Paoeh

Paoeh was a fortified village (dessa) in the Padangse — the Padang hinterland — on the Westkust van Sumatra, which became the rallying point of Atjehsch-gezinde and anti-Compagnie resistance in the mid-1660s and the site of the Paoeh disaster of 12 March 1666 and the Versprect revenge of August 1666. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland it is the most consistently rebellious place on the Westkust, the village that “had held out longest with the Atjehers” (die het lang met de Atjehers gehouden had).

The 1666 disaster

The Painansch Contract of 6 July 1663 had been ratified by the campaign of Jacob Cau in 1664–1665, but Atjehsche influence was not extinguished. The Hooge Regeering judged it necessary to act against the Atjehers’ hiding-places “in order not to jeopardise the results obtained” (om de verkregen resultaten niet in de waagschaal te stellen). On 12 March 1666 an expedition under Jacob Gruys was dispatched “to attack the hiding-places of the Atjehers” (de schuilplaatsen der Atjehers aan te tasten).

Gruys learned on the Westkust that the restless elements had gathered in the fortified village of Paoeh in the Padangse. He marched against it and was heavily defeated. “More than 130 Netherlands, among whom Gruys and most of the officers, lost their lives” (Ruim 130 Nederlanders, onder welke Gruys en de meeste officieren, verloren het leven). The Paoeh disaster was the worst Dutch defeat of the Painansch Contract era.

The 1666 revenge

Batavia responded immediately. The Versprect expedition, dispatched on 16 August 1666, “became a great success; Versprect took Paoeh and destroyed the place, which action caused the peace among the other chiefs to return” (Deze onderneming werd een groot succes; Verspreet nam Paoeh in en verwoestte de plaats, welk optreden de rust onder de andere hoofden deed wederkeeren).

The 1667-1668 consolidation

After Versprect’s destruction of Paoeh the Compagnie moved to consolidate. “A few months after Cau’s departure [an apparent confusion in Stapel’s text — Versprect’s departure is meant] the place Mendjocto, which had held out longest with the Atjehers, was stormed and taken by Van Groenewegen, whereafter also here the chiefs signed the Painansch contract” (Eenige maanden na Cau’s vertrek werd de plaats Mendjocto, die het lang met de Atjehers gehouden had, door Van Groenewegen bestormd en genomen, waarna ook hier de hoofden het Painansch contract teekenden). The reference to Mendjocto rather than Paoeh in this passage is one of the small textual inconsistencies of Stapel’s narrative; the substantive point is that the Atjehsch-gezinde holdouts were progressively reduced in 1666–1668.

The 1670 rising

Paoeh rose again in 1670. On 3 April 1670 the Hooge Regeering at Batavia received word “that those of Kotta-tengah and Paoeh, aroused by the escaped rebels from Paoeh, on the rumours of the coming of an Atjehsche army, had risen” (dat die van Kotta-tengah en Paoeh, opgeruid door de gevluchte rebellen uit Paoeh, op de geruchten der komst van een Atjehsche krijgsmacht in verzet waren gekomen). The Coopman expedition of 6 June 1670 — six ships dispatched from Batavia — “took and destroyed the fortifications at Kotta-tengah and Paoeh, and drove the rebels apart” (Hij nam en vernietigde de versterkingen te Kotta-tengah en Paoeh, en sloeg de opstandelingen uiteen).

The 1677 Pits departure and the 1677 submission

By 1677 commandeur Jacob Jorisse Pits — about to leave the Westkust for the governorship of Malakka — “tasted the pleasure that the rebellious elements of Kotta-tengah and Paoeh sent their envoys to Padang, and on 30 August of that year by contract offered their submission anew” (smaakte hij het genoegen, dat de oproerige elementen van Kotta-tengah en Paoeh hun gezanten naar Padang zonden, en 30 Augustus van dat jaar bij contract opnieuw hun onderwerping aanboden).

The 1680 Padang Conference and the 1680 oath

The Paoeh rebels were the principal target of commissioner Pit de Jonge’s 1680 mission. On arrival at Padang and landing of the troops, Pit’s force, “reinforced with 5000 Padangers, made such an impression that the principal rebels of Paoeh and their adherents of Kotta-tengah at once came to beg pardon” (versterkt met 5000 Padangers, zoo’n indruk, dat al dadelijk de voornaamste rebellen van Paoeh en hun aanhangers van Kotta-tengah vergiffenis kwamen verzoeken). On the Koran they swore on 24 July 1680 a solemn oath of loyalty and obedience. On 5 August they renewed their submission.

The eighteenth-century Paoeh

Paoeh remained a difficult place through the eighteenth century. In 1704 “commissioners settled the disputes between those of Paoeh and the Panglima of Padang. Those of Paoeh would henceforth not stand under Padang, but under the Compagnie” (Compegniss-ndrroorgg mochiten langs de geheele kust handel drijven, behalve op de Engelsche plaatsen — text corrupt). The administrative separation of Paoeh from Padang in 1704 is the institutional recognition that the Paoeh-Padang relationship was too contentious to be left under a single native jurisdiction.

In 1713 “when difficulties arose with Menangkabau Paoeh also began to rise again. After their submission in 1716 one concluded a treaty” (Toen in 1713 moeilijkheden ontstonden met Menangkabau begon Paoeh ook weer op te staan. Na hun onderwerping in 1716 sloot men een verdrag).

Significance

Paoeh is the most consistently rebellious place on the Westkust. It is the site of the worst Dutch defeat of the Painansch Contract era, the recurring rallying point of Atjehsch-gezinde resistance in 1670, 1675, 1680, 1713, and the place whose final submission in 1716 closes the long cycle of Westkust unrest opened in 1666. The history of Paoeh is the history of the Compagnie’s Westkust authority at its most contested: a fortified village that could defeat a Compagnie expedition, survive the destruction of its fortifications, and rise again repeatedly across half a century.

Source

De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 17–20, 4 (tekst bij blad 4 en 5: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684, De Compagnie in den Archipel na 1684 tot 1791 — Sumatra).

tags	place, sumatra, westkust, achehnese, colonial
aliases	Paoe, Paoeh, Pa-oh, Paoēh

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