Admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge

Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge was appointed supreme commander (admiral) of a Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC) fleet of 11 ships that set sail from Europe to the East Indies in 1605. The voyage brought Matelieff’s ships around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and across the Indian Ocean to Johor, Malacca, Banten, the Moluccas, Mindanao, the Fujian Coast, the kingdom of Champa on the coast of present-day Vietnam and back to Java. Matelieff’s voyage to Asia is best remembered for the maritime siege he laid on Malacca between May and August 1606; his engagement at sea with the armada of the Portuguese viceroy; his destruction of half of the Portuguese fleet in the port of Malacca; and the founding of a Dutch fort at the town of Malayur on the northern coast of the Moluccan island of Ternate.

Among historians of early modern European, Dutch colonial expansion, and Southeast Asia during the 17th century, Matelieff is also remembered for a set of memorials that he had penned upon his return to the Dutch republic in September 1606 and August 1610. These memorials not only offer a stunning insight into the thoughts of the admiral and some senior officials of the VOC on Southeast Asia at the time, but are also significant for what historians like Femme Gaastra consider his vision for the Dutch empire. Matelieff’s recommendations in his memorials brought about fundamental changes in the way VOC managed its operations on the ground in Asia and the way it organised its merchant fleets sailing to and from the East Indies. Among the most important recommendations made by Matelieff were the establishment of a permanent base in Asia by the Dutch company (the so-called rendezvous), the appointment of a governor-general for Asia as well as the loosening of the company monopoly. This latter move was to enable private citizens to engage in commerce at their own risk and trade in commodities that stood little chance of generating a profit for the Dutch company. With reference to the foundation of a permanent Asian base and the establishment of the so-called rendezvous, Matelieff shortlisted a total of six possible locations across Southeast Asia that he contended were geographically well situated to fulfill this role. The six locations were (from north to south): Aceh on the great island of Sumatra; Malacca on the Malay Peninsula; the Johor River estuary near Singapore; Palembang on the island of Sumatra; Banten in northwest Java; and Jeyakerta. This latter location, which is also situated in northwest Java, was taken by the Dutch in 1617 and subsequently renamed Batavia (now known as Jakarta).

Matelieff’s recommendations were intended to be read by senior members of the Dutch government as well as by the directors of the VOC. Most of the manuscript copies of his works that survive today are found among the working papers of the Dutch lawyer and humanist Hugo Grotius as well as the personal papers of the senior statesman and Land’s Advocate Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in the Dutch National Archives. Although Matelieff maintained a close working relationship with these two men, he did not appear to have been politically marginalised following a coup d’état in 1618 that removed the two men from office. Matelieff made an impressive political career as an alderman, a member of the Rotterdam Policy Advisory Council as well as in his capacity as burgomaster of Rotterdam. Matelieff died in 1632 and was interred in the church of St Laurentius in Rotterdam.

References
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Borschberg, P. (2011). Hugo Grotius, the Portuguese and free trade in the East Indies.  Singapore and Leiden: NUS Press and KITLV Press. Call no.: RSEA 341 BOR.

Borschberg, P. (Ed.). (2013). War, diplomacy and commerce in 17th-century Southeast Asia: The memorials, letters and treaties of VOC Admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge. Singapore: NUS Press.

Commelin, I. (1646). Begin ende Voortgang Vande Vereenigde Neerlandsche Geoctroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie (2 vols). Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius.

de Jonge, C. M. (1608). Historiale ende ware beschrijvinge vande reyse des admiraels Cornelis Matelief de Jonghe, near de Oost-Indien, wtghetrocken in Mayo 1605. Midsgaders de belegeringhe voor Malacca, also ooc den slach ter zee deghen de Portugijschhe armade, ende andere discourssen. Rotterdam: By Jan Jansz.

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