It Grows Like Hops,
From A Planted Root, Winding About A Stake Set To Support It, Till It
Grows Like
A great bushy tree, whence the pepper hangs in small
clusters, three inches long, and an inch about, each cluster
Having
forty pepper-corns; and it yields as great increase as mustard-seed. At
Acheen they are able to load twenty ships every year, and might supply
more, if the people were industrious. The whole country resembles a
pleasure-garden, the air being temperate and wholesome, having every
morning a fruitful dew, or small rain. The harbour of Acheen is very
small, having only six feet water on the bar, at which there is a stone
fort, the ramparts of which are covered or flanked with battlements, all
very low, and very despicable. In front of this fort is an excellent
road, or anchoring ground for ships, the wind being, always off shore,
so that a ship may ride safely a mile from the shore, in eighteen
fathoms, and close in, in six and four fathoms.
In this country there are elephants, horses, buffaloes, oxen, and goats,
with many wild-hogs. The land has plenty of mines of gold and copper,
with various gums, balsams, many drugs, and much indigo. Its precious
stones are rubies, sapphires, and garnets; but I know not whether they
are found there, or are brought from other places. It has likewise most
excellent timber for building ships. The city of Acheen,[39] if such it
may be called, is very spacious, and is built in a wood, so that the
houses are not to be seen till we are close upon them; neither could we
go into any place but we found houses and a great concourse of people,
so that the town seems to spread over the whole land. Their houses are
raised on posts, eight feet or better from the ground, leaving free
passage under them, the walls and roofs being only of mats, the poorest
and weakest things that can be conceived. I saw three great
market-places, which were every day crowded like fairs, with all kinds
of commodities exposed for sale.
[Footnote 39: This place, called likewise Achin and Achien by Davis,
is commonly called Achen; but in the letters from the king to Queen
Elizabeth, which will be mentioned in the sequel it is called
Ashi. - Astl. I. 259. b.]
The king, called Sultan Aladin, is said to be an hundred years old, yet
is a lively man, exceedingly gross and fat. In his young days he was a
fisherman, of which there are many in this place, as they live mostly on
fish. Going to the wars with the former king, he shewed himself so
valiant and discreet in ordering the king's gallies, that he acquired
the royal favour so much as to be appointed admiral of all the
sea-force, in which he conducted himself so valiantly and wisely, that
the king gave him one of his nearest kinswomen to wife. The king had an
only daughter, whom he married to the king of Johor, by whom she had a
son, who was sent to Acheen to be brought up as heir to his grandfather.
The king who now is, being commander in chief by sea and land, the old
king died suddenly; on which the present king took the child under his
guardianship, against which the nobility protested: but, as he had the
command of the whole armed force, he maintained his point, putting to
death more than a thousand of the nobles, raised the rascal people to be
new lords, and made new laws. Finally, the young prince was murdered,
and he proclaimed himself king, in right of his wife; on which there
arose great wars between him and the king of Johor, which continue to
this day. He has held the kingdom by force these twenty years, and seems
now secure in his usurped and ill-got power.
The king's court, or residence, is situated upon the river, about half a
mile from the city, having three inclosures, and guards, before any one
can come to him, and a wide green between each guarded inclosure. His
house is built like all the rest, but much higher, so that he can see,
from where he sits, all that come to any of his guards, yet no one can
see him. The walls and covering of his house are made of mats, which
are sometimes hung with cloth of gold, sometimes with velvet, and at
other times with damask. He sits on the ground, cross-legged, like a
tailor, and so must all do who are admitted into his presence. He always
wears four crisses, two before and two behind, richly ornamented with
diamonds and rubies, and has a sword lying in his lap. He is attended by
at least forty women; some with fans to cool him, some with cloths to
wipe off sweat, others to serve him with aquavitae or water, and the
rest to sing pleasant songs. He doth nothing all day but eat and drink,
there being no end of banqueting from morning till night; and, when
ready to burst, he eats areka betula[40], which is a fruit like a
nutmeg, wrapped in a leaf like tobacco, with sharp-chalk [lime] made
of the shells of pearl oysters. Chewing these ingredients makes the
spittle very red, causes a great, flow of saliva, and occasions a great
appetite; it also makes the teeth very black, and the blacker they are
is considered as so much the more fashionable. Having recovered his
appetite by this means, he returns again to banqueting. By way of
change, when his belly is again gorged, he goes into the river to bathe,
where he has a place made on purpose, and gets a fresh appetite by being
in the water. He, with his women and great men, do nothing but eat,
drink, and talk of venery; so that, if the poets have any truth, then is
this king the great Bacchus, for he practises all the ceremonies of
gluttony.
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