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
of the Bishop of Metellopolis stayed for him Seeing the Countrey about within a days Journey of Siam is very low Land it is all overflowed for one half of the year The Rains which fall for several Months together swelling the River cause these great Inundations and that 's the thing which makes the Countrey so fertil were it not for that the Rice that grows only in Water and wherewith all the Fields are covered could not supply as it does all the Siamese and neighbouring Countries with Food This is another Convenience of these Inundations that one may go all about in a Balon even into the Fields which makes so great a number of Boats to be in all places that in the greatest part of the Kingdom there are more Balons than Men. There are some of them very big covered with Houses which serve to lodge whole Families and several of these being joyned together make a kind of floating Villages in those places where they chance to meet We continued going up the River all night long during which we saw a very pleasant sight and that was an infinite number of Fire-flies wherewith all the Trees upon the sides of the River were so covered over that they appeared like so many great Branches set thick with innumerable Lights which the reflection of the Water at that time as smooth as a Looking-glass infinitely multiplied Whilst we were taken up in viewing of them all of a sudden we were beset with a prodigious quantity of Musketo's or Maringoiiins These are a kind of very troublesom Gnats that sting through Peoples Cloaths and leave the Marks of it a long time behind them The Siamese who row'd our Balon though they were naked and tugg'd at the Oar made a better shift against them than we they gave themselves a flap with the hand every time they felt a Musketoe and struck so pat that they never missed them without losing one single stroak of their Oar for all that We found a great many Monkeys and Sapajous upon the River side which clambered up the Trees and went together in Troops But no pleaseanter sight can be seen than the vast numbers of Criel Herons that swarm upon the Trees at a distance one would take them for their Blossoms The White of the Birds mingling with the Green of the Trees makes the most lovely Land-skip imaginable The Criel Heron is a Fowl shaped like a common Heron but far less it is of a neat proportion of Body and has fair Feathers whiter than Snow It hath Tops or Tufts upon the Head Back and Belly wherein its chief Beauty consists and which render it extraordinary All the wild Birds have most lovely Feathers there are of them of several colours all yellow all red all blew all green and that in great numbers For the Siamese believing the Transmigration of Souls into other Bodies kill no Animals for fear as they say of driving out from thence the Souls of their Relations which may very well be lodged there We did not make a League of way without meeting with some Pagod that is to say a Temple of Idols It hath always by it a little Monastery of Talapoins who are the Priests and the Religious of the Countrey These Talapoins live in common and their Houses are so many Seminaries where the Children of Quality are bred So long as Children continue there they wear the habit of Telapoins which consists in two pieces of a kind of yellow Cotton Cloth whereof the one serves to cover them from the Girdle down to the Knees and the other they use sometimes as a Scarf putting it about their Shoulders like a Shoulder-Belt and sometimes they wrap it about them like a little Cloak They have their Heads and Eye-brows shaved as well as their Masters who are perswaded that it would be immodest and sinful to let them grow Their Blindness made us heartily pity them Having row'd on all night long about Ten of the Clock in the Morning we arrived at Bancok This is the most important Place of the Kingdom because it defends the Passage of the River with a Fort that is on the other side Both are well furnished with Brass Guns but ill fortified Monsieur de la Mare a French Engineer whom my Lord Ambassador left at Siam hath received Orders from the King to fortifie it regularly and to make a good place of it We saw the Governor of it in passing he is a tall very handsom man who received us with a great deal of Civility We went afterwards to dine with a French Artisan for there are no Inns in that Countrey That day we began to use Rice instead of Bread and to drink nothing but River-water The Rice being only boiled with Water is but an insipid kind of Food and we could hardly accustom our selve to it at first but within a Fortnights time we came to like it as well as Bread which is very scarce and dear there because the Wheat must be brought from Surrat or Japan Betwixt Bancock and Siam you meet with a great many Aldees or Villages that almost every where border the River These Villages are no more than a great many Huts or Hovels raised upon high Pillars because of the Inundation They are made of Bambous which is a Tree whose Timber is much used in that Countrey The Trunk and great Branches serve for making of Pillars and Joysts and the small Branches to makes the Walls and Roof Near the Villages are