initial commit of ebook 44679HEADmain

8 files changed, 3776 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/44679-0.txt b/44679-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea55677
--- /dev/null
+++ b/44679-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,990 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44679 ***
+
+                       SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
+                       WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES
+                            NUMBER EIGHT
+
+
+                       SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN
+
+
+                                 By
+                            H. G. DEIGNAN
+
+
+                         (Publication 3703)
+
+
+                         CITY OF WASHINGTON
+              PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
+                          FEBRUARY 5, 1943
+
+
+
+
+                      The Lord Baltimore Press
+                      BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS
+
+  Geography
+  Peoples
+  Prehistory
+  Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok
+  Kingdom of Ayuthia
+  Kingdom of Tonburi
+  Kingdom of Siam
+  Thailand
+
+
+                            ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                               PLATES
+
+  1. 1, Gorge of the Me Ping
+     2, Ancient wall at Chiengmai
+  2. 1, A monolith in the Me Ping gorge
+     2, Boat being pulled upstream through the rapids by ropes
+  3. 1, The "mai kwao," tree that yields gum resin
+     2, Transplanting young rice plants
+  4. 1, Fishing from the roadsides after the rains
+     2, Water buffalo
+  5. 1, A primitive type of cart
+     2, Elephants breaking up a log jam
+  6. 1, Small river boats, and bamboo water wheel
+     2, A temple
+  7. 1, A reliquary
+     2, The high altar of a Buddhist shrine
+  8. 1, Royalty visits Chiengmai
+     2, A princely funeral at Chiengmai
+
+
+                             TEXT FIGURE
+
+  1. Map of Siam
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Map of Siam.]
+
+
+
+
+                         SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN
+
+
+                           By H. G. DEIGNAN
+                _Associate Curator, Division of Birds_
+                       _U. S. National Museum_
+
+
+                           (WITH 8 PLATES)
+
+
+
+
+From the earliest times the great peninsula which lies between India
+and China .... has been peculiarly subject to foreign intrusion.
+Successive waves of Mongolian humanity have broken over it from the
+north, Dravidians from India have colonised it, Buddhist missions from
+Ceylon have penetrated it, and buccaneers from the islands in the
+south have invaded it. Race has fought against race, tribe against
+tribe, and clan against clan. Predominant powers have arisen and
+declined. Civilisations have grown up, flourished and faded. And thus
+out of many and diverse elements a group of nations have been evolved,
+the individuals of which, Môn, Kambodian, Annamese, Burmese, Shan,
+Lao, Siamese and Malay, fundamentally much alike, but differing in
+many externals, have striven during centuries for mastery over each
+other, and incidentally over the countless minor tribes and clans
+maintaining a precarious existence in their midst. Into this mêlée
+of warring factions a new element intruded in the sixteenth century A.
+D. in the shape of European enterprise. Portuguese, Dutch, French and
+English all came and took part in the struggle, pushing and jostling
+with the best, until the two last, having come face to face, agreed to
+a cessation of strife and to a division of the disputed interests
+amongst the survivors. Of these there were but three, the French, the
+English, and the Siamese, and therefore Further India now finds
+herself divided, as was once all Gaul, into three parts. To the east
+lies the territory of French Indo-China, embracing the Annamese and
+Kambodian nations and a large section of the Lao; in the west the
+British Empire has absorbed the Môn, the Burmese and the Shans;
+while, wedged between and occupying the lower middle part of the
+subcontinent, with the isolated region of British Malaya on its
+extreme south border, lies the kingdom of Siam, situated between 4°
+20' and 20° 15' N. latitude, and between 96° 30' and 106° E.
+longitude.[1]
+
+So wrote Graham at a period when the Siamese held sway over a
+territory of more than 200,000 square miles or an area equivalent to
+the combined areas of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
+Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
+Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and almost half of Ohio. It must not
+be supposed, however, that the Thai[2] had permanently resigned
+themselves to a continuation of this political division of the
+peninsula. Rich provinces to which they had more or less cogent
+claims, based on facts of history or ethnography, lay under foreign
+rule and, with the rise of world-wide nationalism in the 1920's and
+1930's a lively irredentism came into flower. This irredentism and its
+accompanying nationalistic fervor have colored the policies of the
+Thai Government during the decade just passed and serve to explain
+many political actions which are otherwise puzzling to the western
+world.
+
+[1] Graham, W. A., Siam, vol. 1, pp. 1-2, London, 1924.
+
+[2] Pronunciation near English "tie."
+
+
+
+
+GEOGRAPHY
+
+
+Whatever more or less final rectifications of frontiers result from
+the current war, the land of the Thai will still, for general
+purposes, fall into four geographic divisions of major importance:
+Northern, Central, Eastern, and Peninsular.
+
+Northern Thailand, lying between the Salwin and the Me Khong, two of
+the world's most majestic rivers, is, for the most part, a country of
+roughly parallel ranges and valleys running north and south. At the
+heads of the flat-floored valleys, which vary in elevations above sea
+level from 800 feet in the southeast to 1,200 feet in the northwest,
+arise important streams, the Me Nan, the Me Yom, the Me Wang, and the
+Me Ping, which, falling through narrow defiles to debouch in the low
+land of Central Siam, eventually there conflow to form the Me Nam Chao
+Phraya, the chief artery of that division. On the alluvia of these
+streams, as might be expected in a country whose civilization was
+originally based upon riziculture, live the great bulk of the northern
+Thai or Lao, in a setting of rich fields and orchards. The ranges
+similarly rise, southeast to northwest, from low, rounded hills to
+imposing peaks, many of which exceed an altitude of 5,000 feet and two
+of which achieve more than 8,000 feet. These mountains, rising
+abruptly from the valley floors and, on the whole, densely forested,
+are scarcely inhabited by man except for scattered groups of
+seminomadic hill tribes, which exist there by hunting and a primitive
+agriculture. The northernmost province, Chiengrai, is separated from
+the sister provinces by a mountain wall and belongs wholly to the Me
+Khong drainage; it is largely a region of marshes and grassy savannas.
+
+Central Siam, the heart of Thailand, is the vast alluvial plain of the
+Chao Phraya and may be described as 55,000 square miles of almost
+unbrokenly monotonous scenery. The level of the land is but little
+higher than that of the sea and, during the dry season, tidal
+influence is plainly evident as much as 50 miles from the river's
+mouth. Alluvial deposits, brought in the season of floods from the
+northern hills, are, however, raising this level at an astonishing
+rate; geological evidence shows that within comparatively recent times
+a great part of the plain was covered by the sea and even now the
+northern shores of the Gulf of Siam, at the mouth of the Chao Phraya,
+are advancing seaward at a rate of almost a foot a year. Its rich
+soil, its abundance of watercourses, both natural and artificial, and
+its comparatively dense population combine to make it one of the most
+eminently suitable areas of the world for the production of fine rice.
+
+As Central Siam is the heart of the Kingdom, the royal city of Bangkok
+or Krungthep is the very core of that heart. Situated on the banks of
+the Chao Phraya, some 20 miles from its mouth, this metropolis, whose
+history goes back not earlier than the mid-eighteenth century A.D., is
+the center for scholarship and the arts, the filter through which pass
+all goods and ideas received by the interior from the outside world,
+and the nucleus of one of the most highly centralized of national
+governments. Its citizenry of some 800,000 represents no less than 5
+percent of the total population of the country.
+
+Eastern Thailand is a huge, shallow, elevated basin, tilted toward the
+east, so that while its western rim stands 1,000 feet above the sea,
+its eastern rim is formed by low hills. The plateau is watered by the
+system of the Me Nam Mun, a tributary of the Me Khong. A
+poverty-ridden country of unproductive soil and adverse climatic
+conditions, it supports indifferently well a comparatively limited
+population.
+
+Peninsular Siam is the narrow, northern two-thirds of the Malay
+Peninsula, sharply divided longitudinally by a mountain chain which
+passes down its whole length. It is a country rich in forests, cattle,
+fisheries, mines, and agriculture, and possessed of great natural
+beauty in the countless islets off its shores, its beaches lined with
+palms and casuarinas, and the verdure of it mountain-backed
+landscapes. Most of the developed natural wealth of the Kingdom is
+found in this portion, which has fine systems of highways and
+railroads.
+
+The whole of Siam lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator
+and is subject to the typical monsoonal climate of southeastern Asia,
+by which the prevailing winds, from the latter part of April to the
+middle of October, consistently blow from the southwest and from
+mid-October to April, from the northeast. In Northern, Central, and
+Eastern Thailand there are three distinct seasons--the hot weather,
+the rains, and the cold weather, the first extending from February or
+March to May, the second from June to October, and the third covering
+the remaining months of the year. When the northeast winds blow
+strongly, the cold weather is very marked, but at such times as the
+seasonal winds fail, the cold weather is scarcely distinguishable from
+the hot. In Northern Siam, which lies at greatest distance from the
+sea and possesses greater radiation, the days may be hot even during
+the cold weather when the night temperatures afford a strong contrast
+by dropping to as low as 50° F. and on the mountains even lower,
+although never reaching freezing temperatures. The basin of Eastern
+Siam, with its thin vegetation and cut off from cooling breezes by its
+surrounding rim, is subject to terrific heats during the day and,
+during the winter, very low temperatures at night. The central plain,
+outside of Bangkok, is pleasantly cooled during the hottest season by
+the continuous sea winds, night and day; in Bangkok, however, perhaps
+owing to houses of masonry in place of thatch and the drainage of
+surrounding marshes, the climate is not only appallingly hot but
+actually becoming perceptibly more so year by year. Peninsular Siam
+has the mildest and most equable climate, the greatest annual
+rainfall, and only two noticeable seasons--the hot weather from
+February to August and the rains from September to January, with the
+peak of the wet season coming in December.
+
+Owing to the fact that the political frontiers have little
+relationship to biogeographical boundaries, the Kingdom possesses a
+fauna and flora richer than those of most areas of comparable size.
+The primeval jungles of the western and northern mountains show
+untrammeled Nature at her tropical best. The slopes are enlaced with
+countless streams and waterfalls, from roaring torrents to rills which
+flow only during and after the rains. In the forests of these hills
+and valleys, huge epiphyte-laden trees, bound together by vines,
+shelter such animals as the elephant, the tiger, and the gaur, but so
+dense is the cover that the presence of large game is more often made
+known by signs than by actual sight, and only the hunter who is
+willing to work hard and long is likely to shoot a worth-while trophy.
+More than 1,000 different birds are recorded from the country, while
+fishes of almost endless variety abound everywhere, from the Gulf to
+the smallest roadside ditches. The natural vegetation ranges from the
+most typically tropical plants, such as the mangosteen, to forms of
+the Temperate Zone, such as pines and violets, on the northwestern
+mountains. The central plain, where not devoted to rice cultivation,
+shows the characteristic flora and fauna of a marsh and the eastern
+plateau has an impoverished biota, characterized by a certain number
+of endemic forms; the Peninsula, however, like the west and north,
+bears great forests rich in species of animals and plants.
+
+
+
+
+PEOPLES
+
+
+Archeology can still tell us little of the first human occupants of
+Siam. The earliest evidence of man's existence here is furnished by
+celts, uncovered in the Peninsula and on the eastern plateau, which
+are supposed to date from the later Neolithic period; geology,
+however, gives us no reason to conclude that the makers of these
+implements were not preceded by other races.
+
+[Illustration: 1. The rivers fall from the northern plateaus to the
+central plain through narrow defiles.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Ancient wall at Chiengmai. The city walls are
+preserved as picturesque ruins.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. An international incident was caused by the European
+alpinist who first scaled the monolith to plant his nation's flag upon
+it.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Boats must be pulled upstream through the rapids by
+ropes.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. The valuable gum resin, Bengal kino, is yielded by
+the "mai kwao" (_Butea frondosa_).]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Young rice plants are transplanted from a seedbed to
+the flooded fields.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. At the end of the rains, fish may be captured from
+the roadsides.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Cows and water buffaloes are treated as family
+pets.]
+
+Among the mountains of the Malay Peninsula exist to this day small
+groups of dwarf, black-skinned, kinky-haired people, different from
+all other races of the country but closely related to the natives of
+the Andaman Islands and the Negritos of the Philippines; it has been
+surmised that these Ngo (Semang) are the dwindling remnant of a once
+numerous population, successors to (and possibly descendants of) the
+Neolithic men.
+
+Following the Ngo and sometime during the past few millennia, it is
+believed that there came successive waves of a people of Mongolian
+origin who, making their way down the rivers, drove the primitive
+Negritos into the hills and settled in their place. Now conveniently
+known as the Mon-Annam family, their descendants are the Mon
+(Peguans), the Cambodians, and the Annamese, as well as numerous
+semibarbarous lesser tribes which persist among the mountains of the
+subcontinent.
+
+Probably between two and three thousand years ago and certainly after
+the arrival of the Mon-Annam immigrants, another great population
+wave, known as the Tibeto-Burman family, rolled southward over
+Indo-China but chiefly descended the valley of the Irrawaddy (where
+they have given rise to the modern Burmese), thus scarcely entering
+Siam at all. Only in comparatively recent times, driven from their
+former homes by political disturbances, have tribes of this stock
+(Yao, Meo, etc.) migrated into Thailand and the territories to the
+east, where they are constantly being joined by others of their blood
+brothers from farther north.
+
+While the Mon and the Khmer (Cambodians) were still spreading over the
+southern parts of Indo-China and before they had begun, under the
+influence of colonists from India, to emerge from a condition of
+savagery, the tribes which they had left behind them at different
+points during their southward movement were already being driven back
+into the mountains and brought into a state of partial subjugation by
+the members of a third great family of migrants from the north. These
+were the people now known as Lao-Tai, who, sending out bands from
+their ancient seat in the valley of the Yangtze, had already, 2,500
+years ago, established a powerful state on the banks of the Me Khong
+in the neighborhood of the modern Wieng Chan (Vientiane).
+
+The Lao-Tai of the Yangtze Valley were evidently very numerous, for
+not only did they thus early establish kingdoms far from home but also
+became a power in their own land and for some time bid strongly for
+the mastery of all China. For centuries they waged successful wars on
+all their neighbors, but their strong propensity for wandering
+weakened their state and finally caused its disintegration. The
+Chinese attacked them repeatedly, each attack producing a fresh exodus
+until, during the thirteenth century A.D., the Emperor Kublai Khan
+dealt them a final blow which crushed their power and scattered them
+in all directions. Fugitives entered Assam, where earlier emigrants
+had already settled, and became the dominant power in that country;
+others invaded Burma, where for two centuries a Lao-Tai (Shan) dynasty
+occupied the throne; while down the Salwin and Me Khong Valleys came
+band after band of exiles who mingled with their cousins already
+established in those valleys and, in time fusing with the Mon and the
+Khmer, produced the race which, since the founding of the city of
+Ayuthia, has been dominant in Siam.
+
+The principal divisions of the Lao-Tai family now living within the
+borders of Siam are the Thai ("free men") or Siamese proper; the Lao,
+who occupy the former seats of those tribes of their own stock that
+afterward developed into the Thai; and the Shans, a later intrusion of
+distant cousins, descended from the Lao-Tai tribes that settled in the
+more eastern districts of Burma in the twelfth century and earlier.
+
+
+
+
+PREHISTORY
+
+
+The history of Siam prior to the fourteenth century A.D. is chiefly
+known from a hodgepodge of disconnected stories and fragments known as
+the "Pongsawadon Mu'ang Nu'a" ("Annals of the North Country"),
+compiled at different periods from such of the official records of
+various cities and kingdoms as had escaped the destruction which at
+intervals overtook the communities to which they referred. With the
+omission of the numerous supernatural happenings there recorded and
+comparative study of the chronicles of neighboring countries, scholars
+have been able to draw a rough picture of the condition of Siam at the
+dawn of historical time.
+
+Their researches show a country inhabited by primitive people of
+Mon-Khmer stock among whom had settled groups of their more civilized
+cousins from Cambodia, who had brought with them the religion and
+customs acquired by contact with colonists from India. These
+communities grew from villages into cities and at the same time sent
+out offshoots in all directions, which in time became the capitals of
+small states, the chiefs of which constantly made war on each other
+and against the Lao-Tai tribes at their borders and now and again rose
+to sufficient strength to repudiate the vague suzerainty claimed over
+them all by the empire of Cambodia.
+
+Contemporary records of the period subsequent to the fourteenth
+century A.D. are easily available. The most important is the
+"Pongsawadon Krung Kao" ("Annals of the Old Capital" or "Annals of
+Ayuthia"), which contains a complete and fairly accurate account,
+compiled in successive reigns, of the history of the country from A.D.
+1349 to 1765. The seventeenth and later centuries have also seen the
+production of numerous works, by European travelers and missionaries,
+which deal wholly or partly with Siam.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF SUKHOTHAI-SAWANKHALOK
+
+
+The most ancient Mon-Khmer settlement of which anything definite is
+known was Sukhothai (located on the river Me Yom some 200 miles north
+of the site of modern Bangkok), which by 300 B.C. was already a
+sizable village. At first putting forth no pretensions to the status
+of kingdom, the community evidently increased rapidly in importance,
+for some two centuries later the chief, Phraya Thammarat, declared
+himself King of the district, founded the new capital of Sawankhalok,
+and appointed one of his sons viceroy of Sukhothai, which itself soon
+grew into a fortified city. Thereafter, the two towns served
+alternately as the capital of a country which, as the Kingdom of
+Sukhothai-Sawankhalok, gradually grew to great wealth and strength.
