'Voyage to the Moon' and Other Imaginary Lunar Flights of Fancy in Antebellum America

by Paul C. Gutjahr (Editor)

Overview

'Voyage to the Moon' And Other Imaginary Lunar Flights of Fancy in Antebellum America gathers together four moon voyage stories published by Americans prior to the Civil War. Included in this scholarly critical edition are the works of University of Virginia professor George Tucker, literary magazine author and editor Edgar Allan Poe, newspaper editor Richard Adams Locke, and scientist and medical educator John Leonard Riddell. Along with a general introduction to the collection as a whole, each story has its own introductory material along with explanatory footnotes and appendixes to identify the key points of its textual and cultural history.

The four moon tales found in 'Voyage to the Moon' And Other Imaginary Lunar Flights of Fancy in Antebellum America are remarkable for the ways in which they capture a wide diversity of both literary agendas and printed material. These stories originally appeared in genres ranging from the traditional novel and the literary periodical short story to a series of newspaper articles and a scientific pamphlet. The social critiques of Tucker and Poe, the manipulative power of startling scientific revelations demonstrated in Locke’s work and the more measured scientific discussions found in Riddell all bear witness to the power of print and science in the antebellum period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783087426
Publisher:	Anthem Press
Publication date:	03/22/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	274
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Paul C. Gutjahr is Ruth Halls Professor of English at Indiana University, US.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

ATTERLEY'S BIRTH AND EDUCATION — HE MAKES A VOYAGE — FOUNDERS OFF THE BURMAN COAST — ADVENTURES IN THAT EMPIRE — MEETS WITH A LEARNED BRAHMIN FROM BENARES

Being about to give a narrative of my singular adventures to the world, which, I foresee, will be greatly divided about their authenticity, I will premise something of my early history, that those to whom I am not personally known, may be better able to ascertain what credit is due to the facts which rest only on my own assertion.

I was born in the village of Huntingdon, on Long-Island, on the 11th day of May, 1786. Joseph Atterley, my father, formerly of East Jersey, as it was once called, had settled in this place about a year before, in consequence of having married my mother, Alice Schermerhorn, the only daughter of a snug Dutch farmer in the neighbourhood. By means of the portion he received with my mother, together with his own earnings, he was enabled to quit the life of a sailor, to which he had been bred, and to enter into trade. After the death of his father-in-law, by whose will he received a handsome accession to his property, he sought, in the city of New-York, a theatre better suited to his enlarged capital. He here engaged in foreign trade; and, partaking of the prosperity which then attended American commerce, he gradually extended his business, and finally embarked in our new branch of traffic to the East Indies and China. He was now very generally respected, both for his wealth and fair dealing; was several years a director in one of the insurance offices; was president of the society for relieving the widows and orphans of distressed seamen; and, it is said, might have been chosen alderman, if he had not refused, on the ground that he did not think himself qualified.

My father was not one of those who set little value on book learning, from their own consciousness of not possessing it: on the contrary, he would often remark, that as he felt the want of a liberal education himself, he was determined to bestow one on me. I was accordingly, at an early age, put to a grammar school of good repute in my native village, the master of which, I believe, is now a member of Congress; and, at the age of seventeen, was sent to Princeton, to prepare myself for some profession. During my third year at that place, in one of my excursions to Philadelphia, and for which I was always inventing pretexts, I became acquainted with one of those faces and forms which, in a youth of twenty, to see, admire, and love, is one and the same thing. My attentions were favourably received. I soon became desperately in love; and, in spite of the advice of my father and entreaties of my mother, who had formed other schemes for me nearer home, I was married on the anniversary of my twenty-first year.

