178 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES IN MALAYSIA AND ASIA. 



though quite different to him in sound and pronunciation, repre- 

 sent the same ideas iii the two countries. All official document* 

 are written in Chinese. 



There are two native newspapers, the Gia-dinh-bao, a gazette 

 printed in European characters, and another journal, Nhut- 

 Kliiin-Nam-Ky, which means the journal of Cochin China. The 

 Anamite language is intoned, and it has six tones, like the 

 Chinese ; the same word having, according to the tone, many 

 significations. It ia extremely difficult to Europeans. The whole 

 time at school is taken up by the natives in learning the characters. 

 It takes years to be able to read a book. The best books to 

 consult for this study are the Latin-Anamite dictionary of Mgr. 

 Taberd, of which M. Aubaret has edited a French- Anamite 

 edition j the dictionary of Pere Le Grand de la Liraye ; the 

 grammar of Pere Fontaine, and the vocabulary of Peter Ky. 

 Like the Pig eon- English of Hong Kong, Cochin China boasts of 

 a Pigeon called Sabier, a word of Portuguese origin. It is a 

 mixture of Chinese, Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, Latin 

 and Anamite. A specimen will suffice. Look, sir. Tou ton or, 

 choum-chonm, and so forth. 



I conclude this short notice of Cochin China by saying that the 

 people seem contented and happy, and the country progressing. The 

 only persons who seemed wofully out of sorts were the French 

 th.-inselves. One soon becomes convinced that this colony has 

 become painfully oppressive to the French nation. First of all, 

 Cochin China is far fiom France; the climate is difficult to bear 

 for any length of time ; the French do not want to emigrate; the land 

 is in the hands of natives, who are cultivators ; the industrial uses 

 of products are in the hands of Chinese, who have all the capital. 

 The poor. Frenchman shrugs his shoulders and says that this is 

 not a country to organise or to colonise. The mission of civilisa- 

 tion has hitherto unfortunately demanded much gunpowder and 

 bayonet ; and, besides th« military, the colony only gives support 

 to about 400 unhappy French people, who one and all continually 

 bewail their exile. 



