which is enricht with the inflexions of words like the Languages we have in Europe The terms of Religion and Justice the names of Offices and all the Ornaments of the Vulgar Tongue are borrow'd from the Balie In this Language they compose their best Songs so that it seems at least that some Foreign Colony had formerly inhabited the Countrey of Siam and had carry'd thither a second Language But this is a Dispute that might be rais'd concerning all the Countries of India for like Siam they all have two Languages one of which is still remaining only in their Books The Siameses assert that their Laws are Foreign What the Siameses report concerning the Origine of their Laws and Religion and came to them from the Countrey of Laos which has perhaps no other Foundation than the Conformity of the Laws of Laos with those of Siam even as there is a Conformity between the Religions of these two Nations and with that of the Peguins Now this does not strictly prove that any of these three Kingdoms hath given its Laws and its Religion to the rest seeing that it may happen that all the three may have deriv'd their Religion and their Laws from another common Source However it be as the Tradition is at Siam that their Laws and Kings came from Laos the same Tradition runs at Laos that their Kings and most of their Laws came from Siam Of the Balie Language The Siameses speak not of any Country where the Balie Language which is that of their Laws and their Religion is now in use They suspect indeed according to the report of some amongst them which have been at the Coast of Coromandel that the Balie Language has some similitude with some one of the Dialects of that Country but they agree at the same time that the Letters of the Balie Language are known only amongst them The secular Missionaries established at Siam are of opinion that this Language is not entirely extinct by reason they saw in their Hospital a man come from about the Cape of Comorin who interspers'd several Balie words in his discourse affirming that they were used in his Country and that he had never studied and knew only his Mother Tongue They moreover averr for truth that the Religion of the Siumeses came from those Quarters because that they have read in a Balie Book that Sommona-Codom whom the Siameses adore was the Son of a King of the Island of Ceylon The Siameses resemble their Neighbours But setting aside all these uncertainties the vulgar Language of the Siameses like in its Simplicity to those of China Tonquin Cochinchina and the other States of the East sufficiently evinces that those who speak it are near of the same Genius with their Neighbours Add hereunto their Indian Figure the colour of their Complexion mixt with red and brown which corresponds neither to the North of Asia Europe nor Africk Add likewise their short Nose rounded at the end as their Neighbours generally have it the upper Bone of their Cheeks high and raised their Eyes slit a little upwards their Ears larger than ours in a word all the Lineaments of the Indian and Chinese Physiognomy their Countenance naturally squeez'd and bent like that of Apes and a great many other things which they have in common with these Animals as well as a marvellous passion for Children For nothing is equal to the Tenderness which the great Apes expressed to their Cubs except the Love which the Siameses have for all Children whether for their own or those of another The King of Siam loves Children till 7 or 8 years old The King of Siam himself is incompass'd with them and delights to educate them till seven or eight years old after which as they lose the childish Air they do also lose his Favour One alone say some was there kept till between twenty and thirty years of Age and is still his favourite Some do call him his adopted Son others suspect him to be his Bastard He is at least Foster Brother to his Lawful Daughter That the Siameses came not from far to Inhabit their Country But if you consider the extreamly Low Lands of Siam that they seem to escape the Sea as it were by miracle and that they lye annually under rain water for several Months the almost infinite number of very incommodious Insects which they engender and the excessive Heat of the Climate under which they are seated it is difficult to comprehend that others could resolve to inhabit them excepting such as came thither by little and little from places adjacent And it may be thought that they have been inhabited not many Ages if a Judgment may be made thereof by the few Woods that are stubbed as yet Moreover it would be necessary to travel more to the North of Siam to find out the warlike People which could yield those innumerable swarms of men which departed out of their own Country to go and possess others And how is it possible that they should not be stopp'd on the Road among some of those soft and effeminate People which lye between the Country of the Scythians and the Woods and impassable Rivers of the Siameses 'T is not therefore probable that the Lesser Siameses which we have spoken of are descended from the Greater and that the Greater withdrew into the Mountains which they inhabit to free themselves from the Tyranny of the neighbouring Princes under which they were born Three Baly Alphabets Kià Keù̈ Keuà Koù̈a Koüà Ké Kê Ko Kaou Koum Kam Karama Ko Koüaà Keua reu reû leu leû Ca Kha Kha go nga Tcha Tcha Tcha Tcha ya thá tha da na Ta tha tâ—a da na pa ppa da me Ca ra la ua ta ha la ang Ka Kaa Ki Ku Kou Koû Ke Kái Ko Káon KamÌ€ Ká Ka-na Ka nâ Kad-ni Kard Kanou Kanou Ka-ne Kanai Ka na Ka naoÅ„ Kananǵ Ka-na The Siamese Cyphers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The Siamese numeral Names 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 20 30 A Smoaking Instrument which the Modâ—â— of Siamâ—do use AA a Pipe of Bambou 8 or 9 footlong The Chinese-Chese-Boord 1 The King 2 The Guards 3 The Elephants 4 The Knights 5 The Waggons 6 The Canons 7 The Pawns 8 The River A Musical Instrument w th Bells The Chinese Abacus or Arithmetical Instrume nt or Counting They inhabit different quarters in the City or Suburbs of Siam The people of the Kingdom of Siam not very numerous and yet this City is very little inhabited in respect to its Bigness and the Country much less in Proportion It must be imagined that they desire not a greater People for they count them every year and do well know what no person ignores that the only secret to encrease them would be to ease them in the Taxes and Impositions The Siameses do therefore keep an exact account
This is thus practised in all the Courts of Asia but it is not true neither at Siam nor perhaps in any part of the East that the Queen has any Province to govern 'T is easie also to comprehend that if the King loves any of his Ladies more than the rest he causes her to remove from the Jealousie and harsh Usage of the Queen At Siam they continually take Ladies for the service of the Vang The King of Siam takes the Daughters of his Subjects for his Palace when he pleases or to be Concubines to the King if this Prince makes use thereof But the Siameses deliver up their Daughters only by force because it is never to see them again and they redeem them so long as they can for Money So that this becomes a kind of Extortion for they designedly take a great many Virgins meerly to restore them to their Parents who redeem them The King of Siam has few Mistresses that is to say eight or ten in all He has few Ministresses not out of Continency but Parsimony I have already declared that to have a great many Wives is in this Country rather Magnificence than Debauchery Wherefore they are very much surprized to hear that so great a King as ours has no more than one Wife that he had no Elephants and that his Lands bear no Rice as we might be when it was told us that the King of Siam has no Horses nor standing Forces and that his Country bears no Corn nor Grapes altho' all the Relations do so highly extol the Riches and Power of the Kingdom of Siam The Queen hath her Elephants and her Balons The Queen's House and some Officers to take care of her and accompany her when she goes abroad but none but her Women and Eunuchs do see her She is conceal'd from all the rest of the People and when she goes out either on an Elephant or in a Balon it is in a Chair made up with Curtains which permit her to see what she pleases and do prevent her being seen And Respect commands that if they cannot avoid her they should turn their back to her by prostrating themselves when she passes along Besides this she has her Magazine her Ships and her Treasures Her Magazine and her Ships She exercises Commerce and when we arrived in this Country the Princess whom I have reported to be treated like a Queen was exceedingly embroiled with the King her Father because that he reserved to himself alone almost all the Foreign Trade and that thereby she found herself deprived thereof contrary to the ancient Custom of the Kingdom Daughters succeed not to the Crown they are hardly look'd upon as free Of the Succession to the Crown and the Causes which render it uncertain 'T is the eldest Son of the Queen that ought always to succeed by the Law Nevertheless because that the Siameses can hardly conceive that amongst Princes of near the same Rank the most aged should prostrate himself before the younger it frequently happens that amongst Brethren tho' they be not all Sons of the Queen and that amongst Uncles and Nephews the most advanced in Age is preferred or rather it is Force which always decides it The Kings themselves contribute to render the Royal Succession uncertain because that instead of chusing for their Successor the eldest Son of the Queen they most frequently follow the Inclination which they have for the Son of some one of their Concubines with whom they were enamour'd The occasion which tendred the Hollanders Masters of Bantam 'T is upon this account that the King of Bantam for example has lost his Crown and his Liberty He endeavoured to get one of his Sons whom he had by one of his Concubines to be acknowledged for his Successor before his Death and the eldest Son which he had by the Queen put himself into the hands of the Hollanders They set him upon the Throne after having vanquished his Father whom they still keep in Prison if he is not dead but for the reward of this Service they remain Masters of the Port and of the whole Commerce of Bantam Of the Succession to the Kingdom of China The Succession is not better regulated at China though there be an express and very ancient Law in favour of the eldest Son of the Queen But what Rule can there be in a thing how important soever it be when the Passions of the Kings do always seek to imbroil it All the Orientals in the choice of a Governor adhere most to the Royal Family and not to a certain Prince of the Royal Family uncertain in the sole thing wherein all the Europeans are not In all the rest we vary every day and they never do Always the same Manners amongst them always the same Laws the same Religion the same Worship as may be judged by comparing what the Ancients have writ concerning the Indians with what we do now see Of the King of Siams Wardrobe I have said that 't is the Women of the Palace which dress the King of Siam but they have no charge of his Wardrobe he has Officers on purpose The most considerable of all is he that touches his Bonnet altho he be not permitted to put it upon the Head of the King his Master 'T is a Prince of the Royal blood of Camboya by reason that the King of Siam boasts in being thence descended not being able to vaunt in being of the race of the Kings his Predecessors The Title of this Master of the Wardrobe is Oc-ya Out haya tanne which sufficiently evinces that the Title of Pa-ya does not signifie Prince seeing that this Prince wears it not Under him Oc-Pra Rayja Vounsa has the charge of the cloaths Rayja or Raja or Ragi or Ratcha are only an Indian term variously pronounced which signifies King or Royal and which enters into the composition of several Names amongst the Indians CHAP. XIV Of the Customs of the Court of Siam and of the Policy of its Kings The Hours of Council THe common usage of the Court of Siam is to hold a Council twice a day about Ten a clock in the Morning and about Ten in the Evening reckoning the hours after our fashion The division of the day and night according to the Siameses As for them they divide the day into Twelve hours from the Morning to the Night The Hours they call Mong they reckon them like us and give them not a particular name to each as the Chineses do As for the Night they divide it into four Watches which they call Tgiam and it is always broad Day at the end of the Fourth The Latins Greeks Jews and other people have divided the Day and Night after the same manner Their Clock The People of Siam have no Clock but as the Days are almost equal there all the Year it is easie for them to know what Hour it is by
