Rochefort Vs Dutertre in the West-Indies.

A gorgeous frontispiece

Octobre 2012

Some old books are mysterious. Trying to unfold their stories is like solving a cold case, sometimes. In the case of Mr. de Rochefort, I’ve been holding a suspect on my bookshelf for a few  years, collecting evidence after evidence in the dark alleys of forgotten libraries.

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An Almost Perfect Crime

Rochefort Vs Du Tertre

Some old books are mysterious. Trying to unfold their stories is like solving a cold case, sometimes. In the case of Mr de Rochefort, I’ve been holding a suspect on my bookshelf for a few years, collecting evidence after evidence in the dark alleys of forgotten libraries. 

The Frontispiece of Rochefort's book.

Name of the suspect : Histoire Naturelle & Morale des Iles Antilles de l’Amérique. The mastermind behind it : anonymous, of course. But identified, in the same crime committed 4 years later in the Netherlands, as Charles de Rochefort (though one time wrongfully thought to be Césaire de Rochefort, a french contemporary jurist), an alleged protestant minister. Date and place of birth: 1658, in Rotterdam, at Arnoult Leers’, a so-called Merchant Libraire. Quite a small fellow, roughly the height of a small quarto volume, thick enough and of very pale complexion—being bound in full period vellum. Let’s add, for whatever purpose, that he smells very, very good. He is also quite eloquent, he expresses himself in a poetic style and can be very convincing—bear in mind that he intended to convey his guilty enthousiasm to his fellow protestants, so they would gladly migrate to the West-Indies. If you happen to open it, smelling sugar. Another smell follows him, though—he smacks of heresy. Little is known of this criminal, but it all tends to describe him as a petty thief. In the forewords of his general history of the West-Indies, the French author Du Tertre, simply accuses Mr. De Rochefort of plagiarism! I knew at first sight the rascal was too good looking to be honest.

The Frontispiece of Du Tertre's book (dr).

he will tell you stories of wonderful lands, gorgeous fruit trees, splendid animals, plants and herbs. He even added a lot of engravings to the offence. The result is breathtaking: tree leaves as if carved by an Art Déco expert, plants as if dedicated to embellish an emperor’s jacket and pine-apples simply

Tropical Evidences

Mr. De Rochefort did not leave his fingerprints on the first edition of 1658, nor on the second one of 1665—both came out anonymously. His identity was not revealed before the Dutch translation of his work, in 1662. It then appeared in the in-12° edition of 1666. His book came under harsh criticism before it was even printed. Indeed, the previous year, Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre who had traveled to the West-Indies as an apostolic missionary, put out his own Histoire Générale des Isles de St. Christophe, de la Guadeloupe... (À Paris, chez Jacques Langlois)*. In the forewords, the author apologizes for putting it out in a rush: “I was recently told that someone who had stolen my manuscript was about to publish it under another name.” This someone is our man, Charles de Rochefort. Du Tertre probably knew his name—he must have learnt it from the printers who informed him of his rival’s project—but refused to call it. Rochefort was linked to the West-Indies, where he had been the minister, or pastor, of the first tyrant of the island of Tortuga (La Tortue), off Hispanola (Hayti). The place was to become the most notorious hangout of the bucaniers of America alongside Port Royal, in Jamaica. Le Vasseur the vilain took posession of the place under the commission of the French Governor de Poincy in the year 1640. “He went there with 40 protestants,” writes the bucanier Esquemeling in his History of the Bucaniers—Rochefort was probably one of them. Having recovered Tortuga from the English, Le Vasseur erected the Fort de la Roche (of the Roc) on a very strong position and defeated the Spaniards a few weeks after, gaining the support of the French colonists. “This changed his mood," writes Esquemeling. "From kind as he first appeared, he became strict; he started to mistreat the inhabitants, insisting that they should pay more taxes than they could; he had them chastised for the slightest mistake; he went as far as forbidding them to practice the Catholic religion.” According to Du Tertre, who became much more precise in the next edition of his work, Le Vasseur did not even spare Mr. De Rochefort, his minister, whom he prevented from conducting any religious office. Rochefort does not say a word about himself in his book, but he left a few hints work that tend to indicate he was involved in the Tortuga case. Le Vasseur the wicked did not reign long and was soon stabbed to death by one of his rogue creatures. We have no clue of what Rochefort became afterwards, but he sure was in Holland 20 years later.

