Gulliver is both observer and observed, and we may perceive two primitivist

narratives mnning simultaneously in Cultiver's Travels: one a conventionai travel account

with a Civilized traveler's depiction of Primitive objects and the other a presentation fiom

3" For a brief enurneration of the dmerences between Robinson Cmsoe and
Gulliver S Tmels, see Nigel Demis, ''Swift and Defoe."

Just as his ethnography is "mock," his naivete can be "faux" (see Edward
323
Rosenheim, "The Satinc Fiction" 393).
 227

his hoas' perspectives. in the second case, ever-pliable Guiiiver becomes more like The

Primitive, the foreip object. For the rest of this chapter 1 will consider Gulliver within the

dud narratives: fïrst conventionaiiy as The Civüized observer of The Primitive and then as

The Primitive himself; farther and farther disunced fkom The Civilized-Exotic,

Barbarous, Savage, and nnally Bestial. I f w e apply the primitivist taxonomy 1laid out in

the previous section to Gulliver's conventional travel narrative, then Gulliver is The

Civilized, and most of the peoples he encounters are The Exotic. The Lilliputians, the

Blefùscudians, the Brobdingnagians, and the nations of the third voyage retain m o a of the

marks of The Exotic (writing, currency, refined arts, etc.) and are spatial constnicts-non-

Christian beings at a geographical remove. In book 4, which 1will treat in its place, the

aggressive Australians who attack Guiiiver, the Yahoos, and the Houyhnhnms represent

The Savage, The Bestial, and what 1 read as an ideaiized version of The Barbarous

respectively .

As with other portrayals of The Exotic, the peoples of the first three books have

written laws and histones, and sometimes Gulliver mentions recorded religious systems.

Although Gulliver does not explicate the religions of any of his hoas, there is much

* ~instance, the Lilliputians house Gulliver in a

evidence of formal systems of ~ o r s h i p . ~For

defiled temple (27), prepare their dead for resurrection (57-8), and deny public office to

atheists (60). Later, in Brobdingnag, Gulüver actually penses "a shon Account" of

Brobdingnagian beliefs and sees "Statues of Gods" (100, 1 14). Nevertheless, he gives no

details, for detailed descriptions of religion would detract from Swift's moral satire and

"As 1 indicated in part 2, religion was not often treated fully by travel writers, but
few avoid religion as consistently as Gulliver.
would skirt Christian mores. As it is, John Boyle. 5th M of Omery, cornplains in bis

R e m 6 (1752) that Swift "glances at religion" in the nrst two voyages (1 36). ostensibly

a reference to the Liliiputian burial customs. Wide we Ieam little or nothing of the

religions of the peoples Gulliver visits, the circumstances of theu fictitious societies

sometimes correspond to religious issues and ontl lias in Europe. 1am thinking primarily

of the Big-endian-Little-end and the High-kl-Low-heel controversies in Lilliput.

Nowhere do we r a d descriptions of the retigion of The Exotic in Gulliver 's Truweis as we

do in the travels of Herbert, Ovington, Dampier (VM),and, most extensively, Rycaut .

At the end of book 3, Swift relies on stories of the Far East when he has Gulliver petition

for the nght to pass through Japan without "frumphgvpon the Cruc~jix,"a ceremony

apparently intended to discourage Christian missionaies and encourage exclusive trade

with the latitudinarïan Dutch (216-7). Ovington tells a similar story of one Asian Captain

Edward Say, who had been captured by the Sanganians but can secure bis fieedom if he

will kiss some religious images taken fiom the Portuguese:

The Captain who was a very Rational man, and bred out of the Road of
Romish Superstition, was neither so sparing of his Civilities, as to forbear a
Complement to the piece of Wood, nor of such unrefin'd Principles as to
give it a Religious Adoration, but was ready either to kiss or burn it, which
they pleas'd, since he had an assurance of his Release upon such easie
terms, and therefore kiss'd it very fieely; and after two or three days stay
here, where he fed upon Rice and Water, and lay in the Night time with the
Cattle, he was dissmiss'd. (257)

Gulliver's experience in Japan also recails a more perilous episode in Defoe's C q t a i n

Singleton in which some English sailors are stranded in Japan. Singleton h e m reports

that the Japanese emperor sends priests "frequently arnong them, to perswade them to

worship their God, an Idol," and Quaker WiIliam wants to reme the sailors so that they

are not "murdered by the barbarous People. in Defence of their Idolatry" (202-3). In both
Singeton and GuIIiwr 's TrowLF Japan briefly represmts a threat to Christianity, but

Japan was too remote and isolated 60m EnglUh d o r s to have much more than a

symbolic role in the literature of The Exotic.

More promhently, the arbitrary govemments of the Lüüputians and -me nations

of book 3 mark those nations as The Exotic. The Lilüputians, despite their utopian

''original Institutions" @O), have much in cornman with Rycaut's Ottomans, Herbert's

Persians, OWigton's "Great Mogul" of India, and Chetwood's Moroccans. Like other

Exotic rulem, the six-inch Lilliputian emperor sports pompous titles:

most Mighty Emperor of Lillipi, Deüght and Terror of the Universe,

w h o r Dominions extend five Thousand Blustrugs, (about twelve Miles in
Circumférence) to the Extrernities of the Globe: Monarch of al1 Monarchs:
Talier than the Sons of Men; whose Fat press down to the Center, and
whose Head strikes against the Sun [. . -1. (43)

Compare the Lilliputian's titles with those of the Persian monarch:

Abbas is King ofPersia, Parthia, Media, Bactria, Chorazon, Candahor,

and Heri, [. . .] Lord of the Impen'ousMuuntaines of Ararat, Taurus,
Caucasus and Periardo: Conrmamkr of aIf creaturesfrm the Seo of
Chorazan to the GuIph of Persia, of true Discentfrom the Mortys-Ally.
Prince of thefmre Rivers, Euphrates, Tygris, Araxis, and Indus:
Govemmr ofall Sultans, Eoperour of Mussulmen, Bud of Honour,
Miwmr of Verîue, md Rose of DeIight. (Herbert 128-9)33

Swift's parody of royal arrogance in book 1 reduces such pomposity to Lilliputian stature.

The Lilliputian emperor's bombastic titles correlate with the arbitrariness of Lilliputian

323 Swift owned Herbert's T r d I e s , see above pages 87. Ovington, another
author at least indirectly known to Swift (Frantz, "Gulliver's 'Cousin Sympson'" 332-3)
Iists the titles of the King of Bisnager:
The Husband of good Fortune, the God of great Provinces, King of the
greatest Kings, the Lord ofHomemen, the Master of them which cannot
speak, Emperour of thme Empereurs, Conquerot of al1 he sees, and Keeper
of al1 he Conquers, DreadfÙl to the Eight Coasts of the World, Vanquisher
of the Malnanetans, and Lord of the J ! h t , West, North, South, and of the
Sea, which now Ruleth and Governeth tiiis World. (1 12)
government. Gulliver experiences Liiliputian tyranny first-hand by failing to negotiate

Lilliputian court intrigue, an experience that r d s the volatile politics of the Turkish

court as described by Rycaut (9.47). Liliiputian justice had once involved a fairminded

system of reward and punishment but had detaiorated over grnerations (59-60). The

Lilliputians deem M v e r guilty "wïthout thef i l Pr@s required by the sînct Letter

of the Lmu" (an allusion to the 171 5 impeachment of Harley and Bolingbroke) and secret1y

sentence him to death on charges that reflect the jealousies of the emperor's advisors (71).

Gulliver's association of Lilliputian injustice and Engiand's srbitrary judiciary (72-3)

blunts commonplace daims that English institutions are less arbitrary than those of The

Exotic. For instance, Paul Rycaut disparages the Turkish ruler in his praise of the Engiish:

1confess it is a blessing and wondanil happiness of a people, to be

Subjects of a gracious Prince [k.of England], who hath prescribed his
power within the compas of wholesom Laws, acknowledg'd a right of
possession and propriety of Estate as weli in his Subjects as himselc who
doth not punish the innocent with the guüty, nor oppress without
distinction, nor act the part of that King whom God gives in his wrath.
(8)326

in book 3 the tyranny of Laputa over Balnibarbi is clear (171-2)and is a rnilder form of

the Persian subjugation of Hyrcania described by Herbert (95-9).3nThe Luggnaggnian

326 See also Montagu 119;Chetwood, Boyle 122.

Herbert makes a direct if superficial link between the Irish and the Hyrcanians:
The people speake the Language of Per* their apparell like the Irish
Trooses, their heads have a high woolen Cap, fiimd with their sheep-skins.
They are &able, and delight in novelties. (95)
Moreover, the Persians' depiction of their dependency r d s English slanders against the
Irish:
Howbeit the Persiuns, if one may beleeve them, report menie stones of
these H y r m i a n s , d n g the men brutish, and the women unchast, that
they are very foire and amiable (which we aedit, finding so) and so kind
and loving unto Travellers, that upon any signall, they will receive them,
and hold it a point of rudenesse in the Virginq ifthey be coy or disdainfiil1
floor-licking ceremony-a maievolent version of the rite peflormed before India's "Great

Mogul" (Ovington 112)-and the fiequent assassinations (204-5) recall the viciousness o f

Chetwood's Moroccan emperor (Boyle 122)?

One departure Swift rnakes from other t m l works regards the sexudity of his

primitives. Guliiver does not supply titiüating deuils of primitive sexudity, such as

polygarny, homosaniality, or g e n d sexual ücense. T d writers often present The

Exotic as sexuaily licentious; for instance, the East Indian ceremony in which Wgins are

deflowered by an id01 (Herbert 41), reports of polygyny (Herbert 191; Rycaut 8 l), or

rampant homossniality (Herbert 99; Rycaut 33-4,8 1;Chetwood, Boyle 114)." Loosely

related to sexuality, the eunuch is a mainstay of the literature of The Exotic, but none are

present in Guliïver 's Travelxm Guliiver does not describe oversexed Lilliputians.

Flimnap, the Lord High Treauirer, absurdly suspects an anair between his wife and

Gulliver (likely a swipe at Walpole's notorious wife), but sex scandals are not rampant in

unto strangers, this the Persim say of them: but in al1 such reports, sure I
beleeve them not. (95-6)

328 See above page 90. Ovington details the greeting ceremony performed before
the Indian d e r :
First to kiss the Ground with the Hand, then to touch the Breast with it,
and aflerwards raise it to the Head; and al1 this thrice repeated, when any
person approaches his Imperia1 Presence. (1 12)
In Swifr 's Tory Politics, F.P.Lock contmds that Swift depicts "the Oriental style of
despotism" in Luggnagg the same way he depicted European despotism in Lilliput. "p]t is
the institution of arbitrary monarchy," Lock condudes, 'hot the particular kings or
emperors, which is the object of Swift's satire" (170). In his "Letter on the Fishery,"
Swift speaks of his "perfect H a t r d of Tyranny and Oppression" (PW 13 : 1 12; Con 4:
229).

329 See Said, Orientahm 62.

On eunuchs, see Herbert 99; Ovington 127; Rycaut 37; Chetwood, Boyle 13;
'30
and above note 143.
 232

Lilliput (65-6). Some saiacious details ocair in the other voyages: Laputan women have

m u e n t and open liaisons with visiton from Bainibarbi (165), and Gulliver t e k the aory

of a "Court Lady," the d e of the prime aiinister @erhaps another swipe a Lady

Walpole), who fled the flying island to take up with an abusive footman on the continent

below rather than rernain with her preoccupied but devoted husôand. Gulliver adds that

the tale may sound Iike "an Europun or Engfisit Story" and moraliis upon the

universality of the "Caprices of Womankind" (l66).=' Although Laputan women are

allegedly fond of strangers, Gulliver gives no hint that he has first-hand knowledge of their

preferences. In Brobdingnag Gulliver cornes by his senial insights more directly when the

giant queen's maids of honor strip hirn and use him as a m a l instrument (1 18-9). Still,

we cm draw no general conclusions about the xxual nature of any of ûulliver's hosts

fiom these three incidents since al1 reflect upon particular courtly women (Flimnap's wife,

the prime rninister's wife, the maids of honor) and not upon the people overail. As he had

with religion, Swift avoids moral censure and reduces distraction fiom his satirical

narrative by avoiding the provocative discussions of sex that appear in most other travel

writers' works-whether gratuitous (as in Chetwood, Ovington, etc.) or ethnographie

(Dampier, Rycaut, etc.). The singularity of Swift's portrayal of The Exotic stems from his

concentration on his satirical purpose and on the changing perceptions of Gulliver. The

Exotic nations of Gulliver 's Trovels are often moral stand-ins for the English nation. The

appearances of the peoples of the first three voyages are not significantly different fiom

English appearances, with minor exceptions: the stature of the Lilliputians and of the

'"On some semal intrigues of Exotic women, see Ovington 127-8, 199; Montay
127-8; Chetwood, Boyle 126.
B robdingnagians, the contorted bodies of the Laputan virtuosi-simila to Ovington' s
description of seüsabused Indian "Holy Mendiants" (213)-and some vague references to

clothing styles.

Book 4 departs sharply fiom the homogeneity presented in the first three books

and fiom the imaginary iiterature of The Primitive. In book 4, Gulliver meets Yahoos, and

Gulliver meets Houyhnhnms. He also bnefly encountm a fine example of The Savage-a

construct rarely found in imaguiaiy travels.= The natives who attack Gulliver with

arrows after he has left Houyhnhnmland are New Holanders, more aggressive than

Dampier's Australians-"the miserablest People in the World" ( W 3 12)--and possibly still

smming fiom Dampier's assault on their feUows in 1699 (NH 101-2).333While Dampier's

Australians do not have bows like Gulliver's do, the insignifiance of Gulliver's wounded

knee and his fear that he has been poisoned reprise the story of Dampier's crew member

who frets that an Australian 'Zance" may have poisoned him (101). Gulliver's Australians

are a combination of the worst of the worst: the Hottentots, who are good with bows

(Cooke 2: 7 1-2), and Dampier's Australians. Like so many other examples of The

Savage, they are instant enemies.

