Further India/From Pnom Penh to Ubon
CHAPTER VIII
FROM PNOM PENH TO UBON
IT was only on July 7, 1866, that the de Lagrée-Garnier expedition at last began its ascent of the Mekong River from Pnom Penh. A short visit was paid to the pagoda of Pnom-Brashe, an ancient Khmer ruin situated opposite to the Sutin islands. This is a magnificent temple, in general appearance not unlike a Gothic cathedral, and according to an inscription found in it, a translation of which was furnished to the explorers by a Buddhist monk, it dates from the second century of our De Lagrée, who found it impossible to get over the difficulty presented by the omission from the manuscript of the Chinese ambassador of all mention of Angkor Wat, thought that the town described in that work was to be looked for in the neighbourhood of Pnom-Brashe, but there is little to be advanced in favour of this view, since the account of the capital of Kambodia as it was in the thirteenth century corresponds in almost every detail with Angkor Thôm, and is not applicable in an equal degree to any other of the great Khmer remains.
On July 9th, Kratieh, on the left bank just below the Sombor rapids, was reached, and here the two shallow-draft gunboats, in which the expedition had so far been conveyed, were abandoned. Up to this time, no steamers had ascended to a point so far from the coast, and the difficulties in the way of navigation which had been encountered since leaving Pnom Penh had been great. The gear and supplies of the explorers were therefore transferred to native boats—long crafts fashioned from tree-trunks, warped open by fire, their carrying capacity being increased by plank sides built up from the solid keels. Each boat was furnished with a bamboo deck, supporting a low, thatched cabin amidships, and was propelled by a number of punters armed with long, iron-shod poles.
Heavy rains had already begun to fall in the interior, and the river was some sixteen feet above its normal level. On July 16th the first formidable rapids of the Sombor flight were reached, and thus early in his journey Garnier was forced to resign one of his most cherished dreams. On each bank of the great river rose marvellous tangles of untouched forest—giant trees with buttress-roots, treading on one another's toes, standing knee-deep in striving underwood, their branches interlocked, and bound each to each by vine and creeper, shaggy with ferns and mosses, draped with hanging parasitic growths, and set here and there with the delicate stars of orchids. Between these sheer cliffs of vegetation the great river rolled, sullen and persistent, its brown waters sweeping downward with irresistible force their freight of wallowing tree-trunks, rushing with a fierce hissing sound through the brushwood on either bank, foaming and fighting around the islands which here bespatter the surface of the stream, and squabbling noisily with the rough-hewn sandstone outcrops which form at this point a broken bar at right-angles to the current. Looking at this wild scene, Francis Garnier, the lover of beauty and of savage nature, felt that his eye was filled with seeing,-filled with visions of sheer delight; but Francis Garnier the practical statesman, the utilitarian, the naval officer, took small comfort from the conclusions which were now forced upon his recognition. No highway of trade was to be beaten out of this whirling wilderness of troubled waters. Within ten days from his departure from Pnom Penh the hopes which he had cherished of discovering in the Mekong a practicable route, by means of which the trade of Yun-nan might be diverted to Indo-China, had been brought to nought.
Reluctantly and not without a struggle did he admit this truth. The river ran in flood three and a quarter miles in width, and he could not but hope against hope that in all that great expanse some possible channel for a steamboat might be found. Taking a small canoe with two or three native boatmen, he put out into the stream towards the right bank, but before he was well within sight of the great rapid of Preatapang his crew struck work. They refused flatly to carry him beyond an island in mid-stream, whence he could see nothing to his pur- pose. He coaxed, cajoled, bribed, entreated and finally had resort to threats, but all in vain. He had come into collision with the stolid, unshakable resolution of the Oriental whose mind is made up, and storming with rage he was obliged to return a defeated man to his jeering companions.
Still hugging the left bank of the river, and travelling for the most part through the submerged forest, where alone the punters could find bottom with their poles, the party crept painfully up-stream, reaching the mouth of the Se-Kong on the 21st, and the town of Stung- Treng, in Siamese territory, on the same day.
From Stung-Treng, Garnier, who felt that he still bore a grudge to the rapids of Sombor, set off down river to explore the right bank of the Mekong. After many risks in the rapids and difficulties with his boatmen, Sombor was reached, and finding there a boat containing belated supplies for the expedition, Garnier got on board her, and after five laborious days spent in punting up-stream, re- joined his comrades at Stung-Treng.
