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The Destruction of the English East India Company Factory on Condore Island, 1702–1705

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2011

DANNY WONG TZE-KEN
DANNY WONG TZE-KEN*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Email: dannyw@um.edu.my
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Abstract

The English East India Company established a factory on the island of Condore, off the coast of southern Vietnam, in 1702 as part of its plan to maintain a settlement to direct shipping activities between trading ports in China and Southeast Asia and India. For three years, the settlement thrived and was an important part of the China trade network, especially as a stopping point for ships plying the China route. The island settlement also carried out trading activities with neighbouring ports along the Indochina coast and the Malay Archipelago. The setting up of the factory, however, coincided with the emergence of the new entity of southern Vietnam under the Nguyễn family who were expanding their power-base to the south. In the process, the Nguyễn had already subdued the Chams and were coming face-to-face with the Khmers when the English factory was established. This paper will trace the English venture on Condore Island and the reaction of the Nguyễn ruler towards this venture which culminated with the destruction of the factory in 1705. This paper will attempt to explore the following questions: the shifting importance of the islands in the Nguyễn's security and foreign relations vis-à-vis the English factory, and will also investigate the circumstances that brought about the massacre and destruction of the English factory on Pulo Condore—a historical event that has not been properly explained thus far.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 5 , September 2012 , pp. 1097 - 1115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 These include: Dampier, William (1699), Voyages and Discoveries, London (Reprinted, Argonaut Press, London, 1931)Google Scholar; Pinkerton, John (1811), A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in all Parts of the World, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, OrmeGoogle Scholar; Hamilton, Captain Alexander (1727), A New Account of the East Indies, Edinburgh (Reprinted, Argonaut Press, London, 1930)Google Scholar; Barrow, John (1806), A Voyage to Cochin China in the Years 1792 and 1793, London: T. Cadell and W. DavisGoogle Scholar.

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3 See Nicholas Tarling (1967), British Relations with Vietnam, JMBRAS, 39(1); C. B. Maybon (1910), Une Factorie anglaise en Tonkin au XVIIe Siecle (1627–1697), Bulletin L’École française d'Extrême-Orient, (herein after BEFEO) 10(1). For the British East India Company involvement in Cambodia, see D. K. Bassett (1962), ‘The Trade of the English East India Company in Cambodia, 1651–1656’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.

4 Another such event took place in 1613 when Tempest Peacock and Walter Cawarden, both officials of the English East India Company, were lost during their stay in Nguyen Southern Vietnam, see Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, pp. 12–15.

5 Pulo Condore or Condore Islands, present day Côn Đảo, also called Côn Lôn, Côn Sơn, Côn Nôn, Condur, is a group of 12 islands situated off the southeastern coast of Vietnam, 280 km from Saigon and 180 km from the point of Vũng Tàu. This paper uses the two terms of Pulo Condore and Condore Islands interchangeably.

6 See Bassett, D. K. (1960), The Amboyna Massacre of 1623, Journal of Southeast Asian History, 1 (2): 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Bassett, however, argues that the massacre at Amboyna had no major effect on subsequent East India Company involvement in the East and Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, it is believed that it did have some psychological effect in the thinking of the East India Company officials.

7 Da, Wang (2000), Daoyi Zilie, Beijing: Zhonghua Shuji Chuban Fahang, p. 218Google Scholar.

8 See Xie, Zhang (2000), Dongxi Yangkao, Beijing: Zhonghua Shuji Chuban Fahang, Vol. 9, p. 175Google Scholar.

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11 Jacq-Hergouallc'h, Michel (2002), The Malay Peninsula: Crossroad of the Maritime Silk Road. Leiden: Brill, pp. 268–269Google Scholar.

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13 See Ðại Nam Thứ c Lục Tiề n Biên (Veritable Record of Early Ðại Nam, hereafter Tiề n Biên), 7:14.

14 Ðại Nam Nhấ t Thống Chí (Gazetteer of the Ðại Nam hereafter, DNNTC), 14:13.

15 Ibid., pp. 13–14.

16 Crawfurd, John (1828 reprinted 1987), Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China, Singapore: Oxford University Press, p. 200Google Scholar.

17 Gia Dịnh Thành Thống Chí (hereafter GDTTC), 2:33–34.

18 Until the early nineteenth century, Vietnamese writings normally refer to the people from the Malay Archipelago as Ðo Ba or Trao Oa, a variation of the term Java. According to GDTTC, the term is used to describe people from Malacca and 36 other ports in the Malay Archipelago. See GDTTC, 5:3. The term is also used by the Cambodians and Cham people. In the case of the Cham, the term Jawa refers to Malay speakers and those from the maritime Malay, see Po Dharma (comp.) (1999), Quatre Lexiques Malais-Cam Anciens, rédigés au Campā, Paris: Ecole Française D’Éxtrême-Orient, p. 323.

19 GDTTC, 2:34.

20 Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China, pp. 195–196.

21 Finlayson, George (1826 reprinted 1988), The Mission to Siam and Hue, 1821–1822, Singapore: Oxford University Press and The Siam Society, p. 290, 292Google Scholar.

22 Instructions from Bishop Laneau to Father Charmot, December 1686, Archives des Missions Etrangeres de Paris (hereafter AMEP): Siam, 859:503.

23 Instructions from Nathaniel Higginson to Thomas Bowyear, 2 May 1695 in Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, p. 42.

24 Bowyear's Narrative, 30 April 1696 in Lamb, Ibid., p. 50.

25 Father Pierre Langlois to his superior (possibly Mgr. Perez), 15 March 1699, Archives Missions Etrangeres de Paris (AMEP): Cochinchine, 726:269.

