Johannes Camphuys

Johannes Camphuys , also Joannes Camphuis or Jean Kamphuis, (* July 18, 1634 in Haarlem , † July 18, 1695 in Batavia ) was a merchant in the service of the Dutch East India Company and from January 11, 1684 to September 24, 1691 its governor-general in Batavia.

Life

Johannes Camphuys came from Haarlem in North Holland . It is known through Valentijn over the early years that he completed an apprenticeship with a silversmith in Amsterdam . In 1652 he went into the service of the Dutch East India Company and set sail with the rank of trade assistant on November 1, 1652 with the ship "Lastdrager". On March 2 of the following year, however, the Shetland Islands were shipwrecked , which he survived. The crossing with the "Vergulde Draak" in the summer of 1653 then went smoothly. He began his career in Batavia as a clerk in the secretariat of the government administration. In 1666 he was promoted to sub-merchant, four years later to senior merchant.

Portrait by Johannes Camphuys from 1685

As a senior merchant, he was able to take over the management of one of the trading stations in Asia. Camphuys successfully applied for the Deshima branch in Nagasaki (Japan), which was very popular at the time because of its lucrative private business opportunities. The Japanese authorities limited the stay of the factory leaders ( opperhoofden ) to one year. Camphuys moved to Japan three times during the 1970s, which was exceptional and speaks for good relations in Batavia. During his first rotation he brought the European distillation apparatus ordered by the Japanese in 1667 and the German pharmacist Franz Braun, who in spring 1672 successfully instructed Japanese doctors in the manufacture of medicinal oils in a hut built on Dejima . Camphuys was very interested in exploring Japan. For his second rotation in Nagasaki he took the painter Heinrich Muche from Breslau with him, who was working for Andreas Cleyer at the time . In his travel book, Muche reports on a series of works that he carried out for Camphuys, including drawings by Dejima and secretly recorded drawings of the audience hall in the Edo Palace . Towards the end of his stay in Japan, Camphuys rewarded him with two Japanese gold coins.

In 1677 he was appointed Secretary of the High Government ( Hoge Regering ), four years later he rose to become a member of the Council of India ( Raad van Indië ). On January 11, 1684, he was appointed provisional successor to Cornelis Speelman , and after confirmation by the Directory in the Netherlands ( Heeren XVII ), he became the official Governor General. Although some members of the Council of India felt ignored in connection with his appointment, so that his relationship with Camphuys was not the best, he initially enjoyed the support of the Board of Directors in Amsterdam. François Valentijn (1666–1727), who during his sixteen-year stay in Batavia was able to observe "His Nobleness" at close quarters, dedicates almost eight pages in folio format to him in his work on the 'old and new East Indies', but particularly sensational achievements as governor are not recognizable. Because of the growing dissonance, he was finally dismissed from office on December 17, 1690 at his own request. Only a few years later Camphuys died on his 61st birthday and was buried in the Dutch church of Batavia. The pastor and author François Valentijn wrote the epitaph:

“De groote Camphuis, met zyn nederig gewaad,
Vertoont zich hier met al, what people can
feel comfortable , De deugt en zedigheid die komen al opdagen,
En straalen uit zyn oog, en vriendelyk gelaat.
Zyn groote geest con geen appeals here.
The omtrek was te naauw om hem wel af te maalen "

Merits as a collector and mentor

Camphuys was a well-read man and had amassed an impressive collection of Japanese objects. In his garden in front of the city, Valentijn noticed all sorts of strange plants, including tea trees from China. Japan did not let go of him. On Thursdays only Japanese dishes were served on the lunch table, which he ate with “two round long Chinese sticks”, which Valentijn experienced himself. When he gave up the post of governor general, the company made the islet of Edam off Batavia available to him. Here he had a house built based on the Japanese model. All around grew trees and other plants from all areas of East India. He also kept curious animals.

Some objects in his collection have stood the test of time. In the tea house in Buscot Park, between Oxford and Swindon, there is a large Japanese porcelain vase from Arita with the initials I. C., one of the works that only financially strong and influential Europeans like Camphuys could order. The Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden, on the other hand, keeps a leather shield from Bengal, which was painted black in Japan and painted with golden flowers and phoenix motifs that frame the Camphuysen's family coat of arms.