Meanwhile de Lagrée had utilised his leisure in explor- ing the Se-Kong, which falls into the Mekong on its left bank a little below Stung-Treng. The neighbourhood of the latter place had also been examined, and some cu- rious stone towers, yet other relics of the Khmer civilisa- tion, had been discovered. Concerning these Gerard van Wusthof, the leader of the Dutch expedition to Vien Chan in the seventeenth century, of which more will be said in a later chapter, has the following passage:
"On August 17th, we passed the night at Batzong (Stung Treng) near a stone church, ruined through age, where the Louwen (Laos folk) perform ceremonies and sacrifices. Candles were burning in this church on the altars of two idols. About fifty years ago the Kings of Kambodia resided in this place, but forced to retreat be- fore the incessant attacks of the Louwen, they left this church to itself in the solitude of a grove, and descended. to the spot where they now reside."
Similarly in van Wusthof's time Kambodians occupied villages in the upper reaches of the Se-Kong, whereas long since the descendants of the once dominant race have retreated to the country lying below the Sombor Falls. Stung Treng itself, an insignificant place of less than 1,000 inhabitants, is peopled by Laotines, though here as elsewhere in Indo-China, what little trade there is remains almost entirely in the hands of the ubiquitous Chinese.
"Sans l'intervention de l'élément chinois," writes Garnier, "ces contrées éloignées mourraient bientôt à toute relation extérieure," and indeed the same may be said. with truth of every portion of Indo-China and Malaya. The Chinaman possesses in a remarkable degree those very qualities of diligence, energy, business capacity, per- severance and thrift which the men of these regions most singularly lack, and any plan which has for its object the placing of the prosperity of the peninsula on a sound economical basis, and the endowing of them with the blessings of material prosperity, must include a scheme for the free immigration of the Chinese, under which they shall be granted full rights of citizenship.
The valley of the Sc-Kong is encompassed by moun- tains, and the country between it and the main range bor- dering Cochin-China is inhabited by wild tribes. For the rest the population is Laotine, and the standard of civili- sation does not compare favourably with that of the Kambodians, all trade, for instance, being still conducted on a system of barter.
De Lagrée explored the Se-Kong on this occasion as far as Sien-Pang, and he later completed the work using Bassak as his pied-à-terre. To the latter place he now decided to push on, his object being to establish a base from which to conduct further explorations, and in which he might fix his headquarters during the coming rainy season. His design was somewhat delayed by the severe illness a malignant form of fever-by which both Gar- nier and Thorel were prostrated, but though the former was still delirious a start was presently made from Stung- Treng, and by the time the rapids of Khon were reached on August 17th, the second-in-command was sufficiently recovered to be able to take his usual eager interest in all that was going on around him.
Above Stung Treng the river is so bespattered with islands that it was rarely possible to catch a glimpse of both banks at the same time, but just below the Khon Falls the stream opens out into a great basin, some three and a-half miles across. The northern end of this is oc- cupied by a compact group of islands, divided each from each by narrow channels through which the river tears its way, its waters being precipitated into the basin be- low. In many of these channels all obstacles have been worn away, and here the waters glide downward in long, unbroken waves, the force of which is terrific. In the channels of Salaphe and Papheng, the two principal falls, however, the stream runs in absolute cascades, the body of water being more than 1,000 yards across, and plung- ing vertically from a height of fifty feet. From bank to bank the broken line of rapids, rushing through the group of islets, measures between seven and eight miles in width, while immediately above, the river is twelve miles across, though a little further up it narrows down again to its original breadth of about three and a-half miles.
Everything in this gigantic country," wrote Garnier, "breathes an unheard of force and clothes itself in over- whelming proportions." The land is thickly populated. and highly cultivated. The principal villages are Sit- andong and Khong, and with the Governor of the lat- ter place the expedition speedily established very friendly relations. For the rest the scanty trade consisted in the exportation of jungle produce obtained from the hill- tribes and brought to the river by means of a track lead- ing inland from its left bank.
The province of Tuli-Repu, on the right bank of the Mekong, was formerly a part of Kambodia, but the chief in charge of it having rebelled and obtained the support of Siam, it passed, without any formalitics of cession, un- der the dominion of Bangkok, as have so many other fragments of the ancient Khmer empire. After that event it became almost a desert, the mountainous parts being infested by lawless bands who lived chiefly by pil- lage, and Garnier saw in its annexation by France its only chance of salvation. This is an opinion which has since found much favour with French colonial statesmen, but even under the administration of France this part of the Mekong valley seems hardly likely to produce a trade of any remarkable proportions.
