our Fathers his Subjects Men of extraordinary Merit and Capacity that under your Protection they may carry to China and Tartary the knowledg of the true Faith and get from thence all the observations of Astronomy and all the knowledg of the Arts and Sciences of a Nation for which the Reverend Father Philip Couplet whom his Majesty had the pleasure to see here hath wrought in him a very particular esteem All the six besides a great zeal and rare virtue have considerable advantage as to Languages and Sciences and the skill they have in the Mathematics hath made his Majesty make choice of them for his Mathematicians for which he hath given them all Letters Patents under the Great Seal of the Chancery Your Reverence will have the satisfaction by means of these Fathers to contract a kind of Commerce in favour of the Sciences betwixt two of the most powerful Sovereigns of the World and the greatest protectors of Sciences There is so great a resemblance betwixt the Prudence and Happiness of their Government the strength and number of their Armies the oeconomy and good order of their States the Blessing God gives their undertakings the Magnificence of their Courts the greatness and nobleness of their thoughts that it would seem those two admirable Princes finding nothing upon Earth so Great and August as themselves and being both born for the Glory of their age and the wellfare of their people ought to be as much united by the same heroic virtues and qualities which they have received from Heaven as they are seperated by the vast space of Seas and Land that disjoyn their Territories on Earth May the Supreme Lord of all Kings and Emperors who hath made them both the Defenders of the true Worship of God and Protectors of his Altars give them also the same thoughts as to Religion the same zeal for the propagation of the true Faith and the same earnestness in the publication and practice of the Gospel that the great Emperor of China may not be inferior to ours in that only essential point of true Grandeur which is wanting to the Dignity of his Person and the Happiness of his Reign all holy and zealous persons of this flourishing Kingdom wherein Louis the Great does sedulously establish the unity of the Catholic Faith Virtue and Piety by his Examples his Cares his Edicts and continual liberalities incessantly beg of Heaven the same Grace for your great Emperor We continually offer up our Prayers and Sacrifices to the true God for that We cannot believe that so many Virtues as he already possesses will be for ever without a reward for want of the Virtues of Christianity with which we hope he will consummate that great Merit which procures him so fair a Reputation all over the Earth I beseech you R. F. that for the satisfaction of our Great King which God hath given to Europe for a defender and restorer of the true Faith and whom according to all Prophecies he designs for the destruction of Mahometism you would still give us the best information you can of the Virtues Sentiments and Actions of your great Emperour for whom he hath already conceived so particular an esteem I likewise adjure you to Protect Assist and Favour as much as lies in your power those Zealous and Learned Missionaries whom he hath sent you and at whose Head he has placed Father Fautenay whose merit you know and who was looked upon by all the Learned Mathematicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences that is here entertained by the Liberalities of his Majesty as an extraordinary Man and one that was an honour to their Nation They bring you all the Observations and Curiosities of the Sciences of Europe in their greatest Perfection and are sent to you as pledges of other greater matters that his Majesty would do and without doubt will do hereafter for the satisfaction of your Great Monarch and of your self in particular so soon as he hath heard how his Mathematicians have been received and treated in China and what aids and assistances have been given them for puting in execution the orders that are enjoyned them I cannot express to your Reverence what advantageous consequences I do presage from the sending of these Fathers to you if it please God to give a Blessing to it Since they all set out from Court and the Capital City of this Realm where they have been bred for some time and highly considered for their Merit they will acquaint you with many things that will content your zeal and curiosity better than I can relate them in writing above all things I beg of your Reverence to believe them when they assure you that no Man living is more respectfully and more cordially than I am in the union of your Sacrifices and of your Apostolick Labour Reverend Father your most humble and obedient Servant DE LA CHAISE Of the Society of Jesus SOme days after they adjusted the number of those that were to go in the Ship with the Ambassador Besides the Abbot of Choisy who is well known in France by his Birth and Merit and who was to continue with the King of Siam in quality of Ambassador until his Baptism in case he should be converted The two Siam Mandarins Monsieur le Vachet Monsieur de Vaudricourt made Captain of the Ship. who came with them into France four other Churchmen and the six Jesuits were also taken on Board Monsieur le Vaudricourt commanded the Ship he is one of the oldest and ablest Sea-Captains the King has and has distinguished himself on several occasions both in the Chanel against the Dutch and in the Mediterranean in the War of Messina during twenty years that he hath served at Sea having never missed a Campaign wherein he was not actually in his Majesties Service We are particularly obliged to him for his Civilities and the good Offices he did us during our whole Voyage in such a manner as engages us to the highest acknowledgment M. Coriton was our second Captain we had two Lieutenants M. de Forbin and M. de Cibois and an Ensign called M. de Chamorean Of the twelve Gentlemen named by the King to wait on the Ambassador three were put on Board of us and the rest of the Frigat Commanded by Monsieur Joyeux Lieutenant of the Port of Brest who had already made several Voyages to the Indies The Ambassador goes on Board the Oyseau In fine the day of Embarquing being come on the first of March my Lord Ambassador accompanied by the Count of Chasteau-Renaud Commander of a Squadron and most of the Nobility and Gentry that were then at Brest went into the Kings Chaloupe and so on Board with sound of Trumpets Monsieur de Vaudricourt with all the Officers at the Head of the Soldiers and Seamen were in readiness to receive him on Board with the Colours Streamers and Pendants abroad Upon his entry the Ship saluted him with thirteen Guns and the
of Your Government the Magnificence of Your Court the Greatness of Your Dominions and what particularly You were willing that He should know by Your Ambassadors the Esteem You have for Him confirmed by that constant Protection which You give His Subjects especially the Bishops who are by me and who are the Ministers of the true God. He is very sensible of the many Illustrious Effects of the Esteem You have for Him and He resolves Sir to correspond with it to the utmost of His Power In that Design He is ready to treat with Your Majesty to send You of His Subjects to entertain â—nd encrease Commerce to give You all the Testimonies of a sincere Friendship and to begin betwixt the two Crowns an Vnion that may remain as strict to Posterity as Your Territories are separated from His by those vast Seas that disjoyn them But nothing will more confirm Him in that Resolution nor unite You more closely together than to live in the Sentiments of the same Belief And it is that particularly Sir which the King my Master a Prince so Wise and Sharp sighted tbat He hath always given good Counsel to the Kings that are His Allies hath commanded me to represent to You on His Part. He adjures You by the Interest which as being one of Your most sincere Friends he takes in Your real Glory to consider that Sovereign Majesty wherewith You are invested upon Earth cannot be derived from any but the true God that 's to say from an Omnipotent Eternal and Infinite God such as Christians acknowledge him to be who alone makes Kings to Reign and Rules the Fortune of all People To submit Your Grandure to this God who governs Heaven and Earth is much more Rational Sir than to refer them to the other Deities that are worshiped in the East whose Impotence Your Majesty who hath so much Light and Penetration cannot but easily see But it will be made far more palpable to You Sir if You 'l be pleased for some time to give a Hearing to the Bishops and other Missionaries that are here It will be the welcomest News that I can carry to my Master Sir that Your Majesty being convinced of the Truth takes pains to be instructed in the Christian Religion This will raise in Him a greater Esteem and Admiration for Your Majesty and make His Subjects more eager to come into Your Dominions and in a Word Sir will compleat Yoor Glory seeing by that