OLEH: Izmal Karim
Deskripsi :
Penemuan menarik beberapa pucuk Warkah Melayu dari Pegu, Siam, Kedah, Johore, Combodia dan Manilla di Negara Denmark di rantau Scandinavian, Eropah. Kesemua warkah ini saling berkaitan antara satu sama lain kerana ianya di utuskan dalam pelbagai versi bahasa samada Siam, Melayu, Tamil ataupun Portugis kepada Gabenor John Brown (Berbangsa Scottish) Kompeni Denmark di Tranquebar, pantai Coromodel benua India.
In the Danish National Archives a considerable number of documents are preserved from the files of the (Danish) Asiatic Company and from the Government of Tranquebar. The Asiatic Co. file no. 2188b has the title: Docwnents with reference to Pegu, Siam, Kedah, Johore, Cambodia, and Ma.nila, 1682-1776. Only one letter in this package is written in Siamese. It is dated 7 December 1776, and is accompanied by a Portuguese translation or perhaps, more precisely, a Portuguese version of the letter under the same seal as the original, that of the Siamese King's 'Primeiro Ministro' (/phra? khlan/ in Siamese). The recipient is the Danish governor of Tranquebar, (David) Brown. On an accompanying sheet is added information that the letters have been extracted from a bamboo tube.
The letter was registered by Henning Engelhart in 1780 together with other documents concerning Tranquebar and the following resume of its contents was given (here translated from Danish): 'A letter in the Siamese language, from the King of Siam or his Prime Minister, to Governor Brown, containing requisitions of ammunition, inviting to trade with Siam, and promising assistance.'
Selain itu penemuan yang menarik, penggunaan Cap Mohor Phra Klang di era Raja Taksin ( 1776) masih kekal di gunakan oleh Kementerian Luar Negara Thailand sehingga kini.
Warkah ini sebenarnya salinan pendua ataupun versi bahasa Portugis sebagaimana warkah Phra Klang (Siam) kepada Gabenor Kompeni Denmark, Tranquebar bertarikh Dis 1776 dalam bahasa Siam klasik.
1973 Transliterasi dari bahasa Portugis kepada bahasa Inggeris oleh pihak Arkib Negara Denmark dengan kerjasama Soren Egerod dengan Palle Kroman M.A. dan Luis de Vasconcelos.
Translation of the Portuguese version
Most excellent Sir
Hoping for your kind acknowledgement, I ask your Excellency to receive these lines of mine with some favour, while at the same time I express the wish that you may enjoy a prosperous and joyous health with much success and plenty of happiness increasing day by day in your noble state and felicitous government.
During this present monsoon the Captain Mr. Leit arrived in this Kingdom of Siam and paid obeisance to His Majesty, [reporting] that he, the said captain, had bought one thousand flintlocks in Tranquebar, and he delivered them to His Majesty, and His Majesty was rather satisfied with the said flintlocks: now His Majesty has issued an order to me, His Majesty's Prime Minister, to write this letter to Your Excellency, asking you to favour the said Captain Mr. Leit in Tranquebar, so that he with His Majesty's express order shall procure further 10,000 flintlocks in Tranquebar:
I ask Your Excellency, for the sake of good friendship, that Captain Leit through your authority acquires the said 10,000 flintlocks, and if Your Excellency wants tin, send a ship of yours to Junk-Ceylon to receive tin from the hands of Captain Mr. Leit, who in exchange for six flintlocks will deliver one load of tin, and if you wish ivory, eagle-wood and other merchandise from this Kingdom of Siam, Captain Mr. Leit is acquainted with them and knows the price of the said merchandise, and Your Excellency should order the transfer of the flintlocks on your boat to this Kingdom of Siam, and when they arrive the accounts for the said flintlocks will be settled without any difficulty; and if it pleases your Excellency to send a ship to this Kingdom of Siam, [as regards] the price of linens, firearms, etc., Captain Mr. Leit knows already the price of the said cloth, firearms, etc. And as the said Captain Mr. Leit also knows the price of ivory, and other further merchandise of this Kingdom of Siam, Your Excellency can direct a ship to trade in this Kingdom, and we, Minister to His Majesty of Siam, [will] assist and facilitate the said dealings, and give satisfaction punctually. -- And since, for the time being, there are no more items of business at hand, we shall continue to esteem highly a long life for Your Excellency, good health and greatest progress in possessions and happiness, such as with due respect we wish for you that it may always be.
Your Excellency's
Devotedly we endorse with our seal Siam, the seventh of December, 1776.
Notes to the translation
l.3. 'plenty of'. This translation is based on a reading auges 'apogee', for [a?]Jges, suggested to me by Luis de Vasconcelos.
l.6. 'obeisance'. Translates sombaya, probably from Malay sembah or sembahyang.
l.12. 'friendship'. From the Portuguese version of the letter one could gain the impression that the Minister and the Governor were well acquainted. The Siamese original says, however, expressly, 'His Majesty's friendship'.
l.13. 'tin'. The term is calaem, from Arabic.
l.14. 'Junk-Ceylon', i.e. Phuket, from Malay Ujong Salang. (See also Yule 1886:36l(b).)
l.15. 'load'. The Portuguese version uses bar, corresponding to the Siamese original /phara/, both from Skt. bhara.
'eagle-wood' translates Portuguese aguilla. (See also Yule 1886:258ab who traces the word to Malayalam.).
l.19. 'firearms' translates the Portuguese pecas 'pieces, firearms', here evidently referring to the flintlocks already mentioned.
l.24. 'long' translates muita. If we read melhora instead, the meaning will be 'best possible'.
'devotedly'. The Portuguese says todo affectuozo 'totally devoted'.
Rujukan :
1.Arkib Negara Denmark.
2.Geng Pengkaji Sejarah Thailand dari Bangkok & Songkhla, Thailand.
3.Pelajar Sarjana Malaysia dari Universiti di negara Denmark & Jerman.
[Legasi Pemikir - LEKIR]
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