Before revision: Influenced by the ideas he found there, he published the book Die Letten ("Latvians", full title: Die Letten vorzüglich in Liefland am Ende des philosophischen Jahrhunderts, Ein Beytrag zur Völker- und Menschenkunde ("The Admirable Letts of Livonia at the end of the Century of Philosophy, with an Addendum on Peoples and Anthropology")) in 1796, which described in the darkest terms the life of the Latvian peasantry and the atrocities of the Baltic German landowners and called upon the Imperial Russian government to intervene and ameliorate the lot of the Latvians.
After revision: Influenced by the ideas he found there, he published the book Die Letten ("Latvians", full title: Die Letten vorzüglich in Liefland am Ende des philosophischen Jahrhunderts, Ein Beytrag zur Völker- und Menschenkunde ("The Admirable Latvians of Livonia at the end of the Century of Philosophy, with an Addendum on Peoples and Anthropology")) in 1796, which described in the darkest terms the life of the Latvian peasantry and the atrocities of the Baltic German landowners and called upon the Imperial Russian government to intervene and ameliorate the lot of the Latvians.