The city of Bang-kok, the capital of Siam, consists of a long, double,
and, in some parts, treble row of neatly and tastefully painted wooden
cabins, floating on thick bamboo rafts, and linked to each other, in
parcels of six or seven houses, by chains; which chains were fastened
to huge poles driven into the bed of the river. The whole city rose at
once like a magic picture to our admiring gaze.... If the air of the
'Fleet Street' of Siam does not agree with Mrs Yowchowfow and her
children, or they wish to obtain a more aristocratic footing by being
domiciled higher up and nearer to the king's palace, all they have to
do, is to wait till the tide serves, and, loosing from their moorings,
float gently up towards the spot they wish to occupy. Bang-kok, the
modern capital of Siam, and the seat of the Siamese government, was
computed, at the period of my residence there, to consist of 70,000
floating houses or shops, and each shop, taking one with another, to
contain five individuals, including men, women, and children; making
the population amount to 350,000 souls, of which number 70,000 are
Chinese, 20,000 Burmese, 20,000 Arabs and Indians; the remainder, or
about 240,000, being Siamese. This was the best census we could take,
and I believe it to be nearly accurate. The situation is exceedingly
picturesque. I was told that, when the Siamese relinquished the
ancient capital of Yuthia, and first established the throne at
Bang-kok, the houses were built upon the banks of the river itself;
but the frequent recurrence of the cholera induced one of the kings to
insist upon the inhabitants living upon the water, on the supposition
that their dwellings would be more cleanly, and, consequently, the
inmates less subjected to the baneful effects of that scourge of the
East.--_Neale's Residence in Siam_.