Conquest or collaboration in portuguese malacca from 1511 to 1521

1
Chapter ONE: Literature Review and Methodological Approach

Colonial studies witnessed a breakthrough with the examination of the language of
encounter and engagement, seen in the works of Anthony Pagden and Joan-Pau Rubiés.1
Both historians explored the formal mechanics behind the relationship between
colonizers and their subjects. Pagden made a key observation that trade was both more
profitable and safer than conquest.2 This suggests an end to a prolonged debate on the
reasons and intentions behind the advent of colonizers, which often unearthed common
rhetoric such as ‘for Gold, Glory and Gospel’.3 The focus moves from examining why the
colonizers went about expansion to how they managed to do it. The academic challenge
delves into the mechanism of such engagements and addresses colonization in a more
holistic manner.

However, the abovementioned historians have focused largely on the Spanish
encounter with the Native Americans in the New World. With regards to Asia, there
were extensive studies conducted by Holden Furber, Leonard Blussé and António
Saldanha concerning the various East India Companies in Asia. However, these occurred

1

Anthony Pagden’s “Dispossessing the Barbarian” in David Armitage (ed) Theories of Empire, 1450-1800,
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998) pp.78-98, and Joan-Pau Rubiés (ed), Voyages and Visions, (London: Reaktion
Books, 1999). Both would focus on the language used by Europeans to justify their engagement with the
respective indigenous population they encountered.
2
Pagden, Lords of all the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France c.1500-1800, (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1995) p.64.
3
In the Portuguese case, “feitoria, fortaleza e igreja” which means establishing the factory for trade, forts
to ensure security and the Church for the propagation of Christianity. Uka Tiandrasasmita, “The Indonesian

Harbour Cities and the coming of the Portuguese” in Indonesia-Portugal: Five Hundred Years of Historical
Relationship, pp. 54-63, edited by Ivo Carneiro de Sousa and Richard Z. Leirissa, (Lisbon: Centro
Português de Estudos do Sudeste Asiático (CPESA), 2001) p.54.


2
mostly in the later periods of the Colonial era.4 A luminary in the earlier period of
‘European Expansion’, Robinson suggested a comparative approach be used to assess the
efficacy of colonial venture by the different European powers.5 For example, he
contrasted the Dutch method of colonization to that of the Portuguese. However, separate
colonial contexts situated in different time periods contain divergent ideologies, and one
necessarily varies from the other.

Even in the same era, distinct approaches to colonization were adopted in various
parts of the world. The Portuguese asserted their own discourse on the ethical treatment
of the indigenous population in the early sixteenth century, which differed from the
practice of their Spanish counterparts.6 A vital contrast between the Iberian powers was
that the Spaniards were widely thought to be up against chiefly petty tribes, who were
constantly at war with one another. On the other hand, the variety of the Lusitanian
encounters ranged from the Great Mughal Empire in India and the Emperor of China,
down to the penghulus (village chiefs) on the island of Timor. The Portuguese could

4

Explicitly, one is referring to the United Netherlands East India Company (VOC) and the British East
India Companies (EIC) in the Malay Archipelago from the seventeenth century onwards. In David
Armitage’s Theories of Empire, one finds a collection of work largely focusing on Spanish, French and
English empires, where the focus was on early modern era with the Spanish in America and in the modern
era with the British Empire in India. Leonard Blussé (ed) Companies and Trade. Essays on Overseas
Trading Companies during the Ancien Regime, (Leiden: Leiden Research School for Asian, African and

Amerindian Studies, 1981) Holden Furber, Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient, 1600-1800, (Minneapolis:
Minneapolis University Press, 1976) and António Vasconcelos de Saldanha, Iustus Imperium: dos Tratados
como Fundamento do império dos Portugueses no Oriente, (Macao: Instituto Português do Oriente and
Fundação Oriente, 1997)
5
Ronald Robinson, “An interview with Ronald Robinson” in Leonard Blussé (ed) Pilgrims of the Past,
(Leiden: Leiden Research School for Asian, African and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), 1996) p.9.
6
Charles Boxer, “Portuguese and Spanish Projects for the Conquest of South East Asia, 1580-1600”, in
South East Asia: Colonial History, vol. 1, edited by Peter Borschberg, (London: Routledge, 2001) pp.12640. See also J.H. Parry, “The Right to Conquest” The Spanish Theory of Empire in the sixteenth century,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940) pp.12-26.


3
boast that they engaged every stratum of civilization in Asia by the end of the sixteenth
century.

Literature Review
Comparatively, less material has been written on the Portuguese sea-borne empire.
Considerably less ink was also spilt on the issues of the language of engagement even
though the Portuguese were the first Europeans to have mingled with the communities of
Asia and established meaningful trading relationships. Many of these relations were
continued and adopted by the subsequent colonizers. Arguably, the Estado da Índia left
behind a blueprint for both commercial and societal interaction with the inhabitants of
Asia.7 However, little credit has been given to the Portuguese for being the foremost in
establishing this link between Asia and Europe.

