In 1602 the Netherlands, compelling the amalgamation of the
several Dutch companies that since 1596 had started to trade in the Orient,
gave a monopoly to the Dutch East India Company. In the same year Jacob van
Heemskerk anchored off Johor and was welcomed by the Sultan as an ally against
the hated Portuguese, van Heemskerk captured a Portuguese caraque from Macao,
whose cargo was sold for three and a half million dollars; deeply respected for
this exploit he took back to Holland two Malay envoys from Johor, Megat Mansur,
who died on the voyage, and Enche' Kamar. In 1606 Admiral Matelief visited
Kedah and made a treaty with Johor, promising to help the Sultan capture
Malacca from their common enemy, the Portuguese, in return for the right to
trade with Johor free of duty and to the exclusion of all other Europeans. The
siege of Malacca was begun but abandoned, Matelief growling at Johor's
Bendahara, author of the " Malay Annals," for his dilatoriness as a
soldier, but in the same year, 1606, the Admiral with eleven ships defeated a
Portuguese fleet of twenty-six sail off Malacca and won for Holland that
command of the sea which was so vital to the salvation of Portuguese empire. In
1611 the Dutch Company thought of moving their head-office from Java to Johor.
In 1615 finding it very costly to maintain 22 forts, 4,000 troops and 30 large
ships to fight the Portuguese, it proposed to London that the English East
India Company should bear part of the cost and that, Portugal vanquished, the
two Companies should divide the Eastern trade. But unlike the Dutch, the London
Company was not backed by the English government; it had profited by the Dutch
fleet without diminishing its dividends by a doit; it was more interested in
India than in the Malay archipelago; in 1614 it instructed its principal agent
in the East " in Junckalan and Pera is great store of Tin held as good as
English Tin, but it is so bought up that it will require great time and trouble
to get it and to adventure in Moor ships would not be safe, and their own
Pinnaces too chargable, so I leave it as no way worthy." The Directors
temporised. From 1618 English and Dutch were at open war. In 1623 the Dutch
massacred a number of Englishmen on Amboyna, one of the Spice Islands, and even
before this England had determined to close her factory at Patani and keep
posts only at Acheh and Jambi, Japara and Bantam in Java, and Macassar in
Celebes. In 1635 the English signed a treaty with moribund Portugal and tended
to support her against Holland. On 14 January 1641 the Dutch wrested Malacca
from the Portuguese and there-after dominated the trade-route to the East
Indies and to China. In 1649, having driven English commerce almost off the
seas, they imposed terms on the Great Mogul and seemed likely to become paramount
from China to the Cape of Good Hope. Such in briefest outline was the position
of a Company which from 1641 until 1795 was to play so great a part in Perak's
history.
The Dutch and Perak. Page 25
Before 1641 references to Perak in the Dagh-Register are few and short, one of them a remark in 1634 that
Acheh was the only obstacle to the tin trade. Bort says that from 1639 the
Dutch Company traded peacefully in Perak by virtue of a contract made with her
suzerain, Acheh. Then under 14 June 1641 the Dagh-Register tells how a head-merchant Jan Dircxen Puijt anchored
between the Sembilan Islands and the Dindings with a cargo worth florins*
17810.18.5 for the Perak trade, a present from the Governor of Malacca for the
Sultan and a letter proposing that Perak should stop all dealings with
foreigners and sell the whole of its tin to the Company at a reasonable price.
