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TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.

LONDOfT!
HOBSON AND SONS, PKINTEES, PANCRAS BOAD, N W.

ITINERARY SKETCH OF
the Exploration of
INDO-CHINA BETWEEN
SAIGON and SOU-TCEEOUF00
by tke French Commission
1866-1868.
Drawn oulhy FRANCIS GARMER Lieutenant of ikVesse]

The lacs- which only appears as a political
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oh the river, fir-m S'tunatrenq to Aienq-horuj; it is
divided, into severed Governments orEbngdorrvs,
all tributaries of Siam or Birntah

The division of the States .
<Xfie red line indicates the route by land;

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TRAVELS IN INDOCHINA

AND

THE CHINESE EMPIRE

BY

LOUIS DE CARNE,
>K 
MEMBER OF THE COMMISSION OP EXPLORATION OP THE MEKONG.

NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR BY THE COUNT DE CARNE.

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PICCADILLY.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
Notice of the Life of the Author ..... vii

INTRODUCTION.
Establishment of the French Protectorate over the King
dom of Cambodgia ........ I
CHAPTER I.
Euins of Angoor. Stung-Treng. Rapids of Khon-Khong.
Arrival at Bassac ........ 34
CHAPTER II.
Stay at Bassac. Excursion to Attopee. The Forests. Sa
vages and Elephants. We leave Bassao. Ubone . -65
CHAPTER III.
Departure from Ubone. Journey by Land. Halt at Khema-
rat on the Borders of the Mekong. Arrival at Vien-
Chan. Visit to the Euins of that ancient Capital . 98
CHAPTER IV.
The Kingdom of Luang-Praban. Exceptional Position of
the King of this Country towards the Court of Bang
kok. Help which he rendered the Commission. Tomb of
Henri Mouhot. Spring Feasts  133

vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V. PAGE
Entry into the Burman Territory. Bad Feeling of the Au
thorities. The Rainy Season. Muong-Line. Sien-Tong.
muong you and slen-hong. frontier of china . . 1 66
CHAPTER VI.
Western China . .  21°
CHAPTER VII.
Landscapes and Sketches in Yunan . . . . 248
CHAPTER VIII.
The Mussulman Insurrection in China, and the Kingdom of
Tali  285
CHAPTER IX.
The Blue River. Arrival at Shanghai, and return to Saigon 324

NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOE.

Already struck by the disease to which he finally
succumbed, my son had prepared everything for the
publication of the narrative of the journey in which
he had exhausted his strength ; and I now only carry
through what he had himself arranged. This book, the
composition of which was his last delight, will preserve
at least a trace of him in that country where a great
future awaited him, even in the opinion of those more
able to judge, and more disinterested, than a father. I
cannot but think that, in these ingenuous pages, some
traits will be seen of that noble nature, in which the
glowing ardour of youth showed itself associated with
a precocious maturity ; a nature which cast across the
sallies of a fine mind a shadow of sadness too much in
harmony with his fate. Closed at the age of twenty-
seven, his brief career was summed up in the long
journey which was the object of his keenest desires,
the perils and fatigues of which he never regretted, even
when he could no longer deceive himself as to the price
he would soon have to pay for them.
Admitted in 1863, after having finished his studies,
to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Louis de Carne- was
attached to the commercial department. The consular
service, isolating him, for the time, from politics, had the
advantage of opening before him those vast distant per
spectives, to which he felt himself specially drawn. b

viii NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
Having a taste for political economy and ethnography,
the numerous documents, which he had to consult daily,
were exactly what his inclination would have chosen.
He studied the different schemes of colonisation tried in
our day with special delight, and the travels published
in England and Germany were familiar to him. He
read them pen in hand, and thus they form precious
relics, in which I love to retrace, as if it were a breath
of his spirit, the outline of his first thoughts.
In hardly legible notes, referring to his daily occupa
tions, I notice these words, under date of Jan. 27, 1864:
' We try to defend ourselves against the Socialists by
argument, by laws, and, if need be, by bayonets ; and all
this is well enough ; but a hungry stomach has neither
reason nor ears, and ideas will not triumph over want,
especially when it has the ballot-box in its control.
' If, then, France be not able to find, at a distance,
the "Far "West," which the happy fortune of the "United
States has set close at their hand, she will assuredly
see the sunset of civilisation in that of liberty.'
Five years later, in the project of a colonial estab
lishment at the mouths of the Songkoi, which the young
writer recommended to public notice, I find the same
fear and the same prepossession, expressed in almost
identical terms. In the interval between the two dates,
the expedition took place in which he engaged with so
brave a heart, because it seemed the consecration of his
reigning thought.
In the spring of 1865, Admiral La Grandiere, my
brother-in-law, obtained leave to come to France for his
family, and take them to Cochin-China, the territory of
which he was soon to double without shedding a drop of
blood. My son took part in the frequent conversations
as to the future of this rich country, peopled by an intel-

NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. ix
ligent race, in no way hostile to our own ; he asked his
uncle the condition of Cambodgia, of which France had
just assumed the protectorate, and listened to the Admiral
as he expressed the hope of some day seeing our colony
connected with China, by a magnificent river communi
cation, the mouth of which would be under the control
of France. The Governor of Cochin-China believed that he could
attract to Saigon, a city laid out for half a million
inhabitants, the important commerce which is carried
on by caravans between Laos, Burmah, Thibet, and the
western provinces of the Chinese Empire, thinking it by
no means impossible to secure for its chief artery the
Mekong, which diverts into the Indian Ocean the waters
of the Himalayan plateaux. To secure for Europe, in
its trade with the Celestial Empire, a vast entrep6t, of
easy access, and at the same time free the route from
China, shortened by twelve hundred miles, from that
part of the voyage in which the periodical monsoons are
to be especially dreaded, would have been no incon
siderable service to the general commerce of the world,
as well as to our own colony, which must, as the result,
have become one of its principal centres.
Since the establishment of France in Cochin-China,
England had redoubled its efforts to find, at last, that
route from India to China, by Burmah and Yunan,
hitherto sought for in vain : efforts quite natural, since
this route would enable her to draw this great commer
cial current to her Asiatic possessions, by the upper val
leys, along which flow the rivers of Indo-China. To get
the start of our rivals was, then, a matter of the utmost
importance. These considerations struck the Marquis de Chasse-
loup, then Minister of Marine and Colonies, strongly;

X NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
and it is to his persistency France owes the preservation
of Cochin-China, long threatened in the councils of the
Second Empire. This minister approved the scheme of
a grand scientific mission, which, ascending the Mekong
from its mouth to its still undiscovered sources, should
report fully on the navigability of that great river,
then almost unknown beyond the lake of Angcor. He
thought it especially necessary to display the flag of
France to the swarming populations on the river-sides,
an establishment among whom would be an introduction
to us to those countries. This mission of exploration,
designed to serve at once the interests of science, and
colonial interests of the first importance, was to have
been composed, as first planned, independent of servants,
and of a military escort of about twenty-five soldiers, as
follows :
A superior officer of the navy — chief of the expedi
tion. Two officers charged with hydrographic matters, as
tronomical observations, surveying, and sketching.
A naval surgeon, as botanist, as well as to act pro
fessionally. Some one appointed by government to act as minera
logist and geologist, especially in the relations of these
sciences to the industrial arts.
Some one appointed by the Minister for Foreign Af
fairs as secretary to the commission, charged also with
the study of whatever concerned politics and commerce.
M. Drouyn de Lhuys, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
threw himself heartily into the project of his colleague.
He was pleased to appoint my son to represent his de
partment, authorising him to correspond with him during
the expedition; and, crushed as my heart is to-day, I
cherish a lively remembrance of this honour ; for one

NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. xi
can die for his country on the battle-field of science as
truly as on that of war.
Louis de Carne left France in the autumn of 1865.
He spent some happy weeks in Egypt, of which he
retained that fond recollection, which their first steps in
a foreign land leave in the heart of the young. He had
the pleasure of there meeting his brother, then connected
with M. Lesseps' great undertaking, and with him was
able to examine the works of the canal, in which France,
then in the height of its confidence and strength, flat
tered itself to see a marvellous way opened to the ex
treme East, where it had just raised its flag.
On his arrival at Saigon, at the close of December
1865, the young attache devoted the first weeks of his
residence to visiting the three provinces of Lower Cochin-
China, the only ones then belonging to France ; and in
his correspondence with the department of Foreign Affairs
reported on their condition with that entire freedom
which was at once his characteristic and his duty. This
visit ended, the governor of Cochin-China sent him to
Cambodgia, where he was able, during the months that
necessarily elapsed before the receipt of passports de
manded at Bangkok and Pekin, to contmue his personal
observations, before returning to Saigon, to join the
members of the scientific expedition, at last assembled.
It was during this first stay at Cambodgia he met
M. de Lagr£e, who had been intrusted, through the
admiral, to conduct this difficult enterprise. The rare
ability of this officer will be seen in the introduction to
my son's book, in the way he induced the king, Noro
dom, at whose court he was the military agent of the
governor, to ask the protectorate of France, after long
hesitation, caused by the threats of the Siamese govern
ment. By nature brave and sympathetic, M. de Lagree

xii NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
hid a generous heart under the inflexible rigour befitting
a military command, of which he seemed the living em
bodiment. Always master of himself in the most terrible
extremities, he took minute precautions for the safety
of others, which he would have disdained for his own.
Already threatened by disease, this eminent officer,
whose name heads the list of deaths closed by that of
Louis de Carne\ accepted the command of the expedition,
to which the public voice called him, only from his de
votion to science, and in spite of a presentiment, felt from
the outset, of the fate awaiting him. He required, as
indispensable to the unity of direction, and the success of
the enterprise, material alterations of the plan arranged
at Paris, and thus, under the naval discipline which he
enforced, the special agent of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs found himself seriously hampered, being unable,
till the end of the journey, to correspond with the de
partment to which he belonged. The prohibition from
doing so, which was only communicated on the eve of
starting, put him in a painful dilemma. He must either
submit to it, contrary to the text of his private instruc
tions, or decline to set out, at the risk of seeming to
have deserted his post, at the approach of danger. He
felt that this was impossible, lodged a protest, and started
with the rest.
The expedition, which so many vows attended, left
Saigon in June 1866. A gunboat bore it over the deep
waters of the Mekong, which spread into a wide and
tranquil lake before disclosing its roaring current, its
impassable rapids, and the terrors of its fathomless
whirlpools. The final arrangements were made in the
territory of the tributary prince, and some days of study
and of initiation into their work were devoted to the
ruins of Angcor, as imposing as the ruins of Thebes or

NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. xiii
Memphis, and more mysterious. Soon after, they reached
Laos, whose putrid exhalations had proved fatal to all
the missionaries who had encountered them, and, still
more recently, to M. Mouhot, the only traveller who,
for two centuries, had set foot on this ill-omened soil.
This was the moment of the last adieus and the most
poignant emotions. In these waters, now bottomless,
now barred by sandbanks, it was necessary to use boats
managed by natives, and to separate themselves, with
farewell letters to France, from the steam gunboat,
whose flag and black streaks symbolised still, in these
deserts, civilisation and home.
I shall not describe this voyage, in which tried sailors
and accomplished men had to put their lives at the
mercy of barbarians, depending on their skill for help,
which science could no longer supply : a navigation un
paralleled, which led the voyagers from a sheet of water,
of which the eye could hardly take in the expanse, to
unsoundable gorges overhung by Alpine precipices, and
bore them, from the burning heat of a fiery sky, to the
shade of impenetrable woods, where the Mekong lost it
self in a labyrinth of islets, of weeds, and of trees rising
from the bosom of the waters. It is not for me to repeat
either the hazards of that life of adventure, supported
chiefly by fishing and hunting, or the violence of a tor
rent-like stream, which soon forced the admission of its
being unnavigable, as an indisputable conclusion, on
three naval officers, whom it grieved to the heart to
have to own it. I shall say nothing of the long win
tering in the marshes of Burmah, where, already, the
unhappy travellers, forced to dismiss the greater part
of their escort, exhausted by fever and by privations,
their feet naked and their limbs torn, disputed what
remained of their impoverished blood with myriads

xiv NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
of leeches, vampires more terrible than the tigers and
serpents of Laos.
This book will show what these trials were, of which
each day, during eighteen months, varied the nature and
agony. It will disclose the wiles of a half-barbarous
diplomacy, and will set in the clearest light the almost
insurmountable difficulties of the leader of the expedi
tion among the petty independent chiefs of Central Asia,
with whom the recommendations of the court of Bangkok
had no influence, and who paid no regard even to those
of the court of Pekin. All this is told, as it seems
to me, with a circumstantiality and naturalness, which
bring the reality before the reader. If the narrative is
coloured, it is because the picturesque rises from the
subject itself; if, in spite of the gaiety with which such
miseries are borne, tears sometimes come to the eyes,
they are the true lacrymce rerum, called forth neither by
the art nor the design of the author.
The days during which it was necessary to struggle
against the cataracts of the stream, or to seek food from
the creatures of the virgin forests, were not, however,
the worst to pass, for the sufferings of the mind and the
tortures of the heart were thus escaped. I have often
heard my son say, that the members of the expedition
preferred these times of struggle to the intervals of com
parative ease, when safety, assured for the moment, car
ried back the travellers, deprived, for eighteen months,
of all news from Europe, to sad recollections, which woke
the thought of their absent families, and of that France,
whose very name was unknown in those regions. At
such seasons they kept long silence, each unwilling to
be the first to broach the one subject which interested
all alike. But when at drum-beat, each morning, they
rose with the dawn, — the camp surmounted by the

NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XV
national colours, — each could see, on the clouded brow
of his neighbour, what tender visions had passed in the
troubled dreams of the night.
Meanwhile, they advanced a little each day, and the
prospect of return, now realised as possible, rekindled
their spirits. If it had been necessary to give up the
hope of making the Mekong the grand maritime route
of Indo-China, and Saigon one of the first ports of the
world, — if, with this, the great end of the expedition had
failed, — still, geography and the natural sciences con
tinued to yield the courageous travellers the most im
portant observations, and the most precious collections.2
Moreover, it was found that the perfect navigability
of the Songkoi — a fine river, which flows into the gulf
of Tonkin, and is every way fitted to promote the com
mercial intercourse of the Celestial Empire with our
new colony — was proved beyond question. The earnest
desire to find, at last, that route to China — the discovery
of which, reserved to France, would mark the hour
when they could prepare for the inexpressible happiness
of returning — was redoubled by this stimulus.
It will be told in this narrative how the travellers,
having reached, in January 1868, the borders of Tunan,
on the other side of a range of mountains, thought im
passable, came all at once, when they were not expect
ing it, on the soil of the great empire. It will be seen
with what joyful shouts they saluted this land, sought
for so long ; a land in which, thanks to a powerful civi
lisation, they were as safely protected, at eight hundred
2 Europe will be able to judge of the value of the labours of the Com
mission of the Mekong when the great publication, prepared for the Minister
of Marine and the Colonies, at last sees the day. Delayed by the sad events
of the war, it has been recommenced, and is continued steadily by naval
Lieutenant Garnier, with the assistance of naval Lieutenant Delaporte, and
Doctors. Joubert and Thorel.

xvi NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
leagues from Pekin, by the official letters of Prince
Kong, as they could have been in a faubourg of that
capital. Notwithstanding the obsequious respect shown by
the Chinese functionaries to the strangers in rags, whom
the prestige of an official despatch served in lieu of
decent clothing, it was in China they met their most
cruel trial. In order to penetrate, in compliance with
his instructions, to the sources of the Mekong, hidden
in the highest mountains of Thibet, Commandant de
Lagree, then lying on a bed of sickness, determined that
some of the commission should proceed by the north
west into the part of the Celestial Empire disturbed
by a Mussulman insurrection, and that they should try,
by letters obtained in Tunan from the secret chiefs
of that strange movement, to reach to the very capital
of the new kingdom founded by the rebels. Appointed
to this task, with two officers, the author of this book
has been able to give Europe the first correct details of
the vast social convulsion, which, springing originally
from Arabia, wrestles with Bouddhism, even at Pekin
and Lhassa.
The earlier stages of this daring enterprise, which
had the assistance of one of our devoted missionaries,
gave, for a moment, a flattering hope of success. The
adventurous travellers were able to reach Tali-Fou, the
citadel of a faith wandered a thousand leagues from its
cradle; but they did so only after passing through a
country covered with ruins and with whitened bones of
men and beasts, to find themselves face to face with a
capricious tyrant, and an excited population which de
manded their heads. Escaping, as by a miracle, from
this bloody den, but disappointed in their most cherished
geographical hope, they reentered the territory of the Son

NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. xvii
of Heaven, only to learn the death of the leader, who,
after having so skilfully directed the expedition, had
just succumbed, rather to the weight of his responsi
bilities than to the blow of disease. But M. de LagreVs
work was done, and his name will for ever be connected
with the history of discovery in these regions.
Having, through his care, reached within a few days'
march of the Blue Kiver, which, from west to east, washes
the empire through its whole course, the members of the
commission were able to embark with his precious re
mains, which they carried with them. A Chinese junk,
which was soon exchanged for a smart American steamer,
bore to Shanghai, in some weeks of easy navigation,
through the most populous provinces on the globe, the
grand ambassadors of the "West, who had hardly been
able to get shoes for their feet ; and the French of that city
welcomed the travellers, long given up as dead, with an
enthusiasm in which all the European population joined.
Although, outside the provinces of Yunan and of
Setchuen, he only came in contact with the towns on
the river, Louis de Carne bore away ineffaceable im
pressions of the country. In his daily conversations he
reverted continually to these strange regions, which he
called the intellectual antipodes of the Christian world.
The petrifaction of a whole race, which has not changed
since the dawn of history, seemed to him an inexplic
able moral phenomenon.
'The Chinese are not only old, they are decrepit,'
he writes, in his manuscript notes of 1869 ; ' and the
amazing thing is that this world of old people has never
been young, as far back as we can trace them. It speaks,
thinks, and feels to-day as it did three thousand years
ago. The language, the system of writing, the laws,
and the rites, uniting to destroy all human spontaneity,

xviii NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
have paralysed in its cradle this fossil race, which is
senile without having ever been anything else.
'The small success made by the missionaries in
China may at times surprise us ; for it is hard to under
stand how doctrines so noble as those they preach should
have so little influence on the crowds of mandarins,
whose life is spent in study. But may not any one
see, that the more educated the Chinese are, the more
memory gains, in these perfected machines, at the ex
pense of intelligence ? Christianity, which aspires to
develop human individuality, strives vainly in this sad
country against a creed which has succeeded in crush
ing it; it is life trying to galvanise death. China is
Lazarus in the grave: it " already stinks;" to raise it,
by making it Christian, needs, as of old, the hand of
God. Our missionaries seem to me like Daniel in the
lions' den ; only the lions are, nowadays, toothless ;
but, besides having filed their teeth, the naval powers
will need also to clip their claws, or they will, before
long, use them fiercely enough.
' The Chinese question, which is at once religious,
naval, and territorial, will thrust itself on cabinets in
spite of doctrinaire economists ; for the tutelage of bar
barism is an obligation of civilisation. The admiration
which the philosophy of last century affected for China,
is, in my opinion, one of its greatest crimes. An abyss
separates the most corrupted Christian nation from Chi
nese depravity.'3
This moral and political problem of China filled the
soul of the young traveller. It was the subject to which
he most readily reverted to the close of his life ; and the
fever must have been fierce indeed, or the prostration
intense, when a conversation on it did not rouse and re-
3 Notes inedites de 1869.

NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. xix
animate my dear sick one, bringing me for the moment
a fond illusion of hope. "When, for a time, he revived,
and began to think he might still recover, he delighted
to sketch out a plan of study, which would naturally
have led him to treat this great question. He proposed
to describe, some day, the state of Christianity in the
extreme East, and hoped to be sent to Japan, to be able
to study it there. In a narrative in which the Catholic
missions would have had the first place, he rejoiced in
advance at the pleasure he would have in making known
a crowd of details respecting the poor converts, always
trembling under a yoke hardly yet lightened; and,
above all, in . repeating what he had felt, when, on a
Christmas night, he heard for the first time, resounding
under a roof of bamboos, in the midst of the mountains
which divide China from Thibet, the chants which had
cradled his infancy, and how he, a worn traveller, re
ceived the strengthening sacrament from the mutilated
hands of an old confessor.
After a sojourn of some weeks in Cochin-China —
which he found completed by the annexation of three
fine provinces, but in which he met the bitter disap
pointment of not seeing his family, who had already
left — he was able, at last, to set sail for France. He
reached it at the close of 1868, bearing in his breast,
though without any outward apparent symptom as yet,
the seeds of the mortal malady by which ancient Asia
seems to wish to defend itself against the invasion of
Europe. I have not the courage to recall the joys of
his return, which Providence made so brief, while the
succeeding anguish has been so long.
Deputed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the
exploration of the Mekong, the young traveller bent all
his energy to present to his department, in the course

xx NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
of 1869, an extended report of the results: what little
leisure he had from this task, he devoted to these papers
in the Revue des Deux Mondes, often a literal reproduc
tion of. the journal written during the journey, at times
on the bench of a canoe borne on the course of the
stream, at times in the depth of the forest, in a tent set
up for the night.
A good constitution bore for long the steady pro
gress of a disease, which the invalid hid from others
without concealing from himself; a steady progress,
which neither the lights of science, nor the assiduous
care of the dearest companion 4 of his journeys, could
conjure away.
At last, in compliance with the desire of his chiefs,
who very much wished to procure him a post in Egypt,
of whatever kind would most perfectly suit him, he made
a trial of his strength in the first months of 1870, in a
short excursion to England. The experiment was not
encouraging ; and my son, with too sure a presentiment
of the fate that awaited him, returned to seclude him
self in the home of his childhood, which he quitted no
more, and where we comforted him with our loving
attentions, though its well-loved landscapes, alas, only
pleased his eyes without reviving his heart.
The feverish agitation increased when he heard our
earlier disasters, and when unfavourable bulletins reached
me, I had to bear not only what I suffered as a French
man, but what the effect made me endure as a father.
The agony became more intolerable when all our
Breton youth set off to defend their country. When
he stood in front of his brothers, to give them the fare
well salute, he was overwhelmed by the disclosure of
4 Dr. Joubert, member of the scientific commission of the Mekong, now
medical inspector of the thermal baths of Bagnoles.

NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XXI
his own weakness. From that day, the world, where
there remained no longer a place for him, in the ex
tremity of our public perils, seemed to fade and dis
appear from his eyes ; and, separating himself, without
effort, from a future which was awanting alike to him
and his country, his thoughts rose, as of themselves, to
those regions where, only, the future is never clouded.
In going over some scattered pages, written with a
trembling hand, after all was ended, I found this :
' The life of man has no value except in proportion
as he has learned to contemn it by rising above it. To
be devoted, is truly to live ; to be devoted to the end,
is to live beyond it.'
These words are, perhaps, the last he wrote before
leaving earth : they contain the expression of his as
surance and mine. COUNT DE CARNE.

TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA,

ETC.

