Distance And Other Particulars Point, As Hugh Murray Discerns, To The East
Coast Of The Malay Peninsula, Or (As I Conceive) To The Territory Now
Called Siam, Including The Said Coast, As Subject Or Tributary From Time
Immemorial.
The kingdom of Siam is known to the Chinese by the name of Sien-Lo.
The
Supplement to Ma Twan-lin's Encyclopaedia describes Sien-Lo as on the
sea-board to the extreme south of Chen-ching. "It originally consisted of
two kingdoms, Sien and Lo-hoh. The Sien people are the remains of a
tribe which in the year (A.D. 1341) began to come down upon the Lo-hoh, and
united with the latter into one nation.... The land of the Lo-hoh consists
of extended plains, but not much agriculture is done."[2]
In this Lo or LO-HOH, which apparently formed the lower part of what is
now Siam, previous to the middle of the 14th century, I believe that we
have our Traveller's Locac. The latter half of the name may be either the
second syllable of Lo-Hoh, for Polo's c often represents h; or it may
be the Chinese Kwo or Kwe, "kingdom," in the Canton and Fo-kien
pronunciation (i.e. the pronunciation of Polo's mariners) kok;
Lo-kok, "the kingdom of Lo." Sien-LO-KOK is the exact form of the
Chinese name of Siam which is used by Bastian.
What was this kingdom of Lo which occupied the northern shores of the Gulf
of Siam?
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