Manuel Lobato, Timor and Portugal. A historic destiny, Coral, n3, Dez. 1992, pp. 9-12.

TIMOR AND PORTUGAL: A HISTORIC DESTINY Coral, n3, Dez. 1992, pp. 9-12. *Manuel Lobato Portugal's interest in Timor aroused in 1511 after Malacca conquest by Afonso de Albuquerque. Malacca, on the western coast of the Malaysian Peninsula, was the centre of Asian trade. Almost every maritime route linking India and the Far East converged on this trading post. The Portuguese were amazed by the fact that some of the most valuable and renowned drugs in Asia and in Europe originated from a few islands located on the edge of the MalayAustronesian world. The clove only grew in the Moluccas, nutmeg and apples on the Banda islands. Likewise white sandalwood only grew on Timor and, to a lesser extent, on some neighbouring islands including the Lesser Sunda. Established in Malacca, the Portuguese concentrated their efforts on setting up trade relations with the Moluccas and Banda, whilst at the same time Timor became part of their navigational plans. A few months following the conquest of Malacca they set sail with an armada of three ships, under the command of Antnio de Abreu, towards the eastern archipelago taking a route along the northern coast of Java. Despite the use of experienced Malaysian pilots, it proved to be a long and difficult voyage. The Portuguese did not go further than Banda. Amongst mariners was Francisco Rodrigues, a young pilot and cartographer, who left us the earlier European maps of the Malaysian archipelago. In those maps he erased the vestiges of Ptolomy's tradition still remaining in European carthography concerning eastern Asia. Reckonned on the observations he made during the voyage and based upon the examination of Asian pilots' maps, Francisco Rodrigues depicted the first faithful representation of South-East Asia. That is why his maps show an outline of the Moluccas and Timor, despite he could not take a view of them. On the return journey of this first Portuguese exploration to east Insulindia and the Banda islands, Rodrigues, drew 68 landscapes of different islands from aboard on the ship's course. This curious set of drawings done in 1512 together with the maps constitutes a book entitled LIVRO DE FRANCISCO RODRIGUES, now reposing in the library of the Paris Deputy Chamber, mainly showing the Lesser Sunda islands. Using data obtained in Malacca and Java, Tom Pires, apothecary to King Manuel I of Portugal and clerk to the Portuguese Administration in Malacca, wrote the famous SUMA ORIENTAL. Compiled in Malacca between 1512 and 1514, Tome Pires' work records the early information gathered by the Portuguese vis--vis geographical data, as well as the political and commercial organization, eastward of the Bay of Bengal, including Solor and Timor. Meanwhile, the Portuguese delayed a trip to reconnoitre Timor until 1515, due to their lack of vessels to accomplish diplomatic and mercantile expeditions as new masters of Malacca. Unaware of the intentions of the Portuguese, the Timorese rulers were afraid until a first visited took place for the first time in either 1515 or 1516. Since no documentation has survived as testimony to this first contact, one can only conjecture that the first Portuguese to go ashore on Timor had travelled aboard junks belonging to merchants from Malacca. The Portuguese established regular links as they continued to sail back to Solor and Timor. Thus joining the Chinese, Javanese, Malaysians, Makasarese and even Philippinians, who had been going there for a long time to get sandalwood. Covering more than 2,000 miles, in both directions, on the route from Malacca to Solor, the ships would call at the Javanese port of Gresik. These Portuguese

ships coming at Timor received good treatment from Timorese rulers who could acquit themselves from the commercial dependence regarding Muslim merchants from Java and other regions to whom they sell the sandalwood production. The charting of Insulindia subsequent to Francisco Rodrigues' maps is due mainly to the work done by Portuguese cartographers. Even so, despite an accumulation of information, it was only in 1522 that Timor inequivocably figured amongst the group of islands comprising the region. Both the Malaysian Peninsula and the eastern archipelago appear reasonably well mapped on a chart from an unknown Portuguese author, circa 1535. He shows Timor as the only sizeable island, definitely figured to the South of the bent line of islands that extend east of Java. THE FIRST PORTUGUESE-ASIAN COMMUNITIES Timor was not the most suitable place for foreign merchants. A lack of safe anchorages and its fragmentation into a profusion of small kingdoms and chiefdoms, constantly warring amongst themselves, created an insecure environment. This did nothing to encourage foreign mercantile communities, neither