The continuing struggle against
the Haws
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Phya Surisak had arrived a few
days before, and placed the sons of the Chao Lai, who had been
sent down to receive him, in close confinement. The actions of
successful generals or statesmen are never questioned, but this
was a proceeding that must end in failure, and I was astonished
to find a man with a great reputation for prudence, commit what
was nothing short of a blunder. Phya Surisak asked my opinion
of the state of affairs, and I spoke freely. Unfortunately this
offended him, and I became according to him one scarcely knows
what---; certainly not one working in the interests of Siam.
He said he was certain that the Chao of Lai would come to Teng.
I told him he would not do so for three months, and then it would
be to fight him, and I asked to be allowed to remain with him.
To this he objected. I then proposed to go to Lai, but he wondered
what I could find to do there. Had he consented I would have
asked for the realease of the sons of Lai, for matters had come
to a desperate pass, and unless the Chao of Lai could be appeased,
there would be no end of complications, because he was the man
who above all others influenced the whole of these countries,
his influence stretching over the Sipsawng Punna, and by this
action he was being forced into the hands of the French. My opinion
was, and is, that the Chao of Lai, acting in his capacity as the
Governor of provinces under China, actively opposed the French,
and that Phya Surisak thought it would involve Siam, if it was
discovered that he was acting too closely with Chao Lai. It was
a difficulty of the conditions of government; but without diving
too deeply into the subject, it seemed to me some Siamese official
should have been at Lai, and I still think that while Chao Lai
and his Chinese auxiliaries settled their quarrel with the French,
there was no reason for the right bank of the Nam Te being mixed
up in the dispute, though it may not have been an easy task to
arrange matters.
The Chao of Lai was originally
on the right bank of the Nam Te, but it was noticed that when
the pigs were about to litter they swam across the river. This
was taken as a sign that the Chao of Lai should follow the hogs,
in which he was much encouraged by the Chinese, and he accordingly
did so. Phya Surisak was infatuated with the idea that the Chao
of Lai
would come to Teng on account of his sons, he was also
making overtures to a famous Black Flag leader called Ong Ba,
who felt very much like the fly with the spider, and usually put
off his coming with some excuse. At one time he alleged that
he was keeping his grandmother's birthday; at another, that he
was detained by worshipping the spirit of another grandmother.
My instructions were to place
myself under the orders pf Phya Surisak. My idea was that I should
go to M. Lai and survey along the boundary of Siam. Phya Surisak
desired that I should go to Sobp Ett and meet a section of his
army there, then follow the boundary of Hua Punn Tang Ha Tang
Hok
, and eventually go to Nawng Kai. De Richelieu, who had been
taken ill, left by boat for Luang Phrabang and Nawng Kai, and
Collins accompanied me. I had gone to M. Ya, and there was laid
up. On my way to Teng and at Teng, I was subject to severe attacks
of colic, but at M. Ya the attack was so prolonged that I was
quite exhausted, and fever came on. Night was made hideous by
the howls of men of the village exorcising the evil spirits from
some fever victims of the village. I fell ill on the 23rd of
December
, and it was not till the 10th of January I was able to
move off again. I then went on to Luang Phrabang and thence to
Bangkok.
M. Pavie in due time reached
Luang Phrabang and then moved up the Nam U, but when he got as
far as the north of the Nam Nua he met the Lao in full flight
from M. Teng. They were flying before the Haw brought down by
the eldest son of Chao Lai, who intended to revenge the arrest
of his brothers. M. Pavie returned to Luang Phrabang, which Phya
Surisak
had already left, taking with him whatever means of defence
there was; he had already reached Paklai. The Haw followed and
came down the Nam U, passed by M. Ngawi, which was supposed to
be fortified, but which was perfectly harmless. At M. Ngawi,
there is a small hill commanding a narrow gorge of the Nam U over
a mile long. The limestone cliffs rise perpendicularly from the
water, the river is very deep, and there is no perceptible current,
so that when boats enter the gorge progress is very slow, and
if there is anything of a wind the boats cannot go on, but rather
go back, nor can they wait at the sides. It is not a sort of
trap a hostile people would enter, if there was to be any active
resistance from the hill, but the Haw evidently knew the men they
were dealing with, and when they came to M. Ngawi they ascended
the hill and rolled some splendid mountain howitzers into the
river, thinking I suppose they were as useful at one place as
the other. They pushed on to Luang Phrabang and took up their
quarters at Wat Chieng Tawng. Before their arrival M. Pavie and
the Siamese Commissioner left Luang Phrabang, the Chao Hobahat
also left; he, however, was recalled by the Chief, who was determined
to die in Luang Phrabang. One of the Chief's sons enrolled some
twenty Burmans as a special bodyguard for his father.
Continued
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