The first English fleet that made its appearance in this part of the
world, and laid the foundation of a commerce which was in time to eclipse
that of every other European state, arrived at Achin in June 1602. Sir
James Lancaster, who commanded it, was received by the king with abundant
ceremony and respect, which seem with these monarchs to have been usually
proportioned to the number of vessels and apparent strength of their
foreign guests. The queen of England's letter was conveyed to court with
great pomp, and the general, after delivering a rich present, the most
admired article of which was a fan of feathers, declared the purpose of
his coming was to establish peace and amity between his royal mistress
and her loving brother, the great and mighty king of Achin. He was
invited to a banquet prepared for his entertainment, in which the service
was of gold, and the king's damsels, who were richly attired and adorned
with bracelets and jewels, were ordered to divert him with dancing and
music. Before he retired he was arrayed by the king in a magnificent
habit of the country, and armed with two krises. In the present sent as a
return for the queen's there was, among other matters, a valuable ruby
set in a ring. Two of the nobles, one of whom was the chief priest, were
appointed to settle with Lancaster the terms of a commercial treaty,
which was accordingly drawn up and executed in an explicit and regular
manner. The Portuguese ambassador, or more properly the Spanish, as those
kingdoms were now united, kept a watchful and jealous eye upon his
proceedings; but by bribing the spies who surrounded him he foiled them
at their own arts, and acquired intelligence that enabled him to take a
rich prize in the straits of Malacca, with which he returned to Achin;
and, having loaded what pepper he could procure there, took his departure
in November of the same year. On this occasion it was requested by the
king that he and his officers would favour him by singing one of the
psalms of David, which was performed with much solemnity.
Very little is known of the military transactions of this reign, and no
conquest but that of Pase is recorded. He had two sons, the younger of
whom he made king of Pidir, and the elder, styled Sultan Muda, he kept at
Achin, in order to succeed him in the throne. In the year 1603 he
resolved to divide the charge of government with his intended heir, as he
found his extraordinary age began to render him unequal to the task, and
accordingly invested him with royal dignity; but the effect which might
have been foreseen quickly followed this measure. The son, who was
already advanced in years, became impatient to enjoy more complete power,
and, thinking his father had possessed the crown sufficiently long, he
confined him in a prison, where his days were soon ended.
1604.
The exact period at which this event took place is not known, but,
calculating from the duration of his reign as stated in the Annals, it
must have been early in the year 1604.* He was then ninety-five years of
age,** and described to be a hale man, but extremely gross and fat.
(*Footnote. The Dutch commander Joris van Spilbergen took leave of him in
April 1603, and his ambassador to Holland, who returned in December,
1604, found his son on the throne, according to Valentyn. Commodore
Beaulieu says he died in 1603.)
(**Footnote. According to Beaulieu Davis says he was about a hundred; and
the Dutch voyages mention that his great age prevented his ever appearing
out of his palace.)
His constitution must have been uncommonly vigorous, and his muscular
strength is indicated by this ludicrous circumstance, that when he once
condescended to embrace a Dutch admiral, contrary to the usual manners of
his country, the pressure of his arms was so violent as to cause
excessive pain to the person so honoured. He was passionately addicted to
women, gaming, and drink, his favourite beverage being arrack. By the
severity of his punishments he kept his subjects in extreme awe of him;
and the merchants were obliged to submit to more exactions and
oppressions than were felt under the government of his predecessors. The
seizure of certain vessels belonging to the people of Bantam and other
arbitrary proceedings of that nature are said to have deterred the
traders of India from entering into his ports.
The new king, who took the name of Ali Maghayat-shah, proved himself,
from indolence or want of capacity, unfit to reign. He was always
surrounded by his women, who were not only his attendants but his guards,
and carried arms for that purpose. His occupations were the bath and the
chase, and the affairs of state were neglected insomuch that murders,
robberies, oppression, and an infinity of disorders took place in the
kingdom for want of a regular and strict administration of justice. A son
of the daughter of Ala-eddin had been a favourite of his grandfather, at
the time of whose death he was twenty-three years of age, and continued,
with his mother, to reside at the court after that event. His uncle the
king of Achin having given him a rebuke on some occasion, he left his
palace abruptly and fled to the king of Pidir, who received him with
affection, and refused to send him back at the desire of the elder
brother, or to offer any violence to a young prince whom their father
loved. This was the occasion of an inveterate war which cost the lives of
many thousand people. The nephew commanded the forces of Pidir, and for
some time maintained the advantage, but these, at length seeing
themselves much inferior in numbers to the army of Ali-Maghayat, refused
to march, and the king was obliged to give him up, when he was conveyed
to Achin and put in close confinement.
1606.
Not long afterwards a Portuguese squadron under Martin Alfonso, going to
the relief of Malacca, then besieged by the Dutch, anchored in Achin road
with the resolution of taking revenge on the king for receiving these
their rivals into his ports, contrary to the stipulations of a treaty
that had been entered into between them. The viceroy landed his men, who
were opposed by a strong force on the part of the Achinese; but after a
stout resistance they gained the first turf fort with two pieces of
cannon, and commenced an attack upon the second, of masonry. In this
critical juncture the young prince sent a message to his uncle requesting
he might be permitted to join the army and expose himself in the ranks,
declaring himself more willing to die in battle against the Kafers (so
they always affected to call the Portuguese) than to languish like a
slave in chains. The fears which operated upon the king's mind induced
him to consent to his release. The prince showed so much bravery on this
occasion, and conducted two or three attacks with such success that
Alfonso was obliged to order a retreat, after wasting two days and losing
three hundred men in this fruitless attempt. The reputation of the prince
was raised by this affair to a high pitch amongst the people of Achin.
His mother, who was an active, ambitious woman, formed the design of
placing him on the throne, and furnished him with large sums of money, to
be distributed in gratuities amongst the principal orang cayas. At the
same time he endeavoured to ingratiate himself by his manners with all
classes of people. To the rich he was courteous; to the poor he was
affable; and he was the constant companion of those who were in the
profession of arms. When the king had reigned between three and four
years he died suddenly, and at the hour of his death the prince got
access to the castle. He bribed the guards, made liberal promises to the
officers, advanced a large sum of money to the governor, and sending for
the chief priest obliged him by threats to crown him. In fine he managed
the revolution so happily that he was proclaimed king before night, to
the great joy of the people, who conceived vast hopes from his
liberality, courtesy, and valour. The king of Pidir was speedily
acquainted with the news of his brother's death, but not of the
subsequent transactions, and came the next day to take possession of his
inheritance. As he approached the castle with a small retinue he was
seized by orders from the reigning prince, who, forgetting the favours he
had received, kept him prisoner for a month, and then, sending him into
the country under the pretence of a commodious retreat, had him murdered
on the way. Those who put the crown on his head were not better requited;
particularly the Maharaja, or governor of the castle. In a short time his
disappointed subjects found that instead of being humane he was cruel;
instead of being liberal he displayed extreme avarice, and instead of
being affable he manifested a temper austere and inexorable.
