The climate of Siam is more healthy than that of Batavia. Notwithstanding the great heat of the climate, and the vast quantity of uncleaned and undrained land, epidemics do not often prevail; yet the spasmodic cholera, a few years since, swept off upward of sixty thousand inhabitants.

During our stay, the weather has been clear and serene, a breeze visiting us about the middle of the day; yet the thermometer has ranged 93°, and has frequently been 94° and 95°. No one has been sick, excepting of complaints in the bowels, occasioned by a change of diet.

The profuse perspiration under which we suffered, day and night, considerably exhausted our strength. Those pests of all swampy countries, moschetoes and other insects, have not appeared in such vast quantities as they do in the rainy season, nor reptiles, which then abound every where; nor is the heat so great as it will be within the next four or five months, when the thermometer will rise from 100° to 103°; yet, it is said, the climate then is not more unhealthy than it is at present. Where the ship lies, the thermometer has not risen above 84°, and prevailing winds have been from the southward, blowing fresh the most part of the time, with a considerable sea. During the heat of the day, notwithstanding bathing is resorted to, and the natives are often seen with a wet cloth on their shoulders, to keep them cool and mitigate the effects of a scorching sun; yet it is a rare circumstance to see any of them with a covering on the head, excepting the women-pedlars on the river, who wear a palm-leaf hat, the exact shape of a milk-pan reversed; this is kept on the head by means of a frame-work, made of split rattan; their dress also is different from other women’s being a tight cotton jacket, with sleeves, and the usual waist-cloth worn by both sexes.

It is surprising how few of the mechanic arts are here practised, excepting those which are connected with the building of junks and boats; and in this case, strickly speaking, there are but two or three employed. The carpenter, who builds the vessel, makes the masts and wooden anchors, and the very few blocks that are used; pumps are not known, for the water is bailed out from vessels of one thousand tons burden. They go to market and buy their mats to make sails, which are spread out on the ground within certain pegs, which give the proper dimensions and shape; the bolt-rope is then sowed on, being made of a species of very coarse strong grass, abounding every where; and the sailmakers, being the sailors of the vessel, make the cordage generally, and assist in making the immense cables. Blacksmiths are necessarily employed to make bolts, and calkers are indispensable.

A true Chinese junk is a great curiosity; the model must have been taken originally from a bread-trough, being broad and square at both ends—when light, (I speak of a large one,) it is full thirty feet from the surface of the water to the tafferel, or the highest part of the poop. Forward, a wide clear space intervenes, where the cable is worked, there being a stage erected, some twelve or fifteen feet above the forecastle, on which they help to work and keep a lookout for sail. The mainmast is a most enormous stick of teak or other hard wood, big enough for a line-of-battle ship, on which they hoist an enormous sail, which generally takes all the crew, consisting of at least a hundred or a hundred and fifty men; when they wish to lower it, it is necessary to send a number of men on the bamboo poles, which stretch from side to side, to assist in its descent. A small mast, the after or mizen mast, is placed on one side, not in the centre as in other vessels, but stepped or secured on the deck. The enormous cable is hove up by a common windlass, without the assistance of pauls, stretching from side to side of the vessel, through the bulwarks. The centre of the vessel is at least fifteen or twenty feet lower than the tafferel, open for the most part amidships, planks being placed here and there to step on. There is tier upon tier of cabins aft. The hold is divided into compartments and made water proof; these are hired or owned by the shippers, so that each one keeps his goods separately; and in case the vessel spring a leak, in any particular part, it is more easily repaired. The caboose is on one side; and their meals, as at home, are made of rice and salt or fresh vegetables, and perhaps a little fish, and of every cheap article, however unsavoury, served up in a great number of small saucers.

