Studia Suplement

Studia Universitatis Cibiniensis Series Historica
SUC.SH
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Department of History and Patrimony
VOLUME X / 2013 SUPPLEMENT STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS CIBINIENSIS

Series Historica
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Publishing House 2013
Editorial Board: Paul NIEDERMAIER, Ph.D., Corr esponding Member of Romanian Academy (The Institute of Socio-Human Research Sibiu, Romania) Konrad GNDISCH, Ph.D. (Bundesinstitut fr Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im stlichen Europa Oldenburg, Germany) Dennis DELETANT, Ph.D. (School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College of London, United Kingdom) Hans-Christian MANER, Ph.D. (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany) Florin CURTA, Ph.D. (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida, USA) Jiri MACHACEK, Ph.D. (Masaryk University of Brno, Czech Republic) BRDI Nndor, Ph.D. (Research Institute of National and Ethnic Minorities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary) Rainer SCHREG, Ph.D. (Rmisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, Germany)
Editorial Staff: Sorin RADU, Ph.D. Chief Editor Ioan Marian IPLIC, Ph.D. Sabin Adrian LUCA, Ph.D. Zeno Karl PINTER, Ph.D. Silviu Istrate PURECE, Ph.D. The Journal is indexed in BDI: EBSCO, Index Copernicus and CEEOL. http://istorie.ulbsibiu.ro/studia/index.html
ISSN 1584-3165 Address for correspondence Department of History and Patrimony 550024 SIBIU, Victoriei Street, no. 5-7, tel.: + 40269 214468, int. 105; fax: + 40269 214468 Silviu Istrate PURECE E-mail: redactie_studia@yahoo.com; silviu.purece@ulbsibiu.ro
External and Internal Travel Representations from Pre-Modernity until the 20th Century
Edited by
Mihaela Grancea
Contenst
FOREWORD (Mihaela GRANCEA).... Ramona-Mihaela PETRIOR Memorial Tourism and the History Textbook Solutions for Solving the Memory Equation . 9
13
Alexandru Gh. SONOC Georg Schuller, a Transylvanian Traveler to South Africa and Dutch East Indies (1696-1699)
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Mihaela GRANCEA Antiques from Transylvania and Banat in Relation of the 18th Century Western Travelers ..
81
Virgiliu BRLDEANU Configuring New Imperial Spaces through the Realms of Memory. The Journey Notes of a Russian Traveller from the End of the 18th Century .....
85
Bogdan-Vlad VTAVU Imagined and Real Bandits. Robbers and Hajduks in the Travel Literature of the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries concerning the Romanian Countries . 99
Maria DANILOV Bessarabia in the Memoirs of the Russian Traveler V.L. Dedlov (XIXth Century) .
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Studia Universitatis Cibiniensis. Series Historica, vol. 10-2013, p. 7-8
CONTENST
Queeny PRADHAN Representation and Contestation: Hills in Colonial Imagination (Simla, Darjeeling, Ootacamund and Mount Abu, 1820-1920) ...
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Radu TEUCEANU The Image of Interwar Poland in the Book Pologne, Pologne... by Oliver dEtchegoyen ...
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Valeria SOROTINEANU A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Year of Our Lord 1925 ...
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Diana CRCIUN Metropole: Berlin, Rome, Paris through the Eyes of a Romanian Writer (Liviu Rebreanu) .
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Foreword
Starting from the concept lieux de memoire1 of the French theorist Pierre Nora, which describes the artificial landscape of the modern (re)creation of national memory and culture, travel literature brings into sight new dimensions in terms of identity construction of modern Europe. Due to technological improvements, travel has become cultural tourism. This privileged practice of our time succeeds in its modus vivendi, translated and sent in travel journals, to capture the visible signs of history (artifacts, monuments, maps, historical documents, landscapes) to harvest memory, which then would underpin European awareness. This literature (memoirs, letters, fiction, cartographical documents used in symbolical geography) is relevant depending on the degree to which it participates, along with the components of the identity discourse, to the construction of its image as a centre point for mutual, divergent or competitive identity projects. The analysis of the images and imagery inferences reflects attitudes towards the historical past, institutions, public space, memorial places, nature, social-cultural events upon which regional solidarities and/ or national sentiments were grounded. In modernity, the economic urban growth, the revolutionary transportation and access facilities resulted into unprecedented geo-cultural mobility. In this context, traveling implied new outcomes, cultural tourism contributed to the construction of a modern European identity. It established new places of memory, as well as the geography where these were contextualized. Romanian travelers also discovered history, sought cultural and political recognition, and made cultural landscapes of the spaces visited (see especially the cult of ruins, as well as the ethnographic landscape), while developing a real passion for giving an account of their experience at the same time (see the diversity of genres in travel literature). Travelers always felt compelled to compare to confront at all times the images of their originar space with the representations about the world abroad. It is not only the need for reference that imposes the above mentioned imagologic exercise, but also the approach relating to the improvement of the image of the country; thus, actually, through the language of antitheses is suggested the stringency of the institutional reform, or are argued, through the theories of similarity, the identity elements derived from a common historical core. Romantics manifested a strong interest for the perfume of the past a preference for the spectacular dramatization of the past, the exotic and symbolic geographies, the reaffirmation of the cult of ruins (from the perspective of the reflections upon the decay of the present and less as a result of incentives from an Enlightenment-encyclopedic source). The presents mediocrity, helplessness and failures were balanced by valuing the past as a space of fulfilled axiology, as the
1
Places of memory; see also Greg Dickinson, Carole Blair & Brian L. Ott (Editors), Places of Public Memory. The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2010).
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FOREWORD
golden age. Imagining the past as a time of authenticity and a source of legitimacy is constructed through apology, through representations with an emotional impact, implicitly imagology. The sublimation of the common historical past is achieved. It was believed that the cultural model must be recovered in order to legitimate the identity projects, and recovery could only be fulfilled only by rediscovery and reinvention. The motive of decadence (barbarous past, seventeen centuries of bitter, unhappiness) and of the Others responsibility (the invading neighbors, the wars) would be repeated in the 19th Century products of national culture, becoming a historiographic clich, a commonly used identity stereotype exemplifying self victimization and defensive as elements of self-image. While preserving a primarily interdisciplinary feature, the researches in this volume apply an imagological perspective to the travel literature, the manner in which it contributes to the construction of representations of institutions, identities, and emotional reactions, regional and national solidarities, as consequences of our societys modernisation. In short, we attempt to analyse the representations (concepts, images, public rituals, and symbols) that reflect, preserve and legitimate collective attitudes and behaviours regarding the political and identity projects of the epoch, of the Other (the European) as a reference system. Our scientific interest is determined by the challenging theoretical debates referring to identity structures and the historically determined ethnic-cultural otherness; the complex relation between the identity construction and the perception of the otherness represents otherwise a constant of scientific interrogation. Due to their social-cultural background as well as to their also being the products of an accepted cultural model, the travellers become agents of inter-cultural contacts, elements that transmit and perpetuate explanatory stereotypes, historically determined by the level of knowing the Other, by the contextual events that may affect (if we refer to tensioned episodes and/or conflicts) mutual acquaintance, feeding or preventing hostility stereotypes, prior to inter-communitarian relations. Travellers are influenced by the cultural heritage of their original environment, the symbolic geographies of the time, their readings previous to the journey (their previous documenting, this a priori knowledge, together with the inherited imagology was the source for the "loan" of ethnic-cultural stereotypes, of conscious representations), their own cultural and political education, their social status and gender, their faith, the local informants, the context of the journey. The dominants within the journey typology that we have studied are the pragmatic journey, leisure tourism, the scientific journey and the political-pedagogical one (see particularly the internal journey generating mutual images). We also approach these sources from the perspective offered by Pierre Nora as places of memory (lieux de mmoire) which allow the clotting and ass erting of representations specific to collective memory; by resorting to such places individuals and communities can identify and self-legitimate themselves. The representations of the journey help us to restore the channels for stereotype and clich cir culation, as well as the stages of identity projects building. During the post-1848 period, the idea of patrimony as a manifestation of the historical character of the ethnos begins to have
FOREWORD
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an important significance (it includes various sensibilities, practices, institutions, clichs: the cult of ruins, of the antiquity, the idea of conservation and restoration of monuments, the sanctification of the public space, the issue of urbanity as a stake for civilizing and identity affirmation, imposing the pantheon cemetery as a space of cultural and national identity, etc.). The use of texts essential elements in the formation of ethno-cultural images can cause discussions related to the problem of intertextualism, i.e. the cultural authenticity of certain documents of imagology, which are considered as landmarks for some collective perceptions. Usually, in a system of imagologic information, an imagology text is intended to describe the stranger according to cultural and political necessities of those times. The programmed character of the text that has imagologic information lead to the artificial generalization of the Other (that is, he gets a singular dimension), to the vehicular of images that at a time predetermine the contact with the stranger in a cultural area; even a dialogue as contact bears the burden of this mediation (or cultural predetermination). Occasionally or when they do modern exercises of self-imagining, travellers practice embracing of stereotype images of their neighbors. Often, the most popular stereotypes hetero-stereotypse and auto/self-stereotypes are multi-stereotypes, they are more complex representations coming from a multitude of data and images provided by different authors in different times of history. The outlining of the traits of other (ness) is made by means of an express or implied counterweight toward the image of itself. Many times, comparisons with the otherness hypostasis take place indirectly, turning to ethno-images that circulate in the European culture. A nation often represents a dual (bipolar) image, containing extremes. The antagonism derives from reality itself, from political options and from connections (or from their absence) between communities involved in the imagologic practice. There it was not only the necessity for reference who implied the aforementioned imagologic practice, but the approach which belonged to an improvement of the homeland image, too; thus, by language of antitheses, they suggested the strong necessity of an institutional reform or, by theories of sameness, they argued elements of identity which would come from a common historical source (in this manner, they keep alive the conscience of a common historical descent). These representations imply interference between self-images and hetero-images (see the cult of original fatherland, the cult of antic and medieval city as artifact of a lost history). The ticklishness of our activity is related to the complexity of projects issues, which requires prudence in methodological demarche (travel literature is glaringly subjective, it offers successive and heteronymous images, which were many times ready-made, anachronistic, accessible by momentary fancies or models, by Occidental experiences, by intern travels and by literature itself). In addition, it is problematical the matching of positivist inquiry (which is intended to editing documents of travel literature) with interdisciplinary inquiries that varied representations (occurring due to political and cultural evolutions) require. As regards methodology, we have to mention that the imagologic analysis in the studies from this volume took account of some side issues: a. the amount of partiality
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FOREWORD
in these sources; b. which affection (and which cultural, historical and institutional categories) germinates the refresher of the travel: picturesque, melancholia, the motive of fortuna labilis, history/historicity, the sense of anteriority, that of authenticity? Does travel create the desire to following the Other, in order to build (through competence and performance) a modern society? c. what kind of images of time bears the travelers movement in space? We allude especially to the anachronism of certain representations, to contradictions between the chronology of monuments, their placement and the random order in which they are visited. Also, as a case, in spite of the closeness of Romanian provinces with Italy, the values of the Roman antiquity have been discovered indirectly, from Occidentals, and less at first hand; d. how did they understand visited monuments: historically, as vestige of a glorious past; politically, as bearing public space; esthetically, as incomparable everlasting masterworks? e. how do we discriminate the travelers present from what he chose as past, in order to explain and legitimate his present as consequence of a paramount past? f. taking account of their previous readings, is it truth the fact that the travelers left home (or have they adhered to their own preconceptions/ stereotypes of the Occident)? g. in which manner the Eastern travelers crisis of identity manifests, when he thinks that he has retrieved his identity in the West. Does he try to occidentalizing his original socio-cultural and politic space? There is also a study exploring the themes of hills in colonial imagination, images of mini-England in the hills, community identity and the hill space as a liminal zone. The central argument is that there was a conscious effort on the part of the colonizers, during their stay in India, to create another home away from the real actual one (England), which led to the marginalization of local people and the erasure of their past history, snapping their association with the land. Instead, there was reproduction of Imperial spaces, which is closely aligned with expanding forces of capitalism and modernity in the 19th and 20th century. It also questions the popular colonial construct that hills in India were discovered by the British travelers and army officers. The argument is supported by the corpus of Indian folk narratives and mythologies existing prior to the British colonization, which challenges hills as terra incognito, as asserted by the British. The article ends by exploring traces of resistance by the hill people, reconstructed through oral narratives of the local people in contemporary times, which have not been represented in the official history of the hills. Mihaela GRANCEA
Memorial Tourism and the History Textbook Solutions for Solving the Memory Equation Ramona-Mihaela PETRIOR1
Keywords: memory, history textbook, memorial tourism, memory retrieval through education Abstract: The weight that memory holds within contemporary intellectual efforts undertaken on the socio-cultural realm reflects the need to find the balance between conviction through memory and healing through truth, reveals current priorities and is an expression of the expectations horizon for those who perceive it as a constant in a world of rapid changes and loss of identity. This paper proposes a reading of memory through memorial tourism and through the history textbook, respectively. Memorial tourism provides history with an opportunity to be narrated by symbolic spaces places of memory. They are more than artistic manifestos: they are history messengers installed in contemporary times. The history textbook revolves around the words of Aristotle learning means remembering and presents memory turned into history, contributes to the formation of genuine axiological consciousnesses and behaviours, the creation of citizens who show willingness to become involved in the life of the city, who can and want to give a positive meaning to their presence in the world, attempts to trigger - as emphasized by Mihaela Grancea - long term beneficial feelings and attitudes. It can be considered to be one of the colours of hope. Among the demarches developed in the realm of muse Clio we notice the one aimed at deciphering the memory equation, identifying the optimum ratio between memory fidelity and historical truth, but also the avoidance as requested by Paul Ricoeur of both the deficiency as well as the surplus of memory (not too much memory in one place and too much forgetfulness in another). Of the specific terminology arsenal in the field of memory, noteworthy is the concept of places of memory theorized by Pierre Nora which stands for a mix of emotions, information and identities, equivalent to a milestone in becoming (Ovidiu Pecican), this is the recommended antidote for cases of individual or collective amnesia. It is the software2 by means of which individuals and communities operate. Its double position - reminder and warning turns it also into a message bearer, a
1
Independena Technical College, Sibiu, Romania (poparamir@yahoo.com).
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Ramona-Mihaela PETRIOR
lessons proposer, as well as a starting point for reflections. The places of memory have the capacity to set time and to range within the frames set by Walter Benjamin the past is the present of memory or by Saint Augustine respectively memory is the present of the past. The components of memory architecture (memorials, monuments, places of recollection, museums) ensure the material hypostasis of memory, they are obstacles to prevent forgetfulness, they are witnesses and arguments that combine past, present, heritage, teaching and revolve around the words of Baudelaire yesterday, tomorrow, always, shows us our image (Le voyage). Interpretative schemes related to turning the past into conventional products and practices to the place held by memory architecture in the public curriculum, to its significance for identity design are in a position to attest that beyond the position of artistic manifestos, spaces of remembrance protect memory from the erosive effects of time, confer durability and ensure its intergenerational transmissibility3. The journey occasions the exploration of active past samples4, facilitates the discursive (re)construction of memory places (emblems of destiny and milestones of value, morality, didactics), offers the possibility to map certain societal existences/ experiences and can turn far into near, the unknown into known. It ensures the meeting between the me and the other viewed through the otherness scale. Framed by the yesterday and today time frames, the journey recalls memory, trying to recover the nuances of feeling and thinking, investigates the registers of existence of the remembered events turning them into study materials. Facet of cultural tourism (modern version of the mythical journey of initiation, soft European practice of knowledge journeys which enshrines both memory places as well as the geography in which they are contextualized5) the journey triggers the capacity for retrospective rationalization, invites to a cognitive journey, mobilizes the necessary intellectual energies necessary for surveying the vestiges of the past perceived in terms of their intrinsic value but also on the way of capitalizing on them by the inheritor community. Reinstated through commemorative practices, memory places, synthesis between emotional valences, catharsis, the weight of questions raised by new generations, it enables the passing beyond the barbed wire of memory (Gina erbnescu) and ensures the meeting with a way for expressing the present but sometimes also with an outbreak of the past on the stage of the present of a past forgotten, repressed, insufficiently supported by the actions of remembrance or by memory bearing groups.6
Florin Abraham, Istoriografie i memorie social n Romnia dup 1989 . Yearbook of the Institute of History George Bari, LI (2012), 148. 3 Mihai Stelian Rusu, Sociopsihologia memoriei colective: un exerciiu de (macro) teoretizare, in SocioPsychological Studies, edited by P. Ilu (Cluj-Napoca: Cluj University Press, 2011), 67-90. 4 Drago Sdrobi, Cum s nvm s deconstruim trecutul nvat cndva , Observatorul cultural, 653, 2012. 5 Ioana Bot, Locuri de memorie, Dilema Veche, 231, 2008. 6 Jean-Charles Szurek, Pentru o memorie democratic a trecuturilor traumatizante, in Recent History in Europe. Study Subjects, Sources, Methods (New Europe College, 2000), 56-57.
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Memorial Tourism and the History Textbook
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Correspondence between memory and its places (memory tools, but also genuine memory deposits and expression bearing concepts) is emphasized also through memorial tourism (this shows that tourism is not just about visiting beautiful places, about delighting ones taste buds with elements specific to local cuisine and about being a pleasant way to spend leisure time; but visiting the memory destinations speaks of healing demarches relevant to memorys capacity to live). There, on the spot, discursive and cultural resources make the transition from history to remembrance and from remembrance to commemoration, reinforcing memory visibility and transforms memory places into texts of history7. On the map of memory places there are also traumatic 8 and dark9 tourist destinations (cemeteries, places where battles took place, war memorials give shape to and strengthen public memory). Souvenirs that can be purchased there together with vehicles of memory (books, movies, songs) are dedicated to them and are a form of memory marketing, and the public commemorations that have them as subject are a way to make history visible to the general public. They are a sign of respect for those of yesterday and lessons for those of today. Those components of remembrance are nothing but funeral metaphors, reminders of the past and preservations of the memory of an absence (Andi Mihalache). They are embodiments of historical events, voices of historical continuity, elements that give meaning both to the historical time they refer to and to the spaces they are built in10. A place of collective memory is represented by the history textbook, as well. In its pages the phrase learning through remembrance reveals the relationship that a society has with the past, it reflects how the present was reconciled with the past, talks about the construction, representation, accountability of memory and facilitates
Cristian Tileag, Analiza discursului i reconcilierea cu trecutul recent (studii de psihologie social discursiv), (Oradea: Primus Publishing House, 2012), 48. 8 A place of remembrance of a past trauma can be found in Grunewald district of Berlin, as well. The surface subway station has a platform for an end of line from which practically one cannot go anywhere. The monument, called Gleis 17 (line 17), is a reminder of the fact that this is where the deportation of Jews began. Contemporaneity has moved the architecture of remembrance from the space itself (e.g. concentration camps, mass execution isolated locations) towards the public space of significant cities at European level\worldwide. This situation invests remembrance architecture componentswith the quality of public space in itself, but also with that of element of remembrance and anamnesis mechanism. This is the case of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin or of that in Yad Vaschem a highlight of memory architecture of the Holocaust. See Ioan Augustin, 2010. 9 Dark tourism is a generic term for travel associated with death, atrocity, disaster (it was used in 1996 by Malcolm Foley and John Lennon for International Journal of Heritage Studies and popularized in 2000 by the same authors in the book Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster). Part of recreational itineraries endowed with educational and commemorative touches, accessed by morbid curiosity, situated at the confluence of touristic experience and touristic representation of death, dark tourism acts as a guardian both of history and social morality [see in this regard the work of Philip R. Stone, Dark Tourism: Towards a New Post-Disciplinary Research Agenda, in International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, vol. 1, 3/4 (2011), 318-332 and A Dark Tourism Spectrum: Towards a Typology of Death and Macabre Related Tourists Sites. Attractions and Exhibition, in Tourism, vol. 54, 2 (2006)]. 10 Mihaela Grancea, Moartea n comunism, Cultura, 89, 2007.
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the exploration of attitudes, sensitivities, experiences and human becoming. It cooperates with memory as a form of knowledge, contributes to the merger of the past with the present, it legitimizes the past, helping it survive and facilitates its reading. It represents a milestone in the construction of (re) remembrance which is a moral duty, as Paul Ricoeur emphasizes in revealing the existing relation between trauma, memory, representation, education and the attempt to answer the interrogations on how relevant is the past?, which should be its weight on the stage of the present? It ensures the transformation of information into acquisition; it recharges semantically cultural traces, fights against perishability11. It recovers memory by means of education. History textbook pages contain sequences specific to anamnestic solidarities (term proposed by historian Dan Diner) which are able to ensure the continuity of experience between the generation that experienced a trauma and the one who learned about it. It is a recovery in words of what was once shrouded in silence. Besides the learning functionalities, history textbooks launched on the Romanian educational post-revolutionary market break the narcissistic and omissional speech of the unique textbook and propose redefining, from the perspective of the historical memory of the recent past the call to community memory, to exile memory, memory of former political prisoners, to the memory of intellectuals of the time, the memory of Hebrew, German and Roma communities12. To achieve this goal we appeal to both travel impressions in places of memory (form of literary confession) as well as to elements specific to the literature of confessions (autobiographies, diaries, private correspondence). Suffering exercises transposed inside book covers fulfil, in addition to the rehabilitation function, a therapeutic one, as well. They are a way of unloading, of liberation. They become a place where time memory rests. But they also have an educational purpose, providing real examples of resistance and human dignity. They are slices of lived history, existential loops and sounding in the geography of inwardness. These are recollections provoked in order to awaken the best from within the human being and to minimize negative trends that exist in each individual13, because the approach of ones own past is part of ones own present; because to remember actually means to have a memory; also because beyond promoting the pedagogy of truth and the value options settled in educational discourses (Vladimir Tismneanu) lays the man which must be helped to find the way. Whatever the perspective (literary, historical, sociological, philosophical, etc.), memoirs have in common restorative objectives (Silvian Iosifescu), the restitutive finality (Henri Zalis), the testimonial nature (Alexander Paleologu). Going beyond the demands of conventions, memoiristic texts remain permanently valid by their
Cristina Bogdan, Cum poi ine n via patrimoniul? Rspunsul unui manual colar, Cultura, 401, 2012. 12 Mihaela Grancea, Cine rmne din istorie? Ce rmne din istorie?, Cultura, 72, 2005. 13 Carmen Neamu, Nu te da btut i triete cu poft! (lecia lui Vladimir Bukovski) , Arca, XXIV, 12-3/274-275-276, 2013.
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documentary nature, be they historical documents, existential or breathings/trembling of the soul14. The history textbook also launches an invitation to an atypical voyage in which the guide is history which causes memory to become testimony, the history that permeates the structures of individual/collective destiny, the history that appeals to conscience to accurately assess the human and moral point of view. This shows the need to look in the rear-view mirror, precisely to be able to go forward. This calls for reflection on humanity, society, on the responsibility as universal citizens, the understanding of events whose echo is prolonged in their own daily life, but also to the realization of the fact that history is not written outside of ones own person.
Iulia Pop, Etic i estetic n mrturiile asupra deteniei comuniste. Narcisismul istoriei, Lykeion, 1 2009, 73.
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Georg Schuller, a Transylvanian Traveler to South Africa and Dutch East Indies (1696-1699) Alexandru Gh. SONOC1
Keywords: Georg Schuller von Schulenberg, travelogue, Cape Colony, Dutch East Indies, exotic peoples Abstract: Georg Schuller (aprox. 1670 - after 1742), the author of the oldest known travelogue written by a Transylvanian on South Africa and in Southeast Asia, is known not only for his spirit of adventure and his interest in the most diverse realities from distant regions (plants, animals, traditions, forms of social organization, social relations, public administration), but also for his reflections about what he saw and details that only a careful reader could apprehend, through an analysis whose key is the issue of Otherness. Such an approach also allows the reader to access the intellectual world of the author, a moderate and tolerant evangelical Christian. His conservative religious and political views, as well as his education were typical for the Transylvanian Saxon bourgeoisie of his period. He was familiar with the imagery of the Medieval bestiaries, with the works of the most famous poets and historians of the Greek and Roman Antiquity, but also with the Baroque discourse about cultural otherness and mores, as well as with narratives about the countries at the end of the - then known - world and the peoples who inhabited them.
The travelogues written by Hungarian or German travelers from current Romania (not only Transylvania) who visited different regions of Asia and Africa have not yet been sufficiently studied by local historical researchers, although most of these travelers produced extensive stories about the places they visited and made a contribution not only to the increasing of the museum collections, but also to a better understanding of the nature of these exotic places, as well as of the culture of the indigenous peoples inhabiting them and the cultural interaction with the European settlers. Generally, the travelogues particularly those written before the late 19th century, when the ethnology was established as an autonomous discipline were regarded as having a lower documentary value2 and occupying an intermediate zone between the scientific literature itself and a confirming, sentimental literary periphery3. However, they contain a lot of interesting information on the perception
1
2
Brukenthal National Museum Sibiu, Romania (sandysonoc@yahoo.com). Maria Bozan, Cltori transilvneni n Orient n secolul al XIX -lea: Franz Binder, Andreas Breckner, Samuel Fenichel, Studii i comunicri de etnologie, 19 (2005): 73. 3 Jean Copans, Introducere n etnologie i antropologie (Iai: Editura Polirom, 1999), 32.
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Alexandru Gh. SONOC
of otherness, some of which is difficult to find in other sources, less exploited from this point of view. In the current stage of the research, the oldest writing which resulted from the contact of a Transylvanian with the culture of an Asian people is the very first known work of aTransylvanian author, the Tractatus de moribus, condictionibus et nequicia Turcorum, dated earlier than 1475-1476 and written by a Dominican monk, Georgius de Hungaria, better known as The Transylvanian Prisoner (Captivus Septemcastrensis), The Friar of Sebe (Frater Schebeschensis) or, more commonly, but perhaps with less reason, as The Student of Romos, according to the birth place of its author, a young Transylvanian Saxon (apparently named Johannes Kloor), who was captured in 1438 in Sebe, during the campaign led by Sultan Murad II and spent 20 years as a slave in Asia Minor 4. The above mentioned paper, which enjoyed a great success at that time (having many Latin editions and translations into German, including one in 1530 with a foreword written by Martin Luther), contains valuable information of ethnological nature about the 15th century Ottoman society and, because it is also the first book in which Turkish texts are written in Latin alphabet, it has a great value for the Oriental linguistics5. Until the first half of the 19th century, when Sndor Krsi Csoma and Johann Martin Honigberger lived, no other Transylvanian who enjoyed a similar fame, due to the experience of a direct cultural contact with the Asian peoples, is known. Sndor Krsi Csoma (1784-1842) - a Szkely philologist interested in studying the origin of the Hungarians - left in 1819 in an expedition to Central Asia, where he reached the Hindukush Mountains and was accepted in 1823 in the Buddhist monastery of Zanskar, where he studied the Tibetan language and Buddhism,. This determined him to make two trips to Tibet in 1827-1834, as a fellow of the British government 6.
4
Alexandru Gh. Sonoc and Oltea Dudu, Un presupus tezaur de denari parvi de la Sigismund de Luxemburg din colecia dr. Mauksch i cteva consideraii cu privire la campania din Transilvania a sultanului Murad II (1438) i la reflectarea ei n izvoarele scrise, in: Moned i comer n Sud-Estul Europei, 2 (2008), editor Sabin Adrian Luca (Sibiu: Editura ALTIP, 2008), 158-159. 5 About Georgius de Hungaria and his work: Aurel Decei, Informaiile istorice ale lui Captivus Septemcastrensis, Anuarul Institutului de Istorie din Cluj, 7 (1936-1938) [1939], 685-93; Bernhard Capesius, Die Persnlichkeit und das Leben des Ungenannten Mhlbchers, Deutsche Forschungen im Sdosten. Zeitschrift des Forschungsinstitutes der Deutschen Volksgruppe in Rumnien, 2/4 (1943), 57699; Carl Gllner, Der Tractatus de ritu et moribus Turcorum des Ungenannter Mhlbchers, Deutsche Forschungen im Sdosten. Zeitschrift des Forschungsinstitutes der Deutschen Volksgruppe in Rumnien, 2/4 (1943), 600-34; Bern. Capesius and Carl Gllner, Der Ungenannte Mhlbcher. Leben und Werk (Sibiu/Hermannstadt: 1944); Theobald Streitfeld, Wer war der Autor des Tractatus de ritu et moribus Turcorum, Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde, 16/2 (1973), 26-36; Francisc Pall, Identificarea lui Captivus Septemcastrensis, Revista de Istorie, 27/1 (1974), 97-105; Sonoc and Dudu, Un presupus tezaur de denarii parvi, 158-163. 6 About the activity of Sndor Krsi Csoma: Theodore Duka, Life and Works of Alexander Csoma de Krs: A Biography Compiled Chiefly from Hitherto to Unpublished Data. With a Brief Notice of Each of his unpublished Works and Essays, as well as of his Still Extant Manuscripts (London: Trbner & Co., 1885); Hirendra Nath Mukerjee, Hermit-Hero from Hungary, Alexander Csoma de Koros, the Great Tibetologist (New Delhi: Light & Lite Publishers, 1981); Edward Fox, The Hungarian Who Walked to Heaven (Alexandre Csoma de Koros 1784-1842) (London: Short Books, 2001).
Georg Schuller, a Transylvanian Traveler to South Africa
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Through his five expeditions to Central Asia and India (1819-1829), the physician Johann Martin Honigberger (1795-1869) from Braov - a promoter of the homeopathic doctrine in India and enthusiastic researcher of the local flora (especially of that of pharmaceutical interest) - also managed to collect an interesting ethnographic material7. G. Schullers travelogues remained unknown until 1867, when it was published in Archiv des Vereines fr Siebenburgische Landeskunde8 by Gustav Seiwert (18201875), a Senator of Sibiu, following the original manuscript entitled Journal, oder Reisebeschreibung durch die nordische, atlantische, thiopische, meridionalische und indianische See, nach Ostindien gehaltet und verrichtet von Georgio Schuler Cibin. Transil. Ab anno 1696 usque 1699 owned by Karl von Hannenheim. It is a very interesting work, but not so much for the information it provides (because the realities to which it refers are often known from more valuable sources and are sometimes inaccurate, being taken from other sources), but for revealing the perception of a late 17th century Transylvanian traveller on distant people and places. Obviously, it is the oldest narrative preserved of a Transylvanian who traveled to the Dutch East Indies, although (the author confessed in his work) he was not the first Transylvanian to arrive there, as he met two other compatriots 9. Also, he was already informed, before his arrival to Java, about the presence in Batavia of the student A. Pinxner, who had been a soldier there for a few years 10. Knowing this, one can assume that this could have implied the existence of a correspondence between the two or at least between A. Pinxner and his relatives from Transylvania, which G. Schuller might have contacted before leaving his country as a travelling journeyman. G. Schullers reference to one his own letters sent from Batavia on 30 January 1698 t o his parents and about which he subsequently found out that it had reached Transylvania11 also supports the hypothesis of the existence of such an early correspondence between the Dutch East Indies and Transylvania. The fact that such early travels to the Far East and the correspondence between the Dutch East Indies and Transylvania were possible - as well as the very idea of writing a travel account describing the adventures of a Transylvanian who was able to travel so far suggest that in Transylvania the middle class people already showed a certain interest in the exotic countries and in the problem of the colonial expansion in
7
Robert Sigala, Johann Martin Honigberger, mdecin et aventurier de Asie (Paris: Harmattan, 2003). During the lifetime of J. M. Honigberger, his travel narrative was published at first in German: Johann Martin Honigberger, Frchte aus dem Morgenlande oder Reise- Erlebnisse nebst naturhistorischmedizinischen Erfahrungen, einigen hundert erprobten Arzneimitteln und einer neuen Heilart, dem Medial- Systeme (Wien: Carl Gerold und Sohn, 1851). Later was published also an English, shorter version: John Martin Honigberger, Thirty-Five Years in the East. Adventures, Discoveries, Experiments and Historical Sketches, Relating to the Punjab and Cashmere; in Connection with Medicine, Botany, Pharmacy &c. (London: H. Baillire, 1852). 8 Georg Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java in den Jahren 1696-1699 (mitgeteilt von Gustav Seiwert), Archiv des Vereines fr Siebenbrgische Landeskunde, neue Folge, 8/1 (1867), 1-82. 9 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 61-62, 81. 10 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 61. 11 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81.
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these areas, as well as in the different economic, political and cultural aspects associated to it. Unlike the writings of his Moldovian contemporary, Swordbearer Nicolae Milescu (1636-1708) who led in 1675-1678 an embassy of Tsar Aleksej I (1645-1676) to China12 , which can be considered an expression of the interest of the Russian official circles towards Siberia and China, G. Schullers work is neither an official document, nor a travelogue aimed to present a distant country to the official circles. More likely, it was written as a testimony about an unusual adventure, which could hardly be repeated by his compatriots, as well as for the delight of his family and close friends. G. Schuller, who later became an engraver of medals in the Sibiu and Alba Iulia mints, is nowadays almost completely forgotten, and his biography is very little known13. Although when he traveled to the Dutch East Indies he was just a travelling goldsmith journeyman, his account on the city of Batavia (1619) is so detailed that can be verified by examining the 17th century city maps, such as those drawn by Clement de Jonghe (1650) and especially that published by Arnoldus Montanus (1669), in his work on the Dutch East Indies (fig. 1)14. Also, his accounts on the stopover he made in the Cape Colony and about the lifestyle of the European settlers and of the Hottentots are also valuable, because they reflect the anthropological and geographical perceptions of a late 17th century Transylvanian. Considering the founding date of the city of Batavia (1619), respectively, of the Cape Colony (1652), the importance of this information is even greater, because it belongs to an early period of the European colonial presence there.
12
About the life and work of Swordbearer N. Milescu: mile Picot, Notice biographique et bibliographique sur Nicolas Spatar Milescus, ambass adeur du tsar Alexis Mihajlovi en Chine (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1883); I. N. Mihajlovskij, (Kiev: 1895); D. T. Ursul, (Moskva: , 1980). Editions of Romanian translations of Swordbearers N. Milescu travel accounts: Nicolae Milescu -Sptaru, Jurnal de cltorie n China, ed. and transl. Corneliu Brbulescu ([Bucureti]: Editura pentru Literatur, 1962); Nicolaie Milescu Sptarul, Descrierea Chinei, ed. Corneliu Brbulescu ([Bucureti]: Editura de Stat pentru Literatur i Art, 1958). 13 Goerg Schuller is not mentioned at all in the most recent work concerning the Transylvanians which reached actual Indonesia, which begins with Ilie Mitrea and ends with the prisoners belonging to the Austrian-Hungarian army who were captured in the governorate of Omsk by the Japanese troups during the intervention in Siberia and were used as slaves in the factories and yards from Java and Borneo, see Liviu Borda, Rzboiul, Borneo i ardelenii. Noi date despre romnii ajuni n Orientul ndeprtat, Revista Istoric, 21/1-2 (2010), 95-100. 14 Arnoldus Montanus, Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in 't Vereenigde Nederland, aen de Kaisaren van Japan: Vervatende Wonderlyke voorvallen op de Togt der Nederlandtsche Gesanten: Beschryving Van de Dorpen, Sterkten, Steden, Landtschappen, Tempels, Godsdiensten, Dragten, Gebouwen, Dieren, Gewasschen, Bergen, Fonteinen, vereeuwde en nieuwe Oorlogsdaaden der Japanders. (Amsterdam: Jacob Meurs, 1669).
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1. Georg Schullers Biography In 1904, L. Forrer knew about Georg Schuler (sic!) only the fact that he was a Transylvanian embosser, around the year 171015. More recent authors state that Georg Schuller was a medal engraver at Sibiu, at least between 1700 and until, at least, 1709171116. I think that he could be most likely identified with the goldsmith Georg Schuller, who since he was released from apprenticeship in 1693 by the master Georg Hossmann from Sibiu (mentioned in documents starting with 1661 and deceased in 1699) allegedly started his apprenticeship in 168917. Also mentioned sometimes as Schullerus (the Latinized form of his name), Georg Schuller (on whom we have limited biographical data) became a master on the 5th of June 1700, still having to pay the charge of 17 Rhineland florins and 16 dinars. After he paid these amounts (solvit), he had also to pay a fee of 25 Rhineland florins, for the so-called master banquet, before it had taken place (item erlegt vor Groe Mahl 25 Rfl.)18. As a goldsmith journeyman, he traveled in 1696 from Hamburg to Amsterdam and as a soldier in the United East Indian Company ( Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) he traveled to the Dutch East Indies19, visiting also on this occasion the Cape Colony, during a stopover in South Africa. According to his own account, the reason of this was not the desire to gather wealth, but the spirit of adventure and his desire to know those remote regions, similarly to the two Transylvanian Theology students: an acquaintance of him, Andreas Pinxner (also a soldier in the Company, whom he met in Batavia in 1697 20 and who accompanied him on the return journey in 1698-169921) and Johannes Bekesch, the son of the priest of Bgaciu/ Bogeschdorf (about whose presence there Schuller found out from his previously mentioned fellow traveller)22. Given the fact that at the time he traveled to the Dutch East Indies, the author of the travelogue was a goldsmith journeyman23 with enough experience to be appreciated both on the ship on which he traveled24 and in Batavia25 the rareness of
15
L. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists. Coin-, Gem- and Seal-Engravers, Mint-Masters, &c., Ancient and Modern with References to Their Works B. C. 500 A. D. 1900 (London: Spink & Son Ltd, 1904), vol. II, 322. 16 Huszr, Lajos, Pap, Ferenc and Winkler, Judit, Erdlyi remmvessg a 16-18. szzadban (Bucureti: Editura Kriterion, 1996), 122. 17 Daniela Dmboiu, Breasla aurarilor din Sibiu ntre secolele XV-XVII (Sibiu: Editura ALTIP, 2008), 150. 18 Dmboiu, Breasla aurarilor din Sibiu, 152. 19 Adolf Resch, Siebenbrgische Mnzen und Medaillen (Hermannstadt: Ausschu des Vereins fr Siebenbrgische Landeskunde, 1901), 229; Joseph Trausch, Schriftsteller- Lexikon oder biographischliterrische Denk- Bltter der Siebenbrger Deutschen (Kronstadt: Verlag von Johann Gtt & Sohn Heinrich, 1871), vol. III, 240; cf. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java. 20 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 61. 21 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81. 22 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 61-62. 23 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 1. 24 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 36. 25 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 63.
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his references to this craft in the regions he visited is surprising. These references concern only Java and are limited to simply mentioning the Muslim jewelers of Indian origin who exercised their craft in Batavia26 and to the observation that there are good earning opportunities for the jewelers there, due to the abundance of gold and precious stones27. Therefore, it is difficult to assess the professional impact of Schullers direct contact with the Asian goldsmithing28. The fact that G. Schuller was not mentioned in the Sibiu goldsmiths guild financial records is not surprising, because during the 17 th-18th century the goldsmith handicraft activities and those of a mint manager were separate activities, and the mint used only exceptionally the services of the goldsmiths. Another explanation might be Schullers departure from Sibiu to Alba Iulia/ Karlsburg, although after a while it seems that he returned to Sibiu, where he again worked in the mint. Later, between 1725-1739, he was a royal judge in Miercurea Sibiului/ Reumarkt (position from which he resigned on 13th of February 1739), and on the 4th of August 1742 he was knighted by Maria Theresia, receiving the noble title von Schulenberg29. According to Michael Conrad von Heidendorfs account (1730-1821), which mentions him as having reached an old age, Schuller spent the last years of his life in Sibiu, in his sons home. The latter was the physician and Senator Johann Georg Schuller von Schulenberg, who had a house in the Great Square and died on the 13 th of March 1767, without descendants 30. In the first half of the 17th century (after 1605, but before 1660), the mint of Sibiu was headed by an official also called Georg Schuller31, who was obviously a different person, and whose family relationship with the craftsman who traveled as a young man to the Dutch East Indies cannot be ascertained in the current stage of the research. 2. Transylvanian and Romanian Travelers to Africa and to the Dutch East Indies (17th - mid-20th century) Since the mid-19th century, the exploration of the African continent stirred the interest of several Transylvanian travelers and since the late 19 th century of some inhabitants of Romania as well. There were different reasons which motivated them to undertake these journeys: the family relationship (for the retrieval of some family members or as their companions), the public service (for physicians and diplomats), the passion for hunting, the desire for adventure and knowledge, and sometimes even
26 27
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 76. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. 28 Concerning the technique skills and the products of the Malaysian and Chinese goldsmiths (with whose artefacts G. Schuller could became acquainted in Java): H. Ling Roth, Oriental Silverwork: Malay and Chinese (London: Truslove & Hanson, Ltd., 1910). 29 Resch, Siebenbrgische Mnzen und Medaillen, 229; cf. Trausch, Schriftsteller- Lexikon, vol. III, 240. 30 Trausch, Schriftsteller- Lexikon, vol. III, 240. 31 Colin R. Bruce II and Tom Michael, ed., Standard Catalog of World Coins: 1601-1700. 4th official edition (Iola: Krause Publications, 2008), 1388.
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the commercial interests or the missionary activity. Very interesting is that some of these travelers, like Franz Binder and Ilarie (Bucur) Mitrea, also married women belonging to the native peoples they came in contact with: this means that the cultural and racial barriers could be overpassed from their point of view. Most of these travelers contributed to the exploration of the Nile and of the Congo Basin, as well as of the neighboring territories of Somalia and Kenya, in a period in which (often under the pretext of fighting the slave trade or supporting the Christian missions and the trade) these regions raised the interest of the powers with colonial interests (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium). To some extent, we can also mention Egypt, which formally was still under Ottoman suzerainty, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, which sought rather to obtain some opportunities to compete in an international favorable political context favorable the interests of the above mentioned powers (inclusively through establishing closer relations with Ethiopia, the only independent African state in East Africa). Despite the attraction for the Islamic East manifested through different aspects within the European culture and civilization during the late 18 th until the mid-20th century32 (but, as cultural reflection and with a certain chronological lag, also in the USA33 and in Latin America34) the interest of the Transylvanian travelers and of those from the Danubian Principalities (later, Romania) was only exceptionally oriented to the North African countries, due to the fact that the North African coast was better known, the danger of piracy in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea was largely removed and the colonial expansion began to rob the charm of the adventures in "Barbary" and Egypt (still tempting at the mid-19th century, when the Ottoman influence grew weaker both in North Africa and in the Balkan Peninsula 35). Although
32
For the problem of the Orientalism, as cultural trend in a larger way, concerning not only the Islamic Orient, but generally the Asian countries: Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979); Lisa Lowe, Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalisms (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992); Rana Kabbani, Imperial Fictions: Europe's Myths of Orient (London: Pandora Press, 1994); John MacKenzie, Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995); Naji Oueijan, The Progress of an Image: The East in English Literature (New York: Peter Lang Publishers, 1996); Kamakshi P. Murti, India: The Seductive and Seduced "Other" of German Orientalism (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); Alexander Lyon Macfie, Orientalism (White Plains: Longman, 2002); Todd Kontje, German Orientalisms (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004); Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and their Enemies (London: Allen Lane, 2006); Daniel Martin Varisco, Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007. 33 Holly Edwards, ed., Noble dreams, wicked pleasures: Orientalism in America, 1870 1930. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000). 34 Ignacio Lpez-Calvo, ed., Alternative Orientalisms in Latin America and Beyond (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007); Ignacio Lpez-Calvo, ed., One World Periphery Reads the Other: Knowing the "Oriental" in the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009); Ignacio Lpez-Calvo, ed., Peripheral Transmodernities: South-to-South Dialogues between the Luso-Hispanic World and "the Orient" (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012). 35 For the image of the Ottoman Orient of the British Romantic writers: Filiz Turhan, The Other Empire: British Romantic Writings about the Ottoman Empire (New York London: Routledge, 2003); Benedict S. Robinson, Islam and Early Modern English Literature: the Politics of Romance from Spenser to Milton
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the passion of these travelers for hunting and for natural sciences or their interest in the knowledge of the indigenous peoples traditions was usually accompanied by map drawing and photographic documentation and by the writing of travelogues, in many cases a great part of the documentation was lost, sometimes during those very expeditions. As a consequence, the result of these expeditions consisted sometimes only of the collected biological and ethnographical material as well as some studies, published by the explorers themselves. The druggist Franz Binder (1824-1875), who visited Egypt and Sudan36, seems to have been the first 19th century Transylvanian explorer of the African continent. He departed in 1849 in search of his brother, Samuel Mauksch, who had joined the Egyptian army in 1833 and of whom he knew nothing moving to Egypt through Constantinople, Cyprus, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, then to Baghdad (with a raft down the Euphrates) and finally from here to Alexandria, where he vainly tried to receive employment as a chemist in the service of Khedive Abbas I Hilmi Pasha (1848-1854). As an employee of the Austrian trade company Landauer & Co. (since 1852) and then of the Austrian Imperial Austrian Viceconsulate in Khartoum, he had the opportunity to take trips along the Nile between Cairo and Khartoum, and in 1853 he accompanied the expedition of the Austrian Catholic Mission Santa Croce of Gondokoro, on the White Nile (one led by the founder of the mission, Ignaz Knoblecher) and another one in 1853 (led by Franz Morlang). In search of ivory and Arabic gum, Franz Binder took in 1852-1858 several trips to the upper basin of the Blue Nile, across the regions located between Kordofan and Abyssinia. In 1857 he fulfilled temporarily the tasks of an Austrian Viceconsul in Khartoum and even managed to buy a property in the region of Bhar al-Ghazal, on the White Nile and. In order to take it in possession, he undertook a difficult journey, reaching the Azande Plateau, in the vicinity of the Equator, where he was taken ill. Back in Europe (1862), he was received by Emperor Franz Joseph I, who also decorated him and granted him the position of a Viceconsul in Khartoum, from which he resigned however in 1864, due to the deterioration of his health. He donated the valuable ethnographic and biologic material he collected until 1862 to the Museum of the Transylvanian Society of Natural Sciences in Sibiu and to the Evangelical (Lutheran) Gymnasium in Sebe, his hometown.
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); Roderick Cavaliero, Ottomania. The Romantics and the Myth of the Islamic Orient (London New York: I. B. Tauris, 2010). 36 About the travels and the collector activity of F. Binder: Kurt Binder, Reisen und Erlebnisse eines Siebenbrger Sachsen um die Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts im Orient und Afrika (Sibiu: Kraft & Drotleff, 1930); Mihail Acker, Franz Binder, cltor i colecionar etnografic, Studii i comunicri. Arheologie istorie etnografie (Apulum. Acta Musei Apulensis), 4 (1961), 302-304; Franz Remmel, ber alle sieben Meere (Bukarest: Albatros Verlag, 1978). A list of the objects which were donated by F. Binder to the Transylvanian Society for Natural Sciences of Sibiu ( Siebenbrgischer Verein fr Naturwissenschaften in Hermannstadt) and a narrative of his travels were published in Sibiu short after his temporary return to Europe: Mittheilungen des Herrn Franz Binder ber seine Reise i m Oriente und sein Leben in Afrika, Transsilvania. Beiblatt des Siebenbrger Boten, neue Folge, 2/17 (1862), 217-222; 2/18 (1862): 225-230, 2/19 (1862), 244-245; 2/20 (1862), 250-252; 2/21 (1862), 265-271; 2/22 (1862), 278-282.
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Lady Florence Baker (1841-1916), a native of Aiud (Transylvania) whose original name seems to have been Florenz Barbara Maria von Sass was the wife of the British military engineer and explorer Sir Samuel White Baker (1821-1893), an explorer of the Upper Nile Basin37. The biography of this woman called Florence Barbara Maria Finnian in the passport with which she left the Ottoman Empire, but also known as Szsz Flra in the Hungarian literature and as Florica Sas in the Romanian one and who spoke German, Hungarian, Romanian, Turkish, Arabic and English remain rather unclear38. It also and contains many elements which seem to have been added according to the structure of the Victorian colonial novels, probably due to her husbands attempts to facilitate her access to the high society, difficult due to the suspicion that they had lived together before being married. After the death of her father and brothers in the massacre that took place in Aiud (the 8 th-17th of January 1849), she fled together with her governess to Vidin, where she was abandoned and was raised by the family of the Armenian merchant Finnian (or Finnin), who intended to sell her as an odalisque for the harem of the pasha of Vidin (1859). Against the latter, S. W. Baker and his friend, Maharajah Duleep (Dalip) Singh (1838-1893), auctioned in vain, and eventually they were forced to kidnap her. In 1887-1888, following a suggestion made by Archduke Rudolf von HabsburgLothringen, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and passionate ornithologist, Count Samuel Teleki von Szk (1845-1916), who originally had planned to undertake a hunting expedition, explored together with the navy officer Ludwig von Hhnel (1857-1942) the territories of North Kenya, situated beyond those already explored by Joseph Thomson (1858-1895)39. He discovered the lakes Rudolph (Turkana) and
37
Details about the life and activity of S. White Baker: T. Douglass Murray and A. Silva White, Sir Samuel White Baker: A Memoir (London New York: MacMillan and Company, 1895); Dorothy Middleton, Baker Of The Nile (London: Falcon Press, 1949); Michael Brander, The Perfect Victorian Hero. The Life and Times Of Sir Samuel White Baker (Mainstream Pub. Co., London Edinburgh, 1982). Concerning his activity in Africa, S. White Baker let many narratives: Samuel White Baker, The Albert N'Yanza Great Basin of the Nile; and Exploration of the Nile Sources. 2 vol. (London: MacMillan and Co., 1866); Samuel White Baker, The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia; and the Sword of Hamran Arabs (London: MacMillan and Co., 1867); Samuel White Baker, Ismaila: A Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for the Suppression of Slave Trade, Organised by Ismail, Khadive of Egypt. 2 vol. (London: MacMillan and Co., 1874); Samuel White Baker, In the Heart of Africa (New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1886). 38 Biographical details about Florence Baker: Anne Baker, Morning Star: Florence Bakers Diary of the Expedition to Put Down the Slave trade on the Nile, 1870-1873 (London: William Kimber, 1972); Richard Seymour Hall, Lovers on the Nile: The Incredible African Journeys of Sam and Florence Baker (New York: Random House, 1980); Pat. Shipman, To The Heart Of The Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa (New York: Harper Collins, 2004). 39 About the exploratory activity of J. Thomson in Eastern Africa, in the Atlas Mountains and in Southern Morocco, as well as in the basin of the river Niger: James Baird Thomson, Joseph Thomson: African explorer: A Biography (London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company, 1896); R. I. Rotberg, Joseph Thomson and the exploration of Africa (London: Chatto & Windus, 1971). Concerning his expeditions in Eastern Africa, J. Thomson published the following works: Joseph Thomson, To the Central African Lakes and Back. 2 vol. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1881); Joseph Thomson, Through Masai Land: A Journey of Exploration Among the Snowclad Volcanic Mountains and Strange Tribes of Eastern Equatorial Africa. Being the Narrative of the Royal Geographic Societys Expedition to Mount Kenya and
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Stephanie (Chew Bahir), being the very first Europeans who climbed on Mount Kilimanjaro (up to the snow line, at 5300 m altitude) and on Mount Kenya (up to 4300 m altitude) 40. However, a second attempt of the Count to climb on Mount Kilimanjaro (1895) failed, due to health reasons. During his training as a merchant, Carl Friedrich Jickeli (1850-1925) conducted research in Abyssinia (1870-1871), where he amassed a valuable collection of shellfish and arachnids. Although he did not publish any travelogues about the time he spent in Abyssinia, his son, Otto Fritz Jickeli (1888-1960) wrote later a novelized biography of his father 41, which included accounts and notes belonging to the researcher. During the trips he made as a ship physician in the region of the Red Sea, then in India, Ceylon, in the Dutch East Indies and China (1883-1885), Arthur Soterius von Sachsenheim (1852-1913) accumulated a large collection of ethnographic objects (including items from East Africa and the Cape Verde Islands), which are currently preserved at the Museum of Ethnography "Franz Binder" in Sibiu. There is also a mummy among them, which was donated in 1907 by Hermann von Hannenheim, a diplomat in the service of the Austrian-Hungarian consulate in Egypt. Another famous Transylvanian, Colonel August Roland von Spiess (1864-1953) of Bavarian origin but settled in Transylvania as an Austrian-Hungarian officer, and who later became in charge with the Romanian Royal Hunts (1921-1939) undertook two hunting expeditions in East Africa, namely in Kenya (1936) and Tanganyika (1938)42, and came back with hunting trophies and ethnographic objects. According to the current state of research, the account of his expeditions seems to have been the last work of this kind published before 1945.
Lake Victoria Nyanza, 1883-1884. New and revised edition (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, 1887). 40 For the achievements of this expedition: C. G. Richards, Count Teleki and the Discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie (London: MacMillan and Co. Limited, 1960); M. B. Gornung, Ju. G. Lipec and I. N. Olejnikov, (Moskva: , 1973), 351-353. The diary of the expedition was written by L. von Hhnel, who functioned also as cartographer and was published at first in German: Ludwig Ritter von Hhnel, Zum Rudolph- See und Stephanie- See. Die Forschungsreise des Grafen Samuel Teleki in Ost-Aequatorial-Afrika 1887-1888 (Wien: Alfred Hlder, 1892). Later, it was translated into English (1896) and more recently (2005) in Hungarian too. For this reason, there were controversies concer ning the exact role of each of the explorers (Balzs Borsos, Whose merit is it anyway? The Evaluation of Count Teleki and Ritter von Hhnels roles in the Teleki expedition to East Africa in 1887-1888, Archiv fr Vlkerkunde, 54 (2004): 27-47), especially because L. von Hhnel continued between 1892-1894 to explore this territories, together with the American tycoon William Astor Chanler (1867-1934) and after a short service in the navy he became aide-de-camp of Emperor Franz Joseph I (1899) and led an official Austrian-Hungarian delegation in Ethiopia, for the signing of a friendship and trade treaty (1905): Ludwig Ritter von Hhnel, Mein Leben zur See, auf Forschungsreisen und bei Hofe. Erinnerungen eines sterreichischen Seeoffiziers (1857-1909) (Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1926). For the explorations of W. A. Chanler in Africa: William Astor Chanler, Through Jungle and Desert (London: MacMillan and Co., 1896). 41 Otto Fritz Jickeli, Am Roten Meer. Ein siebenbrgischen Kaufmannslehrling forscht in Afrika (Bukarest: Jugendverlag, 1958). 42 August von Spiess, Din Ardeal la Kilimandjaro. Vntori n Africa (Bucureti: Fundaia Regal pentru Literatur i Art, 1942).
