Читать книгу Watchandi Man - Robert Hallsworth - Страница 2

This novel is a work of fiction, it is, however, based on certain facts.

The Batavia’s commander, Francisco Pelsaert, did maroon Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom on the mainland at Wittecarra creek, near Kalbarri, although the actual site has been questioned by some. The only written record of events comes from Pelsaert’s diary, and even that has been challenged for its accuracy in detail.

All of the events described occurred in pre-colonial times, without the benefit of the English language. Words and names, such as Kangaroo, Wattlebird and Didgeredoo did not exist. I have tried to use the expressions used by the early Dutch, e.g. ‘a cat-like hopping animal’ (Kangaroo).

I am grateful to Violet Drury, ‘Agu Jada Wana’ and Juliette Blevins,

Nhanda, An Aboriginal Language of Western Australia, both provided me with words and names of Nhanda people.

The name Kalbarri was chosen by the Government of the day when the town at the mouth of the Murchison River was gazetted in 1951. It did so on the suggestion of Anthropologist and welfare worker, Daisy Bates, as being the name of a Nhanda warrior and also a local edible seed.

Eighty-three years after Loos and Pelgrom were marooned, another VOC ship, the Zuytdorp, was wrecked on the cliffs north of the Murchison River. Many of its crew and passengers are known to have scrambled to safety ashore, surviving for a time with the help of local aboriginals.

The word Watchandi appears in the Lexicon of Nhanda language (Blevins), but my use of its derivation from the Dutch expression, ‘Wachtanderzee’ which means watching by the sea, comes from Henry Van Zanden’s ‘The Lost White Tribes of Australia’.

Although contentious, it is not such a quantum leap if you consider the way it is pronounced in Dutch, the ‘W’ having a ‘V’ sound and a ‘Z’ sound at the end. There are no ‘V’ or ‘Z’ sounds in Nhanda, their attempts to repeat the term could easily have sounded a bit like, ‘Watchandi’.

Finally, as I said at the outset, this is a work of fiction.

Read, imagine, enjoy.