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)

‘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... More

‘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 Less