PIRES ON SIAM (1515)

Translated from the PortugueseMS in the Bibliotheque de la Chambre des Députes,Paris, and edited by ARMANDO CORTESAO

THE SUMA ORIENTAL OF TOME PIRES AN ACCOUNT OF THE EAST, FROM THE RED SEA TO JAPAN, WRITTEN IN MALACCA AND INDIA IN 1512-1515

... As, in accordance with the arrangement of this book, we shall pass through Siam on the way to Malacca, it is right that we should speak of it, although we shall come upon it again on the China side at the river of Odia.1

[SIAM]
Kingdom of Siam and its ports.

There are three ports in the kingdom of Siam on the Pegu side, and on the Pahang and Champa side there are many. They all belong to the said kingdom and are subject to the king of Siam. The land of Siam is large and very plenteous, with many people and cities, with many lords and many foreign merchants, and most of these foreigners are Chinese, because Siam does a great deal of trade with China. The land of Malacca is called a land of Siam, and the whole of Siam, Champa and thereabouts is called China.

The kingdom of Siam is heathen. The people, and almost the language, are like those of Pegu. They are considered to be prudent folk of good counsel. The merchants know a great deal about merchandise. They are tall, swarthy men, shorn like those of Pegu. The kingdom is justly ruled. The king is always in residence in the city of Odia. He is a hunter. He is very ceremonious with strangers; he is more free and easy with the natives. He has many wives, upwards of five hundred. On the death [of the king] it has as king a person of the blood [royal], usually a nephew, the son of a sister, if he is suitable, and if not there are sometimes agreements and assemblies [to decide] who will be the best. Secrets are closely kept among them. They are very reserved. They speak with well-taught modesty. The important men are very obedient to the king. Their ambassadors carry out their instructions thoroughly.

Through the cunning [of the Siamese] the foreign merchants who go to their land and kingdom leave their merchandise in the land and are ill paid; and this happens to them all--but less to the Chinese, on account of their friendship with the king of China. And for this reason less people go to their port than would otherwise] go. However, as the land is rich in good merchandise, they bear some things on account of the profit, as often happens to merchants, because otherwise there would be no trading.

There are very few Moors in Siam. The Siamese do not like them. There are, however, Arabs, Persians, Bengalees, many Kling, Chinese and other nationalities. And all the Siamese trade is on the China side, and in Pase, Pedir and Bengal. The Moors are in the seaports. They are obedient to their own lords, and constantly make war on the Siamese, now inland and now in Pahang. They are not very warlike fighting men. The said Siamese wear bells like the men of Pegu, and no less but just as many. The lords wear pointed diamonds and other precious stones in their privy parts in addition to the bells--a precious stone worn is according to the person or his estate.

Duties and coinage in Siam. The foreign merchants in Siam pay two on every nine, and the Chinese pay two on every twelve. The bahar weighs the same as it does in China, neither more nor less. The Siamese gold and silver cate is equivalent to a Malacca cate and a half. Cowries, like those current in Pegu, are current throughout the country for small money, and gold and silver for the larger coins. This money is worth the same as we have said for Pegu. And there seems to be no doubt that they pay one in fifteen on the goods going out, because the truth is that they pay duties of two in ten on everything in Siam.

Ports in Siam going towards Malacca on the Pegu side. The nearest to the land of Pegu, to Martaban, is Tenasserim (Tenaçarj) and then Junkseylon (Juncalom) and then Trang (Terrãm)[2] and Kedah (Quedua), and it is a port of the kingdom of Kedah which is tributary to it. And from Kedah to Malacca they are all tin places, as we have already said in the kingdom and district of Malacca.

This had to be [mentioned] before we speak of Kedah, so that it should be in order. Ports in the kingdom of Siam on the China side.

Beginning from Pahang (Pahãao) and Trengganu (Talimgano), Kelantam (Clamtam), Say, Patani (Patane), Lakon (Lugor), Martarã, Callnansey, Bamcha, Cotinuo, Peperim, Pamgoray[3], are all ports belonging to lords of the land of Siam, and some of these are kings. They all have junks; these do not belong to the king of Siam, but to the merchants and the lords of the places; and after these ports there is the river of Odia, where they go up to the city--a river where boats and ships can go, wide and beautiful.

