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Books: The Life of George Borrow

H >> Herbert Jenkins >> The Life of George Borrow




My dearest Sir, do me the favour to ask our excellent Committee,
Would it have answered any useful purpose if, instead of continuing
to struggle with difficulties and using my utmost to overcome them, I
had written in the following strain--and what else could I have
written if I had written at all?--'I was sent out to St Petersburg to
assist Mr Lipovzoff in the editing of the Manchu Testament. That
gentleman, who holds three important Situations under the Russian
Government, and who is far advanced in years, has neither time,
inclination, nor eyesight for the task, and I am apprehensive that my
strength and powers unassisted are incompetent to it' (praised be the
Lord, they were not!), 'therefore I should be glad to return home.
Moreover, the compositors say they are unaccustomed to compose in an
unknown tongue from such scribbled and illegible copy, and they will
scarcely assist me to compose. Moreover, the working printers say
(several went away in disgust) that the paper on which they have to
print is too thin to be wetted, and that to print on dry requires a
twofold exertion of strength, and that they will not do such work for
double wages, for it ruptures them.' Would that have been a welcome
communication to the Committee? Would that have been a communication
suited to the public? I was resolved 'to do or die,' and, instead of
distressing and perplexing the Committee with complaints, to write
nothing until I could write something perfectly satisfactory, as I
now can; {132a} and to bring about that result I have spared neither
myself nor my own money. I have toiled in a close printing-office
the whole day, during ninety degrees of heat, for the purpose of
setting an example, and have bribed people to work when nothing but
bribes would induce them so to do.

I am obliged to say all this in self-justification. No member of the
Bible Society would ever have heard a syllable respecting what I have
undergone but for the question, 'What has Mr Borrow been about?' I
hope and trust that question is now answered to the satisfaction of
those who do Mr Borrow the honour to employ him. In respect to the
expense attending the editing of such a work as the New Testament in
Manchu, I beg leave to observe that I have obtained the paper, the
principal source of expense, at fifteen roubles per ream less than
the Society formerly paid for it--that is to say, at nearly half the
price.

As St Matthew's Gospel has been ready for some weeks, it is high time
that it should be bound; for if that process be delayed, the paper
will be dirtied and the work injured. I am sorry to inform you that
book-binding in Russia is incredibly dear, {132b} and that the
expenses attending the binding of the Testament would amount, were
the usual course pursued, to two-thirds of the entire expenses of the
work. Various book-binders to whom I have applied have demanded one
rouble and a half for the binding of every section of the work, so
that the sum required for the binding of one Testament alone would be
twelve roubles. Doctor Schmidt assured me that one rouble and forty
copecks, or, according to the English currency, fourteenpence
halfpenny, were formerly paid for the binding of every individual
copy of St Matthew's Gospel.

I pray you, my dear Sir, to cause the books to be referred to, for I
wish to know if that statement be correct. In the meantime
arrangements have to be made, and the Society will have to pay for
each volume of the Testament the comparatively small sum of forty-
five copecks, or fourpence halfpenny, whereas the usual price here
for the most paltry covering of the most paltry pamphlet is
fivepence. Should it be demanded how I have been able to effect
this, my reply is that I have had little hand in the matter. A
nobleman who honours me with particular friendship, and who is one of
the most illustrious ornaments of Russia and of Europe, has, at my
request, prevailed on his own book-binder, over whom he has much
influence, to do the work on these terms. That nobleman is Baron
Schilling.

Commend me to our most respected Committee. Assure them that in
whatever I have done or left undone, I have been influenced by a
desire to promote the glory of the Trinity and to give my employers
ultimate and permanent satisfaction. If I have erred, it has been
from a defect of judgment, and I ask pardon of God and them. In the
course of a week I shall write again, and give a further account of
my proceedings, for I have not communicated one-tenth of what I have
to impart; but I can write no more now. It is two hours past
midnight; the post goes away to-morrow, and against that morrow I
have to examine and correct three sheets of St Mark's Gospel, which
lie beneath the paper on which I am writing. With my best regards to
Mr Brandram,

I remain, dear Sir,
Most truly yours,
G. BORROW.

Rev. JOSEPH JOWETT.


