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MAURICE (or MORIC) BENYOVSZKY | ||||
![]() Moric Benyovszky was an adventurer who died in 1786, aged not quite forty, killed by French troops on Madagascar. He was born in 1746 in the old Kingdom of Hungary (in a town which is now in Slovakia). Into his short life he packed more excitements and travels than any man could reasonably hope for. Fighting for the Polish insurgents in their brief war of independence against Imperial Russia, he was captured and sent to Siberia. He escaped from there in double-quick time, made his way to China and then back to Europe. In later life, he tried - and failed - to set up a trading colony in Madagascar. His traveller's tales, when they appeared in 1790, were a publishing sensation. In a period when the Far East was still quite unknown, the Memoirs took Europe by storm and were assiduously pirated all over the civilised world. Stage-plays and operas were written celebrating his life. He became - and still is - a national hero in Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. |
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His Story...![]() According to Benyovszky, he escaped Kamchatka in an act of incredible chutzpah and daring. He then visited the cold shores of Alaska, a number of the Aleutian islands, several Pacific islands of paradise, skipped down far Japan, fought a war on Formosa, and arrived in enigmatical China. Later he established himself in the wildly fecund island of Madagascar and was made King by the grateful native peoples. As a sad postscript to his own story, when he returned to Madagascar a second time some years later, Benyovszky was killed by the perfidious French.
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...or my Story?It was a little distressing to realise that many of Baron Benyovszky's tales were pure fiction, and that most of the rest suffered from wild exaggeration. ![]() Fortunately, two of the Baron's travelling companions on the voyage from Kamchatka to Macao also kept logs of their experiences. Certainly, these were by no means as detailed or as melodramatic as the Baron's. For all that, they have the ring of truth. One in particular, by the clerk Ivan Ryumin - who clearly came on the voyage just to get away from Kamchatka - is a delight: Ryumin was an avid collector of new experiences and didn't mind who knew it. These travellers' tales, and corroborating reports from contemporary Russian authorities, are now presented to the discerning public for the first time in English. Additionally, during Benyovszky's adventurous times on Madagascar, the French authorities on nearby Mauritius kept a careful note of what he did and did not do. Aligning these accounts with Benyovsky's own journals makes for interesting perspectives. |
Apologies - some corrections... To those of you who have bought my book - first of all, thanks! Second of all, I have some corrections and minor addenda which you might want to make a note of. Click here to check them out. |