In the year 1547 he once more fitted out a fleet against Malacca, where a descent was made; but, contented with some trifling plunder, the army re-embarked, and the vessels proceeded to the river of Parles on the Malayan coast.  Hither they were followed by a Portuguese squadron, which attacked and defeated a division of the fleet at the mouth of the river.  This victory was rendered famous, not so much by the valour of the combatants, as by a revelation opportunely made from heaven to the celebrated missionary Francisco Xavier of the time and circumstances of it, and which he announced to the garrison at a moment when the approach of a powerful invader from another quarter had caused much alarm and apprehension among them.

Many transactions of the reign of this prince, particularly with the neighbouring states of Batta and Aru (about the years 1539 and 1541) are mentioned by Ferdinand Mendez Pinto; but his writings are too apocryphal to allow of the facts being recorded upon his authority.  Yet there is the strongest internal evidence of his having been more intimately acquainted with the countries of which we are now speaking, the character of the inhabitants, and the political transactions of the period, than any of his contemporaries; and it appears highly probable that what he has related is substantially true:  but there is also reason to believe that he composed his work from recollection after his return to Europe, and he may not have been scrupulous in supplying from a fertile imagination the unavoidable failures of a memory, however richly stored.

1556.

The death of Ala-eddin took place, according to the Annals, in 1556, after a reign of twenty-eight years.

1565.

He was succeeded by sultan Hussein-shah, who reigned about eight, and dying in 1565 was succeeded by his son, an infant.  This child survived only seven months; and in the same year the throne was occupied by Raja Firman-shah, who was murdered soon after.

1567.

His successor, Raja Janil, experienced a similar fate when he had reigned ten months.  This event is placed in 1567.  Sultan Mansur-shah, from the kingdom of Perak in the peninsula, was the next who ascended the throne.

1567.

The western powers of India having formed a league for the purpose of extirpating the Portuguese, the king of Achin was invited to accede to it, and, in conformity with the engagements by which the respective parties were bound, he prepared to attack them in Malacca, and carried thither a numerous fleet, in which were fifteen thousand people of his own subjects, and four hundred Turks, with two hundred pieces of artillery of different sizes.  In order to amuse the enemy he gave out that his force was destined against Java, and sent a letter, accompanied with a present of a kris, to the governor, professing strong sentiments of friendship.  A person whom he turned on shore with marks of ignominy, being suspected for a spy,