CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM The University Library (in exchanged PQ 145.7:A2A87''"""' ''""^ ^"''Jn'jrfiSirYri.y.fy^SP '" French nteratur 3 1924 027 190 309 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027190309 THE EXTRAORDmARY VOYAGE IN FRENCH LITERATURE BEFORE 1700 BY GEOFFROY ATKINSON StTBMITTED IN PaETIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE ReQUIEEMENTS FOR THE Degree op Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 1920 Qfontell MniuErsitg 2Itbrarg COLUMBIA DNIVERSITT PR£SS SALES AGENTS New York LEMCKE & BUECHNER 3(H32 East 20tb Street London HUMPHREY MILFORD AuEN Corner, E.C. Sbangbai EDWARD EVANS & SONS, Ltd. 30 North Szechxten Road THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE IN FKENCH LITERATURE BEFORE 1700 BY GEOFFROY ATKINSON Sdbhitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements FOR THE Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 1920 C!opyright, 1920 By Coluubia UNivBBaiTY Pbbsb Printed from type, 1920 PSIHTED AT IHE-PLIUPTON-PRSS It^OXWOOD •UASS>U-S- PREFACE This study was begun in October 1916 at the sugges- tion of Professor Gustave Lanson, who was at that time lecturing at Columbia University, and to whom it was my privilege to act as office assistant. My research has been twice interrupted: from January to March 1917, while I was in France as Secretary and Interpreter to the Rockefeller Tuberculosis Commission, and again from May 1917, when I went to France as a private soldier of the United States Army, until January 1919, at which time I retm-ned to the United States and to civilian life. Although I had originally intended to make a complete study of the history of the Extraordinary Voyage as a type of novel in French Literature, I have been obUged, by the extent of the subject, to limit my study in the present volume to the period preceding the year 1700. It is my purpose to continue in a second volume the investigation of the Extraordinary Voyages published since that date. It is only fitting to say that without the suggestion of Professor Lanson the present work never would have been begun, and that, without his continued interest, it certainly never would have been completed. If in its accomplishment any credit whatever is to be accorded, this will have been due in large measure to the inspira- tion received from Professor Lanson. If on the other hand, errors of statement or of judgment are discovered in it, they may be set down as exclusively my own. Vi PREFACE Two other French scholars, Visiting Lecturers at Columbia University, have been kind enough to take an interest in my investigations. To Professor Fernand Baldensperger, now of the University of Strasbourg, I am indebted for aid in the bibUography of the subject, while to Professor Analtole Le Braz, of the University of Rennes, I am grateful for much helpful criticism and suggestion during the last months of my work on this subject. Furthermore, to Professors Ra3miond Weeks and A. G. H. Spiers of Columbia University and to Professor H. Carrington Lancaster of Johns Hopkins University I am under many obUgations. Through their sympathy for French scholarship and French ideals, these men have supplemented the inspiration it has been my privi- lege to receive from the visiting lectm-ers above named. For advice and assistance in preparing this study for pubUcation, I am much indebted to Professor H. A. Todd of Columbia University. G. A. CONTENTS PAQB Preface v Introduction ix Chapter I. Descriptions or Real Voyages 1 II. Imaginary Realms Before 1675 12 III. Preccrsors of the Extraordinary Voyage. 25 IV. La Terre Austrah connue of Gabriel Foiqny, 36 V. L'Histoire des Sdcaramhes of Denis Vairassb d'Alais 87 VI. A Political Satire and Two Translations 140 VII. Let Avenlures de T€l6maque of FSnblon. . . 144 Conclusions 162 Appendix 167 BiBLIOGHAPHY 175 Index 187 INTRODUCTION 1. Definition The term Extraordinary Voyage is used in the present study to designate a novel of the following type: A fictitious narrative purporting to be the veritable account of a real voyage made by one or more Europeans to an existent but httle known country — or to several such coimtries — together with a description of the happy condition of society there found, and a supplementary account of the travelers' return to Europe. By the terms of this definition the Extraordinary Voyage is an imaginary one. But even within the re- strictions of a limited hterary period, it would be futile to attempt to cover intensively so broad and varied a field as that of Imaginary Voyages in general. It is necessary to exclude from consideration accoimts of travel by land only, of travel in famiHar European coim- tries, of voyages to other planets, of voyages made in dreams, by witchcraft, by charms, or other supernatural means. As the Extraordinary Voyage is an imaginary one — a novel — the term will not include accounts of voyages actually made, although these accounts may contain many or all of the characteristics of the Ex- traordinary Voyage barring that of a voyage made in the imagination rather than in reality. The term Extraordinary Voyage is then merely a label, convenient for purposes of classification. It impUes, not of itself, but because it has been so defined here, the X INTRODUCTION limitations which have been arbitrarily assigned to it. It is perhaps iinfortimate that the terminology of Hterary history does not fm-nish a word which would imply the limitations above defined. The fact remains that there is no fitting term at present in use, so that Umitation by definition becomes necessary. The reason for choosing the word "extraordinary" rather than any other is that the title Voyages extraordinaires has already been appHed to this category by M. Gustave Lanson in designating the group of novels whose treatment is imdertaken here.* The main distinction between the Extraordinary Voyage as a type, and (for example) the Utopia of More or the Voyages of Cyrano de Bergerac, lies in the realistic treatment of the Extraordinary Voyage. The same dis- tinction is found between the Extraordinary Voyage and the political satire of anagram names, or between the Extraordinary Voyage and the affected voyages in the lands of Love so common in the 17th century in France. It is precisely by the authenticated realism of their setting that the Extraordinary Voyages carried weight as works of religious, social, or poUtical criticism. 2. PUEPOSE OF THE PkESENT StUDY It is intended in this study to treat the Extraordinary Voyages before 1700 both as individual productions and as a group of novels. The first attempts in the direction of this type of novel will be studied in the early part of the 17th century. In addition to considering the philo- sophical and Utopian content of each, the three complete novels of the type pubhshed before 1700 will be treated as novels, and the sources of realism in each will be traced to accounts of real voyages of earUer date. ' G. Lanson, Manuel bibliographique de la liU6rature franfaise modeme. Paris, 1914. INTRODUCTION Xi 3. The Place of the Extraohdinakt Voyage IN THE 17th Century M. Lanson has considered the Extraordinary Voyage as a manifestation of the rationaUstic spirit in the 17th and early 18th centuries of French Literature.' The philosophic novel is one of many forms of hterature made use of by M. Lanson in order to trace the develop- ment of rationaKstic thinking in France. These novels are adduced by him as proof that the "esprit philo- sophique" of the 18th Century was not the consequence of reasoning a priori, but rather the result of new and concrete examples brought to the attention of men trained in rationalistic thought. It would be vain to comment on, or to attempt to resume here a study of the scope of this work of M. Lanson. What is of importance with regard to the present study is, that M. Lanson has treated the Extraordinary Voyage as a manifestation of a par- ticular school of thought rather than as a type of novel.' The first to call attention to this group of novels was M. Andr^ Lichtenberger, in Le Sodalisme au xviiu siecle* His interest, as would appear from the title of his work, is largely connected with the theory of property in novels of this type. M. Gilbert Chinard, now of the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, in a study of very wide scope * has considered the same type of novel as an example of the exotic in- fluences in France during the 17th and 18th centuries.' ' Origines et premHres manifestations de V esprit philosophiqiie, etc" Revue des Cours et Conferences, Dec, 1907 et seq. ' See also: G. Lanson, Le rdle de Vexplrience dans la formation de la phihsophie du xviii' sibcle en France. Revue du Mois, t. ix (1910) . * Paris, 1894. ' L'Amerigue et le r&oe exotigm dans la lUUrature frangaise av xvii' et au xviii' sihcle. Paris, 1913. ' pp. 188-220. xii INTRODUCTION To M. Chinard the chief interest of these novels is, of course, the fact of their "exotic" nature, although he points out the philosophic content of each on the basis of M. Lanson's previous work, which is referred to by him and at least in one instance quoted. Tt has often been said that the ideas developed by great authors are theirs only in the sense that through their genius of expression these authors have given them lasting form. The precursors of these great formulations are forgotten with a rapidity which is surprising, even though it may be just. Until the recent studies of the three scholars just cited, the men whose writings are to be considered here were, with one exception, forgotten and imknown. Works of imagination, based on rationalistic processes of thought and involving criticism of existing conditions, had heretofore seemed to the average scholar to belong al- most of necessity to the 18th century of French Litera- tm-e. In the 17th pentury, the imaginative work of Cyrano de Bergerac, and the popularized science of Fontenelle appeared, as it were, rather lost and out of place. With the work of scholars since the appearance of Lichtenberger's Le Socialisme au xvmf siecle has come the reaUzation that the "philosophic" spirit, generally as- sociated with the 18th century of French Literature, has its roots in the years before 1700, and that Tilimaque (1699) is not a sporadic manifestation without predecessors. The present study is concerned chiefly with the de- velopment of one generic form, and with the particular analysis of three specific novels, of the type: La Terre australe connue of Gabriel Foigny, 1676; L'Histoire des Sivarambes of Denis Vairasse d'Alais, 1677-79; Les Aventures de TSUmaque of F6nelon, 1699. INTRODUCTION XUl It is not contended that the works of Foigny, Vairasse, and their equally obscure predecessors are of an im- portance approaching that of the works of F^nelon, De Foe, Rousseau, Voltaire, Chateaubriand, and other famous writers of later centuries. Were it not for these men of greater genius in later years, the work of investi- gation contemplated here would be without justification. It is easy to believe, however, that these precur- sors of the great figm:es are worthy of study, and that they are perhaps more worthy of study than are those mediocre spirits of the 18th century who basked in the reflected glory of contemporary genius. Because of their resemblances and contrasts to the great writers of their time, such minor authors as Tiphaigne de la Roche, Guillard de Beaurieu, the abb6 Dulaurens, Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet, R6tif de la Bretonne, and many others,' have been taken from their quiet shelves, dusted, and found to present a certain interest. Perhaps less apology is required for studying here those rationalistic writers of imaginative voyages who drew for their realistic setting on published accounts of actual voyages of the 17th century and on accoimts of ancient civilizations, and who placed in this setting imaginary and uncorrupted peoples for the purpose of preaching criticism of the France now generally studied in Racine, Bossuet, and Mme. de la Fayette. ' A. Lichtenberger, Le Socialisme lUopique, Paris, 1898. THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE IN FRENCH LITERATURE CHAPTER T DESCRIPTIONS OF REAL VOYAGES 1. Illustrated Cosmographies. 2. Realism in some accounts of Voyages after 1600. 3. Interest in Accounts of Voyages. 1. Illustrated Cosmogkaphies Widespread interest in geography in the Middle Ages is evidenced by "cosmographies" of the type of the Image du Monde. These fantastic cosmographies, such as that of Maitre Gossouin,^ were followed, in the closing years of the 16th century, by a cosmography in the modern sense of the word. Ih this, and in subsequent collections of accounts of voyages in the 17th century, it is possible to trace a growing interest on the part of the public in descriptions of far-off lands, and an increas- ing amount of realism in the accounts of voyages published. The cosmography of the father and sons De Bry was published from 1590 to 1635. It is generally divided into the Long Voyages and the Short Voyages (Grands et Petits Voyages). One part deals with the history of the dis- ' L'Image du monde de Maitre Gossouin, printed at Lausanne, 1913. (Bibliography under Gossouin.) This work of Gossouin is cited as a type. There is no reason for dealing here with the oiher cosmographies of the same period. 1 2 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE covery of America,' the other part with an account of the discovery of the East Indies.^ The father and two sons who pubUshed this voliuninous collection were en- gravers by trade, and resorted to the history of discovery and exploration in five continents as a means of utiHzing and displaying their imdoubted skill in the art of illustra- tion. The many volumes, containing accoimts of voyages, shipwrecks, explorations, descriptions of faima and flora, tables of Latin and Indian languages, are fertile in maps. But their illustrations — himdreds of engravings of all sorts — are even more interesting. There are battles, and ceremonies of state; there are plants and flowers; there are beasts such as never were on land or sea: the sea- cow with horns, the unicorn, the two-headed monsters, the giant bird the Ruk, — these and many more super- stitions, generally characterized as of the Middle Ages, survive into the 17th century in this cosmography. The juxtaposition of the text and the engravings gives these latter (which were to the engravers perhaps only the continuation of a tradition) a curiously life-like quality.' If the printing of Marco Polo's travels in Latin* and their later translation into other languages had stirred the imaginations of many readers during the 16th century, these illustrated accounts of exploration in Africa, Asia, Australasia, and the two Americas supplied an additional stimulus to the eye. AH the strange and grotesque animals to the contrary not- withstanding, the minute description of costumes, idols, plants, and vermin of the De Bry collection must have ' See Bibliography, De Bry. ' For appreciation and table of contents of this collection see: A. G. Camus, M^nurire sur la Collection des Grands et PetUs Voyages, etc. Paris, 1802. This work is of great use in searching for proper names occurring in the collection. * First Latin edition, Antwerp, circa 1485 (according to P. Mar- tino, L'Orient dans la UMrature, francaiae, Paris, 1906, p. 12). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 3 brought a realism to the far places of the earth for the European reader. 2. Realism m Some Accounts of Voyages AFTER 1600 The realism of the engravings of the De Bry collection is a feature which becomes even more striking in ac- counts of voyages after 1600. It is not intended in the short space of this chapter to treat extensively the real- istic element in accounts of Voyages in the 17th century in France. Perhaps no better idea of the minute de- scriptions of commonplace objects in accoimts of far lands can be obtained than that which comes from reading M. Chinard's work on Du Tertre as a predecessor of Rous- seau.^ It is intended here merely to point out some of the elements of realism in accovmts of Voyages that have not been mentioned by M. Chinard. First through the illustrations , and the text of col- lections like that of De Bry, then through other accoimts of voyages in later years, the far places of the earth came to be more than a hazy dream to the readers in 17th century France. By definite maps, even though these were grossly inaccurate, by meticulous descriptions of animals, birds, insects, plants, and fruits, the far lands became in some measure real to those who stayed at home. At Douai in 1605 appeared a large quarto volume which continues the tradition of the earlier works of the engravers DeBry. This is the: Histoire universeUe des Indes Orientates et Ocddentales, par Comille Wytfliet et Ant. M. ADOUAY, avx despens de Frangois Fabri, 1605. There are two very complete maps of the Terre Australe (pp. 67 and 70) filling the entire Antarctic region, ap- ' L'Amfrigue el le r&oe exotique, pp. 39-52. 4 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE proaching the Cape of Good Hope, including the Tierra del Fuego and thereby approaching the mainland of South America. In the neighborhood of Java, this tremendous Antarctic land appears further north than the tropic of Capricorn. One of these maps is circular, with the South Pole at the center. The text of this book is, however, impersonal and iminteresting. Another and a better known book of travel is that of Jean Mocquet, Garde du Cabinet des singularitez du Boy. These voyages appeared at Paris in 1616, and 1617, at Rouen in 1645, in 1665 and in many translations, among them the fairly common 1696 edition at London. The title of the 1617 edition is: Voyages en Afrique, Asie, Indes Orientales & Occidentales fails par Jean Mocquet, Garde du Cabinet des Singularitez du Roy, avx Tuileries. Paris, chez Jean de la Heuqueville, MDCXVII. M. Chinard * has called attention at length to the strong exotic flavor of this rare story of adventure, and to the interest of Mocquet in plants, flowers and animals. M. Henri Jouan has also made a charming sketch of the man Mocquet as reflected in his writings.^ Aside from the author's convincing style, and his descriptions of ships, pirates, strange peoples, hunger, thirst and mis- fortune, there are other interesting elements in the book. After the first part, there are illustrations of camels with cloven hoofs, like those of cows, and with tails Uke those of horses. At the end of Livre 2 are eight startling illustrations (in the same manner though not so well ex- ecuted as those of De Bry) depicting cannibalism, Brazil- ian native dances and warfare. Arms and legs of victims are seen roasting over a fire, while the natives sit in the • G. Chinard, L'Am(riqu,e el le rSve exolique, pp. 24-29. ' Mimoires de la SoeUU Nationale Acad&mique de Cherbourg, 1904. pp. 1-29. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 5 foreground, gnawing on human limbs. In lAvre S there are descriptions of Christian martyrs, and a striking account of a dog protected by a lion from other lions (p. 187). This real interest in animals, apparent throughout the book, is strikingly modern. Another, and perhaps a still more noteworthy trait, is Mocquet's ap- preciation of inanimate nature. In Livre 4 the author's departure from a port in Brittany is sketched in with one stroke of the brush: Cefut vn matin & par vne grande tourmente (p. 214). The minute realistic descriptions of the manners and customs of strange peoples in Mocquet's Voyages has been mentioned by M. Chinard. Engravings of fruits, trees, vegetables, pottery as well as maps, are found in many collections of voyages in the 17th century before 1675. Perhaps as abundant as any collection in these illustrations is the Becueil de Voyages of Justel: Recueil de divers Voyages faits en Afrique el en I'Amerique qui n'ont point este encore pMiez. Paris, ckee Louis Billaine, MDCLXXIV. It is curious to note in this book a long discussion on the unicorn (pp. 220-223), under the title De la fameuse Idcorne, des lieux ou elle est nourrie & comme elle est formee. Side by side with it are minute descriptions of plants and vegetables common in the West Indies, Africa and elsewhere. Tj^ical in a way of books of travel in the early 17th century in France is an account of a voyage to the East Indies, which appeared in a small 12mo volume at Paris in 1645.' The Privilege du Boi is of February 5th, 1645. Although the title does not give the name of ' Relation d'un voyage aux Indes-Orientales par un Oentil-homme Francois arrive depuis trois ans, avec une hydrographie pour I'in- teUigence dvdit voyage, Paris, Chez Pierre Villery et Jean Guignart, au Palais, MDCXLV, avec privilege. 6 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE the author, the privilege reads in part, "II est permis k C. D. B. S. D. L. G. d'impriiner, ou faire imprimer." Two things make this small volume, not mentioned previously to my knowledge, worthy of notice: its reaUsm, and interest in the exotic. The author takes an interest in religious matters when they are exotic, for one reads (p. 3) of a negro prince, Ce Prince se dismt Chrestien, & nous monstra vne Chapelle & vn Crucifix . . . pour marque de sa piete . . . lis vont nuds, & ont plusimurs femmes, quay que Chrestiens." ReaUsm with regard to savages is found in descriptions of the natives at the Cape of Good Hope. The women are laides & ont si peu de nez, qu'elles sont fort comme des singesses & tous ces sauuages puans comme des houcs, viuans sans Dieu, sans Roy & sans Loy . . . (p. 5). The island of Formosa is called la belle des belles (p. 46), and eulogized. There is a prince (p. 70) who a pris le Christianisme en telle hayne, qu'il a fait mourir iusques a des Princes de son sang. Different races of different religions living together cause some comment (p. 81): Comme toute sorte de peuples trafiquent en cette ville il y a av^si de toutes sortes de Religions, fors la Chrestienne, & toutefois ceux mesme qui adorent vn seul Dieu, n'ont aucune regie. Here is religious freedom. Mention is made (p. 82) of plusieurs sortes de Mahome- tans, quelques vns ont des Chapelets & d'autres font le signe de la Croix. Most of the book is filled with accounts of guard-duty, insurrection of natives, battles between the Dutch and the Portuguese, reports of gold, silver, spices, and. stories of piracy. There is realism in this also. We find, for in- stance (p. 23), one very distinguished Chinese admiral and pirate reduced to peddhng beer for a Uving in Formosa. Minute and careful description of fear-inspiring events IN FRENCH LITERATURE 7 is found in accounts of the earthquake in Canada in 1663, as described by Jerome Lallenoiant in his: Relation de ce qui s'est passi de plus remnrquable aux Missions des Pbres de la Compagnie de Jesus en la Nouvelle France is annies 1662 & 1663. Paris, chez Cramoisy, 1664. 3. Interest in Accounts of Voyages These Jesuit reports on Canada were pubHshed by Cramoisy at Paris, almost yearly, for a considerable period. For instance: Relation de ce qui s'est passi en la Nouvelle France en I'annSe 1639 (Paul LeJeane), Paris, 1640; is annies 16 40 & 16 41 (Barthelimy Vimont) Paris, 1642; en I'annie 1642 (Barthilimy Vimont) Paris, 1643; is annies 1643 & 1644 (.B. Vimont) Paris, 1645; is annies 1644 & 1645 {B. Vimont) Paris, 1646; is annies 1645-1646 {Jirdme Lallemant) Paris, 1647. In the years 1650 to 1663 these relations were written by Paul Ragueneau; in 1654 and 1655, by Frangois Le Mercier. The two publishers, Sebastien and Gabriel Cramoisy, also pubHshed many other relations such as: Relation de Vestablissement des Frangois depuis Van 1635 en I'isle de la Martinique, etc. (Jacques Bouton), Paris, 1640. Relation des Missions des PP de la Compagnie de Jisus dans les isles & dans la terre ferme de I'Amerique meridionale. Paris, 1665 (by Pierre Pdleprat). Neither was publication of missionary and colonial rpports limited to Paris. After 1650, a great publica- tion of such accounts seems to begin, and throughout France. The Relation de Vestablissement d'une colonie trangoise dans la Gardeloupe ' etc. of Mathias Dupuis, ' Guadeloupe. •8 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Caen 1652, has not been mentioned previously to my knowledge. In the first ten years of the century a great part of the published voyages were translations such as G. M. Lodewijcks' Premier livre de la navigation aux Indes Orientales par les HoU landois, etc. Amsterdam, 1609, or Diego Bollo de Torres' La nouvelle histoire du Perou par la relation du Pere Diego de Torres. Paris, 1604- The better known Histoire naturelle et morale des Indes, of Acosta, was repeatedly pubUshed in translations from the Spanish at the beginning of the century. This pubhcation of translations does not cease later, when many accounts of voyages were being published by Frenchmen. L'Histoire du nouveau monde ou Descrip- tion des Indes Ocddentales, of Joannes de Laet, Leyden, 1640, was followed by other translations from the Dutch. Accounts of travels by Frenchmen, such as the Descrip- tion du premier voyage faid aux Indes Orientales par les Frangais en Van 160S, of Frangois Martin de Vitr6, Paris, 1604, necessarily rare at the beginning of the century, multiply rapidly toward 1650. The Voyages fameux du sieur Vincent Le Blanc (1648) will be examined at length in Chapter III. A less interesting traveler but one far better informed is Frangois de Gouz, sieur de la BouUaye. In his curious book, this traveler shows knowledge of the voyages of Magellan, Drake, Mocquet, and Vincent Le Blanc, among others. For one interested in the extent of pubhcation of accounts of voyages at the time, it is interesting to consult the four unmmibere.d pages {viz. four pages of criticism of then existing book^ of travel) following the Au ledeur of: IN FRENCH LITERATURE 9 Les voyages el observations du Sieur de la Boullaye-le-Govz en . . . Italie, Grece, Syria, Palestine, . . . Indes Orientates . . . Arabie . , . Egypte . . . Irelande . . . Pologne etc. Paris, G. Clousier, 165S. The achevi d'imprimer of this curious work is of the 8th May, 1653. Here is nothing flamboyant, nothing grossly exaggerated. Frangois de Gouz, Gentilhomme Angevin, is a worldly, cautious sort of traveler, of the general type of the better known travelers who follow in the late 17th Century, such as Tavernier or Bernier. He pokes fun at the gullible Vincent Le Blanc (whose importance is greater than his own for the present study) in the following terms: Viacent LeBlanc pourroit disputer avec Vlisse de la longueur de ses Voyages, il donne beaucoup d'instruction de I'Affrique aux Geographes modernes & il seroit k desirer qu'il eust sgeu les Langues Orientales, afin de rapporter les noms propres des lieux oil il a est6. (Pages following Au lecteur.) Interest in the East Indies, and particular interest in China, is evident in the same period following 1650. It is generally contended that the East held no appre- ciable interest for French readers until the last quarter of the 17th century. The publication of the following works would seem, perhaps, to modify this conclusion: Claude B Morisot (editor). Relations veritables et curieuses de I'isle de Madagascar et du Bresil. Avec . . . trois relations d'Egypte & une du Royaume de Perse. Paris, 1651 . Marucci, Giovanni, Relation de ce qui s'est pass6 dans les Indes Orientales en ses trois provinces de Goa, de Malabar, du Japon, de la Chine & d'autres pais (tr. from Italian), Paris, chez Crw- moisy, 1651. Rhodes, Alexandre de. Relation des progrez de lafoy au royaume de la Cochinchine (edited by Jacques Machault). Paris, chez Cramoisy, 1652. Sanson, Nicolas (d' Abbeville), L'Asie en plusieurs cartes 10 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE nouvelles ... en divers traittes de geographie et d'histoire. Paris, 1652. Rhodes, Alexandre de, Bivers voyages et missions en la Chine & autres royaumes de V Orient. Paris, chez Cramoisy, 16BS. Boym, Michel, Briefve relation de la notable conversion des ■personnes royales . . .enla Chine. Paris, chez Cramoisy, 1664. Martini, M. Histoire de la guerre des Tartares contre la ghine (tr. from the Latin), Douai, 1654- V. In the light of this extensive publication of accounts of voyages, of missions, of foreign wars, other civilizations and religions, it is only natural to assume the existence of a very considerable interest in such accounts before 1660, in France. This interest has been referred to both by M. Martino (particularly after 1660) in L'Orient dans la littiraiure frangaise au xvii et au xviii siecle, and by M. Chinard in dealing with America. With the excep- tion of the works of FranQois Martin de Vitr6 (1604), of Jean Mocquet (1616), and the translations of Acosta (1598, 1600, etc.), none of the editions cited in this chapter have been referred to by either M. Martino or M. Chinard.'" It is therefore probable that this interest in far lands, in France before 1660, an interest whose study was initiated by these two scholars, was even greater .^than M. Martino or M. Chinard suspected. There is still much to be done before a complete bibliography of published voyages in the 17th century in France will be available, and it is the purpose of the present writer to contribute to the still incomplete list rather than to criticize in any way the greater work of the pioneers in this field. '» M. Chinard (op. cit. p. 122) does cite the collected Jesuit Relations. The original Relations published by Cramoisy almost at the rate of one small volimie a year during the period 1645-1660 are perhaps even more impressive than the collection of 73 volumes (1610-1791) cited by M. Chinard. