The Preacher's Journeys

I'm slowly working my way through tomorrow's assigned readings. I forgot to print off one of the E-Reserve documents, though, so I'll have to read that at lunch tomorrow.

Today's final travel writing example was William Biddulph's The Travels of a Certain Englishman. It was about as different from Dallam's diary excerpts as you could get. It seemed very...judgemental and, at times, harsh. So even though the writing was much improved over Dallam's (yay for proper spelling!), I must admit I preferred Dallam's travel writing over Biddulph's.

I wonder, though, if it's the fault of the selections collected by the gentleman who pushed to have these letter excerpts published. Did he pick out only those items of of Biddulph's letters that would reinforce his particular world-view and prejudices? I wonder if the writings would appear more balanced if we actually had the opportunity to read the letters in their entirety?

Back to that whole publishing against the author's will thing. Did I read that right? Were these excerpts truly published against Biddulph's wishes? This must have been before copyright issues came into existence. Although, I wonder what today's copyright laws would make of that situation!

Back to the travel writing...

I have to say I highlighted a lot of derogatory remarks the author made about not only the Turks and their contemporaries, but also about other Christian sects. It was clear he thought himself well above those he met on his travels. Very few groups earned a respectful mention. Makes you wonder what kind of missionary he was.

One last thought on his writings: they were dry. Very factual and not very flavorful. They read more like a history lesson than personal correspondence.