Chapter 6CROSSING THE KRA Samuel White stood straight and tall in his Harbor Master’s office in Mergui. When the river is high, he began, as it is now, our caravans cross the Kra leaving from here in Mergui.” He stopped
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Chapter 5bBeautiful Sceneries of Ayutthaya They passed through one quarter after another, quarters that were assigned to foreigners: Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Muslims and Moors and Europeans. The houses where these foreigners lived were brick, and well built. The streets were
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Chapter 5aAYUTTHAYA CALLING Eighteen days after departing Melaka, HMS Hopewell arrived at Ayutthaya. The last three days were painfully slow, waiting for the incoming tides to carry the trading square rigger upriver, mooring to kedging posts while the tides ebbed.
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CH04 SIAM AT LAST On the morning of the fourth day, the captives awoke to find the sea had calmed. Gerakis was certain they were nearing the mouth of the great river. He remembered hearing about a sandbar far out at
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Chapter 4MASTER OF THE SEAS It was the fair southeast monsoon winds that brought the East India Company merchant ship HMS Hopewell from Calicut across the Bay of Bengal toward Melaka. In the fading light of day a lone figure
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CH03 THE GREEK SAILOR, “CONSTANTINE GERAKIS” He lay in the sand, face down, and a voice came from far away. “Wake up,” it called. ‘Wake up.” Slowly he awoke like one does when coming out of a trance. It was a pleasant dream and he
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CH02 SURVIVED Things began to fall apart on the fifth day when a man died-a Dyak from Borneo. The passengers thought his death was a curse, and they were convinced of it when they learned, while burying him at sea,
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CH01 SHIPWRECKED The passengers and crew of Putra Siamang had seen little of the Greek on deck before the storm. It wasn’t until the ship began to break up under them that they saw him rushing around the deck attempting
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