3 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIAM. 



of the brothers De Backer, which is restricted to the works 

 of the Society of Jesus, also deserves mention. 



After much deliberation as to the arrangement which would 

 be most useful to readers in search of information, the pub- 

 lications relating to this country have been divided into four 

 classes, namely : — ist, General works on history and travel, 

 manners and customs ; 2nd, Periodicals and transactions of 

 learned societies ; 3rd, Language ; and 4th, Maps. In the 

 first of these, a modified chronological arrangement has been 

 adopted, according to which the titles are given, not so much 

 with respect to priority of publication, as to approximate date 

 of composition, since some of these works have long remained 

 in manuscript form, until disinterred from dust and obscurity 

 by the diligence of modern editors — as for instance CORREA's 

 u Lendas da India" and "Cocks' Diary. }} This deviation 

 from strict bibliographical chronology seems to be justified by 

 the consideration that students will naturally wish to ascer- 

 tain what was known by foreigners about the country at any 

 particular period. A few titles of which the dates could not 

 be ascertained are placed together at the end of Part I. The 

 chronological rule has also been followed with regard to 

 philological treatises and scattered papers or notices on the 

 language. But in the case of periodicals and proceedings of 

 learned societies, an alphabetical order appeared more con- 

 venient, for the reason that it obviates too frequent repetition 

 of titles, and furnishes the reader with a list ( in the present 

 case doubtless extremely meagre) of the articles in each 

 separate serial. In respect of maps, again, there seemed to 

 be no ground for adopting any particular kind of order, as the 

 number is so small that the trouble of examining all the en- 

 tries is insignificant. But separately published maps are dis- 

 tinguished from those which have been produced to illustrate 

 special works of history and travel. 



In Part I, no separation has been made between books 

 which treat exclusively of Siam, and those which devote only 

 a part of their pages to this country, or mention it only inci- 

 dentally. Siam was not of sufficient interest to the early 

 travellers and explorers to obtain a volume to herself. It was 

 only when the Dutch and the French established trading fac- 



