Meulaboh

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tagsplace, north-east-coast, west-coast, region, pepper, uleebalangship, hoofdplaats, westkust, achehnese, japanese, town, atjeh, sumatra, colonial, dutch, westkust-van-atjeh, 19th-century, aceh-war, battlefield, patchouli, nilam, spoon, aceh, resistance, 20th-century, coastal
aliasesMeulabo'h, Malabo, Meulaba, Malaboh, Meulabuh, Meulaboh (West coast of Atjeh), Maulaboh, Melaboeh, Melaboeh (Atjeh Westkust), Melaboeng, Melaboh, place of death of Toekoe Oemar, het Meulabosche, Meulabohsche, Meulaboh district, Meulaböh, Meulabōh, Meulabo

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Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Meulaboh

Meulaboh is a region on the West Coast of Acheh mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I both as the homeland of the adventurer Teuku Uma and as the seat of a uleebalangship with its own subsidiary judicial officer, the Pangulec Side of Meulaboh.

The “Meulaboh Country” and Teuku Uma

Snouck Hurgronje opens his account of the unhappy “Uma-period” of the Acheh War — the last three years of the Dutch “concentration” policy — by describing its eponymous protagonist: “This adventurer, whose character is depicted in our first volume, came from the Meulaboh country; he was a typical Achehnese in his complete untrustworthiness and in his slavery to opium and gambling, but he differed from most Achehnese headmen in his energy and consummate tact in dealing with men.” Teuku Uma was thus a child of the West-Coast pepper-planting frontier, a region Snouck elsewhere describes as one in which “all the vices of the Achehnese reach their culminating point.” After his submission to the Dutch in 1893, Uma was armed and subsidised by an over-trusting Governor, turned on his benefactors in 1896, and was finally killed in action in 1896.

The Pangulec Side of Meulaboh

The other Meulaboh reference in Vol. I comes in Snouck’s survey of the surviving offices created by the sultans of Acheh. He notes that, just as the Teuku Hakim in the upper part of Daya is no longer anything more than an ordinary dato’ (adat-chief), so too “the Pangulec Side of Meulaboh, who was undoubtedly at one time an official under the chief of that place, charged with the task of making judicial enquiries, is now in fact no more than headman of Pulo U (vulg. Simalur).” Snouck draws the general lesson: “so little control had the Sultans of Acheh over the course of events, that whatever may have been their purpose in establishing these various offices, the latter became in a short time part and parcel of the indigenous institutions of the country, or else disappeared altogether.”

Significance

The two faces of Meulaboh in Vol. I — the seat of a decadent colonial-judicial office of the sultanate on the one hand, and the cradle of one of the most disruptive Achehnese warlords of the 1890s on the other — together illustrate the political fragmentation of the West Coast that Snouck stresses throughout his work. Both facts would have direct consequences for the Dutch military conquest of the West Coast in the closing years of the century.

Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Meulabôh

Meulabôh was the hoofdplaats of the Afdeeling Westkust van Atjeh — the standplaats of the Assistant-Resident and the principal haven of the western seaboard — and the seat of the Teukoe Tjhï’ Meulabôh, the keudjeuroeën whose office, originally that of the Sultan’s customs-collector, was transformed by Dutch recognition into a territorial chieftaincy over the Kawaj XVI. De Buitenbezittingen treats Meulabôh as the nodal point of the Westkust: a town whose commerce was slight in absolute terms but whose political centrality — as the seat of the most consequential native ruler of the western coast — was considerable.

Geography and the Westkust plain

The haven of Meulabôh lies on the lower reaches of the Kr. Meureubôh, one of the principal rivers of the Westkust, whose alluvial vlakte — together with those of Seunagan, Boebôn, and Soesöh — constitute the principal cultivated lands of the western seaboard. The cholera-epidemic of 1878 (the so-called epidemie der vuile kleeden) is recorded by De Buitenbezittingen as having carried off “volgens zeggen der tegenwoordige hoofden ± 75% der bevolking” of the Meulabôh district — three-quarters of the population, more than the entire Aceh War had cost in the same region.

