Miklouho Maclay and the Papuans of New Guinea. Travels of Miklouho-Maclay and his harems. Either Rotei or Buka
Lauren jumps from the cold and puts on her hood. It’s +4 °C in Moscow, and she forgot her hat in the restaurant yesterday. We are on the “Floating Bridge” in Zaryadye, there is a strong wind here, and even the locals are freezing. And even jackets designed for 25-degree frost are not very helpful for guests from the islands. After all, they grew up in a tropical climate and although they knew that it was cold in our country, they could not imagine how it was. But if you introduce Russia, then thoroughly, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay decided. With a cold wind, ice cream from GUM, a descent into the metro and a selfie with the Kremlin in the background.
Nikolai Nikolaevich is a cousin, great-great-grandson and full namesake of the Russian scientist and traveler. Almost 150 years ago, Miklouho-Maclay Sr. made an expedition to New Guinea and lived with the Papuans of the northeast of the island for 30 months. They called him “the man from the moon” because of his white skin color. And they asked to “show your village.” “In their language there was no word “country”, only the word “village”. They did not really understand that a country could include many villages,” explains Nikolai Nikolaevich. The terrain in the country is mountainous, it was difficult to move, so the islanders lived in isolated tribes and did not even always know their neighbors.
Therefore, 867 languages are preserved in Papua New Guinea. But the official language is Tok Pisin, and the country teaches in English. This is what we speak in.
“My parents were afraid for me,” says Lauren. “They asked: will you ever come back?” The guests' ideas about Russia were formed from school lessons (where they explained that we have communism, everyone dresses the same and walks in formation) and the Western media (which tells us that our country is a dangerous world power). Your knowledge of Papua New Guinea is probably also not very accurate: when you hear the word “Papuans”, many of us will imagine people in skirts made of leaves and think about cannibalism (in fact, both are already in the past, although the islanders still have skirts) .
When at the end of 2016 Nikolai Nikolaevich established the Foundation named after. Miklouho-Maclay, he was amazed that, despite all the heritage of the Russian scientist, our countries have so few connections. He wanted to go to the Maclay coast (the very place where his great-great-grandfather once stayed, the official name is the Paradise coast) as a tourist. “But the travel company told me: “Yes, you can fly, but we don’t know how to get visas and how to get to the shore.” It takes 40 hours to fly to Papua New Guinea with transfers. There is no embassy in Russia, you need a visa to do in a third country (where there is a representative office), you still have to get there, and no one guarantees that visas will be issued. “Before this, I was sure that the whole world was accessible and open,” Nikolai Nikolaevich smiles.
He finally reached the shore named after his ancestor. But not as a tourist, but as the organizer of a scientific expedition, together with scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences and a translator who knew one of the local languages. As it turned out, the last “scientific contact” between the two countries occurred back in the late 70s.
Three thousand people gathered on the shores of Maclay to meet the expedition of the descendant of the “man from the moon”. “Later one journalist asked me: “How much did you pay for the extras?” I didn’t even understand him at first!” - Nikolai Nikolaevich laughs. There were no extras, of course: people themselves came from all the villages and even found a Russian flag to raise along with their own.
After this, Nikolai Nikolaevich decided that he needed to show the islanders the “village” of his ancestor, that is, Russia. So a year later, a delegation from Papua New Guinea came to St. Petersburg and Moscow for the first time in our modern history. The trip was organized by the Foundation named after. Miklouho-Maclay and the program of the President of the Russian Federation "New Generation".
"Bring me a refrigerator, I want to do business"
“Why don’t people smile here?” - asks Michael. Islanders say that people in Russia are friendly, but they miss the smiles on the street. They were also surprised by the horseradish and mustard (one of the guests, without understanding, generously spread a piece of lard - then regretted it) and how many ancient buildings we have preserved (“we also need to be more attentive to our culture”).
Although in Papua New Guinea traditions are respected. The inhabitants of this country practically do not migrate, so the direct descendants of those people who once met the traveler now live on the banks of the Maclay. There are legends about him here - for example, that “when he was hungry, he always whistled and went to the village.” Miklouho-Maclay indeed always whistled when he went to the local residents, so that his appearance would not come as a surprise to them. After all, the Papuans never showed their women to strangers - they hid them. And women couldn’t discuss anything with men either. Now these traditions are in the past - among the five guests from the islands there are two girls.
However, as Nikolai Nikolaevich explains, our guests are special. These are educated and “advanced” people, public figures and university teachers. Mostly political scientists. Looking at the Kremlin, they whisper to each other: “Can you imagine, the most important decisions in the world are made here.” According to Miklouho-Maclay Jr., the delegates were carefully selected. Because the purpose of this trip is to establish connections in science, culture and business. “This requires trust, and it can be earned when you look into each other’s eyes, and not just sign agreements,” Nikolai Nikolaevich is sure.
