serves to intensify. The corridors, towers from 180 feet upwards, lordly flights of steps, carved walls, griffins, pillars, and halls of this magnificent edifice well entitle it to be called one of the architectural wonders of the world. It has been pronounced as imposing as Memphis or Thebes, and more mysterious. All travellers who have visited it-and of late years it has attracted not a few-agree that in this distant part of Siam there exists a building, hardly in ruins, though neglected, which defies all explanation. "The first view of the ruin is almost overwhelming," writes Mr. Vincent, who confesses that to attempt to describe it is beyond his powers. M. Mouhot, whose elaborate details, as well as the fine photographs of Mr. Thomson, are our chief data regarding this and other Cambodian antiquities, declares that the Nagkhon Wat Temple is "a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michael Angelo," and "might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome." * It would be worse than useless attempting any elaborate notes on this remarkable structure, or the almost as interesting remains which lie beside it; but the illustration on p. 148 will enable the reader to gain some idea of one of these very remarkable and mysterious buildings of the East. The Nagkhon temple is five miles scuth of the ruins of the city itself. This ancient town is surrounded by walls forming a quadrangle, nearly eight miles and a half in circumference and thirty feet in height, and in addition, there is a very wide ditch outside of all. The walls are pierced by four gates of very "grandiose, though fantastic" architecture. But after examining all these ruins, the question still remains unanswered, Who built these temples and cities? That it was a race identical with the present Cambodians one can hardly bring oneself to believe. At the date of our earliest acquaintance with this people they did not dwell in these cities, had no tradition even of their builders, and, though living in more magnificent state than now, so far as concerned their kings and magnates, they were then, no more than now, capable of such sculpture or architecture. Indeed, the details of these ruins are in the main Indian, but much also exists which connects them with Indo-China and Java. Much, again, Colonel Yule properly remarks, "is unique." But what has ever puzzled, and most likely ever will puzzle, antiquaries is the Roman-Doric character of the enriched pilasters, so frequent a feature in the building, though in Ceylon and in the mediaval Burmese remains something similar, though not so marked, occur. From the fact that the Chinese ambassadors, who visited the country between 1296 and 1352, do not mention the Nagkhon Wat, it is by some thought that it must have been built subsequent to that date. This is, however, too slender a foundation to rear a substantial theory on; and perhaps the building was, even at the date of their visit, an antiquity, though they did not visit it or note its occurrence among the many other objects which attracted their attention. We do not even know the object for which such temples were erected. M. Garnier thinks they were for the worship of Buddha, and undoubtedly some of them were; though Mr. Fergusson, while admitting that he may be wrong, regards the great temples as monuments of that serpent-worship to the elucidation of which he has written such able and extremely ponderous volumes. Every nation, from the Greeks to the lost ten tribes of Israel, has been called in to explain their presence; and though in time the Travels," Vol. I., p. 279.

66

inscriptions on them may be deciphered, those which have already been made out afford little hope of our just curiosity being much gratified in that direction. It is impossible to believe that these monuments could have been reared by a race who were living five hundred years ago. The people who built them must have been different from the present Cambodians; and unless we have to revolutionise all our ideas of the rise and decay of civilisation, a much longer interval than that must have been necesssary to allow of the disappearance or displacement of this wonderful nation of architects and sculptors.*

ANAM.

In the south-west of China, drained by the rivers Tue-duk-kiang and Song-koi, falling into the Gulf of Tonquin, is a considerable region which, though geographically, and perhaps ethnologically, a part of the Middle Kingdom, is politically not of it. Still further south, shut off from the rest of Indo-China by a range of mountains, is a long coast region drained by many though unimportant rivers, long known as Cochin-China; while in the delta of the Mekong is a flat, rich, but unhealthy tract of country which of late years has come before the world under the name of Lower Cochin-China, though from its present owners it is more frequently called French Cochin-China. As the two regions first named constitute part of the independent Empire of Anam, we shall accordingly designate them by that political title, reserving the more familiar title for the southern province, which since 1867 the French have held.

