300 COCHINCHINA. 
indeed, might perhaps be entirely local, and applicable oiilj 
to that part of the sea-coast on which we landed. 
It is scarcely necessary to observe, what I apprehend is 
generally known, that Cochinchina, until a few centuries after 
the Christian sera, formed a part of the Chinese empire ; and 
that the general features of the natives, many of the cus- 
toms, the written language, the religious opinions and cere- 
monies still retained by them, indicate distinctly their 
Chinese origin. In the northern provinces, hov/ever, they 
are more strongly maiked than in those to the southwardt 
The same characteristics are likewise discernible, but in a 
fainter degree, in Siam which is properly Se-yang, or the 
■western country ; in Pe-gu, probably Pe-qiio, or the northern 
province ;. and in Ava and the rest of the petty states novi^ 
comprehended under the Birman, empire, where,, however^ 
iiom an intermixture with the Malays of Malacca and tlm 
• Hindoos of the upper and eastern regions of Hindostan, the 
traces of the Chinese character are in many respects nearlj? 
obliterated. The Cochinchinese of Turon, notwithstandinQ- 
the loose manners of the women which I shall presently have 
occasion to notice, ojid the tendency which all revolutions in 
governments have to change, in a greater or less degree, the 
character of the people, have preserved in most respects a 
close resemblance to their original, though in some points 
they differ from it very widely. They perfectly agree, for 
instance, in the etiquette observed in. marriage and funeral 
processions and ceremonies, in the greater part of religious 
superstitions, in the offerings usually presented to idols, in 
the consultation of oracles, and in the universal propensity of 
7 
