ofthe SAME TREE

his Minangkabau subjects in recompense for the crimes committed against
Dutch subjects in Melaka by the Minangkabau from Naning and Rembau. 64
Economic factors would have been the primary motivation in the merantau
to the Malay Peninsula. An Englishman who visited Johor with a Dutch
expedition in 1600–1 noted that the rulers relied on Minangkabau brought
from Sumatra to prospect for gold in their lands. 65 Much of the gold in Sumatra
came from the Minangkabau highlands, so the Minangkabau were believed to
possess great skills in gold mining. This Englishman’s comment also implies
that there were close links between Minangkabau and Johor in the early seventeenth
century. There appears to have been no difficulty in finding sufficient
workers because the empty lands of the Malay Peninsula were an attraction.
In 1613 Eredia observed that in the districts surrounding Melaka, “the greater
part of the country is uninhabited and deserted, except in the district of Nany
[Naning] which is occupied by Monancabos [Minangkabau].” 66
In the late seventeenth century the appeal to the Minangkabau world
(alam 67 ) to rally support in the rantau became more frequent. In the increasingly
competitive commercial world of the Straits of Melaka, any comparative
advantage would have been sought. By seeking a community of those who
were linked by their obeisance to their Pagaruyung lord, a potentially large
and powerful economic and political force could be assembled. The substantial
populations in the Minangkabau highland were noted in 1684 by the Portuguese
mestizo Tomas Dias, the first “European” to reach the Minangkabau
darek. Though his figures may be inflated, they suggest a substantial population
in the interior of central Sumatra. He reported that there were some 300
rajas or heads of settlements, and that Air Tiris had a population of 10,000,
of whom 500 were traders. At the court of the ruler of Pagaruyung lived some
8,000 people. A Dutch report in 1696 confirms the presence of large populations
in the interior. Pagaruyung had 1,000 people; Suruaso 4,000; Padang
Ganting 10,000; and Sungai Tarab (or Padang Tarab) 1,000. 68
When the Minangkabau began to merantau, they settled in many of the
sparsely populated coastal areas on both sides of the Straits of Melaka. This
spread had already been noted by Pires in the early sixteenth century, and
the process continued in subsequent centuries. While the Minangkabau did
merantau to different parts of the archipelago, the phenomenon was different
in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula because of (1) the proximity of
these two areas to the homeland of the Minangkabau and (2) their relatively
large migrant numbers compared to the host communities. The large concentrations
of Minangkabau on lands bordering the Straits of Melaka made
them a potential source of either danger or opportunity for ambitious local
leaders.
Ethnicization of the Minangkabau 95