52 



INDIA BEYOND THE GANGES. 



" dance fo fucldenly fuccecd to fterility, flocked for labfirtence to- 

 " the magazines of Po7ithia7na5\ whofe dominions, at this day, 

 " are confidered as the moft plentiful granary of that eaftern part 

 " of Jfia ; the Malais, the Cochin Chineje, the Siamefe, whofe 

 " countries are naturally fo fertile, confidering this little terri- 

 ** tory as the moft certain refource againft famine." 



Let me here ad 1, that our plain HamiIiony\\\\ovii'\iQ^ Ponte- 

 amas in 1720, found the town in ruins. It had been taken and 

 plundered in the year 1717 by the Siamefe fleet, at which time it 

 was a place of confiderable trade. It may have recovered by the 

 time M. Le Porjre was there, fo as to vindicate his enthufiaftic 

 account. The town is feated on a deep but narrow river, which 

 in the feafon of inundations communicates with that ui Me in am 



Cambodia. Kom^ or Ca^nboclia, and the city of the fame name on its banks ; 

 by which means the commodities of the kingdom are fent to this 

 port, in preference to that at the mouth of the Cambodia, which 

 is faid to be of very troublefome navigation, by reafon of the 

 numbers of low iflands and fand banks which obftrud: the 

 channel. 



It is highly probable that fuch was the ftate of this river from 

 the very early times ; we find no antient port at this place, but 



CATTiGARAi Icafu from Ptolemy, that one, called Cattigara Sinarum Statioy 

 flood on or near the fcite of Ponteamas, on a marfliy coaft, pro- 

 dudive of reeds (bamboos) fo large, that when they were joined 

 and tied together, paflengers were enabled to crofs from one fide 

 to the other. 



Marcianus Heracleota, who wrote not long before the building 

 of Conjlantinople, adds befides, that it flood on the river Cotiaris, 



and 