INTRODUCTION.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FRENCH PROTECTORATE OVER THE
KINGDOM OF CAMBODGIA.
Though it is easy for theorists to attack the colonial sys
tem, by contrasting its returns with its cost, men called to
direct affairs, to whatever school of economy they belong,
are forced, by an irresistible impulse, to those generous pro
digalities which honour the youth of nations and profit their
riper age. Greece colonised Asia Minor, Sicily, and Italy;
Rome moulded the world to its image by manners as well
as by arms ; and England would have been to-day no more
than a third-rate power, if the brave Anglo-Saxon race, which
covers two continents, had acted on the recent and hardly
serious theory of isolation. The doctrine of ' every one by
himself and for himself,' is fundamentally opposed to the
genius of France, of which expansion is the law. How
ever many her mistakes in colonial matters, her faith has
fortunately survived her disappointments. The French go
vernment has opened for us, by a victory, the gates of the
Celestial Empire, amidst universal applause, and has justly
counted on the approval of all schools of politics in plant
ing the national flag between India and Japan, at the mouth

2 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
of one of the greatest water-courses of Upper Asia. The
Frenchman who arrives from Europe, after having seen Per
sia and Malacca, and having touched at Aden, at Point de
Galle, and at Singapore, views with an unspeakable joy the
flag which floats on the summit of Cape St. Jacques, shelter
ing more than three millions of men, subjects of France,
whose laws, manners, and interests, we have known how to
respect, while we have widened all their prospects.
I do not propose at present, either to enter into the condi
tion of Cochin-China, or to sketch the future which all who
know the fertility of its soil, and the intelligent aptitude of
its people, anticipate for it. Other competent writers have
already done so. But our possessions include one territory —
Cambodgia — the value of which is less understood. The
brilliant success of Admiral Rigault de Genouilly a Touranne,
the happy inspiration which took him to Saigon, the decisive
victory of Admiral Charner at Kihoa, are henceforth part of
our military annals, and by no means their least glorious
pages ; but it is hardly well enough known how we acquired
Cambodgia, the necessary complement of a territory which,
without it, must be permanently insecure. I shall try to tell
the story. It was, besides, from this country that the expe
dition started charged to trace to its sources the immense
river which fertilises it ; and it will therefore surprise no one
if, having lived in it for some time before the Commission
set out, I give it such special notice as will form a natural
introduction to the long story of our journey.

The six provinces which now form our colony of Cochin-
China were formerly part of the kingdom of Cambodgia. It
is not yet 200 years since the emperor of Annam, anxious
respecting the turbulent disposition of a great number of
Chinese who had fled from then country rather than submit
to Tsing, the victorious head of the dynasty of Ming, assigned
them, very cleverly, lands in the south of his territories which
did not belong to him. They established themselves in them
and drove out the inhabitants. More recently, the Annamite
government resolved to ' levy and gather together numbers

INTRODUCTION. 3
from among the common people, especially from among the
vagrants and worthless, from the province of Quang Binh,
above Hu6, to Binthuan, and to transport them as colonists
into these new provinces.'1 These vagabonds have made the
stock of an honest race, and have multiplied in less than two
centuries, under the influence of Chinese legislation, which
honours and guards that central principle of civilisation, the
rights of property, to a population of three million souls,
who pay us to-day nearly eight millions of taxes. The Cam-
bodgians, forced towards the west, henceforth formed only
a small part of the inhabitants of Lower Cochin-China. To
study then civilisation, so different from that which flourishes
in Annam, it was necessary to visit them ; and I therefore
determined to take advantage of the interval at my disposal
before the starting of the Commission appointed by the go
vernor of Cochin-China to explore the basin of the Mekong,
and do so.
I left Saigon at the beginning of the year 1866, on one
of the little gunboats so well called by the police, arroyos.
On board, close to a missionary with a long beard, and some
French officers, a number of Cambodgians formed a separate
group, and chatted as they smoked. They were kinsmen
of the King Norodom, returning "home, after having attended
the industrial and agricultural Exposition, which had inau
gurated in Cochin-China the era of the f§tes of peace. Their
heads were full of what they had just seen. What puzzled
them most was, how we could not only give rewards, but
leave the exhibitors free to sell what they had brought. Such
magnanimity confounded them, and set them on healthy self-
reflection. These mandarins, powerful and rich in spite of
their poor pay, which hardly rises, even for the highest offi
cers, to more than a thousand francs a year, make it up from
the people, who are left all but defenceless under their piti
less and arbitrary exactions. Then extortions have no limit,
indeed, but their interest, which too grievous a rapacity
would injure, by inducing emigration to another province.
The nephew of the king, a child of eight, had bracelets of
gold on his legs and arms. His neck was ornamented by a
1 Histoire et Description tie la Basse Cochin-Chine, traduction deM. Au-
baret.

4 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
motley collar of gold plates, joined by a thread to bits of
glass, and some stones more or less precious. He wore no
hair except on the front half of the head, and only on the
right side of that. The back was clean shaved, except two
locks. His dress, like that of all the Cambodgians, was a short
jacket and a langouti, which is a kind of cotton or silk petti
coat encircling the lower part of the body to the knees, one
end, lifted between the legs, being fixed behind to the waist
band, the calves remaining bare. It thus recalls the Celtic
breeches, and the baggy knickerbockers of the Greeks and
Albanians. This dress, more manly than the long robe of
the Annamites, is generally adopted by the Siamese and the
Laotians. Princes as these travelling companions were, it was not
without some repugnance that I found myself forced to lie
down at their side, when night came, to try to sleep. The
prejudices of caste, after centuries of often bloody struggle,
have almost disappeared from France, thank God ; but for a
European, — however free he may think himself from such
feelinga, — contact with other races — yellow, black, or copper-
coloured — is always a trial. It is only after long effort that
one is able, if not entirely to conquer these inner aversions,
at least to keep them under due control. At this moment
we left the Donnai to enter the Soirap. We were close to
the sea, which sent us its fresh smell and its rough waters.
The wind came, with the south-east monsoon, from the side
next France, and I breathed it long, before burying myself
anew in these lands. We soon cleared the two Vaicos, to
fall into the arroyo of the Poste — a channel scooped out partly
by nature, partly by human labour — which unites the great
stream of the Mekong to the river of Sa'igon. It runs like a
river in an English park, between banks covered with cab
bage-palms, palm-trees, and a thousand other trees and
plants of every colour and of varied foliage. There are no
longer those eternal monotonous mangroves of the other
arroyos of Cochin-China — amphibious shrubs, busily conquer
ing the waters of vast provinces by the entanglements of
their encroaching roots. The boats which pass us are covered,
according to custom, with flags ; so that one would think the
crew busy drying its linen, if they had any, and if the three

INTRODUCTION. 5
colours of France were not seen floating in the place of
honour. The arroyo of the Poste is famous in Cochin-China, in
which rice shoots up wondrously, but where there is a sad
want of the picturesque. We near Mytho, the chief place of
one of the three ancient provinces. This little town, situated
at the confluence of the arroyo of the Poste and of the Me
kong, is of some importance ; but since the recent annexa
tion of Vinh-long, the Chinese have partly deserted it, and
its growth is somewhat arrested. Amidst the houses that
press close to the quays, one notes the establishment of the
Sisters of the Holy Infancy, who could not fail in attracting
children if they could only inspire in them the desire to
be well harboured from the snares of this world. The citadel
is a vast enceinte constructed by the Annamites, enclosing
nearly all the dwellings of Europeans at Mytho. That of the
naval commandant is an old cottage, carried there and set
up again at great expense at the time when the enthusiasm
of the first organisers of the conquest led them to admire
everything connected with our new subjects, without excep
tion, and to copy everything without judgment from them
— their institutions no less than their architecture.
Leaving Mytho, a superb landscape presents itself. The
Mekong, which will bear comparison with the noblest rivers
of Asia, stretches beyond the horizon, its waters fading in
the distance into the clouds, with which the burning sun,
raising a veil of transparent vapour, unites them. It was not
without emotion I felt myself floating on its stream. I was
about to ascend it, and to do my part in tracing it to its
sources ; and I involuntarily did so in advance in my thoughts,
picturing myself now burning under a tropical sun, and next
frozen by the cold in the mountains of Thibet. I never realised
so vividly the idea of ancient mythology, which gave great
rivers a god or a genius for father. At the sight of the Me
kong, the image of Camoens, who composed his paraphrase
of the Psalm, < On the rivers of Babel,' on its banks, rose in
my mind ; and I shared the sadness of the great exile, tem
pered by his manly hope, and felt myself strengthened by
the recollection thus suddenly evoked.
The Mekong runs at this part between the province of

6 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
Dinh-Tuong and the three provinces which the treaty of
1862 have left to the Annamites. It is covered with a crowd
of boats, of which a great number carry the French flag. All,
indeed, have not the right to show it who do so, but they
hoist it fraudulently, because it covers their cargo. The
French Annamites are, in fact, free of the Cambodgian cus
tom-duties in virtue of the treaty of the protectorate. The
waters were very low, and the navigation difficult, even for
our small gunboat. I at last reached the place where the
Mekong divides into four arms, each like a great river. The
position which we hold on it is unique; a concession of
ground having been cleverly chosen on the tongue of land
which separates the great stream descending from Laos from
the arm which leads to the lake. The town of Pnom-Penh,
to which the king had just removed his capital, proclaims it
self from a distance by a grand pyramid built on a height,
leading the traveller to hope that he is about to come upon
another Bangkok, reflecting in a river much nobler than the
Meinam monuments whose singularity is not wanting in
grandeur. But the illusion is short-lived, for Pnom-Penh is
only a crowd of petty wooden and bamboo houses, most of
them raised above the ground on posts, round which pigs
and chickens live in a familiarity which brings the inhabit
ants inconvenience of more kinds than one. A winding
street runs from one side to the other of the town, which is
pretty populous, and indeed the largest in Cambodgia. It
was once a place of 50,000 inhabitants ; but invasions, to
which it was peculiarly exposed from its nearness to Hatien,
had reduced them to about 5000 or 6000. Since our pro
tectorate, however, they have tripled. The natives huddle
together in it in the strangest way. There were about 100
of them lodged in the three houses assigned by the king as
the residence of the French officer who represents at his
court the governor of Cochin-China. The king, since he has
become our protege, thinks he must copy France in every
thing, and has ordered a great many of his subjects to leave
their houses, that they may be rebuilt in a uniform style. He
wants his capital to be worthy of him, and expropriates as
he likes, by his royal caprice, without thinking of indemnity.
To set the example, he has bargained with a French work-

INTRODUCTION. 7
man, who never in his life was an architect, to build him a
brick villa. As to the cost, it does not trouble him : the Cam-
bodgians have to bear that.
1 put off my presentation to the king to another day, and
went up the arm of the lake to Compon-Luon, a large village
on the banks, about six kilometres from Houdon, the capital
which had just been abandoned. The French resident lived
there, with his gunboat moored close to his house, near
enough to the king to direct and watch him. At the time
of my visit the post was held by M. de Lagree, a captain of
a frigate. Seconding the views of Admiral de La Grandiere
with equal energy and ability, he planted and established
the French flag in Cambodgia. It was under his command I
ascended the great river whose mysteries he had for years
endeavoured in vain to solve, the information given by the
natives being as cloudy as the troubled waters of the Mekong.
When it was offered him to lift the veil, he accepted without
hesitation. I lived with him while waiting till the- expedi
tion was completely organised, and I owe to his thorough
knowledge of Cambodgia most of the details respecting it
which I shall copy from my notes. His house was of wood,
thatched; but he had been his own architect, and not a man
darin could boast of having a more elegant, a smarter, or a
better-arranged mansion. At the side, and within the same
enclosure, an infirmary, a guard-house, a magazine, and vari
ous offices completed the residence, which was made known
from a distance by a flag-staff from which floated our colours.
The erection of this small French establishment on soil con
secrated by the presence of a magnificent banyan, the sacred
tree which commonly covers only bonzeries, pagodas, and
tombs, had marked the close of the struggle between the
two rival influences which sought to prevail in Cambodgia,
It will perhaps not be without interest to recall the prin
cipal incidents of that long strife, which we often all but lost,
but from which we at last came out victorious, — and this
the rather, since being now definitely established in these re
gions, it is well to know both our friends and those who for
long will be our enemies.
When the emperor of Annam, by the treaty signed at
Hue in 1862, had recognised the rights of France over the

8 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
three provinces of Lower Cochin-China, the first care of the
governor of our new colony was to secure the peace of our
frontiers. We had just cut in two the dominions of Tu Due,
who retained, on the south-east of our possessions, the pro
vinces of Vinh-long, Angiang, and Hatien. One of the con
ditions of the treaty being, in effect, the re-cession of Vinh-
long, we could not dream of extending our rule to the Gulf
of Siam, its natural limit, at once. The necessity of holding
these provinces, which we have since been led to occupy,
was forced on the author of the treaty of 1862 by the evid
ence of events which were not long in showing themselves.
On the west and south-east we were bounded by the Annam-
ite territory, and by the sea ; on the north-east we touched
Cambodgia, a little kingdom then unknown. The few tra
vellers who had visited it had told us nothing of its history.
Owing to the apparently impenetrable mystery which veiled
the meaning of inscriptions carved on the walls of ruined
buildings, it was the general belief that the history of Cam
bodgia would be found written, in the fashion of the Egyptian
annals, on the walls of temples — a belief now hardly pro
bable. I have seen the chief bonze of Cambodgia read, in the
grand pagoda of Angkor, some inscriptions chosen from
among those which, from the place where they occurred,
seemed the most important. He easily understood the frag
ments written in the ancient Cambodgian language while it
was still free from any foreign alloy, and they were found to
refer only to pilgrimages, religious ceremonies, and confused
incidents of Buddhist legend, without offering anything of
historical interest. It is quite possible that some inscription
may one day be found which will throw light on the past of
this kingdom, but there is too good ground to fear that the
events of which it has been the theatre have never been
written. Unless some bonze convent preserve the record
of these problematic annals, we must give up the hope of
having anything like full light thrown on the times of the
glory and prosperity of Cambodgia. About the middle of the
sixteenth century Portuguese came to settle in the country,
some traits of the race still remaining recognisable in then-
descendants. They left writings, which would have been
a precious source of information on the history at least of

INTRODUCTION. 9
that era, but the Siamese have destroyed them. These Por
tuguese, on then- arrival, asked the king for a small piece of
land, and he allowed them to take as much as they needed.
They humbly answered that they only wanted as much as
a buffalo-hide would cover, and then, repeating the trick of
Dido, they appropriated a considerable tract ; so that the
Cambodgians till this day say of a Christian that he belongs
to the ' village of the stretched-out skin.'
Some passages of Chinese books speak of Cambodgia as
one of the numerous kingdoms tributary to the Celestial
Empire. They even say that, till the seventh, century of
our era, it was dependent on the province of Founan or
Tonkin, which was then Chinese. If they can be believed,
the country of Cambodgia, which they call Tchinla, began to
pay tribute, and to send ambassadors to the Son of Heaven,
in the year A.D. 616, under the reign of Yong-ti, of the
dynasty of Soui. One of the kings of Cambodgia, in the
year A. D. 625, shook off the Tonkin yoke, and even took
possession of that province itself, and of the kingdom of
Thsan-pan. This latter country is, perhaps, the ancient
Ciampa, visited by Marco Polo, and now included in the
Annamite province of Binthuan, on which we touch by
ours of Bienhoa. Under the Ming, the armies of Tchinla
overran all Cochin-China. The emperor of China, in his
struggles with Tonkin, did not disdain to ask the help of
the king of Tchinla, in 1016. Alliances seem then to have
been common between the grand empire and this powerful
kingdom. The Chinese traveller, whose narrative is trans
lated by Abel R&nusat, relates that in his time the people of
Tchinla gave then* country the name of Kamphoutchi, which
soon became Kamphoutche. The Cambodgians now call
themselves Khmer, and say, in speaking of their country,
Sroc Khmer — the country of the Khmer. Nevertheless, one
cannot but recognise in the Kambodia of the Portuguese,
of which we have made Cambodgia, an evident corruption
of the word Kamphoutche.
On the other hand, one reads in the Siamese annals that
the country of Sajam was long under the rule of the king of
Kamphoxa, and paid him tribute. Phra-Ruang, prince of
Sajam, freed his country, which took then the name of

10 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
Thai, which means 'free,' and modified the Cambodgian
alphabet, which in the end was employed exclusively in
religious writings. It would thus appear that at one time
Cambodgia included in its extended frontiers most of Indo-
China. But I shall not spend time in retracing the dark
story of these ages. One thing is certain : the past of Cam
bodgia must have been very brilliant. Enormous ruins bear
glorious witness of this even to our day, and we found
ample and ready confirmation of it during our residence at
Laos. In a country tributary to Burmah, and close to the
frontier of China, an old bonze eagerly asked us about the
state of Cambodgia, which bore in his books the name of
Tepada-Lakhon, or 'Kingdom of Angels.' The Cambodgians
themselves know nothing either of their origin or of their
history. Degenerate as they are in such matters, they
have no idea that their forefathers could have constructed
the monuments whose ruins cover their country. M. de
Lagree, who continually interrogated them for years on
this point, ended by getting from a bonze who was reputed
to be very wise the name of the founder of Angcor ; but
when he came to compare it with others which he had
already collected, he found that it was simply a fancy word,
meaning in French ' Architect of Heaven.' We, ourselves, at
the time of our arrival in Cochin-China, were absolutely
ignorant alike of the past and the present condition of the
Cambodgians, and a first glance at the position of the king
dom showed, in the character of its relations with its neigh
bours, a serious obstacle to the legitimate extension of our
influence in Indo-China. II.
Cambodgia has at present a population of hardly a mil
lion souls, including in this number forty thousand slaves,
and twenty thousand savages inhabiting the mountains,
where they enjoy a kind of independence. This petty king
dom, with fewer inhabitants than some French departments
could not, in itself, be either a source of danger to us, or
even become a cause of anxiety; but the law of nations, as it
is known in Europe, is very little known in the East, and
Cambodgia touches Siam, a neighbour comparatively power-

INTRODUCTION. 11
fill, which has filched provinces from it by force or cunning
in turn. The court of Bangkok and that of Hue* alike
hankered after what remained of this dismembered king
dom. In 1795 the king of Siam carried off from Cambodgia
the young Ang Eng, to protect him from the violence of his
revolted subjects, and caused him to be crowned, some time
after, at Houdon. To reimburse himself for these services,
he took possession of the provinces of Battam-bang and
Angcor ; and the emperor of Annam, on his side, had not
been less active. The Siamese government ought, from
the first, to have rejoiced at our intervention, which put a
check to the political ambition of the Annamites, who, in
vited in 1810 by Ang-chan to help him against the Siamese,
conquered the six provinces which we hold to-day under the
name of Lower Cochin-China, and established themselves
even at Pnom-Penh, from which they governed the country
down to 1834. Not content with holding the unfortunate
Cambodgians under their yoke, they tried to impose on
them their customs. The historian of Gyadinh, in his triple
pride of conqueror, literary man, and Chinese, does not hesi
tate to write that the emperor of Annam appointed to the
different Cambodgian mandarins, civil and military, a cos
tume of ceremony. Thus, he continues, disappeared, day
by day, those barbarous manners which showed themselves
in their cutting their hair, in wearing clothes not slit at the
sides, in covering their body round with a langouti, in eat
ing with their fingers, and sitting squat on their heels.
The dislike, which has always divided the two races,
changed, on the one side, into an inextinguishable hatred,
on the other into a profound contempt. A Cochin-Chinese
law went so far as to punish with strangling any Annamite
who married a Cambodgian woman. The Annamite em
peror's intention to conquer the whole kingdom was clear,
and the declaration to the contrary of the minister of state,
Phan-tan-gian, published by M. Aubaret, is of no weight in
the face of undoubted facts. ' To begin,' says he; 'we have
no intention to take possession of this country ; we wish,
like heaven, to leave men to live in peace. No, we do not
wish the destruction of this little kingdom, as others do,
who have hearts full of bitterness ;' — that is, the Siamese,

12 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
who, not content with the two provinces taken from Ang
Eng, — under the pretext of upholding the interests of Ong-
duong, the legitimate king, advanced to drive out the An
namites. The struggle between the two rivals lasted more
than ten years. "Whichever side won the victory, Cam
bodgia was fated to disappear; but the peace was signed,
each retaining what he held before the war, and the parti
tion was indefinitely postponed. Ong-duong agreed to pay
a yearly tribute to his two neighbours ; and at this price the
Siamese set him on the throne of Cambodgia, though not
without requiring him to leave his children at Bangkok, to
receive an education worthy of their birth. In reality, the
Siamese king wanted to have hostages for the present, and
to prepare instruments for his purposes in the future.
On the death of his father, Norodom mounted the throne,
thanks to his interested protector. Si-vata, one of his bro
thers, rebelled on the instant, claiming the crown, because
he was the son of a king who had been crowned, while
Norodom, the elder, had been born before his father Ong-
duong had assumed the diadem in the solemn ceremony, re
garded, according to Cambodgian rites, as specially import
ant. An uncle of the princes, Senong Soo, supported the
cause of Si-vata, stirred up the province of Baphnum, which
was next Pnom-Penh, and made Norodom flee to Bangkok
without attempting resistance. In the month of Februaiy
1862 he was led back to his states by the soldiers of the
king of Siam, and reestablished at Houdon, on the condition
that he would inaugurate his reign by ceding the provinces
of Compong-soa'i and Pursat, as his father had begun his by
letting himself be plundered, for the benefit of Laos, of two
provinces bordering that country, over a part of which Siam
exercised absolute sovereignty. In haste to possess the
power, Norodom subscribed everything, so that the king of
Siam might well be proud of his pupil. At Bangkok his
promise was duly recorded, with the assurance, however,
that its performance would not be insisted upon if the king
of Cambodgia showed himself docile to the counsels of his
friends. Norodom was only too well inclined for the part
of vassal-king which they wished to make him play. The
arrival of the French in Cochin-China finally took from the

INTRODUCTION. 13
Annamites, wholly engrossed with defending themselves,
all idea of conquest ; and the king of Siam set himself to
the task of gaining over the rest of a nation, of which he
had, as it were, kneaded the king to his liking with his
own hands.
Things stood thus when Saigon was taken; and this
short statement of them will explain the reason which forced
us to intervene, and how for a time there were difficulties
which stood in our way. It was a critical moment. The
English, though they cannot complain of being straitened
for want of room in India, saw their designs thwarted by
our presence in the empire of Annam. The fear they in
spired at the court of Siam had for long kept it from grant
ing Eiu-opean nations the right to have a consul at Bangkok.
They hold at this time a piece of ground there, and enjoy
considerable influence in the counsels of the Siamese govern
ment. They would have reckoned it a great stroke if they
could have got the king Phra-maha-mongkut, who was very
much inclined to follow their wishes, to annex Cambodgia
without any more ado. It is too well known what any
tenderness shown by England to her clients commonly hides,
not to doubt the disinterestedness affected in her expression
of so much solicitude for Siam. Her amazing success in the
past justifies all her dreams for the future ; and she was
annoyed to find in her way rivals she had thought she had
for ever driven away from Asia. From Moulmein she already
watches Bangkok ; and not being able herself to take Cam
bodgia, she was willing to enrich a friend of whom she ex
pects to be heir. Meanwhile she plotted to secure our being-
surrounded by enemies in our new establishment. Still
more : the kingdom of Cambodgia commands the lower val
ley of the Mekong ; a battery placed on the custom-house
point would close the four branches of that river to trade ;
and we could not permit the prosperity of our colony of
Saigon, in whose port the products of the whole interior
were one day to be gathered, to depend absolutely on a
foreign nation, which was under influences certain to make
it, as a rule, hostile to us. These considerations were de
cisive, and the independence of Cambodgia was soon seen
to be an essential condition to the development, or almost

14 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
the existence, of French Cochin-China. But in the weak
state of the kingdom this was impossible, except by a pro
tectorate. The rights of French suzerainty substituted for
those of Tu Due, being from the first at least equal to those
of Siam, we could proclaim these at once annulled by a fair
compensation. A treaty would create new and exclusive
rights for us, and Siam would be finally put aside. It was
to this end all the efforts of the French officers, who had
become diplomatists, were henceforth turned.
A Cambodgian noble, Senong-soo, the uncle of King No
rodom, having sought a refuge on our territory, to escape
the Siamese, the prime-minister of Siam at once demanded
his extradition from Admiral Bonard, who, however, refused
to permit it. This was of itself enough to show the court
of Bangkok our intentions with regard to Cambodgia, and,
in some degree, was a beginning of hostilities. To induce
Norodom to treat with us, it was important to mark the
difference of our idea of a protectorate from the oppressive
way in which the king of Siam had employed his humiliat
ing suzerainty. It was no question with us of homage or
service ; we had only one end to secure — the autonomy of
Cambodgia; and all our negotiations were directed to this
object. The king, moreover, had for long wished some over
ture from us ; for he knew that Siam would abate its exac
tions as soon as it saw it had to reckon with us. For the
same reasons, this latter power dreaded a French interven
tion, and the Siamese general, Phn£a-rat, who lodged at the
gates of the royal palace, redoubled his vigilance. He de
voted himself to his task of watching and guiding a weak
conscience; and no scrupulous duenna ever took greater
pains to guard her precious trust. The king never spoke
a word that was not repeated ; never made a movement that
was not watched ; and even the letters he had to write to
the French commandant of one of the frontier circles com
menced with the words, ' The king and the Siamese general.'
It was necessary to avoid, in the opening of our relations
with the court of Houdon, anything startling ; to act with
prudence ; to free the king, without causing a shock, from a
subjection as incompatible with his own dignity as with our
interests. Under various pretexts our vessels entered the

INTRODUCTION. 15
Mekong. The officers took care not to stay long at any one
place, that they might not excite premature resistance ; but
they got, little by little, into direct relations with the king.
Their instructions forbad their recognising in any way the
Siamese tutelage, or suffering any third party to come be
tween them and his Cambodgian majesty. The advice-boat
Gyadinh was the first French vessel appointed by Admiral
de La Grandiere to cruise in the waters of Cambodgia. The
king received its captain, M. de Lagree, with cordiality, and
allowed him permission, there and then, to establish a
coaling-station, on the spot which we yet hold, opposite
Pnom-Penh. He even extended his courtesy so far as to
come without delay on board the Gyadinh ; though it is true
he was accompanied by the Siamese, — and he expressed
a wish to visit the new governor of Cochin-China ; but this
was only the caprice of a curious child, and was at once
given up on his tutor showing him the political significance
of such an act.
In proportion as the representative of the court of Bang
kok became alarmed, and caught a glimpse of the approach
ing emancipation of his pupil, he became more exacting.
Though he was not permitted to be present at any audience
granted to the French, he so arranged as not to lose a word
of what was said. He never showed himself in public ex
cept in sumptuous robes, which quite eclipsed those of the
king. He assumed the airs of a master in everything ; and
his soldiers, copying the ways of their chief, plundered the
market daily. This conduct, though very obnoxious to the
people, degraded as they were, failed to excite a revolution
in favour of Phra-keo-fea,2 younger brother of the king,
whose hatred of the Siamese gave him a kind of popularity.
Our presence alone hindered it; and the Siamese general,
seeing this, and being no longer able to bear the sight of
the evident progress of oiu- influence, seized the occasion to
announce that he must return for new orders, and would
leave his brother to hold his post beside the king. He
judged it advisable, moreover, to take the author of an in
surrection which threatened to disturb the peace of a state
2 Since imprisoned at Saigon. The revolt of 1866, excited by Pou-
quambo, was sanctioned by his name.