But although residents of the two largest cities of Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby, the capital where the APEC summit will be held on November 8–18, and Madang) came to us, many things in Moscow surprise them. For example, when entering GUM, some saw revolving glass doors for the first time. If among the guests there were residents of villages from the shores of the Maclay, they would probably have been even more impressed - there is no electricity or normal communication with the cities: the roads are bad, it is difficult to get there by car, and the boat sails on the water only twice a week. 85% of the country's population lives in such villages. In this situation, one local resident asked Nikolai Nikolaevich to bring a solar-powered refrigerator. “I ask: “Why?” And he told me: “I want to do business.” I’ll catch the fish, freeze it, and when the boat goes to Madang, I’ll sell a lot of fish there at once,” says Miklouho-Maclay Jr. “That is, a person wants a refrigerator so that he can sell fish not just one piece at a time, but several tens of kilometers away. to host an economic forum. Such a contrast.”
On Nikolskaya Street, Lauren, thoroughly frozen, buys a hat with earflaps in a souvenir shop. She says about Russia: “Big and cold.” And it seems that this is the only stereotype about our country that has justified itself.
Bella Volkova
Many have heard about the Russian traveler Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay, who went to the other side of the Earth and lived for several years among the Papuans. He studied their culture and life, as well as the flora and fauna of New Guinea. But all this might not have happened, because the famous ethnographer was almost eaten by local savages.
At school, Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukha was not considered a gifted student, he even stayed for the second year of study twice. However, he was able to enter the prestigious University of Heidelberg, then attended lectures in Leipzig and Jena. There he met the philosopher and biologist Ernst Haeckel. Haeckel invited the capable young man to take part in a scientific expedition. In 1866-1867 they went to Madeira and the Canary Islands.
An expedition of two teachers and two students studied fish and other sea inhabitants. Miklukha himself even discovered a new type of sponge for science. Teachers and students returned in different ways: some went through Paris, and Miklukha and his partner bought Berber costumes and went to Morocco. It was probably there, in the sands of the Black Continent, that the young Russian scientist’s interest in anthropology awoke.
Upon returning to Jena, he published his first scientific work on some features of the anatomy of sharks. It was signed with a double surname: Miklouho-Maclay. The scientist himself did not leave any explanations about this in his notes, but his heirs have several versions. According to one of them, someone in their family “crossed paths” with a Scot named Maclay. Another, more plausible, is that, having discovered a new type of sponge, Miklukha added to its name the abbreviation of his surname - Mcl. This is how “Maclay” appeared.
Being a man of humble origin, Miklukha was ashamed of this. Therefore, by doubling the surname in the Polish manner (and Nikolai Miklukha’s mother was Polish), he made it more “presentable.” By spreading rumors about his nobility, Miklouho-Maclay made his way into the scientific world easier, since it was much easier for aristocrats to get funding and go on expeditions.
Soon Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay set off on a journey through Italy, and then on a journey through the Egyptian desert to the Red Sea. Risking his life, he even tried to get to the holy Arab city of Jeddah. At the same time, the young traveler contracted malaria and also owed his friends a large sum of money.
Returning to his homeland, Miklouho-Maclay joined the Russian Geographical Society, made useful contacts and was able to organize an expedition across the Pacific Ocean. In November 1870, the traveler set out on a long voyage aboard the 17-gun corvette Vityaz. Along the way, he conducted a series of studies of flora, fauna, climate, and purchased gifts for the aborigines: knives, axes, fabric, needles, soap, beads.
On September 20, 1871, the Vityaz moored in Astrolabe Bay off the northeastern coast of New Guinea. When the ship fired an artillery salvo to greet the assembled Papuans, they became frightened and fled.
Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay’s first acquaintance with the natives on earth was original. To improve relations with the local residents, he went to the village of Gorendu, where savages and cannibals lived. Seeing the white-skinned man, they began to threaten, threw spears, and shot from bows at their very feet. Surviving in such a situation seemed almost impossible. What did the Russian traveler do? He spread out the mat, lay down on it and defiantly fell asleep.
When the scientist opened his eyes, he saw that the Papuans had lost all their fighting spirit. The savages, seeing a man who was not at all afraid of them, decided that he was immortal. Moreover, the natives thought that this was a real god.
