SULTAN'S PALACE. 



05 



masiSilcs of some very hcavj gims protrudiug, A great 

 of the town was stockaded in a sinjilar way ; and 

 the country houses of the Datus and moimtam chiefs of 

 any importance were alec walled in, and had guns 

 mounted 



Passing through a massive gateway, pretty well flanked 

 with guns and loopholes^ wc entered a large court, in 

 which some two thousand persons were assembled, armed, 

 and in their best apparel, hut observing no sort of order r 

 it was a wild and novel sight, Malays are ill ways aimed. 

 The kris to them is what the sword was to an English 

 gentleman in tlie feudal times. Every person who, by 

 virtue of his rank or on any other pretext, could gain 

 admittance, was in attendance on this occasion ; for our 

 Rajah had become a justly celebrated man in the great 

 Eastern Archipelago, and was an object of curiosity. 



We were conducted through the crowd to a comer of 

 the com"t-yard, wlicro a huildiiigj inferior to a small 

 English barn, was pointed out m the Sultan's palace. 

 We entered it by a flight of broad wooden steps (for the 

 palace was raised on piles), through a narrow passage 

 thronged with guards, — and we found ourselves in the 

 royal presence. 



The audience-chamber was not very large : a table, 

 covered with green cloth, ran across the centre of it ; 

 above the table, and round the upper end of the room, 

 sat a very brilliant semicircle of personages, the Sultan 

 occupying a raised scat in the middle. The corti^e 