While Gulliver has good reason to fear the malevolent Australians, earlier he had

reacted to the Yahoos with unwarranted hostility. M e r arriving in Houyhnhnmland and

in "feu of being surpriseci, or suddenly shot with an Arrow fiom behind, or on either

33Z See above page 159.

333 Dampier had wntended "that there are no People in the World so barbarous as
to kif1 a single Person that fdls accidentally into their Hands, or comes to live arnong
them; except they have before been injured" ( W 3 2 5 ) . Gulliver does not provoke the
Australians' attack on him, so either the Austraüans warily remember Dampier's earliw
confrontation with thern or Gulliver's experience contradias Dampier's sanguine claim.
Side7'(223)' Gulliver searches for "the Cabbii of some Indion"; he is confronted by a

Yahoo,who seems in no way human:

The ugly Monster. when he saw me, distorted several Ways every Feature
of his Visage. and stared as at an Object he had nwer seen before; then
approachhg nearer, liffed up his fore Paw, whether out of Cunosity or
Mïschief, 1could not teU [. . .]. (224)

Gulliver whacks the creature with the flat of his cutlass and thus sets in motion the conflict

that ends with the Yahoos defecating on his head before the Houyhnhnrns can rescue him.

Appalled by the ferai selfrefiected in the Yohoo visage, Guiiiver responds violentiy to the

creature's seemingly fiiendly gesture: a srnile and a handshake perhaps (224-5)?

Gulliver's mistrust is typical of the voyager's encwnter with The Savage. His disgust at

their appearance is in league with the disgust of explorers with the Hottentots, "the very

Reverse of Human Irind" (ûvington 248)?' While The Savage may be scantily clad, the

Yahoos are naked. Like The Savage, their skin is "a brown Buff Colour" (223), their

voices "horrible Howlings" (272). seemingly worse than the "gumiral" speech of The

Savage (Cooke 2: 72; Rogers 3 14; Shelvocke 409). Clearly the Yahoos are more debased

than even typical constnicts of The Savage. They are more like Dampier's Campeche

monkeys that also climbed trees and "scattered their Urine and Dung" on his head ( V a

2: 59-60). Chetwood relates a tale fkom Peter Martyr in which a monkey

seeing a S p i a r d going to fire a Gun at him, snatch'd up a little Child that

was there, and held it before him as a Buckler, and would not let it go
before the S p i m d was retir'd; then he laid the Child gently down, and
ran away, after having first Urin'd upon it. (Fakoner 3: 13)

See Nokes, Hyporite Reverseà 326; Nuttall52.

See also 288, Herbert 16-7, and Rogers 420. The repulsiveness of the Yahoos
alço recails Rogers' revulsion at the Baja Californians, who are "old, and miserably
wrinkfed" (3 14).
 235

Gulliver has a similar but inverted expaience: he captures a Yahoo child for study, but

before he releaxs the toddler, "the odious Vennin [. . .] voided its filthy Excrements of a

yeilow liquid Substance, al1 over my Cloaîhs" (266). Excretion for the Yahoos, as with

the monkeys, is an expression of fear and wntempt; it is the anthropoidal version of squid

ink. While the Yahoos s h a n many features of nie Savage, they have much in comrnon

with depictions of monkeys and a p e ~ . ~ '

Gulliver had apparently expected an encounter with The Barbarous in

Houyhnhndand. Before being set ashore, he loads his pockets with "Bracelets, Glass

Rings, and other Toys" in the hope that he can bLpurchase"his life with them (223). The

Barbarous would usually be receptive to trinkets (see page 118 above), but as Dampier

had discovered in Australia, such baubles do not always impress The Savage (W314-S),

let alone the Yahoos. Gulliver also offers his junk to the first two Houyhnhnms he

enwunters and then again inside the Houyhnhnm hut (226,228), but the junk is as

worthless to the Houyhnhnms as it would be to Gay's Caribbeans. Usually Gulliver

cannot improvise but must rely upon his experience or his knowledge fiom other

voyagers. He is a slow leamer and is utterly lost in a land where his every expectation and

his every experience are confounded-where the humans are animals and the people are

horses. John Toland in his Christianiîy Mysterious (1696-a book Swift detested)

argues that because of reason "we are accounted Men; and we could neither infiorm

others, nor receive Improvement our selves any more than Brutes without it" (57). Swift

literalizes and extends this sort of argument with his Houyhnhnms, who are human and

more than human without being physically human at aü. As rational equi, the

- --

3x On the behavior of Tyson's "pygmie," see 7, 30.

Houyhnhnms do not fit easily into categones of The Primitive. They display a great deal

of cultural sophistication, but unlike The Exotic they do not write (an exclusion of legal

code, scripture, historical chronicle), exchange currency, practice u b i t m y govemment,

build edifices, practice institutional religion, etc. Like The Bubarous and The Savage they

go shamelessly naked, eat simple food$ and use linle technology, but Houyhnhnm society

is more stable and complex than Barbarous or Savage The HouyMinms are

not wildemess beings, like Lawson's Carolinians or Wfiams' New Englanders, but seem

an idealized version of The Barbarous o r of Shelvocke's depiction of The Savage of Baja

Caiifomia--naturd beings whose lives an uncomplicated by strong emotion. They are

most similar to the noble West Indians Gay sketches in Polly, but they are stiii something

' one thing, unlke The Barbarous or The Savage, the Houyhnhnms are
else t 0 0 . ~ ~For

industrious in obvious ways the British can admire.339 One rnay argue that the utopian

society of the Houyhnhnms can be imitated, but the Houyhnhnms themselves cannot, as

"'In many ways, the Houyhnhnms recall the simple, naked, and physically-
differenced hermaphrodites who also occupy austral regions in Gabriel de Foigny's The
Sourhern h d , fiown (1676). See Fausett, Introduction dvi; also Images 50. Calhoun
Winton in his "Conversion on the Road to Houyhnhnmland" associates the Houyhnhnms
with Shaftesbury's principles, presumably Shaftesbury's privileging of simplicity (277).
"'In "Gulliver among the Horses," AD. Nuttall argues that for al1 their reczson,
the Houyhnhnms "have no ski11 of facility in ratiocimiion. They are sages who never
philosophize." Nuttall goes <into list some ideas of which the Houyhnhnms "have no
conception" (62-3; see also Murry 339; Kelly, Swiff and the English Language 80).
Nunall observes the Houyhnhnrn lack of technology and "the simpler and more laborious
tasks" that Gulliver delegates to the Sorrel Nag and concludes that "the Houyhnhnms are
just not very clevei' (65). Perhaps, but like The Primitive encountered at the Cape of
Good Hope, in Baja California, etc., the Houyhnhnms simply do not have t o be clever to
s u ~ v e John
. Traugott links the Brobdingnagian and the Houyhnhnm use of reason with
teleology. Reason is principle for them, the instant reaption of apriori prernises
("Voyage to Nowhere" 159).
339 See above pages 138-139, 171-174, and note 262.
 237

Gulliver amply demonstrates. Although they are rational beings, A n i d Rationde, t hey

are not real humans but are idealized humans in horses' bodies-mus R a t i ~ n u I e . ~

Therefore, they are neither ï h e Primitive nor The Civiiized. In fact, if we were to take

Gulliver's word for it, the Houyhnhnm would not be a construct at al1 since his portrayal

would have to be transparently truc. At the end of book 4 Swift offen a fine example of

The Civilized, Don Pedro de MendezY' Despite the good Portuguese's abundant vimies

the contrast between him and the idealized Houyhnhnms is striking. Guliiver would do

well to ait his losses and adopt Don Pedro as his modd, but Gulliver believes he has seen

perfection. Perceiving offers the possibility of achieving. Stili, his efforts to nse above

The Human have sunk him below The Bestial by the tirne he leaves Houyhnhnmland.

Primitive Gulliver

Although Gulliwr 's T r d s foUows the format of conventional travel nanatives, it

is fkom the first and finaily about Gulliver's vicissitudes as he d o p t s the perspective of

. ~ ~ the vantage of the hosts we can see a second narrative dong

each of his h o s t ~ From

with the first. Any culture considers itself the nom-at least for a while. An Exotic or an

ideal culture could consider itself superior to ail others, as well. In this way, it would be

like The Civilized-self-centered. Unlike other travel writers, Gulliver gives us his hosts'

See note 397.

In his critical biography of S a , J. Middleton Murry suggests that Don Pedro
is modeled on John Arbuthnot (346).
M2 See Todd 164.
perspectives, as though they are The Civilized and he is of The Primitive; this is the

simultaneous second narrative of GuIIiver 's Trwls-Gulliver as The Primitive. This

reading may seem counterintuitive whai one recalls my d e r chapters in whkh The

Civilized was entirely an angiocentric wnstnict. Besides, al1 we know ofwhat others

think of Guliiver is what he teUs us, but what he tells us is most inforxnati~e.~
As The

Civilized, Gulliver is Locke's tabuh rusu, a superb empirical observer buffeted and

brainwashed by all that he sees (Donoghue, "Brainwashing" 140). But in the second

narrative, Gulliver is the observed, but still the tabuha rusa-easily inscribed, easily

constructed and reconstnicted, easily converteci. In England he fulfills othen'

expectations as The Civilized, and abmad he fidfills them as The Primitive. Carole

Fabricant &tes that "Swift's characteristic mode of observation is a close-up vie$

(1 86), and close-up vision is a power with which Swifi endows Gulliver. Neither Swift

nor his character is a member of what Fabricant calls,

the 'spectator class,' whose members automatically defined themselves as

viewers rather than viewed objects, as surveyors (not to mention creators)
of the landscape rather than features of the landscape that were subject to
being airveyed (and recreated) by others. ( 1 9 6 ) ~

Furthemore, she notes that while Gulliver is always an observer, "recumng passages,

some of which are among the most mernorable in the work, depict him as the viewed

object rather than the viewer" (198)? 1 would expand Fabricant's argument by

On the difficulty of trusting Guiiiver, see Rodino, "Splendide Mendax" 1065.

~1 On the other hand, in IrnagrningMoills1ers, Demis Todd represents ûulliver as
"the stereotypical tounst" (1 50). but Todd means to emphasize Gulliver's stupid passivity,
a Gulliverian feahire that renders him more naive and pliable than scientincally aloof (see
~ S 151-3,
O 172).

Us See also Deane 23-4.

 239

contending that Gulliver's role as perceivecl object renders him more iike The Primitive in

his TraveLÎ. In this reading, Guiliver's presemx in new lands does not w m p t them so

much as they w m p t hirn; uniike Dampier, Singleton, Montagu, and Boyle, Gulliver is not

the dominant wnstructor of The Primitive but is the tractable constructed.

Gulliver changes in esch land, but he changes m.That is, he starts the process

over with each amival. Gdliver begiiu each voyage and arrives in each land as The

Civilized with the same anglocentric perspective as 0th- English travel writers. But

Gulliver is different fiom most other travel writers, even narrators of imaginary travels.

Gulliver changes, and his transformations are explicit in his narrative. In this he is most

like Crusoe, but unlike Crusoe, whose transformation is a hyper-realistically slow, steady,

permanent, and unsensational progression, Gulliver' s changes are episodic. He in fact

changes and then at the end of each voyage except the last changes back. Upon each

&val his joumeys foiiow a pattern. M e r escaping danger aboard ship (stonn,

abandonment, piracy, mutiny) he immediately faces danger ashore (capture, pulverization,

starvation, ambush). He is eventually welcomed by the inhabitants, and soon he begins to

adopt his hosts' perspectives. For example, in Lilliput when he first stands up, the

"entertaining Prospect" of the countryside reminds him of a garden while the town

"looked like a painted Scene of a City in a Theatre" (29); he still views Lilliput wit h

anglocentric eyes. But quickly Gulliver's perspective begins to slip as he minutely

observes the six-inch emperor: "He is taller by almost the Breadth of my Nail, than any of

his Court; which alone is enough to strike an Awe into the Beholders" (30). The absurdity

of Gulliver's "Awe" is instantly apparent to the reader, but such shifts are a feature of

Gulliver's characta. He subjugates himself to the other's viewpoint, but always at the
 240

expense of himself and his status as The Civilized. His SMin perspective always

precedes his assimilation. By the time Oulliver leaves Lilliput, he has sobered and

reasserts his anglocaiuism. He disavows his aiiegiance to the emperor by mnning fiom

the law and feels nothing but "Joy" that he will retum home to England (79). The

miniature cattle he brings with him become spectacles for paying audiences as, home at

last, Gulliver settles back into his role as The Civilized.

Similarly, in Brobdingnag, the land is at first monstrous to Gulliver. Hindered by

fear and real aversion, he takes much longer to shift his perspective. Still, he quickly finds

himself ridiculously insignifiant and mekes himself more so by obsequiously bowing and

pleading to the f m e r and his farnily (88-9). By the time he settles in at the court, h e has

çompletely abandoned his role as The Civilizeû traveler and becornes the observed rather

than the observer. Like The Primitive in England (think of Dampier' s Jeoly), he is shown

for money and studied by scientists, and the famous scene in which he views himself in a

rnirror next to the queen clinches his new perspective: "there could nothing be more

ridiculous than the Cornparison: So that 1reaily began to imagine my self dwindled many

Degrees below my usud Size7'(107). His assimilation into Brobdingnag is slower than

into Lilliput, and his reassirnilation into England is cornmensurately protracted as he

imaginatively infiates himself into a giant and stomps about his homeland. "In a M e

Tirne," though, Gulliver comes "to a right Understanding*' and retums to the observant

and "right" perspective of The Civilized (1 49).

