Chapter IV: Part 4

The status of the mission was deemed so critical that Dr. House was authorised to report the situation to the mission office in New York and to ask permission for the missionaries to quit Siam as the last resort and to attach themselves to missions in other lands. The reply, received nine months later, gave full authority to the missionaries in the matter, and provisionally assigned Dr. House as assistant to Dr. Happer in China. This assignment had been suggested by Dr. House in his letter to the Board because Dr. Happer, knowing of the crisis in Siam, had written him to come to China, adding that he “always thought Siam an unpromising field; and that after the Board gets out of it they might as well keep clear of it.” While waiting for the desired authority to quit the field the missionaries kept an eye open for a favourable chance to get away in safety, deeming themselves warranted in escaping with their lives in any vessel that could be found to take them away. Thus did the Mission come very close to an untimely end.

DEATH OF THE OLD KING

The serious foreboding of the natives and foreigners alike was greatly intensified by the rumour that the king had shut himself up in his palace and would have no communication with his nobles. Daily the court assembled according to custom but the king took no counsel with them concerning public affairs. So few were permitted to enter the royal presence that it was difficult to ascertain whether he was sick or only in a pet as on a previous occasion. It was, however, a case of serious illness from a chronic disease which had rapidly become critical.

About the middle of February of that notable year, 1851, the king sent a document to the assembled nobles, briefly stating that he despaired of recovery, and left to the council of princes and three chief ministers the selection of a successor; and at the same time turned over the reins of government to these three ministers. Although the king at this time refrained from nominating a successor, he had some months previously expressed a preference for a favourite son, but the nobles would not confirm his wish. Besides this son there were two other aggressive aspirants for the throne; all three candidates being conservatives. While both Chao Fah Yai and Chao Fah Noi had legitimate claims to the throne there was no apparent prospect that either would be chosen, for the other three claimants were strongly united in their opposition especially to the former because of his known friendliness towards the English.

As the situation grew ominous of civil strife, the Pra Klang, the strongest of the nobles and the leader of the situation, proposed the name of Chao Fah Yai, having already taken precautions to win to his support the commander of the army; and let it be known that any of the pretenders who did not acquiesce would have to contest their claim with him. By such bold measures he carried the day, even the rivals reluctantly giving in their adherence; and on the following day the decision of the council was communicated to the Prince-Priest, who gave his acceptance on the 18th of March. The king-elect remained in his watt till the death of the king on April 3; he then was brought to the palace grounds in state and lodged in a house especially built for a temporary sojourn, and changed his yellow priestly robes for the ceremonial dress suitable to be worn until the coronation.

Before being brought to the royal premises, the king-elect graciously received three of the missionaries who called upon him, Dr. Bradley, Mr. Jones and Professor Silsby. No doubt it was to this occasion that Mrs. Leonowens refers in her book _An English Governess_ (p. 242):

“Nor did the newly-crowned sovereign forget his friends
and teachers the American missionaries. He sent for them
and thanked them cordially for all they had taught him,
assuring them that it was his earnest desire to administer
the government after the model of the limited monarchy
of England and to introduce schools where the Siamese
youth might be well taught in the English language and
literature and sciences of Europe.... In this connection
Rev. Messrs. Bradley, Caswell, House, Mattoon and Dean are
entitled to special mention. To their united influence Siam
unquestionably owes much if not all her present advancement
and prosperity.”

He authorised Mr. Jones to state that “should the English or American government send an embassy to Siam now he thought they would be kindly and favourably received.” He also received the Roman Catholic bishop, requested him to have prayers offered in his church for the peace of the country and consented to have the priests, banished by his predecessor, recalled.

No believer in Providence can fail to recognise the hand of God directing the course of affairs in Siam at this crisis. Had the old king continued to live, war with Great Britain was inevitable. Had either of the reactionary candidates been chosen civil strife would have been precipitated. In either case the foundation stones of the mission would have been widely scattered.

CHANGED ATTITUDE TOWARDS FOREIGNERS

In May, 1851, the king was formally inducted into his regal office under the title Prabat Somdetch Pra Paramender Maha Mongkut. The accession was celebrated with prolonged festivities. The coronation was private, witnessed only by the princes and nobles. After an interval of a few days came the more public ceremony of enthronement, and to this the Europeans were invited:

“We all (except of course the ladies) had the honour of
being present by his own invitation. Indeed we had a
regular audience from His Majesty; a strange and not a
little imposing scene it was in that audience hall of the
palace. A dinner was prepared for us after the European
style, and though ‘he could not shake hands with us as he
desired—Siamese custom not allowing it,’ yet he sent some
substantial proof of his regard in the shape of a gold
flower and one of silver, together with a gold salung (value
one-fourth eagle) and other specimens of the coinage of the
new reign.