The three dato’s and Teukoe Tjhï’

In the year 1185 of the Mohammedan era (approximately 1760 AD), sixteen chiefs from the Meulabôh region, led by a prominent merchant of the harbour town, appeared at the court of the Sultan of Atjeh and received sarakata’s of appointment; their conductor was appointed Keudjeuroeën Tjhï’, the Sultan’s customs-collector, to whom the sixteen thereafter paid tribute. Of these sixteen, only the three dato’s of Meulabôh itself — Dato Oedjoeng Kalaʼ, Dato Goenoeng Meuih, and Dato Meukèʼ — succeeded in retaining a measure of selfstandigheid after the Atjehsche colonisation of the Westkust, “in een klein gebied rondom die havenplaats.” Dutch intervention “begiftigden Teukoe Tjhï’ van Meulabôh als loon voor zijne diensten met territoriaal gezag” — endowed the Teukoe Tjhï’ with territorial authority over the three dato’ships and a portion of the Kr. Meureubôh basin that had not previously been under him, creating the consolidated landschap still called, by historical resonance, the Kawaj XVI.

Administration and trade

The onderafdeeling Meulabôh comprised the Kawaj XVI itself (the gebied of T. Tjhï’, subdivided into the eight sub-gebieden of the Dato Oedjoeng Kalaʼ, Ranté Fanjang, Waki Balé, Teukoe Diʼ Meureubôh, Dato Goenoeng Meuih, Keudj. Moeuh, Dato Meukèʼ, and Dato Teukoe Tandi Langë), together with Seunagan, Wojla, Boebôn, and a number of smaller landschappen. The hoofdplaats itself was withdrawn from the landschapsbestuur and placed under rechtstreeks bestuurd gebied by G. B. 5 July 1911 No. 11. The haven received 55 steamers (186,000 M³) in 1913, 51 (153,000) in 1914, and 53 (167,000) in 1915; the in- and uitvoerrechten stood at ƒ16,000/ƒ3,000 in 1910, rising to ƒ32,000/ƒ6,000 by 1914 — modest figures compared with those of Langsa or Sigli, but enough to make Meulabôh the principal haven of the Westkust.

Account from Atjèh and the War with Japan (1949) — Meulabóh

Meulabóh is the subdistrict headquarters-town and subdistrict on the West Coast of Atjèh, “with its more than 70,000 inhabitants the most populous of the West Coast,” the subdistrict into which the first Japanese troops entered in March 1942 from the seaward side, and where, on the eve of the invasion, the F-propagandists Said Aboe Bakar and Said Doellah were intercepted as bearers of the incendiary letters that connected the F-organisation’s central command to the underground cells of the West Coast. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan treats Meulabóh as one of the three subdistricts — alongside Tjalang and Tapa’toean — through which the West Coast retreat of the Dutch troops was fought in March 1942.

The subdistrict and its self-governing territories

“Characteristic of this subdistrict, with its more than 70,000 inhabitants the most populous of the West Coast, was the strong Malay-Menangkabau influence of the population.” Of the nine territories into which the subdistrict was composed, only two had more than 10,000 souls — Seunagan (24,500) and the territory Kawaj XVI (21,500), “in which the subdistrict headquarters Meulabóh is located” — while the Wójla (9,500), “bordering on Tjalang, had almost reached this number of souls.” The two most important self-governing rulers were “undoubtedly Teukoe Bin of Seunagan and Teukoe Tjhi’ Moehamad Ali Akbar of the territory Kawaj XVI.” Teukoe Bin “was a patriarchal ruler of the old stamp,” while Teukoe Tjhi’ Moehamad Ali Akbar “had been administering the government since 1913 for the alcoholic Teukoe Radja Nè” and “owed a considerable part of his authority to the support of the Dutch government.”