River of Kedah (Quedaa). Kedah is a very small kingdom, with few people and few houses. It is up a river. There is pepper there, a matter of four hundred bahars a year. This pepper goes by way of Siam to China, with that which they bring from Pase and Pedir also. When any ship comes to Tenasserim and to the ports of Siam it comes to Kedah to sell its merchandise also, and the people from the tin districts buy and take gold, because Kedah is a trading country; and they get to the land of Siam in three or four days by land, and they take the merchandise from Kedah to Siam

The kingdom of Kedah is almost bounded on one side by Trang (Terrão), and on the other by the end of the kingdom of Malacca and by Bruas (Baruaz)[4]. Kedah trades with Pase and Pedir, and the people of Pase and Pedir come to Kedah every year. One ship comes from Gujarat to the ports of Siam, and comes to Kedah and takes in a cargo of the pepper there is in the country, and from there it sometimes goes back to Pase and Pedir to finish taking in its cargo, and it takes the tin from Bruas, Selangor (Çalamgor) and Mjmjam.[5]

Kedah is under the jurisdiction of the king of Siam, and they go to Siam by the Kedah river. Kedah has rice in quantities, and pepper A great deal of merchandise from China is used in Kedah; and Kedah does not have junks, it has lancharas. It is a country. It does good trade. Because of their proximity, cloth in Kedah is worth the same as in Malacca.

Now we will go on to Siam on the China side, and after having finished talking about Siam, and about some of its ports, we will enter into the kingdom of Cambodia.

Merchandise in Siam which used to come to Malacca at the time when they traded with it. Foodstuffs. There is a great abundance of rice in Siam, and much salt, dried salt fish, oraquas[6], vegetables; and up to thirty junks a year used to come to Malacca with these.

Merchandise. From Siam comes lac, benzoin, brazil[7], lead, tin, silver, gold, ivory, cassia fistula; they bring vessels of cast copper and gold, ruby and diamond rings; they bring a large quantity of cheap, coarse Siamese cloth for the poor people.

They say that the chief merchandise they take from Malacca to Siam are the male and female slaves, which they take in quantities, white sandalwood, pepper, quicksilver, vermilion, opium, azernefe, cloves, mace, nutmeg, wide and narrow muslins, and Kling cloths in the fashion of Siam, camlets, rosewater, carpets brocades from Cambay, white cowries, wax, Borneo camphor pachak which are roots like dry rampion, gall-nuts (gualhas), and the merchandise they bring from China every year is also of value there.

How long it is that the Siamese have not been coming to Malacca. The Siamese have not traded in Malacca for twenty-two years. They had a difference because the kings of Malacca owed allegiance to the kings of Siam, because they say that Malacca belongs to the land of Siam--They say that it is theirs and that twenty-two years ago this king lost Malacca, which rose up against this subjection. They also say that Pahang rose against Siam in the same way, and that, on account of the relationship between them, the kings of Malacca favoured the people of Pahang against the Siamese, and that this was also a reason for their disagreement.

They also say that it was about the tin districts which are on the Kedah side, and which were originally under Kedah, and were taken over by Malacca; and they quarreled for all these reasons, and they say that the chief reason was the revolt against subjection. After this the Siamese sailed against Malacca, and the Siamese were routed by the Malays, and [they say] that the Lasamane was the captain--who has therefore been held in great honour ever since.

What the Siamese trade now. The Siamese trade in China--six or seven junks a year. They trade with Sunda and Palembang (Palimbaão) and other islands They trade with Cambodia and Champa and Cochin China (Cauçhy), and with Burma (Brema) and Jangoma[8] on the main land, when they are at peace.

On the Tenasserim side Siam also trades with Pase, Pedir, with Kedah, with Pegu, with Bengal; and the Gujaratees come to its port every year. r! hey trade richly outside and liberally inside the country, but they are great tyrants.

