ARRIVAL IN SIAM.--FIRST DAY IN BANGKOK.
The boys found a novel way of taking fresh-water baths during their
voyage from Saigon to Bangkok. Nearly every day there was a heavy shower
of rain, and sometimes two or three showers in the course of twenty-four
hours. The rain came literally in torrents; it poured as though great
gates had been suddenly opened in the sky, to allow the passage of the
water by dozens of barrels at a time. Neither Frank nor Fred had ever
seen the rain fall so fast; the Doctor assured them that showers of this
kind were very common in the tropics, especially during the change of
the monsoons.
[Illustration: A NATURAL SHOWER-BATH.]
Whenever the clouds indicated a coming shower, the boys generally went
to the cabin and soon appeared in their bathing-suits. Covering their
heads with straw hats, to protect them from the pelting of the great
drops, they would sit in the rain and enjoy the luxury of the earliest
form of shower-bath ever known. One night, when they were sleeping on
deck, they were suddenly awakened by the pouring of the rain in their
faces, and, before they could gather their clothing and escape to
shelter, they were treated to a bath they had not bargained for. It is
one of the inconveniences of sleeping on deck in the tropics that you
are liable to have your slumbers disturbed in this way, just as you are
dreaming of pleasant things, and in no mood for waking.
Though they were not in sight of land, our friends realized that they
were in a comparatively small body of water, and not in the open ocean.
The swell and heaving of the Atlantic and Pacific waves were altogether
absent; though the steamer was a diminutive one in comparison with the
great ships on which they had travelled hitherto, she rolled and pitched
very little, and sometimes her motion was as steady as though she was
navigating a river. The Gulf of Siam does not occupy a large place on
the map, and for a great part of the year it is as peaceful as a lake.
The captain told them that it was rarely disturbed by typhoons or severe
gales, and was about five hundred miles long by two hundred and fifty in
width.
[Illustration: FLYING-FISH.]
Porpoises and flying-fish appeared occasionally, and their lively leaps
from the water were a source of much amusement to the youths.
The first indication of their approach to the coast of Siam was the
appearance of a dark line on the northern horizon. As they steamed on,
this line developed into a fringe of tropical trees; but before they
could make anything more of it than the merest fringe, the steamer came
to anchor. As they were still a long way from land, the boys could not
understand the reason for stopping, and Fred ventured to ask the captain
why they did not go on.
"The principal reason," the captain answered, "is because we can't. The
approach to the river is very shallow, and our steamer cannot cross the
bar till high-tide. We must wait here till the tide serves, and we have
a pilot to take us in."
The pilot came to the ship soon after they anchored, and in a few hours
he announced that it was time to move on. The anchor was lifted, and the
_Danube_ steamed slowly onward towards the shore.
Very soon it was apparent to the boys that the waters along this part of
the coast were very shallow, as the steamer stirred the mud from the
bottom and left a dirty streak behind her. The bar at the mouth of the
Menam prevents the passage of large ships, and there was a fleet of half
a dozen or more lying outside and receiving their cargo from lighters.
Vessels drawing less than fifteen feet can go up without difficulty; and
once they have passed the bar, there is no trouble in proceeding on to
Bangkok.
"I wonder if that is Bangkok?" said Fred, as he pointed to a conical
tower that rose just ahead of them, and apparently a short distance
above the mouth of the river.
"Oh no," the captain replied, "that is not Bangkok at all. The city is
thirty miles up the river, and what you see now is Paknam. We shall stop
in front of it to get the permit from the custom-house to allow us to
proceed up the river.
[Illustration: VIEW NEAR PAKNAM.]
"The tower that you see is a temple on a small island opposite Paknam.
It is used on festival days, and once in awhile the king comes down here
to worship. On such occasions they have boat-races, and a good time
generally; some of the boats are rowed entirely by girls, and the sport
is very exciting."
