Portuguese Malacca Totally Explained

Everything about Portuguese Malacca totally explained

Portuguese Malacca was the territory of Malacca that, for more than a century, was a Portuguese colony.

Origins

From the writing of the Portuguese historian Emanuel Godinho de Erédia in the middle of the 16^th century, the site of the old city of Malacca was named after the Myrobalans, fruit-bearing treess along the banks of a river called Airlele (Ayer Leleh). The Airlele river was said to originate from Buquet China (Present day Bukit Cina). Eredia cited that the city was founded by Permicuri (i.e Parameswara) the first King of Malacca in 1411.
Following the defeat of the Malacca in 15 August 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque sought to erect a permanent form of fortification in anticipation of the counterattacks by Sultan Mahmud. A fortress was designed and constructed encompassing a hill, lining the edge of the sea shore, on the south east of the river mouth, on the former site of the Sultan's palace (destroyed during the battle for the city)

Fortaleza de Malaca

The early core of the fortress system was a quadrilateral tower called Fortaleza de Malaca. Measurement was given as 10 fathoms per side with a height of 40 fathoms. It was constructed at the foot of the fortress hill, next to the sea. To its east was constructed a circular wall of mortar and stone with a well in the middle of the enclosure.
   Over the years, constructions began to fully fortify the fortress hill. The pentagonal system began at the farthest point of the cape near south east of the river mouth, towards the west of the Fortaleza. At this point two ramparts were built at right angles to each other lining the shores. The one running northward toward the river mouth was 130 fathoms in length to the bastion of São Pedro while the other one ran for 75 fathoms to the east, curving inshore, ending at the gate and bastion of Santiago.
   From the bastion of São Pedro the rampart turned north east 150 fathoms past the Custom House Terrace gateway ending at the northern most point of the fortress, the bastion of São Domingos. From the gateway of São Domingos, an earth rampart ran south-easterly for 100 fathoms ending at the bastion of the Madre de Deus. From here, beginning at the gate of Santo António, past the bastion of the Virgins, the rampart ended at the gateway of Santiago.
   Overall the city enclosure was 655 fathoms and 10 palms (short) of a fathom.

Gateways

Four gateways were built for the city;

Porta de Santiago
The gateway of the Custom House Terrace
Porta de São Domingos
Porta de Santo António

Of these four gateways only two were in common use and open to traffic, the Gate of Santo António linking to the suburb of Yler and the western gate at the Custom House Terrace, giving access to Tranqueira and its bazaar.

Destruction

After almost 300 years of existence, in 1806, the British, unwilling to maintain the fortress and wary of letting other European powers taking control of it, ordered its slow destruction. The fort was almost totally demolished but for the timely intervention of Sir Stamford Raffles visiting Malacca in 1810. The only remnants of the earliest Portuguese fortress in Southeast Asia is the Porta de Santiago, now known as the A Famosa.

The town of Malacca during the Portuguese Era

Outside of the fortified town center lies the three suburbs of Malacca. The suburb of Upe (i.e Upih), generally known as Tranqueira (modern day Tengkera) from the rampart of the fortress. The other two suburb were Yler (i.e Hilir) or Tanjonpacer (i.e Tanjung Pasir)and the suburb of Sabba.

Tranqueira

Tranqueira was the most important suburb of Malacca. The suburb was rectangular in shape, with a northern walled boundary, the straits of Malacca to the south and the river of Malacca (Rio de Malaca) and the fortaleza's wall to the east. It was the main residential quarters of the city. However, in war, the residence of the quarters would be evacuated to the fortress. Tranqueira was divided into a further two parishes, São Tomé and São Estêvão. The parish of S.Tomé was called Campon Chelim (Kampung Keling in Malay). It was described that this area was populated by the Chelis of Choromandel. The other suburb of São Estêvão was also called Campon China (Kampung Cina).
Erédia described the houses as made of timber but roofed by tiles. A stone bridge with sentry crosses the river Malacca to provide access to the Malacca Fortress via the eastern Custome House Terrace. The center of trade of the city was also located in Tranqueira near the beach on the mouth of the river called the Bazaar of the Jaos (Jowo/Jawa i.e Javanese).
In the present day, this part of the city was still called Tengkera.

Yler

Yler (i.e Hilir) roughly covered Buquet China (Bukit Cina) and the south-eastern coastal area. The Well of Buquet China was one of the important water source for the community. The Church of the Madre De Deus and the Convent of the Capuchins of São Francisco. Another notable landmark included Buquetpiatto (Bukit Piatu). The extreme boundaries of this unwalled suburb were said to be as far as Buquetpipi and Tanjonpacer.
Tanjonpacer or Tanjung Pasir (in Malay) was later renamed Ujong Pasir. A settlement of Portuguese descent community is located there in present day Malacca. This suburb of Yler is now known as Banda Hilir. Land reclamations in modern time (for the commercial district of Melaka Raya) however have denied Banda Hilir access to the sea.

Sabba

The houses on this suburb was built on the water edges of the river. Some of the original Muslim Malay inhabitants of Malacca lived in the swamps of Nypeiras tree, where they made Nypa (i.e Nipah) wine by distillation for trade. This suburb was considered the most rural, being a transition to the Malacca hinterland, where timber and charcoal traffic passed through into the city. Several parishes also lies outside the city along the river; São Lázaro, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Hope, and Muslim Malays farmlands deeper into the hinterland.
In later periods of Dutch, British and modern day Malacca, the name of Sabba was made obsolete. However, its area encompassed parts of what is now Banda Kaba, Bunga Raya and Kampung Jawa; the modern city center of Malacca

Portuguese administration of Malacca

Malacca was administered by a Governor (Captains-Major) appointed for three-years, a Bishop and church dignitaries representing the Episcopal See, municipal officers, Royal Officials for finance and justice and a local native Bendahara to administer the native muslims and foreigners under the Portuguese jurisdiction.
Captains-Major of Malacca (1512-1641)>

Captains-major	From	Until
Rui de Brito Patalim	1512	1514
Jorge de Albuquerque (1st time)	1514	1516
Jorge de Brito	1516	1517
Nuno Vaz Pereira	1517	1518
Afonso Lopes da Costa	1518	1519
Garcia de Sá (1st time)	1519	1521
Jorge de Albuquerque (2nd time)	1521	1525
Pero de Mascarenhas	1525	1526
Jorge Cabral	1526	1528
Pero de Faria	1528	1529

Further Information

Get more info on 'Portuguese Malacca'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://portuguese_malacca.totallyexplained.com">Portuguese Malacca Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.