ith tears of blood by the little garrison, who were
not now above a hundred and fifty men, and of those a great part
non-effective. The king, elated with his success, landed his troops, and
laid siege to the fort, which he battered at intervals during seventeen
days. The fire of the Portuguese became very slack, and after some time
totally ceased, as the governor judged it prudent to reserve his small
stock of ammunition for an effort at the last extremity. The king,
alarmed at this silence, which he construed into a preparation for some
dangerous stratagem, was seized with a panic, and, suddenly raising the
siege, embarked with the utmost precipitation; unexpectedly relieving the
garrison from the ruin that hung over it, and which seemed inevitable in
the ordinary course of events.

1582.

In 1582 we find the king appearing again before Malacca with a hundred
and fifty sail of vessels. After some skirmishes with the Portuguese
ships, in which the success was nearly equal on both sides, the Achinese
proceeded to attack Johor, the king of which was then in alliance with
Malacca. Twelve ships followed them thither, and, having burned some of
their galleys, defeated the rest and obliged them to fly to Achin. The
operations of these campaigns, and particularly the valour of the
commander, named Raja Makuta, are alluded to in Queen Elizabeth's letter
to the king, delivered in 1602 by Sir James Lancaster.

About three or four years after this misfortune Mansur-shah prepared a
fleet of no less than three hundred sail of vessels, and was ready to
embark once more upon his favourite enterprise, when he was murdered,
together with his queen and many of the principal nobility, by the
general of the forces, who had long formed designs upon the crown.

1585.

This was perpetrated in May 1585, when he had reigned nearly eighteen
years. In his time the consequence of the kingdom of Achin is represented
to have arrived at a considerable height, and its friendship to have been
courted by the most powerful states. No city in India possessed a more
flourishing trade, the port being crowded with merchant vessels which
were encouraged to resort thither by the moderate rates of the customs
levied; and although the Portuguese and their ships were continually
plundered, those belonging to every Asiatic power, from Mecca in the West
to Japan in the East, appear to have enjoyed protection and security. The
despotic authority of the monarch