C lT T i
nions, and offered to permit us to form faftories and build forts
to protect our trade. Mr. Bowyear (hereafter to -be mentioned)
fays that the Cambodians referable the Malays, whofe language is
generally underftood in all thefe parts.
A bout two hundred Topaffes or Indian Portuguefe, were fettled
and married in the capital of Cambodia when Hamilton was
there, and feemed the only remains o f that people. They all have
fmall pen lions from the king of the country; but in order to
fupport tftemfelves, are obliged to take to thechace o f elephants,
which they ihoot, for the fake o f their teeth, with iron flugs,
poifoned by immerfion in the thick bark o f a certain tree; the
beaft is fure to fall in a Ihort time after receiving its wound.
The fame method is ufed in killing the buffaloes on account of
their tongues.
F rom cape Cambodia, the country bends due eaft; the river
o f the fame name difcharges ilielf into, the fea, at the diftance of
about one hundred miles, through feveral mouths. T h e city
hands ninety miles up the river, and confifts o f only one ftreet,
which is built on an eminence to preferve it from the annual inundations;
the rains begin to fall in "June, and continue during
the months o f July and Augujl.
T his was near the fcite o f 'Tbin.a Metropolis Sinarum of Ptolemy
and Marcianus. Mr. Caverbill quotes Argenjol for the proof,
and fays, on his authority, that marble ruins of an exteniive city
have been clifeovered to the north-weft of Cambodia; yet Ptolemy
relates; that it was sot furrounded with brazen walls, nor had. any
thing worth mentioning. Arrian, in his.Periplus Maris Erylbrai,
calls it the greateft o f the inland cities, and that it fent to Bary-
4 gaza,
gaza, the modern Barocbia, on the weftern fide o f Hindoojlan,
Wool, thread, and otbonium fericum Thefe were carried the
whole of the journey by men on foot ; prodigious muft it have
been, if it is true that they went through Baffra, a detour o f
amazing extent.
T he kingdomof Cambodia was known to iheJrabsby thename R a c h m i ;
of Racbmi. It was vifited in the ninth century by two Arabian
travellers, who report that the fineft muflins in the world were
made there, and that the natives wore garments fo fine that they
might be drawn through a middle fized ring. The fame writers
fpeak wonderful things o f the Karkandan or unicorn, but from
the whole defcription, it is evident that they mean no other animal
than our one-horned rinoceros.
L et me conclude the account o f the kingdom with faying, T h e A n t i e n t
that the antients comprehended under the name o f Thina. and AN°
Since, not only Cambodia, but alfo Pegu, Siam, Laos, Cochin-China,
and the more fouthern parts o f China, of which Tbina was the
common capital.
T he noted ifland o f Pulo Condorelies about fifteen leagues to
the fouth of the weftern channel of the Cambodia. It is fituated
in Lat. 8° 40', its form is that o f a crefcent ; the length not above
eight miles, the greateft breadth about two ; the whole is lofty
and mountanous, and furrounded by lelfer ifles; the name is
derived from Pulo, an ifl'e, and Condore a calabaih, from its pro-
dudlion o f that fruit. It is mentioned by a captain Saris, an
Englifbman, who failed by it in 1605 in his way from Japan.
The harbor is between the greater ifland and a leffer called the
* Outlines of the Globe, vol. i. p. 132.
little