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23 chapters
a THE LAND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT 1. RANGOON
a THE LAND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT 1. RANGOON
Ir was at daybreak on the 2nd of April, 1871, that we—an English friend was with me—first saw the shores of Burma. We had been a short time at sea, having left Madras eight days previously, but the end of the voyage was none the less welcome, for it was about the season that the monsoon changes, and those terrific revolving storms called cyclones sweep the upper part of the Bay of Bengal, so often with fatal effect. Our steamer was the Oriental” (Capt. Smith). We had a full list of passengers, m
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CIIAPTER II. BURMESE MANNERS AXD CUSTOMS
CIIAPTER II. BURMESE MANNERS AXD CUSTOMS
Ir is now generally believed that the Burmese, and indeed all the various races and nations of Indo-China, migrated at a remote period from the plateaus of Central Asia, and that they are of mixed origin, possessing some of the characteristics of the Hindoo (the Caucasian) and some also of the Chinaman (the Mongol). Thus in person they are short and stout, with the small, oblique eyes, high and prominent cheekbones, and flat, short, and broad nose of the Tartar, Chinese, and Japanese races, and
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IIL UP THE IRRAWADDY
IIL UP THE IRRAWADDY
Owixa to the shallow water we could not ascend the Rangoon river in order to enter the Irrawaddy, but were compelled to go by the Bassein Creek, and then through another called the China Bakeer, a narrow but decp stream, with low, jungle clad banks. We had an excellent breeze during the day and through part of the night, until early morning, when so dense a fog enveloped us that the captain dropped anchor and awaited daylight, before effecting which, however, the vessels grounded near the bank,
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IV. PAGHAN AND THE OLD CAPITALS
IV. PAGHAN AND THE OLD CAPITALS
What is generally known by the term Burma comprises two distinct regions : British or Lower Burma, which is under English rule, and Upper Burma, or more properly Ava, under the dominion of a native sovereign. British Burina embraces the three divisions of Arakan, on the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal ; Pegu, bordering on the Gulf of Martaban, on the south; and the long and narrow strip of country styled Tenasserim, which extends to the Isthmus of Kraw on the Malay peninsula. These divisions
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V. MANDALAY
V. MANDALAY
ALL that can be seen of the city of Mandalay from the river is a confused mixture of spires, and towers, and temple-tops appearing above the rich masses of foliage with which it is thickly surrounded. We anchored at twelve o'clock by the side of a dreary sandbank, with some fine large trees a little distance inland, a few bamboo huts in sight, and the usual complement of dirty and curious natives squatting along the bank—the landing being three miles distant from the city. Just behind us in the
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VIL THE WHITE ELEPHANT
VIL THE WHITE ELEPHANT
Havine put on our shoes at the bottom of the palace staircase, we went to see the so-called white elephant. One of the proudest titles of the King of Ava is ‘Lord of the White Elephant,” though the King of Siam at Bangkok is also the possessor of one or more of these sacred beasts. The Mandalay animal I found to be a male of medium size, with white eyes and a forchead and ears spotted white, appearing as if they had been rubbed with pumice-stone or sandpaper, but the remainder of the body was as
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VIII. BHAMO AND THE OLD TRADE ROUTE
VIII. BHAMO AND THE OLD TRADE ROUTE
Ar daylight the next morning we started to remeasure the seven hundred miles of water communication between Mandalay and Rangoon. The river Irrawaddy is navigable as far as Bhamo, three hundred miles above the capital, and a steamer runs there once a month. On an island somewhere in this part of the river there is a Budhist monastery where are some large tame fish —fed regularly by the monks—which will come to the surface of the water at the simple cry of * Tit-tit-tit.’ They are said to be a la
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IX. FROM MAULMAIN AND PENANG
IX. FROM MAULMAIN AND PENANG
