3-017-255 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Admiral King's visit to the King of Siam at Bangkok: procession of boats up the river from the British Consulate, 1865. Engraving of a sketch by Mr. R. Campbell Bates, an officer of the Princess Royal, showing '...the procession of the Royal barges...to the Royal landing-place...The ruling King of Siam...holds his court in the city or Bangkok, and his name is no less than Phra Bard Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut Phra Chom Klau Chau Tu Hua...The trade of Siam, especially the export of rice to China, and that of teak-wood for ship-building, has since the Treaty of 1855 become very important...The visit of Vice-Admiral King, C.B., Commander-in-Chief of our squadron on the China station, to the Court of Bangkok, on the 13th of June, was attended with fresh tokens of the respect and good-will there felt towards the English people...Bangkok, the capital of Siam, is situated on the banks of the Chow Phya, or Meinam River, thirty miles from its entrance, and contains about 350,000 inhabitants-a mixed population of Siamese, Chinese, and Burmese. The town, or rather city, is chiefly a floating one, nearly all business and traffic being carried on in boats. Not a carriage of any sort was seen by the party during a visit of nine days'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.