Poelau Gontong was, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey of the Outer Possessions, the Dutch East India Company (the Oost-Indische Compagnie) post on the Siak River, established in 1755 and destroyed in 1759 by the Siak Sultan Raja Moehamad. The Poelau Gontong post was, in the Bureau’s framing, the first formal Dutch commercial presence on the Siak River, and its destruction in 1759 was the immediate occasion of the long Dutch intervention in the Siak succession that would, in the 1760s, transform the Siak sultanate from an independent polity into a Dutch client state.
Background: the abortive 1689 lodge at Petapahan
The Bureau records, in a footnote, that the earliest Dutch approach to the Siak River dated to 1689, when the Sultan of Djohore granted the Compagnie the duty-free exclusive trade on the Siak River and the right to build a lodge at Petapahan (on the Tapoeng kiri). The footnote records: “De oudste vestiging van de O. I. C. dagteekent van 1689, toen de Sultan v. Djohore den tolvrijen alleenhandel op de Siakrivier en den bouw van een loge te Petapahan (Tapoeng kiri) aan de Compagnie toestond. De geringe resultaten dezer vestiging waren oorzaak van hare ontruiming in 1680.” The Bureau’s attribution of the evacuation to 1680 is, however, chronologically inconsistent with the establishment date of 1689; the evacuation probably took place in 1690 or shortly thereafter, and the 1680 figure is likely a typographical error in the printed text.
The 1755 establishment
The Poelau Gontong post was established in 1755, in return for Dutch support for Raja Moehamad against his brother Raja Alam in their disputes over the Siak succession. The Bureau records: “In 1755 verleende de O. I. C. hulp aan Radja Moehamad, in zijne twisten met zijn broeder R. Alam, over de opvolging in Siak. Als loon voor deze hulp werd in 1755 toestemming tot het oprichten van eene loge met versterking op Poelo Gontong in de Siakrivier verleend.” The 1755 establishment was, in the Bureau’s framing, the formal beginning of the Dutch commercial presence on the Siak River — the foundation that would, within four years, be destroyed by the very sultan it had been meant to support.
The 1759 destruction
The Poelau Gontong post was destroyed in 1759 by Raja Moehamad. The Bureau records: “Waarschijnlijk oorzaak van het verraad van 1759, was onoordeelkundig optreden der Compagnie’s gevolmachtigden, toen dezelfde R. Moehamad den geheelen post liet uitmoorden” — “Probable cause of the treachery of 1759, was unjudicious conduct of the Compagnie’s envoys, when the same R. Moehamad had the entire post massacred.” The Bureau’s attribution of the destruction to “onoordeelkundig optreden” — “unjudicious conduct” — of the Compagnie’s envoys is the principal explanation recorded for the sultan’s act.
The consequences
The destruction of the Poelau Gontong post was, the Bureau records, the immediate occasion of the long Dutch intervention in the Siak succession. “Het afloopen van die post in 1759 had tengevolge dat de Compagnie steun verleende aan den eerst met haar hulp van den troon verdreven Radja Alam, den tegenstander van den in 1759 heerschenden sultan Radja Moehamad. Deze laatste overleed in 1760, doch zijn opvolger Radja Ismail, werd in 1761 overwonnen en verdreven naar Pelalawan, dat daarop eveneens met behulp der Compagnie werd overweldigd door R. Alam.” The Dutch intervention of the 1760s — undertaken against Raja Ismail — would, within two decades, be reversed by Raja Ismail’s 1779 restoration, and the Siak sultanate would, under Ismail and Said Ali, impose its own overlordship over the East Coast statelets.
Significance
The Poelau Gontong post is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey, the first formal Dutch commercial presence on the Siak River, and the immediate occasion of the long Dutch intervention in the Siak succession. Its destruction in 1759 — by the very sultan it had been meant to support — was, in the Bureau’s framing, the archetypal instance of the Dutch East India Company’s “onoordeelkundig optreden” on the East Coast, and the political event that transformed the Siak sultanate from an independent polity into a Dutch client state. The post is thus the chronological prelude to the 1779 restoration of Raja Ismail, the Siak overlordship of the East Coast statelets under Ismail and Said Ali, and the long Siak-Atjeh rivalry over the East Coast that would persist into the nineteenth century.
See Also
- Siak
- Sultan Ismail of Siak
- Raja Alam
- Raja Moehamad
- Pelalawan
- Petapahan
- Tapoeng-streken
- Acheh
- atjehsche-overheersing-der-noordelijke-kuststaatjes
- Timeline of Aceh History
- 1689
- 1745
- 1755
- 1759
- 1760
- 1761
- 1779
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Afl. 3: Oostkust van Sumatra. Eerste Stuk, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1918), p. 103 n. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark LS.08781.
Nota omtrent het Rijk van Siak, by H. A. Hijmans van Anrooy, in Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, dl. XXX (1885).
De Nederlanders in Siak en Djohore, by E. Netscher, in Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, XXXV (1870).