OF Somdetch P'hra Paramendr Maha Mongkut, ate Supreme King of Siam, it
may safely be said (for all his capricious provocations of temper and
his snappish greed of power) that he was, in the best sense of the
epithet, the most remarkable of the Oriental princes of the present
century,--unquestionably the most progressive of all the supreme rulers
of Siam, of whom the native historians enumerate not less than forty,
reckoning from the founding of the ancient capital (Ayudia or Ayuo-deva,
"the abode of gods") in A.D. 1350.
He was the legitimate son of the king P'hra Chow-P'hra Pooti-lootlah,
commonly known as Phen-den-Klang; and his mother, daughter of the
youngest sister of the King Somdetch P'hra Bouromah Rajah P'hra Pooti
Yout Fah, was one of the most admired princesses of her time, and is
described as equally beautiful and virtuous. She devoted herself
assiduously to the education of her sons, of whom the second, the
subject of these notes, was born in 1804; and the youngest, her best
beloved, was the late Second King of Siam.
One of the first public acts of the King P'hra Pooti-lootlah was to
elevate to the highest honors of the state his eldest son (the Chowfa
Mongkut), and proclaim him heir-apparent to the throne. He then selected
twelve noblemen, distinguished for their attainments, prudence, and
virtue,--most conspicuous among them the venerable but energetic Duke
Somdetch Ong Yai,--to be tutors and guardians to the lad. By these he
was carefully taught in all the learning of his time; Sanskrit and Pali
formed his chief study, and from the first he aspired to proficiency in
Latin and English, for the pursuit of which he soon found opportunities
among the missionaries. His translations from the Sanskrit, Pali, and
Magadthi, mark him as an authority among Oriental linguists; and his
knowledge of English, though never perfect, became at least extensive
and varied; so that he could correspond, with credit to himself, with
Englishmen of distinction, such as the Earl of Clarendon and Lords
Stanley and Russell.
In his eighteenth year he married a noble lady, descended from the Phya
Tak Sinn, who bore him two sons.
Two years later the throne became vacant by the death of his father; but
(as the reader has already learned) his elder half-brother, who, through
the intrigues of his mother, had secured a footing in the favor of the
Senabawdee, was inducted by that "Royal Council" into power. Unequal to
the exploit of unseating the usurper, and fearing his unscrupulous
jealousy, the Chowfa Mongkut took refuge in a monastery, and entered the
priesthood, leaving his wife and two sons to mourn him as one dead to
them. In this self-imposed celibacy he lived throughout the long reign
of his half-brother, which lasted twenty-seven years.
In the calm retreat of his Buddhist cloister the contemplative tastes of
the royal scholar found fresh entertainment, his intellectual
aspirations a new incitement.
He labored with enthusiasm for the diffusion of religion and
enlightenment, and, above all, to promote a higher appreciation of the
teachings of Buddha, to whose doctrines lie devoted himself with
exemplary zeal throughout his sacerdotal career. From the Buddhist
scriptures he compiled with reverent care an impressive liturgy for his
own use. His private charities amounted annually to ten thousand ticals.
All the fortune he accumulated, from the time of his quitting the court
until his return to it to accept the diadem offered by the Senabawdee,
he expended either in charitable distributions or in the purchase of
books, sacred manuscripts, and relics for his monastery. [Footnote: "On
the third reign he [himself] served his eldest royal half-brother, by
superintending the construction and revision of royal sacred books in
royal libraries: so he was appointed the principal superintendent of
clergymen's acts and works of Buddhist religion, and selector of
religious learned wise men in the country, during the third
reign."--_From the pen of Maha Mongkut_.]
It was during his retirement that he wrote that notable treatise in
defence of the divinity of the revelations of Buddha, in which he essays
to prove that it was the single aim of the great reformer to deliver man
from all selfish and carnal passions, and in which he uses these words:
"These are the only obstacles in the search for Truth. The most solid
wisdom is to know this, and to apply one's self to the conquest of one's
self. This it is to become the _enlightened_,--the Buddha!" And he
concludes with the remark of Asoka, the Indian king: "That which has
been delivered unto us by Buddha, that alone is well said, and worthy of
our soul's profoundest homage."
In the pursuit of his appointed ends Maha Mongkut was active and
pertinacious; no labors wearied him nor pains deterred him. Before the
arrival of the Protestant missionaries, in 1820, he had acquired some
knowledge of Latin and the sciences from the Jesuits; but when the
Protestants came he manifested a positive preference for their methods
of instruction, inviting one or another of them daily to his temple, to
aid him in the study of English. Finally he placed himself under the
permanent tutorship of the Rev. Mr. Caswell, an American missionary;
and, in order to encourage his preceptor to visit him frequently, he
fitted up a convenient resting-place for him on the route to the temple,
where that excellent man might teach the poorer people who gathered to
hear him. Under Mr. Caswell he made extraordinary progress in advanced
and liberal ideas of government, commerce, even religion. He never
hesitated to express his respect for the fundamental principles of
Christianity; but once, when pressed too closely by his reverend
moonshee with what he regarded as the more pretentious and apocryphal
portions of the Bible, he checked that gentleman's advance with the
remark that has ever been remembered against him, "_I hate the Bible
mostly!_"
As High-Priest of Siam--the mystic and potential office to which he was
in the end exalted--he became the head of a new school, professing
strictly the pure philosophy inculcated by Buddha: "the law of
Compensation, of Many Births, and of final Niphan," [Footnote:
Attainment of beatitude.]--but not Nihilism, as the word and the idea
are commonly defined. It is only to the idea of God as an _ever-active_
Creator that the new school of Buddhists is opposed,--not to the Deity
as a primal source, from whose thought and pleasure sprang all forms of
matter; nor can they be brought to admit the need of miraculous
intervention in the order of nature.
In this connection, it may not be out of place to mention a remark that
the king (still speaking as a high-priest, having authority) once made
to me, on the subject of the miracles recorded in the Bible:
"You say that marriage is a holy institution; and I believe it is
esteemed a sacrament by one of the principal branches of your sect. It
is, of all the laws of the universe, the most wise and incontestable,
pervading all forms of animal and vegetable life. Yet your God (meaning
the Christian's God) has stigmatized it as unholy, in that he would not
permit his Son to be born in the ordinary way; but must needs perform a
miracle in order to give birth to one divinely inspired. Buddha was
divinely inspired, but he was only _man_. Thus it seems to me he is the
greater of the two, because out of his own heart he studied humanity,
which is but another form of divinity; and, the carnal mind being by
this contemplation subdued, he became the _Divinely Enlightened_."
