Siam and the West

Notes from Siam and the West, Dirk van der Cruysse.

Numbers refer to page numbers in the book.

1 The king is of medium height 80
2 Narai’s lukewarm religious feelings 82
3 Narai…an affable, almost easy-tempered 82
4 Importunate monks 83
5 …the king raised two armies in 1661… 84
6 Narai was not to be disturbed again by the Burmese… 84
7 She presented him with a son, Dua… 84
8 …a huge area around the capital was virtually depopulated… royal treasure amassed by … Prasat Thong had gone up in smoke… 85
9 …at the end of 1662 he had proclaimed a royal monopoly on all exports from Siam 85
10 Vitiated competition 85
11 …had to develop an efficient trading mechanism…this branch…became more extensive than before… 85
12 Phra Khlang…dealt with foreign affairs, royal trade, …levying of taxes 86
13 Barcalon – Phra Khlang – Pra-Clang 86
14 Prasat Thong…had amassed a fortune by fitting out vessels and trading as far as China and the Coromandel Coast… 86
15 His khunnang, who drew no salary, lived off illicit commissions and traded on their own account… 86
16 …the traders of the VOC…saw agents of the king cut the grass from under their feet in the trading of copper, cotton, rice, deerskins, cowhides, and areca nuts. 86
17 The Persian Aqa Muhammad or Ok-phra Sinaowarat…had the ear of the king, who had a penchant for everything Persian.. 87
18 Narai…calling to his side a European advisor and confidant as clever as one could wish… 87
19 Lopburi…more agreeable in the summer monsoos and places it above the flood waters 87-8
20 …the king almost never left the Grand Palace in Ayutthaya…moved around freely and hunted…everyday in Lopburi 88
21 Called Lawo by the Siamese…Louvo or Louveau by Europeans 88
22 …huge architectural and hydraulic works 88
23 …new road fifteen kilometers long which linked it to the Phra Phutthabat 88
24 Louvo…the second capital of the kingdom…Ayutthaya was exposed to attacks from Dutch warships 88
25 …this interpretation was refuted… 89
26 In 1673…training in Batavia Siamese artisans…supplying…western technology 89
27 …Narai was asthmatic and the cleaner air of Lopburi suited him better… 89
28 Both kings were thus building at the same time palaces… 89
29 …heavily scented tuberouses… 90
30 When the court is in residence, the most important mandarins …stay in their boats 91
31 …Narai not only had his Versailles, but he was to have his Mazarin 91
32 …left the roads of Dieppe…April 13, 1529
Cape Verde….April 25
Line…May 11
Ascension (21deg7min)…May 29
Cape of Good Hope…June 23
Madagascar…July 26 96
33 …scurvy and other illnesses afflicted them… 97
34 Sumatra…Oct 16
Batu/Padang...~Oct 30 97
35 …alexandrines 97
36 …the expedition (return journey) departed on Jan 22, 1530 97
37 …unsuble dirigisme 101
38 Florebo quocumque ferar 102
39 Opperhoofd (director) 103
40 …dismissing his Japanese concubine… 103
41 Tranches of shares 105
42 …de La Haye… 110
43 Damascened sword 111
44 The Soleil d’Orient was to play an important role in the history of Franco-Siamese relations 116
45 …first Frenchmen on the scene were missionaries 117
46 …responsible for the misunderstanding… 117
47 Portuguese Dominicans…contact with Siamese was minimal… 117
48 Suffragan of the Archbishop… 117
49 …two missionary orders played a capital role in the effort to covert Siam to Christianity. The Company of Jesus and the …Society of Foreign Missions (MEP) 117
50 The first Jesuits in Siam were mostly Portuguese…a few Frenchmen 117
51 Ekathotsarot had just sent an envoy to the viceroy to renew the ancient ties which existed between Portuguese India and Siam 118
52 At the end of 1606 Fr. Sequeira set sail from Sao Tome…to Ayutthaya, where he arrived at the end of March 1607 118
53 …Pipili, present-day Phetchaburi 118
54 …Phra Song Tham…authorized the Portuguese to practice the religion freely, but even …requested…to send a priest who could look after the Portuguese colony 118
55 The first Jesuits in Ayutthaya…concentrated their efforts on the Japanese converts…in the capital 119
56 The expulsion of missionaries from Tokugawa Japan decreed in 1614, and…the Christian insurrection in Nagasaki in 1637, followed by bloody reprisals, had considerably swollen the number of Japanese Christians who had taken refuge in Siam 119
57 …a fine church with a painted and gilded façade…and the College of Sao Salvador in Siam 119
58 …attributes the difficulties of converting to the pyramidical political structure… 119
59 More martial than sacerdotal… 120
60 …”superintendent of the city walls” 120
61 …(Narai’s) conversion would entail that the whole kingdom… 120
62 The Treaty of Tordesillas; the Ius Patronatus (Patronado (Sp) and Padroado (Pg)) 120
63 …the quarrel over Chinese rites…brilliant success of the silk-dressed Jesuits… 121
64 Autochthonous clergy 122
65 Cochin-China and Tonkin…three hundred thousand conversions 122
66 Catechists 122
67 …1640…restored Portugal’s independence, but its overseas territories were still more exposed to the Dutch and English… 123
68 1640…Duke of Braganza acclaimed King
Dec 1640…Dutch seize Malacca
1640…English take Madras
1658…Dutch take possession of Ceylon
1661…English take Bombay 123
69 Nuncio in Madrid 123
70 …revolutionize Catholic missionary history—the appointment of vicars-apostolic… 124
71 In partibus infidelium 124
72 Episcopal sees 124
73 Signed several bulls 125
74 Fracois Pallu became Bishop of Heliopolis (Baalbek) and vicar-apostolic of Tonkin… 125-6
75 …the debate over Chinese rites…had…obliged Rome to abandon these commonsense precepts…request Rome for permission to use Chinese in the liturgy…but each time Rome refused… 127
76 …legally and juridically… 128
77 Laissez-passers… 130
78 …the first text about the country printed in France, twenty years before the great Siamese vogue of 1685-1690 131
79 …hot beverage which would delight the court and the town after the visit to Paris in 1669-167- of the Turkish ambassador, Soliman Agha… 132
80 …it is carried from there all over Asia…where there are Mohammedans, who make use of this drink instead of wine… 132
81 Miserere…I shall return in a Miserere 132
82 “vessel of janissary” 132
83 …lived in a century which did not count religious tolerance among Christian virtues 133
84 …consolded over this contretemp when apprised… 134
85 Hookah…voluptuously gargle perfumed water with it while indulging in philosophical discussions 134
86 …Englishmen are civil and helpful,…insisting on making one drink 135
87 …”crossing the indies”…the land route across the subcontinent. Four bullock carts were hired, two valets and three armed men…They covered…twenty-five kilometers a day 136
88 Frontier separting the Mogul empire from the kingdom of Golconda 136
89 Masulipatam, the chief port on the Coromandel Coast. (Rented by the English from the King of Golconda) 136
90 …they were Dutch and exempt from taxes… 136
91 Insalubrious swamps 136
92 …boat going to Burma from where hoped to reach China. But…the route was closed… 137
93 Moorish = Muslim
94 …”strange superstitions, charms, pacts, processions, and profanations” of the Muslim sailors… 137
95 …Mergui…seventeen months after leaving Marseilles 137
96 Talapoin, a term incorrectly used by some… 137
97 …Burmese talapo, corrupted into Portuguese as talapao, …Siamese talapat, referring to a palm tree, …used by Buddhist monks…as fans 137-8
98 …Spinoza…”have you examined all these religions, both old and new,…” 139
99 Phra Narai…that all religions are meritorious, that each person must achieve his salvation from within the religious culture… 139
100 …proselytism taken as far as apostasy… 139
101 “Go ye into the world, and preach the gospel to every creature…” 139
102 Tolerance and syncretism are proper to most non-semitic oriental religions 139
103 Asoka did not disdain using the sword to impose the dharma… 140
104 Aldous Huxley…”Alone of all the great world religions, Buddhism made its way without persecution, censorship,…” 140
105 Sir John Bowring,…cited some other Siamese objections: “If God be the father of us all, why did He not reveal his will to ….etc.” 141
106 …but all agree that the extreme stupidity of these people… 141
107 “Your religion is excellent for you, and ours is excellent for us…” 141
108 …the fundamental misunderstanding between France…and…Siam 142
109 …left Tenasserim…on June 30…They went upstream on the Tenasserim River…in three canoes… 142
110 …exchanging their canoes for bullock carts…much less comfortable than the Indian carts… 143
111 Harquebuses… a portable but heavy matchlock gun invented about the middle of the 15th century and fired from a support to which it was attached by a fixed hook, later wheel-lock or flintlock modifications being lightened and provided with a bent stock and a longer butt so that they could be fired from the shoulder 143
112 The mountains of the isthmus…gave way to a fertile…plain…and arrived at Pipili…on August 13 143
113 …they walked two more days…a junk which took them in five days to Ayutthaya 144
114 Jacques de Bourges…four chapters…10 Summary 11 Fruits 12 Manners and Customs 13 Religion…give an overview of the Siam of King Narai 144
115 “The peoples of Siam are very well built,…” 144
116 The political system was similar to that in France… 145
117 …considerable liberty granted to foreigners… 145
118 …the king designates for each “nation” a person who answers for the conduct of his compatriots 145
119 …some two thousand Catholics, almost all Portuguese,… 146
120 Edict of Nantes…permitted the freedom of worship of Protestants in France,…revoked in 1685 145
121 Reincarnatin…samsara…nirvana…very foundation of Buddhism 147
122 …were delighted with the Siamese capital 149
123 …vessels “came there from everywhere, from Japan, China, the Philippine Islands, Champa, Cambodia, the Javanese islands, Sumatra, Golconda, Bengal, and…the Coromandel Coast” 149
124 …five hundred gilded temples and royal palace… 149
125 Prelate 151
126 …baptized by the Jesuits, had not the least notion of Christian religion… 151
127 …stopped…by three warships of the VOC which had just (Oct 14, 1663) ended? their blockade of the Chao Phraya to force the hand of Phra Narai 152
128 The overland journey from Marseilles to Ayutthaya had taken twenty-one months; the return sea route from Ayutthaya to London scarcely ten. 153
129 “All is well…eternity is nigh.” 155
130 …the persecutions which were raging there (Cochin-China) retained them in Siam 145
131 Synod 155
132 …Siam…an ideal place for the preparation for the priesthood for young Asians 155
133 De procuranda Indorum conversione…(1588) three categories of people: savages…partially civilized…, highly civilized 155
134 …degrees of civilization were denied… 155
135 …”…several ships returning in March to the Coromandel Coast,…” 156
136 French bottoms 156
137 Cumsicut accepimus…July 4, 1669…extended the jurisdiction of the vicars-apostolic throughout the kingdom of Siam 158
138 This philippic was so violent… 159
139 …the indifference to Buddhism which Phara Narai was said to have shown had incited a group of diehard monks to hatch a plot against the king’s life 164
140 …processions on water (kathin nam) and on land (kathin bok)… 164
141 If the king and his clergy had been more united, the French missionaries…not have…so…gained royal favor 164
142 …the king order that ten of his subjects to be sent to the house of the missionaries to be instructed there… 165
143 …gave…a piece of land located on the right bank of the Chao Phraya to the south of the capital…at…Ban Plahet… 165
144 …the volume was offered in 1667 166
145 Aphaithot…paralysis which for twelve years had taken from him the use of his feet and hands… 166
146 …the king, who has always distrusted him (Aphaithot) and disliked him… 167
147 The king,…could not consider changing religion without overturning the political, religious, and even cosmic order of his kingdom 167
148 This was his (Narai’s) first experience in 1668, of religious blackmail 168
149 …Tonkin…a month later he was in Ayutthaya 169
150 Balassor on the Bengal coast…he left this port…on a Siamese junk 170
151 …decided to act like the apostles in the first chapter of Acts where Matthias was designated the successor of the traitor Judas. They wrote down the … 171
152 Louis Laneau…earned him the sympathy of Phra Narai and his khunnang 171
