Lands of Red and Gold #31: The Lord’s Will
“You are to proceed to the southward in order to make discovery of the continent abovementioned [Aururia] until you arrive in the latitude of 40 degrees, unless you sooner fall in with it. But not having discovered it or any evident signs of it in that run, you are to proceed in search of it to the eastward between the latitude before mentioned and the latitude of 35 degrees until you discover it.”
- Instructions issued to William Baffin by the Directors of the East India Trading Company in July 1635, prior to his first expedition to Aururia
* * *
Summer, 29th Year of King of Kings Kepiuc Tjaanuc [December 1631-February 1632]
Milgawee (White City) [Albany, Western Australia]
Tiayal (the Middle Country) [western coast of Australia]
Water, water everywhere. Not plunging uncontrollably from the sky, or bubbling from the secret places beneath the earth, but flowing according to the desires and for the pleasures of men.
Or were these bearded Atjuntja truly men? Might they not be spirit beings who lived in the Dreamtime as much as in the present time?
Attapatta, chief of the Wurrukurr, could not decide the answer to those questions, much as he wondered. Before he had come to Milgawee, he had been confident that these Atjuntja were men like any others, even if possessed of different Dreamings [1].
The Atjuntja knew different skills than the desert-dwelling Wurrukurr [2], but they still had their limits. Or so it had seemed. He had been invited to some of their smaller cities, earlier in his life, and seen that the Atjuntja had different knowledge. The Atjuntja could work metals and make food grow from within the earth, but they did not know how to listen to the world around them and were almost incapable of hunting properly.
Now, though, he had seen Milgawee, the place of stone and water and boundless vegetation, and he could not decide whether these Atjuntja were truly men. The first time he had seen an Atjuntja city, he had called it a big place, but the local Atjuntja had just laughed. Now that he had seen the place they called the Centre of Time, he understood their reactions.
Here at Milgawee, it was as if the Dreamtime still endured, where the ancient spirit beings had never stopped their work of shaping the earth. Here walked men – or perhaps more-than-men – who had the powers to call forth stone and water according to their desires.
And they had welcomed him! The Wurrukurr came from a hotter and harsher land, where the sun burned brighter and water was life. Attapatta had guided his people through the challenges of that life, but he had never expected to be welcomed by spirit beings.
Attapatta had been given rooms in their palace to live, and gifts of iron and clothes made of
linen. Those were marvellous enough. The Atjuntja had even called him one of the
blessed, who was permitted to hear the voice of their great ruler, the Many-King [3] who commanded all of the spirits of this place.
Still, for all of these wonders, nothing matched the Garden. Here, the sounds of water were everywhere. Here was a truly sacred place created by the most powerful of Dreaming. Back in the hot lands of his home, the growth of plants was a rare, infrequent thing, in a land which had been baked red. In the Garden, though, water flowed everywhere, and the growth of plants was commanded entirely at the wishes of the Atjuntja.
Here, too, was where Attapatta had been invited to meet with Lerunna Mundi, the voice of the Many-King, to discuss whatever reason they had for inviting him to travel so far.
Lerunna said, “Your Wurrukurr people follow your lead, I know. How much do your neighbours heed your words?”
Attapatta frowned, trying to follow the import of the question. He said, “I am chief, not a... king. All of the Wurrukurr elders have a voice, and our people will listen to them. As for our neighbours, we talk with them, but no-one can command another people. They do as they wish in their country, as we do in ours.”
Lerunna said, “So long as you talk with them, that is enough for his exalted majesty’s wishes.”
“Of course we talk with them. A people should always heed their neighbours.”
Lerunna smiled. A normal expression if he was a man; perhaps the same held true for spirit beings. “His exalted majesty offers you gifts – iron knives and tools, linen and
kunduri.”
“What does the Many-King want from us, that he offers such gifts?” Attapatta said. He knew that desire stirred in his voice; the gifts which he had already received were incredible.
“Your scouting, and your warning. His exalted majesty knows that the Wurrukurr know how to move through the red lands [desert] without being seen, when you need. He asks that you send word to our soldiers if you or your neighbours learn of ships coming from the sea.”
“Ships?” Attapatta said.
“The ships of the Raw Men, who come out of the sunset.”
“Ah,” Attapatta said. He had heard word of this from the Atjuntja near his homeland, although he had never seen a ship himself.
“There are two kinds of Raw Men. The Nedlandj [Dutch] are our sometimes friends. Tell us if they come. The other kind are called the Pannidj, and they are our enemies. Do not threaten them, for their weapons are powerful. But his exalted majesty wants to know if their ships come. If they try to build outposts in your country, send word to us, and his exalted majesty’s soldiers will capture the Pannidj for you.”
