The English Governess at the Siamese Court / Being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok

E-text prepared by Lee Dawei, Michelle Shephard, David Moynihan, Charles
Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
With Illustrations, FROM PHOTOGRAPHS PRESENTED TO THE AUTHOR BY THE KING OF SIAM.
I have not asked your leave, dear friend, to dedicate to you these pages of my experience in the heart of an Asiatic court; but I know you will indulge me when I tell you that my single object in inscribing your name here is to evince my grateful appreciation of the kindness that led you to urge me to try the resources of your country instead of returning to Siam, and to plead so tenderly in behalf of my children.
I wish the offering were more worthy of your acceptance. But to associate your name with the work your cordial sympathy has fostered, and thus pleasantly to retrace even the saddest of my recollections, amid the happiness that now surrounds me,—a happiness I owe to the generous friendship of noble-hearted American women,—is indeed a privilege and a compensation.
I remain, with true affection, gratitude, and admiration,
Your friend, A. H. L.
26th July, 1870.
His Majesty, Somdetch P'hra Paramendr Maha Mongkut, the Supreme King of Siam, having sent to Singapore for an English lady to undertake the education of his children, my friends pointed to me. At first it was with much reluctance that I consented to entertain the project; but, strange as it may seem, the more I reflected upon it the more feasible it appeared, until at length I began to look forward, even with a glow of enthusiasm, toward the new and untried field I was about to enter.
The Siamese Consul at Singapore, Hon. W. Tan Kim-Ching, had written strongly in my favor to the Court of Siam, and in response I received the following letter from the King himself:—
ENGLISH ERA, 1862, 26th February. GRAND ROYAL PALACE, BANGKOK.
To MRS. A. H. LEONOWENS:—