1600.

Towards the close of the sixteenth century they began to navigate these seas; and in June 1600 visited Achin with two ships, but had no cause to boast of the hospitality of their reception.  An attempt was made to cut them off, and evidently by the orders or connivance of the king, who had prevailed upon the Dutch admiral to take on board troops and military stores for an expedition meditated, or pretended, against the city of Johor, which these ships were to bombard.  Several of the crews were murdered, but after a desperate conflict in both ships the treacherous assailants were overcome and driven into the water, “and it was some pleasure (says John Davis, an Englishman, who was the principal pilot of the squadron) to see how the base Indians did fly, how they were killed, and how well they were drowned."* This barbarous and apparently unprovoked attack was attributed, but perhaps without any just grounds, to the instigation of the Portuguese.

(Footnote.  All the Dutchmen on shore at the time were made prisoners, and many of them continued in that state for several years.  Among these was Captain Frederick Houtman, whose Vocabulary of the Malayan language was printed at Amsterdam in 1604, being the first that was published in Europe.  My copy has the writer’s autograph.)

1600.

In November 1600 Paulus van Caarden, having also the command of two Dutch ships, was received upon his landing with much ceremony; but at his first audience the king refused to read a letter from the Prince of Orange, upon its being suggested to him that instead of paper it was written on the skin of an unclean animal; and the subsequent treatment experienced by this officer was uniformly bad.  It appears however that in December 1601 the king was so far reconciled to this new power as to send two ambassadors to Holland, one of whom died there in August 1602, and the other returned to Achin subsequently to the death of his master.

1602.

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