12 Mission to the Court of Siam. [No. 97. 



travelled, jungle thin, water very scarce, and at this halting 

 place it is green and bad ; our party has been increased at the 

 little villages we passed in the morning, and we are now ac- 

 companied by thirty men who bivouac at a little distance, but do 

 not however interfere with our arrangements. On starting this 

 morning, some of the Myo-won's people met us with a few baskets 

 of rice and some meat opposite the gate of the town. 



January 29th. — Bausong-roy, 4h. 20m., fourteen miles. 

 Started this morning at 8h. 50m., and marching along a level 

 road, through a thin jungle with long grass, a great deal of 

 which had however been burned, we passed one old plantation 

 of cotton and plantains, the cotton of a kind I have not seen 

 before, being now ready to gather ; the crop was small and scanty, 

 but the plants are now two or three years old, the cotton 

 fine and soft, but rather short in the staple. We are now fairly 

 in the alluvial plain at the head of the gulf ; saw only one or 

 two small rocky hills to the westward; the water has been 

 scarcer and worse than yesterday, and we were nearly missing 

 this, which is a swamp, as it lies a little off the road, and the 

 people of the few houses near it, who are Talines, or Laos 

 prisoners from Wiang-tchong took fright at our appearance, taking 

 us for Siamese or Taline small officers. It appears that at 

 stated periods, the Talines are branded on the arm, as belonging 

 to the right or left wing of the army, and their name, number, 

 and officers company to which they belong, entered in the mus- 

 ter roll of Talines, from which time they are liable to all calls 

 for public duty, those only who have entered the priesthood 

 are excepted ; and such as can escape, by concealing themselves, 

 till the impress is over, do so. One old woman in her joy to 

 find who we were, abused the government of the country 

 roundly (though several Siamese of our thirty conductors were 

 present); she said the Siamese, bad as they were, were not so 

 bad as the low Talines who form the officers in army ; she said 

 scarce a day passed without tears for the old country; now it 

 was quiet she prayed daily that her next transmigration might 

 be a bird to return there, as she had no hopes now of doing 

 so in this life. There are now about 5000 Talines, 1500 of 

 whom receive royal pay, such as it is ; some as little as three 



