We now cruised along the coast of Cochin-China, a place from which came formerly a large and most ungainly fowl, and in later years became a sink-hole into which the French nation poured vast treasures in the creation of a colony. We passed Saigon, where the spectacular French colony exhibits a Roman Catholic Cathedral, a garrison of soldiers whose occupation is to tread upon the toes of the Chinese, and a trading-post where Parisian perfumes are on sale to a people who prefer the smell of their own mal-odorous sauces and aromatic joss-sticks.
The Irish captain entertained his royal passenger with accounts of his former voyages in these waters, on several of which, some years previously, he had engaged in combat with Malay pirates. He recited the story of some devilish acts committed on the captain of a vessel in the waters we were ploughing. His reminiscences greatly pleased the King until he remarked: "If the pirates knew your Majesty was on board this ship, they 'd like to take you and get a pretty ransom for letting you go." The King was disturbed. He recalled the "Pautah" and her armaments, and privately charged his suite with a failure to anticipate this danger, and permitting him to be exposed to capture. We were on a vessel with only a Chinese crew, which could make no resistance to any attack, and, though there was remote danger of it, it might be made. The King did not look upon himself as a knight seeking adventures, but a royal bee sucking only the sweets of honours and experience in the meadows of the earth; and now he found himself on an unarmed vessel in waters more or less infested with freebooters. His imagination exaggerated the danger, and he declared that a king should travel only in warships. He had the timidity of a man who is led by his flatterers to believe that his life is more precious than any common lives and that unusual efforts for its preservation should be taken. I suggested to him that if we should pass any warship, signals of distress might be hoisted, and its commander be asked, under the privileges of the comity of nations, to take him on board and bear him to Siam. The suite held a private interview with the romancing captain; after which he greatly modified his tragic stories of the sea. He now assured the King that he could show his heels to any pirate craft that hove in sight; and moreover a pirate crew could smell his cargo at a distance of two miles, and it was not stuff which a pirate wanted. He said that the British gunboats, like terriers chasing rats, followed up the pirates so closely that few dared to attack vessels in these waters.
On the fourth day after leaving Hongkong, we entered the Gulf of Siam and anchored at the bar of the Menan River. Our kingdom had no treaty with that of Siam, and therefore no diplomatic representative there, so we expected no courtesy from its government. We suspected that its government did not know of the existence of Hawaii, or, if it did, it placed it in the schedule of "remote and unknown lands" of which even an intelligent Siamese might be justly ignorant. We had the address of a hotel-keeper, and through him his Majesty hoped to get a distant glance at the white elephants, of which we had heard, and then leave for Singapore. We engaged a steam tug, which was cruising on the bar, to take our party to Bangkok, twenty miles above. As we neared the customs office, a steam yacht rapidly approached, above which was flying the royal standard of Siam. She rounded under the tug's quarter, and the inquiry was made: "Is the King of the Sandwich Islands on board?" When an affirmative reply was given, the yacht came alongside, and five officials in full uniform came on board and asked to be presented to the King. After the presentation, one of them, who spoke English, said they had been commanded by the King of Siam to receive his Majesty and ask him to become his guest. The royal assent was of course given, and we were transferred to the royal yacht. The Siamese Consul in Hong-kong had written to his government that the King of Hawaii was the guest of the British Queen in that place and intended to leave shortly in the "Killarney" for Siam. It was therefore decided by the Siamese court that the King, whoever he was, was entitled to the full measure of Siamese hospitality. The yacht was an English model, richly furnished, with the yellow colour most prominent. Upon the open deck, under an awning, a European luncheon was served. As we passed up the river, with forests of tall cocoanut palms on either hand, we cried out, "This is Hawaii," with the fervour of the sailor who, after a long voyage, exclaimed, "Home at last," when he saw a solitary grog-house on the beach, for we were inveterate drinkers of the water of the young cocoanut, and we hoped that the royal hospitality would cheerfully discharge showers of nuts on us.
