The State Is Governed By Five Principal Officers, His
Secretary, And Four Others, Called Sabandars, In Whom Are All The
Authority Of Government, And Who Have Inferior Officers Under Them.
The
will of the king is the law:
As there seemed to be no freemen in all the
land, the lives and properties of all being at the king's pleasure. In
punishing offenders, he makes no man happy by death, but orders their
hands and feet to be cut off, and then banishes them to an island called
Pulo Wey. When any one is condemned to die, he is either trodden to
death by elephants, or empaled. Besides those in jails, many prisoners
in fetters are seen going about the town. The king has three wives, and
many concubines, who are very closely kept, and his women are his chief
counsellors.
The king has many gallies, an hundred, as I think, some of them so large
as to carry four hundred men. These are all made like wherries, very
long, narrow, and open, without deck, forecastle, or poop, or any upper
works whatever. Instead of oars, they have paddles, about four feet
long, made like shovels, which they hold in their hands, not resting
them on the gunwales, or in row-locks, as we do. The gallies have no
ordnance; yet with these he holds all his neighbours under subjection.
His admiral is a woman, as he trusts no man with that high office. Their
weapons are bows and arrows, javelins, swords, and targets, having no
defensive armour, and fighting entirely naked.
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