The Mighty Kingdom of Krinke Kesmes (1708) (review)

Reviews Hendrik Smeeks. The Mighty Kingdom of Krinke Kesmes (1708). Presented by David Fausett. Translated by Robert-?. Leek. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 1995. lviii + 129pp. Hfl160.00; US$40.00. ISBN 90-5183-695-3. At last, the complete text of the largely ignored, Dutch imaginary voyage-cum-utopia, Beschryvinge van het magtig Koningryk Krinke Kesmes, written by an obscure surgeon from the Dutch town of Zwolle in the province of Overijssel, and published in Amsterdam in 1708, has been faithfully translated into English. In 1921, Lucius Hubbard produced an English version of one of its chapters that he claimed to be Defoe's source for Robinson Crusoe, but most critics have rejected his mainly unsubstantiated claim. In 1975, P.J. Buijnsters brought out, in Dutch, an excellent edition of the novel, based on Smeeks's own annotated copy containing handwritten addenda. Buijnsters suggested that too much attention has been paid to the Robinsonade episode and too little to the rest of a work that clearly illustrates the important role played by minor writers in the propagation of Enlightenment ideas during the period of what Paul Hazard termed the "crise de la conscience européenne." David Fausett, who, in the past few years, has published an impressive amount on the subject of voyages, real and imaginary, builds on the contribution of Buijnsters, adding to it the results of his own research. In a preface characteristically designed to give authenticity to his tale, Smeeks mixes fact with fantasy. He praises the Dutch for their ability in discovering and colonizing distant lands, and refers to the one area still to be explored, the unknown Southland. Citing several abortive expeditions carried out by real ships, he comments on what will be found in this new report acquired from a seaman who lived for a time among the Southlanders. Finally, he tells the reader not to expect a literary style since the report was written by Mr de Posos, a simple sailor. Of the eight chapters constituting the novel, the first is the narrator's account of his childhood in Holland, where he was brought up by poor but respectable parents as a devout Catholic. In 1674, aged sixteen, he signs on as a marine and is befriended by a surgeon from Overijssel, referred to as the Master, whom he meets again on his EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 8, Number 3, April 1996 416 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION 8:3 travels, and who gives him money and advice about his career. Back in Holland, he learns coopering, mathematics, and helmsmanship, and joins the crew of a merchant ship. Chapter 2 recounts his travels to Spain, where he learns the language, is appointed as agent for a shipping firm, and again meets the Master, who, in 1678, urges him to travel to America. From 1679 to 1696, adopting the name Juan de Posos, he plies his trade between Cadiz and America. In 1 696, in Amsterdam, he re-encounters the Master, who shows him documents containing projects for the discovery of the unknown Southland. By chapter 3, Juan has been promoted to partner in the shipping firm. In 1702, en route from Panama to the Philippines, his ship is blown off course and lands on the shore of what turns out to be Krinke Kesmes (almost an anagram of Hendrik Smeeks), the largest of a group of islands forming part of the Southland. Chapter 4 describes the hospitable reception given to Juan and his crew by the citizens of this kingdom where, as recounted in chapters 5, 7, and 8, they spend an unspecified time before returning to Europe. During this time, instructed by a Garbon (a city supervisor and guide), Juan learns all about the flora and fauna, architecture, history, government, education, science, philosophy, religion, ethics, laws, economy, customs, and language of the country. One of the citizens, an elderly Dutchman, tells Juan about his being shipwrecked on a desert island from which he was eventually rescued by the Southlanders who made him an ElHo or freeman. This Robinsonade avant la lettre is the subject of chapter 6. Other digressions, on scurvy and silt, are interspersed in the text. Following earlier authors of Utopian fiction, notably...