English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Century

John Anderson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415245487
• eBook ISBN: 9781136397929
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Originally published in 1890. This early works is a comprehensive and informative look at the subject and will appeal to any historian. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF TRADE WITH SIAM.

WHEN Captain William Keeling visited Bantam in 1608, he met there an ambassador from the king of Siam.¹ He asked this dignitary to dinner, and learned from him some facts regarding the commerce and products of Siam. He was told by the ambassador that “a thousand Clothes red, would vent in his Countrey in two dayes, and great quantitie yeerely; they clothing their Elephants and Horses therewith.” Gold, he was informed, was abundant, and of so good quality as to be worth three times its weight in silver, and that precious stones occurred in great quantities and were cheap. He was also assured by his guest that the king would account it a great happiness “to have commerce with so great a king as his Majestie of England, with whom,” the diplomatic ambassador understood, “the king of Holland was not comparable.”

Captain William Keeling returned to England, on the 10th May, 1610, and on his arrival doubtless reported to his masters, the Honourable East India Company, the glowing accounts of the ambassador. But, two years before this, their attention had probably been attracted to Siam by the arrival of the Siamese ambassadors at the court of Prince Maurice, the governor of the United Provinces of Holland and Zealand.

These were apparently the circumstances that determined the Directors of the East India Company, in 1610, to make the opening up of commercial relations with Siam one of the most important objects of the seventh voyage. Accordingly, the ship Globe,¹ commanded by Captain Anthony Hippon, and having on board Peter (Williamson) Floris, Adam Denton, Thomas Essington, and Lucas Antheuniss as merchants, set sail from the “Downs” on the 5th February, 1611, and after a prosperous voyage, arrived off the island of Ceylon, in the following August.

In the same year, the Company decided to trade with Japan, and a letter announcing their intention to do so was written to William Adams, then resident in Japan, and was intrusted to the officers of the Globe, who were to see it forwarded from Bantam.

In the following April, the ships of the eighth voyage, the Clove, Thomas, and Hector, under the command of John Saris, and bearing a letter from King James the First to the Emperor of Japan, left the shores of England for the far East. From Bantam, where the Clove arrived in October, 1612, it sailed on the 14th January, 1613, for Japan, and reached the port of Hirado on the 12th June, 1613. The course of the ship destined for Siam has now to be followed.

From Ceylon the Globe went to Pulicat, where the Dutch had established a factory two years before.² After a narrow escape in landing through the surf, in which Floris and another (Robert Browne) were nearly drowned, they received a friendly welcome from the native Shāhbandar, who provided them with a house; but the Dutch president opposing their efforts to trade, they betook themselves to their ship, and proceeded to Pettipolli, where the Dutch had been even longer established than at Pulicat.¹ Here again they were well received by the natives, but not remaining any time, sailed to Masulipatam, where the Dutch had also been before them, and where they met with an equally good reception. Robert Browne, after his narrow escape at Pulicat, died at Masulipatam, on the 8th September, 1612.²

The Globe next sailed for Bantam, where George Chauncey, one of their number, was left to dispose of some goods, and it then continued on its course to the kingdom of Siam. The first port in that kingdom to which it went was Patani, a small state, under its native queen or prince, but tributary to the supreme Government at Ayuthia. What now remains of this state is under the governor of the neighbouring state of Singora,³ which in the early part of the seventeenth century could not compare with Patani in importance as a place of trade.

The Globe anchored in the harbour of Patani on the 23rd June, 1612.⁴ The factors met with an “honourable reception by the queen and country people, but with some disgust and distaste from the Dutch,”⁵ who had been there since 1602; and a few days after their arrival they went ashore in great state,⁶ taking with them a present, and also a letter from James the First laid on a gold basin.

The factors, notwithstanding their good reception, experienced much difficulty in obtaining permission to build a fire-proof warehouse, but they were at last permitted to do so, a piece of ground sixty yards long and forty broad having been given to them, on which they erected a house, “eight fathome long and foure broad.”⁷ They had, however; to pay an unreasonable sum for it, but agreed to the terms imposed “in hope of future benefit.” Sickness much afflicted them, “as if the plague had beene in our ship,” and, on the 9th July, their “good shepherd, that wise and worthy gentleman,”¹ Captain Anthony Hippon, was stricken and died, and Thomas Essington was appointed in his place. Thieves also broke in at night, and stole money out of Essington’s box, even although fifteen persons were sleeping in the house, a lamp burning, ‘and a great black Dogge keeping watch in the yard,’ circumstances which led Floris to suspect that the robbers were among themselves.²

Adam Denton, one of the factors, relates,³ that shortly after the arrival of the Globe at Patani, he left Mr. Floris on the ship and went to Siam (Ayuthia) in a “goudon” they had built. This circumstance, however, is not mentioned in the Extracts from Floris’ Journal, although it comes out incidentally in them that some of the factors had gone to Ayuthia before the Globe had left Patani for the capital, as eight days after the ship’s departure, and seven days before it had reached its destination, Floris, who had remained behind at Patani, records that he received letters from Master Essington and Master Lucas (Antheuniss) at Ayuthia, so that Denton had been accompanied by these two factors; and it appears from his letter⁴ that two other Englishmen went with him, viz., Thomas Samuel and Thomas Driver. These five, then, were the first Englishmen to visit the capital of Siam; and Adam Denton mentions⁵ that from the roadstead of Siam he and his companions journeyed “up the river some twenty miles to a town called Bancope (Bangkok), where they were well received; and farther 100 miles to the city (of Siam) where the king and people furnished them with everything they required, and a stone house, three stories high, contrary to the opinion of the Dutch.”

The Globe followed Denton and his companions on the 1st August,¹ and arrived in the “Road of Syam” on the 15th August, 1612, and cast anchor in three fathoms at high water, but this dangerous position was soon changed for a better, in deeper water. Information of the ship’s arrival was at once forwarded to the city, but as soon as the tidings had reached “Mancock” (Bangkok), the native Shāhbandar of that port went down professedly to receive King James’s letter, but chiefly with an eye to a personal present.

The factors were received in audience by the king on 17th September,² when King James’s letter was doubtless delivered. The arrival of a letter from so little known a monarch as the king of England was a great event in Siamese history, and one which gratified the king. At the audience each factor received a little golden cup and a small piece of clothing,³ a custom which, in important interviews, used to be followed at the court of Mandalay during the reign of the deposed Thebaw and his predecessors. They received permission to trade in his kingdom, and consequently took possession of the house assigned to them, and which lay close to the Dutch factory; but in their first efforts to dispose of their goods, they were much embarrassed by the covetousness and corruption of the mandarins, and by the wars which afflicted the country, and which had caused the markets at Ayuthia to be surfeited with goods.

The news of the cordial reception of these Englishmen by the king of Siam was carried to Acheen by an ambassador to that Court from his Siamese Majesty, and it doubtless created no little stir in that capital as well. Captain Best records⁴ that while at Acheen he was visited by th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• Introduction Chapter
• Chapter I.
• Chapter II.
• Chapter III.
• Chapter IV.
• Chapter V.
• Chapter VI.
• Chapter VII.
• Chapter VIII.
• Chapter IX.
• Chapter X.
• Chapter XI.
• Appendices.
• Index