Augustin de Beaulieu’s Atjeh mission of 1620–1621 was the French attempt to break into the pepper trade of the Sultan of Atjeh. Driven past Cape Guardafui and unable to make the intended coast, De Beaulieu landed at Tikoe on Sumatra’s Westkust — a pepper-port dependent on the Sultan of Atjeh — and from there came to Atjeh itself in early 1621 for difficult negotiations with the Sultan and the Rijksgrooten. The mission ended in failure: no pepper-trade permission was obtained, the Vice-Admiral Robert Gravé died and was buried in Atjeh, and the French claim for damages against the VOC that arose out of the related loss of the l’Espérance was eventually settled at 550,000 livres.
The expedition
The Saint-Malo expedition, led by Augustin de Beaulieu, consisted of several ships: the Montmorency (De Beaulieu’s flagship), the l’Hermitage, the l’Espérance (under the Vice-Admiral Robert Gravé), and the Leiden. The expedition’s purpose was to break into the pepper trade that the VOC was consolidating in the Indies.
Landfall at Tikoe
Driven past Cape Guardafui, De Beaulieu could not make the intended coast and landed with the Montmorency and l’Hermitage at Tikoe on Sumatra’s Westkust — “een centrum van peperhandel, afhankelijk van den Sultan van Atjeh” — a centre of pepper trade, dependent on the Sultan of Atjeh. Tikoe’s dependency on Atjeh meant that any pepper trade there required the Sultan’s permission.
Atjeh negotiations, early 1621
From Tikoe De Beaulieu came in early 1621 to Atjeh itself, where he had difficult negotiations with the Sultan and the Rijksgrooten (great officers) to obtain permission for the pepper trade. He particularly complained about the extortion of gifts during the negotiations: “vooral klaagt De Beaulieu over het afpersen van geschenken bij de besprekingen” — De Beaulieu particularly complained about the extortion of gifts during the discussions. The complaint is a recurrent feature of European accounts of the Atjeh court, and would be echoed by other visitors.
The English ship with the sick Gravé, November 1621
Suddenly, in November 1621, while the Montmorency lay in a bay to be cleaned of the shell-layer that was impeding her sailing, an English ship appeared aboard which was the gravely ill Vice-Admiral Gravé. He, together with one De Parc of the l’Espérance’s crew, told the story of that ship — a tale full of inaccuracies that later appeared in print in De Beaulieu’s travel-adventures. The French had not reckoned on the Dutch carefully checking and recording their doings.
The loss of the l’Espérance
The truth was that before Tikoe the l’Espérance had lain twelve days waiting for a sloop sent ashore with fifteen sick sailors to fetch help. The sloop never reappeared. Ten of the sailors died; the five survivors took a Dutch yacht to Atjeh to seek their Admiral. On the great ship were 74 souls; Gravé and three others were still on their feet, but the ship was unmanageable for want of hands. The Dutch ship Leiden found the French “gants machteloos” — entirely powerless — with only two casks of water remaining aboard.
Some of the sick were taken aboard the Leiden; the l’Espérance was given a crew of 50 Dutchmen. At the island Nassau it was hoped the sick would recover, but many found their grave there. When the Leiden and the l’Espérance reached Jakatra, 95 persons had died and 29 survived. The French printed account claims the ship was taken by force and brought to Java — “Tijdgenooten wisten beter” — contemporaries knew better. The Dutch ambassador in Paris was thanked by French nobles interested in the Dieppe expedition for the help given to the l’Espérance — for which favour they waived complaints about the lifting of Dutch sailors from French ships.
The Raad van Defensie and French inaccuracies
The French had not reckoned on the possibility that their doings were being carefully checked and recorded in writing, “zoodat het niet moeilijk was voor den uit Engelschen en Hollanders bestaanden ‘Raad van Defensie’ om om de onjuistheid der Fransche beweringen met de stukken aan te toonen” — so that it was not difficult for the “Raad van Defensie” (Council of Defence), composed of English and Dutch, to demonstrate the inaccuracy of the French assertions with the documents in hand.
The death and burial of Gravé at Atjeh
Gravé went in the bark l’Hermitage to Atjeh, where De Beaulieu had already departed. By English ship he set out, happened to meet his chief, and told him, deathly ill, of his troubles in the presence of witnesses. In the night of 9 November 1621, two hours before daybreak, Gravé died of a violent fever “causée de facherie” — caused by vexation — arising “uit ergernis” (from chagrin). He was buried in Atjeh. See Robert Gravé.
Aftermath and the French claim
When Coen was in Holland in 1623 he wrote that the English and French questions together had cost the Company some sixteen tonnes of gold. The French shipowners eventually received their claimed damages — 550,000 livres — paid out by the VOC. Le Tellier’s grave is in Bantam. Gravé’s grave is in Atjeh.
Significance
For Atjeh’s history, De Beaulieu’s mission is the principal French attempt of the early seventeenth century to enter the Atjeh pepper trade directly — at the Sultan’s court, in formal negotiation with the Rijksgrooten, and through the Westkust dependency of Tikoe. Its failure, and the related loss of the l’Espérance with 95 dead, defined the limits of French commercial intrusion into a trade that the VOC was successfully consolidating. The death and burial of Gravé at Atjeh left a French grave in the sultanate and a long-running French diplomatic case against the Company.
See Also
- Augustin de Beaulieu
- Robert Gravé
- Jan Pieterszoon Coen
- Tikoe
- St. Michel affair at Atjeh (1620-1621)
- 1621
- Acheh
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 LIV (“Augustin de Beaulieu en Robert Grave”), pp. 194–197 of the numbered-letter sequence.