ACCOUNT OF CELEBES , AMBOYNA, &C. 2ICJ
King Abdul Haerman Shoer dying on the 27th of July 1742, in the feventeenthyear of his age, his brother, Mappa Babaifa, a child of eight years oldj was chofenfuccelfor to the crown of Goach, under the guardianlhip of the regent Crain Madjen-nang. Nothing material occurred during his reign. He died on the 21ft of December,J 753 , and was fucceeded by his fon Amas Madina, furnamed Pattema Tharie, who■was the twenty-fecond king of Goach, and in the year 1758, was re-named BattaraGoach, by the regent, who was, at the fame time, his grandfather.
Thus far the manufcript of Mr. Blok. What follows, was related to me atMacafler.
< After the death of his grandfather, the regency fell into the hands of the uncle ofking Battara. This man, urged by the ambition of enjoying the crown himfelf,caufed fo much vexation to his, nephew and fovereign, that the latter abandoned hiskingdom and Celebes , and fled to the weftward, no one knew whither.
But the regent, feeing that matters were not yet fufliciently ripe, nor the nobles ofGoach properly prepared to admit of his ufurping the crown himfelf, contrived thata younger brother of the King Ihould be exalted to the throne ; whofe life, however,he equally found means to embitter fo much, that he alfo quitted his dignity andcountry in defpair *. Upon this, the artful regent was confecrated King, and he tookupon himfelf at the fame time the office of regent, or prime minifter, in order toavoid another’s playing the fame part which he had aXed before.
This Prince was on the throne in the year 1775, when I was there. He was de-scribed to me as a very wife monarch, who distributed impartial juffcice to his fubjeXs,and kept a watchful eye over all the foreign relations of his country ; efpecially overthe kingdom of Boni, for which, in common with all the other Kings of Goach, heentertained the molt inveterate hatred; for its prefent profperity and power werefounded upon the decline and ruin of Macafler. An equally deep-rooted mutual hateexifts at Boni, where they leave nothing untried, by means of their more flrict con-nexions with the Company, to humble the power of Macafler, and render its fidelityfufpeXed.
An inflance hereof occurred in the year 1770, upon the arrival of the prefent go-vernor of Macafler, Mr. Van der Voort. The King of Boni, having received informa-toon that a new governor was expected from Batavia, caufed an intimation to be con-veyed to the King of Goach, by a third or fourth hand, that one of the fugitive“finces was coming over with the governor, who was to be reftored to the throne of hisa nceftors, while the ufurper would be taken prifoner, and fent into banifhment. Inorder to effeX the latter purpofe, it was alledged, that the opportunity would be availedor, when the King of Goach, according to ancient cuftom, came to renew the oath ofhdelity to the Company, upon the accefiion of a new governor f.
This
jp ,was in the year 1767, that'the king of Goach, thinking himfelf infecure on his throne, abandonedj a ' s . ln gdom, and fled to Bima, where he was overtaken and fent to Batavia. He was a weak and pufil-^nunous Prince, and preferred a petition to the Dutch government that he might be exiled to Ceylon ,
/ , tre lived for many years, in the caftle of Colembo, receiving a monthly allowance of fifty rix-dollarsv a out 130I. llerling per annum) from the Company. Huyfers befehryving der Ooft-Indifche Etablifle-P a g e 42 . Tr.
^ , tle ° a th of fidelity, and alliance to the Company, is tqken by the Kings of Goach and of Boni, withhav ° 0Wln S ceremonies: The King, drefied in cloth of gold, and wearing the chain which the CompanyKohl t0 him, in token of alliance, and every link of which reprefents a flower made of mafly
> with a medal pendant from it, with the initial letters of the united Eaft-India Company engravedP otl tt, prefents himfelf with his courtiers and lifeguards at the government-houfe in Fort Rotterdam.
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