Page 44 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

44 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

and there was, therefore, a very strong reason for estab­
lishing at the earliest moment independent relations with
the chief sources of supply.
Achecn, on the north-east coast of Sumatra, is chiefly
familiar to the present generation as the scene of an ap­
parently unending war between the Dutch and the local
Malay power, arising out of the unwillingness of the natives
to accept the yoke imposed permanently upon them by the
arrangement made between Great Britain and Holland
nearly a century ago, under which, roughly speaking,
British rights in Sumatra were renounced in exchange for
a like renunciation on the part of the Dutch Government
of any title to Singapore or to political influence in the
Peninsular States. But many years before that struggle
commenced—long, indeed, before Europeans appeared in
force in the East—Acheen had been an important commercial
centre by reason of its strategic position at the northern
H
end of the Straits of Malacca and its proximity to the prin­
cipal spice-growing districts in that region. The Dutch
had thought so well of it that they had promptly estab­
lished a factory there, and amongst the first to welcome Lan­
caster were two Hollanders, who had been left behind to
look after the Dutch interests. From them Lancaster
learned not only that the King was well disposed to strangers,
but that he held in especial estimation the English, on
account of their great victory over the Spaniards in the
Armada fight, about which he appeared to be well informed.
The course of events showed that the Dutch visitors to
the English fleet had not exaggerated the impression made
:
upon this distant Eastern potentate’s mind by the memor­
1
able conflict of 1588. Curiosity, mingled no doubt with a
feeling of self-interest, prompted him to receive with open