The vessels are kept in a most filthy condition, and can be scented a long way off. Scenes of the grossest debauchery are practised on board these junks; and gambling is carried on to a great extent. They are called either male or female, according to the shape—the former being sharp aft, if not forward; but these are considered to be illegitimate upstarts of modern date, and are not the true Chinese junk. The female has an enormous broad convex stern, there being a hollow or cavity, where the broad, clumsy, grating-like rudder is placed; it probably recedes two feet from the quarters to the sternpost. They are generally painted white and red, perhaps blue, and the two enormous eyes of vigilance are ever to be seen on each bow. On the stern, all the art of the painter is exhausted by a profusion of meretricious ornaments—an eagle, or what is intended for one, occupies the centre of the stern, surrounded by all sorts of non-descript figures, and on one side of the counter is a Josh, or god of wealth, resembling in shape Toby Filpot, besides a great variety of indescribable nothings.

The boat is exceedingly stout and clumsy, and an exact counterpart of the junk, being of an oblong square, nearly flat, and propelled by a long oar, placed on a swivel.

Another kind of mechanics, are tin and leather-dressers, which, strange to say, are always to be found in the same shop. The makers of qualtahs, or iron pots and pans, which are a very neat, light article, and little liable to be broken, owing to the ductility or toughness of the iron. These pots are sold at a cheap rate, and are preferred to all cast-iron vessels imported from Europe. Some iron is also made into small bars or pieces. There are also makers of sandals, which articles are worn only by the Chinese. The tin-ware is very neatly made, and the patterns show a good deal of taste; but it is useless to put on the fire, as there is no alloy mixed with it. The leather is died a common red, made of deer-skin, and smoothed by a black stone, the size of a brick; it is used for mattresses, pillows, &c. House-carpenters, canoe, and boat builders, and a few makers of musical instruments, with a little coarse pottery, and a few ordinary knives and locks, comprise all the mechanic arts that have fallen within my knowledge. Gold and silversmiths, I have nowhere seen; if there were any, who possessed such ingenuity, they would be seized upon by the king or his officers, and employed in their service. The gold vessels, containing areca, cigars, &c., &c., are carried to every place they visit, by the princes and higher officers of government, are made at the palace, and can only be used by the king’s favourites. I have seen a few rude hand-looms in operation; but the fabrics, both of silk and cotton, were very ordinary.

They import their brass ware and silk stuffs from China and Surat, and their cotton and woollen goods, cutlery, &c., principally from Singapore. Even the Talapoys’ razors for shaving their heads, are imported from Canton: they are made of thin brass, of a curved shape, about two inches wide throughout, and six inches long, fixed into a coarse wooden handle. The mechanic arts are carried on almost wholly by the industrious Chinese. The common houses are of bamboo, with attap roofs; some are built of wood, and few of brick; but with few exceptions, they all stand upon high piles. They are thus raised, in consequence of the inundation of the river, to make them more secure against depredations, to keep them dry, and to avoid the numerous reptiles. The bridges which cross the canals, are generally a single plank; some few have timbers laid on apartments of wood or brick, planked, and about six feet wide, but an arched bridge is nowhere to be seen. Roads there are none; and the only carriages are those owned by the king, which are brought out only on some great occasions, and are never seen beyond the walls of the city; of course, there is scarcely any use for horses or elephants. The Menam with its thousands of boats, and the numerous canals and branches of the river, make the communication every where cheap and easy, and compensate in a great measure, for the want of roads.

The principal amusement of the inhabitants, within their houses, is singing and playing on musical instruments, of various kinds: their singing is of a plaintive and melancholy cast, and they display considerable taste in its execution: but there is too much monotony, too much sameness in it; still they have got beyond the point of being pleased with mere sound, like the Chinese. Their musical instruments are very numerous: I have been able to describe but few; the music produced by them is very different from the vocal, being cheerful and lively. Playing chess is also a pastime. Dancing girls are kept for the amusement of the women of the higher classes. Tumblers, rope-dancers and actors, are considered necessary appendages for a complete establishment. Gambling is carried to great excess by the Siamese and Chinese; and the revenue derived from it, as will be seen in a statement of the revenue, is of considerable importance to the government. Flying kites is a favourite amusement with all, especially with the Talapoys, and a great number of them may be seen employed, in this way, at all hours of the day. Playing shuttlecock with their feet, three on a side, is much practised by them, as well as the laity; and in their houses, and even within their temples, they spend a large portion of their time at chess. These amusements, together with chewing areca, smoking cigars, begging, and sleeping, leave but little time for devotion and study.

