Two years after the 1685 French embassy to Siam led by Chaumont and Choisy, King Louis XIV sent a second embassy to Phra Narai led by the two envoys La Loubere and Ceberet, and a third unofficial emissary, Father Tachard, who was working behind the scenes and often against his colleagues. Accompanying them were expeditionary troops to be installed in Bangkok and Mergui once a Franco-Siamese treaty could be negotiated. This volume conveniently presents, in English translation, three important accounts of that second French embassy to Siam in 1687: Tachard?s Second Voyage, published in 1689; Ceberet?s Journal du voyage de Siam, published in 1992; and Tachard?s "Relation," an unpublished account of the tempestuous journey back to France. Beginning with a listing of the dramatis personae and a general introduction to set the stage, Michael Smithies introduces each of the three accounts in turn, providing background information about the authors and...