disregarded, a conspiracy was formed among high officers of the Court. Phra Narai was driven from the throne, Phaulcon was killed, the European troops were driven from the country, and Siam was saved from becoming the keystone of a great French empire in the Far East. [Illustration: 1. A primitive type of cart still is used in remote districts. The teak logs shown in the background must be carted or dragged by elephants from the forest to the nearest large stream.] [Illustration: 2. Elephants are employed to break up a jam of logs at the estacades of a bridge.] [Illustration: 1. An extensive commerce is carried on between the riverine towns by small boats. The water wheel of bamboo (left) irrigates a garden on the shore.] [Illustration: 2. The graceful temples of Thailand are adorned with lacquer, gold leaf, and colored glass.] [Illustration: 1. Ransacked reliquaries dot the jungles of Thailand.] [Illustration: 2. The high altar of a Buddhist shrine.] [Illustration: 1. Royalty visits Chiengmai.] [Illustration: 2. A princely funeral at Chiengmai. White is the color of mourning.] The Kingdom of Ayuthia continued to prosper during several subsequent reigns marked by friendly relations with European nations, including the French, and a preoccupation with foreign commerce. But, about the year 1759, the Burmese, reunited, after a long period of internal strife, under the martial Alaung Phra, initiated hostilities against the Siamese by an invasion which brought them to the walls of the capital; the Burmese King, however, sickened at the beginning of the siege and died before he could regain his own country. In 1766, under his son, Sin Byu Shin, war was resumed by simultaneous marches on Ayuthia from north and south and the city was again invested. Phra Sucharit, the Siamese ruler, was unfamiliar with warfare but encouraged his people to a spirited resistance, hoping that relief would be afforded by the annual floods, coming in the wake of the rains; the enemy merely patrolled the waters in hundreds of boats and, as they subsided, threw up new earthworks even nearer the walls. In the spring of 1767, Sucharit, disheartened, attempted to treat with them but was rebuffed and when, with the arrival of reinforcements, the Burmese made an assault in force, the weakened city fell to them and was given over to looting, flames, and slaughter. The King, unattended, escaped in the confusion but was to die of exposure only a few days later. KINGDOM OF TONBURI