The Sultan presented gold creeses to Puijt and his companion Vermeeren but that
year forty-one Javanese and Chinese vessels had exported tin from Perak "
under passes from the upper-merchants Sourij and Gent, a thing highly
prejudicial to the negotiations and inclining the king to support free trade,
which must be prevented by cruisers." Awaiting Puijt in Perak had been the
merchant Jan Hermansen, for some years
superintendent in Perak but now director of the tin-trade with Perak, Kedah,
Bangri and Ujong Salang (Junk Ceylon). Hermansen was bound for Kedah. The
Sultan said he would consult his chiefs and reply to the Dutch proposal when
Hermansen returned. On 19 October Sr. Hermans (sic) arrived back in Perak with
a cargo of tin and four elephants bought in Kedah for 2087¾ reals (or Spanish
dollars), of which one was to die on the voyage to Batavia and another to fall
overboard and be drowned! The Sultan still temporized. No monopoly of tin! and
in Ligor Coromandel stuffs had a bad market on account of the great supply of
cloths from Perak and Kedah. On 29 October, 1641, the yacht Franecker sailed from Batavia with 77182
pounds of tin, of which 7722 were got by Sr. Hermans in Kedah, 40598 by
Hendrick van Napels at Ujong Salang and 28868 by Puijt in Perak. Puijt was in
high favour with the Sultan of Perak, who bestowed on him the title Sri Raja
Johan Pahlawan and an Achinese creese and a sword, placed him above the
Shahbandar in charge of Perak's port and put a new lodge at his disposal in
place of a ramshackle building nearly tumbling into the river. On 13 May Puijt
brought to Malacca in the shallop de
Sterre 26179 pounds of tin. He reported that about 8,000 guilders had been
paid in advance against the delivery of tin, that he had left his remaining
stock and 450 bidor † of tin with his
assistant Obbe Heeres and that the Sultan still owed the Company 1700 bidor of tin. This year sixty-five
* ra., re. = real, pieces of eight,
Spanish dollar, rd. = rijksdaalder, rixdollar of the Holy Roman
Empire (or one of its States), a coin of variable value and usually less than
the real. f. = florin or guilder (gl., gldr.) worth 20 stivers, about Is. 9½d.:
three florins or guilders = 1 real or Spanish dollar.
† bidor, a slab of tin weighing 3 Dutch pounds or (nowadays)
2 2/3 lbs. avoirdupois. bhaar, bhaer,
bhar, = Arabic bahar, Sanskrit bahara ‘a load.' 1 bahar = 3 pikul or nowadays 400
lbs. avoirdupois. The Dutch reckoned it at 375 of their pounds generally.
Page 26 A History of Perak.
Javanese and Chinese vessels had
visited Perak, importing small sundries, spoiling the cloth market and carrying
away 370 bahar of tin. Puijt wanted
well-assorted cloths to the value of 12000 guilders and in order to stop the
Java and China trade, permission to risk disposal of 70% of his stock against
delivery of 250 bahar of tin. There
was considerable trade with Perak from Acheh and Puijt was of opinion that an
agreement could be concluded that beside the Dutch only Acheh should be allowed
to engage in the Perak tin trade. At the same time the Governor-General was
urging that, as in Portuguese days, cruisers should intercept all Moors'
vessels bound for Perak, Kedah and Ujong Salang and bring them to Malacca to
pay toll, this measure being designed to increase not only the tin trade but
business at Malacca and to make Patani a profitable market for cloth.
Accordingly in October the yacht de Vos
brought to Malacca a wangkang bound
from Palembang to Perak with a cargo of salt and sundries; but the captain
blamed the inefficiency of his helmsman and the boat was released on payment of
the ordinary toll. In the same month the yacht Schagen captured a Javanese boat off Pulau Parcelar: the cargo was
confiscated and the crew condemned to work in chains to frighten others from
going to Perak and Kedah without visiting Malacca for permits.
In February 1642 the butler Arent Pater was sent to Deli to
exchange for slaves wares unsalable in Perak but worth about 1000 guilders.
