Soon after their arrival Dr. House and Mr. Mattoon were taken
by their fellow missionaries to call upon two princes who had
manifested a friendly interest in the westerners. The acquaintance
thus formed proved to be of large influence both to the mission and
to the Siamese nation. One of these princes was entitled Chao Fah
Yai, which signifies “The older brother of the king,” while his
brother was entitled Chao Fah Noi, meaning “The younger brother
of the king.” As Chao Fah Yai later became King of Siam and his
brother the Vice-King at the same time and as this new king played
a momentous part in the opening of Siam to intercourse with the
western nations as well as showed much favour to the mission work,
it is essential to give a sketch of that important personage.
When, in 1824, the throne was made vacant by the death of the royal
father of these two men, the older son had expected to succeed to
the throne. Apparently this had been the father’s intention, for
he had given this son the name “Mongkut,” meaning “crown prince.”
Through intrigue, however, the crown went to a half-brother who,
under the title Phra Chao Pravat Thong, was the reigning king
when Dr. House reached Siam. Chao Fah Yai, having been thwarted
in his aspirations towards the throne, entered the priesthood and
retired to a watt, doubtless as the safest way to avoid the royal
displeasure towards a rival,—a course which the custom of the
country made possible for him.
The princely rank of this priest made him the leader of the
Buddhist religion in Siam; and his great wealth enabled him to make
his watt one of the most notable and influential in the country.
He was a man of enlightened mind beyond his generation. In marked
contrast to the king, he was interested in foreign affairs and
amicably disposed towards the few foreigners living in Bangkok,
especially towards the missionaries, because of their education and
culture.
Having already learned Latin from the French priests, in 1845
(then about forty years of age), he invited Rev. Jesse Caswell, a
missionary of the American Board, to become his tutor in English.
To secure the services of Mr. Caswell he offered in return a reward
which he perceived would be more prized than any fee of gold he
could propose. He offered Mr. Caswell the privilege of using a room
in one of the buildings connected with the watt for preaching the
Christian religion and distributing tracts, and granted permission
to the priests of the watt to attend if they wished. Mr. Caswell
accepted the invitation and continued for three years, until his
death, to teach English to the chief Priest of Buddhism in his own
temple, and to preach Christianity to all who cared to listen. The
esteem of the Prince for his tutor is evidenced by the fact that in
1855, when Dr. House was returning to America on furlough, he made
the doctor the bearer of a gift of one thousand dollars to Mr.
Caswell’s widow in token of appreciation of her husband’s services,
and again in 1866, by the same agent, he sent a gift of five
hundred dollars. He also caused a monument to be erected, in memory
of his tutor, at the grave of Mr. Caswell.
The more one contemplates the terms made by Chao Fah Yai with
Mr. Caswell the more astonishing it appears. Here is the
most influential priest in all Siam, the recognised head of
the Buddhistic cult in Indo-China, inviting into his watt an
uncompromising teacher of the Christian religion notwithstanding
the known antipathy of the king to the westerners and their
religion, and in return for instruction in the English language he
grants him freedom to teach the moral and religious doctrines of
Christianity within the precincts of consecrated ground and permits
novitiates and priests under his authority to listen to that
doctrine.
This broadmindedness of Chao Fah Yai is further shown by an
incident which he related to one of the Protestant missionaries.
Sometime previous to the engagement of Mr. Caswell a young priest
of the watt became a Roman Catholic. The prince was urged to
flog the young man for abandoning the religion of his country.
To this suggestion the prince said he replied: “The individual
has committed no crime; it is proper for every one to be left
at liberty to choose his own religion.” On a later occasion the
Governor of Petchaburi, having forbidden the distribution of books
by the Roman Catholic priests in his province because he said
they sought to shield their converts from the authorities when
accused of crime, conferred with Chao Fah Yai as to whether he
should place the same ban on the books of the Protestants; but the
Priest-Prince was able to explain to him the difference of policy
between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants and to dissuade him
from forbidding the distribution of Protestant literature.
From his intercourse with Mr. Caswell, Chao Fah Yai was quickened
with an interest in Western learning, especially the sciences.
