Outbreak and first reprisals (October–December 1911) On 5 October 1911, the first anniversary of the republican revolution, several
liurais opposed to an announced increase in the head tax camped with their retinues in the suburbs of Dili. According to Second Lieutenant Jaime do Inso, the chiefs conspired to massacre the Europeans of Dili only to abandon their plan after learning of the presence of an English merchant ship in the port. At the end of October, the commander of the
posto (garrison) of
Suai announced that the head tax would be increased. When word reached the
posto that a number of
liurai, including Boaventura, were planning to gather there to request an exemption, the Portuguese garrison, with a number of British oil prospectors in tow, evacuated Suai on 8 December. The first victim of the revolt was a
Mozambican soldier, who was killed while trying to bring a message from the commander of Suai to
Bobonaro. The first European victim was Lieutenant Alvares da Silva, commander of the
Same posto in Manufahi. On 24 December, he was shot on Boaventura's orders along with four or five other Europeans. His severed head was then presented to his wife. This incident is usually regarded as the beginning of the revolt against the colonial authorities. Although the rebels cut several telephone lines, that between
Aileu posto and Dili remained open. The local Portuguese commander in Manufahi immediately went on the offensive, dispersing the rebels and securing positions for future offensive operations. As the revolt spread, plantations were abandoned, and several European families fled Dili. Portuguese reprisals had, by 29 December, forced 1,200 Timorese, including the
liurai of
Camenassa and his retinue, to seek refuge in the
Dutch enclave of
Maucatar. In Dili, Governor
Filomeno da Câmara de Melo Cabral hastily arranged a defence and sent a request for reinforcements to Lisbon. The government ordered the gunboat
Pátria to proceed from Macau to Dili, and ordered the colony of
Mozambique to raise a company of soldiers for service in Timor. The Portuguese steamship
Zaire was chartered to take the Mozambican troops to Timor, and the
Ministry of the Colonies requested a subvention from the
Ministry of Finance for putting down the rebellion. According to the account of Jaime do Inso, who only arrived later on the
Pátria, three human heads were found hanging near the
posto of
Laclo just ten minutes outside Dili. This practice, which do Inso characterised as "the repugnant cruelty of a war by primitive people", was known as
funu in Timorese. It involved taking enemy heads back to the land of one's ancestors and displaying it as a
lulic to the accompaniment of traditional dancing (
tabedai) and chant (
lorsai).
Da Câmara's first campaign in the interior On 5 January 1912, at the height of the
wet season, Governor da Câmara marched out of Dili with a force of 200 men (25 Europeans plus
moradores) towards the
posto at Aileu, picking up loyal
arraias on the way. His main objective was to convince the natives with a show of force in the affected territory that they could not win. His secondary objective to pull rebel forces away from the capital. His strategy was a gamble. Previous revolts had always been localised, and their suppression had always depended on cooperation from loyal
reinos. If opposition to the island-wide policy of the head tax engendered a general revolt, then da Câmara's decision to take his main force out into the most affected territory could be suicidal. The
reinos of Alas,
Bibisusso,
Cailaco,
Raimean and
Turiscai, all neighbouring Manufahi, had joined the rebellion. The governor campaigned successfully in the interior for three weeks, at the end of which his small force was overextended and he had to halt. Reinforcements were brought in to bring the number of government troops up to eight officers, 65 first-line soldiers, 264 second-line soldiers (
moradores) and 2,070 irregulars. Even this augmented force was still outnumbered by rebels. The
reino of Suru, which controlled vital communication routes between the north and south coasts, remained loyal to the Portuguese. When Boaventura attacked the
post of
Ainaro, the
liurai Naicau went to its defence and alerted the Portuguese.
