Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/316

 ministration of affairs, colonized and rebuilt the devastated districts of the country, and, profiting by a sanguinary war between China and Burmah, conquered new territory on the north. It was during his reign that the Siamese power was extended far down the Malay Peninsula, whose governor he captured, and finally, through a matrimonial alliance with his daughter, placed him in power as a tributary. This remarkable Chinaman, after a reign of fifteen years under the title of Phya-Jak, sank into a state of melancholy, and was assassinated in 1782.

In the early part of the present century the English endeavored to negotiate a treaty with Siam, but with little success, and it was not until 1826 that negotiations in that direction were crowned with success. It was soon after that the first Protestant missions were established. We find Dr. Gutslaf in Bangkok in 1828, where he finished the translation of the New Testament into Siamese. In 1830 he revisited Siam, and translated a part of the Scriptures into the languages of Cambodia and the Laos. The American Baptists founded their mission to the Chinese in Siam soon after. The Presbyterian mission was founded in 1840, and that of the American Board (since discontinued) in 1850.

The Roman Catholics had gained a footing previous to 1780, but in that year they were expelled on pain of death. They gradually reap