16 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
tributary to Siam to Bangkok, in the hope that a year passed
in a bonze monastery, and in bonze dress, might inspire the
young prince with better sentiments. It was thus he masked
his retreat. As to us, we had done a service which helped
on our protectorate. The moment was favourable to secure
its formal recognition, without at once drawing attention to
all that it implied.
Admiral de La Grandiero, taking advantage of these cir
cumstances, now appeared on the field at Houdon. The
king, perhaps a little surprised, and hardly perhaps compre
hending the meaning of the word protectorate, which is as
hard to define in Cambodgian as in French, readily consented
to set his seal to a treaty of nineteen articles, in which the
protectorate of France over Cambodgia, solemnly proclaimed,
was surrounded by all the guarantees we wished to obtain.
It was understood that, until it was ratified by the Emperor
of the French, the convention had only a conditional force.
We had succeeded in getting the king to do an act of free
sovereignty; and we took away with us an agreement which
we could not help thinking a first success. But hardly had
the news reached Siam before it raised a storm, the echo of
which almost frightened our new protege into forgetting his
word, and caused us serious embarrassments.
The Kalahom — the prime-minister of the king of Siam —
told Commandant Forbin, our envoy to Bangkok on the
death of the French consul, distinctly, that the king of
Cambodgia was a mere viceroy vassal of Siam, who had no
right to treat with us, and that his affairs could be decided
only at Bangkok ; then, becoming calmer, he gave it very
clearly to be understood that his master would be disposed
to divide with us what remained of the old Cambodgian
kingdom. His assertions were definite, and the answers
needed to be categorical also. It was therefore officially
communicated to the Kalahom that this pretended vassalage
of the king of Cambodgia had never been recognised by
France, which was resolved to have nothing to do with
any third party, in treaty with him. They raised an argu
ment against us from M. de Montigny's mission in 1855,
trying to prove that he had always acknowledged the vas
salage of Cambodgia in his conferences with the Siamese

INTRODUCTION. 17
government. This was entirely untrue ; and the mere state
ment of the facts suffices to refute it. It will require only a
short digression, but its exposure will show the tricks to
which Siamese policy resorted to gain its ends.
M. de Montigny having announced his intention of mak
ing a commercial treaty with Cambodgia, so far from any
opposition being offered, he was even advised to take pos
session in the name of France of the island of Phu-Quoc,
lying over against the Cambodgian port of Compot, in the
gulf of Siam, and peopled by Annamites. The Siamese states
men evidently sought in this way to bring on a dispute, by
which they might profit, between France and Annam. On
the one hand, the king of Siam wrote to M. Miche, now bishop
of Saigon, begging him to put the knowledge of the coun
try and of the language he had acquired at the service of
M. de Montigny ; on the other, he caused the king of Cam
bodgia to be secretly told, that if he were unfortunate
enough to treat with the French, he would be sorry for it.
The king, Ong - duong, on the news of the arrival of the
French ambassador, had ordered the road between Houdon
and Compot to be repaired, and set himself to give M. de
Montigny a magnificent reception; but the despatch from
Bangkok fairly terrified him. When he farther learned that
the same vessel which brought the ambassador bore also an
agent of the king of Siam, his alarm knew no limits ; he
no longer thought of going to Compot to the meeting he
had himself appointed, and instantly began his annual visit
to the pagodas, in order that M. de Montigny might not
find him in his capital, if he came there after him.
Since it was thus necessary in 1855 to use threats to
keep Ong-duong from treating with us, it is clear that his
right to do so was acknowledged. Why should his suc
cessor be affirmed to have lost a right which belonged to
his father ? After having for long been forced to submit to
Siamese interference in his affairs, the king of Cambodgia,
by a convention freely granted us, had created rights and
duties, against which the protests of the Siamese govern
ment were henceforth of no weight.
The general, Phnea-rat, who took Phrakeo-fea to Bang
kok, had gained such an ascendancy over the king, that we
c

18 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
should probably have hardly succeeded so easily had he re
mained at Houdon. Fortunately he left only his brother
behind him, a mandarin of little influence ; who, keeping by
his instructions, and maintaining a careless surveillance from
a distance, neither foresaw nor prevented anything. When
he learned that the convention was signed, he felt hurt in
his pride as a Siamese, and in his amour propre as a diplo
matist ; became violent, like all timid persons suddenly
waked from their torpor, and threatened Norodom with the
anger of his master, the terrible consequences of which the
French would be unable to avert. He invited him, besides,
to add a letter of regrets and excuses to his own despatch
to Bangkok, in which he broke to the Kalahom the news of
the grave events which had just happened. Norodom, quite
distracted, had the weakness to consent. He said that he
confessed his fault; that he had no right to sign without
consulting the king of Siam ; but that he had been taken by
surprise, and had not turned over the matter long enough
to reflect on the consequences of an act of which he now,
too late, repented. Those who knew the king saw that
there was quite as much calculation as fear in his language.
His letter might be taken as an index of the policy he in
tended to follow. He wished to appear to yield to a pressure
on our part, not doubting that Siam would give way to our
wish. Knowing that we had no design on his territory, and
thoroughly aware of the value we set on the independence
of his kingdom, he was determined to leave us to manage
matters ; to raise obstacles, as necessity might require, which
he knew we were strong enough to surmount, that he might
get himself out of his difficulty ; to hold himself ready, in a
word, to enjoy the liberty which we should give him, without
Siam being able, whatever happened, to throw on him the
whole responsibility.
The future had, it must be granted, some dark points
which justified the uneasiness of Norodom. The Annamite
ambassador was at that time in Paris ; his mission was no
secret to any one in Cochin-China, and it was presently
made known in Cambodgia. The Siamese spoke of the ap
proaching evacuation by the French as certain ; and an agent
of Tu Duo, still more confident, came to demand at Houdon

INTRODUCTION. 19
the triennial tribute. It was certainly not probable that
Phan-tan-gian should succeed in the negotiations ; never
theless, when one knows the facts, and the hesitation, which
was natural enough, before France came to a final decision,
one is led to find in the clear-sightedness of the king a kind
of excuse for the feebleness of his conduct. Norodom was,
besides, the more troubled, from not taking into account the
interval necessary for communication with France, and be
cause Bangkok, confident in the resources of its diplomacy,
alleged that the treaty would not be confirmed by Napo
leon III.
Meanwhile the anger of the king of Siam, who had just
heard of the events in Cambodgia, suddenly passed off; for he
thought he had discovered in the letter of Norodom a way
to draw down a terrible revenge on us, which he left to his
faithful Phnea-rat to carry out. That clever agent, whose
sudden departure had so greatly aided our success, was or
dered to get ready to return to Houdon. He took with him
a draft of a treaty, which he was told to get the king of
Cambodgia to sign at any cost ; the means to be used being
left to him, as a man, skilful, and full of resources and energy.
This treaty had for its end to define and emphasise more than
hitherto the vassalage of Norodom, who was called in it the
' viceroy,' and mere ' governor of Cambodgia.' The king of
Siam had taken the trouble to write the preamble of this
diplomatic missive with his own hand. He wished, he said,
to let all men know that Cambodgia is a state tributary to
the kingdom of Siam, owing it homage, and for long under
its protection. The right was granted him by article 6, in
spite of an illusory restriction, to name the governors of
Cambodgia henceforward at his pleasure ; and the 7th article,
in the same way, reserved to the court of Bangkok the right
to nominate governors for the Cambodgian provinces. As
to the French treaty, no notice was taken of it; it was not
thought worth discussing, and indeed was not recognised as
in existence. Phnea-rat, arriving at Houdon unexpectedly,
acted with promptitude, ability, and vigour. Without giving
Norodom time to collect himself, he told him that the king
of Siam, though profoundly irritated at his conduct, assented
to his becoming a subject of France; for his treaty with us

20 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
meant nothing less — the consuls of other nations at Bangkok
had made no secret of saying so ; and they saw an incon
testable proof of this subjection in the clause which shut out
from Cambodgia the representatives of all other European
powers. It was easy to divine the quarter from which in
sinuations of this kind came. The king of Siam, continued
Phnea-rat, had no intention of offering any opposition.
Only Norodom, in thus yielding up his sovereignty and
betraying his people, was, by the very fact, unworthy of the
throne, and Si-vata, till then detained at Bangkok, would be
set at liberty. The crown of the kings of Cambodgia was
kept at the capital of Siam ; it would remain there, and even
if he retained his throne, he would never be a crowned king.
In addition, his Siamese majesty judged that the time had
come to accept the two provinces of Compong-soai and
Pursat, so graciously offered him at the beginning of Noro
dom's reign. Phnea-rat added that the wishes of his master
were strictly within the limits of justice and moderation,
and did not shrink from saying that they would be imposed
on France itself by force in a war, in which the Siamese govern
ment had been assured of powerful allies. To turn aside so
many perils there was a last resource : Norodom had but to
sign a secret treaty, which was, in reality, only a precaution
taken against the French. The king of Siam would then
condescend to come personally to Compot, where Norodom
was to meet him, and all his faults would be forgiven.
These manoeuvres were completely successful, for Phnea-rat
bore away from the palace the treaty signed by the king,
before M. de Lagree knew of his being in Houdon. This was
in November 1863; the ratifications were sent to Siam on
the 22d of the January following ; and it was not till the
month of August 1864 that we even heard of its existence,
from an English journal of Singapore, which published the
treaty at full length.
The artful Siamese diplomat knew well the interest he
had in misleading France as to the aim and the true result
of his mission. The arrival of a great mandarin at Hou
don from the court of Bangkok awakened M. de Lagree's
suspicions, for his watchful mind was beginning to get
acquainted with the tricks of Eastern diplomacy. This

INTRODUCTION. 21
difficulty had no way embarrassed Phnea-rat ; he had a pre
text ready. Determined to avoid any meeting with the
representative of France, who would not readily have yielded
to this change in his designs, he caused a letter to be sent
by the king of Siam to M. Miche, telling him that Norodom
was to be crowned in a fortnight. Feigning to be taken all
at once with a holy zeal for the Catholic religion, and with
a profound respect for the venerable head of the Cambodgian
Christians, he came to see him at Pinhalu. He had an
escort of two hundred guards, and a suite of a dozen ele
phants in scarlet housings worked with gold, one of them,
the most richly caparisoned, bearing himself. What must
have been the astonishment of the humble missionary bi
shop at seeing the ambassador of the king of Siam coming
to his house in such pomp, and at his delivering him a letter
from his sovereign ! France having for long been known in
these countries only by the missionary priests, Phnea-rat
affected to believe that the bishop was its official represen
tative, and passed contemptuously before M. de Lagree's door
without ever stopping. As to M. Miche, a stranger to poli
tics by taste as well as by his functions, he took for granted
that what he was told was really intended as it was spoken,
and hastened to inform M. de Lagree of the approaching
coronation. Thus the treaty was made, and no one even
suspected its existence : Phnea-rat had succeeded.
Meanwhile the report quickly spread to Cambodgia, that
the king of Siam had determined to send to its legitimate
possessor the ancient crown of the old Cambodgian princes,
but that he would himself put it on the head of Norodom,
when he conferred on him, on the day it might please him
to fix, a solemn investiture, which should definitely make
him his vassal. Public opinion gave the ceremony this
meaning in advance, and every one asked himself curiously
what we should do. It became urgent to enlighten the
king, and to restore his confidence in us, which seemed very
much shaken. M. de Lagree did not hesitate to open his
eyes on a state of things most annoying to France, and full
of peril to himself, and Norodom thanked him with great
heartiness for his advice. If one could have believed him, it
was the first time he saw clearly whither the king of Siam

22 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
wished to lead him. The court of Bangkok would consider
itself sovereign of Cambodgia after the coronation, but he
was resolved to disappoint their calculations. He wished
to crown himself at Houdon, before his people, and he ex
pressed a desire to see the governor of Cochin-China there,
to assist at the ceremony. He loudly asserted that the day
had not been fixed, and that he could easily find pretexts to
delay it till the arrival of the answer expected from Paris
about the protectorate treaty. ' Siam,' he said continually,
' has become kind to me.' Such a change, of which it was
impossible for us to divine the causes, might well surprise
us. The king of Siam had announced by a solemn and
special message that the coronation would take place in a
fortnight ; and now, on the other side, we learned that the
day was not fixed for it! They were clearly trifling with
us at Bangkok. M. de Lagree concealed his uneasiness. By
his frankness and courtesy he exercised a strong personal
influence on Norodom, who always yielded to him, though
he all the time thought himself his own master. He had the
imprudence to show his friendliness to the French officers
publicly, with unusual demonstrativeness. His visits to M.
de Lagree became more frequent ; he rejoiced at a truce,
which he was as anxious to prolong as a scholar his holi
days. Phnea-rat, who could not but notice this change in
the king's mood, knew by experience how easily he was led,
and believed the moment come to get him to enter into a
fresh engagement with Siam.
It will be remembered that, at the time of the secret
treaty, the king of Siam had promised to visit the Cam
bodgian port of Compot, to meet Norodom there. Phnea-
rat announced that his master was about to leave his capital,
and would come with his hands full of pardons. In order,
however, not to embitter the joy of the king at the flattering
news of this august visit, by fresh embarrassments, Phnea-
rat subscribed at once to all the demands of the French,
stipulating only that Norodom should agree to drink the
water of the oath in presence of the king of Siam, which is
the mode in which they pledge obedience and fidelity. He
then tried once more to get Norodom to declare himself a
subject of Siam, and merely the governor of Cambodgia.

INTRODUCTION. 23
While this was going on, some drunken French sailors
caused some disturbance in the town, and even in the house
of the king's mother. The Siamese mandarin made a great
deal of this, exaggerating it extremely, and ended by getting
a promise from the terrified Norodom to come to Compot.
He hastened to spread the news, to speak of the water of
the oath, and omitted nothing that could compromise the
king. Satisfied with his success in this, he forthwith went
off from Houdon, leaving M. de Lagree thoroughly puzzled
and Norodom more embarrassed than ever, neither daring to
speak nor to be silent, bound on both hands by treaties, and
reduced to play a passive part between two adversaries,
who were each too strong for him, and with each of whom,
in turn, he had signed contradictory engagements.
A few days after the Siamese had left, Norodom took
advantage of his liberty to come on board the Gyadinh.
He tried to be frank, but his courage could not get beyond
half-confidences. ' I know Siam better than any one,' said
he to the officers of the vessel ; ' they fear you there, but
are far enough from liking you. Don't believe what they
say at the court of Bangkok about dislike of the English.
They favour them as much as they are favoured by them.
More than a year ago, the Siamese invited me to make
a treaty with England ; and they have lately made fresh
overtures about it to me. The king of Siam wants me
at Compot only to try to bring me under religious influ
ence. It was he who made a bonze of me at Bangkok ;
I am his godson in religion, and it is a strong tie in our two
countries. If he delay coming to Compot, the season will
hinder me from making the voyage, and I should be glad of
it ; for, in reality, I have no love for him. When he wants
to get a promise from me, an act, or, above all, a signature,
I refuse, on the ground that I am under you.' He had not
always had strength of mind to resist ; and this last phrase
hid a biting remorse. His words in other respects gave a
clear enough view of how matters stood ; and his calcula
tions, which were more prudent than dignified, became daily
more evident.
At last, on the 11th of January 1864, it was announced
that a Siamese steamer had just anchored at Compot, and

24 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
the king immediately gave orders for his departure. This
was a check to our diplomat; and M. de Lagree tried to
find a way of stopping him, on learning, not without sur
prise, that instead of the king of Siam, only a simple man
darin, with a letter from him for Norodom, had come. Under
some pretext the king excused himself from assisting in
the coronation, or even coming to Compot. He sent word,
however, that Phnea-rat would bring the famous crown
shortly. The king of Siam is the object of a similar religious
veneration in the Buddhist part of Indo-China as the Sultan
at Constantinople is to the Mussulman. The prospect of a
visit from so great a personage flattered Norodom beyond
measure ; and this consideration, which was made use of to
hasten the concluding of the secret treaty, was most likely
not without its influence in getting it signed. This end
once gained, the king of Siam soon lost all desire to come
to Compot, and Phnea-rat knew this well when he got Noro
dom to promise to go to drink the oath-water ; but he cared
little at bottom whether the ceremony came off or not : every
one knew that the king of Cambodgia had agreed to it, and
that was enough.
Whilst M. de Lagree saw in the sweetness and modera
tion of the court of Siam only a motive for keeping more
carefully on his guard than ever, Norodom, forgetting his
dignity, could hardly contain his joy. They might be treat
ing him slightingly, but they were going to give him up his
crown. He thought only on that ; he spoke only of that.
He ordered that nothing should be wanting to give splen
dour to the feasts, and the preparations began. The bonzes
having been consulted, gave themselves up to pious medi
tation, and at last announced that the 3d of February was
a day propitious and fixed by heaven. The governor of
Cochin-China was invited to Houdon, or at least to send a
representative, who would be received with all usual hon
ours, and would occupy a position not less honourable than
that of the Siamese envoy, whoever he might be. Every
thing was arranged in advance. The king showed his joy
at being about to play the first part in an imposing cere
mony. He waited impatiently for the French, before whom

INTRODUCTION. 25
especially he wished to show himself in the ancient state-
dress of the old kings of Cambodgia, long since disused.
The season favourable for religious ceremonies had now
begun. The head of the staff of the governor of Cochin-
China had arrived at Houdon: nothing more was wanting
for the coronation but the crown. Couriers ran full speed to
and from Compot ; the bonzes redoubled their prayers ; the
king, greatly excited, lavished orders and counter-orders.
Patience held out as long as it could ; but at last there was
nothing for it but to yield to evidence. Siam had merely
wished to put Norodom in a false position with us, and to
draw on ourselves an unbearable ridicule. Our protege" got
out of his difficulty cleverly. He decided that, from regard
for France, the f6tes should still take place, with no other
omission than the want of the insignia necessitated. We
could not have asked more. There could be no doubt of the
good faith of the king, who had gathered round him the
governors of the provinces. It was a good opportunity to
bring under the eyes of these dignitaries the strange conduct
of the Siamese government ; and it was easy, by awakening
their amour propre, to turn aside on the court of Bangkok,
already disliked, the blow it intended for us.
The fe"tes did take place, and also the ceremony of svett-
rachat, or raising the parasol, which consists in setting over
the throne a parasol of five stages, and is almost as neces
sary to complete a coronation as the crowning itself. Much
elated at seeing this quintuple diadem for the first time over
his head, Norodom cried out in a transport of gratitude and
happiness, ' I look on the emperor of France as my father,
and on the admiral as my brother !' He might have added
that Siam insisted on being his mother — a mother exacting
and crafty, who had not given up the hopes of supplanting
the males of the family. The next day Norodom came on
board the Mitraille in the uniform of an officer of marines, — of
very fine cloth covered with embroidery. He wore, besides,
white pantaloons, a heavy cap ornamented by a great deal
of braiding, a gilded sword-belt, a sabre with an ivory handle,
of European shape ; but, as a protest against the exactions
of etiquette which imprisoned him in such a make-up, he
wore slippers, an extraordinary shirt strewn with rose-flowers,

26 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
and a necktie carelessly tied. The king was in a very merry
mood, and was pleasant even with the Siamese. ' Get ready
the rice,' said he to his mandarins squatted round him,
according to custom ; ' the Siamese have arrived, and you
know they have come without any provisions.' The court
applauded the mirth of its master : Norodom did not mean
to speak so plainly.
Our great enemy, Phnea-rat, who had in reality been
charged to bring the crown, landed at Compot at the same
time as the French mission itself reached Houdon. The
Siamese dignitary learned that several officers who had come
from Saigon, only for the purpose of adding to the Sclat of
the ceremony by their presence, gave it quite a French cha
racter. This was so intolerable to him, that he took upon
himself to send back the crown to Bangkok, and stopped on
the way to Houdon, in order not to reach that town till after
the departure of M. Desmoulin, chief of the staff to Admiral
de La Grandiere. He, now, conceived, on the instant, a new
and bold plan, by which he hoped to add a defeat to the
mystification he had already succeeded in giving us. The
moment the French naval officers left Houdon by one gate,
a little put-out by their mishap, the Siamese agent entered
by the other. He intended to take away the king to Bang
kok, and crown him there, without consulting with us. It
was a daring scheme, and he set himself to it with his
usual ardour.
Attacking first the mandarins who were the ordinary
advisers of Norodom, he showed them the advantages they
and their master would reap from a voyage to Bangkok,
and the serious risks they ran if they displeased the king
of Siam. He knew how to use correspondents he had in
some of the provinces — notably in those of Compong-soai
and Pursat, whose governors were creatures of the court of
Bangkok, and had protested against the French alliance —
so as to stir up the population. It will be remembered that,
but for our intervention, these two provinces were about to
share the fate of Angcor and Battam-bang, and be annexed
to the kingdom of Siam. Seeking the presence of the king
himself, presently, he reminded him of his treaty and his pro
mises, which he could show, and thus make trouble between

