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272 SIAM.
proceed to give, in connexion with a narrative of that
mission, a description of the capital.*
On the 21st of November, 1821, the " Agent," Mr.
Crawfurd, with the other gentlemen attached to the
mission, (the object of which was to open a friendly
intercourse for the purpose of trade between the two
countries,) embarked at Calcutta, and on the 21st of
March following, they cast anchor off the coast of
Siam. They had to send for a pilot to Packnam,f a
village at the mouth of the river ; and it was not till
the 25th, that they attempted to cross the bar. They
succeeded in clearing the sand-bank, but the ship stuck
in a bar of mud, on which, at ebb tide, there are only
six feet water. Towards evening, as the tide rose,
the vessel got afloat again ; and after passing two or
three short reaches, they cast anchor opposite to Packnam.
At its mouth, the river, which forms an angle
with the entrance to the harbour, is about a mile and
half in breadth ; it diminishes to about three quarters
of a mile at Packnam, but is very deep : the banks
are low and wooded. At this village, near a Buddhic
monastery, there is a battery consisting of ten or
twelve iron guns, mounted on decayed carriages, half
sunk into the earth, and unserviceable. The houses
extend in a straggling line for several miles along the
banks, and there are some handsome temples. As
they ascended the river, the banks still continued very
low, but, being thickly planted with the attap, they
had rather a picturesque appearance. In the back-
* See " The Mission to Siam and Hue. From the Journal of
the late George Finlayson, Esq., Surgeon and Naturalist to the
Mission. With a Memoir by Sir T. S. Raffles, F.R.S." London,
1826. Also, Asiat. Jour., vol. xix. p. 12.
t This word, of frequent occurrence in Siam as the name of a
place, apparently signifies the mouth of a river.