Closely following upon this letter, and without waiting for a reply,
Borrow wrote again to Mr Jowett, 13th/25th October, enclosing a
certificate from Mr Lipovzoff, which read:-

"Testifio:- Dominum Burro ab initio usque ad hoc tempus summa cum
diligentia et studio in re Mantshurica laborasse, Lipovzoff."

He also reported progress as regards the printing, and promised
(D.V.) that the entire undertaking should be completed by the first
of May; but the letter was principally concerned with the projected
expedition to Kiakhta, to distribute the books he was so busily
occupied in printing. He repeated his former arguments, urging the
Committee to send an agent to Kiakhta. "I am a person of few words,"
he assured Mr Jowett, "and will therefore state without
circumlocution that I am willing to become that agent. I speak Russ,
Manchu, and the Tartar or broken Turkish of the Russian Steppes, and
have also some knowledge of Chinese, which I might easily improve."
As regards the danger to himself of such a hazardous undertaking, the
conversion of the Tartar would never be achieved without danger to
someone. He had become acquainted with many of the Tartars resident
in St Petersburg, whose language he had learned through conversing
with his servant (a native of Bucharia [Bokhara]), and he had become
"much attached to them; for their conscientiousness, honesty, and
fidelity are beyond all praise."

To this further offer Mr Jowett replied:-


"Be not disheartened, even though the Committee postpone for the
present the consideration of your enterprising, not to say intrepid,
proposal. Thus much, however, I may venture to say: that the offer
is more likely to be accepted now, than when you first made it. If,
when the time approaches for executing such a plan, you give us
reason to believe that a more mature consideration of it in all its
bearings still leaves you in hope of a successful result, and in
heart for making the attempt, my own opinion is that the offer will
ultimately be accepted, and that very cordially."



CHAPTER IX: NOVEMBER 1834-SEPTEMBER 1835



Borrow was an unconventional editor. He foresaw the interminable
delays likely to arise from allowing workmen to incorporate his
corrections in the type. To obviate these, he first corrected the
proof, then, proceeding to the printing office, he made with his own
hands the necessary alterations in the type. This involved only two
proofs, the second to be submitted to Mr Lipovzoff, instead of some
half a dozen that otherwise would have been necessary. During these
days Borrow was ubiquitous. Even the binder required his assistance,
"for everything goes wrong without a strict surveillance."

Borrow had passed through THE crisis in his career. Stricken with
fever, which was followed by an attack of the "Horrors" (only to be
driven away by port wine), he had scarcely found time in which to eat
or sleep. He had emerged triumphantly from the ordeal, and if he had
"almost killed Beneze and his lads"{135a} with work, he had not
spared himself. If he had to report, as he did, that "my two
compositors, whom I had instructed in all the mysteries of Manchu
composition, are in the hospital, down with the brain fever," {135b}
he himself had grown thin from the incessant toil.

The simple manliness and restrained dignity of his justification had
produced a marked effect upon the authorities at home. If the rebuke
administered by Mr Jowett had been mild, his acknowledgment of the
reply that it had called forth was most cordial and friendly. After
assuring Borrow of the Committee's high satisfaction at the way in
which its interests had been looked after, he proceeds sincerely to
deprecate anything in his previous letter which may have caused
Borrow pain, and continues:


"Yet I scarcely know how to be sorry for what has been the occasion
of drawing from you (what you might otherwise have kept locked up in
your own breast) the very interesting story of your labours,
vexations, disappointments, vigilance, address, perseverance, and
successes. How you were able in your solitude to keep up your
spirits in the face of so many impediments, apparently
insurmountable, I know not . . . Do not fear that WE should in any
way interrupt your proceedings. We know our interest too well to
interfere with an agent who has shown so much address in planning,
and so much diligence in effecting, the execution of our wishes."


These encouraging words were followed by a request that he would keep
a careful account of all extraordinary expenses, that they might be
duly met by the Society:-


"I allude, you perceive, to such things," the letter goes on to
explain, "as your journies huc et illuc in quest of a better market,
and to the occasional bribes to disheartened workmen. In all matters
of this kind the Society is clearly your debtor." Borrow replied
with a flash of his old independent spirit: "I return my most
grateful thanks for this most considerate intimation, which,
nevertheless, I cannot avail myself of, as, according to one of the
articles of my agreement, my salary of 200 pounds was to cover all
extra expenses. Petersburg is doubtless the dearest capital in
Europe, and expenses meet an individual, especially one situated as I
have been, at every turn and corner; but an agreement is not to be
broken on that account." {136a}

That the Committee, even before this proof of his ability, had been
well pleased with their engagement of Borrow is shown by the
acknowledgment made in the Society's Thirtieth Annual Report: "Mr
Borrow has not disappointed the expectation entertained."

