EARLY ENGLISH INTERCOURSE WITH SIAM.* DR. ANDERSON'S exhaustive account of
English intercourse with Siam in the seventeenth century appears opportunely at a moment when the pressure of events has brought about closer relations with a State which may soon be connected by railway with the most Eastern continental dominions of Britain. The volume is so full of details concerning voyages, trade-routes, products, persons, and things, that no general summary can do justice to the variety of its contents. The picture is made up of minute incidents showing how our rude forefathers struggled for a share of the commerce with Siam, and through Siam with Japan and China, competing, as all know, with " Portingalls," Dutch, and French, gaining and losing ground, founding and deserting factories, suffering much, enduring much, and steadily striving with dogged courage to the end of the century, when they gave up Siam as a bad job. They came upon the scene late, comparatively, for the Portuguese and the Dutch were there before them. The French experiment was made in a far more imposing fashion, but soon collapsed, and the astute Hollanders remained as the principal traders with Siam. Dr. Anderson's elaborate researches and personal knowledge of the country have enabled him to narrate the vicissitudes of a century's attempt to establish extensive trading relations with Indo- China.
It should be premised that the Kingdom of Siam was much larger than it is now, and that on the Gulf, and on the Bay of Bengal it stretched northwards nearly to Martaban, and southwards indefinitely towards the Straits of Malacca. The earliest European known to have visited Tenasserim was a Venetian, who got there overland half-a-century before Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Storms. The first Englishman, apparently, who sailed near the coast, and actually penetrated inland as far as what is now called Zimme, was Ralph Fitch, a man of many adventures, who was there about 1587-88. It was not, however, until nearly a quarter of a century afterwards that a regular trading expedition was made to Siam. Then the East India Company fitted out the Globe' for trade with Siam, the "British Solomon" wrote a letter to his brother- King in the East, and the ship, after more than a year's voyage, anchored at Patani. The frequented trade-route to Ayuthia at this time was through Mergui and the town of Tenasserim, a species of short cut over the backbone of the peninsula, to the Gulf coast. There was a genuine overland track, but usually the traders went partly by land and partly by sea to the Menam, " mother of waters." The adventurers in the Globe' diverged from the beaten route, selected as
• Enjlish Intercourso with Sian, in the Seventeenth Century. By John Andersoi, M.D. With Map. London: Regan Paul, Trench, Trabner, and Co. their base the harbour at Patani, and, "with some disgust and distaste from the Dutch," paid enough to set up a factory. Patani was a small State governed by a. Queen, who, we read, was always elected from the same family, one qualification being that she should be beyond the possibility of bearing children. The English found the Queen to be a comely old woman, " three score yeeres of age, tall and full of Maiestee ; in all the Indies, we had seen few like her."
And she was very alert for her age, as we see by this curious passage :—
"Florin," writes Dr. Anderson, "has given an account of an entertainment that took place on the occasion of the Queen leaving her palace, after a seclusion of seven years, 'to hunt wilde Buffes and Bulles.' Twelve women and children danced before the Queen, and after she had commanded the Gentilitie ' to do the same, or to make a show of so doing, which they did amidst much laughter, the English and the Dutch were called upon to trip on the light fantastic toe, a performance which they went through to the delight of her Majesty. On this occasion she passed between the English ships [so there were more than the Globe' in those waters], and was saluted by some Peeves' from the Globe,' and by musket-shot on shoare "
A lively Queen, disposed to be amused by Dutch and English capers ! The factors, except one, and the captain of the ship, journeying by boat from Patani, reached Aynthia, the Siamese capital, many score miles up the great river. They were five, Captain Essington, Adam Denton, Master Lucas (Antheuniss), Thomas Samuel, and Thomas Driver,—the first Englishmen to visit the capital. It is recorded that they were well received, " furnished with everything they required, and a stone house three stories high, contrary to the opinion of the Dutch." King Jamie's letter was presented to the other King, and, "at the audience, each factor received a little golden cup and a small piece of clothing, a custom which, in important inter- views," adds Dr. Anderson, " used to be followed at the Court of Mandalay during the reign of the deposed Thebaw and his predecessors." The factors obtained permission to trade, and soon found that presents to the Mandarins were a condition precedent to its exercise. So began the endeavour to develop a paying commerce with Siam. Japanese abounded in those waters, and thence arose a desire to trade with Japan, where Will Adams had been more or less established since 1600; but the factor at Patani had to borrow from the Queen at 5 per cent., and 1 per cent. to her treasurer, to supply means for an adventure to Japan. That was only one scheme :—
" The English factors had seemingly been favoured with a licence of the wildest scope, as Lucas Antheuniss, shortly after his arrival [at Ayuthia] set himself to open up a trade with the country to the north of the capital. He despatched thither his assistants, Thomas Samuel and Thomas Driver. The new field of English enterprise was Zaugomaye ' (Xiengmai), which, probably unknown to Antheuniss, had been visited by the English mer- chant, Ralph Fitch, a quarter of a century before, and by Pinto in 1548, who states that from Ayuthia he accompanied the King of Siam and his army for the invasion of Chiammay.' The two new explorers of Xiengmai, or Zimme, as the Burmese call it, were instructed to discover the trade of the country by the sale of certain goods."
