Page:ประชุมพงศาวดาร (ภาค ๔๕.๒) - ๒๔๗๐.pdf/8

 uages, and are of the greatest help in obtaining knowledge of the manners and customs of those days.

According to the foreign accounts, there were four Siamese embassies to France in the reign of King P'ra Narai. The first was in 1681 bearing letters to Louis XIV and the Pope. P'ra P'ip'at Rajamaitri was the chief envoy, and Luang Srivisan Sunt'orn and K'un Nak'on Vijai the second and third envoys. They travelled in a French ship, but this was wrecked on the coast of Madagascar and all on board were lost. Two years later, a mission of two minor officials was sent to discover news of the first. Unlike their predecessors, they arrrived safely and proceeded to Paris. They had probably with them a letter from the Siamese Minister of State: it was not a royal letter. And for this reason, although the French government received the envoys, they were not allowed to have a formal audience of the King. But arrangement was made in order that Louis XIV met them one day as he was walking in the palace grounds, and he stopped and talked with them. He heard that King P'ra Narai would like to enter into friendly relations with him, and he thought at once that it was an excellent opportunity to spread his fame in the East. Therefore he appointed the Chevalier de Chau-