244 GOCHINCHINA. 
this provision, however, I suppose, that the spontaneous em- 
bryo shall be lucky enough to form 
A potent wish in the productive hour." 
As the favourable monsoon was scarcely yet set in, and the 
state of the sick required the refreshments of the shore, we 
came to anchor in an open bay before one of the small 
islands of Pulo Condore, Avith a view to that effect ; but the 
appearance of our large ships occasioned so great an alarm to 
the few poor natives, as to drive them into the mountains, 
leaving behind them their scanty stock of provisions ex- 
posed at the doors of their huts, and praying us, in a billet 
written in the Chinese character, to be satisfied by taking 
their little all, and to spare their humble dwellings. Such 
being the state of the island, we hastened our departure from 
thence, and steered direct towards a part of the Asiatic con- 
tinent which is less known than it deserves to be and, I may 
venture to predict, less than it will be to some of the 
European nations, before many years shall have elapsed. 
In the latest and perhaps the best arranged system of 
geography Avhich has been offered to the public, a consider- 
able portion of Asia, containing full twenty millions of 
people, and from three to four hundred thousand square 
miles, extraordinary as it may appear, is passed over with a 
mere dash of the pen. " The kingdoms of Laos, Cambodia^ 
" Siampa, Cochinchhia, and Tung-quin," says Mr. Pinkerton, 
" are countries unimportant in themselves, and concerning 
" which the materials are imperfect." To the latter part of 
this sweeping and unqualified assertion I most freely and 
7 
