Chuulăsăkkărât. A.D. 1044 Catholic missionaries, as is his successor, 1682 Chaò Du'a, whom they call a cruel, barbarous, and debauched monarch. The resistance and persecution they experienced at this period may well account for the severity of their strictures. Phra Phětraxa again sends ambassadors to 1688 France. 1050 1059 1068 1094 1120 At the decease of Phra Phětraxa, Chaò Du'a 1697 takes possession of the throne; he delighted in angling and hunting, and was notorious for his debauchery and cruelty. The son of Chaò Dû'a succeeds his father. 1706 He drives out the Anamese from Cambodia, which he makes tributary to him. At the King's death, a civil war arises; 1732 Upărât, or the Viceroy, kills the King's sons, and usurps the kingdom. During his reign, gold mines were opened in Bangtaphan. The King being dead, Chaò Dôk Mădû'a 1758 reigns but one year; he resigns the sceptre to his brother, and becomes a talapoin. The King of Ava besieges Juthia, but, being seized by a malady, retreats and dies on his way home. 1128 The King of the Burmans depopulates the 1766 whole country, and besieges Juthia for two years; and, having taken it, sets it on fire, and almost totally destroys it. But the King of Juthia escaped from the country, and, wandering about, soon afterwards died, wasted away by famine. 1129 The Burmans being still in possession of 1767 PHAJA TAK. 59 Chuulăsăkkărât. 1129 Chinese, and his mother a Siamese. 1131 A.D. He, fore- 1767 seeing the destruction of the city, gathered Phǎja Tâk conquers Koràt (Ligor), Phitsǎnǎ- 1769 lók and Cambodia. 1136 Phǎja Tâk seizes Xieng măi, to which he 1774 appoints a new ruler. The Burman hordes 1139 1142 1143 having made an incursion, he surrounds them He conquers the kingdom of Sătănakhănăhăt 1777 The King, seized with insanity, wishes to be 1780 equally adored with Buddha, exacts money from the rich, and treats the mandarins harshly. This occasions sedition; the populace attacks 1781 him in his palace; the terrified monarch flies to a temple, and is ordained a talapoin. See chapter xiii. Chuulăsăkkărât. A.D. 1144 But, soon after, Phăja chăkkri, returning from 1782 the war against the Anamese, ordered him to be dragged from the temple and slain, and occupied the throne in his place, under the name Phra Phüttňchaò lúang (Phën dăn tăn). At this time he transferred the city and palace from the west to the east bank of the river. During his reign the Burmans made frequent incursions into the Siamese territories, but were always strongly repulsed. Of this sovereign (Phǎja Tâk) Bishop Pallegoix gives the following account:-He came forth from the mountain retreats of Makhon Najok, defeating again and again the Burmese troops. Descending to Bangplasoi, he was there proclaimed king; and being joined by multitudes of the people, he took Chantabun, constructed a hundred ships of war, seized upon Phuthaimat or Kankao on the confines of Cochin China, reduced Cambodia, drove from Ayuthia and the rest of the kingdom all the Burmese invaders, and established his royal residence at Bangkok, to which he gave the name of Thanaburi. He conquered Ligor, Phitanulok, and afterwards Vieng Chan, the capital of the Laos kingdom, whence he brought what is called the Emerald Buddha (Phra Keo), which is the pride and glory of Bangkok at the present day. His exactions are said to have been greater than his conquests. The bonzes averred that he aspired to the divine honour of Buddha. A revolt took place in the city, and the King escaped to a neighbouring pagoda, and declared himself to have become a member of the priest REIGN OF CHAO PRASAT THONG. Chuulăsăkkărât. 61 A.D. 1144 hood; but the prime minister who succeeded 1782 him caused him to be driven from the pagoda, and he was executed in 1782, under the plea that he would trouble the public peace. 1173 His successor reigned twenty-nine years, and 1811 was succeeded by his son, who carried on the administration peacefully for fourteen years. His common name among the people is Phëndin-klang. 1187 At his death, his son, the late monarch, 1825 ascended the throne, under the name Borommăthăm-mikǎraxathiràt Phra Chaò Prăsât Thong. The two principal events which distinguished the reign of Chao Prasat Thong, were the burning of the royal palace, and his. war upon the Laos country, in 1828. Of the results of that war an account is given by a writer obviously well informed; and the picture of manners is so graphic and characteristic, that I transfer it to these pages.* The invasion of Cochin China by sea and by land had no other result than the capture of a number of Guannanites, (the Chinese name for Cochin China is Guan-nan, usually written Annan or Annam,) who were, according to custom, condemned to slavery in Siam. "The expedition against Laos was successful. As usual in Siamese warfare, they laid waste the country, plundered the inhabitants, brought them to Bangkok, sold and gave them away as slaves. The * The whole paper is entitled "Notes on Siam," taken in 1833, from Moor's Notices of the Indian Archipelago, p. 199, 200; Singapore, 1837 prince Vun Chow and family made their escape into Cochin China; but instead of meeting with a friendly reception, they were seized by the King of that country, and delivered as prisoners to the Siamese. The King arrived in Bangkok about the latter end of 1828, and underwent there the greatest cruelties barbarians could invent. He was confined in a large iron cage, exposed to a burning sun, and obliged to proclaim to every one that the King of Siam was great and merciful, that he himself had committed a great error and deserved his present punishment. In this cage were placed with the prisoner, a large mortar to pound him in, a large boiler to boil him in, a hook to hang him by, and a sword to decapitate him; also a sharp-pointed spike for him to sit on. His children were sometimes put in along with him. He was a mild, respectable-looking, old grey-headed man, and did not live long to gratify his tormentors, death having put an end to his sufferings. His body was taken and hung in chains on the bank of the river, about two or three miles below Bangkok. The conditions on which the Cochin Chinese gave up Chow Vun Chan were, that the King of Siam would appoint a new prince to govern the Laos country, who should be approved of by the Cochin Chinese, and that the court of Siam should deliver up the persons belonging to the Siamese army who attacked and killed some Cochin Chinese during the Laos war." I requested the King to favour me with an account of his own dynasty, and received the following reply: |