This king, whom the Annals name Iskander Muda, was known to our
travellers by the title of sultan Paduka Sri (words equivalent to most
gracious), sovereign of Achin and of the countries of Aru, Dilli, Johor,
Pahang, Kedah, and Perak on the one side, and of Barus, Pasaman, Tiku,
Sileda, and Priaman on the other. Some of these places were conquered by
him, and others he inherited.
1613.
He showed much friendship to the Hollanders in the early part of his
reign; and in the year 1613 gave permission to the English to settle a
factory, granting them many indulgences, in consequence of a letter and
present from king James the first. He bestowed on Captain Best, who was
the bearer of them, the title of orang kaya putih, and entertained him
with the fighting of elephants, buffaloes, rams, and tigers. His answer
to king James (a translation of which is to be found in Purchas) is
couched in the most friendly terms, and he there styles himself king of
all Sumatra. He expressed a strong desire that the king of England should
send him one of his countrywomen to wife, and promised to make her eldest
son king of all the pepper countries, that so the English might be
supplied with that commodity by a monarch of their own nation. But
notwithstanding his strong professions of attachment to us, and his
natural connexion with the Hollanders, arising from their joint enmity to
the Portuguese, it was not many years before he began to oppress both
nations and use his endeavours to ruin their trade. He became jealous of
their growing power, and particularly in consequence of intelligence that
reached him concerning the encroachments made by the latter in the island
of Java.
The conquest of Aru seems never to have been thoroughly effected by the
kings of Achin. Paduka Sri carried his arms thither and boasted of having
obtained some victories.
1613.
In 1613 he subdued Siak in its neighbourhood. Early in the same year he
sent an expedition against the kingdom of Johor (which had always
maintained a political connexion with Aru) and, reducing the city after a
siege of twenty-nine days, plundered it of everything moveable, and made
slaves of the miserable inhabitants. The king fled to the island of
Bintang, but his youngest brother and coadjutor was taken prisoner and
carried to Achin. The old king of Johor, who had so often engaged the
Portuguese, left three sons, the eldest of whom succeeded him by the
title of Iang de per-tuan.*
(*Footnote. This is not an individual title or proper name, but signifies
the sovereign or reigning monarch. In like manner Rega Bongsu signifies
the king's youngest brother, as Raja Muda does the heir apparent.)
The second was made king of Siak, and the third, called Raja Bongsu,
reigned jointly with the first. He it was who assisted the Hollanders in
the first siege of Malacca, and corresponded with Prince Maurice. The
king of Achin was married to their sister, but this did not prevent a
long and cruel war between them. A Dutch factory at Johor was involved in
the consequences of this war, and several of that nation were among the
prisoners. In the course of the same year however the king of Achin
thought proper to establish Raja Bongsu on the throne of Johor, sending
him back for that purpose with great honours, assisting him to rebuild
the fort and city, and giving him one of his own sisters in marriage.
1615.
In 1615 the king of Achin sailed to the attack of Malacca in a fleet
which he had been four years employed in preparing. It consisted of above
five hundred sail, of which a hundred were large galleys, greater than
any at that time built in Europe, carrying each from six to eight hundred
men, with three large cannon and several smaller pieces. These galleys
the orang kayas were obliged to furnish, repair, and man, at the peril of
their lives. The soldiers served without pay, and carried three months
provision at their own charge. In this great fleet there were computed to
be sixty thousand men, whom the king commanded in person. His wives and
household were taken to sea with him. Coming in sight of the Portuguese
ships in the afternoon, they received many shot from them but avoided
returning any, as if from contempt. The next day they got ready for
battle, and drew up in form of a half moon. A desperate engagement took
place and lasted without intermission till midnight, during which the
Portuguese admiral was three times boarded, and repeatedly on fire. Many
vessels on both sides were also in flames and afforded light to continue
the combat. At length the Achinese gave way, after losing fifty sail of
different sizes, and twenty thousand men. They retired to Bancalis, on
the eastern coast of Sumatra, and shortly afterwards sailed for Achin,
the Portuguese not daring to pursue their victory, both on account of the
damage they had sustained and their apprehension of the Hollanders, who
were expected at Malacca. The king proposed that the prisoners taken
should be mutually given up, which was agreed to, and was the first
instance of that act of humanity and civilisation between the two powers.
1619.
Three years afterwards the king made a conquest of the cities of Kedah
and Perak on the Malayan coast, and also of a place called Dilli in
Sumatra. This last had been strongly fortified by the assistance of the
Portuguese, and gave an opportunity of displaying much skill in the
attack. Trenches were regularly opened before it and a siege carried on
for six weeks ere it fell. In the same year the king of Jorcan (a place
unknown at present by that name) fled for refuge to Malacca with eighty
sail of boats, having been expelled his dominions by the king of Achin.
The Portuguese were not in a condition to afford him relief, being
themselves surrounded with enemies and fearful of an attack from the
Achinese more especially; but the king was then making preparations
against an invasion he heard was meditated by the viceroy of Goa.
Reciprocal apprehensions kept each party on the defensive.
1621.
The French being desirous of participating in the commerce of Achin, of
which all the European nations had formed great ideas, and all found
themselves disappointed in, sent out a squadron commanded by General
Beaulieu, which arrived in January 1621, and finally left it in December
of the same year. He brought magnificent presents to the king, but these
did not content his insatiable avarice, and he employed a variety of mean
arts to draw from him further gifts. Beaulieu met also with many
difficulties, and was forced to submit to much extortion in his
endeavours to procure a loading of pepper, of which Achin itself, as has
been observed, produced but little. The king informed him that he had
some time since ordered all the plants to be destroyed, not only because
the cultivation of them proved an injury to more useful agriculture, but
also lest their produce might tempt the Europeans to serve him, as they
had served the kings of Jakatra and Bantam. From this apprehension he had
lately been induced to expel the English and Dutch from their settlements
at Priaman and Tiku, where the principal quantity of pepper was procured,
and of which places he changed the governor every third year to prevent
any connexions dangerous to his authority from being formed. He had
likewise driven the Dutch from a factory they were attempting to settle
at Padang; which place appears to be the most remote on the western coast
of the island to which the Achinese conquests at any time extended.
1628.
Still retaining a strong desire to possess himself of Malacca, so many
years the grand object of Achinese ambition, he imprisoned the ambassador
then at his court, and made extraordinary preparations for the siege,
which he designed to undertake in person. The laksamana or commander in
chief (who had effected all the king's late conquests) attempted to
oppose this resolution; but the maharaja, willing to flatter his master's
propensity, undertook to put him in possession of the city and had the
command of the fleet given to him, as the other had of the land forces.
The king set out on the expedition with a fleet of two hundred and fifty
sail (fortyseven of them not less than a hundred feet in the keel), in
which were twenty thousand men well appointed, and a great train of
artillery. After being some time on board, with his family and retinue as
usual, he determined, on account of an ill omen that was observed, to
return to the shore. The generals, proceeding without him, soon arrived
before Malacca. Having landed their men they made a judicious
disposition, and began the attack with much courage and military skill.
The Portuguese were obliged to abandon several of their posts, one of
which, after a defence of fifty days, was levelled with the ground, and
from its ruins strong works were raised by the laksamana. The maharaja
had seized another post advantageously situated. From their several camps
they had lines of communication, and the boats on the river were
stationed in such a manner that the place was completely invested.
