LIBRARY UMIVEH ITY OF CALIrOKNIA SAN DIEGO ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY OF TRAVEL SIAM THE LAND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT AS IT WAS AND IS COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY GEORGE B. BACON REVISED BY FREDERICK WELLS WILLIAMS NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1892 COPYRIGHT, 1881, 1892, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDINQ COMPANY NEW YORK REVISER'S NOTE THE present editor's aim in revising this little vol- ume has been to leave untouched, so far as possible, Mr. Bacon's compilation, omitting only such portions as were inaccurate or obsolete, and adding rather sparingly from the narratives of a few recent travel- lers. The authoritative history and description of Siam has yet to be written, and until this work ap- pears the accounts of Pallegoix, of Bowring, and of Mouliot convey as satisfactory and accurate impres- sions of the country as those of later writers. Though the wonderful ruins at Angkor are now technically within the confines of Siam, their consideration still belongs to a treatise on Cambodia, and this as a sepa- rate country could not fairly be joined to Siam in carrying out the plan of the series. In other re- spects, without attempting to be exhaustive, the re- viser's endeavor has been to neglect no important part or feature of the kingdom. The regeneration effected in Siam during the past half century presents a suggestive contrast to that ebullition of new life which has within an even briefer period transformed despotic Japan into a free and ambitious state. Here, as there, the stranger is im- pressed with those outward symbols of nineteenth- century life, the agencies of steam, gas, and electric- 2075589 iv REVISER'S NOTE ity that appear in many busy centres in whimsical incongruity to their Oriental setting ; but these are the'adjnncts rather than the essentials of that West- ern civilization which both countries are striving to imitate. In Siam, it must be confessed, there is no such evidence of popular awakening as now directs the world's attention to the Mikado's empire. The languor and content of life in the tropics disposes the people to seek new ideals and accept new institutions less eagerly than under Northern skies. Siam's policy of gradual progress toward a condition of higher en- lightenment is in admirable accordance with her needs, and promises to achieve its purpose with no such risks of reaction or shipwreck as beset the course of more ambitious states in the East. F. W. W. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH SIAM RELATIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES, 1 CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY OF SIAM:, 10 CHAPTER III. OLD SIAM ITS HISTORY, . . . . . .17 CHAPTER IV. THE STORIES OF Two ADVENTURERS, .... 36 CHAPTER V. MODERN SIAM, 65 CHAPTER VI. FIRST IMPRESSIONS, 73 CHAPTER VII. A ROYAL GENTLEMAN, 86 CHAPTER VIII. PlIUABAT SOilDETCH PHRA PARAMENDR MAHA MONG- KUT, 104 CHAPTER IX. AYUTHIA, 121 Vl CONTENTS CHAPTER X. PHRABAT AND PATAWI, 130 CHAPTER XI. FROM BANGKOK TO CHANTABOUN A MISSIONAKY JOUR- NEY IN 1835, 146 CHAPTER XII. CHANTABOUN AND THE GULP, 170 CHAPTER XIII. MOUHOT IN THE HlLL-COUNTRY OP CHANTABOUN, . . 183 CHAPTER XIV. PECHABURI OR P'RIFP'REE, 200 CHAPTER XV. THE TRIBES OF NORTHERN Si AM, 216 CHAPTER XVI. SIAMESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS, 234 CHAPTER XVII. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF SIAM, 258 CHAPTER XVIII. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN SIAM THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE, 270 CHAPTER XIX. BANGKOK AND THE NEW SIAM, 277 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS GREAT PAGODA WAT CHANG, .... Frontispiece PACIKO PAGE INUNDATION OP THE MEINAM, 11 PAGODA AT AYUTHIA, 21 VIEW TAKEN FROM THE CANAL AT AYUTHIA, ... 31 RUINS OF A PAGODA AT AYUTHIA, 38 GENERAL VIEW OF BANGKOK, 76 THE LATE FIRST KING AND QUEEN, . . . .105 ONE OF THE SONS OF THE LATE FIRST KING, . . 109 A FEW OF THE CHILDREN OF THE LATE FIRST KING, . 120 REMOVAL OF THE TUFT OF A YOUNG SIAMESE, . . 122 ELEPHANTS IN AN ENCLOSURE OR PARK AT AYUTHIA, . 127 PAKNAM ON THE MEINAM, 129 PAGODA AT MOUNT PHRABAT, 130 MOUNTAINS OF KORAT FROM PATAWI, .... 141 PORT OF CHANTABOUN, 149 MONKEYS PLAYING WITH A CROCODILE, .... 180 SIAMESE ACTORS, 194 MOUNTAINS OF PECHABURI, 200 SIAMESE WOMEN, 234 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE SIAMESE ROPE-DANCER 237 SIAMESE LADIES AT DINNER, 242 BUILDING ERECTED AT FUNERAL OP SIAMESE OF HIGH BANK, ...... 251 HALL OF AUDIENCE, PALACE OF BANGKOK, . . . 277 PORTICO OF THE AUDIENCE HALL AT BANGKOK, . . 280 THE PALACE OF THE KING OF SIAM, BANGKOK, . . 292 SIAM CHAPTER I. EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH SIAM RELATIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES THE acquaintance of the Christian world with the kingdom and people of Siam dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and is due to the adventurous and enterprising spirit of the Portu- guese. It is difficult for us, in these days when Por- tugal occupies a position so inconsiderable, and plaj's a part so insignificant, among the peoples of the earth, to realize what great achievements were wrought in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the peaceful victories of the early navigators and discoverers from that country, or by the military conquests which not seldom followed in the track of their explorations. It was while Alphonso d' Albu- querque was occupied with a military expedition in Malacca, that he seized the occasion to open diplo- matic intercourse with Siam. A lieutenant under his command, who was fitted for the service by an experience of captivity during which he had ac- quired the Malay language, was selected for the mis- sion, lie was well received by the king, and came 2 SIAM back to his general, bringing royal presents and pro- posals to assist in the siege of Malacca. So cordial a response to the overtures of the Portuguese led to the more formal establishment of diplomatic and com- mercial intercourse. And before the middle of the sixteenth century a considerable number of Portu- guese had settled, some of them in the neighborhood of the capital (Ayuthia), and some of them in the provinces of the peninsula of Malacca, at that time belonging to the kingdom of Siam. One or two ad- venturers, such as De Seixas and De Mello, rose to positions of great power and dignity under the Sia- mese king. And for almost a century the Portu- guese maintained, if not an exclusive, certainly a pre-eminent, right to the commercial and diplomatic intercourse which they had inaugurated. As in other parts of the East Indies, however, the Dutch presently began to dispute the supremacy of their rivals, and, partly by the injudicious and pre- sumptuous arrogance of the Portuguese themselves, succeeded in supplanting them. The cool and mer- cenary cunning of the greedy Hollanders was more than a match for the proud temper of the hot-blood- ed Dons. And as, in the case of Japan, the story of Simabara lives in history to witness what shame- less and unscrupulous wickedness commercial rivalry could lead to ; so in Siam there is for fifty years a story of intrigue and greed, over-reaching itself first on one side, and then on the other. First, the Por- tuguese were crowded out of their exclusive privil- eges. And then in turn the Dutch were obliged to surrender theirs. To-day there are still visible in the EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH SLAM 3 jnngle, near 'the mouth of the Meinam River, the ruins of the Amsterdam which grew up between the years 1672 and 1725, under the enterprise of the Dutch East India Company, protected and fostered by the Siamese Government. And to-day, also, the descendants of the Portuguese, easy to be recognized, notwithstanding the mixture of blood for many gener- ations, hold insignificant or menial offices about the capital and court. As a result of Portuguese intercourse with Siam, there came the introduction of the Christian religion by Jesuit missionaries, who, as in China and Japan, were quick to follow in the steps of the first explor- ers. No hindrance was put in the way of the unmo- lested exercise of religious rites by the foreign set- tlers. Two churches were built ; and the ecclesiastics in charge of the church at Ayuthia had begun to ac- quire some of that political influence which is so irre- sistible a temptation to the Roman Catholic mission- ary, and so dangerous a possession when he has onco acquired it. It is probable enough (although the evidence does not distinctly appear) that this ten- dency of religious zeal toward political intrigue in- flamed the animosity of the Dutch traders, and af- forded them a convenient occasion for undermining the supremacy of their rivals. However this may be, the Christian religion did not make any great headway among the Siamese people. And while they conceded to the