232 Mission to the Court of Siam. [No. 99. 



the English ; and in return, I assured him of the deep interest 

 the Right Honorable the Governor General and high officers 

 in India had in the welfare of Siam, and their sincere wish for 

 the continuance of the very friendly relations at present existing 

 between the two countries. I said I was much obliged to 

 the king for the honor of an early audience; and that I 

 could not forget his friendly assurance, that the ministers 

 would attend to any thing I had to say, and that any wish 

 of the Right Honorable the Governor General was the same 

 as if it were his own. He replied, that when the king was 

 so friendly, the ministers must of course be equally so. 



We remained until half-past six with this minister, discussing 

 various points of business. His Excellency inquired if I wished 

 to take certain orders to Laos myself, and whether I intended 

 returning from thence to Bankok; I replied I wished to be 

 the bearer of the order to Zimmay, but that my return here 

 depended on the wishes of the king. He replied we were 

 good friends, and I might take the order and return by any 

 way I pleased; if I wished to return here, I might do so. I 

 thanked him for the permission to proceed to Zimmay. 

 After leaving the minister's house we went to the palace of 

 Chow-fa-noi, which is a short way above our residence, on 

 the right bank of the river. It was built by Pya-tack, the 

 Chinese king, who re-established the monarchy, and built a 

 new town here, on the site of the old French factory, after 

 the old city of Yodea had been taken, and the royal family 

 carried off by the Burmese. It is a brick building, and stands 

 in a small fort close to the river, on the angle formed by 

 the junction of the Maha-tchi canal ; it was full of pointed 

 gables and cross roofs, like an old farm house in England ; it 

 covers a great extent of ground, and has an immense number 

 of apartments and passages, some covered, some open. In 

 the morning, as he was going down the river to get up a 

 mast in one of Pya-pi-pat's war junks, he called at the 

 factory, and requested me, if I intended calling on him to- 

 day, to come about 7 p.m. It was just seven when we arrived 

 at his house, and in ten minutes he came home. He is the 

 second legitimate son of the late king, and will probably 



