Siamese White

by Maurice Collis

Foremost among the biographies that Maurice Collis wrote during his wide-ranging literary career is Siamese White - an account of the career of Samuel White of Bath who, during the reign of James II, was appointed by the King of Siam as a mandarin of that country. The book superbly embodies that old adage - truth is stranger than fiction. 'A magnificent story, full of interest and excitement, but there is more to it than that. Collis, who has lived for years on the scene of these high happenings, is able to give us a first-hand picture of a fascinating land: of a lovely archipelago, of rivers and rapids, of an immemorial track through jungles haunted by tigers and malaria.' Evening Standard

Genres: Biography, History, Asia, Nonfiction

364 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Maurice Stewart Collis

Reviews

[Ian]

This book was originally published in 1936, and my edition begins with an introduction by the author’s daughter. She explains that he had been a magistrate in Rangoon, but had fallen foul of his superiors. This resulted in him being posted to the town of Myeik, in the very southernmost part of Burma (Myanmar), near the border with Siam (Thailand). The author refers to the town as Mergui, and I’ll use that name in this review. As the Introduction puts it, this posting represented “a considerable demotion,” but Collis started to take a close interest in the history of the area, and it led him to write this biography of one Samuel White, a 17th century English adventurer.

Although now in Myanmar, in the 17th century Mergui belonged to the King of Siam. Meanwhile a large part of eastern India was ruled by an entity called the Sultanate of Golconda.

White had originally gone to the east as a clerk with the East India Company, but his big break came courtesy of another adventurer, an ethnic Greek who went by the name Constantine Phaulkon - he had been born Konstantinos Gerakis on the island of Cephalonia. Phaulkon managed to inveigle his way to becoming Chief Minister to the King of Siam. The king wanted to modernise his armed forces, and through Phaulkon’s influence, White was appointed as Shahbandar of Mergui, with a mandate to fortify the port and build up a naval force in the European style. Shahbander is a Persian term which the author translates as “King of the Haven,” although an Internet search came up with the more prosaic “harbourmaster.” I think the former term is more accurate in describing the authority White had.

White built his ships, captaining them with various old sea dogs from England who had fetched up around the Bay of Bengal. He forged a letter of marque from the king “authorising” him to attack ships belonging to Golconda, and, under cover of the Siamese flag, they basically acted as a pirate fleet in the Bay of Bengal. White had a personal grudge against the governor of Masulipatam (Machilipatnam) within the Sultanate. Captured ships that were not from Golconda would be let go “for a large consideration,” but those from the Sultanate would be seized. He also had all sorts of other scams going on.

White was safe as long as he was protected by Phaulkon, but he was astute enough to know that this was a case of making hay whilst the sun was still shining. He employed a secretary called Davenport, and commented to him about Phaulkon;

“nor would it be a miracle to see a man who hath been raised from so low a degree to such an exorbitant height of favour with a Prince, unable to withstand the shock of an envious Court and oppressed Kingdom; and in case he once slips, how can I or any other dependant on him, expect to keep our footing;…”

I don’t normally worry about spoilers in non-Fiction, but reading this book, I didn’t know how things worked out for White, Phaulkon and the others who featured, and it’s probably more interesting that way.

It’s a dramatic tale, though in this case the writing style didn’t grab me as much as might be expected. Guys like White and Phaulkon played the game of life for high stakes. If you won, you became rich and powerful, if you lost, you faced execution.

You put your money down and you play your cards.

[Paul Cornelius]

An intriguing story marred by its telling. Maurice Collis is an odd writer, and his two sections on the British East India Company history, one at the beginning and another about three quarters of the way through were sort of dull and uninformative. I was altogether unaware of the existence of Samuel White before Siamese White. But he turns out to be a remarkable adventurer, scoundrel, cheat, thief, pirate, opportunist, murderer, traitor, and unstable head case. He was also clever and so managed to avoid all the disasters and punishments that awaited almost the entirety of his fellow conspirators.

Just briefly, this episode is but a sideshow of the events leading to the Siamese Revolution of 1688. White was one of but certainly not the most important of the foreigners who came to Siam (Thailand) and essentially attempted to impose a caste of imported rulers over the country. This was no minor event. It reframed European colonialism throughout Southeast Asia. Even J.G. Frazer's The Golden Bough devotes several pages to it in his anthropological study of recurring myth and religious behavior across the world.

Instead of White, it is White's friend, Constantine Phaulkon, who was the mastermind behind the events that eventually caused the Siamese to resort to a popular uprising against Phaulkon and his French allies. Clever Samuel White, however, knew the writing was on the wall from the beginning and had an escape planned that would take him and his loot to safety. Almost waiting too long, he nevertheless gets away with it and even journeys back to England a wealthy man. There is an irony to his ending, however, and I'll not spoil things by giving it away.

The King of Ayutthaya at this time, Narai, presided over a kingdom that became wealthy and somewhat powerful because of Phaulkon and the men Phaulkon brought into his administration, such as White. In retrospect, it is today seen as something of a golden era ruined by the arrival of foreigners. A time travel Thai television series, Love Destiny, which is quite good, was broadcast in 2018. The series took place at the time of Narai's rule.

King Narai, of course, should not be confused with the Siamese king who ruled about 100 years earlier, King Naresuan, who also had a series major Thai films with him as the subject. Personal anecdote: when the military took over the Thai government in 2014, they offered free screenings of the fifth film in the series, The Legend of King Naresuan: Elephant Battle. I remember seeing soldiers outside the cinema encouraging people to watch. And I do not mean coerce; the soldiers were just standing there. I actually wish I had taken them up on their offer but didn't do so. At any rate, this is an interesting period in Siamese and Asian history, as Europeans were just beginning to solidify their colonial empires throughout the region. Somehow, the Siamese beat them off. Samuel White and his friends were left scurrying back home, dead, defeated, or looking for other opportunities.

