Travels in Indo-China and the Chinese Empire
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A5/A bs }r/^c•a. COmmX UNF/EKSITY LIBRARY ITHACA, N.Y. 14853 ''- \ fens ffi K; ' V^.'i'Jlri'i "'^'' -''• ^o'h.- ''^^•f- Collection r:r ^n''h';:;st Asia CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 073 426 201 All books are subject to recall after two weeks. Olln/Kroch Library DATE DUE Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924073426201 In compliance with current copyrigiit law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1984 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 1995 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA, LONDON: EOBSON ASD SONS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N W. TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA THE CHINESE EMPIRE Bl LOUIS DE CAENE, MEMBER OF THE COUMISSIOK OF KXPLORATION OF THE MEKONQ. NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR PY THE COUNT BE GARNE. SranslatcllJ from t\t ^nKt\. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PtCCADILLY. 1872. , ; AS 7' CONTENTS. PAGE Notice of the Life of the Authob . vii INTKODUCTION. Establishment of the Feench Pbotectokate over the King- dom OF Cambodgia .1 CHAPTER I. EuiNS OF Angcob. Stung-Teeng. Eapids of Khon-Khong. Aebival at Bassac . -34 CHAPTER II. Stat at Bassac. Excuesion to Attopee. The Forests. Sa- vages AND Elephants. We leave Bassac. TJbone . 65 CHAPTER III. Departure fbom Ubone. Journey by Land. Halt at Khema- RAT ON the BoEDERS OP THE IVIeKONG. ARRIVAL AT VlEN- Chan. Visit to the Euins of that ancient Capital . 98 CHAPTER IV. The Kingdom of Luang-Peaban. Exceptional Position of THE King of this Countey towards the Court op Bang- kok. Help which he rendered the Commission. Tomb of Henri Mouhot. Spring Feasts 133 xi CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE Entry into the Burman Tbrritort. Bad Feeling of tue Au- thorities. The Raint Season. Muong-Line. Sien-Tong. Muong Yon AND SiEN-HoNG. Frontier OF China . .166 CHAPTEE VI. Western China . 210 CHAPTER VII. Landscapes and Sketches in Yunan . 248 CHAPTER VIII. The Mussulman Insurrection in China, and the Kingdom of Tali . .... 285 . CHAPTEE IX. The Blue River. Arrival at Shanghai, and return to Saigon 324 NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOK. Alebady struck by the disease to wMcli he finally succumbed, my son had prepared everything for the publication of the narrative of the journey in which he had exhausted his strength ; and I now only carry through what he had himself arranged. This book, the composition of which was his last delight, wiU preserve at least a trace of hiTn in that country where a great future awaited him, even in the opinion of those more able to judge, and more disinterested, than a father. I cannot but think that, in these iagenuous pages, some traits will be seen of that noble nature, in which the glowing ardour of youth showed itself associated with a precocious maturity; a nature which cast across the sallies of a fine mind a shadow of sadness too much in harmony with his fate. Closed at the age of twenty- seven, his brief career was summed up in the long journey which was the object of his keenest desires, the perils and fatigues of which he never regretted, even when he could no longer deceive himself as to the price he would soon have to pay for them. Admitted iu 1863, after having finished his studies, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Louis de Came was attached to the commercial department. The consular service, isolating him, for the time, from politics, had the advantage of opening before him those vast distant per- spectives, to which he felt himself specially drawn. viii NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. Having a taste for political economy and ethnography, daily, the mimerous documents, which he had to consult were exactly what his inclination would have chosen. in He studied the different schemes of colonisation tried our day with special delight, and the travels published in England and Germany were familiar to him. He read them pen in hand, and thus they form precious relics, in which I love to retrace, as if it were a breath of his spirit, the outline of his first thoughts. In hardly legible notes, referring to his daily occupa- tions, I notice these words, under date of Jan. 27, 1864: ' We try to defend ourselves against the Socialists by all argument, by laws, and, if need be, by bayonets ; and this is well enough ; but a hungry stomach has neither reason nor ears, and ideas will not triumph over want, especially when it has.the ballot-box in its control. ' If, then, France be not able to find, at a distance, the "Par "West," which the happy fortune of the