Peopled possibly from China, it is historically known that for long this region was under the direct control of Chinese satraps. But towards the close of the tenth century a successful rebellion enabled the Anamese to gain such a degree of independence that for at least eight hundred years their country owed but a nominal allegiance to Pekin; and not only did the Anamese prosper within their own borders, but they expanded over them, at the cost of their neighbours, the Cambodians, from whom they wrested Tsiampa and the country which at a later period the French managed to wrest from them. About the year 1787 France obtained a footing on the peninsula of Tourane and the Isle of Pulo-Condore, where at present they have a penal settlement; but it was not until 1858 that, on the excuse of French missionaries being murdered, Napoleon III. began to show the Emperor of Anam what manner of men his hitherto amicable neighbours were. In 1862, after the experience indicated, the court of Hué had to accept a treaty whereby, among other conditions which do not concern us, it ceded three provinces to France, and in 1867 a second unwilling compact, by which the remaining three provinces also passed out of the Anamese emperor's hands. This was the origin of the French colony of "Cochin-chine française." The relations. of the Anamese "court" with the French Republic rest on a treaty signed in 1874. By this arrangement the King of Anam is to be independent of every foreign power, including China, by whose emperor he was up to that date invested with the royal office.

Garnier: " Voyage d'Exploration en Indo-Chine" (1873); Cortambert and de Rosny: "Tableau de la Cochin-Chine" (1862); Delaporte: "Voyage au Cambodge" (1880); Leonowen: "The English Governess at the Court of Siam" (1864); Aymonnier: "Dictionnaire français-cambodgien, et Geographie du Cambodge" (1876); and above all the valuable works of Thomson, Mouhot, Carné, Bastian, and Fergusson, Vincent, and the article of Colonel Yule already quoted from.

In return for this guarantee the Anamese monarch engages to "accommodate his policy to that of France," to annul all ordinances he had passed against the Catholics in his kingdom, to open his ports to foreign commerce, and to permit the residence at each of them of a French consul, with a military guard of not more than one hundred men. Accordingly, at present the ports of Haiphong, Hanoi, and Quinhon are open to foreign vessels. Haiphong is a mere village, where, however, there is a French fort on the Cua-Cam, which is an arm

of the embouchere of the Song-koi, or Hongkiong (Red River). Hanoi (150,000 inhabitants), on the Song-koi, properly so called, is the capital of Tonquin, and Quinhon is a port on the coast of Anam, in the province of Binh-Dinh.* The government is an absolute monarchy, without anything in the shape of a constitution, powerful custom being the sole check on the despotism of the king. The throne follows the laws of primogeniture, but all other offices are supposed, as in China, to go by merit-or, at least, by such merit as the system of competitive examinations can discover. Hence, with the exception of the king, who

Journal officiel de la Republique française, August 4th, 6th, and 7th, 1874; "Almanach de Gotha" (1880), pp. 522-523.

is sovereign, high priest, and supreme judge in one, and whose only advisers in the executive portion of his offices are a Privy Council and seven Ministers, all the Anamese are equal for office is the only social distinction between man and man, and office goes by fitness. Anam in this respect resembles China in Asia and Russia in Europe, only in the latter country office goes by favour, not by fitness. The two chief parts of the empire-Cochin-China and Tonquin-are governed by viceroys, and the twenty-four provinces are each presided over by a governor.

The Kingdom or Empire of Anam, as it is sometimes called, comprises Cochin-China, without the six lower provinces which now belong to France, Tonquin, which was conquered in 1802, and Tsiampa, which at an early date was filched from Cambodia. Under Anam must also be included the tributary states of Laos and the territory of the independent Mois, or Stiengs-wretched tribes of savages, about whom little is known, save that they live on the frontiers of Cochin-China, and are pagans of a low type. Altogether, exclusive of the French colony, which has an area of 21,630 miles, Anam is about the size of France, i.e., about 230,000 square miles, with a population of 21,000,000,* 15,000,000 of whom are in Tonquin. Of these the greater part are Buddhists, though the higher classes of Anam profess the doctrines of Confucius; and it is estimated that there are 42,000 Roman Catholics, under six bishops, though, with the exception of a few thousands, these are almost confined to Tonquin. Much superstition, however, mingles with their Buddhism; and beyond the respect paid to the dead and to their ancestors generally, religion little troubles the apathetic, lazy, unemotional Anamese. They, however, respect their superiors, love their parents and native land, and being fond of mimicry, learn with remarkable facility.

Commerce, as usual in the Indo-Chinese countries, is mainly in the hands of the sharp Chinese. From China come large quantities of cotton and silk-manufactured goods, tea, and porcelain; and among other articles may be mentioned opium, paper, potatoes, powder, medicinal plants, petroleum, paints, wines and liquors, &c., while rice, salt fish, salt, undyed cotton, fish-oil, mushrooms, &c., are sent abroad, the total amount of exports from the Port of Haiphong during eight months of 1875-6 being 198,914 taëls (72 taëls equal to about £20).