153 This extraordinary man…had started the mission of Pourcelouc (Phitsanalok) 171
154 The miter, corzier, pectoral cross 172
155 …1667…imply to Louis XIV that an ambassador sent to the court of Siam would urge Phra Narai “to wish to embrace our religion…” 172
156 Phra Narai was informed of the objections…decided…that etiquette would be bend for them 173
157 …the day for the audience was…October 18, 1673. The history of ambassadorial exchanges between France, the Vatican, and Siam was beginning. It would last exactly fifteen years… 173
158 …hautboys, drums, and trumpets… 174
159 Bishops in surplices and copes… 174
160 …the second and third yards…fourth courtyard 174
161 The Phra Khlang and the khunnang…wore conical tapering headdress… 174
162 …Ayutthaya now had its bishop…Mgr. Laneau, …building a cathedral for him 178
163 …construction lasted a good ten years 178
164 …four brick pilasters… 178
165 Phaniat (enclosure) for elephants 179
166 A Siamese vessel flying the Dutch flag… 180
167 …La Haye had seized a “Moorish” vessel…belonged to the King of Siam… 181
168 The cleverer (doctor), a Chinese,… 181
169 The Moors (Muslims)…secretly hoped to win over Phra Narai and his kingdom to islam… 181
170 Tendentious information 181
171 …Cochin-Chinese embraced the Christian faith with an ardor… 183
172 …the sovereign lost…credit…in the eyes of the sangha 183
173 …it was generally said that he was of the religion of the foreigners 184
174 October 10, 1681…the Jesuits had lost the battle but…not the war 187
175 …considerable efforts,…to be given a port…where the French could build a town for the safety of their commerce 187-8
176 …Ok-phra Krai… 188
177 Lassitude and melancholy… 189
178 The khunnang and the chief monks attended (the funeral of the Bishop of Berythus, Mgr. Lambert)… 189
179 This death coincided with the end of the first period of relations between France and Siam 189
180 …French mission in Ayutthaya,…Phitsanulok, Tenasserim, Bangkok…were well entrenched and enjoyed royal favor… 189
181 Dispute between the Propaganda and the Padroado were dispersed 189
182 …the French…call “Monsieur Constance” or “His Excellency Mr. Constance”… 193
183 Hagiographies…diatribes 193
184 “The Falcon of Siam” by Axel Aylwen… 193
185 “The Moonlit Palace” by Reiko Hada… 193
186 …repeat the inventions of …Guy Tachard 193
187 Gray eminence 193
188 The true personality of the Greek adventurer…is better found in the pens of the Englishmen who were his first employers than those of the French Jesuits who wanted to make use of him… 194
189 …and relating stories in Portuguese, the lingua franca of all the Europeans in the Indies and the Orient… 195
190 …Phaulkon was forty on forty-one in 1688… 195
191 Forbin…said he (Phaulkon) was the son of a tavern-keeper 195
192 Constantin Heirachy… 196
193 “a crafty, cunning character, a liar and deciver, artful and…capable of landing on his feet, with a slick, enchanting and every-ready tongue.” 197
194 Hopewell…sailor…quartermaster…scrivener in charge of buying provisions 197
195 …he took part in the war of 1672 serving in the fleet of the Palatine Prince Rupert… 197
196 Bantam, west Java…he learnt Malay without difficulty… 197
197 …other Asian languages…Siamese…which he mastered in two years… 197
198 …he spoke Portuguese as well as he did English…but was not perfect 197
199 …Bantam…distinguished for himself by a heroic action… 198
200 …rewarded…with one thousand crowns…set himself up independently… 198
201 Richard Burnaby…to take charge of the moribund godown of the EIC 198
202 …specialists of interloping commerce and the White brothers,…, and Richard Burnaby 199
203 George White had been captain of the Hopewell… 199
204 It was…1678 that Richard Burnaby,…Phaulkon, arrived in Ayutthaya 199
205 Narai exported articles under his monopolies from…Mergui on junks crewed by Indians or Chinese… 199
206 Phra Narai had recruited several English captains for his merchant fleet…John Coates, Howell, …Williams…George White… 200
207 Ballet with many entrees 200
208 …Phaulkon, who established the basis of his fortune at the end of the 1670s 200
209 The export of elephants from Mergui… 200
210 Derea Dowla which Samuel White commanded… 200
211 …Richard Burnaby…promoted to…second class khunnang and appointed governor of Mergui…1680s, and Samuel White… 201
212 “Moorish” community…Arabs, Persians, Muslim Indians 201
213 Phaulkon was…grasping 201
214 …most dangerous…operation: to arm a coastal vessel and sell rice, gunpowder, arms, and other contraband goods to the inhabitants of Singora (Songkhla)…then in revolt against the king of Siam 201
215 …shipwrecked…presented to…Phra Khlang… 201
216 Probity 203
217 …usefulness of Phualkon in the dangerous game of poker which the Society of Jesus was playing in Siam 204
218 The falcon had landed 204
219 …the CIO, based in Surat… 207
220 …left Surat on May 2, 1680 on the Vautour,…a supply ship of six hundred tons…the 31st it was at Pondicherry… 207
221 Te Deum 208
222 Vautour…set sail for Ayutthaya on June 16, 1680…same day the Vierge left for Tenasserim 208
223 Vautour arrived at the bar of Siam on September 3, 1680…the first time a ship of the CIO showed the French flag…Chao Phraya 208
224 …the governor of the fort (Bangkok), a Turk,… 208
225 Siam having no special flag (later the white elephant on a crimson background…) 208
226 Gifts (to the king)…two chandeliers and two crystal girandoles… 209
227 His dress (Phra Narai) comprised a jacket of red Persian satin…a kris…a Japanese saber…rings and jewels… 210
228 …Soleil d’Orient…was to take the ambassadors to France 210
229 …both (Mgr. Laneau and Claude Gayme) spoke court Siamese fluently… 210
230 Mgr. Laneau had compiled treatises in Siamese on these subjects (astronomy, geography, and math…) 210
231 …impress…with his mental agility and curiosity 210-11
232 …send ambassadors…in spite of …difficulty which the Moors, who are powerful at court,…raised to divert from his plan 211
233 …embassy…to Persia in 1681 was intended to win round those who had been ill-disposed to the embassy to France 211
243 …first ambassador…three embassies to China…Phraya Phiphat Kosa…others were Luang Si Wisan and Khun Nakhon Wichai 212
244 …here is the only place where all Orientals gather in great number, and remain in liberty 213
245 …fifty cases of presents destined for Louis XIV…the baby elephants… 213
246 …Vautour set sail on December 24 and arrived in seventeen days…in Bantam… 214
247 The Soleil d’Orient, the pride of the company… 215
248 Careened 215
249 It (Soleil) vanished into the sea with all hands…in December 1681 or January 1682… 216
250 The initiative for the important embassies which were to come was to be hijacked by the Jesuits… 218
251 If the Soliel d’Orient had arrived safely, the rest of this book would have been different… 218
252 …Siam had almost no goods to export… 219
253 …as an entrepot of Far Eastern trade… 219
254 The only Siamese product likely to interest France was pepper 219
255 The English, specialists in interloping trade…, gaily fleeced their company 220
256 …seriously considered withdrawing from Siam after the fire (probably criminal) at the EIC godown in Ayutthaya in December 1682. 220
257 …Phra Khlang Kosathibodi…being the official link between the king and the…merchants… 220
258 Andre Delandes was able to observe the beginning of the meteoric career of Constantine Phaulkon… 220
259 Phaulkon arrived in Siam in 1678…Richard Burnaby 220
260 …employee of the EIC,…immediately launched into high risk and high profit interloping activities… 220
261 …supplying arms to Songkhla rebels… 220
262 …after shipwreck…hagiographic…entered the service of the Phra Khlang…in…1679 220
263 …experience of commerce within the Indies and the internal workings of the EIC… 221
264 …knowledge of Portuguese, Malay, and Siamese,…court Siamese… 221
265 …it was with the money they (Richard Burnaby and George White) advanced that he succeeded through the Barcalon in becoming ca luan (kha luang)… 221
266 …the position…was in his (godowns), the king’s stores, and concerned commerce, since the king was the biggest merchant… 221
267 …troubled the powerful faction of “Moors”, Muslim Persians or Indians,…traditionally controlled the king’s affairs…generous cut 221
268 …Phaulkon was…in a position to reveal their malversations… 221
269 …was in a position to claim from them the considerable sum of sixty thousand crowns 221
270 The Phra Khlang was…in merciless rivalry with the Moors, who were unassailable as long as…Aga Muhammad, retained the king’s…confidence 221
271 His death in 1679 exposed them to…Kosathibodi…used Phaulkon as… 221
272 …Phaulkon in 1680…commercial mission to Shah Sulaiman’s court in Isfahan 221
273 The King of Siam…received such missions from Persia and reciprocated 221
274 These missions were…given to the Moors who advanced…the money necessary… 221
275 Constans accepted the undertaking…the profit realized on goods exported twice that obtained when the Moors were in charge 222
276 …His Majesty…wished to see the Greek 222
277 Phra Narai was literally charmed… 222
278 His name begins to appear in their (Jesuits) letters…in 1682… 223
279 A reference going back to February 1674 is a mistake… 223
280 …but as to his practical talents 223
281 …according to royal chronicles…caught the attention of the king…devising an ingenious way of taking…junk out of the graving-dock 223
282 …invention of a mechanism capable of raising a heavy beam…pyre for the cremation…of Si Chulalok…who died in 1680 or 1681 223
283 Given a title from 1680, Luang Ritthi Kamhaeng, he would soon be raised to the rank of Phra, and then to Phraya (Ok-ya) and known as Okya Wichayen 223
284 …(Laneau and Pallu)…do nothing and ask for nothing except on his advice and through his means 223-4
285 The coming together of Phaulkon, the French, and Roman Catholicism occurred in 1682 224
286 Phaulkon…inspired the king to exchange ambassodors with him (Louis XIV)… 224
287 …Phaulkon’s Francophile was simply pure opportunism 224
288 …(Phaulkon) sought European allies against the…jealousy of the…khunnang… 224
289 …pretty part-Portuguese and part-Japanese woman named Maria Guyomar de Pinha, or “Marie Guimard” to the French 225
290 Phaulkon…close to thirty-five…she was then sixteen years old 225
291 Phaulkon’s fiancée…”young Japanese, of note because of the nobility of her family…blood of martyrs… 225
292 …unpublished account…Siamese and Burmese concubines, bastard children 226
293 …a letter from Phaulkon’s mother decided his conversion 227
294 …Maria Guyomar…henceforth “Madame Phaulkon” or “Madame Constance”… 228
295 …the couple do not seem to have been very happy…the husband…brusque and imperious nature…the wife’s dominant characteristic…not…tenderness 228
296 …Phaulkon was not very satisfied with his marriage(?)… 228
297 No one…doubted the Catholic zeal of Phaulkon… 228
298 …the farang favorite was going about things the wrong way… 229
299 Gallicanism 230
300 “ultramontane” vicars-apostolic… 230
301 Ketch Saint-Joseph 231
302 Te Deum and Ave maris stella… 231
303 Mgr. Pallu brought from the pope for Phra Narai four religious pictures…from Louis XIV…seven mirrors… brocade… clock… watch…enameled trees…carpets.. 231
304 …the king…wished to have built for him the most magnificent (church)…get him into China… 232
305 Mgr. Pallu laid the foundation stone of the Lopburi church on April 15, 1683… 232
306 Phra Narai was…ready to grant the CIO the outpost of Johor, close to Singapore 232
307 …the lion was sent…to Siam on board the Saint-Louis in May, 1684… 232
308 The Francophilia of Phra Narai…fantasy of dressing like Louis XIV’s son… 233
309 Jabots 223
310 He died…nine months after his arrival in China, on October 29, 1684… (Mgr. Pallu—Bishop of Heliopolis) 224
311 Xenophilous master 233
312 Mr. Constance…prevent any European speaking directly to the king… 233
313 …wish to control everything and impose his will 233
314 The Phra Khlang…was digging his own tomb 234
315 This Barcalon was pure Siamese, very devout in his religion, and very attached to his temples…the most accomplished… 234
316 Assiduous, just, and equitable… 234
317 …Constans was no engineer, but…was able to devise plans for such fortifications… 234
318 Phrai luang—free men who had to render corvee service 234
319 Tallage 234
