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Phuket is the largest island in modern Thailand, locating in Southern Thailand on the western coast in the Andaman Sea. Historically at the fringe of Thai sphere of influence, Phuket has a unique place in Thai history, as its natural maritime wilderness hid lucrative tin resources that attracted both locals and foreigners who competed for control over the island, also a battleground for intensive Burmese–Siamese Wars, later becoming a Hokkien Chinese labor immigration entrepôt in tin mining industry and eventually a world tourism hub.

Historiography

Locating on the southern frontier of Thai sphere of influence, far from Thai historical centers such as Ayutthaya and Bangkok, closer to the Malay archipelago, events in Phuket were rarely recorded by the mainstream official royal Siamese chronicles. Native records about Phuket are scarce and none of them described events prior to the eighteenth century. Most of early history of Phuket can only be constructed from Western records by various foreigners such as the Dutch, the British and the French, who occasionally visited or had businesses in the Phuket island in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. Dearth of Phuket indigenous records may be attributed to the Burmese destruction of all settlements on Phuket in 1810, which presumably destroyed any historical documents and clues of the island.

The oldest extant native Thai historiography about the history of Phuket is dated to 1841, a small excerpt recounting a list of governors of Thalang or Phuket from around mid-eighteenth century to that time. Phraya Thalang Roek the governor of Thalang, relying on oral accounts of some elderly people of Phuket, provided a slightly more detailed account of History of Phuket, published by Prince Damrong in 1914 as Phongsawadan Mueang Thalang ("Chronicles of Thalang").

Gerolamo Emilio Gerini, an Italian man known by Siamese title Phra Sarasat Phonlakhan (พระสารสาสน์พลขันธ์), served as a military instructor at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy from 1897 to 1905. Gerini studied Siamese history and culture, composing Historical Retrospect of Junkceylon Island in 1905, the first modern historical narration of Phuket, republished in 1986 under Siam Society.

Names of Phuket

For most of its history, Phuket was known as "Junkceylon" in Western sources. The term Junkceylon came from Portuguese attested terms Jonsalam, Jonsalan or Junsalão of the sixteenth century. These terms were derived from the Malay term "Ujong Salang", meaning the "Cape of Salang", referring to the southern tip of the island. The name "Salang" was apparently related to native calling of the island "Chalang" or Thalang", which was adopted by the Thais to call the island. The name Salang, Chalang or Thalang did not have translatable meanings in both Thai and Malay languages, in which Gerini theorized to be derived from indigenous Austroasiatic language spoken by Semang Negrito people of the Malay peninsula. Merong Mahawangsa the Chronicles of Kedah, dated to late eighteenth century to early nineteenth century, called Phuket "Pulau Salang" or "Island of Salang".

The name "Phuket" came from the Malay term Bukit ("Mountain"), substantiated into Thai term "Phukej" (ภูเก็จ) from Phu ("Mountain") and Kej ("Diamond"), meaning "Diamond Mountain", which was related to Siamese title of the governors of Thalang "Phraya Phetkhiri" (พระยาเพชรคีรีฯ, "Lord of the Diamond Mountain"). Thalang and Phukej are two distinct settlements on the island. Thalang was the preferred term by pre-modern Siamese government as it was the main administrative center, locating in various shifting places in the center-northern part of the island, while Phukej began as a small settlement on the southern half of the island around late eighteenth century under jurisdiction of Thalang. With the foundation of modern Phukej town in 1827, the Phukej city grew rapidly and exponentially as a tin mining hub, attracting Hokkien Chinese tin mine laborers. After mid-nineteenth century, Phukej became the preferred term to call the island. Official spelling changed from Phukej to Phuket in early twentieth century.

Early history

Nakhon Si Thammarat

There are two Tamnan or histories, Tamnan Mueang Nakhon Si Thammarat (History of Nakhon Si Thammarat) and Tamnan Phrathat Mueang Nakhon Si Thammarat (History of Phrathat of Nakhon Si Thammarat), which provide semi-legendary narration of history of the area of Southern Thailand from thirteenth to seventeenth centuries, believed to be composed around the later half of the seventeenth century, discovered by modern Thai historian Prince Damrong and published during the 1930s. According to these Theravadin Buddhist Tamnans, King Si Thammasok established the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat as the center of his new Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom around mid-thirteenth century. With the foundation, King Si Thammasok also organized twelve Naksat zodiac satellite cities to be under the rule of Nakhon Si Thammarat. The term Naksat, from Sanskrit Nakshatra, referred instead to the Chinese zodiac.

Twelve Naksat satellite cities subordinating to Nakhon Si Thammarat, each assigned with a zodiac emblem, are Saiburi (Rat), Pattani (Ox), Kelantan (Tiger), Pahang (Rabbit), Kedah (Dragon), Phatthalung (Snake), Trang (Horse), Chumphon (Goat), Banthay Smoe (Monkey, theorized to be Krabi), Sa U-Lau (Rooster), Takua Pa (Dog) and Kraburi (Pig). These cities covered modern area from Southern Thailand to northern Malaysian states. In one version, Takua Pa was replaced with "Takua-Thalang" (ตะกั่วถลาง), which could either mean Takua Pa or Thalang, suggesting that the Phuket area was under control of Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom, as did much of Southern Thailand. However, this seventeenth-century account lacks supporting collaborative evidences from other sources.

Sukhothai and Early Ayutthaya

In the Ramkhamhaeng Stele, dated to 1292, Nakhon Si Thammarat is named as one of subordinate cities of Sukhothai Kingdom. The Tamnan suggests that a King of Sukhothai had come to subjugate Nakhon Si Thammarat. Therefore, the Thai Sukhothai kingdom had at least some influences over Southern Thai region in the fourteenth century but it is dubious that Sukhothai had solidified control over Southern Thailand or Malay peninsula as a whole.