Means Your Majesty having so prosperously Reigned upon Earth makes sure of an Eternal Reign in the Heavens The Bishop told the Lord Constance in Portuguese the Sense of his Excellencies Complement and that Minister explained it to the King in Siamese keeping in the mean while in a very respectful Posture as the other Princes and Lords did who still continued prostrate in the Hall at his Side but a little lower It would be no easie matter to describe the Joy and Gladness which King of Siam expressed on that occasion and during the whole Day It was a Surprise to the Ambassador In what manner the Ambassador presented the Kings Letter to the King of Siam when he entered the Hall to see the King so high above him and he seemed somewhat troubled that he had not been told of it When his Complement was made the next thing he was to do in course was to advance and present the King his Masters Letter to the King of Siam It was agreed upon with the Lord Constance that to shew greater Respect to the Kings Letter the Ambassador should take it from the Abbot de Choisi who for that end should stand by his Side during his Speech and hold the Letter in a golden Cup with a very long Foot. But the Ambassador perceiving the King so high above him that to reach up to him he must have taken the Cup by the lower part of the Foot and raised his Arm very high thought that that Distance suited not with his Dignity and that he ought to present the Letter nearer hand Having a little considered he thought it was his best Course to hold the Cup by the Boul and to stretch his Arm but half out The King perceiving the reason why he acted so rose up smiling and stooping with his Body over the Throne met him half way to receive the Letter He then put it upon his Head which was a Mark of extraordinary Honour and Esteem that he was willing to shew to the great King that sent it After that he made answer to the Ambassador that he was extreamly obliged to his most Christian Majesty for the Honour he did him and that he had no greater desire than to entertain an eternal Peace and Amity with his Majesty He then asked him about that Princes Health whom he always called his good Friend and about the Health of all the Royal Family and expressed his Gladness that his Excellence and all his Retinue were arrived in good Health The Ambassador presents the Abbot of Choisi and the Gentlemen of his Retinue to the King of Siam The Ambassador having thanked his Majesty for all his Favours presented to him the Abbot of Choisi as a Person of Merit and the Gentlemen of his Retinue saying that they were all Officers in the Kings Fleet that most of them had been on several Occasions engaged against the Enemy's of the State and therein signalized their Valour The King listned to him with a great deal of satisfaction and then turned the Discourse upon the Ambassadors whom he had sent into France of whom he had no News He enlarged a pretty while upon the Praises of the King seeming overjoyed to hear what the Ambassador told him of his Greatness Wisdom Conquests and of the Peace which he had given to Europe In fine he bid tell the Ambassador that if he stood in need of any thing in his Kingdom for himself and Followers he should address himself to his Barcalon whom he had expresly charged to satisfie him in all things So the first Audience ended with much satisfaction on both sides The Ambassador sees the white Elephant in his Apartment When the Ambassador came out of the Hall the Lord Constance carried him to see the white Elephant which is so highly esteemed in the Indies and which hath been the cause of so many Wars He is but little and so old that he is wrinkly all over Several Mandarins are appointed to take care of him and he is only served in Gold at least the two Basons that were set before him were of beaten Gold of an extraordinary Size and Thickness His Apartment is stately and the Ceiling of the Pavilion where he stands very neatly gilt It being now late the Ambassador came out of the Royal Palace and in the same Pomp and Order that he came to his Audience went to the House that was prepared for him Sometime after the Bishop was sent for by Orders from the King to translate the
no more in the World but slides into on Eternal repose which was thought to have been a real annihilation because they were not rightly understood Then another God succeeds to him and governs the Universe in his place which is nothing else but to teach men the true Religion Men may become Gods Men may become Gods. but not till after a very considerable time for they must needs have required a consummated Virtue Nor is it enough to have done a great many good Works in their Bodies where their Souls have lodged they must also at every good Action they do have an intention of meriting Divinity they mâ—â—t have intimated that intention by invoking and taking to witness the Angels who preside in the four Parts of the World at the beginning of their good work and they must have poured out water imploring the Succours of the She-tutelary Angel of the Earth called Naang pprathoram for they believe as we shall shew hereafter that there is a diversity of Sex amongst Angels as well as amongst Men. They who desire to be Gods carefully observe that Practice Besides that state of Divinity to which the most perfect aspire there is another not so high The Siamesâ— acknowledge a permanent state of Sanctity which they call the state of Sanctity It it enough for being a Saint that having past through several Bodies one has acquired many Virtues aad that in the Acts which men do they have proposed the acquisition of Sanctity The Properties of Sanctity are the same with those of Divinity The Saints possess them as well as God does but in a far more imperfect degree besides that God has them of himself without receiving them from another whereas the Saints derive them from him by the Instructions he gives them It is he who teaches them all those Secrets whereof he hath a perfect Knowledg And therefore it is that if they be not born whilst he is in the world since they cannot receive his Documents they are not sanctified So that it is their custom in doing good Works to desire the Grace to be born again at the same time their God is What we have said of the Deity that it is not consummated till God dying upon Earth ascends up into Heaven that he may no more appear here below ought in like manner to be understood of Sanctity for it is not perfect till the Saints die not to be born again and till their Souls be carried into Paradice there to enjoy eternal Felicity The Siamese believe a Heaven and a Hell. These and the like are the Sentiments of these People touching the Deity And seeing they have sense enough to know that Vice is to be punished and Virtue rewarded they believe a Paradice where the Just enjoy the pleasure which their good works have merited and a Hell where the wicked receive the chastisement due unto their crimes They place Paradice in the highest Heaven and Hell in the Center of the Earth The Pleasures of Paradice and the Pains of Hell are not eternal they shall be there but for a certain time which is longer or shorter according as they have done more or less good works or committed more or fewer sins What the Siamese believe of Hell. They say that in Hell there are Angels who administer Justice and take care to mark exactly all the bad Actions of Men examine them after their Death and with extream severity punish them for the same They have a ridiculous imagination as to the Judgment that then passes they are perswaded that the first of these Judges whom they call Prayomppaban hath a Book wherein the Life of every particular man is registred that he continually reads it over and that when he comes to the Page which contains the History of that man he never fails to sneeze Therefore it is say they that we sneeze upon Earth and thence proceeds the Custom they have of wishing a happy and long Life to all that sneeze Hell is divided into eight Habitations which are as it were eight degrees of Pain nay they believe also that there is a Fire which burns the damned They fancy to themselves also in Heaven eight degrees of Beatitude What they believe of Heaven They 'l have the same things to happen there as upon Earth and affirm that there are Kings Princes and People there that there they wage War fight Battels and obtain Victories that Marriage it self is not banished from thence that in the first second and third Habitations the Saints may have Children that in the fourth in fine there is no more Concupiscence nor Marriage and so Purity daily encreases till one come to the last Heaven which is properly Paradice called in their Language Niruppan where the Souls of the Saints and Gods live in perfect Purity and sovereign Felicity They maintain that all the Good or Evil that happens to men is the effect of their good or bad Works and that one is never unfortunate and innocent at the same time Thus Wealth Honours Sanctity and Divinity are the Rewards of a virtuous Life and on the