+
+Its monarchs occupied themselves with the waging of war against the
+petty chieftains of neighboring states (founded in the same manner and
+upon the same principles as their own but at somewhat later dates)
+and, in course of time reducing all of them to vassalage, came to be
+recognized as rulers of the whole country. The vague overlordship of
+Cambodia continued for many centuries but with little or no influence
+upon the destinies of its nominal dependency, which was left to manage
+itself and its own subordinates as seemed to it best.
+
+At the same time as the various Mon-Khmer states of Siam were
+struggling to subdue each other, the Lao tribesmen inhabiting the
+mountainous districts to the north, emboldened by their increasing
+numbers and constantly raiding the rich villages of the plains, were
+demanding an ever greater amount of attention and as early as the
+fifth century A.D., the reduction of the Lao had become almost the
+main preoccupation of the kings of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok. Expeditions
+against them were constant, but while they were frequently defeated
+and large numbers of them carried captive to Sukhothai or Sawankhalok,
+the intercourse thus brought about served only to strengthen them,
+since it enabled them to adopt the customs and civilization of the
+conquerors and then turn the acquired knowledge against their
+instructors with an ever-growing degree of success.
+
+About A.D. 575, a Lao city, built in imitation of the Khmer capitals,
+was founded at a spot about 250 miles north of Sawankhalok and given
+the name of Haribunchai (later corrupted to Lamphunchai and the modern
+Lamphun). The chief of this town married a princess of the Khmer state
+of Lopburi and established a dynasty which closely followed the
+Brahman rites and ceremonies in vogue at Sukhothai. During this time
+other Lao states arose and the time soon came when the Khmer could no
+longer hold the Lao in check. During succeeding centuries Lao armies
+advanced far south into the Mon-Khmer kingdoms, marital and political
+alliances between Lao and Khmer royalty became common, and Lao
+settlements were established in various parts of southern Siam.
+
+Despite wars with rival states to the south and the Lao to the north,
+the Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok prospered greatly and in time
+attained to a high civilization. The arts were encouraged, the people
+were well governed, trade was extensive, and friendly relations were
+maintained with China and other distant countries by frequent exchange
+of embassies. Envoys from the Emperor of China, who visited Sukhothai
+in the seventh century A.D., have left records which indicate that the
+populace were chiefly engaged in the cultivation of rice and the
+manufacture of sugar and that in manners and customs they closely
+resembled the modern inhabitants of Siam. The style of architecture,
+remains of which still survive, followed, in somewhat degenerated
+form, that seen in the ruins of Angkor and other Cambodian cities.
+
+During the reign of the hero-King Rama Khamheng (Phra Ruang) the
+country reached the zenith of its greatness and when he died, about
+A.D. 1090, he left to his heir an empire which embraced much of the
+Lao states to the north and all of the more southern Khmer kingdoms of
+Siam. This heritage, however, was fated to endure but a short time.
+During the eleventh century the Khmer King of Lopburi and the Lao King
+of Lamphun, both vassals of Phra Ruang, had been intermittently at war
+with each other without interference from the suzerain; toward the end
+of the century Lopburi was finally overcome and, declaring itself
+subordinate to Lamphun, was forced to admit large numbers of Lao to
+settle within its borders. Soon after Phra Ruang's death, a great Lao
+army composed of the warriors of several allied states and led by a
+chief known as Suthammarat, invaded Sukhothai-Sawankhalok itself,
+defeated its armies, overran its lands to the south, reduced the
+cities, and founded the capital of Pitsanulok, southwest of Sukhothai
+and in the heart of the Khmer Kingdom. Thereafter, although the rulers
+of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok continued for some time to maintain regal
+state, they were never again to hold a paramount position and were, in
+fact, to become mere vassals of the ancient enemy until eventually,
+some four centuries subsequent to the foundation of Pitsanulok, they
+were to be no more than provincial governors representative of the
+kings of Ayuthia.
+
+Suthammarat, an admirer of the Khmer, in setting up his throne in the
+conquered kingdom, imitated as closely as possible the ways of
+Sukhothai and, by marrying a lady of the country, set an example for
+his following which gave great impetus to that fusion of Lao and Khmer
+which, already begun in Lopburi, was soon to result in the evolution
+of the Thai (Siamese) race.
+
+The early thirteenth century saw the beginning of the last and
+greatest influx of Lao into the south of Siam. The suppression of the
+Lao-Tai undertaken in southwestern China, culminating in the decisive
+victories of the Emperor Kublai Khan, drove many thousands of these
+people down into the mountainous regions of northern Siam, where the
+newcomers upset the balance of power among their predecessors and
+caused the disruption of several of their states. As a result, many
+impoverished petty chieftains of ancient lineage gathered their people
+together and set off down the rivers to seek new fortunes in the
+kingdoms to the south. During the following century, mingling with the
+Khmer and the Lao-Khmer and acquiring great strength of numbers, the
+Lao wrested control from the original inhabitants and established
+capitals of their own, one of which, Supanburi, was in time to become
+dominant over all the rest. When, at the middle of the fourteenth
+century, Phra Chao Uthong, King of Supanburi, fleeing from a
+pestilence, marched westward to found a new capital, Nong Sano, now
+the seat of the weak successors of the great Suthammarat, fell into
+his hands almost without a struggle, its King fled to Cambodia, and
+Uthong erected near the fallen city the new city of Maha Nakhon Si
+Ayuthaya (Ayuthia), which was destined to become famous throughout the
+world as the capital of one of the greatest kingdoms in the history of
+Farther India.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF AYUTHIA
+
+
+Phra Chao Uthong (under the name of Phra Ramathibodi) became King at
+Ayuthia in A.D. 1350 and thereafter was fully occupied in bringing the
+outlying states and provinces into line, in organizing his government,
+and in setting up a system of law, parts of which continue in use to
+the present time. Before his death in 1369, he had brought together
+the whole of the components of the Sukhothai-Sawankhalok Kingdom and
+had welded them so closely together that, when Cambodia, annoyed by
+the independent attitude of what was theoretically its vassal, sent an
+army to reassert its rights of suzerainty, the united Siamese not only
+defeated the enemy but pursued him well within the confines of his own
+country.
+
+Under Ramathibodi's successors the Kingdom continued to prosper.
+During the next two centuries, Buddhism definitely succeeded
+Brahmanism as the popular religion throughout the country and great
+treasure was expended in beautifying the cities by the erection of
+graceful temples and reliquaries in the adapted Cambodian style which
+persists in Siam to this day.
+
+About A.D. 1527, the King of Pegu, enraged by the exploits of Siamese
+marauders in his frontier province of Tavoy, collected an army at
+Moulmein and sent it into Siam under the leadership of the heir
+apparent, Bureng Naung. Defeating the Siamese near Supanburi, the
+Peguan prince advanced to the walls of Ayuthia itself; so stout was
+the resistance, however, and so prolonged the siege that his supply
+system broke down and he was forced to return to his own country,
+fighting rear-guard actions and losing heavily all the way. After 3
+years, Bureng Naung, now King, taking the assumption by the King of
+Siam of the title "Lord of the White Elephants" as a casus belli,
+again attacked Siam with a great army and once more besieged the
+capital. This time, to save the city, the "Lord of the White
+Elephants" was compelled to negotiate and to turn over several of the
+animals in question to the invader, who then retired. Only a few years
+later, however, the Siamese King repudiated Peguan suzerainty; Bureng
+Naung returned, by treachery gained admission to the city, sacked and
+partially destroyed it, and sent the King, with many of his followers,
+in chains to Pegu. Leaving the Siamese governor of Pitsanulok as his
+viceroy in Ayuthia, Bureng Naung pressed on to subdue other cities but
+was scarcely out of sight when a Cambodian army, burning to avenge
+recent defeats and to reestablish ancient rights, appeared to begin a
+new siege of Ayuthia; this enemy was repulsed but not before the
+unprotected districts around the capital had been thoroughly looted.
+
+Just now, when, attacked from east and west, her provinces despoiled
+and her people fugitive or captive, Ayuthia seemed doomed to early
+extinction, a hero arose to redeem her. This was Phra Naret, a son of
+Bureng Naung's viceroy, who, appointed by his father governor of
+Pitsanulok, in his youth saw military service defending his province
+against robber bands and in the wars of Nanda Bureng, son and
+successor to Bureng Naung, against the rebellious province of Ava. By
+his ability bringing upon himself the dislike of the Peguan King, to
+such a degree that his life was endangered, he revolted (ca. A.D.
+1565) and led a Siamese army to sack and pillage Tenasserim and
+Martaban. Two punitive expeditions sent against him were signally
+defeated by Naret, who was then crowned King of Siam and at once began
+to restore Ayuthia and to repopulate it by captives brought from
+outlying districts which had attempted to cast off their allegiance.
+
+Having established his supremacy at home, Naret inflicted a crushing
+defeat upon yet another Burmese army sent to subdue him and then, to
+avenge the humiliations imposed upon his country during her time of
+weakness, led a strong force against Cambodia; this campaign ended
+with the destruction of the Cambodian capital and the carrying of the
+King and many of his people captive to Ayuthia, where the former was
+executed. Finally, some time about the year 1600, Naret, at the head
+of a great army, invaded Burma with the object of conquering the whole
+of that country, but this was not to be: the King met death in one of
+the early battles and his son and heir, abandoning the enterprise,
+returned to his own dominions. But within the space of not more than
+35 years, Naret had raised Siam from a condition of almost complete
+ruin to a position of ascendancy over all the neighboring kingdoms and
+he left to his successors a great empire which was to endure for a
+period of 175 years.
+
+During this period, Siam was becoming well known to the European
+merchant adventurers trading in the Orient under the flags of
+Portugal, Holland, and England. Early in the sixteenth century, the
+Malay Kingdom of Malacca had been conquered by the Portuguese;
+individuals of this nation had penetrated to Ayuthia and Pegu and had
+served in the ranks of the contending armies during the Siamo-Burmese
+wars; Portuguese factories had been established at the various Siamese
+ports. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Portuguese
+missionaries arrived at Ayuthia, where they were well received and
+given land for their churches. About this time also, English and Dutch
+ships first appeared in Siamese waters and a bitter rivalry soon
+sprang up among the foreigners, who competed for commercial supremacy
+and the favor of the King, without which trade could scarcely be
+carried on at all. This antagonism resulted in endless quarreling and
+even in desperate battles between the representatives of the rival
+powers and by 1634 the Dutch had so far prospered that they had built
+a fortified factory at Amsterdam on the river Chao Phraya, carried on
+extensive commerce throughout Siam, and monopolized the carrying trade
+to China and Japan. With the taking of Malacca by the Dutch in 1641,
+the influence of the Portuguese soon declined, although many
+individuals continued to live in Siam, where such surnames as da Silva
+and da Jesus persist to this day in families which no longer show any
+other trace of European ancestry. The Dutch rapidly succeeded to all
+the commercial outposts of Portugal in Siam, devoting themselves
+chiefly to trade and taking little or no interest in internal
+politics, except insofar as their commercial prospects were affected.
+The first formal treaty contracted by Siam with any western power was
+that entered into, in the year 1664, with the representatives of the
+Dutch East India Company, authorized by the Dutch Republic. Dutch
+trade with Siam continued until A.D. 1706, when the royal favor was
+finally lost for good and the Company's agents expelled from the
+Kingdom.
+
+In 1659 there arrived at Ayuthia one of the most extraordinary figures
+in the history of Siam. This was Constantine Phaulcon, the son of a
+Cephalonian innkeeper, who ran away to sea in an English ship and,
+eventually making his way to Siam, stayed there to become Chief
+Minister of the Crown and the trusted adviser of the King, Phra Narai.
+Under Phaulcon's able guidance the country for a time prospered
+greatly. Not only were the Portuguese and Dutch merchants, already
+established, encouraged to extend the scope of their enterprise but
+the English and French East India Companies were invited to set up
+factories at the capital. The King himself, in partnership with his
+First Minister, operated a profitable fleet of merchantmen and became
+the principal trader of his own country.
+
+About this time it came to be believed in Europe that the whole of the
+Far East was ripe for conversion to Christianity and a Roman Catholic
+Mission was organized in France to put this ambitious design into
+effect. Ayuthia, possessing a cosmopolitan population and strong
+commercial ties with Japan, China, the Sunda Isles, and India, was
+considered the best central location for the project and, in A.D.
+1662, three French bishops with a staff of priests arrived there to
+inaugurate the work. These ecclesiastics were favorably received by
+the King and within a short period the mission had acquired a
+considerable number of adherents. In order further to strengthen their
+position, however, they sought and obtained the official support of
+Louis XIV of France, who exchanged complimentary letters and embassies
+with the Siamese monarch. Phaulcon, in the confidence of the bishops,
+was thus brought into correspondence with Colbert, Louis's minister,
+and before long the French King's interest was centered on more
+material aspects of Siam than its spiritual welfare. A scheme was set
+afoot for securing the supremacy of France in the Asiatic kingdom
+through the agency of the priests, who, apparently believing that,
+with material support from Louis, they could convert the King himself
+to Christianity, were not unwilling to do their part. Six French
+men-of-war and a body of 1,400 soldiers were therefore dispatched to
+Siam, ostensibly to assist in intimidating the Dutch, who were at the
+time causing trouble from their fortress of Malacca. The two principal
+ports of Bangkok and Mergui were garrisoned by a part of these French
+troops and the King was induced to attach another part of them to his
+own person. The missionaries then began to exhort the King with all
+the eloquence at their command but found that his conversion was a
+more difficult matter than had been expected. Their obstinate
+insistence with him and Phaulcon's ascendancy over him ended by
+alarming the Siamese, and when remonstrances against the
+ever-increasing number of foreigners in the service of the State went
+disregarded, a conspiracy was formed among high officers of the Court.
+Phra Narai was driven from the throne, Phaulcon was killed, the
+European troops were driven from the country, and Siam was saved from
+becoming the keystone of a great French empire in the Far East.
+
+[Illustration: 1. A primitive type of cart still is used in remote
+districts. The teak logs shown in the background must be carted or
+dragged by elephants from the forest to the nearest large stream.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Elephants are employed to break up a jam of logs at
+the estacades of a bridge.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. An extensive commerce is carried on between the
+riverine towns by small boats. The water wheel of bamboo (left)
+irrigates a garden on the shore.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. The graceful temples of Thailand are adorned with
+lacquer, gold leaf, and colored glass.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. Ransacked reliquaries dot the jungles of Thailand.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. The high altar of a Buddhist shrine.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. Royalty visits Chiengmai.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. A princely funeral at Chiengmai. White is the color
+of mourning.]
+
+The Kingdom of Ayuthia continued to prosper during several subsequent
+reigns marked by friendly relations with European nations, including
+the French, and a preoccupation with foreign commerce. But, about the
+year 1759, the Burmese, reunited, after a long period of internal
+strife, under the martial Alaung Phra, initiated hostilities against
+the Siamese by an invasion which brought them to the walls of the
+capital; the Burmese King, however, sickened at the beginning of the
+siege and died before he could regain his own country. In 1766, under
+his son, Sin Byu Shin, war was resumed by simultaneous marches on
+Ayuthia from north and south and the city was again invested. Phra
+Sucharit, the Siamese ruler, was unfamiliar with warfare but
+encouraged his people to a spirited resistance, hoping that relief
+would be afforded by the annual floods, coming in the wake of the
+rains; the enemy merely patrolled the waters in hundreds of boats and,
+as they subsided, threw up new earthworks even nearer the walls. In
+the spring of 1767, Sucharit, disheartened, attempted to treat with
+them but was rebuffed and when, with the arrival of reinforcements,
+the Burmese made an assault in force, the weakened city fell to them
+and was given over to looting, flames, and slaughter. The King,
+unattended, escaped in the confusion but was to die of exposure only a
+few days later.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF TONBURI
+
+
+Sin Byu Shin, leaving a viceroy with a small garrison to rule the
+country, withdrew his army to meet a threatened Chinese invasion of
+Burma and once again Siam fell into an interregnum of anarchy, with
+outlying districts setting themselves up as independent while robber
+bands preyed upon the people. An ex-official named Phraya Taksin, who
+had deserted his King when Ayuthia seemed likely to fall, gathered
+about himself a large number of deserters and broken men like himself
+and, by guile and treachery, soon acquired complete authority in the
+southeastern provinces, whence, in due time, he appeared before the
+walls of Ayuthia as a national avenger. Overcoming the garrison and
+killing the Burmese viceroy, Taksin declared himself King and
+selected, as the site of his new capital, the village of Tonburi, on
+the shore of the Chao Phraya opposite the settlement of Bangkok, where
+a populous city soon came into being. To strengthen his position,
+however, it was essential that Taksin destroy a legitimate pretender
+to the throne whose claims had many adherents; this prince had
+established himself at Khorat and thither the King sent an army with
+orders to take the city. But in advance of his soldiers he sent secret
+emissaries who so demoralized the prince's supporters that when the
+usurper's army appeared at last, the city fell into his hands almost
+without a struggle and the prince was captured and soon afterward
+murdered. With this last threat to his power removed, Taksin was able
+to send out expeditions in all directions and soon made himself
+undisputed master of the whole country.
