BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIAM. 3 



tories, and entered into close political relations with her, that 

 monographs began to appear. These were most numerous 

 towards the end of the 17th century. Many of them are con- 

 cerned chiefly with the interchange of embassies between 

 France and Siam and the fortunes of the remarkable CONSTAN- 

 TINE FALKON, whose policy gave rise to them, and whose 

 fate involved their ultimate failure. The 1 Sth century was 

 the era of compilations and collections of voyages and travels, 

 Of original works, but few were produced, but the latter class 

 have greatly increased in number since the arrival of the first 

 Protestant missionaries in 1829 and still more since the con- 

 clusion of the existing treaties in 1855 aR d subsequent years. 



Modern writers have not the same interest for us as those 

 earlier observers to whom the world was a fresh field of stranc c 

 discovery, and, with but one or two exceptions, their accounts 

 present but few new facts. There is still room for an entire- 

 ly original work on Siam, whenever a scientific knowledge of 

 the language, and that intimate acquaintance with the coun- 

 try, its people and its productions, which only systematic tra- 

 vel can impart, shall be possessed by a single individual. 

 Till then Siam must, in common with other eastern countries. 

 continue to labour under the disadvantage of being described 

 by the passing amateur tourist, whose least sympathetic 

 variety is the nineteenth century globe-trotter. 



The mention of a strange country by poets and famous 

 writers of prose is always interesting, and it is believed, there- 

 fore, that quotations from CAMOEXS, THOMSON and BOSWELL 

 will not be regarded as any more out of place, than references 

 to the quaint notices by early travellers and traders, such as 

 Yarthema, Barros, Pinto"! Cocks, Fitch, and the stay- 

 at-home Peter Heylin. 



A pretty copious index has been added, in which the names 

 of authors, as well as the titles of books and papers, are in- 

 serted in alphabetical order. 



E. M. S. 

 May, 1886. 



