an independent kingdom of Eastern India, extending from about the 5th to the 21st degree of north latitude, and from the 98th to the 105th degree of east longitude. Its area is probably not less than 250,000 square miles. It is bounded on the N. by Laos; E. by Laos, Camboja, and the Gulf of Siam; S. by the Gulf of Siam and the Malay peninsula; and W. by the Bay of Bengal, the Tenasserim provinces, and the Birman empire.

Within these boundaries are included not only Siam Proper, but likewise the tributary Malayan states on the south, the conquered territory of Camboja and Korat on the east, and the tributary Laos states on the north and northeast. The Malayan tributary states are Patani, Tringana, Kalantan, and Quedah. The dependence of these states, however, especially the last three, is little else than nominal; with regard to Patani it is more complete, on account of its population being to a large extent Siamese. Camboja is now nearly divided between Siam and Cochin-China. Of this once powerful kingdom only a small remnant, of about two degrees of longitude, and three or four of latitude, with the single seaport of Kampot, and perhaps half a million of subjects, remain to the present monarch. Korat is only a small territory; but it has a walled town of great strength, which can only be approached through a dense and dangerous jungle. The Laos states are divided into two very distinct sections; those who tattoo their bodies, and those who do not. The tattooed, or black-bellies, occupy the districts of Xieng-Mai, Laphun, Lakhou, Muang-Phre, and Muang-Nan; the non-tattooed, or white-bellies, live in the districts of Muang-Lom and Muang-Luang-Phra-Bang. The western region of the country is inhabited by the white-bellies, the eastern by the black- belles. They are divided into a number of petty kingdoms; but few of them are strictly independent, most of them being tributary to the king of Siam. (See Royal Geo. Soc. Jour., vol. xxvi.)

The country of Siam is traversed, from north to south, by several mountain-chains, which descend from the mountainous province of Yun-nan, in China. Two of these ranges enclose between them the fertile valley of the Menam, which may be said to comprise the whole of Siam Proper. The western chain separates the waters of the Menam from the Saluen, and extends southwards to the mouth of the Tenasserim river. On the eastern bank of that stream rises the chain of the "Three Hundred Peaks," a name derived from its sharp and conical summits. It terminates about 11° N. Lat.; but is succeeded by other ranges, which traverse the Malay peninsula. The mountain-chain which divides the Menam from the Mei-kong, or Camboja river, is little known; but where seen and visited it seems to be of moderate elevation, and is richly covered with vegetation. Of the western mountains of Siam, some of the summits are estimated to rise to the height of 5000 or 6000 feet; but as yet our information of the nature of the country is very vague and meagre. The mountains seem to be mostly covered with a thick jungle of trees.

Siam possesses a great extent of sea-coast. The Gulf of Siam is almost entirely bordered by its territory, and it has also about 500 miles of coast on the Bay of Bengal. Altogether, it may be said to have a coast-line of about 2000 miles. The Gulf of Siam is about 500 miles in length, from south-east to north-west, and has an average breadth of about 250. It is little exposed to the typhoons and tempests which do so much damage in the Chinese seas. There is a gulf-current, which, from October to March, flows from north to south, at the rate of nearly three miles an hour; after April its ordinary course is from south to north. "The Admiralty charts," says Sir John Bowring, "are full of extraordinary blunders. Some were pointed out by Mr Crawfurd more than a third of a century ago, but have remained uncorrected to the present hour." Recently, however, this gulf has been surveyed by Mr John Richards, R.N., and it is hoped that these errors will now be corrected. (See Royal Geo. Society's Proceedings for 1859.) The gulf contains numerous islands all along its coasts. They are of small size, but many of them are valuable as furnishing the edible birds' nests which form so large an article of commerce with China. In the Bay of Bengal, too, off the Siamese coast, there are numerous islands, usually of small size, rocky, and elevated. The largest are St Matthews and Salanga, or Junk Ceylon, each being about 16 miles in length by 6 in breadth. The channels between them are generally of great depth, and seldom less than 4 or 5 fathoms.

