SOME PORTUGUESE RESOURCES FOR INDONESIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

To investigate the history of Indonesia, especially when Europeans began to arrive and make contact with the Indonesian population, can utilize the resources of Portuguese and Spanish sources. Sources of the Portuguese relating to the history of Indonesia can be categorized into three parts, namely:

1. Official Records of the early days of the occurrence of direct contact with the Portuguese (circa 1511-1650).
2. Other stories and eyewitness reports.
3. The works of the missionaries.

    In connection with the sources Portuguese first category, the name of Joao de Barros (approximately 1496-1570) can be lifted to the surface. He can be called the first great colonial historian and orientalist pioneer. Joao de Barros is acting Factor (feitor) located in the Casa da India or an Indian guesthouse, a position similar to the royal representative in colonial Portuguese. On the basis of his position he can read the entire official letters and nearly all informal letters sent by the officials in Lisbon to their subordinates in the East, and met with high officials, merchants and adventurers who returned to their homeland with congratulations. As a factor in an Indian guesthouse, Barros in his spare time preparing the work history of the deeds done by the Portuguese when the Find and conquer the seas and oceans-Eastern Countries, which was later published under the title set Decadas da Asia.

        Barros also wrote a number of works more specialized nature of the geography of Indonesia, commerce and shipping, which often calls in his book Decadas. As the author of the official history of the Portuguese in the Indian adventure, Barros skew cover or ignore the mistakes of the Portuguese although he also had a critical and not in all respects forgive such errors, an attitude of colonial historians in general. In his writings, Barros said some interesting things about Southeast Asia in general and Indonesia in particular. The picture on Sumatra fill the vacuum of the largest in the Travels works of Marco Polo, and his story of the island is perhaps the most complete and the most precise ever printed, before the publication of the book is encyclopedic, Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien works Valentijn in 1724. the picture on the island of Java less deep and contains a lot of mistakes because he says that the Javanese are of Chinese descent and that the western part of the island (Sunda) is a separate island, while on the other hand, he recognizes and considers the island of Java as a whole. The writings of this Barros continued by Diogo do Couto (1543-1616), who also follow the custom of his predecessor in the use of traditional history and written sources Asia through the mediation of a translator.

       The writings that also has significance for the history of Indonesia is the writing of Fernao Lopes de Castanheda (1500-1559) and Antonio Bocarro. Books from Castanheda entitled Dialogo do Soldado pratico (Dialog A Veteran Soldier) contains the actions of the Portuguese in Asia. This book is perhaps the most scathing criticism ever written about the deeds of the Portuguese in Asia, so it is not surprising that this book recently published two centuries after the death Castanheda. Although visiting Indonesia, Castanheda less talk about the kingdoms of the natives compared to Joao de Barros, and although the book can be used to match Barros books, this book was written by sutu view narrower. Other writings of Antonio Bocarro, which is an encyclopedia entitled Livro do Estado da India Oriental (Books on the State of the East Indies). When Bocarro write this encyclopedia, Portuguese no longer a force in Indonesia. Bocarro also wrote an interesting article about Malacca. The history of the Maluku islands under the administration of Governor Sancho de Vasconcellos are generally considered written by Bocarro, is not actually writing and contains only preliminary remarks from him.

        In the second category of ordinary stories and another eyewitness report, there are two works are very important for the history of Indonesia. The first is a book Suma Oriental writing Tome Pires, a compelling picture of the conditions of Southeast Asia when the Portuguese first appeared and before Indonesia is heavily influenced by the Europeans. The second article of this category is Informacao which contains an overview of Maluku, the work of Gabriel Rebello. The book is divided into three parts. The first part gives a detailed description of the Maluku islands and its natural state, with a shorter report on Halmahera and other islands in the east of the island. Rebello also described the customs, physical characteristics, clothing and tingkal behavior, sports and pastimes, as well as their religious beliefs. The news about Ternate very valuable because he lived on the island for many years and are familiar with all the important people, ranging from the sultan to the bottom. Besides, he also mastered the language Ternate. In the writings of vegetation and local animal, he has strong views, and tuliannya resilient when compared to news written by experts in natural conditions in the following centuries such as Wallace and Guillermard even visited the islands that.

      The second part tells the history of the discovery of the Moluccas by the Portuguese and their dispute with the Spanish regarding sovereignty on the islands. As a Portuguese who love his homeland, he is very critical of the Spanish, and the first chapter of Informacao contains a story about an attack directed against Gonzalo Hernandes de Oviedo of mistakes associated with island spices, which presumably made by chroniclers earlier in his book famous, namely Histora general y natural de las Indias, published in 1535-1537.

