The year 1509 was the year of the Diogo Lopez de Sequeira mission to Malaka — the first Portuguese visit to the Atjeh coast and the proximate antecedent of the Portuguese conquest of Malaka of 1511. In August 1509, Sequeira left Cochin with a fleet of five ships under instructions from King Manuel I of Portugal to call at Madagascar, sail to Malaka, demand tribute and load spices. On the way, he called at the pepper ports of Pedir and Pasei on the north coast of Sumatra — the first European visit to the Atjeh coast — where he obtained permission to trade but took on no cargo.
The Sequeira mission
The Sequeira mission of 1509 is the opening episode of European-Atjeh contact and the immediate antecedent of the Portuguese conquest of Malaka of 1511. At Pedir and Pasei, Sequeira obtained permission to trade but took on no cargo, “zonder lading in te nemen”. From there he proceeded to Malaka, where the sultan received the Portuguese civilly and granted them leave to set up a factory. After two months, however — alarmed by reports of Portuguese behaviour elsewhere in the East and pressed by his Muslim merchant community — the sultan prepared to attack the fleet. The plot failed, but several Portuguese were killed on shore and others taken prisoner in the factory, including the factor Ruy d’Aranjo. The ships withdrew, taking reprisals on Malay craft they encountered on the way home.
The strategic consequence
The failure of the Sequeira mission at Malaka was the immediate antecedent of Affonso d’Albuquerque’s conquest of 1511: it was Aranjo’s letter from captivity that persuaded Albuquerque that the trade of Malaka could only be secured by force. The Atjeh coast call at Pedir and Pasei in 1509 — though without immediate commercial consequence — established the first European commercial presence in the Atjeh region and anticipated the pepper trade that the Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 would develop ninety years later.
Significance
The year 1509 is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the terminus a quo of European-Atjeh contact and the proximate antecedent of the Portuguese conquest of Malaka of 1511. The Sequeira mission’s Atjeh coast call at Pedir and Pasei established the first European commercial presence in the Atjeh region, and the mission’s failure at Malaka set the Portuguese on the path to the conquest of Malaka and the construction of the Estado da Índia that would define the Portuguese empire in the East for the next century and a half. The Dutch arrival at Atjeh in 1599, with which Van der Woude’s Atjeh chapter opens, was thus the resumption — by new hands and at a new commercial stage — of the European commercial penetration of the Atjeh coast that Sequeira had inaugurated in 1509.
See Also
- Diogo Lopez de Sequeira
- Portuguese conquest of Malaka (1511)
- Affonso d’Albuquerque
- Pedir
- Pasei
- Malaka
- Acheh
Source
Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V (pp. 134-135).
The year 1509 was the year of the Diogo Lopez de Sequeira mission to Malaka — the first Portuguese visit to the Atjeh coast and the proximate antecedent of the Portuguese conquest of Malaka of 1511. In August 1509, Sequeira left Cochin with a fleet of five ships under instructions from King Manuel I of Portugal to call at Madagascar, sail to Malaka, demand tribute and load spices. On the way, he called at the pepper ports of Pedir and Pasei on the north coast of Sumatra — the first European visit to the Atjeh coast — where he obtained permission to trade but took on no cargo.
The Sequeira mission
The Sequeira mission of 1509 is the opening episode of European-Atjeh contact and the immediate antecedent of the Portuguese conquest of Malaka of 1511. At Pedir and Pasei, Sequeira obtained permission to trade but took on no cargo, “zonder lading in te nemen”. From there he proceeded to Malaka, where the sultan received the Portuguese civilly and granted them leave to set up a factory. After two months, however — alarmed by reports of Portuguese behaviour elsewhere in the East and pressed by his Muslim merchant community — the sultan prepared to attack the fleet. The plot failed, but several Portuguese were killed on shore and others taken prisoner in the factory, including the factor Ruy d’Aranjo. The ships withdrew, taking reprisals on Malay craft they encountered on the way home.
The strategic consequence
The failure of the Sequeira mission at Malaka was the immediate antecedent of Affonso d’Albuquerque’s conquest of 1511: it was Aranjo’s letter from captivity that persuaded Albuquerque that the trade of Malaka could only be secured by force. The Atjeh coast call at Pedir and Pasei in 1509 — though without immediate commercial consequence — established the first European commercial presence in the Atjeh region and anticipated the pepper trade that the Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 would develop ninety years later.
Significance
The year 1509 is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the terminus a quo of European-Atjeh contact and the proximate antecedent of the Portuguese conquest of Malaka of 1511. The Sequeira mission’s Atjeh coast call at Pedir and Pasei established the first European commercial presence in the Atjeh region, and the mission’s failure at Malaka set the Portuguese on the path to the conquest of Malaka and the construction of the Estado da Índia that would define the Portuguese empire in the East for the next century and a half. The Dutch arrival at Atjeh in 1599, with which Van der Woude’s Atjeh chapter opens, was thus the resumption — by new hands and at a new commercial stage — of the European commercial penetration of the Atjeh coast that Sequeira had inaugurated in 1509.
See Also
- Diogo Lopez de Sequeira
- Portuguese conquest of Malaka (1511)
- Affonso d’Albuquerque
- Pedir
- Pasei
- Malaka
- Acheh
Source
Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V (pp. 134-135).