The practicability of establishing communication between the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Siam, by means of a ship-canal cut across the Isthmus of Kra, has been advocated by more than one writer. The direct distance across the isthmus, in about 11° N. Lat., is about 50 miles; and it is said that only a few miles of cutting would be required. There is on the one side the Pakchan river, which falls into the Bay of Bengal, and on the other the Choomphon river, which enters the Gulf of Siam, both navigable for boats; while the space between them is so low, that, according to the natives, the two rivers frequently commingle their waters during the spring-tides. A canal here would be of immense importance to vessels trading between India and Eastern Asia, and would effect a saving in time often to be estimated, not by days, but by weeks. "A ship-canal here," says Sir John Bowring "if practicable, would be next in importance to those which have been proposed to cross the Isthmus of Darien in America, and that of Suez in Egypt."

The most important river of Siam is the Menam, or Meinam, a name signifying, in Siamese, "Mother of Waters." It takes its rise in the mountains of Yun-nan, in China, by two branches, which unite about N. Lat. 22°. The western, called Nan-ting-ho, rises about N. Lat. 24°, and is the longer of these branches; but the Meiprein is considered by the Siamese the main stream. The united river still retains the name of Meiprein, and flows through Lower Laos, or Yan-shan, becoming navigable for boats at Xang-Mai, the capital of that territory. Farther down, however, its navigation is impeded by rapids and cataracts. After being joined by the Phitsalok, it takes the name of Menam. In the flat country of Siam Proper it more than once divides itself into several streams, and falls into the Gulf of Siam by three mouths, after a course of about 800 miles. The Menam, like the Nile, annually overflows its banks, and fertilises a large district of country. Its waters begin to rise in the month of June, and in August they overflow the banks to a height sometimes exceeding six feet above their ordinary level. They generally remain in this state till the month of November, when they begin to subside; and by the end of December the river has returned to its natural bed. When the waters are supposed to have reached their height, the king deputes a hundred priests to command the inundation to proceed no farther. This, however, does not always succeed; and sometimes the country suffers fearfully from an extraordinary rise of the waters. During the prevalence of the inundation the country has the appearance of one vast lake, and boats traverse it in all directions. The valley of Menam is estimated to be about 450 miles in length, with an average breadth of about 50 miles, "constituting," says Sir John Bowring, "according to the usually received estimates, an area of above 22,000 square miles of territory, whose fertility is not exceeded by that of any portion of the globe." The principal mouth of the Menam is the eastern, on which the town of Bang-kok stands, and is the only one navigable for large vessels. The most western mouth is the Me-klong, so called from the river of that name which falls into it, and which is said to be navigable for boats for about 200 miles. The central mouth also receives a river, the Tachin, which is navigable for a considerable distance. East of the eastern mouth of the Menam is another large river, the Bang-pa-kong, which rises in the mountains of Camboja, between 15° and 16° N. Lat., and is said to carry down a volume of water not much less than the Menam itself. The plain of Siam Proper is intersected by numerous canals. In the east of Siam is Meikong, or Camboja river, one of the largest of Southern Asia. It rises in the mountains of Yun-nan, about N. Lat. 27° 20', and, flowing in a south by east direction, through Laos and Camboja, falls into the sea by three mouths, about N. Lat. 9° 35'. It has a length of about 1500 miles; but its navigation is much impeded by sand-banks at its mouths. In the west the principal river of Siam is the Saluen, which for several hundred miles forms the boundary between it and Burmah. It rises in the eastern portion of Tibet, flows south through the Chinese province of Yun-nan, forms the boundary between the Burmese empire on the west, and the territories of Laos and Siam on the east, and then flows through the northern portion of the Tenasserim provinces, to its mouth in the Bay of Bengal. It has a length of probably about 800 miles, but seems to be little suited for navigation. The climate of Siam is, for a tropical region, salubrious. The Siamese suffer from those diseases common to tropical countries—fevers, diarrhoeas, and dysenteries being the most fatal. Travellers who pass into the interior are very liable to the jungle fever. The year, as in other tropical countries, is divided into a wet and a dry season. At Bang-kok the dry season lasts from October to April, and during this period the weather is temperate; but in April and the beginning of May, before the rains set in, the heat becomes very oppressive, the thermometer being as high as 95° or 96° in the shade. The rains commence early in May, and continue to September. The prevailing winds are regular, blowing at different seasons of the year from all points of the compass. About the end of September the north-east monsoon begins to prevail, whence the wind veers gradually round towards the east, south, and west.

