1840.] Mission to the Court of Siam. 23 



made a sketch on the ground. A short way above the town is 

 the entrance of a canal ; between this branch and the main river, 

 and on the banks of this canal the second of the three zayats 

 before mentioned is situated ; from this the road runs along 

 its banks. If crossed at the first zayat there is another road 

 which comes on the river May-nam above Bankok. Had I been 

 possessed of this information yesterday I need not have lost 

 so much time here. This is rather a large straggling village, 

 along the banks of the river of the same name, containing 

 about 300 houses, and ten or twelve large Pounghee houses, 

 though there does not appear to be more than twenty priests. 

 The houses are here small and ruinous in appearance, nearly all 

 built of bamboos, that of the Myo-won only a little larger than 

 the rest. He is said to receive from the king 200 tickels a year, 

 the Tseetkay and Ngakan 100 each. The river is about 160 

 or 200 feet wide, with soft muddy banks, and apparently of 

 considerable depth ; the tide rises here four feet, and large 

 masses of weeds knit together by the root, growing vigorously, 

 some of them having a surface of sixty or eighty square 

 feet, float up and down with the tide. On asking the old 

 Myo-won to-day the distance from this to the sea, he said 

 he could not tell, never having been there ; I learned how- 

 ever that it is about two days by the river. 



February 6th. — Embarked in four boats, and started for 

 Bankok at 9 a. m. Proceeding south-easterly, passed at 9h. 

 30m. a small sugar factory with two mills, with high coni- 

 cal thatched roofs, the roofs of the boiling houses of the same 

 material, and apparently very low, considering the large fires 

 that were burning in them. At 9h. 55m., passed the end 

 of the road leading across to Bankok ; at 12h. 30m. halted 

 at a small village for the people to breakfast ; my servants^ boat 

 was overloaded, and did not come up till near three o^ clock, 

 when I had breakfast and dinner in one, to prevent a second 

 halt. Started again at 3h. 45m. and continued pulling with the 

 stream till 9 p.m, when we halted for some hours. We passed 

 in the course of the day many small villages, almost entirely 

 occupied by Chinese employed in the manufacture of sugar, in all 

 eight small establishments, the largest with four mills drawn by 