Nakhon Si Thammarat and Southern Thailand was incorporated into Ayutthaya kingdom by fifteenth century. Towns on the Andaman Coast were not mentioned in the list of peripheral cities in Phra Aiyakarn Tamnaeng Na Thaharn Huamueang, which was complied in under King Trailokkanat, which included Nakhon Si Thammarat, Chumphon, Chaiya and Phatthalung as Ayutthayan authority was concentrated on Gulf of Siam side of Malay peninsula. According to Jeremias van Vliet's Chronicles of the Ayuthian Dynasty (1640), King Borommaracha III of Ayutthaya went on his leisure journey to "Tjongh Tjelungh" where he died, presumably in 1491. Fernão Mendes Pinto passed by the port of "Juncalan" in 1539, visiting Nakhon Si Thammarat or Ligor, mentioning that fourteen petty kings were subordinates of the viceroy of Ligor, Mendes Pinto again mentioned "Coast of Juncalan" in 1545. In 1580, Ralph Fitch passed by "Junsalaon" on his sea journey from Pegu to Malacca.

Earliest recognized inhabitants of Phuket seemed to be the Malays. Orang Laut sea nomads, called Saletters in Dutch sources, also patrolled the area. In October 1592, Edmund Baker from the fleet of Sir James Lancaster visited the "kingdome of Junsaloam", where Baker sent a Portuguese man to speak to the inhabitants in Malay language; "Here we sent our souldier, which the captaine of the aforesaid galion had left behind him with us, because he had the Malaian language to deale with the people for pitch,". This was the first recorded encounter between visitor and native inhabitant of Phuket.

Dutch activities in Phuket

Arrival of the Dutch in Phuket

King Prasat Thong of Ayutthaya enacted Phra Thammanun (พระทำนูน) or Constitution in 1633, in which Thalang was mentioned for the first time as a city under Kalahom or Southern Siam department. Tenasserim Hills was abundant in tin, which had been exported from various seaports of the Malay peninsula, attracting foreign merchants to trade tin in exchange for their goods. In the early seventeenth century, there had been a flourishing trans-Indian Ocean trade, in which South Indian merchants from Coromandel Coast would trade for tin in the Malay peninsula in exchange for Indian textiles brought with them. In the aftermath of Dutch conquest of Malacca in 1641, Malacca served as the foothold for expansion of Dutch commercial power in the region. As tin became a key commodity, the Dutch sought to take control and monopolize over this trans-Indian Ocean tin trade, at the expense of their competitors the South Indian and Acehnese merchants, through treaties and agreements with local rulers.

By the reign of King Prasat Thong in mid-seventeenth century, there were many Southern Siamese ports that exported tin including Nakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor), Chumphon, Chaiya, Phunphin, Thalang and Bangkhli, on both coasts of Southern Siam, of which Thalang and Bangkhli were on the Andaman Coast (Bangkhli is in modern Thai Mueang district, Phangnga Province). Dutch East India Company (VOC) sought to make treaties with local Asian governments, either through diplomacy or forced naval blockade, to obtain tin export monopolies to their benefits. Dutch sources described governors of Thalang and Bangkhli as "viceroys" who held autonomous powers, capable of conducting independent diplomatic ventures with the Dutch. The Dutch established VOC factory at Nakhon Si Thammarat or Ligor in 1642, primarily for acquiring tin for export and had earlier concluded a treaty with Kedah in 1642. The Dutch concluded separate treaties with the governor of Thalang in March 1643 and the governor of Bangkhli in January 1645, in which local tin miners were forced to sell tin only to the Dutch, who suppressed the price low, not to South Indian merchants, in exchange for Indian textiles brought in by the Dutch. Any tin miners who were caught selling tin to other parties were to be punished by seizure of their tin goods. Furthermore, any Dutch traders committing criminal offenses in Thalang and Bangkhli would not be subjected to native Siamese legal system but the opperhoofd from Ayutthaya would come to judge instead, a partial form of extraterritoriality.

Ayutthaya struggles to control technically autonomous towns like Thalang and Bangkhli, which were under nominal authority of Nakhon Si Thammarat or Ligor, the Mueang Ek or first-level principal city of Southern Siam. The governor of Thalang even independently sent letters to Jeremias van Vliet the Governor of Dutch Malacca in 1644–1645. In 1645, King Prasat Thong appointed a new governor of Ligor and, through him, summoned the Thalang governor to Ayutthaya for the fourth time without success. The Ligor governor sought to control Thalang. In 1654, the Ligor governor divided Thalang island into two administrative parts, upsetting Okphra Phetkhiri the governor of Thalang. Okphra Phetkhiri, through Tenasserim, complained his case to Ayutthaya. The result was that the Ligor governor was replaced by the governor of Tenasserim as the new governor of Ligor.

Tin export monopoly is the Dutch way of conducting businesses in the area, using local governments and law enforcement to ensure their benefits. The result was that South Indian and Acehnese merchants were legally barred from buying tin in these ports. Dutch tin export monopoly generated resentment among local population, who were eager to sell tin to South Indian merchants who offered higher prices. The Dutch soon found out that local authorities barely honored the treaties, as their competitors South Indian and Acehnese merchants continued to buy tin in these ports.

Incident of 1658

Local fury burst out in December 1658, when the Dutch insisted on searching Malay ships suspecting of smuggling tin, the local Malays killed Dutch officials and burnt down VOC factory in Phuket, causing the damage of over 22,000 guilders. This incident should be interpreted as a part of wider Malay resistance against Dutch commercial dominance in the region, in which Dutch officials in Perak were massacred in 1651 and Kedah in 1652 and 1658. King Narai of Ayutthaya responded to this incident by sending two royal commissioners, along with another Southern Siamese official from Ligor, to conduct investigation at Ligor and Phuket in 1659. The Dutch suspected that Okphra Phetkhiri the governor of Thalang was behind this incident. Phetkhiri was summoned to Ligor to provide his testimony. Siamese commissioners returned to Ayutthaya in 1661, bringing with them governor Okphra Phetkhiri and three Malay men suspected of killing Dutch officials. Phetkhiri was found no guilty and the three Malay men were sent to Malacca for punishments appropriated by the Dutch. Nevertheless, this incident led to closing down of Dutch factory of Phuket in 1660, leading to a ten-year hiatus of Dutch presence in Phuket.