That shrewd business man Puijt had suggested this method of disposing of wares
unsalable in Perak, Kedah and Ujong Salang. In March 1642 Johor had signed a
treaty recognizing that all Johor vessels sailing west of Malacca should call
there for permits and on 11 July the king of Kedah agreed not to admit ships to
his ports without Dutch permits and to sell the Dutch Company half the tin
produced in his State at a fixed price. On 22 July, the de Duijff brought to Batavia 26176 lbs. of tin purchased by Puijt
in Perak for f. 6607.12.14 and on 8 September the Schagen brought 28947 lbs. purchased for f. 7342.4. But Puijt still
complained of the poorness of the Perak trade owing to the quantity of cloth
imported by Achinese, Javanese, Moors and Bengalis. The Sultan of Perak and his
Bendahara resented the regulation that all Indian vessels must call at Malacca
for permits, while the Bendahara angry at the treatment of one of his vessels
boasted that he would take back the lodge lately given to Puijt. In 1644 things
came to a head. The Sultan refused to hand over to a Dutch commissioner, van
Gent, a Cambodian ship which claimed to have a pass from a merchant, Bronckman,
excusing her from getting a permit at Malacca: His Highness declared that those
on board were well-born Minangkabaus under the protection of his suzerain, the
Queen of Acheh. The Governor at Malacca sent the yachts de Vos and Lieffde to
blockade the Perak river and close it to Malay and Javanese vessels. Perak
despatched envoys to Malacca and in October Sr. Walraavan sailed to Perak in
the
The Dutch and Perak. Page 27
yacht Maccareel with orders to lift the blockade, reopen an office and do
anything else likely to secure a monopoly of the trade. A Commissary Vlamingh
was sent to Acheh to try to explain the blockade of Perak but his explanations
were so unpalatable that Acheh would not lift a finger to persuade Perak to
give the Dutch a monopoly. In 1645 an agreement was made between the Dutch and
Acheh but in spite of it Moors from India enjoyed the tin trade with Acheh and
the Malay Peninsula, and the Company got only " fair words and friendly
faces." On 3 July 1647 the Dutch " considering that they snap up all
the tin in Perak under our very noses and stuff the country full with their
piece-goods " decided to interdict Moors of Surat, Coromandel, Bengal and
Pegu from trading with Acheh and the tin countries, a decision that led to the
looting of their Surat office in April 1648. But Dutch fleets blockaded the
ports of Acheh and Perak, and the Company threatened to close its lodge in
Acheh. In December 1647 the Queen of Acheh replied to the request of
Governor-General van Lijn that the Dutch might trade with Perak as the
Portuguese had done. She pointed out that already Acheh had agreed to equal
trading rights for Dutch and Achinese, that wise men make many friends and she
would respect all people within her borders including the English, and finally
that not even she had been able to get as much as 600 bahar of tin for herself from her vassal Perak far less obtain it
for the Dutch. After this missive had been read, the Achinese envoys were
regaled with betel and sweet wine. In 1648 sitting on a raised stool and
guarded by three female lancers and six female musketeers the Susunan of
Mataram, under Dutch pressure, issued a mandate ordaining public floggings for
any of his people who sailed to Perak. In 1649 the capture by Arend Barentsen
of two ships of the Great Mogul with cargoes worth one and a half million dollars
led to an agreement with Surat that Moors from there would no longer sail to
Acheh, Perak, Kedah, Ujong Salang and Malacca, and after the agreement had been
ratified on the Koran fifteen tons of goods were prematurely returned to the Suratis! In the same year the Company
collected in Malacca, mostly from Perak, 770,000 pounds of tin, an
"extraordinary quantity." The Dutch sent to Acheh an ambassador
Truijtman who negotiated a treaty for a monopoly of the Perak tin which caused
the English to leave Acheh. The Queen of Acheh despatched an envoy along with
Truijtman to Perak where her mandate was respectfully obeyed. A treaty was
signed between the Yang di-pertuan, Sultan of Perak, a dependency of Acheh, and
Governor-General Cornells van der Lijn; it recognized that the Queen of Acheh
had granted her own people and the Dutch East India Company a monopoly of the
tin trade to the exclusion of all other Europeans and Indians and had
instructed the Sultan and Chiefs of Perak accordingly. The Sultan promised to
eject all foreigners then trading in his State and to forbid them to return. A
toll of 11 in 140 was to be paid on tin exported. The price for one bidor of tin was fixed
Page 28 A History of Perak.
at a quarter real of a specified
mint. One bahar or 3 pikul of tin was fixed as 125 bidor of the value of 31¼ Spanish
dollars. Standard scales, marked by the Sultan and the Company, were to be
deposited in the Dutch lodge. The treaty was signed in Perak on 15 August 1650
by the Sultan Yang di-pertuan and his Council, the Bendahara, Bendahara Muda,
Orang Kaya Besar and Temenggong. Truitjman took it to Acheh to be ratified and
finally "' after various oppositions " it was signed again by both
parties on 15 December 1650. The Perak lodge was immediately re-opened.
Valentijn records the disastrous sequel:—the factory at " Peirah is
situated on the Malay coast and is subject to the Queen of Acheh. The
establishment which is controlled by an under-merchant is maintained by the
East India Company solely for the trade in tin, which is obtained for cash or
piece-goods at the rate of 50 rix-dollars the bahar, but the people are very foul and murderous and they made no
scruple in 1651 of killing all our people. In subsequent years Their
Excellencies frequently had occasion to order the Governor and Council to leave
the place alone, until a good time arrived for avenging this detestable act,
which was afterwards taken in hand."
