The Aceh Embassy to Prince Maurits at Grave of 1602–1603 was the first Acehnese diplomatic mission to the Dutch Republic, dispatched by Sultan Aloeddin of Atjeh in response to Prince Maurits’s letter of 1601 carried by four Zeeland ships that had come to Aceh that August pressing for the release of the Dutch prisoners — most notably Frederik de Houtman — held there since the Houtman disaster of 1599. The three ambassadors — the senior envoy Abdoel Hamid, the Admiral of Aceh Sri Mohammed, and the nobleman Mir Hassan — sailed to Europe with the returning Zeeland ships, accompanied by the Luxemburger interpreter Leonard Werner. The embassy arrived in the Republic during Prince Maurits’s siege of Grave in the Dutch Revolt against Spain and was received by the Prince in his camp. It is the diplomatic counterpart to the Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 and the terminus a quo of formal Acehnese-Dutch relations; it is the central episode of chapter XXXIII of Godee Molsbergen’s Tijdens de O.I. Compagnie and of Les 3 of Wijma’s school reader De Kleine Oosterling.
Background: Maurits’s letter of 1601
In August 1601 four Zeeland ships arrived in Aceh bearing a letter from Prince Maurits in Spanish. The Prince pressed for the release of the imprisoned Dutch, assured the Sultan that the ships could lend help against his enemies, and proposed to buy pepper. The gifts that accompanied the letter — like the letter itself — were welcome. The Sultan promised Frederik de Houtman “en zijn vrouw” (and his wife — for the prisoner’s fidelity to his wife in Holland had made a strong impression) compensation for his material losses.
To investigate the Portuguese slander that the Dutch realen were false, the Sultan had a thousand silver pieces cut through, whereupon the good quality of the Holland-minted coins was established. The Sultan also sent three ambassadors on the returning Zeeland ships.
The Wijma school reader records that “ruim twee jaar later” — that is, in 1601, two years after the Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 — “verschenen er twee andere Zeeuwsche vaartuigen op de kust. Er waren voor den sultan van Atjeh fraaie geschenken aan boord en ook een brief van prins Maurits.” The new mission, bearing gifts and Maurits’s letter, succeeded where the Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 had failed: “Nu kwamen de Nederlanders in de gunst bij dien vorst. Hij stelde de gevangenen in vrijheid en gaf verlof, een factorij of handelskantoor in zijn land te bouwen.” The Sultan, “in beleefdheid voor prins Maurits niet [willende] onderdoen,” sent his own embassy with letters and gifts in return. (The school reader’s “twee andere Zeeuwsche vaartuigen” appears to be a simplification of the four Zeeland ships recorded by Godee Molsbergen.)
Composition of the embassy
The three Aceh envoys were:
- Abdoel Hamid, the senior ambassador — “ruim zeventigjarige” (well over seventy years old) at the time of his departure
- Sri Mohammed, titled Admiraal van Atjeh (Admiral of Aceh) by the Dutch sources
- Mir Hassan, an Aceh nobleman (edelman)
The embassy’s interpreter was the Luxemburger Leonard Werner. The choice of an Admiral of Aceh and a nobleman as envoys — together with a senior elder — gave the embassy high diplomatic weight; it placed the head of the Aceh navy at the Republic’s disposal.
The sea-battle off St. Helena
The Aceh ambassadors had, on their voyage to Europe, the privilege of witnessing a sea-battle off St. Helena. Two Zeeland ships lay at the island when a sail was sighted, presumed to be a Dutch ship. The Langebercque, only 150 lasts in size, found itself opposite a heavy Spanish galleon from Goa bound for Lisbon. The Spaniard opened fire. When two Zeeland sailors had fallen, the Langebercque “met de volle laag aan” — gave her full broadside — and after three days’ fighting the Spaniard surrendered. The rich prize was very welcome in the fatherland. The Aceh envoys thus arrived in Europe already having witnessed Dutch naval prowess in action.
Death of Abdoel Hamid at Middelburg, August 1602
The aged Abdoel Hamid survived the Atlantic crossing but died at Middelburg in August 1602, before the embassy could complete its journey to Prince Maurits’s siege camp at Grave. He was the first Aceh envoy known to have died on European soil. The school reader similarly records that “Een van hen was echter in ons land gestorven” — one of them had however died in our country.
Arrival at the siege of Grave
Sri Mohammed and Mir Hassan — the surviving envoys — proceeded to Prince Maurits’s camp before Grave, where the Prince was at that moment conducting the siege. “Prins Maurits belegerde Grave, toen het gezantschap in zijn kamp aankwam” — Prince Maurits was besieging Grave when the embassy arrived in his camp.
A staatsie-karos (state-coach), attended by a company of cavalry, brought the Oriental gentlemen to a house near the Prince’s tent, and after a meal Maurits received them, surrounded by a brilliant company of nobles and military commanders. The school reader likewise frames the reception at the siege: “Die prins belegerde de stad Grave, toen de Atjehneezen in Nederland aankwamen. Hij zond zijn fraaie koets, om hen af te halen, deed hun groote eerbewijzen aan. Ze overhandigden de brieven en geschenken aan Maurits, terwijl deze door een menigte officieren omringd was. De prins liet hen de geheele legerplaats rondleiden en te hunner eere een groot spiegelgevecht geven.”
The reception is the principal recorded instance of the early-modern Dutch diplomatic practice of receiving non-European envoys in the field — a practice that linked the Dutch Revolt’s military culture to the emerging Dutch-Asian commercial diplomacy.
