Pinto seems to have gone to Siam hoping there to repair his fortunes, which had suffered shipwreck for the fourth time and left him in extreme destitution. Soon after he joined in Odiaa (Ayuthia) the Portuguese colony, which he found to be one hundred and thirty strong, he was induced with his countrymen to serve among the King's body-guards on an expedition made against the rebellious Shan states in the north. The campaign progressed favorably and ended in the subjection of the "King of Chiammay" and his allies, but a scheming queen, desirous of putting her paramour on the throne, poisoned the conqueror upon his return to Odiaa in 1545. "But whereas heaven never leaves wicked actions unpunished, the year after, 1546, and on _January_ 15th, they were both slain by _Oyaa Passilico_ and the King of _Cambaya_ at a certain banquet which these princes made in a temple." The usurpers were thus promptly despatched, but the consequences of their infamy were fateful to Siam, as Pinto informs us at some length.
[Illustration: RUINS OF A PAGODA AT AYUTHIA.]
"The Empire of _Siam_ remaining without a lawfull successor, those two great lords of the Kingdom, namely, _Oyaa Passilico_, and the King of _Cambaya_, together with four or five men of the trustiest that were left, and which had been confederated with them, thought fit to chuse for King a certain religious man named _Pretiem_, in regard he was the naturall brother of the deceased prince, husband to that wicked queen of whom I have spoken; whereupon this religious man, who was a _Talagrepo_ of a _Pagode_, called _Quiay Mitran_, from whence he had not budged for the space of thirty years, was the day after drawn forth of it by _Oyaa Passilico_, who brought him on _January_ 17th, into the city of _Odiaa_, where on the 19th he was crowned King with a new kind of ceremony, and a world of magnificence, which (to avoid prolixity) I will not make mention of here, having formerly treated of such like things. Withall passing by all that further arrived in the Kingdom of _Siam_, I will content myself with reporting such things as I imagine will be most agreeable to the curious. It happened then that the King of _Bramaa_ (Burmah), who at that time reigned tyrannically in _Pegu_, being advertised of the deplorable estate whereunto the Empire of _Sornau_ (Siam) was reduced, and of the death of the greatest lords of the country, as also that the new king of this monarchy was a religious man, who had no knowledge either of arms or war, and, withall of a cowardly disposition, a tyrant, and ill beloved of his subjects, he fell to consult thereupon with his lords in the town of _Anapleu_, where at that time he kept his court."