Size : Price US$9, 300 baht

Condition : Soft cover. 182 pages. 15 colour plates.

History :
    Sydney Paston lived in Siam during those turbulent days, three hundred years ago, when King Narai welcomed foreigners from all nations to his capital at Ayuthya. He describes the great events of those days which culminated in the death of that extraordinary adventurer, Constance Phaulcon, and the Revolution of 1688. He also tells of the lives and activities of missionaries and merchants, diplomats and courtiers and of the ordinary Siamese people. Through all is woven the tender love story of Sydney and his captive Princess - Tammatari.











    extract



    ChapterI







    Monsieur L'Ambassadeur







    When first I came to this land, I thought not to linger long, but from those very days when we were rowed languidly up the great Menam Chao Phra, I felt a contentment, an exhileration, such as I had experienced only as a child when, after an absence, we clopped up the uncoiling,oak-guarded chase to our home. In those days I found a joy that has never since left me. A joy in watching the bright birds flash amongst the green shaded trees that march the river banks, or the ordered fields around the villages where houses float,rising and falling, as if breathing, with the tide and the flow. A joy in hearing the raucous, sudden swelling cries of the jungle, or the soft chatter of the villagers and of the river itself.



    At night magic enfolded me as blackness dropped from the sky to be cheered by a myriad of stars above, dancing fire-flies below and gay singing in the evening houses. In the years that have followed, my joy has never wearied and often it has been deeply enhanced as I have lain, not alone, in a gently rocking boat.



    I am not a man of letters and during the five years I have spent in Siam, I have not put quill to paper save when called upon so to do in the course of my duties.



    Now I am caught up in fast moving events of great moment, not as a spectator only, but as a principal actor, for to so high a position have I been raised up by My Lord Phalcon. Therefore shall I keep this diary to record for posterity, should it chance that my words survive and merit perusal, the chief events that occur in this Kingdom of Siam.







    I shall treat first of the French Ambassador and the manner of his arrival and reception by His Majesty King Narai



 
     
 

 
 

 

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