CHAPTER FOUR

FROM REBEL TO SULTAN

The conquest of

In May 1796, Prince Nuku was busy consolidating his forces which required moving constantly between Gebe and Patani. His campaign to overwhelm North was launched in the second half of the year. When Nuku’s Alifuru troops from Gita landed on Makian, Sultan Kamaludin asked Governor Budach for some six-and-a-half-pounders and six-pounders with the requisite ammunition to be able to defend himself.1 Sultan also reported that a party of Nuku’s men had landed on Makian. The crews of these thirty vessels plundered and burned the villages, killing those inhabitants who had no stomach to join the rebellion. Determined to counter this, Hukum Mohibu of Tidore mobilized ten kora-kora, equipped with 8 four-pounder and 22 two- pounder cannon, 10 small barrels of ammunition, and 20 guns.2 Prince Nuku now felt the time had come for psychological warfare. He sent a letter, signed by himself and three English country trading captains, to Sultan Kamaludin who passed it on unopened to the Governor. Nuku intimated that he had allied himself with the English who were providing his fleet with plenty of munitions. The English flag was now raised at Maba. He made Kamaludin an offer to join his forces, but the Governor did not deign to reply to this ‘outrageous’ letter, and instructed his sub- jects to remain vigilant, awaiting the imminent attack. The beach batter- ies were prepared. Reinforcements were sent to Forts Kayu Merah and Tolukko.3 Meanwhile Sultan Aharal of Ternate (r.1780–96) exacerbated the situ- ation. After having refused to attend a meeting with the Dutch Governor of Ternate to explain his wayward behaviour, he was arrested. He was sus- pected of having hatched a scheme to attack the Dutch and cross over to Nuku and the English. To their relief, the Dutch still had loyal collabora- tors within the Sultanate, who were themselves aspirants to the throne. The Ternatan Princes (Schoonderwoert, Jasim, and Beynun) betrayed their own Sultan who had written a letter, via Gula Manis, to Prince Nuku inviting him to Ternate. When it was discovered that he had pre- pared around 120 Alfurus armed with klewang (a kind of machete) for this purpose, Sultan Aharal was eventually banished.4 Although the Government of Ternate believed that ‘the treacherous behaviour of the 76 CHAPTER FOUR

Sultan was as clear as day’,5 instead of one of the three ‘loyal’ princes, he appointed Prince Sarkan Sultan of Ternate formally inaugurating him with the title ‘Paduka Sri Maha Tuan Sultan Nur Arifin Wahuwa Sayidina Muhidin Sah Kaicil Sarkan’, on 22 August 1796.6 Not long afterwards, Sultan Sarkan sent three kora-kora armed with Dutch munitions and with a European corporal on board to Wosi. Unfortunately they were prompt- ly attacked by Nuku’s raiders. By now everybody on the Dutch and Ternatan side agreed that ‘with all means of violence we cannot achieve anything’.7 Communications became extremely difficult for the Dutch Government on Ternate. It took a pancalang from Batavia no less than a year to reach Ternate. Budach tried to send a letter reporting his parlous situation with a Makassarese, but Prince Nuku happened to waylay his pancalang in the Strait of Bacan and intercepted this message.8 On 13 March 1797, with the help of English country traders,9 Prince Nuku, with fifty vessels big and small, laid siege to Bacan.10 The process of occupation took more than a week. Reportedly, on 16 March, Nuku’s allies, the English country traders, demanded the post-holder Van Diest surrender his redoubt but he refused to do so. Four days later, on 21 March, the redoubt manned by a corporal, cannon, and five soldiers submitted. Governor Budach wrote to Batavia that the post-holder at Bacan had initially refused to surrender but because of the treachery of the Bacanese, he had been obliged to do so. Prince Nuku’s fleet also attacked and burned Christian villages. When they requested the English to help them kill all the Christian inhabitants, they met with a stern refusal.11 Two days later, when Prince Nuku, the Prince Regent, and the English were examining the fortress, a sergeant of Labuha reported that Nuku’s people had detained two Christian women. The English demand- ed Nuku release the detainees and hand over the people who had been responsible for the outrage. As a punishment the English tied the perpe- trators to a flag pole.12 Nuku, assisted by these country traders, proceeded to lead a fleet of seventy kora-kora to Tidore, where they made their appearance on 12 April 1797.13 Instead of joining Nuku’s force, as Patra Alam had done during the ‘Tidoran Revolution’ in 1783, Sultan Kamaludin and the Dutch garrison abandoned Tidore and fled to Ternate on five kora-kora. Nuku’s followers plundered what remained, especially gunpowder, and eventually destroyed the Dutch military post.14 The Ternate Government allowed the Sultan and the refugees to remain on Ternate under their pro- tection, but on the same day, in the middle of the night, three of the five kora-kora left Ternate again, and joined Nuku’s forces. Commenting on the escape of the three vessels to Tidore, Governor Budach said: ‘No Tidoran can be trusted.’ Consequently the presence of the remaining two kora-kora was no longer tolerated.15 Kamaludin, the Tidoran princes, royal