Matters were in this posture when a force of two thousand men came to the
assistance of the besieged from the king of Pahang, and likewise five
sail of Portuguese vessels from the coast of Coromandel; but all was
insufficient to remove so powerful an enemy, although by that time they
had lost four thousand of their troops in the different attacks and
skirmishes. In the latter end of the year a fleet of thirty sail of
ships, large and small, under the command of Nunno Alvarez Botello,
having on board nine hundred European soldiers, appeared off Malacca, and
blocked up the fleet of Achin in a river about three miles from the town.
This entirely altered the complexion of affairs. The besiegers retired
from their advanced works and hastened to the defence of their galleys,
erecting batteries by the side of the river. The maharaja being summoned
to surrender returned a civil but resolute answer. In the night,
endeavouring to make his escape with the smaller vessels through the
midst of the Portuguese, he was repulsed and wounded. Next day the whole
force of the Achinese dropped down the stream with a design to fight
their way, but after an engagement of two hours their principal galley,
named the Terror of the World, was boarded and taken, after losing five
hundred men of seven which she carried. Many other vessels were
afterwards captured or sunk. The laksamana hung out a white flag and sent
to treat with Nunno, but, some difficulty arising about the terms, the
engagement was renewed with great warmth. News was brought to the
Portuguese that the maharaja was killed and that the king of Pahang was
approaching with a hundred sail of vessels to reinforce them. Still the
Achinese kept up a dreadful fire, which seemed to render the final
success doubtful; but at length they sent proposals desiring only to be
allowed three galleys of all their fleet to carry away four thousand men
who remained of twenty that came before the town. It was answered that
they must surrender at discretion; which the laksamana hesitating to do,
a furious assault took place both by water and land upon his galleys and
works, which were all effectually destroyed or captured, not a ship and
scarcely a man escaping. He himself in the last extremity fled to the
woods, but was seized ere long by the king of Pahang's scouts. Being
brought before the governor he said to him, with an undaunted
countenance, "Behold here the laksamana for the first time overcome!" He
was treated with respect but kept a prisoner, and sent on his own famous
ship to Goa in order to be from thence conveyed to Portugal: but death
deprived his enemies of that distinguished ornament of their triumph.
1635.
This signal defeat proved so important a blow to the power of Achin that
we read of no further attempts to renew the war until the year 1635, when
the king, encouraged by the feuds which at this time prevailed in
Malacca, again violated the law of nations, to him little known, by
imprisoning their ambassador, and caused all the Portuguese about his
court to be murdered. No military operations however immediately took
place in consequence of this barbarous proceeding.
1640. 1641.
In the year 1640 the Dutch with twelve men of war, and the king of Achin
with twenty-five galleys, appeared before that harassed and devoted city;
which at length, in the following year was wrested from the hands of the
Portuguese, who had so long, through such difficulties, maintained
possession of it. This year was also marked by the death of the sultan,
whom the Dutch writers name Paduka Sri, at the age of sixty, after a
reign of thirty-five years; having just lived to see his hereditary foe
subdued; and as if the opposition of the Portuguese power, which seems
first to have occasioned the rise of that of Achin, was also necessary to
its existence, the splendour and consequence of the kingdom from that
period rapidly declined.
The prodigious wealth and resources of the monarchy during his reign are
best evinced by the expeditions he was enabled to fit out; but being no
less covetous than ambitious he contrived to make the expenses fall upon
his subjects, and at the same time filled his treasury with gold by
pressing the merchants and plundering the neighbouring states. An
intelligent person (General Beaulieu), who was for some time at his
court, and had opportunities of information on the subject, uses this
strong expression--that he was infinitely rich. He constantly employed in
his castle three hundred goldsmiths. This would seem an exaggeration, but
that it is well known the Malayan princes have them always about them in
great numbers at this day, working in the manufacture of filigree, for
which the country is so famous. His naval strength has been already
sufficiently described. He was possessed of two thousand brass guns and
small arms in proportion. His trained elephants amounted to some
hundreds. His armies were probably raised only upon the occasion which
called for their acting, and that in a mode similar to what was
established under the feudal system in Europe. The valley of Achin alone
was said to be able to furnish forty thousand men upon an emergency. A
certain number of warriors however were always kept on foot for the
protection of the king and his capital. Of these the superior class were
called ulubalang, and the inferior amba-raja, who were entirely devoted
to his service and resembled the janizaries of Constantinople. Two
hundred horsemen nightly patrolled the grounds about the castle, the
inner courts and apartments of which were guarded by three thousand
women. The king's eunuchs amounted to five hundred.
The disposition of this monarch was cruel and sanguinary. A multitude of
instances are recorded of the horrible barbarity of his punishments, and
for the most trivial offences. He imprisoned his own mother and put her
to the torture, suspecting her to have been engaged in a conspiracy
against him with some of the principal nobles, whom he caused to be
executed. He murdered his nephew, the king of Johor's son, of whose
favour with his mother he was jealous. He also put to death a son of the
king of Bantam, and another of the king of Pahang, who were both his near
relations. None of the royal family survived in 1622 but his own son, a
youth of eighteen, who had been thrice banished the court, and was
thought to owe his continuance in life only to his surpassing his father,
if possible, in cruelty, and being hated by all ranks of people. He was
at one time made king of Pidir but recalled on account of his excesses,
confined in prison and put to strange tortures by his father, whom he did
not outlive. The whole territory of Achin was almost depopulated by wars,
executions, and oppression. The king endeavoured to repeople the country
by his conquests. Having ravaged the kingdoms of Johor, Pahang, Kedah,
Perak, and Dilli, he transported the inhabitants from those places to
Achin, to the number of twenty-two thousand persons. But this barbarous
policy did not produce the effect he hoped; for the unhappy people, being
brought naked to his dominions, and not allowed any kind of maintenance
on their arrival, died of hunger in the streets. In the planning his
military enterprises he was generally guided by the distresses of his
neighbours, for whom, as for his prey, he unceasingly lay in wait; and
his preparatory measures were taken with such secrecy that the execution
alone unravelled them. Insidious political craft and wanton delight in
blood united in him to complete the character of a tyrant.
It must here be observed that, with respect to the period of this
remarkable reign, the European and Malayan authorities are considerably
at variance, the latter assigning to it something less than thirty solar
years, and placing the death of Iskander Muda in December 1636. The
Annals further state that he was succeeded by sultan
Ala-eddinMahayat-shah, who reigned only about four years and died in
February 1641. That this is the more accurate account I have no
hesitation in believing, although Valentyn, who gives a detail of the
king's magnificent funeral, was persuaded that the reign which ended in
1641 was the same that began in 1607. But he collected his information
eighty years after the event, and as it does not appear that any European
whose journal has been given to the world was on the spot at that period,
the death of an obscure monarch who died after a short reign may well
have been confounded by persons at a distance with that of his more
celebrated predecessor. Both authorities however are agreed in the
important fact that the successor to the throne in 1641 was a female.