Using Khong as his base, de Lagrée ascended and ex- plored the Repu or Se-Lompu River, and on the banks of the Mekong, to the south of the island, he discovered a few vestiges of ancient Khmer buildings. On Septem- ber 6th Khong was left and a start made for Bassak. The river, for the first time since Sombor, was found to flow in a single channel, its width being between 1,400 and 1,800 yards from bank to bank. For the first time, too, high mountains became visible to the north, and at the end of the fifth day the explorers found themselves be- ginning to describe a great curve, formed by the Mekong as it skirts the foot of a high range of hills. On Septem- ber 11th Bassak was reached, the whole of the country traversed from Khong to that place being densely popu- lated.
Bassak is situated on the right bank of the Mekong, which here measures over a mile and a quarter in width; it lies opposite to the big island of Don-Deng, and moun- tains rise up at the rear of the town. A little to the north there is a plain on the right bank, and beyond this a chain of mountains, skirted by the river, runs to the peak called Phu Molong. To the west is a peak called Phu Bassak, and east-northeast are seen the distant volcanic moun- tains, the most southerly of which was subsequently named Mount de Lagrée by Francis Garnier when death had claimed his chief. The expedition had cause for congratulation in the selection of Bassak as its head- quarters, for the climate was found to be delightful; the thermometer registered between 57° and 60° F. in the early mornings of January, the place being, in fact, far cooler than any district of Kambodia, and even than many spots higher up the river.
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Ravine near the Mekong
From Garnier's "Voyage en Indo-Chine"
and they were much struck by the intelligence and gentleness of the natives. Garnier fancied that he dis- cerned in them some traces of that vitality and mental energy which are the germs of progress, and for a period he cheated himself into the belief that they might have a future before them such as is surely denied to the spent peoples of Kambodia. The people of Laos he says, "peuvent renaître à l'activité et à la richesse, au milicu des contrées admirables qu'ils habitent, sous l'influence civilisatrice de la France," an opinion which may or may not be true, but which has certainly not yet been justified in the smallest degree. It is to be feared that Garnier, deluded by his love of Indo-China and by his very natural enthusiasm for the future of countries with which he had become so closely identified, allowed himself to be blinded to some obvious facts. Compared to the Kam- bodians the Laotines were doubtless less utterly past hope, but the people of southcastern Asia who are most vital, most alive to-day are, without question, the Siamese, whose energy has been sufficient to achieve the reduction of so many of their neighbours; yet no one who has studied modern Siam with any care, and has not had his vision confused by personal predilections and prejudices, can cherish many illusions concerning the future that awaits its people. As for the Laotines, such achievement as was possible to their limitations belongs to the days of Vien Chan's prosperity; compared with that of Siam or Burma, leaving entirely on one side the great empire of the Khmers, it is a paltry thing, and as regards their future, the very tolerance of alien creeds, which Garnier found so worthy of praise, sets a seal upon their fate. This is a virtue which, in the East, never yet sprang from intel- lectual energy. It is in the Oriental a sure sign of the apathy of decay. Among the Kambodians, who have a proud past behind them, fanaticism is the last vestige of their ancient self-esteem: it is an expression of their hatred, their resentment of the foreign aggression which they fear, but are powerless to resist.
From September 11th to Christmas Day Bassak con- tinued to be the headquarters of the expedition. The camp was formed in deluges of rain, and for many days the down- pour continued unabated, but when fine weather re- turned a number of interesting explorations were made from this new base. Garnier, Delaporte and Thorel be- gan by visiting the plateau situated to the north of Bassak, but did not succeed in reaching the summit. Next Garnier was sent by de Lagrée to explore the lower reaches of the Se-Dom, a river which falls into the Mekong on its left bank some miles above Bassak. Up this stream he proceeded to a point where it bifurcates, and thence up the western branch to the great falls which are some fifty feet in height. Thence he returned down- stream, and set off with elephants in search of some silver mines, the existence of which had been rumoured by Mouhot. At the end of a laborious day's journey he found himself in the village of one of the wild tribes, and was informed by his guides that there were no mines to be seen, and that they had thought from the first that he desired to visit the habitations of the "savages." Neither he nor his interpreters had any great knowledge of the Laotine dialect; "varied gestures and ingenious draw- ings," he tells us, "were called to the aid of our igno- rance of words, and it was rarely that by this process we did not obtain, at the end of half an hour of effort, seven or eight entirely contradictory answers." In these circumstances there was room and to spare for misunder- standings, but Garnier believed, and perhaps justly, that the locality of silver mines was being purposely con- cealed from him. He was unable to prove the truth of his suspicions, however, and eventually had to return to Bassak without having obtained any information concern- ing the object of his search.