This interesting country is particularly rich in natural productions. "In its great outlines," says Sir John Bowring, "the animal, mineral, and vegetable world resembles that of other tropical regions, though in every part of the field there are varieties in detail which belong to the domain of the naturalist. They will become in time the objects of particular attention; and no portion of the East is probably so inviting as the Siamese regions, from their extent, their richness, and their novelty. There is, indeed, almost everything to explore; and the inquirer may now 'expatriate boldly,' with a certainty of having a full recompense for his exertions and investigations." Of the geology or mineralogy of Siam little is yet known. Tin abounds, and forms an important article of export. Copper and lead are also obtained in large quantities. Antimony and zinc exist, but the ores are not worked. Silver is found in combination with copper, lead, and arsenic; and gold is obtained in many parts. Iron mines are wrought at Tha Sung by the Chinese, and the ore is said to be very rich. Precious stones abound in various parts of the country. Agriculture is in a very backward state, and their implements of husbandry are of the very rudest description. In many places the land is prepared by turning in herds of buffaloes during the rainy season, to trample down the weeds and move the soil, which is then harrowed by a coarse rake, or a bush of thorny shrubs, after which the seed is broadcast upon the surface. The most important crop is rice, of which large quantities are now exported. The annual produce of rice at present is estimated at 25,000 tons; but by improved and extended cultivation, this might be raised to 100,000 tons. "The extent of cultivable rice land," says Sir John Bowring, "is capable of being doubled or trebled; there is now only one rice harvest in a year, and there might well be two." The sugar-cane is largely cultivated, but principally under the direction of the Chinese settlers. According to the authority already quoted, sugar will probably become the most important of all the exports of Siam, the soil being particularly adapted to its cultivation. Maize is extensively cultivated, particularly in the mountainous districts. The bamboo is to the natives one of the most valuable of products, being made to serve an almost infinite variety of purposes. Siam is noted for the great variety and abundance of its fruit-trees. The whole neighbourhood of Bang-kok is one forest of fruit-trees, and the products are both various and excellent. The chief fruits are the coconut, banana, pine-apple, tamarind, mango, guava, orange, lemon, citron, pomegranate, mangosteen, and durian, a fruit of an exquisite flavour, but with a very disagreeable odour. Among the other vegetable products of the country are cotton, tobacco, sago, black pepper, cardamoms, sapanwood, gamboge, and gutta-percha. The Aquila, or eagle wood (lignum aloes) is of great consumption as a perfume among the nations of Eastern Asia.

The elephant is very common in Siam, and here that animal is said to attain its greatest perfection, being sometimes twelve or thirteen feet in height. They are extensively used throughout the country for riding and carrying burdens, except in the capital, where their use is restricted to a few persons of high rank. The destruction of even the wild elephant is prohibited, yet many are killed surreptitiously for the sake of their tusks. Tigers abound, especially in the Laos country; and the leopard and tiger-cat are common. Of ruminating animals there are several species of deer, the goat, the ox, and the buffalo. Animals of the monkey tribe are numerous. Dogs and cats are seen in large numbers in the streets and houses of the Siamese. Bears, wild pigs, and porcupines, are common in the jungles and forests. The feathered tribes are very numerous, and range from the humming-bird to the karlen, a species of stork as tall as a man. The reptiles of Siam are multitudinous, and include crocodiles, tortoises, lizards, serpents, &c. Of insects, the caecus lacca produces the gum called lac in commerce.

