Cochinchina

“ Adames, dated in Goto, 3th current, advising he hath fownd but a loosing voyage, 800 taies at least. Also that the King of Cochinchina is well contented our nation shall trade into his cuntrey; but the cheefe men about hym, as it should seeme, weare axesary to the death of Mr. Peacock, and had parted the Companies goodes amongst them, with his host the Japon, whoe fled away whilest they were in Cochinchina, fearing to be brought in question.
So I retorned answer to Capt. Adames per the bark brought Ed. Sayer, unto whome was paid 4 taies small plate, and a bag rise ”

“ Nigh vnto this kingdome of Cochinchina there is another The kingdome of Champa rich of drugs. called Champa, that although it be poore of gold and siluer, yet is it verie rich of drugges and gallant wood, and great stoare of prouision. This kingdome is very great and full of people, and they some what whiter than those of Cochinchina; they are as nigh and as willing to become Christians as their neighbors, but for the performance thereof they doo lacke that which the other doo. ”

“ The country of Cochin-China, just emerging from the disorders and devastations of civil dissention and warfare, possessed but little ground in cultivation; for exportation, therefore, it furnished little else than rice, tobacco, and areca; the Chinese carried off also cargoes of sugar, when areca was not to be procured. The soil of the country is naturally very fertile, and, with little labour, produces plentifully whatever is required. ”

“ The king of Cochin is a Gentile and a steadfast friend to the king of Portugal, and to all the Portuguese who are married and have become citizens of Cochin. By the name of Portuguese, all the Christians are known in India who come from Europe, whether they be Italians, Frenchmen, or Germans. All those who marry and settle at Cochin get some office according to the trades they are off, by which they have great privileges. The two principal commodities in which they deal are silk which comes in great quantities from China, and large quantities of sugar, which comes from Bengal. ”

“ These form the Cochin backwaters, which consist of shallow lagoons lying behind the beach-line and below its level. In the monsoon the Cochin backwaters are broad navigable channels and lakes; in the hot weather they contract into shallows in many places not 2 ft. deep. The town of Cochin is about a mile in length by half a mile in breadth. Its first European possessors were the Portuguese. Vasco da Gama founded a factory in 1502, and Albuquerque built a fort, the first European fort in India, in 1503. The British made a settlement in 1634, but retired when the Dutch captured the town in 1663. ”

“ Surely by this roadstead upon the hills, courting the breezes of the north-east monsoon, with the ample anchorage in the rear, the French might have fixed the capital of Cochin China. But [312] no. They placed it, as in olden time, far up a tortuous river, with a narrow channel. The delay, and the pilotage, frighten away the ocean greyhounds of commerce.
We weigh anchor. It is one o'clock. The sun is blazing hot, and there is not a breath of air. But it is cool, they say, compared to what Saigon will be. ”

“ Cochin is in the province of Malabar, on a river close to the sea, and is almost an island, so that it is very strong and difficult of access, having a large and safe harbour. The land in its neighbourhood is low and intersected by branches of the river into many islands. The city itself is built much after the same manner with Calicut, and is inhabited by idolaters, with a good many Moorish strangers, who come hither to trade from many countries, two of whom were so rich as to have each fifty ships employed. ”

“ I had a history of a man and woman from Cochin China, which must now be squeezed almost to death. Just before the French Revolution a French military man went out to India, was wrecked, and with two or three companions made his way, LORD knows how, to Cochin China. It happened that the King of Cochin China was at war, and was glad of some hints from the French officer, who was encouraged to settle in Cochin China, married a Cochin Chinese lady, rose to power and credit, became a mandarin of the first class, and within the last month has arrived in France with his daughter. ”

“ Venomous reptiles are numerous, and the Mekong contains crocodiles.
Agriculture and Industries.—The cultivation of the rice-fields, which cover large extents of the plains of Cochin-China, is by far the chief industry of the colony. Pepper is grown in considerable quantities in the districts of Ha-Tien and Bien-Hoa, and sugar-canes, coffee, cotton, tobacco and jute are also produced. The buffalo, used both for transport and in the rice-fields, and swine, the flesh of which forms an important element in the native diet, are the principal domestic animals. ”