contrary Infamy Poverty Diseases Death and Hell are the punishments of Sins which men have committed And whether one be born again under human shape or under the figure of any Animal they attribute the Advantages wherewith one comes into the world as Goodness Gracefulness Wit or Nobility to the Merit of good Works and natural Deserts as Ugliness Mutilation of Members and the like to the Debauches of this or the other Lives which went before it All these things say they are so many certain Marks which discover to us what Lives men have led before they were born in this state and this is the Source of that prodigious diversity which appears in their Conditions their Lives and their Death Being prepossessed with these Errors they slight what you tell them of Original Sin and the Effects thereof and they call the Disobedience and Punishment of our first Father a meer Fiction Upon a Religious account the Siame e respect those who are any ways Eminent by the advantages of body mind or Fortune The Souls of men that are born again in the World come from three different Places from Heaven from Hell or out of the Bodies of Animals They whose Souls come from Heaven are distinguished by some advantageous Signs they have for their share Virtue Beauty Health Wealth and they are born great Men and handsom Princes Upon this Principle these People shew great respect for men of Dignity or of an illustrious Extraction because they look upon them as those who are shortly to be deified or sanctified sâ—eing they have done good Works enough to merit that high Rank of Honour to which they are raised They whose Souls come out of the Bodies of other Animals are less perfect than the former but far more however than those that come from Hell. They look upon these last as Rogues whose Crimes
make them deserve all kinds of Disasters And thence proceeds the Horror which the Siamese have for the Cross of Christ For in short do they answer when one speaks to them about that if he had been a just man his Justice and good Works would have saved him from the shameful punishment he suffered and protected him from the fury of his Enemies They distinguish two things in Sin They know the punishment and guilt of Sin. the guilt and the punishment reserved in Hell for the Sinner The punishment may very well be remitted or lessened in this Life by good works and good resolutions but the guilt is never blotted out till one be first punished by Death or other Miseries In the punishing of Sins the Law of like for like is exactly observed for if you have killed a man you shall die a violent death in this Life or in another If you have killed a Serpent a Serpent shall sting you to death if you have robbed any Birds Nest and carried away her young you shall one day be after one or more transmigrations snatched out of the arms of your Parents in your tenderest Infancy and forsaken of those that could any way assist you Nay their God himself had not the power to exempt himself from that rigorous Law for at the age of fourscore and two years he was put to death by a Monster called Man whom heretofore he had killed at the like age under the shape of a Pig. If the Fault a man hath committed in his Life-time be but slight he may by the good he does or by the good will he has to do so merit that the punishment which he ought to suffer in Hell be remitted either wholly or in part at least But if the Sin be grievous no good Works can expiate it he must blot it out by suffering in Hell all the pains that it deserves And this hath given ground to a Tradition received amongst them that God neither could nor as yet can deliver his Brother from the pains of Hell to which he is condemned So there is not any good Action but what is rewarded in Heaven nor any Crime but what is punished in Hell. Hence they conclude that when a man dies upon Earth he acquires a new Life in Heaven that here he may enjoy the happiness that is due to his good Works and that the time of his Reward being finished he dies in Heaven that he may be born again in Hell if he lie under any considerable sin that if it be only a slight fault he is guilty of he enters again into the world under the shape of some Animal and having in that state satisfied Justice becomes man again as before In this manner they explain the Metempsychosis which is one of the fundamental Points of their Religion so that the Life of Man is pent in continual transmigrations until he be sanctified or hath deserved to be a God. They allow of Spirits but these Spirits are nothing else but Souls which still inform some-body until they attain to Sanctity or Divinity They believe Angels to be corporal Angels are corporal and as there are different Sexes amongst them so they may beget Sons and Daughters These Angels are never sanctified nor deified It is their part only to take continual care of the Preservation of Men and of the Government of the Universe They distribute them into seven Orders or Hierarchies whereof some are more perfect and noble than oâ—hers and they place them in so many different Heavens Each part of the world hath one of these Intelligences that presides over all that is done there They assign them also to Stars the Earth Towns Mountains Forests nay even to the Wind and Rain And because they are perswaded that these Angels are constantly busied in examining the conduct of Men and that they are witnesses of all their Actions to reward such as are laudable by virtue of the Merits of their God it is to these Intelligences and not to their God that they are wont to apply themselves in their Necessities and Miseries and they thank them for the Favours which they think they have received from them They acknowledg no other Devils but the Souls of the wicked They acknowledge no other Devils but damned Souls which coming out of hell where they were detained for a certain time roam about the World and do men all the mischief they can Among those wretched Spirits they also râ—ckon Children still born Women that die in Child-Bed those that are killed in Duels or who are guilty of some other Crimes of that nature They relate strange things of some Anchorites whom they call Ppra Rasi They tell strâ—nge stories of certain Anchorites who retreating into dismal Solitudes and thick Woods lead a most holâ— and most austere Life These Solitaries according to their Books have a most perfect knowledg of the most hidden Secrets of Nature They can make Gold Silver and the most precious Metals The most astonishing Miracle is not above their power They take all the shapes they please fly in the Air and in an instant are where they have a mind to be But though these extraordinary men might render themselves immortal because they know the means of prolonging Life yet every thousand years they sacrifice it to God by consuming themselves upon a Funeral Pile all but one who remains to raise the rest by virtue of his Charms It is no less dangerous than difficult to meet with these miraculous Men for nothing less than Life is risked by the Rencounter Nevertheless one may learn in the Books of the Talapoins the way that is to be taken and the means which are to be made use of for attaining to the places where they are Their Belief touchinâ— the Eternity of the World. They reckon the Heaven and Earth to be uncreated and eternal and cannot conceive how the World could ever have a beginning or that it should have an end They 'l have every Star and Planet to be the habitation of a particular Angel. They reckon only seven Planets and the Names they give them serve also for the seven Days of the Week as in the Latin Tongue After all the Stars are fastened to no Body they hang in the Air and have their particular Motions The Earth in the opinion of the Siamese is flat and square The Earth in their Philosophy is not round it is only a flat Surface they divide it into four square parts which they call Thavip The Waters by which those four parts are separated not being navigable because of their extream subtility hinder the commerce that they might have one with another The whole Earth is encompassed with an extreamly strong and very high Wall. On this Wall all the Secrets of Nature are engraven in great Characters and there it is that these wonderful Hermits whom I mentioned learn all the admirable things they know for they easily
