Page:Further India; (IA furtherindia00clif).pdf/219

IT was only on July 7, 1866, that the de Lagrée-Garnier expedition at last began its ascent of the Mekong River from Pnom Penh. A short visit was paid to the pagoda of Pnom-Brashe, an ancient Khmer ruin situated opposite to the Sutin islands. This is a magnificent temple, in general appearance not unlike a Gothic cathedral, and according to an inscription found in it, a translation of which was furnished to the explorers by a Buddhist monk, it dates from the second century of our De Lagrée, who found it impossible to get over the difficulty presented by the omission from the manuscript of the Chinese ambassador of all mention of Angkor Wat, thought that the town described in that work was to be looked for in the neighbourhood of Pnom-Brashe, but there is little to be advanced in favour of this view, since the account of the capital of Kambodia as it was in the thirteenth century corresponds in almost every detail with Angkor Thôm, and is not applicable in an equal degree to any other of the great Khmer remains.

On July 9th, Kratieh, on the left bank just below the Sombor rapids, was reached, and here the two shallow-draft gunboats, in which the expedition had so far been conveyed, were abandoned. Up to this time, no steamers