+
+The authority of this ruthless man was not to endure long. His
+appointment of humble relatives to high office offended the nobility,
+while the popular mind was turned against him by his excesses and by
+insidious references to his alien ancestry. In 1781, giving out that
+he was mad, a cabal of his courtiers dethroned him and offered the
+crown to one of themselves, the son of a secretary to the last kings
+of Ayuthia. This nobleman, Phraya Chakkri, already popular through his
+achievements as a royal minister and as a leader of the armies, was
+readily accepted as King by the people and ascended the throne in A.D.
+1782, to found the dynasty which still reigns in Siam.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF SIAM
+
+
+Phraya Chakkri (hereafter to be styled as King Rama I) had scarcely
+assumed his new dignity when Bodaw Phra, King of Burma, attempted a
+new conquest of Siam. King Rama's military ability was such that the
+Burmese were finally everywhere defeated and, with the abandonment of
+Mergui and Tavoy by the Siamese in 1792, the recurrent wars between
+the two powers may be said to have ended for good. With the foreign
+danger averted, the King was able to organize his government, the seat
+of which was transferred from Tonburi to Bangkok, on the left bank of
+the river, where he constructed a fortified city.
+
+Rama II became involved in war at the beginning of his reign. In 1786,
+the regent of the now effete Kingdom of Cambodia had formally
+recognized Siamese suzerainty and had sent the infant King to reside
+at Bangkok, while he continued to rule the state under Siam's aegis.
+Annam, to the east, however, made identical claims to supremacy and
+when, in 1809, the Annamese King attempted to enforce his demands, an
+army was sent from Bangkok to repel him. The brief campaign ended with
+Rama's annexation of the Cambodian province of Phratabong, while the
+rest of the country became a dependency of Annam.
+
+Upon this King's death in 1825, the throne was usurped by one of his
+sons by a lesser wife, while the legitimate heir, Chao Fa Mongkut, a
+young man of twenty-one, retired to the safety of the Buddhist
+monkhood. The reign of Rama III is chiefly notable for Siam's
+resumption of political relations with the nations of the West. In
+1833, a treaty drawn up between Siam and the United States of America
+represented the first formal tie between this country and any Asiatic
+power.
+
+Toward the end of the reign, Cambodian politics again caused bad blood
+between Siam and Annam. A youth named Norodom, a son of the Cambodian
+King, had some time since been brought to Bangkok and reared at the
+Siamese Court. Upon his father's death, he was declared by Siam to be
+the rightful heir and, supported by a Siamese army, returned to
+Cambodia to gain the throne and, despite former agreements, to place
+the country again under Siamese protection.
+
+During his years of retirement, Chao Fa Mongkut, the King's half
+brother, had assiduously devoted himself to the study of the English
+language, the sciences, and the manners, customs, and systems of
+government of foreign lands; at the same time, he missed no
+opportunity to meet and converse with European travelers. Coming to
+the throne as Rama IV in 1851, at the age of 47, he brought to his
+task a remarkable degree of enlightenment, which resulted in throwing
+the country open to foreign trade and intercourse, in the introduction
+of such arts as printing and shipbuilding, in the construction of
+roads and canals, in laying the foundations for systems of education
+and public health, and in numerous other reforms directed toward
+increasing the public welfare. His love of learning was indirectly
+responsible for his death for, visiting a mountain peak to observe an
+eclipse in 1868, he contracted the illness from which he died in that
+year.
+
+The program of modernization initiated by King Rama IV was continued
+and expanded by his son, the great Chulalongkon (Rama V). Among the
+important reforms instituted during this reign were the abolition of
+debt slavery, the establishment of law courts, the construction of
+railways, the spread of education, regulation of the conditions of
+military service, and radical changes in methods of revenue and rural
+administration. The appointment of trained officials under organized
+control in place of ignorant provincial governors and hereditary
+chieftains welded the loose agglomeration of feudatory dependencies
+into the modern, homogeneous state.
+
+In the year 1863, Norodom, whom Siam had placed upon the Cambodian
+throne, made a treaty with France, now master of Annam, by which he
+accepted French protection; at almost the same time he made an exactly
+similar compact with Siam. Thus each country found itself responsible
+for the protection of Cambodia against any possible aggressor, while
+each was given the sole right of dictating the foreign policy of that
+state. So absurd a situation could not last and, after 4 years of
+negotiation, Siam was compelled to yield to the French thesis of their
+superior rights as successors to the Annamese kings, to abrogate her
+treaty of 1863, and to abandon all claim to suzerainty over Cambodia.
+
+Soon after Siam's withdrawal from Cambodia, the unofficial advocates
+of colonialism in France began to advance the idea that certain
+Siamese provinces east of the river Me Khong, having at one time
+formed a part of Annam, should be restored to that Kingdom, now a
+French protectorate. There is no historical basis for this claim,
+which was at first unsupported even in Paris, but when the colonial
+party added the argument that the unnavigable Me Khong, as one of the
+future trade routes of Southwest China, must at all costs be acquired
+by France, the French Government formally demanded of Bangkok the
+provinces in question. The Siamese replied by suggesting that the
+disputed territory be regarded as neutral until such time as the
+frontier could be properly demarcated and this was agreed upon but
+merely led to further trouble, each side accusing the other of
+violating the compact. Siam asked for arbitration, which was declined
+by the French. When, in 1893, bloody collisions occurred along the
+border, French gunboats, dispatched from Saigon, ascended the Chao
+Phraya, despite efforts of the Siamese naval forces to bar the way. In
+consequence of Siamese resistance, the French greatly increased their
+demands, now insisting that Siam give up all territory east of the Me
+Khong (including about half of the rich province of Luang Phrabang, to
+which no French claim had ever previously been laid). After 10 days of
+blockade, the Siamese had no choice but to accept a humiliating treaty
+which, among other concessions, required immediate evacuation of her
+eastern outposts and the payment of an indemnity; as a guarantee,
+France established a military occupation of the southeastern province,
+of Chanthabun, which was to continue long after all the terms had been
+fulfilled.
+
+Relations between the two countries were far from improved by this
+episode and, during the following years, abuses in the exercise of
+French extraterritorial rights were a fertile source of provocation.
+In fact, despite every effort to avoid unfortunate incidents, the
+Government of Siam found itself spending all its energies in replying
+to diplomatic representations and to demands for inquiries,
+explanations, and reparations.
+
+As the French demands increased in numbers and severity, there was no
+longer any question that Siam's national survival was at stake. But,
+in 1896, Great Britain, at last alarmed by France's growing strength
+in southern Asia and unwilling to have her approach too near the
+eastern confines of India, intervened. High feelings were aroused in
+both countries but, after lengthy negotiations, an agreement was
+concluded in the same year, by which Siam's autonomy was guaranteed
+that she might serve as a buffer between the rival empires.
+
+Thereafter, relations between France and Siam tended to improve. It
+was not, however, until 1907, that, in return for yet another
+"rectification of the boundary," the French agreed to revise their
+extraterritorial rights and to remove the garrison from Chanthabun. A
+second convention of the same year resulted in Siam's restoring to
+Cambodia the province of Phratabong, which she had held since 1809,
+and receiving in exchange a part of the territory yielded in 1904 and
+obtaining a recognition of Siamese jurisdiction over Asiatic French
+subjects. Altogether, in warding off the European neighbor, Siam had
+been compelled to sacrifice no less than 90,000 square miles of her
+eastern lands.
+
+
+
+
+THAILAND
+
+
+Whether the modern traveler enters Siam by steamer from Hongkong or
+Singapore or by comfortable Diesel-engined train from the Malay
+States, his destination is certain to be Bangkok. Here, in bewildering
+juxtaposition, the old Siam and the new Thailand confront him together
+on every side. The former is represented in the complicated network of
+canals, upon which thousands of boat-dwellers pass their lives; in the
+narrow streets hung with the vertical signboards of the inevitable
+multitude of Chinese traders; in the throngs of yellow-robed monks
+that appear at daybreak from hundreds of gaily colored shrines whose
+spires arise in every direction. The new is seen in the modern
+boulevards lined with spacious wooden houses set among gardens and
+orchards; in the motorcars competing for space with bicycle-drawn
+jinrikishas; in the air-conditioned cinema theaters, where, before
+World War II, were shown the new pictures shipped by air from
+California; in the cement and match factories; in the great airport of
+Don Muang, north of the city, where transports arrived daily from
+Britain and Australia, from Java and The Netherlands.
+
+Until recently, the inhabitants of towns and villages outside the
+capital lived a life not greatly different from that of their
+ancestors: one which revolved around the annual cycle of planting,
+growing, and the harvest, with religious festivals to break the
+monotony of living. Poverty, as understood in the industrial Occident,
+was unknown for, while little actual money was seen by the average
+family during the course of a year, yet a house could be built of
+bamboo in a day or two; fruit trees bore around the year; clothing was
+woven at home and shoes were little worn; virtually everyone owned
+productive land or was at liberty to clear a tract from the forest
+which covers much of the thinly populated country; taxes were light
+and could be paid by a few days' labor on some project of public
+works.
+
+During the decade just passed the Government has initiated a positive
+program aimed at raising the standards of living of the common people
+and especially of the peasants who constitute the great majority.
+Among the means adopted have been the development of such new sources
+of gain as the raising of tobacco and cotton on a large scale; the
+construction of great irrigation projects and the development of
+sources of electric power; the education of the farmer in livestock
+breeding and scientific agriculture; the establishment of agencies to
+enable him to obtain a fair market for his produce; the spread of
+public-health and medical services in far corners of the provinces.
+The results of this experiment had not yet become clear when the war
+interfered to hinder its fulfillment.
+
+The political aspect of the program leaned heavily toward economic
+nationalism, in an endeavor to counteract the excessive proportion of
+foreign capital in the country and to encourage more active
+participation by the Thai in the building-up of their own land. If the
+means to these laudable ends were perverted, by the paid agents of
+Japanese propaganda and a handful of powerful men within the Thai
+Government, to serve the cause of "co-prosperity," it must not
+therefore be assumed that the misfortunes which have recently befallen
+them are traceable to any activities and desires on the part of the
+Thai people themselves.
+
+A lively resistance to the usurpers continues, inside Thailand and
+through her spokesmen abroad; we may confidently expect that the Thai,
+with the aid and sympathy of their friends of the United Nations, will
+at the earliest opportunity rid themselves both of their quislings and
+their Japanese overlords, again proudly to style themselves "the free
+men."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Siam--Land of Free Men, by H. G. Deignan
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44679 ***
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7122f4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #44679 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44679)
diff --git a/old/44679-8.txt b/old/44679-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d15187
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44679-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1385 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Siam--Land of Free Men, by H. G. Deignan
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Siam--Land of Free Men
+
+Author: H. G. Deignan
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2014 [EBook #44679]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by the volunteers of Project Gutenberg Thailand.
+Proofreading by users emil, rikker, dekpient. PGT is an
+affiliated sister project focusing on public domain books
+on Thailand and Southeast Asia. Project leads: Rikker
+Dockum, Emil Kloeden. (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                       SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
+                       WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES
+                            NUMBER EIGHT
+
+
+                       SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN
+
+
+                                 By
+                            H. G. DEIGNAN
+
+
+                         (Publication 3703)
+
+
+                         CITY OF WASHINGTON
+              PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
+                          FEBRUARY 5, 1943
+
+
+
+
+                      The Lord Baltimore Press
+                      BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS
+
+  Geography
+  Peoples
+  Prehistory
+  Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok
+  Kingdom of Ayuthia
+  Kingdom of Tonburi
+  Kingdom of Siam
+  Thailand
+
+
+                            ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                               PLATES
+
+  1. 1, Gorge of the Me Ping
+     2, Ancient wall at Chiengmai
+  2. 1, A monolith in the Me Ping gorge
+     2, Boat being pulled upstream through the rapids by ropes
+  3. 1, The "mai kwao," tree that yields gum resin
+     2, Transplanting young rice plants
+  4. 1, Fishing from the roadsides after the rains
+     2, Water buffalo
+  5. 1, A primitive type of cart
+     2, Elephants breaking up a log jam
+  6. 1, Small river boats, and bamboo water wheel
+     2, A temple
+  7. 1, A reliquary
+     2, The high altar of a Buddhist shrine
+  8. 1, Royalty visits Chiengmai
+     2, A princely funeral at Chiengmai
+
+
+                             TEXT FIGURE
+
+  1. Map of Siam
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Map of Siam.]
+
+
+
+
+                         SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN
+
+
+                           By H. G. DEIGNAN
+                _Associate Curator, Division of Birds_
+                       _U. S. National Museum_
+
+
+                           (WITH 8 PLATES)
+
+
+
+
+From the earliest times the great peninsula which lies between India
+and China .... has been peculiarly subject to foreign intrusion.
+Successive waves of Mongolian humanity have broken over it from the
+north, Dravidians from India have colonised it, Buddhist missions from
+Ceylon have penetrated it, and buccaneers from the islands in the
+south have invaded it. Race has fought against race, tribe against
+tribe, and clan against clan. Predominant powers have arisen and
+declined. Civilisations have grown up, flourished and faded. And thus
+out of many and diverse elements a group of nations have been evolved,
+the individuals of which, Môn, Kambodian, Annamese, Burmese, Shan,
+Lao, Siamese and Malay, fundamentally much alike, but differing in
+many externals, have striven during centuries for mastery over each
+other, and incidentally over the countless minor tribes and clans
+maintaining a precarious existence in their midst. Into this mêlée
+of warring factions a new element intruded in the sixteenth century A.
+D. in the shape of European enterprise. Portuguese, Dutch, French and
+English all came and took part in the struggle, pushing and jostling
+with the best, until the two last, having come face to face, agreed to
+a cessation of strife and to a division of the disputed interests
+amongst the survivors. Of these there were but three, the French, the
+English, and the Siamese, and therefore Further India now finds
+herself divided, as was once all Gaul, into three parts. To the east
+lies the territory of French Indo-China, embracing the Annamese and
+Kambodian nations and a large section of the Lao; in the west the
+British Empire has absorbed the Môn, the Burmese and the Shans;
+while, wedged between and occupying the lower middle part of the
+subcontinent, with the isolated region of British Malaya on its
+extreme south border, lies the kingdom of Siam, situated between 4°
+20' and 20° 15' N. latitude, and between 96° 30' and 106° E.
+longitude.[1]
+
+So wrote Graham at a period when the Siamese held sway over a
+territory of more than 200,000 square miles or an area equivalent to
+the combined areas of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
+Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
+Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and almost half of Ohio. It must not
+be supposed, however, that the Thai[2] had permanently resigned
+themselves to a continuation of this political division of the
+peninsula. Rich provinces to which they had more or less cogent
+claims, based on facts of history or ethnography, lay under foreign
+rule and, with the rise of world-wide nationalism in the 1920's and
+1930's a lively irredentism came into flower. This irredentism and its
+accompanying nationalistic fervor have colored the policies of the
+Thai Government during the decade just passed and serve to explain
+many political actions which are otherwise puzzling to the western
+world.
+
+[1] Graham, W. A., Siam, vol. 1, pp. 1-2, London, 1924.
+
+[2] Pronunciation near English "tie."
+
+
+
+
+GEOGRAPHY
+
+
+Whatever more or less final rectifications of frontiers result from
+the current war, the land of the Thai will still, for general
+purposes, fall into four geographic divisions of major importance:
+Northern, Central, Eastern, and Peninsular.
+
+Northern Thailand, lying between the Salwin and the Me Khong, two of
+the world's most majestic rivers, is, for the most part, a country of
+roughly parallel ranges and valleys running north and south. At the
+heads of the flat-floored valleys, which vary in elevations above sea
+level from 800 feet in the southeast to 1,200 feet in the northwest,
+arise important streams, the Me Nan, the Me Yom, the Me Wang, and the
+Me Ping, which, falling through narrow defiles to debouch in the low
+land of Central Siam, eventually there conflow to form the Me Nam Chao
+Phraya, the chief artery of that division. On the alluvia of these
+streams, as might be expected in a country whose civilization was
+originally based upon riziculture, live the great bulk of the northern
+Thai or Lao, in a setting of rich fields and orchards. The ranges
+similarly rise, southeast to northwest, from low, rounded hills to
+imposing peaks, many of which exceed an altitude of 5,000 feet and two
+of which achieve more than 8,000 feet. These mountains, rising
+abruptly from the valley floors and, on the whole, densely forested,
+are scarcely inhabited by man except for scattered groups of
+seminomadic hill tribes, which exist there by hunting and a primitive
+agriculture. The northernmost province, Chiengrai, is separated from
+the sister provinces by a mountain wall and belongs wholly to the Me
+Khong drainage; it is largely a region of marshes and grassy savannas.
