Sending News Of Their Arrival, The Sabandar And The Governor Of Mancock,[380] A Place On The River, Came Back Along With Their Messengers To Receive The Letter From The King Of England To Their Sovereign, But Chiefly For The Sake Of The Expected Presents.

Captain Essington and Mr Lucas accompanied them to the town, where they were presented to the king on the 17th September, and received assurances of a free trade, the king giving each of them a small golden cup, and some little article of dress.

The covetous mandarins, or officers of the crown, would have counteracted the royal permission of free trade, by taking every thing they pleased at prices of their own making, and paying when they pleased, acting in short more corruptly than those in any other part of India, though assuredly the rest are bad enough: but, on complaint being made to the king, he gave orders not to molest the English in their trade; after which all their goods were carried to a house assigned them by the king, being the best brick house in Siam, and close to that of the Hollanders. The time when our people were at Siam was the season of the rains, when the whole country was covered with water.

[Footnote 380: Rather Bankok, near the mouth of the river Menan. - Astl. I. 438. h.]

On the 26th October there arose such a storm of wind as had not been remembered by the oldest of the natives, tearing up trees by the roots, and occasioning extensive desolation. Among other things destroyed on this occasion, the monument which had been erected by the reigning king, in memory of his father, was overthrown. Our ship, the Globe, very narrowly escaped, by the diligent care of Mr Skinner and Samuel Huyts, and by means of dropping a third anchor, after she had drifted, with two anchors, from six fathoms to four, she was at length brought up, when only a mile from the land. On this occasion Mr Skinner was beaten from the anchor-stock, and very strangely recovered. Five men were drowned, one of whom was supposed to have been devoured by a whale, which was seen about the time when he disappeared.[381] After raging four or five hours, the storm subsided, and the sea became as calm as if there had been no wind. Yet a tempest continued aboard the Globe, occasioned, as was reported, by the unreasonable conduct of the master, who was therefore put under arrest, and Mr Skinner appointed in his room, on which this tempest also subsided. Their trade also was too much becalmed, although this had formerly been the third best place of trade in all India, after Bantam and Patane, the causes of which falling off will be best understood by the following narrative.

[Footnote 381: Whales are not of this description. Perhaps Mr Floris had said in Dutch, by a great fish, meaning surely a shark. At this place Purchas observes, in a side-note, "that the road of Siam is safe, except in a S.S.W. wind." - E.]

Sec. 2. Narrative of strange Occurrences in Pegu, Siam, Johor, Patane, and the adjacent Kingdoms.

Siam, formerly a mighty and ancient kingdom, had been, not long before, subdued, and rendered tributary to Pegu, yet did not continue long under subjection. On the death of the king of Siam, two of his sons, who were brought up at the court of Pegu, fled from thence to Siam. The eldest of these, called in the Malay language, Raja Api, or the fiery king, set himself up as king of Siam. He it was whom the Portuguese used to call the Black King of Siam. Against him the king of Pegu sent his eldest son and intended successor, who was slain in these wars, and was the occasion of the almost total destruction of the kingdom of Pegu, and caused the loss of many millions of lives. The king of Pegu, who was of the race of the Bramas, was sore grieved for the loss of his son, and caused most of his chief Peguan nobles and military officers to be put to death on the occasion. This caused much perturbation and confusion, so that his tributary kings, of whom there were twenty, revolted daily against him. At length, encouraged by these defections, Rajah Api, or the Black King of Siam, went to war against the king of Pegu, and even besieged the capital city of Uncha, or Pegu, for two months, but was forced to raise the siege and return to Siam.

Not long after this, on account of a great pestilence and famine, the king of Pegu found himself under the necessity of surrendering himself and all his treasures to the king of Tangu, that he might not fall into the hands of the king of Arracan, who was coming against him with a prodigious army: Yet the king of Arracan easily made himself master of the city and kingdom of Pegu, then almost depopulated by famine and pestilence. The king of Arracan now proposed to go against Tangu; but the king of that country sent ambassadors to him at Arracan, offering to deliver up to him a certain portion of the treasures of Pegu, together with the White Elephant and the king of Pegu's daughter, both of whom I saw at Arracan in 1608; even offering either to give up the king of Pegu or to put him to death. This the king of Tangu afterwards did, by slaying him, with a pilon, or wooden pestel with which they stamp rice; for being of the race of Brama, it was not lawful to shed his blood. In this manner was the mighty empire of Pegu brought to ruin, so that at this day there is no remembrance of it.[382] The king of Arracan gave charge of the town and fortress of Siriagh, [Sirian] upon the river of Pegu, to Philip de Brito de Nicote, to whom he gave the designation of Xenga, signifying the honest; which honour and confidence Xenga requited by taking his son a prisoner three or four years afterwards, and ransomed him for 1,100,000 taggans and ten galeas of rice.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 192 of 218
Words from 195204 to 196249 of 221842