Tales of the Malayan Coast

About the book

Rounsevelle Wildman's collection ranges through coastal settlements, jungle excursions, court visits, and dangers at sea. The opening story follows Baboo, a small child whose wandering brings him near a tiger and throws an entire household into alarm. Other pieces turn to piracy, hunting, monsoon weather, and encounters shaped by local rulers and colonial officials. Wildman presents the stories as products of his residence and official experience, giving anecdote and adventure a claim to eyewitness authority. At the same time, his dedication and preface openly celebrate imperial expansion, and the tales carry the racial hierarchies of that outlook. Their descriptive and narrative interest is therefore inseparable from the question of how a foreign official represented the people and places around him to American readers.

• Adventure and travel
• Colonial representation
• Experience and storytelling

Why read it

The varied coastal settings offer a revealing combination of lively anecdote and explicitly imperial perspective.

English text of the Lothrop Publishing Company edition, copyright 1899