favour of those that love to reason on Philosophical matters The Siameses do not give many forms to their Lands The time of ploughing and reaping They till them and sowe them when the Rains have sufficiently softened them and they gather their harvest when the waters are retired and sometimes when they are yet remaining on the ground and they can go only by Boat All the land that is overflowed is good for Rice and 't is said that the Ear always surmounts the waters and that if they encrease a foot in twenty four hours the Rice grows a foot also in twenty four hours but though it be averr'd that this happens sometimes I cannot without much difficulty believe it in so vast an Inundation And I rather conceive that when the Inundation surmounts the Rice at any time it rots it They gather Rice also in divers Cantons of the Kingdom which the Rains do not overflow and this is more substantial better relisht and keeps longer Another sort of Rice When it has grown long enough in the Land where it was sown it is transplanted into another which is prepared after this manner They overflow it as we do the Salt Marshes until it be throughly soft and for this purpose it is necessary to have high Cisterns or rather to keep the Rain-water in the Field it self by little Banks made all round Then they let the water go to feed the Land level it and in fine transplant the Rice-Roots one after the other by thrusting them in with the Thumb I am greatly inclin'd to believe The original of Agriculture with the Siameses that the Ancient Siameses lived only upon Fruits and Fish as still do several people of the Coasts of Africk and that in process of time Husbandry has been taught them by the Chineses We read in the History of China that 't was anciently the King himself that annually first set his hand to the Plough in this great Kingdom and that of the Crop which his Labour yielded him he made the Bread for the Sacrifices The Lawful King of Tonquin and Cochinchina together who is called the Buado's likewise observe this Custom of first breaking up the Lands every year and of all the Royal Functions this is almost the only one remaining to him The most important are exercised by two Hereditary Governors the one of Tonquin and the other of Cochinchina who wage war and who are the true Soveraigns although they profess to acknowledge the Bua which is at Tonquin for their Soveraign The Ceremony of the Siameses touching Agriculture The King of Siam did formerly also set his hand to the Plough on a certain day of the year For about an Age since and upon some superstitious Observation of a bad Omen he labours no more but leaves this Ceremony to an imaginary King which is purposely created every year yet they will not permit him to bear the Title of King but that of Oc-ya-Kaou or Oc-ya of the Rice He is mounted upon an Ox and rides to the place where he must plough attended with a great train of Officers that are obedient to him This Masquerade for one day gets him wherewithal to live on the whole year And by the same superstition has deterred the Kings themselves It is look'd upon as ominous and unlucky to the person I suspect therefore that this custom of causing the lands to be ploughed by the Prince came from China to Tonquin and Siam with the Art of Husbandry It is Politick and Superstitious both together It may perhaps have been invented only to gain credit to Husbandry by the example of Kings themselves but it is intermixt with a great many superstitions to supplicate the good and evil Spirits whom they think able to help or hurt the goods of the Earth Amongst other things the Oc-ya-Kaou offers them a Sacrifice in the open field of an heap of Rice-sheaves whereunto he sets fire with his own hand CHAP. IX Of the Gardens of the Siameses and occasionally of their Liquors Their Pulse and Roots The Potatoe THE Siameses are not less addicted to the manuring of Gardens than to the ploughing of Arable Lands They have Pulse and Roots but for the most part different from ours Amongst the Roots the Potatoe deserves a parcular mention It is of the form and size almost of a Parsenep and the inside thereof is sometimes white sometimes red sometimes purple but I never saw any but the first sort Being roasted under the Ashes it eats like the Chesnut The Isles of America made it known to us it there frequently supplies as some report the place of Bread At Siam I have seen Chibbols and no Onions Garlick Turneps Cucumbers Citruls Water-melons Parsley Bawm Sorrel They have no true Melons nor Strawberries nor Raspberries nor Artichoaks but a great deal of Asparagus of which they do not eat They have neither Sallory nor Beets nor Coleworts nor Coleflore nor Turneps nor Parseneps nor Carrots nor Leeks nor Lettuce nor Chervil nor most of the Herbs whereof we compose our Sallads Yet the Dutch have most of all these Plants at Batavia which is a sign that the Soil of Siam would be proper thereunto It bears large Mushromes but few and ill tasted It yields no Truffles not so much as that insipid and scentless kind which the Spaniards do call Criadillas de tierra and which they put into their pot Cucumbers Chibbols Garlick Radishes The Siameses do eat Cucumbers raw as they do throughout the East and also in Spain and it is not impossible but their Cucumbers may be more wholsom than ours seeing that Vinegar doth not harden them They look upon them and call them a kind of Water-Melons Mr. Vincent inform'd me that a Persian will eat 36 pound weight of Melons or Cucumbers at the beginning of the season of these Fruits to purge himself The Chibbols Garlick and Radishes have a sweeter taste at Siam than in this Country These sort of Plants do lose their Rankness by the great Heat And I easily believe what those who have experienc'd it have assured me that nothing is more pleasant than the Onions of Aegypt which the Israelites so exceedingly regretted Flowers I have seen a great many Tuberoses in the Gardens of Siam and no Roses nor Gillyflowers but it is said there are plenty of Gillyflowers and few Roses and that these Flowers have less scent here than in Europe so that the Roses have hardly any The Jasmine is likewise so rare that 't is said there are none but at the King's House We were presented with two or three Flowers as a wonder They have a great many Amaranthus and Tricolors Except these most of the Flowers and Plants which adorn our Gardens are unknown to them But in their stead they have others which are peculiar to them and which are very agreeable for their Beauty and Odor I have remark'd of some that they smell only in the Night by
had also other Dignities in proportion to the Inhabitants which they contained But it is not necessary to believe that these Cities have ever been so populous as the Titles of their Governors import by reason as I have often alledged that these People are very proud in Titles Only the greatest Titles were given to the Governors of the biggest Cities and the least Titles to the Governors of the Cities less inhabited Thus the City of Me-Tac of which I have spoken at the beginning had a Governor called Pa-ya-Tac and the word Me which signifies Mother and which is joyned to Tac seems to intimate that the City of Me-Tac was very great The City of Porselouc had also a Pa-ya Tenasserim Ligor Corazema and other have still some Oc-ya Lesser Cities as Pipeli and Bancock have the Oc-pra others have the Oc-Louang or the Oc-Counnes and the least of all have the Oc-Meuing The Portuguese have translated these Titles according to their fancy by those of King Vice-Roy Duke Marquis Earl c. They have given the Title of Kingdom to Metac Tenassarim Porselouc Ligor and Pipeli either by reason of their hereditary Governours or for having been like Pipeli the residence of the Kings of Siam and to the Kings of Siam they have given the Title of Emperor because the Spaniards have ever thought the Title of Emperor ought to be given to Kings that have other Kings for Feudataries So that upon this single reason some Kings of Castille have born the Title of Emperor giving to their Children the Title of Kings of the several Kingdoms which were united to their Crown The dignities of the Siameses are not annext to the single Governments of City or Province To return to the Titles of the Siameses they are given not only to the Governors but to all the Officers of the Kingdom because that they are all Nai and the same Title is not always joyned to the same Office The Barcalon for example has sometimes had that of Pa-ya as some have informed me and now he has only that of Oc-ya But if a Man has two Offices he may have two different Titles in respect to his two Offices and it is not rare that one Man has two Offices one in the City and the other in the Province or rather one in Title and the other by Commission Thus Oc-ya Pra-Sedet who is Governor of the City of Siam in Title is now Oc-ya Barcalon by Commission the King of Siam finding it his interest because that upon this account he gives not to one Officer a double Sallery The Equivocations which this causes in Relations But this Multiplication of Offices on the same Head causes a great deal of Obscurity and Equivocation in the ancient Relations of Siam because that when a man has two Offices he has two Titles and two Names and when the Relation imports that such an Oc-ya for example is concerned in such a thing one is inclined to believe that the Relation has stil'd this Oc-ya by the title of the function which it attributes to him and frequently it has named him by the title of another Office Thus if a Relation of the Kingdom of France made by a Siamese should intimate that the Duke of Mayne is General of the Suisses the Siameses might groundlesly perswade themselves that every General of the Suisses bears the Title of Duke of Mayne And this is what I had to say touching the People of Siam CHAP. III. Of the Officers