He constantly employed in
his castle three hundred goldsmiths. This would seem an exaggeration, but
that it is well known the Malayan princes have them always about them in
great numbers at this day, working in the manufacture of filigree, for
which the country is so famous. His naval strength has been already
sufficiently described. He was possessed of two thousand brass guns and
small arms in proportion. His trained elephants amounted to some
hundreds. His armies were probably raised only upon the occasion which
called for their acting, and that in a mode similar to what was
established under the feudal system in Europe. The valley of Achin alone
was said to be able to furnish forty thousand men upon an emergency. A
certain number of warriors however were always kept on foot for the
protection of the king and his capital. Of these the superior class were
called ulubalang, and the inferior amba-raja, who were entirely devoted
to his service and resembled the janizaries of Constantinople. Two
hundred horsemen nightly patrolled the grounds about the castle, the
inner courts and apartments of which were guarded by three thousand
women. The king's eunuchs amounted to five hundred.

The disposition of this monarch was cruel and sanguinary. A multitude of
instances are recorded of the horrible barbarity of his punishments, and
for the most trivial offences. He imprisoned his own mother and put her
to the torture, suspecting her to have been engaged in a conspiracy
against him with some of the principal nobles, whom he caused to be
executed. He murdered his nephew, the king of Johor's son, of whose
favour with his mother he was jealous. He also put to death a son of the
king of Bantam, and another of the king of Pahang, who were both his near
relations. None of the royal family survived in 1622 but his own son, a
youth of eighteen, who had been thrice banished the court, and was
thought to owe his continuance in life only to his surpassing his father,
if possible, in cruelty, and being hated by all ranks of people. He was
at one time made king of Pidir but recalled on account of his excesses,
confined in prison and put to strange tortures by his father, whom he did
not outlive. The whole territory of Achin was almost depopulated by wars,
executions, and oppression. The king endeavoured to repeople the country
by his conquests. Having ravaged the kingdoms of Johor, Pahang, Kedah,
Perak, and Dilli, he transported the inhabitants