are fairly well-read men, and possess good libraries, while the late king and his brother furnished conspicuous instances of high ability. There seems, however, so far to be little taste for intellectual research or pursuits among them, though perhaps it is premature yet to judge. The inhabitants of India have had a brilliant past in the domain of poetry and abstract thought, while it is many centuries since the Chinese attained distinction both in philosophy and material science. The peoples of Indo-China have no such past to boast of. Possibly the fact that they can hardly, therefore, be intellectually exhausted may serve to justify a hope that their future will not be altogether barren.

CHAPTER X

THE CHINESE IN SIAM

THE Chinaman abroad is not so well known to the European public as the Chinaman at home, about whom there has been no lack of literature in recent years. Not that the Chinese do not remain the same in essentials all the world over. Cœlum non animum mutant is more applicable to them than to the inhabitants of any other country. There are naturally superficial differences, which it is interesting to note; but it is not so much on account of these, as of the indications we obtain of the lines on which the Chinese are likely to develop under a more stable Government and better economic conditions than they find at present under their own rulers, that it is worth while to give some consideration to the subject of this chapter.

The great difficulty in obtaining accurate and trustworthy information about anything in Siam is well illustrated by the enormous differences in the estimates of the number of Chinese in the country. Thus the Bangkok Directory," an eminently reliable authority, says that for the

66

country as a whole it would probably not be too much to say that a fourth of the inhabitants are of direct Chinese origin. As it supposes the total population of the country to be about nine millions, the number of Chinese in Siam would thus be between two and three millions, which is certainly below rather than above the popular estimate. On the other hand, one of the best possible authorities, in whom I am loth not to place implicit credence, has informed me that he did not believe there were more than four hundred thousand Chinese in Siam, nor more than eighty thousand in Bangkok itself. Certainly the Chinese are generally supposed to form at least a third of the population of Bangkok, which may amount to half a million or more, and Siamese themselves, who would not care to exaggerate on this point, have told me that they considered the Chinese even to outnumber the Siamese. These estimates of four hundred thousand and eighty thousand for the country and city respectively were based on the collection of the triennial poll tax; but I cannot help thinking that a great many more Chinese must have evaded the tax than the officials allowed for-not, indeed, an unlikely supposition. The evidence of one's own eyes is apt to be fallacious, but one can hardly day by day see the crowds of Chinamen that throng the streets of Bangkok and not believe that this computation must be much below the mark.

Chinese immigration takes place both by way of Bangkok and through the Shan states in the north. The great majority of Celestials, of course, come to Bangkok, where an overwhelming proportion of them are settled. The regular steamers plying between Bangkok and Singapore and Hongkong bring new supplies weekly to the labour market. Many of these are natives of Singapore and Hongkong themselves, particularly in the relatively well-to-do class; but the great mass of the coolies come from Hainan and Swatow, especially from the former; and it is interesting to remember that if the French ever take possession of this island, a very considerable proportion of the population of Bangkok, perhaps nearly a quarter of it, will become ipso facto French subjects. The Chinese, being an essentially gregarious people, love large cities, where also there is more chance of making money, and so most of them remain in the capital and its neighbourhood; but they are scattered throughout the land, and in any town of considerable size form a large proportion of the population, becoming the chief business people of the place. Travellers describe them as the ubiquitous Chinese. Wherever there is an opening for trade, there will they surely be gathered together, for they have as keen a scent for dollars and rupees as vultures for a carcase. Nor does anything come amiss that brings grist to their mill. They are ready to take up any form of work, and are proving themselves

the most adaptable of peoples. Whether it be gambling farming, which appears to be their special province, or ordinary commerce, whether skilled craftsmanship or manual labour that affords an opening, there are always Chinese ready to avail themselves of it; and they seem to have an eye for opportunities which escape the notice of less shrewd or energetic competitors. Thus not only do they dominate all the townships of any importance by gradually creeping into the most lucrative employments; but by their willingness to do all the hard work that is required, they are making themselves more and more indispensable every year as labour is needed in increasing quantities for the construction of railways and other such purposes, and so are supplanting the lazy, quiet-loving natives who have virtually sold to them their birthright for a mess of pottage. Prince Henri d'Orleans compared them with the Jews (not perhaps an unmixed compliment from a Frenchman), and he took his comparison so seriously that he accounted for the total absence of Jews from Eastern Asia by the impossibility of their coexisting with the Chinese in the same country; for how could there be room together for two such peoples bent on the same objects, and always on the look-out for the same chances? The Chinese, indeed, have a wider scope than the Jews, for although money-making in its various branches is undoubtedly their forte, yet they are not above