The St. Michel affair at Atjeh of 1620–1621 was the sequence of incidents at Atjeh and the Sumatra Westkust surrounding the French Saint-Malo expedition’s two ships St. Michel and St. Louis — outfitted by a “gang of conspirators against the Dutch East India Company” including Lodewijk Heyns, Gerard Leroy, Jan Banninck Coeckebakcker, Jan Jansz. Moll and presumably Lemaire. The St. Michel — whose “Generaal” was the ex-VOC, ex-Atjeh-captive Hans de Decker — was signalled already lying at Atjeh, where she had taken on a full cargo of pepper, before being captured by Coen’s forces at Jakatra in 1618 and eventually confiscated. The affair is one of the principal French intrusions into the Atjeh pepper trade in the early seventeenth century.
Background: the conspirators
The two ships of the Saint-Malo expedition — the St. Michel and the St. Louis — were “van Hollanders gekocht” (bought from Hollanders) and “uitgerust door renegaten” (outfitted by renegades): Lodewijk Heyns, Gerard Leroy, Jan Banninck Coeckebakcker, Jan Jansz. Moll and presumably Lemaire — “het stel samenzweerders tegen de Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie” (the gang of conspirators against the Dutch East India Company). The choice of French flags was itself part of the intrigue: the conspirators intended to trade under French colours in waters the VOC claimed as its own.
The “Generaal” Hans de Decker
The expedition’s “Generaal” was Hans de Decker — a Dutchman who had begun his career in the VOC, had been taken prisoner at Atjeh alongside Frederik de Houtman in 1599, had returned to the fatherland and taken service with the Zeeland Company, had sailed out as Opperkommies and Councillor under Vice-Admiral Sebald de Weert in 1602, had touched at Ceylon, had stayed on in Atjeh “tot den inkoop van peper” (for the purchase of pepper), and had been back in Zeeland by 1606. Grievances and unpleasantness had driven him to France, where he was given the post of “General” in the Saint-Malo expedition. See Hans de Decker.
At Atjeh, 1617
The two ships were signalled already when they lay at Atjeh. There the Admiral’s ship — the St. Michel — had already taken on a full cargo of pepper. The Atjeh call was thus completed before the French sailed through the Strait of Malakka for Jakatra.
The Strait of Malakka and the storm
The two ships sailed through the Strait of Malakka, called at Malakka, and were scattered by storm and current. Lodewijk Heyns’s brother — Michiel Heyns — died in the Strait of Malakka of the red flux (roode loop), with many others whose names do not concern us here. Michiel Heyns may, the text notes, be remembered by the French as perhaps the very first who for France traded at Pondichéry in July 1617 in indigo, diamonds and cloths.
Reaal’s interception of the St. Louis
Governor-General Dr. Laurens Reaal — “meer jurist dan krachtig bewindsman” (more jurist than strong administrator) — met the Vice-Admiral’s ship (the St. Louis) among the islands before Jakatra, and with threats (he had two ships) lifted ten Dutchmen from it. Other Dutch ships waited for the Admiral’s ship — the St. Michel — which was reduced to a wreck five miles below Jakatra.
De Decker’s sloops and the flight
The “Generaal” De Decker came in a sloop with the Skipper and two Hollanders to the ship Bantam to request steersmen. Reaal had promised, on handshake, that De Decker would be sent home to the fatherland — a promise that would cost the Company much trouble, hindrance and loss. On 17 January 1618 De Decker came under escort before Bantam. He expected to be put on a seaworthy ship bound for Holland. Learning that he would be transferred to another ship, and that Reaal’s word would be overruled by the Councillors of the Indies, he fled with two of his servants to an English ship. From there he was brought to the court of Bantam, where he stayed three days without the Dutch knowing where he was hidden.
The Pangeran of Bantam’s refusal
The Pangeran was asked to extradite De Decker, which he “plat uit” (flatly) refused, adding that he was not pleased that the Dutch would do in Bantam what they had done in the Moluccas. He pointed out that he had nothing to do with the jurisdiction of the States-General. “Gelijk had hij” — He was right.
The arrest of the St. Michel
To force De Decker out, the Indian Government arrested his ship, the St. Michel. The heated conversations of French and English at the Bantam court about the Dutch can be imagined. They worked on the Pangeran to act strongly. Meanwhile, he let De Decker escape to the English ship Charles. On that ship De Decker died on the homeward voyage. “Het laatste bericht over hem is dat de scheepskist van den overledene wordt opgevraagd” — The last news of him is that the deceased’s sea-chest is being claimed. “Een moeitevol en mislukt leven!” — A laborious and failed life!
French piracy under Dutch colours
From Atjeh the report had reached Bantam that the French had committed piracy under the Dutch flag. Goezeratsche and Moorish ships had been seized and plundered. Indeed, in the St. Michel were found two “Prinsenvlaggen” (Prince’s flags), and the cloths the French had brought were actually the printed cotton stuffs of Voor-Indië. That French should thus besmirch the Dutch name could have great consequences at Suratte and elsewhere. The Heeren Zeventien sent copies of sworn declarations to the Sultan — “den Grooten Heere tot Constantinopelen” (the Great Lord at Constantinople) — so that he might know who the guilty parties were, should complaints about the Dutch reach him.
Coen’s capture of the St. Michel
The St. Michel lay without rudder and without masts at the island that would later be called Onrust. The Skipper of the St. Michel forced all his people to leave the ship, abandoning everything — ship, goods and baggage. Three stowaways, however, remained aboard. The offered keys to holds and cabins were not accepted by the Dutch. At Onrust, where the St. Michel lay, strict watch was kept against damage or plunder.
Coen decided with his Council to take over the ship with all that was in it, under a proper inventory; the inventory was made in the presence of several Frenchmen not officially commissioned for the purpose — since the French General would delegate no one. The pepper, loaded by Coen into a Dutch ship, had been partly bought in Atjeh, partly robbed from Voor-Indië vessels by the French. The crew’s baggage was given up against receipt. It was foreseeable, Coen wrote to the Heeren Meesters, that over all this a howl of indignation would arise in Europe from the French side. But logically.
Significance
For Atjeh’s history, the St. Michel affair is the central French episode of the early seventeenth century — the moment at which the French Saint-Malo expedition, sailing under French colours with a Dutch “Generaal” (De Decker) and a Dutch-purchased ship, took on a full cargo of Atjeh pepper before being run down, captured, and eventually confiscated by the VOC. The affair is also the proximate cause of the long-running French claim for damages against the VOC, eventually settled at 550,000 livres. Through De Decker’s person the episode links three distinct phases of European-Atjeh contact: the Houtman disaster of 1599, the VOC’s own Atjeh pepper-purchase of 1602–1606, and the French intrusion of 1617–1618.
See Also
- Hans de Decker
- Lodewijk Heyns
- Jan Pieterszoon Coen
- Laurens Reaal
- Augustin de Beaulieu
- Robert Gravé
- Frederik de Houtman
- 1617
- 1618
- 1620
- 1621
- Acheh
- Goezeratte
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
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), chapters L–LIII (“De Compagnie in Bantam. Fransche Concurrentie. Moeilijkheden met de Franschen. Hans de Decker”; “De St. Michel”), pp. 177–191 of the numbered-letter sequence.