Cochin-China is the name given in Europe to a kingdom occupied by an Annan' people. The derivation of this European name is obscure. Kachao is the name given by the Annam people to the capital of Tonkin ; and Cochin-China is known to the Malay navigators as Cutchi, but they give the same name to Cochin on the Malabar coast. Cochin-China has probably been so called from the alliteration or reduplication so common with easterns, aided by the proximity of China, and may be derived from Kachao, the capital of Tonkin and China, so that Cochin-China may mean China - Cutchi. Cochin - China is bounded on the west by the Laos country. It extends between lat. 10° and 11° to 18° N. The laws and modes of punishment of the Cochin Chinese are nearly the same as those of China. Their language, termed the Annamite, is mono syllabic, and evidently derived from that of China. Their written language, indeed, is merely borrowed in whole Or in part from the Chinese, though the two languages have become so differ ent that persons of the two nations cannot com municate either in reading or writing. Chinese, however, is the learned language of Cochin-China, with the pronunciation of the Cochin- Chinese. The Annamite language, from its monosyllabic character, presents but a small variety in the sound of the words, and a great number of signi fications, all indicated by the tone, are given to words spelled alike. The religion of the common people is the religion of Fo, which they call Phat; but the people readily embrace Christianity. The common language is spoken in Cochin-China, Tonkin, Ciampa or Tsampa, Kambogia, Siam, and in Laos.
The Moi or Ka-rnoi, who occupy the broad expansion of the Annam chain towards Kambogia, and appear to extend. northwards along • these mountains, marching with the Laos people on the westward, are said to be black savages, with Negro features. The Kambogians style them Kha-men. They are the Kho-men of Leyden and the Kha-men of Gutzlaff. They are very black, and resemble in their features the Caffre.
Kicanto are the aborigines of Tonkin, and must not'be confounded with the Annamese.
Kambogia, lying between Siam and Cochin China, contains about 1,000,000 people, of whom four-fifths are the native Kho. It contains the four provinces, Potisat, Kampong Suak, Kampong, and Kampot Son. Kambogia was anciently called Kamphucha. The people call themselves Khmer, and their country Sroe-Khmer, the country of the Khmer. They are called by the Siamese, Kammen ; by the Cochin-Chinese, Komen ; by the Chinese, Tang - po - cha ; and by the Malays, Kamboja. Kambogia is the lower portion of the valley of the Mei-kong river.
The ancient territory of the Kambogians appears to have embraced all the country lying west and south of the river of Saigun, extending on the Gulf of Siam as far north as the twelfth degree of latitude, and in the interior at least to the fifteenth. The eastern part of their territory
having been subjugated by the Cochin-Chinese, and the western fully taken possession of by the Siamese, the latter, with the co-operation of the Kambogians under their rule, have retaken Pen nom-pen, on the great river Mei-kong, called by the Burmese Meh-kwan-mit (Moor, p. 190), but which probably receives several names in its long course of 1500 miles, till it enters the sea by several branches. • Sovereignty over the kingdom of KariThogia was claimed by Siam and Cochin-China, and the Kambogian prince, unable to resist either of the sovereigns, paid tribute to both. The Govern ment of Siam compelled the young princes of Kambogia to reside as hostages at Bankok. It is now under the protection of France, which has formed a colonial government over six provinces of Cochin-China, which were formerly part of the kingdom of Kambogia. The population of French Cochin-China, principally of Chinese descent, is about three millions. The provinces were obtained from the emperor of Annam by a treaty signed at Hue in 1862.
The whole of the coast from Kamas in Kam bogia, quite up to what is called by the Siamese Lein Samme-san, the Cape Liant of Europeans, is an uninterrupted archipelago of beautiful islands. The Kambogians who are subjects of Siam occupy the southern districts of the Mei kong doWn to the frontiers of Cochin-China. The river of Kambogia is one of the largest in Asia. It falls into the sea by three mouths, between the ninth and eleventh degrees. These three embouchures are known to European navi gators by the names of the Western or Basak river, the Eeastern or central branch, and the Northern or Japanese river. The first of these is the largest, and the more suitable for navigation, and is said to have from 14 to 18 feet of water on the bar at its mouth at high-water or spring tides.
The Capital was visited by a Madras officer in the year 1854, at which time the king, besides his four married wives, had three hundred other women. The women of Kambogia shave their head, leaving only a short tuft of hair. They also blacken their teeth. The Kambogians speak a language distinct from those of all their neigh bours; but in physical form, manners, laws, religion, and state of civilisation, they bear a closer resemblance to the Siamese than to any other people. A few of its people have embraced Christianity.
In Kambogia, it is stated by a writer in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago that Buddha is there styled Simonacudotn. But there prevails amongst them a pantheism, in which all nature is deified, but above all they place Buddha, and worship him daily. Sa tra Trayphum and the Sa tra Papithum are mentioned as two of their religious books.