“You will understand how marked are these attentions when you
are told that no missionary was ever before on any occasion
admitted within the walls of the palace, much less allowed to
have an audience.... We were told from the throne in a public
audience by the King himself (who perfectly understands our
object in coming to his land) that he wished us to find
ourselves pleasantly situated in his country and to go on
with our pursuits as we have been doing—‘Fear not!’ he
added. That was the purport of what he said, and though he
was addressing merchants as well as ourselves we knew he must
have had us in mind as much as them.”

Then came the spectacular procession of the king and nobles around the walls of the palace:

“According to immemorial custom on coronation occasions,
H. M., with his nobles and princes in grand procession,
marched around the walls of the royal palace, a mile in
circumference. We missionaries with the other Europeans
received special invitations to be present.... As the King
came along, with pomp and glitter and display of wealth,
sitting high on his throne carried by thirty-two men, he was
distributing right and left to the crowds showers of silver
coins. When he saw us he stopped to rain silver upon us with
a right good will.”

A month later occurred the inauguration of Chao Fah Noi as Second or Vice-King. A public pageant only slightly less magnificent was given, and again the missionaries with the Europeans were personally invited and honoured with special attention.

With the accession of King Mongkut a complete change of attitude towards the missionaries was instant. The new men appointed to high office were from the group of progressives. Those who were carried over from the old régime changed their attitude with facility, for after all they only reflected the royal mind. Princes who had eschewed intercourse with foreigners now courted their acquaintance, frankly declaring that fear of disfavour with the old king had formerly held them aloof. Teachers and servants eagerly returned to their posts. The people in the streets manifested a new respect for the foreigners. With great joy Dr. House records the change:

“A new era with us—at least the dawn of a brighter day.
We have a home at last promised us, and on a really
pleasant spot of ground they are going to allow us to
build. With brothers Mattoon and Bush, went up to visit the
ex-prince-physician (now foreign minister) at his new palace
he falls heir to. Were graciously received. ‘I have laid the
matter of which you spoke, before the King. He said he gives
his permission for you to come here (i. e., to site nearby)
to live; desires me to give you any assistance; permits you
to build for yourselves; can have the whole vacant space to
the canal bank, if needed; wishes you to build many houses;
about a thousand missionaries may come if they wish.’

“Almost too good to be true! Are we really then going to
obtain what we have been seeking for in vain now these four
and one-half years—a place to build a home of our own? A
most eligible spot this; none better in all Bangkok.”

Permanency being assured, the missionaries decided to construct houses of brick, making them as durable and as comfortable as possible. The erection of these houses required a constant oversight of the work and attention to details that cannot well be understood by people in America, for all the practical problems that the architect or builder would take care of as a matter of course had to be solved by the missionaries who had no experience in such work. In the midst of the enterprise the masons and carpenters struck and it required much diplomacy to adjust their demands. The first houses were completed and preaching services begun at the new compound in February, 1852. This site continued to be the location of the mission until 1857, when growth of the work necessitated a change.

MISSIONARY LADIES TEACHING IN THE PALACE

The most notable of all the friendly gestures was the royal request to have the ladies of the missions teach English to the ladies of the palace. The significance of this extraordinary move was understood least of all among these ladies themselves. By his manifestation of approval for female education the king swept completely away the argument of age-long custom against the teaching of women. There continued to be practical difficulties but the insurmountable obstacle had been removed by a single gesture of the liberal-minded king. This notable request is recorded in Dr. House’s journal under date of Aug. 13, 1851:

“Dr. Bradley and Mr. Jones received a communication from the
grand chamberlain of the royal palace, etc. ‘H. M. had heard
from Pya Sisuriwong and Pra Nai Wai that the wives of the
missionaries would teach, changing times (i.e. in turn) the
royal girls and ladies, if H. M. allow. H. M. wishes to know
how you will do, and desires several ladies who live with him
to acquire knowledge in English, etc.’

