Japanese river given to the Maykaung near its mouth, indicates its having been much visited by that nation; and Chinese and Malays together with Japanese are said to have settled in the country. The products in general are those of the other Indian tropical countries, with the addition of a peculiar gum of a fine yellow colour, called, from the name of the country, gamboge. This is valuable as a colouring drug, and is likewise a powerful drastic medicine. The river is so impeded with sand-banks that it affords no good harbour at its mouth. The capital, named Cambodia, is at a distance up its stream: it is an inconsiderable place, and the whole population is asserted to be scanty.

SIAMPA.

EASTWARD from Cambodia, on the sea-coast, is a small maritime tract called Siampa, having to the north of it a ridge of hills separating it from the former country. It is represented as a kingdom tributary to Cochin-china, inhabited by a stout and vigorous race, who frequent the sea in well-built vessels, and employ themselves much in fishing. Their products are cotton, indigo, and an inferior kind of silk. The coast is indented with numerous bays convenient for shipping.

COCHIN-CHINA AND TUNQUIN.

THE whole remainder of India beyond the Ganges consists of a long range of land, forming the eastern sea-coast, and bounded internally by a chain of mountains separating it from Cambodia and Laos. Of this tract, the southern and narrower part is called Cochin-china; the northern, which spreads into a greater breadth, is Tunquin, or Tonquin.

COCHIN-CHINA is a rich and fertile district, productive of all the esculent vegetables of that part of the world, which are attentively cultivated. Sugar is made in large quantities, and well refined; and its low price is a proof how much cheaper is the labour of industrious natives, than that of purchased and imported slaves. The domestic animals are, small but active horses, asses and mules, and goats in great numbers. The woods abound with tigers, elephants, monkeys, and other natives of the Indian forests. The edible birds-nests, so much valued in China, are brought principally from this country. The streams afford gold in dust, and mines of gold and silver are wrought.

The people of Cochin-china are considerably civilized, and the superior ranks emulate the Chinese in politeness. They are clothed in silk and cotton, and their long loose garments indicate an oriental softness and effeminacy of manners. The people in the towns and on the coast are supposed to be of Chinese extraction. The houses are chiefly slight buildings of bamboo thatched with straw, and placed in groves of limes, plantains, or cocoas. The earthen-ware manufactured in this country is very neat ; and there are skilful workmen in iron. The internal range of mountains is possessed by an aboriginal tribe of savages. The country is regularly governed, and is divided into provinces. Its capital, Hue-fo, is stated to be a

oranges,

considerable town, with a numerous and well-armed garrison. In its neighbourhood is a fine harbour called Turon, formed by an inlet of the sea.

TUNQUIN, divided from the former only by a small river, is said to be at present incorporated with it by conquest. Its breadth admits of the course of numerous streams springing from the mountains of Yunnan. Its climate unites the Indian with the Chinese products.

The manners and appearances of the people are similar to those of their neighbours of China, but with an inferior degree of civilization. The capital, Kesho, is said to possess a considerable population.

CHINA.

IF the Russian empire comprehend the largest tract of land on the globe under a single dominion, that of China, beyond all question, unites under one sceptre the greatest number of human beings. It likewise stands more apart than any other from the rest of the civilized world in situation, language laws and manners, in which respects it may be regarded almost as a world within itself. Justly, therefore, has it been an object of great interest to European curiosity, though its vast extent, and the jealousy with which all foreigners are looked upon in it, have much obstructed that accurate research into its natural and political circumstances which the purposes of science demand.

China Proper, exclusively of Chinese Tatary, extends from the 21st to the 41st degree of N. latitude. Its extreme breadth is not much inferior; and the general rotundity of its form renders it a compact mass of territory. In English measure it may be stated at 1300 miles by 1000. Its boundary on the east and part of the south is the ocean: on the remainder of the south it touches upon Tunquin, Laos, and the Birman empire. The western limit is formed by a part of the latter territory, the country of Tibet, and that of the Eluth Tatars; the line of separation running indistinctly among mountains and rivers. To the north it has the great desert of Shamo and other parts of Chinese Tatary beyond the Great Wall, the stupendous artificial barrier of the empire on this side.

This ample space is marked out by nature for a distinct whole, chiefly by the range of sea-coast, which swells out semicircularly without any considerable break from the borders of Tunquin to the upper extremity of the Yellow sea between China and the peninsula of Corea. On the land side there appear no striking features to discriminate the Chinese territory

from the circumjacent countries, unless it be some of the naked deserts on the north.

The climate, soil and surface, within so wide a compass, must necessarily vary so much that they can scarcely be spoken of in general terms. As to the former, the space of twenty degrees from the tropic through the southern part of the temperate zone must, in this quarter of the world, give all the variations from extreme heat to rigorous winter-cold: accordingly, whilst at Canton Europeans suffer under the inconveniences attending a tropical sun, those who have spent the winter at Pekin have complained of severities of frost to which few have been accustomed at home in more northern latitudes. The proximity of that part of the empire to the elevated mid region of Asia and the Tatarian wilds, is the cause of this unusual cold under the 40th degree of latitude.

In the face of country many level and low tracts occur, watered by numerous rivers, and cut through by canals; yet ranges of mountains are frequent, and large spaces are occupied by dry and barren deserts. The mountains of China have not been traced with geographical accuracy. As far as the maps are to be trusted, they seem to be disposed in interrupted parallel ridges across the country, no large extent of which is destitute of them. The province of Yunnan, with others which border it on the north and east, appear to be most encumbered with mountains, and it is said that in these parts cultivation is much impeded by them. Rough mountainous tracts lie to the north of Canton, the difficult passage over which has been feelingly described by travellers, who have taken them in their way to the imperial court. From the Chinese landscapes we derive ideas of singularly abrupt and grotesque forms of mountains, in which naked and craggy rocks seem piled upon each other, overhanging deep chasms and dreadful precipices.

course.

Of the rivers of China two are pre-eminent for length of The Hoang-ho, called also, from the quantity of mud with which its waters are loaded, the Yellow river, has its origin in two lakes in that part of Tatary which is adjacent to the Kokonor: thence, in a very winding course, it reaches the northern frontier of China, where it turns northward into Chi