other does greatly illustrate them I hope also that a pardon will be granted me for the Siamese names which I relate and explain These remarks will make other relations intelligible as well as mine which without these Illustrations might sometimes cause a doubt concerning what I assert In a word those with whom I am acquainted do know that I love the Truth but it is not sufficient to give a sincere relation to make it appear true 'T is requisite to add clearness to sincerity and to be thoroughly inform'd of that wherein we undertake to instruct others I have therefore considered interrogated and penetrated as far as it was possible and to render my self more capable of doing it I carefully read over before my arrival at Siam several Antient and Modern Relations of divers Countreys of the East So that in my opinion this preparation has supplied the defect of a longer residence and has made me to remark and understand in the three Months I was at Siam what I could not perhaps have understood or remark'd in three Years without the assistance and perusal of those Discourses A MAPP of the KINGDOME of SIAM PART I. Of the Country of Siam CHAP. I. The Geographical Description NAvigation has sufficiently made known the Sea Coasts of the Kingdom of Siam and many Authors have described them How much this Kingdom is unknown but they know almost nothing of the Inland Country because the Siameses have not made a Map of their Country or at least know how to keep it secret That which I here present is the work of an European who went up the Menam the principal River of the Country to the Frontiers of the Kingdom but was not skilful enough to give all the Positions with an entire exactness Besides he has not seen all and therefore I thought it necessary to give his Map to Mr. Cassini Director of the Observatory at Paris to correct it by some Memorials which were given me at Siam Nevertheless I know it to be still defective but yet it fails not to give some notices of this Kingdom which were never heard of and of being more exact in those we already have Its Frontiers extend Northward to the 22d. Degree or thereabouts Its Frontiers Northward and the Road which terminates the Gulph of Siam being almost at the Latitude of 13 degrees and a half it follows that this whole extent of which we hardly have any knowledge runs about 170 Leagues in a direct Line reckoning 20 Leagues to a degree of Latitude after the manner of our Seamen The Siameses do say that the City of Chiamai is fifteen days journey more to the North than the Frontiers of their Kingdom that is to say at most The City of Chiamai and its Lake between sixty and seventy Leagues for they are Journeys by water and against the Stream 'T is about thirty years since their King as they report took this City and abandon'd it after having carried away all the People and it has been since repeopled by the King of Ava to whom Pegu does at present render Obedience But the Siameses which were at that expedition do not know that famous Lake from whence our Geographers make the River Menam arise and to which according to them this City gives its Names which makes me to think either that it is more distant than our Geographers have conceived or that there is no such Lake It may also happen that this City adjoyning to several Kingdoms and being more subject than another to be ruined by War has not always been rebuilt in the same place And this is not difficult to imagine of the Cities which are built only with wood as all in these Countreys are and which in their destruction leave not any Ruines nor Foundations However it may be doubted whether the Menam springs from a Lake by reason it is so small at its entrance into the Kingdom of Siam that for about fifty Leagues it carries only little Boats capable of holding no more than four or five Persons at most The Kingdom of Siam is bounded from the East to the North by high Mountains which separate it from the Kingdom of Laos The Country of Siam is only a Valley and on the North and West by others which divide it from the Kingdoms of Pegu and Ava This double Chain of Mountains inhabited by a few savage and poor but yet free People whose Life is innocent leaves between them a great Valley containing in some places between fourscore and an hundred Leagues in bredth and is watered from the City of Chiamai to the Sea that is to say from the North to the South with an excellent River which the Siameses call Me-nam or Mother-water to signifie a great water which being encreased by the Brooks and Rivers it receives on every side from the Mountains I have mentioned discharges it self at last into the Gulph of Siam by three months the most navigable of which is that toward the East Cities seated on the River On this River and about seven Miles from the Sea is seated the City of Bancok and I shall transiently declare that the Siameses have very few habitations on their Coasts which are not far distant from thence but are almost all seated on Rivers navigable enough to afford them the Commerce of the Sea As to the names of most of these places which for this reason may be called Maritime they are disguised by Foreigners Thus the City of Bancok is called Fon in Siamese it not being known from whence the name of Bancok is derived altho there be several Siamese Names that begin with the word Ban which signifies a Village The Gardens of Bancok The Gardens which are in the Territory of Bancok for the space of four Leagues in ascending towards the City of Siam to a place named Talacoan do supply this City with the Nourishment which the Natives of the Country love best I mean a great quantity of Fruit. Other Cities on the Menam The other principal places which the Menam waters are Me-Tac the first City of the Kingdom to the North North-West and then successively Tian-Tong Campeng pet or Campeng simple which some do pronounce Campingue Laconcevan Tchainat Siam Talacoan Talaqueou and Bancok Between the two Cities of Tchainat and Siam and at a distance which the Maeanders of the River do render almost equal from each other the River leaves the City of Louvo a little to the East at the 14 d. 42 m. 32 S. of Latitude according to the observations which the Jesuites have published The King of Siam does there spend the greatest part of the year the more commodiously to enjoy the diversion of Hunting but Louvo would not be habitable were it not for a channel cut from the River to water it The City of Me-Tac renders obedience to an Hereditary Lord who they say is a Vassal to the King of Siam whom some call Paya-Tac
The City of Merguy lies on the North-West Point of a great and populous Island which at the extremity of its course forms a very excellent River which the Europeans have called Tenasserim from the Name of a City seated on its Banks about 15 Leagues from the Sea This River comes from the North and after having passed through the Kingdoms of Ava and Pegu and enter'd into the Lands under the King of Siam's Jurisdiction it discharges itself by three Chanels into the Gulph of Bengal and forms the Island I have mention'd The Ports of Merguy which some report to be the best in all India is between this Isle and another that is inhabited and lies opposite and to the West of this wherein Merguy is situated CHAP. III. Concerning the History and Origine of the Siameses The Siameses little curious of their History THE Siamese History is full of Fables The Books thereof are very scarce by reason the Siameses have not the use of Printing for upon other Accounts I doubt of the report that they affect to conceal their History seeing that the Chineses whom in many things they imitate are not so jealous of theirs However that matter is notwithstanding this pretended Jealousy of the Siameses they who have attain'd to read any thing of the History of Siam assert that it ascends not very high with any character of truth The Epocha of the Siameses Behold a very dry and insipid Chronological Abridgment which the Siameses have given thereof But before we proceed it is necessary to tell you that the current year 1689 beginning it in the month of December 1688 is the 2233 of their Aera from which they date the Epocha or beginning as they say from Sommona-Codom's death But I am persuaded that this Epocha has quite another foundation which I shall afterwards explain Their Kings Their first King was named Pra Poat honne sourittep-pennaratui sonanne bopitra The chief place where he kept his Court was called Tchai pappe Mahanacon the situation of which I ignore and he began to reign An. 1300. computing after their Epocha Ten other Kings succeeded him the last of which named Ipoja sanne Thora Thesma Teperat remov'd his Royal Seat to the City of Tasco Nacora Louang which he had built the situation of which is also unknown to me The twelfth King after him whose Name was Pra Poa Noome Thele seri obliged all his People in 1731 to follow him to Locintai a City seated on a River which descends from the Mountains of Laos and runs into the Menam a little above Porselouc from which Locontai is between 40 and 50 Leagues distant But this Prince resided not always at Locontai for he came and built and inhabited the City of Pipeli on a River the mouth of which is about two Leagues to the West of the most occidental mouth of Menam Four other Kings succeeded him of which Rhamatilondi the last of the four began to build the City of Siam in 1894 and there established his Court. By which it appears that they allow to the City of Siam the Antiquity of 338 years The King Regent is the twenty fifth from Rhamatilondi and this year 1689 is the 56th or 57th year of his age Thus do they reckon 52 Kings in the space of 934 years but not all of the same Blood The Race of the present King Mr. Gervaise in his Natural and Political History of the Kingdom of Siam gives us the History of the now Regent King's Father and Van Vliet gives it us much more circumstanciated in his Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam printed at the end of Sir Thomas Herbert's Travels into Persia I refer the Reader thither to see an Example of the Revolutions which are common at Siam for this King