.
NOTES ON
The Adventures and Surprizing Deliverances
of James Dubourdieu and His Wife
A
Source for Gulliver's Travels;
also
The Adventures of Alexander Vendehurch
[London 1719)
By LUCIUS L. HUBBARD
1 5 O C O P I E S
Printed for Private Distribution
Ann Arbor Press
1 9 2 7


The Adventures and Surprizing Deliverances of
James Dubourdieu and his Wife; and The
Adventures of Alexander Vendehurch
Dr. Hermann Ullrich lists from Lee's Life of Defoe a book which
Lee says was issued October 3, 1719. It contains two Robinsonades,
described on the title page, as
The/Adventures, Zand/Surprizing Deliverances,’ of / James
Dubourdieu, / and his/Wife:/Who were taken by Pyrates, and car-
ried to they’Uninhabited—Part of the Isle of Paradise. A Containing/
A Description of that Country, its Laws, Religion, / and Customs: Of
Their being at last releas'd; and/how they came to Paris, where they
are still living./Also, they’Adventures/of ZAlexander Vendchurch, /
Whose Ship's Crew Rebelled against him, and set him/on Shore on
an Island in the South-Sea, where he/liv'd five Years, five Months,
and seven Days; and/was at last providentially releas'd by a Jamaica
Ship./Written by Himself./London :/Printed by J. Bettenham for
A. Bettesworth and T. Warner, in/Pater-mostcr Row; C. Rivington,
in St. Paul's Church-yard;/J. Brotherton and W. Meadows, in Corn-
hill; A. Dodd without/Temple Bar, and W. Chetwood in Covent
Garden. 1719./Price Two Shillings. (See Plate)
The Dubourdieu narrative has iv pages of preliminary matter
which comprise the title page (verso blank) and two pages of Pre-
face; and Io.2 pages of text which are signed by “Ambrose Evans.”
The other has a half-title (verso blank); The/Adventures/of Z
Alexander Vendchurch, / and of his/Ship's Crew Rebelling against/
him, and setting him on/shore in an Island in they’South-Sea, &c.
Then follow 34 pages of text, and one leaf of Errata (verso blank)
which covers both narratives. The page is 19.5 cm. tall. No parti-
cular authorship is alleged of the Vendehurch story, unless “Written
by Himself” is meant to apply to it alone, which the double leaded
separation of those words from the rest of the title should seem to deny.
The Dubourdieu story purports to be a relation taken from the
mouths of Mrs. Martha Rattenberg, and her husband James Dubour-
dieu. She was a native of “Pensance, Cornwall”. In her early life
after several years of adventure at Plymouth and at London she sailed
for Barbadoes with thirteen other persons, men and women. When
but a few days from its destination her ship was captured by pirates
who placed a crew on board with some of their sick and wounded and
some French prisoners taken from a previous prize, among whom was
Dubourdieu. The vessels then parted with intent to rendezvous at an
appointed place in the South Sea. A storm overtook and disabled
the prize ship, whose occupants finally landed and found shelter on an
uncharted island, which from its agreeable qualities they later came to
call the “Island of Paradice.” By accidents and disease the mixed com-
pany was finally reduced to three, Mrs. Rattenberg, then become
Mrs. Dubourdieu-Dubourdieu himself, and a French priest.
The story thus far outlined is narrated to “Evans” by Mrs.
Dubourdieu at a tavern in Paris kept by her and her husband; the
remainder of it by Dubourdieu himself, who takes it up at a point
where the priest and he left Mrs. Dubourdieu and the then only other
survivor, a “gentlewoman,” to investigate a part of the island beyond
a mountain range which appeared to form a barrier to their place of
habitation. Their curiosity had been aroused on several occasions by
sounds of music which they fancied came from that quarter at stated
intervals, like the music of the spheres alluded to by Gulliver (Gul-
liver's Travels, III, 25).
The two men bridging a chasm at the risk of their lives gained
the heights, and while descending to lower ground on the farther side
were joined by three huge but harmless animals whose heads and
manes resembled those of lions, but whose “temper and condition” were
more like those of trained dogs. These took the men by the lapels of
their coats, and led them to the plains where they fell in with the in-
habitants, a people of good mien, of large stature, well proportioned,
brown and stark naked, and withal of pacific disposition.
For about five months the two strangers were kept in a sort of
detention camp near a pool, surrounded by a hedge and guarded by
their “lions,” where they underwent a period of purification; for their
hosts showed a fear of contamination which kept them from a familiar
approach, and was further emphasized by a dip into the pool by such
of the natives as brought food to the captives, as well as by baths en-
joined upon the latter. Finally the two men learned enough of the
language to exchange information with the natives, and after having
been conducted about the country, by which they gained a knowledge
of its people and its institutions, they were dismissed. Returning
to their former habitation after a three years' absence, they found Mrs.
Dubourdieu still alive, and alone. Her companion had died soon after
the departure of the men. The three exiles were finally rescued by
a passing ship.