It was not until the first trance of bliss was over, that I began to think seriously on the course of life I was to pursue. From the time that my mind had run on love and matrimony, I had lost all relish for serious study; and long before that time, I had felt a sentiment bordering on contempt for the pursuits of my father. Besides, he had already taken my two younger brothers into the counting-house with him. I therefore prevailed on my indulgent parent, with the aid of my mother's intercession, to purchase for me a neat country-seat near Huntingdon, which presented a beautiful view of the Sound, and where, surrounded by the scenes of my childhood, I promised myself to realise, with my Susanna, that life of tranquil felicity which fancy, warmed by love, so vividly depicts.

If we did not meet with all that we had expected, it was because we had expected too much. The happiest life, like the purest atmosphere, has its clouds as well as its sunshine; and what is worse, we never fully know the value of the one, until we have felt the inconvenience of the other. In the cultivation of my farm — in educating our children, a son and two daughters, in reading, music, painting — and in occasional visits to our friends in New-York and Philadelphia, seventeen years glided swiftly and imperceptibly away; at the end of which time death, in depriving me of an excellent wife, made a wreck of my hopes and enjoyments. For the purpose of seeking that relief to my feelings which change of place only could afford, I determined to make a sea voyage; and, as one of my father's vessels was about to sail for Canton, I accordingly embarked on board the well-known ship the Two Brothers, captain Thomas, and left Sandy-hook on the 5th day of June, 1822, having first placed my three children under the care of my brother William.

I will not detain the reader with a detail of the first incidents of our voyage, though they were sufficiently interesting at the time they occurred, and were not wanting in the usual variety. We had, in singular succession, dead calms and fresh breezes, stiff gales and sudden squalls; saw sharks, flying-fish, and dolphins; spoke several vessels: had a visit from Neptune when we crossed the Line, and were compelled to propitiate his favour with some gallons of spirits, which he seems always to find a very agreeable change from sea water; and touched at Table Bay and at Madagascar.

On the whole, our voyage was comparatively pleasant and prosperous, until the 24th of October; when, off the mouths of the Ganges, after a fine clear autumnal day, just about sunset, a small dark speck was seen in the eastern horizon by our experienced and watchful captain, who, after noticing it for a few moments, pronounced that we should have a hurricane. The rapidity with which this speck grew into a dense cloud, and spread itself in darkness over the heavens, as well as the increasing swell of the ocean before we felt the wind, soon convinced us he was right. No time was lost in lowering our topmasts, taking double reefs, and making every thing snug, to meet the fury of the tempest. I thought I had already witnessed all that was terrific on the ocean; but what I had formerly seen, had been mere child's play compared with this. Never can I forget the impression that was made upon me by the wild uproar of the elements. The smooth, long swell of the waves gradually changed into an agitated frothy surface, which constant flashes of lightning presented to us in all its horror; and in the mean time the wind whistled through the rigging, and the ship creaked as if she was every minute going to pieces.

About midnight the storm was at its height, and I gave up all for lost. The wind, which first blew from the south-west, was then due south, and the sailors said it began to abate a little before day: but I saw no great difference until about three in the afternoon; soon after which the clouds broke away, and showed us the sun setting in cloudless majesty, while the billows still continued their stupendous rolling, but with a heavy movement, as if, after such mighty efforts, they were seeking repose in the bosom of their parent ocean. It soon became almost calm; a light western breeze barely swelled our sails, and gently wafted us to the land, which we could faintly discern to the north-east. Our ship had been so shaken in the tempest, and was so leaky, that captain Thomas thought it prudent to make for the first port we could reach.