Account of Jacques de Bourges (1662)

In 1658, Pierre Lambert de la Motte of the Paris Foreign Mission was made the first Apostolic Vicar of Cochin as titular titular bishop of Beirut. Lambert de la Motte left Marseilles with the secular priest Jacques de Bourges in 1660, arriving in Mergui in April 1662 and reaching Ayutthaya in August 1662. From Ayutthaya, Jacques de Bourges brought the letter of Lambert de la Motte back to Rome, passing through Paris. At Paris, De Bourges wrote the first French account on Siam, mentioning "Jansalom" or Junk Ceylon as one of eleven provinces of Siam; "The kingdom is divided into eleven provinces, to wit Siam, Martaban, Tenasserim, Junk Ceylon, Kedah, Perak, Johore, Pahang, Pattani, Ligor and Chaiya. These provinces formerly ranked as kingdoms but today are under domination of the King of Siam", mostly covering Southern Siam, representing wide-reaching Siamese claims over the Malay peninsula.

Jacques de Bourges returned to Ayutthaya in 1669. In 1671, Lambert de la Motte the bishop of Beirut and Vicar Apostolic of Cochin, staying in Ayutthaya, sent a Portuguese priest named Perez was sent from Ayutthaya to Phuket to proselytize. Perez noted that there had already been a large number of Portuguese Catholics in Phuket.

Dutch–Siamese Treaty of 1664

King Prasat Thong of Ayutthaya had been in favor of the Dutch. In the reign of his son King Narai, however, Dutch–Siamese relations deteriorated. In the seventeenth century, Ayutthayan government had been sending royal ships to bring Siamese products such as deerskin and sappanwood to trade at Nagasaki, port of Tokugawa Japan, as a major source of revenue. Due to the Sakoku policy, Siam was unable to trade directly with Japan but rather through Dutch or Chinese middlemen. Dutch VOC had been exploiting this condition by asking for deerskin and tin export monopoly from Siam, guaranteeing them as the only channel for Siamese goods to be exported. However, King Narai commissioned his own trade junks under Chinese agents to sell Siamese products at Nagasaki, bypassing Dutch grip on Siamese export. By 1661, Chinese junks from Ayutthaya carried goods belonging to the king, members of royal family and high-ranking ministers to Nagasaki.

The Dutch found Siamese circumvention of their export monopoly increasingly frustrating, which they considered an unfair trade competition. In 1661, the Dutch seized a Portuguese ship belonging to King Narai in Macao. Narai responded by decreeing next year in 1662 that all export commodities should be sold to Royal Warehouse before going out, thus abolishing any Dutch privileges. The Dutch seized another trade ship belonging to King Narai at Banda Islands in 1663. Siamese troops attacked Dutch settlement at Ayutthaya in response, prompting the Dutch to closed down the VOC factory of Ayutthaya and retreat in 1663. Joan Maetsuycker the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies at Batavia responded by sending three Dutch warships to impose naval blockade upon Ayutthaya. The blockade lasted for four months from October 1663 to February 1664.

Siamese court eventually took a reconciliatory stance as the Dutch–Siamese Treaty was signed on 11 August 1664, normalizing Dutch–Siamese relations. In the treaty, Ayutthaya granted deerskin export monopoly to the Dutch. Peaceful, undisturbed trade and no higher duties were to be guaranteed in "Ligor, Oetjangh Salangh and other places". Even though Dutch–Siamese relations was normalized, the incident took a huge impact on King Narai's sentiments towards the Dutch, prompting the king to soon seek out for other European nations to counter Dutch influence. The Dutch was yet to re-obtain tin monopoly in Phuket after 1658. Even though the Dutch continued to acquire tin from Phuket, they did with difficulty and the yield was minimal.

Dutch Blockade of Phuket: 1673–1675

Balthasar Bort, the Governor-General of Dutch East Indies, told Nicolaas de Rooij the Dutch opperhoofd of Ayutthaya to attempt to re-obtain license for tin monoply from King Narai. Nicolaas de Rooij managed to obtain licenses from King Narai in 1670 granting tin export monopoly to the Dutch in Ligor, Thalang and Bangkhli. Success of the Dutch was short-lived as the Dutch ship Dolphin was seized at Bangkhli by local inhabitants in April 1671, massacring the Dutch, for the local tin miners were angry that South Indian merchants were offering much higher prices for tin in Tenasserim, they refused to be under Dutch commercial dominance again. With Ayutthayan government taking minimal responses to this incident, the Dutch decided to take matters into their own hands. In 1673, Dutch sloops attacked and set fires on settlements on Phuket and Bangkhli, imposing naval blockade onto the island, accusing the Siamese governor of Bangkhli of being "seeming to love with the mouth but the Kedahans with the heart". Taking their base on the Banquala bay (modern Patong Bay), the Dutch, with three sloops, patrolled the surrounding waters, searching and preventing any attempts to smuggle tin out of the island.

For two years, the Dutch imposed naval blockade onto Phuket. In 1675, the Dutch sloop seized an Acehnese merchant ship, funded by an English trader, with full load of tin. This incident angered the local Malays, who had enough of the Dutch. The local Malays protested that the Dutch action was against the protection of the "Radja of Jansalone" (Okphra Phetkhiri, the govenor of Thalang) but the Dutch replied that all the roads and rivers of Jansalone belonged to them. The Dutch fired into the gathering crowd, killing some and dispersing the rest. The local Malays took revenge by cutting down tree logs to block the exit passageway, trapping the Dutch inside of the waterway. The local Malays then descended upon the Dutch, killing every Dutch men, tearing Dutch sloop into pieces.

The Dutch VOC protested this incident to Ayutthaya. Upon learning about this incident, King Narai decided to go against the Dutch. King Narai ordered Okphra Phetkhiri the governor of Thalang to supply each of the three ports of Phuket with two large war prows, to arm and fortify the island against possible Dutch attacks. Another attack on Dutch ship in Phuket occurred in 1677. The Dutch considered conquering Phuket but realized that the cost of conducting warfare would not be met by minimal tin product yield from the island.

