ENGLISH PASSENGERS
By Matthew Kneale

When whites first landed in Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania) in 1804, there may have been as many as 4,000 Aborigines living on the island. Only half a century later, after having been hunted, massacred and collected into concentration camps, there were fewer than 20 left. As the few remaining survivors died off and the race slipped into extinction, some of their bodies were dismembered and shipped abroad for scientific study.

English Passengers is a historical novel set in the 1850s that takes this grim chapter in English colonialism as its backdrop. The main character is Illiam Quilliam Kewley, the captain of a band of Manx smugglers. After his ship the Sincerity is impounded by customs authorities, he is forced to put it up for charter. This means taking three English passengers on a voyage to Van Diemen's Land to find the historical location of the Garden of Eden.

The passengers - a paranoid preacher, a surgeon writing a scholarly treatise on racial "species," and the Victorian equivalent of a Gen-X slacker - do little to endear themselves to their Manx crew. But Captain Kewley's plan to dump them off in France and then double back to the Isle of Man is soon frustrated. He is stuck making the long journey to the antipodes, dragging his passengers and crew into various wild adventures as he looks to unload an ingeniously concealed cargo of contraband booze, tobacco and French pornography.

As the Sincerity makes its way to Australia, the novel flashes back in time to tell the story of Peevay, a half-white Aborigine whose life encompasses the recent tragic history of his island. (The names of historical personages are slightly changed throughout the book, but otherwise what is described seems accurate.) After enduring a lifetime of injustice at the hands of the whites, Peevay's bitterness and longing for revenge grow into an obsession that he is given a unique opportunity to satisfy.

The book's presentation jumps around both in voice and time, as all of the major characters, and many secondary ones as well, take turns with the narration. When the passengers arrive in Van Diemen's Land the different threads are skillfully drawn together, with Peevay agreeing to lead the English expedition into the wild while Kewley arranges to make his fortune.

English Passengers is an ambitious, well-plotted novel - a wide-ranging historical comedy with a serious political message and social conscience. It is also a very good read, with some quietly effective comic scenes and a number of versatile turns with the language. One complaint I had is that the denouement drags out too long, but there is a fine twist at the end that helps compensate.

This, Kneale's first North American release, should prove to be the launch of an interesting career.

Notes:
Review first published April 29, 2000.

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