Report of an Expedition Made into Southern Laos and Cambodia in the Early Part of the Year 1866

Amongst the numerous interesting notations by the author during his Cambodian journey with John Thomson (whom he referred to as a ​“photographic artist”), we have selected:

• Siemreap as a Buddhist center in the 1860s: ​‘Numerous temples of modern construction smround the city of Siemrap; but they lack the solidity which marks the earlier structures, and are already in an advanced stage of decay.There can be little doubt that this place was formerly one of the great centres of the Buddhist worship, and the number of priests to whom, even at the present day, it affords a maintenance, is strangely disproportionate to the extent of’ the population.’
• On Doudart de Lagrée being an earlier explorer at Angkor: ​‘On the 4^th of March, and while we were still quartered on the premises of Nakhon Wat, Captain de Lagree, Commander-in-Chief of the French forces in Cambodia, arrived on a visit to the ruins. He brought three French sailors and a draughtsman among his train, and took up his residence on the same ground as ourselves. I ascertained afterwards that this was the second time that Captain de Lagree had been in the neighbourhood.’
• Life and worship in Angkor Wat: ​‘Our quarters during the chief part of our stay in the locality were in one of the numerous salahs, erected from time to time by merit-working visitors in the spacious enclosure which surrounds the great temple before mentioned, which the care of the architect who designed the whole has furnished with more than one reservoir of excellent water. About thirty or forty priests have fixed their habitations under the shelter of the ruins, and find a never-failing employment in conducting the obsequies of those whose bodies are brought to this highly-venerated sanctuary for cremation ; and when to the music and feasting, which forms part of such ceremonies, we add the constant influx of visitors who come to make offerings at the shrine, it will be seen that it was not in forest loneliness, but rather amid a busy scene of life, that we were established.’
• Kingdom of Cambodia population: ​‘The King of Cambodia [King Norodom I] told me that the population in his dominions might be reckoned at a low estimate to comprise 100,000 Cambodians, 10,000 Cochin Chinese, and a multitude of Chinese settlers. He could furnish, he said, no precise information of the extent of his territory, nor of the number of days in which an elephant could cross it. I ascertained, however, subsequently, that it is made up of fifty-five towns.’

From Bangkok to Angkor, Phnom Penh, and Kampot by land, and return by sea.