Houtman brothers' visit to Atjeh (1599)

The Houtman brothers’ visit to Atjeh of 1599 — the first Dutch visit to the rijk Atjeh on Sumatra, conducted by the brothers Cornelis Houtman and Frederik Houtman in two Zeeland ships in the summer of 1599 — ended in ambush, the killing of most of the crew, and the captivity of Frederik Houtman at the Atjehnese court, and is the opening Dutch-Atjehnese encounter of the school-textbook narrative of Atjeh history. The visit is the terminus a quo of Dutch-Atjehnese relations — the first in a sequence of encounters that would culminate in the Atjeh-oorlog of 1873–1903.

The arrival and the ambush

The Wijma school reader describes the arrival of the two Zeeland ships and the initial Atjehnese welcome: “Ze waren de eerste Nederlanders, die het rijk Atjeh op Sumatra bezochten. Een der rijksgrooten kwam met een groot gevolg bij hen aan boord en deelde een overvloed van spijs en drank onder het scheepsvolk uit.” The welcome, however, was a feint: “wat er verder gebeurde, was ver van vriendelijk. Onverwachts vielen de Atjehneezen op de onzen aan. Een hevig gevecht volgde, en aan weerszijden sneuvelden er velen. Ook de schepelingen, die aan wal waren, werden gegrepen en allen, op acht na, gedood. Onder die acht was Frederik Houtman.”

Cornelis Houtman was “genoodzaakt, zijn broeder en de anderen in de handen van den trouweloozen vijand achter te laten en met de beide schepen te vertrekken.” The episode is the staff history’s principal instance of the trouwelooze (treacherous) character of the Atjehnese in the Dutch school-textbook narrative — a framing that would recur in the lessons on the eerste Atjeh-tocht of 1873.

Account from Coen: Koopman van Heeren Zeventien (1948) — the murder of Cornelis de Houtman

A fuller and independently sourced account of the 11 September 1599 ambush is given by Johan van der Woude’s biography of Jan Pieterszoon Coen, which frames the episode as the Murder of Cornelis de Houtman in Atjeh and adds substantial detail absent from the school-reader account.

Background and departure

Following the success of the first Dutch voyage to Bantam (1595–1597), and seeking to bypass the Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade, Cornelis de Houtman was employed by the Zeeland merchant Balthasar de Moucheron, who outfitted the two ships Leeuw and Leeuwin. The expedition departed from Vlissingen on 25 March 1598, shadowed by the English pilot John Davis, who was acting as a spy for the Earl of Essex. After a difficult and delayed journey, the ships anchored at Atjeh on 24 June 1599.

Arrival and initial trade

Commanding the ships Leeuw and Leeuwin, Cornelis de Houtman anchored before Atjeh on 24 June 1599. The Dutch were initially received with great hospitality by the Sultan of Atjeh — who accepted a letter from Prince Maurits of Nassau — and were granted permission to trade and assigned a house on shore. A small quantity of pepper was purchased, and de Houtman attempted to negotiate lower prices directly with the Sultan, bypassing the sabander (harbourmaster), who had fixed the rates.

Portuguese intrigue

The Dutch presence alarmed the Portuguese in Malaka, who relied on Acehnese tolerance to maintain their regional trade networks. A Portuguese agent residing in Atjeh, Affonso Vicenti, actively worked to sabotage the Dutch mission, convincing the Sultan that the Dutch were merely spies scouting the harbour for a future military invasion and that they intended to ally with Atjeh’s regional enemies. Concurrently, the Sultan’s ambassador returned from Malaka accompanied by a Portuguese envoy, further shifting the court’s sympathies against the Hollanders.

The ambush

On 11 September 1599, the Sultan invited de Houtman and a delegation of armed Dutch nobles and merchants aboard the Acehnese royal vessels, ostensibly to finalise a trade agreement and share a meal. The Dutch were caught off guard when Acehnese warriors launched a sudden assault. In the ensuing melee on the ships, Cornelis de Houtman was killed in his cabin alongside several of his men. The Dutch crew, alerted by the commotion, managed to repel the boarders and secure the Leeuw and Leeuwin, but at a heavy cost: approximately ninety Dutch sailors and merchants were killed or captured. Among the prisoners was Frederik de Houtman, the captain of the Leeuwin, who was taken ashore.

