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5.0 out of 5 stars
French twist, July 12, 2009
This review is from: A Voyage to California, the Sandwich Islands, and Around the World in the Years 1826-1829 (Hardcover)
In some ways, Auguste Duhaut-Cilly's memoir is one of the most interesting of the early travel writings about the eastern Pacific, but for some reason it has not been available in English.
"A Voyage to California" is more relevant to Alta and Baja California than to Hawaii. Duhaut-Cilly spent two years on the California coast, trying to open up a French trade and getting the chance to observe the crisis created when the new Mexican Republic expelled the Spaniards. Duhaut-Cilly, a republican and ardent Catholic, was pulled in both directions but religion finally overcame politics and he sided with the Spanish friars.
His bigotry carried over to Hawaii, where his opinions about the New England Congregationalist missionaries are some of the harshest on record. He wrote, "We observed the cruel treatment inflicted by these missionaries in the name of religion on the islanders who rebelled against their strictures -- cruelties, I say, quite comparable to those charged against the inquisitors of Spain and Portugal."
They were hardly that bad. Hawaiians were never "put to the question" (interrogated under torture), much less burned alive.
Even though his feelings were strong, Duhaut-Cilly was intelligent enough not to get involved in the French plot to force Catholic missionaries on the unwilling Oahu alii (chiefs).
The French captain was a great admirer of the islands and of the islanders. Coasting along Oahu's North Shore, he described impressions of "fearsome precipices, one towering over the other, of impenetrable forests rising in great steps above other forests, dark chasms of frightful depth, steep and slippery, bare wet rocks mingling their dark color with the somber green of old trees. High and gleaming cascades, after descending for hundreds of yards, threw themselves into the tree tops, where they burst into foam only to reunite and fall again until some fissure in the rocks provided a channel for a gentler descent to the sea."
Duhaut-Cilly adds hardly anything to the historical record, although one of his opinions deserves attention. In Honolulu, this veteran of Napoleon's "wars of liberation," wrote, "We no longer live in an age when a power may seize, without scruple or respect for property, any land that it may discover. Today such an act will arouse the indignation of the entire Christian and civilized world."
A bad prediction, but the appeal of the book is the lively writing and Duhaut-Cilly's typically French philosophizing, which is totally lacking in the banal accounts of English and American skippers.
His account does flesh out a bit the career of Jean-Baptiste Rives, a famous haole (white) troublemaker in Liholilo's reign. Rives, who Duhaut-Cilly identifies only as "Monsieur R.," was Duhaut-Cilly's supercargo (trading agent), and he caused Duhaut-Cilly plenty of trouble, too.
Although Duhaut-Cilly's account has been published in English before, until now it never has been all in one place, nor in hard covers. (Some purely nautical material has been left out of this edition, too.) Furthermore, according to translator August Fruge, previous translation were defective. This one reads very easily. There also are plenty of explanatory notes by Fruge and Neal Harlow.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Poet-Captain's Narrative, November 28, 2010
This review is from: A Voyage to California, the Sandwich Islands, and Around the World in the Years 1826-1829 (Hardcover)
What this volume lacks, in graphic description of the doings of this French merchant ship, its officers & seamen, the weather they encountered, their living conditions, the hardships & joys of daily life & the sweat of their tasks, while sail-ing from France southwest & around Cape Horn, up the Pacific to the Californias, Baja & Alta, & back down again, all several times, as the crew of the Héros en-deavors to trade her cargo at a profit for whatever of value available in its many ports of call, attempting to increase its profit over their 2 years on the coast, until finally sailing off for Hawaii to trade more, then to Canton to trade once more be-fore circumventing the globe & sailing home, this & more (or less) may be found in Dana's remarkable Two Years Before the Mast, which speaks of events just shy of a decade later.
But what is lacking in Two Years & found here, are poetic descriptions of the Californias, of the Missions, Priests & Indians (here, our Author-Capitan, be-ing Catholic, is not as caustic as Dana; but nor does he give uncritical accep-tance), & of the land & its seasons, of small civil communities soon to burst forth, a horseback ride to explore south of San Francisco & sailing across that great Bay, its place names already been given.
Although more understanding of the Spanish attempt at colonizing, Capi-tan Duhaut-Cilly is a fair critic of its failures & the degeneration of society, particu-larly in Alta California. Writing less than 5 years after Mexico became independ-ent & at the pinnacle of the Mission experiment, one sees through his eyes & hears his prophesy what shall already be in advanced state of decay by the time Dana arrives, & moreso a decade thereafter when Frémont & Co. overwhelmed the Hispanic residents despite their many blunders.
He describes unique matters, the Russian trade in sea otter furs & their tightly knit community at Fort Ross, the expulsion of the Spanish by Mexican de-cree, his journey into Oahu & the impending decline of the Hawaiian people.
Capitan Duhaut-Cilly is an ethnographer, & one feels his objectivity, albeit limited by the historical perception of his times, but not nearly so elitist as many Protestants of that epoch who saw nothing noble in anything alien, be it a Multi-Theistic Native, a Papist or a Tralfamadorian.
And our Capitan's description of the seafaring merchant's trade, its disap-pointments & successes, makes us realize how advanced the entire process al-ready was, the sea routes well-known, with many references to the writings of those nautical pathfinders who came before cherished by those who relied thereon.
This is no sterile chronicle, but a living & remarkable read, one to treasure & sa-vor in wonderment.
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