In book 3, Guliiver adopts the Laputan viewpoint nearly as quickly, if not as

explicitly, as he did the Lilliputian. He is at first perplexexi by the Laputans' "clumsy,

awkward, and unhandy" ways (163). but he s w n begins to emulate the Laputan virtuosi
 24 1

(and those of the Royal Socie!ty) by providing a detailed schematic of the flying island

(1 67-70). As elsewhere, in Laputa his shrinking capacity for critical perspective marks his

assimilation. He begins t o accept the absurdities of Laputan knowledge and practice as

one who is amazed by what he m o t u>mprehend.M On Bahibarbi at the Academy of

Lagado? Gulliver grows ever more impressed by the usdess projects conducted there and

even contributes his own suggestions d e d fiom his 'exp&ences' (1 9 1-2). Gulliver

spends little time in the other lands of book 3, but again he suspends his critical judgment,

particularly with the specters of Glubbdubdrib and with the Smildbniggs. On his trip to

Iapan and then home, he quickly adapts to European culture by pretending to be Dutch.

Ironicaily he rarely sounds as English as when he pretends to be a HoIlander. In

Houyhnhnmland, though, Gulliver is tom between two perspectives: the Houyhnhnms'

and the Yahoos'. GuIiiver deliberately rejects the Yahoo perspective, but he cannot deny

the superficial similarities between Yahoos and himself. He decides to retain his partial

disguise, his clothing, while emulating the Houyhnhnms, for it is his superficial appearance

that deten the Houyhnhnms fiom immediately casting him corn their midst. At first

Gulliver calls his Houyhnhnm host the "Master Herse? or "Master Grey" in

acknowfedgrnent of the Houyhnhnm's evident household rank (229,23 1). At the opening

of book 4, chapter 3, though, Gulliver explicitly declares this Houyhnhnm "my Master"

and begins an express effort to view the world through the eyes of his new "master" (234).

Unfortunately, when Houyhnhnm eyes focus on Gulliver, they see something like a

Yahoo; consequently as Gulliver aligns himself with the Houyhnhnms, he begins to view

Y6 Gulliver is like the wrîters whom Swift's Taler describes as believing a shallow,
dry well is "wondrous Deep, upon no wiser a Reason than because it is wondrous Dd"
(Tale 208).
 242

himsetf more as Yahoo--fùndamentally different nom the Houyhnhnms he emulates. This

paradox provokes the crisis Gulliver tries and fails t o resolve throughout his stay in

Houyhnhnmland. Since he rejezts both The Civilized and the Yahoo perspectives and he

can never hliy w d o n n to the Houyhnhnm perspective, Gulliver's vision M y lapses into

distortion. By the time he arrives home, he cannot readjust. He has lost aU perspective

and sunk into delusion.

1 should state clearly that Swift was no more cognizant of my primitivist taxonomy
than were the other travel writers I have discussed. The taxonomy is my latter-day

ordering of the patterns that occur in travelers' treatrnents of The Primitive in the period.

On the other hand, Swift was certainly aware of the methods and cornmonplace

assumptions of travel writers and of their primitivist constnias and enacted such material

in his own imaginary travels. His TrPws, though, are primarily satiricai, so he oflen

suppresses verisimilitude or parodic precision to make his satincal points about his culture,

humanity, and even colonialism.

On the subject of colonialism, Edward Said writes in Orientafimof "narcissistic

Western ideas about the Orient," and of Europeans imagining Eastern cultural factors that

become "repetitious pseudo-incamations of some great original (Christ, Europe, the West)

they were supposed to have been imitating" (Orienzàlism 62)? Imitation, reflection, and

See above note 1 11.

projection are lingering aspects of colonial thought. In the final chapter of Gulliwr 's

A Crew of Pyrates are driven by a Stonn they know not whither; at length
a Boy discovers Land fiom the Top-mst; they go on Shore to rob and
plunder; they see an hadess People, arc entertained with Kindness, they
give the Country a new Name, they takc fomul Possession of it for the
King, they set up a rotten PIank o r a Stone for a Memorial, they murder
two or three Dozen of the Natives, bring away a Couple more by Force for
a Sample, retum home, and get their Pardon. Here commences a new
Dominion acquired with a Title by DM= Right. Ships are sent with the
first Opportunity, the Natives driven out or destroyed, their Princes
tortured to discover th& Gold, a free Licence given to all Acts of
Inhumanity and Lust; the Earth reelring with the Blood of its Inhabitants:
And this execrable Crew of Butchers employed in so pious an Expedition,
is a modem Colony sent to wnvert and civilize an idolatrous and barbarous
People. (294)

In the spirit of colonial impersonation, this narrative reverses Gulliver's own first

experiences as a castaway back in book 1 in which Gulliver is, in a sense, the colonized

after a storm, the Lilliputians accidentally discovef Gulliver and lash hirn to their land,

annex hirn if you will. Soon his conquerors mount his body (21). The temtory of his

body transmutes into a topographical ferture of the Lilliputian Empire-a landscape-as his

new Lilliputian designation, "QuinbusFIestnn" or "Great Mm Muuntain" (34) suggests.

(Mountains and other prominences are usudy the first features sighted as voyagers

approach a new land.) When Gulliver panics and attempts to obtain his fieedom, a

barrage of arrows immediately subdues him (22). Soon the Lilliputians erect a platform

fiom which an orator threatens and cajoles Gulliver, demands his submission, and stakes a

daim over hirn (23)--an episode that reverberates cmdely in the "rotten Plank" set up by

the hypothetical pirates in the passage aôove. The Ldliputians transport Gulliver to the

metropolis, Sie the pirates "by Force for a Sample," and d e r they compel Gulliver to

"Swear a Peace" with the emperor, the Lilliputians minutely search the Gulliverian
bodyscape and plunder him of his gold and other possessions (33-7). Thus, Gulliver

stands in for a t h e as both the wnquered land and the oppressed people portrayed in the

anticoloniai passage of the final chapter.

Less-generic parallels ocair once the Liputians enlist Gulliver as an ally against

the Blefùscudians-a condition of his limited fieedom of rnovement (43-4). Like Ireland,

Gulliver helps to defeat his conqueror's mernies, and, like Ireland, once the enemy is

humbled, Gulliver's loyalties are suspected. He is regarded as a potential traitor who may

go over to the enemy. Again like Ireland, the govemment's injustice toward Gulliver

instigates his defection. The Lilliputian plot against Guliiver calls for him to be blinded

and slowly starved to death. His skeleton then would remain "as a Monument of

Admiration to Posterity" (71). Swift often uses the metaphors of starvation and

consumption to describe the relationship between Ireland and England, as in A Modest

Proposal. The resemblance between the Irish situation and Gulliver's experiences in

Lilliput is too obvious to dwell on, but 1do not mean to push yet another ailegorical

reading. The various ailegorical readings of the "Voyage to Lilliput" advanced over the

years already amount to a m ~ d d l e In

. ~my reading, Gulliver's fate sirnply paraIfeIs the

Y Although readers had always perceived political allusions in the T m l s , the

argument for an allegorical reading of the satire was first ftlly laid out by Sir Charles Firth
in 1919 and greatly expanded in 1945 by Arthur E.Case in Four Essqys on Gulliver 's
Travels (69-96);see also Quintana, Mind and Arî 308-9; Swifi: An Introduction 15 1-2.
Phillip Harth ("The Problem of Political Allegory in Guliiuer's Trmels"), F.P. Lock ( m e
Polirics of Gulliver 's Trowls), and J.A Downie C'The Political Significance of GuIIiver 's
Travels") make short work of allegorical readings of the Trawls. In "The Allegory of
Gdliver 's Trmeis'' IMn Ehrenpreis defends Firth's (if not entirely Case's) reading. A
consultation of most modern annotateci editions of Guiiiver 's Travels will reveal a
hodgepodge of often contradictory political interpretations; see, for instance, Robert A.
Greenberg's otherwise admirable Norton Criticai edition. While Swift no doubt expected
readen to find shades of history, political allusions, and even the occasional allegorical
reference in his narrative, an overemphasis on such a muddle of allegories can diston the
 245

colonial experience, including that of Ireland as Swift perceived itY9 Charles Hinnant

argues that

Generdy speaking Swift's UNginuy worlds are anthropological rather

than historid; that iq they h w upon his observations of contemporary
characters and events but project those observations ont0 a geographically
or temporally distant wntext of the primitive and the exotic. (3)

Similarly we can read his treatment at the han& of ali his various hosts as anaiogous to the

treatment of The Primitive by the English (The Civiüted) in the period. This treatment,

dong with Gulliver's status, deteriorates as the narraîive proceeds. From the perspectives

of his hosts, Gulliver is The Exotic in Liiliput, The Barbarous in Brobdingnag, and The

Savage in Laputa and the other lands of book 3. Each time at home and aboard ship with

his wmpatriots, he reverts to The Civilized, but in Houyhnhnmland he degenerates so far

that he cannot revert even after retumhg home.

Exotic Gulliver: Lilliput

Although fiom the reader's perspective and fiom the English perspective, the

Lilliputians have rnuch in comrnon with constructs of The Exotic, through Lilliputian eyes

(the view Gulliver quickly adopts) Guliiver is The Primitive, specifically The Exotic. Like

the Turks he represents a potentially wild foreign rnilitary threat. An impulsive act by

GulIiver wuld destroy much of Lilliputian society. When the Lilliputians release a volley

rich satire of the TruveIs. GuIIiver's Tr&s is not a political roman à clef For a
moderate contemporary analysis of politics in the T d s , = Orrery 136.
349
On the use of paraIIel in place of affegory, see Downie 14.
of arrows, he immediately evaluates his situation and concludes, "1 might be a Match for

the greatest Arxnies they could bring against men (22). He blames the disposition of

"'Fortune" for his subsequent submission, but r d y it is his own timorousness that keeps

him lashed to Liiiiputian ooü. His size aside, he dso has a major technological advantage

over the Liliiputians, namely his gunpowder. While the sound of his gun awes the

Lilliputians, they do not recognize the m*tary potentid of their new prize (37).'"

The Lilliputian assumption that M v e r d have the refinement to recognize the

rule of courtesy and law offsets the rnilitary threat he poses. In a short while, Gulliver

assimilates enough into Lilliputian society to become a semisfficial subject and an active

courtier. The Lilliputians' theories of Gulliver's ongins suggest that they construct him

spatially, a creature "dropt fiom the Mooa, or one of the Stars" (49). As Dennis Todd

points out, di of Gulliver's hosts perceive him as a fieak or a monstrous being (161).

Gulliver is an outsider, an alien with dBerent beiiefs and practices, to be sure, but at least

supeficially sirnilar to the Lilliputians in behavior and shape if not sue. The similarities

themselves bring GuUiver fataily within the s a p e of Lilliputian law, politics, and intrigue

while his Fundamental foreignness-his physical and geographical remove--malces it easier

for the Lilliputians to dispose of him. The Lilliputians recognize marks of their own

civilization in Gulliver. For instance, they readily identify his "prodigious Bundle of white

t hin Substances, folded one over another, about the Bigness of three Men, tied with a

'" Surprise at the use of guns is a leitmotiv in European encounten with

foreigners. Gunpowder grants Europeans a huge rnilitary advantage over most other
peoples; it is a symbol of European colonial dominance. In the "Voyage to Brobdingnag"
Swift famously satirizes the seemingly innate superiority of gunpowder and other rnilitary
technologies (134-5). Defoe rehearses the prevailing assumption by having Fnday almost
religiously awed by the power of Crusoe's gun (165; see Hawes 197-8; on Spanish
gunpowder and the Mexicans, see Todorov 115).
 247

strong Cable, and marked with Black Figures" as "Writings" (34). They also imagine his

pocket watch is a god, perhaps like t h o r originaiiy worshiped in Guiiiver's temple-

domicile, because he tells them "he seldom did any Thhg without consuking it" (35).

Gulliver is Like The Exotic, with a culture marked by literacy, established religion, and

rules of conduct-the only sort of culture the untraveled Lilliputians know. Nonetheless,

the Lilliputians show little interest in the institutions of his culture. They value his

coinage, and his watch and other possessions amaze them; nonetheless, these belongings

instantly become little more than tnbute to the Liiiiputian emperor. The Lilliputians

replace his clothes with a suit to match the countiy's fashion (63-4) and halfheartedly

cloak the monster as themselves. Once his compücity neutralizes the threat of his size, the

Lilliputians treat him as a singular case, a fie& far removed fiom any collective, neit her of

them entirely nor of hirnself

Gulliver's alien status sets him apart. Despite his triumphs and benefactors,

despite his popularity and winning ways, and despite his s e ~ c e sto the emperor, Gulliver

remains an outsider but not by virtue ofhis grotesque appearance or prodigious size. He

is too trusting and pnncipled and inexperienced to cope with the petty jealousies and

compt political machinations of the court. He is a stranger, and while his size no longer

threatens the empire, it threatens the preeminmce of the High Admirai and others.