INTRODUCTION. 27
him and us. He terrified him about the insurrection in the
southern provinces, which demanded separation from Cam
bodgia; asserted roundly that the French were deceiving
him shamefully; that their emperor had refused to ratify
the treaty, and, moreover, that the English were determined
at any cost to sustain the Siamese policy. In short, he
ended by getting Norodom to consent, and even worked him
up to the necessary pitch of courage for breaking the matter
to us himself. The preparations for departure were kept
secret till the arrival of some Siamese vessels at Compot,
when the news broke like a thunder-clap on M. de Lagree.
He found the king, for the first time, in a fixed and invincible
resolution. Norodom was unwilling to lose his crown ; and
since they would give it him only at Bangkok, he would go
there to get it. Besides, the ratification of the treaty had
not arrived ; and this delay, which he was determined not
to understand, justified all his suspicions and uneasiness.
He announced that he would leave on the 3d of March ; and
on that day left his capital, intrusting the government of
Cambodgia to his ministers. The agitation in Pursat and
Compong-soai ceased as by magic.
We were thus about to be beaten in our secret struggle
with the court of Bangkok, which had lasted since the treaty
of August 1863. It was hard to submit. WhenM. de Lagree
learned by public report the arguments that had led the king
to consent to set out, he lost no time in exposing them. His
majesty had started : it was a critical moment. M. de Lagree
acted on one of those sudden inspirations which redeem
causes seemingly lost. The presence of a small Siamese gar
rison in the capital of Cambodgia authorised us to land some
soldiers. The authorities readily consented to our doing so,
and our men were lodged near enough the Siamese troops to
watch all their movements. The French flag was raised over
the barracks of the detachment of infantry, and saluted with
twenty-one guns. It was this which retrieved our fortunes.
The king was not far on the way to Compot. Terrified
at the sound of artillery, and thinking we were about to
profit by his absence to make ourselves masters of Cam
bodgia, he at once called a halt ; then came back part of the
way. Phnea-rat himself hesitated. It was a doubtful success

28 TRAVELS rN INDO-CHINA.
to have the king, and to lose the kingdom. He caused a
letter to be written by Norodom to excite the French
resident, who till then had lived on a footing of respectful
courtesy with him, to use threats which he intended to
urge against us before the assembled consuls : adopting in
this phrase, one often employed by the Siamese plenipo
tentiary. The trap was badly set, and it was Phnea-rat who
was caught in it. Without disputing the king's right to go
to Bangkok, M. de Lagree, in his answer, explained how the
voyage, while distasteful to France, would compromise his
own interests ; and he reminded him especially of the bitter
complaints the ambition of Siam had so often drawn from
him, and of the behaviour commonly shown by the repre
sentative of that court at Bangkok. The Siamese general
read before Norodom the letter of M. de Lagree. Great was
the rage of the one and the confusion of the other at the
recital of the long string of troubles told us by Norodom's
own lips as suffered from Siam. It was sought to drive us
to violent language, and we had proof that our adversary
owed his success only to his threats. Phnea-rat almost went
into a fit with rage ; then was abashed, and finally lost his
self-control altogether. Usually as prompt to execute as to
form a design, all at once he lost even the power to give a
command. Our revenge began. Halted some leagues from
his capital, Norodom announced one day that he had decided
to go to Bangkok, and, the next, let it be known that he
thought of returning to Houdon. After a time the mandarins
got afraid of compromising themselves ; regretted aloud the
advice they had given their master. The Siamese saw all
his prestige disappear ; a moment's indecision had ruined all
his clever manoeuvres.
For several centuries Siam had favoured or frowned on
Cambodgia as its own interests led it, always making its
power sensibly felt. As to us, we were friends of yesterday,
and had never given more than advice. However honour
able this might be, it had the inconvenience of exciting the
mistrust of our new protege^ the king Norodom, who could not
see through it. By the simple political and social theories
of these half-barbarous nations — theories consecrated by uni
versal application — force is the best of all arguments. If

INTRODUCTION. 29
it was true that we were not afraid of the redoubtable power
of the king of Siam, why so much talking? why not tell him
our pleasure without so much circumlocution? why not re
quire the immediate restoration of the crown? Norodom
always came back to this. We had shown moderation, and
he accused us of fear. Time passed, moreover, without bring
ing us the ratification of the treaty with France. Siam fought
against it at Paris, and continued to spread lying reports of
her success. What would become of the unhappy monarch,
if, by some impossibility, the Siamese negotiators carried
their point? His levity could nof keep him from feeling
this. Meanwhile, rebels, availing themselves of all this, had
risen in earnest in the south-west, and had massacred the
minister of war who had been sent to them. This insurrec
tion gave the king an honourable pretext for returning to
his capital, which he did on the evening of the 17th March,
followed closely by Phnea-rat, beaten, furious, confused, but
yet not hopeless, for he began at once to do his utmost to
get our soldiers sent away. But he was unsuccessful. As to
Norodom, not daring to refuse anything to the irritated
general, whose humour became more unbearable than ever
after this last check, he tried to drag from M. de Lagree
a declaration in writing that Phnea-rat had systematically
used coercion in his intercourse with him. It is not worth
while to say what came of a proposal like this, the knavery
of which almost loses its name, and turns half lovable for its
naivete". Our position was now very different from the half despair
in which we had been a fortnight before. The game, how
ever, was not yet gained, as long as Phnea-rat remained at
Houdon, free to see the king all the time, and able to neu
tralise our influence by his own. Happily, the ratification
of the treaty arrived at last, in the nick of time. The news
delighted the king. He burned with desire, he said, to see
the signature and the seal of the emperor of the French.
Phnea-rat tried hard to make him believe that the whole
thing had been concocted at Saigon; but the king, full of the
prospect of a new ceremony, paid no attention to the un
principled insinuations of the poor old despairing general,

30 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
who had the mortification of seeing our treaty carried with
great pomp to the palace. The exchange of ratifications
was conducted with great solemnity. The chief of the staff
of Admiral de La Grandiere, who had come once more to
Houdon, asked the pleasure of an interview ; but he unwisely
declined it. Every one concluded from this that he was
afraid of a public explanation of the facts, and that he thus
felt himself not without ground of reproach. He decided at
last to let us be masters of the field, and left Houdon on the
25th April, receiving the post of minister of justice in Siam,
as the reward of his services and the consolation of his de
feat. The Siamese flag was finally lowered in Cambodgia,
and there was no longer any reason to delay the departure
of the small French garrison, which might by its presence
have irritated the people.
When the king of Siam saw his favourite mandarin re
turn, the man on whom he had placed all his hopes, he felt
that, the main point being lost, it was not worth while fight
ing over details. He was wise enough to yield with a good
grace, and removed all hindrances to the coronation by re
storing the crown. On the 26th May the Ondine left Saigon,
and carried to Cambodgia, along with a new French mission,
the Siamese mandarin Phya-Montrey-Suriwan, who, by his
breadth of mind and his courteous manners, made us plea
santly forget his insolent predecessor, in regard to whose
management of Siamese policy he made no hesitation in
repudiating what had been offensive. Thus the despairing
efforts of an adversary, who had almost beaten us, were pub
licly disavowed. Phnea-rat, who had returned to Houdon
with Phya-Montrey, and was lost in the crowd, devoured his
mortification while he silently chewed his betel. Nothing
was awanting in our triumph. The Siamese envoy wished
himself to set the crown on Norodom's head, but the chief
of the admiral's staff would not allow it. He then proposed
that each party should take a side of it ; but M. Desmoulin
declined that proposition also, and made this arrangement :
he received the crown from the hands of the Siamese, and
then presented it to the king, who crowned himself, like
Napoleon at Notre Dame. When he felt it at last really on
his head, after having seen it vanish so often at the moment

INTRODUCTION. 31
he seemed about to get hold of it, Norodom, overcome by his
happiness, expressed the desire to salute his powerful pro
tector, Napoleon III. He took some steps to the west, and,
raising his hand to his crown, in imitation of M. Desmoulin,
who took off his hat, repeated the same profound bows
as had been made to himself. Phnea-rat, furious at this, now
broke through the crowd, demanded that salutations be paid
to the king of Siam, and, throwing himself on the ground,
beat his forehead on it three times. Norodom, for courtesy,
did the same, and all were pleased with the feeling which
inspired this act of the unfortunate general in this his last
public claim. The king of Siam did not, however, decide
till long after this to recognise our protectorate officially,
and to tear-up the secret convention negotiated by Phnea-
rat, and demanded some concessions, which were granted by
France, when he did so, particularly the definitive surrender
to him of the two fine provinces of Battam-bang and Angcor.
If the arrangement made in 1868 is not destined, as we may
hope, however, it will be, to regulate for long our relations
with the court of Siam, it will at least have the advantage
of showing that our power did not abate our moderation.
On learning our success, the part of the European colony at
Bangkok which had been so hostile to us feigned them
selves pleased.
I knew by what efforts the French flag had been finally
hoisted at Houdon, and I could not help being astonished at
the scornful indifference with which the king of Cambodgia
spoke of his old friends the Siamese. At a collation which
he gave us he was full of warmth, animation, and spirits.
He seemed prouder of his dishes of figured English crockery
than of his vases and waiters of massive gold. His palace
is nothing more than a great thatched shed, in which a
great number of women and servants lodge. Norodom is a
little man, with a great inclination to corpulence. Certainly
he is not good-looking even for a Cambodgian, but his face
is expressive, intelligent, and mobile. He very soon ac
quired many of our ways, and one might say that he has hit
our characteristics. His conversation, which is very graphic,
is mixed with sallies almost Voltairean. He despises his
subjects, now he no longer fears them, and mocks at Buddha

32 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
when he is in the mood. He treads under foot the ancient
etiquette, which is the one surviving relic of the old civi
lisation of the Kmer, and seems disposed always to decide in
favour of us, except on one point. He admits the different
uses of steam, the many uses of electricity, the application
of light to photography, and makes visible efforts to under
stand them ; but he absolutely refuses to believe that there
ever has been, or ever can be, a great nation without an
absolute monarch. Despotism shows itself in him with a
naive candour, and he does not hesitate to reply, when
recommended to open or repair a road necessary for com
merce, — ' There's no use for it — I never went by it.'
The Cambodgians are generally very dissolute. The
Chinese traveller of the thirteenth century, whom I have al
ready had occasion to quote, tells us, that if a husband be away
on business, and stays over a week, his wife says, ' I'm not
a demon : how can I sleep alone V The naive narrator adds,
- 1 have, however, heard say that there are chaste women.'
I also have heard the same ; but I doubt if there be virtue
enough in any one to resist the seductions of the king, who
knows the fact, and abuses it, which is one of the main causes
of his great unpopularity. If we had not supported him in
1866, he would certainly have lost his throne. The Cam
bodgians have reason enough to ask a change of government;
but they would gain nothing by a change of the individual.
One cannot hope that the voice of political reason will make
itself heard in the councils of these Asiatic princes, so long
as that of the passions speaks so loud in then- hearts. Sub
jects may hope in vain for security, while their master is not
yet satiated in his pleasures. The brothers of a king, while
still pretenders, publish declarations which they forget as
soon as they are sovereigns. We have, therefore, done
wisely in closing the throne against them, and in proclaim
ing our intention to uphold established authority. This re
volt of 1866 has, moreover, created new rights for us over
Cambodgia, while it has made it Norodom's duty to listen to
our counsels. These will not be awanting, and this magni
ficent country, whose riches will rapidly develop under a
more humane administration, is an admirable complement of
our Annamite possessions. I had come to this conviction

INTRODUCTION. 33
before returnmg to Saigon to make my last preparations for
the adventurous expedition, which would bring me in con
tact, at Laos, — side by side with the ancient vestiges of Cam
bodgian rule, — with the vigorous imprint of Siamese power,
which bids fair to impose itself, unknown to Europe, on
nearly all Indo-China.

CHAPTER I.
RUINS OF ANGCOR. STUNG-TRENG. RAPIDS OF KHON-KHONG.
ARRIVAL AT BASSAC.
The greatest European colonies have had modest begin
nings ; a fortified factory was the cradle of the immense
empire which to-day embraces the whole Indian peninsula,
and threatens to overrun China. Some points gained on
the shore as the result of war, or of successful negotiations ;
some leaders, inspired by various motives, but all, alike,
by the irresistible attractions of the unknown — have, most
frequently, been the causes and instruments of progressive
invasions, which have almost always ended in a definitive
conquest. Like armies in the field, colonies have then- ad
vanced guards. They cannot suffer either barbarous or idle
races on their frontiers : the tribes which leave a naturally
fertile soil untilled are not less then- enemies than those
which are warlike. By a kind of natural law, which one
can hardly admit without sadness, there is scarcely an alter
native, for races outside European civilisation, between a
melancholy transformation, or a remorseless extermination.
The Eastern monarchs, who have not yet learned this from
experience, divine it instinctively; and the wiser among
them, opening among themselves a career to rival ambi
tions, seek safety in the competition thus established. It
was on this account that the clause in our treaty, which
shut out the representatives of other European powers from
Cambodgia, irritated the king of Siam so gravely. It is
thus easy to understand the repugnance with which Asiatic
princes receive projects of expeditions into the interior of
their countries.
The exploration of the valley of the Mekong, set afoot

PRELIMINARY DIFFICULTIES. 35
in 1866, by order of the minister of marine, and by the labours
of the governor of French Cochin-China, could not fail to
excite such suspicions, however little ground there might
be for them. Passports were asked from four cabinets.
That of Pekin temporised, and sought to dissuade us from
an enterprise which would lead us to a part of the Celestial
Empire where we should meet no end of danger ; that of
Hue" declared that it sought to keep us from its tributary
subjects of the upper valley of the Mekong only from na
tional self-love ; these half-barbarous tribes in reality paying
them no homage at all. It has been said that this govern
ment, so full of coquetry, had sent presents to the chiefs,
urging them to murder us ; but this disgraceful report is
perhaps only one of those mystifications of which the civil
ised press has not the monopoly. The Burmese empire had
just accomplished the revolution, dm-ing which the seat of
government had been transferred from Ava to Mandalay;
and the overtures of Admiral de La Grandiere remained
without result. As to the cabinet of Bangkok, its position
towards us was more delicate. We had always refused to
recognise the rights of the king of Siam over Laos, and, he,
himself, had, besides, found it convenient, about that time, to
say that he exercised a purely nominal sovereignty over that
country, so that he could not, with a good grace, formally
shut us out of it. On the other hand, any bad treatment on
the part of functionaries set up by him might be a cause of
offence to France ; and he questioned if the peaceful con
quest of Cambodgia might not be a step on our march to
Indo-China, and could not refrain from looking on the pro
jected journey as the preliminary to our taking possession.
The countries through which we must first pass had been
detached from the Cambodgian monarchy, or subjugated by
Siamese armies, who had committed horrible excesses, and
thus, as Siam had no other right over them but that of con
quest, we should be in a position, on learning all this, to ques
tion the validity of its title to them. The king yielded,
however, and sent us passports. It was agreed at Saigon
that the expedition would make a long halt in Lower Laos,
and would receive, some months after its setting out, the
letters expected from Pekin.

36 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
The principal results which were expected from the ex
ploration of the Mekong may be summed up in a few words.
It was desired, first, that the old maps should be rectified,
and the navigability of the river tried, it being our hope
that we might bind together French Cochin-China and the
western provinces of China by means of it. Were the rapids,
of whose existence we knew, an absolute barrier? Were the
islands of Khon an impassable difficulty? Was there any
truth in the opinion of geographers who, with Vincendon
Dumoulin, believed that there was a communication between
the Meinam and the Mekong? To gather information respect
ing the sources of the fatter, if it proved impossible to reach
them ; to solve the -different geographical problems which
would naturally offer, was the first part of the programme
the commission had to carry out. We were required, besides,
to report any miscellaneous facts which might throw light
on the history, the philology, the ethnography, or the reli
gion of the peoples along the great river, which was to be
as much as possible the guiding thread of our expedition.
We had instructions to seek for a passage from Indo-China
to China; an enterprise in which the English have always
failed as yet. It was, moreover, essential, since the estab
lishment of France in Cochin-China, to know our neighbours
of Laos better ; the resources of their country, and their
relations with the Indo-Chinese powers, of which they were
vaguely known to be tributaries. No limit of time was fixed
for us, nor any route for our return.
Laos, a vast region, which on the north touches China,
and on the south Cambodgia, was reckoned at Saigon one of
the most unhealthy countries in the world. The missionaries
who, in our time, had tried to carry the Gospel thither, had
either very soon died or had returned grievously ill ; and as
the result of such disastrous experiments, the attemps to com
bat Bouddhism in one of its strongholds had been abandoned.
The single lay traveller who had recently tried to explore
these countries, our countryman Mouhot, had set out from
Bangkok, after numerous excursions to Cambodgia, and had
struck the Mekong only beyond the 18th degree of latitude,
a little below Luan Praban, where he soon after died. But
Crache, the farthest point on the Mekong fixed by our naval

THE TON-LE-SAP,\ 37
hydrographers, is between the 12th and 13th degrees, "Un
certainty begins within two degrees of Saigon, the very
inexact charts of the great river,, beyond that, only mislead
ing-geography insteadof serving it. The public will be able
to judge the facts when Lieut. Garnier of the navy, who
had special charge of the meteorological, hydrographical,
and geographical section of the expedition, has finished his
labours. We left Saigon on the 5th June 1866, at noon. Thosfe
who knew the indomitable energy of our leader shook
hands with us as if we were doomed; but the majority pre
dicted a speedy return, after an abortive attempt. For my
self, when I try to recall to-day what I felt on seeing, from
the bridge of the gunboat, the chief buildings of Saigon, the
infant capital of Asiatic France, receding from view, I find
that my impressions are less vivid than they are of what I
had felt at my first setting out, some time before, for Cam
bodgia. I had spent nearly six month's in the enervating
climate of Cochin-China, and it had brought me to a kind of
universal indifference.
I could not leave Cambodgia without visiting the ruins
which are at once its glory and its shame. They mark the
spot where the heart of this great Khmer empire, now cold,
once beat, — that empire whose scattered members we shall
soon find on our course. The contemplation of these magni
ficent remains was well fitted to increase bur zeal in the
discovery of other traces of a civilisation that has disap
peared. Leaving Compon - Luon, our little gunboat took
the direction of the great lake — the Ton-le-sap, a true
inland sea, not less than twenty leagues in length when the
waters are lowest, but, when the inundation begins, spread
over the country till it triples its surfaee. During the months
of August and September there are no roads in the lower
districts ; boats sail over the fields, trees show their heads
above the water, and the wild beasts flee, en masse, to the
heights; so that nothing could give a more vivid idea of the
deluge. The inhabitants of the plains betake themselves,
with their domestic animals, to the mountains. The rise of
the waters is not always the same; at times the rice suffers
from want of moisture enough, at others it is drowned out in

38 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
the lower tracts. There is, however, one kind, the stalk of
which grows at the same rate as the waters rise, so that the
ear is always at the surface.
We were in the month of June ; the rains had hardly as
yet begun to fall regularly every day, and the yellow waters
of the lake were still comparatively shallow. The channels of
this immense reservoir, which obscure traditions affirm to be
comparatively recent, are narrow, and grow sensibly more
obstructed year by year. At the entry, on the left, a chain
of mountains runs in the direction of Pursat. Snows crown
the peaks, and the sun, which does its best to melt them,
without effect, gives them a pale, ethereal look. We meet,
here and there, some fishing-boats which have stayed after
the rest. Villages are scattered thinly along the banks,
others come out over the water, the frail posts which support.
the huts bending under the force of the waves without its
seeming to trouble the inmates. They are Annamites, and,
like the buffalo, their faithful servant, if the land fail them,
they take to the water. Presently the wind rises, it blows
violently, ploughing deep furrows in the lake. The land is
only a blue thread on our right, hardly seen above the waves ;
on our left the horizon is all sea.
An imaginary line, from two opposite posts placed on the
banks, divides the great lake at two-thirds of its length,
and marks the beginning of the Siamese dominions. When
he took possession of the two provinces of Battam-bang and
Angcor, the king of Siam appropriated part of the lake, of
which, however, he can make little use, as the mouths still
remain in the hands of the Cambodgians. The Annamites
give themselves almost wholly to then- fisheries. Some
thousands of then- boats are employed on the lake itself,
and in the arm which connects it with the Mekong, and load
very deep with the fish taken. Part of this astonishing har
vest of the waters forms the food of the population at large :
the rest is used to make oil.
This annual fishery is counted so good an affair that the
Annamites sometimes give 100 per cent for money borrowed
to buy the salt needed. The legal interest in Cambodgia
is from forty to a hundred per cent a year ! The Annamites
ply, also, another industry in Cambodgia, which I must men-

MOUNT KHRoME. 39
tion. When the waters are high, they go up the arroyos
which enter the Mekong, and cut down the bamboos on the
banks, making them into huge rafts, which they commit to
the current. When these reach Pnom-Penh, prices fall so
low that you buy thirty or forty great bamboos for one
ligature, that is, a franc ; but to raise their value, a very
simple means is taken — they burn up a fourth part of the
stock. In the evening, as our gunboat anchors, some fisheries
show themselves by the flickering light of torches, which
illuminates them with the fiery-serpent-like beams it casts
on the waters: there is no human sound; nothing but the
rippling of the water, and the dying voice of the wind. The
fishing season is over, and the fish enjoy more peace through
out all their domain. The next day we see before us Mount
Khrome, which was formerly crowned by a pagoda, the ruins
of which we wish to visit before going on to Angcor. They
are hidden by a thick curtain of high trees, and consist of
seven towers, still standing. At the entrance of the last
enceinte, there are two of brick, and two of sandstone.
From their isolation, one cannot but notice them, but the
three which rise before them absorb all the attention. The
largest, which is the centre one, is the most broken down,
and perhaps owes part of its effect to the ravages of time.
On the side beaten by the winds and torrent-like rains, which
last five months of the year, it looks like a rock roughly
quarried over, but with some fragments of fine sculpture
here and there. A crowd of bats, disturbed by our presence,
flew whirling out of a large gap in the ruin. The two other
towers, which are better preserved, are covered with ara
besques and ornaments, which increase our desire to see
Angcor. We are already in the province of that name, a
province lost by the grandfather of Norodom by a kind of
political swindle. The moral authority of the grandson has
not entirely disappeared from this land, where his grand
father reigned, and the governor of Angcor gave us a hearty
welcome, putting horses, elephants, and buffalo-wagons at our
disposal; and our caravan, thus made up, advanced towards
his residence. ¦ An enormous enceinte, built of iron-stone re
gularly cut, and probably taken from some ruins, recalls the

40 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
castles of the middle ages. A huge iron cannon, in which
birds nestle, is mounted in front of the principal gate, and
human heads fresh cut off, and set on long pikes fixed in the
ground, show that the lord of the place has the right to
inflict death - penalties. Some Cambodgian thatches are
all you see inside the enceinte of this vast citadel. An air
of cleanliness, which one does not commonly see even in the
houses of great people, distinguishes the dwelling of the
governor, who took no end of trouble with us, and wrote
our names and rank on a slate; a form of politeness, but, per
haps, an act of policy as well, for this brave Cambodgian was
the agent of the court of Bangkok. Some bad European
engravings adorned the pillars and the walls, and a por
trait of the Pope was hung at the entrance to the women's
apartments. Leaving this hospitable dwelling, we entered the forest,
where the roughness of the road, which made my wagon
perform a thousand fantastic somersaults, did not hinder my
admiring the luxuriance of the tropical vegetation. Gigantic
trees fought for room, and the branches, interlacing, a hun
dred feet above us, intercepted the light of the sun. The air
circulated with difficulty through the verdure ; gusts of heat
came from the sun, as from a furnace. The feet of the ani
mals raised the gray sand of the road ; and it was necessary
to strive against the physical discomfort, and make a con
stant effort to admire the wonderful arboreal columns, placed
there by nature as a magnificent portal to the ruins of Ang
cor, described already by the Portuguese at the close of the
sixteenth century, but buried till late years in unmerited
obscurity. Some hours of this fatiguing march through the
woods brought us to them.
Lions, stiff and fierce as those of heraldry, first met the
eye. They stand erect at the entrance to a vast causeway,
paved with large slabs, leading across immense ditches, now
transformed to swamps, to a gallery, the three half-fallen
towers of which interrupt the long line of building. I shall
ever recall the profound impression this spectacle excited.
Pompous descriptions had been given me ; I had just re-read
the pages of M. Mouhot on Angcor; but in spite of all, I felt
overcome. I had, as it were, a shock of astonishment. I

RUINS OF ANGCOR. 41
had hardly cleared the gate of the central pavilion when a
second paved avenue, about 200 metres in length, opened
before me to a huge building, the style of which is as differ
ent from any of our western forms of architecture as the
Chinese fancies, of which I had already been able to study
some examples. Wearied with the journey, and overcome
by the heat, I thought I saw an incredible number of towers
of strange outline dance before me, nothing supporting
them in the air, and another higher tower rising above them,
This kind of hallucination soon passed, and gave place, to
a just admiration. The general plan is simple. The edi
fice is made up of two rectangular, concentric galleries,
rising in stories : the first, — of which the shortest side is not
less than 180 metres, while the two lateral faces are about
250, — adorned at the corners by pavilions. The second is
adorned with four towers, built like an immense tiara. In
the middle of the second . gallery a high mass of masonry
rises, ended likewise by four towers. The centre of this
wall, which is also the centre of the building, bears a tower
of the same style as the others, but higher,1 which seems to
reign over the whole structure. In most Christian temples,
the sanctuary, placed at the most secluded and gloomy end
of the building, is, as it were, surrounded by shadows ; no
light reaches it but that of the coloured windows through
which it streams. At Angcor, the holy of holies is in the
highest tower, the part nearest light and day. This holy of
holies is, nowadays, reduced to four very mediocre statues
of Bouddha, to the foot of which the bonzes arrive by the
avenues, which, cutting the two enceintes at right angles,
abut on the four grand staircases of the central mass. With
the exception of horizontal surfaces, there is not a stone of
this colossal monument without carving. These sculptures
are marvels from the chisel of incomparable artists, whose
inspirations are graven on the stones for ever, but whose
names have perished from the memory of man.
' The man most given to art, reading, in Paris, the truest
description of the Coliseum, could not avoid thinking the
author's exaggeration ridiculous, though he had had only the
one thought, to keep the fear of his reader before his eyes,
1 It is 56 metres above the level of the causeway.