AxorHER WEEK, passed in the chief city of British Burma, was made very pleasant for us by the good offices of the several residents we had first met as strangers, but whom we afterwards came to recognise as kind friends, and then we took passage in the British India Steam Navigation Co.’s steamer ‘ Mahratta,” 500 tons burden, Captain Lang in command, for Singapore, intending to stop at the towns of Maulmain, Penang, and Malacca on the passage. We were but twenty hours in descending the Rangoon r
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X. TO MALACCA AND SINGAPORE
X. TO MALACCA AND SINGAPORE
Tue town of Malacea, founded in the year 1252, was taken by the Portuguese under Albuquerque in 1511, by the Dutch in 1641, and by the Inglish in 1695; again held by the Dutch from 1818 to 1825, when, with an adjacent territory extending for forty miles along the coast and thirty miles inland, it was ceded to Britain in exchange for Bencoolen, in Sumatra. Of late years Malacca has much declined ; whereas formerly it contained 20,000 inhabitants, there are now but 18,000—two-thirds of which numbe
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XI. BANGKOK
XI. BANGKOK
Ar Singapore I parted from my English friend, he going to Ceylon, Bombay, and thence, vid the Suez Canal, to London ; and I to Java, and Japan, and China. In Yokohama it was my good fortune to meet the Baron Hiibner—formerly ambassador of Austria in Paris and in Rome—and two English gentlemen, who were fresh from a fourteen months’ tour through the United States. At the Baron's kind solicitation, I joined his party, and then we visited in turn Shanghae, Tientsin, Pekin, and the Great Wall.” But
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XII EXCURSION TO PECHABURI
XII EXCURSION TO PECHABURI
To the kindness of the American Consul I was indebted for an introduction to the Private Secretary of the Second King and Secretary of the Foreign Office — a Mr. Chandler, formerly of Connecticut. This gentleman told me he came out to Siam twentyeight years ago in the capacity of a missionary. He has lived here during the reign of three Siamese kings, and has witnessed the arrival and departure of several foreign missions, whose commercial leagues or ireaties with Siam he has often been instrume
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XIV. A DAY IN THE PALACE
XIV. A DAY IN THE PALACE
Oye day of my stay at Bangkok was pleasantly spent within the palace walls, with Mr. Chandler as my obliging cicerone. We went first to see the so-called “white ’ elephants. These are kept, fastened to stout posts, in large sheds, and covered with gilt canopies, in the same manner as the one I saw at Mandalay, which belonged to the King of Ava. The first animal whose stable we entered was quite small, and possessed few of the peculiar characteristics of a *dark-cream albino,’ excepting perhaps t
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XV. ACROSS SOUTHERN SIAM
XV. ACROSS SOUTHERN SIAM
Tur Boars were anchored about midnight, and in the spacious cabins we slept soundly until morning. With daylight we saw the canal was lined with bamboo huts, and that passing us were many boats on their way to Bangkok with market stuffs. In the middle of the day we stopped for an hour to allow the men rest and time for eating their fish and rice. The canal continued very narrow during the remainder of the day ; its sides were covered with a thin strip of cocoa palms and bamboos, but the country
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XVI SIAMRAP
XVI SIAMRAP
Ar about eleven o'clock on the morning of the 11th we came suddenly upon a branch of the Krapong-Seng river, which is here spanned by an old, ruined stone bridge, about three hundred feet in length, sixty in height, and forty in width. It is built of a very coarse porous stone—evidently of volcanic origin with twenty-six arches in the pointed Gothic style of architecture; it rests upon a massive platform of masonry, and the blocks of stone—four feet in length, two in breadth, and one in thicknes
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XVII. THE RUINS OF ANGKOR—THE GREAT TEMPLE
XVII. THE RUINS OF ANGKOR—THE GREAT TEMPLE
Wx, whose good fortune it is to live in the nineteenth century, are accustomed to boast of the perfection and pre-eminence of our modern civilisation, of the grandeur of our attainments in Science, Art, Literature, and what not, as compared with those whom we call ancients; but still we are compelled to admit that they have far excelled our recent endeavours in many things, and notably in the Fine Arts of painting, architecture, and sculpture. We were but just locking upon a most wonderful examp
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XVIIIL A CAMBODIAN MARRIAGE FESTIVAL
XVIIIL A CAMBODIAN MARRIAGE FESTIVAL
