Pang Nanggroë — known to the Dutch troops after 1907 as “de Watergeus” — was a panglima of the resistance in Keureutoe and the surrounding lands from September 1905 to his death in 1910. He came from Matang Teungoh and had been only toeha peuë (member of the kampong bestuur) — not of high birth, short and thick-set, no figure like the late T. Tjhi Toenong; yet he was the man who precisely fitted Tjoet Meuthia, because he had shown himself a brave and energetic fighter in the days of the war, with a heartfelt hatred of the kaphé. He was the third husband of Tjoet Meuthia.
Sworn to Tjoet Meuthia at Tjhi Toenong’s death
In the days before the execution of Tjhi Toenong on 5 March 1905, Tjoet Meuthia, then pregnant, was sworn by her husband to bring up their son in hatred of the kaphé and, after the execution, to marry Pang Nanggroë. This she swore, and she kept her oath. After the forty-four days of Atjehsche purification, Pang Nanggroë and Pang Lateh appeared with a strong bende in the kampong where Tjoet Meuthia and her son waited; she was placed in a tandoe, the eagle’s child entrusted to the care of some ten kawans. They withdrew to the upper course of the Djambo Ale, a wild but free land with countless hiding-places for men familiar with the forest.
Earlier action under Tjhi Toenong
Pang Nanggroë’s name is already attached to the famous klewangaanval of 22 August 1902 at Simpang Olim — though at that time he acted under T. Tjhi Toenong — when an Atjehsche bende fell upon a Dutch transport in the high alang-alang near Meunasah Djeuro and butchered it. He attempted also a prauw attack on Idi. These actions gave him his place in the line of great enemy commanders of the time.
Activity September 1905 onwards
From September 1905 he developed a tremendous activity. His first success of significance was the overval of a bivak of coolies working on the tram on 6 May 1907, in which his twenty men inflicted 2 dead and 4 wounded on the guard detachment and made ten Dutch rifles and 750 cartridges booty, besides a hunting gun and a Winchester carbine. He gave his men a kandoerie (slametan) that rang like a bell. On 15 June 1907 he overvalled the marschbivak at Keudé Bawang (Idi) with the same twenty men: again a Dutch defeat, the loss of a rifle, and only some old iron left on the field. After these exploits his name was established beyond his own region; he could now cooperate with the great oelama’s of the resistance, among them Seupot Mata and Mata Ië, and Tengkoe di Barat.
In 1907 he earned his nickname de Watergeus among the Dutch troops by a bold water-borne stroke. The colonne matjan and the sharpened military action of Van Daalen did him some harm — chiefly by reducing the stream of volunteers and of ewang sabil contributions — but they did not bring him to his knees.
The end, 26 September 1910
He was now constantly pursued; the times in which he could stay long in one schuilplaats were over. Usually Tjoet Meuthia was with him. On 26 September 1910 Van Slooten’s brigade, on the trail of the bende, came to a place where Pang Nanggroë with two women was staying. When Van Slooten arrived the hunted ones had disappeared in the direction of Boekit Hagoe; but although it was night and raining hard, Van Slooten pressed on. The next morning, on the spoor, the spits came under fire from a group of enemies it had flushed. After a difficult pursuit through the Paja Tjitcem moeras — the men almost unable to advance in the densely grown swamp — at a distance of about two hundred metres Pang Nanggroë received his bullet and fell. After some searching the brigade found him dead, and the guide said: “Pang Nanggroë.” Because of the great importance of the death of the Watergeus, his body was carried along so that the bevolking could identify it. Of Tjoet Meuthia and the boy no trace.
Significance
His grave, with that of Pang Lateh — his energetic fellow-fighter killed on another occasion — lies near the keudé in a kandang. With his death the Keureutoe resistance lost its most capable leader; but the adelaarsjong T. Radja Sabi still lived, and was carried on through the forests by a succession of self-sacrificing protectors until 1919.
Marriage and the Keureutòë band
Tjoet Meutia was delivered shortly after the execution of her husband T. Tjhi’ Toenòng; the child died, and after forty-four days — the auspicious number — she married Pang Nanggròë, it was said at T. Tjhi’ Toenòng’s own wish. Pang Nanggròë formed a band around her and around the surviving child T. Radja Sabi.
On the upper course of the Djambo Ajé he set the whole of Keureutòë in motion and worked together with the best-known resistance leaders: Tgk. Sjeh di Paja Bakong, who fell in 1910; Tgk. di Mata Ië, “the Lord of the Springs,” who fell in 1917; and Tgk. di Barat, “the Lord of the West,” who fell in 1912.
When in November 1907 the half-brother of T. Tjhi’ Toenòng was restored to his function as oelèëbalang, Pang Nanggròë for his part proclaimed T. Radja Sabi, then six years old, oelèëbalang of Keureutòë. That drew new members to the band and raised his influence among the population.
Stratagems
Pang Nanggròë repeatedly set the brigade commanders new tricks. One was the preparation of old marching bivouacs, in which brigades occasionally camped, by cutting through the trunks of the trees to within a centimetre, filling the cuts with leaves and the like, and holding the severed trunks upright with rotans as guy-ropes — counting on the fact that the marechaussée, when making a bivouac, always cleared the surroundings and would therefore cut through those rotans and be crushed with their bivouac under the falling trees.
