Hendrik Hamel (1630–1692)

Introducing the Land of the Morning Calm

In 1653 the East Indiaman Sperwer got off course on its way from Taiwan to Nagasaki. In a terrible storm she crashed on the island of Cheju, and its 36 survivors were picked up by Korean soldiers. Ever afraid that information about the hermit kingdom would leak to the outside world and honouring its commitments to anti-Catholic Japan, the Dutchmen were brought to Seoul and subsequently forced to work in the countryside. With limited freedom, they lived off simple work, story telling and begging. Slowly, many of them died. In 1666 eight of them escaped to Japan. Japanese diplomacy allowed the last seven prisoners to be brought to Nagasaki, while one man stayed behind because "he had no more Dutch or Christian hair on his skin". Upon their arrival in Nagasaki they followed the standard East India Company procedure to write a report, edited by the ship's accountant Hendrik Hamel. Copies of Hamel's report were sold in Europe even before Hamel himself was back in patria. In this highly competitive market some publishers spiced up their edition with pictures of elephants and crocodiles, thus discrediting Hamel's accuracy. The Amsterdam burgomaster and Russia expert Nicolaes Witsen questioned two other sailors for his great book about "Tartary". For some 200 years Hamel's book remained the main source of Western information about Korea. A Korean translation of English and French versions of Hamel's report was made in the 1930's for a magazine that tried to protect Korea's cultural identity under Japanese rule. Ever since, new Korean editions of Hamel’s report have appeared.

This book contains Hamel's report, Witsen's rambling chapter about Korea in his Tartary book and various introductions by experts on Asian history.

Hamel's report is very factual and concise. He summarised 13 years of experience in a folio of 14 double pages, or 70 thinly printed pages in this book. Mostly following the Company's ars apodemica standard format), he gives a short overview of their stay and then describes in a few paragraphs geography, climate, government and army, taxation, criminal law, religion, architecture, marriage customs, education, funerary customs foreign trade, measurement, money, fauna, language, and the relationship with China. It ends with their escape to Japan and questioning by the Japanese authorities.

Witsen was particularly interested in Dutch harpoons found in the bodies of whales caught in Korea. They were proof of a sea north of Russia and a potential northern passage to Asia. He also showed interest in medicine and expanded upon his knowledge of ginseng via a Chinese doctor in Ambon.

Hamel's visit came 250 years after the royal House of Choson had embraced neo-Confucianism and 55 years after the end of a war with Japan that had cost the life of some 2 million Koreans. The subsequent attack of the Manchus had made them poor. This made them prepare for "the worst war in the world", according to Hamel. Persuaded by the Japanese, the Koreans would only reopen their borders in 1876. Still, there had always been trade with Japan and China, and the Korean court obtained knowledge of the outside world through Peking and the products of its Jesuit residents. On Cheju the Dutch were met by a compatriot. Being left behind by his ship when searching for water, he had fought with the Koreans against the Manchus and was now an armourer in Seoul.

The strict bureaucracies of Northeast Asia were quite honest and efficient in their dealings with people like Hamel. All the cargo from their wrecked ship was returned to them. Being a governor seems to have been a pretty risky position however. Many lost their jobs and were beaten and banished. The Korean government had a very detailed administration of its citizens, who all had wooden identity cards. The Dutchmen also received such cards upon their visit to the king in Seoul. All the discipline did not stop crime in times of food shortages, when people ate acorns, pine tree bark and wild vegetables.

Hamel describes the Koreans as eager to learn. Korea followed the Chinese example in education, but had so many graduates some ended up toiling the land. In his paragraphs on religion Hamel does not mention Buddhism. Although even civil servants would read Buddhist sutras, Buddhist monks were tolerated rather than venerated by the government. The monks had to accept all kinds of corvée, and saw their monasteries used as brothels and drinking halls by the civic elites.

The Koreans are described as weak hearted and fearful to fight. When two comets appeared in the sky, the whole country fearfully prepared for war, as such signs had appeared before the Manchu and the Japanese invasion. The Koreans can also cheat in business and quarrel over weights. Overall, the Koreans are pictured quite positively, however.

The East India Company doubted the possibility of trade with Korea due to the country's poverty and diplomatic blockades of the Manchus and the shogun. Hamel visited at the time when trade moved from government-dominated to a more liberal system. Money was hardly in use. The government used its grain stocks to purchase other goods and the people used cloth and grain for exchanges.

Witsen mentioned that some of the Dutchmen had married local women, whom they all had to leave behind when they escaped. Nothing is known about Hamel's own relationships with Korean women. Women were treated almost as slaves according to Hamel, and their lives were very much segregated from men. The first wife enjoyed some more legal protection than the other wives and concubines. Women had informal power, however, including through the use of black magic.

The Dutch tried to escape soon after their arrival. They had difficulties understanding Korean rigging of the ship they had stolen, and were caught and punished with 25 strokes with the cane. They later enjoyed more freedom and even went sailing. When the Koreans got used to that, it was easier to escape. It took some time to find someone that would sell them a seaworthy ship. In 1666 they found one and left with a self-made Prince's Flag for easier identification by the Japanese. The Koreans who sold them the ship were tried and executed.

There are also Korean reports of the Dutch sailors, mostly mentioning the strangers' blond hair, blue eyes and big noses. But the he Korean reformer Yu Hyongwon mentioned he learned about the use of coins in the West.

Some of the introductions are a bit repetitive, but overall this is a highly informative snapshot of Korea, the qualities of Northeast Asian diplomacy and the operation of the world's first multinational company.… (més)