Atjehsche ambassade ceremony (1 July 1641)

The Atjehsche ambassade ceremony of 1 July 1641 was the solemn hand-over of the missive (letter) of the Gouverneur-Generaal and the Raden (Councillors of the Indies) to the Sultana of Atjeh by Commissaris Pieter Soury — the ceremonial centrepiece of the Soury mission of 1641. The audience is the most fully described European diplomatic ceremony at the Atjeh court in Godee Molsbergen’s Tijdens de O.I. Compagnie, and is the source of much of what is known about Atjeh court ritual in the year of Iskander Tsani’s death.

The Company’s ceremonial doctrine

The Oost-Indische Compagnie was accustomed, Godee Molsbergen writes, “aan de Inlandsche vorsten en vorstinnen ten volle de eer te geven waarop ze aanspraak maakten, maar ze wist tegelijk voor zichzelf den eerbied af te dwingen, die onontbeerlijk was voor haar aanzien en succes” — to give native princes and princesses in full the honour they claimed, but at the same time to exact for itself the respect indispensable to its prestige and success. A letter of the Gouverneur-Generaal and the Raden was to be considered something of very great value, and such a token of friendship from the powerful body — which could trade benevolently but also punish severely where it judged necessary — was to be delivered and received with reverent seriousness. “Plechtig en met veel ceremonieel geschiedde dan ook de bestelling” — Solemnly and with much ceremony was the delivery then done.

The funeral of the late Sultan as precedent

At Atjeh, Godee Molsbergen notes, “was men niet achterlijk in dit opzicht” — they were not backward in this respect. When the late Sultan Iskander Tsani was buried, the splendour of the funeral procession was much admired: a multitude of nobles, lamenting women, rhinoceroses and Persian horses went before or behind the corpse. In the procession were two hundred and sixty elephants, covered with silk and gold-brocade cloths, carrying houses and tents on their backs. Silt flags and banners hung down from those kiosks.

The prelude: gifts and jewels

At the appointed hour the Sabandaar and the customs officials came to record the gifts that had been brought, and the jewels which the Company wished to deliver to the Queen. The groote waardigheidsbekleeder (great dignitary) appeared with a golden dish in which the missive of the High Government was laid. On an extraordinarily large elephant the valuable document was borne to the court. Fifty-five Moorish koelies (porters), spread out at large intervals from one another to make the greater show, walked in procession behind the colossus.

The six Dutchmen in stately tread

Then came, in stately tread, the six Dutchmen: Commissaris Soury with the Opperkoopman Jacob Compostel, Opperhoofd of the Company’s lodge in Atjeh; his replacement from Batavia, the Opperkoopman Pieter Willemz; Secretaris Jan van Riebeeck; and two Onderkooplieden (junior merchants). “Een ernstige groep vormden die mannen, de gezichten strakgetrokken onder den indruk van de plechtigheid, wetend dat het minste verzuim of gebrek aan decorum zou worden opgemerkt door Atjehers, Engelschen, Mooren en anderen, die de Compagnie geen goed hart toedroegen en haar succes misgunden” — A serious group those men formed, faces tense under the impression of the ceremony, knowing that the slightest neglect or want of decorum would be noticed by Atjehers, English, Moors and others who bore the Company no good will and grudged its success.

The roadside crowd and the salute

“Langs den weg stonden duizenden toeschouwers” — Along the road stood thousands of spectators. At certain points the crews of the Dutch ships greeted the procession with saluting shots from muskets and other firearms.

Arrival at the palace

The procession came before the palace. The gentlemen were asked to wait a moment and to take off their shoes, since the Queen — in spite of the rainy weather — wished to greet the embassy outside, “een buitengewone eer, nooit tevoren aan iemand bewezen” — an extraordinary honour, never before paid to anyone.

At the first gate the letter with the gifts was handed to the eunuchs charged with conveying them to Her Majesty. The Sultana appeared, and each bowed or made the sembah. The Dutchmen then took their places on a baleh-baleh (a day-bed) placed there for the purpose, in the midst of many Atjeh nobles, prominent Moorish merchants and shipmasters.

The gift of the Atjehsche feestjas

Immediately afterwards, on behalf of the Sultana, the Dutchmen were brought a beautiful Atjehsch gewaad (Atjeh ceremonial robe) with three golden rings on the collar, “zooals nog nimmer tevoren aan een ambassade was gezonden” — such as had never before been sent to an embassy. Compostel did not receive such a robe, presumably because Her Majesty did not consider him part of the embassy.

