Chapter LANDWIND to LAOS of L by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

un royaume grand et puissant, separé des Etats voisins par des forets et par des deserts. … Les principales villes sont Landjam et Tsiamaja.”—Kaempfer, H. du Japon, i. 22-3.

LANTEA, s. A swift kind of boat frequently mentioned by F. M. Pinto and some early writers on China; but we are unable to identify the word.

c. 1540.—“… that … they set sail from Liampoo for Malaca, and that being advanced as far as the Isle of Sumbor they had been set upon by a Pyrat, a Guzarat by Nation, called Coia Acem, who had three Junks, and four Lanteeas. …”—Pinto, E.T. p. 69.

c. 1560.—“There be other lesser shipping than Iunkes, somewhat long, called Bancones, they place three Oares on a side, and rowe very well, and load a great deal of goods; there be other lesse called Lanteas, which doe rowe very swift, and beare a good burthen also: and these two sorts of Ships, viz., Bancones and Lanteas, because they are swift, the theeues do commonly vse.”—Caspar da Cruz, in Purchas, iii. 174.

LAOS, n.p. A name applied by the Portuguese to the civilised people who occupied the inland frontier of Burma and Siam, between those countries on the one hand and China and Tongking on the other; a people called by the Burmese Shans, a name which we have in recent years adopted. They are of the same race of Thai to which the Siamese belong, and which extends with singular identity of manners and language, though broken into many separate communities, from Assam to the Malay Peninsula. The name has since been frequently used as a singular, and applied as a territorial name to the region occupied by this people immediately to the North of Siam. There have been a great number of separate principalities in this region, of which now one and now another predominated and conquered its neighbours. Before the rise of Siam the most important was that of which Sakotai was the capital, afterwards represented by Xieng-mai, the Zimmé of the Burmese and the Jangomay of some old English documents. In later times the chief States were Muang Luang Praban (see LAN JOHN) and Vien-shan, both upon the Mekong. It would appear from Lieut. Macleod’s narrative, and from Garnier, that the name of Lao is that by which the branch of these people on the Lower Mekong, i.e. of those two States, used to designate themselves. Muang Praban is still quasi independent; Vien-Shan was annexed with great cruelties by Siam, c. 1828.

1553.—“Of silver of 11 dinheiros alloy he (Alboquerque) made only a kind of money called Malaquezes, which silver came thither from Pegu, whilst from Siam came a very pure silver of 12 dinheiros assay, procured from certain people called Laos, lying to the north of these two kingdoms.”—Barros, ii. vi. 6.

1553.—“… certain very rugged mountain ranges, like the Alps, inhabited by the people called Gueos who fight on horseback, and with whom the King of Siam is continually at war. They are near him only on the north, leaving between the two the people called Laos, who encompass this Kingdom of Siam, both on the North, and on the East along the river Mecon … and on the south adjoin these Laos the two Kingdoms of Camboja and Choampa (see CHAMPA), which are on the sea-board. These Laos … though they are lords of so great territories, are all subject to this King of Siam, though often in rebellion against him.”—Ibid. III. ii. 5.

“Three Kingdoms at the upper part” of these, are those of the Laos, who (as we have said) obey Siam through fear: the first of these is called Jangoma (see JANGOMAY), the chief city of which is called Chiamay … the second Chancray Chencran: the third Lanchaa (see LAN JOHN) which is below the others, and adjoins the Kingdom of Cacho, or Cauchichina. …”—Ibid.

c. 1560.—“These Laos came to Camboia, downe a River many daies Iournie, which they say to have his beginning in China as many others which runne into the Sea of India; it hath eight, fifteene, and twentie fathome water, as myselfe saw by experience in a great part of it; it passeth through manie vnknowne and desart Countries of great Woods and Forests where there are innumerable Elephants, and many Buffes … and certayne beastes which in that Countrie they call Badas (see ABADA).”—Gaspar da Cruz, in Purchas, iii. 169.

c. 1598.—“… I offered to go to the Laos by land, at my expense, in search of the King of Cambodia, as I knew that that was the road to go by. …”—Blas de Herman Gonzalez, in De Morga (E.T. by Hon. H. Stanley, Hak. Soc.), p. 97.

1641.—“Concerning the Land of the Louwen, and a Journey made thereunto by our Folk in Anno 1641” (&c.).—Valentijn, III. Pt. ii. pp. 50 seqq.

1663.—“Relation Novvele et Cvrievse dv Royavme de Lao.—Traduite de l’Italien du P. de Marini, Romain. Paris, 1666.”

1766.—“Les peuples de Lao, nos voisins, n’admittent ni la question ni les peines arbitraires … ni les horribles supplices qui