By his association with these missionaries and the discussion of
the evidences of Christianity he came to recognise that his own
religion had accumulated a mass of unauthenticated teachings, the
accretion of centuries of priestly fancy; and he perceived that
this accretion must be sloughed off if his religion was to meet
the pressure of foreign civilisation, which he foresaw could not
be forever excluded. Accordingly he became the leader of a new
party in Buddhism which rejected the uncanonical writings which
had accrued to the extent of some eighty-four thousand volumes and
held only to the authentic teachings of Buddha. As the leader of
this new sect the Prince-Priest was doubtless responsible for the
reinvigoration of the religion of Siam, enabling it better to meet
the contest of time.
The interest of Chao Fah Yai in the American missionaries was
more on account of their intellectual culture than on account of
their religion. On one occasion in conversation with Dr. House
he frankly said that while he did not believe in Christianity he
thought much of Western science, especially astronomy, geography
and mathematics. His interest in these subjects was very keen
and practical. From the study of navigation he was led into the
subject of astronomy, and took interest in the calculation of
time, and was especially proud that his own calculation of an
eclipse of the moon was almost identical with the Western almanac.
His conversation showed considerable intelligence of the late
developments in science. He was also a student of languages, and
had a knowledge of several languages of eastern India, such as
Singhalese and Peguan; he was familiar with Sanscrit, which had
been a contributor to the Siamese language, and had studied Latin
because he said he had been told that it was like the Sanscrit;
besides these he was an expert student of the Pali, the sacred
writing of Buddhism. The prince was also the first native prince of
Farther India to procure a printing press, which he obtained from
London, with fonts of English and Siamese type, and an alphabet of
Pali of his own devising.
Apparently Chao Fah Yai approached the subject of Christianity as
a vigourous mind approaches any ponderous subject that presents
itself; he considered it philosophically. Every religion studied
philosophically presents insuperable difficulties; a religion
may be rightly judged only by its practical adaptation to life
and its effects on the human heart. Had he attempted to study
Christianity in a practical manner as he did the science of the
West his conclusions would doubtless have been different. One
evening the prince called at the home of Mr. Caswell just as
the weekly prayer meeting was assembling and, upon invitation,
remained to the meeting. His questions afterwards showed that he
had given attention, for he inquired the meaning of such words as
“redemption” and “Providence,” which he had heard used.
While it is a fact that on several occasions the prince
emphatically disclaimed belief in the Christian doctrines,
nevertheless the arguments of the missionaries were not without
effect upon his mind, for he felt himself called upon to do an
entirely new thing—to publish an apologetic for Buddhism in the
points where the Christian arguments were most aggressive. In
another manner also he gave evidence that the Christian arguments
were pressing upon his conscience. The Baptist mission for some
years had printed an annual almanac filled with Christian truth
and containing, besides other items of civil information, a list
of officials of the government and of the watts. In 1848, for the
first time, Chao Fah Yai took exception to the religious character
of the almanac in which his name appeared as head priest of his
watt. He wrote to the editor of the almanac, expressing a “wish to
have added to the description of myself in the English almanac ‘and
hates the Bible most of all’; we will not embrace Christianity,
because we think it a foolish religion. Though you should baptise
all in Siam I will never be baptised.... You think that we are near
the Christian religion; you will find my disciples will abuse your
God and Jesus.”
Concerning his attitude to Christianity a comment from Mrs.
Leonowens’ book, _An English Governess at the Siamese Court_, casts
a little light:
“He had been a familiar visitor at the houses of American
missionaries, two of whom Dr. House and Mr. Mattoon, were
throughout his reign and life gratefully revered by him for
that pleasant and profitable conversation which helped to
unlock for him the secrets of European vigor and advancement,
and to make straight and easy the paths of knowledge he had
started upon. Not even his Siamese nature could prevent him
from accepting cordially the happy influence these good and
true men inspired. And doubtless he would have gone more than
half way to meet them, but for the dazzle of the throne in
the distance which arrested him midway between Christianity
and Buddhism.”
