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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64545	A relation of the voyage to Siam performed by six Jesuits, sent by the French King, to the Indies and China, in the year, 1685 : with their astrological observations, and their remarks of natural philosophy, geography, hydrography, and history / published in the original, by the express orders of His Most Christian Majesty ; and now made English, and illustrated with sculptures.; Voyage de Siam des pères jésuites. English	Tachard, Guy, 1651-1712.	1688 (1688)	Wing T96; ESTC R16161	188,717	400

they think suitable to the Dignity of God whilst he is upon Earth for they reckon it below him to mind the Government of the World to take care of Men and Beasts and to produce all that the Universe brings forth and in this manner it is that the World shall be from time to time renewed to all Eternity I thought it fit to premise all these things before I came to speak of Sommonokhodom so the Siamese call the God whom at present they adore because they are necessary to the understanding of his History That History after all Sommonokhodom is the Last God of the Siamese is a monstrous mixture of Christianity and the most ridiculous Fables It is at first supposed that Sommonokhodom was born God by his own virtue and that immediately after his Birth without the help of any Master to instruct him he acquired by a meer glance of his Mind a perfect knowledg of all things relating to Heaven the Earth Paradice Hell and the most impenetrable Secrets of Nature that at the same time he remembred all that ever he had done in the different Lives he had led and that after he had taught the People those great Matters he left them wri●en in Books that Posterity might be the better for them In these Books he reports of himself Fables which the ●alapoins relat● of their God. that being become God one day he desired to manifest his Divinity to Men by some extraordinary Prodigy He then sate under a Tree called Ton ppô which for that reason the Siamese reverence as some sacred thing and look upon it as a happy Presage for the places where it grows being perswaded that it would be a great sin to do the least hurt to that Tree He adds that presently he found himself carried up into the Air in a Throne all shining with Gold and precious Stones which came out of the Earth in the place where he was and that at the same instant Angels coming down from Heaven rendered him the Honours and Adorations that were due unto him His Brother Thevathat and his Followers could not without extream Jealousie behold the Glory and Majesty that environed him Thevathat Sommonokhodoms younger brother makes war against him They conspired his Ruin and having stirred up the Beasts against him engaged with him in a War. Though he was all alone he was not terrified by that multitude of Enemies he resisted all their Attempts without being shaken and by virtue of his good works which defended him the shafts they darted at him were changed into so many Flowers which far from hurting him served only to encrease his Honour In the mean time he confesses that in the brunt of the Battle when he was most in danger it was but in vain that he had his recourse to the good works he had done in keeping the Nine first Commandments of the Law which he found were not sufficient to defend him in this pressing Necessity But being armed with the tenth Command which he had inviolably observed and which enjoyns the practice of Charity towards Men and Beasts he easily triumphed over his Enemies and in this manner he obtained that Victory The Female Guardian-Angel of the Earth for we have already distinguished two Sexes amongst the Angels coming to him Sommonokhodom assisted by the Female tutelary Angel of the Earth triumphs over his Enemies at first adored him then turning towards Thevathat and his Adherents she made known to them that Sommonokhodom was really become God. She told them that she had been a Witness of his good Works and to convince them of that shewed them her own Hair still dropping with the Waters that he poured out in the beginning of his good Actions Hence came the ●uperstitious Custom of the Siamese of shedding Water in the beginning of their good works whereof we have spoken several times already and which the Siamese religiously observe since that time In fine she exhorted them to render him the Adorations that he deserved but finding them to be hardned and obstinately resolved not to hearken to her Remonstrances she squeezed her wet hair and pressed out of them an Ocean of Water wherein they were all drowned It is also found written in the Books of Sommonokhodom The Poppery which the Talapoins tell of Sommonokhodom that from the time he aspired to be God he had returned into the World five hundred and fifty times under various shapes that in every Regeneration he had been always the Chief and as it were Prince of the Animals under whose shape he was born that many times he had given his Life for his Subjects and that being a Monkey he had delivered a Town from a horrible Monster that wasted it that he had been