An account of a journey across the Malay Peninsula from Koh Lak to Mergui
Arthur Keith, a medical practitioner (M.B., C.M.) based in the Bangtaphan mining district of Siam, published this account in 1891 describing his overland crossing of the Malay Peninsula from Koh Lak on the Gulf of Thailand to Mergui on the Andaman Sea, undertaken in June 1891 during the South-West Monsoon. The narrative documents a largely untraversed route across the watershed at Khow Maun and down the Tenasserim River, offering a rare first-hand description of the interior terrain, indigenous settlements, and the Siamese colonial communities that had recently established themselves on the Burmese side of the isthmus.
Summary
Keith’s journey began at Koh Lak on 7 June, when he and his two Siamese companions—Moung See, a Siamese-Burmese guide with family connections on both sides of the Peninsula, and Nuan, a faithful Siamese servant—set out with an elephant and baggage along a dray-path from the coast. The guide had assured them the road was suitable for elephants, but the path proved increasingly obstructed by jungle growth, and by the time they reached the shoulder of Khow Maun the track was completely obliterated. Keith abandoned the elephant and all superfluous baggage, continuing on foot with only a waterproof coat, blanket, gun, rice, fish, and other necessities for his business at Mergui (p. 33).
The crossing of the watershed at Khow Maun, approximately 750 feet above sea level, marked the transition from the dry eastern side to the rain-soaked western side of the Peninsula. On the Burmese side, Keith and his companions descended through dense evergreen forest, followed the Klong Pan Peng stream, and eventually reached a large river that was in full flood. Unable to cross on foot, they constructed a bamboo raft and navigated a tortuous channel through a series of closely packed jungle-clad hills, covering roughly forty miles of river to reach a point only fifteen miles distant as the crow flies (pp. 35–37). The river journey brought them into contact with Siamese colonial settlements—recently established by migrants from the eastern provinces, many of whom had previously worked as miners at Bangtaphan—and with Siamese Buddhist priests who had come up from Wat Keo to collect tithes from their outlying parishioners (p. 38).
The final leg of the journey took them down the broad, deep Tenasserim River past the ruined capital of the former Tenasserim kingdom to Mergui, the administrative capital of southern Lower Burma. Keith notes the contrast between the dead, depopulated Tenasserim—reduced to 600 inhabitants and a dilapidated terrace—and the thriving Mergui with its 15,000 population, active Chinese trading community, and British administrative presence (pp. 40–41).
Key Findings
- The pass at Khow Maun stands approximately 750 feet above sea level; the surrounding hills rarely exceed 1,000 feet yet are sufficient to determine the monsoon rain pattern on either side of the Peninsula (pp. 33–34).
- The bamboo raft journey through the hilly river section took a day and a half, requiring sixteen hours of punting at 2½ miles per hour to cover approximately forty miles of river for a straight-line distance of fifteen miles (p. 36).
- Wat Keo (called Takay on contemporary maps) had approximately 400 inhabitants, mostly Siamese, surrounded by large paddy fields and extensive pasture land (p. 39).
- Tenasserim, once the proud capital of a kingdom, had been reduced to roughly 600 inhabitants, mostly Burmese, with only the dilapidated remains of a terrace marking its former grandeur (p. 40).
- Mergui contained about 15,000 inhabitants and served as the capital of the southern part of Lower Burma, with Chinese as the active trading class (p. 41).
- During the rainy season, steam launches drawing four or five feet of water could navigate to Tenasserim, and a British India steamship had previously reached within eight miles of the town before being blocked by a bar of rocks (p. 40).
Conclusion
Keith’s account provides a valuable, if informal, record of the physical geography and human geography of the Tenasserim isthmus at a moment of significant demographic and political transition. The Siamese colonial settlements he encountered—populated by recent migrants from the eastern provinces, many former Bangtaphan miners—illustrate the pattern of Siamese internal colonisation pushing westward into what was then British-administered Lower Burma, a process that would become a source of diplomatic tension between the two powers in the years following this journey.
Context
- Keith was a medical practitioner (M.B., C.M.) working in the Bangtaphan mining district of Siam; his journey appears to have been undertaken for both professional business at Mergui and personal curiosity about the cross-peninsula route.
- The account reflects the administrative and commercial interests of the colonial period: Keith notes the security of property under British protection enjoyed by the Siamese settlers (p. 39), and his return journey was by the S.S. Mergui, a vessel of the British India steamship service operating in the region.