who was not of the Royal Race tho' Vliet asserts the contrary took away the Scepter and Life of his Natural Lords and put to death all the Princes of their Blood except two which were alive when Vliet writ but of whom I could not learn any News Without all doubt this Usurper put them to death like the rest And in truth John Struys in the First Tome of his Voyages asserts that this was the Fate of the last of these two Princes who was alive in the year 1650 and was then 20 years old the Tyrant put him to death that very year with one of his Sisters upon an Accusation notoriously false But a remarkable Circumstance of the History of his Usurpation was that entering by force of Arms into the Palace he forced the King to quit it and flie into a Temple for refuge and having drag'd this unfortunate Prince out of this Temple and carry'd him back a Prisoner to the Palace he caus'd him to be declared unworthy of the Crown and Government for having deserted the Palace To this Usurper who died in 1657 after a Reign of 30 years succeeded his Brother because his Son could not or durst not then to dispute the Crown with him On the contrary to secure his Life he sought a Sanctuary in a Cloyster and cloath'd himself with the inviolable Habit of a Talapoin But he afterwards so politickly took his measures that he dispossess'd his Uncle who flying from the Palace on his Elephant was slain by a Portuguese with a Musquet Ferdinand Mendez Pinto relates that the King of Siam Another Example of the Revolutions of Siam who reigned in 1547 and to whom he gives great Praises was poyson'd by the Queen his Wife at his return from a military Expedition This Princess deliberated thus to prevent the vengeance of her Husband by reason that during his absence she had maintain'd an amorous Commerce by which she prov'd with Child And this Author adds that she soon after destroy'd the King her own Son in the same manner and had the Credit to get the Crown set upon her Lover's Head the 11th of November 1548. But in January 1549 they were both assassinated in a Temple and a Bastard Prince the Brother and Uncle of the two last Kings was taken out of a Cloyster to be advanced on the Throne The Crowns of Asia are always instable and those of India China and Japan much more than the others As for what concerns the Origine of the Siameses it would be difficult to judge whether they are only a single People A Doubt as to the Origine of the Siameses directly descended from the first Men that inhabited the Countrey of Siam or whether in process of time some other Nation has not also setled there notwithstanding the first Inhabitants The principal Reason of this Doubt proceeds from the Siameses understanding two Languages viz. the Vulgar which is a simple Tongue Two Languages at Siam consisting almost wholly of Monosyllables without Conjugation or Declension and another Language which I have already spoken of which to them is a dead Tongue known only by the Learned which is called the Balie Tongue and
the People of Countries extreamly hot or extreamly cold is sluggishness of Mind and Body with this difference that it degenerates into Stupidity in Countries too cold and that in Countries too hot there is always Spirit and Imagination but of that sort of Imagination and Spirit which soon flaggs with the least Application They have Imagination and Laziness The Siameses do conceive easily and clearly their Repartees are witty and quick their Objections are rational They imitate immediately and from the first day they are tolerable good Workmen so that one would think a little Study would render them very accomplisht either in the highest Sciences or in the most difficult Arts but their invincible Laziness suddenly destroys these hopes It is no wonder therefore if they invent nothing in the Sciences which they love best as Chymistry and Astronomy They are naturally Poets and their Poetry is Rhyme I have already said that they are naturally Poets Their Poetry like ours and that which is now used throughout the known World consists in the number of Syllables and in Rhyme Some do attribute the Invention thereof to the Arabians by reason it seems to have been they that have carried it every where The Relations of China report that the Chinese Poetry at present is in Rhyme but tho' they speak of their ancient Poetry of which they still have several Works they declare not of what nature it was because in my opinion They read the ancient Characters in the present Language it is difficult to judge thereof for tho' the Chineses have preserved the sense of their ancient Writing they have not preserved their ancient Language However I can hardly comprehend from a Language wholly consisting of Monosyllables and full of accented Vowels and compounded Dipthongs that if the Poetry consists not in Rhyme it can consist in Quantity as did the Greek and Latin Poems Their Genius in Poetry I could not get a Siamese Song well translated so different is their way of thinking from ours yet I have seen some Pictures as for Example of a pleasant Garden where a Lover invites his Mistress to come I have also seen some Expressions which to me appear'd full of Smootiness and gross Immodesty altho' this had not the same Effect in their Language But besides Love-Songs they have likewise some Historical and Moral Songs altogether I have heard the Pagayeurs sing some of which they made me to understand the sense The Lacone which I have mentioned is no other than a Moral and Historical Song and some have told me that one of the Brothers of the King of Siam compos'd some Moral Poems very highly esteem'd to which he himself set the Tune They are no Orators But if the Siameses are born Poets they neither are born nor do become Orators Their Books are either Narrations of a plain Style or some Sentences of a broken Style full of Idea's They have no Advocates the Parties do each declare their Cause to the Register who without any Rhetoric writes down the Facts and Reasons which are told him When they preach they read the Balie Text of their Books and they translate and expound it plainly in Siamese without any Action like our Professors and not our Preachers They know how to speak to a Business Their Compliments always the same and do therein manage themselves with a great deal of Insinuation but as for their Compliments they are all after one Model which is indeed very good but which is the reason that in the same Ceremonies they do always speak almost the same things The King of Siam himself has his words almost counted in his Audiences of Ceremony and he spake to the King's Ambassadors almost the same that he had deliver'd to Mr. de Chaumont and before him to the late Bishop of Heliopolis I have not forgot that excellent Speech which the Ambassador of Siam made to the King at his Audience of Leave The last Speech which the Ambassador of Siam made in France and which alone might cause a Belief that the Siameses are great Orators if we could judge of the merit of the Original by that of the Translation But this is difficult especially in two Languages which have so little similitude one to the other All that we ought to think thereof is that the main of the Design and Thought is the Siamese Ambassador's and I wonder not that he has admir'd the excellent Meen the Majestic Air the Power the Affability and all the extraordinary qualities of the King They ought to amaze him more than another because that these Virtues are absolutely unknown in the East and if he had dar'd to declare the Truth he would have confessed that the Flattery natural to those of his Country had made him all his life to extol those very things where they were not and that he saw the first Example thereof in the King When the Mandarins came on Board our Ship to carry the first Compliment of the King of Siam to the King's Ambassadors they took Leave of them by testifying unto them that they demanded it unwillingly and out of an indispensible necessity of going to satisfie the Impatience of the King their Master about the things which they had to relate unto him A Thought natural and good on which runs the whole beginning of the Ambassador's Speech of Leave And as to that excellent place where he ends that their Relation of him and his Colleagues would be put into the Archives of the Kingdom of Siam and that the King their Master would do him an Honour to send him to the Princes his Allies he was in this a less Orator than Historian He render'd an account of a Practice of his Country which is not omitted in great occasions and which is in use in other Kingdoms One Example there is in Osorius in the 8th Book of his History of Emanuel King of Portugal where he relates how Alphonsus the 2d Christian King of Congo inserted into his Argives the History of his Conversion and that of another famous Embassy which he had received from Emanuel and how he imparted it to all the Princes his Vassals We may therefore be assured that the Siameses are not Orators and that they never have need to be such Their Custom is not to make either Speech or Compliment to the Princes to whom they send them but to answer the things about which these Princes interrogate them They made a Speech at this Court to accommodate themselves to our Customs and to enjoy an Honour they highly valued which was to speak to the King before his Majesty spake to them This is all we can say of their Poetry and their Rhetoric They absolutely ignore all the parts of Philosophy They have a Moral Philosophy and no Theology except some Principles of Morality where as we shall see in discoursing of the Talapoins they have intermixt Truth with Falshood I will at the same
consists in Extorsions because that in this there is no Justice for the weak All the Officers do hold a correspondence in pillaging and the Corruption is greatest in those from whence the Remedy ought to come The Trade of Presents is publick the least Officers do give unto the greatest under a Title of Respect and a Judge is not there punished for having received Presents if otherwise he be not convicted of Injustice which is not very easie to do The Form of the Oath of Fidelity consists in swallowing the water The Oath of Fidelity over which the Talapoins do pronounce some Imprecations against him who is to drink it in case he fails in the Fidelity which he owes to his King This Prince dispenses not with this Oath to any persons that engage themselves in his Service of what Religion or Nation soever The Publick Law of Siam is written in three Volumes The Publick Law of Siam is written The first is called Pra Tam Ra and contains the Names Functions and Prerogatives of all the Offices The second is intituled Pra Tam Non and is a Collection of the Constitutions of the Ancient Kings and the third is the Pra Rayja Cammanot wherein are the Constitutions of the now Regent King's Father Nothing would have been more necessary than a faithful extract of these three Volumes The difficulty of procuring the Books thereof rightly to make known the Constitution of the Kingdom of Siam but so far was I from being able to get a Translation that I could not procure a Copy thereof in Siamese It would have been necessary upon this account to continue longer at Siam and with less business This is therefore what I could learn certainly about this matter without the assistance of those Books and in a Country where every one is afraid to speak The greatest token of Servitude of the Siameses is that they dare not to open their mouth about any thing that relates to their Country