Siam appears to be a place of refuge for the surrounding nations, and is composed of a great variety of people, viz.: Siamese, Laos, Cambojans, Malays, Kariangs, Lawas, Kas, Chongs and Semangs, Chinese, Mohammedans, and Hindoos of western India, Peguans, and Portuguese. The population of the whole empire, including their late conquests in the Malay peninsula, does not probably exceed three millions and six hundred thousand, (although many Siamese rate it, in round numbers, at five millions.) Of this number, I am led to believe, from frequent conversations held with men in office, that the Siamese do not exceed one million and six hundred thousand. The native population of Lao, about one million and two hundred thousand. The Chinese at not less than half a million, there being nearly three hundred and forty thousand in the capital and the villages which compose Bang-kok. The Malays, probably, amount to three hundred and twenty thousand; and the remainder are natives of western India. Peguans, Cambojans and Portuguese, the latter from pretty correct authority, do not exceed fourteen hundred in the whole Siamese dominions. The Kariangs, the Lawas, the Kas, and the Chongs, are wild and migratory races; the three first inhabit the mountains and fastnesses of Lao, from the Burman dominions to Camboja. The Chongs inhabit the hilly country, bordering on the eastern side of the Siamese gulf. The Semangs are a race of savage negroes, dwelling in the mountainous regions of the Malay peninsula, of which a very curious and particular statement was published by J. Anderson, Esq., included in his account of the “Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula,” which I have subjoined at the end of my Journal on Siam.[A] [A] See Appendix A.