In New York, on October 16, 1829, the day before embarking for England, Captain Abel Coffin received a letter from a brokerage house confirming a special investment he had just arranged to have made for him in Chang and Eng.
By now, Captain Coffin was fully aware of the value his charges commanded in the marketplace, and he was determined to protect his commodity, not only in life but in death. To do this, he had signed a note payable to Peter Remsen and Company for $613.78. Of this, $339.50 was for the purchase of "70 Sovereigns," the British gold coins calculated at $4.85 per sovereign, in order to have money on hand for immediate expenses once the twins landed in England. Of the remaining sum, $199.09 was for three insurance policies that Captain Coffin had taken out on the lives of the twins, and $75.19 was for materials to aid in the preservation of their bodies in the event of their deaths.
This letter read, in part: "Paid Premium of Insurance on $3333. p Ship Robert Edwards from New York to London with the privilege of landing in any part of the Coast of England—on the Bodies of the 'Double Siamese Boys' alive or dead. The assured warrant that in case of death on board the Ship the bodies shall be carried to the port of destination. The dangers for which the Insured are liable only excepted value at Ten Thousand Dollars—on one third of the valuation." The insurance policy of $10,000 on the twins was so high that three companies—American Insurance Company, Union Insurance Company, and Ocean Insurance Company—had joined together to underwrite the potential loss.
The letter also listed a sum of $63.68 owed by Captain Coffin for "1 Cask Molasses Rum 100 Galls," and a sum of $11.51 for twelve pounds—in three bottles and one box—of "Corrosive Sublimate." This odd cargo, like Coffin's stipulation in the policies that the twins' bodies should be carried to the ship's destination in case of their deaths on board, instead of being buried at sea, was one more contingency to preserve their corpses. Should the twins expire on shipboard, Coffin wanted the molasses rum and the corrosive sublimate handy to embalm their bodies. For Coffin knew that if the twins were an asset alive, they also had cash value in death, either by publicly displaying their united corpses or by selling the preserved remains to some eager medical college for autopsy purposes.
On October 17, 1829, Captain Coffin, insurance policies in order, his wife Susan, and James Hale, with Chang and Eng and their Siamese companion Teiu in tow, arrived by carriage at New York's Old Slip harbor, an area surrounded by the remnants of New Amsterdam, rundown Dutch houses, and the busy Franklin Market. With their baggage, the party ascended the gangplank to board the sailing ship Robert Edwards, commanded by Captain Samuel Sherburne. Hours later they were on their way to England.
The crossing to England took twenty-seven days.
The passage was neither a happy nor a comfortable one for Chang and Eng. While the Coffins and Hale had first-class cabins aboard the Robert Edwards, Chang and Eng found themselves traveling steerage. While the other members of their party were being served sumptuous meals in the ship's dining room, the twins existed day after day on a monotonous diet of salt beef and potatoes which they shared with the crew.
Upset and bewildered by this treatment, the twins complained bitterly to Coffin. He temporized, saying that the dining room was too crowded for them to eat with the other passengers.
As to their quarters, Coffin insisted that since he had purchased first-class tickets for them, Captain Sherburne was the culprit. The twins then sought out Captain Sherburne and protested their lot. The captain, puzzled but sympathetic, moved the twins to better quarters, but their new accommodations were still considerably inferior to those of the Coffins and Hale, and they resented it.
It was not until almost three years later, when they were on tour in Auburn, New York, and had finally become disenchanted with Coffin, that they had a surprise reunion with Captain Sherburne and the mystery of their bad treatment on the voyage to England was dispelled. In a bitter personal letter written to Captain William Davis, Jr., a seaman friend of Coffin's, Chang and Eng—writing as usual in the first person singular, as if both of them were one person—recalled vividly the misery of that 1829 crossing to England:
When Captn. Sherburne came into my room yesterday, he appeared very glad to see me, shook me cordially by the hand, & his manner was friendly in the extreme. I, of course, received his civilities in a becoming manner but still I could not but recollect how badly (as I was made to think) he treated me on that passage to England, & how different to what I had a right to expect. To you, it may be necessary to explain this—and I must therefore acquaint you, that on my passage with Captn. Sherburne in the Robert Edward to London I had frequent occasion to complain to Captain Coffin of having very rough food & being treated altogether in a different manner to that in which the rest of the cabin passengers were treated; to these statements Captn. C. replied to me that the reason I did not dine with the rest of the passengers & get the same food was that the table was too crowded—Captn. Coffin's words to us were "Oh! never mind, Chang Eng—the table is very crowded & we shall soon get to England" — Afterwards I asked Captn. Coffin the question—whether or not he had paid the full cabin passage for me? he told me that he had paid the same rate of passage as had been paid for the other cabin passengers. I confess it surprised me to learn that the full cabin passage had been paid for me & yet that I was set down day after day to eat salt beef and potatoes with the mate; at the same time that I saw the other cabin passengers feeding on fresh meat & other luxuries furnished in a packet ship, to all which I naturally imagined myself as much entitled as any of the other passengers—but I was a little surprised that Captn. C never mentioned the subject to Captn. S so as to have the matter set right. . . .
If Capt. Coffin had told me that he could not afford or even that he did not choose to pay more than the passage money paid for servants I might not have had any cause to complain but—"If Captn. Sherburne's statement be true" (& the truth is easily come at), then a most pitiful & contemptible piece of deception was played off on me—a deception the more contemptible, & the more pitiful from my being at that time ignorant of the English & unable to make any complaint except through the medium of the Siamese language. . . . This is the unfair manner in which I was allowed to abuse Captn. Sherburne on account of the meagre fare which he furnished to us for a fully cabin passage money!!!! Moreover Captn. Coffin invariably bore me out in what I said on this subject & he himself often said to those who asked me how I liked Captn S "Oh! Captn. Sherburne did not treat the boys well at all." Whereas under the circumstances Captn. Sherburne's conduct was most kind towards us & if it were not for his kindness I fear we should have been but badly off. . . .
Now, then, Captn. D—look how this matter stands—Capt C had realized a large sum by my exhibition in New York & Philadelphia, and yet we find that he screwed a hard bargain for our passage to England, in the steerage of the ship & having us under the denomination of his servants—all for the paltry savings of $100 and yet wishing to keep us in good temper & wishing moreover to make us believe that he spared no expence for our comfort, he tells us that the fault is Captn. Sherburne's and lays all the blame on him—whereas (according to Mr. Sherburne's statement) the reverse is the fact. . . .
Naturally a good deal surprised at the manner in which I was treated & it has ever since been a mystery to me but "It is a Mystery No Longer." Finding Captn. Sherburne treat me so civilly I thought I would ask him the question & accordingly asked him whether or not the full cabin passage had been paid for me . . . never did I see a man more surprised. He explained to me the whole affair & his story & Captn. Coffin's are so very different that a lie—a gross lie—lies between the two parties. However Captn Sherburne has given me a written memorandum concerning the affair of which we shall here insert a copy & also a copy of a letter written by Captn. Sherburne to John Griswold the Agent of the Robert Edward at New York which letter we shall deliver personally to Mr. Griswold as soon as we go to New York.
