William Ellis Hdt What? Index

PEOPLE ALMOST MENTIONED IN A WEEK:

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A WEEK: We are apt enough to be pleased with such books as Evelyn’s Sylva, Acetarium, and Kalendarium Hortense, but they imply a relaxed nerve in the reader. Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw. There may be an excess of cultivation as well as of anything else, until civilization becomes pathetic. A highly cultivated man, — all whose bones can be bent! whose heaven-born virtues are but good manners! The young pines springing up in the cornfields from year to year are to me a refreshing fact. We talk of civilizing the Indian, but that is not the name for his improvement. By the wary independence and aloofness of his dim forest life he preserves his intercourse with his native gods, and is admitted from time to time to a rare and peculiar society with Nature. He has glances of starry recognition to which our saloons are strangers. The steady illumination of his genius, dim only because distant, is like the faint but satisfying light of the stars compared with the dazzling but ineffectual and short-lived blaze of candles. The Society-Islanders had their day-born gods, but they were not supposed to be “of equal antiquity with the akua fauau po, or night-born gods.” It is true, there are the innocent pleasures of country life, and it is sometimes pleasant to make the earth yield her increase, and gather the fruits in their season, but the heroic spirit will not fail to dream of remoter retirements and more rugged paths. It will have its garden-plots and its parterres elsewhere than on the earth, and gather nuts and berries by the way for its subsistence, or orchard fruits with such heedlessness as berries. We would not always be soothing and taming nature, breaking the horse and the ox, but sometimes ride the horse wild and chase the buffalo. The Indian’s intercourse with Nature is at least such as admits of the greatest independence of each. If he is somewhat of a stranger in her midst, the gardener is too much of a familiar. There is something vulgar and foul in the latter’s closeness to his mistress, something noble and cleanly in the former’s distance. In civilization, as in a southern latitude, man degenerates at length, and yields to the incursion of more northern tribes, “Some nation yet shut in With hills of ice.”

REV. WILLIAM ELLIS

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1792

August 13, Monday: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and little Marie Thérèse Charlotte and Louis-Charles became prisoners in the tower of the Temple (a 12th-Century fortress that had been erected by the Knights Templar in what is now the 3d arrondissement of Paris, no longer in existence). From this point forward the revolutionaries would understand their family name to be Capet. Here “M. Capet” takes the air in his prison:

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Adelaide Amelia Louisa Theresa Caroline was born in Meiningen, the 1st of the daughters of George, Duke of Saxe-Coburg Meiningen.

WALDEN: As with our colleges, as with a hundred “modern PEOPLE OF improvements”; there is an illusion about them; there is not WALDEN always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the old world some weeks nearer to the new; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.

ADELAIDE HARRIET MARTINEAU

William Ellis got married with a woman of the Bedborough family who had been born in Reading, England (not much is known about her).

Thaddeus Mason Harris was made a resident member of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

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1794

August 24, Monday: William Ellis was born in London of working-class parents. His father was named William and a short-lived older brother had also been given that name. He would grow to have a love of plants and in his youth would become a gardener, first in the eastern part of England, then at a nursery near London, and then for a wealthy family of Stoke Newington. However, he would not remain a gardener, but would elect to attend Homerton College, then in Hampstead, and train himself to accept a mission assigned by the London Missionary Society.

November 21, Friday: Honolulu Harbor in the Sandwich Islands was discovered by white people, for what that’s worth.

The legislature of New Jersey passed “An Act for Supporting Idiots and Lunatics and Preserving Their Estates.” This early public policy seems to have been more preoccupied with the protection of their property than with proper care for the patients.1 PSYCHOLOGY

1. Street, W.R. A CHRONOLOGY OF NOTEWORTHY EVENTS IN AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY. Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 1994 “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1815

Russia tried to make landings in the Sandwich Islands, which they were denominating as the “Cook Islands.”

His training at Homerton College (then in Hampstead) complete, William Ellis was ordained.

November 9, Thursday: A missionary needs a wife. The Reverend William Ellis got married with Mary Mercy Moor. The couple would be posted by the London Missionary Society to the South Sea Islands.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 9th of 11th M 1815 / Our Meeting was small silent & short, & I believe generally a dull season. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

1816

January 23, Tuesday: The Reverend William Ellis and Mrs. Mary Mercy Moor Ellis embarked for Sydney, Australia and then Eimeo in the Windward Islands of the South Pacific Ocean, their passage paid by the London Missionary Society. While they and other London Missionary Society missionary couples (such as the Reverend and Mrs. John Orsmond and the Reverend and Mrs. John Williams) were learning the local language, several chiefs of nearby islands, who had assisted Pomare in regaining sovereignty of Tahiti, visited Eimeo, and the missionaries were also invited to also visit these other islands.

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1818

June: The Reverend William Ellis and Mrs. Mary Mercy Moor Ellis, the Reverend and Mrs. John Orsmond, and the Reverend and Mrs. John Williams sailed to the island of Huahine. This was an event of note, and attracted visitors from neighboring islands, including King Tamatoa of Raiatea.

1822

April 16, Tuesday: The Reverend William Ellis and a small group of other white people arrived at Honolulu on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands from Tahiti, aboard the schooner Mermaid. Aloha! A small schooner, the Prince Regent sporting six cannon, accompanied them and was presented as an appropriate gift to King Kamehameha II.

August 27, Tuesday: The plan of the missionary group that had sailed from Tahiti to the Hawaiian Islands on the schooner Mermaid had been to pass on and visit the Marquesas Islands, but instead the vessel returned to Tahiti. The Reverend William Ellis was invited to remain behind at Honolulu on the island of Oahu, and sent for his family to join him there.

1823

The Reverend William Ellis’s A JOURNAL OF A TOUR AROUND HAWAI’I, THE LARGEST OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS (New-York: Crocker and Brewster).

February 4, Tuesday: Massachusetts approved the creation of the Hampshire and Hampden Canal Company.

Lake Chad was for the first time sighted by Europeans (Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton and Dr. Walter Oudney).2

The Active arrived at Honolulu on the island of Oahu bearing the family of the Reverend William Ellis.

