On 23 February 1605, the governor of the Portuguese colony in Central Maluku handed over the Ambon fort named "Nosa Senhora da Anunciada" to the commander of the Verenighde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC, East India Trade Union) fleet, Steven van der Haghen. The fort was renamed Kasteel Victoria (Victory Fort). Four days later the admiral disembarked from his ship and attended a service led by a priest who served the crew and soldiers in his navy. The ceremony can be seen as the starting point of Protestant Christianity in Indonesia, indeed in the whole of Asia. Thus, Protestantism entered the Asian continent even before it came to North America.

In 1608, the Dutch established forts in Ternate and Banda Neira. Ten years later they founded the city of Batavia (now Jakarta), which became the capital of the VOC in the archipelago and even Asia. Together with the city of Kupang, on the island of Timor, these four places became Christian centres in what is now Indonesia. In these places the earliest Protestant congregations in the archipelago were established.

Governor-General curbs the church

For the purpose of commercial profit, the VOC tightly controlled not only the trade business, but also the political, military and even religious fields. The VOC felt that the task of spreading Christianity was not important. The VOC's supreme council in Amsterdam was concerned only with the spiritual care of their people on board ships and in places far from home.

In the areas controlled by the VOC there was only one church recognised and accepted by the VOC as the representative of the Dutch government, the Gereformeerde Kerk (Reformed Church). This meant that all Catholics in the Dutch East Indies were considered members of the Calvinist Reformed Church. Catholic villages in Maluku and North Sulawesi simultaneously changed from Catholic to Protestant villages. The VOC government imposed fines on Christians who did not attend Sunday services.

The VOC controlled the church almost totally. Pastors and teachers were government employees, paid by the VOC government. Pastors could not travel to islands or regions outside their ministry without the permission of the VOC. For the means of worship and learning, the congregation needed catechism books, liturgies, Bibles, collections of prayers, songs and Psalms, which were common in the Protestant Churches of the time.

Batavia was the centre of the slave trade

As the centre of the VOC government, Batavia was a market for the slave-purchase trade. Slaves were imported to work in VOC installations such as the warehouses, the harbour, the VOC shipyards on Onrust Island and the ambachtwartier, the artisan's workshop. More slaves worked in the private homes of the Dutch, Chinese, Arabs and Malays and there were also slaves who worked on plantations owned by the Dutch outside Batavia.

The slaves in Batavia were imported from various parts of India such as Bengal, Koromandel, and Malabar. Some of them were robbed in war, others were forced to sell themselves because they were poor and hungry. Other slaves were brought in by Dutch and Malay slave traders from slave markets in Makassar and Bali, where various people from the islands of Eastern Indonesia were traded.

These slaves were simple people, who without any fault were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and abused. They had hardly any rights. In Batavia, people from Bali, Makassar and Kalimantan were the most common. Native Balinese women were most in demand, because besides being good at taking care of the household, their nature was more refined.

Many of the slaves from India and surrounding areas were Catholic. As long as they were willing to join the Reformation Church, they were freed. Hence they were called the Mardijker, meaning freedmen. Because India was ruled by the Portuguese for a long time, they used Portuguese as their daily language of conversation.

The fate of slaves was often uncertain. The townspeople often mistreated them, similar to many cases of migrant workers in Arab countries today. The Dutch were often abusive to their slaves and the Chinese were only out to make a profit. Because the townspeople of Batavia were afraid of the large number of slaves, especially male slaves from Bali and Makassar, even minor offences were severely punished. If a slave became desperate for his life and resisted his master, even to the point of killing him in his sleep or poisoning his master's food, he would be tortured and put to death.

Many slaves escaped and formed robber bands that committed crimes in various villages and suburbs in Batavia and Bogor. Unfortunately, the fate of the escaped slaves was often unlucky, as the natives also captured the escaped slaves, tempted by the reward.

Since the 1650s catechesis for children as well as adults has been intensified. The large number of slaves in Batavia began to be targeted for evangelism. Both privately owned slaves and Company (VOC) slaves were catechised by religious teachers who could teach in their mother tongue. After understanding the basics of Christianity and memorising the main prayers, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments, they were tested and then baptised by a priest. The religious teachers were usually Malays or Indians, paid by the VOC.

Some of the teachers travelled around to Dutch homes and companies where there were slaves to teach them Christianity. Catechesis was conducted in certain houses, in the nearby church or in public places. Twice a week the teachers gave lessons to their students.

After catechesis was extended to the slave-buyers, the number of Christians in Batavia grew rapidly. Between 1648 and 1674 the congregation grew from 500 to 2,300, including Portuguese-speakers (the Mardijkers). Between 1688 and 1708 the number of baptisms was 9,578.

Becoming a Christian to improve one's lot

Many slaves were keen to learn catechism (teaching for baptismal candidates), partly to improve their lot. The government made it a rule that once they had converted to Christianity, they could no longer be sold to non-Christians, and even after 1770 slaves who had converted to Christianity could no longer be sold at all. In addition, slaves had to be given Sundays off to attend church services. If their master died they were free to become freemen.

Since then, their masters no longer liked their slaves to be baptised. They felt they were losing out. Therefore, by the middle of the 18th century, Portuguese and Malay-speaking Christians were no longer growing so fast. The number of slaves continued to grow until the British period (1811-1816), when Raffles came to power in Java. Raffles attempted to curtail the trade, and improve the lot of these unfortunates.