LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,
Northumberland-court.
DEDICATED
(BY PERMISSION)
TO THE
HONOURABLE THE COURT OF DIRECTORS
OF
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY;
THROUGH WHOSE LIBERALITY THE MISSION WAS PROVIDED
WITH THE MEANS OF PROSECUTING
OBJECTS OF SCIENCE,
BY THEIR MOST OBEDIENT
HUMBLE SERVANT,
THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES.
INTRODUCTION.
In the year 1821, a mission was sent by the Governor-General of Bengal to the courts of Siam and Cochin-China, having for its object the opening of a friendly intercourse between those countries and the British possessions, and the establishment of free trade on both sides.
This mission it is well known was not attended with the success expected; little or no positive advantage was gained to our trade, but the foundation of a friendly intercourse was laid by the visit, and the knowledge procured may prepare the way for a future attempt under more favourable circumstances.
It at any rate afforded an opportunity for our obtaining much valuable information respecting countries and people, hitherto almost unknown to us, and in this respect the particulars contained in the following pages may be deemed of sufficient interest to justify their publication: they are transcribed nearly verbatim from the private journal of the late Mr. George Finlayson, who was attached to the Mission as Surgeon and naturalist, but who, unfortunately for his friends and the cause of science, fell a sacrifice to his unwearied exertions in the performance of the service intrusted to him, and did not live to revise and arrange them himself, having died on his passage to England.
The Journal in its unfinished and rough state, with the whole of the valuable collections in natural history made by Mr. Finlayson during the course of the Mission, having been deposited in the museum of the East India company, and by the liberal arrangements of the court of directors, laid open to the inspection of those who were interested in the subject, it is now published, with the permission of Dr. Somerville, and in the simplest form practicable, it being considered that such a work can have no better recommendation than the certainty of its genuineness and authenticity.