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 11 There is record in 1663, of this interest in published ac- counts of voyages. It is found in the letters of Chapelain. In a letter dated December 15th, 1663, and addressed to Carrel de Sainte-Garde," Chapelain says: Nostre nation a chang6 de goust pour les lectures et, au lieu des romans qui sont tomb^s avec la Calprenfede, les voyages sont venus en credit et tiennent le haut bout dans la cour et dans ^ la ville. That this was not a passing fancy in taste is witnessed by the continued pubhcation of voyages after this date, and in ever increasing volume. It is upon this taste for voyages, that the writers of Extraordinary Voyages after 1675 depended, in part, for their reception by the public. It was thanks to the popularity of published voyages that the writers of novels with voyage settings gained the attention — and sometimes the credence — of their readers. There is a didactic content in the Extraordinary Voyages, whose sources will be investigated in the next chapter. The authors of the Extraordinary Voyages were beset by a desire to preach, in somewhat the same way that Plato, More, Bacon, and Campanella had desired to preach. It would have been not only a thankless but a hopeless task to graft upon the amorous, the adventurous, or the burlesque novel of the 17th century the account of an almost perfect state of society. Creators of ideal commonwealths after 1675 turned for their settings to accoimts of real voyages whose popularity with the pubHc was established. " Chapelain, Lettres, ed. Tamizey de Larroque, Paris, 1883, vol. ii, pp. 340-341. CHAPTER II IMAGINAHY REALMS BEFORE 1675 1. Before 1600. 2. Les Hermaphrodites, 1605. 3. Two followers of More. 4. The legend of the Incas. 5. The Austral Land. 1. Before 1600 If, as wiU be seen later, the authors of Extraordinary Voyages after 1675 turned to detailed accounts of real voyages for material wherewith to substantiate their novels, it is not so with earlier creators of imaginary realms. The careful documentation of events, of dates, of places that is evident in later works, is distinctly lacking in earUer accoimts of imaginary states of society. The development of the realistic setting for the presentation of such ideal commonwealths is a gradual development. The regions visited by Saint Catherine, for instance, or the fabled Island of Saint Brendan are described in a medieval haze of the preternatural. Even Charlemagne and his paladins are travelers of a marvelous, an almost mjrthical type. It is a far cry from these miraculous lands of the Middle Ages to the imaginary territories of later years, which may only be reached by the ship- wreck of a carefully authenticated Dutch or Portuguese merchantman. Two well-known works of imagination of the 16th century share with their predecessors this lack of cir- 12 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 13 cumstantial detail: Thomas More's Utopia, and Rabelais' Pantagruel (in particiilar Livre V). No one was made to believe, by the introduction of circumstantial and convincing details, that More's dehghtful fantasy was the description of a veritable country. The Isle Son- narde and the Pays de Lanternois must probably have seemed fantastic creations to Rabelais' contemporaries, however they may be regarded by more recent investi- gators of the subject. In both the works just cited there is, to be sure, a reminiscence of recent discoveries beyond the seas, but this reminiscence is far from showing the detailed and carefully authenticated realism which is subsequently found. 2. Les Hermaphrodites, 1605 There appeared in 1605 a satire on the morals of the court of Henri Til, which has the form of an imaginary voyage. This is Les Hermaphrodites of Thomas Artus. The first edition of this curious book is very rare.' Copies do exist, however, both at the British Mu- sevim^ and at the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris.' The author of this satire, Thomas Artus, sieur d'Embry,^ wrote also some translations, besides epigrams and pre- dictions in collaboration with other writers. Among these are: L'histoire de la decadence de I'Empire grec, et estdblissement de celuy des Turcs . . .et des tableaux prophetiqites predisans la mine de la mesme monarchie, par Artus Thomas, Paris, 1620. * M. Chinard, in L'Ameriqy£ el le rive exotique, p. 190, doubts the existence of copies of the first edition. 2 Listed under "Artus." Cat. no. 1079, b.2. » Listed under "Artus." Cat. no. Lb 34/806. * By reason of the inversion of "Artus Thomas" for "Thomas Artus," a confusion has arisen, certain American catalogues listing these works vmder "Thomas" instead of under "Artus." 14 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE (The same) : Avec la continuation de la mesme histoire jusques A Van 1612, par T. Artus. Paris, 1650.^ Les Images ou tableaux de platte peinture des deux Philostrates . . . mis en frangois par Blaise de Vigenere, avec des epigrammes de T. A., Paris, I6I4.' Les Hermaphrodites and a Discours de Jacophile d Limne appeared in two parts, in a duodecimo volume, according to the British Museum Catalogue in 1605. Neither of two copies at the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris has name of place or date of publication. The second known edition, however,' gives the following information: on a trouv6 . . . que cat ouvrage n'a paru qu'en 1605, qu'on le vendoit h, un prix excessif, que le Roy Henri IV se le fit lire, & quoy qu'il le trouv4t libre & trop hardi, il ne voulut pourtant pas qu'on recherchdt I'Autheur nomm6 Artus Thomas. {Au lecteur, p. 2.) The 1697 edition of Bayle's Dictionnaire, in a note to the Article Salmacis, mentions this book as an ingenious satire on the court of Henri HI, but does not give the name of the author. The interest of the Hermaphrodites of Thomas Artus for the present study lies in the fact that this satire of the France of the late 16th century, published at the beginning of the 17th century, attempts to present a realistic setting, based upon accounts of genuine voyages. ' This history was originally written by the Greek scholar Chal- condylas (or Chalcocondylas) of the 15th century, and the French version, with additions of the 17th century, is often Usted under "Chalcondylas." = Subsequent editions of 1615, 1629, 1630, and 1637 would argue a considerable interest in this work. ' Relation de I'isle des Hermaphrodites, etc. Chez les Heritiers de Herman Demen, Cologne, 1724. It is this more common edition, one copy of which exists at the Widener Library, Harvard Uni- versity, that is cited in references. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 15 The ideal community of More's Utopia, and the foreign lands visited by Pantagruel, both show the influence of the accounts of discovery. With Thomas Artus, a similar reflection is found in the setting of a satire. The Hermaphrodites begins with a discussion, among friends, of the new worlds discovered beyond the seas. As an expression of the adventurous spirit of the time, the following brief sentence may be quoted: la plupart du monde ancien, mesprisant son antiquity, a mieux ayin6 chercher, au p^ril de mille vies, quelque nouvelle fortune, que de se contenter de I'ancienne & vivre en repos & tran- quilUt6 (p. 1). One of the friends discussing these matters begins an accoimt of his adventures. The story of these adventures forms the rest of the book. He and a companion start to return to Europe after a long residence aux terres nouvelles descouvertes . . . ayans trouve un navire marchand qui estoit prest de faire voile, & qui tiroit devers Ldsbonne.^ There is nothing more definite than this by way of orienta- tion. After a short voyage, storm and shipwreck occur, followed by the miraculous escape of the narrator. These events are without the details that enliven later Voyages of the Extraordinary type. There is, however, a simi- larity in the arrival, on a strange shore, of a ship- wrecked European. In this story the omission of amplify- ing details of the shipwreck and subsequent landing detracts from the force of the satire which is to follow. The adventurer and his two surviving comrades have just finished thanking Heaven for their remarkable deliverance, when nous vismes que la terra sur laquelle nous marchions estoit toute flottante, & qu'elle erroit vagabonde sur ce grand Ocean » The use of a merchant vessel traveling the well-known route from the Indies as a means of substantiating the story is noteworthy. 16 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE sans aucune stability. Lors saisis de nouvelle frayeur nous ne sgavions quelle resolution prendre, trouvant le faict tant estrange, qu'^ peine pouvions nous adj ouster foy a nostre veue (pp. 4r-5). The resemblance of this vaisseau terrestre . . . par tovi si fertile & florissant (p. 5) to the island of St. Brendan, is apparent. It is to be noted however, that the vogue of the floating island, hke that of the unicorn, was still fairly great after 1600.' There follows a description of the beautiful palace found by the adventurer. The architecture of the building and its grace are particularly astonishing: Le Marbre, le Jaspe, le Porphire, I'or, & la diversity des dmaux estoit ce qu'il y avoit de moindre (p. 5). With Uttle delay begins the investigation of the in- habitants, their customs and manners. It is a virulent and transparent satire of the court of a French King. For over ninety pages of a duodecimo volume the vanity, over-dress, pettiness, effeminacy, and immorality of the King and his courtiers are discussed and expatiated upon. In all these pages there is no story. The ad- venturer witnessed the ceremonies, heard the arguments, and read the book of laws of this depraved commimity. This book of laws, which the adventm-er gives in full, is in the form of a royal proclamation. It contains a detailed denial of reUgion, morahty, honesty, common decency, taste, manners, and reason. Let a very limited quotation suffice to show the extent of this perversion of society by royal edict in the Isle des Hermaphrodites: Permettons ce qu'on apelle perfidie, trahison, & ingratitude, que nous tenons pour sagesse, bonne conduitte, & gentillesse d'esprit (p. 68). ' See serious criticism of a book dealing with this subject in Journal des S(avans, 2 aoAt, 1677. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 17 nous voulons qu'on face cas d'un mary en proportion de la multitude des comes qu'il portera, ainsi que les chasseurs font des Cerfs (p. 42). This proclamation of vice covers the whole range of human affairs. From hypocrisy to murder, rape and incest, there is no crime that is not permitted, nay promoted. The hermaphroditism of these people consists in their lack of true manly virtues (no physiological hermaph- roditism being mentioned). In the virile eyes of the author the attention of these people to fine raiment, cosmetics, and soft indulgence makes them less than men, and more like women. Along with a condemnation of dandies, fops, and courtiers, there is also a condem- nation of sex perversions of which no extended exposition is necessary. At the end of the book appear some verses Contre les Hermaphrodites, and a Discours du souverain Hen de I'homme. These two "items" are boimd to the rest of the story by a simple device. The adventurer who tells the story says that these were given him by a guide, and that he sat down and read them. He simply re- coimts what he has read. The story itself is ended abruptly by another inartistic expedient. The adventurer tires of talking, and promises to continue his account at some later time. Thus he very simply avoids the neces- sity for narrating the return of the travelers to Europe. The Description de I'isle des hermaphrodites is not an Extraordinary Voyage. It is a destructive, satirical criti- cism of existing conditions, imder a transparent cloak. Its interest for the present study lies in its feeble attempt at realism on the basis of current accounts of voyages, and in its being written in French, rather than in Latin." '" There are a number of other matters bound with this book in the 1724 edition, one copy of which is at the Widener Library at 18 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 3. Two Followers of More Francis Bacon's Nova Atlantis and Campanella's Civitas Solis both appeared early in the 17th century." Both are of the general type of the Utopia. It wiU be recalled that the travelers in Bacon's Atlantis set forth from Peru for China and Japan, and travel five months with fair but soft winds before reaching their happy destination. In Campanella's dialogue, it is only the first speech of the Genoese Sea Captain — the fiirst four lines — that deals with the geographical setting, and this is hazy in the extreme. Doubtless "Taprobane" meant even less to French readers in 1635 than "five months' travel from Peru." And but for "Taprobane" the City of the Sim is not oriented." The natural science element of the Atlantis as well as the rehgious ideas of Campanella and those relating to "the preservation of the species" will be discussed in their relation to the work of Foigny, Vairasse, and F6nelon after 1675. It is intended here simply to note the lack of detail to substantiate the statements of Bacon's and Campanella's travelers. These philosophers are too intent upon theory; the welding of the spirit of adventure and travel with the spirit of protest against existing evils has not yet taken place. The didactic element is too pronounced in Bacon and Campanella to allow of much interest in the setting. Harvard University. These would be of interest perhaps to students of intrigue and personal details concerning courtiers under Henri HI, but have no bearing on the present study. " Civitas Solis, pubhshed at Paris, 1637. Nova Atlantis, pub- lished in 1627 (French translations not until 18th Century). *' "Taprobane," generally Ceylon, is used in some 17th Century accounts of voyages to mean Java and Sumatra. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 19 4. The Legend of the Tncas The numerous translations and editions of the story of the Tncas in the 17th century in France are fairly well known. The first translation is of 1633: le Commentaire royal ou I'Histoire des Yncas, wis du Peru, escritte en langue peruvienne par I'Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega, natif de Cozco, et fidellement traduite sur sa version espagnole par I. Beavdoin. Other editions of this translation in French before 1675 are of 1658 and 1672. The translations of Plato and of Plutarch had brought to France the legend of perfect government, but in a haze of departed glory. The story of the Tncas, according to GarcUaso, was an account of a modern and almost perfect state. It was also in some measure the defense of regulation of the affairs of men by a wise and pater- nal government. Tn one sense, the ideaUzed community of the Tncas was a reproach against existing evils of gov- ernment and social affairs in Europe. The truth of Garcilaso's statements has been much questioned in later times, but there is Uttle doubt of their acceptance as being true, at the time of these translations into French. Tt must have been more forceful and convincing in many ways than the far-off and unsubstantiated account of the Utopia of More, or of the Nova Atlantis of Bacon. The authenticity of the accoimt is based on the repre- sentation that the author was a descendant of the Tncas as well as of one of the Spanish conquerors under Pizarro. The History of the Tncas is briefly the account of a succession of kings. The first Tnca and his sister-wife imposed their will and their superior minds upon the uncivilized iahabitants whom they found in ancient Peru. Claiming to be descended from the Sun, these 20 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE two took to themselves the direction of religion as well as of government. Their descendants were the rulers, and later became the oligarchy of the land. Each king and queen of this nation was directly descended from the first Inca and his sister-wife. The succeeding kings subjugated neighboring tribes, built aqueducts for irri- gation, and organized the administration of the country. Each ten men had a supervisor responsible to a higher official who in turn was responsible to still another. At the summit of this pjn-amid was The Inca, the monarch and high priest of his people. By the building of store-houses and by the hoarding of grain in abimdant years for distribution in years of dearth, by the regulation of clothing, by the assignment of duties to all men within certain age limits, and by the requirement of a certain minimum of labor for the State on the part of each individual, the paternal form of government suppUed the needs of each subject. The kindness and forethought of the kings is epitomized in the following sentence: en un mot ils se conduisoient d'une telle mam&re envers tout le monde, qu'on pouvoit les apeller de bons p&res de famille, ou de fiddles oeconomes, plutot que des Rois." Quite as interesting as is this eulogy of the paternal form of govermnent is the Deistic point of view of the initiated among the Incas. The common people wor- shiped the Sun, and the formal reUgion of the State was sun-worship. The general faith held also that the soul is immortal, and that the wicked are punished after death (Livre I, ch. vii). Among the kings themselves, who were also the priests and theologians, there is more than sun-worship. The Inca Roca (Livre IV, ch. xvii) is reported to have said that: " Livre V, ch. xi. The edition cited is that of 1737. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 21 toutes les fois qu'il consid^roit la grandeur, la lumi^re & la beauts du ciel, il en tiroit cette consequence; qu'il falloit bien que le Pachacamac (c'est ainsi qu'on appelle Dieu) Mt un Roi fort puissant, puisqu'il avoit una si belle demeure. The Inca Huayna Capac (Livre IX, ch. x) uses a peculiarly rationalistic argument to prove the existence of an in- visible God (the Pachacamac): ce Soleil, qui est notre PSre, doit relever d'un autre Seigneur plus puissant que lui, & par le commandement duquel il fait la course qu'on lui voit faire tous les jours, sans que jamais il s'arrete. Car si le Soleil notre P6re 6toit souverain Seigneur de toutes les choses d'ici-bas, il y a grande aparence qu'il se re- poseroit quelquefois pour son plaisir, puisqu'il n'y a point de n^cessitl qui le piit contraindre k marcher tou jours. That a people without knowledge either of Europe or of an orthodox revelation should have not only an ideal form of government but a belief in the immortaUty of the soul and in the existence of an unseen God is the strildng report of Garcilaso. That the translations of this work were numerous argues not only that it was well known in France, but conversely that it was a book of great interest to the public. The insistence of Gar- cilaso upon manual labor and upon tiUing the soil is as striking as is his insistence upon the king's responsibiUty for the welfare of his people. With the pubUcation of this book there came to French readers an account of an almost perfect state of society in a modern land — a real land — known to exist." " There is a desert island story (Vol. I, p. 17) in this book which is worthy of mention. Pedro Serrano is left on a desert island and subsists on turtle meat for a long time. Another castaway joins him, and the two subsist until rescued. The grotesque "realism" of the following description of the man Serrano when rescued is worthy of citation: la barbe . . . I'incommodoit dans le lit et I'empSchoit de dormir. This story of Serrano has been mentioned by F. Wack- witz, Eniatehungsgeschichte von Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Berlin, 1909. "22 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 5. The Austhal Land The modern idea of an Austral Land or continent came first to Europe in the Voyages of Marco Polo, pubUshed in Latin about 1485. In reading Marco Polo, one does not meet the idea of a great continent known, but of a great series of islands visited (Java, Sumatra, etc.), together with rumors of a great continent beyond. The voyage of GonneviUe to the coast of South America, and his report of a Terre Australe is fairly well known.^* This intrepid saUor, Captain Binot Paulmier ds Gonne- viUe, brought back from the Southern Hemisphere a native, named Essom^rik, the son of a local king. The party was almost lost, through an attack by pirates, just before landing on their return to Europe. De- scendants of Essom^rik (who was married to a French lady after proper admission to her faith) are traced by De Brosses to the year 1725. One of these descendants of Essom^rik, his grandson, was the author of a pubUcation referring to the Austral Land, which is of interest in the present study: Memoires touchant I'itablissement d'une mission chrestienne dans le trbisibme monde autrement appele la Terre Australe, Miridionale, Antartique, et inconnue. Dediez a Nostre S. Ph-e le Pape Alexandre VII. Par un Ecclesiastique Originaire de cette mesme terre. These memoires were pubhshed by Gabriel Cramoisy at Paris in December 1663, without the knowledge of the author, the abb6 Paulmier, chanoine de Lisieux. An arrangement was made later to the satisfaction of both the author and the pubUsher, the name of the author being placed on the title page in printing after January " C. De Brosses, Histoire des Navigations avx terres australes, Paris, 1756, pp. 115-118, and M. D'Avezac, Relation autherdique du voyage du Capitaine de GonneviUe, Paris, 1869. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 23 1664. It would seem that there must have been some considerable interest at the time in this publication. Besides Captain de Gonneville, who wrote his version of the voyage of 1503-1504 early in the 16th century, the voyage of Magellan (1519), of Saavedra (1528), and of Garcia de Loaisa (1525) had been published in Latin by De Bry and others. The fact that these later explorers visited Australasia rather than South America made Uttle difference to the reading public in France in the 17th century. Gonneville himself gave no definite information as to where he had been, and for the average reader of the 17th century in France the Tierra del Fuego and Australia were very much the same thing. The detailed and substantiated account of the Por- tuguese Captain Fernando de Quir (or Queiros) of his voyage to Australia (1606) was widely known by 1630, thanks to pubUcation of this account both in De Bry's India Orientalis (Liber X) and in French translation.^^ Similarly, the voyage to AustraHa of Captain Frangois Pelsart (1629) was known through the pubhcations of Melchisedech Th6venot.^' The apcount of Pelsart is realistic and detailed, but not in any way Utopian. On the contrary, de Quir had claimed many and varied blessings for his newly discovered land. Other accounts of voyages to Australasia, of less importance in the present study, but pubUshed in the 17th century before 1675, are those of WUlem Schouten (1615) of Jacques THermite (1624), and of Abel Tasman (1642) which may be found either in Th^venot's collection " or in the English Purchas' Pilgrimes or the Hackluyt Collection. 1* Requeste pr^enti au Roy d'Espagne par le Capitaine Pierre Ferdinand de Quir, sur la descouverte de la dnquiesme partie du monde appelee terre Australe incogneue, etc., Paris, 1617. " Relations de divers voyages curieux qui n'ont pas esU publiSes, Paris, 1663-1672. Another edition appeared in 1696. 24 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE With all of these accounts, there had grown up a sort of legend of the "Terre Australe inconnue," where almost every delight of chmate and fertihty of the soil might be found. Many French people, mission- aries, adventurers, traders, younger sons, and vaga- bonds had already been to America (largely the Antilles and Canada, although some missionaries and a few ex- plorers to Brazil). The American setting was ideal for works of the imagination with a primary interest in ad- venture and piracy.!* This same setting could hardly be used for an imaginary and uncorrupted people having a complete, materialistic civiUzation. That American Indians had no houses, no canals, practically no agri- culture was common knowledge in France toward 1670. The ideal civiUzation of the Incas was generally known to have perished either before the invasion of Pizarro or at the time of this invasion. There remained, however, the "Terre Australe inconnue," a vague sort of legend similar in a way to the "Tahiti" legend of a later day. It is in this setting that the first two Extraordinary Voyages place their ideal peoples. Before discussing the complete novels of Extraordinary Voyage, however, it seems wise to consider a literary ancestor of this novel. " See Nouvelles de VAmirique ou le Mercure Am&iquain, Rouen, 1678 (cited by M. Chinard as an example of interest in adventure, piracy, and abduction). This book consists of three hair-raising nouveUes, whose detailed attempts at realism are sometimes revolting and sometimes laughable. CHAPTER III PRECURSORS OF THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 1. Vincent Le Blanc. Philosophic Travels, 1648. (A Uterary ancestor of the Extraordinary Voyage.) 2. L'lle Imaginaire, 1658. (A Satire with geographic setting.) 1. Vincent Le Blanc. Philosophic Travels, 1648 In August 1648 there appeared in Paris a small quarto volume of travels, which, although not an Extraordinary Voyage as defined in this study, merits some extended consideration. Because of its great reaUsm and decided though slight philosophic content, it may be considered as a direct ancestor of the Extraordinary Voyages which follow 1675, just as the early Utopias may be considered direct ancestors of this type of novel because of their large philosophic element and an indisputable, though faint, reaHstic setting. The title of this curious book is: Les Voyages Fameux Du Sieur Vincent Le Blanc, Marseillois, {Qu'il a fails depuis I'aage de douze ans iusques a soixante, aux quatre parties du monde.) Redigez fidellement sur ses Memoires & Registres, par Pierre Bergeron, Parisien, a Paris, Chez Gergais Clovsier, MDCXLVIII, auec priuilege du Roy. In the first edition of 1648, the Epistre is dedicated to Messire Eustache Picot, Conseiller, Aumosnier du Roy, . . . etc., and is signed Louys Coulon. There is also the Priuilege du Roy . . . Donne a Paris, le 15 iour de Sep- tembre, Van de grace 1647. The acheve d'imprimer does not appear in the first edition, but in the second edition 25 26 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE of 1649, is found: Acheue d'imprimer pour la premiere fois le 18 iour d'Aoust 1648. Les exemplaires ont este fovrnis. M. Chinard mentions ^ an edition of 1658 at Paris, and in addition translations in Dutch (Amsterdam, 1654) and in English (London, 1660).'' M. Chinard has treated this book as an example of exotic interest in the 17th century in France. That it was widely read would seem even more certain in the hght of the editions in French of 1648 and 1649, followed m 1658 by the edition referred to by M. Chinard.' The Voyages of Le Blanc are in all probabihty what they purport to be — the diary and memoires of a man who traveled extensively, pubhshed with additions and revisions by a lawyer. Pierre Bergeron, an advocat au Parlement de Paris, seems to have been a man deeply interested in travels. In his Relation des voyages en Tartaric . . . plus un Traide des Tartares . . . avec un abreg6 de I'Histoire des Sarasins, of 1634,* he shows famil- iarity with the work of Hackluyt, Purchas, Marco Polo, as well as with some then unpublished manuscripts re- lating to travels in the Near East. Among these im- published manuscripts mentioned in 1634 by Bergeron, is that which appeared fourteen years later as the Voyages fameux du sieur Vincent Le Blanc. That Pierre Bergeron had the manuscript of Le Blanc's notes at hand in 1634 is indicated by references to these notes in the Traicti des Tartares and in the Histoire des Sarasins of that year.^ ^ G. Chinard, L'Am&Hque et le rive exotique, p. 79. * Op. dt. p. 437. Brunet cites the Voyages of Le Blanc as Paris, 1649, ou Troyes, 1658 in-4 (no. 19897). ' The first edition has not been mentioned before to my knowledge. One copy of it may be found in the New York Public Library. * Paris, 826 pp. in-8. ' TraiM des Tartares, p. 105; Histoire des Sarasins, p. 13. Men- tion is made of Vincent Blanc MarseiUois and of his voyage en Arabie non encor imprimi. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 27 In the Advis au Lecteur of the first edition of Les Voyages fameux du sieur Vincent Le Blanc, it is stated that Pierre Bergeron and feu Monsieur Perez Conseiller au Parlement de Provence knew Le Blanc when he was alive, and honored him after his death by pubhshing his memoires. It is reaUy of httle importance whether this be true or not. In any event it seems rather unUkely that Pierre Bergeron foresaw in 1634 that he would be able to foist a fictitious "Vincent Le Blanc" on the reading public fourteen years later, and so took pains to mention him in the TraicU des Tartares. There are many matters in the quarto vol- ume of Les Voyages fameux that were plainly inserted by the editor. The Troisieme Partie, which deals with America and the Antilles is evidently copied from other relations. Certainly Bergeron, or some collaborator, had read the Histoire des Yncas before writing the part deal- ing with Peru. There is however a convincing reaUsm of personal experience in the First and Second Parts of the book, dealing respectively with Asia and with Africa. Whether this personal and reahstic element of the first part of the book is that which originally existed in the diary of one man, Vincent Le Blanc, or whether it is a composite of various such diaries, matters httle after all. In reading carefully the Premiere Partie and Seconde Partie of this book, one is constantly in the presence of two types of men — men of widely different viewpoints. It seems easy to beheve that Vincent Le Blanc did Uve, did travel, and did leave record of his adventures. Cer- tainly no one staying in Paris could have invented all the circumstantial details in the story. That the editor took these details from the notes of one or more travelers and added to them from his own wide reading of travels is also easy of behef. Upon these hypotheses there are throughout the Premiere Partie and the Seconde Partie two men involved. One is a frank adventurer, trader, 28 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE and wanderer, a man interested in the strange, the ex- citing, the curious, and the supernatural. This is Vin- cent Le Blanc, trader and traveler. He readily beheves what is told him, and frequently recoimts what he has heard as if these matters were of first-hand knowledge. The things in which Le Blanc beUeves are legion: snakes with wings, catching fish by use of witchcraft, dishes which will hold anjrthing except poison, and which break when poison is poured into them. He is canny and resourceful with respect to money, bargains, passports, and the influence of petty officials. He hates vermin, Portuguese ships and Portuguese ship-captains. He deUghts in murders, hangings, pubUc executions, and amorous incidents. The second man whose presence is felt throughout the book is evidently a lawyer. There is an interest in legal matters which is quite foreign to what one would imagine to be the interest of a trader such as Le Blanc. In a story fairly bristling with anecdotes of hangings, abductions, and sudden death, there are very few anec- dotes of law cases. There are, however, many references to laws and trials. This law interest has plainly been inserted, together with other matters, by Bergeron the editor. M. Chinard ^ has called attention to the story of young Le Blanc's early departure from the parental roof in Marseilles by stowing away on a vessel bound for the Levant, as well as to the accoimt of his first shipwreck. The young adventurer is soon in the Holy Land, where he finds the manna from Heaven to his Uking! ' After this early test of the reader's powers of beUef, there fol- lows a series of marvelous and very badly written in- ' L'Amirique et le rSve exotique, pp. 80-81. ' Voyages de Le Blanc, p. 7. (It is the edition of 1648 that is cited.) IN FRENCH LITERATURE 29 cidents. A Christian disguises himself as a dervish, and waits six years for an opportunity to murder an old enemy. People steal in and out of harems. Le Blanc traverses Persia, Arabia, and a large part of India, Ceylon, Java, and Siam in the First Part of the book. Over two hundred and fifty pages (small quarto) dealing with his travels in Asia, are filled with incidents of piracy, shipwreck, murder, plague, poisoning, witch- craft, and with description of natural phenomena. The Second Part deals with Africa, including Mada- gascar. Le Blanc goes from Zanzibar to Cairo, overland, giving glass beads and necklaces to the royalty he meets. The Third Part, deahng with voyages in the Mediter- ranean and to the two Americas, is quite different from the preceding portion of the book. Except for one incident of being captured by the Spanish and held prisoner in North A'"rica, there is Uttle to remind the reader of the first parts of the book. The trading element, ever present in the travels in Asia and Africa, is distinctly lacking. Quite evidently, this last part of the book is an adaptation, made by Bergeron or some collaborator, of impersonal accounts of voyages which they had at hand. That the man who made a story of Le Blanc's diary was familiar with other accounts of voyages is evident through- out the book. The gorgeous imagination and petty per- sonal interests of Le Blanc are punctuated all along with marginal notes such as "Comme Marc Pole remarque de la Tartaric, livre 2, ch. 18," and similar interpolations. The real Le Blanc, interested in trading and in avoiding vermin, can scarcely have been a reader of other people's Voyages. One would imagine that he was rather too much occupied with making voyages of his own. The relation of the two men, Pierre Bergeron and Vincent Le Blanc, is however of secondary importance. Those who read the book at the time it appeared doubtless did 30 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE SO because it is a narrative of adventure. Even to-day- it is a story worth reading, as a compendium of all the known forms of exaggeration and prevarication. The iuterest of the book for the present study of the Extraordinary Voyage hes in the fact that it embodies all the characteristics of this type of novel, barring the "imaginary" element. That some such man as Vincent Le Blanc hved and left an account (even exaggerated) of his travels, places the book outside the category of novels of imaginary voyage. That Le Blanc exaggerates, not to say hes flamboyantly, does not alter the fact that this is the accoimt of a real, and not of an imaginary voyage. It will be found in the analyses in later chapters of this study, that the Extraordinary Voyage has two distinct parts. One is reahstic, the other theoretical or "philo- sophic." That there is realism in Le Blanc, no one would deny. There are plenty of complaints of boils, vermin, and ill-smelling cisterns to convince the reader that the story is based upon actual experiences. That there is no philosophic element in this book has been contended by M. Chinard.* The man Le Blanc may not have been philosophically inclined. But thanks to the collabora- tion of Pierre Bergeron, the book of his voyages does contain a considerable amount of comparison between the happy state of society in foreign lands and the mis- erable state of affairs in Europe. There are also many passages referring to rehgious liberty. A few quotations will suffice to indicate this polemic content. « L'AmMque et le r&ie exotique, p. 83. Here occurs: Chez Leblanc, il ne faut s'attendre k trouver aucune idde, aucune th^rie; il est naif et enfantin par sa cr6dulit6 comme par son amour du merveilleux. Seules, les premieres pages de son r6cit, . . . montrent k n'en pas douter que, contrairement k ce que I'on dit trop souvent, le goAt de I'aventure, de la mer, et des lies d&ertes n'a pas 6t6 apport6 chez nous par le Robinson anglais. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 31 There is a Mohammedan ruler (p. 38) qui laisse viure les Chrestiens en liberti. Speaking of India, there is mention (p. 66) of the people called: Gusarates, qui est la nation la plus iuste, raisonnable & religieuse de tout rOrient; car k la maniere des anciens Pytagoriens, ils ne mangent chose qui ait eu vie ... lis ne font mal k personne, & ne respandent pas mesme le sang de leurs ennemis. This stands cheek by jowl with accoimts of bloodshed over rehgious differences among Christians. Again: les estrangers y viuent dans la mesme franchise & liberty que ceux du pals, chacun en sa Religion (p. 70). Chacun vit IS, en sa Religion auec toute liberty (p. 81). ' Chacun y vit en asseurance, k cause de la bonne iustice qui y est rendue, & les loix y sont si bien obseru^es que personne ne les ose enfraindre crainte de punitio (p. 111). II y en a qui n'ont aucune Religion, & toutesfois ils vont naturelle- ment k rimmortaht^ de I'ime & k quelque prouidence (pp. 151-152). One reads of the Javans (p. 146) that they are cannibals, but: cette canaiUe a coustume de dire que nous sommes de grands ignorans de laisser poiurir en terre vne si exceUente chair qu'est celle de rhomme. There is a curious accoimt (p. 195) of a conflict between the authority of a local deity and that of a missionary from Europe. A petty King is cured of disease by a Christian missionary who mocks the local deity. Being cured, the King is loath to give up his old god qui leur auoit parle si smiuent & fait tant de miracles entr'eux. His wife assures him, however, that if their god were strong enough to do any harm, he would strike this impudent Christian with lightning. It is not a far cry from this to the open questioning of revealed reUgions and miracles. 32 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE In the Seconde Partie, treating of Madagascar (p. 11), occurs a direct comparison between this happy country and Europe: Les habitans de cette isle ne songent qu'S. viure ioyeusement, & 06 qui est plus k admirer parmy vn si grand nombre de peuples Ton ne void aucuns vagabonds & mendians comme en Europe. lis se donnent tons du bon temps sans neantmoins faire tort h. personne; les vns se contentent de peu, les autres veulent beaucoup, & aucun ne manque d'occupation s'il veut trauailler. ... lis viuent en grande amiti6. Another insertion, evidently from the hand of Bergeron, is foimd in the Seconde Partie, p. 34: Ce qui est le plus remarquable en ces lieux-la, est qu'il n'y a aucune prison, a cause que toutes les afiaires de lustice se iugent sur le champ. Later, speaking of sun-worshipers in Africa (p. 81), Le Blanc says: lis reconnoissent vn lieu oil les mauuais sont tourmentez apres cette vie, les vns plus griefuement que les autres, a proportion de leurs pechez. Of the court of Prince Negus {Seconde Partie) one reads: cette cour n'est point suiuie de tant de racaille de gens comme les nostres (p. 90). Of the same people, it is stated: estant chose inciiye entr'eux qu'aucun ait jamais conspir6 centre son Prince . . . chose bien esloign^e de la peruersit^ & corruption des pais de dega, & particulierement de nostre mal- heureuse France, qui par ^ti ie ne sgay quel zele furieux, enrag6 & du tout diabolique, a tremp6 trop souuent sa main parricide dans le sang de ses Rois. Dieu luy fasse la grace d'imiter ces bons Abissins, meilleurs Chrestiens en cela qu'elle (p. 94). Although far from being the only philosophic expres- sions in the book, these quotations will suffice to show IN FRENCH LITERATURE 33 that this curious narrative of adventure contains argu- ments for religious freedom, for the right to employment and for the right to prompt justice, as well as an open comparison of little known lands with Europe. The picture of men of many races and creeds living amicably ID the free ports of the East Indies, is no less striking in its internationalism. Thus the Voyages fameux du sieur Vincent Le Blanc, the result of the collaboration of two men, one a trader and adventurer, the other a lawyer and theorist, is a realistic story containing theories both poHtical and economic. It reveals a distinct idealizing tendency, which gives it a Utopian flavor. In the complete Ex- traordinary Voyages of later date, the process of com- position is, to be sure, different. But regardless of the processes of composition, and regardless of whether the later writers of Extraordinary Voyages knew this strange book (which went through three editions in ten years), the Voyages of Le Blanc must be considered a Hterary ancestor of the Terre austraU connue of Foigny, of the Histoire des Sevarambes of Vairasse, and in a general sense, even of the Telimaque.^ ' In the Premih-e Partie of the Voyages fameux of Le Blanc, pp. 119-120, there are two interesting stories. One is that of a woman mating with a bear named Sagistan. The other is a desert island story. A woman, acciised of adultery, is left on a desert island with her lover, by order of her husband. The lover dies. The woman is cared for by a monkey, becomes his mistress and has children by him. When she escapes on a passing vessel, the animal murders their offspring before her eyes. She returns to Europe, and lives a secluded life in a convent, after being acquitted by a religious court. The story is carefully substantiated. The same general type of story occurs in the Voyages of Mocquet (1617) pre- viously referred to. According to Mocquet, an English pilot cast away in America, on the mainland, has a child by a savage woman, who miu-ders this child before his eyes when he leaves on a passing vessel. (Mocquet, Voyages, Livre ii, pp. 148-150). It is not at all 34 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 2. L'lle imaginaire, 1658 In the CEuvres de M. de Segrais ^^ occurs a nouvelle or a short satire, which, although not an Extraordinary Voyage, bears some resemblance to this type of novel. The story begins with adventures and shipwreck at sea; there is a description of the flora and fauna of the island, including bright blue and carmine colored rabbits." This much of the lie imaginaire is similar to the Extraor- dinary Voyages in being a reflection of the published accotmts of real voyages and adventures, together with an extraordinary element of strangely colored animals. There follows the description of a republic of dogs on this island, which is a flippant satire on works of the type of the Utopia, the Nova Atlantis, and the Civitas Solis. The great distinction between the lie imaginaire and the Extraordinary Voyages which follow, however, lies in the transparent insincerity of the former. The title itself, containing the word "imaginaire," counteracts whatever attempts at realism are found later. The reader takes up the story prepared to read a fiction. If he should happen to read the dedication d Madame de Pontac, he would come to the second confession of in- sincerity on the part of the author: Je suis ass11r6 qu'il n'y a Confesseur, m^me des plus s^veres du terns, qui ne donne absolution d'un mensonge pareil k celui que je vous d^die. unlikely that Bergeron knew the Voyages of Mocquet, and changed this story to suit himself. In the Voyages Jamexix of Le Blanc, this incident is given as a desert island story, which is not the case with Mocquet. '» Amsterdam, 1723 t. ii, p. 178; or Paris, 1755, t. ii, p. 165 (about 40 pp. in-12). " A similar case of colored animals occurs in Foignys Terre australe connxis, 1676. See next chapter. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 35 Notwithstanding all the marvels of witchcraft, the apparent sincerity of the Voyages fameux of Le Blanc is strangely similar to the convincing reaUsm of later philo- sophic voyages. On the contrary, the flippant and courtly fiction of Segrais is more nearly akin to the works of Gom- berville or of Scud^ry than to those of Foigny, Vairasse, and others who follow. CHAPTER IV LA TEBRE AUSTRALE CONNUE OF GABRIEL FOIGNY 1. Life and Publications of Foigny. 2. The Adventures of Sadeur. 3. The Austral Land. 4. Conclusion. 1. Life and Publications of Foigny In 1676 there appeared the first novel which falls within the definition given of "Extraordinary Voyage." This is the Terre australe connue of Gabriel Foigny, as strange a story in many ways as any novel of the tjqpe.^ A second edition appeared in Paris in 1692, under the title Les avantures de Jacques Sadeur,^ an EngUsh transla- tion at London the following year,' two other editions at Paris (1693-1705) , and an edition at Amsterdam in 1732. The author, Gabriel Foigny,* was a native of Lorraine. Born in 1640, he died in 1692 after a turbulent and far ' La Terre australe connue, c'est-a-dire la description de ce pays inconnu jusqu'ici, de ses mceurs & de ses coiUumes, par Mr. Sadeur. Avec les avantures qui le conduisirent en ce Continent, & les par- ticularitez du sejour qu'il y fit durant trente-dnq ans & plus, & de son retour. Reduiles & raises en lumiere par les soins & la con- duite de G. de F. A Vannes, par lagues Vemevil, rue S. GUles, 1676. * Chez Barbin, Paris, 1692. Although Sadeur is christened "Nicolas" in the first edition, the name occurs but once. His father's name is "Jacques," according to Sadeur's account of -him. It is for this reason that later editions use the title Les avantures de Jacques Sadeur. ' A new discovery of terra incognita Australis by Mr. Sadeur, London, 1693. For titles of later editions see Bibliography. * The particle "de" seems to have been assumed by Foigny the author. The man seems to have been known as Gabriel Foigny. 36 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 37 from exemplary life. As a young man, he entered the order of Franciscan monks. Having left the monastery for reasons now miknown, he went to the neighborhood of Geneva and became a Protestant. He was for a time "chantre" or one of the regular singers in a church at Morges. Having upon at least one occasion appeared in church in a condition far from sober, he was turned out of his position, and went to seek his fortune in Geneva. Here, he made a hving by tutoring small boys in grammar, geography, and other subjects. He also taught the French language to several persons of German speech. After some time, he married a woman of the lowest class, who is reported to have been "not so scrupulous as Lucretia" in morals. Several pubhcations of Foigny appeared about this time. One was an almanac, which was remarkably inaccurate even for this sort of book. Foigny also published a set of cards illustrating heraldry, and the Marot and Beza Psalms, with a prayer of his own inven- tion at the end of each psalm. These prayers are char- acterized as "insipid compliments to the Deity" by a man who read them, and from whom all the facts of Foigny's hfe are received.^ The Usage du Jeu royal de la langue latine of Foigny, a purely grammatical work, was printed at Lyon in 1674 and 1676. Toward the end of 1676, the Terre australe connue was printed. Bayle's Correspondent states that it was printed at Geneva, and that the printer admitted having received the work from Foigny. According to the same authority, Foigny stoutly maintained that he had received the manuscript ' Bayle, Dictionnaire critique, ed. 1715, Article Sadeur. There is a note here not included in Article Sadeur of the 1697 ed. It is in the form of a letter to Bayle from a person (not named) in Geneva. In Chaudon et Delandiae, Dictionnaire universel, 9® 6d., Paris, 1810, Article Foigni, there is nothing not found in Bayle's Dictionnaire excepting the sentence: Son voyage romanesque Jut trhs-rechercM, tant qu'ilfut defendu. :38 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE from Bordeaux, but finally confessed that he had written it himself to obtain money. The title page (see Note 1) reads "k Vannes." That the book may have been, printed simultaneously at Vannes and at Geneva is barely possible. It is much more probable that it was printed at Geneva but as if at Vannes, in order to de- ceive the religious faction at Geneva who persecuted Foigny for its pubhcation. In any event, the book was pubUshed in 1676, probably at Geneva, and Foigny was allowed to remaiu in that city after its appearance through the influence of several German gentlemen whom he had instructed in French. In a German thesis for the doctorate * mention is made of a copy of the Terre australe connue printed at Geneva in 1676. According to this dissertation, Der Titel der Genfer Ausgabe lautet: Les avantures de Jaques Sardeur dans la dicouverte et le voyage de la Terre australe. Genf. 1676. No other mention of this Geneva edition, with this title, is known to the present author. If Herr Giinther's statement is correct, then the Geneva correspondent of Bayle is proved right, and the Terre australe connue was printed in Geneva. That it should have been printed twice in the same year and with two different title pages is of course possible. The entire story of Bayle's corres- pondent is plausible and convincing in circumstantial details, and can be taken as reUable evidence without the support of Herr Giinther. (Another correspondent of Bayle, likewise given space in a note to the 1715 edition of the Didionnaire, who beUeves the Terre australe to have been written by a gentleman from Brittany, must be disregarded, from a lack of those circumstantial details ' Entstehungsgeschichte von Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Max Gtinther, Greifswald, 1909, p. 38. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 39 which indicate the first-hand information of the Geneva correspondent.) Unfortunately for the reliabihty of Herr Giinther's statements in the dissertation mentioned, a careful study of his disquisition reveals many serious mis- statements. "Sadeur" is consistently misspelled "Sar- deur" even in quoting title pages. In his treatment of the Histoire des Sevarambes (1677-1679), the Extraordinary Voyage of Denis Vairasse, Herr Glinther shows absolute ignorance of the authorship of the novel, and cites no. edition in French earlier than 1702, whereas the novel was first published in its complete form, in French, in 1677-1679. It is curious also in a way, that F. Wackwitz, whose dissertation, bearing the same title and date as Giinther's, but published at Berlin, although much more complete in bibhography, fails to mention the Geneva edition of the Terre australe connue referred to by Giinther. Foigny was saved from the persecution of the clergy, and permitted to remain in Geneva. His troubles were not to end so soon, however, for he fled from Geneva some time later, leaving his maidservant in disgrace.. He died in a convent in Savoy in 1692. Foigny's was a tempestuous life, marked by both open, and secret revolt against society and institutions. It. would be vain to condone his faults. M. Chinard, in L'Amerigue et le reve exotique,'' points out that a man of Foigny's temperament might have fared better in the newly discovered lands beyond the seas, and that in the physical activity of covering long and strange distances, he might have found a fitting antidote to his turbulent na- ture. The facts of Foigny's fife show that the only recourse for him was to change from one institution to another in the vain search for freedom of spirit and license in morals. In the Terre australe connue, Foigny goes further ' Page 201. 40 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE than any of his predecessors m Utopias, and even further than many later authors of this type of novel, in de- scribing a society in which institutions and centralized power are absolutely lacking. In Foigny's ideal com- monwealth there is no benign tyrant. There is no ruler, no ruling class. There are no slaves, no class distinctions, no families raised above other famiUes. The means which the hero Sadeur employs to discover this coimtry of equality, and the description of the democracy of Foigny's imagination, furnish the material of the book. 2. The Adventures of Sadexik In the Au lecteur of this novel,' there is a long discus- sion of man's passion to discover the new and to penetrate into the most difficult truths. II veut mime monter dans les Cieux : & non content de raison- ner & discourir des qualitez des ^toiles, 11 s'eforce d'approfondir dans les secrets de la Divinity ... on ne cesse depuis quatre ou cinq cens ans de proposer una terre Australe inconnue: sans qu'aucun jusqu'ici ait fait parottre son courage & ses soins, pour le rendre connue. There follows a discussion of Magellan's discovery of the Tierra del Fuego, foimd later to be a part of America, and of GonneviUe's return to France with a young native "qu'il quaUfioit fils d'un Roy de ces Quartiers." ' The discoveries of Marco Polo are shghtingly considered by Foigny in the light of recent trading in Java by the Dutch, and consequent certain knowledge. One para- graph of the Au lecteur suffices to indicate the sources of Foigny's Terre australe connue. ' All references are to the Terre australe connue, edition of 1676. Some later editions are incomplete; the Au lecteur is lacking entirely in the 1732 edition, for instance. " Reference has aheady been made to this young "Australian prince" in Chapter II. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 41 II est vrai que comparant la relation de Fernandez de Quir Portugais, avec la description qui doit suivre, on est oblig6 d'avotier que, si quelqu'un en est approch^, cet honneur lui est deu . . . Mention is then made of de Quir's eighth petition to the King of Spain regarding the discovery of Australia in the year 1606. The description of that country made by de Quir and by Paes de Torres, who was the admiral of de Quir's fleet, is also referred to. It is pointed out that these two explorers agree as to the air being si sain . . . gu'on y couche a platte terre sans aucune in- commoditi and further that les fruits y sont si nourrissans & si excellens, qu'ils suffisent seuls a la nourriture. Further there are good liquors in the Austral land, no clothes are worn, and les sciences naturelles y sont en grande estime. To simi up, Voild le racourd des rapports de ces deux personruiges . . . ils ne particularisent rien.^'^ Follows an ingenious consideration of the discoveries of de Quir and Sadeur. The Austral Land should by right be claimed by the King of France, as Sadeur was of French parentage. Louys le Redouts & le triomphant is mentioned. All of this has a distinctly realistic flavor. It is in the same style as the pleading of real travelers, de Quir in his petition, and many others in recovmting their discoveries. Discoverers almost always plead in their reports that the new land be claimed by their monarch in Europe. As to the publication of Sadeur's life and discoveries, we are informed that the writer of the Au lecteur happened to be d Livorgne Van 1661. Here he witnessed the dis- " It will be seen, after a digest of the description of Australia, that de Quir's petition is very detailed, and that the account of Sadeur agrees time after time with the very details here denied. A wide knowledge of de Quir's petition made this agreement wise if not necessary. 42 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE embarkation of a vessel just arrived from Madagascar. Sadeur, one of the passengers on this vessel, fell into the water, and was rescued ia a weakened condition by the writer. By the best of good fortune, it was possible to salvage at the same time Sadeur's personal effects, in- cluding his memoirs. These constituted une espece de livre fait de feuilles, long de demi pied, large de six doits, & Spais de deux. After being rescued, the traveler is luckily able to converse in Latin with the writer of the Au hdeur for a matter of two hours before dyiog as the result of his immersion. Thus are the facts and memoirs of Sadeur's life providentially preserved. The advantage of having an authentic account, rather than an admittedly fictitious account of a remarkable voyage is evident. The public was eager to learn of new lands at this time; books of travel were widely read. Foigny, by his own admission, wrote the story to make money. The convenience of having the hero Sadeur die im- mediately on his arrival in Europe is equally evident. Foigny was desirous of passing off his creation, Sadeur, as a real man; and for his purposes a real man defunct was almost necessary. In the Extraordinary Voyages which follow, the dead are always the most briUiant witnesses produced. Now comes Sadeiu^'s own story of his life. He begins by saying that he writes the history of his life for his own amusement, inasmuch as he has little hope of returning to Europe. The events of his birth and early childhood are known to him only through a memorandum given him by a Jesuit in Lisbon. His birth occurred at sea, his father and mother being on the return voyage to France after having remained some time in the West Indies without profit to themselves. Sadeur says, I'ay done 6t6 conceu dans I'Ain&ique, & je suis n6 sur I'Ocean, presage trop assurd de ce que je devois ^tre vn jour (p. 3). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 43 The ship is wrecked near Cape Finistere on the coast of Spain. His father and mother are victims of this catas- trophe, but do not die until they have reached shore and lamented their ill fortune in almost epic fashion. The infant who has been saved by the sacrifice of his parents is commiserated by the other survivors in the following terms: Pauvre rejetton, que peux-tu devenir? peux-tu avoir quelque bonheur en ce monde, ^tant la cause si funeste de la mort de ceux qui font donn6 la vie? (p. 6). Sadeur is adopted by some natives; but the captain of the ship on which he was born, having acted as his god-father, returns to obtain possession of the child. The Spanish foster-parents take the matter to court. An imfavorable decision causes the doughty French captain to steal the child. A stray shot from a passing Portuguese vessel sinks the boat on which Sadeur and his god-father are fleeing. Only a servant and the child escape drowning. This servant, a model of devotion, goes from house to house trying to find a home for Sadeur and finally arrives with the child at Lisbon. Here he dies, leaving the story and the child with a Jesuit, from whom Sadeur receives years later a written account of his birth and early adventures. Having thus been the cause of death of each of a series of people taking an interest in him, Sadeiu- after three uneventful years is adopted by the Countess of Villa- franca. He being hermaphroditic, the Jesuit Fathers have decided after careful observation that he shall be brought up as a man. He receives a good education, for he says, J'appris . . . les langues Latino, Grecque, rran9oise, Italienne, & les principes de I'Afriquaine, la Geometric, la Geographie, la Philosophie & I'Histoire d'Espagne avec la Chronologie (p. 13). 