of the Kingdom of Siam in general The proper signification of the word Mandarin THE Portugueses have generally called all the Officers throughout the whole extent of the East Mandarins and it is probable that they have formed this word from that of Mandar which in their Language signifies to command Navarette whom I have already cited is of this opinion and we may confirm it because that the Arabian word Emir which is used at the Court of the Great Mogul and in several other Mahometan Courts of the Indies to signifie the Officers is derived from the Arabian Verb amara which signifies to command The word Mandarin extends also to the Children of the Principal Officers which are considered as Children of Quality called Mon in Siamese But I shall make use of the word Mandarin only to signifie the Officers The King of Siam therefore makes no considerable Mandarin The King of Siam gives Names to the considerable Mandarins but he gives him a new Name a Custom established also at China and in other States of the East This Name is always an Elogium sometimes it is purposely invented like that which he gave to the Bishop of Metelpolis and like those which he gives to the Forreigners that are at his Court but oftentimes these Names are ancient and known for having been formerly given to others and those are the most honourable which have been heretofore born by persons very highly advanced in Dignity or by the Princes of the Royal Blood And although such Names be not always accompanied with Offices and Authority they cease not to be a great Mark of Favour It likewise happens that the same Name is given to several persons of different Dignities so that at the same time the one for example will call himself Oc-Pra Pipitcharatcha and the other Oc-Counne Pipitcharatcha These Names of which the first words are only spoken and which do every one make a Period are taken almost all entire out of the Baly Tongue and are not always well understood But this and the Stile of the Laws which participate very much of the Baly and the Books of Religion which are Baly are the cause why the Kings of Siam ought not to ignore this Tongue Forasmuch as I have elsewhere said it lends all its Ornaments to the Siamese and that oftentimes they do elegantly intermix them either in speaking or in writing The Law of the State is that all Offices should be hereditary All Offices are hereditary and the same Law is in the Kingdom of Laos and was anciently at China But the selling of Offices is not there permitted and moreover the least fault of the Patent or the capricious Humor of the Prince or the Dotage of the Inheritor may take away the Offices from the Families and when this happens it is always without Recompence Very few Families do long maintain themselves therein especially in the Offices of the Court which are more than the rest under the Master's power Moreover no Officer at Siam has any Sallary The Prince lodges them The Profits of the Offices which is no great matter and gives them some moveables as Boxes of Glod or Silver for Betel some Arms and a Balon some Beasts as Elephants Horses and Buffalo's some Services Slaves and in fine some Arable Lands All which return to the King with the Office and which do principally make the King to be the Heir of his Officers But the principal gain of the Offices
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
Indians have added to these Errors The Indians do now believe like the ancient Chineses some Souls as well good as bad diffused every where to which they have distributed the Divine Omnipotence And there is yet found some remains of this very Opinion amongst the Indians which have embraced Mahumetanism But by a new Error the Pagans of the Indies have thought all these Souls of the same nature and they have made them all to rowl from one body to another The Spirit of the Heaven of the ancient Chineses had some Air of Divinity It was I think immortal and not subject to wax old and to die and to leave its place to a Successor but in the Indian Doctrine of the Metempsychosis the Souls are fixed no where and succeeding one another every where they are not one better than another by their nature they are only designed to higher or lower functions in Nature according to the merit of their work Why the Indians have consecrated no Temple to the Spirits not even to that of Heaven The Antient Chineses have divided the Justice of God The Justice of Heaven was principally busied in punishing the Faults of the Kings of China Thus the Indians have consecrated no Temples to the Spirits not so much as to that of Heaven because they believe them all Souls like all the rest which are still in the course of Transmigration that is to say in Sin and in the Torments of different sorts of life and consequently unworthy of having Altars But if the ancient Chineses have as I may say reduc'd the Providence and Omnipotence of God into piece-meals they have not less divided his Justice They assert that the Spirits like concealed Ministers were principally busied in punishing the hidden faults of men that the Spirit of Heaven punished the faults of the King the Ministring Spirits of Heaven the faults of the King's Ministers and so of other Spirits in regard of other men On this Foundation they said to their King that though he was the adoptive Son of Heaven yet the Heaven would not have any regard to him by any sort of Affliction but by the sole consideration of the good or evil that he should do in the Government of his Kingdom They called the Chinese Empire the Celestial Command because said they a King of China ought to govern his State as Heaven governed Nature and that it was to Heaven that he ought to seek the Science of Governing They acknowledged that not only the Art of Ruling was a Present from Heaven but that Regality it self was given by Heaven and that it was a present difficult to keep because that they supposed that Kings could not maintain themselves on the Throne without the savour of Heaven nor please Heaven but by Vertue How they believe their Kings responsable to Heaven for the manners of their Subjects They carried this Doctrine so far that they pretended that the sole Vertue of Kings might render their Subjects Vertuous and that thereby the Kings were first responsible to Heaven for the wicked manners of their Kingdom The Vertue of Kings that is to say the Art of Ruling according to the Laws of China was in their Opinion a Donative from Heaven which they called Celestial Reason or Reason given by Heaven and like to that of Heaven The Vertue of Subjects according to them the regards of the Citizens as well from one to another as from all towards their Prince according to the Laws of China was the work of good Kings 'T is a small matter said they to punish Crimes it is necessary that a King prevents them by his Vertue They extoll one of their Kings for having reigned Twenty two years the People not perceiving that is to say not feeling the weight of the Royal Authority no more than the force which moves Nature and which they attribute to Heaven They report then that for these Twenty two years there was not one single Process in all China nor one single Execution of Justice a Wonder which they call to govern imperceptably like the Heaven and which alone may cause a doubt of the Fidelity of their History Another of their Kings meeting as they say a Criminal which was lead to Punishment took it upon himself for that under his Reign he committed Crimes worthy of Death And another seeing China afflicted with Sterility for seven years condemned himself if their History may be credited to bear the Crimes of his People as thinking himself only culpable and resolved to devote himself to death and to sacrifice himself to the Spirit of Heaven the Revenger of the Crimes of Kings But their History adds that Heaven satisfied with the Piety of that Prince exempted him from that Sacrifice and restored Fertility to the Lands by a sudden and plentiful Rain As the Heaven therefore executes Justice only upon the King and that it inflicts it only upon the King for what it sees punishable in the People the Ministers of Heaven do execute Justice on the secret Faults which the King's Ministers commit and all the Officers which depend upon them and after the same manner the other Spirits do watch over the Actions of the Men that in the Kingdom of China have a rank equal to that which these Spirits do possess in the invincible Monarchy of Nature whereof the Spirit of Heaven is King Besides this the natural Honor which most men have of the dead The Chineses fear their dead Parents whom they knew very well in their Life-time and the Opinion which several have of having seen them appear to them whether by an effect of this natural Honor which represents them to them or by Dreams so lively that they resemble the Truth do induce the ancient Chineses to believe that the Souls of their Ancestors which they judged to be of very subtile matter pleased themselves in continuing about their Posterity and that they might though after their death chastise the Faults of their Children The Chinese People still continue in these opinions of the temporal Punishments and Rewards which come from the Soul of Heaven and from all the other Souls though moreover for the greatest part they have embraced the Opinion of the Metempsychosis unknown to their Ancestors But by little and little the Men of Letters that is to say The Impiety of the present Chineses which are men of Learning those that have some degrees of Literature and who alone have a Hand in the Government being become altogether impious and yet having altered nothing in the Language of their Predecessors have made of the Soul of Heaven and of all the other Souls I know not what aerial substances uuprovided of Intelligence and for the Judge of our Works they have established a blind Fatality which in their opinion makes that which might exercise an Omnipotent and Illuminated Justice How ancient this Impiety is at China belongs not to me to determin Father de Rhodes in his
