3*2 
S U M A T R A. 
llijlory of the kingdom of Acheen and the countries adjacent^ from 
the period of their difcovery by EurofeansJ^ 
The Portugtitfe, nnder the condud of Vafco de Gam a, doubled the 
Cape of Good Hope in the year 1497, and arrived on the coafl of Ma- 
labar in the following year. Thefe people, whom the fpirit of glory, 
commerce, and plunder, led to the moft magnanimous undertakings, 
were not fo entirely engaged by their conquefts on the continent of In- 
doflan, but that they turned their idea to the difcovery of regions yet 
more dlftant* They learned from the merchants of Guzerat feme ac* 
count of the riches and importance of Malacca^ a great trading city in 
the farthcr peninfula of India, fuppofed by them the golden Cherfonefus 
of Ftolomey. Intelligence of this was tranfmitted to their enterprizing 
fovereign, Emanuel, who became impreffed with a ftrong defire to avail 
himfelf of the flattering advantages which this celebrated country held 
out to his ambition. He equipped a fleet of four fhips under the cooi- 
mand of Diogo Lopez Sequeira, which failed from Liibon on the eighth 
1508. day of April 1 508, with orders to explore, and eJlablifh connexions in 
thofe eaflern parts of Afia. After touching at Madagafcar, Sequeira 
proceeded to Cochin, where a fhip was added to his fleet, and departing 
1509, from thence on the eighth of September 1 509, he made fail towards 
Malacca ; but having doubled the extreme promontory of Sumatra (then 
called Tabrobane) he anchored at Pcdeer^^ a principal port in thatifland^ 
* A regularly conneilfd detail tt i* iinpoflible to furniih from the imperfeft and obfcure ac- 
counts which hav* beea handed down to us of the tranfa£iions of this part of the world j but yet 
it will not be cfleemed a labor quite ufelcfs and unfatisfaflory, thus to coJkG and arrange in the 
order of their dates, the many eventSj more or lefs detached^ which liiltodam and navigttors have 
recorded in their writing*. ^ 
+ Pidier and Fafi^ were anciently the places of mod importance in this part of Sumatra. The 
power of the former, which had been predominant, was beginning to decline about the period of 
the Portuguufe difcovery, and that of F^fqy to gain the afcctidency, De Barioi. Mention is 
made of Pideer by Ludovkus Vartomannus, who wrote fomc year* pfevious to this time, and had 
hitnfclf vifittd ir. The writers whofe accounts I chiefly follow in this early part of the hiftory, 
arc De Barros and Oforius. 
in 
