I n u n d a t e d .
R ic e .
S u g a r .
A l l the lower part of the kingdom has its annual inundations,
like the other tropical countries, which give it prodigious fertility.
Borri's^ account o f the peculiarity of the floods in this kingdom
is very curious. The rains on the mountains during the
wet feafon are intermittent; they happen once a fortnight, and
laft three days at a time, bringing fertility and plenty to the
fubjacent country. This rain is called Lut; its arrival is celebrated
by every one, from the king to the peafant, with the ut-
moft feftivity. The overflowing of the Nile is not received in
Egypt with greater rapture. The feafons in Cochin-China may be
•called four. The violent heats laft during May, ’June, and July,
the rains fall in September, OElober, and November, and ab ae the
violence of the fun. In December, January, and February, the
cold northern winds prevale, accompanied by cooling ihowers.
In March, April, and May, all the beauties o f fpring appear, ahd
the’fruits of every kind o f vegetation bjefs the country.
T h e great harveft is that o f rice; two fpecies are cultivated on
the mountanous and dry foils; one as white as fnow., and when
drefled, o f a flimy vifcous nature, made into paftes, fuch as vermicelli
and the like. Both thefe kinds are .exported to China in
great quantities ; the different forts o f rice are the ftaples o f this
country.
T h e fugar-cane is another plant to which the Cochin-Chinefe
pay the utmoft attention, and cultivate in vaft abundance.
They are acquainted with moft of the procefles, and annually
manufacture great quantities o f both white and brown fugars,
fo that their country fupplies China with the principal part of
this article, that vaft empire not producing fufUcient for its own
confumption.
confumption. The city of Faifo or Foy Foe, is the emporium
from which the Chinefe annually export about forty thoufand
barrels, each weighing above two thoufand pounds. To the
credit of thefe orientalifts, all the cultivation, and all the pofterior
procefles in the production of the fugar, is the voluntary labor
o f freemen.
T o thefe articles o f commerce may be added woods of different
kinds, fuch as aloes wood, or Agolldcha, erroneoufly called Eagle- A g o l io c h a .
wood, Columba, and others of value, either in mechanics, or for their
fweet fcent. The price of Columba wood on the very fpot is five Columba
• W oods. ducats a pound, at the ports iixteen, and m japan, to which
much is exported, two hundred. A pillow of this wood is the
higheft luxury with the orientalifts, particularly the Japanefe,
who will give three or four hundred ducats per pound for a
piece big enough for that purpofe. The Agoliocha bears a good
price; great quantities being ihipped for Hindoojlan, for the ufe
of the Hindoos to burn their dead, who feem to emulate the an-
tient Romans in the aromatic profufion of their funeral piles.
Pepper grows here in abundance. Le Poivre and Raynal P e p p e r .
mention that cinnamon, fuperior to that of Ceylon, is found on a
certain mountain, for which the Chinefe pay a higher price than
for that brought from the famous ftaple o f that fpice. Caffia is
another fpice; let me queftion whether the two are not confounded.
C otton is much cultivated, as is the mulberry tree, for the C o t t o n .
ufe o f the filk-worms; great quantities o f coarfe filks are made
here, fome fo ftrong as to ferve for fails and cordage, but the
fineft forts alfo are manufactured. The impofing Chineie export
from