Naturally, no one began to dissuade them of the opposite. Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay has surprised the Papuans more than once. One day he demonstrated to the natives how alcohol burns. He explained to the savages that if he wanted, he could set fire to the entire sea. After this, he was naturally feared and respected even more.
This was only the beginning of the Russian traveler’s first expedition to the lands of New Guinea, from which he brought a wealth of ethnographic and anthropological material, as well as collections of animals and plants of this tropical island on the other side of the Earth, which he would find something to surprise. The Papuans of New Guinea also have
In the minds of his contemporaries, Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay remained an eccentric rebel and a dreamer who, in fact, did not leave behind any fundamental works. Scientists recognized his proof of the species unity of humanity - and nothing more. However, Nikolai Nikolaevich devoted his entire short life to science and the achievement of his main dream: to create a free state of Papuans on the islands in the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, in order to turn the idea into reality, he tried to pit three powerful powers - Britain, Germany and Russia - against each other.
Controversial personality
Nikolai Nikolaevich remained a controversial figure. He was born in the village of Yazykovo-Rozhdestvenskoye, Borovichi district, Novgorod province, received his education in Germany, and a significant part of his life was spent on expeditions. Nikolai Nikolaevich wrote more than one and a half hundred scientific works. He denied that representatives of the black race are a transitional biological species from apes to homo sapiens. At the same time, in his mind, the northeastern coast of New Guinea was an ideal “ethnographic reserve”, the head of which he dreamed of becoming.
As for nationality, the question still remains open. The scientist's Scottish roots have not been confirmed. And brother Mikhail said: “there was no leavened patriotism in our family, we were raised to respect all nationalities.” Nikolai Nikolaevich himself wrote about himself in the third person in his autobiography: “Nick. Nick. is a mixture of elements: Russian, German and Polish."
Nikolai Nikolaevich evoked very ambiguous feelings among his contemporaries. Admiral Ivan Alekseevich Shestakov, manager of the Naval Ministry, disparagingly called him a “projector” and wrote: “He wants to become a ‘king’ in New Guinea.”
Here are the words of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev: “The devil knows why it seems to me that this whole gentleman is poof and will not leave any such work behind him.”
And this is the confession of Leo Tolstoy: “You were the first to undoubtedly prove by experience that man is everywhere a man, that is, a kind, sociable being, with whom one can and should enter into communication only with goodness and truth, and not with guns and vodka.”
The researcher suffered from bouts of malaria, untreated dengue fever, muscle rheumatism, and jaw pain. Due to the constant struggle with chronic diseases and the awareness of the inevitable imminent death, the cynical and cold-blooded Nikolai was quite sentimental at some points. Moreover, this sentimentality, like the scientist himself, was, to put it mildly, unique. A striking example is the lamp that Nikolai always took with him on his travels. He made it from the skull and ulna bones of his beloved, who bequeathed a part of herself to him before her death. Nikolai placed the skull on the bones, placed a wick on the arch, and built a green lampshade above it. Thus, he honored her memory and did not forget about the transience of human life.
Either Rotei or Buka
In mid-October 1870, at a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society, Nikolai Nikolaevich presented a project for an expedition to the Pacific Islands. The plan was ambitious and sweeping, but was very vague. Many scientists have a completely logical question: why does Russia need remote tropical patches of land? But Miklouho-Maclay did not need the approval of scientists.
Soon he received a foreign passport from “the nobleman Miklouho-Maclay, sent for an academic purpose.” From that moment on, the researcher’s double surname became official. Before this, it was not enshrined in documents. The scientist called himself Miklouho-Maclay to add weight. Indeed, in those days, a person’s origins played a very important role, and Nicholas’s mother (she was half-Polish with some blue blood) managed with great difficulty to ensure that he was still included in the hereditary nobility.
The Society Council assigned Nikolai Nikolaevich 1,200 rubles as an allowance. And soon the Minister of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai Karlovich Krabbe, informed the scientist that he would be taken on board the corvette Vityaz, although “without making allowances from the naval department.”
And on November 8, 1870, the “Vityaz” set sail from Kronstadt. The journey to the cherished goal - New Guinea - lasted almost a year. On September 19, 1871, the corvette entered Astrolabe Bay, in the northeastern part of the island.
The Papuans swam to the ship, having previously taken gifts with them. The team received them well, but then a misunderstanding occurred. As the islanders headed back, the crew decided to salute their arrival and fired a cannon. The frightened natives hastened to hide in the jungle. Miklouho-Maclay, together with the Swedish sailor Ohlson and a black teenage servant, whose name was simply Boy, went ashore. The captain of the Vityaz suggested that the scientist take sailors with him as guards, but he refused. He decided on his own, demonstrating kindness, to establish contact with the inhabitants of the islands.
