Through Travellers' Eyes. An Approach to Early Nineteenth century Thai History 9742104557

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THROUGH TRAVELLERS' EYES An Approach

to Early

Nineteenth-century

B.J. Terwiel Asian History Centre The Australian National University

DK

BOOK HOUSE

Editions Duang Kamol Siam Square, Bangkok, Thailand ©

Thai History

B.J. Tenviel THROUGH TRAVELLERS’ EYES An Approach to Early Nineteenth- Century Thai History Copyright @

1989

by B.J. Terwiel

Editions Duang Kamol G.P.O. BOX 427 BANGKOK THAILAND ISBN 974-210-455-7 Twa sfuw.

ilnaau ilnaau

2 / 2 5 3 2 - ilnim 8 0 0 vaa

3/2532 iJnim

200

law

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanic, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Editions Duang Kamol.

CONTENTS

List of maps Abbreviations List of tables Preface Acknowledgements CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Defining the central region Method

page vi vii viii ix xi 1 2 5

CHAPTER 2: THE SOURCES The main sources Additional sources

11 14 26

CHAPTER 3: THE SOUTH. Travellers' accounts Additional Sources Confrontation of the data

36 36 46 54

CHAPTER 4: THE SOUTHWEST Travellers' accounts

62 62

The first route: Maha Chai Canal, Sakho'n Buri and the lower Tha 6hin River The second route: Samut Sakho'n to Samut Songkhram, and up to Ratchaburi The third route: Samut Songkhram to Phetchaburi

Additional Sources Confrontation of the data

62 69 72 73 81

iv

Through Travellers' Eyes

/ CHAPTER 5: WEST AND NORTHWEST Travellers' accounts The first route: via Bang Yai Canal, Phra Prathom and Phra Thaen Dong Rang to the Mae Klo'ng River The second route: fromNakho'n Chaisi overland to Ratchaburi, then up river to KaniShanaburi The third route: from KaniShanaburi to the Three Pagoda Pass The fourth route: Northwest, along the Suphan Buri River to the thao Phraya

Additional Sources Confrontation of the data CHAPTER 6: NORTH Travellers' accounts

page

87 87 87 93 96 98 103 11 1 119 119

From Bangkok to Ayutthaya

119

Waterways northwards

125 125 131 131 131 132

The Chief Waterway to the north From Ayutthaya into the Lop Buri River From Ayutthaya northeast Phra Phutthabat and Saraburi I Ayutthaya to Tha Ru'a From Tha Ru'a to Phra Phuthabat From Tha Ru'a to Saraburi and further along the Pa Sak River

Additional Sources Confrontation of die data CHAPTER 7: EAST Travellers' accounts

134 134 148

Additional Sources Confrontation of the data

153 153 153 157 162 171

CHAPTER 8: SOUTHEAST Travellers' accounts Additional Sources Confrontation of the data

177 177 190 197

CHAPTER 9: BANGKOK Rivers, canals and roads

202 203

The region between the 6hao Phraya and Bang Pakong Rivers The Bang Pakong River system

Contents

page Bangkok's gambling and alcohol taxes The number of monks and monasteries Bangkok's population

214 221 224

CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSIONS Central Thailand, general characteristics Evaluation of the additional sources The four themes The population of Central Thailand The role of the government Ethnic groups Nature

234 234 245 250 250 25 1 253 255

GLOSSARY

258

APPENDIX A: List of Popular and Formal Place Names

260

APPENDIX B : A Chronological List of Events

261

BIBLIOGRAPHY

265

INDEX OF GEOGRAPHICAL GENERAL INDEX

NAMES

274 282

vi

Through Travellers' Eyes

LIST OF MAPS Number

Title

Page

1.1

A division of Thailand into four regions

6

1.2

Central Thailand, its six segments

7

2. 1

Travel routes in the six segments

13

3.1

The South

37

3.2

The river Menam Enlarged

49

3.3

American missionary sketch of the Menam and other Siamese rivers

50

4.1

The Southwest

63

4.2

Waterways from Bangkok southwest and northwest

65

4.3

Central Thailand in Crawfurd's Journal

75

5.1

West and Northwest

88

5.2

Pallegoix’s map of Central Thailand

108

6.1

The North

120

6.2

The indigenous map of around 1827

144

7.1

The East

154

8.1

The Southeast

178

9.1

Pallegoix’s Map of Bangkok

208

9.2

Roads and waterways in early nineteenth-century Bangkok

210

Abbreviations

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

The following abbreviations are used in footnotes, but not in the bibliography or index:

AFMC

American Board of Commissionars for Foreign Missions Correspondence

AM-E

Archives des Missions fitrangeres, Paris

BP

The Burney Papers

1 71-73

£hotmaihet Rachakan thi So'ng

673

.S. 1171-1 173

hotmaihet Rachakan thi So'ng £.S. 1 173

CAS

Contributions to Asian Studies

JDBB

Journal of Dan Beach Bradley

JSS

Journal of the Siam Society

KTSD

Kotmai Tra Sam Duang

NA

National Archives, National Library, Bangkok

PtSam

Phra'rachaphongsawadan Krungratanakosin Rachakan thi Sam

PtSo'ng

Phra'rachaphongsawadan Krungratanakosin Rachakan thi So'ng

PP

Prachum Phongsawadan

viii

Through Travellers' Eyes

LIST OF TABLES Number Title 2.1 Bradley's tours in the provinces prior to 1850 2.2 Journeys of Baptist missionaries prior to 1850 2.3 Pallegoix's recorded journeys 2.4 Nine poetic excursions into Central Thailand Malloch's population tables of 1827 and 1849, pertaining to the 2.5 n Central region 2.6 Chronicles and central provinces, 1800-1850, the main entries 4.1 The Southwest as found in Malloch, 1827 Gambling tax farms 1809/10: the West and Northwest (in baht) .5.1 5.2 Forest products for a royal cremation: contributions from West and Northwest I 5.3 The mobilisation of 1840: contributions from West and I Northwest 5.4 The West and Northwest as found in Malloch, 1827 6.1 Alcohol and gambling tax farms in the north 1809/10 (in baht) 6.2 Forest products for a royal cremation: some contributions from the North 6.3 White cloth and turmeric to be sent from the North in 1809 i 6.4 The mobilisation of 1840: contributions from the North The North as found in Malloch, 1827 6.5 Alcohol tax farms, the Northern towns as reported by Crawfurd 6.6 and Finlayson (in baht) Alcohol and gambling tax farms 1809/10: the East (in baht) 7.1 Forest prokucts for a royal cremation: some contributions from 7.2 the East 7.3 The East a!s found in Malloch, 1827 Alcohol and gambling tax farms 1809/10: the Southeast (in baht) 8.1 8.2 The Southeast as found in Malloch, 1827 I Five lists with detailed estimates of Bangkok's population 9.1 10.1 The social classes of Central Thailand (1800-1850) 10.2 Central Thailand: Estimates of its population as seen by travellers

Page 15 15 19 24 31 35 74 104 104 105 106 135 136 138 139 142 147 163 163 163 190 192 226 241 250

PREFACE This book was written for an "ideal audience": for those consumed with a passion for knowledge about Thailand's past, who have experienced frustration when coming across the lack of depth in previous studies dealing with early nineteenth-century Thailand, and who experience joy in unearthing new sources and reappraising old ones. This imaginary audience is also interested in the history of ordinary Thai people, feeling that hitherto attention has focused too exclusively upon Siam’s kings and courtiers, and that all attempts to unearth sources that reveal to some extent the story beyond what Trager and Koenig have called "the shadow of the throne", 1 are welcome. As if this were not sufficient, this audience is thought to be deeply concerned with the story of the Thais' relentless exploitation of the environment, and finds the data on "preBowring treaty" attitudes to nature meaningfill. I expect that a reader who shares some characteristics with this imaginary audience will find intellectual pleasure and satisfaction in reading what follows. In this first paragraph, as well as in the rest of this book, the words "Thai" and "Siamese" are used interchangeably. This is not a reflection of a sinister "neo-colonialist" trait in the author's character, but simply a reflection of the fact that, throughout the nineteenth century, and for more than a decade after the 1932 overthrow of the absolute monarchy, the state was known in Thai as "Sayam", and by non-Thais as "Siam". In a similar vein, in this book the words "Cambodian" and "Khmer", and "Vietnamese" and "Cochin-Chinese" are used as equivalent pairs. The spelling of Thai words is always a difficult matter: no satisfactory system for romanisation has been universally accepted. Almost all Thai words are spelled in a manner not unlike that used by the Library of Congress in romanising Thai, with a few minor changes for typographical reasons. Thus no attention is given to relative vowel length or tone. The only exceptions to this system of romanisation are the words Bangkok and Baht, which have become accepted in this form in all standard literature, 2 and some Thai personal names

1

2

F.N. Trager and W.J. Koenig, Burmese Sit-t ns 1764-1826; Records of Rural Life and Administration, The Association for Asian Studies Monograph No XXXVI, Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1979, p.l. Where the word Bangkok forms part of a compound, such as in Khlo'ng Bang KoTc No'i, the general system of romanisation has been allowed to prevail.

X

Through Travellers' Eyes

which have been widely recognised in a variant romanisation, such as Chatthip Nartsupha and Suthy Prasartset. For the spelling of geographical names I have been primarily guided by a Proclamation from the Thai Prime Minister's Office, dealing with the spelling of Thai provincial and district names in Roman characters. 3 When in that publication it is fcjund that Lop Buri is spelled as two words, and Saraburi as a single one, I have followed suit. However, in that publication no distinction has been made between the vowel u (as in English "book") and u'(as in German "tur"), between o (as in English "go") and o ' (as in English "stop"), or between the aspirated ch and the unaspirated d&. If the Proclamation had faithfully been followed, one of the most frequently recurring words in this book would have been "muang" (meaning "town", "city", or "country"). For the sake of consistency and uniformity it was decided to add the above-mentioned distinctions — u, u’; and o, o' — to the geographical names list. "Muang" is therefore changed |to "mu'ang". An exception to these rules is made where the u sound comes at the end of a word; then the sound is depicted as ue, as in "Ban Khok Krabue".

3

Prakat Samnak Nayok Rathamontri lae Prakat Rachabanthitsathan ru’ang Kamnotchue Thawip, Prathet, Mu'angluang, Mahasamut, Thale lae Ko' lae ru'ang Kankhienchue dhangwat, Amphoe lae Kingamphoe pen Akso'n Roman, Bangkok: Prime Minister's Printing Office, B.E.2510 (1967).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The preparation for this book has extended over several years. For the early stages of the work I am beholden to the Iscole des Hautes fitudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, for appointing me for a duration of three months to a position of Directeur d'Ltudes Invite. I thank the Missions litrangdres in Paris, and in particular le Pdre Verinaud and Mlle Salavert for giving me their kind assistance. I am also grateful to the Thai National Research Council and the staff of the Bangkok National Library for granting me access to parts of their unique collection of documents. I also have benefited from the kind assistance by numerous staff members of university libraries, especially in Phayap University, Chiang Mai, and the Menzies Library, Canberra. The actual writing of the book has only been made possible through the generosity of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which in 1986 allowed me to resume a Research Fellowship for a duration of seven months. This permitted me to stay at Hamburg University, at the Abteilung Thailand, Burma und Indochina of the Seminar fur Sprache und Kultur Chinas. I thank its head, Professor K. Wenk, for allowing me ready access to his Abteilung's valuable collection of books, as well as for his personal encouragement and friendship. In the same Abteilung the late Professor K. Rosenberg was also generous with his knowledge. By mentioning these two scholars by name I do not wish to imply, however, that they are in any way responsible for mistakes in this book. Finally, many of the maps that form an essential part of the book have been only possible through the work of my sister Marlous Terwiel, who, setting aside her many other professional and artistic obligations, travelled to Hamburg to assist me in collecting information suitable to form the basis of her creations.

1 INTRODUCTION

The chief "character" in this history book is a region: Central Thailand during the first half of the nineteenth century. By Central Thailand is meant a particular area of land with its mountains, rivers, plains, flora and fauna, and how its human inhabitants fitted therein. Particular attention will be given to human attempts to mould parts of the landscape to suit their needs and ambitions. Ricefields, plantations, villages and towns will be noted throughout the area and a tentative assessment will be arrived at of the magnitude of human enterprise and an attempt made to gauge how many people occupied the region and what were the basic characteristics of their organisation, and finally to discover something of their attitudes, and what the French historians of the school of the Annales call the "mentalite" of its executives. Hitherto there have been no book-length studies dealing-specifically with the Central Thai provinces for the period between 1800 and 1850. There are several reasons for this silence. In the first place there are very few published sources that allow statements to be made on the early nineteenth-century Thai countryside. Secondly, it is a period that has been regarded in standard history books as a rather uninteresting and somewhat boring prelude to the Thai . "renaissance" that began with the accession of King Mongkut in 1851. It seems to be generally accepted among Thai historians that the "great developments" when Thailand undertook to reform its institutions, inspired by the example of colonial administrations, all date after the Bowring Treaty of 1855-56. Ingram's

2

Through Travellers' Eyes

economic history of Thailand begins with the year 1850, 1 and the Thais also appear to have |adopted the mid-nineteenth century as a proper point to commence economic history. 2 The so-called "early Bangkok period" (ratanakosin yuk ton) remains a time for which obviously little substantial information has tjeen found. 3 Historians who mention the early Bangkok period rely perforce upon a very scanty number of sources. There are some law-books dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century, but these contain such a mixture of ancient Ayutthayan texts and nineteenth-century rewriting of these that most historians are very reluctant to draw conclusions from them. 4 Others have probed a few incomplete taxation records or have examined royal proclamations, but these have yielded no insight into central Thailand as a whole. This study is based on little-known, mostly unpublished sources. Before introducing them, in the following chapter, however, it is necessary to define what is meant by the words "Central Thailand" and to present the methodology used.

DEFINING THE CENTRAL REGION There is no direct and straightforward answer as to what area may be delineated as "the Central Region" during the early Ratanakosin period. Even with descriptions of present-day Thailand there is confusion with regard to the

1

J.C. Ingram, Economic Change in Thailand, 1850-1970, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1971. SeJ also J. Homan van der Heide, "The Economical Development of Siam During the Last Half Century", JSS, Vol 3, Part 2, 1906, pp.74-101.

2

See, for example Chatthip Nartsupha and Suthy Prasartset, The Political Economy of Siam, 1851-1910, Bangkok: The Social Science Association of Thailand, 1978; and Suwit Phaithayawat, Wiwathanakan Sethakit Chonabot nai Phak Klang kho'ng Prathet Thai Ph. S. 2394-2475, Bangkok: Samnakphim Sangsan, n.d. At first sight the title of Chai Ru'angsin's boolc, Prawatisat Thai samai Ph.S. 2352-2453, Dan Sethakit, Bangkok: Munlanithi Khrongkan Tamra Sangkhomsat lae Manutsayasat, B.E. 2522 (1979), appears to break through this pattern. Upon reading that work, however, it will soon be noted that the sections dealing with pre-Bowiing Thailand rely heavily upon John Crawfurd's Journal of an Embassy. |

3

Note, for example the debate on Nidhi Aeusrivongse, "Wathanatham Kradumphi kap Wannakam Ton Ratanakosin", Warasan Thammasat, Vol. 11, No 1, March 1982, pp.79-

44

l M.' Vickery, "Prolegomena to Methods for Using the Ayutthayan Laws as Historical Source Material", JSS, Vol. 72, 1984, pp.37-58.

87

Introduction

3

delineation of the central region. A great number of sources use the term "central region", or in Thai "phak klang", and all of these agree in considering the provinces surrounding Bangkok and Ayutthaya as the heart of the centre, but they often differ in deciding where the centre ends and other regions begin. 5 There have been some attempts by government bodies to standardise the use of the term central region. The National Geographic Committee in 1977 advised adopting Pendleton’s division, and expressed the hope that the Thai government would direct all its departments to accept that division for its future statistics. 6 Apparently the sound advice to standardise the chief regional divisions has not

5

Thus R.L. Pendleton (Thailand; Aspects of Landscape and Life, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1962) takes the centre to be the valley that reaches from Uttaradit and Sukhothai in the north to the Gulf of Thailand in the south, excluding the southeastern coastal regions and most western provinces. T. Silcock (inThailand, Social and Economic Studies in Development, Canberra: The Australian National University Press, 1967), apparently inspired by a division into regions used by the Thais when presenting economic development statistics, extends the centre as far south as Prachuap Khiri Khan, its western limit is the Burmese border, to the east it ends with tbe Cambodian border, and to the north it already finishes at Chai Nat. This is also the division accepted by Koichi Mizuno, "The Social Organization of Rice-Growing Villages", in Yoneo Ishii (ed), Thailand: A RiceGrowing Society, Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1978, p.87. Pendleton's central region extends far northwards and is relatively narrow from east to west In contrast, it is more than twice as far to travel from east to west in Silcock's central Thailand, while his distance north-south is less than half Pendleton’s. When W. Donner (The Five Faces of Thailand, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1978, pp.211-318) decided to assign regions, he apparently did not allow himself to be guided by any previous system. Only the southern and western borders coincide with those in Silcock's book; northwards he stops at the provincial borders of Tak, Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanulok, and eastwards Donner ends the centre at what he calls "Greater Bangkok", leaving out Nakho'n Nayok, Chachoengsao and the five provinces further east

6

Paitoon Pongsabutra, "Naturliche Ressourcen", in J. Hohnholz (ed), Thailand: Geographie, Geschichte, Kultur, Religion, Staat, Gesellschaft, Politik, Wirtschaft, Tiibingen: Erdmann, 1980, pp.80-5.

4

Through Travellers' Eyes

yet met with success. A perusal of Thai government publications reveals that various agencies have chosen differing definitions of Thailand's chief regions. 7 The remarkable variety in marking the boundaries of the centre is partly the result of the fact that members of different disciplines are guided by different criteria. A geographer may wish to identify the centre of Thailand with the fairly uniform landscape of the £hao Phraya River delta, and therefore leave out the hills of Kan&ianaburi. An economist may look in the first place to land use. A political scientist may be guided, for example, by whether the ruling cliques in a particular province identify themselves as belonging to the "centre". Modem nationalistic texts may wish to enlarge the centre at the cost of the outer regions. The lack of standardisation of the term "central Thailand" enables the researcher I to choose the definition that best fits his data. If this book dealt with late nineteenth-century Thailand, the then current administrative division into monthons would have to be taken into account In choosing which of all these possibilities would be "the best" Central Region for this book, it would ideally have to be one identical with the region directly dependent upon Bangkok and exploited by officials who were responsible to the capital. The period 1800-1850, however, is a time when the Siamese borders with its neighbours had not yet been formally established. In the course of those fifty years Siam extended its effective control over more territory and consequently the symbol "Central Region" grew to encompass new areas. After the military campaigns of the 1820s in Laos and after the wars of the 1830s and early 1840s in Cambodia, it could be argued that certain provinces at present considered as belonging to the Northeast and some parts of what is now western Kampuchea were being fitted into an enlarged central Siam. However, that situation of maximum expansion was only short-lived, and it would be false toj depict the fluctuating central region at its greatest extent as if this were the normal and accepted size throughout those fifty years. The borders

7

For example, in a Thai Census Report (Changwat-Amphoe Statistical Directory, Bangkok: Department of Local Administration, National Statistical Office, 1965) a central region was found, comprising an area of 26 provinces that does not equate with any of the central regions introduced by the geographers and economists mentioned above. In a publication of the Ministry of Education (Krasuang Suksathikan, Krom Wichakan, Nangsu'e An Phoemtoem Sangkhomsuksa, Thiaw Mu'ang Thai, 4 Volumes, Bangkok: Khurusapha, B.E.2514-2516 (1971-73) yet another novel delineation of the centre is given, comprising as many as 29 ofj the country's 71 provinces. In a recent Siam Directory (Siam Directory 1982/3, pp. 1-183 ff.) only 25 provinces are considered to belong to the centre.