There is no Dagh-Register
from lo48 until 1653 when we get one laconic entry for the northern state:
" a yacht left at Perak." But on 15 December of that year Joan
Truijtman negotiated a new treaty with Sultan Muzaffar of Perak, of which we
hear in yet another treaty of 7 December 1655 made between the Dutch Company
and " Sultana Amina Todijn, the young king Muda-Forca, and the Orang
Kayas, Dato Bandara Sri Maradia Besa, Sri Maradia 'diraja, Temenggong Sri
Maradia Lela, Paduka Radia, Montri Paduka Tuan, Laxamana, Chiefs of Perak submissive
to the royal court of Acheh." The following were the provisions of this
later agreement. All war and piracy were to cease. As damages for the cutting
off of the Dutch lodge in 1651 Perak engaged to pay 50,000 reals in specie, of
which part was to be paid in a few days by the delivery of 100 bahar of tin valued at 31 reals a bahar and the remainder by such
instalments as the Queen of Acheh and the Governor-General should decide. The
treaty made in Perak on 15 December 1653 between Truijtman and " the
deceased Sultan Muda-Forca " was to be observed: it gave the Dutch a
monopoly of the tin-trade and fixed the price of a bidor of tin at half a real in specie and the price of a bahar (375 lbs.) at 31¼. retells. Perak
was to give the Company a piece of land on the river, the length of a
cannon-shot, as a site for a house and wooden store but no arms heavier than
muskets were to be kept there. All disputes were to be referred to Malacca.
Accessories to the 1651 massacre were to be executed, including the Shahbandar.
The Dato' Bendara, formerly Temenggong, who was to have been summoned to Acheh
and relieved of office, would be allowed to continue in office subject to the
pleasure of the Queen of Acheh and the Governor-General. The last clause fixed
import duties and weighing
The Dutch and Perak. Page 29
fees for cargoes of tin. The treaty
of 1655 was ratified in the hall of the Sultana's palace in the presence of fourteen Achinese chiefs.
" Shortly after " Bort records, " by reason
of Perak's failure to maintain our agents in their rights, the factory was
again abandoned." Perak " rode the high horse," sent tin to
Acheh and let foreigners intrude on the trade. In 1656 Truijtman was sent to
invest the ports of Perak and Acheh. " In July 1656 " writes Valentijn,
" they sent Joan Truijtman the Commissary, with the ships Domburg and Concordia to Malacca, which they reached on the 25th, with the
ambassadors from Acheh. His instructions were to attack the people of Peirah as
enemies but not until he knew the result of his negotiations at Acheh. He was
also instructed, after the withdrawal of our factory at Peirah, to keep away
all foreigners from that place by blockading the roadstead." Truijtman
left on 2 August and blockaded Perak for several months, taking out of all
vessels whatever goods he found.
“ Ao. 1657. On 25 July Their Excellencies gave orders to
avenge the foul massacre in Perak and to occupy Acheh roadstead anew.''
Balthasar Bort, afterwards Governor of Malacca, was in command, and eleven
years later described the effect of the blockade:—" The English stopped
their trade at Acheh so long as we allowed the Moors to traffic there, but as
soon as we kept the Moors away, they came (according to their old usage) to
fish in our troubled waters, insisting on admission yonder, although we
maintained a blockade of the harbour. .. . This blockade was kept up in 1656,
1657, 1658 and 1659 and reduced Acheh to such straits for cloth that much gold
was sent secretly to Malacca and spent there on cloth; attempts were even made
to buy it on our ships, 160 reals being paid for a bale of Company's common
Guinea cloth. Wherefore the commanders of the blockading force were moved to
demand a good quantity of cloth from Malacca but it was decided not to send it
on the ground that we were at war with Acheh and that no traffic is permissible
with an enemy." And Bort goes on to let the cat out of the bag: vengeance
for the " foul massacre in Perak " veiled the real aim of the
blockade, which was to deprive Acheh of Moorish cloth and compel her to buy it
from the Company.
