224 



COCHIN-CHINA 



which is in demand for the construction of 

 ships and junks, the Anamese being the ship- 

 wrights of southeastern Asia. The empire is 

 divided into four principal states : Tonquin, or 

 Tong-king, on the north ; Cochin-China Prop- 

 er, on the east ; Lower Cochin-China, on the 

 south, and extending above this in the cen- 

 tre and southwest, Cambodia. The interior, 

 among the mountains and along the shores 

 of the Cambodia or Me-kong river, is peopled 

 by the Laos, Moi, Kuy, and other tribes, the 

 aborigines of the country, who have been 

 driven back and reduced to a state of partial 

 subjugation by the successive invaders who 

 have possessed themselves of the shores of 

 the country. The Anamese, the ruling people 

 of the coast, are a mixed race, composed of 

 Malays, Chinese, Siamese, and Peguans, the 

 Malays, perhaps, predominating. The religion 

 of the country is nominally Buddhism, but it 

 has not a very strong hold on the people ; the 

 mountaineers are mostly pagans, and adhere to 

 some of the earlier forms of idolatry. In the 

 17th century the Jesuit missionaries introduced 

 the Roman Catholic faith here, and at the 

 close of the last century it had attained a great 

 preeminence, the Emperor Gya-Long having 

 become a convert, and more than 500,000 of 

 his people having professed Christianity. A 

 Roman Catholic hierarchy was established in 

 the country, and consisted of seven bishops, 

 seven assistant bishops, sixty European mis- 

 sionaries, and 250 native priests. The suc- 

 cessors of Gya-Long, from some cause, have 

 not sympathized with Roman Catholic Christi- 

 anity, and the last three emperors have per- 

 secuted it with great virulence. The present 

 emperor, Tu-Duc, who is represented as a ty- 

 rannical and cruel ruler, though possessing con- 

 siderable astuteness, has distinguished himself 

 by his efforts to expel Christianity from the 

 country. The native Christians have been 

 tortured and massacred, their priests execu- 

 ted, and the European missionaries in many 

 instances put to death. Partly in consequence 

 of the cruelties thus inflicted on their mis- 

 sionaries, and partly from the determination on 

 the part of France to secure to herself oriental 

 possessions, which, in their extent and value, 

 should equal those of Great Britain, Spain, and 

 Holland, an expedition was sent out in 1858 

 from France, and joined by a small Spanish 

 contingent, to redress the wrongs of which the 

 French and Spanish missionaries had com- 

 plained. The expedition captured Touran, a 

 town on the coast of Cochin-China Proper, 

 about thirty miles below Hue, the capital of the 

 empire; and in 1859, after a siege and battle of 

 some severity, took Saigon, an important town 

 on the river of the same name, in lat. 10 50' N., 

 in Lower Cochin-China. The Emperor Tu- 

 Duc, however, was obstinate in his resistance, 

 and neither made nor admitted any overtures 

 for peace, and when the war in China had 

 called off a portion of the French force, he 

 promulgated edict after edict, each bearing with 



greater severity than its predecessor on the un- 

 fortunate Christians, whom he had evidently 

 determined to exterminate ; and having regain- 

 ed possession of Touran, he threatened Saigon, 

 declaring his intention of driving the vagabond 

 barbarians from his shores. This could not be 

 permitted, and in January, 1861, the French 

 Vice-Admiral Charner set sail from Woo- 

 Sung, China, and arrived in the harbor of 

 Saigon on the 1 1th of February. He had at his 

 command an effective force of about 3,000 men. 

 In the next thirteen days he had attacked and 

 carried by storm the immense and strongly- 

 fortified camp of Ki-Hoa, with a loss of twelve 

 killed, and 225 wounded, and had driven the 

 Anamese out of the province of Saigon. He 

 next proceeded to attack the fortified town of 

 Mytho, situated on the Me-kong or Cambodia 

 river, the most considerable place in the pos- 

 session of the Emperor Tu-Duc, in Lower 

 Cochin-China. After a sharp action of three 

 days, this important post was taken on the 

 10th of April, 1861, and with it a number of 

 war vessels of large size and great quantities of 

 ,guns, ammunition, and stores. Colompe, a 

 town farther up on the Me-kong, was soon 

 after taken, as well as several villages of smaller 

 size, and trade was opened by proclamation be- 

 tween Saigon and foreign ports. On the 29th 

 November, 1861, Vice- Admiral Charner waa 

 succeeded by Rear- Admiral Bonard, who found 

 it necessary to assume at once the offensive, as 

 Tu-Duc, irritated by the losses he had suffered, 

 and the threatened insurrection of a portion of 

 his subjects, had killed his principal generals, 

 and was becoming daily more desperate and 

 fierce. On the 14th of December Rear- Admiral 

 Bonard attacked Bien-hoa, an important place, 

 lying on the Long-tao river, where the Anamese 

 had accumulated a large amount of stores, and, 

 after a four days' siege, captured it ; and, as the 

 fruits of his victory, obtained eleven war junks, 

 four large shallops, 50 cannon, and large quan- 

 tities of rice and other stores. The next object 

 of attack was Ving-long, an important citadel, 

 some distance above Mytho on the Me-kong 

 river, the most important position held by the 

 Anamese in the south of the empire. The 

 siege commenced on the 20th of March, 1862, 

 and on the -23d the place was carried ; sixty- 

 eight large cannon were captured, a magazine, 

 488 feet in length, filled with rice, a cannon 

 foundry, mortars, powder, saltpetre, &c. This 

 blow so completely broke the power of the 

 Emperor Tu-Duc that he almost immediately 

 made overtures for the cessation of hostilities, 

 and on the 5th of June, 1862, a treaty of peace 

 was signed, by which the provinces of Saigon, 

 Bienhoa, and Mytho were ceded to France ; three 

 ports of Tong-king were opened to commerce ; 

 the other provinces of Lower Cochin-China 

 not ceded to France were to receive only such 

 number of troops as the French Government 

 should permit ; Christianity was to be tolerated, 

 and the Christians protected in their lives, 

 persons, and property throughout the em- 