Of these two pioneers, Thomas Samuel was found " very exceeding negligent," and ordered back to head-quarters ; but he was caught in a torrent of invaders who broke in from Pegu, carried thither a prisoner, and there he died ; while the fate of Driver, his companion, is " seemingly unknown." Zimme long had an attraction peculiar to itself as a centre of trade ; but Mr. Holt-Hallett has now gone far beyond it in.
his projects, and Zimme is to be content with a branch railway from the main line which he would construct towards Yunnan Such were the modest beginnings of the trading enterprise to Siam, which was destined to fail in the end. The causes were many. Private clashed with public or Company's trade; interlopers cut in with vigour ; the several contending sea- faring nations worried each other by rivalries which stuck at nothing; the Siamese officials were extortionate, open, besides, to limitless bribes, and the Siamese King was chief trader, as were also all the petty chiefs in that quarter,—the Queen of Patani, for example. In due time Englishmen entered the service of Siam, ashore and afloat, the two Whites, George and Samuel, and Richard Burneby being among the most conspicuous. At the back of all were the " Chinesses," who quietly did much business, and exercised great power, as they do now. The French irruption was on a grand scale, spiritual and temporal, for the Grand Monarque was in his prime, and the Church, in high favour, sent out most devoted servants ; but all ended in disaster. In the seventeenth century, the Dutch were too strong east of the Bay of Bengal, and amid many fluctuations they seem always to remain more or less uppermost. That there was a paying trade to be done with Siam, is evident enough ; but it was not so rich then, and perhaps is not so now, as it appeared and appears to be. There were and are immense possibilities about it, and perhaps if the Chinese traffic can be drawn through Siam and Burmah, the volume will exceed anticipations. Nevertheless, Mr. Holt-Hallett's observations upon the politics and morality, or depravity, of Siam give ground for believing that no great improvement has been made there since the seventeenth century. Customs, good and bad, are long-lived. One thing, a small thing, yet significant enough, noted by a recent traveller, was the astounding variety of hats worn in Bangkok. At the end of 1675, the factors at Ayuthia, then the capital, writing home, .say, among other things, that the King, whom they wished to please, " desired severall hatts of severall sorts and colours," and, moreover, being " unacquainted with Europe clothing," asked " many pretty questions " suggested by a picture of Charles II. In more important matters there has been little change, especially in the power and position of the Chinese.
Perhaps the most interesting character in Siam during the seventeenth century is the able person known to history as -Constant Phaulkon, and Dr. Anderson has duly taken note of him. Whether a Genoese, a Venetian, or a Greek, he was born in Cephalonia. He ran away from home to an English ship, lived in England some years, went out to the East as cabin boy in George White's ship about 1670, and there became familiar with Eastern languages and trade. He was White's factor at Ayuthia in '75 ; then bought a ship and traded for himself ; was wrecked, returned with the Persian Ambassador to Siam, became the King's chief merchant, and finally chief Minister. He strove, not without success, against the British and Dutch -Companies, and then gave himself up to promote the French interest. He was an able man, and unscrupulous like the rest. Indeed, he is the most curious phenomenon in the East at that time ; for he, a foreigner, played a very strong part. in she series of terrible tragedies as well as in the ordinary business of Siam. Finally, when the King, who favoured him, died in 1688, the Mandarins conspired, got a leader, rose in revolt, and slew Phaulkon. That was the end of the grand attempt of the French to set themselves up on the Menata, an effort which the Siamese deeply resented and overthrew. It will be seen that the volume is not wanting in moving incidents by land and sea, such as are or were frequent in the East ; but the reader has to wade through thickets of detail before he comes upon the grand scenes, and he must find his account, if so inclined, in the variety of illustrations throwing light upon manners and customs and men. If he has the courage to plod on, he will find much that will interest him, and receive from the whole story of seventy years' struggle some impression of what trade in the Far East was like when the India Company was young. English Intercourse with Siam joins on to and some- times dovetails with Sir Henry Yule's superb edition of Hedges' Diary ; but it must be admitted that the stakes played for are not so great ; nor are the adventures or adventurers so interesting. Nevertheless, Dr. Anderson has gone over a wide field with unflagging care and fairness, and the students of British history in the East are indebted to him for a new and extensive page which many will read with gratitude.
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