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ACCOUNT OF CELEBES , AMBOYNA, &C,

This Prince, deceived hereby, came at the appointed time to Fort Rotterdam, notwith his ufual fuite, but accompanied" by five or fix thoufand well-armed men, andrefufed to enter the walls of the fortrefs without thefe troops, faying, at the fame time,the reafon why he came in this manner ; but when the Company’s fervants pointedout to him the groundleffnefs of his fufpicions, and the evident falfity of his informa-tion, he was prevailed upon to lay afide his diftruft, and every thing palled off withoutfurther difficulty ; fo that the King of Boni was difappointed in his object. Yet theKing was fo fearful, and upon his guard, at the feaft which the governor gave thatday to the native Princes, that neither he nor his attendants would touch any wine, norany of the provifions which were fet before them.

I faw this Prince twice; he is rather corpulent, grave in his appearance and conver-fation, and attentive and referved in his manners.

The King of Goach is not an abfolute fovereign: he is fubject to the laws of theland, and may not perform any important regal functions without the concurrence andapprobation of the body of nobility. Crimes are punilhed according to laws, and notby the arbitrary will of the monarch. His privy counfellors are called tomani lalangs.

Every negree, or townffiip, has a chief, called galarang : this rank was inftituted bythe eighth King of Goach, in the beginning of the fixteenth century, perhaps at theinftance of the Portuguefe, who firft arrived at Celebes , and obtained a footing thereduring the reign of that King, in the year 1512.

His fucceffor appointed and regulated meafures and weights for general ufe ; he fixedprices upon the articles of trade; he manufactured gunpowder, and firft mounted artillerynpon the walls of Goach. He afterwards not only allowed the Malays to fettle in hisftates, but, together with other privileges, he granted them that of building a temple,and openly profeffing the Mahomedan faith. This religion gained fo much groundhere, that the Macaflers, by means of the Malays, difpatched an embafiy to Mecca ,to fetch a ftadja, or prieft, from that place, for tjie purpofe of inftru&ing them in thereligion of the Arabian impoftor, which was at laft univerfally eftablifhed throughoutthe Macafier empire, in the year 1603, under the thirteenth King, Sultan Allah Ou-deen ; and three years afterwards they forced the people of Boni equally to fubfcribeto the doctrines of the Koran.

The power of Macafier was at its higheft pitch about the middle of the laft century,when its Princes not only ruled over almoft the whole of Celebes , but had likewiferendered Loma, Mandelly, Bima, Tambora , Dompo, and Sangar, tributary to them,and had conquered Bouton, Bungay, Gapi, the Xulla illands, and Sumbawa . Theymoreover held the government of Saleyer, which had been given to Macafier by BaabUllach, King of Ternate; they were in ftritft alliance with the inhabitants of Bali, andcoined the firft gold coins which were probably the gold mas, of the value of fixtyDutch ftivers.

About that time alfo the alliance between Goach and Tello was renewed ; and thefetwo ftates were fo firmly united together, that it was a common faying, that there were“ two lords, but one people.” By the articles of union it was fettled, that all levies

His attendants fiift dance their war-dance, with their krifle9 and affagays. A chapter of the Koian, re-lating to the taking of oaths, is then read to the King, in Arabian, to which he liftens with great atten-tion and veneration. He then folds his hands, and lays them three times upon the book, and afterwardsupon his head. Next he takes his kris of ilate, and dipping the point of it in a filver horn of water, ftirsit about with it, and lets a few drops which remain upon the point fall upon his tongue; by which the-oath is completed, in the moll folemn manner. S.

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