Embassies and Surrogates: Case-Study of a Malacca Embassy to Siam in 1595

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40 TEOTONIO DE SOUZA Indica 49

/xis desbe tosee places by combining the roles of a saldado, jewel-trader and member of a few embassies of the Portuguese Mala.ccanauthorities to the neighbouring, kingdoms. Couttre's, accountwas utilised by me while writing my Medieval Goa in 1974 0 and-more recently G.D. Winius has given us an account of Coutue's

jewel-trading activities in Inrlia . 7 The account remains unusedfor the information it contains on the Portuguese diplomatic andbusiness contacts with some South East Asian countries around thetime the Dutch arrived to contest the Malacca-based Portuguesecontrol over that region. In this paper 1 shall draw upon Couttre'saccount of his participation in the embassy sem by the Portuguese

captain of Malacca, D. Francisco de Silva de Menezes, to Siam in1595 to throw light on the functioning of embassies. WhileinterestirT information specific to the region is obtained, the casewas by no meartsunique as far as diplomatic dissimulation wasconcerned_

Foreign Policy Objectives

No student o f foreign relat ion s o f a coun try can do a sati sfactory job w itho ut taking in to acco un t the pol icy- o bject ives of the fore ig ,nrelations of the country concerned at any parvicular tinte. Inthe case of the Portuguese Estado da India its foreign relations needto be seen as a continuity of the motivations and objectives thatguided the maritime adven.ture of the Portuguese in the East.To repeat what we all know too well, these were "spices and

Christians'''. Economic motives were definitely the: first priorityof the Portuguese b011igt, :OiSi C. that had enginee.red the entireprogramme of discoveries. It could not have got the poorersections involved in this "national" adventure without appealingto their religiosity and crusading spirit that had already beenawakened during the earlier centuries that had led to nationalindependence. That is how the spices and zeal for souls got mixedup into one single entei i se .8

If Afonso de Albuquerque knew what his mission was, he

must have known what he w as writing to his king in 1514: "ISec your business and factories cow-oiled by courtiers.. I wish

6. Teotonio R. de Souza, Mairoal Goa, New Delhi, 1979.7. G.D., riui, jewel Trading in Purtugn in:c Iron:: in the XVI & XVII

Centuries", ladica, vol. 25, n. 1, March pp. 15 -34.

8 "reotonio R de Souza "Spiritual Conquist of-

the East: A critique of theCh h Hi i h f P A i "



EMBASSIES AN D SURR OGATES 4 1

that your highness should keep close to merchants with intelligenceand in the know of things, and your highness will have morewoaitkr India than in Portugal'," He continues elsewhere: "Al/ the wealth of India will be lost because the crown has factors and

factory clerks who do not know to count teit rials correctly, nor dothey /m ow what bus iness m eans .' /t is difficult to believe that thePortuguese were so fast learners that few decades later St. Fran.cisXavier and the viceroy D. Joao de Castro couldalready begincomplaining bitterly about the official "chatinagem" that theysaw as the beginning of the end of the empire." As Prof. Boxerhas stated, "everyone from viceroy to cabin-boy traded only or onthe side."" If the great Albuquerque cannot be accused of thefinancial scandals of his immediate and more distant successors,the shipwreck of Flor de la Mar with all the treasure pillaged 'in.Malacca has been an.alysecl by a recent historiaweritic of thePortuguese empire as symptomatic of national greed and heproceeds to condem n Afonso de A lbuquerque as the most damnablecharacter of Portuguese history ("o mais nefasta de toda a hictória

pdtria")." Prof. if k rinius has surveyed and studied at length in his

T he B lack L egend of Portuguese India the literature on the Portugueseskills to s teal fro m the State exchequ er during the f irs t tw o centuriesof the empire."

A passing glance at the texts of foreign policy statements ortreaties published in the works edited by Biker and Pissurlencar,or in the relevant documentation that remains unpublished,"m ake s is &ear that trade and commerce were the paramountconcern. Foreign relations were aimed at gaining fresh grounds

or m ain tain ing the exis t ing m arkets or term s of t rade and com m erce.

