Gulf of Siam

“ The geology of Siam is simple, the lower portion near the gulf being an alluvial deposit, the result of the annual overflowing of the rivers, which takes place at the close of every rainy season. The water from the copious rains rushes down from the mountains up the country, and overflows the lowlands, enriching them and causing them to produce abundant crops of rice. The mountains are volcanic, and some of them have the appearance of having been thrown from a distance and set down in their present positions. ”

“ The coast is everywhere shallow, and at low tide long stretches of mud may be seen at any point on the northern shores of the inlet. The whole of lower Siam is one vast alluvial deposit. In several places in the interior, borings for wells have passed through thick strata of sea-shells and other marine deposits, thus showing that in earlier days the northern limit of the gulf extended far north of the site of the present capital. ”

“ The French were none the less well received, and in virtue of a secret treaty, Mergui and Bangkok were banded over to the soldiery to whom the King extended a welcome. These towns were reckoned as two of the ramparts of the country the one on the Bay of Bengal and the other on the Gulf of Siam. ”

“ To the south lie Cambodia and the Gulf of Siam, stretching a long arm down into the Malay Peninsula. On the west it abuts on Upper and Lower Burma, both now British possessions.
Through Siam and Lao run two great mountain chains, both radiating from Yunnan through the [Pg 11] Shan states. The eastern chain stretches in a S.S.E. direction from Kiang Tsen right down to Cambodia, while the western chain extends in a southerly direction through the Malay Peninsula. Their height rises sometimes to 9,000 feet, but it does not often seem to exceed 5,000 ”

“ At noon on this day the two vessels were forty-four miles up the Gulf of Siam. The prophecies of Captain Rayburn and Achang in regard to the weather proved to be correct. The monsoon blew steadily all the way, and the yacht carried her sail. Not even a squall disturbed the serenity of the voyage, and everything went on as during the first and second days. The "Four" would have been glad to explore the Great Natuna Island, and determine whether or not it was inhabited ”

“ The first I landed at was named Konam-sao; it is in the form of a cone, and nearly two hundred and fifty metres [A] in height, but only two miles in circumference. Like all the other islands in this part of the gulf, it is of volcanic origin. The rocks which surround it make the access difficult; but the effect produced by the richness and bright green of the vegetation is charming. The dry season, so agreeable for European travelling, from the freshness of the nights and mornings, is in Siam a time of stagnation and death for all nature ”

“ Even still, although hemmed in on one side by the British possessions, on the other by the French protectorate of Camboja, Siam comprises beyond the Menam Valley a considerable part of the Malay Peninsula, and draws tribute from numerous people in the Mekong and Salwen basins. But this State, with an area about half as large again as that of France, has a population probably less than 6,000,000. ... The inhabitants of Siam, whether Shans, Laos, or Siamese proper, belong all alike to the same Thai stock, which is also represented by numerous tribes in Assam, Manipur, and China. ”

“ Peninsular Siam is the narrow, northern two-thirds of the Malay Peninsula, sharply divided longitudinally by a mountain chain which passes down its whole length. It is a country rich in forests, cattle, fisheries, mines, and agriculture, and possessed of great natural beauty in the countless islets off its shores, its beaches lined with palms and casuarinas, and the verdure of it mountain-backed landscapes. Most of the developed natural wealth of the Kingdom is found in this portion, which has fine systems of highways and railroads. ”

“ Boat-travelling in Siam is much the same everywhere; and in their boat-life, it may be said, the Siamese have attained a high degree of civilization. Very often the boat is the home of the family, and after the rains they moor alongside the bank and cultivate tobacco, cotton, or melons on the slope on which the rich loam of the floods has settled down; after the rice harvest they will set out laden with paddy for Bangkok, returning later on with salt or other luxuries from the south. The Chinese, who are the most energetic people in the country, carry on extensive trading in this way. ”

“ Sympathy for Belgium and the popular aversion to Teutonic methods had left no doubt as to the duty of Siam. The motive of Siam had a curious fitness, though there was a certain quaintness in her expression of a desire to make, “the world safe for democracy.”
The native name of Siam is Muang-Thai, which means the Kingdom of the Free. Siam is about as large as France, and has a population of about eight millions. Its people, who are of many shades of yellowish-brown, have descended into this corner of Asia from the highlands north of Burma and east of Tibet. ”

“ The long and peaceful reign of the late king, however, has almost effaced from the minds of the youth of Siam the remembrance of such monstrous oppressions.
The Siamese are but indifferent sailors, their nautical excursions being mainly confined to short coasting trips, or boating in safe and familiar channels. The more adventurous export trade is carried on almost wholly by foreigners. About one thousand war-boats constitute the bulk of the navy. These are constructed from the solid bole of the teak-tree, excavated partly with fire, partly with the adze ”

