{"product_id":"cruise-74jinq57","title":"The Cruise;","description":"\u003cp\u003eSabin 21240. \u003cstrong\u003eRare.\u003c\/strong\u003e OCLC\/COPAC record copies at \u003cstrong\u003eBL\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eCambridge\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eGlasgow\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eSt Andrews\u003c\/strong\u003e in the UK; \u003cstrong\u003eStanford\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eTexas\u003c\/strong\u003e only in the USA. \u003cstrong\u003eNo copies recorded for sale on Rare Book Hub.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn eye-witness account of the West Indies in verse - with highly detailed supplementary notes - which celebrate the beauty and romance of the islands alongside their troubling history of violence, slavery, colonial rule and the challenging weather conditions.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Nugent Dunbar (d.1866) lived for many years in the Antilles and he signs his preface to this poem from the, “seldom sufficiently estimated” Antilles in March 1843. Dunbar complains that the Antilles are, \u003cstrong\u003e“little known to the generality of European readers…every body is aware that they produce sugar, rum and molasses; but, beyond this, very slight information is current in Europe concerning them”\u003c\/strong\u003e (viii).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis narrative poem, in ninety-seven Spenserian stanzas, presents a shipboard and exploratory overview of the Antilles from Curaçao, Barbados and Trinidad, through Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Saint Martin, Saint Kitts and Nevis, to Saint Thomas in the Virgins (with Tortola and Virgin Gorda), and finally Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGenerally the descriptions of the different islands are positive and celebrate the landscape and people with Dunbar using the area as many of the Romantic poets might have used Italy as an idealised muse, but Dunbar does not shy away from the darker aspects of the West Indies:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Barbadoes! from thine annals blot one page!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo fouler blackens history: - the wrongs\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf Yarico shall ring through every age;\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd, long as sympathy to man belongs,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nations shall proclaim them in new tongues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWould that indignant England could disclaim\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat son, most abject ’mid degraded throngs!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe climax of all perfidy and shame,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBase avarice and guilt centres in Inkle’s name“ (p.44)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDunbar also describes the destruction caused by La Grande Soufrière, the volcano on the island of Guadeloupe:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Bracelet of France! twin jewels silver-clasp’d!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBisected Guadaloupe! thy sulphur-cone,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis rugged waist by clinging vapours grasp’d,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScaling the heavens majestically lone,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePours the black smoke-wreath from his cloudy throne.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThy face how changed! since the fierce Carib laugh’d\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith fiendish glee o’er mangled victim’s groan;\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd gorged on human flesh, and horrid quaff’d\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the dismember’d skull the execrable draught!“ (p.48)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTowards the end of the poem Dunbar also describes the challenging past of the island of Haiti:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Haiti! once smiling land, - fruitful no more!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTranscendent beauty’s fatal gift was thine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhantoms of horror flit along thy shore,\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeneath the silver moon: how Havoc’s shrine\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHas smoked with gore, since o’er thy vale divine\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eColumbus, from thy mountains’ golden veins\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook’d down, and saw a richer prospect shine…“ (p.52)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDunbar is though clearly proud of the West Indies and encourages other European settlers:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The climate too, that great bugbear with my countrymen, is only to be feared by the imprudent and intemperate: I have lived many years in the West Indies with a finger-ache, and so many any other European with ordinary are. We must not judge of the morality in a West India island by the deaths of transient persons, and particularly sailors, who drink themselves into fevers with new rum, and are constantly exposed during the day to the burning sum, and at night to heavy dews. Among the permanent residents, the morality is not greater than the average throughout the world; and instances of great longevity, among both Creoles and Europeans, are very common. The abolition of negro slavery will probably open a field for the emigration of white labourers; and if they can only eschew the archenemy rum, I think I can promise them as uninterrupted health as under their native skies” (x)\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Maggs Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47844095852701,"sku":"255993","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0669\/0045\/9677\/files\/255993_15_b15bfe28-3842-4321-a185-5da9ed9503d6.jpg?v=1777371920","url":"https:\/\/store.maggs.com\/products\/cruise-74jinq57","provider":"Maggs Bros.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}