This people lived a utopian existence. Save as to their wives all
things among them were held in common, and hence they had no cause
for contention. Thus they were without magistrates or other gov-
ernment save that exercised severally by the older male individuals,
each of whom regulated the affairs of his family and represented it in
councils held from time to time to consider the general welfare. Here
we are reminded of certain conditions that prevailed among the
Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels (Ibid. IV, 156). Fruits of many
kinds and of nourishing quality, chiefly grapes, were cultivated, and in
fact grew wild all over the island, and were the principal food of the
people, as indeed they had been of the castaways. The children were
carefully reared, and religious worship was performed three times
daily. Music, vocal and instrumental, of wonderful sweetness, was
also a daily practice, in which even the birds joined—“like our par-
ots . . . and by the frequent repetition . . . they learned the very words,
and sung them” (79).
Dubourdieu and the priest, in their journey about the country,
even after their supposed purification, were held up by their conductors,
to the natives, as children of wrath whose beliefs and professed stand-
ards of life, by contrast with those of the island, should and did make
the natives more contented with their own qualities of mind and mode
of existence. To this opinion also contributed in no small degree the
repulsiveness in the exterior of the strangers, because of their smaller
stature, the hairiness of their bodies and generally unkempt appearance,
in strong contrast to the natives, for by that time the white men had
had to discard their wornout clothing and go naked. The unusual
exposure, as in the case of Peter Serrano, may have promoted the
growth of hair, not only on their heads and faces and other parts of
the body to which it is natural, but all over the body (75). Also the
nails on their fingers and toes had grown to abnormal lengths for want
of proper care. These things made the white men appear to the natives
as an inferior species of beings, much as we picture the contrast be-
tween the Yahoos and Gulliver.
The visitors gave their hosts an account of their voyage, of their
country, “of the customs, laws, manners and vices (77, 85) of our part
of the world; particularly of our wars, and the many thousands slain in
battle, with the vast devastations and desolation which the ambition
of princes brought upon their people, all which seem'd to strike them
with the utmost horror.” Here again we are reminded of Gulliver in
his interviews with the Master Houyhnhnm (Ibid. Pt. IV, 62).
In single details this reminder is still further enlivened, as for
example: “We had much ado to make them understand what a ship
was, and how it was possible for us to pass so many worlds of seas”
etc. [77; G. T. Pt. IV, 37, 44 etc.] : “They frequently ask'd us whether
we wanted food in our own country, and were forc'd on that account
to seek it abroad [77; G. T. IV, 82] 2 We told them it was not that,
but the earnest desire of having more than what was absolutely neces-
Sary, that made us venture so far; since large possessions and great
abundance did not only gain the respect and veneration of those who
had not the same advantage, but even an authority over them. This
likewise seem'd to puzzle them, for they could not form an idea of any
pleasure and satisfaction that there should be in those things; but to
give them the better notion of it, we proceeded to give them an ac-
count of our manners and condition: That envy, malice, ambition,
avarice and lust, rul’d absolutely in our parts of the world; and that
he who was not in some measure a slave to any of them, was look’d
upon either as contemptible, or indeed very miserable” (G. T. IV, 58).
This candid avowal confirmed the natives in their belief that their visi-
tors were indeed of the children of wrath, just as the Master Horse
“lifted up his Eyes with Amazement and Indignation.”
The undressing of the white men, in order to bathe (7I), soon
after their arrival, had brought wonderment to the natives in attend-
ance on them, “who, as we afterwards understood, thought we had
pull'd off our outward skins” (G. T. IV, 24, 35, 41).
“When we told them that we wonder'd at least that they cover'd
not those parts which we thought modesty requir'd they should; they
seemed to laugh at our folly, in thinking the parts of generation ought
more to be cover'd than any other part of the body” (95; G.T. IV, 40).
Finally, the two men were commanded, in general assembly, to
depart, “lest your longer stay should infect our blessed bowers” (91).
Gulliver was forced to depart but it was because he might incite the
Yahoos to mischief—a motive supposed to have been derived from
Iambolus (Cf. Diod. Siculus, Bibliothece historiae libri; Venetiis, 1476,
pp. IOO).
I am not aware that anybody has yet noted these resemblances to
Gulliver's Travels; there is no reference to this book, either by J.
Churton Collins, Max Poll; or by Wm. A. Eddy (Gulliver's Travels,
Princeton, 1923), whose work is supposed to cover all known sources
utilized by Swift.
