CHAPTER V. 

 SI AM, AN AM, CAMBODIA, BURMA. 



THE chief inhabitants of Indo-China and Malacca are the Shans, Laos, and Siamese, the 

 Anamese and Cambodians. Not so long ago this part of the world was generally supposed to be 

 occupied only by Mongolian peoples allied to Chinese and Tibetans. Of late years, however, 

 a Caucasian element has been discovered in the Me Kong Valley (French Cochin-China and 

 Cambodia), where the people speak languages akin to those of the Malayo-Polynesian family. 



SIAM. 



THE kingdom of Siam (see map, page 130) embraces part of the Indo-Chinese and part of the 



Malay Peninsula. On the west lies British . 



Burma; on the north, as a buffer between 

 Siam and China, are the Independent Shan 

 States; on the east lies the kingdom of 

 Anam, under which heads are included Tong- 

 king and Cochin-Chiua; and south of Siam 

 we find Cambodia and French Cochin-China. 

 The great natural and economic centre 

 of Siam is the delta of the Me Nam Eiver, 

 which is flooded every year between June 

 and November. The population is estimated 

 by the Siamese Government at 6,000,000, or 

 more. Until a few years ago the eastern 

 frontier coincided with the mountains that 

 border Anam; but the French, by a display 

 of force, compelled the king to sign a treaty, 

 which surrendered to them part of his 

 kingdom, and shifted the eastern frontier 

 westwards to the right bank of the River 

 Me Kong. In this way the French took 

 possession of a region 80,000 square miles 

 in extent. England then intervened, and 

 the region from Tongking to British Burma 

 was left to form a "buffer state" between 

 Britain, China, France, and Siam. By this, 

 and other arrangements, Siam is now prac- 

 tically reduced to the Me Nam Valley. She 

 still retains a part of the Malay Peninsula, 

 which is called Lower Siam, and to the 

 eastward the Korat Plateau and Battambony 

 Plain. 