Choice of Diplomatic Envoys

The Portuguese administration was almost a monopoly of the

9. Codas de Aironso de Alburperque, 1, ed. Bulhäo Pa to, Lisboa , 1884, p. 274,

404-5.10. G.D. Wrnius, The BL I s a k Logerd r ar Pa r i ag i ev I . ?

gis, New Delhi, 1985,

pp. 58-62.11. alt. Boxer, Fraerizro Vitira Figwi,149, S'Gravr . . . .11.1 .4 . ,- le, 1967, pp. 50-51.

12. A. Setrgio, Burins, VIII, Lisboa, 1974, 152-5.

I L G.11. Winius, op.

I& The manuscript volumes of Goa Historical Archives entitled Livros de

Fazes (4 vols.) were published by Cunha Riva.ra serially in the Bolet ios do Goner :so

do Estado do Indio (1873-1875). Six M. vellums of Reis Viziokos in the :WM

archives have been indexed in the Bolotha da Fihnoteta UltramoY ina Portuguesa,

Lisboa, 1959-70.




military-fidafgo class. Noble origin was the most importantcriterion. The merit was not the primary qualification. h hasbeen described as a "mania for fidalguia" — the conviction that

only gentlemen of "blood a elcoat-armour" were fit to exercisehigh command, whether by land or by 5ea. 15 Nobility wascertainly a prime criterion in the appointment of the ambassadorsand envoys. However, in the context and circumstances of the Estado da India the Portuguese foreign relations had to utilisedifferent channels. The m issionaries were the prime agents inthis respect and we have umpteen cases of the diplomatic ground-

work for the Portuguese being done by the missionaries in. theEstado da India. The Jesuits at the Mughul court or at the court of the Cllainese emperors could rightly be called permanent residentenvoys of the Portuguese, even though some Jesuits of other thanPortuguese nationality and forming part of those missions ten.dedat times to put the interests of the universal Church before thenat ion al interests of the Portuguese or o f the Portuguese patiroado .16

Even though the official amixiasailors inay have been drawnfrom among competent or incompetent *largos, these had to fallback on. the assistance of resident missionaries or of businessmenwith influence in the official circles of i hecountry to which anembassy was sent. In a place like Malacca, however, there werenot at any time under the Portuguese more than about twenty

officials appointed by thr CrOWLI., and little distinction was madebetween merchants and government officials, since everylxidy —officials, soldiers and even clergy — was associated with trade inone way or another.17

15_ c.R. Boxer.

, Poropese 1121fill ã t i tz Mi4-Sezmtrea1t, Qatar, Delhi, 1980, p, 6.16. HAG (Hist' °rim! Archives of Goa)7 MöoNE.5. /h. 105-11. Governor

D. Rodrigo sIa Costa writes to the CTOW1.1 071 24.1,1690 that the nen-PortugueseJesuits in China are paid by the Portuguese Crown only to harm the .Padroado

Irs7 .1t ts and to work in favour of other Euroixa4 countries. Cf. also the Diraioetor C o n d e de Linkares, U, Lisboa, 1943, pp. 264-5 wherein the Count of Linharescomplains about the Jesuit Paulo Reirnao, who had been ac t ing as an intermediary-

b7_ 7tween the Vioroy and P resident William Methwold oF the Surat-ba .7e xl Engl ishEast India Company. When Fr. Paulo Reirnio prepared the draft. for the Goa

Accord tit' 1635, -the Count of Liuhaves considened ittr.

