the good of Religion and the Conversion of the King of Siam by the Embassie which he resolved to send to him pitched upon the Chevalier de Thaumont for so glorious an employment being perswaded that the good examples which he would give in that Country would be so many proofs of the sanctity of Christianity that might fully convince that King of the truth of our Religion The King sends the Jesuits Patents of Mathematicians Next day after he came we had the honour to salute him in his Lodgings and received from his hands the Patents which it pleased the King to give every one of us in particular sending us in quality of his Mathematicians into the Indies and China They were Signed and Sealed with the Great Seal of yellow Wax and conceived in these terms LOUIS by the Grace of God King of France and Navarre To all who shall see these present Letters Greeting Being very willing to contribute on Our part to any thing that may more and more establish the security of Navigation and improve Arts and Sciences We have thought that for the surer attaining to that it was necessary to send to the Indies and China some knowing and Learned Persons capable of making there the Observations of Europe and Judging that for that effect we could not make a better choice than of F. N. a Jesuit by the particular knowledg we have of his extraordinary capacity For these and other causes thereto moving Vs of Our special Grace full power and Royal Authority We have Ordained and Constituted and by these Presents Signed with Our Hand do Ordain and constitute the said F.N. our Mathematician Our Will is that in that quality he go to the Indies and China there to make all Observations necessary for the improvement and curiosity of Arts and Sciences the exactness of Geography and the surer establishment of Navigation We therefore Charge and Command Our most dearly beloved Son the Count of Thoulouse Admiral of France our Vice-admirals and Lieutenant-Generals in our Naval Forces Commanders of Squadrons of the same particular Governors of our Towns and strong Places Maiors Consuls and all our other Officers to whom it belongs to give to the said F. N. all the Aid Favour and assistance that is needful to him for the execution of these Presents without permitting any Lett or Hindrance to be given him that may retard his Voyage for such is Our Will and Pleasure In Witness whereof We have caused Our Seal to be put to these Presents We Pray and Require all Kings Princes Potentates States Republicks our Friends Allies and Confederates their Officers and Subjects to give the said F. N. all sort of succour and assistance for the accomplishment of a design which equally concerns the advantage of all Nations without suffering any thing to be exacted from him contrary to the liberty of his Function and the Customs and Rights of the Kingdom Given at Versailles January 28. 1685. and the two and fortieth year of our Reign Signed Louis and upon the fold Colbert Though all things were ready for Embarquing A Frigat is joyned to the first Ship. and the Wind very fair for putting out to Sea yet it behoved us to stay till the Frigat called the Maligne mounted with thirty Guns which was lately ordered by the King to accompany the first Ship should be fitted and made ready to follow us when the news of these Orders came to Brest it caused so much Joy amongst all that were to go the Voyage and was received with so great applause that it was in every bodies mouth that now we could not but expect a prosperous Voyage The truth is without that assistance it would have been impossible to have carried the Kings Presents the Equipage of the Embassador and of the Officers of the Ship and Passengers and above all necessary Provisions for so long a Voyage not to speak of a great many Bales of all sorts of Curiosities which the King of Siam had sent for both from France and England About that time we had advice that at Lisbonne they had granted the Pass-ports which had been demanded for us The King ordered his Ambassadors at Lisbonne to demand Passports for the Jesuits from the Kingdom of Portugall and which we earnestly desired because the differences that happened betwixt Portugal and the French Ecclesiastics not being as yet made up we were in fear lest the Portuguese Officers might from thence take occasion to stop us on our way Monsieur de Saint Romain extraordinary Ambassador from the King in Portugal who very well knew the Kings mind as to that took notice of it in a discourse he made to the King of Portugal for obtaining the Passports These were his very words SIR I Have by the last Courier from France received Orders to acquaint your Majesty with the resolution the King my Master has of sending by Sea an Ambassador to the King of Siam in correspondence with the Civilities of that Prince and that taking advantage of that occasion he 'll send on Board the same Man of War six French Jesuits who are to go from Siam to Macao in China These Religious have in Commission to observe in their Travels by Sea and Land the Longitudes of the chief Places the Declinations and Variations of the Needle and all that can serve to certifie and improve our Charts and Navigation and to make an exact search of all sorts of curious Books for the Library of the King my Master I am commanded to tell your Majesty that they have express Orders to entertain a good correspondence with your Subjects in what place soever they may meet them and to have all due deference and submissions for the Portuguese Prelates The King my Master makes no doubt but that your Majesty desires also on your part that your Subjects in the East should give to these Religious the Succours and Assistances that they may stand in need of for the accomplishment of their Voyage and Commission and to the end they may be informed of it the King my Master has ordered me to demand as I do with confidence of your Majesty a Passport for these Religious in the most ample and favourable form that may be The Ship that is to carry the Ambassador of France and the Jesuits to Siam will infallibly set out before the end of March and I most humbly beg your Majesty that it would please you to order that Passport speedily to be expeded and presently after delivered In the same Packet they sent us this Letter The Letter of Father La Chaize to Father Verbiest at Peguin which Father la Chaize wrote in the Kings name to Father Ferdinand Verbiest of our Company Missionary of China and President of the Mathematics in that vast Empire Reverend Father WIth great joy do I acquit my self of the Commands of the greatest King in Christendom in addressing my self to your Reverence to recommend to you six of