The interception of Said Doellah

The subdistrict was, together with Tjalang and Tapa’toean, the target of the F-organisation’s West Coast operation. “On 10 March 1942, on instructions from Meulabóh, a certain Said Doellah was arrested by Teukoe Bin of Seunagan. This Said Doellah was the son of a rich merchant from the landschap Soesóh in the Tapa’toean subdistrict.” A number of letters were found on him, “all more or less known as opponents of the current self-governing rulers and anti-Dutch oriented,” including addressees among the oelama’s, “including the elderly Habib Moeda, the foremost representative of the salé’ doctrine.” All letters were “identical in content and contained detailed instructions for sabotage of roads, bridges, telephone lines, etc. This armed resistance against the ‘enemy,’ which was otherwise not specified further, was to be commenced in the night of 7 to 8 March.” After interrogation, Said Doellah “finally confessed to having received these letters from Teungkoe Hadji Ahmad Hasballah of Indrapoeri.” On 11 March 1942 four persons arriving from Seulimeum at the end of February, all of them Poesa members, were also arrested by Teukoe Bin.

The West Coast retreat

The military occupation, “so strong before the war, was … greatly reduced. After the departure of the 6th division marechaussee from Bakóngan to Malacca, the guarding of the entire West Coast rested with the 2nd division in Meulabóh, which … was under the command of captain L. H. J. Kloprogge.” When captain Kloprogge was in the subdistrict Tjalang to deal with the revolt that had broken out there on the night of 9–10 March 1942, the evacuation of the European civilian population and of the women and children quartered in the camp at Meulabóh had already begun. “As early as the evening of March 14th, the first transport, accompanied by the subdistrict head concurrently acting as district chief, had departed under military cover in the direction of Tapa’toean.” After the return of captain Kloprogge, a second transport followed on 16 March 1942, also under military cover. The Japanese vanguard reached the Wójla in the early morning of 21 March 1942, upon which “it was decided to continue the retreat and evacuation of Meulabóh.” “It is probably thanks to the timely interception of these propagandists and especially to the firm stance of the two main self-governing rulers … that in this subdistrict, unlike in the adjacent Tjalang and Tapa’toean, the insurgent movement did not gain a foothold and peace and order were maintained until the departure of our troops.” Both loyal oelèëbalangs “would have to pay for this loyalty to the Dutch authority with their lives.”

Account from The Geology of Indonesia (1949) — Meulaboh

Meulaboh as a geological reference-point

The mineral localities of the West-Atjeh coast that are located by reference to Meulaboh include:

  • Kr. Ligan (Babah Loh): 113 km NW of Meulaboh — an iron-ore locality (700 m of iron ore, pyrite and pyrolusite, thickness 8–17 m).
  • Kr. Rigaih: 88 km NW of Meulaboh — an iron-ore locality (scattered ore-fragments at eruptive-rock contacts).
  • Alu Talu: 78 km NW of Meulaboh — an iron-ore locality.
  • Kwala Boe and Tjot Plaj: 30 and 12 km NW of Meulaboh — bog-iron localities.
  • A. Pentuwa Gade: 68 km SE of Meulaboh — an iron-ore locality.
  • Kuto Buloh: 27 km North of Tapa Tuan (itself 150 km SE of Meulaboh) — an iron-ore locality.
  • The M.A.E.M. gold-dredging operation on the Geudong Concession (1940–1941): the only colonial-era gold production site on Atjeh territory.
  • The gold-and-platinum placers of the Basin of Meulaboh, with their native mercury and cinnabar content.

The recurrence of Meulaboh as a locator across the full range of West-Atjeh mineral occurrences — iron, gold, platinum, mercury — reflects the town’s central position in the colonial geography of the West-Atjeh coast. Every geological survey of the West-Atjeh coastal plain started from or passed through Meulaboh, and the town accordingly became the natural reference-point for the distances and bearings recorded in the printed geological literature.

