Die Vogel-Fauna von Norddeutschland (German Edition)

Asked to total up costs and returns of the project shortly before he left, the author asserts that in , the debts of the mine were about f 70, When he assumed the direction, they had been f , As proof of his achievements, Vogel reprints the reference he received when he left Sumatra in Dutch and in German translation , testifying to his achievements What had led Vogel to think he could make the mine a more profitable enterprise, in spite of what Olitzsch had written?

He says he trusted the verdict of Hertsingh more than that of Olitzsch, not least because the unfortunate mine-director had spent most of his time in Salido on his sickbed and saw little of the mines at first hand. Of course Hertsingh had never even seen the Indies. Nevertheless, the mine continued to be a costly enterprise, and Vogel apparently does not include expenses like costs for personnel or the necessary military protection in his calculation. Scenes of Sumatran Life. The long stay on the island offered the author a chance to observe Sumatran life fairly closely.

He was naturally disappointed not to visit the exotic places he had hoped to see: Vogel nevertheless determined to observe the landscape around Salido at first hand, often riding into the surrounding wilds, even at risk of his life Like other travelers, he devotes considerable space to the wildlife of the Indies. Thus, he made the acquaintance of a herd of elephants, and, what was more dangerous, as the Malays assured him, a solitary bull elephant Rhinos, crocodiles, orangutans, and other large animals receive attention, and Vogel takes time to list the small and mostly noxious fauna peculiar to the area: Although his contacts with villagers were not intensive, still he provides more information on rural life than most visitors to the Indies, who were.

Thus, he offers a careful description of wet-rice agriculture and weighs its advantages, given the tropical climate, over other methods of growing grain. He also tells how rice is stored, husked, and cooked , Another crop of interest is, of course, pepper The prospecting expedition to Bayang gave him a chance to see more of local life. Annoyed that the "Sultan" of Bayang and the penghulus had failed to deliver food to his party - although it was agreed it would be paid for - Vogel on a Sunday paid a visit to the weekly market of Bayang.

Not only were there plenty of provisions available, the market attracted, in his estimate, some two thousand participants. Vogel was surprised to see that only men bought and sold at the markets, while the women did the work at home and watched the fields, a certain reversal of gender roles as he knew them. Once the buying and selling had ended, the crowd turned to cockfighting and gambling On the other hand, the military expedition in the Bayang-Tarusan area, where pepper and gold deliveries to the Company had not met expectations, hardly brought him into contact with local people.

In general, inhabitants, above all women and children, deserted the "Negery [nagari, village]" when the soldiers approached.

Johann Wilhelm Vogel and the Sumatran Gold Mines: One Man's Fortune

Instead, only a few leaders would appear to negotiate with the Company forces. If they proved "repentant", the VOC simply imposed a fine, if not, the village might be burned down and its fields destroyed.

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Any fortifications were leveled As a rule, Malay women avoided even being seen by European men. An exception was the hospitality shown him by "Sultan Saladin" of Bayang, 27 a "very polite gentleman [ein sehr ziviler Herr] ", who invited him to dine in his house and had his women serve the meal. Vogel ate his chicken and fish curries which he also describes in detail alone, for, he assures us, a Muslim will not dine with a Christian. Nevertheless, he used the opportunity to discuss various matters with his host, who then sent out for four women to play on drums Rabannen, which he says are like kettle drums used by the military, only not as tall and dance for the amusement of the guest.

He assumes they are prostitutes Difficulties with local rulers were a constant accompaniment. This Dutch official, whom Vogel criticizes as. Vogel ' s participation in the military expedition he held the rank of "Vendrigh [vaandrig]" that is, officer-candidate, but was made provisional lieutenant during the campaign was in part a welcome relief from his time at the mine, where the new director was often drunk. Like other warfare in the Indies it was often tedious going, as his description emphasizes, but there was relatively little loss of life on either side. Finally, with the arrival of a new mine director whom Vogel also thought was incompetent , the authorities in Padang and Batavia at last agreed to release him from his contract and let him return to Europe.

Nevertheless, his employers repeatedly tried to convince him to re-enlist, offering increased pay and higher military rank. Vogel insists that what made him want to return to Germany was not dissatisfaction with his work but above all the earnest longing to practice his Lutheran religion again Finally allowed to depart from Sumatra in November , he returned to Germany with his personal diary of his experiences in late and found employment again with Duke Friedrich I in Gotha and Altenburg.

By August 23, , he had prepared a manuscript of his travels, which is dedicated to his employer and now reposes in the research library of Gotha in Schloss Friedenstein. Published the following year, the work says comparatively little about Vogel' s experience in Sumatra, filling only about thirty pages and,.

Perhaps Vogel felt this information was still confidential and hesitated to write more. After his return to Gotha , , he appended descriptions of important sites in the East Indies and other Dutch stations in Asia , to , as well as a section on coins, weights and measures something also close to his professional interest. His reticence about the mine experience soon disappeared. Friends had encouraged him to write more, and the second, edition which is also the most widespread, judging by its distribution in libraries today , says more about his years in mine and military service.

By this time, of course, Hesse's accounts had been published and Vogel may have felt he no longer had to keep East Indian matters in confidence also, the mine adventure had been closed down in , but was he aware of that? In addition, it seems clear that Vogel was eager to put his experiences in the best possible light, thus furthering his career in Germany. Meanwhile, in , Vogel had brought out another book, a collections of lists and equivalencies of weights, measures and coins in use, mostly in Europe, with tables, for example, for figuring interest rates.