CHAP. IV. Concerning the Offices of Judicatory The Division of the Kingdom of Siam by Provinces THE Kingdom of Siam is divided into the upper and lower The upper lies towards the North seeing that the River descends from thence and contains seven Provinces which are named by their Chief Cities Porselouc Sanquelouc Lacontai Campeng-pet Coconrepina Pechebonne and Pitchai At Porselouc do immediately arise ten Jurisdictions at Sanquelouc eight at Lacontai seven at Campeng-pet ten at Coconrepina five at Pechebonne two and at Pitchai seven And besides this there are in the upper Siam one and twenty other Jurisdictions to which no other Jurisdiction resorts but which do resort to the Court and are as so many little Provinces In the lower Siam that is to say in the South part of the Kingdom they reckon the Provinces of Jor Patana Ligor Tenasserim Chantebonne Petelong or Bordelong and Tchiai On Jor do immediately depend seven Jurisdictions on Patana eight on Ligor twenty on Tenasserim twelve on Chantebonne seven on Petelong eight and on Tchiai two And besides this there are likewise in the lower Siam thirteen small Jurisdictions which are as so many particular Provinces which resort only to the Court and to which no other Jurisdiction resorts The City of Siam has its Province apart in the heart of the State between the upper and lower Siam The Governor is the Judge The whole Tribunal of Judicature consists properly only in a single Officer seeing that it is the Chief or President only that has the deliberate voice and that all the other Officers have only a consultative voice according to the Custom received also at China and in the other Neighbouring States But the most important prerogative of the President is to be the Governour of his whole Jurisdiction and to command even the Garrisons if there be any unless the Prince hath otherwise disposed thereof by an express order So that as in other places these Offices are hereditary it is no difficult matter for some of these Governors and especially the most powerful and for the most remote from Court to withdraw themselves wholly or in part from the Royal Authority Jor belongs no more to the Kingdom of of Siam Thus the Governor of Jor renders Obedience no longer and the Portugueses give him the Title of King And it may be he never intends to obey unless the Kingdom of Siam should extend it self as Relations declare to the whole Peninsula extra Gangem Jor is the most Southern City thereof seated on a River which has its Mouth at the Cape of Sincapura and which forms a very excellent Port. Nor Patana The People of Patana live like those of Achem in the Isle of Sumatra under the Domination of a Woman whom they always elect in the same Family and always old to the end that she may have no occasion to marry and in the name of whom the most trusty persons do rule The Portuguese have likewise given her the Title of Queen and for Tribute she sends to the King of Siam every three Years two small Trees the one of Gold the other of Silver and both loaded with Flowers and Fruits but she owes not any assistance to this Prince in his Wars Whether these Gold and Silver Trees are a real Homage or only a Respect to maintain the liberty of Commerce as the King of Siam sends Presents every three Years to the King of China in consideration of Trade only is what I cannot alledge but as the King of China honours himself with these sorts of Presents and takes them for a kind of Homage it may well be that the King of Siam does not less value himself on the Presents he receives from the Queen of Patana altho' she be not perhaps his Vassal The Siameses do call an Hereditary Governor Tchaou-Meuang The Governor is Lord. Tchaou signifies Lord and Meuang a City or Province and sometimes a Kingdom The Kings of Siam have ruin'd and destroy'd the most potent Tchaou-Meuang as much as they could and have substituted in their place some Triennial Governors by Commission These Commission-Governors are called Pouran and Pou signifies a Person Besides the Presents which the Tchaou-Meuang may receive as I have declar'd The Profits or Rights of the Tchaou-Meuang his other legal Rights are First Equally to share with the King the Rents that the arable Lands do yield which they call Naa that is to say Fields and according to the ancient Law these Rents are a Mayon or quarter part of a Tical for forty Fathom or two hundred Foot square 2dly The Tchaou-Meuang has the profit of all Confiscations of all the Penalties to the Exchequer and ten per Cent. of all the Fines to the Party The Confiscations are fixed by Law according to the Cases and are not always the whole Estate not even in case of sentence of Death but sometimes also they extend to the Body not only of the Person condemn'd but of
second Ambassador whom we saw here Yet it happens also that in this Country they hang themselves in despair when they see themselves reduced from an high Employment to an extreme Poverty and to the six Months Service due to the Prince tho' this Fall be not shameful I have said in another place Others are included in the Punishments with the Criminals that a Father shares sometimes in the punishment of the Son as being bound to answer for the Education which he has given him At China an Officer answers for the Faults of all the persons of his Family because they pretend that he who knows not how to govern his own Family is not capable of any public Function The Fear therefore which particular persons have of seeing their Families turned out of the Employments which do make the Splendor and Support thereof renders them all wise as if they were all Magistrates In like manner at Siam and at China an Officer is punished for the Offences of another Officer that is subject to his Orders by reason that he is to watch over him that depends on him and that having power to correct him he ought to answer for his conduct Thus about three years since we saw at Siam for three days Oc-Pra-Simo-ho-sot by Nation a Brame who is now in the King of Siam's Council of State exposed to the Cangue with the head of a Malefactor which they had put to Death hung about his Neck without being accused of having had any other hand in the crime of him whose head was hung to his Neck than too great Negligence in watching over a Man that was subject to him After this 't is no wonder in my opinion that the Bastinado should be so frequent at Siam Sometimes there may be seen several Officers at the Cangue disposed in a Circle and in the midst of them will be the head of a man which they have put to death and this head will hang by several strings from the Neck of every one of these Officers The least pretence for a Crime is punished The worst is that the least appearance of guilt renders an action criminal To be accused is almost sufficient to be culpable An action in it self innocent becomes bad so soon as any one thinks to make a Crime thereof And from thence proceed the so frequent disgraces of the principal Officers They know not how for instance to reckon up all the Barcalons that the King of Siam has had since he reigned The Policy of the Kings of Siam cruel against all and against their own Brethren The Greatness of the Kings whose Authority is despotical is to exercise Power over all and over their own Brethren The Kings of Siam do maim them in several ways when they can they take away or debilitate their sight by fire they render them impotent by dislocation of Members or sottish by Drinks securing themselves and their Children against the Enterprizes of their Brethren only by rendring them incapable of reigning he that now reigns has not treated his better This Prince will not therefore envy our King the sweetness of being beloved by his Subjects and the Glory of being dreaded by his Enemies The Idea of a great King is not at Siam that he should render himself terrible to his Neighbours provided he be so to his Subjects The Government of Siam more burdensome to the Nobles than to the Populace Yet there is this Reflection to be made on this sort of Government that the Yoke thereof is less heavy if I may so say on the Populace than on the Nobles Ambition in this Country leads to Slavery Liberty and the other Enjoyments of Life are for the vulgar Conditions The more one is unknown to the Prince and the further from him the greater Ease he enjoys and for this reason the Employments of the Provinces are there considered as a Recompence of the Services done in the Palace How tempestuous the Ministry is at Siam The Ministry there is tempestuous not only thro the natural Inconstancy which may appear in the Prince's Mind but because that the ways are open for all persons to carry complaints to the Prince against his Ministers And though the Ministers and all the other Officers do employ all their artifices to render these ways of complaints ineffectual whereby one may attack them all yet all complaints are dangerous and sometimes it is the slightest which hurts and which subverts the best established favour These examples which very frequently happen do edifie the People and if the present King had not too far extended his exactions without any real necessity his Government would as much please the Populace as it is terrible to the Nobles The King of Siam's regards for his people Nevertheless he has had that regard for his People as not to augment his Duties on cultivated Lands and to lay no imposition on Corn and Fish to the end that what is necessary to Life might not be dear A moderation so much the more admirable as it seems that they ought not to expect any from a Prince educated in this Maxim that his Glory consists in not setting limits to his power and always in augmenting his Treasure The Inconveniences of this Government It renders the Prince wavering on his Throne But these Kings which are so absolutely the Masters of the Fortune and Life of their Subjects are so much the more wavering in the Throne They find not in any person or at most in a small number of Domesticks that Fidelity or Love which we have for our Kings The People which possess nothing in property and which do reckon only upon what they have buried in the ground as they have no solid establishment in their Country so they have no obligation thereto Being resolved to bear the same Yoke under any Prince whatever and having the assurance of not being able to bear a heavier they concern not themselves in the Fortune of their Prince and experience evinces that upon the least trouble they let the Crown go to whom Force or Policy will give it A Siamese a Chinese an Indian will easily die to exert a particular Hatred or to avoid a miserable Life or a too cruel Death but to die for their Prince and their Country is not a Vertue in their practice Amongst them are not found the powerful motives by which our People animate themselves to a vigorous Defence They have no Inheritance to lose and Liberty is oftentimes more burdensom to them than Servitude The Siameses which the King of Pegu has taken in war will live peaceable in Pegu at Twenty miles distant from the Frontiers of Siam and they will there cultivate the Lands which the King of Pegu has given them no remembrance of their Country making them to hate their new Servitude And it is the same of the Peguins which are in the Kingdom of Siam The Eastern Kings are looked upon as the