Introduction

5

of the Central Region which were decided upon are presented in the first map (Map 1.1), and a variety of considerations underlie this choice. To the southwest, the province of Phetchaburi was chosen as the last province belonging to the centre. Its large palm-sugar industry was directly linked to, and dependent upon the Bangkok market. Westwards, KaniShanaburi Province, where for most of the period under scrutiny a large number of troops were stationed in order to prevent a surprise attack from Burma, still constituted part of the central region. Towns as far to the north as Kamphaeng Phet, Phidhit and Phetchabun seem to have fallen under direct Bangkok control, but Phitsanulok appears to have maintained a degree of self-rule that warrants its exclusion from the centre. Eastwards Bangkok's power was strongly felt right up to Aranyaprathet, near the present-day Kampuchean border. To the southeast the central region extended to Thung Yai in present-day Trat province. This delineation of the central region does not extend as far southwards as do those of various modem sources. Its northern border falls between those chosen by Silcock and Pendleton respectively. It coincides exactly with that depicted in the Thai school text mentioned above, so that it is not necessary to burden the literature with yet another variant of the central region.

METHOD The methodology chosen for this book is very simple. The central region was first divided into six segments, which were called the South, the Southwest, West and Northwest, the North, the East and the Southeast (see Map 1.2). Each segment is dealt with in one of the following chapters, in that order. It will be seen that these six chapters constitute a complete sweep of the Central region in a clockwise direction, with the capital Bangkok in the centre. This sequence of chapters was deliberately chosen in preference to other possibilities because it embodies a symbolic action, well understood by those familiar with Thai ritual: the prathaksin, or moving round a monument (or person) with the right side of the body always kept towards that object (or individual), which is a polite form of greeting. The capital is discussed in a separate chapter, following the tour of all the central provinces.

8

From the Sanskrit pradakshina,"turning the right side towards, as a token of respect".

Through Travellers' Eyes

NORTH

NORTHEAST / L

CENTRAL

0)

( SOUTH

Map 1.1: A Division of Thailand into Four Regions

Introduction

W-NW

Map 1.2: Central Thailand: its Six Segments

7

8

Through Travellers’ Eyes

Each of the "segmental" chapters is built up in exactly the same way. In the first part it is attempted, with the assistance of eye-witness accounts, to create a visual image of the segment. All factual evidence that can be elicited from our sources has been included: impressions of the landscape, remarks on the fauna, locations of villages, descriptions of plantations, estimates of the size and ethnic composition of towns — all these are presented in order to put the segment literally and figuratively "on the map". The establishment of such a body of concrete bits of information is crucial to this study: it is the basis which is enlarged upon in the later parts of the segmential chapters. The image that is created in the firsjt part is, naturally, only partial and incomplete. Our sources, derived from the writings of Thai poets, French and American missionaries and British colonial spies, are biased and incomplete, but at the same time it is known that they do describe something that really existed. However vague and incomplete the picture emerges, it is the best we can obtain of .the objective "real" past of the Thai central provinces. During the preparatory research for this book, and during its writing, it was possible to gain some insight into the relative bias of the primary sources. This was obtained whenever the same scene, landscape, village, or town was described by two or more independent observers. Such fortuitous "conjunctions" of sources have been presented with full details, because they made it possible io establish various degrees of bias in our primary sources. Whenever a clear bias was established, this was taken into account when assessing other evidence, under the assumption that each particular author maintained his personal convictions and tended to distort the picture in a fairly consistent manner. In the second part of each segmental chapter a series of contemporary works is scanned with die sole purpose of trying to elicit further information on the segment. Given the relative dearth of information for this period, a wide range of sources was selected for inclusion, the sole criterion being that they provided some information |on a particular segment. Sometimes the source was a letter, sent from Bangkok to call up a number of soldiers to serve in an army, in other cases a receipt for a payment of tax was chosen. With such a large variety of possible sources that can throw further light upon the relevant segment, it was decided to list them under five headings, and to present them always in the same order. The five classes of documents mentioned in the second parts of the "segmential chapters" are:

Introduction

9

1. Published documents from the Thai National Archives holdings, and published references to unpublished documents from this collection. 2. Information drawn from published lists of Siam's chief towns and villages. 3. Information unpublished.

drawn from contemporary

maps, both published and

4. Crawfurd's Journal. 5. The Dynastic Chronicles. Having gathered as much information as available, each segmental chapter concludes with a third part, in which the material collected is discussed under several headings. In the first place an attempt is made to judge the size of the population encountered in the segment. This part of the work involved some weighing of the evidence, and in order to stress that here we are dealing with estimates, it was decided to present them in the form of a minimum and a maximum number of the people who may be assigned to the various towns and villages. Then a first analysis is given of such contents of the first two parts as can throw light upon the role of the central government. This consists of drawing attention to hitherto unsuspected information on features of the government apparatus, its system of ruling the provinces and aspects of taxation. Then a summary of information on the ethnic diversity of the segment is given. Finally the chapter is closed with some remarks on its landscape and environmental features. The method is aimed at constructing a picture of a physical, tangible earlynineteenth centuiy reality. Without the basis of a series of eye-witness account of what could actually be seen, the second and third parts of these chapters would lose all meaning and become snippets of incoherent documents. With a view of the landscape reasonably firmly established, it becomes exciting to draw extra information from texts in a manner hitherto not attempted. This simple method does not readily yield the kind of details needed to write a satisfactory social history. The number of unknown factors is still innumerable. However, in each segment some new information does emerge, hi one chapter we find out how the corvee system was actually administered in a small provincial town; in another the existence of an important hitherto unknown industry is revealed. One chapter reveals the settlement of a group of prisonersof-war; another that there was serious tension between various ethnic groups. In

10

Through Travellers' Eyes

the concluding chapter it has been attempted to make some general statements regarding to the whole central region, which not only sum up the findings of earlier chapters, but endeavour to characterise aspects of the social system, the nature of Siamese government and attitudes to nature and the environment. The organisation of the book closely reflects all the stages in the research. It was decided to retain this structure because this work constitutes a pioneering effort, based on sources that are not generally accessible even to professional historians. This format enables the critical reader to follow step by step the reasoning behind each attempt to generalise, and to judge the argument fully informed as to the data underlying our conclusions.

2 THE SOURCES

In contrast to the situation regarding Bangkok and its immediate surroundings, for which there are many contemporary sources in print, both in Thai and in English, researchers will find it hard to acquire any information at all about life in a provincial town or village in the central region during the first half of the nineteenth century. In order to gain an idea of the paucity of data, it is enlightening to consult the series of 71 booklets covering all provinces which the Thai Government issued during the celebrations of the year 2500 B.E. (1957). Each of these publications is devoted to a single province, and each has a section on history. These historical essays cover items such as when the name of the provincial capital was first found in documents, and any other facts the committees found worthy of inclusion. For 'the thirty central provinces surrounding Bangkok only six contain entries pertaining to the first half of the nineteenth century. One of these is in the essay on the history of Rayo'ng Province where an entry is devoted to the poet Suntho'n Phu, who, it is fondly believed by modem regional chauvinists, may have been bom there; the other five are dhanthaburi, Chachoengsao, Ratchaburi, Samut Prakan and Samut Songkhram, each with entries based upon Thiphako'rawong's Dynastic Chronicles. For many other provinces, it can be established that their capitals were known in Ayutthayan times or even earlier, and by inference that these existed during the first three Reigns of the Bangkok Period. A government publication of this nature, with its dominant chauvinistic themes, is of course not the best place for delving .into regional history; its chief virtue lies in the fact that it contains at least some statement on each province. There exist much more serious works regarding the history of some of the better-known provinces. However, a perusal of these will confirm that Thai historians who write local history of the central provinces, if they mention the period of the first three Reigns of the Bangkok Period at all, usually base

12

Through Travellers' Eyes

themselves upon the Dynastic Chronicles. 1 These Chronicles certainly have an important place in Thai history, but they provide a poor entry into provincial history. On the relatively rare occasions that the Chronicler mentions a provincial town, it jis in connection with an item of news such as a decision to relocate a town or to improve its outer defences, information that was of strategic importance to Bangkok. For historians specialising on a West-European region it is difficult to imagine that study of a literate society, such as that of Thailand, could be hampered by a singular lack of documentation. After all, European historians would argue, the period 1800-1850 is not very remote. The lack of documents is partly caused by the| fact that written Thai was dominated by the Buddhist church and the state. For pie first half of the nineteenth century there were birth and death records only of a few political and religious leaders, there were no indigenous medical records, no indigenous personal diaries, no shopping lists, no inscribed gravestones, and the archives of Government Ministries do not go back to the early nineteenth century. Secondly, the tropical climate and its rich insect life is not gentle with the documents that were kept. Thirdly, the attitudes of provincial administrators to old documents has little of the reverence that sometimes can be seen among their European counterparts. Thus the Catholic parish administrator of £hanthaburi related without the slightest embarrassment how the unique ancient ledgers containing the parish records with details of the names of the hanthaburi Catholic converts, and their births, marriages and deaths, had been thrown away when a new administrative building was opened.

1

Many of the historical essays in the 1957 series were apparently based on Tri Amatayakun's research, and the following have been published under his name, for example: dhangwat Ratchaburi, Commemoration volume for Phra Maha Cho’i's elevation to Phrarachakhana rank, Ratchaburi: y at Mahathat B.E.2501 (1958); Prawat Mu'ang fchanthaburi,Cremation Volume for Nang Kheng Intha'aya, B.E.2500 (1957); fihangwat Kandhanaburi, Cremation Volume for NaiPur and Nang Daeng Charoenphanit, B.E.2502 (1959); Thatsanasan Thai fchangwat Nakho'n Si Ayutthaya, Cremation Volume for Nang Tho’ngkham Piemsi, B.E.2503 (1960). But see also Phrarachahathalekha Rachakan thi Ha Sadetpraphat Monthon Pradhin Buri -lae Ru'ang Pradhin Buri, Cremation Volume for Nang Maen Yupanon, B.E.250f> (1960); Somchai Phumsa'at, fchangwat Phidhit, in Cremation Volume for Nang Daeng Khewatana, B.E.2514 (1971); Huan Phinthuphan, Aug Tho'ng nai Adit, Bangkok: Krungsayamkanphim, B.E.2514 (1971); Chaloem Sukkasem, Samut Prakan, Bangkok: Samakhom Sangkhomsat heang Prathet Thai, B.E.2515 (1972); and Athikan Withayalai Khru Thepsatri, Ekasan prako'p Kansamana Prawatisat Mu'ang Lop Buri, Bangkok: Rongphim Ru'ankaewkanphim, B.E.2524 (1981).

13

The Sources

/

O «

• PHltHlT*

PHETCHABUN,

capital c ly d u e l town

•'IIijp

------- bind route ■

J

appr-MafiaChal_

iBcngThkong •PHWATH1KH0M

a'ng Men largPhns Racha IBANGLAMUNC BanNaHu's Is.fho'mThien

tUAYa

,MA£NG

Sattahif ami

s>

iBangSaVaew

■M

Map 2.1: Travel Routes in the Six Segments

14

Through Travellers’ Eyes

It has only been possible to provide the information on the early nineteenthcentury central provinces in the following six chapters of this book because of the discovery of a series of hitherto unknown and unpublished sources, with the addition of some already-known, but widely neglected publications. The chief vehicle used for this new contribution to provincial history is the perusal and analysis of a series of travellers' accounts: first-hand observation of landscapes, plantations, factories, monasteries, villages and towns. Most people who are familiar with nineteenth-century Thai history will know of one or two of these records of travels!into the central provinces, but will have found them too scanty and impressionistic to be of much use. It has, however, been possible to establish that there are many more detailed reports of journeys, and that these cover a great deal of the central part of Siam (See Map 2.1). Four distinct categories of travel accounts may be distinguished: those of Protestant missionaries, of Catholic priests, of British officials, and of Thai poets. Each of these categories of travel account was written for a different public and needs to be appreciated in a slightly different manner. Some of their strengths and weaknesses are discussed in the following paragraphs.

THE MAIN SOURCES

1. American Protestant missionary diaries It is common knowledge that during the 1830s and 1840s an increasing number of American missionaries established themselves in Siam, where they rapidly became a stimulating force in the intellectual life of the capital. As for their travels into the countryside, Dan Beach Bradley's 1835 trip to thanthaburi appears to be the only published account. 2 Until now it seems to have escaped historians' attention that a number of further accounts of Bradley's tours outside Bangkok can be|found in his unpublished diaries. The extent of Bradley's journeys can be seen from Table 2.1: As well as these eight journeys, Bradley made another six, which fall outside the scope of this tjook, since they were made in the second half of the nineteenth century . As a matter of historical interest, however, it may be noted that in 1854 this seasoned traveller visited Ang Hin, Bang Plaso'i and Tha thin; in 1856 Tha thin, RatchaburiJ Photharam and Kandhanaburi; in 1859 he went twice to the

2

Bradley's thanthaburi journey of 1835 was printed, in an abbreviated form, in the Bangkok Calendar 1870, pp.106-18, and translated into Thai in PP, Part 31, Bangkok: Khurusapha B.E. 2505 (1962)! Vol 18, pp.47-55.

The Sources

15

town of Phetchaburi; in 1862 again to Phetchaburi and finally, in 1863, to Ang Hin, making copious notes of his observations on each journey. TABLE 2.1: BRADLEY'S TOURS IN THE PROVINCES PRIOR TO 1850 Year Direction Towns and villages visited 1835 1838 1837 1838 1838 1838 1840 1846

SE N SE W, NW SE, SW SW N SE, SW

£hanthaburi (a series of unnamed villages) Bang Plaso'i, Ang Hin Nakho'n Chaisi Bang Plaso'i, Bang Pako'ng, Tha £hin, Krok Krak Tha £hin, Samut Songkhram Ayutthaya, Ang Tho'ng Ang Hin

Even less known are the journeys recorded by Bradley's Baptist compatriots. Accounts, of these excursions were sent to the Foreign Secretary of the Baptist Mission in Boston and much of this material has been preserved for posterity. 3 They are enumerated in Table 2.2: TABLE 2.2: JOURNEYS OF BAPTIST MISSIONARIES PRIOR TO 1850 Name Year Direction Towns and villages visited J.T. Jones J.T. Jones W. Dean, A.Reed R. Davenport C. Slafter C. Slafter C. Slafter R. Davenport R. Davenport R. Davenport J. Goddard

1836 1839 1839 1840 1840 1840 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844

E.N. Jencks

1847

3

N Pak Kret, Sam Khok N,NE Ayutthaya, Phra Phutthabat SW, NW Tha £hin, Nakho'n Chaisi N,NE Ayutthaya, Phra Phutthabat SW Tha £hin, Samut Songkhram NW Suphan Buri E Prabhih Buri, Kabin Buri,Chachoengsao SE Bang Plaso'i, Ang Hin E Bang Phli E Nakho'n Nayok SW Tha £hin, Samut Songkhram, Bang Chang Tha hin SW

For details of the American Baptist Mission Society holdings, see the Bibliography.

16

Through Travellers' Eyes

Altogether the twelve Baptist journey reports and Bradley's eight trips made during the Third Reign, provide us with the respectable number of twenty independent probes into the Siamese countryside which have hitherto escaped historians' attention. These reports are of value because they often provide information which, cannot be obtained elsewhere. The reason for this lies in the missionaries' strong and unique motivation. They had made it their overriding ambition to do nothing less than convert the whole of Siam to the Protestant interpretation of Christianity. In Bangkok tlley had recourse to various strategies, such as accepting pupils in their school, dispensing medical supplies, cultivating good relations with some Siamese of rank, |and even redeeming some enslaved children so as to be able to bring them up in "the true religion", but when they went on tour in the countryside their strategy was basically very simple. It consisted literally of "spreading the gospel" by word of mouth .and by handing out, free of charge, pamphlets designed to persuade their readers to abandon the idolatry of Buddhism and to [accept the true religion. In accordance with Protestant beliefs, it was assumed mat the pamphlets, when read with humility, would inevitably set in train a processj of conversion. When the Protestant missionaries viewed the countryside studded with heathen temples and inhabited by idolaters, this filled them with the fervent desire to initiate profound changes. Once the words of the true Lord had been spoken, and the pamphlets had commenced to take effect, surely the rural regions would be transformed, Thus upon viewing a cotton plantation near the town of Amphawa, Bradley exclaimed in his diary:

How much of this most valuable article could be grown on the vast tracts of land at the north and northwest of Bangkok which are now allowed to run to waste! The time seemed to be less distant when an enterprising people shall occupy these tracts and fully develop their powers - i| is only the devil and his agents that now prevent it. All this land ... will surely be possessed (by the servants of the Most High God) and then it will not be excelled by any other land in the world in point of its agricultural productions. 4

This overriding ambition to change rural Siam lies behind many of their travel accounts. When missionary records the ethnicity of a village, this is valuable information which may enable future missionaries to prepare pamphlets in the

4

JDBB, December 18, 1856.