This was a result of how the history of the Portuguese in Asia has been perceived
and written. Firstly, the following questions had to be addressed: by whom is history
written and for whom is history written? For example, most Dutch and English sources

demonized the Portuguese as unrestrained, bigoted, promiscuous individuals, who
possessed no order or rights to colonize. Victors wrote history with a skewed hindsight.
It has been a conscious effort by the successors of Portuguese Malacca to claim that the
port city was in ruins after the wars with Aceh and Johore. In this way, any subsequent
developments were credited to these new colonizers. The Portuguese chroniclers did not

7

The term Estado da Índia literally means ‘State of India’. But it also represents the various Portuguese
administrations in colonies east of India.


4
observe this. Tomé Pires, Fernão Lopes de Castanheda and Duarte Barbosa conferred in
their writings that the Portuguese inherited a prosperous and thriving port.8

However, this dearth of historical coverage was partly the Portuguese own
undoing. The Estado da Índia rapidly fell from grace by the middle of the seventeenth
century to the Dutch in the Southeast Asia, losing Malacca in 1641. More importantly,
they never recovered to regain the prominence experienced in the early sixteenth century,
both in Asia and in Europe. This was one of the reasons why Portuguese presence in the
region had been scantly examined. This period in history has been more commonly seen
as a prelude to the ‘Age of European Expansion’. Many other prominent studies have
focused on the introduction of the East India Companies as the beginning of ‘the Age of
Commerce’.9 Some historians have even mocked the success of this Lusitanian ‘power’,
asserting that any success must be due to a failure of the Asians than an achievement of
the Portuguese.

In Asia a willingness to accept intruders and the lack of any
united opposition allowed Europe’s feeblest imperial state

to establish itself amongst the great and ancient powers of
civilizations. The Portuguese met no concerted resistance
from a world so immense, and inhabited by peoples of such
a diversity of races, religions and cultures as to preclude the
emergence of any single dominant maritime authority.10

8

Duarte Barbosa, The Book of Duarte Barbosa, vols.1 and 2, translated by Mansel Longworth Dames,
(London: the Hakluyt Society, 1921) Tomé Pires, The Suma Oriental and the Book of Francisco Rodrigues,
vols. 1 and 2, (especially vol. 2 on Malacca) edited and translated by Armando Cortesão, (London: the
Hakluyt Society, 1944) Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, História do Descombrimento e Conquista da India
pelos Portugueses, Livros III and IV, (The Princeps editions – 3rd edition) revised and annotated by Pedro
de Azevedo, (Coimbra: Coimbra University Press, 1928)
9
A term coined from Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1988).
10
Geoffrey Scammell, The First Imperial Age, (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989) p.78.


5
It was true that the Asians did put up a relatively weak resistance to the Portuguese
infiltration. But it was also their ability to illicit collaboration with the Asians, which
allowed them to gain a foothold in the local markets.

Portugal was the first European country to have colonies on both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean. To the east, they established a chain of fortresses stretching from
Mombassa in Africa to Nagasaki, Japan. The irony is that despite criticisms of the way
they administered their empire, the Portuguese still had nominal control over her colonies

for the longest period of time, with Macao only returning to China in 1999. For a
relatively shorter time span of a hundred and thirty years, the Estado da Índia governed
Malacca. The two other European colonizers ruled Malacca for a longer period of time
with the Dutch from 1641 to 1824 and the British from 1824 to 1957. At the turn of the
new millennium, Malacca has still been fondly remembered as the famed Portuguese
colony. From the promotion of Portuguese food (egg tarts) to traditional song and dance
in ‘mini Lisbon’ or A Famosa, the descendants marked their heritage. Speaking a
Malayo-Portuguese Creolised language, Patuá, they were also Catholics who especially,
celebrate the feast days of San Juang (John) and San Pedro (Peter) in June, on top of their
Easter and Christmas commitments. The survival of the thriving ‘Portuguese settlement’
served as a nostalgic reminder to the locals of their past interactions with the first
European settlers in Asia.11 The study of how their forefathers managed manage to leave
behind this legacy is intriguing. The Estado da Índia appeared to display what was
11

For more information of the Portuguese settlement, see />For an account of the survival of Portuguese culture in Southeast Asia, see Leonard Andaya, “THe
Portuguese Tribe in the Malayo-Indonesian Archipelago in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”, in
The Portuguese and the Pacific, edited by Francis A. Dutra and João Camilio dos Santos, (Santa Barbara:
University of California, 1995) pp.129-47.


6
termed as ‘soft power’, or a power not overt enough to be seen as dominating, yet able to
maintain a strong influence of the affairs of the city. In other words, the Portuguese
achieved a different form of relationship with their colonies where they need not control
them politically in order to benefit from them economically. Instead, they exploited the
self-interests of collaborators to help serve their agenda and needs.12

With regards to Portuguese overseas expansion writings, a caveat is placed on the
prejudice, which has been found in its official history. One of the foremost authorities,

Charles Ralph Boxer, author of Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion and the
Portuguese Sea-borne Empire and The Portuguese Sea Borne Empire 1415-1825,
expressed this as ‘National Catechism’.13 Portugal had been under Fascist rule for about
half of the twentieth century. During that period, many historians and publishers alike
were accused of being cashiered by the dictator, António Salazar.14 Consequently, their
version of history had been written with the aim of recapturing of the ‘Golden Age of
Portugal’, with special attention paid to Brazil and the New World. This nationalistic
overindulgence in the ‘Great discoveries’ of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries led to
exaggerated assertions. A contention was the “secrecy theses” which claimed that the
Crown managed to achieve these feats as early as the dawn of the fifteenth century.15 At