- opavonrable to the English,

and records in his diary that he had "hila grande briga" (a big fight) with thea



EMBASSIES AND SURROGATES . 43

Prof. Boxer's study of Francisco Vieira de Figueireclo, aPortuguese merthant-adventurer in South Rast Asia (1624 -1667) ,amply illustrates the key diplomatic role played by him in

safeguarding the Portuguese trade and commerce in the LesserSunda islands after the loss of Malacca." Prof. Boxer has alsogiven us an account of Lope Sarmento de Carvallto who alsocombined business and diplomacy in Macao and Japan duringthe first quarter of the lith century." While there is abundantinformation for a study of the diplomatic role of the missionaries,the role of merchants remains .more elusive. That is where an

account like the one of Couttre gains added importance. Thereliability of his information can be checked to some extent againstsome of the other contem.porary documentation. Thus, forinstance, Couttre's references to quite a few details regardingpersons and events can be easily counter-checked, and them is noreason to suspect most of his other details. However, we maynot apply this rule without exception. For example, Couttrerefers to his good connections with the Dutch attacking Malacca,even though for some of his indiscretions the Dutch scuttled hisvessel with all his wealth aboard in Patane where he encounteredboth Van Neck and Heemskerk." He has nothing to say abouthis contacts with the Dutch in India, particularly in Bijapur.There are reasons to believe that this information has been left

out. This is suggested by the Portuguese archivist-chroniclerA.n tnni Bocarro, who describes ou r jew el-t rader wi thou t mentioning

his name, and how the Portuguese ambassador Antonio MonteiroCorte Real in Bijapur tried to frustrate his mediation in favour of

the Dutch therc by utilising the counter-influence of a Portuguesemerchant ; Vicente Ribeiro, resident and influential in the AddShahi court.

21Couttre refers to the Portuguese Ambassador by

name and as his friend, and also to Vicente Ribeiro and toSavanascan (Shah Nawaz Khan) in the court of Adil Shah as hise n e m y . 22

Ccnittre was arrested and kept in Ponda fort for over sixmonths, but for reasons that have no mention of the Dutch or hisinvolvement with them" Couttre and his brother in Goa were

8. „*.ciL, Boxx,r, p.

19 GR. Boxzr, Davider r , fei tes de L eib e "nat io Sarre:Ma ekCaroaLr

w, Macau 1940



44 TEOTONIO DE SOUZA hidica 49

arre:stml on grounds of dealing with the Dutch awl deported to

Portugal' Incidentally, the deportation of Jacques de Couttreand his brother seems to have been caused by their "new-Christian"rivals in the profitable diamond-trade in Goa. There is little

research work done so far to fleshen out the skeleton informationav-aillable on the various important financiers and merchants inthe Estado d e' t India_ Besides the powerful group of "cristans novas"who domirt;ated in dae busitm>s world of the Estado di India, manyarnon.g the native "agentes da diplomacia", who functioned as"Lingua de Estado", were also merchants.

Background of Luso-Siamese Relations

Sketchy and sporadic informa.tion about early Luso-Siameserelations is available in the correspondence of Mono de Albuqurque(1510-1514), in The Stuna Oriental cif Tcane Pires (1515), in DuarteBarbosa's A Description of East Africa and Malabar in the beginningof

.

the Sixteenth Century (1516); in the mid-16th century Lendas da

India of Gaspar Correia, Decadas d . a . Asia of João de Barros, Chronica

of Damião Gois, and Peregrinafao of the famous merchant-travellerFernio Mendes Pinto (1540-45). At the .

time of the Portuguese

conquest of Malacca. Siam was engaged in a military campaign

against Malacca that had been defaulting on its payment of customary tribute to Siam. The Portuguese in Malacca. main-

tained friendly contacts with Sians from the time Afonso deAlbuquerque sent an ambassador, Antonio de Miranda de Azevedo,bearing gifts for the king of Siam and with instructions to draw up

a trade agreement with Siara.25 The Dominicans had begunmissionary work in Siam since 1566 from their base in Malacca.The Christians and missionaries in Siam had to face intermittent

persecutions provoked by the local Muslims, and later by theintrigues of the Dutch and the English. After a treaty in 1616the king of Siam had even engaged Portuguese guards for the royalestablishment in Ayitthia, where the soldiers married local women

and founded a Portuguese settlement, which the missionaries andmerchants -

of Macao did much to develop after the fall of Malanca..N

24_ kid-, f 225. Areiriro Relafia de Ctlo (1501- 1640), cd. j.I. 47 Abranches

Garcia, NovaGoa, 1872, p. 316.