42 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
and express himself with a studied moderation.' This re
flection of Stendthal comes to my mind, and checks me from
continuing this rapid sketch of the noble temple of Angcor.
According to an almost legendary tradition, it was founded,
in fulfilment of a vow, by a king who was a leper, and lived
in the neighbouring town, where his monument may yet be
seen. It runs back to a date less distant than that of the
principal monuments of the capital, and is in a state of
comparative preservation, which makes the opinion very
probable, but nothing has as yet been discovered to enable
the date to be fixed exactly. Among the kings who have
reigned over Cambodgia, a number of those who have
thought themselves illustrious — and that happens often, one
would think, with sovereigns — changed the Cambodgian era,
and even introduced compulsory changes into the alphabet,
and hence there is a confusion almost hopeless. One can
hardly, however, doubt, that the development of architec
tural art, of which this temple seems the highest expression,
coincided with the triumphant blossoming of Bouddhism
among the Khmer people, perhaps when it had been chased
from India at the time of the great religious persecution. In
celebrating their new faith by imperishable works, these emi
grants have imprinted on them the seal of the monuments
of their country — monuments whose image they had carried
with them in the depth of their hearts.
As to the town itself, Angcorthom, Angcor the Great, the
walls alone are perfect. They are three metres broad ; and
their great courses of cut stone, laid one on the other, with
out lime or cement, defy the ages, and resist the efforts of
a vigorous vegetation, still more destructive. Causeways
thrown over great ditches lead to the gates of the town,
guarded by fifty great stone giants, huge, grimacing sen
tinels, bound one to the other by the folds of a monstrous
serpent, which exhausts itself in impotent struggles to escape
then grasp. The gate by which we penetrated the interior
of the ancient city forms a vault six metres in depth, and it
is not without reason that M. Mouhot calls it a triumphal
arch. Elephant-heads adorn its summit, and the trunks led
down vertically, as great pillars, rest on a bundle of huge
leaves.

RUINS OF ANGCOR. 43
Sadness follows astonishment, when, having passed this
magnificent entrance, one comes on a dense forest, filHng the
vast enceinte shut in by its great walls. It is necessary to
pass through closely-tangled thickets to reach the ruins of
the few buildings of which vestiges still survive, and to
have recourse to the compass to keep from losing oneself in
these solitudes, peopled only by wild creatures, which call and
answer each other with hoarse cries, the echoes prolonging,
and turning them, as it were, to groans. We had an excellent
guide in M. de Lagree. He had long before this studied, with
the passion of a savant, all that remained standing within
the walls of the town, and had discovered a temple and
great buildings, seemingly, the residences of princes and
the palace of the kings. The latter had fallen down under
the efforts of roots and creepers, which force themselves
between the stones like iron wedges. It appeared to have
been the conception ofan imagination of unheard-of richness,
and was formerly surmounted by a prodigious number of
towers, perhaps forty or fifty, some of which, representing
heads of Bouddha, recalled the sphinxes of Egypt. Though
it was impossible to judge of this monument fairly, mutilated
as it was, invaded by vegetation, cumbered by ruins ; and
though an architecture, which makes great towers of mons
trous human figures, is too remote from our notions not to be
wilder our judgments, I cannot consent to put this fantastic
structure in the same rank with the temple of which I have
just spoken, which is a model of grandeur, harmony, and
simplicity. According to Christoval de Jaque, one of the
Portuguese who took refuge in Cambodgia during the six
teenth century, after having been driven from Japan, Angcor
was no longer a royal residence in 1570. He seems to say
that even at that period it had already been deserted by its
inhabitants. Was civilisation, in the complex meaning we give that
word, in keeping, among the ancient Cambodgians, with
what such prodigies of architecture seem to indicate? The
age of Phidias was that of Sophocles, Socrates, and Plato ;
Michael Angelo and Raphael succeeded Dante. There are
luminous epochs, during which the human mind, developing
itself in every direction, triumphs in all, and creates master-

44 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
pieces, which spring from the same inspiration. Have the
nations of India ever known such periods of special glory ?
It appears little probable, and it is only necessary to read
the Chinese traveller of the thirteenth century, whose nar
rative M. Abel Remusat'has translated, to be convinced
that it was never reached by the Khmers. He describes the
monuments of the capital, most of which were covered with
gilding, and he adds that, with the exception of the temples
and the palace, all the houses were only thatched. Then-
size was regulated by the rank of the possessor, but the
richest did not venture to build one like that of any of the
great officers of state. Despotism induced corruption of
manners, and some customs mentioned by our author show
actual barbarism. Let me add, when one goes over the
ruins, it is impossible to refrain from a generalisation, which
some exceptions do not invalidate. The human form was
not understood ; and if Cambodgia has had incomparable
architects and marvellous carvers, it has had no sculptors.
In the presence of these grand wrecks of the past, one is
struck with admiration ; but there is little emotion, and the
enjoyment is far from complete. The ruins of a monastery
mouldering in the bosom of an English wood ; the cracked
walls of a deserted chateau which sheltered the feudal
baron, move us more deeply. Men of our own race have
thought behind these walls, have fought behind these battle
ments ; we can reconstruct then- lives, can follow the traces
of then- footsteps. Here, in this spot of the extreme East,
all is dead, even to the memory of that brilliant theocracy,
the mother of a material civilisation, greatly developed, we
own, but which never reached a manly maturity. The research
of science, which leads us, little by little, towards our origin,
and shows us our brothers in the first castes of India, in
terests the mind rather than touches the heart ; the sepa
ration is too remote, and these sepulchres seem too good for
the race they entomb.
After eight days of painful journeying and incessant
study, M. de Lagree gave the signal of departure. Our
camp, established in a thatched house, at the foot of the
great temple, was struck before daybreak, and our caravan
formed, as when we came ; — of horses, buffalo-wagons, and

OUR MUSTER ROLL. ~ 45
elephants. One of these, of huge size, with huge tusks, stood
immovable between two pillars of the peristyle, and in the un
certain light of the early morning, seemed part of the base
ment of the edifice'. We rejoined the gunboat, which quickly
took us to Pnom-Penh, the capital of Cambodgia. Our first
business was to run through the shops of the Chinese mer
chants, finally to complete our store of objects of exchange.
We had brought from Saigon pieces of velvet and silk, some
arms of little value — a veritable venture — to which we now
added cotton checks of all colours, glass trinkets, and brass
wire. Besides the bags of Siamese Ticaux, which come from
Bangkok, our treasure consisted of gold in leaf and bars, and
some Mexican dollars — the whole representing hardly thirty
thousand francs. The commission was formed of six members
— MM. de Lagree, head of the expedition ; Garnier and De
la Porte, naval officers ; Joubert and Morel, navy surgeons ;
and L. de Carne\ attached to the department for foreign
affairs ;— -the escort consisted of two French sailors and two
French soldiers ; of two Tagals from the Philippines, chosen
from the best of those who remained at Saigon, after the
departure of the Spanish soldiers; and of six Annamites. We
took with us, also, a European interpreter, who spoke Siam
ese fluently, a Cambodgian interpreter, and an interpreter-
for Laos. The last, having lived long in Cambodgia, could
speak Cambodgian. M. de Lagree alone could hold com
munication with him and the Cambodgian.
The Cambodgians came to bid us farewell, and strove to
dissuade us from setting out. These brave folks cordd not
succeed in comprehending what motive could urge strangers
living beyond the sea to undertake a journey which none of
themselves would dare to try. They are kept back by fa
bulous stories and imaginary fears. The king himself, whose
predecessors extended their rule over part of Laos, knew^
nothing of the country, except that the ah- and the water in
it are mortal. Our Cambodgian interpreter, a young man
full of intelligence and in high health, who had lived long
among Europeans, drew back frightened at the last mo
ment. He feigned sickness, and we were compelled to take
him with us by force. As to the Laotian who accompanied
us, he seemed glad to see his country again. The son of a

46 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
travelling merchant, he had long followed his father across
mountains and forests, sleeping under trees or in the pagodas,
and living on rice, which the laws of hospitality secure to
all travellers. One day, in the middle of one of these jour
neys, his father died. He closed his eyes, and confided his
dust to the bonzes of a village ; then continuing his travels
as chance guided him, going on or stopping as he thought
fit, ended by reaching Bangkok, whence he passed to Cam
bodgia. He had learned the virtue of plants during his
sojourn in the forests ; and having come from a distant and
therefore a marvellous country — one of those which border
the great river on the confines of the great empire — he did
not fail to make use of these facts to gain himself respect.
He put the topstone on his fortune by turning bonze, gained
the confidence of the king's mother in this character, and
spent his life loaded with dainties and honours. Sacrificing
all this to his wish to get married, he had thrown his yellow
frock to the nettles, and the plump and venerated bonze,
the sage and rare oracle, who decided cases of conscience,
became a badly -fed man and a deceived husband. He con
tinued, by force of habit, to chant the praises of Bouddha all
day ; and fearing lest any one should steal his private idol
— a little statuette in silver-gilt — he confided it to me, and
I threw it into the bag that held my dollars.
Meanwhile king Norodom was not willing to let us go
without giving a feast in our honour. In the shed which
serves for the throne-room of his majesty, seats set in a line
were prepared for us. That of the king was, naturally, the
highest. As soon as the orchestra struck up, actresses pre
sented themselves in their ordinary dress, and began an
interminable ballet-pantomime, accompanied by recitatives,
of which we did not understand a word, and singing, by a
choir, in a snuffling tone. The king seemed to follow with
interest the evolutions of his women, who stopped often be
fore him, and gave him a special salute, with much sensual
grace. The dancing-girls, squatted on the ground, raised
their hands, little by little, above then- heads — their bodies
at first bent back, a brilliant dress showing their forms —
straightened themselves at the sound of three beats given
by the orchestra ; then remained an instant on their knees,

WE LEAVE PNOM-PENH. 47
with then- breasts bent forwards. The costumes were like
those of the kings and lords which remain preserved on the
bas-reliefs : there was a deal of gold and tinsel, of glass and
precious stones, on them — a singular mixture of luxury and
misery, which reminded one of the theatres at fairs. The
king seemed in ecstasy, and could not refrain from asking
his neighbour which of the actresses he thought prettiest.
The interpreter, having been asked secretly, indicated by his
eye which of them enjoyed the royal favours for the time ;
and Norodom appeared highly pleased with the answer.
After the toasts and the shaking hands, new and familiar
customs which a little shocked the upholders of the old eti
quette, we left the palace, and our gunboat saluted the Cam
bodgian flag with twenty-one guns. The wretched pieces,
which were all the artillery the king had, made an attempt
at returning this farewell salvo, and we entered the great
arm of the Mekong. It was a solemn moment ; every one
gave himself up to his own thoughts. The brows were grave,
the lips were silent ; but a secret joy lightened the face : our
voyage had begun.
The provinces on the river seem to me the best-culti
vated parts of Cambodgia. They raise a large quantity of
maize, and especially of cotton. The island of Ko-Sutin
yields, by itself, an annual revenue of 15,000 francs to the
king's mother ; and this represents hardly a tenth of the
value of the total production. The villages, overshadowed
by cocoa-trees, which hang out their heavy plumes over
bamboo huts, have an ah- of elegance which increases as we
recede from Pnom-Penh. Contrary to the European rule,
nearness to the capital is no security in this country for
the people liable to forced labour. In less than two days'
journey above Pnom-Penh, the navigation of the Mekong
becomes difficult, and the gunboat, which carried us as far as
Crache, made ready to return to Saigon. Henceforth France
was before, not behind us ; for we were determined to get
to it only by crossing China. All our aspirations went out
towards that empire. M. de Lagree was afraid of such
enthusiasm ; for he knew that it was near neighbour to
despondency, and foresaw that our work would be pre
eminently one of patience. The governor of Crache, who

48 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
was prepared for our arrival beforehand by a letter from
Norodom, took several days to collect the boats needed for
the expedition, and, after all, got together only half the
number we required. We were in a friendly country, and
the authorities showed us sincere good-will; and yet it was
already necessary, to avoid delay, that we should leave part
of our provisions behind. It was a foreshadow of the utter
destitution which awaited us hereafter.
The boats are narrow canoes, made commonly of a
single tree, hollowed out by fire, and provided with a con
trivance which enables them to ascend the torrent-like cur
rent of the river. They are covered along all then length,
except at the ends, with a round roof of leaves, kept in their
place by a double trellis of bamboo slips. This cover is a
good-enough protection against the rays of the sun, but it
is often of little use against rain. Large bamboos fixed in
the sides of the canoes, and immersed in the water, give
them the stability they would otherwise want. A narrow
board forms an outside bench on which the boatmen get
about easily. Each of these, furnished with a long boat-
hook, catches it in the branches of trees or the roughnesses
of the rocks, while the steersman at the end skilfully guides
the paddle which serves as a helm. For eight hours a day
oui- unhappy Cambodgians go round us with the docility of
the blind horses used to turn wheels, their chief, if they seem
to fail, rousing them by crying that he will get them beaten
when they arrive. They are sweet-tempered and resigned,
often almost mirthful; yet they are men mostly dragged
away from then- rice-fields, sent far from their families and
then- interests, and they have no right to any wages ; for in
Cambodgia eveiy free man is liable to forced labour from
eighteen to sixty, and we were provided by the king's orders.
I was leaving civilisation behind, and entering on a savage
country ; I had passed at one . step from a steam-ship to a
canoe. The roof was too low to let me sit up ; I had to
keep half lying down ; and the rain-water collected in the
bottom, splashed my feet every moment. The captain was,
however, very attentive, for I was a great lord in his eyes,
and busied himself during the squalls by baling the boat
with a leaf of banana.

DIFFICULT NAVIGATION; 49
The stream is sown with islands, which divide it into a
great many arms. The opposite bank could only be seen
in the foggy distance. The waters, dashing against rocks
which formed an almost uninterrupted series of rapids, made
a great thundering in the air. Between the islands, these
rapids offer a singular appearance ; for an incredible quantity
of shrubs have taken root on the rocks and shoals, and
rise above the surface, their stems bent by the current, as if
a forest had been flooded. Some high trees seem to hold on
to the earth only by creepers, which bind them to the bank,
like airy roots. Our boatmen showed extreme boldness and
wonderful agility. They guided their skiff with precision
along winding channels, among trees round which the water
boiled as it rushed past. They were admirable equilibrists,
and never failed to seize any rugged trunk or bending
branch, which could serve them for a hold, and hinder the
canoe from putting its side to the stream, which would have
thrown it on the rocks. After some hours of this excite
ment, I always hailed the time of halting with pleasure.
We had the forest for dining-room, and herds of wild boars
had often to make way for us. Our bedroom was the narrow
and damp jail of our canoes. Evening come, we cut down
trees, cleared away the long plants streaming with rain ;
the fires kindled at last ; every one exerted himself; and
dinner began, — most commonly frugal enough, sometimes
even sumptuous, as our fortune with the gun had been
better or worse, — but almost delightfully happy. The re
membrances of Paris, the prospects of our voyage, or per
haps political or religious discussions, sent round among the
astonished echoes of these grand woods words new to them.
A pertinacious grasshopper pursued us from station to sta
tion, and sounded at the same hour its single and long-drawn
note, as if to give the pitch to the other musicians of these
sombre green palaces. In these regions, life seems to awake
at nightfall. The creatures, overcome, like man, by the heat
of the day, take a long siesta till the sun is near sinking.
One evening we had stopped at the bottom of a little
creek, thinking ourselves sheltered from the wind and rain.
Our boats were drawn close to each other, and moored in a
brook nearly dry, while we ourselves were sleeping quietly,
E

50 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
in spite of the loud cries of tigers, too near at hand. All at
once a storm broke over our heads, and a deluge of rain fell on
our camp, — one of those tropical rains which nothing can
stand, and that form great floods in a few seconds, swelling
the least thread of water into an impetuous torrent. The quiet
brook, in which our boats hardly floated, rose high, at once,
and it was all we could do to get them anchored once more
to the bank. When the danger was over, we could enjoy,
at our ease, the fair disorder of virgin nature around, to
which the pale light of electricity lent mysterious' charms.
At last, after nine days of this perilous and slow navi
gation, we reach Stung-Treng, the first village of Laos.
It lies partly on the banks of the great river Attopee,
the first large affluent of the Mekong. The province, of
which it is the chief place, formerly belonged to Cambodgia,
and was only separated from it during last century. It has
some political importance, for it borders on our Annamite
possessions, and the malcontents who were chased from
Tay-ninh, one of our advanced posts, were able to take
refuge there, to repair their losses, or form new plans of
campaign. We had, then, set foot in this terrible Laos : and were
about to get a sample of it in our first relations with the
authorities. The governor, a Laotian, six feet high, with a
face stupid by the constant use of opium, and an interminable
neck, received us dryly, and refused us the slightest ser
vices, under pretext that our demands were contrary to
usage. The sight of our Siamese passport seemed to have
some little effect on him ; and we had brought a great many
packages, which he took for granted were filled with every
thing precious ; for M. de Lagree had been styled a great
mandarin in the letter from Siam, and our names had all
been handed in to the chancellor's office at Bangkok as those
of very great men. But well-taught people receive no gifts
without giving some in return. He weighed all this in his
wisdom, and ended by giving us a pig. He was presently
told, that it was not our custom to accept hogs from go
vernors of provinces. More and more humbled, he came
himself with his excuses to the chief of the expedition. He
declared, that having lately had a visit from a Frenchman,

OUR TROUBLES. 51
whose violence had frightened the whole people, he thought
himself lost when he saw six come ; but the quietness of our
manners and the strict discipline of our escort had quickly
reassured him. As a proof of his good feeling; he ordered
a small establishment to be set up for us at once ; for we had
no lodgings but the canoes, and it may be readily believed
that we were anxious to quit them for terra firma. It took
only two hours to make. Woven bamboos formed a clean
floor for us ; a roof of thatch kept us pretty well from the
rain ; and a charming tapestry of large banana-leaves pro
tected us from the sun, whose rays, thus sifted, coloured them
selves green in passing through.
We had lived fifteen days in this fragile house, which
was shaken by the squalls; while the river kept steadily
rising, and after a time covered the floor. Our barrels of brandy
and wine, pierced by legions of invisible insects, ran empty
in a single night; and our flour stuffs, spoiled by a pene
trating damp, were past using even before the water had co
vered the oven we had hastily built. We were hardly able to
save from this last disaster a few bottles of wine for the sick,
and a little flour, so indispensable for our quinine pills, of
which there was already a large daily consumption. Besides
cases of fever, the sad, but inevitable tribute to the climate
and the season, two members of the commission fell seriously
ill — the one of dysentery, which speedily took away all his
strength; the other of a typhoid fever, so severe our
doctors gave him up as hopeless. The forced stoppage of
rations of wine and brandy, and the wretched native chicken
substituted for beef, raised discontent among the Frenchmen
of the escort, which often broke out in murmurs; till it
became clear that they had not sufficiently realised the
expedition they had joined, to let us hope that it would be
possible to keep them long.
At Stung-Treng, Cambodgian is only used by the educated
and by travelling merchants. Laotian is in common use;
and yet our interpreter, who had never lived but at Bang
kok, made himself easily understood from the first day. It
is a proof of the close relations between the Siamese and
Laotian languages. This resemblance of the two idioms was
confirmed at each station of our voyage, nor did it fail sen-

'52 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
sibly till we were on the borders of Burmah. As far as that,
it is too general and too striking to be attributed to the
effect of conquest. Opposite Stung-Treng, however, on the
other bank of the river, there still exists a large village of
Cambodgians, who received us almost as if we were fellow-
countrymen, when we went to hunt among them.
The vast forest, which crowds their huts between its an
cient trees and the tumultuous river, is full of savage crea
tures, in the pursuit of which we affected, at first, an ardour
which soon cooled. In one of these hunts, in which several
flocks of pea-fowl had been decimated, I was overtaken by
a storm, with one of my companions, and soon found that we
were lost. We had no compass ; no mark by which we could
tell our way presented itself; all the trees looked alike ; and
we could fancy, for the three hours dm-ing which we walked
on at random, what the feelings must be of a traveller hope
lessly lost in these solitudes, full of shadows and sounds, a
hundred times more terrifying than deserts of sand. The
Cambodgians, who were uneasy at our non-appearance, hap
pily came upon us towards evening, and, guided by them,
we discovered some brick walls, the last traces of an im
portant town, and visited some monuments still standing.
The one in best preservation is an edifice, rectangular at
the bottom, terminating in a kind of tower. The base is de
corated with a garland of birds interlaced, which surrounds
the monument about two feet from the ground. Over the
principal gate there is a sculptured sandstone pediment, let
into the wall, and supported by two brick pillars of elegant
form. These ruins, though inferior to those at Cambodgia,
may be regarded as the half- effaced signature of the old
Khmer masters of the soil, whose inhabitants have forgotten
them. Siam has completely assimilated to itself these people,
who speak its language. It names their governors, and sends
thern their collectors of customs; its silver money is the only
coin in circulation. For transactions of little value, a pecu
liar money is used at Stung-Treng, consisting of ingots of
iron narrowing towards the end, and about a decimetre in
length. These ingots are made by the savage Cuys, who
live in the north of the, province of Compong-soai, and are

