1840.] Mission to the Court of Siam. 19 



the former at three or three and a half tickels, and the latter at 

 seven ; the best carriage bullocks, five tickels, or six and a half 

 Madras rupees ; the low price is of course from the absence 

 of a demand^ for they are very scarce, and indeed can be of 

 very little use in so swampy a country with a Boodist popu- 

 lation, though the Siamese no more than the Burmans object 

 to eat beef, and there are not wanting people to take on them- 

 selves the sin of killing the cattle. Our guides here in no way 

 interfered with us. 



February 2nd. — Ban-ta-chang, 5h. fifteen miles (close to 

 Bankem) . One small well of brackish water formed the whole sup- 

 ply for our party after an excessively hot day^s march ; yesterday 

 we were not sorry to leave our last halting place, which we 

 did at 7h. 40m. a. m. Our route has been exactly of the same 

 character as yesterday, sometimes across the country through the 

 paddy fields or reedy plains, sometimes along the main road, 

 in the jungle and palmyra forest which skirted it, all along 

 which are the villages of the cultivators, consisting of small 

 groups of five or six houses, and the population just along the 

 line of road is considerable. A small portion of the plain crossed 

 to-day is under cultivation, the largest patch we crossed at 

 9h. 30m. with a few hundred head of cattle and buffaloes graz- 

 ing about. At ten we cross a small jeel, and close to our pre- 

 sent halting place another long one, extending some miles 

 into the plains, and here three and a half feet deep with a mud- 

 dy bed and covered with floating grass ; it did not seem influ- 

 enced by the tide, and is used by the people for domestic pur- 

 poses. We are still accompanied by the thirty men sent with 

 us from Pra-pree ; they have not to-day interfered in any way, 

 or been of the least service to us. 



February 3rd — Nakoutchathee, 5h. 20m., seventeen miles four 

 furlongs. The people who have accompanied us from Pra-pree 

 left us last evening, (the lake being the boundary of their dis- 

 trict) without any apparent communication with the people of 

 this district, or stating to me their intention, and we had some 

 difficulty in procuring a guide to-day, who would not approach 

 this village, and returned as soon as we came in sight of it. We 

 started at 7h. 30m. and travelled along a road of the same charac- 



