Page 221 - A History of Siam

A HISTORT OF SIAM 207

thanked Phaulkon for his goodness to English subjects,
"
and assured him of Our friendship upon all occasions
which may offer." This letter, however, was written
on March 2ist, 1685, before any serious trouble had
arisen.
Udall never left Siam. While he was at
Captain
a serious rebellion was raised the natives of
Ayut'ia, by
Macassar, who had a large settlement in the capital.
They were only subdued after several very severe
engagements. During the final action Captain Coates
was drowned in a marsh, and Captain Udall fell, fighting
bravely. Four Frenchmen were also killed. Phaulkon,
who was no coward, also took a personal part in this
"
action, and would have lost his life had not a strong
black Cafer him into the river and swam with him
flung
to a boat." In the end, the Macassars were subdued,
but not till most of them were dead. Those who were
captured were buried alive.
The East India Company had fully determined on
war against Siam, or rather, one might almost say,
" "
against Phaulkon, the naughty fellow whom they
blamed for all their misfortunes. Their aims
principal
were threefold : to capture and hold the port of Mergui ;
to as Siamese as to arrest
capture many ships possible ;
and court-martial every Englishman in the Siamese
service. A certain who was sent to
Captain Lake,
more or less as a was foolish to
Ayut'ia, spy, enough
boast of these warlike of the He
designs Company.
was consequently arrested on his ship, the Prudent
Mary, by Count de Forbin, the French Commandant of
the fort of Bangkok, and imprisoned at Lopburi, where
he died in 1687.
Mergui was at that time governed by two Englishmen,
Richard Burnaby, the former Chief of the Company's