The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman
The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman (1778) tells the story of a fictional midshipman abandoned in Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand, after a battle with Maori that claims the lives of ten of his shipmates. Inspired by an actual event on Captain Cook’s second voyage, Bowman’s adventures take him to increasingly sophisticated cultures—hunter/ gatherer, pastoral/nomadic, agricultural,…
The Grass Cove Massacre from The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman
[The following is an excerpt from The Travels of Hildebrand Bowman, introduced by the editor of our new edition of the book, Lance Bertelsen. For more information on our newly published edition of Hildebrand Bowman, click here.] Inspired by an actual event on Captain Cook’s second voyage and often called “the first New Zealand novel,” The…