Chang and Eng enclosed a copy of both the memorandum and the letter from Captain Sherburne to Griswold. In these Sherburne stated that Coffin had paid a total of $450 to transport his entire party to England—$300 for himself, his wife, and Hale, plus an additional $150 for Chang, Eng, and their Siamese friend Teiu, "as servants at half price."
In his memorandum, Captain Sherburne had written:
Mr. Griswold told me & Captn. Coffin also told me that the boys would sleep anywhere in the steerage. And could make any shift—therefore when I put them in the cabin & to sleep in a state room & let them mess with the mate, I thought I had done a great deal more than the agreement entitled them to expect. Had I made the agreement, I would not have taken them less than others—all of which paid $130 to be found in wine, porter & liquors and $115 each without wine, porter & liquors with the exception of Genl. Murray who took his passage in. Cog. pretending not be able to pay more than $1oo and a woman passenger—Neither of which were to be found in liquors of any kind — Captn. Coffin never complained to me that he was dissatisfied; on the contrary I expected his gratitude yet he talked to others as I was afterwards told — This I am not astonished at on reflection as I have always remarked that all cheap passengers are always the most discontented and endeavour to make disturbances with the other passengers. . . . I can only say that I have carried a great many passengers & have never met any but what I made friends with except Captain Coffin and his accomplished Lady; and the ex-Genl. Murray this latter gentleman was put out because I would not include wine, liquors &etc I am not certain that they were entitled to them from the price he paid—I should think not.
Incidentally, in closing their letter written to Captain Davis in 1832, the twins signed it "Chang Eng, Siamese Twins." While Phineas T. Barnum has been given the credit for coining the term "The Siamese Twins" in 1853, it is evident here that Chang and Eng coined the name themselves twenty-one years earlier.
But in 1829, the twins did not understand why they had been confined in inferior quarters or why they had had to share sec-ond-rate food with a member of the crew during their twenty-seven-day passage to England. They knew only that for the first
time they were unhappy under the guardianship of Captain Cof-fin, and that—for the first time since they had left Siam—they were feeling exploited and demeaned.
But soon England was sighted, and the twins were to have other things on their minds. Before proceeding to London, the Robert Edwards docked at Dartmouth, in Devonshire, to disembark several passengers who lived in that area. This done, the ship sailed out of the harbor on November 13 and headed for Southampton. What normally would have been a short trip suddenly became a five-day nightmare. In the English Channel, the ship ran into terrible gales. Buffeted by heavy storms, the ship was able to make little progress—in fact it was forced to take shelter in small coves several times. Damage to the Robert Edwards was severe, including the loss of cables and anchors.
At last, on the foggy Thursday morning of November 19, the ship sluggishly reached the port of Southampton. Exhausted as they were, the twins found that their spirits revived when they were on land once more. With the others of their party, they entered a hired carriage for the trip to the North and South American Coffeehouse in London, nearly one hundred miles distant, where Coffin had rooms reserved.
Since their discoverer, Robert Hunter, had been delayed, he was not on hand to meet the twins when they arrived at their destination, but he had arranged for two correspondents from The News of London to be there to meet them.
According to the first correspondent:
These extraordinary and interesting youths are now at the North and South American Coffeehouse, where they arrived late on Thursday night from New York. As soon as their arrival was made known, the house was crowded with persons anxious to see them; but the boys being fatigued from the journey, no person, except the writer and one or two others, were permitted to visit them. People would be apt to imagine that there would be something unpleasant in the exhibition of two human beings joined together, but such is not the case. On the contrary, they must excite the most pleasurable sensations in all those who are capable in taking delight in beholding a perfect picture of innocence and happiness—for such is the appearance the two lads present. Each of their bodies is well formed, and complete in all its parts. The hands and feet, in particular, are beautifully symmetrical. Nor would any one on looking at them imagine, whether walking, standing, or sitting, that they were anything more than two affectionate and happy brothers, with their arms round each other's necks. Not that they are always so seen, but such is their general habit.
The second News correspondent said of the twins:
When they arrived at the North and South American Coffeehouse, from Southampton, they complained of cold. One partook of fowl and cold beef for his supper, and the other of roast beef, and they both enjoyed their repast with as much pleasure and gout as the most experienced gourmands; they are particularly partial to coffee, drink a great quantity of water, but will not touch spirits or malt liquors of any kind.
The next day, Chang and Eng were reunited with Robert Hunter. The News had a correspondent on hand to record the meeting: "Mr. Robert Hunter, who first discovered them fishing on the banks of the Siam River, visited them on Friday morning. The delight of the boys when he came into the room was unbounded."
The afternoon of their second day in London was overcast and gloomy. The correspondent noted the twins' reaction to this:
"They express much disappointment at London; they say it is all night, and insisted upon going to bed about the middle of the day. On reaching their bedroom the chambermaid tapped their heads, and told them they should be her sweethearts, at which they laughed, and in a playful and boyish manner they at one and the same time kissed each side of her cheek. On being jocularly told of this, they said it was Mary that wanted to have them for a sweetheart, not they that wanted to have Mary."
Of the fifteen months the twins were to spend in the British Isles, seven months would be devoted to London. It was an exciting town. The News speculated: "It is expected that they will be first presented to his Majesty, and afterwards exhibited to the public." While the twins did meet members of the royal family, there is no evidence that they ever had an audience with the king. The reason for this omission was probably King George IV's declining health. The handsome king, now in his sixty-seventh year, had led a dissipated and lecherous life, leaving behind him a trail of mistresses, marrying and discarding Caroline of Brunswick, drinking constantly and heavily, and suffering consequent unpopularity among his subjects. At the time Chang and Eng were supposed to see him, George IV was beset by gout, dropsy, chest inflammation, liver problems, and asthma. He comforted himself with steady doses of brandy. On June 26, 183o, when the twins had been in England barely seven months, George died.
The successor to the throne, King William IV, noted for having fought against the Colonies in the American Revolutionary War and for having sired ten illegitimate children, was probably too preoccupied with his duties to receive Chang and Eng. The new king proved no better than the old. Upon William IV's accession to the throne, Lord Greville privately noted in his journal:
"Never was elevation like that of William IV. His life has, hitherto, passed in obscurity and neglect, in miserable poverty, surrounded by a numerous progeny of bastards, without consideration or friends, and he was ridiculous for his grotesque ways and little meddling curiosity. Nobody ever invited them into their house, or thought it necessary to honour him with any mark of attention or respect; and so he went on for about forty years, till Canning brought him into notice by making him Lord High Admiral.... In that post he distinguished himself by making absurd speeches, by a morbid official activity, and by a general wildness which was thought to indicate incipient insanity."
For the Siamese Twins, London would hold greater attractions than Buckingham Palace. During their lengthy stay, Chang and Eng would enjoy the sights of the Covent Garden Theatre and Haymarket Theatre, the Baker Street Bazaar, Grosvenor Square and Grub Street, Pall Mall, the Chapter Coffeehouse, Billingsgate, the public baths, Vauxhall Gardens, Willis's Room, where were held the exclusive Almack's Balls, and Surgeons' Hall.
