THE MAKASSARS IN AYUTTHAYA (Part 4) |
The attack on the Makassar Camp The Makassar Prince though, even knowing what happened to the crew of the galley, had no intention to submit himself and ask the king for clemency. King Narai did not seem to have initially wished for an armed confrontation with the Makassar Prince, doubtless suspecting that Siamese opponents within the court itself had manipulated the Muslims, and hoping by his clemency to get some denunciations in return. The king sent the Okphra Chula (1) to negotiate. The Okphra Chula invited him for a private talk in the city, but the Prince declined, stating that he did not dare to enter the city with all the troubles. They agreed to meet each other at a house near the Makassar Camp. The Prince admitted his wrong, but on the request to go to the king and ask for forgiveness, he declined and withdrew. The king sent the Okphra Chula for the second time, but the Prince let know that he was ill and could not go to Lopburi. The Okphra Chula sent him doctors, who told him that he was not ill and that he had not even the slightest inconvenience. The Okphra Chula reported back to the king, who resolved to detach five thousand four hundred men from his guard to impress fear by sheer numbers in order to make the Prince obey. Samuel White writes in his letter that around 20 September, (2) “the said Prince attended by the whole crew of desperate votaries, all armed with Kris and Lances, went to the Palace Gate: whence he sent word to his Majesty, that in the sense of his late error, and reliance on his royal word, he was come to ask his Majesties Pardon, and promise a peaceable demeanour for the future; and to that end desired admittance to throw himself at his Majesties feet, to which he was answered that the posture he then was in, did not correspond to his pretences, but if he would at first surrender his arms, and command his attendants to do the like, his Majesty would readily grant him liberty to come into his presence, and confirm the pardon he had already on that condition offered them; whereupon the Prince peremptorily replied, he would never be guilty of so base a submission as required the parting with their arms; adding that he was not insensible of an approaching great Storm: But, says he, tell the King, I am like a great Tree, well Rooted, and shall be able to endure any ordinary Shock; hut if the storm, comes so violently on that I cannot longer stand it, he may be assured my fall will not be without the ruin of much underwood; and since I cannot be suffered to speak to the King with my arms, if he has any further business with me, he knows where to find me at my own house.” The date of the attack was set on 24 September 1686 in the morning. The evening before, Phaulkon went inspecting all the troops which were embarked in Siamese barges and small galleys besides a horseshoe looking at the Makassar Camp (3) and ordered each of them a post. He was joined by Henry Udall, (4) Captain of the HMS Herbert, several other Englishmen in the service of the King of Siam, a missionary, and another particular. After the inspection, all boarded two warships of the king half a league below the Makassar Camp. (5) Phaulkon and Udall continued to visit all the posts until an hour after midnight and boarded the ships at 0400 Hr. The Makassars, seeing these preparations, realized that there was an assault being prepared. They knew they were going to die and took leave of each other, while many killed their women and children to avoid that they were made prisoner and reduced into slavery. Joannes Keijts, the Dutch factor, wrote that the night was filled with pitiful cries. (6) The rest of the night the Makassars prepared trenches in which to shelter. The Dutch did not partake in the assault because of their trade relationship with the King of Makassar as they claimed, but more likely because of their dislike of Phaulkon. The attack was to start at 0430 Hr and was announced by a signal made on the other side of the water. The plan was that Okluang Maha Montri, Captain-General of the King's Guards, with 1500 men in his detachment had to block off the Makassars at the rear of their camp from the banks of the large river until a stream about five fathoms (9 meters) wide, which was immediately at the end of the camp. Upwards, there was a swamp behind the camp, which took from the great river (7) up to two toises (4 meters) of the stream, so that the Makassars could fight them only by this space of four meters, which made a kind of a roadway; but he had orders to make a barricade of stakes in this place. Okphra Chula had to post himself on the other side of the stream, and border it with a thousand men, and in the two rivers, there were twenty-two small galleys, and sixty Siamese barges full of people to skirmish them, and a thousand men on the tongue of land vis-à-vis their camp. The