Bombay Anna: The Real Story and Remarkable Adventures of the King and I Governess

7. A Teacher and a King

Mrs. Leonowens and her son, Louis, age five and a half, arrived in Bangkok in March 1862. Anna was thirty years old. The daughter she left behind with Mr. Cobb was seven and a half, considered old enough in those times to be sent from her family to board at school. But Anna kept Louis with her, perhaps because she could not afford to, or bear to, lose both children, and certainly because Louis was too young for boarding school anyway. He was not yet six, usually the youngest age at which British families would consider sending their children away, the youngest age at which a school would take them. The little steamer Chow Phya, named after the river running through Bangkok, could not go up the river to the city. It stopped near the mouth of the Chow Phya (often misnamed by foreigners as the Menam, or Meinam, actually the Thai word for river), “at the bar,” a large shoal about ten miles from the city. This shoal was a most effective barrier for keeping unwanted strangers out of Bangkok. Large ships could go no closer, and those arriving had to wait for small boats to come out to pick them up. The travelers said good-bye to Captain Orton. His descendants assured Margaret Landon that he had never made romantic advances to Mrs. Leonowens, though citing no information that would provide the grounds for their certainty. Her descendants were convinced that he had pursued Anna, her granddaughter claiming explicitly that after Anna got to America in 1868 she received a letter from Captain Orton proposing marriage for what was not the first but would be the last time. A few years after Anna arrived, the river was dredged to clear out the impediment of the sand bar. But the Siamese still appreciated the defensive charm of having some sort of blockade to protect Bangkok. For many years it was the custom to keep a heavy chain across the river, which would keep out unwanted foreigners but could also be moved to let in large trading ships. But in 1862, a 88 seven ATeacher and a King figure 3. Anna Leonowens in midlife. Margaret Landon Papers (SC-38), Special Collections, Wheaton College. little boat was sent out to convey Anna and Louis across the shoal and up the river to the dock. They were settled temporarily as guests of the prime minister while housing was arranged for them. On April 3, “Mrs. Leonowens, an English lady, commences services” as governess to the royal children of King Mongkut, Rama IV, of Siam (Bradley, Bangkok Calendar, 1863). The king’s wishes in his search for a schoolmistress had been explicit. He wanted someone to teach English to his children but not to try to convert them to Christianity. He had excellent reasons for that stipulation. In his first attempt to bring in teachers, he had hired three of the wives of American missionaries in Bangkok, at $1 per two hours (Feltus, 207). They came to the palace over the course of three years, supposedly to give lessons in English language. But they had shamelessly used the time to proselytize, teaching the children to recite Christian prayers and read Christian pamphlets. After Mr. Adamson and his wife recommended Mrs. Leonowens for schoolmistress, there was the traditional bargaining. Anna began by asking for $150 a month (in Singapore dollars, a great deal of money) and residence among the missionary community and then accepted less. The king wrote Adamson that “now we have learnt that the said lady agree to receive only salary of $100 per month and accept to live in this palace or nearest place thereof [for the practical reason, “to save us the trouble of conveying such the lady to and fro almost every day”], I am very glad to have her be our School Mistress if the said information be true” (LC, VI C, 4:6, 14). There was some delay in finding a house. King Mongkut had two important reasons for wishing his new schoolmistress to live in or near the palace. First, there was the completely practical point that Bangkok was a city of canals, called klongs. There were no roads. Virtually the whole city was built on water. As Mrs. Charles Hillier pointed out about this wonderful city in 1856, “floating houses line either side of the river for five miles, and they line, also...