Erewhon

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of prejudices against Indigenous peoples, as well as descriptions of violence and discrimination, which feature in the source text.

The narrator opens by explaining that he does not intend to describe himself. Instead, he plans to focus on his journey, which he hopes will interest people and earn him money. He does not reveal many specific details of his departure from England or his arrival in a colony, but he does explain that the colony was recently founded, possesses burgeoning sheep and cattle businesses, and is bordered by mountains and ocean. In this colony, the Indigenous population is “tractable,” and the land is quickly gathered up by colonists. The narrator takes a job as a shepherd, and he fantasizes about pushing more deeply into the mountains, noting that farmers have tried settling in colder and higher portions of land recently. In the future, the narrator plans to cross into the more dangerous territories past his station, speculating that people may already live on the other side of the mountains.

As shearing time approaches, when the workers gather the wool from the sheep, the narrator notes that Chowbok, whose real name is Kahabuka, is a kind of “chief” in a local Indigenous group.