signal being given at half-past four in the morning, as had been ordered, Okluang Maha Montri left abruptly with fourteen of his slaves, without giving orders to his troops to follow, nor taken the post which had been ordered him. He walked without knowing if he was followed and went straight to the roadway and he pushed as far as the houses of the Makassars where he stopped, softly calling Okphra Chula. One of the Makassars, whom obscurity prevented from seeing him, answered him in Siamese: "What do you want?" This Mandarin, believing that it was indeed Okphra Chula, advanced towards him, asking him: "Where are you?" "Here," said the Makassar, and at the same time he got out of the ambush followed by twenty- five or thirty others. They killed the Mandarin and seven of his slaves, the others escaped under cover of darkness. After they had made this expedition, a part of the Makassars passed on the other side of the stream before Okphra Chula had secured it. At 0530 Hr, the English captain Coates commanding a Siamese warship, attacked them on the side of the main river at the extremity of the point of their camp. (8) He had several fire pots thrown to burn their houses, made a continuous fire of musketry, and compelled them to retire to the upper part of their camp. Coates set foot on land, followed by ten or twelve Englishmen, and a French officer, and advanced towards the camp. Coates and the French officer, who saw suddenly a number of Makassars approaching, and seeing that they were abandoned by their people, pulled back, and threw themselves into the river. Coates received a blow on his head, and with the weight of his own armour and arms lost his life in the water. (9) The French officer saved himself by swimming. An Englishman of the HMS Herbert, a certain Mr. Alvey was stabbed to death. (10) After this onset, all the Makassars abandoned their already half burnt camp and under a heavy fire of the guns of the galleys, reached the upper part of the canal, intending to pass to the Portuguese camp, to exert their rage over the Christians. It was at this moment that Véret, (11) head of the trade office of the French East India Company in Ayutthaya, arrived with a boat and a barge, wherein all the Frenchmen of that city, numbering about twenty. Phaulkon, suspecting the undertaking which these Makassars were going to make upon the Christians, and being in a barge lighter than the others, advanced with great diligence towards the enemy, followed by the boat of Véret and twelve or fifteen other Siamese barges, to prevent them from undertaking anything, and to pass the river half a league above the camp. Having seen the enemies, he commanded the Siamese to go ashore to attack them. There was in this place a large empty space and beside this space there were bamboos, which are a kind of large hollow reeds, twenty-five or thirty feet high and thick as a leg, and houses made of these bamboos in the country's fashion intertwined with each other, and at two hundred and fifty steps from the river bank, there was also a very thick hedge of the same Bamboos, which had an opening in two places, to go to the plain where the enemies were. When the Siamese had crossed this hedge and were in the plain, they began to fire upon the enemy. Two Makassars died, after having killed a Siamese, while the others retired behind Bamboos. In this retreat, as a woman embraced her husband, she was killed by a blow of the kris. In withdrawing thus, they split themselves on the right and on the left, and then came to envelop the Siamese, and to animate themselves more, they took their opium, which is a sort of brown gum, which renders them immediately enraged, and deprives them of all other thoughts, and every other wish only to kill and be killed, and this is what they call amoque (12) in their language. As soon as they had taken their drink, they threw themselves head down on the Siamese. (13) As it was of most importance to fight them as soon as possible, in order to break their attempt, Captain Henry Udall, accompanying Phaulkon only as a spectator, could not hold his patience and resolute leaped ashore, followed by several other English in his company. Phaulkon set also foot on land, and went straight to them, followed by eight Frenchmen, two Siamese mandarins, and a Japanese soldier. Véret’s boat had not yet arrived because it could not follow the barges. Phaulkon was preparing to fight them, though they were more than sixty, when they suddenly saw thirty or forty others cutting in on both sides to take the Siamese from behind. A number of Makassars, disguised as Siamese paddling in a small barge along the shallow water got near them and killed Udall with their lances. The movement of the Makassars obliged them to make a hasty retreat, and to throw themselves into the water, to return to the barges, which were already sailing into the open