Page 28 - A History of Siam

28 INTRODUCTION

Tong, and contains a good deal of useful historical
information.
For the of Narai there are a number
reign King great
of European authorities, the best known being La
Loub&re, Tachard, and the anonymous author of the
Full and True Relation the Great and
of Wonderful
Revolution that happened in the Kingdom of Siam y
first in Paris in and later translated into
published 1690,
English and Italian.
Siam was in Paris in
Turpin's History of published
1771. There is an English translation by B. O. Cart-
wright (Bangkok, 1909) and an abridged English version
is to be found in Pinkertorfs Voyages. Turpin derived
his information from the French missionaries. He does
"
not, to quote his own words, attempt to lift the veil
which conceals the beginnings of this kingdom," but
he a more or less detailed of the
gives history country
from 1550 to 1770. He is a most exasperating writer,
as he cites few and refers to his
very dates, usually
characters in a no so that it
vague way, giving names,
is often difficult to decide whom or what he is
writing
about. Nevertheless, he has preserved many interesting
facts which cannot be traced elsewhere.
The above are the old authorities whom I
principal
have consulted, but many facts have been gleaned from
other from various Records of the
sources, notably
English and Dutch East India Companies.
Of modern works I must mention two, one
English
and one Siamese, namely Anderson's English Intercourse
with Siam in the Seventeenth
Century (London, 1890)
and Prince the Wars between
Damrong's History of
Burma and Siam The latter book is
(Bangkok, 1920).
a perfect gold-mine of interesting information.
With to the of Siamese
regard system transliterating