29
As a result of increasing strengthening of the trade relations 43, the influence of French Orientalism had remarkable consequences not only in the travelogues (as early as the 18th century44), but also in aesthetics and in the political discourse on the "Eastern Question"45 and eventually as well in painting46. Influenced by it, the Moldovian revolutionary and poet Vasile Alecsandri (1821-1890), undertook in 1853 accompanying a young British tourist, Angel (whom he met in Southern France in the seaside resort of Biarritz) a short and seemingly accidental trip to Morocco (as a part of a projected travel to Spain), having as a result his narrative A Trip to Africa (published, in fragments, after 1855)47. However, it was not North Africa but the other parts of the continent that presented a bigger interest for the Romanian travelers, because of the opportunities of hunting, of employment in the colonial forces or of business and only exceptionally of apostolic and charity works. Attracted by the big game in East Africa, Prince Dimitrie Ghica-Comneti (1839-1923) and his son Nicholas (1875-1921) undertook a hunting expedition in British Somaliland and Ethiopia (1895-1896), during which they collected local plants and animals and carried out cartographic surveys which were appreciated by the scientific community of the time 48. In 1899, the latter has traveled also through North Africa and the Sahara. In 1897, Nicolae Rosetti and the cousins George and Dimitrie Strat visited the Slave Coast (which includes the coastal region of actual Togo, Benin and western Nigeria) and Gabon, and in 1898 Sever Pleniceanu (1867-1924), a medical officer in the Belgian colonial forces, explored the Congo Basin, on the footsteps of H. M. Stanley (1841-1904), studying the pygmy tribes 49. The first Romanian traveler who visited South Africa, almost 200 years after G. Schuller, is Ion L. Catina (1870-1940) 50, who left Constana on the 25th of January 1900 and, after brief stops in Aden and Djibouti, landed in Northern Madagascar, at
43
Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Orientalism in Early Modern France: Eurasian Trade, Exoticism, and the Ancien Rgime (Oxford New York: Berg Publishers, 2008). 44 Irini Apostolou, L'Orientalisme des voyageurs franais au XVIIIe sicle. Une iconographie de l'Orient mditerranen (Paris: Presse de Universit de Paris, 2009). 45 Roger Benjamin, Orientalist Aesthetics, Art, Colonialism and French North Africa: 1880-1930 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). 46 Donald A. Rosenthal, Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800 1880 (Rochester: Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1982); Mary Anne Stevens, ed., The Orientalists: Delacroix to Matisse: European Painters in North Africa and the Near East (exhibition catalogue) (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1984). 47 Vasile Alecsandri, Cltorie n Africa (Bucureti: Editura Minerva, 2007). 48 Iorgu Petrescu, 110 ani de la expediia lui Dimitrie i Nicolae Ghika-Comneti n Somalia, Revista Muzeelor, 3, 2005, 123-27; cf. M. B. Gornung, Ju. G. Lipec and I. N. Olejnikov, , 382. The narratives of this expeditions: Dimitrie N. Ghika (Comneti), O espediie romn n Africa (Bucureti: Stabilimentul Grafic I. V. Socec, 1897); Nicolas D. Ghika, Cinq mois au pays des Somalies suivi de la faune de Somalie et une liste de plantes dcrites par G. Schweinfurth et G. Volkens avec 1 carte et 27 illustrations aprs les photografies de auteur (Paris: Berger Levrault, 1897). 49 Petrescu, 110 ani de la expediia lui Dimitrie i Nicolae Ghika-Comneti, 123. 50 V. Hilt, Cltori i exploratori romni pe meleaguri ndeprtate (Bucureti: Editura Enciclopedic Romn, 1972), 131; Petrescu, 110 ani de la expediia lui Dimitrie i Nicolae Ghika-Comneti, 123.
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Diego Suarez (now Antsiranana). There he embarked for Mozambique, wherefrom he then directed to Natal, the Cape Colony and Transvaal51. In the first half of the 20 th century, the engineer T. P. Ghiulescu joined a French military mission, which explored the mineral resources of the Congo Basin52. During his missionary journeys 53 that took him from Europe to Japan, to Sydney and Buenos Aires, Monsignor Vladimir Ghika (1873-1954) humourously called "The Great Apostolic Vagrant" by Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) - also visited Congo, but unfortunately we know too little so far about his work in these areas. I. Petrescu believes that among the Romanian travelers the one that felt himself closest to Africa was Mihai Tican Rumano (1893-1967), a hunter, writer and art collector who in the early decades of the 20th century wandered through Senegal, Mauritania, Sudan, Guinea, Congo and Ethiopia, reaching the island of Madagascar. His travelogues (some published under the pen name Michel Tican) enjoyed the appreciation of the novelist Liviu Rebreanu (1885-1944)54, one of the most important Romanian writers of that time. This must be understood within the context of the Romanian literature of the time, in which the colonial adventure fiction, so much appreciated by the youth, was rare. Moreover, as shown by the titles of many of his works on Africa, as well as by their publication by the publishing houses attached to some Romanian newspapers and magazines 55, the motivation for writing them was at first, obviously, financial. The value of the scientific information (which includes few new elements, or at least less frequently described) is much lower than the literary value of his writings, which brought him the appreciation of young readers even later, in the first decades after World War II56. It was then when the author enjoyed the confidence of the communist regime as a result of his being appreciated by antifascist personalities like Emperor Haile Selassie I (1930-1974) of Ethiopia who awarded him the Order of the Star of Ethiopia, in rank of an officer, for publishing in Spain a
51 52
Hilt, Cltori i exploratori romni, 131-132. Petrescu, 110 ani de la expediia lui Dimitrie i Nicolae Ghika-Comneti, 123. 53 Concerning the missionary and apostolic activity of Monsignor Vladimir Ghika: Jean Daujat, Laptre du XX-me sicle, Vladimir Ghika (Paris: La Palatine Plon, 1956). 54 Petrescu, 110 ani de la expediia lui Dimitrie i Nicolae Ghika-Comneti, 123. 55 Michel Tican Rumano, La vida del blanco en la tierra del negro. Narraciones de una expedicin al frica Occidental y Central. 2 vol. (Barcelona: Editorial Lux, 1927); Michel Tican Rumano, La danza de los canibalas (Barcelona: Editorial Lux, 1928); Michel Tican Rumano, El hombre-mono y sus mujeres. Narracin de un viaje a travs de la selva vrgen (Barcelona: Editorial Lux, 1928); Michel Tican Rumano, En el corazn de la selva vrgen (Barcelona: Editorial Lux, 1928); Michel Tican Rumano, El monstruo del aqua (Barcelona: Editorial Lux, 1928); Michel Tican Rumano, Perdido entre las fieras. Narracin de mi viaje a travs del frica central (Barcelona: Editorial Lux, 1928); Mihai Tican Rumano, Viaa albului n ara negrilor (Bucureti: Editura Universul, 1930); Mihai Tican Rumano, Dansul canibalilor (Bucureti: Editura Universul, 1931); Mihai Tican Rumano, Misterele continentului negru (Bucureti: Editura Cartea Romneasc, 1933); Mihai Tican Rumano, Sub soarele Africii rsritene (Bucureti: Editura Cugetarea, 1936). 56 Mihai Tican Rumano, Lacul cu elefani (Bucureti: Editura Tineretului, 1957); Mihai Tican Rumano, Montrii apelor (Editura Tineretului, Bucureti, 1958). Obviously, the works whose subject was susceptible to present the African man from from the perspective of the white mans superiority (which is specific for the colonial literature), were not translated or reprinted at all.
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depiction of his country57 which faced the Italian fascist aggression in 1935 and Niceto Alcal-Zamora, the President of Spain (1931-1936), who made him Knight of the Order of the Republic, for outstanding achievements in supporting, through the articles and the books he published, the aspirations of the Spanish people. The young peoples interest in his writings explains, moreover, the reprinting of his work The Elephant Lake [Lacul cu elefani] (which was published first in Spanish, in 192858 and then in Romanian, in 1930 59) in 1957 and its adaptation for radio theater. A hunting account was also published posthumously, in 196860. This writers biography - a writer who exploited the popularity of the travelogues as a literary genre in the last two decades of the national-communist regime in Romania became only later the subject of research61, but so far not in a rigorous enough manner. 200 years later after G. Schuller sailed to Batavia, the interest of the Transylvanian travelers in the Dutch East Indies is however better documented. In contrast to the late 19th century travelers who visited Africa and who were mainly attracted by hunting and the financial opportunities, those who went to this Southeast Asian regions were motivated by their work duties or by their desire to study the exotic flora and fauna which was specific to those places, so for them the passion for hunting played a less significant part. In the cultural and political specific context of the colonial competition in Southeast Asia in the second half of the 19th century a Romanian, native of Rinari (Sibiu county), named Ilarie (Bucur) Mitrea (1842-1904), worked as a military physician in the Dutch East Indies (1869-1880, 1884-1893, 1897). He was also a naturalist and collector of traditional indigenous items62, but unfortunately it seems that in his case there is no travelogue left (or at least is has not been preserved). Around the same time, other Transylvanians also arrived in the Dutch East Indies. Among them was Jnos Xantus (1825-1894), the curator of the Ethnography section of the Hungarian National Museum (Magyar Nemzeti Mzeum) in Budapest, a member of the expedition led by Karl von Scherzer (1821-1903) and which in 18691871 reached Java, Sumatra and Borneo63. During his voyage to the Far East, in 18711873, another traveler from Sibiu arrived in Java, as a member of the imperial expedition to promote the trade with the Far East: it was the naturalist Adam Breckner
57
Mihai Tican Rumano, Abisinia (Viaje a travs de la Etiopia de hoy) (Barcelona: Imprimeria A. Nez, 1936). This is the translation of a work which was published at first in Romanian: Mihai Tican Rumano, Abisinia (Bucureti: Ed. Cugetarea, 1935). 58 Michel Tican Rumano, El lago de los elefantes (Barcelona: Editorial Lux, 1928). 59 Mihai Tican Rumano, Lacul cu elefani (Bucureti: Editura Cartea Romneasc, 1930). 60 Mihai Tican Rumano, La vntoare n Congo (Bucureti: Editura tiinific, 1968). 61 Valentin Borda, Pe urmele lui Mihai Tican Rumano (Bucureti: Editura Abeona, 1992). 62 About the life and activity of Ilarie (Bucur) Mitrea: Emil Pop, Der Arzt und Naturwissenschaftler Ilarie Mitrea, Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde, 9/1 (1966), 5-30; Emil Pop, Aus Leben und Ttigkeit zweier rzte des vorigen Jahrhunderts: Ilarie Mitrea und Ion Arseniu, Forschungen zur Volksund Landeskunde, 14/2 (1971), 25-42; M. Andrei, and Al. Marinescu, Ilarie Mitrea (1842-1904), medic, cltor i explorator romn (Bucureti: Editura Muzeului de Istorie Natural "Grigore Antipa", 1980). 63 Alexandru Obreja, Memoria continentelor. Cltori romni pe meridianele lumii (Iai: Editura Junimea, 1975), 52-56.
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Alexandru Gh. SONOC
(1844-1890), a medical officer in the Austro-Hungarian navy, who by several items that he donated contributed to increasing the collections of the Natural History Museum in Sibiu, as well as those of the Franz Binder Museum of Ethnography in Sibiu64. In 1891, the naturalist Samuel Fenichel (1868-1893), a native of Aiud and the assistant of Grigore G. Tocilescu at the National Museum of Antiquities in Bucharest, visited New Guinea as a member of the expedition led by Alfred Grubauer, an amateur ornithologist, and died there around Stephansort, the German colonial capital of Papua New Guinea, after sending numerous items collected on this occasion to the museums in Vienna, Berlin, Budapest and Aiud65. In 1896-1901, New Guinea was visited by the naturalist Lajos Bir (1856-1933), in the service of the National Museum in Budapest, and in 1901 a Transylvanian woman, Otilia Cosmu a, visited Sumatra during a trip to the Far East66. Compared to many of these quite numerous trips of the Transylvanians in Southeast Asia, the travelers from the Kingdom of Romania are fewer and their travels seem to have been rather accidental: the Moldavian Prince Albert Ghica (1912), during his travels to the Far East, visited the island of Sumatra 67, and Bazil G. Assan (1860-1918) arrived in the islands of Southeast Asia during a travel taken in 189868 for an around the world economic survey, while Prince Mihai Cantacuzino in 1894 69 and the businessman C. A. Eberle in 1895-189670 were attracted to the islands of Southeast Asia by the opportunity to make hunting expeditions. L. Borda noted that situation applies in general to the citizens of the Kingdom of Romania who traveled in Asia and that the larger number of passengers originating in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian territories (attached to Romania in 1918) or among the Aromanians in the Ottoman Empire could be explained by the more frequent opportunities these great powers had for travelling71. 3. The Summary of G. Schullers Travelogue Soon after completing his apprenticeship and after his first year as a journeyman, having visited most of Germany, while being in Hamburg and wanting to travel to the East Indies, G. Schuller embarked in Altona (Altenau) to Amsterdam, where he arrived on the 18th of June 169672. He was probably 25 years then, if the age when an apprentice became journeyman is considered, so he was probably born
64
Ion Drgoescu and Andre Erhard, Colecionarul Andreas Breckner, Revista muzeelor, 9/1 (1972), 29; Bozan, Cltori transilvneni n Orient, 74-75. 65 Bozan, Cltori transilvneni n Orient, 75. 66 Borda, Rzboiul, Borneo i ardelenii, 96. 67 Borda, Rzboiul, Borneo i ardelenii, 96. 68 Bazil G. Assan, Cltorie n jurul pmntului, Buletinul Societii Geografice Romne, 20/2-3 (1899): 119-69. 69 Borda, Rzboiul, Borneo i ardelenii, 96. 70 C. A. Eberle, ntmplri de vnat i de voiagiu n Sumatra ostic (Bucuresci: Stabilimentul Grafic I. V. Socec, 1897). 71 Borda, Rzboiul, Borneo i ardelenii, 96. 72 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 1.
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around 1670. Through a "soul seller" (as the ship crew recruiters were called, people he characterized as a bunch of vile and frivolous people, devoid of piety and compassion, ready to rob and deceive the foreigners and dominated by their eagerness towards money earning73), to whom he had to pay 60 imperial thalers, he could be employed as a soldier of the United East Indian Company, for a monthly salary of 9 florins74. This trip took place precisely during the N etherlands and Englands war against France, and because of the risk of an attack of Jean Barts corsairs, the convoy was accompanied for a while by a guard of seven ships 75. Most part of G. Schullers travelogue (on the board of Ysselmonde76, which went off from the island of Texel near Amsterdam in the evening of the 20th of July 169677 and arrived at Batavia on the evening of the 19th of July 169778) is actually a logbook of his maritime journey, in which he noted almost daily the events (the wind direction and the course of the vessel, the encountered ships, the illnesses and deaths). This can be explained by the fact that on the ship he enjoyed a privileged position, being held in the personal service of the head of the crew, due to his goldsmith journeyman skills79. He wrote that on the board of the same ship the merchant Samuel Elsevier (whose name he mentions as Elzevier) also traveled. He wrote that Elsevier was the admiral (i.e. convoy commander) and that he was to be the Deputy Governor (Zweite Stimme) in the Cape Colony80. About this official G. Schuller later reports only that on the 19 th of August 1697 he went together with his family to pay a visit on the board of another vessel in the convoy (which sailed then through the English Channel) and when they returned in the evening onboard, the ship answered to the cannons of the ship he visited, which fired bursts in his honor. This made the English escort commander ask the Dutch ships to give up such cannon volleys after dark81, maybe because they might have been confused with an attack of the French corsairs. Schuller also mentioned that he and his family were taken on board by a boat coming from the shore, as early as the evening of the 18th of April 1698, on the eve of the vessels soliciting in the Cape Colony82.
73 74
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 2. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 3. 75 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 5-6. It is the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, known also as the War of the Palatine Succession or The Nine Years War (1688-1697), in which the Netherlands, England, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Savoy, Sweden (till 1691) and Scotland fought against France and the Irish and Scotch Jacobites. The fights took place in Europe, Nothern and Southern America and in Asia, on land and sea: John Childs, The Nine Years War and the British Army (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991). In Northern America, this war is known as King Williams War. 76 G. Schuller called wrongly Yselmoude this ship, about which he mentioned also that it was the flag ship of the convoy, to which belonged also other 3 ships: Koning Willem, Enckhuysen Murenstein and De Krap: Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 3. 77 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 5. 78 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 61. 79 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 36. 80 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 4. 81 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 8-9. 82 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 45.
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Alexandru Gh. SONOC
In addition to the good knowledge of seamanship (a detailed and accurate description of the rig83, rigging84 and of the day and night signals on Dutch ships85, the ships welcome ceremony by foreign vessels in the waters of the State to which it belongs86, of how to carry the cart87 and of other components of the daily service 88, of the religious service89 and of the application of corporal punishment 90, of how to use the compass91, as well as concerning different types of boats 92), which sometimes he explains by glosses and which undoubtedly were acquired right on the ship, he also shows an interest in the aquatic animals he encountered (flying fish 93, sharks94, dolphins and porpoises 95, a whale96, and in Java crocodiles 97), in the daily life of the European settlers from the Cape Colony98 and the Hottentots 99, in farming in Madeira100, South Africa 101 and Indonesia 102, that is, all that seemed new and unusual for a Transylvanian who was for the first time on sea and in such far countries. So, he described the different plants which were cultivated in Java (of which particularly the sugarcane103, the banana tree, the coco and the Areca palm104, the pineapple, the pepper and the ginger 105 retained his attention), as well as the technology used to obtain sugar from the sugarcane106, writing in wonder - perhaps as something totally different from the realities in Southern Transylvania - that in this island the "mutton is rare and expensive"107. Frightened perhaps by what he had heard on leaving Amsterdam, that from the hundreds of people boarding for the East Indies just a few dozens would come back 108, he kept a strict record of fatalities on board, noting that after the moment his ship, with
83 84
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 13, n. 2. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 26, n. 1, 27, n. 1, and 32-32. 85 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 17-21. 86 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 10. 87 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 9, n. 2, and 10, n. 1. 88 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 14-16. 89 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 14 and 38-39. 90 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 21-23. 91 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 40. 92 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 3, n. 4, 4, n. 1, 7, n. 2, 10, n. 2, and 76, n. 1. 93 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 37-38. 94 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 38. 95 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 41. 96 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 57. 97 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 80. 98 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 47-50. 99 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 50-55. 100 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 31. 101 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 48-49 and 55-56. 102 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 78-80. 103 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 78-79. 104 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 79. 105 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 80. 106 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 78-79. 107 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 80. 108 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 4.
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a staff of 106 people109, anchored in the Cape Colony, the casualties amounted to 49 deaths, and as result of the death of some of the patients disembarked there the number of deaths rose by another 8 110, rising so to an amount of 57. By the 14th of May 14 the number of deaths has already risen to 80 111 and until reaching Batavia another death occurred, on the 30th of May 1697112. Therefore, on the ship he traveled the mortality was of 76.41%. Impressed by the large number of illnesses and deaths, but also by the good organization of the Dutch hospitals, he describes both the hospital in Cape Colony113 and the one in Batavia, about which he stated that it could pass among the best in Europe114, appreciating the skill of the physicians and surgeons who were working in both. Both in South Africa and in Java, he was concerned about the manner in which the slave labor was used and in which they were maintained115. He mentioned the house in which, at the Cape Colony, over 100 African and Indian slaves of the United East Indian Company were accommodated, living in a regime of semi-freedom and that the women (of black complexion, but about whom he stated that they spoke excellent Dutch) were also engaged in prostitution116. Regarding the slavery in Java, G. Schuller further mentions a house of the Companys slaves 117, but also refers to the large number of slaves existing in the city (which largely surpassed that of the free people of different origins, because there were owners who had as many as 100-200 slaves). He also made reference to the fact that the slave owners were not only Christians but also non-Christians, to the origin of slaves (especially Malabar Indians, and natives from Makassar and Java) and to how badly the latter were treated118. In comparison to the situation of the private slaves in Batavia, the public slaves, belonging to the United East Indian Company seemed to have been better treated, being rather well dressed, as he remarked during his stop in the Cape Colony119. Precisely because he insists on the fact that the private slaves were mistreated it can be assumed that his interest in the issue of the slavery was primarily due to his Christian feelings, but also to the fact that the slavery which existed in those remote territories seemed to him a rather strange reality, but somewhat comparable to that which was better known to him from Transylvania, namely the serfdom, to which he did not refer explicitly, however.
109
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 5. Later, the memorialist mentions wrongly a strength of 108 persons (Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 46). 110 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 46. 111 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 57. 112 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 59. 113 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 48-49. 114 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 66. 115 Concerning the rendering of the slaves and their perception in the European Art: Elizabeth McGrath and Jean Michel Massing (Editors), The Slave in European Art: from Renaissance Trophy to Abolitionist Emblem (London Torino: The Warburg Institute, 2012). 116 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 49. 117 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 68. 118 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 76. 119 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 49.
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Schuller was aware of the existence of native states on the island of Java and also (probably from Dutch sources) of the founding circumstances of the city of Batavia on the ruins of a rich indigenous settlement which was destroyed by the British120, in order to turn it into the capital of the Dutch colonial possessions in the East Indies121. This city overpopulated with people of different origins, both Europeans and Asians who came from all over the world122, and of which he remarked to be very nice and attractive and can be considered in Europe among the most beautiful known cities 123 was described in detail, with all its military and civilian infrastructure: the system of fortifications 124 and the arsenal125, the canals, the roads, the public lighting, the churches, the hospital, the orphanage, the harbor authority, the public slaves house, the prison for men and one for women 126, the three scaffolds, where the sentences of the three courts (the military, the civil and the naval court) were carried out 127. He seemed impressed by planimetry and by the rational organization of the city128, also particularly by the cleanliness of streets, which reminded him of Amsterdam129 about which, at the beginning of his travelogue he had written that he was bearing witness that he has never seen a city as beautiful and rich130 but also by how the work was organized in the arsenal and the accuracy with which the workers were paid131. He was also amazed by the wealth of the orphanage, which he mentioned to be due to the taxes on inheritance and donations, by the good education which was given to the children and by the dowry of 100 imperial thalers received by the girls there132. He then spoke about the founding of the United East Indian Company and formation of its colonial possessions 133, about the administrative and judicial Dutch East Indies, and even mentioned and characterized different civilian and military officials in service at the time 134. As a goldsmith, G. Schuller enjoyed a privileged status not only on the ship during the voyage135, but also in Java, where he noticed the sporadic presence of Muslim jewelers of Indian origin136: he was exempted from military duties and was assigned a house where he could conduct his work, so he also managed to have some
120 121
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 63. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 65. 122 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. 123 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 65. 124 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 63-64. 125 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 67-68. 126 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 65-68. 127 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 70-71. 128 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 65-66. 129 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 66. 130 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 2. 131 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 67-68. 132 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 66-67. 133 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 68-69. 134 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 68-71. 135 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 36. 136 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 76.
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earnings from his work137. He received the approval to return to Europe and to see again his beloved country, in fact, due to his good relations with Counselor Borensee, for whom he had engraved in stone a seal and to whom he confessed that his departure from the East Indies, where he earned well, was not justified by the fact that he could not enjoy the life there, but by the fact that he had not had the approval of his parents to go there138. He returned to Europe on the ship Unie, leaving Batavia on the 10th of December 1698139 and arriving in Amsterdam on the 1st of July 1699 140. An interesting fact, in this context, is his reference that he found out subsequently that the letter which he sent on the 30th of January 1698 to his parents, in Transylvania, has reached its destination141. It is not known, unfortunately, after how long, although judging by the dates on the correspondence exchanged between the colonial authorities from Batavia and from the Cape Colony and the leadership of the United East Indian Company in Amsterdam we can conclude that during the seasons which were favorable for sailing the correspondence required a fairly short time, especially between Batavia and the Cape Colony. The lively and precise styles of the memoirist, and his detailed descriptions, captivate the reader. G. Schuller used few figures of speech, of which the most impressive are the few comparisons, most often concerning the strength of the storm at sea, probably due to the terrifying impression which this phenomenon produced on him. Most of the times, however, the fears are expressed directly, which makes the message even more poignant: the next night there was such a horrid weather that we believed no other, than that all should perish ... 142 or ... that I thought that the ship will be split in two or will crack143. A storm was especially frightening when it was foretold by a death on board: The same day a soldier died, an old man, and such a wrath and fearful weather followed, that we thought it would tear out the mast with all the sails144. To the first storm he experienced on the ship on the 22 nd of July 1696 in the English Channel he devoted a very fine description: ... we got on the 22th of the same [month] a very strong wind, which eventually turned into a storm and headed towards the west. I cannot describe the state I was in at that time, because I had never before seen, nor have I stood in front of such a wrath, the waves seethed and hissed as if heaven and earth would perish145. It is a comparison that he also resumed later, in a more concise account of a storm, on the 4th of October 1696, also in the Channel: ... such a rain storm followed, as if the heaven and earth would want to end 146. Increased by the seasickness - which for G. Schuller was previously unknown147 and to which he
137 138
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 63. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81. 139 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81. 140 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 82. 141 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81. 142 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 13. 143 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java,, 24-25. 144 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 22. 145 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 6. 146 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 21. 147 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 6.
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became accustomed with difficulty148 but also by the view of the ship remains which he sometimes had the opportunity to see floating on the water 149, the fear was also induced to him by the association between the storm and the apparent weakness of the ship, which due to the pitch and roll created the impression that the ship might break into a tousand pieces 150 and that the strong wind could tear the march mainsail into a hundred151 or a tousand pieces 152. These numbers seem to have a fantastic, maybe magical significance to him, because being astonished by the ingenuity of the Dutch craftsmen who used the shell of the ostrich eggs as raw material, he also stated that they made a hundred such things and ornaments 153. Another plastic comparison is related to the atrocious pains and the ravages caused by scurvy, which really is a bad disease, and because of the salted dishes on the East Indian ships does a great damage, makes the limbs stiff and eats around like a crayfish or a wolf154. But tedious to read are not only the extremely long paragraphs, but especially the almost daily indications of the wind direction and course of the vessel, as well as the frequent references to the encountered ships, which are typical for a logbook. Once he passed the island of Mauritius (the 28th of May 1697), the traveler gave them up, also constrained by the bad weather (which probably caused him seasickness or retained him with different works on board), arguing that in fact they were not too important and that he was merely mentioning only the things most worthy to be noticed155. Therefore, the fact that, after the experience of the sea journey from Amsterdam to Batavia the return journey seemed no longer to be such an unusual adventure for him, there were very few references to events that occurred during that period. Thus, during the stopover on the Cape of Good Hope (the 13 th of February 20th of March 1699) he did not report anything about the events taking place during this time, except that he landed twice to refresh (on the 26th of February and the 9th of March), mentioning only the dates of his returns on board (the 3 rd of March and the 11th of March) and the review of the crew (18th of March) 156. Given that during the stopover in the Cape Colony between the the 19th of 157 April to the 14th of May 1697158, when travelling to Java, he said about the tigers which would live there that they would be smaller than those in Java 159 (which he reached only on the 19th of July 1697160), as well as the mention that he heard later that the letter he sent to his parents on the 30th of January 1698 reached them, in
148 149
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 24. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 22. 150 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 26 and 59. 151 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 27. 152 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 43. 153 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 56. 154 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 16. 155 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 59. 156 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81 -82. 157 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 46. 158 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 57. 159 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 56. 160 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 61.
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Transylvania161, it is obvious that his travelogues, as we know it now, is more likely a later adaptation of older notes. Because the date when his letter reached its destination is unknown, as a date post quem for the writing of his travelogue in the form that was printed in 1867 we should consider that of his return to Amsterdam (the 1 st of July 1699162). 4. Issues Raised by G. Schullers References to the Exotic Fauna Particularly interesting are however certain mentions G. Schuller made about animals completely unknown to him, which he tried to describe by comparing them to others they resembled (and were better known), but also the mention about some species, completely unusual in the regions he refered to. These errors are generally related to wrong information, gathered from his informants (sailors or colonial officials) rather than known from works on exotic wildlife or resulted from the observation of animal skins publically exhibited or for trade, without having accurate information about their origin. They reflect his interest in the exotic wildlife, in a time when it was little known, especially in Transylvania, where at that time the information about certain species of exotic animals was still not richer than the knowledge of the ancient authors and of the medieval bestiaries. The animals which contradicted the common knowledge, as well as those that could be of an economic interest are mostly retaining his attention. Describing the fort of the Cape Colony, G. Schuller wrote that under its gate a large stuffed lion with long white mane was hung, said to have taken shelter in the neighborhood and had made great damage to people and cattle, until it was shot down by an agile hunter163. This might be the oldest known attestation of the existence of the white lion, a mutant of the South African subspecies Panthera leo krugeri, resulting from leucistism, a phenomenon first certified in 1928 at Tshokwane, in the Kruger National Park and studied on the basis of the specimens from the Timbavati Private Reserve, which is adjacent to the mentioned national park164. In the region where they lived, the white lions (which currently are living only in captivity) are considered sacred by the indigenous communities 165. Because of the fact that in the medieval bestiaries the cetaceans were thought to belong to the fish category, he argued that the sharks were whales (due to their size) 166 and that dolphins and the porpoises were viviparous fishes (although knowing that there are some anatomical and physiological similarities between pigs and
161 162
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 82. 163 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 50. 164 About the white lions of Timbavati: Chris McBride, The White Lions of Timbavati (Johannesburg: E. Stanton, 1977); Chris McBride, Operation White Lion (New York: St. Martins Press, 1981). 165 Linda Tucker, Mystery of the White Lions: Children of the Sun God (Mapumulanga: Npenvu Press, 2003). 166 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 38.
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porpoises)167, but the whale itself is only mentioned, probably because he considered that there is nothing new or interesting to add to what is common knowledge168. Not being familiar to the zebras, he wrote that in the Cape Colony the most beautiful ever seen wild asses lived and similarly, not being familiar to the antelopes, he spoke about stags which gathered together up to a thousand in a place. He also claimed that not only lions, leopards, elephants and rhinoceroses lived there, but also tigers smaller than in Java, but which "had a more beautiful skin" 169. Most likely, G. Schuller saw furs of Bali tigers, the only tiger subspecies which is smaller than the Java tigers (both extinct in the 20th century)170, brought there by merchants171, and so he believed that in South Africa tigers would live, as he claimed otherwise, on another occasion 172. It is also strange that among the Java animals he also mentions the orangutan, which he called a wild man173, knowing probably the meaning of its name (forest man) in the indigenous language. If it is not a confusion, generated by the sale of animals brought from Borneo or Sumatra or of their skin on the market of Java, it could be a very late attestation of the existence of this animal on an island where it no longer lives in the present, but where the fossils prove its existence in the past, as well as in Southern China and in Vietnam174. From this perspective, it is interesting to mention also the case of the cassowary, which (as he wrote that the natives called it eme)175 the Transylvanian traveler seemed to believe it was one and the same bird with the emu ( Dromaius novaehollandiae)176,
167 168
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 41. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 57. 169 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 56. 170 Peter Boomgaard, Frontiers of Fear: Tigers and People in the Malay World, 1600-1950 (New Haven London: Yale University Press, 2001), 13; cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger (accessed on 5th of June 2013). To the extiction of the two subspecies of tigers contributed the dissolution of the traditional attitude of respect for this animal, often seen as a reincarnation of an ancestor, which was favored by the spread of firearms [Peter Boomgaard, Primitive Tiger Hunters in Indonesia and Malaysia, 1800 1950, in Wildlife in Asia: Cultural Perspectives, ed. John Knight (London New York: Routledge Curzon, 2004), 187]. So, the extiction of the Balinese and Javanese tiger can be seen also a consequence of the impact of the European civilization, but also of the diminution of the influence of the traditional religiosity, as due to the propagation of Islam. 171 This confusion of G. Schuller recalls a similar, but more recent episode, when on a tiger skin seen in the bazaar in Cairo and on the allegations of the merchant concerning its provenance, Paules E. P. Deraniyagala described a Sudanese subspecies of the tiger ( Panthera tigris sudanensis). Because the skin which was photographied by P. E. P. Deraniyagala belonged to a tiger of the now extinct and than critically endangered Caspian subspecies ( Panthera tigris virgata), called sometimes also Hyrcanian or Turanian, and seems to be smuggled from Turkey or Iran, the existence of this subspecies was doubted later: Vratislav Mazk, Velk koky a gepardi (Praha: Sttni zemdlsk nakladatelstvi, 1980), 142. 172 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53. 173 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 80. 174 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orang-Utans (accessed on June 3, 2013). 175 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 80. 176 For the first time, the emu was sighted by Europeans in 1696, on the coast of Western Australia, while on the Eastern coast of the continent it was thought to have been spotted before 1788, when the European settlement occured: Maxine Eastman, The Life of the Emu (London Sidney: Angus and Robertson, 1969), 5.
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although neither of these two bird species lived in Java. So, it could be possible that he only learned about them from stories actually concerning birds from Australia (emu and the Southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius), as well as from New Guinea and from the neighboring islands (Casuarius casuarius, Casuarius bennetti and Casuarius unappendiculatus)177, territories whose coasts were precisely at that time studied by the Dutch. It is possible also that he had only seen cassowary feathers (which he described exactly, while the so typical ridge of this bird is not mentioned at all in his description), offered for sale by merchants who knew only the names of the two species, not the differences between them and also not area they lived in. Moreover, when he described the South African ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), he insisted not only on the nutritional value of the eggs (which the Hottentots used to sell in amounts of 2-3 for one shilling, one being enough for 3 people), but also pointed out that the the raising of ostrich feathers was a source of income for the Hottentots, who sold them also to the Europeans 178 and that the most valuable and sought after were the blue ones179, meaning those of the males. Except for the ostriches, the only birds which retained the attention of G. Schuller were the swallows as nesting in caves and having an edible nest 180. It refers, in fact, to the two species of types of swiftlets, Aerodramus fuciphagus, which produces the white nests, and A. maximus, which produces the black nests (whose construction also includes feathers)181. Then as now, the soup prepared from these nests (yan wo) was a very expensive delicacy: at the public banquet given on the ocasion of Emperor Josephs II wedding to Maria Josepha Antonia, held at the Munich Prince Residence (13th of January, 1765) such a soup was served, costing 6000 guldens182. 5. The Image of the Other. A Transylvanians Perspective According to what he confessed in the beginning of his travelogue, G. Schuller could not explain whether his desire to travel to Africa and to the East Indies was due to an impulse of his nature or to the images he saw and to the books he read since his childhood and teenage years, but admitted that at that age he disregarded the dangers and the fear of death and saw only the entertaining and pleasing side of such an undertaking, knowing that the pleasure for something makes the toil insignificant and God comes to the rescue to all who trust in Him and is present in all places, even in the most distant countries, among the barbarians and the heathens 183. The letter he sent to his parents in Transylvania, as well as the justification of his intention to leave
177 178
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary (accessed on June 5, 2013). Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 55. 179 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 56. 180 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 80. 181 About the international trade in swiftlet nests: Any S. Lau and David S. Melville, International Trade in Swiftlet Nests with Special Reference to Hong Kong (Cambridge: Traffic International Network, 1994). 182 Felix Joseph Lipowski, Leben und Thaten des Maximilian Joseph III (Mnchen: 1833), 211. 183 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 1.
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the East Indies due the fact that he did not announce his parents about the trip he made and the desire to return to his beloved homeland184, all this proves that his family and his homeland were important values for him. Since he did not specify, and one cannot conclude from his travelogue which books could have been familiar to him on the regions he traveled through or about the people who lived there, it is not easy to say how much the perception of the anthropological and geographical otherness was influenced in his case by readings or by specific clichs of his ethnic and cultural environment. He surely knew Cor nelis de Houtmans account (1565-1599) as he mentioned the name as Cornelius Hontmann185 about his journey that led to the discovery of the Dutch East Indies, where at the time there was a rich indigenous settlement called Kaloppo or Jakatra, on whose ruins later the city of Batavia was to be founded. But apparently he was familiar with it indirectly, probably due to its German translation by Levinus Hulsius, printed in Nuremberg in 1598 by Christoff Lochner (fig. 2)186. As his references to the dangers of the Syrtae187 and to Doris, the Oceanid188 prove it, he certainly had some notions of Greco-Roman mythology, which were necessary to the European artists of that time and which he might acquire through the study of the classical literature (the works of P. Vergilius Maro and P. Ovidius Naso, most likely), perhaps in the gymnasium, as the references to this place and to this character are less common, but still, it is difficult to believe that he could learn about them only from ordinary discussions. How thorough his knowledge of the Bible was, is hard to say, because there is no reference to a biblical parable, to any place or character in the Bible, nor did he use biblical quotes and comparisons, whose frequency decreased in the late 17 th century even in the discourse of the Reformed laity. He was however a faithful man, as it is proved not only by his frequent references to God and calls for His support 189, but also by the description of his spiritual preparation before the departure to the Dutch East Indies, when together with other comrades he took part at the Lutheran liturgy held in one of the two German churches in Amsterdam: It was a great deal important to me to be reconciled with my God and beg him for help and support on
184 185
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 63. There is the city of Sunda Kelapa from the state of Pajajaran, which was destroyed in 1527 by the Muslim prince Fatahillah from the state of Demak, for which the new city which was founded by him was called Jayakarta (i.e. "Great Victory"), wherefrom the actual name of Jakarta, which after the Decolonization replaced the Dutch name of the city, Batavia: M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1200, third edition (Basingstoke: Pallgrave Macmillan, 2011), 42-43; cf. Steven Drakeley, The History of Indonesia (Greenwod Press, Westport London, 2005), 26. 186 Levinus Hulsius, transl. and ed., Kurze Wahrhafftige Beschreibung der newen Reyse oder Schiffahrt, so die Hollendischen Schiff in denen Orientalischen Indien, versicht: Welche Anno 1595 in Martio, Alda augefahrn vnd erst im August de verlauffenden 1597 Jahrs widerkommen seind Darinne der gantz Succes der Reyse was tglich verlauffen vnd zugetragen erzhlt wird (Nrnberg: L. Hulsius, 1598). 187 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 5. 188 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 6. 189 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 24, 27, 36, 39, 43 -45, 57-58, and 60.
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this journey I intend to make190. Being educated in the Protestant spirit, the Catholic faith represented for him the criterion according to which it was possible to understand an idolatrous non-Christian religion, as the Buddhism191, but he was however aware that the Reformed Dutch were equally intolerant to both the Evangelical (Lutheran) and the Catholic cult 192. Based on these considerations, I believe that his attitude towards other peoples religions and traditions could be seen as influenced by his condition as a Lutheran Transylvanian Saxon, accustomed to the religious tolerance which he did not find among the Reformed Dutch. His hostility towards the Muslims, particularly towards the Turks was surely encultured in the ethnic and cultural environment to which he belonged. It would later manifest in his attitude towards the Islamic population in Java, especially towards the Moors (by whom he understood the Muslims natives of India), but mostly through his concern emerging from the encounter with a small English vessel, which was mistaken with a Turkish ship, off Cape Finisterre193 and then with a large Turkish ship, off the island of Santiago in the Cape Verde archipelago194. It would also manifest in his compassion for the fate of the Maydragt Dutch ship, which arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on the 18th of May 1697, after being attacked off the coasts of Spain by two Turkish ships, on which occasion the head of its crew was killed in battle195. Also due to his religious views, G. Schuller believed that a disease that affected 3 soldiers on board was a divine punishment which fell upon them, due to the sexual intercourse they had with each other 196. Probably because of his views on the rule of law, encultured in Transylvania, he had a great respect for the institution of the divine right monarchy, considering the execution of King Charles I Stuart to be the most terrible regicide ever heard of and his opponents to be rebel parliamentarians197. His religious, moral and political beliefs depict G. Schuller as a typical representative of the 17th century middle class Transylvanian Saxons. Due to his contact with the indigenous people of South Africa and Southeast Asia, G. Schuller acquired a consciousness of belonging to the European civilization, expressed only in the final sentence of his travelogue, a pios thanksgiving, probably delivered on the occasion of his return to Amsterdam: I Thank God, the Almighty, Who protected me in my awful trip, and Who allowed me to return in good health and gratified to the Christians in my dear Europe, to Him this glory, honor and parise are devoted, forevermore. Amen 198.
190 191
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 4. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 73. 192 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 4 and 66. 193 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 28. 194 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 33. 195 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 57. 196 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 42. 197 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 9. 198 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 82.
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It is difficult to say to what extent he had information, when in Java, about the events taking place in the rest of the world, because he only reminded the celebration (on the 24th of June 24 1698) of the conclusion of the peace with France at Ryswick (now Rijswijk, whose name G. Schuller mentions as Reyswig)199 on the 20th of September 1697. Except for the Dutch, the Europeans retained the attention of the Transylvanian traveler less than the different Asian populations, which stirred in him greater interest, because of their more significant otherness and, in general, due to his propensity to record the unusual, exotic elements. Thus, although he said that the soldiers of the garrison in the Cape Colony came from different countries, being recruited in the Netherlands 200, and later mentioned the presence in Batavia of settlers, sailors and soldiers coming from different European countries 201, indicating also the existence of two other Transylvanian soldiers there202 and the arrival (on 29th of July 29 1698) of a Russian prince (also a soldier, who fell out of favor with the Tsar Peter the Great, who was then on a visit to the Netherlands) 203, he did neither insist on characterizing these people nor made any considerations on the population of the countries from which they originated. Due to the prolonged stay in British waters, pending favorable weather conditions to actually depart, as well as the fact that English warships guarded the Anglo-Dutch convoy of ships against the French corsairs during the crossing of the Channel, he paid more attention only to the Englishmen, considering them generally hardworking people, brave men-at-arms and sailors204. However, it seems that he considered the Dutch as the people most gifted for navigation. He said that, because no one could reach the East Indies otherwise than as a soldier or a rating (as the Dutch called the navy trainees), he has chosen to be employed as a soldier, even if in that quality he was not exempted from work on board. However, the duties of a sailor seemed to him to be more dangerous, mainly due to the need to also work in bad weather, so he believed that the most appropriate people to perform this work would be in his opinion only those who born in the Netherlands205. Regarding the Dutch, he was first impressed by their religious intolerance, manifested in the refusal to accept the Lutheran and Catholic religious service on ships and in the colonies 206, but also by the rapacity and the cunning of the soul sellers in Amsterdam207. He noted the existence of a community of interests between the soul sellers in Amsterdam and the United East Indian Companys leadership 208. In Java he remarked the passion for luxury of the Dutch, whose role would be in his opinion to
199 200
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 49. 201 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. 202 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 61 -62. 203 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 81. 204 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 9. 205 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 3. 206 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 4 and 66. 207 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 2 -3. 208 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 2.
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open the eyes of the inhabitants of this island and thus to induce them a higher fear and which characterizes mostly the Governor General, William von Outs, i. e. Willem van Outhoorn (1691-1704), who in addition to a huge salary of 1 200 guldens and various privileges, had endless possibilities for enrichment from the fees he received from various business with the indigenous sovereigns 209. G. Schuller said that to become a rider in the guard of the General Governor, one must first fill with silver the hands of its commander, Adolphus Winkler 210. He also remarked the nepotism which characterized the Dutch colonial administration, stating that the Governor of the Cape Colony, Simon van der Stel, succeeded his father in this office and, in turn, he would be succeeded by his son211, and that the East Indies board director, which he called von Horn212, was the General Governor Willem van Outhoorns son-in-law213. However, as his description of the different elements of urban infrastructure in the Cape Colony and in Batavia proves it, he admired the good government of the Dutch colonies. Perhaps influenced by the Transylvanian Saxons community spirit, and having had his personality shaped in the environment of the Transylvanian Saxon craftsmen of Sibiu and not in that of the feudal traditions of the Transylvania counties, he was impressed by the discipline on the Dutch ships, where the aristocratic condition was not taken into account, as all people work and are on duty, from the commander down to the last sweeper214, as well as that even the captain and the crew had to obey the pilots215 (he mentioned also the execution of a sentence given against Heinsius Rast, the Fleet Admiral, on the way back to Amsterdam on the 2 nd of June 1699)216. Referring to the inhabitants of the Cape Colony217, G. Schuller wrote that they were of different origins and that they all were called Freyleut, meaning free people because they were exempted from contributions, excises and taxes and live[d] safely, like the lords and their homes [were] quite beautifully build and [were] only one floor high. He added that they didnt lack anything, because the country ha[d] a good climate and everything planted fructifie[d] in a large amount and that returning ships from the East Indies or those coming from Europe brought everything that could not be found there. He noted, however, that the residents are not really committed to the crafts and few of them can be seen practicing any handicraft , because they acquire or are left so much from the foreign vessels which come to anchor in this port, that they have not only plenty of food, but they also manage to preserve a great wealth for their descendants, because these vessels arrive ceaselessly and many
209 210
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 69. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 69. 211 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 49. 212 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 70. 213 This is Joan van Hoorn (1653-1711), General Director (since 1691) of the Council of Dutch East Indies, who was married with Susanna, the daughter of Willem van Outhoorn, the General Governor of Dutch East Indies, whom he also succeeded (1704-1709), cf. M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia, 109. 214 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 3. 215 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 5. 216 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 82. 217 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 47 -48.
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people disembark constantly, and after a pitiful and long journey are looking for refreshing. He added that all the houses are eternally full of such foreign guests from the sea, who once the vessels reach the port of the Cape, they leave the board and come to the city to alleviate with a good meal their tormented bodies. From the sailors the inhabitants of the Cape Colony buy different goods paying plenty of money and then they exchange them to a tenfold profit with the Huguenot or French peasants and from the Hottentots they buy for a little tobacco or brandy an 80 pounds large sheep, for which they earn 10 to 12 imperial thalers from the foreigners who eat it. As he noted, there everything was done for the benefit of the Colonys residents, because throughout the [port] there is no food to buy, so if the poor sailors want to give their bitterly earned money on something that will refresh their weary bodies, they need to order the lunch at the settlers and agree with them on the weeks or days (according to their liking and purse), because some are so robbed, that if they were on land for only 4 days, not only they ate for 7 to 8 imperial thalers, but also has sold his clothes to quench their insatiable avarice. Talking about the occupations of the settlers (the agriculture, the viticulture and the fruit growing), he wrote that before the Portuguese and the Dutch reached the hinterland, the country was all a desert and a wilderness and the Hottentots lived from harvesting. He added that in the Cape Colony the residents were brewing in a new-built brewery, but they had learned also to produce sugar beer, which was a strong enticing drink, especially if lime is added to it, but for novices and foreigners it is very harmful and can easily give them diarrhea, if drunk in too large quantities. However, no one was allowed to sell wine on his own or even with the barrel, without announcing to the tenant of the tavern or the governor. In conclusion, the Transylvanian traveler had an ambivalent attitude, generally unfavorable towards the settlers in South Africa: he admired the peasants (the Boers), who have managed to bring forth a barren land, but he disregarded the townspeople of the Cape Colony for their rapacity towards the peasants and the indigenous people, but especially to the sailors. About common inhabitants of Batavia, of Dutch origin, G. Schuller speaks less and retains only that they are living overluxuriously, are in trade, for which they have enough opportunities, and the innkeepers and artisans are the least numerous, because [those with such occupations] are in general foreigners, and as a goldsmith he says that here the polishers of diamonds and rubies and goldsmiths are doing well, as they can find more material for their craft than anywhere in the world218. From the perspective of the anthropological and geographical imagery, in G. Schullers travelogue, the highest value can be associated to his perspective on the Hottentots and of the various Asian populations with which he came into contact 219. It
218 219
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. For the perception of the Exotic Man by the Europeans in the Early Modern Age: Urs Bitterli, Die Wilden und die Zivilisierten: Grundzge einer Geistes- und Kulturgeschichte der europischberseeischen Begegnung. 2. Ausgabe (Mnchen: C. H. Beck, 1991). For the perception of the black Africans by the Europeans, since the age of the Renaissance until the 19 th century: Alison Blakely, Russia and the Negro: Blacks in Russian History and Thought (Washington: Howard University Press, 1986); Catharine Nepomnyaschy, Nicole Svobdny and Ludimilla Trigos, Under the Sky of My Africa: Alexander
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turns out that the author really knew some travel narratives, which (along with the listening to the stories told by sailors and colonial officials) have contributed significantly to the construction of his perception on the exotic peoples, even if it is very hard to identify these exact works. Exotic theological discourse about the man appears to have had very little influence on him, which shows that it was very little presented to him both in Europe and during the travel, both because of his craft background and of his religious belief, different from that shared by the Dutch colonial officials and from the specific way in which the religious service was provided on the ships of the United East Indian Company. The first exotic population present in his account, the indigenous people of South Africa, the Hottentots (or the Khoekhoe, as the name they give to themselves, meaning "people") retained more his attention than the European settlers, because of their strange appearance and their primitive way of life, for which he disregarded them220, even if sometimes he showed some sympathy towards them, referring to them (just due to their primitive life) as poor people221. Although in the 18th century several cases of black Africans who came to enjoy prestige in Europe are known either of intellectuals, like Anton Wilhelm Amo Afer (1703-ca. 1759), professor at Halle and Jena 222 or the Reformed missionary Johannes Jacobus Elisa Capitein (about 1717-1747) 223, who, although himself a former slave considered the slavery as compatible with Christianity224 or even at the imperial courts in Vienna and St. Petersburg, like Angelo Soliman (1721-1796), a famous freemason225 and respectively, General Abram Gannibal Petrovi (1696-1781), Governor of Reval
Pushkin and Blackness (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2006); Monika Firla, Exotisch hfisch brgerlich: Afrikaner in Wrttemberg von 15. bis 19. Jahrhundert. Katalog zur Ausstellung des Hauptstaatarchivs Stuttgart (Stuttgart: Hauptstaatarchiv, 2001); Thomas E. Earle and Kate J. Lowe, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Esther Schreucher and Elmer Kolfin (ed.), Black is Beautiful: Rubens to Dumas (Amsterdam: Waanders Uitgevers, 2008). 220 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 46-47 and 50-55. 221 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 50. 222 Simon Mognol, Amo Afer: Un Noir, professeur universit en Allemagne au XVIIIe sicle (Paris: Harmattan, 2010). 223 Kwesi Kwaa Prah, Jacobus Eliza Johannes Capitein, 1717-1747: A Critical Study of an Eighteenth Century African. Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc., 1992; David Nii Anum Kpobi, Mission in Chains: The Life, Theology and Ministry of the Ex-Slave Jacobus E. J. Capitein (1717-1747) with a Translation of his Major Publications (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 1993); Henri van der Zee, Heeren Slaaf. Het dramatische leven van Jacobus Capitein (Amsterdam: Balans, 2000); David Nii Anum Kpobi, Saga of a Slave: Jacobus Capitein of Holland and Elmina (Oxford: African Books Collective, 2002). 224 Jacobus Elisa Johannes Capitein, The Agony of Asar: A Thesis on Slavery by the Former Slave, Jacobus Elisa Johannes Capitein, 1717-1747, trans. with commentary by Grant Parker (Princeton: Markus Wiener, 2001). 225 Monika Firla, Segen, Segen, Segen auf Dich, guter Mann!, in Angelo Soliman und seine Freunde Graf Franz Moritz von Lacy, Ignaz von Born, Johann Anton Mertens und Franz Kazinczy . 2., durchgesehene Auflage (Wien: Tanz Hotel Art Act Kulturverein, 2003); Monika Firla, Angelo Soliman: ein Wiener Afrikaner im 18. Jahrhundert (Baden: Rollettmuseum, 2004); Philipp Blom and Wolfgang Blom (ed.), Angelo Soliman. Ein Afrikaner in Wien (Wien Mnchen: Christian Brandsttter Verlag, 2011).
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(1742-1754) and maternal grandfather of the poet A. S. Pukin (1799-1837)226 such an unfavorable perception of the Hottentots is specific to the 17 th-18th century narratives. It can be also found in the discourse about black people (and, in general, about Africans) of other German authors227, which is closely linked to the perception of the racial otherness in the German environment, before 1945 228. Due to the relatively rapid evolution of the Hottentot society as a result of its contact with the European settlers, an ever-increasing detachment from the traditional culture and way of life occurs, as well as an alienating imitation of that of the colonists. Therefore, G. Schullers so early account is in this regard a valuable ethnographic document, despite the unfavorable attitude of the author. G. Schuller is aware that according to their housing, costume, customs and language, the Hottentots were divided into several nations, known from the expeditions undertaken in hinterland by Governors Anthoniszon Jan van Riebeeck and Simon van der Stel229, of which the best known would be the Ogringhaikonas, the Sonquas, the Namaquas, the Ubiquas, the Gouriquas, the Grigriquas and the Sousiquas (among which we can mention the Hasiquas)230. The most famous were the Ogringhaikonas231. The Hottentots made an unfavorable impression on the Transylvanian Saxon traveler from very first meeting them, on the 20th of April 1697232. There were only few individuals, apparently imbruted by alcohol and alienated from their traditional
226
Dieudonn Gnammankou, Abraham Hanibal: aeul noir de Pouchkine (Paris: Prsence africaine, 1996); N. K. Teletova, (Sankt Peterburg: , 2004); Hugh Barnes, Gannibal: the Moor of Petersburg (London: Profile Books, 2005). 227 Peter Martin, Schwarze Teufel, edle Mohren. Afrikaner in Geschichte und Bewutsein der Deutschen (Hamburg: Junius Verlag, 2001). 228 Gerhard Hpp (ed.), Fremde Erfahrungen. Asiaten und Afrikaner in Deutschland, sterreich und in der Schweiz bis 1945 (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1996). 229 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 50. 230 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 50-51. The peoples mentioned by G. Schuller are quite difficult to been identified and only recently the historical names of the native peoples of South Africa were studied more thoroughly: John Wright, Sonqua, Bosjesmans, Bushmen, abaThwa: Comment and querries on Pre-Modern identifications, in South African Historical Journal, vol. 35 (1996), 16-29. Namaquas or nama live in South Africa, in Botswana and Namibia: Benjamin Ridsdale, Scenes and Adventures in Great Namaqua Land (London: T. Woolmer, 1883); Leonhard Schultze, Aus Namaland und Kalahari. Bericht an die Kgl. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin ber eine Forschungsreise im westlichen und zentralen Sdafrika, ausgefhrt in den Jahren 1903 -1905 (Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1907). Sonquas (Sankhoe) or San are the Bushmen, who live also in South Africa, in Botswana and Namibia: Jacques A. Mauduit, Kalahari: la vie des Bochimans (Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1954); Alan Barnard and Jean-Franois Viseur, Les Bochimans du Kalahari (Paris Montreal: d. Gamma d. cole active, 1994); Winifred Hoernl, The Social Organization of the Nama and Other Essays (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1985). Gouriquas or Griqua is a people from South Africa and Namibia, which resulted from union without Christian formalities between the Hottentots and the early European settlers, but did not enjoy civic rights, even it speakes widely Dutch (or Afrikaans): Samuel James Halford, The Griquas of Griqualand (Durban: Juta and Company Ltd., 1949). Grigriquas is a people called also Chariguriqua, from the Oriental regions of the Cape Colony, while the Ubiquas and Hasiquas (Hessequa) people live in its Western regions. 231 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51. 232 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 46 -47.