A few days since, a Siamese came into the yard, and desired to exhibit some dancing snakes; he uncovered a basket, and drew out with his naked hand several of a large size, and of the most venomous kind known in India, the cobra de capello—they were full six feet in length, and large in proportion; he had eight in the basket, and took out three or four at a time, and suffered them to run about: he would then touch one slightly on the body, as he was retreating, which caused him instantly to turn his head backward toward the tail. The head, from being round and small in proportion to the body, was quickly expanded to the width of full three, and probably five inches in length, showing a crown or circle in the centre; the head was nearly flat, his forked tongue was thrust out with great rapidity, and he kept vibrating from side to side, and his keen fiery eye shot forth most terrific glances; but he made a most noble and graceful, although frightful appearance.

The exhibitor kept a cloth moving, a short distance in front of his eyes, and the snake, in endeavouring to elude it, so that he might spring upon his adversary, kept in a dancing motion. Having tied two or three of the largest round his neck, and put the head of one of them in his mouth, the exhibition ended. Being satisfied that the fangs were extracted, or otherwise they could not be handled with impunity, I suffered two of them to run between my feet, but they did not offer to molest me or any one else.

The water used for domestic purposes is taken, with all its impurities, from the river, in water-tight buckets, neatly and strongly woven; it is put into unglazed earthen jars of thirty or forty gallons, and is suffered to settle in the best way it can, without any foreign aid. The filth of half a million of people, which is all emptied into the river, renders it most impure, and dead bodies are frequently thrown in to save the expense of burning. In a family, where no garments are mended—in which there is no baking or ironing of clothes; no stocking nor shoes worn, and the washing and drying of their simple garments, done at the river, does not occupy a month in a year—no books read, and no writing done—a large portion of the time of the females must, of course, be spent in sleep and idleness. This is the life led by the Siamese women of a good condition, they having in fact no occupation—this must be the true “dolce farniente” of the Italians, and a sorry one it is.

They wear no jewels, these being used altogether by the children, their dress consisting only of a waist and breast cloth of dark silk. A little music, the dancing girls, actors, and tumblers, occasionally exhibited, chess, colouring their skin yellow with turmeric, and anointing the tuft of unshorn hair on the top of their head; scandal, with frequent dissensions, the natural consequence of a plurality of wives; no riding out, seldom paying visits, and rarely diverting themselves with shopping, the almost unvaried repetition, from day to day, of the same dull round of occupations and amusements, cause their lives to drag on wearily, heavily, and listlessly. Long nails being considered a sort of patent of nobility by the Siamese, as well as the Chinese and Cochin-Chinese, draw a certain line of distinction between the vulgar, who are obliged to wear short ones and work for their living, and the higher orders. Those of the latter are carefully preserved from being broken, but not quite so much pains being taken to keep them clean, they are generally disgusting in their appearance—some of them are full two inches in length, and are put into cases of bamboo or metal on retiring to rest. The female actresses wear silver-pointed cases to them, which curve backward with a high sweep, nearly touching the wrist.

The higher orders of nobility, in fact, all who are allowed to crawl as far as the lowest place within the palace, and all the officers of state, must pay a morning and an evening visit to the “Lord of the White Elephant,” to his “golden-footed majesty,” “the master of all men’s lives.” Not to attend regularly, is considered a mark of disrespect and disaffection to the king: sickness, or some great calamity, only, is good cause for excuse.

Regularly, at half past eight in the morning, the praklang passed the mission house, having about a dozen paddles to his long canoe, sitting cross-legged or sidewise under the palm-leaf awning, or reclining on a carpet and cushions, a slave crouching on all fours in front of him, administering to his comforts in lighting a cigar, or helping him to areca. His palanquin (or rather a lacquered hand-barrow) protected from the rays of the sun by a large umbrella, was carried in the same boat, so as to be in readiness, on landing, to carry his unwieldy person to the palace. About noon, he returned. Between six and seven, he again regularly passed, and returned again usually about midnight. The paddlers on the numerous boats crouched low when he passed, as they all do when passing by the king’s bathing-house on the river: he never notices, in the slightest degree, their obeisance, but wo to them if they omit it. The bath-house is of great length, painted red, and decorated in front with numerous dwarf-trees and shrubs, and is used, it is said, daily, by his hundreds of (some say, eight hundred) wives and many scores of children, with their countless attendants.