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
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
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
only of a double Cloth put into the form of a Cup and cover'd over with this Gum mixt with a colour which we call Lacca or Chinese Varnish as I have already declar'd these Cups last not long when too hot Liquors are put therein The Marin-gouins To return to the Insects which we have begun occasionally to speak of the Marin-gouins are of the same Nature as our Gnats but the heat of the Climat gives them so much strength that shamois Stockings defend not our Legs against their Stings Nevertheless it seems possible to know how to deal with them for the Natives of the Country and the Europeans that have inhabited there for several years were not so marked with them as we were The Millepede The Millepede or Palmer is known at Siam as in the Isles of America This little Reptile is so called because it has a great number of feet along its body all very short in proportion to its length which is about five or six Inches What it has most singular besides the scales in form of rings which cover its body and which insert themselves one into the other in its motions is that it pinches equally with its head and tail but its Stings tho' painful are not mortal A French Man of that Crew which went to Siam with us and whom we left there in perfect health suffer'd himself to be stung in his Bed above a quarter of an hour without daring to lay hold on the Worm to relieve himself The Siameses report that the Millepede has two heads at the extremities of its body and that it guides itself six months in the year with the one and six months with the other The Ignorance of the Siameses in things Natural But their History of Animals must not easily be credited they understand not Bodies better than Souls and in all matters their inclination is to imagine Wonders and persuade themselves so much the more easily to believe them as they are more incredible What they report of a sort of Lizard named Toc-quay proceeds from an Ignorance and Credulity very singular They imagine that this Animal feeling his Liver grow too big makes the Cry which has impos'd on him the name of Toc-quay to call another Insect to its succor and that this other Insect entering into his Body at his mouth eats the overplus of the Liver and after this repast retires out of the Toc-quay's body by the same way that he enter'd therein Shining Flyes The shining Flyes like Locusts have four wings which do all appear when the Fly takes a flight but the two thinnest of them are concealed under the strongest when the Fly is at repose We hardly saw these little Animals by reason that the rainy time was past when we landed The North-winds which begin when the Rains cease either kill them or drive them all away They have some light in their Eyes but their greatest splendor proceeds from under their wings and glitters only in the Air when the wings are display'd What some report therefore is not true that they might be us'd in the Night instead of Candles for tho' they had light enough what method could be contriv'd to make them always flie and keep them at a due distance to illuminate But thus much may suffice to be spoken concerning the Insects of Siam they would afford matter for large Volumes to know them all I shall say only that there are not fewer in the River and Gulph Insects in the waters than on the Land and that in the River there are some very dangerous which is the reason that the rich Men do bathe themselves only in houses of Bambou CHAP. VII Of the Grain of Siam RICE is the principal Harvest of the Siameses and their best Nourishment Rice it refreshes and fattens And we found our Ship 's Crew express some regret when after a three months allowance thereof they were return'd to Bisket and yet the Bisket was very good and well kept The Siameses know by experience how to measure the water The way of boiling it in pure water fire and time necessary to the Rice without bursting the Grain and so it serves them for Bread Not that they mix it with all their other Food as we do Bread when they eat Flesh or Fish for example they eat the one and the other without Rice and when they eat Rice they eat it separately They squeeze it a little between the ends of their Fingers to reduce it into a Paste and so they put it into their mouth as our Poor do eat Pottage The Chineses do never touch any meat but with two small Sticks squar'd at the end which do serve them instead of a Fork They hold to their lower Lip a small Porcelane or China Cup wherein is their portion of Rice and holding it steady with their left hand they strike the Rice into their mouth with the two Sticks which they hold in their right hand The Levantines or Eastern People Or in milk do sometimes boil Rice with Flesh and Pepper and then put some Saffron thereunto and this Dish they call Pilau This is not the practice of the Siameses but generally they boil the Rice in clear water as I have said and sometimes they boil it with milk as we do on fasting days At Siam in the Lands high enough to avoid the Inundation Wheat there grows Wheat they water them either with watering Pots like those in our Gardens or by overflowing it with the Rain-water which they keep in Cisterns much higher than these Lands But either by reason of the Care or Expence or that the Rice suffices for common use the King of Siam only has Wheat and perhaps more out of Curiosity than a real Gusto They call it Kaou Possali and the word Kaou simply signifieth Rice Now these terms being neither Arabian nor Turkish nor Persian I doubt of what was told me that Wheat was brought to Siam by the Moors The French which are setled there do import Meal from Surrat altho' near Siam there is a Windmil to grind Corn and another near Louvo In a word the Bread which the King of Siam gave us was so dry Wheaten Bread too dry at Siam that the Rice boil'd in pure water how insipid soever was more agreeable to me I less wonder therefore at what the Relations of China report that the Soveraign of this great Kingdom altho' he has Bread does rather prefer Rice yet some Europeans assur'd me that the wheaten Bread of Siam is good and that the driness of ours must proceed from a little Rice-flower which is doubtless mixt with the Wheat for fear perhaps lest the Bread should fail At Siam I have seen Pease different from ours The Siameses like us Other Grain do make more than one Crop but they make only one in a year upon the same Land not that the Soil was not good enough in my
Window or a Terrace and by this means neither his Subjects nor Strangers do ever see him on Foot This Honour is only reserved for his Wives and Eunuchs when he is lock'd up within his Palace Their Sedans Their Chairs or Sedans are not like ours they are square and flat Seats more or less elevated which they place and fix on Biers Four or eight men for the Dignity herein consists in the Number do carry them on their naked Shoulders one or two to each Staff and other men relieve these Sometimes these Seats have a Back and Arms like our Chairs of State and sometimes they are simply compast except before with a small Ballister about half a Foot high but the Siameses do always place themselves cross-legged Sometimes these Seats are open sometimes they have an Imperial and these Imperials are of several sorts which I will describe in speaking of the Balons in the middle of which they do likewise place these Seats as well as on the backs of Elephants The Imperial not very honourable at Siam but the Parasol is As often as I have seen the King of Siam on an Elephant his Seat was without an Imperial and all open before At the sides and behind do rise up to the top of his Shoulders three great Foliages or Feathers gilt and bent outwards at the Point but when this Prince stops a Footman who stands ten or twelve paces from him shelters him from the Sun with a very high Umbrella like a Pike with the Head three or four Foot in Diameter and this is not a small fatigue when the Wind blows thereon This sort of Umbrella which is only for the King is called Pat-boouk A Mandarins Balon The Body of a Balon with it's Benches for the Pagayeurs or Rowers and the Alcove to fix the Mandarins seat A Pagaye or Oar The Balon of the Kings Envoys The Balon of the King of Siams Body wherein was the French King's Letter But because that in this Country they go more by Water than by Land The Carriage of the Balons the King of Siam has very fine Balons I have already said that the Body of a Balon is composed only of one single Tree sometimes from sixteen to twenty Fathom in length Two men sitting cross-leg'd by the side one of another on a Plank laid across are sufficient to take up the whole breadth thereof The one Pagayes at the right and the other on the left side Pagayer is to row with the Pagaye and the Pagaye is a short Oar which one holds with both hands by the middle and at the end It seems that he can only sweep the water though with force It is not fixed to the edge of the Balon and he that manages it looks where he goes whereas he that rows turns his back to his Road. In a single Balon there are sometimes an hundred An exact Description of a Balon or an hundred and twenty Pagayeurs thus ranged two and two with their Legs crossed on Plancks but the inferior Officers have Balons a great deal shorter where few Pagayes or Oars as sixteen or twenty do suffice The Pagayeurs or Rowers do strike the Pagaye in Consort do sing or make some measured Noises and they plunge the Pagaye in a just cadence with a motion of the Arms and Shoulders which is vigorous but easy and graceful The weight of this Bank