Daniel Gravius

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Daniel Gravius

Daniel Gravius (also: Daniel van de Graaff, Daniel van de Graef, Daniel Grauw; * 1616 , Dordrecht , Republic of the Seven United Provinces ; † 1681 , Middelburg ) was a Dutch missionary in Formosa . He was a gifted linguist and translated parts of the Bible and other Christian texts into Siraya . After a falling out with the governor of Formosa Nicolas Verburg , he was charged with defamation and censored. He was later fully rehabilitated and returned to the Netherlands .

Missionary in Formosa

Gravius ​​is mentioned in the sources for the first time as a preacher in Aardenburg . He stayed in Batavia (Jakarta) for two years , where he was trained and waiting to be sent to a mission station. There he married his first wife Maria Poots before he was sent to Formosa in 1647 and settled in the village of Soulang (now Jiali District ). He gave the locals the idea of ​​keeping draft animals to plow. Gravius ​​translated Christian scriptures into the now extinct Siraya language, as well as parts of the Bible such as the Gospels of Matthew and John and also a catechism . He often added examples to explain the meaning to the locals. His linguistic work was later used by researchers to study the Siraya culture; It is interesting, for example, that the Siraya did not know any words for gambling , “servants” or slavery .

Gravius ​​not only received a religious function in his village, but was also a Senior Judicial Officer in Residence . This dual role had often been lamented by the clergy, but was deliberately ignored by the Council of Formosa . In 1651 Gravius ​​wrote to Governor Nicolas Verburg complaining about his superior, Super-Factor Dirck Snoucq . He accused him of being a person of ugly character. To Gravius's chagrin, Verburg sided with Snoucq.

Governor Verburg bypassed the usual official channels through which such a process would normally have to be conducted. He suspended a fine of 1,000 guilders for Gravius and launched a biting campaign against Gravius ​​and the clergy. Those responsible in the colony began to form parties and a commissioner was sent from Batavia to end the dispute. This commissioner, Willem Verstegen , found both sides guilty and recommended that the clerics be released from their judicial duties in order to avoid further conflict. Gravius ​​went to Batavia in 1651 to appeal to the Gouverneur-generaal van Nederlands Indië Carel Reyniersz and his successor Joan Maetsuycker against his conviction. He stayed there for three years before he was found innocent and his money was refunded. Then he returned to the Netherlands and worked as a preacher. He married a second time in Veere and died in Middelburg in 1681 .

Works

  • Het heylige Euangelium Matthei en Johannis. Ofte Hagnau ka d'llig matiktik ka na sasoulat ti Mattheus ti Johannes appa. (The Gospel of Matthew in Formosan. Sinkang dialect and Dutch.) Amsterdam, Michiel Hartogh 1661.
  • The Gospel of St. Matthew in Formosan (Sinkang dialect) with corresponding versions in Dutch and English. With William Campbell, Trubner, London 1888.
  • Patar ki tna-'msing-an ki Christang ofte. 't formulation of the Christian cathedral. Formulary of Christianity in the Siraya language of Formosa. Amsterdam, Michiel Hartogh 1661.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Gravius, Daniël In: Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek (NNBW)
  2. ↑ a b c Otness: 64.
  3. ↑ "A short time ago the Rev. D. Gravius ​​showed us an account referring to the purchase and attendant expenses of one hundred and twenty-one head of cattle to be used for plowing. These cattle are destined for the inhabitants of the village of Soulang, in order to accustom them [...] to cultivate their lands in this manner. " From the Minute-book of Castle Zeelandia, excerpted in Campbell 248.
  4. ↑ Crook
  5. ↑ Campbell: 260.
  6. ↑ "A person of shameful and odious character." Governor Verburg paraphrasing the letter of complaint from Gravius, Campbell: 265.
  7. ↑ "This cable of infamous slander had been formed of many strands of abuses and misdeeds of so scandalous and unchristian a nature that they cannot even here be mentioned in detail." Campbell: 265-66.
  8. ^ Campbell 266.
  9. ↑ a b Campbell: 268.
  10. ↑ a b "launched a vitriolic campaign against Gravius ​​and against clerical power generally." Shepherd: 70.

literature

  • Tonio Andrade: How Taiwan Became Chinese. Appendix B : Governors-General, Governors, and Missionaries. 2005.
  • William Campbell: Formosa under the Dutch: Described from Contemporary Records. 1903; Southern Materials Center, Taipei 1992. ISBN 957-638-083-9
  • Steven Crook: Taiwan Journal: Breathing life into the Sirayan language. 2008-04-12 [1]
  • Gravius, Daniël ( Dutch ) Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek (NNBW). Retrieved April 23, 2009.
  • Harold M. Otness: One Thousand Westerners in Taiwan, to 1945: A Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary . Academica Sinica, 1999, ISBN 957-671-618-7 .
  • John Shepherd [1993]: Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier: 1600-1800 . Southern Materials Center, Taipei 1995, ISBN 957-638-311-0 .
personal data
SURNAME Gravius, Daniel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graaff, Daniel van de; Graef, Daniel van de; Grauw, Daniel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch Presbyterian missionary on Formosa
DATE OF BIRTH 1616
PLACE OF BIRTH Dordrecht , Republic of the Seven United Provinces
DATE OF DEATH 1681
Place of death Middelburg