The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-14 00:00:00

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIE2I%

IS,. crowded naceting of this society was held on Monday

evening; Lord Ashburton, president, in the chair.
Among those present were Sir Roderick I.Murchison,
vice-president; Lord Colchester; Generals W. Monteith,
Sir H. Rawlinson, Sir A. Scott Waugh, and C. R. Fox;
Admirals Anson and Sir George Back; Consul Parkes,
from China; Colonels Lardner, strange, Sotheby, White,

and Shaffner, U.S. ; Captains Collineon, Bedford, Crau-
furd, and Pim, R.N. ; Right Hon. Sir Thomas Fremantle,

Sir William Holmes, of Demerara, Major Cooke, Hon•

Arthur Kinnaird, M.P. ; Captains Hyde, Tooke, Allen,
Young, Oldershaw, Murchison, Sprye, Hand, and Petrie;
Sir Charles Bright, Lieutenants Brine and Wing, R.N.'
Mr. Hanbury, M.P., Lieutenant Rokeby ; Drs. Hodgkin,
M'Cosh, Tidman, Belle, Bright, Camps, and Cornwell;
Messrs, Brooking, Osborne Smith, Charles White, Spottis-
woode, Bohn, Findlay, Arrowsmith, &c., &c.
PRESENTATIONS.—Sir William Holmes, of Dermrara ;
Lieutenant Arthur Wing, R.N.; Samuel Day Cross, M.D. ;
and Joseph Levick, Esq., were presented upon their elee•

ELECTlONS.—Lieutenant James Murray Grant, H. B.
H. Birchill, Frederick Elliot Blackstone, John F. Laurie;
William Leslie, M.P., John Thomas Quin, James Rae.

Joseph Rigby, Russell Morland Skinner, Henry Arthur
Dillon Surridge, and William Wells, Esqs., were elected

Fellows.

ACCESSIONS.—Among the accessions to the Library and
Map-rooms were, Rosser's Notes on the South Atlantic ;
Map of Peru, showing the deposit of nitrate of soda;
Sheets 6, 12, and 14 of Philip's Imperial Atlas, &c., &c.
EXHIBITIONS.—Maps, plans, and views, illustrating the
paper by M. Mouhot, were exhibited.
Before proceeding to the reading of the papers,
The PRESIDENT stated that letters had been received
from Consul Petherick, dated Khartum, Nov. 25, announc-
ing his safe arrival, with his wife, medical attendant, and
a photographer, after a tedious journey up the Nile, at
that place, about the middle of October. He had been

detained from pushing forward by serious illness, from

which he was fast recovering; but he had lost no time in
carrying out the object of his expedition, which is to effect
a meeting with Captains Speke and Grant, if possible in the
neighbourhood of Gondokoro or Lake Nyanza, and to give
them a helping hand in tiaversing the country. He had
accordingly sent forward two parties of armed men, with
provisions, medicine, and clothing, with instructions to
place themselves at Captain Speke's disposal, should they
fall in with him before he himself overtook them; and at
the date of his last letter ho had despatched a third body of
armed men, and was then organising a fourth, to be fol-
lowed immediately by a fifth party, forming in the whole a
body of about 160 armed men, to proceed with into the in-
terior for the protection of the exploring party.
Dr. SHAW then read two letters, which had been trans-

