GEOGRAPHICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



487 



Blakiston and Commander Brine among the 

 English officers. These journeys of exploration 

 were continued by English officers and civil- 

 ians, and probably by the French also, through- 

 out the whole of 1861 and 1862, and many of 

 the narratives of the explorers are yet to be 

 published. Captain Blakiston's "Five Months 

 on the Yang-tsze " is an exceedingly valuable 

 contribution to geographical science. In com- 

 pany with three friends, Lieut. -Col. H. A. 

 Sard, Dr. Alfred Barton, and Rev. S. Scheres- 

 chewsky, an American missionary, he ascended 

 the Yang-tsze river to a point 1,800 miles from 

 its mouth, and over one thousand miles higher 

 than any European traveller had previously 

 penetrated, reaching the confines of Tibet. The 

 course and depth of the river, the character 

 of the inhabitants along its banks, the produc- 

 tions, scenery, and temperature, -were carefully 

 noted, and the adventures of the expedition, 

 which was one of uncommon peril, are most 

 charmingly described. Commander Brine's 

 narrative is also one of deep interest, though 

 of somewhat graver character. He has given 

 the most clear and complete account of the 

 origin, history, and character of the Tae-ping 

 rebellion, and of the region in which it main- 

 tains its authority, which we have seen ; he dis- 

 tinguishes between it and the other insur- 

 rections, three or four in number, now desolat- 

 ing other portions of that wretched empire, 

 and throws a flood of light on the Chinese char- 

 acter and customs. During the year 1861-'2, 

 six other companies of English explorers trav- 

 ersed China in different directions : Mr. Mor- 

 rison and Superintendent Harcourt, in January, 

 1861, set out from Tien-tsin and travelled over 

 land to Che-foo in the N. of China, going in all 

 700 miles through regions hitherto unexplored, 

 and for nearly three hundred miles of their 

 course passed along the banks of the Grand 

 Canal. 



In July. 1861, two English gentlemen, start- 

 ing from Tien-tsin, penetrated to Mantchoo 

 Tartary by an overland route, and visited Mouk- 

 den, the capital of that country. They found 

 that the Chinese, though nominally the con- 

 quered race, were really the conquerors, hav- 

 ing most of the business of the country in their 

 hands, and having imposed upon the Mant- 

 choos, not only their habits and customs, but 

 their language. 



In November, 1861, Messrs. Richards and 

 Slosson, also starting from Tien-tsin, undertook 

 an expedition through Pe-chee-le and Shan-le, 

 the two northern provinces of China, and made 

 a tour of 1,560 miles, crossing the Great Wall, 

 which they represent as greatly out of repair, 

 four times. 



In the centre of China, four gentlemen, 

 Messrs. Dickson, Sherburn, Beach, and Bonney, 

 passed, in April, 1862, from Canton to Hankow, 

 a distance of 756 miles, and in their route ex- 

 plored the great Tung-ting lake and the course 

 of the Seang river. 



During the spring, Mr. Baker ascended the 



Tsien-tang river, in Che-kiang, and visited the 

 celebrated green-tea districts of Nganhwuy. 



In the south of China, Rev. Dr. Legge 

 ascended the East river, in the Kwang-tung 

 province, in April, 1861, for a distance of 300 

 miles, and Rev. Mr. Irwin and his companions 

 ascended the "West river, in the same province, 

 to a higher point than had been previously 

 reached. 



The Island of Formosa, hitherto sealed from 

 European exploration, is now open ; and a party 

 of explorers have been traversing it during the 

 past year. 



The French conquests in the Empire of 

 Anam (see COCHIN CHINA), have led to extensive 

 geographical explorations in that empire ; the 

 Me-kong, or Cambodia, the Oudong, the Dong- 

 nai, and the Saigon rivers have been ascended 

 for a distance of several hundred miles, and the 

 populous cities on their banks explored. Pan- 

 omping, at the junction of the Me-kong and 

 Oudong, represented as one of the largest cities 

 of Cambodia, was visited by one of the French 

 ships of war. The principal islands on the 

 coast, some of them large, and containing fine 

 harbors, have been taken possession of by the 

 French. Two English travellers, Messrs. King 

 and Forrest, have explored the western portion 

 of Cambodia, and made the circuit of the large 

 and important Lake Tale-Sab, not hitherto 

 found on most of the maps, on the banks and 

 in the neighborhood of which they discovered 

 extensive and remarkable ruins of two ancient 

 cities, called by the natives Xaken-Ouat and 

 Nakon-Hluang. 



Sir Robert Schomburgk, English consul at 

 Bangkok, Siaro. whose ascent of the Mei-nam 

 river we mentioned in the " Annual Cyclopae- 

 dia" of 1861, has contributed to Petermann's 

 ' Mittheilungen" a very full description of the 

 course of the Mei-nam and of the productions 

 of the regions through which it flows. 



Rev. Francis Mason, D.D., an American 

 missionary, of Tonngoo, Burmah, to whom geo- 

 graphical and ethnographical science are al- 

 ready indebted for many important contribu- 

 tions respecting that country, has recently pub- 

 lished, in the "Missionary Magazine," an ac- 

 count of a tour he has made in the interior of 

 Burmah, where he has discovered two new 

 tribes, of whom nothing except the names, and 

 hardly these, had previously been known the 

 Paloungs and the Kakhyens. The former are 

 a very intelligent race, evidently Mongolian in 

 origin, Buddhist in religion, and, though tribu- 

 tary to the Burmese, yet maintaining a separate 

 government. They are industrious, and their 

 land is under good cultivation. They produce 

 tea in large quantities, and export it to Burmah, 

 Siam, and even to some of the Chinese prov- 

 inces. Their language is peculiar, and bears 

 no resemblance to that of the Burmese. The 

 Kakhyens seem to be a branch of the Karen 

 family, a simple-hearted race, who have no 

 sympathy with the religion or language of the 

 Paloungs, to whom they are subject. Some of 



