COCHINCHINA. 275 
rents were compelled to send their children at the age of four 
years, under certain pains and penalties. He drew up a 
system of rules and regulations for the commercial interests of 
his kingdom ; caused bridges to be built over rivers ; buoys 
and sea-marks to be laid down in all the dangerous parts of 
the coast ; and surveys to be made of the principal bays and 
harbours. He sent missions into the mountainous districts on 
the west of his kingdom, inhabited by the Laos and the 
Miaotse, barbarous nations whom he wished to bring into a 
state ■ of civilization and good government. These moun- 
taineers are the people whom the Chinese designate by the 
degrading appellation of " Men with tails though, in all 
probabilitj'', they are the regular descendants of the true ori- 
ginal inhabitants of this long civilized empire. In short, this 
Monarch, by his own indefatigable application to the arts 
and manufactures, like Peter of Russia, without his brutality, 
aroused by his individual example the energies of his people, 
and, like our immortal Alfred, spared no pains to regenerate 
his country. His activity and exertions will readily be con- 
ceived from the circumstance of his having, in less than ten 
years, from a single vessel, accumulated a fleet of twelve 
hundred ships, of which three were of European construc- 
tion ; about twenty were large junks, similar to those of 
China, but completely manned and armed ; and the rest were 
large gun-vessels and transports. 
Caiing-shung is represented to be, in the strictest sense of 
the word, a complete soldier. He is said to hold the name 
of General far more dear and estimable than that of So- 
vereign. He is described as being brave without rashness ; 
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