the Bazars or floating Market-places where the Siamese who go up or down the River find their Victuals ready drest that 's to say Fruit boyl'd Rice Rack which is a kind of Strong Water made of Rice and Lime and some Ragousts after the Siamese Mode which a French-man could not taste Next day the Third of October we came to Siam We thought the Bishop of Metellopolis had got before us and therefore went streight to the Seminary to pay him our dutiful Respects at home but he was not as yet arrived Whilst we stayed for him we said Mass to give God thanks for his Protection during all our Voyage which had been exactly seven Months long for we set out from Brest the Third of March and arrived at Siam the Third of October From thence we went to the House of Father Suarez the only Jesuit that was then at Siam Father Maldonat being gone for some time before to Macao from whence he was to return towards March following We passed by the French Factory and there saluted the Officers of the Company Then we were conducted to the Palace which was preparing for my Lord Ambassador where we met with the Lord Constance the first The Lord Constance receives the Jesuits with extraordinary goodness or to say better the only Minister of the Kingdom We knew before that he was a man of Merit and had a kindness for us but we had the experience of both far beyond our expectation In that first
to appear After the Chariot came the Ambassadors three Trumpeters on Horseback with their magnificent Liveries and the Ambassador seemed to be raised upon a Throne He was colathed in a rich flowered Silk of a Fire-colour embroydered with Gold that looked very splendid The Abbot de Choisi followed after in a Surplice and Camaâ—l carried in an open Chair Then marched the Gentlemen on Horse-back all glittering with Gold and Silver and followed by Pages Foot-men and a great many Menial Servants all very neatly cloathed The March was brought up by an incredible Multitude of People keeping profound silence The Palace of the King of Siam is of a vast Extent A Description of the Palace of the King of Siam but in the Architecture there is nothing that is regular nor like to our Building It consists of spacious Courts encompassed with Walls and containing some Piles of Building on one side are the Apartments of the Kings Officers and on the other a great number of Pavilions where the Elephants are There are a great many Pagods in it also both great and small which though irregular make still an Object pleasing enough to the Eye When we came to the first Gate of the Palace all alighted and my Lord Ambassador went and took the Letter out of the Triumphant Chariot and gave it to the Abbot de Choisi In this manner we entered into the first Court of the Palace where on one side were fifty Elephants of War harnessed with Gold and on the other two Regiments of Guards to the number of eight hundred Men drawn up in Batalia From thence we advanced into the second Court where were eight Elephants of War more and a Troop of threescore Mores on Horseback they were armed with Lances and had a very good Meen In the third Court were sixty Elephants with Harness richer than the first and two Regiments of Life-Guards that made two thousand Men under their Arms. Upon entering into the fourth Court which had one half the Pavement covered with Mats we found two hundred Souldiers who wore Sabres adorned with Gold and Tambag called by the Portugues Os Bracos Pintados because their Arms are painted Red. These Soldiers are the Rowers of the Kings Balon and as it were the Guards of the Channel In two Halls more forward there were five hundred Persians of the Kings Guard sitting on the Ground cross-legg'd because in the Kings Palace no Man is suffered to be upon his Legs unless he be going and all the Siam Soldiers were squatted upon the Tail holding their Arms betwixt their joyned Hands The fifth Court into which we entered was covered with fine Mats on which lay prostrate all the Mandarins of the third fourth and fifth Order and at a little distance those of the second Order were in the same Posture upon Persian Carpets Having passed amongst all the Mandarins and crossed so many Courts we came at length to the foot of a pair of Stairs where on the Right-hand were two Elephants covered all over with Gold and on the Left six Persian Horses part of whose Saddles and Stirrups were of massie Gold and their Harness set with Pearls Diamonds Rubies and Emeralds My Lord Ambassador stopt there and the Gentlemen going up to the Hall of Audience where the King was not come as yet sate down upon Persian Carpets over against the Throne at twenty Paces distance as it had been agreed upon A Description of the Throne of the King of Siam This Throne to speak properly is no more but a large Window raised seven or eight foot higher than the half Pace and answering to the middle of the Hall. On the Right and Left-Hand were two great Parassols of Cloth of Gold consisting of seven or eight Stories whose Staves were of beaten Gold and so high that they almost touched the Cieling The Bishop of Metellopolis the Abbot of Lyonne and Monsieur Vachet sate in the Hall in the same manner as the Gentlemen did near the Seat which was