1838.] Geography of Cochinchina. 321 



been of great use, had he been able to have come down the Me 

 hong river from the 18th degree to the 11th of latitude north. But 

 let us hope that what is delayed, is not altogether lost. Captain 

 Macleod has opened and cleared the road. Under the present cir- 

 cumstances it appears to me to be the best and only route to be taken • 

 as neither the Siamese nor Cochinchinese will allow Europeans to 

 enter their country to go and visit Laos, and much less to prepare in- 

 struments to make observations with. 



About the year 1770, Mr. Levavasseur, a missionary at Camboge, 

 well acquainted with the different localities, informs us ; " that the town 

 of Columpe^, which some geographers have placed on the western branch 

 of the Mecon, is in reality very near to this river, but on another river 

 nearly as large which flows from a large lake from Camboge, and after 

 passing Columpe' enters the Mecon." The same person in another place 

 says " after passing Columpe we soon arrived at the place, where the 

 river, whicn flows past the royal town, enters the Mecon" Here the 

 bishop of Canuthe remarked to me that the river that enters Cochinchina 

 is one of the branches of the great river, which after having been sub- 

 divided in Cochinchina enters the sea at two different places ; adding 

 to these two the mouth of the Bassac is the cause of geographers say- 

 ing that the Mecon enters the sea at three different places : it is as well 

 to add that the ancient geographers made no mistake in placing the 

 three mouths of the Mecon in the Camboge, for in former days this 

 kingdom extended as far. (Nouvelles lettres edifiantes, torn. VI.) 



In the days of this missionary, the dominions of the king of Cochin- 

 china did not extend so far as the country watered by the western 

 branch of the Mecon. It is surprising that the greater part of our 

 geographers have not profited by these observations, and that the route 

 traced out by the ancient geographers should still be followed without 

 trying to amend it. Maltebrun says that one can only guess at the 

 right situation of Lac-tho which a recent traveller says is situated to the 

 north of Laps, between Tong-kin and China. I have tried to find its 

 situation and I think I have succeeded. From the narrative of the 

 missionaries, this country of Lac-tho, which is nothing more than a 

 canton, contains about 1500 inhabitants, and is situated at the extre- 

 mity of Tong-kin towards the west, is dependent of the province of 

 Thanh-hoa-mgoai, and is situated on the borders of the provinces of 

 Hung-hoa of Soutdy or Doai and of Nam-thuong. I think Mal- 

 tebrun was wrong in only seeing in the Lac-tho, the Laos by the 

 Chinese name of Lac-tchoue. 

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