From the silence of the Portuguese writers with respect to the actions of this king we have reason to conclude that he did not make any attempts to disturb their settlement of Malacca; and it even appears that some persons in the character of amba.s.sadors or agents from that power resided at Achin, the princ.i.p.al object of whose policy appears to have been that of inspiring him with jealousy and hatred of the Hollanders, who in their turn were actively exerting themselves to supplant the conquerors of India.

1600.

Towards the close of the sixteenth century they began to navigate these seas; and in June 1600 visited Achin with two ships, but had no cause to boast of the hospitality of their reception. An attempt was made to cut them off, and evidently by the orders or connivance of the king, who had prevailed upon the Dutch admiral to take on board troops and military stores for an expedition meditated, or pretended, against the city of Johor, which these ships were to bombard. Several of the crews were murdered, but after a desperate conflict in both ships the treacherous a.s.sailants were overcome and driven into the water, "and it was some pleasure (says John Davis, an Englishman, who was the princ.i.p.al pilot of the squadron) to see how the base Indians did fly, how they were killed, and how well they were drowned."* This barbarous and apparently unprovoked attack was attributed, but perhaps without any just grounds, to the instigation of the Portuguese.

(*Footnote. All the Dutchmen on sh.o.r.e at the time were made prisoners, and many of them continued in that state for several years. Among these was Captain Frederick Houtman, whose Vocabulary of the Malayan language was printed at Amsterdam in 1604, being the first that was published in Europe. My copy has the writer's autograph.)

1600.

In November 1600 Paulus van Caarden, having also the command of two Dutch ships, was received upon his landing with much ceremony; but at his first audience the king refused to read a letter from the Prince of Orange, upon its being suggested to him that instead of paper it was written on the skin of an unclean animal; and the subsequent treatment experienced by this officer was uniformly bad. It appears however that in December 1601 the king was so far reconciled to this new power as to send two amba.s.sadors to Holland, one of whom died there in August 1602, and the other returned to Achin subsequently to the death of his master.

1602.

The first English fleet that made its appearance in this part of the world, and laid the foundation of a commerce which was in time to eclipse that of every other European state, arrived at Achin in June 1602. Sir James Lancaster, who commanded it, was received by the king with abundant ceremony and respect, which seem with these monarchs to have been usually proportioned to the number of vessels and apparent strength of their foreign guests. The queen of England's letter was conveyed to court with great pomp, and the general, after delivering a rich present, the most admired article of which was a fan of feathers, declared the purpose of his coming was to establish peace and amity between his royal mistress and her loving brother, the great and mighty king of Achin. He was invited to a banquet prepared for his entertainment, in which the service was of gold, and the king's damsels, who were richly attired and adorned with bracelets and jewels, were ordered to divert him with dancing and music. Before he retired he was arrayed by the king in a magnificent habit of the country, and armed with two krises. In the present sent as a return for the queen's there was, among other matters, a valuable ruby set in a ring. Two of the n.o.bles, one of whom was the chief priest, were appointed to settle with Lancaster the terms of a commercial treaty, which was accordingly drawn up and executed in an explicit and regular manner. The Portuguese amba.s.sador, or more properly the Spanish, as those kingdoms were now united, kept a watchful and jealous eye upon his proceedings; but by bribing the spies who surrounded him he foiled them at their own arts, and acquired intelligence that enabled him to take a rich prize in the straits of Malacca, with which he returned to Achin; and, having loaded what pepper he could procure there, took his departure in November of the same year. On this occasion it was requested by the king that he and his officers would favour him by singing one of the psalms of David, which was performed with much solemnity.

Very little is known of the military transactions of this reign, and no conquest but that of Pase is recorded. He had two sons, the younger of whom he made king of Pidir, and the elder, styled Sultan Muda, he kept at Achin, in order to succeed him in the throne. In the year 1603 he resolved to divide the charge of government with his intended heir, as he found his extraordinary age began to render him unequal to the task, and accordingly invested him with royal dignity; but the effect which might have been foreseen quickly followed this measure. The son, who was already advanced in years, became impatient to enjoy more complete power, and, thinking his father had possessed the crown sufficiently long, he confined him in a prison, where his days were soon ended.

1604.

The exact period at which this event took place is not known, but, calculating from the duration of his reign as stated in the Annals, it must have been early in the year 1604.* He was then ninety-five years of age,** and described to be a hale man, but extremely gross and fat.