In 1659 Acheh must have asked for terms in order to end the
blockade. For on 20 June 1659 the Dutch drafted a fresh treaty with Acheh,
demanding the execution of the Perak Temenggong, the banishment of the Perak
Bendahara, the payment of the agreed indemnity of 50,000 reals, the division of
the tin trade between Acheh and the Dutch, the former to enjoy one-third and
the latter two-thirds, and finally permission to build a lodge in Perak and a
residency in Acheh. At length in the last quarter
A History of Perak. Page 30
of 1659 or perhaps early in 1660
Acheh accepted a treaty with certain modifications. It is printed in Bort's
Report on Malacca in 1678:—
" In the year after the birth of our Prophet Muhammad
1070, on Tuesday, 6 Muharram (= 23 September, 1659) the Capade Muda Lela,
attended by the bujangs Cay allula (? = Kaya Lela) and Dendany brought out the suasa seal and in the name of God on
command from Her Majesty, came with an order from Her Majesty to Kali Malik
al-'Adil, Orang Kaya Maharaja Sri Maharaja, Orang Kaya Laksamana Sri Ferdana
Mantri, Orang Kaya-Kaya (cacaya) Sri
Paduka Tuan, Orang Kaya-Kaya Raja Bintara, Orang Kaya-Kaya Sri Paduka Megat,
Orang Kaya-Kaya Sri Maharaja Lela, Orang Kaya Raja Udana Lela, Orang Kaya
Paduka Sri Nara, Orang Kaya Maharaja Sri Indra, Orang Kaya Raja Mahkota, Orang
Kaya Sri Paduka Raja Bintara Muda, Raja Lelawangsa, Paduka Maha Mantri, Sri
Ratna Perdana, with all the hulubalang
and other officers of the royal court: I have made this peace between Achinese
and Dutch not again to come to strife. Thus the Governor-General Joan
Maatsuijcker has, through Sittria (? = cheteria,
khastria), Sibidi, Indra Stia, Sri Narawangsa, the commander Jacob Keyser
and the commander Balthasar Bort made the following demands:—
" Touching the affairs of Perak; if the Bendahara
Paduka Sri Maharaja be not recalled but is forgiven by Her Majesty for all his
faults and allowed to remain Bendahara in Perak, then the commanders Jacob
Keyser and Balthasar Bort will also petition the Governor-General to forgive
his offences and to permit him to continue in Perak, but the Shahbandar (being
now Mantri in Perak) shall be summoned to Acheh and handed over to us to be
judged.
" Her Majesty also grants 50 bahar of tin in
compensation for the goods of the Company stolen in Perak, which the commander
Balthasar Bort shall receive there; also that the price of tin in Perak shall
not be higher than 30 reals until the goods of the Company, amounting to 44,000
reals shall be paid for. When all this debt is cleared, the price shall once
more be set at what it was formerly, viz. 31¼ reals. Moreover no other traders
shall come to Perak to deal in tin, but all traffic therein shall be divided
between the Achinese and the Dutch, each taking just half. If any vessel is
despatched with tin, whether by Achinese or Dutch, an Achinese and a Dutchman
shall always examine it, so that on neither side too much or too little, but by
each just the half, is exported.
" As to dues the right shall remain such as has been
customary hitherto without change."
The Dutch and Perak. Page 31
The rest of the treaty dealt with Sumatran affairs. It was
confirmed on Sunday, 10 Muharram, at Her Majesty's banquet in the presence of
the two Dutch commanders and of an English captain, William Courtis, with all
joy and gladness in Lalla Lalleij the garden of Her Majesty, Shadow of God in
the World. This queen, who died on 3 October 1675 A.D. having lost all Acheh's
possessions except Perak, bore the style and title Taj jal-'Alam, Safiat ad-din
Shah. Another account coupled Sidria and the Shah-bandar as offenders to be
punished—unless they gave the Company 50 bahar
of tin as compensation. " Thus," as Sir William Maxwell observes,
" all the satisfaction ultimately obtained from the Perak Malays was the
promise of the gradual extinction of the indemnity-debt by a reduction of the
price of tin by 1¼ real per bhara.
The chiefs were ' forgiven ' by the Governor-General, an euphemism which
probably conceals the practical impossibility of seizing and executing the
persons named. With traders of other nations willing to buy tin at a higher
figure, it is clear that the Malays would only submit to the terms extorted by
the Dutch as long as the latter were strong enough to enforce them and the
position of the monopolists in the plank-house named in the Treaty of 1655 was
not an enviable one. They had to prevent the Malays from evading the treaty by
smuggling tin down the river past their station, and, with no help nearer than
Malacca, they had to live in a flat marshy situation whence fear of the Malays
would seldom allow them to move."
