Paulus van Caerden

Paulus van Caerden was a Dutch vice-admiraal in the service of the Nieuwe Brabantsche Compagnie — and after 1602 of the VOC — who commanded the second Dutch commercial visit to Atjeh in 1600–1601, conducted a punitive campaign against the Spanish in the Moluccas in 1606–1608 in which he was captured and held prisoner, and was the elder kinsman (probably uncle) of the better-known Cornelis van Caerden also in VOC service. He is, after the Houtman brothers, the principal Dutch commander at Atjeh in the pre-VOC period. In Godee Molsbergen’s account his Atjeh visit is the source of the pigskin parchment letter incident — a diplomatic fiasco in which a Portuguese monk pointed out to the Sultan that Prince Maurits’s letter was written on parchment made from the skin of the unclean pig.

The 1600 voyage to Atjeh

Stapel records that “in 1600 Paulus van Caerden (sent out in ‘99 by the ‘Nieuwe Brabantsche Compagnie,’ founded by Isaac Le Maire and others, with 4 ships under the supreme command of Pieter Both) arrived at Atjeh” (In 1600 kwam Paulus van Caerden (in ‘99 door de ‘Nicuwe Brabantsche Compagnie,’ opgericht door Isaac Le Maire e.a., uitgezonden met 4 schepen onder opperbevel van Pieter Both) op Atjeh aan). The fleet of four ships was substantial, and the choice of Pieter Both as supreme commander — the future first Governor-General — signals the importance the new company attached to the venture.

At the end of 1599 two Amsterdam fleets had sailed out, independently of each other: one under Pieter Both with Van Caerden as Vice-Admiral, the other under Jacob Wilkens with Cornelis van Heemskerck as his second. Both founded a factory at Bantam. Van Caerden then visited Sumatra’s Westkust (West Coast) — Priaman, Tikoe and Pasaman — without result, and, at the end of 1600, Atjeh. He arrived off Atjeh on 21 September 1600.

The Houtman episode

The arrival at Atjeh produced an immediate attempt by Frederik de Houtman — held in Acehnese captivity since the 1599 attack that killed his brother Cornelis — to secure his own release and that of his fellow-prisoners, and to obtain cargo for Van Caerden. Stapel records that “Frederik de H[outman], hoping to procure not only his own but also his fellow-prisoners’ release, and to obtain cargo from Van Caerden, did indeed go aboard, but received from the prince no permission to repatriate; their imprisonment, however, was bearable” (Frederik de H., verhoopende niet alleen syne, maar ook zijner medegevangenen verlossing te procureeren [en] van Caerden lading te besorgen, ging wel aan boord, maar kreeg met de anderen van den vorst geen vergunning om te repatriceren; hun gevangenschap echter was dragelijk).

The sultan’s refusal to permit repatriation is the central fact of the episode. The captives were being retained as a diplomatic asset, and the arrival of a second Dutch fleet did not change the calculation. The phrase hun gevangenschap echter was dragelijk — “their imprisonment, however, was bearable” — is Stapel’s only characterisation of the conditions; the relative liberty implied by Frederik’s being allowed to visit Van Caerden aboard suggests the captivity was mild. Frederik de Houtman came aboard Van Caerden’s ship to warn him of an impending attack. He then returned to shore, hoping to obtain the release of his fellow-prisoners, to deliver a cargo to Van Caerden, and to negotiate a contract between the Sultan and the Dutch. All in vain — De Houtman remained a prisoner.

The pigskin parchment letter incident, 1600

At the solemn reception of the Sultan Aloeddin by Van Caerden, who was to deliver gifts and a letter from Prince Maurits, a Portuguese monk was present. The monk drew attention to the fact that the letter — written on parchment made from the skin of the unclean pig — could not lawfully be touched by a Mohammedan. “Zoo miste’s Prinsen brief zijn doel” — so the Prince’s letter missed its mark. See Pigskin parchment letter incident at Atjeh (1600).

