About this time an attack upon the city was made by the Achinese fleet, under the raja of Pedir in Sumatra; and Xavier's early biographers relate a dramatic story of how he roused the governor to action.
Eventually, in 1641, a joint attack was made by the Achinese and the Dutch, but the latter, not the people of the sturdy little Sumatran kingdom, became the owners of the coveted port.
General van Hentsz carried on a successful campaign in 1898 seq., but in 1901, the principal Achinese chiefs on the north coast having surrendered, the pretender-sultan fled to the Gajoes, a neighbouring inland people.
Native chronicles derive the Menangkabo princes from Alexander the Great; and the Achinese dynasty boasts its origin from a missionary of Islam.
Simalu is peopled partly by Achinese and partly by Menangkabo settlers.
The Achinese, a people of Malayan stock but darker, somewhat taller and not so pleasant-featured as the true Malays, regard themselves as distinct from the other Sumatrans.
The Dutch garrison in Kotaraja occupies the old Achinese citadel.
The north of Sumatra is occupied by the Achinese (see Achin).