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An unexpected excursion: The first account of Spaniards in Ayutthaya (1585)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2020

JOHN N. CROSSLEY
JOHN N. CROSSLEY*
Affiliation:
Monash University, Australiajohn.crossley@monash.edu
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Abstract

Although the Portuguese established contact with Thailand soon after their conquest of Melaka in 1511, it was thought that Spaniards did not go there until the disastrous expedition of Diego Belloso in 1596. However, in a little-known manuscript from about 1600 there is an account of an inadvertent visit by a small group of Spaniards in 1585, after they had been blown off course trying to return to Manila from Macao. This includes a description of Ayutthaya, presented here, together with an account of the trials and tribulations they endured in getting back to Manila. The Spaniards had gone to Macao with the Jesuit Alonso Sánchez, ostensibly to sort out a mutiny on a galleon bound for Acapulco, but Sánchez also wanted to pursue his agenda of converting China to Christianity and his reports do not mention this extraordinary adventure of some of his companions.

Keywords

Alonso SanchezAyutthayaDiego BellosoChristianity in China
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 365 - 372
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2020

Introduction

Although there are reports that the Gallegan Pero Díaz or Diez, visited Pattani in 1540, it is not entirely clear whether he was Spanish or Portuguese.Footnote 1 He came from Monterrei, Ourense, less than 10 km from the present Portuguese border, and was discovered by the Villalobos expedition in Maluku that had left Nueva España (Mexico) in 1542. He simply recounted “that last May of 1544 he left Pattani in a Chinese junk”.Footnote 2 Pattani was part of the Ayutthaya kingdom in the sixteenth century, but there is no mention of Ayutthaya in early sixteenth-century Spanish reports. The other earliest Spanish records we have of Spaniards in Siam cover the disastrous expedition of the Portuguese Diego Belloso and the Spaniard Blas Ruíz with many other Spaniards in 1596; a story recounted in de Morga's Sucesos and elsewhere.Footnote 3 In the Spanish language we also have the letter about Siam to King Philip II written by João de Gaio, the Portuguese bishop of Melaka, and dated Melaka, 27 December 1584, which was later translated into Spanish and preserved in the Boxer Codex.Footnote 4 Chapter 11 of this letter appears to describe Ayutthaya since it describes the “city of Siam” while the earlier Chapter 5 says that the city of Siam is thirty-five to forty leagues from the sandbar.Footnote 5 By contrast there are many Portuguese reports from the early sixteenth century, which is after Portugal started exploring the Far East. As early as 1498 Vasco da Gama learnt about Siam on his expedition but “…real Portuguese contact was established after the conquest of Malacca in 1511”.Footnote 6 This victory brought to an end the strife between Melaka and Ayutthaya. Portuguese contact with Thailand started at this point and visits continued apace. Soon Portuguese merchants were established in Ayutthaya. João de Barros writing between 1550 and 1560 described Ayutthaya and in particular records that the highest Buddha image in Siam “which is of metal among many others in that kingdom, which is in a temple in the city of Socotai [Sukothai], which they say is the oldest in the kingdom, which idol is eighty handspans [or 17 metres]”.Footnote 7 It was “cast on the orders of King Rama Tibodi in about 1500, and erected in Wat Srisanphet, was forty eight feet high, and the pedestal was twenty-four feet”.Footnote 8 In 1584, “the Burmese King attacked Ayuthia, [but] the invasion was resisted by [Prince] Naresuen who displayed great courage and military tactics”.Footnote 9 This was a year or more before the Spaniards arrived in Ayutthaya.

In Melaka the Portuguese learnt about the Spice Islands and subsequently they strove to maintain their dominance in the region and a monopoly on the spice trade, an aim that continually piqued the Spaniards when they arrived to settle the Philippines from 1565.

The present report of Spaniards getting to Ayutthaya comes from a manuscript, the Lilly Historia, the original text was probably written in the late 1590s.Footnote 10 It occurs in a report of the mission of the royal factor Juan Bautista Román and the Jesuit Alonso Sánchez to China, ostensibly to address a mutiny that had taken place on a galleon but Sánchez hoped this would provide an opportunity to get into China and proselytise there. The Spaniards on the expedition eventually left Macao, but a large group was soon to split from the rest, and found themselves in Ayutthaya. Ultimately, and only after many travails for all concerned, all but one of the Spaniards were reunited almost within sight of Manila. Sánchez's own accounts make no mention of Ayutthaya, and scarcely any of Siam, presumably because he was not with the group that visited Ayutthaya. When both parties did get back together they swapped stories of their encounters but, prolific writer though he was, Sánchez chose not to record anything about the visit to Ayutthaya.

