The First Dutch voyage to Atjeh (1598–1599) was the expedition dispatched on 11 March 1598 by the Middelburg merchant Balthasar de Moucheron under Cornelis de Houtman, Frederik de Houtman and Guyon Lefort that brought the Netherlanders for the first time to Atjeh. It is recorded in Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland as the opening episode of Dutch-Acehnese contact, ending in treachery, the death of Cornelis de Houtman, the imprisonment of Frederik de Houtman, and the abandonment of the venture by Lefort.
Outward voyage
Stapel describes the outward route in a single sentence: “The voyage went west of Madagascar via the Comoros and Maldives to Atjeh, where one arrived in June ‘99” (De reis ging bewesten Madagascar via de Comoren en Maladiven naar Atjeh, waar men in Juni ‘99 aankwam). The fleet was two ships (2 schepen). The expedition was organised by De Moucheron, an Antwerp-born merchant resident in Middelburg who is repeatedly mentioned by Stapel as the patron of the earliest pre-VOC Dutch voyages to the East Indies, and who therefore naturally employed his fellow southern Netherlanders Lefort and (later) Van Spilbergen.
Reception and the Acehnese attack
The first reception was favourable. “The reception here was initially good” (De ontvangst hier was aanvankelijk goed). But the situation was then poisoned by Portuguese intrigue, with the result that “incited by the Portuguese, the prince had them treacherously assaulted” (opgestookt door de Portugeezen, liet de vorst hen verraderlijk overvallen). Cornelis de Houtman “with several others came to their end” (kwamen hierbij om) — i.e., was killed — “and his brother Frederik and a few others were taken prisoner” (en zijn broeder Frederik en nog eenigen werden gevangen genomen).
This Acehnese attack on Dutch merchants under Portuguese prompting set the tone for the entire first phase of Dutch-Acehnese relations: recurrent Portuguese influence at the Acehnese court would bedevil the Compagnie’s embassy there until Malakka fell in 1641.
Lefort’s command and return
With Cornelis dead and Frederik imprisoned, command fell to Lefort. “Lefort now took command upon himself, attempted in vain to take revenge, and thereupon sailed to the Nicobars to refresh himself” (Lefort nam nu het bevel op zich, trachtte vergeefs wraak te nemen en zeilde daarop naar de Nicobaren om zich te ververschen). A subsequent attempt to make Ceylon was defeated by contrary winds. Lefort then took the homeward route and “in July 1600, almost without cargo and with the loss of many men, returned to the fatherland” (in Juli 1600 bijna zonder lading en met verlies van veel volk in het vaderland terugkwam).
The expedition was, by commercial measures, a failure. Its political importance was greater: it gave the Dutch their first direct experience of the Acehnese court, and it left Frederik de Houtman in Acehnese captivity for more than two years, an experience that would indirectly produce the first Dutch-Malay vocabulary and grammar.
Frederik de Houtman’s captivity and release
Stapel follows the Houtman story into its next phase. In 1600 Paulus van Caerden, dispatched by the Nieuwe Brabantsche Compagnie founded by Isaac Le Maire and others with four ships under the supreme command of Pieter Both, arrived at Atjeh. “Frederik de H[outman], hoping to procure not only his own but also his fellow-prisoners’ release, and to obtain cargo from Van Caerden, did indeed go aboard, but received from the prince no permission to repatriate; their imprisonment, however, was bearable” (Frederik de H., verhoopende niet alleen syne, maar ook zijner medegevangenen verlossing te procureeren [en] van Caerden lading te besorgen, ging wel aan boord, maar kreeg met de anderen van den vorst geen vergunning om te repatriceren; hun gevangenschap echter was dragelijk).
The release of the Houtman party came the following year through the unrelated arrival of Gerard le Roy. In August 1601, Leroy — dispatched by the Middelburgsche Compagnie founded by Adriaen Hendriksz ten Haeff and others in January of that year, with four ships — called at Atjeh. By then the political wind at the Acehnese court had shifted: “Meanwhile the Atjehers and Portuguese had fallen into enmity, so that when in August ‘01 Gerard Leroy … here put in, Frederik de H[outman] and his men were set at liberty, even before a corresponding letter from Prince Maurits to the prince had been presented” (Intusschen geraakten de Atjehers en Portugeezen in vijandschap, zoodat toen in Aug. ‘01 Gerard Leroy … hier aanliep, Frederik de H. en de zijnen in vrijheid werden gesteld, nog vóór een desbetreffend schrijven van Prins Maurits aan den vorst was overhandigd).
Aftermath: factory and ambassadors
The Leroy visit also produced the first formal Dutch-Acehnese commercial settlement. “On 28 [August 1601] they were permitted to establish a factory (factorij) here, and Atjehsche envoys, provided with gifts and letters to the Prince, were sent along with two of the ships, which with a full cargo of pepper departed directly from here to Holland” (28 werd hen toegestaan hier een factorij te stichten en werden Atjehsche gezanten, voorzien van geschenken en brieven aan den Prins, met 2 der schepen, die met een volle lading peper rechtstreeks van hier naar Holland vertrokken, medegegeven). The cargo of pepper, the first Acehnese pepper to reach the Republic in Dutch hulls, was the modest commercial seed of what would, after the Compagnie’s founding in 1602, grow into the great Dutch pepper trade of the Westkust van Sumatra.
See Also
- Cornelis de Houtman
- Frederik de Houtman
- Guyon Lefort
- Paulus van Caerden
- Gerard Leroy
- Balthasar de Moucheron
- Isaac Le Maire
- Pieter Both
- Adriaen Hendriksz ten Haeff
- Maurits van Oranje
- Atjeh
- Nicobaren
- Ceylon
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 1598
- 1599
- 1600
- 1601
- 11 March
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 27 (tekst bij blad 1: De eerste reizen der Nederlanders — Eenige der volgende reizen naar O. Indië, I. Rond Z. Afrika, a. C. en F. de Houtman en Lefort (Atjeh) 1598/9).