“If they are so powerful, we should be wary of their anger,” Attapatta said.
Lerunna said, “The Pannidj can be killed. His exalted majesty’s soldiers killed them when they attacked our friends the Nedlandj. But we will need your people to guide us. You know the red lands better than anyone, and you can bring our soldiers close to the Pannidj without being seen. If they come, we will defeat them.”
An easy proposition, as far as Attapatta was concerned. The risks lay with the Atjuntja, not with his own people. “It is agreed,” he said.
* * *
From: The United East India Company: Reflections on the Golden Age”
By Alexander Boniface
The first decade of the Company’s deeds in Aururia was shaped by priorities set elsewhere in the world. Company merchants acquired Atjuntja gold and sandalwood as an excellent source of wealth, but they spent the profits of that trade elsewhere.
During the tenure of Governor-General Coen, the Company’s efforts in the Far East were focused on building up an inter-Asian trading network whose profits would supply the spice trade to Europe. Aururian gold provided the capital to finance this trading expansion, but for the first ten years, Aururia itself formed only an isolated outpost on that trading network.
In particular, under Coen’s leadership the Company did not seek to become deeply involved with the Atjuntja. Despite the consternation caused in Europe by accounts of Atjuntja religious practices – often exaggerated, but the reality was bad enough – or the frustration of Atjuntja trading restrictions, Coen did not wish any disruption to such a valuable source of gold.
So for the first few years, the Company simply traded with the Atjuntja and complied with most of their restrictions. Where convenience allowed and the risk was low, the Company did ignore their treaty obligations, such as by sending ships to explore further east in Aururia. Blatant interference, however, remained forbidden...
A variety of factors combined to change the course of the Company’s involvement in Aururia. With the passing of Jan Coen in July 1631, the prime focus was no longer building up inter-Asian shipping; a task which had in any case been largely completed by that time. His successor Hendrik Brouwer, had a much greater interest in exploration of new markets and trade goods.
Aururia offered an inviting temptation for renewed exploration. François Thijssen’s voyage [in 1626-27] had offered tantalising hints of the potential new markets which could be found there. Action on these hints had been delayed by Coen’s Asian focus, and the chaos caused in Europe by the first sweating sleep [Marnitja] epidemic meant that no-one in the Netherlands had overruled him. With Coen gone and the situation in Europe stabilising, further exploration of Aururia became a much higher priority.
Concerns about the security of their Aururian outposts also became an increasing source of friction between the Company and the Atjuntja. The Spanish raid on Fort Nassau in 1631 exacerbated these underlying tensions, since the Company now wished to fortify and garrison their outposts properly, but the Atjuntja administrators refused to allow fortifications.
The infamous demand of the Atjuntja governor Namaidera [Namai Urdera] for Dutch sacrificial victims has been much-cited as bringing about the collision between Company and Atjuntja interests, but in truth this was but one symptom of an underlying conflict. Eurasian diseases and rats were causing increasing problems in Tiayal, and the flood of Old World trade goods caused economic disruption amongst the local aristocracy.
With such growing sources of friction, it was inevitable that the Company would need to take more active involvement in Aururia. The critical moment came in 1632, in the aftermath of a new wave of disease, when the first epidemic of chickenpox swept across Tiayal...
* * *
The man called Nyumbin would become one of the most disputed figures in accounts of Aururian history, and indeed across the world. Over the centuries, a plethora of writers, historians, social activists, nationalists, revolutionaries and other figures would depict their own views of Nyumbin. Many would cite him as inspiration for their own deeds, many would condemn his actions, while a few offered a more nuanced view of his life and deeds.
To some, Nyumbin would be seen as the first great Aururian patriot, a cultural hero who offered the first resistance to foreign influence. Others would see him merely as a nationalistic rebel, fighting for the Inayaki people against the Atjuntja, while being totally ignorant of the wider clash between Europeans and Aururians. Still others would view him as simply an aristocratic opportunist, who sought to take advantage of the arrival of the Dutch to obtain greater personal wealth and power by replacing Atjuntja rule with his own.
In time, Nyumbin would be viewed by some as a bloodthirsty would-be tyrant who sought to oppress everyone. Some would see him as a traitor whose rebellion allowed the Dutch to impose control over the Atjuntja. Others would see him as an avatar of the Lord, sent to bring bloodshed and chaos into the mortal realms. A few more controversial historians would see him as demonstrating the first stirring of class-consciousness in Aururia.