When his teacher had begun to entertain hopes that he would one day
become a Christian, he came out openly against the idea, declaring that
he entertained no thought of such a change. He admonished the
missionaries not to deceive themselves, saying: "You must not imagine
that any of my party will ever become Christians. We cannot embrace what
we consider a foolish religion."
In the beginning of the year 1851 his supreme Majesty, Prabat Somdetch
P'hra Nang Klou, fell ill, and gradually declined until the 3d of April,
when he expired, and the throne was again vacant. The dying sovereign,
forgetting or disregarding his promise to his half-brother, the true
heir, had urged with all his influence that the succession should fall
to his eldest son; but in the assembly of the Senabawdee, Somdetch Ong
Yai (father of the present prime minister of Siam), supported by
Somdetch Ong Noi, vehemently declared himself in favor of the
high-priest Chowfa Mongkut.
This struck terror to the "illegitimates," and mainly availed to quell
the rising storm of partisan conflict. Moreover, Ong Yai had taken the
precaution to surround the persons of the princes with a formidable
guard, and to distribute an overwhelming force of militia in all
quarters of the city, ready for instant action at a signal from him.
Thus the two royal brothers, with views more liberal, as to religion,
education, foreign trade, and intercourse, than the most enlightened of
their predecessors had entertained, were firmly seated on the throne as
"first" and "second" kings; and every citizen, native or foreign, began
to look with confidence for the dawn of better times.
Nor did the newly crowned sovereign forget his friends and teachers, the
American missionaries. He sent for them, and thanked them cordially for
all that they had taught him, assuring them that it was his earnest
desire to administer his government after the model of the limited
monarchy of England; and to introduce schools, where the Siamese youth
might be well taught in the English language and literature and the
sciences of Europe. [Footnote: In this connection the Rev. Messrs.
Bradley, Caswell, House, Matoon, and Dean are entitled to special
mention. To their united influence Siam unquestionably owes much, if not
all, of her present advancement and prosperity. Nor would I be thought
to detract from the high praise that is due to their fellow-laborers in
the cause of Christianity, the Roman Catholic missionaries, who are, and
ever have been, indefatigable in their exertions for the good of the
country. Especially will the name of the excellent bishop, Monseigneur
Pallegoix, be held in honor and affection by people of all creeds and
tongues in Siam, as that of a pure and devoted follower of our common
Redeemer.]
There can be no just doubt that, at the time, it was his sincere purpose
to carry these generous impulses into practical effect; for certainly he
was, in every moral and intellectual respect, nobly superior to his
predecessor, and to his dying hour he was conspicuous for his attachment
to a sound philosophy and the purest maxims of Buddha. Yet we find in
him a deplorable example of the degrading influence on the human mind of
the greed of possessions and power, and of the infelicities that attend
it; for though he promptly set about the reforming of abuses in the
several departments of his government, and invited the ladies of the
American mission to teach in his new harem, nevertheless he soon began
to indulge his avaricious and sensual propensities, and cast a jealous
eye upon the influence of the prime minister, the son of his stanch old
friend, the Duke Ong Yai, to whom he owed almost the crown itself, and
of his younger brother, the Second King, and of the neighboring princes
of Chiengmai and Cochin China. He presently offended those who, by their
resolute display of loyalty in his hour of peril, had seated him safely
on the throne of his ancestors.
From this time he was continually exposed to disappointment,
mortification, slights, from abroad, and conspiracy at home. Had it not
been for the steadfast adherence of the Second King and the prime
minister, the sceptre would have been wrested from his grasp and
bestowed upon his more popular brother.
Yet, notwithstanding all this, he appeared, to those who observed him
only on the public stage of affairs, to rule with wisdom, to consult the
welfare of his subjects, to be concerned for the integrity of justice
and the purity of manners and conversation in his own court, and
careful, by a prudent administration, to confirm his power at home and
his prestige abroad. Considered apart from his domestic relations, he
was, in many respects, an able and virtuous ruler. His foreign policy
was liberal; he extended toleration to all religious sects; he expended
a generous portion of his revenues in public improvements,--
monasteries, temples, bazaars, canals, bridges, arose at his bidding on
every side; and though he fell short of his early promise, he did much
to improve the condition of his subjects.
For example, at the instance of her Britannic Majesty's Consul, the
Honorable Thomas George Knox, he removed the heavy boat-tax that had so
oppressed the poorer masses of the Siamese, and constructed good roads,
and improved the international chambers of judicature.
But as husband and kinsman his character assumes a most revolting
aspect. Envious, revengeful, subtle, he was as fickle and petulant as he
was suspicious and cruel. His brother, even the offspring of his
brother, became to him objects of jealousy, if not of hatred. Their
friends must, he thought, be his enemies, and applause bestowed upon
them was odious to his soul. There were many horrid tragedies in his
harem in which he enacted the part of a barbarian and a despot. Plainly,
his conduct as the head of a great family to whom his will was a law of
terror reflects abiding disgrace upon his name. Yet it had this
redeeming feature, that he tenderly loved those of his children whose
mothers had been agreeable to him. He never snubbed or slighted them;
and for the little princess, Chow Fâ-ying, whose mother had been to him
a most gentle and devoted wife, his affection was very strong and
enduring.
But to turn from the contemplation of his private traits, so
contradictory and offensive, to the consideration of his public acts, so
liberal and beneficent. Several commercial treaties of the first
importance were concluded with foreign powers during his reign. In the
first place, the Siamese government voluntarily reduced the measurement
duties on foreign shipping from nineteen hundred to one thousand ticals
per fathom of ship's beam. This was a brave stride in the direction of a
sound commercial policy, and an earnest of greater inducements to
enterprising traders from abroad. In 1855 a new treaty of commerce was
negotiated with his Majesty's government by H.B.M.'s plenipotentiary,
Sir John Bowring, which proved of very positive advantage to both
parties. On the 29th of May, 1856, a new treaty, substantially like that
with Great Britain, was procured by Townsend Harris, Esq., representing
the United States; and later in the same year still another, in favor of
France, through H. I. M.'s Envoy, M. Montigny.