It was a literary London, where Chang and Eng would acquire their abiding taste for English literature. It was a London where Charles Lamb, after thirty-three years in India House, was writing in the British Museum; where Charles Dickens, having learned shorthand, was working as a journalist; where Elizabeth Barrett Browning, suffering an injured spine, was convalescing in Wimpole Street; where Thomas Babington Macaulay, after paying off his father's debts, was toiling as commissioner of bankruptcy; where William Hazlitt, living in Soho, was publishing an unsuccessful four-volume life of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Shortly, Chang and Eng, the Siamese Twins, would be almost as well known as the literary luminaries, and would themselves become one of the more popular sights of London.
To introduce the twins to London, Robert Hunter pulled off a publicity coup. Aware that during their first exhibits in America, the twins had been called a fraud by some people, that they had been called freaks and monsters not fit to be seen by ladies, but that they had been regarded with fascination by the medical profession, Hunter had all the ingredients he needed for his public relations stunt. He reasoned that if the most eminent physicians of London were invited to a preview of Chang and Eng, they would not be able to resist the temptation. Further, if the doctors were given the opportunity to examine the twins and were asked for their opinions, they would readily offer their reactions. In this way the physicians would give Chang and Eng their seal of approval, guarantee that they were not frauds but authentic united brothers, and reassure the public that the twins were acceptable for one and all to see. The press would succumb at once. The publicity value would be incalculable.
Hunter lost no time putting his planned event in motion. Invitations were delivered to the leading medical men in London, as well as to some politicians and members of the nobility and editors of the largest newspapers, inviting them to attend a preview exhibition of the Siamese Twins, during which the twins might be examined and questioned. This private levee would be held in Piccadilly at Egyptian Hall, one of London's most imposing showcases for entertainment (the facade of which resembled the ancient Temple of Tentyra), on Tuesday, November 24, 1829. Acceptances poured in, and the stage was set for the debut in England of "the greatest novelty of the age."
From the moment the doors of Egyptian Hall were opened and the distinguished guests arrived, the event was a resounding success. The roll call of medical greats who attended was astonishing. Dr. Leigh Thomas, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, was there, as was Sir Astley Paston Cooper, a former professor at the Royal College of Surgeons who had gained renown as the first surgeon to tie the abdominal aorta for aneurysm. Dr. Joshua Brooks, a foremost anatomist who possessed his own medical museum, was there, as was Sir Anthony Carlisle, among the most highly reputed of English physicians. Dozens more of the medical fraternity streamed in, followed by prominent political figures.
Acting as gracious hosts, greeting each guest, were Robert Hunter, Captain Coffin, and James Hale. Hale and the "concern" took each guest and introduced him to Chang and Eng, and later mingled with the visitors and answered their questions about the background, habits, and personalities of the Siamese Twins.
After Sir Astley Cooper had studied the ligament that bound the twins, someone asked him if it was operable. "Can they be separated?" Sir Astley shrugged and answered, "I should not like to try." Then he added, "But why separate them? The boys seem perfectly happy as they are." With a smile, Sir Astley turned to Captain Coffin and said, "Depend on it, those boys will fetch a vast deal more money whilst they are together than when they are separate." He stared off in the crowd at the twins. "This is certainly a most curious phenomenon."
Apparently, the thoughtful and cordial behavior of the hosts toward their visitors, as well as toward their united charges, made a favorable impression upon the medical men. As spokesman for all the physicians in attendance, Dr. George Buckley Bolton, of the Medical and Chirurgical Society, told his colleagues at the Royal College of Surgeons in an address four months later:
"I cannot here deny myself the pleasure of stating the kindness which has at all times been evinced towards these youths by Captain Coffin, Mr. Hunter and Mr. Hale: The unwearied anxiety manifested by these gentlemen for their welfare and happiness, and the liberal manner in which they have uniformly afforded the means of investigating so curious an object of philosophical inquiry, entitle them equally to the thanks of the philanthropist and the lover of science."
Before the preview exhibition was over, twenty-four of the physicians present had agreed to put their names to a document attesting to the authenticity, as well as the presentability, of the Siamese Twins. This document stated:
"CHANG AND ENG — Two youths born in the kingdom of Siam, whose bodies are, by a wonderful caprice of nature, united together as one . . . were submitted to the examination of the most eminent professors of Surgery and Medicine in the Metropolis, as well as some other gentlemen of scientific and literary pursuits, in order that through their report—if favorable—the public may be assured that the projected exhibition of these remarkable and interesting youths is in no respect deceptive; and further, that there is nothing whatever offensive to delicacy in the exhibition."
To this the twenty-four doctors, led by Dr. Leigh Thomas and the prestigious Sir Astley Paston Cooper, appended their names and sanctioned making the signed document public.
But the physicians were not the only ones in Egyptian Hall to voice their approval of the exhibit. The press were there also, looking, listening, and lending a cooperative hand to the Hunter and Coffin enterprise. The reporter for The Examiner of London filed a lengthy story, which read, in part:
We were on Tuesday favoured with a private view of the twin boys from Siam, whose extraordinary union has so greatly excited the public curiosity in America, from whence they reached London on Thursday week. When we entered the Egyptian Hall, they were sitting quietly by the fire, surrounded by a number of spectators, chiefly medical men. They soon however rose, walked about each with one arm around the neck of the other, and leapt from a stool upon the stage at the end of the room with great ease. They reel a little in their walk, but otherwise it is not remarkable...
Various anecdotes are related of them.... On Monday, they saw several funerals pass the street. When they learnt that so many of the gentlemen who were examining them on Tuesday were healers of the sick, they expressed their surprise that so many deaths should take place! They speak a word or two of English only, and these relations are of course obtained from the interpreters. They rarely, we understand, speak to each other; but they are said to resent mutually an insult offered to one, and to feel alike grateful for a benefit conferred on either. A visitor, on Tuesday, put into the hand of one a couple of nonpareils [chocolate cookies covered with sugar]: The youth said in English, "Thank'ee," and immediately gave one of them to his brother.
After recounting the story of the twins' lives in Siam, their trip to America, their examinations by Drs. Warren, Mitchell, and Anderson, the reporter for the Examiner sensitively perceived the tragedy inherent in the lot of Chang and Eng, and waxed melancholy about their future:
... it is a mournful sight, to behold two fellow-creatures thus fated to endure all the common evils of life, while they must necessarily be debarred from the enjoyment of many of its chief delights. The link which unites them is more durable than that of the marriage tie—no separation can take place, legal or illegal—no Act of Parliament can divorce them, nor can all the power of Doctors' Commons give them a release even from bed and board. Taken, poor fellows, from their native land, from a mother's care, from the healthful occupation of fishing, in which they chiefly spent their time, they are doomed to pass their lives in a species of slavery, to be dragged about to all parts of the world, exposed to the painful vicissitudes of climate, and to the annoyances and dangers of which such a course of existence is necessarily fruitful. These surely are melancholy circumstances. It is said, indeed, that they are cheerful and happy, and that they are in the hands of intelligent and respectable people; which seems to be the fact. Their protectors certainly have a direct interest in the promotion of their health. When we saw them on Tuesday, though they occasionally smiled, they seemed to move with reluctance, and we discovered nothing of playfulness or merriment in their actions. They evidently longed for a release from the exhibition; for asking the time, and being shewn a watch, their attendant said that they complained of its being "too slow."
Whatever the reactions of Hunter and Coffin to the foregoing, the entrepreneurs must have been more than pleased by the concluding line in the reporter's story. The doctors were, said the Examiner man, "highly gratified with the exhibition, which will perhaps be the most attractive of any that has been opened to the public in the sight-loving metropolis."