44 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE After some qmet years, Sadeur starts from Lisbon to Coimbra, where he is to speak at the University. He yields enough to strong premonitions of danger to travel by land rather than by sea. It avails not at all, for pirates come ashore from their ship, drive off his escort and take him to sea with them. The pirate ship sinks after a storm. Sadem- floats on the door of the Captain's cabin for some time, and is then seen by moonlight and rescued by a Portuguese vessel boimd for the East Indies. He is well treated on board. This vessel puts in at Maninga in the Congo and Sadeur goes ashore on a voyage of discovery. We are informed at once that the Geographers who place Lake Zair d trois cens lieues de la mer are in great error. Sadeur declares that he went from the sea to the lake by boat, so many leagues per day for so many days, and that the distance is not nearly so great. He also says that there are no savage and ferocious animals in the Congo, and proves it by the simple statement that he never found any. This he admits is at variance with the commonly accepted accoimts of the region. Having now proved his superiority over the former travelers in the region, Sadeur introduces some wonders of this land which have not been reported previously. Among the many sorts of fish in the Zair, Sadeur found two sur- prising varieties (p. 28). Of one variety he says: lis approchent en quelque chose de nos gros chiens barbets, & que sortant assez facilement de I'eau, lis sautent presque comme des renards; avec cette difference que leurs pattes sent larges comme les pieds de nos canards. These fish are so attracted by men that II arrive meme quelquefois qu'ils sautent dans les bateaiix. The others are flying fish which paroissoient comme de grandes Aigles IN FRENCH LITERATURE 45 avec deux aths, chacune de cinq cm six pieds (p. 29). There are sheep (p. 30) d'vn rouge, d'vn verd, d'vn jaune, & d'vn bleu si iclatant qae ndtre pourpre & n6tre soie la mieux preparee n'en approche pas}^ The Kaffirs are referred to (p. 36) as ces sauvages qu'on ne pent humaniser. The explanation of their ferocity is curious. It seems that a native of the country had progeny by a tigress, and that the Kaffirs are the de- scendants of this strange cross. The proof of this is that Kaffirs are commonly found to have stripes on their legs. The fact that no other traveler has mentioned the striped legs of the Kaffirs seems to affect Sadeur as httle as his own previous statement that there are no ferocious beasts in this vicinity. After speaking of the brightly tinted sheep and flower- carpeted fields of the Congo, and just before testing our powers of belief with the description of a spring whose water rtjailit & fartifie plus que nostre vin d'Espagne, there is a curious protest: Je m'informay avec beaucoup de soin oil 6toient les Croco- driUes, que les Historiens mettent en grande quantity en ces quartiers. Mais on ne connut pas meme ce que je voulois dire: ce qui me fit croire que ce n'^toit que des contes fails k plaisir. . . . S'il est vray de dire qu'il est permis k ceux qui ont fait de longs voyages d'en faire accroire aux autres qui ne connoissent que le lieu de leur naissance; il est encore plus vray d'assurer qu'ils se prevalent tant de cette licence qu'ils n'affectent presque que des fictions. La raison est qu'il arrive souvent qu'on fait de tres grands chemins sans voir autre chose que quelques ports, ou on ne se repose qu'un moment; . . . Cependant comme on est persuade qu'il faut dire quelque nouveaut^ quand on vient de loin: plus les esprits sont subtils, plus ils en inventent (p. 31). " A similar account in I'lle imaginaire of Segrais will be recalled. (See Chapter III.) 46 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE The spring which yields a fluid akin to wine he explains by the following unanswerable logic, given as the con- clusion of his companions on finding the spring: si Ton trouvoit des sources de tres mauvais goM, c'etoit vne suite necessaire qu'on en pe Id., p. 15. 78 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE can leave little doubt, however, that Foigny took pains to agree with the Petition. The fact that the Petition was well known, and that it appeared not only in de Bry's India Orientalis but separately in Spanish and French, made it distinctly to Foigny's .advantage to agree with it in some particulars, in order to substantiate his otherwise fantastic story of the Austral land. The statement cited from the Au lecteur of the Terre australe connue (that de Quir and Paes de Torres "ne particularisent rien") should be borne in mind. In de Bry's version of de Quir's Petition occurs: ^' Nulla nobis conspecta sint sabuleta, nuUi cardui spinosaeue aut radicibus supra solum porrectis arbores, nullae prorsus lacimae, nullae paludes, nuUae in montibus nives aut noxii vermes, nuUi in fluuiis crocodili, nullae domibus pariter frugi- busque, detrimentosae formicae, erucae, culices, &c. dico banc esse praerogatiuam super omnes dignitates . . . '^ In the Terre australe connue of Foigny occurs (p. 72): ce grand Pays est plat, sans forUs, sans marais, sans deserts. The even temperature has already been referred to. With reference to insects and poisonous creatures, Sadeur says (p. 77): On n'y voit ny mouches, ny chenilles, ny aucun insects. lis ne savent ce que c'est qu'araign6e, que serpens, & qu'autres " India Orientalis, Pars X, p. 17. '2 In Pwchas, His Pilgrimes (vol. xvii, pp. 228-229) occurs the following version of this passage: We have not seen any barren and sandie ground, not any thistles or trees that are thornie, or whose rootes doe shew themselves, no Marshes or Fennes, no snow upon the mountains, no Snakes or Serpents, no crocodiles in the Rivers, no Wormes that use with us to consume our Graine, and to worke us so much displeasure in our houses, no Fleas, Caterpillars, or Gnats. This is a Prerogative that hath the advantage of all the priviledges . . . (that nature hath bestowed on other places). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 79 b^tes venimeuses; en un mot c'est un pays . . . qui est exempt de toutes les incommoditez qui nous environnent. Even this is repeated as if by design throughout the story, especially with regard to insects: ce bon homme [Suains] n'admira rien plus que les moucherona, les poux, les puces: ne pouvant comprendre comment de si petites pieces joiiissent de la vie (p. 84). les menues vermines que les Australiens ne peuvent comprendre (p. 179). je dois mettre entre I'un des premiers bonheurs des Australiens, qu'ils sont si universellement exemts de tous ces insectes (again p. 179) .53 It will be remembered that Sadeur denies the existence of crocodiles in the Congo, and ridicules previous reports that there were crocodiles there. De Quir states that there are no crocodiles in the rivers of Australia. It is barely possible that Foigny's ideas of geography were vague enough for him to take the statement regarding ^ M. Gtinther, in Entstehungsgeschiehte von Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Greifswald, 1909, p. 39, quotes "Rugs" as saying that Foigny is indebted to Gonneville's discovery of Australia. Herr Gtinther does not quote work of Ruge, or page. Assuming that "Ruge" means Dr. Sophus Ruge, author of Entdeckungsgeschichte der neuen Welt (in Hamburgische Festschrift zur Erinnerung an die Entdeckung Amerika's, Band I, Hamburg, 1892) and other works, it is strange that this learned person should see resemblances between the ac- coimts of Gonneville and Foigny. Aside from the misfortunes of the return journey just before reaching port, there is little similarity. Even this similarity is much stronger between the Histoire des Sevarambes and Gonneville's account than between Gonneville and Foigny. It is not unlikely that Herr Gunther, whose faulty citations have been previously referred to, has misquoted Dr. Ruge. If definite citations were given in Herr Gunther's thesis, it would be an easy matter to verify this apparent error. That Foigny knew the story of Gonneville's travels has been pointed out in resuming the Au Lecteur of the Terre australe connue. That he made any use of it is to be doubted. 80 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Australia as testimony regarding the Congo. Without raising this question at all, it is easy to account for his denying the existence of these creatures in the Congo upon the basis of his usual method of substantiating statements, — the appeal "to the natives." To return to the adventures of Sadeur, and the war between the Austrahan "brothers" and the Fondins, Foigny seems to tire of the description both of the pleasures and dangers of hfe in Australia, for Chapter XIII begins abruptly. J'ecris ce qui suit de I' Isle de Madagascar. It is therefore necessary that Sadeur go back in the story of his Ufe and explain the manner of his coming to Madagascar. That the abrupt beginning of this chapter arouses interest in the reader need not be insisted upon. That the atmosphere of the preceding chapter does not lead one to expect a sudden departin-e must have convinced more than one guileless reader that Sadeur was a real person — albeit a prevaricator. This sudden break in the novel hnks this imaginary voyage to the accounts of real voyages by the quality common to both of abrupt and inartistic change of setting. In going back to explain his departure, Sadeur confesses that the AustraUans are not very easy people to hve with. There are too many things of which they do not speak. To excuse himself, Sadeur says, comme la Nature ne se pent d^truire, quelques precautions que je prisse, j'^tois toAjours forc6, malgr6 toutes mes diligences, de donner quelque marque de ce que j'^tois (p. 232). The immediate cause for his wishing to leave the "brothers" was his trial for misconduct in the war against the Fondins, the barbaric neighbors of the AustraUans. Five charges were brought against Sadeur. First, he had not fought as he should, for he had no ears to show as proof of his valor. (The custom of these peace-loving IN FRENCH LITERATURE 81 Australians demanded a cutting off of ears, and an ex- hibition of them after the battle.) Second, Sadeur had shown pity on seeing the suffering of the enemy. Third, he had embraced a Fondirw. (As the Fondins are Uke Europeans, Sadeur had not sufficient strength to resist the charm of the first woman he had seen in many years.) Fourth, Sadeur had eaten of the food of the Fondins (this after the deUghts of the Australian fruit diet!). Lastly, he had asked wicked questions (p. 233). As a result of this trial, the " brothers" requested Sadeur to eat the fruit of the Balf, and quit this world for good and all. That a man interested enough in Hfe to kiss pretty Fondines should look forward to leaving this world with pleasure is not to be expected. Thus Sadeur made his escape from the community of the over-virtuous "brothers" and left them apparently without regret. Before considering the manner of this escape, an ex- amination of the abrupt change in the point of view of Sadeur is necessary. These Austrahans, whose virtues have been extolled, whose civiHzation has been praised in such glowing words, are now criticized. There is but one sKght consistency in these two opposed points of view. Sadeur has admitted throughout the book his inferiority to the wise Suains, and in general to the other members of the community. This was necessary to bring out the inferiority of Europeans with respect to Australians. In the criticism of the Australians, Sadeur still admits that he has faults and that these "brothers" have none. Foigny's lack of art lies in his stressing the point of view that these people are so virtu- ous as to make boresome, nay dangerous, companions. There are two reasons why this criticism should be brought into the story. In the first place, Sadeur must have some adequate reason for leaving the deUghtful land. In the second, no one can take an interest, for 82 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE long, in a perfect State. It is not surprising that Foigny, when he had dwelt on the superiority of the "brothers" for many pages, should have been overcome with weari- ness. His love of the extraordinary, and his own (and Sadeur's) tendency to seek pleasure in things of the flesh as well as in those of the spirit, makes it only natural that, once the departure from the ideal land is accom- plished, the reasons given for leaving should be more than adequate. Foigny seems to overdo the explaining of this departure. That it is inartistic in the extreme; that it greatly impairs the plausibility of the argument in the main part of the book; that it weakens the artistic and philosophical structure of the story, is only too evident. If, as M. Chinard says," Foigny n'a abouti, malgre tous ses efforts, qu'd nous prisenter la peintwe d'une so- dete . . . qui n'est autre chose qu'un couvent d'ou la re- ligion aurait disparu, it is also true that in the chapter explaining Sadeur's departure we have a keen criticism of the necessary faults and shortcomings of such a society. The complete lack of unified plan in La Terre australe connue precludes any attempt to generalize about the purpose of the book. In a story so inartistically put together, it would be unwise to say that Foigny had drawn a picture of a perfect convent, only to satirize it in the chapter describing his hero's escape. It is wiser probably to admit that the community of the "brothers" resembles "a convent of philosophers in which there is no religion," and to point out that Foigny is so Uttle an artist that he refutes his own argument by insisting upon the difference between these passionless men and the normal person, his Sadeur. That Foigny, the man, had known both the pleasures of the contemplative life of the cloister, and the imperative call of physical appetites, " G. Chinard, L'Amirique et le rive exctique, p. 205. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 83 is reflected in his inartistic mention of both in the same book, and in his defending first one, and then the other. Sadeur makes his escape from the Austral continent by means of one of the strange birds, the Urgs. Having caught one in a net, and having starved it into submission, he finally tames it, and teaches it to carry him on its back. He begs a few more days of grace of the "brothers," in which to compose his spirit before eating the death- fruit. Having made good use of this respite, he flies away with the story of his adventures, and a small quantity of food. After the bird has grown weary and can no longer bear him, Sadeur floats on the sea for some time thanks to a sort of "life-preserver" belt. He is picked up, finally, in a dense fog, by a French vessel returning to Madagascar from a cruise. If the flying away is fantastic and "medieval," the life-preserver and the French ship are distinctly realistic. It may be said in passing, that to those who know the sea, the account of Sadeur being seen by moonUght and rescued from the sea (in the first part of the story), and the account of his being picked up in a dense fog on the Indian Ocean, is as marvelous as anything in the story, not excepting the Urgs and the bright colored sheep. After eight days of sailing, Sadeur lands at Tombolo in Madagascar. He retails the accounts of cannibals and their atrocities as told him by the governor. The passion of Foigny for simple languages comes to the fore again. There arrives from one of the Austral islands un venerable Vieillard & six Rameurs qui lui servoient aussi de Valets (p 260). Of his conversations with this old man, Sadeur says (p. 261) Nous convinmes par signes, de prendre certains mots pour expliquer nos pens^es; & j'en formay en une nuit pr^s de deux cans, qu'il comprit facilement. 84 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE The similarity of this incident to the learning of Esperanto by the direct method is evident. Among other interest- ing things told by the venerable old man (the second character of this type in the story), is that son peuple aymoit plus sa libertS que sa vie (p. 263). There is a farewell bit of the extraordinary, when Sadeur goes to bid his venerable friend good-bye, before taking passage for Europe. The poor old gentleman is heartbroken. He calls in his own language to two of his six valets. They come and wring his neck, then dash head-first at each other, fracture their skulls, and fall dead. As if this were not convincing evidence of the sincerity of the old man's grief at Sadeur's departure, there follows: Les quatre autres, bien qu'61oignez firent le meme au mfime terns que les autres: de sorte qu'on les trouva morts tous en- semble, non sans un tres grand 6tonnement du gouverneur, & de sa compagnie (p. 264)." The final paragraph of the book purports to have been written by the one who took Sadeur's notes after his death. Part of it reads (p. 267) s'itant embarque bientdt apres, il n'eut plus le loisir d'icrire les avantures de son retour. Thus ends the extraordinary novel of adventure and philosophy in Europe, Africa, and Austraha. Its hero escapes from four ship-wrecks, and from sudden death at the hands of men, hermaphrodites, and many sorts of strange beasts to bring to Europe the story of a society so perfect that (in spite of occasional excitement in the " This is a clear reflection of many stories of the East Indians The wives and slaves of Hindus are reported by many 17th century travelers to India to seek death upon the demise of their lord and master. Foigny has adapted this very common report to his purposes. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 85 •way of wars and battles with strange monsters) he him- self tired of it. That this first novel of Extraordinary Voyage should be closer to the fantastic novel of adventure than the later Extraordinary Voyages is only natural. In the Histoire des Sevarambes of Vairasse the fantastic is ahnost entirely lacking and the adventm-ous element greatly reduced. Foigny's novel stands between the exaggerated accounts of voyages actually made and the more perfect form of philosophical-social-exotic novel which follows. 4. Conclusion There are two main features in the Terre australe connue: First, the fantastic adventure and the interest in exotic and extraordinary things and people. This is a medium in which is borne the philosophical and social content. Second, the ideal commonwealth, opposed to and compared with the state of society in Eiu-ope. The basis of the first part Hes in the novels of ad- venturers, of travelers, vagabonds and buccaneers, and probably in the accounts of voyages of De Bry, and the engraviogs illustrating these voyages. Certainly, Foigny knew the Petition of de Quir to the King of Spain. The basis of the second part is probably to be found in legends and stories of hermaphroditism, in religious heresies, possibly in the ideas of Plato. This part is developed by processes of rationalism. Foigny rebels against the current ideas of geography (Congo), against cvurent ideas of climate and the in- fluence of the sun's proximity on weather, against ac- cepted natural history in the case of many strange and highly colored animals. In social matters, he rebels against the dominion of man over woman, against any- thing that limits a man's liberty. In religious matters, he rebels against revealed rehgion, the authority of the 86 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Old Testament, the missionary spirit of the times, and against the constant agitation of religious problems and discussion of them. Rationalism is the characteristic of the entire book, as far as the thought contained in it is concerned. The effect of the book as a whole is broken, discon- nected, and (but for the fact that it all concerns Sadeur) almost incoherent. This is the result of Foigny's failure to weld artistically the adventurous and exotic elements of the story with the philosophical and social elements. The fact that Foigny used, to substantiate his "dis- coveries" of remarkable springs, animals and plants, the same rationalistic methods which he used to sub- stantiate his social and rehgious assumptions serves in one sense to link the adventures with the theories. That this does not serve to, link them artistically is only an- other way of saying that the intensely logical mind is seldom combined with the creative artistic mind. CHAPTER V L'HISTOIRE DES SSVABAMBES OF DENIS VAIRASSE D'ALAIS 1. Publication. 2. Authorship. 3. Life of Vairasse. 4. The Avis au lecteur. 5. The Voyage to the Austral Land. 6. The Austral Civilization. 7. The Journey to Sevarinde. 8. History of the Sevarambian Kings. 9. Government. 10. Education and Marriage. 11. Customs. 12. Laws. 13. Religion. 14. Laws and Prayers of Sevarias. 15. Language. 16. Omigas the Imposter. 17. Digressions. 18. Inventions. 19. The Return to Europe. 20. Conclusion. 1. Publication In 1677 there appeared at Paris a very important novel of Extraordinary Voyage of the 17th Century, and in many ways the most remarkable novel of this type. The History of the Sevarites or Sevarambi, by the same author but published in English, had appeared at London two years earher. The first title in French is: 87 88 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Histoire des S6varambes, peuples qui habitent une partie du troisitoe continent ordinairement appel6 Terre Australe, con- tenant un compte exact du gouvemement, des moeurs, de la religion, et du langage de cette nation, jusques aujourd'hui inconnue aux peuples de I'Europe. Trad, de I'anglois.^ Partie I appeared at Paris in 1677, Partie II, in 1678 and 1679. The fact that this remarkable book was reprinted at Brussels in 1682, at Amsterdam in the same year and in 1702, and again at Amsterdam in 1716, aU these editions being in French, is ample proof of its popularity among French readers at the time it appeared. Translations into Dutch in 1683, German in 1689 and 1714, and Italian in 1728 are mentioned by Prosper Marchand.^ Another early German edition, without date, is mentioned by Max Gunther.' The editor of the large collection, Bibliotheqve des voyages imaginaires, says* that the Histoire des Sevarambes tient un rang distingui parmi les voyages imaginaires. That Bayle mentions the Histoire des Sivarambes in a note to his article Sadeur^ and that Morhof finds the novel worthy of censure and condemnation in his Poly- histor liter arius philosophicus et pr adieus * is also interest- ' Only the first part of the novel had appeared in English at the time. For complete treatment of the English version see Appendix, ^ Dictionnaire historique, Paris, 1758-1759, Article AUais. " Enistehungsgeschichte von Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe", Greifs- wald, 1909, pp. 41-42. « Amsterdam, 1787-1789, vol. 5, Preface. ' Dictionnaire critique, ed. 1697. ^ Morhof attacks the author of the S&oarambes, unknown to him, as an atheist, but admits that the book is well constructed, and is insidious, being so well written that it is liable to convince those who are not cautious. Morhof believed it to have been written first in English. The Latin of this criticism reads in part: Pertinere & ad hanc Atheorum & Naturalistarum tribum videtur, IN FRENCH LITERATURE 89 ing. According to Marchand's Dictionnaire, previously cited, the book was attributed not only to Isaac Vossius, but to Leibnitz, to an Englishman named Sidney, to Delon, to Devese and to many others. That the Histoire des Sivarambes attracted enough attention to be at- tributed to so many authors, and some of them so well known, is curious in the light of later events. After the Dictionnaire of Marchand (1758) and excepting La France Protestante of Haag,^ no serious notice was taken of this book as an important philosophic novel, until its rediscovery by M. Lichtenberger, published in Le Sodalisme au y;viii' siecle, in 1895. 2. AUTHOKSHIP There can be no doubt that the Histoire des Sivarambes is the work of Denis Vairasse d'Alais. The articles mentioned in Marchand's Dictionnaire and in Haag'a La France Protestante leave no doubt on this point. A further proof, heretofore immentioned, is the signature "D. V." of the To the Reader of the English version (First Part, London 1675). In Marchand's Dictionnaire,^ occurs the following: cependant lors que d'Allais la mit au jour, 11 cachoit si peu qu'il I'eftt compos6e, qu'il ne faisoit aucune difficult^ de la donner comme Auteur k ses Amis & k ses Disciples; & personne n'en doutoit aucunement alors. quisquis est, Autor libri, qui primum AnglicA, hinc Gallic^, postre- mum BelgicA lingu& prodiit, de populis terrae australis incognitae, quos Severambes nominat. . . . Elegantissimfi confictus est liber, eaque specie, ut primfi, fronte incautis imponat. . . . Ceterum ille liber doctus est, magn4 curd scriptus. {Polyhistor, De libris damnatis, Cap. \m, p. 74. Ed. Lubeck, 1714.) ' Paris, 1859, t. x, p. 456, Article Veirasse. » p. 12, Note B. 90 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE The title quoted by the Journa des Sgavans ' includes the words chez I'Auteur, which would prove that Denis Vairasse (known at this time as Allais or d'Alais) did not conceal his authorship of the novel at the time it first appeared.^" 3. Life of Vairasse The date of Vairasse's birth is not known. Marchand says of him that at sixteen, he took part in the Piedmont campaign. After leaving the army, Vairasse took up the study of law, and received the degree of Doctor of Law some few years later. He did not remain long in France however. Having gone to England, he became involved in political intrigue there, and was banished from the coimtry and returned to France. The year 1672 finds him in the French Army in the Flanders campaign, although he was a Protestant. Unable to obtain advancement because of his faith, or perhaps dis- gusted with military Ufe, Vairasse returned to Paris and gave private lessons in English and in French. During the winters he was accustomed to give lectures on history and on geography. His gift of speech and keen intellect attracted to these lectures many people, some of them of high standing. He had many friends among the Jan- senists in Paris, according to Marchand, although he is not known to have renounced his belief in Protestantism, even after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. It is Ukely that Denis Vairasse used the name d'Alais because he came from the Protestant stronghold Alais, chiefly remembered to-day by Richeheu's Edit de grdce of 1629. Marchand says that he is reported by some to have been related to the Baron d' Allais, autrefois Com- ' Year 1678, p. 87. '" L. Moreri, Grand Dictionnaire historiqiie (ed. 1732) ahows knowledge of the author "Denys Vairas" in Article Sevarambes. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 91 mandant des Armies du Roi, but that there is no proof of this report. Of Denis Vairasse's personal appearance, little is known. Marchand says, sa taiUe n'^toit pas des plus r^guliSres & son visage avoit quel- que chose de fort particulier . . . il parloit tres agr^ablement. Besides the Histoire des Sevarambes, Vairasse published two other books, both grammatical works. One, a Gram- maire mithodique . . . de la langue Jrangoise, Paris, 1682 " is reviewed in very flattering fashion by the Journal des Sgavans,^^ being characterized as the first complete treatise on the subject. Classification of sotmds according to phonetic groups, and methodical arrange- ment are characteristics of the book. The other, A short and methodical introduction to the French tongue, Paris, 1683, is the same work translated into English for the use of English-speaking people in learning French. It will be found that the campaigns of Vairasse, his travels, his interest in geography, and his studies in grammar and in law, are all reflected in the Histoire des Sevarambes. The philosophic and religious opinions of Vairasse, not recorded by his biographers, form the chief interest of his imaginary voyage written as a me- dium wherein to convey these ideas. The date of the death of Denis Vairasse is not known. 4. The Avis atj Lecteur. (Histoiee des s^vaeambes) Perhaps the most interesting testimony in the Article Allais of Marchand's Dictionnaire is that relating to the reception given the Histoire des Sevarambes at the time it was published. He points out that this novel was " For complete title, see Bibliography. ^ Year 1682, pp. 130-131. 92 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE generally accepted as a true story, or rather, as a true story elaborated by an ingenious editor. The testimony of Morhof as to the plausibility of the story has already been cited. The review of the Second Part of the Histoire des Sevarambes, which appeared in the Journal des Sgavans in 1678 is amusing inasmuch as it takes the middle ground, and hesitates to label the novel either as an account of a real voyage, or as a work of imagination. According to this review: " Les uns I'ont regard^ comme une belle idde, & les autres ont cru de bonne foy tout ce qui y est rapports sui la d6couverte des Sevarambes, d'autant plus que suivant le t^moignage de plusieurs personnes dignes de foy, tout ce qu'on y lit d'un Na\ire de HoUande . . . qui sert de fondement k tout le reste se trouve veritable. Quoyqu'il en soit, le dessein de cette Histoire n'est pas mal conceu (p. 87). Ceux qui envisagent cette Histoire comme veritable, y trou- veront la description . . . etc. (p. 89). Notwithstanding the somewhat over-perfect land of the S&varambes, there is in the first part of the novel such a wealth of material detail and circumstantial evidence that belief is almost compelled. The burden of "proof" that this is a real and not an imaginary voyage is borne by the Avis au lecteur. To prove the authenticity of the story Vairasse uses a method that is at once subtle and convincing." " Year 1678. " In some later editions, the Avis au lecteur has been considerably cut down, and the strength of the argument for authenticity of the story greatly weakened. References in the present study are to the edition of Etienne Roger, Amsterdam, 1702, which is complete and quite commonly found. The edition given in the Bibliothb^ue des voyages imaginaires, Amsterdam, 1787, cited by MM. Lichten- berger and Chinard, is very much reduced in volume. For complete titles of editions see Bibliography. