Archives

by Derrick Schokman

A recent article in the "Daily News" by Lindsay Beck reported a series of events being planned to end the year 2002 to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Dutch in Ceylon - a commemorative stamp to be issued in late November, a seminar organised by a local think-tank and a Dutch film festival among others.

The Dutch were the second Western power to travel the fabled spice route from Indonesia to Europe. On May 31st, 1602 Joris van Spilberg, representative of the Dutch East India Company, reaches the east-coast with two vessels and waited on King Wimala Dharma Suriya in his capital at Senkadagala, now Kandy.

That was the beginning of political ping-pong between the Company and the kings of Kandy. It lasted 66 years until the Dutch were finally able to end Portuguese rule. The meeting between King and Spillbergen got off to an excellent start with an extravagant degree of warmth.

He sailed away 4 months later with the promise of unrestricted trade in exchange for military assistance to oust the Portuguese.

Vice Admiral Sebalt de Weert followed Spilbergen landing at Batticaloa and seeking audience with the same king. He declared that the Dutch were merchants who had come to India to obtain spice and precious stones in exchange for the goods they brought, and that they made alliances with the rulers of all the countries they visited to assist them to expel the Portuguese who were their enemy as well.

De Weert was killed in a drunken brawl while at Batticaloa and all negotiations were put on hold until 1610 when Wimala Dharma Suriya's cousin, Senerat succeeded him to the throne. Marchelis Michielson Boschouwer, the Company's messenger, stated that the Raja of Velore in India had made a treaty with them to permit free trade in exchange for military assistance to get rid of the Portuguese. He urged King Senerat to do the same, and a very favourable treaty was framed.

"When the Portuguese are turned out of Ceylon, they are out of India as the island is the centre of their power". So urged Boschouwer of the Directors of the Company. But they were slow to respond and nothing came of the treaty until Senerat's son Raja Sinha II ascended the throne.

Treaty

Another treaty was drawn up in Batticaloa in 1636. In the terms of agreement the king on the one hand had to pray for the military services of the Dutch in kind, and the Dutch in turn would act according to the king's wishes in providing such protection, always treating him as the Master in his own country and sole arbiter over his own subject.

It was in the observance of that treaty that there were differences between the two parties resulting in poor relations and final breakdown. The Dutch accused the king of not settling his dues, and the king accused the Dutch of deception in the way they conducted their military stratagems.

Ultimately the Dutch took control of the forts in Galle, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Kalpitiya, Negombo, Colombo, Mannar and finally Jaffna in 1668 to end Portuguese rule in Ceylon.

Ryckloff van Goens who captured Jaffna had ambitious views about the Company's power in S. India. He declared that "By God's Grace the company is now Mistress of Jaffnapatam and Ruler of the Island of Ceylon".

That ambition was never realised. The Kandyan kingdom remained independent, leaving the Dutch to rule the maritime region.

Burghers

Goens reporting the state of the country stated that, "the bulk of our colonists were formally soldiers and sailors and therefore uneducated people; they are only good at opening taverns and selling arrack. We ought to make Ceylon self-supporting so that it would dispense with goods from outside".

Governor Jan Maetsuycker was the first to contemplate the possibility of establishing a colony of Hollanders in Ceylon by encouraging the settlement of people outside the Company's service under the designation of Burghers.

When he left the Island to take up the post of Governor General, the Burghers were sufficiently numerous to supply a fair company of fighting men in case of need, and they received assistance in their professions as tailors and hawkers.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager