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.
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