This book concerns the French intervention in Siam, 1685-1688, particularly the cataclysmic last year, during which Phetracha, the usurper and future king, held

The first full history of a great commercial and political center that rose in Asia over almost five centuries.

This text comprises three texts which shed light on the failure of the French to colonize Siam at the end of the 17th century. Events surrounding the coup d'eta

"A totally absorbing book...imaginative and erudite, full of startling juxtapositions and flashes of real perception."—Jonathan D. Spence John E. Wills's mast

"Ok-khun Chamnan, during his odyssey as part of the aborted embassy to Portugal, spent nearly a year in Goa, where he learnt Portuguese; a month travelling over