(*Footnote. The Dutch commander Joris van Spilbergen took leave of him in April 1603, and his amba.s.sador to Holland, who returned in December, 1604, found his son on the throne, according to Valentyn. Commodore Beaulieu says he died in 1603.)

(**Footnote. According to Beaulieu Davis says he was about a hundred; and the Dutch voyages mention that his great age prevented his ever appearing out of his palace.)

His const.i.tution must have been uncommonly vigorous, and his muscular strength is indicated by this ludicrous circ.u.mstance, that when he once condescended to embrace a Dutch admiral, contrary to the usual manners of his country, the pressure of his arms was so violent as to cause excessive pain to the person so honoured. He was pa.s.sionately addicted to women, gaming, and drink, his favourite beverage being arrack. By the severity of his punishments he kept his subjects in extreme awe of him; and the merchants were obliged to submit to more exactions and oppressions than were felt under the government of his predecessors. The seizure of certain vessels belonging to the people of Bantam and other arbitrary proceedings of that nature are said to have deterred the traders of India from entering into his ports.

The new king, who took the name of Ali Maghayat-shah, proved himself, from indolence or want of capacity, unfit to reign. He was always surrounded by his women, who were not only his attendants but his guards, and carried arms for that purpose. His occupations were the bath and the chase, and the affairs of state were neglected insomuch that murders, robberies, oppression, and an infinity of disorders took place in the kingdom for want of a regular and strict administration of justice. A son of the daughter of Ala-eddin had been a favourite of his grandfather, at the time of whose death he was twenty-three years of age, and continued, with his mother, to reside at the court after that event. His uncle the king of Achin having given him a rebuke on some occasion, he left his palace abruptly and fled to the king of Pidir, who received him with affection, and refused to send him back at the desire of the elder brother, or to offer any violence to a young prince whom their father loved. This was the occasion of an inveterate war which cost the lives of many thousand people. The nephew commanded the forces of Pidir, and for some time maintained the advantage, but these, at length seeing themselves much inferior in numbers to the army of Ali-Maghayat, refused to march, and the king was obliged to give him up, when he was conveyed to Achin and put in close confinement.

1606.

Not long afterwards a Portuguese squadron under Martin Alfonso, going to the relief of Malacca, then besieged by the Dutch, anch.o.r.ed in Achin road with the resolution of taking revenge on the king for receiving these their rivals into his ports, contrary to the stipulations of a treaty that had been entered into between them. The viceroy landed his men, who were opposed by a strong force on the part of the Achinese; but after a stout resistance they gained the first turf fort with two pieces of cannon, and commenced an attack upon the second, of masonry. In this critical juncture the young prince sent a message to his uncle requesting he might be permitted to join the army and expose himself in the ranks, declaring himself more willing to die in battle against the Kafers (so they always affected to call the Portuguese) than to languish like a slave in chains. The fears which operated upon the king's mind induced him to consent to his release. The prince showed so much bravery on this occasion, and conducted two or three attacks with such success that Alfonso was obliged to order a retreat, after wasting two days and losing three hundred men in this fruitless attempt. The reputation of the prince was raised by this affair to a high pitch amongst the people of Achin.

His mother, who was an active, ambitious woman, formed the design of placing him on the throne, and furnished him with large sums of money, to be distributed in gratuities amongst the princ.i.p.al orang cayas. At the same time he endeavoured to ingratiate himself by his manners with all cla.s.ses of people. To the rich he was courteous; to the poor he was affable; and he was the constant companion of those who were in the profession of arms. When the king had reigned between three and four years he died suddenly, and at the hour of his death the prince got access to the castle. He bribed the guards, made liberal promises to the officers, advanced a large sum of money to the governor, and sending for the chief priest obliged him by threats to crown him. In fine he managed the revolution so happily that he was proclaimed king before night, to the great joy of the people, who conceived vast hopes from his liberality, courtesy, and valour. The king of Pidir was speedily acquainted with the news of his brother's death, but not of the subsequent transactions, and came the next day to take possession of his inheritance. As he approached the castle with a small retinue he was seized by orders from the reigning prince, who, forgetting the favours he had received, kept him prisoner for a month, and then, sending him into the country under the pretence of a commodious retreat, had him murdered on the way. Those who put the crown on his head were not better requited; particularly the Maharaja, or governor of the castle. In a short time his disappointed subjects found that instead of being humane he was cruel; instead of being liberal he displayed extreme avarice, and instead of being affable he manifested a temper austere and inexorable.

