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Born in Orange County, North Carolina, July 14, 1853, Marion Alonzo Cheek graduated in medicine from medical school before being recruited by the Presbyterian missionary Daniel McGilvary to work with the protestant mission in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in 1874.<br/><br/> Cheek's relationship with McGilvary and the mission soon turned sour, but Cheek - who was more interested in making money and enjoying the good life - soon set himself up as a businessman in the local lumber business and established a succesful medical practice. He resigned from the Presbyterian Mission in 1886, but despite - perhaps because of - establishing a personal harem of around 20 northern Thai women - he incurred increasingly serious debts, becoming bankrupt in 1893.<br/><br/> He became ill with malaria and dysentry in 1895 and took ship for Hong Kong and treatment in June of that year, but he died of an abcess of the liver while still in Thai waters off Si Chang Island, July 4, 1895.
He was the son of Anna Leonowens of Anna and the King of Siam fame and Thomas Leon Owens, a civilian clerk, whom she married in India in 1849. He was born at Lynton near Port Gregory in Western Australia and went to Siam (now Thailand) with his mother in 1862.<br/><br/> He was raised in the Siamese royal palace and was schooled by his mother alongside the royal children until he returned to Europe to complete his education. In 1881, at the age of 27, he returned to Siam and was granted a commission of Captain in the Royal Cavalry by King Chulalongkorn.<br/><br/> Leonowens in 1884 left the military and entered the teak trade. He went on in 1905 to found the Louis Thomas Leonowens Company which became Louis T. Leonowens Ltd, an international trading company. This company remains a leading exporter of Malayan hardwoods and an importer of building materials and general merchandise.<br/><br/> Leonowens became less involved in the operations of the company after 1906 and left Siam for the last time in 1913. Leonowens died in 1919 during the global influenza pandemic. He is buried, with his second wife, in Brompton Cemetery, London.
The British conquest of Burma began in 1824 in response to a Burmese attempt to invade India. By 1886, and after two further wars, Britain had incorporated the entire country into the British Raj. To stimulate trade and facilitate changes, the British brought in Indians and Chinese, who quickly displaced the Burmese in urban areas. To this day Rangoon and Mandalay have large ethnic Indian populations. Railways and schools were built, as well as a large number of prisons, including the infamous Insein Prison, then as now used for political prisoners.<br/><br/> Burmese resentment was strong and was vented in violent riots that paralysed Rangoon on occasion all the way until the 1930s. Burma was administered as a province of British India until 1937 when it became a separate, self-governing colony. Burma finally gained independence from Britain on January 4, 1948.
The River Mekong is the world's 12th-longest river. From its Himalayan source on the Tibetan plateau, it flows some 4,350 km (2,703 miles) through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, finally draining in the South China Sea. The recent construction of hydroelectric dams on the river and its tributaries has reduced the water flow dramatically during the dry season in Southeast Asia.
In the 19th century, the Asian Elephant held a prominent position in Siam, although they were hunted regularly north of Ayutthaya and the Lao States (present day, Chiang Mai province and Isan). Not only were elephants used as beasts of burden in agriculture and for hauling timber, but they were active in war leading cavalry charges against the enemy. Elephants were frequently employed in the Siamese-Burmese wars of the Middle Ages. Siam's kings kept elephants, especially prized albino elephants, in elaborate stables. An adult Asian Elephant regularly lives to 90 years of age, grows to 2.5 to 3 meters in height and consumes about 100 kg of hay, fruit and vegetables per day. During the reigns of King Mongkut Rama IV (1851—68) and King Chulalongkorn (1868—1910), the national flag of Siam was a white elephant on a red background.