132 



some days* deliberation the Siamese accepted the 

 person of the Patani Chief, 30,000 Doliars, and 

 ten Catties of gold dust, with which they returned 

 to Siam, where the unfortunate Rajah With some 

 of his family was kept in irons. In the course 

 of SIX weeks upwards of four thousand natives 

 of Patani» Singora, and the neiglihonring states 

 were brought us slaves to Siam. 1 will not dis- 

 gust my readers by detailing the state of the?e 

 miserable people, but only request them to draw 

 for horrors on their imagination without fcarin^ 

 to overtop the reality. ^ 

 That this was a palpable violation of the Trea- 

 ty of Siam there can be no doubt, and it is a 

 striking illustration of Sir Slam'brd Rames's re- 

 mark that - the only difficulty iu the ease will be 

 to procure any species of cession which will be 

 recognized by a Government so constituted as 

 the Siamese/' 



The whole of these evils have arisen from two 

 causes, viz. the timorous? policy of Sir John 

 M^Pherf;on, and the utter disregard paid to the 

 pre-existing Treaty of Kedah, when that of Siam 

 was concluded. The first is to be traced to a 

 laudable desire to promote the interests of his 

 employers, without pledging them to a line of 

 policy which might involve the Company in a 

 iruitiees and expensive war, w^hich would more- 

 over have been viewed with an eye of jealousy 

 by the British nation at large, and attributed to 

 motives of aggrandizemeot.—The second can 

 only be accounted for on the charitable supposi- 

 tion that the British diplomatist was utterly ig- 

 norant of the existence of the Treaty of Kedah. 