25. A. daSilva Rs-..gD, "A Short Survty of Luso-Siatnew Rchtiotts 11-cdn1511 to Modern Time", Thailand and Portugal: 470 Tears of FriendshiP, Lisboa,

1982, pp. 7-25; joao de Barros, Decodas.

, H, Lisboa, 1174, p. 20.26. Montalto jeans, Historic Macao, 2nd cd., Macao, 1926, p. 80; Silva

Rego efi citp 10



RMBASSIES AND SLJRROCATES 45

TiJI tb fall of Malacca to the Dutch thc Luso.Suuncscrelations were rcgulated from Malacca, whose captain was ofteiialso the captain of the 'armada do sul" (=the southerii fleet) in

charge ef patrolliug thc straits and the navigationitt

South Chinasea. The captain of Malacca could sell trading voyages toCoromaruli1coast, Bcngal, Bunna, Siam, Suuda, 1'iinor andBornco . While the captaiTts of all Portuguese farts had a badreputalion for pressurising local m erchants and thereb y d i scou ragrngthem from frequenting the Portugueseports, the captains of Malacca scsn to &.ve been even more notorious itt thic rcspect as

testified by too frequent documentary relèrences to their abuses.Besides many other irtstructions, thc terms of devassas" or

"residencia" (jiulcial inquiry) into thefr functiottin, there wasgenerallv a dausc requiring iuformation aztd thrca&ening wititsevere piutishment any involvement of the Malacca captains mthe iliegat irade with Mani1a.

T hc ernba.siec scflt to diffeTent oouniries were na always

of the sarne importance and the Iocal captaius often sent their ow npersonal euvoys to their neighbouring cbieftaim'. Thcy bad tousually repori the decision to Goa. but it was uuderstood that thedifficulties of comxnutucations required fiexibility itt situations of urgency. As a rule the foreign pohcy decisions were &aken itt

Goa and rncnto" or izitriç&' to g&ude the crnbaies wereissued by the vicerov. But t for instance, when the eity of Macao

dee ided to send an e rnb assy to the cxnperor of hitta itt 167 8 takinga ilon from East Africa as a gift, the city issued its own structionswhich were drawn in the name af the crown. A year later theauthorities itt Goa wrote praisingthe efforts of tbe city and askingto be inforrncd abour the inatructions issued to tJw ambassador .

27. Vilfrrs, fs .ci,p.

53.23. Bd,tim da Fibst€oi, No. 1, pp. 23131, 245, 265,268; N. 2, p. 414, 457

C.R. Boxer Por1u,,w Ciqtsest and Cominerw in S,aL6mi Aa, 15(11-1750, Lodou(\T jm.wn RipnnL, 1985, 111, pp. 123-6, ifeis io the "tyrannoa behaviour ofthe pta of M2hrea 4o 10 mopoliie all th traiir fiw theu owu

profit". Cf. L.A. Noonan, "The Potugu m Malacca", Sindia, No. 23, 1968,p. 61: "n'aling from th gomm1no coi1j appcass to have been a Porhigupaatime, 1r.it crwtty and injusticie to onc's neighboma and dependaails waz not".In thc lice oI abundant cidnct to the eonirary, the author aotuaris unntical

oo many other eounts m thia brief study meluding his enthustastic drlënce o(




Against this background we can now proceed to consider thedetails of the embassy sent by Francisco de Silva de Menezes,captain of Malacca to Siam in 1595. Couttre was included inthis embassy, but he had already been a good friend of the captainfrom the throe he arrived in Malacca and was inuoduced to thecaptain by Sequin Marthiel la, an old Venetian, who seems to havebeen a resident "business man a ger" of Malacca fort captains.Within six months the captain had sent Couare to Pahang with anembassy under Martin Teixeira in 1594. Couttres main missionwas to purchase diamonds and "bazar" stones for the captain.xl

