On the 23d I was sent for by the prince, and rode to his court on an elephant. He used me extremely well, our entertainment consisting in excessive eating and drinking. While I was on shore, I met with a very sensible merchant of China, who spoke Spanish, and of whom I learnt some things which I hope will give your lordship good contentment hereafter. There are many people here from China who follow trade, and who have their separate town. So have the Portuguese, the Guzurates, the Arabs, Bengalese, and Peguers. As our baas disliked that I should so much frequent the company of the Chinese, he ordered me on board, and came off himself next day in a very dull humour, having had some sour looks from the king.
The 1st of September the king gave out that we were to receive ordnance on board for battering Johor, and to take in soldiers for that service. Many gallies were manned and brought out of the river, and rode at anchor about half a mile from our ships. The sea was all full of paraws and boats. There came that day on board our ship the secretary, named Corcoun, and the chief sabander, named Abdala, accompanied by many soldiers armed with cutlasses, darts, crisses, and targets. They brought with them many kinds of meats, and a great jar of aquavitae, making a great shew of friendship and banqueting. Suspecting some treachery, we filled our tops with stones, made fast and prepared our gratings, all without orders from our baas, who was exceedingly angry, and ordered us to discontinue, but we would not.
There is a kind of seed in this country, by eating a little of which a man becomes quite foolish, all things seeming to be metamorphosed; but, above a certain quantity, it is deadly poison. With this all the meat and drink they brought on board was infected. While banqueting, the sabandar sent for me and Mr Tomkins, who kept me company, and said some words to one of their attendants, which I did not understand. In a short time we were foolishly frolicsome, gaping one upon another in a most ridiculous manner, our captain, or baas, being at that time a prisoner in their hands, yet knew it not. A signal was made from the other ship, where the like treachery was going on under the direction of the secretary, who went there from our ship for that purpose. They immediately set upon us, murdered our baas, and slew several others. Mr Tomkins and I, with the assistance of a Frenchman, defended the poop, which, if they had gained, our ship had been lost, for they already had the cabin, and some of their fellows were below among our guns, having crept in at the port-holes. The master of our ship, whom the Dutch call captain, leapt into the sea, with several others, but came on board again when all was over. In the end, we put them to flight, for our people in the tops annoyed them sore; and, when I saw them run, I leapt from the poop to pursue them, Mr Tomkins following my example. At this time a Turk came out of the cabin, who wounded him grievously, and they lay tumbling over each other on the deck. On seeing this, I ran the Turk through the body with my rapier, and our skipper thrust him down the throat into the body with a half pike.
All the principal people in the other ship were murdered, and the ship obviously in possession of the Acheenese; on which we instantly cut our cables and drove towards her, and, with our shot, made the Indians abandon her, so that we recovered her likewise. The gallies did not venture near us. In our great distress, it was some comfort to see how these base Indians fled, how they were killed, and how they were drowned; the whole sea being covered with dead Indians, floating about in hundreds. Abdala, the sabandar, and one of the king's near kinsmen, were slain, with many others, and the secretary was wounded. The king was by the shore at this time, attended by a vast many, people; and, on learning the death of the sabandar, and the overthrow of this treachery, the furious infidels murdered all of our people who were on shore, except eight, who were put in irons as slaves. In this great calamity we lost sixty-eight persons, of whom we are not certain how many may be in captivity, having only knowledge of these eight. We lost at this time two fine pinnaces of twenty tons each, and our ship's boat.
We left Acheen that same day, and anchored at Pedier, where we had sent a small pinnace for rice, but could get no tidings of her. Next day, the 2d September, there came eleven gallies to take our ships, having Portuguese in them, as we thought. We sank one of them, and defeated all the rest, so that they fled amain. That same afternoon, the son of Lafort, a French merchant, dwelling in Seethinglane, London, came on board of us, being one of the eight prisoners. He brought the following message from the king:--"Are you not ashamed to be such drunken beasts, as, in your drunkenness, to murder my people whom I sent on board of you in kindness?" He farther required of us, in satisfaction of his pretended wrong, that we should give up our best ship, on which he would release our men, telling Lafort, if he could succeed in this, that he would make him a great nobleman. To this ridiculous proposal we gave a flat denial; and, being in distress for water, we went over to Pulo Lotum, on the coast of Queda, or northern part of Malacca, on its western coast, in lat. 6° 50' N. where we refreshed and watered.
