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Piracy and surreptitious activities in the and adjacent , 1600–1840

Y.H. Teddy Sim Editor

Piracy and surreptitious activities in and adjacent seas, 1600–1840

123 Editor Y.H. Teddy Sim Technological University , Singapore

ISBN 978-981-287-084-1 ISBN 978-981-287-085-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-085-8 Springer Singapore Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014947534

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

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Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword

I have been invited to write a foreword for Teddy Sim’s edited volume, Piracy and surreptitious activities in the Malay Archipelago and adjacent seas, 1600–1840,and I am happy to do that here. This volume is a small collection of essays triangulating around an important theme – the rise and pursuit of piratical and other non-state activities in Southeast in the Early Modern age. Though there have been some important treatments of this subject in the past, it is always a good thing to have more work appear on this complicated topic, which has interested scholars for a long time now. Following the oeuvre of Nicholas Tarling, James Francis Warren, Heather Sutherland and others, this book explores these phenomena on a region- wide scale, and across two and a half centuries. The essays take in the Straits of Melaka, the lower reaches of the South China , the Sulu basin, and parts of the western approaches of the Sea, all in one embrace. The sea connects, and that is readily apparent in this volume. Working through sources that cover Dutch, English, and Portuguese colonial archives, as well as through Malay and Chinese- language materials, the book will help scholars see the arc of clandestine activities that were pursued in this arena in a new-found chiaroscuro, or in high relief. By examining these activities as a whole and under one cover, one hopes that some of the overarching patterns of movement and economic decision-making become clear. Piracy and smuggling happened in all of these physical spaces and across this entire temporal band-width, and this volume shows us how that happened in both cases, geographically and over the course of time. The definition of “clandestine activity” deserves a quick note here. While it is clear that a number of regional and trans-regional peoples smuggled against the wishes of emerging colonial states in , and pursued maritime programs of piracy as well, it is less clear why this happened in individual situations. There is a temptation to read resistance into all of these projects: resistance against state-making and the foreign, as well as against the encroachment of the global economy, which had always been present in this part of the , but which became more and more apparent as we move toward the temporal end-point of

v vi Foreword this study. One of the virtues of this compendium is that it shows us how local these reasons for “deviance” could be – piracy and smuggling often took place under very specific circumstances. Local concerns often trumped larger, more super-structural circumstances, in other words. When we see the Portuguese, Malay, or local Chinese angle on politics or economics in these papers, they often show us this in clear detail. While it is the job of the historian to place events in context, therefore, it is also the task of interpreters of events to make sure that local mind-sets and reasoning factor into explanations as well. This is one of the real virtues of this volume. Taken as a collective, the essays presented here give us a strong sense of everyday logics in the bucking of authority in , whether this took place through piracy, contrabanding, or some combination of the two in the Early Modern age. I hope this interesting collection of essays will be read by those who find the political and economic history of these seas to be complex and provocative from a historiographical point of view. The editor has done an admirable job in gathering these article-length studies and introducing them for a wider reading public. One hopes that interpreters of the past of this part of the world will read these contributions, and then make use of them in writing their own histories of the region. They tell us a story of deception, avoidance, and confrontation on the high seas, one that is still to some degree with us, even today.

Cornell University, Ithaca, USA Eric Tagliacozzo December 2013 Preface

This edited book project is a result of three impulses. First, it is an extension of the interest (and research) I have of Macau and the sea space stretching southwards from the Portuguese port enclave. Second, it is an attempt to position the research of the as part of the research of greater Southeast Asia. To this initiative, I am greatly indebted to the encouragement by A/P P. Borschberg, an accomplished scholar who has always had time for younger compatriots in the profession. Third, it is part of the effort to seriously study the issues (of piracy and surreptitious activities) of which I am required to discuss in a Southeast Asian course I am teaching. The process of the involvement in the project has increased my appreciation of the region of Southeast Asia. Located between two culturally advanced regions (India and China), it is sometimes still easy to overlook developments in Southeast Asia despite the fact that the region is receiving more attention from scholars and research institutions. In relation to the phenomena of piracy and surreptitious activities investigated in this book, the difference between mainland and Southeast Asia or between the western and eastern archipelagic island regions Southeast Asia seems to confer a probable reason for distinguishing variant cultural zones, impacting on the activities occurring in the region. Similarities and differences existed in the piratical and raiding activities occurring in the sub-regions in Southeast Asia. Beyond the comparison, these activities from the different sub- regions were also intimately linked to one another. This edited book project would not have been accomplished without the com- mitment and perseverance of all the chapter contributors. Dr. R. Fernando provided feedback and advice on the entire manuscript; to this, I am deeply grateful. A/P T. C. Wong introduced me to Springer and provided advice on aspects of the book editing process. A/P J. L. Huang has always been a concerned mentor about the outcome of any project I undertake and provided advice along the way. Here, I like to take the chance to thank A/P Borschberg again for suggesting me to probe into the area of Southeast Asian history. A/P C. G. Ang and A/P M. Baildon, the ex and current head

vii viii Preface of academic group (AG), respectively, have been supportive of the research work I do at the Humanities and Social Studies Education AG in the National Institute of Education (Nanyang Technological University). The fruition of this project has been fortunate to receive the endorsement and support of Springer. The anonymous reviewers provided comments which helped improve the chapters. Miss Jayanthie Krishnan, Mr. Vishal Daryanomel, Mr S. Abilasha and staff at Springer have been most supportive and patient in the editorial and typesetting process. An external copy editor and cartographer, Miss Sunandini Lal and Mr. J. Chandrasekar, have also provided help in the crafting of a map and the editing of chapters in the book. Finally, my wife has been a main pillar of support throughout the assembling and editorial process of the book.

