1844 Wallis Game Map of South America: Wanderers in the Wilderness

This is Edward Wallis' striking 1844 gameboard and map of South America. The game encourages players to explore the flora and fauna of the continent, which the British public would have imagined as wild and untamed.

Gameplay

The game proceeds as a lottery, with players drawing numbers (1-8) from a bag. Each number is added to the previous number, encouraging the player to move forward through the game's 85 numbered locations. Each location corresponds with a textual description in the instruction booklet. The first player to land exatly on place 85 wins the game.

The game opens in Demerara, one of the three colonies that constituted British Guiana during the British colonial period. Upon arrival, the player is received by a plantation owner who introduces the estate and its operations. He remarks that he employs 'about two hundred negroes, who were formerly slaves, but I now pay them a regular wage; and find I am a gainer from the abolition of the old system,' reflecting the post-emancipation labor arrangements that emerged following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834. Advising the traveler on appropriate clothing for the tropical environment, he notes that footwear is unnecessary, since 'no burning sands as in Africa' and 'rocks are rare.' He concludes, 'a hat, a shirt and a pair of light trousers, will be all the clothing you will require.'

The traveler is accompanied by two Indigenous guides, who provide both sustenance and protection. Using traditional blow-pipes and arrows, they secure 'feathered game, venison, and wild pork, or beef' while also offering defense against local predators, including the 'treacherous Couguar or more ferocious and powerful Jaguar.'

As the journey progresses, the traveler is exposed to the region's exoticized natural world, emblematic of 19th-century colonial representations of South America. Notable encounters include the Coulacanara (16), a colossal snake said to have 'dined off a stag, the horns of which are sticking out of his mouth'; Vampire Bats (64), which 'attack travellers sleeping in the woods at night, and suck their blood, though without causing any pain. The effects have been however much exaggerated, as they have never known to produce death'; a particularly unsettling meal (77), during which 'the Indians bring the monkey they have shot, we will boil and have him for our dinner with some Cassava bread. His flesh is like kid, but the appearance of the dish is not prepossessing, it looks so much like a child'; the islands of Juan Fernandez, 'this is the island where Robinson Crusoe lived so many years. His real name was Alexander Selkirk. Whoever arrives here is shipwrecked, and must withdraw from the game'; and Lima, 'not yet recovered from the dreadful earthquake which in 1746 destroyed 5,000 of its inhabitants.'

Companion to 'Star Spangled Banner

Wanderers in the Wildernss is a companion to Wallis' Game of the Star-spangled Banner, which focuess on the United States. Both games capitalize on the allure and mystique of the Americas as lands of rough and ready adventure.

Publication History and Census

This game was engraved by John Henry Banks and published by Edward Wallis in 1844. We see 2 examples in OCLC: Princeton and the University of Guelph. Additional examples are noted at the Bodleian Library, British Library, Cambridge, Brown University, and Yale University.