Juan Van Halen y Sarti (1788 – 1864) was a Spanish military officer and adventurer who had a rather colorful life. During the Peninsular War (1808-1813) he initially supported the French and served King Joseph Bonaparte of Spain, helping him escape to France in 1813. He then defected to the Spanish side but was investigated for his role during the war and sentenced to death. In 1817, he avoided death by escaping from prison and fleeing to Russia, where he was accepted into the military service and appointed a colonel in the Kavkazskii Dragoon Regiment deployed in Georgia. In 1819, Van Halen traveled to Georgia where he stayed for over a year and served under the leadership of General Alexey Yermolov. In 1821 Van Halen returned to Spain to support the revolutionaries who rebelled against King Ferdinand VII. After the revolution failed, Van Halen had to flee once again, traveling to the Caribbean. In 1830, he returned to Europe supporting the Belgian revolutionaries against the Dutch monarchy. After the new kingdom of Belgium was established, he moved to the Iberian Peninsula where he first supported Portuguese Liberals against King Miguel I and then fought against the Carlists during the First Carlist Wars in Spain.
Van Halen died in El Puerto de Santa María (Cadiz, Spain), at the age of 76, in 1864.
In the late 1820s, Van Halen wrote (in Spanish) an interesting memoir describing his imprisonment in Spain in 1817-1818 and later service in the Caucasus in 1819-1821. The memoir was later translated into English and published in London in 1830.
The costume of these various provinces differs but little. They all wear very wide trousers, two short tunics, the under one always of some bright colour, and the other of cloth, either blue or of a darker hue, the sleeves of which are very wide and open from the wrist to the elbow, and which, when thrown across over the shoulders, is considered among them as a signal for combat. A cap of black lambskin of Astrakhan, with a small crown of red cloth, and boots with long pointed toes, complete their attire. The Tartars, like the rest of the Mahometans [Muslims], are distinguished from the Christians and Armenians by their long beards, which they preserve with a fanatical zeal, and by the top of their cap being turned inside. All make use of the bourka, tied round the neck with a handkerchief, and which is the only winter covering known here.
The character of the Armenians, particularly of those who devote themselves to commerce, is not considered by the Georgians as the most exalted. Always calculating, and engaged in speculations, they would sooner bear with a thousand outrages than with the loss of an ounce of cotton ; but the government may safely reckon on them for any useful enterprise by which their commerce or industry is likely to benefit. In this case they are always ready with their loans.
The Georgians, on the contrary, cherishing the remembrance of the exploits which maintained them as an independent nation, are passionately fond of the profession of arms, and enthusiastic for every thing that is heroical and sublime. Their ballads, which are full of extravagant hyperboles, and fanfaronades on their national valour, contribute to keep alive their love for war, in which, like the rest of the Asiatics, personal courage is considered as the supreme virtue, a notion which they derive from the sort of guerilla warfare which they have hitherto pursued.
The Georgians wear linen like the Europeans, especially since their intercourse with them. In general, they are tall and well-proportioned; have regular features, dark complexions, and black and expressive eyes. It would be difficult to find throughout Georgia a real native with light hair or blue eyes.
There is a degree of haughtiness in their carriage and ostentation in their manners, which are not unbecoming men who are certainly capable of the greatest sacrifices; but they are treacherous and deceitful when once offended. They are greatly distinguished from the Armenians by their strong passions, which also render their countenances more animated.
The Tartars wear taffeta shirts, almost always of a red colour, and which they change only once a year, a circumstance which, notwithstanding their continual ablutions, must give a tolerable idea of their uncleanliness. They are generally very corpulent, have dark eyes, and their complexion is nearly a copper colour. They are serious and circumspect in their demeanour, valiant without boasting, industrious, and hospitable. They love war as a hunting expedition, and are as well suited for a rapid excursion as unfit for a slow and continued enterprise.
The general-in-chief [General Alexey Yermolov], well aware of the peculiar character of each of these nations, and wishing to give to it the greatest development possible, removed all the obstacles which obstructed the commerce of the Armenians, and - thus increased the public prosperity. He excited the noble ambition of the Georgian youth, by employing near his person and admitting into his army a great number of native officers who had conducted themselves honourably, and who deserved his confidence. And lastly, he imparted to the warlike character of the Tartars all the steadiness of which it is susceptible, by organizing their contingents in as regular a manner as the natural hatred of every Mahometan [Muslim] for discipline permitted.
The Khans, accustomed, by long abuse of power, to exercise in their provinces all species of tyranny, strove as much as was in their power to impede the uniform march and thwart the organization of the government of Tiflis; but the authors of these disorders, far from succeeding in their attempts, were quickly obliged to fly to another soil. The inhabitants of those provinces, however, being too well satisfied with this kind of administration, and having less tribute to pay when they depend on the authority of a military governor, are never very much inclined to second the continual endeavors of Persia or of the fugitive Khans to excite them to rebellion.
The enlightened policy of the government of Teflis, and the probity, firmness, and well-known prudence of General Yermolow, may very justly be said to have conquered the obstinacy of every party, and succeeded in uniting both Christians and Mussulmans under the same power and standard.
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