Campaign of the Pátria In February, reinforcement started arriving. The gunboat
Pátria, which had steamed from Macau to
Singapore, then to
Soerabaja in the
Dutch East Indies, where it was kept in port by the monsoons, finally arrived at Dili on 6 February. The
Companhia Europeia da India, a company of 75 soldiers, about half of them Europeans, took passage on the British steamship
Saint Albans from
Portuguese India to Macau to Dili, where they arrived on 11 February. Finally, the British steamship
Aldenham disembarked the African soldiers of the 8th
Companhia Indígena de Moçambique in Dili on 15 February. Likewise, the
Eastern and Australian Line sent 180 tons of coal for the
Pátria. W. Pearse, a passenger on the Eastern and Australian ship, reported that some 400 prisoners-of-war coaled the
Pátria under guard. The
Pátria, commanded by First Lieutenant
Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho, conducted bombardments of native strongholds between February and April 1912. A young officer aboard the ship, Jaime do Inso, has left a first-hand description of the effects of this bombardment on Boaventura's forces on the south coast. He reports that the sound of the artillery created confusion and caused as much a psychological damage as physical. The
Pátria bombarded
Oecusse,
Baucau and
Quilicai. The village of
Betano was struck while the native queen (
rainha) was convening an assembly of local chiefs, resulting in about 1,000 deaths. The
Pátria also landed infantry troops that allowed the Portuguese to encircle Boaventura's forces and capture many prisoners. The
Pátria was eventually reassigned to Macau, to protect Portuguese interests amidst the
1911 Revolution.
Final campaign and siege The governor's campaign continued into May, when a second round of reinforcements arrived. The rebellion was extended to the
Oecussi enclave, but without any coordination with the rebellion elsewhere. During the second phase of his offensive, da Câmara divided his reinforced army into four columns. His own column set out from
Maubisse and comprised twenty Europeans, two hundred Africans and five hundred
moradores. Including the
arraias of allied chieftains, it contained over 4,000 troops. It also had a modern
Krupp 75 mm field gun. The second column, comprising an Indian company with a
Nordenfelt mitrailleuse and several hundred
moradores, marched from
Soibada; the third, with two Europeans, seventy Africans and two hundred
moradores armed with another Nordenfelt, from Suru; and the fourth, a flying column with one hundred
moradores, from the Dutch border. By the time of the final assault, da Câmara's force, the largest foreign army ever assembled at the time in Timor, contained 8,000 irregulars, 647 second-line troops, 500 first-line troops and 34 officers. What tipped the scales, beyond the increased manpower, was the availability to the Portuguese of modern weaponry—artillery, machine guns, grenades—and the deployment of the gunboat
Patria to shell coastal areas. Portuguese forces gradually squeezed the Timorese into smaller and smaller enclaves. Something of the weakness of the native opposition can be gleaned from the record of what weaponry the Portuguese captured: 36 rifles and 590 flintlocks with a few cartridges, plus 495 swords. In general, the native Timorese possessed more spears than guns and were usually short of powder. They avoided close combat, where they were the discrepancy in guns was acutely felt, in favour of hit-and-run guerrilla tactics. Governor Filomeno da Câmara expressed great admiration for the courage and martial acumen of the Timorese, and their effectiveness on the battlefield, despite the very limited arsenal at their disposal. Although Boaventura sued for peace in early May, the Portuguese rebuffed the offer. The main rebel group of about 12,000 men, women and children under Boaventura retreated into the
Cablac mountains and prepared to make a final stand around the
Riac and
Leolaco peaks. Isolated and surrounded in a 35 km area, they constructed an earthwork (
tranqueira) reinforced by wood and stone. Many also went into hiding in caves. On 11 June the Portuguese siege began. When the Manufahistas attempted a breakthrough, over 3,000 died in the fighting. Boaventura himself escaped, but in late July he surrendered. The siege ended on 21 July. The
Times of London in August called the siege of Cablac a "major battle" in which over 3,000 Timorese were killed or wounded and another 4,000 captured. According to Pearse, a passenger on the Eastern and Australian ship, who left an account of his observations and discussions in Dili, he was told that the rebel leaders were to be exiled to Africa and other prisoners to
Atauro Island. ==Notes==