“On the long roundabout journey home from Korat, the person of whom I engaged my elephants took me for purposes of his own far round to the southeast of Kabin, the point I wished to reach at the head of navigation on the Bang Pakong River. Not unwilling to see the country, I put up with a good deal of imposition on the part of my guide ... one of the greatest rogues I ever met. At the village where he resided I consented to proceed with buffalo carts instead of elephants at his urgency. We had travelled on with them some days when, one afternoon walking in advance of my party, I entered the little Cambodian village of Sakao, three miles east of Kabin on the military road to the capital of Cambodia. “Here was an officer of the customs who was on the lookout for some Cochin Chinese soldiers who had deserted from the king’s service; and they being unaccustomed to a white face and I doubtless rather travel worn, and my appearance there unattended being decidedly suspicious, they were on the point of arresting me as a “deserter,” when first the name and then the presence of my guide (who after awhile came along with my outfit) made all right, for the custom officer and my guide were old friends. “Expecting to get away after an early breakfast next morning, I slept in one of the carts.... Next morning I tried in vain to purchase a fowl; went over to the headman to beg him help me. “He had no fowls, he did not think he could procure any in the village”; but while he was speaking I actually saw some running about under the house. I was beginning to think rather hard of Cambodian hospitality when, induced by triple price, a man slyly brought me a chicken. “While I was eating my breakfast, the custom house officer came over to visit his friend, my guide. Soon a neighbour brought in a large brass dish, and from the liquor in it the three quaffed and quaffed again, till they became very chatty and good humoured. I had finished my breakfast and the cart drivers were waiting for their master. But he was too pleasantly engaged to leave the jovial company he was in. In vain I called on him to eat his breakfast that we might be off, for the sun was high, and still three days remained of our journey and we had already lost much time on his account. “Not yet, not yet,” he answered, and kept on sipping from the bowl of arrack.