Dutch Fort - a short history
including Tiger Rock
The Dutch Fort on Pangkor island is called Kota Belanda
by local Malaysians. It is located at Teluk Gedung,
just south of Pangkor Town on the South West part of the island.
However, Dutch records referred to it as the Dindings fort ('Dingding')
- named after the Dinding River.
The Dutch Fort at Pulau Pangkor
V.O.C. - logo
The Dinding River faces the coast of the Peninsula. Perak was the main
tin-producing kingdom in the whole Peninsula. The Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.
- Vereenigde Oostindische Companie) wanted to control and monopolize its trade. Therefore
their ships blockaded Perak for much of the 17th and 18th century.
There was also a strategic reason for this blockade. Perak was a
vassal of Acheh in Indonesia. At the time, the Dutch were at war with the
Sumatran state.
For this reason a Dutch outpost was established in 1670 to
support this blockade. It was also to prevent the occupation of the island by
the English, who were by then active trade competitors in the region.
The other reason to build this fort at Teluk
Gedung was to prevent Pangkor from being occupied by the English. The English
became by then an active trade competitor in the region.
Dutch Fort before the renovation
The Dutch stationed 59 men at the fort. According to a report of
the Governor Balthasar Bort in 1678 there were a superintendent
merchant, a captain, a bookkeeper, three assistants, three second mates, two
junior surgeons, eight men-at-arms and 40 seamen stationed. They were manning
the garrison and its small flotilla of the yacht 'Laren', the sloop 'Cacap' and
the boat 'Dingdingh'.
The Dutch were the only inhabitants of Pangkor. The Dutch Fort
was build as a strong bastion. William Dampier, an English explorer, wrote a
report saying: "The Dutch Fort is built four-square, without flankers or
bastions, like a house: every square is about ten or twelve yards. The walls are
of a good thickness, made of stone, and carried up to a good height of about
thirty foot, and covered overhead, like a dwelling house."
Apart of the walls, there's not a lot left of the fort
"There may be about twelve or fourteen guns in it, some looking
out at every square. These guns are mounted on a strong platform, made within
the walls about sixteen foot high; and there are steps on the outside to ascend
to the door that opens to the platform, there being no other way
into the fort."
"Here is a governor and about twenty to thirty soldiers, who all
lodge in the fort. The soldiers have their lodgings in the platform among the
guns, but the governor has a fair chamber above it, where he lies with some
officers."
View from the Dutch Fort towards the Malaysian mainland
"About a hundred yards from the fort, on the bay by the sea,
there is a low timbered house, where the Governor abides all the day time. In
this house there were two or three rooms for their use, but the chief among them
was the Governor's Dining-Room. This fronted to the sea, and the end of it
looked towards the Fort."
"The distance between it (the fort) and the river's mouth is
about 4 or 5 Miles; they have also a Guard-ship commonly lying here, and a Sloop
with 20 or 30 armed Men, to hinder other nations from this trade.... The Dutch
also commonly keep a Guard-ship, and have made some fruitless essays to bring
that Prince and his Subjects to trade only with them; but here over against
Dinding, no Strangers dare approach to trade- neither may any Ship come in
hither but with consent of the Dutch."
The beach in front of the Dutch Fort
All supplies were brought from Melaka because, according to
Dampier, the garrison was in "a continual fear of the Malayans, with whom though
they have a commerce, yet dare they not trust them so far, as to be ranging
about the Island in any work of husbandry, or indeed to go far from the Fort for
there only they are safe."
"They fired several guns to give notice to the Malayans
that they were ready for them; but none of them came on. For
this uproar was occasioned by a Malayan canoe full of armed men that
lay skulking under the island, close by the shore: and when a Dutch Boat
went out to fish, the Malayans set upon them suddenly and unexpected,
with their krises and lances, and killing one or two the rest leapt overboard,
and got away, for they were close by the shore: and they having no arms were not
able to have made any resistance.
It was about a mile from the Fort: and being landed, every one
of them made what haste he could to the fort, and the first that arrived was he
who cried in that manner, and frighten the Governor from supper."
"We kept good watch all night, having all our guns loaded and
primed for service. But it rained so hard all the night, that I did not much
fear being attacked by any Malayan; being informed by one of our seamen, whom we
took in at Malacca, that the Malayans seldom or never make any attack when it
rains. The next morning the Dutch sloop weighed, and went to look after the
Malayans; but having sailed about the Island, and seeing no enemies they
anchored again."
The "Geelvinck", a typical example of a V.O.C.
In 1690 the Dutch garrison was again attacked by the Malays.
Pang lima Kulup was responsible for the garrison massacred.
On 24 June 1693 an order was given that, in consequence of this
massacre, no garrison should be posted again at Pulau Dinding.
However a stone pillar should be erected there I should have on
one side the arms of the United East India Company.
On the other should be the
arms of the United Provinces. This should be as a token of Dutch possession. In
1695 and 1721 and 1729, orders were issued for the repair of this stone.
On 20 November 1745 Governor-General Gustraaf Willem, Baron van
Imhoff ordered the rebuilding of the fort at Pulau Dinding.
It was to have a garrison of 30 Europeans and 30 Asians (with the
provision that they were not Bugis). Then, according to Malacca records
under the date 22 October 1746, an under-merchant, Ary Verbrugge,
was sent to Perak.
He had to make sure the king would allow a fort to be erected
up-river and agree to sell all tin to the Company. On 25 June 1747 Sultan
Muzaffar Shah III of Perak signed an agreement to deliver all tin to the Dutch.
He also granted permission for a fort to be built anywhere in his kingdom.
A Malay history of Perak, the 'Misa Melayu', describes how the Dutch fortified a
brick factory (gudang) at Pangkalan Halban on Tanjong Putus. This was
established on 18 October 1748 and van Imhoff ordered the removal of the
garrison from Pulau Dinding to this new fort.
In 1795, Malacca was taken over by Great Britain. Lord Camelford
(then a lieutenant in the Navy), and Lieutenant Macalister proceeded up the
Perak river with a small force. They compelled Christopher Wabash to surrender
the Dutch fort at Tanjong Putus, which in the nineteenth century was broken up
by an English Superintendent of Lower Perak to metal the roads of Teluk Anson
(now called Teluk Intan)!
Tiger Rock, it seems the image is slowly fading compared to a few years ago
A short distance from the Dindings fort is Batu Bersurat (Sacred Written Rock). On
this massive rock, drawings of a tiger mauling what is believed to be a child
can be found. This large granite boulder has the inscription '1743 I.F.CRALO'
and the initials 'VOC' (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie - The Dutch East India
Company), and the image of a tiger.
The story behind it is that the child of a Dutch dignitary, who
played by the rock, disappeared with no trace and it was presumed that a
tiger had taken the child. However the villagers said that it wasn't the tiger
that had taken the boy, but more probably angry Malays, who wanted to rid
Pangkor of the Dutch. The Dutch could have also chiseled this incident on the
stone depicting the Malays as a tiger. And thus the rock became knows as Tiger
Rock.
The National Museum (Muzium Negara) undertook the reconstruction
of the Dindings fort in 1973. The Dutch Fort became a historical monument under
the Antiquities Act in 1976.
The history of the Dutch Fort is one of the interesting parts of
the Malaysian history. If you want to know more on Malaysia's history,
please click here
Apart of the Dutch Fort,
there is more to see at Pangkor. Please go back for
more information on the attractions at Pulau Pangkor
Back to the top of Dutch Fort
Back to A short introduction to Pulau Pangkor
And read more about the long and rich
history of Malaysia
Back to Pulau Pangkor.com homepage
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