THE LAOTIANS. 5S
tributary to "Norodom. Barter was the easiest exchange for
us among this half-barbarous population. Empty bottles and
eighteen inches of red cotton secured us the good services
of the housewives, who covered our table with the pro
ductions of the country — pumpkins and cucumbers, with rice
boiled in water — a wretched feast, but cheered at times by a
bottle of preserves. It was important, at our entrance to
Laos, to establish our reputation. We, therefore, gave away
glass collars, earthenware pipes, and other objects of similar
value, to the principal personages. The governor got one
of the four revolvers we could spare; and this generous
act so moved him, that he at once got ready the boats we
needed. He went so far as to beg us to put off our departure,
because, on the day we had chosen, we might meet an evil
spirit which runs on the waters, enticing after him voy
agers foolish enough to brave them, and swallowing them up
in a whirlpool. In spite of this alarming prediction, our Lao
tians went to work at the hour we had fixed ; and we left
Stung-Treng, carrying our sick. Of these one was nearly
well again ; the other, delirious, and seemingly near death,
had, like us all, no other bed than the bamboo hurdle, which
reached from end to end of the canoe, and caught the rain
through numerous holes, which soon showed themselves in
our roofs of leaves. He got better, however, and our con
fidence began to return.
The river continues of a great breadth; so much so, that
the two banks are, in some places, more than two leagues
apart, and nothing can give an idea of the violence of the
current. Notwithstanding the vast width of its bed, it twists
itself into the sharpest eddies, and drives against the land
with fury. An enormous alligator, which had been hurled
by it against the trees, had been killed by the shock ; and
we saw its carcass, carried among the branches and thrown
up again, almost straight, like that of some hideous executed
criminal. We followed, closely, the narrower and more tortu
ous channels, creeping along the edges of the islands, hook
ing ourselves on to creepers, roots, and the trunks of great
trees. When one of these was too near the water to let us
gHde beneath it, the whole flotilla was stopped, and every
one worked without intermission till the obstruction gave

54 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
way before their axes. It would have been perilous to leave
the bank ; for the boats would have been carried away Hke
straws, by the violence of the current, had we done so.
After leaving Stung-Treng, the banks of the river were
a desert. Not a hut showed a sign of human presence. The
river and the forest join one to the other, and nothing is
heard but the noise of the wind in the high branches of the
trees, or the roaring of the waters round then- roots. Some
few mountains show themselves at a distance from each
other, as far as we can see, and we also soon distinguish the
hills of Khong. The islands multiply beyond number ; we
advance slowly through them ; and oui- boatmen, who never
lose then- way in this labyrinth, halt at last at the mouth of
the bed of a torrent. This torrent, though dry in spring-time,
is the one passage frequented, after some months of rain, by
the boats of the merchants ; a channel always difficult, en
cumbered by shallows, and only passed through after several
times partially unloading the cargo on some rock, trusting
to get it on board again, after the obstacle has been sur
mounted, by hauling it along a rope of rattan. We had to
employ other means. Our letter from Siam gave us the right
to require the cooperation of the authorities in the organi
sation of our transport. It was, therefore, much easier to
cross the island on foot, and take new boats on the other
side of the cataracts. Mandarins always do this in traveling,
and the government maintain a buffalo-wagon on purpose,
for the transfer of baggage.
The hostelry to which we were taken, while everything
was being made ready for a new start, consisted of two small
dilapidated huts. We found only the wreck of the lodgings
prepared for the last mandarin who had crossed the island,
and had to content ourselves with it; for we had committed
the mistake of not announcing ourselves. It was easier to
do this on leaving a canoe, and the country made us forget
the poor shelter. Masses of trees, impenetrably thick, hid
the river, a considerable stretch of which ran along our left. It
made itself heard by a noise not unfike that which meets one
as he comes near the shore at Penmarch in Brittany ; and
the sight which I soon had under my eyes can only be com
pared for effect to that of the sea dashing against the strand

TERRIBLE RAPIDS. 55
after a storm. An arm of the river, about 800 metres in
breadth, is obstructed from side to side by enormous blocks
of rock. The current, ten times fiercer for these checks, hurls
its furious waters against them. The projecting rock, on
which I stood, was often covered by the spray; and as far
as I could see, the white crests of the waves were mingled
with the black tops of the rocks. The sheet of water seemed
to enlarge, and lose itself insensibly in the distance, with no
other limit than the blue mountains on the horizon. It is
through this, mainly, that the waters of the Mekong pre
cipitate themselves into the lower part of the valley, but
they also escape by other outlets. Here, the water is broken
up as it dashes into a gulf, raising a sparkling pfilar of
moist dust, on which there rests a rainbow. Farther off, a
cascade, mostly open, recalls by its regular outline the bars
of our rivers or lakes. Elsewhere, the water spreads out,
half veiled by charming trees, which bend over it, and dip
their ever-fresh leaves, and white and rose flowers, in its
coolness. These cataracts offer an insurmountable obstacle to steam
navigation. The difficulty commences a little above Crache,
where the blocking of the stream is complete, and could only
be removed by a large amount of labour. In the seventeentli
century, it would appear, a Jesuit offered to the king a model
for the construction of some dams, which would facilitate the
passage. ' The king,' says an Italian missionary of the time,
who tells the fact, 'has always been more concerned for the
safety of his kingdom — the advantageous position of which
serves him as a rampart against the insults of his neigh
bours — than for gain; about which, from a generous con
tempt he has for it, he gives himself no trouble. He very
much approved the proposal, but he said it would give his
enemies the key to his states.' The king of Siam will not
likely haAre any need to weigh such considerations nowa
days, for no one, for long to come, will dream of taking up
again this project of dams. We have stiU too much to do
in the delta of the Mekong to think of giving considerable
sums for such an enterprise, which only the wants of an
important commerce could justify. This vast gathering of
islands, islets, and rocks, which form formidable rapids

56 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
dm-ing the rains, is turned into cataracts during the dry
season. Then the level of the water falls, the river shrinks,
and shows on the banks marbles equally remarkable for the
fineness of their grain and the brilliancy of their colours.
The island of Khong is inhabited by agriculturists. The
rice -fields seemed well cultivated, and we assisted at the
transplanting of the rice. The women of the country, bent
all day over the muddy furrows, have this as then- task.
The authorities begged us not to shoot in the island, and
not to beat the gong, because the unwonted noise would
for certain lead tigers to devour a number of the people in
the course of the year. At a spot where several branches
of the river flow into it, the view opens as at the meeting of
different roads in a forest. The sheet of water is immense,
and all in one, like a lake, as if the Mekong were collecting
itself before the terrible confusions that await it lower down.
Serrated hills form the background of the picture, while,
nearer us, the eye is caught by a fantastic tree which seems
to rise out of the water, and by the thick mantle of green
which covers it, looks like an old line of wall kept up in its
ruin by the living embraces of creepers. We pass soon after
into a course winding among the islands, where we see the
river only at rare intervals, and have to cut ourselves a path,
by blows of the axe, through the forest. A tree which ran
out almost horizontally over the water, and which it was
necessary to cut down, was of huge diameter. My natives
every now and then fell into the water. A loud shout of
laughter announced the accident, which might have been
serious, if the Laotians were not marvellous swimmers ; and
I saw the clumsy wight get on board again, leaving it to
the sun to dry his clothes on him. There were one or two
savages in my crew. They were easily known by their
manners, but still more so by their dress ; for their langouti
was reduced to a kind of narrow drawers, twisted into a
rope behind. These brave creatures, levied for forced labour,
seemed, nevertheless, very happy ; and I had nothing to say
against their mirth, except that it was, perhaps, a little too
expansive. Their bursts of laughter were like the neighing
of draught horses. They renewed them at each sally of one
or other, and sometimes howled like beasts at fault, to ex-

A LAOTIAN GOVERNOR. 57
cite themselves when at some specially hard spot. I should
have got tired of so much noise, if it had not struck me
very opportunely, when I was getting cross, that so much
good-will deserved some allowance.
As you approach the province of Khong the valley con
tracts, but the river gains in depth by it. The bed, at last
free from rocks, becomes navigable. Large villages stretch
on all sides along the banks, surrounded by bananas and
cocoa-trees, giving the country a pleasant and prosperous
look. The governor, who had been informed of our coming
beforehand, had prepared a huge lodging for us ; and like
wise let us know that he would be delighted himself to
receive us. We found him an old man, squat, weak, and
fat, but with pleasing features. His white hah- and saffron
robes made him look not unlike the gods of the country.
Though this excellent Laotian was governor of Stung-Treng
by direct appointment of the court of Bangkok, he seemed
to have no prejudice against us, and if he showed a little
kindly patronising, it was allowable in an old man. He had
not come back from his numerous journeys to Siam empty-
handed. With a simple cynicism he asked us to notice an
obscene photograph, inserted in the handle of a knife. To
show us, moreover, that Laotian art was capable of the same
conceptions as European, he made one of the numerous young
females, who assisted at the interview, bring two statuettes
in wood, coarsely carved, which were unfit for the lowest
place in the lowest of secret museums.
The houses of the natives, which are grouped, as usual,
round the enclosure of the governor's palace, are very like
the huts of the Cambodgians. They, perhaps, differ from
them in their height and in the steepness of their roofs,
which makes one think that the rains here are either more con
tinuous, or heavier. The windows are narrow and few, which
seems to show, farther, that the Laotian values home more
than the Cambodgian, who lives almost in public. The men
have their heads shaved, as in Cambodgia, except on the tap of
the head, which is ornamented by a short tuft. The women,
who wear a jupon, and a scarf of a bright colour, less^ to hide
then bosoms than to make their skin look a little lighter,
wear chignons. They have very little timidity ; and became

58 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
soon familiar, and even bold, with our escort, carrying their
unceremoniousness so far as to bathe naked in the river
within a few paces of us. The province of Khong has given
the river the name it bears for a good part of its course.
As far as its entrance into China the natives call it Nam
Khong, or water of Khong, river of Khong; a name far more
rational than that of Mekong, which has been adopted by
European geographers, and means HteraUy sea of Khong.
It was formerly part of Cambodgia, like the province of
Tonli-Repou, which borders it, and there is still a small Cam
bodgian population on one of the islands.
The current borrowed, at this time, a fresh force from the
torrent-rains, which fell daily. The waters rose perceptibly
in twenty-four hours, and the total rise within a month and
a half could not be put lower than four metres. As the sur
face rose, the stream found an ample harvest of vegetable
wreck on its submerged banks, gathering it through its
whole course. The quantity is so great, that the natives, as
far as Pnom-Penh, and even to the borders of the great lake,
find their provision of wood in its bed. We saw huge trunks
of trees pass, like floating islands, or the vast remains of
some great shipwreck, as the great tangled roots bound
them together, or kept them apart. Enormous bamboos,
loaded with earth at their lower ends, floated perpendicu
larly ; the eddies and thousand whirlpools, which they had
to pass^ making them reel like drunken giants.
When we went to take leave of the old governor, he tired
himself with expressions of good-will, adding them, doubt
less, to the good works which he was accumulating against
the close of his life, and thinking, perhaps, that provided he
employed part of the money, stolen through a long career,
rightly, Bouddha would forgive his having kept the rest.
He received with due acknowledgments a silver watch. It
would serve him, he said, as an ornament; for to put such a
thing in the hands of such a savage, was like giving an
ape a cocoa-nut, which he turns and turns, without knowing
how to open or make use of it. He told us he had sent on
a gang of Laotians, the day before, to cut the branches in
the course of our canoes, and to open the way for us to the
borders of the states of his confrere of Bassac.

OUR CREW. 59
The six long canoes which carried us were manned by fifty-
three of a crew, who were guided and kept in order by. five
chiefs of an inferior grade. These petty mandarins were re
sponsible for us to the governor, who had appointed them,
and he, in his turn, was responsible, for any trouble we might
meet, to the king of Siam. We had not to think of anything
while we passed from one point to another, and M. de Lagree
confined himself to naming the spot which he thought suited
for our stopping at night. The chiefs of the village came,
according to custom, to offer us presents, which were not
always enough for our wants, but they helped out our pro
visions, and were better than nothing. The bank served for
kitchen ; the ground for seat and table. Compared to the Lao
tians, who were with us, we lived luxuriously. They fed, com
monly, on rice, with which they crammed themselves several
times a day, adding pimento to it, some lumps of dry or
stinking fish, and raw vegetables. When they had the chance
of adding anything more substantial, they took care not to
let it escape them. I have often seen them, the moment they
landed, spread themselves through the villages, force the
doors of the huts, and carry off fowls and ducks, which they
cooked forthwith, without even plucking. They have a prac
tice of acting in this way whenever they have a Siamese
mandarin over them. We had made a rule to pay oui' boat
men, and always to leave behind us better souvenirs than
the functionaries of the court of Bangkok, and, therefore, put
a stop to these depredations — a step which astonished the
spoilers and spoiled alike profoundly. Mandarins with tufted
beards, who did not chew betel, who had no women, who
paid for forced labour, and prohibited stealing — such a thing
was never known. We united all these wonders, physical
and moral. At first, every one laughed to hear such tales ;
but, on reflection, we seemed less ridiculous, especially to
the chicken-breeders. This good name helped us ; the doors,
instead of being shut at our approach, were thrown wide for
our entrance, every one brought what he had to seU, and
the scruples of our conscience served the interests of our
stomach. At last we saw, before us, like Colossi ready to bar our
way, the mountains of Bassac. They stood out black against

60 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
the purple sky, while the tops still reflected the last beams of
day. We reached our first station in Laos, where we were
to wait for the letters, which were to be sent from Pekin to
Saigon since we started, and for the last French posts. We
had had a great deal of sickness among the members of the
commission and the ranks of the escort, but our numbers
were still complete. Sinister predictions had not been real
ised, and we all, in our confidence, felt a new zeal. It would
have been a mistake to have set out, on chance, without
having in our hands passports which might, indeed, prove of
no use, but the want of which, on the other hand, we might
one day repent bitterly. It was necessary, therefore, to wait,
and make ourselves as comfortable as possible, in anticipation
of a stay of three months.
Bassac was formerly the capital of the Laotian monarchy,
the nearest to that of Cambodgia, and freed itself from de
pendence on the latter only during last century. According
to vague information gathered on our way, important ruins
still remained to attest the rule of the Khmers. Our first
care was to be taken to see them. After two hours' march
through rice-fields, we came upon a rectangular piece of
water, the longest face of which measured about six hundred
metres. This regularity indicates, beyond doubt, the hand
of man ; but we already knew our Laotians too well to attri
bute to them the formation of this petty lake, admirably
placed at the foot of the mountains, which were reflected in
its tranquil waters. It could be nothing but a relic of the
past. Indeed, at some metres from the west corner we found,
hidden by tufts of bamboos and thick shrubs, the steps of
a monumental staircase, on the platform of which a long
avenue opened, on which a thick coating of soil covered a
paving of flags. MonoHth columns, ending in the form of a
mitre, stood at the two sides, and it led to the foot of a very
high stair, in good preservation, but very steep, like those
at Angcor. A terrace surrounded by balustrades crowned
this first flight, from which a series of staircases, with land
ings, and broken by large terraces, following the inclination
of the ground, led to a sanctuary which was a real bijou
enshrined in the mountain. The stone is dug out to a depth
which gives the subjects chosen an admirable relief, while

RUINS. 61
the sharpness of the edges shows a wonderful precision of
chiselling. The art of ornamentation has rarely been' pushed
farther. The whole is more injured by time and vegetation than
what we had seen at Angcor; but there are parts as com
plete and perfect as on the first day. The site which has
been chosen for it must have added to its' splendour, and,
indeed, does so even yet. From the foot of the mountain
the structures rise, little by little, in a straight line, to where
the rolling outline of the ground stops abruptly at a huge
wall of rocks, against which the sanctuary is, as it were, set
back to back, at about 150 metres above the level of the lake.
These rocks, the tops of which are covered with trees, are
of a striking form. Covered in some places with red paint,
over which the piety of the faithful has fastened leaves of
gold in honour of Bouddha, opening in gaps, rough, with
murmuring springs trickling from them, they are imperish
able and sad witnesses of the lost splendour of the temples,
which seem to have come out of their sides. We found some
statues, but they were very poor. The Khmer artists, while
incomparable in creating the plan of a huge building, or
spreading over each stone of a wall a marvellous lacework,
did not know how to copy the human body. Without re
quiring them to attain our ideal, realised in Greek art, we
might ask that they should have tried to imitate the forms
under then- eyes ; but they have done just the reverse. The
stiffness of the limbs and of the body, the awkwardness of
the postures, the coarseness of the features — in a. word, the
exaggeration of every physical imperfection — make gross
caricatures of nearly all these statues. Nothing more pain
fully surprises the visitor of these ruins than to see a bas-
relief of some human figure, grotesquely carved, in the midst
of arabesques of the most exquisite finish and perfection.
Singular fact I — all the living creatures seem drawn in rough
outline, and share this defect in common. The elephant
alone is finished in better style. Whether it be in little or
of natural size, the centre of a medaUion, or carved on the
basement of a building, where it has the appearance of bear
ing the weight, it is always found as in nature — terrible in
its strength, charming in its gentleness; man, who has

62 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHLNA.
made a god of it, seeming to have forgotten himself in hand
ing its image to posterity.
Behind a screen of tufted trees we found two monuments,
pendents of the two sides of the avenue, at the foot of the
peristyle which leads to the sanctuary. They were perhaps
palaces inhabited by pious kings, who wished to have a
temple near then- dweUing.
On the left of this collection of buildings are others, half
ruined, which were, according to the tradition of the coun
try, the abode of Sita, perhaps the wife of Rama, the hero of
the Ramayana. It is useless, on this point, to ask the least
explanation from any of the people of the country, cleric or
laic. All that they know about it is, that Sita had two sons,
two brother-enemies, who, not contented with having spent
their Hves in bloody combats in the mountains, come still to
disturb the quiet of these ruins. Woe to him whom unwise
curiosity makes the witness of this duel of ghosts ! The
Laotians, who guided us, advanced with awe, prostrated
themselves at each step, and laid dry leaves on some holy
stones, lest the terrible brothers should roll some head of a
pillar or some mass of rock on us. These monuments, which
bear the name of Vat-Phou — the Pagoda of the Mountain —
are the last we met in the vaUey of the Mekong which could
be assigned to Cambodgian architecture.
It was September, the season of the heaviest rains. The
mountains were always enveloped in clouds, and sometimes,
though they were very near us, the mist so completely hid
them, that no one would have suspected their existence. For
the most part they were seen darkened by the woods that
covered them, with white vapours gliding along their sides
Hke smoke, and losing themselves in the spray of the cascades
which fell down then heights. The rice-fields were filled with
water, and we had to let this deluge pass away before we
could attempt some excursions we had planned. We were
blockaded in a dark hut, mto which the Hght of day hardly
penetrated at noon. To make up for these troubles, how
ever, we were on an excellent footing with the governor of
Bassac, who had retained the title of king, — with the autho
rities, and the inhabitants of the country. We dined in the
town, and at the court itself, and our stomachs, become accom-

A LAOTIAN DINNER. 63
modating, allowed us to do honour to these feasts, of which
boiled pork formed the base. We ate, for politeness, the most
Laotian dishes, such as bamboo-stalks seasoned with pimento,
duck-eggs salted; all this minced small, and served in a great
number of bowls, placed on the ground on a mat. Water
and rice-brandy (a sickening liquor, so strong as to destroy
the taste), are put into the strangest collection of dissimilar
phials, pickle-bottles, and toilet-vinegar flasks, brought with
all care from Bangkok. A cousin of the king did us the
honour to admit us to his intimacy, opened his heart to us
little by little, and ended by complaining bitterly that his
right to the throne had been contemptuously cast, under
foot. We enjoyed here, in truth, a double prestige. To our
title of Europeans, which of itself would have been enough
to secure us respect, we added the dignity of protectors of
Cambodgia, and that served us to admiration. It was known
that we had dared to dispute with Siam, and that we had
driven her off. Every one wished to see M. de Lagree, the
conqueror of Phnea-rat, of whom the great mandarins had
heard speak during their annual journey to Bangkok. If
we had had a liking for getting up intrigues, or if we had
been ordered to prepare for annexations, it would have been
easy to work on the feelings which cropped out in certain
personages. But we had no such design. We wanted to
profit by our forced stay at Bassac, only by making friends ;
our hut, open to all comers, was the rendezvous of the curi
ous, and the Laotians never abused our confidence. Honest
by nature, they have laws which severely punish thieves. I
had the opportunity of seeing them enforced. The criminal,
seated on the ground, his neck held tightly squeezed in a
vice, and his limbs stretched out to the utmost by rough
cords, received ten blows of a rattan on the back, each out
ing the flesh. They told me, that to be condemned to fifty
was equal to death; and I can readily believe it, after seeing
the effect often. Before striking, the executioner gathers
himself up, as if penetrated by the importance of his social
mission, and bows profoundly in the direction of the king's
palace. The task finished, he invites the sufferer to lie on
his belly, and helps him with good-will, by pressing his foot

64 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
on the bleeding flesh, to give a little elasticity to the mus
cles, contracted by pain. Punishments of this kind are. not
reserved for criminals only. They are used also to force
confessions; and I could not recall without a shudder, on
seeing such sights, the fact that the question was in use
among" ourselves less than a hundred years ago. When one
finds among peoples rightly called barbarous, customs allowed
by our fathers, such as the question or the ordeal, which also
I saw in use at Bassac, pride of race presently vanishes, and
one of the best fruits of travel is proved, beyond doubt, to be
a respect for humanity.

