Siamese White

Maurice Collis

4.47 · Rating details · 15 ratings · 2 reviews

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 ...more

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Published 1947 by Albatross (first published 1936)

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Apr 23, 2011 Jim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, biography

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 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! ...more

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Nov 28, 2019 Simon Normanton added it

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

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