of Oars serves as Ballast to the Balon and keeps it almost even with the water which is the reason that the Pagayes are very short And the Impression which the Balon receives from so many men which vigorously plunge the Pagaye at the same time makes it always totter with a motion which pleases the Eye and which is observ'd much more at the Poop and Prow because they are higher and like to the Neck and Tail of some of Dragon or some monstrous Fish of which the Pagayes on either side shew like the Wings or the Fins At the Prow one single Pagayeur takes up the first Rank without having any Comrade at his side He has not room enough to cross his left Leg with his right and he is forced to stretch it out over an end of a stick which proceeds from the side of the Prow 'T is this first Pagayeur that gives the motion to all the rest His Pagaye is somewhat longer by reason that he is posted in that place where the Prow begins to rise and that he is so much the further from the Water He plunges the Pagaye once to every measure and when it is necessary to go swifter he plunges it twice and lifting up the Pagaye continually and only for decency with a shout he throws the water a great way and the next stroak all the Equipage imitates him The Pilot stands always at the Poop where it rises exceedingly The Rudder is a very long Pagaye which is not fixed to the Balon and to which the Steersman seems to give no other Motion than to keep it truly perpendicular in the water and against the edge of the Balon sometimes on the right side and sometimes on the left The Women Slaves do row the Ladies Balons In the Balons of ordinary service wherein there are fewer Pagayeurs Several sorts of Balons there is in the middle a Cabin of Bambou or other Wood without Painting or Varnish in which a whole Family may be held and sometimes this Cabin has a lower Pent-house be fore under which the Slaves are and many of the Siameses have no other Habitation But in the Balons of Ceremony or in those of the King of Siam's body which the Portuguese have called Balons of State there is in the middle but one Seat which takes up almost the whole breadth of the Balon and wherein there is only one Person and his Arms the Sabre and Lance. If it is an ordinary Mandarin he has only a single Umbrella like ours to shelter himself if it is a more considerable Mandarin besides that his Seat is higher he is covered with what the Portugueses call Chirole and the Siameses Coup 'T is an Arbor all open before and behind made of Bambous cleft and interlac'd and cover'd within and without with a black or red Varnish The red Varnish is for the Mandarins at the right hand the black for those of the left a distinction which I shall explain in its due place Besides this the extremities of the Chirole are gilded on the outside the breadth of three or four Inches and some pretend that 't is in the fashion of these gildings which are not plain but like Embroidery that the Marks of the Mandarins Dignity are There are also some Chiroles cover'd with Stuff but they serve not for many weather He that commands the Equipage sometimes cudgels but very rarely those which row softly and out of measure places himself cross-leg'd before the Mandarins Seat on the extremity of the Table on which the Seat is fixed But if the
more uncertain But what they account most difficult is to get upon this Wire by the part of that same Wire which is fasten'd to the ground and to descend thence by one of the Bambou's which are plac'd like a St. Andrew's Cross to support it as also to sit on the Wire cross-leg'd to hold there one of those Bands which serves them as a Table to eat on it and to raise themselves on their Feet They cease not likewise to ascend and dance upon an extended Rope but without a Counterpoise and with Babouches or Slippers on their Feet and with Sabres and Buckets of water fasten'd to their Legs There are such who plant a very high Ladder in the ground the two sides of which are of Bambou's and the steps of Sabres the edges of which are turned upwards He goes to the top of this Ladder and stands and dances without any support on the edge of the Sabre which makes the last step thereof whilst the Ladder has more motion than a Tree shaken by the wind then he descends Head foremost and passes nimbly winding between all the Sabres I saw him descend but observed not when he was on the highest Sabre and I went not to examine whether the Steps were Sabres not reckoning that the Sabres could be keen except perhaps the lowest because they are most expos'd to view I omit the rest of this matter as little important and because I have not sufficiently observ'd it to support it with my Testimony Tame Serpents The Emperor Galba being in his Praetorship exhibited to the Roman People the sight of some Elephants dancing upon Ropes The Elephants of Siam are not so experienc'd and the only Animals that I know the Siameses instruct are great Serpents which they say are very dangerous These Animals do move themselves at the sound of the Instruments as if they would dance But this passes for Magic because that always in that Country as oftentimes in this those who have some extraordinary Artifice do pretend that it consists in some mysterious words Religious Shows An Illumination on the Waters and another on the Land and in the Palace The Siameses have also some Religious Shows When the Waters begin to retreat the People returns them Thanks for several Nights together with a great Illumination not only for that they are retired but for the Fertility which they render to the Lands The whole River is then seen cover'd with floating Lanthorns which pass with it There are of different Sizes according to the Devotion of every particular Person the variously painted Paper whereof they are made augments the agreeable effect of so many Lights Moreover to thank the Earth for the Harvest they do on the first days of their Year make another magnificent Illumination The first time we arriv'd at Louvo was in the Night and at the time of this Illumination and we saw the Walls of the City adorned with lighted Lanthorns at equal distances but the inside of the Palace was much more pleasant to behold In the Walls which do make the Inclosures of the Courts there were contrived three rows of small Niches all round in every of which burnt a Lamp The Windows and Doors were likewise all adorn'd with several Fires and several great and small Lanthorns of different Figures garnished with Paper or Canvas and differently painted were hung up with an agreeable Symmetry on the Branches of Trees or on Posts Excellent Artificial Fire-works I saw no Fire-works in which nevertheless the Chineses of Siam do excel and they made some very curious during our residence at Siam and Louvo At China there is also made a solemn Illumination at the beginning of their Year and at another time another great Festival on the Water without any Illumination The Chineses agree not in the Reasons they give thereof but they give none upon the account of Religion and those which they give are puerile and fabulous We must not omit the Paper-Kite in Siamese Vao A Paper-Kite the Amusement of all the Courts of the Indies in Winter I know not whether it be a piece of Religion or not but the great Mogul who is a Mahometan and not an Idolater delights himself also therein Sometimes they fasten Fire thereunto which in the Air appears like a Planet And sometimes they do there put a piece of Gold which is for him that finds the Kite in case the String breaks or that the Kite falls so far distant that it cannot be drawn back again That of the King of Siam is in the Air every Night for the two Winter-months and some Mandarins are nominated to ease one another in holding the String The Siameses have three sorts of Stage-Plays Three sorts of Stage-Plays amongst the Siameses That which they call Cone is a Figure-dance to the Sound of the Violin and some other Instruments The Dancers are masqued and armed and represent rather a Combat than a Dance And tho' every one runs into high Motions and extravagant Postures they ceasse not continually to intermix some word Most of their Masks are hideous and represent either monstrous Beasts or kinds of Devils The Show which they call Lacone is a Poem intermixt with Epic and Dramatic which lasts three days from eight in the Morning till seven at Night They are Histories in Verse serious and sung by several Actors always present and which do only sing reciprocally One of them sings the Historian's part and the rest those of the Personages which the History makes to speak but they are all Men that sing and no Women The Rabam is a double Dance of Men and Women which is not Martial but Gallant and they presented unto us the Diversion thereof with the others which I have before mentioned These Dancers both Men and Women have all false Nails and very long ones of Copper They sing some words in their dancing and they can perform it without much tyring themselves because their way of dancing is a simple march round very slow and without any high motion but with a great many slow Contorsions of the Body and Arms so they hold not one another Mean while two Men entertain the Spectators with several Fooleries which the one utters in the name of all the Men-dancers and the other in the name of all the Women-dancers All these Actors have nothing singular in their Habits only those that dance in the Rabam and Cone have gilded Paper-Bonnets high and pointed like the Mandarins Caps of Ceremony but which hang down at the sides below their Ears and which are adorned with counterfeit Stones and with two Pendants of gilded wood The Cone and the Rabam are always call'd at Funerals and sometimes on other occasions and 't is probable that these Shows contain nothing Religious since the Talapoins are prohibited to be present thereat The Lacone serves principally to solemnize the Feast of the Dedication of a new Temple when a new Statue of
