42 INDIA BEYOND THE GANGES. 



The whole eaftern fide of Siam is low, fleep, and rocky, but 

 inland rifes into lofty mountains. Towards the bottom of the 

 gulph the land approximates, and the contratftcd part is called 

 the bay of Siam\ its entrance is by the mounts oiPenfeh or 

 Pentens, impending over the water on the weftern fliore, and 

 the high cape^/^;;2on the oppofite. The laft may be feen from 

 the bar of Siam, or the Meinam river, twenty-two leagues diftant. 



About four hundred and eight miles from Ligore (following 

 the curvature of the gulph) at the very bottom of the bay of 

 RirER Meinam. Siam, is the mouth of the great river Meinajn, the Serus of 

 Ptolemy, and the mofl confequential in the kingdom. The road 

 for fliipping extends for the fpace of three leagues, in which all 

 forts of velTels may fafely ride ; fuch was the cafe when that 

 learned traveller Kceinpfer vifited the place in 1690. The coun- 

 try on both fides the river is raarlliy, compofed of the mud 

 brought down in the annual floods ; this river, like the Ganges^ 

 being fubje6l to periodical inundations. Kcempfer informs us 

 that the name Manam or Meinam, in the Siamefe language, fig- 

 nifies the mother of humidities, from its abundance of water, 

 which fo greatly fertilizes the country. It is deep, rapid, and 

 broader than the Elbe ; the upper part is rocky, violent, and in- 

 terrupted by cataradls ; the lower, divided into feveral channels, 

 pafles through a very level country to the fea. The banks of 

 the river are covered with trees, animated by monkies; numbers 

 of villages may be feen on both fides ; the houfes generally ftand, 

 I may fay, upon ftilts or lofty pofts, fo that the water during the 

 inundations may pafs without incommoding the occupiers. Near 

 the cityof j''a^/«, many of the villages confift of inhabited fhips, 

 4 or 