him so much Glory and happiness and which are no other than the Knowledge and Worship of the true God which is only to be found in the Christian Religion He offers your Majesty then by his Ambassador adjuring you and your whole Kingdom to embrace and follow it That Prince Sir is more admirable still by his Wisdom Judgment and Prudence than by his Conquests and Victories Your Majesty knows his generosity and Royal Friendship you cannot make a better choice than to follow the wise Counsels of so great a King your good friend For my part Sir I never begg'd any thing of the great God for your Majesty but that Grace and I would be ready to lay down a thousand lives that I might obtain it of the Divine Bounty May it please your Majesty to consider that by that action you will Crown all the Great and Illustrious exploits of your Reign you will eternize your Memory and procure to your self immortal Honour and Glory in the next World. Ah Sir I adjure your Majesty not to send back the Embassador of so great a King with discontent he begs that in the name of the King his Master for establishing and rendring your Alliances and Royal Amities inviolable at least if your Majesty hath entertained any good thought or if you find the least inclination to embrace that Party that you would make it known It is the most acceptable news that he can carry to the King his Master Now if your Majesty hath resolved not to condescend to what I have had the honour to represent to you or that you cannot give a favourable answer to the Ambassador I beg of you to excuse me from carrying your Royal answer which cannot but be displeasing to the Great God whom I adore You ought not to think it strange that I speak to you in this manner whosoever is not faithful to his God cannot be so to his Prince and your Majesty ought not to do me the honour to suffer me in your Service if I entertained other Sentiments The King of Siam answers the Lord Constance The King heard the Discourse of the Lord Constance without interrupting him and having a little pondered with himself as one whose mind was taken up with great thoughts he answered him upon the spot in these terms FEAR not that I will force your Conscience But who hath made the King of France my good Friend believe that I entertained any such Sentiments Ah Sir who can doubt replied the Lord Constance but that your Majesty has those great thoughts when they consider the Protection you give to Missionaries the Churches you have caused to be built the Charity you give to the Fathers of China It is upon that Sir that the King of France grounds his perswasion that your Majesty had an inclination towards Christianity But when you told the Ambassador added the King the reasons that make me continue in the Religion of my Ancestors what answer had you from him The Ambassador of France replied the Lord Constance found your Reasons to be very weighty but seeing the propositions he made you in the name of the King his Master was sincere and disinterested and that that great Monarch had no other prospect but your Majesties good he did not think that any of the reasons which I told him ought to hinder him from obeying his Masters Commands especially when he understood that the Ambassador of Persia was arrived in the Kingdom of Siam and that he brought your Majesty the Alcoran to the end you might follow it In that view the Ambassador of France thought himself obliged to offer your Majesty the Christian Religion and to adjure you to embrace it Is it true answered the King that the Ambassador of Persia brings me the Alcoran It is so reported reply'd the Lord Constance To which the King forthwith made answer I wish with all my heart the Ambassador of France were here to see what Reception the Ambassador of Persia should have from me Certainly if I had no Religion at all I would never choose the Mahometan But to answer the Ambassador of France continued the King you shall tell him from me I think my self extreamly obliged to the King of France his Master finding in his Memoirs the marks of his most Christian Majesties Royal Friendship and since the honour that that great Prince hath done me is already made publick all over the East I cannot sufficiently acknowledge his Civility but that I am extreamly vexed that the King of France my good Friend should propose so difficult a thing unto me wherewith I am not in the least acquainted that I refer my self to the Wisdom of the most Christian King that he himself may judge of the importance and difficulty which occur in so nice a matter as the change of a Religion received and followed throughout my whole Kingdom without interruption during the pace of two thousand two hundred twenty nine years After all The Motives that keep the King of Siam firm in his Religion it is strange to me that the King of France my good Friend should so much concern himself in an Affair that relates to God wherein it would seem God does not at all interest himself but leaves it wholly to our Discretion For would not the true God that made Heaven and Earth and all things that are therein and hath given them so different natures and inclinations when he gave to Men like Bodies and Souls if he had pleased have also inspired into them the same sentiments for the Religion they ought to follow and for the Worship that was most acceptable to him and make all Nations live and die in the same Laws That Order amongst Men and that Vnity in Religion depending absolutely on Divine Providence who could as easily introduce it into the World as the diversity of Sects that in all times have been established in it ought not one to think that the true God takes as great pleasure to be honoured by different Worships and Ceremonies as to be Glorified by a prodigious number of Creatures that Praise him every one in their own way Would that Beauty and Variety which we admire in the order of Nature be less admirable in the supernatural Order or less beseeming the Wisdom of God However it be continued his Majesty since we know that God is the absolute Master of the World and that we are perswaded that nothing comes to pass contrary to his will I wholly resign my Person and Dominions into the Arms of the Divine Mercy and Providence and with all my heart obtest his eternal Wisdom to dispose thereof according to his good will and pleasure So that I most expresly command you to tell that Ambassador that I shall omit nothing that lies in my power to cherish the Royal friendship of the most Christian King and instead of complying with the means that he hath proposed to me I shall take such care during the time