This person is described by Valentyn as being the wife of the old king,
and not his daughter, as by some had been asserted; but from the Annals
it appears that she was his daughter, named Taju al-alum; and as it was
in her right that Maghayat-shah (certainly her husband), obtained the
crown, so upon his decease, there being no male heir, she peaceably
succeeded him in the government, and became the first queen regent of
Achin. The succession having thenceforward continued nearly sixty years
in the female line, this may be regarded as a new era in the history of
the country. The nobles finding their power less restrained, and their
individual consequence more felt under an administration of this kind
than when ruled by kings (as sometimes they were with a rod of iron)
supported these pageants, whom they governed as they thought fit, and
thereby virtually changed the constitution into an aristocracy or
oligarchy. The business of the state was managed by twelve orang-kayas,
four of whom were superior to the rest, and among these the maharaja, or
governor of the kingdom, was considered as the chief. It does not appear,
nor is it probable, that the queen had the power of appointing or
removing any of these great officers. No applications were made to the
throne but in their presence, nor any public resolution taken but as they
determined in council. The great object of their political jealousy seems
to have been the pretensions of the king of Johor to the crown, in virtue
of repeated intermarriages between the royal families of the two
countries, and it may be presumed that the alarms excited from that
quarter materially contributed to reconcile them to the female
domination. They are accordingly said to have formed an engagement
amongst themselves never to pay obedience to a foreign prince, nor to
allow their royal mistress to contract any marriage that might eventually
lead to such a consequence.* At the same time, by a new treaty with
Johor, its king was indirectly excused from the homage to the crown of
Achin which had been insisted upon by her predecessors and was the
occasion of frequent wars.
(*Footnote. However fanciful it may be thought, I cannot doubt that the
example of our Queen Elizabeth, whose character and government were
highly popular with the Achinese on account of her triumphant contest
with the united powers of Spain and Portugal, had a strong influence in
the establishment of this new species of monarchy, and that the example
of her sister's marriage with Philip may have contributed to the
resolution taken by the nobles. The actions of our illustrious queen were
a common topic of conversation between the old tyrant and Sir James
Lancaster.)
In proportion as the political consequence of the kingdom declined, its
history, as noticed by foreigners, becomes obscure. Little is recorded of
the transactions of her reign, and it is likely that Achin took no active
part in the concerns of neighbouring powers, but suffered the Hollanders,
who maintained in general a friendly intercourse with her, to remain in
quiet possession of Malacca.
1643.
In 1643 they sent an ambassador to compliment her upon her accession, and
at the same time to solicit payment for a quantity of valuable jewels
ordered by the deceased king, but for the amount of which she declined to
make herself responsible.
1660.
It is said (but the fact will admit of much doubt) that in 1660 she was
inclined to marry one of their countrymen, and would have carried her
design into execution had not the East India Company prevented by their
authority a connexion that might, as they prudently judged, be productive
of embarrassment to their affairs.
1664.
The Dutch however complain that she gave assistance to their enemies the
people of Perak, and in 1664 it was found necessary to send a squadron
under the command of Pieter de Bitter to bring her to reason. As it
happened that she was at this time at war with some of her own dependants
he made himself master of several places on the western coast that were
nominally at least belonging to Achin.
1666.
About 1666 the English establishments at Achin and some ports to the
southward appear to have given considerable umbrage to their rivals.
1669.
In 1669 the people of Dilli on the north-eastern coast threw off their
allegiance, and the power of the kingdom became gradually more and more
circumscribed.
1675.
This queen died in 1675, after reigning, with a degree of tranquillity
little known in these countries, upwards of thirty-four years.
The people being now accustomed and reconciled to female rule, which they
found more lenient than that of their kings, acquiesced in general in the
established mode of government.
1677.
And she was immediately succeeded by another female monarch, named Nur
al-alum, who reigned little more than two years and died in 1677.
The queen who succeeded her was named Anayet-shah.
1684.
In the year 1684 she received an embassy from the English government of
Madras, and appeared at that time to be about forty years. The persons
who were on this occasion presented to her express their suspicions,
which were suggested to them by a doubt prevailing amongst the
inhabitants, that this sovereign was not a real queen, but a eunuch
dressed up in female apparel, and imposed on the public by the artifices
of the orang kayas. But as such a cheat, though managed with every
semblance of reality (which they observe was the case) could not be
carried on for any number of years without detection, and as the same
idea does not appear to have been entertained at any other period, it is
probable they were mistaken in their surmise. Her person they describe to
have been large, and her voice surprisingly strong, but not manly.*
(*Footnote. The following curious passage is extracted from the journal
of these gentlemen's proceedings. "We went to give our attendance at the
palace this day as customary. Being arrived at the place of audience with
the orang cayos, the queen was pleased to order us to come nearer, when
her majesty was very inquisitive into the use of our wearing periwigs,
and what was the convenience of them; to all which we returned
satisfactory answers. After this her majesty desired of Mr. Ord, if it
were no affront to him, that he would take off his periwig, that she
might see how he appeared without it; which, according to her majesty's
request, he did. She then told us she had heard of our business, and
would give her answer by the orang cayos; and so we retired." I venture,
with submission, to observe that this anecdote seems to put the question
of the sex beyond controversy.)
The purport of the embassy was to obtain liberty to erect a fortification
in her territory, which she peremptorily refused, being contrary to the
established rules of the kingdom; adding that if the governor of Madras
would fill her palace with gold she could not permit him to build with
brick either fort or house. To have a factory of timber and plank was the
utmost indulgence that could be allowed; and on that footing the return
of the English, who had not traded there for many years, should be
welcomed with great friendship. The queen herself, the orang kayas
represented, was not allowed to fortify lest some foreign power might
avail themselves of it to enslave the country. In the course of these
negotiations it was mentioned that the agriculture of Achin had suffered
considerably of late years by reason of a general licence given to all
the inhabitants to search for gold in the mountains and rivers which
afforded that article; whereas the business had formerly been restricted
to certain authorized persons, and the rest obliged to till the ground.
1684.
The court feared to give a public sanction for the settlement of the
English on any part of the southern coast lest it should embroil them
with the other European powers.*
(*Footnote. The design of settling a factory at this period in the
dominions of Achin was occasioned by the recent loss of our establishment
at Bantam, which had been originally fixed by Sir James Lancaster in
1603. The circumstances of this event were as follows. The old sultan had
thought proper to share the regal power with his son in the year 1677,
and this measure was attended with the obvious effect of a jealousy
between the parent and child, which soon broke forth into open
hostilities. The policy of the Dutch led them to take an active part in
favour of the young sultan, who had inclined most to their interests and
now solicited their aid. The English on the other hand discouraged what
appeared to them an unnatural rebellion, but without interfering, as they
said, in any other character than that of mediators, or affording
military assistance to either party; and which their extreme weakness
rather than their assertions renders probable. On the twenty-eighth of
March 1682 the Dutch landed a considerable force from Batavia, and soon
terminated the war. They placed the young sultan on the throne,
delivering the father into his custody, and obtained from him in return
for these favours an exclusive privilege of trade in his territories;
which was evidently the sole object they had in view. On the first day of
April possession was taken of the English factory by a party of Dutch and
country soldiers, and on the twelfth the agent and council were obliged
to embark with their property on vessels provided for the purpose, which
carried them to Batavia. From thence they proceeded to Surat on the
twenty-second of August in the following year.
