Affonso Vicenti was a Portuguese resident of Atjeh from Malaka — “in Atjeh woonachtig om zijn invloed bij den sultan te laten gelden wanneer concurrenten opdoken” — who, on the arrival of Cornelis de Houtman’s Dutch fleet of 1599, provided Houtman with written information about the trade of the coast and offered his services, with the covert purpose of undermining the Dutch mission. Vicenti’s intrigue was the proximate cause of the ambush of 11 September 1599 in which Cornelis de Houtman was killed and Frederik de Houtman taken captive, and the principal instance of Portuguese commercial diplomacy at the Achehnese court in the early Dutch-Indies period.
The 1599 intrigue
When the two Zeeland ships of the Moucheron fleet anchored off Atjeh on 24 June 1599, Vicenti — a Portuguese from Malaka who had settled at Atjeh to represent Portuguese commercial interests at the sultan’s court — presented himself to Houtman, gave him written information about the trade of the coast, and offered his services. Van der Woude is explicit about Vicenti’s purpose: “met geen ander oogmerk dan om hem zooveel mogelijk tegen te werken”. The sultan received the Dutch well, offered Houtman a gift and gave him leave to trade; a house was assigned on shore. The sultan then proposed that the Dutch ships accompany an Atjeh fleet against Djohor in exchange for a reduction in the pepper price; Houtman accepted. While a sloop was at Pedir for rice and repairs were under way, the Atjeh embassy returned from Malaka accompanied by a Portuguese envoy who “den sultan duidelijk maakte dat men de Portugeezen slechts te vriend kon houden wanneer men de Hollanders weerde”. Vicenti then “overreedde den sultan om de Hollandsche schepen te overvallen”, which was carried out on 11 September 1599.
The continuing intrigue (1600-1601)
Vicenti’s influence at the sultan’s court continued through the Van Caerden visit of 1600-1601. When Van Caerden arrived off Atjeh on 21 September 1600, he was met by the Franciscan monk who, on Vicenti’s instigation, had been pressing the sultan to cede his strongest fort to the Portuguese. Van Caerden returned the monk’s gifts and had the refreshments he sent first tasted before eating. Vicenti’s intrigue continued: it was he who advised the sultan to set aside unread the letter from Prince Maurits (Van Caerden heard the sultan complained it was written on pigskin), though the sultan did release Hans Decker and the two other surviving Houtman captives. The Portuguese seizure of an Arab ship in 1601, in violation of the sultan’s hospitality, finally turned the sultan against the Portuguese — he had his gunners fire on the ship and disarmed and imprisoned the crew — and Vicenti’s influence at court collapsed.
Significance
Affonso Vicenti is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the principal instance of Portuguese commercial diplomacy at the Achehnese court in the early Dutch-Indies period and the proximate cause of the 1599 ambush. His role frames the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship as one in which the Portuguese — the Dutch’ “landsvijanden” — were active at the sultan’s court and able to turn the sultan against new European competitors. The pattern of Portuguese commercial diplomacy that Vicenti embodied would continue at Atjeh through the 1600s, until the sultan’s definitive break with the Portuguese in 1601 and the Zeeland mission of 1601 inaugurated a new phase of Dutch-Achehnese relations. Vicenti’s role also marks the early-modern European practice of maintaining commercial intelligence officers at Asian courts — a practice that the Dutch would themselves adopt in the VOC period, with their factors at Bantam, Patani, Djohor and elsewhere serving the same function Vicenti had served for the Portuguese at Atjeh.
See Also
- Houtman brothers’ visit to Atjeh (1599)
- Cornelis de Houtman
- Paulus van Caerden’s Atjeh visit (1600-1601)
- Sultan of Atjeh (1589-1604)
- Malaka
- Pedir
- Acheh
- 1599
- 1600
- 1601
Source
Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V “Voorgangers, Hollanders en mededingers tot 1614. Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” (pp. 109-115).