Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra17181886roya).pdf/241

 The island of Sunda is divided on the south from Java by a very narrow channel. It produces pale gold with abun- dance of pepper and provision. The natives are numerous but unwarlike, yet are curious in adorning their arms. They worship idols, and often sell their children to supply their necessities. The women are beautiful, those of the higher ranks being chaste, contrary to what is usual in most parts of the world. They have convents as in Spain and Portugal, in which they reside while virgins; and the married women kill themselves on the death of their husbands. This would be a good custom to show their duty and affection, were it not contrary to the law of nature, and therefore a barbarous error. ENRIQUE SEME happening to go there, drawn by the plenty and goodness of its peppers, was well received by the king SAMIAM, who offered ground for a fort, and to pay a yearly tribute of 351 quintals of pepper to purchase the friendship and support of the Portuguese against the Moors, by whom he was much infested. But when FRANCISCO DE SA came to build the fort, he met with such opposi- tion from the Moors that he was obliged to return to Malacca.

We find afterwards that in the year 1571 another attempt was made by the Moors to wrest Malacca from the power of the Portuguese. The king of Acheen was one of the Indian princes who had entered into the grand confederacy against the Portuguese, and had agreed to lay siege to Malacca, but did not execute his part of the league till about the middle of October 1571, when he appeared before Malacca with a fleet near 100 sail, in which he had 7,000 soldiers, with a large train of artillery and a vast quantity of ammunition. Landing on the night of his arrival, he set fire to the town of Ileer, which was saved from total destruction by a sudden and violent shower of rain. He next endeavoured to burn the Portuguese ships in the harbour, but failing in this and some minor enterprizes, he sat down before the city, intending to take it by a regular siege, having been disap- pointed in his expectations of carrying it by a coup de main.