wives, to revenge the injuries her brother, the chief of Daya,
had suffered at his hand. In a Malayan work (lately come into my
possession) containing the annals of the kingdom of Achin, it is said
that a king, whose title was sultan Saleh-eddin-shah, obtained the
sovereignty in a year answering to 1511 of our era, and who, after
reigning about eighteen years, was dethroned by a brother in 1529.
Notwithstanding some apparent discordance between the two accounts there
can be little doubt of the circumstances applying to the same individual,
as it may well be presumed that, according to the usual practice in the
East, he adopted upon ascending the throne a title different from the
name which he had originally borne, although that might continue to be
his more familiar appellation, especially in the mouths of his enemies.
The want of precise coincidence in the dates cannot be thought an
objection, as the event not falling under the immediate observation of
the Portuguese they cannot pretend to accuracy within a few months, and
even their account of the subsequent transactions renders it more
probable that it happened in 1529; nor are the facts of his being
dethroned by the brother, or put to death by the sister, materially at
variance with each other; and the latter circumstance, whether true or
false, might naturally enough be reported at Malacca.

1529.

His successor took the name of Ala-eddin-shah, and afterwards, from his
great enterprises, acquired the additional epithet of keher or the
powerful. By the Portuguese he is said to have styled himself king of
Achin, Barus, Pidir, Pase, Daya, and Batta, prince of the land of the two
seas, and of the mines of Menangkabau.

1537.

Nothing is recorded of his reign until the year 1537, in which he twice
attacked Malacca. The first time he sent an army of three thousand men
who landed near the city by night, unperceived by the garrison, and,
having committed some ravages in the suburbs, were advancing to the
bridge, when the governor, Estavano de Gama, sallied out with a party and
obliged them to retreat for shelter to the woods. Here they defended
themselves during the next day, but on the following night they
re-embarked, with the loss of five hundred men. A few months afterwards
the king had the place invested with a larger force; but in the interval
the works had been repaired and strengthened, and after three days
ineffectual attempt the Achinese were again constrain