ed to retire.

1547.

In the year 1547 he once more fitted out a fleet against Malacca, where a
descent was made; but, contented with some trifling plunder, the army
re-embarked, and the vessels proceeded to the river of Parles on the
Malayan coast. Hither they were followed by a Portuguese squadron, which
attacked and defeated a division of the fleet at the mouth of the river.
This victory was rendered famous, not so much by the valour of the
combatants, as by a revelation opportunely made from heaven to the
celebrated missionary Francisco Xavier of the time and circumstances of
it, and which he announced to the garrison at a moment when the approach
of a powerful invader from another quarter had caused much alarm and
apprehension among them.

Many transactions of the reign of this prince, particularly with the
neighbouring states of Batta and Aru (about the years 1539 and 1541) are
mentioned by Ferdinand Mendez Pinto; but his writings are too apocryphal
to allow of the facts being recorded upon his authority. Yet there is the
strongest internal evidence of his having been more intimately acquainted
with the countries of which we are now speaking, the character of the
inhabitants, and the political transactions of the period, than any of
his contemporaries; and it appears highly probable that what he has
related is substantially true: but there is also reason to believe that
he composed his work from recollection after his return to Europe, and he
may not have been scrupulous in supplying from a fertile imagination the
unavoidable failures of a memory, however richly stored.

1556.

The death of Ala-eddin took place, according to the Annals, in 1556,
after a reign of twenty-eight years.

1565.

He was succeeded by sultan Hussein-shah, who reigned about eight, and
dying in 1565 was succeeded by his son, an infant. This child survived
only seven months; and in the same year the throne was occupied by Raja
Firman-shah, who was murdered soon after.

1567.

His successor, Raja Janil, experienced a similar fate when he had reigned
ten months. This event is placed in 1567. Sultan Mansur-shah, from the
kingdom of Perak in the peninsula, was the next who ascended the throne.

1567.

The western powers of India having formed a league for the purpose of
extirpating the Portuguese, the king of Achin was invited to accede to
it, and, in conformity with the engagements by which the respective
parties were bound, he pr