+
+Central Siam, the heart of Thailand, is the vast alluvial plain of the
+Chao Phraya and may be described as 55,000 square miles of almost
+unbrokenly monotonous scenery. The level of the land is but little
+higher than that of the sea and, during the dry season, tidal
+influence is plainly evident as much as 50 miles from the river's
+mouth. Alluvial deposits, brought in the season of floods from the
+northern hills, are, however, raising this level at an astonishing
+rate; geological evidence shows that within comparatively recent times
+a great part of the plain was covered by the sea and even now the
+northern shores of the Gulf of Siam, at the mouth of the Chao Phraya,
+are advancing seaward at a rate of almost a foot a year. Its rich
+soil, its abundance of watercourses, both natural and artificial, and
+its comparatively dense population combine to make it one of the most
+eminently suitable areas of the world for the production of fine rice.
+
+As Central Siam is the heart of the Kingdom, the royal city of Bangkok
+or Krungthep is the very core of that heart. Situated on the banks of
+the Chao Phraya, some 20 miles from its mouth, this metropolis, whose
+history goes back not earlier than the mid-eighteenth century A.D., is
+the center for scholarship and the arts, the filter through which pass
+all goods and ideas received by the interior from the outside world,
+and the nucleus of one of the most highly centralized of national
+governments. Its citizenry of some 800,000 represents no less than 5
+percent of the total population of the country.
+
+Eastern Thailand is a huge, shallow, elevated basin, tilted toward the
+east, so that while its western rim stands 1,000 feet above the sea,
+its eastern rim is formed by low hills. The plateau is watered by the
+system of the Me Nam Mun, a tributary of the Me Khong. A
+poverty-ridden country of unproductive soil and adverse climatic
+conditions, it supports indifferently well a comparatively limited
+population.
+
+Peninsular Siam is the narrow, northern two-thirds of the Malay
+Peninsula, sharply divided longitudinally by a mountain chain which
+passes down its whole length. It is a country rich in forests, cattle,
+fisheries, mines, and agriculture, and possessed of great natural
+beauty in the countless islets off its shores, its beaches lined with
+palms and casuarinas, and the verdure of it mountain-backed
+landscapes. Most of the developed natural wealth of the Kingdom is
+found in this portion, which has fine systems of highways and
+railroads.
+
+The whole of Siam lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator
+and is subject to the typical monsoonal climate of southeastern Asia,
+by which the prevailing winds, from the latter part of April to the
+middle of October, consistently blow from the southwest and from
+mid-October to April, from the northeast. In Northern, Central, and
+Eastern Thailand there are three distinct seasons--the hot weather,
+the rains, and the cold weather, the first extending from February or
+March to May, the second from June to October, and the third covering
+the remaining months of the year. When the northeast winds blow
+strongly, the cold weather is very marked, but at such times as the
+seasonal winds fail, the cold weather is scarcely distinguishable from
+the hot. In Northern Siam, which lies at greatest distance from the
+sea and possesses greater radiation, the days may be hot even during
+the cold weather when the night temperatures afford a strong contrast
+by dropping to as low as 50° F. and on the mountains even lower,
+although never reaching freezing temperatures. The basin of Eastern
+Siam, with its thin vegetation and cut off from cooling breezes by its
+surrounding rim, is subject to terrific heats during the day and,
+during the winter, very low temperatures at night. The central plain,
+outside of Bangkok, is pleasantly cooled during the hottest season by
+the continuous sea winds, night and day; in Bangkok, however, perhaps
+owing to houses of masonry in place of thatch and the drainage of
+surrounding marshes, the climate is not only appallingly hot but
+actually becoming perceptibly more so year by year. Peninsular Siam
+has the mildest and most equable climate, the greatest annual
+rainfall, and only two noticeable seasons--the hot weather from
+February to August and the rains from September to January, with the
+peak of the wet season coming in December.
+
+Owing to the fact that the political frontiers have little
+relationship to biogeographical boundaries, the Kingdom possesses a
+fauna and flora richer than those of most areas of comparable size.
+The primeval jungles of the western and northern mountains show
+untrammeled Nature at her tropical best. The slopes are enlaced with
+countless streams and waterfalls, from roaring torrents to rills which
+flow only during and after the rains. In the forests of these hills
+and valleys, huge epiphyte-laden trees, bound together by vines,
+shelter such animals as the elephant, the tiger, and the gaur, but so
+dense is the cover that the presence of large game is more often made
+known by signs than by actual sight, and only the hunter who is
+willing to work hard and long is likely to shoot a worth-while trophy.
+More than 1,000 different birds are recorded from the country, while
+fishes of almost endless variety abound everywhere, from the Gulf to
+the smallest roadside ditches. The natural vegetation ranges from the
+most typically tropical plants, such as the mangosteen, to forms of
+the Temperate Zone, such as pines and violets, on the northwestern
+mountains. The central plain, where not devoted to rice cultivation,
+shows the characteristic flora and fauna of a marsh and the eastern
+plateau has an impoverished biota, characterized by a certain number
+of endemic forms; the Peninsula, however, like the west and north,
+bears great forests rich in species of animals and plants.
+
+
+
+
+PEOPLES
+
+
+Archeology can still tell us little of the first human occupants of
+Siam. The earliest evidence of man's existence here is furnished by
+celts, uncovered in the Peninsula and on the eastern plateau, which
+are supposed to date from the later Neolithic period; geology,
+however, gives us no reason to conclude that the makers of these
+implements were not preceded by other races.
+
+[Illustration: 1. The rivers fall from the northern plateaus to the
+central plain through narrow defiles.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Ancient wall at Chiengmai. The city walls are
+preserved as picturesque ruins.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. An international incident was caused by the European
+alpinist who first scaled the monolith to plant his nation's flag upon
+it.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Boats must be pulled upstream through the rapids by
+ropes.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. The valuable gum resin, Bengal kino, is yielded by
+the "mai kwao" (_Butea frondosa_).]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Young rice plants are transplanted from a seedbed to
+the flooded fields.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. At the end of the rains, fish may be captured from
+the roadsides.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Cows and water buffaloes are treated as family
+pets.]
+
+Among the mountains of the Malay Peninsula exist to this day small
+groups of dwarf, black-skinned, kinky-haired people, different from
+all other races of the country but closely related to the natives of
+the Andaman Islands and the Negritos of the Philippines; it has been
+surmised that these Ngo (Semang) are the dwindling remnant of a once
+numerous population, successors to (and possibly descendants of) the
+Neolithic men.
+
+Following the Ngo and sometime during the past few millennia, it is
+believed that there came successive waves of a people of Mongolian
+origin who, making their way down the rivers, drove the primitive
+Negritos into the hills and settled in their place. Now conveniently
+known as the Mon-Annam family, their descendants are the Mon
+(Peguans), the Cambodians, and the Annamese, as well as numerous
+semibarbarous lesser tribes which persist among the mountains of the
+subcontinent.
+
+Probably between two and three thousand years ago and certainly after
+the arrival of the Mon-Annam immigrants, another great population
+wave, known as the Tibeto-Burman family, rolled southward over
+Indo-China but chiefly descended the valley of the Irrawaddy (where
+they have given rise to the modern Burmese), thus scarcely entering
+Siam at all. Only in comparatively recent times, driven from their
+former homes by political disturbances, have tribes of this stock
+(Yao, Meo, etc.) migrated into Thailand and the territories to the
+east, where they are constantly being joined by others of their blood
+brothers from farther north.
+
+While the Mon and the Khmer (Cambodians) were still spreading over the
+southern parts of Indo-China and before they had begun, under the
+influence of colonists from India, to emerge from a condition of
+savagery, the tribes which they had left behind them at different
+points during their southward movement were already being driven back
+into the mountains and brought into a state of partial subjugation by
+the members of a third great family of migrants from the north. These
+were the people now known as Lao-Tai, who, sending out bands from
+their ancient seat in the valley of the Yangtze, had already, 2,500
+years ago, established a powerful state on the banks of the Me Khong
+in the neighborhood of the modern Wieng Chan (Vientiane).
+
+The Lao-Tai of the Yangtze Valley were evidently very numerous, for
+not only did they thus early establish kingdoms far from home but also
+became a power in their own land and for some time bid strongly for
+the mastery of all China. For centuries they waged successful wars on
+all their neighbors, but their strong propensity for wandering
+weakened their state and finally caused its disintegration. The
+Chinese attacked them repeatedly, each attack producing a fresh exodus
+until, during the thirteenth century A.D., the Emperor Kublai Khan
+dealt them a final blow which crushed their power and scattered them
+in all directions. Fugitives entered Assam, where earlier emigrants
+had already settled, and became the dominant power in that country;
+others invaded Burma, where for two centuries a Lao-Tai (Shan) dynasty
+occupied the throne; while down the Salwin and Me Khong Valleys came
+band after band of exiles who mingled with their cousins already
+established in those valleys and, in time fusing with the Mon and the
+Khmer, produced the race which, since the founding of the city of
+Ayuthia, has been dominant in Siam.
+
+The principal divisions of the Lao-Tai family now living within the
+borders of Siam are the Thai ("free men") or Siamese proper; the Lao,
+who occupy the former seats of those tribes of their own stock that
+afterward developed into the Thai; and the Shans, a later intrusion of
+distant cousins, descended from the Lao-Tai tribes that settled in the
+more eastern districts of Burma in the twelfth century and earlier.
+
+
+
+
+PREHISTORY
+
+
+The history of Siam prior to the fourteenth century A.D. is chiefly
+known from a hodgepodge of disconnected stories and fragments known as
+the "Pongsawadon Mu'ang Nu'a" ("Annals of the North Country"),
+compiled at different periods from such of the official records of
+various cities and kingdoms as had escaped the destruction which at
+intervals overtook the communities to which they referred. With the
+omission of the numerous supernatural happenings there recorded and
+comparative study of the chronicles of neighboring countries, scholars
+have been able to draw a rough picture of the condition of Siam at the
+dawn of historical time.
+
+Their researches show a country inhabited by primitive people of
+Mon-Khmer stock among whom had settled groups of their more civilized
+cousins from Cambodia, who had brought with them the religion and
+customs acquired by contact with colonists from India. These
+communities grew from villages into cities and at the same time sent
+out offshoots in all directions, which in time became the capitals of
+small states, the chiefs of which constantly made war on each other
+and against the Lao-Tai tribes at their borders and now and again rose
+to sufficient strength to repudiate the vague suzerainty claimed over
+them all by the empire of Cambodia.
+
+Contemporary records of the period subsequent to the fourteenth
+century A.D. are easily available. The most important is the
+"Pongsawadon Krung Kao" ("Annals of the Old Capital" or "Annals of
+Ayuthia"), which contains a complete and fairly accurate account,
+compiled in successive reigns, of the history of the country from A.D.
+1349 to 1765. The seventeenth and later centuries have also seen the
+production of numerous works, by European travelers and missionaries,
+which deal wholly or partly with Siam.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF SUKHOTHAI-SAWANKHALOK
+
+
+The most ancient Mon-Khmer settlement of which anything definite is
+known was Sukhothai (located on the river Me Yom some 200 miles north
+of the site of modern Bangkok), which by 300 B.C. was already a
+sizable village. At first putting forth no pretensions to the status
+of kingdom, the community evidently increased rapidly in importance,
+for some two centuries later the chief, Phraya Thammarat, declared
+himself King of the district, founded the new capital of Sawankhalok,
+and appointed one of his sons viceroy of Sukhothai, which itself soon
+grew into a fortified city. Thereafter, the two towns served
+alternately as the capital of a country which, as the Kingdom of
+Sukhothai-Sawankhalok, gradually grew to great wealth and strength.
+
+Its monarchs occupied themselves with the waging of war against the
+petty chieftains of neighboring states (founded in the same manner and
+upon the same principles as their own but at somewhat later dates)
+and, in course of time reducing all of them to vassalage, came to be
+recognized as rulers of the whole country. The vague overlordship of
+Cambodia continued for many centuries but with little or no influence
+upon the destinies of its nominal dependency, which was left to manage
+itself and its own subordinates as seemed to it best.
+
+At the same time as the various Mon-Khmer states of Siam were
+struggling to subdue each other, the Lao tribesmen inhabiting the
+mountainous districts to the north, emboldened by their increasing
+numbers and constantly raiding the rich villages of the plains, were
+demanding an ever greater amount of attention and as early as the
+fifth century A.D., the reduction of the Lao had become almost the
+main preoccupation of the kings of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok. Expeditions
+against them were constant, but while they were frequently defeated
+and large numbers of them carried captive to Sukhothai or Sawankhalok,
+the intercourse thus brought about served only to strengthen them,
+since it enabled them to adopt the customs and civilization of the
+conquerors and then turn the acquired knowledge against their
+instructors with an ever-growing degree of success.
+
+About A.D. 575, a Lao city, built in imitation of the Khmer capitals,
+was founded at a spot about 250 miles north of Sawankhalok and given
+the name of Haribunchai (later corrupted to Lamphunchai and the modern
+Lamphun). The chief of this town married a princess of the Khmer state
+of Lopburi and established a dynasty which closely followed the
+Brahman rites and ceremonies in vogue at Sukhothai. During this time
+other Lao states arose and the time soon came when the Khmer could no
+longer hold the Lao in check. During succeeding centuries Lao armies
+advanced far south into the Mon-Khmer kingdoms, marital and political
+alliances between Lao and Khmer royalty became common, and Lao
+settlements were established in various parts of southern Siam.
+
+Despite wars with rival states to the south and the Lao to the north,
+the Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok prospered greatly and in time
+attained to a high civilization. The arts were encouraged, the people
+were well governed, trade was extensive, and friendly relations were
+maintained with China and other distant countries by frequent exchange
+of embassies. Envoys from the Emperor of China, who visited Sukhothai
+in the seventh century A.D., have left records which indicate that the
+populace were chiefly engaged in the cultivation of rice and the
+manufacture of sugar and that in manners and customs they closely
+resembled the modern inhabitants of Siam. The style of architecture,
+remains of which still survive, followed, in somewhat degenerated
+form, that seen in the ruins of Angkor and other Cambodian cities.
+
+During the reign of the hero-King Rama Khamheng (Phra Ruang) the
+country reached the zenith of its greatness and when he died, about
+A.D. 1090, he left to his heir an empire which embraced much of the
+Lao states to the north and all of the more southern Khmer kingdoms of
+Siam. This heritage, however, was fated to endure but a short time.
+During the eleventh century the Khmer King of Lopburi and the Lao King
+of Lamphun, both vassals of Phra Ruang, had been intermittently at war
+with each other without interference from the suzerain; toward the end
+of the century Lopburi was finally overcome and, declaring itself
+subordinate to Lamphun, was forced to admit large numbers of Lao to
+settle within its borders. Soon after Phra Ruang's death, a great Lao
+army composed of the warriors of several allied states and led by a
+chief known as Suthammarat, invaded Sukhothai-Sawankhalok itself,
+defeated its armies, overran its lands to the south, reduced the
+cities, and founded the capital of Pitsanulok, southwest of Sukhothai
+and in the heart of the Khmer Kingdom. Thereafter, although the rulers
+of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok continued for some time to maintain regal
+state, they were never again to hold a paramount position and were, in
+fact, to become mere vassals of the ancient enemy until eventually,
+some four centuries subsequent to the foundation of Pitsanulok, they
+were to be no more than provincial governors representative of the
+kings of Ayuthia.
+
+Suthammarat, an admirer of the Khmer, in setting up his throne in the
+conquered kingdom, imitated as closely as possible the ways of
+Sukhothai and, by marrying a lady of the country, set an example for
+his following which gave great impetus to that fusion of Lao and Khmer
+which, already begun in Lopburi, was soon to result in the evolution
+of the Thai (Siamese) race.
+
+The early thirteenth century saw the beginning of the last and
+greatest influx of Lao into the south of Siam. The suppression of the
+Lao-Tai undertaken in southwestern China, culminating in the decisive
+victories of the Emperor Kublai Khan, drove many thousands of these
+people down into the mountainous regions of northern Siam, where the
+newcomers upset the balance of power among their predecessors and
+caused the disruption of several of their states. As a result, many
+impoverished petty chieftains of ancient lineage gathered their people
+together and set off down the rivers to seek new fortunes in the
+kingdoms to the south. During the following century, mingling with the
+Khmer and the Lao-Khmer and acquiring great strength of numbers, the
+Lao wrested control from the original inhabitants and established
+capitals of their own, one of which, Supanburi, was in time to become
+dominant over all the rest. When, at the middle of the fourteenth
+century, Phra Chao Uthong, King of Supanburi, fleeing from a
+pestilence, marched westward to found a new capital, Nong Sano, now
+the seat of the weak successors of the great Suthammarat, fell into
+his hands almost without a struggle, its King fled to Cambodia, and
+Uthong erected near the fallen city the new city of Maha Nakhon Si
+Ayuthaya (Ayuthia), which was destined to become famous throughout the
+world as the capital of one of the greatest kingdoms in the history of
+Farther India.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF AYUTHIA
+
+
+Phra Chao Uthong (under the name of Phra Ramathibodi) became King at
+Ayuthia in A.D. 1350 and thereafter was fully occupied in bringing the
+outlying states and provinces into line, in organizing his government,
+and in setting up a system of law, parts of which continue in use to
+the present time. Before his death in 1369, he had brought together
+the whole of the components of the Sukhothai-Sawankhalok Kingdom and
+had welded them so closely together that, when Cambodia, annoyed by
+the independent attitude of what was theoretically its vassal, sent an
+army to reassert its rights of suzerainty, the united Siamese not only
+defeated the enemy but pursued him well within the confines of his own
+country.
