y
small, having only six feet water on the bar, at which there is a stone
fort, the ramparts of which are covered or flanked with battlements, all
very low, and very despicable. In front of this fort is an excellent
road, or anchoring ground for ships, the wind being, always off shore,
so that a ship may ride safely a mile from the shore, in eighteen
fathoms, and close in, in six and four fathoms.

In this country there are elephants, horses, buffaloes, oxen, and goats,
with many wild-hogs. The land has plenty of mines of gold and copper,
with various gums, balsams, many drugs, and much indigo. Its precious
stones are rubies, sapphires, and garnets; but I know not whether they
are found there, or are brought from other places. It has likewise most
excellent timber for building ships. The city of Acheen,[39] if such it
may be called, is very spacious, and is built in a wood, so that the
houses are not to be seen till we are close upon them; neither could we
go into any place but we found houses and a great concourse of people,
so that the town seems to spread over the whole land. Their houses are
raised on posts, eight feet or better from the ground, leaving free
passage under them, the walls and roofs being only of mats, the poorest
and weakest things that can be conceived. I saw three great
market-places, which were every day crowded like fairs, with all kinds
of commodities exposed for sale.

[Footnote 39: This place, called likewise _Achin_ and _Achien_ by Davis,
is commonly called _Achen_; but in the letters from the king to Queen
Elizabeth, which will be mentioned in the sequel it is called
_Ashi_.--Astl. I. 259. b.]

The king, called Sultan Aladin, is said to be an hundred years old, yet
is a lively man, exceedingly gross and fat. In his young days he was a
fisherman, of which there are many in this place, as they live mostly on
fish. Going to the wars with the former king, he shewed himself so
valiant and discreet in ordering the king's gallies, that he acquired
the royal favour so much as to be appointed admiral of all the
sea-force, in which he conducted himself so valiantly and wisely, that
the king gave him one of his nearest kinswomen to wife. The king had an
only daughter, whom he married to the king of Johor, by whom she had a
son, who was sent to Acheen to be brought up as heir to his grandfather.
The king who now is, being commander in chief by sea and land, the old
king died suddenly; on which the pr