The Glé Betoes — glossed by P. H. R. Beuming as Nevelberg, the mist mountain — was a mountain of the range between Lho-Nga and Lepong on the west of Groot-Atjeh, on whose heights lay the Goeah Teroes cave that in 1897 sheltered the band of Toekoe Hassan.
The range
Beuming describes the Acehnese mountain chain welke zich woest langs de Noordkust van Sumatra slingert — which winds wildly along the north coast of Sumatra — and records that those who have seen it from close at hand will have gained the impression that it cannot be climbed except by the utmost exertion and under unbelievable difficulties. The ascent of the Glé Betoes on 25 September 1897 took the Dutch patrol some hours, the men hoisting one another up rock faces of dizzying height with ropes and hooked staves while the point hacked a path with the kapmes.
The action of 25 September 1897
The mountain gave its name to the operation Beuming titled Een moeilijke tocht. The patrol from Lho-Nga under Captain J. N. C. Baron van Heerdt failed to surprise the band, lost 1st Lieutenant J. van Greuningen and four men killed at the cave mouth, and withdrew the same day. The marechaussée brigades sent under Lieutenant C. F. A. Wagener to catch the enemy aan de andere zijde van den Glé Betoes — on the other side of the Glé Betoes — fought a violent action in the mountains in which Wagener and two marechaussées were killed and the band escaped, carrying its dead and wounded away. Beuming closes: Aan den tocht naar den Glé Betoes, zijn voor ons droevige herinneringen verbonden — to the march to the Glé Betoes sad memories are attached for us.
See Also
- Goeah Teroes
- Patrol to the Goeah Teroes on the Glé Betoes (25 September 1897)
- Toekoe Hassan
- C. F. A. Wagener
- Lho-Nga
- Lepong
- 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.