Page:Great & wonderful revolution in Siam (1690).pdf/9

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''He never signs his Name in any Letters he writes; the Metal on which his Letters are writ, and which none else in his Kingdom is allow'd to use but himself, is accounted an authentick and unquestionable Proof that the Letters are the Kings. He writes on a Plate of Gold only when he sends Letters to great Kings; and when he writes to inferior and private Persons, it is commonly on Paper, to which his Seal is annex'd, which is of different bigness, according to the quality of the Person to whom he writes.''

And as for Monsieur Constance, besides what is said of him in the following Discourse, I will add some few things taken of other Authors, that are entertaining enough, and deserve to be inserted here.

Whilst he was in England, and a good while after he bad been setled in SIAM, he was a good Protestant, but when he fell into the Jesuits hands, they soon perverted him, and made him embrace the Roman Catholick Religion, and espouse the French Interest'', to that degree of Zeal that proved so Fatal to him at last. He lived some Years in the Family and Service of one Mr. White, a considerable East-India Merchant at SIAM, who is now in London, and continued his Factor when he left SIAM; by which means he gather'd some many, and then set up for himself: The first step he made, was to buy a Ship, and to put to Sea, but had the misfortune to be beat back by bad Weather, and was twice cast away in the Mouth of the River of'' SIAM.

Putting to Sea once more, he was shipwrackt the third time, and much more unfortunately, upon the Coast of Malabar; there