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:
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