Position in the colonial geography of Atjeh

Meulaboh’s position in the colonial geography of Atjeh is determined by two facts. First, it is the principal town of the West-Atjeh coast — the residency’s main port and administrative centre on the Indian Ocean side. Second, the West-Atjeh coast is, geologically, the most mineral-rich part of the residency: it is the only part of Atjeh where colonial-era gold production actually took place (the M.A.E.M. dredges of 1940–1941), and it is also the part of Atjeh with the densest concentration of iron-ore occurrences (Kr. Ligan, Kr. Rigaih, Alu Talu, Kwala Boe, Tjot Plaj, A. Pentuwa Gade, Kuto Buloh). The combination of these two facts made Meulaboh the natural base-of-operations for the colonial geological surveys of the West-Atjeh coast, from Rinaud’s 1885 coal survey through Zwierzycki’s 1922 mapping to the De Groot 1946 report and the M.A.E.M. dredging operation.

Significance

Meulaboh is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it is the geographical reference-point for the entire colonial geological literature on the West coast of Atjeh — the part of Atjeh where the colonial mineral economy actually achieved production, in the form of the M.A.E.M. gold-dredging operation of 1940–1941. The town’s name accordingly appears, in the form of distance-and-bearing locators, in nearly every mineral-locality entry for the West-Atjeh coast on this wiki.

Account from Na 1795 (1924) — the fall of Toekoe Oemar at Melaboeh

Melaboeh (modern Atjehnese Meulaboh) was a place on the Westkust of Atjeh — the western coast of the Atjehnese territory — that is documented in the *Na 1795* school-history textbook as the place where Toekoe Oemar “sneuvelde” (fell in action) in the closing phase of his career as the principal Atjehnese resistance leader of the late Atjeh-oorlog. The single documentary fact of Toekoe Oemar’s death at Melaboeh fixes the place in the Dutch schoolroom memory of the war as the field of the most consequential single engagement of the late resistance.

The fall of Toekoe Oemar at Melaboeh

The *Na 1795* school-history textbook of F. Roorda records the death of Toekoe Oemar at Melaboeh in a single clause, in the paragraph that fixes the late phase of the Atjeh-oorlog:

“1893-‘96. Toekoe-Oemar werd onze bondgenoot. Hij bleek echter onbetrouwbaar, want in 1896 sloot hij zich weer bij zijn landgenooten aan. Generaal Vetter werd daarna met onbeperkte volmacht naar Atjeh gezonden. Hij behaalde groote voordeelen; doch pas aan van Heutz gelukte het, Groot Atjeh te onderwerpen. Toekoe Oemar sneuvelde bij Melaboeh.”

The textbook does not specify the date of the engagement, the immediate tactical circumstances of Toekoe Oemar’s death, or the Dutch force involved. The phrase “sneuvelde bij Melaboeh” (“fell at Melaboeh”) is the only documentary detail preserved in the schoolroom memory: the place-name Melaboeh, paired with the verb sneuvelen (to fall in battle), is the rhetorical fix of the event. The fall of Toekoe Oemar at Melaboeh is, in the Dutch schoolroom memory, the symbolic close of the late Atjehnese resistance and the immediate prelude to the definitive subjugation of Groot-Atjeh by Van Heutsz. The place-name Melaboeh — paired in the schoolroom memory with the verb sneuvelen — is thus the rhetorical fix of the death of the principal Atjehnese leader of the late war.

Account from Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (1930) — the regulatory record

In the 1930 compilation of Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, Meulaboh — also spelled Moulaboh, Menlaboh, Monlaboh in OCR variants — appears as a zelfbesturend landschap and the seat of an onderafdeeling of the same name on the west coast of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, ruled by the Kepala negeri Meulaboh as Zelfbestuurder. Meulaboh is the originating seat of two of the earliest regulations in the compilation: the boschproducten-belasting (Pantjang Alas) regulation of 5 April 1912 (Reg. No. 2), the earliest documented Pantjang Alas regulation in the book and the model on which all subsequent landschap-level Pantjang Alas regulations were patterned, and the tjemaraboomen-verordening of 2 July 1917 (Reg. No. 19), the casuarina-tree shore-protection regulation whose ten individually-named oeleebalang signatories constitute the largest named signatory-collective in the entire compilation.

