Jacques de Coutre as a source for the early seventeenth-century history of Singapore, the Johore river and the straits
Peter Borschberg’s 2008 article in the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Vol. 81, No. 2, pp. 71–97) examines the manuscripts of Jacques de Coutre (1577–c.1640), a Flemish merchant-traveller who operated out of Portuguese Malacca and Goa during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and assesses their value for reconstructing the history of Singapore, the Johor River, and the adjacent straits. Borschberg argues that Madrid MS 2780—containing De Coutre’s autobiographical Vida and seven political memorials—constitutes one of the most comprehensive surviving European accounts of pre-British Singapore and that its careful deployment can correct long-entrenched misconceptions in the region’s historiography.
Summary
The article proceeds in four movements. The first establishes De Coutre’s biography: a Bruges-born Fleming who settled in Portuguese Goa and Malacca, was deported to Lisbon in 1623 on suspicion of collusion with the Dutch East India Company, was eventually exonerated by a Spanish royal decree, and died in Zaragoza around 1640. The second part addresses the genesis and literary character of the manuscripts preserved in the National Library of Spain. Borschberg engages with the critical literature on the Vida, noting its picaresque structure, its probable composition in Spanish for a courtly audience, and the unresolved question of how much of the text reflects genuine first-hand experience versus literary embellishment. He concludes that while the Vida must be read with the same caution applied to all early modern travelogues, it contains a considerable core of authentic observation, and that the seven memorials—written in De Coutre’s own hand and bearing his signature—carry even greater evidential weight because of their specific, agenda-driven purpose.
The third and most substantial part of the article extracts and analyses De Coutre’s observations on Singapore Island (the Isla de la Sabandaria Vieja), Sentosa (the Isla de Arena), the Old and New Straits of Singapore, the orang laut who inhabited these waters, and the Malay settlement at the shahbandar’s compound. Borschberg demonstrates that De Coutre possessed accurate geographic knowledge of the island’s dimensions, the hydrography of the straits, and the natural resources available for fortification. The fourth part turns to the Johor River, where De Coutre describes the riverine trading regime connecting Singapore to the upstream towns of Johor Lama and Batu Sawar, and proposes a network of fortifications and a patrol squadron to secure this waterway against Dutch and Acehnese incursions.
Throughout, Borschberg uses the manuscripts to address two specific historiographical problems. First, he challenges the dominant “Singapore Story” that attributes the recognition of the island’s strategic potential solely to Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1819, demonstrating that European commentators had openly described Singapore’s locational value and the quality of its port two full centuries earlier. Second, he resolves a century-old cartographic debate concerning the location of the Old Strait of Singapore, arguing on the basis of De Coutre’s detailed descriptions that it ran to the south of the island between present-day Harbourfront and Sentosa, rather than along the northern shore as earlier scholars had contended.
Key Findings
- De Coutre measured Singapore Island at approximately seven leguas across from east to west, and Sentosa at about three leguas in length; he identified the Surgidero (anchorage point) at the convergence of the Old and New Straits with the site of present-day Fort Siloso (pp. 82–83).
- The Old Strait of Singapore, located between Singapore Island and Sentosa (around present-day Harbourfront and Keppel Marina), was described as narrow enough to be closed by “spanning a chain across,” yet deep enough for carracks of three or four decks to pass; ships sometimes remained anchored for seven or eight days waiting for favourable tides and winds (pp. 83–84).
- De Coutre proposed the construction of two fortresses on Singapore soil—one on Sentosa at the Surgidero, exploiting its “natural fortress” of stone, and another on the eastern coast of the island (probably around Bedok or Changi)—as well as a small fort on a sandbank in the Johor River estuary to patrol the entire river and prevent junk traffic (pp. 82, 87–88).
- The orang laut who inhabited the straits lived in boats measuring at most five or six varas (approximately 4–5 metres) constructed of light planks, in which they kept their families, dogs, cats, and poultry; they served as fish and fruit pedlars and as paid informants, receiving a piece of cloth worth four ryals (half a Spanish dollar) for warning services (pp. 85–86).
- De Coutre reported that the Johor River was “very wide and beautiful” and navigable by laden ships up to ten or twelve leguas upstream; Batu Sawar (New Johor) was situated fourteen leguas above Johor Lama, and the Javanese traders diverted their spice cargoes to Batu Sawar when they encountered difficulties with the captain of Malacca (pp. 87–91).
- De Coutre’s ship anchored at a Malay settlement called Sabandaria (the shahbandar’s compound) on the southern shore of Singapore Island, a location Borschberg identifies with the old port now lying beneath reclaimed land south of present-day Beach Road; De Coutre declared this “one of the best [ports] in all of the East Indies” (p. 86).
Conclusion
Borschberg’s definitive takeaway is that Madrid MS 2780 provides the most detailed surviving European testimony on pre-British Singapore and its surrounding waters, and that its careful use compels a revision of the standard narrative. The geo-strategic importance of Singapore at the crossroads of the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea, as well as the existence and quality of its port, were openly recognized and described by European actors well before 1819. The time has come, Borschberg insists, to abandon the myth of Raffles’s solitary “rediscovery” and to acknowledge the continuous European awareness of Singapore’s potential that De Coutre’s writings so vividly document.
Context
- The primary source examined is Madrid, National Library of Spain, MS 2780 (Vida de Jaques de Coutre with seven appended memorials), supplemented by a letter of Dom Paulo Lima de Pereira to Philip II (Madrid MS 1750, fols. 233r–239v) (p. 95).
- The article’s main historiographical contribution is twofold: it resolves the long-standing debate over the location of the Old Strait of Singapore by anchoring De Coutre’s descriptions to identifiable modern geography, and it provides the evidential basis for challenging the “Raffles myth” in Singapore’s national historiography (pp. 92–93).