I 
CO CHIN CHIN A. 253 
hian§ the usurper, for that he had caused himself to be 
crowned, by the name of Quang-ttmg, King of the united 
kingdoms of Tung-quin and Cochinchma. 
The Viceroy of Canton was but ill prepared for this high 
and decided tone of the usurper ; yet no time was to be lost 
in deliberation. Foo-chang-tong was a poor soldier ; but, for 
what he was deficient in courage and military skill, he amply 
made up in cunning. His fortunes and his character were at 
stake, and he saw that he was reduced to the necessity of 
playing a desperate game. He dispatched a courier to the 
Court of Pekin, to give an account to the Emperor of the 
unparalleled success of his expedition : and, after some detail 
of engagements which never happened, but in which the 
arms of the Emperor were always represented as victorious, 
bore testimony to the bravery of the enemy ; to the justice 
and reasonableness of his pretensions to a crown, which the 
former possessor had relinquished ; the fair character of his 
antagonist, and the universal esteem in which he was held by 
the people ; and, in short, delivered it as his opinion that 
Quang-tung should be invited to the Coiu't of Pekin to do the 
usual homage, and to receive the sanction of the Emperor 
for holding the throne of Tung-quin ; suggesting, at the same 
time, that a degree of mandarinate in one of the provinces 
of China, conferred on the late sovereign of that country, 
would be an ample indemnification for what he had lost in 
Timg-quin. 
The Court approved of the Viceroy's proposal. The fugi- 
tive King of Tung-quin^ like Federigo of Naples when 