A reporter for The Times of London found himself fascinated by the continual repetition of evidence that Chang and Eng were one, not two, since he himself had the feeling that they were two very different and distinct people. True, they did everything as one person. When riding through town in a coach, they looked out the same window together, not opposite windows. But the reporter felt that this was easily explained by the fact that they had been bound together (as if by a "metallic hinge") for eighteen years, obliged to exercise, eat, go to bed at the same time, and therefore always forced to act in harmony.
Actually, several of the doctors present did agree with The Times reporter that Chang and Eng, though joined, were independent of one another. An incident had occurred during the private exhibit that convinced these doctors that the twins were two separate persons. Chang and Eng had started together toward a unique glass door in Egyptian Hall to examine it. As they neared the door, Captain Coffin called out, "Chang." Immediately, noted one observer, Chang "turned in obedience to the call, whilst his brother went forward to gratify his curiosity by peeping through the door." Another observer, a physician, having seen this, said to his circle of friends, "Now I am satisfied that these boys cannot be governed by one will, for you perceive that the inclination of one boy was to return in obedience to the summons which he had heard, but he is drawn away in the opposite direction by the other, in the eagerness of his curiosity. These boys cannot, therefore, be governed by one impulse."
Another reporter who was in Egyptian Hall, representing The Mercury, was fascinated by the fact that the twins shared a common navel located in the center of their connecting band and by the fact that they moved across the room with "the ease and grace of a couple skillfully waltzing."
No sooner had all this publicity resulting from the private showing at Egyptian Hall commenced than the newspapers and periodicals of London and the provinces were inundated with letters, poems, cartoons, and articles on the Siamese Twins.
A typical exchange of opinion concerning the twins was published in The Times of London, the first on December 2 and the response on December 4, 1829. The first letter read:
To THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES
Sir, — That they might be separated without danger is, I think, evident, as far as regards the operation, and the effect it might have on the nervous system, so as to endanger their lives, would not be in the least hazardous. We may refine upon refinement until we lose ourselves. It might perhaps render them happier in having it in their power to be at a distance, than to be compelled as they now are to be without the possibility of being apart. . . . The appellation of monsters I was sorry to hear applied to these interesting youths; it is a harsh word, and should not be used. The term monster is applicable to those preternatural births only that are analogous to animals, or more properly speaking, to a beast.
In making the above remarks it cannot be supposed I am an advocate for their being separated, though how far it might be advantageous to their happiness, after a sufficient sum has been saved to ensure their independency, I shall leave to their friends to determine.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
MEDICUS.
Two days later, a reply was printed in the Letters to the Editor section of The Times:
Sir, — After having visited the Siamese youths on the first day of their exhibition, and having there met some of the first physicians and surgeons of the day, I have been anxiously expecting a scientific account of their union, and of the possibility of their separation; but all I can collect from what has been advanced on the subject, is the mere fact of their being united, and that "perhaps they might be separated" . . . The one signed "Medicus," in your paper of this morning, must have been written without much consideration. Much stress has been laid on their having but one navel. Now this fact alone, in my opinion, decides what might or might not be done, and proves or disproves everything that is interesting on this subject. There is but little doubt (if there is but one navel) that there was a double placenta, with one cord and two sets of vessels—one set emerging to one child, and one to the other. Should this have been the fact, it proves them to be two distinct individuals, in no way differing from twins without a union. Should there have been but one placenta and one set of vessels, entering the umbilicus, it then proves, on the contrary, that they are inseparable .. .
M. R.
Even as letters to the editor bombarded the press on the future of Chang and Eng, the poets of England were inspired to create loftier sentiments. Typically, a bit of doggerel about the twins published first in the Sunday Times of London and then in the Berkshire Chronicle on December 5, went:
My yellow friends! and are you come,
As some have done before,
To show the sign of "Two to one,"
And hang it o'er your door?
How do you mean your debts to pay?
Will one discharge the other's?
Or shall you work by subterfuge,
And say, "Ah, that's my brother's"?
For well we know if one by chance
To Fleet or Bench is sent,
The other would an action bring
For false imprisonment.
Have you the consciences to sit,
And when your eating's done,
Rise up and "pay the piper," but
Pay only as for one?
A second reader with a lyrical bent wrote in the Literary Gazette:
If in the page of Holy Writ we find
That man should not divide what God had joined, O why, with nicest skill, should science dare To separate this Heaven-united pair? United by a more than legal band,
A wonder wrought by the Creator's hand!
Meanwhile, a steady stream of articles about Chang and Eng was beginning to find its way into various English periodicals. Public interest in every facet of the twins' lives had to be sated, and no detail was too small to be overlooked. The Universal Pamphleteer, a popular magazine which in its previous issue had featured the "Life of Vidocq, the French Police Spy," gave over its entire twenty-seventh number to "A Full History of the Siamese United Twins: with Their Likeness." The magazine began with some biographical facts on Chang and Eng, and then went on to describe them:
They are dressed in a short loose green jacket and trousers, the custom of their country, which is very convenient and al-lows the utmost freedom of motion, but does not show the form of the boys to advantage. . . .
With their arms twined round each other, as they bend down or move about, they look like a group of statuary. . . .
Without being in the least disgusting or unpleasant, like al-most all monstrosities, these youths are certainly one of the most extraordinary freaks of nature that has ever been witnessed.
Because Chang and Eng found the foggy London weather disagreeable—they contracted colds soon after their arrival, and coughed constantly—Hunter and Coffin decided they must have their own doctor, someone who would be readily available. After making inquiries, they selected a noted London physician, Dr. George Buckley Bolton, to attend the twins regularly. From the time he first examined them, two days after their private debut at Egyptian Hall, until they left London, Dr. Bolton was their personal, and only, medical consultant. As such, he came to know the twins better than any member of his profession since their arrival in the West.
After four months attending them, Dr. Bolton was called upon by his colleagues to give a definitive report on their condition. In lucid language, Dr. Bolton wrote his paper, "On the United Siamese Twins," and on April i., 1830, he read it to assembled members of the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
Following a brief biography of the twins, Dr. Bolton described their physiques to his fellows:
These youths are both of the same height, namely, five feet two inches; and their united weight is one hundred and eighty pounds. They are much shorter, and appear less advanced in puberty, than youths of this country at the age of eighteen years. . . .
The left eye of Chang is weaker than the right; but this is reversed in the case of Eng, so that each sees best with the eye nearest his brother. Their bodies are much paler now than they were on their first arrival in England. Their genital organs are, like all their other external parts, regularly formed; but the youths are naturally modest, and evince a strong repugnance to any close investigation on this subject.
Next, Dr. Bolton discussed their "band of union," which he found surprisingly strong:
In the month of February last one of them fell out of bed while asleep, and hung by the band for some time, and when both awoke, they alike stated, that they had experienced no pain in the band from this accident. Mr. Hale, their constant attendant, has lifted one of them from the ground, allowing the other to hang by the band with his feet raised from the floor; yet the whole weight of one of the boys thus suspended did not occasion pain to either, or even excite their displeasure. The circumstance of the small degree of sensibility possessed by the band, tends to corroborate the opinion I entertain of the possibility of effecting a separation of the twins by a surgical operation.
