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INDOCHINA - HEIDERICH (G.). Autograph manuscript signed in s…
See original version (French)
INDOCHINA - HEIDERICH (G.). Autograph manuscript signed in s…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 29
INDOCHINA - HEIDERICH (G.).
Autograph manuscript signed in several places. 1894-1895.
Saigon, 1894-1895. - Manuscript in-4, 210 x 170 : 456 pp. Garnet half-chagrin with corners, cold filets, spine ribbed and decorated, gilt head, untrimmed (contemporary binding).
Very important and interesting unpublished autograph manuscript, containing the memories of Indochina of G. Heiderich, a marine infantryman at the end of the 19th century.
Sent to serve in the Orient in May 1894, Private Heiderich arrived in Saigon the following month where, having fallen ill in September, he was admitted to hospital. He remained in hospital until January 1895 and took advantage of this period of enforced inactivity to write the present text, intended for friends and family. It is a composite work: the first two parts are based on direct observation, one in the form of a narrative and the other in the form of a descriptive table, while the third part is a compilation based on various readings, mainly in Le Royaume de Cambodge by Jean Moura (1883) and in La Cochinchine religieuse by Louis Louvet (1885).
The work is divided into three distinct parts:
- A crossing from Toulon to Saigon on the "Colombo" (chapters 1-28), begun on 21 September 1894:
A detailed account of his 32-day voyage, punctuated by anecdotes about his comrades and evocative descriptions (such as that of Riou Island in the Straits of Malacca). He also recalls his discovery of exotic flavours (bananas, coconuts) and his impressions of the ports of call (Oran, Port-Saïd, Obock, Singapore).
- Saigon, capital of French Cochinchina" (chapters 29-35), begun on 6 December 1894:
Methodical description of the city: the port, the arsenal, the main streets, the hospital, the prison, the Governor General's palace, and even the brothels on rue Borèse. He slips in anecdotes about the local fauna and monetary customs, and mentions having seen rickshaws at the 1889 Universal Exhibition.
- Cochinchina and Cambodia. Tonkin. Siam. Annam" (chapters 36-101). Largest part begun on 7 December 1894 and completed on 11 January 1895:
Documentary compilation on the peoples (Annamites, Khmers, Malays, Chams, etc.), agricultural crops (trom, kong, pheu-chuc), fauna (elephants, tigers, monkeys), customs (costumes, tattoos, opium, marriages, religions), colonial administration, and history.
The appendices (chapters 102-112) include texts of colonial treaties, information on the Maignen filter (for sterilising water, with 2 original drawings), and onomastic and historical questions.
Although marked by the vibrant nationalism and racial prejudices typical of his time, Heiderich condemned torture (such as beatings with the "cadouille", a rattan stick) and expressed an acute awareness of colonial injustices, evoking "their violated soil and their lost freedom". His personal experience of the loss of Alsace-Lorraine undoubtedly awakened his sensitivity to the condition of colonised peoples.
In short, this is both a personal and documentary account, a blend of ethnographic curiosity, travelogue and critical reflection on colonisation, tinged with an ambivalence that reveals his era.
Two stamps from the period are pasted on the first page. Opposite this first page is a later autograph note to the manuscript: "En souvenir du service que mon (sic) rendu MMme Garnier et fils. G. Heiderich. In the centre of the second lining must have been a coin or medal, which has now disappeared.
Rubbing from use. Some foxing.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
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