prepared for the Ambassador In that Hall the Princes Ministers and Mandarins of the first Order lay prostrate to the Right and Left according to their Rank and Quality There are three sorts of Princes at the Court of Siam the first are the Princes of the Blood Royal of Camboie and other Kingdoms that are Tributary to the King of Siam The second are the Princes of Laos Chiamay and Banca who have been taken in the Wars and some others that have voluntarily put themselves under the Kings Protection The third are those whom the King has raised to the Degree of Princes every one of them had before them great Cups of Gold and Silver which are the Badges of their Dignity and they lay prostrate with profound Silence expecting the coming of the King. Sometime after all were thus placed a great Noise of Trumpets Drums and many other Instruments was heard and then the Throne was opened and the King appeared sitting on it But he was to be seen only to the Girdle the rest being hid by the Front of the Window All the prostrate Mandarins rose up upon their Knees and having their Hands joyned over their Heads made profound Inclinations of Body and knocked their Foreheads against the Ground The King wore a Tiara all shining with precious Stones It is a long Cap ending in a Point like a Pyramid encompassed with three Rings of Gold at some distance from one another On his Fingers he wore a great many large Diamonds that cast a great Luster his Vest was Red on a Ground of Gold and over that he had a Gaze of Gold with Buttons of big Diamonds all these Ornaments together with a brisk Air full of Life and always smiling made him look with a great deal of Gracefulness and Majesty The Ambassador enters the Hall of Audience No sooner was the Ambassador advertised by the Noise of the Instruments that the King was come but he entred the Hall followed by the Abbot de Choisi and the Lord Constance Having advanced four Steps and looking upon the King as if that had been the first time he had perceived him he made a Bow to the Ground a second he made in the middle of the Hall and a third when he was come near to the Seat that was prepared for him The King answered every Bow he made by an Inclination of Body which he accompanied with a serene and smiling Countenance Then my Lord Ambassador began his Compliments in this manner and having uttered the first Words sate down and put on his Hat. SIR THe King my Master The Harangue of the French Ambassador to the King of Siam at present so famous in the World by His great Victories and the Peace be hath so often given His Enemies at the Head of His Armies hath commanded me to wait upon Your Majesty and to assure You of the particular Esteem He hath conceived for Your Person He knows Sir Your August Qualities the Wisdom
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
pursue Trade they might have excellent Wines there of the other Colour The Governour told me that he was just returned from a great Journey he had made up into the Country Northward where he had discovered many Nations who have some Form of Government and well ordered Oeconomy as may be seen in the Description of the Cape of Good-hope Putting out from the Bay of the Cape Having taken on board Provisions and our sick Men who were recovered by the Land-air we put out of the Bay the twenty sixth of March. We steered our Course towards the Ascension Island This Isle lies in eight Degrees South Latiâ—ude and seven Degrees fifteen Minutes Longitude There is so great plenty of Tortoises or Turtle to be had there that in a Night or two as many may be caught as will satisfie to feed a whole Ships Company consisting of four hundred Men for a Fortnights time These Tortoises are of an extraordinary bigness and in the Evening after Sun-set when they come ashoar to lay their Eggs Men turn as many of them as they intend to take upon their Backs for the Sea-shoar is full of them and in that condition they leave them till next day when they come and carry them on Board in Boats. We made that Isle which appears at a great distance by a high Hill the nineteenth of April about four of the Clock in the Afternoon we had a good Wind and we should have lost time if we had put into the Road and therefore the Ambassador would not stop there We past the Line at the first Meridian We past the Line at the first Meridiaâ— the seven and twentieth of April and from that time forward till the last of May we had very easie Winds but then met with a strong contrary Wind. Next day towards the Evening we were much surprised to make the Isle of Corvo on head of us which is the most Northern Isle of the Azores Our Pilots thought we had been near an hundred Leagues beyond those Islands I have read in many Journals and learnt from several able Sea-men that Men are many times out in that Course and that they never sail to make the Aâ— res when they think they have past them That is a sign that in those Places the Currents set Westward with great Rapidity So that Men should sail with much Circumspection upon their Return from Africa that they may not fall into so considerable a Mistake which may prove to be of fatal Consequence June the eleventh it blew so fierce a Storm that we were forced to