Odoardo Beccari: The First Italian in Malaysia

“In the forest man feels truly free. 

When the more one wanders around it, the more one falls in love with it; the more one studies it, the more one knows about it. Its shadows, sacred to science, satisfy both the spirit of the believer and that of the philosopher.” 

 (Odoardo Beccari)

“Daiacca Weaver of the Seribas”

I want to talk to you about an incredible book that I bought a few days ago. A book that offers a new perspective on the past of a famous myth and that speaks about Malaysia, written by the first Italian in history who visited this country: Odoardo Beccari.

 

Everyone knows Emilio Salgari and his Sandokan, revered as a myth in Malaysia because he has always been considered the first writer who set his novels in Malaysia. The writer, born in Verona, in fact set his Indo-Malay cycle of novels in Malaysia: Sandokan and his Malaysian tigers, first published in magazines in 1883 and then published as books in 1900, from “Pirates of Malaysia” (1896), “The Tigers of Mompracem” (1900) up to “Sandokan to the Rescue” (1907), making this distant exotic land known to the whole world. Inspired by the figure of James Brooke, Sarawak's White Raja.

It must be said, however, that as is known Salgari never visited Malaysia, yet his novels were detailed in the description of the fauna and flora and customs of the place, so much so that he also inspired many films and TV series.

Wonderful fact!

This was possible because the Veronese writer drew heavily on the book of Beccari, of his great inspiration: without the writings of the Florentine naturalist and adventurer, Sandokan would never have been written in that way.

 

“In the forests of Borneo”

Historical background.

In the nineteenth century there was a new important phenomenon: the organization of expeditions of naturalistic collections in various parts of the world.

“With the birth of the Italian Geographical Society, founded in Florence in 1867, this practice is conducted with ever greater level of organicity by numerous explorers, with the Florentine Odoardo Beccari, one of the undisputed protagonists of this new course of naturalistic research in the second half of the 19th century.”

And it's precisely to his first major breakthrough, conducted between 1865 and 1868, in the forests of Sarawak, in Northern Borneo, that is dedicated “In the forests of Borneo”, published for the first time in 1902, and this in my hands is – incredible – its second edition.

 

It's said that Beccari was not only a scientist, but an adventurous and philosophical spirit, whose writing is profoundly poetic even when he describes the botanical variety of the forest, a place where he will find his true essence and will feel more comfortable than in Florentine good society lounges.

Before Beccari, together with his inseparable friend Giacomo Doria, made their exploration (but Doria had to return to Italy immediately), the East Indies – which went from the Malacca Peninsula to Bali and the Moluccas Islands – had already been visited by celebrated English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1854, and our Beccari followed in his footsteps with enthusiasm.

“In Borneo, in the largest of the islands of Malaysia, there is a country in which a 'Rajah' (Ragià) and a 'Ranee' (Rani), of the purest English blood, absolutely govern a state almost as big as two thirds of Italy, which has its fleet and its army, but which is not yet connected with a telegraph line with the rest of the world, which has no railways and not even roads, and is instead mostly covered by interminable and dense forests , in which the Orang-utan roam. [...] This is the Kingdom of Sarawak, which owes its origin to a superior man, lover of adventures and enterprising, Captain James Brooke, and now his nephew, Sir Charles Brooke, second European Ragià, boldly and with a spirit of true philanthropy leads with great strides in the path of progress and towards civilization.”

So writes Beccari in the Preface of the book, which names both the famous James Brooke who inspired Salgari for his antagonist in Sandokan, known in fact as the “exterminator of pirates”, and the new white Rajah Charles Brooke, fundamental during his stay in Borneo.

 

"A Malaysian 'sampan' and fishing village in Sarawak."

This book would never have come to light without the help and fundamental support of a woman: the Ranee Lady Margaret de Wind, wife of Rajah Charles, even if not for a long time.

Legendary woman who deserves a story of herself, very strong and intelligent, who married the Rajah in 1869, living in the Astana of Kuching that her husband offered her as a wedding gift, as a Malay Taj Mahal, also remembered as the one who composed the Sarawak's national anthem: “Gone Forth Beyond the Sea” in 1872.

It was she who, many years later in Italy, in 1897, meeting again Odoardo Beccari, pushed him to write his book, because as she said, despite the years that had passed, the customs of the inhabitants of Sarawak had remained the same.

The Ranee, like the naturalist, had a deep love for the place, the Malay people and their language that they had learned perfectly, and it was thanks to her that the book can also show the photographs of the time, in addition to the drawings made by Beccari: in fact, the Florentine did not take any photos, while Lady Margaret deepened in her travels to Sarawak, once divorced and lost the title that she always maintained on a symbolic level, the passion for photography, and took many photos which she then donated in 1897 (during their meeting) to the writer, who in the meantime had become not only an expert photographer, but also one of the founders of the Italian Photographic Society.