At dawn we found ourselves in full view of a coast, which, though not personally known to the captain, he pronounced by his charts to be a part of the Burmese Empire, and in the neighbourhood of Mergui, on the Martaban coast. The leak had now increased to an alarming extent, so that we found it would be impossible to carry the ship safe into port. We therefore hastily threw our clothes, papers, and eight casks of silver, into the long-boat; and before we were fifty yards from the ship, we saw her go down. Some of the underwriters in New York, as I have since learnt, had the conscience to contend that we left the ship sooner than was necessary, and have suffered themselves to be sued for the sums they had severally insured. It was a little after midday when we reached the town, which is perched on a high bluff, overlooking the coasts, and contains about a thousand houses, built of bamboo, and covered with palm leaves. Our dress, appearance, language, and the manner of our arrival, excited great surprise among the natives, and the liveliest curiosity; but with these sentiments some evidently mingled no very friendly feelings. The Burmese were then on the eve of a rupture with the East India Company, a fact which we had not before known; and mistaking us for English, they supposed, or affected to suppose, that we belonged to a fleet which was about to invade them, and that our ship had been sunk before their eyes, by the tutelar divinity of the country We were immediately carried before their governor, or chief magistrate, who ordered our baggage to be searched, and finding that it consisted principally of silver, he had no doubt of our hostile intentions. He therefore sent all of us, twenty-two in number, to prison, separating, however, each one from the rest. My companions were released the following spring, as I have since learnt, by the invading army of Great Britain; but it was my ill fortune (if, indeed, after what has since happened, I can so regard it) to be taken for an officer of high rank, and to be sent, the third day afterwards, far into the interior, that I might be more safely kept, and either used as a hostage or offered for ransom, as circumstances should render advantageous.

The reader is, no doubt, aware that the Burman Empire lies beyond the Ganges, between the British possessions and the kingdom of Siam; and that the natives nearly assimilate with those of Hindostan, in language, manners, religion, and character, except that they are more hardy and warlike.

I was transported very rapidly in a palanquin, (a sort of decorated litter,) carried on the shoulders of four men, who, for greater despatch, were changed every three hours. In this way I travelled thirteen days, in which time we reached a little village in the mountainous district between the Irawaddi and Saloon rivers, where I was placed under the care of an inferior magistrate, called a Mirvoon, who there exercised the chief authority.

This place, named Mozaun, was romantically situated in a fertile valley, that seemed to be completely shut in by the mountains. A small river, a branch of the Saloon, entered it from the west, and, after running about four miles in nearly a straight direction, turned suddenly round a steep hill to the south, and was entirely lost to view. The village was near a gap in the mountain, through which the river seemed to have forced its way, and consisted of about forty or fifty huts, built of the bamboo cane and reeds. The house of my landlord was somewhat larger and better than the rest. It stood on a little knoll that overlooked the village, the valley, the stream that ran through it, and commanded a distant view of the country beyond the gap. It was certainly a lovely little spot, as it now appears to my imagination; but when the landscape was new to me, I was in no humour to relish its beauties, and when my mind was more in a state to appreciate them, they had lost their novelty.

My keeper, whose name was Sing Fou, and who, from a long exercise of magisterial authority, was rough and dictatorial, behaved to me somewhat harshly at first; but my patient submission so won his confidence and good will, that I soon became a great favourite; was regarded more as one of his family than as a prisoner, and was allowed by him every indulgence consistent with my safe custody. But the difficulties in the way of my escape were so great, that little restraint was imposed on my motions. The narrow defile in the gap, through which the river rushed like a torrent, was closed with a gate. The mountains, by which the valley was hemmed in, were utterly impassable, thickly set as they were with jungle, consisting of tangled brier, thorn and forest trees, of which those who have never been in a tropical climate can form no adequate idea. In some places it would be difficult to penetrate more than a mile in the day; during which time the traveller would be perpetually tormented by noxious insects, and in constant dread of beasts of prey.

The only outlet from this village was by passing down the valley along the settlements, and following the course of the stream; so that there was no other injunction laid on me, than not to extend my rambles far in that direction. Sing Fou's household consisted of his wife, whom I rarely saw, four small children, and six servants; and here I enjoyed nearly as great a portion of happiness as in any part of my life.

It had been one of my favourite amusements to ramble towards a part of the western ridge, which rose in a cone about a mile and a half from the village, and there ascending to some comparatively level spot, or point projecting from its side, enjoy the beautiful scenery which lay before me, and the evening breeze, which has such a delicious freshness in a tropical climate.

