C a m b o d ia .
C a t t ig a r a i
“ dance fo fuddenly fuceeed to fterility-, flocked for fubfiftence to
“ the magazines of Ponthiamas; whofe dominions, at this day,
<c are confidered as the moft plentiful granary of that eaftern part
“ o f Afia; the Malais, the Cochin Chinefe, the Siamefe, whofe
“ countries are naturally fo fertile, confidering this little terri-
“ tory as the moft certain refource againft famine.”
L e t me here add, that our plain Hamilton, who vifited Ponteamas
in 1720, found the town in ruins. It had been taken and
plundered in the year 1717 by the Siamefe fleet, at which time it
was a place of confiderable trade. It may have recovered by the
timeM. Le Poivre was there, fo as to vindicate his enthufiaftic
account. The town is feated on a deep but narrow river, which
in the feafon of inundations communicates with that o f Meinam
Korn, or Cambodia, and the city of the fame name on its banks;
by which means the commodities o f the kingdom are fent to this
port, in preference to that at the mouth o f the Cambodia, which
is faid to be of very troublefome navigation, by feafon o f the
numbers o f low iflands and fand banks which obftrudt the
channel.
I t is highly probable that fuch was the ftate o f this river from
the very early times ; we find no antient port at this place, but
learn from Ptolemy, that one, called Cattigara Sinarum Statio,
flood on or near the fcite of Ponteamas, on a marihy coaft, pro-
du&ive o f reeds (bamboos) fo large, that when they were joined
and tied together, paffengers were enabled to crofs from one fide
to the other. 1 \
Marcianus Heracleota, who wrote not long before the building
o f Conjiantinople, adds befides, that it flood on the river Cotiaris,
and
and was the termination o f the known and habitable earth to the
fouth. The Periplus o f this geographer, may be found in the
firft volume of the Geographies veteris Scriptores, publiihed at
Oxford in 1698.
T he Notium Promontorium, was to the north-weft o f Ponte- N o t i u m
, . P r o m o n t .
amasP- The bay mentioned by Marcianus Heracleota to befo in-
fefted by wild beafts, and the part inhabited by the Ethiopian
Icthyopbagi,:t'x.te.siáed from that port to the fouth;cape Cambodia
■feems the Satyr or um Promontorium, probably becaufe it was the
haunt of fome large fpecies o f monkey.
T h e productions o f t h e kingdom o f Cambodia are gold and P r o d u c t i o n s
ivory in great abundance. T h t Siamefe, in their expedition of
1717, deftroyed not left than two hundred tons that happened to
be in the port, ready for exportation. Sandal wood; fapan
wood, aloes moo&ijlick lae, a&d a great variety o f drugs. Dampier*
adds ricé, dragons blood, lac, i. e. varnifh in large jars, which
looked blackiih and thick, and a yellow purging gum in great
cakes called Cambodia, by which he certainly means gamboge.
The whole country is prodigioufly fertile, and yields almoft
every thing that the vegetable Or animal kingdom produces in
common with other parts o f Eaftern India.
T h e Portuguefe, fays Mandeljlo, were in poflelfion o f the commerce
of Cambodia as late as the year 1639, notwithftanding
every effort o f the Hutch to come in for a ihare; but it muft
have been long enjoyed by the latter nation, after the fall of
the Portuguefe empire in India. The reigning prince in 1720,
feemed very folicitous that the Engli/h ihould fettle in his domi-
■* Voy. Vol. ii. p. 105.
nions,