H. G. Deignan

“ Fugitives entered Assam, where earlier emigrants had already settled, and became the dominant power in that country; others invaded Burma, where for two centuries a Lao-Tai (Shan) dynasty occupied the throne; while down the Salwin and Me Khong Valleys came band after band of exiles who mingled with their cousins already established in those valleys and, in time fusing with the Mon and the Khmer, produced the race which, since the founding of the city of Ayuthia, has been dominant in Siam. ”

“ In the year 1863, Norodom, whom Siam had placed upon the Cambodian throne, made a treaty with France, now master of Annam, by which he accepted French protection; at almost the same time he made an exactly similar compact with Siam. Thus each country found itself responsible for the protection of Cambodia against any possible aggressor, while each was given the sole right of dictating the foreign policy of that state. ”

“ The basin of Eastern Siam, with its thin vegetation and cut off from cooling breezes by its surrounding rim, is subject to terrific heats during the day and, during the winter, very low temperatures at night. The central plain, outside of Bangkok, is pleasantly cooled during the hottest season by the continuous sea winds, night and day; in Bangkok, however, perhaps owing to houses of masonry in place of thatch and the drainage of surrounding marshes, the climate is not only appallingly hot but actually becoming perceptibly more so year by year. ”

“ Situated on the banks of the Chao Phraya, some 20 miles from its mouth, this metropolis, whose history goes back not earlier than the mid-eighteenth century A.D., is the center for scholarship and the arts, the filter through which pass all goods and ideas received by the interior from the outside world, and the nucleus of one of the most highly centralized of national governments. Its citizenry of some 800,000 represents no less than 5 percent of the total population of the country. ”

“ During succeeding centuries Lao armies advanced far south into the Mon-Khmer kingdoms, marital and political alliances between Lao and Khmer royalty became common, and Lao settlements were established in various parts of southern Siam.
Despite wars with rival states to the south and the Lao to the north, the Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok prospered greatly and in time attained to a high civilization. The arts were encouraged, the people were well governed, trade was extensive, and friendly relations were maintained with China and other distant countries by frequent exchange of embassies. ”

“ A lively resistance to the usurpers continues, inside Thailand and through her spokesmen abroad; we may confidently expect that the Thai, with the aid and sympathy of their friends of the United Nations, will at the earliest opportunity rid themselves both of their quislings and their Japanese overlords, again proudly to style themselves "the free men." ”

“ The Lao-Tai of the Yangtze Valley were evidently very numerous, for not only did they thus early establish kingdoms far from home but also became a power in their own land and for some time bid strongly for the mastery of all China. For centuries they waged successful wars on all their neighbors, but their strong propensity for wandering weakened their state and finally caused its disintegration. ”

“ The principal divisions of the Lao-Tai family now living within the borders of Siam are the Thai ("free men") or Siamese proper; the Lao, who occupy the former seats of those tribes of their own stock that afterward developed into the Thai; and the Shans, a later intrusion of distant cousins, descended from the Lao-Tai tribes that settled in the more eastern districts of Burma in the twelfth century and earlier. ”

“ In the forests of these hills and valleys, huge epiphyte-laden trees, bound together by vines, shelter such animals as the elephant, the tiger, and the gaur, but so dense is the cover that the presence of large game is more often made known by signs than by actual sight, and only the hunter who is willing to work hard and long is likely to shoot a worth-while trophy. ”

“ Portuguese, Dutch, French and English all came and took part in the struggle, pushing and jostling with the best, until the two last, having come face to face, agreed to a cessation of strife and to a division of the disputed interests amongst the survivors. Of these there were but three, the French, the English, and the Siamese, and therefore Further India now finds herself divided, as was once all Gaul, into three parts. To the east lies the territory of French Indo-China, embracing the Annamese and Kambodian nations and a large section of the Lao ”

“ The central plain, where not devoted to rice cultivation, shows the characteristic flora and fauna of a marsh and the eastern plateau has an impoverished biota, characterized by a certain number of endemic forms; the Peninsula, however, like the west and north, bears great forests rich in species of animals and plants.
PEOPLES Archeology can still tell us little of the first human occupants of Siam. The earliest evidence of man's existence here is furnished by celts, uncovered in the Peninsula and on the eastern plateau, which are supposed to date from the later Neolithic period ”

“ These communities grew from villages into cities and at the same time sent out offshoots in all directions, which in time became the capitals of small states, the chiefs of which constantly made war on each other and against the Lao-Tai tribes at their borders and now and again rose to sufficient strength to repudiate the vague suzerainty claimed over them all by the empire of Cambodia. ”

