Jacob Jorisse Pits was the Compagnie’s opperhoofd der Westkust (chief of the Westkust trade) at Padang from c. 1666 to 1677, the long-serving commandeur who received the cession of Salido and Poeloe Tjingkoek in his own person in 1666, extended the Painansch Contract to Baros in 1668 and to Singkel in 1672, and was promoted governor of Malakka in 1677. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland he is the central Dutch figure of the consolidation phase of the Westkust system.
The 1666 cession of Salido and Poeloe Tjingkoek
Shortly after the Versprect expedition’s destruction of Paoeh in August 1666, the rulers of Bajang, Indrapoera and Taroesan “transferred to the Compagnie in ownership the place Salido with the gold-rich surroundings, from the kali-Loemoepo to Painan, as well as Poeloe Tjingkoek, in the person of Jacob Jorisse Pits, the Compagnie’s head of the Westkust at Padang” (Kort na Verspreet’s terugkeer naar Batavia droegen de vorsten van Bajang, Indrapoera en Taroesan de plaats Salido met de goudrijke ommelanden, van de kali-Loemoepo tot aan Painan, benevens Poeloe Tjingkoek, in eigendom over aan de Compagnie, in den persoon van Jacob Jorisse Pits, ‘s Compagnies opperhoofd der Westkust te Padang).
The transfer was made in Pits’s own person — i.e., the Compagnie is identified with its local representative. On the island of Tjingkoek a fort was now built — the first permanent Dutch fortification on the Westkust.
The stadtholder-ship of the king of Menangkabau
A second major authority was now conferred on Pits. “One of the most influential princes of the Padangsche Bovenlanden, usually indicated as the king of Menangkabau, had appointed Pits as his stadtholder over the coastal lands” (Een der invloedrijkste vorsten der Padangsche Bovenlanden, gewoonlijk aangeduid als de koning van Menangkabau, had Pits benoemd tot zijn stadhouder over de kustlanden). This appointment — which the Compagnie would have received as diplomatic validation of its Westkust authority — gave Pits a constitutional title that derived from the Menangkabau sovereign, not from Atjeh.
The 1668 extension to Baros
“From this position Pits made use, on 29 April 1668, to have the Painansch contract also signed by the chiefs of Baros” (Van deze positie maakte Pits gebruik, om 29 April 1668 het Painansch contract ook te doen teekenen door de hoofden van Baros). The extension of the Painansch Contract to Baros was a major northward extension of the Compagnie’s Westkust system, and it was made in Pits’s capacity as the Menangkabau king’s stadtholder.
In the same year the chiefs of Korintji “promised that they would sell the gold from their land only to the Compagnie, and that at Majutta” (beloofden de hoofden van Korintji, dat zij het goud uit hun land slechts aan de Compagnie zouden verkoopen, en wel te Majutta-Mendjocto).
The 1670-1672 consolidation
The years 1670–1672 were the peak of Pits’s Westkust authority. On 6 June 1670 a squadron of six ships under schipper-commander Pieter Coopman was dispatched from Batavia to suppress the Kotta Tengah revolt and to restore Compagnie authority. The campaign “took and destroyed the fortifications at Kotta-tengah and Paoeh, and drove the rebels apart” (Hij nam en vernietigde de versterkingen te Kotta-tengah en Paoeh, en sloeg de opstandelingen uiteen). On 1 October 1670 Baros swore the old contracts anew. On 11 December 1670 Pits renewed the contracts with Priaman, which had again fallen under Atjehsche influence.
In 1671 the panglima-radja and regents of Padang “declared ‘from their own motion and particular inclination’ to transfer to the Compagnie the tolls and import and export rights, which there trading Chinese, Javanese and Malays had formerly had to pay to Atjeh” (verklaarden ‘uyt eygen beweging ende besondere inclinatie’ aan de Compagnie over te dragen de tollen en in- en uitvoerrechten, welke daar handelende Chineezen, Javanen en Maleiers vroeger aan Atjeh hadden moeten betalen). The substitution of the Compagnie for Atjeh as the recipient of the Westkust tolls is the practical end of Atjeh’s commercial sovereignty on the Westkust.
On 19 March 1672 Singkel acceded to the Painansch Contract, “acknowledging the king of Menangkabau as their sovereign and the Compagnie as protectress” (erkennende den koning van Menangkabau als haaren souvereinen koning ende hooft, ende d’Ed. Compagnie als haare beschermers ende gebieders). With Singkel’s accession, “all places of importance on the West Coast were now united in it” (waren nu alle plaatsen van beteekenis op de Westkust daarin vereenigd).
The 1673-1676 troubles and the end of Pits’s Westkust command
The mid-1670s saw renewed Atjehsche activity. “Not long did the now obtained peace last; on 3 April 1670 [actually 1670 reference] one received at Batavia the news that those of Kotta-tengah and Paoeh had risen” (Lang duurde de nu verkregen rust niet; 3 April 1670 ontving men te Batavia bericht, dat die van Kotta-tengah en Paoeh … in verzet waren gekomen). In 1675 “the Atjehers began to play an active role on various places” (de Atjehers begonnen op verschillende plaatsen weer een actieve rol te spelen), and in 1676 Batavia had to send soldiers twice to the Westkust.
In 1677 Pits “after 11 difficult years had held the chiefship of the Westkust, and in 1677 was promoted to governor of Malakka, transferred the government to Melchior Hurdt, tasted the pleasure that the rebellious elements of Kotta-tengah and Paoeh sent their envoys to Padang, and on 30 August of that year by contract offered their submission anew” (Pits, die gedurende 11 moeilijke jaren het opperhoofdschap van de Westkust had bekleed, en in 1677 werd bevorderd tot gouverneur van Malakka, het bestuur had overgedragen aan Melchior Hurdt, smaakte hij het genoegen, dat de oproerige elementen van Kotta-tengah en Paoeh hun gezanten naar Padang zonden, en 30 Augustus van dat jaar bij contract opnieuw hun onderwerping aanboden).
Significance
Pits’s eleven-year command (c. 1666–1677) is the consolidation phase of the Painansch Contract system. He received the cession of Salido and Poeloe Tjingkoek, was appointed stadtholder of the Menangkabau king, extended the Painansch Contract to Baros and Singkel, and presided over the substitution of the Compagnie for Atjeh as the recipient of the Westkust tolls. By the time he left for Malakka in 1677 the Westkust was, in operational terms, a Dutch dependency under the nominal suzerainty of the king of Menangkabau.
His promotion to the governorship of Malakka is also significant: it placed the man who had built the Westkust system in charge of the Compagnie’s other great Malay-Peninsular station, and it suggests that Batavia regarded Pits’s Westkust work as a model to be applied elsewhere.
See Also
- Abraham Versprect
- Jacob Cau
- Pieter Coopman
- Melchior Hurdt
- Painansch Contract
- Salido
- Poeloe Tjingkoek
- Baros
- Singkel
- Priaman
- Padang
- Indrapoera
- Taroesan
- Bajang
- Korintji
- Mendjocto
- Kotta Tengah
- Paoeh
- Menangkabau
- Malakka
- Westkust van Sumatra
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 29 April
- 6 June
- 1 October
- 11 December
- 19 March
- 30 August
- 1668
- 1670
- 1671
- 1672
- 1677
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 17–19 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684).