Marquesas Islands

The Marquesas Islands become the center of Martin Eden’s imagined escape from a life emptied by the death of Brissenden, his estrangement from Ruth Morse, and his cessation of writing and study. He envisions buying an uninhabited valley and a magnificent bay there, building a trading headquarters, and leaving books and the disillusioning world behind. The plan gives a concrete shape to his longing for a different life, but remains an unrealized possibility that he relinquishes when Lizzie Connolly enters the scene.

The Valley and Bay

Martin remembers a valley in the Marquesas stretching from a sheltered, horseshoe-shaped bay to cloud-capped peaks. He estimates that it contains about ten thousand acres and could be bought, together with the bay, for a thousand Chili dollars. In his recollection, the land is wholly wild and without human inhabitants: tropical fruits grow there, while wild chickens, pigs, and occasional cattle roam below, and goats high among the peaks are pursued by packs of wild dogs.

The bay makes the imagined property more than an isolated wilderness. Its water is deep enough for the largest vessels, and the South Pacific Directory recommends it as a particularly safe careening place for ships over a wide area. Martin pictures it as both a refuge and a strategic harbor, a place where solitude and commerce could coexist.

A South Seas Trading Headquarters

To finance the plan, Martin intends to wait in California while money from his books begins to arrive. If one succeeds, he hopes he can sell the rest of his manuscripts; he also considers collecting his stories and poems into books. With the proceeds, he would buy a yacht-like, coppered schooner and trade copra and engage in pearling among the islands, using the valley and bay as his base.

His imagined settlement is deliberately expansive. He would build a patriarchal grass house like Tati’s, keep the house, valley, and schooner staffed with servitors, and entertain the factor of Taiohae and the captains of passing traders. The vision turns a remote harbor into a private domain where Martin could live like a prince. He resolves that, once he has made enough money for this departure, he will never write again.

An Abandoned Future

The plan arises while Martin is trying to escape a dazed and uncaring state: although the South Seas call to him, he feels that his affairs in the United States are not yet finished. The Marquesas therefore represent a future he postpones until his books can provide the money to leave, not a destination he reaches in this episode.

When Martin offers Lizzie Connolly practical help and money, the valley, bay, grass house, and schooner lose their hold on him. He decides he can go away as he has before, before the mast on any ship bound anywhere. His readiness to relinquish the elaborate plan marks a sharp change in what he is willing to imagine for himself: the Marquesas had offered an independent kingdom built from money and escape, but he abandons that future in the moment of his offer to Lizzie.