Lambada was a kampong of the valley of Lamtoba, at the foot of the Goudberg behind the north coast of Groot-Atjeh, whose projecting quarter the Dutch chose on 29 July 1879 as the site of the bivouak of the Lamtoba column — the camp from which the occupation of the valley, the marches against Kepaja Doewa and Selimoen, and the return of 20 August were directed — as recorded in W. Cool and G. B. Hooijer’s Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis (1889).
The bivak of July–August 1879
The site was the forward-projecting part of the kampong, surrounded on three sides by open sawah and sheltered besides on both flanks by the amphitheatrically rising banks of the brook Aloever Lam Ping, which yielded an abundance of pure drinking-water. Because the political purpose of the tocht pointed to a stay of some length, the safety of the place was first secured — a clear open strip being cut for the fourth, covered side — and then, as time allowed, the several hygienic installations of the camp were built: baleh-balehs (sleeping platforms) rose everywhere as the primitive branch shelters gave way to attap roofs on bamboo and wooden frames; privates and washing-places were made and continually renewed; the two banks of the rivulet were joined within the bivak by a juk-bridge of pinang stems; a provoost for prisoners was built and an ambulance erected for the sick. In all these works the native soldiers of the column assisted the Mineurs diligently — “den Europeeschen stonden hiertoe de handen geheel verkeerd,” the Europeans’ hands were wholly unversed in such labour. On the sawah before the camp the officers gathered in the evenings on the galangans for coolness and talk, until the sudden nightfall drove them back within the enclosure (see Gelsdorp).
Panglima Banten’s property
Lambada was the property of the Rijksbestierder Panglima Banten, and it was to this kampong that, after his flight following the Kepaja Doewa affair, soldiers and convict labourers were sent to break down some houses and cut pinang trees for the improvement of the bivak — a reprisal which brought him back, on 6 August 1879, with a numerous following of wakils and kampong-heads.
See Also
Source
Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis, door W. Cool en G. B. Hooijer (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1889), pp. 22-24, 29-30, 32-34. OCR-filename: 20260720_115822_DLP-135-Eene_schoone_bladzijde_uit_Atjeh_s_geschiedenis_Nemotron_OCR_v2_OCR.txt.