The Adventures of Alexander Vendchurch
Alexander Vendchurch was born in Edinburgh. When about
twelve years old he ran away from home, and sailed from Leith to
London as cabin boy, in which position be pleased the master of the
vessel so well that the latter secured a place for him in the family of a
“considerable” merchant in that city. Alexander by his good behavior
and aptitude won the favor of his new patron, and was sent to school
to perfect his writing and to learn such “accompts” as might render
him useful in his master's business. His “diligence and application”
were such that he was soon taken into the latter’s “compting-house
to copy letters, and [do : Cf. R.C., 4th and later eds., 78.34] such other
things as boys are generally employ'd in.” In his leisure time he also
learned to play upon the lute and in two years “was a perfect master”
of it; “For I never lost any time,” he says, “as lads of my age very
often do; but when I had no business in the Compting-house, I was
always thrumming on my lute. Having liv'd with this merchant about
five years, or something more, he was sending a factor to Cadig; who
being willing [wishing] to take me with him, I prevail'd with my mas-
ter to let me go; Among others of my new master's acquaintance in
Cadig, there was a Spanish merchant, who was very intimate with him,
to whom afterwards I ow’d a great deal of good fortune, though at
last it had like to have prov'd my destruction. (3)
“I was always for improving my time, and therefore employ'd
all the leisure I had in learning the Spanish tongue; in which I got such
a mastery in a short time, that I could almost have pass'd for a native
Spaniard. . . when my English master was to return to London, he [the
Spaniard] did all he could to detain me at Cadis; proffering me such
encouragement, that I thought fit to accept of it: And being now come
into a Spanish family, I soon grew a perfect Spaniard; . . . my business
was to please my master, which I did to such a degree, that he lov’d
me extremely; nay, as much as if I had been his own Son.”
The boy's Spanish employer resolved to go to Panama with the
next “Flota” that set out from Cadiz, and wanted the boy to accom-
pany him, but that would be “dangerous, at least to me, none being
permitted to go into those parts but native Spaniards; and yet he could
not think of going without me. I told him that . . . I was grown so much
a Spaniard in everything, that nobody would take me to be of any other
country, who did not know the contrary. . . . the better to disguise me,
he made me take upon me his own name, which was Gonçalvo de To-
ledo, only instead of Gonçalvo he call'd me Roderigo, and made me
pass for a near relation of his when we came to Panama. . . . My mas-
ter Gonçalvo . . . gave letters of credit to some of his correspondents in
Sevill, with whom I negotiated some affairs of my master's, and then
went on board a vessel that went to joyn the Flota. . . . My new
unkle, as he call'd himself . . . grew every day more fond of me.” (6)
Some time after his arrival in Panama Roderigo fell in love
with Elvira, a young Spanish lady, but he knew that his addresses
would be forbidden by her father, who had been a bitter enemy of
his “uncle,” then recently deceased. Clandestine meetings of the young
lovers were discovered, the young lady was spirited away to parts un-
known, and Roderigo almost lost his life at the hands of her brother
and a gang of assassins. Finally, beset by enemies and harrassed by
the heir of his late “uncle,” he loaded his property on a ship and sailed
for Spain. But his “uncle's" heir had found means to place on board
an emissary who instigated the crew to mutiny, and they threatened
to throw Roderigo overboard. A storm delayed the consummation
of this threat and drove the vessel near an abandoned island. Through
the ship-master's intercession the crew was induced, rather than throw
Roderigo into the sea, to set him on shore upon the island (I6) with
such provisions and utensils as they were pleased to allow—provisions
for about two months, a gun, some powder, a small kettle, and some
few tools.
On the Island Roderigo found a hut, and in it his lost lady-
love. She told him that the vessel in which she was being sent to
Spain was attacked by pirates and later wrecked off this island, and
with an old servant of her father's family she and several members of
the crew managed to reach land. For several months the party lived
on the produce of the island, which was goats, hogs, potatoes and turn-
ips. The crew venturing out to some rocks for oysters, at low tide,
were surprised by sea-lions. Diego, her servant, escaped with “two
great scratches in his arm made by the paw of the lyon, whilst all the
others were devour’d by them.” When Roderigo appeared on the scene
Diego had just died of his wounds, leaving the lady alone.
In moralizing over his situation Roderigo says some things that
remind us of Robinson Crusoe : “I began to set my gains against my
losses” (30); “I seldom went without my gun upon my shoulder” (31);
“we were surprised at the approach of three lyons, who coming out of
the sea made directly at us. I being a pretty good marks-man, shot the
first of them directly into the eye, upon which he fell down dead; and
either the flash of the fire, or the noise of the gun so frighten’d the
other two, that they turn’d about and made all their speed back into
the sea” (31). Cf. also J.D. p. 75—“men, women and children, all
naked, and without the least covering about them;-” with R. C. p. 216.
For three years the young pair lived in happiness and without
serious inconvenience or want, when Elvira passed away. “After this
I led a very melancholy life for two years, five months and seven days,
without any manner of occurrence worth the inserting.” Roderigo, or
Alexander, was rescued by a passing vessel.