“Dr. Bradley replied that the ladies of the mission had
made themselves a board of managers of the affair and were
ready to undertake the work. Next morning Dr. Bradley was
summoned to the new prime minister’s, and told that H. M.
desired the teaching in English to ladies of the palace to
begin today—that the astrologer had pronounced it a good
day—and requested Mrs. Bradley to go at 9 a. m. She did so,
her husband leaving her at the palace gate where the Pra
Nai Wai received her and led her to the gate of the woman’s
apartments; there a number of women were waiting for her.
While waiting outside, the young Princess of Wongna met her,
carried in state under a yellow canopy, and shook hands with
her. She was led to the hall where nine young ladies from
sixteen to twenty (one of thirty)—bright, intelligent and
beautiful, she described them—were committed to her as her
pupils in charge of the matron of the palace.”

The women of the mission who assumed this task were Mrs. D. B. Bradley, Mrs. Stephen Mattoon and Mrs. J. T. Jones (who later became Mrs. S. I. Smith). This work among the women of the palace Dr. House characterises as the “first zenana work conducted in any foreign lands,” antedating the zenana work in India by some five or six years. The number of pupils at first increased very quickly to twenty-five or thirty, but after the novelty wore off many of the ladies dropped out of the class. A few maintained an interest to the end, and even invited the teachers to visit them in their private apartments for more serious work of conversation.

The visits of the missionary ladies to the palace continued for a little over three years, when they suddenly and without explanation found admission denied to them. Some have surmised that the king became displeased at the religious influence. However the more probable explanation is that suggested by Dr. House’s journal where the change in this order is associated with the temporary displeasure of the king towards the missionaries by reason of a letter calumniating his character, which coincidently appeared in a newspaper of Straits Settlement and which he erroneously attributed to a missionary.

FIRST FRUITS OF THE MISSION

Along with the turn of the tide in the relations of the government there came to the workers the cheer of gathering the first fruits from the seed of their own sowing. Though there was no evidence of the native Siamese being interested in the Gospel, yet the missionaries were not left without a token that their work was honoured of God. Two years after the organisation of the church, a Chinese convert was received. Under date of Oct., 1851, Dr. House wrote to his parents:

“It is at last our privilege to write to you of one who, once
a worshipper of idols, is now a worshipper of Jehovah.... His
name is Ooan Si Teng, a Chinese twenty-four years old, born
on the Island of Hainan, has been here some six years, speaks
and reads Siamese and also reads his native language. He has
been living in the family of Mr. Mattoon for the past two
or three years. From his first acquaintance with us he has
been convinced of the folly of idol worship and has renounced
it.... He accompanied Mrs. Mattoon to Singapore as bearer
for little Lowrie; and Dr. Lane, with whom Mrs. Mattoon
resided while there, says of him that had he already been a
professing Christian, his conduct could not have been more
exemplary.

“So it was with great joy that at our last communion October
5, we received him to the ordinance of the Lord’s appointing.
The eyes of more than one of us were filled with tears of joy
as we looked on this interesting scene.... In all probability
he was the first native of that Island to be converted to
protestant Christianity.”

While there was bright hope of the immediate prospects on the field, from the Mission Board there came the discouraging reply, “No money, no men,” in response to pleas for recruits. The reports of the dire situation under the old king had not yet been overtaken at home by the news of the marvellous change under the new government.

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.

A MISSION SCHOOL ORGANIZED

Having obtained a permanent location, the Presbyterian missionaries advanced to the long-cherished project of a school. Under date of August, 1852, Dr. House makes entry:

“In evening we talked over plans for doing good, laying out
mission work, schools, bazaar schools, a Chinese teacher.
Will go to Rapri to visit our brother Quakieng.”

This last sentence refers to the Chinese who had been received into the young church upon certificate. He lived at Rapri (Ratburi), a few days’ journey northwest of Bangkok, where he conducted a school for Chinese children. A week later the journal records: “On next Sabbath (15th) Quakieng will begin to explain the Scripture to the Chinese.” This indicates the first step forward, a teacher of the Chinese language introduced as a means of gaining pupils from among the Siamo-Chinese children. From this time until his death he was fully associated with the school; and in November he removed his family to live near the mission compound.

At the annual meeting of the Mission, Oct. 4, 1852, the journal says:

“A superintendent of mission schools appointed; and myself
appointed to that office. Shall have new responsibilities and
important ones; would shrink, but dare not, cannot—must go
forward. Perhaps will find what I have been waiting for yet.
Talked over openings for starting schools. We all feel as if
we are but just organized—as it were, commencing.”