The Anam army is said to number about 150,000 men, chiefly recruited from CochinChina, Tonquin loyalty not as yet being sufficiently established to allow the Government to risk recruiting in that populous part of the realm. The Grand Marshal who commands the army is personally responsible for the citadel of Hué. Formerly there was a Department of Marine, but no navy. However, it now comprises 7 corvettes, 300 junks, an old steamer, and some sailing ships presented to the king in 1876. These are manned by some 16,000 men, and carry about 1,400 guns of all sorts, some of them being chiefly remarkable from their antiquity and utter inefficiency as lethal weapons.†

The climate of the north of Anam differs much from that of the south. In the former there is, according to M. Maunoir, no really dry season. In December and January the thermometer falls to 43° or 41° Fahr. Summer lasts from the end of

* In some publications the estimate given falls short by one-half of this calculation of Behm and Wagner. + "Report by Sir Brooks Robertson respecting his Visit to Haiphong and Hanoi" (Parliamentary Paper, 1876), Dutreuil de Rhins: Bulletin de la Soc. de Geogr. de Paris, Feb., 1878; De la Liraye: "Notes Historiques sur la Nation Annamite" (Saigon, 1865).

April to the month of August, during which period it is excessively hot, and the coasts are frequently visited with typhoons and other storms. But, as a rule, Tonquin is healthy, though the same cannot be said of Cochin-China proper, and especially of the French colony, the climate of which is extremely pestilent to Europeans. The country is composed of low alluvial flats, and the shores are everywhere fringed with mangrove-swamps, one of the most certain signs of the feverish malaria lurking in and beyond them.

The animals and plants of the region are much the same as those of the neighbouring countries. The royal tiger was formerly met with in the hills close to Saigon. The panther, rhinoceros, coca-nut bear, buffaloes, monkeys, &c., are common, but the elephant the Anamese have not yet learned to domesticate. Their chief beasts of burden are the buffalo, with which the unhealthy rice-fields are cultivated, and horses. Birds of numerous species are found; among others there is met with about every village that long-legged fowl of ungainly figure and monstrous appetite, which takes its name from the country, and the low damp region swarms with reptiles, frequently of a dangerous type. The vegetable products of the country are those usual to the tropics. The forests abound in fine timber trees, and as the people of Anam are essentially an agricultural race, rice, which forms the staple crop, is extensively cultivated; but cotton, mulberry, sugar-cane, maize, betel-nuts, pepper, &c., are also grown, and Tonquin is famous for its cinnamon. This part of the country also produces fair tea, but the people of Anam generally do not know how to prepare it. Among other arts they are skilful in inlaying work (p. 156). The country is believed to contain much mineral wealth—including gold, silver, zinc, and iron; coal is found in places-and though the alluvial plains of the lower parts of the country cannot be expected to be metalliferous, yet it is worked there. The natives are, however, exceedingly jealous of foreigners wishing to work their mines, and if questioned on the subject, always affect ignorance of their existence; hence the erroneous statements which have been hitherto made on the subject.

Hué, or Phu-tua-tien (p. 153), is the capital of the kingdom, and is remarkable chiefly as the seat of government and the place of residence of a variety of French officials, who really control the king and his ministers. The inner town, or citadel, is occupied by "the government;" the outer by the general body of the population, whose numbers are estimated at from 50,000 to 100,000. But otherwise it is a very tumble-down and by no means imposing city. Hanoi, or Kecho (p. 148), the ancient capital of Tonquin, was once a place of some note, but though it still possesses a large fortress, which serves as a residence of the Viceroy, it is now fast sinking into decay. Even the citadel, though, like that of Hué, built by European engineers, is falling into disrepair, and is so poorly equipped that were it at all likely ever to be attacked by modern artillery its surrender would simply be a question of a few days. The only other towns worthy of mention are Hai-dzoung, BacNinh, Nam-Dinh, and Minh-binh, all of which possess fortifications of considerable importance; the castle of the latter town, though not on so vast a scale as the one which guards the capital, is yet the strongest in Tonquin.*

*Du Caillaux: "La France au Tong King" (1876); Harmand: "Apercu pathologique sur la Cochin-chine;" Vial: "Les premières années de la Cochin-chine" (1874); Veuillot: "La Cochin-chine et la Tonquin " (1859);