Embassy to Siam. in 1595Couttre's account of this embassy and his observations in

Siam are covered in seven el i a

ptnn of the First Book (its. 21v 53).An embassy had arrived from Siam in Malacca after Siam hadcaptured the kin.gdom of Cambodia m

and taken captive manyUiriss ians and Portuguese, including religious of different Orders,such as Franciscans. Augusdnians and Dominicans. One

Do m inican f riar nam ed. Fr. Jorge de M ota ., who m Co ut t re descr ibesas "astute y terrible", had succeeded in bribing an influentialcourtier and getting himself sent as an envoy of the king of Siam tothe captain of Malacca to open negotiations for the release of theprisoners. Couttre says that the unscrupulous friar dangledViSi0115 of cut-rate diamonds, rubies and sapphires in Siam beforethe captain of Malacca in exchange for textiles and foodstuffs.

Silva Menezes was eager to combine a mivdon of mercy with theopportunity to enrich himself. Not many were keen to join thisembassy, owing to the reputation of the king of Siam for tyrannyand inconsistency, but there were some who were too ambitiousto resist an opportunity of making some gain. Couttre avers that

he himself was initially very reluctant to go when the captain asked

him to accompany the embassy, which was to consist of a favourite

1667. However, in 1679 the authorities in Macao had &dried to send their own

ambassado r &tato Pereira. de Faria to Cbina in the name of the crown- The cityof Macao paid the co sts of the embassy and also of an exnearive gift of a live lionimported from Mozambique. The administration of Goa praised the initiative of

Macao city and approved dretiort. Cy_ HAGt --- 1264, C.orresper.dmia deAfanat„ No. 1, fls. 30v-31; Wills, 60. cit., pp. 127-144.

30. IINM: Ms. 2780, lls. 9v ff.31. Ibid., 11. 18 refers to an uprising in Cambodia and the intervention of

Spanish troops from Fhilippinesat the request of the local prince who was murderedb h b l i h A tl Ol ki f & i t i t t



EMBASSIES AND SURROGATES 47

of the captain as am bassador, a factor, and nine other Portuguese.Co ut tre agreed to jom the em bassy w hen the captain con cededsome of his demaadis

The em bassy le ft in a ill=(a vessel describe d

asof ne arly athousand ton res burthert, and wi th sails m ade o f palm leaves) on

the 8th May, 1 5 95. The crew w as all Chinese , and the fr iar JorgeW as not just accom panying the em bassy b ut had taken full controlof it. Couttre expresses his resentment that everyone bad todance to his tune.

After a trying voyage through the straits in which the junk scraped a submerged rock and Couttre's watering party was

am bushe d by some pirates (whom he calls bayus berneas)onalonely island, the expedition reached Patane and thereafter Lugo r,w here the captain of a junk com ing f rom Siam repor ted tha t theChris tian capt ives had the freedo m of the c i ty , w here they w erebeing kept , and w ere going about aimed, often killing one another

without in terference f rom the king; in fact som e Japanese Chris-tians had killed a Dominican friar and had sought refuge in a

Capuchin-run church in vain. They were murdered by thePortuguese a t the fo ot o f the al tar .

The last leg o f the voyage to Siam was com ple ted only afteran at tack o n their junk by corsairs , who m Co ut t re fallsWas, andwho m they repelled successfully w ith m usket f ire.

