Taroesan (Dutch also Troessang; modern Tarusan) was a polity on the West Coast of Sumatra lying in the bay of Painan, whose ruler was one of the three native chiefs who ceded the gold-rich lands of Salido and Poeloe Tjingkoek to the Compagnie in 1666, and on which the Compagnie later established a post alongside those at Priaman and Ajerhadji. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland Taroesan is the smallest of the three ceding polities, but its bay — the bay of Painan — was the operational centre of the southern Westkust system.
The 1666 cession
After the Versprect expedition’s destruction of Paoeh in August 1666 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, the Compagnie’s head of the Westkust at Padang” (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).
The pairing of Bajang, Indrapoera and Taroesan as the three ceding rulers is significant. Indrapoera was the senior civil power of the southern Westkust, Bajang was the territorial power of the Salido hinterland, and Taroesan was the coastal power of the Painan bay. The cession of Salido and Poeloe Tjingkoek required the consent of all three.
The post-1684 establishment
Stapel records that in the eighteenth century the Compagnie established a post at Troessang alongside those at Priaman and Ajerhadji. “Also one established oneself at Troessang (Taroesan), as previously at Priaman” (Ook vestigde de Compagnie zich te Troessang (Taroesan), zooals tevoren op Priaman). The Troessang post is one of the Compagnie’s southern Westkust stations, lying in the bay of Painan near Salido and Poeloe Tjingkoek.
The 1698 withdrawal
In 1698 “one drew in the posts Priaman, Ajerhadji and Troessang” (In 1698 trok men de posten Priaman, Ajerhadji en Troessang in). The withdrawal of all three southern Westkust posts in 1698 is part of a late-seventeenth-century Compagnie retrenchment that followed the consolidation of the Painansch Contract system.
Significance
Taroesan is the smallest of the three ceding polities of the 1666 Salido-Poeloe Tjingkoek cession, but its bay — the bay of Painan — was the operational centre of the southern Westkust system. The Compagnie’s choice of Poeloe Tjingkoek (the island in the bay) as the site of its first permanent Westkust fort was made possible by the Taroesan ruler’s cession, and the later establishment of a post at Troessang on the mainland confirmed the centrality of the Painan bay to the southern Westkust system.
The pairing of Taroesan with Indrapoera and Bajang in the 1666 cession is also constitutionally significant. The Compagnie is acquiring territory not from a single sovereign but from three co-sovereigns, each of whom must consent. This is the constitutional pattern of the entire Westkust system: native sovereignty is dispersed among multiple rulers, and Compagnie acquisition requires the consent of all of them.
See Also
- Salido
- Poeloe Tjingkoek
- Painan
- Bajang
- Indrapoera
- Painansch Contract
- Abraham Versprect
- Jacob Jorisse Pits
- Ajerhadji
- Priaman
- Westkust van Sumatra
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 1666
- 1698
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 17, 23 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684) en blz. 3 (tekst bij blad 5: De Compagnie in den Archipel na 1684 tot 1791 — Sumatra).