Jan van Leene was the Compagnie’s commandeur who succeeded the suspended Melchior Hurdt as commandeur of the Westkust in 1680 and held the post through the 1681–1682 consolidation of the Painansch Contract system in its final form. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland he is the commander whose expedition of 1682 brought the final military submission of Priaman and the Agam country to the Compagnie, and who thereby closed the long cycle of Westkust wars opened by the sultane’s accession in 1641.
Accession and the Bajang disturbance
Van Leene inherited the Westkust from the suspended Hurdt and the ailing commissioner Pit de Jonge. “After Laurens Pit, on account of illness, had been transported from Padang to Poeloe Tjingkoek, to return from there to Batavia, the new commander Jan van Leene had received the news that at Bajang again disturbances had broken out” (Nadat Laurens Pit wegens ziekte van Padang naar Poeloe Tjingkock getransporteerd was, om van daar naar Batavia terug te keeren, had de nieuwe commandeur, Jan van Leene, bericht gekregen, dat te Bajang weer onlusten waren uitgebroken).
Van Leene marched on Bajang with some allied forces, but “when it came to fighting the auxiliary troops took to their heels, and without them Van Leene could not master the numerous and well-armed rebels” (toen het op vechten aan kwam kozen de hulptroepen het hazenpad, en zonder hen kon Van Leene de talrijke en goed gewapende opstandelingen niet de baas). The lesson — that Compagnie auxiliaries on the Westkust were unreliable in combat — would be reinforced in subsequent campaigns.
The rising also spread. “Also on Baros, Priaman and Kotta-tengah it became consequently restless again” (Ook op Baros, Priaman en Kotta-tengah werd het dientengevolge weer roerig).
The 1682 expedition
The Hooge Regeering at Batavia responded with a substantial force. “Therefore one fitted out at Batavia a powerful expedition of more than 600 militaries, in which also the Ternataansche prince Rotterdam joined” (Daarom rustte men te Batavia nu een krachtige expeditie uit van ruim 600 militairen, waarbij zich ook de Ternataansche prins Rotterdam aansloot). The use of Ternataan auxiliaries — and the presence of the heir to the Ternataan throne — is one of the few references in the Westkust narrative to the Compagnie’s eastern Indonesian military resources.
“With this force the Bajangers were now defeated and their land taken” (Met deze macht werden nu de Bajangers verslagen en hun land ingenomen). Returned to Padang, Van Leene received a deputation of the regents of Priaman, who “on 17 March 1682 swore anew their ‘renewed obedience’” (die 17 Maart 1682 opnieuw hun ‘renewweringe van gehoorsaemheyt’ bezwoeren).
The Agam submission
The submission of Priaman was followed by that of Agam — the country around present-day Fort de Kock (Bukittinggi). “Those of Agam, the land-strip around the present Fort de Kock, which had undertaken an incursion into the Priamansche, were defeated, and likewise concluded a bond with the Compagnie” (Die van Agam, de landstreek om het tegenwoordige Fort de Kock, welke een inval in het Priamansche hadden ondernomen, werden verslagen, en sloten eveneens een verbond met de Compagnie). The Agam submission is the first formal Compagnie treaty with the future heartland of the Padangsche Bovenlanden.
The Kotta Tengah submission
“Subsequently also the regents of Kotta-tengah came on 5 July d.a.v. to humble themselves” (Vervolgens kwamen ook de regenten van Kotta-tengah zich 5 Julij d.a.v. verootmoedigen). They “requested and obtained pardon of the Compagnie, promising ‘to obey all commands and ordinances’” (Zij verzochten en verkregen pardon van de Compagnie, belovende ‘dereller bevelen en ordonnantien te gehoorzamen’). “Also in Baros now peace returned” (Ook in Baros keerde nu de rust terug).
Significance
Van Leene’s command of 1680–1682 is the closing phase of the Painansch Contract consolidation. His 1682 expedition — with more than 600 militaries and a Ternataan prince — brought the final military submission of Bajang, Priaman, Agam and Kotta Tengah, and opened the period of relative Westkust calm that would last until the Tikoe rising of 1683.
The Agam submission is, in retrospect, the most consequential of Van Leene’s achievements. The country around present-day Bukittinggi would become the political and military heart of the Padangsche Bovenlanden in the nineteenth century, and the 1682 treaty is its first formal contact with the Compagnie. Van Leene’s name is therefore attached, however obscurely, to the founding document of Dutch authority in the interior of west Sumatra.
See Also
- Melchior Hurdt
- Laurens Pit de Jonge
- Painansch Contract
- Padang Conference (29 August 1680)
- Bajang
- Priaman
- Agam
- Kotta Tengah
- Baros
- Fort de Kock
- Prins Rotterdam
- Westkust van Sumatra
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 17 March
- 5 July
- 1680
- 1681
- 1682
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 22 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684).