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CHAPTER XIV.
PECHABURI OR P'RIPP'REE

On the opposite side of the gulf from Chantaboun, and much nearer to the mouth of the Meinam, within a few hours' sail of Paknam, is the town of Pechaburi, which is now famous as the seat of a summer palace built by the late king, and as a place of increasing resort for foreigners resident in Siam.

The proper orthography of the name of this town was a matter which gave the late king a great deal of solicitude and distress. Priding himself upon his scholarship almost as much as on his sovereignty, his pedantic soul was vexed by the method in which some of the writers for the press had given the name. Accordingly, in a long article published in the Bangkok Calendar, he relieved his mind by a protest which is so characteristic, and in its way so amusing, that it will bear to be quoted by way of introduction to the present chapter. He has just finished a long disquisition, philological, historical and antiquarian, concerning the name of the city of Bangkok, and he continues as follows:

"But as the city P'etch'ără-booree the masses of the people in all parts call it P'ripp'ree or P'et-p'ree. The name P'etch'ără-booree is Sanskrit, a royal name given to the place the same as T'on-booree, Non-boo-ree, Năk'awn K'u'n k'ăn, Sămŏŏtă-pra-kan, and Ch'ă-chong-sow. Now, if Mahá nak'awn be called Bangkok, and the other names respectively called Tălatk'wan, Paklat, Paknam, and Păătrew, it is proper that P'etch'ără-booree should follow suit, and be called by her vulgar name P'rip-p'ree, or P'et-p'ree.

"Now that the company of teachers and printers should coin a name purporting to be after the royal style and yet do not take the true Sanskrit, seems not at all proper. In trying to Romanize the name P'etch'ără-booree, they place the mark over the a thus P'etchă-booree, making foreigners read it P'etcha-booree, following the utterances of old dunces in the temples, who boast that they know Balăm Bali, and not satisfied with that, they even call the place City P'et, setting forth both the Bali and the meaning of the word; and thus boasting greatly of their knowledge and of being a standard of orthography for the name of that city.

"Now, what is the necessity of coining another name like this? There is no occasion for it. When the name is thus incorrectly printed, persons truly acquainted with Sanskrit and Bali (for such there are many other places) will say that those who write or print the name in the way, must be pupils of ignorant teachers – blind teachers not following the real Sanskrit in full, taking only the utterances of woodsmen, and holding them forth [as the correct way]. In following such sounds they cannot be in accord with the Sanskrit, and they conclude that the name is Siamese. Whereas, in truth, it is not Siamese. The true Siamese name is P'rip-p'ree or P'et-p'ree. It matters not what letters are used to express it – follow your own mind; but let the sound come out clear and accurate either P'rip-p'ree or P'et-p'ree, and it will be true Siamese. But the mode of writing and printing the name P'etchă-booree with the letter a and mark over it and other marks in two places, resists the eye and the mouth greatly. Whatever be done in this matter let there be uniformity. If it be determined to follow the vulgar mode of calling the name, let that be followed out fully and accurately; but if the royal mode be preferred let the king be sought unto for the proper way of writing it, which shall be in full accordance with the Sanskrit. And should this happen not to be like the utterance of the people in the temples, the difference cannot be great. And persons unacquainted with Sanskrit will be constrained to acknowledge that you do really know Sanskrit; and comparing the corrected with the improper mode of Romanizing, will praise you for the improvement which you have made. Such persons there are a few, not ignorant and blind leaders and dunces like the inmates of the temples and of the jungles and forests, but learned in the Sanskrit and residents in Siam."

It is to be feared, however, that his majesty's protest came too late, and that, like many another blunder, the name Pechaburi has obtained such currency that it cannot be superseded.

Sir John Bowring "received from a gentleman now resident in Siam the notes of an excursion to this city in July, 1855.