The Sources

17

appropriate language. When an estimate of the size of a town is made, it is to enable a judgment to be made as to whether the place has sufficient population to warrant a future mission post. Similarly, when missionaries inspect a town's hinterland as to fertility and variety of produce, it is to enable them to make judgments concerning the town's ability to support preachers of the gospel, large numbers of whom who would be needed when the Word of God began to have effect While the Protestant missionaries had therefore strong personal reasons for collecting information which can be of great interest -to the historian who is trying to gain a picture of the Siamese countryside, the data recorded are by no means flawless, and they cannot be accepted without taking note of several serious problems. In the first place these missionaries were not trained to make demographic surveys of Central Thai villages and towns. It is by no means easy to estimate the number of inhabitants in an alien village which is visited only fleetingly, it becomes even more difficult with larger settlements. A village made up of single, unmarried Chinese fishermen would have to be judged quite differently from a Siamese village of rice-growers. A skilled observer would not only have to take into account the ethnic make-up of the population, but also to make conscious judgments as to the relative wealth and status of the inhabitants. A successful businessman or prosperous government official may be expected to have a much more numerous household than a poor stonemason. When the missionaries provide us with a running commentary of the number of people living in villages they pass through, it is important to be aware of their usual method of calculation. With small villages they may actually have counted the number of houses, but when they dealt with more complex settlements or whole towns they first made a rough guess as to how many dwellings they contained, followed by an estimate of the number of inhabitants. Here, a careful scrutiny of the data sometimes reveals great discrepancies between the reports of one missionary and another. Bradley varies in his conversion factor, counting sometimes an average of eight, but more often as many as ten persons per household. Slafter consistently takes five per house as his working rule. Davenport varies; in one village he may take three persons per house, in another five. The different rules-of-thumb thus lead to certain inconsistencies in these sources. In order to minimise this problem, when in the following chapters a missionary estimate of a town's population is made and that particular missionary's conversion rule is known, the estimated number of houses which may be assumed to have been the base figure will be added in brackets. Another difficulty with some of the missionary accounts arises when they give a false impression of accuracy and completeness. When one of the

18

Through Travellers' Eyes

travellers notes that a town has a large Chinese temple, one may not take this to mean that he had enumerated all places of worship. All it signifies is that he had become aware of -only that one religious establishment. These travellers describe only what they could perceive. If they made their observations travelling on a river, comfortably seated in a boat, they may have been unable to see more than the first rows of households. Only on very few occasions do they stop to walk around and see for themselves the extent of a village, or ask local officials how many households fell under their charge. A third problem with the American missionaries' information is that their figures are sometimes exaggerated, especially as regards the number of "souls" waiting to be concerted. It has already been noted how Bradley often counted an average of ten persons per house, by which method he may have over-estimated the number of inhabitants in some places by as much as a hundred per cent or more. The tendency to give unrealistically large numbers of people is of course closely interwoven with the fact that these reports were often written with the aim of encouraging further proselytisation. The larger the number of heathens, the more missionaries might feel encouraged to join in the work of spreading the gospel. The shortcomings in the American missionaries' accounts are sufficiently serious to prevent their travel reports being regarded as more than a large number of impressions of landscapes and human settlements. By themselves they cannot form the basis for historical geography. In conjunction with other sources they can make an important contribution to that goal.

2. Catholic missionary reports The Catholics had already obtained a foothold in Siam in Ayutthay an times. During the first half of the nineteenth century there were at first four, and later five, particular enclaves in Bangkok set aside for Catholics, where they lived and built their churclles. The most important of these was Assumption where the cathedral and the Bishop's palace were built. Most of these Catholics belonged to ethnic minorities: descendants of Portuguese settlers, refugees from Cambodia and Cochin China, and Chinese converts. The most important mission post outside Bangkok was that of £hanthaburi, founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century While Protestant missionaries brought their wives and raised children, the Catholic priests, like Buddhist monks, were celibate and thereby earned a good measure of respect. From the Buddhist perspective, the Catholic religion had other readily recognisable features such as the use of candles and incense, the priests' wearing of cassocks to set the religious specialists apart from ordinary

The Sources

19

men, and the building of some of their churches in the style of the Thai Buddhist Uposatha halls. In addition, unlike the Protestants who insisted on a thorough examination of a prospective convert's understanding of Christian principles, purely of motivation and steadfastness, the Catholics seemed more ready to accept converts without much prying into the quality of their.'faith,* apparently in the hope that a deeper understanding, if at all attainable, would evolve over time. During the first half of the nineteenth century there was only one Catholic missionary who left accounts of his travels in the provinces, and that was Bishop Pallegoix. The best known of these are summarised in his book Description du royaume Thai ou Siam, but he also published in the journal of - the French Geographical Society, and in the Annales de la Propagation da la For, and some original drafts of his accounts have been preserved in the Archives of the Missions &rangeres in Paris. The five recorded journeys of Pallegoix are enumerated in Table 2.3: TABLE 2.3: PALLEGOIX'S RECORDED JOURNEYS Year

Direction

Towns and villages visited

1831 1834

N N

1838/39

SE,E

1843

SW, W, NW

1849

N,NE

Ayutthaya, Mu'ang In, Chai Nat Ayutthaya, Ang Tho'ng, Mu'ang Phrom, Lop Buri, Mu'ang In, Chai Nat, Nakho'n Sawan hanthaburi, Bang Plaso'i, Chachoengsao, Nakho'n Nayok Tha £hin, Samut Songkhram, Ratchaburi, Kandhanaburi, Nakho'n Chaisi, Suphan Buri Ayutthaya, Phra Phutthabat

Thus Pallegoix can be said to have added considerably to the large number of foreigners' accounts mentioned above. The Catholic Bishop shared some of the prejudices of the Protestant missionaries, and he too wanted to convert the population. There are, however, some important differences between the representatives of these rival branches of Christianity. When proselytising in the provinces, both Pallegoix and the Protestant missionaries preached, but otherwise there was little in common as to the techniques used. Often Pallegoix would visit places where he knew that some Catholics lived; these could be descendants of an old Catholic enclave, such as the one in Ayutthaya, or Chinese converts who had found work in sugar-mills in the provinces. Once there, he would solemnly celebrate mass, thereby not only strengthening his ties with old members of his flock, but adding new ones. When arriving in places without

Through Travellers' Eyes

20

Christians, Pallegoix would have the good sense to first visit the local Governor and give him some judicious presents, such as a silver mirror, a few bottles of scent, or a pair of silver-framed spectacles. 5 In another place, he arranged a small exhibition !of foreign curiosities, together with pictures of great European buildings, such as Saint Peter's in Rome. 6 While Pallegoix appears much more flexible in his handling of rural audiences than his Protestant counterparts, his travelogues are similarly flawed. His estimates of numbers of inhabitants are usually nothing more than a wild guess, only occasionally strengthened by estimates from local administrators. His journeys give also a false idea of completeness, and of having exhaustively explored a particular stretch of river. There must have been much that remained hidden from his view. Pallegoix also shares with the Protestants a tendency to overestimate the number of "souls" already yvon and those still to be converted. -

I

The only other information from Catholic in the provinces are a series of letters which wrote back to his headquarters. These are Missions-litrangeres in Paris. These form information available, at least for the town of

missionaries relevant for our tours the resident priest at £ hanthaburi deposited at the Archives of the a welcome addition to the other hanthaburi.

3. British informants A quite different set of documents about the Siamese countryside emanated from the British. The apparent motivation was furthering the cause of free trade, but in several instances there can be little doubt that the information sought was of strategic importance and to be used in case of future armed conflict with Siam. The latter is, for example, the underlying motive for the massive report on Siam written by John Crawfurd which is discussed below. 7 If there is any doubt in readers' minds concerning the aims of the British gathering of knowledge on Siam, they may consider some remarks from the Crawfurd Papers :

Should the arrogance of the Siamese embarrass us in the manner I have pointed out as probable, it appears to me that it will unquestionably be the best policy to meet the difficulty at once. The military preparations

5

J-B. Pallegoix, 'Description du royaume International reprint, 1969), p.93.

6

Ibid., p.83.

7

J. Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China, Oxford in Asia Historical reprints, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1967.

Thai ou Siam, Vol 1, Paris, 1854 (Gregg

The Sources

21

for this purpose may be made on the most moderate and economical scale. A simultaneous attack by a few companies of sepoys from Penang and the blockade of the Menam by 2 or 3 cruizers of the smallest class, it appears to me, will be adequate to every object.... The blockade of the Menam will be the easiest, safest and most effectual measure that can well be contemplated. The squadron will be secure in the fine harbour of the Sichang group of Islands of which a survey is in the possession of Government, and nearly from this station it will have in its power to intercept, not only the whole foreign trade of the kingdom, which centres in the Menam and can pass by no other route, but the valuable tributes and forced deliveries which are conveyed to the capital from every part of the Gulf... 8

The same spirit can be found in the article "Harbor of Ko-si-chang", published on March 16, 1826, in the Singapore Chronicle . After a detailed account of tbe island's facilities, the article ends with the following words:

As a station for an enemy meditating hostile measures against Siam, no place can be better adapted than this harbour. A very small fleet in possession of these islands would effectually blockade the port of Bankok, at which nearly the whole trade of the Siamese empire is concentrated; and thus dictate terms to the monarch of Siam, without further exertion than the seizure and detention of the numerous junks which trade to Bankok from various quarters 9

The fact that British interests in Siam were closely linked with empirebuilding does not disqualify British sources from being scrutinised. Indeed, the British have left some very interesting and detailed accounts of travel in the central provinces. The first of these nineteenth-century travel accounts, dated 1826 is that of Francisco Josd Leal, one of Henry Burney's interpreters. The part of the journey of interest to us is that from the Three Pagoda Pass via Kandhanaburi and Ratchaburi to Bangkok, where he assiduously recorded information on population, resources and defence capabilities. Leal wrote in the belief that he was crossing territory "where no other European had preceded

8

The Crawford Papers, Bangkok: Vajiranana National Library, 1915, p.151.

9

Reprinted in J.H. Moor, Notices of the Indian Archipelago and Adjacent Countries, Singapore, 1837 (Reprint, London, Frank Cass, 1968) pp.197-98. See also J. Low, "Retrospect of British Policy”, in BP, Vol 5, Part 1, in particular pp.31-2.

*

22

Through Travellers' Eyes

him", in which he was probably mistaken. 10 The next journey took place in 1826 and covered the tract from the Three Pagoda Pass to Kandhanaburi only. 11 A much more ambitious journey, from the Three Pagoda Pass to Bangkok and from Bangkok northwards via Ayutthaya, Mu'ang In and Nakho'n Sawan to the semi-independent states in the north, was that of the Shwai Gyeen Myo 12 Thoogyee; and in 1839 D. Richardson followed roughly the same route, providing us with detailed information on Kandhanaburi, Ratchaburi, Nakho'n Chaisi and a land route north of Nakho'n Chaisi. 13 These four reports have all been published, but they have received little or no attention from historians. Yet, because of their military nature and their scouting character, they are eminently suited for our purpose. It is amusing to note how an American missionary perceives the same town in a wholly different manner from someone reporting for British intelligence. When visiting Samut Songkhram, Bradley notes how this would be a good place to settle a Chinesespeaking missionary. Richardson, however, notes the town's defences and appears most interested in gathering information on the number of Mo'ns, about whose allegiance to the Siamese cause he has some doubts. These four journeys constitute a most welcome addition to our array of different accounts.

4. The nirats The nirat is a traditional form of Thai literature. It usually concerns the pain of a physical separation between the author and his beloved, as experienced during a journey. The poet describes his progress through landscapes, villages and towns, but he regularly interrupts the traveller's description by alluding to his

*0 First published in H .H. Wilson (ed), Documents Illustrative of the Burmese War, Calcutta: Government Gazette Press, 1827; reprinted in J. Anderson, English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Century, Bangkok: Chalermnit reprint, 1981, pp.400-2. Leal’s journal was also published, together with copious notes by Captain Burney, in BP, Vol 3, Part 1 , pp.23-47. 11

Published in BP, Vol 2, Part 6, pp.197-204.

12

Ibid.', Vol 3, Part 1, pp.258-73. D. Richardson, "Journal of a Mission from the Supreme Government of India to the Court of Siam", Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol 8, December 1839, pp. 1016-36; Vol 9, January 1840, pp.1-30 and March 1840, pp.219-250. This account has not apparently been published in complete form, the detailed account stopping with a village close to Suphan Buri. A summary of the remainder of the journey can be found in BP, Vol 4, Part 1, pp.17-29.

The Sources

23

feelings and thoughts about the lover at home. 14 In the early nineteenth century there were several authors writing nirats , but the most outstanding and versatile was undoubtedly Suntho'n Phu (1786-1855). His first nirat, generally assumed to have been written in 1807, describes the journey to Mu'ang Klaeng, a town in the Southeast between Rayo'ng and £hanthaburi. 15 It is possible that not long afterwards, some say in 1808, there followed Nirat Phrabat, a pilgrimage from Bangkok to Phra Phutthabat in the northeast of the central region. 16 For the dates and authorship of some other nirats by Suntho'n Phu, a recent German translation by Klaus Wenk has been of great assistance. Unlike his predecessors, he dates Suntho'n Phu's Nirat Mu'ang Phet, a journey to Phetchaburi, in the year 1827. This may have been followed by the Nirat Phukhaw Tho'ng, a poem to a monument close to Ayutthaya which must have been written after 1828. 17 The Nirat Phra Prathom is widely believed to have been written in 1842. Apart from these nirats which, with only a small measure of hesitation, can be assigned to Suntho'n Phu, there is the Khlong Nirat Mu'ang Suphan, which has been given various tentative dates in the 1830s and 1840s, but, which appears to have been written in the 1850s, and thus falls outside our period. 18 There are other nirats of the first half of the nineteenth century that are clearly not written by Suntho'n Phu. Thus there are the two travel poems, both entitled Nirat Phra Thaen Dong Rang, each describing a journey to the same place of pilgrimage in the province of Kan&hanaburi, but by two entirely different routes.

14

A short introduction to this genre can be found in P. Schweisguth, "Les 'Nirat' ou po&mes d'adieu dans la literature siamoise" JSS, Vol 38, Pt 1, 1950, pp.67-78; and in Manas Chitakasem, "The Emergence and Development of the Nirat Genre in Thai Poetry", JSS, Vol 60, Part 2, July 1972, pp.135-68. For Suntho'n Phu's Nirat Mu'ang Klaeng I have relied upon two sources: H. Hundius, Das Nirat Mu'ang KlSng von Suntho'n Phu, Analyse und Vbersetzung eines thailandischen Reisegedichts, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1976, which has both a version in Thai and a translation; and Prem Burachatra's English translation, Nirat Muang Klaeng, Bangkok: National Identity Board, 1984.

16

The text of the Nirat Phrabat was found in Somdetkromphraya Damrong Rachanuphap, Chiwit lae ngan kho'ng Suntho'n Phu, Bangkok: Khlangwithaya, B.E.2513 (1970), pp.111-42.

17

K. Wenk, Studien zur Literatur der Thai, Band n, Texte und Interpretationen von und zu Sunthon Phu und seinem Kreis, Hamburg: Gesellschaft fur Natur- und Vdlkerkunde Ostasiens, 1985. Prince Damrong (Chiwit lae Ngan kho'ng Suntho'n Phu, p.50), opted for 1841/42, and Ph. na Pramuanmak, Prawat Kham Klo’n Suntho'n Phu, Bangkok: Phraephithaya, B.E. 2499 (1956), pp.336-39, thought it was 1836/37. However, the twelfth and fourteenth strophe appear to refer to the Fourth Reign.

24

Through Travellers' Eyes

The first, dated early 1834, was written by Samanen Klan; and the second, dated 1836/37, by Nai Mi. 19 In order to distinguish between these two, the first is usually referred to as the NiratNen Klan. Also there is the Khlong Nirat Phra Prathom, dated 1844/45 by Kromamu'n Wongsasanit. 20 Finally, there is the Nirat Mu'ang Suphan, dated 1844/45, again from the hand of Nai Mi, who by then bore the official title of Mu'n Phromsomphatso'n. 21 Altogether the number of journeys in Thai poetry used in this study 22 adds nine to the travels recorded by Europeans and Americans. These nine have been summarised in Table 2.4: TABLE 2.4: NINE POETIC EXCURSIONS INTO CENTRAL THAILAND Date 1807 (?) 1808 (?) 1827 (?) 1828 (or later) 1834 1834/35 1836/37 1842 1844/45

Title Nirat Mu'ang Klaeng Nirat Phrabat Nirat Mu’ang Phet Nirat Phukhaw Tho'ng Nirat Nen Klan Nirat Phra Prathom Nirat Phra Thaen Dong Rang Nirat Phra Prathom Nirat Mu'ang Suphan

Author Suntho'n Phu Suntho'n Phu Suntho'n Phu Suntho'n Phu Samanen Klan Kromamu'n Wongsasanit Nai Mi Suntho'n Phu Nai Mi

These travel poems were not of course intended to furnish a basis for reconstructing early nineteenth-century Thai geography. They are poetic

19

2

The two poems entitled Nirat Phra Thaen Dong Rang can be found in Doisadet Phra'rachakuson Phrahatsomdet Phra'dhaoyuhua lae Somdetphra'nangdhao Phra'boromarachinirat nai Kansadetphra'rachadamnoen Songbamphen Phra'rachakuson Wisakhabucha Songwangsilaruk Ubosot Songlongphra'paramaphithai lae Songyiamratsado'n, May 30, B.E.2512 (1960), pp.97-113 and 115-34. The most useful edition of Nai Mi's poem was found to be the Krom Sinlapako'n edition of B.E.2504 (1961).

® The edition used in this study was found in Ph. na Pramuanmak, Prachum Nirat Kham Khlong, Bangkok: Phraephithaya, B.E.2513 (1970), pp.253-97.

21

As printed in Wannakhadi samai Ayutthaya lae Ratanakosin, Bangkok: Khrongkanphathanakan Suksa, Krasuang Su'ksathikan, B.E.2504 (1981), pp.1-28. Recently a German translation of this interesting poem has appeared. See K. Wenk, Studien zurLiteratur der Thai, Band III, Texte und Interpretationen zur Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts, Hamburg: Gesellschaft fur Natur- und VOlkerkunde Ostasiens, 1987, Chapter 2.

22

Some nirats, such as the Khlong Nirat Narin, which deal only summarily with the journey through what we have called central Thailand, have been left out of the consideration.

The Sources

25

creations in which images of landscapes and towns are used to evoke emotions. These nirats are poetry, art, which ought to be enjoyed and appreciated as such. The information we have extracted from the nirats does not reflect the poet's gifts or his intentions. In the interests of historical research, snippets of information which appear useful have been extracted. 23 Since the poet "uses" the landscape and events that happen while travelling as a vehicle for his emotions, it may asked to what extent, if any, the poet distorts reality. It is generally accepted that his journey is usually set in real and actual scenery, but it is worth examining if there is evidence of "poetic licence"., distortion or exaggeration. In order to answer this question it should first be noted that the nirats appear to have been written while the poet was still en route, or at least when his memory was still fresh. All the settlements mentioned in the nirats really existed, and seldom does the poet make a mistake in the order of appearance. 24 Whenever he describes a town, village or scenery for which there are other independent accounts, Suntho'n Phu’s description appears fully compatible with that of later observers. It might still be argued that in order to make his poem more interesting and appealing to the emotions, Suntho'n Phu may have deliberately exaggerated certain events. This can only be judged by carefully reading the texts. For example, in his Nirat Mu 'ang Klaeng, Suntho'n Phu describes three situations that would easily lend themselves to exaggeration. These are a fearful tempest just off Bang Plaso'i; a moment when the overland travellers lose their way and have to battle with sharp grass and leeches; and the author's physical exhaustion upon reaching Rayo'ng. However, even in these three instances the poet may have done no more than accurately describe his feelings. A sudden storm at sea can be terrifying, especially to those who do not often venture on the open sea; losing one's way in a marsh can be an ordeal; while the distance covered without rest before reaching Rayo'ng may have surpassed seventy kilometres, sufficient to bring most humans close to the point of total exhaustion. A careful scrutiny of the texts leads to but one conclusion: Suntho'n Phu's landscapes are "real". The same can be said for nirats written by Sunthon Phu's contemporaries. The nirats therefore seem eminently suited to be treated as a source for historical geography.