That the author of this story had some knowledge of Alexander
Selkirk is evident from the name he gives his hero; that this knowl-
edge, however, may have been superficial is inferrible from his con-
ception of the sea-lion, which has rather the attributes of the animals
seen by Robinson on the coast of Africa, than of the inert beasts of
Juan Fernandez. But the significance of the story lies in the resem-
blance of the early history of its hero to that of Juan de Posos in
Beschryvinge van het Magtig Koningryk, Krinke Kesmes. Amst. 1708,
from which I shall proceed to draw as follows:
Eatracts from Krinke Kesmes in re Alexander Vendchurch
H. (Hendrik 2) Smeeks, the author of the Description of the
Mighty Kingdom of K. K. (first published in 1708) on leaving school
in 1674 took service in the Dutch army. Under Count van Hoorn his
Company with others was ordered on board the Dutch fleet which soon
afterwards sailed to Cadiz, Spain. On the voyage he became a fav-
orite of an Asst. Surgeon who loaned him books of travel, which
awakened and stimulated in the boy an appetite for reading (3).
On the return of his Company to Holland they went into garrison
at Gorkum. Here the boy was quartered in the house of an aged
cooper, and in his leisure moments (8) learned from the old man the
art of cooperage.* “I found the greater pleasure in this,” he says,
“because in Spain I had understood that the Spaniards are very jealous
about taking foreigners with them to America, indeed that they were
forbidden by edict to do so; but that in case of necessity they did take
with them a master-cooper of other nationality. I thought my knowl-
edge might come handy.” -
*Cf. Narrative of the El-ho “Sjouke Gabbes.” Ann Arbor, 1921, p. 32.
In Gorkum the boy, who had been brought up carefully in the
Roman Catholic faith, found favor with a priest, who encouraged his
growing thirst for knowledge by finding for him an instructor in
mathematics under whose tuition the boy finally passed the prescribed
examination for steersman, which office appears to have been equivalent
to that of mate of a vessel.
Having received his discharge from the army, the boy sailed to
Spain, again to Cadiz, where he fell in with a rich merchant for whom
his vessel had a consignment. This merchant had a brisk trade with
America. Evidently attracted by the boy, the merchant invited the
latter to live with him, and attend to his correspondence (op zijn Kom-
toir te schrijven) and to have the oversight of his merchandize (9).
“After a half year,” the boy continues, “I could speak, read and
write Spanish perfectly. My employer [Patroon] wanted me to go
to America with the galleons [Flota ?] in his service.” . . . In order
to accomplish this, however, “a way must be found [I2], for few others
than native Spaniards were allowed to go thither, except that in case
of necessity a master-cooper or a trumpeter was indeed taken. I spoke
Spanish as I did Dutch. No Spaniard could hear from my accent that
I was a foreigner; hence I often traveled overland in my employer's
service... between Cadiz and Malaga. . . . At Martos, a village midway
between these cities, there lived an inn-keeper with whom I
always lodged, whose name was Juan de Posos. He was in some way
related to my employer. He and I always called each other cousin,
so that many of the peasants knew no more than that we were merely
friends [niet beeter wisten of wy waaren]. This began partly in jest
and partly in earnest. Then we began to call each other thus in earnest
. . . On my way back he gave a letter to my employer, in which
he called me his cousin [Neef), with his own name Juan de Posos, and
recommended me earnestly to the other's favorable consideration. . . .
Now I was become the son of a Spanish peasant [I4].
“My employer, who did much business also in Seville, sent me
thither to a cousin [relative?] of his, a very wealthy merchant who
jointly with him traded in America. I took a letter to this man from
my employer and one from my new Spanish cousin the country inn-keep-
er, Juan de Posos. During my stay in Seville arrangements were com-
pleted, both in regard to the merchandize [involved] and to myself
personally, and in the year 1679 I departed with the galleons for Porto
Bello.” -
At this point the resemblance between the two stories ceases. The
young Dutchman in the course of time arrived at the kingdom of Krinke
Kesmes in the Southland, where he found a people leading a utopian
existence; and among them found one of his countrymen, the El-ho,
whose adventures have been related in another place under the bor-
rowed name of Sjouke Gabbes. -
As between the Dubourdieu and the Vendchurch stories the style
is the same. The common title page, with its statement “Written by
Himself,” must carry the implication that the two stories were written
by the same hand. We have here an author of more or less originality,
familiar, perhaps to some extent superficially, with some of the imagin-
ative literature of the day, but whose book has all but disappeared.
Ideas from one of his stories may have been taken by Swift. The
other story may prove to have an interest in connection with the dis-
cussion of Robinson Crusoe vs. Krinke Kesmes. The latter “obscure”
story” may after all have been known in England during the very year
in which Taylor was feverishly supplying the market with Robinson
Crusoe. #
*I may here chronicle a hitherto unrecorded Dutch ed. of K. K. which in form
and appearance is like the editions that, preceded it, , with some typographical
variations. It was published without date by Marienes de Vries at Deventer. Mr.
H. Posthumus of the Hague in a letter to the writer says that de Vries lived in
Deventer from 1726 to 1765, and published among other things (De) Betoverde
Wereld (Bekker) about 1740.
