On Mermaids (from a Dutch source)

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From the Scots Magazine, 1st March 1795.

On Mermaids.

The account I am to give of Mermaids is taken from a Dutch book, which is very rare, and not translated, as far as I know, into either French or English; and therefore I will give it in the words of the author, who is one Valentyn, minister of the gospel in Amboyna and Banda. He lived in the beginning of this century, and has written a Natural History of India, which I am told is the best extant. A friend of ine, who has favoured me with a translation of the passages from it that follow, assures me that the author was a man esteemed by the Dutch of Batavia (among whom my friend lived for several years), to be a man of perfect veracity, and, from what he has collected concerning the mermaids he appears to have been a man of learning, and of great curiosity and industry. In his third volume, which treats of Amboyna, and the islands in its neighbourhood, he says, "It seems very certain, that in former times, mermaids have been seen here.

"In the Company's Daily Register for the year 1653, there is inserted, that Lieutenant Smallen saw, at the time he was sent with some men, on an expedition in the bay of Houndelo, as did all the people that were with him, in clear day time, two mermaids, the one greater, the other smaller, which they took to be man and wife, swimming together; that the hair of their head hung over their neck, and that it appeared between a green and greyish colour: and that they could see they had breasts. They were all above the waist shaped as a human creature; and from thence downwards, they seemed to go tapering off to a point. About six weeks afterwards, near the same place, the like appearance was seen by the said Smallen, and upwards of fifty people that were with him.

"Alkert Herport, in his account of India, fol. 147. says: On the 29th of April, at Taynan, near the New Work, in the afternoon, a man appeared three times above water; and, on immediate examination, nobody was missing. In the afternoon, he appeared in like manner three times near to the bulwark, called Hollandia; his hair was long and a mixture of green and grey colour.

"In 1712, it is said a mermaid or sea woman, was taken alive (near the island of Booro), which was fifty-nine inches or five feet long. She lived four days and seven hours, and then died, as she would not eat any thing. She was ever heard to articulate any noise. It is said, that one Samuel Falvers, in Amboyna, preserved the body for some time, and made an exact description of it, by which it appears that her head was like a woman's, properly proportioned, with eyes, nose, and mouth: only the eyes, which were light blue, seemed to differ a little from those of the human species. The hair, that just reached over the neck, a ppeared of a sea-green and grey-ish colour. She had breasts, long arms, hands, and all the upper-parts of the body, almost as white as a woman's, but leaning somewhat to the sea green. Her body, below the navel, appeared like the hinder part of a fish.

"It is well known that many writers have handed down to us an account of what happened in the year 1403 or 1404, in the time of a great storm in Europe. Many dikes in Holland were broken down, betwixt Hampen and Edam, in the Zuyder Zee. A wild, or sea woman, was driven from thence through the breach in the dyke, into the Parmer Sea, and there taken by the boors of Edam, to which place they brought her, cleared her of sea-ware, and put cloaths on her. The people of Haarlem heard of it, and requested to have her, which was granted. She had in the mean time learned to eat victuals, and they afterwards taught her to spin. Sehe lived many years, and, as the priests said, had been observed to pay reverence to the holy cross. She was allowed at her death a christian burial. Many writers declare, that they had spoke to people who had seen the sea-woman.

"Pliny (book ix. chap. 5), says, that the ambassadors to Augustus, from Gaul, declared, that such sea-women were often seen in their neighbourhood.

"It is worthy of notice what Alexander of Alexandria (book iii. chap 1. Genial. Dier.) says of such sea people. He was informed by Draconites Bonifacius, a Neapolitan nobleman, a man of great honour, that, when he served in Sapin, he saw a sea-man preserved in honey, which was sent to the king from the neighbourhood of Mauritania; that it looked like an old man, with a very rough head and beard of a sky-blue colour, much larger than a common run of men; and that there were small bones in the fins, with which he swam. This he related as a thing known to every one in that part of the world.

"Theodorus Gaza relates, that when he was driven into the Morea, such a woman was driven on that coast by a violent storm;  that he saw her, and she was very well looked; that she sighed, and seemed very much concerned when a number of people came round her; that he had pity on her, and caused the people to stand at a distance; that she profited by the opportunity, and, by the help of her feet and rolling, she got into the water and got off.

From 'The Wonder of Wonders' c1795

"Georgius Trapazuntius says, he saw from the sea shore such a mermaid, very handsome, appear several times above water. In Epirus, he says, there appeared a sea-man, who for some time watched near a spring of water, and endeavoured to catch young women that came there; he was with much difficulty at length catched himself, but they could never get him to eat.

"Ludovicus Vives relates that, in his time, a sea-man was taken in Holland, and was carefully kept for two years; that he began to speak, or at least to make a kind of disagreeable noise, in imitation of speech; that he found an opportunity and got into the sea. The Portuguese speak of mermaids as a common thing on the coast of Zofala and Mosambique.

"Janius says, in his time, at Swart Wall, near the Brill, the skeleton of a triton was hanging in the middle of the church.

"To this purpose a friend of mine tells me, he was informed by a fisherman, that when he was a boy at Moslensluys, near to Ton, they caught in the night-time, a mermaid half an ell long, that was perfectly like to a woman; it died soon. He declared that he had often seen things out of a cod-fish which had that appearance.

" A gentleman of good character in the Hague told me, in the year 1719, that he saw a perfect skeleton att the house of a Danish envoy, which he said had been caught near to Copenhagen. And Voffius says, that there were once five or six caught near Copenhagen; and the skeleton of one caught in the year 1644 is to be seen there.

