168 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



PElGI ACHEH. 

 ( The Achinese Well. ) 



The above is a small well, about four and a half feet deep, in the. 

 rocks on the sea-shore of the south coast of Johor, not far from 

 Pulau Nanas, which lies in the Johor Straits behind Pulau tlbin, 

 as seen from Changi on the N. E. coast of Singapore. 



One tradition relates that the Achinese, when withdrawing from 

 Johor after their attack on it, threw a stone into this well, declar- 

 ing that they would return when it floated. 



Some accounts attribute the making of the well to the Achinese 

 themselves, and it is quite likely they did make it, for the place is 

 near the mouth of the Johor river, and it is an historical fact that 

 they took Johor (Johor Lama?), after a siege of twenty-nine 

 days, in June, 1613, capturing and slaying at the same time some 

 Dutch who happened to be there in a ship.* 



Another tradition in connection with this subject is of a pa- 

 triotic but not historic order, and is to the following effect. 



When the Achinese invaded the country, the pendent spear-like 

 fruit of the countless mangroves which fringe the coast were turned 

 by some invisible and friendly power, into spears, and hurled them- 

 selves against the enemy in such prodigious and unceasing showers, 

 that the latter were soon convinced of the impracticability of their 

 enterprise, and withdrew from a country so formidably protected. 



D. P. A. H. 



Kerr's Voyages, vol. VIII., p. 452. 



