Little is known of its exact course; but it flows through a rich and cultivated country, and sends the produce of its banks to Bangplasoi for shipment or sale.

Bangplasoi has a convenient harbour, whose waters are so abundant in fish that the price is incredibly low. There are great numbers of Chinese settlers. The town has about six thousand inhabitants. The

neighbouring country is productive. There are extensive salt-pits, and boundless supplies of shells, which are burnt into lime for agricultural purposes.

The Mei-Kong is a large river flowing through the eastern side of Laos and Cambodia; it is said to be more than fifteen hundred miles long, but its navigation is much impeded by shallows and sandbanks at its mouth. This is the river of which there is a fine description in the tenth book of the Lusiad, at whose mouth the poet was wrecked, and into whose placid and gentle stream he speaks of flinging his luckless songs.

See thro' Cambodia Meikon's river goes,

Well named the "Captain of the Waters," while

So many a summer tributary flows

To spread its floods upon the sands, as Nile
Inundates its green banks.—

And shall I to this gentle river throw

My melancholy songs, and to its breast
Confide the welted leaves that tell the woe

Of many a shipwreck, dreary and distrest,—
Of famine, perils, and the overthrow

Of him, by fate's stern tyranny opprest-
Of him whose resonant lyre is doomed to be
More known to fame than to felicity?

HARBOUR OF KOSICHANG.

Ves passa por Cambaja Mecom rio,
Que capitão das aguas se interpreta;
Tantas recebe d'outro sò no estio,

Que alaga os campos largos e inquieta.
Tem as echentes quais o Nilo pio. . . . .

Este receberà placido e brando

No seu regaço os cantos que molhados,
Vem do naufragio triste e miserando
Dos procellosos baixos escapados;
Das fomes, dos perigos grandes, quando
Serà o injusto mando executado,

Naquelle cuja lira sonorosa

Serà mais affamada que ditosa.

29

Lusiadas, cant. x. exxvij. cxxviij.

There is a group of islands which form the harbour of Kosichang, near Bangplasoi, in lat. 13° 12′, long. 100° 55', which are much visited for supplies by vessels trading to Siam; a considerable extent of land is there under maize cultivation. The edible birds'-nests are collected in considerable quantities in the vicinity. The harbour is very fine, affording complete shelter for any number of vessels, and has great facilities for watering from a fine fresh stream, which will fill one hundred casks in a day. Hamilton calls this "The Dutch Islands;" and, it appears, group vessels of that nation were formerly accustomed to wait there for their cargoes, the open roadstead opposite Paknam being much exposed and dangerous, and at a considerable distance from the shore. As a naval station, the position is important. (Singapore Chronicle, March 16, 1826.)

The Gulf of Siam is little exposed to the typhoons and tempests which do such damage in the Chinese The Admiralty charts are full of extraordi

seas.

nary blunders.* Some were pointed out by Mr. Crawfurd more than a third of a century ago, but have remained uncorrected to the present hour. On board H.M.S. Rattler, when, according to charts, and our own accurate reckoning, we ought to have been safe in the middle of the bay, we were driving right ahead upon Cape Liant, which is placed in the charts twenty-five miles too much to the east. The anchorage at the mouth of the Menam is placed fifty-two miles too far to the eastward. Most of the islands are more or less out of their real positions. There is a gulf current, which, from October to March, flows from north to south at the rate of nearly three miles an hour. After April, its ordinary course is from south to north. Calms prevail during the months of May, June, and July.

Many of the islands in the Bay of Siam present objects of interest, and their productions might be well worthy of attention. Pallegoix speaks of the beautiful marble he found in the island of Si-Xang, polished as brightly by the waves of the sea as it could have been by the hand of man. In many of the islands are caves, in which the sea-swallow builds its glutinous nests, which are collected four times in the year, and form so large an article of commerce and consumption in China. Great are the

* Pulo Panjang-lat. 9° 18' N., long. 103° 36'. Placed on Admiralty chart about eighteen miles too far west.

Cape Liant-lat. 12° 34', long. 101° 11'. Placed on Admiralty chart twenty-five miles too far east, and six too far south.

Menam Bar-anchorage in four fathoms, lat. 13° 24' 50" N., long, 100° 36' 30" E. The entrance to the Menam river in four fathoms is placed on Admiralty chart fifty-two miles too far east.

perils to which the natives expose themselves in mounting or descending to collect these precious ministers to the gourmandise of the central Flowery Land, and many lives are lost in the adventurous pursuit. Fine specimens of rock crystal, white, yellow, and blue, and beautiful varieties of shell-fish, are among the attractions of the islands.

"The whole of the coast from Kamao, in Cambodia, quite up to what is called by the Siamese Lem Samme-san, the Cape Liant of Europeans, is an uninterrupted archipelago of beautiful islands. Pulo Uri, the most easterly, is but a small island six miles long. I had an opportunity of landing on it, and found a family of Cochin-Chinese, and two or three Chinese, who had settled here for the purpose of procuring the sea-slug, which abounds on its coasts. Their hut was miserable, and a little cultivated ground near it, producing a few sweet potatoes, constituted the whole of their wealth. In it was a figure of a Chinese deity, and a number of tablets, containing the names of the junks which had touched at it for some time. They commonly stop here for a day or two, on their way from China to Siam, for the purpose of procuring fresh water, of which the island contains an abundant supply. Previous to their sailing, it is their custom to consult the before-mentioned deity as to whether they shall prosecute their voyage or not. This is done in the following manner :-A book is prepared, in which a number of sentences are written and numbered. A similar number of small pieces of sticks are prepared, with correspondent numbers on them. These are placed in a hollow

bamboo, and shaken until one of them falls out; the number of the piece of wood is then compared with the corresponding motto, and according as this latter is favourable or otherwise, the junks pursue their voyage, or wait until they obtain a more favourable answer." (Moor's Notices Ind. Arch. p. 239.)

The coast of Siamese territory on the side of the Bay of Bengal has many groups of islands, among which a vessel can pass safely, the depth being seldom less than from four to five, and generally from twenty to thirty fathoms. St. Matthew's Island, in lat. 10°, is eighteen miles long and six broad, having an excellent harbour. Salanga, or Junk Ceylon, in lat. 8°, is sixteen miles in length and six in breadth; on the east side it has several harbours, as have the islands of the Lacaive group.

Our knowledge of the interior of Siam is exceedingly imperfect and fragmentary. Indeed, with large portions of the kingdom we are wholly unacquainted. The impediments to communication are no doubt in progress of removal, but some of the difficulties and embarrassment which the traveller meets with may be judged of by the following extract from a Report of Father Bruguière in the Annales de la Foi:

"It would be impossible for a traveller, left to himself, not to lose himself in these dense forests. One has sure guides walking before to clear the way, who cry out from time to time, and make signals to those behind them. Recourse must frequently be had to the hatchet and fire in order to open a way. The number of sloughs, pools, and small streams