The report occupies little more than one folio and occurs three-quarters of the way through the Lilly Historia, which comprises 314 folios. The manuscript is in the Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana, and recounts the history of the Spanish Philippines from the arrival of Legazpi in 1565 until it breaks off in the Cambodia campaign in 1596. It appears to be the earliest Spanish history of the colonial Philippines and does not seem to have been written by a cleric. The author, who reveals little about himself, states that he was in the Indies for thirty years, but that may include time in the Americas. At times he explicitly says that he gets information from eyewitnesses. Short extracts from the manuscript were published by the Franciscan archivist Lorenzo Pérez in the 1930s in two articles that described the manuscript as “Un códice desconocido”, viz. unknown. Charles Boxer knew about it, but only wrote one page of notes on it and does not seem to have referred to it otherwise.Footnote 11

The 1584‒5 trip to Macao

The description of events on the protracted journey is complicated and includes a flashback. In 1583, only twelve years after Manila had been taken by the Spaniards as their headquarters, and only eighteen years after their arrival in the Philippines, the fourth Spanish governor, Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa (governed 1580‒3), died and a disastrous fire, started by candles round his bier, destroyed most of Manila including the gunpowder store. News was sent off to New Spain in June 1583 in two galleons,Footnote 12 but the shipmaster and pilot of one had other plans. Because of stormy weather, instead of leaving as usual through the Embocadero (San Bernardino Strait), the ship sailed along the east of Luzon past Cape Bojeador up towards Taiwan. The galleon first went to Xiamen and then, having acquired permission in the form of a chapa i.e. a permit, it went to Macao.Footnote 13 There the crew mutinied against the captain Francisco de Mercado. Word got back to Manila and the interim governor, Diego Ronquillo (governed 1583‒4),Footnote 14 sent the Spanish royal factor Juan Bautista Román, to sort things out. He was accompanied by the Jesuit Alonso Sánchez who would negotiate with the Chinese authorities using the good offices of the Portuguese Jesuits in Macao. This he did, deftly avoiding the diplomatic difficulty of administering Spanish law against the mutineers on Chinese soil by trying and hanging the ringleaders on board before the galleon left for Acapulco, where it arrived safely.Footnote 15 As noted above Sánchez had other reasons for wanting to go to Macao. China was the great potential prize for Christianisation and Sánchez used everything in his power in pursuit of “La empresa de China”–The China Venture, which Ollé, with great justification, describes as “un espejismo”–an illusion.Footnote 16 Sánchez's endeavours in Macao were unsuccessful and eventually Bautista, Sánchez and their men set sail back to Manila on 4 October 1584 expecting a reasonably quick journey back.

Hardly had they departed when they encountered fierce storms and landed on Hainan without a chapa. The ship was left in bad shape: the poop damaged and the mainmast topgallant broken. Román, a sailor and a Malay youth went to a town a few kilometres inland to find an interpreter. The local people welcomed them but warned them they could not leave without a chapa. To get this they should send two people to the “king”, who was not far away, with suitable presents. They took fine dishes and four pieces of damask. They were turned back by officials who came back to the ship and were entertained there. However the local “queen” arrived in a ship and they were obliged to give her a present and told to go to the king of Sinua (Annam).Footnote 17 They travelled six daysFootnote 18 to see her husband “king” TutanFootnote 19 who scoffed at their presents as too meagre for the great king of Sinua and wanted an artillery piece from their ship. He then kept them, sending a letter back to the ship, and the piece was sent, but then the king became aware of a better piece so kept some men hostage till he should receive it. The queen continued her demands but the factor said he would fulfil them later. One of the natives emerged with a machete and there was a brief encounter in which a certain Diego Maldonado was killed. The factor could not get all of the Spaniards aboard but he had the rowers ready and they pulled away from the shore leaving many behind.