O n en tering Siam river -ne ither the ambassador no r the friarwe re keen to d i sem bark, bu t bo th were keen to d iver t the vesse l

and go to Co chin-China (an old European designation for V ietnam ,particularly South Vietnam). The rtaistance of all the othersin the ir com pany forced them to change their m ind and fol low upthe purpose of the m ission . They had to regis ter their nam es andall their goods and armament at the cheekpost manned by amandarin. After that the friar and C.-Inure obtained a passport(thara) to proceed upriver till Odia (Ayuthia), about 40 leagues

away, to meet thc king and inform him about the arrival of theambassador. They observed many guardave ssels and s trict vigilall along their route. They reached Ayuthia after seven daysof journey .

In the c i ty t hey were w arm ly we lcom ed by the Por tuguese ,who co nfirm ed the news they had bee n given at 1.11

g0r . They didnot find the king at his capital, because he was on an elephant-

39 Aid Bs 21v 24v






renegade called Miguel de Pieta to act as his interpreter from Malayto Siamese. The friar knew Malay and was dictat in

g as text of the patera whatever he liked, so m uch so that he descr ibed the w holeparty accompanying the ambassador as slaves " (paylvan). The

inandar ina were then happily asking those present their names to benoted down. The friar's text of the patent greeted the king of Siamand Cambodia in the name of the king of Portugal, and declaredthat he was sending his relative Manuel Pereira d'Abreu whith tenothexs and some armament and gifts, etc. Most of these statementswere untrue, and the patent in a gold cont a

iner was of the captainof Malacca, requesting the king of Siam to relaase the captives andlisting

,thc gifts that were sent. Couttre and som e o thers presen t

had uaderstood the gist of the friar's trickeries, but were chilledwith horror and feared that a protest would cost them their lives.

The king was delighted and on the day fixed for welcomingthe ambassador officially he scut rich presents to the ambassado rand the friar. The embassy corta.ge moved towards the royalpalace, a league and half away, accompanied by a thousand menof muskets, another thousand bowmen, another thousand lancers,

and then another thousand swordsmen.. All moved in two parallelcolumns. .They had only their loins covered and their bodiespainted with many designs. The two Hans brothers were seatedon elephants with the containers of the rale and false embassypaeans on their hearhe Th

ay were surrounded by three lumdred

trumpeters and drummers. Then followed the ten Portuguesecarrying the various gifts brought by the ambassador. The friaron a palan.qaire and to his left the ambassador on a horse, broughtUPthe rear with the rest of the Portuguese and the Christiancaptives.

The cortége moved in complete silence_ No one spoke a word,and only thr trumpets and drums made a deafrning noise. Allthe houses along the way had their doors and windows shut andno one could be seen outdoors. No barking of a dog was to beheard tender penalty of death to the dog and its own.e.r. On arrival

in the palace premises the embassy party had to cross three largepatios, each an arquebus shot long and little less wide, lined bythousands of armed retainers sitting on their haunches. ThePortuguese accompanying the embassy had to move wi th their

heads low ered and arm s crossed over shoulders .

The king was sitting en a golden throne on a raised squareplatform; about two hundred paces wide and long. The thronewas like a roofed bedstead. It had glass panes, and the king



50 - TEOTONIO DE SOI.IZA Indica 49

was communicating with the guests through small window andwas barely visible. There were five stops before reaching the royalthrone. The distance be tween the stops was of thirty paces. Ateach stop a pal t of the patent was read and transm itted orally

from person to person till it was conveyed to the k ing. Whenthe entire message was e.onveyed the king sent gold boxes (Worthabout 2,000 escudos each) with betel and accompaniments for thefriar and the ambassador ; and baskets (worth about 30 escudoseach) with similar contents to the other Portuguese accompanyingthe embassy. The king then asked the ambassador how manymen he had used to conquer Ceylon. He said in reply that hc had

500 Portuguese. and 3,000 Indians with him.-

The King then.presented more expensive gifts to the ambassador and the friar."