great Wife and then for her Children who inherit from their Parents by equal Portions The little Wives and their Children may be sold by the Heir and they have only what the Heir gives them or what the Father before his death has given them from hand to hand for the Siameses know not the use of Wills The Daughter 's born of the little Wives are sold to be themselves little Wives and the most powerful purchasing the handsomest without having any regard to the Parents from whom they descend do after this manner make very unequal Alliances and those with whom they make them do not thereby acquire any more Honour or Protection Wherein consists the Fortune of a Siamese The Estate of the Siameses consist chiefly in Moveables If they have Lands they have not much by reason they cannot obtain the full Property thereof It belongs always to their King who at his pleasure takes away the Lands which he has sold to particular persons and who frequently takes them again without returning the value Nevertheless the Law of the Country is that Lands should be hereditary in Families and that particular persons may sell them one to another But this Prince has regard only to this Law as far as it suits him because it cannot prejudice his Demesnes which generally extend over all that his Subjects possess This is the Reason that they get as few Immoveables as they can and that they always endeavor to conceal their Moveables from the knowledge of their Kings and because that Diamonds are Moveables the most easie to hide and transport they are mightily sought after at Siam and in all India and they sell them very dear Sometimes the Indian Lords do at their death give part of their Estate to the King their Master to secure the rest to their Family and this generally succeeds The Families are almost all happy at Siam A Divorce as may be judged by the Fidelity of the Wives in nourishing their Husband whilst he serves the King A Service which by a kind of Oppression lasts not only six Months in a Year but sometimes one two and three Years together But when the Husband and Wife cannot support one another they have the remedy of Divorce 'T is true that it is in practice only amongst the Populace the Rich who have several Wives do equally keep those they love not and those they love The Husband is naturally the Master of the Divorce What are the Laws thereof but he never refuseth it to his Wife when she absolutely desires it He restores her Portion to her and their Children are divided amongst them in this manner The Mother has the first the third the fifth and so all the odd ones The Father has the second fourth sixth and all the even ones Hence it happens that if there is no more than one Child it is for the Mother and that if the number of Children is unequal the Mother has one more whether that they judge the Mother would take more care thereof than the Father or that having born them in her womb or nourished them with her milk she seems to have a greater Right therein than the Father or that being weaker she has more need of the succor of her Children than he After the Divorce And the Consequences it is lawful for the Husband and Wife to marry again with whom they please and it is free for the Woman to do it in the very day of the Divorce they not troubling themselves with the Doubt that may thence arise touching the Father of the first Child that may be born after the second Marriage They rely on what the Wife says thereof a great sign of the little Jealousie of this People But tho' the Divorce be permitted them yet they consider it as a very great Evil and as the almost certain Ruine of the Children which are ordinarily very ill treated in the second Marriages of their Parents So that this is one of the Causes assigned why the Country is not populous altho' the Siameses are fruitful and do very frequently bring Twins The power of the Husband is despotical in his Family Of the Paternal Power even to the selling his Children and Wives his principal Wife excepted whom he can only repudiate The Widows inherit the power of their Husbands with this restriction that they cannot sell the Children which they have of the even number if the Father's Relations oppose it for the Children dare not After the Divorce the Father and Mother may each sell the Children which fell to them by lot according to the Division I have mentioned But the Parents cannot kill their Children nor the Husband his Wives by reason that in general all Murder is prohibited at Siam The Love of free persons is not ignominious at least amongst the Populace Amorous Conversations It is there look'd upon as a Marriage and Incontinency as a Divorce Nevertheless the Parents do carefully watch their Daughters as I have said and Children are no where permitted to dispose of themselves to the prejudice of the paternal Power which is the most natural of all Laws Moreover the Siameses are naturally too proud easily to give themselves to Foreigners or at least to invite them The Peguins which are at Siam as being Strangers themselves do more highly esteem of Foreigners and do pass for debauched persons in the minds of those who understand not that they seek a Husband Thus they continue faithful until they are abandon'd and if they prove big with Child they are not less esteem'd amongst those of their Nation and they do even glory in having had a white Man for a Husband It may be also that they are of a more amorous Complexion than the Siameses they have at least more spirit and briskness 'T is an established opinion in the Indies that the people have more or less vigor and spirit according as they are nearer or remoter from Pegu. CHAP. VIII Of the Education of the Siamese Children and first of their Civility The love of the Siamese Children for their Parents THE Siamese Children have docility and sweetness provided they be not discountenanc'd Their Parents know how to make themselves extreamly beloved and respected and to inspire an extream Civility in them Their Instructions are marvellously assisted by the Despotic Power which I have said they have in their Family but the Parents do also answer unto the Prince for the Faults of their Children They share in their Chastisements and more especially are obliged to deliver them up when they have offended And tho' the Son be fled he never fails to return and surrender himself when the Prince apprehends his Father or his Mother or his other collateral Relations but older than himself and to whom he owes Respect And this is a great proof of the love of the Siamese Children to their Parents Civility necessary to the Siameses As to Civility it is so great
Country does care to purchase much Land nor to meliorate it for fear of exciting a desire of it in one more powerful than himself And thus needing no Writings of long continuance they have not thought fit to have any Notaries As to the small Trades they are almost all of so little Consequence The small Trades and Fidelity is there so great that in the Bazars or Markets the Seller counts not the Money which he receives nor the Buyer the Commodity which he purchases by Tale. They were scandaliz'd to see the French buy the least things with more Caution The Hour of the Market is from Five in the Evening to Eight or Nine They use no Ell. They use no Ell by reason they buy Muslins and other Linnens all in whole Pieces They are very poor and miserable in this Country when they buy Cloth by Ken a term which signifies the Elbow and Cubit both and for these they measure with their Arm and not with any sort of Ell. They have the Fathom which they use in several things and especially in measuring the Roads Nevertheless they have their Fathom which equals the French Toise within an Inch. They use it in Buildings in surveying of Land and perhaps in other things and especially in measuring the Roads or Channels through which the King generally passes Thus from Siam to Louvo every Mile is marked with a Post on which they have writ the number of the Mile The same thing is observ'd in the Country of the great Mogul where Bernier reports that they mark the Kosses or Half-miles with Tourrettes or little Pyramids and every one knows that the Romans denoted their Miles with Stones The Coco serves the Siameses as Measure for Grains and Liquors The Coco serves as a Measure for Grain and Liquors in this manner As all the Coco's are naturally unequal they measure the Capacity thereof by those little Shells called Coris which serve for small Money at Siam and which are not sensibly greater one than the other There is therefore such a Coco which contains a thousand Coris as some have informed me such an one which contains five hundred and such another more or less To measure Corn they have a kind of Bushel called Sat in the Siamese which is made only with interlac'd Bambou and to measure Liquors they have a Pitcher called Canan in Siamese Choup in Portuguese and it is according to these sorts of Measures that they make their Markets But for want of Policy and a Standard according to which the Measures should legally be regulated the Buyer accepts them only after having measur'd them with his Coco the Capacity of which he knows by the Coris and he uses either Water or Rice according as he would measure either the Canan or the Sat with his Coco In a word the quarter of the Canan is called Leeng and forty Sats do make the Seste and forty Seste's the Cohi It is impossible to declare the resemblance which Measures so little exact have with ours I have said moreover that a Pound of Rice a day sufficeth a Man and that it is worth no more than a Farthing Mr. Gervaise says that the Seste of Rice is reckon'd to weigh an hundred Catis that is to say two hundred twenty and five of our Pounds Money serves them for Weights They are not more exact as to their