+
+Under Ramathibodi's successors the Kingdom continued to prosper.
+During the next two centuries, Buddhism definitely succeeded
+Brahmanism as the popular religion throughout the country and great
+treasure was expended in beautifying the cities by the erection of
+graceful temples and reliquaries in the adapted Cambodian style which
+persists in Siam to this day.
+
+About A.D. 1527, the King of Pegu, enraged by the exploits of Siamese
+marauders in his frontier province of Tavoy, collected an army at
+Moulmein and sent it into Siam under the leadership of the heir
+apparent, Bureng Naung. Defeating the Siamese near Supanburi, the
+Peguan prince advanced to the walls of Ayuthia itself; so stout was
+the resistance, however, and so prolonged the siege that his supply
+system broke down and he was forced to return to his own country,
+fighting rear-guard actions and losing heavily all the way. After 3
+years, Bureng Naung, now King, taking the assumption by the King of
+Siam of the title "Lord of the White Elephants" as a casus belli,
+again attacked Siam with a great army and once more besieged the
+capital. This time, to save the city, the "Lord of the White
+Elephants" was compelled to negotiate and to turn over several of the
+animals in question to the invader, who then retired. Only a few years
+later, however, the Siamese King repudiated Peguan suzerainty; Bureng
+Naung returned, by treachery gained admission to the city, sacked and
+partially destroyed it, and sent the King, with many of his followers,
+in chains to Pegu. Leaving the Siamese governor of Pitsanulok as his
+viceroy in Ayuthia, Bureng Naung pressed on to subdue other cities but
+was scarcely out of sight when a Cambodian army, burning to avenge
+recent defeats and to reestablish ancient rights, appeared to begin a
+new siege of Ayuthia; this enemy was repulsed but not before the
+unprotected districts around the capital had been thoroughly looted.
+
+Just now, when, attacked from east and west, her provinces despoiled
+and her people fugitive or captive, Ayuthia seemed doomed to early
+extinction, a hero arose to redeem her. This was Phra Naret, a son of
+Bureng Naung's viceroy, who, appointed by his father governor of
+Pitsanulok, in his youth saw military service defending his province
+against robber bands and in the wars of Nanda Bureng, son and
+successor to Bureng Naung, against the rebellious province of Ava. By
+his ability bringing upon himself the dislike of the Peguan King, to
+such a degree that his life was endangered, he revolted (ca. A.D.
+1565) and led a Siamese army to sack and pillage Tenasserim and
+Martaban. Two punitive expeditions sent against him were signally
+defeated by Naret, who was then crowned King of Siam and at once began
+to restore Ayuthia and to repopulate it by captives brought from
+outlying districts which had attempted to cast off their allegiance.
+
+Having established his supremacy at home, Naret inflicted a crushing
+defeat upon yet another Burmese army sent to subdue him and then, to
+avenge the humiliations imposed upon his country during her time of
+weakness, led a strong force against Cambodia; this campaign ended
+with the destruction of the Cambodian capital and the carrying of the
+King and many of his people captive to Ayuthia, where the former was
+executed. Finally, some time about the year 1600, Naret, at the head
+of a great army, invaded Burma with the object of conquering the whole
+of that country, but this was not to be: the King met death in one of
+the early battles and his son and heir, abandoning the enterprise,
+returned to his own dominions. But within the space of not more than
+35 years, Naret had raised Siam from a condition of almost complete
+ruin to a position of ascendancy over all the neighboring kingdoms and
+he left to his successors a great empire which was to endure for a
+period of 175 years.
+
+During this period, Siam was becoming well known to the European
+merchant adventurers trading in the Orient under the flags of
+Portugal, Holland, and England. Early in the sixteenth century, the
+Malay Kingdom of Malacca had been conquered by the Portuguese;
+individuals of this nation had penetrated to Ayuthia and Pegu and had
+served in the ranks of the contending armies during the Siamo-Burmese
+wars; Portuguese factories had been established at the various Siamese
+ports. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Portuguese
+missionaries arrived at Ayuthia, where they were well received and
+given land for their churches. About this time also, English and Dutch
+ships first appeared in Siamese waters and a bitter rivalry soon
+sprang up among the foreigners, who competed for commercial supremacy
+and the favor of the King, without which trade could scarcely be
+carried on at all. This antagonism resulted in endless quarreling and
+even in desperate battles between the representatives of the rival
+powers and by 1634 the Dutch had so far prospered that they had built
+a fortified factory at Amsterdam on the river Chao Phraya, carried on
+extensive commerce throughout Siam, and monopolized the carrying trade
+to China and Japan. With the taking of Malacca by the Dutch in 1641,
+the influence of the Portuguese soon declined, although many
+individuals continued to live in Siam, where such surnames as da Silva
+and da Jesus persist to this day in families which no longer show any
+other trace of European ancestry. The Dutch rapidly succeeded to all
+the commercial outposts of Portugal in Siam, devoting themselves
+chiefly to trade and taking little or no interest in internal
+politics, except insofar as their commercial prospects were affected.
+The first formal treaty contracted by Siam with any western power was
+that entered into, in the year 1664, with the representatives of the
+Dutch East India Company, authorized by the Dutch Republic. Dutch
+trade with Siam continued until A.D. 1706, when the royal favor was
+finally lost for good and the Company's agents expelled from the
+Kingdom.
+
+In 1659 there arrived at Ayuthia one of the most extraordinary figures
+in the history of Siam. This was Constantine Phaulcon, the son of a
+Cephalonian innkeeper, who ran away to sea in an English ship and,
+eventually making his way to Siam, stayed there to become Chief
+Minister of the Crown and the trusted adviser of the King, Phra Narai.
+Under Phaulcon's able guidance the country for a time prospered
+greatly. Not only were the Portuguese and Dutch merchants, already
+established, encouraged to extend the scope of their enterprise but
+the English and French East India Companies were invited to set up
+factories at the capital. The King himself, in partnership with his
+First Minister, operated a profitable fleet of merchantmen and became
+the principal trader of his own country.
+
+About this time it came to be believed in Europe that the whole of the
+Far East was ripe for conversion to Christianity and a Roman Catholic
+Mission was organized in France to put this ambitious design into
+effect. Ayuthia, possessing a cosmopolitan population and strong
+commercial ties with Japan, China, the Sunda Isles, and India, was
+considered the best central location for the project and, in A.D.
+1662, three French bishops with a staff of priests arrived there to
+inaugurate the work. These ecclesiastics were favorably received by
+the King and within a short period the mission had acquired a
+considerable number of adherents. In order further to strengthen their
+position, however, they sought and obtained the official support of
+Louis XIV of France, who exchanged complimentary letters and embassies
+with the Siamese monarch. Phaulcon, in the confidence of the bishops,
+was thus brought into correspondence with Colbert, Louis's minister,
+and before long the French King's interest was centered on more
+material aspects of Siam than its spiritual welfare. A scheme was set
+afoot for securing the supremacy of France in the Asiatic kingdom
+through the agency of the priests, who, apparently believing that,
+with material support from Louis, they could convert the King himself
+to Christianity, were not unwilling to do their part. Six French
+men-of-war and a body of 1,400 soldiers were therefore dispatched to
+Siam, ostensibly to assist in intimidating the Dutch, who were at the
+time causing trouble from their fortress of Malacca. The two principal
+ports of Bangkok and Mergui were garrisoned by a part of these French
+troops and the King was induced to attach another part of them to his
+own person. The missionaries then began to exhort the King with all
+the eloquence at their command but found that his conversion was a
+more difficult matter than had been expected. Their obstinate
+insistence with him and Phaulcon's ascendancy over him ended by
+alarming the Siamese, and when remonstrances against the
+ever-increasing number of foreigners in the service of the State went
+disregarded, a conspiracy was formed among high officers of the Court.
+Phra Narai was driven from the throne, Phaulcon was killed, the
+European troops were driven from the country, and Siam was saved from
+becoming the keystone of a great French empire in the Far East.
+
+[Illustration: 1. A primitive type of cart still is used in remote
+districts. The teak logs shown in the background must be carted or
+dragged by elephants from the forest to the nearest large stream.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Elephants are employed to break up a jam of logs at
+the estacades of a bridge.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. An extensive commerce is carried on between the
+riverine towns by small boats. The water wheel of bamboo (left)
+irrigates a garden on the shore.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. The graceful temples of Thailand are adorned with
+lacquer, gold leaf, and colored glass.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. Ransacked reliquaries dot the jungles of Thailand.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. The high altar of a Buddhist shrine.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. Royalty visits Chiengmai.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. A princely funeral at Chiengmai. White is the color
+of mourning.]
+
+The Kingdom of Ayuthia continued to prosper during several subsequent
+reigns marked by friendly relations with European nations, including
+the French, and a preoccupation with foreign commerce. But, about the
+year 1759, the Burmese, reunited, after a long period of internal
+strife, under the martial Alaung Phra, initiated hostilities against
+the Siamese by an invasion which brought them to the walls of the
+capital; the Burmese King, however, sickened at the beginning of the
+siege and died before he could regain his own country. In 1766, under
+his son, Sin Byu Shin, war was resumed by simultaneous marches on
+Ayuthia from north and south and the city was again invested. Phra
+Sucharit, the Siamese ruler, was unfamiliar with warfare but
+encouraged his people to a spirited resistance, hoping that relief
+would be afforded by the annual floods, coming in the wake of the
+rains; the enemy merely patrolled the waters in hundreds of boats and,
+as they subsided, threw up new earthworks even nearer the walls. In
+the spring of 1767, Sucharit, disheartened, attempted to treat with
+them but was rebuffed and when, with the arrival of reinforcements,
+the Burmese made an assault in force, the weakened city fell to them
+and was given over to looting, flames, and slaughter. The King,
+unattended, escaped in the confusion but was to die of exposure only a
+few days later.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF TONBURI
+
+
+Sin Byu Shin, leaving a viceroy with a small garrison to rule the
+country, withdrew his army to meet a threatened Chinese invasion of
+Burma and once again Siam fell into an interregnum of anarchy, with
+outlying districts setting themselves up as independent while robber
+bands preyed upon the people. An ex-official named Phraya Taksin, who
+had deserted his King when Ayuthia seemed likely to fall, gathered
+about himself a large number of deserters and broken men like himself
+and, by guile and treachery, soon acquired complete authority in the
+southeastern provinces, whence, in due time, he appeared before the
+walls of Ayuthia as a national avenger. Overcoming the garrison and
+killing the Burmese viceroy, Taksin declared himself King and
+selected, as the site of his new capital, the village of Tonburi, on
+the shore of the Chao Phraya opposite the settlement of Bangkok, where
+a populous city soon came into being. To strengthen his position,
+however, it was essential that Taksin destroy a legitimate pretender
+to the throne whose claims had many adherents; this prince had
+established himself at Khorat and thither the King sent an army with
+orders to take the city. But in advance of his soldiers he sent secret
+emissaries who so demoralized the prince's supporters that when the
+usurper's army appeared at last, the city fell into his hands almost
+without a struggle and the prince was captured and soon afterward
+murdered. With this last threat to his power removed, Taksin was able
+to send out expeditions in all directions and soon made himself
+undisputed master of the whole country.
+
+The authority of this ruthless man was not to endure long. His
+appointment of humble relatives to high office offended the nobility,
+while the popular mind was turned against him by his excesses and by
+insidious references to his alien ancestry. In 1781, giving out that
+he was mad, a cabal of his courtiers dethroned him and offered the
+crown to one of themselves, the son of a secretary to the last kings
+of Ayuthia. This nobleman, Phraya Chakkri, already popular through his
+achievements as a royal minister and as a leader of the armies, was
+readily accepted as King by the people and ascended the throne in A.D.
+1782, to found the dynasty which still reigns in Siam.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF SIAM
+
+
+Phraya Chakkri (hereafter to be styled as King Rama I) had scarcely
+assumed his new dignity when Bodaw Phra, King of Burma, attempted a
+new conquest of Siam. King Rama's military ability was such that the
+Burmese were finally everywhere defeated and, with the abandonment of
+Mergui and Tavoy by the Siamese in 1792, the recurrent wars between
+the two powers may be said to have ended for good. With the foreign
+danger averted, the King was able to organize his government, the seat
+of which was transferred from Tonburi to Bangkok, on the left bank of
+the river, where he constructed a fortified city.
+
+Rama II became involved in war at the beginning of his reign. In 1786,
+the regent of the now effete Kingdom of Cambodia had formally
+recognized Siamese suzerainty and had sent the infant King to reside
+at Bangkok, while he continued to rule the state under Siam's aegis.
+Annam, to the east, however, made identical claims to supremacy and
+when, in 1809, the Annamese King attempted to enforce his demands, an
+army was sent from Bangkok to repel him. The brief campaign ended with
+Rama's annexation of the Cambodian province of Phratabong, while the
+rest of the country became a dependency of Annam.
+
+Upon this King's death in 1825, the throne was usurped by one of his
+sons by a lesser wife, while the legitimate heir, Chao Fa Mongkut, a
+young man of twenty-one, retired to the safety of the Buddhist
+monkhood. The reign of Rama III is chiefly notable for Siam's
+resumption of political relations with the nations of the West. In
+1833, a treaty drawn up between Siam and the United States of America
+represented the first formal tie between this country and any Asiatic
+power.
+
+Toward the end of the reign, Cambodian politics again caused bad blood
+between Siam and Annam. A youth named Norodom, a son of the Cambodian
+King, had some time since been brought to Bangkok and reared at the
+Siamese Court. Upon his father's death, he was declared by Siam to be
+the rightful heir and, supported by a Siamese army, returned to
+Cambodia to gain the throne and, despite former agreements, to place
+the country again under Siamese protection.
+
+During his years of retirement, Chao Fa Mongkut, the King's half
+brother, had assiduously devoted himself to the study of the English
+language, the sciences, and the manners, customs, and systems of
+government of foreign lands; at the same time, he missed no
+opportunity to meet and converse with European travelers. Coming to
+the throne as Rama IV in 1851, at the age of 47, he brought to his
+task a remarkable degree of enlightenment, which resulted in throwing
+the country open to foreign trade and intercourse, in the introduction
+of such arts as printing and shipbuilding, in the construction of
+roads and canals, in laying the foundations for systems of education
+and public health, and in numerous other reforms directed toward
+increasing the public welfare. His love of learning was indirectly
+responsible for his death for, visiting a mountain peak to observe an
+eclipse in 1868, he contracted the illness from which he died in that
+year.
+
+The program of modernization initiated by King Rama IV was continued
+and expanded by his son, the great Chulalongkon (Rama V). Among the
+important reforms instituted during this reign were the abolition of
+debt slavery, the establishment of law courts, the construction of
+railways, the spread of education, regulation of the conditions of
+military service, and radical changes in methods of revenue and rural
+administration. The appointment of trained officials under organized
+control in place of ignorant provincial governors and hereditary
+chieftains welded the loose agglomeration of feudatory dependencies
+into the modern, homogeneous state.
+
+In the year 1863, Norodom, whom Siam had placed upon the Cambodian
+throne, made a treaty with France, now master of Annam, by which he
+accepted French protection; at almost the same time he made an exactly
+similar compact with Siam. Thus each country found itself responsible
+for the protection of Cambodia against any possible aggressor, while
+each was given the sole right of dictating the foreign policy of that
+state. So absurd a situation could not last and, after 4 years of
+negotiation, Siam was compelled to yield to the French thesis of their
+superior rights as successors to the Annamese kings, to abrogate her
+treaty of 1863, and to abandon all claim to suzerainty over Cambodia.
+
+Soon after Siam's withdrawal from Cambodia, the unofficial advocates
+of colonialism in France began to advance the idea that certain
+Siamese provinces east of the river Me Khong, having at one time
+formed a part of Annam, should be restored to that Kingdom, now a
+French protectorate. There is no historical basis for this claim,
+which was at first unsupported even in Paris, but when the colonial
+party added the argument that the unnavigable Me Khong, as one of the
+future trade routes of Southwest China, must at all costs be acquired
+by France, the French Government formally demanded of Bangkok the
+provinces in question. The Siamese replied by suggesting that the
+disputed territory be regarded as neutral until such time as the
+frontier could be properly demarcated and this was agreed upon but
+merely led to further trouble, each side accusing the other of
+violating the compact. Siam asked for arbitration, which was declined
+by the French. When, in 1893, bloody collisions occurred along the
+border, French gunboats, dispatched from Saigon, ascended the Chao
+Phraya, despite efforts of the Siamese naval forces to bar the way. In
+consequence of Siamese resistance, the French greatly increased their
+demands, now insisting that Siam give up all territory east of the Me
+Khong (including about half of the rich province of Luang Phrabang, to
+which no French claim had ever previously been laid). After 10 days of
+blockade, the Siamese had no choice but to accept a humiliating treaty
+which, among other concessions, required immediate evacuation of her
+eastern outposts and the payment of an indemnity; as a guarantee,
+France established a military occupation of the southeastern province,
+of Chanthabun, which was to continue long after all the terms had been
+fulfilled.