Javanese nor Portuguese, to settle ashore. A more appropriate place could be found at Solor, a small island laying to the northwest of Timor. REVI A TRADUO AT AQUI It had some sandalwood, good anchorage, a pleasant climate with a smaller and less belligerent population than that of Timor. The Portuguese, like Asian merchants, set up a base on Solor to handle the Timorese sandalwood, where the monsoon awaited their return to Malacca. The Portuguese Oriental Empire was essentially composed of a network of fortresses and administrations linked by sea trade routes. In other words, a mercantile network. If at the start only the Asiatic trade and riches awoke an acquisitive desire in the Portuguese, as of the decadc of 1540s they began to display a growing interest in spreading Christianity. Thus the trading posts became missionary centres too. Solor, the Portuguese trade centre for Timorese sandalwood proved no exception to the rule. During the mid-16th century, more than 200 Portuguese merchants spen the winter every year on Solor, and that was not counting those who had settled there. The importance of this post appears to have increased right after the settling o the Portuguese in Macau, by way of trade with Canton, since a large part of the sandalwood went to the Chinese market. Following in the footsteps of the traders to Solor, came the missionaries of the Dominican Order, who had obtained the exclusive right from the Portuguese crown to Christianize the whole region. The firs attempts to found missions on Timor an the island of Ende, in 1556, met with no success. Solor also proved to be difficult for the missionaries since a small Muslim community with a mosque already existed there. The Koran's laws were taught by preachers from India. Four local rulers had been converted to Islam, but one of them did swap over to the Christian faith. Like the Moluccas to the north, Solor also, became the scene of aggressive proselytizing by the Muslim Imam [ullamah] and Christian priests. To a certain extent, ancient, deepseated, local and regional conflicts began to take on a religious complexion. Communities of hundreds of converts sprung up on Solor or Larantuca, at the end of the island of Flores, grouped around the converted rulers and some resident Portuguese with their priest. Larantuca played a role somewhat more important than Solor in the settling of the Portuguese in Timor. Thus, the Dominicans spearheaded Portuguese missionary endeavour on these islands. In 1562, on the initiative of the Bishop of Malacca, a Dominican himself, a convent was founded on Solor by Brother Antnio da Cruz and some of his companions. Sacked by Muslims from Java, it was rebuilt in the form of a fortified compound. In 1566 the small Dominican convent gave way to a real fortress that, together with those in Malacca and Ternate, in the Moluccas, were the only ones the Portuguese then possessed in the whole of South-East Asia. The core of Christians

multiplied on the islands neighbouring Solor to such an extent that in 1595 the Dominicans, backed by the Portuguese crown, built a second fortress on the island of Ende to protect local Christians from Javanese attacks. Frequent incursions by Muslims from Java and Makasar created circumstances that led to a series of revolts by the region's rulers against Portuguese domination. These uprisings mainly on Solor, where the bloody rebellion of the Lamaqueiros in 1598 occurred were due to the fact the growth of Christianity represented a definite loss of political power on the part of the traditional authorities, who had come under the orders of the garrison commander of the Portuguese fortress. Between 1603 and 1613 the Christian communities enjoyed a more tranquil life and a relative economic prosperity that attracted the avarice of the Dutch. The sandalwood trade had surpassed a thousand tons per year, whilst the local power was split between the fortresses' commanders and the Dominican priests, who were increasingly Portuguese-Asians and even converts. Dissension between the authorities was frequent and some garrison commanders were even impeded by the Dominican priests in the performance of their duties. In 1613 the Dutch occupied Solor, throwing out the Portuguese, but, seeing it as trading post of little interest, they abandoned it. Portuguese resistance against the new masters of the Malaysian world was then transferred to the interior of Larantuca, led by a commander called Francisco Fernandes, a convert born on Solor, aided by Eurasians known as topasses or blackPortuguese as the Dutch called them. As of then, one can see that the political and social structures implanted by the Portuguese and run by Eurasians were responsible for resisting their incorporation into the Dutch empire, as well as for ensuring that Solor, Larantuca