264 THE DUTCH IN PERAK. 
duct of the Dutch. When the King heard it, he kept silence and was wrath 
against the Dutch, and the King said : ‘I will not deliver that tin or permit it 
‘to be sent down to Kuala Bidor. If they are determined to quarrel, we will 
‘fight, for they have fired upon our Chiefs, just as if they were bent upon testing 
‘our manhood.’ His Highness then directed men to go and look after 
the Datoh Mantri at Kuala Bidor, but they did not find him at the jetty, 
and word was brought to the King that the Datoh Mantri was lostas his boat 
could not be found. When the King heard this, his wrath against the Dutch 
was increased so much the more, and he ordered his Chiefs and people to be 
assembled. Then the Raja Bandahara and all the Chiefs discussed the subject 
of the anger of the King against the Dutch, for they feared trouble to the 
country. 
As for the Datoh Mantri, after his return to the jetty he had paddled up 
the Bidor river and had then taken his boat into a paddy-field covered with 
brushwood and had hidden himself there from the Dutchmen. On the 
next day, as soon as the tide made, he come out of the paddy-field and pad- 
pled up-stream to Pulo Indra Sakti, and went before the King and gave his 
account of the behaviour of the Dutch. This made the King more and more 
incensed against them 
The Laksamana was coming up the river from Tanjong Putus with all the 
warriors of that place, and when he reached Kuala Bidor he stopped at the 
Dutch sloop. The Dutchmen had heard that the King was incensed with 
them because they had fired on the Shahbandar and Mantri, and they were 
very much afraid of him, so when the Laksamana came off to the sloop, they 
told him of the whole occurrence. Said they: ‘The shot was fired at a 
‘monkey up in a tree, but it happened to be in the direction of the Shahban- 
‘dar. In this the fault lay with us white men and we can only sue for the 
‘Yang diper Tuan’s pardon, but if he were to killus we could not blame 
‘him.’ The Laksamana duly represented to the King the state of fear in 
which the Dutch were. When the King heard it he kept silent, but his 
wrath was a little softened. And the Raja Bandahara took counsel with 
the Chiefs and the Laksamana with the view of averting the possibility of 
danger to the country, and they begged the King for permission to take about 
one hundred bharas of tin down to Kuala Bidor and to send it on board 
the ketch. The King granted the tin and directed the Laksamana to take 
it down the river to the Dutch accompanied by; the Bandahara, warriors, 
princes, etc., who were to wait at Kota Lumut while the Laksamana stamped 
the tin. This was settled, the tin was brought out of the store (gédong), about 
200 bharas, and was loaded in a number of boats, and the Laksamana set off 
down the river with the warriors, etc.* The Raja Bandahara and the Chiefs 
and Princes went down as far as Kota Lumut. After they had started, a 
thought occurred to the King and he said to himself: ‘These Dutch are full 
‘of cunning and they have been exhibiting it to me with an idea of frightening 
‘me. For this reason, I had better go down the river myself.’ Having thus de- 
termined, the King set off down the river to Kota Lumut that very night, with 
alarge number of followers and went on shore at the dalci there. The Raja 
Bandahara and the Chiefs and Princes assembled there also, and attended him 
that night. The Raja Muda was not present, for he had gone up the country 
to catch elephants. Next day Sultan IskKANDAR went down the river as far as 
Kuala Bidor. All the others followed him, but no one knew what his inten- 
* From what follows, it seems that there was some attack made upon some of 
the Dutch by Malays, but this act was disclaimed by the Raja and Chiefs, and the 
chronicler wisely gives no details of Malay misconduct. 
_—— _ 