In the welter of accounts, the truth about Nyumbin is almost impossible to discern. Still, some facts are relatively undisputed. Nyumbin was born into one of the old Inayaki noble families. As was so often the case, his family had been partially assimilated into the Atjuntja hierarchy, and were recognised as noble, but they preserved their own language and something of a separate sense of culture.
Of the man’s appearance and characters, the tales naturally vary, but through all accounts, some features are often highlighted. Nyumbin was a man of dark skin even by the standards of Tiayal, with the black hair that was so expected of Atjuntja nobility, but rarer amongst their subject peoples such as the Inayaki. He is reliably reported as a man who kept himself in prime physical condition: tall, well-muscled, flexible, and an expert with sword or spear.
One seemingly minor point about his appearance will cause endless acrimony amongst scholars and in popular culture. Some descriptions of Nyumbin assert that he never wore the full beard so heavily associated with Atjuntja nobility, that he had always kept himself clean-shaven to distinguish himself from the Atjuntja overlords. Other descriptions claim that he had worn a full beard to fit with Atjuntja expectations – as did most of the other semi-assimilated nobility in the subject peoples – and that he only shaved his beard when he began his great rebellion. The point matters greatly to those who view him as a lifelong patriot and nationalist, or to those who see him as a mere opportunist, but it will never be truly settled.
Whatever else Nyumbin may have been, he was certainly a gifted military tactician and a charismatic leader. Even hostile accounts of his life usually agree that he was a man of immense personal presence and charm, with an extremely persuasive way of speaking. His military talents were demonstrated first when he acted for the Atjuntja to lead raids against eastern desert peoples who had started to impinge into farming lands during times of drought [4]. In time, they would be demonstrated when he acted against the Atjuntja.
Nyumbin’s deeds were ostensibly triggered by the passage of the chickenpox epidemic which swept through Tiayal in 1632 and claimed the life of the King of Kings, Kepiuc Tjaanuc. Certainly, he must have had some motivations which had been building for longer than that, but which of these reasons is seen as his true motivation depends on which later figure is offering an account of his life.
It is known that Nyumbin had some resentment of the main Atjuntja noble merchants who came from the White City to trade with the Dutch at Fort Nassau. The Atjuntja aristocracy controlled the supply of gold which was the most valuable good to trade with the Dutch. Nyumbin and the other non-Atjuntja nobles had to trade using lesser goods such as sandalwood and sweet peppers, and it was a source of offence that he was not treated as being as good as an Atjuntja noble.
Nyumbin may also have had a personal hatred of the local Atjuntja governor, Namai Urdera. Many stories will describe quarrels between the two. Some of those are undoubted later embellishments, but it is known that Nyumbin did not have a good opinion of the Atjuntja governor.
Whatever his reasons, Nyumbin would lead the greatest rebellion which had been seen in Tiayal since the earliest days of the Atjuntja empire.
Nyumbin launched his rebellion in May 1632. He acted two weeks after word came of the death of the King of Kings, when the Atjuntja governors had gone to the capital to attend his funeral, and before the kings [5] in the White City could decide which of the many sons of Kepiuc Tjaanuc most deserved the imperial dignity. Whether by intelligence or good fortune, his timing was impeccable. Late May marked the start of the campaigning season, when workers had finished the harvests and would normally be called to serve on labour drafts for the next three months [6].
Nyumbin called on these workers to fight instead, in the name of the Inayaki and the Djarwari peoples. He found plenty of volunteer militia to supplement his own personal troops. He put his rebel troops to immediate use, gathering them around the garrison-city of Archers Nest and storming it using a combination of surprise and well-crafted ladders. The captured Atjuntja, both soldiers and non-combatants, were massacred, except for a few of noble blood who were kept as hostages. The Dutch at Fort Nassau maintained a wary neutrality, and he ignored them as posing no threat.
Following this success, Nyumbin marched east to capture the major garrison-city of Verdant Valley [7]. In the absence of the governor, who perhaps would have been more judicious, the local military commander decided to engage Nyumbin’s numerically superior forces outside the city’s walls, rather than settling into a defensive siege.
The Atjuntja commander trusted his troops’ discipline and superior armour to carry the day, but Nyumbin relied on a tactic he had learned when desert hunter-gatherers used against him: feigned retreat. He used his best-trained personal troops to stage an apparent retreat, and then others hit the pursuing Atjuntja in the flank. The Atjuntja army broke and fled the field, leaving Nyumbin’s forces to occupy Verdant Valley, where he conducted a similar massacre of all Atjuntja within its walls.
