In the spring of 1686, a Portuguese vessel was shipwrecked off Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa. Though several on the ship drowned, the larger number made it to the shore where, wet and naked, they confronted a howling wilderness. No water, no food, no foliage -- just rocks, rain, and eventually wild animals and unfriendly natives.
For all these trials, the survivors were completely unprepared, in particular the members of the Siamese Embassy, who were on their way to Lisbon. For over a month these court officials wandered, deserted by their Portuguese sailors, eating lizards, running from lions and leaving their weaker members behind.
In the end, they made their way to the Dutch trading station on the Cape of Good Hope and were rescued. Just how many of the original number were no longer there is not known, but survivor Ok-Khun Chamnan, one of the ambassadors, was among them. It is through his telling that this tale is known at all.