Antonie Augustus Bruijn

Antonie Augustus Bruijn (Surabaya, 1865)

Antonie Augustus Bruijn (December 27, 1842 - August 11, 1890) was a Dutch navy officer, naturalist and trader in naturalia from the Dutch East Indies. He was the son in law of mr Duivenbode who from 1858 to 1861 provided lodging and assistance to Alfred Russel Wallace when he traveled through the Mollucan islands.

Biography

Early years as a naval officer

Antonie Bruijn was born at Rotterdam as number six of eight children of Pieter Alidanus Bruijn (b 1799) and Henrietta Gabrielle Maris van Oordt (b 1804). Pieter Alidanus Bruijn was a chief engineer shipbuilder for the Royal Dutch Navy (Koninklijke Marine).

Bruijn entered the service of the Royal Dutch Navy in Den Helder at early age. In 1857 he was appointed naval Cadet 3rd class and in 1861 sailed for the first time to the Dutch East Indies. In 1864 he was promoted to lieutenant 2nd class. In 1865 he was the captain commander of the national guard of the Sultan of Ternate. In 1867 he requested for absence without leave because of health reasons and on October 2, 1867 he was honorably discharged.

Life on Ternate

In 1865 he married to Adolphine Susanna Wilhelmina van Rennesse van Duivenbode (1844 Ternate -1919 Delft) in Ternate. She was the daughter of Maarten Dirkz van Renesse van Duivenbode. This was the man Alfred Russel Wallace called "...Mr. Duivenbode, a native of Ternate from an ancient Dutch family..."^[1] Mr Duivenbode served the Dutch Trade Company (Nederlandse Handelmaatschappij) as a merchant, he was captain, commander and later honorary major. He was the owner of many ships, plantations and the whole district of Doalasi. Because of his wealth he was nicknamed the "King of Ternate". According to Wallace he was richer and more important than the real sultan of Ternate.

Wallace and Van Duivenboden

Wallace travelled from 1854 tot 1862 through the Malay Archipelago. From January 1858 on, he stayed three years on Ternate in a house owned by Van Duivenbode and used this house a a base camp for expeditions to other Maluku Islands like Gilolo. During this period, 9 march 1858 he sent the manuscript Tendency of varieties to depart indefinite from the original type to Charles Darwin who received this document on 18 June 1858 which urged him to finish his famous On the Origin of Species. Darwin considered Wallace's idea to be identical to his concept of natural selection.

Bruijn's legacy

As a trader in naturalia Anton Bruijn delivered items to Hermann Schlegel (Leiden), Tommaso Salvadori (Turin) and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. Bruijn sent in 1877 an expedition to New-Guinea (Vogelkop, the land of the Karons) to do ethnographic studies and to collect specimens of Zaglossus bruijnii.^[2][3] Further on there is little known about Bruijn's life in Ternate. Much more is known about his father in law (see above).

There are four birds species that are named after him: Waigeo Brushturkey (Aepypodius bruijnii), Red-breasted Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta bruijnii), Torrent-lark (Grallina bruijni) and Pale-billed Sicklebill (Drepanornis bruijnii). Further Mantou's Riflebird and two mammal species: Western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii) and Lowland Brush Mouse (Pogonomelomys bruijni) and one lizard: Bruijni Forest Dragon (Hypsilurus bruijni).

1. ^ Wallace, Alfred Russel (1869). The Malay Archipelago. Harper
2. ^ Bruijn, A. A. (1877) Bijdrage tot de Land- en Volkenkunde van Nieuw-Guinea. Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië XXXVII, 7e serie deel VII:182-194.
3. ^ Bruijn, A. A. (1879). Het land der Karons. Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig genootschap 3(1):102-106.

Source

• Heij, dr. C.J. (2011) Biographical Notes of Antonie Augustus Bruijn (1842-1890). IBP Press, Bogor. ISBN 978-979-493-294-0.