AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



THE PORTUGUESE SETTLEMENT





The Portuguese settlement, known as Campos Portugues, was located south of the city island of Ayutthaya, in the present-day Samphao Lom Sub-district (1). It stood on the west bank of the old Lopburi River, opposite the Japanese trading post, and was bordered by canals on the other three sides.


The settlement, covering more than half a square kilometre, was probably the largest western community in Ayutthaya, with an estimated population of 3,000. Most of them were militia, shipbuilders and merchants. There were three Roman Catholic churches in the settlement: the Church of São Pedro for the Dominican Order (Ban Jacobin), the Church of São Paulo for the Jesuit Order (Ban Jesuit), and the Madre de Deus Church for the Franciscan Order. There was also a small church behind the Dominican church, maintained by two fathers of the Order of Saint Augustine. The settlement was destroyed during the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 CE.


Portugal was the first Western nation to come into contact with and develop friendly relations with Ayutthaya during the reign of King Rama Thibodi II (1491–1529 CE).


After the Portuguese obtained possession of large tracts of territory in India, their interests turned further east. On 5 April 1508 CE, four Portuguese vessels, under the command of Diogo Lopes de Sequiera (1465–1530 CE), departed from Portugal and arrived on the coast of Malacca on 11 September 1509 CE. De Sequiera intended to establish trade relations, but a dispute with the Malay Sultan Mahmud Shah (reigned 1488–1511 CE) ensued, in which some Portuguese were killed. With too weak a force to attack Malacca, de Sequiera withdrew.





(Remnants of the Dominican Church of São Pedro - Picture taken February 2015 CE)



In July 1511 CE, Don Afonso de Albuquerque (c.1453-1515 CE), the Viceroy of Portuguese India, arrived with a considerable force. Malacca was attacked, captured, and became a Portuguese possession on 15 August 1511 CE.

Having learnt that Malacca was a vassal of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya (2), Albuquerque sent an envoy to Ayutthaya to explain matters. Duarte Fernandes was appointed to deliver a letter to the King of Ayutthaya. He left on a Chinese junk bound for Ayutthaya. Fernandes arrived in Ayutthaya the same year and was well received. No objection appears to have been raised to the occupation of Malacca. He returned, accompanied by a Siamese Ambassador.

A second Portuguese embassy, led by António de Miranda de Azevedo, visited the Court of Ayutthaya by the overland route at the beginning of 1512 CE. A third envoy from Albuquerque, named Duarte Coelho Pereira (c. 1485 – 1554), proceeded to Ayutthaya in 1516 CE and concluded a treaty with Siam, the first formal agreement between a European power and Ayutthaya. The treaty foresaw the supply of firearms and ammunition to Siam. The Siamese agreed to guarantee religious freedom and to facilitate the Portuguese efforts to establish settlements and engage in trade at Ayutthaya, Tenasserim, Mergui, Patani (3), and Nakhon Sri Thammarat. King Ramathibodi II (reign 1491-1529 CE), demonstrating his religious tolerance, permitted Coelho to erect a wooden crucifix in a prominent place in Ayutthaya.

As many as 300 Portuguese nationals subsequently settled in Ayutthaya some were traders, others military experts. Portugal appointed a trade representative in Nakhon Sri Thammarat and Pattani to conduct trade in rice, tin, ivory, gum benjamin, indigo, sticklac and sappanwood. Over the years, the number of Portuguese increased.




(The Portuguese Community of Ayutthaya – Ground plan of the Portuguese settlement by Pratipat Poompongpaet – The location of the Jesuit Church is incorrect)



In 1538 CE, King Chairacha (reign 1534-1546 CE), in response to Burma's expansionist policy, entered into a military alliance with the Portuguese. A company of Portuguese soldiers - about 120 men - was placed at his service for his personal protection and as military advisers, instructing the Siamese in musketry.