23 The nirats have been used for historical geography before. See Samakhom phu'a Kanraksasombat Wathanatham and Krom Sinlapako'n, Botkawinirat tam Khlo'ng Bang KokNo'i thu'ngBang Yai, Bangkok, B.E.2504 (1961). 24

Once, describing the journey to Phra Phutthabat, Suntho'n Phu appears to have misplaced one building. That particular stretch was made by elephant, and the fact tha( writing is well nigh impossible in a swaying howdah may help explain why such a mistake could occur. See Damrong, Chiwit lae Ngan kho'ng Suntho'n Phu, p.128.

26

Through Travellers' Eyes

This concludes the main body of our sources for elucidation of provincial history, a total of no less than thirty-eight travel accounts from four distinct types of informants. These travel accounts cover many separate routes throughout the central region (See Map 2.1). With their help a framework for the Siamese countryside is built up in the following chapters. However, as explained in the introduction, an effort has been made to expand this framework by adding other contemporary information.

ADDITIONAL

SOURCES

1. Documents from the Thai National Archives There still exist thousands of documents in the Thai language written during the first half of the nineteenth century. Large numbers of these remain unpublished and are guarded in the National Library in Bangkok. These unpublished documents have been filed away according to date of provenance only, and they cover a multitude of subjects. During the preparation for this work the author twice had the opportunity to read through the catalogue of unpublished documents for the first three reigns of the Bangkok period and to call up works with promising titles for closer examination. It soon became clear, however, that it would take many years' time to read them all. Therefore an attempt was made to limit the task to an identification of all documents which mention the name of particular towns, in the hope of constructing "profiles" for these towns, hi the first instance only the town of £hanthaburi was chosen, but later the towns of Ang Tho'ng, Kandhanaburi and Ratchaburi were added. These probes into the holdings of the National Archives proved very enlightening as to the limitations of the National Library documents for research on provincial history. Although the catalogue was scanned from the year t.S.1162 (1800/01) onwards, the first document specifically referring to hanthaburi by name dates from 1832/33, and is a statement that a payment of tax had been received in the capital and that money was being sent to buy rice. The next document was filed away under 1843/44, but apparently written three years earlier; it concerns a dispute between two tax fanners, which apparently had been going on for years. For the following two years, four more documents concerning £hanthaburi were encountered: one telling various governors, including the governor of £ hanthaburi, to transfer people to the task of providing a specific type of timber; one asking, among other things, how much salt was in store; one introducing the new holder of a tax farm; and finally a statement concerning gamboge and pepper taxes.

The Sources

27

The small town of Ang Tho'ng to the north was first referred to in the title of a document of the year 1830/31 containing a report on rainfall. Two years later, the receipt of goods from Ang Tho'ng for a Buddhist festival in the capital was acknowledged. Another six years elapse before we find two orders, one to send flowers, arid the other to arrest run-away Vietnamese prisoners-of-war. For 1842/43 and the following year there are five documents concerning tax, two reporting rainfall, and two concerning elephants. For 1844/45 and 1.845/46, rio less than seventeen documents have been preserved concerning legal matters referred from Ang Tho'ng to Bangkok; one concerning an elephant; and one report that a total of 4,800 lotus flowers had been sent to Bangkok for a religious ceremony. From 1848/49 to 1850/51 there are a final four documents concerning tax matters. With regard to the town of Kandhanaburi west of Bangkok, the search yielded another, completely different, set of documents. There are five in the first decade of the nineteenth century, four of them related to military matters, and one a command to send people to take part in a royal ceremony at Bangkok. Between 1820 and 1825 there are a further six documents concerning the army, which was active against Burma. In 1825/26 there was an order to commence tattooing those available as manpower in Kanthanaburi, among other provinces. The final two documents are both copies of orders sent from Bangkok and dated 1843/44 - one about the resettlement of Vietnamese prisoners-of-war, the other a requisition to buy buffaloes. For the town of Ratchaburi in the southwest there are two documents dated 1809/10 and 1810/11, related to army matters; for 1821/22 three communications have survived, regarding some Mo'ns who had fled military service, sending Mo'n families to Bangkok and about the speedy sending of sapan wood to the capital. In 1825/26 Ratchaburi was informed of a new tattooing drive in the province. For 1829/30 there is a message on the tax on orchards, for 1847/48 one regarding mineral exploration, and the final document in 1850/51 is a reminder of taxes in arrears. To these four probes into the holdings of the National Library can be added the results of a similar search for documents concerning the old capital, Ayutthaya, which were published under the title "Ru'ang kiawkap Krung Kaw". 25 For the period 1800-1850 that search yielded fifteen documents, most of them written between 1844 and 1846. Seven of these dealt with legal matters; three were reports on rain, irrigation and rice-growing; one was an Order to let prisoners mill 200 cart loads of rice for government storage; one was a report on the number of guns in Ayutthaya; and one gave details on the tax farm for

pp, Part 69, Vol 43, Bangkok: Khurusapha, B.E.2512 (1969), pp.1-146.

28

Through Travellers' Eyes

tobacco plants. Two of the fifteen documents - one a report on the death of an important elephant, and the other a note on the number of flowers sent to Bangkok - have been wrongly included in this published collection, for they were not sent from Ayutthaya, but from the neighbouring province of Ang Tho'ng, and have already been listed above. *Eveh a cursory study of the documents available for these five towns demonstrates the researcher’s problems when he wants to write provincial history based upon these archival sources. In the first place there are enormous gaps: for a period of several decades there may be no document at all concerning a particular town. Secondly, the documents that have survived deal with extremely disparate topics, and information available for one town does not seem to be available for another, preventing meaningful comparisons between towns being made. Thirdly, and perhaps most frustratingly, for every document that has survived there must have been dozens of others that have been irretrievably lost. Even when, through a stroke of luck, a large number of related documents have been preserved, such as the seventeen concerning legal suits in Ang Tho’ng, a close perusal of all of these manuscripts leads to a disappointing result: none of the cases can be followed from beginning to end; we become acquainted with conflicting evidence to be further examined in a higher court, but the verdicts have not been preserved. The same frustrations await those attempting to analyse provincial tax statements. We may learn that in a particular year, for example, the level of tax on old sugar-cane fields is different from that on new fields, but other documents that should reveal how much land was involved, or how the situation differed from other years, are missing. 26 It would seem futile to attempt to reconstruct a picture of any of the abovementioned four towns simply by reading and analysing these documents. However, the latter can serve to illustrate and back up information already obtained from elsewhere. Thus, the documents on military matters for KanEhanaburi and Ratchaburi make eminent sense when it is realised that, until the mid 1820s, Burma was regarded as the greatest threat against the state, and a large standing army was kept at strategic points along the Burmese border. The reports on rainfall from towns north of Bangkok may well be related to the disastrous inundations of 1831 which wrought havoc in those central provinces and had a serious effect upon the economy. The large number of documents pertaining to tax in the 1840s may well reflect a state-wide drive to increase taxes. Thus, such snippets of information from the provinces can be woven into

26 Wyatt and Wilson, also, warn that it is "very difficult to assemble a complete, coherent series of documents for a given chronological period or on a given subject". See D.K. Wyatt and C.M. Wilson, "Thai Historical Materials in Bangkok", Journal of Asian Studies, Vol 25, No 1, November 1965, p.109.

The Sources

29

a larger pattern, and the provincial documents may assist in adding a new dimension to "Bangkok history". There is another class of documents in the National Library which can assist us with provincial history. This consists of the few surviving more general lists of taxes, manpower and provincial resources. Fortunately it was possible to locate some of these in one of the half-dozen publications in which small selections of manuscripts were printed almost verbatim. 27 The most interesting is a detailed statement of the chief sources of income of the various treasuries, in Bangkok for the year 1809/10 which also gives an overview of all alcohol, and most gambling, tax-farms in Bangkok and the provinces. 28 Although this document was printed in 1970, and has been mentioned in several later publications, 29 it has not, to my knowledge, been fully exploited. It may safely be accepted that the document reflects all Bangkok-controlled tax farm contracts for 1809/10, and most of its gambling tax-farm contracts. Unfortunately, the document is incomplete, and a few of the gambling tax farms are missing. Even a valuable document such as this, when considered in isolation, does not provide a satisfactory picture of the provinces. It only tells of certain resources which would flow to Bangkok within a period of one year, and makes for fascinating intra-provincial comparisons. As used in this study, in conjunction with other sources of information, it is a valuable indicator of the relative size and prosperity of a town. A similar use can be found for a document related to the preparation of a gigantic funeral edifice for the late King Rama I. 3 0 Immense amounts of materials were needed for the erection of this temporary shelter for the king's corpse, and the document not only specifies the total needs in the way of beams, planks, scaffolding, rattan, sandalwood, cording, woven mats, fireworks, kapok, beeswax, pitch and other materials, but also adds a long list enumerating which of these requirements the various provinces were to provide. The list is long, but

27

Examples of such publications are: "Chotmaihet kiaw kap Khamen lae Yuan nai Rachakan thi Sam", in PP. Part 67, Bangkok: Khurusapha, B.E.2512 (1969), Vol 41, pp.230-86, and Vol 42; Krom Sinlapako'n, "Khamhaikan ru'ang Thap Yuan nai Rachakan thi Sam”, reprinted in Cremation Volume for General Krit Siwara, Bangkok, B.E.2519 (1976); and 6 7.1-73 and € 73.

28 "Ru'ang Banchi Ngoensuai'ako'n Sura, Bo'nbia, Somphakso'n lae Talat nai Pi 1171", in £ 71-73, pp.58-69. 29

L.M. Gesick, "Kingship and Political Integration in Traditional Siam, 1767-1824", Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Cornell University, 1976 p. 178 (fn.109); and Yada Praphaphan, Rabop Chaophasi Nai'ako'n samai Krungthep Yuk Ton, Bangkok: Sangsan B.E.2524 (1981), p.116.

30

£ 71-73, pp.36-57. A description of the ceremony can be found in PtSo'ng, pp.25-30.

30

Through Travellers' Eyes

unfortunately not complete. It does however offer the possibility of comparing many provincial centres with one another, and various such comparisons are scattered throughout the following chapters.

2. Malloch's 1827 list In July 1833, the English trader D.E. Malloch submitted to the British authorities, or, to be more specific, to the Secret and Political Department at Fort William, Bengal, a list of names of provinces, principalities, cities, towns and villages of Siam, with the number of Siamese, Chinese, Peguan, Cambodian, Tavoyan, Cochin Chinese, Laotian, Malaysian, Moorish and Christian inhabitants for each. This list had reputedly been taken from the Siamese public records by an officer of the Siamese government and given to Malloch as early as January 1827. 3 1 The list consists of 83 names, many of them easily recognisable, but others admittedly of a dubious reading ("the writing of this document is very indistinct, and in many cases it is impossible to distinguish between a and u, h and k, etc"). 32 It is possible that Malloch did indeed obtain lists of labour available in Siam. It is likely that such a list was in existence in 1827, because a new reign had begun in mid- 1824, and a new assessment of state resources had been undertaken, including an updating of the lists of people liable to serve corvee. Apparently that had been done in 1825. 33 There is also some internal evidence suggesting that Malloch's list was based on a Siamese original: the "population" is only given in numbers of adult men, a typical practice at that time. 34 Although Malloch's Table was published in 1912, and reprinted in 1971, it has received little or no attention from historians. Instead, a different list, reputedly stemming from 1849 and published by Malloch in 1852 as part of his book on Siam, has been noted and has been the focus of some debate. 35 The 1849 list is, however, even more suspect than that of 1827. Malloch claims to

31

The document is printed in BP Vol 3, Part 2, pp.353-58. In his covering letter Malloch refers to other documents he submitted to the Secret Department

32

Ibid., p.358.

33

W.F. Vella, Siam under Rama HI, 1824-1851, Locust Valley (N.Y): J J. Augustin, 1957, p.21

34

Pallegoix, Description, Vol 1, p.300.

35

See, for critical remarks on Malloch's 1849 list G.W. Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand; An Analytical History, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1957, p.l; and remarks defending Malloch in L. Stemstein, "The Distribution of Thai Centres at Mid-Nineteenth Century”, Journal of Southeast Asian History, Vol 7, No 1, March 1966, p.69, fn.17.

31

The Sources

TABLE 2.5: MALLOCH'S POPULATION LISTS OF 1827 AND 1849, PERTAINING TO THE CENTRAL REGION Place name Bangkok Ayutthaya Mu'ang In Mu'ang Phrom Mu'ang Sing Mu'ang San Chai Nat Manoram Nakho'n Sawan Tha Chanuang Uthai Thani Phi hit Kamphaeng Phet ThaRu'a Saraburi Phetchabun Kandhanaburi Si Sawat SaiYok Phetehaburi Bang Plaso'i Bang Pramung Rayong thanthaburi Thung Yai Nakho'n Nayok Bang Khong Prashin Buri Nakho'n Chaisi Suphan Buri Pak Nam Tha Chin

number in 1 827

number in 1 849

133,940 26,200 140 270 175 670 1,450 310 820 1,050 215 520 900 1,050 9,000 450 570 150 —

160,154 41,350 760 600 375 920 3,480 811 1,310 2,504 1,351 920 1,350 1,480 14,320 690 3,460 250 —

6,450 1,900 850 2,150 20,000 2,500 800 900 450 1,650 1,200 450

8,330 3,410 1,380 3,410 36,900 4,550 1,500 2,490 950 7,070 2,870 1,030

32

Through Travellers' Eyes

have received it by mail and, though in the years between 1827 and 1849 there had been some considerable changes, for example in the administration of the Eastern provinces as a result of the conquest of Cambodia, the 1849 table does not reflect these changes. Then the 1849 table repeats certain obvious misspellings and misreadings of the earlier list. There is thus reason to suspect, that Malloch either changed some of 1849 document to make it more, compatible with his earlier one, or that the 1849 statement never existed, and that it was created by Malloch taking his old 1827 list and "updating" it by adding some judicious increases. Malloch's book was but a slim volume and he may have felt compelled to add some "padding". In Table 2.5 entries pertaining to the central region from the two lists are juxtaposed, so as to enable the reader to judge the relationship between the lists. It is thus by no means certain that Malloch's lists contain valuable, ® trustworthy information, and this source has .been treated here with a measure of circumspection. Since the list of 1827 has more information on ethnic minorities and seems to have been the basis for the 1849 one, it has been decided to take only the former list as a possible valuable source of information on the provinces, to be tested against the first-hand travel accounts. If the list proves to be genuine, it will allow an estimate to be made of the available manpower of many towns and provinces. In the course of the chapters on the various central provinces below, items from Malloch's list will be compared with the sum of the other data gathered.

3. Contemporary maps During the first half of the nineteenth century many maps were drawn which included the central region of Siam. However, those that were not based upon the collection of new information, and rested solely upon seventeenth- and eighteenth-century efforts, have been excluded from this study. The first one studied in some detail is that accompanying Crawfurd's Journal, which rests partly upon new information, but, especially with regard to the northern Provinces, has also blindly copied late-seventeenth-century efforts, such as that published in La Loubere. There is also an indigenous map, undoubtedly created to assist the Siamese drive to suppress a Laotian uprising in 1827. It covers the Pa Sak River in admirable detail, and provides a sketch of some rivers northwest and southeast of the Pa Sak. A lengthy analysis of this map has been published, but in order to

The Sources

33

obtain an accurate reading of many of the place names, it was necessary to consult a copy of the original. 36 Other original material was produced by the American missionaries. Some sketch maps can be found in the letters sent by the Baptists to Boston, such as William Dean's map of Bangkok and the region between Bangkok and the sea, dated November 27, 1835 and Davenport's sketch map of Slafter's route to Kabin Buri, dated January 22, 1844. However, the most important of the American missionary maps are two undated efforts which were given to Harry Parkes for publication in the early 1850s. Parkes did indeed publish a simplified version of one of the two maps, 37 but the originals, which were deposited with the Royal Geographical Society in London, contain many more details, and may be seen as a summary of all the American missionary explorations. A separate, independent effort to produce maps by someone who had firsthand experience of the Siamese countryside was made by Pallegoix who printed these together with his Description du royaume Thai ou Siam.

4. Crawfurd's Journal Sir John Crawfurd visited Siam from March 24 to August 14, 1822, but his Journal and published notebook do not qualify to be included with the chief sources for, apart from his account of the journey from Pak Nam to Bangkok and a short stay at Ko' Sichang, he did not venture into the provinces. Yet, he assiduously collected all kinds of information on the state of Siam as a whole, and on many provincial towns and their resources in particular. Crawfurd has long been used as the chief source for early nineteenth-century Siamese history. His tables and detailed data, apparently collected with great accuracy, cannot be found in contemporary Thai sources and therefore his Journal has been widely used as a primary source for the history of this period. Elsewhere I have expressed skepticism as to Crawfurd's methods of collecting data, and have drawn attention to serious discrepancies between the first draft of his journal and the one published in 1828. 38 Here it is intended to subject his information concerning the provinces to further scrutiny. A judgement on the value of his

36

V. Kennedy, "An Indigenous Early Nineteenth Century Map of Central and Northeast Thailand", in Tej Bunnag and M. Smithies (eds), In Memoriam Phya Anuman Rajadhon, Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1970, pp.315-49.

37

See H. Parkes, "Geographical Notes on Siam, with a new map of the lower part of the Menam River", Royal Geographical Society Journal, Vol 26, Part 3, p.272.

38

A History of Modem Thailand, 1767-1942, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1983, pp.114-19.

34

Through Travellers' Eyes

Journal for understanding the central provincee will be made in the concluding

chapter.

5. The Dynastic Chronicles The final source for the history of the central provinces is the work of £haophraya Thiphako'rawong. His Dynastic Chronicles were mentioned at the beginning of this chapter as the chief source upon which various Thai historians have relied for information. Strictly speaking, these Chronicles do not date from the first half of the nineteenth century as they were written during the 1860s, but since the author had personally witnessed many of the events he describes, they carry a measure of authenticity. Thiphako'rawong's intention was to write about events of importance for the state, and most of his works are taken up with matters affecting the court, such as a death in the royal family, the arrival of an envoy from a foreign country, or a perceived threat to stability. Nevertheless, it is of some interest to note a number of entries which refer to particular central provinces. In order to show how varied and scattered such entries are, the most important ones have been summarised in Table 2.6: This list gives a good indication of the great variety of matters dealt with in the Chronicles. The information obtained from them is never sufficient to gain a good picture of a particular town or province, but once a picture has been established from other sources it can sometimes give additional information which cannot be obtained elsewhere. An interesting cross-check between sources can be made in the case of the earthquake of 1839: Richardson's Journal and Thiphako’rawong's Chronicle agree on the exact date of the event. In a recent dissertation Thiphako'rawong's Chronicle publications have been compared with the original manuscript versions, and it has been found that, before they were published, many entries in the Chronicles of the First, Third and Fourth Reign have been changed. 39 Since the present work deals only with the first half of the nineteenth century, the Chronicle of the Fourth Reign does not concern us here. From the examples of changes made to the chronicle of the First and Third Reign it would appear, however, that the editing process was mainly directed to increase the prestige of the thakri Dynasty; to weaken statements on court scandals; and to depict Siam's foreign policy a little more enlightened. These types of editorial changes are not likely to have affected entries pertaining to provincial centres and it was therefore deemed unnecessary to attempt to gain access to the original manuscript version of the Chronicles.