to see one of the King's Palaces that was hard by We only saw the outside of it because the House-keeper had Orders to suffer none to enter it It seems to be a very little and narrow Palace encompassed on the outside with a little low Gallery in form of a Cloyster but very irregular in its Architecture the Pedestals being full as high as the Pilasters Round that Gallery runs a low Balcony encompassed with Rails and Balisters of Stone Breast-high About an hundred paces from that Palace The description of a Palace of the King of Siam built after the European manner we saw another much bigger and far more regular On the outside there are great Pilasters at an equal distance from one another which savour very much of Art It stands in a great Square above an hundred and fifty or sixty paces in length On the four sides there are four very high Piles of Buildings in form of Galleries and covered with a double Roof made round above like an Arch. These Galleries on the outside are adorned with most lovely Pilasters having their Bases and Capitols proportioned much after the manner of ours so that the Architector who built that old Palace abandoned at present tho' it be almost entire and incomparably finer than the new one must have had great skill in the Architecture of Europe so regular is that Fabrick These Galleries are only open at the doors that are in the middle of each Front and over these there are Buildings on all hands higher than the first and in the middle of all a great Body of Lodgings overlooking all the rest which with them makes a Fabrick of most excellent Symmetry It is the only regular and well proportioned Building that we found in that Countrey Having seen that Palace we went streight to Louvo where the Palace which was just finished and built at the King's Charges for the Lord Constance was prepared for my Lord Ambassador This Minister came and received him there and told him casting a most obliging Eye upon us that having been informed of the Goodness he had for his Brethren he made no doubt but that he would willingly take up his Quarters in a House which belonged to them After Supper we were conducted into a little Apartment of Mats and Bambous made purposely for us hung with painted Cloth and furnished with very neat Summer-Beds But the Lord Constance perceiving that our Instruments and Baggage would not be stowed in that place with us ordered large Lodgings belonging to the King to be furnished for us that we might have more room there whilst he could accommodate us more conveniently Within a few days after our Arrival at Louvo the Lord Constance conducted my Lord Ambassador to an Audience The King gives the Ambassador an Audience at Louvo We all waited on him to the Palace it being the Lord Constance's desire that we should do so because the King had a mind to see us privately and would have us make the Observation of the Eclipse of the Moon which was to be within three Weeks in his Presence The Bishop and Abbot of Lyonne followed the Ambassador to the Hall of Audience In the mean time we considered the Garden and outside of the Palace It has a most excellent Situation being seated by the River side upon a smooth and even Eminence and is of a large Compass We saw nothing remarkable but two great separated Piles of Building and the Roofs all shining with Gold. In this they are singular that they are covered with yellow varnished Tiles which glitter like Gold when the Sun shines upon them we were told that every one of these Tiles cost about ten groats Without the Palace we saw a Lion presented by the French Company to the King It seemed to be bigger handsomer and stronger than those at Vincennes but his Hair is not altogether so yellow The Audience lasted almost two hours Whilst they discoursed of several things the King took occasion to tell the Ambassador that he was informed six Jesuits were come with him that they were the French Kings Mathematicians whom his Majesty sent to make Observations in the Indies and to labour in the perfection of Arts and that he should be glad to see those Learned Men. The Ambassador let not slip the occasion of doing us that good Office and spoke many things in our Favours The King was not then so high above the Ambassador as he was at the firlt Audience He wore upon his Head a white painted Cap encompassed below with a Circle of Diamonds He was cloathed in a strait Coat purled with Gold having over it a large Vest of a very fine and transparent Stuff He had some large Diamonds on his Fingers but they were ill cut and ill set As he has more wit than your Oriental Princes commonly have he said many things very wittily to the Glory of the most Christian King and obligingly for the Ambassador He added that he prayed the God of Heaven to give him a more speedy and successful Voyage homeward than he had in coming abroad In the Evening the Lord Constance invited abroad the Ambassador with all his Attendants to take the Air all severally mounted upon Elephants They that ride them sit on the middle of their Back in a kind of a very wide Chair environed with small gilt Rails but without a Back whilst two Officers that serve the Elephant one upon his Neck and another on his Rump govern him with a great Iron Hook as may be seen by the Figure It is to be observed that these Beasts have their Domestic Servants as Persons of Quality have The least have fifteen men that wait upon them quarterly and others have twenty twenty five thirty and forty according to their Rank but the white Elephant has an hundred The Lord Constance told me that the King hath at least twenty thousand in his whole Kingdom not to reckon the wild that are among the Woods and Mountains Sometimes they 'l take fifty sixty nay eighty of them at one single bout of Hunting The Gentlemen of the Academy Royal of Sciences recommended it to us to examine whether or not all Elephants had Claws in their feet The Elephants have five Toes in each Foot. we saw not so much as one but that had five on each foot at the end of five great Toes but their Toes are so short that they hardly peep out of the fleshy Lump We observed that their Ears are nothing near so big as they are commonly painted and are less by a half than they are made to be in the Cut that was given us of one Some we have seen who had Teeth of extraordinary Beauty and Length they reach above four foot out of the mouth of some of them and at certain distances are adorned with Rings of Gold Silver and Copper In one of the King's Countrey-Houses upon the River side about a League from Siam I saw a little
Sir to make any suitable Returns for so great Favours but since we cannot do it as we ought to do we hope your Majesty will suffer us to do it the best way we can We are the Servants of the true God and the Subjects of a great Monarch As the Subjects of so great a King we will inform him of the Favours your Majesty hath shewed us and as Servants of the true God we will make our earnest Prayers to him that he would in all things prosper your Reign and so enlighten your Majesty with his Divine Truths that after so glorious a Reign upon Earth you may come to the Possession of the Glories of Heaven Some days after the L. Constance discoursed his Majesty about a Project which he had had a long time in his thoughts of bringing to Siam twelve Jesuits Mathematicians whom he had already demanded of our Reverend Father General and about the Design of building an Observatory in imitation of Paris and Pekin He made his Majesty sensible of the Glory and Profit that would thereby redound to him and the Advantage that his Subjects would reap from it who would be taught the finest Arts and Sciences of Europe His Majesty much approved that Project and bid the Lord Constance tell us that he would have an Observatory built in his Kingdom which he would bestow upon the Fathers of the Company of Jesus whom he much esteemed and whom he would protect and favour in all things that lay in his power Whereupon the Lord Constance thought it fit that some of us should return to France to press that Affair which seemed to him to be of extream consequence for Religion He mentioned it one day to the Father Superior when we were all three together We joyfully consented to it and the Commission falling upon me I had Orders presently to prepare for my Return It grieved me to the heart then to see my self for a long time removed to so great a distance from China which I had longed after for so many years The Lord Constance who is no less ready to embrace the Occasions of advancing the Glory of God than of procuring Advantages to his Master communicated to us another View which he thought might contribute much to the Conversion of the Siamese He pretends that if once their Esteem and Affection can be gained by Zeal Meekness and Learning it will be no difficult matter to dispose them to hearken to Instruction That he throughly knew the temper of that Nation and no man better why Christianity hath made no greater progress at Siam after so many years endeavours of having it planted there that besides the Observatory there must be another House of Jesuits where they should as much as lay in their power lead the austere and retired Life of the Talapoins that have so great credit with the people that they should take their Habit visit them often and endeavour to convert some of them to the Christian Religion that in short it was well known how that Conduct had succeeded with the Portuguese Jesuits who are at Madura towards Bengal The truth is we have learnt from several places and very lately too at Siam from a French Missionary who had been at St. Thomas two Months before that these Fathers had liâ—ed several years amongst those People and applied themselves with care and pains to their Conversion