This king, whom the Annals name Iskander Muda, was known to our travellers by the t.i.tle of sultan Paduka Sri (words equivalent to most gracious), sovereign of Achin and of the countries of Aru, Dilli, Johor, Pahang, Kedah, and Perak on the one side, and of Barus, Pasaman, Tiku, Sileda, and Priaman on the other. Some of these places were conquered by him, and others he inherited.

1613.

He showed much friendship to the Hollanders in the early part of his reign; and in the year 1613 gave permission to the English to settle a factory, granting them many indulgences, in consequence of a letter and present from king James the first. He bestowed on Captain Best, who was the bearer of them, the t.i.tle of orang kaya putih, and entertained him with the fighting of elephants, buffaloes, rams, and tigers. His answer to king James (a translation of which is to be found in Purchas) is couched in the most friendly terms, and he there styles himself king of all Sumatra. He expressed a strong desire that the king of England should send him one of his countrywomen to wife, and promised to make her eldest son king of all the pepper countries, that so the English might be supplied with that commodity by a monarch of their own nation. But notwithstanding his strong professions of attachment to us, and his natural connexion with the Hollanders, arising from their joint enmity to the Portuguese, it was not many years before he began to oppress both nations and use his endeavours to ruin their trade. He became jealous of their growing power, and particularly in consequence of intelligence that reached him concerning the encroachments made by the latter in the island of Java.

The conquest of Aru seems never to have been thoroughly effected by the kings of Achin. Paduka Sri carried his arms thither and boasted of having obtained some victories.

1613.

In 1613 he subdued Siak in its neighbourhood. Early in the same year he sent an expedition against the kingdom of Johor (which had always maintained a political connexion with Aru) and, reducing the city after a siege of twenty-nine days, plundered it of everything moveable, and made slaves of the miserable inhabitants. The king fled to the island of Bintang, but his youngest brother and coadjutor was taken prisoner and carried to Achin. The old king of Johor, who had so often engaged the Portuguese, left three sons, the eldest of whom succeeded him by the t.i.tle of Iang de per-tuan.*

(*Footnote. This is not an individual t.i.tle or proper name, but signifies the sovereign or reigning monarch. In like manner Rega Bongsu signifies the king's youngest brother, as Raja Muda does the heir apparent.)

The second was made king of Siak, and the third, called Raja Bongsu, reigned jointly with the first. He it was who a.s.sisted the Hollanders in the first siege of Malacca, and corresponded with Prince Maurice. The king of Achin was married to their sister, but this did not prevent a long and cruel war between them. A Dutch factory at Johor was involved in the consequences of this war, and several of that nation were among the prisoners. In the course of the same year however the king of Achin thought proper to establish Raja Bongsu on the throne of Johor, sending him back for that purpose with great honours, a.s.sisting him to rebuild the fort and city, and giving him one of his own sisters in marriage.

1615.

In 1615 the king of Achin sailed to the attack of Malacca in a fleet which he had been four years employed in preparing. It consisted of above five hundred sail, of which a hundred were large galleys, greater than any at that time built in Europe, carrying each from six to eight hundred men, with three large cannon and several smaller pieces. These galleys the orang kayas were obliged to furnish, repair, and man, at the peril of their lives. The soldiers served without pay, and carried three months provision at their own charge. In this great fleet there were computed to be sixty thousand men, whom the king commanded in person. His wives and household were taken to sea with him. Coming in sight of the Portuguese ships in the afternoon, they received many shot from them but avoided returning any, as if from contempt. The next day they got ready for battle, and drew up in form of a half moon. A desperate engagement took place and lasted without intermission till midnight, during which the Portuguese admiral was three times boarded, and repeatedly on fire. Many vessels on both sides were also in flames and afforded light to continue the combat. At length the Achinese gave way, after losing fifty sail of different sizes, and twenty thousand men. They retired to Bancalis, on the eastern coast of Sumatra, and shortly afterwards sailed for Achin, the Portuguese not daring to pursue their victory, both on account of the damage they had sustained and their apprehension of the Hollanders, who were expected at Malacca. The king proposed that the prisoners taken should be mutually given up, which was agreed to, and was the first instance of that act of humanity and civilisation between the two powers.

