The EXPEDITION of Commodore Beaulieu Book I. 
544 
There is another Court, in which the Cady or Bpiop 
prefides, that takes Cognizance of all Infringements upon 
their Religion. In the Alfandague likewife there is a Bali 
for determining Differences among, Merchants, whether 
Natives or Foreigners, the Prefident of which is the Oran- 
kay Laxemane , who in a manner governs the whole City. 
In this Alfandague they keep an exaCt Account of all the 
Cuftoms, Gifts, Fines, and Commodities belonging to the 
King, with a particular Lift of all the Perfons Names that 
buy of the King, or pay the Duty, or make him Pre- 
fents, to the end they may be capable to give his'Majefty 
a fatisfadlory Account how every Thing is difpofed of ; 
for if their Accounts be perplexed they can expedl nothing 
but Death. Befides thefe, there are four Officers called 
Pangoulow Cavalo, who take Cognizance of all Things 
done in the Night-Time, fuch as running the Goods with- 
out paying the Duty, Robberies, &c. Each of thefe has a 
quarter of the City under his Jurifdidrion. Farther, each 
of the Orankays hath a Province or Country-DiftriCb under 
his Jurifdidtion, where he gives Orders, and adminifters 
Juftice to the Inhabitants. 
Some of the principal Orankays refiding near the City, 
are obliged to give Orders for a Watch of two hundred 
Horfe that patrolls every Night in the Country and along 
the Shore. As for the Caftle, or King’s Palace, the inner 
Part is filled with three thoufand Women, which he keeps 
partly for a Guard, and partly for other Ufes. Thefe 
Women come feldom out of the Caftle. They have a 
Market-place of their own, and traffick with one another 
in fuch Manufactures as they make. They are ranged 
under feveral Captains, and have their Civil-Judges, and 
Night-Officers as well as the City. None are allowed to 
enter into their Apartments but the King’s Eunuchs, who 
are faid to be in Number about five hundred. Befides 
thefe the King has a great many Wives and Concubines ; 
and of thefe his Wives,, twenty are the lawful Daughters of 
the King’s whom he has pillaged. The laft Wife that he 
had by fuch Means was the Queen of Pera , who is faid to 
be very handfonie, and from whom he contracted a Dif- 
eafe that is likely to carry him off, unlefs the Vigour of 
his Age, which is now in its Prime, be able to overcome 
it. 
By all thefe Wives- he has but one Son of eighteen Years 
of Age, who is yet more cruel than himfelf. This Prince 
has only the Quality of a fimple Orankay, and is always 
confined to the Caftle, except when he goes to the Mofque, 
and then he has a pompous Retinue. Some time ago his 
Father gave him the Inveftitureof the Kingdom of Pedir ; 
but his Government was fo cruel and licentious, that the 
King called him home and put him to ftrange Torments ; 
from which Time he hath ftill kept him with himfelf. In 
the great Court, where the King’s Apartments are, the 
Eunuchs keep guard *, befides which there are a Guard of 
an hundred and fifty Slaves at one Gate, and another of 
the like Number at the outer Gate of all. Thefe Slaves 
are moftly Foreigners taken in young, and bred up in the 
Exercife of Arms and Shooting. They are confined with- 
in the Caftle, and allowed to converfe with no body *, fo 
that the King makes ufe of them to over-awe his own Sub- 
jects, and fright them from treafonable Defigns. All the 
Punifhrnents inflicted in the Caftle are put in Execution by 
thefe Slaves. 
To put the Orankays in the Cuftody of thofe Slaves, he 
ranges them in three Companies, one of which is obliged to 
keep Guard in the Caftle Day and Night, without Arms, 
in a Court furrounded by Slaves ; fo that every third 
'Night every Nobleman comes upon Guard and if any 
fufpicious Plot fhould be difcovered, the King has always 
a third Part of his Nobility in his Hands. If any of the 
Orankays fail to obferve the third Night, he undergoes the 
Lofs of his Life,- together with the Confifcation of his 
Goods, Wives, Children and Slaves. The Orankays dare 
not converfe familiarly, or have frequent Interviews one 
with another, for the King fufpeCts ail Familiarity among 
them ; fo that they never converfe together, unlefs it be up- 
on an accidental Rencounter that they falute each other with 
a great deal of Complaifance. Whenever they, or any bo- 
dy eife, enter the Caftle, they are obliged to take off 
their Sword, and put it- into the Hands of the Guard at 
the fecond Gate. ~ . 