water. Of the twelve persons in the entourage of Phaulkon who had stepped on land, there were five of them killed, namely, Udall, stabbed with five strokes, and dead on the spot; (14) de Rouen, a French merchant, wounded at the side and in the face, and died in the water by re-embarking; Milon, a French clerk, wounded at the kidneys, also died in the water; two other Frenchmen, one trumpet of the King of Siam, and the other a farrier, stabbed by ten or twelve strokes each, and died on the spot. Véret, who finally arrived, was nearly killed by a Makassar, if not de Beaumont, Captain of the Saint-Louis, had shot him with his musket. [1] Also Phaulkon had a narrow escape and would have been killed if not a strong black kaffir flung him into the river and swam with him to the barge, being glad for some time to hang on the off-side of his barge’s stern for shelter. [2] This failure did not withhold Phaulkon; he set foot again for the second time, followed by several Frenchmen, from the barge as well as the boat from Véret, who had just arrived, and several Englishmen who had flocked there. There were several Makassars killed in this second descent, but nevertheless, they still resisted with stubbornness. Around 1000 Hr, Phaulkon, seeing that there were no means of defeating these people except by force majeure, detached four hundred men, commanded by Okpra Yommarat, (15) to go higher up that place to fight them, if they wanted to pass, and at the same time descended near the stream, took three thousand men with him, entered the inundated plain in this spot, and marched towards the enemy, being in the water till the waist: all the Frenchmen and the English accompanied him. When they were in the plain, they perceived from afar the enemy, who in despair fought the four hundred men who had been sent upwards, whom vigorously sustained this fury; and compelled them to retire under the shelter of the houses and bamboos, which border this little river. Immediately Phaulkon made a detachment of eight hundred men of musketry, to go and skirmish through the houses and bamboos, always pushing up the river. These musketeers fired continuously, and never let go, whatever effort these furious men made against them. Thus, the Siamese, who had done such a bad job in the beginning, did wonders afterwards. Sometime after, Phaulkon made the two thousand two hundred men, who were with him on the plain, advance in growing order to join the four hundred men higher up. They advanced to the hedges of bamboo, carrying before them small, very light hurdles, which they supported with stakes as they marched towards the enemy: which is good to stop the rush of these furious when they run amok. Phaulkon had also advanced all the rest of the armed Siamese barges to keep always up with the enemy, in order to prevent them from swimming across the little river: so that, seeing themselves attacked on all sides, they began to take fright, and to separate, to try to save themselves as best as they could. The majority retired in disorder in the houses, two in one, three in the other: some hid in the bamboos, and twenty-two withdrew to a mosque. They set fire to the houses where it was believed there were some of them hiding: most of them waited for the house to be half burnt to go out, and then went throwing themselves into the densest pack of troops, the lance or saber in hand, and still fighting until they fell dead. There was not one of them who had withdrawn to the houses and the bamboos, who did not die in this manner. The prince himself, who had hidden behind a house, and who was wounded by a musket shot in his left shoulder, seeing that he was discovered, took the spear in his hand, and ran straight to Phaulkon, who also presented him his spear; and the Prince, seeing this, stopped, pretending to want to launch him his own, and at the same time threw it on an English captain, who was a little on the left. A French bodyguard, who was close to Phaulcon, shot with a musket, and killed him. (16) Finally, all the Makassars were killed or taken. The twenty-two, who withdrew into the mosque, surrendered without fighting. There were thirty-three others taken, all of whom were pierced with shots. One of the sons of the Prince, about twelve years of age, came to surrender himself. He was shown the body of his father, whom he recognized, and said that he was the cause of the loss of his nation, but that he was very sorry to see him in this state, blaming those who had killed him. Only the dead corpses of forty-two were found; the others perished in the river. Most of them had corselets of iron plates applied to each other by the extremities, and in echelon, which gave them a great facility of movement. None of them had any firearms, as they do not know how to serve them well. The battle lasted from 0430 Hr in the morning till 1600 Hr in the evening. Seventeen on the