+
+Relations between the two countries were far from improved by this
+episode and, during the following years, abuses in the exercise of
+French extraterritorial rights were a fertile source of provocation.
+In fact, despite every effort to avoid unfortunate incidents, the
+Government of Siam found itself spending all its energies in replying
+to diplomatic representations and to demands for inquiries,
+explanations, and reparations.
+
+As the French demands increased in numbers and severity, there was no
+longer any question that Siam's national survival was at stake. But,
+in 1896, Great Britain, at last alarmed by France's growing strength
+in southern Asia and unwilling to have her approach too near the
+eastern confines of India, intervened. High feelings were aroused in
+both countries but, after lengthy negotiations, an agreement was
+concluded in the same year, by which Siam's autonomy was guaranteed
+that she might serve as a buffer between the rival empires.
+
+Thereafter, relations between France and Siam tended to improve. It
+was not, however, until 1907, that, in return for yet another
+"rectification of the boundary," the French agreed to revise their
+extraterritorial rights and to remove the garrison from Chanthabun. A
+second convention of the same year resulted in Siam's restoring to
+Cambodia the province of Phratabong, which she had held since 1809,
+and receiving in exchange a part of the territory yielded in 1904 and
+obtaining a recognition of Siamese jurisdiction over Asiatic French
+subjects. Altogether, in warding off the European neighbor, Siam had
+been compelled to sacrifice no less than 90,000 square miles of her
+eastern lands.
+
+
+
+
+THAILAND
+
+
+Whether the modern traveler enters Siam by steamer from Hongkong or
+Singapore or by comfortable Diesel-engined train from the Malay
+States, his destination is certain to be Bangkok. Here, in bewildering
+juxtaposition, the old Siam and the new Thailand confront him together
+on every side. The former is represented in the complicated network of
+canals, upon which thousands of boat-dwellers pass their lives; in the
+narrow streets hung with the vertical signboards of the inevitable
+multitude of Chinese traders; in the throngs of yellow-robed monks
+that appear at daybreak from hundreds of gaily colored shrines whose
+spires arise in every direction. The new is seen in the modern
+boulevards lined with spacious wooden houses set among gardens and
+orchards; in the motorcars competing for space with bicycle-drawn
+jinrikishas; in the air-conditioned cinema theaters, where, before
+World War II, were shown the new pictures shipped by air from
+California; in the cement and match factories; in the great airport of
+Don Muang, north of the city, where transports arrived daily from
+Britain and Australia, from Java and The Netherlands.
+
+Until recently, the inhabitants of towns and villages outside the
+capital lived a life not greatly different from that of their
+ancestors: one which revolved around the annual cycle of planting,
+growing, and the harvest, with religious festivals to break the
+monotony of living. Poverty, as understood in the industrial Occident,
+was unknown for, while little actual money was seen by the average
+family during the course of a year, yet a house could be built of
+bamboo in a day or two; fruit trees bore around the year; clothing was
+woven at home and shoes were little worn; virtually everyone owned
+productive land or was at liberty to clear a tract from the forest
+which covers much of the thinly populated country; taxes were light
+and could be paid by a few days' labor on some project of public
+works.
+
+During the decade just passed the Government has initiated a positive
+program aimed at raising the standards of living of the common people
+and especially of the peasants who constitute the great majority.
+Among the means adopted have been the development of such new sources
+of gain as the raising of tobacco and cotton on a large scale; the
+construction of great irrigation projects and the development of
+sources of electric power; the education of the farmer in livestock
+breeding and scientific agriculture; the establishment of agencies to
+enable him to obtain a fair market for his produce; the spread of
+public-health and medical services in far corners of the provinces.
+The results of this experiment had not yet become clear when the war
+interfered to hinder its fulfillment.
+
+The political aspect of the program leaned heavily toward economic
+nationalism, in an endeavor to counteract the excessive proportion of
+foreign capital in the country and to encourage more active
+participation by the Thai in the building-up of their own land. If the
+means to these laudable ends were perverted, by the paid agents of
+Japanese propaganda and a handful of powerful men within the Thai
+Government, to serve the cause of "co-prosperity," it must not
+therefore be assumed that the misfortunes which have recently befallen
+them are traceable to any activities and desires on the part of the
+Thai people themselves.
+
+A lively resistance to the usurpers continues, inside Thailand and
+through her spokesmen abroad; we may confidently expect that the Thai,
+with the aid and sympathy of their friends of the United Nations, will
+at the earliest opportunity rid themselves both of their quislings and
+their Japanese overlords, again proudly to style themselves "the free
+men."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Siam--Land of Free Men, by H. G. Deignan
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 44679-8.txt or 44679-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/6/7/44679/
+
+Produced by the volunteers of Project Gutenberg Thailand.
+Proofreading by users emil, rikker, dekpient. PGT is an
+affiliated sister project focusing on public domain books
+on Thailand and Southeast Asia. Project leads: Rikker
+Dockum, Emil Kloeden. (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/44679-8.zip b/old/44679-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82c2ff2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44679-8.zip
diff --git a/old/44679.txt b/old/44679.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa035df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44679.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1385 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Siam--Land of Free Men, by H. G. Deignan
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Siam--Land of Free Men
+
+Author: H. G. Deignan
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2014 [EBook #44679]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by the volunteers of Project Gutenberg Thailand.
+Proofreading by users emil, rikker, dekpient. PGT is an
+affiliated sister project focusing on public domain books
+on Thailand and Southeast Asia. Project leads: Rikker
+Dockum, Emil Kloeden. (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                       SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
+                       WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES
+                            NUMBER EIGHT
+
+
+                       SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN
+
+
+                                 By
+                            H. G. DEIGNAN
+
+
+                         (Publication 3703)
+
+
+                         CITY OF WASHINGTON
+              PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
+                          FEBRUARY 5, 1943
+
+
+
+
+                      The Lord Baltimore Press
+                      BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS
+
+  Geography
+  Peoples
+  Prehistory
+  Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok
+  Kingdom of Ayuthia
+  Kingdom of Tonburi
+  Kingdom of Siam
+  Thailand
+
+
+                            ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                               PLATES
+
+  1. 1, Gorge of the Me Ping
+     2, Ancient wall at Chiengmai
+  2. 1, A monolith in the Me Ping gorge
+     2, Boat being pulled upstream through the rapids by ropes
+  3. 1, The "mai kwao," tree that yields gum resin
+     2, Transplanting young rice plants
+  4. 1, Fishing from the roadsides after the rains
+     2, Water buffalo
+  5. 1, A primitive type of cart
+     2, Elephants breaking up a log jam
+  6. 1, Small river boats, and bamboo water wheel
+     2, A temple
+  7. 1, A reliquary
+     2, The high altar of a Buddhist shrine
+  8. 1, Royalty visits Chiengmai
+     2, A princely funeral at Chiengmai
+
+
+                             TEXT FIGURE
+
+  1. Map of Siam
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Map of Siam.]
+
+
+
+
+                         SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN
+
+
+                           By H. G. DEIGNAN
+                _Associate Curator, Division of Birds_
+                       _U. S. National Museum_
+
+
+                           (WITH 8 PLATES)
+
+
+
+
+From the earliest times the great peninsula which lies between India
+and China .... has been peculiarly subject to foreign intrusion.
+Successive waves of Mongolian humanity have broken over it from the
+north, Dravidians from India have colonised it, Buddhist missions from
+Ceylon have penetrated it, and buccaneers from the islands in the
+south have invaded it. Race has fought against race, tribe against
+tribe, and clan against clan. Predominant powers have arisen and
+declined. Civilisations have grown up, flourished and faded. And thus
+out of many and diverse elements a group of nations have been evolved,
+the individuals of which, Mon, Kambodian, Annamese, Burmese, Shan,
+Lao, Siamese and Malay, fundamentally much alike, but differing in
+many externals, have striven during centuries for mastery over each
+other, and incidentally over the countless minor tribes and clans
+maintaining a precarious existence in their midst. Into this melee
+of warring factions a new element intruded in the sixteenth century A.
+D. in the shape of European enterprise. Portuguese, Dutch, French and
+English all came and took part in the struggle, pushing and jostling
+with the best, until the two last, having come face to face, agreed to
+a cessation of strife and to a division of the disputed interests
+amongst the survivors. Of these there were but three, the French, the
+English, and the Siamese, and therefore Further India now finds
+herself divided, as was once all Gaul, into three parts. To the east
+lies the territory of French Indo-China, embracing the Annamese and
+Kambodian nations and a large section of the Lao; in the west the
+British Empire has absorbed the Mon, the Burmese and the Shans;
+while, wedged between and occupying the lower middle part of the
+subcontinent, with the isolated region of British Malaya on its
+extreme south border, lies the kingdom of Siam, situated between 4 deg.
+20' and 20 deg. 15' N. latitude, and between 96 deg. 30' and 106 deg. E.
+longitude.[1]
+
+So wrote Graham at a period when the Siamese held sway over a
+territory of more than 200,000 square miles or an area equivalent to
+the combined areas of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
+Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
+Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and almost half of Ohio. It must not
+be supposed, however, that the Thai[2] had permanently resigned
+themselves to a continuation of this political division of the
+peninsula. Rich provinces to which they had more or less cogent
+claims, based on facts of history or ethnography, lay under foreign
+rule and, with the rise of world-wide nationalism in the 1920's and
+1930's a lively irredentism came into flower. This irredentism and its
+accompanying nationalistic fervor have colored the policies of the
+Thai Government during the decade just passed and serve to explain
+many political actions which are otherwise puzzling to the western
+world.
+
+[1] Graham, W. A., Siam, vol. 1, pp. 1-2, London, 1924.
+
+[2] Pronunciation near English "tie."
+
+
+
+
+GEOGRAPHY
+
+
+Whatever more or less final rectifications of frontiers result from
+the current war, the land of the Thai will still, for general
+purposes, fall into four geographic divisions of major importance:
+Northern, Central, Eastern, and Peninsular.
+
+Northern Thailand, lying between the Salwin and the Me Khong, two of
+the world's most majestic rivers, is, for the most part, a country of
+roughly parallel ranges and valleys running north and south. At the
+heads of the flat-floored valleys, which vary in elevations above sea
+level from 800 feet in the southeast to 1,200 feet in the northwest,
+arise important streams, the Me Nan, the Me Yom, the Me Wang, and the
+Me Ping, which, falling through narrow defiles to debouch in the low
+land of Central Siam, eventually there conflow to form the Me Nam Chao
+Phraya, the chief artery of that division. On the alluvia of these
+streams, as might be expected in a country whose civilization was
+originally based upon riziculture, live the great bulk of the northern
+Thai or Lao, in a setting of rich fields and orchards. The ranges
+similarly rise, southeast to northwest, from low, rounded hills to
+imposing peaks, many of which exceed an altitude of 5,000 feet and two
+of which achieve more than 8,000 feet. These mountains, rising
+abruptly from the valley floors and, on the whole, densely forested,
+are scarcely inhabited by man except for scattered groups of
+seminomadic hill tribes, which exist there by hunting and a primitive
+agriculture. The northernmost province, Chiengrai, is separated from
+the sister provinces by a mountain wall and belongs wholly to the Me
+Khong drainage; it is largely a region of marshes and grassy savannas.
+
+Central Siam, the heart of Thailand, is the vast alluvial plain of the
+Chao Phraya and may be described as 55,000 square miles of almost
+unbrokenly monotonous scenery. The level of the land is but little
+higher than that of the sea and, during the dry season, tidal
+influence is plainly evident as much as 50 miles from the river's
+mouth. Alluvial deposits, brought in the season of floods from the
+northern hills, are, however, raising this level at an astonishing
+rate; geological evidence shows that within comparatively recent times
+a great part of the plain was covered by the sea and even now the
+northern shores of the Gulf of Siam, at the mouth of the Chao Phraya,
+are advancing seaward at a rate of almost a foot a year. Its rich
+soil, its abundance of watercourses, both natural and artificial, and
+its comparatively dense population combine to make it one of the most
+eminently suitable areas of the world for the production of fine rice.
+
+As Central Siam is the heart of the Kingdom, the royal city of Bangkok
+or Krungthep is the very core of that heart. Situated on the banks of
+the Chao Phraya, some 20 miles from its mouth, this metropolis, whose
+history goes back not earlier than the mid-eighteenth century A.D., is
+the center for scholarship and the arts, the filter through which pass
+all goods and ideas received by the interior from the outside world,
+and the nucleus of one of the most highly centralized of national
+governments. Its citizenry of some 800,000 represents no less than 5
+percent of the total population of the country.
+
+Eastern Thailand is a huge, shallow, elevated basin, tilted toward the
+east, so that while its western rim stands 1,000 feet above the sea,
+its eastern rim is formed by low hills. The plateau is watered by the
+system of the Me Nam Mun, a tributary of the Me Khong. A
+poverty-ridden country of unproductive soil and adverse climatic
+conditions, it supports indifferently well a comparatively limited
+population.
+
+Peninsular Siam is the narrow, northern two-thirds of the Malay
+Peninsula, sharply divided longitudinally by a mountain chain which
+passes down its whole length. It is a country rich in forests, cattle,
+fisheries, mines, and agriculture, and possessed of great natural
+beauty in the countless islets off its shores, its beaches lined with
+palms and casuarinas, and the verdure of it mountain-backed
+landscapes. Most of the developed natural wealth of the Kingdom is
+found in this portion, which has fine systems of highways and
+railroads.
+
+The whole of Siam lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator
+and is subject to the typical monsoonal climate of southeastern Asia,
+by which the prevailing winds, from the latter part of April to the
+middle of October, consistently blow from the southwest and from
+mid-October to April, from the northeast. In Northern, Central, and
+Eastern Thailand there are three distinct seasons--the hot weather,
+the rains, and the cold weather, the first extending from February or
+March to May, the second from June to October, and the third covering
+the remaining months of the year. When the northeast winds blow
+strongly, the cold weather is very marked, but at such times as the
+seasonal winds fail, the cold weather is scarcely distinguishable from
+the hot. In Northern Siam, which lies at greatest distance from the
+sea and possesses greater radiation, the days may be hot even during
+the cold weather when the night temperatures afford a strong contrast
+by dropping to as low as 50 deg. F. and on the mountains even lower,
+although never reaching freezing temperatures. The basin of Eastern
+Siam, with its thin vegetation and cut off from cooling breezes by its
+surrounding rim, is subject to terrific heats during the day and,
+during the winter, very low temperatures at night. The central plain,
+outside of Bangkok, is pleasantly cooled during the hottest season by
+the continuous sea winds, night and day; in Bangkok, however, perhaps
+owing to houses of masonry in place of thatch and the drainage of
+surrounding marshes, the climate is not only appallingly hot but
+actually becoming perceptibly more so year by year. Peninsular Siam
+has the mildest and most equable climate, the greatest annual
+rainfall, and only two noticeable seasons--the hot weather from
+February to August and the rains from September to January, with the
+peak of the wet season coming in December.
+
+Owing to the fact that the political frontiers have little
+relationship to biogeographical boundaries, the Kingdom possesses a
+fauna and flora richer than those of most areas of comparable size.
+The primeval jungles of the western and northern mountains show
+untrammeled Nature at her tropical best. The slopes are enlaced with
+countless streams and waterfalls, from roaring torrents to rills which
+flow only during and after the rains. In the forests of these hills
+and valleys, huge epiphyte-laden trees, bound together by vines,
+shelter such animals as the elephant, the tiger, and the gaur, but so
+dense is the cover that the presence of large game is more often made
+known by signs than by actual sight, and only the hunter who is
+willing to work hard and long is likely to shoot a worth-while trophy.
+More than 1,000 different birds are recorded from the country, while
+fishes of almost endless variety abound everywhere, from the Gulf to
+the smallest roadside ditches. The natural vegetation ranges from the
+most typically tropical plants, such as the mangosteen, to forms of
+the Temperate Zone, such as pines and violets, on the northwestern
+mountains. The central plain, where not devoted to rice cultivation,
+shows the characteristic flora and fauna of a marsh and the eastern
+plateau has an impoverished biota, characterized by a certain number
+of endemic forms; the Peninsula, however, like the west and north,
+bears great forests rich in species of animals and plants.
+
+
+
+
+PEOPLES
+
+
+Archeology can still tell us little of the first human occupants of
+Siam. The earliest evidence of man's existence here is furnished by
+celts, uncovered in the Peninsula and on the eastern plateau, which
+are supposed to date from the later Neolithic period; geology,
+however, gives us no reason to conclude that the makers of these
+implements were not preceded by other races.