The population of Siam is variously given, but may be estimated at from 5,000,000 to 6,000,000. It is made up of different races, the principal of which are Siamese, Chinese, Laos, Malays, and Cambodians. The Siamese are supposed to amount to about 1,800,000, and are principally located on the banks of the Menam and tributary streams south of N. Lat. 20., and down the peninsula to about N. Lat. 7. The Laos population is estimated at about 1,000,000, and principally occupy the great valley through which the Camboja flows, between N. Lat. 13. and 21. The Cambodians, who are only about half as numerous as the Laos, occupy the southern districts of the Camboja, down to the frontiers of Cochin-China. The Malayans, of whom there are probably nearly 1,000,000, occupy the peninsula south of N. Lat. 7. The Chinese settlers in Siam are estimated at about 1,500,000. (See Bowring's Siam.)

The government of Siam is a pure despotism, uncontrolled by laws, ancient usages, or any form of assembly. There is, indeed, a body of laws occupying, it is said, about seventy volumes, but the king has the power of at any time superseding the ordinary course of justice. He has, indeed, absolute power over the property, liberty, and lives of his subjects. There are practically three principal tribunals for the administration of justice, those of the king, the princes, and the provincial governors; but bribery prevails in every department, and from the judge down to the lowest clerk every one has his price. The king sits in public during a certain part of one day in the week for the purpose of receiving complaints. There is a second or inferior king of Siam, who exercises a kind of secondary or reflected authority, the exact nature or extent of which does not seem to be clearly defined. He is generally a brother or near relative of the king. A characteristic feature of Siamese society is the abject submission of every inferior to all who are superior to him in the social scale. "No man of inferior rank dares to raise his head to the level of that of his superior; no person can cross a bridge if an individual of higher grade chances to be passing below; no mean person may walk upon a floor above that occupied by his betters. Honours almost divine, language quite devotional, humiliations the most degrading, mark the difference between sovereign and subject; and to some extent the same reverence is paid to age which is exhibited towards authority." (Bowring's Siam.) A large part of the population is in a state of slavery; and every man above the age of twenty is bound to devote four months of the year to the service of the king. Public officers are often made responsible for the faults of those committed to their care; and parents are frequently made to bear a part of the punishment inflicted on their children because they ought to have taught them better. The parent has absolute power over his children, and may even sell them for slaves; but he cannot take away their life. Polygamy is legal, but there is always one wife in chief who has the pre-eminence and control over the rest. Marriage is a purely civil rite, and divorces are frequent and obtained with little difficulty.

The bonzes or priests are charged with the public education, and schools are attached to most of the religious establishments. Elementary education seems to be pretty generally diffused among the male population, and a considerable portion of them are able to read and write; but the females are almost entirely neglected. Instruction is chiefly confined to the creeds and rites of Buddhism, and there are few means of acquiring any of the higher branches of knowledge.

The religion of Siam is Buddhism. The priests or bonzes (Siamese Phra) are very numerous, exceeding, it is said, a hundred thousand. They generally live in convents attached to the temples, and are relieved of all taxes or services to the king or state. Every male must at some period of his life become a candidate for the priestly office, and remain for at least three months in a monastery, after which he may return to his secular condition. At the head of the priesthood is the Sangkhurat, or high priest, who is appointed by the king, and who always resides in the palace. His authority is supreme over all the pagodas and bonzes of the kingdom; but beyond this he has no temporal or spiritual authority. The priesthood is supported by the spontaneous offerings of the people; and their duty is to atone for the transgressions of those who bestow alms upon them. They are held in the highest veneration, and are relieved from all bodily labour. The manufactures of the Siamese are few and unimportant. In the useful arts they are much behind several of the other eastern nations. In the manufacture of gold and silver vessels they display considerable skill; and the copper and iron founders are said to be ingenious workmen. The cotton stuffs which form the ordinary dresses of the people are chiefly imported from other countries; but there is a silk stuff worn only by persons in high rank and manufactured in Siam, which the Siamese boast has never been successfully imitated elsewhere. Earthenware of a coarse quality is produced by native manufacturers, and paper is made from the bark of a tree or plant called khri. The preparation of leather is extensively carried on.