a most potent King and that seven days before he obtained the Sovereign Dominion of the Universe he had retired in imitation of some Anchorites with his Wife and two Children into remote Solitudes that there he was dead to the World and his Passions in such a degree that without being moved he suffered a Baramen who had a mind to try his Patience and carry away his Son and Daughter and torment them before his face Nay his mortification went a great deal farther for he even gave his Wife to a poor Man that begged an Alms and having put out his own eyes he sacrificed himself by distributing his flesh amongst the Beasts to stay the hunger that pressed them From thence they take occasion again to find fault with the Christian Religion which enjoyns not Men to comfort and assist Beasts in their necessities These are the rare actions which the Talapoins in their Sermons propose to the people for imitation and the examples they make use of to encline them to virtue Thevathat killed his Brother Sommonokhodom when they were Apes What is Recorded of Thevathat in the same Books is no less extraordinary nor Fabulous There we learn that he was always born again with his Brother Sommonokhodom in the same kind as he was but still inferiour in Dignity because Sommonokhodom was the Prince of the Animals whose shape he took But Thevathat aspiring also to Divinity and not endeavouring any thing above himself would never submit to his Brother On the contrary he endeavoured by continual Revolts to disturb his Reign and omitted nothing that he might deprive him of the Empire wherein at length he succeeded in some manner for he killed him when both of them were Apes What we saw during our abode in Siam did but too much convince us how far the People are infatuated with such Fables A young Church-man maintaining a position of Divinity in presence of my Lord Ambassador some Talapoins came thither out of curiosity and amongst others the superiour of one of their most famous Monasteries This Man asked what they were disputing about with so much heat and being answered that they were speaking of God and of matters concerning that first Being Likely

no more in the World but slides into on Eternal repose which was thought to have been a real annihilation because they were not rightly understood Then another God succeeds to him and governs the Universe in his place which is nothing else but to teach men the true Religion Men may become Gods Men may become Gods. but not till after a very considerable time for they must needs have required a consummated Virtue Nor is it enough to have done a great many good Works in their Bodies where their Souls have lodged they must also at every good Action they do have an intention of meriting Divinity they m●●t have intimated that intention by invoking and taking to witness the Angels who preside in the four Parts of the World at the beginning of their good work and they must have poured out water imploring the Succours of the She-tutelary Angel of the Earth called Naang pprathoram for they believe as we shall shew hereafter that there is a diversity of Sex amongst Angels as well as amongst Men. They who desire to be Gods carefully observe that Practice Besides that state of Divinity to which the most perfect aspire there is another not so high The Siames● acknowledge a permanent state of Sanctity which they call the state of Sanctity It it enough for being a Saint that having past through several Bodies one has acquired many Virtues aad that in the Acts which men do they have proposed the acquisition of Sanctity The Properties of Sanctity are the same with those of Divinity The Saints possess them as well as God does but in a far more imperfect degree besides that God has them of himself without receiving them from another whereas the Saints derive them from him by the Instructions he gives them It is he who teaches them all those Secrets whereof he hath a perfect Knowledg And therefore it is that if they be not born whilst he is in the world since they cannot receive his Documents they are not sanctified So that it is their custom in doing good Works to desire the Grace to be born again at the same time their God is What we have said of the Deity that it is not consummated till God dying upon Earth ascends up into Heaven that he may no more appear here below ought in like manner to be understood of Sanctity for it is not perfect till the Saints die not to be born again and till their Souls be carried into Paradice there to enjoy eternal Felicity The Siamese believe a Heaven and a Hell. These and the like are the Sentiments of these People touching the Deity And seeing they have sense enough to know that Vice is to be punished and Virtue rewarded they believe a Paradice where the Just enjoy the pleasure which their good works have merited and a Hell where the wicked receive the chastisement due unto their crimes They place Paradice in the highest Heaven and Hell in the Center of the Earth The Pleasures of Paradice and the Pains of Hell are not eternal they shall be there but for a certain time which is longer or shorter according as they have