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 93 The Au lecteur begins with a careful distinction between real voyages such as the story which is to follow, and imaginative works of the type of the Republic of Plato, the Utopia of More, and the Nova Atlantis of Bacon. The editor hopes that the Histoire des Sevarambes will not be confused with such books. A second reaUstic method is that of lamenting, after the fashion so much in vogue among explorers of the time: II seroit a souhaiter gu'une heureuse paix donndt aux princes le loisir de s'occuper de pareilles d6couvertes {Au lecteur, p. 3). The fact that Colxmibus did not gain belief in his theory of land to the West until he had tried his experiment is recalled to the reader. Then, banking on the force of his own convincing style, the editor (really Vairasse the author) says of the story which is to follow, Elle est icrite d'une maniere si simple que personne, a ce que j'espere, ne doutera de la verity de ce qu'elle contient (p. 5). Next comes the history of the pubHcation of the story. Captain Siden, whose personal experiences in AustraUa and elsewhere constitute the novel, died as the result of wounds received just before reaching Holland after a protracted absence.^^ Before dying, Captain Siden turned over the memoirs of his adventmous life to a traveling companion. This latter, unable to read the memoirs, which had been written in several languages, including French, Provengal and Itahan, turned them over to the writer of the Avis au lecteur. Witnesses are plenty to assure the author of the Avis au lecteur that Captain Siden did, about the date stated in his memoirs, leave the River Texel on a vessel named " See note 53, Chapter IV. Similarity to the story of Capt. GonnevUle, attacked when almost in port after his journey to Brazil (1503-1504), is evident. 94 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE the Dragon d'or, loaded for Batavia, and that no word was heard of him in Holland thereafter. The author of the Au ledeur ascertains from the Counsel of the Dutch East India Company that the vessel was wrecked; that a pinnace, manned by some of the survivors, did reach Batavia, and that an unsuccessful attempt was made to go to the rescue of the unfortimates who had been left stranded on the coast of Australia. A long letter from a man named Sldnner is reproduced verbatim to prove that the pinnace contained a certain sailor named Prince. Other testimony is adduced, names, dates and places being cited. Naturally, when the story of Captain Siden's ship- wreck comes, in the body of the book, the name of the sailor, Prince, is mentioned, and the guileless reader is convinced of the truth of the whole story. This became a hackneyed method of substantiating desert island stories in the eighteenth and nineteenth centm-ies. In 1675, when this novel of Vairasse was pubhshed in England, and in 1677, when it was first pubhshed in French, this method of substantiating novels of adventin-e was dis- tinctly new. It was as new as the story of the palisaded camp on a deserted coast, which will be found in this story but which is generally associated with the Robinson Crusoe of forty years later. 5. The Voyage to the Austral Land The first chapter of Captain Siden's life begins with an account of his youth. Except for reading accounts of voyages, he has httle in the way of adventure in his life until he is fifteen! At this age, he goes to Italy in the Army, and later to Catalonia. After giving up "I'^p^e pour la robe," he studies law, and in four or five years is a Doctor in Law. His mother's death leaves IN FRENCH LITERATURE 95 him free to travel soon afterwards, and he visits most of Europe.'^ In April 1655 he embarks for the East Indies on a vessel named the Dragon d'or, in company with a young man named Van-de-Nuits. Until after passing the equator the story is very brief. II est vrai que nous vlmes plusieurs monstres Marins, des poissons volans, de nouvelles constellations, & d'autres choses de cette nature. Mais parce qu'elles sont ordinaires & qu'elles ont 6t& d^crites, & que depuis plusieurs amines elles ont perdu la grace de la nouveaut6, je ne crois pas en devoir parler, ne voulant . . . lasser la patience du Lecteur & la mienne (pp. 25-26). This is very different from the method of Foigny, whose account fairly bristles with novelties difficult of beUef. It is, however, curiously hke an accoimt of a real voyage from which it can be shown Vairasse took entire the sea-voyage, shipwreck, and some later incidents of the Histoire des Sevarambes. In La Terre Australe descouverte par le Capitaine Pelsart, qui y fait naufrage " occurs the following sentence, which is interesting in the Kght of much more definite similarities in the later parts of the two stories: le passeray sous silence le lournal de sa Nauigation jusqu'au Cap de Bonne Esperance, de peur d'ennuyer le Lecteur par le recit d'vne chose aussi connue que I'est cette route. In both accounts, the vessel leaves the Texel, bound for Batavia. In both accounts the vessel runs through fog after passing the Cape of Good Hope. In both accounts 1' This is a reflection of the life of Vairasse, who had much the same experience. " Relations de divers voyages cwieux, qui n'ont pas esU publUes, par les soins de Melchisedec Thevenot, Paris, 1663-1672. Vol. 1, Premiere Partie. This collection was published in a second edition in 1696, Paris, chez Thomas Moette. 96 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE there is a storm, and after the storm a calm. During this comparatively good weather, the vessel in each story strikes a reef, from which it is impossible to move it. In both cases there are low and sandy islands near at hand, and in both a long and ineffectual attempt is made to find fresh water. Holes are dug, but only brackish water is obtained In both cases, the master of the ship is one of those who attempt to reach Batavia in a hastily constructed pinnace, made from the wreck. Naturally, when the men are selected to man the pinnace, Vairasse's story mentions the sailor Prince, previously referred to in discussing the Au ledeur. In the Histoire des Sivarambes (p. 37) Le sort tomba sur le Maitre mime, sur un matelot appelle Prince, & sur six autres, dont fay oubliS les noms. In Pelsart's story, from which Vairasse took his reahstic introduction to the land of Sevarias, there is no mention of a sailor named PrLace. In Vairasse's novel. Captain Siden is elected General of those remaining on the coast, by a unanimous vote. He apportions the labor to be done, the guards to be set, the provisions to be made, and sets off with thirty others to hunt for water, after leaving the women in a stockade. Finding a stream flowing into the ocean, he moves his company there, founds a permanent camp, divides the labor of hunting, fishing, and guard duty anew, plants peas, and sets up a permanent colony. At about this time, some of the hunters find and kill a tiger. Frightened at the presence of wild animals in the region. Captain Siden has a complete and permanent stockade of logs built about the camp (p. 62).'* All exploring expeditions having failed to discover any inhabitants, the company settles down to wait for relief from Batavia. There is an incident of two yoimg men " The similarity to Defoe's story is evident. IN FRENCH LITEEATURE 97 of the company coining to blows over the favors of one of the seventy-odd women who were part of the ship's passengers. The woman in question and a young man are woimded by a sword-thrust. This brings about a decision on the part of Captain Siden, who governs the company with an iron hand. He says (p. 68) : Get accident donna lieu S, de nouvelles Loix; nous con- sider&mes que tant que nous aurions des fenunes parmy nous, eUes seroient cause de quelques troubles, si nous n'y mettions ordre de bonne heure, & ne permittions k nos hommes de s'en servir d'une maniere regime. Mais le mal 6toit que n'ayant que soixante & quatorze Femmes, & 6tant plus de trois cans hommes, il n'^toit pas possible de donner una Femma k chacun. Nous consultames longtemps pour trouvar un expedient raison- nable; enlin il fut resolu, que chaque principal OflScier auroit una Famme pour lui, & que chacun d'aux an choisiroit una salon son rang. Nous distribuimes les autres en diverses classes selon le rang des personnes. The more exphcit part of the rules laid down by Captain Siden can well be spared in this short summary. The author's opinion of the wisdom of this division of women, he supports with the following incident (p. 69) : Nous separimas du resta las hommes qui avoient pass6 cinquante ans, & quatra Femmes qui alloient trouvar leurs maris k Batavia, & qui se piquarent da Constance . . . Mais quand eUas eurent vu que . . . le secours qu'on attandoit de Batavia na venoit pas, alias parurent . . . melancoliques, & se repantirant . . . nous fumes obligez de leur donner das maris comme aux autres. The conclusion of this incident is interesting, as it shows the philosophic-exotic interest of Vairasse in the question (p. 69). Aussi la Poligamie das femmes a 6t6 souvent pratiqu^e, & ella Test encore aujourd'huy parmy quelques Nations: mais 98 THE EXTRAORDINAKY VOYAGE je n'ay pas encore Mi que celle de plusieurs maris ait jamais it6 en usage. There is conclusive enough evidence, however, that Vairasse had read of it being practiced, for the following account of the actions of one "lerosme Cornells" occurs in the story of Pelsart previously referred to: II devoit commander en I'absence de Pelsart, & crut . qu'il luy seroit ais6 de se rendre maistre de ce qui estoit rest6 du debris . . . se choisit des gardes qu'il fit habiller d'^carlatte ... & comme si les femmes eussent est6 vne partie du butin, en prend vne pour luy, donna vne des fiUea du Ministre k vn des principaux de sa trouppe, & abandonna k I'usage public les trois autres; il fit mesme quelques Reglemens pour la maniere dont elles deuoient servir. Apres ces horribles executions, il se fait ^lire Capitaine general par vn acte qu'il fit signer k tous ceux de son party. In the story according to Pelsart, there is a just retri- bution for the crimes of Comelis. Help is obtained at Batavia. The doughty Pelsart returns on a Dutch cruiser and finds the colony. The end of Cornells and his accompUces is described in a sentence which is an admirable example of the pithy and succinct style of the accounts of real voyages: Le vingt-huiti&me, ... la plurality des voix alia k les juger & faire executer sur le lieu, ce qu'ils firent. The incorrigible Captain Siden, on the contrary, sums up the evidence of the case in a physiological conclu- sion that is strikingly modern (p. 69) : L'experience nous fit voir en cette rencontre que la pluralit6 des hommes est contraire k la g6n6ration, car peu de celles qui avoient plusieurs maris devinrent grosses; & au contraire, presque toutes celles qui n'en avoient qu'un, le furent. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 99 Since the copying of detail and incident is so marked in the Histoire des Sivarambes, it is interesting to note a further similarity of names of characters between the two stories. In Vairasse's novel, one man whose name appears frequently in the first part of the story is "de Haes." DeHaes goes exploring and returns telling of his journey (pp. 45, 53, 55). He says on his return gw'i'Z avoit marche vingf milles le premier jour (p. 55). In the Pelsart story is a man named Vveybe-Hays who went looking for water on the mainland, and found it after hunting for twenty days, instead of walking twenty miles. In the Histoire des Sivarambes, the close personal friend of Captain Siden, with whom he sails from HoUand and who is with him throughout the Australian part of the story, is named Van-de-Nuits. On an old map, bound with the Relation of Pelsart in Th^venot's collection, is the inscription: Landt van P. Nuyts; opgedaan met het gulden zeepardt van Middelburgh 16 Jan. Anno 1627. That "van" is a preposition, and not part of the name "P. Nuyts" makes Uttle difference. Naturally, if there were nothing to indicate the imi- tation of Pelsart's account except these names, it would be futile to mention them. Having established, however, indebtedness of Vairasse to this account of a real voyage, the similarity of names is interesting." It may be remarked in passiag that Captain "Siden" is merely "Denis" in an anagram as "Sevarias" the great law-giver of the Sevarambian civiUzation which follows is "Vairasse" transposed.^" " The indebtedness of Vairasse to TMvenot's collection has not been mentioned previously. ^^ M. Lanson has pointed out these two anagrams. Revue des Cours et Conf., 1908-1909. 100 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 6. The Austeal Civilization When there is no further interest in the colony of shipwrecked people, which is functioning admirably under the regulations of Captain Siden, the natives of AustraUa are introduced. Having gone on an exploring expedition far into the interior, some of the shipwrecked company return to the stockaded camp, accompanied by representa- tives of the AustraUan government. Concerning a courte- ous, not to say worldly representative of the AustraUans, one is astonished to read (p. 78) : II nous receut avec beaucoup de douceur & de gravity, & levant la main droite vers le Ciel; il nous dit en assez bon Hol- landois : Le Dieu Eternel vous benisse, le Soldi son grand Ministre & notre Roi glorieux luise doucement sur vous, & cette Terre ndtre Patrie vous soit heureuse & fortunee. If the natives of Bacon's New Atlantis greeted strangers in Spanish, the Australians of Vairasse, not to be outdone, are proficient in Dutch. They do not explain their proficiency in European languages until much later in the story. After inspecting the camp, the noble stranger retires to a tent, leaving one of Siden's men, Maurice, to recount what has happened, and how he came to find the AustraUans. The story of his cordial reception among the Austrahans is cheerful news to the little colony. It appears that Maurice and his companions, having followed a river some miles inland, came upon some men, in boats. These natives conducted them to a good sized city, where they were well received, given new clothes, bathed, and led before the local governor and his guard of soldiers, who had mjiskets and blue imiforms. The shipwrecked men were provided with every necessity and comfort, including female slaves. There are two significant parts of this report of the explorer Maurice to Captain Siden. The rest is merely IN FRENCH LITERATURE 101 a long description of rather commonplace things such as costumes, receptions, and the topography of the country. The first of these important ideas is stated in the follow- ing terms (p. 94) : Ces peuples font ordinairement de bonne garde sur leurs fronti^res parcequ'ils craignent que les strangers ne viennent corrompre, par leur mauvais exemple, leur innocence & leur tranquillity, en introduisant leurs vices parmi eux. That this recalls the precautions of the Nova Atlantis when Bacon's travelers are received, is obvious. It likewise recalls the hostility of Foigny's Australians to the degenerating influence of the demi-hommes from Europe. There is an extension of this idea in the His- toire des Sevarambes, however. It is the people of Spo- roimde, an outlying province, that the explorers from Europe have come upon. Of the people of Sevarinde itself, the ideal province of the ideal land, the Europeans have no experience imtil later. In Sevarinde no imperfect people are tolerated, for (pp. 95-96) ceux de Sevarinde y envoient [k Sporounde] tous les gens contre- faits qui naissent parmy eux, n'en voulant point souffrir de semblables dans leur Ville. Whereas the AustraHans of Sadeur killed at birth any one-sex monsters, the more himiane Sevarambians banish all the halt, lame, and blind to Sporounde.^' The simi- larity of this procedure with that advocated by earlier writers on eugenics is another proof of the sources of Vairasse.^^ This is (as in the case of polyandry among '1 In the English version of 1675, deformity of body is an in- evitable accompaniment of moral obUquity. The people of Spo- rounde are all twisted in body because they are imperfect morally. (For more full treatment of EngUsh version, see Appendix.) '' Plato and CampaneUa had both suggested control of society for the physical improvement of the race. Vairasse, through his 102 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE the shipwrecked company) not only theory but practical demonstration. The second matter of importance in Maurice's account of the exploring expedition is the Sevarambian philosophy of temperance, which appears twice within a very few pages. The Governor of Sporounde, speaking to the strangers he is receiving, ends his oration with Je vous exhorte d la modiraiion & a I'honnitete (p. 95). The guide Sermodas, who speaks Dutch and is a person of some importance, elaborates on this philosophy after presenting each visitor with a female slave. The fact that these sea-faring men, who have just been presented with female slaves, might have been somewhat inatten- tive to the discourse is not to be thought of, for we are now in the interior of the Ideal Land, and the philosophy of the author is not to be interfered with by considerations of reahsm. The importance of Sermodas' speech in setting forth the ideas of Vairasse is such as to warrant its reproduction here almost entire: Toutes las Nations du monde ont leurs coutumes: II y en a qui sont natoreUement mauvaises parcequ'elle sont oppos6es k la raison. II y en a d'autres qui sont indiflf^rentes, & qui ne semblent bonnes ou mauvaises que selon I'opinion & le pr6jug6 des hommes qui les pratiquent; mais il y en a aussi qui sont fondles en raison, & qui sont v^ritablement bonnes d'elles- mfimes, pourveu qu'on les considere sans preoccupation. Lea n6tres sont presque toutes de ce dernier genre, & k peine en avons^ous aucune qui ne soit 6tablie sur la raison. Vous n'ignorez pas sans doute que I'usage mod6r6 des choses que la Nature a destinies pour servir aux creatures vivantes, ne soit bon de soi, & qu'il n'y a que Tabus qu'on en fait qui soit effective- ment mauvais. Pamiy toutes ces choses il y en a trois principalea: La premiere regarde la conservation de chaque particulier: La imaginary but carefully authenticated Captain Siden, reports having found this theory put into practice with good results. It is the realism of Vairasse that makes his novel dangerous. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 103 seconde, I'entretien dans un 6tat heureux: Et la troisi^me enfin, a poiir but raccroissement ou la multiplication de chaque espSce (pp. 97-98). Further, those things which the Sevarambians con- sider as necessary for the conservation and proper con- dition of men are : la sant6 du corps, la tranquiUitfi de I'esprit, la liberty, la bonne Education, la pratique de la vertii, la soci6t6 des honnfites gens, les bonnes viandes, les vetements, & les maisons commodes (p. 99). These blessings: rendent la vie heureuse, pourveu qu'on en use sobrement, & qu'on n'y attache point son cceur (p. 99). For the third consideration, the increasing of the species, Nature (not God, but Nature) has (jaused all animals to exist either as male or female: Mais pour rendre I'^tat de chaque animal encore plus heureux, & pour venir plus facilement k bout de son dessein, elle a voulu. attacker k cette union un plaisir, que nous appellons amour._ Get amour est le lien & le conservateur de toutes choses, & lorsqu'il est iigl6 par la droite raison, il ne produit que de bons . effets, parcequ'il ne propose que de bonnes fins (p. 100). In quoting from the sentiments of Sevarias notre grand' & illu,stre legislateur, Sermodas does mention les desseins- de Dieu & de la Nature, pour la conservation du genre humainP In accordance with these plans of God and. Nature, Sevarias had marriage made compulsory for all attaining a certain age, and cohabitation with slaves optional with travelers. That moderation and not abstinence is the natural and God-willed path for man to follow, is put in the ^ This theory is as old as St. Thomas Aquinas, and is found again in Campanella's Civitas Solis. 104 THE EXTRAOItDINARY VOYAGE form of a direct challenge to European ideas. With the Sevarambians it is forbidden de regarder comme une chose criminelle ce qui sert d la conservation de I'espece (p. 100). It is also forbidden que les exc^s troublent la moderation qui doit se trouver dans Vusage de tous ces plaisirs. Continuing, there follows (p. 101) the challenge to Europe: C'est pour cette raison que nous ne souffrons pas que personne soit ici sans femmes, vous voyez aussi qu'on vous en a amen6 autant que vous ^tes ici d'hommes . . . Je sgai bien que cette coAtume seroit condanm6 en Europe, oil Ton ne considere pas assez que la vertu se trouve dans I'usage honnSte de I'amour, & non pas k y renoncer enti^rement; mais aussi nous ne voyons parmy nous aucun de ces crimes abominables qui d^shonorent vdtre pais. As if this were not sufficient condemnation of Europe, the party of Maurice is subjected to a thorough physical examination before being allowed to associate with the female slaves. Tt is from the doctors who perform this rigid examination that the strangers learn how the Seva- rambians get their information about Europe. These doctors have traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, and are only two of many who have been sent out by the Sevarambians to glean information and new discoveries from foreign lands, as well as to devise means of keeping the scourges of other countries from jeopardizing the perfect state foimded by Sevarias. Foigny pleaded for a hearing in Europe for the en- lightened people of Australia. Vairasse describes the methods of the Austrahans in keeping their civiUzation perfect in spite of Europe. The sanitary inspection of the Nova Atlantis is a mere formahty. The criticism indulged in by Vairasse in this searching physical ex- amination is subtle but caustic. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 105 The story of Maurice, just analysed, is as striking as anything in the book, although much social, rehgious, and ethical material comes later in the story. The in- sistence upon this conception. Nature,^ in the report of Maurice is almost startling, if it be considered that the printing of the Sevarambes was contemporaneous with the appearance of Phedre and of La Princesse de Cleves. God and Nature are joined merely for form's sake. In general, Nature is alone referred to in Maurice's account of the speeches made to him by the Sevarambians. This is not the Nature of the out-doors, of the far-off and solitary places of the earth, which comes later in the Voyages et aventures de Frangois Leguat (1708) and which is generally associated with the greater genius of Defoe, Rousseau, and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Neither is it quite the Nature of a formal and beatific sort found in Foigny's Terre avstrale connue, which is, as M. Chinard has suggested ^^ a reflection in later days of la nostalgie de VEden des siecles de foi. Nature, in the exposition of Vairasse's ideas through the words of Sermodas, is not a personified being to be worshiped, loved, and celebrated in rime. It is rather a rationalistic system of things, a materialistic system, by virtue of which man and the world in which he lives can be interpreted in terms that are capable of formulation and definition. " Conservation of the species " in 1677 reminds the modern reader perhaps of Huxley, Spencer, and others of the Darwinian school, rather than of St. Thomas Aquinas. But the same term, used to excuse the expression nous ne souffrons pas que personne soit id sans femmes, sounds remarkably Uke the voice of " CampaneUa, being sincerely religious, bases his conclusions in the Civitas Solis on the will of God. With Vairasse it is Nature rather than God which acts "for the good of the race." ^ L'Amenque et le rSve exotigue, p. 205. 106 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE profligate Rousseau pleading with the mothers of France to nurse their own infants. (It will be found later that Sevarambian mothers are obliged by law to do this.) The term Nature to an epicurean logician Uke Vairasse serves as a weapon against tradition, customs, revealed religion, social prejudice and precedent. It is, moreover, a shield and an excuse (when there is need) from whose shelter it is convenient to expound new ideas, particu- larly sex-ideas. The wide divergence between Foigny and Vairasse is nowhere more apparent than in the treatment of women by these two men. Foigny, the defrocked monk and renegade Protestant chorister, never became emancipated from the sin idea. He laments the lot of woman in European civilization, and shows a definite feministic point of view in the Terre aiistrale connue. The single sentence of Vairasse, nous ne souffrons pas que personne sdt id sans femmes (p. 101) suffices to indicate his point of view. His taking up the distribution of women by Cornelis, in Pelsart's harrowing story of shipwreck, and his making of it a defensible act, can be taken as another index of his "experimental" point of view in these matters. Compulsory marriage and coromunity of women are concomitant phenomena of social revolu- tion based on materialistic philosophy. Strangely enough the inclusion of women in armies as fighters goes hand in hand with these same phenomena of revolution, even as in the army of the Sevarambians there are women. To return to Maurice's story, it will be remembered that the shipwrecked sailors and their female slaves were in the same room, listening to the philosophy of moderation as expounded by Sermodas on page 97 of the novel. To those who read the Histoire des Sivarambes for the sake of the story, it must have been a relief to find (p. 103) that the last of the philosophers se retirerent, & nous IN FRENCH LITEBATURE 107 novs consultdmes de la maniere dont nous choisirions nos femmes. Strangely enough, after so long a time in which to compare the merits of the various slaves, the division was made sans guerelle & sans dispute (p. 103). A sad commentary on the wilUngness of human beings to dis- play that moderation which is the greatest wisdom is found in the description which includes the words: . . . des chambres oH ils avoient lie enfermis toute la nuit, pour emptcher le disordre & I'ichange gu'on auroit pu faire; ce qui n'etoit pas permis (p. 104). 7. The Journey to Sevarinde A few days after the return of Maurice and the Austra- lian representatives, the party of Captain Siden begins its journey to Sevarinde. Arrived at Sporounde, the capital of the nearest province, a new division of women takes place. Each woman of the shipwrecked party has the right to retain the man whom she holds responsible for her pregnancy. The other men are supplied with female slaves. The party is then received at the temple by the Gover- nor and his entourage of senators. A marriage ceremony takes place at the temple. It is as perfectly systematized and executed as anything reported of the Sivarambes by Captain Siden. Two files, one of young women of marriageable age, one of unmarried young men, are lined up on opposite sides of the temple. Each young woman in turn designates the young man of her choice. Each young man has the power of acceptance or of veto. A few women are left over, after the pairing off. Of these, some wait iox: another opportunity, which will come after a set period of time. The remainder, having been thrice refused in public, are permitted to request a senator or other public official to accept them as plural 108 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE wives. The request is made ia three cases, and ks trois Senateurs descendirent incontinent, & les prenant par la main, les menlrent a I'AiUel (p. 118). Thus the young women, who in Europe would have remained spinsters, are saved from this lonely fate. The authorized polygamy in the case of state officials serves to do away with the evils of ceUbacy. That anything is preferable to cehbacy seems to have been the judgment of Vairasse. The temple of the city of Sporounde resembles the other temples of the land. The deity of these people is triple in its manifestations. There are three features of the temple. First, there is a large globe of glass, which represents the sun (for the S6varambes are sim-wor- shippers). Second, there is an allegorical figure of a many-breasted woman, representing the fertile native land. Third, there is a large black curtain drawn across the altar, at the back, representing the unknowable God. The resemblance of the image of the sun to the golden sun in the temple of the Incas, together with the simi- larity of the Pachacamac, or incomprehensible god of the Incas to the imknowable god of the Sevarambians is too evident to be insisted upon. This similarity has been mentioned by Marchand.** The third member of the Sevarambian trinity is how- ever of Asiatic origin. In the Voyages en Tartarie of Pierre Bergeron ^^ occurs the following description of the idols of the Tartars: cependant lis ne laissent pas d'auoir des idoles de feutre faites h, la semblance d'hommes, & les posent de part & d'autre des portes de leurs logis; & au dessous y a ie ne sgay quoy de mesme estofe, en forme de mammeUes, & croyent que c'est ce qui garde leurs troupeaux, & qui leur donne du laict, & des petits. 2^ Dictionnaire, Article Veirasse. " Paris, 1634, Voyage de Carpin, ch. 3, pp. 323-324. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 109 A marginal note by Bergeron reads, M. Pole appelle Natigat ceste sorte de Dim U,l. 1. c. Jfi & I. 2. c. 16 c'est le Dieu des choses terrestres. The same god is mentioned in the Traicte des Tartares of Pierre Bergeron.