and, later, Timor remained under Portuguese sovereignty. The Portuguese-Eurasians from Larantuca heading the local Christian communities and supported by the Spanish forces in the Philippines, fought off the Muslims (backed by the Dutch) with a certain amount of success. The Dominicans were able to rebuild the Solor fortress with the financial aid of merchants from Macau, who experiencing a serious crisis, sparked off through restrictions imposed by Portuguese trade in Japan, obliged them to try and preserve alternative treaties, such as that of the sandalwood. However, Solor was definitely abandoned in 1636. Larantuca then became the centre of Portuguese power in the region, although no fortress was built in order to avoid it becoming an easy target for the Dutch. Only then did the Portuguese project to settle Timor take shape, in which the Dominicans had developed an increasing interest. PORTUGUESE RULE OF TIMOR The first attempts to introduce Christianity to Timor, going as far back as the mid-16th century, were unsuccessful. Converted rulers returned to their ancestral beliefs. Some Christians probably survived at least in name. It was only in 1633 that the missionaries made new converts in Timor. In 1636 brother Rafael da Veiga baptized the ruler of Amarasse who became Portugal's main ally in Servio, the western half of the island. Portuguese rule in Timor only truly came Portuguese power in the region, although into its own when a Dominican priest, Antnio de S. Jacinto, settled in the kingdom of Mena in 1641. The same year in which the Dutch conquered Malacca, the mainstay underpinning Portugal's presence in South-East Asia. Ousted from Malacca, many Portuguese went to Makasar in Celebes (Sulawesi), whilst others went to Macau and Larantuca. It is therefore not to be wondered at that, with the Portuguese penetration of Timor throughout the decade of 1640, their influence waned in Malacca. Meanwhile, the region was left to its own devices, since links with Goa, the capital of the Portuguese Eastern Empire, began to operate via Macau. Throughout subsequent decades, thc Dominican fathers continued to hold sway. No Portuguese garrison commander nominated in Goa by the Viceroy had a chance of governing

without the consent of that religious brotherhood. Their duties were carried out in collaboration with the Eurasians, whom they called natural Portuguese, but sometimes against them too. Portuguese rule over Timor, if it can be called that, was consolidated with the aid of these Eurasians and converts, originally from Larantuca. That is why they were known as Larantuqueiros (Larantucans). They rose to attain significant political power, and even demographic importance, on the western half of Timor, which later came to be the Dutch part of the island, now lawfully part of Indonesia. The support obtained from the rulers of Timor was based on the protection provided by the Dominicans and Larantucans against attacks upon the natives by the Muslim ruler of Tallo, part of the dual monarchy of Makasar. The defensive alliances signed between Brother Antnio de S. Jacinto and the kingdoms of Mena, Lifau and Amunabo, provided for military protection by the Portuguese musketeers and food supplies from Larantuca in order to overcome the famine provoked by Muslim destruction. These treaties with local rulers were invariably accompanied by discussions and by the granting, more or less fictitiously, of natural resources to the Portuguese crown whose sovereignty, at least in theory, was recognized. The Dominicans' allies were located in Servio, the western half of Timor, whilst Belos, the eastern half, recognized the supremacy of Behale, a sovereign that the Portuguese designated emperor. The ruler of Servio, succumbing to the appeals of the Tallo Muslims, tried to throw the Portuguese out of Timor. Knowing of the plot, Brother Antnio de S. Jacinto compelled the emperor of Servio to capitulate and obliged him to be baptized. Meanwhile, Behale was defeated in 1642 by the combined forces of the Dominicans and the Larantucan militia. Hard on the heels of this military victory by the Larantucans, followed a wave of conversions throughout Timor. The Dutch, observing the situation on Timor and because of the sandalwood trade, decided to intervene. They formed a Batavia-Tallo-Servio coalition to expel the Dominicans and the Portuguese-Asians from Timor. Endeavouring to forestall this, Brother Antnio decided to occupy Kupang, the best Timorese port in strategic terms, where he had a fortress erected. That was how he planned to bar the Dutch from gaining access to Timor. Kupang, however, as the Portuguese new administrative headquarters, was unable to provide adequate defence and the Portuguese were obliged to compromise with the Dutch. They split the sandalwood trade with them until the latter