On the 24th January 1667, the ship the Polsbroek left Batavia and arrived at the Cape on the 13th of May 1668, with three prisoners in chains. One of them was incarcerated on Robben Island, while the other two were sent to the Company’s forest at Constantia.

Sheikh Abdurahman Matebe Shah, the last of the Malaccan Sultans, was one of the two. He was regarded as Orang Cayen, a title which means ‘man of power and influences’; and viewed as particularly dangerous to the interest of the Company.