He reached headquarters on October 9th, and found that the Mekong had fallen more than sixteen feet during his week of absence. The end of the rainy season had come; on every hand preparations were being made for planting the land which had been enriched by the overflow of the river, and during the last days of the month, the travellers witnessed the great feast of Hena Song, which is a kind of public thanksgiving annually made for the harvest that is to be. Immediately after the feast Garnier set off down the Mekong, his object being to get word of the mail-bags of the expedition which were long overdue. Leaving Bassak on November 4th, Gar- nier reached Stung-Treng four days later, and there learned the disquieting news that the insurrection which had broken out in Kambodia under Pu Kombo had assumed serious proportions, and that the valley of the Mekong to the south of Stung-Treng was in the hands of the rebels. Garnier therefore sent his interpreter, Alexis, down river with letters for the French authorities, and himself returned up-stream on November 12th, reaching Bassak on November 23d, after spending much time in the detailed exploration and survey of the Mekong and its banks.
Meanwhile de Lagrée had led an expedition up the Se- Dom, hauling his boats up the rapids already discovered by Garnier, and ascending the river until the village of Smia, on the right bank, was reached. From this point his party trudged up the left bank of the Se-Dom to the falls of Keng Noi, and then struck across open grassy plains, broken by occasional rice-fields and patches of forest, to Saravan, where the Se-Dom was once more met with. From this village they continued the ascent of the stream, walking up its banks and crossing and recrossing it at frequent intervals, for four days, when they finally quitted it and struck across the dividing ridges in the di- rection of the head waters of the Se-Kong.
The Se-Kong, when first encountered, was already more than 100 yards in width, but the travellers had to tramp down its banks for two days before the first in- habited villages were met with. At Ban Kumkang boats were obtained, and in these the foot-weary men were car- ried to Attopeu, the village which is the chief trade-centre of the valley and is situated in the heart of a district in- habited thickly by wild tribes. Ethnologically these tribes- men are distinct from the Laotines, their noses being straight and fine, their foreheads more developed. These tribesmen
are known in Laos by the generic name of Khas, are 
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The Mekong at Hsin Tu Ku
though it is probable that they belong to different branches of a single race, they are known among them- selves by more than a dozen distinctive names. They furnish one of the many riddles propounded by south- eastern Asia to the ethnologist. The Negrito, who is represented by the Semang and Pangan tribes of the Malay Peninsula, is not found in Indo-China, but on the other hand the hillmen of a brown race, corresponding to the Sâkai of Malaya, count many thousands of indi- viduals in Kambodia, Annam, Laos and the Shan States.
In their character these unhappy folk to the south of Luang Prabang, who from time immemorial have been the prey of their more civilised and therefore stronger neighbours, appear to be peaceable, gentle and timorous. Some of the more remote tribes, who dwell in the fast- nesses of the mountains and hold communication only spar- ingly with even the tamer aborigines, are reputed to be ferocious, but the same legend is current wherever such tribes exist, and its origin may perhaps be traced to a de- sire on the part of the slave-traders to enhance the value of their wares. That the aborigines look upon all other human beings as their enemics is likely enough, since time out of mind their children have been abducted and sold into slavery. That they will fight on occasion to pre- vent this is also possible, but none of these down-trodden races have any love of fighting for its own sake, and they always prefer flight to battle, after the manner of all other denizens of the jungle. Garnier, in writing of some of these poor creatures, mentions the horror with which he noted the miserable eyes of their women following him when he chanced to look admiringly at some of the children. The fear was upon them lest he should seize the little ones, in which case the bereaved parents would have had no choice but to submit, and the women's eyes were elo- quent of pitiful memories of the lot to which the wild tribes-folk are born.
