COCHIN CHINA. This extensive kingdom is situated in the southern extremity of Asia, and forms part of the peninsula between China and Hindustan. It is not separated, however, by any distinct boundary from the neighbouring countries; and its limits have been greatly extended by conquest beyond those of Cochin China proper, which is merely a strip of land between the China Sea and the mountains, and is not above sixty or seventy miles broad. The empire of Cochin China, which took its actual form in the beginning of the present century, comprehends Cochin China proper, Tonquin, the principal part of Cambodia, and the little state of Chiampa. This state, as it has been aggrandised by conquest, extends from the point of Cambodia, in about 8° 30' north latitude, to the northern confines of Tonquin, which reach within a very few miles of the tropic, and from the longitude of 105° to about 109° east. It is bounded on the north by the Chinese Quangsi or Kiangsi and Yunan, on the west by the kingdoms of Lao and Siam; while the Gulfs of Siam, Tonquin, and the China Sea bound it on the southwest, east, and north-east. This great country is divided by long ranges of mountains, which run nearly north and south, and in almost parallel chains, forming it into separate provinces, divided by physical boundaries, and inhabited by distinct tribes and nations, although subject to the same sovereign. By these mountainous ridges Tonquin and Cochin China proper are separated from Lactho Laos and Cambodia. Another chain separates the three latter states from Siam and China, and gradually diminishes in height as it approaches the south, terminating at the southern extremity of Cambodia. The soil in Cochin China, especially in the low lands, is fertile, and its products are extremely valuable. Of these, sugar is the staple commodity; it is produced in the central districts of Cochin China proper, and is manufactured by the labour of the natives, and not, as in Siam, by that of the Chinese. The whole exportation, which is "principally to China, amounts to about 2000 tons, or 30,000 peculs. Raw silk is the next article in importance. Its culture, as Mr Craufurd and the embassy which accompanied him to Siam and Cochin China had an opportunity of observing in 1822, is carried on to a great extent in Cochin China, and to a still greater extent in Tonquin. The quantity which could be annually exported from the whole kingdom is estimated at 120,000 lbs. Considerable quantities were carried away by some French ships which visited Cochin China, and the coarser kind was found to bear a fair price in the French market. Cochin China produces the true cinnamon; and the quantity annually exported appears to be about 266,000 lbs. Pepper of a good quality, but in small quantity and of high price, is produced in the central provinces of Cochin China; but the quantity is inadequate to the demand which the Chinese trade creates for its exportation. It grows among the central mountains of Cochin China, whence it is exported to Cambodia and Tonquin, but principally to China, where it is much more highly valued than any other quality of this aromatic. It is not however prepared in a manner to suit the Indian or European markets; for which purpose it would be necessary that the natives should be instructed to free it from the epidermis, and otherwise to pack and to prepare it, as is practised in Ceylon. Another exclusive product of the central parts of the kingdom, which is extensively cultivated and sent to the neighbouring provinces, is tea, which is a very coarse and cheap commodity, the price seldom exceeding a penny or two pence a pound. It is doubtful, however, whether this tea would be fit for the consumption of Europe. There are two species of rice, namely, the mountain rice, and another which is produced in the alluvial lands. The other productions of these lands and of the adjacent forests are gamboge, gum, cardamums, eagle wood, areca∙nut, betel-leaf, ivory, sticklack; hides, consisting of deer skins, buffalo, elephants, and rhinoceros hides; peltry, consisting of tiger, leopard, otter, and cat skins; feathers, salt fish, horns and bones, dyewoods, and woods for ship-building and for domestic[7:7:12] purposes. Valuable timber is found only in Cambodia, and a small quantity of teak wood is found in the forests; also ebony, cedars, mimosas, walnuts, iron-wood, and poon, and most of the other trees found in the woods of India. The wood used for ship-building and for domestic purposes is strong and durable, and is carried to the capital in large quantities. Mr Craufurd’s embassy had no opportunity of examining its botanical character. There is a hard black wood extensively used in cabinet-work, and of large dimensions, which takes a fine polish, and might form an article of exportation. Cambodia also produces the Portuguese rosewood, which the Chinese export as they do from Siam; also sandal wood and other scented woods. Among the products of Tonquin is a species of vegetable root, a cheap material, which forms the deadweight of all the Chinese cargoes exported from Tonquin, and is used extensively both throughout Cochin China and the adjacent countries, and also in China, as the material of a red dye. Edible bird-nests, the sea-slug usually called biche de mer, molluseas, and sea-blubber, and other marine productions of a gelatinous quality, form standing articles of trade with China, and are always in demand. Among the mountains of Tonquin is the only portion of the Cochin Chinese empire which produces iron, gold, and silver. The iron received from these mines, which is as cheap as that from Siam, supplies the whole kingdom, with the exception of Siagun, which is furnished from the latter country. Gold dust is found in many of the rivers; and there are prodigious rocks of marble situated on the banks of the river Faifoo, on a kind of sandy plain, of which large quantities have been exported.^[1. Asiatic Journal for 182G, Cursory Remarks on Cochin China. ] This remarkable range of marble rocks rises almost perpendicularly from the low sand hills, to a height of from 300 to 400 feet, without a hill or mountain near them.^[2. Mission to Cochin China, from Finlayson’s Journal. ]

