PERSONAL RELATIONS WITH KING MONGKUT
As he had intimated, the king could not continue familiar intercourse with the westerners because none but the nobles might enter his presence, except by particular request. There was some speculation, therefore, as to the attitude he would assume towards the missionaries after the coronation ceremonies were over. Any misgivings they may have had were soon dispelled. For some years it had been the custom of the Prince-Priest to celebrate his birthday—“the day like that on which I was born,” as he termed it—by inviting his foreign friends to a feast. The missionaries awaited the royal birthday with some interest, agreeing among themselves that his future attitude towards them would be more truly forecast by his treatment of his former custom. When the day approached the king sent an autograph letter “to all the white strangers,” inviting them to the palace.
Concerning this event Dr. House wrote (Oct. 18, 1851):
“This day twelve-month, how different we were situated: our teachers arrested and in irons; our servants panic struck or in prison; and we seriously agitating the question of seeking a more open field to labor in.
“Now we are the invited guests of the King himself, on the occasion of his forty-seventh birthday, to dine at the royal palace with other Europeans. His Majesty’s eldest son is deputed to do the honours of the feast, and we receiving a present of gold from the sovereign of the land as a token of his favour; and nobles and princes courting rather than shunning our acquaintance.”
King Mongkut entertained a particularly high esteem for Dr. Bradley and Dr. House. This admiration manifested itself not merely by including them under the bestowal of general favours but by marks of personal consideration. It was no small honour which the king conferred upon Dr. House by this request (July, 1852):
“Honoured today by the first personal summons I (or indeed any of us missionaries) have received to the royal presence. Nai Poon called to say that he was ordered some days ago to take me for conversation in English as His Majesty was ‘losing all his English.’”
Frequently the king sent to Dr. House requesting him to translate for him items of political or scientific interest in English journals or to report news from the doctor’s foreign mail. Before the king engaged Mrs. Leonowens, the English governess, who served also as his amanuensis, he occasionally would summon Dr. House to transcribe in a familiar hand letters in English to the king or to write for him letters to foreign rulers, including Queen Victoria and the President of the United States.
In his capacity as a surgeon, after he had given up the general practise, Dr. House was on two occasions summoned to assist Dr. Bradley at the king’s palace. In January of 1852 he records his first attendance:
“At His Majesty’s request—the prince physician desiring it, Dr. Bradley was summoned to take charge of one of the royal ladies who had been confined but a few days before of a princess—His Majesty’s first begotten since his accession.... Never before had any foreign physician been within the forbidden precincts of the harem of the royal palace. His Majesty, like a good husband anxious for his young wife, desired Dr. Bradley to invite me to accompany him as counsel in the case. So in the evening I went expecting to return by twelve o’clock. Parleying at the inner gate, women servants opened the gates and escorted us to the palace. Dr. Bradley had got the fire by which she was lying extinguished (custom required ‘lying by the fire’), had put her on a close diet and other treatment. An old lady of rank waited to carry up my opinion of the case to the ‘Sacred Feet.’ At midnight, finding our patient had no new paroxysms, as we feared she might, we proposed going home. ‘Go, how can you; you must stay till morning, you are locked in and the key sent to the king, so stay you must; no one goes out till daylight!’”
Some days after Dr. Bradley received from the king the following letter of appreciation:
“My Dear Sir:
“My mind is indeed full of much gratitude to you for your skill and some expense of medicine in most valuable favour to my dear lady, the mother of my infant daughter, by saving her life from approaching death. I cannot hesitate longer than perceiving that she was undoubtedly saved.
“I beg therefore your kind acceptance of two hundred ticals for Dr. Bradley, who was the curer of her, and forty ticals for Dr. S. R. House, who had some trouble in his assistance, for being your grateful reward.
“I trust(ed) previously the manner of curing in the obstetric of America and Europe, but sorry to say I could not get the same lady to believe before her approaching (threatening) death, because her kindred were many more who lead her according to their custom. Your present curing, however, was just now most wonderful in this palace.
“I beg to remain your friend and well-wisher,
“S. P. P. M. Mongkut, the King of Siam.”
In September of the same year the two doctors were again called to the palace to attend upon the queen-consort. A still-birth had left the queen in a precarious condition, so that for more than a month Dr. Bradley was in almost continuous attendance throughout the day, while Dr. House took his place during the night. During this occasion it was necessary for them to remain in the palace on the Sabbath, and on that day the two missionaries availed themselves of a privilege accorded by the king, who agreed that when it was necessary for them to remain during Sunday they should have freedom to conduct worship in the palace.
“There in that hall of the queen’s apartments in the inner palace, to the interesting group around, Dr. Bradley read the scriptures ... his auditors occasionally asking questions, sometimes for information, sometimes in a carping way.”
But the queen was not improving; and at her request the foreign doctors were permitted to leave and the Siamese court physicians restored to their functions, administering their medicines prepared from “sapanwood shavings, rhinoceros’ blood and the cast-off skins of spiders.” After a day the American physicians were again called in attendance, and although they judged the cause to be beyond help, continued in constant attendance.
“September 25. For first time without exception since Monday, September 13, am to sleep in my own bed at home—having all other nights slept in my clothes at the royal palace, relieving Dr. B. who has charge of the queen in his attendance at night, his family requiring his presence then.”
The death of the queen occurred on the tenth of October. On this occasion Dr. House was requested by the king to write a detailed account of the late illness and death of the queen; and this, together with matter of his own composition, the king had printed for distribution.