Before that time Portugal had been the only foreign government having a
consul residing at Bangkok. Now the way was opened to admit a resident
consul of each of the treaty powers; and shortly millions of dollars
flowed into Siam annually by channels through which but a few tens of
thousands had been drawn before. Foreign traders and merchants flocked
to Bangkok and established rice-mills, factories for the production of
sugar and oil, and warehouses for the importation of European fabrics.
They found a ready market for their wares, and an aspect of thrift and
comfort began to enliven the once neglected and cheerless land.
A new and superb palace was erected, after the model of Windsor Castle,
together with numerous royal residences in different parts of the
country. The nobility began to emulate the activity and munificence of
their sovereign, and to compete with each other in the grandeur of their
dwellings and the splendor of their _cortéges_.
So prosperous did the country become under the benign influence of
foreign trade and civilization, that other treaties were speedily
concluded with almost every nation under the sun, and his Majesty found
it necessary to accredit Sir John Bowring as plenipotentiary for Siam
abroad.
Early in this reign the appointment of harbor-master at Bangkok was
conferred upon an English gentleman, who proved so efficient in his
functions that he was distinguished with the fifth title of a Siamese
noble. Next came a French commander and a French band-master for the
royal troops. Then a custom-house was established, and a "live Yankee"
installed at the head of it, who was also glorified with a title of
honor. Finally a police force was organized, composed of trusty Malays
hired from Singapore, and commanded by one of the most energetic
Englishmen to be found in the East,--a measure which has done more than
all others to promote a comfortable sense of "law and order" throughout
the city and outskirts of Bangkok. It is to be remembered, however, in
justice to the British Consul-General in Siam, Mr. Thomas George Knox,
that the sure though silent influence was his, whereby the minds of the
king and the prime minister were led to appreciate the benefits that
must accrue from these foreign innovations.
The privilege of constructing, on liberal terms, a line of telegraph
through Maulmain to Singapore, with a branch to Bangkok, has been
granted to the Singapore Telegraph Company; and finally a sanitarium has
been erected on the coast at Anghin, for the benefit of native and
foreign residents needing the invigoration of sea-air. [Footnote: "His
Excellency Chow Phya Bhibakrwongs Maha Kosa Dhipude, the P'hraklang,
Minister for Foreign Affairs, has built a sanitarium at Anghin for the
benefit of the public. It is for benefit of the Siamese, Europeans, or
Americans, to go and occupy, when unwell, to restore their health. All
are cordially invited to go there for a suitable length of time and be
happy; but are requested not to remain month after month and year after
year, and regard it as a place without an owner. To regard it in this
way cannot be allowed, for it is public property, and others should go
and stop there also."--_Advertisement, Siam Monitor_, August 29, 1868.]
During his retirement in the monastery the king had a stroke of
paralysis, from which he perfectly recovered; but it left its mark on
his face, in the form of a peculiar falling of the under lip on the
right side. In person he was of middle stature, slightly built, of
regular features and fair complexion. In early life he lost most of his
teeth, but he had had them replaced with a set made from sapan-wood,--a
secret that he kept very sensitively to the day of his death.
Capable at times of the noblest impulses, he was equally capable of the
basest actions. Extremely accessible to praise, he indiscriminately
entertained every form of flattery; but his fickleness was such that no
courtier could cajole him long. Among his favorite women was the
beautiful Princess Tongoo Soopia, sister to the unfortunate Sultan
Mahmoud, ex-rajah of Pahang. Falling fiercely in love with her on her
presentation at his court, he procured her for his harem against her
will, and as a hostage for the good faith of her brother; but as she,
being Mohammedan, ever maintained toward him a deportment of tranquil
indifference, he soon tired of her, and finally dismissed her to a
wretched life of obsoleteness and neglect within the palace walls.
The only woman who ever managed him with acknowledged edged success was
Khoon Chom Piem: hardly pretty, but well formed, and of versatile tact,
totally uneducated, of barely respectable birth,--being Chinese on her
father's side,--yet withal endowed with a nice intuitive appreciation
of character. Once conscious of her growing influence over the king, she
contrived to foster and exercise it for years, with but a slight rebuff
now and then. Being modest to a fault, even at times obnoxious to the
imputation of prudishness, she habitually feigned excuses for
non-attendance in his Majesty's chambers,--such as delicate health, the
nursing of her children, mourning for the death of this or that
relative,--and voluntarily visited him only at rare intervals. In the
course of six years she amassed considerable treasure, procured good
places at court for members of her family, and was the means of bringing
many Chinamen to the notice of the king. At the same time she lived in
continual fear, was warily humble and conciliating toward her rival
sisters, who pitied rather than envied her, and retained in her pay most
of the female executive force in the palace.
In his daily habits his Majesty was remarkably industrious and frugal.
His devotion to the study of astronomy never abated, and he calculated
with respectable accuracy the great solar eclipse of August, 1868.
The French government, having sent a special commission, under command
of the Baron Hugon le Tourneur, to observe the eclipse in Siam, the king
erected, at a place called _Hua Wânn_ ("The Whale's Head"), a commodious
observatory, besides numerous pavilions varying in size and
magnificence, for his Majesty and retinue, the French commission, the
Governor of Singapore (Colonel Ord) and suite, who had been invited to
Bangkok by the king, and for ministers and nobles of Siam. Provision was
made, at the cost of government, for the regal entertainment, in a town
of booths and tabernacles, of the vast concourse of natives and
Europeans who followed his Majesty from the capital to witness the
sublime phenomenon; and a herd of fifty noble elephants were brought
from the ancient city of Ayudia for service and display.