39

Somjai Phirotthirarach, "The Historical Writings of Chao Phraya Thiphakorawong," Ph.D dissertation, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, 1983, p.153 ff.

The Sources

35

TABLE 2.6: CHRONICLES AND CENTRAL PROVINCES 1800-1850, THE MAIN ENTRIES Year

Short description of the event

1814 1815 1818 1820 1821 1822 1824 1826 1828/29 1829/30

Nakho'n Khu'an Khan established with Mo’ns from Pathum Thani 30,000 Mo'n refugees distributed A big storm in Ayutthaya damages three monasteries Cholera passes through Samut Prakan Army at KanEhanaburi re-employed Defences at Samut Prakan and Khu'an Khan strengthened Chinese fight at Bang Ka £ha; Defences at Samut Prakan Defences at Nakho'n Khu'an Khan and Samut Prakan Defences of Samut Prakan improved; Canal Sunak Ho'n deepened Settling of Laos in Lop Buri, Saraburi, Nakho'n Chaisi and Suphan Buri Canal building; Disastrous floods; Defences Kandhanaburi Fortress built at Samut Songkhram £hanthaburi becomes garrison town for war in Cambodia Forts at Chachoengsao and Samut Prakan Canal-digging 22 March, earthquake Trouble with Chinese at Nakho'n Chaisi and Sakho'n Buri Chinese opium smugglers caught at Bang Pakong River Defences Nakho'n Khu'an Khan and Samut Prakan Suppression Chinese at Sakho'n Buri and at Chachoengsao Canal-digging

1831/32 1832/33 1833/34 1834/35 1837 1839 1842 1843/44 1844/45 1848 1850

3 THE SOUTH

PART 1: TRAVELLERS' ACCOUNTS The route from Bangkok to the mouth of the £hao Phraya River is the most frequently described stretch of the nineteenth century Thai landscape (See Map 3.1). For many foreigners it was here that they made their first contacts with the Siamese, and they were often eager to note down their impressions. The diaries and travel sketches of no less than twelve independent observers, who recorded their views between 1822 and 1845, have been used to construct the following composite picture. 1 Naturally, the travellers first came to Pak Nam (officially called Samut Prakan), and then they moved up the wide curves of the river via Pak Lat to the capital. Since an improved knowledge of the Thai countryside is our ultimate objective, we have not allowed our travellers to move to and fro over our map as their fancy or business took them, but instead it was decided to slowly proceed only once over the inhabited area, beginning at Bangkok, and concluding our imaginary journey where Central Thailand ended. Along our single journey we shall provide all information of potential value to the social historian that could be found in our sources.

1

Crawfurd, The Crawfurd Papers, and Journal of an Embassy, pp.72-78; G. Finlayson, The Mission to Siam, and Hue, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2, London: John Murray, 1826; H. Burney, BP, Vol 1, Part 1, pp.30-31; D.E. Malloch, "Extracts from my Private Journal...." in BP, Vol 2, Part 4, pp.221-33; J. Tomlin, Journal of a Nine Months' Residence in Siam, London: Westley and Davis, 1831, pp.15-19; D. Abeel, Journal of a Residence in China and the Neighbouring Countries from 1830 to 1833, London: Nisbet, 1835, pp.179-83; E. Roberts, Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin China, Siam and Muscat during the years 1832-3-4, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1837, pp.231-33; AFMC, J.T. Jones, October 24, 1833; G.W. Earl, The Eastern Seas, or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipelago, in 1832-33-34, Vol 2, London: Allen, 1837, p.157; JDDB, November 12, 1835, and March 17, 1846; H. Malcom, Travels in South-eastern Asia, Vol 2, Boston: Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, 1839, pp.112-15; and Pallegoix, Description, Vol 1, pp.68-69.

37

The South

BANGKOK

Pok Lot

Pok Ndm

Map 3.1: The South

However, while a collection of travellers' accounts may assist us in gaining insight in early nineteenth century life outside Bangkok, it will soon become clear that our informants do not always agree with one another. Whenever conflicting information is found in the sources the likely reasons for discrepancies are discussed in order to establish an overall picture of the various

38

Through Travellers' Eyes

parts of the South, based upon these chief sources. Once having concluded this slow journey through the countryside, the results will be blended with information from what has been called the "additional sources". This blending has a dual purpose: it broadens the overall picture obtained from the chief sources, while allowing a critical examination of some of the additional material. Leaving Bangkok by going down the £hao Phraya River, the end of the walled city was reached at £hakrawat, but the Bangkok side of the river still continued its city character for several kilometers. A dense population extended well beyond Wat Prathumkongkha. While Bangkok's suburbs stretched widely beyond the walled city, the Thonburi side had much fewer people. Viewed from the river this difference was not readily revealed, for a distance of several kilometers both sides having houses, workshops and monasteries on the banks, and floating shops lining the shores. On the Bangkok side of the river were a number of dry docks, consisting of a series of excavations made along the bank of the river, the water being kept out by a barrier of planks and clay. 2 This boat building industry was already established before Crawfurd's visit in 1822. He reported that annually from six to eight of the largest Chinese junks were built there, under the direction of a Chinese head carpenter. 3 Nine years later Tomlin met this man, and described him as over seventy years of age, having resided forty or fifty years in Siam and having built most of the king's junks. 4 It was probably at about the hight of Wat Yannawa (near where at present the Taksin Bridge spans the river) that travellers obtained glimpses of the wider countryside. Close to the capital, Crawfurd observed that the country presented everywhere a rich variety of cultivation, consisting of rice fields, interspersed with numerous villages and surrounded by orchards of palm and fruit trees. 5 Finlayson wrote that the extensively cultivated plains lay on only one (by inference the eastern) side of the £hao Phraya. Between the fields and the river was a narrow densely overgrown strip of land, in which houses were interspersed, each surrounded by extensive plantations of areca palms, banana plantations and a few coconut trees. These houses were small but neat, consisting of one or two rooms, raised about three feet from the ground. 6 Six years later Tomlin also found the country open and cultivated; in several places

2

Roberts, Embassy, p.233.

3

Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy, pp.410-11.

4

Tomlin, Missionary Journal, pp.68-69. For further details on Bangkok's ship building industry see Roberts, Embassy, pp.272-73; Earl, The Eastern Seas, p.159; and Pallegoix, Description, Vol 1, p.350.

$

Crawfurd, Journal, p.78.

6

Finlayson, The Mission, p.113.

The South

39

he saw beautiful scenery of green fields and buffaloes grazing, but often a barrier of palm trees concealed the cultivation behind. 7 Bradley in 1835, travelling on the brig "Ariel", climbed high up to a place on the main mast from where, with the assistance of his pocket spy-glass, he could command a view of what he thought were "tens of thousands of acres" of cleared plain covered with paddy. It inspired him to write:

Native huts looking in [the] vast distance like small rusty hay stacks sparsely studded the lots which were divided by something which had the appearance of footpaths intersecting each other generally at right angles. In two directions the plane was bounded by the horizon and clumps of trees stood here and there as verdant islands in the midst of a boundless ocean. 8

Two years later Malcom added his own impressions on this part of the river. It presented to him an almost continous succession of houses, embowered in a dense growth of various palms and other fruit-trees. Behind, as he afterwards discovered, were rich and extensive paddy fields. 9 Pallegoix also noted that from Bangkok downriver for a distance of some four miles to the left and right were vast gardens without interruption. 10 Before the half-way point between Bangkok and the sea was reached the scenery began to change dramatically. Crawfurd noted that close to the river, and for at least twelve miles up, the land appeared to be unfit for cultivation, owing to the saltiness of the water which occasionally overflowed it. Two plants dominated the landscape: Rhyzophoras (mangroves) and the Nipa palm. Malcom corroborated this when he wrote that at this stretch of the river most of the shores were uninhabited, and that almost the only growth was the attap (Nipa palm) and the mangrove. 11 After the large loop in the river, a little over half way between Bangkok and the sea was the town of Pak Lat (officially called Nakho'n Khu'an Khan). 12 Here

7

Tomlin, Journal, p.19.

8

JDBB, November 12, 1835.

9

Malcom, Travels, Vol 2, p.114.

10

Pallegoix, Description, Vol 1, p.68.

11

Malcom, loc. cit.

12

During the Fourth Reign this was changed to Phra Pradaeng.

40

Through Travellers' Eyes

the river was relatively narrow, and at this strategic spot on either side of the river our travellers reported some masonry fortifications. During the 1820s and 1830s these defences were much strengthened. In 1822 Crawfurd examined the west-bank fort and found it to be a square building of masonry, slightly constructed without a ditch, bastion, or any other defence, save the bare rampart or wall. Both this fort and the one on the other side of the river had no cannon, and even the gates had been removed. 13 A mere three years later there were extensive fortifications on the western bank, with at one place three tiers of guns pointing at the river, apparently recently repaired by Burmese prisoners. 14 During the latter half of 1826, the Phra Khlang himself supervised the refurbishing of fortifications along the river south of Bangkok. When the work had been completed Malloch estimated that there were nearly 200 guns mounted at Pak Lat 15 In 1833 Roberts simply noted here the existence of "very extensive fortifications". Pak Lat itself was a market town on the western side of the river. Tomlin seemed to have been genuinely impressed with what he saw: "a place adorned with a profusion of temples, gateways, columns and pyramids, glittering in gold" (the "pyramids" undoubtedly refer to the Hhedis, or funereal spires, so common in Thai monasteries). He thought it had a "very classical aspect". 16 He must have seen the two Siamese monasteries which Jones also found to be of great magnificence. The other monasteries in Pak Lat were Mo'n. With regard to the people's ethnic background Crawfurd at first reported that the neighbourhood was occupied by a colony of Mo'ns and "Lao" refugees from the territory disputed between the Burmese and Siamese. When Crawfurd actually visited the place, on his return journey, he contradicted his earlier statement by reporting that Mo'ns, seeking protection from the excesses of the Burmese, were the only inhabitants of the immediate neighbourhood of these forts. He then continued to describe how these Mo'ns were easily distinguished from the Siamese, by the long hair of the women and the tattooed limbs of the men. 17 Burney thought that "Laos" formed the actual garrison of Pak Lat's fortress, and that the fort was therefore commonly called "the Lao fort". Malcom, apparently extending the term Burmese to mean "all people coming from Burmese-dominated territory",

13

Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy, p.184.

14

BP, Vol 1, Part 1, pp.32-33.

15

Malloch, "Extracts", p.221.

16

Tomlin, Journal, p.18.

17

Crawfurd, Journal of an Embassy, p.185.

The South

41

indicated that Pak Lat was a "Burman village". 18 All other voyagers who took note of Pak Lat's population remarked on the fact that it was a place primarily inhabited by Mo'ns. In 1825 its governor, whom Burney (wrongly) identified as PhrayaMahayotha, was also a Mo'n. There are three estimates of the size of Pak Lat's population. Burney, in 1825, reported that the inhabitants of the village and the area immediately around it was said to amount to 10,000. In 1833 Jones reported that Pak Lat's population was estimated at eighteen or twenty thousand, mostly Mo'ns. Pallegoix, however, estimated in 1838 Pak Lat's population to be seven thousand. There is a great difference between a town of 18-20,000 and one of 7,000. Although it is not possible at this stage to determine with some measure of certainty which of the three estimates comes closest to the truth, there are some reasons for believing that even the lowest, the 7,000 of Pallegoix, may be too high. In contrast to Burney and Jones who had very little experience with Siam when they reported their estimates, when Pallegoix travelled to Pak Lat he had already been many years in the country. Pallegoix has provided many estimates of the size of populations of middle-size Siamese towns, and, it will be shown in later chapters, whenever it has been possible to compare his figures with an actual house count, it has been found that he made a guess of the number of houses and multiplied this number by ten. We may therefore assume that he thought Pak Lat to have some 700 houses. Some such agglomeration of houses could well have attracted the epithet "village", the actual term used by Burney and Tomlin when writing about Pak Lat. (Siamese sources, quoted in Part 2 of this chapter, indicate that Pallegoix may, in this instance, have underestimated the number of houses, and overestimated the average number of persons per house.) The most interesting information that could be gained from Jones' letters concerning Pak Lat are remarks on the linguistic and reading skills of its people. Jones himself could converse in Burmese, and he was often looking for an opportunity to use that skill. He found that most of Pak Lat's men could speak Burmese sufficiently well to transact ordinary business, but not more than about a hundred of all of them could read it. Very few women could understand Burmese at all. Both men and women could also speak Siamese, but the number who could read Thai was small. From various experiments Jones made he thought that about two-thirds of the men could read Mo'n. Pallegoix is the only observer noting aspects of Pak Lat's economy. The town provided Bangkok with firewood and leaves from the Nipa palm, widely used as roof covering. Apart from these industries, the people made their living by growing rice and by cultivating gardens. Finally Burney reported the

18 See the map on p.121 of Volume 2, in Malcom's Travels.

42

Through Travellers' Eyes

existence of a short-cut canal just up river of one of the forts, by which a,small boat could save itself one wide loop of the £hao Phraya, a distance of some 16 kilometres, when travelling up to Bangkok. At some time in the past a brick dam had been placed in this canal, apparently to prevent salt water from reaching Bangkok. Just below Pak Lat Pallegoix reported cane sugar plantations and four sugar factories. It was about here that Crawfurd noted a dangerous point in the river, namely the remains of a small brick fort, built by the Dutch in the seventeenth century. In 1822 the river had so encroached upon it that it lay within the stream. At high tide it was wholly covered by water. These were the ruins of what the Dutch had called Fort Amsterdam. 19 The final settlement before reaching the sea was the town of Pak Nam (officially known by the name Samut Prakan). This was an important station from Bangkok's point of view. Pak Nam was the place where ships from abroad first called, it was the "gateway to the world" for the Thais. At the same time it was of great strategic importance, and as the nineteenth century progressed and it was seen how Burma was invaded by troops carried over the oceans and entering the chief river systems, Pak Nam rapidly became the focus of Siam’s most advanced and modem defence establishment. Before examining the details of Pak Nam's military role the town itself needs to be described. There are a series of mostly vague and unsatisfactory estimates of Pak Nam's size. Crawfurd wrote about it once as " a village", and later as " a long, straggling, and poor place". Yet, when describing Pak Nam's governor in derisive terms, he called him a man exercising an arbitrary authority over 50,000 people. Finlayson walked on a paved path along the river bank for a distance of nearly two miles. The village rarely had more than two or three houses in depth from the river, and this thin line extended for several miles. On the way he passed several handsome Buddhist monasteries. 20 Tomlin called it a large, straggling village. Abeel referred to it as a small village. Pallegoix, finally, described it as a town of from six to seven thousand souls, which can be understood to mean that he considered there to be some 6-700 houses. Of all these remarks, the only one that demonstrably does not accord with reality is Crawfurd's reference to 50,000 people. Pak Nam was apparently even smaller than the only other town in the region, Pak Lat, over which it did not exert authority. The region around Pak Nam had almost no population at all.

19

For the location of "Fort Amsterdam", see the map in La Loubere, op tit Vol 1, opposite p.4. This map, drawn by M. de la Mare, has been reproduced, in E.W. Hutchinson, "A French Garrison at Bangkok in 1687-88", JSS, Vol 31, Part 2, 1939, p.136.

20

Finlayson, The Mission, p.112.

The South

43

Crawfurd's remark may therefore be dismissed either as false information which the Thais may deliberately have given him in order to impress him with the place's potential defence capabilities, or — and this seems more likely — as an exaggeration by Crawfurd himself, in order to amuse the reader by noting the contrast between the governor's alleged worldly power and his lack of finery. Crawfurd found Pak Nam lacking in all the signs which he attributed to a civilised way of living: from the landing place he walked through mean lanes crowded with huts, and the house of the governor was made of the same mean and perishable materials as the rest of the buildings. The reception room had a floor of split bamboos, the thatch within was ill-concealed by broken and soiled Chinese paper-hangings, while from the roof was suspended a motley collection of old Dutch chandeliers of miserable glass, and Siamese and Chinese lamps, covered with dust, cobwebs, and the smoke of oil, incense and tobacco. What Crawfurd saw during this visit to Pak Nam demonstrated to him how little Siam had progressed in the arts which contributed to the comforts of life. The cottage of an English peasant, according to Crawfurd, possessed more comforts than the governor of Pak Nam's residence. Several Europeans and Americans shared his feelings concerning Pak Nam's appearance. Tomlin found the governor's house plain, the whole village mean and dirty. His companion, Gutzlaff, could hardly move along the muddy streets. 21 Roberts, after having spent one night there, found a clean and neat monastery, but everywhere the grounds were low and swampy, the houses mean, and the people appeared to him to be wretchedly poor, diseased and dirty (albeit not as dirty as in Cochin China). 22 In 1837 Malcom also wrote about the narrow, filthy passages called streets, a stinking bazar, and the mean and dirty house of the governor. While these foreign travellers felt that mud outside a house was a clear sign of poverty and dirt, no Siamese who had ever been in a low-lying provincial town would have expected to find it different. The same can be said for the bamboo and attap building material. If the king himself would visit Pak Nam or another place outside Bangkok, he would be provided with a royal pavillion, called phlap phla, made of ordinary bamboo, and none of his subjects would feel that they were not providing their monarch with comforts, even if he would have to step through mud to reach it Civilisation was measured, not in broad, clean streets or in impressive stone buildings, but in knowledge of etiquette, in a dignified posture, in polished speech, and in a variety of other subtle signs embedded in Thai culture. Comforts of life, in Siamese terms, were to be found in a pillow against which to lean, in being able to enjoy the rich cuisine, in the mild stimulus

21

Journal,

22

Roberts, Embassy, p.232.

44

Through Travellers' Eyes

of chewing betel, in the appreciation of the beauty of a dancer’s movement, or. the sound of an orchestra. Crawfurd, Tomlin, Roberts and Malcom, by applying foreign standards and expectations, prevented themselves from realistically appreciating the situation. Finlayson, who also was shocked at the dirt of the houses, added the observation that the people appeared to live in tolerable comfort, and that they were well fed and appeared to have rice in abundance. The market he found extremely meagre: a few old women were selling small quantities of bananas, pumpkins, betel, tobacco and brown sugar. 23 It is not accidental that Pallegoix and Bradley, who of all foreign travellers who reported on Pak Nam were the best acquainted with Siamese circumstances, do not mention a word about its meanness or its dirt. Bradley simply wrote how he walked through the little market to the fort. Pallegoix wrote that the inhabitants made their living partly by fishing, partly by cutting the samae tree forests, 24 which rendered an excellent wood for charcoal-making. In case of emergency all Pak Nam's men had to serve as soldiers and fill the fortifications which normally remained almost deserted. It was indeed the defence arrangements that made Pak Nam an extraordinary town. In March 1822, when Crawfurd and Finlayson visited Pak Nam there was already a small defence installation. It consisted of a single battery facing but not commanding the river, with ten or twelve iron guns mounted on decayed carriages, half sunk in the earth, and at that time unserviceable. 25 In January 1825 John Gillies wrote that, because of Siamese fear of a British attack the Thais were constructing forts and were preparing "beams" to lay across the river to obstruct navigation. He added "so flimsy are these Airy buildings that they will not long stand the shock of their own Guns, much less that of an Enemy's." 26 When Burney arrived later that year, those forts had been built on both sides of the river, and on a sand-bank in the middle a half-moon battery of

23

Finlayson, The Mission,, pp.108-9.