After c los ing the recept io n cam m orty the king lef t the audienceplace very solemnly behind his guards. The king was dressedalso with only a loin-cloth, but on his head he was wearing some-thing likee a mitre, but gold platei and stud.dcd with preciousstones. He was seated on an elephant and had two golden hooks

in hands for controlling the artimal. In front of him moved theambassador and friar and the rest o/ the Portuguese with theirhands joined over their left shoulder. Belan

i d him was his brotheron another elephant with his hands on his bent head_ Aroundhim were the trumpeters and the drummers. The party movedso very quickly that Couttre reports having a brush with the teethof the royal elephant behind him.

The king- was convinced of the genuineness of the embessyand sought to respond with an embassy of his own to the kingof Portugal. He decided to send the friar with two grandees of his kingdom. These were sons of a royal concubine. She wasm o s t onhappy abo ut th is and w as praying te her gods and consu lt ingpriests with expensive offerings to seek a change in the royal plansfor her sons.

The king gave the friar a big junk for the journey. Couttre

describes the junk bigger than a carraek o f the Po rtugues e carreira.It could take 30,000 quintals of cargo. The king gave him also10,000 quintals of saparn (similar to Brazil wood which is used formaking dyes), 400 quintals of white ntengui, large quantity of alum(ped ra unte) and several other goods of the country. He also invitedthe friar and the ambassador to choose from a box of rubies thebest one for the king of Portugal. Couttre says that even though

34 Ibid lb 27 32




he was not pmsent at the time, he held it in his hands, and thoughtit. worth 60,000 escudos. The king was also sanding a sapphirewhich weighed 300 carats and would be worth 8,000 escudos.The king had them both put in two ornaments with many roughdiamonds of eight carats each fitted into them. Couttre valuesbo th the pieces of ornam ent a t 15 0 ,060 escudo s ..

As the date for the departure of the embassy neared., thc friarcalled his Portuguese friends and favourites, and chose ten fromamong them to go with him. The others approached Couttre andSimon Peres (the factor of the captain of Malacca) expressing theirfears and the tortures the y could expect once the king discovered

that he had been a victim of deceit.

Couure and Peres approached one of the Ans (Hans) brothersand paid him four MarCOS of silver to serve as their interpreterbefore the mother of the two ambassadors-designate. The ladyof the court gave them an interview and they disclose d to her -ailthe fals i t ies w orked o ut by the friar in conn ection w ith the Portugue seembassy. To ensure the veracity of their version she could ask

the king to check the original Malay text in the seakd goldencontainer. They also requested her to te-m:_ her good services toobtain royal permission and a junk to return to Malacca and reportwhat had happened to the captain of Malacca. She felt that herprayers were being answered and served them sweets adfruits andsent them away with the promise of attending to their request.

The ling was furious when he was told about the ruse and

ordered immediately that the junk and goods given to the friarshould be seized. He also summoned.

Couttre's party to hispresence. But whOr they WCTC on their way to the royal palacewith gifts, some fifteen hoodlums sent by the friar and his fellowemissary from Malacca asvailed them. Simon Peres got badlyhurt in this assault. The king came to know of this incident andrepeated his invitation to see him. Couttre, Antonio Hats, andPere s m e t himwith gifts. The king was mnated on a golden throne

about three metres high and there. were tIvo tigers -tied with chainsnearby. The visitors were made to sit it front and below thethrone on a mat.At one stage the tigers were released and Couttresays that one cam e f t -iglu-ful ly d ose to h im Wore the king orderedthem to be taken away. The king then listened to them andgranted their request to leave for Malacca with all the Portuguesethey rtnght want to take along, including a Capuchin friar,

Gregorio da Cruz whom the king greatly respected






well-equipped vessels travelled his women, courtiers and guards_The king stopped at the city called Repery. From there he wentto Sapampur, where he had a collection of over three thousand

elephants. They were looked after by cmweras, who had theirlittle houses on tree-tops as protection against tigers. Fires werelit at night to keep the tigers at bay. The place was also infestedby the so-called elephant flies that could bite through the clothes,and they made it impossible to sleep a t night. Couttre's partyhad to wait there for 25 days, and aM they could do was to submittheir petition to the king in writing_ The Mr...g had replied that

their request would be granted on his return to Ayuthia. Andtrue to his word, on anival there he gave them a new junk andnamed his ambassadots to the captain of Malacca. He also gaveleave to the Portuguese ambassador to go with them. The friarand marty other Portuguese had to remam behind as captives.Couttre's party finally left Siam after eight troublesome months

