1602

The year 1602 was the year of the founding of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie on 20 March 1602, of the first English East India Company visit to Atjeh in June 1602, of the first major Anglo-Dutch joint naval operation in the East Indies on 3 October 1602, and of the first Atjeh embassy to the Dutch Republic — the embassy that placed Atjeh inside the Dutch war of independence from Spain. The year is the principal institutional and naval year of Van der Woude’s chapter “Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” in his Van der Woude (1948) and the terminus ad quem of the pre-VOC period of the Dutch-Indies trade. In Godee Molsbergen’s account it is also the year of the founding of Fort Zeeland at Atjeh — the first Dutch office on Sumatra — and of the death of the senior Atjeh ambassador Abdoel Hamid at Middelburg.

The founding of the VOC (20 March 1602)

The full account of the founding is given in the entry on the founding itself. In summary: the charter (octrooi) of 20 March 1602 — printed by Van der Woude as Bijlage I — created the VOC as a company with a monopoly of Dutch trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and through the Strait of Magellan for twenty-one years. The Company’s capital was divided among six kamers (chambers): Amsterdam (half), Zeeland (a quarter), the Maze, Hoorn and Enkhuizen. The supreme governing body was the Heeren Zeventien (Lords Seventeen). The charter’s most consequential clauses granted the Company the right to build fortifications, to maintain armed forces, to conclude treaties with native rulers, and to wage war in the name of the States-General.

The James Lancaster visit (June 1602)

The full account of the Lancaster visit is given in the entry on the visit itself. In summary: Sir James Lancaster anchored off Atjeh on 5 June 1602 with four English ships — the first English East India Company fleet. He was received with great ceremony by the sultan of Atjeh Aloeddin, praised Queen Elizabeth as “a princesse of great noblenesse, for fame speaketh so much of her”, and obtained leave to trade. He found the pepper prices higher than his pilot John Davis had led him to expect and his capital insufficient for a full cargo. He conceived the plan of intercepting the annual Portuguese carrack from the Koromandel coast and was joined by Joris van Spilbergen’s Dutch fleet.

The Joris Spilbergh visit and the joint capture of the kraak (September-October 1602)

Spilbergh’s fleet arrived at Atjeh later in 1602. There he found the Lam — a yacht from his own fleet that had strayed — already lying at Atjeh, hired by the English Company under Lancaster, with John Davis under Lancaster’s command. In cooperation with the English, Spilbergh took a richly-laden Portuguese kraak (merchantman); after unloading the goods, the kraak was returned to the Portuguese “met hun vrouwen en kinderen” (with their wives and children) to sail to Malakka. This clemency was a deliberate signal of Dutch-English good faith in Atjeh waters.

At Atjeh the first VOC fleet — sent out by the newly-founded Company — also arrived during Spilbergh’s stay. Spilbergh sold one of his ships to the new foundation and reached the fatherland with his well-laden ship.

The Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits at Grave

The Sultan Aloeddin 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. They reached the Republic in 1602 and were received at Prince Maurits’s siege camp at Grave — where the envoys toured the siege-works, discharged two cannon-shots at the city in memory of the occasion, and stayed for fifteen months as guests of the East India Company. The aged Abdoel Hamid died at Middelburg in August 1602 before the embassy could complete its journey to Grave. See Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits at Grave (1602).

The founding of Fort Zeeland at Atjeh

At Atjeh the Zeelanders received their first Dutch office on Sumatra, baptised “Zeeland” — where two merchants and several assistants remained behind. Two of them sailed on Atjeh vessels to the Gulf of Cambay, on the west coast of Voor-Indië, where — thanks to the letters of the Atjeh Sultan — they were excellently received in Goezeratte and could begin their trade. The Sultan’s letters thus opened the Gujarat trade to Dutch merchants.

The Zeeland lodge fire (13 January 1602)

Earlier in the year — on 13 January 1602 — a great fire broke out in Atjeh, destroying some 200 houses; the Zeeland lodge “Zeelant” that the Zeeland Company’s mission of August 1601 had founded burned down with the rest, though with little loss of goods. Jan Grenier, vice-admiraal of the Van Neck fleet, who arrived off Atjeh on 15 December 1601 and witnessed the fire, sailed on 19 February 1602 to Tikoe — where he could buy no pepper because trade with foreigners in the west-coast ports was forbidden except at Atjeh — and then to Bantam.

The Atjeh ambassadors’ sea-battle off St. Helena

The Atjeh ambassadors had, on their voyage to Europe, the privilege of witnessing a sea-battle off St. Helena. Two Zeeland ships lay at the island when a sail was sighted, presumed to be a Dutch ship. The Langebercque, only 150 lasts in size, found itself opposite a heavy Spanish galleon from Goa bound for Lisbon. The Spaniard opened fire. When two Zeeland sailors had fallen, the Langebercque “met de volle laag aan” — gave her full broadside — and after three days’ fighting the Spaniard surrendered. The rich prize was very welcome in the fatherland.

People

Places

Events

Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits at Grave (1602)
Founding of the VOC (1602)
James Lancaster’s Atjeh visit (1602)
Capture of the Portuguese carrack off Atjeh (October 1602)
The death of Abdoel Hamid at Middelburg in August 1602
The arrival of the Spilbergh fleet at Atjeh, where the English under Lancaster had already hired the Dutch ship Lam
The establishment of Fort Zeeland at Atjeh — the first Dutch office on Sumatra, baptised “Zeeland”
The departure of two of the new factory’s staff, on Atjeh vessels, for the Gulf of Cambay (where, by the Sultan’s letters, they were excellently received in Goezeratte)
The Atjeh ambassadors’ witnessing of a sea-battle off St. Helena between the Zeeland ship Langebercque and a Spanish galleon from Goa

Significance

The year 1602 is, in Van der Woude’s narrative and in Godee Molsbergen’s account, the principal institutional and naval year of the early Dutch-Atjeh relationship and the terminus ad quem of the pre-VOC period of the Dutch-Indies trade. The founding of the VOC on 20 March 1602 was the institutional turning-point; the first English East India Company visit to Atjeh in June 1602 and the joint Anglo-Dutch capture of the Portuguese carrack of 3 October 1602 were the principal instances of the early Anglo-Dutch commercial co-operation; and the first Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits placed Atjeh literally inside the Dutch war of independence from Spain. The founding of Fort Zeeland at Atjeh opened the continuous Dutch presence in the sultanate that would persist, through the lodge and the Opperhoofden, until the Soury embassy of 1641 and beyond.

Sources

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), Hoofdstukken I, V (pp. 7-49, 108-119).

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), chapters XXXIII–XXXIV (“Atjehers in het kamp van Maurits. De zeeslag bij Bantam”; “Spilbergh’s succes op Ceylon”), pp. 118–125 of the numbered-letter sequence.

tags	year, dutch, english, portuguese, precolonial, atjeh, voc, eic, 17th-century, founding, lancaster, maurits, embassy
aliases	Year 1602, 1602 in Atjeh, 1602 — founding of VOC, Lancaster at Atjeh, 1602 Atjeh embassy to Prince Maurits

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