The audience with Prince Maurits
After greeting the Prince in the Mohammedan manner, the ambassador — probably Sri Mohammed as the senior surviving envoy — delivered the Prince’s earlier letter (now marked with the King’s seal, “om te bewyzen, dat die brieven wel ontfangen, hem weert ende aenghenaem waren gheweest” — to prove that the letters had indeed been received, welcome and agreeable to him) together with two letters from Sultan Aloeddin to the Prince.
The gifts presented were:
- A costly kris
- A golden dish and cup, “hierin bevond zich omtrent twee pont Camphora van Borneo, wesende het pont gheestimeert honderd ducaten daer te lande” — about two pounds of Borneo camphor, the pound there valued at a hundred ducats
- A lance, which was on one of the still-sailing ships
The Prince thanked “haren Coningh voor de presenten ende Gode voor haar voorspoedighe reyse ende aencomste” — their King for the presents and God for their prosperous voyage and arrival — and regretted that a slight indisposition prevented him from conducting the guests around the camp.
Tour of the siege-works and the cannon-shots
Under the escort of the Counts Ernst and Lodewijk of Nassau, the Aceh envoys inspected the siegeworks before Grave — “de belegeringsserrkuige, dat dinghen waren, weert om se te sien” — the siege engines, things worth seeing — whereupon the principal ambassador discharged two cartouwen (cannon-shots) at the city in memory of the occasion. The Aceh envoys thus participated actively in the Dutch war of independence from Spain. The school reader likewise records the spiegelgevecht (mock battle or sham fight) staged in the envoys’ honour — “te hunner eere een groot spiegelgevecht geven.”
Fifteen months in the Republic
For fifteen months the ambassadors stayed in the Republic as guests of the East India Company — “gemerckt zyluyden tot dienst ende confirmatie van de negocie gecomen zijn” — since they had come in the service and confirmation of the trade — and then returned to their country, full of wonder at what they had seen:
- “soms met menschen, sleden, paarden en wagens over de gestolde wateren trekt” — that one sometimes travels over frozen waters with people, sledges, horses and wagons;
- “dat daar elk man zijn eigen meester en heer is” — that there every man is his own master and lord;
- “dat daar geen slaven waren, maar vrije menschen” — that there were no slaves, but free men;
- “die reeds dertig jaar lang oorlog gevoerd hadden tegen den grooten Koning van Spanje” — who had already fought for thirty years against the great King of Spain;
- “en dat zij toch rijk waren gebleven” — and yet had remained rich.
The school reader records the return voyage in its simpler form: “De gezanten bezochten daarna Amsterdam en keerden vandaar naar hun land terug. Een van hen was echter in ons land gestorven.” — the envoys visited Amsterdam and from there returned to their country; one of them had however died in our country.
With such a people the mighty Sultan — “glinsterende als de zon op den middag en als de maan, wanneer zij vol is” (shining like the sun at midday and like the moon when it is full) — could with honour enter into alliance.
The first Dutch office on Sumatra: “Zeeland”
At Aceh the Zeelanders received their first Dutch office on Sumatra, baptised “Zeeland” — where two merchants and several assistants remained behind. Two of them sailed on Aceh vessels to the Gulf of Cambay, on the west coast of Voor-Indië, where, thanks to the letters of the Aceh Sultan, they were excellently received in Goezeratte and could begin their trade. The Sultan’s letters thus opened the Gujarat trade to Dutch merchants — a small but concrete instance of the sultanate’s diplomatic reach.
Significance
The 1602 Aceh embassy to Prince Maurits is the first formal Aceh embassy to a European sovereign, and one of the earliest embassies from any Southeast Asian polity to the Dutch Republic. Its arrival at the siege of Grave placed Aceh literally inside the Dutch war of independence from Spain — the envoys’ two cannon-shots at the city made them participants in that war, and their fifteen months in the Republic gave them a sustained, structured exposure to Dutch society. The Sultan whose envoys they were, Sultan Aloeddin, was the same ruler who had presided over the death of Cornelis de Houtman and the captivity of Frederik — making this embassy the closing chapter of that opening Dutch-Aceh episode. The school reader frames the Sultan’s response as a gesture of beleefdheid (courtesy) towards Prince Maurits — a framing that would be inverted in the lessons on the eerste Atjeh-tocht of 1873, when the Sultan’s beleefdheid had given way to fanatiek resistance.
See Also
- De Kleine Oosterling
- Houtman brothers’ visit to Atjeh (1599)
- Cornelis de Houtman
- Frederik de Houtman
- Prince Maurits
- Atjeh
- Netherlands East Indies
- Sultan Aloeddin of Atjeh
- Abdoel Hamid
- Sri Mohammed
- Mir Hassan
- Leonard Werner
- Death of Cornelis de Houtman at Atjeh (1599)
- Pigskin parchment letter incident at Atjeh (1600)
- Fort Zeeland at Atjeh
- Goezeratte
- 1599
- 1601
- 1602
- 1603
Source
Tijdens de O.I. Compagnie, by Dr. E. C. Godee Molsbergen, Oud-Hoogleeraar, Landsarchivaris te Batavia (Amsterdam: N.V. Swets & Zeitlinger Boekhandel en Uitgevers Mij., 1932), chapter XXXIII (“Atjehers in het kamp van Maurits. De zeeslag bij Bantam”), pp. 118–121 of the numbered-letter sequence.
De Kleine Oosterling — Iets uit de Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië. Leesboekje voor de Lagere Scholen, door J. Wijma, Tweede Druk (Kampen: Laurens van Hulst, 1901), Les 3 (“Een gezantschap”).