In order to retain a share in the pepper-trade the English turned their
thoughts towards Achin, and a deputation, consisting of two gentlemen, of
the names of Old and Cawley, was sent thither in 1684; the success of
which is above related. It happened that at this time certain Rajas or
chiefs of the country of Priaman and other places on the west coast of
Sumatra were at Achin also to solicit aid of that court against the
Dutch, who had made war upon and otherwise molested them. These
immediately applied to Mr. Ord, expressing a strong desire that the
English should settle in their respective districts, offering ground for
a fort and the exclusive purchase of their pepper. They consented to
embark for Madras, where an agreement was formed with them by the
governor in the beginning of the year 1685 on the terms they had
proposed. In consequence of this an expedition was fitted out with the
design of establishing a settlement at Priaman; but a day or two before
the ships sailed an invitation to the like purport was received from the
chiefs of Bangkaulu (since corruptly called Bencoolen); and as it was
known that a considerable proportion of the pepper that used to be
exported from Bantam had been collected from the neighbourhood of
Bencoolen (at a place called Silebar), it was judged advisable that Mr.
Ord, who was the person entrusted with the management of this business,
should first proceed thither; particularly as at that season of the year
it was the windward port. He arrived there on the twenty-fifth day of
June 1685, and, after taking possession of the country assigned to the
English Company, and leaving Mr. Broome in charge of the place, he sailed
for the purpose of establishing the other settlements. He stopped first
at Indrapura, where he found three Englishmen who were left of a small
factory that had been some time before settled there by a man of the name
of Du Jardin. Here he learned that the Dutch, having obtained a knowledge
of the original intention of our fixing at Priaman, had anticipated us
therein and sent a party to occupy the situation. In the meantime it was
understood in Europe that this place was the chief of our establishments
on the coast, and ships were accordingly consigned thither. The same was
supposed at Madras, and troops and stores were sent to reinforce it,
which were afterwards landed at Indrapura. A settlement was then formed
at Manjuta, and another attempted at Batang-kapas in 1686; but here the
Dutch, assisted by a party amongst the natives, assaulted and drove out
our people. Every possible opposition, as it was natural to expect, was
given by these our rivals to the success of our factories. They fixed
themselves in the neighbourhood of them and endeavoured to obstruct the
country people from carrying pepper to them or supplying them with
provisions either by sea or land. Our interests however in the end
prevailed, and Bencoolen in particular, to which the other places were
rendered subordinate in 1686, began to acquire some degree of vigour and
respectability. In 1689 encouragement was given to Chinese colonists to
settle there, whose number has been continually increasing from that
time. In 1691 the Dutch felt the loss of their influence at Silebar and
other of the southern countries, where they attempted to exert authority
in the name of the sultan of Bantam, and the produce of these places was
delivered to the English. This revolution proceeded from the works with
which about this time our factory was strengthened. In 1695 a settlement
was made at Triamang, and two years after at Kattaun and Sablat. The
first, in the year 1700, was removed to Bantal. Various applications were
made by the natives in different parts of the island for the
establishment of factories, particularly from Ayer-Bangis to the
northward, Palembang on the eastern side, and the people from the
countries south of Tallo, near Manna. A person was sent to survey these
last, as far as Pulo Pisang and Kroi, in 1715. In consequence of the
inconvenience attending the shipping of goods from Bencoolen River, which
is often impracticable from the surfs, a warehouse was built in 1701 at a
place then called the cove; which gave the first idea of removing the
settlement to the point of land which forms the bay of Bencoolen. The
unhealthiness of the old situation was thought to render this an
expedient step; and accordingly about 1714 it was in great measure
relinquished, and the foundations of Fort Marlborough were laid on a spot
two or three miles distant. Being a high plain it was judged to possess
considerable advantages; many of which however are counterbalanced by its
want of the vicinity of a river, so necessary for the ready and plentiful
supply of provisions. Some progress had been made in the erection of this
fort when an accident happened that had nearly destroyed the Company's
views. The natives incensed at ill treatment received from the Europeans,
who were then but little versed in the knowledge of their dispositions or
the art of managing them by conciliating methods, rose in a body in the
year 1719, and forced the garrison, whose ignorant fears rendered them
precipitate, to seek refuge on board their ships. These people began now
to feel alarms lest the Dutch, taking advantage of the absence of the
English, should attempt an establishment, and soon permitted some persons
from the northern factories to resettle the place; and, supplies arriving
from Madras, things returned to their former course, and the fort was
completed. The Company's affairs on this coast remained in tranquillity
for a number of years. The important settlement of Natal was established
in 1752, and that of Tappanuli a short time afterwards; which involved
the English in fresh disputes with the Dutch, who set up a claim to the
country in which they are situated. In the year 1760 the French under
Comte d'Estaing destroyed all the English settlements on the coast of
Sumatra; but they were soon reestablished and our possession secured by
the treaty of Paris in 1763. Fort Marlborough, which had been hitherto a
peculiar subordinate of Fort St. George, was now formed into an
independent presidency, and was furnished with a charter for erecting a
mayor's court, but which has never been enforced. In 1781 a detachment of
military from thence embarked upon five East India ships and took
possession of Padang and all other Dutch factories in consequence of the
war with that nation. In 1782 the magazine of Fort Marlborough, in which
were four hundred barrels of powder, was fired by lightning and blew up;
but providentially few lives were lost. In 1802 an act of parliament was
passed "to authorize the East India Company to make their settlement at
Fort Marlborough in the East Indies, a factory subordinate to the
presidency of Fort William in Bengal, and to transfer the servants who on
the reduction of that establishment shall be supernumerary, to the
presidency of Fort St. George." In 1798 plants of the nutmeg and clove
had for the first time been procured from the Moluccas; and in 1803 a
large importation of these valuable articles of cultivation took place.
As the plantations were, by the last accounts from thence, in the most
flourishing state, very important commercial advantages were expected to
be derived from the culture.)
A few years before these transactions she had invited the king of Siam to
renew the ancient connexion between their respective states, and to unite
in a league against the Dutch, by whose encroachments the commerce of her
subjects and the extent of her dominions were much circumscribed. It does
not appear however that this overture was attended with any effect, nor
have the limits of the Achinese jurisdiction since that period extended
beyond Pidir on the northern, and Barus on the western coast.
1688.