furl all our Sails and to lay a-try under one Course That Gust lasted not long and we stood away Eastward One day as we were sailing with all Sails drawing and were in hopes soon to make the Land of Vshan because we were already got into the Soundings a Sea-man upon the Watch cried out that we were about to run upon a Rock It was late and the Darkness of the Night encreased our Fear occasioned by so present a Danger but it was over in a trice when instead of that pretended Rock we found a great Fisher Boat at an Anchor Had not we tackt in the very nick of time we had been foul of her The poor Men on board were so allarmed that they still kept crying with all their force that we would take pity of them though we were already at a pretty good distance from them Next day we met a Boat that assured us we were but eight Leagues from Vshan This News rejoyced all the Ships Company which was encreased next day by the sight of that Island When we made it we clapt on all the Sail we could that we might stand in to the Iroise but it being again Tide and the Wind failing us we were forced to come to an Anchor betwixt the black Stones and the main Land in five and twenty Fadom Water on sandy Ground Next day the eighteenth of June we came to an Anchor in the Road of Brest There we sang Te Deum to thank God for so prosperous a Voyage with a Noise of all the Guns of both Ships and afterwards we went ashoar A VOYAGE TO SIAM The Sixth BOOK The Manners and Religion of the Siamese I will say nothing but what I have seen my self or what I have learned from the Lord Constance and some other very intelligent Persons that I may not impose upon the public by false or uncertain Reports This wise advice I had from that Minister all the while I had the honour to be with him who gave me to understand that some men had given abroad memoirs of a great many things that are not much to be trusted So I shall speak nothing of Tunquin and Cochincine because of three persons who lived there many years and whom in any thing else I should readily believe with much ado two could agree together about a great many questions that were put to them in relation to those places For as to the Orientals all know that they tell things not really as they are but as they fancy you could wish they were wherefore they little care to contradict one another as to matter of Fact they have declared provided they comply with the inclinations of him that puts the question to them so that if they be taken in any contradiction it does not at all trouble them to be told of it What pleased you yesterday will they say unconcernedly displeases you to day and that makes us speak to day in another manner than we spake yesterday I shall not so much enlarge upon the Customs and Government of the Siamese as upon their Religion which I have taken great care to be informed of and have learnt many particulars relating thereunto which as I think will be very acceptable to the curious I owe almost all of them to a Siamese Church-man who came to France with the Ambassadors of the King of Siam The Scituation of the Kingdom of Siam The Kingdom of Siam reaches from the point of Malaca to the Kingdoms of Pegu and Laos which bound it on the North side It hath the Indian Sea to the West and the Chinese to the East so that it would seem to make only a Peninsula The Provinces that lie up in the Countrey towards the North are but little known and our Geographical Maps mark not their Scituation and Limits well We have found already by two Observations of an Ecclipse of the Moon that the Longitude thereof is very ill determined The King of Siam intimated to our Fathers that he wished he had an exact Map of his own Dominions and the Kingdoms about having bid the Lord Constance tell us that he would give us Letters of Recommendation to the Princes his Neighbours to the end we might have the liberty to Travel over their Countries and make an exact Description of them I do not think that since my departure our Fathers have had time to obey
find to be in it Their Physicians say that it is a Sovereign Medicine against the Stone and pains of the Head that it allays vapours that it chears the Mind and strengthens the Stomack In all kinds of Feavers they take it stronger than commonly when they begin to feel the heat of the Fit and then the Patient covers himself up to sweat and it hath been very often found that this sweat wholly drives away the Feavor In the East they prepare the Tea in this manner when the water is well boiled The manner of preparing Tea they pour it upon the Tea which they have put into an Earthen pot proportionably to what they intend to take the ordinary proportion is as much as one can take up with the Finger and Thumb for a pint of water then they cover the Pot until the Leaves are sunk to the bottom of it and afterward give it about in China-dishes to be drank as hot as can be without Sugar or else with a little Sugar-candy in the mouth and upon that Tea more boiling water may be poured and so it may be made to serve twice These people drink of it several times a day but do not think it wholsom to take it fasting Of all the Plants of the East the Ginseng is most esteemed There are several kinds of it