In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 4th of 2 M 1823 / Several of our friends have set out for Providence Quarterly Meeting this Morning - I feel [—]rey at staying behind & fear it will add no spiritual strength. — Visited dear Sister Eliza Rodman in her room this morning, she is a poor suffererd & my heart is deeply interested for her - unless she recovers soon I fear her situation is very alarming RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

2. They decided they would call it Lake Waterloo. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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June: The Reverend William Ellis joined with some American missionaries, the Reverends Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich, on a tour of the big island of Hawaii, to investigate suitable sites for mission stations. On the way they stopped at the island of Kailua-Kona where they met Governor Kuakini (known as “John Adams”), and then at the island of Maui, where they met Queen Keōpūolani.

The missionaries visited Kealakekua Bay and toured nearby historic sites such as the Puʻuhonoua o Hōnaunau. They traveled south past Mauna Loa, the big volcano. The Kīlauea volcano was active at the time and they were some of the 1st Europeans to look down into its caldera. On the eastern side of the big island they visited Hilo and Waipiʻo Valley, and some of them adventured up Mauna Kea, above the snow line. Among the missions that would be set up as a result of this trip would be Mokuaikaua Church, Imiola Church, Kealakekua Church, and the Haili Church. When the Reverend Ellis returned to Honolulu, he would focus on acquiring the Hawaiian language, would transcribe this language phonetically into a Roman alphabet, and would help set up a printing press.

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams advised the British government that free black British sailors would no longer be

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imprisoned upon arrival in South Carolina ports. SLAVERY

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Secretary of State Adams made the policy of the US in the Caribbean perfectly clear, enunciating that there were “laws of political as well as physical gravitation.”

“These islands [Cuba and Puerto Rico] are natural appendages of the North American continent, and one of them [Cuba] almost within sight of our shores, from a multitude of considerations has become an object of transcendent importance to the commercial and political interests of our Union....”

1824

August: The Reverend William Ellis needed to take his wife Mrs. Mary Mercy Moor Ellis back to England on account of her health, so they boarded a vessel heading toward the North American continent. When the couple would arrive back in London, the Reverend would prepare a narrative of their travels among the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

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1829

Volumes I and II of the Reverend William Ellis’s POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, DURING A RESIDENCE OF NEARLY SIX YEARS IN THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS; INCLUDING DESCRIPTIONS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY AND SCENERY OF THE ISLANDS — WITH REMARKS ON THE HISTORY, MYTHOLOGY, TRADITIONS, GOVERNMENT, ARTS, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE INHABITANTS. BY WILLIAM ELLIS, MISSIONARY TO THE SOCIETY AND SANDWICH ISLANDS, AND AUTHOR OF THE “TOUR OF HAWAII.” (London: Fisher, Son & Jackson, Newgate Street, M,DCCC, XXIX). POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, I POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, II

Robert Southey would remark, in the Quarterly Review, “A more interesting book we have never perused.”3

3. Henry David Thoreau would reference the material in A WEEK. 12 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX

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August 12, Wednesday: On the island of Madagascar, the coronation of Queen Ranavalona I, who would be the mortal foe of all things Christian. She would excel in the devising of newer and better ways to torture to death anyone caught in possession of a BIBLE. Over the course of her 33-year reign, she would murder a very significant percentage of the population of this large island.

Sam Houston fell ill with malaria and was treated with Indian medicine while staying with Headman Oolooteka (John Jolly), his adopted father (into September).

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In Providence, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 12th of 8 M 1829 / Our Meeting was silent & to me a time of but little life - leanness & poverty of Spirit was my lot - Was in town this Afternoon & felt grieved to see the depression in buisness & sorrowful countenances about the streets - many have failed in Trade & one or two failures have occurd today, but it is hoped the worst is over, At least it seems as if one great failure that was expected is averted, by arrangements which have been made in the course of yesterday & today — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

1830

The Reverend William Ellis became Assistant Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society (he would rise to become Chief Foreign Secretary).

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1833

King Kamehameha III of Hawaii began a reign which would continue until 1854.

Volumes III and IV of the Reverend William Ellis’s POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, DURING A RESIDENCE OF NEARLY EIGHT YEARS IN THE SOCIETY AND SANDWICH ISLANDS (London: Fisher, Son & Jackson, Newgate Street, M,DCCC, XXXIII; NEW-YORK: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. & J. HARPER, NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET. AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES). POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, III POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, IV

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1835

January 11, Sunday: Mrs. Mary Mercy Moor Ellis died. This missionary couple had produced four children. The Reverend Ellis would prepare a biography of his deceased wife.

In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal:

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1st day 11 of 1st M / Meetings well attended for Winter & Father Rodman engaged in a more than commonly solemn Testimony in the Morning, & a few words in the Afternoon - At the close of the Morng Meeting Job Sherman read the Notice of the Funeral of Uncle Isaac Almy at Portsmouth on 4th day next - Which was the first we had heard of his death or Sickness — It appears he had been unwell with the Influenza for some days & last night ate a hearty supper of minced pie & went to bed as usual but in the night was taken unwell & got up with a view of making a fire & fell & died instantly. — How true indeed it is that in the Midst of life we are in death, & how great & forcibly is the necessity suggested of a state of preparation to meet the summons in its sudden presentation He was a man who promised to live long as his constitution was favourable to it & his ancestors lived long. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

1836

The Reverend William Ellis’s MEMOIR OF MRS. MARY MERCY ELLIS.

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1838

A missionary, of course, must have a wife. The Reverend William Ellis remarried with Sarah Stickney (1799- 1872), a published author of books on the roles of women in society.4

The Reverend Ellis had been asked by the directors of the London Missionary Society to write up his

4. She had started out as a Quaker but had become an Independent or Congregationalist. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 19 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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researches about the island of Madagascar, and this appeared as a 2-volume HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR.

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1844

The initial volume of the Reverend William Ellis’s HISTORY OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. He resigned from the Society for health reasons, and to spend more time with his family in their house in the countryside village of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, some twenty miles to the north of London.

