‘Insolence and pride’: problems with the representation
of the South-East Asian Portuguese communities in
Alexander Hamilton’s ‘A New Account of the
East Indies’ (1727)
STEFAN HALIKOWSKI-SMITH1
Abstract
One of the most influential European printed sources on...
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‘Insolence and pride’: problems with the representation
of the South-East Asian Portuguese communities in
Alexander Hamilton’s ‘A New Account of the
East Indies’ (1727)
STEFAN HALIKOWSKI-SMITH1
Abstract
One of the most influential European printed sources on South-East Asia at the turn of the eighteenth
century was the Scottish sea-captain Alexander Hamilton’s memoirs.
The picture he paints of the
Portuguese communities that had existed since the period of Portuguese ascendancy in the sixteenth
century is overwhelmingly negative.
But a close textual and empirical analysis of his text shows that not
only was he frequently misinformed in terms of the historical developments relating to that community,
but that he merely conforms to a set of standard rhetorical tropes we can associate with the Black Legend,
which had grown up in Protestant countries of northern Europe since the 16th century to denigrate
Portugal and her achievements.
This article urges that this key text consequently be
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