Sánchez says nothing about trying to get a chapa but does mention the local king and queen, whom he describes as “vile”.Footnote 20 He was distraught about leaving his companions and says so twice in his report.Footnote 21 The twentieth-century account by de la Costa that the men on the ship were “bored” seems to have no justification whatsoever.Footnote 22 Sánchez says that they went to look for food, but does not mention all the negotiations about the chapa.

When the Tutan returned from the giving of the present of artillery, etc., to the “great king”, he released the twenty-three prisoners. The Spaniards then went overland for a couple of days to a bay in CachanFootnote 23 where Portuguese ships came and a Chinese interpreter told them that a Portuguese called Costantino FariñaFootnote 24 had come from Siam and wanted to have news of Macao (where he had a house). They found him ten kilometres away. Fariña then sent Geronimo de CuellarFootnote 25 to the king of Cachan, another fifteen kilometres away, with a present and instructions to tell him all that had happened to the Spaniards. There they got sympathy and were told that Queen Bac was an evil woman.Footnote 26 When they rejoined Fariña his boat had been lost but they managed to hire a soma―a junk.Footnote 27 Now they were all off to Siam coasting Cochin China and entering the Gulf of Siam.Footnote 28 After passing several small islands they entered the river of BancoseyFootnote 29 by which time they were very short of food and water. Fariña and a few others then went fourteen leagues (80 km)Footnote 30 to a walled city called Perperi (Phetchaburi) where they learnt that the king of Siam was at war with the king of Pegu (Burma). Although a pirate who had robbed many ships passed close by, they were not seen and remained safe.

The Lilly Historia description of Ayutthaya

The manuscript then gives an account of just under 1,000 words of going up river to Ayutthaya and what they saw there, which we now give in translation.

[fol. 226v] Footnote 31 Costantino Fariña set off from there over land to the city of Siam that is called OdiaFootnote 32 having said to the companions who were there that he would send light boats in which they could get there. And, having waited there more than forty days with great trials and tribulations, there being good weather, they passed the bar of the Siam River in the soma.Footnote 33 The river is very wide and deep and the ships of the city, which is more than seventy leagues up river, go there. Most of the riverbanks are inhabited and have many coco-palms and other trees and, further up before arriving at the [fol. 227r] city, there are very beautiful and pleasant flowery fields in view. And on the tide the soma went as far as the city, which is very large and is on a good site as follows. The city of Ayutthaya, where the court of the King of Siam is, is on a wide and spacious plain on a large lake of water that surrounds it,Footnote 34 where there is a very large number of boats travelling on all of it. There are many monasteries, which they call varelas,Footnote 35 that are richly worked and very large. All are very gilded inside and out and there are many images of idols of various forms, which they have and hold in great veneration. The principal monastery, where most of the city attends for conjunctions and oppositions of the moon,Footnote 36 is very large and has a large number of idols. In this temple there are more than fifty priests preaching from their stools, where they preach simultaneously in different parts of the monastery, teaching their law without intruding on each other. In their language they are called bicos.Footnote 37 They are very charitable and are mendicants, and they survive on the offerings that they seek each day in the city. They keep nothing left over from one day to the next, giving it in charity to the poor. Apart from other temples there is one that they call the monastery of the god of the fields. Footnote 38 It is made of stone and stuccoFootnote 39 and is so high and big like a tower with a circumference of sixteen brazas.Footnote 40 The local people say that when this idol was made then there were thirteen cahizesFootnote 41 of stone alone, not counting other materials― there is another temple of the god of the suno in which there is another very large idol that seems to be asleep.Footnote 42 All these monasteries are made of brick and stone, highly gilded both inside and out, and with expensive and elegant materials. Beside the ring of water that surrounds this city there is another very beautiful one of brick braced by broad timbersFootnote 43 and four brazos high,Footnote 44 with a hundred gates,Footnote 45 through which one goes in and out of the city and has many bastions that are in the mouths of the rivers. Between one entrance and another [fol. 227v] on top of the wall are two or three stone structures in which sentinels keep watch by day and night. On top of the walls there are great quantities of throwing sticksFootnote 46 with places to throw them. Between one gate and another there is a space of three hundred and twenty-four paces. They have a large amount of artillery that is positioned in the bastions at the entrances of the rivers.Footnote 47 They make and have very good harquebuses and good gunpowder. The people are little skilled in war. The common people use thin canes with iron points and a dagger in their belt. The city seems to have more than 100,000 inhabitants. The ordinary houses are small, each enclosed by itself. The houses of the king are very large with many courtyards and buildings and elephant houses. Throughout the city there are many shops in which they sell foodstuffs of which there is great supply. The king is treated with great majesty and respect. All his commanders and officers serve him with great obedience and fear. It is not permitted to see or speak to him except with great difficulty and then, most times, through a glazed window.Footnote 48 He is very cruel and vengeful and, with little provocation, goes and kills people and inflicts other indignities and torments and therefore he is greatly feared.Footnote 49 At this time, the king of Siam was at war with the king of PeguFootnote 50 who was very rich and powerful and they say he came upon this city with 1,800,000 men.Footnote 51 The king of Siam has an army of 2,000,000 men and 4,000 war-elephants that go into battle to fight with howdahs on top with eight or ten men inside. Having stayed several days in this city of Ayutthaya they managed to leave it and return to the Philippines, and although they had many difficulties in getting permission because of the [fol. 228r] war, when they finally got it, having acquired some arms and ship gear for the voyage, though little enough of it, they left the city and river of Siam in a not-very-well rigged, nor seaworthy, fusta,Footnote 52 that a Portuguese, Simon Ravelo, had, since they did not want to spend any more time in new persecutions and travails.

