The Aohinese prince in question was the correspondent of our King James the
First, and his letter in reply to the peace-loving monarch’s epistle is to be found in
Purehas. Here is a sample: “ This great king sendeth this letter of salutation to
James, King of Great Britain, viz. England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, to signify
the great content he hath received from his Highness’ letter, delivered by the hands
of Arancaya puto, Thomas Best, his Majesty’s embassadour, at the receipt whereof
his eyes were surprised with a celestial brightness and his spirits ravished with a
divine ray,—the opening whereof rendered a savour more fragrant than the most
odoriferous flowers or sweetest perfumes in the world. For which cause I the great
King of Sumatra do profess myself to be of one heart, of one mind, and of one flesh,
with the most potent King James of England, and do earnestly desire the league begun
may be oontinued to all posterity.” The style of this letter shows that it was not Malay,
and in fact, it was written in Arabic, as was the letter of King James to his brother of
Achin. Capt. Best, the ambassador of King James, was honoured by the Achinese king
with a title of nobility, viz. “ Orang-kaya-putih,” which means “ white nobleman,” and
this is the title contained in the letter as Arancaya puto.
In one of the narratives of Best’s voyage and mission, the following description is
given of the King of Achin in 1613 : “ The King of Achin is a proper gallant man of
warre, of thirty-two years, of middle size, full of spirit, strong by sea and land, his
country populous ; his elephants many, whereof we saw one hundred sixty, or one hundred
eighty at a time. His gallies and frigates carry in them very good brasse ordnance,
demi-eannon, culverine, sakar, minion, &c. &e. His building is stately and spacious,
though not strong; his court at Achen pleasant, having a goodly branch of the main
river about and through his palace, which branch he cut and brought, six or eight
miles off, in twenty days, while we continued at Achen. . . He (the king) desired the
general (Captain Best) to commend him to the King of England, and to entreat him
to send him two white women. For,” said he, “ if I beget one of them with child,
and it prove a sonne, I will make him King of Priaman, Passaman, and of the coast
from whence you fetch your pepper; so that you shall not need to eome any more to
me, but to your own English king for these commodities.” The pious and moral
English monarch would hardly have approved of the project of bigamy contained in
the last sentence of this extract, and more especially when coming from a confirmed
tobacco-smoker, which the Indian prince was, even in this early period of the Asiatic
history of the plant; for the narrative tells us that “ hee all this while” (during a
festival of six hours’ continuance) “ drinkes tobacco in a silver pipe, given by his
women, which are in a close roome behind him.”
The English made their first appearance at Achin in 1602, with a squadron of four
merchant-ships, under the command of Sir James Lancaster, who was furnished with
a letter from Queen Elizabeth to the king. The reigning monarch had been a fisherman,
and by his talents and skill had raised himself to the command of the forces.
On the demise of his sovereign and the accession to the throne of his grandson, he
became his guardian,—put his ward to death, and ascended the vacant throne. The
common enmity of the Queen of England and King of Achin to the Portuguese
assured to Lancaster a most favourable reception. The Queen’s letter is given, and is
highly complimentary to her royal brother, the fisherman, while it is full of excellent
sense. “We for them” (the East India Company) “ do promise, that in no time hereafter
you shall have cause to repent thereof, but rather to rejoice much, for their
dealing shall be true, and their conversation sure, and we hope that they will give
such good proofe thereof that this beginning shall be a perpetual confirmation of love
betwixt our subjects on both parts, by carrying from us such things and merchandise,
as you have need of there. So that your Highness shall be very well served, and
better contented than you have heretofore been with the Portugals and Spaniards
our enemies, who only and none else of these regions have frequented those your and
the other kingdoms of the East; not suffering that the other nations should do it,
pretending themselves to be monarchs, and absolute lords of all those kingdoms and
provinces, as their own conquest and inheritance, as appeareth by their lofty titles in
their writings. The contrary whereof hath very lately appeared unto us, and that
your Highness and your royal family, fathers and grandfathers, have, by the grace of
God and their valour, knowD, not only to defend your own kingdoms, but also to
give war unto the Portugals in the lands which they possess, as namely, in Malacca,
in the year of the human redemption 1575, under the conduct of your valiant captain,
Ragamacota” (Raja Makuta, two Sanscrit words, long naturalised in Malay, meaning
“ prince” and “ tiara”) “with their great loss and the perpetual honour of your Highness’
crown and kingdom. And now, if your Highness shall be pleased to accept into your
favour and grace, and under your royal protection and defence, those our subjects,
that they may freely do their business now and continue yearly hereafter, this bearer
who goeth chief of the fleet of four ships, hath order, with your Highness’ license, to
leave certain factors with a settled house of factory in your kingdom, until the going
thither of another fleet which shall go thither on the return of this,—which left
factors shall learn the language and customs of your subjects, whereby the better and
more lovingly to converse with them.”