The foreign trade of the Cochin Chinese is almost exclusively with China, the trade carried on with Siam being inconsiderable, and that with European nations still smaller. But there is no indisposition to trade, though among the European nations the notion has been propagated by travellers that the resort of European traders is in a great measure interdicted in this kingdom, on the same principle as in Japan and in all the ports of the Chinese empire, with the exception of one. On the contrary, there is no Asiatic country in which Europeans are admitted on more easy terms than in Cochin China. In 1818, a new tariff was imposed on foreign vessels, by which the high duties imposed on all foreign vessels prior to 1818 were repealed, and equal duties substituted in their stead. By this regulation all vessels pay a rated measurement duty, moderate in its amount; and arc exempted from all import duties payable previous to 1818. Vessels that are driven into the ports of Cochin China by stress of weather, or that visit them for the purpose of commercial inquiries, are free from all charges; and four of the principal ports of the Cochin Chinese empire arc open to European commerce. It is also of great importance to the interests of foreign trade that in Cochin China neither the sovereign nor any of his officers have any thing to do with commercial concerns. There are no royal monopolies, nor any claims of preference in the market; which odious privileges are far more pernicious to commerce than the heaviest duties. Of all the European nations, the French alone have availed themselves of these new regulations in favour of European trade; four French ships of considerable burden having since visited Cochin China, bringing out fire-arms, iron, copper, woollens, and some curiosities for the court, and having received in return full cargoes of sugar, with considerable quantities of raw silk.

The productions which the Cochin Chinese receive from China are manufactured silks, porcelain, medical drugs, a very large supply of paper, principally for religious purposes, and some fine teas; and until the establishment of Singapore, about 150 chests of opium were obtained indirectly from Canton, some portion of it by sea in junks, and a good deal by land. This trade with China is chiefly conducted with Cachao in Tonquin, Saigun in Cambodia, and Taifo and Hue in Cochin China. There is also some inconsiderable intercourse with other parts of the empire. From the Malayan countries Cochin China receives pepper, cloves, nutmegs, with sandal-wood and tin, and from India opium and saltpetre. From Europe the present importations consist of broad cloth, which has long been consumed in Cochin China, and is required for the army, consisting of 40,000 men, who are amply and uniformly clothed in British broad cloth of coarse scarlet. There is also a demand for some woollens of a finer fabric among the better classes, for an occasional winter dress. Some trade has lately commenced with Singapore; and from that port as well as Canton, junks have of late brought small quantities of fine heavy cotton goods, which are in much request among the better classes. Chintzes and other coloured cotton goods are not at all in request, with the exception of handkerchiefs; neither are the coarse white cottons, such as are manufactured in India, fit to enter into competition with the domestic manufactures of Cochin China. The Cochin Chinese, notwithstanding their skill in the manufacture of cannon and ammunition, do not manufacture a supply of fire-arms sufficient for the home demand. A French vessel which came out in 1819 supplied the king of Cochin China with 10,000 stand of arms, which still however continue in demand. European iron is also imported, which, from the little loss that it sustains in forging, compared with the native metal, has a superiority over it in point of economy.