The prospect becoming dubious and gloomy just at the time of first
contact (ten o'clock), the prime minister archly invited the foreigners
who believed in an overruling Providence to pray to him "that he may be
pleased to disperse the clouds long enough to afford us a good view of
the grandest of eclipses." Presently the clouds were partially withdrawn
from the sun, and his Majesty observing that one twentieth of the disk
was obscured, announced the fact to his own people by firing a cannon;
and immediately pipes screamed and trumpets blared in the royal
pavilion,--a tribute of reverence to the traditional fable about the
Angel Rahoo swallowing the sun. Both the king and prime minister,
scorning the restraints of dignity, were fairly boisterous in their
demonstrations of triumph and delight; the latter skipping from point to
point to squint through his long telescope. At the instant of absolute
totality, when the very last ray of the sun had become extinct, his
Excellency shouted, "Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!" and scientifically
disgraced himself. Leaving his spyglass swinging, he ran through the
gateway of his pavilion, and cried to his prostate wives, "Henceforth
will you not believe the foreigner."
But that other Excellency, Chow Phya Bhudharabhay, Minister for Northern
Siam, more orthodox, sat in dumfoundered faith, and gaped at the awful
deglutition of the Angel Rahoo.
The government expended not less than a hundred thousand dollars on this
scientific expedition, and a delegation from the foreign community of
Bangkok approached his Majesty with an address of thanks for his
indiscriminate hospitality.
But the extraordinary excitement, and exposure to the noxious atmosphere
of the jungle, proved inimical to the constitution of the king. On his
return to Bangkok he complained of general weariness and prostration,
which was the prelude to fever. Foreign physicians were consulted, but
at no stage of the case was any European treatment employed. He rapidly
grew worse, and was soon past saving. On the day before his death he
called to his bedside his nearest relatives, and parted among them such
of his personal effects as were most prized by him, saying, "I have no
more need of these things. I must give up my life also." Buddhist
priests were constant in attendance, and he seemed to derive much
comfort from their prayers and exhortations. In the evening he wrote
with his own hand a tender farewell to the mothers of his many
children,--eighty-one in number. On the morning of his last day
(October 1, 1868) he dictated in the Pali language a farewell address to
the Buddhist priesthood, the spirit of which was admirable, and clearly
manifested the faith of the dying man in the doctrines of the Reformer;
for he hesitated not to say: "Farewell, ye faithful followers of Buddha,
to whom death is nothing, even as all earthly existence is vain, all
things mutable, and death inevitable. Presently I shall myself submit to
that stern necessity. Farewell! for I go only a little before you."
Feeling sure that he must die before midnight, he summoned his
half-brother, H. R. H. Krom Hluang Wongse, his Excellency the prime
minister, Chow Phya Kralahome, and others, and solemnly imposed upon
them the care of his eldest son, the Chowfa Chulalonkorn, and of his
kingdom; at the same time expressing his last earthly wish, that the
Senabawdee, in electing his successor, would give their voices for one
who should conciliate all parties, that the country might not be
distracted by dissensions on that question. He then told them he was
about to finish his course, and implored them not to give way to grief,
"nor to any sudden surprise," that he should leave them thus; "'tis an
event that must befall all creatures that come into this world, and may
not be avoided." Then turning his gaze upon a small image of his adored
teacher, he seemed for some time absorbed in awful contemplation. "Such
is life!" Those were actually the last words of this most remarkable
Buddhist king. He died like a philosopher, calmly and sententiously
soliloquizing on death and its inevitability. At the final moment, no
one being near save his adopted son, Phya Buroot, he raised his hands
before his face, as in his accustomed posture of devotion; then suddenly
his head dropped backward, and he was gone.
That very night, without disorder or debate, the Senabawdee elected his
eldest son, Somdetch Chowfa Chulalonkorn, to succeed him; and the Prince
George Washington, eldest son of the late Second King, to succeed to his
father's subordinate throne, under the title of Krom P'hra Raja Bowawn
Shathan Mongkoon. The title of the present supreme king (my amiable and
very promising scholar) is Prabat Somdetch P'hra Paramendr Maha
Chulalonkorn Kate Klou Chow-yu-Hua.
About a year after my first ill-omened interviews with Maha Mongkut, and
when I had become permanently installed in my double office of teacher
and scribe, I was one day busy with a letter from his Majesty to the
Earl of Clarendon, and finding that any attempt at partial correction
would but render his meaning more ambiguous, and impair the striking
originality of his style, I had abandoned the effort, and set about
copying it with literal exactness, only venturing to alter here and
there a word, such as "I hasten with _wilful_ pleasure to write in reply
to your Lordship's _well-wishing_ letter," etc. Whilst I was thus
evolving from the depths of my inner consciousness a satisfactory
solution to this conundrum in King's English, his Majesty's private
secretary lolled in the sunniest corner of the room, stretching his
dusky limbs and heavily nodding, in an ecstasy of ease-taking. Poor
P'hra-Alâck! I never knew him to be otherwise than sleepy, and his sleep
was always stolen. For his Majesty was the most capricious of kings as
to his working moods,--busy when the average man should be sleeping,
sleeping while letters, papers, despatches, messengers, mail-boats
waited. More than once had we been aroused at dead of night by noisy
female slaves, and dragged in hot haste and consternation to the Hall of
Audience, only to find that his Majesty was, not at his last gasp, as we
had feared, but simply bothered to find in Webster's Dictionary some
word that was to be found nowhere but in his own fertile brain; or
perhaps in excited chase of the classical term for some trifle he was on
the point of ordering from London,--and that word was sure to be a
stranger to my brain.
Before my arrival in Bangkok it had been his not uncommon practice to
send for a missionary at midnight, have him beguiled or abducted from
his bed, and conveyed by boat to the palace, some miles up the river, to
inquire if it would not be more elegant to write _murky_ instead of
_obscure_, or _gloomily dark_ rather than _not clearly apparent_. And if
the wretched man should venture to declare his honest preference for the
ordinary over the extraordinary form of expression, he was forthwith
dismissed with irony, arrogance, or even insult, and without a word of
apology for the rude invasion of his rest.
One night, a little after twelve o'clock, as he was on the point of
going to bed like any plain citizen of regular habits, his Majesty fell
to thinking how most accurately to render into English the troublesome
Siamese word _phi_, which admits of a variety of interpretations.