"John Dilerey relates a curious story of some American fishers. One night, it being a perfect calm, they observed a mermaid coming into their vessel; and they, fearing it to be some mischievous fish, in the fright, one of them cut, with a hatchet, the creature's hand off, which fell within board, and the creature itself sunk immediately, but came soon up again, and gave a deep sigh as one feeling pain. The found was found to have five fingers and nails like a man's hand.

"In the last age, one of the Dutch[?] herring busses caught a mermaid in their nets. The man, who was taking on the herrings, when he came to it was so confounded, that in his fright he threw it into the sea. He repented too late of what he had done when he observed clearly that it had a head and body like a man.

"After the foregoing relations from reading and hearsay, the author, Mr Valentyn, declares what he saw himself, on his voyage from Batavia to Europe, in the year 1714, in 12 deg. 38 min, south latitude, on the first day of May[?] about 11 o'clock in the forenoon; [with the] captain, purser, and mate of the watch and a great many of the ships company, it being very calm, and the sea smooth as glass, saw, about the distance of thrice the length of the ship from us, very distinctly, on the surface of the water, seemingly sitting with his back to us, and holding the body above the water, a creature of a grizlish or grey colour, like that of cod-fish skin. It appeared like a sailor or a man sitting on something; and that more like a sailor, as on its head there seemed to be something like an English cap of the same grey colour. He was somewhat bent, and we observed him to move his head from one side to the other upwards of five and twenty times; so that we all agreed that it must certainly be some shipwrecked person. I, after looking some time, begged the captain to order them to steer the ship more directly towards it, being somewhat on the starboard side; which was done accordingly; and we had got within a ship's length of him, when the people on the forecastlee made such a noise, that he plunged down, head foremost, and got presently out of our sight. But the man who was on the watch at the mast-head declared he saw him for the space of two hundred yards, and that he had a monstrous long tail.

"I shall now only mention, that in the year 1716, the newspapers were every where full of a sea-man, who appeared in the month of January, near Ragusa, a small city on the Adriatic Sea, the like of whom I never heard or read of. It had much the resemblance of a man, but it was near fifteen feet long. Its arms were well proportioned to its body. It appeared for several days successively, and commonly came out of the sea about three o'clock in the afternoon, and walked with monstrous strides, sometimes in one, sometimes in another place.

"People from far and near went to look at it; but they were so much afraid that they kept a good distance from it, and many looked with spy-glasses. It often carried its hand above its head. The hideous noise that it made could be heard at half a mile's distance, so that people in the neighbourhood were sore afraid of it. The various accounts given by those who saw it are so uniformly the same, that there is no room left to question the veracity of the story."

Mr Valentyn then concludes with saying, "If, after all this, there should be found those who disbelieve the existence of such creatures as a Sea-man or Mermaids, of which we have at least given great reason to believe that there are, let them please themselves; I shall give myself no more trouble about them."

To these accounts of Mermaids given by Valentyn, may be added what Bartholinus relates in his Centuria Historiarum Anatomicarum Variarum, printed at Haphnia, 1654, p. 188, where he informs us, that there was in his time one of these animals catched upon the coast of Brazil, and brought to Leyden, and there dissected in presence of one whom he names, viz. Johannes de Layda, who made him a present of a hand and rib of the animal. He calls it a syren, and says it was of the form of a woman down to the waist, below which it was nothing but a piece of unformed flesh, without any marks of a tail. He gives us the figure of the whole animal, both erect and swimming, as also of the hand which he got from de Layda.

There is also in a collection of certain learned tracts, written by John Gregory, A.M. and chaplain of Christ Church in Oxford, published in London, in 1650, an account of a sea animal of the human form, very much like a bishop in his pontificals. It is said to have been sent to the King of Poland in 1531, and to have lived for some time in the air; but it took the first opportunity of throwing itself into the sea. This story, Gregory says, he got from one Rondeletius, whose words he gives us, p. 121, from which it appears that Rondeletius had the story only at second-hand, from one Gisbert, a German doctor.

But the most circumstantial story of all is that which is told by Maillet, in his Telliamed, (p.241. of the English Translation) of a sea-man that was seen by the whole crew of a French ship, off the coast of Newfoundland, in the year 1720, for two hours together, and often at the distance of no more than two or three feet. This account was drawn up by the pilot of the vessel, and signed by the captain, and all those of the crew that could write, and was sent from Brest by M. Hausefort, to the Count de Maurepas, on the 8th of September, 1725. The story is told with so many circumstances, that it is impossible there can be any deception or mistake in the case; but if it be no true, it is as impudent a forgery as ever was attempted to be imposed on the public.

These, and such like facts, I believe, as they appear to me sufficiently attested; and are not, as I think, by the nature of things, impossible; for there does not appear to me any impossibility or contradiction, that there should be a marine animal, of the human form, which can live in the water as we do in the air, or even that this animal should not have two legs as we have, but should end in a tail like a fish. There are, however, I know, many who are disposed to set bounds to the works of God, and who cannot be persuaded that even the land animal man, exists with the varieties I have described. But I follow the philosophy of Aristotle, who has said, every thing exists which is possible to exist. Nor, indeed, can I well conceive, that a benevolent and omnipotent Being, infinite in production as in every thing else, should not have produced every sensitive being that is capable of pleasure, and can enjoy a happiness suitable to its nature, whose existence is possible, that is implying no contradiction; for otherwise there would be something wanting in the system of nature, which would not be perfect or complete, as, I think, of necessity it must be.
From Lord Monboddo's Works.
 

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