No 3 as Showers of my firse my greatest joy personal entertain in both publickly very intimate f Is staying here as I have ordere officer of the ex affairs to get 21 num" where you meet at the your Excellency After consule officer there on be leaded or ca us much respect fringed. Please according to Se THE KINGDOM AND PEOPLE OF SIAM. THE CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHY. HE kingdom of Siam is composed of forty-one provinces, each governed by a Phaja, or functionary of the highest rank. There are a considerable number of other districts under the authority of officials of lower ranks. There are five provinces in the north-Sang Kalôk, Phitsalok or Phitsanulok, Kamphang Phet, Phixai, Raheny. In the centre, nine provinces-Nontaburi or TalatKhuan, Pak-Tret, Patummatani or Samkhok, Juthia or Krung-Kao, Ang-Thong, Muang-Phrom, Muang-In, Xainat, Nakhon-Savan. Ten eastern provinces - Phetxabun, Bua-Xum, Sara-Buri, Nophaburi, Nakhon-Najok, Pachin, Kabin, Sasong-Sao or Petriu, Battabong, and Phanatsani Khom. Seven western provinces-Muang-Sing, Suphan or Suphannaburi, Kan-chanaburi or Pak-Phrëk, Rapri or Raxaburi, Nakhon Xaisi, Sákhonburi or Tha-Chin, Samut-Songkhram or Mei-Khlong. Ten southern provinces-Pakhlat or NakhonKhuen-Khan, Paknam or Sanauthaprakan, Bangplasoi or Xalaburi, Rajong, Chantabun or Chantaburi, ThungJai, Phiphri or Phetxaburi, Xumphon, Xaija, Xalang or Salang. Siam has been divided by Siamese annalists into two regions, the Northern, Muang-Nua, and the Southern, Muang-Tai; the Northern being that first occupied. The Southern annals are sometimes denominated the "Records of the Royal City" (Ayuthia), and take their date from the period when Ayuthia became the capital of Siam.* The native name of the kingdom of Siam is Thái, meaning the Free, or Muang Thai (the Free kingdom, or kingdom of the Free). Bishop Pallegoix, a high authority in such a question, says that the modern name Siam is derived from one of the ancient titles of the country, Sajam, meaning "the dark race.” In the Siamese books, according to Kämpfer, it (the name of the kingdom) is sounded with this epithet, Krom-Threp Pramma Laa Ikoon-Circuitus visitationis Deorum-"The Circle of the visitation of the Gods." This somewhat resembles the common Chinese name for their empire, Tien-hia, the "Under Heaven," meaning that celestial influences are confined to China alone. The frontiers of the kingdom have considerably * Joâo de Barros says that nine kingdoms were in his day subject to the sovereigns of Siam, of which only two were peopled by the Siamese races; namely, the southern kingdom, of which Ayuthia was the capital, and the northern, having for its capital Chaumua. Only in these two was the Siamese language spoken.-Decadas, vol. v. 161. P. |