1601

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tagsyear, precolonial, dutch, trade, diplomacy, 17th-century, mendoca
aliasesYear 1601, 1601 in Atjeh, 1601 in Atjehnese history

6 min read

The year 1601 was, in the school-textbook narrative and in Godee Molsbergen’s account, the year of the first Atjehnese embassy to the Netherlands and of the Portuguese armada under André Furtado de Mendonça that, paradoxically, accelerated the very Dutch-Atjeh alliance it had been (in part) sent to prevent. In August 1601 four Zeeland ships returned to the coast of Atjeh bearing a letter from Prince Maurits (in Spanish) pressing for the release of the Dutch prisoners, the Sultan released Frederik de Houtman “en zijn vrouw”, and sent his own embassy with letters and gifts in return to Prince Maurits.

The Portuguese Mendoça armada

The Mendoça armada, sent from Goa, had multiple purposes: to combat piracy, to confirm Portuguese power on Ceylon (where they occupied Jaffanapatnam on the island’s north point), and — most importantly from the Dutch perspective — to drive the Netherlands from the Archipelago. “De Sultan van Atjeh vreesde dat Portugal met zijn vijand, den Sultan van Djohor, tegen hem samenspande. Ook het verzoek om op een der eilandjes een Spaansch-Portugeesch fort te bouwen, ontstemde hem” — The Sultan of Atjeh feared that Portugal was conspiring with his enemy the Sultan of Djohor against him. The Portuguese request to build a Spanish-Portuguese fort on one of the islands also displeased him. The Mendoça armada thus, paradoxically, produced the diplomatic opening between Atjeh and the Dutch Republic.

The four Zeeland ships of August 1601

In August 1601 four Zeeland ships came to Atjeh, bearing a letter from Prince Maurits in Spanish, “waarin Prins Maurits aandrong op de vrijlating der gevangen Nederlanders, verzekerde dat de schepen hulp konden verleenen tegen vijanden van den Vorst, en men peper wilde koopen” — in which Prince Maurits pressed for the release of the imprisoned Dutchmen, assured [the Sultan] that the ships could lend help against his enemies, and proposed to buy pepper. The gifts accompanying the letter — like the letter itself — were welcome.

The Wijma school reader records the second Zeeland visit of 1601 as the diplomatic sequel to the Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599: a good two years later two other Zeeland vessels appeared off the coast. There were fine gifts on board for the sultan of Atjeh, and also a letter from Prince Maurits. Now the Netherlands came into favour with that prince. He set the prisoners at liberty and gave permission to build a factory, or trading post, in his country.

The release of Frederik de Houtman

The Sultan promised Frederik de Houtman “en zijn vrouw” (and his wife — for the prisoner’s fidelity to his wife in Holland had made a strong impression) compensation for his material losses. To investigate the Portuguese slander that the Dutch realen were false, the Sultan had a thousand silver pieces cut through, whereupon the good quality of the Holland-minted coins was established. The release closed the twenty-six-month Atjeh captivity during which De Houtman had compiled the material for his *Spraeck ende woord-boeck* (1603) — the first European Malay dictionary.

The dispatch of the Atjeh embassy

The Sultan sent three ambassadors on the returning Zeeland ships: Abdoel Hamid (the senior envoy, well over seventy), Sri Mohammed (the Admiral of Atjeh), and Mir Hassan (a nobleman). A Luxemburger, Leonard Werner, served as their interpreter. The choice of an Admiral of Atjeh and a nobleman as envoys gave the embassy high diplomatic weight.

Mendoça sails on to Bantam

When the Spanish-Portuguese armada had left Atjeh, “voer De Mendoça naar Bantam” — De Mendoça sailed to Bantam. The Dutch-Portuguese naval contest then shifted to the Sunda Strait, where the last great Dutch expedition before the founding of the VOC defeated a strong enemy armada in Bantam bay on Christmas Day 1601.

People

Places

Events

  • Arrival of four Zeeland ships at Atjeh in August 1601, bearing Prince Maurits’s letter (in Spanish) pressing for the release of the Dutch prisoners held since 1599
  • The Sultan’s promise to release Frederik de Houtman “en zijn vrouw” and to compensate him for his material losses
  • The Sultan’s testing of the Dutch realen by cutting through a thousand silver pieces, establishing their good quality
  • The dispatch of three Atjeh ambassadors — Abdoel Hamid, Sri Mohammed and Mir Hassan — to Europe on the returning Zeeland ships
  • The arrival of the Mendoça armada in Atjeh waters, producing the Sultan’s fear of a Portuguese-Djohor alliance and his displeasure at the Portuguese fort request
  • The Dutch-Portuguese sea-battle in Bantam bay, Christmas Day 1601

Significance

The year 1601 is, in the school-textbook narrative and in Godee Molsbergen’s account, the terminus a quo of formal Atjehnese-Dutch diplomatic relations. The embassy of 1601 — with its release of the Houtman captives, its permission for a Dutch factory at Atjeh, and its reciprocal embassy to Prince Maurits — established the diplomatic frame that the school reader would deploy in its account of the early Dutch-Atjehnese relationship. Godee Molsbergen’s framing adds the international dimension the school reader omits: the Mendoça armada, the Portuguese fort request, and the testing of the Dutch realen all shaped the diplomatic opening that 1601 represents.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Atjeh sent an embassy (gezantschap) to Prince Maurits in the Netherlands, showing wide variation in Atjeh’s stance toward the Dutch.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 30.

Sources

De Kleine Oosterling — Iets uit de Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch-Indië. Leesboekje voor de Lagere Scholen, door J. Wijma, Tweede Druk (Kampen: Laurens van Hulst, 1901), Les 3 (“Een gezantschap”).

Tijdens de O.I. Compagnie, by Dr. E. C. Godee Molsbergen, Oud-Hoogleeraar, Landsarchivaris te Batavia (Amsterdam: N.V. Swets & Zeitlinger Boekhandel en Uitgevers Mij., 1932), chapter XXXIII (“Atjehers in het kamp van Maurits. De zeeslag bij Bantam”), pp. 118–121 of the numbered-letter sequence.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 30.

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