"'We left Bangkok about three in the afternoon, and although we had the tide in our favor, we only accomplished five miles during the first three hours. Our way lay through a creek; and so great was the number of boats that it strongly reminded me of Cheapside during the busiest part of the day. Although I had been in Bangkok four months, I had not the least conception that there was such a population spread along the creeks. More than four miles from the river, there appeared to be little or no diminution in the number of the inhabitants, and the traffic was as great as at the mouth of the creek.

"'Having at last got past the crowd of boats, we advanced rapidly for two hours more, when we stopped at a wat, in order to give the men a rest. This wat, as its name "Laos" implies, was built by the inhabitants of the Laos country, and is remarkable (if we can trust to tradition) as being the limit of the Birmese invasion. Here, the Siamese say, a body of Birmans were defeated by the villagers, who had taken refuge in the wat: and they point out two large holes in the wall as the places where cannon-balls struck. After leaving this, we proceeded rapidly until about 12 P.M., when we reached the other branch of the Meinam (Meinam mahachen), and there we halted for the night.

"'Our journey the next day was most delightful: most of it lay through narrow creeks, their banks covered with atap and bamboo, whilst behind this screen were plantations of chilis, beans, peas, etc. Alligators and otters abounded in the creeks; and we shot several, and one of a peculiar breed of monkey also we killed. The Siamese name of it is chang, and it is accounted a great delicacy: they also eat with avidity the otter. We crossed during the day the Tha-chin, a river as broad as the Meinam at Bangkok. Toward evening we entered the Mei-Klong, which we descended till we reached the sea-coast. Here we waited till the breeze should sufficiently abate to enable us to cross the bay.

"'11th. – We started about 4 A.M., and reached the opposite side in about three hours. The bay is remarkably picturesque, and is so shallow that, although we crossed fully four miles from the head of the bay, we never had more than six feet of water, and generally much less. Arrived at the other side we ascended the river on which Pechaburi is built. At the mouth of the river myriads of monkeys were to be seen. A very amusing incident occurred here. Mr. Hunter, wishing to get a juvenile specimen, fired at the mother, but, unfortunately, only wounded her, and she had strength enough to carry the young one into the jungle. Five men immediately followed her; but ere they had been out of sight five minutes we saw them hurrying toward us shouting, "Ling, ling, ling, ling!" (ling, monkey). As I could see nothing, I asked Mr. Hunter if they were after the monkey. "Oh, no," he replied; "the monkeys are after them!" And so they were – thousands upon thousands of them, coming down in a most unpleasant manner; and, as the tide was out, there was a great quantity of soft mud to cross before they could reach the boat, and here the monkeys gained very rapidly upon the men, and when at length the boat was reached, their savage pursuers were not twenty yards behind. The whole scene was ludicrous in the extreme, and I really think if my life had depended upon it that I could not have fired a shot. To see the men making the most strenuous exertions to get through the deep mud, breathless with their run and fright combined, and the army of little wretches drawn up in line within twenty yards of us, screaming, and making use of the most diabolical language, if we could only have understood them! Besides, there was a feeling that they had the right side of the question. One of the refugees, however, did not appear to take my view of the case. Smarting under the disgrace, and the bamboos against which he ran in his retreat, he seized my gun, and fired both barrels on the exulting foe; they immediately retired in great disorder, leaving four dead upon the field. Many were the quarrels that arose from this affair among the men.

"'The approach to Pechaburi is very pleasant, the river is absolutely arched over by tamarind trees, while the most admirable cultivation prevails all along its course.

"'The first object which attracts the attention is the magnificent pagoda, within which is a reclining figure of Buddha, one hundred and forty-five feet in length. Above the pagoda, the priests have, with great perseverance, terraced the face of the rock to a considerable height. About half-way up the mountain, there is an extensive cave, generally known amongst foreigners as the "Cave of Idols;" it certainly deserves its name, if we are to judge from the number of figures of Buddha which it contains.