Frigat with nine The Companies of both Vessels by their many reiterated Huzza's shewed the joy they had to perform the Voyage under a Commander of so great worth all the day following was allowed for preparing to be gone Departure from the Road of Brest We weighed Anchor in the night time and Saturday morning the third of March by break of day made sail So in leaving France we parted with the sweetness and repose of a Religious life which till then we had enjoyed that we might go to the end of the World to find an occasion of glorifying God and consecrating our selves to the Conversion of Infidels in prosecution of the Orders laid upon us by our great Monarch As we put out of the Road of Brest we had a fair wind but it failing us by that time we were got seven or eight Leagues from the Port about noon we dropt Anchor untill five or six a clock in the Evening that the wind blowing again from the same Corner we again set Sail. The entry and coming out of the Gullet as Ships put out from Brest is a very difficult passage The Gullet is a very strait passage from the Road of Brest to the Sea. by reason of hidden works which run out a good way into the Sea on both sides of the Shoar but our Pilots being well acquainted with the Coast made no scruple to put out in the night time From that time till within five or six Degrees of the Line we had as good weather and as favourable winds as we could have desired Divine Providence taking pleasure it seems to favour a Voyage undertaken for the sake of Religion in a time when the most expert Sea-Commanders were of Opinion that we had let slip the Season proper for setting out by three whole Weeks We had at first so strong a wind on Poop that with a single Sail abroad we made above threescore Leagues in four and twenty hours So that without any danger we doubled Cape Vshan and Cape Finistere so dreadful to our Seamen because of the frequent Storms that arise about those places The truth is we found a very rough and rouling Sea there Thursday the eighth at the heigth of Cape Finistere we saw a Dutch Vessel standing in to the Channel of England which had been forced to lie by and drive because of the contrary winds Both our Pilots and Officers assured us that Ships were many times above three weeks before they could double that Cape They who have been at Sea well know how great trouble and sickness Men endure the first time they meet with a rough Sea but it is impossible to make those who never felt it sensible of the same one finds himself quite stunned with a violent Head-ach the Stomach reaches the Heart faints and it would seem that the rouling of the Ship overturns the whole frame and constitution of the Body such pains it causes in the Bowels We were almost all of us grievously tormented with this Sea-sickness for the first five or six days How the Churchmen and Jesuits spent their time during the Voyage From that time forward until we arrived at Siam we said Mass for most part every day and I make no doubt but that the happy success of our Voyage ought to be attributed to that august Sacrifice which was so often offered up on Board and to which all came with singular Devotion There passed no Sunday nor Holy-day whereon several did not participate of the Holy Mysteries This zeal was the effect of the good examples of my Lord Ambassador who communicated once every eight days with extraordinary Humility and Piety Every Holy-day and Sunday before publick Vespers which were sung with much Devotion the secular and regular Churchmen by turns made a Sermon to the Ships Company A Jesuit took the care upon him of Catechising the Officers men Soldiers and Seamen three times a week That exercise was begun and ended by a Spiritual Hymn sung by two Seamen who had pretty good Voices and all the rest made answer upon their knees about the Main-mast These good examples these regular instructions and exercises of Piety besides the visiting of the Sick and the small assistances that were given them several times aday so wrought upon the hearts of those poor people that there was none of them almost but that made a general Confession and came to the Sacrament on the principal Holy-days Before we came to the Cape of Good-Hope 〈◊〉 under the 〈◊〉 Zone we had a little calm and much contrary wind which made the Ambassador resolve to have nine Masses said to the honour of the Holy Virgin that by her intercession we might obtain favourable weather because the heats which are commonly left in those places began to occasion many Diseases in the Ship. One of the Jesuits laid hold on that occasion to introduce on Board a laudable custom of saying the Litanies of the most Holy Virgin The Devotion of the whole Ships Company towards the Holy Virgin. which is practised on Board the ships that are Commanded by the Mareshall D'Estree five or six Soldiers and as many Sea-men divided into two Companies upon the Poop and Fore-castle began that Devotion a little before the first watch was set in the Evening and within a few days all were ready to joyn in it so that upon our return it was made as it were a publick exercise of Obligation which was performed so zealously that neither cold nor rain could hinder it To all these Holy Practises we added the Chaplet Our Fathers took the pains to divide themselves into several parts of the Ship to cause it to be said and God so blessed their zeal that there was hardly any Seaman or Souldier but who every day said his Beads Besides the time that we allowed to publick instruction we daily said 〈◊〉 Breviary together and we had an hour 〈…〉 â—rence about cases of Conscience 〈…〉 day was employed in study wit◠〈…〉 â—tion and assiduity as if we had 〈…〉 These were our ordinary exercises during the whole Voyage In sight of the Isle of Madera Sunday the eleventh we past in sight of the Isle of Madera where we plainly observed a great deal of Snow upon the hill that was nearest to us After noon three small English Vessels returning into Europe past to the leward of us it was thought they came from the Canaries because they had not as yet haled in their Boats. Much thereabouts we met with the Trade-winds so much desired by the Seamen and so agreeable to all people being winds that blow always one way betwixt North and East the Ship does not require much working besides being temperate they qualifie the heats of the Zone which otherwise would be insupportable They are commonly met with about the Latitude of Madera The Sea then becoming smooth and the wind steddy and fixed Ships carry a great deal of Sail and make commonly betwixt
