CHAMBERS'S INFORMATJON^OR THE PEOPLE. 



are the chief occupations of the people. The 

 government of Burmah is hereditary and despotic. 

 In 1823, the Burmese invaded British India ; a war 

 ensued. At its close, they were compelled to cede 

 Aracan. Tenasserim was annexed in 1826, after 

 a second war with Burmah. In 1852, Pegu, the 

 delta of the Irrawadi, also became English. 

 The whole of these territories were thrown into 

 one province, described as British Burmah, and 

 placed under the government of India. The 

 kingdom of Ava, or Burmah Proper, is now 

 an inland country. The old capital, Ava, is now 

 deserted for Mandalay (pop. 70,000), on the right 

 bank of the Irrawadi. Of late years the state of 

 the kingdom has bordered upon anarchy. The 

 population is about 4 millions. 



The coast regions, Aracan, Pegu, Irrawadi, and 

 Tenasserim, now forming British Burmah, are 

 governed by a chief commissioner under the 

 Indian government. All the towns are situated 

 on navigable rivers, and no roads existed till they 

 were constructed by the English. The land is 

 divided into small estates of from 8 to 10 acres, 

 held directly from the government. The houses 

 of the peasantry are built of bamboos, and have 

 floors raised on platforms, so as to be above 

 reach of the annual floods. Since the English 

 occupation, Europeans, Chinese, and Hindus 

 have settled in large numbers in British Burmah, 

 and carry on a large trade in rice, timber, and 

 petroleum, and the other products of the country. 

 The town of Aracan (pop. 15,000) carries on. a 

 large trade with Calcutta. Rangoon (pop. 134,000) 

 is the most important town in Pegu. It has a 

 large and rapidly increasing commerce. Moul- 

 mein (pop. 53,000), the chief town of Tenasserim, 

 well drained and healthy, with fine wide streets, 

 carries on a great trade in timber. 



2. Siam (pop. 6 millions) almost coincides with 

 the basin of the Meinam. In the interior and 

 elevated tracts, the climate is healthy ; but in the 

 lower region, which is overspread with forests, 

 fevers prevail The soil is exceedingly fertile, 

 and rice, sugar, and tobacco are extensively 

 cultivated. Chinese and Anamese colonists form 

 one-third of the whole population, and are largely 

 engaged in ship-building, and the mechanical arts 

 and commerce. The government is shared by two 

 kings, one of whom is said to be supreme, and 

 the other subordinate ; the former having two- 

 thirds, and the latter one-third, of the power. 

 Bankok (pop. 500,000, one-third of whom are 

 Chinese), the present capital, is built on both 

 sides of a mouth of the Meinam ; carries on a 

 large and. increasing trade by sea with Singa- 

 pore and China, in pepper and tobacco and 

 other products. The Siamese concluded a treaty 

 with England in 1826, which led to friendly rela- 

 tions, ever since maintained. In 1881, the total 

 exports from Bangkok amounted to .2,000,000, of 

 imports, ;i, 200,000, about half of this trade being 

 carried on in British and the other half in Siamese 

 vessels. The chief export is rice ; the chief im- 

 ports, cloths, hardware, and opium. 



3. Anam (pop. estimated at 24 millions) includes 

 Cochin-China, Tonquin, and Cambodia, A moun- 

 tain-chain traverses it from north to south, bounded 

 on the west by the basin of the Cambodia River ; 

 on the east, by the coast slope of the China Sea. 

 On the north, the sea-board widens into the 

 broad plain of Tonquin ; on the south, forming 



236 



the basin of the Cambodia into a broad delta. 

 The products are rice, sugar, silk, pepper, and 

 other spices. Tea of an inferior kind is also cul- 

 tivated in the elevated tracts. The inhabitants 

 closely resemble the Chinese, and are skilful 

 ship-builders and mechanics. Roman Catholic 

 missions had made, in spite of fearful persecu- 

 tions, half a million of converts. A massacre of 

 Christians broke out in 1857, which led to war ; 

 and Lower Cochin-China became permanently a 

 French possession. Subsequently, Cambodia ac- 

 cepted the French protectorate. In 1883, France 

 further occupied Tonquin ; and ultimately the 

 'empire' of Anam has become practically a 

 French dependency. Chief towns : - in Anam or 

 Cochin-China Proper, Hu6 (pop. 30,000) ; in 

 French Cochin-China, Saigon (pop. 70,000) ; in 

 Tonquin, Hanoi or Kesho (pop. 120,000). 



The highlands of Indo-China form the Chinese 

 province of Yun-nan, with a population of 5,600,000 

 inhabitants. It comprises a Mussulman popula- 

 tion, known as the Panthays, who were recently in 

 insurrection, but whose rebellion was erelong com- 

 pletely suppressed. Yun-nan is the great mining 

 province of China, from which it is scarcely pos- 

 sible to reach it over the mountains and gorges 

 by which it is traversed. Hence the vast import- 

 ance of the new route up the Tonquin River, 

 discovered recently by the French, by which 

 steamers can reach the heart of the country. 

 English attempts to open a route for trade to 

 Yun-nan through Burmah have been unfortunate 

 in their main purpose. 



THE CHINESE COUNTRIES. 



We have included under this name the whole 

 of that part of Asia lying north of the Himalaya 

 and the Gulf of Tonquin, and south and west 

 of the Gobi. The area thus defined includes 

 Tibet, China, Corea, and Japan. It is, as we 

 have already seen, for the most part an elevated 

 region. The loftiest table-land on the surface of 

 the globe occupies its western angle, and stretches 

 eastward towards China, where it passes into 

 a country covered with parallel chains running 

 south-west and north-east. North of this region, 

 the Mongol table-land sinks into broad river- 

 basins, and finally to the great plain of China, 

 where the two chief Chinese rivers, the Yang-tze- 

 kiang and the Hoang-ho, meet, and fall into the 

 ocean. Corea is a promontory traversed by a 

 range of lofty hills. The Japanese islands are 

 rugged, but slope on the east to comparatively level 

 tracts. The Chinese countries lie almost entirely 

 within the warm temperate zone. South of the 

 Nan-ling chain, however, China has a tropical 

 climate, while north of Niphon the climate of Japan 

 is that of the temperate zone. The inhabitants of 

 the Chinese countries all belong to the Mongol 

 race ; but the Japanese and Coreans differ widely 

 from each other, and from the Tibetans and the 

 Chinese, in appearance as well as in language. 

 All, however, have been influenced by a common 

 civilisation, which connects them like the countries 

 of the European continent 



CHINA. 



The whole peninsula between the Gulfs of 

 Tonquin and Pe-che-le, bounded by the Tibetan 

 plateau and the Mongol Desert on the west and 