24

McFarland's dictionary, p.891 gives for samae: Aegiceras comiculatum (Myrsinaceae), a bush or small tree, abundant on mud above tide-limit, used as firewood. It grows in marshy, salty ground.

25

Finlayson, The Mission, p.112. It is possible that these decayed guns were the remains of "some batteries planted with Cannons on both sides of the river", that Kaempfer saw on 7 June 1690. These guns may have been set up during the confrontation between Siam and France in 1688. See E. Kaempfer, The History of Japan; Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1906, p.20. At the same time it ought to be noted that Bangkok already appears fortified in the map of c.1650 in ten Brummelhuis, p.12.

26

J. Gillies, 14 January 1825, in BP, Vol 2, Part 1, p.3.

28

The South

45

some forty guns in two tiers had been erected. The western channel had been made impassible for large boats by having amounts of stones thrown in it. All this work had been done by Burmese prisoners-of-war. The battery in the middle of the river had been constructed on a foundation of loose stones and Burney noted how the action of the stream had already undermined portions of the work and soon promised to throw the whole down. Burney added that he needed scarcely state that all these forts were too insignificant to withstand for a moment the attack of a European power. 27 In 1826 Pak Nam's defence was further extended. In February of that year the Phra Khlang went to Pak Nam to fit a metal defensive chain across the river. Burney reported that the Siamese government obtained this chain by ordering every blacksmith at Bangkok to contribute a certain number of links. 28. In June of that year the Phra Khlang was supervising the establishment of strong lines of Palmyra trees, driven into the river basin in the form of a crescent, beginning at one of the banks and reaching the fort in mid-stream, leaving only sufficient space for two or three ships to pass close to that fortress. Burney also mentioned that it was intended to fit a chain across the narrow passage that was left, to be drawn upon an emergency. He admitted that these defences were better than he had imagined the Phra Khlang could have executed; but for his superiors' benefit and consolation he added the expectation that the strength of the stream would probably throw down the piles in the course of a short time. 29 In August James Low also mentioned this attempt to construct chain works across the river, by which, he assured his British readers, they were "more likely to betray their ignorance than to place serious obstacles in the way of vessels navigating it". 30 During the second half of 1826 the Phra Khlang had supervised the completion of Pak Nam's defence, driving piles to support the small fort in the middle of the river and mounting about 200 guns of various shapes and sizes in the largest fort at the town. 31 When in August 1828 Tomlin passed there the work was completed. He noted the small circular fort in the middle of the river and long lines of battlements on both shores, all neatly whitewashed. The stockade in the river now ran across the whole river in zig-zag form, leaving only a small opening at each side for vessels to pass up and down 32 In June

27

BP, Vol 1, Part 1, p.31.

28

Ibid., pp.119-20.

29

BP, Vol 1, Part 3, p.364.

30

J. Low, 15 August 1826, in BP, Vol 2, Part 4, p.8.

31

Malloch, "Extracts", p.221.

32

Tomlin, Journal, p.15.

46

Through Travellers' Eyes

1831 when Abeel saw the defences, they were all in place, the fort in the middle of the river, with its small spiral pagoda on top, at a short distance appearing imposing and beautiful.33 None of these reports mention whether or not the Thais had overcome the technical problems of closing off, with the help of the chain, the 6hao Phraya River, which at Pak Nam was several kilometres wide. The only Western eyewitness actually noting that the chain was in place was Bradley, who in March 1846 walked into Pak Nam's fortress and reported that within the last two years (thus from 1844 onwards), the Siamese had constructed works on either side of the river to which they had so fastened a chain cable that when the enemy approached, they could draw it taut. When Bradley was there it lay slack on the bed of the river. In addition he saw many tons of the largest iron cable stored away also for the purpose of stretching across the river to stop enemies from coming in. Yet another defence measure noted by Bradley were some six or eight junks, filled with stones, which had been sunk further out towards the sea, leaving narrow passages between them. 34 This concludes what can be learnt from travellers' reports about the £hao Phraya River below Bangkok. In the following part other contemporary information will be added.

PART 2: ADDITIONAL SOURCES The stretch of river covered in this chapter is unlike most Thai river scenery in several respects. In the first place the segment covers only a small stretch of river, the distance, as the crow flies, is just under 25 kilometres. It is also atypical because of its proximity to Bangkok. The lower £hao Phraya was, in the eyes of the Thai rulers, nothing less than the capital's relatively short highway to the wider world. Virtually all its foreign trade passed Pak Lat and Pak Nam, and the security of the river entrance was perceived as part of the capital's own defence system. The unique position of Pak Lat and Pak Nam is reflected in the additional sources: sometimes the area's relative smallness and insignificance is underlined by the fact that it is simply not mentioned, while in other sources its importance to Bangkok's defence is highlighted by an unusually large amount of data.

33

Abeel, Journal, p.179.

34

JDBB, March 17, 1846.

The South

47

1. Material from Bangkok Archives. In the catalogues of unpublished documents of the Bangkok Archives for the period of 1800-1850 no documents have been encountered that specifically relate only to Pak Lat or Pak Nam. In published documents, such as the tax statement of 1809/10 there is mention of the alcohol tax of Samutbunprakan, probably an old name of Pak Nam, which was considered part of the huge Bangkok alcohol tax farm. In that year's contracts for gambling tax, neither town is mentioned separately. There is, however, an interesting entry in a lengthy document that provides details of the army that was called up in 1840 to fight in Cambodia. 35 On the third page of the document there is mention of a Mo'n army unit, made up of 1 14 men of rank (nai) and 889 commoners (phrai). Six pages further on it is revealed that these all came from Pak Lat, and that they were commanded by four Mo'n leaders: Saming Phimukmontra, Saming Praphongsa, Saming Sikun and Saming Thewasongkhram, who apparently had a personal guard totalling 76 men.

2. Malloch's list No names in Malloch's list could be related to either Pak Lat or Pak Nam or their official names. A cross-check was possible, armed with the knowledge that Pak Lat's population was largely Mo'n. Malloch's 1827 list has a heading "Mo'ns", but has entries under this heading only for Sai Yok, in Kandhanaburi Province, and for Bangkok. It can be argued, however, that he may have included various smaller towns in the capital’s proximity (such as Pak Lat) in his figures for Bangkok. Indeed, he mentions no less than 15,000 Mo'ns in Bangkok. Such a large number of Mo'ns has not been recorded for the capital by any other observer, and if Malloch's data are genuine, this would suggest that the Mo'n communities both below and above Bangkok had been included as inhabitants of the city.

3. Maps The region covered in this chapter is so small that many contemporary maps cannot fit in more information beyond indicating the big loop in the river below

35

"6hotmaihet kiawkap Khamen lae Yuan nai Rachakan thi Sam”, Part 1 (continued), in PP, Vol 42, pp.171-91.

48

Through Travellers’ Eyes

Bangkok, and perhaps the names of Pak Lat and Pak Nam. Three contemporary maps were found which were of sufficient detail to add to the picture already obtained in Part 1 of this chapter. To our knowledge, none of these three maps has ever been published. The first is dated November 27, 1835, and was drawn by William Dean. It indicates the position of "Chinese gardens of vegetables, bananas, coconuts and betel trees" for the first five miles south of Bangkok, as well as the large tract of paddy fields (undoubtedly the same that Bradley described from the top of the brig's mast). Dean's description is as follows: "Paddy fields (extending almost as far as the eye can reach, with here and there the planters' cottages rising but little above the waving grain)". At Pak Lat a population of 15,000 Mo'ns has been entered, while Pak Nam's population in this map is given as 4,000 Siamese. The remaining two maps were among the material presented in 1855 by American missionaries to Hany Parkes. The first of these is reproduced here in Map 3.2, called "River Menam enlarged". The map is not dated, but must have been made at some time after 1840, because that date is written next to the entry Khlo'ng Maha Wong. Following the map, beginning at Bangkok, it locates the Portuguese consulate, the French mission headquarters (Assumption), and a series of docks, the same dry docks which had also caught Roberts' attention. At the first turn to the left Bangkok's execution ground is marked, a piece of new information, not without some historical interest The map-maker has indicated thick vegetation with series of dots, and concentrations of houses with crosses, thus indicating the location of a series of unnamed hamlets all the way to Pak Lat. At the river's large loop, on the left side of the river is noted "swamp, paddy", "to paddy mills at Wat Sampaeng", "Banyan tree", "old sugar mill", "old sugar works" and the village of Bang Na. At the entry to the Samrong Canal, which is described in the following chapter, there is a cluster of houses on both sides of the river, the map then gives details of Pak Lat, its short-cut canal, its market place, its sugar works, and also a feature hitherto not yet encountered in the travel accounts, namely a "battery with sheds and winches for heaving a chain across the river". The first reaction of readers upon learning of a chain at Pak Lat is probably that the map maker has confused himself with the chain at Pak Nam, several miles further south. However, the existence of this (much older) chain at Pak Lat is confirmed in the Chronicles below. Further south, the map shows Pak Nam's fortifications, together with the number of guns.

49

The South

/Ll VEfl. MEl'TAM

‘t

'■k-

Map 3.2: The "River Menam Enlarged"

50

Through Travellers' Eyes

/

r !

LATITUDES dnt/unift. /wcA'fjjr

•VfWi'

Map 3.3: American Missionary Sketch of the Menam and Other Siamese Rivers

The South

51

Finally there is a map, reproduced here as Map 3.3, upon which Parkes' map is chiefly based. It has, apart from features already familiar and covered in the first map, between Assumption Cathedral and the foreigners' burial place southwards, the location of a Burmese village, population 2,000. At about the place of the banyan tree in the first map, the second has the name "Pra cho nong", probably the village of Phra Khano'ng. At Pak Lat is written that its population consists of 10,000 Mo'ns. All other information on the southern segment of the map concerns various fortifications.

4. Crawfurd's Journal The parts of his Journal dealing with his eye-witness account of travel along the Chao Phraya River to Bangkok has been utilised in Part 1 of this chapter. No other references to Pak Nam or Pak Lat were found in his chapters describing Siam's geography and its mineral wealth.

5. The Dynastic Chronicles The Dynastic Chronicles provide much information on Pak Nam and Pak Lat. No other provincial towns have attracted so many detailed entries. The reason for this is twofold. In the first place the two towns lay very close to Bangkok, the focus of the Chronicles, and secondly some spectacular changes took place there. In the following paragraphs the gist of the relevant Chronicle portions is given. The first’relevant entry dates from March/April 1814, when it was decided to appoint Somdetphra Anuchathibodi (the Uparat) as supervisor of the work group to establish a town at Pak Lat to guard the capital from the sea. The area of land that was to accommodate the new town was taken away from the districts of Bangkok and Samut Prakan (Pak Nam). The King bestowed the name Mu'ang Khu'an Khan and took as settlers Mo'n families from Mu'ang Pathum Thani (just north of Bangkok), who belonged to Phraya Cheng's group. 36 These were

36

In the 1770s Phraya Cheng had fled from Burma, together with 3,000 fellow-Mo'ns, who had been settled at Talat Khwan (Nonthaburi) and Sam Khok (Pathum Thani). During the First Reign of the Bangkok Period (1782-1809) Phraya Cheng had been appointed to Phraya Mahayotha, and later promoted to Chaophraya Mahayotha. During the Second Reign (1809-1824) his eldest son, named Tho'riya, was also appointed Phraya Mahayotha. It is the latter who, during the Third Reign (1824-1851) became Chaophraya Mahayotha and who was ordered to cooperate with the British in their attacks on Burma. Phraya Cheng is regarded as the founder of the Khotchaseni family.

52

Through Travellers' Eyes

300 adult men, aged between 20 and 30, together with their families. They built three forts on the eastern bank, so that together with the old one there were now four on that side; on the western bank they made five forts. They also erected walls to link them, and a wall to surround the town, which was also provided with food storage facilities, a royal pavillion, an armory and various brick buildings. They then made a chain to draw taut across the river, but the brick supports were useless; so they thought of constructing wooden winches, through which the chain could be inserted and pulled, and this proved firm and solid. A monastery was built, and named Wat Songtham. The king took Saming Tho'ma, a son of Phraya £heng, and younger brother of Phraya Mahayotha to be governor. 37 On Friday, June 2, 1815 the ceremony of the installation of Nakho'n Khu'an Khan's city pillar 38 took place. In that same year some 30,000 Mb'n refugees entered Siam. 39 In the distribution of these refugees, three groups, comprising in total 1,170 adult men, were assigned to Nakho'n Khu'an Khan. The brand-new town thus saw its number of able men rise from 300 to 1,470, and the whole populace increased to 3,000. Three Mo'n leaders (probably each heading one of the three new groups) were appointed to Phraya rank. 40 The cholera epidemic which swept the world during 1820 reached Siam first in the southern vassal states, and moved up rapidly to reach the mouth of the £hao Phraya River. Many people in Samut Prakan died, and this caused some to flee to Bangkok, and others to various places (thus no doubt contributing to the rapid spreading of the epidemic). 41 In 1822/23, the Chronicles report, it was realised that Samut Prakan (Pak Nam) was not provided with effective measures to repel an enemy, and at Nakho'n Khu'an Khan the existing defence was not yet sufficiently strong. Therefore Kromamu'n Saktiphonlasep was sent to complete Nakho'n Khu'an Khan, to build a fortress, and to repair existing fortifications. Kromamu'n

37

PtSo'ng, pp.61-62.

38

Some details on the customs surrounding the city pillar can be found in B J. Terwiel, "The Origin and Meaning of the Thai 'City Pillar"', JSS, Vol 66, Part 2, pp.159-71.

39

In the dhotmaihet Hon, PP, Vol 8, Part 7, p.128, the immigration of 30,000 Mo'n refugees is dated late 1814.

40

PtSo'ng, pp.73-75. This information fits in neatly with the reference to the Mo'n army group from Pak Lat in 1840, which was commanded by four leaders with the Mo'n title "saming’'. (PP, Vol 42, pp.171-91).

41

PtSo'ng, p.115. For details on the epidemic, see B.J. Terwiel, "Asiatic Cholera in Siam: Its First Occurrence and the 1820 Epidemic", in N.G. Owen (ed), Death and Disease in Southeast Asia, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 142-61.

The South

53

£hetsadabodin was given charge of fortifying Samut Prakan, and the Phra Khlang was sent to oversee the work, to demolish the existing building on the eastern bank, 42 and establish a new town. There four forts had to be established, and brick buildings were envisaged to house a granary and an armory within the walls of the town. At the island in the middle of the river another fort was to be made, this one of two stories high, and another one on the western bank. On a sandbank which had newly appeared the king proposed to have a dhedi (a monumental spire) built. 43 A new impulse was given in 1824/25, at the beginning of the Third Reign, when the Phra Khlang was ordered to go back to Samut Prakan and finish the work still outstanding. Afterwards he was ordered to select among the various types of able men in the town of Samut Prakan a number to become enrolled in the artillery department (Krom Thahan Pu'n Yai ) and appoint an officer-in-charge. 44 In 1826/27, while many towns were mobilised to help suppress £hao Anu's rebellion along the eastern border, fears arose that the British, taking advantage of the turmoil, would attack, and some troops were therefore hurriedly recalled to fortify Samut Prakan. 45 One of the Records of the Court Astrologers mentioned for that year that an obstructing chain was stretched at Pak Nam, and a road was built on both sides of the river. 46 The Chronicles report for 1828/29 that the soldiers who had been called up to strengthen Samut Prakan began to make breastworks, built another fort, set up guns on all parapets, and in front of the fort in the river they drove in bunches of sugar-palm trunks. Only narrow channels were left through which boats could pass and wooden bridges were constructed across the side streams on both sides of the 6hao Phraya all the way from Bangkok to the mouth of the river. The fort in the river was linked with the western bank by a wooden bridge. The island with the dhedi, (which was now twenty metres high), was strengthened by dumping stones. More able men of the town of Samut Prakan had to be enrolled as artillery men. In 1834/45 Kromakhun Detadiso'n, Kromamu’n Sepsuntho'n, and Kromamu'n Narongharirak were appointed heads of workgroups to repair Mu'ang Samut Prakan and to fix work which was still outstanding. They completed the walls and had a ditch dug around the back part of the town; one

42

This is presumably the old battery noted by Finlayson in 1822.

43

PtSo'ng, pp.153-54. See also Chotmaihet Hon Chabap Phraya Pramunthanarak, Bangkok: Cremation Volume for Nang Cho’i Chuto, B.E.2464 (1921/22), p.37.

44

PtSam, Vol 1, p.12.

45

Ibid., p.54.

46

f hotmaihet Hon Chabap Phraya Pramunthanarak, p.42.

54

Through Travellers' Eyes

further fort was built. 47 A decade later, at a time when again there were grounds to fear a British attack, following the resident British trader Robert Hunter's expulsion, Kromaluang Rakronaret was charged with the expansion of one of Pak Lat's forts and the heightening of another, as well as with the construction of another two defence lines in front of the town. At Pak Nam two new fortified walls and additions to the existing defence line were made. The upper story of the river fortress had to be razed, and battlements constructed on both sides. Here supports and winches for the cable which could obstruct the passage had to be constructed at the back of the fortress in the middle of the river, so that the cable could stretch across the river to the eastern bank. In addition five heaps of rocks were dumped at the Fa Pha promontory, leaving gaps just sufficient for boats to pass. 4 8 The final entry relating to this region in the Dynastic Chronicles dates from 1848/49, and again concerns fortification. In that year £hamu'n Waiwonnarot was appointed head of a working party to build a big fort at Bang hakreng. 49 There are further entries in the' Third Reign Chronicles concerning Pak Lat and Pak Nam's defence but these are dated 1850/5 1 and thus fall outside the chosen time-span.

PART 3: CONFRONTATION OF THE DATA a. The region and its probable population size The impression obtained from the travellers' accounts that at the beginning of the 1820s the Thais generated much activity at the mouth of the £hao Phraya, has been amply confirmed in the "additional sources" section. It can now be stated with some confidence that the stretch of river between Bangkok and the sea was dramatically changed during the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. It is interesting to attempt to determine how the region appeared in 1800. Firstly, if we take the rather detailed late seventeenth-century map in La Loubere as a guide, in the 1680s there were only three inhabited places between Bangkok and the sea: a customs house at the mouth of the river, the Dutch Fort Amsterdam, and a village, "Banvat", just below Bangkok. 50 Naturally, the situation must have changed after the fall of Ayuthaya, and the

47

PtSam, Vol 1, pp.157-58.

48

PtSam, Vol 2, pp.93-94.

49

Ibid., pp.137-38.

