CONTENTS. PAGE XX. CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN. §1 XXI. CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN. § 2. 93, 229, 348, 468 EVENING: A FRAGMENT. BY FRANCIS HINGESTON, M.A. MY FRIEND PICKLES; AND SOME SOCIAL GRIEVANCES OF WHICH HE DE- . 100, 170, 315, 445 106, 437 AN ARTISAN'S TOWN LYRIC. BY W. CHARLES KENT THE FATE OF THE PRINCESS SOPHIE. BEING THE SEQUEL TO CHARLOTTE FANDAUER'S GHOST. FROM THE GERMAN OF HAUFF. BY E. M. SWANN 425 NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. THE FRENCH IN COCHIN-CHINA. THE recent establishment of France in the extreme East by force of arms, and the foundation by that power of a colony in Cochin-China, apparently for purposes of military and naval aggrandisement, rather than for commercial objects, or to advance a general civilisation, render some account of the country in which that power has obtained a footing, and of the circumstances which have induced it to pursue such a course of action, interesting to all classes of readers. The country in which Turon-Tourane and Touranne of the Frenchthe point at which they have first landed, is situated, is called by the natives and by the Chinese Annam, "Peace of the South;" but it is known to Europeans as Cochin-China, having been so designated by the Portuguese from its resemblance to the coast of Cochin, in Hindustan, with a superadded Chinese character. Cochin-China is, like China, divided into a number of provinces, but these may be grouped into three great divisions; the north, or high Cochin-China, whose capital Huah is the royal city; the central, in which is situated the fine port of Turon, called by the natives Han; and in the same bay the city of Faifou, which was for a long time the commercial centre of the country. The wars which desolated CochinChina at the latter part of the last century destroyed the city in great part, although it still contains a considerable Chinese population, in ad dition to the natives, and who carry on a tolerably active commercial intercourse with the mother country. This district is alike picturesque and fertile, and at the same time less unwholesome than some others, from its being hilly. Further to the south is the port of Cua-gia, in a region that abounds in crumbling brick towers, relics of a once powerful dynasty, known as that of Siampa. This again is followed by the port of Nhatrang, or Bin-hoa, in the province of same name, disposed in a kind of amphitheatre, with plantations of areca and betel-nut, groves of mulberry, and fields of rice. A French officer constructed a stronghold at this point, which sustained two sieges: one in 1792, and another in 1793. The olden capital of the Siampa was situated in the most southerly capital of Central Cochin-China, a region which produces ebony, and the still more valuable ki-nam, or scented eagle-wood. The Siampese or Loys, as they were called, had in olden times extensive commercial relations with the nations of the extreme East, and we find one of the Javanese emperors wedding a daughter of the King of Siampa, in the fifteenth century; but the few that remain in the present day dwell away in the mountain recesses. Lastly, the southern portion of Cochin-China, which comprises a part May-VOL. CXVI. NO. CCCCLXI. B of Cambodia or Kamboja, formerly known as Doug-nai, the field of deer, but now designated Saigon, occupies a large portion of the delta of the great river May-kong.* The country of Tong-king, or Tonquin, was formerly separated from Cochin-China by a wall, but it has been united to the latter kingdom since 1802. While Cochin-China is hilly, Tonquin is, like Cambodia, for the most part an alluvial flat, watered by several rivers, but of which the chief is the Song-koy. The capital of Tonquin is Ke-cho, or "the great market." In the time of the Chinese it was called La-thanh; but the first king of the Tonquin dynasty of Loy, who reigned in 1010, changed its name to Thanh-long-thanh," the city of the Yellow Dragon.' The river Song-koy used to be navigated by European as well as by Chinese ships, but its mouth has got so encumbered as no longer to admit vessels of more than two hundred tons burden. At that time there were European factories at Hian, a town, in Dampier's time, of twenty thousand inhabitants, eighty miles up the river, and where it was as broad as the Thames at Gravesend. Ke-cho, the capital, was twenty miles beyond this, and is said to have contained one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. The rivers of Cochin-China have as yet been very imperfectly explored. That of Saigon can be navigated by the largest merchantmen without pilots for a distance of sixty miles from its mouth. It appears to be a branch of the May-kong, one of the great Asiatic rivers, and which has various mouths, one of which is known to sailors as the river Basak, and another as the Japanese embouchure. The memory of a great poet attaches itself to this river. Camoëns was returning from his exile at Macao, in 1561; he was on his way to enjoy in the bosom of his family a fortune which he had conquered by his industry, when a frightful tempest arose, and the vessel that bore him was stranded and broken up. He nevertheless saved himself and the MS. of the "Lusiad." "Look at the river Mecom," he says, "proclaimed sovereign of rivers, as it flows through the plains of Cambodia. One day, in the midst of its repose, it received on its hospitable banks verses moistened with the ocean's waves, and preserved from a grievous and miserable wreck, when struck by an unjust decree he to whose sonorous lyre more glory and renown are accorded than happiness, found himself cast away amidst privations and dangers innumerable." ("Lusiad," x. 127, 128.) In 1643 a Dutch embassy went up this river, under the unfortunate Règemortes, who was assassinated with all his followers at the moment that he was about to be introduced to an audience with the king. The two ships that brought them were also seized, and the crews massacred. Two years before that the enterprising Van Diemen, who had founded the Dutch factory at Tonquin, and under whose auspices it was that the unfortunate attempt was made to win over the murderous King of Cambodia to commercial intercommunication, had organised an exploratory expedition up the May-kong to the kingdom of Laos. The party suc *News has arrived, since the above was in type, of the capture and sacking of the city of Saigon itself by the united French and Spanish forces. It may be inferred from this, that the total subjection of Cochin-China has been resolved upon in combination with the foundation of settlements, the opening of the ports, and protection to missionaries. |