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society, who used to beg the sailors for food and alcohol and who, because of their contact with the Europeans, learned approximately some necessary Dutch words for an occasional and rudimentary communication and, as proven by their cries when jumping, they had even learned the names given to them by the Europeans, which were sometimes pejorative: When our boat returned to the shore for the first time, brought 4 Hottentots or inhabitants of these Southern parts of Africa; they were ugly individuals and one might say human abortions, walking almost naked with a shabby sheep fur hanging over their back and as soon as they were on the ship, they ran down the steps to the kitchen and shouted kochum Schmerum, kochum Schmerum, for the cook to place in front of them the greasy cauldron; they sat outright on the floor, taking the cauldron between their legs and began to wipe the grease with their nails, and then they smeared it on their face and head, after which they took some soot from the cauldron and painted their delicate skin with it. Then they ran in front of the cabin of the head of the crew and offered the senior officer a cheerful representation according to their custom, dancing and jumping high with agile legs crying: hottento! hottento! Being very impudent, they demanded brandy, which they also swallowed with such a greed, that it cannot be even said and since they had a troubled head, they made all sorts of foolish pranks, running up and down and when they smoked tobacco the steam came out from mouth, nose and ears. They had a fox tail in their hands, on which a stick was tied, to fend off the flies which bothered them, because of their stinky skin. When these people or adventurers got bored of the vessel, they went ashore again with our boat, having been endowed with crackers and other foods . Due to this marked otherness, but also to G. Schullers poor knowledge about the exotic peoples, his attitude towards the indigenous people of South Africa goes far beyond the one commonly manifested by the Europeans towards the savages who inhabited the colonial world. He comes to challenge openly their humanity, both because of their appearance, the characteristics of the language they spoke (which is a click language, belonging to the Khoisan group 233), as well as because of their lifestyle (ignoring agriculture) and their mores (the dirtiness, the inability to dominate their instincts), that eventually he concluded that they would be closer to animals than to humans. He says that the stranger is right to wonder when these people first appear before him and if they would not walk vertically and would not keep their head up (which happens only to humans), then there would be no wonder that they would be held as East Indian monkeys or as baboons; it seems as if the humanity was chased out of them, so much has come to prevail in them the animal nature! Yes, even in their language some animal is mixed; not expressing the words like other people, they swallow them and form the words in their throat and sometimes they cluck like Calcutta hens234.
233
For the phonetics and the tonology of the language which is spoken by the Hottentots (khoekhoegowab): Douglas Beach, The Phonetics of the Hottentot Language (Cambridge: Heffer, 1938); Wilfrid Haacke, The Tonology of Khoekhoe (Nama/Damara) (Kln: Rdiger Koppe Verlag, 1999). 234 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 50.
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However, when describing the physical appearance of the Hottentots, this negative perception seems to fade, as according to G. Schullers description 235 their humanity was undeniable, and they seemed to belong rather in the category of the savages, according to the specific human typology of the ethnographic discourse of that period: "By the constitution of the body, the Hottentots are of average size, are highly mobile and very good at walking, that they can run like a deer, as for the rest they are of a really bad constitution. Their forehead is wrinkled, the nose is flat, the eyes are sunken in the head, they have a wide mouth and instead of hair as beard they have some wool, which is curly. Their neck is short, the arms are thin, like the rest of the body. Otherwise, they blacken and paint with all sorts of fats their body, which naturally should be whitish, because their climate is temperate, and they do not forget to put some dirt on the cheeks too. The women have repellent long breasts, to throw them back to the children, when they want to suck. As for clothing, G. Schuller who says that the Hottentots do not slay any sheep, but use the flesh and the skin of those who already died 236 mentioned that as soon as they skin the skin of a dead sheep, they grease themselves thickly with cow dung and fat and from a flask they spread a powder of a certain red stone, which they throw over their naked body, which makes them very stinky, because they think that by this odor they will make themselves more beloved by their women 237. At same time, these statements which induce repulsion towards the Hottentots raise some inevitable questions about the solidity of the doubts concerning their humanity. Obviously, the question of the Hottentots humanity could hardly be questioned, since they used clothes made of skins and they knew mineral pigments. The scavenger behavior that could be inferred from the statement that only the flesh and the skin procured from the carcasses was used is later contradicted by the account of some details about the role of shepherding in the society of these South African natives 238 and about their nutrition based on harvesting239, but also on hunting and shepherding. G. Schuller interpreted inaccurately the fact that the Hottentots avoided slaying their animals (even when necessary), in an attempt to have a larger number of them available, to meet the needs of the trade with the United Company of the East Indies and with the settlers. Particularly exquisite, the detailed and picturesque description of the Hottentot costume acknowledges the perception of its various elements by the native people, but also the impression they produced on a European onlooker 240: When it is winter there which falls in June-July they use a piece of sheepskin, with which they cover their headgear. In front of their shameful parts they hang a patch made of the sheep tails, which in this country are very large, similarly to the Persian kind. The legs, that only by themselves often weigh 18 to 20 pounds, know nothing about shoes, even if the summer has already passed, because they are however
235 236
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51, n. 1. 237 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51. 238 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51. 239 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 48 and 55. 240 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51-53.
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used by nature to be barefoot. They adorn their arms with iron, brass - or made of elephant teeth (sic!) bracelets. They put them on when they are still small, so it happens that when they grow up, these bracelets are so tight on them, as if they would have grown on their arms. On their left arms, men have 6 to 8 such bracelets, and they cherish them so much, that they consider them to be above all richness, they also take pride in them a lot, that even when the time is just slightly warm, they lay bare their arms, throw the sheepskin over the back, wrestle and jump (as overly agile they are), throwing their hands up and down, only for that adornment to be seen by the people passing by. The hair on their head is furrowed with artistry, looking like the finest wool, but they anoint it with dirt, so dense that it cannot be recognized and then they put all kinds of brass ornaments in it. All men wear a stick in their hands and often have a dog running behind them. Their women have similar vestments, but they use more fat and sheepskin to equip them, as they want to be more bashful they use a whole fur cut into strips, tying it over their shameful parts near the belly; on the lower part copper ornaments are hanging everywhere, on their shoulders they have another fur, hanging like that of their husbands, over which a smaller one is attached, in the shape of a bag, in which they put their children if they want to go out. Habitually, they adorn this garment with shells, which they find on the seashore and with small turtles, which are as beautiful as anywhere in Asia and Africa. On their head the Hottentot women wear a tied piece of sheepskin, their ears are pierced and adorned with all kinds copper ornaments. Below the belly they have a coral belt which they appreciate very much. The most beautiful adornment of these women are the sheep intestines or dry guts, which they usually bind around their feet and which look very impressively, like rings, from below the kneecap to the very bottom of the feet and if 20 go together, such a clanking sounds is heard, as if 100 storks would bang together their beaks and you cannot keep from laughing, since even the little girls, just emerging from the egg, have such guts bound around the legs. I cannot realize how these women can move so much around the country, since their feet are held to the ground by this amount of guts. On their arms, they have bracelets like the men, but these are slightly thinner and wider, through which they use to put a few ostrich feathers, which they gather from here and there in the sand, because there are so many ostriches. The Transylvanian traveler detects the existence of a certain connection between the dwelling of the Hottentots and the nature of their occupations: The hunters are living in caves in desert places, and the sheparts on the green fields, the place where they are living being a shabby hut, covered with the skins of the wild animals or with earth, like there are many at the Cape. The door is so narrow, that one could not enter in it without bending or crawling and its so less high, as in it one cannot stand, 4-5 household members living in such a hut, which is just six steps wide. If it is winter or if the wind starts blowing a bit roughly and the stormy Southeast wind south-east is returning, they lit the fire in the middle and sit or rather breathe around it, like young wolves241. Obviously, the hunters living in caves is of a more primitive character, recalling somewhat the lairs of the animals, but the huts and the semi241
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53.
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recessed dwellings prove clearly that in reality he does not question the humanity of the Hottentots, especially since they use the fire, both to heat and occasionally to defend themselves against wild animals if they need to find shelter at night time in dangerous places, then they make a big fire to scare away the wild animals, especially the lions242. On the nutrition of the Hottentots, G. Schuller tells the following: The food they need is mutton and milk, they eat turtle with great delight and use their shells as pots and glasses, when they eat they do not have any special purpose, they eat when they are hungry and they have something to eat and they sleep when they are sleepy, no matter if day or night. They eat raw meat, ignoring salt and other spices. When the sea casts ashore some dead fish, they gather there, up to 20 people who cut it and once it stinks, they eat it243. Stressing the importance of the ostrich eggs in the diet of the Hottentots, as well as their nutritional value and the fact that they are goods also sought-after by the Europeans, to whom they were sold quite cheap, he noted, however, that if the Hottentot women were hungry when on field looking for ostrich eggs, they taste also from their leg ornaments and eat greedy the guts around their legs244. The information that the Hottentots did not slay any sheep can be added here, and the fact that they used the flesh and the skin of those already dead 245, which as already mentioned seems to have a different explanation, concerning the management of their herds which constituted their only wealth246. The consumption of the corpses of domestic and marine animals, without using salt and spices, of dried intestines worn as foot adornments, the preference of the Hottentots for fetid odors (which G. Schuller said they considered to have an aphrodisiac effects on their women) in respect both to food and the materials used for the body care (especially the cattle dung) are elements supporting, in the authors intention, his doubts conc erning the humanity of this South African natives. G. Schuller says that before the arrival of the Portuguese and the Dutch, the Hottentots subsisted only with the roots from the earth and knew nothing either about agriculture or about viticulture247. Also as gathered from the nature one may consider the turtles, the big fish thrown ashore (and, due to the authors previously mentioned confusion concerning the taxonomic affiliation of the sharks, the dolphins and the whales, maybe also the marine mammals, primarily the cetaceans), and the ostrich eggs. Besides gathering these, he mentions among the occupations of the Hottentots the hunting and the sheparding, but not the fishing, probably due to their lack of experience in navigation, and also to the natural conditions of the regions inhabited by them in South Africas hinterland. He says, moreover, that because they are satisfied with what the countrys nature offers them, it is enough for them to feed only through
242 243
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 55. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 54. 244 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 55. 245 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51, n. 1. 246 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53. 247 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 48.
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such means and they do not strive to find their food otherwise248. Believing that the need to defend against wild beasts, but also the hunger have forced the Hottentot to become hunters249, G. Schuller also reports some interesting aspects about their hunting technique250. Although he says that the men have often a dog running after them251, he says that the hunters do not need any dog when they chase the game, since they can do this themselves, because they go hunting in large groups and they make a circle and surround the animal and are so precise with the assegais, their spears and with their arrows, that they do not fail easily252. Given the references of G. Schuller to the elephants from the region of the Cape Colony 253, it seems very likely that the Hottentots also hunted elephants, as the ivory was used for the most precious of the bracelets of these natives 254, but from his stories one cannot say whether the ivory was one of the exchange goods with the European settlers. Given the relatively short time passed since the foundation of the Cape Colony (1652), whose first Governor (1652-1662) was Anthoniszon Jan van Riebeeck (16191677) and the date when G. Schuller arrived in South Africa (April 1697), it is obvious that the shepherding was a traditional occupation in the Hottentot society and not a recent one, learned from the European settlers and that it determined specific forms of housing, different from those of the hunter populations 255. His reference to the broad-tailed sheep of this region, similar to the Persian kind supports this idea 256. Except for this reference, he did not describe at all the indigenous sheep and cattle, perhaps because he considered them to be inferior to those which were known to him from Europe. The quoted author, who also repeatedly refers to the importance of the sheep in the Hottentot society as a source of food and of raw material for making clothing, as well as for the trade with the European settlers wrote that there are large numbers of sheep in their country and it is not something new, when a family has about 2000 ewes and they represent all its wealth, using them to dress, eat and entertain257. He says that richness in animals of the Hottentot shepherds is indescribable, and that, whenever the United East Indian Company needed sheep supplies, they delivered the required number of sheep and cattle, as if they would
248 249
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53. 250 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53 -54. 251 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 52. 252 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 54. As Hasdagajen (singular Hasdagaj) G. Schuller mentions actually the word Hassagai (with its variant Assagai or, more frequently, Assegai) which designates the spear of the African natives, whose name comes from the Arabian word az-zayah, in fact of Berber origin. From the Arab word derive not only the mentioned German words, as well as the Dutch one asegaai, but also the name of several types of spears in some European languages, including azagaie in Old French (and sagaie, in Modern French), azagaia in Portuguese, zagaya, in Spanish and zagaglia, n Italian. Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assegai i http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assegai (accessed at June 10, 2013). 253 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53 and 56. 254 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 52. 255 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53. 256 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51. 257 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53.
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have a treaty concerning this 258. An additional income source was that represented by the ostrich eggs and feathers, which were gathered from the nature and sold to the European settlers259. In a non-monetary economy, in which the precious metal had not the function of a standard of value, the exchanges of this kind with the Company and with the settlers (essentially unfair, but not perceived as such by the natives) stimulated a growing demand for a range of products, many previously unknown to them, whose value was given by their character of consumer goods. G. Schuller said that because they lived far in the hinterland, the Hottentots did not use either money, or gold and silver in trade, but not because the precious metals would not be found in their country, but because they did not know to look for them, receiving in exchange for their cattle brandy, tobacco, pocket mirrors and Nrnberg trinkets (Niernbergisch Poppenwerk), paying up to 300 ewes for 100 pounds of tobacco260. G. Schuller does not specify261, unfortunately, if the various iron and copper ornaments of the Hottentots and, especially, the metal used for their manufacture was produced by themselves or whether it was obtained by exchange from other indigenous populations or from the European settlers. Softening somehow the general negative perception of the Hottentots proven by his travelogue, he added, however, that although there was no doubt that the Hottentots living among the Dutch in the Cape Colony had learned new things, including to name the different currencies, they still appreciated tobacco and brandy more than money262. About the Hottentots religious beliefs 263, G. Schuller provides inconsistent information, not only due to the lack of accurate knowledge about the indigenous beliefs and rituals, but especially due to an accurate understanding of their meaning, as a result of the way they were perceived by the Europeans. Another difficulty arises from the fact that within the theological and ethnographic speech of that time when the conceptual apparatus necessary to define the forms of religiosity was not sufficiently developed the typological categories of superstition, idolatry and pagan were not clear enough to the author. From this perspective, a further evidence of a very stressed primitivism, near animality (according to the criteria of the theological discourse) is that the Hottentots do not know anything about a god or a divine service, but they gather in the new moon night, making a circle and both men and women are dancing the whole night with a shout and a strongho, ho, ho call: and ask from the Moon, which they honor as a god, sometimes for rain, other times for sunny weather, according to their needs 264. Such statements contradict others, that refer to the superstitious fear towards firearms, which were regarded as portable lightnings, seeming to attest at the Hottentots (at least in G. Schullers perspective) a belief in a hierarchical pantheon, corresponding to the (perhaps polygamous) family of
258 259
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 55. 260 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51. 261 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 52. 262 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 51. 263 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 54-55. 264 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 55.
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a Uranian god, which actually transfered into the religious area the patriarchal structure of a society in which private property of the family existed (as attested even by the mentioned traveler 265, who obviously knew the existing differences in wealth). This structure (as it also appears in the information he mentioned on the social organization of the Hottentots) was headed by a monarch considered divine or of divine origin and probably also as a father and protector of the people: They fear very strongly the firearms of the Europeans. They think that the firelocks would be too a kind of thunders and lightnings. When the arriving ships salute the fort with their cannons, their heart is shuddered in their body and if they are asked what this means, they give as answer: The Little God shot (by this meaning the captain of the ship), but when it thunders in heaven they say the Great Captain fired (by this meaning the god in heaven). Every family has its supreme head, which they call the captain. This office is hereditary and is passed on from father to sons, the right to succeed to his father and to possess his whole wealth belonging to the eldest son, the other children being required to serve the older and to pay obedience to him. Something deeper inside the country, they worship a king to whom the noble Company sent a few years before a copper crown and whom in turn has much rewarded them. Though everyone has the freedom to take as many women as he wants and can maintain, they are however content with just one, it happens rarely for some rich man to have 3 or 4 266. A closer analysis of the religious beliefs and of the social organization of the Hottentots as they were known and communicated to the posterity by G. Schuller shows that actually he did not deny the humanity of the Hottentots and moreover, it seems even that he was aware that their social organization was quite advanced, since it was recognized by the Dutch colonial authorities. Seemingly, in the 17 th century both the slavery and the slave trade were still unknown in the native society in the more distant regions in the Cape Colony, because speaking about the various peoples of the region, G. Schuller says that these nations often wage war among themselves and struggle because of the surrounding pastures, those living in the hinterland behaving merciless towards the captured enemies 267. At the end of his description268, G. Schuller acknowledges different qualities of the Hottentots, reminding us of the noble savage discourse269. Although he initially
265 266
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 53. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 54. 267 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 55. 268 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 54 -55. 269 For the perception of the noble savage: Hoxie Neale Fairchild, The Noble Savage: A Study in Romantic Naturalism (New York: Russell & Russell, 1928); Karl-Heinz Kohl, Entzauberter Blick. Das Bild vom Guten Wilden und die Erfahrung der Zivilisation (Frankfurt am Main Paris: Qumran Verlag, 1983); Gerd Stein, ed., Die edlen Wilden. Die Verklrung von Indianern, Negern und Sdseeinsulanern auf dem Hintergrund der kolonialen Greuel. Vom 16. zum 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1984); Robert B. Edgerton, Trgerische Paradiese. Der Mythos von den glcklichen Naturvlkern (Hamburg: Kabel Verlag, 1994); Lawrence H. Keeley, War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996); Ter Ellingson, The Myth of the Noble Savage (Berkeley Los Angeles London: University of California Press, 2001); Steven
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presented them as being on a stage of cultural development which corresponded to the border between animality and humanity, he assigned them a status superior to other native populations in the region: Otherwise, they have a cheerful nature, agile in all they do, they are strong in body and in this respect they excel other South Africans also because they are brave, strong and agile in running, skillful and intelligent in warcraft, so they are rightfully superior to other nations in the land of the Cape of Good Hope. The mention of some virtues which they seemed to possess in a higher degree than the European settlers (although he did not openly confess it), as well as of some amazing survival skills in the harsh South African nature also contribute to the shaping of this new image, of the noble Hottentot. He says that the Hottentots hate overly the theft and the man who is suspected of such a thing must die and even that they enter into Dutch homes without touching or harming a thing. Among the virtues of the Hottentots which impressesed him the most are their conjugal fidelity and selflessness, especially if taken into account that they were presented in an antithesis to the lust, rapacity and individualism of the European settlers: They are loyal and love each other very much, as I have seen, that if one receives only little tobacco or brandy, he shares it with everyone around him or with him. Another characteristic of the Hottentots recalls the romantic descriptions of the noble savage (mainly of the North American Indians, the Tartars, the Gypsies and the Bedouins), but also the romantic perception of the migratory peoples: their desire for freedom, which is put in connection with the nomadic way of life. They move from one place to another, leaving the field without buildings when they get sick of it, choosing so another one, the whole country is open to them and they are everywhere at home, but they always look for such a place, where there is plenty of water and plenty of grass. So that their sheep do not suffer: and with such a lifestyle they think they are among the happiest in the world, they love the freedom very much and will not submit easily to a forced duty or to one of a slave, and not even the Dutch can order them anything in these respects, but more than this, they need to leave them alone with their way of life, so there is no wonder that they are so hard to tame. As in some accounts of the ancient authors about the noble barbarians, particularly about those who lived in the European territories North of the Danube270, G. Schuller (whose style in describing various barbarian peoples, tributary to the ancient 271 and medieval272 perceptions of the anthropological otherness reminds us in a way of Herodotus 273) establishes a direct connection between the temperate lifestyle of the Hottentots and their, as a
LeBlanc, Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003). 270 Zoe Petre, Practica nemuririi. O lectur critic a izvoarelor greceti referitoare la gei (Iai: Editura Polirom, 2004). 271 Arthur O. Lovejoy and George Boas, Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997). 272 George Boas, Primitivism and Related Ideas in the Middle Ages (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997). 273 For how Herodotus deals with otherness: Franois Hartog, The Mirror of Herodotus: the Representation of the Other in the Writing of History (Berkeley Los Angeles London: University of California Press, 1988).
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prerequisite for longevity and notes with admiration both their resistance to pain as their simple and ingenious treatments: they cure miraculously by one or two cuts on the forehead, so that the excessive humor drains out. He also admires the deep knowledge of the healing properties of various plants of the spontaneous flora and, once again, the simplicity and effectiveness of the remedies that they are preparing from them: the fields are full of unseen and rare plants and herbs that are not only of a rare beauty, but they have also strange and hidden powers, that the Hottentots understand well and of which with such rudimentary means they prepare all kinds of medicines, for all kinds of misfortunes that haunts them. These assessments, which complete G. Schullers account about the Hottentots, reflect his belief in their humanity, in their having virtues worthy of being cultivated, maybe with the assistance of the missionaries, as usually different 16th-19th century accounts suggest regarding the good savages who populated different regions of the colonial world or areas likely to be colonized. However, he did not mention this possibility explicitly, not even in the case of the different peoples of East India, perhaps precisely because he understood the power of solidarity inside the traditional indigenous communities, which were irreconcilable with the bordered individualism of the European settlers. He also might have considered difficult to achieve the Christianization of the Hottentots and the changing of their traditional way of life, because (having both the experience of the attitude of the Dutch towards the Lutheran and Roman Catholic religious service on the ships and in the colonies of the United East Indian Company274 and of the questionable quality of the religious reformed service offered on its ships by non-clergymen275) he does not seem to trust either the honesty or efficiency of the converting demarche through the efforts of the Reformed settlers. In conclusion, G. Schullers perspective on the Hottentots was not radically different from that of different authors in the 17th-18th century, who depicted the Hottentots as unworthy savages (in the 17th century) and as noble warriors (in the 18th century)276. The depictions of the Hottentots in 17th century graphic works 277 also confirm these conclusions. Schullers perspective on the realities of the Dutch East Indies is especially interesting not only because it reveals how a late 17th century Transylvanian understood the realities of colonial Southeast Asia, but also because, in general, the studies on the perception of the Asians by the Europeans belong to a slightly later period278. He described in detail the elements of the European civilization developed in Java and at the same time he offered his perspective on the Asian man, formulated
274 275
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 4 and 66. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 16, n. 2. 276 For the perception of the Hottentots in Occident: Franois -Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar, L'invention du Hottentot: histoire du regard occidental sur les Khoisan, XV e-XIXe sicle (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2002). 277 Andrew B. Smith, The Khoikhoi at the Cape of Good Hope: Seventeenth-Century Drawings in the South African Library (Cape Town: The South African Library, 1993). 278 Jrgen Osterhammel, Die Entzauberung Asiens. Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18. Jahrhundert (Mnchen: C. H. Beck, 1998).
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in a complex manner, often by comparison with more familiar realities: the Muslim immigrants from India were assimilated to the Moors and perceived through the typical Central European resentments against the Turks and, generally, against the Muslims, the Javanese were perceived as vicious and treacherous barbarians, and the Chinese, who were admired for their various qualities, were criticized (among other things) for some similarities between Buddhist and Catholic rituals. This last point is particularly important, because it was also mentioned at the time by the Jesuits 279, who by developing the so-called accommodationist doctrine, that accepts a compatibility between Confucianism and Christianity280 have used these similarities in their missionary work, eventually risking to generate tensions in their relations with other Catholic orders and with the papacy (the so-called Controversy of the Rites)281. The similarity of the methods used by the Jesuit monks and of those which were employed by the Buddhists was noticed not only by the modern authors282, but also by the Confucian Chinese officials in the early 17 th century283, which generally had an unfavorable opinion about Buddhism and Christianity, which they regarded as an avatar of the Buddhism which came back to China after it conquered the Western barbarians284. In the discourse concerning Buddhism, L. Borda argued, the similarity between some of the Buddhist and Christian practices has a long tradition among the European travelers, but it is constantly rediscovered by people who ignored the views of their predecessors 285. Certainly, for a Protestant like G. Schuller these similarities prove the idolatry of the Catholics and of various pagan populations of the colonial world, seen as a consequence of the deviation from the monotheistic faith, of which the Chinese would still keep vague traces, emphasized by him286. But completely different is the attitude of another Transylvanian, of Orthodox confession, Dumitru Nistor (1893-1971), a young Romanian peasant from Nsud who joined the Austro-Hungarian Navy (where, as a member of the Navy School of Pola, he sang as a tenor in the choir). Reaching Japan as a war prisoner (1914-1920), he noticed the similarities between the Buddhist and the Christian Orthodox liturgical music Buddhist during his detention in the monastery Keifukuji in Himeji, where he learned some Buddhist liturgical melodies and started to paint scenes from the life in the camps (collected by the
279 280
Gernet 1985, II, p. 138. For the perception of the Chinese by the Jesuits: David C. Mungello, Curious Land: Jesuit Accomodation and the Origins of Sinology (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989). 281 George Minamiki, The Chinese Rites Controversy: From its Beginning to Modern Times (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1985). 282 Jacques Gernet, Lumea chinez (Bucureti: Editura Meridiane, 1985), vol. II, 142; Octavian Simu, Civilizaia japonez tradiional (Bucureti: Editura tiinific i Enciclopedic, 1984), 75. 283 Gernet, Lumea chinez, vol. II, 138; C. P. Fitzgerald, Istoria cultural a Chinei (Bucureti: Editura Humanitas, 1998), 416-417; cf. Michela Fontana, Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Ming Court (Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2011), 44, 82 and 84. 284 Gernet, Lumea chinez, vol. II, 138. 285 Liviu Borda, apte ani n Asia (1913-1920). Experienele etnografice orientale ale unui ran din Carpai, Anuarul Institutului de Cercetri Socio-Umane "Gheorghe incai", 10 (2007), 122. 286 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 72-73.
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Academy of Art of Japan)287. Also worthy to be mentioned, the opinions about such similarities, belonging to two other Romanian Orthodox men, who traveled to the East about the same time as Dumitru Nistor: General Constantin Gvnescul, accompanying Prince Carol, the heir to the throne of Romania in his journey that the latter took around the world, visited the temple of Goya in 1920, noting that the ritual candles and vestments used by the Buddhist monks were similar to the Orthodox ones, that he almost intentioned to pray there according to the Orthodox ritual288, while his comrade, General Nicolae M. Condiescu (1880-1939), also a participant in the same trip, emphasizes not only the similarities, but also the differences in doctrine289. However, it is hard to say to what extent the Jesuit writings about China, especially De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu (Augsburg, 1615) by Matteo Ricci (1552-1610)290 in which the similarities between various Catholic dogmas and rituals and those of the Buddhists in China 291 were described, as well as many aspects of the daily life of the Chinese292 were known to G. Schuller. The only common element but which cannot be assigned to the reading of the mentioned work of the Jesuit missionary is that M. Ricci mentioned the banquets accompanied by boring theatrical performances 293, and G. Schuller described the theatrical performances of the grooms house, which (as there wa s no banquet there during day time) were preceding the brides bringing ritual294, to which he also witnessed, as a participant in a such ceremony295. It is worth mentioning, however that for the Buddhist priests he Transylvanian traveler used the term osciami 296 a Latinization of the Chinese term heshangmen, which designates the monks is encountered in the work of M. Ricci, who sees them as evil and abject297. G. Schuller mentions chia or Siam as the supreme Chinese deity, who would have
287 288
Borda, apte ani n Asia (1913-1920), 122. C. Gvnescul, Ocolul Pmntului n apte luni i o zi. Cltorie fcut cu A. S. R. Principele Carol, motenitorul tronului (Timioara: Editura Cartea Romneasc, [1925]), vol. II, 180. 289 N. M. Condiescu, Peste mri i ri. Impresiuni din cltoria n jurul pmntului (Bucureti: Fundaia Cultural Principele Carol, 1923), vol. II, 164, 173 and 175. 290 Concerning M. Riccis missionary work: Johann Hoffmann -Herreros, Matteo Ricci. Den Chinesen Chinese sein; ein Missionar sucht neue Wege (Mainz: Matthias Grnewald- Verlag, 1990); Vincent Cronin, The Wise Man from the West: Matteo Ricci and his Mission to China (London: Harvill Press, 2000); Jonathan D. Spence, El palacio de la memoria de Matteo Ricci: un jesuita en la China del siglo XVI (Barcelona: Tusquets editores, 2002); Jacques Bsineau, Matteo Ricci. Serviteur du Matre du Ciel (Paris: Descle de Brouwer, 2003); Paul Dreyfus, Matteo Ricci. homme qui voulait convertir la Chine (Paris: Fayard, 2004); Michela Fontana, Matteo Ricci, gesuita, scienziato, umanista in Cina (Roma: De Luca Editori Arte, 2010); Rita Haub and Paul Overholzer, Matteo Ricci und der Kaiser von China. Jesuitenmission im Reich der Mitte (Wrzburg: Echter- Verlag, 2010); R. Po-chia Hsia, A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552-1610 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). 291 Louis J. Gallagher, transl., China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matteo Ricci (New York: Random House, 1953), 98-99. 292 Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century, 15-18 and 21-25. 293 Ibidem, 21-23. 294 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 73-74. 295 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 74. 296 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 73. 297 Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century, 101.
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commissioned the devil to rule over the earth and punish the evil 298, while at Matteo Ricci Ciam was named the primordial high priest of the Daoists299, which according to his statements would be the current ruler of heaven, by usurping the position of his predecessor, Leu (i. e. Liu), which may be identified with Zhang Daoling (ca. 35165 CE), a (still) influential Daoist master in the island of Taiwan (Formosa), with which the United East Indian Company had extensive ties 300, while Liu could be the immortal alchemist Liuhai Xian301. Actually, Siam is only a wrong transcription for xian, the Chinese word which designates an imortal wise man, with various supranatural powers, similar to a i of the Vedic literature302. To designate the idols displayed on the Chinese domestic altars, G. Schuller uses the term josjen, that in the Dutch colonial jargon of Java is the plural form of jos, a term that comes from the Javanese word deyos, in its turn derived from the Portuguese word deos. All these demonstrate that, although he knew Cornelis de Houtmans 303 travelogue on the explorations, most of G. Schullers knowledge about the Asian populations did not seem to come from direct written sources, but rather from conversations and observation, which led to a particular perception of the anthropological and geographical otherness of the Dutch East Indies and favored the assimilation of some clichs, closer to his cultural background and which can be quite easily identified by a careful reader. These findings, as well as some confirmation of the information submitted by G. Schuller on his stopover in the Cape Colony - resulting from the study of the written records preserved in the South African archives remove any doubt about the authenticity of his travel narrative, which is not a bookish fiction, a cabinet work but the result of a personal experience. Concerning the population of Batavia 304, G. Schuller notes that because business is booming, all kinds of people settled there, and besides the Europeans coming from different countries, there were also Javanese people, Moors, Malabars and various other populations of India, Chinese etc., whom he intended to describe successively. The description of the Dutch East India seems to suggest that G. Schuller considered all of these areas as representing an exotic world, but radically different from that of the Cape Colony, more domesticated or, in other words, closer to the European standards. This perception is due, primarily, to the differences in symbolic status, because the Dutch East Indies, with their large population, was the real source of wealth and the final destination of those who had departed in search of them, not a mandatory stopover, like the Cape Colony, where the earnings depended
298 299
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 75. Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century, 102-103. 300 Jeremy Roberts, Chinese Mythology A to Z. Second edition (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2010), 150, s.v. Zhang Daoling (Chang Tao-ling). 301 Roberts, Chinese Mythology A to Z, 74-75, s.v. .Liuhai Xian (Liu-hai Hsien). 302 Victor H. Mair, Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu. (New York: Bantam, 1994), 376. 303 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 63. 304 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. Concerning the multiethnic society of the city of Batavia: Jean Gelman Taylor, The Social World of Batavia. European and Eurasians in Colonial Indonesia, 2nd edition. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009).
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largely on unfair commercial practices at the expense of the travelers passing by. Large differences also existed in the production and social relations: the crafts had a greater role in the economy (the shipbuilding was well developed, there was even an important production of military interest), the slavery had an important role in the domestic production, the number of the slave was far greater, there wass an interest for the production carried out by the imprisoned offenders. In addition, in the Dutch East Indies the native population had reached an advanced degree of development (there were native states and their leaders were trade and political partners of the colonial administration) and the earning opportunities attracted Muslim immigrants from India, but especially Chinese immigrants. The Chinese immigrants, through the detailed description of their lifestyle, were depicted in an implicit contrast with the Hottentot primitives, and their manners were sometimes regarded as superior to those of many Christians. However, in Batavia, due to the higher possibilities of earning and to a more intense transfer of the European civilization (also reflected in the existence of an orphanage), the shortcomings of the European society were felt more strongly, because it did not involve only abusive trade practices and nepotism, as in the Cape Colony, but also corruption, which was present at the highest levels of the colonial administration and was added to vices considered as typical for the Oriental populations (the irrational violence, the treachery, the adulterous debauchery, the consumption of opium, the idolatry, the xenophobia), as well as the allegiance to the Islamic faith, which was perceived as basically hostile to Christians. On the different Asian populations (except for the Chinese), G. Schuller recognized they possesed some skills, in trade and of technical nature (in goldsmithing, in shipbuilding and navigation), as well as, like the Hottentots, a good knowledge of the properties of local plants. From this perspective, if for G. Schuller the Hottentots represented an early stage of development, namely a savageness close to the animality, the Javanese and the Muslim immigrants from India were barbarians, the civilized being considered only the Europeans and, perhaps to a somewhat lower extent (mainly due to their nonChristian faith), the Chinese. Although not explicitly expressed by the author, this perspective comes out absolutely clear from the analysis of the description of the nature and of the traditions of these peoples and finds an echo in the belief expressed at the beginning of his story, that God comes to the rescue to all who trust in Him and is present in all places, even in the most distant countries, among the barbarians and the heathens305, which shows that G. Schuller really operated with these categories, which were typical for the theological discourse, as well as used also by the philosophers, the historians and geographers of the Baroque era, and which he could acquire by reading some travelogues or through sermons he had listened and from conversations. About the native population of the island of Java, the Transylvanian Saxon traveler did not write a great deal306 except for the context of discussing the ethnic origin of the slaves on the island - and generally had an unfavorable attitude towards
305 306
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 1. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 76 -77.
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it. He said that the Javanese were of yellowish-blackish complexion, long ears, flat nose, wearing long hair and a cap with a sharp point or a red cloth wrapped around the head, walking around mostly naked, without covering their shameful parts, and the nobles with a kris or dagger on their right side and characterized them like this: they are lazy scapegraces and they work little or not at all and they rely for everything on the fruitfulness of the country and on the hands of their wives . Concerning their religious beliefs and their vices, he added: they all are idolaters and confess the transmigration, but some of them profess the Quran and are Mohammedans. They are big lovers of opium, which they call aviont and they smoke it greedily wit h their own tobacco, they have a secret hate against the Dutch, whom they regard with a nasty look, eventually reaching the amok. He describes the amok as a condition resulting from that they eat opium in excess, until they are full of it, and lose their minds when running, wearing weapons in their hands on every street of the city and stabbing anyone they meet, and they never stop until they fall themselves, and such sad performances are often happening in Batavia. He added how the Javanese were deceived by their wives, about whom he says: ... they are passionate and lead into temptation some Europeans, whom they like a lot because of their white skin. They know how to do wonderful things with a plant they call datura307, on the one they want to attract: they give the juice of this plant to their husbands, which intoxicates them and make them laugh and then to fall like reasonless people into a deep sleep. The wives, being totally safe, enjoy their lovers in presence of their husbands, who are outside any knowledge. The power of this drink makes them sleep often up to 24 hours and if it is desired to awake again to life these poor horned men, then their feet are washed with cold water, but they have too little knowledge about everything that happened. The xenophobia of the Javanese, about which G. Schuller spoke, actually reflects the perspective of the United East Indian Companys leadership and must be understood as referring to the hostility towards itself, and not to a hostile attitude towards the non-Islamic populations, because generally the Islamic opponents of the
307
There are different species of Devils trumpet (called also Jimsonweed, stinkweed, thorn apple or mad apple), toxic plants whose main psychoactive alkaloides are the hyoscyamine and the scopolamine, and in smaller and specific various amounts, they contain as well as hyoscine, atropine, norscopolamine and meteloidine: Richard Evans Schultes, Hallucinogenic Plants (New York: Golden Press, 1976), 142; Deborah Stevens, Serita and Anne Klarner, Deadly Doses: A Writers Guide to Poisons (Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books, 1990), 45. in smaller amounts, the plants contains also different other alkaloids, like hyoscine, atropine, norscopolamine and meteloidine, in specific concentration: Schultes, Hallucinogenic Plants, 142; cf. Stevens and Klarner, Deadly Doses, 45. The whole plan tis toxic, but especially the juices and the wilted leaves (Stevens and Klarner, Deadly Doses, 45) and the seeds (Schultes, Hallucinogenic Plants, 142). The hallucinogenic drinks are prepared by dropping pulverized seeds into fermented drinks or steeping leaves and twigs in water: Schultes, Hallucinogenic Plants, 142. In case of an intoxication, would be noted headache, vertigo, extreme thirst, dry burning sensation of skin, dilated pupils, blurred vision, loss of sight, involuntary motion and convulsions, mania, delirium, drowsiness, weak pulse, than coma and after some hours the death can occure: Stevens and Klarner, Deadly Doses, 45; cf. Schultes, Hallucinogenic Plants, 142. The antidote consists in taking as purgative a solution of magnesium sulphate (Epsom salt), and a sedative for convulsions: Stevens and Klarner, Deadly Doses, 45.
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Company asked for English, Siamese or Balinese support against it308. Then G. Schuller also mentioned the sailing skill of the Javanese, who used some logboats with sharp ends and rounded hull, to which they attached catamarans. When they were traveling on sea with these very fast ships, they almost always took their wives with them and wondered very much that in such travels the Europeans refrained from women. Although it refers only to the Javanese (not to the Chinese in the island and to the Muslim immigrants from India), G. Schullers information on the consumption of opium mixed with tobacco completes the data in other 17 th century reports about eating madak (a mixture of tobacco with opium) by the Chinese in Batavia, as well as in various European sources, according to which the Chinese got the vice of the opium consumption in Assam309 and appear to support the latest opinions on the role of the land and sea trade with India and Southeast Asia and the Buddhist and Islamic pilgrimages and missions in the spreading of opium310. Talking about the Moors311, who were according to him - in large numbers in this city, G. Schuller actually refers to the Muslims from different parts of India ruled by the Great Mogul (of which he mentions Agra, Ahmedabad and Deccan), about whom he wrote that they traded with silk and gems, and some of them worked as jewelers. He describes them as black and fully dressed in white, in clothes with very tight sleeves and wearing a turban on the head. He characterized them as a cunning and deceitful people, which should not be trusted, as they fulfilled a promise only if they had profit of it. He added that they also were very fanatical Muslims, who used to poison their graves to protect them from the Europeans, whom they considered to be unclean, as all Christians were considered to be. Even G. Schullers informations about this Islamic population were few and, actually, of an extremely limited documentary interest, as he presented it even before referring to the native people of Java. A possible explanation could be his hostility towards the Muslims, related to the manner in which they were perceived in the ethnic and cultural environment he came from, but also to the existing information concerning the xenophoby of the Indian population towards the Europeans and especially the Dutch, which was well attested in the 17th century in the regions from which G. Schuller says that these Islamic immigrants were coming312, and with which the United East Indian Company had intense trade relations at that time, but which it could not bring under its political control313.
308 309
M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia, 108-109. Matthias Seefelder, Opium. Eine Kulturgeschichte (Mnchen: Deutsche Taschenbuch- Verlag, 1990), 152-153. 310 Seefelder, Opium, 148. 311 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 76. 312 Gijs Kruijtzer, Xenophobia in Seventeenth-Century India (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2009). 313 Hans van Santen, Shah Jahan Wore Glasses: Some Remarks on the Impact of the Dutch East India Company on Northern India and Suggestions for Further Research, in Circumambulations in South Asian History: Essays in Honor of Dirk H. A. Kolff, ed. Jos Gommans and Om Prakash (Leiden Boston: Brill, 2003), 47-67.
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He also mentioned the mestizos (which he called Mastissen and defined as being born from the marriage of Dutch men with native women), and also the Dutch people born from marriages between Dutch men with mestizo women, whom he called Castissen and about whom he says that they were considered Europeans 314. This male and Eurocentric perspective on the racial rather than ethnic and cultural realities can be explained by the fact that, although the author did not confess it explicitly enough, he took into account the legitimate progeny of such marriages, as well as an objective reality: in the colony the number of European women was lower and, if they enjoyed social prestige, they were not married to the natives. Given that in his text the depiction of these two categories of Batavias population precedes directly the description of the slaves condition, it was assumed that especia lly the mestizos were of a somewhat inferior status in respect to the European population and to the individuals assimilated to it, resulting from relations between Europeans and mestizo women. It is a phenomenon which he did not know enough, or on which he did not wish to insist, but which actually reflects a specific reality for colonial Latin America, where the categories mestizo and castizo were known. They arose mainly from the discrimination regarding the civil rights, as a result of a social system in which the purity of blood (limpieza de sangre), which originally served in evaluating the nobility in relation to the pur ity degree of its lineage from the old Christians and not from Hebrew or Muslim converts, but which became be an organizing element, in both racial and religious sense, adapted to the colonial realities and becoming in this way a standard of Hispanicity315. Hee was mostly interested in the Chinese population of Batavia, to which he devoted several pages 316 of a dense exposure, more rigorously and more logically structured than the description of the Hottentots. He noticed that in Batavia and around the city the number of the Chinese residents reached over 12 000 people and that they represented the largest part of the population. He explained their massive settling there by the fact that after the conquest of China by the Tartars (the Manchus), due to the great freedoms they enjoyed from the Dutch and especially because they should not cut their hair according to the Tartarian style 317. He says the Chinese are doing an intense trade with the Dutch, which consists of porcelain, tea, rhubarb, cinnamon, silks and all sorts of cakes, and the tea can be purchased in Batavia 100 pounds for ten thalers and that the junks come from China each year and bring with them all kinds of goods, which the Dutch barter for spices and other similar things 318. However, he
314
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 67. Concerning the role of this Castissen in the construction of a colonial "Dutch" identity: Ulbe Bosma and Remco Raben, Being "Dutch" in the Indies: A History of Creolisation and Empire, 15001920 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009). 315 Albert A. Sicroff, Les controverses des statutes de puret de sang en Espagne du XVe au XVIIe sicle (Paris: Didier, 1960); Albert A. Sicroff, Los estatutos de Limpieza de Sangre (Madrid: Taurus Ediciones SA, 1985); Mara Elena Martnez, Genealogical Fictions: Limpieza de Sangre, Religion, and Gender in Colonial Mexico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008). 316 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71-76. 317 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. 318 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 76.
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added with astonishment, that no matter what, buying and selling, and even the paying itself they do it according to the weight, because they believe that in this way the deception that would take place will be less significant 319. For showing him so much politeness during his stay in Batavia, he characterized the Chinese as overly mannered, hospitable and courteous, because they love and cherish the foreigners and do not seem to cultivate falseness 320. He says they greet one each other with great honors and describes their way of greeting: they close the left hand and cover it with the right hand and they bring it in this way in front of the chest, taking in the same time many bows, both with their head as the whole body, showing thus that from their whole heart they are so tied to one another, like the hands they brought together on the chest321. He considers that the Dutch have a great benefit from the Chinese, because they were very honest and hardworking 322. In support of his sayings, he mentions a Chinese young man named Matheysgen, who held a right and reliable neighborhood with me and I want to say that in what concerns the morality, he put some Christians to shame323. It is obvious that, compared with his attitude towards other Asian populations of Java with which he came into contact, G. Schuller admires the Chinese. However, he tells about them that they are good orators, they love the liberal arts, they trust much in astrology and chemistry, are lovers of pleasures and women, but at the same time they become too fierce and bold, through their large crowd or through too much happiness324. He complains about them, too, that they waste money on their holidays325 and their formal religiosity, which occupies a secondary place in relation to their everyday worries: in both holidays I could notice too little piety, as the most postpone their labor and trade, thinking that they have done enough putting some fruit before their gods, in thanksgiving326. Some elements in G. Schullers perspective on the Chinese can also be found in the later narratives of 19th century and first half of the 20th century travelers, while other are radically different, due to the developments of the relations between the Chinese, the various native peoples and the colonial authorities in South East Asia. These are unanimous on the fact that, compared with different other peoples of Southeast Asia, the Chinese, who contributed much to the development of the Malay states327 and generally of this region, were much more lucrative328 and honest 329,
319 320
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 72. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. 321 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 72. 322 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. 323 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71-72. 324 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 72. 325 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 74. 326 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 75. 327 Wu Xiao An, Chinese Business in the Making of a Malay State, 1882-1841: Kedah and Penang (London New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003). 328 J. G. D. Campbell, Siam in the Twentieth Century: Being the Experiences and Impressions of a British Official (London: Edward Arnold, 1902), 271; Frank Elias, The Gorgeous East: India, Burma, Ceylon, and Siam (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1913), 198-199; cf. Henri Mouhot, Travels in the Central
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although the mid-19th century French trade publications drew attention to the fact that the Chinese traders were dishonest, trying to deceive both in the quantity and in the quality of goods330. The Chinese were however considered to be thrifty people, at least in comparison to the Burmese331, who were known profligates 332. Thus, contrary to the view of Rajah Charles Brooke (1868-1917), of the official media and of Sarawak Rajahs European entourage333 or of the British senior officials in the late 19th and early 20th century, who saw in the Chinese colonization a way to ensure a rapid development of the colonial territories in Southeast Asia (and particularly in Borneo)334, according to the most representatives of the European and American colonial interests, the economic, social and cultural disaster concerning the native populations was due to the Chinese traders and not to the colonial domination, whose intermediaries the latter were335. Therefore, the Japanese occupation in Kalimantan was generally favorable to the Malays and brutal to the Chinese population 336, which was better organized, more influential economically and deemed as potentially hostile, being under the influence of the nationalist, as well as communist propaganda. These stereotypes justified the hostility against the Chinese of the colonial authorities (apparently manifested since the 18th century337), which sometimes (because of the problems arising from domestic discontent) tried to restrict the Chinese immigration through high taxes that they imposed on the Chinese population. It happened in French Indochina338 and, especially, during the Japanese occupation forces during the Second World War and these stereotypes were adopted later, after decolonization, by the radical nationalist political circles from Indonesia and especially by the Indonesian military elite, which through a strong pressure on the civilian majority population (pribumi) and, especially, on the traditional communities from less accessible regions
Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia and Laos, During the Years 1858, 1859, and 1860 (London: John Murray, 1864), vol. I, 99 and II, 114. 329 Elias, The Gorgeous East, 199; Robert B. Thurber, In the Land of Pagodas (Nashville Atlanta Fort Worth: Southern Publishing Association, 1921), 66. 330 Mouhot, Travels, vol. I, 99. 331 Thurber, In the Land of Pagodas, 65-66. 332 Thurber, In the Land of Pagodas, 69. 333 W. H. Treacher, British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo (Singapore: The Government Printing Departement, 1891), 67 and 69; S. Baring Gold and C. A. Bampfylde, A History of Sarawak under its Two White Rajahs, 1839-1908 (London: Henry Sotheran & Co., 1909), 3132. 334 Treacher, British Borneo, 69-71; William Eleroy Curtis, Egypt, Burma and British Malaysia (Chicago New York Toronto London Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1905), 271-272; Charles Crosthwaite, The Pacification of Burma (London: Edward Arnold, 1912), 41. 335 Leo Suryadinata, Pribumi Indonesians, The Chinese Minority and China: A Study of Perceptions and Policies (Singapore: Heinemann Asia, 1986); cf. Gabrielle M. Vassal, On & Off Duty in Annam (London: William Heinemann, 1910) 3; Crosthwaite, The Pacification of Burma, 41. 336 Craig Lockard, Southeast Asia in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 145; Keat Gin Ooi, The Japanese Occupation of Borneo, 1941/1945 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011), 65-66. 337 Nancy Lee Peluso, Passing the red bowl: creating community identity through violence in West Kalimantan, 1967-1997, in Violent Conflicts in Indonesia: Analysis, Representation, Resolution , ed. Charles A. Copper (London New York: Routledge, 2006), 115. 338 Vassal, On & Off Duty in Annam, 3-4.
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were also transmitted to the society, particularly in the Indonesian part of the island of Kalimantan. Its effects were also felt later where the Indonesian national identity was built mainly on the strength of the local reaction (especially in the islands of Java and Sumatra) against the Dutch colonial rule, and strengthened during the authoritarian political regimes after decolonization and faced most violently the stronger Chinese national identity, as well as local identities, sometimes of a traditional nature. As physical appearance, G. Schuller describes the Chinese as being tall, with wide, round faces, small eyes with large eyebrows, which were placed very high, having black hair - which they considered a mark of distinction and which they used to bind in a loop through which they plunged a needle -, small and flat noses, long but rare beard, their complexion depending on the climate in which they or their mothers were born339. Regarding the clothing of the Chinese men, G. Schuller says that everyone in Java had long and loose silken shirts, long trousers and extra wide shoes, and if they went to feasts or during the holidays they wore over them another brown or blue robe and on their forehead a fine hair net 340. About the Chinese women he says that they let themselves rarely be seen and that they are sumptuously dressed in long white robes, having their hands most often covered341. Although he noted that the Chinese had long nails at the left hand, while their right hand nails were short, he did not insist on this strange habit 342. Instead, mentioning the custom of binding the feet of the Chinese women, saying that small feet are seen by them as a special ornament and that when they are young and still growing, they are forced to not be able to grow343. However, he did not add more details about this strange and cruel custom. According to the Chinese tradition, the custom of footbinding is traditionally considered to provide the erotic achievement of the woman, because of the difficulty of the women to travel and work (which determines a cast behavior and stress their dependence to the family), and by the waddle due to this difficulty (considered however attractive by the men, whose protective conduct was believed that it would stimulate), as well as the fact that it was claimed that the development of the thigh muscles would cause a contraction of the vaginal muscles344.
339 340
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. 341 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 73. 342 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 72. 343 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 73. 344 Howard S. Levy, L'erotismo dei piedi cinesi (Milano: Sugarco Edizioni, 1966); Howard S. Levy, The Lotus Lovers: The Complete History of the Curious Erotic Tradition of Foot Binding in China (New York: Prometheus Books, 1991); Beverley Jackson, Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of an Erotic Tradition (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1998); Dorothy Ko, Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); Dorothy Ko, Cinderellas Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005). For the way in which the footbinding is done: Wang Ping, Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China (New York: Anchor Books, 2002). Concerning the feminist perception of the footbinding: Fan Hong, Footbinding, Feminism and Freedom (London: Frank Cass, 1997).
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Through their exotic and picturesque nature, the Chinese traditions retained his attention and he often described them with many details, whether concerning their way to feed or their faith, or about their holidays or their rituals of marriage or funerals. On the Chinese food habits, G. Schuller says: At their feasts they put as many tables and chairs how their guests are. They do not use any cover or cloth, because the table is beautifully painted, gilded and adorned with all kinds of mechanisms. They put food on the table, which are served in the finest porcelain bowls. Fish and meat are without bones and instead of fork they use two thin wooden sticks, with which they can bring out the food in a very comely way. They drink all their drinks hot and consider this as being well, each one having their own porcelain cup345. Obviously, the Transylvanian traveler was impressed not only by the refinement of the Chinese meals, but also by the decent and hygienic way of the Chinese to feed, just by reporting what he knew about the habits of the ordinary Europeans, who at that time were less concerned with such issues. G. Schuller wrote about the religious beliefs of the Chinese, describing the rituals of worship of the ancestors and of great real or legendary personalities, as well as Buddhism, but as he believed that the Chinese actually belonged to two sects, he did not make always a clear distinction between the specific rituals of each Chinese religion and tried to understand them according to the Protestant manner in which the religious otherness was perceived and related the Christianity to the Protestant doctrines and the idolatry to the Catholic faith: Concerning their religion could be noted that since ancient times they all recognized and worshiped a single supreme god, which they called The King of Heaven and Earth. They believe, however, that heaven and earth would be living animals, whose souls they consider to be the supreme god. Beside them, they honor some spirits, but with less esteem. They believe that good and evil will not be rewarded after death, but in this life, to the man himself or his successors. The sect celebrates every year the commemoration of the deceased ancestors, although they do it mostly in April, with a large feast or preparation, thereby to teach the children how reverence and obedience are due to the parents because of whom they are alive, because a similar one is to shown to the dead, and it brought so much help, that the children honor so much their parents as in no other place in the world. There is also another sect in Batavia. It teaches that the gods would be merged into one deity, they think that those who are godly will be rewarded in heaven and the wicked will be punished in hell, but still not eternally, because they think that after a few years the souls will be clothed with other bodies in another world (they say there are more worlds). They have three to four churches here and they are full of idols, which all have a terrible shape. The osciami or their priests trim their heads and beards, contrary to the general custom. In their divine service they use appliances and a lot of ceremony, so it resembles the Catholic service. They honor the men who by their art or inventions became great and keep them as gods, as they keep also Bilo, who would have discovered the salt and threw it across the water, across
345
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 72.