She found in Beccari that same passion and love for Malaysia that her husband, at the time of their stay in Sarawak, had never had, to the point that the naturalist considered that it is “their” book.

 

“Daiac girl from Seribas wearing the silver 'sisir' on her head”

“Group of land Daiacs”

The journey was long and crossed India and Sri Lanka, up to the first landing place: Penang.

At least my heart squeezes to read the enthusiasm with which Beccari describes the first moment they arrived in Penang:

“It is always an infinite pleasure to tread the earth, after having walked the bridge of a ship for long and wide days; but this feeling is a hundred times more alive, when the land of arrival is of a completely different nature than that of the departure, and where men, animals and plants are no longer those we are used to seeing every day, and everything is underneath an unusual appearance. [...]

We found the streets of Pinang spacious and lively, but against our expectation, the population was mostly composed of Chinese people. We were in our tour entered precisely in the “kampong” or neighborhood inhabited by the sons of the Celestial Empire. [...]

Minus that part near the port, where the European offices, a hotel and the Chinese quarter are gathered, the remainder of the city of Pinang is very scattered, and most of the houses are scattered along large avenues, in the shade of trees fruit, casuarina, coconut trees, “arache” or “pinang”, the palm tree that gave the island its name.”

“Nepenthes Veitchii foliari urns”

“Mangosteen fruit, Garcinia Mangostana”

From that moment he begins his description of the Malaysian people and language, which he learns very quickly and accurately describes, as well as the intertwining of races that constitutes the Malaysian people.

“The Malay language has been called the Far Eastern Italian for its harmonious sound and its softness,” writes Beccari born in the city that was the cradle of the Italian language.

The book gives a description of all the richness of the Borneo forest biosystem, where he lived with the Dayak people, between adventures with the head cutters tribes and the discovery of legendary animals, such as flying snakes, the “ular teddong-kumbang” that he never saw but knew he existed because he had full confidence in the stories of the Malaysians.

Although the meeting that struck him most of all was with the Orang-utan, what is known all over the world with this name and which, in fact, it means the “man of the forest” because of the very strong resemblance to this primate with the human physiognomy.

The forest will remain for him a place not only essential to his work, but also deeply mystical and close to his true essence of man.

To conclude, this is a book that has many meanings and various levels of reading. It can be read as a rich catalog of natural beauties, described in every detail, for over 500 pages. And, as one of the fascinating masterpieces of travel literature towards exotic lands written in a truly poetic way.

Or, as a book of love for a distant land, desired by two so different souls, that of the scientist and adventurer and that of the intelligent and curious noblewoman, both fascinated by the place where they lived for different destinies.

But it's also very important for its fundamental role in the world fame of Salgari, who was – it is true – capable of inventing an adventurous saga that made everyone know about Malaysia, but would never have had the same strength without the detailed stories and the experience lived on one's skin by Beccari.

 

And last but not least, this is a book that reminds us of the vital importance that our forests and their human and naturalistic biodiversity have, which has in the photograph the equivalent of Salgado's latest effort: “Genesis”.

Not surprisingly, at the introduction of the book, among other essays, there is also one by Nicola Messina on the current situation of Borneo, which really leaves a bitter in the mouth.

“From the time of the expedition of the young Odoardo, or from 1865, to today, the overall situation of Borneo, not only of the Malaysian one but of the whole island, has dramatically worsened from the point of view of the quality of the ecosystems and services to they associated. [...] In this case, Borneo, the third largest island on the planet by surface, in the last forty years has lost 30% of its rainforests, from the mixed ones of the tree giants to the peat bogs: an extremely serious fact also due to the perverse use of technologies that, becoming more and more sophisticated, allow businessmen to impact even more heavily on Nature and to open passages in the heart of the dense primary forests, now very rare, in ever faster times.”

And how, the plantations of the oil palm, which is not a business of Malaysian origin but was introduced by the Dutch in Java in 1848 and in 1910 in Malaysia by the Scottish William Sime, are completely deforesting the tropical environments.

 

Behind the adventurous and poetic tale of Beccari, more than in the fearless raids of Sandokan, there is a warning and a cry of love for Malaysia that goes up to the present day, hoping that it will be treasured more than the looting of the pirates of Salgari.

 

Odoardo Beccari died on October 25, 1920.

“Orang-utan family of the “kassà” race on a “durio” tree.”

Odoardo Beccari: “In the forests of Borneo” (Edizioni Clichy, 2020)

Italian version