Pasangan (in Van der Kemp’s spelling) was a coastal place on the East Coast of Acheh, situated about six miles from Telok Semawé. It is mentioned in Van der Kemp’s article solely in connection with the mutiny of the Dutch colonial schooner *Wilhelmina* in mid-1819.
The Wilhelmina affair
In June 1819 the colonial schooner Wilhelmina, commanded by Lieutenant Bouwens, was proceeding along Sumatra’s East Coast on a mission for the government of Calcutta, carrying 10,000 dollars in specie together with a quantity of arms. The crew, taking advantage of the small European complement, mutinied in July or August. Bouwens and two of his men were murdered; his wife, in her terror, leapt overboard; two of her children, whom the Javanese baboe tried to rescue, were thrown into the sea.
The day after the mutiny the ship reached Pasangan — “6 mijlen van Teloksemawé, de residentie destijds van pretendent Syf”. The 24 mutineers, accompanied by the baboe, landed with as much of the money and valuables as they could carry. They began a walk along the shore towards Telok Semawé, plundering some of the coastal inhabitants on the way and hiding part of the money in the ground. On arrival at Telok Semawé they were further stripped and put in irons by the followers of Sultan Saif ul-Alum (Syf), and set to work building a house for him.
Subsequent inquiry
The mutineers’ choice of Pasangan as a landing-place is explained by its proximity to Syf’s seat at Telok Semawé, where they hoped for refuge. Their further plundering along the shore, however, and the discovery of part of the buried treasure by the local population, complicated Syf’s position when the Dutch came to demand restitution. The Dutch inquiry eventually led to the Lucas mission of February 1821, which the Penang government under Phillips declined to support; the Irene returned to Malacca without recovering the treasure or the surviving mutineers.
See Also
- Telok Semawé
- Acheh
- Sumatra’s East Coast
- Sultan Saif ul-Alum
- Wilhelmina mutiny and murder of Bouwens
- Lucas mission to Telok Semawé (February 1821)
- Lieutenant Marx Bouwens
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.
Account from Een Vaderlandsch Belang by H. Borel (1878)
Pasangan was an Atjeh-dependent kuststaatje (vassal coastal state) outside Groot-Atjeh, which had supported the enemy with hulpbenden (auxiliary bands), wapens and levensmiddelen and submitted to the Dutch on 15 August 1878 in the submission of Pasangan after a bombardment by the Dutch marine. Borel, writing at the very moment the news arrived, treats Pasangan as the proof that the same pattern of bombardment and submission would, if applied to the XXII Moekims of inner Groot-Atjeh, finally end the war.
The vassal coastal states
The vassal coastal states — Analaboe, Pedir, Samalangan, Pasangan, Simpang Olim, Edi, and Gedoeng itself — had supported the resistance in Groot-Atjeh with auxiliary bands, weapons, and food throughout the war. Their position on the coast made them difficult to reach from the inland Dutch base at K. Radja but vulnerable to naval descents. Pel’s plan had included the reduction of these states as part of the wider isolation of Atjeh. After Pel’s death in February 1876 the offensive against them was sporadic. By August 1878 the situation in Groot-Atjeh had been sufficiently restored — after the enemy breakthrough of June 1878 — for the Dutch to turn again to the vassal states.
The submission of 15 August 1878
While Borel was writing his book, the telegraph brought news on 15 August 1878 that Pasangan, after a bombardment by the Dutch marine, had submitted. Borel predicts the same pattern will work in Groot-Atjeh itself: “eerst moet de vijand getuchtigd worden en wel in die mate dat hem geen andere uitweg overblijft dan het hoofd in den schoot te leggen” — first the enemy must be chastised, and to such a degree that no other way out is left to him than to lay his head in his lap (to submit). The submission of Pasangan by naval bombardment was, in Borel’s view, the proof of the aanvallende stelsel (offensive system): a direct, forceful application of military power had achieved in a few days what years of afwachtende houding (wait-and-see posture) had not. The same principle, applied by his proposed Indische Brigade of three to four thousand men raised in the Netherlands and sent directly to Atjeh, would, he insisted, finally end the war through repeated tuchtigingen of the XXII Moekims.
See Also
- Gedoeng
- XXII Moekims
- Submission of Pasangan (15 August 1878)
- Enemy breakthrough in the IV, VI and IX Moekims (June 1878)
- Aanvallende tactiek in Atjeh
- Indische Brigade (proposed)
- Een vaderlandsch belang (Borel, 1878)
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 350–355.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the warning letter of August 1876
Meijer’s account of the breach with Gigiëng includes also Pasangan: the prince of that always hostile coast state received a direct letter from the civil and military commander about the same deed, with the necessary warnings. General Wiggers van Kerchem had judged this necessary also as an answer to a letter from that prince from which, likewise, an anything but friendly attitude appeared.
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VIII, p. 281.