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which they sail back and forth, crying out loudly Bilo Bilo. Everybody has in his house an idol, which they call Josjen, on a small altar, and in his honor they lit wax candles, make fumigations, offer a sacrifice every morning and fall with great reverence in front of him346. He talks also about some of the traditional Chinese holidays: their New Year begins in February, is celebrated by them for many days, with incredible ostentation. During this time they have all sorts of foolish pranks and acrobatics, they disguise themselves like our jesters on Shrove Tuesday, and they have a monstrous dragon of paper, with which they do all sorts of pranks. The Chinese have two different holidays, which they celebrate every month. Namely, when the Moon is full, they take sacrifices to their gods and worship them with all kinds of fruits and sweets and they do this especially to please the devil, because they claim that it was made governor of the earth and made to punish the evil don e by their great chia or Siam, which in their opinion is the lord and god over all things. The other celebration is when the Moon is at its lowest phase347. Speaking about the family lif e of the Chinese, he said that every man has a woman, which he receives with honor, according to the law. But besides this, he has other additional wives, as many as he can honorably maintain. The son of the legitimate wife is the preeminent heir. [...] Their law does not prevent any engagement, than with sisters and daughters. Whoever has the most daughters is also the richest, because no groom can take his bride, before being giving a wonderful gift to her parents for bringing her up348. Then he described in detail the wedding ritual: When one of the Chinese reaches maturity, he woos by his parents or in their absence by his closest friends, who are striving until the virgin agrees and promises to him that she will marry him, whom she has not seen a single day of her life. At the determined date, when the wedding is held, all the relatives and acquaintances gather in the grooms house, where a beautiful preparation is made, to greet the guests. It should be known, however, that during the day they do not take part in any banquet, but their eyes and ears enjoy watching and listening to a comedy, associated with music of bright sounding music of pleasantly sounding bowls, at whose end before the grooms house there is a fine theater show, in which often 7-8 years old children move in way hat amazed me and I doubt that the Italians could compare to them. The garments of the comedians are sumptuous, full of golden and silvery varnish, the grooms room is adorned in the most beautiful way, and in the middle there is a shrine full of offerings, as pigs, hens, all kinds of beautiful fruits and flowers to bring divine honor, by standing with others saints on the highest step of the altar. At certain times of the day the bridegroom comes in priestly garment before the altar, falls in front of him, praying the gods that sit on the altar and presents with great piety the sacrifice placed there. During this devotion, a great noise of drums, cymbals and other string instruments common to them is heard. To everybody who enters they show with great honor a Chinese casket with sujnang, from which he can then take as much as he
346 347
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 72-73. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 74-75. 348 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 73.
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pleases. In the evening, all the guests are leaving, walking two by two, to the house of the bride, with a great noise of cymbals and drums, each holding in his hand a burning torch; the groom is in the middle and wears a black silken robe, the head and figure being completely covered, in the meantime the brides party coming out in a similar procession. The bride is adorned in the most expensive way, is carried in a palanquin or litter and namely a covered one, that she cannot be seen. When they finally meet, they hear a great cry of joy, each party to the other in the friendliest way and they return to the grooms house, where in a separate room they lock the bride with the groom. Then the feast starts, anyone who comes in such an occasion being well received. The entire neighborhood keeps the feast of their joy and hangs lanterns outside, in honor of the newlyweds. In the region where there are rich people there are a lot of fireworks - as the Chinese are so skilled in the craft of the artillery and the comedy lasts for the entire night, and at the end the old women sell all kind of cakes, food and fruit, as a great crowd of people comes from all corners of the city349. About the funerary traditions of the Chinese, G. Schuller wrote: The Chinese use to wash the bodies of their dead and to dress them in expensive, though white clothes, and all the relatives kneel, each according to his rank, with profound reverence and a sad face and with low-spirited gestures, in front of the deceased. Once completed this ceremony, the dead is placed in a thick and solid wooden coffin and this is put on a table, in a costly adorned room. But the coffin is covered with a white cloth, which reaches the ground, and over this a portrait of the deceased, before of it everyone looks in a very humble manner. In the waiting chamber located in close proximity is placed a table with burning lights, bread and all kinds of food, cooked things and fruit for the sacrificing priests, who burn a lot of incense and colored paper for a few days. Once these days have passed, 40 or 80 people wear the coffin in a beautiful arrangement, under a beautiful canopy, with all kind of figures and a curtain, taking it with ceremony outside the city (somewhere not far from the Jacaera ditch, in a wooded and shady field, where they have their graves), where there are all the relatives and the good friends of the deceased with their women, covered with a veil. When they reach the grave, they burn a lot of paper in honor of the deceased. As soon as the grave is opened, around it there are many tables loaded with all sorts of dishes, of which everyone eats as much as they please and when they think that the deceased would have had enough, they throw the remains along with many other things into the grave, so that the dead would dispose of them while leaving the world. After the pit is filled, many eulogies are written on it. The Chinese do not spare even the smallest thing which is necessary to adorn their tombs and for their end they choose places outside the city, for which they make doors and steps and add all kind of things, building them like a chapel, in which they depose the coffin of the deceased along with his portrait350. As a keen observer of the different aspects of the way of life of the Chinese in Batavia, G. Schuller recorded, more or less explicitly, some consequences of their
349 350
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 73-74. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 75-76.
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contact with the Europeans or with other populations. Remembering the young Chinese called Matheysgen, whose morality put some Christians to shame351, he refered indirectly to the adoption of European names by the Chinese (frequently even by those who did not convert to Christianity), due to the difficulty the Europeans have to remember and to pronounce Chinese names. He wrote also other aspects on the acculturation to which the Chinese were exposed in Java, explained by their open attitude towards foreigners352: it concerned the marriages that they were forced to enter with Indian and Mestizo women, due to the difficulty of bringing women overseas from China353 and their enjoyment of watching the native wayang theater, also played when they celebrate their birthdays 354. Maybe because of his sympathy towards the Chinese and his obvious hostility towards the native people of Java, G. Schuller attributed the addiction to opium only to the Javanese, to which he states that it would be generalized355, saying nothing about the Chinese, on which the impact of this vice is well-known even from contemporary local sources 356. 6. Dutch Written Sources that Confirm and Complete G. Schullers Reports G. Schullers account in the first part of his travelogue were partially confirmed and completed by the study of contemporary Dutch written sources from the archives of the Cape Colony, related to the activity of the merchant Samuel Elsevier, the Deputy Governor (Lieutenant Governor) of the colony. These records, sometimes copies of the documents which were sent to the Companys management, to Amsterdam or to the colonial authorities from Batavia 357, offer some information about the berthing of the ship Ysselmonde at Caep of Goode Hoop (now Cape Town) and about some incidents on board of the ships in the convoy of which the vessel belonged. The research of the Companys archives constituted in Batavia could also offer additional data on the voyages of the ships on which G. Schuller travelled, on his way to Batavia, respectively, to Amsterdam358, on his return from the Dutch East
351 352
Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71 -72. Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 71. 353 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 73. 354 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 74. Concerning the traditional theatre of Southeast Asia: James R. Brandon, Theatre in Southeast Asia, second printing (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1974). 355 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 77. 356 Seefelder, Opium, 152-153. 357 Concerning the Central Administration of the United East Indian Company and its relations with the local institutions of Batavia: Hendrik E. Niemeijer, The Central Administration of the VOC Government and the local institutions of Batavia (1619-1811) an Introduction, in The Archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Local Institutions in Batavia (Jakarta), by G. L. Balk et al. (Leiden Boston: Brill, 2007), 61-139. 358 Concerning the organization of the United East Indian Company: F. S. Gaastra, The Organization of the VOC, in The Archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Local Institutions in Batavia (Jakarta), by G. L. Balk et al. (Leiden Boston: Brill, 2007), 13-59.
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Indies, as well as concerning his presence in Batavia 359 or even about the other Transylvanians who arrived in the Dutch East Indies. According to Delia A. Robertsons 360genealogical research on the population of Cape Town in the first decades of the settlement (after 1652), Samuel Elsevier (whose name was sometimes written as Samuel Elzevier) was born in Gravenhage supposedly around 1665. Around 1684 he married Anna Maria Six van Chandelier (born in aprox. 1670), with whom he had a daughter, Johanna Constantia Elsevier (born ca. 1685), who was to marry the Rev. Henricus Beck361 and leave for the Netherlands at 1720, having the permission to take with her a slave362. Maybe a widower, S. Elsevier remarried on the 28th October 1703 in Nederduitsche Gereformeerde Kerk in Caep of Goode Hoop with Maria Wasti in Leiden (born aprox. 1683). According to a document dated on the 1st of March 1700, a relative of S. Elsevier, named Abraham Elsevier was the mayor of Rotterdam363. As Deputy Governor in the Cape Colony, S. Elsevier had been appointed to replace the late Andries de Man, and his appointment was announced already by a letter sent on the 10th of November 1695 from Amsterdam, in which it was specified that he would have a monthly salary of 80 florins and would arrive soon after 364. A letter sent to Batavia on the 8th of May 1697, on to the decision of the directors of the East Indian Company to appoint S. Elsevier as a Deputy Governor, mentions his arrival and of his family on the ship Ysselmonde and also that the house which was foreseen for the holder of this function was given to him 365, confirming thus Schullers account on S. Elseviers presence on board of Ysselmonde. The ship was anchored on the 19th of April 1697, as it is mentioned in a letter sent on the 24th of January 1698 to the directors of the United East Indian Company in Amsterdam366, the date corresponding to that mentioned in his account by G. Schuller 367, who says that S. Elsevier and his family members had already landed in the evening of the 18 th of April 1698, being transported by a boat which came from the shore368. On the 31st of July 1698, a letter sent from Amsterdam announced that on the 27th of December 1697 Willem Adriaan van der Stel, formerly magistrate in Amsterdam, was appointed as Governor and that he was traveling to the Cape Colony on board of the ship Stad Ceulen, as well as that among the employees appointed to assist at the transfer of
359
Concerning the history of the archives in Batavia: G. L. Balk, F. van Dijk and D. J. Kortlang, History of the Archives, in The Archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Local Institutions in Batavia (Jakarta), by G. L. Balk et al. (Leiden Boston: Brill, 2007), 141-168. 360 http://www.e-family.co.za/ffy/g8/p8835.htm (accessed on May 31, 2013). 361 H. C. V. Leibbrandt, Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope. Requesten (Memorials), 17151806 (Cape Town: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, 1905), vol. I, 43, 411 and 413. 362 Leibbrandt, Requesten (Memorials), 1715-1806, vol. I, 413. 363 H. C. V. Leibbrandt, Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope. Letters Despatched, 1696-1708 (Cape Town: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, 1896), 146. 364 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 4. 365 Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 1696-1708, 38. 366 Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 63. 367 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 46. 368 Schuller, Beschreibung einer Reise nach Java, 45.
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authority from father to son was also mentioned S. Elsevier 369, who would continue to hold the position of the Cape Colonys Deputy Governor during the entire office of the new governor. The sources confirm that S. Elsevier assumed his duties soon after his arrival, duties which included judicial investigations and different issues related to sailing. An order from the 9th of July 1697 of Governor Simon van der Stel required from S. Elsevier to send two officers and a surgeon to investigate a homicide resulting from a brawl and to conduct an autopsy of the victim370. Among this kind of investigations there were also those concerning the wrecks of the ships which stranded on the territory of the colony, as shown by a letter of the 29th of May 1698371 about the investigations conducted from the 29th of May to the 9th of June 1698 for the recovery of money, of the cargo and of the cannons from the wrecks of the ships Huis te Crayenstein and Amy, who belonged to a convoy of the United East Indian Company, which also included the vessels Oosterstein and Waddinxveen, which sank in Table Bay372. The examination of the ship wreck Huis Crayenstein became the subject of a report to the leadership of the Company, sent on 28th of May 1698373. In addition to his official and commercial duties, S. Elsevier also employed himself while in the Cape Colony with the agriculture, acquiring from the new governor the Klapmuts farm, situated on a land which had been unused since 1682, near a fort of the United East Indian Company, in whose proximity previously two farmers settled illegally and had their lands (adjacent to S. Elseviers farm) confiscated because of their proximity to the already abandoned fort, which caused conflicts between them and the new farm owner 374. The situation in the area seems to have been quite tense during 1700-1706, but not only because of these disputes with the former owners of those lands. As mentioned in a letter sent on the 2 nd of October 1706 from Stellenbosch by Johannes Starrenburgh, in the region where S. Elseviers farm was situated, a gang of black teens, dealing with cattle theft, acted 375. For his vineyard from the place called Domburgh, S. Elsevier demanded military protection on the 25th of March 25 1705376 and probably due to tensions in the area he preferred to hire on short term some soldiers of the Company as laborers. It is known that this is what he did in January-February 1700 (5 soldiers)377, in September 1701 (one
369
Hendrik Carel Vos Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1688-1700 (Cape Town: J. C. Juta and Co., 1887), 2; cf. H. C. V. Leibbrandt, Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope. Letters Received, 1655-1708 (Cape Town: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, 1896), 158. 370 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 143. 371 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 184. 372 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 184-189. 373 Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives, 153-154; cf. Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 1696-1708, 81-82. 374 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 425-426. 375 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 402. 376 H. C. V. Leibbrandt, Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope. The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel (Cape Town: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, 1897), 174. 377 Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 111.
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soldier)378, on the 9th of April 1703 (one soldier)379, in May 1704 (3 soldiers)380 and in March 1706 (one soldier)381. After S. Elseviers dismissal and his departure to the Netherlands, the farm was sold, but only in 1717, as proved by a complaint from one of his former slaves, Leander from Malabar, against the Prince of Ternate, who bought him on that occasion for 201 rands, because he did not want to release him after he had returned the said amount 382. Also about 1717 Reverend Henricus Beck from Stellenbosch, who claimed to be S. Elseviers son -in-law, stated that the latter was living at the time in the Netherlands 383. For the settlement of disputes in the Cape Colony due to the tensions between the authorities of the colony and a part of the settlers, in Amsterdam it was decided on the 30th of October 1706 to replace all these officials, preserving their salaries and ranks and it was recommended for them to go to the Netherlands with the first returning fleet in 1707 384. A letter sent on the 13th of June 1707 from Stellenbosch informs the colonial authorities about various offenses brought against S. Elsevier 385, and the copy of a report forwarded on the 18th of September 1707 or 1708 to the General Governor and to the Council of the Dutch Indies about the quarrels between Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the Governor of the Cape Colony and several other individuals mentions S. Elsevier as a signer of a declaration concerning the offense brought by a citizen to the governor and says that there were also complaints concerning the legality of S. Elseviers possession of t he above mentioned farm386. A letter dated the 23rd of September 1707, sent from Batavia states, however, that, except for a single official of the Cape Colony, none of them (among whom S. Elsevier was also mentioned) cannot depart with the fleet which will head the Netherlands in 1707387. On the 22nd of October 1707 Amsterdam transmitted that former governors and Deputy Governors (S. Elsevier) remaining could in no way be tolerated and that they should return the Netherlands with the mentioned fleet 388. In his defense addressed to the Directors of the United East Indian Company, the former governor considers the accusations against S. Elsevier to be malicious accusations 389 adding that his accusers had enjoyed his kindness and help, and that the abusive statements about how he would have acquired the farm can only be abhorred 390 and - mentioning the
378 379
Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 116. Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 118. 380 Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 120. 381 Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 124. 382 H. C. V. Leibbrandt, Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope. Requesten (Memorials), 17151806 (Cape Town: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, 1906), vol. II, 665. 383 Leibbrandt, Requesten (Memorials), 1715-1806, vol. I, 411. 384 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 432; cf. Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 65-66. 385 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 443. 386 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 420. 387 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 449. 388 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 469. 389 Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 35. 390 Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 36-37.
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circumstances in which the farm Klapmuts was acquired by S. Elsevier he suggests that they were caused by the the former owners envy of the prosperity Elsevier reached, by maize cultivation, viticulture and cattle breeding391. The transfer of authority to the new team of colonial officials took place on the 3 rd of June 1707, as a letter sent to Batavia a day later 392 shows and S. Elsevier left the colony on board of Roosenburgh, apparently unaccompanied by the family as proved by a report sent on the 18th of April 1708 to the management of the Company393. Related to the journey of the ship Ysselmonde from the Netherlands to the Cape of Good Hope, the written sources from the archives of Cape Town refer to an interesting incident. A letter dated the 30th of November 1697, sent from Batavia, asked for the notes of the steward and of the cellarman on the extraordinary consumption of Chief Merchant S. Elsevier and his family in their cabin on board of Ysselstein, in order for them to be paid and an account to be given on them 394. From the copy of these notes one can see that there was an excessive consumption of liquor395, and another letter sent from Batavia, on the 6th of December, confirmed that the explanations had been given396. There were certainly unfounded accusations, because the authorities of the Cape Colony decided much earlier to sanction the captain and the ship lower commercial agent of Ysselmonde for the excessive consumption of liquor and notified this by a letter sent on the 8 th of May 1697 to Batavia397. The above mentioned letter (30th of November 1697) of the colonial authorities in Batavia reveals that on the ships Ysselmonde, Donkervliet and Grimmestein there were irregularities on costs registration, for which the perpetrators were punished by withholding their wages for 2 months398. Moreover, S. Elsevier and his family traveled on board of the ship Ysselmonde and not of Ysselstein, and it seems that such irregularities have been found later again on Ysselmonde and on other 2 vessels, and the penalty applied by the Cape Colony was the same, according to a document dated 27th of June 1699, by which the authorities in Batavia disapproved the measure399. The practice of unfair accusation (or based on irrelevant appearances) brought to senior officials was widespread among the sailors of the United East Indian Company, as proved by the report of the captain of the ship De Lastdrager, attacked by a French buccaneer 400, whose name seems to have been also Elsevier, according to an extract from a letter of Carel Bolners, the commander of the fort Galle to Gerrit de Heere, the Governor of Colombo, in Ceylon, dated 8th of November 1700401. However,
391 392
Leibbrandt, The Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, 80. Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 1696-1708, 331. 393 Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 1696-1708, 365. 394 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 129. 395 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 134. 396 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 161. 397 Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 1696-1708, 38. 398 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 129. 399 Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives, 174. 400 Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 1696-1708, 257-259; cf. Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives , 18. 401 Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 1696-1708, 257.
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it was hard to say whether such claims might or might not generate suspicion that a senior official of the Cape Colony could of piracy, attacking even the United East Indian Company ships, whose employee he was. The hostile attitude of the Dutch towards Catholic missionaries and priests mentioned by G. Schuller - was also reflected in the written sources from the archives in Cape Town, which are remarkable not only for the mistrust in their missionary work, but especially for the subversive political activities that they could undertake in the service of France. A French document sent from Paris on the 15 th of April 1695 warned that the Jesuit Tachard and his companions were on board of six armed ships, among whom Pepin was to proceed to the court of the Great Mogul, while another vessel was to proceed to China to lead the Chinese authorities to start a war against the Netherlands402. The relations between some residents of Cape Colony and the Catholic missionary societies of Paris and with the Jesuits produced a great concern to the local colonial authorities, because the political consequences of the work of the Jesuits in Siam403, which generated a mutual interest of the two countries to establish diplomatic relations404. However, Governor S. van der Stel showed goodwill to the Jesuit Tachard, who could perform in Cape Colony his astronomical observations 405. The Reformates were sufficiently numerous to form communities in Stellenbosch and Drakenstein, while in Cape Colony there was a large number of Lutheran and Roman Catholic believers406. The Catholic believers were suspected of being potential partisans of France407. A dispatch of the directors of the United East Indian Company, dated the 2nd of October 1707, considers as "laudable and pleasant" the efforts of the colonial authorities concerning the issue of the citizens and of the 3 Jesuits, 2 Franciscans and o the Portuguese Catholic priest hosted by them, who officiated the Catholic Liturgy in their houses (fact mentioned in a decision dated 6 th December 1706), because such people "should be regarded as an insult and ruinous to the Company". It also demands that in the future the Catholic clergy should not be sent to the Netherlands for a decision to be made regarding them, because there they would be released and cannot be brought before any court of law, but instead to be judged by the local colonial authorities and punished exemplary408. According to a letter from Batavia, dated the 15th of January 1707, two of the prisoner clergymen, Jacob Hartel and Franois Jacob Drion, had been sent to the Netherlands on the ships Bon and Schellenberg, with a recommendation to be supervised not to make any iniquity in the Cape Colony and to be chained on board or in any point of the fort , announcing
402 403
Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 58. Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives, 22-23 and 31. 404 Ibidem, 18-19. In the 17th century, the Dutch merchants were very interested in the economical and political opportunities existing in Siam, in the Kingdom of Ayutthaya: Bhawan Ruangsilp, Dutch East India Company Merchants at the Court of Ayutthaya: Dutch Perceptions of the Thai Kingdom, c. 16041765 (Leiden Boston: Brill, 2007). This was a supplementary reason for them to oppose to a further expansion of the Catholic influence in this country, which could favor France. 405 Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives, 19-20. 406 Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives, 55. 407 Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives, 31. 408 Leibbrandt, Letters Received, 1655-1708, 469-470.
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that the Jesuit Guillebert will follow in February, onboard of Belvliet 409. Being French, two other Jesuits were sent to the Netherlands as war prisoners, on the ship Berg, according to a list dated the 16th of December 1707410. About the Jesuit Guillebert Bordes, the authorities of the Cape Colony state in a report (on the 25th of May 1707) sent to Batavia that they had taken care that he would not land and, instead of this, he could climb aboard an English ship returning from China, because onboard there were Tartar or Chinese priests imbued with the Roman faith, on their way to London, in order to be sent to Portugal" and that "no doubt he liked very much to talk to them 411. Conclusions Georg Schuller (aprox. 1670 - after 1742), the author of the oldest known travelogue written by a Transylvanian who travelled to South Africa and Southeast Asia, is remarkable not only for his spirit of adventure and his interest for the most diverse realities in these distant regions (plants, animals, traditions, forms of social organization, social relations, public administration), but also for his perspective on what he saw, that only a careful reader could apprehend, through an analysis whose key is the issue of Otherness. Such an approach also allows the reader to access the intellectual world of the author, a moderate and tolerant evangelical Christian. His conservative religious and political views, as well as his education were typical for the Transylvanian Saxon bourgeoisie of his period. He was familiar with the imagery of the Medieval bestiaries, with the works of the most famous poets and historians of the Greek and Roman Antiquity, but also with the Baroque discourse about cultural otherness and mores, as well as with narratives about the countries at the end of the then known world and the peoples who inhabited them.
409 410
Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives, 438-439. Leibbrandt, Rambles through the Archives, 432. 411 Leibbrandt, Letters Despatched, 1696-1708, 330.
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Fig. 1 A map of Batavia by Arnoldus Montanus (1669)
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Fig. 2. The narrative about the travel and the discoveries of Cornelis de Houtman, printed by Levinus Hulsius (Nrnberg, 1598)
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Antiques from Transylvania and Banat in Relation of the 18th Century Western Travelers1 Mihaela GRANCEA2
Keywords: travelling, artefacts, identity, otherness, Transylvania Abstract: This study deals with European travelers sensation for ancient objects from Transylvania and Banat, of which most were to be found in private collections (and cabinets of curiosities). In travelogues, as well as in all the literature of the period, the rationalist legitimising role of Antiquity was added the discourse of pre-Romantic sensitiveness the compassion for all that meant the transience of the past glory, but also the nostalgia for an age perceived as a time of the rise of the human reason. Its also interesant to see the relation between collective memory and identity legitimising.
The Antiquity has been, since the 17th century, constantly present among the artistic concerns, stimulating the assembling of art collections owned by aristocrats and Classicist scholars. Most eloquently, Nicolas Poussins (1594-1665) and Claude Lorrains (1600-1682) landscapes reflect the interest towards the Greek, Roman and Jewish vestiges. This concern was at first archaeological, focusing particularly on Roman ruins (see the antiques collectors such as Thomas Howard, the Duke of Arundel or Cassino del Pozzo, who owned some of the richest collections of Roman antiques in the 17th century). After a few decades, the ancient ruins became the main attraction of touristic voyages of French, English and German travellers, particularly in the area of the Mediterranean Sea. Shortly, the vestiges of the ancient past have entered the private space. The ancient architecture and sculpture were imitated and reproduced in the obelisks, colonnades, the fountains ornaments and statues that provided the 18th century gardens and cemeteries with the grace that is agreeable as it follows the reason (see Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Grazia nelle opere d`arte, 1759). The cabinets of curiosities, common for the great aristocracy during the Enlightenment, also appear in Transylvania and Banat. Thus, they are mentioned for instance in an interesting and complex account belonging to the scholar Domenico Sestini, initially invited to Bucharest by Alexandru Ipsilanti. In 1779, together with I. Raicevich he was in charge with the education of the royal children. His journey across Transylvania offered him opportunities for intellectual delight, as he met people and places that stimulated his passion for the study of human nature, of the beauty of nature and of the historical treasures of these places. He particularly focused on Sibiu,
See Mihaela Grancea, Cltori strini prin Principatele dunrene, Transilvania i Banat (1683-1789). Identitate i alteritate (Sibiu: Editura Universitii Lucian Blaga din Sibiu, 2002) and Mihaela Grancea, Foreign Travelers about the Personality of Samuel von Brukenthal, Transylvanian Review, XII, 3 (2003), 14-23. 2 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (mihaela_grancea2004@yahoo.com).
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where he met Angermeyer a representative of the Transylvanian Saxon nation, with whom he shared regular correspondence and also Loeffler, a Transylvanian Saxon interested in the natural history. The main figure in Sibiu was however that of the governor of Transylvania, the baron Samuel von Brukenthal. He met the latter during an official reunion but also in the private space of Brukenthals palace, cabinet of curiosities, garden and library, all rivalling those of Central Europe. Brukenthals activity can be compared to that of a modern Homo Europaeus. His contact with the academic environments in Halle and Jena, as well as with the culture of the Enlightenment as he was familiar to the law and political sciences, philosophy and theology and also interested in the universal character of history as well as in the regional history and his contacts in the European high circles (including the communicating vessels system of freemasonry) led to his habituation to the Western lifestyle and French and German manners. That is why Samuel von Brukenthal a representative figure of the Enlightenment of German origin is considered the main architect of the socio-cultural system meant to associate Sibiu to Europe. If his garden impressed the traveller only through the number and beauty of the poppy species, the library seemed exemplary for the so-called European spirit, being worthy of the interest of the scholars of the time. That is why, not by chance, the traveller made an inventory of the rare books, noticing that the baron had invested large sums to acquire especially from the Viennese book market, through specialised librarians such as S. Hanemann handwritten books, incunabula and early Transylvanian printings. In Sibiu, Sestini was also impressed by the civility characterising the noblemen and practiced also by ladies such as Giuseppa Bnfyi, who distinguished herself through physical and spiritual beauty. He also dedicated lines filled with admiration to von Loeffler, Colonel von Rosenfeld and the noble Ehrenreich von Fichtel possessors of natural history collections, containing samples of mineral and biological evolution in Transylvania and Banat , Baron von Pulcher, whom he talked in Timioara during a meeting with Marshal von Sori, possessor of an exemplary natural history cabinet3. In travelogues, as well as in all the literature of the period, the rationalist legitimising role of Antiquity was added the discourse of pre-Romantic sensitiveness the compassion for all that meant the transience of the past glory, but also the nostalgia for an age perceived as a time of the rise of the human reason. The ruin motif together with the plastic or lyrical representation of the monuments illustrate the victory of nature over history; the ruin motif, due to its moralising component, transforms the monuments in witnesses of human pride failures. But there are also scholars, such as the travellers that make pragmatic journeys. Among the foreign travellers in Banat, the one that appreciated the collection of curiosities from Banat was the scholar J.J. Ehrler (la 1774: the collection of bones, stones and other rare objects designed for the amusement of the foreigners is turned, in the case of the countries having a less favourable nature, into
Domenico Sestini, Viaggio curioso scientifico-antiquario per la Valachia, Transilvania e Ungheria fino a Vienna, di Luigi et Fratelli Magheri, a spese di R. Fondini (Firenze: Librario da Badia), 1815.
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a source of income and tourist attraction)4. Ehrler makes an inventory of several tourist attractions he considered worthy of the curious attention of the foreign traveller; he evaluated these through combining the direct observations with the local peoples stories: the healing mineral springs in Mehadia (Bile Herculane), the Roman ditches (considered by Ehler a fortified structure), the Roman surveillance structures configured in 1774 in the form of hills, old buildings (which meant medieval ruins) as well as vestiges of prehistoric habitation, vegetal and animal fossils and so on. Several foreign travellers, particularly those representing the Austrian administration, recorded some critical remarks on the interaction between the local people and the ancient history vestiges (monuments): ...the remains I have superficially seen lacking accomplishment or the signs of artistic thoughtfulness, mutilated fragment and incomplete statues, a miserable skeleton of a period once glorious and famous were scattered everywhere, in a quite significant number, signalling the Roman ancient legacy. However, one must not despise the remains of the old monuments even when they are so ruined and mutilated by time and by multiple Tatar invasions. As a consequence, with all this ignorance, the local people fed with lies and superstitions, are hardly left from this sad decay with anything certain and immune to false beliefs to speak about...5. Generally, the antiques were appreciated as the most reliable archives on the history of nations and glorious times6 and deplores the lack of interest shown by the local descendants for the ancient monuments, this local peoples attitude being determined by the ignorance they lived in. Some travelogues especially those written by military engineers, topographers and imperial clerks contain references to the traces of monuments raised by the Romans on the territory of ancient Dacia (recording the existence of a Trajans wall, Trajans bridge, Trajans moat, Trajans road)7. In a more sober manner than in the Western pre-Romantic art and literary products, and monographs on Roman decadence, the travelogues previously
Johann Jakob Ehrler, Banatul de la origini pn acum 1774 (Timioara: Facla, 1982). The same names and curiosities were re-inventoried several years later by Franz Griselini, Versuch einer politischen und natrlichen Geschichte des temeswarer Banats in Briefen an Standespersonen und Gelehrte (Zweiter Theil: Wien, 1780); see also Francesco Griselini, ncercare de istorie politic i natural a Banatului Timioarei (Timioara: Facla, 1984). 5 Hristomo dei Giovanni, Relaie despre misunea din Moldova (1762) , in Cltori strini despre rile romne, edited by Holban et alii. (Bucureti: Editura Academiei Romne, 1997), 440; Ehrler, Banatul de la origini pn acum; Griselini, Versuch einer politischen und natrlichen Geschichte des temeswarer Banats. 6 Griselini, Versuch einer politischen und natrlichen Geschichte des temeswarer Banats. 7 See Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Relaia cltoriilor prin Transilvania i ara Romneasc (1687 ), in Cltori strini despre rile romne, edited by Maria Holban et alii, vol. 7 (Bucureti: Editura Academiei Romne, 1980); Jnos Komromy, in Istvn Szamota, Rgi magyar utazk Europban (Nagybecskerek: 1893); Jurnalul lui Filip Orlik (1722), in Cltori poloni n rile romne, edited by P.P. Panaitescu, (Bucureti: Cultura Naional, 1930); Bech and von Springfels, Descrierea Olteniei (1720-1723), in Documente privitoare la istoria romnilor, IX, 1 (1897), edited by Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi.
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mentioned emphasised the fact that the Roman antiques in the Northern Danube area contrasted with the social distressing space; the lack of collective memory also prevented the local people from recovering their legitimising historical past.
Configuring New Imperial Spaces through the Realms of Memory. The Journey Notes of a Russian Traveller from the End of the 18th Century Virgiliu BRLDEANU1
Keywords: Bessarabia, Pavel Sumarokov, practices of colonization, realms of memory, border region Abstract: This study was conducted on the Pavel Sumarokov book, published at Moscow in 1800 under the title Travel around Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799. It analyzes, in the historical context of this writing, the discursive practices of the symbolic construction of spaces annexed by Russian Empire, particularly those of configuring the realms of memory, in order to assign identities and borders, to demarcate or to come off the times and spaces adverse to imperial meanings. In the context of projects and practices carried out by the Russian Empire in the south-eastern Europe at the end of the 18 th century, the particulars of a Bessarabia between the rivers of Bug and Dniester seem to be a tinge of conceptualization of the given space in its new imperial coordinates, an attempt to endow it with a meaning, a purpose, and a vector of expansion.
During the recent years, the travel notes regained the attention of scholars and, implicitly, the interest of the specialists attracted by studying the imperial policies. Among other things, these investigations have confirmed that a profound transformation occurred in the way that the Russian state and the Russian elite understood and acted on territory in the eighteenth century2. It has been mentioned that the consolidation of a state in this period, presided by an elite which visions and ambitions in terms of shaping territory were distinctly different from those that had prevailed a century earlier, have been edifying the models of modern Russian territorialising. In this direction, the tsarist authorities have acquired a more essentially spatial view of government and gradually developed a diverse range of tools and practices that allowed it to deepen its conceptual and physical grip on the territory of the state, to emphasise the size and expansion of Russias territory as national achievements and the acquisition and display of Russian territorial knowledge as acts of patriotism3.
1 2
History Institute of Sciences Academy of Moldova (virgiliubirladeanu@outlook.com). Willard Sunderland, Imperial Space: Territorial Thought and Practice in the Eighteenth Century, in Russian Empire Space, People, Power, 17001930, edited by Jane Burbank, Mark Von Hagen, and Anatolyi Remnev (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007), 33-66. 3 Sunderland, Imperial Space, 53-54.
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This study was conducted on the book written by Pavel Sumarokov4, and published in Moscow, in 1800, under the title Travel around Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799 (see fig.1)5. Conceptualised by the author as an historical and topographical description of visited places, the first part of the book contains notes about Sumarokovs journey to Crimea. The second part, the one I will analyse in detail in this paper, reveals observations about the path crossed by the author from the mouth of the Bug River toward Odessa, following then on the area from the left bank of the Dniester River and continued to the localities of Tiraspol and Grigoriopol. I will address, in the historical context of the analysed writing, the issue of discursive practices of the symbolic construction of areas annexed by the Russian Empire, particularly those of setting up the realms of memory (Pierre Nora) in order to assign them new identities and boundaries, to demarcate or to come off the times and spaces which were adverse to imperial meanings6. The itinerary chosen by Pavel Sumarokov outlined, actually, the area annexed by the Russian Empire after the Russo-Austrian-Turkish War (1787-1792), according to the Treaty of Jassy (9 January 1792), confirming Russias dominance over Crimea and the extension of its borders to the lower course of the Dniester River. Article IV of the Treaty stipulated the return of Bessarabia by the Ottoman Porte with the fortresses of Bender, Akkerman, Chilia, Izmail and other localities, as well as of Terra Moldavia to the Russian Empire7. The new borders, however, significantly amplified the presence of the Russia on the Black Sea banks; the space between the rivers of Dniester and Bug was integrated into the administrative-territorial unit of Ecaterinoslav8, then after dissolution of the latter, in 1796, it inter to the Gubernia of Novorosijsk9. Mentioned in the Russian sources as steppe of Ochakov10 and having the reputation of a wilderness11, the interfluve of Dniester and Bug rivers drew the attention of architects of territorial expansion policy of the empire, especially because the fact that this border region has been offering significant strategic points and trade routes at the north shore of the Black Sea. Catherine II, the Tsarina of Russia, in a
Pavel Sumarokov ( 1767-1847), in 1799 a young writer, the Governor of Vitebsk in 1807-1812, the Governor of Novgorod during 1807-1815, Senator and member of the Russian Academy. 5 Pavel Sumarokov, Puteestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii v 1799 godu [Travel all over the Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799], (Moscow: 1800). 6 For the adopted definition of the notion imperialism, see: Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 9. 7 Rossijskij Imperatorskij Dvor vozvrashhaet blistatel'noj Porte zavoevannuju onnym Bessarabiju s krepostjami Benderami, Akkermanom, Kilieju i Izmailom, so vsemja mestechkami, slobodami, derevnjami i vsem prochim, chto onnaja v sebe soderzhit; ravnym obrazom vozvrashhaet Blistatel'noj porte Knjazhestvo Moldavskoe so vsemi gorodami, selenijami i vsem prochim, chto onaja provincija v sebe soderzhit [] - T. Juzefovich, Dogovory Rossii s Vostokom. Politicheskie i torgovye [Russias Contracts with the East. Politics and Trade] (Saint Petersburg: Izd. Tip. O. I. Baksta, 1869) 43-44. 8 [Ekaterinoslavskoenamestnichestvo] Russian. 9 [Novorossijskajagubernija] Russian. 10 [Ochakovskaja step'] Russian. 11 See: [Dikoe pole] Russian.
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message addressed to the Austrian emperor Joseph II, at 10 September 1782, had exposed a plan of Russian imperial diplomacy regarding the oriental policy which was inspired by Counsellor A. A. Bezborodko and General-Fieldmarshall G. A. Potemkin. Later known as the Greek project12, this plan was drawing the task for geopolitical reorientation of Russian Empire. Namely, from the region of Baltic Sea, with the emphasis by Peter I on the German-Protestant world, Russia has to redirect its policies of extension toward the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, thus toward the north coast of the Black Sea and the Balkans, inhabited by Greeks, south Slavs, Moldavians and Wallachians territories, other times, united under the Byzantine sceptre and, earlier, by the state of Alexander the Great13. The plan of actions was based on the arguments of Tsarina in favour of an active oriental policy to defeat the Ottoman Empire and of the Byzantium rebirth14. In fact, Catherine II started a geopolitical game with multiple objectives and deployment options. One of them stipulated creation of a buffer-state between the three neighbouring powers Austria, Russia and Turkey consisting of Wallachia, Moldavia and Bessarabia - with the name of Dacia (Kingdom of Dacia), designed to protect the Russias borders from unwanted confrontation 15. In case of Turks total defeat, and even their expulsion from Europe, Catherine II has been requested the consent of the Austrian Emperor to restore the Byzantine Empire under the sceptre of the Great Prince Konstantin Pavlovich. The favourite candidacy for the throne of the Kingdom of Dacia was General-Fieldmarshall Grigorij A. Potemkin16. As reward, Russia reclaimed territory between the Bug and Dniester rivers and several small islands in the Aegean archipelago.
Nicolae Iorga, Proiecte de mprire a Turciei i noua intervenie rus la Dunre. Al doilea rzboi al Ecaterinei a II-a i planurile lui Napoleon n Turcia, in Nicolae Iorga, Istoria relaiilor romne, edited by Florin Rotaru (Bucureti: Editura Semne, 1995), 229 -250; Ion Nistor, Vechimea aezrilor romneti dincolo de Nistru, in Memoriile Seciunii Istorice. Academia Romn, seria III, tom XXI (Bucureti: Imprimeria Naional, 1939), 342-346. 13 Andrej Zorin, Kormja dvuhglavogo orla Literatura i gosudarstvennaja ideologija v Rossii v poslednej treti XVII - pervoj treti XIX veka [Feeding the Two-headed Eagle ... Literature and the State Ideology in Russia in the last third of the 17th - the first third of the 19th Century] (scow: Izd. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2001), 38-39. 14 O.I. Eliseeva, Geopoliticheskie proekty G.A. Potemkin [The Geopolitical Projects of G. A. Potemkin] (scow: Institut Rossijskoj Istorii, Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk, Izd. Nauka, 2000); V.N. Vinogradov, Vek Ekateriny: dela balkanskie [Age of Catherine: Balkan Affairs] (scow: Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk, Institut Slavjanovedenija, Izd. Nauka, 2000). 15 Jetogosudarstvo, imejushheebyt' sozdannymvnov' i nekogdauzhesushhestvovavshee pod imenemDakii, moglobysostavit'sja iz oblastej Moldavii, Valahii i Bessarabii pod upravleniemgosudarjahristianskogoveroispo-vedanija, gospodstvujushhego v poimenovannyhoblastjah, i na lichnyjakachestva i predannost' kotorago-obaimperskiedvoramoglivpolnepolozhitsja. Pri sem sleduetustanovit', chtojetonovoegosudarstvo, pravitel' kotorogobudetnasledstvennym, imeetnavsegdaostat'sjasovershennonezavisimym i ne mozhetnikogdabyt' prisoedineno ni k Rossii, ni k Avstrii; ravnymobrazomobe imperii nikogda ne dopustjatpodchinenijaonnago i kakojliboinojderzhave [Perepiska Ekateriny Velikoj s Germanskim imperatorom Iosifom II-m, [The Correspondence of Catherine the Great with the German Emperor Joseph II] in Russkij Arhiv [Russian Archive], XVIII, tom I (scow, 1880), 289]. 16 The Prussian Ambassador, Von Grt, relates to Berlin, during the winter of 1782-1783, that Potemkin sold his properties from Russia as well as his palace from St. Petersburg in order to raise a new palace on
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The unmentioned part of this plan, however, was the intention of annexing the Crimea. This aspect was put into action immediately after receiving assurances of support from the Austrian Emperor. The military campaign led by Potemkin was ended in August 1783 for Russia. One of the messages sent by Potemkin to Catherine II in October 1782 under the title Reflections of a Russian patriot about past wars with the Tatars and ways to stop them forever was revealing the action plan, which was to be made after the annexation of the Crimea to bind the peninsula to the Russian Empire forever. To this end, General-Fieldmarshall proposed redeployment and settlement to live in this region of a total of 30 000 soldiers, including the plan to assure future army reserve by their descendents, to brought Russian population of peasants from the internal provinces of Russia endowed with the necessary and to distribute for them the convenient spaces and, therefore to teach them how to handle a firearm. In addition, it was required to enable the establishment in that area of Cossacks from the Don River, of Ukrainians (Ma Russian) and other Christians as Greeks, Armenians, Wlachs and Bulgarians: Thus, we may venture to say, that soon the Crimea will become forever Christian and Russian17. Potemkin forwards a number of proposals related to the toponymy of related space: the Crimea was to return to the previous name Hersonia, the city of Caffa, was to be renamed as Feodosia, and, in memory of the fact that here the Grand Duke Vladimir received the holy Christian faith, to be built a great temple of God. Also, Potemkin expected to raise in honour to the Sovereign, who subjected the Crimea, a monument at Victoria square. The monument was expected to be built in the city center and named after the example of Paris. He also suggested for the eternal memory of the Sovereign, to establish a yearly religious feast for all the people18. By the initiative of renaming, rehabilitation of old or opening of other new, the list of toponims of Greek origins will continue to be expanded after the annexation of Crimea with names as Taurida, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Eupatorija, Panticapaeum, Fanagoria. Similarly, immediately after the Treaty of Jassy, between the rivers of Dniester and Bug, on sites of old settlements which had to be forgotten, the tsarist rule founded localities as Odessa (1794), Grigoriopol (1792), Ovidiopol (1795), Tipaspol (1792) which, in authorities view, should support the symbolic environment of Translatio Imperii project. The sudden death of Potemkin at Iassy, on his road to Nikolaev city, in the autumn of 1791, put an end to his personal ambitious plans, but not to the imperial policies of Russia regarding borders and newly annexed spaces. Catherine II, by the Ukaz at 27 January 1792, immediately after the Treaty, ordered the Governor of Ecaterinoslav, V. V. Kahovskij, to colonize in the shortest time the region between the rivers of Bug and Dniester. The action plan, in fact, expected delimitation and
his new possessions settled in a sweeter climate (Nicolae Iorga, Acte i fragmente cu privire la istoria romnilor, vol II (Bucureti: Imprimeria Statului, 1896), 167 -168. 17 G.V. Vernadskij, Zapiski o neobhodimosti prisoedinenija Kryma k Rossii (Iz Tavelskago arhiva V.S. Popova), [Notes on the Need for the Accession of Crimea to Russia (From the Tavelsk Archive of V. S. Popov)] in Izvestija Tavricheskoj Uchenoj Arhivnoj Komissii [Proceedings of the Tauride Scientific Archive Commission] 56 (1919), 111-126. 18 Vernadskij, Zapiski o neobhodimosti prisoedinenija Kryma k Rossii , 167-168.
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reconfiguration of territorial identities, the opening of new administrative structures, communications and institutions, the reshaping of ethnic realities and, certainly, targeting the Romanian population from these spaces.19 The region was reconfigured into four regional divisions20 with administrative centers at Ananev, Tiraspol, Odessa and Nikolaev21, the regions lands were divided into parcels for recently colonised localities which were free of taxation22 ( Russian), distributed to arnauts23 and volintires24 of Potemkin, as well as to Moldavian boyars who have been agreed to become subjects of Russia, lured with privileges, military and civil degrees of Russian administration. To ensure the flow of population in colonized regions, the Russian authorities have included in the Treaty of Jassy a stipulation recognizing the right of Principalities residents to move to Russia within fourteen months from ratification. At 7 June 1792, the Prussian Ambassador at Constantinople, Von Knobelsdor, reported to Berlin that many residents of Moldova leave the country despite the Princes will, being encouraged by the Russian government to settle beyond the River of Dniester; the region between rivers of Dniester and Bug was to be elevated to the rank of Principality, under the name of Moldova-Nou. It even talked about putting of Alexander Mavrocordat in the seat of new Principality25. Ion I. Nistor, in his study regarding Romanians over side the River of Dniester, attests in the documents issued by Russian authorities a list of 56 names of Moldavian boyars who had received lands during this period of colonization and permission to bring its workforce from Moldova. Among them, we could find names of boyar families as Rosetti, Cantacuzino, Catargiu, Sturdza, Cananu, Nicori, Sacar, Mcrescu, Filodor, Bal etc.26 After 1793, from the 67 parish communities of the region, 49 are stated by the Metropolitan Gavriil Bnulescu-Bodoni as inhabited exclusively or partially by Romanians27.
19
The materials of Census realised by the Russian authorities in 1774 in circumscriptions and centres in Cueni and Slcua, published recently at Chiinu have been certified the Romanian localities on the lower course of Dniester (Cueni, Chicani, Talmaz, Cioburciu, Rscei, Rscei, Popeasca, Malcoci, Slcua, Frldeni, Gherbiv, Gura Bcului, Slobozia, Hagi Musa, Conia, Prta, Pohrebea, Cocieri, Corgevo, Molovata, Goieni, Dorocaia, Delacu, Butor, Speia), with a majority population designated by the aloethnonim volohi, used in Russia and Poland until the 18th century (Ion Chirtoag, Din istoria Moldovei de sud-est pn n anii 30 ai secolului XIX-lea (Chiinu: Editura Museum, 1999), 166-196). 20 [Uezdy] Russian. 21 See fig. 2 in the Annexes. 22 C [Slobodki] Russian. 23 Arnui Romanian. 24 Volintiri Romanian. 25 Les habitants de la Moldavie quittent en foule leur pays. Ces migrs sont encourags par le gouvernement russe a stablir sur lautre rive du Dniester. Tout le pays compris entre ce fleuve et le Bog sera rig en principaut, sous le nom de Nouvelle-Moldavie. On dit que le gouvernement en sera donne au prince Maurocordato, le mme qui, peu avant le commencement de la guerre, a pass en Russie (Apud Nicolae Iorga, Acte i fragmente, 339). 26 Ioan Nistor, Vechimea aezrilor romneti dincolo de Nistru, 217 -218. 27 Ioan Nistor Romnii transnistrieni, in Romnitatea transnistrian. Antologie, edited by Florin Rotaru (Bucureti: Editura Semne, 1996), 101. After some published information, the region of Ocheakov, in 1793, stated a population about 31 297 persons, among them there were Romanians 14 993, then in 1795 the population counted 36 769 persons, among which 15 285 Romanians (apud V.J.A. Grossul, Sistema
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The book by Pavel Sumarokov has involved, from the very beginning, the attention of scholars by describing the localities incorporated in a border region at the end of the 18th century, especially it was one of the studies which attested Romanian population beyond the River of Dniester28. Moreover, the text did not exceed the frames of imperial discursive practices and insistence by which was emphasized the Russias political and military power, the authority and civilizing mission (mission civilisatrice) on newly annexed territories. Like many other travel notes, geographical descriptions, statistical guides, topographic investigations, maps elaborated in this period, the Sumarokovs text lends itself to the series of efforts made by the imperi al institutions during the Catherinian age, which seek to transform knowledge into an instrument of colonisation. As a result of wars and annexations, Russias borders with Poland, the Ottoman Empire, and the Crimean Khanate changed a total of six times between 1772 and 1795, redefined in almost every case by peace treaties and international conventions providing detailed descriptions of the run of the new borders, which were followed by other inventory-like descriptions of the empires new acquisitions29. The topographic descriptions, most of which were compiled between the late 1770s and the early 1790s, were territorial compendia written by local nobles/officials that invariably began with a description of the provinces geographic location (measured in terms of coordinates), surface area, boundaries, natural environment, and administrative subdivisions, all of which then served as the essential territorial frames for subsequent points/chapters on history, the local economy, and the local population that contained everything from statistical data on local markets to lists of local monasteries and curious facts about local insects and local customs30. The various tools and methods used for collecting and representing territorial information in the Catherinian age (maps, registers, questionnaires) were not new, but their use in government became more routinized, and they were eagerly embraced by newly created public organizations with their own interests in collecting and deploying territorial information31. Travelling the territory of Crimea in 1799, Sumarokov finally reaches beyond this region, to Nikolaev. From here, he continues the path to Ocheakov and Odessa, then advancing on the left bank of the River of Dniester, from its mouth to the north, to Tiraspol and Grigoriopol, and heads east to the town of Balta. After one year, at
upravlenija Moldavii v sostave Rossii (XVIII - nachalo XX v.) [The Administrative System of Moldova as part of Russia (the 18th the beginning of the 20th centuries)], in Nacionalnye okrainy Rossijskoj imperii: stanovlenie i razvitie sistemy upravlenija [The National Peripheries of Russian Empire: Formation and Development of Administrative System] (scow: Izd. Slavjanskij dialog, 1997), 166. 28 Gheorghe Bezviconi, Cltori rui n Moldova i Muntenia (Bucureti: Institutul de Istorie Naional din Bucureti, 1947), 415; Constantintin Karadja, Un martor rus al etnografiei romneti, Revista istoric, 10-12 (1928), 356-357; Eliseeva, Geopoliticheskie proekty G.A. Potemkin, 175-176; Constantin C. Giurescu, Populaia moldoveneasc de la gura Niprului i a Bugului n veacurile XVII-XVIII, in Romnitatea Transnistrian. Antologie, edited by Florin Rotaru (Bucureti: Editura Semne, 1996), 256. 29 Sunderland, Imperial Space, 52. 30 Sunderland, Imperial Space, 47. 31 Sunderland, Imperial Space, 48.
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Moscow, Sumarokov publishes the text of his journey notes about crossing those two regions the Crimea and ... Bessarabia. The case, evidently, raises questions and prospects of additional analysis once it relates a different space than that annexed 12 years later, after the Treaty of Bucharest (1812), with the name of Bessarabia32. The approached issue leads to privileged geostrategic goal for the tsarist authorities in the region. At the end of the 18th century, and later, the mouths of the Danube have open the way to Balkans and Constantinople. The territory of Bessarabia, the third party of Moldova, as described by the Prince Dimitrie Cantemir, consisting of four provinces: Bugeac, Akerman, Kilia and Izmail33, have represented the adjacent area around the bottom of the river, under the authority of the Ottoman Porte. Thus, a working hypothesis of this study suggests that the particulars of a Bessarabia, between the rivers of Bug and Dniester attested in the travel notes by Pavel Sumarokov, seems not to be a totally fortuitous event. In the context of projects and practices carried out by the Russian Empire in the south-eastern Europe at the end of the 18th century, the text is a tinge of conceptualization of the given space in its new imperial coordinates, an attempt to endow it with a meaning, a purpose, and a vector of expansion. Guided and invested in more details by the authorities of all levels, Sumarokov invokes landmarks at hand; he displays visions and reveals internal resorts of imperial practices carried out. In my opinion, the given episode highlights an important precedent of colonization policies developed by the Russian imperial authorities in this part of Europe, aiming directly and some aspects of further imperial expansion, especially that from 1812, by the annexation of the territory between the rivers of Prut and Dniester. Reaching the city of Nikolaev at 12 July 179934, the Russian traveller indicates in his notes that it was only here that he decided to visit Bessarabia, the city of Odessa, and to travel along the Dniester River35. The argument of his sudden decision may lie in the fact that both regions represented Russias recent territorial acquisitions, made in the last decades of the 18th century and which were subject to a process of homogenisation that was undergoing in all the empires provinces. Led by the military administrator of the locality and his entourage to the local pier, Sumarokov crosses the Bug River and notes the following: Coming out on the bank, I stepped in Bessarabia, which was until recent time in the possession of the Porte, which withdrew its boundaries under the pressure of our victorious weapons, and gave Russia the entire region during the last war in order to retreat itself across the Dniester36.
32
The case was cited without examination in details and in the context of imperial policies, in the perimeter of discussions about the origins/evolution of the name Basarabia see Ion Chirtoag, Evoluia semnificaiei teritoriale a noiunii Basarabia, Revista de istorie a Moldovei, 2 (1994), 9-13. 33 Dimitrie Cantemir, Descrierea strii de odinioar i de astzi a Moldovei . Ediie critic ntocmit de Dan Sluanschi (Bucureti: Institutul Cultural Romn, 2006), 71. 34 Hereafter I will keep the chronology from the original text. 35 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 189. 35 For the adopted definition of the notion imperialism, see Said, Culture and Imperialism, 9. 36 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 190-191.
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The authors reflections are endorsed in the manner in which it is thought the relationship of the empire with the recently annexed territories. Moreover, symbolic landmarks of the new imperial landscape are most conveniently instituted by evoking realms of memory that represent historical episodes full of glory, personalities and heroism of the Russian armies and which supply legitimacy to imperial presence in the region: As we approached Ochakov, about five versts away from it, a large area of steppe full of pits and mounds opened to our view, where the Russian army deployed its huts, where the artillery units and fortifications were placed. As we advanced, we observed them more frequently. The authors representations regarding how and why the empires mechanism works, are those which determine the tactics of narration, the objects described or observed and, obviously, the most overlooked or omitted. Reaching Ochakov37, the place gives the author the impression of a locality which is, today, a small village38, peaceful and insignificant, but which has made great noise in Europe before39. I just asked myself where is its pride, where are the buildings that graced it once, where has its glory gone to40. Searches for a host brought no results. The recommendations obtained at Nikolaev help Sumarokov in finding a solution; he is hosted by Captain James M. Hamilton41 aboard the military frigate, where he stayed overnight, and the next day he starts examining the locality: Passing through these ruins, where there are neither houses, nor people, and where after the outburst of war desolation and silence settled in, I was shown the way our armies marched to attack the city. Here is the place they were talking, where Kneaz Volkonski was killed; there is the place where Gorich had lost his life and, here, there are no other traces than death and destruction42. The traveller describes a desert-like region which is almost empty, but the imperial landscape, however, is dotted by the border quarantine rooms, military units, barracks, castle and other fortifications. By participating in military applications on the frigate, the next days, he visits the island of Kindum43 to record the remains of former battlefields, battle episodes from 1787 between the Russian and Turkish armies and, obviously, the skilfulness of Russian military commanders. On the fourth day of his stay, in the afternoon, Sumarokov explores the surrounding of Ochakov to detect the most meaningful places: Here, [...] the Count Suvorov lured the escapade from the city and triggered the confrontation, in order to enter the fortress of Ochakov with those withdrawn and, through this ruse, to end the siege. Finally we reached the place where our army was deployed and where the surroundings are marked by the traces of
The locality is mentioned in the Romanian sources as Vozia or Ociac see Constantin C. Giurescu, Istoria Romnilor, vol. III, part II (Bucureti: Fundaia Regal pentru Literatur i Art, 1946), 139, 236, 261, 650. 38 [Slobodka] Russian. 39 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 192. 40 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 192. 41 English officer hired in 1791 in the Russian Navy. 42 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 195-196. 43 Kilburun Turkish.
