shops and warehouses towards the street. The inhabitants are reckoned to amount to 60,000, of whom one-third part are Chinese. Several commercial canals communicate with the town, and the river is navigable like that of Hué. Large Chinese vessels, called sommes, of 600 tons burthen, arrive at Fay-Fo yearly. The river divides itself into three branches; one goes directly to the sea in front of Chamcollao, another to the bay of Tourane, and the third to the southern extremity of the province, opposite to' Pulo-Canton : but the two last are navigable for small boats only.

Setting out on our return to Tourane, we arrived at one in the morning of a very dark night; but owing to the excellence of the police, we met with no interruption of any kind. The road is lined with houses almost the whole way; and at all times the stranger may apply for assistance or hospitality, and be received with a cordiality which does honour to the people.*

Returning once more to the capital, I visited some remarkable objects in the environs. The first was the hill on which the usurpers of the throne used to offer sacrifice; a hill which, although artificial, rises to the height of above 600 yards. In shape it resembles a truncated cone, and is situated southsouth-east from the city. On his restoration, Gia-Long destroyed the pagoda and the altar erected on the summit; and once had thoughts of levelling the whole hill; but he soon discovered more useful employment for his people and his money. On the east of this spot is a regular oblong natural hill, a little higher, planted all over with firs, a tree as great a rarity, and as much prized in Cochin-China, as any of their curious vegetable productions would be in Europe. The place of sacrifice chosen by the present emperor is not far from the conical hill, but in the plain, and regularly planted with firs.

The most striking ceremony in Cochin-China is a funeral; and it is no uncommon thing for surviving relations almost

* M. le Poivre, who visited Cochin-China fifty years ago, tells us that a traveller, who has not money sufficient to defray his expences in an inn, enters the first house of the town or village he arrives at; nobody inquires his business; he speaks to nobody, but waits in silence the hour of dinner. As soon as the rice is served up, he modestly approaches, places himself at table with the family, eats, drinks, and departs without uttering a single word, or any one's putting to him a single question. It was enough that he was a human being, a brother in distress; they wanted no farther information.

to ruin themselves in celebrating the obsequies of a parent. Not only the higher classes, but the emperor himself. steps aside to make room for a funeral or a wedding procession of whatever kind it may be. A curious feature of the economical policy of Gia-Long is this, that certain high dignities are not conferred until after the death of the persons to be honoured with them. Thus many families preserve with care the brevet of a general or an admiral, in the name of a deceased relative, who was only a subaltern officer. Distinction of rank and title is not hereditary in the country: these posthumous honours, therefore, entail no burthen on the nation; they are, consequently, in themselves the more honourable.

Respect for the dead is the same as in China, and the sentiment would do credit to the people, were it not combined with a multitude of superstitious and contemptible ceremonies. A belief in a good and an evil principle is the foundation of their religion to the former are entrusted their ancestors; and to the latter are offered a regular course of sacrifices and prayers, that they may not disturb the repose of the deceased. But this superstition is wholly free of enthusiasm: neither sentiments, however, are found among the grandees and men of letters. The emperor has often reproved his courtiers addressing him as the son of heaven. "I am, my friends, but the son of a very humble subject of the king of heaven, of the master of the universe, who bestowed on me parents of this earth, as he did to all other men." The bonzes, or pagan priests, are but little favoured by the government; they are, consequently, neither numerous nor ricli, but live very moderately in common like monks; there are also communities or convents of bonzeses. All professions of religion are tolerated in CochinChina; the number of Christians, according to the titular Bishop of Verrenne, apostolic-vicar in the country, may bé. about 60,000.

All our business in the capital being finished, we set out on our return to the ship in Tourane Bay by land, on the 4th of November. M. Chaigneau, one of the French mandarins, having obtained leave of absence for three years, after a residence of six and twenty years, and many important services as a commander by both sea and land, took his passage to Europe in our ship. Our company, including the soldiers of our escort, and the bearers of our palanquins amount to about 200 persons. We proceed on the new canal, which opens into the great lake; our project being to take the diversion of hunting on the way. Early next morning we landed at the village Koua

Hay, where we mounted our palanquins, as the road led across several marshes. But the country appearing very agreeable, we followed our hunting expedition round the hills, which abound in game of all sorts. In the vicinity of certain villages, and at the end of every five or six miles, are established along the great roads post-houses, in which travellers of distinction may lodge, under the inspection of an imperial officer, who has also the command of all the unemployed military of his district. At night we lodged at the foot of the great pass over the hills. All along the foot of the hills is a vast lagoon, separated from the sea by a natural bank of sand, in breadth about 100 fathoms, and in length sixteen miles. This lagoon communicates with the sea by a very narrow opening, of about twenty fathoms in breadth; but so obstructed by rocks as to be practicable by only the smallest boats. The lagoon itself is very deep, and would form an admirable haven, if a proper entry were formed. But nature has already been so liberal in harbours to the Cochin-Chinese, that they feel no desire or necessity to form others by art and labour. The lagoon or salt lake abounds in fish, which produce great profits to the numerous villages on its banks.