NOTES ON
The Adventures and Surprizing Deliverances
of James Dubourdieu and His Wife
A
Source for Gulliver's Travels;
also &
The Adventures of Alexander Vendchurch
[London 1719)
By LUCIUS L. HUBPARD
1 50 CO PIE S .
Printed for Private Distribution
Ann Arbor Press
1927 3:









:
The Adventures and Surprizing Deliverances of
James Dubourdieu and his Wife; and The
Adventures of Alexander Vendehurch
Dr. Hermann Ullrich lists from Lee's Life of Defoe a book which
Lee says was issued October 3, 1719. It contains two Robinsonades,
described on the title page, as
The/Adventures, Zand/Surprizing Deliverances,’ of /James
Dubourdieu,Z and his/Wife:/Who were taken by Pyrates, and car-
ried to they’Uninhabited—Part of the Isle of Paradise. Z'Containing/
A Description of that Country, its Laws, Religion, Z and Customs: Of
Their being at last releas'd; and/how they came to Paris, where they
are still living./Also, they Adventures/of ZAlexander Vendchurch, /
Whose Ship's Crew Rebelled against him, and set him/on Shore on
an Island in the South-Sea, where he/liv'd five Years, five Months,
and seven Days; and/was at last providentially releas'd by a Jamaica
Ship./Written by Himself./London:/Printed by J. Bettenham for
A. Bettesworth and T. Warner, in/Pater-noster Row; C. Rivington,
in St. Paul's Church-yard;/J. Brotherton and W. Meadows, in Corn-
hill; A. Dodd without/Temple Bar, and W. Chetwood in Covent
Garden. 1719./Price Two Shillings. (See Plate)
The Dubourdieu narrative has iv pages of preliminary matter
which comprise the title page (verso blank) and two pages of Pre-
face; and Io2 pages of text which are signed by “Ambrose Evans.”
The other has a half-title (verso blank); The/Adventures/of Z
Alexander Vendchurch, /and of his/Ship's Crew Rebelling against/
him, and setting him on/shore in an Island in they’South-Sea, &c.
Then follow 34 pages of text, and one leaf of Errata (verso blank) .
which covers both narratives. The page is 19.5 cm. tall. No parti-
cular authorship is alleged of the Vendehurch story, unless “Written
by Himself” is meant to apply to it alone, which the double leaded
separation of those words from the rest of the title should seem to deny.
The Dubourdieu story purports to be a relation taken from the
mouths of Mrs. Martha Rattenberg, and her husband James Dubour-
dieu. She was a native of “Pensance, Cornwall”. In her early life
after several years of adventure at Plymouth and at London she sailed
for Barbadoes with thirteen other persons, men and women. When
but a few days from its destination her ship was captured by pirates
who placed a crew on board with some of their sick and wounded and
some French prisoners taken from a previous prize, among whom was
Dubourdieu. The vessels then parted with intent to rendezvous at an
appointed place in the South Sea. A storm overtook and disabled
the prize ship, whose occupants finally landed and found shelter on an
uncharted island, which from its agreeable qualities they later came to
call the “Island of Paradice.” By accidents and disease the mixed com-
pany was finally reduced to three, Mrs. Rattenberg, then become
Mrs. Dubourdieu-Dubourdieu himself, and a French priest.
The story thus far outlined is narrated to “Evans” by Mrs.
Dubourdieu at a tavern in Paris kept by her and her husband; the
remainder of it by Dubourdieu himself, who takes it up at a point
where the priest and he left Mrs. Dubourdieu and the then only other
survivor, a “gentlewoman,” to investigate a part of the island beyond
a mountain range which appeared to form a barrier to their place of
habitation. Their curiosity had been aroused on several occasions by
sounds of music which they fancied came from that quarter at stated
intervals, like the music of the spheres alluded to by Gulliver (Gul-
liver's Travels, III, 25).
The two men bridging a chasm at the risk of their lives gained
the heights, and while descending to lower ground on the farther side
were joined by three huge but harmless animals whose heads and
manes resembled those of lions, but whose “temper and condition” were
more like those of trained dogs. These took the men by the lapels of
their coats, and led them to the plains where they fell in with the in-
habitants, a people of good mien, of large stature, well proportioned,
brown and stark naked, and withal of pacific disposition.
For about five months the two strangers were kept in a sort of
detention camp near a pool, surrounded by a hedge and guarded by
their “lions,” where they underwent a period of purification; for their
hosts showed a fear of contamination which kept them from a familiar
approach, and was further emphasized by a dip into the pool by such
of the natives as brought food to the captives, as well as by baths en-
joined upon the latter. Finally the two men learned enough of the
language to exchange information with the natives, and after having
been conducted about the country, by which they gained a knowledge
of its people and its institutions, they were dismissed. Returning
to their former habitation after a three years’ absence, they found Mrs.
Dubourdieu still alive, and alone. Her companion had died soon after
the departure of the men. The three exiles were finally rescued by
a passing ship. - .