King and lords of the kingdom of Siam. King Prechayoa[9] means lord of all, and after the king the Aja King and Capetit[10] is the viceroy on the Pegu and Cambodia side, and makes war on Burma (Bremao) and Jangoma. This Aja Capetit has many fighting men. Inside his own territory he is like the king of this land.

The second is the viceroy of Lakon (Loguor). He is called Poyohya (?)[11] He is governor from Pahang to Odia; Pahang (Pahãm), Trengganu (Talimgano), Chantansay, Patani, Lakon (Lugou), Maitaram, Calnãsey, Banqa, Chotomuj, Pepory, Pamgoray and other ports all have lords like kings, some of them Moors, some of them heathen. And in each port there are many junks and these navigate to Cambodia, Champa, Cochin China (Cauchij), and to Java and Sunda, and to Malacca, Pase, Pedir and to those of Indragiri (Andarguerij)[12], Palembang (Palimbão), and from these places to Patani. They have up to seven or eight hundred bahars of pepper every year, and every one of these ports is a chief port, and they have a great deal of trade, and many of them rebel against Siam; and thus viceroy very rich and a very important person--almost as important as the other, [of] Kampengpet (Capemtit).

The other is Vya Chacotay[13]. He is viceroy on the Tenasserim, Trang and Kedah side. He is the chief person. He has jurisdiction over them all. He is perpetual captain of Tenasserim. He is the lord of many people and of a land plenteous in foodstuffs.

Another is Oparaa[14]. He is secretary to the king. Everything passes through his hands and through the Concusa who is treasurer; and they say that both this Oparaa and the Concusa now have, I great authority with the king of Siam, although the Concusa is a man of low birth. It is customary in the kingdom of Siam for everything to go through these two people Oparaa and Concusa, and these two wrote to Malacca with the king of Siam.

FOOTNOTES

1Odia or Ayuthia, former capital of Siam, was destroyed by the Burmese in 1767, after a two years' siege. Barros writes Odia and Hudiá. Couto (Vl, vii, 9) gives an interesting description of 'the city of Odia, the principal of the kingdom of Siam, which lies forty leagues up the river' (Menam Chao Phaya). Odia was sometimes called Judea or ludia. Hobson-Jobson, s.v. Iudea

[2]All fol. 137r. of the Paris MS was left out in the Lisbon MS and in Ramusio; so these names cannot be collated as in other instances.

JUNCALOM--Junkseylon, an island and old port off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. It is referred to by Galvão and Pinto, and appears for the first time in Diogo Homem's atlas of 1558 as jusalã.

TERR[Atilde]M--Trang, Tarang or Klong Trang, a river, port and town further south, in 7deg. 18' lat. N. It is mentioned by Barros (I, ix, 1) as Torrilo. The map of c. 1540 has toram. Some cartographers, as Dourado, placed torão south of Kedah; on the maps of D. Homem and Berthelot toraquc or Torram is also south of Kedah. In this case they meant perhaps the present Trang, in 4deg. 40', which appears on Rodrigues' map (fol. 34) as Rio do trom, i.e. Kuala Larut, bounded by Singa Besar Island on the north and Trong Island on the south.

[3] Later on, under the heading 'King and Lords of the kingdom of Siam', the names of these ports arc written as follows: 'pahãm/ talimgano/ chantansay/ patane/ lugoumai/ taram calnãsey banqa. chotomaj pepory pamgoray'. Barros (I ix, 1) says that along the coast up to the river Menão (Menam or Bangkok) there are the following notable towns 'Pao' which is the capital of the kingdom so called, Ponticão, Calantão, Patane, Lugor, Cuy, Perperij, and Bamplacot, which lies at the mouth of the river Menão., He also mentions the following 'towns which are sea ports' from Hudid (Bangkok) towards Malacca: 'Pangoçay, Lugo, Patane, Calantam, Talingano or Talingano, and Pam'. Ill, ii, 5.