1619.

Three years afterwards the king made a conquest of the cities of Kedah and Perak on the Malayan coast, and also of a place called Dilli in Sumatra. This last had been strongly fortified by the a.s.sistance of the Portuguese, and gave an opportunity of displaying much skill in the attack. Trenches were regularly opened before it and a siege carried on for six weeks ere it fell. In the same year the king of Jorcan (a place unknown at present by that name) fled for refuge to Malacca with eighty sail of boats, having been expelled his dominions by the king of Achin.

The Portuguese were not in a condition to afford him relief, being themselves surrounded with enemies and fearful of an attack from the Achinese more especially; but the king was then making preparations against an invasion he heard was meditated by the viceroy of Goa.

Reciprocal apprehensions kept each party on the defensive.

1621.

The French being desirous of partic.i.p.ating in the commerce of Achin, of which all the European nations had formed great ideas, and all found themselves disappointed in, sent out a squadron commanded by General Beaulieu, which arrived in January 1621, and finally left it in December of the same year. He brought magnificent presents to the king, but these did not content his insatiable avarice, and he employed a variety of mean arts to draw from him further gifts. Beaulieu met also with many difficulties, and was forced to submit to much extortion in his endeavours to procure a loading of pepper, of which Achin itself, as has been observed, produced but little. The king informed him that he had some time since ordered all the plants to be destroyed, not only because the cultivation of them proved an injury to more useful agriculture, but also lest their produce might tempt the Europeans to serve him, as they had served the kings of Jakatra and Bantam. From this apprehension he had lately been induced to expel the English and Dutch from their settlements at Priaman and Tiku, where the princ.i.p.al quant.i.ty of pepper was procured, and of which places he changed the governor every third year to prevent any connexions dangerous to his authority from being formed. He had likewise driven the Dutch from a factory they were attempting to settle at Padang; which place appears to be the most remote on the western coast of the island to which the Achinese conquests at any time extended.

1628.

Still retaining a strong desire to possess himself of Malacca, so many years the grand object of Achinese ambition, he imprisoned the amba.s.sador then at his court, and made extraordinary preparations for the siege, which he designed to undertake in person. The laksamana or commander in chief (who had effected all the king's late conquests) attempted to oppose this resolution; but the maharaja, willing to flatter his master's propensity, undertook to put him in possession of the city and had the command of the fleet given to him, as the other had of the land forces.

The king set out on the expedition with a fleet of two hundred and fifty sail (fortyseven of them not less than a hundred feet in the keel), in which were twenty thousand men well appointed, and a great train of artillery. After being some time on board, with his family and retinue as usual, he determined, on account of an ill omen that was observed, to return to the sh.o.r.e. The generals, proceeding without him, soon arrived before Malacca. Having landed their men they made a judicious disposition, and began the attack with much courage and military skill.

The Portuguese were obliged to abandon several of their posts, one of which, after a defence of fifty days, was levelled with the ground, and from its ruins strong works were raised by the laksamana. The maharaja had seized another post advantageously situated. From their several camps they had lines of communication, and the boats on the river were stationed in such a manner that the place was completely invested.

Matters were in this posture when a force of two thousand men came to the a.s.sistance of the besieged from the king of Pahang, and likewise five sail of Portuguese vessels from the coast of Coromandel; but all was insufficient to remove so powerful an enemy, although by that time they had lost four thousand of their troops in the different attacks and skirmishes. In the latter end of the year a fleet of thirty sail of ships, large and small, under the command of Nunno Alvarez Botello, having on board nine hundred European soldiers, appeared off Malacca, and blocked up the fleet of Achin in a river about three miles from the town.