foreigners religions liberty, they showed no eagerness to receive from them the gift of a new religion. In the year 1604 the Siamese king sent an ambas- 4: 8IAM sador to the Dutch colony at Bantam, in the island of Java. And in 1608 the same ambassador extend- ed his journey to Holland, expressing " much sur- prise at finding that the Dutch actually possessed a country of their own, and were not a nation of pirates, as the Portuguese had always insinuated." The his- tory of this period of the intercourse between Siam and the European nations, abundantly proves that shrewdness, enterprise, and diplomatic skill were not on one side only. Between Siam and France there was no consider- able intercourse until the reign of Louis XIV., when an embassy of a curiously characteristic sort was sent out by the French monarch. The embassy was osten- tatiously splendid, and made great profession of a religious purpose no less important than the conver- sion of the Siamese king to Christianity. The origin of the mission was strangely interesting, and the record of it, even after the lapse of nearly two hun- dred years, is so lively and instructive that it de- serves to be reproduced, in part, in another chapter of this volume. The enterprise was a failure. The king refused to be converted, and was able to give some dignified and substantial reasons for distrusting the religious interest which his " esteemed friend, the kino- of France," had taken " in an affair which o ' seems to belong to God, and which the Divine Being appears to have left entirely to our discretion." Com- mercially and diplomatically, also, as well as religi- ously, the embassy was a failure. The Siamese prime minister (a Greek by birth, a Roman Catholic by religion), at whose instigation the French king EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH SIAM 5 had acted, soon after was deposed from his office, and came to his death by violence. The Jesuit priests were put under restraint and detained as hostages, and the military force which accompanied the mis- sion met with an inglorious fate. A scheme which seemed at first to promise the establishment of a great dominion tributary to the throne of France, perished in its very conception. The Government of Spain had early relations with Siatn, through the Spanish colony in the Philippine Islands ; and on one or more occasions there was an interchange of courtesies and good offices between Manilla and Ayuthia. But the Spanish never had a foothold in the kingdom, and the occasional and un- important intercourse referred to ceased almost wholly until, during the last fifty years, and even the last twenty, a new era of commercial activity has brought the nations of Europe and America into close and fa- miliar relations with the Land of the White Ele- phant. The relations of the kingdom of Siam with its im- mediate neighbors have been full of the vicissitudes of peace and war. There still remains some trace of a remote period of partial vassalage to the Chinese Empire, in the custom of sending gifts which were originally understood, by the recipients at least, if not by the givers, to be tribute to Peking. With Bur- mah and Pegu on the one side, and with Cambodia and Cochin China on the other, there has existed from time immemorial a state of jealous hostility. The boundaries of Siam, eastward and westward, have fluctuated with the successes or defeats of the Siam- 6 SIAM ese arms. Southward the deep gulf shuts off the country from any neighbors, whether good or bad, and for more than three centuries this has been the highway of a commerce of unequal importance, some- times very active and remunerative, but never wholly interrupted even in the period of the most complete reactionary seclusion of the kingdom. The new era in Siam may be properly dated from the year 1854, when the existing treaties between Siam on the one part, and Great Britain and the United States on the other part, were successfully negotiated. But before this time, various influences had been quietly at work to produce a change of such singular interest and importance. The change is indeed a part of that great movement by which the whole Oriental world has been re-discovered in our day ; by which China has been started on a new course of de- velopment and progress ; by which Japan and Corea have been made to lay aside their policy of hostile seclusion. It is hard to fix the precise date of a movement which is the result of tendencies so vari- ous and so numerous, and which is evidently, as yet, only at the beginning of its history. But the treaty negotiated by Sir John Bowring, as the ambassador of Great Britain, and that negotiated by the Honor- able Townsend Harris, as the ambassador of the United States, served to call public attention in those two countries to a land which was previously almost unheard of except by geographical students. There was no popular narrative of travel and exploration. Indeed, there had been no travel and exploration much beyond the walls of Bangkok or the ruins of EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH 81 AM 7 Ayuthia. The German, Mandelslohe, is the earliest traveller who has left a record of what he saw and heard. His visit to Ayuthia, to which he gave the name which subsequent travellers have agreed in be- stowing on Bangkok, the present capital " The Yen- ice of the East " was made in 1537. The Portu- guese, Mendez Pinto, whose visit was made in the course of the same century, has also left a record of his travels, which is evidently faithful and trust- worthy. We have also the records of various embas- sies, and the narratives of missionaries (both the Ro- man Catholic and, during the present century, the American Protestant missionaries), who have found time, amid their arduous and discouraging labors, to furnish to the Christian world much valuable infor- mation concerning the people among whom they have chosen to dwell. "Of these missionary records, by far the most complete and the most valuable is the work of Bishop Pallegoix (published in French in the year 1854), entitled " Description du Royaume Thai on Siam." The long residence of the excellent Bishop in the country of which he wrote, and in which, not many years afterward (in 1862) he died, sincerely lamented and honored, fitted him to speak with in- telligent authority ; and his book was of especial value at the time when it was published, because the Western Powers were engaged that very year in the successful attempt to renew and to enlarge their treaties with Siam. To Bishop Pallegoix the Eng- lish envoy, Sir John Bowring, is largely indebted, as he does not fail to confess, for a knowledge of the 8 SIAM history, manners, and customs of the realm, which helped to make the work of his embassy more easy, and also for much of the material which gives the work of Bowring himself (" The Kingdom and Peo- ple of Siam," London, 1857) its value. Since Sir John Bowring's time the interior of Siam has been largely explored, and especially by one adventurous traveller, Henry Mouhot, who lost his life in the jungles of Laos while engaged in his work of exploration. With him begins our real knowledge of the interior of Siam, and its partly de- pendent neighbors Laos and Cambodia. The scien- tific results of his travel are unfortunately not pre- sented in such orderly completeness as would have been given to them had Mouhot lived to arrange and to supplement the details of his fragmentary and out- lined journal. But notwithstanding these necessary defects, Mouhot's book deserves a high place, as giv- ing the most adventurous exploration of a country which appears more interesting the more and better it is known. The great ruins of Angkor (or Angeor) Wat, for example, near the boundary which separates Siam from Cambodia, were by him for the first time examined, measured, and reported with some ap- proach to scientific exactness. Among more recent and easily accessible works on the country, from some of which we have borrowed, may be mentioned, F. Vincent's, " Land of the White Elephant," 1874, A. Grehan's, " Koyaume de Siam," fourth edition, Paris, 1878, " Siam and Laos, as seen by our American Missionaries," Philadelphia, 1 884-, Carl Bock's " Temples and Elephants," London, 1884, EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH 81 AM 9 A. K. Colquhoun's, " Among the Shans," 1885, L. de Game's, " Travels in Indo-Chiua, etc.," 1872, Miss M. L. Cort's, " Siam, or the Heart of Farther India," 1886, and John Anderson's, " English Intercourse with Siam," 1890. The most authoritative map of Siam is that published in the " Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," London, 1888, by Mr. J. McCarthy, Superintendent of Surveys in Siam. CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY OF SIAM THE following description of the country is quoted with some emendations from Mr. Carl Bock's " Temples and Elephants." The European name for this land has been derived from the Malay word Sayam (or