adoptive Sons of Heaven How uncertain the extream Respect of the Orientals is for their Kings 'T is believed that they have Souls celestial and as high above other Souls by their Merit as the Royal Condition appears more happy than that of other men Nevertheless if any one of their Subjects revolts the People doubt presently which of the two Soulâ— is most valuable whether that of the Lawful Prince or that of the Rebellious Subjectâ— and whether the Adoption of Heaven has not passed from the King to the Subject Their Histories are all full of these examples and that of China which Father Martinius has given us is curious in the ratiociniations by which the Chineses I mean the Chinese Philosophers are often perswaded that they followed the Inclination of Heaven in changing their Soveraign and sometimes in preferring a High-way-man before their Lawful Prince But besides that the despotick Authority is almost destitute of defence These Princes do oftentimes lose their Authority by being too jealous it is moreover rather usurped by him that possesses it in that the exercise thereof is less communicated Whoever takes upon him the Spirit or Person of a Prince has almost nothing more to do to dispossess the Prince because that the exercise of the Authority being too much reunited in the Prince there is none besides him that prohibits it in case of need Thus is it not lawful for a King to be a Minor or too easie to let himself be governed The Scepter of this Country soon falls from hands that need a support to sustain it On the contrary in Kingdoms where several permanent bodies of Magistracy divide the Splendor and the Exercise of the Royal Authority these same bodies do preserve it entire for the King who imparts it to them because they deliver not to the Usurper that part which is in their hands and which alone suffices to save that which the King himself knows not how to keep In the ancient Rebellions of China it appears The peril in re-uniting all the Royal Authority in the Seal that he who seized on the Royal Seal presently rendered himself Master of all because that the people obeyed the Orders where the Seal appear'd without informing themselves in whose hands the Seal was And the Jealousie which the King of Siam has of his that I have said he intrusts with no person persuades me that it is the same in his Country The danger therefore to these Princes is in that wherein they place their security Their Policy requires that their whole Authority should be in their Seal to exercise it more entire themselves alone And this Policy as much exposes their Authority as their Seal is easie to lose The same danger is found in a great Treasure A publick Treasure necessary to despotick Governments and what are the Inconveniences thereof The Conclusion of this Chapter the only spring of all the Despotick Governments where the ruin'd people cannot supply extraordinary Subsidies in publick necessities In a great Treasure all the Forces of the State reunite themselves and he that seizes on the Treasure seizes on the State So that besides a Treasures ruining the People on whom it is levied it frequently serves against those that accumulate it and this likewise draws the dissipation thereof The Indian Government has therefore all the defects of the Despotick Government It renders the Prince and his Subjects equally uncertain It betrays the Royal Authority and delivers it up entire under pretence of putting the more entire Management thereof into the hands of a single person and moreover it deprives it of its natural defence by separating the whole Interest of the Subjects from that of the Prince and State Having therefore related how the Kings of Siam do treat their Subjects it remains to show how they treat as well with foreign Princes by Embassies as with the foreign Nations which are fled to Siam CHAP. XV. Concerning the Form of Embassies at Siam The Eastern Ambassadors represent not their Masters and are less honored than in Europe AN Ambassador throughout the East is no other than a Kings Messenger he represents not his Master They honour him little in comparison of the respects which are render'd to the Letters of Credence whereof he is Bearer Mr. de Chaumont tho an Ambassador extraordinary never had a Balon of the Body not on the very day of his entrance and it was in a Balon of the Body that the Kings Letter was put which he had to deliver to the King of Siam This Balon had four Vmbrella's one at each corner of the Seat and it was attended with four other Balons of the Body adorn'd with their Vmbrella's but empty as the King of Spain when he goes abroad in his Coach and that he would be seen and known has always one which follows him empty which is called de respeto a word and custom come from Italy The Kings Presents were likewise carry'd in Balons of the Body and the same things were observed at the entrance of the King's Envoys Thus the Orientals make no difference between an Ambassador and an Envoy And they understand not Ambassadors nor ordinary Envoys nor Residents because they send no person to reside at a foreign Court but there to dispatch a business and return The Siamese Embassies consists in three persons The Siameses do never send more nor less than three Ambassadors together The first is called Rayja Tout that is to say Royal Messenger the second Oubba Tout and the third Tri Tout terms which I understand not but the two last Ambassadors are obliged in every thing to follow the Advice of the first They are looked upon as Messengers which carry a Letter Every one therefore who is the carrier of a Letter from the King is reputed an Ambassador throughout the East Wherefore after the Ambassador of Persia which Mr. de Chaumont left in the Country of Siam was dead at Tenasserim his Domesticks having elected one amongst them to deliver the King of Persia's Letter to the King of Siam he that was elected was received without any other Character as the real Ambassador would have been and with the same honors which the King of Persia had formerly granted to the Ambassador of Siam He returns them no Answer but a Recepisse But that wherein they treat an Ambassador like a meer Messenger is that the King of Siam in the Audience of Leave gives him a Recepisse of the Letter he has received from him and if this Prince returns an Answer he gives it not to him but he sends his own Ambassadors with him to carry it How the King of Siam is advertised of the Arrival of an Ambassador A foreign Ambassador which arrives at Siam is stopped at the Entrance of the Kingdom until the King of Siam has received intelligence thereof and if he is accompanied with Siamese Ambassadors as we were it belongs to the
A NEW Historical Relation OF THE KINGDOM OF SIAM BY Monsieur DE LA LOVBERE Envoy Extraordinary from the FRENCH KING to the KING of SIAM in the years 1687 and 1688. Wherein a full and curious Account is given of the Chinese Way of Arithmetick and Mathematick Learning In Two TOMES Illustrated with SCULPTURES Done out of French by A. P. Gen. R. S.S. LONDON Printed by F. L. for Tho. Horne at the Royal Exchange Francis Saunders at the New Exchange and Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCXCIII A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS The Occasion and Design of this Work PART I. Of the Country of Siam CHAP. I. IT s Geographical Description Page 3 CHAP. II. A Continuation of the Geographical Description of the Kingdom of Siam with an Account of its Metropolis Page 6 CHAP. III. Concerning the History and Origine of the Siameses Page 8 CHAP. IV. Of the Productions of Siam and first of the Woods Page 11 CHAP. V. Concerning the Mines of Siam Page 13 CHAP. VI. Of the Cultivated Lands and their Fertility Page 15 CHAP. VII Of the Grain of Siam Page 17 CHAP. VIII Of the Husbandry and the difference of the Seasons Page 18 CHAP. IX Of the Gardens of the Siameses and occasionally of their Liquors Page 20 PART II. Of the Manners of the Siameses in general CHAP. I. OF the Habit and Meen of the Siameses Page 25 CHAP. II. Of the Houses of the Siameses and of their Architecture in Publick Buildings Page 29 CHAP. III. Of the Furniture of the Siameses Page 34 CHAP. IV. Concerning the Table of the Siameses Page 35 CHAP. V. Concerning the Carriages and Equipage of the Siameses in general Page 39 CHAP. VI. Concerning the Shows and other Diversions of the Siameses Page 44 CHAP. VII Concerning the Marriage and Divorce of the Siameses Page 51 CHAP. VIII Of the Education of the Siamese Children and first of Their Civility Page 54 CHAP. IX Of the studies of the Siameses Page 58 CHAP. X. What the Siameses do know in Medicine and Chymistry Page 62 CHAP. XI What the Siameses do know of the Mathematicks Page 64 CHAP. XII Concerning Musick and the Exercises of the Body Page 68 XIII Of the Arts exercised by the Siameses Page 69 CHAP. XIV Of the Traffick amongst the Siameses Page 71 CHAP. XV. A Character of the Siameses in general Page 73 PART III. Of the Manners of the Siameses according to their several Conditions CHAP. I. OF the several Conditions among the Siameses Page 77 CHAP. II. Of the Siamese People Page 78 CHAP. III. Of the Officers of the Kingdom of Siam in general Page 80 CHAP. IV. Concerning the Office of Judicatory Page 82 CHAP. V. Of the Judiciary stile or form of Pleading Page 85 CHAP. VI. The Functions of Governor and Judge in the Metropolis Page 88 CHAP. VII Of the State Officers and particularly of the Tchacry Calla-hom and of the General of the Elephants Page 89 CHAP. VIII Concerning the Art of War amongst the Siameses and of their Forces by Sea and Land Page 90 CHAP. IX Of the Barcalon and of the Revenues Page 93 CHAP. X. Of the Royal Seal and of the Maha Oborat Page 95 CHAP. XI Of the Pallace and of the King of Siam's Guard Page 96 CHAP. XII Of the Officers which nearest approach the King of Siam's Person Page 99 CHAP. XIII Of the Women of the Palace and of the Officers of the Wardrobe Page 100 CHAP. XIV Of the Customes of the Court of Siam and of the Policy of its Kings Page 102 CHAP. XV. Concerning the form of Embassies at Siam Page 108 CHAP. XVI Of the Forreigners of different Nations fled to and setled at Siam Page 112 CHAP. XVII Of the Talapoins and their Convents Page 113 CHAP. XVIII Of the Election of the Superior and of the Reception of the Talapoins and Talapoinesses Page 118 CHAP. XIX Concerning the Doctrine of the Talapoins Page 119 CHAP. XX. Of the Burials of the Chineses and Siameses Page 122 CHAP. XXI Of the Principles of the Indian Moral Law Page 126 CHAP. XXII Of the supream Felicity and extream Infelicity amongst the Siameses Page 129 CHAP. XXIII Concerning the Origin of the Talapoins and of their Opinions Page 130 CHAP. XXIV Of the fabulous Stories which the Talapoins and their Brethren have framed on their Doctrine Page 135 CHAP. XXV Diverse Observations to be made in Preaching the Gospel to the Orientals Page 140 A NEW HISTORICAL RELATION OF THE KINGDOM OF SIAM The Occasion and Design of this Work AT my return from the Voyage I made to Siam The Occasion of this work in quality of his Most Christian Majesties Envoy Extraordinary they whose right it is to command requir'd me to render them an exact account of the things which I had seen or learnt in that Country which will be the whole matter of this work Others have sufficiently informed the Public of the Circumstances of this long Voyage But as to what concerns the Description of a Country we cannot have too many Relations if we would perfectly know it the last always illustrating the former But that it may be known from what time I write I shall declare only that we set Sail from Brest on the First of March Anno 1687. That we cast Anchor in the Road of Siam the 27th of September in the same Year That we departed thence for our return the 3d of January 1688. And that we landed at Brest the 27th of July following My Design is therefore to treat first of the Country of Siam its Extent The Design of this work Fertility and the qualities of its Soil and Climate Secondly I will explain the manners of the Siameses in general and then their particular Customs according to their various Qualities Their Government and Religion shall be comprehended in the last part and I flatter my self that the farther the Reader shall advance in the perusal of this work the more he will find it worthy of Curiosity by reason that the Nature and Genius of the Siameses which I have every where endeavoured to penetrate into will be discovered more and more In fine not to stay on things which would not please every one or which would interrupt my Narrative too much I will at the end insert several Memoirs which I brought from this Country and which I cannot suppress without injuring the Curiosity of the Public But if notwithstanding this precaution I do yet enlarge on certain matters beyond the relish of some I intreat them to consider that general expressions do never afford just Idea's and that this is to proceed no farther than the superficial Knowledge of things 'T is out of this desire of making the Siameses perfectly known that I give several notices of the other Kingdoms of the Indies and of China For though rigorously taken all this may appear foreign to my Subject yet to me it seems that the Comparison of the things of Neighbouring Countries with each