320 …protests…were presented to the Barcalon in the usual way…fifty catties (worth 1,500 of our francs)… 234
321 Kosathibodi…fell ill and died soon afterwards in July 1683… 235
322 The office (Phra Khlang) was given, at his (Phaulkon’s) suggestion, to Okya Wang, a khunnang of Malay descent… 236
323 The wealth he was amassing…was only to finance his political ambitions… 236
324 Okya Wang was removed from office…a Siamese khunnang in the pocket of the Greek was raised to the…post. (Oya Phra Sadet) 236
325 …wait…for his rice to cool before eating it…this proverb (is) very common… 236
326 One should note that Phaulkon was never Phra Khlang in name; he occupied the position without having the title. But no one was deceived:…French sources call him the “Barcalon,”… 236
327 Phra Phetracha…xenophobia well known 237
328 …his son Sua (sometimes Dua, aka Luang Sorasak)…tried to overthrow Phaulkon 237
329 Phetracha…disapprove this attempt at character assassination… 237
330 …governed the whole country as deputy for his Majesty with full powers (Phaulkon) 237
331 …sufficient…to say that monarchs in Europe in such a situation would act in such a way 237
332 …Phaulkon was particularly interested in foreign affairs 237
333 …the love of glory and foreign monarchs…in his master… 237
334 …khunnang…prostrating themselves before him…hated him like poison 237
335 Phaulkon took no part…the first Siamese embassy to France and the Holy See…1681…but he was in complete control…in September 1683… 238
336 Ciceroni [a guide who conducts sightseers to places or objects of interest (as a museum or a monument)] and interlopers 239
337 …selected Benigne Vachet and Antoine Pascot… 239
338 ...list of things to acquire…large order for huge mirrors…”machine for seeing eclipses”… 239
339 …four Siamese boys to France to learn…fountains, architects, goldsmiths, etc. and be brought up in the French manner 239
340 …to be raised in piety, and only placed in houses where they can acquire virtue… 240
341 …embarked on the small vessel of an interloping English trader they called “Mr Obones”--…Homes or Jones. Set sail of January 25, 1684 240
342 …the seven thousand leagues…in six months 240
343 …the VOC and the EIC had agreed to arrest interloping vessels and confiscate their cargoes… 240
344 …two Algerian pirate ships, but were saved by English warships… 240
345 …disembark at Margate and travel to the capital… 240
346 On the 26th (September 1684) Barrillon (the French ambassador) presented Benigne Vachet to Charles II at Windsor Castle… 240
347 …the envoys and their effects be transported to Calais on the royal yacht, the Charlotte 241
348 ...the post should be accorded to the elder of the Siamese 241
349 …”…brusque and cholderic disposition of my companions…” 241
350 “…prod like cattle…to be in the least gracious…” 242
351 …infatuation for things Siamese…the following embassy…enthusiasm bordering on delirium…signs of racial hostility… 244
352 Abbe Francois-Timoleon de Choisy…was then forty…joys of transvestism 245
353 …he drew into his bed very young girls… 245
354 …Vachet dangled in front of Choisy’s eyes the…conversion of Phra Narai… 246
355 …as exciting as transdressing in order to seduce little girls 246
356 …annual stay of court at Fontainbleau from October 14 to November 15, 1684 246
357 …Their ambassadors perished the previous year and these will have no audience with His Majesty 246
358 …”why the King of Siam appears…anxious to seek the king’s friendship” 246
359 Bursar (an administrative officer (as of a monastery or college) in charge of funds : TREASURER, PURSER; sometimes : an officer or other agent supervising material as distinguished from intellectual or spiritual matters) 247
360 …details of the quarrel between the vicars-apostolic and the Jesuits 247
361 …the Society of Jesus was beginning to be interested in Siam… 247
362 …Phichai Walit and Phichit Maitri…were living in clover in the Hotel de Taranne… 247
363 …good at being professional layabouts… 247
364 …white, very high, pointed bonnet, with a circle of gold three fingers wide at the base… 249
365 …Vachet had spoken to the ministers of a possible, or even probable, conversion of the King of Siam… 249
366 …Phra Narai had spoken to him in veiled terms about a conversion… 249
367 …on his return (Mr. Vachet) he (the king) wished to carry out a plan…which would give joy to many… 249-250
368 …made this declaration…through…Phaulkon 250
369 Sibylline words 250
370 …first meeting in the great mirror gallery 250
371 I (Vachet)…had the Siamese prostrate themselves… 251
372 The king, unwilling to let the Siamese remain in that posture… 251
373 Opera “Roland”…in November 1685 in the riding school in the Great Stables 251
374 Boscages (a growth of trees or shrubs : GROVE, THICKET, UNDERWOOD), grottoes,… 245
375 …the moment…when the Society of Jesus was to snatch the Siamese monopoly from the Foreign Missions… 255
376 Who was the first to have the idea…Chinese-style missionary strategy in Siam… 255
377 Phra Naai…genuine interest in astronomy, physics, mathematics, and geography… 255
378 …a similar idea…in Phaulkon’s mind from 1682 by his converter, Fr. Thomas 255
379 …the vineyard of the Lord… 256
380 …Phaulkon wrote to Fr. De Noyelle in January 1684…(Society of Jesus general) 256
381 The decision to send French Jesuits…was taken in Versailles…December 1684… 256
382 La Chaise’s letter to Rome… 257
383 …efforts…concentrating on Siam were…aimed at China 258
384 …EIC, the VOC, and the CIO…interested in Siam…saw the kingdom as a gateway to China and Japan 258
385 …letters about China…began to appear in 1702… 258
386 …general pattern of conversion…spurred him on in 1684-1685…end in October 1685 with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes… 258
387 Almoner 260
388 …the rivalry which,…had humiliated the Society of Jesus…dared contest the authority of the vicars-apostolic… 260
389 …observed the decision to send Fathers to Siam had been taken without his knowledge…(Noyelle…Jesuit General)… 259
390 …the dispatch of six Fathers of our Society,…without having the leisure…to wait for the orders of Your Paternity 259-60
391 …this letter allayed the concerns of the Father General… 260
392 …the astronomers of the Society of Jesus were destined to play a major role in the unraveling of the Siamese drama… 260
393 …the Foreign Missions…were neither consulted nor informed… 260
394 …the first one…His Majesty…had sent to an oriental monarch… 260
395 …the great movement of religious intolerance and proselytism…favored…a large scale diplomatic, missionary, scientific, and commercial expedition… 260
396 …he (Abbe de Choisy)…requested the cardinal to obtain for him “the coadjutancy of the Chevalier…” 261
397 …bringing to Ayutthaya a painter…make portraits of the king and “the whole court,…” 261
398 The Chevalier de Chaumont…was one of those persons whom everyone respects but who has few friends… 262
399 “…a narrow-minded fool…had great singleness of mind…” 262
400 …Huguenot family…very ancient name…army,…navy…Calvin for Rome 262
401 Pious, rigid, and austere,…ship’s commander and…army in the Levant…seemed predestined for this embassy 262
402 …Chaumont…conscious of his dignity and lacked pliancy… 262
403 Oiseau…six hundred tons burden… 262
404 …party armed for war, partly geared for trading, carried thirty-six cannons… 262
405 …reputation of sailing well…carried a crew of 132 men… 262
406 The six Jesuits sent to Siam and China constituted a genuine “brains trust”… 262
407 …Jean de Fontaney was a remarkable man… 262
408 Fr. Bouvet…work (in China) forty years…generous synthesis of Chinese and Christian thought 264
409 …Fr. Tachard who monopolized people’s attention, relegating his five colleagues to obscurity… 264
410 …conferred on the (Jesuits?) the title of “the king’s mathematicians in the Indies and China 265
411 …the two ambassadors and their attendants, the khunnang, the missionaries, the King of Siam’s workmen, the valets, and guards came to a total of seventy-seven persons 265
412 …the presents from Louis XIV to Phra Narai were numerous and magnificent… 265
413 Ells of linen 265
414 Marquetry writing desks… 265
415 Savonnnerie carpets 265
416 …turns on the equivocal role played by Phaulkon in this project of conversion… 267
417 Mgr. de Metellopolis (Vachet)…to have an audience with the king…succeeded incomparably better… 267
418 …the Chaumont-Choisy embassy…absence of fifteen months and fifteen days… 267
419 …the Maligne,…a frigate of one hundred and fifty tons, would be added…to the Oiseau 268
420 …few episodes in French diplomatic and maritime history are as well documented as the first embassy… 268
421 One has only to cite the accounts of Chaumont, the “Mercure Galant,” Choisy, Vachet, Forbin, Bouvet, and Tachard 268
422 1685 marks a high point in the annals of Siamese diplomacy… 271
423 While…Chaumont embassy…passing southern…Africa…a Portuguese embassy…was arriving in Lopburi 271
424 …led by Pero Vaz de Siqueira…sought to obtain concessions from the King of Siam 271
425 …received in solemn audience in Lopburi in May… 271
426 …Phra Narai sent an embassy to Portugal the following year…shipwrecked near Cape Agulhas in April 1686…Ok-khun Chamnan… 271
427 On June 27, 1685…a Persian embassy sent to Siam by the Safavid ruler…set sail from Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf 271
428 …Mauro-Persian… 271
429 Malversations of one of its leaders 271
430 Shahr Nav = Siam 271
431 Safina’I Sulaimani = Ship of Sulaiman 273
432 The 240-odd pages…divided into four “jewels” 273
433 …Persian description of Siam at the…moment the French were trying to establish themselves here 273
434 The avowed intention of converting the King of Siam to Islam at the very moment when the French ambassadors thought he was ready to embrace Christianity… 273
435 …the Siamese sovereign…likes all Muslims… 273
436 …storms, alarms over reefs…, calms, heat waves, …shortages of water… 274
437 …Masulipatam, the port of the King of Golconda rented to the English 274
438 …the appearance of the Frank ladies made them thrill with pleasure 275
439 The governor of Tenasserim, a Persian…, put them up in his palace of overwhelming luxury… 276
440 …journey on the backs of elephants took a fortnight… 276
441 …he regularly spends nine months of the year in Lubu (Lopburi) 276
442 …Hassan Ali…had succeeded Aqa Muhammad…in 1679 276
443 …near naked Siamese 276
444 …soldiers…hardly formidable…bamboo helmets and small red muslin tunics 277
445 Frank = farang…! 277
446 Phaulkon…fanned Phra Narai’s suspicions of the Persians… 278
447 The throne hall had a teak floor covered with carpets. The pink and vermilion interior…six huge mirrors…from France 278
448 Two officials…take the Shah’s letter from the hands of the ambassador. It was placed on a golden platter…and offered to the king… 279
449 …elephant hunt…similar in all respects to the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French accounts… 279
450 …(Narai’s instructions) arrived…December 1685…journey (to Ayutthaya) took a fortnight… 276
451 Observed with malicious pleasure that Phaulkon was prostrate on the ground… 279
452 “…from the world of bestiality to the world of humanity.” 280
453 …tiger hunts and fights between elephants and tigers… 280
454 …Persian embassy remained in Lopburi until the beginning of the monsoon in June 1686 280
455 Four months later at the end of the monsoon, the time had come to think of the return journey 280
456 …English vessel Satisfaction which left for Moka under the command of William Rand 281
457 Aqa Muhammad…broaden the king’s outlooki…prefer Persian dress, arms, and dishes 282
458 …This important passage could well explain the failure of Catholic and Muslim attempts to convert Phra Narai 282
459 …unsatiated intellectual curiosity…cultural inferiority complex… 282
460 According to Fr. Tachard, Phra Narai had declared: “It is certain that if I had no religion, I would not choose Muhammadanism.” 283
461 …Phra Narai appears an uprooted person…remarks were interpreted as intentions to convert… 282
462 Benigne Vachet and Ibrahim Muhammad Rabi were victims of the same delusion… 282
463 …influenced by Phaulkon, he had…more sympathy for Christianity than Islam 283
464 …scandal over the unequal and excessive salaries paid to the two hundred Persian bodyguards recruited in India…lips of Aqa Muhammad sewn up… 283