sajani), meaning "brown," but this is a conjecture. The natives call themselves Thai, i.e., " free," and their country Muang Thai, " the kingdom of the free." Including its dependencies, the Lao states in the north, and the Malay states in the south, Siam ex- tends from latitude 20 20' K to exactly 4 S., while, with its Cambodian provinces, its extreme breadth is from longitude 97 E. to about 108 E. The north- ern frontier of the Lao dependencies has not been defined, but it may be said, roughly, to lie north of the twentieth parallel, beyond the great bend of the Mekong River, the high range to the east of which separates Siam from Annam. To the south lie Cam- bodia and the Gulf of Siam, stretching a long arm down into the Malay Peninsula. On the west it abuts on Upper and Lower Burma, both now British possessions. Through Siam and Lao run two great mountain chains, both radiating from Yunnan through the L i f;iH w j ' ' fife. 1 1' " . N GEOGRAPHY OF SIAM 11 Shan states. The eastern chain stretches in a S.S.E. direction from Kiang Tsen right down to Cambodia, while the western chain extends in a southerly direc- tion through the Malay Peninsula. Their height rises sometimes to 9,000 feet, but it does not often seem to exceed 5,000 ; limestone, gneiss, and granite appear to form the main composition of the rocks. Between these two mountain-chains, with their ramifications, lies the great alluvial plain of the Meinam, a magnificent river, of which the Portuguese poet Camoens sings (Lusiad X. cxxv.) : " The Menam now behold, whose waters take Their sources in the great Chiamai lake," in which statement, however, the bard was misin- formed, the source being a mountain stream on the border of the Shan states, but within Lao territory, and not, as is generally marked on charts, in Yunnan. Near Kahang the main stream is joined by the Mei Wang, flowing S.W. from Lakon, the larger river being called above this junction the Mei Ping. The other great tributary, the Pak-nam-po, also called the Meinam Yome, joins it in latitude 15 45', after flowing also in a S.W. direction. To the annual inundation of the Meinam and its tributaries the fertility of the soil is due. Even as far up as in the Lao states the water rises from eight to ten feet during the rainy season. A failure of these inundations would be fatal to the rice crop, so that Siam is almost as much as Egypt a single river valley, upon whose alluvial deposits the welfare of millions depends. In this broad valley are to be 12 SI A M found the forty-one political divisions which make np Siam proper. The second great river of importance is the Bang- Pa Kong, which has its source in a barrier range of irregular mountains, separating the elevated plateau of Korat from the alluvial plains extending to the head of the Gulf of Siam. The river meanders through the extensive paddy-lands and richly culti- vated districts of the northeast provinces, and falls into the sea twenty miles east of the Meinam. An- other considerable river is the Meldong, which falls into the sea about the same distance to the west of Bangkok ; at its mouth is a large and thriving vil- lage of the same name. This is the great rice dis- trict, and from Meldong all np the river to Kanburi a large number of the population are Chinese. In this valley are salt-pits, on which the whole kingdom depends for its supply. The Meldong is connected with the Meinam by means of a canal, which affords a short cut to Bangkok, avoiding the sea-passage. A third river system, that of the Mekong, much the largest of all the rivers in Indo-China, drains the extreme north and east of Siam. This huge stream, which is also mentioned in Camoens' Lusiad, takes its rise near the sources of the Yangtse Kiang in Eastern Thibet, and belongs in nearly half its course to China. It was partly explored by M. Mouhot, and later (in 1868) by Lagree's expedition, who found it, in spite of the great body of water, impracticable for navigation. M. de Carne", one of the exploration party, thus sums up the results of the search for a new trade route into Southern China : " The difficulties OROGRAPHY OF SIAM 13 the river offers begin at first, starting from the Cam- bodian frontier, and they are very serious, if not in- surmountable. If it were attempted to use steam on this part of the Mekong the return would be most dangerous. At Khong an absolutely impassable bar- rier, as things are, stands in the way. Between Khong and Bassac the waters are unbroken and deep, but the channel is again obstructed a short distance from the latter. From the mouth of the river Ubone the Mekong is nothing more than an impetu- ous torrent, whose waters rush along a channel more than a hundred yards deep by hardly sixty across. Steamers can never plough the Mekong as they do the Amazon or the Mississippi, and Saigon can never be united to the western provinces of China by this immense water-way, whose waters make it mighty indeed, but which seems after all to be a work unfin- ished." Of the tributary states, the Laos, who occupy the Mekong valley and spread themselves among the wilds between Tongking, China, and Siam, are prob- ably the least known. In physique and speech they are akin to the Siamese, and are regarded by some writers as being the primitive stock of that race. They have some claims as a people of historical im- portance, constituting an ancient and powerful king- dom whose capital Vein-shan, was destroyed by Siam in 1828. Since then they have remained sub- ject to Siam, being governed partly by native heredi- tary princes, duly invested with gold dish, betel-box, spittoon, and teapot sent from Bangkok, and partly by officers appointed by the Siamese government. 14 SIAM Their besetting sin is slave-hunting, which was until recently pursued with the acquiescence of the Siam authorities, to the terror of the hill-tribes within their reach and to their own demoralization. Apart from the passions associated with this infamous trade the Laos are for the most part an inoffensive, unwarlike race, fond of music, and living chiefly on a diet of rice, vegetables, fruits, fish, and poultry. Pure and mixed, they number altogether perhaps some one million five hundred thousand. The most important of the Malay states is Q tied ha, in Siamese Muang Sai. Its population of half a million Malays is increased by some twenty thou- sand Chinese and perhaps five thousand of other races. The country is leve land covered with fine for- ests, where elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses abound. A high range of mountains separates Quedha from the provinces of Patani (noted for its production of rice and tin) and Songkhla. These again are divided from the province of Kalantan by the Banara River, and from Tringanu by the Batut River. In Ligor province, called in Siamese Lakhon, three-fourths of the population are Siamese. The gold and silver- smiths of Ligor have a considerable reputation for their vessels of the precious metals inlaid with a black enamel. As to the Cambodian provinces under Siamese rule the following particulars are extracted from a paper by M. Victor Berthier : The most important provinces are those lying to the west, Battambang and Korat. The former of these is situated on the west of the Grand Lake (Tonle GEOGRAPHY OF SIAM 15 Sap), and supports a population of about seventy thousand, producing salt, fish, rice, wax, and carda- moms, besides animals found in the forests. Two days' march from Battambang is the village of Ang- kor Borey (the royal town), the great centre of the beeswax industry, of which 24,000 pounds are sent yearly to Siam. Thirty miles from this place is situated the auriferous country of Tu'k Clio, where two Chinese companies have bought the monopoly of the mines. The metal is obtained by washing the sand extracted from wells about twenty feet deep, at which depth auriferous quartz is usually met, but working as they do the miners have no means of getting ore from the hard stone. Korat is the largest province and is peopled almost entirely by Cambodians. Besides its chief town of the same name it contains a great number of villages with more than eleven district centres, and contains a population estimated at fifty thousand or sixty thousand. Angkor, the most noted of the Cambo- dian provinces, is now of little importance, being thinly populated and chiefly renowned for the splen- dor of its ancient capital, whose remarkable ruins are the silent witnesses of a glorious past. The present capital is Siern Rap, a few miles south of which is the hill called Phnom Krom (Inferior Mount), which becomes an island during the annual inundation. The other Cambodian provinces now ruled by Siam are almost totally unknown by Europeans. The population of Siam has never been officially counted, but is approximately estimated by Europeans at from six to twelve millions. According to Mr. 16 SI AM Archibald Colqnhoun, however, this is based upon an entirely erroneous calculation. " Prince Prisdang as- sured me," he