THE MISFORTUNES OF THE EUROPEANS AFTER THE REVOLUTION.
Perceiving that the country was laid waste, the houses pulled down,
the Royal family led into captivity, and the people scattered abroad,
husbands separated from their wives and parents from the children; the
Europeans, accustomed to regard their rulers as protectors, were
plunged into a state of fear.
But the Siamese, who from time immemorial have crouched under the rod
of tyranny and have toiled on behalf of merciless extortioners, were
pleased in that by a change of masters they might meet a deliverer.
They had no regrets at leaving a land where bonds had been their
portion and as they had never tasted the sweets of liberty, were less
sensitive to the humiliation of slavery.
Unpatriotic citizens as they were, the sight of their erstwhile
insolent tyrant, now condemned to slavery quite made up for their own
degradation.
The Christians on the other hand are accustomed to live in countries
under the protection of the law. The scourge of war makes no
alteration in their fate, and the harshest of conquerors can only keep
his self respect while respecting the rights of nations. He can never
deprive individuals of their freedom and if a conqueror appropriate
their private possessions he is to be considered merely as a bandit.
The Bishop who had been well treated on shipboard, had been able to
maintain by his virtuous example, the ascendency that moral worth
invariably exercises over the most corrupt natures. He beheld sixty
three Christians pass before him whom the Burmese had pressed into
their service. Many of them perished from the toils of the voyage and
the survivors were marshalled under the banner of the conqueror. The
remainder of the converts were entrusted to the care of M. Core a
French priest. They were obliged to set out on April 25th without
having been able to collect the necessary articles for a long voyage.
The party consisted of three hundred, excluding children. Women were
ruthlessly torn from their husbands whose troubles they had shared.
They were given an inadequate supply of rice, and their inhuman
captors preferred to destroy food for which they had no use rather
than to overload their slave galleys.
A Chinese priest frightened at the dangers to which the newly wedded
brides were exposed, separated himself from M. Core's party in the
hope of finding a Chinese vessel. But hardly had he started out when
he was attacked by a gang of Burmese bandits and those who tried to
defend themselves were slain promptly. He endeavoured to take shelter
in the depths of the forests with four of his disciples but they were
pursued and robbed. They were obliged to wander without a guide in the
trackless jungle that offered no sustenance, and were forced to eat
grass like the beasts of the field. Afterwards they were found by a
Christian who offered his services as a guide.
The Burmese captain, who was in charge of the French, sent an
interpreter with an armed force to compel them to rejoin, and above
all, to bring back the newly married women. They were carried off with
violence. This deputy was by no means so gentle as his superior, and
in executing the order he had received, he exceeded his powers.
Hardly had they marched a league, when a gang of Siamese dacoits
appeared on the bank of the river and captured his spoils.
When the leader of the gang recognised his daughter, he wept and
embraced her, and asked by what turn of fortune she had appeared in so
sorry a plight. The daughter explained that she had become a Christian
and gave the reasons for her marriage. The recital of their woes
spurred on the dacoits and falling upon the Burmese, they cut off
their heads.
They wished to retain the women, but all refused the assistance that
would have delivered them from slavery and preferred to share the
horrible fate of their husbands, rather than to break the sacred
marriage bond. The father, unable to dissuade his daughter from her
purpose, gave her a supply of food for herself and her friends, and
all went to join M. Core at a spot lower down the river.
After the meeting the zealous missionary, fearing to see them exposed
to such dangers, conducted them towards the sea which was only a few
days' march further on. For the space of a month this colony lived
upon shell-fish, leaves and roots, and waited in the hope that a ship
might appear to take them to Kancao on the Cochin Chinese coast.
A Chinese junk appeared in the offing but the niggardly captain,
hearing that they had no money, refused to give them a passage. At
last on June 7th, they saw a small Chinese derelict floating down the
river. The ebb of the tide was drawing the boat out to sea, but at
last it ran aground on the bank just at the spot where the Christians
were assembled.
This unlooked-for assistance was of no use to them. They had neither
sails nor tackle, nor provisions. But they were able to turn the greed
of the Chinaman, who had refused to give them a passage, to their
advantage. Seeing the vessel which they had just obtained, he
suggested that they should hand it over to him and that he on his part
would conduct them to their destination. Fifty three accepted this
condition but the rest decided to remain and hardly had their friends
set sail, when a dissension broke out among them and the party broke
up. It was known that afterwards they all perished of hunger and
privation.
