พระราชสาส์นในพระบาทสมเด็จพระจอมเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัวพระราชทานไปยังประเทศอังกฤษ/ตอน 2/เรื่อง 8
Receipt of Letters
Is about to send an Embassy
to France, & wishes the Ambassadors
to go on to England.
Sends some presents
Suggests an exchange of Decorations.
This Letter from the First King of Siam to Her Majesty, dated March 21, 1816 is in substance as follows:—
He acknowledges receipt of the Queen's Letter of August 27, 1157 and Presents sent by Sir R. Schomburgk to replace those sent by Mr. Parkes which were lost at sea.
The acknowledges receipt also of Her Majesty's Letter of Feb. 23. 1858 by the Siamese Embassy, and thanks H.M. for Her reception & treatment of the Embassy.
He next says that in 1856 he has intended to send an Embassy to Paris and the that Emperor had stated his willingness to receive the Embassy & send a ship for the ambassadors as Her Majesty ordered. The Emperor has having afterwards been engaged in War, deferred receiving the Embassy, but in February of the present year. The French Steam Frigate "Gironde" arrived in Siam to receive the Embassy, and the King has therefore sent Ambassadors to Paris as his Embassy to Her Majesty, after finishing this business here, were sent home through France, & were while at Paris received by the Emperor, so he wishes the Embassy now sent to France to proceed to London to pay their respects to Her Majesty...
He says that among the presents sent by Sir R. Schomburgk, there were some as the coining machine & the hydraulic press for packing cotton, of which the other of which he & his people readily understood the use and could work; others they could not so wide get in with, & especially the photographic apparatus.
He has sent as Presents by the present Embassy
Photographic Portraits of himself & his Queen in their state dress
A lump of cotton compress by the hydraulic engine; &
A set of silver coins made by his native workers in the the mint
He commends Sir Robert Schomburgk and Mr. Thomas Knox the Interpreter to the Consulation, who he says can speak, read and write Siamese with facility.
He then says that he has been informed that it is the custom of European Sovereign to receive from and confer upon each other Decorations of various kinds. If this be true, he would like to present to Her Majesty a Siamese Deceration, and would be very desirous of receiving one from H.M. in return. As the Decortion made by a Siamese jeweller be ill-manufactured or unacceptable & he is ignorant of the proper style of Diploma, he has deferred sending it until he learns what is customary.