Captain Steven was a British sea-captain who, in 1786, carried the letter of the Sultan of Acheh (“sultan Munson,” i.e. Alauddin Muhammad Shah Jauhar) to Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of Bengal. He is mentioned once in P. H. van der Kemp (1900), in Appendix 1, which reproduces the Achehnese sovereign’s letter of 7 November 1786 to the Governor-General at Calcutta.
The 1786 letter
The opening passage of the Sultan’s letter reads: “This letter is sent from your friend sultan Munson, son of sultan Ziemul Abudeen to you, who are a valuable and noble friend, and who are known to Hindostan and Arabia. God grant you long life and preserve you from the distresses of the world. I received your letter by the hands of captain Steven, and understand its contents. The articles which accompanied it as per annexed list, I also received.” The Sultan’s heart was “gladdened by the arrival of your letter,” and he expressed himself “very desirous of this interview and of a lasting friendship with the English.”
Captain Steven is therefore the bearer of the original British overture, the messenger through whom Hastings’ despatch and its accompanying gift-articles reached the Achehnese court. No further biographical detail about him is given by Van der Kemp; he is simply named in the salutation of the reply.
The diplomatic chain
The Acheh-Bengal exchange of 1786 is the earliest documentary trace of formal British contact with the Achehnese sultanate, and Captain Steven is the first identifiable European carrier in that chain. The Sultan’s reply had originally been entrusted to Captain Hobbs, who was murdered at Tringano before he could deliver it; the Sultan then asked Captain Glass, Captain Thomas and Mr. John Bird — “who are acquainted with my affairs and with my intention towards you” — to vouch for the contents of his message to Hastings. The whole 1786 episode is interesting to Van der Kemp as the antecedent, more than thirty years earlier, of the Raffles-Coombs Acheh Commission of 1819 and the subsequent Treaty of Pedir.
See Also
- Warren Hastings
- Sultan Alauddin Muhammad Shah Jauhar
- Sultan Ziemul Abudeen
- Captain Hobbs
- Captain Glass
- Captain Thomas
- John Bird
- Sultan of Acheh’s letter to Warren Hastings
- Tringano
- Calcutta
- Acheh
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.
Captain Steven was a British sea-captain who, in 1786, carried the letter of the Sultan of Acheh (“sultan Munson,” i.e. Alauddin Muhammad Shah Jauhar) to Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of Bengal. He is mentioned once in P. H. van der Kemp (1900), in Appendix 1, which reproduces the Achehnese sovereign’s letter of 7 November 1786 to the Governor-General at Calcutta.
The 1786 letter
The opening passage of the Sultan’s letter reads: “This letter is sent from your friend sultan Munson, son of sultan Ziemul Abudeen to you, who are a valuable and noble friend, and who are known to Hindostan and Arabia. God grant you long life and preserve you from the distresses of the world. I received your letter by the hands of captain Steven, and understand its contents. The articles which accompanied it as per annexed list, I also received.” The Sultan’s heart was “gladdened by the arrival of your letter,” and he expressed himself “very desirous of this interview and of a lasting friendship with the English.”
Captain Steven is therefore the bearer of the original British overture, the messenger through whom Hastings’ despatch and its accompanying gift-articles reached the Achehnese court. No further biographical detail about him is given by Van der Kemp; he is simply named in the salutation of the reply.
The diplomatic chain
The Acheh-Bengal exchange of 1786 is the earliest documentary trace of formal British contact with the Achehnese sultanate, and Captain Steven is the first identifiable European carrier in that chain. The Sultan’s reply had originally been entrusted to Captain Hobbs, who was murdered at Tringano before he could deliver it; the Sultan then asked Captain Glass, Captain Thomas and Mr. John Bird — “who are acquainted with my affairs and with my intention towards you” — to vouch for the contents of his message to Hastings. The whole 1786 episode is interesting to Van der Kemp as the antecedent, more than thirty years earlier, of the Raffles-Coombs Acheh Commission of 1819 and the subsequent Treaty of Pedir.
See Also
- Warren Hastings
- Sultan Alauddin Muhammad Shah Jauhar
- Sultan Ziemul Abudeen
- Captain Hobbs
- Captain Glass
- Captain Thomas
- John Bird
- Sultan of Acheh’s letter to Warren Hastings
- Tringano
- Calcutta
- Acheh
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.