epared to attack them in Malacca, and carried
thither a numerous fleet, in which were fifteen thousand people of his
own subjects, and four hundred Turks, with two hundred pieces of
artillery of different sizes. In order to amuse the enemy he gave out
that his force was destined against Java, and sent a letter, accompanied
with a present of a kris, to the governor, professing strong sentiments
of friendship. A person whom he turned on shore with marks of ignominy,
being suspected for a spy, was taken up, and being put to the torture
confessed that he was employed by the Ottoman emperor and king of Achin
to poison the principal officers of the place, and to set fire to their
magazine. He was put to death, and his mutilated carcase was sent off to
the king. This was the signal for hostilities. He immediately landed with
all his men and commenced a regular siege. Sallies were made with various
success and very unequal numbers. In one of these the chief of Aru, the
king's eldest son, was killed. In another the Portuguese were defeated
and lost many officers. A variety of stratagems were employed to work
upon the fears and shake the fidelity of the inhabitants of the town. A
general assault was given in which, after prodigious efforts of courage,
and imminent risk of destruction, the besieged remained victorious. The
king, seeing all his attempts fruitless, at length departed, having lost
three thousand men before the walls, beside about five hundred who were
said to have died of their wounds on the passage. The king of Ujong-tanah
or Johor, who arrived with a fleet to the assistance of the place, found
the sea for a long distance covered with dead bodies. This was esteemed
one of the most desperate and honourable sieges the Portuguese
experienced in India, their whole force consisting of but fifteen hundred
men, of whom no more than two hundred were Europeans.

1568.

In the following year a vessel from Achin bound to Java, with ambassadors
on board to the queen of Japara, in whom the king wished to raise up a
new enemy against the Portuguese, was met in the straits by a vessel from
Malacca, who took her and put all the people to the sword. It appears to
have been a maxim in these wars never to give quarter to an enemy,
whether resisting or submitting.

1569.

In 1569 a single ship, commanded by Lopez Carrasco, passing near Achin,
fell in with a fleet coming out of that port, consisting of twenty large
galleys and a hun