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Lusiad, who wrote from a personal knowledge of the East, makes a complimentary reference to Cochin-China:

"Chiampa there her fragrant coast extends,
There Cochin-China's cultured land ascends,
From Annam Bay begins the ancient reign
Of China's beauteous art-adorned domain.
Wide from the burning to the frozen skies,
O'erflowed with wealth the potent empire lies."

But

This was written more than three hundred years ago. those who saw Cochin-China with other than a poet's eyes found the people in the elementary stages of culture. I should think there was about the same difference between a CochinChinaman and a Chinaman proper, as between a Mexican and a Yankee. Chaigneau, a Frenchman who held office under the old government, and was one of the pioneers of French influence, says of the genius of the people: "You find goldsmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, joiners, but none of their arts have risen above mediocrity. They have some knowledge of the art of tempering iron and steel, but their tools are either too brittle or too soft. They work better in copper, because the metal is always prepared for them by the Chinese." Chinese manners had impressed the country. The calendar was Chinese, and the coin an imitation of Chinese coin. The religion is the same, Buddhism, and the morals of Confucius. There was none of the pomp and barbaric splendor in the temples that we saw in the Buddhist temples of Burmah and Siam. In these Chinese countries the lower classes are Buddhists, the upper classes followers of Confucius-which means orthodoxy tempered with a discreet skepticism. Buddhism in Cochin-China means a moral life as the priests dictate. The gospel of Confucius is a moral life as your conscience dictates. The customs of the people, marriage, funeral ceremonies, the adoration of ancestors, the observance of festivals and eras, are The King reigned in what based on the Chinese canons. was called a patriarchal despotism. He was absolute and supreme. The King lived apart, and made himself sacred and

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unapproachable like the Chinese emperor. Torture was allowed in the administration of justice. Flogging was a cherished institution. The police carried their bamboo staffs, and kept order by flogging the people. Christianity made its way during that marvelous movement for the conversion of Asia, begun by Ignatius Loyola in the sixteenth century. A Spanish priest planted the cross in 1583. In a generation or two the French came and strengthened the cross. Then came a prince who persecuted the Christians and drove out the

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priests. But the cross was succeeded by the sword, and now Cochin-China is as much a province of France as Champagne or Algeria.

Saigon is about forty miles from the sea, and you approach it through a series of rivers, which interlace the soil, and break and twist and bend, until the map looks like a demonstration in anatomy of the alimentary functions of the body. We passed Cape Saint Jacques after luncheon, and a boat came from the shore with a telegram from Admiral Lafond, the GovernorGeneral, to the General, asking him to be his guest at the

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