says,* " that Sir John Bowring had made a great mistake in taking the list of those who were liable to be called out for military service as the gross population of the kingdom ; and that if that list were multiplied by five, it would give a nearer ap- proximation to the population. M. Mouhot says that a few years before 1862 the native registers showed for the male sex (those who were inscribed), 2,000,000 Siamese, 1,000,000 Laotians (or Shans), 1,000,000 Malays, 1,500,000 Chinese, 350,000 Cambodians, 50,000 Peguans, and a like number composed of vari- ous tribes inhabiting the mountain-ranges. Taking these statistics and multiplying them by five, which Bishop Pallegoix allows is a fair way of computing from them, we should have a population of 29,950,- 000. To this would have to be added the Chinese and Peguans who had not been born in the country, and were therefore not among the inscribed ; also the hill tribes that were merely tributary and therefore merely paid by the village, as well as about one-seventh of the above total for the ruling classes, their families and slaves. This total would give at least 35,000,000 in- habitants for Siam Proper, to which would have to be added about 3,000,000 for its dependencies, Zimme (Cheung Mai), Luang Prabang, and Kiang Tsen, a gross population, therefore, of about 38,000,000 for the year 1860." On the other hand, Mr. McCarthy, a competent judge, considers the government estimate of ten million too high. * Amongst the Shans. London, 1885. CHAPTER III. OLD SIAM ITS HISTORY THE date at which any coherent and trustworthy history of Siain must commence is the found- ing of the sacred city of Ayuthia (the former capi- tal of the kingdom), in the year 1350 of the Christian era. Tradition, more or less obscure and fabulous, does indeed reach back into the remote past so far as the fifth century, B.C. According to the carefully arranged chronology of Bishop Pallegoix, gathered from the Siamese annals, which annals, however, are declared by His Majesty the late King to be " all full of fable, and are not in satisfaction for believe," the origin of the nation can be traced back, if not into indefinite space of time, at least into the vague and uncertain " woods," and ran on this wise : " There were two Brahminical recluses dwelling in the woods, named Satxanalai and Sitthimongkon, coeval with Plua Khodom (the Buddha), and one hundred and fifty years of age, who having called their numerous posterity together, counselled them to build a city having seven walls, and then departed to the woods to pass their lives as hermits. " But their posterity, under the leadership of Bathamarat, erected the city Savanthe valok, or 18 SI AM Sangkhalok, about the year 300 of the era of Phra Khodom (B.C. about 243). " Bathamarat founded three other cities, over which he placed his three sons. The first he ap- pointed ruler in the city of Haripunxai, the second in Kamphoxa nakhon, the third in Phetxabun. These four sovereignties enjoyed, for five hundred years or more, the uttermost peace and harmony under the rule of the monarchs of this dynasty." The places named in this chronicle are all in the valley of the upper Meinam, in the " north country," and the fact of most historical value which the chronicle indicates is that the Siamese came from the north and from the west, bringing with them the government and the religion which they still possess. The most conspicuous personage in these ancient annals is one Phra Huang, "whose advent and glorious reign had been announced by a communica- tion from Gaudama himself, and who possessed, in consequence of his merits, a white elephant with black tusks ; " he introduced the Thai alphabet, ordained a new era which is still in vogue, married the daughter of the emperor of China, and consoli- dated the petty princedoms of the north country into one sovereignty. His birth was fabulous and his departure from the world mysterious. He is the mythic author of the Siamese History. Born of a queen of the Nakhae (a fabulous race dwelling under the earth), who came in the way of his father, the King of Haripunxai, one day when the king had "retired to a mountain for the purpose of medita- tion, he was discovered accidentally by a huntsman, OLD SIAMITS HISTORY 19 and was recognized by the royal ring which his father had given to the lady from the underworld. When he had grown up he entered the court of his father, and the palace trembled. He was acknowl- edged as the heir, and his great career proceeded with uninterrupted glory. At last he went one day to the river and disappeared." It was thought he had rejoined his mother, the Queen of the Nakhae, and would pass the remainder of his life in the realms beneath. The date of Phra Huang's reign is given as the middle of the fifth century of the Christian era. After him there came successive dynasties of kings, ending with Phaja Uthong, who reigned seven years in Northern Cambodia, but being driven from his kingdom by a severe pestilence, or having volun- tarily abandoned it (as another account asserts), in consequence of explorations which had discovered " the southern country," and found it extremely fer- tile and abundant in fish, he emigrated with his peo- ple and arrived at a certain island in the Meinam, where he " founded a new city, Ivrfing theph maha nakhon Siajuthaja a great town impregnable against angeis : Siamese era 711, A.D. 1349." Here, at last, we touch firm historic ground, al- though there is still in the annals a sufficient admixt- ure of what the late king happily designates as "fable." The foundations of Ayuthia, the new city, were laid with extraordinary care. The sooth- sayers were consulted, and decided that " in the 712th year of the Siamese era, on the sixth day of the wan- ing moon, the fifth month, at ten minutes before 20 SIAM four o'clock, the foundation should be laid. Three palaces were erected in honor of the king ; and vast countries, among which were Malacca, Tennasserim, Java, and many others whose position cannot now be defined, were claimed as tributary states." King Uthong assumed the title Phra-Rama-thi-bodi, and after a reign of about twenty years in his new capi- tal handed down to his son and to a long line of suc- cessors, a large, opulent, and consolidated realm. The word Phra, which appears in his title and in that of almost all his successors to the present day, is said by Sir John Bowring to be " probably either derived from or of common origin with the Pharaoh of antiquity." But the resemblance between the words is simply accidental, and the connection which he seeks to establish is not for a moment to be ad- mitted. His Majesty the late King of Siam, a man of re- markable character and history, was probably, while he lived, the best-informed authority on all matters relating to the history of his kingdom. Fortunately, being a man of scholarly habits and literary tastes, he has left on record a concise and readable histori- cal sketch, from which we cannot do better than to make large quotations, supplementing it when neces- sary with details gathered from other sources. The narrative begins with the foundation of the royal city, Ayuthia, of which an account has already been given on a previous page. The method of writing the proper names is that adopted by the king him- self, who was exact, even to a pedantic extent, in re- gard to such matters. The king's English, however, 'Hffl P**T m OLD SI AM ITS HISTORY 21 which was often droll and sometimes unintelligible, has in this instance been corrected by the mission- ary under whose auspices the sketch was first pub- lished.* " Ayuthia when founded was gradually improved and became more and more populous by natural in- crease, and the settlement there of families of Laos, Kambujans, Peguans, people from Yunnan in China, who had been brought there as captives, and by Chi- nese and Mussulmans from India, who came for the purposes of trade. Here reigned fifteen kings of one dynasty, successors of and belonging to the family of U-T'ong Rarna-thi-bodi, who, after his death, was honorably designated as Phra Chetha Bida i.e., * Royal Elder Brother Father.' This line was inter- rupted by one interloping usurper between the thir- teenth and fourteenth. The last king was Mahintrd- thi-rat. During: his reisrn the renowned king of o o o Pegu, named Chamna-dischop, gathered an immense army, consisting of Peguans, Birmese, and inhabi- tants of northern Siam, and made an attack upon Ayuthia. The ruler of nothern Siam was Maha- thamma raja related to the fourteenth king as son- in-law, and to the last as brother-in-law. " After a siege of three months the Peguans took Ayuthia, but did not destroy it or its inhabitants, the Peguan monarch contenting himself with captur- ing the king and royal family, to take with him as * No attempt at uniformity in this respect has been made by the editor of this volume ; but, in passages quoted from different authors, the proper names are written and accented according to the various methods of those authors. 