Actually the monopolists in the plank-house failed. "
On 26 August, 1660," Valentijn records, " Mr. Massis reported to the
Governor of Malacca that the Achinese had again broken the newly-made treaty by
exporting from Perak more tin than they should. The king of Perak and his
chiefs had granted passes to convey the same to Acheh without troubling
themselves further. Thereupon the Malacca authorities decided that Massis
should try to check this export amicably, and on experiencing nothing but
dissimulation, should, as the establishment was on a bad marshy site, ship all
the tin and ready money on board the Alkmaer
and, if need be, keep it there: He was to collect outstanding debts as far as
practicable and report on the situation to Bort, the Commissary at Acheh and to
Groenewegen at the same place." On 2 December 1660 the Alkmaer brought 122 bahar of tin to Malacca but Acheh had obtained 585 bahar; in spite of all vessels for Kedah
and Bengal being intercepted and stopped, the Dutch got little ore from Perak.
Later in December the Queen of Acheh was induced to make another pie-crust
promise which altered the Company's determination to close the factory in
Perak. She ordained that the Company should take over half the tin exported
from Perak in Achinese vessels, except that her four chief ministers were to be
privileged to export for themselves 30 bahar
a year: no Achinese vessels except her own were to enter the Perak port without
a
Page 31 A History of Perak.
permit from the Dutch Resident at
Acheh. A month later Balthasar Bort found in the roads at Acheh the Anna from Coromandel with a cargo of
sixty pieces of ordnance to be exchanged for two elephants, and cloth and
sundries to be bartered for 16 elephants valued by the Moors at 700 reals a
head. Worse still, from Surat had arrived the Welcome with an English envoy, Harry Gerry, who brought presents
and a letter to the Queen asking for trading rights in Perak and departed with
200 bahar of tin, 100 of pepper, 200
of sappan wood, agila wood, benzoin, camphor, tortoiseshell and ivory. Not only
the English and the Moors but traders from Johor, Java and Jambi cut into the
Company's trade at Acheh, so that it made no more than florins 16,392.18.2 on
cloth being barely 40¼%. Sumatra, Malacca, Johor and Perak were all
over-stocked with cloth.
On 28 January, 1661, Paduka Sri Sultana Nur al-'alam (Nakiat
ad-din Shah) wrote to Governor-General Joan Maetsuyker reiterating professions
of Acheh's good-will. She has sent four emissaries (bujang) to Perak to ensure that 1½ reals be deducted from the price
of every bahar of tin until Perak has
liquidated her indemnity debt, but Perak is very poor and will take long to
pay. Half the tin cargo of Achinese vessels is to be sold to the Dutch and half
that on Perak vessels, unless they belong to the Queen's agents or to Perak
chiefs coming to Acheh to pay homage. The royal mint will receive Dutch half
crowns and make them legal tender in Perak. For any breach of her commands the
Queen will punish her vassal. She gave Balthasar Bort the title of Orang Kaya
Commander Raja and a chief's creese and for the Governor-General she sent a
present of 50 bahar of tin—to be
collected in Perak! The Queen deposed the Bendahara, who was de facto ruler of Perak, and appointed a
Bendahara Muda. But on 16 May Joannes Massys bringing only 51 bahar of tin complained that Acheh still
got all the ore. On 25 May Gabriel Bruyl reported that the four Achinese
emissaries in charge of the indemnity deduction had handed their task over to
three Perak men who had no heart in it! The Sultan annoyed at interference was
hoping that Kedah would help him expel the Achinese. The yacht Kleen Amsterdam sailed to Perak to
enforce Dutch treaty rights, but as soon as she left, Perak broke them again
and protests to Acheh only excited laughter. There had been a shortage on the
Queen's vicarious present of 50 bahar
of tin to the Governor-General but not one pound would the Sultan of Perak make
good. Achinese agents took away all the Perak tin on the pretext that it
belonged to their queen. The Dutch in Perak tried to prevent the Bendahara and
Raja Dewasitty from sailing to Acheh in three vessels carrying 180 bahar of tin but the Sultan declared
that they were his own emissaries. The Achinese boasted openly that they would
rather give a Dutchman a taste of the creese than tin: one day when the Dutch
were removing 2 bahar of tin from a
Delhi-bound ship, only the presence of the English
Page 33 The Dutch and Perak.