Visit of Thomas Bowrey (1675)

In the seventeenth century, Siam had claims over Andaman coastal port towns like Phuket, Trang and Bangkhli. By the 1670s, Phuket had about 6,000 inhabitants, with the Malay-majority population as miners under Siamese government or foreign investors. Thomas Bowrey, an English free merchant in India under employment of William Jearsey of the Fort of St. George, visited many places in the region including Phuket, Kedah and Aceh, providing valuable accounts of these places. Thomas Bowrey visited Phuket, which he called "Jansalone", around 1675. Bowrey states that the Phuket islands belonged to the King of Siam (It wholy belongeth to the Kinge of Syam,). The Siamese lived in the inner parts of the island (The Inhabitants Up in the Countrey are Naturall Syamers,), while the Malays lived in the seaports (downe att the Sea Ports most of the Inhabitants are Malayars). Bowrey also noted the presence of the pirate "Saletter" Orang Laut sea nomads cruising around the area. Three ports, Buckett (Phuket), Luppoone (Liphon) and Banquala were on the island. Phuket island was mostly uncultivated wilderness, with a plenty of wild animals including elephants, tigers and ferocious monkeys with large teeth, less than ten percent of the lands were put to use, according to Bowrey's estimation. Phuket had abundance of fruits including plantains, coconuts, pomelos and areca nuts. Rice was grown in the inner middle part of the island but was barely sustainable to the inhabitants.

The island only produced elephant and tin for export (The Whole Island affordeth nothinge Save Some Elephants and tinne.) and the inhabitants trade in small tin lumps called Putta. Bowrey called the raja or governor of Thalang a viceroy (Vice Kinge), given his local autonomous power. The governor of Thalang resided in Luppoone, which was the chief settlement in the inner part of the island. Traders arrived at the seaport of Banquala on the southwestern side of the island, where the custom toll stood and the trading ships would proceed up the river to the inland. The governor Okphra Phetkhiri at Luppoone sent elephants to fetch Bowrey up to meet him. Bowrey discovered that, without exemption license from the Siamese king, he had to pay ten percent custom of all goods he carried.

Mohammed Beg and Ismael Beg

As the Dutch had been imposing blockade on Phuket, King Narai was informed about prospective Dutch invasion and conquest of Phuket. King Narai then removed Okphra Phetkhiri the anti-Dutch governor of Phuket from his position in mid-1676, under suggestion of Okphra Si Naowarat Aqa Muhammad Astarabadi, a Shiite Persian influential figure in Siamese royal court of King Narai and installed Muslim Indian Chulia brothers, Mohammed Beg and Ismael Beg, as governors of Thalang and Bangkhli, respectively. According to Bowrey, King Narai wanted austere men who would be fitter to govern the island. These two governors soon alienated local officials and populace by installing a hundred of their own fellow Muslim Indian traders to positions of influence and taking control of the tin export there. Thomas Bowrey, visiting Phuket again in 1677, was well-entertained by Mohammed Beg the governor of Phuket. However, Bowrey also noticed that the local Siamese and Malay people were dissatisfied with forced labor and tyranny under the new governor. The previously-existing local Siamese elite were upset that their positions and power were replaced by the Chulias. Furthermore, Mohammed Beg and Ismael Beg attempted to divert all tin export to Mergui, where South Indian merchants had been frequenting, shipping tin to Indian and Persian destinations.

Mohammed Beg and Ismael Beg did not establish a long-lasting control over the area. Shortly after the political downfall and execution of Okphra Si Naowarat Aqa Muhammad in 1678, Siamese and Malay people of Phuket jointly rose up to murder the two brothers Mohammed Beg and Ismael Beg, along with other seventy Moorish and Chulia men in Phuket in 1679. This incident put Phuket into the state of anarchy as Thomas Bowrey himself had to flee to Kedah for a time being.

Kedah–Siam conflicts

In 1619, Kedah was attacked and conquered by Aceh sultanate, with the Kedah sultan carried off as prisoner to Aceh. Kedah then sought protection under Ayutthaya. By the mid-seventeenth century, the Malay sultanates of Kedah, Singgora and Pattani had been sending bunga mas tributes to Ayutthaya as tributary states. King Prasat Thong repeatedly demanded personal presence of the Kedah sultan in Ayutthaya, which Sultan Rijaluddin Muhammad Shah avoided by feigning illness in 1645. King Prasat Thong responded by sending his own portrait engraved on a golden to the Kedah sultan with instructions on how to worship the image of the Siamese king. In 1646, all of the three Malay states of Kedah, Singgora and Pattani collectively ceased sending tributes to Ayutthaya in defiance, with Singgora attacking Phatthalung and Trang, initiating the Malay–Siamese War of 1646–1650. King Prasat Thong of Ayutthaya sent Siamese armies of 15,000 men from Ayutthaya and 7,000 men from Ligor to subjugate the Malay rebellious polities in the south but failed. Ayutthaya asked the Dutch to attack Kedah. The Dutch attacked Kedah in 1648, prompting Sultan Rijaluddin Muhammad Shah of Kedah to send bunga mas tribute to Ayutthaya in 1648 but the Dutch continued to impose naval blockade on Kedah during 1648–1652. In 1649, Singgora and Pattani retaliated, attacking up north and capturing the Nakhon Si Thammarat or Ligor city itself, the center of Ayutthayan administrative power in the south. King Prasat Thong sent 25,000 Siamese men with 20 Dutch ships to counter the Malay attacks. By 1650, Singgora agreed to peace and resumed sending bunga mas tributes to Ayutthaya.