Tabinshwehti (reign 1530-1550 CE) ascended the Taungu throne after his father died in 1530 CE. This monarch was determined to conquer his neighbouring dominions, Ava, Prome and Pegu, and to unite them with Taungu. During the war with Pegu, he came into conflict with the Siamese. King Tabeng Shwe Thi occupied the town of Chiengkrai, or Chiengkran (now called Gyaing), in the Moulmein district of present-day Myanmar, which was then under Siam. King Chairacha, assisted by his Portuguese soldiers, attacked the Burmese and drove them out of his dominion (4). The Portuguese performed such good service during the military campaign that the Siamese King rewarded them with various commercial and residential privileges (5). A piece of land in the southern part of Ayutthaya was granted to the Portuguese as their official residence.


In 1567 CE, the first Roman Catholic missionaries, Friar Jeronimo da Cruz and Sebastiâo da Canto, both Dominicans, arrived in Siam, apparently as chaplains for the Portuguese soldiers whose presence was increasing. They established a parish in Ayutthaya, although it was short-lived, as da Cruz, together with two new missionaries, was killed in the Burmese attack on Ayutthaya in 1569 CE. [1]


In 1584 CE, after Prince Naresuan (reign 1590-1605 CE) declared independence from Burma, a group of Roman Catholic Franciscan priests came to build a church in the northern part of the Portuguese settlement.





(Deteriorated information board indicating the location of the Franciscan Church – Picture taken January 2010 CE)



After King Naresuan took Longvek (Cambodia) in 1594 CE, he returned with a significant number of captives of all ranks. According to a Jesuit account, two Franciscan friars, Damião da Torre O.F.M. and a companion (name unknown), were taken captive, alongside other Portuguese clergy (secular priests) such as friars Silvestre de Azevedo and Jorge da Mota. When later released, only Silvestre de Azevedo returned to Cambodia. [2]


A Siamese embassy was sent to Malacca shortly after the 1594 CE conquest of Longvek. Among the captives was the Dominican Friar Jorge da Mota. By bribing the influential courtier Prachidech, Da Mota secured a place in the diplomatic mission and presented himself as an envoy of the King of Ayutthaya. The embassy’s purpose was to negotiate with the Portuguese captain of Malacca about the prisoners’ fate, turning a moment of captivity into an unexpected episode of cross-cultural diplomacy. [3]


King Naresuan ordered the Christian captives to be released, and they went about armed, often killing one another without interference from the king. Some Japanese Christians had killed a Dominican friar and sought refuge in a Capuchin-run church (the church of the Augustinians near the São Pedro Church). The Portuguese murdered them at the foot of the altar. [4]





(The Portuguese settlement on Coronelli’s map published in 1696 CE)



During the reign of King Naresuan, the Portuguese captain of Malacca, D. Francisco de Silva de Menezes, sent an embassy to Ayutthaya in 1595 CE, led by Manuel Pereira d'Abreu, to request that the King release the captives taken during his war with Lovek in 1594 CE. Jacques de Coutre (Jacobus van de Koutere) (c. 1572-1640 CE) joined this embassy. The 1595 mission was a politically troubled embassy from Portuguese Malacca to Ayutthaya, and it became notorious when a Dominican friar, Father Jorge de Mota, seized control, causing internal disputes and intrigues among the Portuguese delegation. The embassy left Malacca on 8 May 1595 and returned after eight months in 1596 CE. [5]

Friar Balthasar de Sequeira was the first Portuguese Jesuit to come to Siam at the request of the Portuguese merchant Tristan Golayo. He arrived in Ayutthaya between 19 and 26 March 1607 CE to begin a new mission. He remained in Ayutthaya for only two and a half years then, ill, he wanted to return to Goa. He died on his way back in Phetchaburi in November 1609 (6). [6]

At the end of 1613 and the beginning of 1614 CE, our Portuguese mercenaries were back in action during a Burmese attack on Tavoy (Dawei) and Tenasserim (Tanintharyi). The Siamese, reinforced by Portuguese soldiers, drove the Burmese out of Tenasserim with heavy losses and reconquered Tavoy.

