The spot on which the present capital stands, and the country in its vicinity, on both banks of the river for a considerable distance, were formerly, before the removal of the court to its present situation, called Bang-kok; but since that time, and for nearly sixty years past, it has been named Sia yuthia, (pronounced See-ah you-tè-ah, and by the natives, Krung, that is, the capital;) it is called by both names here, but never Bang-kok; and they always correct foreigners when the latter make this mistake. The villages which occupy the right hand of the river, opposite to the capital, pass under the general name of Bang-kok. [Sidenote: COCHIN-CHINESE AMBASSADOR.] A Cochin-Chinese ambassador, with several junks, arrived here from Longuar (alias Saigon) a few days before our arrival, being the same mentioned previously. Ambassadors’ junks of both nations, whenever they visit each other’s country, or pay their annual tribute to China, are always well laden with goods, out and home, on account of the king or his ministers; it is in part a trading expedition, and the secret is, they are allowed to go duty free, as I have before stated. [Sidenote: COCHIN-CHINA AND SIAM.] The object of the emperor of Cochin-China, in this case, is blended with a more serious piece of business; it is no less than to demand the delivery, to them, of the person of the first minister of state, and superintendant of Pegu, and the principalities of Laus and Camboja, whose title is “Chan-phaya-bodin-desha;” he is a “meh-tap,” or commander of the Siamese forces now in Camboja. It seems, in 1827, the Siamese government oppressed the subjects of one of the Laos tributary princes, Chow-vin-chan, to such a degree, that he was obliged to take up arms in defence of his rights, against the neighbouring Siamese government; this was the point to which the Siamese government wished to force him, for the purpose of taking into possession his territory. Hordes of soldiers were sent among them under the command of the said Chan-phaya-bodin-desha, and they committed all sorts of enormities; the country was stripped of its riches, and the inhabitants, fleeing from the enemy, were shot down indiscriminately like wild beasts; this process being found too tedious, thousands were packed into houses and blown up with gunpowder; the younger women became the prey of a licentious soldiery, and the smoking ruins of a peaceable people marked the track of a band of savages, whose knives were steeped to the hilt in the blood of their fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, and children. Those who escaped were sent to the capital and sold as slaves; thousands and thousands died on the rafts which floated them down the Menam, with wounds, sickness, and starvation. In fact, the country was made desolate, was in ruins: “He made a solitude and called it peace.” The survivors were never more to see their country; their soil was given to their savage invaders. In the midst of these horrible