Tne principal ruins of Siam and Cambodia yet discovered lie in the province of Siamrap, as already stated. At about three miles north-east of Angkor, on the opposite side of the Siamrap river, are the ruins of a city called Patentaphrohm, the citadel of Taphrolim, and near it is a wat styled Prakeoh, or the Gem Tower, presenting the same combination of a royal and priestly residence as Angkor and Nagkon Wat. Some of these temples and palaces, with their columns, sculptures, and statues, are quit
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XIX TIE RUINS OF ANGKOR—TIIE CITY AND ENVIRONS
XIX TIE RUINS OF ANGKOR—TIIE CITY AND ENVIRONS
ANGKOR, styled by the natives Nagkon Thém, the Great City, is situated about two and a half miles north-west of Nagkon Wat, and a good road leads there, through dense forests of immense oil and poh trees. Angkor is supposed to have been the capital of the ancient kingdom of Khaman, though we know little or nothing of its history. There is a tradition preserved which sets forth, in most extravagant and improbable manner, that the kingdom had twenty kings who paid tribute to it; that its army cons
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XX. SIAMRAP TO PANOMPIN
XX. SIAMRAP TO PANOMPIN
Tur pay was passed in busy preparations for the journey. Some cooking utensils were sent by the Palal to the sala—an earthenware fire-holder, a large iron stew-pan, two bowls for baking rice; and these, with a small porcelain-lined kettle brought from Bangkok, will serve to cook that third of the stock of provisions remaining yesterday which fell to my share. * Deng,’ the cook, had made five or six loaves of bread, some dried apple-pies, and had boiled one-half of a ham, whilst the Governor offe
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XXI. PANOMPIN
XXI. PANOMPIN
THE general appearance of the city of Panompin— Mountain of Gold —is dull, nothing breaking the uniformity of its bamboo huts excepting a slender, pyramidal pagoda, one of the palace buildings, and two blocks of brick stores, recently built by the King; it resembles many of the villages along the banks of the Mesap, only differing from them in size—in number of dwellings and shops. The water in the river was very low at the time of my visit, and thus the city seemed built upon a bluff fully thir
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- CHAPTER XXII. AUDIENCE WITII THE KING OF CAMBODIA
- CHAPTER XXII. AUDIENCE WITII THE KING OF CAMBODIA
Ix a room about the centre of the palace, at a small round table, sat the King, a pleasant-looking person— thirty-six years of age, as he afterwards told me. He was a little man with intelligent and expressive features; teeth blackened from the use of betel, wearing his hair after the Siamese fashion, the head shaved excepting a small tuft upon the crown ; upon the lip was a thin moustache ; and he was dressed in a white linen jacket, with gold buttons, and a silk panoung, his feet were bare, an
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XXIII. WALKS ABOUT THE CITY
XXIII. WALKS ABOUT THE CITY
Oxi pay we walked down the main road, past the palace, and turning to the west, soon found ourselves at the embankment which bounds Panompin on that side, and although but a stone’s throw from the most thickly inhabited part of the city, still so dense were the banana and cocoa-nut trees that not a house was visible. The parapet of earth is about fifteen feet high, and the same in width, being faced on both outer and inner sides with large bamboo sticks. Upon it are erected the telegraph poles a
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XXIV. PANOMPIN TO SAIGON
XXIV. PANOMPIN TO SAIGON
Wz had fairly left Panompin and had entered the great Makong river, which, just below the city, divides into two streams which flow to the south—about fifteen miles apart—and empty themselves into the China Sea. There are many branches and intercommunications— in fact, a perfect labyrinth of canals—near its mouth; one of the smaller streams flows north-east to Saigon, and empties itself into the sea twenty-five miles to the eastward of that city. At first the river averaged about a thousand feet
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XXV. SAIGON
XXV. SAIGON
Sataon, captured by the French in 1861, and added to their dominions, together with six provinces of Lower Cochin China placed by treaty under a French protectorate, is situated upon the right bank of the river of the same name, about twenty-five miles from the sea. From Chalen a large creek runs to the Saigon river, joining it ahout the centre of the city. The approach to Saigon is through an immense forest of the betel and cocoa-nut palm, banana and bamboo trees, and thick copses of others wit
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