The trip to Hue lasted about a month. During the trip the embassy had met a group of eleven Cambodians, five men and six women, in Binh-hoa. These people had been sent into exile in Vietnam by Truong Ming Giang. They were among the thousands of officials and inhabitants of Battambang province who followed or were carried off during Prince Im's flight to Phnom Penh in late 1 8 3 9 . ^ The envoys said that the men were dressed and had their hair cut like the Vietnamese, but the women still wore hair and costumes in the Cambodian s t y l e . ^ These men and women complained to the envoys about the hardship in eking out a living in Binh-hoa and the lack of Buddhist monks to perform religious ceremonies, and
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they expressed their desire to return to Cambodia. They also
38 Ibid, p.43. 39 Ibid, p .44.
40 See Chapter II, p.63.
41 Khamhaikan Ruang Thap Yuan nai Ratchakan thl III, p *45• 42 Ibid, p.45.
inquired about the purpose of the embassy’s trip and demanded that the envoys ask Duong on their behalf for their return.
Upon their arrival in Hue, the embassy was received by a high- ranking Vietnamese official of the Ministry of Rites or Le-bo. The envoys were questioned once more as to whether this tributary
mission had been approved by the Thai general, Bodin Decha, or not. The Vietnamese host also inquired about Duong’s and Bodin Decha's
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efforts to restore order and security in the country. J He then introduced the Cambodian envoys to Vietnamese ceremonial.
The next day, being the fifth day of the waxing moon of the fifth month, Thieu Tri received the Cambodian envoys in his palace where the latter performed the ’five salutations' or ngu-bai
44
according to the Vietnamese ceremonial. Then the Cambodian chief envoy handed over Duong’s letter with the copy of its translation in Vietnamese to the protocol officer who read it in
45
Vietnamese to the Emperor. During the ceremony, the envoys
noticed that the Emperor, dressed in yellow silk costume with yellow turban around his head, was neither fat nor thin and was of medium height. He sat on a desk, about half a metre high, covered with golden patterned cloth, and in front of him there was another table on which were burning incense sticks and candles. On each side of
46
the Emperor stood fifty colourfully dressed officials. In their report, the envoys also gave a detailed account of the palace and
43 Ibid, p.48.
44 Ibid, p.49; see also Nhu Vien, Vol.I, book 132, p.36 f. 45 Khamhaikan Ruang Thap Yuan nai Ratchakan thi III, p.49. 46. Ibid, p.49
its defense forces, including armaments, and the uniforms worn by the guards.4^
Five days later, the high-ranking Vietnamese official of the Ministry of Rites asked the envoys to come to see him to receive the
'orders' of the Vietnamese Emperor for King Duong. The ceremony on this occasion was as formal as during the imperial audience with Thieu Tri himself. The envoys had to salute the Vietnamese official or Ong Le-bo who acted as the imperial representative, in kneeling position and then to bow five times (ngu bai) to the 'imperial orders' which were in the form of a letter. When the salutation ceremony was over, Ong Le-bo read the ’orders' in Vietnamese which the interpreter translated it into Cambodian. The letter said:
The emperor has had mercy on King Duong and allows him to reign over Cambodia, just the same way his ancestors, father and brother did, [in order] to prevent the disappearance of the Cambodian dynasty. The queen [Mei] will also be allowed to remain as such at Duong’s side so that they can protect together the territory of Cambodia.4^
The embassy stayed about ten days in Hue and then returned 49
home by boat, escorted by a hundred Vietnamese troops. Mid-way to Saigon, in the province of Quang-nam, the envoys met another group of Cambodians who had been sent into exile in Vietnam at the same time as the previous one. The return trip from Hue to Saigon took twenty-eight days. From Saigon, the party sailed for eight days more to reach Phnom Penh. Here it stayed for another day during which time all the boxes containing presents from Thieu Tri for the members of the party, except those for Duong and Mei, were
47 Ibid, p.50. 48 Ibid, p .50 f. 49 Ibid, p.54.
opened by the Vietnamese and distributed to each person according to the list.^^ The embassy left Phnom Penh on the following day,
escorted as usual by Vietnamese troops, and reached Kampong Luong at dusk of the same day, the third day of the waxing moon of the sixth month, being the second day of May 1847.
During their long journey to and from Hue, and while in the Vietnamese capital, the envoys and members of the embassy were very well treated and cared for by their h o s t s . O n l y twenty days after the embassy had returned from Hue, the ambassador and his son were summoned by Rama III to Bangkok.
The Vietnamese were obviously satisfied with the approach that ✓
Duong and Bodin Decha had made; the imperial court of Hue was willing now to co-operate and accept sharing its suzerainty right over the Court of Cambodia with Bangkok as it used to in the years before the 1810’s. As far as the vassal Court was concerned, Duong had to send, as before, a tributary embassy once every three years
to An-giang (Chaudoc) only, with the same quantity of the same products as of old, in the first days of the second month, so that the tribute could reach Hue in the early days of the fourth
month.
50 Ibid, p.55; for details of gifts from Thieu Tri for Duong and all members of the embasssy, see Khamhaikan, p.53 and Nhu Vien, Vol.I, book 133, p.214 ff. Thieu Tri also sent presents to Queen Mei under house arrest in Phnom Penh. Presents for Duong and Mei consisted mainly of brocaded satin, coloured fabrics, clothes; while for the envoys and their staff, these included money and fabrics as well.
51 Khamhaikan, p.36 ff; see also Nhu Vien, Vol.II, book 135, pp.178 ff and p.208 f.
52 Nhu Vien, Vol.II, book 134, p.78 f; Thiphakarawong, PRP III, Vol.II, p .120; Kulap, Vol.II, p.1097.
The satisfaction of the Vietnamese about the arrangement in Cambodia was illustrated by the fact that Thieu Tri had already ordered his troops in Phnom Penh to prepare to withdraw when the
/
embassy arrived in Hue. When the envoys spent a day in Phnom Penh on their return journey in order to receive their share of presents from the Vietnamese Emperor, they had noticed that the Vietnamese of the Phnom Penh garrison had already tied up their rafts, five to six to a unit, and they were told that the Vietnamese troops would
53