465 …he died…stupid behaviour of his two sons…hopes of the Persians and Moors…were…ruined 283
466 …the embassy of Shah Sulaiman was not a success… 283
467 …Persian interlude…between…the two French embassies and the important Siamese embassy which separates them 284
468 …Grateful for the trade winds which took the two vessels to the Cape… 287
469 …an impressive evangelical fervor among the missionaries going to Siam and China… 288
470 The Oiseau and the Maligne set sail on March 3, 1685, leaving Brest roadstead… 289
471 “Voyage” of Tachard is a “solid work, but heavy and dense…difficult to read.” 289
472 The geniality and wit of the engaging Choisy… 289
473 …timelessness in writing…dislike of taking oneself seriously are literary criteria…then Choisy is a great writer 289
474 Only Fr. Tachard…West Indies and Fr. Vachet…crossed the Line four times, were good sailors… 289
475 The 209 men on board the Oiseau… 290
476 There was an immense gulf between…the officers, gentlemen…, and ecclesiastics, who had their cabins…adequate food, and, …the sailors and troops…hammocks…ship’s biscuits… 290
477 …live sheep and pigs…chickens…ship’s biscuits, water, wine, brandy, wood, and cannon balls. Gunpowder…under lock and key… 290
478 Frs. Besset and Manuel began to learn Siamese with Fr. Vachet, Choisy studied Portuguese and algebra before tackling Siamese… 290
479 “…will in China be many Verbiests.” 290
480 …recognize the Milky Way and the Great Bear… 291
481 “No one speaks better than he (Vachet) 291
482 …St. Elmo’s fire (corposants)…”water dragons” (whirlpools)… 291
483 …the abbe (Choisy) played chess with Forbin, whose southern enthusiasm he appreciated 291
484 The equinoctial line (the equator) was crossed on April 7, after five weeks… 292
485 The pilots organized a baptism for those crossing the Line for the first time… 292
486 …choice of forking out…or being doused… 292
487 …had to reach the Cape by the end of May if…arrive in Siam the same year…after…impossible to profit by the summer monsoon in the Indian Ocean blowing towards land… 292
488 The abbe noted on May 30: “Land!...” 292
489 …benevolent…Calvinist Dutch… 294
490 …departure set for June 6, but there was not enough wind… 296
491 …the second ocean crossing would not be as easy as the first… 296
492 The summer monsoon was already blowing further north… 297
493 …on June 25, that the Maligne had disappeared from the horizon… 297
494 The rough seas and variable winds obliged the pilots of the Oiseau…to shift to forty degrees south to find west winds 298
495 They caught them…and went north, covering more than four hundred leagues in a week 298
496 …the plague of long sea journeys, scurvy… 298
497 (Choisy) “The mandarins wrote me…my progress in the finest language on earth…” 298
498 August 15…dropped anchor in the Bay of Bantem… 300
499 …the Maligne…arrived four days before them… 301
500 …Siamese khunnang…ate betel and areca; these are their foibles 301
501 …in Siam…find them lively enough; may God grant…we shall not be the ones who are stupid 301
502 …set sail…for Batavia, only twelve leagues away (August 18) 301
503 …certainty…the monsoon was still blowing…in Siam in a month… 301
504 Batavia…power here is formidable, …keep in pay five or six thousand men of regular troops… 302
505 The Chinese, comprising three-quarters of the population, were most successful at this (trade) 303
506 …Roman Catholicism…forbidden in the Dutch Indies… 303
507 …”But what ladies, always chewing betel and areca…red liquid like blood…just had four large teeth removed 304
508 …the last stretch would be the most pleasant and the shortest 304
509 …distance of a couple of musket shots to port, a large ship…with a rear wind and was coming straight at them with the clear intention of boarding them… 304
510 Bowsprit 304
511 Taffrail of the…forecastle… 304
512 Hervouville…last sacraments 305
523 …Johor…Patani…Ligor…were tributary to the King of Siam 306
524 Lubber’s hole 306
525 Lost…carpenter and a fountain-maker, and should have built waterfalls at Lopburi 306
526 Benigne Vachet…suggested to Chaumont…take possession…of Singora… 306
527 …two vessels arrived on September 24 at estuary of the Chao Phraya… 306
528 “bar of Siam,” a vast mudbank formed by outflow of the river two leagues 306
529 The passage from Brest had only lasted six months and three weeks 307
530 The mission given to Forbin…find the “governor of the bar”… 307
531 In extensor 307
532 …over-brilliant image of Siam…Tachard and Choisy were to publish…stay of only three months…denounce the creation of a myth…misunderstandings and unfortunate decisions 308
533 After living more than a year in Siam, Forbin knew what he was talking about 309
534 …the Oiseau could not go up the Chao Phraya…swollen with…abundant rains of the monsoon… 310
535 What had occurred in Siam since the departure of Fr. Vachet and the two khunnang at the beginning of 1684…the King…was in good health…treat the French missionaries well;…Mr. Constance…greater than ever;…king not…change…religion… 310
536 …a mass said by Mgr. Laneau before the crew…forty day’s indulgence 312
537 …he (King) would…embrace this religion,…principal subject of my (Chaumont) embassy… 312
538 (Vachet)…soldier-like appearance…makes him persuade people easily… 311
539 The Bishop of Metellopolis (Mrg. Laneau)…has just come on board…tall…pleasant demeanor…forty-five…but looks sixty 312
540 He (the King) supports our religion,…likes missionaries,…has churches built,…very far from being baptized 312
541 …notions of metempsychosis… 312
542 The mandarins had a retinue of forty men dressed in loincloths;…”their livery is their skin.” 313
543 Phaulkon asked…what was the object of Chaumont’s embassy…to offer the Christian religion to the King of Siam 313
544 …Constance…surprised…said “Who…has deceived the King of France?” 313
545 Before going ashore, Chaumont…knew…principal objective…Louis XIV…not be attained 313
546 Fathers Tachard, Bouvet, and Visdelou…accompany Mgr. Laneau to Ayutthaya 313
547 …lush vegetation…monkeys,…birds,…fireflies,…”both charming and extraordinary.” The swarms of implacable mosquitoes… 313
548 …all those places dedicated to the cult of the devil…see all these pagodas converted into…temples of the True God… 313
549 “God has his program..moment has not yet come…one hardly sees any converted Siamese”… 314
550 They passed before Bangkok…a hamlet protected by an earthwork…strategic importance 314
551 “…one of the most important strongholds in the kingdom…the key.” 314
552 …October 3 in Ayutthaya…Vachet took them to the Jesuit residence in the Portuguese quarter… 314
553 Fr. Soares…”a good old man of some seventy years.” 315
554 …objects in silver and Chinese porcelain…to send to France… 315
555 …Mgr. Laneau permitted the six Fathers to administer the sacraments until their departure for China 315
556 “…do nothing…spiritual matters…in this kingdom…” 315
557 “…capital of Siam…which they make to be very near as big as Paris,…is hardly so big as our towns in France of the fourth and fifth rate. (Fr. Bouvet) 316
558 …situation so pleasant…could…make it one of the finest cities…Only the Moorish quarter and the Chinese street give Siam the appearance of a town… 316
559 …houses of the Moors…few in number,…those of the Chinese so low…fifteen or twenty feet high… 316
560 …the palace…occupies a good part of it, …orchards and swamps…huts…of reeds and bamboo…pile of villages and cottages enclosed by walls… 316
561 …almost total nudity and lack of adornment of the Siamese…mandarins wear muslin shirts… 316
562 …good people…without serious vices…enemies of labor… 316
563 …a great number of pagodas…one would admire in Europe… 317
564 …Wat Phra Chao Phanan Choen…royal temple, Wat Phra Si Sanphet…Buddhas in solid gold… 317
565 (Constance)…way above what we had imagined (Tachard) 317
566 The first meeting between these two clever men would be followed by others…shape the future of Franco-Siamese relations 317
567 October 8…a flotilla of gilded barges…poops 318
568 …all gilded, seventy-two feet long, rowed by seventy…men…chirole 318
569 The aquatic journey to the capital lasted five days… 318
570 …three wings…gilded Chinese beds…Japanese screens…Persian carpets…painted linen hangings…gold cloth canopy… 319
571 …pineapples, mangoes, mangosteens, jackfruits, figs, green oranges…, pomeloes…durians… 319
572 …in front of the villages…bamboo walls covered with greenery…honor reserved for the king alone… 319
573 Aigrette spray 319
574 …desolation…out of respect for His Excellency…do this when the king passes… 320
575 …Phaulkon…invisible…left the spot a few moments before they arrived… 320
576 October 12…saw between the coconut trees, the chedi and tiered roofs…outline of the Lopburi hills… 320
577 Phaulkon…requisitioned…luxurious residence of a khunnang of Persian origins 320
578 …private chapel…gold crucifix…from the king…etc 320
579 As Phaulkon spoke in Portuguese, the Bishop of Metellopolis served as interpreter 321
580 …granted the seat…in 1673…Mgr. Pallu and Mgr. Lambert…crouched on a carpet…lucky…to keep on…shoes 322
581 Phaulkon and Chaumont…opposed ideas about…Louis’s letter… 322
582 The Abbe de Choisy…diplomatic flexibility…not entirely disinterested 322
583 Impasse…splendid idea of placing the letter in a golden cup 322
584 …a few months later…Persian ambassador was also permitted a sofa and a golden handle 322
585 …French king’s presents…valued at 639 catties…30,672 rix-dollars 322
586 …the young ecclesiastics of the seminary of Mahapram…north of Ayutthaya 322
587 …aged…twelve and twenty…all nations, Chinese, Japanese, Tonkinese, Cochin-Chinese, Peguans, Siamese… 323
588 …thought I was at the seminary of St. Lazare…address in very good Latin…(Choisy) 323
589 …swarthy people…entirely naked…cleanest people on earth…eating,…dress…discourse 323
590 (Phaulkon) replied (to the king) that he should give to each…a Siamese girl 324
591 The king agreed…ordered they be sought…chief mandarins…suggested they be given Christian girls… 324
592 Thursday, October 18, the twelfth anniversary of the first audience…by Phra Narai…to…Mgr. Pallu… 324
593 But with irony. On the same day of this audience,…revoking the Edict of Nantes… 324
594 …trumpets, drums, kettle drums, …other Siamese instruments… 325
595 …an infinity of people to see this august ceremony… 325
596 The cannons of the vessels…Dutch, English, and French godowns saluted the procession… 325
597 …Fr. Soares…bells of his church rung with all their might… 325
598 Lord Constance…his finest elephant…was waiting for the procession at the landing stage… 326
599 …a street as long as but narrower than the Rue Saint-Honore… 326
600 …a thousand soldiers in short muslin vests…helmets, gilded shields, and muskets 326
601 …fifty musketeers would easily beat them… 326
602 …some of these guards…arms tattoed with blue bands…khaen lai…the king of Siam’s executioners 326
603 The red painted arms…his rowers 326
604 Portuguese called the “os bracos pintados” = khaenlai 326
605 The second courtyard…three hundred horse…fine but badly trained…eighty huge war elephants… 326
606 The posture of the mandarins, with their caps seeming as if stuck in one another’s arses,…laugh 327
607 Phra Narai himself opened the shutters of his raised tribune framed…royal umbrellas… 327
608 …rolled off Chaumont’s tongue, Mgr. Laneau translated…into Portuguese…for Phaulkon…who…translated them into Siamese 328
609 One interpreter would have sufficied…Phaulkon…intended to censor… 328
610 Forbin : “He was about fifty…thin…low stature…no beard…wart…” 329
611 No one, except Mgr. Laneau, realized…Narai had heard from (Phaulkon) only a very attenuated appeal for conversaion… 330
612 …Narai, who observed this stratagem with amusement…took the letter… 330
613 …the conversation between the king and ambassador was almost relaxed. Mgr. Laneau…translated the questions and replies… 331
614 To reach it (palace…for the ambassador) they had to take the Chinese street…and…the Moors…in the middle of a huge crowd… 332
615 The health f the king was deteriorating, and the favorite could see the clouds… 332
616 …private audience…a magnificent meal…stews in the Japanese, Siamese, and Portuguese fashion… 334
617 The two men (Phaulkon/Choisy)…called each other “Vossa Senhoria”…spoke Portuguese (Phaulkon) and Italian (Choisy)…understood each other perfectly… 334