She died in 1688, having reigned something less than eleven years, and
was succeeded by a young queen named Kamalat-shah; but this did not take
place without a strong opposition from a faction amongst the orang kayas
which wanted to set up a king, and a civil war actually commenced. The
two parties drew up their forces on opposite sides of the river, and for
two or three nights continued to fire at each other, but in the daytime
followed their ordinary occupations. These opportunities of intercourse
made them sensible of their mutual folly. They agreed to throw aside
their arms and the crown remained in possession of the newly elected
queen. It was said to have been esteemed essential that she should be a
maiden, advanced in years, and connected by blood with the ancient royal
line. In this reign an English factory, which had been long discontinued,
was reestablished at Achin, but in the interval some private traders of
this nation had always resided on the spot. These usually endeavoured to
persuade the state that they represented the India Company, and sometimes
acquired great influence, which they are accused of having employed in a
manner not only detrimental to that body but to the interests of the
merchants of India in general by monopolizing the trade of the port,
throwing impediments in the way of all shipping not consigned to their
management, and embezzling the cargoes of such as were. An asylum was
also afforded, beyond the reach of law, for all persons whose crimes or
debts induced them to fly from the several European settlements. These
considerations chiefly made the Company resolve to reclaim their ancient
privileges in that kingdom, and a deputation was sent from the presidency
of Madras in the year 1695 for that purpose, with letters addressed to
her illustrious majesty the queen of Achin, desiring permission to settle
on the terms her predecessors had granted to them; which was readily
complied with, and a factory, but on a very limited scale, was
established accordingly, but soon declined and disappeared. In 1704, when
Charles Lockyer (whose account of his voyage, containing a particular
description of this place, was published in 1711) visited Achin, one of
these independent factors, named Francis Delton, carried on a flourishing
trade. In 1695 the Achinese were alarmed by the arrival of six sail of
Dutch ships of force, with a number of troops on board, in their road,
not having been visited by any of that nation for fifteen years, but they
departed without offering any molestation.
1699.
This queen was deposed by her subjects (whose grounds of complaint are
not stated) about the latter part of the year 1699, after reigning also
eleven years; and with her terminated the female dynasty, which, during
its continuance of about fifty-nine years, had attracted much notice in
Europe.
Her successor was named Beder al-alum sherif Hasham, the nature of whose
pretensions to the crown does not positively appear, but there is reason
to believe that he was her brother. When he had reigned a little more
than two years it pleased God (as the Annals express it) to afflict him
with a distemper which caused his feet and hands to contract (probably
the gout) and disqualified him for the performance of his religious
duties.
1702.
Under these circumstances he was induced to resign the government in
1702, and died about a month after his abdication.
Perkasa-alum, a priest, found means by his intrigues to acquire the
sovereignty, and one of his first acts was to attempt imposing certain
duties on the merchandise imported by English traders, who had been
indulged with an exemption from all port charges excepting the
established complimentary presents upon their arrival and receiving the
chap or licence. This had been stipulated in the treaty made by Sir James
Lancaster, and renewed by Mr. Grey when chief of the Company's factory.
The innovation excited an alarm and determined opposition on the part of
the masters of ships then at the place, and they proceeded (under the
conduct of Captain Alexander Hamilton, who published an account of his
voyage in 1727) to the very unwarrantable step of commencing hostilities
by firing upon the villages situated near the mouth of the river, and
cutting off from the city all supplies of provisions by sea. The
inhabitants, feeling severely the effects of these violent measures, grew
clamorous against the government, which was soon obliged to restore to
these insolent traders the privileges for which they contended.
1704.
Advantage was taken of the public discontents to raise an insurrection in
favour of the nephew of the late queen, or, according to the Annals, the
son of Beder al-alum (who was probably her brother), in the event of
which Perkasa-alum was deposed about the commencement of the year 1704,
and after an interregnum or anarchy of three months continuance, the
young prince obtained possession of the throne, by the name of Jemal
al-alum. From this period the native writers furnish very ample details
of the transactions of the Achinese government, as well as of the general
state of the country, whose prosperous circumstances during the early
part of this king's reign are strongly contrasted with the misery and
insignificance to which it was reduced by subsequent events. The causes
and progress of this political decline cannot be more satisfactorily set
forth than in a faithful translation of the Malayan narrative which was
drawn up, or extracted from a larger work, for my use, and is distinct
from the Annals already mentioned:
When raja Jemal al-alum reigned in Achin the country was exceedingly
populous, the nobles had large possessions, the merchants were numerous
and opulent, the judgments of the king were just, and no man could
experience the severity of punishment but through his own fault. In those
days the king could not trade on his own account, the nobles having
combined to prevent it; but the accustomed duties of the port were
considered as his revenue, and ten per cent was levied for this purpose
upon all merchandise coming into the country. The city was then of great
extent, the houses were of brick and stone. The most considerable
merchant was a man named Daniel, a Hollander; but many of different
nations were also settled there, some from Surat, some from Kutch, others
from China. When ships arrived in the port, if the merchants could not
take off all the cargoes the king advanced the funds for purchasing what
remained, and divided the goods among them, taking no profit to himself.
After the departure of the vessel the king was paid in gold the amount of
his principal, without interest.
His daily amusements were in the grounds allotted for the royal sports.
He was attended by a hundred young men, who were obliged to be constantly
near his person day and night, and who were clothed in a sumptuous manner
at a monthly expense of a hundred dollars for each man. The government of
the different parts of the country was divided, under his authority,
amongst the nobles. When a district appeared to be disturbed he took
measures for quelling the insurrection; those who resisted his orders he
caused to be apprehended; when the roads were bad he gave directions for
their repair. Such was his conduct in the government. His subjects all
feared him, and none dared to condemn his actions. At that time the
country was in peace.
When he had been a few years on the throne a country lying to the
eastward, named Batu Bara, attempted to throw off its subjection to
Achin. The chiefs were ordered to repair to court to answer for their
conduct, but they refused to obey. These proceedings raised the king's
indignation. He assembled the nobles and required of them that each
should furnish a vessel of war, to be employed on an expedition against
that place, and within two months, thirty large galleys, without counting
vessels of a smaller size, were built and equipped for sea. When the
fleet arrived off Batu Bara (by which must be understood the Malayan
district at the mouth of the river, and not the Batta territory through
which it takes its course), a letter was sent on shore addressed to the
refractory chiefs, summoning them to give proof of their allegiance by
appearing in the king's presence, or threatening the alternative of an
immediate attack. After much division in their councils it was at length
agreed to feign submission, and a deputation was sent off to the royal
fleet, carrying presents of fruit and provisions of all kinds. One of the
chiefs carried, as his complimentary offering, some fresh coconuts, of
the delicate species called kalapa-gading, into which a drug had been
secretly introduced. The king observing these directed that one should be
cut open for him, and having drunk of the juice, became affected with a
giddiness in his head. (This symptom shows the poison to have been the
upas, but too much diluted in the liquor of the nut to produce death).
Being inclined to repose, the strangers were ordered to return on shore,
and, finding his indisposition augment, he gave directions for being
conveyed back to Achin, whither his ship sailed next day. The remainder
of the fleet continued off the coast during five or six days longer, and
then returned likewise without effecting the reduction of the place,
which the chiefs had lost no time in fortifying.