The researcher and his companions were lucky. Among the Papuans there was one daredevil - Tui. He overcame his fear and approached Nikolai Nikolaevich. Since the scientist had some knowledge of the local language, he was able to learn a curious thing. It turns out that the locals perceived the appearance of a white man as an approaching apocalypse. But nothing bad happened. Therefore, they decided that Nikolai was their great ancestor Rotei, who “left but promised to return.” But after the roar of the cannons, the opinion of the Papuans, of course, changed: Nikolai Nikolaevich from the revived ancestor Rotei turned into an evil spirit named Buka.
"Vityaz" left Astrolabe Bay a week later. During this time, Miklouho-Maclay and his assistants built a hut on Cape Garagasi. And according to the instructions of the ship's captain, a small area near the dwelling was mined in case of an attack by the aborigines. It is not known exactly whether this “shield” was useful to the researcher or not.
At first, relations with local residents did not work out. Whenever he tried to make contact, the Papuans simply ran away from their village called Bongu and hid in the jungle. Only Tui sometimes came to visit the scientist. He helped Miklouho-Maclay practice the language, and also talked about life on the islands.
An accident helped move the matter forward. One day a tree fell on Tuya, injuring his head. And the treatment did not help - the wound began to fester. Then Nikolai Nikolaevich got down to business. He managed to help the unfortunate aborigine, after which the locals stopped perceiving Buka as an evil one. Moreover, they invited him to their village. But the women and children were hidden anyway, just in case. The memory of the cannon shots was deeply embedded in their heads.
Miklouho-Maclay spent a whole year in a hut on Cape Garagasi. During this time, he explored the vast territory of the island, compiled a detailed description of the flora and fauna, renamed Astrolabe Bay to Maclay Coast, and managed to become for the aborigines not just a friend, but a white-skinned god. They called him “kaaram tamo,” which can be translated as “moon man.”
In mid-December 1872, the clipper Emerald approached the island. It’s curious: in Russia and Europe they were sure that the researcher had died long ago. The newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti even published an obituary about this. Therefore, the maximum that the Emerald team hoped for was to find the grave of Miklouho-Maclay. To their surprise, he was alive, although very ill. The Swede was in the same condition. But Boy was unable to survive until the ship arrived; he was killed by a “tumor of the lymph glands in the groin.”
For two days, the islanders saw off the scientist, whom by that time they called not only “kaaram tamo”, but also “Tamo-boro-boro”. In the Aboriginal language this meant the highest boss.
Papuans are people too
In May 1875, Nikolai Nikolaevich heard rumors that England was preparing to annex the eastern part of New Guinea. Including Astrolabe Bay. This stunned the scientist. Therefore, he sent a letter to Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, the head of the Russian Geographical Society, in which he said that the Papuans needed protection. There were the following lines: “Not as a Russian, but as Tamo-boro-boro of the Papuans of the Maclay Coast, I want to appeal to His Imperial Majesty with a request for the protection of my country and my people and to support my protest against England...”. Simply put, Nikolai Nikolayevich offered Russia a protectorate over New Guinea, but with the preservation of its sovereignty. Pyotr Petrovich forwarded the letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Internal Relations, which was headed by Baron Fedor Romanovich Osten-Sacken. It was he who told Emperor Alexander II about Miklouho-Maclay’s plan, and at the same time recommended that the sovereign cancel the project. Alexander did just that.
Realizing that there was no one else to rely on, Nikolai began to prepare for the second expedition on his own. He managed to negotiate with a Dutch businessman named Schomburgk so that the trading schooner Sea Bird would take the explorer to the shores of New Guinea. In addition, Schomburgk undertook to send a ship for the scientist six months later.
On June 27, 1876, the schooner Sea Bird entered Astrolabe Bay. Miklouho-Maclay spent almost a year and a half among the Papuans, since the Dutchman did not keep his word. Unfortunately, little is known about the expedition, since many entries from Nikolai Nikolaevich’s field diaries were lost.
The scientist, like the first time, settled near the village of Bongu. Only now he built a hut on Cape Bugarlom, since his old home was destroyed by termites. Nikolai Nikolaevich planted a vegetable garden and began to grow crops unfamiliar to the aborigines - pumpkin, corn, cucumbers and watermelons. Soon the vegetables were “registered” among local residents.
The Papuans, of course, remembered the scientist and greeted him very warmly. Moreover, they invited him to the wedding, where they allowed him to see the main sacrament - the abduction of the bride. He also attended the funeral, which is reflected in his memoirs.