Annually, every public officer renews his oath of allegiance to his majesty, in the most horrid and revolting terms, calling down upon himself every curse and punishment in the present and future world, should he prove disloyal. At the commencement of the Chinese year, every governor, or other important officer, even of the most distant province, is obliged, on pain of death, to present himself at the krong, or capital, for this purpose.

A few days after our arrival, the venerable bishop of the Roman Catholic church sent a deputation to wait upon me, consisting of a young French priest, who has been in the country about two years, and a native Portuguese priest. The bishop sent an excuse for not paying a visit in person, owing to his advanced age and great infirmities, and requested me to call upon him, which I accordingly did in a few days thereafter, in company with Mr. Silveira and Doctor Ticknor. He made but few inquiries respecting his own country, which he had apparently almost forgotten. He said he was born at Avignon, in 1760, left France in the year 1786, and, with the exception of the time occupied by a tedious passage, three months passed at Macao, and six months at HuÉ, the capital of Cochin-China, he had been ever since in Siam. He was very infirm, and in his second childhood: sans teeth, sight dim, sans every thing. The house he lived in was very old and far from being clean. The church was built of brick and stuccoed, having a very gaudy and ordinary altar-piece, and destitute of images. It has been finished but a few years, and is called Santa Assomption.

A college, erected within a few years since the church, and neatly built of wood, stands near it, having about twenty students. It is erected on high posts, and is one story high. This Christian campong stands in the midst of palm and forest trees; and the situation is altogether very rural and pleasant. It will bear no comparison with its neighbours, the rich and gorgeous temples of Budha. The Catholic churches in this country, since the first bishop arrived, in 1662, have scarcely made any progress: the descendants of the Portuguese constitute, I may say with propriety, all the Christians in the kingdom; so say the Catholics themselves. All that can now be found here, and in the vicinity, do not exceed, according to the most zealous of that sect, thirteen hundred; but, according to a Protestant Christian missionary, who resided here nearly three years, and numbered them with considerable accuracy, they do not exceed four hundred. There are four churches in this vicinity; three of them are merely long sheds, in a wretched condition. In the campong of Santa Cruz, the walls of a brick one are erected, near to the old shed of that name; but the building will never be finished, for there are, already, evident signs of dilapidation in many parts of it.

Of the splendid churches that once adorned the old capital of Jutaya, there is but a small one now remaining, built out of the ruins of the others; and in Camboja, where the Catholics once had a strong foothold, they have dwindled to a mere name. The descendants of the Portuguese, in whose veins courses the blood of the courageous adventurers with the bold and fearless Vasco de Gama, who had the temerity first to double the cape of Good Hope, and the cruel Albuquerque, are now crouching slaves before the nobles of the country; and are employed only in menial offices, with the exception of two, which give them a bare subsistence.

The number of temples erected in the city and vicinity, I was unable to ascertain: that they amount to several hundreds, (some report from four to five hundred,) there cannot be a doubt. They occupy the most conspicuous and beautiful spots on the bank of the Menam, on its tributaries and numerous canals: you never lose sight of them; frequently eight or ten are in view at the same moment. In the most sequestered rural spots, they are always to be found; and wherever a brick pathway leads into the depths of the forest, it is a sure indication that there is a temple to be found. They are erected by pious individuals generally, believing that it will be the means of their souls being transmigrated into a higher and holier state of existence, than would otherwise enjoy; they but most of them are built from ostentatious motives.