About two years after this transaction the king, under pretence of
amusement, made an excursion to the country lying near the source of the
river Achin, then under the jurisdiction of a panglima or governor named
Muda Seti; for it must be understood that this part of the kingdom is
divided into three districts, known by the appellations of the
Twenty-two, Twenty-six, and Twenty-five Mukims (see above), which were
governed respectively by Muda Seti, Imam Muda, and PerbawangShah (or
Purba-wangsa). These three chiefs had the entire control of the country,
and when their views were united they had the power of deposing and
setting up kings. Such was the nature of the government. The king's
expedition was undertaken with the design of making himself master of the
person of Muda Seti, who had given him umbrage, and on this occasion his
followers of all ranks were so numerous that wherever they halted for the
night the fruits of the earth were all devoured, as well as great
multitudes of cattle. Muda Seti however, being aware of the designs
against him, had withdrawn himself from the place of his usual residence
and was not to be found when the king arrived there; but a report being
brought that he had collected five or six hundred followers and was
preparing to make resistance, orders were immediately given for burning
his house. This being effected, the king returned immediately to Achin,
leaving the forces that had accompanied him at a place called Pakan
Badar, distant about half a day's journey from the capital, where they
were directed to entrench themselves. From this post they were driven by
the country chief, who advanced rapidly upon them with several thousand
men, and forced them to fall back to Padang Siring, where the king was
collecting an army, and where a battle was fought soon after, that
terminated in the defeat of the royal party with great slaughter. Those
who escaped took refuge in the castle along with the king.
1723.
Under these disastrous circumstances he called upon the chiefs who
adhered to him to advise what was best to be done, surrounded as they
were by the country people, on whom he invoked the curse of God; when one
of them, named Panglima Maharaja, gave it as his opinion that the only
effectual measure by which the country could be saved from ruin would be
the king's withdrawing himself from the capital so long as the enemy
should continue in its vicinity, appointing a regent from among the
nobles to govern the country in his absence; and when subordination
should be restored he might then return and take again possession of his
throne. To this proposition he signified his assent on the condition that
Panglima Maharaja should assure him by an oath that no treachery was
intended; which oath was accordingly taken, and the king, having
nominated as his substitute Maharaja Lela, one of the least considerable
of the ulubalangs, retired with his wives and children to the country of
the Four mukims, situated about three hours journey to the westward of
the city. (The Annals say he fled to Pidir in November 1723.) Great
ravages were committed by the insurgents, but they did not attack the
palace, and after some days of popular confusion the chiefs of the Three
districts, who (says the writer) must not be confounded with the officers
about the person of the king, held a consultation amongst themselves,
and, exercising an authority of which there had been frequent examples,
set up Panglima Maharaja in the room of the abdicated king (by the title,
say the Annals, of Juhar al-alum, in December 1723). About seven days
after his elevation he was seized with a convulsive disorder in his neck
and died. A nephew of Jemal al-alum, named Undei Tebang, was then placed
upon the throne, but notwithstanding his having bribed the chiefs of the
Three districts with thirty katties of gold, they permitted him to enjoy
his dignity only a few days, and then deposed him. (The same authority
states that he was set up by the chiefs of the Four mukims, and removed
through the influence of Muda Seti.)
1724. 1735.
The person whom they next combined to raise to the throne was Maharaja
Lela (before mentioned as the king's substitute). It was his good fortune
to govern the country in tranquillity for the space of nearly twelve
years, during which period the city of Achin recovered its population.
(According to the Annals he began to reign in February 1724, by the title
of Ala ed-din Ahmed shah Juhan, and died in June 1735.) It happened that
the same day on which the event of his death took place Jemal al-alum
again made his appearance, and advanced to a mosque near the city. His
friends advised him to lose no time in possessing himself of the castle,
but for trifling reasons that mark the weakness of his character he
resolved to defer the measure till the succeeding day; and the
opportunity, as might be expected, was lost. The deceased king left five
sons, the eldest of whom, named Po-chat-au (or Po-wak, according to
another manuscript) exhorted his brothers to unite with him in the
determination of resisting a person whose pretensions were entirely
inconsistent with their security. They accordingly sent to demand
assistance of Perbawang-shah, chief of the district of the Twenty-five
mukims, which lies the nearest to that quarter. He arrived before
morning, embraced the five princes, confirmed them in their resolution,
and authorised the eldest to assume the government (which he did, say the
Annals, by the title of Ala ed-din Juhan-shah in September 1735.) But to
this measure the concurrence of the other chiefs was wanting. At daybreak
the guns of the castle began to play upon the mosque, and, some of the
shot penetrating its walls, the pusillanimous Jemal al-alum, being
alarmed at the danger, judged it advisable to retreat from thence and to
set up his standard in another quarter, called kampong Jawa, his people
at the same time retaining possession of the mosque. A regular warfare
now ensued between the two parties and continued for no less than ten
years (the great chiefs taking different sides), when at length some kind
of compromise was effected that left Po-chat-au (Juhanshah) in the
possession of the throne, which he afterwards enjoyed peaceably for eight
years, and no further mention is made of Jemal al-alum. About this period
the chiefs took umbrage at his interfering in matters of trade, contrary
to what they asserted to be the established custom of the realm, and
assembled their forces in order to intimidate him. (The history of Achin
presents a continual struggle between the monarch and the aristocracy of
the country, which generally made the royal monopoly of trade the ground
of crimination and pretext for their rebellions).
1755.
Panglima Muda Seti, being considered as the head of the league, came down
with twenty thousand followers, and, upon the king's refusing to admit
into the castle his complimentary present (considering it only as the
prelude to humiliating negotiation), another war commenced that lasted
for two years, and was at length terminated by Muda Seti's withdrawing
from the contest and returning to his province. About five years after
this event Juhan shah died, and his son, Pochat-bangta, succeeded him,
but not (says this writer, who here concludes his abstract) with the
general concurrence of the chiefs, and the country long continued in a
disturbed state.
END OF NARRATIVE.
1760.
The death of Juhan shah is stated in the Annals to have taken place in
August 1760, and the accession of the son, who took the name of Ala-eddin
Muhammed shah, not until November of the same year. Other authorities
place these events in 1761.
1763.
Before he had completed the third year of his reign an insurrection of
his subjects obliged him to save himself by flight on board a ship in the
road. This happened in 1763 or 1764. The throne was seized by the
maharaja (first officer of state) named Sinara, who assumed the title of
Beder-eddin Juhan shah, and about the end of 1765 was put to death by the
adherents of the fugitive monarch, Muhammed shah, who thereupon returned
to the throne.*
(*Footnote. Captain Forrest acquaints us that he visited the court of
Mahomed Selim (the latter name is not given to this prince by any other
writer) in the year 1764, at which time he appeared to be about forty
years of age. It is difficult to reconcile this date with the recorded
events of this unfortunate reign, and I have doubts whether it was not
the usurper whom the Captain saw.)
He was exposed however to further revolutions. About six years after his
restoration the palace was attacked in the night by a desperate band of
two hundred men, headed by a man called Raja Udah, and he was once more
obliged to make a precipitate retreat. This usurper took the title of
sultan Suliman shah, but after a short reign of three months was driven
out in his turn and forced to fly for refuge to one of the islands in the
eastern sea. The nature of his pretensions, if he had any, have not been
stated, but he never gave any further trouble. From this period Muhammed
maintained possession of his capital, although it was generally in a
state of confusion.
1772.
"In the year 1772," says Captain Forrest, "Mr. Giles Holloway, resident
of Tappanooly, was sent to Achin by the Bencoolen government, with a
letter and present, to ask leave from the king to make a settlement
there. I carried him from his residency. Not being very well on my
arrival, I did not accompany Mr. Holloway (a very sensible and discreet
gentleman, and who spoke the Malay tongue very fluently) on shore at his
first audience; and finding his commission likely to prove abortive I did
not go to the palace at all. There was great anarchy and confusion at
this time; and the malcontents came often, as I was informed, near the
king's palace at night."