^* In the Voyages en Tartarie, a few pages after the quo- tation above ^^ occm-s the following which is curiously like the speech of Sermodas previously quoted, regarding traditions of people and their influence in conceptions of right and wrong: Et bien qu'ils n'ayent aucune loy pour ce qui est de la justice, ou pour se garder du pech6; ils ont toutefois ie ne sgay quelles traditions de choses qu'ils tiennent pour pech6, selon qu'eux- mesmes & leurs ancestres se sent imaginez. Further reference wiU be had to the Voyages en Tartarie in dealing with the government, laws and property con- ceptions of the Sevarambians. That this trinity of the Severambians should be two thirds South American and one third Asiatic is curious. Were it not for later and more definite proof of Vairasse's indebtedness to the Commentaire royal ou I'Histoire des Yncas, it might be supposed that the sun-worship men- tioned here was taken from the Persian sun-worshipers. After several ceremonies of less importance, the com- pany start on their journey to the capital. On stopping at one city, Captain Siden sees fourteen prisoners being led out to pimishment. Of these there were six homines . . . condamnis a dix ans de punition, quelques uns pour avoir tu4, & d'autres pour avoir commis aduUere (p. 126). There are also two women convicted of adultery, who devoient Mre punies durant sept ans pour satisfaire aux Lois; ensuite elles devoient souffrir aussi long terns qu'il 2' Paris, 1634, p. 69. This Traicte is a sort of compendium of information referring to Tartary, composed by Bergeron. 29 p. 327. 110 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE plairoit a leurs maris (p. 126). Unmarried persons of both sexes, convicted of adultery, are punished and then made to marry. Vairasse's point of view with regard to women is again brought out in these sentences. One curiously inartistic incident is recounted here. A long description of one unfaithful wife is given. Before her pimishment takes place, her repentant husband rushes on the scene, to take the lashes intended for his wife. He speaks for more than two duodecimo pages, and is followed in oratory by his repentant wife, who speaks for another fuU page. In her speech are such gems of style as: Cessez, cessez de blesser mon ccEur par les t^moignages d'une bont6 & d'une g^n^rosit^ sans 6gale (p. 132). Captain Siden assures the reader that this interview arrachoit les larmes des yeux de tous les assistants (p. 32), but this same tender-hearted crowd belabors the pris- oners who are led past after the punishment, si rudement que le sang couloit de leurs playes (p. 132). This Sevarambian crowd seems to be a strange mixture of pricieux and American Indians. They take equal pleasure in weeping over sentiment and "passing prisoners through the hues." Siden's party now proceeds by boat, thanks to well built canals, which, on ne sgauroit faire en Europe pour cinquante millions de livres, & neanmoins I'industrie de ces peuples a fait tout cela sans argent; car ils ne s'en servent dans aucun endroit de leur domina- tion, & en estiment I'usage pernicieux (p. 135). This is of course the Utopian idea of a happy land where money is imknown. It is interesting however that this society is founded on conditions of slave-labor, and that the slaves are prisoners of war, or levied after vic- tories from defeated nations. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 111 Follows an exotic sort of hunting and fishing. Trained animals and birds do all the tiresome part of the hunting, after the fashion of the trained leopards of India, or the cormorants of the Yangtse boatmen. (There can be httle doubt that Vairasse in his wide reading had found such accounts.) The party then proceeds through a tunnel in a moimtain to the province wherein Ues the capital. As Vairasse has already mentioned fish similar to those caught dans le lac de Geneve, it would seem that this tunnel is a reminiscence of the mountains of Europe, for it leads directly into the streets of a city. Other traces of Alpine civiUzation are found. After ascending in one of two cars, attached to the ends of a cable pass- ing through a puUey at the summit of a mountain. Captain Siden is shown a high plateau country where grazing of cattle is possible eight months of the year. At the end of the warm season, on les fait descendre dans las vallons . . . parce que les neiges rendent cette montagne inhabitable . . . Aussi nous n'y vtmes ni Ville ni Village, mais seulement quelques petits hameaux . . . pour la commodity des bergers (p. 158). On the journey to Sevarinde, the capital, Sermodas gives Captain Siden more Ught on the customs and history of the people. Of the construction of the tunnel, he says (p. 165), rien dont les hommes puissant venir k bout n'est impossible a notre nation; oii les particuliers n'ont rien k eux, & oil le public possedant toutes chosas, & en disposant, on vient k bout de toutes las grandes entraprises, sans or & sans argent. Sermodas further explains many remarkable features of the hfe and customs of the people by giving an account of the early life and training of Sevarias the founder of the nation (pp. 167-168). 112 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Sevarias n6tre premier Legislateur, qui dtoit un grand Seigneur, Persan de naissance & d'origine, avoit voyag6 dans plusieurs endroits de I'Asie & de I'Europe; . . . d§s sa plus tendre jeunesse, il avoit appris les lettres grecques, & presque toutes les sciences, sous un Pr^cepteur Venetien, . . . qui I'accompagna en ce Pais, . . . fut son conseiller fidele dans toutes ses entreprises, & surtout dans r^tablissement des Loix & des McEurs qu'ils estim6rent les meilleurs. Pour cet effet ils tir^rent, tant des Uvres anciens que nouveaux, des observations qu'ils avoient faites dans leurs voyages, & des lumieres qu'ils avoient naturellement, les loix & les regies de bien vivre, qu'ils 6tablirent parmy nous. Ideal commonwealths which have knowledge of other civilizations exist prior to the Histoire des Sevaranibes. The inhabitants of the City of the Sun of Campanella, as well as those of the Nova Atlantis of Bacon, have an idea of the relative merits of different civilizations and religions. It is curious that Sevarias (which is merely Vairasse in an anagram) should have obtained his wisdom by travel, by a study of divers peoples, of ancient and modern books. The analogy between Sevarias, who studies, travels and then sets forth to establish a perfect state, and Vairasse, who studied, traveled, and then sat down to write an account of a perfect state, is very striking. As in the early life of Captain Siden, the campaigns and law studies of Vairasse are reflected, so here the processes of mind of Vairasse the geographer and rationalistic philosopher find reflection in the char- acter whose name is an anagram of the author's sm^name instead of his given name. Further on the way to the capital. Captain Siden is present at a review of troops, divided into three camps: Les hommes mari^s occupoient avec leurs Femmes le Camp du milieu; les Filles celui de la droite, & les Gargons la gauche; le m^me ordre 6toit observe dans la Ligne lorsqu'ils 4toient sous les armes (p. 173). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 113 That women rode horseback and bore arms had been the report of many travelers to the East. In the Traicte des Tartares of Pierre Bergeron, previously referred to in connection with the Histoire des Sevaranibes, occurs the following: Les filles & femmes sgauent aller k cheval, & les font courir & galoper aussi viste que les homines. Nous en auons veu auec des arcs & des carquois (p. 341). EUes portent toutes des calgons; & y en a qui tirent aussi bien de I'arc que les hommes (p. 342). There is considerable description of the tmiform of the army of the Sevaranibes, as well as an argument that Emropean armies have done wrong in discontinuing the use of archers. These are said by the Sevarambes to be invaluable in routing the enemy cavalry (p. 179). The journey to Sevarinde, the capital, is completed by boat. The city Ues on an island in the center of a large, navigable river. It is geometrically arranged, having only square buildings and only straight streets. Trees are planted in regular rows. The streets can be flushed with water, and in the warm season canvas is hung from roof to roof over them so that there may be shade. This last feature is one more reflection of Vairasse's reading. In many accounts of Persia,'" the cities, and especially Ispahan, are reported as having these street- awnings. One of the osmasies, or square buildings, is ready and waiting for occupancy by the strangers when they arrive. A fuU complement of slaves waits to serve them. Captain Siden's party is taken to the palace of the sun, '" It is of little importance whether Vairasse took this feature from Marco Polo, Pierre Bergeron, or Tavemier (1676). It has been pointed out in the short account of Vairasse's life, that he gave lectures on geography. He must have known many collections of travels. 114 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE the residence of the Vice-roi du Soldi as the king is called. There is considerable description of the magnificence and size of this palace. After ten days of sight-seeing, the company are put to work, pour nous garantir des maux ou pourroit nous jetter la fainiantise (p. 192). They work only six hours a day (instead of eight, like the natives) for they have to receive instruction in the laws and language of the land. Of the language Captain Siden says, j'en compris tous les principes dans trois ou guatre mois, & dans une annee, je sus m'expliquer passdblement Men (p. 196). The Sevarambes are a resourceful and inventive people. Many inventions have added to the wealth and beauty of their land. In particular there is une invention qu'ils out trouvee de dissoudre le sable, de I'engraisser & de le convertir en bonne terre (p. 205). Captain Siden says that he intends to bring this invention to Europe, but it will be remembered, from the Avis au lecteur, that he died before reaching Holland. That this invention of the Sevarambes is a reflection of the Nova Atlantis or of the Terre australe connue is probable. (That part of the Histoire des Sevarambes which appeared in English " before the Terre australe connue was published, contained no such inventions.) Certainly the Incas of Garcilaso and the Persians and Saracens of the Voyages to the Near East are not credited with any inventive power. Whereas the "miracles" of Foigny's AustraUans were of the type of those performed by magic — the creation of life, the control of the material by the immaterial — this one invention of the Sevarambes is intensely practical. There probably never existed a more matter-of-fact, materialistic people than the people of Vairasse's im- agination. " For full account of The History of the Sevarites, of. Appendix. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 115 8. History op the Sevarambian Kings With the Third Part of the Histoire des Sivarambes (p. 208), comes the history of the Kings, or Viceroys of the Sun. The sun is considered as the king. The ruler, elected by the leading men, and indirectly by the people, is considered as the representative of the Sun. Of the first Viceroy, Sevarias, Captain Siden learned from the guide Sermodas, before arriviag at the capital. A more complete account of his life is found in the historical part of the book (pp. 208-296). Born in Persia, and brought up among the Parsi who were sun-worshipers and never took up Mohammedanism with the rest of their compatriots, Sevarias was a youth of great promise. He had a splendid education, and together with his Christian tutor, Giovanni (doubtless a reflection of Marco Polo), traveled in the principal coun- tries of the world, including Italy, Egypt, Sicily and Japan. At one time, both he and his tutor were sold into slavery and separated, much in the same way as T614maque and Mentor. After such splendid preparation, study, and travel, Sevarias came to AustraUa admirably equipped to found a perfect nation, in the year 1427 A.D. To convince the natives of his right to rule, Sevarias had recourse to the use of fire-arms. This, being mistaken for lightning by the natives, made the conquest easy. AU this part of the story is strongly reminiscent of the conquest of Mexico and Peru by the Spaniards. Sevarias introduces sun-worship, aboHshes corrupt moral practices, and founds granaries wherein to store food against the years of poor harvests, in the same way that the first King or Inca introduced sun-worship, abolished corrupt practices and founded granaries in Peru, according to the Histoire des Yncas.^^ The rational '2 Transl. from the Spanish of Garcilaso by Jean Beaudoin, Paris, 1633, and in many later editions. 116 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Deism of the Inca Manco Capac has been discussed in the Introduction to this study, and again in the consideration of Foigny's Terre australe connue. It will be remembered that the temple of the Sevarambes contained a globe, representing the sun, and a black curtain, representing the incomprehensible God, suggestive of the sun-worship of the Incas and of their Pachacamac or incomprehensible God. One other innovation of Sevarias in AustraUa has a strangely American sound. He teaches the natives to build proper boats, as they only had de petits canots fails d'ecorces d'arbre (p. 251). The election of a successor to Sevarias, however, is not similar to the Inca system of royal succession. Having ruled thirty-eight years, Sevarias wishes to retire, and directs that an election of his successor be held. The chief men of the kingdom, being called together, elect four of their nimiber. These four draw lots, and the "sign of the sun" falls to one Khomedas, who is then enthroned as Viceroy of the Sun. The third member of the Sevarambian trinity- — the many-breasted female figure, representing the native land — was of Asiatic origin. Similarly the election of rulers would seem to be a reminiscence of the East and not of the West. In the Traidi des Tartar es of Pierre Bergeron, in which is found the accoimt of the many-breasted idol, there occurs the following incident of the election of an emperor to succeed Cham Cingis, who left four sons: Ces enfans auec les autres principaux Seigneurs de I'Estat assemblez, esleurent pour Empereur le fils aisn^, Occoday (p. 353). Another mention is made of the election of a successor of an emperor in the same work (p. 357). Khomidas, who succeeds Sevarias in the story of Vairasse, builds bridges and city walls, and encourages the arts (pp. 296-298). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 117 Brontas, the next Viceroy, establishes new cities and quells an uprising in favor of personal property, which had been abolished by Sevarias (pp. 299-300). Dumistas, an ambitious Viceroy, attempts to extend the territory of the Sevarambes but is prevented from so doing by the council of elders. Here again is felt the power of the representatives elected by the people (pp. 300-301). Sevaristas has a reign of peace and abundance, ex- tending over forty-seven years. He encourages the arts and sciences (pp. 302-304). Khemas, sixth Viceroy of the Sun, investigates the mineral resources of the country. Ce fvt lui qui fit mettre autour du grand globe lumineux du temple de Sevarinde, qui represente le Soleil, cette grande plaque d'or massif, & coupee & gravee en rayons (p. 304). This is of course a reminiscence of the representation of the sun in the temple of the Incas, a plaque of gold which one of Pizarro's soldiers stole and then gambled away in one night, according to Garcilaso. Kimpsas is the soldier long. He repels iavasion, goes into the enemy's country and levies yearly quotas of slaves from subjected neighboring states (pp. 304-306). Minos, the ruler at the time of Captain Siden's visit, is distinguished for having built an aqueduct (pp. 306-307). It is true that the Histoire des Yncas contains the story of a number of kings, one of whom invaded the enemy's coimtry and brought back slaves," another of whom built an aqueduct to Cuzco in the Andes as Minas is reported to have done in Australia. It is also true that the case of Khemas and the golden plaque is very much the same thing as the installation of the gold plaque in the temple of the Incas. The similarity of these two sets of incidents is too striking to be overlooked. The " Ynca Yahuarhiiacac, Histoire des Yncas, 1. iv, ch. xvii. 118 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE general indebtedness of Vairasse to Garcilaso has been mentioned in Marchand's Dictionnaire, in the Article Veirasse and by M. Chinard.'* The names of the Viceroys of the Sevarambes, however, are not at all suggestive of the Incas. On the contrary, these names are distinctly Persian. As Vairasse makes the law-giver, Sevarias, come from Persia, it takes Uttle ingenuity to find in accounts of voyages to Persia such names as: Guensas, Cheselbas, Kayumarras?^ The simi- larity of the Persian name Gempsas^ to Kimpsas, the seventh AustraUan Viceroy of the Sun, is even greater. Persian names in which the letter " K" occurs are common. The publication of Bergeron's books dealing with the Near East before 1640 would seem to indicate some in- terest in Persia early in the 17th century. The fact that there was a company formed in Paris pour V etablissement du commerce en Perse & aux Indes,^'' in 1665 would argue some considerable interest in the Orient before 1670 at Paris. That Vairasse knew something at least of Persia and its capital appears at the end of the Histoire des Sevarambes, when Captain Siden returns to Europe, passing through Hispahan, ville capitale de la Perse. Whether Vairasse knew the Voyages en Tartarie of Pierre Bergeron, or simply the Voyages of Marco Polo, it is very Ukely that he knew in addition the writings of Jean Baptiste Tavernier. It will be remembered that the Nouvelle relation de I'in- tirieur du sSrail du Grand Seigneur of Tavernier had appeared at Paris in 1675. That Tavernier was well and favorably known at Paris has been pointed out by M. Martino'' and others. This Nouvelle relation du " L'Am6nque et le rive exotique, p. 206. '^ TraicU des Sarasins, pp. 90-98 (Bound with Traicti des Tar- tares, Pierre Bergeron, Paris, 1634). *' Ibid. ^ Suite des Voyages de Tavernier, Paris, 1680. '* P. Martino, L'Orient dans la litt^ature Jrangaise, Paris, 1906. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 119 serail was reviewed in the Journal des Sgavans in 1676 5' and attracted some considerable attention. In 1676 there appeared at Paris Les six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier, in which occurs a fairly complete history of the Kings of Persia. Of these, Cha-Abas the first King, set the realm in order and built a great temple.* Another king is reported to have built an aqueduct; another discovers mines of lead, talc, and other minerals; another makes war on neighboring states. There is every reason to beheve that Vairasse, who was giving lectures on geography at this time, knew not only the Histoire des Yncas but the Six voyages de J. B. Ta- vernier. Undeniable traces of the Inca civilization have been pointed out in the Histoire des Sevaramhes. Al- though there is no such close following of Tavernier in Vairasse's novel as is found later in the work of Tyssot de Patot ^ and Frangois Leguat,*^ it is hkely that the history of the Viceroys of the Sxm among the Sevaramhes is a reflection both of the Histoire des Yncas and of the Six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier. As the exterior reUgion of the Sevaramhes is two thirds South American and one third Asiatic (Tartar), so the history of their kings is probably imitated by Vairasse on the models of two continents.*^ »« Year 1676, p. 18. " History of the Kings, pp. 476 et seq. " Voyages de Jacques Masse, Bordeaux, 1710. ** Voyage et avaniures de Frangois Leguat, London, 1708. " The influence of travels to the Near East, bringing with them the question of polygamy, exerted a marked influence in France before 1680. Interest in harem stories has been referred to in the work of LeBIanc, Mocquet, and Tavernier. M. Lanson has pointed out the discussion of polygamy in connection with the development of the free-thinking rationahsm in France, and in tracing the growth of non-rehgious moraUty. Whether or not the Discursus de poly- gamia (1673) or the Polygamia triumphatrix (1676) of Jean Lyser influenced Vairasse, there were doubtless many works on the subject known to both men. M. Lanson mentions Lyser as another 120 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 9. Government The election of rulers has been described. Each small group, living in an osmasie, has a representative, elected by the people of the group. Each district has a repre- sentative elected by the leaders of the groups concerned. These in turn elect governors. The most important oflBcials gather together, upon the death of a Viceroy of the Sun, and elect a new Viceroy, by selecting four of their number to draw lots. Thus the country is governed, despotically, by a ruler elected democratically. In the hands of the government are all food, clothing, and im- plements, which are doled out from central storehouses to local storehouses. The similarity of this system to that of the Incas is apparent. Both the kings of the Incas and Viceroys of the Sun among the SSvarambes are: de bons peres de famille, ou de iidMes oeconomes plut6t que des Rois.« Naturally, the opportunity to compare this happy system with the corrupt ways of Europe is not over- looked: il y a cette difference entre eux & nous, que les moyens dont ils se servant pour s'^lever, sont tous honnfites & legitimes & que le plus souvent nous mettons en usage la bassesse & le crime pour nous titer de robscurit6 & de la mis6re. {SSvarambes, p. 312). Under this government, despotic but paternal, the Australian is happy, contented, and rich, for: example of the same spirit as that found in the Histoire des S&va- rambes (R. C. C, 2 avril, 1908). Discussion of the merits of Chris- tianity as opposed to Mohammedanism, and pubUcation on such subjects before 1634 is mentioned by Pierre Bergeron {TraicU des Sarasins, Paris, 1634, pp. 63-64). " Histoire des Yncas, 1. v, ch. .\i. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 121 un exercice modern de huit heures par jour luy procure tous ces avantages, k luy, k sa famille & h tous ses enfans, quand il en auroit mille (p. 319). On the other hand, in Europe, nous avons parmi nous des gens qui regorgent de biens & de richesses, & d'autres qui manquent de tout. Nous en avons qui passent leur vie dans la fain^antise & dans la voIupt6, & d'autres suent incessament pour gagner leur miserable vie, . . . manquant des biens de la fortune, croupissent miserablement dans la boue, & sont condamnez k une ^ternelle bassesse (p. 319). It is interesting to note that the system of the Aus^ traUans, according to Vairasse, is not radically different either from the concept of absolute monarchy as reported to exist in the Inca civilization, or from the absolute mon- archy of the Tartars." The idea of absolute monarchy in France itself was very similar to that expressed by Vairasse in describing the government of the Sevaranibes. The great distinction Ues in the method of appUcation of the theory of property. In both France and Sevarinde, the entire wealth of the land was theoretically in the hands of the ruler. In Sevarinde, however, the Viceroy of the Sim was elected to rule, and was morally responsible that each inhabitant receive what was necessary to feed and clothe him. The means of discharging this responsibility existed in Sevarinde, in the shape of central and local storehouses, and in a pyramidal system of state officials charged not only with the maintenance of law and order but also with the distribution of necessities, and the supervision of the required amount of daily work. The " With the Incas, property belonged to the ruler, and was ad- ministered by oflBoials. Of the Tartars it is reported {Traicte des Tartar es, P. Bergeron, p. 356), Tout appartient tellement a cet Empereur, qu'il n'y a personne qui puisse ou ose dire cecy ou cela estre A soy, mais tout est d I' Empereur. 122 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE theory of absolute monarchy in Sevarinde includes the theory of absolute monarchy of other lands, but in ad- dition it includes the theory of the responsibility of the ruler to each individual. The placing of responsibility for the welfare of his individual subjects upon the mon- arch, in the Histoire des Sevarambes, is a much more danger- ous and revolutionary procedure than any in the Terre aastrale connue of Foigny. 10. Education and Marriage All children are brought up by their parents until they reach the age of seven. Children are then taken to pubUc schools, the sexes being kept apart, and here learn to hate vice, and to obey their masters at the same time that they acquire facts. After four years, they are taught to work on the land. They spend four hours on the land and four in school. At fourteen years of age, they are taught grammar, and are given the choice of a trade. Those who are stupid are put to work as laborers and builders. Others learn a more skilled trade. All receive mihtary training, regardless of sex. One sentence regarding the bringing up of children has a familiar sound, chague mire est obligee d'allaiter son enfant (p. 331). This occurs cheek by jowl with laws requiring manual labor, working on the land, the learning of trades, and other practices not foreign to the preaching of Rous- seau.^ Girls at sixteen years, boys at nineteen years, are al- lowed to associate with the opposite sex, subject to super- vision, and are permitted to think of marriage. Eighteen months is allowed for this. At the end of the period, all are married. If by chance there be women left over, *' M. Delvaille in his Essai svr V histoire de I'idie du proffres, p. 364, states that Rousseau knew the Histoire des SSvarambes. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 123 they are allowed to become the second, third, or fourth wives of pubUc officials. An example of this has been described fully earlier in the story of Captain Siden. Lack of difference in wealth and in social standing greatly simplifies the matter of marriage. There is no such thing as ambition to marry a rich person, a person of greater education or culture, or a person of higher stand- ing. Equahty of wealth, education, and social status has abohshed these evils. Equahty is in fact so vital a matter, that the number of nights per month on which young married couples may use the same bed-chamber is regulated according to their age. In this manner, the Sevarambes are equal, not only as individuals but when considered as pairs. 11. Customs The second volume of the Histoire des Sevarambes begins with a description of the customs of the people. Sobriety and lack of exterior forms of pohteness are the saUent characteristics of these people. They eat at common tables, and hve happily sans Taverne ni Cabaret (vol. II, p. 9). Having no personal wealth, and receiving food and deux habits tons les ans (p. 15) *' from the gov- ernment, they have no reason to sin. Honors consist in services to the state, and in this only. Of the women, Celles qm ont eu des enfans portent autant de bandes de soye couleur de pourpre, qu'elles en ont 61ev6 jusqu'S, Tags de sept ans, . . . ce qui les rend fort soigneuses de les Clever (p. 15). The hard and fast institutionahsm of Vairasse is even more striking than that of Foigny. At least the her- maphroditic brethren of the latter were uniformly naked. " From this point on, references are to Vol. II unless otherwise stated. 124 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE The Sivaranibes are uniformly dressed, one of their yearly- garments being of cotton or linen for warm weather, the other of wool for cold weather. The working days and holidays are regulated by the sound of the bell. There are rising bells and bells that give the signal to start the day's work. As for holidays, Le public fait souvent des parties de chasse, & on donne la liberty aux homines & aux femmes de s'y trouver . . . tant6t k de certaines compagnies, & tant6t k d'autres (pp. 16-17). It is hard to realize, in reading of the customs of the Sevarambes, that it is not the description of the population of an army barracks or of a large modern battleship. That work should be arranged, planned, and regulated in a community seems natural. But that the population should be allowed to go himting, only in shifts, by watches, or by platoons seems rather cruelty than kindness. 12. Laws On ne punit jamais de mort, k moins que ce ne soit pour quelque crime 6norme; mais on condamne k plusieurs ann^es d'imprisonnement, selon la quality du crime (p. 49). In a long story of justice triumphant (pp. 40-48), two men are unjustly sentenced to six months' imprisonment. Later, their case is reviewed, and the judge, N6relias, tant pour sa Sentence injuste qu'il avoit rendue dans cette cause, que pour plusieurs autres mauvais jugemens, fut demis de sa charge, r^duit k la condition de vivre en homme priv6, & expos6 k la haine & au m^pris de tout le monde (p. 47). In neither case is the punishment as severe as might be expected. In the entire chapter De la maniire dont on exerce la justice, parmy ks Sevarambes (pp. 38-50) there is no mention of a citizen being reduced to slavery. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 125 Slaves are obtained by levies upon neighboring subject peoples, as mentioned in the reign of the Viceroy Kimpsas.