This entirely altered the complexion of affairs. The besiegers retired from their advanced works and hastened to the defence of their galleys, erecting batteries by the side of the river. The maharaja being summoned to surrender returned a civil but resolute answer. In the night, endeavouring to make his escape with the smaller vessels through the midst of the Portuguese, he was repulsed and wounded. Next day the whole force of the Achinese dropped down the stream with a design to fight their way, but after an engagement of two hours their princ.i.p.al galley, named the Terror of the World, was boarded and taken, after losing five hundred men of seven which she carried. Many other vessels were afterwards captured or sunk. The laksamana hung out a white flag and sent to treat with Nunno, but, some difficulty arising about the terms, the engagement was renewed with great warmth. News was brought to the Portuguese that the maharaja was killed and that the king of Pahang was approaching with a hundred sail of vessels to reinforce them. Still the Achinese kept up a dreadful fire, which seemed to render the final success doubtful; but at length they sent proposals desiring only to be allowed three galleys of all their fleet to carry away four thousand men who remained of twenty that came before the town. It was answered that they must surrender at discretion; which the laksamana hesitating to do, a furious a.s.sault took place both by water and land upon his galleys and works, which were all effectually destroyed or captured, not a ship and scarcely a man escaping. He himself in the last extremity fled to the woods, but was seized ere long by the king of Pahang's scouts. Being brought before the governor he said to him, with an undaunted countenance, "Behold here the laksamana for the first time overcome!" He was treated with respect but kept a prisoner, and sent on his own famous ship to Goa in order to be from thence conveyed to Portugal: but death deprived his enemies of that distinguished ornament of their triumph.

1635.

This signal defeat proved so important a blow to the power of Achin that we read of no further attempts to renew the war until the year 1635, when the king, encouraged by the feuds which at this time prevailed in Malacca, again violated the law of nations, to him little known, by imprisoning their amba.s.sador, and caused all the Portuguese about his court to be murdered. No military operations however immediately took place in consequence of this barbarous proceeding.

1640. 1641.

In the year 1640 the Dutch with twelve men of war, and the king of Achin with twenty-five galleys, appeared before that hara.s.sed and devoted city; which at length, in the following year was wrested from the hands of the Portuguese, who had so long, through such difficulties, maintained possession of it. This year was also marked by the death of the sultan, whom the Dutch writers name Paduka Sri, at the age of sixty, after a reign of thirty-five years; having just lived to see his hereditary foe subdued; and as if the opposition of the Portuguese power, which seems first to have occasioned the rise of that of Achin, was also necessary to its existence, the splendour and consequence of the kingdom from that period rapidly declined.

The prodigious wealth and resources of the monarchy during his reign are best evinced by the expeditions he was enabled to fit out; but being no less covetous than ambitious he contrived to make the expenses fall upon his subjects, and at the same time filled his treasury with gold by pressing the merchants and plundering the neighbouring states. An intelligent person (General Beaulieu), who was for some time at his court, and had opportunities of information on the subject, uses this strong expression--that he was infinitely rich. He constantly employed in his castle three hundred goldsmiths. This would seem an exaggeration, but that it is well known the Malayan princes have them always about them in great numbers at this day, working in the manufacture of filigree, for which the country is so famous. His naval strength has been already sufficiently described. He was possessed of two thousand bra.s.s guns and small arms in proportion. His trained elephants amounted to some hundreds. His armies were probably raised only upon the occasion which called for their acting, and that in a mode similar to what was established under the feudal system in Europe. The valley of Achin alone was said to be able to furnish forty thousand men upon an emergency. A certain number of warriors however were always kept on foot for the protection of the king and his capital. Of these the superior cla.s.s were called ulubalang, and the inferior amba-raja, who were entirely devoted to his service and resembled the janizaries of Constantinople. Two hundred hors.e.m.e.n nightly patrolled the grounds about the castle, the inner courts and apartments of which were guarded by three thousand women. The king's eunuchs amounted to five hundred.

The disposition of this monarch was cruel and sanguinary. A mult.i.tude of instances are recorded of the horrible barbarity of his punishments, and for the most trivial offences. He imprisoned his own mother and put her to the torture, suspecting her to have been engaged in a conspiracy against him with some of the princ.i.p.al n.o.bles, whom he caused to be executed. He murdered his nephew, the king of Johor's son, of whose favour with his mother he was jealous. He also put to death a son of the king of Bantam, and another of the king of Pahang, who were both his near relations. None of the royal family survived in 1622 but his own son, a youth of eighteen, who had been thrice banished the court, and was thought to owe his continuance in life only to his surpa.s.sing his father, if possible, in cruelty, and being hated by all ranks of people. He was at one time made king of Pidir but recalled on account of his excesses, confined in prison and put to strange tortures by his father, whom he did not outlive. The whole territory of Achin was almost depopulated by wars, executions, and oppression. The king endeavoured to repeople the country by his conquests. Having ravaged the kingdoms of Johor, Pahang, Kedah, Perak, and Dilli, he transported the inhabitants from those places to Achin, to the number of twenty-two thousand persons. But this barbarous policy did not produce the effect he hoped; for the unhappy people, being brought naked to his dominions, and not allowed any kind of maintenance on their arrival, died of hunger in the streets. In the planning his military enterprises he was generally guided by the distresses of his neighbours, for whom, as for his prey, he unceasingly lay in wait; and his preparatory measures were taken with such secrecy that the execution alone unravelled them. Insidious political craft and wanton delight in blood united in him to complete the character of a tyrant.