The boschproducten-belasting of 5 April 1912 (Reg. No. 2)

The Pantjang Alas regulation of 5 April 1912 is the earliest-dated regulation printed in the 1930 compilation. Its full Dutch title is Zelfbestuursverordening van 5 April 1912 houdende vaststelling van regelen betreffende de heffing van eene belasting van de uit het landschap Meulaboh afkomstige boschproducten (goedgekeurd door den Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden) (Self-government regulation of 5 April 1912 establishing rules concerning the levying of a tax on the forest products originating in the landschap Meulaboh, approved by the Governor of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden). The authorisation was conveyed by the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur’s besluit of 12 April 1912 No. 247/18 transmitting the Gouverneur-Generaal’s authorisation. The operational core of the regulation is Fatsal 1: Er wordt, onder den naam Pantjang Alas, eene belasting geheven van de navolgende, in het landschap Meulaboh gewonnen boschproducten (Under the name Pantjang Alas, a tax is levied on the following forest products harvested in the landschap Meulaboh). The comparative table records parallel Pantjang Alas regelingen for the other west- and south-coast landschappen (Idi, Langan, Tamiang, Tjulung, Tapaktoean, Zuidelijke Atjehsche landschappen), with dagteekeningen of 15, 25, 26, 28, and 30 April 1912. The choice of Meulaboh as the originating landschap — rather than, say, the more commercially prominent Tapaktoean — reflects the leading role of the Kepala negeri Meulaboh in the early colonial west-coast administration.

The tjemaraboomen-verordening of 2 July 1917 (Reg. No. 19)

The tjemaraboomen-verordening of 2 July 1917 — Zelfbestuursverordening van 2 Juli 1917 op het kappen van tjemaraboomen de strandwegen in de onderafdeeling Meulaboh (Self-government regulation of 2 July 1917 on the felling of casuarina trees along the beach-roads in the onderafdeeling Meulaboh) — is the only regulation in the 1930 compilation dealing with casuarina-tree protection, and the only regulation cited with natuurschoon (natural beauty / landscape aesthetics) as an explicit motive. It protects the tjemaraboomen (casuarina trees, Casuarina equisetifolia, the ironwood-pine-like shore tree) for two purposes: natuurschoon and beschaduwing der strandwegen (shade for the coastal roads). The regulation’s distinctive feature is its signatory clause: instead of the corporate-collective Kami Oeleebalang Negeri form used elsewhere, the ten oeleebalang of the onderafdeeling Meulaboh are named individually — T. Mohamad Oesensjah of Wojla, Nja’ Radja of Boebon, T. Mahmoed of Lho’ Boebon, T. Tjhi’ Mohamad Ali Aknhar of Kaway XVI, Keumangan of Seunagan, Potjoet Baren of Toengkoh, Mohamad Ali of Tripa, Peutoea Beungga of Seuneu’am, Radja Ila of Pamen, and T. Tjoet Achmad of Beutong — together comprising the most landschap-fragmented onderafdeeling on the west coast. Several of these ten landschappen — Seunagan, the Kawaj XVI, Boebon, Wojla — are described in the De Buitenbezittingen and Atjèh and the War with Japan accounts above.

