The extent of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s involvement in Journal of an African Cruiser is impossible to substantively prove. But an examination of both the original manuscript and the published Journal clearly demonstrates that Hawthorne made substantial edits and additions to Bridge’s journal. As Brancaccio states, “though much of the information on trade, slavery, and missionaries is based on Bridge’s observations and reading, the thematic organization and ironic and morally ambiguous point of view clearly betray Hawthorne’s hand” (33).
In a letter to Duckinck in 1845, Hawthorne states, “[Bridge] has given me pretty large license, I have remodeled the style, devolved his ideas where he failed to do so himself…and put on occasional patches of sentimental embroidery” (qtd. Brancaccio, 30-1). In a subsequent letter to Duyckinck, Hawthorne states, “My own share of [the writing] is so amalgamated with the substance of the work, that I cannot very well define” what was Bridge’s writing and what was his (qtd. Brancaccio, 31).
The gallery below contains the full text of a letter from Hawthorne to Bridge dated May 3, 1843. In the letter, Hawthorne advises his friend on the particulars of the travel narrative, and exhorts him to be thorough (but not too scrupulously factual) in his entries: “Allow your fancy pretty free license, and omit no heightening touches merely because they did not chance to happen before your eyes. If they did not happen, they at least ought – which is all that concerns you. This is the secret of all entertaining travelers.”
Journal of An African Cruiser 