In the space of two weeks, Nyumbin had captured two Atjuntja garrison-cities, when even capturing one had been a rare feat in previous rebellions. These triumphs attracted a flood of support for Nyumbin’s cause both from peasants and other non-Atjuntja nobles.
Nyumbin sent some of his newly-raised troops east to capture the next major garrison-city of Spear Mountain, although that venture simply resulted in a long siege which would eventually be abandoned when word reached the besiegers of events elsewhere. However, the presence of those troops meant that the Atjuntja dominions were now cut in half, since the rebels controlled all of the major roads north.
Leaving his eastern forces to continue the siege of Spear Mountain, Nyumbin marched northwest to the next major northern garrison-city, Lobster Waters. The commander here had the good sense to avoid battle too, with his troops defending the walls instead. However, they were betrayed from within, thanks to some local Inayaki servants who opened one of the smaller gates during the night, allowing the rebels into the city. This time, Nyumbin ordered only the soldiers killed, and spared the non-combatant Atjuntja to act as hostages, too.
Nyumbin’s triple success at capturing garrison-cities and victories in the open field naturally provoked terror in the White City. No rebel leader before had been so successful. However, the capture of Lobster Waters did not give the same boost to Nyumbin’s cause as his previous victories. He had already attracted most of the available support from the Inayaki and Djarawari subject peoples. The Binyin people who lived further north were much less inclined to support him, thanks to a legacy of old hatreds and fear that they would simply be replacing Atjuntja dominion with Inayaki overlordship.
Without additional support, Nyumbin was forced to return south to prepare for any Atjuntja counter-attacks. While he had gained control of considerable territory, the bulk of the Atjuntja armies were further south and east, in their old heartland. They did not march quickly to oppose him, but their threat remained significant.
With his return to Archers Nest, Nyumbin had three choices. He could march south to try to capture the next coastal garrison-city of Corram Yibbal, although a siege risked becoming bogged down. He could go east to Verdant Valley and then take the major road to the White City, which was sure to bring about battle with the main Atjuntja armies. Or he could remain where he was, consolidate his control over his territory, and stage some meaningless negotiations with the Atjuntja while he tried to train and equip his soldiers up to Atjuntja standards.
In the end, Nyumbin chose a middle course, opening negotiations with the Atjuntja over the possibility of recognition of his conquests, while he sent a portion of his forces south to besiege Corram Yibbal. The Atjuntja nobility sent representatives to conduct a pretence of discussing terms, but neither side treated these negotiations as anything other than a delaying tactic. The Atjuntja rarely bargained with rebels – and then only when they could find religious justification – but they welcomed the chance for a truce while they settled their own arguments about who should become the next King of Kings.
The rebels and imperial forces clashed several times while these negotiations were taking place, but Nyumbin himself did not take the field until early in 1633, when he apparently felt confident enough to march on the White City. There were Atjuntja forts along the way, each of which would take some time to capture.
Nyumbin never reached the White City. While he was besieging the third Atjuntja fort on the road there, he received word of disaster in his rear. Atjuntja troops had landed by sea, supported by men armed with strange thunder-weapons [ie cannon] that broke men and stone with equal ease. Archers Nest and Verdant Valley were quickly recaptured by imperial troops, destroying his supply lines.
Nyumbin was forced to withdraw back toward Verdant Valley, only to be caught between imperial forces advancing from both directions. He accepted battle against the odds, and his rebels were systematically cut to pieces by Atjuntja soldiers. Nyumbin himself died in battle, preferring that fate to capture. His last words, according to most accounts, were to curse the Raw Men whose ships and thunder had brought about his failure.
* * *
From: The United East India Company: Reflections on the Golden Age”
By Alexander Boniface
In the aftermath of Nyumbin’s rebellion, the Company was quick to collect on the debt owed by the Atjuntja government. They were granted permission to establish a third trading outpost, which would later become Coenstad [Esperance, Western Australia]. All restrictions on fortifying and garrisoning their outposts were lifted. The Company obtained the right to sail east of Tiayal, although this was merely acknowledgement of a practice which had already begun.
Further concessions followed, inevitably. Ostensibly little had changed after Nyumbin’s rebellion, since there was again an undisputed King of Kings ruling over Tiayal. In truth, the Company had been handed a wedge which it was quick to apply. The efficiency of Dutch shipping had been demonstrated, and the Atjuntja nobles continued to clamour for unrestricted trade.