+
+[Illustration: 1. The rivers fall from the northern plateaus to the
+central plain through narrow defiles.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Ancient wall at Chiengmai. The city walls are
+preserved as picturesque ruins.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. An international incident was caused by the European
+alpinist who first scaled the monolith to plant his nation's flag upon
+it.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Boats must be pulled upstream through the rapids by
+ropes.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. The valuable gum resin, Bengal kino, is yielded by
+the "mai kwao" (_Butea frondosa_).]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Young rice plants are transplanted from a seedbed to
+the flooded fields.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. At the end of the rains, fish may be captured from
+the roadsides.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Cows and water buffaloes are treated as family
+pets.]
+
+Among the mountains of the Malay Peninsula exist to this day small
+groups of dwarf, black-skinned, kinky-haired people, different from
+all other races of the country but closely related to the natives of
+the Andaman Islands and the Negritos of the Philippines; it has been
+surmised that these Ngo (Semang) are the dwindling remnant of a once
+numerous population, successors to (and possibly descendants of) the
+Neolithic men.
+
+Following the Ngo and sometime during the past few millennia, it is
+believed that there came successive waves of a people of Mongolian
+origin who, making their way down the rivers, drove the primitive
+Negritos into the hills and settled in their place. Now conveniently
+known as the Mon-Annam family, their descendants are the Mon
+(Peguans), the Cambodians, and the Annamese, as well as numerous
+semibarbarous lesser tribes which persist among the mountains of the
+subcontinent.
+
+Probably between two and three thousand years ago and certainly after
+the arrival of the Mon-Annam immigrants, another great population
+wave, known as the Tibeto-Burman family, rolled southward over
+Indo-China but chiefly descended the valley of the Irrawaddy (where
+they have given rise to the modern Burmese), thus scarcely entering
+Siam at all. Only in comparatively recent times, driven from their
+former homes by political disturbances, have tribes of this stock
+(Yao, Meo, etc.) migrated into Thailand and the territories to the
+east, where they are constantly being joined by others of their blood
+brothers from farther north.
+
+While the Mon and the Khmer (Cambodians) were still spreading over the
+southern parts of Indo-China and before they had begun, under the
+influence of colonists from India, to emerge from a condition of
+savagery, the tribes which they had left behind them at different
+points during their southward movement were already being driven back
+into the mountains and brought into a state of partial subjugation by
+the members of a third great family of migrants from the north. These
+were the people now known as Lao-Tai, who, sending out bands from
+their ancient seat in the valley of the Yangtze, had already, 2,500
+years ago, established a powerful state on the banks of the Me Khong
+in the neighborhood of the modern Wieng Chan (Vientiane).
+
+The Lao-Tai of the Yangtze Valley were evidently very numerous, for
+not only did they thus early establish kingdoms far from home but also
+became a power in their own land and for some time bid strongly for
+the mastery of all China. For centuries they waged successful wars on
+all their neighbors, but their strong propensity for wandering
+weakened their state and finally caused its disintegration. The
+Chinese attacked them repeatedly, each attack producing a fresh exodus
+until, during the thirteenth century A.D., the Emperor Kublai Khan
+dealt them a final blow which crushed their power and scattered them
+in all directions. Fugitives entered Assam, where earlier emigrants
+had already settled, and became the dominant power in that country;
+others invaded Burma, where for two centuries a Lao-Tai (Shan) dynasty
+occupied the throne; while down the Salwin and Me Khong Valleys came
+band after band of exiles who mingled with their cousins already
+established in those valleys and, in time fusing with the Mon and the
+Khmer, produced the race which, since the founding of the city of
+Ayuthia, has been dominant in Siam.
+
+The principal divisions of the Lao-Tai family now living within the
+borders of Siam are the Thai ("free men") or Siamese proper; the Lao,
+who occupy the former seats of those tribes of their own stock that
+afterward developed into the Thai; and the Shans, a later intrusion of
+distant cousins, descended from the Lao-Tai tribes that settled in the
+more eastern districts of Burma in the twelfth century and earlier.
+
+
+
+
+PREHISTORY
+
+
+The history of Siam prior to the fourteenth century A.D. is chiefly
+known from a hodgepodge of disconnected stories and fragments known as
+the "Pongsawadon Mu'ang Nu'a" ("Annals of the North Country"),
+compiled at different periods from such of the official records of
+various cities and kingdoms as had escaped the destruction which at
+intervals overtook the communities to which they referred. With the
+omission of the numerous supernatural happenings there recorded and
+comparative study of the chronicles of neighboring countries, scholars
+have been able to draw a rough picture of the condition of Siam at the
+dawn of historical time.
+
+Their researches show a country inhabited by primitive people of
+Mon-Khmer stock among whom had settled groups of their more civilized
+cousins from Cambodia, who had brought with them the religion and
+customs acquired by contact with colonists from India. These
+communities grew from villages into cities and at the same time sent
+out offshoots in all directions, which in time became the capitals of
+small states, the chiefs of which constantly made war on each other
+and against the Lao-Tai tribes at their borders and now and again rose
+to sufficient strength to repudiate the vague suzerainty claimed over
+them all by the empire of Cambodia.
+
+Contemporary records of the period subsequent to the fourteenth
+century A.D. are easily available. The most important is the
+"Pongsawadon Krung Kao" ("Annals of the Old Capital" or "Annals of
+Ayuthia"), which contains a complete and fairly accurate account,
+compiled in successive reigns, of the history of the country from A.D.
+1349 to 1765. The seventeenth and later centuries have also seen the
+production of numerous works, by European travelers and missionaries,
+which deal wholly or partly with Siam.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF SUKHOTHAI-SAWANKHALOK
+
+
+The most ancient Mon-Khmer settlement of which anything definite is
+known was Sukhothai (located on the river Me Yom some 200 miles north
+of the site of modern Bangkok), which by 300 B.C. was already a
+sizable village. At first putting forth no pretensions to the status
+of kingdom, the community evidently increased rapidly in importance,
+for some two centuries later the chief, Phraya Thammarat, declared
+himself King of the district, founded the new capital of Sawankhalok,
+and appointed one of his sons viceroy of Sukhothai, which itself soon
+grew into a fortified city. Thereafter, the two towns served
+alternately as the capital of a country which, as the Kingdom of
+Sukhothai-Sawankhalok, gradually grew to great wealth and strength.
+
+Its monarchs occupied themselves with the waging of war against the
+petty chieftains of neighboring states (founded in the same manner and
+upon the same principles as their own but at somewhat later dates)
+and, in course of time reducing all of them to vassalage, came to be
+recognized as rulers of the whole country. The vague overlordship of
+Cambodia continued for many centuries but with little or no influence
+upon the destinies of its nominal dependency, which was left to manage
+itself and its own subordinates as seemed to it best.
+
+At the same time as the various Mon-Khmer states of Siam were
+struggling to subdue each other, the Lao tribesmen inhabiting the
+mountainous districts to the north, emboldened by their increasing
+numbers and constantly raiding the rich villages of the plains, were
+demanding an ever greater amount of attention and as early as the
+fifth century A.D., the reduction of the Lao had become almost the
+main preoccupation of the kings of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok. Expeditions
+against them were constant, but while they were frequently defeated
+and large numbers of them carried captive to Sukhothai or Sawankhalok,
+the intercourse thus brought about served only to strengthen them,
+since it enabled them to adopt the customs and civilization of the
+conquerors and then turn the acquired knowledge against their
+instructors with an ever-growing degree of success.
+
+About A.D. 575, a Lao city, built in imitation of the Khmer capitals,
+was founded at a spot about 250 miles north of Sawankhalok and given
+the name of Haribunchai (later corrupted to Lamphunchai and the modern
+Lamphun). The chief of this town married a princess of the Khmer state
+of Lopburi and established a dynasty which closely followed the
+Brahman rites and ceremonies in vogue at Sukhothai. During this time
+other Lao states arose and the time soon came when the Khmer could no
+longer hold the Lao in check. During succeeding centuries Lao armies
+advanced far south into the Mon-Khmer kingdoms, marital and political
+alliances between Lao and Khmer royalty became common, and Lao
+settlements were established in various parts of southern Siam.
+
+Despite wars with rival states to the south and the Lao to the north,
+the Kingdom of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok prospered greatly and in time
+attained to a high civilization. The arts were encouraged, the people
+were well governed, trade was extensive, and friendly relations were
+maintained with China and other distant countries by frequent exchange
+of embassies. Envoys from the Emperor of China, who visited Sukhothai
+in the seventh century A.D., have left records which indicate that the
+populace were chiefly engaged in the cultivation of rice and the
+manufacture of sugar and that in manners and customs they closely
+resembled the modern inhabitants of Siam. The style of architecture,
+remains of which still survive, followed, in somewhat degenerated
+form, that seen in the ruins of Angkor and other Cambodian cities.
+
+During the reign of the hero-King Rama Khamheng (Phra Ruang) the
+country reached the zenith of its greatness and when he died, about
+A.D. 1090, he left to his heir an empire which embraced much of the
+Lao states to the north and all of the more southern Khmer kingdoms of
+Siam. This heritage, however, was fated to endure but a short time.
+During the eleventh century the Khmer King of Lopburi and the Lao King
+of Lamphun, both vassals of Phra Ruang, had been intermittently at war
+with each other without interference from the suzerain; toward the end
+of the century Lopburi was finally overcome and, declaring itself
+subordinate to Lamphun, was forced to admit large numbers of Lao to
+settle within its borders. Soon after Phra Ruang's death, a great Lao
+army composed of the warriors of several allied states and led by a
+chief known as Suthammarat, invaded Sukhothai-Sawankhalok itself,
+defeated its armies, overran its lands to the south, reduced the
+cities, and founded the capital of Pitsanulok, southwest of Sukhothai
+and in the heart of the Khmer Kingdom. Thereafter, although the rulers
+of Sukhothai-Sawankhalok continued for some time to maintain regal
+state, they were never again to hold a paramount position and were, in
+fact, to become mere vassals of the ancient enemy until eventually,
+some four centuries subsequent to the foundation of Pitsanulok, they
+were to be no more than provincial governors representative of the
+kings of Ayuthia.
+
+Suthammarat, an admirer of the Khmer, in setting up his throne in the
+conquered kingdom, imitated as closely as possible the ways of
+Sukhothai and, by marrying a lady of the country, set an example for
+his following which gave great impetus to that fusion of Lao and Khmer
+which, already begun in Lopburi, was soon to result in the evolution
+of the Thai (Siamese) race.
+
+The early thirteenth century saw the beginning of the last and
+greatest influx of Lao into the south of Siam. The suppression of the
+Lao-Tai undertaken in southwestern China, culminating in the decisive
+victories of the Emperor Kublai Khan, drove many thousands of these
+people down into the mountainous regions of northern Siam, where the
+newcomers upset the balance of power among their predecessors and
+caused the disruption of several of their states. As a result, many
+impoverished petty chieftains of ancient lineage gathered their people
+together and set off down the rivers to seek new fortunes in the
+kingdoms to the south. During the following century, mingling with the
+Khmer and the Lao-Khmer and acquiring great strength of numbers, the
+Lao wrested control from the original inhabitants and established
+capitals of their own, one of which, Supanburi, was in time to become
+dominant over all the rest. When, at the middle of the fourteenth
+century, Phra Chao Uthong, King of Supanburi, fleeing from a
+pestilence, marched westward to found a new capital, Nong Sano, now
+the seat of the weak successors of the great Suthammarat, fell into
+his hands almost without a struggle, its King fled to Cambodia, and
+Uthong erected near the fallen city the new city of Maha Nakhon Si
+Ayuthaya (Ayuthia), which was destined to become famous throughout the
+world as the capital of one of the greatest kingdoms in the history of
+Farther India.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF AYUTHIA
+
+
+Phra Chao Uthong (under the name of Phra Ramathibodi) became King at
+Ayuthia in A.D. 1350 and thereafter was fully occupied in bringing the
+outlying states and provinces into line, in organizing his government,
+and in setting up a system of law, parts of which continue in use to
+the present time. Before his death in 1369, he had brought together
+the whole of the components of the Sukhothai-Sawankhalok Kingdom and
+had welded them so closely together that, when Cambodia, annoyed by
+the independent attitude of what was theoretically its vassal, sent an
+army to reassert its rights of suzerainty, the united Siamese not only
+defeated the enemy but pursued him well within the confines of his own
+country.
+
+Under Ramathibodi's successors the Kingdom continued to prosper.
+During the next two centuries, Buddhism definitely succeeded
+Brahmanism as the popular religion throughout the country and great
+treasure was expended in beautifying the cities by the erection of
+graceful temples and reliquaries in the adapted Cambodian style which
+persists in Siam to this day.
+
+About A.D. 1527, the King of Pegu, enraged by the exploits of Siamese
+marauders in his frontier province of Tavoy, collected an army at
+Moulmein and sent it into Siam under the leadership of the heir
+apparent, Bureng Naung. Defeating the Siamese near Supanburi, the
+Peguan prince advanced to the walls of Ayuthia itself; so stout was
+the resistance, however, and so prolonged the siege that his supply
+system broke down and he was forced to return to his own country,
+fighting rear-guard actions and losing heavily all the way. After 3
+years, Bureng Naung, now King, taking the assumption by the King of
+Siam of the title "Lord of the White Elephants" as a casus belli,
+again attacked Siam with a great army and once more besieged the
+capital. This time, to save the city, the "Lord of the White
+Elephants" was compelled to negotiate and to turn over several of the
+animals in question to the invader, who then retired. Only a few years
+later, however, the Siamese King repudiated Peguan suzerainty; Bureng
+Naung returned, by treachery gained admission to the city, sacked and
+partially destroyed it, and sent the King, with many of his followers,
+in chains to Pegu. Leaving the Siamese governor of Pitsanulok as his
+viceroy in Ayuthia, Bureng Naung pressed on to subdue other cities but
+was scarcely out of sight when a Cambodian army, burning to avenge
+recent defeats and to reestablish ancient rights, appeared to begin a
+new siege of Ayuthia; this enemy was repulsed but not before the
+unprotected districts around the capital had been thoroughly looted.
+
+Just now, when, attacked from east and west, her provinces despoiled
+and her people fugitive or captive, Ayuthia seemed doomed to early
+extinction, a hero arose to redeem her. This was Phra Naret, a son of
+Bureng Naung's viceroy, who, appointed by his father governor of
+Pitsanulok, in his youth saw military service defending his province
+against robber bands and in the wars of Nanda Bureng, son and
+successor to Bureng Naung, against the rebellious province of Ava. By
+his ability bringing upon himself the dislike of the Peguan King, to
+such a degree that his life was endangered, he revolted (ca. A.D.
+1565) and led a Siamese army to sack and pillage Tenasserim and
+Martaban. Two punitive expeditions sent against him were signally
+defeated by Naret, who was then crowned King of Siam and at once began
+to restore Ayuthia and to repopulate it by captives brought from
+outlying districts which had attempted to cast off their allegiance.
+
+Having established his supremacy at home, Naret inflicted a crushing
+defeat upon yet another Burmese army sent to subdue him and then, to
+avenge the humiliations imposed upon his country during her time of
+weakness, led a strong force against Cambodia; this campaign ended
+with the destruction of the Cambodian capital and the carrying of the
+King and many of his people captive to Ayuthia, where the former was
+executed. Finally, some time about the year 1600, Naret, at the head
+of a great army, invaded Burma with the object of conquering the whole
+of that country, but this was not to be: the King met death in one of
+the early battles and his son and heir, abandoning the enterprise,
+returned to his own dominions. But within the space of not more than
+35 years, Naret had raised Siam from a condition of almost complete
+ruin to a position of ascendancy over all the neighboring kingdoms and
+he left to his successors a great empire which was to endure for a
+period of 175 years.
+
+During this period, Siam was becoming well known to the European
+merchant adventurers trading in the Orient under the flags of
+Portugal, Holland, and England. Early in the sixteenth century, the
+Malay Kingdom of Malacca had been conquered by the Portuguese;
+individuals of this nation had penetrated to Ayuthia and Pegu and had
+served in the ranks of the contending armies during the Siamo-Burmese
+wars; Portuguese factories had been established at the various Siamese
+ports. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Portuguese
+missionaries arrived at Ayuthia, where they were well received and
+given land for their churches. About this time also, English and Dutch
+ships first appeared in Siamese waters and a bitter rivalry soon
+sprang up among the foreigners, who competed for commercial supremacy
+and the favor of the King, without which trade could scarcely be
+carried on at all. This antagonism resulted in endless quarreling and
+even in desperate battles between the representatives of the rival
+powers and by 1634 the Dutch had so far prospered that they had built
+a fortified factory at Amsterdam on the river Chao Phraya, carried on
+extensive commerce throughout Siam, and monopolized the carrying trade
+to China and Japan. With the taking of Malacca by the Dutch in 1641,
+the influence of the Portuguese soon declined, although many
+individuals continued to live in Siam, where such surnames as da Silva
+and da Jesus persist to this day in families which no longer show any
+other trace of European ancestry. The Dutch rapidly succeeded to all
+the commercial outposts of Portugal in Siam, devoting themselves
+chiefly to trade and taking little or no interest in internal
+politics, except insofar as their commercial prospects were affected.