Siamese side lost their lives of which seven Europeans. All the Mandarins did their duty perfectly, going everywhere with a sword in the hand into the most perilous places, and executing with a marvellous punctuality all the orders of Phaulkon. At last, all being finished, Phaulkon ordered that all the heads of those who had died should be cut off, and exposed in their camp. He then proceeded to go and report to the king what had happened. King Narai showed him to be entirely satisfied with his conduct, nevertheless making a gentle reprimand to him for having exposed himself so much to the danger, and ordering him to thank the French and the English, who had participated with him. The Aftermath The two sons of the Makassar Prince were taken to Lopburi and sent in November 1686 with the French ship "Coche" under the command of M. de Hautmesnil via Pondicherry to France. They arrived in Brest on 5 August 1687, disembarked in Port Louis on 31 August and arrived in Paris on 10 September. They received an education at the “Collège de Louis le Grand” by the Jesuits and were baptized on 7 March 1687 at the "Eglise de leur Maison Professe." They received French-Makassar names being Louis-Pierre Daén Rourou de Macassar and Louis-Dauphin Daén Toulolo de Macassar. Christian Pelras wrote that "they were raised in the best college of their time in Paris together with the flower of the French society, that they received all their lifelong an allowance directly taken from the French King's civil list, and that they were later admitted in the most prestigious French Naval Academy with the best titled French nobility, thus showing their full acceptance as aristocrats among others aristocrats, without apparently suffering the slightest trace of any racial prejudice." Amongst the prisoners were found four soldiers who had deserted, and these men were selected to serve as an example of severity. At first, they were tortured. Splinters were thrust under their nails, after which their fingers were crushed. They were then burnt in the arm and their heads were compressed between two boards. They suffered all these torments without a murmur. After having been tortured in every possible way, they were tied up to a post with their hands and feet bound in order to be devoured by a hungry tiger that merely sniffed at them. The executioners goaded on the tiger until it, at last, devoured its prey. One of the prisoners watched it eat his own foot without making any effort to withdraw it. Another hearing the crunching of his own bones, uttered no sound. A third, while the animal stood licking the blood which was running down his face did not even care to glance round. Phaulkon had the bodies of all the rebels found armed, decapitated and exposed the heads in the then deserted encampment. [3] There still were executions of people involved in the rebellion thereafter. Keijts wrote that on 21 October 1686, certain religious leaders were buried to their neck and then put to death after having undergone many taunts and insults from ruthless spectators, even some French and English. [4] As for the Makassar women and children, whom were not killed by their husband before the attack or had died in their burning of houses, they were sold as slaves. Le Blanc wrote that King Narai “took advantage of the occasion of throwing to the tigers a Malay who late January 1688 declared to the king that the French and Phaulkon were plotting against him, to burn alive those who remained of the Makassars from the last conspiracy; the execution took place in the very camp of the Malays to inspire terror in those who still might have similar intentions.” [5] Continued - Part 5 Footnotes: 1. The Chula Racha Montri or Shaykh'ul Islam was at the same time the leader of the (Shiite) Muslim community, the adviser to the King on Islamic matters and responsible for the settling of disputes among foreigners other than Chinese. [Chula = Shura (Islamic Council), Racha = Royal, Montri = Adviser, hence Royal Adviser on the Islamic Council]. The Chula Rachamontri controlled from the 17th century onwards the Department of Western Maritime Affairs known in Siam as the Krom Tha Khwa (Ministery of the Harbour of the Right]. He appears in the Civil Hierarchy Law with a "Phra" rank and sakdina of 1400. The last Chula Rachamontri of the Ayutthayan era is burried at the Chao Kun Khu Cham graveyard along Khlong Khu Cham in Samphao Lom Sub-district of Ayutthaya. The office of the Chula Rachamontri is still in existence today. 2. Edward Udall in his letter to his brother gives 23 September for this event. [Udall in Anderson, 1890) 3. The horseshoe looking at the Makassar Camp was likely Ko Rian (Rian Island). 