As we passed the forts a royal salute was fired, and we had hardly dropped anchor in the river which divides the city when the royal barge moved out from the landing toward the yacht. It was long and narrow, with upturned prow and stern. Twenty-four oarsmen manned it, and they kept time to the shrill "Hoot! Hoot!" of the steersman, by dipping their paddles and raising them high in the air. Its stern-sheets were covered with a canopy ornamented with yellow silk and gold embroidery, and the royal standard of Siam floated above it. We entered it, and at the landing carpets were laid from the edge of the water to a street near by, where a battalion of troops was drawn up, with naked feet, and in rather musty uniforms. We entered the royal carriages, which were driven by coachmen dressed in red and gold cloths lined with yellow, and covered with unbrushed silk hats; their legs and feet were naked. An escort of cavalry, mounted on small horses which resented discipline, surrounded the carriages. We entered the court-yard of the palace of one of the Princes, which had been assigned to us. It was a large building with numerous rooms, the ceilings of which were high. The furniture was rich, but a mixture of English, Chinese, Japanese, and Siamese styles, besides articles made from rare native woods. Around the palace was a large garden, well kept, with abundance of native plants and flowers. From the windows of our apartments we saw the forest of Buddhist temples, which numbered over five hundred, where the people carry on with indomitable indolence the chief industry of the place, the worship of Buddha. The chewing of the betel-nut, with the monotonous and everlasting repetition of the word "Buddha," is a devotion suited to these lazy people, who raise their heads above the waters of sin, according to the Faith, by this interminable repetition of "Buddha!"
As soon as we entered the palace, several Princes, in which the kingdom is fertile, called; and we noticed that the etiquette was mainly European with some native modifications. Several of the Princes spoke the English language; some of them had travelled in Europe, but the inferiority of the race in comparison with the Chinese and Japanese was very evident. An officer of the King's household arranged an interview between the Kings on the following day, as we were tired and it was late.
Retiring to our apartments, we found that eight body-servants had been assigned to the King, and five to each of the suite. These were young men of good families, who were honoured with such appointment; but they were entirely ignorant of foreign ways and spoke only their own native language. An officer who spoke English, however, supervised them and acted as interpreter.
I found myself helpless in their hands. Their conception of duty to the Minister of a foreign State was to anticipate and supply every want, but they had grotesque notions of the nature of his wants. When I washed my face they surrounded me; one held a towel, another thrust soap at me, another brought a comb and brush before they were needed, another held my coat, still another my trousers if I desired to change them; all of them were bowing, standing in my way, and smoking cigarettes. I sat down to enter notes in my journal; one of them held the ink-bottle, another handed me a pen, another held the blotter, and another pushed note-paper toward me with one hand and held envelopes in the other. My directions and pantomimes were not understood. I opened my trunk; immediately one took out my diplomatic uniform, another my sword, another my cocked hat, and they stood in line holding them before me and unable to see that I wished to hang them up. I could not get rid of them; they hounded me most respectfully. When I retired late in the evening, the squad of five were fast asleep on the sofas and chairs in my chamber, while my clothing, boots, and hats had been carefully placed on the bed itself. In the arms of one who ge
ntly slept was a tray upon which was a bottle of champagne and one of whiskey.
We all thirsted for the water of the cocoanut. I drew a rude picture of the cocoanut palm on a piece of paper, making the fruit most prominent, and pointed to it. After smoking cigarettes and discussing the object of the drawing, one of them suddenly grasped the idea. At once they all rushed away. Within half an hour there was a huge pile of cocoa-nuts in the palace yard, enormous and young, with delicate, pulpy meat and the most delicious water. I informed the King, and for the first time on our tour we drank the "wine of the coral reef" as we drank it in the King's little summer palace near his own capital, on "the green sward which endeth in the ocean's blue." The valet managed to get our numerous attendants to leave the chamber, and the King sang in a minor key a native Hawaiian mele (song) about the water, which in the old days was sacred to the chiefs and the priests. In this Siamese Babylon we, voluntary exiles, sang a pathetic song of the far tropical Jerusalem, its forests of cocoa palms, and its fruit shells bursting with the waters of life.