Gulliver's existence promises to eclipse their positions and achievements. Afker d l , he has

already achieved the rank of Ncadac while the envious "Treasurer hirnself is not; for al1 the

World knows he is only a Clumglum, a Title iderior by one Degree" (66). Gulliver's

accomplishments had resuîted fiom his size and cunning, but now he is good only for

building walls and ruthlessly crushing the en-the latter a commission he resolutely
 248

refuses. While his size eams him rnany envious enemies, his politid weakness and eamest

passivity make their plot against his He a simple matter. Furthemore, again as with The

Exotic, the observas expect Gulliver's sexual appetite to match his ske, so he is sexudly

suspect. When he straddles a parade as a recently captured COIOSSUS, The Lilliputians

admire the size of his genitals (42)."' Toward the end of his Lilliputian adventure, rumors

implicate him in a sex scandai involving Flir~ap'sd e (65-6); his size has becorne so

irrelevant that it is no longer a seIf-evident defense against the ridiculous charges?

At the end of his Lilliputian adventure, after he has fled the mthlessness of the

Lilliputian court, Gulliver suddedy becornes the voyager again and subsequently takes on

the perspective of The C i v i l i . In his new distand view of Lilliput, he begins to

observe negative marks of The Exotic, particularly the cruel arbitrariness of the

government: "nor did any thing," he mentions for the fint time, "terri@ the People so

much as those Encomiums on his Majesty's Mercy; because it was observed, that the more

these Praises were enlarged and insisted on, the more inhuman was the Punishment, and

the Suflerer more innocent" (72). As a renewed representative of The Civilwd, Gulliver

(Dampier-like) contemplates a scheme of trade involving this tiny new world for the first

time: he leaves Blefuscu with some cattle and sheep and intends to show them for money

back home (78). Eventually he does so and then sells them before his next voyage. He

'"Clement Hawes associates the colossus episode with reports on the "enlarged
private parts of the 'native"' (198).
2'3 Paul-Gabriel Bou& considers the Brobdingnagian maids of honor's sexual
abuse of Gulliver and speculates that Gulliver and the Treasurer's wife engaged in "some
sexual foreplay" ("Rape" 102), but Boucé offers ody the most circumstantial of evidence
for his contention. In the Lilliput sex scandai there is no coy evasion as in Brobdingrlag
("many other Tricks"). See note 364 below.
 249

also retains some sheep in hopes of malOng money in the fine wool market (79-80). In

essence he has obtained these items and rome 0th- through a roundabout trade. The

emperor has conûscated ail Guliiver had of value. The items Gulliver carries to England

were gifts of the emperor of Blefusai, now reduced by Guliiva to a tnbutary of Lilliput.

In a sense they are indirect restitution for the items seized in Lilliput, x, on the verge of

leaving Blefiiscu and Lilliput, Gulliver begins to revert ta the role of English traveler and

finally of The Civilized.

Barbarous Gulliver: Brobdingnag

LemueI Gulliver's restoration to his normal status and perspective (The Civilized)

is short lived as he is stranded on his second voyage. As Gulliver's narrative perspective

shift'q so does the reader's. Gulliver had seemed magnifiecl in Lilliput though he really

stayed the same size. Upon his rescue at sea, his perception retumed to normal. In

Brobdingnag, his size seems diminished in the presnce of the giants. He becornes for the

reader as for the Brobdingnagians, a tiny being. Lemuel Gulliver becornes la bagatele: a

pet, a doll, a thir~g.-"~

Like Dampier's Jeoly-'the painted prince"-in England, he is a

mere spectacle, and his Brobdingnagian name, Gribig, means Mannikin (95).'% The

OEl) defines manikin at the tirne as "a little man (ofien contemptuous); a dwarf, pygrny."

It also could refer to a statuette. He is like a helpless baby or a diminutive replica of a

man, a doll.'" His expenences in Brobdingnsg foster his objectification and, as was

353 See Emprin 43.

On Gulliver as a monstrous spectacle, set Todd 140-8 and 3101127.

35s See Brown, "Reading Race and Gender" 435. In his poem "The Lamentation
of Glumdalclitch, for the Loss of Grildrig," Pope has Glumdalclitch regard Gulliver as a
 250

common with The Primitive, his infantilization. Glumdalclitch dresses and undresses

Guliiver as if he were a do11 or a baby. At court W v e r is provideci with "Baby-housen-

sized plates and fumiture (1O6), and he Liva in a aistommade doU house (1OS). His first

bed is a doii's cradle ( 9 9 , and he can nwer be left unattended without running into

danger. To add to the ignorniny, W<e a runt cbild, rough boys bully him (90.98). Even a

monkey takes him for its baby, and a r d baby takes him for a toy (121-3.9 l).'" The

king alone considen Gulliver seriously, and thm ody to mock and censure the imperious

ways of Gulliver' s diminutive peopte (132). Guiiiver is a puny laughngstoclq the recipient

of much affection and much contempt. Gulliver's infantilization and his antic behavior in

Brobdingnag recall portrayals of n i e Barbarous. He no longer displays the dserenced

refinement of The Exotic, as he did in Lilüput, amd he certainly no longer seems like The

Civilized.

When the Brobdingnagian reaper first finds Gulliver in the field, he contemplates

the best way to grab hold of the little man "witb the Caution of one who endeavoun to lay

hold on a small dangerous Animal in such a Manner that it shall not be able either to

scratch or to bite him" (87). He is no longer the rnilitary threat he was in Lilliput but has

become an annoyance, rnildly menacing and easily dealt with. Soon after, Gulliver writes

that the farmer 'kas convinced 1 must be a rational Creature" (89). As opposed to a wild

animal like a weasel or a Splacknuck, a '"rational Creature" the ske of Gulliver must be

perfectly harmiess, and after that detennination, Gulliver in Brobdingnag never again

pet and as a "Mimick" of a "real Man" (4 and 64).

"On a possible source of the monkey episode, see Wood, "Gulliver and the
Monkey of Tralee."
 25 1

warrants even the caution accorded a vicious rodent. Like The Barbarous, he at first

inspires prudence but is soon hsmiless and farniliar. Guliiver entertains his hosts, but he

rarely merits any higher status than that of a beloved pet or of The Barbarous abroad.

One important mark of n i e Barbarous is a lack of a recognhble system of

writing. Guliiver has an elaborate scafEold built so thaî he can read Brobdingnag books

(136-7), but he never mentions his own efforts at writing, much less his journal of this

particular voyage. When he tells the curious king that "there were several thousand

Books among us written upon the AH of Goventment," the king reacts with contempt :

"He professed both to abominate and despise al1 Mysiery, Reflnement, and Intrigue, either

in a Prince or a Minister," a reaction that r d l s the contempt of English travelers for the

knowledge, history, and medicine of The ~arbarous.'" The king's notion of what is

worth knowing contrasts sharply with Swift's characterization of the Modems' learning

(and dovetails nicely with Swift's own epistemological priorities): "He confined the

Knowledge of goveming within very m o w BOU&, to c o r n o n Sense and Reason, to

Justice and Lenity, to the Speedy Determination of Civil and criminal Causes; with some

other obvious Topicks which are not worth considering" (135). The king quickly assesses

the inherent instability of ûulliver's society (134-6), and he farnously declares "the Bulk of

your Natives, to be the most pemicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever

suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth" (132). Thus, as with the leaniing,

history, and beliefs of The Barbarous, the writing, learning, and chronicles of Gulliver's

people are simply rejected. Yes, Gulliver can write, but for what it is worth in

'" For instance, Roger Williams describes Indian medicine as the work of "the
Divell" (245), as does Ned Ward (FNe T r d SEnps 2 : 16).
 252

Brobdingnag, he might as well not. As with The Barbarous, Gulliver represents a people

without a recorded history or at least without a history worth recording, a status that

r e d s Lawson's indiierence toward the Native Carohnians' visual memory de vice^.'^

Gulliver's treatment in Brobdingnag Jso contains a temporal elernent. In generations

past, the Brobdingnagians had suffered the sune poütical pettiness and codicts as

Europeans (138). so Guiliver's society represemts the unsavory past of the

Brobdingnagians. Similar to the Homeric tradition, Brobdingna@m hiaoriography insists

that ancient Brobdingnagians had been even larger, as evidenced by conventional reports

and the discovery of gigantic skulls and bones (137)? As with most constructs of The

Barbarous, though, the temporal constnict coerrists with a spatial one.

Gulliver resembles The Barbarous in several other ways. In Lilliput his gold coins

had great value as do the treasures of The Exotic, but in Brobdingnag his coins are

worihless specks. The f m e r has some difficulty even recognizing Gulliver's minute

purse. Gulliver offers him gold, but the f m e r must "wet the Tip of his little Finger upon

his Tongue" to pick up one of Gulliver's "largest Pieces" (88-9). The f m e r "seemed to

be wholly ignorant what they were" and rejects the tiny flakes as insignificant. He disdains

Gulliver's pistoles the way English travelers dismissed Native Amencan wampum and

other shell money; they are worthless to himm Also sirnilar to The Barbarous, Gulliver

hoards worthless trifles the same way Glumdalclitch collects "=me little Toys that Girls

are fond of' (126). On his voyage home Gulliver shows the ship's captain "the smdl

3s' See above note 161.

On modem degeneration, see Iliod 5 -3034; Pope, Duncird 2: 39-40; Swift,
Batte of the B m h 249; also Wyrick 136.

360 See above pages 116-118.

Collection of Rarities" he obtained in Brobdiignag, a catalogue that mimics the contents

of a curio cabinet but consists of the most common of Brobdingnagïan items:

There was a Comb 1had contrived out of the Stumps of the King's Beard;
and another of the same Materiais, but nxed into a paring of her Majesty's
Thumb-nail, which served for the Back. There was a collection of Needles
and Pins fiom a Foot to haif a Yard long. Four Wasp-Stings, like Joyners
Tacks: Some Combings of the Queen's HUr: a Gold Ring which one Day
she made me a Present of in a most obiiging Manner, taking it fiom her
iittle Finger, and throwing it o v a my Head iüce a Collar. (146)~'

The most peculiar object in Gulliver's possession is a corn he had a i t "f?om a Maid of

Honour's Toe," which he has "hollowed into a Cup and set in Silve?' in England (146)-a

perfect centerpiece for any curio collection.

Gulliver's only souvenir of any value, the gold ring, symbolizes Gulliver's

condition in Brobdingnag. Flung about his neck by the queen, the ring is at once the collar

of the court's slave-clown and the collar of a pet. As royal pet, Gulliver elicits

aectionate condescension, and his own domesticity and habitua1 leisure enforce hi s

confinement. Gulliver, at first feared as a wild creature, is easüy tamed. Earlier when the

f m e r had s h o w him for money, Gulliver's situation recalled that of the four Iroquois

ernissaries to England. Despite the Iroquois reputation for brutality, London embraced the

"kings" as the most alluring objects in the t o m . Gulliver is an alien creature, exciting but

benign, a rare breed of weasel. He may not choose to go naked like so many examples of

The Barbarous, but he does wear animal hides-his mouse-skin breeches (146).

Although in Brobdingnag Gulliver chooses to remain clothed, as with The

Barbarous his modesty is irrelevant. The Brobdingnagians almost assume nakedness as his

normal condition. When the fanner initially examines Gulliver, he pokes at Gulliver's

"' Behn claims to have collected native memorabilia while in Surinam (148).
lapels with a piece of straw as though they are flaps of skui on Gulliver's bare body (88).

The Houyhnhnrns later make a similar assumption, and much more to Guliiver's

advantage. This aspect of Gulliver's wild origins (he is f h t found itifesting crops) stays

with him throughout his stay in Brobdingnag. He is üke The Barbarous, and The

Barbarous prefa minimal covering or none at d.Glumdalclitch has no scruples about

stripping Gulliver naked to dress and undress; in fia she enjoys it (95). Moreover, the

queen's maids of honor strip him and then undreu thanselves in his presence, as though

his nakedness is peflectly naturai and senially unthteatening. His puny size is analogous

to status of The Barbarous; it neutralizes and neuters him-the reverse of his sexual status

in ~ i l l i p u t Gulliver
.~ is sexually imocent, but his very innocence is stirnulating to the

maids in the way that wild men were supposedly enticing to English women? By

disrobing in front of a naked Gulliver, the maids "go primitive," and their bold nakedness

recalls Lionel Wafer's months unclothed among the Miskitos. The final indignity for

Gulliver is his use as a senial instrument, a parallel of so many other unequal sexual

encounters between The Civilized and The ~arbarous?

Clearly Gulliver is helpless in Brobdingnag and cannot fend off his many abusers,

%' For exarnples of innocent nakedness among The Barbarous, see Rogers 185;

Wafer 138-9.

"See Arbuthnot, IICcatnot i?ain 827; aloo above page 33.

"For an example of the semal use of The Barbarous, see Lawson 190. Gulliver
is purposely evasive in his mention of the "pleasant frolicksome" maid of honor's "many
other Tncks," and the reader has few clues to his specific treatment. On Gulliver used as
a dildo, see Boucé, Tape" 1021120; also Boucé "Quelques Aspects" 151; and Wagner 52-
3). For furiher treatments of semal innuendo in the Trovels, see Chxistopher Fox,
"Sexuality and the Body"; Gene Washington, "Swift's GulIiver 's T m l s Bk. 1, Ch. 5";
and William Sayers, "Gulliver's Wounded ICnee," among others. Boucé in 'The Rape of
Gulliver" gives a lengthier catalogue of such works and supplies ample comrnentary (10 1 -
2).
 255

sema1 or othenvise. In Lilliput he showed a good d d of innovation and self-sufficiency,

with his handkerchief exercise platform and his chbing stools (40,47). In Brobdingnag

, as beard-sturnp wmbs and the chair seat

he only manufactures curious b i i c ~ k saich

he weaves ftom the queen's hair (125). Certwily the Lilliputians provided several

commodities for Guiiiver, but he had to rely on his own resources to provide the rest. In

Brobdingnag, he is useless. He has no serviceable s u s ; he can neither capture enemy

navies nor extinguish palace fies, let alone ineame the envy of court favorites @ut for the

dwarf). Gulliver is never more than a diversion, a curiosity, and he boasts no British

industriousness. Skilled artisans must cr& structures and ftmiture for hirn. Despite his

limitations he attempts to play music on a giant keyboard, but the adaptive hammers he

fashions are nothing more than "two round Sticks about the Bigness of cornmon Cudgels"

padded with mouse skin (126). The cornparison of the hamrners to "cornmon Cudgelsn

and the piece Gulliver "made a shift to play" (a commoner's tune, a jig) indicate jusî how

unrefined a performance the king and queen enjoy. Even Gulliver's description of the

concert emphasizes its crudeness: "it was the most violent Exercise 1ever underwent, and

yet 1 could not strike above sixteen Keys, nor, consequently, play the Bass and Treble

together, as other Artists do; which was a great Disadvantage to my Performance" (127).