The intervention was a classic act of Iberian diplomatic sabotage: the Portuguese, hostile to the Dutch intrusion in the Asian trade, used their familiarity with Islamic law to turn the Sultan’s religious scruples against the Dutch embassy. The Sultan, naturally, could not accept the letter. The incident gave its name to chapter XXXII of Tijdens de O.I. Compagnie: “Het Kasteel van Verre. De brief op varkensvel in Atjeh.”

The Atjeh visit (1600-1601)

The full account of his Atjeh visit is given in the entry on the visit itself. In summary: he obtained the release of the surviving Houtman captives including Hans Decker; signed a pepper contract with the sultan on 28 December 1600; received the escaped Frederik de Houtman on 30 December 1600; seized pepper from Arab junks at anchor on 12 January 1601 after the sultan’s sabander rearrested Houtman; was fired on by the shore batteries; burned several coastal craft; released his prisoners; and sailed for Bantam by way of the west coast of Sumatra, taking on no cargo.

Reckless conduct and the sowing of hatred

Van Caerden’s expedition was further disfigured “door roekeloos optreden tegenover de inlanders” — by reckless behaviour towards the natives — in particular over the recovery of an advance paid to the Sultan. His conduct, Godee Molsbergen writes, made “den Hollandschen naam in den Archipel gehaat” — the Dutch name hated in the Archipelago.

The consequences were concrete. Neutral Moors (Mooren) whom Van Caerden had wronged obtained, after a lawsuit, 50,000 realen in damages — a staggering sum. The Zeeland merchants Gerard le Roy and Laurens Bicker later argued that Van Caerden had exceeded his commission in seizing the Arab junks, since the contract gave the Dutch a monopoly only on the new crop, not on cargo already in port — and they undertook to compensate the Arab claimants for the ƒ51,048 damages. Van der Woude defends Van Caerden against the rederij: “Van Caerden was gealarmeerd door de berichten van de ontvluchte Hollanders en wantrouwde den vorst, indachtig De Houtman’s waarschuwing. Bovendien was hij er op bedacht waar te ontvangen voor het voorgeschoten geld.” His conduct, in Van der Woude’s view, was the natural response to the sultan’s “onbetrouwbare, weifelmoedige houding”, though “onvoorzichtig op te goed vertrouwen concessies deed”.

The 1601 Zeeland ships and the resolution

The release of the Houtman party came in August 1601 through the unrelated arrival of Gerard le Roy, dispatched by the Middelburgsche Compagnie of Adriaen Hendriksz ten Haeff in January 1601 with four ships. By then the political wind at the Acehnese court had shifted: the Atjehers and Portuguese had fallen into enmity, and Frederik de Houtman and his men were set at liberty, even before a corresponding letter from Prince Maurits to the prince had been presented.

When the four Zeeland ships returned to Atjeh in August 1601 bearing Prince Maurits’s letter (this time in Spanish, and presumably not on pigskin), the Sultan was conciliatory. Van Caerden’s clumsy conduct was “naar genoegen met den Sultan besproken” — satisfactorily discussed with the Sultan — and the Sultan sent three ambassadors — Abdoel Hamid, Sri Mohammed and Mir Hassan — to Europe on the returning Zeeland ships. See Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits at Grave (1602).

Capture by the Spanish (1607)

After the founding of the VOC in 1602, Van Caerden continued in Company service. In 1606 he commanded a fleet sent to the Moluccas against the Spanish, where the Spaniards had recently re-established themselves at Ternate. In 1607 — Van der Woude’s note at chapter X records — he “inmiddels met zeventien man in handen van de Spanjaarden was gevallen”. His capture deprived the VOC of one of its most experienced Indies commanders at a critical moment. He was held prisoner by the Spanish for several years; the eventual fate of his captivity is not pursued in Van der Woude’s narrative.