*' 13. Religion The part of the Histoire des Sevarambes most dis- tasteful to the conservative readers of the 17th' century must have been that dealing with religion. Aside from the thinly veiled satire of Christianity which occupies a large part of the second volume, there is considerable criticism plainly stated. Only one exterior rehgion is allowed, Men que tous . . . ayent pleine liberie de conscience (p. 105). A priest n'a pas moins de part que les autres au gouvernement & a la sodetS civile (p. 106). The reasons for this are fully given. On the following page (107) one reads: 11 n'y a peut-etre point de pays au monde ou I'on s'^chauffe moins pour la religion, & ou elle produise moins de querelles & de guerres; au lieu que, dans les autres Etats, on la fait souvent servir de pr^texte aux actions les plus inhumaines & les plus impies, sous le masque de pi6t6. C'est sous ce pr6texte sp6cieux, que I'ambition, ravarice, & I'envie jouent leur r61e abominable, & qu'elles aveuglent tellement les miserables mortels qu'elles leur font perdre tous les sentimens d'humanit^, tout I'amour & le respect qu'ils doivent au droit naturel & S, la soci6t6 civile, & toute la douceur de la charit6, que les saintes maximes de la Religion leur recommandent. The juxtaposition of the terms droit naturel and soci6t& civile is noteworthy. It occurs again, a few lines later (p. 108): *' Upon the basis of the mild nature of the laws of the SSveramhes, it is difficult to understand the following sentence in M. Chinard's L'Am^rique et le rive exotique, p. 208: Du jour oil un citoyen refuse d'ob&ir aux lots parfaiies dict&es -par Semrias, il est rejeti de la soHM, condamne d. devenir le sermteur de tous les autres, sans espoir de jamais 126 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE II n'en est pas de m^me panny ces peuples heureux, oil per- sonne ne peut opprimer son prochain, ni violer aucunement le droit naturel sous aucun pr^texte de Religion . . . & ou I'on ne peut enfin s'acquerir des biens & des honneurs, ni par les ruses, ni par les fausses apparences d'une pi6t6 feinte & simul6e. It would seem that the theory of the rights of the in- dividual is more a general idea of protest than an English idea. That Vairasse was convinced of the inaUenable and natural right of man to freedom of conscience, free- dom from persecution and freedom from the impostures of those resembling Tartufe, is evident. To say that he became convinced of these theories while in England would be hazardous. The theory of "natural" law as opposed to "formal" law is at least as old in France as Amyot, probably older. Calvinists in France, Switzerland, and Holland held views of freedom of conscience in religion, as weU as Calvinists in England.*' Vairasse doubtless went to England because he had a sjnnpathy for the religious opinions current there. But, by the same token, he must have had very similar ideas before going. Rehgious and political opinions overlapped to such an extent at the time, that it is but a step from the concept of religious freedom to that of political freedom. It is not difficult to believe that the free-thinkers in France, of both Prot- estant and Catholic antecedents, passed from the idea of religious freedom to that of political freedom without appreciating any great distinction between the two. After showing the rationalistic processes by which the Sivarambes arrive at the conclusion of an unknowable pouvoir se rihabiliter. This sentence would be far more applicable to the Voyages de Jacques Massi, of Tyssot de Patot (Bordeaux, 1710). *' Pufendorf, De jure naturae et gentium, 1672, is cited by M. Lanson in this connection (R. C. C, 1909, p. 313). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 127 God, as well as a belief in the immortality of the soul, and after explaining the triple duty of man to the in- comprehensible God, the Sun, and the native land — and with enthusiasm — the following conclusion does not deceive the reader: C'est ainsi que raisonnent ces pauvres aveugles, qui pr^ferent les foibles lueurs de leur esprit t^n^breux, aux lumi6res dclatantes de la r^v61ation, & au timoignage de la sainte 6glise de Dieu (p. 114). Even without the enthusiasm of the rationalistic ex- position, the following sentences, tucked away in the body of the argument, are too pointed to admit of doubting Vairasse's opinions in the matter: De IS, vient que si leur Religion n'est pas la plus veritable de toutes, eUe est du moins la plus conforme k la raison humaine (p. 109). Sfivarias douta longtems s'il y avoit d'autre Dieu que le Soleil, qui est le seul que les anciens Perses reconnoissent: mais Giovanni, son gouverneur, qui 6toit Chretien, aprSs avoir en vain tich6 de le lui prouver par le t^moignage des saintes 6critures, le lui persuada, & le lui fit enfin comprendre par raisonnement natucel (p. 110). The satire of this last quotation is too keen to be passed over without remark. evarias is represented as the wisest of men, and is, as stated before, "Vairasse" in an anagram. That this well educated, widely traveled, and intelligent man should find the existence of God possible of beUef because of rational argument is natural. But that the best efforts of Giovanni should fail to convince him of this truth by using the Bible is open and pointed satire. In addition to the Deism (and very vague future life theories) of the Incas as reported by Garcilaso, and of Asiatic nations as reported by travelers, there were other influences at work on Vairasse. It has been seen 128 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE that Foigny — through the words of Nicolas Sadeur — confesses to not quite understanding the theory of trans- migration of souls. With Vairasse, the theory is much more expUcit. The influence of free-thinkers who wrote earUer than 1678 is evident. The world-old theory of transmigration, defended by theosophists and poets in many ages and many lands, is clearly stated by Vairasse in reporting the opinions of the Sevarambes: I'ame des justes, aprSs avoir pass6 en divers corps ou err6 quel- que temps dans les airs, soit dans I'orbe ou nous sommes, ou dans quelqu'une des Pianettes, est enfin reincorpor6 au Soleil, dont elle n'est qu'un 6croulement, & ... IS, elle trouve son repos parfait & entiere f^licit^. Poiu' Tame des m^chans on croit qu'au sortir du corps elle va occuper un autre dans des lieux plus 61oignez de la face lumineuse du Soleil . . . jusqu'a venant k s'amander, elle approche toujours ou elle est enfin reincorporde, quand elle a 6t6 purg^e de ses vices ... lis ne croj^ent pas . . . que I'ame d'un homme puisse passer dans le corps d'une bete, (vol. II, p. 117). The allegory of the sun is stiU present, to make less hardy this plain statement of transmigration. The note of evolution of the soul and its progress toward perfection is definitely present here, as in the theories of earher theosophists. The vulgar idea of man's soul taking on the body of a beast, because of sin, is rejected by Vairasse, who stands (with other enlightened theosophists) upon the dignity of man, and upon his essential difference from the beast. Other free-thinkers of the 17th century before Vairasse had expressed their feeling of the reality of other planets, Cyrano de Bergerac and his fantastic novels being the best remembered. This astronomical vision flowers toward the end of the 17th century, bring- ing the planets within the horizon of the average reader, who had previously considered his own world and an orthodox hereafter the only field for speculation. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 129 14. Laws and Prayers of Sbvarias The principal laws of Sevarias, which he left to the Sevarambes at the time of his death, and which express the theories of Vairasse, are ten in number (vol. I, pp. 281-283). Those regarding private property, useless oc- cupations, education of children, and the evils of leisure may be passed over as taken from Plato, More, Bacon, or CampaneUa. Some of the laws, however, are more typical of Vairasse and are more stressed in the story: 1. De ne pas permettre de dignity h^rdditaire. 2. De pimir l'intemp6rence en toutes chpses. 3. De faire valoir les loix du manage . . . pour la propaga- tion de I'espfece. 4. De faire valoir la religion pour lier les hommes par la conscience, leur persuadant que rien n'est cach6 k la Divinity. Naturally, hereditary honors have been called into question ever since man first began to reason, and it would be futile to attempt an investigation of the source of Vairasse's theory in this connection. The point is that he insists upon this principle throughout his novel. The doctrine of temperance is another ancient precept. The interest of Vairasse in temperance is, however, closely connected with his hatred of celibacy and his evident predilection for polygamy, and the license of Mohammedan civiUzation. With regard to the third principle enumerated, De faire valoir les loix du mariage . . . pour la propagation de I'espece the point of view of Vairasse is the same as with regard to temperance. Of course the idea is not new with Vairasse, even in the 17th century. It is found in the Civitas Solis of Campanella.^" The idea of binding men by con- '» Before Campanella, the idea of "generation to preserve the race" is found in St. Thomas Aquinas. In this connection see R. de Gourmont, La culture des idies, Paris, 1900, p. 210. 130 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE science is a rational, not a traditional conception of religion.^' Besides the Laws of Sevarias, there remains his long Deistic prayer, under the title Oraison du grand Dieu (vol. II, pp. 218-221). After a hst of titles which the Sharambes use in addressing the unknowable God — nine titles, five beginning with "K" and all ending with "as" — comes the prayer. Part of it reads (pp. 218-221) : Nous aveugles mortals, q\ii vous entrevoyons sans vous bien voir, qui vous coimoissonB sans vous bien connoJtre, & qui n^anmoins croyons vous devoir adorer; nous venons ici au milieu des t6nebres qui nous environnent, pour vous rendre nos voeux & nos hommages. Toutes choses ici bas nous parlent journellement de vous . . . Dans cat himibla sentimant, nous mettons le doigt siu" la bouche; & sans vouloir t^m^rairement p6n6trer dans las mystares profonds de votre divinity, nous nous contentons de vous adorer dans I'int^rieur de nos S,mes. There is no passage in Foigny's novel that approaches this prayer in style. Among other things in this long prayer is a reference to the sun, the visible representa- tive of the unknown God, which is doubtless thrown in for effect. The svm, and the many-breasted female idol representing the native land are brought in from time to time throughout the story, and add an exotic and " It is to be noted that an Histoire critique du vieux Testament of Richard Simon appeared in Paris in the same year as the 11^ Partie of the SSvarambes (1678). The catalogue of books in the Journal des Sgavans for 1677 mentions bpth a book Les Imposteurs insignes and Du Ryer's translation of the Koran (1st ed., 1647) at Amsterdam. A considerable interest in comparative rehgion at the time must have furnished Vairasse with many ideas. There is considerable theological material which Vairasse might have used in the Histoire de la demihre r&volution du Royaume du Grand Mogol, 1671, of Frangois Bernier, but I cannot find any positive trace of Vairasse knowing this very interesting and splendidly written account. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 131 authentic atmosphere. The pleading of Vairasse for a rationaUstic and Deistic conception of God, is, however, genuine and impassioned. 15. Language There is a long and detailed account of the language of the Sivaramhes (pp. 249-269). It includes not only a complete treatment of the phonetics, grammar, and syntax of the language, but a consideration of theories of versification. The history of the language is particu- larly interesting. Sevarias, on coming to AustraUa, finds a simple people, (the Stroukarambes) who had peu de termes, parce qu'ils n'avoient que peu de notions (p. 250). This wise man suppressed certain imnecessary words of this simple language, and to it he added many words for which a necessity existed. He created a language upon this basis which had ten vowels and thirty consonants. As an aid to pronunciation, he invented certain model- words, in which the distinction between sounds would be apparent, afin que les enfants apprissent de bonne heure a fcrrmer toutes sortes d' articulations, & d rendre leur langue flexible & capable de prononcer tons les mots (p. 251). The theories of Vairasse on phonetics are definite. The vowels are arranged according to I'ordre de la nature, commengant par les voyelles Gutturales, puis venant aux Palatiques, & finissant par les Labiales (p. 252). Consonants are Primitives & Derives. The latter class is subdivided into the siches and the mouillies. Con- sonants are arranged according to another classification, as Gutturales, Palatiques, Nasales, Gingivales, Dentales, & Labiales (p. 253). 132 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Whereas the spelling of the word implied a knowledge of the nature of the object with Foigny, the Sivarambes ont fort 6tudi6 la nature des choses qu'ils t^chent d'exprimer par des sons conformes, ne se servant jamais de syllabes longues & dures pour exprimer des choses douces & petites (p. 253). Dipthongs and tripthongs exist in the language of Sevarias to the number of thirty. Marks of punctuation are used, not only for questions and exclamations but pour exprimer la joye, la douleur, la colere, le doute (p. 254). The grammatical pedant that was Vairasse stands forth in this sentence (p. 254) : Jamais lis ne mettent le circonflexe que sur les lettres longues & ouvertes, ny le grave que sur celles qui se prononcent en fermant la bouche & qui . . . abaissent la voix. There are three genders, as well as a number of termina- tions to denote large or small size, pleasant or unpleasant quaUties. When it is noted that the verbs have each three conjugations, one for masculine subject, another for feminine subject, and a third for neuter subject, the simpHcity seems to have ended, and the compUcations to have begun. There are, however, no irregular verbs, and having mastered one verb one has mastered all. There are verbes imitatifs, des inchoatifs and many others. Such a verb as ermanei,^'' which means aymer un peu mais joliment (p. 258), would seem to be a useful verb for the polygamous state officials. With regard to syntax and order, and their relation one to the other, Vairasse considers the question in its large aspect. With the Sevarambes, word-endings are so distinctive, that they arrangent leurs mots comme il leur plait (p. 267). This, he says, was the ideal of classical Latin, although the similarity of endings in that language " The inability of the author to avoid altogether his own language is evident. "Ermanei" is simply "'aimer" plus ''n" and "e." IN FRENCH LITERATURE 133 made some rules of arrangement necessary. Of course, crude languages such as those spoken in Europe cannot hope to have the flexibility of the language of Sevarias. From this point of view, Vairasse would seem to revere the ancients as compared to 17th century French writers. He is however, strongly opposed to rime and considers it a barbarism. Captain Siden says (p. 262), Je voulus une fois . . . parler de nos Vers rimez, . . . mais lis traiterent cela de ridicule & de barbare, disant que les rimes ne faisoient que gener le bon sens & la raison. He goes on to ridicule the rime of speeches on the stage, and in general all people who rime their hves, their wills and their last words. As a grammarian and a rationalistic thinker, Vairasse could not be expected to be ia favor of rime. Although the quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns in French Uterature is generally considered to have assumed proportions of importance after 1680, it will be remembered that Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin wrote his Defense de la poisie et de la langue fran^aise in 1675. Likewise the quarrel over the inscription of a triumphal arch ^ dates from 1676. It is however interesting to find the ideas of Vairasse on the subject of rimed verse to be practically the same as those of La Motte-Houdar. Vairasse was pubhshing these ideas on the subject of rimed verse in the Histoire des Sevarambes (Second Part) in 1678-1679, when Antoine Houdar de la Motte was seven years of age. The condemnation of rime, generally thought of as an 18th century development of the quarrel, is present in 1679 in the Histoire des Sevarambes of Vairasse.^* ^ F. Charpentier, Defense de la langue frangoise pour Vinscripiion d'un arc de iriomphe, Paris, 1676, and other works. See G. Lanson, Manuel Mbliographique, QuereUe des anciens, etc. " A long citation from the Histoire des Sevarambes (princeps edition), dealing with rimed verse, will be found in the Appendix. 134 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 16. Omigas, the Tmposter There are forty pages in the second volume of the Histoire des Sevarambes devoted to the deceptions of an imposter called Omigas by his own following, and Stroukaras by the Sevarambes. It was Omigas who led the populace credule, superstitieuse, grossiire, before the coming of Sevarias. Nine of his "miracles" are recounted: 1. He made his face shine by artificial means. 2. He pretended to hold conversation with the sun. 3. He pretended that birds brought him food. 4. He pretended to send eagles to heaven, with messages. 5. He pretended to cause rain after a drought. 6. He used accomplices to carry out spurious cures. 7. He built a covering over a pit, and pretended that the earth had swallowed his enemies when he let them down into the pit suddenly, by allowing the covering to fall. 8. He pretended that he was the son of the Sun. 9. He sealed a spring in a rock, and then, by striking on the fragile covering with a staff, let the water run out. When the people are informed of the methods employed in performing these miracles, they are indignant and for a long time refuse to believe them spurious. The cold reason of Sevarias does finally convince these superstitious people of the fraud, however. The history of Omigas or Stroukaras occupies about forty pages (pp. 134^173). Follows a long story of the love of Dionistar and Ahinom^. One of the priests of the false prophet falls in love with the beautiful Ahinom6, and tries to obtain her admission to the temple. At this, she and her lover flee: II faloit 61uder les desseins des Pr^tres l&cifs qui vouloient faire d'Ahinom6 un instrument de leur detestable luxure (p. 178). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 135 Ahinom^ burns down the temple, escapes with her lover, and spends years with him in a rocky fastness. They have five children in this seclusion. The priests learn of their hiding place, and cut off their source of supplies. When the lovers are nearly starved, Dionistar calls for a discussion, speaks to the assembled priests and people, denounces the licentious conduct of the clergy, and then commits suicide. His wife likewise kills herself, and dies with him, before the others can interfere. In the account of Omigas' life the resemblance to the miracles of the Old and New Testaments, is so great and in the tragic story of Dionistar and Ahinom6 the criticism of the priesthood is so virulent, that these important parts of the Histoire des Sivarambes have been omitted in some later editions. In particular, the His- toire des Sivarambes contained in the large Bibliotheque des voyages imaginaires *^ lacks these two parts entirely, besides other less important matters. Vairasse here again speaks definitely against revealed religion, against the validity of miracles, and against the privileges of the clergy. Regardless of the opinions of the reader, Vairasse stands condemned of very bad taste in this part of his novel. His condemnation of the clergy is vitriolic in its force, and one man's bigotry is as. displeasing as another's when unrestrained. 17. Digressions Aside from the account of Omigas and the story of Dionistar and Ahinome, there are other digressions in the second volume. One, dealing with a law-case, has already been referred to. Another (pp. 20-36), treating the love affairs of young people in the public schools, '' Amsterdam, 1787-1789, vol. v. It is this edition that is cited by M. Lichtenberger and by M. Chinard. 136 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE and with the escapades of two young men who succeed in gaining admission to the girls' dormitory, is strongly reminiscent of accounts of travelers to Mohammedan countries. A digression, the story of the poet Franoscar and his lady Balsim^ (vol. II, pp. 257-276), is tinged with the same Mohammedan influence. The Viceroy of the Sun falls in love with the lady and would make her one of his wives, but, on learning that she loves the poet, the kind sovereign renounces his rights to the lady's hand, and treats both lovers bounteously. 18. Inventions The invention of making sand into fertile earth has been mentioned in the part of the story of Captain Siden in which the party first arrives at Sevarinde, the capital. Two other inventions are: des orgues d'eau, meilleures que ceUes ou Ton ne se sert que du vent (vol. Hi, p. 37) ; le secret de fondre le cristal, comme nous fondons le verre (vol. II, p. 73). 19. The Return to Europe After two hundred pages in which there is no mention of Captain Siden, and in which there is no attempt at continuity, the hero is again brought in. The manner of Captain Siden's leaving the Austral land, and the reasons given by him for his return to Europe, leave the reader little respect for his character. It was Siden who, shortly after the shipwreck, distributed the women of the company. It was Siden, who said of himself, shortly after arriving at Sevarinde: Nous avions tous des Femmes & j'eus permission d'en avoir jusques k trois, & mes Lieutenants deux (vol. I, p. 196). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 137 Now, at the end of the second volume, he seeks per- mission from a member of the council to return to Holland: sous promesse de revenir avec ma femme & les enfans que j'avois laiss^s en Hollande, comme je le lui faisois accroire, pour avoir un juste pretexts de revenir en Europe (p. 297). Captain Siden will be willing to return to Sevarinde again, pour y passer le reste de mes jours, quand j'aurai satisfait au violent desir que j'ai de revoir ma Patrie, & d'y prendre avec moi une personne qui m'est fort chSre, si je la trouve encore en vie. . . . mon desir est d'autant plus juste & raisonnable, qu'outre les avantages de ce pays, j'y ai laissfe troisfemmes & seize enfans . . . que je n'aurois pas laissfe poiu* un moment, si I'envie de joindre k leur nombre le premier fruit de mes amours ne m'y eut fortement sollicit6 (pp. 297-298) . It is, of course, difficult to judge regarding right and wrong in the case of a man torn between a loved one in Europe and three wives and over a dozen children in Austraha. The conscience of Captain Siden is a strangely constructed mechanism. Speaking of his friend Calsimas, who aided him in returning to Europe, he sayS) U me permit de m'embarquer secr^tement . . . apres m'avoir fait promettre de revenir & de ne point parler de leur nation aux peuples de n6tre continent (p. 298). The fact that Captain Siden (as explained in the Avis au ledeur preceding the Histoire des Sevarambes) died before reaching home, relieves him from the responsibiUty of publishing the story of the Sivarambes, after having promised to maintain silence about them. The fact that he is supposed to have written some part of it after ob- taining permission to return to Europe is rather a challenge to his good intentions. The return journey, from Austraha to the coast of 138 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Persia, takes sixty-eight days. There are no details of the trip, not even the direction being indicated. Pre- vious mention has been made of Captain Siden's passing through Hispahan, ville capitah de la Perse (p. 301), and of his death from wounds received just before reaching Holland. 20. Conclusion This Extraordinary Voyage is based for its realistic beginning directly upon the accoimt of Captain Pelsart's shipwreck on the coast of Australia. The atmosphere of the imaginary society described is Mohammedan, polygamy and an interest in adventures of an amorous natm-e being saUent features of it. The religion of the Sevarambes is Deism, with external features resembling the religion of the Tncas as reported by Beaudoin's translation of Garcilaso, as well as of the idols of the Tartars as reported by Marco Polo and Pierre Bergeron. A satire of the miracles of the Old and New Testaments is found in the long digression concerning the imposter Omigas. The priesthood of Europe is criticized in the story of the love of Dionistar and Ahinom^. The government of the country is despotic, but the despot is elected democratically. The despot is re- sponsible, through his representatives, for the feeding, clothing, and housing of his subjects. EquaUty of education, of clothing, of lodging, and of food is required by law. Marriage is compulsory. Chil- dren are educated and housed in pubUc schools from the age of seven. Military service is obhgatory for both sexes. Work on the land is required of all children until they demonstrate their fitness for higher types of labor. State ofiicials are permitted to have plural wives. Others IN FRENCH LITERATURE 139 are limited to one wife. The clergy are not exempted from civic duties. The language of the country is a "created" language, and is based on logical principles rather than on tradition. Rimed verse is not in use, and is considered barbaric.** " A long citation relative to rimed verse from the princeps edition (1678-1679) will be found in the Appendix. CHAPTER VI A POLITICAL SATIRE AND TWO TRANSLATIONS 1. L'lle de Borneo, of Fontenelle. 2. Le Philosophe Autodidade, of Ibn Thofail. 3. Le Criticon, of Baltasar Gracidn. 1. L'Ile de Borneo In Bayle's Nouvelles de h, Re-puhliqim des Lettres, in January 1686, there appeared the youthful Fontenelle's Relation de Vile de Born6o. This short account (five 12mo. pages), purporting to have been written from Batavia, and contained in a letter from Fontenelle to M. Basnage at Rotterdam, was a thinly veiled satire of the rehgious disputes in France at the time. Coining on the heels of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes the names of the characters "Mreo" and "Eenegu" were easily transposed by the reader to "Rome" and "Geneve," and by analogy to "Cathohcism" and "Protes- tantism." The "Borneo" of this brief account is simply France under another name, and offers no virtues to be imitated by the French. This satirical Relation is mentioned here to show clearly the difference both in purpose and form between this type of satire and the novel of Extraordinary Voyage. 2. Le Philosophe Autodidacte Another sort of imaginative work known in France before 1700, but of foreign authorship, is the Hayy ben Yaqdhan of Ibn Thofail, — a gifted Moslem author born 140 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 141 in Guadix, near Granada, about 1110. M. Lanson * has mentioned an analysis of this work in the BibliotMque universelle for 1686, under the title Le Philosophe autodi- dacte. There is a history of the pubhcation of this novel in the work of M. L. Gauthier.^ Those wishing to read the Hayy ben Yaqdhan carefully pubUshed in French are referred to the translation of M. Gauthier, published at Algiers in 1910. The novel is the life story of Hayy ben Yaqdhan, who grows from infancy to manhood upon a desert island with- out human companionship or instruction. Hayy dis- covers by native intelligence not only the laws of physical things but also the mysteries of esoteric reUgion. Upon learning human speech from a man who chances to visit the island, Hayy attempts to convey a knowledge of these mysteries to the inhabitants of a neighboring land. Find- ing this task impossible of execution, he returns to his island to pass the remainder of his life in contemplation. The inherent virtue of uninstructed man — the "primi- tive man" of years later — is extolled in this novel of amazingly wide philosophic scope. Translations and analyses of the Hayy ben Yaqdhan, although known in France before 1700, seem to have had no influence on the French novel until after the end of the century.' 3. Le Criticon A translation of the Criticon of Baltasar Gracidn (1585- 1658) appeared in France in 1696.^ It contained only 1 Origints el premibres manifestations de I'esprit philosophique, Revue des Cour.i et Conferences, 1909. ^ Ibn Thofail, sa vie, ses omwes. Paris, 1909. ' For importance in English Literature, cf. Martha P. Conant, The Oriental Tale in England in the 18th Century, New York, 1908. * L'homme deirompe, ou le Criticon, transl. Maunory (first Part only). 142 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE the first part of this novel, the complete translation appearing only after the beginning of the 18th Century.' - The first part of the Criticon is very similar to the Philosophe autodidade originally written by Ibn Thofail. Senor D. MarceUno Men^ndez y Pelayo, in the Prologo of El Filosofo autodidado de Abentofail,^ remarks the evident indebtedness of Gracidn to the Arabic novel, and laments the fact that the source of his knowledge of the earlier work is unknown. The Criticon opens with the arrival at the island of Saint Helena of Critilo, the lone survivor of a shipwreck. Having come ashore, this man tries to speak with a youth, Andrenio, who Uke Hayy ben Yaqdhan has grown to manhood without knowledge of human speeches. Having learned to talk, Andrenio shows that he has formed his own concepts of the world, that he has conceived vmaided the idea of a Deity and, in addition, a love for this Deity as manifested in nature. Here, as in the earlier Arabic novel, is a vindication of the inherent virtue and wisdom of imcorrupted man. It is in the stressing of moral rather than philosophical considerations that Gracid,n differs most markedly from his predecessor.' The work of this moralist has long been recognized as having an influence on the character of Man Friday in the Robinson Crusoe. Apparently no influence was exerted on 17th century French writers by translations of Gracidn and Ibn Thofail. In 1708, however, there appears a French novel, of the desert island type, strangely Uke the Robinson story of years later.