Meulaboh as both originating seat and recipient of parallel regelingen

By the time the 1930 compilation went to press, Meulaboh was thus both an originating seat (Regs. 2 and 19) and a recipient (Regs. 5, 13, 14, 16, 18a, 18b) of the Gouvernement-wide regulatory mesh — receiving parallel regelingen of the Alaslanden cattle-slaughter tax (Reg. No. 5, 30 March 1914), the Alaslanden cattle-transport regulation (Reg. No. 16, 12 October 1914), the Lhoksoekon klappercultuur-verordening (Reg. No. 18a, 25 August 1916), the Lhoksoekon mantri-instructie (Reg. No. 18b, 18 March 1916), the Bireuën heerendienst-regeling (Reg. No. 14, with the synchronised inwerkingtreding of 1 January 1929), and the Tjalang wapensmeden-regeling (Reg. No. 13, 18 December 1926 / 18 March 1927). The variable constitutional form of the Zelfbestuur on the west coast — under a single Kepala negeri in the 1912 regulation and under ten oeleebalang in the 1917 regulation — is the empirical demonstration of the same political fragmentation Snouck Hurgronje and De Buitenbezittingen describe above.

Account from Atjeh by H.C. Zentgraff (1938)

Zentgraff’s Atjeh connects Meulaboh with four key episodes.

In February 1899 Teukoe Oemar was killed near Meulaboh. News of his death reached far-off Sigli via Atjehsche boodschappers who loopen als hazen en geven bij elke keudé het bericht aan een ander over — so that eighty kilometres a day could be covered.

The pasanggrahan of Meulaboh was the home of mevrouw Van der Zee while her husband was on patrol. When luitenant Van der Zee was killed, his body was brought to Meulaboh; at night a group crept to the pasanggrahan to break the news, but mevrouw Van der Zee wierp het raam open en gilde het uit: Ik begrijp het — mijn man is dood!

In the Meulaboh country Veltman dealt with Potjoet Barin of Toengkob, who submitted only when her foot rotte af for want of treatment after a bullet wound in the lower leg. Veltman had a wooden leg sent from Holland covered with leather tegen den paalworm. She said: “Had ik u maar eerder gekend, dan had ik mijn been niet verloren.”

Pang Sihim — whose cruelties in Seunagan were legendary — was captured and imprisoned at Meulaboh. When his opium was cut off hij ging in zijn cel als een razende tekeer, smeekend om een beetje opium… sedikit sadja! He died in helsche pijnen en visioenen, a death Zentgraff notes in de verte niet vergeleken kon worden met het leed dat hij tientallen anderen had aangedaan.

Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia.

Account from Atjeh Patchouli-Olie (1932)

Meulaboh is a place on the Westkust van Atjeh, one of the four chief centres of patchouli cultivation in Atjeh, the others being Tapa Toean, Tjalang and Langsa. The patchouli-leaf harvest of Meulaboh is part of the Atjeh nilam-oil industry surveyed by Ir. W. Spoon in Atjeh Patchouli-Olie (1932). By 1931 there was a patchouli-distillery at Meulaboh.

The difficulty of the district

The political situation left much to be desired in 1908. In this difficult district with its complicated internal relations and its fanatical and combative population, “shootings, murderous attacks on well-disposed villagers, destruction of the telephone line, and defections to the resistance party were the order of the day.” Moreover, in seven years no fewer than nine gezaghebbers had succeeded one another; in the Wòjla district politics had been “gemodderd,” in the words of an official report; the chiefs “begrudged one another the light in their eyes”; and — worst of all — the available force proved insufficient.

Pacification

Improvement began in 1909 when the civil authority, the marechaussée captain A. Geertsema Beckeringh, could dispose of sufficient means of power: a mobile marechaussée column under captain Darlang temporarily occupied first the mouth of the Wòjla and later Boebon; H. J. Schmidt cleared up in Teunòm; and the pacification of the troublesome Boven Wòjla under Scheurleer and from the bivouac Tanòh Mirah produced the submission of two hundred resistance men, who were helped with rice and seed-padi. Only Beneden Wòjla, Boebon and Seunagan then remained unquiet.

