Peutoeha Gam Masén was an Acehnese resistance band leader — peutoeha is an Acehnese title of authority — who commanded a “kleine, zeer beweeglijke troep” operating in the Tangsé / Kroeëng Seukoeleh area in 1911, and who was killed in May 1911 by the korporaal Nussy (with the Menadonees Enoch working with the klewang) in the first major succes of the colonne Schmidt against the loose resistance bands of the Tangsé bergland.
The band and its fourageurs
“Er was een bende van Peutoeha Gam Masén, een kleine, zeer beweeglijke troep.” The band was small and highly mobile — a guerrilla unit living off the land through fourageurs who came out of the bergen to the bewoonde streken to gather provisions. The first spoor of the band was found by the colonne’s spoorzoekers near the Kroeëng Seukoeleh — “vonden de spoorzoekers het bekas van neushoornjagers” (rhino-hunters’ footprints) mixed in with the bende’s own sporen, a sign of how remote the streek was. The colonne followed the fourageurs’ spoor into the bergen.
The first attempt: the man from the Westkust
The first omsingeling of a ladang caught an old woman, a child, and a man. The man “was niet uit die streken doch van de Westkust” — he was not from those parts but from the Westkust, and had been in the bergen anderhalf jaar tevoren to search for rotan when he stumbled on Gam Masén’s bende and was forced to join. He was willing to give inlichtingen and acted as gids — but during the ten-day search he recognised nothing in the terrain until finally they came into familiar ground. The episode is the book’s example of how unreliable a forced gids could be.
The killing (May 1911)
The second attempt succeeded. The ladang was omsingeld within half an hour — “de Amb. sergeant 2e kl. Van Drongelen maakte met zes man een omtrekking en zette de rand af” — and Gam Masén was summoned to surrender. He refused. “Hij trok zijn reuntjong, de Atjehse kris” — he drew his reuntjong, the Acehnese kris — and threw himself on the two voorste Marechaussees, the dardanellen of the luitenant. “Nussy schoot en Enoch werkte af met de klewang.” The leader was neergelegd. With the leader gone, his followers were expected to come in.
Significance
Gam Masén’s significance in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. is as the first succes of the colonne Schmidt — the proof, after about four-and-a-half months of searching, that the method worked. His death is also the book’s set-piece of how an Acehnese hoofd of the resistance died: not by surrender, but by drawing the reuntjong and throwing himself on the patrol’s dardanellen. The reuntjong — the Acehnese kris — is the symbolic weapon of the resistance, paired in the book with the klewang of the Marechaussee; the two blades meet in the moment of Gam Masén’s death.
See Also
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Nussy
- Enoch
- Van Drongelen
- Schmidt
- Reuntjong
- Dardanellen
- Klewang
- Kroeëng Seukoeleh
- Tangsé
- May 1911
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “De colonne Schmidt.”
Peutoeha Gam Masén was an Acehnese resistance band leader — peutoeha is an Acehnese title of authority — who commanded a “kleine, zeer beweeglijke troep” operating in the Tangsé / Kroeëng Seukoeleh area in 1911, and who was killed in May 1911 by the korporaal Nussy (with the Menadonees Enoch working with the klewang) in the first major succes of the colonne Schmidt against the loose resistance bands of the Tangsé bergland.
The band and its fourageurs
“Er was een bende van Peutoeha Gam Masén, een kleine, zeer beweeglijke troep.” The band was small and highly mobile — a guerrilla unit living off the land through fourageurs who came out of the bergen to the bewoonde streken to gather provisions. The first spoor of the band was found by the colonne’s spoorzoekers near the Kroeëng Seukoeleh — “vonden de spoorzoekers het bekas van neushoornjagers” (rhino-hunters’ footprints) mixed in with the bende’s own sporen, a sign of how remote the streek was. The colonne followed the fourageurs’ spoor into the bergen.
The first attempt: the man from the Westkust
The first omsingeling of a ladang caught an old woman, a child, and a man. The man “was niet uit die streken doch van de Westkust” — he was not from those parts but from the Westkust, and had been in the bergen anderhalf jaar tevoren to search for rotan when he stumbled on Gam Masén’s bende and was forced to join. He was willing to give inlichtingen and acted as gids — but during the ten-day search he recognised nothing in the terrain until finally they came into familiar ground. The episode is the book’s example of how unreliable a forced gids could be.
The killing (May 1911)
The second attempt succeeded. The ladang was omsingeld within half an hour — “de Amb. sergeant 2e kl. Van Drongelen maakte met zes man een omtrekking en zette de rand af” — and Gam Masén was summoned to surrender. He refused. “Hij trok zijn reuntjong, de Atjehse kris” — he drew his reuntjong, the Acehnese kris — and threw himself on the two voorste Marechaussees, the dardanellen of the luitenant. “Nussy schoot en Enoch werkte af met de klewang.” The leader was neergelegd. With the leader gone, his followers were expected to come in.
Significance
Gam Masén’s significance in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. is as the first succes of the colonne Schmidt — the proof, after about four-and-a-half months of searching, that the method worked. His death is also the book’s set-piece of how an Acehnese hoofd of the resistance died: not by surrender, but by drawing the reuntjong and throwing himself on the patrol’s dardanellen. The reuntjong — the Acehnese kris — is the symbolic weapon of the resistance, paired in the book with the klewang of the Marechaussee; the two blades meet in the moment of Gam Masén’s death.
See Also
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Nussy
- Enoch
- Van Drongelen
- Schmidt
- Reuntjong
- Dardanellen
- Klewang
- Kroeëng Seukoeleh
- Tangsé
- May 1911
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “De colonne Schmidt.”