Stories from Deli

FC Valck, 1876

When I (Frans Carl Valck) was appointed Assistant Resident of Deli, I knew very well that I would not land in a “bed of roses”; but that I would find such an Augean stable as I did here, I could never have imagined. (28 October 1876)

It would be a miracle indeed, if respectable Chinese coolies would be attracted to a place where coolies are beaten to death or at least so mistreated that the thrashings leave permanent scars, where manhunts are the order of the day. …. Just recently I heard a rumor about a certain European who prided himself on having hung a Chinese, only having cut him down after the coolie had turned entirely blue (people say that it was probably a bluff, but this sort of bluff is same as committing the act). The brave one who is thought to have done this was Heer Luhmann: I mentioned this sample of humanitarianism to a planter who answered me, “No, I heard this about someone else.” Who this other one is I don’t know, but I do know that such unheard-of things occur or at least have occurred. I won’t even mention the case of the cut-off ear kept in alcohol as a curiosity by a down-and-out tanner from Batavia … but I mean inhumaneness that brings the greatest disgrace upon humankind.

[The Pieterse affair] has taught us a noteworthy lesson. The gentlemen of the Deli Company and the most important planters have gone so low as to hold back witnesses and to assure they disappear. One of them admitted this to me personally, and another said, “All of us have been guilty of things such as those that occurred at Rudolphsburg [Pieterse’s estate].” All of these men have been accomplices in the offenses committed by Pieterse; by assisting him they have shown themselves to be a tightly grouped gang of Cartouche. It is anything but an enviable task to have to fight against them. If only you knew all that has happened here; if only you could hear what the planters themselves have to tell, even though that of course can never be proved; you would be deeply saddened.

Heaven knows how many Chinese have been killed and tortured by the so-called pioneers of civilization! Be assured, my friend, that there are several among them who would not consider it a heinous wrong to do away with a government official who would dare to reveal their crimes! But I better leave it at this, for you might start to accuse me of exaggeration, and that I don’t want. “To go beyond the point is to miss it,” as the song so rightfully says.

Offenders 4 Gayos though mostly kampong people. Appears to be private retaliation in the affair, Malayan kicked by Luhmann. Also issue about clearing forest. As for political motive, there seems to be none.

Mr. Browne [Mrs. Luhmann’s brother] walked around the house and found his sister lying on the ground. She was slashed in her neck, head, chest, stomach, and both legs. Having gathered some men he brought her home with them. It was a terrible sight. In the rather wide passage that formed some sort of indoor veranda lay the body of the eldest child, Johny, about nine years of age. With one cut the head had been severed off the body. Next to him lay the corpse of little Marthe, about five years of age. The right arm had been severed almost completely from the body by a slash that had opened the chest. All kinds of objects and clothes were also spread on the floor, and in both front rooms of the house. In the one Mr. and Mrs. Luhmann use as a bedroom a wooden chest in which the money was kept had been cut open and the money, approximately 800 dollars, was gone.

The fifteen-month-old youngest child who slept there was left unharmed. The room next to it had also been ransacked, but the other backroom, where Mr. Browne lived, remained untouched, although a watch was on the table. This gentleman, after helping to bring his sister inside, went to get Mr. Revening, who was lying on the front indoor veranda and whose wounds he bound up as well as possible. There were no less than fourteen of them, with one above both brows, one over the chest, and one over the stomach seeming the most serious. The right hand was severed at the wrist. This gentleman was a complete bloodbath. Later, little Clara said that the criminals put her in a crate and hit her several times on her neck with the flat side of a weapon and threatened to kill her if she did not tell them immediately where the money was kept. As soon as she told them the criminals forced the strongbox open and she ran away.

One peculiarity was that a couple of little Manila dogs, which usually began barking at the slightest sound, had remained completely silent; and another thing, without anyone noticing, all around the Chinese barracks there had been traps set to injure the feet of those who went outside when they heard the noise.

According to Mr. Luhmann and Mr. Browne, the attackers only injured the former in order to scare him and his family off so they would leave the house to allow [the assailants] free play in ransacking the house, which seems to me rather unlikely. According to them, Mr. Revening had been injured so terribly because he defended himself, while Mrs. Luhmann and Johny were killed because they knew many of the attackers, and they [the assailants] feared that later they would point them out as the offenders.

However, the question then arises why little Marthe, who was only five years old, was killed and her three-year-old sister, who, as later became evident, knew almost all of the criminals, had been spared? I feel that once blood had flowed, the tiger nature [tigernatuur], characteristic of the Malay, came out and blood thirst [bloeddorst] should be seen as the cause of the crime, which, by the way, was committed in a state of excitement, so it is easier to excuse than the horrors [gruwelen] that are said to be done in cold blood by so-called civilized Europeans on their plantations to the helpless Chinese coolies, horrors that cannot be unknown to the Malay because they were committed over such a long period of time.