This people lived a utopian existence. Save as to their wives all
things among them were held in common, and hence they had no cause
for contention. Thus they were without magistrates or other gov-
ernment save that exercised severally by the older male individuals,
each of whom regulated the affairs of his family and represented it in
councils held from time to time to consider the general welfare. Here
we are reminded of certain conditions that prevailed among the
Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels (Ibid. IV, 156). Fruits of many
kinds and of nourishing quality, chiefly grapes, were cultivated, and in
fact grew wild all over the island, and were the principal food of the
people, as indeed they had been of the castaways. The children were
carefully reared, and religious worship was performed three times
daily. Music, vocal and instrumental, of wonderful sweetness, was
also a daily practice, in which even the birds joined—“like our par-
ots . . . and by the frequent repetition . . . they learned the very words,
and sung them” (79).
Dubourdieu and the priest, in their journey about the country,
even after their supposed purification, were held up by their conductors,
to the natives, as children of wrath whose beliefs and professed stand-
ards of life, by contrast with those of the island, should and did make
the natives more contented with their own qualities of mind and mode
of existence. To this opinion also contributed in no small degree the
repulsiveness in the exterior of the strangers, because of their smaller
stature, the hairiness of their bodies and generally unkempt appearance,
in strong contrast to the natives, for by that time the white men had
had to discard their wornout clothing and go naked. The unusual
exposure, as in the case of Peter Serrano, may have promoted the
growth of hair, not only on their heads and faces and other parts of
the body to which it is natural, but all over the body (75). Also the
nails on their fingers and toes had grown to abnormal lengths for want
of proper care. These things made the white men appear to the natives
as an inferior species of beings, much as we picture the contrast be-
tween the Yahoos and Gulliver. - +
The visitors gave their hosts an account of their voyage, of their
country, “of the customs, laws, manners and vices (77, 85) of our part
of the world; particularly of our wars, and the many thousands slain in
battle, with the vast devastations and desolation which the ambition
of princes brought upon their people, all which seem'd to strike them
with the utmost horror.” Here again we are reminded of Gulliver in
his interviews with the Master Houyhnhnm (Ibid. Pt. IV, 62).
In single details this reminder is still further enlivened, as for
example: “We had much ado to make them understand what a ship
was, and how it was possible for us to pass so many worlds of seas”
etc. [77; G. T. Pt. IV, 37, 44 etc] : “They frequently ask'd us whether
we wanted food in our own country, and were forc'd on that account
to seek it abroad [77; G. T. IV, 82] 2 We told them it was not that,
but the earnest desire of having more than what was absolutely neces-
sary, that made us venture so far; since large possessions and great
abundance did not only gain the respect and veneration of those who
had not the same advantage, but even an authority over them. This
likewise seem'd to puzzle them, for they could not form an idea of any
pleasure and satisfaction that there should be in those things; but to
give them the better notion of it, we proceeded to give them an ac-
count of our manners and condition: That envy, malice, ambition,
avarice and lust, rul’d absolutely in our parts of the world; and that
he who was not in some measure a slave to any of them, was look'd
upon either as contemptible, or indeed very miserable” (G. T. IV, 58).
This candid avowal confirmed the natives in their belief that their visi-
tors were indeed of the children of wrath, just as the Master Horse
“lifted up his Eyes with Amazement and Indignation.”
The undressing of the white men, in order to bathe (7I), soon
after their arrival, had brought wonderment to the natives in attend-
ance on them, “who, as we afterwards understood, thought we had
pull'd off our outward skins” (G. T. IV, 24, 35, 41).
“When we told them that we wonder'd at least that they cover'd
not those parts which we thought modesty requir'd they should ; they
seemed to laugh at our folly, in thinking the parts of generation ought
more to be cover'd than any other part of the body” (95; G.T. IV, 40).
Finally, the two men were commanded, in general assembly, to
depart, “lest your longer stay should infect our blessed bowers” (91).
Gulliver was forced to depart but it was because he might incite the
Yahoos to mischief—a motive supposed to have been derived from
Iambolus (Cf. Diod. Siculus, Bibliothece historiae libri; Venetiis, I476,
pp. IOO).
I am not aware that anybody has yet noted these resemblances to
Gulliver's Travels; there is no reference to this book, either by J.
Churton Collins, Max Poll; or by Wm. A. Eddy (Gulliver's Travels,
Princeton, 1923), whose work is supposed to cover all known sources
utilized by Swift.
