CHAPTER 2. COLOMBO UNDER DUTCH RULE (1656 - 1796)
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16 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period
CHAPTER 2. COLOMBO UNDER DUTCH RULE (1656 - 1796)
"The image of the eastern society reflected in travel literature of Valentijn's age was a combination of the exotic, the bizarre, the revolting and the fascinating" - S.
Arasaratnam, Francois Valentijn's Description of Ceylon, 1978)
The Portuguese occupation of Colombo came to an end with the siege of the fort in
May 1656 under the direction of General Gerard Hulft (after whom Hulftsdorf, an
area of Colombo is named). Raja Sinha II, the king of Kandy enlisted the help of the
Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-lndische Compagnie or the VOC) who
were in Java and Sumatra at the time, in ridding the island of the Portuguese
menace. The Dutch laid siege to the fort for seven months in order to wrest control
from the tenacious Portuguese.
The Fort Under Siege 'The siege of the important town of Colombo, under the command of the Noble
Gentleman Gerard Hulft'. The map drawn by Baldaeus, a Dutch missionary in 1672
(de Silva & Beumer, 1988).
The map (figure 9) shows mainly the Dutch positions during the siege. It shows the
dry ditches and the barrier built to cut off the Portuguese retreat from a southern
gate called "Poorte Mapane" which opens towards the present Galle Face and the
cannon positions in batteries of four and six cannons directed at the fort. The living
quarters of senior officers are marked by name. We can therefore assume that Hulftsdorp (meaning Hulft's village), the site of the present day Supreme Court and
the centre of legal activity, is to the east of the fort marked as the quarters occupied
by General Hulft, from whom this area gets its name. The map also shows the spot
where Hulft died due to enemy fire, a month before the fort was captured.
17 ' y ^ i n- Cv. *..C«
Figure 9:
'The siege of the important town of Colombo, under the command of the Noble Gentleman Gerard Hulft' ' a>
1. The quarters occupied by General Hulft and Governor van der Meyden 2. The church Agoa de Lopo, the quarters m of Major van der Ijian 3. Quarters of Lt. de Mof and the Mardijkcrs 4. Battery of 4 cannons 5. Xosso Senhora de liberament 6. 7. Lieutenants Kint, Christojfel ■ .v > 8. S. Sabastian 9. 13, 21. Lieutenants Alibier, de Wit and Schert zSLi 10. ‘Papen Huys’ (Monastery) 11. Mortars 12. Javanese quarters 14. Batteries of 2 pieces of artillery 15. S. Thomas 3 16. Batteries of 6 cannons S3 17. 18, 19, 22. Quarters of Captains Cuylenburg and Gerritz; Lieutenants Ketclaer and Gemt 20. Lt. Aerl's redoubt 23. Bridge over the lake 24. U. Poulos with his line of approach 25. Our gallery in which Mr. Hulft was shot 26. The enemies' defensive barrier 27. Outer redoubt 28. Bonier built by the Dutch to cut off Portuguese retreat from the gate of Mapane 29. .-I dry ditch
From Baldaeus, 1672
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A ;-’C AS- CWs ifAHerie. yJ.v in X- .*Tvr '$• siSfbj/tuc* it ! $■ L rnctmmt . fSfar J b. Tift JTrufftr Jtcbr t:7V ■ 1 jj y.y'** %\frt 1 jt Ulcrtutv* JU-I st,4 Jt'H fa ■ ; ■ < Ji ■ tA. Architecture and Urban Planning Under the Dutch The first half century of Dutch rule, when Colombo and most of the other forts in Sri Lanka were built, coincided with the age of formalism in Europe, when the designs and plans of fortified towns were dominated by the rules of mathematics and geometry. These Dutch settlements were defended by a complex geometric layout of innumerable bastions, moats, gateways and drawbridges. Planned as self contained units they were equipped with such amenities as berthing facilities for sailing ships, warehouses, workshops, shipyards, barracks, armouries and powder magazines. Residential units of varying grades were provided for the higher civil and military officials. In contrast to the Portuguese, a church was invariably erected within the fortifications for the small Dutch Presbyterian community. Because Colombo was the administrative centre and its importance in the control of the cinnamon trade was considerable, the Dutch went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the town was well defended. The Dutch reduced the area of