"'The talapoins assert that it is natural. It may be so in part, but there are portions of it in which the hand of man is visible. It is very small, not more than thirty yards in length, and about seven feet high; but anything like a cavern is so uncommon in this country, that this one is worth notice. We now proceeded to climb the mountain. It is very steep, but of no great height – probably not more than five hundred feet. It is covered with huge blocks of a stone resembling granite; these are exceedingly slippery, and the ascent is thus rendered rather laborious. But when we reached the top we were well repaid. The country for miles in each direction lay at our feet – one vast plain, unbroken by any elevation. It appeared like an immense garden, so carefully was it cultivated; the young rice and sugar-cane, of the most beautiful green, relieved by the darker shade of the cocoanut trees, which are used as boundaries to the fields – those fields traversed by suitable foot-paths. Then toward the sea the view was more varied: rice and sugar-cane held undisputed sway for a short distance from the town; then cocoanuts became more frequent, until the rice finally disappeared; then the bamboos gradually invaded the cocoanut trees; then the atap palm, with its magnificent leaf; and lastly came that great invader of Siam, the mangrove. Beyond were the mountains on the Malay Peninsula, stretching away in the distance.

"'With great reluctance did we descend from the little pagoda, which is built upon the very summit; but evening was coming on, and we had observed in ascending some very suspicious-looking footprints mightily resembling those of a tiger.

"'Pechaburi is a thriving town, containing about twenty thousand inhabitants. The houses are, for the most part, neatly built, and no floating houses are visible. Rice and sugar are two-thirds dearer at Bangkok than they are here, and the rice is of a particularly fine description. We called upon the governor during the evening. Next morning we started for home, and arrived without any accident.'"

It was not until the completion of his prolonged tour of exploration through Cambodia, and his visit to the savage tribes on the frontier of Cochin-China, that Mouhot found time for his excursion to Pechaburi from Bangkok.

"I returned to the capital," he says, "after fifteen months' absence. During the greater part of this time I had never known the comfort of sleeping in a bed; and throughout my wanderings my only food had been rice or dried fish, and I had not once tasted good water. I was astonished at having preserved my health so well, particularly in the forests, where often wet to the skin, and without a change of clothes, I have had to pass whole nights by a fire, at the foot of a tree. Yet I have not had a single attack of fever, and been always happy and in good spirits, especially when lucky enough to light upon some novelty. A new shell or insect filled me with a joy which ardent naturalists alone can understand; but they know well how little fatigues and privations of all kinds are cared for when set against the delight experienced in making one discovery after another, and in feeling that one is of some slight assistance to the votaries of science. It pleases me to think that my investigations into the archæology, entomology, and conchology of these lands may be of use to certain members of the great and generous English nation, who kindly encouraged the poor naturalist; while France, his own country, remained deaf to his voice.

"It was another great pleasure to me, after these fifteen months of travelling, during which very few letters from home had reached me, to find, on arriving at Bangkok, an enormous packet, telling me all the news of my distant family and country. It is indeed happiness, after so long a period of solitude, to read the lines traced by the beloved hands of an aged father, of a wife, of a brother. These joys are to be reckoned among the sweetest and purest of life.

"We stopped in the centre of the town, at the entrance of a canal, whence there is a view over the busiest part of the Meinam. It was almost night, and silence reigned around us; but when at daybreak I rose and saw the ships lying at anchor in the middle of the stream, while the roofs of the palaces and pagodas reflected the first rays of the sun, I thought that Bangkok had never looked so beautiful. However, life here would never suit me, and the mode of locomotion is wearisome after an active existence among the woods and in the chase.

"The river is constantly covered with thousands of boats of different sizes and forms, and the port of Bangkok is certainly one of the finest in the world, without excepting even the justly-renowned harbor of New York. Thousands of vessels can find safe anchorage here.

"The town of Bangkok increases in population and extent every day, and there is no doubt but that it will become a very important capital. If France succeeds in taking possession of Annam, the commerce between the two countries will increase. It is scarcely a century old, and yet contains nearly half a million of inhabitants, among whom are many Christians. The flag of France floating in Cochin-China would improve the position of the missions in all the surrounding countries; and I have reason to hope that Christianity will increase more rapidly than it has hitherto done.

