Guyon Lefort was the Dutch (originally southern Netherlandish) navigator who, after the death of Cornelis de Houtman at Atjeh in June 1599 and the imprisonment of Frederik de Houtman, took command of the De Moucheron expedition and brought its remnants home in July 1600. He figures in Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland as the commander who attempted in vain to avenge the Houtman attack and then abandoned the venture, and as the navigator who would return to the East a second time on the Van Spilbergen voyage of 1601–1604.
Command after the 1599 attack
Stapel records Lefort’s assumption of command in a single sentence: “Lefort now took command upon himself, attempted in vain to take revenge, and thereupon sailed to the Nicobars to refresh himself” (Lefort nam nu het bevel op zich, trachtte vergeefs wraak te nemen en zeilde daarop naar de Nicobaren om zich te ververschen). The failure of the revenge attempt is matter-of-fact: the Acehnese defence was too strong for Lefort’s depleted force, and the expedition could do nothing against the court that had just killed its commander.
The return voyage
From the Nicobars Lefort attempted to make Ceylon, but “an attempt to do Ceylon failed by contrary winds” (Een poging om Ceylon aan te doen mislukte door tegenwind). He then took the homeward route. “He undertook the return voyage and in July 1600 returned to the fatherland almost without cargo and with the loss of many men” (hij de terugreis aanvaardde en in Juli 1600 bijna zonder lading en met verlies van veel volk in het vaderland terugkwam).
The commercial outcome was a complete failure. The expedition had cost Cornelis de Houtman his life, had left Frederik de Houtman in Acehnese captivity, and had brought home neither cargo nor advantage.
The 1601-1604 Spilbergen voyage
Lefort returned to the East on the Van Spilbergen expedition of 1601–1604, again fitted out by Balthasar de Moucheron. Stapel notes the southern Netherlandish connection: De Moucheron “was an Antwerp-born merchant and therefore naturally employed southern Netherlanders” (uit Antwerpen afkomstig en daarom uiteraard Zuid-Nederlanders in dienst nemende). The Spilbergen-Lefort expedition rounded the Cape, named Tafel Baai (“Table Bay”), touched at Sofala and the Comoros, crossed to Ceylon where Spilbergen became the first Dutch commander to visit Kandy and the emperor there, and finally made course for Atjeh.
At Atjeh the outcome was happier than in 1599. “Course was then set for Atjeh, here and later at Bantam good cargo was obtained, and thereupon the return voyage was undertaken” (Daarop werd naar Atjeh koers gesteld, hier en later op Bantam goede lading bekomen en toen de thuisreis aanvaard). The same Lefort who had fled Atjeh in defeat in 1599 returned there in 1603–1604 as part of a successful commercial voyage.
Significance
Lefort’s career is a small case study in the early Dutch-Acehnese relationship. He is present at both ends of its opening phase — first as the unfortunate commander who brought home the first Dutch voyage to Atjeh in ruins, then as second-in-command of the Van Spilbergen voyage that traded successfully at Atjeh only four years later. The contrast between the two voyages is the contrast between Atjeh under Portuguese influence (1599) and Atjeh in the brief Acehnese-Portuguese breach (1601-1604). Lefort’s career is the human thread through that contrast.
See Also
- First Dutch voyage to Atjeh (1598-1599)
- Cornelis de Houtman
- Frederik de Houtman
- Joris van Spilbergen
- Balthasar de Moucheron
- Atjeh
- Nicobaren
- Ceylon
- Kandy
- Tafelbaai
- 1598
- 1599
- 1600
- 1601
- 1604
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 27, 29 (tekst bij blad 1: De eerste reizen der Nederlanders).