With those advantages, it took only a handful of years for the Company to demand unrestricted trade access, with the right to visit any Atjuntja port and trade in any goods they desired. For the Atjuntja monarchy, this had short-term benefits, since it placated an increasingly unruly aristocracy. In the long-term, though, it would benefit only the Company, since it disrupted the previous land-based Atjuntja internal trade networks, and destroyed the careful control of resource production which had been maintained by the King of Kings...
* * *
Third Harvest Season, 1st Year of King of Kings Manyal Tjaanuc [April 1633]
Milgawee (White City) [Albany, Western Australia]
Tiayal (the Middle Country) [western coast of Australia]
Silence around him, at least as far as sounds carry to his ears. Namai Urdera lies in the centre of the public arena of the House of Pain, with twenty thousand people watching him, but he hears no noise save for a faint whispering on the breeze.
He has been placed on a raised wooden platform, his wrists and ankles chained to four stakes. There is not much spare movement in the chains; his arms and legs are both spread wide. He has been left only a loincloth to wear, although he does his best to bear himself with dignity. His beard and head have been shaved, silent testament to the fact that this is no ordinary sacrifice.
It is an execution.
Namai has been condemned for failing to secure sacrifices from the Nedlandj, and for failing to prevent the rebellion of that infuriating man Nyumbin. He did volunteer to be sacrificed to the death, but that does not erase the condemnation. The King of Kings’ blessing has been withdrawn; Namai is no longer permitted to hear his voice or speak directly to him.
Namai would not argue with the new King of Kings’ decision, even if he could. The Lord has been greatly angered, with what He has inflicted on the Atjuntja; only blood can answer the call. Namai does think, though, that his sacrifice will not be enough. Given the magnitude of the disasters, only royal blood can appease the Lord. The new King of Kings has about fifty surviving brothers. One or more of them must be sacrificed to the death.
A shadow passes above him. The Appeaser is ready. No words are spoken, for none are needed.
Namai does not know exactly what is coming, since every Appeaser has his own methods. He knows enough, though, after watching countless sacrifices, and now he will become one.
The first cut is faint, oh so faint. Barely a touch of the knife. The second is slightly deeper, on the other side. The third cut is shallow, too, as far as he can tell.
Something burns against him, the feel of hot metal. Air escapes his lips, but he does not scream. He will hold out against that for as long as possible. The more resilience he can show, the more that the Lord will be appeased.
The Appeaser continues his work, slowly increasing the intensity of his efforts. Most of the cuts are shallow, and quickly burned afterward, to prevent too much blood loss. Namai knows this technique, too; he has witnessed it often enough.
He blocks out the suffering as best he can, even when he feels the first of his fingers severed. Worse follows, but he tries to find a place inside himself. The pain becomes background to him, changing in form, slowly growing.
It seems to Namai that the sky is slowly turning from blue to white. Intense white light, shining down on him. He knows what the Appeaser is doing, but it is as if the knife is being thrust into someone else. The white light grows, surrounding everything, replacing everything.
Namai’s last thought, as the whiteness embraces him, is that no matter that the King of Kings has withdrawn his blessing, he has still been blessed, for he has been shown the colour of eternity.
* * *
[1] The beliefs which the Wurrukurr people possess are similar in many respects to those held by historical Aboriginal peoples, but differ in many of their details and interpretation. This is to represent the many changes which have arisen in *Australia.
[2] The Wurrukurr are a people who live north of the Atjuntja domains, along the coast near historical Carnarvon, Western Australia.
[3] This misinterpretation comes from the language of the Wurrukurr, who double many words to indicate plurals. When Attapatta hears a reference to the King of Kings, he interprets this to mean Many-King.
[4] The desert peoples Nyumbin fought against were inland dwellers of the eastern desert, and only distantly related to the northern coastal dwellers such as the Wuurukurr depicted in the first section.
[5] The “kings” amongst the Atjuntja are the heads of the thirteen greatest noble families, and who are formally responsible for naming the new King of Kings. Usually this is a formality, since the last monarch will have designated a successor, but Kepiuc Tjaanuc was better at encouraging competition amongst his sons than choosing one to be his heir.
[6] The military campaigning season in Aururia is usually in late autumn and winter (by southern hemisphere standards). The weather then is usually cooler, and the harvests have just been collected. This allows both the conscription of farmers as additional soldiers or labourers, and ensures the largest possible food supply to support the armies.
[7] Verdant Valley is the historical town of Northam, Western Australia. The general progress of Nyumbin’s campaign may also be easier to follow using the map of Tiayal shown
here.
* * *
Thoughts?