In 1910 more than a hundred uitgewekenen reported themselves in March, among them many adherents of Tgk. Poeti’; in April the band of Tgk. Imeum Sradeuë’ was surprised in Wòjla and T. Adam fell on the Beneden Wòjla; in December Tgk. Poeti’ at last submitted with all his teungkoes, panglimas and sixty followers. In May 1911 the bivouacs Arongan, Tanòh Mirah and Reusa’ could be abolished in consequence of the favourable political situation in Wòjla and Boebon.

Schmidt at Meulaboh

The murder of W. B. J. A. Scheepens in October 1913 indirectly brought H. J. Schmidt back to Atjeh before his time, since H. N. A. Swart could then demand “an entirely suitable officer for the difficult post of Meulaboh.” As Civil Authority and military commander there, Schmidt conducted the investigation into the murder of W. van Kregten and the resistance in Daja and Lhong of 1914, into the attack on lieutenant Gosenson of 29 December 1917, and led the “coconut and sugar-cane excursion” of April 1918 in the Boven Wòjla — his last action as a marechaussée officer.

Under his administration the landschap Wòjla flourished so remarkably under its bivouac commander at Koeala Bhèë that Schmidt “even directed chiefs from other districts to Wòjla now and then “for instruction”.”

Economic development

In Poelò Raja and Meulaboh, where in 1908 there was a great shortage of plough cattle, eighteen thousand guilders were made available for the purchase of buffaloes. Swart encouraged the planting of ficus elastica, which succeeded well at Meulaboh. In later years the west coast, Meulaboh–Singkel, also drew the attention of estate entrepreneurs.

Du Croo at Meulaboh, 1925

As acting controleur of Meulaboh in 1925, du Croo was struck by the numerous budget entries headed onderstand, which on investigation each proved to have its own history and justification. He also found the keudé of Meulaboh in a condition he had matched nowhere, not even in Timor — “zóó’n varkensstal” — although it had plainly been well and neatly laid out; along the coast road the iron bridge railings had rusted away because they were no longer painted. His own “keutelige inspecties,” the third of which brought in 168 guilders in fines, restored the situation.

The unfindable man

In the marshes of Seuneu’am and Tripa near Meulaboh wandered T. Radja Tampo’, the one irreconcilable never found during Swart’s whole governorship, and still at large in 1939.

Significance (du Croo, 1943)

Meulaboh was the last district of Atjeh in which serious armed incidents occurred — in 1914, 1917 and 1918 — and one of the four sub-divisions still governed by officers as late as 1936, when Governor Van Aken declared it fully ripe for civil administration.

Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)

Meulaboh was the principal town of the West Coast of Atjeh and the seat of the assistant-resident charged with the administration of that coast, a centre of the west-coast pepper trade with Padang, the starting point of the coal explorations in Seunagan (1882–1883), the target of repeated nocturnal attacks by robber bands in 1883, and the place near which Teukoe Oemar met his death in 1899.

Administration and trade

At the civil formation of the end of 1878 the fourth assistant-resident was placed at Meulaboh, charged with the administration of the west coast, with a controller beside him. The government-subsidized steam navigation along the West Coast — extended at the beginning of 1877 to Patè and in June of that year to Rigaih — brought trading relations into being principally between Meulaboh and Padang, so that the products (pepper, coffee, rattans) thenceforth could be carried to the Overwal by Dutch merchant vessels instead of English-flag ships. The pepper trade of the West Coast, however, came for the greatest part into the hands of a Chinese kongsi at Batavia, which had secured the delivery of all pepper for some years, while from several West Coast harbours cargoes of pepper were carried directly to Europe by a French ship. In 1882 the pepper culture of the West Coast underwent a considerable extension from the return of the population that had earlier betaken itself to Groot-Atjeh to wage the war; for some years thereafter production on the West Coast stayed virtually stationary for lack of workpeople.

