Page:Further India; (IA furtherindia00clif).pdf/222

 Still hugging the left bank of the river, and travelling for the most part through the submerged forest, where alone the punters could find bottom with their poles, the party crept painfully up-stream, reaching the mouth of the Se-Kong on the 21st, and the town of Stung- Treng, in Siamese territory, on the same day.

From Stung-Treng, Garnier, who felt that he still bore a grudge to the rapids of Sombor, set off down river to explore the right bank of the Mekong. After many risks in the rapids and difficulties with his boatmen, Sombor was reached, and finding there a boat containing belated supplies for the expedition, Garnier got on board her, and after five laborious days spent in punting up-stream, re- joined his comrades at Stung-Treng.

Meanwhile de Lagrée had utilised his leisure in explor- ing the Se-Kong, which falls into the Mekong on its left bank a little below Stung-Treng. The neighbourhood of the latter place had also been examined, and some cu- rious stone towers, yet other relics of the Khmer civilisa- tion, had been discovered. Concerning these Gerard van Wusthof, the leader of the Dutch expedition to Vien Chan in the seventeenth century, of which more will be said in a later chapter, has the following passage:

"On August 17th, we passed the night at Batzong (Stung Treng) near a stone church, ruined through age, where the Louwen (Laos folk) perform ceremonies and sacrifices. Candles were burning in this church on the altars of two idols. About fifty years ago the Kings of Kambodia resided in this place, but forced to retreat be- fore the incessant attacks of the Louwen, they left this