With ascension of Dziaddin Mukarram Shah I in 1662, the new Kedah sultan sent two envoys to Ayutthaya to present the bunga mas tribute to King Narai in 1662, also to ask for Siamese assistance against another Dutch blockade of Kedah but Siam did not provide any assistances. Kedah did not send more tributes to Ayutthaya in the next eight years. When Ayutthaya asked for tributes again, Kedah did not send, prompting King Narai to send Siamese fleets to attack Kedah in 1670 and 1673–1674 but was not successful. Kedah withstood the Siamese attack of twenty ships in 1674. The Dutch intervened on Siamese side, imposing naval blockade on Kedah in 1674. In 1677, King Narai sent a golden cap and a goodwill letter to Sultan Dziaddin Mukarram Shah in effort to win over Kedah through peace but, nevertheless, Kedah, Singgora and Pattani jointly ceased sending tributes to Siam altogether in the same year, with Kedahan forces attacking Thalang and Bangkhli, leading to the Malay–Siamese War of 1678–1680. King Narai sent Siamese armies to the Malay south in 1678 to subjugate the rebellious Malay polities. Siamese conquest and destruction of Singgora in 1680 put the end to much of Malay resistance against Siamese power in Southern Siam.

When Sultan Dziaddin Mukarram Shah refused to send tributes to Ayutthaya again in 1681 upon Siamese request, King Narai ordered the governor of Thalang or Phuket to bring naval forces to attack Kedah.

French activities in Phuket

Arrival of the French

For four decades, since the 1640s, the Dutch had been dominating tin export and commercial activities on the Andaman Coast and the Malay archipegalo. Siamese court had been relying on mutual trade benefits with the Dutch, who also assisted Siam in subjugating rebellious Malay tributary states of the south. However, Siam found the business practices of the Dutch – Dutch efforts to monopolize export of Siamese goods to themselves, acting as enforcing middlemen – increasingly demanding. Siamese king and Siamese court sought to circumvent Dutch commercial dominance in order to seek for more potential benefits. Dutch blockade of Ayutthaya in 1663–1664 left negative impression on King Narai and the Siamese court. Even though the Dutch–Siamese Treaty of 1664 restored Dutch–Siamese relations to friendly terms, goodwill was only on the surface. When other European nations stepped in, Siam was more than eager to embrace the newcomers to counter Dutch influence.

Franco–Siamese relations began with arrival of French missionaries of Paris Foreign Missions Society in Ayutthaya during the 1660s. In 1680, French East India Company sent a diplomatic ship led by André Deslandes-Boureau, who was the future son-in-law of the Governor-General of French Pondicherry François Martin, on the ship Vautour to Ayutthaya, becoming the first official diplomatic contact between Ayutthaya and France. In the same year, in 1680, a French trading ship acquired a full load of tin from Phuket. In 1682, King Narai appointed a French medical missionary René Charbonneau of the Mission of St. Lazarus as the governor of Thalang with title Okphra Thalang. Charbonneau was a medical missionary, arriving in Siam in 1677, having been serving as a physician under the Siamese king Narai. Charboneau was reluctant to take Phuket governor position but was possibly under requirement of King Narai himself and Louis Laneau the Vicar Apostolic of Siam to take a political mission to reduce Dutch influence and expand French influence over Phuket. Free trade was allowed in Phuket as all incoming vessels were welcomed, disregarding Dutch influence and the previous Dutch tin export monopoly in Phuket.

Account of Nicolas Gervaise

Nicolas Gervaise, a French missionary from the Paris Foreign Mission, arrived in Ayutthaya in 1683, spending four years in Ayutthaya from 1683 to 1686. In 1688, Gervaise published The Natural and Political History of the Kingdom of Siam, which mentioned "Jonsalam" as situating on to the west of Malay Peninsula at about 8 degrees latitude. Gervaise commented that the seaport of Phuket had a large roadstead, serving as a toll to collect duties accommodating trading vessels but the seaport was not deep enough for large vessels to anchor. Phuket was crucial as a refuge for trading vessels travelling from Coromandel Coast to Malay archipelago seeking shelter from storms in July and August. Gervaise also said that Junkceylon (Phuket) was of great importance in trade with Bengal, Pegu and other kingdoms. Gervaise related that the Dutch had been setting eyes on Junkceylon because the island had an abundance of tin, also some gold and ambergris but the French governor of Phuket René Charbonneau, appointed by the Siamese king Narai, would not allow the Dutch to enter Phuket.

Franco–Siamese Treaties of 1685 and 1687

King Narai sent the first Siamese embassy to France in 1681, boarding on Soleil d’Orient but the ship wrecked off the coast of Madagascar at the end of the year. King Narai tried again by sending another Siamese mission in 1684, which successfully reached Paris, having an audience with King Louis XIV of France. King Louis XIV reciprocated by sending French diplomatic mission led by Chevalier de Chaumont, accompanied by Abbé de Choisy, to Ayutthaya in 1685, leading to conclusion of the Franco–Siamese Treaty of 1685, which granted tin export monopoly in Phuket to France. René Charbonneau the governor of Thalang, who had been desiring to return to Ayutthaya, was recalled in 1685 as King Narai appointed Sieur de Billy, the former maître d'hôtel of De Chaumont, as the new governor of Thalang-Phuket and Jean Rival, a Provençal French man, as governor of Takua Pa and Bangkhli. Abbé de Choisy mentioned "Joncelang" as a Siamese seaport on the west coast of Malay peninsula, being abundant in tin and ambergris, while Chevalier de Chaumont mentioned "Josalam" of Junkceylon as one of eleven provinces of Siam, in similar manner to the 1662 account of Jacques de Bourges but the list of eleven provinces was different. De Chaumont observed that the tin from Junkceylon was shipped in King Narai's royal junks to China, Coromandel Coast and Surat.

After the Franco–Siamese Treaty of 1685, King Narai sent a Siamese diplomatic mission under Kosa Pan to Paris in 1686 to ratify the treaty. King Louis XIV reciprocated by sending another French diplomatic mission under Simon de la Loubère and Claude Céberet du Boullay in 1687, with General Desfarges commanding French military forces accompanying the mission, leading to conclusion of the Franco–Siamese Treaty of 1687, which confirmed French tin export monopoly from Phuket, also allowing the French to station their military troops in Bangkok and Mergui under the commands of General Desfarges.