As a result of their "extraordinary intimacy," Dr. Bolton said, "they have each the power to bend their bodies in all directions, and turn their heels over their shoulders. They also often playfully tumble head over heels while on their bed, without occasioning the slightest pain or inconvenience in the band."
Dr. Bolton then resumed his medical diagnosis:
The tongue of Eng is at all times whiter than that of Chang, and his digestion is more easily deranged by unsuitable diet. I have never heard that Chang has passed a single day without alimentary discharges, but the contrary has often occurred to Eng. In general they both obey the calls of nature at the same time, and this happens even when these result from the operation of medicines.
It having occurred to me, that the odour given by asparagus to the urine would be a test of the extent of the circulation of the blood through both the twins, on the 22nd of March I gave that vegetable to Chang with his dinner, not allowing any to be given to his brother. On examining their urine four hours after this meal, that of Chang had distinctly the peculiar asparagus smell, but the urine of his brother was not influenced by it. The next day this experiment was reversed, and therefore with reversed results. These trials sufficiently prove a fact which was otherwise apparent—that the sanguineous communication between the united twins is very limited. . . .
They always take their meals together, objecting to being seen while thus engaged. Neither will eat or drink what the other dislikes, though they occasionally take different sorts of food at the same time, such as meat or fish. When the appetite of one is satiated, the other is also satisfied. In their habits they are very cleanly and delicate, and mutually assist each other in dressing. They are exceedingly affectionate and docile, and grateful for every kindness shown them. It is not often they converse with each other, although their dispositions and tempers agree, and their tastes and opinions are similar. Sometimes they engage in distinct conversations with different persons at the same time, upon totally dissimilar subjects. Both are very fond of music, and are equally interested in dramatic performances.
Dr. Bolton confessed that from time to time he had attempted an impromptu experiment on the twins. "On my tickling one of them, the other told me to desist, though he stated that he did not feel the touch, and it was quite clear that he could not see me tickle his brother."
Dr. Bolton also admitted that he had allowed some of his colleagues to undertake simple experiments with the twins. The most notable of the outside physicians to experiment on Chang and Eng was Dr. Peter Mark Roget. The twins could not know at the time that the fame of this remarkable and versatile medical man would match their own and endure for as long. Dr. Roget, who was secretary of the Royal Society for two decades, laid the groundwork for the invention of the modern slide rule and of motion pictures. Eventually, he turned from physiology to philology, and in 185z he published the most popular book of synonyms in history, one that listed ideas along with the groups of words that expressed them. Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and
Phrases was destined to go through twenty-eight editions before his death, and has remained a standard reference work.
Roget had an abiding interest in bizarre experiments, both on himself and on others. Thirty-one years earlier, he had visited the Pneumatic Institution at Clifton, near Bristol, and joined the eccentric Dr. Thomas Beddoes, and his assistant Humphry Davy, in experimenting on himself with nitrous oxide—laughing gas—as an anesthetic as well as a substance producing a high.
It was this Dr. Roget who had come calling on Chang and Eng in London to determine whether they were really two or one. Dr. Roget supervised an experiment in which an aide placed a silver teaspoon on Eng's tongue and a disc of zinc on Chang's tongue to learn their reactions. When the metals were brought into contact, both brothers cried out, "Sour, sour!" Nevertheless, Dr. Roget urged that the experiment be continued, reversing the metals, this time placing the zinc on Eng's tongue and the teaspoon on Chang's tongue. Again both twins protested the sour taste.
Dr. Bolton explained the significance of Roget's finding. "These experiments prove that the galvanic influence passes from one individual to the other, through the band which connects their bodies, and thus establishes a galvanic circuit with the metals when these are brought into contact."
The paper that Dr. Bolton read to the Royal College of Surgeons was printed by Richard Taylor in Fleet Street and widely circulated throughout London in 183o. Now, it seemed, everyone was talking about Chang and Eng, and their every observed activity or overheard remark was converted into a fashionable anecdote.
For example, on the darkest and foggiest of days outdoors, they would go to their fireplace, "take a deadened coal from the grate, and, holding it up, call it the London sun." And when they witnessed their first snowfall in London, they were bewildered and asked "whether the ground was strewed with Sugar or Salt."
On one occasion, a religious visitor tried to proselytize them. "Do you know where you would go if you were to die?" the visitor inquired. Chang and Eng pointed their fingers upward. "Yes, yes, up dere," they said. To make certain they understood him, the visitor rephrased his question. "Do you know where I should go, if I were to die?" The twins nodded and pointed their fingers downward. "Yes, yes, down dere," they replied.
Many of the stories that made the rounds concerned their talent for mimicry. An effort was made to teach them to read, write, and speak English more readily. Sir Anthony Carlisle, the renowned physician, took a hand in this. One day, he brought a set of blank cards and, one at a time, printed the letters of the alphabet on them. He printed a large "A" on the first card, pointed at it, and said, "A A A." The twins imitated him, and burst into laughter. Ignoring them, he printed a `B," pronounced it, then a "C" and did the same, then a "D." The boys became impatient and restless. Exasperated, Sir Anthony exclaimed, "Pshaw, pshaw, attend to me!" Finally Sir Anthony gave Chang a blank card and told him to make an "A" on it. Because Chang held the pencil awkwardly while preparing to print the letter, Sir Anthony leaned over to position it properly in his hand. Chang quickly withdrew both pencil and hand, and sternly—mocking the physician's voice—exclaimed, "Pshaw, pshaw, attend to me!"
Apparently, the twins were making progress in learning English, for on March 6, 1830, Mrs. Coffin, who also needed some grammar lessons, wrote to her children in Boston that Chang and Eng "have learnt to speake very good English they can Converse very well." And on July 3, Captain Coffin told his children in a letter that "the Boys Chang & Eng are quite well and are very good they wish to be remembered to you they can speak English quite well."
In her letters, Mrs. Coffin provided another piece of information. Chang and Eng were not getting along with Teiu, their traveling companion from Siam, and he was being sent back to Meklong. As Mrs. Coffin informed her children in her March 6 letter, the twins "are made very much of by all that see them though the boys do not like here as they did in Boston thay say Boston the best Teiu has been a very bad boy indeed i am sorry to say it of him Mr Hunter is to send him home the boys wont spake to him they say they can't he is such a bad boy."
As the talk of the twins' sharpness and wit, their education, their break with Teiu, continued in London, there took place an incident that caused a sensation in all circles. Chang and Eng had never been shy with the opposite sex. They were very attracted by beautiful young women, and plainly there were some young women attracted by them. There was one woman in particular, and she created the sensation.
Dr. Bolton had earlier speculated on their possible involvement with a woman. "They are at present very much attached to each other," he had written, "but judging from what is now become a very common subject of discourse between them, it is not an unreasonable conjecture, that some female attachment, at a future period, may occur to destroy their harmony, and induce a mutual and paramount wish to be separated." While this conjecture proved to be true in the future, their "harmony" was not affected by their one "female attachment" in the present.
Her full name is not known to history. Her first name was Sophia. She was young and beautiful, and was a member of London society. She met the united twins and, as a pamphlet of the period reported, "by some unaccountable caprice, fell violently in love with both." Sophia pursued the twins, wrote poetry to them, and published her verse. She loved them as one, not either one separately—perhaps the perversity of it had some sexual appeal to her—but she realized the problem. As she wrote in one verse:
How happy could I be with either,
Were the other dear charmer away.
