CAMPING IN A LAOS FOREST.
After eleven days from home we arrived at Cheung Rai. This is a small city of three hundred houses, population between two and three thousand. It is in the province of Cheung Mai, and its chief officers receive their appointment from the chief or king of this place. It is situated on the banks of the Ma-Kok, fifty or sixty miles from where that river joins the Ma-Kawng (or Cambodia) River. The large plain outside of the walls of the city is but thinly populated. The people are mostly fishermen. Only a small portion of the surrounding country is under cultivation, hence there are but few villages in its vicinity. Here we dismissed our elephants, and by noon on the following day had completed our preparations for the river-journey. During our delay there Mr. McGilvary was occupied with the numbers of people who visited us at our sala, preaching the gospel, distributing from our supply of Siamese books to those who could read, and gathering information concerning the country.
We set out again as soon as our boat and men were ready. Our passage down the Ma-Kok to the Cambodia River occupied two days, during which time we passed four or five small villages of twenty or thirty houses each. These were near to Cheung Rai, within three hours’ journey of it. We spent our Sabbath on a sandy bank of this river, as we did the preceding one, many miles away from human habitations. In the morning we discovered tracks of a large tiger near our boat. These fierce brutes are quite numerous throughout the country. For mutual protection against their attacks, and the more dreaded depredations of robbers, nearly all the people of this country reside in villages or congregate in larger numbers in cities. The Kamoos, a mountain-tribe of people, inhabitants of this country at an earlier period than the Laos, form an exception to this rule. More about them hereafter.
Near the mouth of the Ma-Kok is a mountain by the Laos called Doi-Prabat-Rua, or “sacred feet and boat.” It is considered a holy place, and many pilgrims go thither seeking to make merit. It does not have, like the mountain of a similar name in Siam, an impression of a foot in its rock. Its object of veneration is an unfinished stone boat. The legend of the people is that Gotama Buddha commenced to hew out of the solid rock a boat which was to be about thirty feet in length. It was left when about half finished, and remains an object of superstitious veneration, if not of worship. Few if any Laos will pass it without fervently raising the folded hands toward it and murmuring a prayer.
We stopped a day at Ban Saao, a small village on the Cambodia River, near the mouth of the Ma-Kok, and from there visited the ruins of the city of Cheung Sau. This was at one time the largest and most populous city in this part of the interior; it was the capital city of a very powerful Burmese province. Seventy years ago the city was taken and destroyed by the Siamese, its inhabitants put to the sword or forced into slavery and the entire province rendered desolate, in which condition it remains to this day. The province thus depopulated, and now the home only of wild beasts, is not as large as the province of Cheung Mai, I believe. The territory under the rule of the king of Cheung Mai is about as large as the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island; the waste province of Cheung Sau is probably about as large as Connecticut. Nothing now remains of the destroyed city save the walls and the tumbling ruins of temples. Thousands of idols, images of Buddha, are scattered around in the old wat- or temple-grounds. Helpless to save the city from its fate, they were abandoned, and are now trodden under foot of the deer, wild elephants and tigers, whose tracks now form the by-ways of that city.
After wandering about the place for several hours, we returned to Ban Saao, and then continued our journey down the Cambodia. One day’s travel brought us to Cheung Khawng. This is a Laos city of two or three thousand inhabitants, and belongs to the province of Muang-Nan. No inhabitants on the river-banks between Ban Saao and Cheung Khawng. Many years ago a village was commenced, several houses built and a clearing made in the forest. About twenty houses were reared, but the people were obliged to desist, as many of them were killed by the tigers. We remained at Cheung Khawng two days, called upon the governor and some of the officers, visited many of the temples, and everywhere talked with those who were willing to listen. Cheung Khawng is also a fisher-town. There are very few suburban villages, fewer even than around Cheung Rai.
Left Cheung Khawng on the 3d of May. Our passage down the Cambodia to Muang-Luang-Prabang was rapidly made, and occupied only five days, including the Sabbath. The distance to the latter place from Cheung Rai is probably about three hundred miles, or from Cheung Khawng nearly two hundred. The current of the Cambodia is very swift, in places so much so that it was dangerous to navigate. The river is nearly a mile wide in places, and where the channel is narrowed it rushes along with frightful rapidity. No scenery is finer, not even that of the Hudson, during the entire distance we traveled on it. Mountains rise from either bank to the height of three or four thousand feet. The river fills the bottom of a long winding valley, and as we glided swiftly down it there seemed to move by us the panorama of two half-erect, ever-changing landscapes of woodland verdure and blossom. Only as we neared the city did we see rough and craggy mountain-peaks and barren towering precipices. The villages along the river are few and small—from Cheung Khawng to within three hours’ travel of Muang-Luang-Prabang not more than six, averaging twenty to thirty houses each. About three hours from the latter city is the mouth of the Ma-Oo River. This river comes down from the north and drains the country of the Liews.
Muang-Luang-Prabang is the capital city of a Laos province which is perhaps even more extensive than Cheung Mai. The population of the city has been variously estimated. My companion on the tour agrees with me in placing the figure at twenty or twenty-five thousand. It is probably the third largest city in the kingdom of Siam or tributary to it. Ayuthia is the second, and Cheung Mai probably the fourth. While the city itself contains a larger population than Cheung Mai, it has not, like this, a large rural population in its immediate vicinity. It is situated on the east bank of the Cambodia, on a plain which is not more than four or five miles wide. A few miles above and below the city the plain is bounded by high mountains, which reach to the river and form its banks. A small river, the Ma-Kahn, comes in from the east and divides the city into two unequal portions. The plain immediately back of the city is not cultivated nor inhabited. We were told that there were a number of villages on the banks of the Ma-Kahn. During the season of high water boats ascend this stream—a month’s journey. I presume it is then the highway on which the Kamoos bring their produce to the Muang-Luang-Prabang market. The city is more compact than any of the Laos cities which we visited. Its market is not so large as that in Cheung Mai, but we found in it, besides the fruits and vegetables of the country, many articles, especially cloths, of foreign manufacture. These are brought from Bangkok. The meats in the market are fish, pork and fowls. The former are abundant; many of them, taken from the Cambodia River, would weigh over a hundred pounds each.