Australia and the World Past and Present

Recently I have been exploring the history of French colonialism in the Indian Ocean.

That led me to the Île de France.

And that led me to the novel entitled Paul and Virginia (or Paul et Virginie, in the original French).

This work was previously unknown to me.

It seems that is more well known in the French-speaking world than in the English-speaking world.

I read more non-fiction than fiction. My main interest in the work is what we can learn about life on the island in the 1700s. For me, key questions are: what were social relations like on the island; what was relationship between the island and mainland France; and what were the island’s connections with the rest of the world?

Paul and Virginia was written by Jacques-Henri Bernadin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814) and was first published in 1788. Saint-Pierre had lived on the island between 1768 and 1771.

He was a contemporary of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and the two were friends.

Paul and Virginia is considered an example of pastoral literature.

This kind of literature is usually set in an idealised rural setting. There may be fields; there may be forests. There nature-rich landscapes are invariably depicted as peaceful and pure. They stand in contrast to urban or courtly life, which is presented as corrupt.

Characters tend to be simple and innocent. They may be farmers, tillers of the soil, or even as individuals sustained by fruit from the forest. There is a certain purity to the protagonists. They are sincere and well-meaning.

Nature and civilisation are set apart from each other. Large towns and cities are places of greed and vice, while nature is the fount of all that is good and wholesome. Humans are at their best when they are living in tune with the rhythms of nature.

In Paul and Virginia, we see Saint-Pierre’s love of nature.

One is reminded of the story of Robinson Caruso, written by Englishman Daniel Defoe, and first published in 1719.

In Paul and Virginia, the setting is a tropical island in the middle of a great expanse of ocean.

The landscape resembles a Garden of Eden.

The land is rocky.

Saint-Pierre offers vivid, descriptive writing.

Most of the action takes place on a mountain close to the main town, Port Louis.

Deep in the forest, a man (our narrator) comes across 2 ruined cottages. He encounters an old man and inquires who used to live there. The old man carries with him a staff made of ebony, a precious wood that used to be found all over the island. The old man proceeded to recount the story of 2 families, now gone.

In that deep valley, silence reigned. It was surrounded by high peaks and an azure sky.

In 1726 a man arrived from Normandy with his wife. In France, they had married in secret because, while the lady was of noble birth, the husband was not. He left his wife in Port Louis in order to travel to Madagascar to procure slaves for a new plantation. While on his travels, he died from fever. So the woman, Madame de la Tour, found herself relatively alone and pregnant. She had a slave, Domingo (Domingue) from Angola. She decided to go out into the forest to find a plot that she could cultivate. She planned to live a life of subsistence. It is significant that she chose to live a life of subsistence rather than begin a plantation.

In the forest, she encountered another French woman, who was also in a rather precarious situation. He name was Margaret (or Marguerite). She too had her own garden and was living off the land. She had also found herself pregnant. Her child would be illegitimate and the father would not provide for his upkeep. So Margaret too had set off for the far-flung colony to get away from her plight in France, and begin a new life. She too had a slave, Mary (Marie) from Madagascar.

At times Saint-Pierre refers to the island as a “desert”. This seems a bit jarring as there is no desert on this tropical island. Clearly he means that it is a kind of social desert, without the entangling social hierarchies of Europe.

Madame de la Tour gave birth to a daughter, Virginia (Virginie). Margaret gave birth to a son, Paul.

The two children grew up together. The two families come to rely on each other and formed close bonds.

They cultivated deep in the forest. They grew maize and wheat. They grew cucumbers and sweet potato. They cultivated cotton and sugarcane. There was even coffee, plantains and tobacco.

Even here, in the middle of the forest, European crops and vegetables had been introduced. But it was certainly on a small scale. It wouldn’t be right to call it a plantation. Much of Île de France had been altered to accommodate large plantations which produced cash crops for export. Although Madame de la Tour grew some cotton trees, they were for the family’s own use and she spun the cotton herself.

The two children ran around in bare feet.

The 2 mothers found in each other companionship and friendship.

The two children shared the same cradle.

As they grew, Virginia learnt to take care of the house economy while Paul tended to the garden. He was said to be “always in motion”.

Saint-Pierre’s frame of reference was Greek and Roman literary classics and Enlightenment-era humanistic art.

He writes that they were like “the children of Leda, enclosed in the same shell.”

To them, the world was contained within their mountain. They had no knowledge of or interest in matters outside of its borders.

“All their early childhood passed thus, like a beautiful dawn, the prelude to a bright day.”

