and
of Diogo Pacheco, an experienced seaman, were sent in order to make the
discovery of them. Having proceeded as far as Daya the brigantine was
lost in a gale of wind. Pacheco stood on to Barus, a place renowned for
its gold trade, and for gum benzoin of a peculiar scent, which the
country produced. It was much frequented by vessels, both from the
neighbouring ports in the island, and from those in the West of India,
whence it was supplied with cotton cloths. The merchants, terrified at
the approach of the Portuguese, forsook their ships and fled
precipitately to the shore. The chiefs of the country sent to inquire the
motives of his visit, which he informed them were to establish friendly
connexions and to give them assurances of unmolested freedom of trade at
the city of Malacca. Refreshments were then ordered for his fleet, and
upon landing he was treated with respect by the inhabitants, who brought
the articles of their country to exchange with him for merchandise. His
chief view was to obtain information respecting the situation and other
circumstances of the ilhas d'Ouro, but they seemed jealous of imparting
any. At length, after giving him a laboured detail of the dangers
attending the navigation of the seas where they were said to lie, they
represented their situation to be distant a hundred leagues to the
south-east of Barus, amidst labyrinths of shoals and reefs through which
it was impossible to steer with any but the smallest boats. If these
islands, so celebrated about this time, existed anywhere but in the
regions of fancy,* they were probably those of Tiku, to which it is
possible that much gold might be brought from the neighbouring country of
Menangkabau. Pacheco, leaving Barus, proceeded to the southward, but did
not make the wished-for discovery. He reached the channel that divides
Sumatra from Java, which he called the strait of Polimban, from a city he
erroneously supposed to lie on the Javan shore, and passing through this
returned to Malacca by the east; being the first European who sailed
round the island of Sumatra. In the following year he sailed once more in
search of these islands, which were afterwards the object of many
fruitless voyages; but touching again at Barus he met with resistance
there and perished with all his companions.

(*Footnote. Linschoten makes particular mention of having seen them, and
gives practical directions for the navigation, but the golden dreams of
the Portugues