This appointment was after the doctor had fully abandoned medical practise. The new school started off with good prospects. In October Mrs. Mattoon began to give instruction in Siamese language to the eight boys. The annual report to the Board, prepared perhaps two months later, gives the enrollment at twenty-seven, including the four girls in the families and day pupils; while in January the doctor comments:

“Our schools are doing well, but too few pupils. Geography
and arithmetic in the boarding school (twelve pupils) now
fall to me.”

The use of the word “schools” in the plural is accounted for by the fact that Mrs. Mattoon had succeeded about this time in organising a class in the Peguan village, across the river. But the period of daily instruction was manifestly not enough to counteract the influence of the community. Having through a number of months succeeded in winning the confidence of the parents, at length, in February, 1853, she induced them to let their children (mostly girls) go to live in the mission compound:

“February 9. Tomorrow we expect to have quite an accession
to the number of our boarding pupils—the whole (almost) of
the scholars at the Peguan village, where Mrs. Mattoon has
won the confidence of the parents as well as the love of
the children. Teacher Kieng reports that their mothers were
washing and scrubbing them as clean as possible today, and
their teeth have all got quite white, so long have they left
off chewing betel.

“February 10. And they have indeed come, the little ones whom
Mrs. Mattoon has allured from their mothers, to take up their
home with us. They hardly slept last night their mothers
said and were up early—and yet some tears were shed.... The
mothers came with them; showed them our school rooms, the new
bamboo bedsteads, the maps—China, Burmah, Ceylon, England,
America. Speaking of my mother—‘Is she yet alive?’ said one
of them, ‘now why did you leave your mother and come to live
in Siam.’... Ploi is engaged by Mrs. Mattoon to prepare their
food and to go to bathe with them.”

Thus began the first boarding school for girls at the Presbyterian Mission in Siam.

DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING PUPILS

One of the difficulties encountered was to secure pupils for a period sufficiently long to make the work worth while. So little did the Siamese parents value the opportunities offered that they even wanted to be paid to send their children. A custom of the country afforded a practical means to obtain and hold pupils for a period of years.

“February 14, 1853. Today an addition to my family and to my
responsibilities. A bright little Taichen Chinese boy, eleven
years old, son of the old Chinese teacher of Mr. Gutzlaff.
The old man is in trouble—a debt with interest. So he came
to us offering to sell the lad, knowing that the boy would
be educated and in good hands. It is so difficult to secure
any other way but by buying them, boys for any length of time
for schools in Siam, that the end would almost justify the
means, were we to actually buy them, as Siamese masters do.
As it was I had a paper drawn up in which I was to have a boy
for seven years for eight dollars, after which he was to be
restored to the father free—a kind of apprenticeship.”

The father was one of the cholera patients whom Dr. House saved from death. This lad’s name was Naah. Some nine months later the father, upon his death bed, gave the boy to Dr. House.

A year or more later, commenting upon this practise of obtaining boys for the school, the doctor said:

“This we find is the best, if not the only way we can secure
the keeping of these native children in our boarding school.
And I do not hesitate to do it when we have the money to
spare. At present have outstanding one hundred and nine
dollars, invested in seven children.”

And then he slyly wonders what the abolitionists at home would say if they heard of this plan of “buying children” to educate them. In the course of a few years the boarding schools grew to fill the capacity of the mission. From the beginning the curriculum included the principles of domestic economy and manual training in a practical form. The girls shared in the house work; the older ones also assisted in teaching the younger ones. The boys had their allotment of work, so that the expense of the school was kept at a minimum; for the first full year the cost was only two hundred and eighty-one dollars, exclusive of Kee-Eng’s salary.

TO KORAT

Tired from his confining labours, in December, 1853, Dr. House set out for a tour to the distant city of Korat, some two hundred miles in a northeast radius from the capital, but involving nearly twice that distance of travel. The undertaking had the approval of King Mongkut, who not only issued the usual passport but sent a letter commanding all officials to afford assistance and protection, and directing the governor of Korat to give supplies and other facilities as might be required. The journey occupied fifty-eight days and was made partly by boat, partly by elephant train and partly by buffalo cart. A party of five trusty natives accompanied him, including Ati, his faithful teacher.

