SINGAPORE IN THE 16TH CENTURY

PETER BORSCHBERG

• One of the co-authors of Seven Hundred Years: A History of Singapore – not just provide you here with a summary of the chapter: value added lecture

• Address history of Singapore in this period via some targeted questions

• Before address q’s, look at period under review and the bigger picture

• Nature of this paper: not much scope for digging into details – reserve for Q&A if there is a demand for more depth and details

OVERVIEW

Redrawn map of Johor River and Sg Straits from Miscellany Atlas

PERIOD UNDER REVIEW

• Long and short centuries as units of analysis

• Not align neatly with the calendar

• Period covered by this paper: 1511-c.1603

• Conquest of Melaka by the Portuguese & founding of Johor, until the arrival of the Dutch in Singapore waters and the beginning of the Luso-Dutch Conflict (1603-1641) in the region: reshape trade and alliances in the Straits region

SOURCES

• For this paper working mainly with texts and cartographicspecimens from the period and also from the early 17th

century; some archaeologicalfinds (Kallang sherds).

• Mainly (but not exclusively) texts, charts of European origin as these are substantive

THEMES

} “Big Picture”} Laksamana } revival - destruction – revival of Sg settlement} Cartography & geographic imagination} Economy (region, peninsula)} Shahbandaria (or Xabandaria)} Jacques de Coutre} Arrival of the Dutch} Conclusions

THE BIG PICTURE

} What is happening in the region in this period 1500-1600 approx.?

} Portuguese after 1511} China, Japan} Spice Islands (Maluku, Banda)

} Division of Melaka; founding Johor and Perak (1528), conflict(s) with the Portuguese (esp. but not limited to 1511 to mid-1520s, after 1580s)

THE BIG PICTURE

} Siam’s wars with Burma (different phases of war 1547 to 1605) – revival of Ayutthaya’s trade after 1605

} Spanish in Philippines; trans-Pacific trade (after 1567); Manila (1571); China factor

} Linschoten’s Itinerario (1595-6) and the arrival of the N. Europeans

} Dutch conflict with the Spanish and Portuguese after the 1580s

TURN TO THE TARGETED

QUESTIONS: SYNOPSIS

• 1) Was Singapore just an insignificant place after 1511?

• 2) How and when was Sg depicted on European maps of the 16th Century?

• 3) How was the island and the surrounding Straits imagined and what does this tell us about Singapore’s function?

• 4) What do we know about the Sg straits in this period?

• 5) Is it true that Singapore had a functioning port in the 16th century?

• 6) Where was the port and Shahbandaria/Xabandaria?• 7) What happened when the Dutch arrived in the Sg

Straits?

Q: WAS SINGAPORE JUST AN “INSIGNIFICANT PLACE” AFTER 1511?

• Year of wresting capital from the Melaka Sultan by the Portuguese

• Singapore a base for the Melaka navy

• Laksamana (admiral) personal roots on Singapore, resides or takes up residence on the island

• Testimony of Tomé Pires in Suma Oriental (1512-15): “nothing much”. What does that mean? Commercially? Strategic? In terms of population?

• Boost by Laksamana’s presence, destruction by Portuguese as reported by John of Lisbon

Q2: HOW AND WHEN WAS SINGAPORE DEPICTED ON EUROPEAN MAPS?• Campaigns against Bintan, around Singapore and up Johor

River enabled the Portuguese to collect data, insights on the geography of the region.

• Since Europeans envisioned the Teberau or Johor Strait as another branch of the Johor River, Singapore was long depicted as part of the Peninsular mainland and not as a separate island. Phenomenon continues well into the 17th

century.• First time Singapore depicted as an island was on chart by

Gaspar Viegas in 1537. • For space reasons (?) the island remained unnamed.• Singapore an elastic name over 16th and into the 17th

centuries: settlement, island, straits (at least 2), ridge, promontory or cape, hinterland. Diversity of understanding captured later in the Zedler Encyclopedia of 1700s.

Title page of Zedler’s Encycopedia

Gaspar Viegas(1537)

Belived to be the first map to recognizably

show Singapore Island.

SINGAPORE ISLAND REMAINS ANONYMOUS ON ALL MAPS BEFORE 1600

Q: HOW WAS THE ISLAND AND THE SURROUNDING STRAITS IMAGINED AND

WHAT DOES THIS TELL US ABOUT SG’S FUNCTION?

• How envisioned on maps informs of its geographic position and economic function

• As home to the Melaka and later Johor navy (or at least part of it) in the 16-17th centuries, Singapore a gatekeeper and port in the Johor River estuary

• Map by Manuel Godinho de Eredia (early 17th C) shows this clearly

Q: AS GATEKEEPER OF JOHOR RIVER, WAS SINGAPORE CONNECTED TO THE REGIONAL ECONOMY?

• Eredia’s economic map of the Malay Peninsula from the now lost Miscellany Atlas

• Singapore at convergence points of overland, riverine and maritime trade

FULL VIEW OF EREDIA’S ECONOMIC MAP OF THE PENINSULA

Redrawn by Mok Ly Yng

Interfacing the Peninsular overland routes with known shipping routes from the contemporaneous Selden map, redrawn by MokLy Yng

• Maritime and peninsular networks redrawn by Mok Ly Yng

Q: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE STRAITS IN THIS PERIOD?

