Siam

Natural as it is to be somewhat incredulous concerning the populousness of the more enormous creatures of the globe, yet what shall we say to Harto, the historian of Goa, when he tells us that at one hunting the King of Siam took elephants; that in those regions elephants are numerous as droves of cattle in the temperate climes.

To begin with, he was more than five years older than myself at a time of life when five years really do count, I being twenty-nine and he thirty-four; then, on our first leaving port (I don't see why I should make a secret of the fact that it was Bangkok), a bit of manoeuvring of mine amongst the islands of the Gulf of Siam had given him an unforgettable scare.

"As soon as I've got through my hospital appointments I shall get a ship; I want to go to the East--the Malay Archipelago, Siam, China, and all that sort of thing--and then I shall take odd jobs.

To Mimi, born and bred in Siam, the sound was strangely like an exaggeration of the sound produced by a snake-charmer.

Were I to put them on, I should look like a fresh arrival from Siam; and as though I had been two years away from court."

He had shot big game in Siam, pearled in the Paumotus, visited Tolstoy, seen the Passion Play, and crossed the Andes on mule-back; while he was a living directory of the fever holes of West Africa.

When all was ready we set sail for Achin, in the island of Sumatra, and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium and some arrack; the first a commodity which bears a great price among the Chinese, and which at that time was much wanted there.

Siam was made part of the Empire, and, in spite of all that England could do, Burma and the Malay Peninsula were overrun; while all along the long south boundary of Siberia, Russia was pressed severely by China's advancing hordes.

The only part I was a stranger to was the Gulf of Siam. And I mentioned this to Captain Giles.

And then I was left alone with my ship, anchored at the head of the Gulf of Siam.