Johannes Camphuys

John Camphuys, also Joannes Camphuis or Jean Kamphuis, ( born July 18, 1634 Haarlem, † July 18, 1695 in Batavia ) was a merchant in the service of the Dutch East India Company and from 11 January 1684 to September 24, 1691 the Governor-General in Batavia.

Life

John Camphuys native of Haarlem in North Holland. About the early years is known by Valentijn that he completed an apprenticeship with a silversmith in Amsterdam. In 1652 he went into the service of the Dutch East India Company and stabbed at the rank of Assistant trading on 1 November 1652 the ship " Lastdrager " in the lake. On 2 March the following year, however, it came to shipwreck in the Shetland Islands, which he survived. The crossing with the " Vergulde Draak " in the summer of 1653 was then lightly. His career in Batavia, he began as a clerk in the Secretariat of the Gouvernementsverwaltung. In 1666 he was appointed Under Kaufman, promoted four years on the upper merchant.

As chief clerk, he could take over the management of the commercial stations in Asia. Camphuys applied successfully for the establishment of Dejima in Nagasaki ( Japan), which was very popular at that time because of their ability to lucrative private business. The stay of tubal factor ( opperhoofden ) was limited by the Japanese authorities to one year. Camphuys moved during the seventies three times to Japan, what was exceptional and speaks for good relations in Batavia. In his first cycle he brought the 1667 ordered by the Japanese, European distillation apparatus and the German chemist Franz Braun, the Japanese doctors successfully taught in the spring of 1672 in a hut built on Dejima in the manufacture of medicinal oils. Camphuys was very interested in exploring Japan. At its second cycle in Nagasaki he took the painter Heinrich Muche from Breslau, who was working at the time for Andreas Cleyer. In his travel book Muche reported a number of works that he executed for Camphuys, including drawings of Dejima and secretly recorded drawings of the audience hall in the castle of Edo. Towards the end of the stay in Japan paid him Camphuys with two Japanese gold coins.

1677 he was appointed Secretary of the High Government ( Hoge Regeringsformen ), four years later, he was appointed member of the Council of India ( Raad van Indië ) on. On January 11, 1684 he was appointed as successor of Cornelis Speelman temporary, and after confirmation by the Board in the Netherlands ( Heeren XVII) finally official Governor-General. Although felt in connection with his appointment, some members of the Council of India passed over, so that its relationship with Camphuys was not the best, but first he enjoyed the support of the Board in Amsterdam. François Valentijn (1666-1727), who was able to observe "His nobility, " up close during his sixteen -year stay in Batavia, dedicated to him in his work, old and new East India ' Although almost eight pages in folio format, but particularly sensational performance as Governor are not recognizable. Due to the growing dissonance, he was finally on December 17, 1690 entschlagen at its request of his office. Only a few years later Camphuys just died on his 61st birthday and was buried in the Dutch church of Batavia. The pastor and author François Valentijn wrote the grave inscription:

Merits as a collector and mentor

Camphuys was a well-read man and had an impressive collection of Japanese objects collected. In his garden before the city Valentijn noticed all sorts of strange plants, including Teebäumchen from China. Japan did not let go. Thursday came only Japanese food on the dinner table, he took with him with " two round long Chinese sticks ," which Valentijn himself experienced. When the gave up the post of governor-general, asked him the company of the islet Edam before Batavia available. Here he allowed himself to build a Japanese-style house. All around were growing trees and other plants from all areas of the East Indies. He also talked curious animals.

Some objects of his collection have survived the ages. Thus we find in the teahouse located between Oxford and Swindon Buscot Park, a large Japanese Arita porcelain vase from the initials IC, one of the works that could be ordered only financially strong and influential Europeans as Camphuys. The Rijksmuseum voor Ethnography in Leiden in turn harbors a leather shield from Bengal, which was painted black in Japan and painted with gold flowers and phoenix motifs frame the Camphuysens family crest.

Camphuys campaigned for the Hanauer naturalist Georg Eberhard Rumpf ( Rumphius ), the Moluccas on the island of Ambon in a monumental " Herbarium amboinense " worked and was considered by naturalists of the Leopoldina with the respectful Agnomen " Plinius Indicus ". As Rumpfens manuscripts were lost during the crossing to Europe, Camphuys could make sure the pressure with a copy, which he had had made.

From Camphuysens penned a book about the conquest of Jakarta and the establishment of Batavia by January Pietersz. Coen, later recorded by François Valentijn in his description of " Oud en Nieuw Oost India ". Pieter de Vries also used the font for a work at Coen.

As a lover of Japanese things Camphuys one of that circle of influential and educated Europeans in Batavia, who were aware of the 1689 arrived from India German physician and naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer and this encouraged to explore Japan. During the six months to departure Kaempfer went several times in Camphhuysens gardens and listed the plants.

Works

J. Camphuys: Het Koningrijk Jakarta, the army Door Generaal Governor Jan Pieterszoon Koen, Veroverd, en aan het gebied van cherished the state of Vereenigde Nederlanden, the 30 May 1619 beschreven, en uit oude verscheide papers by malkanderen getrokken Door Joannes Camphuis. Toen Koopman, en eerste Klerk ter dead generale Secretaryie Batavia, in the Jaare 1667. en nader hand Governor Generaal van Nederlands India. In: Valentijn (1726), Vierde Deel, S.421 - 491st