They are of brick, and plastered; are one story in height, having neither arch nor dome; of a square form, and the roof is covered with neat coloured tiles, which gives them a gay appearance. At a first view, one is deceived, by supposing that there are three or four roofs to every building, as there are a series of them, which gradually diminish in size, to the main roof. The fronts, or gable ends, are laboriously and elegantly carved, with fanciful devices, and richly gilded. The eaves, doors, and window-frames, are, more or less, carved and gilt, painted and varnished. The doors and windows greatly resemble the pointed, or Gothic style of architecture. A figure of Budha, generally in a sitting posture, wearing the peaked crown, and having the soles of his holy feet turned upward, occupies nearly one entire end of the building, and is usually surrounded by votaries of a small size. He is partially covered with yellow cloths, having a high umbrella suspended over his head. Incense is occasionally burnt before him. The ceiling of the roof, which is flat, is painted with vermillion, ornamented with gilded stars. The entire sides, doors, and window-shutters, are covered with figures, fruit, and fancy work of various kinds—painted, varnished, and gilt. The floors of most of the buildings are of cement, having neither galleries, benches, nor seats of any kind, and scarcely a mat to kneel on. There are but few public temples. The front and rear of all have a portico. China plates, saucers, and common English crockery, stuck into plaster, intended as ornaments, are seen on many of them; bits of coloured glass, also, make up part of the ornaments around the doors and windows. The images are either of brass or iron—brick plastered, and wood; but all richly gilt and burnished. Two temples, of a lesser size, stand on either side of the principal: they are generally not so highly ornamented. Small pyramidal pagodas, of six or seven feet in height, and open at the sides, surround these buildings, and contain two stones, or rather slabs, standing about six inches apart; they are of the exact shape of a bishop’s mitre. I repeatedly asked the use of them, or what they were intended to resemble; but all professed their ignorance of their origin. In them were generally found palm-leaves, containing characters, written in the sacred or Bali and Siamese languages, strung together in the centre, at a proper distance.

Small temples, or rather buildings, for various purposes, occupy the fronts and sides, among which, in a distinct building, is the belfry, which is ascended by a flight of steps, containing generally five or six bells, having no tongues, but being sounded by means of a heavy stick, or piece of metal.

Early in the morning, “when dying clouds contend with growing light;” when the fox-bat is returning from his nightly wanderings, to suspend himself on the holy fig trees, which lie scattered about the temples of Budha, and like the midnight marauder, shrinks from the sacred light of day; the tokay has ceased to send forth his harsh, loud, and monotonous cry; the prowling tiger has retired to his lair; the tuneful birds have chanted forth their first matins, or the labourer has returned to his daily task; when every thing is hushed in the solemnity of night, in the stillness of a temporary death, you are suddenly aroused by the din of the pagan bells, sounding far and wide through the depths of the surrounding palm-forests, summoning the worshippers of Gautama to early prayers. In the confusion of the moment, between slumbering and waking, you are transported, in imagination, to far distant lands, where the Sabbath bell calls forth its votaries. But how great the contrast! One summons to the worship of an imaginary god; the other to the worship of the everlasting and true God, the Lord of all things—of light and life.

Pra-chadis, or thin tall spires, from twenty to sixty feet in height, are in great numbers; and there is one at the krong or capital, which towers to the height, probably, of a hundred and fifty feet. The houses of the Talapoys are contiguous to the temples, and are generally shaded by fruit and forest trees. Small temples, having a high roof, and four wide avenues leading to the centre, for the burning of the richer sort, and a raised platform in the open air, for those who can only pay small fees, are placed at the most convenient spot near the water. A long bath, or small pond, containing young alligators, seems to be a necessary appendage to all temples. The grounds about the front of many of the richer temples, are neatly and prettily laid out with avenues, clumps of trees, shrubbery, &c. The priests derive a considerable revenue by making small images, either of the unconsumed bones of certain deceased persons, or else of common clay, gilt; and also by writing on palm-trees, certain moral or religious sentences, in the sacred language. The Indian lotus, with its broad leaf, is nowhere neglected, but is found about every temple, growing from large porcelain or stone vases, neatly, and sometimes elaborately wrought. Every Siamese temple is not only a place for worship, but it is likewise a monastery: females are in them, old and worn out, and their characters are far from being respected. They only do menial offices, dress in white, and have nothing to do with the worship in the temples. As rice, their chief support, is abundant, it is but just that the Talapoys should support them in their old age.