“ Rama II became involved in war at the beginning of his reign. In 1786, the regent of the now effete Kingdom of Cambodia had formally recognized Siamese suzerainty and had sent the infant King to reside at Bangkok, while he continued to rule the state under Siam's aegis. Annam, to the east, however, made identical claims to supremacy and when, in 1809, the Annamese King attempted to enforce his demands, an army was sent from Bangkok to repel him. ”

“ These mountains, rising abruptly from the valley floors and, on the whole, densely forested, are scarcely inhabited by man except for scattered groups of seminomadic hill tribes, which exist there by hunting and a primitive agriculture. The northernmost province, Chiengrai, is separated from the sister provinces by a mountain wall and belongs wholly to the Me Khong drainage; it is largely a region of marshes and grassy savannas.
Central Siam, the heart of Thailand, is the vast alluvial plain of the Chao Phraya and may be described as 55,000 square miles of almost unbrokenly monotonous scenery. ”

“ When the northeast winds blow strongly, the cold weather is very marked, but at such times as the seasonal winds fail, the cold weather is scarcely distinguishable from the hot. In Northern Siam, which lies at greatest distance from the sea and possesses greater radiation, the days may be hot even during the cold weather when the night temperatures afford a strong contrast by dropping to as low as 50° F. and on the mountains even lower, although never reaching freezing temperatures. ”

“ During this period, Siam was becoming well known to the European merchant adventurers trading in the Orient under the flags of Portugal, Holland, and England. Early in the sixteenth century, the Malay Kingdom of Malacca had been conquered by the Portuguese; individuals of this nation had penetrated to Ayuthia and Pegu and had served in the ranks of the contending armies during the Siamo-Burmese wars; Portuguese factories had been established at the various Siamese ports. ”

“ While the Mon and the Khmer (Cambodians) were still spreading over the southern parts of Indo-China and before they had begun, under the influence of colonists from India, to emerge from a condition of savagery, the tribes which they had left behind them at different points during their southward movement were already being driven back into the mountains and brought into a state of partial subjugation by the members of a third great family of migrants from the north. ”

“ Eastern Thailand is a huge, shallow, elevated basin, tilted toward the east, so that while its western rim stands 1,000 feet above the sea, its eastern rim is formed by low hills. The plateau is watered by the system of the Me Nam Mun, a tributary of the Me Khong. A poverty-ridden country of unproductive soil and adverse climatic conditions, it supports indifferently well a comparatively limited population. ”

“ Until recently, the inhabitants of towns and villages outside the capital lived a life not greatly different from that of their ancestors: one which revolved around the annual cycle of planting, growing, and the harvest, with religious festivals to break the monotony of living. Poverty, as understood in the industrial Occident, was unknown for, while little actual money was seen by the average family during the course of a year, yet a house could be built of bamboo in a day or two ”

“ This was Constantine Phaulcon, the son of a Cephalonian innkeeper, who ran away to sea in an English ship and, eventually making his way to Siam, stayed there to become Chief Minister of the Crown and the trusted adviser of the King, Phra Narai. Under Phaulcon's able guidance the country for a time prospered greatly. Not only were the Portuguese and Dutch merchants, already established, encouraged to extend the scope of their enterprise but the English and French East India Companies were invited to set up factories at the capital. ”

“ More than 1,000 different birds are recorded from the country, while fishes of almost endless variety abound everywhere, from the Gulf to the smallest roadside ditches. The natural vegetation ranges from the most typically tropical plants, such as the mangosteen, to forms of the Temperate Zone, such as pines and violets, on the northwestern mountains. ”

“ During the decade just passed the Government has initiated a positive program aimed at raising the standards of living of the common people and especially of the peasants who constitute the great majority. ”

“ Phra Narai was driven from the throne, Phaulcon was killed, the European troops were driven from the country, and Siam was saved from becoming the keystone of a great French empire in the Far East.
[Illustration: 1. A primitive type of cart still is used in remote districts. The teak logs shown in the background must be carted or dragged by elephants from the forest to the nearest large stream.]
[Illustration: 2. Elephants are employed to break up a jam of logs at the estacades of a bridge.] ”

“ The political aspect of the program leaned heavily toward economic nationalism, in an endeavor to counteract the excessive proportion of foreign capital in the country and to encourage more active participation by the Thai in the building-up of their own land. ”

“ Royalty visits Chiengmai.]
[Illustration: 2. A princely funeral at Chiengmai. White is the color of mourning.]
The Kingdom of Ayuthia continued to prosper during several subsequent reigns marked by friendly relations with European nations, including the French, and a preoccupation with foreign commerce. But, about the year 1759, the Burmese, reunited, after a long period of internal strife, under the martial Alaung Phra, initiated hostilities against the Siamese by an invasion which brought them to the walls of the capital ”