The 17th, the day of the attack on the Soengei Diski estate, I had left for Padang Boelan, in order to go to Soengei Sipoet the following morning to investigate the matter of retired captain of the artillery in the Indies Army, Mr. Nederveen Pieterse, who, among other things, was accused of flogging several Chinese to death, beating others with a rottan whip, and using a copy press to find out the truth when his estate had been burglarized.

In connection with what I had already been told at Kloempang, I asked Mr. Luhmann what could have been the reason for the attack on his plantation and for the murders of his family. He answered that there could not have been any reason because he and his subordinates always treated his Chinese, Battaks, Gayo, and Malays with the utmost humanity [de meeste menschlievendheid].

The previous day he had even given some of them money on the occasion of the end of the Mohammedan fast. Then I said to him that so far all the planters whose plantations had been attacked had given me the same assurance, except for Mr. Droop who admitted having insulted a Gayo headman; that there were rumors [geruchten], however, about things that had happened on each of those plantations that in the eyes of uncivilized people would motivate retaliation; that I had to rely on those statements [verklaringen] and had to take measures accordingly; that those measures might have been wrong because of false information, and that the misery that struck them might have been prevented if the other planters would have told the truth; that I also heard something about him, Mr. Luhmann, that could have caused the attack at his estate, because people had told me that he had kicked a Malay or hit him with a slipper, a fact that I had heard from a reliable person, who in turn could point out the people that had told him.

that a certain Djamal from the Kloempang village who was labor crew leader of seven Battaks [sic] came to him on September 11th to talk about the job of cutting some wood. Djamal had already received an advance to hire woodcutters. When he came to talk about the matter there were more people with him in addition to the Battaks. They too wanted a similar contract. Luhmann was willing to pay 30 dollars per square, but Djamal wanted 35 dollars, although the wood was small and easy to handle.

Mr. Luhmann refused to pay the extra sum but finally gave in; then they refused to work at all. Having paid the advance Mr. Luhmann got mad and said: “You think you can fool me? If you refuse to work I’ll send you to jail.” Then one of the Malays laughed at Mr. Luhmann, who then kicked him, but as he states, without hitting him [sic]. By a Malay version .. . the Malay was kicked down the stairs. Mad, the man ran off, and Djamal said to Mr. Luhmann: “Kenapa toean bikin begitoe ini boekan toean poenja orang, kalau dia bikin salah sajajang boleh poekoel” [Why did you do that, sir, he is not your man, if he did something wrong it’s me that should hit him].

The next day Djamal returned to say that the man had complained to Mr. van Benthem under whose protection he put himself, and that Mr. Luhmann should expect trouble [soesah].

Later Mr. van Benthem told me that indeed some Malays did come complaining that Mr. Luhmann had kicked one of them and that he advised them to go to Laboean to the district officer and that he could be sure that if that gentleman was wrong he would be punished, even if he [the Malay] would not be aware of it. A few days later, he [van Benthem] met one of the complainers and inquired whether the abused person had gone to Laboean, and was told that he first wanted to complain to the village head of Hamperan Perak. Among those who attacked the Luhmann plantation were only four Gayos. Those men were employed with him since August 22, and there was no fault to be found with their behavior, except that they worked slowly. Together with twelve Bataks and three Malays they belonged to the crew controlled by the foremen Deli and Saman, both from Kloempang. Finally Mr. Luhmann told me that a certain Datoe Gembang,38 head of the nearby village of Sala Moeda, might have had a share in the attack on his plantation.

In the late afternoon [of 18 October 1876], the Radja Moeda of Deli arrived with a few Chinese policemen from the sultan. Datoe Gembang was sent for immediately and came, with seven followers armed with swords. He declared that he knew nothing of the affair (as he told Maj. Demmeni the previous day) and very much regretted that it happened. He had nothing whatsoever to say in answer to our interrogations. While we were still questioning him, one of my men noticed a small bloodstain on the sword scabbard of one of Datoe Gembang’s followers and took it from him. After close inspection all the weapons or clothes of Datoe Gembang’s seven followers appeared to have traces of blood, and they were thus arrested.

Having a clue it was easier to track down other persons, especially after the arrival of Deli’s sheriff Lucas and a few policemen. From Kloempang he brought a certain Djamal, whom he strongly suspected of having taken part in the attack. All those who had been employed by Mr. Luhmann and who lived nearby were arrested, and on most of them traces of blood were found on their weapons and clothing. It was curious that nobody seemed to have bothered to cover up the traces of the murder.

…that it could not have been the assailants intention to rob, because in that case it would have been much easier for them to attack and overpower one of the convoys transporting money for the estates and traveling under small escort than to first do hard labor for some time and only then attack the estate. Therefore, I still feel that revenge [wraak] was the cause of every one of the committed crimes.

Ann Stoler, “In Cold Blood”: Hierarchies of Credibility and the Politics of Colonial Narratives