Simon de la Loubère returned to France with the last Siamese mission to France under Okkhun Chamnan in January 1688. Three years later, in 1691, La Loubère published Du royaume de Siam, which provided a detailed description of "Jonsalam". La Loubère related that Junkceylon was abundant in tin and, due to remoteness, the King of Siam allow local Junkceylon inhabitants to privately mine the tin in their own businesses, in accordance with their "ancient rights", paying amounts of tax to the king in return, unlike most of Siam, where the tin belonged solely to the Siamese king and could only be sold under the name of the king, a royal monopoly. Junkceylon or Phuket was the place where common people could pursue tin mining industry for their own benefits.

French expedition to Phuket (1689)

The Franco–Siamese Treaty of 1687 allowed the French to station their troops at strategic cities of Bangkok and Mergui. When King Narai was on his deathbed in June 1688, seeing the French as threats, the anti-French faction led by Okphra Phetracha staged a coup (Siamese Revolution of 1688), overthrowing King Narai's regime and his dynasty altogether. Okphra Phetracha made himself the new king of Siam, establishing the Ban Phlu Luang dynasty that would rule Siam until the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767. General Desfarges the French supreme military commander in Siam, stationing at Bangkok, failed to respond in time to this seizure of power. Phetracha sent Siamese forces to lay siege on the French-held Bangkok fort as French personnel and missionaries, including Sieur de Billy the governor of Thalang and Jean Rival the governor of Takuapa, were kept as prisoners, their eventual fates unknown. René Charbonneau the former governor of Junkceylon, however, was treated with respect as Charbonneau had earlier resigned from the French mission, acting as an independent, non-aligned French man. Phetracha even asked the Dutch to shelter Charbonneau for fear that some Siamese men might unintentionally hurt Charbonneau.

After five-month-long siege, Phetracha reached an agreement with Desfarges in November 1688, allowing Desfarges to peacefully evacuate his French troops out of from Siam. The French and the Siamese exchanged hostages to enforce agreement terms. Leaving Siam with three Siamese noblemen hostages in November 1688, Desfarges and his French crew crossed the Indian Ocean and reached Pondicherry in January 1689. A council of civil and military authorities was held at Pondicherry, which was then under François Martin the Governor-General of French Pondicherry. The French decided to seize Phuket as the leverage against the new regime of Phetracha. Desfarges led his remaining French forces of 330 men to sail from Pondicherry, again crossing the Indian Ocean, arriving in Phuket in April 1689. Desfarges anchored at the harbor, still holding three Siamese hostages, sending a letter to Kosa Pan the Phrakhlang or the Siamese Minister of Trade and Foreign Affairs, laying out his conditions, calling for repatriation of remaining French captives in Siam and return of French properties. This conditions fell on deaf ears of the new Siamese king Phetracha, who ignored Desfarges' pleas and instead ordered Siamese authorities in Phuket not to provide any provisions or water to Desfarges, pressuring the French to leave Phuket.

Desfarges and the French did not occupy the whole Phuket island but rather stayed at the harbor, waiting for responses from Ayutthaya. In August 1689, Desfarges sent one of the Siamese hostages to bring his letter to Kosa Pan the Phrakhlang, calling for the new King Phetracha of Ayutthaya to send Siamese envoys to Junkceylon to negotiate and conclude a new treaty. Véret the head of former French factory in Ayutthaya also entrusted his letter to the hostage to Ayutthaya, calling for Siam to cede Junkceylon island to French East India Company. Phetracha apparently did not care about any of these French demands, saying that French Christian hostages would be released only when Desfarges release the two remaining Siamese noblemen hostages. After seven months of unfruitful expedition to Phuket, Desfarges decided to abandon his plan to procure agreements from the new Siamese regime, leaving Junkceylon or Phuket in November 1689 empty-handed, along with the French crew, releasing the remaining Siamese hostages.

Early 18th century

Reign of Phetracha

After the expulsion of the French from Siam in 1688, the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom under the new Ban Phlu Luang dynasty found itself in relative isolation from the Western world in contrast to the rising Siamese tributary trade with Qing China in the Chinese Century. Westerners became less interested in Phuket, which was a major source of tin. With lessening contact with the West, Siam found fewer opportunities to put Phuket island on the bargaining table. With reduced visit of Westerners, records about Phuket in the early eighteenth century fell relatively silent. The rising Chinese traders in Siam were active on the Siamese ports on the Gulf of Siam coast including Nakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor), Songkhla and Pattani but not on the Andaman Coast.

After expulsion of the French from Siam in 1688, the anti-French new king Phetracha confirmed treaty terms with the Dutch East India Company in November 1688, confirming Dutch monopoly over tin export from Ligor but not mentioning Phuket. Phetracha seemed to initially favor the Dutch but the Dutch soon fell out of his favor. Phetracha did not fervently engage in diplomatic relations with the Dutch like his predecessors of the previous dynasty had done. The blatantly-attempted French diplomatic mission under Guy Tachard to Ayutthaya in 1699 also did not win any concessions from Siam. Siam simply became disinterested in diplomatic and commercial relations with Westerners. Meanwhile, Chinese traders were gaining influence in Siamese court. With tragic death of Kosa Pan the Phrakhlang Minister of Trade at the hands of King Phetracha in 1699, a Chinese man was appointed to the position of Phrakhlang for the first time in 1700 to replace Kosa Pan.

Previously, Ayutthayan government had been relying on Nakhon Si Thammarat or Ligor the Mueang Ek or First-level city, chief city of Southern Siam, to control this Southern Siamese region, including Phuket. In his reign, King Phetracha of Ayutthaya grappled with internal rebellions and dissidents, who questioned his legitimacy in usurpation of the Ayutthayan throne in 1688. In 1700, Phraya Ramdecho the governor of Ligor, appointed by King Narai, had not submitted to Phetracha and rebelled. Phetracha had to send a force of 15,000 men from Ayutthaya to successfully subjugate this Ligor rebellion with great effort. King Phetracha died in 1703, succeeded by his son Phra Chao Suea. Another governor of Ligor, appointed by Phetracha, did not accept Phra Chao Suea as his new king and rebelled in 1704 but was suppressed a year later in 1705. After his short reign, King Phra Chao Suea died in 1709, succeeded by his son King Thaisa.

