Robert Louis Stevenson’s Pacific Impressions by Carla Manfredi

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Pacific Impressions by Carla Manfredi

Author:Carla Manfredi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319983134
Publisher: Springer International Publishing


Although the photograph’s evocation of a particularly English pictorial genre supports Stevenson’s literary construction of Maka as the genteel “parson,” he undermines this representation when he notes that Maka and Kanoa are “two brave childlike men” (ISS, 162). Like Stevenson’s earlier comparison of I-Kiribati to “puppy dog[s]” and Butaritari to a “playroom,” this characterization of Maka and Kanoa is far from straightforward: on the one hand, Stevenson admires the “brave” dedication of the missionaries and, on the other, he reduces their actions to those of children, that is, naive and futile. The implied intellectual simplicity of the missionaries resonates with Stevenson’s remark that a “Polynesian at the best makes a singular missionary in the Gilberts; coming from a country recklessly unchaste … [and] from a race hag-ridden with bogies” (173). Despite their conversion to Christianity, Maka and Kanoa cannot rid themselves of their inherited sexual predilections and superstitious beliefs, both of which are perceived as “childlike”: innocent and endearing, but also irresponsible and aggravating. Like the “puppy dog” comparison, describing the missionaries as “childlike” affords a sense of kinship between the Stevensons and the Hawaiians while also maintaining a clear distinction between master/parent and pet/child. Stevenson’s characterization of the two as “childlike,” or his reduction of Maka to a country cleric, ignores the larger scope of the career of the two missionaries. While Stevenson sees their ambitions as worthy yet naive, Maka and Kanoa were part of a larger network of interactions among islands and, in particular, representative of the preeminence of Hawai‘i—and Hawaiian missionaries—in the contemporary Pacific. This perspective invites a vastly different interpretation of the photograph.

Maka and Kanoa enjoyed long careers in Butaritari: from 1865 to 1894 and from 1865 to 1886, respectively. Their presence overlapped with a dynasty of rulers composed of four brothers: Na Kaeia, Nan Teitei, Nabatokia, and Te Bureimoa. Over time, the Hawaiian missionaries entrenched themselves in local politics, serving as advisers to the ruling Chief (Morris 1987, 393). Alliances between High Chiefs and the missionaries were mutually beneficial: on the one hand, the missionaries attained an influential status in the community, and on the other hand, the Chiefs were one step closer to the region’s most powerful polity (Cook 2001, 136–37). Maka showcased his Hawaiian identity by decorating the walls of his house with “portraits of the royal family of Hawaii” (ISS, 171) and by peppering his sermons with the “name of Honolulu [and] that of Kalakaua.” Maka was fond of pairing King Kalākaua’s name with Queen Victoria’s (173) as a reminder to his congregation of the special friendship between the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and the British Empire. But securing their positions on Butaritari had been far from easy. In fact, Maka’s and Kanoa’s initial arrival had been nearly fatal.

Stevenson recalls that in 1865, Kanoa had witnessed the High Chief Na Kaiea slaughter three Hawaiian sailors in a liquor-induced frenzy. Terrified by the “butcherly Na Kaiea,” the two missionaries went into hiding (Huntington , MS. 2412) before fleeing Butaritari, only to return, undeterred, one year later.



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