The Siamese Tales: being a Collection of Stories told to the son of the Mandarin Sam-Sib, for the purpose of engaging his Mind in the Love of Truth and Virtue. With an historical account of the Kingdom of Siam. ... Translated from the Siamese.

SAILOR'S TALES OF THE EAST FOR YOUNG PERSONS
IN THE MANNER OF GOLDSMITH

ESTC t112304 Garside, Raven, and Schowerling The English Novel 1770-1829, 1796:18 Block, p.216.
This anonymous collection was intended for a juvenile audience. It was reprinted in Baltimore, U.S.A., in 1797 (Welch American Children's Books .. to 1821, 126). Welch attributes the book to Brewer.
"These stories were not translated from the Siamese, but the scene was laid in Siam to make the story more interesting to young people" [Welch].
Brewer (bap. 1766), writer, "in his youth he served as a midshipman ... and visited America, India, China, and Scandinavia. In 1791 he was made a lieutenant in the Swedish navy. Afterwards abandoning the sea, he read for law in London, and established himself as an attorney" [O.D.N.B.]. He published novels in 1791 and 1795, the first while still in the navy, and had a couple of plays performed. "In 1800 Brewer published a pamphlet entitled The Rights of the Poor, dedicated to 'Men who have great power, by one without any', which received copious notice in the Gentleman's Magazine ... He was writing at this time also in the European Magazine, and his contributions included Siamese Tales and Tales of the 12 Soubahs of Indostan, and some essays, advertised as after the manner of Goldsmith, which were collected and published by subscription in 1806 as Hours of Leisure, or, Essays and Characteristics. In the prefatory address, he alludes to his life as being 'misplaced or displaced' and altogether luckless" [O.D.N.B.] The author of the O.D.N.B. piece was either unaware of this earlier 1796 appearance or uncertain as to its authorship.