The spot on which the present capital stands, and the country in its vicinity, on both banks of the river for a considerable distance, were formerly, before the removal of the court to its present situation, called Bang-kok; but since that time, and for nearly sixty years past, it has been named Sia yuthia, (pronounced See-ah you-tÈ-ah, and by the natives, Krung, that is, the capital;) it is called by both names here, but never Bang-kok; and they always correct foreigners when the latter make this mistake. The villages which occupy the right hand of the river, opposite to the capital, pass under the general name of Bang-kok.

A Cochin-Chinese ambassador, with several junks, arrived here from Longuar (alias Saigon) a few days before our arrival, being the same mentioned previously. Ambassadors’ junks of both nations, whenever they visit each other’s country, or pay their annual tribute to China, are always well laden with goods, out and home, on account of the king or his ministers; it is in part a trading expedition, and the secret is, they are allowed to go duty free, as I have before stated.

The object of the emperor of Cochin-China, in this case, is blended with a more serious piece of business; it is no less than to demand the delivery, to them, of the person of the first minister of state, and superintendant of Pegu, and the principalities of Laus and Camboja, whose title is “Chan-phaya-bodin-desha;” he is a “meh-tap,” or commander of the Siamese forces now in Camboja. It seems, in 1827, the Siamese government oppressed the subjects of one of the Laos tributary princes, Chow-vin-chan, to such a degree, that he was obliged to take up arms in defence of his rights, against the neighbouring Siamese government; this was the point to which the Siamese government wished to force him, for the purpose of taking into possession his territory. Hordes of soldiers were sent among them under the command of the said Chan-phaya-bodin-desha, and they committed all sorts of enormities; the country was stripped of its riches, and the inhabitants, fleeing from the enemy, were shot down indiscriminately like wild beasts; this process being found too tedious, thousands were packed into houses and blown up with gunpowder; the younger women became the prey of a licentious soldiery, and the smoking ruins of a peaceable people marked the track of a band of savages, whose knives were steeped to the hilt in the blood of their fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, and children. Those who escaped were sent to the capital and sold as slaves; thousands and thousands died on the rafts which floated them down the Menam, with wounds, sickness, and starvation. In fact, the country was made desolate, was in ruins: “He made a solitude and called it peace.” The survivors were never more to see their country; their soil was given to their savage invaders. In the midst of these horrible excesses, an ambassador from the emperor of Cochin-China was sent to the general in command, with the ostensible object of interposing in behalf of Chow-vin-chan and his family, who had fled into their territory—not from motives of compassion, I conceive, for the present emperor of Cochin-China is an ignorant, blood-thirsty savage, and pursues his enemy, where he dares, with an unrelenting hand. The object was, in truth, to prevent the conquest of the kingdom of Laos by Siam, which would give the Siamese a better chance of obtaining a larger slice at a future day, which they had long contemplated with eager and with gloating eyes. The Siamese commander, smarting with all his wounds, and red-hot from the bloody battle-field, or to speak less hyperbolically, not having filled a heavy purse from the spoils of the conquered, anticipating a golden harvest from the onward march, and feeling deeply indignant at the insidious policy of his wily neighbours, ordered an instantaneous massacre of the envoy and his suite of a hundred men, with the exception of one, who was sent back to say, “I alone am left out of all my brethren.” Highly enraged as was the emperor at the fell swoop of the embassy, and the gross violation of the law of nations, he dissembled, not daring to wage a war or revenge cruelty by cruelly; for his crazy, disjointed, and puny government would probably crumble into atoms, the moment a large force should quit the kingdom.

