Page:Siam in 1688 - Frankfurter - 1908.pdf/1

 

 The events which led to the overthrow of Phya Vijayen (Constance Faulcon) and the consequent departure of the French from Siam, in 1688, in the reign of Somdet Phra Narayana are somewhat obscure. Contemporary Siamese records have not been found, and it cannot be denied that the history which was compiled in 1795, and afterwards revised by Somdet Phra Paramanujit in 1840, treated the events as far as Constance Faulcon and the French Embassies were concerned more in the light of an interesting tale than as history.

The French records were all written from an individual standpoint; and it can be seen from these records that dissensions frequently arose amongst the French and that, for the most part, each pursued a policy for his own ends. The chief actors are best described as amateurs. This is especially the case with Constance Faulcon himself, who by nature clever, but uneducated and unscrupulous, became vain-glorious and overbearing in dealing with affairs of state which were beyond his grasp and control, and he brought upon himself the contempt and hatred of most Siamese without gaining the love or esteem of the foreigners. Phra Phetracha, sober and unscrupulous, placed himself at the head of the discontendeddiscontented [sic] party and thus at the death of Phra Narayana had no difficulty in regaining by vigorous measures that independence for Siam of which Faulcon and the French Missionaries and Envoys apparently had tried to deprive it.