"I had intended to visit the northeast of the country of Laos, crossing Dong Phya Phai (the forest of the King of Fire), and going on to Hieng Naie, on the frontiers of Cochin-China; thence to the confines of Tonquin. I had planned to return afterward by the Mékong to Cambodia, and then to pass through Cochin-China, should the arms of France have been victorious there. However, the rainy season having commenced the whole country was inundated, and the forests impassable; so it was necessary to wait four months before I could put my project in execution. I therefore packed up and sent off all my collections, and after remaining a few weeks in Bangkok I departed for Pechaburi, situated about 13° north latitude, and to the north of the Malayan peninsula.

"On May 8th, at five o'clock in the evening, I sailed from Bangkok in a magnificent vessel, ornamented with rich gilding and carved work, belonging to Khrom Luang, one of the king's brothers, who had kindly lent it to a valued friend of mine. There is no reason for concealing the name of this gentleman, who has proved himself a real friend in the truest meaning of the word; but I rather embrace the opportunity of testifying my affection and gratitude to M. Malherbes, who is a French merchant settled at Bangkok. He insisted on accompanying me for some distance, and the few days he passed with me were most agreeable ones.

"The current was favorable, and, with our fifteen rowers, we proceeded rapidly down the stream. Our boat, adorned with all sorts of flags, red streamers, and peacocks' tails, attracted the attention of all the European residents, whose houses are built along the banks of the stream, and who, from their verandas, saluted us by cheering and waving their hands. Three days after leaving Bangkok we arrived at Pechaburi.

"The king was expected there the same day, to visit a palace which he has had built on the summit of a hill near the town. Khrom Luang, Kalahom (prime-minister), and a large number of mandarins had already assembled. Seeing us arrive, the prince called to us from his pretty little house; and as soon as we had put on more suitable dresses we waited on him, and he entered into conversation with us till breakfast-time. He is an excellent man, and, of all the dignitaries of the country, the one who manifests least reserve and hauteur toward Europeans. In education both this prince and the king are much advanced, considering the state of the country, but in their manners they have little more refinement than the people generally.

"Our first walk was to the hill on which the palace stands. Seen from a little distance, this building, of European construction, presents a very striking appearance; and the winding path which leads up to it has been admirably contrived amid the volcanic rocks, basalt, and scoria which cover the surface of this ancient crater.

"About twenty-five miles off, stretches from north to south a chain of mountains called Deng, and inhabited by the independent tribes of the primitive Kariens. Beyond these rise a number of still higher peaks. On the low ground are forests, palm-trees, and rice-fields, the whole rich and varied in color. Lastly, to the south and east, and beyond another plain, lies the gulf, on whose waters, fading away into the horizon, a few scattered sails are just distinguishable.

"It was one of those sights not to be soon forgotten, and the king has evinced his taste in the selection of such a spot for his palace. No beings can be less poetical or imaginative than the Indo-Chinese; their hearts never appear to expand to the genial rays of the sun; yet they must have some appreciation of this beautiful scenery, as they always fix upon the finest sites for their pagodas and palaces.

"Quitting this hill, we proceeded to another, like it an extinct volcano or upheaved crater. Here are four or five grottoes, two of which are of surprising extent and extremely picturesque. A painting which represented them faithfully would be supposed the offspring of a fertile imagination; no one would believe it to be natural. The rocks, long in a state of fusion, have taken, in cooling, those singular forms peculiar to scoria and basalt. Then, after the sea had retreated – for all these rocks have risen from the bottom of the water – owing to the moisture continually dripping through the damp soil, they have taken the richest and most harmonious colors. These grottoes, moreover, are adorned by such splendid stalactites, which, like columns, seem to sustain the walls and roofs, that one might fancy one's self present at one of the beautiful fairy scenes represented at Christmas in the London theatres.