Leaving Attopeu, de Lagrée descended the course of the Se-Kong as far as Tapak, whence he journeyed over- land to Bassak. Attopeu itself had been visited by van Wusthof in the seventeenth century, but the whole of the Se-Dom and the head waters of the Se-Kong were now explored by Europeans for the first time, as also was the country between Tapak and Bassak. Careful surveys had been made and the course of two large rivers, to- gether with much of the country lying between them, had been added to the map, an important piece of work to have been accomplished in the space of two and thirty days.
The officers left behind at Bassak, and Garnier himself after he had rejoined them, had been busy exploring the ruins of Wat Phu, a pagoda perched upon a hill, which presents most perfect and finished examples of Khmer art. It is noteworthy that parts of this building are incomplete, and that some of the more recent carving is of inferior workmanship and obviously belongs to a period after the decline of the Khmer people had begun.
During their stay at Bassak, the explorers had taken careful note of the rise and fall of the river. Its flow on December 5th, when its waters had subsided to their ordinary level, was estimated by Garnier at 9,000 cubic metres per second, whereas in flood time, on September 20th, the volume was increased to 50,000 cubic metres per second, although both the Se-Kong and the Tonli- Repu fall into the Mekong below this point. The esti- mate for the river at Pnom Penh; in seasons when the river is full, is between 60,000 and 70,000 cubic metres, while Garnier's estimate for the Mekong at Bassak at dead low water was only from 2,000 to 3,000. On the other hand the Irawadi, at the head of the delta, is estimated at 2,130 cubic metres per second, while the waters of the Ganges at a similar point, and at high water, is estimated at no less than 167,000 cubic metres. With this the Me- kong can, of course, make no comparison, yet the rise of the river from low to flood level between Kratieh and Pnom Penh is at least forty feet in the course of the year, a fact which accounts for the constant changes wrought in its bed, and for the immense inundations which serve to enrich and fertilise so large an area of its valley.
As regards the navigability of the river, Garnier arrived at the conclusion that it was feasible for shallow-draught steamers as far as the Sombor rapids, which are at a dis- tance of nearly 400 miles from its mouth; that above this point big poling-boats could be used for its ascent, and large bamboo rafts for its descent; and that below Bassak the Khon rapids presented the only really serious ob- stacle to navigation. Here, however, even if a safe chan- nel could be found, the force of the current was such that no steamer could possibly, he thought, make headway against it.
While the expedition was still at Bassak, Alexis, the native interpreter, returned, having failed to get through to Pnom Penh, and after much discussion it was deter- mined to send him overland to the capital of Kambodia, via Angkor, while the explorers pushed on to Ubon, on the banks of the Se-Mun, a right-bank tributary of the Mekong. Accordingly, on December 25th, the camp at Bassak was broken up, the explorers taking leave of the King and the natives, who had shown them much cour- tesy and kindness, and proceeding on their journey up- stream. The expedition passed through the defile by means of which the Mekong flows round the foot of Phu Molong on December 26th, skirted the big isolated mountain of Phu Fadang, where the stream, imprisoned between smooth, rocky walls, measures barely 200 yards across, and entered the Se-Mun on January 3rd. On the same day the village of Pi-Mun, was reached, and here the gear of the expedition had to be transshipped into boats sent for the purpose from Ubon. Above this point the Se-Mun runs down a succession of long, straight reaches which have the air of having been hewn out by the labour of man, and on each side a great grassy plain spreads away to the horizon.
Ubon was reached on January 7th, "l'agglomération la plus vivante que nous eussions encore rencontrée," Garnier described it, a very large village on the left bank of the Se-Mun, the centre of the trade of this part of the Mekong valley. From this point all commerce is con- ducted, not by river with Kambodia and Saigon, but overland with Korat and Bangkok. For all practical purposes, Bassak may be described as the most distant trade-centre in the Mekong valley which traffics with the districts of the delta. It is, and always has been, the dream of the French colonial authorities to divert the trade of the Hinterland in such a manner that it may be made to flow through the possessions of France, and Saigon having come, through fortuitous circumstances rather than by design, to occupy the position of capital of Indo-China, it has been thought that commerce should be forced to pass through that town. The oppressive custom-dues formerly exacted by Kambodia and the conquest of Laos by Siam may both have contributed to the selection of the overland in preference to the river- route, but apart from political considerations, the question is in the main one of convenience and cheapness. The bulk and value of the trade involved are not great, and it has been found that goods can be conveyed to Korat and Bangkok with less trouble than to the coast of the China Sea. The long and tedious return-journey against the current is a labour that cannot be lightly faced, and it may be predicted with some degree of certainty that Saigon will never be the recipient of the bulk of the trade ex- ported from the interior.
