About three or four years after this misfortune Mansur-shah prepared a fleet of no less than three hundred sail of vessels, and was ready to embark once more upon his favourite enterprise, when he was murdered, together with his queen and many of the principal nobility, by the general of the forces, who had long formed designs upon the crown.

1585.

This was perpetrated in May 1585, when he had reigned nearly eighteen years.  In his time the consequence of the kingdom of Achin is represented to have arrived at a considerable height, and its friendship to have been courted by the most powerful states.  No city in India possessed a more flourishing trade, the port being crowded with merchant vessels which were encouraged to resort thither by the moderate rates of the customs levied; and although the Portuguese and their ships were continually plundered, those belonging to every Asiatic power, from Mecca in the West to Japan in the East, appear to have enjoyed protection and security.  The despotic authority of the monarch was counterpoised by the influence of the orang-kayas or nobility, who are described as being possessed of great wealth, living in fortified houses, surrounded by numerous dependants, and feeling themselves above control, often giving a licentious range to their proud and impatient tempers.

The late monarch’s daughter and only child was married to the king of Johor,* by whom she had a son, who, being regarded as heir to the crown of Achin, had been brought to the latter place to be educated under the eye of his grandfather.  When the general (whose name is corruptly written Moratiza) assumed the powers of government, he declared himself the protector of this child, and we find him mentioned in the Annals by the title of Sultan Buyong (or the Boy).

(Footnote.  The king of Achin sent on this occasion to Johor a piece of ordnance, such as for greatness, length, and workmanship (says Linschoten), could hardly be matched in all Christendom.  It was afterwards taken by the Portuguese, who shipped it for Europe, but the vessel was lost in her passage.)

1588.

But before he had completed the third year of his nominal reign he also was dispatched, and the usurper took formal possession of the throne in the year 1588, by the name of Ala-eddin Rayet-shah,* being then at an advanced period of life.

(Footnote.  Valentyn, by an obvious corruption, names him Sulthan Alciden Ryetza, and this coincidence is strongly in favour of the authenticity and correctness of the Annals.  John Davis, who will be hereafter mentioned, calls him, with sufficient accuracy, Sultan Aladin.)

The Annals say he was the grandson of Sultan Firman-shah; but the Europeans who visited Achin during his reign report him to have been originally a fisherman, who, having afterwards served in the wars against Malacca, showed so much courage, prudence, and skill in maritime affairs that the late king made him at length the chief commander of his forces, and gave him one of his nearest kinswomen to wife, in right of whom he is said to have laid claim to the throne.