The occupation of Pidir (31 May – 4 June 1876) was the landing of a Dutch detachment under Captain of Infantry J. R. Engelhard near the capital of the north-coast Atjehnese state of Pidir, and the building there of a permanent Dutch fortification in the midst of a hostile population — the first lasting Dutch establishment on Atjeh’s north coast. It was described in Chapter VIII of H. F. Meijer’s Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (1883).
The road to submission
Pidir, east of the XXII Moekims of Groot-Atjeh and west of the until-then rival state of Gigiëng, had submitted its prince Toengkoe Radja Pakik on 29 February 1876: the Dutch flag was hoisted at the capital of Pidir, and the prince confirmed his declaration of submission with an oath on the Koran — including, in deviation from earlier declarations, a clause for the free cession of a terrain for the Dutch establishment. The submission changed policy: instead of the fortification long projected in Gigiëng, the Netherlands Indies Government now decided, on the proposal of the civil and military commander in Atjeh, to build in Pidir. The importance was considered great: Pidir was reckoned the most important part of the former Atjehnese realm — through its history, extent, warlike population and the kinship of its princely house with that of the former sultans (the sister of Toengkoe Pakik had been married to Sultan Mansjoer Sjah, his daughter to the late Sultan Machmoed Sjah).
A commission — a civil official, a captain of the General Staff, and the commander of the squadron on the north coast — chose the site near the beach on a creek giving sloops access at high tide to the mouth of the Pidir river, about 1,800 metres from the prince’s residence on the right bank. An assistant-resident — De Scheemaker — was appointed for the political affairs of the whole north coast, with controllers and native clerks, a European clerk, 5 police servants, an armed boat stationed in the river mouth and a sloop’s crew; the military establishment was fixed at a company of 150 infantry (half European, half native) with artillery and services, raised during the works to 250 men.
The landing
On 31 May the troops destined for Pidir embarked at Olehleh on the hired steamer Marion: 2 captains (including the detachment commander Captain J. R. Engelhard), 2 first and 4 second lieutenants, 244 non-commissioned officers and men of whom 70 Europeans, a captain of engineers, 50 native carpenters, overseers and free coolies, 26 artillerymen with 2 8 cM. mountain guns, 12 forced-labourers, provisions for two months — and, because palisade timber was lacking, 4,000 sandbags, 35,000 randjoes (spiked obstacles) and 20 Frisian portable chevaux-de-frise (friessche ruiters). In the evening the Marion anchored on the Pidir roadstead; next morning Engelhard reported to the station commander, Captain-Lieutenant Meijn of the navy, who still led political affairs until the assistant-resident’s arrival.
At four in the afternoon of 1 June the prince received them near the flagstaff at the beach; the letter of the civil and military commander was read; the prince answered that he had understood it all well but asked delay of the landing until further word, as he wished first to speak with his heads and people. A first reconnaissance of the fortification site was made next day; that afternoon the prince’s letter came: he could not yet agree. Only on 3 June came word that all objections had been removed.
The disembarkation and the first days
In the early morning of 4 June the infantry, then the artillery, were landed with the help of the sloops of the navy and of the Marion; a representative of the prince even welcomed the troops. But the people’s disposition showed at once. As the news spread that Netherlands soldiers had landed, certainly 200 to 300 well-armed Atjehers kept near the troops from morning to evening and mixed with the soldiers; their impudence went far enough to come inside the space marked for the fortification by the sandbags, chevaux-de-frise and randjoes. Neither the officers’ orders nor those of the Pidir heads could curb it; the people touched everything, took much away, asked the officers why the guns had been brought, and laid hands on the soldiers. On 5 June a European fusilier was wounded by a klewang cut for preventing an Atjehnese child from stealing an iron pin from a cheval-de-frise; the following day another European fusilier was wounded when, passing an Atjeher in the press, the latter’s offended pride answered at once with the klewang.
Reinforce and finish
Captain Engelhard reported to Kota Radja that the state of things at the capital of Pidir was “alles behalve bevredigend” — anything but satisfactory: the heads, he wrote, wished peace seemingly well, but had not power enough to keep the people in check; Pidirese came daily into the fortification and could not be expelled; and he asked urgently for reinforcements, especially of Europeans, and for palisades or thick planks. The danger of a night surprise was manifest: the garrison’s 72 Europeans against 170 natives, the partly undelimited emplacement and the great cupidity of the Atjehers for the materiels stacked nearly openly on the beach.
Reinforcements were sent accordingly, and planks from Kota Radja, with which a part of the breastwork could be built while the rest remained of sandbags. The fortification was finished at the end of June 1876; a few days later the civil government passed from the naval station commander to Assistant-Resident De Scheemaker.
Meijer also records the character of the royal flag-keeper at the beach: Hadji Hoesin Marikan — according to his own account formerly named Shephard, an Englishman or American by birth — an old merchant-navy sailor who had come to Atjeh (Samalanga) twelve years before, turned Muslim, married an Atjehnese wife and now lived with her in a poor hut near the beach, paid by the prince of Pidir two and a half Spanish dollars a day for the care of the Dutch flag. The Atjehnese princes, Meijer remarks, preferred to fly the flag at the beach rather than before their residences — at the pretext that their ships could see it better there.
Who was the enemy?
Much of the Pidir insolence Meijer ascribed to the followers of the notorious Toekoe di Tiro, a half-independent Pidir chief, and to the people of other still-hostile little states: the great market (kedei) of Pidir had become the assembling place of all the rabble of the former Atjehnese realm, where men of the war party, with rifles, lances and klewangs, made their purchases of provisions and ammunition, until a fit occasion offered to fight in Groot-Atjeh. It was a plain calculation, Meijer judged, of the princes and chiefs to be on a good footing with both parties: help against the Dutch came from the coast states — and Pidir was the best placed to give it.
After
In July 1876 tidings came of unrest among the Pidir population — that it even contemplated attacking the fortification; the watch of the assistant-resident’s house, 200 to 300 metres from the fortification, was raised to 22 men. Although these rumours were soon contradicted and the establishment’s strength settled at 16 men, many signs showed the people still hostile; the prince even asked that soldiers and all persons of the establishment not come near the neighbouring kampongs. That the request rested on good grounds was proved on 14 August, when a pioneer-coolie who entered a kampong 100 metres from the assistant-resident’s house was at once killed. The prince promised to hunt the perpetrator; two days later he sent his son to the military commander, and the day after he came himself — sending, on 5 August, an embassy to Kota Radja to show his good disposition: the embassy stayed several days and was shown the whole Dutch establishment in and around the Kraton and the lines, the first such step by Toengkoe Pakik since his submission.
The Pidir post was itself short-lived: in February 1877 it was moved to Segli, and later the commander returned to his first plan of a fortification on the Tanah Raja (“neutral ground”) at the bridge over the Segli river. Meijer nevertheless counted the Pidir establishment of great value for the war.
See Also
- Pedir
- Toengkoe Radja Pakik
- J. R. Engelhard
- De Scheemaker
- Toengkoe Bintara Kamangan
- Gigiëng
- Segli
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VIII, pp. 265–282; sketches no. 9 and 10 (terrain and plan of the establishment at Pidir).