Here we can seen Saint-Pierre idealising nature. His writing is beautiful.

Madame de la Tour had a rich aunt back in France. She had fled this aunt when she married her husband as the aunt hadn’t approved of the union. But some years had passed and now that her husband had died, she had a child of her own and very little support, decided to reach out to her relation and wrote her a letter.

The response she got was disheartening. It may seem harsh, but one can certainly imagine such a letter being written given the social conventions of the age. Her aunt responded thus, “she deserved her fate for marrying an adventurer and a libertine: that the passions brought with them their own punishments: that the premature death of her husband was a just visitation from Heaven: that she had done well in going to a distant land, rather than dishonoring her family in France; and that, after all, in the colony where she had taken refuge, none but the idle failed to grow rich.”

There is a sense here that one can make their own fortune on Île de France, if only one works hard enough.

After a while, the children came across an escaped slave. She was all skin and bones and wore nothing but a piece of cloth. She was a runaway slave, fleeing her brutal master. She had been pursued by dogs and men. We are told that her plantation was in the Black River region, in the west of the island, not far from Port Louis. She bore scars. Virginia gave her her breakfast. Naively, Virginia tells her “I should like to go and ask forgiveness for you of you master. Surely the sight of you will touch him with pity.” Well, presumably not. The two children accompanied the slave back to her plantation where Virginia proceeded to petition for the woman. The planter promised to forgive the slave, but we the reader knows that things will continue much as they did before. It is a clear example of the simple, innocent and kind nature of Virginia. She is shown to be morally pure and uncorrupted.

After returning the slave to her master, the two children head for home. They become tired and hungry. It is made clear to us that the land around the plantation doesn’t offer much in the way of human sustenance.

Later, after they reach home, Domingo recounts the fate of the returned slave. “But what a pardon! he [the master] showed her to me with the feet chained to a block of wood, and an iron collar with these hooks fastened round her neck.”

From their secret base deep in the woods, the children seem protected from the evils of the world. “Neither ambition nor envy disturbed their repose. They did not seek to obtain a useless reputation out of doors, which may be procured by artifice and lost by calumny; but were contented to be the sole witnesses and judges of their own actions.”

Their environment appears as a veritable fruit bowl. There are pawpaw trees, mangos, and guavas. There was shaddock (pomelo), or as they called it in Île de France, pamplemousse. The word pamplemousse is likely from Dutch pompelmoes. Pompel = large, swollen, while moes = citrus fruit / pulp. There are even pomegranates and pineapples.

The whole place resembled “a verdant ampitheatre.” Their immediate environment does not entirely consist of indigenous foodstuffs. It is a mix. There were strawberries and peas. To be sure there are endemic species present, but European transplants also feature.

The two mothers attended mass in a neighbouring area. The two children also prayed at times. Thus Saint-Pierres idealised island was not totally devoid of the European God. The children’s god was not completely Gaia, but nor was it fully the Lord found in the Bible. They had a foot in both camps. But if one did predominate, it would have been the religion of nature.

Margaret’s slave (Mary / Marie) had been born in Foallepoint (presumably present-day Foulepointe), on the northeast coast of Madagascar. In reality, slaves were taken from that area, but it was not the main slave port on the east coast of that island. A much more significant departure point would have been Toamasina / Tamtave.

In contrast to the four seasons of Europe, on the island, a different seasonal dynamic reigned. There was a dry season and a wet season. During the wet season, the families headed into their huts and spent their time weaving mats and bamboo baskets.

They made cordial using sugar and lemon.

We are told that “Every day was to them a holyday, and all that surrounded them a holy temple.”

There were also poor, white families “uncared for by the blacks, more reduced to live on tapioca in the woods; and as they had neither the insensibility which is the result of slavery, nor the fortitude which springs from a liberal education, to enable them to support their poverty, their situation was deplorable.”

Paul and Virginia live in tune with the rhythms of nature. “They knew the time of day by the shadows of the trees; the seasons, by the times when those trees bore flowers or fruit; and the years by the number of their harvests.”

Their world is one of innocent happiness.

As they reach their teenage years, their relationship begins to change. Virginia’s feelings change first, perhaps because girls tend to enter puberty earlier than boys.

While the two mothers used to talk about the 2 children one day marrying, they now consider separating them for a number of years, until they reach adulthood. They think about sending Virginia to France while they consider sending Paul to the Indies.

The approaching teenage years, the impending separation of the two children and their potential entry into larger social networks is linked in the novel with a sense of environmental destruction. Saint-Pierre writes of an approaching hurricane. Birds fly inland to seek refuge from the storm.

