contents

Introduction to the Resolutions
of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope


A few place names from the East

Eastern place names, such as Batavia , Macassar, Malabar and de Cust van Malabar [the coast of Malabar] (also de Cust), Ambon and Malacca often appear in the Resolutions.

  • Batavia on Java was founded in 1619 and became the capital of the Dutch Indies, the VOC’s Asian empire and the headquarters of all the Company’s activities in the East. After independence from Indonesia Batavia was renamed to its original name, Jakatra, Jakarta.
  • Macassar (now Ujung Pandang ) was an important trade centre on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi (earlier Celebes ). In 1512 the Portuguese arrived and built a fort. The VOC took Macassar in 1667, built a fort and named it Rotterdam . In 1694 the Company banned a prince and Moslem scholar, Sheg Yusuf, to the Cape where he established a Muslim community. His Kramat [Muslim shrine, sacred grave] on Signal Hill is one of the six Muslim graves forming a holy circle around the city. The minutes of the Council meeting of 6 September 1757 (C. 135) mentioned “de sogenaamde Macassers Duijnen agter de Buffels Valleij” [the so-called Macassers Dunes behind the Buffalo Valley ], where charcoal was made for use by the Cape inhabitants.
  • Malabar was a former district but is now part of Kerala , India . The Coast of Malabar , abbreviated to De Cust [The Coast], denotes a region on the south-western coast of India , the states of Mysore and Kerala, between the Western Ghats (a mountain range in South India ) and the Arabian Sea.
  • Ambon, Amboina and Amboyna are the different names of an island of the Moluccas , Indonesia . The Portuguese who ‘discovered’ the island in 1510 established a settlement in 1521. Once the centre of the Portuguese clove monopoly it was taken by the VOC in 1605. All the Moluccan islands were gradually brought under VOC control, eventually also Ternate in 1683.
  • Malacca is a harbour city in Malaysia that dominated the spice route. The Portuguese settled here in 1511, but the VOC took the city from them in 1641.

In many places in the Resolutions of the Council of Policy names of VOC trade posts in the East are mentioned, for example Bengale, Bima, Calicut, Casimbasar, Ceylon, China, Galle, Houghly, Koromandel, Mocha, Nagapatnam, Palicatta, Siam, Sumatra, Suratte, Ternate, Timor and Trincomale.

There are also quite a number of cargo lists included in the Resolutions. Many of the textile names appearing in these lists were derived from place names in the Middle and Far East, for example armoesijn from Ormuz, Persia, gilang from Gilan, Persia, guinees from Guinea, and salempoeris from Salemporis/Serampore on the Coast of Coromandel (see Woordelys [Glossary]).

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