1837.] Note on the Geography of Cochin China. 741 



towards the close of the last century haVe given a mortal blow to this 

 town. It is now inhabited partly by Chinese, who keep up a thriving 

 Commerce with their countrymen. The country is fertile and pictur- 

 esque. It is on the south-west of these mountains that the Cochin 

 Chinese resort to procure the canelle or cinnamon which is preferred 

 in China to that of Ceylon. A three-days march takes you through 

 this province into the neighbouring one of Quang ngai or Hoa ngai, 

 which has less breadth than the preceding, but which runs back from 

 the seashore towards the mountains inhabited by the Moi, the most 

 terrible of the savage races that occupy the whole chain of mountains 

 skirting the kingdom. Cinnamon is here also made, but sugar is 

 the chief object of traffic. The frequent incursions of the hill savages 

 to repossess themselves of the plains, forced many of the inhabitants to 

 retire. Since the last 40 years they have succeeded in restraining the 

 wild people in their forests, and the population is again increasing. 



From Hoa ngai you pass into one of the finest provinces of the realm, 

 where from 1780 to 1793 was the capital of one of the usurpers known 

 under the name of Tdg so'n or mountaineers of the west. Its ordinary 

 name is Qui nhon ; others call it Qui phu ?, or Binh dinh. It possesses 

 many ports, but the finest and most vast is that known by the name 

 of Cu'a gia. In every part of this province are to be seen those half- 

 ruined brick towers which prove that the country once belonged to 

 the ancient and powerful kingdom of Ciampa, reduced about 80 years 

 ago, by the Cochin Chinese who have raised themselves on its ruins. 



It has many cocoanut-trees ; the oil of this fruit and the ropes 

 prepared with its fibre, as well as the areca (betel) and some little silk 

 form its principal branches of commerce. 



Next follows the province of Phu yen, which forms a kind of 

 amphitheatre, and offers to the view fine fields of rice, gardens of areca 

 and betel, in the midst of which appear here and there the humble 

 habitations of the rich proprietors. This province furnishes the best 

 horses in the kingdom. It is separated from the province of Nha trang 

 by one of the highest rocks or mountains of the country, which is 

 thence called Deb ca?, or 'chief of mountains/ This province 

 extends for six days' journey : it is thinly peopled. It is here that 

 a French officer built a strong town about three or four leagues from 

 the port of the same name. It stood two sieges, one in 1792, the other 

 in 1793 without falling into the hands of the rebels. They cultivate 

 the mulberry here with success and maintain a thriving business in 

 silk. This province produces the species of baumier called amyris ambro- 

 siana. It runs from the tree of a blackish color, and has a smell 

 which may vie with the liquid amber of Linnaeus. 



