“The gulf of Siam lay in the greatest duration of the solar eclipse since the sun began to shine, as some say; attracting to these realms astronomers from Western Europe. Great preparations were made to receive them with all honor and to join them in witnessing the solar phenomena, on the part of our science-loving king and his government. Large levies of men were made to put up at the spot fixed by the French astronomical expedition suitable buildings for all who were present. No expense was spared in the way of entertaining the numerous guests. It is said that two thousand catties of silver ($96,000.) were expended upon the affair by our public spirited king. A free ticket on a beautiful ship of war, and entertainment while there, to all us foreign residents. But as Mr. McDonald (now acting consul) desires to go and both could not well be absent so long from the station, I did not go down; and then, too, we were sure of a very respectable eclipse here in Bangkok, which I wished to improve for the benefit of the pupils in our school and our native friends.... Here we saw stars distinctly in the day time during the greatest obscuration.” The site chosen by the astronomers was in the jungle, in which the king caused a clearing to be made and temporary huts to be constructed. During the brief sojourn in this unhealthy spot, the king contracted a fever. The disease proved fatal, death occurring shortly after the king returned to the royal palace. The death of the king was a sore loss to the world. Dr. House wrote: “The missionaries lost, some of them a kind personal friend and a ‘well-wisher’ as he used to sign himself, and all a friendly-disposed liberal-minded sovereign, who put no obstacle in the way of their evangelising his people.” Western nations lost a royal friend who had opened the gates of his kingdom for intercourse. But Siam herself, while mourning the death of an enlightened sovereign, had gained so much through the seventeen years of his felicitous reign that his death could not stop her progress in the paths he had opened for her. The light which had found its way into the jungle of human notions through the clearing Mongkut had made was never again to pass into eclipse. KING CHULALONGKORN With the death of King Mongkut the personal relations of the pioneer missionaries with the reigning monarch were terminated. Concerning the successor, Chulalongkorn, Dr. House wrote: “I have not seen much of the young prince in childhood; he had been under the tutorship of the English governess Mrs. Leonowens and, later, of Mr. Chandler (formerly a lay Baptist missionary).... He had grown to maturity during the nearly three years of my absence in America.” As second or vice-king there had been chosen Prince George Washington, with whom Dr. House was better acquainted.