22 SIAM trophies to Pegu, and delivered the country over to be governed by Maha-tharnma raja, as a dependency. The king of Pegu also took back with him the oldest son of Maha-thamma raja as a hostage ; his name was Phra Naret. This conquest of Ayuthia by the king of Pegu took place A. D. 1556. " This state of dependence and tribute continued but a few years. The king of Pegu died, and in the confusion incident to the elevation of his son as suc- cessor Prince .Naret escaped with his family, and, attended by many Peguans of influence, commenced his return to his native land. The new king on hearing of his escape despatched an army to seize and bring him back. They followed him till he had crossed the Si-thong (Birman Sit-thaung) Biver, where he turned against the Peguan army, shot the commander, who fell from his elephant dead, and then proceeded in safety to Ayuthia. " War with Pegu followed, and Siam again be- came independent. On the demise of Maha-thamma raja, Prince Naret succeeded to the throne, and be- came one of the mightiest and most renowned rulers Siam ever had. In his wars with Pegu, he was ac- companied by his younger brother, Eka-tassa-rot, who succeeded Naret on the throne, but on account of mental derangement was soon removed, and Phra- Siri Sin Ni-montham was called by the nobles from the priesthood to the throne." With the accession of this last-mentioned sovereign begins a new dynasty. But before reproducing the chronicles of it we may add a few words concerning that which preceded. OLD SIAMITS HISTORY 23 This dynasty had lasted from the founding of Ay- uthia, A.D. 1350, until A.D. 1602, a period of two hundred years. Its record shows, on the whole, a remarkable regularity of succession, with perhaps no more intrigues, illegitimacies, murders, and assassina- tions than are to be found in the records of Christian dynasties. Temples and palaces were built, and among other works a gold image of Buddha is said to have been cast (in the city of Pichai, in the year A.D. 1380), " which weighed fifty-three thousand catties, or one hundred and forty - one thousand pounds, which would represent the almost incredible value (at seventy shillings per ounce) of nearly six millions sterling. The gold for the garments weighed two hundred and eighty-six catties." Another great image of Buddha, in a sitting posture, was cast from gold, silver, and copper, the height of which was fifty cubits. One curious tradition is on record, the date of which is at the beginning of the fifteenth century. On the death of King Intharaxa, the sixth of the dy- nasty, his two eldest sons, who were rulers of smaller provinces, hastened, each one from his home, to seize their father's vacant throne. Mounted on elephants they hastened to Ayuthia, and by strange chance ar- rived at the same moment at a bridge, crossing in opposite directions. The princes were at no loss to understand the motive each of his brother's journey. A contest ensued upon the bridge a contest so furi- ous and desperate that both fell, killed by each other's hands. One result of this tragedy was to make easy the way of the youngest and surviving 24 SIAM brother, who, coming by an undisputed title to the throne, reigned long and prosperously. During some of the wars between Pegu and Siam, the hostile kings availed themselves of the services of Portuguese, who had begun, by the middle of the sixteenth century, to settle in considerable numbers in both kingdoms. And there are still extant the narratives of several historians, who describe with characteristic pomposity and extravagance, the mag- nificence of the military operations in which they bore a part. One of these wars seems to have orig- inated in the jealousy of the king of Pegu, who had learned, to his great disgust, that his neighbor of Siam was the fortunate possessor of no less than seven white elephants, and was prospering mightily in consequence. Accordingly he sent an embassy of five hundred persons to request that two of the seven sacred beasts might be transferred as a mark of honor to himself. After some diplomacy the Siamese king declined not that he loved his neigh- bor of Pegu less, but that he loved the elephants more, and that the Peguans were (as they had them- selves acknowledged) uninstructed in the manage- ment of white elephants, and had on a former occa- sion almost been the death of two of the animals of which they had been the owners, and had been obliged to send them to Siam to save their lives. The king of Pegu, however, was so far from regard- ing this excuse as satisfactory that he waged furious and victorious war, and carried off not two but four of the white elephants which had been the casus It seems to have been in a campaign about OLD SI AM ITS HISTORY 25 this time that, when the king of Siam was disabled by the ignominious flight of the war elephant on which he was mounted, his queen, " clad in the royal robes, with manly spirit fights in her husband's stead, until she expires on her elephant from the loss of an arm." It is related of the illustrious Plira Karet, of whom the royal author, in the passage quoted on a previous page, speaks with so mnch admiration, that being greatly offended by the perfidious conduct of his neighbor, the king of Cambodia, he bound him- self by an oath to wash his feet in the blood of that monarch. " So, immediately on finding himself freed from other enemies, he assailed Cambodia, and besieged the royal city of Lavik, having captured which, he ordered the king to be slain, and his blood having been collected in a golden ewer he washed his feet therein, in the presence of his courtiers, amid the clang of trumpets." The founder of the second dynasty is famous in Siamese history as the king in whose reign was dis- covered and consecrated the celebrated footstep of Buddha, Plira Bat, at the base of a famous mountain to the eastward of Ayuthia. Concerning him the late king, in his historical sketch, remarks : " He had been very popular as a learned and re- ligious teacher, and commanded the respect of all the public counsellors ; but he was not of the royal fam- ily. His coronation took place A.D. 1602. There had preceded him a race of nineteen kings, excepting one usurper. The new king submitted all authority in government to a descendant of the former line of 26 SIAM kings, and to him also he intrusted his sons for ed- ucation, reposing confidence in him as capable of maintaining the royal authority over all the tributary provinces. This officer thus became possessed of the highest dignity and power. His master had been raised to the throne at an advanced age. During the twenty-six years he was on the throne he had three sons, born under the royal canopy i.e., the great white umbrella, one of the insignia of roy- alty. " After the demise of the king, at an extreme old age, the personage whom he had appointed as regent, in full council of the nobles, raised his eldest son, then sixteen years old, to the throne. A short time after, the regent caused the second son to be slain, under the pretext of a rebellion against his elder brother. Those who were envious of the regent ex- cited the king to revenge his brother's death as causeless, and plan the regent's assassination ; but he, being seasonably apprised of it, called a council of the nobles and dethroned him after one year's reign, and then raised his youngest brother, the third son, to the throne. " He was only eleven years old. His extreme youth and fondness for play, rather than politics or government, soon created discontent. Men of office saw that it was exposing their country to contempt, and sought for some one who might fill the place with dignity. The regent was long accustomed to all the duties of the government, and had enjoyed the confidence of their late venerable king ; so, with one voice, the child was dethroned and the regent OLD 81 AM ITS HISTORY 27 exalted under the title of Phra Chan Pra Sath-thong. This event occurred A.D. 1630," and forms the com- mencement of the third dynasty. " The king was said to have "been connected with the former dynasty, both paternally and maternally ; but the connection must have been quite remote and obscure. Under the reign of the priest-king he bore the title Raja Suriwong, as indicating a remote con- nection with the royal family. From him descended a line of ten kings, who reigned at Ayuthia and Lopha-buri Louvo of French writers. This line was once interrupted by an usurper between the fourth and fifth reigns. This usurper was the fos- ter-father of an unacknowledged though real son of the fourth king, Chau Narai. During his reign many European merchants established themselves and their trade in the country, among whom was Constantine Phaulkon (Faulkon). He became a great favorite through his skill in business, his sug- gestions and superintendence of public works after European models, and by his presents of many arti- cles regarded by the people of those days as great curiosities, such as telescopes, etc. " King JSTarai, the most distinguished of all Siam- ese rulers, before or since, being highly pleased with the services of Constantine, conferred on him the title of Chau Phya Wicha-yentra-the-bodi, under which title there devolved on him the management of the government in all the northern provinces of the country. He suggested to the king the plan of erecting a fort on European principles as a protection to the capital. This was so acceptable a proposal, 28 SIAM that at the king's direction he was authorized to select the location and construct the fort. " He selected a territory which was then employed as garden-ground, but is now the territory of Bang- kok. On the west bank, near the mouth of a canal, now called Bang-luang, he constructed a fort, which bears the name of Wichayeiw Fort to this day. It is close to the residence of his Royal Highness Chau- fa-noi Kromma Khun Isaret rangsan. This fort and circumjacent territory \vas called Thana-buri. A wall was erected, enclosing a space of about one hundred yards square. Another fort was built on the east side of the river, where the walled city of Bangkok now stands. The ancient name Bangkok was in use when the whole region was a garden.