GEORGE B. BACON
Reading edition
REVISED BY
FREDERICK WELLS WILLIAMS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1893
Copyright, 1881, 1892, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
REVISER'S NOTE
The present editor's aim in revising this little volume has been to leave untouched, so far as possible, Mr. Bacon's compilation, omitting only such portions as were inaccurate or obsolete, and adding rather sparingly from the narratives of a few recent travellers. The authoritative history and description of Siam has yet to be written, and until this work appears the accounts of Pallegoix, of Bowring, and of Mouhot convey as satisfactory and accurate impressions of the country as those of later writers. Though the wonderful ruins at Angkor are now technically within the confines of Siam, their consideration still belongs to a treatise on Cambodia, and this as a separate country could not fairly be joined to Siam in carrying out the plan of the series. In other respects, without attempting to be exhaustive, the reviser's endeavor has been to neglect no important part or feature of the kingdom.
The regeneration effected in Siam during the past half century presents a suggestive contrast to that ebullition of new life which has within an even briefer period transformed despotic Japan into a free and ambitious state. Here, as there, the stranger is impressed with those outward symbols of nineteenth-century life, the agencies of steam, gas, and electricity that appear in many busy centres in whimsical incongruity to their Oriental setting; but these are the adjuncts rather than the essentials of that Western civilization which both countries are striving to imitate. In Siam, it must be confessed, there is no such evidence of popular awakening as now directs the world's attention to the Mikado's empire. The languor and content of life in the tropics disposes the people to seek new ideals and accept new institutions less eagerly than under Northern skies. Siam's policy of gradual progress toward a condition of higher enlightenment is in admirable accordance with her needs, and promises to achieve its purpose with no such risks of reaction or shipwreck as beset the course of more ambitious states in the East.
F. W. W.
CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER I.
Early Intercourse with Siam—Relations with Other Countries1
CHAPTER II.
Geography of Siam10
CHAPTER III.
Old Siam—Its History17
CHAPTER IV.
The Stories of Two Adventurers 36
CHAPTER V.
Modern Siam 65
CHAPTER VI.
First Impressions 73
CHAPTER VII.
A Royal Gentleman 86
CHAPTER VIII.
Phrabat Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut 104
CHAPTER IX.
Ayuthia 121
CHAPTER X.
Phrabat and Patawi 130
CHAPTER XI.
From Bangkok to Chantaboun—A Missionary Journey in 1835 146
CHAPTER XII.
Chantaboun and the Gulf 170
CHAPTER XIII.
Mouhot in the Hill-country of Chantaboun 183
CHAPTER XIV.
Pechaburi or P'ripp'ree 200
CHAPTER XV.
The Tribes of Northern Siam 216
CHAPTER XVI.
Siamese Life and Customs 234
CHAPTER XVII.
Natural Productions of Siam 258
CHAPTER XVIII.
Christian Missions in Siam—The Outlook for The Future 270
CHAPTER XIX.
Bangkok and the New Siam 277
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Great Pagoda Wat Chang,Frontispiece
Inundation of the Meinam,11
Pagoda at Ayuthia,21
View Taken from the Canal at Ayuthia,31
Ruins of a Pagoda at Ayuthia,38
General View of Bangkok,76
The Late First King and Queen,105
One of the Sons of the Late First King,109
A Few of the Children of the Late First King,120
Removal of the Tuft of a Young Siamese,122
Elephants in an Enclosure or Park at Ayuthia,127
Paknam on the Meinam,129
Pagoda at Mount Phrabat,130
Mountains of Korat from Patawi,141
Port of Chantaboun,149
Monkeys Playing with a Crocodile,180
Siamese Actors,194
Mountains of Pechaburi,200
Siamese Women,234
Siamese Rope-dancer,237
Siamese Ladies at Dinner,242
Building Erected at Funeral of Siamese of High Rank,251
Hall of Audience, Palace of Bangkok,277
Portico of the Audience Hall at Bangkok,280
The Palace of the King of Siam, Bangkok,292