United States has set close at their hand, she wiH assuredly see the sunset of civilisation in that of liberty.' Five years later, in the project of a colonial estab- lishment at the mouths of the Songkoi, which the young writer recommended to public notice, I find the same fear and the same prepossession, expressed in almost identical terms. In the interval between the two dates, the expedition took place in which he engaged with so brave a heart, because it seemed the consecration of his reigning thought. In the spring of 1865, Admiral La Grandiere, my brother-in-law, obtained leave to come to France for his family, and take them to Cochin-China, the territory of which he was soon to double without shedding a drop of blood. My son took part in the frequent conversations as to the future of this rich country, peopled by an intel- ; NOTICE OP TIDE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. ix ligent race, in no way hostile to our own ; he asked his uncle the condition of Cambodgia, of which France had just assumed the protectorate, and listened to the Admiral as he expressed the hope of some day seeing our colony connected with China, by a magnificent river communi- cation, the mouth of which would be under the control of France. The Governor of Cochin-China believed that he could attract to Saigon, a city laid out for half a million inhabitants, the important commerce which is carried on by caravans between Laos, Burmah, Thibet, and the western provinces of the Chinese Empire, thinking it by no means impossible to secure for its chief artery the Mekong, which diverts into the Indian Ocean the waters of the Himalayan plateaux. To secure for Europe, in its trade with the Celestial Empire, a vast entrep6t, of easy access, and at the same time free the route from China, shortened by twelve hundred miles, from that part of the voyage in which the periodical monsoons are to be especially 'dreaded, would have been no incon- siderable service to the general commerce of the world, as well as to our own colony, which must, as the result, have become one of its principal centres. Since the establishment of France in Cochin-China, England had redoubled its efforts to find, at last, that route from India to China, by Biirmah and Timan, hitherto sought for in vain : efforts quite natural, siace this route would enable her to draw this great commer- cial current to her Asiatic possessions, by the upper val- leys, along which fiow the rivers of Indo-China. To get the start of oiu- rivals was, then, a matter of the utmost importance. These considerations struck the Marquis de Chasse- loup, then Minister of Marine and Colonies, strongly : X NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. and it is to his persistency France owes the preservation of Cochin-China, long threatened in the councUs of the Second Empire. This minister approved the scheme of a grand scientific mission, which, ascending the Mekong from its mouth to its still undiscovered sources, should report fully on the navigability of that great river, then almost unknown beyond the lake of Angcor. He thought it especially necessary to display the flag of France to the swarming populations on the river- sides, an establishment among whom would be an introduction to us to those countries. This mission of exploration, designed to serve at once the interests of science, and colonial interests of the first importance, was to have been composed, as first planned, independent of servants, and of a military escort of about twenty-five soldiers, as follows A superior officer of the navy—chief of the expedi- tion. Two officers charged with hydrographic matters, as- tronomical observations, surveying, and sketching. A naval surgeon, as botanist, as well as to act pro- fessionally. Some one appointed by government to act as minera- logist and geologist, especially in the relations of these sciences to the industrial arts. Some one appointed by the Minister for Foreign Af- fairs as secretary to the commission, charged also with the study of whatever concerned politics and commerce. M. Drouyn de Lhuys, Minister of Foreign Affairs, threw himself heartily into the project of his colleague! He was pleased to appoint my son to represent his de- partment, authorising him to correspond with him during the expedition; and, crushed as my heart is to-day, I cherish a lively remembrance of this honour; for one NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. xi can die for his country on the battle-field of science as truly as on that of war. Louis de Cam^ left France in the autumn of 1865. He spent some happy weeks in Egypt, of which he retained that fond recollection, which their first steps in a foreign land leave in the heart of the young.