A curious scene is enacted at the ambassador’s audience of leave, which is thus
related: “ And when the general took his leave, the king saith unto him, ‘ Have you
the Psalms of David among you!’ The general answered, ‘Yea, and we sing them
daily.’ ‘Then,’said the king, ‘I and the rest of these nobles about me will sing a
psalm to God for your prosperity,’ and so they did very solemnly. And after it was
ended, the king said, ‘ I would have you sing another psalm, although in your own
language.’ So, there being in the company some twelve of us, we sang another psalm.
And after the psalm ended, the general took his leave of the king, the king shewing
him much kindness at his departure, desiring God to bless us in our journey, and to
guide us safely into our own country, saying, that if hereafter your ships return to
this port, you shall find as good usage as you have done.” It is to be noticed that
not only the intercourse of the English mission, but the correspondence of the two
sovereigns, was carried on in the Arabic language by means of a Jew interpreter
brought by Sir James Lancaster with him from England.
Such was the first humble appearance of our nation in India, and such the condition
of the kingdom of Achin in the first years of the seventeenth century. Two hundred
and fifty years have wrought a wonderful change. The successor of Queen Elizabeth
is mistress of India with its hundred and fifty millions of people, and the successors
of the merchants for whom she besought protection are her delegates in its administration,
while the reigning King of Achin is the son of a mestizo Arab, a subject of
Queen Yictoria, and called to the throne on account of the wealth acquired by his
father under British protection in the small out-settlement, Penang.
The rapid rise and fall of Achin deserve a few observations. Its territory was
small, and its soil more sterile than fertile, so that it must have owed its prosperity
almost wholly to commerce. Its published laws are liberal, but these, judging by the
results, must also have been administered in a manner to insure a tolerable amount
of security to life and property, and it seems certain that the Achinese government
abstained from the common practice of Malayan states, that of monopolising in its
own hands all foreign trade. The probability is, that the large number of Arabs and
Indians settled among the Achinese contributed in some degree to liberalise their
commercial policy. The whole foreign trade of the subdued neighbouring states
came to centre in Achin, which must also have benefited largely by the violence of
the Portuguese, which drove trade from Malacca. That the trade was large for the
times, is at all events certain. In 1603, Sir James Lancaster informs us that he
found in the roads from sixteen to eighteen ships of divers nations, some from Gujrat,
some from Bengal, some from Calicut and other ports of Malabar, and some from
Pegu and the eastern coast of the Malay peninsula. Eighty-five years later Dampier
says, that the roads are “ seldom without ten or fifteen sail of ships of several
nations,” and that from ten to twelve Chinese junks came yearly to Achin. “ This
town,” says he, “ consists of 7000 or 8000 houses, and in it there are a great many
merchant strangers, viz., English, Dutch, Danes, Portuguese, Chinese, Gusrats, &c. &c.
The houses of this city are generally larger than those I saw at Mindano and better
furnished with household goods. The city has no walls, nor so much as a ditch about
it. It has a great number of mosques, generally square-built and covered with
pantile, but neither high nor large. The queen has a large palace here, built handsomely
with stone, but I could not get into the inside of it.” According to Dam pier’s
statement the town of Achin must have contained in 1688 forty-five or fifty thousand
inhabitants, a number at least equal to the whole of the present population of the
principality.
Nearly all this has disappeared. No doubt the violence and injustice of the paramount
European governments, the Dutch and English, in their efforts to establish
their respective monopolies, contributed largely to the decay of Achin; but the main
cause has been the disorder and anarchy inherent in the government of an essentially
barbarous people, whose fits of prosperity must be always inconstant and ephemeral,
r or a century and a half, the country was exhausted by ware and expeditions wholly
disproportion ed to the resources of so small a state. The extent of anarchy which
pievailed is shown in a few words by the short duration of the reigns of its princes.