Toengkoe Bintara Kamangan — his princely name Potjoet Osman Bintara — was the prince of Gigiëng, the little state on the north coast of Atjeh whose rivers shared a mouth with his constant rival, the prince of Pidir. His submission of 20 April 1874 had been the first trade-opening success of the Dutch blockade; his breach of faith and going over to the war party in 1876 brought the Dutch cancellation of the friendship of 19 August 1876.
Submission and trade
During the Second Expedition, living in continuous hostility with the prince of Pidir — mainly, the Dutch thought, over border claims and the taxes levied at the shared river mouth — Toengkoe Bintara offered his submission on receipt of the pembrian radja; trade with his state was reopened; and the wartime need of the resistance in Groot-Atjeh quickly made his harbours, together with Pidir’s, the principal supply places of the whole war party. The Dutch flag waved at his capital from 1874.
The bad faith
Since that submission he never once gave proof of his good disposition. With the return of Habib Abdoer Rachman and the rising of the war party in 1876, reports repeatedly reached the Dutch that he had joined it; in July certainty came from three sides — the Pidir head Radja Mangkoeta, his own moekim chief Toekoe Imam of Gigiëng, and the Dutch political agent at Penang, Lavino — that he had invited the heads of his realm to collect money for the prang sabil (holy war) against the Netherlands, had dismissed the well-disposed Toekoe Moeda Rajat as market master of Gigiëng and put the hostile Toekoe Hasjim in his place, and was himself on the way to fight in the XXII Moekims. His own two letters to the Dutch authorities, delivered in August, announced, under their usual ambiguous and confused phrasing, his departure for Groot-Atjeh.
The breach
On 19 August 1876 Hr. Ms. steamship Marnix anchored on the Gigiëng roadstead with the proclamation of the civil and military commander: the friendship with the prince was openly ended, his harbours were closed to trade, and the Dutch flag was hauled down. The breach lasted two years, during which his people repeatedly alarmed and even attacked the Dutch fortification at Segli; in 1878 an expedition sent from Groot-Atjeh brought his second submission.
Meijer treats his case as the standing illustration of Dutch weakness among the coastal princes before permanent establishments existed there.
See Also
- Cancellation of friendship with Gigiëng (19 August 1876)
- Gigiëng
- Toengkoe Radja Pakik
- Segli
- Prang sabi
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VIII, pp. 278–281.