1845

After December 23: I wish to say something tonight not of and concerning the Chinese and Sandwich CHINESE Islanders as to and concerning those who hear me –who are said to live in New England. Something about your condition –especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world –in this town. what it is –whether it is necessarily as bad as it is –whether it can’t be improved as well as not. It is generally admitted that some of your are poor find it hard to get a living –haven’t always something in your pockets, haven’t paid for all the dinners you’ve actually eaten –or all your coats and shoes –some of which are already worn out. All this is very well known to all of you by hearsay and by experience. It is very evident what –a mean and sneaking life you live always in the hampers –always on the limits –trying to get into business –and trying to get out of debt –a very ancient slough called by the Latins aes alienum anothers brass –some of their coins being made of brass –and still so many living and dying and buried today by anothers brass –always promising to pay –promising to pay –with interest tomorrow perhaps and die –to day –insolvent. Seeking to curry favor to get custom –lying –flattering voting –contracting yourselves into a nutshell of civility– or dilating into a world of thin and vaporous generosity –that you may persuade your neighbor –to let you make his {Nineteen leaves missing}{One-fifth page missing} him to be –that these “Letters & Speeches” now for the first time we might say –brought to light –edited –& published together with the elucidations, have restored unity and the wanting moral grandeur to his life. So that we can now answer for ourselves and other wherefore–, by what means, and in what sense he came to be protector in England. We learn that his actions are to be judged of as those of a man who had a steady religious purpose unparalled in the line of kings Of a remarkable common sense and practicalness yet joined with such a divine madness, though {One-fifth page missing} There is a civilization going on among brutes as well as men– Foxes are Indian dogs. I hear one barking DOG raggedly, wildly demoniacally in the darkness to night –seeking expression laboring with some anxiety – striving to be a dog –struggling for light. He is but a faint man –before pigmies –an imperfect –burrowing man.– Goules are also misformed, unfortunate men. He has come up near to my window attracted by the light, and barked a vulpine course at me –then retreated. {Six leaves missing} Reading suggested by Hallam’s Hist. of Literature.5 1 Abelard & Heloise 2 Look at Luigi Pulci –his Morgante Maggiore (published in 1481 “was to the poetical romances of chivalry what Don Quixote was to their brethren in prose.” 5. Henry Hallam’s INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE IN THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES (4 volumes; London: John Murray, 1837-1839). HALLAM’S LITERATURE, I HALLAM’S LITERATURE, II HALLAM’S LITERATURE, III HALLAM’S LITERATURE, IV

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3 Lionardo da Vinci –the most remarkable of his writings still in manuscript –for his universality of Genius – “the first name of the 15th century.” LUDOVICO ARIOSTO 4 Read Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato –published between 1491 –& 1500 –for its influence on Ariosto –and its intrinsic merits– Its sounding names repeated by Milton in Paradise Regained {One-fourth page blank} RICHARD HENRY HORNE Landor’s works are WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR 1st A small volume of poems 1793 out of print next Poems of “Gebir” “Chrysaor”, the “Phocaeans” &c The “Gebir” eulogized by Southey & Coleridge Wrote verses in Italian & Latin. The dramas “Andrea of Hungary” “Giovanna of Naples” and “Fra Rupert.” “Pericles & Aspasia” “Poems from the Arabic & Persian” 1800 pretending to be translations. “A Satire upon Satirists, and Admonition to Detractors” printed 1836 not published Letters called “High & Low Life in Italy” “Imaginary Conversations” “Pentameron & Pentalogia” “Examination of William Shakspeare before Sir Thomas Lucy, Knt., touching Deer-stealing.” {One-fourth page blank} Vide again Richard’s sail in “Rich. 1st & the Abbot” Phocion’s remarks in conclusion of “Eschines & Phocion” “Demosthenes & Eubulides” In Milton & Marvel speaking of the Greek poets –he says “There is a sort of refreshing odor flying off it perpetually; not enough to oppress or to satiate; nothing is beaten or bruized; nothing smells of the stalk; the flower itself is half-concealed by the Genius of it hovering round.” Pericles & Sophocles Marcus Tullius Cicero & his Brother Quinctus in this a sentence on Sleep and Death. Johnson & Tooke for a criticism on words. {Three-fifths page blank} It is worth the while to have lived a primitive wilderness life at some time –to know what are after all the necessaries of life –and what methods society has taken to supply them– I have looked over the old day Books of the merchants with the same view to see what it was that men bought– They are the grossest groceries –salt is perhaps the most important article of all.– most commonly bought at the stores. Of articles commonly thought to be necessaries –salt –sugar –molasses –cloth &c by the Farmer.– You will see why stores or shops exist / not to furnish tea and coffee –but salt &c here’s the rub then. {One-fifth page blank} Have you seen my hound sir– I want to know What –Lawyer’s office –law Books if you’ve seen anything of DOG a hound about here– why, what do you do here? I live here. no I have’nt haven’t you heard one In the woods anyplace O yes I heard one this morning– What do you do here– but he was someway off– Which side did he seem to be– Well I should think there this other side of the pond.– This is a large dog makes a large track –he’s been out hunting from Lexington for a week. How long have you lived here– Oh about a year Some body said there was a man up here had a camp in the woods somewhere and he’d got him Well I dont know of any body– There’s Brittons camp over the other road– It may be there– Is’nt there anybody in these woods– Yes they are chopping right up here behind me– how far is it– only a few steps –hark a moment –there dont you hear the sound of their axes. Therien the wood chopper was here yesterday –and while I was cutting wood some chicadees hopped near pecking the bark and chips and the potatoe skins I had thrown out– What do you call them he asked– I told him –what do you call them asked I– Mezezence I think he said. When I eat my dinner in the woods said he sitting very still having kindled a fire to warm my coffee –they come and light on my arm and peck at the potatoes in my fingers– I like to have the little fellers about me– Just then one flew up from the snow and perched on the wood I was holding in my arms and pecked it and looked me familiarly in the face. Chica-a-dee–dee-dee-dee-dee, –while others were whistling phebe–phe-bee – in the woods behind the house. {Three-fifths page blank} “It is related that the ancient Loeri, a people of Greece, were so charmed with the sound of the Cicada, that they erected a statue to its honor.” Davis’ notes to Morton’s Memorial.