The Adventures of Alexander Vendehurch
Alexander Vendehurch was born in Edinburgh. When about
twelve years old he ran away from home, and sailed from Leith to
London as cabin boy, in which position be pleased the master of the
vessel so well that the latter secured a place for him in the family of a
“considerable” merchant in that city. Alexander by his good behavior
and aptitude won the favor of his new patron, and was sent to school
to perfect his writing and to learn such “accompts” as might render
him useful in his master's business. His “diligence and application”
were such that he was soon taken into the latter’s “compting-house
to copy letters, and [do: Cf. R.C., 4th and later eds., 78.34] such other
things as boys are generally employ'd in.” In his leisure time he also
learned to play upon the lute and in two years “was a perfect master”
of it; “For I never lost any time,” he says, “as lads of my age very
often do; but when I had no business in the Compting-house, I was
always thrumming on my lute. Having liv'd with this merchant about
five years, or something more, he was sending a factor to Cadig; who
being willing [wishing] to take me with him, I prevail'd with my mas-
ter to let me go; Among others of my new master's acquaintance in
Cadiz, there was a Spanish merchant, who was very intimate with him,
to whom afterwards I ow’d a great deal of good fortune, though at
last it had like to have prov'd my destruction. (3)
“I was always for improving my time, and therefore employ'd
all the leisure I had in learning the Spanish tongue; in which I got such
a mastery in a short time, that I could almost have pass'd for a native
Spaniard. . . when my English master was to return to London, he [the
Spaniard] did all he could to detain me at Cadig; proffering me such
encouragement, that I thought fit to accept of it: And being now come
into a Spanish family, I soon grew a perfect Spaniard; . . . my business
was to please my master, which I did to such a degree, that he lov’d
me extremely; nay, as much as if I had been his own son.”
The boy's Spanish employer resolved to go to Panama with the
next “Flota” that set out from Cadiz, and wanted the boy to accom-
pany him, but that would be “dangerous, at least to me, none being
permitted to go into those parts but native Spaniards; and yet he could
not think of going without me. I told him that . . . I was grown so much
a Spaniard in everything, that nobody would take me to be of any other
country, who did not know the contrary. . . . the better to disguise me,
he made me take upon me his own name, which was Gonzalvo de To-
ledo, only instead of Gongalvo he call'd me Roderigo, and made me
pass for a near relation of his when we came to Panama. . . . My mas-
ter Gonçalvo . . . gave letters of credit to some of his correspondents in
Sevill, with whom I negotiated some affairs of my master's, and then
went on board a vessel that went to joyn the Flota. . . . My new
unkle, as he call'd himself . . . grew every day more fond of me.” (6)
Some time after his arrival in Panama Roderigo fell in love
with Elvira, a young Spanish lady, but he knew that his addresses
would be forbidden by her father, who had been a bitter enemy of
his “uncle,” then recently deceased. Clandestine meetings of the young
lovers were discovered, the young lady was spirited away to parts un-
known, and Roderigo almost lost his life at the hands of her brother
and a gang of assassins. Finally, beset by enemies and harrassed by
the heir of his late “uncle,” he loaded his property on a ship and sailed'
for Spain. But his “uncle’s” heir had found means to place on board
an emissary who instigated the crew to mutiny, and they threatened
to throw Roderigo overboard. A storm delayed the consummation
of this threat and drove the vessel near an abandoned island. Through
the ship-master's intercession the crew was induced, rather than throw
Roderigo into the sea, to set him on shore upon the island (16) with
such provisions and utensils as they were pleased to allow—provisions
for about two months, a gun, some powder, a small kettle, and some
few tools.
On the Island Roderigo found a hut, and in it his lost lady-
love. She told him that the vessel in which she was being sent to
Spain was attacked by pirates and later wrecked off this island, and
with an old servant of her father's family she and several members of
the crew managed to reach land. For several months the party lived
on the produce of the island, which was goats, hogs, potatoes and turn-
ips. The crew venturing out to some rocks for oysters, at low tide,
were surprised by sea-lions. Diego, her servant, escaped with “two

great scratches in his arm made by the paw of the lyon, whilst all the
others were devour’d by them.” When Roderigo appeared on the scene
Diego had just died of his wounds, leaving the lady alone.
In moralizing over his situation Roderigo says some things that
remind us of Robinson Crusoe: “I began to set my gains against my
losses” (30); “I seldom went without my gun upon my shoulder” (31);
“we were surprised at the approach of three lyons, who coming out of
the sea made directly at us. I being a pretty good marks-man, shot the
first of them directly into the eye, upon which he fell down dead; and
either the flash of the fire, or the noise of the gun so frighten’d the
other two, that they turn’d about and made all their speed back into
the sea” (31). Cf. also J.D. p. 75—“men, women and children, all
naked, and without the least covering about them;-” with R. C. p. 216.
For three years the young pair lived in happiness and without
serious inconvenience or want, when Elvira passed away. “After this
I led a very melancholy life for two years, five months and seven days,
without any manner of occurrence worth the inserting.” Roderigo, or
Alexander, was rescued by a passing vessel.