Singapore, Singapore Y.H. Teddy Sim February 2014 Contents

1 Studying Piracy and Surreptitious Activities in Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Period ...... 1 Y.H. Teddy Sim 2 Siak, Piracy and Early Modern Malay Warfare...... 19 Timothy P. Barnard 3 From Self-Defence to an Instrument of War: Dutch Privateering Around the in the Early Seventeenth Century...... 35 Peter Borschberg 4 Violence and Piratical/Surreptitious Activities Associated with the Chinese Communities in the Melaka –Singapore Region (1780 –1840) ...... 51 Sandy J.C. Liu 5 War-Making, Raiding, Slave Hunting and Piracy in the Malukan Archipelago ...... 77 Manuel Lobato 6 An Exploration into the Political Background of the Maguindanao ‘Piracy’ in the Early Eighteenth Century ...... 105 Ariel Cusi Lopez 7 Revisiting the Political Economy and Ethnicity of the Sulu Sultanate and Its Entanglement with the Seafaring World ...... 121 Chung Ming Chin 8 Iberians in the Adjacent Seas: A Survey of Their Piratical and Smuggling Activities in Relation to War and the Political Economy of the South China Sea...... 141 Y.H. Teddy Sim

ix x Contents

9 The Portuguese in the Adjacent Seas: A Survey of Their Identities and Activities in the Eastern Indian /Burman Sea ...... 163 Y.H. Teddy Sim

Maps ...... 179

Glossary ...... 183

Index ...... 187 Contributors

Timothy Barnard is an Associate Professor at the Department of History in the National University of Singapore, where he specializes in the cultural and environmental history of the . He has four monographs to his name and has published many chapters in books and articles in journals on an eclectic range of subjects on the Malay Archipelago from the history of warfare to that of film. Dr. Barnard is the author of Multiple centers of authority, a study of Malay political culture in eastern during the early modern period, and is currently conducting research on Malay film and dragons. Peter Borschberg is an Associate Professor at the Department of History in the National University of Singapore, where he has investigated widely on questions of the origins of international law, security and trade in the Straits region, as well as on the cartographical in the early modern period. Dr. Borschberg is the author of Grotius, the Portuguese, and Free Trade in the and The Singapore and Melaka Straits: Violence, Security and Trade in the Seventeenth Century and has recently released his edited book, Security, Trade and Society in Seventeenth-Century Southeast Asia. The Memoirs and Memorials of Jacques de Coutre. He is currently finalizing an edition of Admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge’s memoranda and letters touching on early Dutch expansion in Southeast Asia in the first two decades of the seventeenth century. Dr. Borschberg has been the recipient of several awards, fellowships and visiting professorships in Asia and . Chung Ming Chin his doctoral research, done during his candidacy at the National University of Singapore, is focused on the contemporary political economy of a certain locality in Laguna, . He worked as a researcher in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies of the University between 2001 and 2005, where he has presented a number of papers on various aspects of the subject. Other than political economy and food security, he is also interested in the history of the various regions of the Philippines . Dr. Chin is currently teaching History in a school.

xi xii Contributors

Sandy J.C. Liu is an independent scholar based in Singapore. She holds a Master in Strategic Marketing. Miss Liu’s professional work in private firms involving logistical services in China and Southeast Asia has led her to develop deep interests in the trade/business activities and networks of coastal China and the Nanyang during the nineteenth century, of which she has co-authored two articles, such as in the Journal of . Miss Liu was involved in museum guiding at the Peranakan Museum of Singapore. Manuel Lobato is Titular Researcher at the Portuguese Institute for Tropical Research (IICT, Lisbon) since 2004. His Ph.D. thesis (in Portuguese) is enti- tled “Trade, conflict and religion, Portuguese and Spaniards in the Moluccas, 1512–1618.” He was Vice-Director of the IICT’s Center of History (2008–2012) and Invited Lecturer at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Catholic University of Portugal (2009–2013). He is the author and editor of seven books and more than 100 papers on the history of the Portuguese in Mozambique and the Eastern African coast, India, the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago and to the nineteenth century, most notably, Mestiçagens e identidades intercontinentais nos espaços lusófonos (Braga: NICPRI 2013). ArielCusiLopezobtained a bachelor’s degree at the University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman, and at Leiden University. At Leiden, he continued his master’s and is now enrolled in the Ph.D. programme. He was an Instructor in history at the UP from 2007 to 2011 where he was also part of the team that reviewed the history textbooks used in the Philippine public school system. He has published in the Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs and Social Science Diliman. He is interested in the interconnections between southern Philippines, north and Maluku in the early modern and colonial period. Y.H. Teddy Sim is currently lecturing at the Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has published on specific involvements of the Portuguese in the East/ in the eighteenth century and nineteenth centuries. He is the author of Portuguese Enterprise in the East: Survival in the Years 1707–57. On the trade activities and network in the East, Dr. Sim is also interested in the other groups operating in the region, most notably the diaspora Chinese, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.