of Your Government the Magnificence of Your Court the Greatness of Your Dominions and what particularly You were willing that He should know by Your Ambassadors the Esteem You have for Him confirmed by that constant Protection which You give His Subjects especially the Bishops who are by me and who are the Ministers of the true God. He is very sensible of the many Illustrious Effects of the Esteem You have for Him and He resolves Sir to correspond with it to the utmost of His Power In that Design He is ready to treat with Your Majesty to send You of His Subjects to entertain â—nd encrease Commerce to give You all the Testimonies of a sincere Friendship and to begin betwixt the two Crowns an Vnion that may remain as strict to Posterity as Your Territories are separated from His by those vast Seas that disjoyn them But nothing will more confirm Him in that Resolution nor unite You more closely together than to live in the Sentiments of the same Belief And it is that particularly Sir which the King my Master a Prince so Wise and Sharp sighted tbat He hath always given good Counsel to the Kings that are His Allies hath commanded me to represent to You on His Part. He adjures You by the Interest which as being one of Your most sincere Friends he takes in Your real Glory to consider that Sovereign Majesty wherewith You are invested upon Earth cannot be derived from any but the true God that 's to say from an Omnipotent Eternal and Infinite God such as Christians acknowledge him to be who alone makes Kings to Reign and Rules the Fortune of all People To submit Your Grandure to this God who governs Heaven and Earth is much more Rational Sir than to refer them to the other Deities that are worshiped in the East whose Impotence Your Majesty who hath so much Light and Penetration cannot but easily see But it will be made far more palpable to You Sir if You 'l be pleased for some time to give a Hearing to the Bishops and other Missionaries that are here It will be the welcomest News that I can carry to my Master Sir that Your Majesty being convinced of the Truth takes pains to be instructed in the Christian Religion This will raise in Him a greater Esteem and Admiration for Your Majesty and make His Subjects more eager to come into Your Dominions and in a Word Sir will compleat Yoor Glory seeing by that Means Your Majesty having so prosperously Reigned upon Earth makes sure of an Eternal Reign in the Heavens The Bishop told the Lord Constance in Portuguese the Sense of his Excellencies Complement and that Minister explained it to the King in Siamese keeping in the mean while in a very respectful Posture as the other Princes and Lords did who still continued prostrate in the Hall at his Side but a little lower It would be no easie matter to describe the Joy and Gladness which King of Siam expressed on that occasion and during the whole Day It was a Surprise to the Ambassador In what manner the Ambassador presented the Kings Letter to the King of Siam when he entered the Hall to see the King so high above him and he seemed somewhat troubled that he had not been told of it When his Complement was made the next thing he was to do in course was to advance and present the King his Masters Letter to the King of Siam It was agreed upon with the Lord Constance that to shew greater Respect to the Kings Letter the Ambassador should take it from the Abbot de Choisi who for that end should stand by his Side during his Speech and hold the Letter in a golden Cup with a very long Foot. But the Ambassador perceiving the King so high above him that to reach up to him he must have taken the Cup by the lower part of the Foot and raised his Arm very high thought that that Distance suited not with his Dignity and that he ought to present the Letter nearer hand Having a little considered he thought it was his best Course to hold the Cup by the Boul and to stretch his Arm but half out The King perceiving the reason why he acted so rose up smiling and stooping with his Body over the Throne met him half way to receive the Letter He then put it upon his Head which was a Mark of extraordinary Honour and Esteem that he was willing to shew to the great King that sent it After that he made answer to the Ambassador that he was extreamly obliged to his most Christian Majesty for the Honour he did him and that he had no greater desire than to entertain an eternal Peace and Amity with his Majesty He then asked him about that Princes Health whom he always called his good Friend and about the Health of all the Royal Family and expressed his Gladness that his Excellence and all his Retinue were arrived in good Health The Ambassador presents the Abbot of Choisi and the Gentlemen of his Retinue to the King of Siam The Ambassador having thanked his Majesty for all his Favours presented to him the Abbot of Choisi as a Person of Merit and the Gentlemen of his Retinue saying that they were all Officers in the Kings Fleet that most of them had been on several Occasions engaged against the Enemy's of the State and therein signalized their Valour The King listned to him with a great deal of satisfaction and then turned the Discourse upon the Ambassadors whom he had sent into France of whom he had no News He enlarged a pretty while upon the Praises of the King seeming overjoyed to hear what the Ambassador told him of his Greatness Wisdom Conquests and of the Peace which he had given to Europe In fine he bid tell the Ambassador that if he stood in need of any thing in his Kingdom for himself and Followers he should address himself to his Barcalon whom he had expresly charged to satisfie him in all things So the first Audience ended with much satisfaction on both sides The Ambassador sees the white Elephant in his Apartment When the Ambassador came out of the Hall the Lord Constance carried him to see the white Elephant which is so highly esteemed in the Indies and which hath been the cause of so many Wars He is but little and so old that he is wrinkly all over Several Mandarins are appointed to take care of him and he is only served in Gold at least the two Basons that were set before him were of beaten Gold of an extraordinary Size and Thickness His Apartment is stately and the Ceiling of the Pavilion where he stands very neatly gilt It being now late the Ambassador came out of the Royal Palace and in the same Pomp and Order that he came to his Audience went to the House that was prepared for him Sometime after the Bishop was sent for by Orders from the King to translate the