the citadel in comparison to the Portuguese, strengthening the defensible area and dividing the city into two parts, the Kasteel (citadel or castle) and the Oude Stade (the old town or outer city) which lay outside the main fortifications. This design was in line with other fortified towns in their colonies. The Kasteel confined more or less to the area now called the 'Fort', contained the offices and residences of the European community. It was divided into 12 regular blocks with streets intersecting at right angles. It was bounded by the sea on the west and the north, with nine bastions connected by strong ramparts which ringed the fort. The Oude Stade, the current Pettah, was inhabited by the indigenous population and minor Dutch officials. It included bazaars, shops and other amenities. The street layout of this zone was also planned on a grid pattern of 12 regular blocks. This resulted in long avenues with streets intersecting at right angles. 19 TH3082 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period ■5 CD 5 § to a; o u E -m roo?o°’>c-D'- iE^Js §^-—-§-^-2^1 s ^ g Sj'clt'S-c^SSo-BlsIsl-afltls'olls lll!llsilll||l||f!|!lll|fl!|I I s lilts I ||sip|^sf|«l3 So EiS li 1% n;> rl Hi2--■ 3 > fi^Ar IS j£j IfcipB- T v; K V i •• i i £ ? WM -• A {■ f j [V: a1- £»VWu ;1 PI ; vff '■i ,3-1 •! V." • '»tw "l ■ .: ■ A • ■. ttSI•r P Ut i tj ;! -.1 ^J#* * ,v .. ^ ;•: il" I /Jf i » > £ V - i ■••• m, & . - % % 'V* ;r. Si IS : 7 L-i ;WM ir ^. ■SI I *1 M . ^ r V *? ir ,■•> •< ro: si lii feu • *■’*! l ■ • */ ifIn ‘ji *v ; jpf \! /!..: i i T >> !. \; wjyil ; i >v' '] mn, :Al Q\“- ■ ’ '1 ! B.;: 1 ■' -- t • 20 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period Along each street was a continuous row of single storey buildings with pitched roofs having low eaves supported by slender timber columns on verandahs which were raised to a considerable height off the street. This deep verandah was approached by a flight of steps leading to immense doorways and windows of oversized timber members placed axially on the facade. The typical street scene was therefore a long sequence of pillars diminishing in the distance in an endless colonnade. The difference between individual buildings was heightened by raising the boundary wall between each in a succession of masonry gables of different convolutions, shapes and sizes. Characteristic features of Dutch-period architecture in Sri Lanka are decorative gables, massive doorways, ornamental fanlights and timber colonnaded verandahs with an interplay of eastern and western motifs (Raheem, 1996). r SV&YA m I 233 ".r IP mi a □MO D VLd Ml o r rr Figure 11: Dutch House in Jampettah Street in the Fort. Architecture of an Island. 21 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period Early Dutch Colombo - - - MBBaa This very informative 1669 sketch (figure 12, Illustrations and Views of Dutch Ceylon 1602-1796) by Albrecht Herport, 'soldier and landscape painter*, shows the gallows square (near Kayman's gate) as the chief feature of the Pettah, which is clearly demarcated from the Fort. The small stream from lake to sea was later left to marshland, called the Buffalo's Plain. A causeway connects it with the bridge furthest from the sea, the other bridge being removed. The bastion between these bridges is Delft (between the Figure 13: The causeway leading to the Delft gate, which is the present Times and Gaffoor present day Main Street, looking from the Pettah to the Fort, buj,dings# the arch of thj$ with the Gaffoor building on the right, home.planet.nl 22 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period gateway has now been restored). In anticlockwise order may be seen: Leiden (the present passenger jetty), Amsterdam; the Watergate; Battenburg; and below this the Water Pas. There is a gate just beyond this which was later closed; then a section where the Portuguese stockades, their only seaward defence had not yet been replaced by walls, as far as the flagstaff on what is still Flagstaff Point. The Enkhuizen bastion is next, of which parts remain; and between this and Galle Gate is the Enkhuizen gate. Then follow Rotterdam bastion (now the Galadari Hotel) at the corner; and finally Hoorn, south of the present YMCA. Inside the fort, the Governor's House and the