156 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



to that of other oriental countries. Excellent wax and honey are produced in abundance, 

 and the poppy, ginger, pepper, and other plants are cultivated, and their products ex- 

 changed with the Chinese for their cloths. 



943. Cambodia, like Siam, is enclosed by mountains on the east and west ; and fertilised 

 by an overflowing river. ITie climate is so hot that the inhabitants are under the neces- 

 sity of residing on the banks of the rivers and lakes, where they are tormented by mus- 

 quitos. The soil is fertile, and produces abundance of corn, rice, excellent legumes, 

 sugar, indigo, opium, camphor, and various medicinal drugs. The most peculiar product 

 is the gamboge-gum (Stalagmitis cambogixrides), which yields a fine yellow tint. Ivory, 

 also, and silk, are very plentiful, and of little value. Cattle, particularly of the cow 

 kind, are numerous, and cheap. Elephants, lions, tigers, and almost all the animals of the 

 deserts of Africa, are found in Cambodia. It has several precious woods, among which are 

 the sandal and eagle-wood, and a particular tree, in the juice of which they dip their 

 arrows ; and it is said, that though a wound from one of the arrows proves fatal, the juice 

 itself may be drank without danger. The country, though fertile, is very thinly peopled. 



944. Cochin China presents an extensive range of coast, but few marks of tillage. 

 Besides rice and other grains, sugar, silk, cotton, tobacco, yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkins 

 (Jig. 1 49. ), melons, and other culinary vegetables, are cultivated ; 

 and cinnamon, pepper, ginger, cardamoms, silk, cotton, sugar, 

 aula wood, japan wood, Columba and other woods and spice 

 plants abound in the woods and copses. The horses are small, 

 but active ; and they have the ox, buffalo, mules, asses, sheep, 

 swine, and goats. Tigers, elephants, and monkies abound in 

 the forests, and on the shores are found the edible swallows' nests, 

 esteemed a luxury in the East, and especially in China. These 

 nests are ascertained to be formed of a species of sea-weed, the 

 fucus lichnoides of botanists. Almost every kind of domestic 



animal, except sheep, appears to be very plentiful. In Cochin 

 China they have bullocks, goats, swine, buffaloes, elephants, 

 camels, and horses. In the woods are found the wild boar, tiger, 

 rhinoceros, with plenty of deer : they account the flesh of the 

 elephant a great dainty, and their poultry is excellent. They 

 pay little attention to the breeding of bullocks, as the tillage of 

 their land is performed by buffaloes, and their flesh is not es- 

 teemed as food. The sea, as well as the land, is a never-failing 

 source of sustenance to those who dwell on the coast. Most of the marine worms 

 distinguished by the name of molusca, are used as articles of food by the Cochin 

 Chinese, All the gelatinous substances derived from the sea, whether animal or vege- 

 table, are considered by them the most nutritious of all aliments ; and on this principle 

 various kinds of sea- weeds, particularly the J'uci and algce, are included in their list of 

 edible plants. The Cochin Chinese collect likewise many of the small succulent, or 

 fleshy plants, which are usually produced on salt and sandy marshes, which they either 

 boil in their soups, or eat in a raw state, to give sapidity to their rice, which with them 

 is the grand support of existence. In Cochin China they are almost certain of two 

 plentiful crops of rice every year, one of which is reaped in April, the other in October. 

 Fruits of various kinds, as oranges, bananas, figs, pine apples, pomegranates, and others 

 of inferior note, are abundantly produced in all parts of the country. They have very 

 fine yams, and plenty of sweet potatoes. Their small breed of cattle does not appear 

 to furnish them with much milk ; but of this article they make a sparing use, even with 

 regard to their young children. 



945. Tonquin, in regard to surface, may be divided into two portions, the moun- 

 tainous and the plain. The mountains are neither rocky nor precipitous, and are partly 

 covered with forests. The plain is flat like Holland, being intersected by canals and 

 dykes, and varied by lakes and rivers. The chief agricultural product is rice, of which 

 there are two harvests annually in the low country, but in the high lands only one. 

 Wheat and wine are unknown. The nmlberry-tree is common ; and the sugar-cane is 

 indigenous ; but the art of refining the juice is unknown. The live stock are chiefly 

 oxen, buffaloes, and horses ; swine abound, and there are a few goats ; but asses and 

 sheep are unknown. Dogs, cats, and rats 

 are eaten. Poultry, ducks, and geese 

 abound, and are found wild in the forests. 

 The eggs of ducks are heated in ovens, 

 and produce young, which swarm on the 

 canals and ponds. The forests contain 

 deer, boars, peacocks, a peculiar kind of 

 partridge, and quails, (fig. 150.) Thetigersj^^ 

 are large and destructive ; one of which 

 is said to have entered a town, and to have destroyed eighty-five people. The wild 



