CAMBODIA, or CAMBOJA, nominally a state in Indo-China under a French protectorate, but practically a French dependency, part of French Indo-China, on the lower course of the Mekong, 220 miles from N. E. to S. W., and 150 miles broad, comprising an area of 46,000 square miles; pop. about 1,650,000. It is bounded on the S. E. and S. by French Cochin-China; on the S. W. by the Gulf of Siam; on the N. by Siam; on the E. by Annam. The coast, 156 miles long, indented about the middle by the Bay of Kompong-Som, offers but one port, Kampot. Among the numerous islands along the coast are Kong, Rong, Hon Nan-Trung, etc., most of them inhab ited. The principal river, the Mekong (in Cambodian, Tonle-Tom—i. e., "great river"), flows through Cambodia from N. to S. as far as Chen-Tel-Pho, and thence S. W. till, at the town of Pnom Penh, it divides into two arms, the Han Giang, or Bassac, and the Tien-Giang, or Anterior river, both flowing S. Above
Pnorn-Penh is a N. N. W. outlet for the surcharge of the Great river, the Tonle Sap (i. e., "river of sweet water"), ex panding into the Great Lake, 100 miles by 25 miles in area, with a depth of 65 feet at its maximum magnitude. France, on Aug. 11, 1863, concluded a treaty with the King of Cambodia, Nerodom, placing Cambodia under a French pro tectorate. This treaty was superseded by that of June 17, 1884, under which the King of Cambodia accepted all the reforms, administrative, judiciary, finan cial, and commercial, which the govern ment of France might institute. At various times since then territorial re adjustments were made between Siam and France. The Cambodians approach the Malay and Indian types, are less Mongoloid and more nearly resemble the Caucasian type than their neighbors. Capital, Pnom-Penh. Pop. about 65,000.