Despite this avowal, Sophia was willing to take both of them together in holy wedlock. She finally sought an opinion on the possibilities of such a marriage, but was firmly told that Chang and Eng were two, not one. If she married both at once she would be committing bigamy, and would be liable to arrest and a jail sentence.
The unhappy Sophia abandoned her pursuit of the twins. Later, it was said, she married someone who was one, having won "the hand and heart of a commercial gent of promising prospects and unexceptionable whiskers." More than twenty years after, a reporter who visited the twins noted: "Chang and Eng frequently refer to this episode in their eventful life, in a manner which seems to indicate that no deep impression was produced by the fair one's flattering preference, upon their deuce of hearts, notwithstanding that the lady was considered extremely popular."
Needless to say, this romantic interlude, as much as the pronouncements of the doctors and the press, helped excite public interest in Chang and Eng.
They were first shown to the paying public early in December 183o. Hale plastered London with playbills announcing their appearances, and he inserted advertisements in the major London newspapers. The advertisement on the front page of John Bull("For God, the King, and the People), appearing below announcements of available subscriptions to concerts of the Philharmonic Society and a diorama exhibit of the interior of St. Peter's Church in Rome painted by Mr. Bouton, read:
SIAMESE YOUTHS. — These interesting Youths, whose appearance has created such intense curiosity with the Public at large, as well as among Scientific persons, may be visited daily between the hours Of 12 and 4, at the EGYPTIAN HALL, PICCA-DILLY. - Admission a Half-a-Crown.
In their figure, countenance, manners and movements, there is nothing that can offend the delicacies of the most fastidious female — Vide Atlas, Nov. 29, 1829.
They were an instant hit. People came daily, by the hundreds, to view them. Once inside Egyptian Hall, the public could purchase a sixteen-page pamphlet written by Hale, An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Siamese Twin Brothers from Actual Observations. Two thousand copies of the pamphlet, at one shilling each, were sold in 1830. Arriving at the exhibition room, paying visitors could gaze upon the twins, question them, and then view their act. To their usual performance of acrobatics and weight lifting, Chang and Eng had added the difficult game of battledore and shuttlecock, which was popular in England but had originally been played in Eastern countries, among them Siam. Chang and Eng would each take a miniature racket, called a battledore, and hit a small cork ball with feathers on one side of it, called a shuttlecock, back and forth without letting it fall to the ground. Since the twins were held only four or five inches apart, the contest demanded incredible agility, and the audiences applauded this.
More than oo,000 persons saw the Siamese Twins in London, with another 200,000 paying to view them in the provinces later.
Among the celebrated persons who came to see the twins, the first and foremost was Queen Adelaide of England, the German wife of King William IV. After that a succession of royal person-ages trooped into Egyptian Hall to speak to Chang and Eng and enjoy their antics. There was Prince Esterhazy—known as Prince Pal Antal—who was the Austrian ambassador to England; there were, also, the Duchess of Berri, the Duchess of Angouleme, and numerous other bluebloods. But the most famous personage to view the twins was the Duke of Wellington, who had crushed Napoleon at Waterloo fourteen years before and had recently been Prime Minister of England. The Iron Duke's visit to the twins inspired a burst of poetry in the press. One quatrain from a disgruntled reader suggested the duke might have better things to do:
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND THE SIAMESE
Thou Waterloo Hero! though Minister Prime! Whose only delight is the Nation to please;
`Tis surprising to me that your Grace should have time A visit to pay to the young Siamese.
Later, another celebrated person, King Charles X of France, overthrown by a revolution in Paris and forced to abdicate and flee to England, visited the twins when they were on exhibition in Liverpool. Hale reported the twins' pun made when the former king "on leaving them, made them a present of a piece of gold; after he was gone, they observed that they supposed that the reason why he gave them gold, was because he had no crown."
For four hours each day during their seven months in London, Chang and Eng showed themselves and performed their act at Egyptian Hall. In the evenings, they usually relaxed in their quarters with new-made friends, whom they regaled "by relating some of the strange observations they [had] heard during the day, and in remarks upon those they [had] seen at the exhibition rooms."
Sometimes, however, there was something special to do for amusement in the evening. On Sunday, January o, 183o, the newspaper John Bull carried an advertisement:
THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY-LANE. — ON TUESDAY NEXT. THE SIAMESE YOUTHS (who have Lord Chesterfield's Box, an excellent opportunity for the Audience to see them). — Private Boxes in every part of the House. Admissions for the Season.
CHARLES WRIGHT, Haymarket
There were three shows being staged that eventful night at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. One was an opera, Artaxerxes, another a farce called Citizen, and the third a pantomime. But the attendance of Chang and Eng was the main attraction, and a reporter from the London Mercury was on hand to see their reaction and the reactions of members of the audience who had "flocked to behold the double wonder of the day."
Just before the curtain rose on the opera, Chang and Eng made their appearance in Lord Chesterfield's box. Observed the Mercury reporter:
A round of applause and generous welcome saluted the strangers, who seemed rather abashed, but came forward to the front of the box (next the stage, and in line with the dress boxes), and bowed modest thanks. Their appearance excited a momentary surprise, with an apparent disbelief that they were united, till the involuntary impulses of the one seemed to constrain the involuntary motions of the other. They looked like two boys, and were dressed in black jackets and trowsers. Their union could not be ascertained from the boxes; but might be inferred from the constant similarity and obsequiousness of their motions. The opera of Artaxerxes proceeded, and the audience were occasionally diverted from the actors on the stage to the mute but more attractive actors in the stage-box, who seemed to regard the passing scene with a mixture of curiosity and interest which betrayed great intelligence. At one time the audience seemed to doubt that the Siamese boys were really united; and at another that doubt was dissipated by the abrupt motions of the one boy suddenly exciting corresponding actions in the other. They gazed alternatingly at the actors, the audience, and occasionally when something odd or particular touched their fancy, communicated their delight or surprise to their friends near them in the boxes.
When the first act of the Opera was over, a loud huzza, and calls of "the Siamese Boys" attracted their attention, and they came forward at the instance of their friends, and bowed to the audience. It was remarked as singular how well timed and harmonious their motions were, as if springing from one common impulse. They had scarcely sat down when they observed some ladies over-head stretching out their fair necks from the boxes above to get a better view of the "strangers," when the twin on the right, who seemed the moving hero, and more active of the two, stretched forward his head, and looking up to the boxes, laughed and nodded to the fair ladies above, who half recoiled with shame and joy from such especial notice.
At the end of the evening, the reporter noted, the twins "rose, and bowing modestly in the applauses of the audience, they withdrew, highly delighted with the treat."
But mostly, such treats were rare. Their time was devoted to performing, and then, exhausted, to resting. As winter went and spring came, and the weather grew warmer, the partners in the "concern"—Hunter and Coffin—decided to try something new.
Hale was put to work, and in a few weeks there were posters everywhere in London inviting the public to share a river cruise with Chang and Eng. The public was promised an opportunity to enjoy the companionship of the twins during the steamer excursion. The poster announced: "They will each be happy to take a partner in a game of whist."