CHAPTER II.
STAT AT BASSAC. EXCURSION TO ATTOPEE. THE FORESTS.
SAVAGES AND ELEPHANTS. WE LEAVE BASSAO. UBONE.
It is with civilisation as with health; one must feel the want
of it before he knows its value. To sleep on a bed and to
eat bread are very vulgar delights, seldom awanting, thank
God, in Europe, even to those least favoured by fortune ; and
hence we do not realise the part they play in the happiness
of life. Yet, after some weeks of wonder, and almost of
pain, you feel the body bend, little by little, to new habits;
but the privations, which each day made more grievous to us,
in our sad camp at Bassac, were of another kind: we lived,
forced back on ourselves, awaiting the end of the rainy sea
son, without books or newspapers, at the time when, behind
the illusions which flew away, and in place of the dream
which faded off, nothing was seen but the austere forms of a
painful duty. The first fine days would, however, allow us to
seek, outside, that food of curiosity which is the one thing
which can bear up the traveller ; and when they came at last, I
hailed them as the prisoners of the Ark might have done the
end of the deluge, only they had been better housed than we.
Since the 26th of October 1866, the river had fallen six
metres from the highest level it had reached. The immense
lake that separated us from the mountains was nothing more
than an ocean of mud ; but this slime, at first fetid, was soon
dried and hardened by the sun, and we were then able to
take extended rambles round our hut. The town stretches
along the banks of the river, on both sides of the royal
dwelling. The narrow road that ran through it was, as yet,
no better than a slough. The inhabitants had taken the
trouble to lay trees of different sizes, from the thick palm
to the slender bamboo, side by side in the mud, so as to form
F

66 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
a causeway, along which one could walk, though not without
difficulty. The houses, which are not inelegant, and are
solidly built, are almost all double. They consist of two
huts of the same size, put side by side, or united by a terrace.
The cabbage-palms, which shade them, give the whole town
the look of a grove planted with slender and beautiful trees.
At every step you meet little obscure sanctuaries, where
huge statues of Bouddha receive the daily homage of bonzes.
When I think that I am in a capital where the descendant
of the ancient kings still resides, I feel myself overcome by
sadness in visiting these ruined temples. The palace itself is
nothing but a set of thatched huts, surrounded by a wooden
fence. A steep stair leads to the royal terrace, and one gets
to it over a shaking causeway of trunks of trees of unequal
sizes, thrown down on the mud. The king has preserved no
thing of the power of his ancestors but an empty title ; and
were it not for the gold basket, ewer, and spittoon, which
some chamberlains carry behind him, he would not be taken
for more than a simple governor. These utensils hold the
place of badges and ribbons at Laos, and are provided by the
king of Siam himself, in gold, silver, or copper, according to
the rank of the functionaries. They make both langoutis, and
silk and gold robes of ceremony, at Bangkok, as well, and send
them to the principal personages. The king of Bassac is a
young man of distinguished manners, and a pleasing but
rather sad countenance, as suits the scion of a decayed race.
Norodom, with his accustomed stupidity, had caUed him a
man of the woods, but there were no grounds for saying so.
His enemies accuse him of despising the customs and op
pressing the people, but it is not his Cambodgian majesty
who has the right to call such things crimes.
The kingdom of Bassac has always played a very subor
dinate part. It was too near a powerful neighbour ever to
have been able to secure a great importance to Laos. The
Dutchman, Gerard van Vhusthorf, who partly ascended the
river in 1641, does not even mention this principality, the
capital of which, at that time, was at a place called, now,
Muong-Cao, not far from the present town. The kingdom
of Bassac was then, in truth, only a Cambodgian province.
Freed, a century later, this unfortunate kingdom was not

ETHNOLOGY OF LAOS. 67
long in again losing its independence. It has been absorbed,
as the last wrecks of Cambodgia were threatened to be, by
the younger and more vigorous power of Indo-China. When
one sees the striking resemblance between Laotian and Si
amese civilisation, and the almost complete identity of the
two languages, it is evident that a recent conquest could
not have brought about such a result, and that a common
origin must be ascribed to the populations grouped on the
borders of the Meinam and the Mekong. Perhaps we might
go farther, and look on the Burmans, settled in the valleys of
the Irawady and of the Salwen, and the Cambodgians, estab
lished at the mouths of the Mekong, as two branches sepa
rated from the same trunk. In their migrations, the members
of this great family must have left India by the mountains
of the north-west, and would be guided to the south along
the courses of the great rivers which furrow Indo-China.
Wandering for a long time, they would still preserve in their
characteristics the marks of their parentage, modified by the
influences immediately affecting them. The Cambodgians
and Laotians speak languages, the mechanism and genius
of which, if not the very words, are identical. M. Aubaret
remarks that the Cambodgian language is written in the
characters of the Pali language, while the Siamese and Bur
man characters differ from it a little, although belonging to
the same type. He adds, that the Bouddhism practised in
these three countries is exactly the same as that of Ceylon,
and this may also be said of that which flourishes in Laos.
It may be understood from this, how the most ambitious of
the Indo-Chinese powers had the opportunity of definitively
assimilating to itself all these populations, from the one fact
that it was the strongest. It found the most of its laws
and customs, already, in vigour, among the conquered.
The religion which has impressed on the architecture of
these countries a uniform character, has laid hold on all the
manifestations of life. The feasts take place at the same
time in all the countries bordering on the Mekong, and have
the same half religious, half profane features. During our
stay at Bassac, we saw the bonzes, one morning, coUecting
in the open green of the village, and directing their course
to the king's palace. Each year, on the same day, a new

68 TRAVELS IN rNDO-CHINA.
robe is given them. M. de Lagree, wishing to connect the
Commission with this pious gift, caused two copper candle
sticks to be carried to the throne-hall, where the clergy
were assembled. They were accepted with great demon
strations of pleasure. The officiating ministers of the two
principal pagodas, forgetting the gravity of their character,
tried each to get them for himself; but the king, who had
to intervene, decided that each of the pagodas should get
one. During the day, magnificent regattas excited a real in
terest. The canoes, belonging to pagodas, and built ex
pressly for these nautical jousts, were adorned with flags, sup
plied with a primitive orchestra, of drum, tom-tom, and bam
boo organ, and manned by vigorous feUows, who came to
sustain the honour of their parish. The longest, which was
twenty-six metres, was hoUowed out of the trunk of a single
tree, and was made for sixty rowers. The crew was composed
entirely of savages, all tributaries of the king of Siam, and
living within the Hmits of Bassac. Dressed in a morsel of
cotton check tied round the loins, they, yet, seemed to give a
good deal of work to the women, each wearing, for orna
ment, a white crown, worked by them in leaves of maize,
which showed off their black and silky hair. Three young
savages, dressed in red, with red cowls, Hke the old court
fools, set up an unknown fantastic dance in the midst of
their brothers bending to the paddles. As then- feet could
not leave the bottom of the canoe, the steps had to be ex
changed for contortions of the arms and haunches, mingled
with obscene gestures, performed in cadence, and much
relished by the rest. After the races, the wrestlers en
tered the lists before the tribune of the king. With small
heads and huge chests, such as we see in the representa
tions of combatants armed with the cestus, they made provok
ing feints long before they darted at each other. At last,
springing together, they rolled in the dust, before the eye
could follow them. The king gave each of them a tical —
a little less than three francs — and was pleased to receive,
afterwards, the presents in kind which all the great person*
ages offered him, according to custom. These wrestlers,
or rather boxers, for they do not spare blows, are forced to

LAOTIAN FESTIVITIES. 69
this rough service. I am not sure about Bassac; but I know,
in Cambodgia, one village which has to furnish, for its
forced labour, royal elephant-drivers, and another which has
to supply so many boxers. At night, rockets were let off
on all sides, and bamboos charged with powder made loud
reports. Floating lamps, left to the stream, sparkled over
the water like fallen stars, and great fire-rafts, real fire-
ships, descended without a pilot, wheeling round at each
eddy. Inside the huts, numerous parties, stimulated by
copious draughts of rice-brandy, listened to singers brought
in by the master of the house, who accompanied themselves
on a bamboo organ, and a monochord lyre. The Laotians
have a number of ancient songs, but the troubadours most
frequently delight their audiences by improvisations. The
circumstances and the persons present furnished subjects,
and, now gay and satirical, now romantic and tender, they
had something for every one in the circle round them. Fer
tile in imagination, and almost beyond tiring, their voice
fails sooner than their inspiration. They take part in all
public feasts, as well as in all private rejoicings. I have seen
one of these poets of love, in an address to a young girl,
begin in accents the sweetest, most discreet, and most
chaste, gradually kindling, till, as he ended, he reached ex
pressions so pointed that she ran off blushing. Vocal and
instrumental music seem in their infancy. In our European
ears all the airs seemed to be the same monotonous reci
tative, ending uniformly in prolonged notes. But the people
of the country do not think so; they can readily tell the
difference between any two singers or performers.
Next day the savages had got back to their forests,
where we proposed to visit them; the town resumed its
wonted quiet ; and the court went into mourning, the king
having lost a great mandarin, his relation, in the night.
This respectable personage had called in the medical man
of the expedition; but the bonzes having persuaded him that
the remedies prescribed were contrary to the sacred rites,
he left himself piously to die. A funeral pile having been
built for him, with great pomp, behind the royal pagoda, the
bonzes arrived, riding astraddle the coffin, which was covered
with flowers, and with ornaments in wax. When they had

70 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
got off, the bier was placed on the top of the wood, and
each approached to apply the fire. The flames, laying hold
of the dry wood, rose crackling. The crowd, however, found
the sight too tedious ; and the bonzes, well-nigh drunk, set
ting the example, the assistants provided themselves with
bamboos, and set themselves to stir up the furnace, attack
ing the coffin itself, which, being almost burned, burst open.
The muscles of the body contracting with the fire, I saw
the two hands rise towards heaven in the midst of the
flames. This dismal spectacle appeared to give great amuse
ment to the Laotians. I found nothing the day after, where
the pyre had been, but some ashes, and a few whitened
bones. The ravens flew in circles above, cursing, in their
hoarse language, the dogs, which they hindered from ap
proaching. This kind of 'interment' is reckoned as of the
first class, and it is not every one who can hope for it : the
poor and the unknown are simply put some inches deep in
the ground.
We had entered the month of November ; the river was
sinking daily, and the banks were fringed, as far as we
could see, with a long border of white sand. The perpetual
mists of the rainy season gave place to a transparent curtain
of vapour. While we were inhaling with delight the cooler
breezes of night and morning, the natives were shivering
under their cloaks. Covered by these large cloth mantles,
with floating folds, and of brilliant colours, the Laotians jus
tified the opinion of their elegance, which they enjoy even
in Cochin-China. We rejoiced in the changes brought on
by the approaching winter — a season so mild as to remind
us of our summers in Europe. Our strength returned as the
leaves fell, and we resolved on two excursions.
The courier from France and the passports from Pekin
had not yet arrived. M. de Lagree ordered M. Garnier to
descend the river as far as Stung-Treng, where we hoped
he would meet a messenger. The chief of the expedition,
Dr. Joubert, and myself, made ready to start for Attopee.
This point, which is situated on the stream which flows
into the great river at Stung-Treng, is a kind of advanced
post, in the country of the savages of the west. The La
otians have a repugnance to going there, pretending that

BOUDDHIST WORSHIP. 71
mortal fevers decimate the caravans, and the Chinese mer
chants, established at Bassac, loudly confirmed this, by
adding that none of them would dare to go to seek in that
province for the gold it produces in abundance. But God
only knows what a Chinaman would not risk to get any
profit! We listened to all which their sincere interest in
us led these brave people to say; but at Cambodgia they
had said of Laos, in general, all that they repeated here
about Attopee, and we fancied we had acquired the right
to be sceptical ; and set out in two canoes furnished us by
the king's order.
After having ascended the Mekong for some hours, we
halted for the night in the pagoda of Vat-sei, where a hearty
reception awaited us, for, without knowing it, we were bene
factors of the establishment. Vat-sei had obtained one of the
candlesticks lately given by M. de Lagree. Our mats were
spread upon the flags of the sanctuary, and we were luUed
to sleep by the sound of evening song, the psalmody of which
was in general monotonous, but sometimes interrupted by a
shrill note, a kind of yell, which gave a strange character to
these prayers, so unintelligible to us, and no less so to most
of those who recited them. Side by side with some passages
in modern language, their breviary contains a great number
of pages written in Pali ; and the bonzes read these without
knowing the meaning, as some ladies in France read an
office in Latin, mechanically. The religious Bouddhists do
not, however, on that account fail any the more to meet
each evening, with edifying regularity, to prayers. We have
often slept in a caravanserai, which was at once the house of
God and of travellers, and they never failed to give us the
favour of an anthem. The bonzes might set an example
to many a chapter of canons.
Beyond the village of Vat-sei, the Mekong speedily con
tracts. The mountains, whose base it washes, leave it no
more than three hundred metres in breadth. This sudden
strangling makes no apparent increase in the swiftness of
the cm-rent, but its depth becomes terrifying. Great apes
escorted us along the banks, and growled familiarly when
we threw them bananas. The Se-don, a pretty river, which we
entered after a day and a half's sailing, runs softly through

72 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
a very garden. Plantations of cotton and tobacco, of gourds
and of batatas, into which flocks of wild pea-fowl come to
plunder morning and evening, surround huts hidden in high
tufts of bamboos. The king of Bassac had told us that a
letter from him to the village chiefs, preceded us, ordering
them to supply us with food and means of transport. This
letter of the king had not arrived. When the first rapids in
the river forced us to land, the subordinate authorities re
fused to procure us elephants; prayers, threats, the exhibi
tion of the Siamese passport, were equally unavailing: a
regular order of the governor of the province was necessary.
Not to lose time, we set out on foot, after having dispatched
a courier to Bassac. We learned, after, that the functionaries
thus ill-disposed to us had suffered some days' severe punish
ment 'in consequence. The look of the country was far from
corresponding to that which the narrow belt bordering the
river had led us to expect. It was covered with high under
growth and woods, uncultivated, and generally uninhabited.
It is almost always thus in Lower Laos.
Beyond the first fall of the Se-don, a cataract of about
fifteen metres and very beautiful, the river becomes navig
able again, and we hastened to take advantage of it. The
echo of our anger of the day before had preceded us to the
villages, and they put canoes at our disposal, without even
asking us to show our papers. We thus passed the bounds
of the territory of Bassac, and reached the borders of the pro
vince of Kantong-niai, where we found comfortable lodgings
prepared for us. The governor of Kantong-niai was a Httle
old man of about sixty-five, with a bad, not to say a wicked,
face. He read the Siamese letter, copied it, and put a thou
sand ridiculous questions about France to us, before he would
allow us to continue our journey. We were expected with
impatience in the next province, that of Simia. They led us,
on our arrival, to a charming hut, made expressly for us, of
bamboos and leaves still quite fresh. The children and
women, who made a holiday to see us, had advised this
attention, in the hope of keeping us at least a whole day ;
but we had become used to having a heart wholly immov
able, and took only two hours' rest with them. The autho
rities, cheated in their curiosity and wounded in their self-

LAOTIAN SAVAGES. 73
love, carried our little baggage, but left us to get on on
foot, in 3pite of our protestations. The soil is sterile, the rock
showing itself everywhere under it, and yields only a scanty
growth, soon burnt up by the sun. At noon the heat was
overpowering ; I felt as if needles of fire were running into
my brain, and bringing on a continual giddiness. We could
breathe only in the evenings and mornings. One night the
thermometer had fallen to twelve degrees above zero, and (
we awoke shivering with cold.
Some isolated rice-fields, in burned parts of the woods, cul
tivated by the savages, were to be seen here and there. To
protect themselves from the wild beasts, the proprietors of
these miserable fields have chosen to live fifty feet up in the
air. They have built gray huts, which look like huge nests
of birdB of prey, on the tops of the great trees, in part
stripped of their branches. They get at them by long ladders,
narrow and bending. In walking across this wretched
country, we came on a troop of buffaloes. At sight of the
French flag, carried by a native, they moved, and presently
made ready to charge us, as we were hurrying to hide the
colours from their sight ; yet they are far less wild in Laos
than in Cochin-China. In our colony, even close to Saigon,
the sight of a Frenchman exasperates them, as if they re
sented the conquest more than the Annamites themselves.
The Laotians every moment refused to go farther. We had
to drive them on. They are, however, able to make long
journeys a-foot, only time is of no value to them. They like
to lie down, as often as may be, at the side of a brook, to smoke
a cigarette, or chew a quid of betel. To go on without stop
ping, as we made them, was contrary to all their habits ; and
they showed it by grumbling, by tricks always baffled, and by
lies always discovered, which they renewed none the less
with an obstinate candour, in hope of getting a halt in the
long-run. Saravane, the chief place of a third province, is seen
from a distance by the projecting angles of the triple roofs
of its pagodas. Savages were busy making ready lodgings
for us ; two houses were already finished, and we relieved
them from making any more. As great mandarins never
travel without a numerous suite of men, women, and ele-

74 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
phants, the governor expected to see 150 Frenchmen be
hind us, and caused barracks to be prepared for them. The
modesty of our escort, — a modesty in keeping with the
slenderness of our resources, as well as of our habits and
tastes, — always astonished our hosts, and often made them,
at first, doubt our rank. The village was agreeably situ
ated on the borders of the Se-don, and shaded by a crowd of
great trees regularly planted. The houses were numerous,
and in good condition ; but what surprised us most, was to
find, in this hidden corner of the Siamese possessions, such
a pagoda as we had not met since leaving Cambodgia. It
was built of bricks, whitewashed, and covered by several
roofs, one over the other. The facade, a little contracted,
was approached by a porch sustained on four slender pillars
of unequal height, and united a-top by a festoon carved in
wood. Farther on, in the middle of a little pond, rose, on
piles, a small building of the same style, covered outside
with gilding. It was reached by a long wooden causeway,
a little out of repair, the last plank being removed by de
sign. This mysterious sanctuary, which the bonzes made
great difficulty of letting us enter, was the Hbrary of the
sacred books. Their books were there, ranged on rich
shelves, in elegant cases, which, again, were covered with
silk, and slept in undisturbed repose — for not one of these
religious could decipher the Pali text, though they paid it
such profound respect — the water, which bathes the feet of
their palace, preserving them from the two great scourges
of the country, water and the white ants. In the villages
of these countries, the pagodas, built of brick, show off with
an air of relative richness and soHdity over the wooden huts
which surround them. Built in the middle of a great yard,
they seem to keep profane habitations at a distance. It is
always near them one finds the best cocoa-trees, the highest
palms, the most flourishing cabbage-palms. In the shade
of these the bonzery shelters itself, and the children come
to learn to read and write. As in ancient Europe, culture
and teaching are in Laos the monopoly of the clergy. Litera
ture, properly so called, hardly exists, and one has finished
his studies when he has read a certain number of Bouddhist
books, and heard them explained.

BONZES. 75
The bonzes, who pass their whole life in the yellow
dress, subject to the austerities imposed by the rule, are not
numerous. Most of the young men who fill the pagodas
stay longer or shorter, as suits their convenience, but none
less than three months. This custom is followed by all who
respect themselves. The king of Cambodgia wears the
frock, and has his head shaved ; and the king of Siam, him
self, enters religion before mounting the throne. I once
saw the son of a mandarin renounce the world for a time,
and greatly admired the facility with which he was admitted
into the convent. The postulant, clothed in white, followed
by his parents and his friends, presented himself before the
bonzes, sitting in council, and laid down those offerings
which are obligatory in a thousand circumstances of life,
for procuring a prayer or a placet, or instead of cartes de
visite, — and form in this country a heavy tax on the poor.
The first thing to be done when an act of favour, or even of
justice, is desired from any one, be he chief of a village, a
great mandarin, the governor of a province, or the king, is
to send him a basket of poultry, or a quarter of buffalo or
of pork. The bonzes, who live luxuriously on alms, have no in
clination to lose the benefit of such a custom, and my novice
having complied with if, was received. In the examination
he had to undergo, far greater concern appeared to be
shown for the health of his body than for the state of his
soul. He declared he had never been either insane or
leprous ; that he had the authority of his parents for what
he was doing ; and that he was provided with all that con
stitutes the wardrobe or the furniture of a Bouddhist monk —
a yellow frock, a mat, and a copper saucepan. This done,
the old man vanished, and the clergy who had assisted at
the transformation, bowed before the new phra — the saint
almost canonised. They henceforth spoke to him only in
words pitched on the key of the most extravagant hyperbole.
The yellow frock, so universally respected, inspires in
those who wear it — if only put on to-day, to be put off to
morrow — a kind of fantastic insolence. The Bouddhist re
ligious give their services to those who ask, and to those
who pay them, but they -have no cure of souls. Without

76 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
responsibility to heaven, they are without love to their
neighbour. They abuse their numerous privileges, treat the
great of the earth almost as equals with equals, and despise
the poor. Most of the young bonzes have a faculty of for
getting the monastic rules, some of which, however, it must
be owned, are troublesome to excess. Bouddha prohibited
his disciples from touching a woman, from speaking to her
in a secret place, from sitting on the same mat with her,
or from going on a boat which carried one. Indeed, he so
dreaded the influence of the female sex on his religious, as
to interdict their use of a mare or of a she elephant when
they made a journey.
The Bouddhist calendar has a great many festivals.
Every one was keeping holiday at Saravane; and the
bonzes, whom the faithful are bound to feast on pain of loss
of salvation, made a long breakfast the day after we arrived.
In the afternoon a procession went several times round
the pagoda. It recalled the Catholic ceremonies of the same
kind so thoroughly, as to make one forget himself. The
bonzes marched before, carrying emblems and banners ; the
laics came after; and, lastly, closing the whole, appeared
the women, in full dress and full chignon, their hands fiUed
with flowers.
We exchanged visits of ceremony with the authorities.
After the inevitable presentation of the letter from Siam,
that magic talisman which opened every door to us, the
governor promised to procure us six elephants, apologising
that he could not get more ; he was obliged to take away
five for his annual visit to all the pagodas of his province,
which would begin the next day. Six elephants were
enough for us. A kind of narrow and long seat, like a
child's cradle, set on several ox or deer skins, was kept in
its place on the back of our beasts by a strong surcingle of
rattan. When we left a village or came to one, we were
helped to mount or descend these living walls, by ladders ;
but it was different when we had to halt in the forest. Some
of the elephants, very well trained, knelt at the word of com
mand from the driver. It looked as if a hill had fallen in on
itself. Others were content to lift their fore foot, so as to
form a kind of stool, by means of which one could scramble

ELEPHANTS. 77
into his place. The driver, astraddle on the neck of his
beast, let his legs hang behind the huge ears of the elephant,
which kept going all the time like huge fans.
A word was commonly enough to guide these intelligent
animals; but it was sometimes necessary to use an iron hook,
which was stuck into the skin of the head till it drew blood.
In leaving Saravane we twice crossed the Se-don, which
has very steep banks. Our elephants, to get down the high
sides of the river, had to trust themselves to an almost per
pendicular path, hardly wider than then- own feet. When
the soil was loose, they stiffened their legs before them, let
their hind legs drag, so that then thighs were on the ground,
and their belly not much above it, and slid to the very edge of
the precipice, without for a moment losing either their cool
ness or their balance. When they emerged in this way
from a hollow, they looked Hke a huge block of rock which
had become detached and was in motion. We had seen
their strength before, but now admired their prudence. We
had to climb a dry watercourse full of roUing stones. They
scanned the huge tree above them, with its bare roots, or
the rocks overhanging them, and kept their eye on every
tuft of grass or grain of sand, never advancing a step till
they felt sure that the ground would bear them. In some
difficult places they took an hour to a 'kilometre ; but they
never stumbled once.
When the woods had replaced the rice-fields, we ceased
to meet villages at which to make our evening halts, and
it was necessary to carry provisions for several days. We
went along roads which no horse, however strong or active,
could have travelled, and our beasts performed wonders of
strength and cleverness. Reaching at last, after much toil,
the top of a steep ascent, we discovered at our feet, beyond
the fohage, a stretch of water, in which the mountains re
flected their rounded summits. We took it for one of those
magnificent lakes, which are the ornament of virgin forests,
so often described ; but our Laotians undeceived us — it was
the river Attopee.
We had passed long days, formerly, at its mouth at
Stung-Treng, so that it was an old acquaintance, and we
wished to rest on its banks. The idea of this halt was

78 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
pleasant, for several reasons. The motion of elephants is
very fatiguing. It is not strictly either rolling or pitching,
but a mixture of both these horrible things, complicated, on
the least sound, by a sudden and violent step backwards.
These animals, once tamed, if not specially trained for war,
are as timid as hares. I have been on one which, in spite
of its formidable tusks and huge size, shied at the sight of a
small dog. In the forest, which we had to cross to get to
the river's edge, they met more worthy objects of terror;
for we passed the lair of a rhinoceros, and a tiger crossed
our path. We found ourselves, in fact, in a part abounding
with these ferocious beasts, and our guides seemed no less
terrified than the creatures they rode. M. de Lagree did
not the less give them the order to halt. We chose the dry
bed of a torrent, which pours itself in the rainy season into
the river Attopee, as our place of encampment. Our Lao
tians, always willing to halt, resisted this time energetic
ally, and only yielded when they had exacted the promise,
as impertinent as useless, that we would neither fight nor
swear, nor get into any noisy discussions. For greater se
curity they also forthwith built a Httle altar to Bouddha,
with branches torn from the trees. All right with heaven,
they thought it well to take the steps which worldly pru
dence dictated, and kindled huge fires round our camp.
We got under our shelter of leaves, necessary at this season
by the heaviness of the dews, and stretched ourselves on
our mats, having primed our arms afresh. As to our guides,
our drivers, and our baggage-carriers, they smoked their
cigarettes, and chatted in a low voice, but were too cautious
to close an eye. When, after a weary march,. I recovered,
under the reviving influence of a cool night, entire posses
sion of myself, my thoughts turned sadly to France, from
which no whisper had reached us for six months. My wan
dering life amidst silent forests, with every emotion quick
ened by close contact with the greatness of nature, fiUed
me with unknown joys, and kept off those tortures of un
certainty about friends and country, which were daily be
coming more keen. But while I tried to watch the stars
twinkling through the interlaced branches of the gourbi, I
saw all the evil phantoms which, under the horrid forms of