CLAMTAM--Corresponds to Kota Bharu, at the entrance of the Kelantan River. The Calantão or Calantam mentioned by Barros. Dourado's atlas of 1580 has Rdeg. de calamtão, which is found also on later maps. SAY--Corresponds to Saiburi at the entrance of the Telubin River, in 6deg. 42' lat. N. The 1554 map of L. Homem has sera patane north of calatam; in D. Homem's atlas of 1558 there is r. serra between catatã and patane, and tei in Dourado's atlases. Then it appears again on an Eredia map (fol. 27) as Sea. Rio, between calantan Rio and PATANE; the atlas of c. 1615-23 has Sea between calantam and patane; Berthelot's map of 1635 has Scy between R. de calantam and Patane. J. V. Mills says that the `Sai River', as it appears on an ancient Chinese Wu-Pei-Chih chart, `represents what is now called the Telubin River. The earliest European map to mark the river is that of Homem (1558) who calls it "Seiia" [a misreading for r. serra as noted above]. Similar names appear on all the maps on which the river is named, down to at least 1850: the name "Telubin" does not appear until after that date'. Malaya in the Wu-Pei-Chih Charts, p. 36. However, the name survived in Saiburi.

LUGOR--Lakon roadstead and town. The map of c. 1540 has logor.

MARTARã--The next important port to the north is Bandon. But still further north there is an islet called Matra near the coast, in 10deg. 24' lat. N., southeast of M. Chum Pon. Is this connected with Pires' Martarã?

CALLNANSEY--Bang Kamma Sen, a small village on the coast, in 11deg. 2' lat. N.?

BAMCHA--Bang-taphang or Bang Sabhan, in 11deg. 12' lat. N.? Banagh in the Mohit. Pinto mentions several times this town or port of Banchá.

COTINUX--Further on called Chotomuj. Koh Ta kut, in 12deg. 15' lat. N.?

PEPERIM--Pechabury river and town. The Perperij of Barros. Perpji on the map of ca. 1540, and Peiper on Berthelot's map. On several later maps it appears as Piperi (see maps in L. Fournereau, Le Siam Ancien). On an early sixteenth-century Portuguese map by Miranda (in Aires, Fernão Mendes Pinto e o Japão) it is Piper, corresponding to the town of Pechabury, in 13deg. 6' lat. N. On the map published by Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, end of vol. II, it still appears as Phiphri, on the north of the entrance of the river Pechabury in 13deg. 16'.
PAMGORAY--This must be the Pangoçay mentioned by Barros as the first port when going from Bangkok to Malacca. Pangoçay was identified as Bang Plassoy by Campos, Early Portuguese Accounts of Thailand, p. 11.

[4]The mouth of the river Bruas or Sungi Bruas is in 4deg. 28' lat. N. One of the villages near the sea is called Pengkalen Bahru today, and higher up the river there is a village of Bruas. Pires says later, when describing Baruaz, that in the 'Baruaz river there are two inhabited places (poveaçoes)'. Pinto (CXLIV) states that in 1544 he 'saw all the coast of the Malay, which is 130 leagues (from Malacca) to Junçalão, entering all the rivers of Barrahás, Salangor, Panágim, Quedá, Parlás, Pedão, and Sambilaõ Siaõ'. Dealing with Malacca, in 1614, Bocarro (xliv) mentions Barvas. The map of c. 1540 has brocs, between queda and pulo cahlam; L. Homem's map of 1554 has baruas between pemdam (Penang) and pulo sambilam (Sembilan); Dourado's atlases and other Portuguese maps have baruas between toram (Trang) and p. sambilaõ; Eredia's map of the Malay Peninsula (for. z7) has baruas immediately north of a cape corresponding to the Dindings; the Atlas of Janssonius (1658) still has Baruas. The Malacca Strait Pilot says that 'Sung) Bruas is a small river fronted by the mudbank extending from 5 to 9 miles off shore' but navigable by canoes for nearly 60 miles. It appears that the former port of Baruas or Bruas disappeared through silting.

[5]Mjmjam--The map of c. 1540 has micham immediately north of cãlagor (Selangor, in 3deg. 21'). The name still survives in Mehegan Point, the south point of the mouth of Dinding River (4deg. 14') which 'has a deep and clear entrance and is said to be navigable by vessels drawing 15 feet (4m 6) . . . a distance of about 7 miles'. Malacca Strait Pilot. See below, p. 261.