There were other words of encouragement to cheer him in his labours.
His mother wrote in September of that year, telling him how, at a
Bible Society's gathering at Norwich, which had lasted the whole of a
week, his name "was sounded through the Hall by Mr Gurney and Mr
Cunningham"; telling how he had left his home and his friends to do
God's work in a foreign land, calling upon their fellow-citizens to
offer up prayers beseeching the Almighty to vouchsafe to him health
and strength that the great work he had undertaken might be
completed. "All this is very pleasing to me," added the proud old
lady. "God bless you!"

From Mrs Clarke of Oulton Hall, with whom he kept up a
correspondence, he heard how his name had been mentioned at many of
the Society's meetings during the year, and how the Rev. Francis
Cunningham had referred to him as "one of the most extraordinary and
interesting individuals of the present day." Even at that date,
viz., before the receipt of the remarkable account of his labours,
the members and officials of the Bible Society seem to have come to
the conclusion that he had achieved far more than they had any reason
to expect of him. Their subsequent approval is shown by the manner
in which they caused his two letters of 8th/20th and 13th/25th
October to be circulated among the influential members of the
Society, until at last they had reached the Rev. F. Cunningham and
Mrs Clarke.

About the middle of January (old style) 1835, Borrow placed in the
hands of Baron Schilling a copy of each of the four Gospels in
Manchu, to be conveyed to the Bible Society by one of the couriers
attached to the Foreign Department at St Petersburg; but they did not
reach Earl Street until several weeks later. There were however,
still the remaining four volumes to complete, and many more
difficulties to overcome.

One vexation that presented itself was a difference of opinion
between Borrow and Lipovzoff, who "thought proper, when the Father
Almighty is addressed, to erase the personal and possessive pronouns
thou or thine, as often as they occur, and in their stead to make use
of the noun as the case may require. For example, 'O Father! thou
art merciful' he would render, 'O Father! the Father is merciful.'"
Borrow protested, but Lipovzoff, who was "a gentleman, whom the
slightest contradiction never fails to incense to a most incredible
degree," told him that he talked nonsense, and refused to concede
anything. {138a} Lipovzoff, who had on his side the Chinese scholars
and unlimited powers as official censor (from whose decree there was
no appeal) over his own work, carried his point. He urged that
"amongst the Chinese and Tartars, none but the dregs of society were
ever addressed in the second person; and that it would be most
uncouth and indecent to speak of the Almighty as if He were a servant
or a slave." This difficulty of the verbal ornament of the East was
one that the Bible Society had frequently met with in the past. It
was rightly considered as ill-fitting a translation of the words of
Christ. Simplicity of diction was to be preserved at all costs,
whatever might be the rule with secular books. Mr Jowett had warned
Borrow to "beware of confounding the two distinct ideas of
translation and interpretation!" {138b} and also informed him that
"the passion for honorific-abilitudinity is a vice of Asiatic
languages, which a Scripture translator, above all others, ought to
beware of countenancing." {139a}

Well might Borrow write to Mr Jowett, "How I have been enabled to
maintain terms of friendship and familiarity with Mr Lipovzoff, and
yet fulfil the part which those who employ me expect me to fulfil, I
am much at a loss to conjecture; and yet such is really the case."
{139b} On the whole, however, the two men worked harmoniously
together, the censor-translator being usually amenable to editorial
reason and suggestion; and Borrow was able to assure Mr Jowett that
with the exception of this one instance "the word of God has been
rendered into Manchu as nearly and closely as the idiom of a very
singular language would permit."