Korat, the capital of the province of the same name, had a population of some thirty thousand. Dr. House was the first white person to visit the city, at least in modern times. The out journey was made by boat up the Meinam to Salaburi on an east branch of the stream two days above Ayuthia. There elephants were hired to carry the party with their burden of books and supplies. The course lay across country through the jungle and over the mountains, requiring seventeen days from Bangkok. In reporting home his safe return he wrote briefly:

“I have not had time since my return to draw up a detailed
account of all that befell me on the road, but I think I can
promise you an interesting letter next time—that is, if a
traveller’s tale of life in the woods, riding on elephants
(being thrown from the back of one and lying at the mercy
of the huge creature—with those great feet pawing the air
six inches from my head), riding in buffalo carts, footing
it, roughing it; now shooting deer or peacock, now entirely
out of provisions and making a meal of rice and burnt coarse
sugar; seeing great tiger tracks and hearing their cry,
sleeping in the open air by the watch fire, three nights
and four days without seeing human habitation—with divers
other adventures, will interest you; or if accounts of the
glad reception my books and gospel message seemed to receive
in the many villages and hamlets and in the city, where no
messenger with glad tidings had ever gone before.”

He was well received by the governor of the province, whom he had previously met in Bangkok. Intercourse with the governor proved that the doctor could not only show him wonders of western knowledge but could discover to him facts in his own realm of interests. Salt being a rare commodity and the local product being coarse and black, Dr. House showed him how to purify it, greatly to his delight. As a mark of appreciation the governor had brought in from the country three unusually large elephants for the visitor to see; while reviewing them, the doctor called his attention to a fact of nature concerning elephants, viz.: that the height of an elephant is equal to just twice the girth of its foot. His host would not believe this until he had his men try the experiment on several animals. The doctor had also found that the elephant provides a reliable pedometer; as its walking gait is quite uniform, it is necessary only to measure the step of the particular beast (usually forty to forty-two inches) and then counting the number of paces per minute (usually seventy) the distance covered in a given time is easily calculated.

An amusing incident occurred while the stranger was exploring the city, and Dr. House relates the story with an evident sense of humour:

“Sallied forth at noon to take a walk east of town. In east
gate got into conversation with some citizens; others came
out to gaze at the stranger till soon had a fair audience
to listen as I opened to them the great truth of the Being
of God. An old man sat down on a stone in the gateway to
listen—all was news to him and others—when a drunken
fellow, sent of Satan as it were, came up and soon became
very noisy, till I could only talk in snatches. Gentle means
nor threatenings availed, but I gave some books.

“Leaving I was going quietly on the way to a watt outside
the walls when my troubler came following after, noisy and
cursing. I gave him that road and took another in another
direction. He returned to follow me, when I thought I was
justified in teaching him that there was a limit to even
Christian patience. So I tripped up his heels, hoping to walk
off out of his way before he could get to his legs again.
But he was only drunk enough to be impudent, and now angrily
followed after me. I picked up a broken limb and turned to
meet my adversary. Brandishing my rather formidable weapon in
the air over the fellow’s head, I ordered him to wheel about
and march back to the city gate. Many had gathered in the
meantime to see what would happen. The fellow was frightened
at my earnestness, quailed and marched; soon stopped to
plead that he intended no harm, when I punched him with my
umbrella with one hand to quicken his steps and flourished
the sledgehammer-like limb in the other, and off he marched
again as bid. This I repeated till getting tired, I tripped
up his heels again and left him sprawling while I went on my
way unmolested.... I cannot even now help laughing at the
figure I must have made with my shillalah swinging over his
head, and his mortal terror at the same.”

Royal passports were not always honoured at face value by distant under governors. Dr. House found that while the king had commanded, the command was not much more than warrant for him to demand. After waiting some days for the governor to engage elephants for the return trip there was little hope of having his desire granted unless he took up the task himself. Vigourous action and persistence overcame the inhospitality which was displayed. The return trip was laid out through the western part of ancient Cambodia, through the Chong To’ko pass, thence to the headwaters of the Bang Pakong River, and home by way of Kabin and Patchin.

Through this region he met with even great indifference to the king’s commands:

“On the long roundabout journey home from Korat, the person
of whom I engaged my elephants took me for purposes of his
own far round to the southeast of Kabin, the point I wished
to reach at the head of navigation on the Bang Pakong River.
Not unwilling to see the country, I put up with a good
deal of imposition on the part of my guide ... one of the
greatest rogues I ever met. At the village where he resided I
consented to proceed with buffalo carts instead of elephants
at his urgency. We had travelled on with them some days when,
one afternoon walking in advance of my party, I entered the
little Cambodian village of Sakao, three miles east of Kabin
on the military road to the capital of Cambodia.

“Here was an officer of the customs who was on the lookout
for some Cochin Chinese soldiers who had deserted from the
king’s service; and they being unaccustomed to a white face
and I doubtless rather travel worn, and my appearance there
unattended being decidedly suspicious, they were on the point
of arresting me as a “deserter,” when first the name and then
the presence of my guide (who after awhile came along with my
outfit) made all right, for the custom officer and my guide
were old friends.

