Hans Huybrecht Tonneman was a Dutch admiraal in the service of the Middelburgsche Compagnie who, as captain of the Middelburg and admiraal of the fleet of “twee groote en twee kleine schepen” that left Zeeland on 28 January 1601 and arrived off Atjeh on 23 August 1601, conducted the Zeeland mission of August 1601 that produced the first Dutch factory on Achehnese soil, the unconditional release of Frederik de Houtman and his surviving companions, and the first Achehnese embassy to the Netherlands. Tonneman is the principal Dutch naval commander of the Zeeland mission of 1601.
The 1601 fleet to Atjeh
Tonneman’s fleet of “twee groote en twee kleine schepen” left Zeeland on 28 January 1601 and reached Sumatra on 23 August 1601 after a prosperous voyage via Andschuan (one of the Comoro Islands) and Ceylon. At Andschuan the local ruler gave them a letter of recommendation to the sultan of Atjeh; at Ceylon they took on refreshment. The fleet arrived off Atjeh bearing a letter from Prince Maurits and gifts in money and merchandise. Frederik de Houtman, still in captivity at Atjeh, heard the salute guns fire and “ondervond alras dat de houding van den vorst te zijnen gunste veranderde” when the sultan ignored Portuguese advice to send the Dutchmen into the mountains for safety.
The reception and the lodge “Zeelant”
The Zeelanders were received solemnly by the sultan, who ordered Houtman’s chains struck off — “die hij acht maanden lang had gedragen” — and released him and his companions without ransom. The merchants Gerard le Roy and Laurens Bicker conducted the commercial negotiations, persuaded the sultan that Paulus van Caerden’s seizure of pepper from Arab junks in January 1601 had exceeded his commission, and undertook to compensate the Arab claimants. The Zeelanders obtained leave to settle two commiezen and three assistants on shore at a lodge that they named “Zeelant” — the first Dutch factory on Achehnese soil. The sultan dispatched his own embassy to Prince Maurits — the Atjeh embassy of 1601.
The return voyage
On 29 November 29 November 1601 the two loaded ships sailed for the Netherlands with the Achehnese embassy aboard; off St. Helena they were saluted by cannon-fire from a richly laden Portuguese galleon, which they captured after a two-day fight and brought home to the United Provinces. The two other ships of the Zeeland fleet sailed the same day for Bantam by way of the west coast of Sumatra, where they evaded a Portuguese fleet sent against them by André Furtado de Mendonça and continued to the Molukken.
Significance
Hans Huybrecht Tonneman is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the principal Dutch naval commander of the Zeeland mission of August 1601 and the principal Dutch figure of the diplomatic rapprochement that the Houtman ambush of 1599 and the Van Caerden affair of 1600-1601 had foreclosed. The mission’s success — the lodge “Zeelant”, the release of Houtman, the Atjeh embassy of 1601 — was the principal Dutch diplomatic achievement of the pre-VOC period and the framework within which the founding of the VOC in March 1602 would consolidate the Dutch position at Atjeh. The capture of the Portuguese galleon off St. Helena on the return voyage was the principal naval prize of the mission and the proximate cause of the rising prestige of the Zeeland interest in the United Provinces.
See Also
- Zeeland Company’s Atjeh mission (1601)
- Middelburgsche Compagnie
- Gerard le Roy
- Laurens Bicker
- Frederik de Houtman
- Frederik de Houtman’s Atjeh captivity (1599-1601)
- Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits (1601)
- Sultan of Atjeh (1589-1604)
- Prince Maurits
- André Furtado de Mendoza
- St Helena
- Acheh
- 1601
- 1602
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. 115-117)
Hans Huybrecht Tonneman was a Dutch admiraal in the service of the Middelburgsche Compagnie who, as captain of the Middelburg and admiraal of the fleet of “twee groote en twee kleine schepen” that left Zeeland on 28 January 1601 and arrived off Atjeh on 23 August 1601, conducted the Zeeland mission of August 1601 that produced the first Dutch factory on Achehnese soil, the unconditional release of Frederik de Houtman and his surviving companions, and the first Achehnese embassy to the Netherlands. Tonneman is the principal Dutch naval commander of the Zeeland mission of 1601.
The 1601 fleet to Atjeh
Tonneman’s fleet of “twee groote en twee kleine schepen” left Zeeland on 28 January 1601 and reached Sumatra on 23 August 1601 after a prosperous voyage via Andschuan (one of the Comoro Islands) and Ceylon. At Andschuan the local ruler gave them a letter of recommendation to the sultan of Atjeh; at Ceylon they took on refreshment. The fleet arrived off Atjeh bearing a letter from Prince Maurits and gifts in money and merchandise. Frederik de Houtman, still in captivity at Atjeh, heard the salute guns fire and “ondervond alras dat de houding van den vorst te zijnen gunste veranderde” when the sultan ignored Portuguese advice to send the Dutchmen into the mountains for safety.
The reception and the lodge “Zeelant”
The Zeelanders were received solemnly by the sultan, who ordered Houtman’s chains struck off — “die hij acht maanden lang had gedragen” — and released him and his companions without ransom. The merchants Gerard le Roy and Laurens Bicker conducted the commercial negotiations, persuaded the sultan that Paulus van Caerden’s seizure of pepper from Arab junks in January 1601 had exceeded his commission, and undertook to compensate the Arab claimants. The Zeelanders obtained leave to settle two commiezen and three assistants on shore at a lodge that they named “Zeelant” — the first Dutch factory on Achehnese soil. The sultan dispatched his own embassy to Prince Maurits — the Atjeh embassy of 1601.
The return voyage
On 29 November 29 November 1601 the two loaded ships sailed for the Netherlands with the Achehnese embassy aboard; off St. Helena they were saluted by cannon-fire from a richly laden Portuguese galleon, which they captured after a two-day fight and brought home to the United Provinces. The two other ships of the Zeeland fleet sailed the same day for Bantam by way of the west coast of Sumatra, where they evaded a Portuguese fleet sent against them by André Furtado de Mendonça and continued to the Molukken.
Significance
Hans Huybrecht Tonneman is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the principal Dutch naval commander of the Zeeland mission of August 1601 and the principal Dutch figure of the diplomatic rapprochement that the Houtman ambush of 1599 and the Van Caerden affair of 1600-1601 had foreclosed. The mission’s success — the lodge “Zeelant”, the release of Houtman, the Atjeh embassy of 1601 — was the principal Dutch diplomatic achievement of the pre-VOC period and the framework within which the founding of the VOC in March 1602 would consolidate the Dutch position at Atjeh. The capture of the Portuguese galleon off St. Helena on the return voyage was the principal naval prize of the mission and the proximate cause of the rising prestige of the Zeeland interest in the United Provinces.
See Also
- Zeeland Company’s Atjeh mission (1601)
- Middelburgsche Compagnie
- Gerard le Roy
- Laurens Bicker
- Frederik de Houtman
- Frederik de Houtman’s Atjeh captivity (1599-1601)
- Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits (1601)
- Sultan of Atjeh (1589-1604)
- Prince Maurits
- André Furtado de Mendoza
- St Helena
- Acheh
- 1601
- 1602
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. 115-117).