Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/99

 THE PROGRESS OF DUTCH CONQUESTS 69 the Portuguese, whose Eastern capital, Malacca, dom- inated the opposite coast. When the Dutch grew strong and the Achin raja, fearing the results of their suc- cess, began to give trouble, he found his dependent chiefdoms and islets had themselves entered into sep- arate engagements with Holland acknowledging her sovereignty, and securing to her the privileges of exclu- sive trade. From the year 1688 onward, and even be- fore that date, the Dutch treaties with the Sumatra minor chiefs pledged them to hostility against the King of Achin. On the opposite coast of the Malay Peninsula the Dutch took even more effective measures. The keys to the passage on the northern side were Portuguese Malacca, about two-thirds down the straits, and the native kingdom of Johor, at their exit near the eastern point of the Malay Peninsula. In the early days of the Dutch Company, Malacca, the Eastern capital of Portu- guese Asia, could defy any Protestant fleet unless aided by a native land power. So in 1606 the Dutch made a compact with Johor to seize Malacca; Holland to keep the town and fortress, Johor to have the adjacent territory, and all captured property to be divided be- tween them. From this time onward the Dutch could attack Malacca with the help of the Achin fleet from Sumatra on the northwest and of the Johor levies from the east. It was only their unstable relations with these native states that deferred the final fall of the Portu- guese headquarters in the Far East to Holland in 1641. In that year the country around Malacca also abjured