Our Notes & References

An early international Russian travel account and most probably the first to describe South America and the West Indies: we could not find any earlier Russian travel accounts of this part of the world; Smirdin does not include any reference to works about Latin America.

Very rare: we could trace only two examples outside Russia, one in the USA (Brown) and one at the BL. (OCLC locates only two copies of the second edition – Harvard and NYPL, and two of the fourth – Columbia and Berlin). Svod. Kat. mentions 4 copies in Russian libraries.

A pleasant example of the first edition, in contemporary binding with fine literary and bibliophile provenance: from the library of Sergei Alexandrovich Sobolevskii (1803-70), a noted Russian bibliophile, bibliographer, and poet of the “Golden Age of Russian poetry”. He was a friend of Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Adam Mickiewicz, Prosper Mérimée among other European writers. Sobolevskii’s library contained over 25,000 volumes in various fields, most prominently geography and travels, Russian history, and bibliography. After his death, a part of the library was bought by the British Museum and Leipzig University, the rest was sold at auctions by Leipzig booksellers; the archive was bought by count Sergei Sheremetev and is now deposited in the Russian state collections.

“Unfortunate adventures” indeed

A merchant from Nizhnii-Novgorod, Baranshchikov (1756 – early 19th century) went to a trade fair and lost considerable amount of money lent by fellow tradesmen. In an attempt to escape he became a sailor in St. Petersburg on a ship bound for Copenhagen. There he was kidnapped and sold to a slavery ship which brought him to Saint Thomas Island (then in Danish West India, now a part of the American Virgin Islands). Baranshchikov served there for two months in a Danish military garrison, before being exchanged for two “blacks” in Puerto-Rico, where he was branded with nine different symbols, and served at a local Spanish general’s kitchen. After a year of service and having learned Spanish, he revealed his story to the general’s wife who eventually helped him get back his freedom and return to the Old World: he sailed to Venice on an Italian ship. But near the Barbary coast the ship was captured by pirates and the (definitely “unfortunate”!) traveller was sold into slavery to Palestine. Baranshchikov was forcibly converted into Islam, eventually brought to Constantinople and married a Turkish woman. In 1785 he escaped to Russia via Bulgaria, Moldavia and Poland, returning to his hometown a year later. His creditors hadn’t forgotten him though: upon arrival he was put in debt prison, but released with help of the local bishop.

A free man but still in need of money, Baranshchikov went to Saint Petersburg and was received by Catherine II and representatives of the Saint Petersburg high society. The Empress recommended him to write an account of his travels, which he did with the help of the still anonymous “S.K.R.” – and all his revenue from publication went for his debt repayment.

American native and black people cultivating sugar cane small book full of fascinating details

This vivid account of numerous stops and adventures contains lots of interesting details of everyday life and local customs in St. Thomas Island and Puerto Rico (outfits and salaries of Danish soldiers, ceremony of taking military oath, descriptions of banana plants, coconuts, sugar cane, and coffee), as well as a description of Jerusalem and Constantinople and Baranshchikov’s service as a Janissary in Turkey.

We noted in particular Baranshchikov’s description of the role of monkeys on Saint Thomas Island, where locals train them to carry water from wells to their houses, and that the animals “perform their tasks very faithfully”. When wild monkeys climb coconut trees, locals begin to scare and tease them throwing small stones in their direction. In their defence, monkeys throw coconuts (“which cost two copecks on the market”) back at their molesters. Interestingly, Baranshchikov claims that coconuts “are already known in St Petersburg, and actually to almost all Russians”.

Another local delight that fell into Baranshchikov’s attention is sugar cane: “small children of the “Amerikanskie prirodnye zhiteli” (“American natives”) and “Arapy” (“blacks”) cut the sugar cane and suck the sweetness of molasses by cutting it into pieces. The adult Americans prune the cane every three months, […] then knit it in bundles and use a special machine to press and then boil it […] Later the cane is put into barrels made of wood brought from Denmark, as the local wood is too strong for that.” Among his other discoveries were local bananas: “bananas are very nourishing; one can eat it, except raw, salted, boiled, baked and fried; its tree is similar to our spruce; its raw fruit tastes like a cucumber and sometimes can be [around 34 cm] […] The tree is tall, and its leaves are [2 metres] long and as light as grass, one leaf can be used for bedding or clothing”. Baranshchikov also explains how local “Americans and Blacks” collect and process coffee beans which “grow there in abundance”.

Printed during the Russo-Turkish war of 1787-91, the book was met with success and was published four times within 7 years, with a second edition later that same year acknowledging the generosity of some members of the highest aristocracy, such as Vorontsov, Stroganov and Shuvalov.

Provenance

Sergei Sobolevskii (armorial bookplate to upper pastedown); Vasilii Klochkov’s bookstore (label); Unnamed Soviet bibliophile (paper label with a pencil note about the book); Soviet bookshop stamp to rear pastedown (with a very high price of 65 rub.).

Bibliography

Sopikov 8986 (“the first edition remains unknown”); Svod. Kat 4575; cf. Smirn.-Sok. 434-435 (3rd & 4th ed., with comments) and Whittaker, Russia Engages the World, p. 196 (the NYPL copy -of the second edition- listed in the catalogue of exhibits).

Robert Shtilmark, Povest o strannike rossiiskom, Gos. izd. Geogr. Lit, 1962.