The Cochin-Chinese government are aware that the Tung-kinese, on the north, are watching keenly for the first possible chance which offers of freeing themselves from their despotic oppressors; the Cambojans on the south are desirous also of measuring the length of their swords with their hard task-masters, and the lower class of Cochin-Chinese, which comprise nine hundred and ninety-nine of the thousand, are ripe for a revolt; being ground to the earth by the higher orders. They are ragged, filthy, and starving, from the gulf of Tung-king to the gulf of Siam, and from the coast washed by the China sea, to the boundaries of his “golden-footed majesty.” Year after year this demand has been made and evaded, and so far from his Siamese majesty ever intending to comply with it, he has lately sent this same “Meh-tap” into that part of Camboja which fell to his majesty’s share in the division of that kingdom with Cochin-China, to receive, and to protect from capture, the many thousands of Cambojans, who have recently fled into the Siamese territory. The ambassador paid his first visit a few days after his arrival, to the chow-pia-praklang, and was treated with bare civility; he was told, by order of his majesty, that a copy of the same letter which was sent to his majesty the last year, was all the answer which would be returned to the letter received from the emperor through his hands. His audience with the king, which took place a few days previously to ours, was marked by no distinguished honours; the pomp and parade exhibited to us were dispensed with upon that occasion. It is said by Mr. Silveira, and all others, that no embassy from a foreign country ever had so favourable and honourable a reception as ours, marked at the same time with the most extraordinary despatch ever known.

This same emperor of Cochin-China, this deep sympathizer in the wrongs of the people of Lao, has lately persecuted to death a handful of poor Roman Catholics, all who would not trample on the cross and renounce Christianity. To conclude, the Chow-vin-chan and family were betrayed into the hands of the Siamese. Sickness, distress of mind, and long exposure to the elements, fortunately put an end to the prince. He died in a cage, a few days before his cruel oppressors intended to put him and his family to the most excruciating tortures; the heir apparent escaped, but committed suicide by throwing himself from the roof of a temple to the ground, rather than fall into the hands of his blood-thirsty pursuers. The female part of the family receive a scanty subsistance from the government and remain in the capital. Thus ended the dynasty of Chow-vin-chan, adding another victim to the millions that have heretofore perished, from the effect of inordinate ambition.

The barbarous conduct of the Siamese last year, in the Malay peninsula, in sending hordes of soldiers, or rather common coolies, under the command of the chow-pia praklang, which destroyed Patani, Singora, &c., plundering them of their property, and sending nearly five thousand prisoners as slaves to this place, which had been given away, or “sold in lots to suit purchasers;” the thousands that died from wounds, bad treatment, and starvation—deserve the bitter execration of every friend of humanity.

Education is carried to a very limited extent; a mere smattering only is generally diffused among the Siamese, in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The suan-pawn is in general use as an assistant in making calculations. Those who wish to attain to a greater degree of knowledge, more particularly in the Pali or sacred language, resort to the monasteries of the Talapoys. In their composition, (if I may be allowed to judge from the various articles of the treaty, being again and again altered to make them clear and perspicuous,) they are fond of being ambiguous in all their forms of expression. There was always a disposition evinced to hint obscurely at things, like the Chinese, rather than express their full meaning.

A plain unmasked style, in speaking or writing, is totally unknown to a cringing people, born under a despotic government; but they are rapidly becoming wiser. Their intercourse with the English and Americans is gradually bringing about a more honest, manly, and open mode of expressing themselves, both in speaking and writing; but it can never be thoroughly effected under such a form of government as the present. The lower classes of the people are obliged to make use of gross flattery and adulation to their superiors, who again treat them as slaves, using high authoritative language. Subordination in rank is so strongly marked, that not the slightest appearance of equality is to be seen. They attach a ridiculous importance to mere form and ceremony. A Siamese, in the presence of a superior, either crouches to the ground, or walks with his body bent. It seems utterly impossible for him to sit or walk in an upright posture. Women are allowed more freedom here, than in any other country where polygamy is tolerated. They wear no veils, and almost hourly boat-loads of the wives of the nobility were seen to pass; the curtains were drawn aside to satisfy their curiosity, which always appeared to be more ardent than ours. The lower orders of women, apparently, do most of the labours of the field, and are employed in the boats on the river in great numbers. They are the principal traders, and are said to be very shrewd and cunning.