“Expecting to get away after an early breakfast next morning,
I slept in one of the carts.... Next morning I tried in vain
to purchase a fowl; went over to the headman to beg him help
me. “He had no fowls, he did not think he could procure any
in the village”; but while he was speaking I actually saw
some running about under the house. I was beginning to think
rather hard of Cambodian hospitality when, induced by triple
price, a man slyly brought me a chicken.

“While I was eating my breakfast, the custom house officer
came over to visit his friend, my guide. Soon a neighbour
brought in a large brass dish, and from the liquor in it
the three quaffed and quaffed again, till they became very
chatty and good humoured. I had finished my breakfast and the
cart drivers were waiting for their master. But he was too
pleasantly engaged to leave the jovial company he was in. In
vain I called on him to eat his breakfast that we might be
off, for the sun was high, and still three days remained of
our journey and we had already lost much time on his account.
“Not yet, not yet,” he answered, and kept on sipping from the
bowl of arrack.

“Time passed. At 10:30 they were still at their cups. My
patience was now clear gone. To go on I was resolved and no
longer to be defrauded of my time by a knave. I told him ‘go
he must’ or I should go on without him and he should not
receive a penny of the half-hire to be paid at the journey’s
end, and I should report him to the governor of Korat, who
had put me in his care. ‘And how will you go on without the
buffalo carts?’ he impudently asked. ‘Do as I did when I
went on to Korat; I will hire carriers here in the village
and walk on.’ ‘Not a man shall leave this place to help
you’—put in the custom house officer, ‘he would forbid their
going.’

“I had said nothing to him before, but now I spoke: ‘Mr.
Officer, last night you heard my passport read and the
peremptory order of the viceroy of Korat that I be not
detained a single day on my mission’—and I took him by the
arm as I spoke and looked him in the face—‘You dare not stop
me. Is his excellency the governor of Korat nobody? I have
the royal seal, too—do you not dread that? Keep me here
one-half day more and you will repent of it.’

“His anger that was written on every line of his knavish face
sobered him. The villagers around looked on astonished at
my audacity, bearding this great man in his den, and he did
not know what to make of it. Just then, my guide seeing that
I was resolute in the matter, gave in, ordered the buffalos
to be yoked and told his servants to drive ahead, he would
follow. I took a formal but civil leave of the worthy; we
were off, and my guide, running after, soon overtook us.
Would you believe it, we proceeded but three quarters of
an hour, when he drove off the highway to the shelter of
some trees by the side of a swamp and there came to a halt,
pretending it was necessary to feed the buffalos and that
there was no suitable place beyond. So there two or more
hours were lost—and this while one of my servants was very
ill, our stock of provisions all low, and already seventeen
days on a journey that should have taken but seven.”

The river was finally reached; the buffalo caravan dismissed and boats engaged to carry the party to Bangkok, where they arrived after nineteen days’ travel from Korat.

Two lesser trips were made in 1854, which were of some interest. In June, he accompanied the Baptist missionaries on a trip to Bangplasoi on the gulf:

“I had long been promising myself a visit to my old patient,
Chek Chong, the Chinese fisherman whose arm I amputated
five or six years ago to save his life, threatened by
mortification resulting from an alligator bite that had
nearly severed the poor man’s wrist. The loss of his arm
seems to have been under Providence the means of saving his
soul, for the religious impression he received while in the
hospital never left him; he then expressed himself willing to
make our God his God. Being unable to read and not being able
to speak Siamese at all ... we referred him to our brethren
of the Baptist mission with some of whose church members he
was already acquainted.... After a due season of instruction
and probation they received him to church membership about a
year ago.

“Living some sixty to seventy miles from Bangkok he cannot
often see his spiritual teachers, and would be quite shut out
from religious privilege, were it not that Bangplasoi has
been made a kind of an outstation by the Baptist mission....
So when I was invited to accompany Mr. Ashmore to that
mission, I readily accepted....

“While there, Chek Chong told me that ever since he had
lived with us at the hospital he had observed the Sabbath,
refraining from labour. Looking around at the evidence of
thrift about him, I replied: ‘I do not believe you are the
poorer for losing one day’s work in seven.’ ‘Yes,’ he said,
‘while the fish business has turned out poorly this season,
out of thirty engaged in it of my neighbours, only four have
succeeded at all, and I am one.’