Rendered in English

In 1666, Rochefort’s book was rendered in English by John Davies as The History of the Carriby-Island (London, 1 folio volume). A copy is currently for sale on eBay.com (in a modern binding) for 2950 $. When Du Tertre published the first—out of three—in-4° volume of his Histoire Générale des Antilles in 1667, he expressed the grievance he had against Rochefort. He explains how he gave his manuscript to one Mr de Hatlay who handed it around, and how Rocherfort’s project forced [him] to publish it in the year 1654 (...) though it was nothing but a rough version.” Rochefort had some powerful acquaintances too, including De Poincy himself—as shown by some of his letters sent to the author and published in the second edition. Poincy was helpful in Rochefort’s project. It was he who asked Raimond Breton, a learnt religious who lived in the West-Indies, to give Rochefort his Vocabulary [of the Caribbean language] and some memoirs to an unknown person that was writing a history of the Antilles," writes Du Tertre. "I have since learnt it was Sieur de Rochefort, minister in Rotterdam, who had been twice to the West-Indies and who had the same project as mine.” At one point, De Poincy became my favorite suspect—several people believed he was the author of this history, based on the fact that the epistle of the first edition is signed LDP, assumed to stand for Louis De Poincy. Rochefort would have been responsible for re-writing it only, which would explain why De Poincy sent a flattering representation of his own castle in S. Christopher to Rochefort, who featured it in the second edition. Was Rochefort the victim (or accomplice) of De Poincy?

Blame it on Rochefort         

De Rochefort introduced his work to the various Academies in France, where it was hailed as a masterpiece until, points out Du Tertre, everybody noticed that the book was so much inspired from my own work, that the author did not even correct my mistakes. This is a weird part—how come these learnt gentlemen had not read Du Tertre’s book before, as it came one year earlier? They should have noticed the problem right away. Mr. De Rochefort, in his forewords, clearly states he did not write the book but simply collected and put together various memoirs from some reliable authors.

Du Tertre's title-page (dr).

Unfortunately, he hardly gives names. He credits Mr Breton for the Vocabulary, or one Mr. Du Montel for the description of a sea unicorn, but most sources remain unknown. Had Mr. de Rochefort something to hide? Or someone, like Mr. De Poincy? I have even suspected our pastor, at another point, to be the true author of this work. The style defines the man, as Mr Buffon would say. And Rochefort’s is so homogeneous, so subtle and, most of all, so personal, it is hard to conceive that his History is a mere patchwork of different memoirs. Intuitions have no legal value. Let’s stick to the facts. Witnesses? Not too many. Inquiries in the neighbourhood? Everybody blamed Rochefort, including the compiler of L’Histoire Générale des Voyages, Mr de la Harpe. In the fifteenth volume of his work (Paris, 1759), he says Rochefort gave an irrelevant history of the West-Indies. He also claims that he plagiarized Du Tertre’s work—a very tactless way to put things. Let us remember that Mr de Rochefort was a protestant in a time when they were not very popular in France. No wonder the French establishment sided Mr du Tertre. Powerful people were involved in the West-Indies trade who had read the book for sure, and who had apparently appreciated it. Defending Rochefort’s works might have been a risky move—for the sake of a protestant minister living in Rotterdam? Let’s be serious.

Cross-Examination

The German philisopher De Paw, in his Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains (Berlin, 1784) writes that America was a degenerate continent. Dom Pernety, a member of the Royal Academy of Prussia and Florence disagreed: “M. Bristock, an English gentleman, was in the country of the Apalachites in 1653 where he remained long enough to learn about their old and new customs. His account forms chapters 7 and 8 of the second book of Histoire Naturelle & Civile des Antilles published by Mr. Rochefort. A valuable passage to identify at least one accomplice of our suspect. The Apalachites, according to Mr. Bristock had established an empire worth of Moctezuma’s in Mexico in the Apalaches Mountains. Rochefort added a plate of their Royal City of Melilot to the second edition. De Paw laughs: “This critical author [De Pernety, ndla] only quotes César (sic) Rochefort, the less exact and the less estimated of all the travelers who wrote in the previous century. Rochefort who, on his side, had compiled the account of a Bristock, an obscur man, totally unknown from the République des Lettres.” Our informer obviously saw this accomplice as a small fry.  