* The above- mentioned fort was erected about the year A.D. 1675. "This extraordinary European also induced his grateful sovereign King jS^arai to repair the old city of Lopha-buri (Louvo), and construct there an ex- tensive royal palace on the principles of European architecture. On the north of this palace Constan- tino erected an extensive and beautiful collection of buildings for his own residence. Here also he built a Romish church. The ruins of these edifices and their walls are still to be seen, and are said to be a great curiosity. It is moreover stated that he planned the construction of canals, with reservoirs at intervals for bringing water from the mountains on the northeast to the city Lopha-buri, and conveying * Such names abound now, as Bang-cha, Bang-phra, Bang-pla- soi, etc. ; Bang signifying a small stream or canal, such as is seen in gardens. OLD SIAMITS HISTORY 29 it through earthen and copper pipes and siphons, so as to supply the city in the dry season on the same principle as that adopted in Europe. He commenced also a canal, with embankments, to the holy place called Phra-Bat, about twenty-five miles southwest from the city. He made an artificial pond on the summit of Phra-Bat Mountain, and thence, by means of copper tubes and stop-cocks, conveyed abundance of water to the kitchen and bath-rooms of the royal residence at the foot of the mountain. His works were not completed when misfortune overtook him. " After the demise of Ndrai, his unacknowledged son, born of a princess of Yunnan or Chiang-Mai, and intrusted for training to the care of Phya Petcha raja, slew Narai's son and heir, and constituted his foster-father king, himself acting as prime-minister till the death of his foster-father, fifteen years after ; he then assumed the royal state himself. He is or- dinarily spoken of as Nai Dua. Two of his sons and two of his grandsons subsequently reigned at Ayu- thia. The youngest of these grandsons reigned only a short time, and then surrendered the royal author- ity to his brother and entered the priesthood. "While this brother reigned, in the year 1759, the Birman king, Meng-luang Alaung Barah-gyi, came with an immense army, marching in three divisions on as many distinct routes, and combined at last in the siege of Ayuthia. "The Siamese king, Chaufa Ekadwat Anurak Moutri, made no resolute effort of resistance. His great officers disagreed in their measures. The in- 80 SIAM habitants of all the smaller towns were indeed called behind the walls of the city, and ordered to defend it to their utmost ability ; but jealousy and dissen- sion rendered all their bravery useless. Sallies and skirmishes were frequent, in which the Birmese were generally the victorious party. The siege was con- tinued for two years. The Birmese commander-in- chief, Maha ISoratha, died, but his principal officers elected another in his place. At the end of the two years the Birmese, favored by the dry season, when the waters were shallow, crossed in safety, battered the walls, broke down the gates, and entered with- out resistance. The provisions of the Siamese were exhausted, confusion reigned, and the Birmese fired the city and public buildings. The king, badly wounded, escaped with his flying subjects, but soon died alone of his wounds and his sorrows. He was subsequently discovered and buried. " His brother, who was in the priesthood, and now the most important personage in the country, was captured by the Birrnans, to be conveyed in triumph to Birmah. They perceived that the country was too remote from their own to be governed by them ; they therefore freely plundered the inhabitants, beating, wounding, and even killing many families, to induce them to disclose treasures which they supposed were hidden by them. By these measures the Birmese officers enriched themselves with most of the wealth of the country. After two or three months spent in plunder they appointed a person of Mon or Peguan origin as ruler over Siam, and withdrew with numer- ous captives, leaving this Peguan officer to gather OLD 81 AM ITS HISTORY 31 fugitives and property to convey to Birmah at some subsequent opportunity. This officer was named Phra jSTai Kong, and made his headquarters about three miles north of the city, at a place called Pho Sam-ton, i.e., 'the three Sacred Fig-trees.' One ac- count relates that the last king mentioned above, when he fled from the city, wounded, was appre- hended by a party of travellers and brought into the presence of Phya Kai Kong in a state of great ex- haustion and illness ; that he was kindly received and respectfully treated, as though he was still the sov- ereign, and that Phya Nai Kong promised to con- firm him again as a ruler of Siam, but his strength failed and he died a few days after his apprehen- sion. " The conquest by Birmah, the destruction of Ayu- thia, and appointment of Phya Nai Kong took place in March, A.D. 1767. This date is unquestionable. The period between the foundation of Ayuthia and its overthrow by the Birmans embraces four hundred and seventeen years, during which there were thirty- three kings of three distinct dynasties, of which the first dynasty had nineteen kings with one usurper ; the second had three kings, and the third had nine kings and one usurper. " When Ayuthia was conquered by the Birmese, in March, 1767, there remained in the country many bands of robbers associated under brave men as their leaders. These parties had continued their depreda- tions since the first appearance of the Birrnan army, and during about two years had lived by plundering the quiet inhabitants, having no government to fear. 32 SIAM On the return of the Birman troops to their own country, these parties of robbers had various skir- mishes with each other during the year 1767. " The first king established at Bangkok was an ex- traordinary man, of Chinese origin, named Pin Tat. He was called by the Chinese, Tia Sin Tat, or Tuat. He was born at a village called Bantak, in Northern Siam, in latitude 16 N. The date of his birth was in March, 1734. At the capture of Ayuthia he was thirty-three years old. Previous to that time he had obtained the office of second governor of his own township, Tak, and he next obtained the office of governor of his own town, under the dignified title of Phya Tak, which name he bears to the present day. During the reign of the last king of Ayuthia, he was promoted to the office and dignity of govern- or of the city Kam-Cheng-philet, which from times of antiquity was called the capital of the western province of Northern Siam. He obtained this office by bribing the high minister of the king, Chaufa Ekadwat Anurak Moutri ; and being a brave war- rior lie was called to Ayuthia on the arrival of the Birman troops as a member of the council. But when sent to resist the Birman troops, who were har- assing the eastern side of the city, perceiving that the Ayuthian government was unable to resist the enemy, he, with his followers, fled to Chantaburi (Chantaboun), a town on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Siam, in latitude 12 K and longitude 102 10' E. There he united with many brave men, who were robbers and pirates, and subsisted by robbing the villages and merchant-vessels. In this way he be- OLD SI AM ITS HISTORY 33 came the great military leader of the district and had a force of more than ten thousand men. He soon formed a treaty of peace with the headman of Bangplasoi, a district on the north, and with Kam- buja and Annarn (or Cochin China) on the south- east." With the fall of Ayuthia and the disasters inflict- ed by the Bnrman army ended the third dynasty in the year 1767. So complete was the victory of the Burmese, and so utter the overthrow of the kingdom of Siam, that it was only after some years of disor- der