“We attended morning and evening worship with the family and
such of their neighbours as chose to come in and listen....
Chek Chong being called on to lead in prayer, offered up
thanks most devoutly that ‘the redheaded (_i. e._, not black
like Chinese) foreign teachers had come to visit him.’ He
seems to have much influence for Christ; he is not ashamed of
our Christ; two of his nephews are inquirers; the wife puts
no hindrance in his way.”

The other trip was made in November, when the doctor explored the Meinam “farthest north” up to that date, reaching Pitsanuloke and Pichit and occupying thirty-three days. Some sixty to seventy villages were visited along the way and more than thirteen hundred tracts given only to those who could read.

CLOUDED FRIENDSHIPS

The favour of the king was for a time withdrawn by reason of an incident the character of which was vague to the missionaries at the time. Later the cause of the estrangement was discovered to be a letter which appeared in an English journal at Straits Settlement in October, 1854. The offending letter not only misrepresented some acts of the government but calumniated the character of the king, and insinuated that he was held in low esteem by the missionaries as well as by other foreigners. For some reason the king ascribed the authorship of this letter to a missionary who had recently passed through Singapore; and among his officials, as learned later, he threatened to expel the missionaries except Dr. Bradley and Dr. House.

The first warning of royal displeasure was the arrest of the Siamese teachers on the fictitious charge of teaching the sacred language to foreigners. Then the missionary ladies, presenting themselves at the palace gate as usual for admission to teach their classes, were ignored. The missionaries, essaying to go out to the sea coast for recuperation learned that a decree had been issued to limit their movements; but inquiry received only evasive explanations. Finally the king sent a demand that the missionaries collectively should sign a paper disclaiming authorship of the letter and denying in toto its imputation; this demand was made before they had seen the letter, but it gave them an understanding of the trouble.

After consultation they declined to assent to this demand, partly because it might be construed as an acknowledgment of responsibility, and partly because they considered it impolitic to make a general defense of the government, some of whose affairs they did not fully approve. However, they drew up a paper denying their complicity in the publication and reaffirming their friendship towards the king. After several months the teachers were allowed to return to the mission, but with an admonition against giving out “false information lest the missionaries put it in their letters and send it out of the country”; the decree of restriction, however, continued in force for some time. The servants, returning to the mission compound, reported the nature of the examination to which they had been subjected by the king, and Dr. House records the following: “Being asked which missionaries he visited in his work, one replied ‘Maw House.’ ‘Well,’ said the king, ‘Maw House is good hearted, affable and good humoured,’ and thus was evidently satisfied that the unfavourable reports could not be laid to the teachers.”

Dr. House quietly pursued an inquiry into this matter, and after some months came to the conclusion that the instigator, if not the actual writer of the letter, was a certain Captain Trail, commander of one of the king’s trading vessels. It seems that while in Singapore port, one night at eleven o’clock the captain fired a salute in honour of a ball on shore given by a friend. The British consul complained to his superior against the alarm caused by the firing, and his government forwarded the complaint to Bangkok. The captain was arrested and cast into a native gaol, which was crowded with low class prisoners, and was there for several days before his friends learned of the case. Some of the missionaries interceded for him and secured his release. When he left Bangkok he threatened to get even with the government for his treatment, and there was good reason to suppose that the letter was the means of revenge he took.

This entry in Dr. House’s journal was annotated in pencil several years afterwards, adding “the letter was doubtless gotten up between Josephs (the Armenian merchant) and Capt. Eames, a friend of Captain Trail, with the knowledge of the prime minister, who was piqued at the king, and whose knowledge of the state affairs had given the insinuations in the letter which aroused the king’s hostility.” Fortunately, time convinced the king of the total innocence of all the missionaries and in due time the cloud of disfavour vanished.

VIII

SIAM OPENS HER DOORS—MORE WORKERS ENTER

The accession of King Mongkut so completely changed the attitude of the government towards foreign nations that the danger of a clash with England disappeared over night. In due course of time Queen Victoria sent a note of congratulations to the new Siamese sovereign and expressed her desire to send an envoy for the purpose of revising the existing treaty. Upon receipt of this letter the king despatched it to Dr. House with the request to “transcribe it in a plain, legible hand”; for though the king could read and write English fairly, he preferred to have letters from abroad transcribed in a handwriting with which he was familiar, to avoid misunderstanding. In this connection, Mrs. Leonowens, who acted as his English secretary some years later, says that at times the king would insist upon his own diction in English in spite of warning of its turgidity, and when his communications of this character were misinterpreted he would lay the blame on his amanuensis.