gardens behind it are shown prominently. To the right of this is the Portuguese Church of St. Francis (de Silva & Beumer, 1988). The Dutch Governor's Residence Figure 14: The view of the Honourable Governor's house from the rear garden, watercolour by C. Steiger c.1710 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (de Silva, & Beumer 1988). The Dutch Governor's residence was one of the Kasteel's most interesting buildings. Remodelled from a complex that originally housed a Portuguese church (the church of Misericordia) and orphanage, it retained some of the exterior architectural elements that characterized the late Indo-Portuguese style, such as the decorative balconies and the ornate gables. From the back verandah of the building, which faced south, a flight of steps led to its elaborately laid out sunken gardens, which 23 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period A 3 ig-S*» I » S i »•** * 1 . ^ ^2BESZBSSESSBS37| 1 rsiisiiaml ca ; S3 \ ■ H I J?«n1;ll6>sSlf 11 II IKSUfe I II I I I I I IIlllllll K Bill flyjgiBiB talliKg ■■lllimimi Figure IS: The Governor's house and the ground plan for the back garden, by Francis Valentijn, a minister with the VOC, in 1726 (de Silva & Beumer. 1988). 24 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period demonstrated the Dutch interest in horticulture and tropical botany, with pavilions, pools, fountains and flowerbeds, which were landscaped in a manner reminiscent of 18 century town gardens in the Netherlands. These extended to the present Presidential Secretariat; they were subsequently drained and filled up. Sluice Gates The land to the east of the Fort was later made bare and called 'Buffalo's Plain' and used as a defence mechanism for the Dutch fort by opening the sluice gates that held back the lake waters and flooding it. t.tWi'M/r • X..-N- This Dutch sluice (figure 16) bears a granite plaque with the words 'De Beer AD 1700' as seen in the right foreground of the watercolour by C. Steiger c.1710 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (de Silva & Beumer 1988). In this view is seen two of the Dutch bastions (Hoorn and Delft) and the decorated town gate in the middle, approached by a bridge with two arches built over a ditch. The gables of the Governor's mansion and fort church are seen above the ramparts. To the right is part of the Pettah with the causeway connecting it to the fort gate. 25 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period Dutch Landscaping The word 'landscape' has its origin as a Dutch painters' term c.1600 meaning "painting representing natural scenery," from Middle Dutch landscap, from land "land" + -scap "-ship, condition", (www.etymonline.com) The Dutch have demonstrated that they were remarkably thoughtful city planners, transportation designers, and urban horticulturists with their vast network of tree- lined canal systems. The VOC transposed their model city template, Amsterdam - with its well paved streets and canals, lined with trees, homes and warehouses - to their new colonial trading cities in Asia, Africa, South America, and New Amsterdam in North America. Figure 17: Batavia, present day Jakarta c. 1780 showing its rows of equally spaced trees, www. wikipedia.com The most famous of these Dutch colonial tree-lined canal cities was Batavia - now Jakarta, in Indonesia. Colonial cities had to function in relative independence. Batavia, the unofficial capital of the Dutch colonial cities, was apparently spectacular. In 1715 a British sailor wrote: canals run through several streets of Batavia whereby it is rendered both Large neat and cool. On each side of this canal is planted a row of fine trees that are 26 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period always green, which, with the beauty and regularity of the buildings, make the streets look very agreeable so that I think this city...one of the neatest and most beautiful in the whole world (MacDonagh, 2013). Maps of other Dutch colonial cities also show streets and canals lined with trees: Kaapstad (Cape Town) in modern South Africa; Paramaribo in Brazil; Ambon and Surabaja in Indonesia; Cochin in India; and Galle and Colombo in Sri Lanka. Fieure 18- Map of the fort in Colombo by P. Foenander, Provisional Lieutenant and