Some days before reaching Muang-Kabine we had to ford a small river, the Bang-Chang, and here we obtained some good water; but all the rest of the journey we had nothing but the water from the muddy pools, serving for baths and drinking-places to all the buffaloes of the caravan. When I drank it, or used it for cooking or tea, I purified it with a little alum, a better method than filtering. Every day some accident happened to our waggons, which was one cause of our being so long on the road.
On our arrival at Muang-Kabine we found great excitement prevailing on account of a recent discovery of gold-mines, which had attracted to the place a number of Laotians, Chinese, and Siamese. The mines of Battambong, being less rich, are not so much frequented. From Muang-Kabine I continued my route to Paknam, where I hired a boat to take me to Bangkok.
Drawn by M. Sabatier, from a sketch by M. Mouhot.
VIEW IN THE GULF OF SIAM.
The first day’s navigation was very tedious, the water being shallow, and the sand-banks in many places bare, but the day following we were able to lay aside our poles, and take to the oars. The stream takes a bend towards the south, and empties itself into the gulf a little above Petrin, a district which produces all the sugar of Siam, which is sold at Bangkok.
This canal connects the Menam and the Bang-Chang, which afterwards takes the name of Bang-Pakong; it is nearly sixty miles in length, and was the work of a clever Siamese general, the same who, twenty years ago, retook Battambong from the Cochin-Chinese. He is also noted for having constructed a fine road from Paknam to Ongcor-Borige, the place where the great inundations have their limit. This road I could not make use of, for at this season I should have found neither water nor grass for my oxen.
On the banks of the Bang-Pakong are several Cambodian villages, peopled by prisoners from Battambong; and along the canal, on either side, is a mixed, and for this country numerous population, of Malays, Laotians from the peninsula, and Laotians from Vien-Chan, a district on the banks of the Mekong, north-east of Korat, and now depopulated by frequent revolts.
Although overburdened with taxes, yet, to judge from their clean and comfortable dwellings, and a certain air of well-doing which reigns in these villages, the inhabitants must enjoy some degree of prosperity, especially since the impulse given to commerce by the Europeans settled in the capital.
The water was so thickly covered with weeds that our progress was much impeded, and we were three days in the canal; while, after May, it only takes the same time to go from Paknam to Bangkok.