I’ve rummaged around and found Opa Kerlen’s memoirs and scanned in the preface to them. I’ve typed the preface up and run it through Google Translate. The results of which are below.
Addendum: Margurite has kindly translated them for me.
Category: The Kerlen Stories
On the 5th June I saw the first light.
This worldly event happened, according to my elder sisters, in the small office next to the shop on the Nieuwstad in Zutphen, where my father kept a rather flourishing shoeshop.
Since all the punishement rooms in the building were full I was locked up with another three in the so called Mouse tower; it was a Saturday afternoon. The tower was part of the old fortification; the internal space consisted only of a round room with a heavy pillar and the 1.5m thick outside wall was supporting the arched attic; in the walls were spaces for shooting holes who gave view on the city and were shut off with iron bars.
From a wedding comes a wedding; same story here: for some time de Jongh had already madly fallen in love with my favourite sister Mina and for a long time didn’t have any success, probably because as a jealous brother I adviced her against it every time.
Chapter II.
My life and carier as subaltern officer.
a. as Lieutenant.
Late in the afternoon of the 22nd May 1870 I arrived in Harderwijk; tante Joh was of course at the station and together we walke the long road to the house of Mrs. Braskamp, where I was going to stay again.
When I arrived back in Meesterr Cornelis I learnt that I would have to stay there for a while; this didn’t suit me at all lookig at the daily travelling up and down from the hotel and the boarding costs there; so I accepted with both hands the suggestion from my contemporary Albrecht to stay in a small room in one of the annexes of his house in the Beerenlaan for a small compensation.
In the canal of Moeara Bahroe two of those darling little animals had their permanent residence and towards 2 pm they came to bask in the sun on the muddy outskirts of the canal.
Of course Captain Leers also took part in the joined dish, however, he had the bad habit to ask with every dish if it was edible and besides also smelled his portion before he began to eat.
The losses from the front attack on the Missigit suffered, for months caution for the further attack on the Kraton, and so a kind of organised siege began against it and the minors had to make trenches for the first time.
The colonel had someone place a large drawing table in his cabin and he daily stood there working, not being disturbed by the sometimes heavy rolling of the steamer; it was admirable as in the 7 days journey he made 3 projects for the new back veranda as well as the dance hall for the Hotel of the Army commander de Neve, sothat he only had to choose.
CHAPTER II
My life and career as subaltern officer.
b. As Captain.
With the permission to my engagement Papa Baumgarten had set the condition, that it was not allowed to be public before I, as a good son, would have got permission from my parents.
Still, the health situation despite all this water and mudpools is good and epimdemics don’t occur often. Just like in Singkawang, yet more regularly, a busy correspondence with Singapore exist through Chinese steamers with shallow draughts, which bring goods and take away forest products and so it was all the time possible for me to keep a correspondence with Charlotte; we had agreed – and her father had approved of it – that our wedding would take place after my commission trip, and therefore I had asked a 14 days leave to Singapore, which was permitted.
Mrs. v. Dapperen spoke a little English and so could get along with Ch. Her maiden name was Jetje Polkijn and her father was retired ltnt. colonel of the Administration of the Navy, who after his dismissal had obtained a good job at the My. Nederland.
In the beginning the little one grew very well, looked after by her mother and a young and excellent servant, who carried the child around the yard in the morning and evening. In that yard we also kept a monkey which was attached to a bamboo stick in the ground, above which was a box; this animal was extremely jealous of the baby and sometimes broke loose, which was becoming dangerous.
In time before our departure I had requested the Government a 14 days leave to spend abroad in Singapore, which I was granted.
Ch. could then stay another 14 days with the children, whilst I would get our house in Bengkalis in order as well as possible.
When it was my turn to be banker I put the 2 guilders in the pot which we had organised before and I was lucky to see this run higher and after the 3 departed ships even to 1500 guilders, which became mine. Under the contents of the pot were several iow’s from players who couldn’t pay their input, and looking at the anxious faces one could see how they coped with their loss.
Once I let myself get persuaded to play for a very low tariff a short game of ecarte with a French administration officer; the friend played the game excellently though he had terrible luck with it, sothat from the 30 games I only could win 2 and thus lost 14 francs; since then I have categorised ecarte also under the dicegames, whilst in my opinion that luck and bad luck certainly exsist was substantiated.
In Lochem we were picked up by von Dentschz with a carriage and taken to the nearby lying oldfashioned lodge de Dak, where the bridegroom offered us a dinner as a farewell to his bachelor’s life. The dinner was in line with the oldfashioned trend of the hotel and the innkeeper no less; he adressed himself to the later coming army commanders with the words: “He, you do something for a living too and cut that piece of meat for us!” And it was a piece of meat, of which the four of us could surely have had enough for 14 days. The menu was actually very extravagant and deliciously prepared and we ate a lot of it, perhaps even too much in view of the plans of the evening.
After discussions with Cor and correspondence with her father I accepted the offer; my leave was shorted because of this, but the financial consequences were too favourable to refuse it. So we returned to Holland and took our route via Bergen op Zoom, to say goodbye there to the stepson of my brother, who was in garrison there and of whom I had received friendliness in the beginning of my leave.
At my second wedding amongst other things I was given a collossal mirror as a present from papa Polkijn, it came out of his old fashioned house with a high attic at the Kloveniersburgwal, which could not be used in the more modern house at the Weesperzijde; he had it carefully glued on with paper and wrapped in a strong chest for us. I had taken the chest from Batavia to Padang and had not been unpacked yet; I was therefore pleased, that I had to opportunity to lend the unused piece of furniture to family Schnelle. The mirror hung on a dignified spot in their for the rest neatly furnished inner veranda of the high captain’s home and remained there until after my departure.
Upon arrival in Malang I booked with John in hotel Lapidoth, whose owner belonged to the ugliest of all people; he had strange legs and they told me that he often broke them without falling; this only happened after he broke them, in contrary to normal people.
Just like the year before the races were concluded with a masked ball which was not as funny as the last one, although a lot of work was done to the costumes and dress up. The final closure of the dinner in the social club of the Organisation was more cheerful. As president of the raceclub I had to give a speech to this occasion and I obviously had surpassed myself in this task. Always a bad speaker in public, I developed that evening an unknown word flow which delivered me several compliments.
The production of the new factory was more than enough for the need, also for the ships and the officers could use as much ice as they wanted for a civil price, whilst the factory still made a small profit.
It now became a real busy time for the engineers, because, besides the improvement of the defence the lodgings also had to be built for the 6 battalion reinforcements which were immediately requested from Java and in which I was assisted by my officers in the most commendable way. Although now and then a shortage of building material existed we were still allowed to taste the satisfaction that upon their arrival all the lesser military could be accommodated under a roof; all kinds of material was used; even for the crossbeams of some barrack rooms sections were made of Decauville material.
14/6/18997 Days after her husband left Carey gave birth to her eldest daughter and namesake, though stayed another four weeks in the hospital and followed her husband to Europe with SS Prins Alexander, which journey she surely will describe to her own children.