Getting back to Manila

First they went back down the coast of Siam past Pajan (Pahan), Hube and Condore (Côn Sơn) islands and then sailed out of sight of land for fifteen days driven by fierce winds (vendavales). They knew they were at eleven degrees north (Manila is in fourteen degrees north) and found they were near the Calamianes Islands in the Philippines so it was then plain sailing to the Island of Mindoro and on to Manila.

The Lilly Historia then flashes back to Román and his ship and the description is close to that of Sánchez.Footnote 53 They went along the coast of Cochin China and were almost lost in a storm near Cambodia but they succeeded in getting as far as the Singapore Strait and then to Melaka. Sánchez knew there were fellow Jesuits there and news of his arrival brought a welcoming party a league out to sea to greet them.Footnote 54 They stayed there for a few months getting the ship ready for the return to the Philippines.Footnote 55 Setting sail they had good weather across to Borneo and then Paragua, one of the Calamianes Islands, and then to Mindoro, taking over forty days for the whole voyage to Manila.

Not many kilometres (8 to 10 leagues = 40 to 50 km) from Manila, Román's ship spotted a caravel with lateen sails, a vessel that was clearly not Iberian and, on getting closer they saw tall people some of whom were dressed in Portuguese clothes. Eventually they realised they were their very own companions and there was great rejoicing. Almost miraculously only one of their number had died.Footnote 56 Sánchez reports that they swapped stories but he does not say what they said.Footnote 57 He makes no mention of Ayutthaya.

To cap it all, on the same day, the galleons San Juan and San Martín also arrived from Acapulco, having safely completed their round trip to Acapulco, causing great “general contentment” for all concerned.Footnote 58 The date was 6 June 1585.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to David Chandler, Baas Terwiel and Ken Breazeale for valuable information and especially to Chris Baker and Brian A. Zottoli for their generous help and sharing of technical knowledge. Thanks also to Di Ouyang and her staff in the Asian Collections at the National Library of Australia.

References

1 de Luque, Carlos-Luis de la Vega y, “Pero Diaz, el primer español que llego a China”, Boletín de la Asociación Española de Orientalistas, XI (1975), 79‒90 at p. 80Google Scholar. See also Rodao, Florentino, “The Castilians discover Siam: Changing Visions and Self-Discovery”, Journal of the Siam Society, 95 (2007), 1–23, at pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

2 “que el mayo pasado de mill e quinientos e quarenta e quatro años partió de Patan en un junco de chinos.” (De la Vega, “Pero Diaz”, p. 80.)

3 See e.g. Chapter 7 of Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Hakluyt Society, Second Series, Vol. 140, Cambridge: Published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press, translated and edited by J. S. Cummins, 1971. (First published in 1609 Mexico: in the house of Geronymo Balli by Cornelio Adriano Cesar.)