After a perilous voyage, the ship reached Kancao on the the 28th of
June, whence sometime later the Christians journeyed to Cambodia,
where they were cordially received by the Cochin-Chinese.
The Bishop, who still remained on his ship was impatient for the
moment of departure to meet his flock of whose fate he was ignorant.
The Portuguese, who up to that time had remained with him, were
ordered to go on ahead and to march with the van of the army. They had
much to suffer from the insolent behaviour of the Burmese, and,
rendered desperate by insults resolved to turn against their
oppressors. They seized some weapons, and, under cover of the
darkness, slew every Burman they could lay hands on. After this
massacre they captured an elephant and some horses wherewith they
hoped to rejoin their friends, but a deep river lay between. Several
were able to gain the opposite bank, some were drowned but the
majority waited for the fate they expected to overtake them.
Several Burmese, who had escaped from the Portuguese, brought the news
of the massacre to the camp.
The commander, justly enraged, ordered that all the Portuguese should
be arrested, as he considered that all the Christians had had a share
in the plot. Suspicion would have been followed by revenge, had not
the pilot Jeanchi taken steps to restore calm. He explained to the
commander that the massacre had been due to the insolence of the
soldiery towards the women who had been instrumental in furnishing the
Portuguese with arms that the other Christians all considered him as
their protector, and that the French especially were desirous of
opening up trading stations under his jurisdiction. The commander was
mollified by these explanations, and to show there was no ill feeling,
sent the Bishop a supply of provisions and even gave him ten baskets
of rice in excess of the usual dole which served as the sustenance for
several Portuguese women who were too weak to follow with the army.
The 6th of June, was fixed for the departure of the rest of the
forces. The Burmese before embarking destroyed the town of Michong
that they had previously built.
They arrived in port on the 16th of June, and continued their journey
by land, and, as they were obliged to wait for the artillery, they
constructed huts of the materials of their now useless vessels. After
a halt of eight days the march was begun.
The Bishop, although in bad health, had to follow on horse-back. The
journey, through a country destitute of houses or inhabitants, was
extremely arduous. The route lay across forest clad mountains, and
through miry valleys interspersed with ponds and streams, which
latter, on account of their sinuous course, had to be crossed several
times by fords where shallow, but in places where the waters were
deep, they were obliged to cross on bridges made of a couple of
bamboos.
The beasts of burden died on the way and the progress of the army was
thus considerably delayed, owing to the lack of transport available
for the commissariat and baggage.
At last Tavoy was reached where famine caused them new suffering. A
basket of rice, the usual monthly rations for one man was sold for 25
or 30 piastres. The aborigines were seen to devour corpses. The bishop
gave his pastoral ring to an Armenian who had generously provided for
the Christians.
Everything seemed hopeless and all waited for certain death, when an
English ship laden with rice appeared in the Tavoy river followed a
few days later by two others of larger size and laden with a similar
cargo.
The bishop went on board the ship and was received by the English
captain with all the characteristic open-heartedness of his nation.
The Captain, Rivers by name invited him to remain on his ship and the
bishop consented only on condition that all who had accompanied him
should be included in the invitation.
While the ship remained in harbour they had no further anxieties, and
the generous Englishman provided for all their requirements until
October 26th when he set sail.
The French bishop was weary of captivity so much the more so as he met
with no results of his zeal. He made use of a Malabar convert who
stood highly in the governor's favour and by his good offices obtained
permission to embark for the Coromandel Coast with three pupils and a
Chinese servant on a French ship named the 'Hector.' Owing to the
calms, the voyage was slow, but on his arrival at Pondicherry he
learned that a Malay potentate had become a vassal of the King of
Burma, hoping to obtain the necessary assistance to keep certain
territories spared by fire and war.
The bishop decided to return to France to seek a remedy for such ills.
M. Lau and all the members of the council who took a keen interest in
the progress of the faith in the Indies gave him a passage on a ship
which arrived at l'Orient on October 30th 1769.
Since his return he has retired into the seminary for Foreign Missions
where busied with the losses sustained by the faith, he implores
assistance to reassemble his scattered flock. His demands are
supported by Religion and Policy and we think that the success of his
enterprise will be assured under more favourable auspices.