During our stay at Acheen, we received into both our ships 140 tons of pepper, what precious stones and other merchandize besides I know not. But, on the day of treason, our merchants lost all the money and goods they had on shore, which was said to be of great value. On this occasion, many of our young adventurers were utterly ruined; among whom, I most grieve at the loss sustained by poor John Davis, having not only lost my friendly factor, but all my European commodities, with those things I had provided to shew my love and duty to my best friends; so that, though India did not receive me rich, she hath sent me back sufficiently poor.
The island of Sumatra is pleasant and fertile, abounding in many excellent fruits; but their only grain is rice, which serves them for bread. They plough the land with buffaloes, which they have in great numbers, but with small skill, and less industry. The rice grows in all respects like our barley. They have plenty of pepper, which is grown in large gardens or plantations, often a mile square. It grows like hops, from a planted root, winding about a stake set to support it, till it grows like a great bushy tree, whence the pepper hangs in small clusters, three inches long, and an inch about, each cluster having forty pepper-corns; and it yields as great increase as mustard-seed. At Acheen they are able to load twenty ships every year, and might supply more, if the people were industrious. The whole country resembles a pleasure-garden, the air being temperate and wholesome, having every morning a fruitful dew, or small rain. The harbour of Acheen is very small, having only six feet water on the bar, at which there is a stone fort, the ramparts of which are covered or flanked with battlements, all very low, and very despicable. In front of this fort is an excellent road, or anchoring ground for ships, the wind being, always off shore, so that a ship may ride safely a mile from the shore, in eighteen fathoms, and close in, in six and four fathoms.
In this country there are elephants, horses, buffaloes, oxen, and goats, with many wild-hogs. The land has plenty of mines of gold and copper, with various gums, balsams, many drugs, and much indigo. Its precious stones are rubies, sapphires, and garnets; but I know not whether they are found there, or are brought from other places. It has likewise most excellent timber for building ships. The city of Acheen,[39] if such it may be called, is very spacious, and is built in a wood, so that the houses are not to be seen till we are close upon them; neither could we go into any place but we found houses and a great concourse of people, so that the town seems to spread over the whole land. Their houses are raised on posts, eight feet or better from the ground, leaving free passage under them, the walls and roofs being only of mats, the poorest and weakest things that can be conceived. I saw three great market-places, which were every day crowded like fairs, with all kinds of commodities exposed for sale.
[Footnote 39: This place, called likewise Achin and Achien by Davis, is commonly called Achen; but in the letters from the king to Queen Elizabeth, which will be mentioned in the sequel it is called Ashi.--Astl. I. 259. b.]
The king, called Sultan Aladin, is said to be an hundred years old, yet is a lively man, exceedingly gross and fat. In his young days he was a fisherman, of which there are many in this place, as they live mostly on fish. Going to the wars with the former king, he shewed himself so valiant and discreet in ordering the king's gallies, that he acquired the royal favour so much as to be appointed admiral of all the sea-force, in which he conducted himself so valiantly and wisely, that the king gave him one of his nearest kinswomen to wife. The king had an only daughter, whom he married to the king of Johor, by whom she had a son, who was sent to Acheen to be brought up as heir to his grandfather. The king who now is, being commander in chief by sea and land, the old king died suddenly; on which the present king took the child under his guardianship, against which the nobility protested: but, as he had the command of the whole armed force, he maintained his point, putting to death more than a thousand of the nobles, raised the rascal people to be new lords, and made new laws. Finally, the young prince was murdered, and he proclaimed himself king, in right of his wife; on which there arose great wars between him and the king of Johor, which continue to this day. He has held the kingdom by force these twenty years, and seems now secure in his usurped and ill-got power.