done more or less good works or committed more or fewer sins What the Siamese believe of Hell. They say that in Hell there are Angels who administer Justice and take care to mark exactly all the bad Actions of Men examine them after their Death and with extream severity punish them for the same They have a ridiculous imagination as to the Judgment that then passes they are perswaded that the first of these Judges whom they call Prayomppaban hath a Book wherein the Life of every particular man is registred that he continually reads it over and that when he comes to the Page which contains the History of that man he never fails to sneeze Therefore it is say they that we sneeze upon Earth and thence proceeds the Custom they have of wishing a happy and long Life to all that sneeze Hell is divided into eight Habitations which are as it were eight degrees of Pain nay they believe also that there is a Fire which burns the damned They fancy to themselves also in Heaven eight degrees of Beatitude What they believe of Heaven They 'l have the same things to happen there as upon Earth and affirm that there are Kings Princes and People there that there they wage War fight Battels and obtain Victories that Marriage it self is not banished from thence that in the first second and third Habitations the Saints may have Children that in the fourth in fine there is no more Concupiscence nor Marriage and so Purity daily encreases till one come to the last Heaven which is properly Paradice called in their Language Niruppan where the Souls of the Saints and Gods live in perfect Purity and sovereign Felicity They maintain that all the Good or Evil that happens to men is the effect of their good or bad Works and that one is never unfortunate and innocent at the same time Thus Wealth Honours Sanctity and Divinity are the Rewards of a virtuous Life and on the contrary Infamy Poverty Diseases Death and Hell are the punishments of Sins which men have committed And whether one be born again under human shape or under the figure of any Animal they attribute the Advantages wherewith one comes into the world as Goodness Gracefulness Wit or Nobility to the Merit of good Works and natural Deserts as Ugliness Mutilation of Members and the like to the Debauches of this or the other Lives which went before it All these things say they are so many certain Marks which discover to us what Lives men have led before they were born in this state and this is the Source of that prodigious diversity which appears in their Conditions their Lives and their Death Being prepossessed with these Errors they slight what you tell them of Original Sin and the Effects thereof and they call the Disobedience and Punishment of our first Father a meer Fiction Upon a Religious account the Siame e respect those who are any ways Eminent by the advantages of body mind or Fortune The Souls of men that are born again in the World come from three different Places from Heaven from Hell or out of the Bodies of Animals They whose Souls come from Heaven are distinguished by some advantageous Signs they have for their share Virtue Beauty Health Wealth and they are born great Men and handsom Princes Upon this Principle these People shew great respect for men of Dignity or of an illustrious Extraction because they look upon them as those who are shortly to be deified or sanctified s●eing they have done good Works enough to merit that high Rank of Honour to which they are raised They whose Souls come out of the Bodies of other Animals are less perfect than the former but far more however than those that come from Hell. They look upon these last as Rogues whose Crimes

so hot in the day time that they were glad to go take the fresh Air in the Evening We went first into a great Hall where they preach every Sunday until the Church be finished that was begun to be built without the Fort. On both sides of that Hall there are pretty handsome Apartments they had us in to that which was on the Left-hand where we were received by Monsieur Vanderstel and whither presently after the Heer Van Rheeden came to see us He is a Man of Quality about fifty years of age Handsome Civil Wise and Learned and who thinks and speaks well on all Subjects we were extreamly surprised to meet with so much Politeness at the Cape of Good-hope and much more at the Civilities and many Testimonies of Friendship which we received at that first Interview Father Fontenay whose Interpreter I was at that time in Portuguese finding so lucky Dispositions for our Design told the Commissary General that there were six Jesuits of us who were bound for the Indies and China that not being at all accustomed to the Fatigues of Sea we stood in need of taking a little Air on Land that we might be recruited after so long a Voyage that we durst not do so before we knew their Minds whether they would be contented with it or not The Commissary General did not suffer me to interpret all that Father Fontenay had said to him but presently interrupting me You 'l do us the greatest pleasure imaginable Fathers said he in Portuguese to come and refresh your selves at Land we will contribute