50

In a much older map, drawn about 1650, we may note the customs house, a village, Ban Broet (?), "een vervallen stade” [a dilapidated place], and another village, Ban leray (?). See the reproduction in H. ten Brummelhuis, Merchant, Courtier and Diplomat: A History of the Contacts between the Netherlands and Thailand, Lochem: De Tijdstroom, 1987, p.12,

The South

55

establishment of a new capital much closer to the mouth of the river. We may safely assume that from the 1770s onwards, the area immediately surrounding the capital rapidly transformed itself and that new hamlets, villages, and some local industry became established along the first kilometers down-river. From the Chronicle of the First Reign we learn that in 1784/85, only two years after the decision to move the capital from Thonburi to Bangkok, it was decided to shorten the route to the sea by digging the canal at Pak Lat It was soon apparent, however, that this caused the water at Bangkok itself to become brackish, and in early 1785 the short-cut canal was provided with a dam, made of clay and bricks. 51 From the remarks in the Chronicle of the Second Reign, summarised in Part 2 of this chapter, it is also known that one fort at Pak Lat already existed in 1814. The existence of "old sugar works" just above Ban Bang Na, and a newer one just below Pak Lat raises the question "How old?". If Crawfurd were to be believed, the production of cane sugar was introduced into Siam in about 1809, when the Chinese, "in consequence of some additional privileges conferred upon them by the court, entered upon the cultivation of the cane". 52 Unfortunately Crawfurd does not provide any further details, neither does he reveal his source of information. If he were right, both the "old" and the "new" sugar works must have been set up in the early nineteenth century (and also with the many other cane sugar plantations which were established in other regions of central Siam). However, Crawfiird's statement is demonstrably false, as it can be established that already during the Ayutthaya period cane sugar was cultivated in various Siamese provinces. Already in the seventeenth century the Abbe de Choisy mentioned cane sugar as a product in Phitsanulok and Kandhanaburi. 53 It can be argued that de Choisy's report rests only upon hearsay, and that he did not actually see the cane sugar. The first indisputable evidence still predates the nineteenth century, because in 1779 the botanist J.G. Koenig travelled in Siam and not only found that several types of sugar cane were grown in Southeastern

51

These bricks were apparently taken from the crumbling walls of Ayutthaya. See 6 haophraya Thiphako'rawong, The Dynastic Chronicles, Bangkok Era; The First Reign (tr. and ed. by Thadeus and Chadin Flood), Vol 1, Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1978, pp.70-71.

52

The Crawfurd Papers, p . l l l . A similar remark can be found in Finlayson's account of 1822: "Scarce twenty years have elapsed since the first sugar canes were planted in this kingdom" (The Mission, p.167). Basing himself upon linguistic evidence, noting that cane sugar in Thai (nam tan sat) means literally "water of the sugar palm, grained", Bradley is also of the (false) opinion that cane sugar was of recent discovery in Siam. See JDBB, December 24, 1840.

53

M. 1'Abbd de Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam, fait en 1685 & 1686, Paris: Duchartre & Van Buggenhoudt, 1930, p.237.

56

Through Travellers' Eyes

Siam, but alscTvisited a large sugar cane plantation at half a (German) mile distance from the capital. 54 Therefore it is not possible to guess the date of the establishment of the "old sugar works" near Ban Bang Na. While it is reasonable to assume that in 1814 there were already several villages and hamlets, we know that fifteen years later two fortified towns were established. Thanks to Thai sources it is possible to make a fairly accurate estimate of the size of Pak Lat's population. In 1815 there were 1,470 able men in the new town, many apparently recently married, for the Chronicle tells that the total population was 3,000. If we accept this as the base population for 1815, all subsequent farang (Western) estimates (Burney, 1825: 10,000, Jones, 1833: 18-20,000, Dean, 1835: 15,000 and Pallegoix 1838: 7,000) appear excessive. Some growth in the town's population seems likely, but there were also serious checks on growth; thus it is known that the cholera epidemic of 1820 must have passed through Pak Lat. Also, some of Pak Lat's population may have been used to establish garrisons in other places, such as in Mu'ang Sakho'n in 1828/29. Taking these factors into account, it could be argued that in 1838, when Pallegoix visited Pak Lat, its population may have amounted to between 5,000 and 6,000, but this must be regarded as a generous estimate. A more conservative guess would be 4,000 people. If the 1,083 men from Pak Lat, who in 1840 were sent to fight in Cambodia, comprised all able men, this would indicate a population of some five thousand. As for the size of Pak Nam, all visitors who have commented on it agree that it was smaller than Pak Lat, and various commentators refer to it as "a village". Finlayson's observation that the habitations seldom stretched more than two or three houses deep, over a distance of several miles, is consistent with the estimates of some 6-700 houses, made by Pallegoix. A generous guess of its population would be between 3,000 and 4,000, a conservative estimate would be 2,000 people. From the travellers' impressions and the two detailed maps it is clear that between Bangkok and Pak Lat there were a series of hamlets along the river banks, but we have no means of estimating their population in a proper demographic manner. The same can be said for the gardens and rice fields south and southeast of Bangkok, in which Bradley noted " a sparse studding of native huts". Such vague impressions do not lend themselves to translation into rough figures, as the hamlets and rural population may have comprised only a few hundred families, or they could have amounted to thousands. In these circumstances it would not be warranted to go further than assume that the whole Southern segment, which in 1800 was probably very sparsely populated, may

54

J.G. Koenig, "Journal of a Voyage from India to Siam and Malacca in 1779", Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, No 26, January 1894, pp.149 and 175.

The South

57

have had, by the 1840s, a population ranging somewhere between 7,000 and 12,000.

b. The role of the central goverment The region between Bangkok and the sea was of crucial interest to Siam's government in several ways. Firstly, Pak Nam was the place where large alien ships called for assistance to cross the mud bar which made entry into the 6hao Phraya difficult. From Pak Nam the Phra Khlang would receive advance warning of the arrival of unusual or important craft, and Pak Nam's governor had the task to find out the nature of foreign missions. This was a delicate matter, for the honours accorded to foreign delegates depended upon his report. Apparently there were fundamental farang misconceptions about this first contact with a high Siamese official. A clear example is the case of Crawfurd's mission, where that envoy appears to have completely misunderstood the reasons behind this interrogation in Pak Nam. He apparently considered that Pak Nam's governor was impertinent in specifically asking the purpose of the mission, and he therefore deliberately answered in vague and general terms. The Thais must have wondered why Crawfurd was not ready to give clear reasons for his arrival and probably feared that his business was so unpleasant that he was forced to conceal it. Equally damaging to the Thai impression of his mission must have been Crawfurd's reluctance to explain the nature and value of the presents he carried; in his eyes, it was in very bad taste and greedy to ask for such details; and he fondly reported it as an example of the "indelicacy and rapacity ... characteristic of the Siamese Court." 55 For the Thais, however, the detailed list of presents was essential in order to make certain that all wealth that an alien ruler wished to bestow on the king of Siam, did actually arrive. By showing reluctance to reveal the extent and value of the gifts, Crawfurd must have raised suspicions about his personal honesty as well as about his capacity to lead a foreign mission. This may help account for the mission's overall lack of success. Our sources have established in great detail that both Pak Lat and Pak Nam were regarded as places of great strategic value. Defence measures were of a greater variety and at a scale larger than those taken in other provincial centres. It has been established that early in the nineteenth century both Pak Lat and Pak Nam had some fortifications. The Chronicles give the impression that Pak Lat was at first considered more important as a defence post. The reason for this lies probably in the circumstance that the river happens to be relatively narrow at that point. It is indicative of Siamese initiative that the fortifications at Pak Lat, the

55 Crawfurd, Journal, p.76.

58

Through Travellers' Eyes

appointment of its permanent garrison, and the setting up of a chain across the £hao Phraya had all been done by 1815, before the British-Burmese war had broken out. Indeed, the decision to establish large-scale forts at Pak Nam, including the bold initiative to build on the sand-bank at the mouth of the river, was, according to the Dynastic Chronicles of 1822/23, still prior to the war in Burma. Therefore Crawfurd, who wrote in a footnote that it was the Siamese alarm at the British contest with the Burmese that had caused them to fortify Pak Nam, was simply wrong. 56 The Siamese were quite capable of the initiative and foresight that contemporary Europeans like to deny them, and the series of derogatory statements concerning the flimsiness of Siamese defences stemmed partly from European superciliousness when confronted with products of an oriental "inferior" culture, and partly upon their quite proper assessment that such measures would do little to impede a concerted European attack. The colonising powers knew that Siamese cannons were not reliable 57 and that Siamese-led troops had no experience with European methods of warfare. This should not prevent us from noting that the Thais did set up a series of defence measures which, with proper guns and in the hands of soldiers who were more ruthlessly trained, would have been very effective. They were apparently built with sufficient skill to withstand the forces of nature for decades; moreover, the forts' designs, the technical problems of fastening and stretching chains across the river, these were all thought out by the Thais themselves. This independent problem-solving of the pre-Bowring Thai elite contrasts dramatically with the dependency upon foreign advisers in the second half of the nineteenth century. The preoccupation with the region's defence naturally influenced the relationship between government and people, and it became increasingly important that the government quickly knew of any actual threat to the capital. A large proportion of the male inhabitants of the two towns were trained to man the forts and handle the hundreds of heavy guns which gradually accumulated there. Further details of the military training, such as if and when the part-time artillery troops would receive remuneration, are unfortunately not available.

c. Ethnic distribution One of the most interesting facts to emerge is that Pak Lat, the oldest of the two fortified towns, was almost wholly populated by Mo'ns, while Pak Nam seems to have been almost wholly Siamese. In the "additional sources" it has become clear that Pak Lat became Mo'n in two stages, the first when a group of

56

Ibid., p.77.

57

See, for example, Malloch, "Extracts", p.221, and Finlayson, The Mission, p.112.

The South

59

Mo'ns from a settlement north of Bangkok were moved to the site of the new forts, and soon afterwards this garrison was boosted by a large number of refugees. There has been no confirmation of Burney's assertion that Pak Lat's fort was manned by "Laos". The fact that the men were heavily tattooed, as reported by Crawfurd, may not be taken as a sign that they were "Lao", because the practice of tattooing the chest and limbs was common among soldiers throughout mainland Southeast Asia, in accordance with the widely-shared belief that such markings protected the body from external injuries. Nineteenth-century Europeans have found it strange that the Thais relied upon such "outsiders" as Mo'ns for their defence. Usually they have failed to appreciate that these Mo'ns had abandoned their native land because they had felt the Burmese rule to be unbearable, and therefore they shared the Thai view of the Burmese as a dangerous enemy. Of their own accord they had chosen to ask the Thais for a place to live; the Thais had received them well, giving them places to live, and allotting high administrative posts to their leaders. In the chapter dealing with the Western segment of central Thailand, Chapter 5, it will be noted that there were many Mo'ns who fared well in Siam. The Thais had no reason to doubt the Mo'ns' loyalty, because the Mo'ns had no hope of establishing an independent state of their own. Jones' remarks on the percentages of Mo'ns of Pak Lat who could speak and read Burmese, Thai and Mo'n gain a new meaning when these are combined with the knowledge that the great majority of Pak Lat's population had come as refugees in 1815, so that when they were being interviewed they had been in a Thai-speaking environment for some eighteen years. Both men and women could speak Thai; an indication of the rapid integration of the Mo'ns in Thai society. The fact that very few could read Thai must be related to the fact that the chief opportunity to acquire reading skills, a period of serving in a Thai monastery, could have been available to only few of Pak Lat's men, who had their own Mo'n-speaking monasteries. Jones' estimate that about two-thirds of the men could read Mo'n is also of historical significance as it is the earliest indication of a high degree of literacy among the ordinary Mo'n populace.

d. Landscape and nature Travelling from Bangkok to the sea the landscape clearly fell into two types. Close to Bangkok, for a distance of several miles, about half-way in the large loop in the river, rice fields dominated the scenery, especially on the eastern side of the 6hao Phraya River. Past the town of Pak Lat, however, there was very little sign of human activity, as the landscape was dominated by natural vegetation, adapted to brackish and salt water, mangroves, Palmyra, and Samae forests covered the low-lying lands. For naturalists it might be of interest to

60

Through Travellers' Eyes

know that this stretch of river was the home of a kind of fish which the Siamese called Pla tin ma (Dog's Tongue Fish). 58 Bradley wrote how this fish was remarkable for attaching itself to the bottom of boats and forming a kind of concert of music of many keys jumbled together. "The noise they make is not greatly unlike that of frogs after they have just been thawed out in the spring, or of many kites playing in the wind together or of a set of Boodhist priests praying in concert at their wats". 59 Abeel seems to have been deceived into believing that the noise actually came from humans who late at night played a soothing melody, chiefly on percussion instruments. He remarked on the soft and delicate harmony of their tones. 60 Those who travelled at night could also admire the play of fire-flies dancing in the trees that lined the banks. Bradley noted: an unbroken chain of them for some 10 or 15 rods, all flashing their phosphoricence in concert about 60 times in a minute. Every flash resembled somewhat a flash of lightning only the light was spangled with the innumerable bright spots from which the light emanated. At length one part of the chain lost their time and then another part until they had broken into some 3 or 4 companies, harmonising in their own companies but not as a whole band. 61 It can be noted that none of our travel accounts mention the presence of crocodiles on this stretch of the 6hao Phraya. In November 1778 these animals were very common between Pak Nam and Bangkok. In broad daylight they swam in front of J.G. Koenig's boat, often making a dreadful noise. People told him that they had nothing to fear from them, they were only dangerous further inland. Later he found out that Siam's king paid a bounty for every crocodile killed, and that therefore the crocodiles had become afraid of people. 6 2

58

McFarland, p.745 gives Cynoglossus bomeensis; C. microlepis; C. monopus (Cynoglossidae).

59

JDBB, March 17, 1846.

60

Abeel, Journal, p.181.

61

JDBB, March 17, 1846. See also Abeel, Journal, pp.181-82. Some 150 years earlier Kaempfer and Tachard also remarked on the clouds of fire-flies, emitting light all at once. See Kaempfer, A History, pp.78-9; and G. Tachard, A Relation of the Voyage to Siam, reprint of the 1688 edition, Bangkok: White Orchid Press, 1981, pp. 143-44.

62

Koenig, "Journal", pp.126 and 135. Koenig, a botanist, has given on pp,125-27 of his journal a good description of various plants and insects he encountered along this stretch of the river. An even older description of some of the flora and fauna of this region can be found in E. Kaempfer, The History, p.20. It may be noted that in Kaempfer's time, the late

*

Ths South

61

Apparently this policy of extirpation, combined with a growing human settlement along the shores of the river, had, by the first half of the nineteenth century, pushed the crocodile out of the Southern segment. Similarly, the "incredible number" of monkeys, described by Kaempfer along this stretch of the river, 63 seem to have disappeared by the first half of the nineteenth century. This concludes our excursion South, which is by far the smallest of the segments of central Siam that are studied in this book. Following the circular path around the capital in a clockwise direction, in the next chapter the Southwestern segment will be visited.

seventeenth century, it was reported that tigers and other "voracious beasts” infested the high, dry land in this region. 63

Kaempfer, The History, p.78.

4 THE SOUTHWEST

PART 1: TRAVELLERS’ ACCOUNTS The main travel routes from Bangkok to the Southwestern segment can be described in three stages. The first journey begins in Bangkok, takes the Sanam Chai and Maha Chai Canals to Tha £hin (Sakho'n Buri), and turns up the Tha £hin River to the town of Nakho'n Chaisi. The second goes from Sakho'n Buri via Ma Ho'n Canal to Mae Klo'ng (Samut Songkhram), near the mouth of the Mae Klo'ng River up to the town of Ratchaburi, and the third and final stretch begins in Samut Songkhram and ends in the town of Phetchaburi (See Map 4.1).

a. The first route: Maha Chai Canal, Sakho'n Buri and the lower Tha £hin River The canals linking Bangkok and Sakho'n Buri must have been among the busiest traffic ways of early nineteenth-century Siam. Descriptions are available from Suntho'n Phu's Nirat Mu'ang Phet, of the year 1827; 1 from Samanera Klan's Nirat Phra Thaen Dong Rang, dated 1834; from Dean's description in 1837; from Bradley in January and again in November 1838; a most valuable contribution from Slafter in 1840; and short accounts by Richardson in 1839; by Pallegoix dated 1843; and by Goddard a year later.

1

This date is taken accepting Wenk's new dating. See Studien zurLiteratur der Thai, Vol 2, p.120 ff.

The Southwest

63

BANGKOK

•sC

ThaChin i Kral Amphawa

PHETCHABURI

Jr Sr

Map 4.1: The Southwest

laha Chai

64

r

Through Travellers' Eyes

From Bangkok the route began at Khlo'ng Bang Ko'k Yai, passed Bang Yi Ru'a, 2 turned into Khlo'ng Dan (see Map 4.2), and from there into Sanam Chai Canal. Suntho'n Phu and Samanera Klan mentioned the places Nam Chon Tu'n, Bang Bo’n and Sisa Krabue; 3 at the latter, during evening time, Sunthon Phu feared crocodiles. The next three villages, Samae Dam, Khok Kham and Ban Kho'm struck both Thai poets because of their large stores of firewood stacked up along the waterside. Then followed some descriptions of nature, the sounds of monkeys and birds leading to some short poetic descriptions. According to Bradley, only the first 6 or 8 miles of the journey from Bangkok went through thickly populated regions, but from then on the canal passed through attap jungle, there being scarcely such a thing as a garden or plantation on either bank. When he passed through the canal for the second time, Bradley stopped at a Mo'n monastery which he found very poorly endowed. The buildings were of bamboo and attap and were quite small and ordinary; they housed only five occupants besides the pupils. 4 While passing down the Maha Chai Canal he noted some five or six small Mo'n villages. The town of Maha Chai itself was situated at the strategic spot where the canal reached the Tha £hin River. Samanera Klan and Dean briefly mentioned its fortress, but in 1839 Richardson noted that the fort was a low, square brick building which then was uninhabited. Immediately attached to this foiLwSS was a village of Mo'ns of almost 100 houses. While Pallegoix and Goddard provided no details regarding this part of the journey, Slafter recorded some valuable information. On the canal, still three miles distance from the fortress of Maha Chai, he noted the village of "Kaum" with forty houses on the northern side of the canal and thirty-five on the southern one, and only one-and-a-half miles from the fortress was the settlement "Mabash" with 61 houses, which was mostly inhabited by Siamese. At Maha Chai there was a guard house, and quite a settled population: according to Slafter's account there were on the northern bank 100 houses, inhabited by Siamese, and on the southern side another 75 Siamese houses, as well as 20 occupied by Mo'ns. 5

2

This village has long been engulfed in Thonburi, but the village's name and location can still be found at Bang Yi Ru'a Police Station.

3

Literally "Buffalo Head". The village derived its name apparently from the belief that Thoraphi's father's head had fallen here, linking this place with a famous episode of the Ramayana.

4

JDBB, November 20, 1838.

5

AFMC, Slafter, September 24, 1840.