* It happens that Defoe ' L'hmnme universel, transl. P. de Courbeville, 1723. ' Zaragoza, 1900. ' Cf . Ernest Seilli^e, Un grand moraliste oublU: Balthasar Oracidn, Institut de France. Acad. d. sci. mor. el polit. Sianees tt travavx, n. s. V. 73, pp. 474-492. * Les Voyages et aventures de Frangois Leguat et de ses compagnons, London, 1708. This strange book, whose realistic setting is taken IN FRENCH LITERATURE 143 was a man of genius and that the French author of years earlier was a mediocre writer. But the novel of a contemplative hfe on a desert island appears to have been influenced, both in Enghsh and in French Litera- ture of the 18th century by translations of the works of Thofail and of Gracidn. from French Relations de Voyages, is definitely a French creation. It was translated into English and published at London in the same year that it appeared in French. Copies of both the Enghsh and French versions are in the British Museum. The study of this novel will be undertaken by the present author in another vol- ume on the Extraordinary Voyage in French Literature after 1700. CHAPTER VTI LES AVENTUBES BE TSlSMAQUE OF FfiNELON 1. The Extraordinary Voyage. 2. The Ideal State. 3. The Reformed State. 4. General Concepts. 5. Conclusion. 1. The Extraordinakt Voyage F^nelon is the only great author of the 17th century who wrote a novel of the type of the Extraordinary Voyage. The Aventures de Telimague ' has been considered from so many points of view, by so many able critics, that for the present study there remains only to classify it with relation to other novels of Extraordinary Voyage. Although in spirit a didactic poem, this work has the form of a novel, and presents many of the characteristics of an Extraordinary Voyage as here defined. If it be admitted that the travels by land and sea of young T^l^maque are made to countries which exist, but of whose civiUzation at the epoch of these travels little is known, then this novel falls within the definition given. Although Minerva, in the guise of Mentor, accompanies T^l^maque in a great part of his travels, these travels are made by means which are possible. There is nothing ' Paris, 1699. The history of the publication of the T6lemaqui by F6nelon, the object of its composition for the education of the due de Bourgogne, and the events folfowing its publication, are too well known to require extended treatment here. The bibhography of the subject is contained in the Manuel bibliograpkigue of M. Lanson. 144 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE 145 marvelous or fantastic in these means themselves. With regard to the descent of T^Mmaque, while still alive, into Hades (Livre xiv), it can only be said that this journey- is reported to have been made by other living heroes belonging to the same epoch of history as T^Mmaque. To attempt to prove authenticated realism in the Aven- tures de TeUmaque would be futile. However, once in the atmosphere of ancient Greece which permeates the book, there is no striking lack of consistency, as far as the story itseK is concerned. Transparent references to society in Europe on the part of the author do tend to spoil the illusion, it is true. But it is by this very polemic element that the Aventures de Telemague is bound to the other Extraordinary Voyages. Whereas the novels of Foigny and Vairasse have only infrequent passages showing any beauty of style, and whereas beauty of style is a salient characteristic of the work of F&elon, the Telemague suffers from the same desire to preach on the part of its author that has been noted in the earher novels of the type. Here, as in other Extraordinary Voyages, the adventures of the hero are merely the medium in which is borne the pohtical, social, and philosophical content. This content does not come naturally from the events of the story, but rather directly from the mind of the author. That F6nelon's hero travels through the ancient world of the Eastern Mediter- ranean instead of the new worlds of Australasia, that these travels are told in a style that is lofty and poetic instead of rough and virile, distinguishes this novel from its predecessors of the same general type. But the rationalism of F6nelon, his hatred of the abuse of power, his convictions concerning the ideal state and its de- pendence both upon agriculture and the absence of luxury, all these conceptions bind the TiUmaque not only to the Terre australe connue and to the Histoire des Sevaranibes, 146 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE but also to the mass of similar writings which follow in the 18th century. The abihty of F^nelon to couch his personal ideas in a style that was pleasing, together with his prominent position at court, gave his novel a much greater in- fluence than that enjoyed by the other Extraordinary Voyages of the 17th century. Because of these two factors, the T&Umaque is read — willingly or unwillingly — by a great many people to this day. It contiaues to be read at the present time rather in spite of its polemic element than because of it. On the other hand, Foigny and Vairasse, lacking both the social position of F6nelon and his genius for expression, had a limited pubUc for such time as their ideas retained the interest that comes of novelty. They were read because of their rationaUstic and adventurous elements, and rather in spite of their style than because of it. When the interest in such ideas became more widespread, the increased pubKc turned by preference to more artistically constructed works, written by men of greater genius in expression. M. Le Breton has called attention to the fact that the TeUmaque appeared more Uke a novel to a 17th century public than it does to modern readers.' He likewise traces an element of adventure common to the school of d'Urf6 and to this novel of F^nelon.' M. Chinard has noted a general similarity between the adventures of this Greek hero and the heroes of exotic novels and accounts of exploration and adventure beyond the seas.* It is of course easy to feel in this novel the influence not only of the Greek epic but of the Italian and Spanish pastoral. Although the art of F^nelon would tend to produce an op- posite impression on the average reader, it is strange when one has read a large niunber of 17th centtiry accounts of ^ Le Roman au xmii ' sihcle, p. 2. ' Ibid., p. 8. * L'Am6rique et le rSve exotigue, pp. 215 et seq. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 147 adventure and discovery in new continents, how much at home one feels in reading the Telemague. That anything more than shght traces of other books of travel should be found in the TMemague is not to be expected. In the case of F^nelon, it is not a question, as it was with his predecessors, of determining the indebtedness of the author to this or that accoimt of travel in far lands. It is almost enough to indicate the shipMrrecks, the description of the port of Tyre (Livre iii), with its breakwaters, shipyards, polyglot population and bustle of trade, together with the clearing of land for agricul- tvu-e in several kingdoms, which savors of new countries rather than of old.^ There is no necessity for analysis of so well known a story as the Aventures de Telimaque. Neither does the mythology involved, and the supernatural appearance of gods to men in the novel need to be insisted upon. It would be useless, hkewise, to point out the numerous cases in which F^nelon calls attention to the virtues or vices of this or that King for the enlightenment of the due de Bourgogne. There are two main elements of the book, however, which are worthy of careful considera- tion here. These are: 1. The presentation of two states {La Betique and Salente), the one ideal, the other practical. - . 2. General considerations as to royalty and absolute power, theories of government, wisdom and efficacy of laws, property, rights of citizens, and Nature. 2. The Ideal State An ideal commonwealth, La Betique (livre vii) is re- ported by Adoam to T^l^maque. The travelers never see it themselves, but learn of its charms from a man ' A slightly more detailed imitation of the accounts of American Indians will be found in the discussion of La Betique which follows. 148 IHE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE who follows the sea. This ideal State is a reflection of other ideal commonwealths as reported by More, Bacon, Campanella and others, with certain extensive modi- fications. The chmate of this happy land is equable. Money is not in use. The inhabitants are cut off from other nations, on one side by high mountains, on the other by the sea. No other people has conquered them, for they prefer liberty to life. They never have wars with other lands. They are cordial to strangers, but have no desire to travel and to become acquainted with other lands. The inhabitants of La Betique gladly allow strangers to work mines in their country, but prefer for themselves the fruits of the earth's surface to the gold and silver to be found beneath. Practically all the inhabitants are either tillers of the soil or shepherds. They have no cities, no buildings, no building trades; they are not attached to any material things. Having no houses, they live like the nomads of the deserts or rather like the American Indians, having for residences: des tentes, dont les unes sont de peaux cirdes et les autres d'^corces d'arbres (Livre vii, p. 143). ' Tous les biens sont communs (p. 145). lis sont tous libres et ^gaux (p. 145). Chaque famille, errante dans ce beau pays, transporte ses tentes d'un lieu en un autre, quand elle a consum6 les fruits et 6puis6 les p&turages de I'endroit oil eUe s'^tait mise (p. 145). Again Uke the American Indians, it is the women who do a good share of the work; particularly the making of shoes is the work of women: Elles emploient le cuir de leius moutons h, faire une l^g^re chaussure pour elles, pour leurs maris, et pour leurs enfants (p. 143). ° References are to Avenlures de Tilimague, ed. Didot Frferes, Paris, 1859. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 149 M. Chinard has indicated ' the similarity of the civili- zation in La Betique to that of the American Indians as reported by the missionaries in Brazil and in Canada. What is perhaps as important as this undoubted in- debtedness on the part of F^nelon is the difference between this ideal state and ideal states of earlier authors. The people of La Betique have no institutionalized society, no slaves, no wars, no mines, no interest in wealth or material things. This serves to differentiate them from all imaginary peoples previously reported to have been found. Foigny succeeded in imagining a society free of slaves, and free from almost all interest in material things — but wars existed even in the Australia of the bisexual brothers. The Betique of F^nelon is by far the most complete and consistent accoxmt of a colony of simple, peace-loving, free-and-equal people. Here is no institutionaUsm. Nothing of the earth, nothing of pas- sion, hate, fear, or ambition renders these divinely happy people similar to other human beings. The question naturally arises: How did these people attain this imearthly virtue? The answer is not far to- seek; but that it should come from an ecclesiastic, and before 1700, is striking. Ces hommes sages . . . n'ont appris la sagesse qu'en ^tudiant. la simple nature (p. 144). Tdldmaque . . . se r^jouissait qu'il y edt encore au monde un peuple, qui, suivant la droits nature, fUt si sage et si heureux tout ensemble . . . Nous sommes tellement g&t^, qn'k peine pouvons-nous croire que cette simplicity si naturelle puisse etre veritable. Nous regardons les moeurs de ce peuple comme une belle fable, et il doit regarder les notres comme un songe mons- trueux (p. 150). It has been seen that Foigny's AustraUans did not sin in Adam, and that therefore his novel was considered ' L'Am&rique et le rSve exoiique, pp. 216-217. 150 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE sacrilegious. The general pagan atmosphere of the TeUmaque throws one off the scent in this regard. The fact remains that by following, unenlightened, "la droite nature," and by studying, imenHghtened, "la simple nature," these people have maintained an origi- nal perfection unknown not only in ancient Greece, but also in 17th century France. Here in 1699 are the full- blown "good savage" of the 18th century and the poetic, nomadic Indians of Chateaubriand. 3. The Reformed State In the Kingdom of Salente (Livres x, xi, xvii) is a dif- ferent concept from that foimd in La Bitique. The realm of King Idom6n6e, Salente, being in many ways similar to European communities of the 17th century, is in need of reform in order that it may become more perfect. The reforms are^ effected and the results noted. This is distinctly new in one sense. In the Terre australe connve of Foigny, in the Utopia of More, the Nova Atlantis of Bacon, the Civitas Solis of Campanella, a gradual process of development has taken place. At the time of the visit of the explorer, the per- fected civiUzation is a fact of long standing. In the Histoire des Yncas of Garcilaso and in the Histoire des Sivarambes a high type of civiHzation is reported to have been developed by a wise leader and his followers. But in these two cases the wise man came into a barbarous country where practically everything remained to be done, and where no traditions opposed the installation of the new way of Uving. In Salente, it is a case of re- forming a fairly high type of civiHzation which already exists. This is a striking novelty. Other imaginary lands in which the people have faults, vices, and suffering have been presented satirically. Such are Les Herma- IN FRENCH LITERATURE 151 phrodites of Thomas Artus and the Relation de Vile de Bornio of Fontenelle. In the Salente of F^nelon, occurs for the first time synthetic criticism of society, sug- gestion of reforms, practice of reforms with the re- sults demonstrated. The idea of progress is definitely present. In the history of the reforms carried out in Salente, (Livres x, xi) it is not a question of an unbeHevable king- dom of the imagination. Mentor suggests to Idom^nee one reform after another to lead his people to virtue. Social, legal, and educational remedies are suggested for existing evils. These are put into practice. Later (Livre xvii), when T^Mmaque retvu'ns to Salente, he cannot beUeve his eyes. In a short time the reforms have been carried out. T^Mmaque remarks the simplified life of the people, the lack of useless ornaments and luxury of all sorts in the city, and the flourishing condition of the surroimding cotmtry districts. Mentor explains to him in detail this remarkable change, but the most striking amelioration is that resulting from the return to the land: Tout le pays n'est qu'une seule ville; Salente ri'en est que le centre. Nous avons transports de la ville dans la campagne les homines qui manquaient £b la campagne, et qui 4taient superflus dans la viUe. De plus, nous avons attir6 dans ce pays beaucoup de peuples Strangers. On n'a rejetS de cette viUe que les arts superflus, qui dStournent les pauvres de la culture de la terre pour les vrais besoins, et qui corrompent les riches en les jetant dans le faste et dans la mollesse; mais nous n'avons fait aucun tort aux beaux-arts, ni aux hommes qui ont un vrai ginie pour les cultiver (pp. 392-393, Livre xvii). A striking sentence of Mentor is that dealing with the past magnificence and pomp of the court of Idom^nfe: Get Sclat Sblouissant cachait une faiblesse et une mis^re qui eussent bientot renversS son empire (p. 393). 152 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE In books X, xi, and xvii occurs the welding, thanks to the idea of progress, of two elements in literature that had long remained separated: the destructive satire and the far-off Utopia. Regardless of F6nelon's intentions, and whether or not satire of Louis XIV is intended, there is here a demonstrated reform of a society not unUke that found in France toward 1700. Uniform clothing , according to rank and other external features borrowed from preexistent Utopias are found to be sure, but the indirect suggestion by example of the earher ideal accounts is left far behind. Such radical changes as abolishing private property and money are not attempted. Only remedies which seem practical are suggested. The reader of the three books deahng with Salente in the Aventures de Tilemaque is informed of remedies which will change evil conditions, such as exist in France, and is permitted to see the practical prosecution of these reforms, and the results of their appUcation in Salente. F^nelon was not alone in having ideas of reform at this date (1699). Colbert had died in disgrace sixteen years before, and the extravagance, wars, and persecu- tions of the years following his death doubtless caused many to think seriously upon the matter of state ex- penditures and their relation to taxation. There also comes in the last twenty years of the 17th century a well defined feeUng that the masses are imposed upon for the benefit of the few. These sentiments find expres- sion after the end of the 17th centmry, in the Projet de dime royale of Vauban' and in many other protests.' » 1707. ' For general aspects of this spirit of dissatisfaction in France before 1700, see G. Lanson, Histoire de la litt6ratwre fran^aise {Les origines du xviii' siicle), and Le rdle de V experience dans la formation de la philosophie du xviii' sibcle en France. Revue du Mois, 1910. Also J. Delvaille, Essai sur I'histoire de l'id4e de -progrh, Paris, 1910, pp. 245-247. IN FRENCH LITERATURE 153 Doubtless the ideas referred to were shared by F^nelon with many others at the time the TMemaque was written. 4. General Concepts That a man of the cultm-e of Fenelon should have had many ideas, and ideas of a general philosophic nature, is only natural. His genius however lay in his ability to formulate these ideas in words, and more particularly to state them in epigrammatic form. One source of F6- nelon's influence must be sought in these epigrammatic statements, which lend themselves to quotation and which are therefore remembered after the details in- volved ia the particular work are forgotten. This same ability to express general concepts in terse form is a characteristic not only of Fenelon, but of many other writers of his epoch. It may be said in passing that La Rochefoucauld hves to this day because of this one quality. Epigrammatic abiUty of expression on the part of Fenelon causes one to remember to-day the statement of Socrates to Alcibiades: ^^ Le droit de conquete est un droit moins fort que celui de I'humanit^. The TeUmaqm shares with the Dialogues des Morts this richness in epigrams, and was therefore a particularly forceful novel of social criticism. It is worth while there- fore to consider some of these in the TeUmague, and to divide them into classes. 1. Royalty Quiconque est capable de mentir est indigne d'etre compt6 au nombre des hommes; et quiconque ne sait pas se taire est indigne de gouverner (L. iii, p. 39). i» Diahgues des Morts, Socrate et Akibiade. 154 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE Nous regardions avec horreur iin roi livr6 k I'avarice et k la volupt6 (L. iii, p. 54). Le roi ne doit rien avoir au-dessus des autres, excepts ce qui est n^cessaire, ou pour le soulager dans ses pfoibles fonctions, ou pour imprimer aux peuples le respect (L. v, p. 77). Le plus malheureux de tous les homines est un roi qui croit ^tre heureux en rendant les autres hommes mis&ables (L. v, p. 87). Un roi enti^rement tourn^ k la guerre voudroit toujours la faire: pour ^tendre sa domination et sa gloire propre, il ruinerait ses peuples (L. v, pp. 88-89). Un conqu^rant est un homme que les dieux, irrit^s contre le genre humain, ont donn6 k la terre dans leur colore . . . (L. vii, p. 146). Heureux celui qui n'^tant point esclave d'autrui, n'a point la folle ambition de faire d'autrui son esclave (L. vii, p. 146). Mais c'est I'autorit^ qui met tous les talents k une rude 6preuve, et qui d^couvre de grands d^fauts (L. x, p. 209). Un roi, quelque bon et sage qu'il soit, est encore homme. Son esprit a des bornes, et sa vertu en a aussi (L. x, p. 210). les pays o\l la domination du souverain est plus absolue sont ceux oil les souverains sont moins puissants . . . Le roi, qui ne pent 6tre roi tout seul et qui n'est grand que par ses peuples, s'an6antit lui-m6me peu k peu par I'an^antissement des peuples . . . Le m^pris, la haine, le ressentiment, la defiance . . . toutes les passions se r^unissent contre une autorit6 si odieuse (L. x, p. 227). leur excessive magnificence fondfe sur la ruine des peuples . . . leur cruaut6 qui cherche chaque jour de nouvelles d^lices parmi les larmes et le d&espoir de tant de malheureux (L. xiv, p. 328). le travail qui doit 6tre inseparable de la royaut^, pour le soulage- ment des peuples (L. xiv, p. 330). IN FRENCH LITERATURE 155 les rois qui, au lieu d'etre de bons et vigilants pasteurs des peuples, n'avaient song6 qu'^ ravager le troupeau comma des loups d^vorants (L. xiv, p, 331). Ainsi, les bons rois sont tres-rares; et la plupart sont si mdchants que . . . (L. sdv, p. 336). 2. Laws and Property Although the general statements in the TSUmaque regarding laws, property, morals, rehgion, and nature are not so clearly epigrammatic in form as is the case in statements regarding royalty, there are nevertheless a number of ideas on these subjects so clearly and concisely put that they deserve quotation. Les bons rameurs m^mes ont des recompenses sftres, ... on les nourrit bien; on a soin d'eux quand ils sont maladesj en leur absence on a soin de leurs fenimes et de leurs enfants; s'ils p6rissent dans un naufrage, on d^dommage leurs families. C'est ainsi qu'on mibne les hommes, sans contrainte . . . L'autorit^ seule ne fait jamais bien (L. iii, p. 50). il ne faut permettre k chaque famiUe . . . de pouvoir poss6der que I'dtendue de terre absolument n6cessaire Cette rSgle etant inviolable, les nobles ne pourront point faire des acquisi- tions sur les pauvres (L. x, p. 225). Ici on punit trois vices , . . : I'ingratitude, la dissimulation et I'avarice (L. v, p. 76). la liberty du commerce 6tait enti^re: bien loin de le giner par des imp6ts, on promettait une recompense k tous les marchans qui pourraient attirer k Salente le commerce de quelque nouvelle nation ... On punit s^v^rement toutes les banqueroutes, parce que celles qui sont exemptes de mauvaise foi ne le sont presque jamais de temerity (L. x, p. 214). presque tous les hommes ont I'inclination de se marier; il n'y a que la misfire qui les en empeche. Si vous ne les chargez 156 THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE point d'imp6ts, ils vivront sans peine avec leurs femmes et leurs enfants (L. x, p. 222). Les princes avides et sans pr^voyance ne songent qu'^ charger d'imp6ts . . . (L. x, p. 223). II y a deux choses pemicieuses, dans le gouvernement des peuples, auxquelles on n'apporte presque jamais aucun remade ... La premiere est une autorit^ injuste et trop violente dans les rois; la seconde est le luxe, qui corrompt les moeurs (L. xvii, p. 393). N'entreprenez jamais de giner le commerce pour le tourner selon vos vues. II faut que le prince ne s'en mfile point, de peur de le gSner, et qu'il en laisse tout le profit k ses sujets qui en ont la peine (L. iii, p. 48). 3. War F^nelon's hatred of war appears not only in the absence of war in la Betigue, and in Mentor's success in keeping Tdom^n^e from engaging in wars, but also in many ex- pressions of sentiment against war in general. Senti- ments imfavorable to kings of the conqueror type have already been cited. General sentiments against war are found throughout the TdUmaque. That these are reflections of F4nelon's reading of the Ancients does not decrease their force in 1699. Some few are: II faut ^tre toujours pr^t k faire la guerre, pour n'fitre jamais r^duit au malheur de la faire (L. x, p. 221). le vrai moyen d'61oigner la guerre et de conserver une longue paix, c'est de cultiver les armes . . . c'est d'etre ^galement in- capable et de faire la guerre par ambition, et de la craindre par mollesse (L. xi, pp. 262-263). En rentrant dans le camp, ils virent ce que la guerre a de plus lamentable: les malades et les blesses . . . poussant vers le ciel d'une voix plaintive et mourante des cris douloureux . . . voili les maux que la guerre entratne aprfis elle! . . . Les malheureux mortels! ils ont si peu de jours k vivre sur la terre! ces jours IN FRENCH LITERATURE 157 sont si mis^rables! pourquoi pr6cipiter une mort d^jS. si pro- chaine! (L. xiii, p. 304). Les lions ne font point la guerre aux lions . . . ils n'attaquent que les animaux d'espSce diff^rente: Thomme seul, malgr6 sa raison, fait ce que les animaux sans raison ne firent jamais . . . Combien y a-t-il de terres d^sertes! le genre humain ne saurait les remplir. Quoi done! une fausse gloire, un vain titre de conqu^rant, qu'un prince veut acqu6rir, allume la guerre dans des pays immenses! (L. xiii, p. 305). 4. Cosmopolitanism If pity for the suffering of the poor, the sick, and the wounded has a flavor of sensibilite, the cosmopoHtanism of the Telemaque is even more definitely a symptom of the great cosmopolitanism of the 18th century. The election of a king in Crete (L. v) has a certain similarity to the internationalism of the Olympic Games. Men of many lands compete in the athletic and mental com- petitions. Cosmopolitanism is urged, however, not only as a benefit in one country but as a pohcy among states. Recevez bien et facUement tous les strangers; faites-leur trouver dans vos ports la sdret^, la commodity, la liberty enti6re (L. iii, p. 47). Les peuples y aecoururent bient6t en foule de toutes parts . . . chacun . . . vivait, paisible et en s 73 n, 74, 99 n, 119 n, 126 n, 133 n, 141, 144 n, 152 n, 158, 159 n La Rochefoucauld, F. de, 153 Le Blanc, V., 8, 9, 25-34, 48, 57, 58, 60 n, 61 n, 67, 119 n, 157 n Le Braz, A., vi Le Breton, A., 146 Leguat, F., 105, 119, 142 n Le Jeune, P., 7 Le Mercier, F., 7 Le Strange, G., 57 L'Hermite, J., 23 Lichtenberger, A., x, xi, xii n, 89, 92 n, 135 n Linguet, S. N. H., xii Loaisa, G. de, 23 Lodewijcks, G. M., 8 Lyser, J., 119 n Magellan, F. de, 23, 40 Mann, W. E., 165 n Marchand, P., 88, 89, 90, 91, 108, 118 Martini, M., 10 Martino, P., 2 n, 10, 118 n Marucci, G., 9 Mentodez y Pelayo, M., 142 Mocquet, J., 4, 5, 10, 33 n, 34, 119 n INDEX TO NAMES OF PERSONS 189 Molinet, J., 59 More, T., 11, 13, 15, 19, 49, 54 n 93, 129, 148, 150 Moreri, L., 90 n Morhof, J., 88, 92 Morisot, C. B., 9 Motte, Houdar de la. A., 133 Mustawfi, Hamd-AUah, 56 Saint-Evremond, C. de, 68 Sanson, N. (d' Abbeville), 9 Schouten, W., 23 Scudgry, M., 35 Segrais, J., de, 34, 35, 45 n SeUUgre, E., 142 n Siden (anagram of "Denis." See: Vairasse) Sidney, 89 Simon, R., 130 n Spencer, H., 105 Spiers, A. G. H., vi Spinoza, B. 68 Tasman, A., 23 Tavernier, J. B., 113 n, 118 n, 119 n Patot (see: Tyssot) Paulmier, B. (de Gonneville), 22 n, 23, 40, 52 n, 79 n, 93 n PeUeprat, P., 7 Pelsart, F., 23, 95, 96, 98, 99, 106, 138 Pigafetta, P., 50 Pizarro, F., 24, 117 Plato, 11, 19, 57, 74, 85, 93, 101, xhgvenot, M., 23, 95 n, 99 n 129 Plutarch, 19 Polo, M., 2, 22, 26, 29, 109 113 n, 115, 118 Pontac, Mme. de, 34 Prior, O. H., 54 n Pufendorf, S., 126 n Purchas, 23, 26, 78 n Thofail (see: Tufail) Thomas (see: Artus) Tiphaigne de la Roche, xii Todd, H. A., vi Torres, D. B. de, 8 Torres, P. de, 41, 78 Tiifail, I., 140, 141 n, 142 Tyssot de Patot, S., 119, 126 n Quir (or Queiros), P. F., de, 23 n 41 n, 55 n, 76, 77, 78, 79, 85 Rabelais, F., 13 Racine, J., xii Ragueneau, P., 7 R6tif de la Bretonne, xii Rhodes, A., 9, 10 , Rousseau, J. J., xii, 3, 105, 106, 122 n Ruge, S., 79 n Saavedra, F., 23 Sadeur: (see Foigny) Vairasse, D., xii, 33, 35, 39, 49, 63, 87-139, 145, 146, 163, 164, 165 Vauban, S. le P. de, 152 Vimont, B., 7 Vitr6, F. M. de, 8, 10 Voltaire, xii Vossius, G. J., 73 n Vossius, I., 89 Wackwitz, F., 21 n, 39 Weeks, R., vi Wytfliet, C, 3 VITA Born October 21st, 1892, at Brooklyn, New York, I attended the Horace Mann School, New York City, from 1899 to 1908. I entered Columbia College in 1908 and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, in 1910. Having withdrawn from the study of medicine, I matriculated in the Junior Class at Amherst CoUege in September 1911, and graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Jime 1913. In 1913- 1914, 1 attended graduate courses in Romance Languages, Romance Philology, and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, receiving the degree of Master of Arts in June 1914. The summer of 1914 I spent in study at Paris. From September 1914 to June 1916, I was Listructor in Modem Languages at Union College, Schenectady, New York, teaching courses in French, Spanish, German, and English. The summer of 1915 I spent in Spain and France, receiving the Superior Diploma for the summer course conducted by the Junta para ampliacion de estudios at Madrid. From September 1916 to January 1917, and again from March to May 1917, 1 pursued graduate courses in the Romance Language Department at Columbia University, chiefly those given in French Literature by Professor Lanson, and those given in Spanish Literature by Professor de Onfs. From January to March 1917, I acted as Secretary and In- terpreter to the Rockefeller Tuberculosis Commission to France. On May 5th, 1917, I enlisted as a private. Medical Department, United States Army, and sailed 191 192 VITA from New York May 14th, 1917, for duty with the British Expeditionary Force in France. In January 1919 T re- turned to the United States and was discharged from the United States Army as 1st Lieutenant, Sanitary Corps. From March to May 1919, I was Assistant in French at Teachers College, Columbia University, and from September 1919 until the present time, I have held an instructorship in Romance Languages at Columbia College. My indebtedness to my teachers has been acknowledged in the preface. Wrtt'