618 His Majesty (Narai) had opened his heart to him (Phaulkon)…”…if you adopted my religion, I would think you a knave.” 334
619 …proselyte before he was a diplomat 335
620 He was bilking them… 335
621 …Thus…the Koran is placed alongside the Gospels… 335
622 …the King…formerly had much esteem for the Muhammadan religion 336
623 Choisy…(Narai)…incapable of submitting to the humility and simplicity… 336
624 The dialogue (on religion) between Narai and Phaulkon… 336-7
625 …spent most…time on tourist trips…in detail…great procession on the river… 338
626 …if the ambassador wished to please him (Narai), he would put out the rumor that and offensive and defensive pact had been signed between France and Siam…keeping the Dutch in check… 338
627 The phobia of the Dutch…continued to torment the Siamese 338
628 …Phra Narai told him (Chaumont) “…he knew the Dutch wanted to wage war with him…friendship…with the King of France caused them to be jealous.” 338
629 …fears of a Dutch attack…Phaulkon wittingly planted it in the king’s mind… 339
630 Phaulkon…delight…obtained all he wanted…without concessions 339
631 …what he most desired: a French military presence in Siam…protect him… 339
632 …not through the naïve and stubborn…Chaumont but by plotting with …Fr. Tachard that Phaulkon unleashed a military adventure…disastrous consequences 339
633 Phaulkon…involve…six Jesuit astroners in his plans. After all…he…had first requested mathematical missionaries from Fr. De Noyelle… 340
634 Fr. Bouvel describes with clear reprobation exotic ceremonies…In China, he would be a model of flexibility… 340
635 They left Ayutthaya (by barge) on November 15…arrived in Lopburi on November 17 340
636 …Phaulkon’s residence remains a magical place. One needs little imagination to see our characters moving around inside it…chimera: Christian unit of the world… 341
637 …Chaumont…Mgr. Laneau…Abbe de Choisy…long audience…inevitable Phaulkon…eight mandarins… 341
638 …late Bishop of Heliopolis, Fracois Pallu, whom the king liked a lot 341
639 …atmosphere of end of reign… 341
640 Choisy: he was very close to us…rather thin, great lively black eyes full of intelligence…speaks quickly…mumbles…physiognomy of an honest person… 341
641 …a crucifix in his bedroom…read the Gospels in the Siamese translation provided by the Bishop of Metellopolis… 341
642 …the king promised to do everything the ambassador desired,…Phaulkon would handle the details… 342
643 Divertissement for the French 342
644 …three elephants protected by leather masks…capture of wild elephants 342
645 The captains of the Oiseau and the Maligne, Vaudricourt and Joyeaux, came to Lopburi… 342
646 The Abbe de Choisy…ordained a priest be ordained a priest before returning to France 342
647 On December 7 he began a retreat at the Ayutthayan seminar, Mgr. Laneau ordained him on December 10… 343
648 The abbe noted that day: “So now I am a priest. What a terrible burden…!” 343
649 This retreat ha great consequences for Chaumont’s embassy… 343
650 The project, to build a fortress at Bangkok, equipped and controlled by the French, was huge (four or five million)… 343
651 …the person who controlled…the Chao Phraya held the whole of Siam in the palm of his hand…The Dutch threat…neutralized…Phaulkon would have his French protection 343
652 …if the offer had really come from the king…or…new invention of Phaulkon… 343
653 It was the abbe who in the end saw the Greek in his true light. For proof,…portrait in his “Memoires:”… 343
654 …to declare himself (Phaulkon) on the death of his master… 343
655 (Phaulkon) was proud, cruel, pitiless,…outrageous ambition…supported Christian religion because it…support him…I would never have trusted him… 344
656 …during Choisy’s retreat…(Phaulkon) needed an interpreter…used Fr. Tachard 344
657 Found in him (Tachard) a gentle, supple, complaint…yet bold…reckless character. Fr. Tachard undertook to bring about…to write to Fr. de La Chaize…His Reverence would bring it to fruition… 344
658 Fr. Tachard…pinched a fine golden crucifix which the King of Siam was going to give me… 344
659 …since (Chaumont) and I were only actors…after that…and he (Tachard) was the real ambassador charged with secret negotiations 344
660 Hitherto his (Tachard) role had been rather modest…studying elephants’ feet 344
661 Phaulkon had found an interlocutor equal to himself 344
662 Fr. Le Comte: …allowed four of us to travel to China…Fr. Tachard returned to France to ask the king for fresh mathematicians and I (Le Comte) remain in his kingdom 345
663 Tachard : “…extreme grief…distanced…from China…greatly desired to go…But I had to obey.” Obey who? 345
664 The version…according to Choisy is confirmed by two unpublished letters written in Lopburi on December 8, 1685 (…during the abbe’s retreat), and addressed to the Jesuit General in Rome… 345
665 The first, written in Portuguese, was from Phaulkon… 345
666 Among God’s instruments, Phaulkon modestly included himself… 345
667 The other letter…to the Father General was from Fr. Jean de Fonteney. In Latin it sings praises of Phaulkon… 345
668 A year later, Fr. De Fontenoy…seen through Phaulkon’s game… 346
669 “Mr. Constance is writing…to Fr. de La Chaize…on his own initiative…to convert, it is necessary to send troops here…he (Phaulkon) will pay for out of his own pocket…which he would command…building French forts… 346
670 Phaulkon had decided to grant the privileges the ambassador sought but hedge hem in restrictions and not to publish them 346
671 Dead letter 346
672 The first two privileges…preach freely…teach European sciences to young Siamese…The last three privileges…Siamese converts… 346
673 The bitterness of the Abbe de Dionne…powerless witness to the machinations of Phaulkon and Tachard… 347
674 Phaulkon had his hands tied…a change of religion would unleash a revolution…needlessly provide the khunnang and the…sangha… 347
675 …arrival of French troops would protect him from their hatred… 347
676 The CIO, through Veret,…list of privileges it desired to obtain.. 347
677 …the company took possession of Singor whichit could fortify as it saw fit 347
678 …night of December 10 to 11, (Narai) observed a lunar eclipse…six Jesuits…calculated and predicted…with impressive precision…immersion and emersion 348
679 Satin soutanes damascened with flowers… 348
680 …leave Forbin and de La Mare in Siam…command his armies…reconstruct the fortress at Bangkok…to receive troops expected from Louis XIV… 348
681 Dissemble, or call things by their wrong names… 348
682 An order from Chaumont was needed to make Forbin remain in Siam. He was…title of Ok-phra Sakdisongkhram 348
683 …elephant hunts, tiger fights, Chinese operas, Siamese shows, illuminations, fireworks,… 348
684 Chaumont had his farewell audience on December 12 in Lopburi… 348
685 …the king requested the ambassador to take charge of the threee ambassadors…to explain…”how one conducts oneself when in France.” 349
686 …a large gold betel box called tiap or, by the French, bossette…rank of Oya 349
687 …ogival windows… 349
688 …baby elephants to the Dukes of Burgundy and Anjou… 349
689 …gilded barges which traveled throughout the night to arrive the next day in Ayutthaya 349
690 He (Choisy) finally found them (some pages from his journal) at the bottom of his trunk; their loss would have been unforgivable 349
691 More presents to Chaumont and Choisly…(from Phaulkon)…Chinese porcelain and two small slaves, “to make them Christian.” 349
692 …the Oiseau had the reputation of being unreliable, especially when…overloaded 350
693 Phaulkon, who came to wish them a safe journey,…admit it was impossible to embark the two elephants… 350
694 The Greek…was saluted with eleven cannon shots…On the Oiseau he had a final secret meeting with Fr. Tachard… 350
695 …Vachet and La Brosse…carried off by the tide…reached the Oisea on Friday, December 21…set sail one hour after midnight…superstitious without acknowledging it…not to sail on a Friday… 351
696 The era…the missionaries, diplomats, and traders…were the only Frenchmen…close to its end…Soon to come, with the assistance of the Society of Jesus, was a military phase… 351
670 Phaulkon had worked well 351
671 de La Chaise = Louis XIV’s confessor 351
672 Chaumont: “We had…with us three ambassadors, the most considerable persons in Siam.” 353
673 …Ok-phra Wisut Sunthorn…Kosa Pan…was the brother of the Phra Khlang Chao Phraya Kosathibodi…died in 1683…foster-brother of (Narai) 353
674 “The second ambassador…is…very aged…wants not wit…ambassador to China…” 353
675 “The third,…Ockhun Jurin Ocman Viset Ppubaan…is…about twenty-five or thirty years 353
676 …the beginning of Kosa Pan’s journal which miraculously survived…nirat verse…discovered at the French National Library 354
677 …conversations…facilitated by the Abbe de Lionne…and…a Portuguese-Siamese interpreter, Antoniao Pinto, called “Mr. Antoine.” 354
678 Brilliant…studied at the Mahapram seminary…spoke fluent Siamese, Portuguese, French, and Latin 354
679 The Oiseau dropped anchor on May (March?) 13, ...Cape of Good Hope… 354
680 The Oiseau and the Maligne set sail on March 26. They crossed the Line again on April 28… 355
681 The death at the end of May of one of the khunmun on the Maligne…troubled no one… 355
682 On June 1, the outline of Corva Island…Azores…could be seen on the horizon… 355
683 …a terrible whirlwind would have overturned the two vessels in the incantations of…Kosa Pan…(Phongsawadan) 355
684 …sprit sail and the mizzen topsail… 355
685 …Ushant to port on Monday, June 17… 357
686 …Kosa Pan…did not disembark with the royal letter before Sunday, June 23, 1685… 357
687 Gifted pastiche… 359
688 Hautbois, and violins…collation was awaiting… 361
689 Enormous curiosity…eight-month stay in Paris 363
690 …the year of his fistula operation… 367
691 Musettes… 369
692 “Siamese” music would for a time be the rage at court 369
693 It was a memorable audience…recorded…by Antoine Coysevox in Rennes…can be seen today in the Museum of Fine Arts… 371
694 The very small number of truly Siamese items is striking 373
695 Electrum of Solomon’s temple 373
696 Japanned cabinets 373
697 …the two cannons fell into the hands of the revolutionaries…used to overthrow the Bourbons… 373
698 Madame (Duchess of Orleans)…I think he was not wrong in that 374
699 La Bruyere…Who causes that to be done in them and in us? Would it not be the force of truth? 375
700 …the white pencils…on their black paper 375
701 The idea of a military alliance…began to take hold… 376
702 …this miracle was being worked on in Versailles? 376
703 The document is very instructive…Phaulkon actively working towards the French colonization of Siam 377
704 …a military expedition which has to be considered a colonizing enterprise… 377
705 …five hundred men…too confined on three ships…another storeship of…three hundred tons… 378
706 …the transport of troops…from one end of the earth to the other is no simple matter… 378
707 The offensive character of the Siamese campaign… 379
708 Marten fur…for these jackets… 380
709 …logorrhea of the “Mercure Galant”… 380
710 A quire of paper… 380
711 The outings created such crowds as became proverbial 381
712 The gifts sent in (Louis XIV) name…valued at 175,431 livres… 381
713 …gold crown with fleurons… 382
714 Gobelins tapestries 382
714 Simon de La Loubere…irritable and stubborn character…inability to give way before the opinions of others…passion for etiquette… 385
715 Claude Ceberet du Boullay…married…a relative of Madame de Maintenon…king’s morganatic wife… 385
716 …probity…zeal in the service…of the king…intelligent, lively, fiery yet ever tranquil mind…judicious…(Challe) 386
717 …a direct link between the eradication ofheresy…and the propagation of Christianity in Siam… 386
718 La Loubere…remarkable “Kingdom of Siam”…two volumes…1691 387
719 From 1685 Ceberet was one of the twelve directors of the CIO 386
720 …out of a desire for economy…King…will not send fresh ambassadors to France 386
721 Phaulkon, ready to sell Siam to France,… 387
723 …La Loubere taking for (Phaulkon)…Order of St. Michael, letters of naturalization, the right of bearing three fleurs-de-lys in his arms,…for his son…title of count,…gift of land…three thousand livres in rent… 387