[Footnote: Ghost, spirit, soul, devil, evil angel.] After puzzling over
it for more than an hour, getting himself possessed with the word as
with the devil it stands for, and all to no purpose, he ordered one of
his lesser state barges to be manned and despatched with all speed for
the British Consul. That functionary, inspired with lively alarm by so
startling a summons, dressed himself with unceremonious celerity, and
hurried to the palace, conjecturing on the way all imaginable
possibilities of politics and diplomacy, revolution or invasion. To his
vexation, not less than his surprise, he found the king in dishabille,
engaged with a Siamese-English vocabulary, and mentally divided between
"deuce" and "devil," in the choice of an equivalent. His preposterous
Majesty gravely laid the case before the consul, who, though inwardly
chafing at what he termed "the confounded coolness" of the situation,
had no choice but to decide with grace, and go back to bed with
philosophy.
No wonder, then, that P'hra-Alâck experienced an access of gratitude for
the privilege of napping for two hours in a snuggery of sunshine.
"Mam-kha," [Footnote: Kha, "your slave."] he murmured drowsily, "I hope
that in the Chat-Nah [Footnote: The next state of existence.] I shall be
a freed man."
"I hope so sincerely, P'hra-Alâck," said I. "I hope you'll be an
Englishman or an American, for then you'll be sure to be independent."
It was impossible not to pity the poor old man,--stiff with continual
stooping to his task, and so subdued!--liable not only to be called at
any hour of the day or night, but to be threatened, cuffed, kicked,
beaten on the head, [Footnote: The greatest indignity a Siamese can
suffer.] every way abused and insulted, and the next moment to be taken
into favor, confidence, bosom-friendship, even as his Majesty's mood
might veer.
Alack for P'hra-Alâck! though usually he bore with equal patience his
greater and his lesser ills, there were occasions that sharply tried his
meekness, when his weak and goaded nature revolted, and he rushed to a
snug little home of his own, about forty yards from the Grand Palace,
there to snatch a respite of rest and refreshment in the society of his
young and lately wedded wife. Then the king would awake and send for
him, whereupon he would be suddenly ill, or not at home, strategically
hiding himself under a mountain of bedclothes, and detailing Mrs.
P'hra-Alâck to reconnoitre and report. He had tried this primitive trick
so often that its very staleness infuriated the king, who invariably
sent officers to seize the trembling accomplice and lock her up in a
dismal cell as a hostage for the scribe's appearance. At dusk the poor
fellow would emerge, contrite and terrified, and prostrate himself at
the gate of the palace. Then his Majesty (who, having spies posted in
every quarter of the town, knew as well as P'hra-Alâck himself what the
illness or the absence signified) leisurely strolled forth, and, finding
the patient on the threshold, flew always into a genuine rage, and
prescribed "decapitation on the spot," and "sixty lashes on the bare
back," both in the same breath. And while the attendants flew right and
left,--one for the blade, another for the thong,--the king, still
raging, seized whatever came most handy, and belabored his bosom-friend
on the head and shoulders. Having thus summarily relieved his mind, he
despatched the royal secretary for his ink-horn and papyrus, and began
inditing letters, orders, appointments, before scymitar or lash (which
were ever tenderly slow on these occasions) had made its appearance.
Perhaps in the very thick of his dictating he would remember the
connubial accomplice, and order his people to "release her, and let her
go."
Slavery in Siam is the lot of men of a much finer intellectual type than
any who have been its victims in modern times in societies farther west.
P'hra-Alâck had been his Majesty's slave when they were boys together.
Together they had played, studied, and entered the priesthood. At once
bondman, comrade, classmate, and confidant, he was the very man to fill
the office of private secretary to his royal crony. Virgil made a slave
of his a poet, and Horace was the son of an emancipated slave. The Roman
leech and chirurgeon were often slaves; so, too, the preceptor and the
pedagogue, the reader and the player, the clerk and the amanuensis, the
singer, the dancer, the wrestler, and the buffoon, the architect, the
smith, the weaver, and the shoemaker; even the _armiger_ or squire was a
slave. Educated slaves exercised their talents and pursued their
callings for the emolument of their masters; and thus it is to-day in
Siam. _Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur_, P'hra-Alâck!
The king's taste for English composition had, by much exercise,
developed itself into a passion. In the pursuit of it he was
indefatigable, rambling, and petulant. He had "Webster's Unabridged" on
the brain,--an exasperating form of king's evil. The little dingy slips
that emanated freely from the palace press were as indiscriminate as
they were quaint. No topic was too sublime or too ignoble for them. All
was "copy" that came to those cases,-from the glory of the heavenly
bodies to the nuisance of the busybodies who scolded his Majesty through
the columns of the Bangkok Recorder.
I have before me, as I write, a circular from his pen, and in the type
of his private press, which, being without caption or signature, may be
supposed to be addressed "to all whom it may concern." The American
missionaries had vexed his exact scholarship by their peculiar mode of
representing in English letters the name of a native city (_Prippri_, or
in Sanskrit _Bejrepuri_). Whence this droll circular, which begins with
a dogmatic line:--
"None should write the name of city of Prippri thus--P'et cha poory."
Then comes a pedantic demonstration of the derivation of the name from a
compound Sanskrit word, signifying "Diamond City." And the document
concludes with a characteristic explosion of impatience, at once
critical, royal, and anecdotal: "Ah! what the Romanization of American
system that P'etch' abury will be! Will whole human learned world become
the pupil of their corrupted Siamese teachers? It is very far from
correctness. Why they did not look in journal of Royal Asiatic Society,
where several words of Sanskrit and Pali were published continually?
Their Siamese priestly teachers considered all Europeans as very
heathen; to them far from sacred tongue, and were glad to have American
heathens to become their scholars or pupils; they thought they have
taught sacred language to the part of heathen; in fact, they themselves
are very far from sacred language, being sunk deeply in corruption of
sacred and learned language, for tongue of their former Laos and
Cambodian teachers, and very far from knowledge of Hindoostanee,
Cinghalese, and Royal Asiatic Society's knowledge in Sanskrit, as they
are considered by such the Siamese teachers as heathen; called by them
Mit ch'a thi-thi, &c., &c., i.e. wrongly seer or spectator, &c., &c."