Also, either because of scheduling difficulties or to stimulate business, Hunter and Coffin moved the Siamese Twins out of Egyptian Hall and booked them into several other London auditoriums and theaters. At one point, the twins did their act at Lewis' Great Sale Room, a huge hall rented out for exhibitions of every kind. Another time, they headed an all-star show at the Surrey Theatre. In his advertisements for the twins' debut at the Surrey, the manager boasted that he had "prevailed upon Captain Coffin to permit The Siamese Youths to appear on the stage IN THEIR NATIVE COSTUME."
While normally they had little competition in London, the twins' appearance at the Surrey Theatre put them up against two of the major attractions of the day. After they had done their number, they were followed on stage by fifty-six-year-old Robert William Elliston. Not only was Elliston the manager of the Surrey—he loved promoting shows, and made and lost several fortunes as an impresario—but he was one of the leading Shakespearean actors of the period, ranked second only to the great Garrick according to Leigh Hunt. "Whenever Elliston walked, sat, or stood still," said Lamb, "there was the theatre." He specialized in doing Hamlet, Romeo, and Falstaff, and undoubtedly performed excerpts from some of those roles the evening he appeared with the twins.
The other star performer to follow Chang and Eng was an Irish child prodigy, the twelve-year-old Master Burke, who also rendered Shakespearean excerpts, doing Shylock and Richard III, as well as a musical number in which he played "God Save the King" on a violin with one string.
During the passage of winter, Chang and Eng's London successes had been publicized throughout the British Isles. Eager new audiences outside the city awaited their appearance. After they had made several forays into the hinterlands, Hunter and
Coffin decided that spring was the right time to take their attraction on a major road tour.
For the twins, this was to be their first experience with brief one-night and one-week stands, a grinding journey of stops and starts filled with seemingly endless jolting coach rides over rutted country roads, with strange and ever-changing scenery, with a variety of wayside and city lodgings, and with a multitude of peering fresh faces.
Between this extended trip and their later jaunts outside London, the twins covered 2,5oo miles in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Now, in horse-drawn public stagecoaches, accompanied by Robert Hunter and Captain Coffin, Chang and Eng set out on the road. Hale had preceded them by some days, renting exhibition halls and living accommodations, and papering the villages and cities along the route with posters extolling the wonder of the "Siamese Youths, United Brothers" who had been such a sensation in London.
After successes in Bath, Windsor, Reading, Oxford, Birmingham, and Liverpool, Chang and Eng boarded a ship and continued on to Scotland. The first stop was Glasgow, where the twins enjoyed a happy social diversion. Before they left London, Robert Hunter had reminded them that they must see his family, who lived in Glasgow and would be expecting them. Susan Coffin wrote to her children, after returning to Liverpool with the twins on September 27:
"As your dear Mother has got to Liverpool i feel as if i was much nearer to you than when i was in Scotland an Ireland. . . . i thinke my dear A and Susan would like to know if their Mother had a pleasant time while i was in Scotland i had indeed your Mother found Mr. Hunters Family very nice people they scold me for not bringing my dear children i told them the next time I came to Scotland i would. . . . Chang Eng says i must send thier love to all the Newbury Port folks and want to know if I thinks Elisabeth B [a family friend] is as fat as ever say you must tell her when they come to America again they can talk English to her and if thier is such a gang about the house they will help her put them out doors and flog them."
The sight of the twins in Glasgow stirred one person who had met them, a Miss Janet Hunter, very likely a relative of Robert Hunter, to engage in poetic rhapsodies. Two of several verses which found their way into print read:
Ye strange phenomena of nature,
Your like auld Scotia ne'er did see,
The same in visage, shape and stature,
In mind (they say) you too agree.
Ye dear and close connected brithers,
Sent to the wad' thegither knit, Your bond o' union beats a' ithers,
We ere have seen or herd o' yet.
Following their exhibitions in Glasgow, the twins went on to Edinburgh, a rough but hospitable city in which mob violence simmered but was contained by the civil police, a city in which only two noblemen maintained residences (the rest had country places), a hard-drinking city of taverns and inns where whiskey and port and claret flowed freely, a city where concerts and theaters provided routine entertainment. Chang and Eng were something new, and Hale went to the limit of his advertising budget to promote their appearance.
Seventy-two hours after the twins had opened in the Waterloo Rooms, their exhibition hall in Edinburgh, the Edinburgh Evening Courant was able to report that the twins "have attracted very great crowds both of ladies and gentlemen." A writer for The Scotsman of Edinburgh visited Chang and Eng, and then spoke philosophically about their condition in his article of July 3i:
44. . these two beings are destined to pass through life united in an indissoluble tie, subjected to the same influences, exposed to the same dangers, partakers in the same pleasures, and actors in the same scenes. Whatever the one wills to do, the other must also will; whatever injures the one, must in its ultimate consequences injure the other also; and whenever the one happens to be gay and inclined for sport, the other must be ready to respond to his feelings; or misery to both would be the inevitable result. To love his brother as himself, is, in short, the only condition on which the existence of either can be tolerable, and it is very gratifying to perceive, that accordingly they do live on the best terms, and seem as happy as being so circumstanced can possibly be. . ."
After the twins had received this attention in Edinburgh, and had made two brief side visits to Perth and Dundee, Captain Coffin and Robert Hunter brought them back to Glasgow. There they all boarded a ship to cross the Irish Sea for a well-publicized engagement in Dublin.
During the twins' exhibition in Dublin, the Irish Paper devoted two lengthy articles to them. The readers were told that the twins had fully adapted themselves to the English way of life: "Were their mother with them, they say they would have no particular desire to revisit Siam. They often declare she would be astonished to see how much like little kings they now live; and that, if they return home, they must have an English cook and an English house to reside in."
Irish readers were then treated to a graphic account of their nocturnal habits: "While sleeping they are not confined to any particular position, but rest on either side, as may best suit their convenience, generally, however, with their faces toward each other. They usually sleep from nine to eleven hours each night, and quite soundly. When they feel restless and desire to change their posture, the one must roll entirely over the other, and they have frequently been observed to do this without either waking or being apparently disturbed by the change."
After Dublin, Chang and Eng performed in several other Irish cities, including Belfast. They enjoyed bantering with their Irish visitors. In Belfast, the city's mayor, or sovereign, came to see them. Hale introduced the sovereign to them.
Chang eyed the high official and said to him, "You are not a sovereign. You are only nineteen shillings."
Hale said quickly, "He is the sovereign of this place, and you will offend him by your remarks."
"Did he not pay a shilling at the door?" Eng asked.
Hale laughed. "Yes, but he may be displeased by your freedom."
"Tell him not to be vexed," said Chang hastily. "We will give him two shillings, and make a guinea of him."
After three weeks in Ireland, Coffin and the twins took a ship back to Liverpool. Now they resumed their short stands. They exhibited in Manchester, Leeds (where the local press said they "excited the greatest astonishment"), York, and Sheffield, and then returned to Birmingham.
On December 28, 183o; Chang and Eng were happily back in wintry London. Susan Coffin wrote to her children: "I now inform you that your dear Father an Mother is back in London we have been on the move 8 months all over the kingdom and when we go from here it is uncertain your papa wish to go to France but he is not decied what to do yet.... Chang Eng send their love to you all say next Spring they hope to see you all in America ... my dear Abel must tell the Doctor of that it will please him Chang Eng has gaind 30 pounds of flesh since they came to England."
