Győző Lugosi

MÓRIC BENYOVSZKY'S MADAGASCAR

'KINGDOM' AS REFLECTED IN RECENT RESEARCH

(Remarks on the Benyovszky-literature on the bicentennary of the Count's death)

(Abstract)

The paper assesses the activities of the 'cosmopolite' Count in Madagascar. who had become well-known by his autobiography all over Europe, by presenting the new literature of the topic on the occasion of the bicentennary of the death of Móric Benyovszky, the 18th-century Hungarian traveller.

First the author attempts to outline the cultural environment of the 'Benyovszky-phenomenon' in the late 18th century, and then refers to some philological problems of the source value of Benyovszky's Memoirs and Travels. By commenting on the results of the yet unpublished monograph by the French researcher Mrs Paule Vacher, the article identifies the value order of the manuscript and printed variants of the Benyovszky-story.

Subsequently the paper offers an insight into the scene of the Count's enterprises in Madagascar. to the ethnographic researches extending over the Betsimisaraka coast, or more precisely the region of the Bay d'Antongil at the north-eastern part of Malgasy, and into the knowledge that is available on the contemporary trade of the western basin of the Indian ocean. In the light of this Benyovszky's conflict with the native population and with the colonial administration of the colony of Isle de France obtains a new dimension just as much as his real historical role in making Madagascar known for the Europeans.

Finally the paper, besides dispelling the 'auto-legend' which evolved around Benyovszky at several points of his life puts some new questions still awaiting answer, and calls attention to the fact that presumably some significant but yet latent documents may be found in French and British archives on the circumstances of Benyovszky's two attempts to found a colony at Madagascar.