Although Gulliver alleges the "great Satisfaction* of his indulgent royal audience and

affiliates himself with "other Artists," he m o t disguise the inadequacy of the production.

Gulliver's musical performance corresponds to the 'Tooi' instruments and "indserent

Tunes" of the Native Pemsylvanians in Chetwood's CàstIemun and the coarse Barbarous

musicians of so many other taies (359)."

"' See above page 131.

 256

To be sure, Guiiiver lacks the physical prowess of The Barbarous. SwiR designed

rnuch of the "Voyage to Brobdingnag" to emphuize Gulliver's comparative frailty arnong

the giants, and Guiliver's fiailty dirninishes .11Euopeans the way Guiliver shrinks next to

the queen in her &or (107). Gulliver is no Alexander Sekkk. He alvives He-

threatening situations (rats, wasps, etc.) that am laughaôly inconsequential to the

Brobdingnagians. As Martin Price remarks in Jiu>'s Rhetwïcuf AH, Gulliver takes a

"childish pnde" at his slight successes (96). He "was every Day fùmishing the Court with

some ridiculous Story" (GT 124), and the queen has much cause to mock his cowardice

(109). He miscalculates the distance when leaping over a lump of dung (124), and his

"litîle Nurse" must rescue him fiom drowning f i e r the arch dwarfhas plunged him into a

bowl of cream: "if 1 had not been a good Swimmer," Gulliver boasts, "it rnight have gone

very hard with me" (108). When a tiog threatens to swarnp his boat, he begs

Glumdalclitch to let him "deal with it alone" and comicaiiy whacks it "a good white" with

an oar before it l a p s away (12 1). Gulliver7sBrobdingnagian exploits parody the feats of

The Barbarous: he is no aoic primitive bearing the torture of the Spanish priests. He

exuberantly brandishes his cutlass and exerciw 4 t h a piece of straw as a pike for the

f m e r ' s audiences, but Gulliver has to admit these displays are al1 "Fopperies" (98).

Gulliver's one accomplishment that is tmly alien to the landlubber Brobdingnagians is

sailing. The queen commissions "an ingenious Workman" to fashion a Gulliver-sized

ccPleasure-Boatwith al1 its Tackling" and a trough for Gulliver to demonstrate his skills in

(120). Gulliver vaunts his "Art," but afler every manly marine exhibition, "Glumrlacfitch

always carried back my Boat into her Closet, and hung it on a Nail to dry" (12 1)--a

hurniliating anticlimax.
 Despite the emphasis on Guiliver's diminutive stature in Brobdingnag, he displays

plenty of other marks of The Barbarous. While religion plays little part in any of the lands

Gulliver visits, potential conversion and assimilation are a signincant factor in the

constmct of The Barbarous. Sirnilady in the fint three voyages of GuIIiver 's Trmls,

near-utopian Brobdingnag is the only place in whkh he seans d e d , if not content (139).

Despite his ocwional longing for "poor Engkad' and his "strong Impulse" to leave (1 18,

139), Gulliver does not attempt escape from Brobdingnag, and his accidental departure is

a bittersweet event:

1 may say with Truth, that in the midst of my own Misfortune, 1 could not
forbear lamenting my poor Nurse, the Grief she would suffer for my Loss,
the Displeasure of the Queen, and the Ruin of her Fortune. (14 1-2)

Although he spends nine months joumeying eorn Brobdingnag aboard an English ship,

Gulliver has difficulty readjusting to the dimensions of home. He imagines the buildings

are puny and the people Lilliputian, and he rightly notes, "I had like to have gotten one or

two broken Heads for my Impertinence" (149). Gulliver has identified so thoroughly with

the Brobdingnagians, that he imagines himself a Brobdingnagian-a delusion that betokens

his retum fiom Houyhnhnrnland. In Lilliput he was more üke The Exotic, essentially an

equal, but in Brobdingnag he meets his physical and ethical superiors. He emulates and

converts to the Brobdingnagian way as much as possible, but like The Barbarous he will

aiways be an outsider; he is Indian W111 to William Falconer or is Friday to Crusoe.

Savage Gulliver: Laputa, etc.

In his third voyage, Gulliver never a l e s or even lingers in any of the lands he

visits. Partially his desire to retum to England drives his nomadism, but mostly he just
does not fit in anywhere. Usually he b regarded as a hopeless rube, even m o n useless

than in Brobdingnag-more üke The Savage. The a d of piracy that stranded him in the

first place has assured that he has nothing of value to o f f a anyone, and he is entirely

reliant on his hosts' generosity. His world is of no interest to his hosts, and English

politics are never directly broached. Gulliver consults English and European historical

figures in Glubbdubdrib, but they interest only Guiliver. In short, as far as most of the

worldly peoples Guiliver visits in book 3 are concemeci, he is the slightest of cunosities.

His reception in Laputa exemplifies this:

Although 1 m o t say that 1was iii treated in this Island, yet 1 must
confess 1thought my seiftaa much neglected, not without some Degree of
Contempt. For neiths Prince nor People appeared to be cunous in any
part of Knowledge, except Mathernaticks and Musick, wherein 1 was far
their inferior, and upon tint Account very little regarded. (173)=

Like the Hottentots, Gulliver is fieakish and unimportant.

To be sure, Lord Munodi welcomes Guiiiver in Bdnibarbi, but Munodi is a loner

and regarded by his people "as a well-meaning Man,but of a low contemptible

Understanding" (175). As Munodi alone appreciates Gulliver, so George Shelvocke (like

Munodi, disdained and discredited) appreciates the Baja C a l i f o m i a n ~ .According

~ to

Gulliver, the Luggnaggian king receives him graciously, Gulliver claims the king is

"delighted" with his Company and offers Gulliver an b'Establishment" in Luggnagg (204,

206, and 208). Still, Gulliver never reveds why the king favors him so much or even what

366
Laputan clothes appear ridiculous to Gulliver, but he acknowledges that what
he finds "very il1 made" is "little regarded" by the Laputans (162). Gulliver' s
awkwardness in Laputan clothes recalls stones of The Primitive uncomfortably dressed in
the clothes of The Civilized. See, for example, the Indian who puts pants on his head in
Chetwood's Falconer 3 : 132; see above note 175.
See above page 167 and note 255.
 259

they talk about. Also, although the king ap- to Ore him and despite the Luggnaggian

reputation for hospitality (207), severai well-heeled Luggnaggians in search of amusement

rudely exploit Guliiver's ignorance regardmg the Struldbruggs (207-1 1). So apart fiom

Lord Munodi's fiiendliness and the king of Luggnsgs's seeming condescension, Gulliver's

treatment throughout the lands of his third voyage ranges fkom indzerence to wntempt.

He experiences the Eame disregard as the Hottentots, the Californians, the Australians, and

other examples of The Savage. Furtherrnore, as with English constnicts of The Savage,

Gulliver's hosts construct him spatially-a distinct behg a a geographical remove.

Before 1 continue, 1 should clarifL how my pnmitivist taxonomy applies to book 3.

While Gulliver appears much We The Exotic in book 1 and like The Barbarous in book 2,

the episodic structure of book 3 muddles rnatters? In addition, the most slippery of

pnmitivist constructs is The Savage wnstruct. uIcA more than substance defines The

Savage, and except with the Hottentots, writers on The Savage ofien lacked familianty

with their subject? In the lands of Gulliver's third voyage, besides a general disregard

for Gulliver himself, there is, a s 1 have noted, a decided lack of interest in his world and in

his culture. Gulliver implies that the king of Luggnagg finds Gulliver and presumably his

culture fascinating, but Gulliver provides no evidence. Without the sort of detail he

presents elsewhere in the Trmls, Gulliver c o m a across in this instance as a mere

braggart (always his tendency), and the reader must weigh Gulliver's daims against his

* The third voyage has always hobbled most cntics' &mes for the whole of the
Travels. For instance, see Hawes 202.
369 See chap. 7.
proclivity for seff aggrandi~ement.~~

Gulliver's experience in Glubbdubdrib is similar. M e r "a short History" of his

adventures but not his cuiture, Gulliver spends the rest of his ten days in Glubbdubdrib

having the governor conjure the dead. The ghosts he aunmons are d Europeans who cm

lend insight into European history, but the govanor apparently does not interact with

them. European history is unimportant, and the act of conjuring itself, naturally so

fascinating to Gulliver, is a mundane OCCUtfence in Glubbdubdrib. The main thing that

Gulliver learns is that historiography distorts history, and his historical howledge must be

corrected orally. Time and again he hears fiom historical figures themselves that the

written record is gmssly wrong-a challenge to the veracity of the written word. As it is,

in book 3 Guliiver only once specifically mentions writing anything, and then only when he

"made a Shift to leam several short Sentences" of Laputan by copying wlumns of basic

'70 Richard Rodino's "Splendide Mendax" is a superb study of the unreliability of

Swift's/Gulliver's text. Neglecting readers outside the text for the moment, Rodino
summarizes the convolutions of narrative voice in the Truvels:
At a minimum, we need to acknowledge that Swift the author writes the
story of Guiiiver the author writing the story of Gulliver the character, who
in turn becomes an author of various texts for various readers within the
Tmels. In addition, Gulliver is wnstantly the reader and interpreter of
others' texts and fiequently (and most ofien uncomfortably) also a
character in them, as well as in his own and Swift's stories.
Rodino's next formulation involves the reader outside the text and he posits three roles the
reader may play:
Docile interpreter of Gdiver's authorial intentions; metacritic of Gulliver's
motives and strategies; and metametacritic of Swift, who glimpses the
leveIs and loops of texuality in which the Travels's other readers, authors,
and characters are situated. The reader's unstable roles thus also inciude
the parts of author and character.
Rodino is also carefbl to note the "slippage" among these roles (1057). Rodino's gloss
gives us some idea of the complexity of GuIIiwr's Travels as a narrative, the fluidity of
Gulliver as a narrator, and the basis of so many critical interpretations and so much critical
controversy since 1726.
words and sentences (161). Otherwise, he is shown objects and told theu narnes in a

linguistic exercise precursory of the grand Academy's scheme to replace words with actual

"mings" (1 85)."' Despite his vaunted iinguilc aaimen (again, an example of his

bm-g), Guiliver's effort t o l e m Laputan resernbles the academy's ünguistically

regressive proposal even as he himselfregre~ses?~

Another projector in the Academy shows Guiiiver a "large Paper of Instructions

for discovering Plots and Conspiracies against the ûovernment," and we can sunnise that

the projector reads the instnxtions to him (190) beuwse Gulliver has never mentioned

learning to read the language. Whatever the case, he gives his opinion of the instructions

not in writing but orally (1 92). His only other encounter with letters in the grand

Academy, the writing machine, earns his admiration:

1 made my humblest Achowledgements t o this illustrious Person for his

great Cornmunicativeness; and promised ifever 1 had the good Fortune to
retum to my native Country, that 1would d o him Justice, as the sole

"' The "Turkish love-lette?' describeci by Lady Maiy Wortley Montagu parallels
the Academy scheme. The "love-lette? consists of a series of meaningful objects in a box.
Montagu "translates" it for a tiiend:
[Tlhe first piece you should pull out of the purse is a Little pearl, which is in
Turkish called I . , and m u a be undentood in this manner:
hi, Sensin Guzelerin gin@
Pearl, Fajrest of rhe young.
Caremfil, Caremfilsen cararen yok
Conge gulsum tirnarin yok
Benseny chok than severim
Senin benden, haberin yok.
Clove, You are as slenrder as the clove!
Y m me an unbiown rose!
1have long lovedyou. andyou have m t known it!
Montagu continues with other objects: jonquil, papa, a par, soap, mal, a rose, etc.
(209). Thus by substituting objects for wordq the Turks have anticipated the Academy's
School of Language, although in a more sophisticated niruuier.

3R On Gulliver's suspect language skills, see Wyrick 80.