A boat came from the custom-house, and an officer mounted to the deck of
the steamer. His visit was a brief one, as the _Danube_ was a regular
visitor at the port, and did not require any unusual formalities. After
a short delay, the steamer moved on under charge of the pilot, though
the captain remained on the bridge and kept a sharp watch over the
movements of his vessel. It is a curious feature of maritime law that
when a ship is in charge of a pilot her captain's authority ceases; but
in case of accident he comes in for a liberal share of censure.
The boys found that the Menam was as crooked as the Mekong, and not
unlike the latter in its general features. The channel appeared to be
free of sand-bars or other impediments to navigation, though some of the
bends of the stream were rather short for a large ship to turn in with
ease. At one place there was a channel or canal that saved a great
distance for small boats; but it was impracticable for the _Danube_,
which was obliged to follow the winding of the river. A little tow-boat
entered this canal just as they passed the entrance; she steamed
leisurely through, and as the _Danube_ rounded the bend Frank discovered
that the tow-boat was several miles ahead of them.
[Illustration: NATIVE HUT ON THE MENAM RIVER.]
The river was full of native boats, some going in one direction and some
in another. Now and then a house was visible in the dense foliage, and
there was an occasional cluster of dwellings large enough to be called a
village. Many of the houses were built so that a platform in front
overhung the water; and the whole structure was on piles, in order to
form a refuge against snakes and wild beasts, and also to secure the
inhabitants against being suddenly driven out by an inundation.
But what impressed the young travellers more than anything else was the
richness of the tropical vegetation along the banks of the river. Here
were palms in great variety, and many huge trees whose names were
unknown to them; and there was a dense growth of underbrush, through
which it would be very difficult for a man to penetrate unless armed
with a hatchet, and not at all easy even then. Many of the trees were
covered with creeping and climbing plants, so that not a particle of the
surface or foliage of the original tree could be seen, and very often
the burden of parasites was so great that the trees had fallen beneath
it.
"I have read," said Frank, "about the vines that destroyed a tree, but
have never fairly seen an instance of it till now."
"Nor I either," Fred responded. "Look at that fine tree that has been
quite broken down by the weight of the plants that cling to it. And
observe, too, the bright blossoms that the vine has spread out, as if it
was exulting over the destruction it had caused."
Some of the creeping vines had a scarlet flower of a very gaudy pattern,
and it seemed as if it was their season for blooming, as the vines in
several instances were completely covered with blossoms.
[Illustration: A VILLAGE PATHWAY IN SIAM.]
Now and then there were little openings in the forest that looked like
pathways. The Doctor told his young companions that these paths
undoubtedly led to villages or single houses that were hid away in the
dense foliage. The Doctor's belief was confirmed by the glimpse of an
occasional figure among the trees, and by dusky faces that
contemplated the steadily moving steamer.
But it was not all a tropical forest with occasional villages. There
were sugar plantations, some of them of considerable extent; and there
were rice-fields where dozens and dozens of men were at work. Frank
contemplated a lot of these laborers with the captain's glass, and
remarked that the Siamese resembled the Chinese so much that it was
impossible to distinguish between them. The Doctor laughed, and then
gave this explanation:
"The men that you see are Chinese, and not the people of Siam. Nearly
all these rice and sugar plantations employ Chinese laborers; and of the
five millions of people in Siam not less than two millions are Chinese.
They come here, just as they go to America or to Australia, in search of
employment; and, though the wages are low, they are quite content. If
you could go to every part of Siam you would hardly ever be out of sight
of the Chinese, as they are scattered everywhere through the kingdom.
There, now, we will have a good view of some of these laborers."
[Illustration: CHINESE FIELD-LABORERS.]
As he spoke, the steamer swung quite close to the bank, where there was
a group of laborers evidently just ready to depart for the rice-field.