.4 1 * The City of Achen is more like, a Village than a 
City, being an open Place without Walls, and the Caftle 
is no more fortified than any ordinary Gentleman’s Houfe. 
It has about half a League in Circumference, of an oval 
Figure, furrounded with a Ditch of twenty-five or thirty 
Foot deep and broad, the Banks of which are almoft inac- 
ceffible, by reafon of their Steepnefs and being covered by 
Thickets. Before the Caftle the Earth is call up in Banks, 
which ferves for a Wall. On the Top of this Bank there 
grows a great many large Reeds as tall as A fh- trees, and 
planted fo thick that one cannot fee through them. It is 
prefent Death for any one to touch the ieaft Branch of 
thefe Reeds ; for the King of Achen ' s Embaffador to Hol- 
land^ upon his Return home, having forgot this Order, and 
unluckily pulling off a fmall Twig, was immediately put 
to Death. Thefe Reeds enjoy a perpetual Verdure, and 
cannot be fet on Fire. I could obferve no Flanks or Baf- 
tions round the Caftle but upon the Side which faces the 
Mofque ; I faw the Beginnings of feveral Ramparts, but 
nothing yet finifhed. Before the Gates there are neither 
Ditches nor Draw-bridges, but on each Side of every Gate 
there is a Stone-wall about ten or twelve Foot high fup- 
porting a Terrafs, on which a Couple of fine Brafs- 
Guns are planted. The Gates are as high as the Wall, 
and are made of a ftrong fort of Wood, being fhut on the 
Infide with two great Crofs-bars fixed in the Wall, befides 
other Bolts. Through the Middle of the Caftle there 
paffes a fmall River, that defcends from the Mountains, 
the Water of which is very cool, and agreeable. Upon 
the Banks of this River there are Steps for People to go 
down and wafh themfelves. 
Before we come at the King’s Apartments we pafs four 
Gates, from one of which there runs a high Wall, backed 
with a Terras, with feveral Brafs-Guns upon it, within 
which, as I take it, is the King’s Arfenal. This Ram- 
part inclofes Part of a very long Court fronting of the 
Houfes, in which I have feen three hundred Elephants 
at a time. The other Part of this Court is encloled by- 
four great Pavillions, and a fort of a Stone-Rampart,, 
which commands the Terras, being fortified with a Para- 
pet. , As for the inner Part of the Caftle, I can give no 
Account of it, being denied Accefs. To conclude, the 
Fortifications of this Place are inconfiderable, but its Ave- 
nues are very difficult, for the Country about it is full of 
Rivers, Marlhes, Trees, and very clofe Thickets. Where 
the Rivers enter the Caftle, there is a Stone-Fort, confifting 
of a large Baftion, and two Courtines, with feveral Guns 
mounted upon them. Upon the Land-fide thefe Courtines 
are joined by a Rampart made of Turf, in which there is a 
Gate, but without either Ditch or Di-aw- bridge, thefe being, 
wanting to the whole Fort. The Walls both of the Baftion 
and Courtines are eighteen Foot broad and twenty Foot 
high. Before this Fort the King has a Pleafure-houfe, by 
which there are feveral Fifh-ponds and pleafant Walks, 
the whole being inclofed with an Intrenchment made of 
Turf, the Breaft of which is ten or twelve Foot high, and 
moated about, where two or three thoufand Men may lie. 
Before this Intrenchment is a fmall Fort, covered with. 
Thickets, and ditched about, upon which there are feve- 
ral Pieces of Cannon. 
The Country round all thefe Forts is fo full of Marfhes,’ 
Ditches, and Trees that they call Nippiers, that it is ah 
moft impracticable to march through it. Faffing Eaft- 
ward from the Caftle along the Shore, we met with feve- 
ral little Forts of Turf, furrounded with Thickets, and 
placed at a Mufket-Ihot Diftance one from another ; on 
each of which there are two or three Pieces of Cannon, 
but fo covered with Bullies that they are not viftble. In 
thefe Forts there is no Guard by Day, but in the Night- 
Time the Horfe- watch, as before-mentioned, patroll round 
them-; the Weftern-Shore is more acceffible and defti- 
tute of Forts. About a Piftol-fhot from this Shore is at 
Canal above forty Foot broad, and very deep, that rifes 
out of the great River, and runs along the Shore to the 
Side of the Mountains. Having paffed that, we met with, 
a plain open Country, free from Ditches and Trenches, 
