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SIAM. 301
About ninety miles N. of the frontier, of Lower
Siam, in lat. 20* 30', according to Loubere, is Chiamay
or Jamahay, the capital of a state called Yangoma.
Thus far, the Mei-nam is said to be navigable by boats.
This is apparently the province of Yun-shan ;
or possibly,
the Yuns may be inhabitants of the shan, or
mountainous region, bordering on the country of
Chiamay or Saymmay, where there is said to be a lake
two hundred miles in extent, bounded by vast forests
and impassable marshes.* In this lake, according to
Mendez Pinto, the Mei-nam has its rise ; and Father
Gervaise places its source, on hearsay evidence, in a
great lake in the country of Laos, which must be in
this direction. Kaempfer states, however, that the
Mei-nam was believed to have its source in the moun-
He describes it as dividing itself into
tains of Tibet, -j-
three arms, one of which flows through Cambodia,
another through Siam, and a third through Pegu, into
the sea. That the Mei-nam and the Mei-kong mingle
their waters by the Anan-myeet, seems to be ascertained
; and another branch of the Mei-nam, called the
Bomeik-myeet, flowing westward, may perhaps find its
way into the Thaluayn. J We have already suggested
that possibly,
in the rainy season, the waters of these
great rivers may unite to form a periodical inland sea,
* See p. 6, note.
t M. Loubere also considers the story of its origin in a lake a*
doubtful, " by reason it is so small at ita entrance into the kingdom
of Siam, that, for about fifty leagues, it carries only little boats
capable of holding no more than four or five persons at most. At
the city of Laconcevan (the mountain of heaven), the Meinam re-
ceives another considerable river, which also comes from the north,
and is likewise called Meinam, a name common to all great rivers."
LOUBERE, fol. p. 4. May not this river proceed from a lake ? Or
perhaps, the lake is southward of their confluence.
-t The authors of the Universal History, on the authority ol
M. Loubcr