contrary; that he had just made a
festival and killed fifty goats to celebrate one defeat which they had
received, and hoped soon to kill a hundred in order to celebrate a
second. His expectations were fulfilled, or rather anticipated, for the
Portuguese, having a knowledge of the king of Indragiri's design, sent
out a small fleet which routed the combined force before the king of
Lingga was acquainted with their arrival, his capital being situated high
up on the river.

1526.

In the next year, at the conquest of Bintang, this king unsolicited sent
assistance to his European allies.

1527.

However well founded the accounts may have been which the Portuguese have
given us of the cruelties committed against their people by the king of
Achin, the barbarity does not appear to have been only on one side.
Francisco de Mello, being sent in an armed vessel with dispatches to Goa,
met near Achin Head with a ship of that nation just arrived from Mecca
and supposed to be richly laden. As she had on board three hundred
Achinese and forty Arabs he dared not venture to board her, but battered
her at a distance, when suddenly she filled and sunk, to the extreme
disappointment of the Portuguese, who thereby lost their prize; but they
wreaked their vengeance on the unfortunate crew as they endeavoured to
save themselves by swimming, and boast that they did not suffer a man to
escape. Opportunities of retaliation soon offered.

1528.

Simano de Sousa, going with a reinforcement to the Moluccas from Cochin,
was overtaken in the bay by a violent storm, which forced him to stow
many of his guns in the hold; and, having lost several of his men through
fatigue, he made for the nearest port he could take shelter in, which
proved to be Achin. The king, having the destruction of the Portuguese at
heart, and resolving if possible to seize their vessel, sent off a
message to De Sousa recommending his standing in closer to the shore,
where he would have more shelter from the gale which still continued, and
lie more conveniently for getting off water and provisions, at the same
time inviting him to land. This artifice not succeeding, he ordered out
the next morning a thousand men in twenty boats, who at first pretended
they were come to assist in mooring the ship; but the captain, aware of
their hostile design, fired amongst them, when a fierce engagement took
place in which the Achinese were repulsed with great slaughter, but not
until th