Lands of True and Certain Bounty: The Geographical Theories and Colonization Strategies of Jean Pierre Purry by Arlin C. Migliazzo , Pierrette C. Christianne-Lovrien , Biodun J. Ogundayo (review)

Abstract

MLRy gg.Zy 2004 491 Lands of True and Certain Bounty: The Geographical Theories and Colonization Strategies ofJean Pierre Purry. Ed. and annotated with introductions to the texts by Arlin C. Migliazzo. Translations from the French by Pierrette C. Christianne-Lovrien and 'Biodun J. Ogundayo. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press; London: Associated University Presses. 2002. 201pp. $39.50. ISBN i-5759i-?54-3While the title of this book might initially suggest that it is a monograph, it in fact consists of a critical edition and translation of four works, now virtually unobtainable in the original French version, by the Swiss Protestant colonizer Jean Pierre Purry (1675-1736). The texts are entitled: (1) Memoire sur le pais des Cafres, et la terre de Nuyts [. . .] (Amsterdam, 1718); (2) Second memoiresur le pais de Cafres, et la terrede Nuyts [. . .] (Amsterdam, 1718); (3) Memoirepresente d Sa Gr. MylordDue de Newcas? tle [. . .] sur I'etat de la Caroline [. . .] (London, 1724); (4) Description abregee de VEtat present de la Caroline meridionale, nouvelle edition (Neuchatel, [1732]). Purry believed that territories lying in the vicinity of 33 degrees of latitude enjoyed an optimal climate that rendered life easier and agriculture more fruitfulthan in other regions ofthe earth. He was thereforeconvinced that the colonizing effortsof the principal maritime nations of Europe should be directed towards settling areas enjoying the advantages of this 'fifthzone'. In the firsttwo texts, he attempted to persuade the administrators of the Dutch East India Company to build on the success of their settlements at the Cape of Good Hope and in the Indies by creating colonies in south-east Africa (the pais des Cafres or Kaffraria, roughly the province of Natal) and in South Australia (the terre de Nuyts). These efforts came to nothing and, after unavailing attempts to interest the French authorities in his project, he began a campaign to gain British backing forintensive colonization by Swiss Protestants of a frontierregion of the then province of South Carolina, that was also situated in the favoured zone. In this he was ultimately successful and the firstgroup of emigrants left Switzerland for their life in the New World in the autumn of 1732. The town of Purrysburg on the Savannah River remains his memorial. In his introduction and notes Arlin Migliazzo lays little stress on some of the uglier aspects of colonialism that emerge from Purry's texts, notably his contempt forindigenous peoples and his untroubled acceptance of slavery. Nor is much attempt made to insert Purry's geographical ideas into contemporary debates over the desirability of colonization, or to discuss the many manifestations of the theory of climate in discourse from the Renaissance until at least Madame de Stael. None the less, the critical apparatus of this edition reaches a high level of scholarship, especially as pertains to the colonial history of South Carolina. As to the translations, the translator of the firsttwo texts seems to me to make heavy weather of them, though the other two read pretty well. Whatever its flaws, this book makes available texts of considerable interest and it therefore serves a useful purpose. University of Wales Swansea Michael Cardy Francoise de Graffigny:choix de lettres. Ed. by E. Showalter. Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation. 2001. vi + 299pp. ?14.50. ISBN 0-7294-0781-0. Resurgent interest in Francoise de Graffigny's innovative novel Lettres d'une Peru? vienne has restored to this writer something of the celebrity she enjoyed in the last ten years of her life. Less well known, but no less remarkable, is her correspon? dence of some 2,500 letters, written almost daily to Francois-Antoine Devaux over a period of twenty years. Since 1985, a group of scholars led by Alan Dainard have been editing these letters; volume viii (of a projected fifteen) was published by the Voltaire Foundation in 2003. This anthology has been selected and edited by Eng- ...