British Columbia in Jane Austen's Time

THE NORTHWEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA, which extends from today's British Columbia south through Washington and Oregon, was one of areas of world to be visited by outsiders. It was only during Jane Austen's lifetime, 1775-1817, that this far edge of North America became known in Britain. As far as I can determine, Jane Austen had no direct knowledge of British Columbia. Her lack of awareness is, however, less important than familiarity with other areas of world where Britain was similarly engaged. After introducing Jane Austen's outlook and events during lifetime in Britain and British Columbia, I highlight four aspects of contact that, given understandings present in correspondence and writing, she may have found intriguing. I do each through an encounter story based in maritime journals published in England during lifetime. My intention is to encourage reflection on how Jane Austen might have viewed British Columbia, had she been so aware. JANE AUSTEN'S OUTLOOK Jane Austen had two principal means of understanding comparable areas of world to future British Columbia. The first was two seafaring brothers whose activities in Royal Navy she closely followed; second, published accounts of maritime exploits. Jane was just year younger than brother Francis and four years older than Charles, to both of whom she was, letters attest, intensely devoted all of life. (1) Their Anglican cleric father looked to Royal Navy to ensure his two youngest sons' social and economic security, and dispatched them at age of twelve to Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, intended to give best possible preparation for successful naval careers. Francis Austen's grandson and great-granddaughter explain that the Navy was profession in which it was possible to get on very last (Hubback 37). Francis rose to be Admiral of Fleet and Charles Rear-Admiral. Jane Austen's surviving correspondence gives no indication she read about northwest coast, but it does attest to curiosity about events abroad linked to family and friends. Her brother Henry recalled how her reading was very extensive in history and belles lettres (7). In line with expectations for women of class and circumstances, wider interests radiated out from life experiences, as opposed to originating with larger world in and of itself. A relative or acquaintance departing for West or East Indies, for Gibraltar or Egypt, engaged attention, as did writing on related topics. (2) Among Jane Austen's reading was Charles William Pasley's Essay on Military Policy and Institutions of British Empire, which she described to sister Cassandra at beginning of 1813 as a book which I protested against at first, but which upon trial I find delightfully written & highly entertaining (24 January 1813). The recently published 533-page volume focused on Britain's conflict with France and also, when we throw our eyes across Atlantic, to hostility of young United States, which would culminate in War of 1812 (Pasley 437). Amidst considerable attention to past, present, and potential colonies, single reference to west coast of North America speaks to its irrelevance not just to Jane Austen but also to contemporaries: There is no country in world to which, however unlikely it may not appear, we may not be induced to send British army hereafter. We ought therefore to have best maps of them all, from California and Chili to deserts of Tartary (Pasley 184 n). THE BRITISH EMPIRE To understand lack of interest in British Columbia that existed in Jane Austen's time, we need to remind ourselves of larger British Empire to which both she and this far corner of world were linked. Her birth in 1775 coincided with first great challenge to two centuries of British economic and colonial expansion around world. …

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