“ It very seldom happens that anyone falls overboard; and even if a person does fall into the water it matters but little, for there is no Siamese who cannot swim. When the children are ever so tiny, their mothers fasten under their arms a big tin float. Then they throw the babies—for they are nothing more—into the warm waters of the canal or river, where they bob up and down like so many animated bits of brown cork upon the surface of the stream.
There are, of course, many people who, in the capital especially, live upon land, and of their houses we shall say something in a later chapter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Above Ayuthia the navigation of the Meinam is often interrupted by sand-banks, but the borders are still occupied by numerous and populous villages; their number diminishes until the marks of human presence gradually disappear—the river is crowded with crocodiles, the trees are filled with monkeys, and the noise of the elephants is heard in the impervious woods. After many days' passage up the river, one of the oldest capitals of Siam, built fifteen hundred years ago, is approached. ”

“ 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 ”

“ And one of these invading tribes, the Angles, gave its name to a part of our island, which is to this day known as England—that is, Angle-land, the land of the Angles.
Now, in the same way, the people who live in Siam at the present time are the descendants of invaders who swept into the country and drove the original inhabitants into the hills. No one is quite certain where the Siamese actually came from, but it is likely that their home was upon the mountain-slopes of Tibet. Their ancestors were a wild and vigorous race who tattooed themselves. ”

“ If you will take down the family atlas and turn to the map of Southern Asia you will see that Siam, with an area about equivalent to that of Spain, occupies the uncomfortable and precarious position of a fat walnut clinched firmly between the jaws of a nut-cracker, the jaws being formed by British Burmah and French Indo-China. And for the past thirty years those jaws have been slowly but remorselessly closing. Until 1893 the eastern frontier of Siam was separated from the China Sea by the narrow strip of Annam, at one point barely thirty miles in width, which was under French protection. ”

“ The country here presented the appearance of extreme fertility; the banks were covered with areca and cocoa-nut trees, plantains, jack, and other fruit-trees. Numerous navigable canals intersect the country in every direction, offering every facility for the increase of commercial industry. Here, as in Siam, the more laborious occupations are often performed by women, and the boats upon the river are in general rowed by them. A practice, as ungallant as it is unjust, prevails both here and in Siam; that of making females only to pay for being ferried across rivers, the men passing always free. ”

“ Hitherto all the views I had seen in Siam had been limited in extent, but here the beauty of the country is exhibited in all its splendor. Beneath my feet was a rich and velvety carpet of brilliant and varied colors; an immense tract of forest, amid which the fields of rice and the unwooded spots appeared like little streaks of green; [Pg 141] beyond, the ground, rising gradually, swells into hills of different elevations; farther still to the north and east, in the form of a semicircle, is the mountain-chain of Phrabat and that of the kingdom of Muang-Lôm ”

“ But in those portions distant from the rivers or canals resort must be had to ox-carts and elephants.
Siam is the genial land of the elephant. He roams wild in her forests, but those which have not at least been partially tamed are now becoming scarce. He constitutes in the northern provinces the chief beast of burden, and one of the special uses to which he is put, is drawing timber from the forest to the bank of the river, where it can be formed into rafts and floated to market. ”

“ The river flows eastward and falls into the Mekong at 15° 20′ N. and 105° 40′ E. A good way farther north two small rivers, the Nam Kum and the Nam Song Kram, also tributaries of the Mekong, drain a small part of eastern Siam. Nearly two million people, mixed Siamese, Lao and Cambodian, probably among the poorest peasantry in the world, support existence in this inhospitable region.
Central Siam, estimated at 50,000 sq. m. in area, is the heart of the kingdom, the home of the greater part of its population, and the source of nine-tenths of its wealth. ”

“ The work was consummated; and then the new King told the French that the King of Siam must consent to his giving the land as it was tributary to Siam. Then the French took up the cudgel of might against right, and began to intimidate the King of Siam, by bringing one of their gun boats up the River with flags flying and drums beating. The ship passed Packnam, which is a custom house, with their guns and cannon on board, which was a violation of the treaty obligations made with Western nations, Up the River came the gun boat with Count Castlenau on board. ”

“ The original population of the Siamese peninsula was a race of black dwarfs, remnants of whom still dwell in caves and nests of palm leaves, so shy that it is almost impossible to catch a glimpse of them. The literary and religious culture of Siam comes mainly from southern India. Buddhism is the dominant religion, but there are many Mohammedans also. ”

“ The waves glitter in the broad sunshine with a brilliancy which the eye can scarcely support, and, in many parts of the lake, nothing is visible all around but water. In the centre is planted a tall mast, indicating the boundary between the kingdoms of Siam and Cambodia. ”

“ France had ships of war at the mouth of the Menam, and sent some of the smaller craft up the [184] river. It looked very much like war; but before the ships bombarded Bangkok, Siam yielded, and gave up the portion of territory claimed; and no doubt it will be the same story told over again from time to time, until Siam exists only as a dependency of France.
"Though you see mountains laid down on Mr. Gaskette's map, the elevations hardly deserve that name; for nearly the whole of Cochin China is low ground, almost flat. The Mekhong River is the largest in the peninsula, being 2,800 miles long. ”

“ They pointed the craft up-stream and fell to paddling, their flabby breasts beating against their paunches with every stroke, their bony knees rising and falling regularly. They were expert water dogs, however, and crossed the swift stream without mishap, landing us at a crazy wooden wharf in the center of the town.
In every published map of Siam you will find Rehang noted—somewhere within a hundred miles of its actual situation. Not that the city deserves such distinction. ”