This was the Priest-Prince upon whom the newcomers made their first
call of respect. The acquaintance formed at this time ripened into
a friendship that continued warm and true to the end. Dr. House, in
his journal, carefully records the details of the call:
“His Royal Highness was somewhat unwell, but he would come
down. A servant was sent to ask if we would not take some
refreshments. Soon a plate of stone-fruit was presented,
resembling in flavour our peach; also a plate of Chinese
cakes, white and thin, with a bowl of dark Chinese jelly and
sugar. Knife, three-pronged fork and teaspoon were brought
and we made an excellent tiffin.
“I looked around the room; Bible from A. B. Society, and
Webster dictionary stood side by side on a shelf of his
secretary, also a Nautical Tables and Navigation. On the
table a diagram of the forthcoming eclipse in pencil with
calculations, and a copy of the printed chart of Mr.
Chandler....
“This man, if his life is spared, is destined to exert an
all-powerful influence upon the destinies of this people. He
must possess a vigour of mind and much energy of purpose thus
to commence the study of a new language at the age of forty.
Indeed he seems Cato-like in other things....
“Soon the Prince-Priest appeared with two or three following,
dressed in yellow silk robes worn as a Roman toga. His
manners were rather awkward at introduction, and his
appearance not prepossessing at first, though we became more
interested in him as we saw him more. He seated himself on a
chair by the center table, and asked our names and ages and
whether married. Wished to know if I could cure sick as Dr.
Bradley did. Whether I could cure the dropsy, for there was
a case in the watt. He understands English when he reads it,
but cannot speak it well yet.
“We asked to see his printing room; several young priests and
servants on bamboo settees folding books. One composing type,
one correcting proof. They gave us a copy of a book published
in the Prince’s new Pali alphabet—it was the Buddhist ten
commandments and comments on them. Mr. Caswell had previously
told him of the present of a keg of printing ink we had for
him from our friend G. W. Eddy, of Waterford. He asked who it
was from, and if ‘they had heard of him in America’; and was
evidently well pleased to find that he was known. Upon taking
leave, he promised to call in return upon his guests in a few
days.”
This call of the new missionaries was returned by the priest,
and on several occasions afterwards he visited the Doctor in his
house. Occasionally he would send notes by his servants requesting
various favours, medical attendance upon inmates of the watt, loan
of books. On a second visit, when Dr. House went to engage the
services of a young priest as instructor in Siamese, the prince
proposed that the Doctor should come over to the watt and make use
of the room which Mr. Caswell occupied for his class in English,
and “there distribute medicines and teach the young men of the
watt how to be doctors.” Among the papers of Dr. House was found
an autograph letter in English written by Chao Fah Yai about this
time inviting him and the other missionaries to attend a cremation
ceremony at watt Thong Bangkoknoi; and offering him the privilege
of distributing religious books among the head priests assembled
there from several watts and to preach to them on the new religion.
On other visits he inquired about the new instrument that “would
send intelligence quickly” (the telegraph), asked why American
vessels so seldom came to Bangkok, and discussed the difference
between the Latin and English Bibles.
In proper sequence of courtesy the new missionaries were taken to
call upon the other prince, Chao Fah Noi. For some reason this
prince had withdrawn from his former intercourse with foreigners,
but he very courteously received the callers and was manifestly
pleased with the attention. He, too, was interested in Western
learning and especially inclined towards the physical sciences. On
the palace grounds he had several shops, one for a forge, one for
iron lathes, one for wood-working. Power for all this machinery
was developed by slave-muscle. In one room was a working model of
a steam engine, two and a half feet long, made entirely by the
prince’s own hands. Being somewhat unwell he consulted Dr. House,
but explained that he was under the King’s physician and to refuse
to take his medicine would be an act of disrespect to His Majesty,
and for that reason would not ask Dr. House to prescribe for him.
The acquaintance thus formed was used, at first, by the prince more
as a means of securing personal instruction on physical sciences.
Frequently servants were sent to Dr. House to borrow books or to
ask for advice on chemistry, electricity, photography, lithography
and kindred subjects; and on various occasions the doctor was
summoned to the prince’s palace only to find that his assistance
or instruction was desired in some experiment. In after years,
however, when Chao Fah Noi had become Vice-King upon the accession
of Mongkut, his intercourse with Dr. House rested more upon the
basis of friendship.