Borrow's mind continued to dwell upon the project of penetrating into
China and distributing the Scriptures himself. He wrote again,
repeating "the assurance that I am ready to attempt anything which
the Society may wish me to execute, and, at a moment's warning, will
direct my course towards Canton, Pekin, or the court of the Grand
Lama." {139c} The project had, however, to be abandoned. The
Russian Government, desirous of maintaining friendly relations with
China, declined to risk her displeasure for a missionary project in
which Russia had neither interest nor reasonable expectation of gain.
In agreeing to issue a passport such as Borrow desired, it stipulated
that he should carry with him "not one single Manchu Bible thither."
{139d} In spite of this discouragement, Borrow wrote to Mr Jowett
with regard to the Chinese programme, "I AGAIN REPEAT THAT I AM AT
COMMAND." {139e}

This determination on Borrow's part to become a missionary filled his
mother with alarm. She had only one son now, and the very thought of
his going into wild and unknown regions seemed to her tantamount to
his going to his death. Mrs Clarke also expressed strong disapproval
of the project. "I must tell you," she wrote, "that your letter
chilled me when I read your intention of going as a Missionary or
Agent, with the Manchu Scriptures in your hand, to the Tartars, the
land of incalculable dangers."

By the middle of May 1835 Borrow saw the end of his labours in sight.
On 3rd/15th May he wrote asking for instructions relative to the
despatch of the bulk of the volumes, and also as to the disposal of
the type. "As for myself," he continues, "I suppose I must return to
England, as my task will be speedily completed. I hope the Society
are convinced that I have served them faithfully, and that I have
spared no labour to bring out the work, which they did me the honor
of confiding to me, correctly and within as short a time as possible.
At my return, if the Society think that I can still prove of utility
to them, I shall be most happy to devote myself still to their
service. 1 am a person full of faults and weaknesses, as I am every
day reminded by bitter experience, but I am certain that my zeal and
fidelity towards those who put confidence in me are not to be
shaken." {140a}

On 15th/27th June he reported the printing completed and six out of
the eight volumes bound, and that as soon as the remaining two
volumes were ready, he intended to take his departure from St
Petersburg; but a new difficulty arose. The East had laid a heavy
hand upon St Petersburg. "To-morrow, please God!" met the energetic
Westerner at every turn. The bookbinder delayed six weeks because he
could not procure some paper he required. But the real obstacle to
the despatch of the books was the non-arrival of the Government
sanction to their shipment. Nothing was permitted to move either in
or out of the sacred city of the Tsars without official permission.
Probably those responsible for the administration of affairs had
never in their experience been called upon to deal with a man such as
Borrow. To apply to him the customary rules of procedure was to
bring upon "the House of Interior Affairs" a series of visits and
demands that must have left it limp with astonishment.

On 16th/28th July Borrow wrote to the Bible Society, "I herewith send
you a bill of lading for six of the eight parts of the New Testament,
which I have at last obtained permission to send away, after having
paid sixteen visits to the House of Interior Affairs." {141a} He
expresses a hope that in another fortnight he will have despatched
the remaining two volumes and have "bidden adieu to Russia"; but it
was dangerous to anticipate the official course of events in Russia.
Even to the last Borrow was tormented by red tape. Early in August
the last two volumes were ready for shipment to England; but he could
not obtain the necessary permission. He was told that he ought never
to have printed the work, in spite of the license that had been
granted, and that grave doubts existed in the official mind as to
whether or no he really were an agent of the Bible Society. At
length Borrow lost patience and told the officials that during the
week following the books would be despatched, with or without
permission, and he warned them to have a care how they acted. These
strong measures seem to have produced the desired result.

Despite his many occupations on behalf of the Bible Society, Borrow
found time in which to translate into Russian the first three
Homilies of the Church of England, and into Manchu the Second. His
desire was that the Homily Society should cause these translations to
be printed, and in a letter to the Rev. Francis Cunningham he strove
to enlist his interest in the project, offering the translations
without fee to the Society if they chose to make use of them. {141b}
As "a zealous, though most unworthy, member of the Anglican Church,"
he found that his "cheeks glowed with shame at seeing dissenters,
English and American, busily employed in circulating Tracts in the
Russian tongue, whilst the members of the Church were following their
secular concerns, almost regardless of things spiritual in respect to
the Russian population." {142a}