Another, attempted south of Matang Raja, was to saw through in the same way all the beams and joists of a large uninhabited house, to have sleeping mats laid and cosy little lamps hung and an Acehnese feast set out, then to send word that a chandoeri of resistance men would be held in that house that evening, lure the troops there, stage a flight on their arrival, count on their not leaving the feast untouched, and then cut the rotans so that the house came down on the revellers, accompanied by a brisk klewang attack.
This “huis-nummer” (“house trick”) went “volgens plan” (“according to plan”) — but Pang Nanggròë happened to meet two old and experienced brigade commanders who “ruiken” (“smell”) danger. It all looked very fine and genuine, but at the warning cry from the house one of the sergeants had heard too little noise in the bushes: that was no real flight. So they remained watchful: one and a half brigades stood to arms with front outward around the house and only half a brigade went inside. When the Acehnese cut the rotans and the house came down, the klewang attack ran bloodily aground on those one and a half watchful brigades, and the Kompeuni (“the Company (the Dutch power)”) came off with some bruises and broken ribs. Pang Nanggròë left a few dead behind.
He also struck real blows; and neither the Atjehtram nor the telephone line was safe from him for a single day.
Pursuit and death
Eventually the vigorous action of the Kompeuni brought him into ever greater difficulty. He had constantly to change hiding-places, could no longer be sure they were not betrayed, and found foraging steadily harder. In June 1909 he barely escaped a surprise attack that cost him three followers. In March 1910 he was driven out of the safe paja (marsh) of the Djambo Ajé; on 30 July he was surprised again and escaped again. In February 1910 his two principal subordinate leaders had submitted and handed in two repeating rifles — repeating rifles had become rare and precious.
On 24 September 1910 sergeant Slooten received orders to look for him in the Paja Tjitjém, the Bird Marsh. As related by H. C. Zentgraaff and quoted by du Croo, “de baas” marched that same day with his brigade through Peutèë and heard from an Acehnese woman that three of Pang Nanggròë’s men were under the meunasah of gampong Aloeë with two women. When Slooten arrived they had gone in the direction of Boekèt Hagoe; although it was night and pouring with rain, Slooten pressed on into the forest to gampong Aloeë Awé, where the people had also left after eating.
The brigade was dead tired and Slooten gave it a few hours’ rest only; it was still dark when he resumed the hunt on the morning of 25 September. On the way he learned that those sought had left gampong Poetèh an hour before. The brigade gained on them and held the tracks fast. These led into the marsh, and there they were followed, very cautiously, on 26 September. The bekas (traces) were very fresh; the men waded through the marsh, sometimes up to the arms in mud and water, working through the foul and tough vegetation and the rampant roots with as little noise as possible.
Exactly at midday voices were heard from a few huts on a dry patch a couple of hundred metres further. With supreme effort they worked another fifty metres through the forest marsh and then halted to make the final dispositions, further noiseless stalking being impossible. Slooten sent half his brigade to the right while with the other half he tried to turn the left flank of the hiding-place; the order was to attack the moment they were discovered. As they struggled on, a marechaussée fell in the tangle of roots and branches; the loud splash alarmed everything. They rushed forward at once and saw the band fleeing before them, now and then sending a few bullets at the brigade, each of which was taken under fire. A fugitive who had already reached a distance of two hundred metres was hit and fell. After some searching the brigade found him dead, and the guide said: Pang Nanggròë.
Because of the great significance of his death the body was carried away to be recognised by the population. It was identified in the gampong and buried behind the keudé of Lho’ Soekon, within a covered wooden enclosure, a kandang, where it still lay when du Croo wrote. Beside it, in another such kandang, rested the body of Pang Latèh, Pang Nanggròë’s energetic fellow fighter, killed on another occasion: “So in death they are together again, as on many an old campaign.”
Of Tjoet Meutia and the boy there was no trace; it emerged years later that T. Radja Sabi had hidden in a tree during the attack.
Significance (du Croo, 1943)
Pang Nanggròë’s death on 26 September 1910, with that of Tgk. Sjeh di Paja Bakong and Tjoet Meutia a month later, marked the collapse of organised resistance in Keureutòë. The year 1910 brought the end for many band-leaders of the district: seventy-one resistance men were killed, fifty-one taken prisoner and eighty submitted.
See Also
- Tjoet Meuthia
- T. Radja Sabi
- T. Tjhi Toenong
- Pang Lateh
- Simpang Olim klewangaanval (1902)
- Tengkoe Sjech di Paja Bakong
- Tengkoe di Paja Bakong
- Tengkoe di Barat
- Colonne Matjan
- Van Slooten
- Keureutoe
- Simpang Olim
- Idi
- Sjahid
- Prang sabil
- 1902
- 1905
- 1907
- 1910
- Aceh War
- Tjoet Meutia
- Tgk. Sjeh di Paja Bakong
- Tgk. di Barat
- Tgk. di Mata Ië
- Slooten
- Paja Tjitjém
- Lho’ Soekon
Source
Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia. OCR-filename: 20260709_002148_DLP-81-Atjeh_OCR.txt.
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter X, pp. 96–98; Chapter XI, pp. 103–104.