12

Ronald Robinson, “Imperialism of Free Trade” in the Economic History Review, vol. 6, (1953), pp. 1-55.
Charles Boxer, “Some Considerations on Portuguese Colonial Historiography” in Anthony Disney (ed)
Historiography of Europeans in Africa and Asia, 1450-1800 (London: Variorum, 1995) p.28.
14
B.W. Diffie, “Wise man from the West”, Pilgrims of the Past p.121.
15
ibid, p.120-1.
13


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the time of authorship, incumbent political or ideological leanings had to be separated
from the literature.16

More Portuguese scholars have moved their attention away from South America
to examine Southeast Asia. This was an attempt at understanding the intricacies and trials
of the Portuguese in starting an empire in the East. Luís Felipe Thomaz has written on

Malacca and the southern Indonesian islands. Jorge Alves wrote on the North Sumatran
port of Pasai, while Paulo Pinto explored the triangular relationship between Aceh,
Malacca and Johore. Ana Maria Guedes and Manuel Lobato have focused on the outer
areas of Pegu and Ava, as well as the Moluccas. 17

Autonomous history

Nearing the end of the second millennium, a greater involvement of Asian scholars to
write their own histories was witnessed.18 Greater collaboration has been seen with the
involvement of Western institutions such as Leiden University and Cornell University. In

16

See also Rosa Maria Perez, “Portuguese Orientalism: some problems with Sociological Classification.”
In The Portuguese and the Socio-cultural Changes in India 1500-1800. Edited by K.S. Mathew, Teotónio
R. De Souza and Pius Malekandathil. (Lisbon: Fundação Oriente, 2001) pp.8-11.
17
Alves, Jorge M. dos Santos, O Domínio do Norte de Sumatra: A História dos Sultanatos de SamuderaPacém e de Achém e das suas relações com os Portugueses 1500-1580. Lisboa: Sociedade Histórica da
Independência de Portugal, 1999, Ana Maria Marques Guedes, “Burma” Proceedings of the International
Colloquium on the Portuguese and the Pacific, A. Dutra and João Camilo dos Santos (eds) (Santa Barbara:
University of California October 1993), Maria Ana Marques Guedes, Interferência e integração dos
Portugueses na Birmânia, c.1580-1630, (Lisbon: Fundação Oriente, 1994) Paulo Jorge de Sousa Pinto,
“Melaka, Johor and Aceh” in Nouvelles Orientations de la recherche sur L’histoire de L’asie Portugaise
(Paris: Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, 1997), pp.111-133, and “Captains, Sultans and liaisons
dangereuses: Melaka and Johor in the late sixteenth century”, in Iberians in the Singapore-Melaka Area
and Adjacent Regions (16th to 18th Century) pp. 131-146. Edited by Peter Borschberg. (Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004)
18
Collaborative efforts could be seen in books such as, Sunait Chutintaranond and Chris Baker (eds.),
Recalling local pasts (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2002)

8
addition, more funds from Fundação Oriente and Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, along
with initiatives such as Towards A New Age of Partnership (TANAP), helped to push for
better cooperation between Asian and Western scholars. New generations of historians
were also reflecting on the colonial past from a more impartial standpoint. Now some
distance has been gained from those days of European colonization. Hence, Asian
scholars were more open to express certain concerns on the interpretation of their
histories. They attempted to correct the misunderstandings, which occurred from years of
historical misrepresentations. A benefit brought to the table has been the combination of
the experience of being raised on a staple of traditional folklore with the Western mode
of enquiry and methodology.

The call had been sounded for Asian historians to rewrite their histories, but not in
a nationalist way. The historian George Winius warns that,

Starting out with their national history, they [Asian
scholars] must go to European archives for it because
history is a European concept, and European sources are
often the best for studying their past. Once into their
colonial past, they realized that they are treating something
that is much larger than the history of their own country. 19

The studies made from European sources by Asian scholars also affected the way the
Europeans were portrayed to have come to Asia. For the Europeans, these studies have
emphasized the need for an overarching view and not simply a national view of what had

19

Georger D. Winius, “On Discovering the Expansion of Europe” (1991) Pilgrims to the Past, p.248.


9
been going on.20 Both the Europeans and Asians have recognized that European
Expansion from the sixteenth century gave direction and helped shape the modern world.

For if the modern Asian historian is writing History in the Western tradition, then there is
no more possible for him than for the ethnically Western historian to escape from the
Western “cultural heritage”, just as impossible for him to achieve an Asia-centric
perspective in this philosophically fundamental sense. If this is so, either nobody at all
can achieve an Asia-centric perspective, or everyone can.21

John Smail

Smail’s challenge was for historians of all nationalities to avoid being ‘centric’ on any
one form of history, like Nationalist history. A revision of nationalist history and a
reshaping of the social and political maps of the past, minus the biases of the nineteenth
century empire-builders and their twentieth century nation-state successors were required.
The old national story served its purpose in establishing the nation and had over-run its
course now. The key was to break away from the colonial framework through considering
social and cultural histories.22 There has been a demand for the other stories, other
narratives of the non-national subjects that appeared in abundance and waiting to be told.
Subaltern studies were gaining popularity, with ‘more recent’ historical works like
Professor James Warren’s study on rickshaw pullers gaining critical acclaim.23 It calls for
a drive away from writing a national history that was constantly about unities, such as
20

ibid., p.250.
John R.W. Smail, “On the Possibility of an Autonomous History of Modern Southeast Asia” in Laurie J.