without any considerable fruit One of them who had been made Superior of that Mission having long implored Assistance from heaven and reflecting on the Reverence that those People had for the Bramines who are their Priests and Religious thought that if he did take the Habit of the Bramens and lived after their manner he might gain Crediâ— amongst them and win them over to Jesus Christ He communicated that Design to his Superiors who proposed it to the Congregation de propaganda Fide. It was considered of at Rome and it being represented to the Cardinals that the Habits the Bramens wore were no Mark of Religion but of Nobility and eminent Quality they permitted that Father and some other Jesuits who approved his Judgment to try that last way for the Conversion of those People Having so taken the Badge of the Bramens they began to live as they did and since that time these Apostolic Men have been seen walking upon the burning hot Sand bare-footed and bare-headed and continually exposed to the heat of the Sun which is extraordinary there because the Bramens wear no Stockings nor Shoes and never cover their Head living on nothing but Herbs and spending three or four days without eating under a Tree or on the high way waiting till some Indian affected with such surprizing austerity should come and hear them God hath so much blessed their Zeal and Mortification that they have converted above threescore thousand Indians and the People come flocking in so great numbers to be instructed that they value not all the hardship and trouble they have endured The same Church-man added that he had seen one of those Fathers whose feet had been all chopt with the burning Sand which getting afterwards into the Wounds put him to extream pain and raised strange Swellings Upon what he told us of these Missions we earnestly desired to see a more ample Relation of them being perswaded that we should therein meet with rare Examples of Zeal and great ground of Edification A VOYAGE TO SIAM The Fifth BOOK Of our Return from Siam WHen it was resolved upon that I should return to France the Lord Constance redoubled the Testimonies of Friendship wherewith he had till then honour'd me telling me that he wished he might frequently discourse me in private Next day I went to see him according as he had enjoyned me at parting I found him taken up in preparing Presents for those who had had the greatest hand in the Favour which the King had done us of sending us to China and making us draw near to see them these are but very mean Presents said he for so great Lords But you shall tell them Father that I came to know of it but very late and after I had given away all the finest and most curious things I had For besides the Presents which he sent to France and that he had given to the French who were at Siam he had sent some very considerable to Portugal by the three Ambassadors whom the King of Siam had dispatched to Lisbone sometime before we arrived there Nor is it said he a Present that I would have them take as from me but as from one of your Brothers to thank them for the Goodness they have for you and the Protection they honour you with We could make no answer to such obliging Expressions but by our most humble Thanks but he would not hear us interrupting and adjuring us not to speak to him in that Strain that being our Brother he was perwaded he did no more but his Duty The same day that we had
which the King had presented him with Before I left the City I had a long Discourse with Father Suarez and Father Fucity These Fathers have learnt to suffer without complaining and as to that point they have a niceness of Conscience that makes them observe Measures that the strictest Morality could not always comply with They only hinted to me that they had been surprised that the Jesuits of the Indies should be accused of taking Money as it is practised in Parishes for Administring Baptism saying Mass c. seeing an infinite Number of People could bear Witness to the contrary and they protested to me before God that never any thing had been done that might in the least alter the Rule of our Institution I had long desired an Opportunity of being cleared as to a Matter of Fact that had made a Noise but I had forgot to do it till then I asked them if it was true that a certain Minister of Batavia called Ferreira was an Apostate Jesuit as it was given out They made me answer that he had never been neither of our Company nor of any other religious Society which he had acknowledged to several Persons and to Father Fucity himself at Batavia that perhaps the thing that had given occasion to the Report was the Conformity in Name which he had with a Jesuit who is also called Ferreira and who hath been formerly mentioned from whence ground had been taken to confound the two into one Person Would to God that the Original of such kind of Reports were only to be attributed to a bare Mistake for how many such have been of late years published in certain Libels that have flown about in Holland Distance of Place hath in this favoured the Malicious and the natural Inclination or Interest that Men have to give Credit to that that 's Evil has been the cause that some have believed it Having viewed things at nearer distance I have with humble Submission adored Providence that suffers Men sometimes to lash out and speak the worst of those of whom had they been just they might have said the best They ought to consider that very far from injuring those whom they would decry they only exercise their Patience keep them humble and hinder them from receiving in this World a weak recompence for the Labours which deserve a more solid Reward in Heaven which is a great Kindness to them whereas all reflects upon Religion which is exposed to the Censure of Hereticks and the Contempt of Infidels We parted from Siam the Fourteenth of December about four or five a Clock in the Evening Departure from Siam The Lord Constance who would wait upon the Ambassador as far as the Bar followed him in a stately and princely Balon which the King sometime since had obliged him to take and just such another as that which carried the Ambassador The Train consisted of twenty Balons of State which went as low as the Tabangue where he was received the Day of his Entry As soon as they arrived there they drew up and made a Lane according to their Quality that the Ambassadors Balon might pass betwixt them and so the Mandarins who were on board of them took their Leave and returned We came to Bancok about four a Clock in the Morning where the Lord Constance prayed the Ambassador to stay till next Day that he might view the Fortifications of the Citadel and give his Judgment of them Whilst we were at Bancok The King of Siams Letter is carried on board the Oyseau a Frigat of the King of Siam's past that way carrying the Letter which his Majesty wrote to the King of France The Letter was in a Gold Box shaped like a Cone and this Box was put up in another bigger Silver Box which also was enclosed within a third of Japan Wood varnished wrapped up in a piece of rich Silk Stuff flowered with Gold. All this was in a gilt Pyramid placed aloft on the Stern of the Frigat with many Parasols to cover it When the Frigat past by with its Convoy of Balons of State the Governors of Places that lye upon the River made a Discharge of all their Artillery and every one of them waited upon the Letter as far as their Government reached receiving it from one another with the same Honours and Ceremonies Sunday December the Sixteenth the Ambassador arrived at the Bar and the same Day about seven of the Clock at Night went on board the Oyseau As I had been all along in the Balon of the Lord Constance so he would have me to go on board of one of his Frigats at the Mouth of the River and stay with him there two Days to dispatch some Business There he gave me a Letter to the King which I have had the Honour to present to his Majesty We afterwards weighed and came to an Anchor again near the Ambassadors Ship to do him the Honour that he had never done to any before The King of Siam's Ambassadors who were not as yet come on board the Oyseau desired the Ambassador to send them the Long-boat to carry on board their Masters Letter They went and fetcht it from the Frigat and when they were come to the Ships side the second Ambassador put the Pyramid wherein it was upon his Shoulders and so came on board no body daring to touch it It was placed upon aloft on the Stern with the Parasols and one and twenty Guns were fired at the Ceremony Nevertheless the Ambassadors were prevailed upon to carry it into their Cabin because being so placed it would hinder the working of the Ship. The Ambassador and Lord Constance visited one another on board their Ships with the usual Salutes and the last time that the Lord Constance came on board the Oyseau to take his Leave of the Ambassador they gave one another great marks of mutual Friendship and parted with Grief Our three Fathers who were come so far returned with the Lord Constance and Bishop of Metellopolis leaving me troubled and pensive but I endeavoured to moderate my Sorrow by the hopes of seeing them again within a few years When all were gone into the Chaloop the Lord Constance called me and gave me a Chapelet made of the costly Wood of Calamba but the Cross and great Beads were of Tambag Then the Chaloop put off and we saluted her with thirteen Guns for the last Farewel We were ready to set sail and stayed for nothing now but Monsieur Vachet and the Ambassadors Secretary they had fallen down with the rest to the Mouth of the River but for three Days time no body could tell what was become of them This put a stop to our Voyage and we were just going to weigh Anchor when we saw them coming with two or three Mandarins of the Retinue of the Ambassadors of Siam The Currents had carried away the Galley they were on board of with so much violence that they could not resist it nor