lated by the Foreign Secretary, Dr. Hodgkin, and which
gave a very interesting account of M. Mouhot's travels in
Cambodia. M. Mouhot had passed through Cambodia from
east to west and south to north, up the Me-kong, near to
the frontier of Laos, and visited the savage and indepen-
dent tribes which live between these two countries and
Cochin-China. Then, having crossed the Lake of Touli-
Sap, and explored the provinces of Ongeor and Eattatn-
bong, where there are some splendid ruins and a monu-
ment—the Temple of Ongeor the Great—he next passed
from the basin of the Me-kong into that of Menem, and,
setting out from Battambong, crossed to the west as far
as Bangkok. The paper then referred to the products of
the country, which consist of cotton, fish, iron, gold, and
copper. M. Mouhot concludes by stating that he intends
staving on another tour, to the north-east of Bangkok, in
the basin of the Me-kong, towards the frontier of China.
A letter was then read from Mr. Campbell, R.N.,
F.R.G.S., to Madame Mouhot, in which he enumerated
the obstacles M. Mouhot had since encountered.
The PRESIDENT observed it would be desirable to obtain
some information as to what were the probable future des-.
tinies of this country. Cambodia we knew from history
had been the seat of empire, holding Siam, Tonquin, and
Cochin China, as subject states; while the drawings on
the table showed to what extent the civilisation of these
people must have arrived it.
Mr. CRAWFURD, who vik ited a portion of the country
some forty years ago, stated that Combodia was a corrup-
tion of Gamboge. It was one of five or six nations lying
between India and China, of second or third rate civilisa-
tion, never equalling physically, morally, or intellectually,
the Chinese or the Hindoos. It was at present a poor
State, having been encroached upon by the Siamese on
the north, and the Annamites and other people on the south.
The wild tribes whom M. Mouhot supposed to have de-
scended from Thibet, were, in his opinion, the inhabitants
of the mountain districts, who had escaped from the bond-
age of the people of the plains. With reference to the de-
signs of the French to achieve the conquest of the country,
Mr. Crawfurd expressed his belief that they would have to
encounter the most formidable obstacles, owing to the heat
of the climate, and wooded surface of the country, so pro-
ductive of malaria in tropical climates ; that they would, in
fact, find it another Algeria, 15,000 miles distant. The
capital was 700 miles from Saigon, and even if the French
succeeded in reaching it, they would find there one of the
largest and most regular fortifications in the East, con-
structed by a French engineer. Some of the drawings re-
presented evidently Bhuddist temples, and they reminded
him, though inferior in quality and beauty, of similar
monuments which he had seen in Java.
Dr. HODGKIN said, in addition to the drawings and
charts, M. Mouhot had sent some elaborate descriptions of
the ruins which he had found at Ongeor. These descrip-
tive papers were full of the most interesting information as
to the structure and workmanship of the ruins in question,
many of which were constructed of large stones elaborately
carved and covered with designs of imaginary animals, as
well as cf beasts of burden. These temples were found in
a district completely embedded in the forest, and in such a
state of ruin that trees were found growing upon the roofs.
The inscriptions, from their antiquity, were not intelligible
to the natives, yet they so nearly resembled the Siamese
character that he had no doubt they would soon be deci-
phered
aby skilful archwologists.
After
few remarks from Sir RODERICK MURCHISON on
the acquirements possessed by M. Mouhot, and allusion to
the circumstances of his wife being a Scotch lady, and a
member of the family of Mungo Park,
Mr. CRAWFURD mentioned that the alphabet of the
Cambodians was evidently of a phonetic character.
The PRESIDENT, in closing the discussion upon this
paper, remarked upon the compliment which M. Mouhot
had paid them by sending his communication to the Royal
Geographical Society of England.
Mr. GALTON then read the second paper, by Mr. Edward
O'Riley, on his travels to Karen-ni, through the Shan
States to Tungu. Mr. O'Riley's party consisted prin-
cipally of four elephants, with their attendants, ten armed
Burmans, two converted Christian Karens of the American
Baptist Mission, who accompanied the party as a medium
of communication with those tribes through whose locations
it was found necessary to open the road, some hired coolies,
&c., &c. The route, which lay across a mountainous coun-
try whore no road existed, led over five principal ridges,
varying from 4,000 to 7,500 feet. The paper, as well as
describing tho journey, gave a most interesting account of
the different tribes inhabiting those parts.
Mr. SPENSEIL ST. JOHN, F.R.G.S., late Consul-General
for Borneo, then read short extracts from his paper on the
North-West Coast of Borneo. Mr. St. John principally
confined himself to a description of the great mountain
of Kina Palu, and the people residing at its base. He ac-
cepted Sir Edward Belcher's calculation of the height of
the mountain, viz., 13,698 feet, as the most correct.
Mr. CRAUFURD drew a contrast between the populations
of Borneo and Java, attributing the striking difference
which was observable to the geological formation of the re-
spective countries. Borneo, which was of primary forma-
tion, was occupied by about a hundred different tribes, all
of them fierce and savage ; and although the island was
eight or nine times the size of Ireland, the population did
not exceed one or two millions. Java, on contrary, which
was of volcanic formation, contained a population of twelve
millions in a far more advanced state of material comfort
and civilisation. Borneo, however, promised to be a coun-
try productive in minerals.
Thanks having been voted to the authors of the papers,
the president adjourned the meeting to the 24th instant.

DEVOTED FRIENDSIIIP.—The Tribunal of Paris
yesterday tried a young man named Andre. Telliez, a na-
tive of Bassuel (Nord), on a charge of desertion, and ala:
i:
ing another person to serve in the army under
The circumstances of the case, as stated on
s
sent a rare instance of devoted friendship
w sfrieinnd,
Joseph
Pa-
mard, t hheu utr'iballne prelife.
In the year 1857, the prisoner, h
and
both sons of poor peasants. called upon to draw
had no means of finding a substitute his more fortu-
nate substitute, but
were
for the conscription. The prisoner. drew a low number,
and
friend determined to go in his stead, concealing his in-
tention, however, till the last moment. When Telliez was
ordered to join his regiment. Pamard accompanied him to
Lille, and, on arriving at the barracks, he persuaded Tel-
liez to let him go in his stead. Telliez at last consented,
and Pamard was incorporated in the 75th Regiment under
his friend's name, and served through the campaign of
Italy with great distinction. In 1861, Pamard, still under
the name of Tellies,, was with his regiment in garrison at
Lyons, and he there became so deeply enamoured of a young
woman that, in order to pass part of his time with her, he
committed several breaches of military discipline, and ulti-
mately deserted. A warrant was issued for the apprehension
of Andre Tellies,and transmitted to his native village. The
real Andre Telliez was accordingly arrested, and then the
whole deception was discovered. They were both pro-
secuted for the offence, and on the day of the trial, Pamard
who had not been arrested, took his place beside his friend
at the bar of the Atiliaes at Douai. They were acquitted
by the jury, but as Telliez, purely from ignorance, did not
then join his regiment, he was again arrested. In reply to
the questions of the Tribunal, he stated that while his
friend was with the army he sent him what money he
could spare after supplying his mother's necessities and his
own, amounting in all to about 200 f., and that, when
acquitted at Lille, having received no military orders, and
not kill:ming what regiment to join, he had returned home,
where he was arrested. After hearing evangel for the pri-
soner, the Tribunal deliberated A few instants, and then
linal3inansly koligiti in a voi:diot of acquittal,