t discretion; which the laksamana hesitating to do,
a furious assault took place both by water and land upon his galleys and
works, which were all effectually destroyed or captured, not a ship and
scarcely a man escaping. He himself in the last extremity fled to the
woods, but was seized ere long by the king of Pahang's scouts. Being
brought before the governor he said to him, with an undaunted
countenance, "Behold here the laksamana for the first time overcome!" He
was treated with respect but kept a prisoner, and sent on his own famous
ship to Goa in order to be from thence conveyed to Portugal: but death
deprived his enemies of that distinguished ornament of their triumph.

1635.

This signal defeat proved so important a blow to the power of Achin that
we read of no further attempts to renew the war until the year 1635, when
the king, encouraged by the feuds which at this time prevailed in
Malacca, again violated the law of nations, to him little known, by
imprisoning their ambassador, and caused all the Portuguese about his
court to be murdered. No military operations however immediately took
place in consequence of this barbarous proceeding.

1640. 1641.

In the year 1640 the Dutch with twelve men of war, and the king of Achin
with twenty-five galleys, appeared before that harassed and devoted city;
which at length, in the following year was wrested from the hands of the
Portuguese, who had so long, through such difficulties, maintained
possession of it. This year was also marked by the death of the sultan,
whom the Dutch writers name Paduka Sri, at the age of sixty, after a
reign of thirty-five years; having just lived to see his hereditary foe
subdued; and as if the opposition of the Portuguese power, which seems
first to have occasioned the rise of that of Achin, was also necessary to
its existence, the splendour and consequence of the kingdom from that
period rapidly declined.

The prodigious wealth and resources of the monarchy during his reign are
best evinced by the expeditions he was enabled to fit out; but being no
less covetous than ambitious he contrived to make the expenses fall upon
his subjects, and at the same time filled his treasury with gold by
pressing the merchants and plundering the neighbouring states. An
intelligent person (General Beaulieu), who was for some time at his
court, and had opportunities of information on the subject, uses this
strong expression--that he was infinitely rich.