this Author who seems to rely too much on his memory we may believe what he says that the Elephants of the King of Pegu who then besieged the City of Siam did so nearly approach the Walls as with their Trunks to beat down the Palisado's which the Siameses had there placed to cover themselves It s Latitude according to Father Thomas the Jesuit is 14 d. 20 m. 40 S. and its Longitude 120 d. 30 m. It has almost the figure of a Purse the mouth of which is to the East and the bottom to the West The River meets it at the North by several Channels which run into that which environs it and leaves it on the South by separating itself again into several streams The King's Palace stands to the North on the Canal which embraces the City and by turning to the East there is a Causey by which alone as by an Isthmus People may go out of the City without crossing the water The City is spacious considering the Circuit of its Walls which as I have said incloses the whole Isle but scarce the sixth part thereof is inhabited and that to the South-East only The rest lies desart where the Temples only stand 'T is true that the Suburbs which are possessed by strangers do considerably increase the number of the People The streets thereof are large and strait and in some places planted with Trees and paved with Bricks laid edgewise The Houses are low and built with Wood at least those belonging to the Natives who for these Reasons are exposed to all the Inconveniences of the excessive heat Most of the streets are watered with strait Canals which have made Siam to be compar'd to Venice and on which are a great many small Bridges of Hurdles and some of Brick very high and ugly Its Names The Name of Siam is unknown to the Siamese 'T is one of those words which the Portugues of the Indies do use and of which it is very difficult to discover the Original They use it as the Name of the Nation and not of the Kingdom And the Names of Pegu Lao Mogul and most of the Names which we give to the Indian Kingdoms are likewise National Names so that to speak rightly we must say the King of the Peguins Laos Moguls Siams as our Ancestors said the King of the Franc's In a word those that understand Portuguese do well know that according to their Orthography Siam and Siaom are the same thing and that by the Similitude of our Language to theirs we ought to say the Sions and not the Siams so when they write in Latin they call them Siones The true Name of the Siameses signifies Francs A Map of the Citty of SIAM A. The Citty B. The Pallace C. The Port D. the Arsenall for the Ships E. the Arsenall for the Ballons Galleys F. The Street of the Bazars G. The Seminary H. The Portuguese Iacobins I. The Portuguese Iesuites K. The Dutch Factory L. The Inclosur where the Elephants are taken M. A House begun for the French Ambassadors 800 French Toises The Bambou Tree The Arvore de Raiz A Map of Bancock A Vessell of filigran A Plaugh The Arc Kier As for the City of Siam the Siameses do call it Si-yo-thi-ya the o of the Syllable yo being closer than our Dipthong an Sometimes also they call it Crung the-papra maha nacon But most of these words are difficult to understand because they are taken from this Baly Language which I have already declared to be the learned Language of the Siameses and which they themselves do not always perfectly understand I have already remark'd what I know concerning the word Pra that of Maha signifies Great Thus in speaking of their King they stile him Pra Maha Crassat and the word Crassat according to their report signifies living and because the Portugues have thought that Pra signifies God they imagin that the Siameses called their King The great living God From Si-yo-thi ya the Siamese Name of the City of Siam Foreigners have made Judia and Odiaa by which it appears that Vincent le Blanc and some other Authors do very ill distinguish Odiaa from Siam In a word the Siameses of whom I treat do call themselves Tai Noe Two different People called Siameses little Siams There are others as I was informed altogether savage which are called Tai yai great Siams and which do live in the Northern Mountains In several Relations of these Countries I find a Kingdom of Siammon or Siami but all do not agree that the People thereof are savage In fine the Mountains which lie on the common Frontiers of Ava Other Mountains and other Frontiers Pegu and Siam gradually decreasing as they extend to the South do form the Peninsula of India extra Gangem which terminating at the City of Sincapura separates the Gulphs of Siam and Bengala and which with the Island of Sumatra forms the famous Strait of Malaca or Sincapura Several Rivers do fall from every part of these Mountains into the Gulphs of Siam and Bengala and render these Coasts habitable The other Mountains which rise between the Kingdom of Siam and Laos and extend themselves also towards the South do run gradually decreasing till they terminate at the Cape of Camboya the most Eastern of all those in the Continent of Asia toward the South 'T is about the Latitude of this Cape that the Gulph of Siam begins and the Kingdom of this Name extends a great way towards the South in form of an Horseshoe on either side of the Gulph viz. along the Eastern Coast to the River Chantebon where the Kingdom of Camboya begins and opposite thereunto viz. in the Peninsula extra Gangem which lies on the West of the Gulph of Siam it extends to Queda and Patana the Territories of the Malayans of which Malaca was formerly the Metropolis After this manner it runs about 200 Leagues on the side toward the Gulph of Siam and 180 or thereabouts on the Gulph of Bengal The Coasts of Siam an advantageous situation which opens unto the Natives of the Countrey the Navigation on all these vast Eastern Seas Add that as Nature has refus'd all manner of Ports and Roads to the Coast of Coromandel which forms the Gulph of Bengal to the West it has therewith enrich'd that of Siam which is opposite to it and which is on the East of the same Gulph A great number of Isles do cover it Isles of Siam in the Gulph of Bengal and render it almost everywhere a safe Harbor for Ships besides that most of these Isles have very excellent Ports and abundance of fresh water and wood an invitation for new Colonies The King of Siam affects to be called Lord thereof altho' his People who are very thin in the firm Land have never inhabited them and he has not strength enough at Sea to prohibit or hinder the enterance thereof to strangers The City of Merguy
since improved it from very plentiful Mines and though not very skilful yet they cease not to get a considerable revenue by it This Tin or Calin as the Portuguese report is sold through all India 'T is soft and basely purified and a specimen thereof is seen in the common Tea Boxes or Cannisters which come from this Country But to render it harder and whiter like that of the finest Tea Boxes they mix it with Cadmia a sort of Mineral easily reducible to powder which being melted with the Copper makes it yellow but it renders both these Metals more brittle And 't is this white Tin which they call Tontinague This is what Mr. Vincent relates on the subject of the Mines of Siam Mines of Loadstone In the Neighbourhood of the City of Louvo they have a Mountain of Loadstone They have another also near Jonsalam a City seated in an Island of the Gulph of Bengal which is not above the distance of a Mans voice from the Coast of Siam but the Loadstone which is dug at Jonsalam loses its vertue in three or four Months I know not whether it is not the same in that of Louvo Precious Stones In their Mountains they find very curious Agate and Mr. Vincent inform'd me that he has seen in the hands of the Talapoins who secretly busie themselves in these researches some samples or pieces of Saphires and Diamonds that came out of the Mine He assured me also that some particular Persons having found some Diamonds and given them to the King's Officers were retired to Pegu by by reason they had not receiv'd any recompence Steel I have already said that the City of Campeng-pet is famous for Mines of excellent Steel The Inhabitants of the Country do forge Arms thereof after their fashion as Sabres Poniards and Knives The Knife which they call Pen is used by all and is not look'd upon as Arms although it may serve upon occasion The blade thereof is three or four Fingers broad and about a Foot long The King gives the Sabre and the Poniard They wear the Poniard on the left side hanging a little before The Portuguese do call it Christ a word corrupted from Crid which the Siameses use This word is borrow'd from the Malayan Language which is famous throughout the East and the Crids which are made at Achim in the Isle of Sumatra do pass for the best of all As for the Sabre a Slave always carries it before his Master on his right shoulder as we carry the Musquet on the left They have Iron Mines which they know how to melt Iron and some have inform'd me that they have but little thereof besides they are bad Forge-men For their Gallies they have only wooden Anchors and to the end that these Anchors may sink to the bottom they fasten stones unto them They have neither Pins nor Needles nor Nails nor Chisels nor Saws They use not a Nail in building their Houses altho' they be all of Wood. Every one makes Pins of Bambou even as our Ancestors us'd Thorns for this purpose To them there comes Padlocks from Japan some of Iron which are good and others of Copper which are very naught They do make very bad Gunpowder The defect they say Salt-Petre and Powder proceeds from the Salt-Petre which they gather from their Rocks where it is made of the dung of Batts Animals which are exceeding large and very plentiful throughout India But whether this Salt-Petre be good or bad the King of Siam sells a great deal of it to Strangers Having described the natural Riches of the Mountains and Forests of Siam 't would be proper in this place to speak of the Elephants Rhinoceros