    The third part of Informacao describes a period under the helmsman Bernaldim de Sousa in Ternate (1549-1552). There are indications Rebello wrote this book mainly to justify the behavior de Sousa, therefore in this section is very lopsided. He also confirmed the act of Sultan Hairun of Ternate, probably for reasons more rational.

      There is one article, which in this case was not one of the three major categories of sources of Portuguese who had called in advance, namely books Peregrination works Fernao Mendes Pinto. This work attracted the attention of historians Indonesia, because he intends to describe the events in Java and Sumatra, for example, about the Islamic king of Demak attacks against the Hindu king of Pasuruan.

       Portuguese culture in the 16th century and into the 17th, especially in the form of church culture, particularly since the mid-16th century, when the Jesuits and the Inquisition occupies a strong position in the Portuguese and in most of the settlements Portuguese abroad. Culture predominantly ecclesiastical this greatly affect the works of the Portuguese in the 16th century and into the 17th, and particularly noticeable in a mixture of traits of ignorance and injustice, which is reflected in their view of religion of non-Roman Catholic. This prejudice is very clear in relation to Islam. In this context it is known that these writings are influenced by religious fanaticism.

      The writings of the old missionaries about Indonesia not at his level with for instance the writings on China, Japan or India. This is partly due to the Portuguese power was never rooted in the countries of the east of Malacca, while their strength in Maluku always shaky. After losing the Moluccas which was captured by the Dutch in 1605, and in addition after the conquest of Macassar tribal pro-Portuguese by the Dutch sixty years later, the Portuguese influence in Indonesia just living in the East, Solor, and the eastern end of the island of Flores (Larantuka). Even here the effect was so many years is not so strong, while Timor and Solor new in 1681 referred to officially as a Portuguese colony.

     In connection with the writing of the Portuguese missionaries, which is very valuable is publishing a series of records of the Portuguese in Indonesia, which recounts the activities of Portuguese missionaries in Indonesia that during the making of this writing the first half of the 1960s, is being run by Pastor Artur Basilio de Sa, missionary for many years as missionaries in Timor. The value of his book entitled Documentacao plus by many documents were primarily military, economic or social. Thus these documents provide a complete picture of the activities of the Portuguese nation, in addition to a brief report on the many nations that are contacted by the Portuguese.

     The writings are in all respects much more satisfying is that the works are well equipped with documents about the history of the Portuguese in the Lesser Sunda Islands, published by Commandante Humberto Leitao. This writer is a retired naval officer Portuguese. After fulfilling his duties in Timor for a long time, he held a decade-long investigation of the relevant documents that are stored in the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino (History Archive areas Seberang) in Lisbon. His works were written carefully and filled with new materials. If viewed in conjunction with the book work Documentacao pastor Artur de Sa, the second book is unquestionably a fertile field for investigation of Indonesian historians. But there is a difference between the work of Commandante Leitao with Documentacao, it is in the works Commandante Leitao is not equipped index.

       There are a number of other modern writings, the work of Portuguese writer, who primarily or in part with respect to the history of the island, but these writings are less important than the work of Father de Sa Leitao And Commandante. One is a short essay work of Ruy Cinatti, Esboco historico do Sandalo no Timor Portugues (Lisbon, 1950), which contains some interesting historical facts about the maintenance and tree planting sandalwood in Timor. Cinatti also wrote about prehistoric rock paintings in Timor.

      In addition to the sources of the Portuguese already mentioned above, there are sources Spain containing materials about Indonesia. Portuguese and Spanish are the royal twins since 1580 until 1640, and although each government colonies and areas of influence of the two kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula remain separate during the period, with its own archives of Spain contains a lot of information about the local Portuguese colonies and colonies the country itself. This is particularly true of the archives at Simancas and Seville, the Archivo de Indias. In turn, these documents often contain materials about Indonesia, especially during the period when the Spaniards were in Ternate and Tidore (1606-1663). An overview of Aceh drawn up in 1584 by the Bishop of the Portuguese in Malacca, Dom Joao Ribeiro Gaio, unnoticed apparently saved in a modern translation of a manuscript, and a collection of thick letter from Don Geronimo de Silva, the governor of Ternate in Spain in 1612-1617 , This shows that in addition to the sources of Portuguese, Spanish sources also contain material about the history of Indonesia.