stormed the fortress in 1652. Thereafter, Kupang would serve as a base for Dutch sorties against the Portuguese now headquartered in Lifau, an anchorage in the Ambeno kingdom, in the O-Cusse region. The Dutch strategy was based on the capture of the states that comprised Servio. The Larantucans managed to smother various revolts fomented by the Dutch, who throughout the decade of 1650 suffered three defeats in a row. Two Larantucans emerged as natural leaders, as a result of these campaigns in the interior of Timor. They were the Eurasians, Mateus da Costa and Antnio de Hornay, the latter the son of a Dutch deserter and a native slave. Twice, in 1660, a powerful Dutch armada dropped anchor in front of Larantuca, where the Portuguese from Timor received all their support. The Dutch, after hesitating, renounced any belligerent engagement. Portuguese rule over Timor had been established in less than two deeades thanks to the role played by the Larantucan Eurasians and converts. who shortly became the true masters of the island. THE HEGEMONY OF THE NATIVE PORTUGUESE-ASIANS In 1667, an uprising against Hornay backed by the Dominicans placed Mateus da Costa in a position of power on Larantuca and Timor. Once installed this party set out openly on a course to usurp the powers of the garrison commander sent by Goa, one Ferno Martins da Ponte, who was expelled. The Viceroy of India ended up by having to bestow legal sanction on the usurpers belonging to the Dominican-Larantucan party, condemning the excesses of the former

garrison commander. Without the wherewithal to enforce allegiance, the Goanese government could not but endorse whoever held de facto power in Timor. Mateus da Costa was invested as the garrison commander of Timor and his role in crushing the Servio rebels and the conservation of Portuguese sovereignty in the face of Dutch aggression was duly recognized. With Mateus da Costa's death, in 1673, Antnio Hornay rose to power. Goa decided to intervene cautiously by sending a garrison commander to Timor. It was a delicate situation, since Hornay upheld Portuguese sovereignty. Any attempt of a coup against him could plunge the island into hostilities between the parties and the rival kingdoms, therefore providing the Dutch with a pretext to get involved. This led to the unparalled situation, in Portuguese colonial history, of the garrison commander sent by Goa, Joo Antunes Portugal, taking with him two appointments issued by the Viceroy. One for himself, should he manage to land and take over the island. The other for Antnio Hornay, should he refuse to surrender. Anyway the outcome was, since the commander's ship sank before any confrontation could take place, that Hornay was able to dictate his own terms to Goa. In the 1680's a further unsuccessful attempt was made to dislodge him from running Timor. Goa even contemplated invading Timor but ended up resigning itself to the situation, lacking as it did resources to reconquer its colony and bearing in mind the large revenue donated by the usurpers to the coffers of the Portuguese royal treasury in India. These facts coincided with the evolution of the regime to which Timor's external trade was subject. In 1672, the crown, which for a long time had lost its part in the sandalwood trade, decided to recuperate it. In fact, aside from the sandalwood which went to Macau, all other lumber was sold to the Dutch who could not justify an assault on Lifau, seeing that their commercial interests were being satisfied. On the other hand, the internal conflicts in the heart of the Portuguese community are reflected in the deep-seated and endemic antagonism between thc Timorese rulers, which to a certain extent they concealed. By the end of the 17th century, the struggle between the two rival factions that alternated in holding power Antnio Hornay, succeeding Domingos da Costa in 1693, backed by the Dominicans, who eftectively held power over two decades led Timor to a systematic usurpation of the power of the governors nominated by Goa, (an appointment created by Goa in 1696) tending to place the island beyond the pale of the State of India's jurisdiction. Following Antnio Hornay's death, the Dutch, for their part, renewed their project for military occupation of the island. They focused their efforts on the kingdoms of Amavi which became unpopulated, joining forces with Cupo, carrying on an ongoing war with the Dutch and Amanas, the true buffer-state and obstacle that with the support of the Larantucans from Lifau effectively blocked Dutch expansion on Timor.

*Manuel Leo Marques Lobato, BA in History and MA in The Portuguese Discoveries and Expansion from the Nova University of Lisbon, holder of Scholarship from Orient Foundation. Preparing thesis for an MA in History on The Portuguese in the Malaysian World (1580-1605).