Voyage de Siam par L’Abbé de Choisy 1685-1686 XX

Esteemed Readers, attention! A great storm is approaching! Please, put on your raincoats & rubber boots, prepare some dry food suitable for hard rolling days! Good luck! We will survive! I promise!😊

Aboard the Oiseau, 21 June 1685

“It is 37 degrees 4 minutes of the Meridional latitude. You will see that another 5 lieuës we are going to sail this way, then we shall follow the longitude & move more to the North-West. I gain no news anymore. Couriers are rare here. Oh, what would a poor Mr. Soubrié do if he were here? Anyway, we will survive; while M. de Brandebourg will do whatever he desires. Our (language) exercises continue & we enjoy the fact that we are in progress no matter how slow it is. It is tough to learn reading & writing when you are forty. Nevertheless, I believe that I learn faster than at the age of Monseigneur Duke de Bourgogne, (NB: Louis de Bourbon, the son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, born in 1682). Concerning children…I could hardly chose a better & more wonderful family! When an opportunity presents itself I shall tell the King of Siam all his plays, like these ones: being two years six months he already dressed a cuirass & put a pot on his head…”

Aboard the Oiseau, 23 June 1685

“All I can write is that today it is worse than yesterday (too much rolling). We dine without laying the table: everybody grabbed what he could. I assure you that digestion is terrible as we are well-shaken & unable to walk long distances. So, we make plenty of physical exercises…”

Aboard the Oiseau, 24 June 1685

“The same weather goes on. The sea blows are violent & frequent. Last night some chests were flowed between two decks. It is Sunday, Saint John’s day but it is impossible to celebrate the Mass. So, these Indian seas are so quiet & pacific, aren’t they? We were not surprised to face terrible seas near the Cape of Good Hope, but here! The pilots work hard day & night having no trust in descriptions of the kind…”

Dieu Vous Ait en Sa Sainte Garde,

Vostre l’Abbé de Choisy ”

Voyage, part I:

Voyage, part II:

Voyage, part III:

Voyage,part IV:

Voyage, part V:

Voyage, part VI:

Voyage, part VII:

Voyage, part VIII:

Voyage, part IX:

Voyage, part X:

Voyage, part XI:

Voyage, part XII:

Voyage, part XIII:

Voyage, part XIV:

Voyage, part XV:

Voyage, part XVI:

Voyage, part XVII:

Voyage, part XVIII:

Voyage, part XIX:

Image: Aubusson, tapestry.

Maria KethuProfumo

Advertisement