The and accounts, which are almost identical, are divided into three parts. Vogel reminds the duke how much he owed to his father, Friedrich I. The first sections of these two editions relate the voyage to Batavia, and the account of the journey does not differ greatly from other traveler's tales about the same route. His stay in Batavia permitted the author to describe the city in some detail. The second part is Vogel's experience in Sumatra.

As shown, he elaborates greatly on Hesse's account, having had a longer and more intense experience of the area. Animals, crops, markets, and local people get attention, as do the battles with rebellious neighbors and the troubles with English rivals. Finally, the third section takes us from Sumatra to Batavia and back to the Netherlands, then, finally, to his destination in Gotha.

Vögel bestimmen: Tauben im Vergleich - NABU

The appendix again discusses Asian lands, as did the edition, most of which Vogel could not have known first-hand. It adds, like the earlier work, a list of coins, weights and measures. In the preface to the edition which, interestingly, has no dedication , Vogel claims to be retelling only what he either. At least one passage in the appendix reproduces parts of Schmalkalden's text on Japan, which, given the Gotha connection, is perhaps not surprising. On his return to the Netherlands, Vogel presented the VOC 's directors with a lengthy report on the mine and its potential, as well as several samples of ore.

His calculations were optimistic enough to lead the Gentlemen to offer to re-employ him at the mine at a larger salary and an even higher rank, but he refused his salary had already risen from 20 guilders per month to 40 before he left the Indies. To add weight to their offer, they delayed paying him his salary for the time in the Indies for weeks after he had landed.

Before he returned to Germany, he was able to attend a Lutheran service at the newly-built church in the presence of Duke Friedrich I of Saxe-Gotha- Altenburg, his employer of bygone times in Gotha. Although he did not manage to get an audience with the visiting duke, he did recommend himself to others in the entourage, and he hoped a job would be waiting for him when he returned to Gotha.

On October 13, , he left for Germany. Employment was not promptly forthcoming and he considered returning to Amsterdam and to Sumatra, as his VOC employers had urged. Finally, at the beginning of , he was hired as mine inspector and even given retroactive pay for part of the time spent waiting. His personal life was less fortunate; his wife and all but one of his children preceded him in death. Johann Wilhelm Vogel died in Coburg July 17, , at the age of sixty-six.

Neither Vogel nor Hesse returned to Germany as wealthy men, but Vogel was more successful in managing his fate. Hesse relates bitterly that he was unable to find employment in Dresden, because, he claims, he was of hum-. Finally, he joined the service of Brandenburg and saw action as a soldier in Venice. He died in , before the second edition of his work appeared, at the age of thirty-one. Vogel did manage to capitalize on his Indies experiences. His good fortune in crossing the path of Duke Friedrich while in Amsterdam seems to have opened the way for his re-employment in Gotha and later in Altenburg.

He became "Cammer-Meister" or head of the chancellery in Altenburg and "Rath" in Coburg and, as mentioned, he was also employed as a mine inspector. Probably, his travel account, which emphasizes how well he managed the mines under adversity, helped his career. Unfortunately, the series was not continued after and a reprint of Vogel never appeared. As a result, only a few accounts of the West Sumatran misadventure refer to his work, virtually all of them to the edition. An echo of Vogel's travelogue appeared about a century later.

In , a great-grandson of Vogel, J. Ernesti, drew attention to his illustrious maternal ancestor with a biography of Vogel that cited extensively from the book. Ernesti begins with an argument for the importance of the Indies to Germany, something that may have seemed remote in Then he turns to an informative biography of Vogel. He confirms based on autobiographical notes he consulted that Vogel came from a middle-class family of clerks and businessmen in Ernstroda.

He entered secondary school Gymnasium in Gotha Duke Ernst I, a patron of religion and education, had quartered it in Schloss Friedenstein , learning Greek and Latin, but left at the age of 17, unable to afford to continue his studies. While still in school, he began work at Friedenstein as a clerk, and a full-time job was waiting for him when he quit school. His tasks involved not only writing and keeping accounts, but overseeing mining and coinage, that is, as assayer. In four years in the administration in Gotha, he earned enough to help support his parents. As noted, Caspar Schmalkalden had awakened his desire to go abroad - for adventure, not fortune.

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Here, he cites several passages from the book. Those dealing with the Indies include the description of Batavia and its inhabitants , ; in Vogel , , the Javanese , ; Vogel , , Sumatra , ; Vogel , Padang , ; Vogel , the Malays of Sumatra, their agriculture and their hospitality , ; Vogel passim. Ernesti compares the information in these text with more recent travel accounts, showing his familiarity with the literature of his day.

The VOC's decision to work the Sumatran mines with European methods resulted from a technological hybris that led officials to believe "modern" science and modern mining would produce gold and silver in plenty. They looked down on native methods, which were, in reality, far better adapted to both the geology and the climatic conditions of the region.

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Vogel's conclusion about the profitability of working the mines stands in contrast to the negative reports of other observers on the scene. But his motives bear closer scrutiny. First of all, he neglects the cost in human life - perhaps not an unusual viewpoint in his day - and probably other material costs as well. Second, his calculations about profits and losses of the mine probably reflect an overoptimistic assessment of the value of the ores produced, as noted above.

Gold and silver were not smelted in Sumatra, but in Europe, and yields were disappointing. Thank you for your participation!

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