At the present time Bangkok and Korat are already joined by a railroad, and the French are negotiating for the extension of this work eastward from Korat, whence it would pass almost due east to Hue, crossing the Mekong at Kamarat, and eventually finding the sea at Turon. The country between Kamarat and Hue is mountainous, and the construction of this section would be excessively costly. Were the engineering difficulties to be overcome, however, it is possible that Turon might become the out- let for the bulk of the trade of the upper valley of the Mekong on the other hand it is equally possible that Bangkok would maintain its old commercial supremacy, in which case the enormous expenditure upon the con- struction of the line would be a sacrifice made in vain. In any case the trade of this region would have to undergo an immense expansion before the proposed rail- way could conceivably become a paying concern. Cu- riously enough, however, fear of injuring Saigon, rather than any sounder reason, is mainly responsible for the opposition offered by Frenchmen to the scheme; this is to be regretted, because the present capital can never hope to claim the bulk of the inland trade. Until French administrators can learn to regard their colonial posses- sions in Indo-China as a whole, and to seek their good as such, without paying too close an attention to purely local interests, the prospects of that empire are none too hopeful.
From Ubon Garnier started on January 10th on a fly- ing visit to Pnom Penh, for the purpose of bringing back the missing mails. He ascended the Se-Mun for three days, passing through open, grassy plains from which the forest had long before been cleared by burning; then, leaving his boats at Sam-Lan, he proceeded overland to Si-Saket, where for the first time for many months he again encountered Kambodians. Having procured four rough carts drawn by trotting-bullocks, he crossed some twenty miles of grass country and entered the forest, which was not too dense to admit of the use of vehicles. At Kukan, thirty-eight miles to the south of Si-Saket, he found himself once more in Kambodian country, the natives being all Khmers who spoke none save their own language, in spite of the fact that the province had been annexed by Siam at a period anterior to the conquest of Batambang and Siamreap.
Still using his carts, and crossing the rivers by means of good wooden bridges constructed by the Kambodians, Garnier drove west-southwest to Sankea, a distance of some twenty-five miles, where the track bifurcates, one branch leading west to Korat, the other south to Ang- kor. Taking the former by the advice of the local authorities, who seem to have misled him through sheer inability to understand that any one could possibly be in a hurry, he went out of his way as far as Suren, whence he again turned towards the south, reaching Su-Krom on January 22nd. Here he was assured that the road ahead of him was impassable for vehicles, but declining to be moved by these representations, he pushed on resolutely. Despite the desertion in mid-forest of all his guides and native drivers, he presently found himself, with the little knot of French sailors and non-commissioned officers whom he was taking back to Kambodia, on the lip of a precipitous cliff some 600 feet in height; he had reached the abrupt ending of the plateau across which he had been travelling ever since his departure from Ubon. A path down the face of the cliff was discovered, but it was of a nature which necessitated the bullocks being unyoked and the carts being taken to pieces before it could be negotiated. Garnier set doggedly to work to perform this heavy task. A merciless sun beat down upon the toiling white men; the bullocks, intensely offended by the scent of Europeans, gave an infinity of trouble; the heat became unendurable, and presently the little party was racked with thirst. One by one the men gave in, and threw themselves gasping upon the ground, but Garnier wan- dered far and wide over the dry river-courses in search of water, and at last found a deep, tepid pool. The good news was carried to his comrades, and soon they were sufficiently revived to resume their labours. By 10 P. M. the work was at last accomplished; the carts and bullocks, together with all the gear, had been conveyed to the plain below; camp-fires had been lighted and a well-earned rest was enjoyed. It was precisely at this moment that the Governor of Su-Krom arrived with a large res- cue-party. He was mightily astonished to find that the difficult descent had been effected without his aid, and Garnier was careful to treat the matter lightly in order that the chief might be the more impressed by the energy and resource of the French explorers.
After quitting the Ubon plateau, Garnier traversed a waste of sandy plain, and on January 25th reached Kon- kan, where he discovered the dried-up bed of an ancient lake, yet another trace of the seismic convulsions which may, perhaps, have caused the abandonment of the Khmer towns. Near Suren he had already noted the ex- istence of ruins, and now close to Konkan he discovered a magnificent stone bridge standing thirty metres above the level of the stream, three great fragments of which still span the Stung-Treng river. The central span is 148 metres long and fifteen metres broad; the parapets are sup- ported by carved monkeys and by dragons with nine heads, similar to those found at Angkor; the arches are thirty-four in number, and the whole is fashioned from sandstone.