During his stay among the islanders, Nikolai Nikolaevich focused on anthropological research. He left a note in his diary: “In the future, the same birds of paradise and butterflies will delight the zoologist, the same insects will number in the thousands in his collections, while it can almost certainly happen that the future anthropologist will have to look for a purebred Papuan in his primitive state in the mountains of New Guinea, as I searched for sakay and semang in the forests of the Malay Peninsula."
Around this time, the researcher had the idea of creating a Papuan Union, uniting the scattered villages of New Guinea. And he already planned to place this Union under the protection of some powerful European state. Miklouho-Maclay considered not only Russia, but also Britain and Germany as a “guard.” The scientist visited several dozen villages, communicated with the locals and thought about how to unite them? The situation was complicated not only by the remoteness of the settlements from each other, but also by the language barrier. After all, the locals spoke different dialects. He found that in 27 villages people speak 14 languages.
During the second expedition, Miklouho-Maclay was finally convinced that the Papuans were not at all a “connecting link” between the monkey and the white people. He wrote about this: “Parts of the world with their different living conditions cannot be inhabited by one species of Species Homo. Therefore, the existence of many races is completely in accordance with the laws of nature...”
After 6 months the ship did not appear. His food supplies were running low. The garden was of little use. Besides, there was nothing to take notes on. Therefore, the researcher had to use book sheets and write between the lines. But the main thing is that precious time was melting away. After all, Miklouho-Maclay thought that the annexation of New Guinea would begin literally any day. The current situation hit the scientist hard, his health deteriorated sharply, but he did not stop his scientific activities.
Another year passed in such a nervous atmosphere. And suddenly the schooner Flower of Yarrow appeared in the bay. The Dutch businessman finally remembered his promise. Before boarding, Miklouho-Maclay talked for a long time with the village leaders. This conversation boiled down to one thing - if whites appear on the island, the locals should hide from them. He also showed the Papuans secret signs by which they could recognize a person from Tamo-boro-boro.
In November 1877, the schooner left the bay.
Trying to realize a dream
Four years later, Miklouho-Maclay presented the “Maclay Coast Development Project” to the British. So the commander of the navy in the southwest Pacific, Wilson, learned that the scientist wanted to return to the Papuans again to protect them from the Europeans. After all, Miklouho-Maclay was still waiting for the bloody annexation of New Guinea by some state. As a scientist and researcher, Nikolai was well aware of the cruelty of the colonialists and hoped that his Papuans would not repeat the sad fate of the numerous native tribes that inhabited the islands of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The main goal of the "Project" was to create a Great Council of village elders. Schools, roads, and bridges were supposed to appear in the united villages. The gradual development of the local economy was assumed. The scientist himself assigned himself the position of consultant and minister of foreign affairs. And if everything had gone as planned, over time the Papuan Union would have recognized the British protectorate. But Nikolai Nikolaevich could not interest the Englishman.
With the same “Maclay Coast Development Project” Nikolai Nikolaevich turned to the head of the Russian Maritime Ministry, Shestakov. He also rejected the idea, saying that Nicholas “wants to become a ‘king’ in New Guinea.” But another initiative of Miklouho-Maclay - the creation of a refueling base in New Guinea for the Russian fleet - interested the emperor himself. And Shestakov was tasked with working on the initiative.
But the idea of the “Project” did not leave the scientist. In 1883, he again tried to “place” it in Britain, and again unsuccessfully. But the idea of creating a base for the Russian fleet got off the ground. Shestakov set a task for the commander of the detachment of ships of the Russian Empire in the Pacific Ocean, Rear Admiral Nikolai Vasilyevich Kopytov: to explore the coastline of Niva Guinea and decide whether the harbors proposed by Miklouho-Maclay were suitable as coal warehouses for ships.
Therefore, a reconnaissance expedition to the shores of New Guinea was planned. And in mid-March 1883, the corvette Skobelev (renamed Vityaz) with Miklouho-Maclay on board reached Astrolabe Bay.
Nikolai Nikolaevich's third stay among the aborigines turned out to be the shortest - only 8 days. It turned out that almost all the locals he knew had already died, including Tui. And the village of Bongu was greatly depopulated. The Papuans explained this by diseases, wars and “sorcerers from the mountains.”
Miklouho-Maclay was depressed and defeated. He realized that the dream of a Union in its intended form could not be realized. And I decided that the “Project” needed to be modified. Namely: he should be the head of the Union. At the same time, it does not matter under whose protectorate the state will be. Having promised the Papuans that he would return soon, Nikolai Nikolaevich left the island.
