This old gentleman conversed for some time with great ease and affability, inquired into the respective rank and occupation of the several gentlemen of the mission, and seemed to welcome us with great cordiality. He soon intimated that the object of his visit was to procure the letter from the Governor-General to the King. He had brought with him a handsome golden cup for its reception. On this, the letter, wrapt in gold tissue, was placed in his presence. On his expressing a wish to depart, Mr. Crawfurd took up the cup, and raising it to his head, proceeded through a double line of sepoys, with presented arms, drawn out for the occasion, to the gangway, from which he handed it down to one of the gentlemen of the mission placed in the chief’s boat to receive it. The latter delivered it to the chief, who placed it negligently on a piece of old carpet, on which he sat.
March 30th.—The Portuguese, who continued to visit us from time to time, brought a message from the minister Peea-Suri-Wong-Montree, to the effect, that he would be happy to accommodate the mission with a house during their stay at Bankok. The offer was accepted, and, at the request of Mr. Crawfurd, Captain Macdonald went on shore to examine the house. His report was far from flattering to our expectations. The building, which appeared to be an out-house, intended for a store-room, contained but four small, ill-ventilated rooms, the approach to which led through a trap-door from below, and on three sides they were almost entirely excluded from fresh air. There was not a single out-house for the accommodation of a numerous train of followers. The place was besides completely shut out from the court, and the open space occupied by the chief himself, whose accommodations appeared to be abundantly ample and comfortable. A list of the persons forming the suite of the Agent of the Governor-General had been transmitted to the minister at an early period after our arrival, by which he must have been convinced that the house he had allotted was totally inadequate for the accommodation of the party. Besides, the manner in which it had been granted, was calculated to awaken suspicion that he either wished to have the mission entirely at his own disposal, excluding every one else from visiting us, and be enabled to keep the strictest watch over our conduct, or that he wished to degrade it, by affecting to regard it as of but little importance. The latter inference appeared the more probable, from the circumstance of his own accommodations being abundantly respectable and ample, and yet the number of his retainers did not appear to equal that of our followers. With Asiatics, as with other nations, it is the custom for the government to provide accommodation for persons sent on the public service from one court to another, in an official capacity.
In the present instance, it was conferred by an individual, in a very inadequate manner, and as a matter of favour and of indulgence on his part. It should be observed, however, that the number of houses built of brick and mortar, and roofed with tiles, is here very scanty; and, although the house allotted for the use of the mission was in all respects inferior to those occupied by the chief, yet it is possible that they may have considered it as admirably adapted for the purpose.
No person of rank had yet waited on the Agent to the Governor General, and all communication with the minister was carried on through the Malay so often alluded to, a man to all appearance of low rank, cunning, suspicious, and artful in the highest degree. He could be looked upon only in the light of a vigilant spy, supple, fawning, and familiar, yet ready to take advantage of every expression, and of every act of our conduct, nor were the most trifling and indifferent matters beyond his notice; and, on one occasion, when a young gentleman on board, not connected with the mission, went to visit the Portuguese Consul, this man meanly traced his steps, and followed him into the house. His character was besides publicly spoken of as being little short of infamous; and, on more than one occasion, he had been treated by the captains of American and European ships with a degree of harshness and rigour which no man possessed of the least degree of feeling or of credit could have possibly submitted to. His particular duty is to superintend the conduct of the Malays who frequent this port. I may observe of this man, that he appeared to be about forty-five years of age. He was tall, active, and rather thin. In appearance, he was not to be distinguished from that sect of Mohammedans so numerous on the coast of Coromandel, Malabar, and Ceylon, and usually known under the general and indefinite appellation of Moormen. The sect is called Mopla. They are, for the most part, petty traders, and are generally to be seen hawking their wares about the houses of Europeans. They shave the head, and wear on its crown a small white cap. This man always wore such a cap: the upper part of his body was naked: round the loins he wore a piece of coarse cloth, turned up between the legs, and, at times, a coarse shawl. Such were the accomplishments, and such the appearance of Kochai-Sahac, a man whom it was scarce possible to look upon without distrust.
