A small house on deck was appropriated solely for the use of the envoy. It was covered with a carpet, and furnished with a pillow to recline on. The boat was neatly built and painted, and the house slightly decorated with carving and gilding. The passengers in the two boats consisted of Capt. Geisinger, Second-Lieut. Purveyance, Lieut. Fowler of the Marine Corps, Acting-Lieut. Brent, Doctor Ticknor, Midshipmen Carrol, Thomas, Crawford and Wells, and Mr. J. R. Morrison of Macao, Secretary and Chinese Interpreter, and four servants. The other was, in all respects, a similar vessel, but manned with thirty-six oars; rowed by Malay slaves dressed in blue, with caps of the same, trimmed with white. The ship lay in five and a half fathoms water, and not less than fifteen miles from Packnam, which is situated about two miles from the mouth of the river Menam: Packnam means the river’s mouth or embochure. The shores are every where very low, and as flat as the south side of La Plata, or Arkansas on the Mississippi, and in the rainy season are completely submerged. The entrance to the river on the starboard hand is rather more elevated than on the left, which is quite sunken, mangrove and other trees only appearing out of the water. The river takes a sharp turn to the northward, at the entrance; the left bank running parallel, gives it the appearance of being closed at the mouth. [Sidenote: PROCESSION.] We arrived at Packnam, on the left bank of the river, about eight, and found there, waiting for us, the captain of the port, and a great number of slaves at the landing, with torches in hand, and fastened also to temporary posts, to light us on the way to the government-house, situated just without an extensive fortification. There was a narrow way paved with broad bricks, which led to the governor’s. The gentlemen composing the company, the servants on each flank with their numerous flambeaux, with many hundred lookers-on, preserving the utmost decorum, made no small show, and produced, upon the whole, rather an imposing effect, for this was the first envoy ever sent to the “magnificent king of Siam,” from the United States. We were ushered into the best house in the village, enclosed by a bamboo-fence and guarded by soldiers with long wooden poles, pointed with iron. The houses are erected as all the houses are here, from five to seven feet above the ground, on substantial posts; the sides are covered with attap, a species of palm growing abundantly on the banks of the Menam; they have a double roof, one of tile and another of attap to moderate the intensity of the heat. We ascended a stairway and were ushered into “the presence” through lines of _prostrate_ slaves, from thence to a raised platform.