Nor was this all. In a deep sequestered nook, formed by two spurs of this mountain, there lived a venerable Hindoo, whom the people of the village called the Holy Hermit. The favourable accounts I received of his character, as well as his odd course of life, made me very desirous of becoming acquainted with him; and, as he was often visited by the villagers, I found no difficulty in getting a conductor to his cell. His character for sanctity, together with a venerable beard, might have discouraged advances towards an acquaintance, if his lively piercing eye, a countenance expressive of great mildness and kindness of disposition, and his courteous manners, had not yet more strongly invited it. He was indeed not averse to society, though he had seemed thus to fly from it; and was so great a favourite with his neighbours, that his cell would have been thronged with visitors, but for the difficulty of the approach to it. As it was, it was seldom resorted to, except for the purpose of obtaining his opinion and counsel on all the serious concerns of his neighbours. He prescribed for the sick, and often provided the medicine they required — expounded the law — adjusted disputes — made all their little arithmetical calculations — gave them moral instruction — and, when he could not afford them relief in their difficulties, he taught them patience, and gave them consolation. He, in short, united, for the simple people by whom he was surrounded, the functions of lawyer, physician, schoolmaster, and divine, and richly merited the reverential respect in which they held him, as well as their little presents of eggs, fruit, and garden stuff.

From the first evening that I joined the party which I saw clambering up the path that led to the Hermit's cell, I found myself strongly attached to this venerable man, and the more so, from the mystery which hung around his history It was agreed that he was not a Burmese. None deemed to know certainly where he was born, or why he came thither. His own account was, that he had devoted himself to the service of God, and in his pilgrimage over the east, had selected this as a spot particularly favourable to the life of quiet and seclusion he wished to lead.

There was one part of his story to which I could scarcely give credit. It was said that in the twelve or fifteen years he had resided in this place, he had been occasionally invisible for months together, and no one could tell why he disappeared, or whither he had gone. At these times his cell was closed; and although none ventured to force their way into it, those who were the most prying could hear no sound indicating that he was within. Various were the conjectures formed on the subject. Some supposed that he withdrew from the sight of men for the purpose of more fervent prayer and more holy meditation; others, that he visited his home, or some other distant country The more superstitious believed that he had, by a kind of metempsychosis, taken a new shape, which, by some magical or supernatural power, he could assume and put off at pleasure. This opinion was perhaps the most prevalent, as it gained a colour with these simple people, from the chemical and astronomical instruments he possessed. In these he evidently took great pleasure, and by their means he acquired some of the knowledge by which he so often excited their admiration.

He soon distinguished me from the rest of his visitors, by addressing questions to me relative to my history and adventures; and I, in turn, was gratified to have met with one who took an interest in my concerns, and who alone, of all I had here met with, could either enter into my feelings or comprehend my opinions. Our conversations were carried on in English, which he spoke with facility and correctness. We soon found ourselves so much to each other's taste, that there was seldom an evening that I did not make him a visit, and pass an hour or two in his company.