37
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various fortifications. [...] these indices remained trophies of the victorious Russian armys glory44. On 17 July, Sumarokov leaves Ochakov to Odessa describing the covered distance and surroundings. Beyond the romantic and sweet tone of his literary exposure, possibly inspired by the idyllic nature, the author places the described images in a structure and hierarchy which must suit certain joints and major ideological demands that inscribe them to an imperial landscape: This steppe is almost depopulated, but has several advantages, excepting the absence of forests and trees. It is a patch of fertile land, with some of the most excellent hayfields, a multitude of bird species and water which would be enough for the settlements. As in the case of Kherson and Nikolaev, it would be useful to increase the population of these surroundings []45. Entering Odessa, the traveller seems to be extremely surprised by the resurgence of this locality, the massive and illuminated buildings, nice houses of locals, and wide, nicely arranged streets: Once, when Bessarabia belonged to Turkey, in the place where Odessa lies, there was a fortress on the shore, called Hadjibei [...]. In our last military confrontation with the Porte, which begun in 1787, this fortress46 was taken by Admiral Ribas, and on the signing the peace in 1792, Hadjubei became a possession of Russia, along with the lands between the Bug and Dniester rivers. The importance of this place has attracted the attention of our Court. [...] the gulf consisting of shores which form a semicircle, the closeness of Polish Ukraine and the prospect of trade with many states, all these foreshadowed the existence of a famous port. Thus, in the following year, 1793, it was here, on the ruins of Hadjubei, that the city of Odessa was built47. Reiterating the miracle through which the most famous city was built in a few years, while with other nations it would have taken hundreds of years, the author points out that worthy monuments of the great sovereigns are the cities raised in the desert by populating them, expanding trade and income, and as a result, the growth of Court revenues and welfare of his subjects48. However, beyond the parade, the statistics brought by the author allow to discern more about the state of this settlement in 1799. A wooden church, three stone church under construction, 506 stone houses, 233 huts, 501 booths49, 111 cellars, 5 inns50, 35 warehouses for grain and goods, three bathrooms, seven forges, 22 different small businesses, six windmills, 18 water wells and others near the city, a population of 4 147 people (2 861 men, 1 286 women) are attested. The fortress (actually redoubt) of land, quarantine, customs, and barracks adjust the localitys panorama and its development prospects which, according to the author, hour by hour gain the image of imperial bastion in the region. Sumarokov
44 45
Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 209. Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 111. 46 [Krepostca] Russian. 47 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 213-214. 48 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 214-215. 49 [Lavka] Russian. 50 [Traktiry] Russian.
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believes that by its positioning, Odessa exceeds all other Russian ports, and over time may be associated to the harbour of Petersburg (sic): In a word, it [Odessa a. n.] is the concentration of our entire trade and treasure of hope for the empire51. Leaving Odessa, Sumarokov moves towards the Dniester River and to the locality of Ovidiopol, previously called Adzhider52 by the Turks, it was a borough during their rule53, which [then a. n.] received its the name from the belief that it is the ancient city of Tomis, where Augustus exiled Ovid. It is situated 20 versts from the sea and 17 versts from the mouth of the Dniester, on the acclivitous banks of the estuary that is itself a boundary between two Empires54. On the other side of the estuary, to the eyesight opens the possessions of the Ottoman Porte. It is a space of tension and reflection. The status of boundary between two empires grants it with meanings of an arena of confrontation and with virtues of realm of memory. Places thus had to be only detected and recovered, constituting a symbolic frontier meant to suppress the action of other meanings. Ovidiopol is described as a small and poorly constructed border locality, which has a ground fortification, with a garrison, a fleet of 20 ships, quarantine, border post of customs duties, and households of local residents that can figure up to 80 units: Most locals are Moldovans, as well as Greeks, but Russians are very few. All are natives, and their preoccupations relate to the salt which is brought by the Turks from Akkerman, and which they buy with gold or Turkish money [...] in order to later sell it to merchants coming from the Gubernia of Podolia, and the surrounding localities.55 From Ovidiopol, Sumarocov follows his way north along the estuary, over 10 verses he touches the Dniester River, then after 22 verses goes through the city of Mayak56 with a coaching inn57 and 60 households consisting of Russian Starovers58, refugees to Turks and, initially, settled to live upstream the Dniester, in the locality of Ciobruci. Reviewing the appearance of the village and the locals crafts, the author is somehow obliged to admit that during the Turkish rule, this community had no trouble. They were following their law, traditions, remaining free, without obligations. Most of them speak Turkish and Moldovan. The narrative is ultimately balanced by stating that the port and everyday Russian peasant garments59. On 1 August, Sumarokov reaches the city of Tiraspol, located 89 verses from Ovidiopol, on the place of an old Moldovan locality named Sucleia. The traveller records the settlement, its planning, the local population which consists of Russian
51 52
Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 222. [Gadzhider] Russian. 53 [Mestechko] Russian. 54 . (Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii 1799 godu. S istoricheskim i topograficheskim opisaniem vseh teh mest) [Travel around Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799. With Historical and Topographical Description of All Those Places] (scow: Universitetskaja Tipografija, 1800), 223. 55 , , 224. 56 [Majak] Russian. 57 [Pochtovajastancija] Russian. 58 [Staroobrjadcy] Russian. 59 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 226.
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Starovers, Ukrainians, Moldovans, Wlachs, Jews, and Gypsies, and is estimated to be about 350 households. In the proximity he notices a ground fortress with a strong garrison, defending our borders and that does not allow anyone to cross the river far from its middle60. In the morning, he will continue his road to the Dniester to approach Bender, the place called Parcani, whose population, says the author, was resettled in Tiraspol. Here one can see the famous city on the Dniester River which nearing allowed him not only to discern the faces of local inhabitants, but to talk with those who were on the strand. The place is noticed by the authors stating that the Dniester River, which flows in both directions in a straight line, exactly in the vicinity of this locality makes an elbow inside the Russia. The stone wall, that rises from the water level to the top of the mountain, defends the large fortress and announces her invincibility61. Inside it, one can see painted mosques, tall minarets, numerous buildings in the Asian manner, the Pashas house, his park with towers, and the suburb from the left part of it62. The wonderful view caught my attention for a long time [...]. The repairing of damages caused by the Russian shells from the city wall reminds about the two conquests of it by our Heroes and that its inexpugnability is just the way to a greater glory and laurels63. At 15 verses from Tiraspol, Sumarokov describes the Moldovan locality Mleti64, noting that its population lived here from time immemorial under the Turkish rule: Seeing a Moldovan here, lying on pillows even in the street, I approached to him to know that he was sick, asking him about the seizures suffered, and only then I remembered about the anthrax epidemic that haunts on this side of the Dniester. [...] The Moldovans custom to spin the wool on the go I found strange, but useful65. The 25 verss long road to Grigoriopol reveals the traveller a wonderful natural landscape. On the other bank of the Dniester one can see the Principality of Moldavia, which holds its borders not far from Bender, on the Bc River. The road passes through vigorous mountains, while the plains from their foothills, as an amphitheatre, spread like a green carpet in front of the proud Dniester which shakes towards the valley. Across starts Terra Moldavia, the borders of which begin on the Bc River, not far from Bender. Near the river, one can see pastures with shrubs that rise in some places, peasant fields sown with watermelons and melons; there are radiant valleys, murmuring springs and settlements placed on hilltops; there are beautiful and lively landscapes and Moldova creates an attractive impression about itself. The meanders of Dniester are so surprising, that sometimes they coincide with one another; it winds within Russia, then it flows away from it, as if dividing the beauties [of the nature / location a. n.] between the two Empires. As if the river would say: I witnessed the Russians manliness and generosity, here they have crossed
60 61
Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 228. Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 229. 62 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 229. 63 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 230. 64 [Maloeshty] Russian. 65 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 230.
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their trophies, I listened to the terrifying sounds of their surprising thunders, and my waters were shuddering []66. Crossing three Moldovan villages - Butor67, Talc68 and Puhceni69, the traveller approaches to Delacu70 and enters to the Grigoriopol. Here, Sumarokov notes, the city is founded by Armenians, natives of Cueni, Bender, Ismail, Chilia, Akkerman; he records 400 households and 150 booths. Going then to Dubsari, he records on the road customs, a quarantine, and a ferryboat where usually our armies cross to the Principality71. At Dubsari, located on the Dniester and 15 verses from Grigoriopol, the author observes a village of 300 households, with Moldovans, Greeks, Bulgarians, Jews, and some Russians. Stating its picturesque settlement and gardens, similar to those from the Crimea, Sumarokov decides to end his route in this direction: Here I parted the Dniester that charmed me with Bessarabia wonderful and turned to the right, towards Poland. This country really can be called the Promised Land. [...] in a word, abundant with everything except people72. In a study devoted to practices of imperial knowledge, the American researcher Ewa M. Tompson stated some conclusions emphasising that through literary activities a lot of non-Russian territories have been rhetorically grasped by the Russian Empire, thus forming the tradition of treating empire suburbs as the Russian, from the beginnings73. In this context, I consider that the text of Travel around Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799 by Sumarokov, time after time, reflects the practices of colonization in new imperial spaces. I suggest that, the mention about Bessarabia in the interfluves of the rivers of Dniester and Bug, in this context, is nothing but a projection of the expansion vector of Russian Empire in South-Eastern Europe and proves the tentative of this name colonization, before the year of 1812. Multiple extensions of the empires borders and incessant confrontations on its edges led to a certain structure of its territories already integrated, articulating arbitrary administrative boundaries and an entire border region. Here, the on-going processes of colonization involved, along with new lines of defence, the administrative and institutional structures, as well as mechanisms of territorial identities reconfiguration, of remodelling of ethnic realities, and of the involvement of knowledge practices that were meant to build legitimacy to the imperial presence in these regions.
66 67
Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 232-233. [Butyry] Russian. 68 [Tashlyk] Russian. 69 [Pugachanu] Russian. 70 [Gelakiov] Russian. 71 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 234. 72 Sumarokov, Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii, 235-236. 73 Ewa Tompson, Imperial Knowledge, Russian Literature and Colonialism (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000).
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1. The cover page of Fig. 1. The Fig. cover page of 1799 , . . 1799 , [Puteshestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii 1799 . godu. S istoricheskim i topograficheskim opisaniem vseh teh mest - Travel around Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799. With Historical and Topographical Description of All Those Places] (scow: Universitetskaja Tipografija, 1800).
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2. Fig. 2.Fig. [Karta novopriobretennoj [Karta oblasti ot Porty Otomanskoj i prisoedinennoj k Ekaterinoslavskomu Namestnichestvu], novopriobretennoj oblasti ot Porty Otomanskoj i prisoedinennoj k in Rossijskij atlas, iz soroka chetyreh kart sostojashij i na sorok dva namestnichestva Ekaterinoslavskomu Namestnichestvu] Imperiju razdeljajushij (Rossijskoj atlas, iz soroka chetyreh kart sostojashij i na sorok dva namestnichestva Imperiju razdeljajushij) (Sankt-Peterburg: Izd. Soin: gravir. i pechat. pri Gornom uchilie, 1792), 45. http://www.runivers.ru/bookreader/book16672/#page/45/mode/1up, (accessed on 01.08.2013)
Imagined and Real Bandits. Robbers and Hajduks in the Travel Literature of the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries concerning the Romanian Countries Bogdan-Vlad VTAVU1
Keywords: robbers, hajduks, travel literature, the Romanian countries Abstract: The foreign travelers who visited or went through the Romanian countries in the 18th and 19th centuries have always been concerned about their safe passage. The fear of being robbed was among the most frequently expressed worries since their life was on the line. Nevertheless, being conscious that their travel notes might find an audience in the West, these travelers do not hesitate to spice up their accounts with bandit tales that satisfy the literary taste of the era. Robbers stand therefore, in these travel notes, at the borderline between fabulation and reality, being both a sort of expectation and a terrifying prospect at the same time.
Passing through Moldavia in the time of Alexander I, on a trip to Jerusalem, the knight Ghillebert de Lannoy is robbed, beaten and badly wounded in the arm, stripped, tied to a tree and left for a whole night in great danger of being killed or drowned. The episode took place, as the victim stated, near Cetatea Alb, on the banks of the Dniester, the prejudice being estimated at around 100-120 ducats and other things and jewelry. At his insistence, the ruler of Moldavia gives satisfaction to the unfortunate knight and brings the aforementioned felons to him, submitted to me with the noose around their necks and with the approval to kill them. After returning the stolen goods, the robbers enjoy Lannoys knightly mercy and are left alive. No matter how questionable it is (there are some suspicions concerning the veracity of the incident), Ghillebert de Lannoys account is one of the first travel notes about the Romanian countries to present highway robbers extensively2. Other similar episodes, more or less sensational, are inserted now and then in the accounts of other travelers along the ages, but things really get interesting from this point of view only beginning with the 18th century. This sort of set pieces not only do they multiply but also become more nuanced and detailed. The reasons why such incidents become more frequent in the travel literature concerning the Romanian countries are easy to guess. First of all the number of foreign visitors rockets beginning with this period, the accounts are more numerous
PdD Student, Babe;Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, (vatavu_bogdan@yahoo.com). Maria Holban (Ed.), Cltori strini despre rile romne, vol. I, (Bucureti: Editura tiinific, 1968), 49-51; the doubts concerning the authenticity of the robbery near Cetatea Alb are expressed by the editor of the same volume on pages 59-61.
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and as consequence, the chances to find banditry scenes in them grow exponentially3. Then, in that century the purpose of travel gains valencies rarely found in the accounts written until then. Generally, the foreigners who wandered through the Romanian regions before the first quarter of the 18th century go there (or are passing through) on official business; they are either diplomats, missionaries, Jesuits, or are heading for the tenure of an office (in the Principalities, in the Ottoman Empire etc.) and their activities, which they note in their travel diaries, are punctual and rarely concern trite topics such as robberies or thefts. Moreover, given the official nature of the visit, these individuals often get guards, translators, attendants, mehmendars from the emperor, the sultan or the rulers of the Principalities so they care too little about the dangers on the road. Things get different beginning with the 18th century. Eastern Europe and the Balkans become now the experimental terrain of the intellectuals of the Age of Enlightenment, the place where everything is to be done in Voltaires own words, the propitious space for civilizing projects4. Its in these individuals interest to know thoroughly these countries. Then, with Goethes travel in Italy but particularly with Herders work, the educated individuals of the West show an authentic concern for the uncivilized corners of the world, for the allegedly primitive populations and for their popular culture and folklore. These travelers, unlike their predecessors, truly visit the Romanian countries, they often stop to observe the people and the places, they inquire about garbs, traditions, legends5. For some of these individuals, encountering robbers is not just plain danger but also an anticipated opportunity to discover the vigilante spirit, something long forgotten in their countries of origin (as they sometimes consider). Bandits are thus placed, in the mentality of these mostly occidental travelers, on the borderline between anticipation and experience, fabulation and reality, imaginary and authentic, representing a significant piece of the many that complete the puzzle of the symbolic geography of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Imagined bandits Planning a long journey that would take her from Vienna to Constantinople, Lady Mary Montagu bids adieu to her sister by the agency of a lamentable letter dated January 16, 1717: Adieu, dear sister: this is the last account you will have from me of Vienna. If I survive my journey you shall hear from me again. Being informed by various persons about the perils that await her (Almost everybody I see frights me with some new difficulty.), Lady Mary Montagu seems to be deeply troubled about the trip she must take. Nevertheless, this overreacting noblewoman does not hesitate to qualify her journey as an adventure, while the potential encounter with the Tartars, who ravage that part of Hungary I am to pass, becomes in the letters addressed to her
See about the increasing number of foreign travelers in this period at Adrian Anghelescu, O istorie vie a trecutului romnesc, in Nicolae Iorga, Istoria Romnilor prin cltori (Bucureti: Editura Eminescu, 1981), 22-23. 4 About this in Larry Wolff, Inventarea Europei de Est (Bucureti: Editura Humanitas, 2000). 5 About this change of perspective Wolff, Inventarea Europei de Est, 399-416, Maria Todorova, Balcanii i balcanismul (Bucureti: Editura Humanitas, 2000), 105, 203-204.
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acquaintances a new scene to be diverted with6. Half a century later, another distinguished lady of the English society, Lady Elizabeth Craven, no less overexcited than Lady Mary, was taking the reverse route from Constantinople to Vienna. She decides to avoid passing through Belgrade for fear of the robbers that roam the area and opts for the itinerary Bulgaria, Wallachia and Transylvania to get to her destination. But inevitably, when traveling through the Balkans, the newly chosen route was to present the same risks. Lady Craven is warned that on the side of this new route she should find heads stuck up on poles at every mile, those countries being much more infested with robbers and murderers than the other. Although she disqualifies the information as mere rumors, the distinguished lady takes the minimum precautions and arms herself with two most excellent little English pistols I wear at my girdle7. This lady, just like her older correspondent from Vienna, in fact cares less for her safety than for the flavor which she adds to her own writings. Lady Craven too leaves the impression that she experiences an adventure, she sees after her readers, making sure that they benefit from a more pleasant reading experience8. And indeed, the notes that these two ladies left had an enormous success, one that transformed them into travel literature authorities. Their preconceptions were assumed by other travelers in the Romanian countries too. This happened prior to their trip on which they wanted to have as much information as possible, to know what to expect when traveling there. The fact that the Wallachians, the Moldavians, the Romanians from Transylvania or the gypsies everywhere, are briefly depicted as robbers, thieves, murderers etc. is also due to these writings and other similar ones9. Embarking on a journey with such biased opinions, the foreigners enter the Romanian Principalities with great expectations that demand confirmation10. Arriving from the West with this sort of generalities freshly engraved on their memory, the travelers prove to be sensible to the rumors that fly around. Although reassured by the ruler of Moldavia that the mountains in this country have been cleared by robbers, Daniel Krmann and his companions go through tense moments in 1709, when passing through Bukovina. Suspiciously looking individuals emerge on the ridge of the mountains only to disappear when they are spotted. Two riders go in reconnaissance to investigate the sighting, while the rest of the party prepares to
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Lord Wharncliffe (Ed.), The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, vol. 1 (London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, 1986), 267-270; also quoted in Wolf, Inventarea Europei de Est, 61-64. 7 Elizabeth Craven, A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople in a Series of Letters from the Right Honorable Elizabeth Lady Craven, to His Serene Highness the Margrave of Brandembourg, Anspach, and Bareith. Written in the Year MDCCLXXXVI. The second Edition (London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Pater-Noster Row, 1789), 281, 291. 8 For more details concerning Lady Craven and her travel notes see Larry Wolf, Inventarea Europei de Est, 167-175. 9 Almost every travel account concerning the Romanian provinces contains at least a generalization of this sort. If the author does not share this opinion at least remarks its frequent incidence. 10 See for example how occidental travelers in 19th century Mexico felt disappointed that they didn't encounter any bandits in Paul J. Vanderwood, Disorder and Progress: Bandits, Police, and Mexican Development (Wilmington: SR Books, 1992), 11-12.
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counter the foreseeable attack. For that matter, Johann Wendel Bardili (one of the companions of Krmann), informs us that the area had a bad reputation, being the territory of a band of robbers, which rob the travelers and even kill them. Some of these individuals were caught sometime before their trip but this information does not give enough comfort to these travelers. Nobody gets hurt in the end so Bardili assumes that the people they saw were nothing but travelers just like themselves, probably as scared of bandits as he was11. Jean Claude Flachat shows the same tight attitude on his trip from Bucharest to Oltenia: After it gathered, the caravan exited Bucharest accompanied by an escort. One could hardly do without it: the traveler is constantly harassed by the Romanian, Turkish and Hungarian robbers. These highwaymen are very numerous; it is highly dangerous to travel alone outside the city. We had to go past many mountains (!), we spent several days in great dark woods without putting our weapons aside. () One only finds here immoral villages, inhabited by Greeks, experienced thieves, who roam the roads in order to rob the passers-by, sometimes even gathering together to swoop upon the caravans, when least expected and when they think no one is going to fight back. Moreover, this traveler claims that the robbers even had the boldness to harass us in the mountain passes. The fact that the geographical details do not conform to reality and that the episode might not even have taken place is less important. Flachat manages, despite the inconsistencies, to provide a plausible bandit story to any occidental audience willing to read his notes and to transform an otherwise dull itinerary into a dynamic and dangerous adventure12. More honest but also more nave, the abbot Francois-Xavier De Feller, who lacked the much praised escort, finds it efficient to chant loudly a Te Deum in the awful forest on the outskirts of Dobra (county of Hunedoara) in order to scare off the robbers13. Josef Mikoscha, a Pole, does not leave his fate at the hand of God during his travel through Moldavia to Constantinople in 1782. Instead he makes sure he is well armed. In Botoani, the traveler hears from two merchants who just came back from Constantinople, that it was not very long since some highwaymen killed a Jew and robbed three Turks and two Armenians, precisely on the road they returned. After hearing the news, which is not unusual in this particular country (my italics), I understood I had to acquire a rifle and some bullets. In Galai, the fearful traveller summarizes the trip that seemed to be so dreadful: On the 19th of June I arrived safely in Galai without any trouble whatsoever and without being attacked by robbers. I was constantly fearing for this and, consequently, I loaded my rifle daily with fresh ammunition; I spent entire nights without closing an eye in order to be ready in every moment.14 Others, such as the Englishman John B. S. Morritt, who passed through
Maria Holban, M. M. Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru, Paul Cernovodeanu, Cltori strini despre rile romne, vol. VIII (Bucureti: Editura tiinific i Enciclopedic, 1983), 260 -261; Bardili's account on page 282 of the same volume 12 Maria Holban, M. M. Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru, Paul Cernovodeanu, Cltori strini despre rile romne, vol. IX (Bucureti: Editura Academiei Romne, 1997), 258. 13 Holban, Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru and Cernovodeanu, Cltori IX, 573. 14 Maria Holban, M. M. Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru, Paul Cernovodeanu, Cltori strini despre rile romne, vol. X, Partea I, (Bucureti: Editura Academiei Romne, 2000), 627 -628.
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the Romanian countries in the last decade of the 18th century, deals with such rumors on a pleasant, ironical tone: At Buda we were told there were banditti beyond Temesvar who would render an escort necessary; at Temesvar they are beyond Hermanstadt, and I fancy at Hermanstadt will again fly before us. However, escorts are easily procured, and we risk nothing. The truth is, three years ago there were some thousands, who infested all this country, but they have been all cleared away by the army, many of whom were sent down for that purpose, and are now kept off by the Pandours15. His fellow countryman, John Mac Donald Kinneir, finding himself in 1813 in a village near the town of Cernei, doesnt seem to take too seriously the rumors concerning the bandits on the road to Craiova. Although he is advised to procure an escort, he is stingy, doesnt want to spend his money on one and passively decides to take his chance16. The situations can easily multiply, almost every traveler in the 18th and 19th centuries expressing, even briefly, the fear of being robbed somehow while coursing the Romanian regions. Nevertheless, in order to see how far did the fright of robbery get (but also to counterbalance the coolness shown by the already mentioned Englishmen) I will showcase the adventure James Henry Skene has gone through. While in the Romanian Principalities at the middle of the 19th century, Skene gets quite scared in the forests on the road from Focani to Bucharest. He had been warned previously by a certain Mr. Calcagno who, not a very long time before speaking to Skene, had been maltreated and robbed on the same route the Englishman was supposed to follow. The same individual has the goodwill to arm the traveler with a huge blunderbuss and two full-sized horse-pistols, a powder-flask, and a bag of balls. Though at first he expresses reluctance in taking the weapons, Skene accepts them in the end. In the coming night, he is in the aforementioned forest and panics at the sight of at least a dozen men. He orders his postilions to speed up, commands his servant to take aim with his blunderbuss and to threaten to shoot, while he himself held a great pistol over each door of the drosky, ready to fire a double broadside. The team of horses passes unhindered past those who Skene later calls, amused at the recollection of facts, a party of peaceful peasants, who were in a great hurry to get out of our way, and seemed much astonished at Jacobs [the servant] sporting attitude towards the postilions, while several of them did not hesitate to laugh heartily at our demeanor, which they apparently supposed to be meant for the very good practical joke of a madcap Boyar17. If the prospect of being robbed is not foreseeable, the foreigners at least try to spice up their accounts with the sensational bandit tales they hear from their coachmen or from the various persons they meet at their frequent halts. Johann von
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G. E. Marindin (Ed.), The Letters of John B. S. Morritt of Rokeby. Descriptive of Journeys in Europe and Asia Minor in the Years 1794-1796 (London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, W., 1914), 51. 16 Georgeta Filiti et al., Cltori strini despre rile romne n secolul al XIX-lea, Serie nou, Vol. I, (1801-1821) (Bucureti: Editura Academiei Romne, 2004), 595. 17 James Henry Skene, Travels in the Regions of the Lower Danube, in 1850 and 1851. By a British Resident of Twenty Years in the East, vol. II (London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1853), 44-45.
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Hofmannsegg is one such individual, a passionate researcher of natural sciences who in 1794 reaches Mehadia, in Banat. He travels in the constant fear of being robbed on the road through the woods of Banat, declaring himself profoundly displeased with the security measures taken by the authorities, despite the frequent reports on highwaymen. Through the forests and the mountains, he recounts one cannot venture too far, for fear of not being attacked by robbers and many a time, I myself went catching insects with a pistol in one hand and the insect net in the other. Nobody ever bothers him so the traveler feels the need to compensate the dullness of his account with this bandit story, which happened some fourteen days ago in Alma. This is how the story goes. A band of robbers, after troubling the region for quite a while, is promised amnesty by the authorities, a thing that sometimes happens, recounts Hofmannsegg. The plan of the commander charged with this operation was to seize two famous bandits who indulged in the greatest acts of outlawry. An exchange of letters follows between the authorities and the bandits and on the commonly agreed day, the two robbers descend in the village fully armed with two rifles, four pistols, knifes, daggers and swords, they show themselves to the lieutenant present there to whom they report that they have come on his parole and ask for the pardoning document. Apparently, the authorities are not willing to offer it too easily, aiming at the capture of the entire gang, according to Hoffmannsegg. The negotiations being suspended, the outlaws go to dine in one of the houses of their acquaintances. On their way, the traveler recounts the entire village gathered to gaze at these awesome, fantastic beings, a scene quite unusual for our regions [Hofmannseggs]. Without wasting time, the lieutenant, ignoring his commanders orders, storms the aforementioned house alongside his soldiers. The whole affair ends up in bloodbath. A girl falls dead on the ground, a man takes a deadly wound in the hip, one of the bandits is pierced by several bullets while trying to dash out of the building, while the other one, hidden under a bed, ends up hit by eleven bullets18. The count of Lagarde, who passes trough Wallachia and Transylvania in 1813, seems to be in the same mood for the sensational as Hofmannsegg. I had the opportunity today to add to the itinerary I present to you the indelible concern for a bandit adventure (my italics), he writes to Jules Griffith from Lugoj. It is the story of a gang of robbers which, a year before Lagardes travels in Banat, were exercising their lucrative profession without being punished, at these borders of Transylvania and Banat. The coachmen tell him how a shepherd, who undertook the task to supply the bandits on a weekly basis with a great amount of wine, falls under the vigilant eye of the authorities, gets arrested, interrogated, threaten and forced to collaborate for the apprehension of the outlaws. Obtaining the pledge that he will never be punished for his past deeds and securing a life pension of a hundred florins, all those on the part of the governor, the shepherd agrees to take the usual amount of wine to the bandits, this time strongly supplemented on the governors orders with a sufficient dose of opium. The shepherd acted accordingly; not suspecting anything, the
Maria Holban, M. M. Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru, Paul Cernovodeanu, Cltori strini despre rile romne, vol. X, Partea a II-a (Bucureti: Editura Academiei Romne, 2001), 1193 -1194.
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robbers got drunk as usual, and on the following day, they woke up in the prison in Lugoj. Returning abruptly from the realm of folktales to the realm of rea lity, Lagarde depicts the view he enjoys precisely at the moment the coachmen finish their story: The distance is scattered with crosses raised in the memory of some, more or less unfortunate accidents. One of those, stuck on the ridge of a ravine, reads that the stagecoach from Sibiu, after being robbed by these bandits [those in the story], was pushed in with all the travelers inside19. Certainly, this sort of stories satisfy the indelible concern of any occidental reader of travel literature. They are truly sensational and the mastery and dynamism employed in retelling them by the foreigners who heard them make them the more pleasant to read. But theres more to this than meets the eye. Lagarde carefully inserts the dreadful imagery he sees on the side of the road to point out the dangers he should have gone through if he were traveling this part of the country a year before. In his travel notes, the line between fiction and reality gets a lot thinner. Some of these travelers are conscious that this sort of robberies cannot even take place, not because the authorities are necessarily concerned and prepared to prevent them, but because they are the stuff of a long forgotten heroic past. For some of these travelers, the highwaymen are not ordinary robbers but genuine hajduks, vigilantes hell-bent on righting wrongs. Jean Alexandre Vaillant for example, dedicates extensive parts of his travel notes to such famous figures as Iancu Jianu and Kirjali. To give authority to his own work, Vaillant uses the voice of a certain Angelescu, a dignitary, who accompanied him on his trip through Wallachia. For this individual, Jianu was nothing but a mere boyar with no land and no fortune and, although he ventures into outlawry evidencing a sharp social consciousness, he ends up obtaining the pardon of the ruler of Wallachia and dies a good death on his estate. The end of an honest man says Vaillant. The end of a hypocrite Angelescu cuts him short20. Kirjali is put in a whole different light. The dignitary compliments him as brave and generous and has all the reasons to do it. Twenty years prior to this trip alongside Vaillant, Angelescu was robbed in broad daylight by the famous hajduk and his gang, precisely on the same road the two were coursing. The bandit, after stopping and disarming him, performs the most righteous of calculations: he equally divides the entire sum of money the dignitary carried with him to all the persons present at the hold-up, including Angelescu and his companion. Angelescu gets to keep two ducats out of the 30 he had in his pocket before the robbery. After reminiscing this episode the dignitary follows with the complete biography of the famous character. Kirjalis life story is the typical tale of the bandit hero. An Albanian by birth, the hajduk is forced by the circumstances to cross the Danube in the Principalities. The kehaya of his village had kidnapped his wife and to take revenge, Kirjali kills him. Hiding in the Romanian territories, the bandit only robs
Filiti et al., Cltori I, 586-587. Jean Alexandre Vaillant, La Romanie ou histoire, langue, literature, orographie, stastistique des Romans, Tome III (Paris: Imprimerie de Fain et Thunot, 1846), 234-235.
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Turks and Greeks who after a while do not even dare to set foot in the Principalities. Lacking the suitable candidates for robbery, the famished Kirjali throws himself against the native population, pillaging the villages, leaving nothing but plunder and bloodshed behind him. But, hearing Tudor Vladimirescus call to arms and the similar appeal of Filiki Hetairia, Kirjali feels that the generous feeling that inspired his first revenge reemerges. He choses to follow Ipsilanti, fights bravely in the battle of Drgaani being one of the few survivors of the sacred battalion. He also fights on the river Prut, but the cause of the Hetairia being lost he has no choice but to take refuge in Bessarabia, as many other did. From there, the Russian authorities, learning about his robberies in the past, surender him to Iai where a trial awaits him. Placed under arrest, Kirjali gains the sympathy of his Turkish jailers. Because the death penalty was reserved for him, the hajduk decides to leave them the fortune he gathered from robbery and informs them regarding the place where it was buried. The Turks, offering him their whole trust, pull Kirjali out of jail the night before his execution in order for him to be able to precisely point to the hiding place. Evidently the treasure did not exist, but that did not stop the unsuspecting turks to dig to exhaustion in the place indicated by the bandit. Tricking them the bandit snags their weapons and kills them. Out of the blue, Mihalache, his fellow hajduk, suddenly appears on site. The old habits are resumed, Kirjali even coming to a point where he threatened to set Ioan Sturdzas capital on fire if he did not receive two thousand Austrian ducats in a weeks time. Angelescu finishes his story abruptly telling Vaillant that on September 20, 1824, the bodies of the two bandits were hanging by their necks in Copou21. It is less probable that Angelescu had told this sort of stories and this is not only because he was situated on the other side of the barricade which separated and opposed him, on a social level, to the hajduks. From the beginning, the Romanian boyar compares the hajduks with your Cartouche and Mandrin22, and he does that for Vaillant to understand better what theyre discussing about. It is the sort of preconception one might expect Vaillant to express and not Angelescu. Then, Kirjalis story resembles strikingly with Alexandr Pushkins story of the same indivi dual, especially in the details regarding that bandits cleverness at the site of the alleged buried treasure23. Above all, the tale appeals to the characteristic romantic sensibility of the era, namely it comes up to the readers expectations. The narrative is developed around a carefully established pattern that includes all the literary topoi a good bandit story needs. The injustice that Kirjalis wife faces, his just revenge, the noble robberies in the Danubian Principalities (the Turks and the Greeks are the only victims), the moral decline of the bandit (the plunder of Romanian villages) and his reemergence in the time of the uprising of Hetairia, his capture and his miraculous escape from his gullible jailers, these are all the ingredients of the ideal bandit tale. The nationalistic
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Vaillant, La Roumanie, 235-242, 247-257. Vaillant, La Roumanie, 233. 23 Alexander Pushkin, The Queen of Spades and Other Stories, trans. Paul Debreczeny (Richmond: Oneworld Classics LTD, 2011), 37-46.
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overtones which season frequently the feats of this hajduk are only making the story better in the eyes of an occidental audience sincerely interested in the national struggle for liberation of the peoples in the Balkans. Real bandits The fact that the majority of these travelers rather imagine how it should be if they encountered such characters in their way does not exclude in the end, the possibility of a real confrontation. Most of the time though, the robbers appear to these travelers not in their most heroic moments, on the contrary, they are frequently seen in the last stages of their criminal career. Ignatz von Born for example, during a trip for scientific purposes in 1770, through Banat and Transylvania, meets such a robber in the jail of Timioara. The traveler tells us that this famous outlaw () caused the Turks a lot of trouble and that the authorities keep him chained at the specific request of the Sublime Porte. He is a handsome and well dressed young man, von Born recounts who once was a rich merchant in Serbia and who only turned to banditry to avenge the abuse he and his family endured on the part of the Turks; by his bold and defiant aspect and by his heroic feats he has merrily undertaken, one might think he could have proven to be a new Alexander the Great if he had had greater forces at hand... There you have it: a story which, if its less respectable than Kirjalis it is so because the details are missing. The biography of the imprisoned outlaw could not have been any different, considering that only a few paragraphs before, Ignatz von Born introduces Peter Vancea, the commander of a frontier guards sited at the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, a former bandit who, in the last war with the Turks () lead the greatest gang of robbers and gained his present status by saving the recently deceased emperor from the danger of falling in the hands of the Turks near Corni24. One can easily understand why the traveler, a subject of the emperor, bears so much sympathy for the Serbian bandit rebelling against the Turks, who, one might add, were not in the best of relationships with the Hapsburg monarchy at that time25. Baltazar Hacquet deals with robbers in the same manner. In Bukovina, the traveler hires four people for my protection against the locals bent on murder; Moldavia is for him nothing but a country of traitors () and if I had ventured further into the country, I would have undoubtedly lost my life or my freedom. Nothing ever happening to him, Hacquet persists in demonstrating how dangerous are the places he passes through by describing a small transport of highwaymen which he encountered on the road from Bacu to Roman. They had, as the customs of the country demanded, both their legs cuffed together. Most of them were Albanians and
Holban, Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru and Cernovodeanu, Cltori X, Partea I, 93-95. When it comes to his own safety though, von Born forgets about his idealism and sincerely fears of being attacked by robbers Holban, Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru and Cernovodeanu, Cltori X, Partea I, 102-103, 107-108.
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gypsies. This encounter was to us a good impetus to keep our eyes open for anything26. Some of the travelers are not that lucky. The panic that often grips them is at times justified. Georg Franz Kreybich for instance, a glassblower from Bohemia is attacked by robbers in 1692, together with his companions, in the station from Baia Mare. The traveler recounts how they were about to be killed if we wouldnt have been cautious enough, and a wing commander wouldnt have shown up on the spot, because the robbers had held-up the same day a couple of coaches and had beaten up people in an awful way, while the station master, he himself a phony, was supporting the bandits. They followed us since sunrise and fired shots at us and hurt one [of our own] with a dagger a couple of times. At the same moment some Hungarian noblemen showed up and the robbers were put to flight27. The exact opposite of this account is provided by baron Francois de Tott. Passing through Dobruja in the second half of the 18th century, as part of a diplomatic trip to the khan of Crimea, de Tott is greeted by two highwaymen in the surroundings of the town of Tulcea. He had been warned previously by his postilion that the son of the governor and those of some noblemen () were amusing themselves by robbing the passers-by and now it seemed that he just crossed two such individuals, so heavily armed that they were actually ridiculous: two carbines, three pairs of pistols, two yataghans and three or four daggers which gave each of them the confidence that they were redoubtable. To this unusual equipment, the traveler recounts a defiant tone was added, its intention being undoubtedly to frighten the fainthearted and to make them think twice before attempting to attack. Francois de Tott replies to this ostentation with decent greetings to which, as a sign of hospitality the two do not even bother to a nswer. In exchange, he who seemed to be the leader of these scoundrels grabs a pistol from his arsenal, spurs his horse and starts circling us; but getting bored with this unskilled buffoon () I thought it preferable to dispose of him by forcing him to c hange his mind. I therefore distanced myself from our traveling party and I confronted our rider, pistol in hand (). Your horse seems well trained the baron grinned at him but if he is of a good breed, he should not be afraid of fire, well lets see! and suddenly I fired a shot right by his ears. The animal lifted himself up on two legs, the rider threw his weapon to grab hold of the horses mane, his bonnet fell to the ground while I left him to God to deal with this mess that punished him enough, forcing him to leave us on our way...28 Nothing of incident reflects the drama of the experience Kreybich has gone through. De Tott proves to be calm, well restrained, he displays boredom to the robbers antics and moreover, he also has a witty remark ready for any situation. The confrontation with the bandits and the its favorable outcome, is probably nothing but an allegory for the triumph of western civilization over oriental barbarism, a metaphor
Holban, Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru and Cernovodeanu, Cltori X, Partea II, 812-813, 841; Hacquet benefits though from certain mitigating circumstances for his panic strikes, considering that he takes his trip through Moldavia during the Austro-RussianTurkish War of 1787-1792. 27 Holban, Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru and Cernovodeanu, Cltori VIII, 126. 28 Holban, Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru and Cernovodeanu, Cltori IX, 618-619.
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reconfigured in a situation which probably did not even take place or at least not in the details de Tott provides us. Ernst Dbel on the other hand, shows a lot more truthfulness in his travel notes. Nothing but a mere coachmaker, Dbel, in his rovings all around the world in search for labor, also reaches the Romanian provinces in the 1830s. His notes are important not only because they come from an individual with a social status below average, with no intelectual pretense and less money than needed to buy a traveling horse. They are also especially important for the present subject matter because they include all the circumstances, both imagined and real, where foreigners have had to deal with bandits. Just like Lady Craven, Dbel takes two pistols with him for his safety. The first time he gets the chance to use them is at the crossing of the mountains from Transylvania to Wallachia, where two shepherds, making an obsession for the buttons on his vest and eventually raising their clubs in the air in a menacing attitude, are put to flight at their sight. Reaching the monastery of Sinaia, the German traveler is invited in a room to dine. But at the sight of the monks all dressed in black and wearing beards he gets frightened at the thought of popping into the thieves den and quickly dashes out. In Comarnic, the foreigner spends the night in a tavern in the company of a young and beautiful barmaid. About twelve oclock somebody came to the window and called the barmaid on her name. Being scared that he might get robbed by the mysterious night visitor, Dbel grabs his bundle and pistols, which were under his head anyway while sleeping, and runs for a near-by graveyard where several individuals look for him in vain. The village seemed to me to be the headquarters of a gang of robbers was his conclusion at the end of the night. His suspicions were confirmed by a Transylvanian merchant he met the next day further on his road who informed him that the forests and the villages were plagued by bandits. He reaches Bucharest unharmed in the end, and he also finds work in his trade. It is also here that he gets to see for the first time the robbers he was so frightened of. Disarmed and bound, they are brought in the public squares to get their corporal punishment. He is especially impressed by a certain individual: Once, when I assisted to one such scene, a stout, vigorous man stepped forward in all likelihood the leader of a robber gang who must have experienced many similar celebrations; he took his 250 [rod] blows without making a sound, he politely said thanks and minded his own business as if nothing had happened. Quitting his job in Bucharest, Dbel potters through Moldavia. In Iai, precisely in the day he was planning his trip to Galai, the foreigner hears the news of the robbery and murder of a Russian offi cer in the same forest he was supposed to pass through that day. On the road, the traveler and his companion meet a group of janissaries sent after the bandits. For a while, Dbel manages to keep up with this task force but soon they need to part. The night catching them in the aforementioned forest, the travelers stop at a tavern. The innkeeper proves to be suspiciously kind and invites his guests in a room where many nice foreigners gathered. Dbel lives under the impression that he stepped into the den of thieves. His suspicion becomes certitude when he spots through a hole in the side door, in the room behind it, eight fierce faces, armed with pistols and long daggers, who had just come from the woods. The German coachmaker however,
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steps inside the room trying not to look suspicious, even accepting to have a drink with the leader of the gang. After Dbels companion convinces himself that these guests are indeed the much wanted bandits, the two try to trick them in order to get out of that mess. They inform the innkeeper about an imagined arrival of military troops, and while this one informs the outlaws, Dbel and his companion get out of sight29. This last bandit episode certainly looks sensational, but pales compared with de Totts account. Dbel does not feel the need to improve too much his travel notes, he doesnt need to prove his manliness to his readers nor his cultural superiority. Then, the episode, if placed in his overall experience in the Romanian provinces, is in perfect agreement with his constant fear of being robbed. The fact that he choses to run instead to fight the bandits and, most important, the fact that he does not hide his cowardice from his readers makes this Germans account more reliable and Dbel much more sympathetic. Above the direct experience that some individuals have with the robbers, there is a certain category of travelers, which, no matter how panicked or not they prove to be by the possibility of being robbed, are or seem good informed on the situation of brigandage in the Romanian countries. Johann Lehman for instance, the director of a theater troupe from Pressburg, who was on his way to Sibiu in 1782, devotes entire pages of his travel impressions to the issue of bandits roaming the Banat. The police tries its best to eradicate these demons. he notes This will not be achieved soon, since these malefactors benefit from the protection of the Turks. The expeditions launched against them are of no use. Their informers warn them and they quickly hide in unexplored places, in the woods or in the mountains. He then notes the harmful consequences they have on the region and the fame and appreciation they enjoy: These robbers are a real nuisance for the peasants who live in Banat, a dread for the clerks... etc.... Their leader is most of the times a man who thinks that he, his father or one of his relatives, suffered from injustice: he thinks he has the reasons to look for satisfaction for him and his relatives. The Romanians very much honored their memory, even if they rotted hanged by their necks. Hardly does one of these fellows manifest his vengeful disposition, that right away all who also feel unjustly treated run to him. Lehman then carefully tries to describe the way they operate, as well as who their victims are: Their plan is to look for what one needs to survive and to rob as much money in order to be able to pay the fees [to the Turks who shelter them] and to live through the winter, after which the time for revenge returns. They send their men in the villages to ask for food and money and if refused they set the village on fire. The peasants give them what theyre asked of and enjoy their peace. They do not report this to the authorities, in part because theyre not used to it and because they fear the vengeful bandits. Towns are prudently avoided by the robbers. The travelers get away with a moderate contribution. But with the coming of autumn, their discipline begins to lack and their greed and worries for winter supplies grow bigger. They become more heartless as the days pass. Now, the travelers are robbed of all
Paul Cernovodeanu et al., Cltori strini despre rile romne n secolul al XIX-lea, Serie nou, Vol. II (1822-1830), 447-474.
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their belongings and frequently killed. Lehman finds understanding for these terrorized peasants: The bandits have the habit to keep their word when it comes to setting the villages on fire. The Romanian peasants are blamed for supporting the robberies by informing the outlaws () But what are they to do? His goods and his fortune are as dear to him as to any peasant, wherever he should live. If some peasant offers deceitful information and this is found out, then all village must suffer. All efforts to stop this plague are to no avail, Lehman tell us, the Romanian who goes into outlawry (which he also interprets as revenge) () is prepared for such a great feat, that the worst and finest ordeals cannot force a confession out of him, the noose and the breaking wheel cannot make him repent30. Lehman captures well the essence of outlawry in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe. First of all, a strong contradiction evidences itself, between the honor and the fear shown for these bandits. Many of them, after being executed exactly at their birthplace, as Lehman informs us, will acquire biographies no less different from Kirjalis and will become folklore heroes31. In fact, just like the same traveler notices, from their lifetime, the majority of those who turned to outlawry find or make up good reasons to justify their actions, reasons no more different from those which put Kirjali or von Borns Serbian bandit on their criminal path. If to these (the terror and the vindication), one adds the insensitivity these robbers show to the measures taken by the authorities (the punishment picture drawn up by Lehman looks surprisingly similar to what Dbel sees in Bucharest), one can understand with these travelers, why this plague finds its persistence in the Romanian provinces, as so many travel notes point out. Concluding remarks People may not like to meet bandits, especially on a dark night, but a taste for reading about them seems to be universal32. This is how Eric Hobsbawm prefaces his 1981 edition of his well-known book on bandits. This is also how many of the foreign travelers seem to have thought like when they found themselves in the Romanian countries during the 18th and 19th centuries. Although they display a genuine fright of being robbed, a good number of these travelers also sense the potential that bandit stories have. Otherwise Flachat wouldnt have invented the episode concerning the dangerous crossing of the mountains in between Bucharest and Oltenia and neither de Tott wouldnt have bothered that much to improve his adventures in the Romanian Principalities. The constant fear of getting robbed, although not confirmed in the majority of the accounts does not exclude, naturally, the possibility of robbery (as it almost happened to Kreybich and Dbel) and if that doesnt take place, its absence is substituted by the stories that circulate. Otherwise the indelible concern for such
Holban, Alexandrescu-Dersca Bulgaru and Cernovodeanu, Cltori X, Partea I, 557-558. For hajduks in Romanian folklore see Adrian Fochi, Cntecul epic tradiional al romnilor (Bucureti: Editura tiinific i Enciclopedic, 1985), 63-67. 32 Eric Hobsbawm, Bandits (New York: Pantheon Books, 1981), 11.
30 31
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stories (in Lagardes words) remains unsatisfied. Therefore it is necessary for them to be included in travel literature. These considerations do not have to minimize the possibility of robbery. The threat was as real as possible33 and these travelers notes complete the picture. The Banat, for example, detaches itself as a geographical area of endemic brigandage since the majority of the travelers that course through there, at any time, mention, with more or less precision, the presence of robbers. The measures taken by the authorities to stop the robberies were that obvious too, since they also find their place in these accounts. The fact that the majority of these travelers were not robbed is not just a mere question of luck but also of statistics. If many a time the robberies ended up in murder, as we frequently find out, one can easily understand that probably some of these travelers did not even get the chance to finish their travel notes or correspondence. The publishing of official documents regarding the robberies in the Romanian countries could clarify the issue, at least partially (we would find out for instance, the name and nationality of the victims). But, until new information surfaces we are left with what these foreigners noted down. And the things they noted speak a lot more about themselves than about the peoples and places they visited.
See for example the documents and the statistics in Ilie I. Vulpe, Mentaliti n Oltenia perioadei regulamentare (1831-1847). Tlhria: documente judectoreti (Craiova: Editura MJM, 2006).
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Bessarabia in the Memoirs of the Russian Traveler V.L. Dedlov (XIXth Century) Maria DANILOV1
Keywords: Russian Empire, Vladimir Dedlov, Bessarabia, memoirs, Romanian people Abstract: The Russian travelers records about 19th century Bessarabia offer valuable information about the political, economic, demographic, religious and linguistic realities. In this article, we will analize the travel notes of V. L. Dedlov (1856-1908) a well-known publicist, writer and literary critic of the second half of the 19th century, who came to Bessarabia as a reporter (1880-1886) for the /Nedelja (The Week) journal. Even though V. Dedlovs memoirs are very useful for research, they cannot have an autonomous status. Regarding 19th century Bessarabia, the author often gives us a distorted image of the historical realities, especially in treating some topics related to the history of the Bessarabian Romanians.
The Russian travelers records about 19th century Bessarabia, though subjective and relative, offer valuable information about the political, economic, demographic, religious and linguistic realities, as well as about some particularities of the region concerning local traditions, beliefs, daily life and customs. However, we must mention the fact that few imperial travelers have come to the outskirts of the Russian Empire for the sake of a pilgrimage. Most of them P. Sumarokov, A. Veltman, N. Nadejdin, A. Afanasev-Ciujbinski or A.I. Zasciuk have come on duty covered by orders, as loyal observers of the tsarist regime, with special missions2. This is the context in
1
2
National History Museum of Moldova (danilovmaria@yahoo.com). P. Sumarokov, Puteestvie po vsemu Krymu i Bessarabii v 1799 godu [Travel all over the Crimea and Bessarabia in 1799], (Moscow: 1800), 140-160; D. Bantysh-Kamensky, Puteestvie v Moldaviju, Valahiju i Serbiju [Journey to Moldavia, Wallachia and Serbia], (Moscow: Gubernskaja Tipografija A. Reshetnikov, 1810), 7-100; A.F. Veltman, Naertanie drevnej istorii Bessarabii [Description of the Ancient History of Bessarabia], (Saint Petersburg: Tipografija Semena Selivanovskago, 1828), 10-30; F. F. Vigel, Vospominanija [Memoirs], part 6 (Moscow: Universitetskaja Tipografija, 1864-1865), 88-144; P.A. Nesterovsky, Na severe Bessarabii: Putevye oerki [In the North of Bessarabia: Travel Essays], (Warsaw: 1910), 106; A.S. Afanasyev-Chuzhbinsky, Poezdka v Junuju Rossiju, . II. Oerki Dnestra [A trip to South Russia, Part II. Essays on the Dniester], (Saint Petersburg: 1863), 98-120; N.I. Nadezhdin, Progulka po Bessarabii [A walk in Bessarabia], in Odessky Almanakh na 1840 [Odessa Almanac for 1840], part 2, (Odessa: 1840), 434-448; A.I. Zashchuk, Materialy dlja geografii i statistiki Rossii, sobrannye oficerami generalnogo taba. Bessarabskaja oblast [Materials for the Geography and Statistics of Russia, Collected by Officers of the General Staff. Bessarabia Region], (Saint Petersburg: 1862), 25-78; P. Batyushkov, Istorieskoe opisanie [posmertnyj vypusk istorieskih izdanij][Bessarabia. A Historical Description [Posthumous Edition of Historical Publications], (Saint Petersburg: 1892), 37105.
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which our protagonist, V.L. Dedlov (1856-1908)3, a well-known publicist, writer and literary critic of the second half of the 19th century, came to Bessarabia as a reporter (1880-1886) for the /Nedelja4 (The Week) journal. The travel notes taken in Bessarabia, as well as in other gubernias located on the outskirts of the Russian Empire, were gathered and subsequently published in the volume . , , , , , . / Vokrug Rossii. Pola, Bessarabija, Krym, Ural, Finljandija, Ninij. Portrety i pezay (Around Russia. Poland, Bessarabia, Crimea, Ural, Finland. Portraits and landscapes)5. Because of some obvious chauvinistic interpretations of the author, the mentioned work has raised debates and fairly tough criticism at that time 6. Beyond their predominantly subjective nature, Vladimir Dedlovs travel records about Bessarabia contain valuable information that historical investigations cannot ignore. *** First of all, we have to outline the fact that the memoirs of V. Dedlov aimed to inform Russian readers about the everyday life of the people from the Empires outskirts, that, in his opinion, was not known at all. This fact is suggested by the short foreword to his memoirs: the Russian reader still knows little about his motherland, and in particular, about its outskirts. Any attempt to help him is welcomed, this being the reason why I decided to publish this book, which contains articles written during many years, each of them being based on direct, live observations. The book is dedicated to our outskirts, as I can only see them as outskirts. Although another opinion might exist: that Russia could be considered their periphery. We have to admit that V. Dedlov was right, because Bessarabians, along with the Poles and Finns, actually considered Russia their periphery. In this context, it would be useful to remember the words of F.F. Vighel, the vice governor of Bessarabia, who wrote the following in his memoirs: None of the Bessarabian nobles spoke Russian or had interest in visiting Moscow or Petersburg. Their statements allow us to observe that they considered our North a wild country [...]. Instead, many of them went to Vienna7. Furthermore, V. Dedlovs memoirs represent an important source of information about certain Bessarabian realities from the end of the 19th century, concerning local scenery, peoples occupations and work in agriculture, traditions, folk costumes and music. Last but not least, we must mention the fact that Dedlovs
Vladimir Liudvigovici Dedlov (real name King), was the descendent of a noble family of Prussian origins, that moved to Poland in the 18th century, then to Belarus. The name Dedlov comes from his parents estate in Dedlov locality, in Gomel guberniya. 4 Nedelja (1866-1901), weekly newspaper, published in St. Petersburg at the initiative of the Minister of Internal Affairs, P.A. Valuiev. 5 V. Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii. Pola, Bessarabija, Krym, Ural, Finljandija, Ninij. Portrety i pezay [Around Russia. Poland, Bessarabia, Crimea, Ural, Finland, Nizhny Novgorod. Portraits and Landscapes], (Saint Petersburg: M. M. Lederle Publisher, 1895), 102. 6 See, Mir Bozhyi [Gods World] 4, (Moscow: 1896), 297 -304; Novoe Slovo [A New Word] 11, (Saint Petersburg: 1896), 112-114; Russkaya Mysl [Russian Idea] 11, (Moscow: 1896), 683-684. 7 Vigel, Vospominanija, 88, 144.
