The French Commodore Beaulieu relates the circumstances of this revolution in a very different manner.*

(Footnote.  The commodore had great opportunity of information, was a man of very superior ability, and indefatigable in his inquiries upon all subjects, as appears by the excellent account of his voyage, and of Achin in particular, written by himself, and published in Thevenot’s collection, of which there is an English translation in Harris; but it is possible he may, in this instance, have been amused by a plausible tale from the grandson of this monarch, with whom he had much intercourse.  John Davis, an intelligent English navigator whose account I have followed, might have been more likely to hear the truth as he was at Achin (though not a frequenter of the court) during Ala-eddin’s reign, whereas Beaulieu did not arrive till twenty’ years after, and the report of his having been originally a fisherman is also mentioned by the Dutch writers.)

He says that, upon the extinction of the ancient royal line, which happened about forty years before the period at which he wrote, the orang-kayas met in order to choose a king, but, every one affecting the dignity for himself, they could not agree and resolved to decide it by force.  In this ferment the cadi or chief judge by his authority and remonstrances persuaded them to offer the crown to a certain noble who in all these divisions had taken no part, but had lived in the reputation of a wise, experienced man, being then seventy years of age, and descended from one of the most respectable families of the country.  After several excuses on his side, and entreaties and even threats on theirs, he at length consented to accept the dignity thus imposed upon him, provided they should regard him as a father, and receive correction from him as his children; but no sooner was he in possession of the sovereign power than (like Pope Sixtus the Fifth) he showed a different face, and the first step after his accession was to invite the orang-kayas to a feast, where, as they were separately introduced, he caused them to be seized and murdered in a court behind the palace.  He then proceeded to demolish their fortified houses, and lodged their cannon, arms, and goods in the castle, taking measures to prevent in future the erection of any buildings of substantial materials that could afford him grounds of jealousy.  He raised his own adherents from the lower class of people to the first dignities of the state, and of those who presumed to express any disapprobation of his conduct he made great slaughter, being supposed to have executed not less than twenty thousand persons in the first year of his reign.

From the silence of the Portuguese writers with respect to the actions of this king we have reason to conclude that he did not make any attempts to disturb their settlement of Malacca; and it even appears that some persons in the character of ambassadors or agents from that power resided at Achin, the principal object of whose policy appears to have been that of inspiring him with jealousy and hatred of the Hollanders, who in their turn were actively exerting themselves to supplant the conquerors of India.