732 THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF MALACCA. 
account given of the place in 1503 ? Judging from that account, the 
probability is that Malacca was then a nest of pirates and lawless iria- 
rauders under a nominal government, and that Albuquerque, seeing 
the advantage they derived from their position, determined to ex¬ 
terminate them and substitute the more powerful command of his 
own country. The Malays however would not put up quietly with 
the intrusion of the Europeans in their country, and for upwards of 
a century their efforts were unceasing to regain possession of Ma¬ 
lacca. Common cause seems to have been made by all the Ma¬ 
layan states to effect this object, but without success, though on one 
or two occasions they seem to have been on the very point of suc¬ 
ceeding and the place to have been relieved by the merest chance. 
During the latter half of the 16th. century the Acliinese seem to 
have been the leading Malayan state, and the accounts that are given 
of the armaments fitted out by them against Malacca, (vide Marsden’s 
History) would lead to the belief that Aclieen was a very rich and 
powerful kingdom, but great allowance must be made for the exag¬ 
gerations of native Writers and for the credulity of Europeans in these 
times. 
That Malacca withstood many sieges during the rule of the Por¬ 
tuguese is no doubt very true, and that some fighting may have ta¬ 
ken place on these occasions outside the walls, is probable, but that 
any attempt was ever made to batter or to storm the walls or in¬ 
trench ments, I do not believe. Such a mode of fighting does not 
accord with Malayan ideas, and is never found mentioned in their 
writings. 
The Portuguese rule seems to have been confined within a very 
small circle round their Fort, nor do we hear of any attempt being 
ever made by them to extend their dominions, yet one might sup¬ 
pose that Albuquerque’s genius, suppported by 700 Europeans, 
would have found no difficulty in obtaining the absolute rule over 
any extent of country he might have desired in these parts. But no 
doubt he was content with the command of the sea, and thought the 
land not worth the conquest. 
In 1640 the Dutch, as allies of the Malays of Johore, drove the 
Portuguese out of Malacca and retained possession of it themselves, 
from which time to the present we hear no more of sieges and block¬ 
ades of the place, yet the Dutch, or indeed any European power of 
those days, could hardly have found more favour in native eyes than 
the Portuguese. It may have been that they lost no time after oh- 