there they come out and take the first word they hear spoken for the response of the Oracle which they have consulted It sometimes happens that to punish their criminal Curiosity God permits that the event confirms what they have learnt by this way Thus some of the Wives of the first Ambassadors that were sent to France or board the Sun of the East being anxious to know the Destiny of their Husbands whom they feared they should never see again made their Sacrifices in the Cave I mentioned and being afterwards come back again to the Town in the Evening they heard a Woman saying to her Slaves Shut the door they 'le return no more They took these words as a presage of the misfortune that happened in the Sequel and from that time bewailed the loss of their Husbands The respect they have for the King goes as far as adoration The Reverenâ—e the Siameâ—e have for their King. The posture wherein they are to be in his presence is a visible mark of it Nay even in the Council which sometimes lasts four hours the Ministers lye all the while prostrate before the King and if any of them chance to faint he dares not rise upon his knees nor sit up upon the ground though the Prince commâ—nd him so to do till a Curtain he drawn before â—is Throne When the King goes abroad all must withdraw and no body dares to be in his way but they who have express orders for it unless it be when he had a mind to show himself to his people on certain days of Ceremony Strangers also have Notice given them to keep within doors when the King is to go abroâ—d No man is suffered to come near the Palace whil'st he is there One day as I was returning from a Pagod with a Mandarin who had carried me thither in his Balon our Water-men going along with the Stream came a little too near the Walls of the Palace But they soon stood off again when they felt a shower of pease flying about their ears which the Sâ—uldiers upon the guard shot at them with Trunks to make them withdraw The King holds Council several times a day The King holds several Councils daily and that 's his greatest exercise None of his Counsellers dares be absent and if any of them chanced to have extraordinary business or to fall sick he ought before the hour of Council ask leave of the King to be absent Without that leave no hurry of business nor sickness will excuse him from incurring grievous punishments if he be able to go for the King never fails to send to know the reasons of his absence and the Officer whom the King sends has Orders to speak to the person himself The Kings Daughter hath her Court and Council The Princess the Kings only Daughter hath her Court and Council consisting of the Wives of the chief Mandarins She is witty and active and in the Government of the Provinces which the King hath given her shows a great deal of wisdom and moderation She is only served by Women and no Man ever saw her neither publicly nor privately When she goes abroad upon an Elephant she is shut up in a kind of Chair that hinders her from being seen The Kingdom of Siam descends not from Father to Son. In the Kingdom of Siam the Kings Brothers are preferred before his Children in the Succession to the Crown but it returns to these after the death of their Uncles The present King has two Brothers who live with him in the Palace he hath also according to the custom of the Orientals an adoptive Son who accompanies him in all places and who has peculiar honours rendered unto him The Religion of the Siamese is very odd and cannot be perfectly understood but by the Books that are written in the Balis Language which is the Learned Language and hardly understood by any except some of their Doctors Nor do these Books neither always agree amongst themselves This following account of their Religion is the most exact that possibly I could attain to The Siamese believe a God but they have not the same notion of him that we have What the Siamese believe of their God. By that word they understand a being perfect after their manner consisting of Spirit and Body whose property it is to assist-men That assistance consists in giving them a Law prescribing them the ways of living well teaching them the true Religion and the Sciences that are necessary unto them The perfections which they attribute unto him are all the moral virtues possessed by him in an eminent degree acquired by many acts and confirmed by a continual exercise in all the Bodies he hath past through He is free from passions and feels no motion that can alter his tranquillity but they affirm that before he arrived at that State he made so prodigious a change in his Body by struggling to overcome his Passions that his blood is become white He hath the Power to appear when he pleases and also to render himself invisible to the eyes of men and he hath such wonderful agility that in a moment he can be in any place of the world he pleases The knowledg of the God of the Siamese He knoweth all without having ever learnt any thing from men whose Doctor and Master he himself is and that universal knowledg is inherent in his state having possessed it from the instant that he was born God it consists not as our doeâ— in a train of consequences but in a clear simple and intuitive vision which all at once represents to him the Precepts of the Law Vices Virtues and the most hidden secrets of Nature things past present and come Heaven Earth Paradice Hell this Universe which we see and even what is done in the other Worlds which we know not He distinctly remembers all that hath ever befallen him from the first transmigration of his Soul even to the last His body is infinitely more radiant than the Sun it lights that which is most hidden and by the help of the light that it diffuses a man here below upon Earth might that I may make use of their expression see a grain of Mustard seed placed in the Highest Heavens Wherein consists his happiness The happiness of that God is not compleat but when he dies never to be born again for then he appears noâ— more upon the Earth nor is he any more subject to Misery They compare that death to a torch extinct or to a sleep that renders us insensible of the Evils of Life with this difference that when God dies he is exempted from them for ever whereas a man asleep is but free from them for a certain time This reign of every Deity lasts not eternally it is confined to a certain number of years that 's to say until the number of the elect who are to be sanctified by his Merits be accomplished after which he appears
conveigh themselves thither with that surprizing agility they are endowed with As to the men of the other three Parts of the World they have a Countenance much different from ours for the Inhabitants of the first have a square Face of the second a round and of the third a triangular Whatsoever diversity of Faces there may be amongst the Inhabitants of those three several Parts of the World yet in every particular part they look so like one another that it would be hard to tell who is who if men had not another way to distinguish those with whom they live The different Inclinations that People have for different persons is the Standard of discrimination Thus a Father distinguishes his Son from his Wife and Friend because he finds the Love he has for his Son to be quite different from that which he has for his Wife or his Friend There is this difference besides betwixt the three other Parts and ours that all good things abound in those without any mixture of evil and that what things they eat takes what relish one pleases by virtue of a certain Tree which they invoke when at any time they are in need Hence it is that no Charity nor Virtue can be practised there And because there is no occasion of meriting there men cannot acquire Sanctity nor receive any punishment which makes them earnestly desire to be born again in the Part which we inhabit where many occasions of well-doing are to be found They obtain that favour when they beg it by the Merits of God who hath run over all those places though they be inaccessible to us The System of the Siamese In the middle of the four Parts of the World there is an exceeding high Mountain called in Siamese Ppukhan Pprasamen It rests upon three precious Stones very little ones its true but strong and solid enough to support it Round this Mountain the Sun and Moon continually turn and by the daily revolution of those two Luminaries Day and Night are made This great Mountain is environed by three Rows of lesser Hills of which there is one all of Gold. The great Mountain is inaccessible because the Water that surrounds it is not navigable As for the Mountain of Gold a fearful Gulf renders the approach to it most difficult It is true a rich man heretofore got to it but it was with extream danger of being lost in that Abyss whither all the Waters come and muster and from whence afterward they gush out to make the Sea and Rivers The whole Mass of Earth hath underneath it a vast extent of Waters which support it as the Sea bears up a Ship. These inferior Waters have a communication with those that are upon the Earth by means of the Gulf I have been speaking of An impetuous Wind holds the Waters under the Earth suspended and this Wind which exists of it self and has no cause blowing from all eternity with incredible violence drives them continually back and hinders them falling When the time is come that the God of the Siamese hath foretold that he shall cease to reign then the Fire of Heaven falling upon the Earth shall reduce into Ashes every thing that comes in its way and the Earth being so purified shall be restored again to its former state But you must know what is to go before this universal Renovation They say that heretofore when God was still living upon Earth men had the stature of Giants enjoyed perfect Health during several Ages were ignorant of nothing and above all being instructed in the obligations of the Law led a pure and innocent life and were religious Observers of their Promises In process of time they lost all these Advantages and at long run they 'l become so weak and little that hardly will they be a foot high In that state their Life will be very short and nevertheless they 'l grow up in wickedness until at length in the last times they 'l give themselves over to the most ignominious Crimes Then they shall have no more Law nor Scriptures but being buried in most profound Ignorance shall forget the very Name of Virtue And that makes them say that the end of the World draws nigh because there is nothing now but corruption in it and so little Sincerity and Faithfulness amongst men that they seem to be arrived at the highest pitch of wickedness Moreover these great Changes shall be observed in Beasts as well as men and they shall degenerate by little and little Nay they have already lost the use of Speech which whilst God lived upon the Earth was granted them through his Merits Prodigies which the Siamese expect before the birth of a new God. They gave liberty to Beasts thinking them capable of good and evil and worthy of punishment and reward In the three last Ages six new Suns shall successively appear and every one of them shall enlighten the World for the space of fifty years These six new Luminaries shall by degrees dry up the Sea kill the Trees and Animals and even consume Mankind After all these Prodigies a Fire which they call Phai Balatran descending from Heaven shall burn the Earth the Heights thereof shall be made plain by it and no more Inequalities will remain therein Then the Earth covered over with dust and ashes shall be purified by the blast of a boisterous Wind which shall carry off these Remains of the Worlds Conflagration and after that it shall breath out so sweat a Smell as shall draw a Female Angel down from Heaven that will eat of this purified Earth She is to pay dear for that Pleasure for to expiate it she shall be obliged to live here below and never be able to ascend to Heaven again This Intelligence shall by the Piece she hath eaten conceive twelve Sons and as many Daughters who will re-people the World. The Men that spring from them shall be ignorant blockish not knowing one another at first and after they shall come to know one another they shall be ignorant of the Law and not come to the knowledg of it till after a long space of time which they call Cap. To explain the duration of that time they suppose a deep Well twenty fathom square if there be a grain of Mustard-seâ—d yearly thrown into this well the time that is required to fill it up is that which they call Cap. This space of Time being expired a God shall be born again who shall scatter the darkness of the Ignorance wherein they were by teaching them the true Religion discovering to them the Virtues that are to be practised and the Vices to be shunned and instructing them in all Sciences He will give them Scriptures that shall explain these things and the holy Law that for a long time had been blotted out of the Minds of Men shall be of new again graven in them by the Cares and Merits of that Deity This is the only Employment which
they think suitable to the Dignity of God whilst he is upon Earth for they reckon it below him to mind the Government of the World to take care of Men and Beasts and to produce all that the Universe brings forth and in this manner it is that the World shall be from time to time renewed to all Eternity I thought it fit to premise all these things before I came to speak of Sommonokhodom so the Siamese call the God whom at present they adore because they are necessary to the understanding of his History That History after all Sommonokhodom is the Last God of the Siamese is a monstrous mixture of Christianity and the most ridiculous Fables It is at first supposed that Sommonokhodom was born God by his own virtue and that immediately after his Birth without the help of any Master to instruct him he acquired by a meer glance of his Mind a perfect knowledg of all things relating to Heaven the Earth Paradice Hell and the most impenetrable Secrets of Nature that at the same time he remembred all that ever he had done in the different Lives he had led and that after he had taught the People those great Matters he left them wriâ—en in Books that Posterity might be the better for them In these Books he reports of himself Fables which the â—alapoins relatâ— of their God. that being become God one day he desired to manifest his Divinity to Men by some extraordinary Prodigy He then sate under a Tree called Ton ppô which for that reason the Siamese reverence as some sacred thing and look upon it as a happy Presage for the places where it grows being perswaded that it would be a great sin to do the least hurt to that Tree He adds that presently he found himself carried up into the Air in a Throne all shining with Gold and precious Stones which came out of the Earth in the place where he was and that at the same instant Angels coming down from Heaven rendered him the Honours and Adorations that were due unto him His Brother Thevathat and his Followers could not without extream Jealousie behold the Glory and Majesty that environed him Thevathat Sommonokhodoms younger brother makes war against him They conspired his Ruin and having stirred up the Beasts against him engaged with him in a War. Though he was all alone he was not terrified by that multitude of Enemies he resisted all their Attempts without being shaken and by virtue of his good works which defended him the shafts they darted at him were changed into so many Flowers which far from hurting him served only to encrease his Honour In the mean time he confesses that in the brunt of the Battle when he was most in danger it was but in vain that he had his recourse to the good works he had done in keeping the Nine first Commandments of the Law which he found were not sufficient to defend him in this pressing Necessity But being armed with the tenth Command which he had inviolably observed and which enjoyns the practice of Charity towards Men and Beasts he easily triumphed over his Enemies and in this manner he obtained that Victory The Female Guardian-Angel of the Earth for we have already distinguished two Sexes amongst the Angels coming to him Sommonokhodom assisted by the Female tutelary Angel of the Earth triumphs over his Enemies at first adored him then turning towards Thevathat and his Adherents she made known to them that Sommonokhodom was really become God. She told them that she had been a Witness of his good Works and to convince them of that shewed them her own Hair still dropping with the Waters that he poured out in the beginning of his good Actions Hence came the â—uperstitious Custom of the Siamese of shedding Water in the beginning of their good works whereof we have spoken several times already and which the Siamese religiously observe since that time In fine she exhorted them to render him the Adorations that he deserved but finding them to be hardned and obstinately resolved not to hearken to her Remonstrances she squeezed her wet hair and pressed out of them an Ocean of Water wherein they were all drowned It is also found written in the Books of Sommonokhodom The Poppery which the