Toekoe Hassan was the Acehnese leader of a band that in 1897 continually made unsafe the mountains between Lho-Nga and Lepong on the west of Groot-Atjeh, and against whom the Dutch patrol of 25 September 1897 from the benting Lho-Nga was directed.
According to the intelligence reports on which the patrol was based, his band was lodged in the Goeah Teroes — the great cave — on the Glé Betoes, a cave lying high in the mountains and resembling een waar arendsnest, a veritable eagle’s nest.
The attempt to surprise the band failed: the Acehnese detected the approaching column and gave the shrill call that the echoes prolonged endlessly through the mountains, and P. H. R. Beuming records the suspicion that the Acehnese guide was not a stranger to the failure. In the fighting at the cave mouth the band killed Lieutenant J. van Greuningen and three European fusiliers and severely wounded two native fusiliers, before withdrawing deeper into the cave and escaping through its several exits. The pursuit by marechaussée brigades under Lieutenant C. F. A. Wagener on the far side of the mountain led to a violent fight in which Wagener and two marechaussées were killed and the band again escaped, carrying its dead and wounded with it.
The source records nothing further of Toekoe Hassan’s district, standing or subsequent fate.
See Also
- Patrol to the Goeah Teroes on the Glé Betoes (25 September 1897)
- Goeah Teroes
- Glé Betoes
- Lho-Nga
- Lepong
- C. F. A. Wagener
- 1897
Source
Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911; uitgegeven ten bate van het te stichten Herstellingsoord voor Rijks-Ambtenaren). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br N 82-144
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.