Tygers and all other savage Beasts wherewith they are stored yet seeing this matter has been sufficiently explicated by a great many others I shall omit it to pass on to the inhabited and cultivated Lands CHAP. VI. Of the cultivated Lands and their Fertility THey are not Stony it being very difficult to find a Flint The Country of Siam is Clayie and this makes me to believe of the Country of Siam what some have reported of Egypt that it has been gradually formed of the clayish Earth which the Rain-waters have carry'd down from the Mountains Before the mouth of the Menam there is a Bank of Owse which in the Sea-phrase is call'd the Bar and which prohibits entrance to great Ships 'T is probable that it will increase itself by little and little and will in time make a new Shore to the firm Land 'T is therefore this Mud descending from the Mountains The annual Inundation fattens the Lands of Siam that is the real cause of the Fertility of Siam where-ever the Inundation extends itself In other and especially on the highest places all is dry'd and burnt with the Sun in a little time after the Rains Under the Torrid Zone and likewise in Spain whose Climate is more temperate if the Lands are naturally fertile as for Example between Murcia and Carthagena where the Seed yields sometimes an hundred fold they are nevertheless so subject to Drought Insects and other Inconveniences that it frequently happens that they are deprived of the whole Harvest several years together And 't is this which betides all the Countries of India which are not subject to be overflowed and which besides the barrenness of the Soil do suffer the ravages of contagious and pestilential Distempers which succeed it But the annual Inundation gives to Siam the assurance and plenty of the Rice Harvest and renders this Kingdom the Nourisher of several others Besides the Inundations fatning the Land it destroys the Insects It destroys the Insects altho' it always leaves a great many which extremely incommode Nature instructs all the Animals of Siam to avoid the Inundation The Birds which perch not in our Countries as Partridges and Pigeons do all perch in that The Pismires doubly prudent do here make their Nests and Magazines on Trees White Ants at Siam There are white Ants which amongst other ravages which they make do pierce Books through and through The Missionaries are oblig'd to preserve theirs by varnishing them over the cover and edges with a little Cheyram which hinders them not from opening After this precaution the Ants have no more power to bite and the Books are more agreeable by reason that this Gum being mixt with nothing that colours it has the same lustre as the Glasses wherewith we cover Pictures in Miniature This would be no dear nor difficult Experiment to try whether the Cheyram would not defend the wood of our Beds against Buggs 'T is this same Cheyram which being spread upon Canvas makes it appear like Horn. Therewith they us'd to environ the great Cresset-lights which some reported to be of Horn and all of a piece Sometimes also those little Cups varnish'd with red which come to us from Japan and whose lightness astonishes us do consist
his place to him whom he receives at his House and invites him to accept it He afterwards serves him with Fruit and Preserves and sometimes with Rice and Fish and more especially he with his own hand presents him with Arek and Betel and Tea The common People forget not Arek and Persons of Quality do sometimes accommodate themselves therewith At the end of the Visit the Stranger first testifies that he will go as amongst us and the Master of the House consents thereto with very obliging Expressions To what degree the highest place is the most honourable and he must be greatly superior to him that renders him the Visit to bid him depart The highest place is so far the most honourable according to them that they dared not to go into the first Story even for the service of the House when the Kings Ambassadors were in the lower Hall In the Houses which strangers do build of Brick above one story they observe that the undermost part of the Stairs never serves for a passage for fear lest any one should go under the feet of another that ascends but the Siameses build no more than one story by reason that the bottom would be useless to them no person amongst them being willing either to go or lodge under the feet of another For this reason though the Siamese Houses be erected on Piles they never make use of the under part not so much as in the Kings House whose Palace being uneven has some pieces higher than others the under part of which might be inhabited I remember that when the Ambassadors of Siam came to an Inn near Vincennes the first Ambassador being lodged in the first story and the others in the second the second Ambassador perceiving that he was above the King his Masters Letter which the first Ambassador had with him ran hastily out of his Chamber bewailing his offence and tearing his hair in despair The right hand more honourable then the left at Siam At Siam the right hand is more honourable than the left the floor of the Chamber opposite to the door is more honourable than the sides and the sides more than the wall where the door is and the wall which is on the right hand of him that sits on the floor is more honourable than that which is on his left hand Thus in the Tribunals no person sits on the Bench fixed to the wall which is directly opposite to the door save the President who alone has a determinative Vote The Councellors who only have a Consultative Vote are seated on other lower Benches along the side-walls and the other Officers along the wall of the door After the same manner if any one receives an important visit he places the Visitor alone on the floor of the Chamber and seats himself with his back towards the door or towards one of the sides of the Chamber Why the Cities at China are all after one Model These Ceremonies and a great many others are so precise at China that it is necessary that the Entries of the Houses and the Rooms where particular persons receive their Visits and those where they entertain their Friends be all after one model to be able to observe the same Civilities But this Uniformity of building and of turning the buildings to the South so that they front the North in their entering in has been much more indispensible in the Tribunals and in all the other publick houses insomuch that whoever sees one City in this great Kingdom sees them all The exactness of the Siameses in their Ceremonies Now Ceremonies are as essential and almost as numerous at Siam as at China A Mandarin carries himself one way before his Inferiors and another way before his Superiors If there are several Siameses together and there unexpectedly comes in another it frequently happens that the posture of all changes They know before whom and to what degree they must keep themselves inclined or strait or sitting whether they must joyn their hands or not and keep them high or low whether being seated they may advance one Foot or both or whether they must keep them both conceal'd by sitting on their heels And the miscarriages in these sorts of duties may be punished with the cudgel by him to whom they are committed or by his orders and on the spot So that there is not introduced amongst them those Airs of familiarity which in diversions do attract rudeness injuries blows and quarrels and sometimes intemperance and impudence they are always restrained by reciprocal respects What some report concerning the Chinese Hat is a thing very pleasant It has no brim before nor behind but only at the sides and this brim which terminates in an oval is so little fastened to the body of the Hat that it flaps and renders a man ridiculous at the least irregular motion which he makes of his head Thus these people have imagined that the less men are at ease the fewer faults they commit They are accustomed thereunto from their infancy But all these forms which seem to us very troublesom appear not so to them by reason they are early accustomed thereunto Custom renders the distinctions less severe to them than they would be to us and much more the thoughts that they may enjoy it in their turn He that is Superior or Inferior to day changing his condition to morrow according to the Prudence or the Capricious Humor of the Prince The hereditary distinctions which the Birth does here give to so many persons who are sometimes without merit will not appear less hard to undergo to him who should not be thereto accustomed or who should not comprehend that the most precious recompence of Vertue is that which one hopes to transmit to his posterity The Custom is therefore at Siam and China How the great men dispense with these in their Inferiors that when the Superior would discreetly manage the Inferior and testify a great deal of consideration for him as it sometimes happens in the intrigues of Court the Superior affects publickly to avoid the meeting the Inferior to spare him the publick submissions with which he could not dispense if they should meet him Moreover affability towards Inferiors Easiness of access or going before them do pass for weakness in the Indies The Siameses constrain not themselves to belching in conversation Certain things incident amongst us are not so amongst them and on the contrary neither turn they aside their face or put any thing before their mouth no more than the Spaniards 'T is no incivility amongst them to wipe off the Sweat of their forehead with their Fingers and then to shake them against the ground For this purpose we use a Handkercheif and few of the Siameses have any which is the reason why they very slovenly perform every thing whereunto the Handkercheif is necessary They dare to spit neither on the Mats nor the Carpets and because they