Cochin China, from its central situation, its navigable rivers, and its innumerable and excellent harbours, possesses extraordinary advantages for commerce. Within the whole kingdom there appear to be no less than five considerable rivers, which, while they diffuse fertility over the country, also greatly facilitate its internal communications. These are Kangkao, Cambodia, Saigun, Tonquin, and Hue. The first empties itself into the Gulf of Siam, and on it are situated Athien and Pontia-mas. It is connected with the great river Cambodia, and by means of it with Panompin, the capital of the kingdom, formerly much frequented by the European traders. This great river is described as navigable by ships of the largest size to the distance of forty miles up the country, where the city of Saigong is situated, having a capacious and commodious port, and an extensive naval arsenal.^[3. Barrow’s Voyage to Cochin China, p. 24Ĵ. ] There is no river of any great magnitude in Cochin China. The river Hue has but a very short course; although broad, it is shallow, and does not materially facilitate navigation, either external or internal. But its estuary forms, during the south-west monsoon, a fine harbour, which ships of 200 tons burden may enter and quit with safety, while it is almost inaccessible during the opposite monsoon. There is a river in Tonquin which in former periods was well known to Europeans, and appears to have been accessible, notwithstanding the bar at its mouth, to vessels of 400 or 500 tons. It is now greatly obstructed by sand banks, and not navigable for vessels of above 200 [7:7:13]tons burden. This river has it√5 source in the centre of the great Chinese province of Yu-nan. Few countries are so amply provided with harbours, there being within the C⅜ degrees of latitude which intervene between Cape St James and the Bay of Turon, no less than nine of the finest harbours in the world, accessible in every wind, quite safe to approach, and affording the most complete protection. The Bay of Turon, situated in latitude 16. 7. north, is equalled by few in the eastern world, and surpassed by none, for the security and convenience which it affords.

The principal town is Hue, the capital, situated seventy or eighty miles north-east of Turon, on a river navigable for vessels of moderate burden. It is fortified; and in the arsenal every thing is in a style of neatness, magnitude, and perfection, which denotes a bold and warlike people. The other towns are Cachao in Tonquin; Saigun in Cambodia, a mercantile town of considerable size, on a branch of the Saigun river; and Taifo or Faifo, situated about fifteen miles from the entrance of the river, and now in ruins; Turon also, formerly the chief mart of trade between China and Japan, now surrounded with marks of ruin.

Cochin China, until within a few centuries after the Christian era, formed a part of the Chinese empire; and in the general features of the natives, many of their customs, their written language, and their religious opinions and ceremonies, it is easy to trace their Chinese origin. The Cochin Chinese, for example, resemble, according to Barrow, their Chinese progenitors in the ceremonies and processions observed at marriages and funerals, in the greater part of their religious superstitions, in the offerings presented to idols, in the consultation of oracles, and in the universal desire of inquiring into futurity by the casting of lots; in charming away diseases, in their diet and cookery, in their public entertainments, in their instruments of music, in games of chance, in cock-fighting, quail-fighting, and the devices of their fire-works. Their language, however, though originally Chinese, has now deviated so much from its standard as to be wholly unintelligible to a Chinese. But the Cochin Chinese have effectually preserved the written character of the Chinese language; and when the country was visited by Barrow, he found no difficulty in communicating with them by means of the Chinese priests who accompanied him.

