Siam : The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and Is — Background and Themes

CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY OF SIAM, 10

CHAPTER III. OLD SIAM--ITS HISTORY, 17

CHAPTER IV. THE STORIES OF TWO ADVENTURERS, 36

CHAPTER V. MODERN SIAM, 65

CHAPTER VI. FIRST IMPRESSIONS, 73

CHAPTER VII. A ROYAL GENTLEMAN, 86

CHAPTER VIII. PHRABAT SOMDETCH PHRA PARAMENDR MAHA MONGKUT, 104

CHAPTER IX. AYUTHIA, 121

CHAPTER X. PHRABAT AND PATAWI, 130

CHAPTER XI. FROM BANGKOK TO CHANTABOUN--A MISSIONARY JOURNEY IN 1835, 146

CHAPTER XII. CHANTABOUN AND THE GULF, 170

CHAPTER XIII. MOUHOT IN THE HILL-COUNTRY OF CHANTABOUN, 183

CHAPTER XIV. PECHABURI OR P'RIPP'REE, 200

CHAPTER XV. THE TRIBES OF NORTHERN SIAM, 216

CHAPTER XVI. SIAMESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS, 234

CHAPTER XVII. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF SIAM, 258

CHAPTER XVIII. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN SIAM--THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE, 270

CHAPTER XIX. BANGKOK AND THE NEW SIAM, 277

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

GREAT PAGODA WAT CHANG, _Frontispiece_

INUNDATION OF THE MEINAM, 11

PAGODA AT AYUTHIA, 21

VIEW TAKEN FROM THE CANAL AT AYUTHIA, 31

RUINS OF A PAGODA AT AYUTHIA, 38

GENERAL VIEW OF BANGKOK, 76

THE LATE FIRST KING AND QUEEN, 105

ONE OF THE SONS OF THE LATE FIRST KING, 109

A FEW OF THE CHILDREN OF THE LATE FIRST KING, 120

REMOVAL OF THE TUFT OF A YOUNG SIAMESE, 122

ELEPHANTS IN AN ENCLOSURE OR PARK AT AYUTHIA, 127

PAKNAM ON THE MEINAM, 129

PAGODA AT MOUNT PHRABAT, 130

MOUNTAINS OF KORAT FROM PATAWI, 141

PORT OF CHANTABOUN, 149

MONKEYS PLAYING WITH A CROCODILE, 180

MOUNTAINS OF PECHABURI, 200

SIAMESE ROPE-DANCER, 237

SIAMESE LADIES AT DINNER, 242

BUILDING ERECTED AT FUNERAL OF SIAMESE OF HIGH RANK, 251

HALL OF AUDIENCE, PALACE OF BANGKOK, 277

PORTICO OF THE AUDIENCE HALL AT BANGKOK, 280

THE PALACE OF THE KING OF SIAM, BANGKOK, 292

EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH SIAM--RELATIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES

The acquaintance of the Christian world with the kingdom and people of Siam dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and is due to the adventurous and enterprising spirit of the Portuguese. It is difficult for us, in these days when Portugal occupies a position so inconsiderable, and plays a part so insignificant, among the peoples of the earth, to realize what great achievements were wrought in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the peaceful victories of the early navigators and discoverers from that country, or by the military conquests which not seldom followed in the track of their explorations. It was while Alphonso d'Albuquerque was occupied with a military expedition in Malacca, that he seized the occasion to open diplomatic intercourse with Siam. A lieutenant under his command, who was fitted for the service by an experience of captivity during which he had acquired the Malay language, was selected for the mission. He was well received by the king, and came back to his general, bringing royal presents and proposals to assist in the siege of Malacca. So cordial a response to the overtures of the Portuguese led to the more formal establishment of diplomatic and commercial intercourse. And before the middle of the sixteenth century a considerable number of Portuguese had settled, some of them in the neighborhood of the capital (Ayuthia), and some of them in the provinces of the peninsula of Malacca, at that time belonging to the kingdom of Siam. One or two adventurers, such as De Seixas and De Mello, rose to positions of great power and dignity under the Siamese king. And for almost a century the Portuguese maintained, if not an exclusive, certainly a pre-eminent, right to the commercial and diplomatic intercourse which they had inaugurated.

As in other parts of the East Indies, however, the Dutch presently began to dispute the supremacy of their rivals, and, partly by the injudicious and presumptuous arrogance of the Portuguese themselves, succeeded in supplanting them. The cool and mercenary cunning of the greedy Hollanders was more than a match for the proud temper of the hot-blooded Dons. And as, in the case of Japan, the story of Simabara lives in history to witness what shameless and unscrupulous wickedness commercial rivalry could lead to; so in Siam there is for fifty years a story of intrigue and greed, over-reaching itself first on one side, and then on the other. First, the Portuguese were crowded out of their exclusive privileges. And then in turn the Dutch were obliged to surrender theirs. To-day there are still visible in the jungle, near the mouth of the Meinam River, the ruins of the Amsterdam which grew up between the years 1672 and 1725, under the enterprise of the Dutch East India Company, protected and fostered by the Siamese Government. And to-day, also, the descendants of the Portuguese, easy to be recognized, notwithstanding the mixture of blood for many generations, hold insignificant or menial offices about the capital and court.