and partial lawlessness that the realm became re- organized under strong centralized authority. The great military leader, to whom the royal chronicle from which we have been quoting refers, seems to have been pre-eminently the man for the hour. By his patient sagacity, joined with bravery and qualities of leadership which are not often found in the annals of Oriental warfare, he succeeded in expelling the Burmese from the capital, and in reconquering the provinces which, during the period of anarchy con- sequent on the Burmese invasion, had asserted sepa- rate sovereignty and independence. The war which about this time broke out between Burmah and China made this task of throwing off the foreign yoke more easy. And his own good sense and ju- dicious admixture of mildness with severity concili- ated and settled the disturbed and disorganized prov- inces. ^Notably was this the case in the province of Ligor, on the peninsula, where an alliance with the beautiful daughter of the captive king, and presently the birth of a son from the princess, made it easy to 34 SIAM attach the government of that province (and inci- dentally of the adjoining provinces), by ties of the strongest allegiance to the new dynasty. Joined with Phya Tak, in his adventures and suc- cesses as his confidential friend and helper, was a man of noble birth and vigorous character, who was, indeed, scarcely the inferior of the great general in ability. This man, closely associated with Phya Tak, became at last his successor. For, at the close of his career, and after his great work of reconstructing the kingdom was fully accomplished, Phya Tak became insane. The bonzes (or priests of Buddha), notwith- standing all that he had done to enrich the temples of the new capital (especially in bringing from Laos " the emerald Buddha which is the pride and glory of Bangkok at the present day "), turned against him, declaring that he aspired to the divine honor of Buddha himself. His exactions of money from his rich subjects and his deeds of cruelty and arbitrary power toward all classes became so intolerable, that a revolt took place in the city, and the king fled for safety to a neighboring pagoda and declared him- self a member of the priesthood. For a while his refuge in the monastery availed to save his life. But presently his favorite general, either in response to an invitation from the nobles or else prompted by his own ambition, assumed the sovereignty and put his friend and predecessor to a violent death. The accession of the new king (who seems to have shared the dignity and responsibility of government with his brother), was the commencement of the present dynasty, to the history of which a new chapter may OLD 81 AM ITS HISTORY 35 properly be devoted. But before proceeding with the history we interrupt the narrative to give sketches of two European adventurers whose exploits in Siam are among the most romantic and suggestive in her annals. CHAPTER IY. THE STOEIES OP TWO ADVENTURERS THE sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that gold- en age of discovery and adventure, did not fail to find in the Indo-Chinese peninsula brilliant op- portunities for the exercise of those qualities which made their times so remarkable in the history of the world. Marco Polo, the greatest of Asiatic travel- lers, dismisses Siam in a few words as a " country called Locac ; a country good and rich, with a king of its own. The people are idolaters and have a pecul- iar language, and pay tribute to nobody, for their coun- try is so situated that no one can enter it to do them ill. Indeed, if it were possible to get at it the Great Kaan [of China] would soon bring them under sub- jection to him. In this country the brazil which we make use of grows in great plenty ; and they also have gold in incredible quantity. They have ele- phants likewise, and much game. In this kingdom too are gathered all the porcelain shells which are used for small change in all those regions, as I have told you before. There is nothing else to mention except that this is a very wild region, visited by few people ; nor does the king desire that any strangers should frequent the country and so find out about his treas- ures and other resources." THE STORIES OF TWO ADVENTURERS 37 The Venetian's account, though probably obtained from his Chinese sailors, is essentially correct, and ap- plies without much doubt to the region now known as Siam. Sir Henry Yule derives LOCCLG either from the Chinese name Lo-hoh, pronounced Lo-Jcok by Polo's Fokien mariners, or from Lawek, which the late King of Siam tells us was an ancient Cambodian city occupying the site of Ayuthia, " whose inhabi- tants then possessed Southern Siam or Western Cam- bodia." Nearly three centuries after Polo, when the far East had become a common hunting-ground for Euro- pean adventurers, Siam was visited by one of the most extraordinary men of this type who ever told his thrill- ing tales. The famous Portuguese, Mendez Pinto, passed twenty-one years in various parts of Asia (1537- 1558), as merchant, pirate, soldier, sailor, and slave, during which period he was sold sixteen times and shipwrecked five, but happily lived to end his life peacefully in Portugal, where his published " Pere- grinacao " earned the fate of Marco Polo's book, and its author was stamped as a liar of the first magni- tude. Though mistaken in many of its inferences and details Pinto's account bears surprisingly well the ex- amination of modern -critical scholars. When we con- sider the character of the man and the fact that he must have composed his memoirs entirely from recol- lection, the wonder really is that he should have erred so little. The value of his story lies in the fact that we get from it, as Professor Vambery suggests, " a picture, however incomplete and defective, of the power and authority of Asia, then still unbroken. In 38 SIAM this picture, so full of instructive details, we perceive more than one thing fully worthy of the attention of the latter-day reader. Above all we see the fact that the traveller from the west, although obliged to en- dure unspeakable hardships, privation, pain, and dan- ger, at least had not to suffer on account of his nation- ality and religion, as has been the case in recent times since the all-puissance of Europe has thrown its threat- ejiing shadow on the interior of Asia, and the appear- ance of the European is considered the foreboding of material decay and national downfall. How utterly different it was to travel in mediaeval Asia from what it is at present is clearly seen from the fact that in those days missionaries, merchants, and political agents from Europe could, even in time of war, tra- verse any distances in Asiatic lands without molesta- tion in their personal liberty or property, just as any Asiatic traveller of Moslem or Buddhist persuasion." Pinto seems to have gone to Siam hoping there to repair his fortunes, which had suffered shipwreck for the fourth time and left him in extreme destitution. Soon after he joined in Odiaa (Ayuthia) the Portu- guese colony, which he found to be one hundred and thirty strong, he was induced with his countrymen to serve among the King's body-guards on an expedition made against the rebellious Shan states in the north. The campaign progressed favorably and ended in the subjection of the " King of Chiammay " and his allies, but a scheming queen, desirous of putting her paramour on the throne, poisoned the conqueror upon his return to Odiaa in 1545. " But whereas heaven never leaves wicked actions unpunished, the feU-0 H year after, 1546, and on January 15th, they were both slain by Oyaa Passilico and the King of Cam- ~baya at a certain banquet which these princes made in a temple." The usurpers were thus promptly de- spatched, but the consequences of their infamy were fateful to Siam, as Pinto informs us at some length. " The Empire of Slam remaining without a law- full successor, those two great lords of the Kingdom, namely, Oyaa Passilico, and the King of Cambaya, together with four or five men of the trustiest that were left, and which had been confederated with them, thought fit to chnse for King a certain religious man named Pretiem, in regard he was the naturall brother of the deceased prince, husband to that wicked queen of whom I have spoken ; whereupon this religious man, who was a Talagrepo of a Pagode, called Quiay Mitran, from whence he had not budged for the space of thirty years, was the day after drawn forth of it by Oyaa Passilico, who brought him on January 17th, into the city of Odiaa, where on the 19th he was crowned King with a new kind of cere- o mony, and a world of magnificence, which (to avoid prolixity) I will not make mention of here, having formerly treated of such like things. Withall pass- ing by all that further arrived in the Kingdon of Siam, I will content myself with reporting such things as I imagine will be most agreeable to the curious. It happened then that the King of Bramaa (Burmah), who at