Sears (ed) Autonomous Histories, Particular Truths, (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Center of
Southeast Asian Studies Monograph no.11, 1993), p.41.
22
Chris Baker, Recalling local pasts, p.169.
23
James Francis Warren, Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History of Singapore, 1880-1940 (Singapore:
Oxford University Press, 1986) ‘More recent’ also indicates the history that is closer to today. Professor
Warren was still able to use oral history to substantiate his findings as the history was within a generation
gap. The same cannot be said for this study of Portuguese history in the sixteenth century.
21


10
one nation, one race, one language, one capital, one crown, one culture and one story. On
a larger scale, globalization has been considered as the union of all the affairs of one
world. 24 But the reality was that when the Portuguese first achieved its maritime empire,
they always needed to contend with the challenge of localization and the different
languages and customs. The French had the school of thought, ‘mondialisation’, which
literally means ‘worldization’. The key difference between this and globalization was that
the latter often homogenizes. On the other hand, ‘mondialisation’ celebrated the
amalgamation of different cultures and practices. Along with hybridization, more
emphasis has been placed on the multiplicities produced by the collision between global
trends and local particularities. All this meant that a better understanding of the history of
sixteenth century Malacca was formed.

The problem with nationalist histories was best observed in Portugal and Spain
when they were under fascist control. The tight control on history resulted in opaque
accounts of their greatness in the fifteenth century. Nationalist historians wrote with the
purpose of reconstructing the “Golden Age” of the Portuguese Empire. They continued to
give explanations for the subsequent decline. This legacy had unfortunately been passed

down. The consequence was a gap seen in the writing of Portuguese history in Southeast
Asia. Initially, there were the accounts of the conquests of the Great Alfonso de
Albuquerque, then followed quickly by the corruption of the officials, which led to the
demise of the Estado da Índia. The ‘middle’ parts of their engagement with the local
communities and the problems in administration have been overlooked. Another disparity
laid in the tone, which this history has been written. The Nationalists concentrated on
24

Chris Baker, Recalling local pasts, p.170.


11
their great discoveries and benevolent rule, while the post-Colonialists underlined the
evils of Colonization and the barbaric nature of the first European encounter.

Defining Southeast Asia

The term ‘Southeast Asia’ is highly problematic. This expression only arose after the
Second World War with the Allied powers defining this region, to combat the Japanese
forces. In the history of earlier times, it was often used to refer to the areas bounded by
the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. The focus has primarily been on the Malay
Peninsula and the major Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. Much of the classical
Southeast Asian literature centered only on the success of certain ports or empires, such
as Palembang in the Srivijayan period, which assumed representation of the surrounding
areas. This totalizing mission created false unities and secretly reinforced the prominence
of the region’s key port cities. Southeast Asia could not be crammed into fixed
stereotypes of being tightly controlled from the center. 25

Southeast Asia is a political geography, which is more fractured, fluid and layered
than the pattern suggested by the ‘state’. Malacca was more than just a port city of a few

hundreds square kilometers. According to the geographer, Paul Wheatley, the boundaries
of the Malacca Sultanate stretched as far in the southeast of Lingga, as far south as Jambi,

25

Chris Baker, Recalling local pasts, p.169. For more on the post-World War II writings of Southeast
Asian history, see John Legge, ‘The Writing of Southeast Asian History’. Nicholas Tarling (ed.), The
Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, vol.1, (paperback edition) pp.1-50, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999) especially pp.15-23.


12
to the west of Rokan and to the north of Kelantan.26 From the Portuguese historian Luís
Thomaz’s perspective, Malacca was basically made up of three concentric circles of
influence.27 The inner one, around the port of Malacca consisted of territories ruled
directly by the sultan. The middle sphere had territories administered by the mandarins
and mendelika appointed by the sultan. 28 And on the outermost ring were the tributaries,
vassals and allied kingdoms, a few of which were ruled by kinsmen of the sultan. 29 It was
an intriguing web of relationships, mixed with numerous marriage alliances. The people
in these territories offered up crops and a variety of services including supporting the
military in times of war. In return, Malacca provided its dominions with protection, a
market for surplus crops and a share in its prosperity.30

Malacca was a port city where Tomé Pires found as many as eighty-four distinct
languages were spoken.31 The study of the diversity in these networks reflected on the
successive layers of historical experience that transgressed the well-established political
and ethnic boundaries and allowed for a richer discourse on the past.32 More