Weights in general they call them Ding and the pieces of their Money are more nice and true and almost the only ones which they use altho' their Money be frequently false or light Some inform'd me as a thing very remarkable that the Siameses sold course Silver by weight because they had seen in the Market that Commodity in one of the Scales and the silver Money which serv'd as a Weight in the other The same Names do therefore signifie the Weights and Money both Their Monies Their silver Coins are all of the same Figure and struck with the same Stamps only some are smaller than others They are of the Figure of a little Cylinder or Roll very short and bowed quite at the middle so that both ends of the Cylinder touch'd one another Their Stamps for they have two on each piece struck one at the side of the other in the middle of the Cylinder and not at the ends do represent nothing that we knew and they have not explain'd them to me The proportion of their Money to ours is that their Tical which weighs no more than half a Crown is yet worth three shillings and three half-pence I give the Figure and Size thereof and at the end of this Work you will find their Measures for the Lengths as well as their Coins and their Weights They have no Gold nor Copper-Money Gold is a Merchandize amongst them and is twelve times the value of Silver the purity being supposed equal in both the Metals The Chinese Money Neither Gold nor Silver are Monies at China They cut these Metals into ill shaped pieces with which they pay for other Commodities and for this purpose it is necessary that they always have a pair of Gold Scales and a Touchstone in their hand Their pair of Gold Scales is a little Roman Balance but amongst them there is such cheap living that for ordinary Provisions their own Money which is only Copper sufficeth them They thred it in a certain number on a Cord for it is perforated in the middle and they count by strings and not by pieces A Tical in its natural size view'd several ways The Stamp s of the Tical grav'd at large Cori a shell serueing for Mony seen severall ways in its natural size The Size Figure of the Coupan a Gold Coin in Iapan seen on both sides These stroaks are not shadows but are made in the Mony to Iustifie the weight thereof A Prospect of the Hall of Audience in the Pallace of Siam The Japaneses have a flat Gold Coin somewhat longer than broad The Coupan the Gold Money of Japan and rounded like an oval I give exactly the size and figure thereof It is struck at several stamps with hatchings It s weight is four Drams and a half and twelve grains and is at least Twenty three Carrats as far as we can judge thereof without melting it It is called Coupan and its value is vulgarly esteemed Ten Crowns a piece The base Coin at Siam is no other than those little Shells I have already mentioned and of which I have likewise given the size and figure Shells the base Money of Siam The Europeans which are at Siam do call them Coris and the Siameses Bia. They fish them up abundantly at the Maldives Islands and sometimes at the Phillipine Isles but in very little quantity as some have informed me Nevertheless Navarrette in his Discourse of China pag. 62. speaks thus concerning the Coris which he calls Seguejes 'T is imported saith he from the coast of India and Manille
weakness Their Friendship is perfidious Their manner of promising themselves an eternal amity is by drinking of the same Aqua Vitae in the same Cup and when they would swear themselves more solemnly they taste the blood one of another which Lucian gives us for a Custom of the ancient Scythians and which is practised also by the Chineses and by other Nations but the Siameses cease not sometimes to betray after all these Ceremonies They are naturally more moderate than we are because they are more dull In general they have more Moderation than us their Humors are as calm as their Heaven which changes only twice a year and insensibly when it turns by little and little from Rain to Fair-weather and from Fair-weather to Rain They act only by necessity and do not like us place merit in Action It seems not rational to them that Labour and Pains should be the Fruit and Reward of Vertue They have the good Fortune to be born Philosophers and it may be that if they were not born such they would not become so more than we I therefore willingly believe what the Ancients have reported that Philosophy came from the Indies into Europe and that we have been more concerned at the insensibility of the Indians than the Indians have been at the wonders which our inquietude has produced in the discovery of so many different Arts whereof we flatter our selves perhaps to no purpose that necessity was the Mother But enough is spoken of the Siameses in general let us enter into the particulars of their manners according to their various conditions PART III. Of the Manners of the Siameses according to their several Conditions CHAP. I. Of the several Conditions among the Siameses AT Siam all Persons are either Freemen or Slaves Of the Slavery according to the Manners of Siam The Master has all power over the Slave except that of killing him And tho' some may report that Slaves are severely beaten there which is very probable in a Country where free persons are so rigidly bastinado'd yet the Slavery there is so gentile or if you will the Liberty is so abject that it is become a Proverb that the Siameses sell it to eat of a Fruit which they call Durions I have already said that they chuse rather to enjoy it than to enjoy none at all 'T is certain also that they dread Beggary more than Slavery and this makes me to think that Beggary is there as painful as ignominious and that the Siameses who express a great deal of Charity for Beasts even to the relieving them if they find any sick in the Fields have very little for the Men. They employ their Slaves in cultivating their Lands and Gardens In what the Slaves are employed and in some domestic Services or rather they permit them to work to gain their livelihood under a Tribute which they receive from four to eight Ticals a Year that is to say from seven Livres ten Sols to fifteen Livres One may be born or become a Slave One becomes so either for Debt A Siamese may be born or become a Slave as I have said or for having been taken Captive in War or for having been confiscated by Justice When one is made a Slave for Debt his Liberty returns again by making satisfaction but the Children born during this Slavery tho' it be but for a time continue Slaves One is born a Slave when born of a Mother-slave and in the Slavery How he is born a Slave and to whom he belongs the Children are divided as in the Divorce The first third fifth and all the rest in the odd number belong to the Master of the Mother the second fourth and all the others in the even rank belong to the Father if he is free or to his Master if he is a Slave 'T is true that it is necessary upon this account that the Father and Mother should have had Commerce together with the consent of the Master of the Mother for otherwise all the Children would belong to the Master of the Mother The difference of the King of Siam's Slaves from his Subjects of free condition is that he continually employs his Slaves in personal labours The difference between the King of Siam's Slaves and his other Subjects The Slaves of private men owe not any service to the King Of the Siamese Nobility and maintains them whereas his free Subjects only owe him six months service every Year but at their own expence In a word the Slaves of particular men owe not any service to that Prince and tho' for this Reason he loses a Freeman when this man falls into slavery either for Debt or to avoid Beggary yet this Prince opposes it not neither pretends any Indemnity upon this account Properly speaking there is not two sorts of Conditions among free persons Nobility is no other thing than the actual possession of Offices the Families which do long maintain themselves therein do become doubtless more illustrious and more powerful but they are rare and so soon as they have lost their Offices they have nothing which distinguishes them from the common People There is frequently seen at the Pagaye the Grandson of a Man who died a great Lord and sometimes his own Son Of the Priests or Talapoins The distinction between the People and the Priests is only an uncertain distinction seeing that one may continually pass from one of these States to the other The Priests are the Talapoins of whom we shall speak in the sequel Under the Name of People I comprehend whatever is not a Priest viz. the King Officers and People of whom we now proceed to speak CHAP. II. Of the Siamese People The Siamese people is a Militia THE Siamese People is a Militia where every particular person is registred They are all Souldiers in Siamese Taban and do all owe six Months service annually to their Prince It belongs to the Prince to arm them and give them Elephants or Horses if he would have them serve either on Elephants or on Horseback but it belongs to them to cloath and to maintain themselves And as the Prince never employs all his Subjects in his Armies and that oftentimes he sends no Army into the Field though he be at War with some of his Neighbours yet for six months in the year he employs in such a work or in such a service as pleases him those Subjects which he employs not in the War Is counted and divided into men on the right hand and on the left Wherefore to the end that no person may escape the personal service of the Prince there is kept an exact account of the People 'T is divided into men on the right hand and men on the left to the end that every one may know on what side he ought to range himself in his Functions And by Bands And besides this it is divided into Bands each of which