724 …Tachard…complicated (La Lubere and Ceberet’s) task…treated the envoys with…arrogance…compromised their joint mission… 387
725 …central role of Tachard…promises of Phaulkon…”give all posts requested…establish Frenchmen to govern…permit complete freedom of trade…” 387
726 …(H.M.)…to attack Bangkok… 387
727 If Bangkok were given to the French…not to consent to hostilities…even if…refused to cede Mergui to them 387
728 …Louis XIV had acquired…”war mentality” 388
729 The king…did not want Songor…they wanted Mergui, and…Bangkok…”the two gateways to the kingdom…” 388
730 Who had inspired in Louis XIV this passion for Bangkok and Mergui?...idea germinated in the mind of the Jesuits (Tachard)?... 388
731 “All the people in the squadron…consider Fr. Tachard as the moving spirit of this embassy… 388
732 …command of troops…to Mr. Desfarges…lieutenant-colonel, promoted general… 388
733 …brave, but lacked perspicacity… 388
734 “vain…narrow-minded, indecisive, touchy…susceptible…without real friends…without clear ideas…shifting from extreme credulity to extreme suspicion…self-interested…like money… 388-9
735 The other leaders…du Bruant, Vertesalle, de Beauchamp, and d’Alvimare. Du Laric, an artillery captain,… 389
736 The occupation of Bangkok was to be followed by that of Megui…victualled for eighteen months…fortified… 389
737 Desfarges…authorized to detach men…guard the person of the king…teach Siamese sailors…soldiers… 389
738 …chief reason…to advance religious affairs… 389
739 …Guy Tachard, denominated…superior of…French Jesuits in the Indies… 389
740 His companions were…Jean Richaud,…Claude de Beze,…Marcel Le Blanc… 389
741 Fathers de Beze and Le Blanc…leave detailed accounts of the events…expedition gave rise to… 390
742 …two vessels of 600 tons, the Gaillard and the Oiseau,…three storeships…Loire, Normande…Dromadaire 390
743 …to add the recently careened Maligne to the squadron… 390
744 The squadron transported in all 1,361 persons: (see details) 390
745 On the Gaillard…three Siamese ambassadors, their interpreter the Abbe de Lionne… 391
746 Two sons of Desfarges, the Marquis and the Chevalier,… 391
747 …”three musicians for Mr. Constance”…teach Mme. Phaulkon to play the harpsichord? 391
748 Andre Cardinal-Destouches…born 1672…traveled to Siam with Fr. Tachard at the age of fifteen, was one of the (musicians)… 391
749 “…the scores of the divine Florentine”…meaning Lully… 391
750 March 1, the squadron set sail… 391
751 …the end of the “innocent” period of Franco-Siamese relations… 391
752 …rounded Cape Finisterre…Loire…mainsail torn off…mainmast damaged…separated from…squadron… 392
753 The Siamese ambassadors, fascinated by eclipses,… 393
754 On the same day, May 11, (eclipse) the ships passed the Tropic of Capricorn 393
755 The unbelievable overcrowding (the Oiseau now carried 310)…caused terrible devastations… 393
756 The Dromidaire…200 soldiers…26 soldiers or sailors died on board… 393
757 …achored June 11 at the Cape… 394
758 …send on shore 300 sock persons… 394
759 …unload the Maligne and send it back to France… 394
760 On June 28 the squadron left the roadstead and went to sea 394
761 …five ships dispersed by storms at night…mortality increased alarmingly… 394
762 The death of August 17 of Fr. Rochette… 394
763 The Gaillard…Bantam on August 24…the Oiseau…arrived a week earlier… 394
764 …news had reached Batavia of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes…persecution of French Huguenots…no longer count on the same hospitality… 395
765 …Guy Tachard lied through his teeth… 395
766 …the powerful VOC…had…the means…to destroy his grand Asiatic projects… 395
767 …set sail (from Batavia) on September 7…the dangerous Bangka Strait… 395
768 Fr. Tachard…went onto another vessel…always had the chief role in everything; he was the favorite and servant of Mr. Constance…(Abbe de Lionne) 395
769 …Abbe de Lionne…future Bishop of Rosalie…behave in a questionable manner… 395
770 (Fr. Maldonadao: ) It also has to be stated…that (Phaulkon) had not called for troops…the Abbe de Lionne was the chief author of their arrival…promising that the two principal strongholds of the kingdom (Bangkok and Mergui) would be handed over… 396
771 Tachard/Phaulkon…had a lot to discuss, the more so as Siam had gone through a turbulent period… 396
772 The Cheavlier de Forbin…extreme poverty (of Siam)…which he emphasizes… 396
773 Phaulkon had (Forbin) appointed governor of Bangkok…construction of new fort… 396
774 Forbin…confronted with…event…shook…foundations of the Siamese throne in 1686: the revolt of the Makassars… 396
775 …the Portuguese “born in the Indies…” 397
776 …a Makassar deputy chief preached rebellion against the King of Siam in the name of Islam under threat… 398
777 …plotted to burn down the capital, seize…palaces in Ayutthaya and Lopburi…kill the king, Phaulkon,…all Europeans… 398
778 …place a half-brother of the king on the throne…converted him to Islam… 398
779 …important faction of the khunnang…and monks…were involved… 398
780 …Phaulkon’s order (to Forbin) to close the Chao Phraya River with a chain and “arrest” the Makassars…sending him to certain death… 398
781 Phaulkon encircled (the Makassar camp) on September 14 with some 60 Europeans…English…French…Portuguese…and 6,000 Siamese… 398
782 A first attack was repulsed; Phaulkon…saved by one of his slaves… 398
783 A second assault…evicted the Makassars from their entrenched positions… 398
784 The captain of Phaulkon’s bodyguard killed their prince… 398
785 …motives for the revolt…identify…of those…used the Makassars to overthrow the throne…The name of the prince who would have profited by the revolt…is also not known… 399
786 Fr. de Beze: two half-brothers of the king…Aphaithot…”…deformed…”…Chaofa Noi…the people were pleased he be considered the successor…possessed all the qualities…”…handsome…rather pale…” 400
787 But in 1683…victim of a murky intrigue…by Ok-phra Phetracha…(Noi) was beaten… 400
788 March/April 1686…paper…hanging…in front of Lopburi palace gate…set out perilous position of Siamese religion… 400
789 (Forbin) embarked at the beginning of 1687 on a CIO ship… 401
790 Forbin was…no longer in Siam when the Oisea arrived…on September 27… 401
791 …only 492 reached Siam… 401
792 …the embassy started off in an atmosphere of suspicion and ambiguity… 401
793 The manuscript “Ration” of Tachard…reproaches (Kosa Pan and his colleagues) for not espousing his views (Bangkok, Mergui)… 401
794 Fr. de Beze: also of the uneasiness which sight of that stronghold in French hands would occasion among the Siamese… 402
795 (Tachard)…does not bother to disguise the arrogance…when La Loubere expressed his discontent… 402
796 …Michel Jacq-Hergoualc’h…the historian of this embassy… 402
797 (Tachard) set foot on shore on September 27…Fr. d’Espagnac who spoke Portuguese…interpreter with Phaulkon… 403
798 Phaulkon…drew up…memorandaum…sent to the king…approved the cession of Bangkok and Mergui to the French… 403
799 Beze…Ok-phra Phetracha…nationalist…dared to disagree 404
800 This courageous and isolated opposition is worth noting… 404
801 …the hostility (Tachard) inspired… 404
802 Mr. Varet…lacking perspicacity…but sought to describe, “with the sincerest truth…” 404
803 Phaulkon: medium height, rather good-looking…aged…thirty-five or thirty-six…much liveliness…very pleasant exterior… 404
804 …He undertakes a thousand things he does not succeed in… 404
805 He is ambitious…loves money…vengeance…flatterers…people who crawl before him…With all that, he is the best person in the world… 404-5
806 “…for the negotiation of affairs (Phaulkon) would only deal with Fr. Tachard 405
807 (Kosa Pan and colleagues) went to Narai…read his account every day… 405
808 …their instructions only permitted an oath to the King of Siam 406
809 The situation of La Loubere and Ceberet were impossible… 406
810 The fifteen articles of the treaty regulated the French military presence in Siam… 406
811 “The French troops in Bangkok and Mergui…not commanded by any Siamese nor any foreigners…follow orders sent by (Phaulkon)…” 406
812 …there clauses put the troops in Phaulkon’s hands… 406
813 …the signed treaty…allowed the decimated and exhausted troops…to disembark and enter Bangkok with the pompous Desfarges at heir head 406
814 Drum…and hautbois 407
815 Pleased them still less…a garrison…of Asian-born Portuguese and Siamese… 407
816 Guy Tachard…conducted himself like an agent and eminence grise of Phaulkon…bewitched him… 407
817 Guy Tachard betrayed his king’s confidence… 407
818 …Louis XIV…decided they would be envoys extraordinary and not ambassadors…expected to be received with…honors accorded to Chaumont… 408
819 They…obtained satisfaction after days of argument…the intrigues of Phaulkon and Tachard…”this truly infernal duo.” 408
820 The audience, for which (Narai) had returned from Lopburi, took place on Sunday, November 2… 408
821 …Phaulkon was prostrate… 408
822 …Mr. Constance, whose pride…reached its peak… 408
823 Phaulkon: “If the king has not embraced the Christian faith…not yet instructed in it…fault of…Bishop of Metellopolis….spoke Siamese badly…despite 25 years… 409
824 …Mgr. Laneau protested that he spoke Siamese very well… 409
825 “…Mr. Constance fears I (Laneau) should take his place beside the king if I were to convert him…” 409
826 This open rivalry between the Foreign Missions and the Jesuits…not facilitate the tack of the envoys… 409
827 Neither did it serve the interests of France nor the Church. A long “Memorandum…,” taken by Fr. Tachard to France, is a violent indictment of the Foreign Missions…since…arrival of Mgr. Laneau in 1662 409
828 (Narai) returned to Lopburi on November 5… 409
829 Lucien Lanier: Constrained to please a despot… 410
830 His position was…delicate…health of the king…was probably already prematurely senile… 410
831 He (the king) gave orders…to (Constance) to build (the observatories)…Nothing had been done in two years 410
832 …Desfarges was the braggart at Phaulkon’s table…only a pawn in Phaulkon’s chessboard…the Greek thought himself protected by (Desfarges’s) sword… 412
833 …French troops to Mergui…constantly deferred by Phaulkon… 412
834 George White…captain of the Hopewell…the ship on which Phaulkon…first journey to Asia in 1670… 412
835 …Richard Burnaby…in 1678…taken (Phaulkon) to Ayutthaya… 412
836 …Phaulkon appointed his old pals to lucrative positions in Mergui, the hub of Indo-Siamese trade… 412
837 Burnaby….governor…Samuel White shahbandar (harbor-master…collector of customs duties) 412
838 White…enriched himself inordinately… 413
839 (White)…seize cargoes belonging to the EIC in the name of the King of Siam… 413
840 The directors…in London…ordered their representative in Madras, Elihu Yale, to…come to grips with Siam…recall all Englishmen employed by oriental sovereigns… 413
841 In June 1687, Yale sent an armed frigate, the Curtana,…and the corvette James 413
842 …Weltdon was to summon White…demand payment of compensation from the King of Siam… 413
843 …”Mergui massacre…” 413
844 Samuel White…shipped his fortune to England…died on his estate near Bath in January 1689… 414
845 Richard Burnaby…was replaced by Beauregard, who had succeeded Forbin as governor of Bangkok 414
846 …an “association”…between (Phaulkon) and the CIO for the sum of 300,000 livres… 414
847 The new commercial treaty was signed…on December 11 in Lopburi… 415
848 (Phaulkon) became one of the biggest shareholders of the CIO by virtue of the act of association of December 13… 415
849 (Phaulkon) would…ask…January 1688…to be made one of the ten directors of the company 415
850 Ceberet (to Mergui) describes with…pride “my elephant…gilded seat…dome…carpets…gold brocade cushions… 416
851 A guard of fifty soldiers, three hundred porters, and one hundred carts… “traveling in single file.” 416
852 They arrived December 30 at Tenasserim, where Forbin was waiting for them, having come from Pondichery… 416
853 Kosa Pan, who escorted Ceberet,… 416
854 He (Kosa Pan) added in bad French: “La France grand bon, Siam petit bon.” 416
855 …La Loubere only thought of leaving as well… 416
856 In order to court Phaulkon’s favor, Desfarges…brought a mortar and three bombs to Lopburi…(Narai) was…impressed… 417
857 (The king) told Phaulkon he wished to retain these…firearms in Siam…using them against the rebels of Patani… 417