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

List of Figures; Introduction; Acknowledgements; PART I: VOYAGE TO THE MOON: With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy, of the People of Morosofia, and other Lunarians (1827) —Joseph Atterley (George Tucker); CHAPTER I: Atterley’s birth and education—He makes a voyage—Founders off the Burman coast—Adventures in that Empire—Meets with a learned Brahmin from Benares; CHAPTER II: The Brahmin’s illness—He reveals an important secret to Atterley—Curious information concerning the Moon—The Glonglims—They plan a voyage to the Moon; CHAPTER III: The Brahmin and Atterley prepare for their voyage— Description of their travelling machine—Incidents of the voyage—The appearance of the earth; Africa; Greece—The Brahmin’s speculations on the different races of men—National character; CHAPTER IV: Continuation of the voyage—View of Europe; Atlantic Ocean; America—Speculations on the future destiny of the United States—Moral reflections—Pacific Ocean—Hypothesis on the origin of the Moon; CHAPTER V: The voyage continued—Second view of Asia—The Brahmin’s speculations concerning India—Increase of the Moon’s attraction—Appearance of the Moon—They land on the Moon; CHAPTER VI: Some account of Morosofia, and its chief city, Alamatua—Singular dresses of the Lunar ladies—Religious self-denial—Glonglim miser and spendthrift; CHAPTER VII: Physical peculiarities of the Moon—Celestial phenomena —Farther description of the Lunarians—National prejudice—Lightness of bodies—The Brahmin carries Atterley to sup with a philosopher—His character and opinions; CHAPTER VIII: A celebrated physician: his ingenious theories in physics: his mechanical inventions—The feather-hunting Glonglim; CHAPTER IX: The fortune-telling philosopher, who inspected the finger nails: his visiters—Another philosopher, who judged of the character by the hair—The fortune-teller duped—Predatory warfare; CHAPTER X: The travellers visit a gentleman farmer, who is a great projector: his breed of cattle: his apparatus for cooking—He is taken dangerously ill; CHAPTER XI: Lunarian physicians: their consultation—While they dispute the patient recovers—The travellers visit the celebrated teacher Lozzi Pozzi; CHAPTER XII: Election of the Numnoonce, or town-constable—Violence of parties—Singular institution of the Syringe Boys—The prize-fighters—Domestic manufactures; CHAPTER XIII: Description of the Happy Valley—The laws, customs, and manners of the Okalbians—Theory of population —Rent—System of government; CHAPTER XIV: Further account of Okalbia—The Field of Roses—Curious superstition concerning that flower—The pleasures of smell traced to association, by a Glonglim philosopher; CHAPTER XV: Atterley goes to the great monthly fair—Its various exhibitions; difficulties—Preparations to leave the Moon—Curiosities procured by Atterley—Regress to the Earth; CHAPTER XVI: The Brahmin gives Atterley a history of his life; CHAPTER XVII: The Brahmin’s story continued—The voyage concluded—Atterley and the Brahmin separate—Atterley arrives in New-York; PART II: “Hans Pfaall––A Tale” (June 1835) by Edgar Allan Poe; PART III: “Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made by Sir John Herschel” (August 25-–30, 1835) by Richard Adam Locke; PART IV: “Orrin Lindsay’s Plan of Aerial Navigation” (May 1847) by John Leonard Riddell; Appendix A: Excerpt from Washington Irving’s A History of New York, 1809; Appendix B: Excerpts from “Anonymous Review of A Voyage to the Moon,” reprinted from American Quarterly Review No. 5 (March 1828); Appendix C: “Note” added for inclusion in the “Hans Pfaall” version in Poe’s collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840; Appendix D: “Richard Adam Locke” in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Literati, 1850; Appendix E: Contemporary Responses to Richard Adam Locke’s “Great Astronomical Discoveries”; Appendix F: P. T. Barnum on Locke’s “Moon Hoax” (1866).

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In his cogent introductory materials, Gutjahr demonstrates not only the period’s deep interest in the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe but also the state of scientific knowledge about what lay beyond the atmosphere.”
—Philip F. Gura, William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

“This collection of fascinating early American science fiction narratives shows how even antebellum authors were already dreaming beyond their earthly boundaries.”
—Charles Johanningsmeier, Wardle Chair of the College of Arts & Sciences, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA

“Do you want to go to the moon? If so, there can be no more fabulous travel guides than those Paul Gutjahr has compiled in this collection of nineteenth-century lunacy.”
—George Hutchinson, Newton C. Farr Professor of American History and Culture, Cornell University, USA

“Thanks to the fine research and lucid introduction by Paul Gutjahr, this entertaining collection of early nineteenth-century American moon voyages is an invaluable aid in exploring the science fiction component of America’s cultural imagination.”
—H. Bruce Franklin, John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies, Rutgers University, USA