captain of the St. Joris* made the
Achinese unhand their creeses. The Achinese paid as much as 33 or 34 reals for
a bahar of Perak tin, but when their
ships were ready for sea the Perak people would sell them tin at a loss rather
than take it to Malacca. Acheh had stopped any alliance between Perak and Kedah
but on 13 August 1661 the ruler of Kedah sent presents to the Bendahara and
Orang Kaya Besar to get their help for the export of 20 bahar of tin. There was trouble, too, over the acceptance of
lion-dollars in Perak, though the Bendahara promised to do his best if they
were introduced in Johor, Deli, Bengkalis and other places. However, in spite
of difficulties and disappointments, the Dutch decided to maintain the Perak
lodge (which had reopened in 1659) for fear that closure would offend the
Malays and put trade into English hands.
The Dagh-Register
records how for two years the Dutch conducted secret negotiations with a Raja
Panjang of Selida against Acheh, because the Achinese allowed the English to
trade in Perak. On 30 October 1662 the Resident Gabriel Bruyl reported that the
English had persuaded the Queen to order the Sultan of Perak help them export
60 bahar due to Mr. Lock of Kedah. On
15 November the galliot Chariots took
3,000 reals in specie to Perak but a month later was sent to bring back
two-thirds of that sum for fear its largeness might cause the Dutch factor to
be robbed or murdered. The Perak guard-ship Kleen
Amsterdam was beached for repairs and sank: the Charlois replaced her. On 26 January, 1663, the galliot Ganges took an accountant, Jan de
Looper, to Perak to relieve the Resident, Adriaen Lucasz, who was very sick. On
February 11, the King and Bendahara, quite unashamed over the 135,345 guilders
still due on the indemnity, sent a present of 6 bahar of tin to Malacca and asked for a pass and a flag (such as
long ago Thysz had given) to indicate that their vessels were toll-free. The
King also wanted to borrow an Indian goldsmith for two years, and the Bendahara
requested a loan of 400 or even 200 reals and a permit to export to Acheh 12 bahar of tin which Moors had imported
from Kedah. All these requests were refused. But the war and blockade had made
the people of Perak bitter and recalcitrant and it was useless to fight them
again. In March, when Acheh demanded from Perak envoys the customary annual
tribute that accompanied their homage, they replied that, perpetually blockaded
by the Dutch in accordance with the treaty Acheh had contracted, Perak could
not pay it and, if Acheh resorted to force, Perak would ask Johor to be her
suzerain.
* That is, the St. George, which seized from the Khankhanan,
Mir Jumla, was owned by (Sir) Edward Winter and was to have been returned to
her original Nabob owner at Masulipatnam had she not lost all her masts and
been damaged beyond repair on her way from Kedah to Malacca, meeting, "
with a fierce storme about the Andaman Islands or Niccabar," so that she
was " laid up in Malacca, being past recovery to be delivered him."
W. Foster's "The English Factories in India, 1661-64," Oxford, 1923,
pp. 37-52, 148-157,
Page 34 A History of Perak.
On 17 June two Achinese vessels
sailed to Perak without the permit that the treaty required from the Dutch
Resident at Acheh. The Achinese explored all Perak for ore. Everybody paid, 5,
6 or more reals a bahar than the
Dutch, who still continued to stick to the treaty and give only 23 to 25 reals
at Ujong Salang and 30 reals elsewhere. The Achinese would bid as high as 42
reals a bahar. So the Company got no
tin and though the deduction of 1½ reals a bahar
had been abandoned and the Perak indemnity therefore as good as cancelled, yet
by July 1663 the Dutch had to raise their price to 34, 35 or 36 reals.