With frequent regional rebellions, the Ban Phlu Luang dynasty was unwilling to allow the provincial governors to retain unnecessary powers. The Ligor governorship was, therefore, stripped of much of its powers in Southern Siam to "clip its wings" as its satellite cities including Phatthalung and Songkhla reported directly to Ayutthaya. The whole southern region was put under supervision of the Samuha Kalahom or Prime Minister of the South of the Kalahom department, extending central government powers to the periphery.

Rising Chinese commercial dominance

In the reign of King Thaisa, Chinese merchants and traders gained influence in Siamese government and economy as Chaophraya Phrakhlang Chin, the Phrakhlang Minister of Trade of Chinese ethnicity, took power in Siamese court. The Chinese overtook the Dutch as the main investors for the tin mining industry in Southern Siam. In the early eighteenth century, the Chinese began to settle in Phuket as tin miners. In 1716, a Chinese entrepreneur, assigned with a Siamese noble title, was supervising tin mining near Songkhla. The main Chinese tin mining entrepôt, however, was not in Siam but rather at Bangka Island offshore Sumatra.

In 1718, Alexander Hamilton the commander of Bombay Marine, on his journey to Ayutthaya, visited "Jonceyloan" or Junkceylon or Phuket. Hamilton narrated that Junkceylon was a part of the Siamese kingdom (it lies in the dominions of the king of Siam). Hamilton mentioned two different ports on Phuket, each for a different monsoon season. A port situating between Phuket island and the mainland was suitable during the season of southwestern monsoon, whereas the "Puton Bay" (Patong Bay) was the safe harbor for the northeastern monsoon season. Hamilton related that Junkceylon was abundant in tin but there were few people to dig it, possibly due to depopulation. Most importantly, Hamilton mentioned that the governor of Junkceylon and the elites were mostly Chinese (and the governors being generally Chinese), who bought their position from the Siamese government and, in turn, oppressed local people for their benefits.

In spite of the decline of tin trade in Phuket in the early eighteenth century, the economy was still thriving to some extent. Phuket was mentioned as one of the principal Asian Indian Ocean ports trading with the British Fort St. George or Madras of the Coromandel Coast. They were Pegu, Mergui, Kedah and Ujong Salang (Phuket). Hamilton said that the local Phuket inhabitants engaged in low-scale trade with the Coromandel Coast and Bengal. Trans-Indian Ocean trade of the mid-seventeenth century between Phuket and Coromandel Coast seemed to survive into the early eighteenth century, albeit in a reduced state. Phuket was, unfortunately, not a part of the growing Sino-Siamese tributary trade and, therefore, suffered decline in the early eighteenth century.

Northumberland Incident (1756)

Northumberland, a British sloop carrying tin from Kedah and Selangor to return to Madras, anchored at Phuket in April 1756. Its captain, John Mackmath, went ashore to visit the Siamese governor of Junkceylon or Phuket. During this visit, eight Malay men from Phuket and Langkawi, led by a certain Capitan China, a Chinese person, attacked and plundered the Northumberland ship for its tin cargo. The eight Malay men were able to kill six British crew and the remaining twenty-one British men were captured. The Capitan China, who was the ringleader of this robbery and the principal servant of the Siamese governor of Phuket according to Mackmath, personally stabbed the British chief mate of Northumberland to death. Fearing for his life, Mackmath had to hide on the Phuket island for ten days before he was able to get on another British sloop to leave Phuket.

Two months after the incident, around June or July 1756, Raja Pookolo the Kedahan governor of Langkawi arrived in Phuket to bring the Northumberland ship, along with the eight Malay men, who had earlier attacked the ship and the surviving twenty-one British crew of Northumberland to Langkawi. The Northumberland ship ended up being sank at Kuala Kedah and its cargo being given to the Sultan of Kedah. In August 1756, William Ormston, another British merchant, arrived in Phuket to ask the governor of Phuket to pay the debt. The Phuket governor told Ormston that the earlier incident of plunder Northumberland was perpetrated by the Malays outside of his jurisdiction.

Seeking revenge for his lost crew members and his lost cargo, John Macmath pressured George Pigot the British president of Madras to retaliate against Siam. Pigot called this incident the "Malay Treachery in Junk Ceylon". In early 1757, the Madras presidency sent letters to the Siamese royal court of Ayutthaya, urging the Siamese government to restitute to Mackmath or else the British would seize Siamese ships in the Andaman Sea. Pigot, however, soon realized that the Siamese central government was oblivious to the events in Junkceylon. The Siamese court was apparently not informed about the incidents happening in the faraway Phuket at the frontiers. King Borommakot of Ayutthaya reportedly took action by sending guards to arrest the ringleader of this robbery (presumably the Capitan China the principal servant of the Phuket governor) to Ayutthaya but the ringleader stabbed himself to death in the act of suicide before reaching Ayutthaya.

In 1758, the British learned that the Capitan China had owed debts to the Sultan of Kedah and this Chinese headman robbed British cargo ship in order to repay his debts to the Kedah Sultan. In 1759, the Madras presidency warned British ships not to visit any Siamese or Kedahan ports. The British also learned that the Northumberland ship and its cargo might somehow ended up in Kedah. John Mackmath asked Kedah to return his ship and his cargo. Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin of Kedah replied that Junkceylon was not under his jurisdiction, being under Siamese jurisdiction but if the ship had ventured out elsewhere he would try his best to search for it. This reply caused Mackmath to believe that the Kedah Sultan, in some way, was involved in this incident and urged Madras authorities to take strong actions. George Pigot the president of Madras ordered the seizure of Kedahan merchant ship in Madras in July 1759. The Sultan of Kedah made a public declaration in 1760 that he had taken no parts in this Northumberland incident and criticized Mackmath for not being able to protect his cargo ship and his crew against just eight Malay men.