In another slip, which is manifestly an outburst of the royal petulance,
his Majesty demands, in a "displayed" paragraph:--
"Why name of Mr. Knox [Thomas George Knox, Esq., British Consul] was not
published thus: Missa Nok or Nawk. If name of Chow Phya Bhudharabhay is
to be thus: P'raya P'oo t'a ra P'ie. And why the London was not
published thus: Lundun or Landan, if Bejrepuri is to be published
P'etch' abury."
In the same slip with the philological protest the following remarkable
paragraphs appear:--
"What has been published in No. 25 of Bangkok Recorder thus:--
"'The king of Siam, on reading from some European paper that the Pope
had lately suffered the loss of some precious jewels, in consequence of
a thief having got possession of his Holiness' keys, exclaimed, "What a
man! professing to keep the keys of Heaven, and cannot even keep his own
keys!"'
"The king on perusal thereof denied that it is false. He knows nothing
about his Holiness the Pope's sustaining loss of gems, &c., and has said
nothing about religious faith."
This is curious, in that it exposes the king's unworthy fear of the
French priesthood in Siam. The fact is that he did make the rather smart
remark, in precisely these words: "Ah! what a man! professing to keep
the keys of Heaven, and not able to guard those of his own bureau!" and
he was quite proud of his hit. But when it appeared in the Recorder, he
thought it prudent to bar it with a formal denial. Hence the politic
little item which he sent to all the foreigners in Bangkok, and
especially to the French priests.
His Majesty's mode of dealing with newspaper strictures (not always
just) and suggestions (not always pertinent) aimed at his administration
of public affairs, or the constitution and discipline of his household,
was characteristic. He snubbed them with sententious arrogance, leavened
with sarcasm.
When the Recorder recommended to the king the expediency of dispersing
his Solomonic harem, and abolishing polygamy in the royal family, his
Majesty retorted with a verbal message to the editor, to the purport
that "when the Recorder shall have dissuaded princes and noblemen from
offering their daughters to the king as concubines, the king will cease
to receive contributions of women in that capacity."
In August, 1865, an angry altercation occurred in the Royal Court of
Equity (sometimes styled the International Court) between a French
priest and Phya Wiset, a Siamese nobleman, of venerable years, but
positive spirit and energy. The priest gave Phya Wiset the lie, and Phya
Wiset gave it back to the priest, whereupon the priest became noisy.
Afterward he reported the affair to his consul at Bangkok, with the
embellishing statement that not only himself, but his religion, had been
grossly insulted. The consul, one Monsieur Aubaret, a peppery and
pugnacious Frenchman, immediately made a demand upon his Majesty for the
removal of Phya Wiset from office.
This despatch was sent late in the evening by the hand of Monsieur
Lamarche, commanding the troops at the royal palace; and that officer
had the consul's order to present it summarily. Lamarche managed to
procure admittance to the penetralia, and presented the note at two
o'clock in the morning, in violation of reason and courtesy as well as
of rules, excusing himself on the ground that the despatch was important
and his orders peremptory. His Majesty then read the despatch, and
remarked that the matter should be disposed of "to-morrow." Lamarche
replied, very presumptuously, that the affair required no investigation,
as _he_ had heard the offensive language of Phya Wiset, and that person
must be deposed without ceremony. Whereupon his Majesty ordered the
offensive foreigner to leave the palace.
Lamarche repaired forthwith to the consul, and reported that the king
had spoken disrespectfully, not only of his Imperial Majesty's consul,
but of the Emperor himself, besides outrageously insulting a French
messenger. Then the fire-eating functionary addressed another despatch
to his Majesty, the purport of which was, that, in expelling Lamarche
from the palace, the King of Siam had been guilty of a political
misdemeanor, and had rudely disturbed the friendly relations existing
between France and Siam; that he should leave Bangkok for Paris, and in
six weeks lay his grievance before the Emperor; but should first proceed
to Saigon, and engage the French admiral there to attend to any
emergency that might arise in Bangkok.
His Majesty, who knew how to confront the uproar of vulgarity and folly
with the repose of wisdom and dignity, sent his own cousin, the Prince
Mom Rachoday, Chief Judge of the Royal Court of Equity, to M. Aubaret,
to disabuse his mind, and impart to him all the truth of the case. But
the "furious Frank" seized the imposing magnate by the hair, drove him
from his door, and flung his betel-box after him,--a reckless impulse of
outrage as monstrous as the most ingenious and deliberate brutality
could have devised. Rudely to seize a Siamese by the hair is an
indignity as grave as to spit in the face of a European; and the betel-
box, beside being a royal present, was an essential part of the insignia
of the prince's judicial office.
On a later occasion this same Aubaret seized the opportunity a royal
procession afforded to provoke the king to an ill-timed discussion of
politics, and to prefer an intemperate complaint against the Kralahome,
or prime minister. This characteristic flourish of ill temper and bad
manners, from the representative of the politest of nations, naturally
excited lively indignation and disgust among all respectable dwellers,
native or foreign, near the court, and a serious disturbance was
imminent. But a single dose of the King's English sufficed to soothe the
spasmodic official, and reduce him to "a sense of his situation."
"TO THE HON. THE MONSIEUR AUBARET, _the Consul for H.I.M._
"SIR:--The verbal insult or bad words without any step more over from
lower or lowest person is considered very slight & inconsiderable.
"The person standing on the surface of the ground or floor Cannot injure
the heavenly bodies or any highly hanging Lamp or glope by ejecting his
spit from his mouth upward it will only injure his own face without
attempting of Heavenly bodies--&c.
"The Siamese are knowing of being lower than heaven do not endeavor to
injure heavenly bodies with their spit from mouth.
"A person who is known to be powerless by every one, as they who have no
arms or legs to move oppose or injure or deaf or blind &c. &c. cannot be
considered and said that they are our enemies even for their madness in
vain--it might be considered as easily agitation or uneasiness.
"Persons under strong desires without any limit or acting under
illimited anger sometimes cannot be believed at once without testimony
or witness if they stated against any one verbally from such the
statements of the most desirous or persons most illimitedly angry
hesitation and mild enquiry is very prudent from persons of considerable
rank."
_No signature._
Never were simplicity with shrewdness, and unconscious humor with
pathos, and candor with irony, and political economy with the sense of
an awful bore, more quaintly blended than in the following extraordinary
hint, written and printed by his Majesty, and freely distributed for the
snubbing of visionary or speculative adventurers:
"NOTICE.