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1847

The Reverend William Ellis became a Congregationalist pastor in the vicinity of their countryside home at the village of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, some twenty miles north of London.

1848

After July 30: At some point after July 30, 1848 Thoreau wrote in his journal about the mission work of the Reverend William Ellis (the passage includes some material that he would reprocess into his “Natural History of Massachusetts”):

What in short is all art at length but a kind of vegetation or crystallization (It is) the production of nature manured & quickened with mind– Do not hats in one sense grow upon our heads — & shoes on our feet. And are not clothes the indirect indurating effect of the elements on our bodies met & congealed by the outflowing mind. Children conclude wisely that everything they see grew.– The naturalist at last finds it impossible to distinguish animal from vegetable productions When the artist works simply and naturally enough his work will seem to grow under his hands touch like the coral insect. The Tahitians regarded the first nails they saw as vegetable productions. According to Ellis “Perceiving in their shape and color a resemblance to the young shoots or scions that grow from the roots of the bread-fruit trees, they imagined that they were a hard kind of plant, and procured in the same way. Anxious to secure a more abundant supply, they divided the first parcel of nails ever received, carried part to the temple, and deposited them on the altar; the rest they actually planted in their gardens, and awaited their growth with the highest anticipation.” This was not merely childish but contained in it a germ of truth — between the altar and the field they would have grown if they did had known how to cultivate them. How much of nature & vigor of true action and eloquence must there be in the speech of every wild man. We carefully preserve a few phrases used by our generals in time of battle but think of the harangues of savage warriors Our public speaking is comparatively tame. Ellis describing the eloquence of a Tahitian warrior armed for combat, says “I have repeatedly heard Mr. Nott declare (and no one can better appreciate native eloquence), he would at any time go thirty miles to listen to an address impassioned as those he has sometimes heard on these occasions”

{One-half page missing]

of a savior or a revival of Religion is at hand.– & discuss the doctrine of atonement — & the more religious hold prayer meetings & the sound of the grass hopper is heard in the land. I think it would be well to try the quinine or Preruvian bark of Cannabilism or other Pagan practices as burying alive –infanticide –human sacrifice &c — or — even if the dead were pinihia according to the practice of the S. Sea islanders ie. made to dance for the amusement of the spectators (the dead & alive) while some beat upon the bodies of other dead for drums. “Such was the interest of these exhibitions, that the natives say they never thought of taking food at the time.” Or if we could excite the most heroic to battle we might try what {MS torn} tiputa taata. “When a man had slain his enemy, in order fully to satiate

{One-half page missing} {Twenty-four pages missing} {Nine-tenths page missing}

{MS torn}ast in the same Asia but in the western part of it — appeared a youth so

{Nine-tenths page missing}

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at length {MS torn}plish {MS torn} basis. There is an old Finnish epic of nearly three thousand lines, about the wars between the Fins and the Lapps. old poems seem as universal as the subsoil

{Portion of page missing}

[“Natural History of Massachusetts”: What in short is all art at length but a kind of vegetation or crystallization, the production of nature manured and quickened with mind. Do not hats in one sense grow upon our heads--and shoes on our feet? And are not clothes the indirect indurating effect of the elements on our bodies met and congealed by the outflowing mind? Children conclude wisely that everything they see grew. The naturalist at last finds it impossible to distinguish animal from vegetable productions. When the artist works simply and naturally enough his work will seem to grow under his hands, touch like the coral insect. The Tahitians regarded the first nails they saw as vegetable productions. According to Ellis, “Perceiving in their shape and color a resemblance to the young shoots or scions that grow from the roots of the bread-fruit trees, they imagined that they were a kind of hard plant, and procured in the same way. Anxious to secure a more abundant supply, they divided the first parcel of nails ever received, carried part to the temple, and deposited them on the altar; the rest they actually planted in their gardens, and awaited their growth with the highest anticipation.” This was not merely childish but contained in it a germ of truth — between the altar and the field they will grow but they did not know how to cultivate them.]

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REV. WILLIAM ELLIS

TIMELINE OF A WEEK

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1849

June 13, Wednesday: Charlotte Brontë wrote in regard to her family’s tuberculosis: “...An immediate change of scene has done me good.... Had I never believed in a future life before, my sister’s fate would assure me of it. There must be Heaven or we must despair — for life seems bitter, brief-blank.... A year ago — had a prophet told me how I should stand in June, 1849 — how stripped and bereaved — had he foretold the autumn, the winter, the spring of sickness and suffering to be gone through — I should have thought — this can never be endured. It is over. Branwell-Emily-Anne are gone like dreams — gone as Maria and Elizabeth went twenty years ago. One by one I have watched them fall asleep on my arm — and closed their glazed eyes — I have seen them buried one by one-and-thus far — God has upheld me. From my heart I thank Him.... I intend to go home to Papa. May I retain strength and cheerfulness enough to be a comfort to him and to bear up against the weight of the solitary life to come.... I cannot help dreading the first experience of it — the first aspect of the empty rooms which once were tenanted by those dearest to my heart — and where the shadow of their last days must now — I think-linger for ever....”

“H.D. Thoreau’s Book” A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS was reviewed as a “misplaced Pantheistic attack on the Christian faith” on the front page of Horace Greeley’s New-York Daily Tribune.

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REV. WILLIAM ELLIS

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1853

Having been invited by the London Missionary Society to be their official emissary to the island of Madagascar, the Reverend William Ellis arrived on that island. He was rebuffed, not being allowed to enter the capital city (this may have had to do with French influence on the island), and needed to travel on to the

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island of Mauritius.

