While in America, in 1855, the Sunday school of his home church
provided funds for the purchase and outfitting of a boat for
touring. The result was a boat equipped for the work, affording
more comfort than possible in the native boats. Along the side
of the small cabin, lockers were fitted, serving both as seats
and place for storage. A removable table between afforded space
for writing or eating. For the night an extension bridged the
space between the lockers, and this, covered with cushions, made
a comfortable double bed. In December of 1856 Dr. House made the
first tour with Mrs. House. Customs, and scenes in Siam had by this
time grown so familiar to him that his letters home do not contain
details as did his earlier letters. Their first tour together, in
company with some of the other missionaries, was up the Meklong
River in western Siam as far as the town of Kanburi amidst some
fine mountain scenery. Several other trips occurred; one of them
to Petrui:
“A fortnight or more,” he writes, “exploring some of the
totally unvisited districts of the eastern portion of the
plain which constitutes central Siam—you know my passion for
penetrating into remote and unexplored regions and out of the
way places.”
If perchance this enthusiasm conveys the impression that these
journeys were of unmingled pleasure and simple romance it is well
to have that fancy checked by some material facts; for, continuing
the narrative of this trip, the doctor writes:
“Upon review of the tour I can recall but few that I remember
with more satisfaction. But for pleasure—I cannot say much
for a tour. Our confined quarters (cabin five by seven),
the rocking of the boat with every movement of ours or of
the boatmen, the hot sun upon the roof and sides by day and
the myriads of mosquitos as the evening comes on (and such
ravenous merciless mosquitos, too), the monotony of the
scenery on the lower stream and absence of all that is pretty
or picturesque in the villages and houses of the natives, and
last but not least the universal uproar among all the dogs
whenever one steps ashore anywhere in their villages—all
detract largely from the romance and not a little from the
comfort of a mission tour in this country.”