“The cattle-thieves have been caught by the owners and handed over to the governor, their only punishment being four or five days’ imprisonment. The chains were then taken off, the thieves were posted to deny the theft to the last, and the suit was decided according to his Excellency’s interest. The informers have at such times been held at the governor’s place, and been compelled to work night and day as though they were prisoners.
“At times we have been compelled to watch the prisoners, the prisoners having been previously advised to flee; this being done, the complainants have been thrown into prison instead of the prisoners. This being the case, who can dare to seize the governor’s slaves on charge of theft? Whilst the owners were thus wrongfully in prison, the stolen cattle were sold. The owners have then gone to the buyers and proved their cattle, and begged to be allowed to redeem them, but the buyers refused. The owners have wept over their loss, not knowing what to do. Cattle-boats have taken away our cattle, one and two boat-loads a day. How can we be happy? We beg to take you as our refuge. Give us peace, we pray; our hearts are filled with sorrow. It is of no use to cry to his Excellency!
“There is no one to catch the robbers and bring them to justice. Tow Poo Chow (the governor’s son) sends out police at night. But these police are simply litigants, who work all day for his Excellency. The litigants bring the cases before Tow Poo Chow, but he is indifferent, and uses the litigants for his own purposes. The day police are instructed to arrest all persons carrying knives, and fine each offender two and a half dollars. If we carry our tool knives (for cutting bamboos, &c.) we are arrested. But the governor’s people are allowed to carry knives, swords, and guns, and none dare arrest them.
“They go about oppressing the people. If we have meetings for merit-making, weddings, and hair-cuttings, they attend to curse us, and act like rowdies. These days are not like those of his Excellency the Kromatah [the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the former governor of the province]. It is beyond all endurance. We are but common people; we cannot write well, and beg you to put this in good form. We of the three languages [Siamese, Laos, and Peguans] have been greatly oppressed. We beg to take you as our refuge. We beg you to hear our words that we may have peace.”
In sending me the translation of the petition, the missionary stated that “the petition was much longer than this, but with similar charges. It contains the request that it may be placed before his Majesty.” And he says: “I sent the enclosed document to his Majesty. The king replied through his private secretary, expressing approval of my action, and determination to send a commission to root out the matter. The commissioners came, and were successful, finding things worse even than the petition stated. They also captured about seventy of the most notorious murderers and robbers. These are at present enjoying prison fare in Bangkok; but, strange to say, the governor is free, or at least virtually free. He is on trial, but at the same time in his place as governor. I fully believe his Majesty desires the peace and prosperity of his subjects; but much is concealed from H.M.’s eyes, and underlings are greedy for filthy lucre, and at the same time inefficient.”
While conversing about the country, Mr Stevens told me that in making railways in the plains of Siam, the occasional extraordinary rise of the rivers, and the consequent inundation of the country, would necessitate high embankments. At Raheng, in November 1878, he had the opportunity of observing the highest flood that had happened during the lifetime of the inhabitants. In the plains of Siam, from November to May, scarcely a cloud obscures the sky, and no rain falls except in January, when the Siamese look for a shower, which is necessary for certain kinds of fruit which are then forming. From November to February the weather is delightful, being the cool season; but the thermometer is seldom lower than 64°. Even in March and April, the hottest months, the thermometer in Bangkok seldom rises above 98°. From November to May the north-east monsoon blows constantly; and from May to November is the wet season, when the south-west monsoon occurs, and showers fall almost every day. The rainfall in Bangkok during ten years’ observations was found to vary between 39 and 73¼ inches, giving an average of less than 56 inches against 182 inches on the parallel coast of Burmah.
Rain being an unusual occurrence in Siam in November, Mr Stevens noted in his diary that on the 6th inst. it rained heavily throughout the day, many logs of timber were drifting down the river, and that the water, topping the banks, inundated the city. During the night the river rose three feet, and rain continuing throughout the next day, the inundation increased, and the elephants were removed to the high ground. On Friday the 7th, the heavy rain continued, and there was a great rush of water from the hills at the back of his house, carrying everything before it; fruit-trees and the slab palisade, besides 40 of his teak-logs, being washed away, and the floating grass drifted off the lake at the back of his house; and the house, although built on posts well rooted in the ground, was in great danger. In the evening he removed what he could into boats, and left for the night. Several of the villages in the neighbourhood were swept away, the houses floating down the river with the people in them. There had never been such a rise since Raheng was founded.
Some of the governor’s buildings were destroyed; rafts of timber were drifting past from Lakon; and the inhabitants of Raheng and the neighbouring villages all took refuge in their boats. The river rose two feet above the floor of his house, or 8½ feet above the river-bank. Several rafts broke up below the city, and 140 houses were washed away.
The next morning was fine, and the people returned to their houses, as the water was falling rapidly. The flood rose seven feet in twenty hours, and on its fall left a creek three feet deep on each side of his house. There was a great loss of property. Rice was not to be had, and many of the people found themselves starving on the Monday. The flood continued right down to Bangkok, and rose 10½ feet on the fields a gunshot distance to the west of the river at Kamphang Pet, 4½ feet on the fields to the east, and the same height under the governor’s house at that place.
In the ‘Siam Repository’ for July 1873, there is a description of the great inundation which occurred in 1831, which, like the flood described by Mr Stevens, was due to heavy rainfall in the north. The flood lay from three-quarters of a fathom to one and a half fathom on the rice-fields of the northern provinces, varying with the height of the land. Plowing southwards, it swamped the low lands in the neighbourhood of Ayuthia, the former capital of Siam, to the varying depths of one and three fathoms, and the rice-fields and orchards of Bangkok to from three-quarters to one and a quarter fathom.