Pero de Faria was the Portuguese governor of Malacca who took office in 1539 and who, almost immediately on arrival, dispatched Mendez Pinto on the two Sumatran missions that produced the European eyewitness account of the Atjeh-Aru war of 1539. His governorship falls in the period when the Atjehnese sultanate had begun to use its recent conversion to Islam as a pretext for raiding its neighbours and contesting Portuguese command of the Straits of Malacca, and his responses — limited to munitions, an adventurous envoy, and diplomatic letters — set the pattern of Portuguese engagement with the Atjeh-Aru conflict.
Dispatch of Pinto to Sumatra’s west coast (1539)
Almost immediately on taking up the governorship, Faria was presented with an embassy from the “king of Batu” — the islands off Ophir — offering to recognise the King of Portugal as suzerain in exchange for protection against Atjeh and free trade for his people. The gift was accompanied by kamfer and kajoe garoe. Faria accepted the request, but had insufficient armed force to send; he supplied munitions and the young Mendez Pinto, and added a cargasoen for trade. The ship was put under a Malay Muslim of Malacca — Pinto, the story goes, did not want the commission but dared not refuse. The mission, as De Roo de la Faille recounts, took Pinto up the Sumatran west coast past Pedir and into the country of the bandahara at Pasaman, where a march against the Atjehers was organised but ultimately failed.
Dispatch of Pinto to Aroe (October 1539)
When the king of Aroe in turn sought Faria’s help against an Atjehnese fleet then bearing down upon him, Faria again dispatched Pinto, who embarked on 5 October 1539. The Queen of Aroe’s later flight to Malacca after the fall of her kingdom was also addressed to Faria; “the governor received her with honour”, De Roo de la Faille notes, “but armed aid he was not able to provide”.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Faria’s significance is chiefly as the superior officer whose decisions made Pinto’s eyewitness record possible, and as the official Portuguese recipient of the Queen of Aroe’s appeal — a receipt that fixed, in European diplomatic memory, the fact of Atjeh’s 1539 conquest of Aroe. His limited response also marks the limits of Portuguese power in the Strait at the moment when the Atjehnese sultanate was emerging as its most dangerous rival.
See Also
- Mendez Pinto
- Atjeh-Aroe War (1539)
- Radja of Aroe
- Queen of Aroe
- Sultan of Atjeh (16th century)
- Malacca
- Straits of Malacca
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Mendez Pinto op Sumatra”, pp. 7-12.
Pero de Faria was the Portuguese governor of Malacca who took office in 1539 and who, almost immediately on arrival, dispatched Mendez Pinto on the two Sumatran missions that produced the European eyewitness account of the Atjeh-Aru war of 1539. His governorship falls in the period when the Atjehnese sultanate had begun to use its recent conversion to Islam as a pretext for raiding its neighbours and contesting Portuguese command of the Straits of Malacca, and his responses — limited to munitions, an adventurous envoy, and diplomatic letters — set the pattern of Portuguese engagement with the Atjeh-Aru conflict.
Dispatch of Pinto to Sumatra’s west coast (1539)
Almost immediately on taking up the governorship, Faria was presented with an embassy from the “king of Batu” — the islands off Ophir — offering to recognise the King of Portugal as suzerain in exchange for protection against Atjeh and free trade for his people. The gift was accompanied by kamfer and kajoe garoe. Faria accepted the request, but had insufficient armed force to send; he supplied munitions and the young Mendez Pinto, and added a cargasoen for trade. The ship was put under a Malay Muslim of Malacca — Pinto, the story goes, did not want the commission but dared not refuse. The mission, as De Roo de la Faille recounts, took Pinto up the Sumatran west coast past Pedir and into the country of the bandahara at Pasaman, where a march against the Atjehers was organised but ultimately failed.
Dispatch of Pinto to Aroe (October 1539)
When the king of Aroe in turn sought Faria’s help against an Atjehnese fleet then bearing down upon him, Faria again dispatched Pinto, who embarked on 5 October 1539. The Queen of Aroe’s later flight to Malacca after the fall of her kingdom was also addressed to Faria; “the governor received her with honour”, De Roo de la Faille notes, “but armed aid he was not able to provide”.
Significance
For AcehWiki, Faria’s significance is chiefly as the superior officer whose decisions made Pinto’s eyewitness record possible, and as the official Portuguese recipient of the Queen of Aroe’s appeal — a receipt that fixed, in European diplomatic memory, the fact of Atjeh’s 1539 conquest of Aroe. His limited response also marks the limits of Portuguese power in the Strait at the moment when the Atjehnese sultanate was emerging as its most dangerous rival.
See Also
- Mendez Pinto
- Atjeh-Aroe War (1539)
- Radja of Aroe
- Queen of Aroe
- Sultan of Atjeh (16th century)
- Malacca
- Straits of Malacca
- Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java
Source
Historische Curiositeiten uit Malajoe en Java, by P. de Roo de la Faille (Den Haag: Maart 1954), chapter “Mendez Pinto op Sumatra”, pp. 7-12.