A missionary’s journey through Laos from Bangkok to Ubon (.E. Maxwell
G. Dabin, a French Catholic missionary of the Missions Étrangères de Paris, published this day-by-day journal in 1885 (JSBRAS Vol. 15) to document his 48-day overland journey from Bangkok to Ubon in February–March 1884, undertaken to replace an invalided confrère at the Catholic station on the Seimoun. The text offers a first-hand account of the forested Siamese-Lao frontier interior—its infrastructure, sparse populations, administrative structures, and the material hardships of travel—framed within the broader project of French missionary penetration into what the introduction characterizes as “savage tribes” (p. 103).
Summary
The journal records the complete itinerary of a bullock-cart convoy departing Bangkok on 11 February 1884 and arriving at Ubon on 30 March, a period of roughly six and a half weeks. Dabin travelled with Père Xavier Guego, who had already spent two years among the Laotian population, and the party consisted of ten carts with relays of bullocks, supplemented by horses and local porters. The route passed through Thakien, then into an unbroken forest where the road was little more than a cart-width track obstructed by roots and ruts, before crossing a series of rivers, a low mountain range, and the open plateau of Korat to reach the Seimoun (p. 104–117). The narrative is unselfconsciously practical: it records broken wheels, missing bullocks, the search for water, the hiring of additional carts, and the constant vigilance against wild beasts and robbers.
The journal’s broader significance lies in its incidental observations on the political and economic geography of the region. Dabin encounters a rudimentary Siamese custom-house system (two men in a leaf hut levying a tax at provincial borders), a provincial governor of Laotian race governing “two or three hundred houses scattered about in the forest” (p. 107), and multiple Cambodian and Burmese trading caravans moving along the same routes. A particularly notable encounter is with a Cambodian mandarin—identified as the son of Phya Anuphat and second mandarin of Siem-rab—travelling with three elephants, two of which were presents for the King of Siam (p. 107–108). The text also records the presence of a French-built telegraph line running from Saigon to Bangkok, erected in 1884 along a road originally constructed by a Siamese Phya for communication with the Cambodian provinces (p. 106).
A substantial portion of the journal is devoted to the ruins of Puthai-saman, which Dabin identifies as a Khmer monument comparable to Angkor-vat “on a reduced scale” (p. 109). He provides measured observations of the moat, causeways, sculpted gates, bas-relief walls, and the pyramidal central structure, noting the absence of any mortar or iron in the stonework and the presence of a Buddha statue deposited by later pious visitors (p. 110–112). Local tradition attributed the buildings to angels; Dabin, while acknowledging the limits of his own expertise, records what he could observe in the two hours he spent among the ruins.
Key Findings
- The journey lasted 48 days (11 February to 30 March 1884), covering the route Bangkok–Thakien–forest interior–Puthai-saman–mountain pass–Korat plateau–Ubon, with the party consisting of ten bullock-carts, horses, and local followers (p. 103–104, 117).
- The ruins of Puthai-saman were described as a complete square plan with a moat 30–40 metres wide, flanked by colossal seated statues of Siva (measured at 0.60 m from lower lip to crown, 0.50 m ear-to-ear), a causeway with a dragon balustrade, and a central pyramidal structure of fitted stone blocks requiring “ten men” to lift a single block (p. 109–112).
- A French-built telegraph line from Saigon to Bangkok, erected in 1884, ran along the road from Kabin to Battambang; the missionaries sheltered in sheds built for its workmen (p. 106–107).
- A Cambodian mandarin, son of Phya Anuphat and second mandarin of Siem-rab, was encountered travelling with three elephants, two destined as presents for the King of Siam in exchange for expected favours (p. 107–108).
- The village of Ban-kathum was affected by a smallpox epidemic; its headman met the party to warn them to keep away (p. 114–115). Multiple abandoned villages, plundered and burned by robbers, were noted along the route (p. 115, 116).
- The Seimoun river at Ubon, though very low in the dry season, was compared by Dabin to the Loire at the Pont de la Belle Croix, Nantes (p. 116–117).
Conclusion
Dabin’s definitive historical takeaway is essentially one of successful completion and gratitude: the journey, though marked by constant mechanical failure, water scarcity, and the ever-present threat of banditry, was accomplished, and the missionaries reached their station to find their confrères “not too robust either of them, fever having tried them severely” (p. 117). The implicit argument of the text, reinforced by Couvreur’s introduction, is that the French Catholic Mission in Siam was making tangible progress in penetrating the Lao interior, and that the hardships described serve to demonstrate both the difficulty of the enterprise and the dedication of those who undertook it.
Context
- G. Dabin was a French Catholic missionary (Père) operating under the Missions Étrangères de Paris; the text reflects the missionary’s contemporary framing of Laotian peoples as “savage tribes” requiring conversion, and of the Siamese administrative apparatus as rudimentary (p. 103, 105).
- The manuscript was written in French, translated by W. E. Maxwell, and submitted through the Revd. N. J. Couvreur, Procureur des Missions Étrangères at Singapore, in response to the Society’s 1883 Annual Report appeal for observations from French missionaries in the East (p. 117).