It must here be observed that, with respect to the period of this remarkable reign, the European and Malayan authorities are considerably at variance, the latter a.s.signing to it something less than thirty solar years, and placing the death of Iskander Muda in December 1636. The Annals further state that he was succeeded by sultan Ala-eddinMahayat-shah, who reigned only about four years and died in February 1641. That this is the more accurate account I have no hesitation in believing, although Valentyn, who gives a detail of the king's magnificent funeral, was persuaded that the reign which ended in 1641 was the same that began in 1607. But he collected his information eighty years after the event, and as it does not appear that any European whose journal has been given to the world was on the spot at that period, the death of an obscure monarch who died after a short reign may well have been confounded by persons at a distance with that of his more celebrated predecessor. Both authorities however are agreed in the important fact that the successor to the throne in 1641 was a female.

This person is described by Valentyn as being the wife of the old king, and not his daughter, as by some had been a.s.serted; but from the Annals it appears that she was his daughter, named Taju al-alum; and as it was in her right that Maghayat-shah (certainly her husband), obtained the crown, so upon his decease, there being no male heir, she peaceably succeeded him in the government, and became the first queen regent of Achin. The succession having thenceforward continued nearly sixty years in the female line, this may be regarded as a new era in the history of the country. The n.o.bles finding their power less restrained, and their individual consequence more felt under an administration of this kind than when ruled by kings (as sometimes they were with a rod of iron) supported these pageants, whom they governed as they thought fit, and thereby virtually changed the const.i.tution into an aristocracy or oligarchy. The business of the state was managed by twelve orang-kayas, four of whom were superior to the rest, and among these the maharaja, or governor of the kingdom, was considered as the chief. It does not appear, nor is it probable, that the queen had the power of appointing or removing any of these great officers. No applications were made to the throne but in their presence, nor any public resolution taken but as they determined in council. The great object of their political jealousy seems to have been the pretensions of the king of Johor to the crown, in virtue of repeated intermarriages between the royal families of the two countries, and it may be presumed that the alarms excited from that quarter materially contributed to reconcile them to the female domination. They are accordingly said to have formed an engagement amongst themselves never to pay obedience to a foreign prince, nor to allow their royal mistress to contract any marriage that might eventually lead to such a consequence.* At the same time, by a new treaty with Johor, its king was indirectly excused from the homage to the crown of Achin which had been insisted upon by her predecessors and was the occasion of frequent wars.

(*Footnote. However fanciful it may be thought, I cannot doubt that the example of our Queen Elizabeth, whose character and government were highly popular with the Achinese on account of her triumphant contest with the united powers of Spain and Portugal, had a strong influence in the establishment of this new species of monarchy, and that the example of her sister's marriage with Philip may have contributed to the resolution taken by the n.o.bles. The actions of our ill.u.s.trious queen were a common topic of conversation between the old tyrant and Sir James Lancaster.)

In proportion as the political consequence of the kingdom declined, its history, as noticed by foreigners, becomes obscure. Little is recorded of the transactions of her reign, and it is likely that Achin took no active part in the concerns of neighbouring powers, but suffered the Hollanders, who maintained in general a friendly intercourse with her, to remain in quiet possession of Malacca.

1643.

In 1643 they sent an amba.s.sador to compliment her upon her accession, and at the same time to solicit payment for a quant.i.ty of valuable jewels ordered by the deceased king, but for the amount of which she declined to make herself responsible.

1660.

It is said (but the fact will admit of much doubt) that in 1660 she was inclined to marry one of their countrymen, and would have carried her design into execution had not the East India Company prevented by their authority a connexion that might, as they prudently judged, be productive of embarra.s.sment to their affairs.