Islands travelogue

is still useful

Voyage Around the World with the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the Years 1815- 1818 in the Brig Rurik, Otto von Kotzebue. By Adelbert von Chamisso, Henry Kratz editor and translator. Published by University of Hawaii Press, 1986. 375 pp. $U532.50

Isbn 0 8248 09 83 1.

The search for the nonexistent Northwest Passage was the primary purpose of the three-year Romanzov expedition commanded by Otto von Kotzebue.

Adelbert von Chamisso, the expedition s resident naturalist, provided a personal but nonetheless informative account of this trans-Atlantic

and trans-Pacific voyage, Chamisso’s account, in the words of his editor and trans lator, is an “unusual phe nomenon of a narrative by a literary person.”

Generally, accounts of this period tended to technical, judgmental, and occasionally sentimental in its prose. Cha misso \ nte f rest in lan 9uages, P ar J; cularl y Hawaiian and Mar shallese, resulted in a workable * ex * con which would be of considerabl e use to gramma rians and translators.

While in Manila, Chamisso’s chief occupation was “ransack ing libraries and monasteries for books and peoples, and lan guages of the Philipines.”

It is his useful ethnographies

of Pacific island peoples that gives this work considerable appeal. His visit to the Hawaiian islands during the reign of its greatest paramount chief Kamehameha is especially noteworthy.

His impression of Kame hameha is both complementary and consistent. “He is magnani mous, and for all the matters he has learned from foreigners, he remains true to the spirit of his people and the customs of his ancestors. ”

With respect to Hawaiian foreigner relationships, Chamis so noted that “Europeans who have settled here give honor able testimony to the honesty of the natives.”

While in the Marshalls, Kadu, a native of the Ratak group, joined the expedition, seeming ly without much reflection on the gravity of such a decision.

Upon the Rurik’s arrival in Alaskan waters, Chamisso took great delight in observing Kadu’s reaction to Arctic wild life and climate.

Yet such experiences were exceeded only when Kadu observed the Russians pay their respects to Kamehameha.

“Kadu, whose curiosity was greatly aroused by everything he saw and heard, now for the first time saw us show respect to someone more powerful than ourselves, and this mighty one was a man of his race and colour. ”

Expeditions during the early nineteenth century produce a rich folklore coupled with humour and adventure. The Romanzov expedition in Cha misso’s view was no different.

In spite of the price, this volume is well worth having. William Tagupa.

Left: Cover of book. Right: Author Adelbart von Chamisso.