"If the taste of the architect of the king's palace has failed in the design of its interior, here, at least, he has made the best of all the advantages offered to him by nature. A hammer touching the walls would have disfigured them; he had only to level the ground, and to make staircases to aid the descent into the grottoes, and enable the visitors to see them in all their beauty.

"The largest and most picturesque of the caverns has been made into a temple. All along the sides are rows of idols, one of superior size, representing Buddha asleep, being gilt.

"We came down from the mountain just at the moment of the king's arrival. Although his stay was not intended to exceed two days he was preceded by a hundred slaves, carrying an immense number of coffers, boxes, baskets, etc. A disorderly troop of soldiers marched both in front and behind, dressed in the most singular and ridiculous costumes imaginable. The emperor Soulouque himself would have laughed, for certainly his old guard must have made a better appearance than that of his East Indian brother. Nothing could give a better idea of this set of tatter-demalions than the dressed-up monkeys which dance upon the organs of the little Savoyards. Their apparel was of coarse red cloth upper garments, which left a part of the body exposed, in every case either too large or too small, too long or too short, with white shakos, and pantaloons of various colors; as for shoes, they were a luxury enjoyed by few.

"A few chiefs, whose appearance was quite in keeping with that of their men, were on horseback leading this band of warriors, while the king, attended by slaves, slowly advanced in a little open carriage drawn by a pony.

"I visited several hills detached from the great chain Khao Deng, which is only a few miles off. During my stay here it has rained continually, and I have had to wage war with savage foes, from whom I never before suffered so much. Nothing avails against them; they let themselves be massacred with a courage worthy of nobler beings. I speak of mosquitoes. Thousands of these cruel insects suck our blood night and day. My body, face, and hands are covered with wounds and blisters. I would rather have to deal with the wild beasts of the forest. At times I howl with pain and exasperation. No one can imagine the frightful plague of these little demons, to whom Dante has omitted to assign a place in his infernal regions. I scarcely dare to bathe, for my body is covered before I can get into the water. The natural philosopher who held up these little animals as examples of parental love was certainly not tormented as I have been.

"About ten miles from Pechaburi I found several villages inhabited by Laotians, who have been settled there for two or three generations. Their costumes consist of a long shirt and black pantaloons, like those of the Cochin-Chinese, and they have the Siamese tuft of hair. The women wear the same head-dress as the Cambodians. Their songs, and their way of drinking through bamboo pipes, from large jars, a fermented liquor made from rice and herbs, recalled to my mind what I had seen among the savage Stiêns. I also found among them the same baskets and instruments used by those tribes.

"The young girls are fair compared to the Siamese, and their features are pretty; but they soon grow coarse and lose all their charms. Isolated in their villages, these Laotians have preserved their language and customs, and they never mingle with the Siamese."

To any one who has had experience of the Siamese mosquitoes, it is delightful to find such thorough appreciation of them as Mouhot exhibits. In number and in ferocity they are unsurpassed. A prolonged and varied observation of the habits of this insect, in New Jersey and elsewhere, enables this editor to say that the mosquitoes of Siam are easily chief among their kind. The memory of one night at Paknam is still vivid and dreadful. So multitudinous, so irresistible, so intolerable were the swarms of these sanguinary enemies that not only comfort, but health and even life itself seemed jeopardized, as the irritation was fast bringing on a state of fever. There seemed no way but to flee. Orders were given to get up steam in the little steamer which had brought us from Bangkok, and we made all possible haste out of reach of the shore and anchored miles distant in the safe waters of the gulf till morning.

Mouhot remained for four months among the mountains of Pechaburi, "known by the names of Makaon Khao, Panam Knot, Khao Tamoune, and Khao Samroun, the last two of which are 1,700 and 1,900 feet above the level of the sea." He needed the repose after the fatigue of his long journey, and by way of preparation for his new and arduous explorations of the Laos country, from which, as the result proved, he was never to come back. He returned to Bangkok, and after a brief season of preparation and farewell, he started for the interior.