 Inventor of this wonderfiil Machine. (1 84-5)

Gulliver assures the inventor that in Europe "he should have the Honour entire without a

Rival" as its creator. Any sarcasm evident in Guüiver's praise issues fiom an ironic

collaboration between the reader and Swift and not fiom the always respectflll Gulliver,

whose encorniurns are usuaiiy sincere. The cornplex schernatic he provides to iilustrate the

design of the machine mimics the diagrarns of the Royal Society, an institution with which

Gulliver had earlier established a relationship by donating his Brobdingnagian wasp

stingers to Gresham College (183, 110). Like The Savage, to Gulliver writing is a strictly

mechanicd production detached fiom meaning, sense, and semantico. Already an

unnaturd act, witing becomes a manufactureci product, an artificial elaboration of style

without substance3" M e r that Ciliiver d a s not read or write on the third voyage, and

in Glubbdubdrib writing itselfinitiates an episternological crisis. Gulliver7sstrong reaction

against historiography in Glubbdubdnb summarizes the moral justification for his

estrangernent fiom writing: "1 found how the World had been misled by prostitute

Writers" (199). In some respects, for Gulliver as for The Savage writing seems a

misleading or even malevolent exercise, a presumption bolstered by Gulliver' s own role as

"SplendideM e W and backed by the many confrontations with the written word that

373 A well-known episode in Levi-Strauss' Tristes Tropiques has the Nambikwara

of the Brazilian rain forest, who have no written language, irnitating Levi-Strauss'
scribbles on pieces of paper. The chief of the Nambikwara surmises that the
anthropologist's scrawls have some c o ~ e c t i o nto language, so the chief starts pretending
to understand his own "wavy lines" and wants Levi-Strauss to pretend with him (296).
For the chier as for Gtilliver with the writing machine, writing is a mystifjing but still
mechaMcal process that commarads and exerts uithority separately fiom intent and
communication. Soon after, the Nambikwara "withdrew their allegiance to their chief" in
response to his use of civiüzed "writing and deceit" (300). See Castle, "Why the
Houyhnhnrns" 3 1-2. John Lawson has a sirnilar experience among the Native Carolinians,
who can copy writing but rernain illiterate (57; see Sayre 20% 10).
 263

Swift incites throughout his works3" û d y his return to England and back to his own

Civilized can goad him into penning his tale, an act he wül corne to regret.

Bestial Gulliver: Houyhnhnmland

In his "Letter to Syrnpron" (

fhtadded 1735). Guiiiver laments that earlier editions
of his Traveî's were "very loose and uncorrect" and caused him to "suy the tlting thol was

nof' (5). Furthemore, the writers of "Libels, and Keys, and Reflections, and Memoirs,

and Second Parts" underait his authority and uwill not d o w me ta be Author of mine

own Travels; and others make me Author of Books to which 1am whoUy a Stranger." He

also confesses that some of his "Sea-Language" is outdated and that he cannot keep up

with linguistic trends. (7)? The Letter prefaces the Trmls, dthough it chronologically
succeeds the last voyage. Gulliver writes entirely in past tense, but throughout the Travels

changes in his narrative tone and perspective coincide (journal-like) with his expenences

as a character. So in book 1, for instance, Gulliver as narrator does not disclose any

Houyhnhnm influence although the preparation of the narrative chronologically follows his

374 Arnong the central concepts of Swift's oeuvre, a basic Mstrust of written
language figures large. Besides the major satires, GuIliver 's T r m l s and A Tale of a ïilb,
suspicion of language, particularly wrîtten language, appears as a constant in many of
Swift's works. As Terry C a d e graphicaily puts it in "Why the Houyhnhnms Don't
Write," Swift's work "is an exemplary examination of the paradoxes that obtain when
words thicken, squirm, and breed before our eyes" (33). In the past twenty years, along
with Castle' s essay, several important studies have highlighted Swift's concems wit h
language and meaning. Among others, sce Francus, The Converthg Imagination; Kelly,
Swifi and the English Language; Rodino, "Splendide Mendax"; Wyrick, Jonarhan Swiji
and the Vested Word.

"'In his Cruising Voyage, Woodes Rogers apologizes for writing in "the
Language of the Sea, which is more genuine, and naturaI for a Mariner" (1). Dampier also
apologizes for his writing in the introductory material of M?
 264

final voyage. By contrast, the content of the letter, wmposed mudi later, is consistent

with poa-Houyhnhnmland G~lliver?'~The Letter s-r what had been clear at the end

of book 4: that GuUiver has proudly e m b r a d the perspective of the Houyhnhnms and has

corne to view his whole species as Y b . His Mdmt despair recalls the fiustration of

the Modest Proposer: "1 should neva have attempted sci absurd a Project as that of

reforming the Yahoo Race in this Kingdom" (8)?

Despite his resolution to "sfrrctly arBrere to T d (292). his TraveLF f ~tol

catalyze a general refonn. Through writhg itseifhe may even have contributed to the

corruption of his own kind, for the Houyhnhnms--his moral and intellectual masters-

"have not the least Idea of Books or Literature" (235). There is something misguided

about trying to promote an oral culture through a Wfitten polemic. Houyhnhnm culture is

purer for its orality and never suffers the distortions of textual fabrications. Castle

surnmarizes Swifl's general textual anxiety: "With the distraction of the text, moral chaos

is made possible," a formulation central to the satire of the Travels and to book 4 in

particular ("Why the Houyhnhnms," 39). Guîiiver describes the English language itself as

"barbarous" (245), and in the Letter to Sympson it fùrther deteriorates to "a Sort of

Jabber" (8). "1 have now done," Gulliver writes at the end of his Letter, "with al1 such

visionary Schemes for ever," and with that he abandons writing. From his perspective, a

disavowal of the d t t e n word advances his emulation of the Houyhnhnms (and

'"On Gulliver's inconsistent narrative tone, see Rawson, "Gulliver and Others"
232-3. Rawson contends that narrative inconsistencies are part of Swift's strategy of
"softening-up" his reader to advance his satincal "literary hoax" (234). The more the
reader is aware of Swift's hoax, the more effective the satire (235).
3n On Gulliver as projector, see Rawson, "Guiiiver and Others" 237.
incidentaiiy reasserts the ancient valorization of oral over written language). To the

reader, though, Gulliver wilfiily degenerates into a ôeast, a tamed Yahoo in fact, as he

finds tmth, virtue, and cornfort in the wmpany a d mindless grunts of beastohis "young

Stone-Horsesn (290).

The Yahoos, for their part, represent The Bestial or perhaps The Animal, the

difference depending upon origins. I use Z k Bestial to denote human degeneration, as in

the Houyhnhnm master's revision of the "generai tradition" regarding Yahoo origins. The

Yahoos did not generate, he proposes, tiom "wrxupted Mud and Slime, or fiom the Ooze

and Froth of the Sea." They arriveci (ke Adam and Eve, fiilly fonned) fiom over the sea

and degenerated "by Degreesn to th& present f d state (271-2). Degeneration, of

course, has a particular resonance in Swift's works, for he often expresses a general

pessimism regarding human progress. C a l e glosses his pessimism as a "logical

tautology"; "because we are human, we are open to dehumankation," she writes ("Why

the Houyhnhnms," 42). In contrast to The Bestial, The Animal is static: the beings that

exist and have always existed between humans and plants on the Great Chain. While The

Bestial and The Animai will be virtually indistinguishable, The Bestial, having had at least

"some Tincture of cornmon Sense" (GT 6) might manifest that trace of reason again. This

potential (raiionis qwx) is parùally why the Houyhnhnms banish Gulliver; his

"Rudiments of Ruison" could enable him to organlle the Yahoos against the Houyhnhnms

(279).'- Before he formulates his theory of Yahoo degeneration, Gulliver's Houyhnhnm

"'Ann Cline Kelly notes the Houyhnhnm's f m of Gulliver's potential and writes
that "Paranoia is a natural component of the oppressor's mentality" C'Swift's
Explorations" 851). A breakdown in the order the Houyhnhnms have established on their
island may even lead to a breakdown within the Houyhnhnm caste system, of which any
violation "would be reckoned monstrous and unnatural" (256). In Glubbdubdrib
master is more tolerant of the Yahoos: "he no more blamed them for their odious

Qualities, than he did a G n . y h (a Bùd of Prey) for its Cruelty, or a sharp Stone for

cutting his Hwî' (248).3n in 0th- words, the Yahoos are creatures of nature, noxious,

but not wnsciously evil-simply The Animai. Guiiiver's kind, though are dinerent from

The Animal; they are, Guliiver repeats, "only possessed of some Quality fitted to increase

our natural Vices" (248). They are a distortion, a corruption of the Yahoo race, endowed

with "umatural Appetites," which are "entirely the Productions of Art and Reason" (264).

Textual evidence supports the Houyhnhnm master's theory that the Yahoos are

degenerate humans-a reversal of the usual conundxum: are humans Yahoos? Besides the

many obvious physical similarities between Yahookind and humankind, there are the

myriad behavioral parallels, whîch Gulliver accepts as innate: war, greed, civil strife,

covetousness, hoarding, omnivorous giuttony, malevolence, drunkemess, susceptibility to

disease, corrupt government, sycophancy, patronage, debauchery, uncleanliness,

depression, coquetry, vindictiveness, etc. (2604). The satirical intent of Yahoo-human

behavioral parallels does not negate their uset'ulness in deiineating the Yahoos. The

physical description Gulliver gives of the Yahoos, as Gulliver acknowledges, parrots

elements often ascribed to The Savage or The Barbarous: "the Face of it indeed was flat

and broad, the Nose depressed, the Lips large, and the Mouth wide." Gulliver, associating

such features with "savage Nations," supplies the standard environmental explanation for

Gulliver's "Disappointment was grievous and unexpected" when he learns that the lines of
European nobility were pocked by "Pages, Lacqueys, Valets, Coachmen, Garnesters,
Fidlers, Players, Captains, and Pick-pockets" (199),a fate his high-caste Houyhnhnm
master would most like to avoid.

3nOn a similar passage by SwiA regarding humankind, see Correspondence 3:

118.
these traits as usually applied to the Hottentots: We Liieaments of the Countenance are

distorîed by the Natives sufféring th& Infants to lie groveling on the Earth, or by carrying

them on their Ba&, nuzling with their Face against the Mother's Shoulders" (230)?

Rawson compares Swift's Yahoos to portraits of The Primitive, and rightly finds the

portrayai "as absolute and uncompromising as that of the so-called civilized colonialists of

Europe" ("Gulliver, Marlow" 169). Contrary to Gulliver's descriptions of the Yahoos,

partimlarly of their dark complexion (presumably environmentally produced), the 1726

edition of the Travefsincluded a passage, Iater expurgated, explicitly linking the Ya!!oos

to the English. Gulliver refers to the original Yahoos,

and these, for any thing 1know, may have been Engiish, which indeed 1
was apt to suspect fiom the Lineaments of their Posterity's Countenances,
although very much defaceci. But,how far that wili go to make out a Title,
I leave to the Learned in Colony-Law. (Davis, Textual Notes 11: 322)3"

Apparently Yahoos are degenerated humans more than hurnans are sophisticated

Yahoo~.~~

Gradually afler his arrival, Gulliver begins to ape the Houyhnhnms while

perceiving himself as a Yahoo. He is split between an intellectual-emotional need to

identie with the Houyhnhnms and an irrefutable biological affiliation with the Yahoos. At

first and for a time, his clothes provide physical dserentiation fiom the Yahoos, but when

he exposes his secret self (his body), the anatomid similarity is undeniable. For a while at

3m See Brown,'Xeading Race and Gmder" 439.

"' See Kelly, "SwiA's Explorations" 849.
On the potential similarities and superficial clifferences between humans and
beasts, see Locke, Essay 3: 50, 53-4.
least, the clothes literaily do make the man.= The minor physical differences (light

complexion, lack of body hair, short d s , and upright carriage) and Guliiver's tame

demeanor continue to distinguish him from the ~ihoos." Guiiiver's Yahoo status is

clinched when a Yahoo girl d y attacks hirn, a proof of biological compatibility: "now

1 could no longer deny," he moums, "that 1 was a real Yahoo, in every Limb and Feature,

since the Fernales had a natural Propensity to me .s one of their own Species" (267).3's

Irnmediately &er recounting the seniai attack, Guuiver changes the subject by descnbing

the noble Houyhnhnms some more.

The Houyhnhnms do not conceal the disgust they feel for the Yahoos;indeed,

abhorrence of the Yahoos, however reseweâ, is the only emotion they show. The

Houyhnhnms exploit the strength of these "most unteachable of al1 Animals" as well as

they can, primarily to pull and bear loads, the tasks of horses in Europe (266). Gulliver

finally does the same by having the Yahoos draw his boat to the water for his departure

(282). Gulliver ofien imitates the Houyhnhnms in a naive effort to be more like them, and

generally his impersonations are silly and harmlessly superficial, for instance his habit of

trotting like a horse or neighing his English (279), but he approaches the Houyhnhnms'

383
On the association among clothing, language, and human status, see Max Byrd,
"Guliiver's Clothes" 45-6.

3g4 Lawson reports that the Native Carolinians, üke the Yahoos, grew their nails
long enough for use as weapons (1 76). Chetwood's Fdconer asserts that "Atheists,
notwithstanding their Human Form, are no better than Brutes" (95), an image that
resembles the Yahoos.

"' See Nuttall, "Gulliver among the Horsesn 54-5; also Boucé, "Rape" 112;
Peterson 203-4. The Yahoos' ability to swim "iike Frogs" (266) and the Yahoo girl's
apparent agility in the water recall the "sport" Ligon describes in his Barbadoes in which
African slaves must dive under water and snatch ducks from the surface (52-3). Both
Rogers and Shelvocke describe the amazing swirnming feats of Native Baja Californians as
well(3 15; 4 14).
lack of emotion with the same mperficiality-a more dangerous prospectY" The

emotionless utüitarianisrn of the Houyhnhnm's supersedes even moderate expressions of

love, grief, anger, fnistration, hatred, happiness, or 0 t h human exnotiono. "They have no

Fondness for their Colts and Foles," Gulliver observes with admiration (268). When he

has retumed home, he will irnitatively purge himself of familial love, but he will never

achieve the emotional neutrality of the Houyhnhnms. He will betray it for his misanthropie

ardor.

In despair at his ejection from Houyhnhnmland and in disgust at the Yahoo he

recognizes in himself, Gulliver replaces love and happiness with hatred and bittemess.