that God grants me life that hereafter my Successors and Subjects shall on all occasions testifie as well as I the grateful acknowledgment and high esteem which they ought to have for the Royal Person of his most Christian Majesty and for all his Successors This was the answer of the King of Siam in the same terms that he delivered it to his Minister and as he gave it in writing to my Lord Ambassador The wit of that Prince sufficiently appears by that reasoning who without any knowledge of the Sciences of Europe hath alledged with so much force and perspicuity the most plausible reasons of the Pagan Philosophy against the only true Religion They who know the uprightness of that Prince cannot doubt but that he sincerely said what he thought and what seemed to him most rational The King having said so was silent for some time and then eyeing the Lord Constance The Lord Constance his Reply to the King of Siam's Objections about changing of Religion What do you think added he the Ambassador will answer to these Reasons which I command you to give him in writing I shall not fail Sir answered the Lord Constance to obey your Majesties Orders but I cannot tell what the Ambassador of France will answer to what you have now said to me which seems to be of very great weight and consequence Sure I am he must needs be surprised at the high wisdom and wonderful perspicuity that he 'll perceive thereby in your Majesty However I fancy he may answer that it is true all the Beings which God hath Created Glorifie him every one after its way but that there is this difference betwixt Man and Beasts that when God Created these be gave them different properties and particular instincts to know what is good for them and pursue it without any reflection to discern their evil and avoid it without any ratiocination So the Stag flies from the Lion and Tyger the first time he sees them the Chickens new hatched dread the Kite and flie under the wings of the Hen without any other instruction but what they have received from Nature But in the Creation of Man God hath endowed him with a Mind and Reason to distinguish the Good from the Evil and Divine Providence hath thought it fit that in pursuing and loving the good which is proper for him and avoiding the evil that is contrary to him with reference to his ultimate end which is to know and love God Man should from the Divine Bounty merit an eternal Reward The truth is it is as easie for Man to make use of his hands eyes and feet in the commission of evil as in doing of good if his prudence enlightned by the Wisdom of God directed him not to pursue the ways of real Grandeur which are not to be found but in the Christian Religion wherein Man finds the means of serving God as best pleases his Divine Goodness But all Men follow not so holy and so rational notices It is just so as with your Majesties Officers who are not all equally addicted to your Interests as you but too well know tho all of them call themselves your Subjects and account it an honour to be employed â—in your Service So all Men serve God it is true but in a very different manner Some like Beasts follow their Passions and irregular appetites and live in the Religion they have been brought up in without examining it But others perceiving so great a difference betwixt themselves and Beasts raise themselves above their senses and by means of their Reason which God fails not to enlighten endeavour to know their Creator and the true Worship which he would have men render unto him without any interest but that of pleasing him and to this sincere search of the truth God Almighty hath annexed Mans Salvation Hence it is that negligence in not being instructed and weakness in not following that we judge the best will render us guilty in the sight of God who is the Sovereign Judge of all Flesh This answer from a Man of no Studies who from ten years of age had been applied to Trade and Commerce wrought a great surprize in me when he did me the honour to acquaint me with it I confessed to him without any fear of flattery that a Divine consummated in the Study of Religion would have been hard put to it to have answered better The King was smitten with the discourse of the Lord Constance and if any knowing Man who is acceptable to him hath the happiness to insinuate into his favour and procure his esteem it is not to be dispaired but that he may be brought to know and embrace the Truth and if once he come to know it seeing he is the absolute Master of his People who adore him all the Nations who are under his Dominion will humbly follow his example The King of Siam who Reigns at present is about fifty five years of Age. A Character of the King of Siam He is without contradiction the greatest Prince that ever governed that State. He is somewhat under the middle Stature but streight and well shaped He hath an engaging Air a sweet and obliging carriage especially to Strangers And amongst them particularly to the French. He is active and brisk an enemy of idleness and laziness which seems to be so delightful to the Princes of the East and which they look upon as the greatest Prerogative of their Crown This Prince on the contrary is always either in the Woods a hunting of Elephants or in his Palace minding the Affairs of his Kingdom He is no lover of War because it ruins his People whom he tenderly loves but when his Subjects revolt or that neigbouring Princes offer him the least affront or transgress the bounds of the respect that 's due to him there is no King in the East that takes a more conspicuous revenge nor appears more passionate for glory Some great men of his Kingdom having rebelled and having been openly supported by the Forces of three Kings whose Territories environ the Kingdom of Siam He attacked those Princes so briskly that they were obliged to abandon the Rebels to his wrath He would know every thing and having a pregnant and piercing Wit he easily is Master of what he has a mind to learn. He is magnificent generous and as true a friend as can be imagined These are the great qualities which acquire him the difference of his Neighbours the fear of his Enemies the esteem and respect of his Subjects that 's nothing short of adoration He hath never been given to those vices which are so common to the Princes of the East nay he hath severely punished the most considerable Mandarins and principal Officers of the Crown for being too much addicted to their pleasures So that the most invincible obstacle to the Conversion of Idolatrous Princes is not to be found in him I mean the immoderate love of Women By the
