Laurens Pit de Jonge was the Compagnie’s commissioner dispatched from Batavia on 28 May 1680 to the West Coast of Sumatra with two ships and 170 soldiers, whose mission produced the Padang Conference of 29 August 1680 — the high-water mark of the Painansch Contract system — and the suspension of the commandeur Melchior Hurdt. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland he is the commissioner who presided over the most solemn collective act of Westkust submission to the Compagnie.
The 1680 commission
The Compagnie’s decision to send Pit de Jonge was driven by two converging concerns. The political concern was the failure of commandeur Hurdt to break the Paoeh rebellion. The economic concern was the poor performance of the Salido gold exploitation. “Pit’s mission was not only of a political, but also of an economic nature; he had namely to investigate the causes of the poor results of the gold exploitation at Salido, and at the same time the commercial bookkeeping of Hurdt” (Pit’s zending was niet alleen van politieken, maar ook van economischen aard; hij moest namelijk een onderzoek instellen naar de oorzaken van de povere resultaten van de goudexploitatie te Salido, en tevens naar de commercieele boekhouding van Hurdt).
The economic investigation produced Hurdt’s removal. “Hurdt was suspended by Pit and sent to Batavia” (Hurdt werd door Pit geschorst en naar Batavia opgezonden).
The military preliminaries
The military preliminaries made the conference possible. On arrival at Padang and landing of the troops, Pit’s force, “reinforced with 5000 Padangers, made such an impression that the principal rebels of Paoeh and their adherents of Kotta-tengah at once came to beg pardon” (versterkt met 5000 Padangers, zoo’n indruk, dat al dadelijk de voornaamste rebellen van Paoeh en hun aanhangers van Kotta-tengah vergiffenis kwamen verzoeken). On the Koran they swore on 24 July 1680 a solemn oath of loyalty and obedience. On 5 August they renewed their submission. On 13 August envoys came from “evil-willing mountain peoples” who had previously burned the Compagnie’s lodge at Priaman, and were likewise admitted, “saving however ‘a pecuniary fine of 1000 rijksdaalders’” (behoudens ‘een pecuniek amende van 1000 rijexdaalders’).
The Padang Conference: 29 August 1680
The general assembly followed. “Finally on 29 August 1680 a meeting took place at Padang with the principal regents of the West Coast, at which a new general bond was founded and sworn” (Ten slotte had 29 Augustus 1680 te Padang een bijeenkomst plaats met de hoofdregenten van de Westkust, waarbij een nieuw algemeen verbond werd opgericht en bezworen). All bound themselves “holily and faithfully for ever and eternally, yes firmly and unchangeably, to be and to remain Compagnie’s friends and true allies” (‘heylighlyck ende getrouwelyck voor altoos ende eeuwighlyck, ja vast ende onveranderlyck, verbinden te sullen zijn ende te blyven Compagnie’s vrunden ende waere bondtgenoten’).
The bond also contained a constitutional clause: “On the death of one of the princes or regents no successor may be chosen, ‘otherwise than with foreknowledge and consent of the Compagnie’” (Bij overlijden van een der vorsten of regenten zal geen opvolger mogen worden gekozen, ‘anders als met een voorweeten en toestemmingh van de Compagnie’). The signatories were the “keijser” of Indrapoera, the panglima-radja at Padang, the governors of Salido and Kotta Tengah.
The sequel and Pit’s death
Pit did not live to see the full ratification of his work. “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).
The phrase wegens ziekte — “on account of illness” — is Stapel’s only characterisation of Pit’s condition. The transport to Poeloe Tjingkoek suggests the illness was serious enough to require removal from Padang to the more salubrious island station.
Significance
Pit de Jonge’s commission is the high-water mark of the Painansch Contract system. The Padang Conference of 29 August 1680 is the moment at which the Westkust passed, in form, from an Acehnese suzerainty shared with the Compagnie to a Dutch protectorate exercised in the name of a Menangkabau sovereign who had explicitly authorised the Dutch commandeur to act as his imperial stadtholder.
Pit’s dual commission — political and economic — is also characteristic of the Compagnie’s Westkust government. The Westkust was not a colony in the nineteenth-century sense; it was a commercial enterprise in which political authority was exercised in support of trade, and in which the bookkeeping of a Salido gold-mine was a matter for the same commissioner who presided over the ratification of a general peace. The combination of the two in a single mission is the institutional fingerprint of the VOC.
See Also
- Melchior Hurdt
- Jan van Leene
- Jacob Jorisse Pits
- Painansch Contract
- Padang Conference (29 August 1680)
- Padang
- Salido
- Poeloe Tjingkoek
- Paoeh
- Kotta Tengah
- Indrapoera
- Priaman
- Bajang
- Menangkabau
- Westkust van Sumatra
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 24 February
- 28 May
- 24 July
- 5 August
- 13 August
- 29 August
- 1680
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 20–22 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684).