The following is Mr Barrow's account of the daily life of this extraordinary personage, who in 1807 was in the 51st year of his age. " To enable him the better to at tend to the concerns of his government, his mode of life is regulated by a fixed plan. At six in the morning he rises from his couch, and goes into the cold bath. At seven he has his levee of mandarins : all the letters are read which have been received in the course of the pre ceding day, of which his orders are minuted by the re spective secretaries. Ile then proceeds to the naval arsenal, examines the works that have been performed in his absence, rows in his barge round the harbour, in specting his ships of war. Ile pays particular attention to the ordnance department ; and in the foundery, which is erected within the arsenal, cannon are cast of all dimen sions. About twelve or one lie takes his breakfast in the dock-yard, which consists of a little boiled rice and dried fish. At two he retires to his apartment and sleeps till five, when he again rises, gives audience to the naval and military officers, the heads of tribunals, or public departments, and approves, rejects, or amends whatever they may have to propose. These, affairs of state gene rally employ his attention till midnight, after which be retires to his private apartments, to make such notes and memorandums as the occurrences of the day may have suggested. Ile then takes a light supper, passes an hour with his family, and between two and three in the looming retires to his bed ; taking in this manner at two intervals, about six hours of rest in the four-and-twenty." Ilk forces, as stated by captain Barissy, were in the year 1800 as follows: The Japanese is the only current money in Cochin china, and is paid and received by weight. The money of the country is of copper, as large as our common counters, of a round figure, and has a hole in the middle, by which it may be strung in the same manner as beads.
Cochinchina is extremely well situated for commerce. It lies in the direct line of our navigation to China, and in the immediate vicinity of the islands in the Indian Xrchipelago ; and the commodious harbours formed on its coasts, particularly at Turon, afford a safe retreat for ships of any burden in the most tempestuous seasons. It furnishes many articles of great value in the Chinese market, and might open a ready market for many of our manufactures. Besides a variety of valuable scented woods, its forests contain an inexhaustible store of teak, and other timber for ship-building, of which our supply in other eastern countries is said to be both scanty and precarious; and its fertile rallies yield abundance of rice, sugar, peppy'. silk, cotton, and other vegetable produc tions. Among the articles of luxury, which are at all timcs in demand by the Chinese, may be enumerated the areca nut, cardamoms, ginger, and other spices; the nests already described ; the Bithos du Mar, or sea slugs, in commercial language called trepan; the fins of sharks; and many marine productions of a gelatinous quality, both animals and A rich gold mine has, it is said, been opened near lice, the northern capital, and gold dust h is het n brought at different pet iods from the mountains. Silver mints also have been discovered, and
the silver is now brought to market in bars about five inches long and in value above eleven Spanish dollars. These article s. so valuable in China, might be taken by its in exchange for our various manufactures in iron and steel ; our woollens, cottons, and muslins ; our naval stores ; our opium, and other drugs ; all of which have at various times been disposed of in Cochinchina at an advance of 30 per cent. and their value paid in ingots of silver. By a trade of that kind, were there a British factory estab lished at Turon, as much specie might be saved to Great Britain, or to our settlements in India, as the value of the commodities might amount to in China ; and if the Chinese government shall ever carry into effect a threat ening which they have often held out, of excluding fo reign traders altogether from their ports, our trade might. still be carried on, and perhaps with greater advantage, by means of Chinese junks bringing cargoes of tea and silks and other articles to Cochinchina, and thus avoid ing the exorbitant duties levied at Canton on foreign ves sels. In this manner too, an advantageous trade might be opened up to the numerous islands which lie scattered in the Indian and Chinese seas, some of which have of late years been wrested from the hands of our enemies ; and the Siamese and Cambodians, and other neighbouring nations on the continent, might be induced to bring the produce of their respective countries to Cochinchina, and barter it with us for such articles as they want. Air Barrow is of opinion, from what he observed of thc dis position of the people at Turon, that neither the king of Cochinchina, nor the natives, would be averse to an intimate connection with the British, provided suitable overtures were made to them in a direct manner by the British government itself, and not through any commer cial body, to whom, like the Chinese, they pay no re spect. And as their trade with China, which formerly employed upwards of two hundred of their largest ves sels, has been wholly suspended since the rebellion in the country, he believes that it would not be difficult for Britain, the greatest maritime and commercial power in the world, by prudent management, to establish an inter course so obviously beneficial to both countries. The thoughts which he suggests upon that subject deserve attention.
See Barrow's Voyage to Cochinchina. Grosicr's Des criMion of China, vol. i. p. 300. Expose Stafisayue du Tonkin de la Cochincbine du Camboge, &c. tom. ii. p. I. 4nnales des Voyages, par M. Mahe Brun, torn. iii. (a. F.)