September 1: The mother of Samuel Ringgold Ward died while he was in England: Like my father, she was converted in early life, and was a member of the Methodist denomination (though a lover of all Christian denominations) until her death. This event, one of the most afflictive of my life, occurred on the first day of September,

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1853, at New York. Since my father’s demise I had not seen her for nearly a year; when, being about to sail for England, at the risk of being apprehended by the United States’ authorities for a breach of their execrable republican Fugitive Slave Law, I sought my mother, found her, and told her I was about to sail at three p.m., that day (April 20th, 1853), for England. With a calmness and composure which she could always command when emergencies required it, she simply said, in a quiet tone, “To England, my son!” embraced me, commended me to God, and suffered me to depart without a murmur. It was our last meeting. May it be our last parting! For the kind sympathy shown me, upon my reception of the melancholy news of my mother’s decease, by many English friends, I shall ever be grateful: the recollection of that event, and the kindness of which it was the occasion, will dwell together in my heart while reason and memory shall endure. In the midst of that peculiarly bereaved feeling inseparable from realizing the thought that one is both fatherless and motherless, it was a sort of melancholy satisfaction to know that my dear parents were gone beyond the reach of slavery and the Fugitive Law. Endangered as their liberty always was, in the free Northern States of New York and New Jersey — doubly so after the law of 1851 — I could but feel a great deal of anxiety concerning them. I knew that there was no living claimant of my parents’ bodies and souls; I knew, too, that neither of them would tamely submit to re-enslavement: but I also knew that it was quite possible there should be creditors, or heirs at law; and that there is no State in the American Union wherein there were not free and independent democratic republicans, and soi- disant Christians, “ready, aye ready” to aid in overpowering and capturing a runaway, for pay. But when God was pleased to take my father in 1851, and my mother in 1853, I felt relief from my greatest earthly anxiety. Slavery had denied them education, property, caste, rights, liberty; but it could not deny them the application of Christ’s blood, nor an admittance to the rest prepared for the righteous. They could not be buried in the same part of a common graveyard, with whites, in their native country; but they can rise at the sound of the first trump, in the day of resurrection. Yes, reader: we who are slaveborn derive a comfort and solace from the death of those dearest to us, if they have the sad misfortune to be BLACKS and AMERICANS, that you know not. God forbid that you or yours should ever have occasion to know it!

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Henry Thoreau made an entry in his journal that he was later to copy into his early lecture “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” as:

[Paragraph 53] Pickering, in his work on Races, says that “The missionaries [at the Sandwich Islands]1 regarded as one main obstacle to improvement, the extremely limited views of the natives in respect to style of living; ‘a little Brad Dean’s fish, and a little poi, and they were content.’ A native, I was assured,” says he, Commentary “‘could be supported for less than two cents a day.’”2 [Paragraph 54] But this is putting the cart before the horse, the real obstacle being their limited views in respect, not to the skill, but to the object of living. There are two kinds of simplicity; that of the simpleton and that of the wise man. A philosopher has equally limited views in their sense, but he is not content with material comforts, nor is it quite necessary that he first be glutted with them in order to become wise. Wisdom is not the fruit of a surfeit of nuts and raisins.

1.Thoreau’s brackets. 2.Charles Pickering, THE RACES OF MAN AND THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION (London: John Chapman, 1849), page 89. Thoreau silently omits the beginning of the second sentence, the whole of which reads: “By adopting the use of coin, they had placed themselves in many respects in the condition of indigence; and in conformity with the new standard of value, a native, I was assured, ‘could be supported for less than two cents a day.’” Bradley P. Dean has emended the manuscript copy-text by restoring the commas after ‘improvement’ and ‘poi’ in the first sentence, and by restoring and regularizing the quotation marks in Thoreau’s rendering of the second sentence.

Sept. 1. Thursday. P.M. — To Dugan Desert and Ministerial Swamp. The character of the past month, as I remember, has been, at first, very thick and sultry, dogdayish, the height of summer, and throughout very rainy, followed by crops of toadstools, and latterly, after the dogdays and most copious of the rains, autumnal, somewhat cooler, with signs of decaying or ripening foliage. The month of green corn and melons and plums and the earliest apples, — and now peaches, — of rank weeds. As July, perchance, has its spring side, so August has its autumnal side. Was that the cackling of hens I heard, or the clicking of a very distant hand-organ? Methinks the silvery cinquefoil is of late much more abundant. Is there any cessation to it? The green-briar berries begin to turn. Some large maples along the river are beginning to redden. I observe the stillness of the air and the smoothness of the water of late. The Hieracium Canadense is, methinks, the largest and handsomest flower of its genus, large as the fall dandelion; the paniculatum the most delicate. To-day and yesterday quite warm, or hot, again. I am struck again and again by the richness of the meadow-beauty lingering, though it will last some time, in 1ittle dense purple patches by the sides of the meadows. It is so low it escapes the scythe. It is not so much distinct flowers (it is so low and dense), but a colored patch on the meadow. Yet how few observe it! How, in one sense, it is wasted! How little thought the mower or the cranberry-raker bestows on it! How few girls or boys come to see it! That small aster which I call A. Tradescanti, with crowded racemes, somewhat rolled or cylindrical to appearance, of small white flowers a third of an inch in diameter, with yellow disks turning reddish or purplish, is very pretty by the low roadsides, resounding with the hum of honey-bees; which is commonly despised for its smallness and commonness, — with crowded systems of little suns. The Polygonum articulatum, apparently not for some time yet. The large epilobium still plenty in flower in Tarbell’s cleared swamp. Hazel bushes are now browned or yellowed along wall-sides in pastures; blackberry vines also are reddening. The Solidago nemoralis has commonly a long, sharply triangular head of small crowded flowers, evenly convex and often, if not commonly, recurved through a quarter of a circle, very handsome, solid-looking, recurved golden spear- heads. But frequently it is more erect and branched. What is that alga-like plant covering the ground in Tarbell’s Swamp where lately burnt over, with close mats a rod in diameter, with fruit now two or three inches high, star- like, and little cups on the green thallus? [Marchantia polymorpha] I see now puffballs, now four inches through, turned dark from white, and ripe, fill the air with dust four or five feet high when I kick them. Saw a red squirrel cutting off white pine cones. He had strewn the ground with them, as yet untouched, under the tree. He has a chirrup exactly like a partridge. Have made out Aster multiflorus by roadside beyond Badger house;