In external appearance the Cochin Chinese are the most diminutive of the Mogul race. They are short and squat. They want the broad face of the Malay, the cylindrical cranium and expanded lower jaw remarked in the Siamese, and the oblique eyes of the Chinese. Their heads and countenances arc round; and they possess, according to Mr Finlayson, an expression of sprightliness, intelligence, and good humour, not to be found either in the Chinese or Siamese. Morals in Cochin China, as in every part of Asia, are at a very low ebb; and the women especially are in a very degraded state, and are permitted to indulge in every species of licentiousness. Neither parents nor husbands in any rank scruple for a moment to prostitute for gain either their wives or daughters. The females in general have but slender pretensions to beauty; yet this want is compensated by a lively and cheerful temper, totally different from the morose character of the Chinese. They are doomed by the men to labour from morning to night in the most toilsome occupations. All the labours and the various employments connected with agriculture fall to their share; and in some places they superintend all the details of commerce. They even assist in constructing and keeping in repair their mud-built cottages; they manufacture coarse earthenware vessels; navigate boats on rivers and in harbours; bear articles to market; draw the cotton-wool from the pod, spin it and weave it into cloth, dye it, and make it up into dresses for their families.^[4. Barrow’s Voyage io Cochin China. ] By the military system of the government, about two thirds of those who are fit for service are compelled to serve as soldiers at a paltry rate of pay; by which the people are taken away from agricultural and mechanical pursuits, and initiated into idle and unprofitable habits. Those of the men who are not so employed engage occasionally in fishing, in. collecting swallows’ nests and sea-slug in the neighbouring islands, and in various other occupations. But they have always leisure for their amusements, while the women are condemned to unremitting toil, being considered by the lower classes much in the light of beasts of burden fitted for use, and by the higher classes as the slaves of their pleasures. These latter arc arrogant in the extreme, and offensively coarse in their manners; while their inferiors are described as mild and inoffensive, lively and good humoured, affable and polite to strangers, but, under this exterior, as cunning, deceitful, impudent, conceited, and tyrannical where they can be so with impunity. These vices are traced to the nature of the government, which is completely despotic, the sovereign being the supreme disposer, both of the lives and properties of his subjects. “The bamboo,” says a traveller, “which is perpetually at work, is the universal reformer of manners throughout Cochin China;” and the moral character of the people corresponds entirely to this illiberal and despotic system under which it has been formed. It is owing to the same cause, namely, the insecurity of property which prevails all over Asia, that the arts and manufactures make no progressive improvement, and that agriculture also is in such a backward state. The country exhibits nowhere the marks of industrious cultivation; and the inhabitants are generally poor, and living in miserable cottages, with little furniture. The only branch of the arts in which they particularly excel is naval architecture, for which, however, they are not a little indebted to the size and quality of the timber employed for that purpose. Their row-galleys for pleasure are remarkably fine vessels, being from fifty to eighty feet in length, and composed of fine single planks, each extending from one extremity to the other. They employ various descriptions of vessels in the coasting trade, in fishing, arid in collecting the biche de mer or sea-slug, and the swallows’ nests among the cluster of islands called the Paracels. Many of them are covered with sheds of matting, under which a whole family constantly reside; and others resemble the common prows of the Malays, both in their hulls and rigging. Their foreign traders arc built on the plan of the Chinese junks.

The religion of the Cochin Chinese is a modification of the widely extended system of Buddha, to whom they offer the firstlings of their flocks and the first fruits of their fields. They have temples filled with the idolatrous imsges of this deity, and the natives are extremely superstitious. Besides voluntary offerings, which are made by individuals, a yearly contribution is levied by the government, in order to support a certain number of monasteries, in which the priests invoke the deity for the public welfare.

The ancient history of Cochin China, like that of most of the other eastern countries, is very little known; and it is only from the year 1774 that there are any authentic accounts. The reigning family was at that time expellee.
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from Quinong, the capital, by three brothers, who divided the country among them. At the time the revolt took place, the young prince Caung Shung, with the queen and his family, escaped by the assistance of a French missionary named Adran, into a forest; whence the king was compelled to fly, first to Putowai, a desert island in the Gulf of Siam, and afterwards to Siam, which he was obliged to quit. The son was carried by Adran to France, where he endeavoured to procure assistance; but the revolution breaking out, all these schemes were frustrated. Caung Shung, after remaining in the woods, sustaining many hardships, landed in his own country in 1790, and succeeded in expelling the successors of the usurpers; and in 1802 he effected the conquest of Tonquin, and established an extensive empire on a solid basis, which has flourished ever since that time. He was greatly aided by the missionary Adran, who had acquired the most perfect mastery over the language, and compiled a code of laws and a book of instructions for the government of the country. The king, after his death, evinced his gratitude for his services by erecting a monument to his memory, with an inscription in gold characters, an honour confined to the royal family.

Several attempts have been made to open an amicable intercourse with the Cochin Chinese; one in 1778 by Mr Hastings, and one in 1804 by an envoy from Canton; but both proved unsuccessful, through the intrigues of Frenchmen, by whom the sovereign Caung Shung was completely surrounded. In 1822 Mr Craufurd was sent by the Fast India Company as an envoy to Siam and Cochin China. He was not well received at the Cochin Chinese court, and does not appear to have obtained any peculiar advantages for commerce. Both he and Mr Finlayson, surgeon to the embassy, have published the result of their observations; and it is from the information procured by them that the previous account is chiefly compiled; also from Barrow’s Account of Cochin China, the Asiatic Journal, and other authorities.