Some were squatted, and some were standing; some were fully and some
only partially clothed; and all appeared as though they had the good
digestion that comes from hard work. It did not need a long study of the
assemblage to convince our friends that the men were exactly like those
they had seen in Canton and Hong-kong, and the captain told them that
probably every one of the crowd was from the Quang-Tung Province of
China.
[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF BANGKOK.]
They were still in the midst of cocoa and other tropical trees, when the
captain told them they were at Bangkok. There was a saw-mill and a
dock-yard among the trees on one side of the river, and farther on was a
large house, with an open space of an acre or more between it and the
river. They had reached what may be called the foreign portion of the
city; the native part is nearly three miles farther on, and quite
concealed by a bend in the stream.
We will see what the boys had to say of Bangkok in their letters to
friends at home. Here is what Frank wrote:
"MY DEAR MOTHER,--We had a charming voyage from Saigon to this port. The
weather was fine, and we amused ourselves in various ways; one thing we
did was to read up the story of Marco Polo's travels six hundred years
ago, and then tell it over to the Doctor. Sometimes it was so hot that
we slept on deck, and when it was raining hard we used to go out in our
bathing-suits and have a shower-bath that was simply perfect. We had a
picturesque ride up the Menam to this city; and we have seen lots of
curious things since we landed.
"We came ashore with the captain, and he took us at once to the only
hotel in the place. It is a funny sort of a hotel, as you have to go
out-of-doors to pass from the dining-room to the sleeping-rooms and the
parlor, where we sit when we want to rest. The rooms are not more than
ten feet square, and I don't think Fred's will measure as much as that.
I made the remark that you couldn't swing a cat around there; and the
landlord said he had no cat, and even if he had one he didn't want to
swing her anyway. You ought to see the landlord; he is a German, and as
jolly as you could wish. He was formerly a sea-captain, and everybody
calls him 'Captain Salje.' He must weigh pretty nearly three hundred
pounds, and when he laughs he shakes all over. He speaks English as well
as German, and he also speaks the language of the country and that of
Java, where he lived a long time. When things don't get along well in
the kitchen, he goes in among his servants, and you hear his voice
ringing out all over the house. He is a capital landlord, and we like
his table better than that of any hotel we have seen since we left San
Francisco.
[Illustration: IN THE FOREIGN PART OF BANGKOK.]
"The hotel stands on the bank of the river, and you can step from a boat
directly to the veranda of the house. The river is the Broadway of
Bangkok, and all the travelling to and fro, or the greater part of it,
is done on the water. In this part of Bangkok is where the foreigners
live, and their houses are scattered along the banks for at least a
mile. Nobody wants to live where he would be without a front on the
river, as it would be just like living off from the street in an
American city. The merchants have their warehouses so that goods can be
rolled from boats directly inside the doors; but the houses where people
live are set back a little, and have a good large yard in front and all
around them. They have plenty of trees in the yards, and the houses look
very pretty; and as the verandas are wide, there is an abundance of
shade. Most of the houses are of two stories, and built of stuccoed
brick; and a good many of the floors are of brick or stone. Wood is not
very durable in this climate, as the air is moist and rots it; and,
besides, they have certain kinds of insects that eat it full of holes,
and make it turn to powder. Some woods decay much faster than others,
and they have one kind called teak, that the insects never attack.
"As I look from the veranda where I am writing I can see half a dozen
ships anchored in the river below here, and as many more up above. Most
of them belong to Siam, as we can see by the flag; and there are two or
three German ships, one English, and one American. The Siamese flag is
red, and has a white elephant on it; we are in the country of the White
Elephant, and don't intend leaving until we have seen the sacred beast.
I am told that the white elephants at the king's palace have fine
stables and lots of attendants, and that they are worshipped and petted
till they are quite spoiled in their dispositions.
"We have hired a boat by the day, and it is to be kept for our use as
long as we stay here; just as we might keep a carriage in another
country. There is a little cabin where you have to stoop as you go in;
and there are cushioned seats for four persons, and windows with sliding
lattices all around. It takes four men to row it--two on the bow, and
two on the stern--and they all row with their faces the way the boat is
going. The boat is quite comfortable, and we enjoy it very much.