In March, 1855, the English embassy arrived. The special envoy was Sir John Bowring, Vice-Admiral and Governor of the English colony at Hong Kong. Dr. House had, some years before, received a friendly letter from Sir John through his son John C. Bowring, for whom Dr. House was collecting specimens of Siamese insects; and he looked forward with great pleasure to a personal meeting with the noted English diplomat. Again the king sent to the doctor a succession of notes received from Sir John announcing his arrival, requesting a private audience, etc., desiring these notes to be transcribed; by which means Dr. House was kept informed of the progress of affairs.

The reception of this embassy was in marked contrast with the treatment of Sir James Brookes. The ceremonies were aglow with friendliness, and the negotiations were undertaken with the least possible delay contingent upon the courtesies of the occasion. The prince who was chief commissioner for the Siamese sent for Dr. House for an interview; he said that the Siamese had proposed the missionaries as interpreters on their side, but this had been declined by the ambassador on the ground that the missionaries were Americans.

“Soon after [the prince] sent for me, to accompany him to the
conference of the commissioners with Sir John to discuss the
treaty. Found the prime minister there, who joined in urging
me. But I felt constrained to decline the honour they would
do me, feeling my incompetence to do justice in interpreting
such important matters as might come up; then—‘Mr. Mattoon
must go’—so the prince himself went over for him and
carried him off as a ‘kind of companion,’ he said, not as
translator;—as he did not trust in ** but in the missionary
he did trust. ‘He must be as ears for him’—I understood him
that the king said this last night.”

While negotiations were under way both Mr. Mattoon and Dr. House were frequently summoned to assist the Siamese in the official translation of their counter proposals into English, even working all night on the final draft.

DR. HOUSE AND SIR JOHN BOWRING

The confidences were not all from the Siamese side. Sir John Bowring told Dr. House privately that he had “come with an olive branch in my hand, but behind me—!” and that he had been reluctant to undertake the mission but had received letters from the king urging him to come. The Siamese officials were so ready for negotiations that they readily acquiesced in the English proposals; and, apart from the preliminary ceremonies, the complete negotiations were accomplished within a week.

In his book, _The Kingdom and People of Siam_, which gives a detailed account of his mission, Sir John includes several lengthy memoranda which he attributes to a “certain foreign gentleman long resident in Siam.” Many of these are to be found recorded in Dr. House’s private journal at various dates preceding the arrival of the British envoy. His narrative of the scenes attendant upon the choice of Mongkut is almost verbatim from the doctor’s account. He highly praises the progressive spirit and the keen mind of the prime minister, contrasting him with the usual Oriental diplomat, and adds:

“I learned that on one occasion he sent for a foreign
gentleman whose opinion he greatly valued, and in the
presence of many persons entered upon a dialogue in which
the foreign gentleman was to impersonate J. Bowring in a
discussion of the expected proposals.”

Thereupon follows the dialogue in full. The original of this unique rehearsal in diplomatic combat is found in the doctor’s journal as a record of his interview with the prime minister after it was learned that England was to send a mission. Sir John also accredits the minister with a confession of belief in one supreme Divine Being, ascribing his information to a “certain gentleman”; this confession, Dr. House says, was made to him personally and acknowledges in a letter that he had reported it to the British envoy. The number and extent of these and still other quotations shows that Sir John Bowring had gleaned much of his knowledge of the Siamese from Dr. House.

* * * * *

During his sojourn in Bangkok Sir John Bowring attended service at the mission one Sunday. Dr. House records the visit, noting that in alphabetical order it was his turn to preach, and confesses that he felt a little secret trembling in the presence of the august visitor. Sir John, in his account of the visit, adds that the “congregation very sweetly sang one of my hymns”—for he is the same Sir John Bowring whose name ranks high in hymnology, being the author of these hymns, among others: “_God is Love, His Mercy Brightens_,” “_Watchman, Tell Us of the Night_,” and “_In the Cross of Christ I Glory_.”

As a broad and deep student of human affairs and one obviously sympathetic with missions, Sir John’s estimate of the work in Siam at that period and of the peculiarly obstinate nature of Buddhism is noteworthy. Concerning Buddhism he says:

“Buddhism by habit and education is become almost a part
of Siamese nature; and that nature will not bend to foreign
influence. The Siamese, whether or not they have religious
convictions, have habits which the teaching of strangers will
not easily change.”

Concerning the influence of the missionaries he says: