CHAPTER IV. THE STORIES OF TWO ADVENTURERS, 36
CHAPTER VIII. PHRABAT SOMDETCH PHRA PARAMENDR MAHA MONGKUT, 104
CHAPTER XI. FROM BANGKOK TO CHANTABOUN--A MISSIONARY JOURNEY IN 1835, 146
CHAPTER XII. CHANTABOUN AND THE GULF, 170
CHAPTER XIII. MOUHOT IN THE HILL-COUNTRY OF CHANTABOUN, 183
CHAPTER XIV. PECHABURI OR P'RIPP'REE, 200
CHAPTER XV. THE TRIBES OF NORTHERN SIAM, 216
CHAPTER XVI. SIAMESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS, 234
CHAPTER XVII. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF SIAM, 258
CHAPTER XVIII. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN SIAM--THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE, 270
CHAPTER XIX. BANGKOK AND THE NEW SIAM, 277
ONE OF THE SONS OF THE LATE FIRST KING, 109
A FEW OF THE CHILDREN OF THE LATE FIRST KING, 120
REMOVAL OF THE TUFT OF A YOUNG SIAMESE, 122
ELEPHANTS IN AN ENCLOSURE OR PARK AT AYUTHIA, 127
BUILDING ERECTED AT FUNERAL OF SIAMESE OF HIGH RANK, 251
PORTICO OF THE AUDIENCE HALL AT BANGKOK, 280
THE PALACE OF THE KING OF SIAM, BANGKOK, 292
EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH SIAM--RELATIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES
The acquaintance of the Christian world with the kingdom and people of Siam dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and is due to the adventurous and enterprising spirit of the Portuguese. It is difficult for us, in these days when Portugal occupies a position so inconsiderable, and plays a part so insignificant, among the peoples of the earth, to realize what great achievements were wrought in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the peaceful victories of the early navigators and discoverers from that country, or by the military conquests which not seldom followed in the track of their explorations. It was while Alphonso d'Albuquerque was occupied with a military expedition in Malacca, that he seized the occasion to open diplomatic intercourse with Siam. A lieutenant under his command, who was fitted for the service by an experience of captivity during which he had acquired the Malay language, was selected for the mission. He was well received by the king, and came back to his general, bringing royal presents and proposals to assist in the siege of Malacca. So cordial a response to the overtures of the Portuguese led to the more formal establishment of diplomatic and commercial intercourse. And before the middle of the sixteenth century a considerable number of Portuguese had settled, some of them in the neighborhood of the capital (Ayuthia), and some of them in the provinces of the peninsula of Malacca, at that time belonging to the kingdom of Siam. One or two adventurers, such as De Seixas and De Mello, rose to positions of great power and dignity under the Siamese king. And for almost a century the Portuguese maintained, if not an exclusive, certainly a pre-eminent, right to the commercial and diplomatic intercourse which they had inaugurated.