this juncture the
king appeared at the head of eight hundred or a thousand men, and six
elephants. A desperate conflict ensued, in which the Portuguese received
considerable injury. Brito sent orders for the party he had left to come
up, and endeavoured to retreat to the fort, but he found himself so
situated that it could not be executed without much loss, and presently
after he received a wound from an arrow through the cheeks. No assistance
arriving, it was proposed that they should retire in the best manner they
could to their boats; but this Brito would not consent to, preferring
death to flight, and immediately a lance pierced his thighs, and he fell
to the ground. The Portuguese, rendered desperate, renewed the combat
with redoubled vigour, all crowding to the spot where their commander
lay, but their exertions availed them nothing against such unequal force,
and they only rushed on to sacrifice. Almost every man was killed, and
among these were near fifty persons of family who had embarked as
volunteers. Those who escaped belonged chiefly to the corps-de-reserve,
who did not, or could not, come up in time to succour their unfortunate
companions. Upon this merited defeat the squadron immediately weighed
anchor, and, after falling in with two vessels bound on the discovery of
the Ilhas d'Ouro, arrived at Pase, where they found Alboquerque employed
in the construction of his fortress, and went with him to make an attack
on Bintang.

STATE OF ACHIN IN 1511.

At the period when Malacca fell into the hands of the Portuguese Achin
and Daya are said by the historians of that nation to have been provinces
subject to Pidir, and governed by two slaves belonging to the sultan of
that place, to each of whom he had given a niece in marriage. Slaves, it
must be understood, are in that country on a different footing from those
in most other parts of the world, and usually treated as children of the
family. Some of them are natives of the continent of India, whom their
masters employ to trade for them; allowing them a certain proportion of
the profits and permission to reside in a separate quarter of the city.
It frequently happened also that men of good birth, finding it necessary
to obtain the protection of some person in power, became voluntary slaves
for this purpose, and the nobles, being proud of such dependants,
encouraged the practice by treating them with a degree of respect, and in
many instances they made them their