Indonesia High Sea

These Indian Ocean waters face Bengkulu on Sumatra's western coast. The English East India Company arrived there in 1685 and negotiated trade with the Selebar kingdom. Coastal fortifications protected the company's position and the movement of spices. Fort York stood near the Serut River, with barracks and warehouses, but its damp surroundings, disease and maintenance problems made the site difficult to sustain.

Between 1714 and 1719 the company built Fort Marlborough on higher ground near the shore. Besides providing defence, it served as the English trading headquarters on western Sumatra. Its construction drew upon local labour, linking the overseas establishment to the surrounding population. The fortified coast was also contested: an attack led by Pangeran Jenggalu in 1719 forced the English to leave temporarily. The offshore approaches therefore served a trading outpost whose survival depended on relations ashore as well as access by sea. The Anglo-Dutch settlement of 1824 transferred Bengkulu into the Dutch sphere, ending this coast's long English company connection.