'Vell, I don't call dot very shentlemanly gonduck.': The portrayal of Germans as ungentlemanly South Seas traders in Louis Becke's short stories

The second part of the nineteenth century saw a change in the Pacific from the age ofbeachcombers to that of organized trade and plantations, yet it was still a time when much of thecolonial map had not been finalized. Arguably the best Australian author to capture this period isLouis Becke (1855-1913). Himself a trader in Samoa and Micronesia from the 1870s to the early1890s, Becke turned writer in the mid 1890s. His exotic short stories, bringing an unusuallyrealistic perspective to the hitherto romanticized depiction of the South Pacific, brought him rapidand widespread fame. In nine novels and over 400 short stories, Becke's work depicted the atmosphere of inter-cultural relations, as well as colonial rivalry at both the local island and a toll level. The paper discusses how Becke's portrayal of German traders and scientists in his stories articulated wider political transformations occurring in the Pacific region at the time, and in particular, emerging colonial rivalries between Great Britain and Germany.