Antonius Hambroek

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Frontispiece by Joannes Nomsz: Anthonius Hambroek (edition of 1795)
Antonius Hambroek says goodbye to his daughters and returns to Coxinga from the fortress Zeelandia. Painting by Jan Willem Pieneman from 1810: De zelfopoffering van predikant Hambroeck op Formosa, 1662
Map of the "Ilha Formosa" (Taiwan) at the time of the Dutch colonization (1624–62)
The fortress Zeelandia during the siege by Coxinga (Albrecht Herport: A short description of the East Indian tear. 1669)

Antonius Hambroek (born January 1, 1607 in Rotterdam , † July 21, 1661 in Taiwan ) was a Dutch missionary in the service of the Dutch East India Company . His demeanor and death in the course of the expulsion of the Dutch from the Dutch Formosa forms the core of a story of heroic martyrdom.

Life

The young Hambroek enrolled on January 30, 1624 in the State College of the University of Leiden, which has been training young theologians under rigorous conditions since 1592. In 1632 he got a job as a reader of the reformed church in Schipluiden near Delft . In November 1647, the Classis of his hometown sent him to Batavia , where, as Governor General of the East India Company Cornelis van der Lijn, he drove forward business as well as the expansion of the Dutch sphere of influence.

On April 20 of the following year, Hambroek went to Formosa . Large parts of the island, called "Ilha Formosa" (Beautiful Island) by the Portuguese, had been under the control of the company since 1624, which sought to civilize the local tribes through "preachers" and schoolmasters. In 1651 Hambroek worked in the villages of Mattau, Tirosen, Dorko and Tevorang, and in 1655 in Mattau and Dorko. In 1656 he offered to permanently take over the mission in the particularly difficult south of the island, but this caused all kinds of disagreements with skeptical or unwilling superiors in Batavia. According to a resolution of the Council of Formosa, he was also involved in editing the translation of the Gospels of John and Matthew into the Siraya language . The Swiss soldier Albrecht Herport , who took part in the fighting for Taiwan, describes Hambroek's work as follows:

“The inhabitants then in the flat country, are all under the Dutch jurisdiction, also keep constant peace with them, then the Dutch have several churches and schools set up around there so that they can gradually bring the people to the Christian faith. At the end, the highly learned Mr. Hambruch, servant of the Divine Word, put their language into writing through Latin letters, which they were previously completely unfamiliar with, and afterwards also translated the entire Holy Scriptures into their language, thereby translating a lot in a short time brought to our Reformed Christian faith, also the children are baptized and taught in writing and reading and brought up in schools. "(Herport 1669, p. 46)

On the Chinese mainland, fighting raged between the advancing Manchu troops from the north and the supporters of the declining Ming dynasty . In 1658 and 1659, the fighting carried a wave of refugees to the island of Formosa. Admiral Jan van der Laan, who came with twelve ships and 600 men from Batavia to find out about the situation, considered the fears of the Governor of Zeelandia , Frederick Coyett (1615? -1687), to be unfounded, and a large part of his Forces sailed to a blockade of Macau that was considered more important .

In 1661 the military leader Zheng Chenggong , who was fighting against the Manchu, called Coxinga or Coxinja by the Dutch, crossed with 25,000 men to Formosa to set up his new base of operations here. The Dutch living in the villages, including Hambroek with his wife, son and one of his daughters, soon fell into the hands of the Chinese. Even smaller bases could not last long, but Fort Zeelandia successfully resisted under Coyett. After fighting costly for both sides, Coxinga sent Hambroek together with the secretary Ossewayer, a Chinese named "Sanquae" and the interpreters "Tjoncko" and "Ouhinko" with a letter to the fortress on May 24, 1661, in which he asked Coyett to surrender Hambroek as well as Ossewayer spoke out against the surrender of the fortress. The following day, Hambroeck said goodbye to two other daughters who had escaped to Zeelandia and returned to Coxinga with Ossewayer and Coyett's negative reply. Herport writes about this in his travel diary:

“On the 23rd after noon, a number of people came from the enemy's camp with a white flag, including the highly learned preacher Mr. Hambruh (sic), who had been captured by the enemy from the start, and they sent these gentlemen with a letter as ambassadors our guvernators in the fortress. This letter, after being opened and understood King Coxingy's request; Namely, if he were of the opinion to hand over the fortress, he wanted to make a start in a short time, and not spare the smallest child. This request of his was completely refused and in a sent letter offered nothing but herbs and plumbing and a male resolution to fight down to the last drop of blood. So this Herr Hambruh had to go out again with the letter, while his wife and three of his children, including the enemy, were prisoners whom he did not want to leave. But also has 2 daughters there in the fortress, one of whom was married and the other was still single. They had to see their old father with great heart trouble. "(Herport 1699, p. 47f.)

In July of the same year, he was beheaded along with his son and others. According to the Zeelandia Fortress diary, Coxinga took a daughter from Hambroek as a concubine. After nine months of siege, Coyett finally surrendered in early 1662.

This defeat and the loss of Formosa took the pride of the Dutch. Regardless of the pathetic role the Government General had played in Batavia and the overwhelming numerical superiority of the attackers, Coyett was chosen as the scapegoat. Coxinga quickly developed into the villain and pirate who had the steadfast Hambroek and a few other pastors killed for anti-Christian motives. Although Coyett in his book about the "neglected Formosa" turned against this "fable" as early as 1675 and emphasized that religion played no role here, this interpretation persisted into modern times. In 1775 the Dutch poet Johannes Nomsz wrote. even a tragedy "Anthonius Hambroek, of De belegering van Formoza". Further poems and hymns of praise for "noble self-sacrifice" ( edele zelfopoffering) Hambroeks followed in the early 18th century. A memorial stone was erected in the St. Laurenskerk (Rotterdam) .

literature

  • A short East Indian tear description / Inside of many East Indian islands and landscapes opportunity / the inhabitants' customs and service of God / all kinds of fruits and wild animals / sampt several thoughtful sieges and battles between the Dutch East Indian Compagney on the one hand / and several East Indian kings and Portuguese war peoples on the other hand / especially the Chinese siege and conquest of the Insul Formosa / marked and recorded in several pieces of copper to be found / Described and performed in a nine-year-old tear / By Albrecht Herport / Burgern der Instead of Bern / and Mahlerey art lovers. Bern: Sonnleitner, 1669.
  • 't Verwaerloosde Formosa, of waerachtig verhael, hoedanigh door Verwaerloosinge der Nederlanders in East India, het Eylant Formosa, van den Chinesen Mandorijn, end Zeeroover Coxinja , overrompelt, avoiding, end ontweldight has become. 1675
  • The derelict Formosa, or war-hawked narrative, how the Eyland Formosa was taken by surprise, mastered and overwhelmed by the Chinese mandorin and sea looter Coxinja through the dereliction of the Dutch in East India : there are still some remarkable things about the real cause of the Chinese cruelty and Tyranny on the preachers. Nuremberg: Endter, 1677
  • De dagregisters van het kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan 1629–1662. Uitgegeven by JL Blussé, ME van Opstall, WE Milde en Ts'ao Yung-Ho. Deel IV, The Hague: Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 2000
  • Donald Keene : The Battles of Coxinga . Chikamatsu's Puppet Play, Its Background and Importance. Taylor's Foreign Press: London 1951
  • PC Molhuysen / PJ Blok (ed.): Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Deel 4. AW Sijthoff: Leiden, 1918
  • CAL van Troostenburg de Bruijn: Biographical woordenboek van Oost-Indian preachers. Nijmegen: Milborn 1893, p. 163f.
  • Shih-Shan Henry Tsai: Maritime Taiwan - Encounters with the East and the West. London: Routledge, 2014, pp. 32, 35, 87
  • François Valentijn: Description of oud en nieuw East India. 4.deel, 2. stuk, Dordrecht-Amsterdam: J. van Braam and G. onder de Linden, 1726, pp. 90–91

Literary processing

  • Johannes Nomsz .: Anthonius Hambroek, of de Belering van Formoza, Treurspel. Amsterdam: Izaak Duim, 1775
  • Petronella Moens: Edele zelfopoffering van Antonius Hambroek. In: Tafereelen uit de Nederlandsche geschiedenis, Dichterlijk geschetst voor de jeugd. Haarlem: François Boon, [1823] ( text )
  • Lofzang op Anthonius Hambroek. Nagelaten poems by Jan Frederik Helmers. 3. print. 's-Gravenhage: Wed. J. Allart en Comp., 1823 ( text )

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Board and lodging were free, but the young men in the former Cellebroederklooster were largely isolated from the outside world. More on this from Willem Otterspeer: Het bolwerk van de vrijheid. De Leidse universiteit, 1575–1672. Amsterdam: Bakker, 2000, pp. 151-163
  2. ^ Groups of local [Reformed Churches in the Netherlands | Reformed Congregations]
  3. ↑ The main work was done by Daniel Gravius, under whose name the translation was published: Het heylige Euangelium Matthei en Johannis. Ofte Hagnau ka d'llig matiktik ka na sasoulat ti Mattheus ti Johannes appa. Amsterdam: Michiel Hartogh, 1661. This text, as well as a catechism printed in the same year, are today important sources for research into the Siraya language.
  4. ↑ This was the Sino-Japanese reading Kokusenya or the Taiwanese sound Kok-sèng-iâ / Kok-sìⁿ-iâ of his Chinese name Gúoxìngyé .
  5. ↑ The Dutch translation made by Jacobus Valentijn is preserved in the diary of the fortress Zeelandia. Dagregister van het Kasteel Zeelandia, fol. 595v-597r.
  6. ↑ "Because among the murdered Dutch, above the preacher Hambroeck, there were five to six other preachers, along with a large number of schoolmasters, the fable (which is so popular in the East Indies as Europe) suggests that the Christians on Formosa are from the Chinese Persecuted, martyred and murdered for the sake of the Christian religion, because the preachers do not want to leave their religion or apostate, therefore also died as martyrs for the sake of religion, and therefore canonized, and deserved to be printed in red letters in the calendar. Even if we do not want to misjudge such an honor for them, our love of truth forces us to contradict the same thing in which Coxinja, because of the religion of the Dutch, does not wish to do the slightest thing to any one of the Dutch, but rather out of mere political considerations and execution of his progress, so pitifully murdered and executed ”. The derelict Formosa or warrior narrative ..., p. 266.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Campbell, p. 82
  2. ^ Campbell, p. 276
  3. ^ Campbell, p. 299
  4. ↑ Campbell, p. 301
  5. ↑ Campbell, pp. 302-311.
  6. ^ Campbell, p. 314
  7. ↑ Valtenijn (1726), p. 90
  8. ↑ Dagregister van het Kasteel Zeelandia, fol. 595r.
  9. ↑ Dagregister van het Kasteel Zeelandia, fol. 609r.
  10. ↑ October 21, 1661. Campbell, pp. 326f.
personal data
SURNAME Hambroek, Antonius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch missionary in the service of the Dutch East India Company
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1607
PLACE OF BIRTH Rotterdam
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1661
Place of death Taiwan