Page 170 - A History of Siam

162 A HISTORT OF SIAM

under the command of Yamada, who was in
palace,
and bore the title of 1
high favour, P'ya Senap'imuk.
The year 1612 was a noteworthy one in another respect.
The first English commercial establishment in Siam was
opened in that year. Dutch merchants had opened a
a few
factory years previously.
The first British the anchored in the
ship, Globe>
harbour of Patani on the 23rd of June, 1612. She was
commanded by Captain Anthony Hippon, and had on
board Peter Williamson Floris and other merchants.
A factory was opened at Patani, and the Globe then went

on to Ayut'ia, arriving there on the I5th of August.
On September lyth, 1612, the English factors were
received in audience by the King, and presented to him a
letter from King James I. The Siamese monarch was
and to each of the factors a
extremely gratified, gave
little golden cup and a piece of clothing. The East
India Company founded factories at Ayut'ia and at
Patani before the end of that
year.
Foreign traders British, Dutch, Portuguese and
Japanese were very active in Siam throughout this
reign. King Songt'am deserves, in fact, to be regarded
as the first King of modern Siam, for it was under him
that the habit of free intercourse with Powers
foreign
became well established. The thus
policy inaugurated
by him has been adhered to by all the rulers of Siam
down to the
present day.
1
Prince Damrong has suggested the following very probable explanation
of the favour shown to the Japanese, in spite of their excesses. There were a
number of peaceable Japanese settlers in Siam, from among whom the body-
"
guard was recruited. There was also a gang of more or less piratical birds of
passage." These were the people who attacked King Songt'am's palace. They
were prooably expelled from the Kingdom, doubtless with the aid of their more
loyal fellow-countrymen.
At that time Japanese pirates were a pest all over the Far East. In December
1605 the English navigator, John Davis, lost his life in a fight with Japanese
pirates off Patani. In the same year, and again in 1610, the King of Cambodia
complained to the Shogun of Japan of the acts of piracy committed by Japanese
traders in his realm.