This robbery of Northumberland ship belonging to John Mackmath at Phuket in 1756 seemed to be a conspiracy among local Siamese and Kedahan Malays to seize British goods. Pierre Brigot the French Vicar Apostolic of Siam at Ayutthaya wrote in 1762 that local Siamese officials in Phuket, being far from the government of Ayutthaya, not under knowledge of the Siamese king, resorted themselves to piracy, preying on the commuting British cargo ships.

Rule of the Clan of Lady Chan

Origin of Lady Chan's family

According to a native Thai writing dated to 1841, in around mid-eighteenth century, during the last decades of Ayutthaya Kingdom, there were two chiefs on the Phuket island:

• Chom Rang, who resided at Ban Takhian. He was the official governor of Thalang or Chalang.
• Chom Thao, who resided at Ban Don.

"Chom" is a Southern Thai honorific for a respectable man. Chom Rang and Chom Thao were said to be half-brothers, born from the same father but different mothers. Ban Takhian and Ban Don were two separate settlements on the Phuket Island.

Chom Rang married a Kedahan Malay woman immigrating from Kedah named Masia and, with her, Chom Rang had two sons and three daughters, including his daughters Chan and Mook. Lady Chan was said to be born around 1735. Upon growing up, Chan married Muen Si Phakdi, a Southern Thai nobleman. Muen Si Phakdi was a son of Chom Naikong, a Southern Thai official from Nakhon Si Thammarat or Ligor. With Muen Si Phakdi, Chan had a daughter named Prang and a son named Thian. Muen Si Phakdi, first husband of Lady Chan, soon died in an unspecified year. Chan remarried. She married Phra Phimon the governor of Kraburi.

In mid-eighteenth century, Phuket became embroiled in the political conflicts between two branches of the family at Ban Takhian and Ban Don. After the deaths of Chom Rang and Chom Thao, Aat, a son of Chom Rang and a brother of Chan and Mook, became the new governor of Phuket. However, Aat was soon assassinated, shot dead. Phuket then entered the state of upheaval. Phra Phimon, second husband of Chan, was transferred to become the governor of Phatthalung but Chan remained in Phuket.

Thonburi Period

Burmese Hmannan Yazawin chronicles stated that the Burmese forces attacked Southern Siamese cities in 1765 including the town of "Salin", probably referring to Chalang or Thalang. Phraya Ratchasuphawadi the governor of Ligor was called to bring Southern Siamese forces to fend off the invading Burmese forces at Ratchaburi, leaving Phra Palat Nu the deputy governor in charge in Ligor. However, the Ligor governor did not return and Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese in April 1767. Phra Palat Nu, in absence of a controlling central authority, declared himself the leader of the new Southern Siamese independent regime, one of many regional regimes breaking away after the catastrophic Fall of Ayutthaya. Phra Palat Nu became Chao Nakhon or the Lord of Ligor. His regime extended over Nakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor), Phatthalung and Songkhla. Phra Phimon, Chan's husband, was then the governor of Phatthalung. Two years later, in August 1769, the new King Taksin of Thonburi bring Central Siamese forces to the south to subjugate the Southern Siamese regime of Nakhon Nu. Uparaj Chan, deputy of Nakhon Nu, led the Ligorians to fight the Central Siamese but was defeated. Governors of Ligor, Phatthalung and Songkhla fled to take refuge in Pattani under Sultan Mohammad. Chaophraya Chakri Mud, commander under Taksin, secured the surrender and release of the three fugitive governors from Pattani to Taksin. Phra Phimon the governor of Phatthalung, husband of Lady Chan, was later made the governor of Thalang by King Taksin. Thongphun, son of Chom Thao and half-cousin of Lady Chan, was made deputy governor of Thalang on the same occasion.

It was in the tenure of Phra Phimon as the governor of Thalang that Francis Light first arrived in Phuket in 1772. Francis Light arrived to settle in Phuket in 1772 and soon became a friend to Lady Chan's family. Despite being held captive at Thonburi for six years, Nakhon Nu the former Lord of Ligor was restored as the "King of Ligor" and overlord of Southern Siam under King Taksin in 1776. After 1776, King Taksin sent Chaophraya Inthawongsa to be the superintendent of Siamese tin-producing Andaman coastal region of the Malay peninsula including Phuket in order to procure tin for the Royal Warehouse to trade. Inthawongsa headquartered at Pak Phra in modern Takua Thung district, opposite of Phuket on the mainland.

Johann Gerhard König, a Danish botanist, set sail from Tranquebar to visit Siam under the Thonburi Kingdom in late 1778. On his return journey to India, König spent many months in Phuket in 1779 observing plants and flora. König arrived at Tharuea or the port of Phuket on the eastern side of the island in March 1779 on the ship Bristol commanded by Captain Francis Light himself. During his stay in Phuket, König also visited nearby small islands and mentioned many places including Tarmah (Tharuea), Pullo Penjang or Pullo Salang (Koh Yao Yai), Pullo Salang Minor (Koh Yao Noi), Lem Nga (Laem Nga), Kopran (Koh Maphrao) and Pullo Jamu (Laem Yamu). König stayed in Phuket for four months until his departure in July 1779.

In April 1782, King Taksin was removed from power and executed, ending the Thonburi regime. The new Bangkok-based Rattanakosin Kingdom was founded under the new king Rama I of the Chakri dynasty. The new Bangkok regime was yet to pacify Southern Siam as there were Thonburi loyalists; Nakhon Nu the King of Ligor and Chaophraya Inthawongsa the superintendent of the Andaman Coast, both of them appointed by Taksin. King Rama I repeatedly called for Nakhon Nu to report himself at Bangkok to demonstrate loyalty but Nakhon Nu refused to comply. Eventually, the Bangkok regime gained control over Southern Siam by sacking Nakhon Nu from his position in 1784, replacing Nakhon Nu with his own son-in-law Phat as the new governor of Ligor. Bangkok court then sent Phraya Thammatrailok to the Andaman Coast as the governor of Takuapa in 1784, leading to a battle between Chaophraya Inthawongsa the old lord and Phraya Thammatrailok the new lord. Inthawongsa was defeated, committing suicide as Thammatrailok replaced him as the royal intendant of the Andaman Coast.

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