4. Written Yjoudal by Tachard - Henry Udall, English captain of the ship HMS Herbert, arrived in the Bay of Siam on 23 August 1686, with a letter from King James II to Phaulkon, thanking him for the presents he had sent to the English Court in 1684-85, and with letters from George White to Phaulkon, and to his brother Samuel. (Anderson, 1890) 5. Likely the location of the King’s warships. This location can be found on Valentyn’s map "Groote Siamse Rievier Me-Nam Of Te Moeder Der Wateren In haren loop met de vallende Spruyten Verbeeld" under No 38 - "'S Konings werf." 6. François Martin, the director of the French outpost at Pondichéry and not an eye-witness, but informed by compatriotes, wrote that is was said that some killed their mothers and their children while awaiting the second attack. [Ref: François Martin, Mémories, 3 vols, 1932-34, in M. Smithies, A Resounding Failure: Martin and the French in Siam 1672-1693, 1998, 42-44, 48.] 7. The present Chao Phraya River, but in the Ayutthaya era in fact the Lopburi River, which encircled the city of Ayutthaya. The track between the city of Ayutthaya and the confluence at Bang Sai was sometimes called the Bangkok River as the waterway headed direction Bangkok. 8. This location can be found on Valentyn’s map "Groote Siamse Rievier Me-Nam Of Te Moeder Der Wateren In haren loop met de vallende Spruyten Verbeeld" under No 39 - "The corner of the murdered Makassars." 9. In a letter from Fort St. George to Surat, dated 20th December, 1686, it is said that Coates "accidentally, runn into a Boggy place, where (being all in Armour), sunck down into it, and taken up dead." (Hedges' Diary volume II page ccxc) 10. Confirmed by Davenport's account, the letter of Edward Udall and the letter of White. (Anderson, 1890) 11. Véret, the Director of the French East India Company (Compagnie Royale des Indes Orientales) in Ayutthaya from 1685 till 1688. He was a former Parisian jeweller. Michael Smithies called him "incompetent and probably venal." 12. See Yule H. & Burnell A.C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson, a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive - London, John Murray, Albemarle street - page 18-20. 13. The Makassars had a fearsome reputation for ferocity in battle, especially due to the intake of opium and "the fury it inspires in an instant, which renders them very light and insensible to blows and, moreover, that marvellous skill which they have in throwing lances and spears, as well as to use the sabre and the kris." 14. A post-mortem examination was performed on Henry Udall's body at the Dutch Settlement by the Dutch doctor: "on the left side of the heve the bones broke with great contusion of the utmost parts the muscles of the neck wounded about the right ear, the fleshy part at the backside of the right upper arm cut off, the left Humerus bone above the abouemost Epiphisys broke by two bullets, the breast pierced in between the third and fourth rib on the right side and issuing on the left side between the 2 and 3 rib, hurted by 2 spats above the Os Sternum, the muscles of the belly about the place where the stomach lies pierced through and through and the back with 8 several wounds whereof one did penetrate above the second vertebra of the Raine." Henry Udall was buried at the churchyard of the Dutch settlement in Ayutthaya and his personal effects were sold locally, as witnessed by the bill of sale at the East India Company Office. (Anderson, 1890) 15. Phraya Yommarat (Tachard writes Jumbarat) is the Chief Justice in charge of the Capital both for civil and criminal affairs. He is one of the four supports of the States called the Chatustambha. 16. The Mercure Galant 1687 (page 351) writes it was Véret who shot the Makassar Prince. References: [1] Archives des Missions Etrangères, vol.879, p.520, cited by Adrien Launay, Histoire de la Mission de Siam 1662-1811 (Paris, Tequi, 1920), Documents, vol.1, pp.193-195. [2] Anderson, John (1890) - English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Century, London, Kegan Paul; White, Samuel, A letter dated 20th September 1686 (Julian), “Giving a full Account of the Late Rebellion made of the people of Macasser,”; Udall, Edward, A letter dated 14 September 1686 (Julian) giving “An account of the Macassar insurrection of the 14th September, 1686”; Petty, George - A letter dated 15th September 1686 (Julian) addressed to Joseph Rea, Captain of the Herbert; Davenport, Francis - Historical Abstract, 14 (India Office EIC Charters and Pamphlets). [3] Turpin, M. (1771) - History of the Kingdom of Siam - American Presby. Mission Press, Bangkok, 1908. [4] Keijts, J. - Brief der opperkoopman J. Keijts aan den Hoog Edelen Heere Joannes Champhuys, Gouverneur-Generaal, en de E.E. Heeren Raden, wegens de Generaale Nederlandsche Compagnie in Indie; van Siam, den 21 Oktober A° 1686. Koninklijk Rijksarchief (Den Haag), Archieven der VOC, Overgekommen brieven, vol. 318: 804-807. [5] Le Blanc, Marcel - Histoire de la Révolution du Roiaume de Siam arrivée en l’année 1688, Lyon, H. Molin, 1692, 2 vols. |