26

Paul Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese: Studies in the Historical Geography of the Malay Peninsula
before A.D. 1500. (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1961) p.310. Malacca region stretched from
Kuala Lingi (Acoala Penajy) in the north of Kuala Kesang (Acoala Cacam) in the south and extending
inland as far as the foothills of Gunong Ledang (Golom Leidam) the territory of Malacca comprised. p.317.
See also Emanual Eredia’s description, Description of Malacca and Meridional India and Cathay,
translated by Joseph Vivian Gottleib Mills, (Kuala Lumpur: Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society, 1997) p.259.
27
Thomaz, “The Malay Sultanate of Melaka” in Reid, Southeast Asia in the Early Modern era. (Ithaca:
Cornell University, 1993) p.76. These three concentric circles suggested by Thomaz, could be inspired by
the Mediterranean model by Fernand Braudel , “The Expansion of Europe and the Longue Durée”, in
Expansion and Reaction, edited by Henk L. Wesseling (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 1978) pp.25-6.
28
Mendelika or Malay Mandarin was the hired help to collect tributes for the sultan, which was paid in tin.
29
Among these tributaries were Rokan, Siak, Purjm, Kampar, Indragiri, Pahang, Tongkal and Linga, as
highlighted by the Portuguese chronicler, Tomé Pires, He would call them ‘seignories’ who would offer
tribute and supply men to the sultan of Malacca. Pires, Suma Oriental, vol.2, pp.262-4.
30
Thomaz, “The Malay Sultanate of Melaka”, p.77.
31
Pires, Suma Oriental, vol.2, p.269.
32
Chris Baker, Recalling Local Pasts: Autonomous history in Southeast Asia, p.5.


13
considerations were made for the traders, warriors, artisans and seafarers, who made up
this cosmopolitan city. A result was the examination of the significant role played by the
market to undermine the dominating authority of the central state.33 This was clearly seen

in Malacca, as the merchants were highly influential in dictating the policies in the town.

However, the opposite was seen in the drive by the central state to stifle and
control market forces in order to enhance its power. But in so doing, the authorities
denied itself and its citizens the economic benefits, which flowed from trade and
commerce. This resulted in the oppressed, or those who perceived themselves to be
oppressed, realizing better opportunities to move elsewhere.

34

This was seen in the case

of the foreign merchant communities residing in Malacca. Also, most of the people in
Southeast Asia possessed the option to flee and enter into new relationships with the
numerous kingdoms nearby. There were no strict land boundaries for these groups of
migrants. A clear example was the orang laut, who were sea nomads with little allegiance
to any land-based authority. Migrating and accepting the new obligations of the new
patrons were part and parcel of the lives of these mobile inhabitants. Sometimes, this was
done as a sign of protest over the existing regime.

33

ibid, p.7.
Micheal Adas, “From Avoidance to Confrontation”, in Nicholas Dirks, (ed), Colonialism and Culture,
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992) p.103.

34


14

Methodological Approach

Thomaz, an Orientalist, who was teaching a new generation of historians, showing them
how Portuguese materials can be used to study Asian history. He is gradually creating a
school of his own, not basically involved in discovery, roterios, or Governors-General
but trying to find out what the place of the Portuguese in Asia actually was.35
George Winius

Whilst many letters, manuscripts and documents about the Portuguese in Asia are still left
available to historians, the call now is to “read across the grain” to sieve out nuggets of
information.

36

They were then corroborated with the other sources to test its veracity.

The nature and identity of the information has also come under greater scrutiny, with the
knowledge of an author and the purpose behind the writing proving to be just as, if not
more important than the facts that are in it. For example, Thomaz noted that the Sejarah
Melayu focused on the dealings of the Court and not the merchant community or the
populace.37 The same has been said for the official Crown chronicles like the Suma
Oriental. On its own, these manuscripts cannot provide an exact portrayal of the
conditions of Malacca, as they were probably written by and for the elites. But when the
views and statements are corroborated with other European or Asian sources, then
threads of consistency and accuracy could emerge in the description of Malacca.

35

Winius, “On Discovering the Expansion of Europe”, p. 250.
A similar call was made be Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Polticial Economy of Commerce Southern India

1500-1650, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) p.254.
37
Thomaz, Early Portuguese Malacca, 1511-1580, (Macau: Macau Territorial Commission for the
Commemorations of the Portuguese Discoveries. 2000) p.11.
36


15
Another problem to note with the Portuguese manuscripts was that they have
often been written with a variety of underlying objectives. While most of the accounts
were official, some however, were personal stories of travelers and soldiers coming to
this part of the world.38 Both forms of narration had its flaws and often, they were greatly
exaggerated. A larger concern was the fair amount of hype seen in the official documents.
This was because the Estado da Índia had been operating from a very tight budget. Thus,
many officials in Malacca were understood to have blown up their accounts of the
importance of the places they conquered, so that they received more resources and men to
better enable their administration of the area.

Another problem was with the translations of the Portuguese documents. This
stemmed largely from the fact that Old Portuguese letter writing had disregarded most
grammatical structures. The chroniclers and travel writers of the past largely wrote their
accounts in the same way that they spoke. This brought about difficulties to translators in
deciphering the text. There are two kinds of translation to consider, with one being literal
and the other, interpretative. To effectively analyze sixteenth century Portuguese
documents involves both these kinds of translation. On the one hand, it was necessary
that the translator kept true to the original text. But on the other hand, considerations
must be made to the context of the writing. More contentiously, imagination might be
needed to better comprehend the message the author was conveying. This required a lot
of effort on the translator to possess knowledge of the local conditions then. Hence, the
translators must also be historians of that period and not merely linguists.

38

For example, Fernão Mendes Pinto, The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D.
Catz (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1984)


16

In addition, when dealing with Portuguese history, there has been an issue of
contention with the distance between the chroniclers from the scene of the action. In the
words of the Portuguese scholar, Garcia da Orta, “long distances make long lies.”39 The
premise was that the further away they were from the ground, the less accurate was their
terminology. A dilemma arose when the official chroniclers like João Barros, Diogo Do
Couto and Damião de Goes did not set foot in Southeast Asia. Yet from their base in
Goa, their extensive access to a variety of first-hand material made their stories more
reliable than the personal narratives of Mendes Pinto.

There are three categories of written Portuguese history, namely official,
unofficial (traders and soldiers’ accounts) and ecclesiastics. The reason behind this
stratification was related to the funding these history writers to whom they were
answerable. For example, the Christian missionaries focused mainly on the conditions of
conversions in these parts as they were supported by the Papacy. Of greater importance
was that a certain level of formality and different terminologies were attached to selected
official documents.

It was not sufficient to depend exclusively on Tomé Pires’ Suma Oriental to glean
all the information on Malacca in the early sixteenth century. Granted that Pires has been
widely regarded as the first Portuguese chronicler to travel throughout most of Asia, still
there are some grave errors and inexplicable omissions in his writings as well as his

39

Garcia da Orta, Colóquios dos Simples e Drogas da Índia, (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda,
1891) p.382.


17
portrayal of Malacca’s inhabitants. Pires was originally trained as a pharmacist and his
forte was in describing the spices and drugs, not the people and their activities. Other
detailed manuscripts, such as the letters of the Crown’s Italian envoy, Giovanni da
Empoli, have found little attention.40

The historian’s craft requires constant questioning of the attained information. An
example of questionable material written in the Suma Oriental was when Pires wrote that
four shahbandars managed the harbor of Malacca. But in the Undang Undang Melaka
(Laws of Malacca) the law states that the role of the shahbandar was a harbormaster and
provision was made for only one.41 If there were four shahbandars, this implied that the
conditions of the harbor then was so disorganized, that four people were needed. Pires
was possibly mistaken and the term nakuda (captain) could have been used instead. In
another instance, nakuda Begeau was a captain of the Gujarati merchants. Nakuda was
his title of captain. Yet Pires referred to him as a shahbandar. It made little logic as to
why nakuda Begeau was found away from his post in Malacca port, when he was
supposedly the harbormaster there. Paying notice to the terms Pires employed, gives a
more complete understanding of the events in Malacca.

Titles of references were important points of study. Other names worth
mentioning included Utimutaraja, who could not be treated as merely a Javanese leader.

40

See Giovanni da Empoli, Lettera, introduced with notes by A. Bausani, (Roma: Istituto Italiano per il
Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1970) and the unpublished dissertation by Laurence A. Noonan, The Travels of
John of Empoli: a study of a Florentine Trader in the service of Portugal 1503-1517, (Perth: University of
Western Australia, 1970)
41
Liaw Yock Fang, Undang Undang Melaka, a critical edition, (Leiden: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-,
Land- en Volkenkunde, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague 1976) p. 63-5.


18
The word “raja” had a similar meaning to the word “royal” and it was a title bestowed
upon only by a sultan.42 Etymologically, the other term muta (or muda) refers to young.
Hence, in other words, Utimuataraja was probably a Javanese prince residing in Malacca.
A fair amount of detriment has been brought about by these slight changes, which
occurred during the chronicling by the authors or in the paleography and translation.
Nonetheless, Pires’ work remains important to historians, as it still is one of the more
comprehensive guides to the conditions of the times. The solution was to adopt a more
critical eye to interpret the facts, especially in reflecting on the terms he used.

Arguably, the first European contact with Asia commenced as early as the fifth
century BCE with Herodotus. Or that the extensively recorded travels with Marco Polo in
the late thirteenth century showcased the groundbreaking feats of European interaction
with Asians. While one is not denigrating the success of the earlier encounters, the period
of Portuguese maritime expansion has still more significance as it marked for the first
time, mass numbers of Europeans, who uprooted themselves to travel to faraway places
and settle down. It was with the establishment of this colony of Europeans, over a long
period of time, that gradual changes in the political, economic and social structures
slowly slipped into Asian society.

42

João de Barros, Decádas, selected, prefaced and notes by António Baião, (Lisboa: Livaria Sá da Costa,
1946) p.242.


19
To footnote this period of history, or worse, to combine the Portuguese
colonization efforts with that of the Dutch and the British, was wrong. The Estado da
Índia colonized in a different manner as contrasted with the other Portuguese settlements.
It was remarked by the historian of Portuguese Brazil, B.W. Diffie, that

About two years later, I realized how little I could ever
know within the span of time I was supposed to complete
the book about the Far East. It is a totally different aspect
of Portuguese history, a different world to study.43

Hence, the comparative approach has been limited in its outlook and reflection of what
was present in Malacca at that time.