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probably not long out. It is distinguished by its hoariness, and its large herbaceous spreading calyx-tips and its crowded, somewhat rigid linear leaves, not tapering at base, low with a stout stem. A solidago by Marlborough road (S. puberula? or neglecta?), stricta-like, but panicle upright with short erectish racemes and lower leaves serrate, and five or six inches long; not long out. Should think it stricta if not for form of head; more like puberula, though this an imperfect one, in press. I think my white daisy, which is still quite fresh in some places, must be Erigeron strigosus, for the hairs are minute and appressed, though the rays are not twice as long as the calyx-scales. I have seen no purplish ones since spring. Aster undulatus begins to be common. Johnswort, the large and common, is about done. That is the common polypody whose single fronds, six or eight inches long, stand thick in moss on the shelving rock at the Island. The river nowadays is a permanent mirror stretching without end through the meadows, and unfailingly when I look out my window across the dusty road, I see it at a distance with the herbage of its brink reflected in it. There it lies, a mirror untracked, unsoiled. Plants or weeds very widely dispersed over the globe command a certain respect, like Sonchus oleraccus, Oregon, New Zealand, Peru, Patagonia, etc.; Sicyos angulatus, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaiian Islands, etc.; Polygonum aviculare, Chenopodium album, and Polygonum Persicaria, Oregon and Egypt; also many others, according to Pickering. Pickering says that “the missionaries [at the Hawaiian Islands] regarded as one main obstacle to improvement the extremely limited views of the natives in respect to style of living; ‘a little fish and a little poi, and they were content.’” But this is putting the cart before the horse, the real obstacle being their limited views in respect to the object of living. A philosopher has equally limited views in their sense, but then he is not content with material comforts, nor is it, perhaps, quite necessary that he first be glutted with them in order to become wise. “A native, I was assured, ‘could be supported for less than two cents a day.’” (They had adopted the use of coin.) The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom. In the case of the savage, the accompaniment of simplicity is idleness with its attendant vices, but in the case of the philosopher, it is the highest employment and development. The fact for the savage, and for the mass of mankind, is that it is better to plant, weave, and build than do nothing or worse; but the fact for the philosopher, or a nation loving wisdom, is that it is most important to cultivate the highest faculties and spend as little time as possible in planting, weaving, building, etc. It depends upon the height of your standard, and no doubt through manual labor as a police men are educated up to a certain level. The simple style is bad for the savage because he does worse than to obtain the luxuries of life; it is good for the philosopher because he does better than to work for them. The question is whether you can bear freedom. At present the vast majority of men, whether black or white, require the discipline of labor which enslaves them for their good. If the Irishman did not shovel all day, he would get drunk and quarrel. But the philosopher does not require the same discipline; if he shovelled all day, we should receive no elevating suggestions from him. What a literary fame is that of Æsop, — an Æsopian fame! Pickering says: “A little to the west of Celebes, the ÆSOP literature of the Malay nation contains a translation of the Fables of Æsop; who, according to the unsatisfactory accounts we have of him, was one of the earliest of the Greek writers. And further, the fact may be noted, that the Æsopian style of composition is still in vogue at Madagascar. (See Ellis’s Madagascar.)” A fame on its way round eastward with the Malay race to this western continent! A fame that travels round the world from west to east. P. gives California to the Malay race! There are two kinds of simplicity, — one that is akin to foolishness, the other to wisdom. The philosopher's style of living is only outwardly simple, but inwardly complex. The savage’s style is both outwardly and inwardly simple. A simpleton can perform many mechanical labors, but is not capable of profound thought. It was their limited view, not in respect to style, but to the object of living. A man who has equally limited views with respect to the end of living will not be helped by the most complex and refined style of living. It is not the tub that makes Diogenes, the Jove-born, but Diogenes the tub.

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1854

In this year approximately 30,000 American tourists departed for destinations other than Mexico or Canada, by way of contrast with a figure from the year 1954 of approximately 1,000,000 such tourists. Here is Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, a view upslope and a view downslope, in a couple of lithographs prepared in this year by Paul Emmert for the firm of Britton & Rey in San Francisco:

Having been rebuffed in the previous year as the official emissary of the London Missionary Society to the island of Madagascar, the Reverend William Ellis returned from the island of Mauritius to Madagascar for a 2d try. He was again rebuffed (this may have had to do with French influence on the island).

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1856

On yet another of her solitary trips, Ida Pfeiffer visited Madagascar, and was taken prisoner by Queen Ranavalona there on suspicions of being part of a plot to overthrow the government.

(Well, she was a woman and she was traveling in foreign climates, all alone. Come on, obviously she must be involved in something!)

Although she would be released, she had acquired a tropical disease from which she would not recover.

Having been rebuffed in 1853 and again in 1854 as the official emissary of the London Missionary Society to Madagascar, the Reverend William Ellis returned for a 3d try. This 3d time was a charm — this time Queen Ranavalona allowed him to remain on the island. Remain, that is, for one month.

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1859

The London Missionary Society having invited the Reverend William Ellis to be their official emissary to Madagascar, he had arrived on that island in 1853. He had been rebuffed that time, not being allowed to enter the capital city, and had traveled on to Mauritius. From there he had gone back to Madagascar in 1854, only to be again rebuffed. When he tried again in 1856, the queen of Madagascar allowed him to remain, but only for one month. The result of those three attempts, published in this year, was THREE VISITS TO MADAGASCAR, DURING THE YEARS 1853-1854-1856. INCLUDING A JOURNEY TO THE CAPITAL; WITH NOTICES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY AND OF THE PRESENT CIVILIZATION OF THE PEOPLE. BY THE REV. WILLIAM ELLIS, F.H.S, AUTHOR OF “POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES.” ILLUSTRATED BY WOODCUTS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, &C. (London: Fisher, Son & Jackson; Philadelphia: J.W. Bradley, 48 North Fourth Street).6 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR

1861

August 16, Friday Henry Thoreau was being written to by Friend Daniel Ricketson in New Bedford: Brooklawn, Friday noon 16th August 1861. Dear Thoreau, I have just received and read yours of yesterday, and in reply would say, that myself & family will be very glad to have a visit from you as you propose, next week — as you have fixed upon no particular time, I will be at the Head of the River depot for you by the Monday afternoon train from Boston which arrives about 6 o’clock– The p.m. train from Boston for N. Bedford leaves at 4 1/2 p. m. I am glad to inform you that my health & spirits are better than they have been for some years & I can I trust infuse a little new physical life into you at which I am pretty good. I have just raised my wife from a prostrating illness, by an intelligent faith. What you want is to live easy, just like an intelligent Indian who is a little poorly –giv- ing nature a fair chance– your body is well enough (normally) but the brain works too hard, the engine above is a little too heavy for the craft below — so slack up & let off the steam & float awhile along shore just using the helm occasionally as occasion requires. I am sorry to hear of Mr Alcott’s lameness & hope he will soon recover. My son Arthur is a surgeon in the U.S. Navy on board ship Nightin- gale, & expects to sail from Brooklyn Navy Yard to-morrow. My wife who is you know constitutionally delicate had the bronchitis a few 6. This would be available in Stacy’s Circulating Library in Concord, and Henry Thoreau would copy from it into his Indian Notebook #12. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 37 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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years ago & is now entirely well of it — her lungs which were weak & attended with cough much improved — her trouble now indiges- tion & palpitation of heart but getting better slowly of these. I am her doctor. I feel that your treatment should be directed to the brain principally & the remedy rest or agreeable occupation without excitement. I was hardly wise I fear in writing about my late experiences which I find were considerably aroused by domestic affliction yet not without some good results I hope yours truly — D. Ricketson Remember me kindly to Channing & other friends. Be of good cheer. Keep cheerful company.

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Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar died peacefully in her sleep and was succeeded on the throne by King Radama II (1829-1863). Over the course of her 33-year reign, amazingly, she had inventively murdered in various manners a very large fraction of the population of this large island. During the 2d year of his very brief reign before being strangled with a silken cloth, this new king would reopen the country to Christian missionaries. On his 4th try, the Reverend William Ellis would therefore be permitted to remain on the island. He would be able to remain until 1865.

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1863

May 12: On the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa, to avoid the spilling of royal blood, assassins strangled King Radama II with a cloth of silk, and so the throne would pass to one of his wives, Rabodo, as Queen Rasoherina.

In the ongoing civil war in the United States of America, there was fighting at Raymond.

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A report from Walt Whitman: “Specimen Days”

A NIGHT BATTLE, OVER A WEEK SINCE There was part of the late battle at Chancellorsville, (second Fredericksburgh,) a little over a week ago, Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday, under Gen. Joe Hooker, I would like to give just a glimpse of — (a moment’s look in a terrible storm at sea — of which a few suggestions are enough, and full details impossible.) The fighting had been very hot during the day, and after an intermission the latter part, was resumed at night, and kept up with furious energy till 3 o’clock in the morning. That afternoon (Saturday) an attack sudden and strong by Stonewall Jackson had gain’d a great advantage to the southern army, and broken our lines, entering us like a wedge, and leaving things in that position at dark. But Hooker at 11 at night made a desperate push, drove the secesh forces back, restored his original lines, and [Page 722] resumed his plans. This night scrimmage was very exciting, and afforded countless strange and fearful pictures. The fighting had been general both at Chancellorsville and northeast at Fredericksburgh. (We heard of some poor fighting, episodes, skedaddling on our part. I think not of it. I think of the fierce bravery, the general rule.) One corps, the 6th, Sedgewick’s, fights four dashing and bloody battles in thirty-six hours, retreating in great jeopardy, losing largely but maintaining itself, fighting with the sternest desperation under all circumstances, getting over the Rappahannock only by the skin of its teeth, yet getting over. It lost many, many brave men, yet it took vengeance, ample vengeance. But it was the tug of Saturday evening, and through the night and Sunday morning, I wanted to make a special note of. It was largely in the woods, and quite a general engagement. The night was very pleasant, at times the moon shining out full and clear, all Nature so calm in itself, the early summer grass so rich, and foliage of the trees — yet there the battle raging, and many good fellows lying helpless, with new accessions to them, and every minute amid the rattle of muskets and crash of cannon, (for there was an artillery contest too,) the red life-blood oozing out from heads or trunks or limbs upon that green and dew-cool grass. Patches of the woods take fire, and several of the wounded, unable to move, are consumed — quite large spaces are swept over, burning the dead also — some of the men have their hair and beards singed — some, burns on their faces and hands — others holes burnt in their clothing. The flashes of fire from the cannon, the quick flaring flames and smoke, and the immense roar — the musketry so general, the light nearly bright enough for each side to see the other — the crashing, tramping of men — the yelling — close quarters — we hear the secesh yells — our men cheer loudly back, especially if Hooker is in sight — hand to hand conflicts, each side stands up to it, brave, determin’d as demons, they often charge upon us — a thousand deeds are done worth to write newer greater poems on — and still the woods on fire — still many are not only scorch’d — too many, unable to move, are burn’d to death.