858 The two envoys were formally opposed to this… 417
859 Laric and his men (bombadiers) would remain in Siam… 417
860 …Fr. Tachard would be sent to France and Rome as ambassador extraordinary of the King of Siam… 417
861 (La Loubere’s) farewell audience…on December 23…”rather short.” 417
862 Tachard…now the King of Siam’s ambassador…farewell audience on Christmas Day… 418
863 …(Phaulkon)…gave a long speech on the Christian religion…before the King 418
864 …ambassador and comprador, Fr. Tachard… 420
865 (Tachard) embarked on the Oiseau… January 3…three mandarins…and five sons of mandarins whom (Narai) wished to study at the College of Louis-le-Grand… 420
866 (Phaulkon) returned…to Lopburi…to see his young son Joao die on January 11… 420
867 …mealy-mouthe airs of his adversary (Tachard), Simon de La Loubere…working on his masterly book, “The Kingdom of Siam.” 421
868 …Tachard relapsed into complete paranoia 422
869 To read Ceberet and Forbin, the atmosphere was much more friendly on board the Oiseau 422
870 …Desclouszeaux, the intendent… 423
871 The French court did not wait for the return of Vaudricourt’s squadron to continue its Siamese policy 427
872 The need to reinforce the expeditionary corps in Siam…the sailing season at the beginning of 1688 427
873 The navy ship, the Oriflamme,…750 tons…two hundred troopers… 427
874 Its commander, Mr. de l’Estrille… 427
875 …five bales of prayer books and vestments 427
876 Today in France God and Caesar have but the same interests.” (Tachard) 428
877 …agents of Phaulkon’s widow would…institute proceedings against the CIO…drag on until 1717 428
878 Louix XIV…let Fr. Tachard leave for Rome…on behalf of the King of Siam… 430
879 …the pope had just excommunicated the French ambassador…Louis XIV had seized Avignon… 430
880 …1680, Tachard returned to Versailles,…gave (Narai’s) letter to Louis XIV… 431
881 The nine articles…concerned…question of the command of the French troops in Siam 431
882 …a citadel with four bastions…built at Bangkok… 431
883 …command of (an)…expeditionary corps…to Marquis de Ragny… 431
884 …protectorate disguised in the name of friendship…(Lanier) 432
885 …December 1688, James II…fled England… 432
886 …rule of William III of Orange and Mary Stuart… 432
887 Ragny…and Forbin…play a part…defeat at the Battle of the Boyne…July 1, 1690… 432
888 …the war against England…prevented Ragny and his men embarking for Siam 432
889 …the most important of these, the “History of the Revolution in Siam in …1688” by Jean Vollant des Verquain… 432
890 Two other witnesses,…de Beze and…Le Blac, were in Lopburi… 432-3
891 …Le Blanc (“the only sincere Jesuit”): Robert Challe 433
892 Beze: “during…past four or five years…king’s health…deteriorated owing to asthmatic cough…” 433
893 (Narai) had no sons…treated his two half-brothers…relegated them to obscurity… 433
894 One was a paralyzed alcoholic…other a stuttering, imbecile… 433
895 …more indulgent to his daughter,…Kromluang Yothathep…extremely cruel… 434
896 …disapproving of…xenophilous policy…hating Phaulkon… 434
897 …princess queen…very haughty…unbelievable pride… 434
898 Two younger men…(Narai’s) entourage…Dua (sometimes Sua)…title Ok-luang Sorasak…a son whom the king had by a Lanna princess(?)… 434
899 …Phongsawadan complicate things by presenting (Sorasak) sometimes as…descendent of the Sovereign…, sometimes as…the son of (Phetracha)… 434
900 The Europeans…believed (Sorasak) to be the son of Phetracha…they were right… 434
901 Sorasak…champion of the Buddhist cause…resolute adversary of (Phaulkon)… 434
902 (Phaulkon) forcibly defrocked …monks who had taken refuge in the temples to escape the six month corvee….(Sorasak)…broke two of (Phaulkon’s) teeth…well-aimed punch 434
903 …disgrace in 1683 of Chaofa Noi… 434
904 Phra Pi (aka) Mom Pi…son of a courtier…Ok-khun Kraisitthisak… 434
905 Mom Pi (“Prapy”, “Pra Pit”) had been a mahatlek or royal page…like Sorasak… 434
906 (Mom Pi) came of low estate…raised by a sister of the king together with Princess Yothathep, who had the same age… 435
907 (Mom Pi) was not…sharpness of wit…brilliance…good-natured air…winning and easy manners…flatter the king…diligence in learning the way to all he hoped to attain 435
908 (Phra Pi) did this so well that (Narai) could no longer do without him… 435
909 …the haughty kromluang refused to marry (Phra Pi) and was exiled to the palace in Ayutthaya 435
910 …drew her closer to Phetracha and…Sorasak… 435
911 Phra Pi, lured on by Phetracha,…blunder after blunder…could never succeed as king… 435
912 …the central character in the drama…very clever and influential Ok-phra Phetracha 436
913 (Phetracha) superintendent of the elephant corps and foster brother of the king 436
914 La Loubere: (Phetracha) is a very great Lord. The people love him…moderate…courage… 436
915 The French witnesses…did not like the commander of the elephants… 436
916 Fr. Le Blanc “…little above middling height…open countenance…lively…brave…age of fifty-five or fifty-six…youthful…” 436
917 “…showed himself to be the biggest rogue in Siam.” 436
918 (Phetracha) showed consummate ability…compromising…king’s two half-brothers…adopted son Phra Pi…secretly promised the crown…maintained discrete links with…Yothathep… 437
919 …his sister…daughter…were phra sanom…royal concubines…simplified matters… 437
920 (Phetracha) established close links with the sankharat… 437
921 The ochre cotton garments…remind one…supposed monastic inclinations 437
922 A swindler and an idolater in the eyes of the French…champion of traditional Siam values…Buddhism…national independence… 438
923 “There is one of the great fallen”…Phetracha had this information circulated…(by)…the monks… 438
924 Another rumor…a revolution…at the beginning of April… 438
925 French troops…badly paid…undisciplined…begged in the streets…robbing passers-by…molesting women… 439
926 …threw themselves at the women… 439
927 …February, (Narai) fell seriously ill…could not yet live much longer 439
928 …drag (the king’s) body through the mire after his death…authorization to assemble Siamese troops… 440
929 …time to put (French troops) to work…arrest Phetracha… 440
930 The detachment (90-105) arrived in Ayutthaya on April 15, Maundy Thursday 441
931 (Phaulkon) set upon involving them (French) in his own downfall… 441
932 Abbe de Lionne (1692)…thought the king dead…advocated a neutral stance by the French… 442
933 Artus de Lionne was to leave Siam suddenly…not…merit the indulgence of posterity 442
934 The shady Veret…loathed Phaulkon…to throw (Phaulkon) as fodder…cut off the branch on which the French were perched 442
935 Desfarges…return to Bangkok…Siamese soldiers…only existed in the imagination of the general… 442
936 Vollant des Verquains…harsh on vindictiveness and avaricious clerk Veret…and on Desfarges…stubborn, indecisive, and cowardly 442
937 Lanier: “the treason of Desfarges…Veret” 442
938 And Mgr. Laneau…”at least by his silence.” 442
939 …send a scout (Le Roy) to Lopburi…Phaulkon, his wife,…Jesuits observing a lunar eclipse… 443
940 “…imply repudiation of…honors…interests of France…religion.” 443
941 The time lost…would be fatal to Phaulkon 443
942 The movement of French troops…incite Phetracha to bring forward his coup d’etat without waiting for the king’s death… 443
943 …there would be no time…assistance from…English in Ayutthaya…helped Phaulkon against the Makassars… 443
944 …pillaging Phaulkon’s residence…filled with incalculable treasures… 444
945 Ok-khun Kraisitthisak, Phra Pi’s father,…fourteen thousand men for his son’s cause 444
946 Phetracha assembled…seventy to eighty thousand men (La Touche) 444
947 …Phaulkon sent provisions to Bangkok…prepare for…assault… 444
948 He sent off his wife and son Jorge to the Japanese camp in Ayutthaya… 444
949 …implored the king to name one of his half-brothers as his successor… 444
950 About May 10, the king…nominate his daughter…regent and trustee of the crown…under guardianship of Ok-ya Wichayen, (Phetracha), and Phra Pi… 444
951 …rumor…kromluang had a penchant for Chaofa Noi… 444
952 This royal decision, intended to maintain civil peace, naturally had the opposite effect… 444
953 (Phaulkon) brought back his wife and son from Ayutthaya… 444
954 ...refused to listen to the French…advised…to withdraw with his family to Bangkok… 445
955 …the Greek did not lack nerve… 445
956 …(Phetracha) was informed of (the king’s anger at him) and decided to act 445
957 The people took up their arms and followed the sangkharat and his monks…the palace 446
958 Fr. Le Blance, our correspondent on the spot… 446
959 La Touche: “(Phaulkon’s) fidelity for the king was greater than his fear of death.” 446
960 (Phaulkon) was arrested by Phetracha 446
961 The first victim of (Phetracha) was the blundering and naïve Phra or Mom Pi 447
962 This explains Phaulkon’s phrase in the instructions…to Tachard at the end of 1685…”much greater facility, even for religion.” 447
963 The French and English in Lopburi…three officers arrested with Phaulkon, were not molested 447-8
964 …Phetracha made use of Kosa Pan…gone over to his side out of conviction 448
965 …and Veret, to reassure the gentlemen of the Foreign Missions and invite them to Lopburi… 448
966 Mgr. Laneau pleaded sickness and sent Abbe de Lionne… 448
967 On May 25 (Abbe de Lionne) had a meeting with Phetracha (…”the Great Mandarin”)… 448
968 (Phetracha) told (de Lionne) he acted only on the king’s ordrs, and… making Desfarges come to Lopburi 448
969 The abbe’s behaviour is all the less comprehensible… 448
970 (Phetracha)…removed the king’s entourage…paid visits to him…impression…was going to take his orders… 448
971 …no European was witness to the agonies (Phaulkon) had to endure 449
972 …tortured with…cruelty…head of his “accomplice” Phra Pi tied around his neck 449
973 The torments…for two weeks… 449
974 …Phetracha later treated forty-eight khunnang…displease him… 449
975 (Le Blanc)…a Siamese secretary, sent by Mme. Phaulkon…”had seen his master in an enclosure of stakes…three chains about his neck, hands, and feet…covered his face with a handkerchief.” 449
976 …June 5…declared guilty of lese-majesty and high treason…condemned to death… 450
977 (Phaulkon) asked for a confessor…refused him 450
978 (Phaulkion)…placed on…elephant…solid escort…to the forest of Thale Chupson… 450
979 …”fairly tranquil appearance” 450
980 …knelt down, took off the cross of…St. Michael…one of the mandarins to keep it for his son Jorge 450
981 A “painted arm” executioner…”…split him down the middle of his body…cutting off his head with several blows…” 450
982 …both lucidity and imagination…Phaulkon did not wish to abandon his king, and he accepted his destiny 450
983 …Johan Keyts, the director of the Dutch godown in Ayutthaya… 450
984 …fate of the proud and pretty Mme. Phaulkon, then twenty-two years old, …not to be envied… 450
985 …their residence attacked by soldiers…totally pillaged… 451
986 …tortured…knew where Phaulkon had hidden valuables… 451
987 Engelbert Kaempfer (from Dutch): Phaulkon had been taken during his captivity to his residence…indicate hiding places of his diamonds… 451
988 Fr. de Beze, authorized to visit her…had his breath taken away on seeing her reduced to this state 451
989 The brutal assiduities of (Sorasak)…wanted to drag her into his bed… 451
990 …tragic quality worthy of his Greek origins 451
991 The Abbe de Lionne…left Lopburi on May 26 for Bangkok…Veret…Beachamp…Kosa Pan…escort of executioners… 451
992 …Desfarges did not have a free hand…his younger son, the chevalier…hostage by (Phetracha)… 451
993 The bait was crude, but Desfarges…decided to go to Lopburi… 452
994 (Desfarges) arrived on June 2…taken to the palace… 452
995 …(Desfarges) should summon his troops to Lopburi… 452
996 …his two sons would have to remain at court as hostages 452
997 …du Bruant in Mergui…join (Desfarges) in Lopburi… 452
998 The imprisoned king (Narai)…no part in the orders of the Great Mandarin… 452
999 (Desfarges) decided to dig in (in Bangkok)…abandoning his sons to their fate 452
1000 (Phetracha)…remarked that Desfarges said nothing in favor of Phaulkon…the French, with the exception of the Jesuits, had dropped…(Phaulkon) 452
1001 (Phaulkon) was executed the same evening (June 5)… 452
1002 …had Chaofa Aphaithot and Chaofa Noi…put to death…in the royal fashion 452
