292 COCHINCHmA. 
however, information was brought on board the Lion by 
some officers of government, with grievous complaints that 
we were not deahng fairly with them. The Ambassador dis- 
avowed any knowledge of the matter, but desired that the 
officer might immediately be released and sent on board to 
answer for his conduct to his commanding officer, whose 
orders he had ventured to disobey. His indiscretion, it 
seemed, had been attended with ample punishment. The 
Mandarin, into whose hands he fell, was almost constantly 
in a state of ebriation, and in this condition he used to give 
orders for the officer being brought before him, sometimes 
amusing himself with brandishing a large scymitar over his 
head, and sometimes putting round his neck a heavy tablet 
of wood and iron, like the caugue of the Chinese. The 
affair, hoAvever, Avas satisfactorily explained ; and we had 
every reason to believe that, whatever unfavourable suspi- 
cions they might once have entertained of our motives for 
entering Turon bay, they were soon convinced that we had 
not the most distant intention of interfering in the concerns 
of the contending parties. In a second letter from the King, 
some indirect overtures were thrown out for establishing a 
commercial intercourse with the northern parts of Cochin- 
china. The present that accompanied this letter consisted of 
a pair of elephant's tusks and ten baskets of pepper for the 
Ambassador, and three thousand baskets of rice (each weigh- 
ing about seventy pounds, making thus above one hundred 
tons) for the use of the seamen. 
The Ambassador had not as yet landed at the town of 
Turon ; and as the principal officers of that place were ex* 
7 