1775.
The Captain further remarks that when again there in 1775 he could not
obtain an audience.
1781.
The Annals report his death to have happened on the 2nd of June 1781, and
observe that from the commencement to the close of his reign the country
never enjoyed repose. His brother, named Ala-eddin (or Uleddin, as
commonly pronounced, and which seems to have been a favourite title with
the Achinese princes), was in exile at Madras during a considerable
period, and resided also for some time at Bencoolen.
The eldest son of the deceased king, then about eighteen years of age,
succeeded him on the 16th of the same month, by the title of Ala-eddin
Mahmud shah Juhan, in spite of an opposition attempted to be raised by
the partisans of another son by a favourite wife. Weapons had been drawn
in the court before the palace, when the tuanku agung or high priest, a
person of great respectability and influence, by whom the former had been
educated, came amidst the crowd, bareheaded and without attendance,
leading his pupil by the hand. Having placed himself between the
contending factions, he addressed them to the following effect: that the
prince who stood before them had a natural right and legal claim to the
throne of his father; that he had been educated with a view to it, and
was qualified to adorn it by his disposition and talents; that he wished
however to found his pretensions neither upon his birthright nor the
strength of the party attached to him, but upon the general voice of his
subjects calling him to the sovereignty; that if such was their sentiment
he was ready to undertake the arduous duties of the station, in which he
himself would assist him with the fruits of his experience; that if on
the contrary they felt a predilection for his rival, no blood should be
shed on his account, the prince and his tutor being resolved in that case
to yield the point without a struggle, and retire to some distant island.
This impressive appeal had the desired effect, and the young prince was
invited by unanimous acclamation to assume the reins of government.*
(*Footnote. Mr. Philip Braham, late chief of the East India Company's
settlement of Fort Marlborough, by whom the circumstances of this event
were related to me, arrived at Achin in July 1781, about a fortnight
after the transaction. He thus described his audience. The king was
seated in a gallery (to which there were no visible steps), at the
extremity of a spacious hall or court, and a curtain which hung before
him was drawn aside when it was his pleasure to appear. In this court
were great numbers of female attendants, but not armed, as they have been
described. Mr. Braham was introduced through a long file of guards armed
with blunderbusses, and then seated on a carpet in front of the gallery.
When a conversation had been carried on for some time through the
Shabandar, who communicated his answers to an interpreter, by whom they
were reported to the king, the latter perceiving that he spoke the
Malayan language addressed him directly, and asked several questions
respecting England; what number of wives and children our sovereign had;
how many ships of war the English kept in India; what was the French
force, and others of that nature. He expressed himself in friendly terms
with regard to our nation, and said he should always be happy to
countenance our traders in his ports. Even at this early period of his
reign he had abolished some vexatious imposts. Mr. Braham had an
opportunity of learning the great degree of power and control possessed
by certain of the orang kayas, who held their respective districts in
actual sovereignty, and kept the city in awe by stopping, when it suited
their purpose, the supplies of provisions. Captain Forrest, who once more
visited Achin in 1784 and was treated with much distinction (see his
Voyage to the Mergui Archipelago page 51), says he appeared to be
twenty-five years of age; but this was a misconception. Mr. Kenneth
Mackenzie, who saw him in 1782, judged him to have been at that time no
more than nineteen or twenty, which corresponds with Mr. Braham's
statement.)
Little is known of the transactions of his reign, but that little is in
favour of his personal character. The Annals (not always unexceptionable
evidence when speaking of the living monarch) describe him as being
endowed with every princely virtue, exercising the functions of
government with vigour and rectitude, of undaunted courage, attentive to
the protection of the ministers of religion, munificent to the
descendants of the prophet (seiyid, but commonly pronounced sidi) and to
men of learning, prompt at all times to administer justice, and
consequently revered and beloved by his people. I have not been enabled
to ascertain the year in which he died.
1791.
It appears by a Malayan letter from Achin that in 1791 the peace of the
capital was much disturbed, and the state of the government as well as of
private property (which induced the writer to reship his goods)
precarious.
1805.
In 1805 his son, then aged twenty-one, was on the throne, and had a
contention with his paternal uncle, and at the same time his
father-in-law, named Tuanku Raja, by whom he had been compelled to fly
(but only for a short time) to Pidir, the usual asylum of the Achinese
monarchs. Their quarrel appears to have been rather of a family than of a
political nature, and to have proceeded from the irregular conduct of the
queen-mother. The low state of this young king's finances, impoverished
by a fruitless struggle to enforce, by means of an expensive marine
establishment, his right to an exclusive trade, had induced him to make
proposals, for mutual accommodation, to the English government of Pulo
Pinang.*
(*Footnote. Since the foregoing was printed the following information
respecting the manners of the Batta people, obtained by Mr. Charles
Holloway from Mr. W.H. Hayes, has reached my hands. "In the month of July
1805 an expedition consisting of Sepoys, Malays, and Battas was sent from
Tapanuli against a chief named Punei Manungum, residing at Negatimbul,
about thirty miles inland from Old Tapanuli, in consequence of his having
attacked a kampong under the protection of the company, murdered several
of the inhabitants, and carried others into captivity. After a siege of
three days, terms of accommodation being proposed, a cessation of
hostilities took place, when the people of each party having laid aside
their arms intermixed with the utmost confidence, and conversed together
as if in a state of perfect amity. The terms however not proving
satisfactory, each again retired to his arms and renewed the contest with
their former inveteracy. On the second day the place was evacuated, and
upon our people entering it Mr. Hayes found the bodies of one man and two
women, whom the enemy had put to death before their departure (being the
last remaining of sixteen prisoners whom they had originally carried
off), and from whose legs large pieces had been cut out, evidently for
the purpose of being eaten. During the progress of this expedition a
small party had been sent to hold in check the chiefs of Labusukum and
Singapollum (inland of Sibogah), who were confederates of Punei Manungum.
These however proved stronger than was expected, and, making a sally from
their kampongs, attacked the sergeant's party and killed a sepoy, whom he
was obliged to abandon. Mr. Hayes, on his way from Negatimbul, was
ordered to march to the support of the retreating party; but these having
taken a different route he remained ignorant of the particulars of their
loss. The village of Singapollam being immediately carried by storm, and
the enemy retreating by one gate, as our people entered at the opposite,
the accoutrements of the sepoy who had been killed the day before were
seen hanging as trophies in the front of the houses, and in the town
hall, Mr. Hayes saw the head entirely scalped, and one of the fingers
fixed upon a fork or skewer, still warm from the fire. On proceeding to
the village of Labusucom, situated little more than two hundred yards
from the former, he found a large plantain leaf full of human flesh,
mixed with lime-juice and chili-pepper, from which he inferred that they
had been surprised in the very act of feasting on the sepoy, whose body
had been divided between the two kampongs. Upon differences being settled
with the chiefs they acknowledged with perfect sangfroid that such had
been the case, saying at the same time, "you know it is our custom; why
should we conceal it?")