and all found
themselves disappointed in, sent out a squadron commanded by General
Beaulieu, which arrived in January 1621, and finally left it in December
of the same year. He brought magnificent presents to the king, but these
did not content his insatiable avarice, and he employed a variety of mean
arts to draw from him further gifts. Beaulieu met also with many
difficulties, and was forced to submit to much extortion in his
endeavours to procure a loading of pepper, of which Achin itself, as has
been observed, produced but little. The king informed him that he had
some time since ordered all the plants to be destroyed, not only because
the cultivation of them proved an injury to more useful agriculture, but
also lest their produce might tempt the Europeans to serve him, as they
had served the kings of Jakatra and Bantam. From this apprehension he had
lately been induced to expel the English and Dutch from their settlements
at Priaman and Tiku, where the principal quantity of pepper was procured,
and of which places he changed the governor every third year to prevent
any connexions dangerous to his authority from being formed. He had
likewise driven the Dutch from a factory they were attempting to settle
at Padang; which place appears to be the most remote on the western coast
of the island to which the Achinese conquests at any time extended.

1628.

Still retaining a strong desire to possess himself of Malacca, so many
years the grand object of Achinese ambition, he imprisoned the ambassador
then at his court, and made extraordinary preparations for the siege,
which he designed to undertake in person. The laksamana or commander in
chief (who had effected all the king's late conquests) attempted to
oppose this resolution; but the maharaja, willing to flatter his master's
propensity, undertook to put him in possession of the city and had the
command of the fleet given to him, as the other had of the land forces.
The king set out on the expedition with a fleet of two hundred and fifty
sail (forty-seven of them not less than a hundred feet in the keel), in
which were twenty thousand men well appointed, and a great train of
artillery. After being some time on board, with his family and retinue as
usual, he determined, on account of an ill omen that was observed, to
return to the shore. The generals, proceeding without him, soon arrived
before Malacca. Having landed their men they made a judicious
disposition, and began