Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-general of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China: Exhibiting a View of the Actual State of Those Kingdoms, Volume 1H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830 - China |
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afforded anchored appearance arrived audience Bang-kok Bengal boats Buddha capital ceremony chief China coast Cochin Chinese considerable consisted course Court curiosity eight elephants English European exhibited Faifo favourable Finlayson fish forest four French Gautama Governor Governor-general of India granite Gulf of Siam harbour hills Hué hundred inhabitants intercourse Kamboja Kandyu King of Siam land letter Ligor Majesty Malacca Malay Malay language Mandarins Menam ment miles Minister Mission monsoon morning mountains native o'clock observed occasion officers Pak-nam palace party passed Penang persons piculs ports Portuguese Prah-klang present priests Prince of Wales's principal Pulo Condore Queda received requested residence respect rice river rock Saigun sail sent ship shore Siamese Siamese Government side Singapore Spanish dollars Straits Straits of Malacca tains Talapoins temple tion to-day told Tonquin took Touran trade vessels village voyage Wales's Island whole yesterday
Popular passages
Page 157 - Geraes at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries; in the case of California in 1848 and the years immediately following.
Page 326 - ... combat was to take place. The Governor went out at another gate, and arrived at the place before us in his palanquin. When the hall broke up, a herald or crier announced the event. With the exception of this ceremony, great propriety and decorum were observed throughout the audience. The exhibition made by the herald, however, was truly barbarous.
Page 326 - He threw himself backward, projecting his abdomen, and putting his hands to his sides, and in this absurd attitude uttered several loud and long yells. The tiger had been exhibited in front of the hall, and was driven to the spot on a hurdle. A great concourse of people had assembled to witness the exhibition. The tiger was secured to a stake by a rope tied round his loins, about thirty yards long. The mouth of the unfortunate animal was sewn up, and his nails pulled out.
Page 265 - July 10 (1822). I had in the course of this forenoon a visit from a person of singular modesty and intelligence. Pascal Ribeiro de Alvergarias, the descendant of a Portuguese Christian of Kamboja. This gentleman holds a high Siamese title, and a post of considerable importance. Considering his means and situation, his acquirements were remarkable, for he not only spoke and wrote the Siamese, Kambojan, and Portuguese languages with facility, but also spoke and wrote Latin with considerable propriety....
Page 140 - Notwithstanding the veneration with which the white elephants are considered in some respects, it does not seem to be carried so far in Siam as to emancipate them from occasional correction. Two of them were described as so vicious that it was considered unsafe to exhibit them. A keeper pricked the foot of one, in our presence, with a sharp iron, until blood came, although his majesty's only offence was stealing a bunch of bananas ; or rather snatching it before he had received permission ! In...
Page 379 - ... compliment to his administration. " The art of casting good brass cannon, under the direction of Europeans, appears to have been long known in this part of the world; for, among the cannon in the arsenal, were a good number of very well founded ordnance, apparently of the size of long nine pounders, as old as the years 1664 and 1665. These had an inscription in the Portuguese language, importing that they were cast in CochinChina, or Kamboja, and bearing the dates in question, with the name of...
Page 135 - His head was bare, and he wore neither crown nor any other ornament on it. Close to him was a golden baton, or sceptre. ' The general appearance of the hall of audience, the prostrate attitude of the courtiers, the situation of the king, and the silence which prevailed, presented, a very imposing spectacle, and reminded us. much more of a temple crowded with votaries engaged in the performance of some solemn rite of religion, than the audience chamber of a temporal monarch. ' The king seemed a man...
Page 257 - Paknam, and their small arms and cannon landed, according to former custom, and then that the ships shall be conducted to the capital. As soon as they are anchored, the superintendent of customs shall afford all assistance in buying and selling with the merchants of Siam, and the duties and charges shall not be more than heretofore, nor afterwards be raised. Let the English merchants come to Siam to sell and buy in conformity to this agreement.
Page 139 - Buddha and the doctrine of the metempsychosis prevail. It was natural, therefore, to imagine that the body of so rare an object as a white elephant must be the temporary habitation of the soul of some mighty personage in its progress to perfection. This is the current belief, and accordingly every white elephant has the rank and title of a king, with an appropriate name expressing this dignity — such as the " pure king," the " wonderful king,
Page 139 - They showed no signs of disease, dehility, or imperfection; and, as to size, they were of the ordinary stature, the smallest being not less than six feet six inches high. Upon inquiring into their history, we found that they were all either from the kingdom of Lao or Kamboja, and none from Siam itself, nor from the Malay countries tributary to it, which last, indeed, had never been known to afford a white elephant. ' The rareness of the white elephant is, no doubt, the origin of the consideration...