Couttre's party stopped at Cambodia on the way_ In thecity they met a Castillian and a Portuguese called Diego Veloso,

who still had his wife captive in &inn He himself had beensent by the king of Siam in an embassy to Manila, but insteadof returnMg wi..h the answer he had gone to Cochin-China incompany of the said Castillian Bias Roils. From Cochin-Chinathey had crossed overland into Laos, where lived a son of the king

of Cambodia married to a princess of Laos. They instigated theking o f Lacis to send a b ig flee t to con quer the kingdom of Ca mbodiato which he had right_ The king followed their advice and sentthe prince as general. Diogo Veloso and Blas Ruis were appointedgovernors of the fleet. On arriv-al in Cambodia they found a rebelLaxcemanc who had captured. power. Seeing the big fleet hefeigned obedience. In the city of Cambodia there were several

other Portuguese who had escaped from a junk that the king of Siam had sena to Manila and in which was travelling a Capuchinfriar Pedro Ortis (Gouttre had met this friar during his first tripto the hunting camp of the king of Siam). These Portugueseapproached Couttre's junk and gave the news of the place anddisclosed tileir plans to killLaxcernatw. They wanted thatCouttre should speak to the captain of Malacca on their behalf

and convey their request for- religious toad

minister sacraments



54 TEOTONIO DE SOUZA ladica 49

On return to Malacca Comae found that the captainFrancisco de Silva de Menezes had gone to Goa and he had been

replaced by Martim Afonso de Melo. The captain respondedimmediately to the requests he conveyed and sent some Augustinianfriars and rnf.rty

Portuguese. These went and joined hands with

Blas Ruis and others who were planning to kill Laxcema.ne.However, he suspected their intentions and killed all the Portugueseand the friars without sparing ahy or them. The prince escapedand went back to his father-in-law, the king of Laos.

The ambassadors of Siam and the Portuguese ambassador

Manuel Pereira d'Abreu had already arrived in MaLacca before

Couttre. Manuel Pereira was returning rich and had won overthe new captain with the gift of the gold box which the king of

Siam had given him. No one was talkihg- any more of the problems

he had created in Siam. Couttre got him to pay back with some

reluctance some money that he had lent him. He pretended tobe friendly, but had not forgiven Couttre the blows that he hadstruck during a skirmish in Siam. He refused the offer of a' ducl,

but started conspiring with the captain, who also bore grudge againstCouture over some woman. They planned an assault by sending

sorneoric topurchase an emerald from Comtre. (It belonged to theJesuit Bishop of Japan, who had been present at the martyrdom

of many there. The Jesuits had asked him to sell it). Pretending

that he wanted to consult a friend, he took Couttre with him.On the way he was assaulted by others who had been waiting.

He was hit with a sword on the head, but Couture hiad time todraw h

issword and scare away his assailants after injuring one

seriously. He says that Manuel Pereira an.d the captain werewatching the situation from the roof of the fort.

Ten days after the assault Manuel Pereira and his men wentback to Siam. When he wanted to return and could no t ge t the king'spermission to do so, his rnert joined han .ds with a Castillian frigate

that was there at the time and fought with the Siamese guard-vessels. There were many casualties on either side. Friar Mota

was returning with him, and he was wounded in the conffict. Bothdied of exhaustion and illness soon after their return to Malacca.A few days later there was a big fire in the -suburbs of the city of

Malacca where Couttre lived. He lost his house with all the stock

of nungui and all other goods he had. Goutore calls it the climax

of his shfferings in Siam "



Documents

Embassies and Surrogates: Case-Study of a Malacca Embassy to Siam in 1595