Paul questions his mother about her plans to send him away, “And why do you wish me to leave my family for this precarious pursuit of fortune? Is there any commerce in the world more advantageous than the culture of the ground, which yields sometimes fifty or a hundred-fold? If we wish to engage in commerce, can we not do so by carrying our superfluities to the town without my wandering to the Indies?”

Madame de la Tour’s aunt was now closer to death and had had a change of heart. She wanted Virginia to go to France where she could provide her niece with a formal education, arrange a good marriage and in time, become her heir.

It was decided. Word spread around the island that the family had now come into money. All sorts of traders now travelled over the mountain to ply their wares. We are introduced to many of the products available in Isle de France at this time: “the fine dimity of Gondelore; the hankerchiefs of Pellicate and Masulipatan; the plain, striped, and embroided muslins of Dacca, so beautifully transparent: the delicately white cottons of Surat, and linens of all colours. They also brought with them the gorgeous silks of China…satins and gauze of Tonquin…, and the calicoes of Madagascar.”

As Paul was illegitimate, he could not hope to make much headway in the French society of the time. The word “illegitimate” had no meaning in the valley. It would only apply if he tried to enter European society. And as Virginia’s mother was of noble birth, Virginia was considered to be part of the upper class. In the valley of their childhood, nothing came between them or broke them apart. But in wider society, a wedge would be driven between them.

Virginia did her duty and went to Europe. Her letters home were usually intercepted by her aunty. When she did get word home, she wrote to Paul, “In the midst of riches I am poorer than when I lived with you.”

She sent back packets containing European seeds. There were violets, daisies and poppies.

“It will give me great delight if you should one day see apple trees growing side by side of our plantains, and elms bending their foliage with that of our cocoa trees.”

Paul wonders about following Virginia to Europe. But he is told by our narrator that, “every thing has undergone a great change. Every thing in France is now to be obtained by interest alone; every place and employment is now become as if it were the patrimony of a small number of families, or is divided among public bodies. The king is a sun, and the nobles and great corporate bodies surround him like so many clouds; it is almost impossible for any of his rays to meet you. Formerly, under less exclusive administrations, such phenomena have been seen. The talents and merit showed themselves every where.” We might take this to be Saint-Pierre’s view of European society at the time – one of hierarchy and inequality.

In the end, Virginia wouldn’t marry another and was disinherited.

The novel then turns to Virginia’s return to the island.

Here fiction mingles with reality.

Virginia is returning on a ship called the Saint‑Géran. The ship had entered a small channel between Amber Island (Île de Ambre) and the main island. This island is on the northern coast, close to the town of Golden Dust (Poudre d’Or). Ships were not supposed to enter this channel, but were supposed to continue further around to Port Louis. The ship was moored before the reef, but then a hurricane started to form. Winds became more ferocious. Waves became higher. The sailors abandoned ship and jumped into the ocean. One of them, begged Virginia to remove her clothes so that she would not be drowned in the sea. Out of modesty, she refused. This is, perhaps, the hardest part of the story to believe. The modern reader struggles to imagine a woman choosing modesty over life.

Although fictionalised, the Saint‑Géran ran aground near Île de Ambre on 17-18 August 1744. This was just 24 years before Saint-Pierre arrived on the island. It would have been a significant event for the small community and Saint-Pierre would have been told the story. 200 people lost their lives in the shipwreck.

Returning to the novel, witnessing the unfolding tempest, Paul entered the water only to be knocked unconscious.

The body of Virginia was later found, clutching a small box with a picture of Paul inside.

A funeral for Virginia took place. “Eight young ladies of considerable families of the island, dressed in white and bearing palm-branches in their hands, carried the corpse of the amiable companion, which was covered with flowers. They were followed by a chorus of children, chanting hymns, and by the governor, his field officers, all the principal inhabitants of the island, and an immense crowd of people.”

Virginia appeared to be more popular in death than in life. She had not had much contact with other girls on the island. The brief contact she had had with the governor consisted of him pressuring her to go to Europe.

Paul was distraught and bore a vacant expression. His health went downhill. He was clearly suffering grief and despair.

Within a year, Madame de la Tour, Margaret and Paul had all passed away. It was as if once Virginia had gone, their worlds unraveled. The separation of Virginia from nature and from Paul seems to have brought misfortune – the natural order had been upended. It was not nature that had brought on calamity, but Virginia’s entry into and contact with European civilisation.