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“Specimen Days”

Then the camps of the wounded — O heavens, what scene is this? — is this indeed humanity — these butchers’ shambles? [Page 723] There are several of them. There they lie, in the largest, in an open space in the woods, from 200 to 300 poor fellows — the groans and screams — the odor of blood, mixed with the fresh scent of the night, the grass, the trees — that slaughter-house! O well is it their mothers, their sisters cannot see them — cannot conceive, and never conceiv’d, these things. One man is shot by a shell, both in the arm and leg — both are amputated — there lie the rejected members. Some have their legs blown off — some bullets through the breast — some indescribably horrid wounds in the face or head, all mutilated, sickening, torn, gouged out — some in the abdomen — some mere boys — many rebels, badly hurt — they take their regular turns with the rest, just the same as any — the surgeons use them just the same. Such is the camp of the wounded — such a fragment, a reflection afar off of the bloody scene — while over all the clear, large moon comes out at times softly, quietly shining. Amid the woods, that scene of flitting souls — amid the crack and crash and yelling sounds — the impalpable perfume of the woods — and yet the pungent, stifling smoke — the radiance of the moon, looking from heaven at intervals so placid — the sky so heavenly — the clear-obscure up there, those buoyant upper oceans — a few large placid stars beyond, coming silently and languidly out, and then disappearing — the melancholy, draperied night above, around. And there, upon the roads, the fields, and in those woods, that contest, never one more desperate in any age or land — both parties now in force — masses — no fancy battle, no semi-play, but fierce and savage demons fighting there — courage and scorn of death the rule, exceptions almost none. What history, I say, can ever give — for who can know — the mad, determin’d tussle of the armies, in all their separate large and little squads — as this — each steep’d from crown to toe in desperate, mortal purports? Who know the conflict, hand-to-hand — the many conflicts in the dark, those shadowy-tangled, flashing moonbeam’d woods — the writhing groups and squads — the cries, the din, the cracking guns and pistols — the distant cannon — the cheers and calls and threats and awful music of the oaths — the indescribable mix — the officers’ orders, persuasions, encouragements — the devils fully rous’d in human hearts — the strong shout, Charge, men, charge — [Page 724] the flash of the naked sword, and rolling flame and smoke? And still the broken, clear and clouded heaven — and still again the moonlight pouring silvery soft its radiant patches over all. Who paint the scene, the sudden partial panic of the afternoon, at dusk? Who paint the irrepressible advance of the second division of the Third corps, under Hooker himself, suddenly order’d up — those rapid-filing phantoms through the woods? Who show what moves there in the shadows, fluid and firm — to save, (and it did save,) the army’s name, perhaps the nation? as there the veterans hold the field. (Brave Berry falls not yet — but death has mark’d him — soon he falls.)

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“Specimen Days”

UNNAMED REMAINS THE BRAVEST SOLDIER Of scenes like these, I say, who writes — whoe’er can write the story? Of many a score — aye, thousands, north and south, of unwrit heroes, unknown heroisms, incredible, impromptu, first-class desperations — who tells? No history ever — no poem sings, no music sounds, those bravest men of all — those deeds. No formal general’s report, nor book in the library, nor column in the paper, embalms the bravest, north or south, east or west. Unnamed, unknown, remain, and still remain, the bravest soldiers. Our manliest — our boys — our hardy darlings; no picture gives them. Likely, the typic one of them (standing, no doubt, for hundreds, thousands,) crawls aside to some bush-clump, or ferny tuft, on receiving his death- shot — there sheltering a little while, soaking roots, grass and soil, with red blood — the battle advances, retreats, flits from the scene, sweeps by — and there, haply with pain and suffering (yet less, far less, than is supposed,) the last lethargy winds like a serpent round him — the eyes glaze in death — none recks — perhaps the burial-squads, in truce, a week afterwards, search not the secluded spot — and there, at last, the Bravest Soldier crumbles in mother earth, unburied and unknown.

1865

The Reverend William Ellis returned from Madagascar to England, and went on the lecture circuit.

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June 27, Tuesday: In a treaty between England and Madagascar: “Her Majesty the Queen of Madagascar, from her friendship for Her Britannic Majesty, promises to grant full religious liberty to all her subjects.”

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1867

The Reverend William Ellis’s MADAGASCAR REVISITED / DESCRIBING / THE EVENTS OF A NEW REIGN AND THE REVOLUTION WHICH FOLLOWED; SETTING FORTH ALSO THE PERSECUTIONS ENDURED BY THE CHRISTIANS, AND THEIR HEROIC SUFFERINGS, WITH NOTICES OF THE PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE PEOPLE (Lon don:

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John Murray, Albemarle Street).

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1868

April 1, Wednesday: On the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa, Queen Rasoherina died, on her deathbed being received into the Roman Catholic Church. She was succeeded by another of the wives of King Ramada II, Ramako, who would rule as Queen Ranavalona II. This new queen was a Christian.

Because of his religious opinions, the Reverend Francis Ellingwood Abbot (above) was forced out of his pulpit at the Unitarian church in Dover, New Hampshire. He would attempt to continue, with a group of the parishioners, to use the church structure for an independent worship group, but would be taken to court by the more conservative parishioners. After six months of litigation (refer to NEW HAMPSHIRE REPORTS, Volume 53) he would be enjoined by the New Hampshire Supreme Court against preaching in any Unitarian church in that state, unless all church members approved of such preaching. In a search for a more Christian venue, the Reverend would then relocate (not to the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa but) to Toledo, Ohio, to found an Independent Society that boasted no affiliation with any larger Unitarian organization. Eventually his Free Religious Association would move back east.

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1870

The Reverend William Ellis’s THE MARTYR CHURCH: A NARRATIVE OF THE INTRODUCTION, PROGRESS, AND TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY IN MADAGASCAR (J. Snow).

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1872

June 9, Sunday: The Reverend William Ellis had caught a cold while on a train journey, and died. The body would be placed in the Congregationalists’ nondenominational Abney Park Cemetery in London.

Soon afterward, his son Henry Allon would prepare a biography.

June 16, Sunday: The recently widowed Mrs. Sarah Stickney Ellis died. Rather than being buried next to her recently deceased husband in the Congregationalists’ nondenominational Abney Park Cemetery in London, she expressed a preference to be buried near her country home at the village of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire.

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1983

September: Martin K. Doudna’s “Thoreau and the Sandwich Islanders.” The New England Quarterly, Volume 56, Number 3, pages 432-439. NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2013. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: June 22, 2013

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, upon someone’s request we have pulled it out of the hat of a pirate that has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (depicted above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of data modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture. This is data mining. To respond to such a request for information, we merely push a button.

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 53 HDT WHAT? INDEX

THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: THE REVEREND WILLIAM ELLIS

Commonly, the first output of the program has obvious deficiencies and so we need to go back into the data modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and do a recompile of the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process which you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place your requests with . Arrgh.