Siam in 1688/Part 2
The Massacre in Siam,
After the death of the King and the vigorous
resistance of the French in the Fortresses
of the Kingdom.
Written by an Officer of the French troops who served in
these fortresses to one of his friends.
The Dutch who are the nation who do the greatest amount of trade in Siam, seeing that the zeal of our great King was chiefly directed to establishing the faith of Jesus Christ there, and that indeed the Revd. Jesuit fathers whom His Majesty had sent for the instruction of these idolatrous people converted every day a great number of them in making them make solemn and public abjurations, and who by this good example led one to believe that the King of Siam would lead after himself all his subjects to our creed, did not fail from the very beginning to employ all means to prevent the great progress. As during the lifetime of the King, who was clear sighted, they could not succeed in their intentions, they took advantage of the time during which the King could no longer act, and death was on the point of depriving him of life.
His Siamese Majesty having fallen dangerously ill in May 1688, one Opra Petracha a man of great merit amongst the Siamese mandarins, pushed by the Dutch to aspire to the Crown of his King, took measures to execute his intentions, which was not difficult for him. As he had refused the highest charges of the state, with which the King wanted to honour him on several occasions, with a view of simply applying himself to Religion, taking upon himself the duties of a true priest, he approached first the most distinguished amongst them, who seeing that the chief reason for this pernicious design consisted in a true zeal for the Siamese Religion assisted him at once so that he should be raised to the throne. Their blindness went so far that having had assembled a great many people to whom they communicated the resolutions which they had taken regarding the nomination of their new King, they allowed the people to go to all parts of the town proclaiming openly that Opra Petracha was the most worthy of all nobles of Siam to become their king, not taking into consideration that their party had not yet bee formed and that such attempt might lead to the abortion of their designs. What induced the people to declare themselves so openly was that the majority of them had received great help from this Opra in gifts which he constantly bestowed on them. His son whom he had raised to the first dignity of the Kingdom next after the Princes of the blood, which is what they call Oya, seeing the necessity there was to do everything nithe interest of his father amongst the friends and the grandees of the Kingdom, wrote to the one and went to visit the others in secret. He showed them all the contempt in which the King held their religion, and addressing all those of whom he knew that they had been badly treated by M. Constance, he made them see how dangerous it would be if the true successor to the Crown should be elevated to the Throne, because M. Constance would become only more powerful.
All these measures having been taken, and the illness of the King getting worse, so that there was no doubt about his death, this Opra at the head of 15,000 men whom his own devices and those of his son had attracted within a short time, occupied all entrances to the palace of the King, in which the nobles were kept. He kept them besieged for several days under the pretext that according to custom, while the King was on the point of dying, it was necessary to secure the principal mandarins, so that they could not act against the true successor.
M. Constance, knowing perfectly well the secret ambition of this Opra, neglected nothing to be in a position to scatter these rebels by force and to arrest this chief of the rebels. For that purpose he assembled all Catholics and sent an express to M. des Farges, Governor of Bangkok, commanding him to come at once to his assistance with the troops of his garrison: but M. des Farges, seeing well from the rumours he heard of a general rebellion, that he would only expose the few people he had without being able to dispel this uprising, and that the Christians had no Asylum to which to escape in case of prosecution, resolved to keep the place and sent a messenger to M. Constance asking him to take refuge himself with his family and all Catholics in Bangkok, as he believed the evil was too great. Indeed the messenger had not yet arrived in Siam, when the Usurper believed he was strong enough and, seeing that M. Constance had not sufficient forces to resist him, he lost no time and openly declared himself Sovereign. He himself had already arrested the adopted son of the King, whom he had cut into pieces with a cruelty without example. M. Constance had been arrested at the same time with arms in his hands accompanied by several Christians fighting for the faith of Jesus Christ, and, having witnessed this spectacle, suffered the same torment as the prince.
This tyrant, whose first success increased his fury, had the brothers of the King put in velvet bags and had them knocked down with wooden clubs. He then had the house of M. Constance pillaged, where his children and all his servants were arrested and made prisoners. Madame Constance, several times urged by the son of this Usurper who was in love with her to enter amongst the number of his wives with a promise to have always for her the greatest consideration, replied that his offer would never shake her. Finally this cruel man seeing that he could do nothing with her made her the last of his slaves, and made her suffer the most cruel torments. He had her arms broken and had her thrown with her children in a building where the elephants were lodged, from which a French Officer rescued them and conducted them to Bangkok.
The populace went to the Seminary and to the Jesuit Fathers, where after having robbed them all of what they were possessed, they seized them and, treating them with great cruelty, prevented that anything should be given for their maintenance.
The King, who knew of these events and who was shut up in the palace in the hands of his enemies, asked for money from this tyrant and, after having received it, distributed 50 écus of it to each Jesuit. Then, more afflicted by seeing the French Catholics ill treated than by the illness from which he was suffering this Monarch died. The usurper had himself at once proclaimed King and, after the promise he had made for the establishment of liberty and of the Siamese Religion, he only thought of expelling the French from the country together with those who appeared in favour of the late King and of M. Constance. We retired to the fortress of Bangkok, and we were then besieged by all nations who were living in the states of the new King. The fortress was soon surrounded by eight small forts, which the besiegers builts at the distance of a cannon shot, and these all were furnished with guns and bombs which they could only have received from the Dutch and which much incommoded us, as we feared that our magazines which were all of wood should be set on fire; but we nevertheless demolished all their works with cannon shots. The vexation they had in seeing this work ruined in such a short time made them take the the besiegers built at the distance resolution to put at the head of their works the Bishop and the other French whom they had madé prisoners in Siam, so that if we should fire those our nation would be killed first.
Although their astuteness was successful as we did not shoot so often since we had to take good aim, and although our fortress was open on the land side we were able to resist five months and four days; after which time when we were running short of all sorts of ammunition, we were granted through the help of the Bishop a capitulation according to which the Siamese furnished us with everything necessary for our maintenance and for the transport of our baggage up to the mouth of the river where the Oriflame one of the King's vessels, of 50 guns, had arrived. Hostages were sent on board and after having burst part of the cannons and spiked the others we left Bangkok.
Mergui was besieged by the same nations and M. Bruan, who commanded this place, having with him only thirty men, defended himself vigorously during some time, but a cannon ball having smashed his last jar of water he took the resolution to leave the fort with his people sword in hand. He executed his design with a surprising intrepidity and having broken through the enemies he compelled the rest to run away. He arrived at the sea shore, where he found two feluccas, on which he embarked and went to Pondicheri with 20 men and some Jesuits in a pitiable state. M. des Farges arrived there some time afterwards with his troops and sent M. Beauchamp to France on the vessel la Normande to give an account to his Majesty of this sad revolution, with orders to pass by the Cape of good Hope to give notice to the French vessels not to go to Siam.