CHAPTER XV
Pagodas — A Floating City and an Amphibious Population — Darwin Mistaken — Visit to the King of Siam — The King's Conversation — Cats Disturb the Reception — Call on Second King, and on Uncle of Siamese King — Dinner with the Minister of Foreign Affairs — Drownicg of a Queen and Child — Sacredness of the Royal Person — A Costly Cremation — The Royal Chapel — Visits from the Siamese King, the Second King, Princes, and Consular Corps — The Royal Elephants — A Play in a Court Theatre — Siamese Dancers Sing a Missionary Hymn — Dinner with the Siamese King — Conferring of Decorations — The Durien — Kings Say Good — Bye — Buddhist Rites to Protect Steamer — The Chinese in Siam — Siamese Statesmen do Not Understand Christendom — Presents of Fruit.
THE next morning one of the Princes took us to one of the pagodas. The priests, with shaven heads, but with scant clothing, being stripped for prayer, chanted "Buddha I Buddha I "The huge image of the god, with the unchangeable smile of centuries, patiently sat on the lotus-flowers and listened, and seemed to say, as we passed him, "For a thousand years they have talked me to death; I am weary; this is not Nirvana." Though this faith is barnacled with superstitions, it is still a scaffolding which at least holds the worshippers above the earth, and, like all of the great religions, is so weighty with lofty moral precepts that if these were realised in the lives of their worshippers even Christendom would not make haste to offer its supreme code of life.
Many thousands of the Siamese are born, live, and die in the frail houses which stand on light rafts near the banks of the Menan River, which divides the city. The effect of this life, and its modifications of the anatomy, the hands and feet of these aquatic residents, has not been studied by the biologists. If, according to Darwin, the environment moulds and shapes the physical faculties of all creatures, these should finally become web-footed, as Captain Young-husband says the legs of certain Tartar tribes are lengthened by their perpetual riding in the saddle. We did not, however, observe any serious modifications of the feet, or rudimentary fins on their backs, from which it may be inferred that we were not competent biologists, or that Darwin and his followers are fabulous writers.
At four o'clock the next day, in the State carriages with the nude-legged drivers, and escorted by a company of cavalry, we drove to the royal palace, which was in a park of about ten acres. A regiment of infantry lined up in the court-yard. From the carriage steps to the palace entrance the way was carpeted in red. On both sides of the entrance, members of the royal household were massed in rich, and some of them in rather grotesque, uniforms. Close to the door were ten venerable men with bare legs, but richly dressed above, each holding an ancient battle-axe. Passing the entrance, the King of Siam, Souditch Chow-fa-Chulan Korn, stepped forward and greeted the King of Hawaii in the English language. Receiving the suite, the Siamese King, walking abreast of his Hawaiian Majesty, passed through a number of rooms to his audience-chamber, a large room richly furnished with European carpets, sofas, and chairs. Upon its walls were portraits of Siamese sovereigns, and many busts of foreign sovereigns were on pedestals. The Siamese King hesitated to use the English language, and talked mainly through an interpreter. He inquired earnestly how the King of Hawaii spoke English with fluency; no person of his court, he said, and many of them had lived in England, spoke with like fluency. "Did all of the King's subjects also speak English?" he asked. Our King repeated his reply to like inquiries made in other countries: that he had learned the English language in his youth, and that a large proportion of his subjects could speak it also, for it was taught in the public schools.
The Siamese King had a pleasant face and bright, black, intelligent eyes; his manners were simple; he was educated in European literature, and, as an amateur, made experiments in chemistry. He had also studied the political science of Europe, but he said in a regretful tone that he found it most difficult to change the inveterate customs and ideas of his subjects. They were contented to remain without progress, and had no desire to make-money beyond their daily needs. He asked the Hawaiian King if his people liked to work, and if they had many industries. Now, these monarchs ruled over equally thriftless and lazy people; but the Hawaiian King hesitated to tell the truth about his own people. He admitted that they did not manufacture anything, but they were known to be good sailors. The Siamese King asked if his people built large pagodas, such as he had seen in the city. As the limit of Hawaiian sacred architecture had been the erection of heiaus, or simple platforms of stone surrounded by rude fences, structures hardly beyond the capacity of a beaver, the King replied that foreigners had introduced new styles of church architecture. The Siamese King asked what was the old religion of his subjects. Here again the Hawaiian King hesitated to say that the religion of his subjects had been wiped out, as it would be an admission that it was a useless affair. So he replied that his government encouraged the worship of all religions, and he did not restrict his people in their choice of worship. The Siamese King said that this was very good.