This work is an extension of an earlier thesis, “Collaboration and Co-dependence:
Portuguese Relations with the Indian and Chinese Communities in Malacca”.

This

previous work explores the similar themes of cooperation between the Portuguese and the
foreign merchants residing in Malacca. The main difference is the inclusion of the
indigenous factor with the Portuguese engagement with the Malays, who saw themselves
as the sons of the soil. Hence, this was the community that stood to lose the most in the
emergence of a new foreign power. Further complications arose from the fact that most

of these Malays were Muslims. This is by no means a definitive history, neither is it
intended to be that way. From the explorations into the mechanisms of how the
Portuguese engaged the local inhabitants, hopefully, a fresh insight to sixteenth century
Malacca is achieved.

43

Diffie, “Wise Man from the West”, p. 121.


20
Chapter TWO: Background to Europe and Southeast Asia

This chapter explores the context in which Portuguese began their expansion into Asia.
By having a layout of the situation in Europe, as well as the setting in Southeast Asia,
enables a better understanding of the motivations and intentions of the Crown in its quest
for these territories. In addition, the Italians were already present and trading at the
various regional ports, like in Sumatra.1

In 1128, Portugal gained her independence under relatively harsh circumstances.
Afonso Henriques refused to pay allegiance to the kings of Leon and Castile and
separated politically from them. Right from the outset, the new king of Portugal faced the
primary challenge of limited territory. This led to further problems with the numerous
wars they had with the Moors from North Africa, who fought for control over the south
of present day Portugal. The products of Portugal were wine, olives, cork, salt and
preserved fish. Hence, they relied on the sea trade of Lisbon to sustain most of the
Portuguese economy. This declining state of affairs needed to be remedied immediately,
thus prompting the Crown, in particular the rulers of the Aviz dynasty, to look overseas
for expansion.2 Initial conquests and occupation of foreign lands not only brought in
revenue for the Crown, but also prisoners who were used to assist in the Portuguese

1

The term, Italians, comprises mainly the Genoese, Florentines and Venetian merchants, who visited these
areas for trade. As their numbers were few and they did not reside in these harbor towns, thus it cannot be
argued that they were the ‘first Europeans’. Their presence was a fleeting one, unlike the Portuguese.
2
For the list of monarchs in the Aviz Dynasty, see appendix A.


21
overseas expeditions.3 In light of the constant lack of manpower faced by Portugal, these
captives proved essential.

At the turn of the sixteenth century, Portugal was still economically poor by
European standards. Located along the southwestern coastlines, Portugal depended on its
sea trade for its national revenue. But apart from their main port city of Lisbon, they
enjoyed no other flourishing urban centers. This was not sufficient to sustain a population
of approximately one and a half million people.4 Hence, there was a desire to search
beyond their shores for more opportunities to trade. The nation faced a lack of monetary
and labor resources, yet these adversities did not deter the Crown’s strive to expand
overseas. The Portuguese achieved an unprecedented feat when they managed to scatter
over ten thousand men to far-reaching outposts between Brazil and Japan by the end of
the sixteenth century.5 This success had been attributed to the ambitions of the monarchs
of that time. But, this was accomplished in tandem with the people of Portugal, who
resiliently carried out these orders and searched for fresh prospects abroad.

Eventually, these explorations and discoveries led to the occupation and
colonization in various parts of the world. In the conquests of the thirteenth and early
fourteenth centuries, an attitude of reconquista and revenge had been prevalent. But as

3

An early example of this would be the conquest of Ceuta in Africa in 1415. In our study of the conquest
of Malacca, we know that the Portuguese had six hundred Malabaris (from the captured Malabar) who
joined forces with the Crown’s Army to fight against Sultan Mahmud’s men. Fernão Lopes de Castanheda,
História do Descombrimento e Conquista da India pelos Portugueses, (Coimbra: Coimbra University
Press, 1928) p.138.
4
Geoffrey Vaughan Scammell, “Indigenous Assistance in the Establishment of Portuguese Power in the
Indian Ocean” (unpublished seminar paper, International Seminar on Indo-Portuguese History, Bombay:
Heras Institute of Indian History and Culture, 1978) p.2.
5
Richard Mackenney, Sixteenth Century Europe, Expansion and Conflict, (London: Macmillan Press,
1993) p.39.


22
time wore on, this mindset changed and interest in the Crusades was replaced by an
enthusiasm for commercial opportunities. The Christian kings of Portugal were not
inclined towards the idea of a common war against the infidels.6 They realigned their
focus on studying how to make profit from trading with these non-Christians. This further
illustrated expansion as a way to solve Portugal’s economic woes.

