The story behind this book of letters itself indicates how the network of scholars working in Dutch East India Company (VOC) archives has become truly global in the last two decades, moving beyond traditional area studies to examining the VOC networks and connections with Asian and African networks in the Indian Ocean. Antonia Malan, a historical archaeologist of the Dutch Cape, found a series of letters written in South Asian scripts while conducting research on Cape estate archives. Recognizing their unique nature, she began tapping her own scholarly network to figure out what languages they were written in and how they could be transcribed and translated. Herman Tieken agreed to take on the task and working with Malan and other VOC scholars this project eventually came to fruition as perhaps “the earliest examples of private correspondence in any South Asian language” (vii). This book of Nicolaas Ondaatje’s letters, which crossed the Indian Ocean in his lifetime, also helps us to understand the protean connections across the ocean that linked Africa and Asia in the early modern period via the extension of shipping and settlement networks of European merchant companies and colonizers.
The book is divided into two parts. First is Nicolaas Ondaatje’s family and career background in Colombo and in Galle, followed by his life at the Cape of Good Hope. The chapters on the correspondence networks and letter writing formulae are fascinating in their detail. The second section is the translation and transcription of the letters.
Tieken has constructed a clear a picture as possible from secondary sources about Ondaatje’s family background as Christian Tamil Chettiyars. This group was vital translators, interpreters, brokers, and traders working with various European trading companies. In Nicolaas’s case, this was the Dutch Company and he held the rank of bookkeeper. When members of the VOC elite fell from grace as a result of the constant faction fighting, it was not uncommon for their minor associates to be brought down with them. Ondaatje’s sentence to ten years of banishment to the Cape of Good Hope by the Court of Justice in Colombo was just such a case. He was banished to fend for himself, which indicates that he had not committed a violent crime and so his position at the Cape was not as dire as that of convicts sentenced to hard labour. He had freedom of movement, association, and employment and seems to have integrated into the free black Christian community at the Cape. Several IOUs indicate that he was able to tap into credit lines from among the elite of this community. His own social status at the Cape was ambivalent--not as high as his urban elite life at home but his background smoothed his transition at the Cape. It seems he did struggle to support himself in town and he eventually relied on his qualifications to secure employment as a Dutch teacher for colonial families in the adjacent rural areas. It is possible that moving out of Cape Town was a way to minimize his expenses but it would also have made him more socially isolated. Little is known about his relationships with the families whose children he taught.
One letter that Tieken highlights demonstrates how banishment was not considered socially disastrous and that the circulation of people exiled around the VOC settlements was not uncommon. “You need not worry that after all this time people will speak badly of you. Very many people from here have, like you, been deported as criminals to that place and have returned at the end of their terms … so don’t hang back but depart from there as soon as you can … how we long for the moment when we will see you again!” (20).
Between 1728 and 1737 Nicolaas Ondaatje preserved 71 letters from 29 different correspondents. Most of his correspondents were family members and a few of his friends, including Dutchmen, kept in touch over the years. His mother was the only one woman who wrote to him directly (through family scribes). This in itself is interesting and indicates that the multilingual literacy of the Chettiyar men did not extend to the women of the community. His relationships with women at the Cape were also obscure. In a couple of letters, it is clear that he had mentioned having a son but did not indicate having been married. His family was keen to learn more about his wife and child but Nicolaas seems to have demurred. His estate records did not indicate that he had family at the Cape who could inherit his property.
None of Nicolaas’s own letters were preserved but those he received reflect back on some of his comments about his life and circumstances at the Cape and so we get a tantalizing glimpse into his social milieu. Ondaatje had to rely on informal networks of sailors and passengers to transport letters both ways but the range of letters, goods, money, and even slaves, that were transported in these unofficial communication networks was both diverse and seems to have been quite reliable. Ondaatje requested slaves to be sent to him from Colombo, raising the issue that exiles were involved in the informal slave trading networks of the VOC. In his case, it appears that bringing slaves to the Cape was supposed to be a profitable venture to supplement his income. It’s not clear whether or not he kept slaves because his status as an exile meant that his slaves did not appear on the tax rolls.
Reading the letters reveals Ondaatje’s range of relationships and his close ties across the Indian Ocean. Letters dictated by his mother Julia show both the intimacy and longing of separation. In his first year of exile, she wrote: “Behave well, do not get into bad ways … for you are the son of a highly respected man. You should know that I constantly pray to God … asking Him when I will see you again” (87). Months before his ten years of exile was about to end she wrote: “After the sailing season there are another three or four months before your term will end. However, if you do everything you can, asking the authorities there to help you … then the Lord … will have mercy and bring you before my eyes” (173).
Alas, it was not to be, as Nicolaas Ondaatje’s letters were preserved in the archives because he died on the eve of his departure. While Ondaatje’s death is lost in obscurity, this book is a major contribution to understanding the minute details of intimate connections across the Indian Ocean in the early modern period. Because of the fascinating nature of the letters, this book captures something of the range of daily life and social connections both at the Cape and in Ceylon and on board ships plying the Indian Ocean. The book will undoubtedly be a major source for researchers but it is also written in such a way that it presents several opportunities for teaching the methodologies of historical research to students. Not many books have this versatility.