[Smiley]

Having postponed to read this book presumably taken as a novel since my college years in the late 1960's, I've recently decided to have a go with it due to my ongoing interest during my 12-year retirement in anything Siamese or Ayutthayan around the 17th century as perceived, written and published by foreign travelers, merchants, diplomats, etc. Indeed, it was like my long, familiar friend coolly and patiently perching on the shelf kept waiting for me to have a look inside. As far as I recalled our encounter, I didn't like its title and I had never read or known Mr Maurice Collis before till I read his biography and verify my misunderstanding of this book on its new classification as a biography. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice...)

There're two vivid points I still recall; first, for some reason I wondered what and didn't feel interested in its front cover showing one of those richly decorated ceremonial royal barges depicting what I came across and knew about them later during my reading on Siamese history in the reign of King Narai (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narai) who famously allowed some French Jesuits to propagate Christianity in Siam and supported diplomatic ties by sending his two Siamese embassies to King Louis XIV; they hoping to convert him to Catholicism, and second, I didn't understand the title SIAMESE WHITE itself since WHITE in this context might mean a colour (ambiguous meaning) or a family name (of someone worked for Siam then fondly entitled SIAMESE). Interestingly, I have not found his biography as a key topic itself in the Wikipedia; however, according to chapter 1 WHITE GOES EAST, Samuel White was born in England around 1650, went east to work at Mergui (Mergen as called by the English, มะริด /marid/ in Thai); eventually he being appointed as the English governor of Mergui fort by King Narai. Moreover, the following paragraph taken from the topic "Rising French Influence" in the Narai website above would provide more light on his life and work at Mergui and in Siam:

"Samuel White, the English governor of Mergui fort, appointed by Narai and a close associate of Phaulkon, entered into conflict with the English fleets from India in 1687, leading to the English blockade of Mergui. The Siamese native mandarins massacred the local Englishmen out of frustration. With English fleets threatening his kingdom, Narai decided to placate the English and executed the mandarins."

as well as an 11-line topic on Samuel White in his elder brother George White webpage. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...)

To continue . . .

[Jim]

If you are interested in some of history's strange byways, you could hardly do better than to read the works of Maurice Collis (1889-1973). Starting out as a British civil servant in Burma, Collis had accumulated a vast store of information about Southeast Asia which he set about using in a series of books that are obscure, intriguing, and yet -- paradoxically -- important in describing the European colonial experience in that part of the world.

Particularly interesting are The Land of the Great Image about the Portuguese in Arakan, now part of Burma; Foreign Mud, about the Opium War, in which the English fought and won a war with China to force them to become buyers and users of opium produced by the East India Company; Raffles, a biography of the founder of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles; and now Siamese White, the biography of a slippery pirate who sailed under the Siamese flag in the late 17th century. I also add one work from the New World, Cortez and Montezuma, a wonderful re-telling of Bernal Diaz del Castillo's memoir of the conquest of the Aztecs.

The above list sounds as if it had been thought up by Jorge Luis Borges in one of his more obscure short fantasies. In actual fact, they are the works of a historian who, though not much read today, still remains in print because his works are so fascinating.

The White of Siamese White is Samuel White, originally in the employ of the East India Company, and later a shahbandar of the King of Siam, running various piratical activities from his headquarters at Mergui (now part of Burma). He is betrayed by his secretary, Francis Davenport, but first he decides to celebrate:

But the morrow was Easter Sunday and 'improper for any business of that nature [i.e., absconding with the money].' He might burn Mergui, but he would not pack on the Day of Resurrection. Instead, he gave a great party for the whole station. All the Europeans on that distant shore were invited. It was a noble entertainment, says Davenport, White was at his best. He was, of course, the master; his house was the centre of interest, the place about which rumour was always busy. Every merchant, every farmer, bazaar-girls, water-men, looked up at it, standing above them on its height, as they went about their labours. It represented everything that was important, that mattered. White was a great lord in that place, On this Easter night his windows were all lit; there was coming and going; sedan chairs arriving, the welcome, toasts; without, crowds standing and watching in the darkness. He himself knew that the end was near, some kind of an end, and it mellowed and saddened him. Davenport had hardly seen him with a manner so gentle and grand.

What kind of an end was to meet Samuel White and his protector in the Siamese capital, Constant Faulcon, a Greek who had become the most powerful politician in Siam -- after the ailing king -- comes fast and furious on the heels of this Easter feast.

You can't imagine stuff like this -- and it was all true. Collis is superb at following the threads of his story through to the end in Britain and India. The ending, which I will not divulge, is absolutely brilliant in showing the political crosscurrents of the day right after the Glorious Revolution and accession to the throne of William of Orange. A truly magnificent read!

[Simon Normanton]

Vivid, as if I was there and then. Remarkable that this record of the world’s least explored archipelago exists, perhaps the only such record. Immensely readable

[Ellen Bard]

Entertaining and very surprisingly story of a part of south east Asia's early history with Europeans (which hardly does Europe credit...). Written in the early 20th c based on papers and activities from the 17th century, it covers the early East India Trading company, pirates, English-Thai relations and a picture of what life was life in those times of colonialism. Can be uncomfortable to read as the attitudes of those in both time-periods to non-Europeans (even to non-English TBH) are disdainful on a good day. Educational and fascinating.