Ernst Christoph Barchewitz

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Ernst Christoph Barchewitz (born 1687 in Groß-Sömmerda ; died on January 17, 1758 in Erfurt ) was an officer in the Dutch East India Company (VOC) .

Life

Travel description by Ernst Christoph Barchewitz, 1751, inside. Center: Barchewitz controls the Leti island from a sedan chair.

Barchewitz, a Thuringian white tanner , came to Holland as an employee of the Imperial Embassy in The Hague, hired an East Indiaman in 1711 and stayed in the Malay Archipelago for a total of eleven years . In the VOC he rose from a simple guard to the rank of corporal . 1714-1720 he was the deputy of the company on Leti Island , where he was responsible for the company's affairs. His duties included the control of the locals who were not allowed to maintain contact with the population of the nearby Portuguese Timor , where traditional trade relations existed. He also checked compliance with the ban on cultivating nutmeg trees and clove trees . For the administration of the company on the Banda Islands , he was also involved in the trade in provisions and slaves on the Leti Islands .

On his return he published a report of his travels in 1730, which contains many details about the geography, flora, fauna, customs and traditions of the islands, but is also of interest to economic historians because of its detailed account of the organization and methods of the company. In 1752 an expanded edition of the report appeared, which was reprinted in three volumes in 1756. The historian Jürgen Osterhammel counts it among the "most literary travelogues of the 18th century."

Barchewitz's importance

In Barchewitz's travel description, many unusual details were mentioned, which provide a rich source of versatile information for historians, political scientists, ethnologists and natural scientists.

Historically and ethnologically

Before his departure for the Dutch East Indies , Barchewitz was from 1709 to 1711 valet at the imperial ambassador, Baron van Heems in The Hague . The generals in the War of the Spanish Succession , Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough , were with von Barchewitz's employer.

Timor is the neighboring island of Leti . As the commanding officer of the Dutch East India Company on Leti, Barchewitz had to ensure that the population of both islands, although they are related, were not allowed to meet. The eastern part of Timor was Portuguese and is still today an independent state of East Timor for the Letinese people abroad.

The detailed description of the people of Leti and other South West Islands in terms of customs and traditions is still a valuable source for ethnologists to this day.

Natural phenomena

In the Annals of Physics there was an account of a meteorite on Leti that Barchewitz had observed in 1718. He had to calm the superstitious population on Leti and Moa by explaining to them that the bang was not a cannon shot.

“On the 24th of March in the year 1718 I was sitting with my two soldiers in my pleasure house at 7 o'clock in the evening and smoking a pipe tobacco, we saw a large lump of fire falling out of the air above the Lethy mountain; when it only reached the earth it gave a bang like a great cannon shot. Several men from the Negerey came running to me and said: They had heard a shot, a ship must certainly not be far from land in the sea. I replied that we were probably observing where the shot was taken, and also said what we had seen. After a little while, other people came out of the field and said they had just seen the fire fall, and they also asked: Had we not heard the bang? The same evening the Corporal von Moa came to my place and inquired whether no ship or Chalouppe had arrived at Lethy, for they would have heard a cannon shot? But when I explained what it was, he couldn't be amazed enough. We were curious to see what it was, so we went out the next day and took the men with us. Which observes the area around which the fire had fallen down: when we got to the place, we found a lump of stuff that looked like a jelly and shone almost like silver foam. What this was and where it came from, Messrs. Physici may determine. "

The species name Dugong introduced by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788 for the fork-tailed sea cow goes back to the description of Barchewitz, who had observed these animals during his stay on Leti. Dugong dugon has been on the Red List of Endangered Species since 2005 .

On the island of Damar , Barchewitz had seen the marsupial couscous and consumed it after it was prepared. Probably it is the gray cuscus (Phalanger oreientalis) :

At night a thick dew falls on the dam as if it was raining […] This man probably trailed us: He had a pig slaughtered and boiled and roasted from it; furthermore, he had caught fish, which he also had to right do, he had also shot two cussos, of which he had one boiled, but the other roasted. My camerad didn't want to eat the cuscuses, but said he had a disgust for it: I hadn't tasted any of my life either, but because it smelled so appetizing, I tried it, and the meat tasted like a canine. The Cuscus, or Cussos, looks almost like a marble animal in color and shape, has small, round, light eyes, short legs, and a long, bald tail, like a rat; it leaps from one tree to another like a squirrel and then it turns the tail, like a hoe, and hangs itself with it on the branches, so that it can better reach the fruit. He stinches a little, almost like a fox. It has a sack at the bottom of its belly, in which it carries its young, who crawl out and in behind under its tail; whoever does not know, thinks that the young crawl into the womb of the old man. The old jump from one tree to another with the young in their sacks.

Works

  • The very latest and true East Indian travel description:… besides e. detailed Country charter d. Sudwester- u. Bandanese islands, which are not found in other country charts, nor in which geographies are described J. Christoph & JD Stößeln, Chemnitz 1730.
  • Commanding officers who were commanding officers of the noble East Indian company of the united Netherlands on the island of Lethy, Newly increased East Indian travel description: Inside I. His journey through Germany and Holland to India; II. His eleven-year stay on Java, Banda and the Southwestern Insuln, cases of luck and misfortune, strange occurrences, also remarqued rare plants, trees, fruits, animals, fish, insects, mountains, forts, nations, habits, Superstitions of the savages, and many other monuments more; III. His return trip, the cruel storm suffered there, and finally a happy arrival in his fatherland, is told in a complicated manner; In addition to a complete register . Johann David Jungnicol, Erfurt 1751 ( 11092440 in VD 18. )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lisa Palmer, Demétrio do Amaral de Carvalho : Nation building and resource management: The politics of 'nature' in Timor Leste ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 343 kB) accessed on December 28, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cultura.gov.tl
  2. ^ Ernst Christoph Barchewitz. The very latest and true East Indian travel description, Erfurt 1751. Liber I, Cap. II-III, pp. 28-34
  3. ^ Joh. Büttner: Fragments to the history and explanation of the fireballs and meteor stones . In: Annalen der Physik , Volume 23, 1806, p. 101
  4. ^ Ernst Christoph Barchewitz. The very latest and true East Indian travel description, Erfurt 1751. Liber II, Cap. XXV, pp. 427-428
  5. ^ Ernst Christoph Barchewitz. The very latest and true East Indian travel description, Erfurt 1751. Liber II, Cap. XXXIII, p. 533
personal data
SURNAME Barchewitz, Ernst Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Officer of the Dutch East India Company and author of a travelogue
DATE OF BIRTH 1687
PLACE OF BIRTH Groß-Sömmerda
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1758
Place of death Erfurt