Page 108 - A History of Siam

io6 A HISTORY OF SIAM

the district now known as five miles from
(in Sarap'i),
taken.
Chiengmai, many prisoners being
The retreat continued through Mating Li. The Prince
of Nan, YiMangkala, assisted by Chiengmai and Nak'on
attacked the
Lamp'ang troops, again retreating Siamese,
them with loss. The Governors of
defeating great
and were killed in this battle.
Kamp'engp'et P'ijai
Farther south, another Lao army lay in ambush. The
Siamese were once more attacked near the P'un Sam
Miim l stream and were once more routed, this time
with the loss of three Generals, 10,000 men, and 3,000
boats.
After these serious returned
disasters, King P'rajai
to He had been in bad health for some months,
Ayut'ia.
and died about Pinto states that he was
June 1846.
poisoned by his wife, Princess Sri Suda Chan, and the
actions of that infamous woman were such
subsequent
as to the accusation.
justify
obtained the throne means which are
King P'rajai by
to our moral
repugnant sense. We must, however,
refrain from to Siam in the sixteenth
applying century
the standards of in our own time. If we believe
Europe
was a wise well beloved his
Pinto, King P'rajai ruler, by
and mourned them when he died.
people deeply by
"
This Prince lived in the reputation of being charitable
to the liberal in his benefits and
poor, recompenses,
and towards and above all
pitiful gentle everyone,
incorrupt in doing of justice and chastening the wicked ;
his subjects spoke so amply thereof in their lamentations,
as if all that they said of it was true ; we are to believe
that there never was a better King than he, either
amongst these Pagans, or in all the countries of the
world."
1
Probably the stream now called the Me Pan Miin, in the Miiang Li distric