enough replied the Talapoin the stress of the Disputation rests upon the great labours and the death his enemies made him suffer whilst he was a Monkey Let us now return to the fabulous Story of Thevathat Being a person of much wit and address Thevathat makes a Schism and declares himself against his Brother he found the way to make a new Sect wherein he engaged several Kings and much People who embraced his Doctrine and imitated his examples That was the Original of a Schism which divided the world into two parts and gave a beginning to two Religions whereas before that all Mankind had but one Some of whom they reckon us for the Reasons we shall presently alledge became the Disciples of Thevathat and the rest of Sammonokhodom Thevathat tho he was but the younger finding himself supported by so many Princes who espoused his quarrel employed open Force and Treason to Ruin his elder Brother He invented the most heinous Calumnies to blacken his Reputation but these Designs succeeded not Nay he was oftner than once overcome when to confirm his followers in the Faith which he had taught them he had the boldness to contend with his Brother who should work the greatest Miracles Thevathat conspiring to to be God is with his Followers deprived of many knowledges Ambition made him desire to be God but not being really so he was ignorant of a great many things which his Brother perfectly knew and because his haughtiness would not suffer him to listen to Sommonokhodom he did not learn of him what was done in Hell and Paradise nor the Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls nor yet the changes that had been and were to be in all ages from whence they conclude that it is not to be wondred at if we who are his Disciples find nothing of all those things in the Books he hath left us if our Scriptures be full of obscurities and doubts and that if being wholly ignorant of Divinity we have so great a mind to reason and dispute with them For since Thevathat our Master knew nothing of that himself he could not instruct us therein Hence is it also that we are ignorant of the secret of curing Men of preserving them from all evils of making Gold and Silver and of discovering those precious Metals in the places where they are hid For they believe that there are vast Treasures in certain unknown places but that I know not what supernatural Virtue hinders us from perceiving them or if we do see them it makes them appear to us under a shape and figure which imposes upon our sight They also object to us that we cannot work many prodigies which they pretend they can do and are the Essence of Magick because Thevathat having as little skill that way as in all the rest he could not teach us But tho Thevathat was not God and that by consequence he had neither the agility nor subtilty of Body nor the other perfections of Divinity yet he excelled in several Sciences especially in the Mathematicks and Geometry Now as it is of him if we 'll take their word for it that we have received these knowledges it is no wonder if we be good Geometricians and be perfectly well skilled in other arts In the new Doctrine which he published he foisted in a great many things The Talapoins perswade the Siamese that the Christian Religion is taken out of the Law which Sommonokhodom taught them which he had taken out of his Brothers Religion and that hath rendred both Laws so like one another in several points They differ however in that Thevathats Law is far less severe than that of Sommonokhodom for it allows Men a great liberty of killing and eating Animals tho' the use of them be unlawful and criminal From the Doctrine of Thevathat as out of a source of Schism seven other Sects are sprung which have a great deal of affinity one with another and that Tradition they apply to the Heresies of the Dutch English and other people separated from the Church of Rome for they look upon them as so many shoots sprung from our Religion and that confirms them the more in their Opinions After all the outrages that Thevathat had done to his Brother without any respect to Nature or even to Divinity Thevathat is punished in Hell for having persecuted his Brother It was but just he should be punished And so the Siamese Scriptures make mention of his punishment and Sommonokhodom himself relates that after he became God he saw that wicked Brother of his in the deepest place of Hell. He was in the eight Habitation that is to say in the place where the greatest Offenders are tormented and there by a terrible punishment he expiated all the sins that he had committed and especially the injuries he had done to me Explaining afterwards the pains which Thevathat was made to suffer he says that he was fastened to a Cross with great nails which piercing his hands and feet put him to extreme pain that on his head he had a Crown of Thorns that his Body was full of wounds and to compleat his Misery the Infernal place burnt him without consuming of him So sad a spectacle moved him to compassion he forgot all the wrongs his Brother had done him and could not see him in that condition without taking a resolution to help him He proposed to him then these three words to be adored Ppu thang Thamang Sangkhang sacred and mysterious words for which the Siamese have a profound veneration and whereof the first signifies God the second the word of God and the third the imitator of God promising him that if he would accept so easie and reasonable a condition to deliver him from all the pains to which he was condemned Thevathat consented to adore the first two words but he never would adore the third because it signified Priest or Imitator of God protesting that Priests were sinful Men that deserved no respect To punish him for that Pride he still suffers and will suffer for a great many years to come The Talapoins take the Siamese off from turning Christians by perswading them that Jesus Christ is Thevathat the Brother of their God. Tho there be many things that keep the Siamese at a distance from the Christian Law yet one may say nothing makes them more averse from it than this thought The similitude that is to be found in some points betwixt their Religion and ours making them believe that Jesus Christ is the very same with that Thevathat mentioned in their Scriptures they are perswaded that seeing we are the Disciples of the one we are also the followers of the other and the fear they have of falling into Hell with Thevathat if they follow his Doctrine suffers them not to hearken to the propositions that are made to them of embracing Christianity That which most confirms them in their prejudice is that we adore the Image of