That the author of this story had some knowledge of Alexander
Selkirk is evident from the name he gives his hero; that this knowl-
edge, however, may have been superficial is inferrible from his con-
ception of the sea-lion, which has rather the attributes of the animals
seen by Robinson on the coast of Africa, than of the inert beasts of
Juan Fernandez. But the significance of the story lies in the resem-
blance of the early history of its hero to that of Juan de Posos in
Beschryvinge van het Magtig Koningryk, Krinke Kesmes. Amst. 1708,
from which I shall proceed to draw as follows: &
Extracts from Krinke Kesmes in re Alexander Vendchurch
º H. (Hendrik 2) Smeeks, the author of the Description of the
Mighty Kingdom of K. K. (first published in 1708) on leaving school
in 1674 took service in the Dutch army. Under Count van Hoorn his
Company with others was ordered on board the Dutch fleet which soon
afterwards sailed to Cadiz, Spain. On the voyage he became a fav-
orite of an Asst. Surgeon who loaned him books of travel, which
awakened and stimulated in the boy an appetite for reading (3).
On the return of his Company to Holland they went into garrison
at Gorkum. Here the boy was quartered in the house of an aged
cooper, and in his leisure moments (8) learned from the old man the
art of cooperage.* “I found the greater pleasure in this,” he says,
“because in Spain I had understood that the Spaniards are very jealous
about taking foreigners with them to America, indeed that they were
forbidden by edict to do so; but that in case of necessity they did take
with them a master-cooper of other nationality. I thought my knowl-
edge might come handy.” . . r
*Cf. Narrative of the El-ho “Sjouke Gabbes.” Ann Arbor, I92I, p. 32.
In Gorkum the boy, who had been brought up carefully in the
Roman Catholic faith, found favor with a priest, who encouraged his
growing thirst for knowledge by finding for him an instructor in
mathematics under whose tuition the boy finally passed the prescribed
examination for steersman, which office appears to have been equivalent
to that of mate of a vessel.
Having received his discharge from the army, the boy sailed to
Spain, again to Cadiz, where he fell in with a rich merchant for whom
his vessel had a consignment. This merchant had a brisk trade with
America. Evidently attracted by the boy, the merchant invited the
latter to live with him, and attend to his correspondence (op zijn Kom-
toir te schrijven) and to have the oversight of his merchandize (9).
“After a half year,” the boy continues, “I could speak, read and
write Spanish perfectly. My employer [Patroon] wanted me to go
to America with the galleons [Flota ?] in his service.” . . . In order
to accomplish this, however, “a way must be found [I2], for few others
than native Spaniards were allowed to go thither, except that in case
of necessity a master-cooper or a trumpeter was indeed taken. I spoke
Spanish as I did Dutch. No Spaniard could hear from my accent that
I was a foreigner; hence I often traveled overland in my employer's
service... between Cadiz and Malaga. . . . At Martos, a village midway
between these cities, there lived an inn-keeper with whom I
always lodged, whose name was Juan de Posos. He was in some way
related to my employer. He and I always called each other cousin,
so that many of the peasants knew no more than that we were merely
friends [niet beeter wisten of wy waaren]. This began partly in jest
and partly in earnest. Then we began to call each other thus in earnest
. . . On my way back he gave a letter to my employer, in which
he called me his cousin [Neef), with his own name Juan de Posos, and
recommended me earnestly to the other's favorable consideration. . .
Now I was become the son of a Spanish peasant [I4].
“My employer, who did much business also in Seville, sent me
thither to a cousin [relative P] of his, a very wealthy merchant who
jointly with him traded in America. I took a letter to this man from
my employer and one from my new Spanish cousin the country inn-keep-
er, Juan de Posos. During my stay in Seville arrangements were com-
pleted, both in regard to the merchandize [involved] and to myself
personally, and in the year 1679 I departed with the galleons for Porto
Bello.” -
At this point the resemblance between the two stories ceases. The
young Dutchman in the course of time arrived at the kingdom of Krinke
Kesmes in the Southland, where he found a people leading a utopian
existence; and among them found one of his countrymen, the El-ho,
whose adventures have been related in another place under the bor-
rowed name of Sjouke Gabbes. -
- As between the Dubourdieu and the Vendchurch stories the style
is the same. The common title page, with its statement “Written by
|
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;
Himself,” must carry the implication that the two stories were written
by the same hand. We have here an author of more or less originality,
familiar, perhaps to some extent superficially, with some of the imagin-
ative literature of the day, but whose book has all but disappeared.
Ideas from one of his stories may have been taken by Swift. The
other story may prove to have an interest in connection with the dis-
cussion of Robinson Crusoe vs. Krinke Kesmes. The latter “obscure”
story” may after all have been known in England during the very year
in which Taylor was feverishly supplying the market with Robinson
Crusoe.
*I may here chronicle a hitherto unrecorded Dutch ed. of K. K. which in form
and appearance is like the editions that, preceded it, , with some typographical
variations. It was published without date by Marienes de Vries at Deventer. Mr.
H. Posthumus of the Hague in a letter to the writer says that de Vries lived in
Deventer from 1726 to 1765, and published among other things (De) Betoverde
Wereld (Bekker) about 1740.