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writings about Bessarabia have not been capitalized in Bessarabian historiography. In this context, the discussed matter represents a solid documentary restitution. Chiinu The landscape of the city is captured in a detailed description that reveals the desolate attitude of the Russian traveler. Chiinu is an amazing city. It has as many inhabitants as Kiev, but it is immense and disordered in the direct sense of the word, it is a deaf and dumb city8. Although the streets are straight, the houses have one floor, some two, the shops and booths are miserable. In the few bookstores you can find nothing but old issues, no good books. There is just one newspaper sell er in the city, who distributes only to acquaintances. There is no aqueduct, only a spring under the Mazarache church hill9. V. Dedlov also noticed several other curious aspects in the capital of the province: There are no baths, theatres do not exist, a nd the public gardens for entertainment are also missing! And there are no people. In this city with thousands of inhabitants, the author continues, every newcomer is monitored. The inhabitants know everything about everybody10. The author imputes the disorder and chaos in which the city lives to the locals: Over this big city hangs the Moldavian clumsiness and passivity that leaves far behind Russian or Ruthenian laziness11. Moreover, V. Dedlov assigns this legendary clumsiness to everything that Moldavians do, even to their activity in the Zemstvo institution. It is clear that, from what the Russian traveler managed to learn about the administrative system of the Bessarabian Zemstvo, he acquired a vision full of a velicorussian chauvinism, typical to the imperial clerk of the period: a few years ago there was an acerbic fight between the parties of the Zemstvo: on the one side there was the Russian party composed of a few Greek and Armenian landlords. On the other side, there was the so-called MoldoJewish party, affirms V. Dedlov12. During the government of the first party (the Russian one A.N.), the works of the Zemstvo advanced. But when the Moldo-Jewish came to power, everything flourished: no statistics, no roads, no public schools only the thieves who fed themselves from the Zemstvos table. The Germans from the Akkermans Zemstvo also tacked to them. They were feeling quite well there13. It is important to notice that V. Dedlov offers a distorted image of the historical realities. Therefore, his memoirs must be related to other historical documents. It is clear that between 1868 when the Zemstvo was introduced in Bessarabia, and 1906, when the election procedure of the Zemstvo changed, the fight was given on this ground. According to Paul Gore, in the Zemstvo the representatives of the
8 9
Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 102. The church was built in 1752 by serdar Vasile Mazarache, on the site of a fortress destroyed in the 17th century by the Tartars. 10 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 102. 11 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 102. 12 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 103. 13 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 103.
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Moldavian party were the only defenders of the national Moldavian interests and of the Moldavian peasantry14. V. Dedlovs considerations on Chiinu at the beginning of the 19th century are dominated by an amazing sarcasm. The city, that became a residence place after 1812, was a mediocre settlement with a few askew lanes and very filthy Turkish buildings. The Moldavian boyars, who today deplore the disappearance of that Supreme Council, were just as filthy and miserable. And this is the place where Pushkin was exiled!, exclaims V. Dedlov. It is not surprising that the poet wanted to go abroad, played cards or wrote poetry: Poklatyi gorod Kisinev/ braniti tebja jazk ustanet15. In Chiinu there were old people who still remembered him. Most of them had a lot to tell about him, especially that he was a playboy. Also, the local archives still preserve files concerning some debts of Pushkin. On one of these files dated 1821 there is Pushkins signature, accompanied by a long reference on duty and dignity16. The Moldavians and/or the Moldo-kikehood17 It is well known that history can be exploited for political, as well as many other purposes. The authors discourse faithfully lines up to the political interests of the Russian Empire, casting shadow on some essential features concerning local history, and especially on the ethnic origin of Moldavians and their language. He insisits on details, making totally erroneous statements, such as the one according to which Bessarabia is inhabited by Moldavians, Wallachians and Jews. The ethnic amalgam is further divided in two other large entities: the Moldavians and Wallachians call themselves Romanians, while the Jews are composed of Greeks, Armenians, Gipsy mercenaries, etc., states the Russian traveler. Also, he noticed that the Moldavians and Wallachians are overwhelmed by romanomania, believing they have Roman origins, while the kikes do not care about their origins, they flay the philoRomanians and they are alright! Who they really are and where do they really come from, insistently asks himself V. Dedlov? Among other things, he discovers that Romanians live in Bessarabia, and that their number is substantial about 10 millions in the Romanian Kindgom, and a great deal of them live in Hungary. They have a fertile soil, an European climate, but they do not make much use of it, concludes V. Dedlov. Some of his observations are directed towards the language spoken by the locals: it is said that their language comes from Latin. That is hard to believe. The woman speaks to her man in the following manner: babaca, gaida la Chiineu (old man, lets go to Chiinu, T.N.), or Domnule nacialnik (mister chief , T.N.), obrazul i trsnit (the cheek is broken T.N.). The Moldavians prayer is half made of Slavonic
Paul Gore, Political Parties of Bessarabia from 1812 till Today, in The Man and the Work, ed. Paul Gore (Chiinu: Tyragetia, 2003), 200-201. 15 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 104. 16 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 104. 17 The title of this subchapter was directly taken after the original version and once again confirms the declared intentions of the Russian traveler: see Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 108.
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words, although the Russian traveler discovers a multitude of words with Latin roots: snge; lapte dulci; ochi negri (blood, sweet milk, black eyes, T.N.). He is very amused by sentences like: The Romanian will not perish. On top of that, he considers that the honored writer, Carmen Silva, made considerable efforts in order to recover the clean, original form of the language, consolidated from the beginnings by Roman emperor Trajan18. The formation of this people was indirectly influenced by Jews, who provoked them against the Romans, and after the victory, Trajan settled these lands with colonists from the vast empire. The Jews have obviously survived, and the first European people who had received them as a gift, was the Romanian one. Since then, they are inseparable. Moldavians are much more good-looking than their language, distortedly pronounced, that makes it unattractive, concludes the author19. In exchange, he considers the Moldavian women to be attractive. They are not mean [...]. All of their songs begin with frunz verdi (green leaf, T.N.). The Moldavian man, in his appearance, reminds him of a Ruthenian (Ukrainian). He has long feet, not too big of a head, a muscular chest, the eye colour differs from that of the hair, just like a true Malorussian. In both of them there are the Slovenian as well as the Pechenegs, the Scite, and even the Tartar. They resemble like brothers, but not like twins [...]. Both women and men are handsome, you can rarely see ugly ones, they also have intelligent faces20. He notices no resemblance between the Moldavian man and the little, fat or slim Italian one. The most eminent are blond men. just like revived statues of the Dacian kings, that can be seen in any antiquity museum 21, he says. But if you look closer to this barbarian prince, you get convinced that these energic traits are just exterior ones. Because, on the inside, the Moldavian man is pale and unassuming 22. The women are even gentler. With big black eyes, the profile traits are correct. Try to speak to her in a gentle way and the most angry one will smile and will have you seated to her table, as she would do with a close relative. It is true that you will have to speak in Moldavian because she will repeatedly say nu tiu ruseti (I do not speak Russian T.N.) []. The Moldavian people are good. Oh, the Moldavian houses! You cannot imagine how tastefully the walls are painted and how the rooms are arranged, what wonderful rugs they have23. The historical incursions related to the 1806-1812 period are not to be neglected. In this context, there are some descriptions that are worth mentioning in this paper. First of all, V. Dedlov argues that then, in 1806, when Russia occupied Bessarabia, the Moldavian-Jews lived only in Middle Bessarabia. This region was subject to the Moldavian ruler, who actually was a bailiff of the Turks and originated directly from Jews or Greeks from Constantinople. The Southern parts of this province (the Ismail, Bender and Akkerman districts) were named Bugeak. These regions were
18 19
Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 108. Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 110. 20 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 113 -114. 21 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 114. 22 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 114. 23 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 116.
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home to the nomadic Tartars that we have transfered to Crimea, and we filled the hole that was left with Germans, Bulgarians and even Albanese. The Russian population came here not as colonists, but as fugitives from the Empire. As far as the Northern part of the province is concerned, namely the Hotin district, it was entirely populated by Turks and was directly administrated by them24. According to V. Dedlov, all this historical information does not lack a practical meaning, because when the Panromanian people will intend to take Bessarabia away, we will not give them three southern districts and the Hotin district: the first ones can be claimed by the Tartars, and the other ones by the Panturks25. All these considerations made by the author are rather oriented towards finding an answer to those questions, uncertainties and/or searches that brought him to a province from the borderland of the Russian Empire. He states with little satisfaction that in these conditions we can clearly see that we have the Court in Chiinu, we have Zemstvo schools, we have churches and cultivated priests, and nearby, a kingdom of the Romanian Principalities. All these were not made by the Turks, nor by the Fanariots, nor by the boyars, and not by their neighbours from Austria, but by us, those who are considered barbarians, slaves or gendarmes. It is obvious that, for certain subjective reasons we could not make a Belgium from the Moldo-Valachian region, but neither did we create a region like Ireland26. The Bessarabian village The first rural settlement that became worthy of the writers attention was Slobozia, a village having around one and a half thousand inhabitants and about 400 scattered houses. The traveler seems to be amazed by the view that is offered to him: no lane, no fence, no other public building, only the church rising over the whole village. The houses are painted in an immaculate white, having pointy cane canopies. The windows have cordons painted in dark blue or brown, that honour the Moldavians taste. The inside of the house is very clean. The ceiling, the walls and the floor are coated with clay. The room with the fireplace is arranged totally different than the Ruthenian peasants one. On the right, the corridor leads to the richest room. The bed, arranged along the wall, is covered with druggets, with numberless pillows, rugs or mattings. The things mentioned above are kept especially in the houses where there are brides-to-be, for dowry. Under the girder there are hidden dried herbs and flowers. These Moldavian traditions are considered by the author wonderful but, in the same time, very primitive. The authors judgement is entirely different regarding the Moldavians religiosity. He firmly states that the Moldavian is indifferent towards religion27. In no village will you find a good church. They are all built up of wood, small and narrow
24 25
Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 118. Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 118. 26 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 130. 27 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 135.
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in size. The priest conducts the liturgies mostly by himself. It can be seen that the religion dies in the country, and that is due to the peoples lack of culture. Hardly have they started to give themselves up to the Russian bishops28. The Bessarabian boyar Dedlov considers that the Bessarabian boyar has rather Greek origins, even though, in Dedlovs opinion, he arrogantly considers himself to be a descendant of ancient Romans. He works hard in his household. In winter he prefers to stay in Chiinu or abroad, he feels more important there. The boyars house is a modest castle built on a risen place, and the peasants houses lie scattered around it. T he interiors have an European look. The drawing room, the library, the billiards are always present in the house. Dedlov sarcastically records that the billiards tablecloth is much dirtier than the books binding. The boyars also have stables and European bred horses. The carriages and the lackeys are just like in Europe. Finally, the author concludes that it can be clearly seen that the local boyar is not like the one in the barbarian Russia, but has his origins in the more cultivated Romania29. Another category is constituted by the smaller boyars. Their way of life is more modest. They do not go abroad and the whole year round they are preoccupied by their households work. They welcome their guests according to the old, local tradition. The guest is necessarily first served with comfiture. As the Russian traveler recorded, this old habit does not really appeal to the foreigners: It is unthinkable, you come from your travel hungry like a dog, your soul asks for a little glass of brandy and a bard, and they serve you with comfiture, says the local police chief. This category of Moldavian boyars usually ruins itself financially very fast. This happens because of their untidyness and indifference. Finally, the third category of boyars has a debatable origin, they are either Greek, Armenian, Jewish or Bulgarian by descent, and very rarely Moldavians. They live in little steppe villages and have simple, untidy houses. They keep their money hidden and their children are uneducated, even if they do study in some sort of gymnazium, they seldom finnish more than three grades, which means they only learn to read and write. There are also Russian boyars that have large estates mostly in the south of the province given to them in the first half of the 19th century. But the owners do not live on those particular lands, instead they prefer selling or renting them to the Germans or to Moldavians, for ploughing, or to foreigners for grazing their livestock30. A big part of V. Dedlovs statements on Bessarabia relate to his reflections on the living manner of the German colonists in the Southern part of the province, that are not true Germans, but ones that came here from Poland31. Broadly, these are the
28 29
Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 137. Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 137-138. 30 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 139-140. 31 Dedlov, Vokrug Rossii, 131-132, 185- 210.
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Russian traveler V. Dedlovs records, gathered from his travel not es in 19th century Bessarabia, as a correspondent of the Nedelja (The Week, T.N.) journal, and consequently published in a volume (1886). Conclusions V. Dedlov described in detail events, towns, churches, Moldavian village landscapes, house interiors, and especially the categories of Bessarabian boyars, their life and customs. The most detailed description of historical Chiinu is given to us by V. Dedlov who recreates the living image of the city, capturing the contrasts of a provincial environment, right at the border of the vast Tsarist Empire. Even though V. Dedlovs memoirs are very useful for research, they cannot have an autonomous status. For example, when speaking about 19th century Bessarabia, the author often gives us a distorted image of some historical realities, especially when dealing with topics related to the history of Romanians from Bessarabia. The call to his travel reports, to the records of the eye-witnesses of the events is, undoubtedly, an important constituent of the working procedure on the historical sources.The obvious subjective nature of this source gives it a specific nuance beside the historical document. The imperial ideology, which dominated the era, has left its mark on the travel records of the Russian publicist, V. Dedlov, in the description of the historical events that have taken place in the province between the Prut and Dniester rivers.
Representation and Contestation: Hills in Colonial Imagination (Simla, Darjeeling, Ootacamund and Mount Abu, 1820-1920) Queeny PRADHAN1
Keywords: inhabitants representation, Hillstation, Empire, contestation,
Abstract: The article explores the themes of hills in colonial imagination, images of mini -England in the hills, community identity and the hill space as a liminal zone. The central argument is that there was a conscious effort on the part of the colonizers, during their stay in India, to create another home away from the real actual one (England), which led to the marginalization of local people and the erasure of their past history, snapping their association with the land. Instead, there was reproduction of Imperial spaces, which is closely aligned with expanding forces of capitalism and modernity in the 19th and 20th century. It also questions the popular colonial construct that hills in India were discovered by the British travelers and army officers. My argument is supported by the corpus of Indian folk narratives and mythologies existing prior to the British colonization, which challenges hills as terra incognito, as asserted by the British. The article ends by exploring traces of resistance by the hill people, reconstructed through oral narratives of the local people in contemporary times, which have not been represented in the official history of the hills.
Introduction During the course of my research into the making of the British Empire in the hill stations of Simla, Darjeeling, Ootacamund and Mount Abu from the early nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century, I found that hills have been neglected in the study of societal development. The focus in most studies has been primarily upon the urban/rural development. This has been a flaw in India and elsewhere. We need to move beyond the stark urban-rural divide to look into other spatial developments that have been taking place simultaneously. In the paper, the colonial names and spellings of the hill stations have been used. Hail! Kanchanjangha! Snow-lapped ridges! Say -art thou a mere mountain? No, Thou High Golden of Durga. Thou art the Vedic fountain I woke up early morn with joy
1
GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi, India (queeny.singh@gmail.com).
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Thou symbol of God infinite2. ... The triple top of Kanchangjinga... Was a sight such as one see once in a lifetime. The unfathomable depths of the great purple gorges, The constantly varying play of light and shadow on the Soaring pinnacle of everlasting snow, the plumy, the Waving woods of every hue made up a picture rare and never to be forgotten3. The quotes above reflect two different sensibilities and the central argument in the paper is that the coming of the English to the hill stations of Simla, Darjeeling, Ootacamund and Mount Abu led to a subtle negation of previous historico-cultural moorings in the mountain sites. It is contended in the paper that by early nineteenth century, the histories of the hill sites were being reconstructed. Simla and Darjeeling were acquired simultaneously after the closure of the Gorkha War, by the treaties of Tetaliya and Segouli signed between 1816 and 1817. According to Edward B. Eastwick, a part of Simla was retained by the British at the close of the Gorkha War of 1815-164. By the same treaties, especially the treaty of Segouli, the Nepalese darbar ceded the four thousand square miles of territory that came to be known as the British Sikkim5.Ootacamund was discovered in the Nilgiris in southern India in 1819 by an unknown team of civilians6. Colonel Tod found Mount Abu for the Europeans in 1821 amidst the dry sands of Rajasthan7. But, despite such transpositions and superimpositions, past speaks in many different voices from among the colonized in the period under study. The impression of a smooth takeover of places with no history (in the use of the word terra incognito) sites is also challenged in this paper. It is postulated that the landscape emerged as a terrain of disputed vision between the colonists and the colonized. The Indian Mountain system provides an ideal canvas to the European settlers to emplot their various notions of aesthetic ideals and empirical designs. In the European texts (both visual and textual) about the hills of India the landscape towers prominently. The Indian hill landscape emerged as a site on which the imperial fantasies and prospects were mapped out. Naming the hill sites has been used by the colonizers has a strategy to assert their dominance over the hills and stamping the pre-existing space with their identity. As we shall see, imperialism does not emerge as a cohesive well-knit economic edifice but as a discursive structure expressing the economic, political, social and
2
An extract of a poem by Swami Prabuddhananda (1918) in Samjhana: A Souvenir, (Darjeeling, 1992), 35. 3 John Beames, Memoir of A Bengal Civilian (Delhi: Manohar, 1984, Reprint), 167. 4 Edward B. Eastwick, Murrays Handbook of the Punjab, Western Rajputana, Kashmir and Upper Sindh, With a Map (London: John Murray, 1883), 173. 5 E. C. Dozey, A Concise History of Darjeeling since 1835 with a Complete Itinerary of Tours in Sikkim and the District (Calcutta, 1922: Darjeeling 1989), 2. 6 Account of hill tribes of Neilgherries, i n Home (Public), 104-105, Part A, April 11, 1868; J. Chartres Molony, A Book of South India (London: Methuen & Co., 1926), 45. 7 Extract from Colonel James Tods Travels in Western India, The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Volume V (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881), 5.
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cultural aspirations of the white colonists. The conflicting visions of the settlers throw up complex images. A further complicating factor is that the European attitudes to landscape changed throughout the nineteenth century. As we shall see, practical utility combined with an aesthetic outlook to reproduce a European landscape. In this duality we find a constant interplay between the mundane everyday life and the imaginary existence, united within the hill space but still separate8. The landscape convention as a powerful framing device and a mode of representation was introduced in England in the late sixteenth century. It was a technical term used in the Dutch paintings. It was from the scenic landscape paintings that the concept of the picturesque scenic locales emerged. Certain locations, like the countryside, came to be described as picturesque, for they reminded the viewer of the landscape paintings9. In the colonial hill stations perceptions structured by landscape conventions conjured up images of Europe that separated the hill surroundings from their location in the colony. The technique of the landscape painting had other implications as well, which made the alienation of the hills from its past easier. Proceeding from a distinction between the inside and the outside10 the viewer saw himself/herself as standing outside of what he/she viewed in the picture. He/she was not an involved party but only an objective appraiser of the subject being viewed. The landscape perspective also draws attention to the foreground reality as seen on the surface and the background potential which is not actually in existence but is there in the artist's imagination. Gombrich further links this to the emergence of an aesthetic perspective called the language of involvement and an empirical realist perspective. While the former focuses upon the scenic, magical qualities of the natural landscape, the rationalists concentrated on the creation of the factual data and mapmaking to bring the place in focus11. The Cartesian perspective (as it came to be known)12 led to the objectification of the space, alienated from its surroundings. The aesthetics looked to European landscape to locate itself. Both led to the emergence of a process in which the hill stations were appropriated and transformed into imperial landscape. The paper is structured as follows: first, the hills in colonial imagination. Second, the Brahmanic notions about the mountains, third, the local semiotics as contesting the world view forcefully imposed upon the hill topography and fourth, the contestation of colonial representations by the folktales in existence in this period.
Eric Hirsch and Michael OHanlon (Eds.), Anthropology and Landscape: Perspective on Place and Space (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 1-30, 2. 9 Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 1-30, 2. 10 Raymond Williams, The Country and the City (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 13. 11 Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 7-8. 12 Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 17.
8
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Hills in European Imagination Those only who have lived for years in an enervating climate in the plains can appreciate the peculiar pleasure experienced in the pure bracing air, the mountain scenery, novel surroundings, and that free out-door life of the inhabitants in which we intended to share as far as English characteristics and the necessities of civilization would allow13. In these hills of India...you may still find that lost paradise and regain some of the enchantment of that ancient yet ever young world, where the people are children and where you feel that fawes (sic) and elves and even a satyr or two may be round the next corner!...Here...the gods of nature still reign and are worshipped14. The quotes reflect that the Indian mountain spaces were viewed as places of idyllic and picturesque sojourn in most of the nineteenth century English and European accounts, in sharp contrast to the malignant and hot plains of India and the ugly industrial cities in Europe. The colonial settlers in the tropics had to negotiate between two worlds: the recently lost metropolitan home, and the uncoded Otherness of the present15. The colonizers found hills a transitional space or a mid-point between the tropical periphery and the temperate metropolis that toned down the extreme differences between the core and the periphery. In the colonial imagination, this liminal stage helped the colonists to reduce a sense of alienation in their new surroundings. By the metonymic displacement (a representational technique of poetry) the home scenes surmount the actual hill habitat,16 and therefore Buchanan corresponds Kurseong, a station before Darjeeling, to Nice (a place in France). The colonial landscape was domesticated by associating it with familiar places in Europe. In the historical context of colonial times, the urge for England was strong among the British. In the Indian hills they felt close to Home. The landscape and vegetation of the hills suggested home surroundings. The flora and fauna reminded many British travellers of England. Gerard and Lloyd, among the early visitors to Simla, were transported to the days of their childhood on their first sight of Simla, identifying fruits and trees common to the Indian hills and the British metropolis: This days journey I shall always remember, for it reminded me of home, the days of my boyhood, my mother and the happiest of varied recollection....I recognized a great number of trees and flowers common there; such as the fir, the oak, the apricot, the pear, the cherry, together with wild roses, raspberries, strawberries, thistle dandelions,
13 14
Florence Donaldson, Lepcha Land or Six Weeks in Sikkim Himalayas (London, 1900), 37. The Daily Chronicle, June 6, 1927. 15 David Bunn, Our Wattled Cot Mercantile and Domestic Space in Thomas Pringles African Landscapes, in Landscape and Power, ed. W.J.T. Mitchell (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 127-173, 138. 16 Bunn, Our Wattled, 139.
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nettles, daisies and many others. There was, too, an indescribable something in the breeze, which brought back a comparative similarity of feeling17. An emotional language of involvement permeates the personal accounts to construct a collective allegiance to a common cultural style. Avery resurrects an image of mini England in the charming villas; and bungalows, nestled in the most picturesque situations among the pretty and well laid out gardens18. The nostalgia for home was strong among the British and in the Indian hills they felt close to England. Local Indian spaces were associated with home landscape. The colonist attempted to create a spatial history, of forms and fantasies, bringing into view a land redolent with European experiences from which he had originated 19 as is evident is Lord Lyttons description of an Ootacamund afternoon: The afternoon was rainy, and the road muddy, but such beautiful English rain, such delicious English mud. Imagine Hertfordshire Lanes, Devonshire Downs, Westmoreland Lakes, Scotch trout streams and the lusitanian views20. By encoding the hill habitat into the cultural index of Europe, the Otherness of the Orient was made f amiliar and less threatening. The settler colonists sought a specific countrified landscape in the hills alongside metropolitan comforts and amusements but minus the ugliness and disadvantages of an industrial city. The landscape, in this context becomes a medium for expressing values and sentiments linked with modernity. The countrified vision fetishized the nature as a commodity for the consuming gaze of the observer. For inventing the hill station, the colonial settlers strove to collate the here and nowness of the colony with the background or horizon-the Metropolis21. At times, a relationship was established through the naming of places: Snowdon, Shrubbery, Wenlock, Annandale. A sense of dominance and possession is discernible in the manner in which the space was disengaged and re-engaged in different cultural setting. The names of the imperial settlers, such as the Elysium Hill, after the sisters of the Governor General, Lord Auckland,22 were forcefully superimposed upon the topography of the hills as the political landmarks of the European presence. The representation of the topography of a colonial frontier was carefully plotted as rendering things visible is a necessary prerequisite to the administrative control by the colonial state. A colonial traveller, in the following ditty, like a landscape painter, locates himself outside the actual foreground of the hill surrounding, projecting an objective appraisal of the hill habitat, unhindered. The colonial settlers resort to the vision of the beautiful to relate to the alien prospect, contrasting a frozen passiveness with the unimpeded power of gaze, to conquer the mountain space:
17
William Lloyd and Alexander Gerard, Narrative of a Journey from Cawnpore to the Borendo Pass in the Himalayan Mountains, Volumes I and II (London, 1840), 141. 18Mary H. Avery, Up in the Clouds of Darjeeling and Its Surroundings (Calcutta: Newman & Company, 1878), 20-21. 19 Extract of Carter in Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 3. 20 Extract of Carter in Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 63. 21 Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 3. 22 Governor General, Lord Auckland visited Simla in 1838, along with his two sisters, Emily and Fanny.
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Scan the vista, day by day; Nature's glories here survey... View, as far as eye can see, Height and depth, and cloudland free. Mighty mountains, hooded white, Towering, ..., grand, sublime23. Surveillance, prospects, pristine, devoid of human presence, unchangingly passive the writer conjures up a spatial history of the hills, denying the hills any past except a timeless one. In the process, the colonial-capitalist enterprise generated another kind of imagery relating to the objectification of land as commodity. In this disengaged and detached vision, the hill landscape came to be viewed as the cattle country, a pastoral highland, an agricultural land, trading entre-pot and finally a tourist spot. The geographical-scientific techniques were actively utilized to aid the imperial project in which a team of surveyors, including men of science and medicine, did the groundwork, preparing a cartographic classification of the hills24. Darjeelings location amidst Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal, China and Sikkim became ideal for commerce and traffic across borders25. The logic of capitalism, with an ever-increasing connection of geographical spaces to facilitate the temporal flow of commodities within larger consumer markets was expressed by Edwin Arnold: We must strive more and more to develop the boundless resources of the country (Ootacamund)26. From commercial point of view, the imperial surveyors found Abu unsuitable27. The British presented themselves as the carriers of peace and progress in contrast to the warring ways of the Indian rulers. This is constantly reflected in their self-portrayals: the colonists perceived their entry in the field of Eastern Himalayan politics in the nineteenth century as the liberators of Sikkim from the shackles of the bigoted and warlike Hindus of Nepal28. The hill landscape was also viewed as the abode of the Greek goddess, Hygeia, and a natural sanitarium, this imagery being reinforced by Major William Lloyd
23
Captain J. A. Keble, Darjeeling Ditties and Other Poems: A Souvenir (Calcutta General Printing Company, Calcutta, 1908), 13. 24 J. D. Herbert, Particulars of a visit to the Siccim Hills with some account of Darjeeling, a place proposed as the site of sanatorium or station of health, Gleanings in Science, 2, 16 (1830), 114-124, 89. In 1828, visiting Chungtong, to the west of Darjeeling, Captain G. A. Lloyd (later Lieutenant General of the Darjeeling hills) and Mr. J. W. Grant, the commercial resident of Malda, gave a generalized account of the climate of the Siccim country, and of the advantages which would attend the establishment of the sanatorium or station of health at Darjeeling. 25 H.V. Bayley, Dorje-ling (Calcutta: Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1838), 40. The imperial settlers first felt that once a road was constructed through the Sikkim country, alongside the easy navigability of Teesta, the Bhutias of the Dharmaraja (title for the ruler of Bhutan) country would avail themselves of this road to open a traffic not only between themselves and the inhabitants of Darjeeling but also between Bengal and Chinese Tartary. 26 Edwin Arnold, India Revisited (Trubner & Co, London, 1886), 285. 27 A.E. Mirams, Report on the Development of Mount Abu (Delhi, 1924), 2. Mirams wrote: From commercial point of view Abus benefits are negligible. 28 H.H. Risley, The Gazetteer of Sikkim, First Edition, (Sikkim, 1894), 111.
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during the course of his journey in the Himalayas in 1821: The mountain air seemed to have instilled ether into my veins, and I felt as if I could have bound headlong down into the deepest glens or sprung nimbly up their abrupt side with daring ease29. The European landscape perspective is challenged by the well etched multiple Indian vision which was already in existence before the coming of the British. A contrast only exemplifies the distinct ways of looking at the landscape.
The Sanctified Landscape Hirsch argues that The purest form of potentiality (the way we could be) is emptiness itself, and it is interesting that sacred sites and places are sometimes physically empty, or largely uninhabited, and situated at some distance from the population for which they hold significance30. The hills in the Brahmanic worldview are perceived as empty ritual spaces. Pilgrim spots are sources of restorative power, long vacated and divorced from the everyday experience of the Hindus. This is also linked to the Brahmanic notion of contamination and purification: for the place of worship, whether in homestead or in far-off hills has to be kept pollution free. Landscape thus emerges as a sacred place for the Brahmanic cultural order. Swami Tapovanji Maharaj, during the course of his travels in the Himalayas during 191931, and after renunciation in 1923, provides an insight in the Brahmanic-Vedantist vision. He wrote: purity of mind is essential to the realization of God32. The mountains were perceived to be pure places where communion with God and the divine is possible33. In the Brahmanic tradition, sojourn to the pilgrim spots in the hills is an attempt to re-enact and realize in the foreground actuality what can only be a potentiality and for the most part in the background. There is a separation of the sacred spaces from the actual everyday social life. While hills reminded the English of their home and hearth, the Swamis build a landscape of memory that goes back to the rich historical past of India. The Brahmanic travellers relate each aspect of the Himalayan landscape with their own cultural experience, a part of the collective unconscious of a sensibility imbibed from the Brahmanic scriptures. The seers conjure up an association of the flora with their medical benefits mentioned in the Ancient Indian texts. The peacock in the mountains reminded Vivekananda of the ballads of the Rajputana34. Sister Nivedita records the sentiments of Vivekananda: The wild peacock spoke to us of Rajputana and her
29 30
Major William Lloyd and George, Tours of Upper Himalayas, Volume I (London, 1840), 139. Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 4. 31 Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 4. 32 Swami Tapovanji Maharaj, Wanderings in the Himalayas (Himagiri Vihar) (Madras: Chinmaya Publication Trust, 1977), 3. 33 Mircea Eliade, Encyclopaedia of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 529. 34 Sister Nivedita, The Master as I Saw Him (Calcutta: Udbodhan Office, 1996), 74. The original Year of publication is 1910.
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ballad lore35. The elephant was perceived as the glorious animate war machinery of the ancient Indian rulers. An occasional elephant became a text for tales of ancient battle, and the story of an India that was never defeated, so long as she could oppose to (sic) the tide of conquest the military walls of these living artillery36. Sister Nivedita could discern differing perceptions of the Brahmanic pilgrims and the European travellers. First: for the European travellers the mountain scenery allowed an immersion in sensual pleasures. For Vedantic rishis, the Himalayan odyssey was an experience above the senses. Second, the Europeans in the early nineteenth century describe hill landscape as wild and desolate. The Brahmanic travellers of the nineteenth century refer to a landscape humming with human activities since times immemorial. The sadhus and householders paid obeisance to the numerous sacred sites in the mountains. In Abu, many of pilgrims planted mango trees, Ambatari37 brought from the plains, which flourished well in Abus climate. Sister Nivedita was impressed by the large camp of pilgrims that moved along with shops and other accompaniments for the journey to the Amarnath. If a cleft valley in a mountainous peak reminded Vivekananda of the brow of Shiva, then some of the natural rocks of Mount Abu were associated with the Toad and the Nun by the European settlers. Third, according to Sister Nivedita, Indians went to the Himalayas in search of long term solitude for the perfection of the self. The Europeans usually viewed solitary confinement as a source of insanity and a mode of punishment38. Though the mountains were sacred to the Hindus of the plains as abode of the gods, the hill people inhabiting those very spots were looked down upon by the Brahmanic order of the plains39. Local Landscape Despite the British attempts to cleanse the past from the foreground of the hill stations, the past continue with all its multiple practices and beliefs. The hill stations of the British period have traditional indigenous names grounded in religious ethos. Many hill stations have origin stories associated with their nomenclature. There is primacy to a sacerdotal perspective. This belies the claim of hill stations being the European discoveries or creations. In the case of Abu, the British gave an easy sounding acronym Abu with the prefix Mount, instead of an unfamiliar Ar-budha, negating the background connected with its nomenclature. Ar-budha literally means the hill of wisdom in the ancient sanskrit sources40. According to Muni Jayantavijayaji, Abu has a rich and a welldocumented religious and cultural history, going right into the very ancient times. He gives evidence from the Vedic texts like the Rigveda (X.68.12 and I.51.6), where it is
35 36
Nivedita, The Master, 74. Nivedita, The Master, 74. 37 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, V, 3. 38 Nivedita, The Master, 91. 39 David Berreman, Hindus of the Himalayas (India: OUP Paperback, 1998), 4. 40 Shri Late Muni Jayantavijayaji, Holy Abu (Bhavnagar: Gujarat, 1954), 3.
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described as the stronghold of the Shambara and the other dasas or dasyus41. According to him, Abus pre-Vedic antecedence is found in the story of Indras conquest of Arbuda from its previous Lord Shambara42. He also mentions the Puranas like the Skanda Purana, the Vayu Purana, the Matsya Purana, the Brahmanda Purana/the Vishnu Purana in this context43. The local bhats in their folk ballads refer to the tales of Abus origin. Rao Ukaiji, a bhat of Velangri, whose songs I recorded, recites the origin story of Abu in his dialect: Gunvant vasat gare ek gai, Mehmand padi Brahmakhandmayi, Ausadana doodh bhootang apar, Balwant dhenu nisariyo baar.44 (There was a miraculous cow; it fell in a deep chasm. By self-generating plentiful supply of milk, it could swim out of the hole.) This is a story of creation as told in the ballad. The mountain and the snake recreate the original union of male heaven and female earth45. The physiology of birth, Sahlins notes, can become the saga of creation. The hollow chasm symbolized the womb, the self-generation (cows milk), issuing finally in the world of humans and gods. The earth, as we know, is the primordial mother46. The mountain makes procreation possible by separating the earth and the sky47. The landscape, interestingly, is perceived as dynamic in the native perspective, not static and inhibiting. A certain depth and meaning is given to the surface landscape by relating it to the heaven above and the nether world below. The whole process of geological transformation of a hollow chasm to the position of the elevated mountain is placed within a divine perspective. The divinity engulfs the story and the dreamtime ancestors48 of the ancient past emerge as the main actors enacting the historical process on the face of Abu. The Arbuda are part of the old Aravallis, old fold mountains, which rose to the present elevation from a hollow chasm due to contraction and tectonic movement of the earth. This mythical narrative conjoins human life and the landscape into a social commentary. Rishi Vashistha, mediates between the elevated world (mountains) above and the nether world (snake) below. The cow, Nandini, a symbol of procreation acts as the catalyst as she falls into the deep chasm created by Indra's vajra (probably a crater created by the comet, for the Nakhi Lake is also said to have been formed by a similar movement). She could float out of the chasm by producing an unnatural amount of milk. To prevent recurrence of similar incidence, Rishi Vashistha, Guru of the gods, invokes Shiva, the local god of vegetation. On his advice Rishi Vashistha approaches the Himalayas to
41 42
Jayantavijayaji, Holy Abu, 25. Jayantavijayaji, Holy Abu, 5. 43 Jayantavijayaji, Holy Abu, 3-4. 44 Rao Ukaiji, a bhat from Velangri narrated the story of Abus origin .Translation: There was a miraculous cow, it fell in a deep chasm. It produced plentiful supply of milk, and by this miraculous strength swum out of it. 45 Marshall Sahlins, Islands of History (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 59. 46 Sahlins, Islands of History, 59. 47 Sahlins, Islands of History, 60. 48 Denis Cosgrove, Landscape and Myths, Gods and Humans, in Landscape: Politics and Perspective, ed. Barbara Bender (Providence and Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1993), 281-305, 300-303.
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fill the chasm. The Himparvata's youngest son, Nandivardhana, agrees to help the Rishi. Being lame, Nandivardhana requests the sage to solicit the assistance of his friend, Arbuda, a serpent, to carry him on the serpents back. Each has a condition. Nandivardhana sought the perennial wealth of vegetation atop the mountains, and the Naga agrees on the condition that the place is named after him49. A cosmic link is established in the trio - the nether world represented by the snake that carries the mountain, the earth in between as a procreator and the mountain touching the outer space above. There is an apparent consciousness of the middle landscape i.e. the earth keeping harmony between the other two mysterious worlds, above and below the surface. In this perception, earth brings into focus, what was unseen and mysterious. Behind the sacred story, one can possibly read the story of human agency in creating the landscape. In sacred texts, human agency comes across as acts. A number of legends in the folklore of the hill people give primacy to the sacerdotal perspective in the naming of the sites which belies the claim of hill stations being European discoveries. The presence of a local semiotic tradition and its deliberate erasure comes across strongly in the case of Darjeeling. Darjeeling is the corruption of the word Dorje-ling or Dorje-lyang. Grounded in the religious ethos, there are two meanings, by the Lepchas and the Tibetans. The Lepchas characterize Darjeeling as the kingdom of the Rong and claim Lepchas to be the children of this supreme god. OMalley attributes the meaning to the Tibetan language, in which it means the mystic thunderbolt of the lamaist religion50. The British portray a contested vision among the local people. A doubting note is introduced in the history of Darjeeling area to downplay the claims of the Lepchas to be the autochthones. Ronaldshay mentions the removal of the Gompa or monastery, atop Observatory Hill, as this sacred space with its sacred history was seen as an impediment to the British settlement to assert their hegemony over the local hill kingdoms of Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan51. The cairns, a monument heap of stones and Cromlech, a flat, upright stone found throughout Southern India, and also in evidence at the Nilgiris were attributed by the Todas sometimes to people who preceded them or to the Kurumbas. The Todas and the Badagas like the other natives of the peninsula believed that these cairns and cromlechs were the works of the followers of the Pandyan kings, who ruled over the Nilgiris.52 Similarly Simla exhibits a well developed state formation and an established agrarian53 and pastoral practices54.
49
K.D. Erskine, Rajputana Gazetteer: The Western Rajputana States Residency and Bikaner, Volume IIIA (1909), 286. 50 L.S.S. OMalley, Bengal District Gazetteer: Darjeeling, 1907 (Calcutta, 1907; Delhi, 1985), 1. 51 Earl of Ronaldshay introduction to Lands of the Thunderbolt: Sikhim, Chumbi and Bhutan (London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1923), VIII. 52 Account of hill tribes of Neilgherries, in Home (Public), 104-105, Part A, April 11, 1868. 53 Chetan Singh, Ecology and Peasant Life in the Western Himalayas, 1800-1950 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998), 6-38. 54 Vasant K. Saberwal, Pastoral Politics Shepherds, Bureaucrats, and Conservation in the Western Himalayas (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), 23. Herder rights to graze the forests and grasslands of Himachal Pradesh predate colonial times.
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It suggests a historical past, much before the coming of the British in the hills. Representation and contestation As discussed above, the imperial records, either of the State or its components, presented the colonized in a passive role as objects to be represented, manipulated and denied any agency of their own. To the contrary, the local hill people had their own perceptions of the landscape in which they lived. Such connotations were not always self-consciously projected. The local people did not make a conscious distinction between the empirical and the aesthetic55. Prior to the arrival of the British in the Indian mountains, these mountain-sites were largely viewed as abode of various gods, goddesses and celestial nature spirits. We find traces of their existence in the beliefs of the semi-animistic Lepchas, the pastoral Todas, the Bhils and the Girassias and the simple agriculturists like the Badagas and the Loks. For the local people every nook and corner of the places, rivers, woods, sholas were embodiment of heavenly, ancestral spirits of good and evil forces. In 1848 Hooker wrote about the Lepchas: To the good they paid no heed: Why should we? they say, the good spirits do us no harm; the evil spirits who dwell in every rock, grove and mountain are constantly at mischief, and to them we must pray, for they hurt us56. The hill people were natural conservators of forests, protecting their luscious thickets by worshipping them as sacred groves57. What we find is that for the local inhabitants, the landscape is a lived landscape of memory. The place names refer to ancestral actions, in which the spiritual force that lies beneath the surface of the earth has the capacity to reproduce in the present the form of the past. This becomes very clear from certain Lepcha anecdotes. These anecdotes also give an inkling of the Lepcha resentment with the British intrusion. The Observatory Hill was the place of worship of the Lepchas, where oblations were offered to their main God, Kinchin. According to the local Lepcha tradition narrated by Sarkemit Lepcha58, the British attacked and occupied the Observatory Hill by using gunpowder. In the process the Lepcha shrine of God Kinchin was despoiled and desanctified. The Lepchas believed that Lord Kinchin showed his wrath by devastating large parts of Darjeeling in a subsequent landslide59. Sarkemit Lepcha60 also recalled a story of a Lepcha temple around Tiger Hill where a white swan also resided. In the Lepcha
Hirsch and OHanlon, Anthropology and Landscape, 4. Quoting Carters The Road to Botany Bay (1987), Hirsch wrote: Although the journey of the traveller (discovery and settlement) and the aborigines (dreaming) were predicated on different cultural logic, both involved positing of a relation between foreground actuality and background potentiality. 56 Hooker, J.D. The Himalayan Journal, Vol. I (London, 1852), 135. 57 Ramachandra Guha, The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalayas (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991), 25. 58 An interview with Sarkemit Lepchas, an eighty years old Lepcha woman in March 1994. 59 Oscar Browning, Impressions of Indian Travel (London: Hodden & Stoughton, 1903), 40-41. 60 An eighty year old Lepcha woman the writer interviewed in 1994.
55
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belief system, the British attempts to destroy the temple and shoot the sacred swan led to a curse befalling the white soldiers. Next day all the British officers were found dead. There are many such Lepcha stories that express their disaffection with imperial subjugation. An imperial cantonment was initially set up at the Sinchul in 1857 with fourteen officers Bungalows and twenty barracks. It was occupied in 1860 by Her Majestys 6th Foot soldiers. The cantonment was intended to accommodate a whole regiment of the European troops, but further work was stopped in 1863 and finally abandoned in 186761. It is said that around fourteen soldiers threw themselves over the cliff under mysterious circumstances62. According to Dozey, the suicide was the result of the excessive isolation and bitter cold which obtains at this altitude (8,163) during the winter there,63 but the Lepchas saw it as the curse of the God of Mount Sinchul. The Lepchas strongly believed that the frequent calamities, with the arrival of the British in Darjeeling, occurred due to the large-scale disturbance brought about in the natural set up. There is certain circularity in the perspective of the hill people. To the Lepchas, there is nothing unique or mysterious or calamitous in the frequent natural disturbances, as they are only an enactment of similar events which happened in the past when mountain gods were unhappy. In the eyes of the Lepchas, the natural forces similarly showered their wrath upon the irreverence of the colonial settlers. The confrontation with and contestation of the colonial world was expressed in mythic terms that had a meaning in the Lepcha cultural universe. The Lepcha perception of their social ties and bonds similarly inverted colonial representation. If the English writers of the times emphasize the alienation between the hill and the plains, the folklore of the hill inhabitants refers to the close bonds of friendship with people of the plains. The Tamangs, a local hill community of Darjeeling, narrate a story of friendship and emotional bonding between the Himalayan Munal and the plains Mayur. The birds become a symbolic medium expressing a sense of brotherhood among the hills and the plains. The folklore is as follows: Woombho himal darama Mayur bhaaley pothi dui Munal bhaaley pothi dui Charai janay milera Himal janay urera Madesh awoonay urera Nachdai Kheldai hiradama64. The lore begins with the meeting of a pair of Mayur (the peacock) on their way up to the hills, with a pair of Munals (the mountain peasants). The Munals receive the Mayurs with warmth and traditional hospitality. A bond of friendship develops and the
61 62
Dozey, A Concise History of the Darjeeling District, 151. Browning, Impressions of Indian Travel, 43. 63 Dozey, A Concise History of the Darjeeling District, 151. 64 R. P. Lama, Tamangs and their folk instrument Damphu, Samjhana, 1992, 58-59.
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Mayurs invite the Munals to the plains. Now the lore takes a tragic turn. One night under the shade of a tree in the jungle, a cruel hunter kills the females of the Mayur and the Munal, leaving the males forlorn and desolate. This leads to the separation between the two. The Munal returns to the hills, the Mayur remains forsaken in the plains. This unexpected development is suggestive of a forced separation by an external force (a material force as the folk lore refers to the sansari maya)65. Similarly, the British portrayed the relationship of the banias with the hill people as exploitative and hostile. But the stereotype of cunning and greedy bania was not always shared by the local populace. The folk stories tell a different tale: A mulberry tree stood in the fields of a man in a nearby village of Simla. Every year a fair was held around the tree. The poor people carried away the basket -load of rich mulberry fruit66. The local ruler of the place heard of that tree. He wanted to cut down the tree and place it in his garden. During the night, a bania came in his dream and told him not to cut down the tree. He told the Raja that when alive he had defrauded the people67. After his death, the gods decreed that he should restore what he had stolen. His soul entered the mulberry tree. The poor people made good their losses by collecting the mulberry fruits. In one year more they will be repaid to the utmost cowrie68. The colonial archetype of hostility towards the bania is replaced with a story of cooperation, harmony and divine justice in the local tales. The relationship between the banias and the local hill population was far more complex and nuanced than what was conveyed in the British stereotypes. Different hill communities responded differently to the British presence. The Todas of Ootacamund reacted to the imperial intrusion by retreating into a shell. At times the Todas came out of their shell to steal the cattle from the imperial station69. The Todas were pastoralists and specialized in dairy making. The British restricted the Toda space and abolished their ancestral rights over the land. The colonial agrarianeconomic system encouraged the Badagas, an advanced agricultural community, to settle down in large number in various areas of the Ootacamund. To promote agriculture, the State granted concessions to the Badagas by abolishing the customary tribute kutu paid to the Todas from the time the Badagas came to the hills. The Todas claimed the tribute by virtue of being the original inhabitants of the Ootacamund region. Certain customary practices of the Todas such as the infanticide were termed as criminal offense. The Todas manifested their hostility by insulation, isolating themselves from the British overtures to interact with them. Although hemmed in by imperial regulations, the Todas sought to check the erosion of their
Lama, Tamangs and their folk instrument,, 58-59. F.B. Harrop, Thackers New Guide to Simla (with two Maps) (Thacker, Spink and Company, Simla, 1925), 124. 67 Harrop, Thackers New Guide, 125. 68 Harrop, Thackers New Guide, 125. 69 Account of hill tribes of Neilgherries, Home (Public), 104-105, Part A, April 11, 1868.
65 66
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traditional lifestyle by withdrawing into themselves, staying aloof from the English and did not like them visiting their mund70. The Bhils of Mount Abu resisted similar encroachments into their rudimentary agricultural practices by an advanced agrarian system that was encouraged by the imperial authorities71. With a history of martial tradition, they resorted to politics of wildness72, that is loot and plunder, which had been utilized earlier as a legitimate instrument of political negotiations by various Rajput rulers. The British imposed restrictions upon the movement of the Bhils in Mount Abu and put pressure upon the Rajput rulers of Mewar, Marwar and Sirohi to withdraw their patronage to the Bhils. The Bhils showed their resentment directly in the revolt of 185773. No other hill tribe in the regions under study came out in open rebellion. The Bhils took to banditry and spared no opportunity in attacking the soldiers of the imperial army74. In this backdrop, the impression of previously unoccupied sites with no resistance needs serious reconsideration. Conclusion The British arrived in the mountain sites, either as inquisitive adventurers or as missionaries (Ooty), or in pursuit of the Gurkhas (Simla and Darjeeling), or in search of a temperate retreat amidst the surrounding heat (Abu). The hill space was reworked and reinvented by the British in a variety of ways as seen above. The landscape is seen as inert when the British arrived, but it becomes dynamic under the British appropriation. At one and the same time an uneasy relationship between the foreground European hill enclave and the background Indian surroundings appeared within a single representation. The paper makes an attempt to capture the tensions and contradictions in the creation of modern colonial hill stations. A paradox emerges: the hill landscape is emptied of rival native presence and their artifice. The technique of the landscape representation gave expression to the notion of inside and outside that was previously less evident. Defined by a given individual viewpoint, the meaning of the word landscape is reified from an artistic symbol to the concrete world depicted in that symbol75. This perspective is tailor-made for the colonial discourse which positioned itself precisely in the authoritative role of an inquisitive outsider. The landscape in this interpretation is a restrictive way of
70
Mrs. Handley, Roughing it in Southern India ( London, 1911), 199-200: It was a rare honor accorded to the forest ranger and his wife to be invited to attend the ceremony centering on dairy making and partake of the cream and milk offerings. 71 Report from Political Agent at Neemuch of the most atrocious outrage committed by Sirohi Bhils on British Sepoys while descending from Mount Abu, Foreign (Political) Department, 11, June 21, 1833. 72 Ajay Skaria, Hybrid Histories Forests, Frontiers and Wildness in Western India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 41, 43. 73 Iltudus Thomas Pritchard, The Mutinies in Rajputana (London, 1860), 206-215. 74 Report from Political Agent...; Foreign (Political) Department, General Letter to Court, Cons. 2, Nos. 6 & 7, List No. 130, 1834. 75 W.J.T. Mitchell, Imperial Landscape, in Landscape and Power, ed. W. J. T. Mitchell (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994) 6-34.
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seeing what privileges the outsider point of view. At the same time, it intensified the dichotomy between the insider, that is, those who relate directly to the land in the landscape itself as the memory (the local people) and the outsider, that is, those who relate to it as a form of transaction, for whom the hills are the landscape of memory for a distant metropolis. Paradoxically, the Europeans attempt to transcend time and space by positioning themselves as the viewer or the prospector. It, thus, is a representation of a hill space freed from its past tradition. But the disengagement of the hills from their past associations by the British was not an easy task and it went on right up to the twentieth century. The colonial authorities from the early nineteenth century went about the task of appropriating and marking out the limits of the European station. According to David Harvey, demarcating space is a discursive activity that incorporates power76. In the late nineteenth century, in the British administrative reorganization, Simla formed a part of the Punjab province, Darjeeling of the Rajshaye Division in Bengal Presidency; Ootacamund was the headquarters of the Nilgiri district and Mount Abu, although under Sirohi Darbar in the Rajputana was considered a British territory, though not in British India77 and the seat of the Political Agent to Rajputana that was at AjmerMerwara during the winters.
76 77
David Harvey, Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), 111. Foreign Department, Establishment B, Nos.165-170, May 1910, From Agent to Governor General, No.388-C, 20th October, 1909, No. 65.
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The Image of Interwar Poland in the Book Pologne, Pologne... by Oliver dEtchegoyen Radu TEUCEANU1
Keywords: Poland, interwar, French mission, descriptions, subjectivity Abstract: This work is a travel book published by a nowadays obscure French count in Paris in 1925. The author had formed part of the French military mission sent in the newly restored Polish state. The intention, moreover praiseworthy, was to cast a truer light on this Central European country, which had been acquiring, according to the author, a misty, legendary image. Nevertheless, the narrative is confined to only a part of Poland, namely the eastern one, chiefly that which had been under Tsarist domination including the capital and parts of 21th-century states Lithuania and Belarus. This work is upon the general eclectic, mixing descriptions of urban centres with those of the life of the aristocracy, the clergy, peasants, and ethnic minorities such as the Jews. There is also a chapter on Bolshevism. This book aspires to being a great fresco, but in our opinion it does not succeed in this. Some aspects are treated in detail, including figures, whereas others are superficially written about and even overlooked. The general aspect is that of a more negative rather than positive picture of Poland, whereas the sources quoted are often subjective.
The Brukenthal Library is in possession of the book Pologne, Pologne , by Olivier dEtchegoyen2. We have been able to collect only little information about this author, except the fact that he held an aristocratic title (a count), and that he was born in 1873. This work was published in 1925 in Paris by Andr Delpeuch, and we do not know in how many copies. DEtchegoyen states at page 15 that Commander X and I have been nominated to be put at the disposal of the French military mission in Poland, whereas at page 48 it results that this was happening beginning with 1919. We also find out that this count had also written a book called Ten Months of Campaign with the Boers, so a youth work, produced as a result of the recollections from the Boer War (18991902), whereas at page 77 it appears that the author had commanded in turn a division in World War I. The motto at the beginning of the book is a quotation from Alfred Jarrys Ubu roi: This is taking place in Poland, that is nowhere3.
1 2
The Brukenthal Library, Sibiu, Romania (raduteuc@yahoo.com). Shelf mark: I 12004; inventory number: 141815. 3 Ceci se passe en Pologne, // cest--dire nulle part. Olivier dEtchegoyen, Pologne, Pologne ... (Paris: Andr Delpeuch, 1925), 5. A text, lost nowadays, called Les Polonais, written towards 1885 by Charles Morin, a boy from the Rennes high school, a text telling the adventures of one P. H. who had become king
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DEtchegoyen reaches Warsaw and puts up at the hotel Poland, where he has the surprise to find out that Pralinia is not a burnt almond shop, but instead a laundry, whereas at the Caviarna one did not sell caviare, but cakes and coffee. He also notices the fact that Poles do not eat sardines without the accompaniment of music: each caf, each restaurant, each bistrot has got its own orchestra, who play from 1 to 4 and from 6 to midnight. Women also smoke numberless cigarettes and the author notes the persistence of an 18th-century custom, imposing that the lady with whom one has dined to pay the bill4. In this context he makes the assertion that both Poles and Polish women are fanatics of the dance5. After reaching the town of Grodno,6 the two French military men enjoy an extremely warm reception at the hotel, they go to church, where they meet the local priest, whom they describe as a man intelligent and affable, still young, and, as the whole Polish clergy, exercising a very great influence as much political as religious, on his flock. The church is described as being built in the 17th century Jesuit style, ugly outside, but very decorated inside. Peasant women who come to church are presented as having all the head covered with a white headkerchief and kissing the floor. Inside the church there was an enormous wooden crucifix, whose painting had run till the knees, due to the repeated devotions. DEtchegoyen depicts the town Grodno in detail. Thus, most of the houses had got only one or two stories. The town was towered over by an old castle, a large styleless square building, erected on the place of a former Lithuanian castle. The author states that one could enjoy a very beautiful view from the castle platform,7 placed above the river Niemen. In spite of its importance, Grodno seems to be a large borough; only three Russian churches, with bluish or gilt cupolas, give it a certain particularity. The Russian governors palace had been destroyed in 1915, during the fighting that had taken place in the town. The only vestige was a forged iron street lamp, broken and twisted. Around the town, the barracks, a brickyard, and a few refineries had been in part burned and had remained deserted. A belt of forts, never completed, was also extant. In the centre of the town, the firemens lookout tower rises like a lighthouse, whereas, at a distance of several hundred metres, there was a Franciscan nuns convent. There were four or five cinemas, enjoying a numero us clientele, where chiefly films with Charles Chaplin were on. The general impression is of great poverty and decline: the town was full of tatterdemalions and beggars, very insistent. Between the pavement slabs of the backstreets an abundant grass grew, and
of Poland, had been the source of inspiration for the play Ubu roi. Michel Arriv, Alfred Jarry, in Dictionnaire des littratures de langue franaise, tome 2, E-L, 1188-1195 (Paris: Bordas, 1987), 1189. 4 An interesting detail is that the cake baba au rhum is actually of Polish origin: it was a favourite of King Stanisaw Leszczynski, who made it known in France, where it was a gastronomical success, of course being known nowadays by its French, not Polish ( babka ponczowa z rumem), name. Robert and Maria Strybel, Polish Heritage Cookery: Expanded and Illustrated Edition (New York: Hippocrene Books, 2005), 624. 5 Ce soir tous les grands noms de Pologne tournent, valsent, bostonnent, mazurkent, one steepent et fox trottent avec frnsie. Olivier dEtchegoyen, Pologne, Pologne ..., 11. 6 Grodno lies in Belarus nowadays, some 10 miles away from the border with Poland. 7 In fact, it must have been a belvedere.