Next morning early we began to ascend the pass beforementioned, of Taysons, and before we reached the breakfasting-place we had killed a hundred monkeys, of a large species, peculiar to the country. Desirous to procure living specimens of this animal to carry to France, it was with great difficulty that I succeeded. In this operation many of them fell; for the more that were wounded the more collected around them; endeavouring to carry off to the woods the dead as well as the wounded. The three young ones we took held so fast round the dead body of their dam, that it required no small labour to detach them. This species of monkey greatly resembles the oran-outang in his stature and inoffensive manners, inhabiting the mountains and the tops of the loftiest trees, living on their fruit. The similarity of this creature to man is strikingly mortifying. His fur is exceedingly fine: the hands and feet are black, the shoulders and legs deep red, the belly white, and the back gray; the face flat and white, the cheeks red, the eyes large and black; some males measured on their hind-legs four feet four inches in height. In the country they are called venan, i. e. men of the wood.

In crossing the hills we saw many marks of the wild elephants, and crossing a number of rapid torrents arrived at the summit of the pass at one in the afternoon, being almost always on an ascent. On our way we remarked several large rocks, surmounted by heaps of small stones securing pieces of gilt VOYAGES and TRAVELS, No. 5. Vol. IV.

R

paper. These were monuments of the gratitude of porters employed in carrying heavy burthens across the mountain, in consequence of vows to the guardian spirits of the place, who had assisted them in accomplishing their task. Halting to take some refreshment in the guard-house on the summit, we there enjoyed a magnificent view of the bay of Tourane under our feet, where our ships looked like walnut-shells.

:

Resting for an hour and a-half we began to descend, advancing at times faster than we intended; and the road being much obstructed by rocks and stones, we were more fatigued in going down than we had been in going up. At five o'clock we arrived at the guard-house on the sea-shore, where our dinner was ready prepared. When the sun began to disappear behind the hills, we began to shoot the peacocks which are there very numerous. We fell in with very recent tracks of tigers; and we learned from the people of a neighbouring village, that for some time past those animals frequently appeared in that quarter. Snares had been set for them, and three had been sent to the emperor. Fortunately we received this information; otherwise our surgeon would have been caught in a tiger-trap, being drawn towards it by the barking of a dog placed in it to inveigle the tigers. In constructing this trap a double hut is erected, open on all sides, having one entrance closed by a swing-gate, which shuts of itself from within. When the tiger hears the barking of the dog he enters the outer hut, and the gate closes behind him but he finds the dog in the centre to be still cut off from him by an inner inclosure. The dog trained for this business keeps up a continual noise, until the tiger be within the trap, and then holds his tongue: then the people assemble to kill or secure the ferocious intruder. The tiger of Cochin-China is of the same kind with the royal tiger of Bengal. The forests shelter many different animals, in particular the wild bull, the object of grand hunting parties for the court. Deer, white-horned goats, the rhinoceros, wild-boar, and the elephant, are also very numerous but the most formidable of all is the tiger, which attacks both man and beast. The only animal he fears, it is said, is the rhinoceros; and in the battles between them, sometimes exhibited in the capital, the rhinoceros is almost always the conqueror. Once a-year a general tiger-hunt takes place, in which more men are killed and wounded, as I was told, than in some of their late battles. The emperor maintains a large body of elephants, to be employed in these hunts as well as in war. Our peacock-shooting was not very successful, for we killed but one; and next morning renewing our operations, we fell in with very fresh marks of tigers:

but we were too numerous to have much to apprehend from their attack. Two men armed, the one with a sabre and the other with a short spear, seldom fail to overcome that terrible animal without any injury. Two men are also sufficient to overcome the elephant, when found at a distance from the flock, as frequently happens, when he is feeding at the roots of the hills. The two hunters, armed with guns of large bore, advance towards the elephant, from opposite points, to within thirty paces of him. Then making the concerted signal, one of them sets up a shout: the elephant, without seeming to be alarmed, raises his head, and looks steadily at the shouter, who fires at his forehead. If the animal neither fall nor be at all wounded, he makes after the hunter, who with great agility escapes. The other hunter, who has followed the elephant, then fires at him behind; the animal turning round at the shot, receives another from the first man. By this reciprocal attack the poor elephant is in time mortally wounded, which often happens at the second or third shot: for the boldness and dexterity of the CochinChinese hunter in this exercise is surprising. The flesh of the elephant is eaten in the country. The trunk and the feet are esteemed peculiar delicacies, and as such are sent to the princes and other great men. I ate of those parts at the table of the mandarin of strangers, and found them pretty good.

Cochin-China is rich in minerals; but only two mines are worked, both for the emperor's account; it being a capital crime to open any other, or even to speak on the subject. I understood, however, that near Phuyenne are some gold mines, so rich that four or five pounds of ore would yield twenty ounces of pure metal. But the government, dreading the effects of European covetousness, employs every method to conceal the situation of the mines.

Returning on-board our ship in the morning,__we again went on-shore, to lodgings prepared for us by the Fantou, at Ton-Han. Our next excursion was to the marble rocks and quarries, situated eight miles off in the south-south-east part of the bay. Shooting as we went along, we visited the very curious and beautiful grottos, the work of nature and time. These rocks are not far from the sea, which, it is highly probable, at some remote epoch, covered the whole, although they now rise two hundred fathoms above the water. These rocks

are however erroneously named; for they consist not of marble, but of bastard alabaster (pseudalabastrites) a translucent gypseous stone, of a very inferior consistency to marble; and it is dressed into different shapes by the inhabitants of the environs. At these rocks, among some bushes, I for the first