1003 (Sorasak) was in charge of this execution… 452
1004 …Narai, whose illness had degenerated into dropsy… 453
1005 Fr. de Beze saw (the king) the following day (June 6)… 453
1006 (de Beze) tried to convince him to accept baptism… 453
1007 …(Narai’s) Chinese doctor…refused to translate the proposition… 453
1008 …(Narai) died in despair “on July 10 at ten o’clock at night” (Beze) 453
1009 The contrary, suggested by Fr. Le Blanc, seems more probable,…imminent death of the king hastened…execution of the two princes…order purporting to come from him 453
1010 (Narai) expired at …age…fifty-six…thirty-second year of his reign… 453
1011 …sought the friendship of Louis XIV, and was offered a protectorate… 453
1012 Phetracha…all customary honors 453
1013 …returned in great pomp to …Ayutthaya on August 1… 453
1014 …crowned the same day…marrying…kromluang Yothathep, princess and heiress to the kingdom 453
1015 (Phetracha)…renewed ties with the Dutch…advised and aided him 454
1016 …parallels between (Phetracha) and another anti-French usurper…William of Orange… 454
1017 (Phetracha) had to resolve the “French question,”…Desfarges…would not willingly hand over…Bangkok 454
1018 …unfinished and mediocre stronghold… 454
1019 The inventory of their ammunitions…rather impressive… 454
1020 …the victuals…were not inexhaustible…reprovisioning…difficult… 454
1021 Built…redoubts around the fort 455
1022 …the tone…pompous (letter)…but…effective 455
1023 Bouillons of crows… 456
1024 Two Siamese vessels commanded by French captains were cruising in the Gulf of Siam 456
1025 …Negotiations began in earnest…The Bishop of Metellopolis…Mr. Veret..Between Bangkok and the capital… 456
1026 …Kosal Pan, now Phra Khlang…direct the blockade and the negotiations… 456
1027 An honorable retreat of the French garrison…agreed… 457
1028 The arrival of the Oriflamme on September 9 broke the logjam… 457
1029 …left Brest…February 1688…de l’Estrille… 457
1030 The arrival of this powerful ship of 750 tons…sixty-four cannons…impressed the Siamese… 457
1031 …the two sides concluded at the end of September an honorable capitulation…in nine articles… 457
1032 The arrival at …Bangkok…of Mme. Phaulkon…came with her son to seek the French king’s protection… 457
1033 Sainte Marie, the officer sent to Ayutthaya to arrange the…treaty…had taken pity on the lady… 457
1034 Lubricious (Sorasak)… 458
1035 Instead of getting her…on board the Oriflamme…he informed…Kosa Pan… 458
1036 The episode which follows…Vollant des Verquains, de Beze, and Le Blanc…wealth of details…shameful for Desfarges… 458
1037 …pocket a thousand pistols… 458
1038 Desfarges drew up a…vague document…(Kosa Pan) sign, …protect Phaulkon’s widow from persecution… 458
1039 Mme. Constance left the fortress on October 18 “with a proud look on her face…” 548
1040 (Mme. Constance) was condemned to…slavery…until Phetracha’s death in 1703 548
1041 “Mme. Constance…mother…aunts…grandmother…thrown into the Princess’ kitchen.” (Fr. Maldonado informed Fr. de La Chaize) 458
1042 (The French) left the fortress on November 2…resembled undignified flight… 458-9
1043 The three hostages who were to remain in Siam to guarantee the treaty…accompanied the garrison…the bar… 459
1044 …Oriflamme was waiting…Siam and Louvo… 459
1045 …Veret and the younger Desfarges son…went on board the Oriflamme… 459
1046 …Mgr. Laneau intended to flee as well…according to Fathers de Beze and Le Blanc… 459
1047 …Franco-Siamese relations closed with a complete break… 459
1048 The Oriflamme…Siam…Louvo set sail on November 13 459
1049 …the honest Jean Vollant des Verquains… 459
1050 …the Siamese vented their anger on the French who remained…Bishop of Metellopolis and Fr. de La Breuille…the only French Jesuit…not to leave… 459
1051 …”five prisons” were prepared for Mgr. Laneau… 460
1052 Heavy cangues and wooden shackles… 460
1053 Taken in this device to Ayutthaya…tied down at a street corner… 460
1054 He remained three months…”painted arms” 460
1055 Fr. Paumard, the only one of the priests allowed to move around…was a doctor…brought him rice… 460
1056 The affronts inflicted on the other priests and Frenchmen were hardly less terrible… 460
1057 Fr. Maldonado…Portuguese…not disturbed in his house in the Portuguese camp… 460-1
1058 The seminary of the Foreign Missions was pillaged…Chinese…used it as a shop… 461
1059 The church was converted into a temple…Buddha statues and monks… 461
1060 The goods of the French godown…king’s repository…buildings given to the moors… 461
1061 Fr. Maldonado informed Rome…Peguans and Siamese…all apostatized 461
1062 Christian mothers…disfigure their daughters…burning iron…rather than hand them over…”infidels” 461
1063 “Catalogue of ecclesiastical and lay prisoners”…archives of MEP…ten priests…and…Fr. de La Breuille…fourteen officers and soldiers…six agents of the CIO…fourteen other Frenchmen… 461
1064 (At Pondichery) the passengers…find du Bruant and the survivors of the garrison at Mergui…arrived a fortnight earlier (January)… 461
1065 Mr. du Bruant…set of mid-February 1688…one hundred…to take possession of…Mergui and the Island of Pulao Tavoy 462
1066 They took barges as far as Phetchaburi…crossed the isthmus on foot…followed by carts…baggage and munitions… 462
1067 They had only praise for the Siamese…six-week march 462
1068 The governor supplied materials…three thousand phrai luang…”safe from any insult” 462
1069 …after one month the phrai luang abandoned…worksite…governor’s zeal evaporated 462
1070 …gave the commander to understand…something strange was occurring at court 462
1071 …the governor had changed to malevolence…then to open hostility 462
1072 …a small boat…Englishman from Madras…as well as the Mergui a frigate of the King of Siam carrying twenty-four cannons… 467
1073 …June…armed Siamese…concentrate around Mergui…supply of victuals…stopped 462
1074 The stronghold was invested…several Frenchmen…killed… 462
1075 “Talapoins gave them characters…invulnerable…opium…makes them bold” 462
1076 …French cannons dispersed them without difficulty 463
1077 …decided to reduce stronghold by famine 463
1078 …water had to be fetched with sword in hand…made position untenable… 463
1079 …the Siamese inspired fear…usual “barbaric” cries…attacked…with spears and sabers… 463
1080 June 24, the garrison left…without spiking the cannons 463
1081 Twenty French died in the embarkation 463
1082 Chased by pirates, opposed by the winds, unable to maneuver…want of sails and anchors (a cannon tied to a rope was used) 463
1083 They dropped anchor in August before Martaban in the kingdom of Pegu…Mr. de Beauregard, the Jesuit d’Espagnac, and four soldiers went up the Salween River… 463
1084 …end of September,…accidental encounter with Notre Dame de Lorette, a CIO vessel, save…the Mergui garrison… 464
1085 A local Phaulkon, a French minister of the kingdom (of Arakan), supplied them…victuals… 464
1086 …across the Gulf of Bengal to Balassor…English seized the Siamese frigate…belonged to king who was at war… 464
1087 On January 15, 1689, Francois Martin welcomed…Siam and Louvo anchored before Pondichery on February 1,… 464
1088 Of 800 troops sent to Siam with the Vaudricourt squadron…and on the Oriflamme, only 350 survived 464
1089 …no question of leaving so many armed men in Pondichery 464
1090 February 6, Desfarges summoned a council of war…Martin…Veret…Mr. d’Estrille… 464
1091 …three possibilities: returning to Europe; retaking Mergui; or occupying the Siamese island of Joncelang=Junk Ceylon=Phuket… 465
1092 …expedition left…April 10…three months later before Phuket… 465
1093 …hostages arrived in Ayutthaya…December…after which…treatment …Frenchmen in Ayutthaya relaxed… 465
1094 A year earlier, on February 16, 1689, two frigates of the CIO… Normande…Coche…left Pondichery…Jean Vollant des Verquains…Fr. Marcel Le Blanc… 465
1095 …unaware that the War of the League of Augsburg…the United Provinces at war with France… 466
1096 Desfarges…embarked in March 1690 on the Oriflamme…escorting two…vessels, the Lonray…Saint-Nicholas… 466
1097 …important victims were Mr. de l’Estrille and Desfarges… 466
1098 …fate was kind to the general…disgraced in Siam…treason to two crowns…abandoning Phaulkon… 466
1099 His two sons each spent fifty thousand crowns in festivities and love affairs…in Martinique… 466
1100 The Desfarges sons…considerable fortune…father amassed in Siam… in port…large deposit…entrusted to him by Phaulkon… 467
1101 But this fortune…two prodigal sons…could not escape fate. On February 27, 1691, …Oriflamme…terrible storm…off coasts of Brittany…lost with all hands 467
1102 Claude Fleury…learned preceptor of the Duke of Burgundy…”All religions are good…” 469
1103 Turpin…eighty years after…”The French, who always start well… succumbed to the desire…to govern…censorious of foreign practices… ridiculous enough to offer themselves as models…” 469
1104 …the incredible Fr. Tachard…inexhaustible wheezes…prevents us… drawing the curtain… 470
1105 In November 1689 in Saumur, the Jesuit had learned…revolution in Siam…filtered out of the prison of Middelburg 470
1106 Without…official title…embarked on the Gaillard…for his (Tachard’s) journey to the Indies… 471
1107 The superb “Journal d’un voyage fait aux Indes orientales” by Rober Challe 471
1108 (Tachard)…succeeded in convincing Louis XIV to use him…become reconciled with Siam… 473
1109 (Tachard) embarked on march 27, 1695…vessels…sent by the king and the CIO…to the Indies… 473
1110 …Tachard was invited by (Phetracha) to come to Ayutthaya as the envoy of Louis XIV… 473
1111 Fr. Tachard spent three weeks in Ayutthaya… 473
1112 “I found…(Ayutthaya)…a desert…no merchants…no trading; the Christians, the Moors…other foreigners…have almost all gone…” 473
1113 (Tachard) went to see Mme. Phaulkon…still a slave… 474
1114 …(Tachard) returned for the fifth time to Asia… 474
1115 (Tachard) died in Chandernagor in Bengal in October 1712… 474
1116 With a man like Kosa Pan…feeling that the Franco-Siamese edifice was built on solid rock… 474
1117 …Kosa Pan could not accept the occupation of Bangkok and Mergui…by a French expeditionary force… 474
1118 …Phetracha…instituted a reign of terror… 475
1119 …an older daughter of (Kosa Pan’s), and two or three sons, his wives and concubines…arrested and tortured… 475
1120 …he plunged a knife into his chest…interred without ceremony… 475

Index of Ships
1 Aigle Blanc 104
2 Amsterdam 36
3 Bayonnais 110
4 Berckmeer 305
5 Blancpignon 231
6 Bristol 216
7 Castricum 473
8 Charlotte 241
9 Cleen Zeelandt 118
10 Coche 216, 229, 395, 465, 466
11 Consent 54
12 Curtana 413, 414
13 Dauphin Couronne 110, 158
14 David 57
15 Diligente 110
16 Dragon 54
17 Dromadaire 390, 391, 393, 394. 401, 419, 421, 423
18 Duchesse 104
19 Engel, De 56
20 Elefanten 57
21 Elsenburg 70
22 Flamand 110
23 Gaillard 390, 391, 393, 395, 401, 404, 405, 410, 419, 421-423
24 Globe 55
25 Hector 54
26 Het Gheloove 56
27 Heureuse 217
28 Hoogcaspel 70
29 Hoop, De 56
30 Hopewell 72, 197, 199, 412
31 Hound 56
32 Indienne 110
33 James 413, 414
34 Jules 110, 114
35 Kobenhavn 58
36 Kristian 58
37 Liefde, De 56
38 Loire 390=392, 401, 419, 421, 423
39 Lonray 466
40 Louvo 459, 464, 465
41 Maligne 272, 289, 292, 297, 301, 304, 305, 310, 342, 350, 353-356, 390, 392, 394
42 Marechale 99
43 Marie 104
44 Mauritsius 45
45 Mazarine 104
46 Mergui 462, 463
47 Navarre 110
48 Normande 390, 394, 395, 401, 421, 465
49 Nossa Senhora dos Milagros 271, 354, 421
50 Notre Dame de Lorette 464
51 Oiseau 262, 265, 268, 272, 287, 289, 290, 292, 296, 298, 300, 301, 303-306, 310, 311, 313, 334, 342, 350-352, 354-357, 359, 378, 390, 391, 393, 394, 396, 401, 404, 405, 410, 416, 420-422
52 Oresund 58, 59
53 Oriflamme 427, 464-467
54 Pensee 96
55 Phenix 110, 158, 169
56 Posthorse 200
57 President 231, 416
58 Princess Royale 69, 70
59 Resolution 413, 414
60 Rode Hert 69
61 Sacre 96
62 Saint-Charles 104
63 Saint-Francois 108
64 Saint-Jean-Baptiste 104, 106, 107
65 Saint-Joseph 231
66 Saint-Louis 99, 100, 232
67 Saint-Nicholas 466
68 Saint-Paul 104, 105
69 Sampson 56
70 Santa Catarina 37, 38, 40
71 Sao Luis 118
72 Satisfaction 281
73 Siam 459, 464, 465
74 Soleil d’Orient 116, 215-218, 238, 247, 331
75 Sultan 110
76 Taureau 104
77 Terron 104
78 Tiger 54
79 Triomphe 110
80 Vautour 110, 158, 170, 207, 208, 210, 213-215, 220
81 Vierge 208
82 Vierge de Bon-Port 104
83 Zelande 474