Sophia Elau, Ungka the gibbon, and the pearly nautilus

Abstract

Abstract George Bennett, a young surgeon from Plymouth and an ambitious natural scientist, collected three remarkable items during a voyage around the world from 1829 to 1831. These items were a pearly nautilus, which Bennett celebrated as the first of its species to be taken alive; a gibbon from Sumatra; and a six‐year‐old girl from Erromanga named Elau. Elau was the first ni‐Vanuatu to travel to Britain. By 1834, all three of Bennett's finds were dead and dissected for the advancement of British science. The three also contributed to an evolving literature for middle class children. Children's literature often illustrates, in concentrated form, the various political projects and cultural understandings of social groups. As a moral tale, Elau's story was one of savage education and reform — issues of concern then to pre‐Victorians worried about the internal barbarity of their own children and also that of the working class.