The arrival of the Dutch in the region, however, will have a profound impact on Iberian trade and the relationship with the Siamese Court. From 1624 CE onward, Siamese relations with the Portuguese changed.




(The Portuguese settlement on de Courtaulin’s map published in 1686 CE)



In August 1624 CE, Don Fernando de Silva, a Spanish captain, attacked the Dutch VOC yacht “Cleen Zeelandt” as it passed through Siamese territorial waters (the Chao Phraya River) at night. King Songtham of Ayutthaya (reign 1610/1611-1628) then ordered a Thai-Japanese force to attack the Spaniards. A fierce battle ensued, in which the captain and 150 Spaniards were killed. The remaining thirty Spaniards were thrown into prison, and their ships were confiscated. The Spanish-Dutch incident brought Siam to the brink of war with Spain.


The Portuguese were treated the same way as the Spaniards. Portugal lost its favoured status in Siam and could no longer obtain proper access to the Siamese Court. [7]


The Jesuit chronicle of events for 1627-28 CE records that Spanish galleons, on their return from Macao, pursued a semi-piratical course for several months, capturing Siamese vessels with valuable cargoes as a reprisal for injuries inflicted on Spaniards in Siam. These actions led to a state of war between Siam and Spain by the time of King Songtham's death at the end of that year. The Siamese considered the Portuguese “at par” with the Spaniards, and many Portuguese languished in Siamese prisons as a result. [8]


The King and his mandarins' growing hatred of the Iberians led them to confiscate, in 1630 CE, a Portuguese ship loaded with Chinese goods from Macao under the command of Casper Suarez. The Portuguese were kept in strict captivity for three years and made to go begging in the streets.





(The Portuguese settlement – Portugeez Quartier - on de Graaff’s map published in 1690 CE)



In July 1633 CE, the Portuguese in Malacca sent Captain Sebastian Moutos d’Avilla as ambassador to Ayutthaya to request the release of the Portuguese prisoners. He was received with little honour at court, but the king agreed to the request and released the prisoners. Although he knew his petition would be refused, he fled in September with all the prisoners down the Chao Phraya River. He was pursued but could escape to sea and left Siam in enmity. Van Vliet wrote that the discontent of the king about the sudden departure was so great that from that moment he hated the Portuguese just as much as the Spaniards also because in that same year they blocked the river of Tenasserim with two frigates, prevented Cantonese junks from coming to Siam and committed hostilities. [9]

On 9 April 1639 CE, a Portuguese Embassy from Macau arrived in Bangkok, led by Ambassador Captain Francisco d'Aguiar Evangelho, to restore diplomatic and trade relations. The Franciscan friar António de São Domingos accompanied him. The Ambassador requested that the Siamese King allow the priest to remain on his own account, grant him the right to practise his religion freely, and give him access to the court. He also asked for a stipend of 4 Taels. King Prasat Thong apparently agreed to the request. [10]

In 1655 CE, Friar Tommaso Valguarnera, a Jesuit priest from Sicily, arrived in Ayutthaya from Macau and remained there for 15 years. He built the Jesuit residence and São Paulo Church within the Portuguese settlement. He also founded the "Colégio de São Salvador". Valguarnera was an architect and rebuilt Ayutthaya's city walls at the request of King Narai. He was appointed Vice-Provincial of the Jesuit China mission and left the mission for Macau in 1670 CE.




(The Portuguese settlement on Simon de La Loubère’s map published in 1693 CE)



A decisive shift in ecclesiastical authority occurred in 1669 CE, when Rome established the Apostolic Vicariate of Siam and appointed Mgr. Louis Laneau of the Missions Étrangères de Paris as its first Vicar Apostolic. This act placed all missionaries in Ayutthaya—including the long-established Jesuits and Dominicans operating under the Portuguese Padroado—under the MEP's canonical jurisdiction. Although the Iberian orders did not always accept this new hierarchy in practice, from 1669 CE onward, the MEP held formal, Rome-granted authority over every Catholic mission in the kingdom.