Talapoins tell of Sommonokhodom that from the time he aspired to be God he had returned into the World five hundred and fifty times under various shapes that in every Regeneration he had been always the Chief and as it were Prince of the Animals under whose shape he was born that many times he had given his Life for his Subjects and that being a Monkey he had delivered a Town from a horrible Monster that wasted it that he had been a most potent King and that seven days before he obtained the Sovereign Dominion of the Universe he had retired in imitation of some Anchorites with his Wife and two Children into remote Solitudes that there he was dead to the World and his Passions in such a degree that without being moved he suffered a Baramen who had a mind to try his Patience and carry away his Son and Daughter and torment them before his face Nay his mortification went a great deal farther for he even gave his Wife to a poor Man that begged an Alms and having put out his own eyes he sacrificed himself by distributing his flesh amongst the Beasts to stay the hunger that pressed them From thence they take occasion again to find fault with the Christian Religion which enjoyns not Men to comfort and assist Beasts in their necessities These are the rare actions which the Talapoins in their Sermons propose to the people for imitation and the examples they make use of to encline them to virtue Thevathat killed his Brother Sommonokhodom when they were Apes What is Recorded of Thevathat in the same Books is no less extraordinary nor Fabulous There we learn that he was always born again with his Brother Sommonokhodom in the same kind as he was but still inferiour in Dignity because Sommonokhodom was the Prince of the Animals whose shape he took But Thevathat aspiring also to Divinity and not endeavouring any thing above himself would never submit to his Brother On the contrary he endeavoured by continual Revolts to disturb his Reign and omitted nothing that he might deprive him of the Empire wherein at length he succeeded in some manner for he killed him when both of them were Apes What we saw during our abode in Siam did but too much convince us how far the People are infatuated with such Fables A young Church-man maintaining a position of Divinity in presence of my Lord Ambassador some Talapoins came thither out of curiosity and amongst others the superiour of one of their most famous Monasteries This Man asked what they were disputing about with so much heat and being answered that they were speaking of God and of matters concerning that first Being Likely
our Crucified Saviour which plainly represents the punishment of Thevathat So when we would explain to them the Articles of our Faith they take us always up short saying that they do not need our Instructions and that they know already better than we do what we have a mind to tell them But it is time to return to Sommonokhodom whose Story we have interrupted he had run over the World declaring to Mankind good and evil and teaching them the true Religion which he himself wrought that he might leave it to Posterity He had even gained several Disciples who in the condition of Priests were to make a particular Profession of imitating him in wearing a habit like to his and in observing the Rules that he gave them when at length he attained to the fourscore and second year of his age which was also the Age of that Monster which heretofore he killed as we have already said One day as he sate in the middle of his Disciples teaching them he saw the same Monster in shape of a Pig running with incredible Fury and he made no doubt but that it had a design to be revenged Knowing then that the time of his departure out of the World drew nigh he foretold it to his Disciples and shortly after having eaten a piece of the Pig which he had seen he was taken with a violent Cholic which killed him His Soul ascended to the eight Heaven Wherein consists the Annihilation of the Siamese God. which is properly Paradise called Nyruppaam it is no more subject to miseries and pain but there enjoys perfect bliss For that reason it will never be born again and that is the thing they call being annihilated For by that term they understand not the total destruction of a thing reduced to nothing but their meaning is that one appears no more upon Earth tho he live in Heaven His body was burnt and his bones as they say have been preserved to this present One part of them are in the Kingdom of Pegu and the other in Siam They attribute a wonderful Virtue to these bones and they affirm that they shine with a Divine splendor Before he died he ordered his Picture to be drawn after his Death for fear Men might by little and little suffer his Person to wear out of their remembrance and at long run forget him for good and all He would have the same honours rendred to him in that Image which were due to his Divinity He left also the print of one of his feet in three different places in the Kingdom of Siam the Kingdom of Pegu and the Isle of Ceilan People go thither in Pilgrimage from all parts and yearly honour these prints with singular Devotion The Siamese with great reverence preserve the hair and picture of their God. The Siamese pretend also that they have part of Sommonokhodom's hair which he had cut off after he became God The other part was by Angels carried up into Heaven It is their custom to upbraid us that we have not respect enough for holy Images for Sacred Books and for the Priests The Truth is no People can have greater Veneration for those things than they have By a precept of their Law they are commanded to honour them but it is not enough for them to respect the Priests and the Divine Scriptures the Vestments of the one and the Characters of the other wherein their Law is written is to them also an object of Religious Worship Nay they think it a most laudable action and excellent virtue to do good to the Talapoins and that their Cloaths and the Beads which they receive from them have the power to cure Diseases They imagine also that in their Books there is a divine virtue and that if one understood it and knew how to use the words of them he might work great wonders And therefore of the three ways of working Miracles the first is to understand aright how to make use of the word of God the second to be instructed in the Doctrine of the Anchorites and the third is the assistance of Devils This last however they condemn but they mightily approve of the two former boasting that they alone know these admirable secrets For the proof of their Religion they reckon up several Fables False Oracles whereby the Siamese Authorise their Religion which pass amongst them for so many authentic Miracles And these are some of the chief of them 1. In the Kingdom of Pegu where the Relicks of Sommonokhodom are kept his bones partly changed into several Metals and partly in their natural state shines with an extraordinary brightness 2. In the same Kingdom there is a little Isle in the middle of a River wherein there is a Temple of their God this little Isle let the waters be never so high even when the highest places are overflowed remains dry They add that the Presents which are offered to God by casting them into the River according to the Custom of that Countrey run along with the Stream until arriving at the Isle they stop there and will go no farther 3. In Storms at Sea when Seamen are in danger of being cast away they throw a Ring into the Sea with an intention to offer it to the Temple of the Isle and all of a sudden the Sea becomes calm and the Ship is out of danger 4. Upon the Borders of the Kingdom of Pegu there is a little hill where they have a Tradition that God went often A vast multitude of People go thither yearly in Pilgrimage and tho the top of it be very narrow yet it holds all that come upon it and is never full of Pilgrims 5. They also say that on the top of that little hill there is a great Treasure of Gold Silver and other precious things which these Pilgrims offer to God when they come there They tell how an Army of Chinese having one day carried away that Treasure was next day wholly destroyed and the Riches carried back by Angels to the place where it was before 6. Tho the top of the little hill be altogether exposed to the Weather and heat of the Sun yet there is always a shade upon it that even at noon guards the people from the excessive heats which they would suffer there without that 7. In the Town of Sokhotai there is an Idol all of Gold they pretend that that is a Mirculous Statue and that if when Rain is wanting it be carried into the Fields as usually it is immediately Rain falls in great abundance 8. In another Town which is called Campeng there is as they say a Lake wherein to this day there is to be seen a living Fish which hath but the half of its Body and the manner how that Prodigy was wrought is remarkable Heretofore a Holy Man lived in that Town who having a broiled Fish presented before him he ate but one half of it and threw the other into the Lake desiring