We stopped a day at Ban Saao, a small village on the Cambodia River, near the mouth of the Ma-Kok, and from there visited the ruins of the city of Cheung Sau. This was at one time the largest and most populous city in this part of the interior; it was the capital city of a very powerful Burmese province. Seventy years ago the city was taken and destroyed by the Siamese, its inhabitants put to the sword or forced into slavery and the entire province rendered desolate, in which condition it remains to this day. The province thus depopulated, and now the home only of wild beasts, is not as large as the province of Cheung Mai, I believe. The territory under the rule of the king of Cheung Mai is about as large as the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island; the waste province of Cheung Sau is probably about as large as Connecticut. Nothing now remains of the destroyed city save the walls and the tumbling ruins of temples. Thousands of idols, images of Buddha, are scattered around in the old wat- or temple-grounds. Helpless to save the city from its fate, they were abandoned, and are now trodden under foot of the deer, wild elephants and tigers, whose tracks now form the by-ways of that city.
After wandering about the place for several hours, we returned to Ban Saao, and then continued our journey down the Cambodia. One
