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on the left bank of the river, where the palace is
situated. The accounts which we received of its
population were very vague and little to be relied
on. Some of them made it amount to as much
as one hundred and fifty thousand. Judging by
the extent of ground on which it stands, I should
not be disposed to estimate the inhabitants at
more than one-third of this number. The old capital
is still the most populous place in the kingdom
next to Bangkok, and was mentioned to me
as being equally so with the latter: but judging
from the amount of revenue which it pays, as
given in another place, there can be no doubt
that this is an exaggeration. Of Pi-sa-luk I
know nothing; more than that it was described to
me as a considerable town, lying on the Menam,
and surrounded by a wall of brick. The remaining
principal towns are enumerated in another
place, in the order of their supposed magnitudes.
The country of the Lao, a people speaking a
dialect of the Siamese language, appears to be divided
between the Siamese, the Chinese, and the
Burmans. I t is composed of petty states, tributary
to those three powers. Four of these are
under the dominion of Siam; namely, Chang-
mai, Lan-chang, Pasak, and Luang-phra-bang.
Their chiefs are hereditary princes. The first of
these named places, has sometimes been written
Zimai and Jang-mai, and is evidently the district
which the authors of the Modern Universal His