Land Surveyor in 1785, showing a similar pattern of trees as the map of Batavia above. Brohier, Land. Maps & Surveys 27 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period Travellers' accounts like the one above give us a portrait of street scenes in different Dutch colonies. Surgeon Ives, a British naval officer, who visited the Colombo fort in 1757, by which time it was fully developed wrote: The town of Colombo is situated on a gentle rising ground, the Soil is red sand mix d with Black Shining Gravel wch is become perfectly hard in all the Streets, wch are all judiciously contriv'd wth easy Ascents and Declivities, so that no Inconvenience arises even from the greatest Rains. The streets are very wide with a beautiful Row of Trees. On each side and between them and the Houses is a very smooth and regular pavement. Between the Trees is a very fine Verdure (lawn)...the Streets are all at right Angles, and ye whole so elegantly dispos'd ...and we could not help admiring ye Wisdom and Genius of ye Dutch (Brohier, 1984). Figure 19: Suriya, Thespesia populnea from the Hortus malabaricus I. Fig. 29, 1678 book-keeper for the VOC, writes an account in 1681 of the Christopher Schweitzer, a Dutch Fort in Colombo, "The Castle is adorned within on the ramparts and in the with many trees, like nut trees, but they bear no fruit, only hang the whole streets, 28 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period year full of scentless yellow, red and white flowers, very like tulips. " According to de Silva & Beumer, 1988, these trees are Thespesia populnea or Suriya, which resembled elms and were planted by the Dutch to transform the busiest streets into pleasant avenues and leafy boulevards. Finally, a traveling Englishman named John Barrow saw Cape Town (Kaapstaad in Dutch) in 1797, when it had been recently acquired from the Dutch by the British. He observed that The town...built with regularity and kept in neat order; is disposed into straight and parallel streets, intersecting each other at right angles. Many of the streets are open and airy, with canals of water running through them, walled in, and planted on each side with oaks..." Based on Barrow's next description of Stellenbosch, 30 miles from Cape Town, these street and canal tree plantings were getting adequate soil volumes, "...It is laid out into several streets or open spaces, planted with oaks that have here attained a greater growth than in any other part of the colony, many of them not being inferior in size to the largest elms in Hyde Park (in London) (MacDonagh, 2013). The Dutch as master landscapers are described in the ingenious example below: Famously flat Holland had no visual cues on its landscape to show barge pilots where their canals were relative to each other, nor any way to judge distance or to signal an oncoming barge at an intersecting canal. Floating barges achieve forward momentum slowly, and require the same amount of time and distance to slow and stop. Barges don't have brakes, they use either ropes tied to tow horses on the towpaths, or in windy Holland, sails. The horticulturally inclined Dutch flanked their countryside canals with rows of evenly spaced, fast growing, water loving (hydrophytes), fastigate trees: Poplars (Ipopulus), Lindens (Tilia), and Willows (Salix). These tall, highly visible trees provided for Dutch barge boat pilots on the flat "polders." For a perfect canal signal system example, oncoming beiges could see that 12 trees to the canal intersection, planted 600 feet for one barge, nine trees for the other barge. The 50 feet on-centre, was 29 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period nine trees barge is 450 feet away from the intersection, therefore the closer barge has the right-of-way. Figure 20: Canal in Amsterdam, Jan van der Hayden, late 17th century. Wikimedia commons These hydrophytic trees demanded massive amounts of water, and they dried out and stabilized sloughing canal banks damaged by waves, bumping barges, and horse's hooves. When the treed barge highways of the countryside moved into the cities, they brought their tree signal distance markers with them. Landscape and our aesthetic obsession with evenly spaced trees, is actually a result Architects, mundane intersection "Yield" or "Stop" sign of Holland's canals. - of the more (MacDonagh, 2013) 30 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period In the Vicinity of the Fort While the above pages have focused on the development of the Fort and Pettah, the following images give a glimpse of the surrounding areas. Hulftsdorp - Views of Hulftsdorp (Figures 21 and 22), as described in page 17 above, By Johan Wolfgang Heydt, an architect and draughtsman for the VOC in 1744 (de 'rTrrv\z-: • /vw". •/"« ,<*■•** •" IiVah/../, _ - ft A" •VC /• 7**m*»h/ I « yi.tltut l ...... / (/MfV «•*•« if. «*./•«*• H M. r.'