through their whole Body The Plate was soon empty and hereupon Anourout reflecting on the goodness of these Confects said unto himself It must needs be that my Mother has scarcely loved me till now seeing that she never gave me the Confects No there are no more Returning home he went to ask his Mother whether she loved her Son His Mother who passionately loved him was exceedingly surprized at this question and answered him that she loved him as her own Heart and Eyes And why if what you say is true have you never given me the Confects No there are no more For the future I beseech you to give me no other I am resolved to eat only of these His Mother astonished to hear her Son speak thus addressed her self to the Servant who had carried the Plate and asked him secretly whether he saw any thing therein to whom he answered yes that he saw the Dish filled with a kind of Confects which he had never seen before and then the Mother of Anourout comprehended the Mystery and judged rightly that the Antient Merit of her Son had procured him these Confects and that the Superior Genij had rendered him this good Office Afterwards therefore when the Prince demanded these Confects of his Mother she only took an empty Dish covered it with another and sent it him and the Plate was always found full as I have said Anourout understood not likewise the meaning of these words to assume the Pagne or Talapoins Habit and having one day desired his elder Brother Pattia to explain them to him Pattia informed him what he knew that to assume the Talapoins Habit was intirely to shave his Hair and Beard to sleep on a Hurdle and to cloath himself with a yellow Pagne Which Anourout understanding he told his Brother that being accustomed to live at his ease and to have all things at pleasure he should find much difficulty to lead this Life And Pattia replyed seeing then my Brother that you will not resolve to turn Talapoin consider which is best but also not to live Idly learn to work and continue at my Father's House as long as you please Anourout asked him what he meant by this word to Work which he understood not Pattia then said unto him how can you know what it is to work seeing that you neither know where nor how the Rice grows One day indeed Quimila Pattia and Anourout discoursing together upon the Place where the Rice might grow Quimila replyed that it growed in the Barn Pattia said no and asserted that it grew in the Pot And Anourout told them both that they understood nothing and that it grew in the Dish The first having one day observed that the Rice was taken out of the Barn thought it was there that it grew The second had seen it taken out of the Pot and 't is that which gave him occasion to think that it grew in the Pot But the third who had never seen it otherwise than in the Dish really believed that the Rice grew in the Dish when one had a desire to eat and thus all three knew nothing of the matter Anourout declared afterwards to the other two that he was not inclined to work and that he chose rather to turn Talapoin and he went to ask leave of his Mother She refused him two or three times but as he would not be denied and as he continually pressed her more and more she told him that if Pattia would turn Talapoin she would permit him to follow him Anourout went therefore to sollicit his five other Companions to make themselves Talapoins and they resolved to do it seven days after These seven days being elapsed they went out of the City with a great Equipage seeming to go to divert themselves in the Country In their retinue they had a great many Mandarins mounted on Elephants with a good number of Footmen But principally they had in their Train a Barber by Profession named Oubbali Being atrived at the Confines of the Kingdom they sent back all their retinue except Oubbali then they stript themselves of their Cloaths folded them up very neatly and put them into the hands of Oubbali to make him a present thereof telling him that he should return into the City and that he had wherewithal to live at his ease the remainder of his days Oubbali very much afflicted to separate himself from these six Princes and yet not daring to contradict what they order'd him after having taken his leave of them departed weeping and took his road towards the Ciry from whence they had set out together But it presently came into his mind that if he returned and that the Parents of these young Princes should see the cloaths of their Children they would have reason to suspect him of their death and likewise to put him to death not believing that these young Princes would have quitted such precious Habits to give them to him Hereupon he hung up these Habits on a Tree and returned to seek out these young Lords So soon as they saw him they demanded the reason of his return and having declared it to them he testified that he would continue with them and assume the Habit of a Talapoin These young Princes presented him then to Sommona-Codom beseeching him to give the Habit to him rather than to them for finding themselves yet full of the Spirit of the World and proud of heart and willing to humble themselves they desired that Oubbali who was very inferior to them in the World might be their Elder in Religion to the end they might be obliged to respect him and to yield to him in all things the * I suppose that this is a remark which the Translator has inserted into the Text and we may therein remark some other Rule requiring that between two Talapoins the Eldest have all the Honours though the youngest be much the more Learned Sommona-Codom granted them their Request and they assumed the Habit a little while after Oubbali Being therefore entred into the time of Repentance Pattia by his merit had a Caelestial Heart Eyes and Ears that is to say he understood every thing he knew the Hearts of others he saw all things and heard every thing notwithstanding the distance and all obstacles One day after Sommona-Codom had preached Anourout was advanced to the degree of an Angel At the same time Aanon a Talapoin dear to Sommona-Codom went to Sonda the first degree of Perfection Packou and Quimila after having a long time exercised themselves in Prayer and Meditation were advanced to be Angels There was Thevetat alone that could obtain no other thing than a great strength and the power of doing Miracles * The Miracles of Jesus Christ perswade them that he is Thevetat but it is necessary to evince to them that the Miracles which they attribute to Thevetat are to do Evil and that those of Jesus Christ are for Good Sommona Codom being gone with
even in this Age that when the King was obstinate not to hear any important reproof the Officers of the Court to the number sometimes of two Thousand have entered into his Palace there to lay down the Badges of their Offices So that it is impossible that a King of China can continue King if he is vicious to a certain degree Thus some tell him incessantly that it is his example which must render the Magistrates and the People virtuous and that if he departs from the Vertue of his Ancestors the Magistrates and People growing debauched in their Morals would forget their fidelity which they owe him and which is their first duty and their first Vertue Examples hereof are frequent in their History in which they have not better provided for the security of their Master than all the other Despotic States According to them it is 4000 years that their Kingdom has continued in these Maxims which render it the admiration of all its Neighbors St. Francis Xavier reports in his Letters that the Japponeses incessantly objected to him that the Christian Religion could not be true seeing that it was not known by the Chineses Yet I know that the Chineses have some Vices but they perhaps sin less against their Moral Law than we do against ours How much have our Morals degenerated from those of our Ancestors and the Chineses more antient than us do still esteem it a disgrace to violate their Morals in public and to fail in the respects which they owe to one another either by any disobedience to their Parents or by any quarrel with their equals They are Infidels say some in Commerce but it may be they are only so with Strangers as the Hebrews lent money to usury to Strangers only and besides the Chineses which have Commerce with Strangers are those of the Frontiers whose manners this very foreign Commerce has depraved The greatest Vice of the Chineses is doubtless an extream Hypocrisy but besides that it reigns every where because it is a Vice which is free from the censure of the Laws it is perhaps a less evil than a publick corruption But if the Chinese History may be credited 't is Vertue alone that has formed this great Empire the love of their Laws which were at first established in a corner of this Country gradually drew all the Neighbouring Provinces under the same yoke it not appearing that the Chineses have conquered these Provinces by any war It is true that all these little States which were at the beginning as so many hereditary Fiefs given usually to the Princes of the Royal Blood have been reunited to the Crown by Civil Wars when the Royal race has changed and that Usurpers have expelled the lawful Kings from the Throne but it appears that the first subjection of all these little States to the Crown of China has been voluntary They say that 44 Kingdoms enamoured with the Vertue of Venvam submitted to his Laws He reigned over the two thirds of China when it was yet divided However it be the Chineses have been continually Enemies to war as the principal cause of the corruption of manners and they have preferred Morality before all the Glory of Conquests and all the advantages of Commerce with Strangers King Siven the ninth of the Race Hana 60 years before the birth of Jesus Christ dreading the consequences of any motion of the Tartars which sometime before had been confined within their Mountains by Hiaovu and who were returned to seize on the flat Country resolved to prevent them and make war upon them before they had put themselves in a condition to carry it into China In another Country this Prudence might have been approved but it was not at China where the care of good manners is the main affair of the State The History therefore relates that his Chief Minister disswaded him from this Enterprize by this discourse What Sir do you think to invade foreign Countrys when there are such great things to reform in your own A Prodigy to this hour unheard of amongst us in this year a Son has slain his Father seven younger Brothers have killed their 25 elder Brethren These are the signs of an intolerable boldness and which presage a very dangerous corruption in our manners 'T is what we ought to be alarumed at it is to what a speedy remedy must be applied for so long as these Crimes shall not be suffered at China China will have nothing to fear from the Tartars but if they were once permitted I fear that they would not only extend themselves into all the Territories of the Empire but even into the Imperial Palace Under Juen the Tenth King of the same race the Provinces of Qnantong and Quangsi and the Isle of Hainan revolting he levied as many forces as it was possible to reduce them to their Obedience but Kiasu whom he appointed for their General diverted him from this war by these words Anciently the Kingdom of China was bounded on the East by the Ocean on the West by the Sandy Desart and on the South by the River Kiang but by little and little it enlarged its limits less by Arms than by Vertue Our Kings do kindly receive under their Empire those who voluntarily submit themselves out of Love to our Justice and Clemency and several neighbouring Provinces submitted thereunto not any was compelled by force 'T is my advice that you abstain from this war and that imitating the good Kings which have lived before you you may make them to revive in your Maxims The way to reduce a rebelious People to Obedience is by the allurement of Vertue and not by the horror of Arms. Yet China has had some conquering Kings but two or three at most if I am not mistaken though they say that Hiaovu who was one of these repented of the wars which he had made and took no care to preserve his Conquests Gu-Cupn one of the Disciples of Confucius asked him one day what things were necessary to a good Government Plenty of Provisions replied he a sufficient quantity of Souldiers and Ammunition for War of Virtue in the King and his Subjects I understand what you tell me replied the Disciple but if it were necessary to lack one of these three things which will you quit the first The Souldiers answered the Philosopher But if there was a necessity also of lacking Provisions or Vertue which of these two losses would you chuse I would chuse saith he to want Provisions He could not better testifie the Contempt of War and the Love of good Morals Plato would have but a small number of Citizens in his Republic because that he dreaded the corruption in too great a Multitude and that he cared not so much as his Republic should last as that it should be happy and consequently virtuous so long as it did last In fine the Chineses have never neglected the instruction of the People Besides that it is easie to know