> Research Colonial or indigenous rule? The black Portuguese of in the 17th and 18th centuries

From the late 15th century, the Portuguese created a far-flung political, religious and economic network in maritime Asia, where Portuguese men often married Asian or mixed-blood women who were Catholic by birth or conversion. The resulting mestiço groups constituted a ubiquitous and important presence in Portuguese Asia for hundreds of years, as they became instrumental in maintaining relations with indigenous Asian societies. One interesting case is the or black Portuguese population on Timor, which enjoyed a pivotal role on the island in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Hans Hägerdal century and later moved to Larantuka even headed military expeditions. Dutch The fall: from officers to petty on East – both places were step- reports repeatedly complain about kings to ‘Black Foreigners’ he scattered complex occasion- ping stones to appropriate sandalwood ‘Roomse paapen’, or Catholic padres, For the Topasses, the 18th century was Tally known as the Portuguese ‘sea- and other commodities on Timor. In the who easily influenced local populations filled with conflicts with the Estado da borne empire’ was directed in Asia mid-17th century they began to move to to the detriment of Dutch aims. Índia, which imposed Goa-appointed by its colonial organisation Estado da the Lifau area on the north Timor coast. governors who settled in Lifau begin- Índia, based in Goa, India, but its con- This modestly sized group, which was The rather few priests operating in the ning in 1702. Although the Hornays trol over Portuguese activities was less moreover hostile to the Estado da Índia -East Flores-Timor area were able and Da Costas managed to expel the than complete. Rather, it was but the for long periods, was able to prevail and to strengthen the Topass sphere of influ- white governor from Lifau in 1769, formal aspect of the Portuguese pres- retain a Portuguese identity owing to ence through their activi- their power had been on the wane since ence. Almost from the beginning of four factors: ethnicity, religion, political ties. In the 1620s, 1630s and 1640s, 1749, when they suffered a major defeat the Portuguese enterprise in Asia, mer- structures and the group’s place in the an intense flurry of conversions swept against the VOC in western Timor. The chants and soldiers acted outside the early colonial system. West Timorese rajas into Catholicism. conflicts deterred traders from Macau auspices of the Crown. Much of this was obviously superficial, and emboldened Southeast Asian ‘Blacks with shotguns’ and but at the same time conversion implied Chinese to increase their economic Portuguese society contained an ele- ‘hanging trousers’ a political approach to solidifying the networks on Timor to the detriment ment of racialist thinking, but it is not The ethnic composition of the Topass- Portuguese colonial empire, where the of the old Topass-dominated system. enough to look at indigenous Asians es was constantly changing, and this institution of the Portuguese kingship Towards the end of the 18th century using European perceptions of human relates to the ethnic perceptions preva- in Lisbon was symbolically important in their influence was mainly confined to categorisation. Rather, we must put the lent in Southeast Asia until fairly recent spite of its obvious distance. the -Ambeno enclave and Lar- Portuguese groups in Asia in a localised times. At this time there was no propa- antuka, and the Hornays and Da Costas context, exploring how they adapted gation of a racial hierarchy based on That leads to the third factor in Topass emerged as local petty kings of Oecusse to indigenous conceptions. For while alleged intellectual or other properties. retention of Portuguese identity, the rather than just colonial officers. Portuguese newcomers to Asian waters It was entirely possible to alter one’s A “Topas” or “Mardick” with his wife. political development of the Topass prided themselves on their whiteness ethnic belonging, thus it was possible From a sketch by Johan Nieuhof, published in his work community. From the late 16th cen- Was, then, Topass rule on Timor coloni- and discriminated against mestiços, for people of all skin colours to become ­Voyages and Travels in the East Indies 1653-1670. (1682). tury the mixed group on Solor was led al in any meaningful sense, or is it more whites and mestiços both were seen as members of the Topass community. by officers with the title Capitão Mor, judicious to regard it as a basically indig- Portuguese, not least in the eyes of their Topass leaders, the Hornay and Da the Topasses. A 1659 report by a Dutch while the main title-holder in the 18th enous power? Arguments support either Asian neighbours. In what is conven- Costa families, descended from a North official notes some 300 Topasses on century became Tenente General. Owing position. Documents from the heyday tionally called the early modern period, European and a Pampanger (Filipino), Timor, of whom few were white or of to the non-existence of the Estado da of Topass rule, from the 1650s to 1702, roughly 1500-1800, religious affiliation respectively, which exemplifies both the mixed race; the great majority were Índia in these waters before 1702, the reveal a rather loosely structured tribute frequently constituted a more important breadth of their ethnic origin and the ‘blacks with shotguns’. Thus locals choice of leaders was made locally. A system, the tuthais, that was adopted marker of identity than physical features. possibilities of advancement regardless acquired a Portuguese identity and kind of dynastic dynamics evolved after from the local Timorese principalities. Thus the Catholic creed was the funda- of skin colour. The mixed community proficiency in European weaponry, 1664, when the Hornay and Da Costa This may seem more like a pre-colonial, mental denominator of Portuguese- that arose in Solor and later Larantuka which was important when the main families ascended to the leadership. rent-seeking practice than colonial rule ness in Asia, and since most people of was thus reinforced during the 17th Timorese weapon was still the assegai. These two families ruled in turns up (in the sense of a systematic subordina- Portuguese descent retained a marked and 18th centuries. The sources of such A 1670 Franciscan report attests that to modern times in the Oecusse area