APPENDIX B
Attached to chap. xxiii. is the "Relation of Jean Cornelissen of Harlem, a Dutch sea-captain, to his good friend German Schleifheim von Sulsfort concerning Simplicissimus."
Its contents are as follows:
On a voyage from the Moluccas to the Cape of Good Hope Cornelissen is separated by stress of weather from the fleet with which he had sailed. Having many of his crew sick, and no fresh water, he is delighted to discover Simplicissimus' isle. His men go ashore and find the hermit's dwelling, which, as the captain only afterwards learn they plunder, and generally behave brutally. Cornelissen finds the crosses and many pious inscriptions on trees, which prove to him that the unknown is a good Christian though probably a Papist. The crew track Simplicissimus to a vast cavern, on entering which their lights are miraculously extinguished. There is an earthquake, and the seamen who had taken part in the plundering of the hermit's dwelling are smitten with madness. Cornelissen, with the chaplain and officers, determines to find Simplicissimus at any cost. They penetrate the cave, but their lights also go out, and Simplicissimus addresses them from the darkness and remonstrates with them for their interference. The chaplain apologises, and asks how the madmen may be cured: he is told that they are to swallow the kernels of certain plums they had eaten. They offer to take him back to Europe, but he refuses. After making a bargain with them to secure his being left in peace, Simplicissimus shews himself surrounded with his glow-worms. He leads them out of the cave and shews them his ruined hut, and tells how his ducats and his book had been stolen. The madmen are brought to their senses again. Simplicissimus recovers his book, which he entrusts to Cornelissen, but again refuses to return to sinful Europe. They rebuild his hut for him, provide him with plenty of tools, a burning-glass, cotton clothing, and a pair of rabbits for breeding purposes: and so, their sick being all recovered, sail away and leave him there.
[A reference to the "Introduction" will show that this island adventure could have had no place in the Simplician cycle of romances; unless we suppose, which is highly improbable, that the author meant it to be subsequent to the inn episode, in which Simplicissimus' family and friends all meet. Most likely we have here the latest addition, in point of composition, to the legend.]
[The following is given as a specimen of the nonsense of which the various continuations are made up.]
APPENDIX C
"Continuatio," chap. xiii.: HOW SIMPLICISSIMUS IN RETURN FOR A NIGHT'S LODGING, TAUGHT HIS HOST A CURIOUS ART
Now the evening before this I had lost a certain catalogue of those special arts which I had aforetime practised and written down that I might not forget them so easily: yet I depended not on this to remember how to perform them and with what helps. For example I do here set down the beginning of this list:
So to prepare matches or fuses that they shall give out no smell, seeing that by such smell musqueteers be often betrayed and their plans defeated.