COCHIN-CHINA, the name .given in Europe to a country occupied by the Annam people. The derivation of the European name is obscure, but Kachao is the name _given hy the Annam people to the capital of Tonquin ; and Cochin-China is known to the Malay navigators as Kutchi. It has been supposed by D'Anville that the Sin-hoa of Ptolemy, the geographer, is Cochin-China, and that the Aureo Chersonesus of Ptolemy is the Malay Peninsula. Leaving out of view the vast unexplored region of Laos, the peninsula, commonly denominated Cochin-China is now- composed tf Catnbodia in the north, French Cochin-China in the south and west, and Annam on the eastern coast, this latter kingdom extending northwards to the Chinese provinces of Yun-nan and Quang-si, its own province of Tong-king adjoining them.
French Cochin - China, conquered or annexed from Annan], comprises an area of about 30,000 square miles, and a population estimated at some 1,750,000 persons, nearly all of them of Annamese nationality. The colony is divided into four pro vinces,—Saigon, Mytho, Vinli-long, and Bassac. Each of these is under inspectors and admini strators, who are educated for the purpose in a college at Saigon, where they are taught the native language, characters, history, and law, and are inatructed generally in the principles of execu tive governinent. They are commissioned by the President of the French Republic. The revenue for the year 1878 was estimated at 14,300,000 francs. The kingdom of Annam has a population estimated at 20,000,000 persons. There is a French resident at the Court of Hue, and also one at Hanoi, the ancient capital in Tong-king, and three ports in Tong-king have been opened tinder treaty. Europeans are only allowed to " trade in the actual open ports, but they are allowed to pass through the country by means of the great river Sang-koi (but not to land on its banks) fur purposes of trade with Yun-nan. The kingdom of Cambodia is an absolute monarchy, and has a population estimated at only 1,000,000, which gives but six to the square mile. It is under the protection of France, and that nation has an official residing at Nam-yang, the capital, with the title of Representant Protectorat Francais. The revenue is estimated at 3,000,000 francs. There is but one port, Kampot, situated on the Gulf of Siam, its principal traffic being with Siam and Singapore by native vt.ssels. In appearance, language, and most other character istics, the Cambodians differ entirely from the Chinese, Annamites, and even Siamese. If there be any resemblance, it is to the latter.
Saigon, the capital of French Cochin-China, on the Saigon river, in lat. 10° 50' N., and long. 104° 22' E., was conquered by the Franco- I Spanish fleet, 17th February 1859, by the force under Admiral Rigault de Genouilly at the close of the last Chinese war, but Lower Cochin-China was not occupied until the treaty of 1862.
About the reign of Louis xvx., the reigning emperor, Gyalong, lost his throne, and a Roman Catholic missionary, Bishop Adran, persuaded the deposed sovereign to ask the help of France, and escorted his son to the Court of Versailles. The request IV :Li granted, on condition that France should have a right of protect,orate over native Christians, and the further right to occupy certain points of Annamese territory, from whence this protectorate might be better exercised. A treaty was concluded at Versailles on the 28th of November 1787, embodying these conditions, and the prince and bishop returned to the East with French oflicers and appliances of war, by whose aid Gyalong was restored to power, and gave him countenance and support, and the church grew and flourished ; but his successors, jealous of its organization and influence, commenced a persecution.
On the 5th of June 1862 was signed the treaty which laid the foundation of French rule in Cochin - China, Annam thereby ceding the three provinces of Bienhoa, Giadinh, and Dinh Tuong, which constituted the original territory of Saigon. Twelve years later, the Due Decazes, then minister for foreign affairs, was able to announce to the French Chamber the signature (on the 15th of March 1874) of a treaty by which the whole country W l'IR placed under the protectorate of France. It has been mentioned that in 1867, five years after the first treaty, Admiral de la Grandilire, the then governor, found it necessary to occupy the three additional provinces of Vinlong, Chandoi, and Ilatien, in order to protect the colony from the incursiona of 'agitators ' from the neighbouring territory. The kingdom of Cambodia, embedded between Slain and the new colony, fell early under its in fluence, and by a treaty signed in 1868, accepted the protectorate of France.
In 1866-7, under the control of M. Dolphin de Lap*, an expedition explored the course and sources of the river Mei-kong, which, taking ita rise amid the mountains of Tibet, impinges on the western provinces of China, flows through the whole length of the Indo-Chinese promontory, and discharges itself, in French territory, into the southern waters of the China Sea. It was hoped that in this river might be found a channel of intercourse with the west of China, and that Saigon might by its tneans be made to rival or eclipse the claim of Rangoon as an outlet for tlte commerce of those regions. In 1881 the boundaries were, on the north the kingdoms of Annam and Cambodia, on the east and south the China Sea, on the west the Gulf of Siam aud the kingdom of Carnbodia, 80 leagues long and 50 broad, with a population of lf millions. The Mei-kong passes through French Cochin-China by two rivers, to disembogue into the China Sea. ID 1880 the revenue was 18,800,000 francs. —Chin. fop. and l'hil. Chron. and Der., 1881.