“ The Cochin-Chinese conceive themselves, and I think with good reason, to be superior to their neighbours of the great empire, in various respects. One advantage of the first importance the Cochin-Chinese certainly possess: they are not restrained from improving in any art or trade, in which imagination or invention may be requisite to bring it to perfection. Hence they eagerly adopt improvements and instructions from other nations. Hence, in naval affairs, their progress is truly great. 31 any of the emperor's ships are constructed on the French model. ”

“ Cochin (722) , a native state in India N. of Travancore, cooped up between W. Ghâts and the Arabian Sea, with a capital of the same name, where Vasco da Gama died; the first Christian church in India was built here, and there is here a colony of black Jews.
Cochin-China (2,034) , the region E. of the Mekong, or Annam proper, called High Cochin-China (capital Hué) , and Low Cochin-China, a State S. of Indo-China, and S. of Cambodia and Annam; belonging to France, with an unhealthy climate; rice the chief crop; grows also teak, cotton, &c.; capital Saigon. ”

“ From Cape Comorin we went to Coulan, a fort of the Portuguese, whence comes great store of pepper for Portugal, as frequently one of the caraks is laden here. We arrived at Cochin on the 22d of March, where we found the weather very warm, and a great scarcity of provisions, as neither corn nor rice grows here, having mostly to be supplied from Bengal. They have here very bad water, as the river is far off; and by this bad water many of the people are like lepers, and many have their legs swollen as big as a mans waist, so that they can hardly walk. ”

“ The French gentlemen, speaking from conjecture, estimated the population of the kingdom at 10,000,000. French writers have estimated it at three times that amount. It is agreed by all that Tonquin is more populous than Cochin China. The gold and silver mines alone of that country give employment to no less than 10,000 industrious Chinamen, with their families.
Oct. 12th.—The Tacoon, or Mandarin of Strangers, sent to say, that the letter for the Governor General of Bengal, and the papers relating to commercial affairs were in readiness, and that he wished to deliver them. ”

“ Cochin-China possesses abundance of animals of various sorts, but with the foregoing exceptions, none probably which may not be found in the adjoining countries in the internal parts: for it is naturally but a long narrow range of land, bounded by the sea on the east, and by chains of hills on the west. A skilful naturalist might there probably discover many curious and rare animals, but none of an unknown class. ”

“ The inhabitants are originally from Cochin-china, being of a middle stature and well shaped, but of much darker colour than the natives of Mindanao, having lank black hair, small black eyes, and small noses, yet tolerably high, with small mouths, thin lips, and white teeth. They are civil, but very poor, their only employment being to collect tar, and to prepare a little oil from tortoises, both of which they export to Cochin-china. ”

“ The Cochin Chinese are more industrious than we should be apt to suspect, considering the oppressive nature of the government. Where the government interferes but little, as in the fisheries on the coast, their industry is indeed very conspicuous, and there seems every reason to believe that, were they freed from oppression, they would be equally so in other branches. They are capable of supporting a large share of fatigue; and the quantum of daily labour, as for instance in the operation of rowing, or of running, is in general very considerable. ”

“ The garrison of Cochin usually consists of three hundred men; and from Cape Comoras upwards, in all their forts and factories, they have five hundred soldiers, and an hundred seamen, all Europeans, besides some topasses and the militia. They procure their store of rice from Barcelore, because the Malabar rice will not keep above three months out of the husk, though it will keep twelve with the husk on. This part of the country produces great quantities of pepper, but it is lighter than that which grows more to the northwards. ”

“ They are put into small boats, which the people of the country are sufficiently dextrous in piloting through the rocks where the nests are found. The King of Cochin-China retains in his own hands, exclusively, the portion of this trade which belongs to him, as the most precious production of his dominions, and of which the sale is most to be relied on. ”