65

The Southwest

Pak Kret

'Bang Yai *To Nakho'n Chaisi

toKhlo'ng Maha Chai

Map 4.2: Waterways from Bangkok Southwest and Northwest

66

Through Travellers' Eyes

The town of Tha £hin, or Sakho'n Buri, as it then officially was known (the present-day Samut Sakho'n), is described by Samanera Klan as having many houses. The Samanera expresses his dislike for fishing nets which he saw prominently displayed. 6 There are no less than six independent estimates of its population. The first in 1826 is by Leal, who claims to have heard that Tha dhin contained from 15 to 16,000 Chinese, Siamese and Cambodians. 7 Bradley who ' stayed the night in Tha £hin in January 1838, thought there were some 3-4,000 Siamese living there, and in November of the same year he attempted to count all the houses, coming to the conclusion that there were about 500 households. Allowing eight inhabitants per house, he calculated 4,000 inhabitants. 8 Richardson described it as a very long village, containing four or five hundred houses in a row, two or three deep. 9 In 1840 Slafter travelled through the town, supplying the people with tracts and also counting the houses. His house-tohouse survey resulted in 375 Siamese houses and an additional 35 Mo'n houses in a cluster at the north of the town. Estimating an average of five per household, Slafter thought the town contained 2,050 inhabitants. 10 Pallegoix, three years later, estimated the town to have 5,000 inhabitants, 11 which meant probably, as shall be demonstrated later, that he thought there were some 500 houses. A comparison and confrontation of these six estimates — all made independently, without knowing of other visitors' attempts to guess the town's size — leads to the conclusion that Leal's figure can be dismissed as fancy. All other observers appear to agree on between four and five hundred households for Sakho'n Buri in the 1830s and 1840s. Tha £hin was situated so close to the sea that there was no fresh water, apart from rain water. Richardson noted that for six months of the year the people of Tha £hin received their water from Bangkok. Chinese would bring down large jars of water, or, when they had perfectly watertight boats they would fill such boats with water and transport these. The price, Richardson told, was "sufficiently moderate". 12 Almost all Tha Chin's buildings had floors some 6-8

6

Fishing nets, the instruments with which large numbers of living creatures find thenuntimely death are objects that a Samanera, devoted to a meritorious life-style, does not like to observe.

7

BP, Vol 3, Part 1, p.47.

8

JDBB, November 21, 1838.

9

Richardson, "Journal of a Mission", p.24.

111

AFMC, Slafter, September 24, 1840.

11

Pallegoix, Description, Vol 1, pp.97-98. Richardson, "Journal of a Mission", p.24.

*

The Southwest

67

feet above the ground and were built of bamboo wattling, their roofs covered with attap. Bradley saw only one monastery, and that was in a dilapidated state. There was no indication of wealth or lustre in or about the town, and Bradley saw nothing that deserved the name of a street. If, entering the Tha £hin River from the Maha Chai Canal the traveller turned towards the mouth of the river, at a distance of some two miles was a Chinese village called in Teochiu Chinese what sounded to the missionaries like ."Leng Kia Chu", 13 and in Thai "Krok Krak". According to Dean in 1837 it had about 1,000 to 1,200 inhabitants, and five years later he wrote about it as "a village of about 200 Chinese families". 14 Assuming that Krok Krak did not change dramatically in the years between 1837 and 1842, this reveals that Dean reckoned an average of from five to six persons per house. Bradley, who stopped there for an hour in September 1838, and who wrote about it as "a filthy village, chiefly inhabited by Teochiu Chinese", estimated that it contained "upwards of 300 houses and probably not less than 3,000 inhabitants", thus revealing that he was more generous, not only in his rough count of houses, but also in taking an average of at least ten persons per house. When in September 1838 Bradley sailed from the Gulf into Tha £hin River, with the intention to proceed directly to the town of Tha £ hin he was hailed by officers of the customs post at Maha Chai. He attempted to ignore these calls, was quickly intercepted and led to the governor of the place. After some refreshment had been provided the reason for the interview became clear:

His secretary with his blackboard was called to record our names, the time we left Bangkok, the time we left the ship, the manner we had spent the intervening time, the reasons of our coming into port, the names of our crew etc., and dispatched a messenger forthwith to Bangkok to report the same according to the law. 15

The route up the Tha thin River towards Nakho'n Chaisi is also clearly depicted in our travellers' accounts. In 1837 Dean went the distance from the mouth of the river to the customs house at Nakho'n Chaisi, but because this

The European visitors vary in their transliteration of the Teochiu words, Bradley sometimes spells it "Lengkechiu," but on another occasion "Lengkiachu”. 14

AFMC, Dean, January 1842.

15

JDBB, September 6, 1838.

68

Through Travellers' Eyes

journey took place at night he could make no observations other than being occasionally pursued by crocodiles, and at one time by a great fish, said by his boatmen to be three times as large as their boat. The next morning Dean saw sugar cane fields extending back from the river as far as the eye could reach, whose cultivators were principally Chinese, and found fewer inhabitants than he had anticipated. On his return journey he called at one Siamese village of about 1,500 inhabitants, and several smaller places, but he gave no clue as to their locations. A year later Bradley described the scenery of the lower Tha £hin River:

The country is all an unbounded plain and there is scarcely a forest tree of any considerable size to be found upon it. The banks of the river are much more pleasant than those of the Meinam [Chao Phraya] below Bankok. There were many beautiful clumps of bamboo lining them. Here you will see a cane plantation waving before the wind, there you will see a garden of plantains — and then you will see an orchard of cocoa nuts and beetle nuts and then a clear bank uncultivated and occasionally a paddy field recently ingathered will come in to make up variety.16

Closer to Nakho'n Chaisi he remarked on large sugar factories situated two or three miles distance to each other, and round each such factory ten or fifteen houses for the accomodation of the workmen and their families. In 1839 Richardson found the lower part of the river, close to Maha Chai almost uninhabited. At a place somewhere about half way to Nakho'n Chaisi he walked a few hundred yards inland, passing a belt of coconut trees with a good deal of underwood and came out on an extensive plain, which appeared to stretch all the way to the £hao Phraya River, covered with paddy stubble. Coming closer to Nakho'n Chaisi he noted many small villages, almost entirely occupied by Chinese employed in the manufacture of sugar. Altogether Richardson counted eight small sugar factories, the largest of them having four mills drawn by buffaloes. The heaps of firewood opposite each sugar mill seemed to him disproportionally large compared to the factory they supplied. 17 Pallegoix, who travelled the same stretch of river in 1843 reported a much larger number of sugar factories. He wrote that, nearing Nakho'n Chaisi, the sugar factories succeeded one another almost without interruption, and mentioned more than

16 Ibid., January 12, 1838. 17

Richardson, "Journal of a Mission", pp.23-24.

The Southwest

69

thirty of them, each employing two to three hundred Chinese workers. 18 In a letter describing the same journey of 1843, the bishop filed an even grander report, describing the sugar factories as "immense buildings", each giving work to at least 200 Chinese, and added that there were hundreds of these sugar mills. 19 This is a clear demonstration of Pallegoix's tendency to exaggerate, probably caused by a wish to enthuse his reading public. Having established the likelihood that Pallegoix gave a false and inflated picture of the number and size of the sugar factories, this does not mean that Richardson's much more moderate account can be taken as true without further consideration. There is still the eye-witness account of Bradley, who stopped at one sugar factory near Nakho'n Chaisi. For this particular establishment Bradley remarked that a single factory employed sixty to eighty buffaloes to grind the cane, from fifty to eighty cords 20 of wood to boil the juice, and from one hundred to a hundred-and-fifty men to do the various kinds of labour. 2 1 Bradley's diary entry gives the strong impression of having been based upon actually walking through and carefully observing at least this one establishment Even allowing for a measure of exaggeration that can be discerned in much of Bradley's writing, it serves to some extent to balance the more impressionistic remarks of the other two travellers. Bradley's sugar factory is smaller than those described by Pallegoix, but much larger than Richardson's account would lead us to expect. With this consideration the travellers' accounts of the first route of the Southeast ends, at the outskirts of Nakho’n Chaisi. This town and the region of the upper Tha £ hin River will be described in the following chapter.

b. The second route:’Samut Sakho'n to Samut Songkhram, and up to Ratchaburi The canal system between the Tha 6 hin and Mae Klo'ng rivers is also a well described journey. Suntho'n Phu and Samanera Klan provided in their poems a series of village names, and occasionally additional information. Having crossed the Tha £hin River the first village remarked upon was Ban Bo', with many Nipa

Pallegoix, Description, Vol 1, p.101. 19 Letter by J-B. Pallegoix, dated July 21, 1843, published in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, Vol 18, 1845, p.117. 20 The cord is a measure of cut wood, equal to 128 cubic feet, or a pile 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 feet broad. 21

JDBB, January 11, 1838.

70

Through Travellers' Eyes

Palm trees on both sides of the waterway. Then followed Bang Khwang, with on the left the nai phasi, the tax collector, a Chinese, whose task it was to take tax from all salt boats. At Bang Khwang Suntho'n Phu noted people evaporating sea water in order to win salt The canal here was called "Canal with Thirty-two Bends", apparently a waterway with little cultivation along its banks. Samanera Klan mentioned here only some Mo'n houses, which may have been some of the eight or nine hundred Mo'n families, many of them employed in making salt, about whom the governor of Maha Chai spoke to Richardson. At Ban Ka Long a straight canal was reached, popularly known as the Ma Ho'n Canal, and, somewhat more formally known also as the Sunak Ho'n Canal. Its entrance was apparently narrow, both Suntho'n Phu and Samanera Klan described here how people jostled for room; boats collided and swearwords in various languages were heard when tempers were lost. After one coconut plantation, the village of Ban Saphai was reached, its houses on both sides of the river. When the season was right its inhabitants sold pomegranates, beans and sweet potatoes in stalls along the khlo'ng. At the place where the canal enters the Mae Klo'ng River many houses could be observed. In November 1838 Bradley made the same journey, and found the serpentine part of the waterway thickly studded with villages containing from 50 to 1,000 inhabitants (this may be understood to mean "having from 5-100 houses"). Some of these hamlets were exclusively Mo'n. Over a distance of 12 or 15 miles Bradley saw no less than 17 villages which, he estimated, contained not less than 5,000 souls (500 houses). The intervening country appeared to be almost entirely uncultivated and unredeemed from attap and other shrub. The scenery changed as he came nearer to the Mae Klo'ng River: here the country was generally cleared and often laid out in fields and banana, tamarind and coconut orchards. Near where the canal ended, Bradley could sense that he was nearing a town because he heard the quacking of immense herds of ducks and the squeek and grunt of swans which were fattening for the market of a town where, he quite rightly deduced, there had to be many Chinese consumers of flesh. Richardson, in 1839 noted that the canal banks were thickly peopled by salt makers:

...the sea water being evaporated, is repeated by fresh artificial inundations into quillets like those of a paddy field; the salt is sold at three annas a basket, and pays one rupee eight annas duty! 22

22

Richardson, Journal of a Mission", p.24.

The Southwest

71

In 1840 Slafter travelled at least part of this route and provided in his journal names of villages and their probable distances to each other, beginning at Tha 6hin and reaching to a point somewhere in Ma Ho'n Canal. Three miles from Tha £hin he found a Mo'n village of forty houses, and four miles further yet another Mo'n settlement, half its size. A mile further was a Chinese and Mo'n settlement of fifty houses. Another mile away was what he called "Ban Bui" of seventy houses (probably identical with Ban Bo’, mentioned above). Two miles further he noted two Mo'n villages of 25 and 12 houses respectively, "Ta rung" (probably Tha Raeng) and "Ta Rang dam", while six miles beyond he recorded a Siamese and Mo'n hamlet of ten houses, "Ban-kao rat" (probably Ban Tho Rat). After another mile there was a Siamese village, Ban Phli, of 30 houses, followed two miles later by "Na Gnang", a Siamese village of 300 houses. Slafter remarked that the name meant "crosswise", and noted salt making, so that it may confidently be identified as Ban Khwang. After another 12 miles Slafter noted a few Mo'n houses, and at this point, quite close to the Mae Klo'ng River, he must have returned, for his house-by-house account goes no further. Altogether he counted 557 houses over a distance of just over 32 miles. 23 Since Slafter had taken the trouble to often walk along the shore, to ask for .names and ethnic identity, and to count the numbers of houses, we may safely regard his account as the most reliable guide to the population for this part of the route. It exposes a degree of exaggeration in Bradley's population estimates. Mu'ang Mae Klo'ng or Samut Songkhram as it was officially called, was first mentioned in the nineteenth century by Leal, who called it a place of considerable traffic and assigned it "about thirteen thousand inhabitants, Siamese and Chinese", hi Captain Burney's edited version of this journey, this is changed to "from 12 to 13,000 Chinese and Siamese". 24 Suntho'n Phu and Samanera Klan noted the many houses and the lively trade in fish and fish products. After a very short visit Bradley judged, probably a little hastily, that the town had a population of at least 25,000, the large majority of them Siamese and the rest Chinese. There were no streets, no market places and no floating houses as in Bangkok. The houses were nearly all made of bamboo with attap roofs. He guessed, from the large number of salt boats that he had passed along the canals, that the populace made its living of fishing and salt works at the mouth of the Mae Klo'ng River. He did not personally see salt works, however, at that

23 AFMC, Slafter, September 24, 1840. 24

Compare the accounts in Anderson, English Intercourse with Siam, p.402 and BP Vol 3, Part 1, p.47.

72

Through Travellers' Eyes

particular location. In 1843 Pallegoix estimated the population to be some 10,000, and mainly made up of Chinese shopkeepers and fishermen. Here our route continues some 25 kilometers up the Mae Klo'ng to the town of Ratchaburi. The first place mentioned by Samanera Klan is Amphawa. The village itself was overshadowed by many coconut trees, but at the water's edge he described a lively market scene, where silk, axes, knives and copperware was traded by Chinese. Not far from here was Bang Chang, which according to Leal was made up of 3-4,000 people, Chinese and Siamese. 25 In March 1844 Goddard found Bang Chang most promising for a missionary who could speak Chinese. Bang Chang's territory occupied several square miles, aside from the village on the banks of the river, and was inhabited by Chinese engaged in husbandry. The whole territory was a continuous series of gardens and exhibited by far the most beautiful scenery that Goddard had seen since he left the United States. He was told that more than 10,000 Chinese lived in the district. Alcohol and opium was only little used 26 Samanera Klan does not mention Bang Chang in his poem. For this part of the river he provided the names of Bang Kung, where the Chinese had built a shrine, Pang Pa, with many gardens, and Khok Ngua Si Mu'n, close to the present Bang Khonthi, before reaching the town of Ratchaburi. Ratchaburi itself, lying more in a western than a southern direction as seen from Bangkok's perspective, is described in Chapter 5.

c. The third route: Samut Songkhram to Phetchaburi Travellers from Bangkok to Phetchaburi who had travelled via canals to Samut Sakho'n and Samut Songkhram could, after reaching the latter town, no longer use the relatively safe inner waterways, but had to make a short journey on the Gulf. After less than ten kilometres' distance travel on open water the mouth of the first of three inlets to Phetchaburi, named Khlo'ng Cho'ng, was reached. Following Khlo’ng Cho'ng, and before reaching the mouth of the second inlet, which was named Khlo'ng Tabun, Suntho'n Phu mentions two villages, Ban Yi San and Ban So'ng Phi No'ng. The next village was Bang Ho' after which the traveller passed a large hill, Khao Takhriw Sawat, with a dilapidated monastery. Further on lay the village Bang Khrok, a site of much vegetable cultivation and where also cattle was raised. From here on Suntho'n

25

The Wilson edition of Leal's journey, as published in Anderson, p.402, gives a population of about four thousand, chiefly Chinese.

26

AFMC, Goddard, April 18, 1844.

The Southwest

73

Phu mentions four more settlements, Ban Mai, Bang Kum, Ban Pho and Ton Tan before reaching the town of Phetchaburi. Detailed descriptions of Phetchaburi, or Phrip Phri as it was known in common speech, 27 unfortunately do not exist for the first half of the nineteenth century. Of all foreigners, Davenport, who, in 1840, was stranded for three days in front of one of the inlets leading to Phetchaburi — probably near Ban Bang Tabun — came closest to the town. He sent one of him boatmen there and received from him accounts of Phetchaburi which made him think it had a population of some nine or ten thousand persons, chiefly Siamese. 28 Pallegoix apparently never went as far south as Phetchaburi, and Bradley began his regular visits there only in the 1850s. Suntho'n Phu visited some of the pilgrim's resorts around the town, and described the view from one of the steep hills nearby the town, in which he mentioned the predominance of sugar palm trees, a feature upon which all subsequent travellers have remarked. This concludes the travel accounts of the Southwestern section, which will be built out further in Part 2.

PART 2. ADDITIONAL CONTEMPORARY SOURCES 1. Published Thai archival material In the statement on alcohol tax farms 1809/10, the tax farm for Samut Songkhram is not separate, but part of that of Samut Songkhram, Ratchaburi and Kandhanaburi together (held by Nai Bunrot). This combined tax farm amounted to the annual sum of 14,800 baht. It is impossible to guess what share Samut Songkhram had in this combined tax farm. The same problem is encountered for Tha dhin, because its alcohol tax farm was part of that of Suphan Buri, Nakho'n Chaisi and Sakho'n Buri taken together (for a total of 10,400 baht). Phetchaburi was the only town in the Southwest which had an alcohol tax farm of its own. This was held by a Chinese named Bu, who had to pay 6,400 baht for the privilege. From an alcohol tax point of view, Phetchaburi was worth about the same as that of the Southeastern towns of Chonburi and Bang Lamung taken

27

The difference between the common and official names has sometimes caused problems for Westerners. In the map of Siam, attached to Sir John Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, Vol 2, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press (reprint), 1977, can be found Phetchaburi at approximately the right location, but also the town of "Phipphri" at some distance tb the north.

28

AFMC, Davenport, December 26,1840.

74

Through Travellers' Eyes

together. 29 (For details on the latter two places, see Chapter 8, that deals with the Southeastern segment). There is one reference, based upon National Archival sources, that indicates the large size of Phetchaburi's palm sugar industry. For the year 1845/46 thin Kiet (who held the Thai title of Khun Wiset Thotsako'n) agreed to pay 6,000 baht for Phetchaburi's palm sugar tax farm. This can be compared with palm sugar tax farms of Nonthaburi and Suphan Buri for the same year, that were contracted out for 320 baht and 160 baht respectively. 30 In the list of gambling tax farms no towns in the southwest region of central Siam were encountered. Because of the likelihood that this latter list has been preserved incomplete it may not be concluded that such contracts did not exist for this region. In the published list of amounts of supplies that various provincial towns had to provide for Rama I's cremation building none of the three towns of the Southwest are mentioned.

2. Malloch's list of 1827 In Malloch's list of Provinces, Principalities, Cities, Towns and Villages of Siam there were no names which could be related to Mae Klo'ng, but he did provide entries for Paevamthathin, which must be Pak Nam Tha thin (literally "the mouth of the Tha thin", probably Krok Krak), Sakho'n Buri and Phetchaburi. The details are as in Table 4.1: TABLE 4.1: THE SOUTHWEST AS FOUND IN MALLOCH, 1827 Malloch's name

Siamese

Paevamthathin M. Sakhon M. Phitcaburi

150 450 2,200

29

Chinese 300 300 300

Laos

Malays

—

—

70 450

3,500

t 71-73, pp.58-69.

30 Document 56, t.S.

1207, as cited by Wira Wimoniti, Historical Patterns of Tax

Administration in Thailand, Bangkok: Institute of Public Administration, Thammasat University, 1961, p.61.

75

The Southwest

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