79 
CHAPTER VII, 
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL PLACES 
ADJACENT TO THE PENINSULA. 
Tiie fol!oi\niig plactsi are those with which the Colony of the Straits 
Settlemeute has its principal commercial relations : — 
FiiExcH Cochin-China. 
Saigon, some miles tip a branch of the Estuary of the great Hi ver 
ilekong, called the Donnai, is the capital of the French possessions and 
protectorates in Indo-China. It was previously a place of small import- 
ance, although considered the second town of the ancient kingdom of 
Kamboja (Cambodia). From time immemorial^ Kamhoja, and espe- 
cially this portion of it called Champa (Tsiampa)^ has been connected 
with the Malay Peninsula, and partly settled by a Malayan people. 
Saij^on w nB tak<>n possession of by the French in and since tlien 
has been placed in special communication with Singapore tbrrjngh the 
fine French Mail Servici^, and by the d^^velopment of a considerable trade 
in rice, which is chiefly in the bands of the ChinasCj mostly from Singa- 
pore, to which Port belong the six local steamers that ply there. 
The six Provinces of Saigon are Bien-lloa^ Mytbo, Gia-Dinh, Yin- 
long, Chau-doCj and Ha-tien. Area, 21,630 square miles. The population 
of French fJochiu-Cliina (18B0) is 1,5U7,013. 
SlAM. 
Bangkok, is the capital and metropolis of Siani, situated on both 
sides of the Meoatn, about 20 miles from the sea. Population said to 
amount to -^'10,000; Bangkok to a peculiar extent^ the centre of trade 
in the kingdom, of which it is the Capital j the principal articles being 
sugar, pepper and rice, A good deal of the sugar ancl rice is exported 
to Singapore, which may be considered to be the commercial metropolis 
for Siam. Frequent and rcgidar steam communication now exists between 
the two ports. The opening up of Bangkok was one of the first fruits of 
the prosperity of Singapore, lu 1826, the fii-st treaty was made, but the 
great advance dates from the second treaty of 1856. 
British Bi^rma, 
limi^Qon ia thirty miles up the Trawadi on the East side of the river. 
It is the capital of British Burma, and has extensive trade in rice and 
timber, a small part of which is imported to the Straits. Population, 
134,170, The whole of British Burma now contains about 4>000,0t)0 
people. Rangoon was taken possession of during the second war of 1852, 
when Pegu in the centre was added to our Burmese possessions of Arakan 
in the Nortli and Tenasserim ia the South. Rangoon has had an excep- 
tionally ripid rise. 