Camphuys campaigned for the Hanau naturalist Georg Eberhard Rumpf (Rumphius), who was working on a monumental "Herbarium Amboinense" on the Moluccan island of Ambon and who was given the respectful agnom "Pliny Indicus" by the Leopoldina naturalists . When Rumpfen's manuscripts were lost during the voyage to Europe, Camphuys was able to secure the printing with a copy that he had made.

Camphuysen wrote a work about the conquest of Jakarta and the founding of Batavia by Jan Pietersz. Coen , which was later included by François Valentijn in his description of "Oud en Nieuw Oost India". Pieter de Vries also used the font for a work on Coen.

As a lover of Japanese things, Camphuys is one of that circle of influential and educated Europeans in Batavia who became aware of Engelbert Kaempfer, a German doctor and naturalist who had arrived from India in 1689 , and who encouraged him to explore Japan. During the six months leading up to his departure, Kaempfer went to Camphhuysen's gardens several times and listed the plants.

Works

J. Camphuys: Het Koningrijk Jakarta, Door den Heer Gouverneur Generaal Jan Pieterszoon Koen, Veroverd, en aan het gebied van den Staat der vereenigde Nederlanden, 30 May 1619. Describe, en uit different oude papers by malkanderen getrokken Door Joannes Camphuis, Toen Koopman, en eerste Klerk ter generale Secretaryie tot Batavia, in den jaare 1667. En naderhand Gouverneur Generaal van Nederlands Indiën. In: Valentijn (1726), Vierde Deel, pp. 421–491.

literature

• AJ van der Aa : Biographical woordenboek der Nederlanden . Haarlem, 1852-1878, Volume 3, pp. 25-26.
• OZ van Haren: Proeve op de leevens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche doorlugtige mannen: kneltende het leeven van Joannes Camphuis, Haarlemmer . Zwolle, 1772. [1]
• W. Michel: Jo (h) annes Camphuys. In: W. Michel / B. Terwiel (eds.): Engelbert Kaempfer Werke, Today's Japan . Munich, 2001, Vol. 1/2, pp. 92-93.
• W. Michel, E. Werger-Klein: Drop by Drop - The Introduction of Western Distillation Techniques into Seventeenth-Century Japan . Journal of the Japan Society of Medical History, Vol. 50 (2004), No. 4, pp. 463-492.
• PC Molhuysen, PJ Blok. Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek . Leiden, 1911-1937, Vol. 6, Col. 262-264.
• LP van Putten: Ambitie en Onvermogen, Gouverneurs-generaal van Nederlands-Indië . Rotterdam, 2002.
• François Valentijn: Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën, vervattende Een Naaukeurige en Uitvoerige Verhandelinge van Nederlands Mogentheijd . Vierde Deel. Dordrecht-Amsterdam, 1726, pp. 316–323.
• H. Zeeman: Het leven, de daden en lotgevallen van Jan Camphuis . Amsterdam, Schalkamp, ​​1833.

Remarks

1. ^ François Valentijn (1726) laid the foundations for Camphuysen's biography. Later biographies such as the Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden or the Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek add various points.
2. ↑ October 22, 1671 to November 12, 1672, October 29, 1673 to October 19, 1674, November 7, 1675 to October 27, 1676.
3. ↑ More details from Michel / Werger-Klein (2004).
4. ↑ More details in Michel (2001), pp. 43–45.
5. ↑ Valentijn (1726), p. 323
6. ↑ A map in the Dutch National Archives, estimated at the end of the 17th century, gives a good impression of the dimensions of the complex. ( File in the "Beeldbank" )
7. ↑ http://www.buscot-park.com/house/the-saloon
8. ↑ See object no. 360–1551 ( website of the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )  
9. ^ Pieter de Vries: Jan Pietersz. Coen, voorstander of the Bataviase vryheid. Bly-indent oorlogspel. Vercierd met zang, dans en vertooningen, getrokken uyt de nagelaten writings from the heere Johannes Kamphuys. Batavia: printed by F. Tetsch, 1762.
10. ↑ See Michel (2001), pp. 126-135.
11. ↑ See Michel (2001), p. 92.