No. 54.-1903.] KING KIRTI SRf S EMBASSY TO SIAM. 43 
what would those who remam at home be like? However, EHepola 
Mohottala had the miscreant arrested and handed over to the authorities 
on land, while the Siamese ambassadors succeded in pacifying the 
agitated priests ; and they set sail. 
A few days later the ship was discovered to have sprung a leak, and 
she began to fill so rapidly that they were obliged to cast their cargo 
overboard to keep her afloat ; the priests however recited ha7ia day 
and night without intermission, and with such effect that they suc- 
ceeded the next day in drivnig her aground on a mud bank near the 
harbour of Muwang Lakon, a dependenr.y of Si >m, with all the crew and 
the king's presents safe. Here they landed and proceeded to 
the capital, a fortified town named Pataliputra ; in the middle of 
it was a dagaba (as large as the Ruwanweli dagaba at Polonnaruwa) 
which had been built by King Dharmasoka to contain some relics of the 
Buddha. It was gilt from top to bottom, and the gilding was in such 
excellent preservation that the whole resembled a newly polished gold 
karanduiva. Three hundred statues and two hundred gilt dagabas, 
varying in height from 9 to 11 carpenters' cubits, encircled the 
central structure. There was also in the city a holy &o-tree which 
King Dharmasoka the Less had within recent times obtained from 
Anuradhapura. Every morning the priests of the various temples 
proceed to collect alms; three commissioners supervise the affairs of the 
clergy over all the Siamese dominions ; and by their orders all, whether 
thereto induced by religious sentiment or not, have to contribute to the 
support of the priesthood and the maintenance of the edifices. 
The country is rich in deposits of black and white lead (tin ?), rice, 
betel, arecanut, &c., but robbers are numerous and bloodthirsty, witch- 
craft abounds, and cancerous and leprous diseases are frequent. 
From here the Siamese ambassadors sent a letter to their king 
to inform him of the misfortune that had overtaken them. This letter 
was sent by land in charge of ten people, who delivered it at the 
capital in a month and seven days. The king's order was that: 
the ships should be repaired and taken back to Siam ; which they 
accordingly proceeded to do, being hospitably received by all the 
magnates of the coast. For instance, two of them sent the following 
presents : — 
15 durians ; 60 bundles betel 
300 mangosteens 16 bunches arecanuts 
100 mangoes ■ 15 dried fish 
7jak I 100 do. (small) 
45 pineapples : 60 duck eggs 
10 plantain bunches ' 1 package limes 
9 bunches tender cocoanuts j 5 boxes of rice 
70 cocoanuts ! 
At last, on Wednesday, the third day of the increasing moon 
of the month Esala, in the Saka year 1674, they arrived at the Siamese 
capital a second time, and were received in aadience by the king. 
He addressed himself most graciously to the writer, and bade him not 
to be disheartened at his misfortune, as the king had given orders that 
everything should be arranged for his return journey. 
* It is interesting to note that the word put into the king's mouth in 
addressing Wilbagedara is tcnnd. 
