positively appear, but there is reason
to believe that he was her brother. When he had reigned a little more
than two years it pleased God (as the Annals express it) to afflict him
with a distemper which caused his feet and hands to contract (probably
the gout) and disqualified him for the performance of his religious
duties.

1702.

Under these circumstances he was induced to resign the government in
1702, and died about a month after his abdication.

Perkasa-alum, a priest, found means by his intrigues to acquire the
sovereignty, and one of his first acts was to attempt imposing certain
duties on the merchandise imported by English traders, who had been
indulged with an exemption from all port charges excepting the
established complimentary presents upon their arrival and receiving the
chap or licence. This had been stipulated in the treaty made by Sir James
Lancaster, and renewed by Mr. Grey when chief of the Company's factory.
The innovation excited an alarm and determined opposition on the part of
the masters of ships then at the place, and they proceeded (under the
conduct of Captain Alexander Hamilton, who published an account of his
voyage in 1727) to the very unwarrantable step of commencing hostilities
by firing upon the villages situated near the mouth of the river, and
cutting off from the city all supplies of provisions by sea. The
inhabitants, feeling severely the effects of these violent measures, grew
clamorous against the government, which was soon obliged to restore to
these insolent traders the privileges for which they contended.

1704.

Advantage was taken of the public discontents to raise an insurrection in
favour of the nephew of the late queen, or, according to the Annals, the
son of Beder al-alum (who was probably her brother), in the event of
which Perkasa-alum was deposed about the commencement of the year 1704,
and after an interregnum or anarchy of three months continuance, the
young prince obtained possession of the throne, by the name of Jemal
al-alum. From this period the native writers furnish very ample details
of the transactions of the Achinese government, as well as of the general
state of the country, whose prosperous circumstances during the early
part of this king's reign are strongly contrasted with the misery and
insignificance to which it was reduced by subsequent events. The causes
and progress of this political decline cannot be more satisfactorily set
forth than in a