“ How unfavourable to elegance of shape must be the habiliments of the Cochin-Chinese ladies may easily be imagined. In one particular, however, they act much more wisely than their neighbour dames of China: their feet are never put to the torture in their shoes. ”

“ Hardly had the Portuguese doubled the Cape of Good Hope, when the Chinese, who had but imperfectly resisted aggression from neighboring countries, began to suffer annoyance from the 'barbarians from the Western Ocean.' At an early day the Portuguese established a factory at the mouth of the river on which Ningpo is situated. The factory became a colony, and the colony a little state. 'At the origin of colonies,' says M. Cochin, 'we find in general two men, a filibuster and a missionary. To go so far, one must have either a devil in his body, or God in his heart. ”

“ From Conchinchina, aguila-wood,12 and another wood called calambac,13 which is very valuable. It is black and contains oil, and is worth fifty cruzados among the Portuguese; while in its own kingdom, it passes weight for weight with silver. [The ship also carries] lead, pepper, and some yellow silk.
From the kingdom of Champa is brought the abovesaid wood, and it is even finer than that of Conchinchina. They carry another kind of black wood from which the Chinese make certain little sticks one cuarto [i.e., one-fourth vára?] long with which they eat. This kingdom has nothing else [to trade] . ”

“ The ladies of the middling and higher classes of Cochin-China are very reserved, and sometimes handsome, particularly in the northern provinces, where, the climate being the most temperate, their complexion is fairer than in the southern parts. ”

“ The habitations of the Pulayas of Cochin are thus described by Mr. Anantha Krishna Iyer. "Their huts are generally called madams, which are put up on the banks of fields, in the middle of rice flats, or on trees along their borders, so as to enable them to watch the crops after the toils of the day. They are discouraged from erecting better huts, under the idea that, if settled more comfortably, they would be less inclined to move as cultivation required. The madams are very poor huts, supported on four small posts, and thatched with leaves. ”

“ Every petty mandarin is attended by a multitude of persons.
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The town of Saigon is built upon a considerable branch of the great river, and upon the banks of numerous canals. It is the centre of the commerce of this fertile province, the town of Bingeh being but little engaged in such pursuits. A few settlers from China carry on trade on an extensive scale, but the Cochin Chinese are for the most part too poor to engage in occupations of this nature. ”

“ Geography.—Cochin-China consists chiefly of an immense plain, flat and monotonous, traversed by the Mekong and extending from Ha-Tien in the west to Baria in the east, and from Bien-Hoa in the north-east to the southern point of the peninsula of Ca-Mau in the south-west. The last spurs of the mountains of Annam, which come to an end at Cape St Jacques, extend over parts of the provinces of Tay-Ninh, Bien-Hoa and Baria in the north-east and east of the colony, but nowhere exceed 2900 ft. ”

“ In Cochin-China, however, exists another bird, still more extraordinary than the wild cock, unknown I apprehend to all ornithologists, and of which I never saw but a single feather. The emperor himself has not been more fortunate. ”

“ Who would favour, or even sanction, a Dorking in which size and shape, and every property we value in them, was sacrificed to an endeavour to breed to a particular colour? and this is what we have been doing with the Cochin-China. Many breeders say, eat Cochins while very young; but we have found them much better for the table as fowls than as chickens. A fine Cochin, from five to seven months old, is like a turkey, and very juicy and fine in flavour. ”

“ We should like to buy specimens of the animals that have made Cochin China celebrate at home, but doubt the warmth of our reception on board-ship if we return with them. We cross the bridge, and look over the hundreds of sampans that swarm up this creek of the river; then drive along for a few yards by the steam tramway which connects the China town of Cholons with Saigon, out under the cool wide avenues of the Quai du Commerce, with its arsenal and Bureaux d'Affaires. The roads are as flat and firm as a billiard table. ”