Upon first seeing his wife and children, he does not p e t them dispassionately with

"Decency and CiviIiv as his Houyhnhnm menton do their children (268); he reacts

(ironically) Yahoo-like as ifto Yahoos: "the Sight of them flled me only with Hatred,

Disgust and Contempt" (289). The tension b e e n Gulliver's aversion to his family and

his emulation of the Houyhnhnms is what DaMd Berman calls "Gulliver's dilemma."

While the Houyhnhnrns look on the Yahoos and Gulliver mostly with detached contempt,

Gulliver himself is given to outbunts of Ioathing and ûustration. Consider his concluding

diatribe against human pnde (296), a pnde we may associate with the "nationalistic pnde"

of colonial discourse (Hawes 2 0 9 ) . ~In~suffering indignities at the hands of the

Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians and even of pirates and mutineers, Gulliver had been

3M SecWyrick 184. Kelly writes that by trotting and neighing, Gulliver is "literally
becorning bestial in his subordination to the Houyhnhnm ethic" ("Swift's Explorations"
853), a point 1 am also trying t o establish and augment.

"'The classic study of Gulliver's own pride and its relation t o Swift's satiric
strategy is Samuel H. Monk's ' T h e Pnde of Lemuel Guiliver" (1955).
 270

comparatively dispassionate. Now, in trying to emdate the emotionlessness of the

Houyhnhnms, he becornes hyperemotiod: "when 1behold a Lump of Deformity, and

Diseases both in Body and Mind, smitten with Pn'&, it immediately breaks ail the

Measures of my Patience" (2%). We m o t imagine bim saying such a thing in c o m p t

Lilliput. Just as the Houyhnhnms cannot discem a distant island fkom a "blue Cloudn

(28 l), GuUiver finaily cannot discern that there are significant differences, even physicai

differences, between himself and the Yahoos of Houyhnhnmland. Guliiver's efforts to

distance himselffiom Yahookind render hirn ever more like a Yahoo or worse-

unrestrained, ranting, untrusting, f d 1 , unloving, and irrational.

So far we have seen how Gulliver at home eschews language, written and oral, in

favor of the senseless whinnying of his stone horses, and we have witnessed his descent

into wild bestid emotionalism. Gulliver cornes to hate his own End, a trait his

Houyhnhnm master tells him is peculiar to the Yahoos (260). Indeed, the more fervently

he denies his Yahoo nature, the more he exhibits it, and the first Houyhnhnm word he

carefûlly pronounces-"Yah00'~ (226-îjbecomes an inadvertent self-identification. Of

course the Houyhnhnm master has tricked Guiliver by teüing him, dong with a Daily

regimen of brain-withering condemnation, that hatred of the Yahoos will preserve him

from corruption (258,265). As in Brobdingnag, he loathes the sight of himself (278), but

he is self-absorbed as well and back in England stares at hirnself in a mirror to habituate

himself "to tolerate the Sight of a human Creature" (295); he is, as Demis Todd observes,

an egocentric monster (265)?" Gulliver serves the Houyhnhnms as collaborating

sycophant-loathed by his own kind and dependant upon his master's protection. The

See also Todd 172; Brown, "Reading Race and Gendei' 442.
Sorrel Nag must escort Gulliver when on his outings as a sort of field anthropologist, and

the Yahoos view Guiiiver "with great Signs of Haîred: as a tarne Jack Daw with Cap and

Stockings, is always persecuted by the wild ones" (265). Gulliver belorgs nowhere in

Houyhnhnmtand and must leave.

His very nature conspues against him; even his diet and clothing mark his

lirninality. Gulliver has an "insipid" diet-rnilk, oatcakes, and &ional srnall game (232)-

-which represents a compromise between the d o n of the Yahoos and the grasses of the

Houyhnhnms. Similady, the last superficiaiity that stands ôetween him and the Yahoos

also stands between him and the Houyhnhnms: hk clothing. When Gulliver stnps for his

Houyhnhnm master, he ridiculously uses his shirt as a girdle to conceal his nakedness.

Gulliver's compunctions confound the Houyhnhnm, who has no notion of clothing and

"could not understand why Nature should teach us to conceal what Nature had given"

(2 37)-a notion findamentally different fiom Gulliver's enforced nakedness in

~ r o b d i n g n a g .As
~ ~with the Irish in SwiA's formulation, a combination of his

circumstances and his complicity brings down Guiiiveq he is a slave, a fool, and a h a v e .

Gulliver rejects Yahoo food and will not deign t o Wear Captain Pedro de hlendez's

best suit or "any thing that had been on the Back of a Y ~ (288).
" However, Gulliver
has no compunctions about consuming Yahoo bodies themselves in order to fashion his

boat and replace his worn clothing. Gulliver blithely mentions how he fashioned shoes

from "the Skins of Yahoos, dried in the Sun" (276), a practice jua this side of cannibalism

'"See Boucé, "Rape" 109-10. Claude Rawson notes that rnany Houyhnhnm
cultural traits ("the absence of letters, laws, commerce, or clothes, as weii as of a
vocabulary for lying and other irrational o r unsocial activities" dong with "more general
elements") parallel Montaigne's description of the Braziiians ('"Indians' and Irish" 332-3).
 272

that David Fausett identifies as a manifestation of Guilïver's "problematical status"

(Itnuges 52)? It had al1 begun i ~ o c e n t l ymou& with bud traps made of Yahoo hair,

perhaps found or taken but w e l y not the product of slaughter (GT 232). Since Gulliver is

desperate to dinerentiate hirnself fiom these anthropoids, he easily one-ups the

Houyhnhnm exploitation of Yahoo labor by harvesting Yahoos for raw matenais. When

he findy departs it is in a came made of Yihoo skin and stanched with Yahoo tallow:

" M y Sail was lïkewise composed of the Slans ofthe same Animal;but I made use of the
youngea 1 could get, the older being too tough" (281)' an assessment that anticipates the

culinary caldation of the Modest Proposer (PR12: 113)."' EGulliver is not Yahoo, (he

seems to conclude) his consumption of Yahoos for materials is not cannibalism, but

Gulliver syllogizes backward: he is not a cannibal; therefore, b s e he has (figuratively)

consumed Yahoos, he cannot be a Yahoo. W~thhis logic faüig him, Gulliver emotionally

imagines everyone, his rescuers, his neighbon, and even his family, as Yahoo. No wonder

he fears the Fury-like attack of a visiting neighbor's "Teeth or his Claws" (296)' apt

In a short article on Gulliver's clothing, Ellen Douglass Leybum associates

Guliiver's rejection of Don Pedro's suit with Gulliver's Iater "monstrous treatment" of his
family. Leybum sees in "Gulliver's attitude toward human dress that he himself has
become more inhuman" (40). Her insight here laves one wishing that she had developed
it more fully in a longer essay.

"' Rawson refers to Guliiver's use of Yahoo s h s as doing "no more than flirt
with the cannibal theme" ('"Indians' and Irish" 348)' but Gulliver's practice (and it
becomes apraciice) is a comparable act of consumption. While he does not engage in
cannibalism, he does more than "flirt" with it. In many ways his use of Yahoos for labor
and materials is a more shoclaing act of consumption than anthropophagy. One need only
recall the homfied reaction to Nazi atrocities to see the difference, a connection Rawson
makes as well. In "Gulliver's Secret Commission" Leland Peterson stresses the moral
implications of ûulliver's use of Yahoo skins and even describes the Yahoos toting
Gulliver's boat to shore as "a kind of a f i i d procession" (207-9).
retribution perhaps for the crimes he has committed against his own I ~ i n d It
. ~is~a dark

irony, Gulliver refùsing to Wear a suit that Don Pedro had wom while Gulliver, Yahoo

himself, is covered in Yahoo skin.

As if his own slaughter of Yahoos was not ~ u g hGuiiiver

, d v e s the

Houyhnhnms the hint for the most orderly method for Yahoo destruction: gelding (272-3).

The Yahoos' crimes are slight: "They would privately suck the Teats of the Houyhnhnms

Cows; kill and devour their Cats, trample down their Oats and Grass, if they were not

continually watched; and commit a Thousand other Extravagancies" (27 l)? Even

Yahoo wars are nonlethal affâirs(260). Sirnilariy, whik the Houyhnhnms are exploitative,

hardhearted, and potentially specicidai, they have never manufactured objects out of

Yahoo corpses. Gulliver goes lower than either Yahoo or Houyhnhnm has gone before?

In Lilliput, in Brobdingnag, and in the lands of book 3, his hosts had regarded

Gulliver as the English do The Primitive. In Houyhnhnmland, Gulliver is something else

altogether, as are his hosts, the HouyMuuns, and their antagonists, the Yahoos. The

Houyhnhnms are physically horses and intellechially (super)human. As naked,

uninventive, and illiterate but sage beings they are an idealhed version o f The Barbarous--

similar to but less tolerant than the savage critics of Gay's Po&. From their perspective

(the one Gulliver adopts) Gulliver is nothing mon than a tieakish 'ivondefil Yahoo"

392 See Peterson 2 10.

393 See Kelly, "Swift's Explorations" 849; dso Rawson, '"Indians' and Irish" 34 1.
3w James Gill comects the moral superiority of the Yahoos over Gulliver as an
expression of the "theriophilic paradox," which concludes that rationality renders humans
inferior to beasts (5334,544). On the genocidal tendency of Foigny's supenor
Australians in n e Southern M,Known (1676) as a signal of their hypocrisy and
dystopian status, see Fausett, Wrifing the New World 135-6.
(235).39sHe is as irredeemable as the Hottentots, as Dampier's Australians, and as

Roger's version of the Baja Cdiomians, and he is as disposable as the rebellious slaves

Captain Singleton rescues and then sels. We un eady recognize as The Savage the

natives who attack Guiliver when he leaves Houyhnhnmland, and Don Pedro de Mendez is

a nonEn@sh exemplar of The C i ~ i l l l e d The

. ~ contrast betweai these two types and the

coolly rationd and purely utilitarian Houyhnhnms is unmistalcable. Until Gulliver's mival.

the Houyhnhnms had only two wnsüucts of beings: Houyhnhnms (Anima! Rotionale) and

The Animal (Yahoo and not-Yahoo)? If the Houyhnhnrns are nght to identiQ Gulliver

as a Yahoo*then he represents Yahoo potentiai, both more r e h e d and more compt-

ratiortis capax. Small wonder the Grand Assembly takes up the Yahoo question again

afier his arriva1 and seriously considers extermination. A land fil1 of Yahoos as they were,

was bad enough, but now they had a land full of potential G ~ l l i v e n The
. ~ ~Houyhnhnms

can brook no challengers to their mastery, but their dominance suggests some hidden

flaws.

While Gulliver's sycophancy and self4eception do not allow him to identie them

as such, the Houyhnhnms' flaws are wnspicuous in the descriptions and contradictions in

his text. As Richard Rodino points out, "dl any reader ever can know of the Houyhnhnms

39s See Todd 169.

'%On ''soft" school lauding and "hard" school dismissals of Don Pedro, see
Clifford, "Gulliver's Fourth Voyage'' 4 5 6 .

Locke anticipates the HouyMuuns by hypothesizing an mima! rutionale that

397
does not have a human shape. Locke wncludes that such a creature would have to be of a
separate species ( l k w y 3: 58-9).
"Kelly ("Swift's Explorations of Slavay") and Peterson ("Gulliver's Secret
Commission") make much of how the Houyhnhnms have oppressed the Yahoos by
keeping down their evident potentiai for rationality or at least self-motivation.
cornes from Guiliver's account of them" (1 065). but Gulliver lets on more than he biows.

For instance, according to Guiiiver, "ControvaPer, Wrangiings, Disputes, and

Positiveness in false or dubious Propositions, are Evüs uaknown m o n g the Houyhnhnnms"

because pure rationality allows for no supposition (267), but thy stül &&te the Yahoo

question at the Grand Assembly (271). Also, the decrees of their assemblies do not

compel action, but they "exhort" members to d o n because pure reason directs them

(280). This irnplies something akin to prelapsarian infàllibEty, but they had once "vey

imprudently neglected to cultivate the Breed of Asses" as beasts of burden-a fieely-

acknowledged error (272). Furthemore, their traditional theory of Yahoo origins smacks

of sheer speculation (271). Benighted Gulliva perceives no excessive pride in the

imperiousness of his Houyhnhnm master, who only once dlows Gulliver to sit in his

presence (259) and does the great "Honoui' of raising his h w f to Gulliver's mouth to kiss

(282). Finally, the Houyhnhnm master, the great lover of tmth, is "pleased to conceal"

from Gulliver the whole truth about the assembly's proceedings (273)--a decision

smacking of human-like compassion, not Houyhnhnm dispassion.

Gulliver can perceive neither contradiction nor cruelty in the intolerant

Houyhnhnms who cal1 for extermination of the Yahoos for killing cats and for other minor

offense^.^^ The Houyhnhnms imagine there are no moral constraints on their treatment of
the Yahoos. When Gulliver's Houyhnhnm master cruelly removes a Yahoo's collection of

399 Rawson argues that the Houyhnhnm "extermination project, or velleity, is

meant to throw light not on the exterminator but on the exterminatee" ("Gulliver,
Marlow" 172), but he misses the list of ridiculously rninor offenses the Houyhnhnms
compile against the Yahoos. Elsewhere Rawson calls the Yahoo habit of suckling cows
"transspecific perversion'' and irnplies that it is a partiailarly forbidden act of consumption
('"Indians' and Irish" 341). Overall Rawson's reading relies on subtlety, an oddity for a
"hard" school reading.
shiny stones "by way of Experiment," he reveais his own self'-servingdisregard for the

Yahoos. The Yahoo grieves his loss, but lAer the Hauyhnhnrn r e t u m the stones, the

Yahoo recuperates fiom his depression "and hath ever since k e n a very serviceable

Brute" (261). Simply put, the Houybh'uun master has discovered how to break the

previously intractable Yahoo spirit, and he wiil do so again with his dangerous "gentle

Yahoo." Gulliver, though, is naturally far more cornpliant than the Yahoos, and the

Houyhnhnrn's technique is accordiigly leu îophisticated. In Gulliver's words, he "daily

convinced me of a thousand Faults in my self, whereof 1had not the least Perception

before, and which with us would nwer k numkred even arnong human Infirmities."