our Crucified Saviour which plainly represents the punishment of Thevathat So when we would explain to them the Articles of our Faith they take us always up short saying that they do not need our Instructions and that they know already better than we do what we have a mind to tell them But it is time to return to Sommonokhodom whose Story we have interrupted he had run over the World declaring to Mankind good and evil and teaching them the true Religion which he himself wrought that he might leave it to Posterity He had even gained several Disciples who in the condition of Priests were to make a particular Profession of imitating him in wearing a habit like to his and in observing the Rules that he gave them when at length he attained to the fourscore and second year of his age which was also the Age of that Monster which heretofore he killed as we have already said One day as he sate in the middle of his Disciples teaching them he saw the same Monster in shape of a Pig running with incredible Fury and he made no doubt but that it had a design to be revenged Knowing then that the time of his departure out of the World drew nigh he foretold it to his Disciples and shortly after having eaten a piece of the Pig which he had seen he was taken with a violent Cholic which killed him His Soul ascended to the eight Heaven Wherein consists the Annihilation of the Siamese God. which is properly Paradise called Nyruppaam it is no more subject to miseries and pain but there enjoys perfect bliss For that reason it will never be born again and that is the thing they call being annihilated For by that term they understand not the total destruction of a thing reduced to nothing but their meaning is that one appears no more upon Earth tho he live in Heaven His body was burnt and his bones as they say have been preserved to this present One part of them are in the Kingdom of Pegu and the other in Siam They attribute a wonderful Virtue to these bones and they affirm that they shine with a Divine splendor Before he died he ordered his Picture to be drawn after his Death for fear Men might by little and little suffer his Person to wear out of their remembrance and at long run forget him for good and all He would have the same honours rendred to him in that Image which were due to his Divinity He left also the print of one of his feet in three different places in the Kingdom of Siam the Kingdom of Pegu and the Isle of Ceilan People go thither in Pilgrimage from all parts and yearly honour these prints with singular Devotion The Siamese with great reverence preserve the hair and picture of their God. The Siamese pretend also that they have part of Sommonokhodom's hair which he had cut off after he became God The other part was by Angels carried up into Heaven It is their custom to upbraid us that we have not respect enough for holy Images for Sacred Books and for the Priests The Truth is no People can have greater Veneration for those things than they have By a precept of their Law they are commanded to honour them but it is not enough for them to respect the Priests and the Divine Scriptures the Vestments of the one and the Characters of the other wherein their Law is written is to them also an object of Religious Worship Nay they think it a most laudable action and excellent virtue to do good to the Talapoins and that their Cloaths and the Beads which they receive from them have the power to cure Diseases They imagine also that in their Books there is a divine virtue and that if one understood it and knew how to use the words of them he might work great wonders And therefore of the three ways of working Miracles the first is to understand aright how to make use of the word of God the second to be instructed in the Doctrine of the Anchorites and the third is the assistance of Devils This last however they condemn but they mightily approve of the two former boasting that they alone know these admirable secrets For the proof of their Religion they reckon up several Fables False Oracles whereby the Siamese Authorise their Religion which pass amongst them for so many authentic Miracles And these are some of the chief of them 1. In the Kingdom of Pegu where the Relicks of Sommonokhodom are kept his bones partly changed into several Metals and partly in their natural state shines with an extraordinary brightness 2. In the same Kingdom there is a little Isle in the middle of a River wherein there is a Temple of their God this little Isle let the waters be never so high even when the highest places are overflowed remains dry They add that the Presents which are offered to God by casting them into the River according to the Custom of that Countrey run along with the Stream until arriving at the Isle they stop there and will go no farther 3. In Storms at Sea when Seamen are in danger of being cast away they throw a Ring into the Sea with an intention to offer it to the Temple of the Isle and all of a sudden the Sea becomes calm and the Ship is out of danger 4. Upon the Borders of the Kingdom of Pegu there is a little hill where they have a Tradition that God went often A vast multitude of People go thither yearly in Pilgrimage and tho the top of it be very narrow yet it holds all that come upon it and is never full of Pilgrims 5. They also say that on the top of that little hill there is a great Treasure of Gold Silver and other precious things which these Pilgrims offer to God when they come there They tell how an Army of Chinese having one day carried away that Treasure was next day wholly destroyed and the Riches carried back by Angels to the place where it was before 6. Tho the top of the little hill be altogether exposed to the Weather and heat of the Sun yet there is always a shade upon it that even at noon guards the people from the excessive heats which they would suffer there without that 7. In the Town of Sokhotai there is an Idol all of Gold they pretend that that is a Mirculous Statue and that if when Rain is wanting it be carried into the Fields as usually it is immediately Rain falls in great abundance 8. In another Town which is called Campeng there is as they say a Lake wherein to this day there is to be seen a living Fish which hath but the half of its Body and the manner how that Prodigy was wrought is remarkable Heretofore a Holy Man lived in that Town who having a broiled Fish presented before him he ate but one half of it and threw the other into the Lake desiring
