1840,] Mission to the Court of Siam, 249 



the edge of the jungle, near the plain which runs down to the 

 head of the Gulf, as before mentioned. At 7h. 45m. we crossed a 

 muddy nullah, and at 8h. 5m. a larger one by a bridge ; at 8h. 15m. 

 passed Ban-pa-neat ; at 9h. 15m. Banroi; at 9h. 25m. Bon-ta-ko ; 

 at 9h. 55m. a larger village, say sixty houses ; and at 12 halted 

 here. The elephants came up at lh. 35m. Last evening we heard an 

 unusual rumbling noise, exactly like distant artillery, and in the 

 night felt three or four shocks of an earthquake ; the weather 

 has been hot and sultry for some days, and yesterday at noon 

 the thermometer stood at 106° in the tent ; and some of the 

 people from the heat did not come up till seven o'clock in the 

 evening. We have had several sick for the last ten days, two 

 cases of fever, one of small-pox, and one severe diarrhoea. 



March 24th. — Ban-soap-la, four hours, twelve miles. Started 

 this morning at 5h. 45m. and almost immediately entered the 

 bamboo jungle, quitting the plain on the edge of which we halted 

 last night, and have not seen it since. The road throughout the 

 day, and since 8h. 5m. yesterday, has been good, and practicable 

 for the carts of the country, one of which, drawn by buffaloes, 

 hired by some of the traders has accompanied us. Water is scarce 

 at this season, and what there is, is bad. At 6h. 25m. passed 

 Bancong of fifty houses; at 6h. 45m. a small plain with a 

 little cultivation; at 7h. 15m. a Laos village, of about thirty 

 houses ; at 7h. 25m. another of the same people, of ten 

 houses ; at 8h. 15m. Bantoom of ten houses, inhabited by 

 Siamese ; at 9h. a plain of some nine or ten miles circumference, 

 apparently fertile, but from the great depth of the water in the 

 rains could not be brought under cultivation. At ten we halted 

 here near a Laos village of fifteen houses, about one long day's 

 march west from the Nak-outcha-thee river, which between this 

 and Soop-Ham winds away east. The country continues thinly 

 populated, notwithstanding the endeavours of the Siamese to 

 make it less so, by locating here the unfortunate prisoners from 

 Weeang-tchan, in southern Laos, which was taken by the Si- 

 amese in 1826 or 27 5 and the most horrible cruelties practised 

 on the miserable inhabitants. Isoboa was kept during the 

 short time he survived in an iron cage, with different instru- 

 ments of torture along side of him, and obliged to proclaim, that 