+The first formal treaty contracted by Siam with any western power was
+that entered into, in the year 1664, with the representatives of the
+Dutch East India Company, authorized by the Dutch Republic. Dutch
+trade with Siam continued until A.D. 1706, when the royal favor was
+finally lost for good and the Company's agents expelled from the
+Kingdom.
+
+In 1659 there arrived at Ayuthia one of the most extraordinary figures
+in the history of Siam. This was Constantine Phaulcon, the son of a
+Cephalonian innkeeper, who ran away to sea in an English ship and,
+eventually making his way to Siam, stayed there to become Chief
+Minister of the Crown and the trusted adviser of the King, Phra Narai.
+Under Phaulcon's able guidance the country for a time prospered
+greatly. Not only were the Portuguese and Dutch merchants, already
+established, encouraged to extend the scope of their enterprise but
+the English and French East India Companies were invited to set up
+factories at the capital. The King himself, in partnership with his
+First Minister, operated a profitable fleet of merchantmen and became
+the principal trader of his own country.
+
+About this time it came to be believed in Europe that the whole of the
+Far East was ripe for conversion to Christianity and a Roman Catholic
+Mission was organized in France to put this ambitious design into
+effect. Ayuthia, possessing a cosmopolitan population and strong
+commercial ties with Japan, China, the Sunda Isles, and India, was
+considered the best central location for the project and, in A.D.
+1662, three French bishops with a staff of priests arrived there to
+inaugurate the work. These ecclesiastics were favorably received by
+the King and within a short period the mission had acquired a
+considerable number of adherents. In order further to strengthen their
+position, however, they sought and obtained the official support of
+Louis XIV of France, who exchanged complimentary letters and embassies
+with the Siamese monarch. Phaulcon, in the confidence of the bishops,
+was thus brought into correspondence with Colbert, Louis's minister,
+and before long the French King's interest was centered on more
+material aspects of Siam than its spiritual welfare. A scheme was set
+afoot for securing the supremacy of France in the Asiatic kingdom
+through the agency of the priests, who, apparently believing that,
+with material support from Louis, they could convert the King himself
+to Christianity, were not unwilling to do their part. Six French
+men-of-war and a body of 1,400 soldiers were therefore dispatched to
+Siam, ostensibly to assist in intimidating the Dutch, who were at the
+time causing trouble from their fortress of Malacca. The two principal
+ports of Bangkok and Mergui were garrisoned by a part of these French
+troops and the King was induced to attach another part of them to his
+own person. The missionaries then began to exhort the King with all
+the eloquence at their command but found that his conversion was a
+more difficult matter than had been expected. Their obstinate
+insistence with him and Phaulcon's ascendancy over him ended by
+alarming the Siamese, and when remonstrances against the
+ever-increasing number of foreigners in the service of the State went
+disregarded, a conspiracy was formed among high officers of the Court.
+Phra Narai was driven from the throne, Phaulcon was killed, the
+European troops were driven from the country, and Siam was saved from
+becoming the keystone of a great French empire in the Far East.
+
+[Illustration: 1. A primitive type of cart still is used in remote
+districts. The teak logs shown in the background must be carted or
+dragged by elephants from the forest to the nearest large stream.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. Elephants are employed to break up a jam of logs at
+the estacades of a bridge.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. An extensive commerce is carried on between the
+riverine towns by small boats. The water wheel of bamboo (left)
+irrigates a garden on the shore.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. The graceful temples of Thailand are adorned with
+lacquer, gold leaf, and colored glass.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. Ransacked reliquaries dot the jungles of Thailand.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. The high altar of a Buddhist shrine.]
+
+[Illustration: 1. Royalty visits Chiengmai.]
+
+[Illustration: 2. A princely funeral at Chiengmai. White is the color
+of mourning.]
+
+The Kingdom of Ayuthia continued to prosper during several subsequent
+reigns marked by friendly relations with European nations, including
+the French, and a preoccupation with foreign commerce. But, about the
+year 1759, the Burmese, reunited, after a long period of internal
+strife, under the martial Alaung Phra, initiated hostilities against
+the Siamese by an invasion which brought them to the walls of the
+capital; the Burmese King, however, sickened at the beginning of the
+siege and died before he could regain his own country. In 1766, under
+his son, Sin Byu Shin, war was resumed by simultaneous marches on
+Ayuthia from north and south and the city was again invested. Phra
+Sucharit, the Siamese ruler, was unfamiliar with warfare but
+encouraged his people to a spirited resistance, hoping that relief
+would be afforded by the annual floods, coming in the wake of the
+rains; the enemy merely patrolled the waters in hundreds of boats and,
+as they subsided, threw up new earthworks even nearer the walls. In
+the spring of 1767, Sucharit, disheartened, attempted to treat with
+them but was rebuffed and when, with the arrival of reinforcements,
+the Burmese made an assault in force, the weakened city fell to them
+and was given over to looting, flames, and slaughter. The King,
+unattended, escaped in the confusion but was to die of exposure only a
+few days later.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF TONBURI
+
+
+Sin Byu Shin, leaving a viceroy with a small garrison to rule the
+country, withdrew his army to meet a threatened Chinese invasion of
+Burma and once again Siam fell into an interregnum of anarchy, with
+outlying districts setting themselves up as independent while robber
+bands preyed upon the people. An ex-official named Phraya Taksin, who
+had deserted his King when Ayuthia seemed likely to fall, gathered
+about himself a large number of deserters and broken men like himself
+and, by guile and treachery, soon acquired complete authority in the
+southeastern provinces, whence, in due time, he appeared before the
+walls of Ayuthia as a national avenger. Overcoming the garrison and
+killing the Burmese viceroy, Taksin declared himself King and
+selected, as the site of his new capital, the village of Tonburi, on
+the shore of the Chao Phraya opposite the settlement of Bangkok, where
+a populous city soon came into being. To strengthen his position,
+however, it was essential that Taksin destroy a legitimate pretender
+to the throne whose claims had many adherents; this prince had
+established himself at Khorat and thither the King sent an army with
+orders to take the city. But in advance of his soldiers he sent secret
+emissaries who so demoralized the prince's supporters that when the
+usurper's army appeared at last, the city fell into his hands almost
+without a struggle and the prince was captured and soon afterward
+murdered. With this last threat to his power removed, Taksin was able
+to send out expeditions in all directions and soon made himself
+undisputed master of the whole country.
+
+The authority of this ruthless man was not to endure long. His
+appointment of humble relatives to high office offended the nobility,
+while the popular mind was turned against him by his excesses and by
+insidious references to his alien ancestry. In 1781, giving out that
+he was mad, a cabal of his courtiers dethroned him and offered the
+crown to one of themselves, the son of a secretary to the last kings
+of Ayuthia. This nobleman, Phraya Chakkri, already popular through his
+achievements as a royal minister and as a leader of the armies, was
+readily accepted as King by the people and ascended the throne in A.D.
+1782, to found the dynasty which still reigns in Siam.
+
+
+
+
+KINGDOM OF SIAM
+
+
+Phraya Chakkri (hereafter to be styled as King Rama I) had scarcely
+assumed his new dignity when Bodaw Phra, King of Burma, attempted a
+new conquest of Siam. King Rama's military ability was such that the
+Burmese were finally everywhere defeated and, with the abandonment of
+Mergui and Tavoy by the Siamese in 1792, the recurrent wars between
+the two powers may be said to have ended for good. With the foreign
+danger averted, the King was able to organize his government, the seat
+of which was transferred from Tonburi to Bangkok, on the left bank of
+the river, where he constructed a fortified city.
+
+Rama II became involved in war at the beginning of his reign. In 1786,
+the regent of the now effete Kingdom of Cambodia had formally
+recognized Siamese suzerainty and had sent the infant King to reside
+at Bangkok, while he continued to rule the state under Siam's aegis.
+Annam, to the east, however, made identical claims to supremacy and
+when, in 1809, the Annamese King attempted to enforce his demands, an
+army was sent from Bangkok to repel him. The brief campaign ended with
+Rama's annexation of the Cambodian province of Phratabong, while the
+rest of the country became a dependency of Annam.
+
+Upon this King's death in 1825, the throne was usurped by one of his
+sons by a lesser wife, while the legitimate heir, Chao Fa Mongkut, a
+young man of twenty-one, retired to the safety of the Buddhist
+monkhood. The reign of Rama III is chiefly notable for Siam's
+resumption of political relations with the nations of the West. In
+1833, a treaty drawn up between Siam and the United States of America
+represented the first formal tie between this country and any Asiatic
+power.
+
+Toward the end of the reign, Cambodian politics again caused bad blood
+between Siam and Annam. A youth named Norodom, a son of the Cambodian
+King, had some time since been brought to Bangkok and reared at the
+Siamese Court. Upon his father's death, he was declared by Siam to be
+the rightful heir and, supported by a Siamese army, returned to
+Cambodia to gain the throne and, despite former agreements, to place
+the country again under Siamese protection.
+
+During his years of retirement, Chao Fa Mongkut, the King's half
+brother, had assiduously devoted himself to the study of the English
+language, the sciences, and the manners, customs, and systems of
+government of foreign lands; at the same time, he missed no
+opportunity to meet and converse with European travelers. Coming to
+the throne as Rama IV in 1851, at the age of 47, he brought to his
+task a remarkable degree of enlightenment, which resulted in throwing
+the country open to foreign trade and intercourse, in the introduction
+of such arts as printing and shipbuilding, in the construction of
+roads and canals, in laying the foundations for systems of education
+and public health, and in numerous other reforms directed toward
+increasing the public welfare. His love of learning was indirectly
+responsible for his death for, visiting a mountain peak to observe an
+eclipse in 1868, he contracted the illness from which he died in that
+year.
+
+The program of modernization initiated by King Rama IV was continued
+and expanded by his son, the great Chulalongkon (Rama V). Among the
+important reforms instituted during this reign were the abolition of
+debt slavery, the establishment of law courts, the construction of
+railways, the spread of education, regulation of the conditions of
+military service, and radical changes in methods of revenue and rural
+administration. The appointment of trained officials under organized
+control in place of ignorant provincial governors and hereditary
+chieftains welded the loose agglomeration of feudatory dependencies
+into the modern, homogeneous state.
+
+In the year 1863, Norodom, whom Siam had placed upon the Cambodian
+throne, made a treaty with France, now master of Annam, by which he
+accepted French protection; at almost the same time he made an exactly
+similar compact with Siam. Thus each country found itself responsible
+for the protection of Cambodia against any possible aggressor, while
+each was given the sole right of dictating the foreign policy of that
+state. So absurd a situation could not last and, after 4 years of
+negotiation, Siam was compelled to yield to the French thesis of their
+superior rights as successors to the Annamese kings, to abrogate her
+treaty of 1863, and to abandon all claim to suzerainty over Cambodia.
+
+Soon after Siam's withdrawal from Cambodia, the unofficial advocates
+of colonialism in France began to advance the idea that certain
+Siamese provinces east of the river Me Khong, having at one time
+formed a part of Annam, should be restored to that Kingdom, now a
+French protectorate. There is no historical basis for this claim,
+which was at first unsupported even in Paris, but when the colonial
+party added the argument that the unnavigable Me Khong, as one of the
+future trade routes of Southwest China, must at all costs be acquired
+by France, the French Government formally demanded of Bangkok the
+provinces in question. The Siamese replied by suggesting that the
+disputed territory be regarded as neutral until such time as the
+frontier could be properly demarcated and this was agreed upon but
+merely led to further trouble, each side accusing the other of
+violating the compact. Siam asked for arbitration, which was declined
+by the French. When, in 1893, bloody collisions occurred along the
+border, French gunboats, dispatched from Saigon, ascended the Chao
+Phraya, despite efforts of the Siamese naval forces to bar the way. In
+consequence of Siamese resistance, the French greatly increased their
+demands, now insisting that Siam give up all territory east of the Me
+Khong (including about half of the rich province of Luang Phrabang, to
+which no French claim had ever previously been laid). After 10 days of
+blockade, the Siamese had no choice but to accept a humiliating treaty
+which, among other concessions, required immediate evacuation of her
+eastern outposts and the payment of an indemnity; as a guarantee,
+France established a military occupation of the southeastern province,
+of Chanthabun, which was to continue long after all the terms had been
+fulfilled.
+
+Relations between the two countries were far from improved by this
+episode and, during the following years, abuses in the exercise of
+French extraterritorial rights were a fertile source of provocation.
+In fact, despite every effort to avoid unfortunate incidents, the
+Government of Siam found itself spending all its energies in replying
+to diplomatic representations and to demands for inquiries,
+explanations, and reparations.
+
+As the French demands increased in numbers and severity, there was no
+longer any question that Siam's national survival was at stake. But,
+in 1896, Great Britain, at last alarmed by France's growing strength
+in southern Asia and unwilling to have her approach too near the
+eastern confines of India, intervened. High feelings were aroused in
+both countries but, after lengthy negotiations, an agreement was
+concluded in the same year, by which Siam's autonomy was guaranteed
+that she might serve as a buffer between the rival empires.
+
+Thereafter, relations between France and Siam tended to improve. It
+was not, however, until 1907, that, in return for yet another
+"rectification of the boundary," the French agreed to revise their
+extraterritorial rights and to remove the garrison from Chanthabun. A
+second convention of the same year resulted in Siam's restoring to
+Cambodia the province of Phratabong, which she had held since 1809,
+and receiving in exchange a part of the territory yielded in 1904 and
+obtaining a recognition of Siamese jurisdiction over Asiatic French
+subjects. Altogether, in warding off the European neighbor, Siam had
+been compelled to sacrifice no less than 90,000 square miles of her
+eastern lands.
+
+
+
+
+THAILAND
+
+
+Whether the modern traveler enters Siam by steamer from Hongkong or
+Singapore or by comfortable Diesel-engined train from the Malay
+States, his destination is certain to be Bangkok. Here, in bewildering
+juxtaposition, the old Siam and the new Thailand confront him together
+on every side. The former is represented in the complicated network of
+canals, upon which thousands of boat-dwellers pass their lives; in the
+narrow streets hung with the vertical signboards of the inevitable
+multitude of Chinese traders; in the throngs of yellow-robed monks
+that appear at daybreak from hundreds of gaily colored shrines whose
+spires arise in every direction. The new is seen in the modern
+boulevards lined with spacious wooden houses set among gardens and
+orchards; in the motorcars competing for space with bicycle-drawn
+jinrikishas; in the air-conditioned cinema theaters, where, before
+World War II, were shown the new pictures shipped by air from
+California; in the cement and match factories; in the great airport of
+Don Muang, north of the city, where transports arrived daily from
+Britain and Australia, from Java and The Netherlands.
+
+Until recently, the inhabitants of towns and villages outside the
+capital lived a life not greatly different from that of their
+ancestors: one which revolved around the annual cycle of planting,
+growing, and the harvest, with religious festivals to break the
+monotony of living. Poverty, as understood in the industrial Occident,
+was unknown for, while little actual money was seen by the average
+family during the course of a year, yet a house could be built of
+bamboo in a day or two; fruit trees bore around the year; clothing was
+woven at home and shoes were little worn; virtually everyone owned
+productive land or was at liberty to clear a tract from the forest
+which covers much of the thinly populated country; taxes were light
+and could be paid by a few days' labor on some project of public
+works.
+
+During the decade just passed the Government has initiated a positive
+program aimed at raising the standards of living of the common people
+and especially of the peasants who constitute the great majority.
+Among the means adopted have been the development of such new sources
+of gain as the raising of tobacco and cotton on a large scale; the
+construction of great irrigation projects and the development of
+sources of electric power; the education of the farmer in livestock
+breeding and scientific agriculture; the establishment of agencies to
+enable him to obtain a fair market for his produce; the spread of
+public-health and medical services in far corners of the provinces.
+The results of this experiment had not yet become clear when the war
+interfered to hinder its fulfillment.
+
+The political aspect of the program leaned heavily toward economic
+nationalism, in an endeavor to counteract the excessive proportion of
+foreign capital in the country and to encourage more active
+participation by the Thai in the building-up of their own land. If the
+means to these laudable ends were perverted, by the paid agents of
+Japanese propaganda and a handful of powerful men within the Thai
+Government, to serve the cause of "co-prosperity," it must not
+therefore be assumed that the misfortunes which have recently befallen
+them are traceable to any activities and desires on the part of the
+Thai people themselves.
+
+A lively resistance to the usurpers continues, inside Thailand and
+through her spokesmen abroad; we may confidently expect that the Thai,
+with the aid and sympathy of their friends of the United Nations, will
+at the earliest opportunity rid themselves both of their quislings and
+their Japanese overlords, again proudly to style themselves "the free
+men."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Siam--Land of Free Men, by H. G. Deignan
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIAM--LAND OF FREE MEN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 44679.txt or 44679.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/6/7/44679/
+
+Produced by the volunteers of Project Gutenberg Thailand.
+Proofreading by users emil, rikker, dekpient. PGT is an
+affiliated sister project focusing on public domain books
+on Thailand and Southeast Asia. Project leads: Rikker
+Dockum, Emil Kloeden. (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/44679.zip b/old/44679.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efc7b1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44679.zip