The most conspicuous objects which strike the eye of the traveller on the Menam, besides the splendid wats, are the new palace, a large watch-tower, and a prachade or tall thin spire, which is many feet higher than any other building; all are situated within the walls of the city. The palace itself, with its pagodas, and many other buildings, is surrounded by a high wall, having strong gates, and a guard of a miserable and undisciplined militia. The palace is a handsome and extensive building of brick, and stuccoed; the doors and windows are similar in style, taste, and outward decorations to the better class of temples, and bear a strong resemblance to the Gothic style of architecture. It has a high cupola, formed by a series of roofs, or it rather resembles a conical umbrella diminishing in size to the spire, which is without decorations, and rises to the height, perhaps, of one hundred and sixty feet. The roof of the building has also a diminishing series of roofs like the pagodas, and it is covered with very neat coloured tiles. The cupola appears to be gilded upon copper, or more probably slabs of tin.

The watchtower is of the height of the palace, and is an oblong square building; the base is probably one hundred feet square, built of brick and plastered, having a guard-house and strong gates; fifty feet from the base commences the first look-out room, and there are two others above it. In them are gongs and bells, which give notice of an enemy, or a fire, or an insurrection of the people. The inhabitants are at once informed by the sound of one of these instruments, of the calamity which assails them, each one being appropriated to one of these particular objects. A few days before the procession of the wang-na took place, there arrived the governor of Ligor, whose title is chow-phay-a-lakhow, alias Ligor; he commands one of the most important provinces belonging to the Siamese, in the Malay peninsula, is a Siamese by birth, a man of powerful talents, fond of Europeans, and adopts all their improvements in the mechanic arts. His boats are handsomely modelled, carrying two or three fore and aft sails; they are coppered, carry a suitable number of cannon, and every thing about them is in excellent order. The model is superior to that of the king’s, having a greater breadth of beam, and they are of a greater length. The soldiers are well and uniformly clothed, and well drilled with the musket and the use of the bayonet, according to the tactics of the Europeans. There is some trade from the port of Ligor, in what is generally called the Malayan produce, viz.:—tins, black pepper, rattans, rice, sapan-woods, &c., and several small cargoes of cotton are taken away annually by Chinese junks. Four of his sons govern other provinces in the peninsula; the eldest is governor of Quedah, the former king of which now remains at Pulo Penang, or Prince of Wales island.

Although the British agreed by treaty, on the cession to the Pulo Penang, to protect him and his kingdom against any invasion by the Siamese, yet the latter were suffered to capture Quedah, and the British violated their treaty, for they offered no assistance. The king fled to Penang for protection, demanded to be reinstated, and was refused. Major Burney, in order to obtain a favourable commercial treaty with the Siamese, agreed to keep him a prisoner, and he is now in durance, living upon a small salary, under British protection. The cause of the failure of Mr. Crawford’s mission, was his refusal to deliver him to the Siamese, or confine him as a close prisoner.

The governor of Ligor was ordered here to attend the procession and burning of the wang-na; and it was also necessary he should be here at the commencement of the new year, to renew his oath of allegiance. He is a powerful chief; the government is alarmed at the extent of his power, but they dare not dispossess him of his government, or do his person any violence, for his sons would most certainly avenge his cause, and the king’s possessions in the Malay peninsula, would probably be lost to him.

The Chinese, who are noted every where for their villanous tricks, import large quantities of ordinary goods here, as well as those of a good quality—among other articles is tea. A story I heard almost daily in Canton, respecting the gross imposition practised upon foreigners in this article, here proved to be true. It is a well-known fact, that all the tea used in China, particularly about Canton, is bought up again, “fired anew,” as it is termed, and coloured green; even black teas, it is said, are thus coloured, by the use of smalts, and then exported to various countries. Tea of a good quality is exceedingly scarce here, and at a high price, notwithstanding the proximity to China, and the great number of junks which enter here from all the maritime provinces of that empire.

Until the ascension of the present king to the throne, it was a custom with the sovereigns of the country to hold the plough at the commencement of the rains, which generally take place at the latter end of April or beginning of May; this is now dispensed with, and one of the nobility is appointed instead of the monarch.

The rains continue till September, when the lower part of the Menam begins to rise, and it is at its utmost height in November and December: it then begins to subside. Its rise is generally from twelve to sixteen feet, but two years since it rose to the height of twenty-one feet.

The thermometer is occasionally as low as 73° in the months of December and January, during the height of the northeast monsoon.

Vast numbers of boats and rafts, bringing in the productions of the upper country, visited the capital during the flood above alluded to.