Siam : The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and IsBacon, George B. (George Blagden)
History
Siam : The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and Is
Bacon, George B. (George Blagden)
Thailand -- Description and travel; Thailand -- History
"This extraordinary European also induced his grateful sovereign King
Nárái to repair the old city of Lopha-buri (Louvô), and construct there
an extensive royal palace on the principles of European architecture. On
the north of this palace Constantine erected an extensive and beautiful
collection of buildings for his own residence. Here also he built a
Romish church. The ruins of these edifices and their walls are still to
be seen, and are said to be a great curiosity. It is moreover stated
that he planned the construction of canals, with reservoirs at intervals
for bringing water from the mountains on the northeast to the city
Lopha-buri, and conveying it through earthen and copper pipes and
siphons, so as to supply the city in the dry season on the same
principle as that adopted in Europe. He commenced also a canal, with
embankments, to the holy place called Phra-Bat, about twenty-five miles
southwest from the city. He made an artificial pond on the summit of
Phra-Bat Mountain, and thence, by means of copper tubes and stop-cocks,
conveyed abundance of water to the kitchen and bath-rooms of the royal
residence at the foot of the mountain. His works were not completed when
misfortune overtook him.
"After the demise of Nárái, his unacknowledged son, born of a princess
of Yunnan or Chiang-Mai, and intrusted for training to the care of Phya
Petcha raja, slew Nárái's son and heir, and constituted his
foster-father king, himself acting as prime-minister till the death of
his foster-father, fifteen years after; he then assumed the royal state
himself. He is ordinarily spoken of as Nai Dua. Two of his sons and two
of his grandsons subsequently reigned at Ayuthia. The youngest of these
grandsons reigned only a short time, and then surrendered the royal
authority to his brother and entered the priesthood. While this brother
reigned, in the year 1759, the Birman king, Meng-luang Alaung Barah-gyi,
came with an immense army, marching in three divisions on as many
distinct routes, and combined at last in the siege of Aynthia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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