"The people make use of the river for all sorts of business. It is the
great highway for transporting merchandise, and for promenading on the
water; and it is the place where people go on shopping excursions. A
great many of the houses are built on rafts of bamboo-poles, and they
rise and fall with the tide. The raft is somewhat larger than the house,
and forms a platform all around it; and when you want to go in at the
front of a house, you have only to bring your boat along-side the raft
and step off. The bamboo seems almost to have been designed by nature
for the purpose of making these rafts. You know it is hollow, and very
light, and that it has joints at regular intervals. Now each joint forms
a water-tight compartment, and the wood will resist the water for a very
long time, so that a bamboo raft has no chance of sinking. Perhaps it
was the bamboo that gave the Chinese the idea of building ships in
water-tight compartments, as Marco Polo says they did six hundred years
ago. Who knows?
"As you go along the river you see the fronts of the houses open towards
the water, and if they have anything to sell it is put where it can be
seen, exactly as it would be in a shop on Broadway. The houses are
divided generally into only two rooms--the men occupying one, and the
women the other; and the Siamese rarely make houses of more than one
story. The reason is that they wish to avoid having anybody walking over
their heads, which is considered an indignity. It is said that when the
city was first built along the banks of the river there was a great deal
of cholera, on account of the bad drainage, and many people died. The
king then gave orders for the people to build on the river itself, which
would make the drainage perfect, and thus improve the public health. The
order was obeyed, and from it we find the floating houses that seem so
curious to us. There are not far from fifteen thousand of these houses
and shops, and they are strung along on both sides of the river for
several miles, altogether. Then there are many houses built on piles, to
overhang the water, just like those we described at Saigon.
"One of the books we have with us tells us that Bangkok is called 'The
Venice of the East,' and I can easily understand why. Venice is full of
canals, as you know, and so is Bangkok. They run off from the river in
all directions, and you can go almost anywhere by them when the tide is
up. This is why nearly everybody has a boat, as it would be difficult to
go about without one. You see boats of all sizes, from a little dug-out,
just large enough for one person--and a small one at that--up to the
great house-boat, or barge, that will hold twenty or more. The people
spend a good deal of their time on the water, and very often in it; for
they swim like otters, and are not at all disturbed when one of their
boats overturns with them. This afternoon, when we were out on the
river, a steamboat passed us. It did us no harm, though we tossed around
for a moment; but there was a small skiff close by that was filled with
water by the swell from the steamer. Two boys were in it, and as the
skiff went down under them, they took hold of it with their hands and
swam to the shore. They soon had the water out of it, and paddled off as
merrily as ever.
"Where the largest of the canals branches off there is a pretty dense
collection of houses, and this continues for quite a distance. The
streets are irregular, and not very wide or clean; perhaps the most of
the people living in this quarter are Chinese, and they are not very
particular about dirt. Most of the shops are kept by Chinese, and they
have a great number of gambling-houses, for which they pay a fixed sum
to the government. Gambling is a monopoly, and so is the sale of
intoxicating spirits; the licenses are sold by the government, just as
an American city gives a man a license to sell liquor when he pays the
sum agreed on. The Chinese that come here are just as great gamblers as
they are at home, and they are just as fond of smoking opium.
"The city is said to contain half a million inhabitants, and it is
little more than a hundred years old. It was founded in 1769, when the
Siamese capital (Ayuthia) was captured and plundered by the Burmese. The
king lives here, and the royal palace is well worth seeing. We are going
there to-morrow, or perhaps next day, and we are going to see some
curious temples. There are lots of temples in Bangkok, and the city
contains not less than twenty thousand priests of the Buddhist religion.
We will tell you more about the priests and the temples in another
letter."
[Illustration: A SIAMESE PRIEST.]