[.a.passage.through.history.]

This weekend I sent myself far off to 1732-33, set myself onboard a Swedish sailing ship, the Fredericus Rex Sueciae, on her voyage to China. My heart pounds so heavily when a midshipman shouts "land ahoy!!" and the western tip of Java is just before our eyes. Meanwhile alot of crew are sick and finally we came to an anchor off Angra in the Straits of Sunda. Here I saw myself amused when I arrived to this passage: "Here the Javans came off in their small boats with fowls Goats, Plantans, Pumplemusses, & Guavas, & other fruits, (with some Curious Birds) &c which were very very acceptable to us, especially the fruit such as the Coco nuts and Pumplemuses which recoverd the people that were sick of the scurvy to admiration in a very little time that not one of them died of it, which very likely they had done had not they met with this Refreshment, the natives would have brought us Cows too if we would have stayd a few hours..."

All right. I have to admit. I lost myself in a book and it was my imagination playing while reading "A Passage to China, Colin Campbell's diary of the first Swedish East India Company's expedition to Canton in 1732-33". Mr Colin Campbell was the Supercargo, the first director of the Swedish East India Company. The transcript of his diary I'm reading now - in search of more information about the Swedish presence in the history of Batavia (now my dear city of Jakarta) - was thought to be lost because Mr Campbell ordered to destroy all the ship's journals when the Dutch attacked the ship in the Straits of Sunda (the strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Netherlands East Indies, now my dear country Indonesia). Somehow this diary is pretty fascinating for a girl with chronic lust for history like me. Mr Campbell reconstructed his journal upon his return to Gothenburg in Sweden, where the company sits, and now, it is a very valuable source of history. I imagine.

(reading the book, I got 'seasick', which means more or less like 'homesick') ;-)

now taking a break, back to 2008 and it's time to work on my graphics! :-)

see you soon later!