In 1684 CE, Lisbon dispatched a Portuguese embassy to Siam led by Pero Vaz de Siqueira, a prominent merchant active in Asian trade networks. The mission aimed to strengthen commercial relations and defend the Portuguese Padroado against the expanding influence of the French Missions Étrangères de Paris in Siam, Tonkin, and Cochinchina. However, due to the strong pro-French influence of Constantine Phaulkon at King Narai’s court, the anti-MEP issue was not pursued. The embassy is generally dated 1684–1686 in the primary sources. (7) [11]


In March 1684 CE, a Siamese embassy was sent to Lisbon. Arriving in Goa in August, it found the Portuguese fleet had left for Lisbon, so the embassy had to wait nearly a year in Goa. On 27 January 1686 CE, it embarked at Goa but was shipwrecked off Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, on 27 April 1686 CE. Survivors returned from Cape Good Hope to Ayutthaya in September 1687 CE via Batavia. (8) [12]





(The burial place of the Portuguese São Pedro Church – Picture taken February 2019 CE)



By the late 17th century, Nicolas Gervaise, a French priest, reported that there were 700 to 800 households in the Portuguese camp, and Father Tachard was told by Constantine Phaulkon that in 1685 CE, there were a little over 4,000 people in the Portuguese settlement. [13]


The Burmese, advancing from the southwest, attacked Ayutthaya at the beginning of April 1760 CE. The Portuguese settlement was the first to be attacked. Part of it was burned, but the settlement offered such strong resistance that the enemy was forced to retreat.


In the following years, the Burmese subdued the entire north of the country, and by the end of 1765 CE had again laid siege to Ayutthaya, destroying everything in their path. Throughout 1766 and into the beginning of 1767 CE, they tightened their grip on the capital. In March 1767 CE, the Portuguese settlement and the Catholic Church to the south of the city were isolated and surrounded. The community fought bravely, but they were few and short of ammunition. Their situation was hopeless. On 21 March, the parish priests of the Portuguese settlement, a Jesuit and a Dominican, surrendered to the Burmese together with their community. For two days, their churches and property were protected in an attempt to persuade the French Bishop Pierre Brigot and his people to surrender. As it turned out, the Catholic Church and seminary, as well as the Jesuit and Dominican churches, were all plundered. On the night of 7–8 April, the Burmese entered and set fire to Ayutthaya. Some Portuguese were taken to Burma as hostages by the Burmese invaders. The rest followed King Taksin the Great to settle in an area of Thon Buri called Kudijeen, where they worked as Thai-Portuguese translators for the state until the Bangkok period. [14]


There is still a very small Portuguese community in Bangkok that descends from the Ayutthaya period. Most of them married into Thai families and adopted Thai surnames, but some still use Portuguese surnames. Such families include 'Na Silawan' (da Silva), 'Yesu' (de Jesus), 'Renangkul' (de Reina) and so on. [15]





(View of the location of the São Pedro church in 1984 CE, before excavation)



Footnotes:


(1) Free translated the "Capsized Junk" Sub-district.

(2) Malacca had been subject to Ayutthaya since the time of King Ramkhamheng.

(3) There was a nearly assimilated community of Portuguese-Thai in Pattani, southern Thailand. In 1973 CE, they were distinguishable solely by physical characteristics and some unique surnames. Within a generation or two, they will have thoroughly merged into the larger Thai gene pool. Their language now is entirely Thai, Pattani Malay, and trade Chinese. The story is that they are the remains of a community left behind when the Portuguese abandoned their trading post at Pattani. (Ref: www.colonialvoyage.com - retrieved 23 July 09)

(4) This success against Burma proved, in the end, to be a disaster for Siam. It was the original cause of the bitter enmity between the two countries, which later led to long and sanguinary wars, bringing death, famine and unspeakable misery to both countries. (Wood, 1924)

(5) The ruins of the houses and the church given by King Chairacha to the Portuguese can still be seen in Ayutthaya.

