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tianity, and it was largely through his agency that the missions of which Père Tachard and Père Choisi were the chroniclers were despatched to the Court of Siam by Louis XIV in 1685 and 1687. These embassies, the second of which was under the leadership of the Chevalier de Chaumont, were mainly composed of Jesuits, and their sole object was the conversion of the King. They were well received, and the Chevalier de Chaumont was care- ful to submit himself to none of the humiliating observ- ances which, until a much later period, were exacted from British envoys to the Court of Ava; but the King, albeit he was a most liberal-minded monarch, far in advance of his age and race, had no intention of adopting an alien faith. De Chaumont, therefore, presently returned to France; but the Jesuits remained behind, and for a period occupied positions of importance in the Siamese service. They were instrumental in helping to suppress a rebellion headed by a Muhammadan, in which some refugees from Macassar took part, but they gradually became hateful to the nobles and the people of Siam, and were eventually massacred to a man, Constantine himself being ignomin- iously executed.

During the eighteenth century intercourse between Europeans and Siam was confined to the visits of a few traders and missionaries, and Hamilton's Account of the East Indies, published in Edinburgh in 1727, is probably the best work on the lands of southeastern Asia which that period produced. It shows, however, an intimate knowledge of nothing save the ports and coast-lines, all information relating to the interior being derived from