The national whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1847, 1847-08-04
From Blackwood's Magazine.
PACIFIC ROVINGS..

VIZ were much puzzled, 'e~
since. by q santalizing and unlnieiiigloie
paragraph, pertinaciously reiterated 10 the
london newspapers Its brevity equailed
4. mv.terv. L consisted but Of five words,
the f;,t and last in imposing majuscules,
Thus il RAM
aOMOo, by the author of TYPE"
With Triculo we exclaimed, "What have
we here a man or fish dead or alive !"
Who or what were Typee and Omoo :
Were things or creatures thus designated I
Did they exist on the earth, or in the air,
or in the waters under the earths Were
they spiritual or material, vegetable or
mineral, brute or human? Were they
newly-discovered planets, nicknamed whilst
awaiting baptism, or strange fossils, con-
tsmporaries Of the Megatherum, or Magyar
dissyllables from DR.. Bowrng's vocabu-
lsryi Perchance they were a pair of new
singers for the Garden, or fresh brace Of
beasts for the legitimate drama at Drury.
Omoo might be the heavy elephant; Typee
the light comedy camel. Did danger Turk
in the enigmatical words Were they OBJ
scure limitations of reasonable designs,
swing advertisements, or masonic signs !
Was the palace at Westminster in peril I
had an agent Of Barbarossa Joinville UNDER
mined the Trafalgar column Were they
conspirators' watchwords, lovers letters,
signals concerted between the robbers of
Rogers bank We tried them anagra-
matically, but in vain; there was nought
to be made of Omoo; shake it as we would,
the O's came uppermost; and by reversing
Typee we obtainad but pitiful result.
At last bright CLEAN broke through the
mist OF conjecture. Omoo was book.
The outfandish title that had perplexed US
was intended to perplex; it was bait
thrown out to that widemouthed fish, the
public specimen Of what is theatrically
styled gag. Having but an Indifferent
opinion Of books ushered into existence BY
such charlatanical maneuvres, we thought
NO more Of Omoo, until, musing the other
day over our matutinal Tyson, the volume
itself was laid before US, and we suddenly
found ourselves in the entertaining society
Of Marquesan Melville, the phoenix Of mo-
dern voysgers, sprung, it would seem, from
the mingled ashes Of Captain Cook and
Robin Crusoe.
Those who have read Mr.. Herman Mel
ville's former work will remember--,hose
who have not are informed by the introduc-
tion to the present one-that the author, an
educated American, whom circumstances
bad shipped ~ common sailor on board
. South Seaman, was left by his vessel on
the island Of Nukuheva, one Of the Mar
quesan group. Here he remained some
months, until taken of by Sydney whaler,
short-handed, and glad to catch him. AT
this point of-his adventures he commences
Omoo. The title is borrowed from the
dialect Of the Marquesas, and signifies a
rover the book is excellent, quite first
rate, the 'sclear grit" as Mr. Melville's
countrymen would say. Its chief fault,
almost ito only one, interfeIes little with
the pleasure Of reading it, will escape
many, and is hardly worth insisting upon.
Omoo il of the order composite, a skilfully
concocted Robinsonade, where fictitious
incident is ingeniously blended with genuine
information. Doubtless its author has
visited the countries he describes, but not
in the capacity he states. He Is no Mum
cbausen; there is nothing improbable in
his adventures, save their occurrence to
himself, and that he should have been a
man before the mast on board South-Sea
traders, or whalers, or on any ship or ships
whatever. His speech betrayeth him.
His voyages and wanderings commsnced,
according to his own account, at least as
far back as the year 1848; for augLt we
know they are not yet at an end. On
leaving Tahiti, in lS43, he made sail for
Japan, and the very book before US may
have been scrubbed on the greasy deck Of
. whaler, whilst floating amidst the coral
reefs of the wide Pacific. True that in his
preface, and in the month Of January Of the
present year, Mr.. Melville halls from New
York; but in such matters we really place
little dependence upon him. From his
narrative we gather that this literary and
gentlemanly common-sailor is quite Young
man. His life, therefore, since he emerged
from boyhood, has been spent in a ships
forecastle, amongst the widest and most
ignorant class Of mariners. Yet his tone
il refined and well-bred he writes like one
oCC0SSOthcu W boou CuioPcdu society, VINO
has read books and collected stories of in
formation, other than could be perused or
gathered in the places and amongst the
rude associates he describes. These incon-
sistencies are glazing, and can hardly be
explained. Avid freak or unfortunate act
of folly, or boyish thirst for adventure,
sometimes drives lads Of education to try
life before the mast, but when suited for
better things they seldom persevere and
Mr.. Melville does not seem to us the man
ner of man to rest long contented with the
coarse company and humble lot of mer-
chant seamen. Other discrepancies strike
ns in his book and character. The train
Of suspicion once lighted, the fame runs
rapidly along. Our misgivings begin with
the title-page. "Lovel or Belville,n says
the Laird Of Monkbarns, care Just the
names which youngsters are apt to assume
on such occasions" And Herman Mel.
vile sounds to us vastly like the harmoni.
Gus and carefully selected appellation of ar