(6) Baltasar de Sequeira was already 56 years old at that time and had spent twenty-nine years on the Indian mission. He had come to India as a scholastic, a third-year theologian. His assignment to Siam came about in this way. When King Naresuan the Great of Siam died in 1605 CE, he was succeeded by his brother Ekathotsarot. At the beginning of his reign, King Ekathotsarot sent an ambassador to the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa to renew the bonds of friendship between Siam and Portugal. The ambassador of King Ekathotsarot carried not only official letters to the Viceroy but also private letters to some Portuguese who had been in Siam and were known to the King. Among these was Mr Tistao Golayo, a good friend of the King when he was still a prince. Mr Golayo decided to return to Siam, and since he was a friend of the Society, he asked the Provincial to send some Fathers of the Society with him. The Provincial was happy to have this good occasion to open a new mission and chose Fr. Baltasar de Sequeira for the task. Sequeira was the only Jesuit available, already rather old and in poor health. He remained in Ayutthaya for only two and a half years and then set out for Goa. However, he died on his way in the city of Phetchaburi in November of 1609. (Cerutti)

(7) Michael Smithies, in a review of the book "The Embassy of Pero Vaz de Siqueira to Siam (1684-1686)" by Leonor de Seabra, posted as a special to "The Nation" - article named "How Lisbon wooed Siam" published on 15 Dec 2008 - writes that "All he [Pero Vaz de Siqueira] could obtain was the guarantee that the French would have no religious jurisdiction over the Portuguese colony in Siam. Even this was not to last”. Pietro Cerutti, S.J., in the article “The Jesuits in Thailand - Part I (1607 - 1767)” states that the Jesuits of Ayutthaya submitted to the Vicar Apostolic as early as 1681 CE.

(8) This date is discussed in a review by Michael Smithies of the book "The Embassy of Pero Vaz de Siqueira to Siam (1684-1686)" by Leonor de Seabra, posted as a special to "The Nation". Smithies suggests here that the Siamese embassy probably left in 1684 CE soon after the departure of Pero Vaz's embassy, but not in March, more likely June or a little later. (Ref: How Lisbon wooed Siam - 15 Dec 2008).



References:

[1] Chumsriphan, Surachai (2002). A Brief History of the Catholic Church in Thailand.
[2] Loureiro, Vanessa (2005). The Jesuits in Cambodia: a look upon Cambodian religiousness (2nd half of the 16th century to the 1st quarter of the 18th century). Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies, vol. 10-11, June-December, 2005, pp. 193-222. Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Lisboa, Portugal.
[3] Souza, Teotónio R. de, A Portuguese Embassy to Siam in 1595 and Some Curious Observations.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Cerutti, Pietro S.J. The Jesuits In Thailand. Part I (1607-1767).
[7] Ibid.
[8] Wood, William, A.R. (1924). A History of Siam. Chalermnit Press.
[9] Baker, Chris Pombejra, Dhiravat na Van Der Kraan Alfons & Wyatt, David K. (2005). Van Vliet's Siam. Silkworm Books.
[10] Ruangsilp, Bhawan (2007). Dutch East India Company Merchants at the Court of Ayutthaya: Dutch Perceptions of the Thai Kingdom, Ca. 1604-1765. BRILL, Leiden-Boston.
[11] Michael Smithies’ review of the book "The Embassy of Pero Vaz de Siqueira to Siam (1684-1686)" by Leonor de Seabra, posted as a special to “The Nation” - article named “How Lisbon wooed Siam” published on 15 Dec 2008.
[12] Smithies, Michael (1999). A Siamese Embassy Lost in Africa 1686. Silkworm Books.
[13] Bangkok Post - 5 April 2008 - Ancient cultural melting pot.
[14] Cerutti, Pietro S.J. The Jesuits In Thailand. Part I (1607-1767). [15] Ayuthya: Campos Portugues - www.colonialvoyage.com - retrieved on 23 July 2009.



When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
(Alexis de Tocqueville)





HISTORY OF AYUTTHAYA



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