after having been a Servant of the Mission of St. Lazarus at Paris had passed to the Service of the Foreign Missions and was gone to Siam Brother Rene who by his Industry knew how to let blood and give a Remedy to a sick Person for it is by such like charitable Employments and by some presents that the Missionaries are permitted and loved in this Country defended himself as much as he could from making this Fort protesting that he was not capable but in short he could not prevent rendering obedience when it was signified to him that the King of Siam absolutely requir'd it He was afterwards three or four years Governor of Jonsalam by Commission and with great approbation and because he desired to return to the City of Siam to his Wife's Relations which are Portugueses Mr. Billi the Master of Mr. de Chaumont's Palace succeeded him in the Employment of Jonsalam The Siameses have not much Artillery A Portuguese of Macao Of their Artillery who died in their service cast them some pieces of Cannon but as for them I question whether they know how to make any moderately good though some have informed me that they have hammered some out of cold Iron As they have no Horses for what is two thousand Horse at most In what their Armies consist which 't is reported that the King of Siam keeps their Armies consist only in Elephants and in Infantry naked and ill armed after the mode of the Country Their order of Battel and Encampment is thus They range themselves in three lines What is their order of battle and of their Encampments each of which is composed of three great square Battalions and the King or the General whom he names in his absence stands in the middle Battalion which he composes of the best Troops for the security of his Person Every particular Captain of a Battalion keeps himself also in the midst of the Battalion which he commands and if the nine Battalions are too big they are each divided into nine less with the same symmetry as the whole body of the Army Elephants of War The Army being thus ranged every one of the nine Battalions has sixteen male Elephants in the rear They call them Elephants of War and each of these Elephants carries his particular standard and is accompanied with two female Elephants but as well females as males are mounted each with three armed Men and besides this the Army has some Elephants with Baggage The Siameses report that the female Elephants are only for the dignity of the males but as I have already declared in the other part it would be very difficult always to govern the males without the Company of the females The Artillery begins the Fight The Artillery at the places where the River grows shallow is carried on Waggons drawn by Buffalo's or Oxen for it has no carriage It begins the Fight and if it ends it not then they place themselves within reach to make use of the small shot and Arrows after the manner as I have explained but they never fall on with vigour enough nor defend themselves with constancy enough to come to a close Fight The Siameses easie to break and to rally They break themselves and fly into Woods but ordinarily they rally with the same facility as they are broken and if on some occasion as in the last Conspiracy of the Macassars it is absolutely necessary to stand firm they can promise themselves to retain the Soldiers only by placing some Officers behind to kill those that shall fly I have elsewhere related how these Macassars made use of Opium to endow themselves with Courage 't is a custom practised principally by the Ragipouts and the Melays but not by the Siameses the Siameses would be afraid to become too Couragious Elephants not proper for War They very much rely upon the Elephants in Combats though this Animal for want of Bitt or Bridle cannot be securely governed and he frequently returns upon his own Masters when he is wounded Moreover he so exceedingly dreads the fire that he is never almost accustomed thereunto Yet they exercise them to carry and to see fired from their back little pieces about three foot long and about a pound of Ball and Bernier reports that this very practice is observed in the Mogul's Country The Siameses incapable of Sieges As for Sieges they are wholly incapable thereof for men that dare not set upon the Enemies when in view will not vigorously attack a place never so little Fortified but only by Treachery in which they are very cunning or by Famine if the Besieged cannot have provision Their weakness by Sea They are yet more seeble by Sea than by Land Not without much ado the King of Siam hath five or six very small Ships which he principally makes use of for Merchandize and sometimes he arms them as Privateers against those of his Neighbours with whom he is at War But the Officers and Seamen on whom he confides are Foreigners and till these latter times he had chosen English and Portuguese but within these few years he hath employed some French The King of Siam's Intention is that his Corsairs should kill no person no more than his Land Forces but that they use all the Tricks imaginable to take some Prizes In his War at Sea he proposes to himself only some Reprizals from some of his Neighbours from whom he believes himself to have received some injury in Trade And the contrivances succeed whilst his Enemies are not in any distrust Besides this he has fifty or sixty Galleys whose Anchors I have said are of Wood. They are only moderate Boats for a Bridge which do every one carry fifty or sixty men to Row and to Fight These men do fight by turns as in every thing else There is only one to each Oar and he is obliged to Row standing because the Oar is so short for lightness sake that it would not touch the water if not held almost perpendicular These Gallies only coast it along the Gulph of Siam CHAP. IX Of the Barcalon and of the Revenues THe Pra-Clang or by a corruption of the Portugueses the Barcalon Of the Barcalon is the Officer which has the appointment of the Commerce as well within as without the Kingdom He is the Superintendent of the King of Siam's Magazines or if you will his chief Factor His name is composed of the Balie word Pra which I have so often discoursed of and of the word Clang which signifies Magazine He is the Minister of the foreign affairs because they almost all relate to Commerce and 't is to him that the fugitive Nations at Siam address themselves in their affairs because 't is only the liberty of Trade that formerly invited them thither In a word it is the Barcalon that receives the Revenues of the Cities The King of Siam's Revenues are of two sorts Revenues of the Cities
The King of Siam's Revenues arise from two Sources and Revenues of the Country The Country Revenues are received by Oc ya Pollatep according to some or Vorethep according to Mr. Gervase They are all reduced to the Heads following 1. On Forty Fathom Square of cultivated Lands His Duties on cultivated Lands a Mayon or quarter of a Tical by year but this Rent is divided with the Tchaou-Meuang where there is one and it is never well paid to the King on the Frontiers Besides this the Law of the Kingdom is that whoever ploughs not his ground pays nothing though it be by his own negligence that he reaps nothing But the present King of Siam to force his Subjects to work has exacted this duty from those that have possessed Lands for a certain time although they omit to cultivate them Yet this is executed only in the places where his Authority is absolute He loved nothing so much as to see Strangers come to settle in his States there to manure those great uncultivated Spaces which without comparison do make the most considerable part thereof in this case he would be liberal of untilled grounds and of Beasts to cultivate them though they had been cleared and prepared for Tillage 2. On Boats or Balons On Boats the Natives of the Country pay a Tical for every Fathom in length Under this Reign they have added that every Balon or Boat above six Cubits broad should pay six Ticals and that Foreigners should be obliged to this duty as well as the Natives of the Country This duty is levied like a kind of Custom at certain places of the River and amongst others at Tchainat four Leagues above Siam where all the Streams unite 3. Customs on whatever is imported or exported by Sea Besides which Customes the body of the Ship pays something in proportion to its Capacities like the Balons 4. On Arak or Rice-Brandy or rather on every Furnace where it is made On Arak which they call Taou-laou the People of the Country do pay a Tical per Annum This Duty has been doubled under this Reign and is exacted on the Natives of the Country and on Strangers alike 'T is likewise added that every Seller of Arak by re-tail should pay a Tical a year and every Seller by whole-sale a Tical per Annum for every great Pot the size of which I find no otherwise described in the Note which was given me 5. On the Fruit called Durion for every Tree already bearing On Durions or not bearing Fruit two Mayons or half a Tical per annum 6. On every Tree of Betel a Tical per annum On Betel 7. On every Arekier they formerly paid three Nuts of Arek in kind On the Arek under this Reign they pay six 8. Revenues entirely new or established under this Reign New Imposts are in the first place a certain Duty on a School of Recreation permitted at Siam The Tribute which the Oc-ya Meen pays is almost of the same Nature but I know not whether it is not ancienter than the former In the second place on every Coco-Tree half a Tical per Annum and in the third place on Orange-Trees Mango-Trees Mangoustaniers and Pimentiers for each a Tical per Annum There is no duty on Pepper by reason that the King would have his Subjects addict themselves more to plant it A Demesn reserved to the King 9. This Prince has in several places of his States some Gardens and Lands which he causes to be cultivated as his particular demesn as well by his Slaves as by the six Months Service