1840.] Mission to the Court of Siam. 225 



Siamese army, dressed in their embroidered uniforms, with gold 

 epaulets, &c. waiting to receive us. Benedito had a spare cocked 

 hat, with tawdry embroidery and some rubies of small value, 

 stuck about it, carried before him on a thing like a barbels wig 

 block. Mr. Hunter and myself had brought with us two ham- 

 mocks furnished us by his Excellency the Praklang, in which 

 I was carried by eight of my own bearers, and Mr. Hunter 

 by four of his own servants. We had here to wait several 

 minutes for the horses which were provided for the other gen- 

 tlemen; they at length arrived, and we moved forward, preceded 

 by Benedito, Piadadie, and others. Though within a few paces 

 of the southern entrance of the palace, we were as usual not 

 allowed to enter there, but carried round through one or two 

 small streets by another gate, further from the palace. Outside 

 the inner gate the native Christians took off their shoes and 

 stockings, and immediately within it we got out of our hammocks, 

 and walked through two lines of soldiers, who on this occasion 

 were all standing up, some with shouldered arms, some at ease, 

 some muskets on one shoulder, some on the other. Though 

 there are said to be an immense number of muskets in the 

 country, many of those used to-day were so covered with rust 

 as to be useless. The men were all dressed in a sort of uniform 

 jacket, or red shirt, with a conical red cap of varnished basket 

 work. Some, I suppose the native Christian artillery-men, 

 were dressed in better jackets, and blue cloth caps, with a little 

 yellow embroidery. They generally were I think under sized, 

 decidedly inferior in point of muscularity to the Burmans, and 

 some of them mere boys. There was a formidable body of 

 what the Burmese call i( dank yea," brave " sticks," armed with 

 clubs, any one of whom is said to be able to keep off two Siamese 

 swordsmen ; there was also a body of spearmen, and close to the 

 door of the palace the band, composed chiefly of drums, trum- 

 pets of various kinds, and hunter's horns. Outside the first 

 enclosure there was a small body of cavalry, perhaps fifty horses, 

 and inside the second enclosure, close to the road, fifteen 

 elephants, each with two riders besides the mahout, all dressed 

 in red cotton velvet jackets, some were plain, some embroidered, 

 with caps to correspond. A short way from the palace door we 