On 20 June 1663 Adriaen Lucasz, after another spell of
sick-leave at Malacca, returned to Perak in the yacht Alkmaer accompanied by the galley Malacca, these ships being needed to help the Charlios browbeat three Bantam vessels with large Javanese crews
into observing the tin regulations. Lucasz took one-third of their tin and
returned to Malacca in September with 140 bahar,
which the President bought for the now usual price of 40 rix-dollars a bahar, exempting three bahar which the Perak ruler was
presenting to the Sultan of Bantam. On the same trip Lucasz removed three bahar from a Johor vessel as a guarantee
that Inche Howat, the captain, would sell the rest of his tin at Malacca for 40
rix-dollars a bahar, but on 25 August
Inche Howit arrived at Malacca so furious that Batavia was asked for
instructions in the event of Johor boldly engaging in the tin-trade for Chinese
who would otherwise buy at Malacca. In July 1663 it was resolved to close the
factories at Acheh, Perak and Ligor. Lucasz advised the Company that its policy
of secret overtures to Acheh would be discovered and cause it to forfeit the
trust of the Perak Malays for ever. The Company, fearful of the cost of
guarding a coast with so many rivers and creeks, refused to guarantee Perak
protection against her suzerain and so Perak hesitated to break with Acheh. In
October the Company had to lend the Sultan of Perak a tingang to bring his envoys to Malacca, as he lacked a vessel of
his own, and it sold him 70 or 80 muskets. For the year 1663 the Perak tin
trade was reported fair. On 12 October the Alkmaer
brought 225 bahar from Perak; on 28 November the King's brother and the
Bendahara sent 70 bahar to Malacca; on 4 December Lucasz arrived at the same
port with the yacht Cabo Jasques and
the galley Malacca bringing 98 bahar and 100 bidor of tin; under the date 27 December the Dagh-Register records that the tin brought to Malacca amounted to
481,397 pounds, namely
from Ligor 348
bahar and 362 pounds
„ Perak
738 bahar
„ Ujong
Salang 11 bahar
and 256 pounds
„ other
places 185 bahar and
29 pounds
----- -----
----- -----
1,282 bahar and 647
One bahar weighed
375 pounds: Perak alone provided more tin than all the other localities
together.
The Dutch and Perak. Page 35
But before the end of 1663 the lodge at Perak was closed. On
29 November a Dutch voyager, Wouter Schouten, arrived in the roadstead between
the Dinding and the mainland of Perak and found the Cabo Diaskes awaiting the merchant Adriaen Lucasz whose factory in
Perak " was at present abandoned, owing to the breaking-out of enmity and
disputes between our folk and the Malays of Perak; the trade in tin is stopped
for a time and the yacht Alkmaer is
already on her way from Malacca to blockade the river of Perak; but all the
envoys of the kingdom of Perak were now on board the Netherlands ship Cabo Diaskes in order to sail with our
folk to Malacca for the furtherance of peace." As we have seen, Lucasz
arrived at Malacca on 4 December with a cargo of tin: he also brought Perak
envoys and letters to Governor Riebeck asking for permission to sell 30 bahar to Moors (which was refused) and
to send 2 bahar to Borneo in order to
purchase musical instruments (which was granted), requesting a loan of money
for the Bendahara against the security of 20 bahar and offering to supply tin for 35 rix-dollars a bahar at the Perak estuary or for 40 at
Malacca.
Wouter Schouten gives us a sailor's picture of Perak in 1663
which is bright and pleasing beside the dreary business figures of the Dagh-Register:—" The country is
favoured with Tin Mines, but everywhere in the Interior it is covered with very
high Mountains, thick Forests and frightful Wildernesses, and there are many
Rhinoceroses, wild Elephants, Buffaloes, Tigers, Crocodiles. Serpents; and many
other monsters are to be found ……. Having reached the neighbourhood of the
Watering-place on the inner side of the Island Dinding above-mentioned, we
immediately sent a good party of sailors to the Coast of Pera opposite to
procure firewood for our further Voyage to Bengal. The others went to Pulo
Dinding to fetch fresh water from one of the principal Rivers of the Island,
and we, not to be idle, went also on shore with a line of 80 fathoms and
brought up fish out of the Gulfs and Bays of the Island Dinding, going on board
in the evening with a good haul of all sorts of well-flavoured delicate fish.
In the same way, on the next day, the 30th November, our people still being
engaged in fetching water and firewood, we roamed all about and visited all
parts of the Island Dinding, taking at last a good haul; we remained on shore
all night with our Sub-Merchant Abraham de Wijs and others in the same way
inclined, and there we enjoyed our catch. Our people had pitched a capital tent
in the shady wood not far from the Beach and there we took our repast together
and were jovial, taking thought only for the present. Here on a dark night, on
an uninhabited Island, in the frightful Forest and vast Wilderness where there
were many Serpents and other monsters, we found so much pleasure that for this
once we managed to forget all the weary wanderings of the voyage to Bengal,
drinking after supper to the health of ourselves and our friends (even those
who were not drinkers), every-one taking a little glass one with
Next Part : Chapter V - THE DUTCH AND PERAK. Part [1]
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