4 João Ribeiro Gaio's account may be found in Souza, George Bryan and Turley, Jeffrey S. (eds and translators), The Boxer Codex: Transcription and Translation of an Illustrated Late Sixteenth-Century Spanish Manuscript Concerning the Geography, History and Ethnography of the Pacific, South-east Asia and East Asia, (Leiden and Boston, 2015), pp. 492–501Google Scholar and Donoso, Isaac, (transcriber and ed.), García, Ma. Luisa, Quirino, Carlos and García, Mauro (translator), Boxer Codex: A modern Spanish Transcription and English translation of 16th century exploration accounts of East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, (Quezon City, 2016), pp. 214–225Google Scholar.

5 This is an exaggeration as the distance is about 70 km.

6 de Campos, Joaquim, “Early Portuguese Accounts of Thailand”, Journal of the Siam Society, 32 (1940), 1-27, p. 3Google Scholar.

7 João de Barros, Ásia da Joam de Barros dos fectos que os portugueses fizeram no descobrimento e conquista dos mares e terras do Oriente. Terceira Decada, Venice, 1563, 6a ediçâo… por Hernani Cidade. Notas historicas… por Manuel Múrias, Divisão de publicaçóes e biblioteca agência general das colónias, 1946, Book II, Chapter V, p. 80: “que tẽem de metal entre outras muitas que há naquele reino, é ũa, que está em um templo da cidade Socotai, que êles dizem ser a mais antigua do reino, o qual ídolo é de oitenta palmos”.

8 See n. 22, p. 12, of Campos, “Early Portuguese”.

9 Campos, “Early Portuguese”, p. 24.

10 [Anonymous], De la historia De las Philipinas, que trata de la conquista de las yslas philipinas desde el gouierno de el adelantado Miguel lopez de legazpi que la començo, Bloomington, Indiana, Lilly Library, Philippine MSS II, [n.d.]. An edition and translation are being prepared by Clive Griffin and John N. Crossley..

11 Lorenzo Pérez, O. F. M., “Un códice desconocido, relativo a las Islas Filipinas, descubierto y estudiado por el Pérez, P. Lorenzo, M”, O. F., Erudición ibero-ultramarina: Publicación trimestral consagrada a la tradición histórica de España y demás naciones de su raza y lengua, 4 (15–16, 1933), pp. 502–529, and 5 (17, 1934), pp. 76–108Google Scholar. Boxer's manuscript one-page note is preserved in the descriptive folder of Philippine MSS II in the Lilly Library.

12 Bishop Salazar says two ships went. See Domingo de Salazar, “Carta del obispo de Manila, Domingo de Salazar al Rey Felipe II. Manila, 8 de abril de 1584”, AGI, [Archivo General de Indias, Seville], Filipinas 74, 25, transcribed in Manel Ollé Rodríguez, Estrategias filipinas respecto a China: Alonso Sánchez y Domingo Salazar en la empresa de China (1581-1593), PhD thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, 1998, Vol. II, pp. 190–196 at p. 190.

13 See p. 250 of Alonso Sánchez, “Relación brebe de la jornada que hizo el P. Alonso Sánchez la segunda vez que fué a la China el año 1584”, reproduced in Ollé, Estrategias filipinas, Vol. II, pp. 239-268, at p. 263. Ollé’s sources are AGI, Filipinas 79, ARAH [Archivo Real Academia de la Historia. Madrid], Jesuitas. tomo VII and AMN [Archivo del Museo Naval. Madrid], Colección Fernández Navarrete, II, fol. 253, dto. 8o. This will be referred to as Sánchez, 1585.

14 A kinsman of Gonzalo Ronquillo.

15 In fact both galleons arrived safely as will become evident. It is not clear by what route and exactly when the other galleon travelled.

16 Rodríguez, Manel Ollé, La empresa de China: De la Armada Invencible al Galeón de Manila, (Barcelona, 2002), p. 1Google Scholar.

17 It is generally said that Sinua or Sinoa was a kingdom in Cochin China, surrounding the mouth of the Hue River in present day northern Vietnam. However Brian. Zottoli has suggested that is more plausible that the reference is to the former Champa royal centre in Trà Kiệu, in today's Quảng Nam province, which was where Mạc princes resided by the turn of the 17th century (email of 21 April 2019).