The time had come for a thorough interrogation. I decided to compare the statements of Messrs. Rochefort and Du Tertre. I picked up two significant articles of theirs: the ones about Requiems—or sharks—, and pine-apples. There are alike and different. First, there is no absolute plagiarism. Sentences are not alike and Du Tertre often relates personal experiences in his articles that do not appear in Rochefort’s. Nevertheless, some points remain disturbing. “The English call it shark, writes Rochefort, the Spaniards Tiburon but the French call it Requiem, meaning “rest”—maybe because it appears when the sea is calm and peaceful; or most likely because it promptly sends to rest those it catches.” Du Tertre says it is because a requiem is sung anytime it catches someone. The pineapple, now, crowned with leaves by the King of Kings to show the world it is the king of all fruits for Du Tertre. So somptuous, for Rochefort, it seems Natures has here displayed all her charms, and filled this fruits with her rarest and most precious treasures. The ideas are the same, the way to express them differs.

            Rochefort never answered the accusations of Du Tertre, unless we consider his adding many lettres from eminent people to the second edition—to prove his legitimacy?—to be a sort of answer. Because of these lettres, of a few folding copper plates and many augmented articles, the second edition is seen as the best one by some. To me, the first edition is unique. I see it as an exceptional book of poetry. The style is much better than Du Tertre’s. Under our suspect’s pen—or feather—Nature tenderly gives away her love to plants, trees and animals as a caring mother to her children ; her blessings are like soft healing whispers. This is the fairy tale of a land far away, where there is no night, where everything has remained in its virginal state; there our spirit shall roam the lands, free and peaceful. As if trodding the Garden regained, or being rocked in the bosom of Abraham. Never forget, our suspect was a pastor.

            I eventually brought the case to court and ended up with a hung jury. The fellow walked free out of the court house, superbly dressed in a somptuous frontispiece and a vellum jacket, and followed by a myriad of triumphant engravings. I would advise Mr. Du Tertre not to appeal the decision. After all, he is considered as the authoritative author on the subject nowadays, and the glory of his opponent does not take a lot away from his – the last time his works appeared in Drouot (3 in-4° volumes), it was sold for 11,500 euros. Rochefort’s book, though an expensive book also, hardly reaches that price—but it is an on volume book. The case is not closed yet. Inquiries are still going on. Meanwhile, I will not follow the advise Mr. De Rochefort, as a pastor, might have given : I will love the sin if not the sinner. Beauty has its privileges.

  

© Thibault Ehrengardt  

* It has become even harder to find than the later 3 volumes editions : it popped up in an auction sale, a few years ago, with the golden armories of the Jesuites on each board, and went for some 6 or 7,000 euros

- Histoire Naturelle & Morale des Iles Antilles de l’Amérique,

No name (Charles de Rochefort). First edition : À Rotterdam, chez Arnout Leers, 1658.

- 1 vol. in-4°: Frontispiece, title-page, portrait of Jacques Amproux (often missing), epistle (2ff), preface (3ff), to the reader (1ff), 527pp, table (13pp). The natural history goes from pp1 to pp262, the morale one from pp263 to 514, and the Vocabulary, from pp515 to pp527. 42 engravings inserted into the text, including some full page ones. The Dutch bookseller Antiquariaat FORUM BV, who has a copy on sale on Americana Exchange (www.americanaexchange.com/AE/bfs/bookdetails.aspx ), reminds us that “there are several variants of the first edition, one with the dedicatory epistle signed by C. de Rochefort, one unsigned, and one with an extra line in the impressum: Avec privilège, or Et se vend a Paris, par Antoine Collier. 

Seconde edition : À Rotterdam, chez Arnout Leers, 1665.

No name (Charles de Rochefort),

- 1 vol. in-4°: Frontispiece (the same, with the date at the bottom suppressed), title-page, epistle (11ff), preface (5ff), to the reader (2ff), lettres (6ff), 583pp, table (13pp). The natural history from pp1 to pp278, the moral one from pp279 to pp 570, Vocabulary frome pp571 to pp583. Same engravings as in the first edition but the portrait of Mr Ampoux has been supressed and 3 folding engravings added.

Third edition:  2 volumes in-12°, À Lyon, 1666.

- Histoire Générale des Antilles habitées par les François,

Du Tertre (Jacques). A Paris, chez Thomas Jolly, 1667-1671.

- 4 tomes in 3 vol. in-4°: frontispiece, (10ff), 593pp, (3pp), 4 engravings // frontispiece, (8ff), 539pp, 14 engravings // frontispiece, (8ff), 317pp, (8pp), 1 engraving // (3ff) 362pp, (7ff), 7 engravings.