It has been said that ideas precede events. Hence, certain occidental schools of
thought arising from the fifteenth century were reflected in the coming of the Europeans
to Southeast Asia in the sixteenth century, The Renaissance provided not only fresh
perspectives, but also new ways of depicting what was seen. While it was mostly
remembered for the Italian arts and style, for the purpose of this study, the focus is on a
specific aspect of the Renaissance, namely Humanism. Theoretically, it was the technical
skill belonging to the academics. At the heart of this was the call for the stripping away of

externals and removal of redundant facts. Hence, it had been seen as a new approach to
learning in terms of what was read and how it was interpreted and used.7 In reality,
Humanism had been freely applied to a variety of beliefs, practices and philosophies that
placed its core emphasis on the human realm. The term has been often used with
reference to a system of education and mode of inquiry that developed in northern Italy
during the fourteenth century and later spread through Europe.8

6

António da Silva Rego, Portuguese Colonization in the Sixteenth Century: A Study of the Royal
Ordinances (Regimentos) (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1965) p.15.
7
Richard Mackenney, Sixteenth Century Europe, Expansion and Conflict, p.115.
8
Definition found in />

23
By the sixteenth century, a mounting belief within academic circles in Portugal
asserted that the Crown’s achievements, explorations and discoveries in South America
and Africa, paralleled the Roman Empire of antiquity. However, representations of this
“golden age” of Portuguese expansion were still trifling in most parts of Europe. This
was disappointing as the later half of the fifteenth century witnessed the Portuguese
successfully sailing across the Atlantic and to Asia. The chronicler, Damião de Goes
vowed to highlight the Lusitanian achievements, which he thought were comparable to
the Greeks and Romans. The difference was in the parochial thoughts of his fellow
historians and authors, who failed to do justice to Portuguese achievements. In his
opinion, the Portuguese undoubtedly surpassed the Ancients in their military and
maritime feats, but no modern writer described these accomplishments as positively as
the ancient authors had done.9 Similar comments were made by Camões, who in his epic
poem, the Lusiads, challenged his contemporaries to write about the Portuguese

discoveries in a lofty way, as it was meant to be.10

Hence, when reading these

Portuguese literature and chronicles, it is pertinent to consider the agenda, which was set
out by a few authors in those times.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Portuguese were required to grasp this
new reality, which included a few incompatible emotions. For example, there was the
pride in their scientific discoveries, yet humility towards the superior cultural heritage of

9

Hooykaas, R. “Humanism and the Voyages of Discovery in the 16th Century Portuguese Science and
Letters Letter of Damião de Goes to Bembo, Oct. 14th, 1540.” (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing
Company, 1979) p.152.
10
Luis de Camoes, Lusiads, Translated by William C. Atkinson. (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1952)
p.23. See also Geoffrey Vaughan Scammell, “The New Worlds and Europe in the Sixteenth Century” in
History Journal, (1969) pp.396-400.


24
the Ancients, which made these discoveries possible. The Portuguese savored their
political and cultural expansion, but had to deal with the shame with reference to the
moral and social evils that came along with it.

11

But all these were deemed necessary

evils that the Crown came to terms with. Still, these dissonant attitudes found its way into
the Portuguese writings. The history of the Portuguese discoveries and conquests has
been littered with stark contrasts. The stories told included characters varying from saints
to pirates. Some yearned for paradise, while others mourned about a paradise lost. The
description of the Lusitanian travelers ranged from the righteous and nasty, charitable and
uncaring, open-minded and narrow. In all, a wide variety of Portuguese men sailed to
these new lands to help create this new era of Lusitanian history.

When Portugal was said to have equaled or even surpassed the feats of the Roman
Empire, it was mainly inspired by two important facts. First, there was the advancement
in scientific discoveries of their navigations. Second, the Crown managed to conquer and
establish political power over vast territories in Africa, Asia and Brazil.12 The Portuguese
were seen as the heir to the Roman Empire as a fractionalized Italy was not up to the task.
The Italians largely identified themselves with the states, such as Florence, Genoa and
Venice. But for the purpose of this thesis, they will be addressed as a collective term.

The Italians played a significant role in the success of the Portuguese exploration
and discoveries. The Portuguese collaborated with this equally small country with a
strong seafaring tradition. The Italians possessed a wealth of experience in trading and

11
12

Hooykaas, “Humanism”, p.67.
ibid., p.53.


25
traveling since the thirteenth century. The most notable icon of that period was Marco

Polo. Approaching the end of the fifteenth century, the Italians were world renown for
their nautical abilities and were of great service to the other Europeans. For instance,
Spain’s most distinguished captains were Italians, namely Christopher Columbus, who
was Genoese and Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine. The most notable contribution was the
discovery of the America in 1492.

At the turn of the sixteenth century, the Italians had already voyaged through the
ports in Southeast Asia. Initial records showed that Nicolò di Conti had an expedition,
which lasted from 1416 to 1441. Then, there was Girolamo da Santo Stefano, who
ventured into Sumatra between 1493 and 1499 and lastly Ludovico di Varthema traveled
from Lisbon to Malacca between the years 1503 to 1508. The influence of the Italians
was evident from the presence of an Indonesian kadi who could speak their language in
1485.13

Without any doubt, the Indies, like America, were revealed to Europe by Italians whose
fate it was to hear later from such and such a Portuguese captain, such and such a
Spanish captain, had discovered new territory and occupied it in the name of his
sovereign, and to beseech princes to grant those rights, cut by half, which they had
previously freely and fully exercised either in navigation or in travels by land.14

Angelo De Gubernatis

13

Girolamo da Santo Stefano noted that, “in that spot (in Sumatra) there was a kadi who was a great friend
of mine, for he had the knowledge and notion of the Italian language.” Empoli, Lettera, p.89.
14
ibid., p.90.