Bangkok, the capital of Siam, was at one time the third in point of importance among the commercial cities east of the Cape of Good Hope, being inferior only to Calcutta and Canton. A long period of bad legislation, however, totally stripped it of its importance, and when visited by Sir John Bowring in 1855, "all that remained to represent foreign trade was one English (half-caste) merchant, one Armenian, and a few Anglo-Indians from Bombay and Surat." Since the treaties with England and the United States the trade has rapidly increased, and a writer in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, who was there in May 1858, states that at that time there were "sixty-five large American and European ships at the city and on the roads." An increased demand for the productions of the country has given a stimulus to exertion, and already an increase in the produce of various articles has taken place. Rice and sugar are at present the staple articles of export; but gums, sapan wood, teak wood, gamboge, pepper, cocoa-nut oil, ivory, silk, cotton, and skins are also exported. A considerable trade is carried on with China.

The Siamese average about 5 feet 3 inches in height. The face is broad and flat, with large and prominent cheek-bones; the nose small but round not flattened as in the negro, and the nostrils distended; the mouth wide, with thick but not projecting lips; and the eyes small, with outer angles slightly turned up. Their skin is fairer than that of other Asiatics beyond the Ganges; and among the higher classes a bright yellow colour, almost like gold, is imparted to it by the use of a cosmetic. Their hair is black, thick, coarse, and long; and they dye their teeth black. In character the Siamese are idle, timid, and almost passionless; servile, fond of amusements, and mercenary. Lying and deceit is common to them with other oriental nations. The Siamese annals begin about five centuries before the Christian era, with the usual amount of fable; but from the founding of the city of Ayuthia, the ancient capital of the kingdom, about the middle of the fourteenth century, they seem to be tolerably reliable. (See Bowring's Siam.) The first European nation that established communication with Siam was the Portuguese, when engaged in the siege of Malacca in 1511. Soon after this a considerable number of Portuguese seem to have been located in the country, and we find them rendering valuable assistance to the Siamese in their wars with the neighbouring nations. About the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch obtained a footing in the country, and from that time Portuguese influence gradually declined. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, a Greek sailor named Phaulcon arrived in the country, and so gratified himself with the king as to be appointed prime minister. He persuaded the king to cultivate friendship with European countries, and induced him to send ambassadors to the Court of Louis XIV. These arrived in France in 1684, and also visited London, when a commercial treaty was concluded with the government of Charles II. The French king, in 1685, despatched an embassy to Siam, with a view to convert the King of Siam to the Catholic faith. This not succeeding, two years later a second embassy was sent out with 500 soldiers, which also failed in its object; and soon after a revolution happening in the country, the royal family were driven from the throne, Phaulcon was murdered, and the French were expelled from the country. About 1766 the country was overrun by the Burmese, who took by assault the capital, Yuthia, and committed great slaughter.

The English seem to have had little intercourse with the Siamese till very recently. In 1822 Mr John Crawfurd was commissioned by the Marquis of Hastings, then governor-general of India, to visit Siam and endeavour to establish commercial relations between that country and India, but met with comparatively little success. In 1826 a commercial treaty was concluded with England, and a similar treaty was concluded with the United States in 1833. In 1855 Sir John Bowring visited Siam, was very favourably received, and succeeded in concluding a treaty of friendship and commerce between her British Majesty and the King of Siam. A British consul is now allowed to reside at Bangkok, and British subjects may reside permanently there or within a certain distance from that town. British vessels may trade freely at any of the seaports of Siam, and in place of the previous heavy restrictions, merchandise is now subject to slight import or export duties. A similar treaty has since been concluded with the United States. For farther information regarding Siam and the Siamese see especially Sir John Bowring's Kingdom and People of Siam, London, 1857.