So Van Riebeeck, whose family coat of arms already bore three golden rings, now had those same three golden rings on his Atjeh court robe. As a sign of supreme favour, the Sultana sent Soury her own golden beteldoos to prepare a sirih-quid; the other gentlemen could do so out of a silver box of the Sultana’s. “Lands wijs, ‘s lands eer” — country’s way, country’s honour — they all surely thought, as they sat shoeless in Atjeh dress chewing sirih, “tot eer en voordeel van de Edele Compagnie” — to the honour and profit of the Honourable Company. Godee Molsbergen notes drily that this was a lesson for Van Riebeeck, who would later, in South Africa, “al dansend en springend smerige Hottentotten aan zijn hart zou drukken en er zijn jas mee bederven” — dancing and leaping would press filthy Hottentots to his heart and ruin his coat with them.

Spectacle: elephants, bulls, buffaloes, bucks

In honour of the legation a multitude of elephants was drawn up, some of which fought with wild fellow-elephants. Fights of bulls, buffaloes and bucks also served as entertainment. When the Sultana wished to retire to her palace, all those present rose and made their sembah. The guests were then treated: the members of the legation were served the delicacies in golden dishes, the Orangkaja’s in silver.

The “translation” summons

Meanwhile the chief eunuch conveyed, on behalf of the Queen, the request that the following day they come to the house of the Opperbisschop (high priest) to translate the missive — although it had already been rendered into Malay. The unspoken purpose was to obtain clarification on certain points that were unclear to the Queen and her Council. Two elephants stood ready to carry the Dutchmen back to the lodge, but Soury tactfully preferred the horse that the Sultana had given him; the others departed on the elephants.

The diplomatic clarification required was substantial. It had to be made clear how Portugal in 1640 had been freed from Spain, was no longer the Republic’s mortal enemy, and why the Republic had the following year concluded a ten-year truce with Portugal. At that time the Portuguese nobleman Francisco de Souza de Castro was a prisoner in Atjeh.

The “maidens as ransom” request

At an audience at which the Panglima’s of Pedir and Deli and many others were present, the chiefs asked whether the Dutch had brought “Portugeesche jonge dochterkens” — Portuguese maidens — to be delivered as losprijs (ransom), as they had previously requested. Soury answered gravely that there were none to be had at Batavia, that the ships had lain seven days at Malakka but could obtain none there either. His instructions had recommended him to add that the sending of maidens was tegen onze wet en religie — against our law and religion — but when the two Atjeh ambassadors who had come back with him confirmed what he had said, he omitted that declaration. See Maagden als losprijs.

The pleasure-garden of 14 July 1641

On 14 July the legation was invited to the Queen’s lusthof (pleasure-garden). A great company went on horse and elephant. The country house lay magnificently against the mountainside, where water from two caves formed a great pond stocked with thousands of carp. The banks were spread with costly carpets. Seven meals were served in the Atjeh manner, for the high guests in golden dishes. The Queen commanded musicians to perform songs. The Orangkaja’s marvelled at her particular friendliness to the Dutch. A song of praise was performed to Iskander Muda, “den afstammeling, naar men geloofde, van Alexander den Grooten.” So moved were the Atjeh hearers that “hun de tranen uit de oogen barstten” — the tears burst from their eyes.

Strikingly, of the recently-deceased Sultan Iskander Tsani, a Pahang prince, “sprak men nooit en deed alsof hij nooit aan de regeering was geweest” — one never spoke; one acted as if he had never reigned. After the meal all the guests bathed in the pond. During the further meals Javanese, Siamese and Moorish musicians and dancers entertained the company. To show that Soury knew the world, when the slendang was offered to him he gave a royal gift in money.

Significance

The Atjehsche ambassade ceremony of 1 July 1641 is the ceremonial centrepiece of Dutch-Atjeh relations in the first half of the seventeenth century. Its record — preserved through the hand of Jan van Riebeeck — is the most detailed European description of Atjeh court ritual at the moment of transition from the warrior-sultans to the era of female rule. Every detail of the ceremony — the elephant procession, the sembah, the feestjas with three golden rings, the Sultana’s own golden beteldoos, the Orangkaja’s in silver and the Dutchmen in gold, the songs to Iskander Muda — is also a political statement about where the new Sultana chose to place her court’s legitimacy and her favour.

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 XI (“Atjehsche ambassade. Inlandsche feesten. Maagden als losprijs”), pp. 39–43 of the numbered-letter sequence.

tags	event, diplomacy, ceremony, atjehnese, dutch, 17th-century
aliases	Atjeh embassy ceremony, The 1 July 1641 audience, Soury's audience at Atjeh, The hand-over of the Gouverneur-Generaal's letter at Atjeh

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