The ship had not yet been secured, before a message was brought by this man to demand the presents for the king. A list of the articles had been demanded, and forwarded as soon as we entered the mouth of the river. Their first object was to procure an English horse, originally intended as a present for the king of Cochin China. It would seem that they were much pleased with this gift, and indeed they were struck with astonishment at the great value of the presents in general, and hence they could but ill conceal their joy on the occasion, and that they had been little accustomed to receive gifts of such value. Unlike the more civilized states of further India, the Siamese court, in the urgency and frequency of its demands, betrayed a degree of meanness and avidity in this matter at once disgusting and disgraceful. For several successive days, there was no end to their importunities. The most valuable, as well as the most trifling articles, were taken away without the least ceremony, and intrusted to the Moorman and a few common labourers. In the course of the day, a mean-looking person came on board, saying, that he was desired to take away the presents. The circumstance appeared suspicious. He was told that he could not have them, on which he went away apparently quite satisfied. It is probable that this man had been sent by the prince, or some other person of rank, to pry into the affair, as the Moorman asserted that he was unauthorized to make any such demand. The articles, as they came up, with the exception of the horse, consisting of superfine cloth, English shawls, muslins, glass ware, muskets, and a small barouche, were taken to the minister’s house, where they underwent a severe scrutiny.
The Portuguese consul at this place now sent a person in his suite to wait upon the Agent of the Governor General. He spoke French with tolerable accuracy, and excused the consul from not coming in person, alleging as the reason, that the court would look upon such a visit in an unfavourable light, on account of our not having as yet paid a visit to the king; but that ceremony over, he would have the pleasure of calling.
On wishing to go on the river in the evening, we learnt the disagreeable intelligence that we were to be prisoners, and restricted from intercourse with the people until the ceremony of our introduction should be over. The only latitude we could aspire to was to pass from the ship to the house on shore occupied by the Agent of the British government, at the distance of a few yards only. This circumstance was the more irksome, from the day of our intended introduction having been put off for another week, and it was rendered the more disagreeable by the inadequate accommodation they had assigned to the mission. They seemed anxious only to procure presents, and presents in any shape were eagerly snatched at. They shewed none of those little attentions so pleasing to strangers, and understood by every people who have made the least progress in civilization. Their conduct in this respect formed a striking and unfavourable contrast with that of the Barman people towards Colonel Symes on a similar occasion. Neither fruit nor any other refreshment was offered to us; nor was the assistance of labourers to be procured even when solicited. It was mysteriously hinted that the king would provide our people with food during our stay, but no such offer was ever tendered. The conduct of the court was that of marked neglect, which, in a people notoriously guided by ceremony and form, could only be attributed to design, and in no degree to ignorance. Their conduct neither amounted to personal insult, nor to ostensible contempt; and it is perfectly evident that they entertained proper sentiments of respect for our government, and an ill-concealed dread of its well-known power, from which we might have inferred that they would make no difficulty in granting whatever such a government would deign to ask.
In the evening a message was brought by the Malay, to say that the minister would be glad to see Mr. Crawfurd. Accompanied by Captain Dangerfield, he accordingly made him a visit. He received them in a large and lofty hall, open on one side, spread with carpets, and hung with glass lights and Chinese lanterns. They took their seats on carpets spread for the purpose, and were entertained with tea, fruit, and Chinese preserves. It would appear that the conversation was of a general nature, and rather formal. They were well-pleased with the attention of the chief, and spoke favourably of their reception. He offered to make what alterations were deemed necessary to fit the house for our convenience, an offer which he subsequently bore little in remembrance. The servility which the attendants of this man observed towards him, appears to have been quite disgusting, and altogether degrading to humanity. During the whole of the visit they lay prostrate on the earth before him, and at a distance. When addressed, they did not dare to cast their eyes towards him, but raising the head a little, and touching the forehead with both hands united in the manner by which we would express the most earnest supplication, their looks still directed to the ground, they whispered an answer in the most humiliating tone. The manner in which he was approached by the servants of his household was even still more revolting to nature. When refreshments were ordered, they crawled forward on all fours, supported on the elbow and toes, the body being dragged on the ground. In this manner they pushed the dishes before them from time to time, in the best manner that their constrained and beast-like attitude would admit, until they had put them into their place, when they retreated backwards in the same grovelling manner, but without turning round.
How abominable! how revolting this assumption of despotic power! that would vainly assimilate a weak and frail mortal to the Deity, and that could trample under its feet not only the body, degrading it to the condition of the brute beasts of the field, but even the mind of man, and render servility perpetual!
Yet this haughty chief was himself but a minister of the fifth order in importance, doomed to take his turn of beast-like grovelling, as was subsequently exhibited on visiting Chroma-chit, son to the king. Every man here is doomed to crawl on the earth before his superior. The nation must be considered as entirely the slaves of the king, of whose lives, as well as property, he can dispose at will.