Their arts and manufactures are, as may be supposed, in their infancy, and do not appear to be in a state of progressive improvement. There is in this, and in all Oriental governments, a radical defect, which must ever operate against all national improvements ; and that is, the want of a permanent security to property. In a coun try where the hand of arbitrary power can, at any time, dispossess a man of his property, what encouragement can he have to build an elegant house, to improve the cultivation of his land, to aim at perfection in any art, or, in short, to extend his ingenuity or industry, much be yond a supply of the mere necessaries of life. Their best houses are constructed of wood, or bricks which have been dried in the sun, are limited to one story, are thatch ed, and require constant attention to prevent them from mouldering into dust. On the low grounds, and in the neighbourhood of rivers, the houses arc usually raised upon four posts of wood, or pillars of stone, to protect the inhabitants from vermin, and from inundations. Their city walls are but ill calculated for duration. The mass of loose earth heaped in the middle, has a constant ten dency to push out the bricks or stones with which it is cased, so that the whole soon crumbles into a heap of ruins, and is buried under a rapid and vigorous vegeta :ion. The houses in T l'On, one of the sea-port towns, were, in general, clean and comfortable, and sufficiently compact to protect the inhabitants from the heat of the sun at one season, and the heavy rains at the other. Their r.oesehold furniture is scanty, and rude in its construc tion. An earthen stove, an iron pot to boil their rice, which forms their chief article of food, a pan to fry their vegetables in oil, and a few porcelain cups and bowls,com pose their domestic utensils. The floors of their houses are, indeed, covered with matting, ingeniously woven in different colours ; but the art of making mats is so com mon among all the nations of the East, that the most beau tiful arc scarcely admired. Their vessels of cast iron are well executed, and equal in quality to those of the Chi nese, but their earthen ware is far inferior. They work in metals with tolerable neatness ; and as they are an acute and ingenious people, they might, under proper encouragement, make a rapid progress in the arts and manufactures.
The art in which they excel most, at present, is naval architecture, for which the size and quality of their tim ber is admirably fitted. Their row-gallies, built for plea sure, are very fine vessels ; from 50 to 80 feet in length ; and are sometimes composed of only five single planks, which extend from one extremity of the vessel to the other ; the edges being morticed, kept tight by Nr uocieL pins, and bound firm by twisted fibres of bamboo, without ribs, or any kind of timbers. . The company always sit in the forepart of the boat, and the servants and bag gage occupy the stern; but as it would be domed a breach of good manners in the rowers to turn their backs on the passengers, they stand with their faces towards the bow of the boat, and push the oars from them, instead of pulling towards them. Their foreign traders are built on the same plan as the Chinese junks, and are capable of carrying a great burden, but with more safety than speed. These vessels are divided into distinct compartments, by planks two inches thick, well caulked, and completely water tight ; so that one ship may accommodate several merchants. A ship thus secured with cross bulk heads, may strike on a rock without sustaining any serious in jury ; and if a leak spring in one direction of the hold, it is not attended with any damage to the articles which fill the other.
The religion of the Cochinchinese, like that of almost all the Oriental nations, is a modification of the widely extended doctrine ofBuddha, but apparently more simple, and less disguised with mysteries than that religion as practised in China. Their temples are, in general, very humble buildings, without the heavy curved roofs, or towering pagodas of the Chinese ; but in many parts of the country there are monasteries amply endowed, of which the buildings are extensive, and enclosed with walls. These religious houses are supported by yearly contributions, by government, which, in the coun try, consists of the produce of the soil in kind ; and, in the towns, of money, metals, clothing, and similar arti cles. From a pious sentiment of gratitude, they offer to the image of the protecting deity the firstlings of their flocks, and the first fruits of the earth; but, like other idolatrous nations, the Cochinehinese are extremely su perstitious. When an infant dies, the parent endeavours to appease the offended deity by offerings of rice, oil, tea, money, or whatever he supposes may be acceptable. And, from the same principle of superstitious fear, large wooden stakes, or pillars, are erected in various parts of the country, for the purpose of marking the spot, where some public or private calamity may have happened, as the loss of a battle, the murder of an individual, or other calamity, and as a propitiation to the evil spirit, by whose influence it is supposed to have been produced.
The moral system of this country, as in China, i3 founded upon the precepts of Confucius; here, however, very little regard is paid to the external forms of mora lity. In that respect they are completely the reverse of their northern neighbours. Far from affecting the gra vity and moroseness of the Chinese, they are gay and talk ative, open and familiar ; and the women are as gay and unreserved as the men. We have already remarked, that the female character is held in a state of complete degra dation. The women arc, indeed, considered as beings of an inferior nature to the men, by whom they are re garded as formed only to minister either to their wealth or their pleasure. Hence the morals of the females, married and unmarried, are extremely licentious ; neither the husband, nor the father, having any scruples in aban doning the wife, or the daughter, to her gallant. In the married state, polygamy is not only tolerated, but un limited by any law or rule ; and here, as in China, the wife of the first marriage claims precedence, and takes the lead in all domestic concerns. The terms, on which the parties are united, are not more easy than those by which they are separated. The breaking of one of their copper coins, or a pair of chop-sticks, between husband and wife, before proper witnesses, is considered as the dissolution of their former compact, and the act of sepa ration. These observations arc not confined to the mo rals of the lower orders of the people : they apply not less forcibly to the first ranks in society, and to the of ficers of government ; at least such is the general cha racter of those resident in Turon and its environs, though the manners of a nation are not always to be estimated by what is found to prevail in the neighbourhood of a sea-port. It does not, however, appear that they have adopted from the Chinese, and other eastern nations, the inhuman practice of infanticide.