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Have you heard about the Hungarian Robinson Crusoe?
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In the 18th century Europe, it was not exceptional that an Englishman or a Frenchman set foot on two or three continents during his life or took part in a multitude of adventures. In contrast, Hungarians were able to sail on the board of an ocean liner only if they were wealthy enough. In fact, András Jelky was only the son of a tailor, but he managed to live on five continents and became a wealthy plantation owner in Eastern-Asia by his 30th birthday. It is hard to confirm all of his adventures, but even if only half of them are true, he lived quite an interesting life even worth to be filmized.
Slave, soldier, lover, tailor, sailor
He was born in Baja in 1738, and his father wanted him to become a tailor like his older brother. Instead, the young András Jelky started to travel around Europe when he became 16. After spending some time in Prague, Leipzig and Nürnberg, he evaded being enrolled as a soldier with the help of a girl who
helped him escape in her fruit basket.
He went to the Netherlands but finally get caught and was sent to Indonesia. Allegedly, however, a lightning sank his ship but he survived with the help of a floating log. Afterwards, he worked for a Dutch captain as a tailor and travelled to South-America with him. After returning to Lisbon and setting sail again to Malta
pirates caught him and sold him as a slave.
According to the legend, he managed to escape again and he rowed for a week until a Portuguese trader hired him. After this, he went to Macao and Canton where he joined the Dutch East India Company as a soldier and finally, became a tailor in the house of the company’s head, Petrus Albertus van der Parra in Jakarta.