At the same time, Kopytov explored the harbors, but none of them approached. The main problem was their remoteness from ocean communications. In order to reach the tracks, the cruisers would have to waste too much coal. Nevertheless, Kopytov highly appreciated the scientist’s merits and even paid him several hundred dollars for the services of a guide and translator.
Ambitious plan
The difficult situation around New Guinea prompted Nikolai Nikolaevich to write a letter to Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, in which he again returned to the Papuan Union and the Russian protectorate over it. And at the same time he sent a message to Alexander III.
And again Shestakov had to deal with Miklouho-Maclay’s “Project” and Kopytov’s report. After another careful study of the materials, the manager of the Maritime Ministry issued a verdict: “spotlight.” And the emperor was unpleasantly surprised by the scientist’s mistake with the location of the base for the fleet. In general, Miklouho-Maclay could not count on support from Russia.
Meanwhile, the southeastern part of New Guinea became British - the government of the Australian state of Queensland tried to do this. It, without asking permission from other states, simply declared the island its property and sent the necessary documents to London. This was done for one reason - the Australians were afraid that Germany might get ahead of them. And thus, there will be a serious threat to the British colonies in that region.
Nikolai Nikolaevich tried to influence the fate of, as he believed, his Maclay Coast. The scientist believed that it was the Russian “Skobelev” that pushed the Queensland government to annexation. He did not guess about the fear of Germany. Having hastened to conclusions and not understanding the problem, Miklukha sent further letters to Russia, England and Germany. Only this time, Nikolai Nikolayevich pinned his special hopes on Germany and Bismarck: “... to protect the land itself from being seized by the British, but also to protect the rights of the dark-skinned natives of the Pacific Islands as people, from unscrupulous unfair and cruel exploitation not only by the British , but also all whites in general.”
Awaiting the verdict of the powers that be, in the summer of 1883 Nikolai Nikolaevich moved to Sydney. Here he settled in a biological station, continuing his research work. Then he decided to marry his old friend, Margaret Robertson, despite the hostile attitude of the bride’s relatives towards him. They were not satisfied with literally everything about the groom: his poor financial situation, poor health, nationality... And most importantly, according to the will of Margaret’s first husband (he died several years before the woman met Nicholas), she received 2 thousand pounds of annual rent. And the Robertson family did not want to lose this money because of the Russian scientist, because in the event of her remarriage, payments would stop.
But still, Margaret’s relatives gave in. The couple got married on February 27, 1884 and settled in a house near the biological station. Miklouho-Maclay had two sons - Alexander and Vladimir, although in Australia they were called Nils and Allen. It’s curious: they have never been to Russia.
British-German “infighting”
The Germans also did not respond to Miklouho-Maclay’s letter. Instead, they decided to act fast and hard. In the fall of 1884, the confidant of the German New Guinea Company, Otto Fisch, whom Miklouho-Maclay met in Sydney, arrived on the Maclay Coast. Posing as a relative of Tamo Boro-boro, he bought land for a coal base and plantations. Then a German cruiser entered Astrolabe Bay and... The northeastern part of New Guinea found itself under German protectorate. Nikolai learned about Otto’s betrayal (the scientist believed so) in December of the same year. In a panic, he sent another telegram to Bismarck: “The natives of the Maclay Coast reject German annexation.” The answer was the usual silence again. And the Germans and the British amicably agreed on the division of New Guinea at the beginning of 1885 without the participation of Miklouho-Maclay and Russia. For Nicholas, this meant one thing - the Maclay coast was lost.
As you know, trouble does not come alone. The government of New South Wales (a state in the southeast, which includes Sydney) announced to Miklouho-Maclay that the land on which the biological station and his house were located was being transferred to the military. Accordingly, he needed to vacate his “abode.” Being in a broken and depressed state (plus old health problems were added), Nikolai Nikolaevich decided to return to Russia. And at the end of June 1886 he found himself in St. Petersburg.
The thought that Russian colonialists would help the Papuans did not leave the scientist. And soon Novosti and Exchange Newspaper published a note. It contained an invitation to everyone who wanted to go to the Maclay Coast to build a free state there. Miklukha did not want to think about how the Germans would react to this. To his surprise, there were a lot of people willing. The plan for the resettlement of compatriots was one step away from implementation. Nikolai Nikolaevich even wrote a letter to Alexander III, in which he asked permission to create a Russian colony on the Maclay Coast. The emperor, of course, did not support the idea.
This completely broke the scientist. All his numerous illnesses worsened and on April 2, 1888, the scientist passed away. His wife ordered the capital letters of the phrase Nothing But Death Can Separate Us to be engraved on the tombstone. And after the funeral she returned to Sydney.