Borrow also translated into English "one of the sacred books of
Boudh, or Fo," from Baron Schilling de Canstadt's library. The
principal occupation of his leisure hours, however, was a collection
of translations, which he had printed by Schultz & Beneze, and
published (3rd/ 15th June 1835) under the title of Targum, or
Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects. {142b} In
a prefatory note, the collection is referred to as "selections from a
huge and undigested mass of translation, accumulated during several
years devoted to philological pursuits." Three months later he
published another collection entitled The Talisman, From the Russian
of Alexander Pushkin. With Other Pieces. {143a} There were seven
poems in all, two after Pushkin, one from the Malo-Russian, one from
Mickiewicz, and three "ancient Russian Songs." Again the printers
were Schultz & Beneze. Each of these editions appears to have been
limited to one hundred copies. {143b}

Writing in the Athenaeum, {143c} J. P. H[asfeldt] says:- "The work is
a pearl in literature, and, like pearls, derives value from its
scarcity, for the whole edition was limited to about a hundred
copies." W. B. Donne admired the translations immensely, considering
"the language and rhythm as vastly superior to Macaulay's Lays of
Ancient Rome." {143d}

Whilst the last two volumes of the Manchu New Testament were waiting
for paper (probably for end-papers), Borrow determined to pay a
hurried visit to Moscow, "by far the most remarkable city it has ever
been my fortune to see." One of his principal objects in visiting
the ancient capital of Russia was to see the gypsies, who flourished
there as they flourished nowhere else in Europe. They numbered
several thousands, and many of them inhabited large and handsome
houses, drove in their carriages, and were "distinguishable from the
genteel class of the Russians only . . . by superior personal
advantages and mental accomplishments." {143e} For this unusual
state of prosperity the women were responsible, "having from time
immemorial cultivated their vocal powers to such an extent that,
although in the heart of a country in which the vocal art has arrived
at greater perfection than in any other part of the world, the
principal Gypsy choirs in Moscow are allowed by the general voice of
the public to be unrivalled and to bear away the palm from all
competitors. It is a fact notorious in Russia that the celebrated
Catalani was so filled with admiration for the powers of voice
displayed by one of the Gypsy songsters, who, after the former had
sung before a splendid audience at Moscow, stepped forward and with
an astonishing burst of melody ravished every ear, that she
[Catalani] tore from her own shoulders a shawl of immense value which
had been presented to her by the Pope, and embracing the Gypsy,
compelled her to accept it, saying that it had been originally
intended for the matchless singer, which she now discovered was not
herself." {144a}

These Russian gypsy singers lived luxurious lives and frequently
married Russian gentry or even the nobility. It was only the
successes, however, who achieved such distinction, and there were "a
great number of low, vulgar, and profligate females who sing in
taverns, or at the various gardens in the neighbourhood, and whose
husbands and male connections subsist by horse-jobbing and such kinds
of low traffic." {144b}

One fine evening Borrow hired a calash and drove out to Marina Rotze,
"a kind of sylvan garden," about one and a half miles out of Moscow,
where this particular class of Romanys resorted. "Upon my arriving
there," he writes, "the Gypsies swarmed out of their tents and from
the little tracteer or tavern, and surrounded me. Standing on the
seat of the calash, I addressed them in a loud voice in the dialect
of the English Gypsies, with which I have some slight acquaintance.
A scream of wonder instantly arose, and welcomes and greetings were
poured forth in torrents of musical Romany, amongst which, however,
the most pronounced cry was: ah kak mi toute karmuma {145a}--'Oh how
we love you'; for at first they supposed me to be one of their
brothers, who, they said, were wandering about in Turkey, China, and
other parts, and that I had come over the great pawnee, or water, to
visit them." {145b}

On several other occasions during his stay at Moscow, Borrow went out
to Marina Rotze, to hold converse with the gypsies. He "spoke to
them upon their sinful manner of living," about Christianity and the
advent of Christ, to which the gypsies listened with attention, but
apparently not much profit. The promise that they would soon be able
to obtain the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth in their own tongue
interested them far more on account of the pleasurable strangeness of
the idea, than from any anticipation that they might derive spiritual
comfort from such writings.

Returning to St Petersburg from Moscow, after four-days' absence,
Borrow completed his work, settled up his affairs, bade his friends
good-bye, and on 28th August/9th September left for Cronstadt to take
the packet for Lubeck. The authorities seem to have raised no
objection to his departure. His passport bore the date 28th August
O/S (the actual day he left) and described him as "of stature, tall--
hair, grey--face, oval--forehead, medium--eyebrows, blonde--eyes,
brown--nose and mouth, medium--chin, round."