18 The text also says “five leagues” but that is only about 30 km.

19 Called “Tusan” in. the Lilly Historia. 都堂, pronounced “Dū táng” in Hokkien, the variety of Chinese the people in Manila used. This is the title of the viceroy of Guangdong (Canton). See Boxer, Charles R., South China in the sixteenth century: being the narratives of Galeote Pereira, Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, O. P., Fr. Martin de Rada, O.E.S.A. (1550-1575), (London, 1953), p. 371Google Scholar and the references on p. 387. However Brian Zottoli has pointed out that this term was used at the time by Vietnamese regimes to refer to their own viceroys (email of 21 April 2019).

20 See p. 263 of Sánchez, 1585. This is reproduced partly in Francisco Colín, SJ, Labor evangélica de los obreros de la Compañía de Jesús en las Islas Filipinas, Nueva edición. Ilustrada con copia de notas y documentos para la crítica de la Historia general de la soberanía de España en Filipinas por el Padre Pablo Pastells, S. J., 3 vols, Barcelona: Henrich y Compañía, 1900–04, I, pp. 325–328.

21 Sánchez, 1585, pp. 263 and 265.

22 de la Costa, Horacio Villamayor SJ, The Jesuits in the Philippines, 1581–1768, (Cambridge, MA, 1961), p. 56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Identified by Antoine Cabaton, translator and annotator, 1916, Le mémorial de Pedro Sevil á Philippe III sur la conquète de l'Indochine (1603), Paris: Imprimerie nationale. (Extract from Bulletin de la Commission archéologique de l'Indochine, 1914–1916), p. 86, as “La partie orientale qui regarde la Chine et le Japon, comprend les royaumes de Jor, et ceux de Pan, Pathania (2), Cambodge, Champa, Sinoa (3), Cachan (4) et Tonkin : ces trois derniers s'appellent en général et communément, Cochinchine.” Footnote (4): Ke-cham, province de Quang Nam, other footnotes omitted. See also p. 122 of Brian A. Zottoli, Reconceptualizing Southern Vietnamese History from the 15th to 18th Centuries: Competition along the Coasts from Guangdong to Cambodia, PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 2011.

24 The Spanish spelling of Farinha.

25 Cuellar had been in the Philippines for some time and was recommended to the later governor, Gómez Peerez Dasmariñas (governed 1590‒3), by Philip II, see “Instructions to Gomez Perez Dasmariñas”, Felipe II, San Lorenzo, 9 August 1589, vol. VII, 141‒172, at p. 150, of Blair, Emma Helen and Robertson, James Alexander, The Philippine Islands 1493–1898, Cleveland, Arthur H. Clark Co. Translated from the originals, edited and annotated. 55 vols, 1903–1909, republished as 55 vols in 19, (Mandaluyong, 1973)Google Scholar.

26 Perhaps this is really “Queen of Mạc”, since the phonemes “b” and “m” are easily interchanged. The Mạc were a powerful clan in the region, see Zottoli, Reconceptualizing, p. 84.

27 Soma is the Portuguese word for a junk, in Chinese: 船, Chuán. See Gunn, Geoffrey, World Trade Systems of the East and West: Nagasaki and the Asian Bullion Trade Networks, (Leiden, 2017), p. 77Google Scholar.

28 Brian Zottoli has suggested that the route followed the shipping lanes to Quảng Nam where the ensuing action occurred on and near the Thu Bồn river (i.e. Hội An and Trà Kiệu). (Email of 21 April 2019.)

29 Bancosey is probably Bang Khun Sai at the old mouth of the Phetchaburi River. It appears as Bancosey on 17th century maps. Today it is a small fishing village but may have been more important in an age of coastal trade.

30 Many of the measurements in this account seem to be gross overestimates.

31 The year is 1585.

32 Ayutthaya. Odia is the spelling in the original. The city was probably originally named Ayodhya, after King Rama's capital, which Europeans often shortened to Yodaya or Odia. The Ayutthaya form, meaning roughly “invincible”, may be a defiant innovation after the fall of the city in 1568.