[6]Arrack, here the distilled spirit from a palm. In some instances Pires seems to mean the palm-tree itself.

[7]Brazil-wood or sappan-wood, Caesalpinia Sappan Linn. In his description of Malacca, Resende refers to 'some sapam, which is a red wood for dyes not much inferior to that of Brazil'. Livro do Estado da India, fol. 377v. Two of the most important Brazilian species are Caesalpinia Brasilicasis Linn. and C. echinata Lam.

[8] CAUçHY, Cauchi; or Cauchy Chyna--Cochin China, called by the Malays Kuchi, whence the Portuguese Cauchi and Cochinchina. Cf. Hobson-Jobson. On the eastern part of the Cantino map there is champocochim and chinacochim. Rodrigues' map (for. 38) has coçhim da china at the head of a long and narrow gulf. See note on Champa (p. I 1 z).

BREMA--Burma. Mentioned by Barbosa and other sixteenth-century Portuguese writers as Berma. JANGOMA--Mentioned by several sixteenth-century Portuguese writers. 'The town and state of Siamese Laos, called by the Burmese Zimme, by the Siamese Xieng-mai or Chiang-mai, &c.' Hobson-Jobson, s.v. Jangomay.

[9]Rey tchayoa or prechayoa. Perchoaa in the Lisbon MS; Perchoa in Ramusio. This might suggest King Phrachai or Prajai; but he reigned after 1534. In Pires' time the king of Siam was Ramathibodi II, who died in 1529. Phra--' is addressed at court to the king,' in Burma and Siam. It is supposed to be a corruption of Skt. prabhu, an honorific title meaning 'lord or chief'. Hobson-Jobson, s.vv. Pra and Parvoe; Dalgado s.v. Precheu. From Pinto (clxxxix) it seems that Prechau was a title of the king of Siam, which agrees with Pires' Prechayoa: 'The king's highest title is Prechau Saleu, which in our language means holy member of God.' Gerini says that Pinto's Prechau is 'P'hrah Chau, the Sacred Lord, i.e. His Majesty; something like "Holy Tzar"` Historical Retrospect of Junkceylon Island, p. 13.

[10]Agii capitemte in the Lishon MS; Aiam campetit in Ramusio. Oya Kampengpet, the Governor of Kampengpet or Kamphengphet, the old Siamese city in 16deg. 30' lat. N. A fairly complete Portuguese map by Miranda, of the early eighteenth century (in Aires, Fernão Mendes Pinto e o Japão) has Campeng.

[11]Perajoa in the Lisbon MS, Peraia in Ramusio. Perhaps Pra Oya, meaning 'Lord Governor' According to Campos some cities and ports had a governor with the title of Oya or Phya. Op. cit., p. 11. Pinto (clxxxii) refers to the `Oyas, Conchalês and Monteos, which are supreme dignities above all the others of the kingdom of Siam. But referring to Lugor he says (xxxvi) there is there a viceroy whom they call Poyho in their language.

[12]All these names from Camboja to Palimbão were omitted in the Lisbon MS and in Ramusio. Barros (II, v, i), mentions Andraguerij, Albuquerque (Comentarios, III, xvii) refers to Dandargiri, and Castanheda (II, cxi) speaks of Andragide as a kingdom of Sumatra. Ribeiro's maps of 1527 and 1529 have adaragire. Andarguerij corresponds to the Indragiri River, which debouches on the east coast of Sumatra in 1deg. lat. S.

[13]Ajaa chacotai in the Lisbon MS, Aia Chatoteri in Ramusio. Oya Socotai, the Governor of Cocotay, Sukotai or Sukhothai, the old Siamese city in 17deg. lat. N. The map of Miranda has Socotay north-west of Campeng.

[14]Uparat was a title meaning literally `Second King' or `Vice King' in the kingdom of Siam. He `was, in fact, the Crown Prince', says Wood, A History of Siam, pp. 92-3.