all that lies in our Power to your Refreshment and Recovery This Answer was so favourable that we went a little farther we told him that being ashoar The Jesuits are extreamly well received by the Dutch. we should be glad to employ our selves for the publick Good and then to communicate to him our Observations thereby to acknowledge in some manner the Civilities that he had shown us that we had brought with us from France several Mathematical Instruments amongst which there were some very proper for finding out the true Longitude of Countries through which one passed without any need of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon we explained to him the new way of observing by the Satellites of Jupiter of which the Learned Monsieur Cassini hath made so good Tables I added that thereby we would render a very considerable Service to their Pilots by giving them the certain Longitude of the Cape of Good-hope which they only guessed at by their reckoning a very doubtful way that many times deceive them and that very considerably too He told us that we would thereby oblige him and that seeing we had a mind to labour in that Discovery he offered us a Place every way proper for observing At the same time he ordered a Summer-house that is in the Companies Garden to be made ready for us to lodge in so long as the Ambassador should continue in the Road. The Civilities of Monsieur Van Rheeden We made answer that the Civility which he shew'd us should not rest there and that we hoped my Lord Ambassador would have the Goodness to thank him and take it as a Kindness done partly to himself Then we shew'd him our Patents for being the Kings Mathematicians You encrease my Joy Fathers replied the Commissary in letting me see that I comply with the Will and Orders of so great a King for whom I shall entertain a profound Respect so long as I live However I am not vexed that you did not speak to me of that before I obliged you to accept of a Lodging which I offer you freely and with all my heart They brought us Tea as it is the Custom amongst the People of the East-Indies and after a pretty long Conference about indifferent Matters we took leave of these Gentlemen and withdrew The Commander followed us to conduct us to the Apartment that was offered us in the Companies great Garden We were mightily surprised to find one of the loveliest and most curious Gardens that ever I saw The Description of a lovely Garden which the Dutch East-India Company have on the Cape of Good-hope in a Country that looks to be one of the most dismal and barren Places in the World. It lies above the Habitations betwixt the Town and the Table-Land and on the side of the Fort from which it is but about two hundred Paces distant It is fourteen hundred and eleven common Paces in length and two hundred thirty five in breadth The Beauty of it consists not as in France in Compartments Beds of Flowers nor water-Water-works They might have them if the East-India Company would be at the Charges of it for a Brook of running Water falling from the Hill runs through the Garden But there you have Walks reaching out of sight planted with Limon-Trees Pomegranate-Trees and Orange-Trees which are covered from the Wind by high and thick Hedges of a kind of Laurel which they call Speck always green and pretty like to the Filaria By the Disposition of the Walks this Garden is divided into several indifferent big Squares some of which are full of Fruit-Trees and amongst them besides Apple-trees Pear-Trees Quince-Trees Apricot-Trees and other excellent Fruits of Europe you have also Ananas Banana-Trees and several others that bear the rarest Fruits to be found in the several parts of the World which have been transported thither where they are most carefully cultivated and lookt after The other Squares are sow'd with Roots Pulse and Herbs and some with the most esteemed Flowers of Europe and others that we know not which are of a singular good Smell and Beauty The East-India Company to whom it belongs as we have already said have caused it to be made that they may always have in that Place a kind of Magazine of all sorts of Refreshments for their Ships that go too or come from the Indies which never fail to touch at the Cape of Good-hope All Dutch Ships are ordered to touch at the Cape of Good-hope The Ships that come from the Indies arrive there in the beginning of March either alone or several together in company and there they stay for the Fleet of Europe which comes in the Month of April By that means they have the News whether or not they be in Wars and set out all together that by the great number and strength of their Ships they may be in a Condition not to fear what hurt Pirats or their Enemies can do them There is a great Pile of Building built at the Entry into the Garden where the Companies Slaves live to the Number as it is said of five hundred of whom part are employed in cultivating the Garden and the rest in other necessary Work. About the middle of the Wall on that side which looks to the Fort there is a little Banqueting-House where no body lives the lower Story of it consists of a Porch open to