Page 218 - A History of Siam

206 A HISTORT OF SIAM

of the East India at in
factory Company Madapollam,
Golconda territory, and the chief and governor of the
were blamed the of Golconda for the
factory by King
actions of Coates, an Englishman, though, as a matter
of fact, they had done their best to hinder him.
The proceedings of Coates, and of another Englishman
in the Siamese service, Alexander Leslie, were denounced
by the East India Company as piratical, and the relations
between the Company and the Government of Siam
became extremely strained.
French influence, on the other hand, gained in
The Chevalier de Chaumont and
strength every day.
his Mission left Siam on the 22nd of December, 1685,
with them* the members of Narai's third
taking King
embassy to France. This embassy was headed by
P'ra Wisut Sunt'orn (Nai Pan), a younger brother of
Chao P'ya Kosa T'ibodi, the deceased P'rak'lang.
P'ra Wisut was an able and intelligent man. He and
his created a on
colleagues very good impression King
Louis, the more so as they had come to ask, as a favour,
for something which he was only too ready to grant,
namely French troops to garrison some of the forts in
Siam.
During the early part of 1686 the war between Siam
and Golconda continued, and was the cause of so many
incidents to which the East India Company took
that determined to make war on
exception finally they
Siam. In August 1686, however, the English ship
commanded
Herbert, by Captain Henry Udall, visited
a letter addressed to Phaulkon no less
Siam, bearing by
a than II himself.
personage King James James
"
addressed Phaulkon as Our well-beloved friend,"
and informed him that certain sent to the late
presents
King Charles II had been well received by him. He