The Dutch Outsmarts the Portuguese
TBy Randheer Mallawaarachchi he Dutch were graciously invited by the native Sri Lankans to give the necessary aid for the battle against the Portuguese. Both parties signed the binding Kandyan Treaty of 1638 ( with Rajasinghe II representing the Ceylonese). Soon afterwards, both Ceylon and Dutch lashed out an allout attack against their common foe. The trust which ensued between the two nations led to the Dutch being nominated as an official guardian of the nation. This, however, had its hidden implication. What seemed as an innocent alliance turned into an exchange of something worse, with something even worser. Gaining the Dutch assistance to expel the Portuguese from the country only meant that this was yet another substitution of one European power for another. The Dutch managed to take hold of the control over the coastal areas of Sri Lanka. That was in 1658, and it was well past 153 years since the Portuguese first came into contact with the island. Similarly to the Portuguese, the Dutch engaged in constant futile attempts to infiltrate the Kandyan Kingdom and rein supreme during their 140 year long stay in Sri Lanka. Unlike the Portuguese, however, the Dutch were much more keen in excelling in trade and earning profits ( since the Portuguese were mainly fixated on gaining new devotees to their religion and seizing legislative powers). During all of this, Rajasinghe II ( who should have learned a lesson by now) sought the allegiance of the French as backup against the battle with the Dutch. The Trincomalee Fort was offered as a token of faith. However, the Dutch captured Trincomalee from the French, and kept control all over the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka. It was a battle of wits, as both Rajasinghe II and the Dutch engaged in a battle of the wits; attempting to outsmart each other. Thus the treaty of 1638 went without being put into effect. The Dutch ruled all the Tamil provinces and brought Tanjore Tamil slaves to work in the cinnamon gardens in the Western Province and tobacco farms in Jaffna. The capital of Dutch Coromandel was in Pulicat and they brought needed manpower from the Indian colonies.
In the year 1603, on the 2nd of June, the Dutch Admiral Joris Van Spilbergen arrived in Ceylon with three ships from the Dutch port of Veere after a 12-month voyage. Visiting Kandy, the seat of King Vimaladharmasuriya I, Spilbergen and the King developed cordial relations. The King’s admiration for his new-found friend was so deep that he began to learn the Dutch language saying ‘Kandy is now Flanders’. They discussed future relations, focusing on possible Dutch military assistance to expel the Portuguese from the coastal areas as well as the trade in cinnamon and pepper. As a token of his friendship, the Dutch Admiral left in the King’s service two versatile and skilled musicians: Erasmus Matsberger and Hans Rempel.
Not long after the successful visit of Van Spilbergen, a subsequent Dutch fleet under the command of Sebalt de Weert landed on the island. De Weert was a very skilled and potent commander who discovered the Falkland Islands during the attempt by Dutch Admirals Cordes and Mahu to find an alternative route to the East Indies through Cape Horn in 1598. After an initial agreement with the King of Kandy, he returned in 1603 to Batticaloa with a fleet of six ships to take part in a joint effort to oust the Portuguese from the island. During his stay he took four passing Portuguese ships but released the Portuguese crews who had surrendered to the Dutch on the promise of quarter. The King was very angered by this action and after a perceived insult to his wife, he ordered his men to kill De Weert and 50 of his unarmed compatriots. After this unhappy event, the Dutch concentrated on organising their trade with the East Indian spice islands. It took more than three decades before the Dutch again undertook action to expel the Portuguese who had arrived some 150 years earlier and were firmly established on the island.
It took many fierce wars with the Portuguese for King Rajasinghe II to finally realise that lasting peace with the enemy was an impossible dream. This was the justification for the invitation of the Dutch into the country, as means to drive away the pests from the island. This was a time when tensions were at an all time high between the Dutch and Portuguese, since wars were a constant. Its best to note that Portugal was in personal union with Spain during all of this. The Dutch Council of the Indies in Batavia (Dutch East India) complied with this request and in 1637 sent four ships to the island under Captain Jan Thijssen Payart. He signed a treaty with the King. On 4th January 1638 a decisive sea engagement took place off the coast of Goa between Portuguese and Dutch naval forces. The Portuguese fleet was decimated following this battle and the victorious Dutch Admiral Adam Westerwolt (1580-1639) decided to attack the Portuguese fort in Batticaloa, Ceylon with a fleet of five ships and 800 men. In coalition with strong Sinhalese forces he conquered the fort on the 18th of May, 1638.
Five days later, following this victorious conquest, Westerwolt in the name of the States General,prince Frederik Hendrik and the Dutch East India Company agreed to a new Treaty with King Rajasingha in his Palace in Batticaloa. The Treaty was a landmark and set the tone for future relations between the Kandyan Kings and the Dutch. Under the Treaty the Dutch were t o have a monopoly over all trades except elephants. The forts captured from the Portuguese would be garrisoned by the Dutch or demolished, as the King thought fit. The crucial clause ‘as the King thought fit’ was however only included in the Sinhala and not in the Dutch text of the Treaty. This later gave rise to much disagreement between the two parties. The same goes for the clause stating that the King would pay any expenses incurred by the Dutch in the war effort against the Portuguese.
Slowly but surely the Dutch land and naval forces continued to oust the Portuguese from parts of Ceylon. In February 1640 the Portuguese fort of Negombo, a short distance North of Colombo was captured by Philip Lucasz. Following his sudden death, the command was devolved to the capable Willem Jacobsz Coster who earlier fought under Admiral Westerwolt at the east coast. Against overwhelming odds he besieged the strong fort at Galle. After storming the city on 13 March 1640, he became master of it within a few hours. For the next 18 years Galle would remain the centre of Dutch power in Ceylon.