middle of the open Fields to confess their Sins one to another to fast three Months in the year July August and September to eat but once a day all that time which they call their great Fast and nevertheless to preach every day to say over a kind of Chapelet made up of an hundred and fourscore Beads and divided by tens not to salute any Layman to be merciful and mild towards all People not to be angry and never to strike any body never to have the head covered especially in the Temples not to sit but upon a certain Leathery seat which they carry about with them particularly in places where Women sit never to lye abroad out of the Monastery and not to be seen out of it alone To have but one habit not to play at any Game not to receive the money that is given them but by the hand of him that serves them for a Steward and to employ it in good works as paying the Poors debts and redeeming Slaves to lodg Pilgrims and to do them all the good they can to be sincere and true and when they must affirm or deny any thing to say only it is so or it is not so In fine never to suffer in their Mind the least doubt about their Religion The Talapoins make frequent discourses to the People to exhort them to the Practice of Virtue and particularly of Charity towards Men and Beasts He that Preaches sits after the manner of the Country upon a little Theatre or Stage covered with Carpet and very high above the Auditory When the People are gathered together he begins and reads a sentence of Sommonockhodom with a modest and grave Countenance looking always down with his Eyes and using no gestures then he unfolds the Fabulous Mysteries of that Book and draws from thence some Moral doctrine for the instruction of his Auditory making use of Metaphors Parables and above all of comparisons taken from natural things as it is the custom of the Orientals The People sit hurkling and listen with much reverence and attention the Men being on the one side and the Women on the other The rest of the Talapoins are at the Preachers side but separated from the People and sitting on a half pace All the hearers have their hands joyned and as soon as the Preacher hath spoken the Text they cry all together with hands lifted up to heaven and bowing down the head The word of God most pure Truth They have like us a kind of Sunday every seventh day which they spend in Fasting and Prayer besides some other more solemn Holy days which last three days and which are celebrated sometimes in one Pagod and sometimes in another with an extraordinary concourse of People The Women are the most solicitous to go to those meetings of Piety During that time they Preach from six of the Clock in the Morning to six a Clock at Night fresh Preachers succeeding one another and Preaching six whole hours by turns These long discourses are not tedious to the Auditory who always hearken with reverence without coughing or turning the head And thus you have what I could learn of the Siamese Religion which till now hath been so unknown in Europe But if one do but in the least examin what we have said of it he 'l find so many things that have some resemblance with the Christian doctrin that it may be easily judged the Gospel hath been heretofore Preached to that Nation which in progress of time hath been altered and corrupted by the ignorance of their Priests I can say nothing in particular as to the present State of Christianity in Siam It is strange that the Gopsel should make so small Progress amongst people who are zealously and carefully cultivated who daily see the Majesty of our Ceremonies so proper for giving an idea of our Mysteries who besides have no vice that may make them dislike our Maxims and who have so great an esteem for the Talapoins because they make profession of an austere life This might make men think that they had something of blockishness and rusticity if the gentile cariage and pleasant Repartees of the Ambassadors that were in France mâ—â—e it not apparent that they are Witty and Polite But it belongs not to us to pry into the secret Judgments of God. Let us only make fervent Prayers to that Father of mercies that he would illuminate and work upon a Prince who is already half a Christian in the favourable dispositions of his mind and heart especially since our great Monarch hath now made him wholy French. The great consequences of such a conquest are visible enough if we consider that the King of Siam hath no less Authority over the Princes his Neighbours who admire him for his Wisdom and Prudence than he hath over his own Subjects We have good grounds to hope the best and the rather that the Lord Constance his Minister is equally able and pious wanting neither good intentions to forward Designs that are honourable for Religion nor interest and credit to make them successful FINIS THE TABLE The First Book THis Father parted from Macao December 5 1681 in a Dutch Ship and arrived in Holland in October 1682. 2 The King orders six Jesuits Mathematicians to be sent to China 4 The preparations for their departure 5 They are admitted into the Royal Academy of Sciences 6 Divers instructions are given unto them for the improvement of Arts and Sciences ibid. The various Instruments they take with them for their Observations 7 The arrival of the Chevalier de Chaumont at Brest 8 The King sends the Jesuits Patents of Mathematicians 10 A Frigat is joyned to the first Ship. 11 The King ordered his Ambassadors at Lisbonne to demand Pass-ports for the Jesuits from the Kingdom of Portugal 12 The Leter of Father Le Chaize to Father Verbiest at Peguin 13 Monsieur de Vaudricourt made Captain of the Ship. 17 The Ambassador goes on board the Oyseau 18 Departure from the Road of Brest ibid. The Gullet is a very strait passage from the Road of Brest to the Sea. 19 How the Church-men and Jesuits spent their time during the Voyage 20 Calms under the Torrid Zone 21 The Devotion of the whole Ships Company towards the Holy Virgin. ibid. In sight of the Isle of Madera 22 In sight of the Isle of Palmes ibid. The Maps of the South part of the Heavens are not exact 23 Plenty of Fish about the Equinoctial Line 25 The way of catching Porposses ibid. The blood of Porposses is hot 26 Porposses devour one another ibid. A description of the Shark 27 Sucking-fish called by the Seamen Pilot-fish 28 The Bonitoe pursues the Flying-fish 29 Gods particular Protection of all that were in the Ship. 31 April 7. passed the Equinoctial Line 32 What Trovadas and the fire of S. Helm are 33 Several Phenomenas observed during the Voyage 34 The manner how Spouts are formed ibid. Which are dangerous to be