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Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay (1846-1888) - Russian ethnographer, anthropologist, biologist and traveler who studied the indigenous populations of Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania, including the Papuans of the northeastern coast of New Guinea.
Born in the Novgorod province in the family of railway engineer N. I. Miklukha, builder of the Nikolaev railway and the first head of the Moscow station.
The second part of the famous traveler’s surname was added later, after his expeditions to Australia.
After completing his gymnasium course, Miklouho-Maclay continued his studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University as a volunteer student. The study was not long. In 1864, for participating in student gatherings, Miklouho-Maclay was expelled from the university and he, using funds raised by the student community, left for Germany. In Germany he continues
studying at the University of Heidelberg, where he studies philosophy. A year later, Miklouho-Maclay was transferred to the medical faculty of the University of Leipzig, and then the University of Jena.
While still a student, as an assistant to the famous zoologist Haeckel, Miklouho-Maclay traveled to the Canary Islands and Morocco.
In March 1869, Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay appeared on the streets of Suez. Like a true Muslim, having shaved his head, painted his face and dressed in the attire of an Arab, Maclay reached the coral reefs of the Red Sea. Then Miklouho-Maclay more than once recalled the dangers he was exposed to. He was sick, hungry, and met bandits more than once. For the first time in his life, Miklouho Maclay saw slave markets.
Miklouho-Maclay walked the lands of Morocco, visited the Atlantic islands, wandered around Constantinople, crossed Spain, lived in Italy, studied Germany.
Upon returning to St. Petersburg, he managed to convince the vice-chairman of the Russian Geographical Society, Admiral Fyodor Litke, to obtain permission for him to go to Oceania on the corvette Vityaz.
While sailing on a corvette, Miklouho-Maclay crossed the Atlantic Ocean, visited Brazil, Chile, and some archipelagos of Polynesia and Melanesia.
On September 20, 1871, Miklouho-Maclay landed on the northeastern coast of New Guinea. Tribes and villages were divided here and were constantly at war with each other; every stranger, whether white or black, was considered an unwelcome guest.
Miklouho-Maclay came to the village along a path through the wild forest. It was empty. But near the village, in the dense bushes, Miklouho-Maclay noticed the first Papuan Tuya, frozen in horror. Miklouho-Maclay took him by the hand and led him to the village. Soon eight Papuan warriors with tortoiseshell earrings in their ears, with stone axes in their dark hands, hung with wicker bracelets, crowded around the foreigner. The Russian guest generously presented the Papuans with various trinkets. By evening he returned to the ship, and the Vityaz officers breathed a sigh of relief: so far the “savages” had not eaten Nikolai Nikolaevich.
On the bank of a stream, by the sea, sailors and ship carpenters cut down the first Russian house in New Guinea - Maclay's house.
"Vityaz" continued sailing, and Miklouho-Maclay and his two assistants remained on the coast of New Guinea.
The Papuans did not greet the white man very warmly. They shot arrows over the foreigner's ear and waved spears in front of his face. Miklouho-Maclay sat down on the ground, calmly untied his shoelaces and... went to bed. He forced himself to sleep. When Miklouho-Maclay woke up and raised his head, he triumphantly saw that the Papuans were sitting peacefully around him. Bows and spears were
hidden. The Papuans watched in amazement as the white man slowly tightened his shoelaces. He went home, pretending that nothing had happened, and nothing could happen. The Papuans decided that since the white man is not afraid of death, then he is immortal.
Miklouho-Maclay entered the huts of the Papuans, treated them, talked with them (he mastered the local language very quickly), gave them all sorts of advice, very useful and necessary. And a few months later, residents of near and far villages fell in love with Miklouho-Maclay.
Friendship with the Papuans grew stronger. More and more often Miklouho-Maclay heard the words “Tamo-Rus”; That's what the Papuans called it among themselves. "Tamo-rus" meant "Russian man."
A Russian traveler lived in a hut on the ocean for more than a year. Sick and often hungry, he managed to do a lot.
It is interesting to read in Miklouho-Maclay’s diaries about his relationships with local women, including Papuans. Biographers of the scientist, as a rule, avoid this issue.
According to Miklouho-Maclay’s descriptions, Papuan women were quite beautiful. “Papuan men find it beautiful if their wives move their rear parts when walking so that with each step one of the buttocks would certainly turn to the side. I have often seen in villages little girls, seven or eight years old, whom their relatives taught this wagging ass: for hours
the girls memorized these movements. The dance of women consists mainly of such movements."
One day Miklouho-Maclay was lying with a fever. It was then that a young Papuan woman, Bungaraya (big flower), showed up to the sick scientist.
