ing along the stream. The epidemic eventually
spread to Lao on one side, and to Kamboja and
Cochin China on the other, where it proved no
less fatal. Of this malady, it may safely be asserted,
that it is by far the most destructive which
has ever afflicted the human race. I t extended
from Arabia to China, over ninety degrees of longitude,
and from Java to the Himalaya Mountains,
embracing forty degrees of latitude ; in
short, almost all the civilized and populous nations
of tropical Asia were included in its ravages
; and there can be little doubt that, from
first to last, it swept off several millions. An intelligent
Chinese, with whom I conversed on the
subject, insisted nearly in as many words, that as
the wars in which the principal nations of the
world had been engaged, had recently, for the
most part, ceased, this pestilence was a necessary
arrangement of nature for keeping population
down to the level of subsistence^ . No other Asiatic
than a Chinese would have thought of expressing
himself in such language.
CH A PT ER V.
Geography of Cochin C h i n a . — Limits.—Rivers and Coasts.—
Civil d i v i s i o n s . — Kamboja.—Champa, or Loi— Foreigners resident
in Cochin China.—Climate— Mineral and Vegetable
Products.—Animals.
T h e present Empire of Cochin China consists
of a portion of the ancient kingdom of Kamboja,
of Cochin China itself, and of Tonquin; which
two last are known to the natives, and to the Chinese,
by the common name of An-nam. The
countries which border upon it are Siam, Kamboja
and Lao to the west and north-west; and
to the north, the Chinese provinces of Quang-
tong, Quang-si, and Yu-nan. The sea surrounds
it in all other directions. The southern limit of
the Cochin Chinese Empire is Pulo Ubi, in latitude
8° 25' North, and its northern, as far as it
can be ascertained, extends to about the 23° of
North latitude. The point which on the coast
divides it from Siam, is the island of Ko-kong,
in about North latitude 10° 40', and East longitude
103° 13'. The last village in Tonquin, before
entering the province of Canton, is Quang