The Image of Interwar Poland in the Book Pologne, Pologne
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the Poles let the Bolshevik prisoners die of hunger. On the other hand, trade was exclusively in Jewish hands. The dynastic union between Poland and Lithuania from 1569 was being celebrated, but one finds out that on the Lithuanian side there was no manifestation. DEtchegoyen notices that Poles adore pompous military or religious shows, parades, processions, reviews, convoys. [] They also have a passion for uniforms, topboots, gildings, spurs, big swords, and pistols8. The author also makes mention of the so-called Death Bridge over Niemen. This was a field work made by the Germans in 1915 in order to replace the old metal bridge that the Russians had blown up. The work was foreseen for two years, so that the bridge could collapse in any moment. DEtchegoyen reaches Bialostok by train, which then formed part of the district of Grodno, but was much more important than the latter. Before the war, it was a great centre of spinning mills and thick cloth factories. In 1919, from lack of raw material, nearly all factories were closed. Most of the inhabitants were Jewish, and poverty was great, the town being, according to the author, a serious hotbed of latent Bolshevism. On describing the monuments, the author adds: the public garden is very beautiful and not far from it we can find the Governors Palace, a noble building dating from the 18 th century, with a gorgeous park of century-old trees, whose long alleys are adorned by very beautiful statues, dating from the same period as the castle itself. All these once belonged to the Sapieha princes,9 then, I think, to the Branicki counts,10 the former owners of a great part of the land. The remains of the prewar age could be felt everywhere: in the Polish army there were Cossack officers who had served in the Tsarist army, whereas the war minister was himself an Austrian. There were former Austrian clerks, called by the Poles K. u. K. (from the German Kaiserlich und Koeniglich), persons who did not speak Polish either, but had known how to penetrate in all high positions. These clerks, very hostile to the French, would publish in the capital malicious hints directed to the French officers. In the capital, dEtchegoyen goes to see an exhibition of works by the foremost Polish painters, held in the Lazienski Palace, built for King Stanislas-August towards
8
For more information on army baggage one can see the catalogues of the militaria auctions organised by the house Jan K. Kube in Germany, in the Altes Schloss, Sugenheim/Mittelfranken (near Munich). The catalogues are issued under the title Militaria-Auktionen: OrdenMilitariaAlte WaffenLiteratur Historische Objekte. 9 A family of Lithuanian magnates, who begin with Semon, Palatine of Podlasia and secretary to King Casimir of Poland. Some members of this family received the title of count and prince from the Holy Roman emperors. In the 16th century they defended the independence of Lithuania and opposed to a union too close with Poland. Later they became wholly Polonised and in the 19th century they were considered as being some of the richest Polish landowners. This family produced numerous statesmen and Lithuanian and Polish warlords. George J. Lerski, Historical Dictionary of Poland, 9661945 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996), 525. 10 In 1812 in Kiev Count Branicki, a landowner and sugar magnate, held the biggest wheat and flour warehouse in the town, a four-storied building made of stone. Michael F. Hamm, Kiev: A Portrait, 18001917 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 56.
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1760, in the midst of an admirable park. The author regrets however the fact that the Russians, who evacuated Warsaw in 1915, had carried away everything, furniture, looking glasses, painted panels, chandeliers, and even the bronze from the windows and doors. Nevertheless, a bathroom had still remained, adorned with four big groups of statues of nymphs, and the walls covered with Delft faience. In the evening, after visiting the exhibition, one went to the Fukiers11 to drink hydromel a pilgrimage compulsory in Warsaw. An old house, the same inhabited from father to son since 1550. A heavy antique ironmongered gate, a long tortuous corridor that leads to vaulted rooms with massive tables and rustic wooden benches, exact copies to those which furnished this den in the 16th century. The Fukiers, a patrician family, have been conducting this trade of wines and liquors for more than 350 years. They are famous throughout the world. In a tomb visitors are shown small shapeless lumps of dust; beneath there seem to be bottles of wine which, having grown old, have been lying there since 1600. [] One also says that there are very famous and formidably old wines, strictly put aside for crowned heads. [] Since times out of mind, among the Fukiers there is a custom to send two bottles from this nectar [] to the kings of England and the emperors of Austria on the day of their coronation. The regiment of volunteers from Suvalki, with a force of roughly 1,500 men, was being commanded by Major Maskiewicz, a former Russian officer, and contained a cavalry platoon commanded by a former captain in the Russian army, famous in 1914-1915 in the whole Russian Imperial army for the boldness of his reconnaissances. The Polish general F. decides to have his entrance solemnly at the head of his troops in the town Augustow, which the Germans had just cleared and returned to the Poles. On the main street of the town, triumphal archs had been erected, carpets and flowers were displayed at windows and balconies. The authorities reception took place in front of the church and a solemn mass ensued. After the review of the troops and parade, a banquet took place, where the young girls from the town waited. Most of them were dressed in the national costume, which dEtchegoyen finds beautiful: a short blue or pink gallooned dress, velvet bespangled stays, and necklaces of coloured pearls, and as a headgear a red muffler with drawings of branches. No less than seventeen discourses are held at this banquet. Subsequently, the author reaches the headquarters of the general staff of the German army, where General Riebensahm brings the author to a knowledge of the rivalries between Poles and Lithuanians in the Suvalki region12. The colonels driver, whom dEtchegoyen meets in Poland again, tells him things hard to believe for us nowadays, namely that the population of Minsk, Jews or
11
For 300 years the Fukiers ran in Warsaw an inn which also appears in numerous novels and plays. This establishment was destroyed in 1939, so fourteen years after the publishing of the book discussed here. Louise Llwellyn Jarecka, Made in Poland: Living Traditions of the Land, (S.l., 1949), 198. 12 The Lithuanian War [] began in July 1919 [] in theory, in the absence of a formal peace treaty, it continued throughout the inter-war period. Norman Davies, Gods Playground: a History of Poland, Volume II: 1795 to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 292.
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White Russians, was regretting the Bolsheviks departure and the only ones glad at the union with Poland were a dozen of French schoolteachers who had taken refuge in the city. When entering Minsk, the Poles would have plundered many shops and killed by way of knife strokes a few Jews, and the driver himself found Russians much nicer than Poles. In chapter VI, the author comments on the fact that Poles and Jews hated each other, by endorsing a balanced attitude, namely that neither the one, nor the other are fully right. They are not entirely wrong either: they exaggerate. DEtchegoyen tells that in Poland there was a fashion among the military to pull Jews by their beards on the street and even to cut their beards with the sword, a thing that led to riots with swords and clubs in the city districts, which ended with wounded on both sides. The author maps out a short outline of the Jewish problem in Poland. Thus, in 1906 the country had a considerable Jewish population and in that year the Tsarist government expelled a great part of the Jews from inside to Lithuania, Galitia, and Poland. Those Jews were arriving in Poland on bearing two unforgiving stains: being a Jew and being a Russian. If Poles are agriculturists, Jews are merchants. The latter do not speak Polish, but Yiddish, German, or Russian. DEtchegoyen also insists on the fact that trade was the only possibility open to Jews and that even odd markets where Jews seriously pore over an old pair of boots, a desilvered chandelier, or an old umbrella13. The Jews from Poland fell into two distinct classes: pure Jews and Poles of Judaic religion, but the latter are in minority. Some of them went to become converted to Catholicism. Pure Jews were a kind of state within a state and in some towns formed the ethnic majority. Thus, they made up a fifth of the whole of the population of Poland and were 80 % in Bialostok, 60 % in Grodno, and in Warsaw there were 360,000 Jews. Their power is considerable, as they are united, solidary, and homogenous. They had their own merchants, their slaughterhouses, schools, hospitals, and newspapers. These newspapers, as well as the firms of their shops, were written in Jewish characters, but in the Yiddish language. In fact, antisemitism developped in Poland much later than in the rest of Europe. Poles and Jews knew little ones about the others, whereas Jews served as intermediaries in the feudal society that existed until the middle of the 19th century in Poland. Jews dealt with both nobles and peasants, as agents and managers for the former and as purveyors of goods and services to the latter, thus marking an economic interdependency, and they tolerated each other14. The author also informs us of the refusal of various Polish statesmen to open credits or pledged loans on forests or oilfields.
13
The author obviously speaks here about flea markets, of whom he seems to be ignorant. A richly illustrated work, published in Germany, about flea markets, is that of Wolfram Khler, Orientalische Basare und Mrkte (Kreuzlingen: Neptun-Verlag, c. 1987). 14 Robert Blobaum, Introduction, in Antisemitism and its Opponents in Modern Poland (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005), 1-3.
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DEtchegoyen also reports that a Russian who knew Poland well and did not love it had stated once Do you believe in the Poles gratitude and friendship? A gross error: the Pole loves a single person in the world: himself.15 In chapter VII, the author states that Frenchmen know Poles only little but a few great landed magnates, a few writers (littrateurs), musicians, women dancers, and that they remembered Stanislas, the uhlans of the Empire, Marshall Poniatowski, Kosciusko, and the refugees of 1863. All these had created a misty, legendary image. DEtchegoyen proposes himself to offer a realistic image, in his opinion less seductive but closer to the immediate realities. Thus, the author writes that in many foreigners vision, Slavic peoples were related to Orientals. They have from these ones the custom of ceaseless speech, indolence, a little fatalism, warfaring spirit, suppleness, poetic sentiment, the passion of great shows that touch their simple souls, the taste for pompous imagined formulas, the love for vivid colours, the easiness of disembling, and childish vanity. For Poles, saucy vanity would have been characteristic. DEtchegoyen appreciates some members of the aristocracy, on the general very cultured, with a excellent education, although in thrall of an obsolete formalism. They had a great sympathy for France, without harbouring a ferocious hatred for the foes of this country. The balls given to French officers in 1919 were only the replica to those given to German officers in 1916. Many men had grown up in England or in Berlin and were fluent in French, English, German, and Russian. The members of good bourgeoisie, high banking, and great trade, landowners and those of intellectual circles had travelled a lot, spoke five or six languages, but had studied not in England, but preferably in Switzerland. The author deplores the fact that all administrations and all important posts, military or civilian, are in the hands of some Austrian-Poles of low quality. He also points out at the state of backwardness in which the people lie in the region which had been under the Russian domination, a primitive, savage crowd, of a limitless naivety, and an absolute ignorance. This section of the people lived in the countryside, in a grim misery, and with little contact with the rest of the world, except fair days. Unfortunately, as dEtchegoyen notices, this people is the backbone of Poland and sacrificed themselves in 1794, 1830, and 1863, without knowing very well why. Urged by their priests, they shouted when the French delegation passed by, Vive la France! and might have very well shouted Vive la Patagonie. Inquiries organised by clergymen pointed out the fact that the people does not know either the prayers or the catechism. We find out thus that the people generally says Grekov dopuszezanie, which means the Greeks admission has no sense, instead of Grzechow adpuszczenie (the absolution of sins). When asked if they are Orthodox or Catholic, they answer No, I am of the Polish religion. A great number of Poles believed that
15
Such a characteristic is actually a legacy of Old Poland, from the Golden Century in the 16 th century. This integrating state culture [] seemed to be enjoying an era of unparalleled vigor, and the Poles were convinced that their country was in every respect the model of modern civilisation. Myeczislaw B. Biskupski, The History of Poland (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2000), 15.
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the Holy Virgin was a queen of Poland. Thus, in 1897 in Warsaw 50 % of the population was illiterate, in odz, 60 %, and in Benzin, 69 %. The authors conclusion is the following: So, let us not delude ourselves: in Poland, for the masses, patriotism is only a succedaneum of religion and in this mass religion generally is only a fetishism. Nevertheless, the peasantry had a strong consciousness of their identity, built around the house and the family. It is true that they differed greatly from townspeople in social customs. They were also conscious of the values of their localities. Religion was strong, although mingled with pre-Christian customs. Finally, the spoken oddities are again differences from urban language.16 On the other hand, many churchmen are aware that there is much religious indifference in Polish society. Father Mieczyslaw Nowak has put it as follows: For a large percentage of the Poles, faith is a only a stereotypical mindset, a tradition, an extremely superficial declaration17. The foreign dominations under which the country had been had left their mark on its culture and civilisation thus, dEtchegoyen points out that the Pole from Poznania or Mazuria is much alike a German, whereas the peasant from Lublin is not different from the Russian moujik. He also adds that the race generally is handsome enough, chiefly among the men, would it not be the havoc made by their total lack of hygiene and proverbial alcoholism. The tip was master everywhere and the thefts of public money were so widespread in the administration, that the death penalty was introduced against these offences just like with the Bolsheviks. The author also states that no one is able to make a decision. The smallest matters are subject to ceaseless babbling, one can never obtain an answer by yes or no, and also that one would say that everyone have adopted here as an article of faith the Persian precept that when you have something to do or are pressed, wait for three days and you will see then that it was not so urgent as you have believed, or: when a Pole tells you immediately, do hope; in eight days you will be satisfied, or in fifteen or never. If he tells you yes, of course, do not warm up, this does not engage him to absolutely nothing. DEtchegoyen remarks the total ignorance of measures of public hygiene, epidemics making havoc among the population, and hospitals are insufficient and precarious. A high-rank French officer, who knew the country well and spoke Polish currently had said that nothing is natural here, everything is faked, distorted. Everything is done for the gallery, the Pole always is on stage. In fact, the author was not abreast of or ignored fundamental realities. Until 1920, six currencies had circulated across this territory. There was not a unified transport system. More than fifty railways ran to the former Russian frontier and only ten continued beyond it. Perhaps most important of all, four different legal systems existed and codification was not yet completed even in 1939. The level of education
16 17
The History of Poland since 1863 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 142-143. Brian Porter-Szcs, Faith and Fatherland: Catholicism, Modernity, and Poland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 10.
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war lower in the former Russian regions18. It is no wonder thus that the country was in a state of poor organisation and the individual was probably forced to find his own way in society. The phrase a friend who knows Poland well can be found several times and we do not know to what extent this stands for a reality. Between the pages 180 and 186 a Chinese fairy tale afloat among the lite of Warsaw at that moment is told. We are not told which its source was, nevertheless this is a hint of the cosmopolitism and the high level of culture of the upper classes of the capital. In Chapter XII, dEtchegoyen notes that, little by little, French officers had been leaving Poland, because of the fact that President Pisudski had rallied around himself former German and Austrian officers. The number of those who had remained was, however, more than sufficient. These were desk officers who were blackening the paper all day long and producing notes, circulars, reports, and instructions without being able to state that anyone has ever been found to read them. A few other were following in the steps of Polish general staffs, that, when did not play foul tricks, only tolerated them as amicable, superfluous and a little cumbersome: these were the technical counselors. Orders, decisions, pieces of information were only communicated cut out, revised, truncated, forged, and carefully pruned by the Polish High Command. Whereas in Warsaw, twenty commandless and jobless generals maintained the prestige of the sky-blue uniform in hotel and restaurant halls for a long time19. An institution set up by the French Army, the Aviation School, had been, however, successful among the young Polish military, although our air heroes have not met in Poland and they have been very much shocked because of that the irresistible admiring impression with which they were accustomed to. The pilots who have graduated with a licence had acquired a taste for prestigious unexpected uniforms, for example there has been one clad in billiards green and orange trouser braid and another in black velvet from head to heels and a big white collar. In chapter XIII, which runs from page 211 to 235, to a large extent the author stands up for the Bolsheviks, stating, however, as a conclusion that these ones had committed terrible massacres, appalling ruins, numberless lootings, murders, fires, thefts, assassinations. He writes: Behold the art of the Slavic plains, these stripes of narrow brightly coloured fabric, sown with each other, and woven exactly like those of the Upper Niger. Examine the rounded, square, or triangular drawings that deck the everyday-use objects. Are they not palpably the same that deck the Touareg buck hides or the tents of the Sioux Indians ?, reminding us that this is the country of Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and Mouraviev the Hanger as well. A Lithuanian friend, a very great seigneur, had stated before the author that there would never be a moderate regime in Russia, that Bolshevism was actually a Tsarism that had only changed the leaders, and that the anti-Bolshevik reaction would triumph, it would have
18 19
The History of Poland since 1863 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 139-140. Olivier dEtchegoyen, Pologne, Pologne ..., 197-198.
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been as brutal as Bolshevism itself. At page 219 it is also stated that a large number of bandits who only thought how to kill and rob had penetrated Bolshevik administration. DEtchegoyen quotes a declaration made by Lenin himself, according to whom, given the Declaration of the Rights of Man, Communist doctrine endeavours to do away with the exploitation of man by man, also rhetorically asking if it is less beautiful. The author point out here that, no matter the regime, a distance like that one extant between dreams and reality always is fixed. A lady who had witnessed the most acute periods of the crisis complained that it would happen then that a Red Guardist at the corner of the street claim the fur coat of the person passing by on the street, only for the reason that he liked it and he had a gun. Nonetheless, Trotsky would have brought in the meantime order in this field, measures accompanied by many executions. DEtchegoyen also draws a short parallel between the French and Russians Revolutions, calling our the attention to some resemblances such as a weak monarch (Louis XVI Nicholas II), a queen, in turn an empress, of foreign origin, finally the summoning of the Duma recalling that of the States Generals. In spite of some contrary opinions, Charles Maurras also insists on the resemblance between the two revolutions, stating that there had been [] a deep social demoralisation, in the early stage stretching to the army. Another friend of the author had stated that the Soviets army is actually the old Imperial army, with the same officers and discipline, the only change being the disposing of the rank badges. Continuity would have been possible in some regions, as for instance in the Ukraine, where the lands of Count P. from Staro Constantinov had not been damaged. The sugar refineries had been guarded by Red Soldiers, who had requested that the beet sugar crop be assured for the feeding of the works. In Vilnius the Oginsky Palace had been considered a museum by the Bolsheviks whon had taken the city. The library it must have been the municipal one having been carried away to Kiev by the Russians. In other regions in the Ukraine, around Odessa, order and well-being would have ruled. Vilnius is described as being a large town, having 150,000 inhabitants, out of which 45% Jews. Houses were covered by a yellowish plaster and the streets were particularly dirty. Except two or three thoroughfares, the streets were narrow, winding, and dark. During the occupation, the Germans had improvised wooden pavements which had not been either kept in good condition or repaired; the boards went loose and big holes had appeared here and there. There was no sewerage system, the natives filling their pitchers from the wells in their yards. Hygiene was very precarious, the typhus epidemic making periodical comebacks. Three times a week, White Russian peasants from the neighbourhoods would come to a big fair. DEtchegoyen mentions the church of Saint Anne, dating back from the 15th century. It was wholly built from red bricks and had been praised by Napoleon in 1812. The author also mentions the
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famous Chapel of the Virgin from Ostrabramska, built upon one of the last gates that had remained from the old precincts wall of the city20. DEtchegoyen had been accommodated by an old Polish lady. In the room there was a big faience stove that mounted to the ceiling and which would swallow a wood per month. On the sofa lay a guitar to which the two daughters of the lady, after violent quarrels with their mother also making use of the poker , sang airs from Russia, melancholic and sentimental. The firemens captain from Vilnius was impressive a distinguished, superbly dressed man. He usually went around in a tiny victoria carriage, pulled by a very handsome fast black horse. His helmet was from silver, his macintosh beige with silver epaulettes, whereas the ordinary firemens helmets were very obsolete, the 1830 Louis-Philippe pattern. By contrast, Minsk was a beautiful small town, luminous, clean and riant. Its streets are wide, the gardens go into leaf, and a very large park offers agreeable strolls21. In chapter XVIII, dedicated to economic aspects, the author recalls the decision made by the Polish finance minister, Grabski, who compelled the population not to hold any foreign treasury note. Immediately after the conclusion of the armistice, certain French firms were desirous to commence relations with the Polish ones, but the poor understructure and the lack of monetary unity had undermined these efforts. Some of them had come in, however, with important sums of money on themselves and with serious plans of investments. Yet, according to the law, they have been forced to exchange their francs into Polish marks, but subsequently were going to buy exportable goods from Poland. The rights of entrance fixed in the spring of 1920 seemed to aim especially at the wares exported by France. The author enumerates the cognacs, liquors, bottled wines, perfumes, silk fabrics, and others. Nevertheless, the protective measures made by the Polish government had brought about protests from the French merchants in Warsaw and as a result most of these measures were cancelled. It is about the interdiction to sell foreign currency to cover the invoices of luxury goods, without any precise specification. The situation had only temporarily improved, however, as it worsened a lot soon afterwards. On June 15 1924, the same Grabski ascertained before the Diet that more than 60% of the overall trade of Poland was taking place with Germany. The outcome was that Poland followed economically in the step of its western neighbour as to inflation. DEtchegoyen bears witness to the fact that during the year 1925 many works, especially the odz spinning mills, had closed their gates in order to move to Czechoslowakia and Romania. Bank Polski cancelled the loans it had opened to merchants, whereas two of the largest financial establishments from Warsaw had gone bankrupt. One of them had 35 agencies in Poland and branches in Brussels,
20
The representation of the Virgin looks like a Russian icon, encased in silver. One can still see only the face and hands of the blackened painting. Paul C. Bussard, The Catholic Digest, Volume 4 (S.l.: The College of St. Thomas, 1939), 14. 21 Olivier dEtchegoyen, Pologne, Pologne ..., 260.
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Antwerpen, Rotterdam, Paris, and other cities22. In spite of the friendship treaty and the substantial help from France, Poland solicited a British, not French, financial expert, namely the M. P. Hilton Young,23 in the purpose of reorganising national finances, which were lying in a morass. The actual course of events was the following: in 1922-1923, the well-known general Wadysaw Sikorski, at that time Prime Minister, summoned a conference of experts to draw up a programme of economic reforms. Grabski was in fact a very competent finance man who had some success in reducing the rate of inflation. In December 1923, Grabski succeeded to Sikorski as Prime Minister, being the most lasting one in the inter-war period. His reform plans were courageous thus, in 1924 he created a new central bank and a new currency, the zloty, linked to the gold standard. Although he succeeded in making agreements with his political foes, in June 1925 there began the German-Polish tariff war, and, after receiving criticism from the Director of the Bank of Poland, Grabski resigned. In fact, in 1926 economic recovery was helped by the coal strike in Britain, an event that opened new markets for Polish coal, particularly in Scandinavia24. Since the 19th century, the economic evolution of Poland has depended upon the exploitation of its underground resources, chiefly hard and brown coal and also metals, such as copper, lead, and zinc. The non-ferrous minerals were sulphur and salt25. The conclusion is that, in spite of several valuable details and descriptions, this work is on the one hand very unequal and on the other hand it is unrealistically critical towards Poland. The motto of the book is, significantly, a negatively hinting quotation from the famous French theatre play Ubu Roi. Some aspects are dealt with in detail, also making use of figures one can notice some economic knowledge in the author , whereas other are completely or almost completely ignored. First of all, dEtchegoyen is concerned only with a part of the country, especially that which had been under Russian control, and areas that belong nowadays to Lithuania (Vilnius) and Belarus (Grodno, Minsk). If we have shown the bad situation of the railways, towards the end of the book the author only incidentally makes mention of the scarce understructure. A state of uncertainty and shunning of responsibility was natural in the aftermath of the war and in the situation in which the Poles did not have a complete and coherent law system yet. National pride is laughed at and described as being mere egocentrism and empty vanity. University life is ignored and politicians such as Grabski are viewed one-sidedly. As regards Jews, dEtchegoyen ignores the quite recent character of the
Olivier dEtchegoyen, Pologne, Pologne ..., 305. One can ascertain the economic power of some Polish establishments. 23 Sir Edward Hilton Young was a Liberal minister and Chief Whip, who passed, however, to the Conservatives. In 1929, although chairman of the commission, he refused to sign a report which rejected the idea of granting Home Rule to Kenya, on the pattern of Southern Rhodesia. Ronald Hyam, Understanding the British Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 226. 24 The History of Poland since 1863 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 155-162. 25 Miroslawa Czerny, Andrzej Czerny, Forty Years of the Shaping of Regions under the Communist System, in Poland in the Geographical Centre of Europe: Political, Social and Economic Consequences (S.l.: 2006), 8.
22
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phenomenon and confines himself to stating that neither Poles nor Jews are utterly right. One can find in the text racial discourse in the tradition of the 19 th century, such as the rapprochement made between Slavs and Orientals. We are not told what good bourgeoisie is, probably the middle and high one. The opinions quoted are voiced by Russian and Lithuanian friends, most probably aristocrat acquaintances from the prewar period, the author offering no clue regarding the amount of information about the country that those persons actually possessed. Finally, the dformation professionnelle is apparent in the description of uniforms and parades and the Air School. Flea markets, of which dEtchegoyen seems to have been ignorant, are described as odd markets. As to matters of external policy, Bolshevism seems to be praised more than it is criticised. Thus, a negative and very truncated presentation of Poland takes shape, being in contrast just with the initial wish of the author to offer French readers a more accurate image of Poland and the Poles.
A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Year of Our Lord 1925

Valeria SOROTINEANU1
Keywords: pilgrimage, Romanian Orthodox Church, Jerusalem, Romanians believers, Metropolitan Nicolae Blan Abstract: The pilgrimage to the Holy Land was perceived in the Romanian Orthodox area as having a special significance and importance, although for security or financial reasons, was replaced with the pilgrimage to the monasteries. This situation underwent a major transformation after 1918 (precisely the period the paper focuses on) when, in Transylvania, the Romanian Metropolitan Nicolae Balan organised the first great pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1925, an encouraging model for those who followed after. The 1925 pilgrimage had specific characteristic, not only because it was the first collective pilgrimage from a country who greatly contributed to the fight for saving the Orthodox creed and its heritage, but also for especially demanding some even if belated recognition for this effort. The pilgrimage has subsequently encouraged the development of collaborative relations with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In the same time, it was important for the involvement of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem by building a Romanian religious settlement there.
Perceived as a religious and moral duty for the Romanian Orthodox, the pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Jerusalem in this particular case), has always faced various obstacles. Although less accessible to a large number of believers, there were numerous individual cases mentioned during the pre-modern period of people, mainly with a religious background, attempting to achieve it. Although the patriarchs of Constantinople and of the Holy Land who had come to these places (current Romania) to escape the Turks pressure or as k for the only possible (material) help were well known to Romanians, there were still many those who ventured to go on pilgrimage for the honour of being considered palmers for the rest of their lives2. The first Romanian hierarch to arrive to Jerusalem was the metropolitan bishop Varlaam, in 1690; during the following years, there is an increasing number of
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (valeria.sorostineanu@ulbsibiu.ro). See Ieronim Creu, Aezmintele romneti de la Ierusalim, Iordan i Ierihon [Romanian Settlements in Jerusalem, Jericho and Jordan], in Romnii i ara Sfnt [The Romanians and the Holy Land], edited by Gheorghe Vasilescu and Ignatie Monahul (Brila: Istros, 2007); Ioanichie Blan, Mrturii romneti la locurile sfinte [Romanian Testimonies about the Holy Land] (Roman: Roman and Hui Bishop Publishing House, 1986).
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mentions of monks and nuns attempting to reach not only Mount Athos, but also Constantinople and Jerusalem, the Holy Land (identified with the life and passions of Christ3). Following Varlaams example (in the 17th century), there were other bishops who went on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, such as: Bishop Neofit Scriban in 1874, the only one to receive the honorific title of Bishop of Edessa, Gherasim Timu, Bishop of Arge county or Athanasie Mironescu, prime-metropolitan of Romania, at around the year 18964. We could say that everything that Romania has done for the Holy Land has lost its meaning and recognition in a rather complicated and hostile political context. While the Middle Ages can be associated with the Muslim conquer over Eastern Christianity, followed by the failure of the Crusades and the fall of Constantinople, the 19th and 20th centuries, World War I, the wars between Greece and Turkey and the British protection over Palestine, all endangered the very premises of the Constantinople Patriarchate, transforming it into a simple Greek bishopric5. Speaking of the pilgrimage, during the modern period there are few known examples of non-clerical palmers, although some of them were quite outstanding, for instance Prince Serban Cantacuzinos mother, Elina, who went to visit the Holy Land along with two of her children, in 1681, taking there, as a gift, a precious edition of the Old Testament, later mentioned at the library of Patriarchate of Jerusalem. We did not aim to approach here the issue of 18th century pilgrimages in the, as the Phanariot regime had imposed a system of subordination through monasteries for the Orthodox Church of the Danubian principalities; a fact which affected the relation between the Romanian Orthodoxy and the Eastern Christianity ever since. The perception of the monasteries dedicated to the Holy Land as simple goods to be exploited by the Greek abbots could not bring any improvement on their side to the modern period, a situation even more emphasized by Russias unconditioned support towards the Greek6. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a large number of so-called proskinitare (from proschinisis meaning worship) were mentioned in the Romanian principalities, being meant to encourage the increasing of the number of pilgrimages, through describing in detail the most notorious itineraries. They mainly circulated during the 19th century, the most famous being that of Anton Pann in 1852. When considering both clerical and non-clerical pilgrims, the former are more numerous, which is not surprising, as religious pilgrimage was regarded as a form of
Al.A. Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte [Romanian Orthodox Pilgrims to the Holy Land], Mitropolia Moldovei i Sucevei, XLVII (March-April 1971), 276. 4 Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 279. 5 Miron Cristea, Referatul nalt Prea Sfiniei Sale Patriarh D. D. dr. Miron Cristea ctre Sf. Sinod al Romniei despre cltoria sa la Locurile Sfinte [The Report of the Holy Patriarch D. D. Dr. Miron towards the Holy Synod Regarding His Journey to The Holy Land], Biserica Ortodox Romn, LIII (July 1927), 388-389. 6 Ghenadie Ponea, Biserica Ortodox n ara Romneasc, 1821-1856 [The Orthodox Church in Romania, 1821-1856] (Bucharest: Andreas Publishing House, 2011), 210.
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ascetic voyage, performed in prayer and following Christs perfect moral example. At the same time, they prayed in the name of the lay men, who were not able to reach the earthly Jerusalem, because of financial difficulties, among other things7. We have a lot of information regarding these pilgrimages due to some travelogues, some in the form of lost and later rediscovered manuscripts, as was the case of merchant Hagi Nicolae from Craiova, who went on a complex one-year pilgrimage from Mount Athos to Mount Sinai, Cairo, Cyprus and then through Constantinople to Galai8. Strongly impressed by her husbands journey to the Holy Land, Stana Hagi Petru Luca built in 1789-1799 in Sibiu - in the Josephine neighbourhood - the second Orthodox Church, officially intended for the towns Greek company members. Later, Puna - her daughter - married a rich merchant who had also been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Hagi Constantin Popp, one of the most famous traders in Sibiu between the end of the 18th century and 18089. Quite distinct was Dimitrie Bolintineanus case, as he was forced into exile after the 1848 Revolution and thus travelled to Jerusalem. However, his intentions did not concern the idea of a pilgrimage and the exotic Arabic characters met during his journey were the ones to stir interest in his later volume, published in Iai in 1856, Cltorii la Ierusalim n Srbtorile Patelui i n Egipet [Travels to Jerusalem and Egypt During the Easter Holidays10. It is difficult to establish the number of clergymen, and especially the monks to take the pilgrimage as some did it in a quiet, full of devotion manner while hoping that the number of Romanian pilgrims would increase in time. The greatest amount of information regarding their possibility of going on a pilgrimage comes however from their stories, especially addressed to those who lived in monasteries. It was the case with friar Chiriac from Secu Monastery, who was willing to visit pious Russia and also Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Tiberia, where he finally arrived in 184011. Friar Ananie Melega reached Jerusalem in 1860, and Chelsie Dumitriu published in 1885, at Flticeni, Cltoria la Locurile Sfinte (The Journey to the Holy Land). His accounts are either travel reflections, filled with religious emotion related to the figure of Jesus or, in the case of friar Melega, the pilgrimage was merely a reason to once again lament about the collapse of Eastern Christianity caused by the conquer of the two symbols the cities of Jerusalem and Constantinople in his Fragment istoric asupra ultimei distrucii a Sntei Ceti a Ierusalimului i capitularea Vizantiei, Roma nou, acum Constantinopol (Historical Fragment
Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 276. Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 278. 9 Valeria Sorotineanu, Cimitirul Bisericii din Groap din Sibiu [The Cemetery of The Pit Church from Sibiu], Studia Universitatis Cibiniensis. Series Historica, 7 (2010), 135-152. 10 Botez Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 278. 11 Cltoriile clugrului Chiriac de la mnstirea Secu [The Travelling of Father Chiriac from Secu Monastery], Biserica Ortodox Romn, LXII, 9-10 (1936), 697-719.
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Regarding the Last Destruction of the Holy City of Jerusalem and the Surrender of Byzantium, the New Rome, Now Constantinople)12. In the course of time they felt the need to make the Romanian presence at Jerusalem permanent, like on Mount Athos, and thus a Romanian monastery is mentioned on Mount Tabor, as built by monk Irinarh Rosetti and his apprentice, monk Nektarios, between 1859 -186013. Further, at the Jordan River, there is a mention of name of father Joseph as related to a chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist; it is a fact that in the 19 th century, over 20 Romanian hermits were mentioned there14. Another monk, also from Neam Monastery, Gherasim Luca, later bought some land on the bank of Jordan River, which he donated to the Romanian Patriarchate in 1927. The latter built there the Romanian chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist in 1935, added to the rest of Greek, Ethiopian, Syrian and Jacobite ones15. During his pilgrimage from 1925, the Metropolitan Nicolae Blan rhetorically wondered whether Romanians could carry on building the impressive church started by tsarist Russia at a time when before 1914 dozens of thousands of believers came there on Easter from the Orthodox Russia16. In Jerusalem, mother Porfiria, a native from Rinari, restored a deserted chapel of the vast Holy Archangels Monastery, sanctified in 1926 and since then known as the Romanian chapel17. These first initiatives received a decisive impulse through the intervention of Theodore Burada professor at the Conservatory in Iai and a renowned anthropologist and musicologist who decided to make a public fund raise in 1906 for the construction of a church in Jerusalem and a Romanian home for Romanian pilgrims. Six years later, in 1912, they were already deciding upon where to place the church but the work was interrupted and resumed in 1914 by a committee headed by queen Elizabeth and which included: Archimandrite Dionysius from the Sinaia monastery, Theodor Burada and architect Nicholas Ghika-Budeti. They had the acceptance of both the prime-metropolitan of Romania Conon Armescu and the patriarch of Jerusalem, Damianos. The foundation was laid in 1935 but the consecration took place only later, in 197518. The pilgrimage we are focusing on was initiated by Nicolae Blan, Metropolitan of Transylvania and took place between the 21st of September and the 5th of November 1925, with the following itinerary: Sibiu Bucureti Constana Constantinopol
Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 278-279. Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 278. 14 http://www.crestinortodox.ro/cartiortodoxe/romanii-tara-sfanta/asezamintele-romanesti-la-ierusalimiordan-ierihon-82419.html, last modified August 21, 2013. 15 Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 280. 16 Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 130-132. 17 Vasile Pocitan, Un paraclis romnesc la Ierusalim [A Romanian Chapel at Jerusalem], Biserica Ortodox Romn, LIII, 7 (1927), 335. 18 http://www.crestinortodox.ro/cartiortodoxe/romanii-tara-sfanta/asezamintele-romanestila-ierusalimiordan-ierihon-82419.html, last modified August 21, 2013.
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Jaffa Ierusalim Alexandria Cairo. It had been prepared with great care, if we are to judge the advertisements published by Telegraful Romn (The Romanian Telegraph) during the spring and summer of 1925. The issue from the 2nd of July 1925 also published bibliographical references regarding the geography and religious history of the city of Jerusalem and its surroundings: Chiru Nanov Pe urmele profeilor (On the Footsteps of the Prophets), Cruceanu Grivas Prin locurile sfinte (In the Holy Land) and Pierre Loti- Ierusalimul (Jerusalem). The above mentioned bibliography was intended to prepare each pilgrim for being able to deeply meditate during the completion of each important stage, especially at Jerusalem, and there was going to be a booklet to complete this religious catechesis training19. Moreover, several issues from Telegraful Romn (The Romanian Telegraph) published Jerusalem travel accounts which writer Elena Voiteti had presented in an image projection event that took place in Cluj, on 24 May 192520. The pilgrimage benefitted from a formal presentation given by Metropolitan Nicolae Blan, filled with details and Christian pathos, most common in the rural area. The pilgrimage represented a once in a lifetime occasion to be thankful for the 1918 liberation and for the salvation of the Romanian people from World War I. Initially, the metropolitans point of view was also published at Bucharest, in a magazine named Viitorul (The Future), and became more widely and rapidly known as soon as it was published in Calendarul bunului cretin (The Good Christians Calendar) from 1926 and 1927, accompanied by a rich photographic material, under the headline: Interesting Views of the First Romanian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land In the Year of Our Lord 1925. They were completed by a geographical and historical description of the main worship places: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Capernaum and Jordan River21. The 1927 issue also mentioned the pilgrimage in the section entitled Icons from the Holy Land. It also recommended the reading of the official work dedicated to it, Mai aproape de tine, Doamne! Meditaiile unui nchintor (Closer to You, Lord! Musings of a Worshiper), by father Gheorghe Cristescu, Professor at the Theological Academy in Sibiu, and also that of father Iosif Trifa, Pe urmele Mntuitorului. nsemnri din cltoria la Ierusalim (Following Our Savior. Notes on a Travel to Jerusalem)22. Joseph Trifas name was also related to the widely popularisation of pilgrimages in the Romanian villages through the well known publication Lumina satelor (The Village Light). One such call was hosted by Revista Teologic (The
Buletin [Bulletin], Telegraful Romn (Romanian Telegraph), Sibiu, LXXIII, 3, 54-55, July 28, 1925. See Elena Voiteti, Impresii din cltorie la Locurile Sfinte, Ierusalim, Betleem, Nazaret [Reviews of Travel to the Holy Land, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth], in: Telegraful Romn, LXXIII, July 23, 1925, 54-55, 4; July 30, 1925, 56-57, 2; August 6, 1925, 58-59, 2-4; August 11, 1925, 60-61, 1-4. 21 Calendarul bunului cretin [The Good Christians Calendary], 129 (1927), 130-132. 22 Iosif Trifa, Pe urmele Mntuitorului. Icoane din ara Sfnt [On the Steps of Our Savior. Icons of the Holy Land], Calendarul bunului cretin, 76 (1927), 126-134.
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Theological Magazine), founded by Nicolae Blan in 1907, where we can find a short overview of the pilgrimage23. For the hierarch taking part in pilgrimages - such as Metropolitan Blan, Bishop Justinian Ismail (1925), Patriarch Miron Cristea (who arrived at Jerusalem in 1927) or the Metropolitan of Bukovina, Nectarie Cotlarciuc in 1930 -, these pilgrimages have had other meanings, equally important, focusing on the role Romania could have played for supporting the generic cause of the Orthodox world. Between 1917 and 1925, after losing Russias substantial support, the wars between Turkey and Greece for clarifying territorial issues have put the Patriarchate of Constantinople in a very vulnerable position, the Turks claiming its relocation, as they saw it completely related to Greeces contemporary interests. Then was the moment when if we ignore the pride of the first Romanian Patriarch the Romanian Orthodox Church was asked to find solutions and offer official help, during the Lausanne conference, along with England. Although indirectly, the diplomatic pressure on Turkey became obvious, as it abandoned the idea of moving the Patriarchate from Constantinople and leaving behind only a small Greek parish. The year 1925 also meant the celebration of 1600 years since the First Nicaea Ecumenical Council, and European Christianity, especially the Protestant and the Anglican Churches, along with the Orthodox Church, held at London a Congress for the reassessment of the importance of the First Ecumenical Council and generated a broad ecumenical movement a noble idea in itself, but especially complicated due to the time required to clarify and achieve joint Christian church reunification actions. Besides the debates that took place in London, the Christian congress organised in Stockholm generated what we now officially know as the ecumenical movement, and among the other initiators we must not forget to mention again the Romanian Patriarch Miron Cristea. The first Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church was not satisfied with all of these actions, though memorable in themselves, and, being a rather pragmatic nature, wished that the Nicaea Council were celebrated through a new ecumenical synod, and that the Patriarchy of Constantinople became representative for the entire Orthodox world - as some of the patriarchs had declared they desired - in order to feel that they were the spiritual leaders of a Christian church, with no other ethnic and political threats or pressures (and here we refer to Greece)24. The authors of the two works regarding the 1925 pilgrimage were also convinced that the Ecumenical Council would take place during the same year, additionally justifying the pilgrimage as a moment of universal spiritual solidarity 25.
Iosif Trifa, Pe urmele Mntuitorului. nsemnri din cltoria la Ierulalim [Following Our Savior. Notes on a Travel to Jerusalem], Revista Teologic (1927). 24 Miron Cristea, Chestiunea unui nou sinod ecumenic al B isericii Ortodoxe Rsritene i hotrrea Sf. Sinod al Bisericii Autocefale Romne [The Issue of a New Ecumenical Synod of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Decision of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Autocephalous Church] (Bucharest: Printing Ministry of Arts and Culture), 1920. 25 Gheorghe Cristescu, Mai aproape de tine, Doamne! [Closer to You, Lord!], (Sibiu: Archdiocesan Publishing House, 1926), 1.
23
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From a diplomatic point of view, the visit of Patriarch Damianos of Jerusalem at Bucharest in 1924 represented a starting point for re-establishing a tie, not only on a symbolic level as that between the old Christian churches of the East from the former Ottoman Empire, upon which the Greek world had exerted its influence (this including Jerusalem). A new, more balanced, approach was needed in order for Jerusalem and Mount Athos to receive help from the part of the Orthodox states, able to overtake the Russian heritage. In Bucharest, the above mentioned Patriarch did not hesitate to reveal the fact that his major problems were still those of a financial nature and that the new State of Palestine under British authority did not change anything regarding this26. Metropolitan Blan asked the Romanian Orthodox people who had been sensitive to the material hardships of Eastern Christendom since the previous centuries to make donations to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, because as it had been said, time had not removed the millennial poverty from the city and besides Russia and Romania, the other Orthodox countries had not managed to offer any help27. In contrast, the Romanian pilgrims went to Jerusalem to thank God for what Metropolitan Blan called the fulfilment of a secular, deeply religious dream: following Gods help towards us to accomplish our national ideal, we had to go and bring our thanks and gratitude by seeing the Holy Land where our Saviour lived His earthly life28. Initially, a total of 300 pilgrims registered from all over Romania, however only 154 actually left - for various reasons, including passport related issues. Those from Transylvania left from Sibiu by train to Bucharest and Constana, and then all of them headed to Constantinople aboard Emperor Trajan. For the authors who later wrote about this pilgrimage (September-October 1925), the premises of the Patriarchy offered a stark picture even in 1925, a picture only remedied by the emotion felt when visiting the Justinians church, Hagia Sophia, the martyr church of Christendom. When they left the city and passed by the seven towers prison, the memory of Constantin Brncoveanu and his sons accompanied them until leaving the harbour. Priest Gheorghe Cristescu described the visit to Hagia Sophia as completely antithetical to everything he called the Muslim religious service, their automatic, impersonal manner of prayer. Similarly, for the rest of the pilgrims, most of them from rural areas the road to Constantinople only meant searching for the citys Christian religious layer, intentionally ignoring the reality of modern Turkey. The other chronicler of the pilgrimage, Father Joseph Trifa, merely mentioned the visit, to which he attached no special attention, focusing on the meditations, prayers, and preparation for the entrance in Jerusalem and their own salvation29.
Cristea, Referatul nalt Prea Sfiniei Sale Patriarh D. D. dr. Miron Cristea, 388. Cristescu, Mai aproape de tine, Doamne!, 55. 28 Nicolae Blan, Pelerinajul la Ierusalim [Pilgrimage to Jerusalem], Calendarul bunului cretin, 75 (1926), 129. 29 Cristescu, Mai aproape de tine, Doamne!, 29-32.
26 27
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It only comes natural to ask ourselves an essential question: for whom was this pilgrimage organised? We know the number of pilgrims, but we do not have a clear statistics of their social origin. We only know for sure that the group consisted of various Romanians, including women from all over the country, the best known figure being that of Mrs. Vitoianu, but, considering the fact that the records of the event portray only rural characters, we may assume that the peasant was the dominant typology, as capable of any material sacrifice, similar with the first Christians. The two mentioned portraits were: the nun from Rinari (Maria Muiu) and a 75 years old believer from Neam, Teleuc George, for whom the road to Jerusalem was to be the last of his earthly life. We can notice here a possible influence of the 19 th century Russian Orthodoxy, which created a model and thus an entire literature on the subject, if we are only to mention the spread of The Russian Pilgrim in Romania. The book motivated the pilgrimage as a way of life according to Christs example, thus the sincere desire to reach Jerusalem was transformed into an inner journey of discovery of ones own conscience30. In the first description, that of the nun from Rinari, she is said to having lost the train to Bucharest at Chitila, but taking another one arrived in Bucharest and greeted her fellow travellers with the joy of having defeated darkness: Fear not, brothers, last night the devil tried to stop me from the holy journey, but God did not abandon me. The angel and the devil fought with me, the devil threw me off the train but the angel helped me get back31. Each stage of the pilgrimage was related to an episode of the Old or New Testament, presented by the priests, after the daily services. However, the most expected and intense emotion was the entrance into Jerusalem. Before reaching Jaffa and taking the train to Jerusalem, the pilgrims participated to the daily services, the common prayers and confession. The visit began with a special moment, on the 14th of September 1925, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, when the litanies were spoken in Romanian for the first time at the solemn Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as in Greek, Arabic and Russian. Prior to that, after having visited the mentioned church, Metropolitan Blan read the Gospel of the Passion and reminded them of Christs passions32. Once there, father Joseph Trifa felt transformed when he kissed the grave stone, however he did not forget to mention in his prayers the members of the Lords Army. After the visit to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Patriarch Damianos thanks for the Romanian donations consisting of 550,000 Romanian lei (about 1,000 pounds), the pilgrimage followed the next stage of Jesus life. They visited: Bethlehem, the river Jordan, the Dead Sea, Jericho, Bethany of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, Jacobs well, Sea of Tiberias and then back to Jerusalem, Golgotha.
30
http://www.crestinortodox.ro/sfaturi-duhovnicesti/pelerinul-sau-mireanul-filocalic-121547.html last modified 5.9.2013. 31 Cristescu, Mai aproape de tine, Doamne!, 1; Trifa, Pe urmele Mntuitorului. Icoane din ara Sfnt, 368. 32 Blan, Pelerinajul la Ierusalim, 130.
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Another significant moment took place in the church built on the site of the Bethlehem cave, where all those who confessed, received communion and all prayed for the king, country and church, and mentioned the memory of all those who had sent commemoration lists (about 10,000 believers)33. The service at the Jordan River impressed the pilgrims through its entire process. They were consecrated with water from Jordan River and the ritual bathe followed. One of the most impressive photographs from the pilgrimage was taken there, immortalising Metropolitan Blan in a boat in the middle of the river hallowing, while on the shore stood the believers. Many believers from Romania were baptized in the following year with water brought from the Jordan River34. Having a Bible with him everywhere he went, father Joseph Trifa recalled John the Baptist and how far from his example were the other Johns at home, who celebrated their birthdays with excessive drinking, although their patron did not drink alcohol35. The 154 pilgrims, led by Metropolitan Blan, have made numerous stops at the most important pilgrimage places and we notice, just as in Constantinople, the spiritual merging with Jesus Jerusalem, not with the contemporary geographical one, either Arab or Israelite. The exceptions are not significant, some only meaning to emphasise what father Trifa thought regarding the Hebrew and the Zionist cause: fanaticism facing irreparable ruin. To him, the Wailing Wall could not have been a sign of victory of Zionism, an opinion which later proved to be wrong. It is worth mentioning the existence of a colony called Balfuria, near Mount Tabor, where Jewish-Romanians lived, having their houses built in the Romanian architectural style36. The second part of the accounts on the 1925 pilgrimage was dedicated to presenting in a religiously fervent manner the 14 stops made by Jesus on the Calvary road, with a writing style greatly appreciated not only within the religious Orthodox environment, but also in comparison to the pages on the same subject by Gala Galaction, and the Catholic French literature. For some of the participants, the pilgrimage was the context to make crucial live decisions, the most notorious example being that of the theologian Pompei Moruca, later known as Policarp, after he joined monasticism, and later the Bishop of Romanians in North America37. During this pilgrimage, the Romanian pilgrims searching for their Saviour felt part of the long line of Christians who had come to Jerusalem to dedicate their love and gratitude for their individual or national earthly accomplishments. The 1925 pilgrimage was considered only a beginning that was going to be followed by others. Various plans for saving the Eastern Orthodoxy were debated
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Cristescu, Mai aproape de tine, Doamne!, 70-74. Blan Pelerinajul la Ierusalim. 35 Trifa, Pe urmele Mntuitorului. Icoane din ara Sfnt, 108. 36 Trifa, Pe urmele Mntuitorului. Icoane din ara Sfnt, 154. 37 Botez, Pelerinii romni ortodoci la Locurile Sfinte, 280.
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then, and particularly for saving the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the most significant to argue this being Metropolitan Blan and Patriarch Miron Cristea, who also went on a private pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1927, noting sadly that nothing had changed in terms of the general condition of the Patriarchate there. Although the pilgrimage did not end in Palestine but also included a visit to Egypt, at Alexandria, Cairo, the Pyramids and the Sphinx, Father Trifa completely avoided any references to Egypt, while father Cristescu was only interested in the Egypt of Moses, Joseph and Jacob and especially the temporary stop made there by Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus38. However, we cannot avoid mentioning here some memorable non-clerical pictures, for example: the pilgrims in front of the antiques museum in Cairo, the journey to the Pyramids, and particularly that of Metropolitan Blan riding a camel in front of the Sphinx39. The 1925 pilgrimage was special, not only because it was the first collective pilgrimage organised in a country which greatly contributed to the fight for saving the Orthodox creed and its heritage, requiring a sort of even late recognition for this effort. In the official discourse, although it had gained much prestige and importance, the Romanian Orthodox Church was still far from the role that it could have had and not only within the canonical debates, related to the fate of Eastern Orthodoxy. One can mention here the approaches formally altered of the patriarchs of the Christian Eastern world, which remained essentially the same: sincere thankfulness for the material support and caution (extended to a form of immobility) towards the new authorities, which had replaced the Ottoman ones. The 1925 pilgrimage had important meanings in many ways: 1. The first and most significant was the religious meaning which affected all the pilgrims, individually and collectively; from this point of view, the Romanian pilgrims showed an inclination towards fervour similar to all the other pilgrims who came to Jerusalem keen to reach what in The Russian Pilgrim was called the pilgrimage as a way of life, according to the example of Christ, which not all of us can establish as a way of life. 2. They thought of everyone at home and prayed for them, following the latters request; there was a common thanksgiving and redemption request for a nation which although seemed bound to fall, could witness the unification of Romania as an unexpected release and joy. 3. They represented a state which cared greatly for the idea of sacrifice for the individual and general salvation. Although - despite some great ideas of the Romanian Orthodox hierarchs - their initiatives did not receive the attention which they deserved, there is no doubt that during the interwar period, after the fall of Tsarist Russia, Romania has proved its capability and
38 39
Cristescu, Mai aproape de tine, Doamne!, 301. See Calendarul bunului cretin, 4a, 129 (1927).
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has earned the right to save the Orthodoxy as a purpose and mission in the modern world. The discourse of the two authors regarding the pilgrimage made use of some of the most common stereotypes present in the literature associated to this area: if it was obvious that the priest was a good Christian, the absolute example for this remains the peasant. The fact itself is not necessarily a problem, but the suggestion that there is no alternative to this model is quite debatable. Somehow simplistic, this model was exaggerated and not always attracted good consequences, at least for the interwar period. Going on a pilgrimage, the 154 Romanian believers always bared in mind an imaginary Jerusalem, a Jerusalem of great religious and symbolic power, therefore we are not surprised that the real, concrete Jerusalem was only superficially described. It was a context similar to that from The Russian Pilgrim, for whom the road to the earthly Jerusalem began in the mind and soul of every pilgrim, according to Christs example, and the earthly Jerusalem as the final destination existed only to the extent that it was related to its heavenly symbol.
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Metropole: Berlin, Rome, Paris through the Eyes of a Romanian Writer (Liviu Rebreanu) Diana CRCIUN1
Keywords: Berlin, Paris, Liviu Rebreanu, Romania, Rome Abstract: The paper analyses from an imagological point of view Liviu Rebreanus travelling book Metropole, mainly composed of the notes taken during the trips to Berlin, Rome and Paris. There are also some information provided about Poland, Yugoslavia and Hungary. The Romanian writer sets the people in the center of his interest and compares the realities seen abroad with the ones in his home country, thus rendering the work fit for a study in the history of the mentalities. Considerable attention is also given to the political events of the turbulent interwar period; Rebreanu skillfully detects the causes of the events to come, such as German revisionism and the rise of the extreme right. There are also several remarkable portrayals of historical figures such as Hindenburg, Benito Mussolini, Pisudski, Raymond Poincar.
The Emergence of the Work and the Interwar Context Metropole is one of the least known works of Liviu Rebreanu, being outshone by the great success of his novels. The author himself delayed the writing of the voyage notes, which appeared a few years after the ending of these trips; however, the preparations for his daughters wedding and the bank loan forced him to increase his income by publishing another book. Having several projects already started, including the future novels Gorila and Rscoala, Rebreanu considered that Metropole would be easier to write and would save him from the financial troubles. Everyday problems did not allow him to finish on time not even this project: from financial reasons, he underwent a tour of conferences through the country; at the same time, the campaign led by Nichifor Crainic against him in the journal Gndirea became more and more violent. The slow progress is also due to the particular writing style of Rebreanu, who often complained about this in his diary: During all the nights, I wrote, but only little. Metropole gives me headaches. Nonetheless, any kind of writing is equally difficult for me. Creation is for me a wild writhing. The hardest struggle is with the excessive amount of ideas and too intimate images, which
Student, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Letters and Arts (diana.c6510@yahoo.com).