Aftermath

The surviving Dutch ships fled to the nearby port of Pedir to attempt a rescue of the men in the sloops, but were driven off by Acehnese forces and a squadron of Portuguese galleys. Frederik de Houtman and the other captives were forced to work on the Sultan’s own fleet; the ship’s council refused to ransom them for one of the Dutch vessels and retreated. The disaster forced the remnants of the expedition to abandon Sumatra without a profitable cargo of pepper and eventually return to the Dutch Republic. The event cemented a deep Dutch mistrust of Acehnese diplomacy — a stark lesson in the complex political landscape of Sumatra, where local rulers played European powers against each other, often favouring the established Portuguese presence — though the sheer profitability of the pepper trade would compel subsequent fleets to return to Atjeh within a year. See Imprisonment of Frederik de Houtman in Atjeh.

The aftermath and the 1601 embassy

“Ruim twee jaar later 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. 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. Tevens wilde hij in beleefdheid voor prins Maurits niet onderdoen en stuurde hem enige gezanten ook met brieven en geschenken.” The Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 thus initiated a sequence that, within two years, produced the Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits of 1601 — the first Atjehnese diplomatic mission to the Netherlands.

Significance

The Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 is, in the school-textbook narrative, the terminus a quo of Dutch-Atjehnese relations, and the staff history’s principal instance of the trouwelooze character of the Atjehnese in the Dutch school-textbook imagination. The visit’s framing — initial welcome followed by ambush — sets the moral arc that the rest of the school reader’s Atjeh lessons will follow: the Atjehnese are trouwelooze until proven gunstig, and the Dutch-Atjehnese relationship is one of perpetual vigilance. The visit also produced the first Dutch captive at the Atjehnese court — Frederik Houtman — whose two-year captivity is the staff history’s principal instance of the early-modern Dutch experience of Atjehnese imprisonment.

Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)

The De Houtman brothers’ voyage to Atjeh of July 1599 — the first appearance of the Dutch at the sultanate — ended in poisoned drinks, a surprise attack by the Sultan’s bands which cost Cornelis de Houtman and 68 sailors their lives and left Frederik de Houtman a prisoner, and in the empty-handed return of the ships in July 1600; it opened the long record of Dutch-Atjehnese relations which author Joh. Langhout traces to the war of 1873.

Arrival and attack

In July 1599 the brothers Frederik and Cornelis de Houtman, after a somewhat unprosperous voyage, cast anchor in the roadstead of Atjeh, their ships in the service of the Zealand shipowner De Moucheron. The Sultan had been warned beforehand of the coming of the new traders, and his disposition toward the Hollanders was sufficiently determined, thanks to the Portuguese, who did not fail to set him on against these new “indringers” (“intruders”). The consequences did not fail to come: at a visit of the sjahbander, or harbour-master, to the Dutch ships, the Dutch sailors were partly rendered harmless by means of poisoned drinks, and bands of the Sultan made an unexpected attack, which could be beaten off — at the cost, however, of the life of Cornelis de Houtman and 68 men of the crew. Frederik de Houtman fell into captivity, and all attempts of the crews of the Dutch ships to liberate their commander failed: in July 1600 the Dutch ships returned to the mother country empty-handed and with heavy losses.

The Van Caerden sequel

Admiral Paulus van Caerden, a companion of Pieter Both come to the Indies for the account of some Brabant shipowners, underwent “a second, less friendly treatment”. Again the Sultan, at the instigation of the Portuguese, attempted an assault; but he reckoned without his host — in this case without Frederik de Houtman, who, having learned of the plans, escaped from captivity and warned the admiral, so that the plot miscarried without loss of life. Frederik then placed himself anew in the Sultan’s hands to plead his countrymen’s interests, trusting in Van Caerden’s help; the admiral, however, seized four ships belonging to Arabs and left the coast, abandoning the captives. Both the captives and the Dutch-Atjehnese friendship were saved by the arrival of the ships of the Middelburg fleet (see Dutch-Atjehnese alliance and embassy to Prince Maurice (1601-1602)).

Sources

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”).

Coen: Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandschen Handel in Indië (1598—1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. de Boer Jr., 1948), pp. 109-111.

Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 10–13.

Explorer