Melchior Hurdt

Properties2
tagsperson, official, military, dutch, colonial, voc
aliasesM. Hurdt, Hurdt, Melchior Hurd

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Melchior Hurdt was the Compagnie’s commandeur who succeeded Jacob Jorisse Pits as opperhoofd der Westkust (chief of the Westkust trade) at Padang in 1677 and held the post through the difficult years 1677–1681, when Atjehsche intrigue, internal Westkust dissension, and the Paoeh rebellion combined to threaten the Painansch Contract system. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland he is the commandeur whose suspension and removal by commissioner Laurens Pit de Jonge in 1680 forms a side-current of the Padang Conference.

Accession and the 1677-1678 troubles

Hurdt inherited a Westkust in renewed crisis. The Atjehers had begun to “play an active role on various places” again in 1675, and the loyal allies of the Compagnie had been carrying on a heavy struggle against the rebels of Paoeh. “Already the following year, 1678, he had to write to Batavia that the majority of the regents of Priaman had again joined the Atjehsche party, and that at the same time a mutual struggle had broken out between the chiefs of Bajang and of Salido” (Reeds het volgende jaar, 1678, moest hij naar Batavia schrijven, dat de meerderheid der regenten van Priaman zich weer bij de Atjehsche partij had aangesloten, en dat tegelijkertijd een onderlinge strijd was uitgebroken tusschen de hoofden van Bajang en van Salido).

The Compagnie, occupied by troubles on Java, could send no help. “Although one could send no help from Batavia, by the troubles on Java, Hurdt managed to bring about that in Priaman the Holland-friendly party triumphed and the strongly Atjehsch-gezinde governor Poety was driven out” (Hoewel men van Batavia, door de moeilijkheden op Java, geen hulp kon zenden, wist Hurdt te bewerken, dat in Priaman de Hollandsche partij zegevierde en de sterk Atjehsch-gezinde gouverneur Poety verdreven werd). On 22 September 1678 Priaman signed a new treaty with the Compagnie.

The Bajang-Salido gold-mine dispute

The dispute between Bajang and Salido arose from the discovery of a new gold mine at Soengei-Capayan. According to Bajang the mine lay outside the territory of Salido that had been ceded to the Compagnie. “Here the Holland-friendly [Salido] party triumphed, and on 18 April 1679 those of Bajang humbled themselves before the Compagnie, acknowledging it as stadtholder of the West Coast” (Hier zegevierde de Hollandsch-Salidosche partij, en 18 April 1679 verdeemoedigden die van Bajang zich voor de Compagnie, deze erkennende als stadhouder van de Westkust). The chiefs of Loempo had to accept the contract as well.

The pseudo-panglima-radja of Baros

“In this same year 1679 a pseudo panglima-radja, who had acquired many adherents at Baros, and had already been taken prisoner at the end of 1678, was, with his principal followers, banished to the Cape of Good Hope” (Nog werd in ditzelfde jaar 1679 een pseudo panglima-radja, die zich te Baros veel aanhangers verworven had, en reeds eind 1678 was gevangen genomen, met zijn voornaamste volgelingen naar de Kaap de Goede Hoop verbannen). The use of the Cape as a destination for political prisoners is a small but vivid detail of the Compagnie’s imperial reach.

After full restoration of peace the regents of Baros on 20 November 1679 “swore the old treaties anew, acknowledging the Governor-General as stadtholder of the king of Menangkabau” (bezwoeren de regenten van Baros 20 November 1679 de vroegere verdragen opnieuw, erkennende den Gouverneur-Generaal als stadhouder des konings van Menangkabau).

The 1680 new emperor

The year 1680 opened with a change at the top of Menangkabau. On 24 February 1680 Hurdt at Padang received an embassy from the uplands, announcing “that a new ‘keijser’ in the Menangkabau realm had succeeded; that he had the old contracts, ‘concluded with his predecessor’ confirmed, and at the same time given order ‘to confirm commander Hurdt in the honour-title of imperial stadtholder’” (dat een nieuwe ‘keijser’ in het Menangkabausche rijk was opgevolgd; dat hij de oude contracten, ‘met sijn voorsaat aangegaan’ liet bevestigen, en tevens opdracht gegeven had, ‘den commandeur Hurt in de eertitul van keyserlycke stadthouder te confirmeeren’).

The new Menangkabau emperor’s confirmation of Hurdt as his stadtholder was the constitutional high-water mark of the Westkust system. But the faithful allies had been fighting the Paoeh rebels, and when Hurdt’s own attempt to break them failed, Batavia decided to send a commissioner.

The 1680 Pit de Jonge commission and Hurdt’s suspension

Laurens Pit de Jonge departed on 28 May 1680 with two ships, fitted out above the ordinary equipment with 170 soldiers. Pit’s commission was both political and economic. Economically he was to investigate “the causes of the poor results of the gold exploitation at Salido, and at the same time the commercial bookkeeping of Hurdt” (de oorzaken van de povere resultaten van de goudexploitatie te Salido, en tevens naar de commercieele boekhouding van Hurdt).

The outcome was Hurdt’s removal. “Hurdt was suspended by Pit and sent to Batavia” (Hurdt werd door Pit geschorst en naar Batavia opgezonden). The reason is not given in Stapel’s text but is implied by the economic investigation: Hurdt was suspected of mismanagement of the Salido gold exploitation and of irregular bookkeeping.

Significance

Hurdt’s command of 1677–1680 is the difficult middle phase of the Painansch Contract system. He held the Westkust together through the 1675–1679 Atjehsche revival, secured the Bajang–Salido gold-mine dispute in favour of the Compagnie, banished the pseudo-panglima-radja of Baros to the Cape, and received the confirmation of the new Menangkabau emperor as imperial stadtholder. But the persistent Paoeh rebellion and the Salido gold-exploitation problems produced his downfall, and his suspension by Pit de Jonge is the price of the Padang Conference’s success.

The Padang Conference was possible only because Hurdt had been removed: the Westkust chiefs would not have accepted a man under investigation as the president of a general assembly. Hurdt’s suspension is therefore the political precondition of the high-water mark of the Painansch system.

See Also

Source

De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 19–21 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684).

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