"When the general rumor was and is spread out from Siam, circulated
among the foreigners to Siam, chiefly Europeans, Chinese, &c, in three
points:--
"1. That Siam is under quite absolute Monarchy. Whatever her Supreme
Sovereign commanded, allowed, &c all cannot be resisted by any one of
his Subjects.
"2. The Treasury of the Sovereign of Siam, was full for money, like a
mountain of gold and silver; Her Sovereign most wealthy.
"3. The present reigning Monarch of Siam is shallow minded and admirer
of almost everything of curiosity, and most admirer of European usages,
customs, sciences, arts and literature &c, without limit. He is fond of
flattering term and ambitious of honor, so that there are now many
opportunities and operations to be embraced for drawing great money from
Royal Treasury of Siam, &c.
"The most many foreigners being under belief of such general rumour,
were endeavoring to draw money from him in various operations, as aiming
him with valuable curiosities and expectations of interest, and
flattering him, to be glad of them, and deceiving him in various ways;
almost on every opportunity of Steamer coming to Siam, various
foreigners partly known to him and acquainted with him, and generally
unknown to him, boldly wrote to him in such the term of various
application and treatment, so that he can conclude that the chief object
of all letters written to him, is generally to draw money from him, even
unreasonable. Several instances and testimonies can be shown for being
example on this subject--the foreigners letters addressed to him, come
by every one steamer of Siam, and of foreign steamers visiting Siam; 10
and 12 at least and 40 at highest number, urging him in various ways; so
he concluded that foreigners must consider him only as a mad king of a
wild land!
"He now states that he cannot be so mad more, as he knows and observes
the consideration of the foreigners towards him. Also he now became of
old age,[Footnote: He was sixty-two at this time.] and was very sorry to
lose his principal members of his family namely, his two Queens, twice,
and his younger brother the late Second King, and his late second son
and beloved daughter, and moreover now he fear of sickness of his eldest
son, he is now unhappy and must solicit his friends in correspondence
and others who please to write for the foresaid purpose, that they
should know suitable reason in writing to him, and shall not urge him as
they would urge a madman! And the general rumours forementioned are some
exaggerated and some entirely false; they shall not believe such the
rumours, deeply and ascertainedly.
"ROYAL RESIDENCE GRAND PALACE BANGKOK 2nd July 1867."
And now observe with, what gracious ease this most astute and
discriminating prince could fit his tone to the sense of those who,
familiar with his opinions, and reconciled to his temper and his ways,
however peculiar, could reciprocate the catholicity of his sympathies,
and appreciate his enlightened efforts to fling off that tenacious
old-man-of-the-sea custom, and extricate himself from the predicament of
conflicting responsibilities. To these, on the Christian New Year's day
of 1867, he addressed this kindly greeting:--
"S.P.P.M. MONGKUT:
"Called in Siamese 'P'hra-Chomklau chao-yuhua' in Magadhi or language of
Pali 'Siamikanam Maha Rajah,' In Latin 'Rex Siamensium,' In French 'Le
Roi de Siam,' In English 'The King of Siam' and in Malayan 'Rajah Maha
Pasah' &c.
"Begs to present his respectful and regardful compliments and
congratulations in happy lives during immediately last year, and wishes
the continuing thereof during the commencing New Year, and ensuing and
succeeding many years, to his foreign friends, both now in Siam namely,
the functionary and acting Consuls and consular officers of various
distinguished nations in Treaty Power with Siam and certain foreign
persons under our salary, in service in any manner here, and several
Gentlemen and Ladies who are resident in Siam in various stations:
namely, the Priests, Preachers of religion, Masters and Mistresses of
Schools, Workmen and Merchants, &c, and now abroad in various foreign
countries and ports, who are our noble and common friends, acquainted
either by ever having had correspondences mutually with us some time, at
any where and remaining in our friendly remembrance or mutual
remembrance, and whosoever are in service to us as our Consuls, vice
consuls and consular assistants, in various foreign ports. Let them know
our remembrance and good wishes toward them all.
* * * * *
"Though we are not Christians, the forenamed King was glad to arrive
this day in his valued life, as being the 22,720th day of his age,
during which he was aged sixty-two years and three months, and being the
5,711th day of his reign, during which he reigned upon his kingdom 15
years and 8 months up to the current month.
"In like manner he was very glad to see & know and hope for all his
Royal Family, kindred and friends of both native and foreign, living
near and far to him had arrived to this very remarkable anniversary of
the commencement of Solar Year in Anno Christi 1867.
"In their all being healthy and well living like himself, he begs to
express his royal congratulation and respect and graceful regards to all
his kindred friends both native and foreign, and hopes to receive such
the congratulation and expression of good wishes toward him and members
of his family in very like manner, as he trusts that the amity and grace
to one another of every of human beings who are innocent, is a great
merit, and is righteous and praiseworthy in religious system of all
civil religion, and best civilized laws and morality, &c.
"Given at the Royal Audience Hall, 'Anant Samagome' Grand Palace,
Bangkok," etc., etc.
* * * * *
The remoter provinces of Siam constitute a source of continual anxiety
and much expense to the government; and to his Majesty (who, very
conscious of power, was proud to be able to say that the Malayan
territories and rajahs--Cambodia, with her marvellous cities, palaces,
and temples, once the stronghold of Siam's most formidable and
implacable foes; the Laos country, with its warlike princes and
chiefs--were alike dependencies and tributaries of his crown) it was
intolerably irritating to find Cambodia rebellious. So long as his
government could successfully maintain its supremacy there, that country
formed a sort of neutral ground between his people and the
Cochin-Chinese; a geographical condition which was not without its
political advantages. But now the unscrupulous French had strutted upon
the scene, and with a flourish of diplomacy and a stroke of the pen
appropriated to themselves the fairest portion of that most fertile
province. His Majesty, though secretly longing for the intervention and
protection of England, was deterred by his almost superstitious fear of
the French from complaining openly. But whenever he was more than
commonly annoyed by the pretensions and aggressive epistles of his
Imperial Majesty's consul he sent for me,--thinking, like all Orientals,
that, being English, my sympathy for him, and my hatred of the French,
were jointly a foregone conclusion. When I would have assured him that I
was utterly powerless to help him, he cut me short with a wise whisper
to "consult Mr. Thomas George Knox"; and when I protested that that
gentleman was too honorable to engage in a secret intrigue against a
colleague, even for the protection of British interests in Siam, he
would rave at my indifference, the cupidity of the French, the apathy of
the English, and the fatuity of all geographers in "setting down" the
form of government in Siam as an "absolute monarchy."