Beyond this point more ruins were found, and the vil- lages became numerous. The Kambodians of the dis- trict, although they were under the rule of Siam, struck Garnier as being more faithful to the ancient usages of their race, and more wedded to its traditions, than are their countrymen to the south. Given the time, he thought that here, perhaps, might be learned something concerning the lost story of the great Khmer empire; but Garnier could not allow himself the leisure even to turn aside to examine some of the ruins of whose existence the natives told him, and was obliged to push on to Siamreap, where he arrived on January 29th.
He here received reliable news concerning Pu Kombo's rebellion. At one time King Norodon had been besieged in Pnom Penh, but he had been rescued from this preca- rious position by French troops. None the less most of the shores of the Great Lake and of its southern arm were still in the hands of the insurgents. Garnier thus found himself separated from his countrymen to the south by a narrow zone of country held by the enemy. Turn- ing a deaf ear to the protests of the Siamese Governor of Siamreap, he procured a boat and a crew of Annamites, and slipping past the rebel post at Kompong Pluk just before the dawn on February 5th, found a French gunboat at Kompong Luong, and the same evening reached Pnom Penh after a dangerous and toilsome journcy ex- tending over twenty seven days.
Pnom Penh was occupied by French troops, and the precious mails were found at last. Most of the private letters, and all the scientific instruments destined for the explorers, had been wantonly left behind at Saigon ; but the Chinese passports were forthcoming, and Garnier contrived to procure the loan of a barometer. Judging rightly that safety lay in speed, and in starting upon his return journey before word of his project could reach the rebels, he allowed himself only two days' sojourn at Pnom Penh, and left that post again on February 8th. Once more he successfully ran the gauntlet of the rebel war-parties, and on the sixth day reached Siamrcap. From this point he struck out for Ubon, taking as direct a line as possible. Leaving Angkor Wat, he crossed a desert plain, passed over the Pnom Kulen range,-upon one of the highest peaks of which he discovered some new Khmer ruins, and so entered the Pre Saa, or " Mag- nificent Forcst," through which he had great difficulty in taking his bullock-carts. After traversing thirty miles of uninhabited country, he abandoned his carts at the first village, and thereafter was handed on from place to place by relays of porters. In some villages the men were busy with the harvest, and only girls were procurable for the transport of his baggage. Woman, as a beast of burden, he discovered, left much to be desired, for the damsels treated him and his business as an immense joke. When he entreated them to hasten and not to tarry by the way, they giggled delightedly, but took no sort of notice of his prayers. At each stream they cast aside their scanty garments and bathed themselves elaborately, while he, in outraged modesty, stood protesting on the banks. It was with a sigh of intense relief that he at last saw their burdens transferred to the shoulders of sober-minded respectable men, who were innocent alike of their follies and their feminine caprices.
Travelling in this fashion from hamlet to hamlet, Gar- nier crossed the Stung-Treng close to its source, and scaled the cliff, in which the Ubon plateau has its abrupt ending, at a point somewhat to the cast of that at which he had descended it with so much labour. He discovered, however, that his guides had not taken him sufficiently far in the desired direction, and that he was even now only two days' march from Kukan. For this place he accordingly made, and thence followed his original route to Ubon where he arrived on February 26. The rest of the expedition had left for Kamarat more than a month earlier, so Garnier hastened to overtake them, descending the Se-Mun to its mouth and poling up the Mekong un- til, on March 10th, thirty days after his departure from Pnom Penh, he saw the French flag flying over a hut at Hutien, and knew that his solitary journey was ended.
Since parting with de Lagrée at Ubon he had trav- ersed over a thousand miles of country, the greater part of which had never previously been visited by a European; he had filled in a blank which had long disfigured this part of the map; he had fixed the position of numerous landmarks, had discovered several Khmer ruins of importance, and had twice run the gauntlet of the Kambo- dian rebels. Above all, he had brought back with him the Chinese passports which were to open the doors of Yun-nan to the expedition. It was a goodly list of achievements, all of which had been effected in the space of two months, and de Lagrée had indeed ample reason to congratulate himself upon the possession of such a lieutenant.