33 See note 27 above.

34 The Spanish is lago, but presumably the text is referring to the network of rivers that surrounds Ayutthaya.

35 วัด วา อาราม, wat wa aram, from Pali-Sanskrit ārāma meaning pleasure, a pleasant place, and hence the grounds of a temple. “La forma Varela o Barela acostumbra a designar un templo o ídolo budista”, Ollé, Estrategias filipinas, vol. II, p. 22, n. 2.

36 I.e. the new and full moon. Cf. Barros, Ásia. Terceira Decada, (1946 edition), Book II, Chapter V, p. 81: Tẽem algũas festas principais, e tôdas são no princípio da lũa nova, ou quando está chea, e o rezar dêles é en côro, de dia e de noite, a certas horas. (There are some major feasts, and all are at the beginning of the new moon, or when it is full, and they chant their prayers in chorus, day and night, at certain hours.) We have not seen any other reference to a particular Ayutthaya temple for such gatherings.

37 Bhikkhu, Pali-Sanskrit for a monk, but not very commonly used in Siam.

38 They did not understand Buddhism and believed the Buddha images were various gods, so they are asking the wrong question (“What god is this?”) and getting answers that are meaningless. This may refer to the massive Phananchoeng image that used to stand in the open air at the southeast corner of the city (and is now enclosed in a building).

39 The Spanish is arena, which usually means “sand”.

40 About 30 metres.

41 1 cahiz is 12 fanegas each of which is about 55 litres, so a cahiz is about 660 litres (see Cardarelli, François, Scientific Unit Conversion: A Practical Guide to Metrication, (London and New York, 1997), Table 3-79 p. 71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Possibly Wat Lokayasutharam, which has a large (42 metre) reclining Buddha believed to date from the early days of Ayutthaya. It is unclear what suno means.

43 “… de los bracas de m<ader>a de ancho.”

44 About eight metres. This seems too high, but then most numbers seem exaggerated.

45 “The sheer number of gates betrays the city's sense of security in this era”, Baker, Chris, “Final Part of the Description of Ayutthaya with Remarks on Defence, Policing, Infrastructure, and Sacred Sites”, Journal of the Siam Society, 102 (2014), pp. 179–210, at p. 179Google Scholar, which mentions eighty-nine gates of various kinds.

46 “varas tossadas” seems strange. They kept braziers on the walls for heating sand and gravel to pour on assailants. Although the writing is clear perhaps this is a scribal error for “valas tostadas” (sc. balas tostadas).

47 Probably referring to Pomphet, “diamond fort”, at the southeast corner.

48 Probably not of glass but some translucent material, perhaps like the capiz shell commonly used in windows in the Philippines.

49 The king is clearly Naresuan. Although there may be some orientalism in the several European accounts of his cruelty, there is clearly also some truth. The most credible account is from Van Vliet, written 4 to 5 decades later, but drawing on indigenous documents. The more dramatic account is by Jacques de Coutre, who was in Siam around the same time as this account; see Borschberg, Peter, The Memoirs and Memorials of Jacques de Coutre, (Singapore, 2014)Google Scholar.

50 Naresuan was engaged in wars with Pegu intermittently from the 1580s until his death in 1605.

51 A massive exaggeration, as found in most European accounts of this era. Cf., for example, p. 172 of Fitch, Ralph, “An account of Pegu in 1586—1587”, SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, 2 (2004), pp. 167‒179Google Scholar, where he recounts that the King of Pegu went to war in Ayutthaya “with three hundred thousand men, and five thousand Elephants”. The total population of Siam may have been around two million in the late seventeenth century.

52 Caravel.

53 Sánchez, 1585, p. 265.

54 Sánchez, 1585, p. 267.

55 The Lilly Historia gives no detail but Sánchez, 1585, p. 267, has a paragraph saying they stayed three or four months in Melaka getting ready for the return to Manila and that they were financially assisted by the royal factor (Román).

56 The one deceased was Maldonado, see above.

57 “mezclámonos del uno en el otro: aquí los abrazos, las alegrías, las lágrimas, las preguntas, las voces, los cuentos de subcesos de una parte y de otra”, Sánchez, 1585, p. 267.

58 “mucho contentamiento”, Lilly Historia, fol. 228v.