"_I_ an absolute monarch! For I have no power over French. Siam is like
a mouse before an elephant! Am I an absolute monarch? What shall you
consider me?"
Now, as I considered him a particularly absolute and despotic king, that
was a trying Question; so I discreetly held my peace, fearing less to be
classed with those obnoxious savans who compile geographies than to
provoke him afresh.
"I have no power." he scolded; "I am not absolute! If I point the end of
my walking-stick at a man whom, being my enemy, I wish to die, he does
not die, but lives on, in spite of my 'absolute' will to the contrary.
What does Geographies mean? How can I be an absolute monarchy?"
Such a conversation we were having one day as he "assisted" at the
founding of a temple; and while he reproached his fate that he was
powerless to "point the end of his walking-stick" with absolute power at
the peppery and presumptuous Monsieur Aubaret, he vacantly flung gold
and silver coins among the work-women.
In another moment he forgot all French encroachments, and the imbecility
of geographers in general, as his glance chanced to fall upon a young
woman of fresh and striking beauty, and delightful piquancy of ways and
expression, who with a clumsy club was pounding fragments of
pottery--urns, vases, and goglets--for the foundation of the _watt._
Very artless and happy she seemed, and free as she was lovely; but the
instant she perceived she had attracted the notice of the king, she sank
down and hid her face in the earth, forgetting or disregarding the
falling vessels that threatened to crush or wound her. But the king
merely diverted himself with inquiring her name and parentage; and some
one answering for her, he turned away.
Almost to the latest hour of his life his Majesty suffered, in his
morbid egotism, various and keen annoyance, by reason of his
sensitiveness to the opinions of foreigners, the encroachments of
foreign officials, and the strictures of the foreign press. He was
agitated by a restless craving for their sympathy on the one hand, and
by a futile resentment of their criticisms or their claims on the other.
An article in a Singapore paper had administered moral correction to his
Majesty on the strength of a rumor that "the king has his eye upon
another princess of the highest rank, with a view to constituting her a
queen consort." And the Bangkok Recorder had said: "Now, considering
that he is full threescore and three years of age, that he has already
scores of concubines and about fourscore sons and daughters, with
several Chowfas among them, and hence eligible to the highest posts of
honor in the kingdom, this rumor seems too monstrous to be credited. But
the truth is, there is scarcely anything too monstrous for the royal
polygamy of Siam to bring forth." By the light of this explanation the
meaning of the following extract from the postscript of a letter which
the king wrote in April, 1866, will be clear to the reader, who, at the
same time, in justice to me, will remember that by the death of his
Majesty, on the 1st of October, 1868, the seal of secrecy was broken.
"VERY PRIVATE POST SCRIPT.
"There is a newspaper of Singapore entitled Daily News just published
after last arrival of the steamer Chowphya in Singapore, in which paper,
a correspondence from an Individual resident at Bangkok dated 16th March
1866 was shown, but I have none of that paper in my possession ... I did
not noticed its number & date to state to you now, but I trust such the
paper must be in hand of several foreigners in Bangkok, may you have
read it perhaps--other wise you can obtain the same from any one or by
order to obtain from Singapore; after perusal thereof you will not be
able to deny my statement forementioned more over as general people both
native & foreigners here seem to have less pleasure on me & my
descendant, than their pleasure and hope on other amiable family to them
until the present day. What was said there in for a princess considered
by the Speaker or Writer as proper or suitable to be head on my _harem_
(a room or part for confinement of Women of Eastern monarch) [Footnote:
A parenthetical drollery inspired by the dictionary.] there is no least
intention occurred to me even once or in my dream indeed! I think if I
do so, I will die soon perhaps!
* * * * *
"This my handwriting or content hereof shall be kept secretly.
"I beg to remain
"Your faithful & well-wisher
"S. P. P. M. MONGKUT E. S.
"on 5441th day of reign.
"the writer here of beg to place his confidence on you alway."
As a true friend to his Majesty, I deplore the weakness which betrayed
him into so transparent a sham of virtuous indignation. The "princess of
the highest rank," whom the writer of the article plainly meant, was the
Princess of Chiengmai; but from lack of accurate information he was
misled into confounding her with the Princess Tui Duang Prabha, his
Majesty's niece. The king could honestly deny any such intention on his
part with regard to his niece; but, at the same time, he well knew that
the writer erred only as to the individual, and not as to the main fact
of the case. The Princess of Chiengmai was the wife, and the Princess
Tui Duang the daughter, of his full brother, the Second King, lately
deceased.
Much more agreeable is it--to the reader, I doubt not, not less than to
the writer--to turn from the king, in the exercise of his slavish
function of training honest words to play the hypocrite for ignoble
thoughts, to the gentleman, the friend, the father, giving his heart a
holiday in the relaxations of simple kindness and free affection,--as in
the following note:--
"Dated RANCHAUPURY 34th February 1865.
"To LADY L---- & HER SON LUISE, _Bangkok_.
"We having very pleasant journey ... to be here which is a township
called as above named by men of republick affairs in Siam, & called by
common people as 'Parkphrieck' where we have our stay a few days & will
take our departure from hence at dawn of next day. We thinking of you
both regardfully & beg to send here with some wild aples & barries which
are delicate for tasting & some tobacco which were and are principal
product of this region for your kind acceptance hoping this wild present
will be acceptable to you both.
"We will be arrived at our home Bangkok on early part of March.
"We beg to remain
"Your faithful
"S. P. P. M. MONGKUT E. S.
"in 5035th day of reign.
"And your affectionate pupils
"YING YULACKS.
MANEABHADAHORN.
SOMDETCH CHOWFA
CHULALONKORK [Footnote: The present king.]
KRITAHINIHAR.
PRABHASSOR.
SOMAWATI."