princess of Champa: a fact which seems to point
out that the religion of the two people must have
been similar and their manners analogous.
Independent of the people of this race inhabiting
the original country of Champa, an emigration
from them appears, in some remote period,
to have taken place to the eastern coast of the
Gulf of Siam, between the eleventh and twelfth
deg rees of North latitude, where they have intermixed
with Malayan settlers from the Peninsula,
and, I am told, embraced the Mohammedan
religion. Both the Champa and Malayan
languages are still spoken by the inhabitants of
this mixed colony, as I have had frequent opportunities
of ascertaining from the crews of the
boats of that country, which yearly visit Singapore.
Champa was subdued by the Cochin Chinese,
from all I have been able to learn, between seventy
and eighty years ago, and about the same period
in which they wrested from Kamboja the province
of Dong-nai. Since this event, the natives have
retired from the sea-coast, which is now principally
occupied by the Annam race. Like the
Kambojans, they are treated harshly, are discontented,
and in a state of frequent revolt; so that
the Cochin Chinese Government is under the
necessity of maintaining a number of fortresses
on the hills and passes, as a security against their
hostile incursions into the open country. These
works are stated to be all built on the principles
of European fortification.
A third original race inhabits the Cochin Chinese
territory, of whom little is known but their
name, and that they are an uncivilized but inoffensive
people. They are called by the Cochm
Chinese, Moi, and are said still to form the bulk
of the population in the province of Dong-nai,
which is their original country.*
The strangers settled in the dominions of Cochin
China consist of Malays, a mixed race of Portuguese
Christians, and Chinese. The Malays, as
already noticed, are confined to the eastern coast
of the Gulf of Siam, between the latitudes of
eleven and twelve degrees, their chief residence
being at two places, called Pong-som and Kam-
pot. Here they retain the Mohammedan religion,
and speak their native language, although intermixed
with a number of Champa and Kambojan
words. Their numbers, from what I could learn,
do not exceed 4 or 5000, and they are destitute
of all political influence. Those amongst them
with whom I conversed, claimed their origin from
the Malayan principality of Johore; but at what
time the emigration took place, or under what
* According to the Nouvelles Letlres Edifiantes, the country
of the Moi is a strip of mountainous country, lying between
' Lao and Cochin China, in length, from north-to south, about one
hundred and twenty leagues, and having a breadth of from twenty
to thirty.