tion in order to produce economic and Portuguese identity, intermarriage was a demographic reinforcement were sev- the was spoken in in north-western Timor. Their genealo- other benefits to an external nation or means to establish a loyal Catholic com- eral. Larantuka by the local population, and gies are insufficiently known, but it’s power). In general, the Topasses may munity in Portuguese posts. that locals educated by the Portuguese clear that they regularly intermarried not have been terribly different from the One, oddly enough, was the great rival community identified themselves as after 1700. From the second half of the majority population, and for the most Timor was economically attractive to of the Portuguese, the VOC, because ‘Portuguese’. Even Timorese princes 18th century, moreover, they intermar- part they were of course of Timorese or external powers owing to the trade in numerous defections from VOC out- were at times categorised as Topass- ried with the Da Cruz royal dynasty of East Florenese blood. sandalwood and beeswax. It was also posts and ships took place in East Indo- es and behaved in a fashion that ran Ambeno on whose traditional domain known for problematic geographical nesian waters. Conditions for VOC serv- contrary to traditional Timorese codes they settled. It is interesting to note that On the other hand, it is also true that conditions, which made the means of ants in these faraway places were often of conduct. It was possible to enter the Hornays and Da Costas, apart from there was a close relationship between subsistence and even access by sea cum- miserable, which made desertion a dan- the ethnic category of ‘Portuguese’ a few brief periods, were not violent Topass governance and the colonial sys- bersome. The island’s multi-ethnic soci- gerous but attractive alternative. Such by adopting certain markers, such as rivals, but rather peacefully co-existed. tem managed by Portuguese traders, ety possessed primitive technology and desertions are known to have taken language, profession (soldier, adminis- By the early 19th century, they even particularly from Macau. The rationale was divided into innumerable princi- place both in times of war and peace trator, trader) and clothing (the Dutch signed contracts jointly. for external interference on Timor – the palities. Still, it was on Timor and some until 1730. Very few instances have know the Topasses as ‘hangbroeken’, sandalwood trade – demanded coopera- surrounding islands that the name been found of Portuguese deserting to meaning ‘hanging trousers’). All this, The Topasses were able to dominate the tion between a polity able to secure reg- of was preserved, while its the VOC side, though suppressed Portu- again, accords well with the flexible most important West Timorese prin- ular shipments and traders from other other South-East Asia possessions were guese clients on Timor sometimes did. Southeast Asian way of alternating cipalities from around the mid-17th Portuguese-controlled Asian ports who knocked off by the Dutch East Indies between ethnic identities. century. In 1670, they undertook expe- appeared on a likewise regular basis. Company (VOC) between 1605 and The non-official aspect of the mixed ditions to the eastern coastlands and Timor therefore was included in an early 1641. This is the more remarkable since Portuguese community was also under- Padres, generals, wife-giving brought them into a superficial state colonial system built on a superficial but the Estado da Índia had few resources scored by the social position of white and -taking: consolidating of submission. By the late 17th century often heavy-handed domination over to spare for the marginal Timor. The Portuguese who joined their ranks. A power through religion and they thus had a very strong position on the innumerable Timorese principali- number of whites on the island was 1689 Dutch colonial report characteris- politics Timor, while the Dutch were confined ties. That the Topasses were something never large. Moreover, since 1613, the es them as pennyless people and runa- More than blood, religion was the to the island’s westernmost parts. One apart is also reinforced by a study of local Portuguese had to contend with Dutch ways, which implies that they were on more profound identity marker; one important aspect of this was their mar- Timorese traditions recorded over the interests in the Timor area, though the the margins of white society. Another is reminded that the very word ‘ethnic’ tial culture, which was even able to last two centuries. In spite of being over- Dutch, too, allocated few resources to Dutch colonial report, from 1665, men- in early modern European dictionaries include members of Timorese aristoc- whelmingly Timorese in terms of ethnic this far corner of Southeast Asia . tions prisoners from Cochin and Can- referred to something pagan or non- racies. Another aspect was their ability origins, the Topasses were and remained nanore, most of whom were presuma- Christian, rather than something relat- to act as wife-givers and wife-takers. The in the eyes of Timorese posterity Kase Part of the eternal question of how the bly Indian Christians or of mixed blood, ed to racial origin or material culture. Topass leader Mateus da Costa (d. 1672) Metan – the Black Foreigners. < Portuguese managed to hang on in who ended up in Lifau. It is apparent Dominican priests, who enjoyed a role married a princess from the principality Timor for several hundred years lies that people who the Estado da Índia in Topass society that was not restricted of Amanuban, which in the Timorese Hans Hägerdal precisely in the dynamics of the Topass- wanted out of the way were sometimes to religious service, demonstrate reli- system placed him into a strategic posi- Senior Lecturer in History, Växjö University es – a term probably connected to the sent to the Timor area. gion’s role in the reification of Topass tion vis-à-vis his in-laws; as a wife-taker [email protected] Indian ‘du-bashi’, meaning ‘bilingual’ or identity. Documents contain many hints he was expected to support the latter, ‘interpreter’. Their mestiço community However, locals from Timor and the of the great devotion Topasses exercised but he also found an important base in evolved in nearby Solor in the late 16th surrounding islands were able to join toward Dominicans, who sometimes Amanuban for fighting his rivals.

2 6 IIAS Newsletter | #44 | Summer 2007