Significance

Paulus van Caerden is the principal Dutch commander at Atjeh in the pre-VOC period, and the principal instance of the difficulty the early Dutch companies faced in operating at the Achehnese court. His Atjeh visit produced the first formal Dutch-Achehnese pepper contract, the release of the surviving Houtman captives, and the first armed clash between the Dutch and the Atjeh shore batteries — three “firsts” that together frame the visit as the pivot of the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship. The pigskin parchment letter incident — the most striking single episode of his visit — is the first recorded European diplomatic fiasco at the Atjeh court, and a textbook example of how a small material detail (the parchment’s origin in pig-skin) could, in the hands of a hostile third party, defeat an entire embassy.

The visit is also the occasion of Pieter Both’s presence at Atjeh. Both would become the first Governor-General of the Compagnie after its 1602 founding, and his experience of Atjeh in 1600 — watching a Dutch captain fail to extract a prisoner from the Acehnese court — must have informed the more cautious Compagnie policy toward Atjeh that would mark his governor-generalship. The controversy over his seizure of the Arab junks at Atjeh — and the long-running compensation claim that followed — also established the legal-political pattern that would recur throughout the Dutch-Atjeh relationship: aggressive commercial action by a Dutch commander, controversy at home about whether his instructions permitted it, and a long-running compensation claim. His subsequent capture by the Spanish in the Moluccas deprived the VOC of an experienced commander and contributed to the strategic difficulties of the Coen era.

Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)

Paulus van Caerden was the Dutch admiral, a companion of Pieter Both, who came to the Indies for the account of some Brabant shipowners, tried like the De Houtmans before him to open trade relations with Atjeh, escaped a second murderous plot through the warning of the captive Frederik de Houtman — and then abandoned that benefactor and his fellow-captives, seizing instead four Arab ships on the Atjehnese coast.

Voyage to Atjeh

Van Caerden underwent, in author Joh. Langhout’s words, “a second, less friendly treatment” in Atjeh. Again it was the Sultan who, at the instigation of the Portuguese, attempted an assault; but the Sultan reckoned without his host — in this case without Frederik de Houtman, who, having learned of the plans, escaped from captivity and warned the admiral of the threatening danger, so that the plot miscarried without any lives being lost. Frederik de Houtman, after his escape, placed himself anew in the hands of the Sultan to plead his countrymen’s interests, trusting in Van Caerden’s help if need be.

The seizure of the Arab ships

That trust was ill placed. After lingering for some time on the coasts of Atjeh, Van Caerden “knew nothing better to do” than to take possession of a quarter of ships belonging to Arabs, and to leave the coast, no longer concerning himself about his countrymen living in captivity. Langhout remarks that the admiral “rewarded the magnanimity of De Houtman very badly”; Frederik de Houtman and his companions regained their freedom only thanks to the subsequent favourable turn brought by the ships of the Middelburg fleet with gifts and a letter from Prince Maurice.

Sources

Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V “Voorgangers, Hollanders en mededingers tot 1614. Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” (pp. 111-115), and Hoofdstuk X (p. 312).

Tijdens de O.I. Compagnie, by Dr. E. C. Godee Molsbergen, Oud-Hoogleeraar, Landsarchivaris te Batavia (Amsterdam: N.V. Swets & Zeitlinger Boekhandel en Uitgevers Mij., 1932), chapter XXXII (“Het Kasteel van Verre. De brief op varkensvel in Atjeh. Bali en Holland één! Van Neck’s reis in 1600”) and chapter XXXIII (“Atjehers in het kamp van Maurits. De zeeslag bij Bantam”), pp. 114–121 of the numbered-letter sequence.

De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 27 (tekst bij blad 1: De eerste reizen der Nederlanders).

Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 11–13.

tags	person, dutch, navigator, precolonial, atjeh, netherlands-east-indies, 17th-century, voc, trade, amsterdam, pre-voc, admiral
aliases	Paulus van Caerden (Vice-Admiraal), Paulus van Caerden de Oude, Paulus van der Caerden, Vice-Admiraal van Caerden, Caerden, P. van Caerden, Van Caerden, Paulus van Cardaen, Admiral Van Caerden

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