men, with two or three thousand elephants, who serve both to carry soldiers and baggage; nevertheless, his armed troops do not exceed fifty thousand. These troops retain their rank and military discipline, but are poorly armed with bows and pikes, few knowing how to use the musket. The cavalry is not better armed, having but the shield, the bow, and the lance. The principal force of their army consists in a number of war elephants, each ridden by three armed men. They have pretty good artillery, but are not skilled in using it; still less can they manage that which is placed on their galleys and ships of war: they are not good mariners. They have a number of small galleys in their rivers badly armed, and quite unable to resist European vessels; but they are much feared by the neighbouring nations. The Kings of Siam have often made great conquests with these bad soldiers, and formed a large State in that part of Asia, of which they are considered emperors.

"The Kings of Pegu and Ava have frequently made war upon him; for, finding themselves of equal strength, they dispute the empire with him: so that the frontiers of the two kingdoms, which are never in repose for two or three successive years, are quite ruined and desert. Almost every year the King of Siam sends an army of twenty-three or thirty thousand men during the six months of the dry monsoon, as it is called, that is to say, when the land is not flooded, to the frontiers of the kingdoms of Iangoma, Tangan, and Langhs-iangs: and lately he has made war upon his vassal, the King of Cambodia, who revolted against him; but he is defending himself

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and making head against him. From the time of the Cambodian war the kingdom has remained in peace till the King's death.

"His son succeeded contrary to the custom of the country, which decrees that the King's brothers should succeed to the throne: all the princes of the blood who could pretend to it were put to death, and the kingdom came into the possession of a usurping prince of his race, who put him to death, and who, after long civil and foreign wars, ruled with much reputation and authority. He is now at war with the Kings of Ava and Pegu, as well as the Cambodian rebels."

Kämpfer landed on the shores of Siam on the 7th of June, 1690. His account may still be read with interest, as of course the broad geographical outlines of the country remain unchanged; nor, as I have before remarked, have the customs of the people or the character of the government undergone any considerable modifications. He amused himself, as travellers might still amuse themselves, by shooting monkeys on the banks of the Meinam; he admired the beauty of the forests, but was somewhat afraid of "the tygers and other voracious beasts," who interfered with his "simpling:" and he tells us, on one occasion, how the director of the Dutch factory had ordered all his people to keep within doors, as the King intended to go out; and "if any happens by chance to meet the King or his-wives, or the Princess Royal, in the open fields, he must prostrate himself with his face flat to the ground, turning his back to the company till they are out of sight."

A Siamese funeral among the high nobility, as

described by Kämpfer, scarcely differs from the present usages in any respect; the same processions, the same accompaniments of bonzes and music, the same costly cremation, the same gathering together of the ashes, the same pyramidical erections on the spot where they are finally deposited. There seem to have been a greater proportion of Moors, Mahometans and Indians occupying high places at the Court, than are now to be found. Their influence has been superseded by the greater influx of the Chinese races.

Some of Kämpfer's details regarding events nearly contemporaneous are curious, and no doubt authentic. He speaks of the protection and favour the Dutch enjoyed, while the French were persecuted on account of Phaulcon's intrigues. He mentions that two of the King's brothers, in consequence of being Phaulcon's associates, were "carried out of the city of Livo to a neighbouring temple, where they were beaten to death with clubs made of sandal-wood; the respect for the royal blood forbidding the shedding of it." The same mode of execution prevails to the present time, and was practised only a few years ago, in the reign of the late King. He represents the King, who patronised Phaulcon, to have died of grief two days after the murder of his brothers. And as to the uncertainty of succession, Kämpfer says,-"By virtue of the ancient laws of Siam, upon the demise of the King, the crown devolves on his brother; and upon the brother's death, or if there be none, on the eldest son. But this rule hath been so often broken through, and the right of succession brought into such a confusion, that at present, upon the death of the King, he puts

INUNDATION FESTIVITIES.

ΙΟΙ

up for the crown who is the most powerful of the royal family, and so it seldom happens that the next and lawful heir ascends the throne, or is able to maintain the peaceable possession of it." (P. 24.)

Diogo de Couto's* description of the festivities connected with the turn of the inundations would serve for the present day as well as for those centuries ago:

"The King comes out of the city, accompanied by the whole of the nobility, in barges richly gilded and covered with ornaments, with great display and noise of musical instruments. They proclaim that the King is about to order the waters to disperse; and this is the great festival of the year. A mast is raised in the middle of the stream, adorned with silken flags, and a prize suspended for the best rower. All the contending boats put themselves in trim, and at a given signal start, with such cries, and shouting, and tumults, as if the world was being destroyed; the first who arrives carrying off the prize. But in the contest there is terrible confusion-boats running against and swamping one another, oars tangled and disentangled in a disorder admirable to look at from around. So that the people are not so barbarous, but that they imitate the ancient Trojans (as in the same manner, Eneas, when he arrived in Sicily, had the festival of his galleys, giving precious prizes to the most alert); and when these Siamese have won the prize, they return to the city with such rejoicings, shoutings, and tumultuous music, that the noise shakes both the waters and the land. Then the

* Diogo de Couto, the continuator of the Decades of Joâo de Barros, was born in 1542, and died in 1616.

King having returned to the city, the people say he has driven back the waters, because these heathens attribute to their Kings all the attributes of God, and believe they are the source of all good."

Generalizations as to national character are among the great defects of writers on foreign countries, and, when examined, will in most cases be discovered to be the result of impressions early and hastily formed, or of some solitary examples of individual experience, from which all-embracing deductions are drawn. Mr. Abeel says,-" Those who have commercial dealings with the Siamese declare that, with the fewest exceptions, dishonesty and deceit are characteristic of the nation: they will buy and frequently endeavour to cheat the seller out of the stipulated sum; they will borrow and never return; and unless they desire your society as amusement, when they can get nothing more from you, they will never come near you." (P. 220, 221.) Other missionaries endorse and confirm the general correctness of this picture; and vastly more knowledge than is attainable by casual visitors is needful for a just appreciation of the whole.

Father Le Blanc gives, in the Annals of the Propaganda, a very unfavourable portraiture of the Siamese character. He says, "They never employ open force against their enemies when they have any hope of succeeding by fraud or surprise-no artifice is too low or too shameful for them. As for the point of honour, they know not what it means; and good faith is equally an unknown word among them. One and the same word expresses in their language roguery, wit, wisdom,