Poeloe Tjingkoek (modern Pulau Cinkuk) was the small island in the bay of Painan on the West Coast of Sumatra — opposite Salido — which the Compagnie chose as the centre of the Painansch Contract system in 1663, on which the Compagnie built its first permanent Westkust fort in 1666, and which was ceded to the Compagnie in ownership together with Salido in 1666 by the rulers of Bajang, Indrapoera and Taroesan. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland it is the fortified island that anchored the southern Westkust system.
Choice as the Painansch centre
The Painansch Contract of 6 July 1663 named four contracting landheeren: Indrapoera, Painan, Padang and Tikoe(s). For the operational centre of the new arrangement the Compagnie chose “Poeloe Tjingkoek in the bay of Painan” (Poeloe Tjingkoek in de baai van Painan). The choice was strategic: an island in a bay was more defensible than a mainland station, and the bay of Painan gave access to the gold-producing lands of the southern Westkust.
Stapel notes the island’s particular importance: “It was especially of importance for its rich gold mines, and was governed by a ‘governor’ who stood under the suzerainty of the sultan of Indrapoera” (Het was vooral van belang door zijn rijke goudmijnen, en werd bestuurd door een ‘gouverneur,’ die onder opperhoogheid stond van den sultan van Indrapoera). The pairing of the gold-rich mainland Salido with the defensible island Poeloe Tjingkoek gave the Compagnie a complete commercial-military complex.
The 1666 cession and the fort
The cession came in 1666, in the aftermath of the Versprect expedition’s destruction of Paoeh. “Shortly after Versprect’s return to Batavia the rulers of Bajang, Indrapoera and Taroesan transferred to the Compagnie in ownership the place Salido with the gold-rich surroundings, from the kali-Loemoepo to Painan, as well as Poeloe Tjingkoek, in the person of Jacob Jorisse Pits” (Kort na Verspreet’s terugkeer naar Batavia droegen de vorsten van Bajang, Indrapoera en Taroesan de plaats Salido met de goudrijke ommelanden, van de kali-Loemoepo tot aan Painan, benevens Poeloe Tjingkoek, in eigendom over aan de Compagnie, in den persoon van Jacob Jorisse Pits).
“On the island of Tjingkoek a fort was now built” (Op het eiland Tjingkoek werd nu een fort gebouwd). The fort was the first permanent Dutch fortification on the Westkust, and it would remain the southern anchor of the Compagnie’s Westkust military system until the eighteenth century.
The 1670 re-cession
In 1670, after the Coopman expedition against Kotta Tengah and Paoeh, the rulers of Bajang and Indrapoera “gave a new act of cession of the lands of Salido, and Poeloe Tjingkoek, which the government had asked for, because the original piece had been lost at Batavia” (gaven een nieuwe acte van overdracht der landen van Salido, en Poeloe Tjingkoek, waarom de regeering gevraagd had, daar het oorspronkelijke stuk te Batavia was zoekgeraakt).
The 1681 re-cession
On 27 February 1681 the rulers of Bajang and Indrapoera “gave a renewed confirmation of the complete cession of the lands of Salido and Poeloe Tjingkoek to the Compagnie” (Nog gaven de vorsten van Bajang en Indrapoera den 27 Februari 1681 een hernieuwde bevestiging van den algeheelen afstand van de landen van Salido en Poeloe Tjingkoek aan de Compagnie).
The 1680 Pit de Jonge transport
Poeloe Tjingkoek also served as a place of convalescence. In 1680 commissioner Laurens Pit de Jonge, “on account of illness, was transported from Padang to Poeloe Tjingkoek, to return from there to Batavia” (Nadat Laurens Pit wegens ziekte van Padang naar Poeloe Tjingkock getransporteerd was, om van daar naar Batavia terug te keeren). The choice of the island for the ailing commissioner’s recovery suggests it had a healthier climate than the mainland Padang station.
The 1777 garrison
In the late eighteenth century Poeloe Tjingkoek was still a Compagnie post. The 1777 Westkust military establishment included “9 [soldiers] for Poeloe Chinco” (9 voor Poeloe Chinco) — a small garrison for a small island fort, but one that signals the persistence of the Tjingkoek station through the entire VOC period.
Significance
Poeloe Tjingkoek is the first permanent Dutch fortification on the Westkust of Sumatra, and it remained the southern anchor of the Westkust military system throughout the VOC period. The pairing of the gold-rich mainland Salido with the defensible island Tjingkoek gave the Compagnie a complete commercial-military complex, and the choice of an island rather than a mainland site reflects the Compagnie’s persistent preference for defensible naval stations over exposed land stations.
The Tjingkoek fort is also the institutional model for the later Westkust fortifications — Priaman (1684), Ajerhadji (1743) and the eighteenth-century forts of the Padangsche Bovenlanden. The Compagnie’s Westkust military footprint grew by the replication of the Tjingkoek pattern: a fort on or near a pepper port, with a small garrison and a commercial factory.
See Also
- Salido
- Painan
- Taroesan
- Bajang
- Indrapoera
- Painansch Contract
- Abraham Versprect
- Jacob Jorisse Pits
- Pieter Coopman
- Laurens Pit de Jonge
- Westkust van Sumatra
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 27 February
- 1666
- 1670
- 1681
- 1777
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 15, 17, 21–22, 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).