Learning Hospitality: George Buchan's Narrative of the Loss of the Winterton (1820)

Abstract

Shipwreck narratives were a publisher's staple during the eighteenth century. They appeared as pamphlets, chapbooks, broadsheets, and occasionally as more ex­pensive book editions. George Buchan's Narrative of the Loss of the Winterton East lndiaman (1820) is a complex text that weaves together a historical account of a tragedy and its aftermath, an ethnography and natural history of Madagascar, and the unequivocal pronouncement of the author's evangelical commitments. This article concerns Buchan's response to the catastrophic interruption of his journey. It argues that the hospitality extended by the Madagascans to the Winterton cast­aways resonates with the author's prudential efforts to be hospitable to authorial, cultural and ideological difference. Interrupted journeys - even amidst tragedy - can be generative in that epistemological agendas and ontological itineraries are unsettled. Buchan contends with an experience that does not conform to his expec­tations, which presents an occasion for learning. His narrative illustrates how difficult it is to overcome received notions, even in the face of obvious evidence to the contrary. A persuasive counterpoint to contemporary right-wing rhetoric regarding the possibilities created by disaster, Buchan's narrative illustrates the complexities of accommodating difference, at the same time as it sets out - hesitantly - what a constructive response to violent upheaval might entail.

Opsomming
In die agtiende eeu was vertellings van skipbreukelinge uitgewers se vernaamste produk. Sulke vertellings is meestal uitgegee as pamflette, traktaatjies en vlugskrifte, en het af en toe selfs in duurder boekvorm verskyn. George Buchan se Narrative of the Loss of the Winterton East lndiaman (1820) is 'n verwikkelde teks waarin die relaas van 'n tragedie en die nadraai daarvan verweef word met 'n etnografie, 'n natuurstudie van Madagaskar, en mededelings oor die skrywer se ondubbelsinnige evangeliesgesinde verbintenisse. Hierdie artikel handel oor Buchan se reaksie op 'n rampspoedige onderbreking van sy seetog. Daar word aangevoer dat die Malgasse se gasvryheid jeens die skipbreukelinge aansluiting vind by die skrywer se ver­standige pogings om rekening te hou met ouktoriele, kultuur- en ideologiese verskille. Onderbreekte reise kan vrugbaar wees in weerwil van rampspoed omdat epistemologiese agendas en ontologiese reisplanne skipbreuk ly. Buchan worstel met belewenisse wat geensins met sy verwagtinge strook nie, maar waaruit hy heelwat leer. Uit sy vertelling blyk dit hoe moeilik di! is om algemeen geldende menings te laat vaar, al is bewyse van die teendeel ook hoe onomstootbaar. As 'n oorredende teenpool vir eietydse regsgesinde retoriek oor die moontlikhede wat rampspoed inhou, illustreer Buchan se vertelling hoe lastig dit is om vir verskille voorsiening te maak. Dit toon terselfdertyd - aarselend - aan wat 'n konstruktiewe reaksie op 'n geweldige omwenteling kan behels.