.V/ h •+ryil'"Jir'9~ m. Chapter 2 - Dutch Period Silva & Beumer, 1988). The buildin gs are the dwelling of the Dissava of Colombo at Hu'ftsdorp. Tha iraas which a„ marked |n (he ^ staw ^ arecanut, ,.k, mango, tamarind, and young .Jambu„ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ are not sufficiently actor,,a ,o be Identified. Tba Sac0„d balow, show, Adam's Peak in the background, to the left. V/ . f<» ».*• i / '*• *«•••«• jC- ■SJ Colpetty (the present Kollupitiya) - The extract from the map below, shows the land and around Colombo with cultivations such as paddy (close to use patterns in Colpetty), clearly marked. Most importantly, it shows the Beira lake (known just as olonial times) before the reclamation of land by infilling reduced its 'the Lake' in c size considerably. 32 TO Chapter 2 - Dutch Period aw 5^r!‘/,J V •**•* */'/< *.‘j ‘,/i ! /.*/*/ ‘•/' U'* rt't'T r'3 t Jli;a §g>» S3 *»l ■s -#• Jgg^^ ta-v. Surrounding by C. C. Wohlfarth, land surveyor / mapmaker in 1750- Figure 23: VOC Map of Colombo and 1800 vjvjvj.lankapura.com 33 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period Botanical Studies Dutch physicians have been noted for their knowledge of botany, and Sri Lanka presented them with ample subjects for study. The Dutch planted several herbaria and botanical gardens in the Island. Figure 24: Cinnamon, engraving from Hortus Malabaricus, 1678 It was in the 16th Century that Europeans began to seriously study Sri Lankan Flora. Dr. Paul Hermann, 'ordinary and first physician' to the VOC, The first of these was who was in the Island from 1672 to 1679. He collected and dried plants, researched tested their effects and made skillful drawings. One of their indigenous names, Sri Lankan botany is the Museum Zeylanicum Hermann's most interesting works on f Plants indigenous .0 Ceylon, published in 1717. Hermann's sendees or Catalogue o meant in that he was the first to draw European attention to Sri Lankan botany is signi wealth of plant life in Sri Lanka; who first attempted to classify the flora of the to the lied material for the research of other Island and whose considerable collection supp and John Burman. eminent botanists such as Linnaeus 34 Chapter 2-Dutch Period > r Figure 25: Talipot Palm from Horti Malabarici, no longer a common sight in Sri Lanka. The tree bears fruit only once in its lifetime when it is between 40 and 50 years old. Mention must also be made of John Burmann M. Dv Professor of Botany in the Medical Gardens of Amsterdam who published the Thesaurus Zeylanicus in 1737, which contained 100 engravings of indigenous plants and of Adriaan van Rheede, author of the Hortus Malabaricus published in 1678-93. He spent much time in Sri of the main sources of reference for Linnaeus relating Lanka, and his work was one to the tropical flora of Asia. References inning of Modern Botany in India by Dutch in 16th Bhattacharyya P. K., 1982. Beg 18th Century. Indian Journal of Science. . Colombo: Ceylon 1951. Lands, Maps & Surveys Brohier, R. L., and Paulusz J. H. 0 Government Press. Colombo: Lake House Investments. Brohier, R. L., 1984. Chan9'n9Fa^°! %s8. Illustrations and views of Dutch Ceylon de Silva, R.K. and W. G. M. B®u™ ' s 1602-1796. London: Serendib Pu i 35 Chapter 2 - Dutch Period Hulugalle, H. A. J., 1965. Colombo - Municipal Council. A Cer>tenary Volume. Colombo: Colombo Lewcock, R. B., Sansoni B., and Senanayake, L, 1998. Architecture of Colombo: Lake House. on Island. MacDonagh, L. Peter, July 2013 History 0f Street www.deeproot.com Trees in Holland. Paranavitana, K. D. and R. K. de Silva, 2002 Maps and Plans of Dutch Ceylon. Colombo: Central Cultural Fund. 1996', 36