} Important to bear in mind that most reports (even Asian reports) are maritime-centric: view Singapore from the sea (i.e. from the Straits).

} Information imparted conditioned by what they could see, experience from this vantage point

} The waters, the dangers, the orang laut in the local waters; sometimes the settlement

} Information is fragmentary, often inconclusive Eredia’s map of Singapore and the Straits, 1604

THE “OLD STRAIT” OF SINGAPORE} Closely hug the shoreline} Why? Currents and tides slower than in the

middle of the straits} Old Strait (between today’s Sentosa and

Harbourfront): dramatic stories of a narrow passage, branches scratching against wooden hull, dangers lurking below the surface of the water. Several important testimonies in the travel literature.

} Linschoten’s instructions for navigating the Old Strait (1595): sense of how dangerous this was. Eredia’s map of Singapore and the Straits, 1604

South

THE “NEW STRAIT” OF SINGAPORE

} Also known from Portuguese chronicler Barros as the “Channel of Sta. Barbara”

} Due to ongoing conflict between Portuguese and the Johoreans; latter had blockaded the Old Strait with logs and sunken ships to block the passage.

} Ships looked for new route around Sentosa} Informed by one source that the “currents”

or “tides” eventually had cleared the debris and reopened the Old Strait: then 2 passages used Eredia’s map of Singapore and the Straits, 1604

South

FRANCIS XAVIER IN SINGAPORE

} A total of 5 surviving letters written from “the Strait of Symquapura”

} First (no date, no location): some clues: heading to Melaka, heard that ship ready to sail from Melaka to India. Asks for it to wait.

} Problem: letters address church matters, no description of Singapore or the Straits.

} Of limited value, but suggests availability of some courier service to get message to Melaka as soon as possible.

Q: IS IT TRUE THAT SINGAPORE HAD A FUNCTIONING PORT IN THE 16TH CENTURY?

• Yes!• There are several important testimonies to this effect that reach well into the 17th

century

• John of Empoli, 1517• Bras de Albuquerque 1557 (but relating to earlier period ard. 1511): settlement and

ruins; evidence of large city in the past• Muhit, 1558 (Bandar Singafur; image right)• Jacques de Coutre, 1595 voyage: “Sabandaria”; Sentosa• Travelogue of Wybrand van Warwijk & Pietersz v. Enkhuysen (September 1603)• Matelieff, 1606: met the “Shahbandar” of Singapore • Map by Eredia (2x “Xabandaria”): 1604, 1616• [Map by André Pereira dos Reis (Xabandaria), 1654]

JACQUES DE COUTRE• Trader from Bruges in Flanders (Spanish Netherlands; today’s

Belgium)

• Arrived as young man in 1593, stayed for about a decade in Southeast Asia to 1603

• Wrote autobiography, petitions to the crown of Spain that taken together form the most substantive testimony on Singapore that we have from the pre-1800 period.

• “Rediscovered” in the 1970s, first edition of text in Spanish in the early 1990s

• Several things to say about Singapore from a maritime perspective: orang laut, present-day Sentosa, Siloso spring, and the settlement called “Sabandaria”

• Sabandaria: inhabited by Malays who are loyal to the king of Johor

• One of the “best ports that serves the [East] Indies” • Concrete proposals to construct 3 forts on Sentosa, East Coast

of Singapore and/or Tekong Besar

Q: WHERE WAS THE PORT AND SHAHBANDARIA/XABANDARIA?

• References by the Europeans, maps, remain inconclusive

• Two possible locations:

• mouth of the Singapore River; OR

• ard. today’s Kg. Gelam

• Latter site: Kallang sherds (1960s)

• Blue and white porcelains; Wanli Emperor (1573-1620)

• Similar to sherds also found around Johor Lama (M’sia)

• Based on these and maps legends surmised that shahbandar’s compound may have been located in the Kallang estuary (Kg Gelam?). But inconclusive!

• (Discovery of the sherds & transmission to museum explained in the Seven Hundred Years Book book, pp. 94-6)

Q: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE DUTCH ARRIVE IN THE SG STRAITS?} Dutch arrive following Linschoten’s Itinerario (1595):

shape early image for Dutch. } At first, Portuguese not sure how to deal with them } Exporting their war of liberation against Spain} Conflict extends to Portugal: dynastic union of Spain and

Portugal (1580/1-1640)} Plunder merchant vessels of the Portuguese, battle at

sea off Banten in 1601} Dutch arrive in around Singapore: late 1602 or early

1603} Sta Catarina 25 Feb., 1603 --- open up and shape Johor-

Dutch relations } Cargo on display in Europe and impact --- spice vs China

trade} Incident shapes ideas of free trade, international

maritime law. Pamphlet announcing the seizure of the Sta. Catarina off Singapore, printed in Middelburg (Netherlands) 1604

SOME CONCLUSIONS

• Takeaways about the 1500s (16th Century)?

• Sg and straits known and well charted by the Portuguese

• Revival of Sg after 1511 due to presence of Laksamana, Shahbandar – despite “destruction” in early 1500s

• Sg. was home to Shahbandaria and functioning port• Location of this Shahbandaria not exactly certain: Kg

Gelam?

• Sg. Functioned as gatekeeper of the Johor River and Johor’s upstream towns/capital

• Colonial plans for the island (Spanish, Dutch)• Sg in highly contested space in 17th Century