FROM TONKIN TO INDIA 



upon sandbanks. I could not but admire the address with 

 which our crew of twelve Annamites sprang into the stream 

 and laid out hawsers ahead to haul upon. It took us some- 

 times five or six hours to gain about a hundred yards. During 

 these checks I employed myself in making washings of the sand 

 of the river, findinfj in it numerous small ofarnets. 



Owing to this lowness of the water our transit occupied five 

 days between Yen-Tay and Laokay. The latter little town had 

 not altered. Its houses and huts, grouped on the left bank of 

 the Song-Coi, are separated by an affluent of the river, called 

 the Nam-Ti, from the Chinese village of Song-Phong, a regular 

 haunt of pirates and evil-looking gallows-birds. Song-Phong is 

 flanked by a range of hills forming the frontier. The crests 

 dominate the slopes of our side, and are Chinese, capped by our 

 neighbours with a series of forts. On the right bank stood the 

 barrack of Coklen, a quaint building of many roofs placed one 

 above the other like canisters. 



At Laokay we received the hospitality of the river agent, 

 M. Dupont, who had been so obliging as to purchase horses 

 lor us, and to write to Mongtse for mules. From him we ob- 

 tained some information about the place. Commerce has scarcely 

 made any advance for several years. The opium farm has been 

 abolished, but the monopoly of the drug with China has been 

 given to an individual, who encumbers the sale with a lo per 

 cent, profit for himself. Similarly, the pacification of the district 

 is at a standstill. Five years ago one could travel round 

 Laokay with more security than now. Fresh bands had over- 

 run the province. Colonel Pennequin had driven them back into 

 the province of Tulong, half of which belongs to us. The 

 Chinese, objecting to their neighbourhood, requested us to relieve 



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