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constantly assault me during work. And when I think how easy it is for others to write!2 The novel appeared in libraries in October 1931, two years after the completion of the voyages described. In 1925, Rebreanu was elected president of the Romanian Writers Society and as part of the job he participated in several congresses of the P.E.N. Club Association. These conferences were, as he himself stated in Metropole, the only occasions in which Romanian writers had the possibility to travel abroad. For the Berlin conference in May 1926, Rebreanu was delegated to participate along with Mihail Sadoveanu, but they arrived too late. He made a second trip to Berlin in 1928, on the way to Norway, where he was participating with Aristide Demetriade at the Ibsen hundredth year anniversary. The pages written about Berlin are inspired by both journeys, same as in the case of Paris: first visited in 1927, with the occasion of registering his daughter to Sorbonne University, Rebreanu returned in 1928, during the same voyage to Norway, and in 1929 two times, on the way to Madrid and back. Rome is the only place Rebreanu visited only once, in 1927; in 1942 he returned on Italian soil, but this voyage is subsequent to the publication of Metropole. According to the writers diary, in the initial project descriptions of London and Madrid were also included. Metropole was received with generous praising, but there were also voices who considered that too much space was given to political issues. Nowadays, Rebreanus focus on politics appears natural, considering the interwar period was a turbulent time, in which democracy was under attack and appeared defeated, a time in which totalitarianism seduced even the clear-headed ones. Perhaps common observations for the readers of the past, these notes prove extremely interesting for the historians who try to reconstruct the interwar atmosphere. From the very beginning, Rebreanu stated that man was in the center of this attention: In any journey, more important than all the views, landscapes and wonders of nature, is man. Nature alone is neither beautiful, nor ugly, not even interesting. Only the soul of man gives life to it. The sea, the plain, the hills, the mountains, are all equally admirable and indifferent. The cult of nature is a recent fiction, made up by city dwellers. The old ones were content to worship nature in what they saw respectable or useful. Even nowadays, the true son of nature, the peasant, holds respect only for the cultivated soil. While townsmen in their trips are enraptured by the sight of barren rocks, their coachman from the countryside sighs with melancholy: What use, if not even the grass doesnt grow on them!3. With man set as the measure of all things, the work proves favorable to an analysis of the social imaginary; at every step, Rebreanu compared the Romanian realities with those found abroad, trying to grasp the psychology of the people met, the contact with the Other being also an occasion to enrich ones knowledge about the Self. Rebreanu was aware that the interwar man went through a technological revolution, but also through a great spiritual transformation during the First World
2 3
Liviu Rebreanu, Opere, Vol. 15 Metropole, Amalgam (Bucureti: Editura Minerva, 1991), 437. Rebreanu, Opere, 11.
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War, which altered his interests and way of perception. Inevitably, the journey books had to adapt to satisfy the new needs of the readers. The cinema, the printed reproductions and the guide books, among which were very popular at the time the Baedeker ones, make accessible to everyone the sight of natural wonders from the most remote corners of the world, rendering useless elaborate descriptions of nature. In contrast, the spirit of the time, the mentality, could not be illustrated with the modern means, literature remaining the most fit for this. Rebreanu also insisted on the devastating effect of the First World War: exoticism is a conquest of Romanticism, at least as literary element and in the form manifested until now. From the need to flirt with the unknown, the Romantics casted away the present and sought to discover new worlds in time and space. The war destroyed romantic exoticism, alongside other remains of the past. It created instead a new exoticism, completely opposite to the old one, from which only the thirst for the unknown remained. The new exoticism raises todays man in the center of its curiosity, his life, suffering, joy, hopes, in one word, his soul. Everywhere there is the desire to know your close or distant neighbour, barbarian or civilized. On the material and moral ruins of the most formidable shattering, man tries to regain his spiritual equilibrium, to set the foundations of a new world4. Some aspects of the Romanian Mentality Romanians perhaps had, at that time, a stronger motivation to understand the Other. While Western nations long concluded on the subject, in Romania there was still a debate about what are the national characteristics. Rebreanu made references to the entire interwar discussion about the direction that Great Romania should follow, after the goal of uniting all Romanian territories was reached. The admiration of the Romanians was headed towards the West, from where were imported, with a veritable frenzy, patterns without any connection to the local realities. Not being the result of a natural process of evolution, the efforts of the Romanians proved useless, which only deepened the self contempt. The interwar Romanian was not much different than the present-day Romanian, regarding the ambivalent, love-hate relationship with himself: in general, the Romanian traveler sees en rose all that is foreign and in black all that appears to be Romanian. And by that he thinks he is very westernized and very civilized. However, this did not prevent him, all the time spent walking through the marvels of foreign civilizations, to sigh deeply for the national mititeii5. This attitude has negative effects especially in the foreign relations; everywhere, the writer noticed the unfavorable image of Romania. The first who promote in the West the stereotypes about the Romanians are those who should fight against them: the Romanians diplomats. At Berlin, for the improvement of the relations between Romania and Germany worked an old ambassador, who constantly rested and did not want to receive anyone, not even for a simple visit; the situation was similar in Italy.
4 5
Rebreanu, Opere, 11-12. Rebreanu, Opere, 13.
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Rebreanu admitted that Romania, recovering a series of territories in 1918, attracted the aversion of those states whose interests were not met, but considered this only a superficial aspect of the problem. As a man of culture, the writer believed that the promotion of Romania was founded on wrong principles: for decades we keep trying to convince the world that we have petrol and crops and wood and other natural riches. As if we have to tell the foreigners what we have; as if those interested wouldnt know already better than us all these! But all these qualities can be found in most of the colonies! The value of a country is measured by the human element, therefore by the spiritual one, not by the number of working oil rigs, because then Venezuela would be more respected than Norway. An artist, a man of science, a writer represents more for the promotion of his country in the world than all the wagons of riches6. In addition to advertising the Romanian culture, Rebreanu considered the direct contact with the representatives of a nation as a good means to promote a positive image of a country, since people have the tendency to generalize: the Hungarians, in particular, always knew how to use this king of propaganda to great advantage. Unfortunately, in this aspect we find ourselves in a painful inferiority. The Romanian seems unable to leave behind his quarrels, gossips, dirty laundry. He imagines that by slandering another Romanian, belittleling his friends, despising his fellows, he raises above them7. The worst part is that this behavior was also adopted by Romanian diplomats, the writer being witness to a scene in which one of them was denigrating his own country. Rebreanus criticism of Romanian diplomacy is severe, the writer trying to make the public aware of these important flaws. However, the problems did not stop at the diplomatic level; press attachs of the Romanian legations proved the same incompetence; hence, the foreign press published all kinds of exaggerations about Romania, that our press attachs simply dismissed them as false, which only raised even more suspicions. Their excuse was that newspapers are always looking for scandals and something sensational, and this cannot be fought against. For instance, at the time when Rebreanu was visiting Paris, the French newspapers were talking about a revolution being prepared in Romania, following the arrest of Mihail Manoilescu. The press attachs were the only ones who could be blamed, considered Rebreanu, because they limited themselves to deny everything in a manner resembling the Es is nicht war German official statements during the war8; the basis of a true mutual understanding begins with the sincere declaration of the truth, no matter if favorable or not to Romania9. Especially in the first part, these journey notes are written with humor, the kind of book read with an interior smile, revealing another side of Liviu Rebreanu than the one we are used with from the classical novels Ion and Rscoala. Among other writers, he also admired Caragiale and his models influence can be traced in Metropole. The resemblance becomes striking when speaking about the same human
6 7
Rebreanu, Opere, 71. Rebreanu, Opere. 8 Rebreanu, Opere, 136. 9 Rebreanu, Opere, 136-137.
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material, those from the south of Romania, where everything that embodies the spirit of Caragiales works, the banter, the irony, the orientalism, live on. Metropole begins, the same as Rscoala, with the image of Gara de Nord, the Northern Railway station, the biggest station in Romania, always crowded, not only because it links Bucharest to the provinces, but also because the train was then the most used mean of transportation; both the station and the nearby street, Calea Griviei, are populated with a mixture of all sorts of people: [] calea Griviei, wide, dirty and noisy, with all kinds of shops, in front of which sellers are battling with passers-by to make them their clients, with dozens of hotels, inns and restaurants meant to shelter costly and badly the travelers that Gara de Nord was spilling to the capital, always new and always more. On the wide pavements, a fuss of motley people in an oriental mixture: workers and clerks, peasants walking in groups like scared sheep, servant girls in Hungarian peasant clothing, puny soldiers, vague ladies with overdone makeup, stealing glances at all the men, apprentices and high school pupils fighting in play and hitting themselves against people and walls, Bulgarian sellers of millet beer, with luxurious brass bells, Turks with sweetmeats10. In May 1926, in addition to the coup dtat in Poland, the two writers met another unexpected event: the town of Bacu, there they had to change the train, was burning, or to be more precise, the Jewish commercial neighborhood. The Romanians, or at least some of them, were able to joke even when dealing with such an event: My dear gentleman, dont lose your calm! Is no waste! At least this way some of the bed bugs from Bacu will be extinguished, because so many and so ugly bed bugs like in Bacu cannot be found anywhere else in the world11. For Rebreanu, who was from Transylvania and had a different mentality, this mockery of a disaster was hard to understand and tried to find historical explanations for it: The perpetual misfortunes that we endured made us skeptic even about pain. If we did not have the power to comfort ourselves with a joke, good or bad, how would we have survived the blows took in two thousand years of history? Only a people deeply united with suffering is able to joke about misfortunes12. Returning from Rome, the writer saw that this tragedy was an occasion for founding a lottery for the victims, which is also typical for the Romanians. The writer disapproved and was fascinated at the same time by this Orientalism of the Romanians: he criticized repeatedly the corruption of the custom house officers, but returning from Germany he was glad to see the exuberance, the joy of the Romanians, feeling again like home: in Berlin, the machines were the ones making the infernal noise; the people were calm, serious, as if every one of them was tormented by a problem. Even their happiness is without exuberance, almost forced. You could feel joy was not their thing13. As soon as he passed the Romanian border, he heard somewhere the commonly used greeting Cheers, boss!, because Romania is the country of bosses: And immediately the noise, the liveliness, the cheerfulness
Liviu Rebreanu, Rscoala (Cluj: Editura Dacia, 1971), 11. Rebreanu, Opere, 15. 12 Rebreanu, Opere, 15. 13 Rebreanu, Opere, 55.
10 11
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starts. I arrived. At a glance I feel how my heart is refreshed, how the new atmosphere surrounds me from everywhere. Perhaps there is something Gipsy in our effusiveness, perhaps there is a lot of unawareness in our carelessness, but there is so much veritable life, so much natural confidence!14. Eluding the system is also part of the Romanian way; the typical Romanian is resourceful and gets what he or she wants, even if it seems impossible. For example, the writer bought tickets for couchette between Beuthen and Berlin, only to find out on the spot that all the places were already taken: The only possibility left was to try our national system of distraining an entire compartment with the help of the conductor15. At the beginning, Rebreanu was shy to propose something like this to a foreigner, but soon finds out that this practice also exists in Germany: for a sum given to the conductor (especially if it was in dollars, which held a certain prestige in the eyes of the Germans from the time of the economic crisis), they got what they wanted: We stretched in the compartment as if we were home, although we were in incorruptible Germany. Here and there, in some train stations, new passengers were shaking the door knob, but the conductor always appeared promptly and guided them only he knows where. Although completely satisfied, we had a fear: what if the following conductor from Breslau doesnt respect our deal and he also asks for money? Unjustified fear. The famous German order proved beyond reproach. [] Our guy must have shared the sum. Our guy, the first German met16. Rebreanu did not forget our neighbors either; the passing through Yugoslavia, with a stop in Subotica, caused a series of ironic remarks aimed at the new democracy, where actually great poverty reigned: the train station restaurant, which used to be pretentious, is almost deserted. The Serbian democracy travels with supplies and systematically avoids restaurants. After serious negotiations, we managed to conquer a problematic drink called coffee with milk17. Yugoslavia is, perhaps, the only country portrayed entirely negative by Rebreanu: the train controls are even more sinister than in Romania, the language is impossible, they do not have porters and the coaches are only third class, therefore the writer drew the stingy conclusion that they are too a third class people18. In Subotica Rebreanu finally met a porter and the writer had the good idea to speak to him in Hungarian. The porter was indeed Hungarian, but he avoided using his first language, because [] it is forbidden to speak anything else but Serbian, so if he would be heard by a ratz (the Hungarians have for Serbians the nick names ratz and bunievatz, like they have for us olah), in twenty four hours he would be kicked out of the job, maybe even out the country19. The discussion then turned to the situation of the Hungarian minority in Romania, Rebreanu telling him that all the railway workers in Transylvania speak Hungarian and even those who came from the
14 15
Rebreanu, Opere. Rebreanu, Opere, 28. 16 Rebreanu, Opere, 29. 17 Rebreanu, Opere, 58. 18 Rebreanu, Opere, 57. 19 Rebreanu, Opere, 58.
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Romanian Old Kingdom had to learn to be able to communicate. The porter knew the situation and envied the Hungarian minority in Transylvania, declaring that he would move too, as others did, if it wasnt for a bit of land he had near Subotica. Son of a peasant, the porter was especially impressed by the fact that the Romanians shared the land obtained from the big Hungarian estates with the poor Hungarian peasants: [] Romanians must be really good people. Here the Serbians took the lands from the Hungarians and divided them only amongst Serbian soldiers brought from the former Serbia20. Noticing an obvious sympathy of the porter for the Romanians, Rebreanu wanted to ask if he knew how much the government in Budapest complained about the Romanians abuse against the Hungarian minority, while about the Serbian ones they did not even mention. But, on second thought, he refrained from asking: what does the porter in Subotica have to do with the politics of the Pesta barons?21. The Germs of Nazism The journeys to Germany, made between 1926 and 1928, do now reveal nothing from the Nazi regime established in 1933; Hitlers party was still too little at this time and Rebreanu did not even mention them in any way. However, his notes illustrate very well the ferments that led to the new regime. Even though the Nazi propaganda made a leitmotiv of denouncing the extreme libertinism, altering the perception of the future historians, the Communist threat, the problematic state of the new democracy were all facts. There is often the impression that the Nazis exaggerated the libertinage of the Weimar Republic to motivate the limitation of rights by their own regime; however, Rebreanus voyage notes show that it was not an exaggeration; far from being an ultra-conservative, the writer had a normal reaction of disgust faced with the display of flesh in every place and in all the forms: he went to a show to Kmische Oper, Zich dich aus! (Undress!), which consisted of [] a series of obscenities put together, lascivious dances, dirty couplets, in one word, spiciness. Our Tnase is a virgin compared to what is said here22. He was assaulted on the street, but also in a restaurant by women eager for an affair; in shop windows and in kiosks pornographic magazines display all the nakedness possible, the advertisement paper of the homosexuals invites you to the restaurant of the fellow friends, some shop offers the address of the lesbians club or of the hermaphrodites association. Everywhere flesh, flesh, flesh! As if the German republic, decreeing unlimited liberty, broke all the barriers that were holding back the licentiousness23. This excess was only a manifestation of the troubled state in Germany; the cataclysmic effect of the Great War, that devastated Europe on a moral and material level, was perhaps worst felt here. Rebreanu noticed that the republican democracy
20 21
Rebreanu, Opere, 59. Rebreanu, Opere. 22 Rebreanu, Opere, 36. 23 Rebreanu, Opere, 37.
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does not fit to the Germans: Berlin without soldiers seemed to me like a house without a master and where there is no master Germany cannot live without a master. This is why everything seems only temporary. Like an interregnum a transition period between yesterdays master and the future one, who has to come, is preparing to come. A new master, perhaps more severe, more inflexible, more pompous than the old one. One that does not even rush to appear, because time works for him, paves his way, makes it easier for his organization24. This feeling was probably more acute in Prussia, where the Hohenzollern dynasty was an important factor of political cohesion25. Witnessing a Communist parade, Rebreanu remained with the feeling that they are the masters of the future, especially because the crowd looked at them with admiration, as they used to look once at the imperial troops. In the 25 pages dedicated to Berlin, there is not even the smallest mention about the Nazi Party, demonstrating that at the time they were still insignificant. At the 1924 elections, the reorganized Nazi Party receives 3% of the votes and 14 seats, while at the 1928 elections they drop to 2, 63% and 12 seats26. The situation of the Communist party was much better, between 1924 and 1928 registering a rise in popularity, reflected in the number of votes: December 1924 8, 94% of the votes and 45 seats, 1928 10,62% of the votes and 54 seats27. Rebreanu also noticed the cult the Germans had for uniforms: even if the military ones had disappeared, the lower professions were obliged to wear uniform and the Communist parade was received with glances and smiles full of admiration for the resemblance with a battalion. Perhaps a detail, but with some significance, since both the extreme right and the left one sought to satisfy this German appetite for uniforms, marches and paramilitary organizations. It was not a coincidence that the idol of Germany is also a former military man. In this transition period, the public adoration over flooded over President Hindenburg. It happened that the Romanian writer witnessed these manifestations on WilhelmStrasse, when Hindenburg was leaving the presidential palace in an automobile. The majority of the Germans was convinced that they live in a democracy and was even proud of the November the 9th, 1918 events28. However, obedience, and not
24 25
Rebreanu, Opere, 46. Peter Alter, Problema german i Europa (Bucureti: Corint, 2004), 148. 26 At the May 1924 elections, the score is better, but the lists were common with Luddendorfs party. After the Beerhall putsch, the Nazi leaders are arrested and the Party outlawed. Therefore, in the December 1924 elections, they participate under the name the National-Socialist Liberty Movement (ger. Nationalsozialistische Freiheitsbewegung, NSFB). In 1925, the Party becomes legal again and in the 1928 elections returns to the well-known name of National-Socialist German Workers Party ger. Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP). Data source: Das Deutsche Reich Reichstagswahlen 19191933, http://www.gonschior.de/weimar/ Deutschland/Uebersicht_RTW.html, (20 July 2013). 27 Das Deutsche Reich Reichstagswahlen 19191933, http://www.gonschior.de/weimar/ Deutschland/Uebersicht_RTW.html, (20 July 2013). 28 The day of November the 9th is considered Schicksaltag (Day of the Destiny) in German history: 1848 the execution of Robert Blum and the crushing of the revolution; 1918 the abdication of the Kaiser
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revolution, is characteristic for the Germans: and still there arent any milder revolutionaries than the Germans. Even us, Romanians, if we were to make a revolution, we would make a revolution more revolutionary than theirs29. Berlin is filled with streets that bear the names of the emperors and all the royal family members, while only one street was given to the republic: Ebert Strasse, named after the first president. All this demonstrates that, on the mentality level, there was no change; the adoration surrounding Hindenburg is not proper in a republic, illustrating that Germany is still the same empire that was before the war, only instead of princes has presidents in its numerous provinces, and instead of the Kaiser is Hindenburg30. It is sufficient to think about his luxurious funeral from 1934, similar to that of an old Germanic chief, to understand how much the marshal was worshipped. Other figures of the time also realized that the proclamation of the republic did not announce, in fact, any change of attitude. Peter Alter quotes in his analysis Ferdinand Foch, who, in January 1918, warned the Allies that Germany, now transformed in a republic, will be the source of just as much danger and will represent a similar threat for the peace of Europe as old imperial Germany, that annexed the French territories in 1871 and started the war in 191431. The Republic was the artificial creation of the political elite, made under internal and external pressure; however, the mentality of the people could not change overnight. An additional proof for this is the Constitution of the Weimar Republic, according to which the president had increased powers, a genuine Ersatzkaiser, a substitute emperor, as Peter Alter states, especially when thinking about Hindenburgs nine years of presidency (19251934)32. As former subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Rebreanu spoke German fluently, but manifests neither sympathy, nor adversity towards the Germans or their capital. However, he considered that amongst all the cities of this country, Berlin was the one that lacked a soul the most33. Its buildings impressed through monumentality, but this very feature was the one that made the city look cold and lifeless; hence, the visit to Sanssouci, the simple residence of Frederick the Great, came as a pleasant change after the sight of numerous colossal palaces. To this feeling contributed the fact that the entire city is mechanized and motorized, there were no more carriages or other vehicles with animal traction (whereas in Romania there were still few automobiles); the roads were without bumps and without dust34 even before Hitler began building the Autobahns. Berlin wants to be modern, therefore [] every new master demolished what his predecessors had done and built something more beautiful, meaning newer. In the last two hundred years they stopped demolishing
and the proclamation of the Weimar Republic; 1923 Hitlers failed Munich Beerhall putsch; 1938 Kristallnacht, 1989 the fall of the Berlin Wall. 29 Rebreanu, Opere, 49. 30 Rebreanu, Opere, 51. 31 Alter, Problema german, 137. 32 Alter, Problema german, 147. 33 Rebreanu, Opere, 53. 34 Rebreanu, Opere, 41.
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everything, of course, but they continue renovating, which is basically the same thing35. Hitlers plan also fit in this pattern, because he who also wanted to renovate the capital to be worthy of his thousand-year Reich, the memoirs of architect Albert Speer testifying about the immense buildings, almost impossible to build, that Hitler desired. In the Romanian historiography, in addition to Rebreanus Metropole, there are also some pages written about the Weimar Republic by the philosopher Constantin Rdulescu-Motru. Having studied in Prussia and Thuringia between 1921 and 1922, C. Rdulescu-Motru sent his notes to the newspaper Adevrul, where they were published in feuilleton and then in a brochure entitled ncotro merge Germania de azi? Scrisori dintr-o ar nvins (1922, Cartea Romneasc); a good imagogical study about these notes was written by Klaus Heitmann in the work Oglinzi paralele: Studii de imagologie romno-german. Rdulescu Motru had studied in Munich and Leipzig, finishing with a doctorate degree about the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, for which he maintained an interest his entire life. After the occupation of Bucharest by the German troops in 1916, he was deported into Bulgaria, but he managed to return as deputy in Iai and voted against the Buftea-Bucharest Peace. Despite these events, he maintained his sympathy for Germany, which contaminated his voyage notes of 1921-1922. The philosopher considered that the Romanian press, following blindly the French one, was distorting the news about Germany, and exaggerating the revisionism and the militarism, illustrating the new republican system as a facade for the foreigners36. In his opinion, Romania should go alongside Germany, and not France; this option was possible because the former enemy truly reformed itself37. He believed that this Germany was a profoundly socialist one, and nationalism did not have any kind of power any more. Although it was still alive in some educational fields (!), this old speech did not gain any more adherents among the young38. The events that followed are well known and the beliefs of Rdulescu-Motru proved almost entirely false, constituting a good case for illustrating how personal sympathy can distort the perception of reality. It also has to be taken into consideration that, through his writings, the philosopher was militating for a Romanian-German rapprochement. On the other hand, Rebreanu displays a neuter attitude, which allowed him to see the situation closer to reality, though he made the same error as RdulescuMotru when writing about fascist Italy. C. Rdulescu-Motru also spoke about the generalized feeling among the Germans that they are at a crossroad of times, after which a glorious future would follow. He considered that this way of thinking, also present in Kants philosophy, is deeply enrooted in the German mentality from religious reasons. If his allegations were true, it would shed new light on the fact that many Germans saw Adolf Hitler as
35 36
Rebreanu, Opere, 54. Klaus Heitmann, Oglinzi paralele: Studii de imagologie romno-german (Bucureti: Editura Fundaiei Culturale Romne, 1996), 207. 37 Heitmann, Oglinzi paralele, 208. 38 Heitmann, Oglinzi paralele, 209.
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the long awaited Messiah. It is maybe the only point on which the two Romanian travelers agree, Rebreanu having a similar view about the confusion that reigned in the Weimar Republic. The Saviors Without ever being truly involved in politics, Liviu Rebreanu granted a considerable place in his work to the interwar political scene, marked by turbulence, uncertainty and transformations without precedent. Metropole, as well as Rscoala and Gorila, are contaminated by the political fever of the time, the artist probably sensing in this the germs of some major events in the future. The politics of the interwar period was loaded with nationalism and misticism, whereas the peoples of Europe, disappointed by the democratic system, were waiting for providential leaders to guide them towards a bright future. In his already classical work, Mythes et mythologies politiques, Raoul Girardet considers that the myth of the Savior is one of the fundamental political myths. There is a time of waiting and of calling states Girardet a time when there is formed and spread the image of the wanted Savior, image that crystallizes around it the collective expression of a totality, often a confuse one, of hopes, nostalgia or dreams [...]39. The resemblance with the phenomena occurring in Germany, described by Rebreanu in 1926-1928, is striking. Although the providential leader did not arrive yet, the Ersatzkaiser Hindenburg also has the image of a Savior, the Cincinnatus type to be more precise: [] an older man who stood out in other days for what he had accomplished during peace or wartime. He carried out with honor great duties, important orders, and then he chose a modest retreat, away from the tumult of public life. Interrupting his calm and respected senescence [...], the fear of a people suddenly confronted with misery calls him again as the head of the state. Committing himself to his homeland, temporary invested with a supreme power, such as the monarchic one, his mission is to settle things, to protect, to restore. The virtues that are attributed to him and that are expected to save the threatened fortress correspond entirely to the general term used by Latins to name a certain form of exerting political authority, called gravitas: firmness in everything done, experience, prudence, cold blood, restraint, moderation40. Once more, the resemblance between Rebreanus notes and the sketch-portrait of this type of leader are stunning: seeing him leave of the presidential palace, the writer observes his wood-like face, displaying also on a physical level this gravitas: the man that imposes respect, without conceit, without ostentation, without exertion. Noble and with character. Simple with himself and the world. He didnt like compromises; this is why the war found him as a retired man. He didnt seek glory; glory sought him out. The first victory during the war establi shed him as the man of the war, both for the Germans and the adversaries. France didnt need Joffre after the war either. However, if the German people didnt call upon him
39 40
Raoul Girardet, Mituri i mitologii politice (Iai: Institutul European, 1997), 54. Girardet, Mituri i mitologii politice, 56.
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insistently after the war, Hindenburg would most certainly live just as simple and modest as Joffre. [...] The unselfish man of duty. In the moment when he received the leadership of his homelands destiny, it was certain that he will serve it in good faith, no matter what his personal opinions were. With Hindenburg there is certainty in Germany41. Jzef Pisudski fits to the same pattern; head of the Polish state between 1918 and 1922, hero of the war with the eternal enemy from the East, Pisudski retired from the political life in 1923, the new government being dominated by his opponents. The Sejm voted a resolution that recognized his merits and he withdrew to his house in Sulejwek, near Warsaw, where he wrote his political and military memoirs. In the following years, the economic situation of Poland declined and the former allies repeatedly asked him to return to politics. While the Polish political scene became more and more unstable, governments lasting only months, Pisudski became more and more critical, demanding the resignation of the Witos cabinet. In May 1926, this crisis culminated with Pisudskis coup dtat and the installation of the Sanacja regime (1926-1930), in fact a military dictatorship that set the restoration of morality in public life as its goal. Although Rebreanu stated that only on behalf of Romania were circulating fabulous stories, he is contradicting himself when writing about the Polish civil war, described in newspapers as bloody and with numerous battles. In the same month when Pisudski was taking control of the Polish state, Rebreanu and Mihail Sadoveanu had to travel through Poland in order to reach the conference in Berlin. The imagination started to run wild (in fact, Rebreanu is disappointed more than one time by reality, which proved duller than his fantasies), but they found only peace and order in Poland: The sun warms the cultivated lands. Here and there, needy, poor villages appear, much like ours, mud houses covered with hay. And everywhere there is peace, absolute peace. No sign of civil war! The deception starts to bother me. When you are promised a revolution and instead you see more order than in your own country, how not to be bothered?42. However, his statements have to regarded with caution: the Romanian writer did not travel through the conflict zone, which led to the impression that Pisudskis coup was bloodless. On the other hand, British historian Norman Davies writes about approximately 300 soldiers killed and more than a thousand wounded43 in the fighting between the governmental troops and those of the marshal on the streets of Warsaw; W. Roszkowski gives similar figures (215 deaths), also mentioning the civilian casualties (164 dead, over 900 persons from both categories wounded)44. Rebreanu did not meet any Polish person during the journey through Poland, but instead made acquaintance with a nationalist Ukrainian teacher from Galicia.
41 42
Rebreanu, Opere, 52. Rebreanu, Opere, 22. 43 Norman Davies, Gods Playground, vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 422. 44 Wojciech Roszkowski, Historia Polski 19141991 (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1992), 53.
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Conversing with him in German, he was surprised to notice that the teacher spoke about Pisudski with admiration, seeing him as a savior, although in general he hated the Poles: He is the providential man of a nation, who appeared at the right time. If it wasnt for him, Poland would not have resurrected. He is the man that we too need and didnt have him. He might be the providential man even for us, if his great plan of promoting a strong, independent Ukraine will succeed, a Ukraine capable of keeping away from the Polish borders the Russian threat45. Therefore, he did not consider the events in Poland as a revolution or a civil war, but [] a mere reintegration of the people in the natural rights. The weak, the corrupt and those without roots are thrown to the rubbish because they were threatening the consolidation of the country. With Pisudski comes the health, the energy, the vigor. Only from now on Poland starts on the great path to the future!46. The Italians also found their Savior; but Benito Mussolini fits to another pattern, he was not the aging man, covered in glory, coming to restore the virtues of old times, but a prophet who he himself led by a sacred impulse, guides his people on the path to future. A visionary sight crosses the opacity of the present, a voice that comes from above or from somewhere far away reveals what has to be seen and recognized as the truth47. In fascist Italy, the myth of the Savior was correlated with that of the Golden Age, Mussolini trying to revive the glory of Ancient Rome. In Italy, in 1927, seemed to be dominate some sort of collective frenzy; at this time, the fascist regime had a lot of support and the economic situation was prosperous. This generalized madness that the author of Metropole is describing might seem unbelievable today, if not for similar scenes captured on film in The Triumph of the Will and other propaganda movies shot at the beginning of the Nazi regime in Germany. Rebreanu himself was seduced by the atmosphere in Italy, especially because of his fascination for Ancient Rome; born in Transylvania, where the idea of the Latin origins of the Romanian people was crucial for the national struggle, the writer is won by the charm of the Eternal City, this sympathy also reflecting on the regime that claimed to be the rightful heir of this heritage. It is the only place where Rebreanu insisted so much on description of monuments, but only to discover the ancient man, ancestor of the Romanians. And the novelty is so strong and so obvious that it catches even a foreigner in its web, without him wanting this to happen48 here lies the key to Rebreanus attitude towards fascism. Rome was breathing youth, new life and even the old felt young again; everybody was singing Giovinezza, the fascist anthem that, even without aesthetic qualities, [] has a power of fascination that conquers even a foreigner. It expresses youth and victory the victory of youth49. The time of dolce farniente had ended, the new regime promoted the cult of work. The contrast was even greater
45 46
Rebreanu, Opere, 26. Rebreanu, Opere, 25. 47 Girardet, Mituri, 59-60. 48 Rebreanu, Opere, 89. 49 Rebreanu, Opere, 69.
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when compared to Romania or other democracies where it seemed that there was no progress done, that incompetence, corruption and instability ruled. One of the greatest qualities attributed to fascism by Rebreanu is the removal of caf politics50. It also has to be taken into consideration that the fascist regime was now at the beginning and nobody knew what would follow. Anti-Semitism was not a trait of Mussolinis ideology of this time, being imported only in 1938 from the German ally51. Completely under its spell, Rebreanu naively stated that fascism is a revolution, but a curious one, being done without bloodshed52 and that facing fascism, the previous political organization evaporated slowly53. It is amazing how a lucid mind such as Rebreanu could not figure out that this regime also has are less glorious sides, that are hidden behind thick layers of propaganda, especially when it comes to the image presented to the foreigners: the writer declared he did not meet anybody who would oppose Mussolini and yet he found out that several conspirators who were planning Il Duces assassination were arrested54. However, these pages are more a description of the general spirit of fascist Italy than a confession of political support from the writer. Rebreanu always remained faithful to the idea of showing life as it is in his works; he was never really involved into politics and whatever temporary sympathies he had, they remained a personal matter. The Italian attack against Ethiopia triggered a series of statements from Rebreanu, which are revealing for his convictions: as Romanian, I ca nnot, of course, rise against Italy and condemn it. I can even say that my sympathy for Italy and the Italians did not diminish with the beginning of the war, but I also cannot refrain from saying that the Italian thesis and arguments are catastrophic55. It is probable that Rebreanus affinity was more towards ancient Rome and the Italian culture than towards the Fascist regime; in 1942 he visited several Italian cities, his admiration for this great civilization being revived once again. The entire writers congress was received by the king and by Il Duce, Rebreanu having the rare occasion to meet Mussolini in person. The description of this almost supernatural experience would, again, seem hard to believe, if not for the numerous testimonies about the strange charisma that both Mussolini and Hitler possessed. At the meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele III half of the congress was missing, but nobody skipped the one with Mussolini, even though most of the writers declared themselves against fascism. At the beginning, the impressions were contradictory: this man seemed at the same time a supernatural being, an actor who played beautifully a role that fitted him like a glove, a charmed puppet miraculously born from the energies and the will of forty million people56. Somebody gave a formal speech and the roman salute seemed to Rebreanu an unnatural gesture. Then
50 51
Rebreanu, Opere, 102. Eric Hobsbawm, Secolul extremelor (Bucureti: Editura Lider, 1994), 143. 52 Rebreanu, Opere, 101. 53 Rebreanu, Opere, 101. 54 Rebreanu, Opere, 67. 55 Rebreanu, Opere, 433. 56 Rebreanu, Opere, 97.
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Mussolini started talking: he spoke slowly, a bit irregularly and so gently as if he didnt want to use more voice than is absolutely needed. But his voice, even whispered, was warm, even burning, pronouncing every word clearly as if was cut in marble. And his words penetrate all the hearts, win all the souls and dominate the entire audience without any possibility of opposition. Those antifascists in principle, those who were smiling with contempt in the waiting room, the enemies of all dictators, they all blush under the fascinating power of the man and his word. The speech doesnt say great things. Of course, it is not meant to. An amiable answer to a n amiable tribute. But this man, whatever he would say, fascinates, persuades and conquers. He spoke only a few minutes and when is done, the entire congress, without exception, acting on an instinctive and imperative impulse, makes the gesture of the roman salute which previously seemed artificial57. According to Rebreanu, Mussolini had on his work desk only one photograph, that of Alexandru Averescu58. The claim is interesting, especially because it was improbable that it was a propaganda move: the delegation received was not only Romanian, but international. It is more likely a manifestation of genuine sympathy towards the prime minister of Romania, one of the few politicians that openly supported the fascist regime. At the time of Rebreanus trip to Ita ly, Averescu was once again prime-minister of Romania59 and the Peoples Party undisputedly won the 1926 elections. Negotiations started in June for an economic loan, which ended with an agreement, and in the same year a treaty of cordial collaboration was signed between the two countries, Italy also recognizing the Bessarabian protocol60; by this, Mussolini was trying to attract Romania in an alliance with Hungary and Bulgaria, aimed against Yugoslavia. Including Romania in this project seemed odd, since the country was a traditional ally of France and a state that was satisfied with the Versailles system. According to James Burgwyn, Mussolini was relying on the fascist sympathies of Averescu for his plans to succeed61. The electoral law of 1926 was much alike the Acerbo law of 1923, promulgated under fascist pressure62. Although the passing of this law was met with dissatisfaction in Romania, the Italian diplomats in Bucharest appreciated the gesture. A dynastic alliance was also tried, princess Ileana being engaged to the heir prince Umberto of Italy63. Therefore, it can be drawn the conclusion that there was a very intense political movement for strengthening the relations between Romania and Italy. A key character in these diplomatic relations was Mihail Manoilescu, who negotiated the loan in 1926, better known on European
57 58
Rebreanu, Opere, 98. Rebreanu, Opere, 99. 59 Averescu was three times prime-minister of Romania: February 1918 - March 1918, March 1920 December 1921, March 1926 - June 1927. 60 Joseph S. Roucek, Contemporary Roumania and her Problems: A Study in Modern Nationalism (California: Stanford University Press, 1932), 112; James H. Burgwyn, Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period 1918-1940 (Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997), 38. 61 Burgwyn, Italian Foreign Policy, 37. 62 Francisco Veiga, Istoria Grzii de Fier 1919-1941, 2nd edition (Bucureti: Humanitas, 1995), 90. 63 Veiga, Istoria Grzii de Fier, 92.
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level for his books on corporatism. Some historians, such as Francisco Veiga and Jerzy W. Borejsza consider that Averescus attempts of collaborating with Italy were taken seriously neither by other Romanian politicians, nor by the Italian ones. However, such a display of affinity from Mussolinis behalf, as the one Rebreanu speaks about, can cause historians to reconsider. As a last testimony for the profound impact that the Mussolini regime had on Italy, Rebreanu reproduced the conversation with a fascist fanatic, which perfectly illustrates the idea that totalitarianism is a political religion. The collocation fascist religion also appears in the text64; fascism did not have a divinity of its own, but had a moral and a system of myths, beliefs and rituals, centered on the worshipping of the state, from the beginning presenting itself as a secular religion. Although an atheist, Benito Mussolini, even from his socialist times, was preoccupied with religious mechanisms, used in political contexts metaphors inspired by the Christian tradition and considered that socialism has to become a faith65. The future fascist leader understood very well the need of the generations marked by the First World War to believe in a transcendent cause: The symbolism of death and resurrection, the commitment to the nation, the mysticism of blood and sacrifice, the cult of heroes and martyrs, the communion of camaraderie - all contributed to the spreading of the myth amongst soldiers that politics was a total experience which had to renew all forms of existence. Politics could not return to the banal forms of everyday life, but had to perpetuate the heroic impetuosity of the war and the mystical sense of a national community66. This horrible experience of the war revived the need for spirituality, but at the same time shattered the faith in the old religions. Rebreanus interlocutor spoke about fascism as a spiritual heritage that must survive even after Mussolinis death, because [...] the communion between the country and Il Duce is complete. The fascist faith became, in such a short time, the fundament of the Italian soul, the only one on which something can be built67. In the case of fascism, the myth of the Savior is taken to the extreme, because [] Il Duce is not only a man, and not even a saint or an apostle, but the Messiah himself68. The discussion revolved around the question What will happen if Mussolini dies? and the Italian did not have an answer ready; Rebreanu felt that he was afraid of what might happen to the fascist movement in this case. With a mystical fire in his eyes, the Italian declared that he would give his life for their leader, as would a million Italians do69. In 1927, the regime was at the beginning; in 1930, a school of fascist mysticism was founded in Milan and the students who attended it devoted themselves to the religious cult of Mussolini, worshipped as a living myth70; in 1938, the party publishes
64 65
Rebreanu, Opere, 106. Emilio Gentile, Fascism as Political Religion, Journal of Contemporary History, 25, 2/3 (May-Jun. 1990), 232, http://www.jstor.org/stable/260731. 66 Gentile, Fascism as Political Religion, 233. 67 Rebreanu, Opere, 106. 68 Rebreanu, Opere, 105. 69 Rebreanu, Opere, 105. 70 Gentile, Fascism as Political Religion, 237.
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a sort of catechism with questions and answers to everyday spiritual problems and the fascist ideology is summarized in a credo71. The supporters of the regime saw in fascism a religion, therefore the renunciation of liberty and individual rights seemed normal: many foreigners are amazed and skeptical about the extraordinary phenomenon happening here and cannot understand our standing in line, our pride to serve and especially to obey, our enthusiastic renunciation of the misunderstood individual liberties in favor of the state all this and other appear to the foreigners as a constraint, but for us these are the most natural things because we are deeply touched by the fascist religion. The tyranny of individual freedom (!) took us to the disintegration of the national organization72. Fascism addresses to the masses, the individual has to melt in the collectivity and happiness is also considered to be collective: when we will be happy, us, the community, the nation, I will also be happy, me, the individual73. In May 1927, Rebreanu also seemed convinced that this collective happiness was reached in fascist Italy; considerations from previous works show that prior to the trip to Italy he did not believe such things are possible, having ideas similar to French existentialism: Tragedies, as well as the biggest joys are always lived in the greatest solitude and therefore, when the soul is most tormented, so does the loneliness feel deeper74. In later writings, it can be noticed that Rebreanu understood that collective happiness is a utopia and he returned to the previous beliefs: man is a closed universe with his own laws that condemn his ephemeral life, as far away from other people as a star from the others, without any real mean of communication with anybody. The illusion of communion with others fools one only until the moment of a great spiritual devastation, when one realizes that neither parents, nor brothers, nor friends, nobody can help, not even understand...75. Democracy under threat. Poincar This blind trust in a leader and an ideology, the need to be consumed by a fanatical struggle, have to be put into context and it also has to be shown the other side of the coin: the disappointment about democracy and the failure of liberalism after the tragedies of the Great War. While only a few voices raised doubts about the values of the Enlightment before 1914, these ideas lost more and more adepts in the interwar period. Eric Hobsbawm in the Age of Extremes analyzes statistically the rapid decline: In 1918-1920 legislative assemblies were dissolved or became ineffective in two European states, in the 1920s in six, the 1930s in nine, while German occupation destroyed constitutional power in another five during the Second World War. In short, the only European countries with adequately democratic political institutions that
Gentile, Fascism as Political Religion, 235. Rebreanu, Opere, 106. 73 Rebreanu, Opere, 106. 74 Liviu Rebreanu, Ciuleandra (Bucureti: Editura Eminescu, 1985), 228. Ciuleandra was written in March 1927, so prior to the voyage to Italy (May 1927). 75 Liviu Rebreanu, Jar (Bucureti: Editura Eminescu, 1985), 190.
71 72
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functioned without a break during the entire inter-war period were Britain, Finland (only just), the Irish Free State and Switzerland76. Even in France, where democracy had a long tradition, the attacks on parliamentarianism were more and more frequent: instead of constructing something, in the Parliament houses there is a sterile fight of clans that do not recognize any other interest than the electoral one. Turbulent demagogy paralyzes all efforts of work. An urgent change is imperative, otherwise the evil might become beyond redress77. Rebreanu did not consider as the appropriate solution dictatorship or revolution, which he saw as transition periods from one form of government to another. Parliamentarianism must find in its own essence the strength for renewal, necessary for the when the times change. Only a system that possesses the flexibility of adapting to new conditions is worthy of existing. Between the risk of trying <<something else>> and improving what withstood to the tests, the second alternative seems less costly. Especially because the first one is hardly imposed without much blood, like any novelty in terms of government78. This fragment is most revealing for the political conceptions of the writer, demonstrating clearly he was not an adept of cruel regimes. Regarding the Romanians, he considered that [] our redemption will be only a true, sincere, national democracy, saved from demagogical exaggerations, adapted to the needs and traditions of the Romanian people79. The author of Metropole saw as one of the greatest qualities of democracy the power to adapt to the internal conditions of the countries, through this the democratic regimes being truly consolidated: international democracy can be sustained only through powerful and gentle national democracies. Otherwise it would be a cardboard construction waiting to fall apart at the first wind blow. Only the tree with roots deep in the ground holds against storms80. Facing financial difficulties, France found a temporary solution: Raymond Poincar. President of France between 1913 and 1920, two times prime minister until 1926, Poincar created for himself the reputation of a great economist during the time of the financial Verdun in 1924, when he managed to stabilize the franc. Concerning the issue of German reparation payments, he adopted an uncompromising attitude, when he occupied the Ruhr region. The victory was just a superficial one, after this following the economic collapse: diplomatically isolated from other democratic states, Poincars France actually favored extremism81. In addition to the internal financial problems, it was organized an economic speculation against the franc82 and Poincar had to accept the negotiations for diminishing the reparation payments and the evacuation of Ruhr.
76 77
Eric Howbsbawm, Age of Extremes (London: Abacus, 1995), 111. Rebreanu, Opere, 146. 78 Rebreanu, Opere, 147. 79 Rebreanu, Opere, 143. 80 Rebreanu, Opere, 143. 81 Jacques Madaule, Istoria Franei, vol. III, (Bucureti: Editura Politic, 1973), 138. 82 Pierre Milza and Serge Bernstein, Istoria secolului XX, vol. I, (Bucureti: Editura All, 1998), 155.
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Through bank loans and a 20% raise in taxes, the franc stabilized, but because of this the author of the financial Verdun and his party lost the 1924 elections, that were won by the French left-wing party. Cartel des gauches adopted a foreign policy of compromise and, internally, France started having again financial difficulties. Called to form a new government in 1926, the right wing leader embodies for the French the myth of the Savior, just as Hindenburg in Germany and Pisudski in Poland. According to historian Jacques Madaule, the economic situation was directly related to the political flaws of the time: The Chamber of Deputies, directly emanating from the universal vote, did not limit any more to the control of expenditure and income. It abused, among others, the right to amend the governmental proposals. Almost all these amendments, some of which seems justified, had an electoral character, meaning a demagogic one. The will of the citizens was to pay as less as possible; that of those with varied titles, who happened to be creditors of the state, and these were more and more numerous to receive as much as possible. Hence a constant decrease of income and a parallel rise in expenditure83. The comeback of Poincar was actually another blow given to parliamentarianism, the increased powers given to him practically transforming him in a dictator. In terms of finance, the government could take any measure through decrees and there was practically no control from the Parliament. The franc was rapidly stabilized, but historians believe that the Poincar experiment created a dangerous precedent84. Rebreanus considerations, about the crisis of parliamentarianism and dictatorship as a temporary solution, fit perfectly to the events in France. Rebreanu had the chance to see Raymond Poincar in the Parliament; he was the only one who was carefully listening to a speech that seemed to not have any subject, [] as if through the mouth of the speaker, no matter his person al quality, through the fact that he represented the nation, manifested the very will of the country that he, the head of government, is indebted to conscientiously respect85. His oratorical style did not conquer as Mussolinis, because he speaks simply, without emphasis, clearly, with a voice a bit dull that doesnt vibrate in the soul of the audience, maybe it doesnt want either, but strongly wishes to convince86. In Poincars case, not the manner of speech, but the arguments are the ones that matter. His demeanor stands out through earnestness that imposes respect, as well as a rarely found perseverance in the time when all convictions seem relative. From his entire appearance, Rebreanu remembered the most his eyes, [] immobile, cold, without shine, that follow you and is almost as if they hypnotize you through their cold fixation. Because of these strange eyes he resembles Robespierre, The Incorruptible.
Madaule, Istoria Franei, 147. Madaule, Istoria Franei, 148. 85 Rebreanu, Opere, 144. 86 Rebreanu, Opere, 144.
83 84
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Maybe the resemblance has one more support much like The Incorruptible, Poincar also seems to be an idea man87. True Paris According to Romanian scholar Alexandru Philippide, from the three chapters of Metropole, the one about Paris was the most difficult, due to the huge quantity of writings on this subject88. Therefore, Rebreanu sought to find another Paris, the Paris of the French people and not that of the foreigners. A visit to the famous Parisian shows of Mistinguette and Josphine Baker was mandatory, because to be in Paris and not see this would mean that you havent been to Paris89. However, in contrast to the libertinism of Berlin, a lucid spirit could understand that all these were only an aggressive advertisement campaign made for the foreigners that were pumping money in the Parisian economy and that had to bring back home the mirage of the City of Lights: Sorbonne, the Louvre and Balzac will never conquer so easily and so many admirers for Paris as Moulin Rouge or Maurice Chevalier. Only what is easy spreads easily. In Paris and everywhere90. Rebreanu saw true Paris, that of the natives, in the hundreds of libraries that, under the patronage of the Institute and the Sorbonne, transform the capital in a citadel of books: Nowhere in the world is the book more valued than in France. In other countries maybe more is read, more is printed. But here the book is a living reality, a social factor with an overwhelming influence91. Rebreanus admiration for the quality of the French press and for the cult of the printed word is obviously related to his own profession, of writer and journalist. At the time, as an effect of the French cult for literature, there was a lively debate in the newspapers about the state of Balzacs grave. Knowing about this debate, Rebreanu went to cemetery Pre Lachaise to and indeed found the writers grave to be modest, especially in contrast to the ones around. However, his attention was drawn by a bouquet of fresh chrysanthemums laid on the heart of Balzac, suggesting that his memory is still alive, whereas the golden names on the huge tombs around do not say anything to nobody any more. Rebreanu found the same pious respect for those who are no longer alive at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Alongside official wreaths, there were also small bouquets, put by those for whom the wounds of the war did not yet heal. The Romanian writer found there a woman knelt with two small children and an old man with tears in his eyes. The atmosphere was that of a cathedral, not even the noise of the automobiles from the great Parisian arteries penetrated here. Then the silence was broken by a large group of tourists for whom the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was another Parisian curiosity that needed to be checked out before leaving.
87 88
Rebreanu, Opere, 144-145. Alexandru A. Phillipide, Liviu Rebreanu, Metropole, Editura Cartea romneasc, quoted in Liviu Rebreanu, Opere, 441. 89 Rebreanu, Opere, 126. 90 Rebreanu, Opere, 128. 91 Rebreanu, Opere, 129.
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During the stay in Paris, Rebreanu visited the Louvre several times, although according to French jokes this museum is [] a free Sunday amusement for the Parisians, cheap and intuitive place for learning for the nave strangers, like the Germans, or the ignorant, such as the Americans, and finally, for the high society, the deposit of old and not sold objects of the big store with the same name from across the street92. Being interested in the Ancient World, as it was already mentioned, the visit was a must, the writer being fascinated especially by the statue of Venus de Milo. The author of Metropole had a general attitude of sympathy towards the French culture; however, in his exploration of Paris, this hotbed of culture, Rebreanu also discovered a darker side, suggesting that, despite the level of education, man remains deep down an instinctual and cruel being. The writer was taken by a friend to see an execution with the guillotine, particularly because he talked about this in his 1925 novel Adam i Eva. In France, the last public execution with the guillotine was that of serial killer Eugne Weidmann in 1939; the publication of photographs in the press offered the government the pretext to forbid such bloody shows93. The last execution happened in 1977, but the guillotine remained the official instrument of execution until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981. Rebreanu was amazed by the image of the people that woke up in the middle of the night and are crowding to see only the shadows of the execution, which was taking place at 5 in the morning. Through the darkness, nothing could be distinguished than the shimmer of the descending blade. A considerable part of the foreigners that come to Paris are Romanian, because the Romanians travel little, and when they cross the border, they inevitably go to Paris94. Starting from Romania in a full coach, Rebreanu found out with surprise that everybody was going to Paris. Looking on the posters in town, he discovered two Romanian names performing for the French Comedy. In this Cosmopolis, how Rebreanu named Paris at some point, the Romanians were trying to be more Parisian than the natives and were extremely proud when a foreigner was being polite and was calling Bucharest the Paris of the Orient. But the Romanians only imitated the Paris of the foreigners, adopting any trend that was displayed for those who came here willing to party and would never be adopted by the real Parisians, who prefer a sober and temperate style. Therefore, Rebreanu considered that Bucharest was also only a parody of the original95. The relation between the French metropolis and the immigrants is also interesting: despite the great diversity of the population, the city kept its French character; it could be said that Paris is a melting pot either, since the immigrants maintained their own culture, on the streets all languages of the world could be heard, like in a genuine Tower of Babel and restaurants with Chinese food, Romanian, Japanese, Hungarian, Russian and so on could be seen at every step. The greatest liberty for everyone and maybe this is why everyone feels like home, in the same
92 93
Rebreanu, Opere, 153. Daniel Charles Gerould, Guillotine: Its Legends and Lore (New York: Blast Books, 1992), 77. 94 Rebreanu, Opere, 110. 95 Rebreanu, Opere, 122-123.
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community96. The French culture was not imposed, but everybody wanted to assume it, without forgetting their own: It is said about New York that is the most particolored city in the world. But there the foreigners are looking after fortune and naturalization. Paris is cosmopolitan only through its permanent guests. Some come, others go. They do not desire to change and they could not even change the French looks of the metropolis. They just borrow to it a surplus of picturesque. [...] Here are naturally so much dominated by the spirit of the place that all feel obliged to try to assimilate it97. Whereas Romanians tried to seem as Parisian as possible, same time declaring themselves disgusted by their own country, the Romanian Jews were the only ones that recognize their modest origins, even with some pride: Only our Jews are contempt to be Romanians and even claim with pride this quality. All the Romanians I met in Paris regret that soon they will have to come back home. Only a Jew, a simple man, a merchant, told me with emotion: <<Tomorrow I travel back to the country... God be blessed, I missed our little country so much, poor her!>>. It moved me particularly because, a few hours sooner, a trueborn Romanian, renowned intellectual in Romania, complained to me with bitterness: <<When I think, mon cher, that in two weeks I have to come back to our filthy, Balkanic Gypsiness, I tell you straight, I feel like killing myself of disgust!98 France was dealing in the interwar period with a demographic and social crisis, the rate of natural increase being too low to compensate for the heavy losses during the war: between 1921 and 1931 the figures reviewed show only a rise from 39,2 million inhabitants to 41,9 millions, meaning an increase of 2,7 millions, out of which almost half must be attributed to the immigration, the number of foreigners in France rising from 1,5 to 2,7 millions99. In his short stay in Paris, Rebreanu noticed the respect that the French have for children, a genuine cult for... the children of others 100. The French seemed to follow a Romanian proverb about children that they, of course, did not actually know: who has, may they live, who doesnt have, they should not want. Although they were the authors of this proverb, the Romanians did not follow it because this was the only domain in which we were superior to the French. At the time when Rebreanu visited Paris, both the Romanian and and the French press were filled with articles about Mihail Manoilescus case. Supporter of the return of King Carol II on the throne of Romania, Manoilescu was imprisoned in the autumn of 1927, but was subsequently acquitted at the 1928 trial. The cause for which Manoilescu was imprisoned was, indeed, very popular among Romanians, but the French press was blowing out of proportion the events, talking about the imminent outbreak of a revolution in Romania101. However, Rebreanu remarked that Romania did not have a favorable press not even in Paris: besides a few serious and sort of
96 97
Rebreanu, Opere, 134. Rebreanu, Opere, 133-134. 98 Rebreanu, Opere, 134. 99 Milza and Bernstein, Istoria secolului XX, 148. 100 Rebreanu, Opere, 125. 101 Rebreanu, Opere, 135.
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official newspapers, hence less read, all the others write about us with downright adversity and publish only bad news102. The Brtianu government wanted above all that prince Carol, in exile in Paris, to remain isolated and forgotten by the public, especially in the midst of of the Manoilescu scandal. Rebreanu tried to see him, but his proposal put the Romanian legation officials in an obviously difficult situation. The effect was different from the one the government was hoping to get, because this tactic actually increased the popularity of the prince. The Romanian students in Paris were fanatical supporters of Carol103; returning to Romania, one of the first questions Rebreanu received was about Carol. All sorts of legends started to be spread about him: although he was not invited to the requiem mass for King Ferdinand, the prince came uninvited and his expression so obviously marked by great sorrow impressed everyone. After the trip, Rebreanu remained for a few days at a friends children orphanage, in a village near Sibiu, and was surprised to hear what these children were singing: Our beloved Romania tomorrow wont be kingdom anymore/ Cause it will be an empire and Carol emperor!104. The journey notes end vaguely, as nothing could be discerned from the future of a turbulent and restless epoch.
102 103
Rebreanu, Opere, 135. Rebreanu, Opere, 138. 104 Rebreanu, Opere, 157.
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Studia Universitatis Cibiniensis Series Historica

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