I suppose,” Miklouho-Maclay wrote in his diary after the first night spent with her, “that Papuan caresses of men are of a different kind than European ones, at least Bungaraya watched my every move with surprise and although she often smiled, I don’t think that it was only a consequence of pleasure. Miklouho-Maclay was modest, since she still got pleasure -
Otherwise, she would not have come to him almost every night, and even without receiving gifts, as Maclay’s diary testifies.
“Here girls become women early,” the traveler wrote in his diary. “I’m almost convinced that if I tell her: Come with me and pay my relatives for her, the novel is ready.”
In one of the huts of the Orang Utan tribe, he saw a girl whose face immediately caught his eye with her cuteness and pleasant expression. The girl's name was Mkal, she was 13 years old. Miklouho-Maclay said that he wanted to draw it. She hurried to put on a shirt, but he warned that this was not necessary.
Later, in Chile, he became involved with a girl named Emma. The young Chilean was then only 14 and a half years old.
Some maids, on their own initiative, became his “temporary wives,” as Miklouho-Maclay called them. In a letter to his friend Prince Meshchersky, he wrote: “I am not sending the portrait of my temporary wife, which I promised in the last letter, because I did not take one, and the Micronesian girl Mira, if there is one, will not be earlier than a year.” Indeed, when Mira
She entered Miklouho-Maclay, she was too young - only eleven.
In December 1872, the Russian clipper Izumrud entered Astrolabe Bay. The Papuans celebrated "Tamo-Rus" with the roar of barums - long Papuan drums.
In the second half of May 1873, Miklouho-Maclay was already in Java. "Emerald" left, but the scientist remained.
Miklouho-Maclay met the first “Oran-Utans” in the forests. Shy, short, black people spent their nights in the trees. All their property consisted of rags on their hips and a knife. In 1875, Nikolai Nikolaevich completed notes on his wanderings among the “people of the forest.” By that time, Russian cartographers had already put Mount Miklouho-Maclay, near Astrolabe Bay, on the map of New Guinea. It was
as if a lifetime monument is a rare honor for scientists. But no one knew that such a famous person had been wandering for many years without shelter or family, and was running into debt in order to use borrowed money to make his dangerous and distant journeys.
In 1876-1877 he traveled to western Micronesia and northern Melanesia.
In the last days of June 1876, the traveler reached the Maclay Coast. The sailors unloaded supplies, boxes, barrels, and gifts for the Papuans. All the old acquaintances were alive. The Papuans welcomed Tamo-Ruso very cordially. The ship's carpenters, with the help of the Papuans, built a house from strong timber. The traveler celebrated his housewarming with the Papuans, two servants and a cook.
In July 1878 he appeared in Sydney.
In 1882, after twelve years of wandering, Miklouho-Maclay returned to St. Petersburg. He became the hero of the day. Newspapers and magazines reported about his arrival, outlined his biography, dwelled on episodes of his travels, and expressed admiration for his exploits. In November 1882, Miklouho-Maclay had a meeting in Gatchina with Alexander III.
And again new travels.
In February 1884, the Russian traveler and scientist Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay married the young widow Margarita Robertson, daughter of the former prime minister of New South Wales. Margarita's parents and relatives opposed this marriage, considering the Russian traveler an unsuitable match for her. At this time, Nikolai Nikolaevich was 38. His chosen one was much
younger. In November, a son is born, a year later - a second. And how many children were born from him in the places of his travels, of course, is not known. They say that Russian travelers later met a white-skinned Papuan named Mak Lai.
The last months of 1886 were filled with work on diaries of New Guinea travels. By the beginning of 1888, the travel diaries of all six trips to New Guinea were, in general, ready. He began work on the second volume, but finally fell ill. The patient was not allowed to work; they even took away his pencil and notebooks. Then Nikolai Nikolaevich began to dictate his autobiography. His joy was immeasurable when he received his newly printed book, “Excerpts from the Diary of 1879.”
Miklouho-Maclay died on a hospital bed in a clinic at the Military Medical Academy. He was buried at the Volkov cemetery. A wooden cross with a short inscription was placed on an inconspicuous grave.
Miklouho-Maclay's contribution to anthropology and ethnography was enormous. In his travels he collected a lot of data about peoples
Indonesia and Malaya, Philippines, Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and western Polynesia. As an anthropologist, Miklouho-Maclay showed himself to be a fighter against all “theories” postulating racial inequality, against the concepts of “lower” and “superior” races. He was the first to describe the Papuans as a specific anthropological type. The scientist showed that Papuans are just as full-fledged and full-fledged
representatives of the human race, like the English or the Germans.