“We now have embraced the best opportunity to have made and exchanged the treaty of friendship and commerce with the United States of America, and we shall be very glad to esteem the President of the United States at present and in the future as our respected friend, and esteem the United States as united in close friendship, as we know that the government of the United States must ever act with justice, and is not often embroiled in difficulties with other nations. “And if the treaty of friendship between the United States and Siam has been (shall be?) long preserved in harmony and peaceful manner it will ever be the occasion of the highest praise among the Siamese people. “(Signed) SUPREMUS REX SIAMENSIIUM, “S. P. P. MONGKUT.” The influence of the missionaries in bringing about the treaty relation of Siam with the Western world has been testified by several. The king himself sanctioned the following statement of esteem towards the missionaries for their influence on the country: “Many years ago the American missionaries came here. They came before any Europeans, and they taught the Siamese to speak and read the English language. The American missionaries have always been just and upright men. They have never meddled in the affairs of government, nor created any difficulties with the Siamese. They have lived with the Siamese just as if they belonged to the nation. The government of Siam has great love and respect for them and has no fear whatever concerning them. When there has been a difficulty of any kind, the missionaries have many times rendered valuable assistance. For this reason the Siamese have loved and respected them for a long time. The Americans have also taught the Siamese many things.” In the same line spoke the Regent, during the regency over Chulalonkorn, to United States Consul General Hon. George F. Seward: “Siam has not been disciplined by English and French guns as China has, but the country has been opened by missionaries.” The recognition of the indirect influence of the missionaries in facilitating the treaties was acknowledged by Dr. Wm. M. Wood, late surgeon-general in the United States Navy, who accompanied Mr. Harris on his diplomatic mission; stating in his book, _Fankwei_, that the “... unselfish kindness of the American missionaries, their patience, sincerity and truthfulness, have won the confidence and esteem of the natives, and in some degree transferred those sentiments to the nation represented by the missions, and prepared the way for the free intercourse now commencing. It was very evident that much of the apprehension they felt in taking upon themselves the responsibilities of a treaty with us would be diminished if they could have the Rev. Mr. Mattoon as the first United States Consul to set the treaty in motion.” A VISIT HOME