[page 18]

14.

14.

we would have been easily captured[50]. On the 12th, we were so near land that the land sent back the echo of our cannon blasts; around noon the horizon was cloudless and clear and we could see land, which delighted us all, as one could easily imagine, as misfortune had just descended upon us, that is to say a sailor’s illness called scurvy had contaminated, aboard the majority of the ships, a total of 2 to 3 hundred men, half of which could no longer walk[51]. Those who were already affected with scurvy no longer felt their aches when they heard that land was in sight. The joy was generally so great for all the soldiers that we forgot to breakfast, reveling in the spectacle of green America and wishing to go there, as the country seemed strange to us due to its vegetation which was unknown to us[52]etc.

gewessen wäre, werden wir ohne alle Mühe gefangen worden. Den 12ten waren wir schon so nahe am Lande daß das Schießen von denen Canonen wieder das Land schallete; gegen Mittag erzeigte sich der Horizont hell und klahr, worauf man gleich das Land vor Augen sahe worüber wir alle sehr erfreut waren, indem es sich auch leicht einzubilden ist, dan das Elend ware damahls schon eingerissen, nemlich die See-Kranckheit welch man den Schaarbock nennet, waren schon auf den mehrsten Schiffen biß 2 – 300 Man angesteckt, worunder die Hälffte nicht mehr gehen konte. Diejenige so schon mit dem Schaarbock behafftet waren, hatten vor Freuden keine Schmertzen mehr gefiehlet, sobald sie gehöret daß Land vorhanden seye. Überhaupt ware die Freude bey allen Soldaten so groß daß niemand vor Freude wolte zu Mittag essen sondern mir waren dermassen erfreut nur, das grüne Land von America zu betrachten, und nur gewünscht drauf zu seyn weil es uns so fremd vorkamme wegen seinem fremden Wachsthum etc.

Around noon, we entered the port and around 1:30 we had already passed one redoubt located at the entrance; as soon as we were in the port we dropped anchor and could now see the town of Newport[53] embellished with a beautiful town hall and a beautiful bell tower etc.

Gegen Mittag fuhren wir in den Haffen, so daß wir gegen 1 Uhr und einhalb schon eine grose Schantze hinter uns hatten bey der Einfahrt, sobald wir im Haffen waren wurffen wir Ancker und konten jetzt die Stadt Newport schon vor Augen sehen, welche mit einem sehr schönen Rath-Haus gezieret ist, nebst einem schönen Kirchthurn etc.

We had hardly anchored before rowboats coming from the city reached our ships to sell their merchandise,

Sobald wir Ancker gewurffen hatten, kamen schon die Schalluppen aus der Stadt gefahren gegen unsren Schiffen um ihre Ware zu verkauffen,

[réclame]

welches

https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/btv1b10110846m/f10/pct:0,0,50,100/,700/0/native.jpg

Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 18.

[agrandir]

 Notes

50. The fleet was constantly at the mercy of a bad encounter. The Royal Navy was informed of the arrival of the French convoy, and the combined flotilla of Graves and d’Arbuthnot was off the coast of New York looking for it. De Ternay’s very cautious attitude was sharply criticized by the army officers who blamed him for not having pursued the English fleet they had met earlier, then for having taken advantage of the fog to dash off toward the northwest.
51. Scurvy in today’s German is der Skorbut. But according to the dictionary of the Grimm brothers, der Scharbock is the old term used for travelers' illness, derived from the Dutch scheuren meaning to travel.
52. Several centuries after its “discovery” by Christopher Columbus in 1492, America remained a major focus for dreams. By qualifying it as “green America”, Flohr reactivates the view of the continent as a garden of Eden where time stood still. The voyage to America, in the mind of our travelling soldier, corresponds to a meeting with an unknown land where everything remains to be discovered. The interest he shows for the flora is combined with the desire to include descriptions, or at least the names, of the animals he encountered into the account, be they terrestrial or marine species. The motif of the rediscovered Eden was a favorite subject with artists. In the foreground of this etching, an American Indian, nearly nude, dressed in a loincloth with his hair done up with feathers, poses and displays his bow and arrows. A sun, placed on his torso, evokes the persistence of an archaic religion and symbolizes a place where time has stopped. At his feet, sacks filled with gold spill out of a chest. In the background, nature, calm and verdant, stretches out. A stream snakes through this idyllic landscape. Some men fish at sea, while some nude women rest. Cf. Gabriel de Saint-Aubin and Charles Beurlier, frontispiece, intaglio print, c. 1768. Taken from Bossu (Jean-Bernard), Nouveau voyages aux Indes Occidentales, Paris, Le Jay, 1768, frontispiece from the first part, [catalogue de la médiathèque Malraux].
53. Newport is a port city in the colony of Rhode Island, situated on an island south of the territory and of Providence, the current capital of the state. Founded in 1639 by political dissidents at a time when the colony was not recognized, the city prospered, welcoming the first Jewish community of North America in 1658, then a second wave of immigration in the eighteenth century. The port business at the time rivaled that of New York, thanks in particular to the slave trade, Newport being the center of that business in New England. At the beginning of the American War of Independence in 1776, the British decided to take hold of the city out of fear that it would serve as a naval base for a possible attack on New York, their base in North America. Shortly after the treaty of friendship and alliance between the rebelling colonies and France, Newport was the target of a failed siege by Franco-American forces. This failure cast French support to the American cause in a negative light. The British evacuated the island the following year. In July 1780, the French expeditionary forces placed under Rochambeau’s orders arrived.