Posted at the same time as Mrs. Coffin's letter was a note from Captain Coffin to his children. "I am going to the East Indies," he wrote them, "and expect to be gone about one year. Your Dear Mother & Chang, Eng I hope will be in New York in two & halfe months I hope you will try and comfort your Mother and by your good behavior compensate in part for my absence for I am going to get something to pay for your education, for which I only ask your good behaviour and attention to your studies ..."
At this time, too, Chang and Eng were forced to bid farewell to their discoverer, Robert Hunter, who informed them he was leaving for Singapore to resume work with his import firm. Before parting from the twins, Hunter told them that after catching up with his work in Singapore, he would go on to Bangkok, and he promised to visit their family. Moved, Chang and Eng gave Hunter messages and gifts for their mother, sister, and brother in Meklong.
After Hunter left, Captain Coffin lingered on briefly. Before departing for the East Indies, he made the decision that he would like to exhibit Chang and Eng across the Channel in France. He contacted a twin enthusiast in Paris, Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, creator of a branch of science known as teratology, the study of monstrosities. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire believed it would be instructive to have the united brothers shown to the French public. In all haste, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire applied to the French police for an entry visa and permit for them. He did not have to wait long for a reply. The French police promptly and categorically turned down the application. Indignant at the refusal, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire reported to Captain Coffin that his "monsters," as the police had characterized the twins, would not be allowed into France. Such an exhibit, the officials had said, might "deprave" the minds of children, and through "maternal impressions" might also be harmful to pregnant women who attended such a showing since it could deform their unborn children.
The rejection by the French police, based On an old superstition that had no basis in fact, made Captain Coffin alter his plans for the twins. He decided to have Hale arrange a few more special exhibits in London, and then take the twins back to the United States two months earlier than planned.
Leaving Mrs. Coffin and Hale in charge of Chang and Eng, Captain Coffin embarked on the Hellen Mar to resume his trading business in the East Indies. Off Deal, England, on January 8, 1831, he wrote a letter to his wife: ". . . be kind to Chang Eng but you must not let them have to much their own head it is necessary to have them mind you I feel convinced Mr Hale will do everything you wish as to his capability & honesty I have had sufficient proof to be easy on those points.
"Give my respects to Mr Hale and my love to Chang Eng tell them although they might think I was hard with them I think their own good sence will convince them that I have never done anything but what is for their good that I hope they will be kind to you and that you will be as happy as possible . . ."
The hint in this letter that Captain Coffin might have been "hard" on Chang and Eng, and that they resented it, was never fully explained. Coffin may have been referring to any number of things—that the twins were annoyed with him because he had brought them to England in steerage, or that he was miserly about giving them extra money, or that he had pushed them almost beyond their endurance during the British tour, or that he was too strict a disciplinarian. Whatever Chang and Eng felt about Captain Coffin would soon be intensified by their attitude toward Mrs. Coffin, who was now serving as their guardian and employer.
During their last weeks in England, they were compliant and went through their performances without protest. The final exhibit of Chang and Eng on this English tour was held at Lewis' Great Sale Room early in January 1831. Their farewell poster read:
POSITIVELY LEAVE FOR
AMERICA ON WEDNESDAY
January 12th.
SIAMESE YOUTHS UNITED BROTHERS
In consequence of the detention of the Vessel in which
they embark for America they will remain Until Wednesday January 12th at
15 POULTRY
Hours of exhibitions from eleven to four
Admission One Shilling Each
Historical Books with full length Portraits
Sixpence each
In the week that followed, on the very eve of their departure from England, Chang and Eng had a serious falling-out with Mrs. Coffin over a trifle—what they called "a piece of blue cloth"— which they felt involved their honor.
Even eighteen months later, Chang and Eng would recall every detail of the incident that occurred that last week in England. Reviving the incident for a friend of Mrs. Coffin's, they wrote, in first person singular as usual:
When I was at Leeds a gentleman at Leeds sent me a piece of beautiful blue cloth to make me two suits of clothes. This piece of cloth I intended to lay aside & keep to take home with me (as it was no concern of mine providing my own clothes then) but Captn C persuaded me in Birmingham to have two suits of clothes made out of it, telling me that when I go home he would give me as good a piece of cloth. The two suits were made & there remained about 21/2 or 3 yards of the cloth. When we returned to London we took up our quarters at Mr. Kipling's in the Poultry & I received so much civility from Mr. & Mrs. Kip-ling that I became quite attached to them; before I left London for Portsmouth to take passage for the United States I gave her (Mrs. Kipling) the piece of cloth which remained (for working as I had been for the benefit of others it was no pleasure nor profit to me to find my own clothes). At Portsmouth I told Mrs. Coffin that I had given the cloth to Mrs. Kipling—at which Mrs. Coffin was considerably vexed; saying that Captn. Coffin set a great store by that piece of cloth & would be angry when he came home & found that I had given it away; — To this I replied, that the piece of cloth was too much for one suit of clothes & not enough for two & that it was as well for me to give to one for whom I entertained so high a respect as I did for Mrs. Kipling; for much as she was disliked by others I had every cause to respect her — The course pursued by Mrs. Coffin with regard to this piece of cloth (which you will please to recollect was mine
& not hers) was such as few could believe. She made Mr. Hale
sit down and write a letter to James Everett [a friend of the Coffins' in London] asking him to call on Mrs. Kipling & get back the piece of cloth. Mrs. Kipling however, knowing me to be incapable of such crooked conduct as to give a thing one day & ask it back the next, told James Everett that if I (Chang-Eng) wanted the piece of cloth she would willingly give it up but not otherwise. When Mrs. Coffin asked Mr. Hale to write to Jas. Everett about this cloth—she cautioned Mr. Hale not to let C-E know anything about it—for that, if they knew it, they would be very angry. Mr. Hale said—then why do you write if C E will be angry? To this Mrs. Coffin made no reply except to repeat her request that he would write the letter—which was accordingly done. It was fortunate for me that I had in this case to do with such a clever straightforward woman as Mrs. Kipling for she saw thro' the matter directly & suspected that the application for the cloth was made without my authority & she consequently refused to give it up; otherwise I should have felt quite provoked at being thought so mean & pitiful as to give a thing one day & ask it back the next.
I have no doubt in my own mind that if Mrs. C had got it back from Mrs. Kipling she would have kept it for her own purposes—as she would have been ashamed to let me know that she had got it back. We can judge pretty well of persons conduct in matters of importance by the manner in which they behave in trifles—and I could not then nor can I now forget or forgive the mean, pitiful paltry trick attempted to be played on me in this matter.
Thus, brimming with anger at their new mentor, Chang and Eng, who had come to Portsmouth from London, boarded the vessel Cambria under Captain Moore the latter part of January to sail to the United States. After almost fourteen months in the British Isles—they had arrived well known, and had left famous—they were on the Atlantic and headed for the place they now called "home."
They landed in New York City on March 4, 1.831. They may have had an idea, but could not know for certain, what momentous times lay ahead for them. They knew that in America they would once more be on the road. They did not know it would be freedom's road.