Under this barrage of withering criticism, Gulliver begins to crack: "1 had likewise leamed

fiom his Example an utter Detestation of al1 Falsehood or Disguise; and Tmth appeared so

amiable to me, that I detennined upon sacrificing every thing to it." The tnith Gulliver

ernbraces is the same truth that will banish him. in response to his daily brainwashing,

GulIiver makes a "firm Resolution never to retum to human Kind" (258)-a promise

counter to the Houyhnhnrns' wishes.

For once Gulliver resists the efforts to reconstruct him, but his efforts to be more

Houyhnhnm become mostly efforts to be not-Yhoo. He stands between Houyhnhnm and

Yahoo, but he rejects his humanity as well. Gulliver's predicament looks surprisingly like

Swift's. P.F. Sheeran identifies Swift as an Irish colonizer in his essay "Colonist and

Colonized" and observes,

The colonizer is caught between the mother country and the natives. On
the one hand he must maintain the distance between himself and the
despised savages, on the other assert his equaiity with the citkens back
home. At once superior and inferior, oppressor and oppressed, he suffers a
crisis of identity. (107)
If we apply this logic to Gulliver (the Guiüver of dual narratives: Gulliver the observer and

Guliiver the observed), he is W<e the colonial oppressor of the Yahoos while ominously

aspiring to and never achieving parity with his Houyhnham overlords.""' Guiiiver, ever

clueless, is battered by his Houyhnhnm master's daiiy wndemnation, possibly tormented

by the Yahoo blood on his hands, and betrayed by his own obsequious nature. Gulliver

disavows his own humanity in order to reconquer its center, to supplant emotionalism with

pure rationality. In the end as he arrogantly rants at the arrogance of others, he has ceased

or tohrs. Always receptive, he d o w s himself to be colonized time

to be rational, c ~ p m

and again in each land he visits. He is Ireland, he is England, he is Amerka. Like Swift,

he is the colonized, coopted by his foreip overlords, and he is the wlonizer, Sected

unalterably by the peoples he has absorbed.'"' He slips from The Human to The Bestial

because he allows himself to be reconstnicted even as he tries to consume-consume

Yahoo bodies and Houyhnhnm instruction. F i d y his colonial experience converts him,

not to Houyhnhnxn, not to Yahoo, but to that false colonial paradigm of The Primitive: the

cannibal. And like d l converted primitives, he remains trapped--not what he was, not

what he wants, but like Crusoe's Friday, less than the sum of his parts.

400 We may compare this colonial analogy with that of Kelly and Peterson ("Swift's
Explorations" and "Gulliver' s Secret Commission") in which the Houyhnhnms are the
Yahoos' colonizers and enslavers and Gulliver is a collaborator.
"' On the assimilation of the conqueror in a Spanish-Mexican context, see
Todorov 60. In "The Puritan Origins of Gulliver's Conversion in Houyhnhnmland," a
documentation of the considerable similarity between Gulliver in HouyhnhnmIand and
Puritan teachings and practices, Margaret Olofwn Thickstun notes that "By the rniddle of
this century, it had become a cornmonplace to identiijt Gulliver's psychological expenence
in Houyhnhnmland as a conversion" (5 18; sa Jones 190; Pnce 97; Wmton 27 1). Gulliver
does indeed become wnverted in Houyhnhnmland and most literally as Thickstun
contends.
 SwiA means to portmy Gulliver's (and humanity's) increasing distance from an

understanding of tnith. That the primitivkt classifiution 1 have drawn from travel

literature is at play in Guiiiwr 's Truveik is no coincidence. 1 thinlc I have sufficiently

proved in my middle chapten that the categories (The Exotic, The Barbarous, and The

Savage) structure primitivist depictions in travel literatun in Swift's tirne, and as a reader

and imitator of such literature, Swift would have absorbed standard portrayals of The

Primitive. The dual primitivist narrative of Guiiiwr 's T r d s corresponds to Gulliver's

dual status as obsewer-observed or colonizer-colonized, in hirn a reminder of Swift's

status in Ireland as oppressor-oppressed. In Amusements Skrious and Comica! Tom

Brown also presents a dual critique: of his fictionai Indian and of London society. Such is

the stuff of the savage-critic topos. A sirnilar duality m r s in Dryden's Indan

Emperotrr, in parts of Ormnoko, and to a lesser extent in Addison's fictional Iroquois

observations. Gulliver S Trawls extends this duality and delivers both a conventional

assessrnent of foreign peoples and a thoroughgoing critique of The Civilized. Not only do

we get various direct and indirect appraisals of English Society, but Gulliver's

reconstruction as The Primitive at each stop discloses the relativity ofperspective. Which

is not to say that GuIIiver 's Travels is a relativist polemk in which one person's homo

sylvesfris is mot her's pygmy and another's orangutan. Each interpretation makes sense to

its respective interpreter, but none is stnctly correct.

Imagine: what would Dampier's Jeoly have told his fellow Meangians of England
 279

if he had retumed? How did the Hottentots regard the European invaders? What tales did

the Madagascans recount of Captain Singleton's wanton pirates? What did the Turkish

seraglio really think of brash Lady Montagu? Could she fairly represent aIi that is English?

Brown anticipates Swift's method by casting English noms in primitivist tenns, but his

lndian observer is a narrowly drawn satiric device. By contrast, Swift presents entire

civilizations who can wnstnict Gulliver (and Gulliver's world) as readily as he does them.

We still must rely on the sometimes unreliable Guîliver to convey "ventriloquially" the

words of his hosts, but his naive pliability and baid honesty render him a slightly more

dependable conveyor of others' words than, Say, Wafkr or Falwner or Herbert?

Swift's critique of colonialism in the Truuels relies on his dual narrative and

centers on his Society's deepening wmptacency with primitivist constructs and new self-

constructs. Among others, Shaftesbury recognized the dangers of contact with The

Primitive: corruption and relativisrn? As one interprets the foreign other, one must
reinterpret the self-a broad suggestion, anathema to Shaftesbury, that the self is a

construct. Better to leave the remote other alone. But such a plan is impractical in an age

of exploration, so Swift used his favorite satinc method to address the relative relationship

of the self to the other: the literaiization of a trope. If the seifis only a construct and has

no essence, and if the construct of the other delimits the constmct of the selc then Gulliver

must change with each new other he encounters. Finaily, Gulliver can only degenerate

into something less than human. Although Guiiiver feels he must choose a side in the

Yahoo-Houyhnhnm polarity, the choice is false; he «ui tmly be neither. He does not

See note 278.

'O3 See above 4649.
 280

recognize the second binary choice available, the one he bas Lived throughout the dud

narratives: that between the Australians and Don Pedro. This choice represents the entire

human iink of the Great Chain, which ranges fiom The Primitive to The Civilied, and by

rejecting it GuUiver rejects his position on the human link. Shaftesbury had advocated

pursuing the idealited self-an a priori aesthetic absolute-but Guliiver's pursuit of the

sarne results in his mental destruction. Swül probkmaîizes but does not reject the ideally

rational any more than he rejects the wholly bestial; nonetheless, both are extremes that

teeter on the edge of unreality. If we take Guîîiver's experiences as a caution, then as

Gulliver makes himseIf over and over in the other's image, we can see the inherent danger

in excessive relativism. Denis Donoghue asserts that Guiiiver, as SwiA's idea of a pure

Lockean being, "offers little o r no resistance. Nothing about him is more revealing than

his wilIingness to have his brain washed by new masters" ("Brainwashing" 143).

Donoghue argues that, for Swift, Locke's tahda rasa is an impossibly acquiescent state,

and Gulliver is the consumrnate example (144). Gulliver would do weli, though, to

emulate Don Pedro, not as a wnstructed ideal but as a very good example of the human

potential of The Civilized. Although merely rarionis capr, Don Pedro does not display

the limitation= af emotion, consistency, and credibiity evident in the Houyhnhnms. The

placement of his brief appearance in the Trmi" contrasts him to Gulliver's ideals and

renders them d l the more absurdly implausible.

Swift, as a man of his age, was immersed in primitivist thought, and as a moral

satirist, Swift subversively uses available ideas to critique his world. Gulliver S Travels

shows the relevancy and danger of primitivist wnStNds to emerging colonialism. In a

relativistic world, the engagement of The Primitive by The Civilued would redefine both.
 28 1

In this, Shaftesbury and Swift are agreed. But SwiA does not deplore exploration per se

(as Shaftesbury does). Under Swift's and Shaftesbury's absolutist beliefs, the nature of

humanity could not change, but Shaftesbury does w t trust to extend this conclusion

beyond his world. Like GuIIiver 's Trowls, 0 t h important and challenging imaginary

travels of the period-particularly OrOiOI1OAO and Robinson Ciusue-appear to subven the

prirnitivist taxonomy to promote th& goais: O I d on behalf of abolition and C m

on behalf of Christian morality. The primitives in these works, while similar to those in

others, also present marked differences, nich as 0roonoko7sexotic-barbarous liminality

and Friday's converted-savage status. Severel other works attributed to Defoe, arnong

t hem George Roberts ( 1 726) and Roberi Dnrry 's J m m I (1 729), also present primitives.

Imaginary travels by the k e s of Elka Haywood and Penelope Aubin, and women's

captivity narratives, such as Mary Rowlandson's, contribute alternative perspectives of

gender and extended contact to the literature of The Primitive. In Endr of Empire Laura

Brown writes that "As figures of difference, women are wmected with semai

insatiability, class instability, natives, the colonized, and the potentially threatening,

unassiniilable other" (19)-al1 issues directly or indirectly pertinent to The Primitive. The

status of women in eighteenth-century England is analogous to that of The Primitive.

Tom Brown's passage on the "nations7' of London women describes "country dames" as

"the savage nation.""" In a society in which upperclass London men are the standard,

notions of gender, urbanity, education, and class share similarities with constructs of The

Primitive, similarities exploited to devastating effkct in ireland. Moreover, writing by Irish

Catholics and by The Primitive on the English also reflect interestingly upon the

See note ?.
 282

taxonomy. Consideration of the primitivist taxonomy could also extend to other periods.

The ancient Greek dichotomy between Greek and barbarian holds some sixnilahies, as

does Montaigne's categorization of barbarians and savages in "Of the Canibdles." In the

later eighteath century, the spread of slavay and the anagence of the modem concept

of race would alter the taxonomy 1have observed. Soon The Civilized could conveniently

assume The Savage to be inhuman-an assumption ody hinted at in Swift's tirne.

My purpose throughout this thesis has k e n to investigate synchronically the

history of an idea in the late seventeenth and eariy eighteenth centuries and how it informs

a reading of Gulliver 's Trmel'. Any succes I have had owes much to the consistency

with which travel writers and others constructeci The Primitive. 1 have not diachronically

contrasted present-day or Renaissance (or d e r ) constructs of primitives with constructs

in Swift's time any more than 1 have considerd prirnitivist self-constructs. Such

contextualizing would make it dficult to read travelers' motifs back into Gulliver 's

T m l s . The eighteenth century is a p e n d of expanding human exploration and

subsequently of expandiig European cansciousness. Thinkers such as Hobbes, Descartes,

Locke, Leibniz, and Shaffesbury considerd ontological and epistemological questions in

tandem with the protraction of the known world. Swift both warily accepted the

onslaught of the new and nostalgically niaintaind the righteousness of the old. He

recognized the subjectivity of the other and how this shapes the self, and he instilled this

otherness and this selfhess in Lemuel GulIiver-the personification of Modem relativism.

That Gulliver finally slips into bestial madneu is typical of Swift's pessimism, the

consequence of his nostalgia. That Gulliver utterly fails to produce "one single Effect"

toward improving the world says much about S d ' s understanding of the Modems'
hegemony. UnWre Shaftesbury, Swift does not eschew European encounters with new

peoples, but like Shaftesbury he rmuins focused on univasol ethics and the self. Overall,

although Swift considered rnany sirnilar dilemmas of new discovay, his approach is more

nuanced than Shaftesbtlry's. Swift blends the sclfwith the other in Guiiiver, and he wams

of the chaos of relativism. He interrogates the colonial imperative even as he

acknowledges its appeai. By creating a dud mui iiving in a dual narrative, Swift reifies

the subjective tension of self and other.

"Thus, gentle reader," Gulliver begins his last chapter,

1 have given thee a faitffil History of my Travels for Sixteen Years, and
above Seven Months; wherein I have not been so studious of Ornament as
Tmth. 1could perhaps like others have astonished thee with strange
improbable Tales;but 1rather chose to relate plain Mater of Fact in the
simplest Manner and Style; because my principal Design was to infôrm, and
not to amuse thee. (291)

Gulliver's ''faitfil Hiaory" finally informs us less than does its consequence, Guliiver's

mental destruction-a finale that can only "vex" the world.

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Poems:
Swift. nte Complete Poemi. P d . Rogers]

m*
Swift. m e Prose Works of Jonathan Swgt. 16 vols. P d . Davis]

Tale :
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vm:
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