that time reigned tyrannically in Pegu, being advertised of the deplorable estate whereunto the Empire of Sornau (Siam) was reduced, and of the death of the greatest lords of the country, as also that 40 SIAM the new king of this monarchy was ar religions man, who had no knowledge either of arms or war, and, withall of a cowardly disposition, a tyrant, and ill be- loved of his subjects, he fell to consult thereupon with his lords in the town of Anapleu, where at that time he kept his court." The decision in favor of seizing this favorable opportunity for acquiring his neighbor's territory was practically unanimous, and the tyrant of Pegu ac- cordingly assembled an army of 800,000 men, 100,000 of whom were "strangers," i.e., mercenary troops, and among these we find 1,000 Portuguese, com- manded by one Diego Suarez d'Albergaria, nick- named Galego. So the Portuguese, as we shall see, played important parts on both sides of the great war that followed. After capturing the frontier defences, the Burmans marched across the country through the forests " that were cut down by three- score thousand pioneers, whom the King had sent before to plane the passages and wayes," and sat down before the devoted capital. " During the first five days that the King of Bramaa had been before the city of Odiaa, he had bestowed labour and pains enough, as well in making of trenches and pallisadoes, as in the providing all things necessary for the siege ; in all which time the besieged never offered to stir, whereof Diego Suarez, the marshall of the camp, resolved to execute the design for which he came ; to which effect, of the most part of the men which he had under his command, he made two separated squadrons, in each of which there were six battal- ions of six thousand a piece. After this manner he THE STORIES OF TWO ADVENTURERS 41 marched in battell array, at the sound of many in- struments, towards the two poynts which the city made on the south side, because the entrance there seemed more facile to him than any other where. So upon the 19th day of June, in the year 1548, an hour before day, all these men of war, having set up above a thousand ladders against the walls, en- deavoured to mount up on them ; but the besieged opposed them so valiently, that in less than half an hour there remained dead on the place above ten thousand on either part. In the mean time the King, who incouraged his souldiers, seeing the ill success of this fight, commanded these to retreat, and then made the wall to be assaulted afresh, making use for that effect of five thousand elephants of war which he had brought thither and divided into twenty troops of two hundred and fifty apiece, upon whom there were twenty thousand Moens and C/ialeus, choice men and that had double pay. The wall was then assaulted by these forces with so terrible an impetuosity as I want words to express it. For whereas all the elephants carried wooden castles on their backs, from whence they shot with muskets, brass eulverins, and a great number of harquebuses a crock, each of them ten or twelve spans long, these guns made such an havock of the besieged that in less than a quarter of an hour the most of them were beaten down ; the elephants withall setting their trunks to the target fences, which served as battlements, and wherewith they within de- fended themselves, tore them down in such sort as not one of them remained entire ; so that by this means the wall was abandoned of all defence, no man 4 42 SIAM daring to shew himself above. In this sort was the entry into the city very easy to the assailants, who being invited by so good success to make their profit of so favourable an occasion, set up their ladders again which they had quitted, and mounting up by them to the top of the wall with a world of cries and acclama- tions, they planted thereon in sign of victory a num- ber of banners and ensigns. Kow because the Turks (Arabs ?) desired to have therein a better share then the rest, they besought the King to do them so much favour as to give them the vantguard, which the King easily granted them, and that by the counsell of Diego Snares, who desired nothing more than to see their number lessened, always gave them the most danger- ous imployments. They in the mean time extra- ordinarily contented, whither more rash or more in- fortunate than the rest, sliding down by a pane of the wall, descended through a bulwark into a place which was below, with an intent to open a gate and give an entrance unto the King, to the end that they might rightly boast that they all alone had delivered to him the capital city of Siam / for he had before promised to give unto whomsoever should deliver up the city unto him, a thousand bisses of gold, which in value are five hundred thousand ducates of our money. These Turks being gotten down, as I have said, laboured to break open a gate with two rams which they had brought with them for that purpose ; but as they were occupied about it they saw themselves suddenly charged by three thousand Jaos, all resolute souldiers, who fell upon them with such fury, as in little more than a quarter of an hour there was not THE STORIES OF TWO ADVENTURERS 43 so much as one Turk left alive in the place, where- with not contented, they mounted up immediately to the top of the wall, and so flesht as they were and covered over with the blood of the Turks, they set upon the Uramad's men which they found there, so valiently that most of them were slain and the rest tumbled down over the wall. "The King of Bramaa redoubling his courage would not for all that give over this assault, so as imagining that those elephants alone would be able to give him an entry into the city, he caused them once again to approach unto the wall. At the noise hereof Oyaa Passilico, captain general of the city, ran in all haste to this part of the wall, and caused the gate to be opened through which the Bramaa, pretended to enter, and then sent him word that whereas he was given to understand how his High- ness had promised to give a thousand bisses of gold, he had now performed it so that he might enter if he would make good his word and send him the gold, which he stayed there to receive. The King of Bra- maa having received this jear, would not vouchsafe to give an answer, but instantly commanded the city to be assaulted. The fight began so terrible as it was a dreadfull thing to behold, the rather for that the violence of it lasted above three whole hours, during the which time the gate was twice forced open, and twice the assailants got an entrance into the city, which the King of Slam no sooner perceived, and that all was in danger to be lost, but he ran speedily to oppose them with his followers, the best souldiers that were in all the city : whereupon the conflict grew 44: SIAM much hotter than before, and continued half an hour and better, during the which I do riot know what passed, nor can say any other thing save that we saw streams of bloud running every where and the air all of a light fire ; there was also on either part such a tumult and noise, as one would have said the earth had been' tottering ; for it was a most dreadful thing to hear the discord and jarring of those barbarous in- struments, as bells, drums, and trumpets, intermingled with the noise of the great ordnance and smaller shot, and the dreadful yelling of six thousand elephants, whence ensued so great a terrour that it took from them that heard it both courage and strength. Die- go Suarez then, seeing their forces quite repulsed out of the city, the most part of the elephants hurt, and the rest so scared with the noise of the great ordnance, as it was impossible to make them return unto the wall, counselled the King to sound a retreat, where- unto the King yielded, though much against his will, because he observed that both he and the most part of the Portugals were wounded." The king's wound took seventeen days to heal, a breathing space which we can imagine both sides ac- cepted with satisfaction. Nothing daunted by the failure of his first onset, he attacked the city again and again during the four months of the siege, em- ploying against it the machines and devices of a Greek engineer in his service, and achieving prodigies of valor. At length, upon the suggestion of his Portuguese captain, he began " with bavins and green turf to erect a kind of platform higher than the walls, and thereon mounted good store of great ord- THE STORIES OF TWO ADVENTURERS 45 nance, wherewith the principal fortifications of the city should be battered.'' Considering the exhausted state of the defenders it is likely that this elaborate effort would have succeeded, but before the critical moment arrived word came from home that the " Xemindoo being risen up in Pegu had cut fifteen thousand Bramaas there in pieces, and had withal seized on the principal places of the country. At these news the King was so troubled, that without further delay he raised the siege and imbarqued him- self on a river called Pc