Siam: The Land of the White Elephant

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. 1

CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY OF SIAM, 10

CHAPTER III. OLD SIAM--ITS HISTORY, 17

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

SIAM

CHAPTER I.

EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH SIAM--RELATIONS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES