THE DUTCH IN PERAK. 263 
The next extract from the “ Misal Malayn” is subsequent in 
date to the making of the treaty :— 
“Again there came an embassy from Batavia in three sloops, and when they 
arrived, they cast anchor off the fort. The head of the mission was ARIFIN 
ALBARAK who held the office of Commissary. He went up the river and 
was presented to the King at Kota Lumut by the Laksamana, the Shahban lar, 
and the writer Sri Dewa Raja. He brought a letter and presents in accord- 
ance with ancient custom, and was received by the King with customary 
ceremony. His Highness at the the time was holding his Court at the balei 
at Kota Lumut, and the Raja Bandahara, the Chiefs, the young princes and 
the officers and people were in attendance and everything was arranged and 
ordained in the time-honoured way. The purport of the letter was to ask for 
some tin, with a request that it might be sent down the river to be weighed. 
This demand did not meet with the King’s approval, but the Raja Bandahara 
and the Chiefs suggested Kuala Bidor as a convenient place at which the tin 
might be weighed. The King then*directed them to build a balei at Tanjong 
Bidor, and a shed for weighing tin in. When the dalci and jetty and a weigh- 
ing shed were completed, the Raja Bandahara went up the river and saw the 
King at Pulo Indra Sakti. The Datoh Mantri and the Shahbandar were left 
in charge of the ba/ci, off which the Dutch ketch and sloop were lying. The 
Shahbandar used to go backwards and forwards between his own house and 
the balci at Kuala Bidor. One day as the Shahbandar was going up the river 
in a boat, on his way from his house to join the Datoh Mantri, he passed close 
by the sloop. The Captain hailed him and told him to come alongside the- 
ketch. This the Shahbandar would not do, but paddied on to join the Datoh 
Mantri at the dalci, cailing back as he went: ‘Il am not going to stop: if 
‘there is any business about which the Captain wants to see me, let us go up to. 
‘the balci where the Datoh Mantri is.. When the Captain saw that the Shah- 
bandar would not stop, he was angry and he ordered his sailors to follow with 
a boat, so no sooner had the Shahbandar reached the da/ei than the Duich sail- 
ors arrived there too with orders from their Captain tosummon him. They 
tried to make him go with them saying: ‘ Datoh Shahbandar, why would not you 
‘stop at the ketch just now and see the Captain ? Do you suppose that we have 
‘gota tiger in her?’ The Shahbandar replied: ‘It is true that I would not stop. 
‘and that there is no tiger on board. Is not the balci the better place of the two » 
‘I think so, and so I would not go alongside the ketch.’ The sailors wanted to: 
force him to go and see their Captain, but the Shahbandar would not go, for he 
Was a ereat warrior and was ashamed to submit to the dictation of the 
infidel Hollanders, besides which the Datoh Mantri would not permit him to go. 
This being so, they went back and told their Captain, who became exceedingly 
angry and told his gunner to fire a gun to frighten them. 
To return to the Shahbandarand Mantri. When the Dutch sailors had taken 
their departure, the Shahbandar said to the Mantri: ‘ We had better leave this 
‘quickly lest the Dutchmen return,’ so the prahu of the Mantri and the sampan 
of the Shahbandar set off from the jetty. Just after the Shahbandar left the 
jetty and had gota little past Tanjong Bidor, the Dutch fired a gun, and both the. 
Chiefs saw that a ball passed near the prahu. The Shahbandar said: ‘it seems 
‘that these Dutchmen are firing at us with ball.’ Said the Mantri: ‘ Let us stop.’ 
The Shahbandar said: ‘We had better go back to the jetty where we can get 
‘cover,’ so they returned to the jetty, a good deal startled by the cannon-ball 
which they had seen. 
As soon as it was night the Shahbandar returned up the river and presented 
himself before the King at Pulo Indra Sakti and told him all about the con- 