He causes the Fruits to be gathered and kept on the places for the maintenance of his House and for the nourishment of his Slaves his Elephants his Horses and other Cattle and the rest he sells 10. A Casual Revenue is the Presents which this Prince receives as well as all the Officers of his Kingdom the Legacies which the Officers bequeath him at their death or which he takes from their Succession and in fine the extraordinary Duties which he takes from his Subjects on several occasions as for the Maintenance of Foreign Ambassadors to which the Governors into whose Jurisdiction the Ambassadors do pass or sojourn are obliged to contribute and for the building of Forts and other publick works an expence which he levies on the People amongst whom these works are made Confiscations and Fines Six Months Service 11. The Revenues of Justice do donsist in Confiscations and Fines 12. Six Months service of every one of his Subjects per Annum a Service which he or his Officers frequently extend much further who alone discharges it from every thing and from which there remains to him a good Increase For in certain places this Service is converted into a payment made in Rice or in Sapan-wood or Lignum-aloes or Saltpetre or in Elephants or in Beasts Skins or in Ivory or in other Commodities and in fine this Service is sometimes esteemed and paid in ready Money and it is for the ready Money that the Rich are exempted Anciently this Service was esteemed at a Tical a Month because that one Tical is sufficient to maintain one Man and this computation serves likewise as an assessment on the days Labour of the Workmen which a particular Person employs They amount to two Ticals a Month at least by reason that it is reckon'd that a Workman must in 6 Months gain his Maintenance for the whole year seeing that he can get nothing the other six Months that he serves the Prince The Prince now extorts two Ticals a Month for the exemption from the six Months Service Commerce a Revenue extraordinary or casual 13. His other Revenues do arise from the Commerce which he exercises with his Subjects and Foreigners He has carried it to such a degree that Merchandize is now no more the Trade of particular persons at Siam He is not contented with selling by Whole-sale he has some Shops in the Bazars or Markets to sell by Re-tail Cotton-cloath The principal thing that he sells to his Subjects is Cotton-cloath he sends them into his Magazines of the Provinces Heretofore his Predecessors and he sent them thither only every Ten Years and a moderate quantity which being sold particular persons had liberty to make Commerce thereof now he continually furnishes them he has in his Magazines more than he can possibly sell and it sometimes happens that to vend more that he has forced his Subjects to cloath their Children before the accustomed Age. Before the Hollanders came into the Kingdom of Laos and into others adjacent the King of Siam did there make the whole Commerce of Linnen with a considerable profit The Calin or Tin All the Calin is his and he sells it as well to Strangers as to his own Subjects excepting that which is dug out of the Mines of Jonsalam on the Gulph of Bengal for this being a
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
no other than that which is at present called Comori or Comorin which is also between the Indus and Ganges nearer the Indus than the Ganges Over against this Cape there is not at present so great an Isle as Taprobane which could be divided by the Equinoxial and environed with 1378 Isles but there is a multitude of little Isles called Maldivae which the Inhabitants report to be to the number of 12 Thousand According to the Relation of Pirard who lived there five years these Isles have a King who assumes to himself the Title of King of 13 Provinces and 12 Thousand Isles Every one of these thirteen Provinces is an heap of little Isles each of which is environed with a great bank of Stone which incloses it all round like a great wall they are called Attolons They have each Thirty miles in circumference a little more or less and are of a figure almost round or oval They are end to end one from the other from the North to the South and they are separated by Channels of the Sea some broad others very narrow These Stone-banks which environ every Attollon are so high and the Sea breaks there with such an impetuosity that they which are in the middle of an Attollon do see these banks all round with the Waves of the Sea which seem as high as the Houses The Inclosure of an Attollon has but 4 Avenues two on the North-side two others on the South-side one of which is at the East the other at the West and the largest of which is 200 paces the narrowest somewhat less than 30. At the two sides of each of these Avenues there are some Isles but the Currents and great Tides do daily diminish the number thereof Pirard adds that to see the inside of one of these Attollons one would say that all these little Isles and the Channels of the Sea which it incloses are only a continued plain and that it was antiently only a single Island cut and divided afterwards into several Every where almost is seen the bottom of the Channels which divide them so shallow they are except in some places and when the Sea is low the water reaches not up to the girdle but to the middle of the leg almost every where There is a violent and perpetual Current which from the month of April to the month of October comes impetuously from the West and causes the continual rains which do there make the Winter and at the other six months the Winds are fixed from the East and do bring a great heat without any rain which causes their Summer At the bottom of these Channels there are great Stones which the Inhabitants do use to build with and they are also stored with a kind of Bushes which resemble Coral which renders the passage of the Boats through these Channels extreamly difficult Linscoten testifies that according to the Mallabars these little Isles have formerly been joyned to the firm Land and that by the succession of time they have been loosed thence by the Violence of the Sea by reason of the lowness of the Land 'T is therefore probable that the Maldivae are a remainder of the great Island Taprobane and of the 1378 Islands which did encompass it which have been carryed away or diminished by the Currents there remaining nothing else but these Rocks which must formerly be the bases of the Mountains and what remains in the inclosure of these Rocks where the Sea dashes so that it is capable only of dividing but not of carrying away the Lands which are included within their Circuit It is certain that these Isles have the same situation in regard of the Equinoxial and Promontory and of the Rivers Indus and Ganges that Ptolomy assigns to several places of the Isle Taprobane The Lords Prayer and the Ave Mary in Siamese with the Interlineary Translation to be inserted in Page 180. Father our Po raou who art in Heaven you savang The Name of God Scheu Pra be glorified hai pra kot in all places touk heng by People all kon tang tai offer to God praise touai Pra pon The Kingdom of God Meuang Pra I pray to find co hai dai with us ke raou to finish hai leou conformable ning to the heart of God tchai pra in the Kingdom of Meuang the Earth Pen-din even as semo of Heaven savang The Nourishment of us Ahan raou of all days touk van I pray co to find hai dai with us ke raou in day van this ni I pray co to pardon prot the offences bap of us raou even semo as we raou pardon prot persons pou who do tam offences bap to us ke raou do not let Ya hai us raou fall tok into nai the cause kovan of Sin bap deliver hai poun out of kiac evil anerai all tang-poang Amen Ave Maria full of Grace Ten anisong God be Pra you in the heng place of you nang You just-good Nang soum-bou more than yingkoua all nang tang tai With Toui Sons louk Womb cutong in the place heng of you nang God pra the person Ongkiao of Jesus Yesu just charitable soum-boui more than ying koua all tang tai Sancta Maria Mother Me of God Pra assist thoui by prayer ving to God von Pra for pro us raou people kon of Sin bap now teit-bat-ni and te in the time moua of our dying raou tcha tai Amen ERRATA PAge 20. line 25. read particular p. 24. l. 34. r. a Tree p. 33. l. 8. which are p. 36. l. 36. r. obliged to honor p. 39. l. 11. r. Eresypeli l. 16. r. are l. 43. r. not bow to p. 68. l. 38 39 43 46. add Bells p. 73. l. 23. r. Tical p. 81. l. 33. r. gold p. 87. l. 50. r. is evicted p. 103. l. 15. 1. certain p. 104. l. 50. r. extinguish p. 108. l. 37. r. returns p. 109. l. 2. dele till p. 120. l. 5. r. remains l. 8. r. wounded p. 125. l. 18. r. prescribed l. 58. r. fatality p. 135. l. 17. dele they p. 136. l. 11. r. leaf of p. 159. l. 1. r. Missionaries p. 160. l. 9. r. takes p. 165. l. 46. r. Ti-non p 166. l. 42. r. Taouac l. 45. r. Touai p. 169. l. 50. r. Sapsoc p. 172. l. 23. r. which p. 174. l. 23. r. at the sides p. 175. l. 35. dele not p. 175. l. 1. dele ' t is p. 194. l. 32. r. the number l. 20. which is substracted from the Onglaa in the third p. 198. l. 7. r. difference is only in l. 8. r. in the 12th p. 201. l. 33. dele the p. 202. l. 43. r. unless these p. 210. l. 28. r. Agreement l. 36. r. Hipparcus p. 212. l. 43. dele the p. 213. l. 19. r. Anno p. 214. l. 15. r. for a lunar month to reduce the Epact p. 217. l. 18. r. how much p. 221. l. 47. r. which form p. 225. in marg r. 424. p. 230. l. 10. r. the former l. 12. r. upright to p. 231. l. 49. r. every p. 236. l. 12. r. determining l. 18. r. method p. 238. l. 21. r. 9 Cases p. 244. l 42. dele not p. 151. l. 12. r. Cu-cum p. 252. l. 45. r. the years begin p. 253. l. 27. r. 10 degrees p. 254. l. 7. r. Ricci p. 255. l. 36. after deductae add p. 256. l. 16. r. these Chinese l. 22. r. and l. 51. r. otherwise in one Constellation FINIS
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