Coal exploration and attacks of 1882–1883

At the end of 1882 the assistant-resident of Meulaboh made a journey to the landscapes lying south of Meulaboh to hold a preliminary investigation into the coal present in the landscape Seunagan — an investigation which, for the very inadequate means, was very superficial and gave few results; in the following year the “ontdekkingstochten” were continued by some mining engineers, with little satisfying outcome, the coal proving to be mixed with too much clay and shale and of too young formation. During 1883 the passar and the establishment of the controller at Meulaboh had to endure repeated nocturnal attacks of robber bands from Teunom-Panga, Löh Boeboen and Boeboen, some of them very violent; the warship Madura had to come to the rescue before the bands withdrew — to attack Meulaboh again later. Under the resolution of 29 May 1883 Meulaboh was, however, one of the few harbours remaining open; the seasonal cycle of license-systems and the shipping regulation (in full effect on the West Coast from January 1895) brought Poelò Raja, the stapling-place of the northern part of the West Coast, to increasing bloom.

Later years

The trade of the West Coast remained of small extent, chiefly through the stay of Teukoe Oemar in these regions, whose action hampered the inland trade of the department; Governor Van Heutsz’s pursuit of Oemar led in 1899, near Meulaboh, to the rebel’s death, “whereby the conditions everywhere became healthier”. In 1902–1903 the government investigated the presence of stone coal on the West Coast. The K.P.M. maintained an office or agency at Meulaboh (with Tapa Toean and Sinabang serving the south-west coast), and patchouli (tilem) planting spread on the West Coast after 1918.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Afdelingshoofdplaats on Westkust, 245 km from Koetaradja. Has K.P.M. connection, postauto (private unsubsidised) service, A.S.S. autobuses. Surrounding enterprises: Meureubo (rubber), Seunagan (oil palm), Seumanjam (oil palm), Tripa (rubber). Since S.F.C. acquired interests in 1926, more activity. Hospital and medical facilities.Onderafdeeling on the West Coast of Aceh; one of only two West Coast areas with tertiair heuvelland. Has a coastal plain. Site of rubber and oil palm estates by Société Financière des Caoutchoucs. Subject to heavy Indian Oceansurf and swamp formation.Onderafdeeling on Westkust; coal investigations 1901 between Meureubo and SeunaganOnderafdelingshoofdplaats and standplaats of theAssistent-Resident of the afdeeling Westkust van Atjeh. One of the starting points of the transversaalweg. Under Assistent-Resident from 1878. Currently still under a kapitein-fungeerend-controleur(military civil administrator).Westkust town near where Teukoe Oemar fell; an obelisk marks the spot. He died at Oedjoeng Kala when attempting to attack and burn that kota.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 51, 188, 189, 192, 196, 197, 198, 199, 203, 287, 295, 323, 329, 331, 336, 337, 354, 402.

Source

The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.

De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 11, 25–30, 36, 49, 53–59, 126, 217.

Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Chapter V § 4.

The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), pp. 121–122 (Basin of Meulaboh), pp. 207–209 (iron-ore localities NW and SE of Meulaboh), p. 223 (West coast of Atjeh mercury).

Na 1795: Repetitie-boekje voor de Vaderlandsche Geschiedenis ten behoeve van Hoogere Burgerscholen en Candidaat-Notarissen, by F. Roorda (Groningen: P. Noordhoff, 1924), p. 47.

Zelfbestuursverordeningen Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, Serie A No. 9 of the Mededeelingen van de Afdeeling Bestuurszaken der Buitengewesten van het Departement van Binnenlandsch Bestuur, Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1930, esp. Regs. 2 and 19 (pp. 3 and 110). OCR-filename: 20260719_030404_DLP-112-Zelfbestuursverordeningen_Atjeh_en_onderhoorigheden_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.

Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim.

Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapters XI, XII, XIII, XVI, pp. 110–112, 121–129, 132, 157.

Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 37, 40–41, 49–50, 54, 71, 76, 80, 85, 157.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 51, 188, 189, 192, 196, 197, 198, 199, 203, 287, 295, 323, 329, 331, 336, 337, 354, 402.

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