Having gained animosity of the Portuguese, many Muslim merchants moved to Aceh, which also exported high-quality pepper, thereby developing this trade and increasing the revenue of its sultan.

[4] Borba told Brito how the sultan of Aceh had attacked and plundered a number of Portuguese vessels who either passed by his shore or were wrecked there.

[5] Brito asked the sultan to return the cargo, but as it was not forthcoming they attempted to sack a temple near the city of Aceh with 200 men.

They captured a small settlement half-way between the port and the city of Aceh, but were later driven back aboard by an Acehnese counter-attack, having suffered more than 50 dead.

[7] The sultan of Pedir fled with his family to neighbouring Pasai, where the Portuguese held a fort and requested its captain military aid to recover his throne.

[7] The captain of the fort dispatched Manuel Henriques with 80 Portuguese and 200 auxiliaries to Pedir by sea while the sultan marched by land with a force of 1000 men and 15 elephants.

[8] The Portuguese, numbering no more than 350 soldiers, many of them sick and wounded, repulsed several assaults, but after gathering a war-council decided to evacuate the fort.

[8][9] The first Portuguese-Acehnese conflict in the Indian Ocean erupted in 1526 when the Portuguese seized an Acehnese ship bound for Jeddah in the Arabian Sea, selling its cargo in Hormuz.

Several years later, subsequent Portuguese attacks on Acehnese vessels off the Arabian coast resulted in the plunder of valuable cargoes.

In an attempt to negotiate a treaty of commerce with the Acehnese Sultan, the governor of Malacca dispatched a company with precious gifts and arrived in Aceh, Immediately after they departed, however, some boats followed them and captured them, killing their crews.

The governor dispatched a large ship under Manuel Pacheco alongside several merchants; when they arrived, they were surrounded by a great number of Acehnese boats, which led to suspicion between the Portuguese.

[15][16] The Sultanate of Aceh attempted in 1547 to attack Portuguese Malacca by surprise under the command of the King of Pedir Bayaya Soora.

[17][18] Through the encouragement of renown missionary Francis Xavier the Portuguese assembled a small flottilla and under the command of Dom Francisco de Eça set out after the Acehnese.

[20] In 1565, the Portuguese received word that five Acehnese galleons loaded with pepper, spices and other goods were preparing to depart to Mecca while 9 Ottoman galleys coming to escort them.

[24] The army of the Sultan was composed of a large fleet of long galley-type oared ships, 15,000 troops, and Turkish mercenaries.

The sultan of Aceh therefore requested the assistance of the Queen of Jepara in Java to siege it and assembled an armada of 25 galleys, 34 half-galleys, and 30 craft and 7000 men.

[38] In June, Dom Miguel de Castro arrived from Goa with a fleet of a galleass, three galleys, and eight half-galleys to relieve Tristão Vaz as captain of Malacca, along with 500 soldiers in reinforcements.

[44] In 1606, the Portuguese Viceroy of India Dom Martim Afonso de Castro organized a large naval expedition to fight the Dutch VOC in south-east Asia and along the way attack the Sultanate of Aceh.

Having landed and tried to attack the capital of Aceh, the Portuguese encountered heavy resistance, and upon receiving news of a Dutch siege on Malacca, Dom Martim withdrew from the campaign.

[45] In 1615, Iskandar Muda led a successful campaign against Johor with a large fleet of 100 galleys, 150 ghurab, 250 junks, lancharas, calaluzes and about 40,000 men.

[46] In what was "one of the bloodiest battles the Portuguese fought in south-east Asia", the Acehnese suffered so much damage they were forced to call off their plans and return to Aceh.

[48] The presence of 4 large warships in Malacca demonstrated that the Portuguese were ready to defend their interests in the region against Aceh, Iskander Muda asked the Dutch for assistance against those ships in return for extension of the Contract in Tiku.

[49] Having gotten information of Aceh activity in Perak, the captain of Malacca dispatched 9 oar vessels under the command of Fernão da Costa to the vicinity of Peark, so as to scout the Acehnese armada and escort a number of Portuguese merchant ships that were expected to arrive.

Guessing that the Acehnese expected to go after the city, the captain of Malacca Gaspar Sampaio entrusted Francisco Coutinho to search out for the enemy armada and destroy it.

[50] The 1629 Acehnese attack on Portuguese Malacca came about in the context of growing presence of vessels of the Dutch VOC and the English EIC in the Indian Ocean.

[51] The relatively modest Portuguese fleet achieved an absolute victory over the Ottoman-allied Aceh in such decisive ways that not a single ship or man of the invading force sent to conquer Malacca got back to its country.

[52] In September 1638, the Viceroy of India, Dom Pedro de Silva, became agitated by the advances of the Dutch and sent a new envoy to Aceh.

[59] The Battle of Duyon river proved to be a decisive engagement that ended aggressive Acehnese expansionism and started a period of internal dispute and decline in Aceh.

In subsequent years after the disaster of 1629, Aceh external policy as well as internal theological doctrine would undergo deep changes, reflecting a society in turmoil.

[67] He was in turn succeeded by a daughter of Iskandar Muda, who did not share her fathers appetite for expansionism, which probably reflected the mood in Aceh after the 1629 disaster.