What Ginseng is and its vertues but the best is that which grows in China in the Province of Laotung It is of a yellow colour the flesh or pulp of it smooth having little threads like hair They find of these Roots some that are shaped like a Man and it is from thence they have their name for Gin in the Chinese Language signifies a Man and Seng sometimes to kill according as it is differently pronounced because that Root being taken seasonably or out of season produces quite contrary effects There is Ginseng also in the Kingdom of Goree nay and in Siam too as some say but it is not so good as that which grows in Laotung The Chinese Herbal says that this Root grows in the shade in low Valleys and that it must be gathered at the end of Autumn because that which is gathered in the Spring has ten times less virtue The Chinese Physicians who make most use of it affirm that it is a sovereign Remedy for cleansing the blood and recruiting the strength that has been weakened by long sickness that he who has that Root in his mouth will hold out at labour as long again as he that hath it not that corpulent people who have a white skin may take more of it than dry persons who have a swarthy Complexion and whose countenance speaks heat that it is never to be taken in distempers caused by an internal heat nor when one hath a Cough or spitteth Blood for preparing of it they put water into a cup and having made it boil well they throw into it Ginseng cut into small bits The way of preparing Ginseng they cover the cup very close that the Ginseng may be infused and when the water becomes lukewarm they drink it alone in the morning fasting They keep that Ginseng and prepare it the same way in the evening as they did in the morning saving that they put but half the quantity of water and drink it when it is already a little cold Then they dry the Ginseng that hath already served in the Sun and if one please he may again infuse it in wine and use it The quantity of the Ginseng is proportioned according to the age of the Person who is to take it From ten to twenty years of Age they take a little more than half the weight of a groat of it from twenty to thirty about the weight of six pence from thirty to threescore and ten and upwards they take of it to the weight of about a shilling and never more We saw at Siam certain Birds Nests which these People find to be rarely good for Ragoes Some Particulars concerning certain Birds Nest and excellent for the health when Ginseng is mingled therewith These Nests are only found in Cochinchine upon vast steep Rocks Thus they make use of them They take a Pullet such as have the flesh and bones black are the best they gut it well And then taking the Birds Nests which have been steeped in water till they are soft they tear them into small shreds and having mingled them with Ginseng cut into little bits they put all together into the body of the Pullet which they boil in a Pot closely shut until it be enough boiled This Pot or Pipkin is left upon the coals all night and in the morning they eat the Pullet the Birds Nests and the Ginseng without any other Seasoning After they have taken this Remedy sometimes they Sweat and if they can they 'l sleep upon it Nobility is not Hereditary amongst the Siamese Various customs of the Siamese The places given by the Prince make the Nobles and the distinction of quality with that people Though their Religion allow them Polygamy yet few of them have above one or two Wives As for the Ladys they think the greatest respect that can be shown to them is for a man to turn his back and not to look upon them as they pass The multitude and magnificence of their pagods and their liberalities to the Talapoins are Arguments of their Piety They say that in the Kingdom there are above fourteen thousand Pagods and fifty thousand Talapoins What ever is within those Temples is looked upon as Sacred and to steal any thing from thence is death about five years agoe five Robbers were surprised in a Pagod and they were Roasted alive by a gentle fire They fastened every one of them to a great pole and then having kindled a fire all round them they were turned there till they expired In their morning prayers which they never miss they call to mind three things God and the Law which he hath left them to observe Their Parents and the benefits which they have received from them Their Priests and the Reverence they owe them when a Missionary would speak to them of our Religion for a Present he may have free access to them and that also will dispose them to hear him The Curiosity of the Siamese to know things future Seing they live upon a small matter and that their countrey supplies them with all that is necessary for life without much Labour and Husbandry they spend their time in Idleness They improve not their minds by any Science and are curious about nothing but future contingences To know such they not only consult Astrologers but make use of also other means full of Superstitions The Lord Constance told me that there is a Cave where the Siamese go and offer Sacrifices to the Spirit that presides in it when they have a mind to know any thing that they are in pain about After they have said their Prayers