26 For a study on the Dutch venture in Nguyễn Southern Vietnam in 1642–1643, see Ðại Nam Thứ c Lục Tiề n Biên (hereafter Tiề n Biên), 3:8; W. J. M. Buch (1929), De Oost-Indische Compagne en Quinam, Amsterdam: H. J. Paris, p. 80; Li Tana (1998), Nguyễn Cochinchina, Ithaca: Cornell University, Southeast Asian Program, pp. 176–179; see also Dagh Register gehouden int Castel Batavia Vant, Chinese translation by Guo Hui and Chen Da Xue, Vol. 2, Taipei: Taiwan Sheng Wen Xian Wei Yuan Hui, 1989, pp. 364–365, 369–370, 398.

27 Bowyear's Narrative to Nathaniel Higginson, 30 April 1696, in Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, p. 45.

28 Ibid.

29 Langlois to his Superior, 15 March 1699, AMEP: Cochinchine, 726:269.

30 Ibid.

31 For a study on the English factory in Cambodia, see Bassett, ‘The Trade of the English East India Company in Cambodia, 1651–1656’.

32 See Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, p. 55.

33 Bowyear's Narrative, 30 April 1696 in Lamb, Ibid., p. 50.

34 Howard T. Fry (1970), Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808) and the Expansion of British Trade, London: The Royal Commonwealth Society, Frank Cass and Co, p. 166; see also Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, p. 55.

35 See Morse, Hoses Ballou (1928), The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China, 1635–1834, London: Oxford at the Clarendon Press, p. 109Google Scholar.

36 The English factory at Hanoi was abandoned on 29 November 1697 when Richard Watts, the last chief of the Hanoi establishment, left with his staff. A. Lamb suggested that the main reason to withdraw from Tonkin was the East India Company's policy of seeking more profitable trade in silk, which the Company felt was on the China coast, thus the founding of the Chusan Council in 1700. Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, pp. 26–37; for a study on the English factory in Tonkin see also Maybon (1910), Une factorie anglaise au Tonkin au XVII siecle (1627–1697), BEFEO, 10:1.

37 A copy of this letter was deposited at the India Office Records, Home Miscellaneous Series, 628:469–478; There was, however, no further correspondence on the same subject in the series.

38 Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, p. 37.

39 The term ‘Cochinchina’ was used by the Europeans when referring to the region of southern Vietnam during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The term continued in use after the French began their colonization of Vietnam. The Chinese used the term ‘Guangnan’, which refers to Quảng Nam, the main province which dealt with foreigners, whereas the Dutch used the term ‘Quinam’.

40 See Letter from Chúa Minh to Catchpoole, 2 August 1703, India Office Records, Home Miscellaneous Series (hereafter, Home Misc.), 628:469.

41 For a study on Nguyen-Champa relations during this period, see Danny Wong Tze Ken (2007), Nguyen-Champa Relations during the 17th and 18th centuries, Paris-San Jose: International Office of Champa.

42 See Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company, p. 127.

43 Tiề n Biên, 8:13.

44 Thomas Bowyear's Narrative in Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, p. 51.

45 Letter from Chúa Minh to Catchpoole, 2 August 1703, India Office Records, Home Miscellaneous Series, 628:469. The letter consulted here is written in English. It is not known if it is an original from the Nguyễn court or a translated version.

46 Ibid.

47 See Thomas Bowyear's Narrative, 30 April 1696, in Lamb, Mandarin Road to Old Hue, pp. 50–51.

48 There is no trace of Catchpoole's letter, but Nguyễn Phúc Chu's opening statement in his letter suggested the existence of such a letter: ‘The King of Cochin China gives this answer to the great general in pullo Condore his letter, and to those of his council. Letter from Chúa Minh to Catchpoole, Home Miscellaneous Series, 628:469

49 Ibid.

50 Ibid., 628:474.

51 Ibid.

52 Ibid., 628:477.

53 James Cunningham to Baldwyn and Wingate, 4 May 1705, MS Bradley 24 (Bodleian Library), f. 162. Cunningham was later executed by the Nguyễn in Phú Xuân.

54 See Dr James Pound to Court of Managers, East India Company, 3 May 1705, MS Bradley 24, f. 8.

55 Alexander Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, as cited in Lamb, The Mandarin Road to Old Hue, pp. 39–40.

56 Tiề n Biên, 7:21.

57 Li Tana, Nguyễn Cochinchina, pp. 75–76.

58 Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company, pp. 127, 130.

59 The term ‘Java’ need not necessarily mean the island of Java per se. The term was commonly used by the indigenous people of Indochina when referring to people from the Malay archipelago. In the case of the Cham, the term refers to Malay-speakers and those from the maritime Malay, see Po Dharma (comp.), Quatre Lexiques Malais-Cam Anciens, p. 323. See also Dr James Pound to Court of Managers, East India Company, 3 May 1705, MS Bradley 24, f. 8.

60 Tiề n Biên, 7:21.

61 Tiề n Biên, 7:23.

62 Cunningham to Baldwyn and Wingate, 4 May 1705, MS Bradley 24, f. 161.

63 Dr James Pound to Court of Managers for the East India Company, 3 May 1705, MS Bradley 24, f. 1–2.

64 Dr James Pound to Court of Managers for the East India Company, Ibid., f. 6

65 James Cunningham to Baldwyn and Wingate, 4 May 1705, MS Bradley 24, f. 162.

66 See Ibid., f. 163 and Diary of Ambrose Baldwyn Relating to the Transactions at Condore, 24 August 1705, MS Bradley 24, f. 153.

67 Tiề n Biên, 7:24b.

68 Ibid.