While the monarchs were seated and conversing, the courtiers with the King's suite stood in most respectful silence. Suddenly two cats, with piercing wails, went at each other on the roof of a building which adjoined the palace. In this Buddhistic realm they no doubt held the reincarnated souls of dead Siamese warriors, who had taken this hour to settle an ancient feud. The dignity of the royal reception was disturbed for several minutes and until the cats finished their duel.
The young Siamese King knew the geographical arrangement of islands in the Pacific Ocean. He had been informed, he said, of the future importance of the kingdom of Hawaii. He asked the King if he had trouble with foreigners. We afterward learned that the two white men in the King's suite, instead of natives, suggested to him a disagreeable dominance of the white race. He was surprised at the large stature of his Hawaiian Majesty and asked to what race he belonged. When he was told that there was Malay blood in the Hawaiians, he replied, "The Siamese are partly Malay; we are related."
He asked his Royal Brother to remain in the country, to visit the interior; there would be an elephant-hunt if he desired it. He had never been visited by a brother sovereign, and he said he had commanded his officials to gratify the wishes of his great guest. These offers of hospitality were declined, owing to the brevity of our stay, but an invitation to a royal banquet was accepted. As we left the court-yard we looked upon the gloomy and ancient buildings which stood around it. What was the unwritten history of intrigues, tragedies, assassinations, for hundreds of years, which these walls could tell if they were phonographs!
We called immediately on the second King. There were formerly five official kings, who in theory were ready to supply any failure in the succession, but they were persistently "getting between one another's legs" and devising schemes for killing one another. There were now only two kings; it was the business of the second King to assist nature in bringing the life of the ruling King to an end. The present d
ual system in Siam was satisfactory, and had not been disturbed by any atrocious ambition on the part of the second King.
The second King was a quiet, fine-looking man, who gave himself up to the study of astronomy and recent political history. He asked for a history of Hawaii. He had been reading Professor Wallace's "Malay Archipelago." He said that all of the Polynesians belonged to the Malayans, and some of them were very good people. The Siamese were, he said, unequal to either the Chinese or Europeans in the making of good articles; they could not use iron.
We now called on the uncle of the Siamese King, and then returned to our pleasant quarters, where we at once ordered more "wine of the coral reef."
In the evening we were taken in the royal barge, with its stately and rhythmical uplifting of long paddles, down the Menan river to the residence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The banquet was served entirely in European style.
The Minister was a man of remarkable intelligence, with a mind open to Western ideas; but the Siamese guests lacked the quick perceptions of the Japanese and Chinese.
Before entering the dining-chamber servants brought in trays filled with bracelets of jessamine, and these were placed around the arms of the guests. Scented bouquets were also placed in their hands. This custom has prevailed among the Hawaiians from immemorial time, but although we had now travelled many thousands of miles, it was not until we approached the Malay peninsula that we found it in use elsewhere. In regions where flowers are perpetual it naturally prevails. In the colder latitudes it would be an intermittent practice.
From the balcony of the Minister's residence we looked over the city on the river, a floating city, as far as we could see. Beyond the river were the one-storied buildings extending far inland, with innumerable temple spires rising beyond them. One of the guests in a whisper pointed to the place where the late Queen of Siam, the favourite wife of the King, had, with her child, been drowned the previous year, near the shore, by the upsetting of her barge by collision. No common person, of the many thousands who stood on the river bank, dared to touch the sacred person of her Majesty, though she was struggling in the water but a boat's length from the shore. The divinity which hedges royalty was not a life-preserver, and both she and her child were lost. The next day we visited the spot where their bodies were cremated. Upon it was erected a lofty pagoda of precious sandal-wood. Within it had been placed the bodies, and the incense from it, as it burned, filled the city with its fragrance. The cost of the ceremony of cremation, with that of the large quantity of sandal-wood, is said to have been above half a million dollars.
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