FOREST TRAVELLING. 79
war and death, had, perchance, in a half year, humbled
France, and ravaged my paternal hearth, pass before my
eyes like nightmares. The courier, who was close at hand,
brought us the news of Sadowa.
Notwithstanding the fears expressed the day before, the
night passed without any alarm. Next day, the forest became
extremely difficult of passage. The tracks made by the wild
elephants crossed each other, under the bamboos, which
made an impenetrable tangle, bristling with prickles, between
the trees. Our elephants showed wonderful cleverness in the
fatiguing work of breaking through this jungle, tearing down
branches of trees in the way, twisting them off with their
trunks, or crushing them under their feet. Each, in its turn,
took the head of the column, and obeyed the word of com
mand of the driver as exactly as if it understood his lan
guage. If a great tree stopped our course, the elephant
leaned its huge forehead against the trunk, and presently,
without any apparent effort on its part, the tree bent, the
roots started from the ground, and it lay stretched on the
earth, trampled down at last by the huge feet of the ani
mal. If one of the huge creepers, which hung from the
trees, threatened to hurt one of us whom it happened to
carry, the elephant would draw this immense cable to it, tear
it off, breaking it as a child would a thread, and would not
go on till it had opened a wide passage for itself and its
charge on its back, whose height above it, it seemed to have
measured. Our beasts had to toil thus for several days to
gether. Laborious and gentle, they never showed ill-humour,
except when the drivers, not thinking it enough to shackle
them, thought it necessary to tie them up as weU. This
happened at every halt in these districts, frequented by numer
ous troops of wild elephants, which, as the drivers wiH have
it, blushing for their race at the sight of their fellows enslaved,
never fail, when they come on them, to break their bonds,
and force them to join them and renew their wandering lives
in the depths of the boundless woods. Our animals, angry,
and in a pet, beat their trunks against the ground with
a loud noise, or uttered cries not unlike the sounds a bad
player makes on a hunting horn. Their ill-will always ended

80 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
with this, however, as if it were a faint protest against their
ill-usage. We at last reached the edge of the forest, and saw in the
distance a chain of bare mountains. It is the high natural
barrier which has prevented the Annamites spreading them
selves over Laos, and has kept them penned up on the sea-
coast. We had reached the point where the river Attopee,
which probably has its source in these mountains, begins to
be navigable. A large village stands at this spot, and we took
twenty-four hours' rest in it. A Siamese mandarin, a tax-
collector, who happened to be there at the time, hastened to
pay us a visit, and was very grateful for an earthenware
pipe, with the head of a Zouave for bowl, given him by the
head of the expedition. The river Attopee is very pretty,
and recalls some rivers of France. It flows rapidly through
vast and magnificent forests. Oui- light canoes, borne noise
lessly on the stream, did not alarm the wild animals, which
came to the banks of the water for coolness and shade. The
wild boars, the deer, but, above all, the pea-fowl, revived our
taste for the chase ; and our table, so often bare, would some
times have roused the envy of knights of the middle ages.
The river Attopee had been described to us as another
Pactolus. Gold is, certainly, found in its sand and on its
banks, but the search for it has been left to the savages. I
went to see a little improvised village of the unfortunates
who follow this branch of industry on a sandbank, just left
dry. They lodge in bamboo huts about twice the size
of large dog - kennels, which they pretty closely resemble.
Each of these cabins is the home of a family. Several gene
rations of women were crouched in them, from the old crea
ture, whose long white hair fell over her hollow cheeks and
meagre shoulders, to the little daughter, who peacefully
sucked the plump breast of its mother amidst her half-
alarm at our visit. There were no men to be met with,
such as we saw at a distance instantly hurrying away when
they noticed us. Wishing to see other camps of these wild
people, we took a stroll into the country, under the guidance
of a Laotian.
M. de Lagree was now struck by one of those attacks of
fever, which begin by freezing the blood in the veins, and

A FOREST VILLAGE. 81
end by making it burn like fire. We at once procured from
a neighbouring village some felt coverlets, cloaks, and lan-
goutis, and whatever might help to restore heat in his
chilled body ; and after two hours of mortal anxiety, we
were able to assure ourselves that his strong constitution
would get him over the danger. We left him to rest, and
were free to continue our journey. We had to march a long
time through jungle, crossing broad and deep streams on
slender trunks of trees, which had no parapet but a yield
ing creeper. A wretched caravanserai, buried in the bushes,
showed us our journey was ended. There is not in these
countries a group often settlers which does not provide a
shelter for travellers ; hospitality being the first law in such
regions, as being the first necessity. Among the Laotians,
if there be no cottage for the purpose, the pagoda serves
for inn ; but there are no pagodas among the savages.
They believe in fairies and ghosts, which do not live in
temples. Round the village to which we had come rose a
palisade, to keep off evil spirits ; but it would not have stood
a good kick from a man of flesh and blood. A bit of bamboo,
covered with writing and conjurations, hung over our door.
The huts were ranged in a semicircle. We counted seventy
or eighty, all built upon the same plan, which was as simple
as could be imagined. They are two metres broad, and about
three deep, and two narrow and low doors correspond one
to the other in the gables. These wretched dwellings are
perched on posts, which leave a commodious abode under
neath the family to whom they belong, for fowls and pigs.
The women ran off, at a signal from their husbands, so that
we found none but the old people. At the gold - seekers'
village we had seen them sitting sadly on then- doorsteps,
then age making them look as if they no longer belonged
to either sex. The men are, in general, well-grown and well-
made; their projecting forehead set in a frame of long hair,
which they leave to fall in confusion, or twist up behind
their head. The end of the nose comes very low, and the
nostrils are much raised. The Laotians, on the other hand,
have short snub noses, and would be less good-looking than
their tributaries, but for the true savage expression of these
poor people, seen especially in their wild frightened looks,
G

82 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
as if they were stupid with wonder. They have elegant
ways, however, which may be remembrances of some dis
tant past. They wear bracelets of brass wire, and necklaces
of glass beads, and make holes in their ears large enough to
insert great cylinders of wood. This last custom prevails
also among the Laotians, but to a smaller extent. Formerly,
the most powerful king of Laos — the only one, indeed,
who really deserved the name — gloried in the extraordinary
diameter of these holes, made, little by little, in the lower
lobe of his ears. They begin by using a little gold bodkin,
which they let stay in the flesh for a month, introducing
others, larger and larger, successively, till they get the ends
of the ears to fall over the shoulders. The savages of to
day no longer fear to indulge in a luxury formerly reserved
exclusively to the king.
What is the origin of these, tribes, which we found every
where alongside the Laotians, throughout the com-se of
the Mekong? In a journey so rapid as ours, it was im
possible to study ethnography very deeply. To get at a
scientific conclusion, it would have been necessary to live
a long time among them ; to gain the confidence of some
of the most intelligent, and to converse with them ; but we
had no such opportunity. We only passed through ; and,
besides, had no interpreter who knew their different idioms,
so that we can hardly venture even on a few conjectures.
The Laotians occupy only a narrow strip on the banks
of the river, especially on the left bank. Between their
villages and the great mountain -chain which bounds the
Annamite empire, numerous tribes are scattered, from the
Tonkin to our province of Lower Cochin-China, some of
them including several encampments in their tribal jurisdic
tion. Those nearest the Laotians, who have likely enough
given sovereigns to Laos in some former day, have submit
ted to the king of Siam, and pay him a light tribute. This
subjection, nominal, or nearly so, as it is, brings them some
very substantial advantages. They need no longer fear the
incursions of slave-traders, who drive a flourishing trade
with the independent tribes. In Cambodgia, and probably
also in Siam, as in Laos, there are several classes of slaves :
those who are slaves for debt, the slaves of the king, and

SLAVERY. 83
the slaves of pagodas. Slavery for debt is not, strictly speak
ing, slavery ; it is a temporary loss of liberty. When any
one is unable to pay his creditor a sum due, he gives himself,
or one of his children, up to him. The slave's labour is reck
oned equivalent to the interest on the debt; but he is not
freed till the principal is paid up. If he is discontented with
his master, he borrows money and repays him, passing by
this simple fact into a new ownership.
The king's slaves are really slaves, whether they have
been taken in war, or reduced to slavery by legal sentence.
Any one, pursued for a delinquency or a crime, who takes
refuge in a pagoda, is protected by the right of asylum, on
condition of becoming a slave, or rather a bonze, for life. True
slavery, in all the horror of the word — slavery simply from
being basely carried of^ with no deliverance but by death or
escape — is inflicted only upon savages. These, trapped by
ambushments, or driven off like fallow-deer by the man-
hunters, are torn from their forests, chained, and taken to
the chief places of Laos, Siam, or Cambodgia. At Pnom-
Penh they are in especial demand, and are paid for more liber
ally than Annamite or Cambodgian slaves. They are worth
800 francs there, while the Cambodgian is hardly worth
more than 500, and no more than 200 will be given for an
Annamite. The difference in the conditions of the slavery
has something to do with this difference in value ; but the
main thing which determines it is the degree of confidence
the master can put in the uprightness of the slave, according
to the race to which he belongs. The Annamites on the one
hand, and the Laotians and Cambodgians on the other, give
themselves up to this shameful trade. When I asked a man
darin the worth of the chief articles of merchandise in his
village, he never failed, after mentioning rice, cotton, or silk,
to add the slaves, whose value fluctuates, like that of other
things, according to the law of supply and demand. Young-
good-looking virgin girls are sold to the rich men, who buy a
mistress for about the same sum as a pleasure-elephant costs.
Among the tribes which have preferred the chances of
their almost nomadic life to the security of an easy vassal
age, some, become fierce, pursue strangers in their hatred,
and shoot them with poisoned arrows. On the left bank of

84 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
the Mekong, as far up as Tonkin, the Laotians, though quite
convinced of their own superiority, confessed that a hundred
of them would not dare to face ten of these wild children of
the woods. In then- turn, these use reprisals, and traffic, as
they have the chance, in the liberty of their enemies. I have
seen an Annamite of the neighbourhood of Tourane, who had
been taken prisoner by the savages of the hills, sold and
resold, till he became, at the end of the transactions, the
property of a Laotian mandarin. These tribes have many
names. In the lower and middle part of the basin of the
Mekong we meet the Mois, the Chiames — the old inhabitants
of the kingdom of Tsiampa — and professing the Mussulman
faith — the Stiengs, the Penongs, the Cuys, the Charais or
Giraies, &c. They are, perhaps, the old owners of the soil,
beaten, and driven into the woods, by the invaders established
on the banks of the great rivers and principal streams.
There are radical differences between the Cambodgian
or Laotian and the idioms of the savage tribes — idioms
which seem connected with each other by striking features,
and by a general resemblance. According to the information
given M. Mouhot by the Stiengs, among whom he lived for
a time, the Chiames speak the Charai, and the Cuys speak
the same language as the Stiengs themselves. The tribes
which have submitted to Siam or Cambodgia have a rude
organisation, somewhat like what obtains in Laotian or Cam
bodgian villages. Those, on the contrary, who have retained
their independence, practise absolute independence, and re
cognise no chief. All live in a kind of communism, sharing,
impartially, want or abundance, and show in this mistake,
characteristic of children and savages, that want of foresight
which is only one of the forms of absolute confidence in
nature. The Charais surround two personages in their tribe with
veneration — the one enjoying the name of the King of Fire ;
the other, that of the King of Water. The fire-king is the
more important. A great rusty sabre, without a sheath, is
his symbol of power ; and it is hard to tell whether the
homage is paid the man or his weapon. I am assured that
the kings of Cambodgia and of Cochin-China send him am
bassadors periodically; and he is known and honoured by

THE INDEPENDENT TRIBES. 8#
all the savage tribes to the very frontiers of China. A mis
sionary, who wrote in the seventeenth century the history of
Tonkin, hesitates to include in the limits of that kingdom,
at the time when it embraced Cochin-China itself, the moun
tain peoples who acknowledged the fire and the water
kings. Can we recognise, in this singular fact, the sign of
an ancient sovereignty, marking but still, after so many cen
turies, the despoiled family of the old kings of Laos ? Does
the tribe of Charais, like that of Judah of old, hide in its
bosom some Joash? Without writings and fallen out of
memory, without history as without tradition, the savages,
whom we addressed in Laotian, understood little of our mean
ing, and most commonly gave us no answer.
Attopee, which we had reached, is no more than a very
poor village. It is one of the principal centres of the slave-
trade. I have seen boats, loaded with this miserable human
freight, descending the river, to get into the Mekong at Stung-
Treng, and thence make for Cambodgia. The unhappy cap
tives seemed more crushed by their griefs than by the irons
that bound them. In the paths of their forests, fleeing at
the lightest sound, like wild deer, or crouching like fallow-
deer at the bottom of their bamboo hut, and trembling at
the sight of us, they seemed nearer the brute, in the scale
of being, than man. Here, on the contrary, immovable in
their narrow floating prison, letting their sad looks wander
as they might, they showed in their bearing that nobility
which hopeless misfortune, profoundly felt, everywhere im
prints on the human figure. We may, doubtless, regret that
a public market for slaves should be held at Pnom-Penh,
under the shadow of our flag; but it must not be forgotten
that, as yet, we are only the protectors of Cambodgia. Our
interference in the affairs of this country can only be exer
cised with extreme caution, under pain of creating perils for
ourselves. King Norodom himself must be got to suppress
this odious custom, consecrated by the practice of centuries.
The people of Attopee melt the gold found in the sands,
in little earthen crucibles, and send a certain number of these
ingots annually to Bangkok. They thus pay, in kind, their
dues to Siam. Here, again, one sees how the king of Siam
enriched himself while he affected to render a service. His

86 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
armies drove off the bands of soldiers, who, rushing from the
Annamite mountains, threw themselves on Attopee at the
time of the revolt of the Taysons,1 and this province has
since been detached from Cambodgia.
We were in haste to get back to Bassac, and avail our
selves of the precious months of the dry season, to continue
our voyage towards China. Seven elephants awaited us
some hours below Attopee ; two of them were mothers, and
their young ones went with them. Sixty men were given
us, or rather were forced on us, as escort, for we were un
willing to take so many from their homes and their occupa
tions. But they told us thieves infested the woods through
which we must pass, and the governor was responsible for
our safety. The journey, it was said, would take five days.
We dived into the forests, making our way through a kind
of marshy flat, where the waters collected from the neigh
bouring mountains. We had to cross a great many streams ;
some of them actual rivers, bearing no inconsiderable tribute
of waters to the Attopee. My beast divided its cares between
the serious difficulties of the route and its little one, which
it did not let out of sight for a moment, and it, frolicsome,
and cross as a child led for a walk against its will, roared
and stamped. At its cries the mother became indifferent to
the iron which the driver stuck into its head ; she stopped,
and turned back to quiet her son ; when he wanted a drink,
nothing would induce her to take a step ahead; and the
crafty thing chose always to ask the breast at the moment
when its mother, busy with the slope of a hill, was letting
herself slide down painfully on her stomach. If the water
was too deep, she helped her little one with her foot and
trunk, keeping him on the surface. To the very last this
admirable animal never for a moment lost its coolness, but
discharged its duties as a mother with tenderness, and as
a beast of bm-den with conscientiousness. As to the males,
they are lavishly gallant. They hide their mysterious am
ours in the depths of the woods ; but they do not the less,
on the march, use their trunk for the most immodest sport.
1 Mountaineers famous in the history of Cochin-China. It was against
them that Gia-long asked and obtained help from Louis XVI. by the me
diation of the Bishop of Adran.

&

RETURN TO BASSAC. 87
After having met torrents of clear and running water in the
heart of the forest, we halted each night in the midst of
vast grassy glades, with a tainted pool in some central de
pression, to which all the beasts of the woods came to
quench their thirst, and wash. Our elephants found in such
places abundant pasturage, and it was necessary to think of
them. At last we came to immense marshes, the country lay open
before us, and we, once more, distinguished clearly, after a
trip of thirty-two days, the tops of the Bassac mountains. An
odd-looking peak, like a woman's breast, stood out against
the deep blue of the sky, and we strained our eyes for long
before we could discover the flagstaff, which bore the French
flag, over our encampment. At the foot of these mountains
we should find ourselves reunited, should read the French
papers together, discuss the news, open our letters, and
draw fresh courage from these last communications with our
country. The fatigues, the fevers, which we had had to suffer
in crossing the woods and marshes, were all forgotten in the
first transports which this sight caused us. The disappoint
ment we were to meet was all the more bitter. M. Garnier
had found neither message nor messenger at Stung-Treng.
The revolt of the Cambodgians cut off our communications
with the lower part of the river, and troops had been sent
after us to bring us back. This report soon spread among
the Laotians of Bassac, who several times informed MM.
Delaporte and Thorel, who alone, with a part of the escort
remained in the camp, that the enemy was close at hand.
A sailor and a French soldier, tired of the serious privations
which circumstances imposed on us, had stolen some arms
sown terror in the village, and refused to return to duty.
M. Delaporte had to go to the king, who armed twenty Lao
tians with cudgels. Guided during the night by a complaisant
husband, these surprised the fugitive's, whom we brought
back in irons. In spite of threats of invasion, of which we
were the cause; in spite of internal disorder, provoked around
him by the French, the king of Bassac did not cease to show
his hearty good-will to us. He knew our plans, realised our
embarrassment, and tried to lessen it. As to the Cambod
gian rebels, — giving up their useless pursuit, they came no

88 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
farther than Stung-Treng, on the left bank of the Mekong,
and Tonli-Repon, on the right.
If we had expected only letters and papers, the not get
ting them would, no doubt, have been a serious disappoint
ment, but the success of the expedition would not have been
compromised. The impossiMity of communicating, by the
river, with the French officer at Cambodgia threw us into
serious anxiety. It threatened to involve us in the most
disastrous consequences. We had no passports from Pekin ;
and to go without them, after our recent experience, and
when it was clear that we could not have advanced a step in
the Siamese provinces, if we had not been able to show the
governors imperative commands from Bangkok, was to con
demn ourselves to be stopped at the frontier of Laos. M. de
Lagree, however, gave the order to prepare to leave Bassac,
resolved to make a new attempt to get the papers, which he,
like ourselves, thought indispensable.
The king redoubled his delicate attention on learning
that we were about to leave Bassac. We presented him
with portraits of the Emperor and Empress, and he instantly
ordered them to be hung up on the waUs of the grand pa
goda. In the farewell visit we went to pay him he said a
thousand kindly things to us, which would in France have
been only polite commonplaces, but in his mouth were of
value. However little enthusiasm one may feel for savages
and half savages, they never say what they do not think. It
was a real pleasure to speak about France with this young
Laotian. He seemed struck with wonder at the narration of
the miracles effected by European genius, and listened with
a simple confidence, throwing out embarrassing questions in
the middle of oui' descriptions ; for it would have been diffi
cult to have given him explanations he would have under
stood. He made himself the mouthpiece of the regrets of
his capital. Our medical men were followed by the bows
and the gratitude of the sick whom they had attended.
Whole families carried offerings to the pagodas, that heaven
might be entreated to favour then voyage, and to give them
a thousand years of life. They had, in reality, distributed
some piUs, and struck the imagination by some happy ope
rations. The bonzes, alone, concealed their disHke; for they

BURNED FORESTS. 89
had given up the sick persons, and a double hurt came from
these cures to them — the injury to their prestige, and a
heavy loss to the pagoda. Funerals cannot be performed
without largesses from the family, and the dead are never
better honoured than when the living feast round the funeral
pile. The king came, himself, to accompany us to the beach,
where the boats he had caused to be made ready for us were
waiting, and we left in the last days of December. The
navigation had become easy ; the steep banks of the river no
longer presenting the same obstacles as at the commence
ment of our voyage. The trees and the shrubs, through the
middle of which we must have passed six months before,
were now ten metres above our heads. One of my rowers, to
escape his forced task, threw himself into the water, gained
the bank, and disappeared in the high undergrowth. The
unfortunate creature would only suffer worse troubles if he
were taken ; and if he escaped, his family would have to pay
for him.Our flotilla stopped, and we went on foot to visit the
ruins of Muongcao, the ancient capital of the kingdom of
Bassac. The immense plain which we had to cross had a
desolate look, for the natives had set it on fire. The sun
scorched our heads, and the still-glowing ashes burned our
feet. Some half-burned trees, here and there, without leaves,
showed in this desert, like giants in mourning ; others, com
pletely burned through, lay on the ground ; and we could not
but regret the deHghtful shade they would have given us,
and denounce a barbarous custom, which destroys for the
sake of destruction. The Laotians sometimes burn parts of
the forest to make dry rice-fields, but they often do it to sa
tisfy the instinct of devastation — an instinct which stupidly
spreads the ravages of fire over thousands of hectares. In
Cochin-China the French administration has been forced to
take measures to protect the forests, which are one of the
chief sources of the wealth of the state. By these random
conflagrations the natives, without intending it, create im
penetrable thickets of bamboos. This plant, thanks to the
vigorous roots it pushes into the ground, is the only one
that survives, and meeting no more obstacles or rivals

90 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
ends by covering immense tracts, through which neither
men, wagons, nor elephants can pass, except with extreme
difficulty. There is not much of Muongcao : some parts of walls of
enclosures, some pagodas, a smaU slender pyramid, sculp
tured like one of those gothic spires that decorate our cathe
drals, a fine wide street, and trees planted in order. The
Mekong at the place where we went on board again is cut
up by sandbanks. It makes a sharp elbow, which gives it
the appearance of a huge lake, shut in behind by a chain of
mountains of various heights, and curious shapes, bathed in
vapour. Some green islands rose from the waters, which sur
rounded them with a white girdle of foam. We had some
rapids to pass, through confused masses of piled-up sand
stone, which looked like strange crouching monsters. The
river has marked on the polished sides of these rocks the
height of its periodical risings. The hills which run along
the river's edge are wooded; but the leaves had lost their
freshness, yellow spots showing here and there on the green.
Presently, the Mekong contracted ; on the right bank, which
we foUowed, the blocks of sandstone rose into a cyclopean
waU ; rocks encumbered the bed of the river, which at some
spots was of immense depth, the sounding-line finding no
bottom. Six days after our leaving Bassac we reached the entry
of the river Ubone, called Se-mun by the natives, which
seems only a bifurcation of the Mekong. This latter was
almost unnavigable as far as Khemarat, and M. Delaporte
was sent off, alone, on the difficult task of exploring it. The
bulk of the expedition turned to the west, and ascended
the river Ubone. We were told that we should have ten
rapids to ascend, and, therefore, took a reinforcement of men
at the village of Pacmoun; a precaution, as it proved, by no
means useless. The river was very soon obstructed by a
huge bar of sandstone, twisted, worn, and overthrown by
the waters. The sandstone is perforated by holes as round
as if made by human hands, but caused dm-ing the floods by
whirlpools charged with flints. We had to carry aU our
canoes over these obstacles, and to do this we had to unload
them completely. The sun heated the stones, and there

DIFFICULT TRAVELLING. 91
was no shelter whatever from its rays, which were tenfold
hotter by the reflection. The men yoked themselves to the
canoes ; a singer roared verses at the top of his voice, a
long scream from the rest serving for refrain ; then came a
grand pull, and the burden moved forward a few paces.
The night had already long fallen, and the last canoe was
yet behind. Our natives had been a whole day in the
wafer, and after all this toil they had nothing to eat but a
little rice, and no bed but the hard stone. The fire, how
ever, warmed them as it kindled, and kept up then spirits.
The river at this place is a torrent of about four hundred
metres in breadth. It is, however, very picturesque. The
banks are covered with trees. Near the water the under
growth is of a fine green ; but on the higher level the yellow
and red leaves, hardly holding on to the withered trees, are
carried away by the lightest breath of wind. One sees
just such landscapes in autumn in some districts of France.
Here, perhaps, it is a trifle wilder ; but there is nothing to
recall the tropics, except the sun. Our canoes made no
more than three kilometres in twelve hours ; and while our
Laotians were dragging them, with great labour, in the
middle of the rapids, we set out to hunt in the forest, which
was inhabited by wild animals of all sizes and kinds, from
the tiger, the elephant, and the wild boar, to the hare and
the goat. The banks of the river and the edges of the
smaller pools in the woods were marked by their footprints,
but we saw no more of them than this. All, alike, flee from
man, finding hiding-places in the impenetrable thickets and
the vast wildernesses. It would be necessary to study their
habits, and to surprise them by watching, and we had not
the time. Fishing was at once easier and more successful.
Fish is very abundant in the Ubone, and some khids would,
beyond question, be thought delicacies in Europe.
On the 3d of January 1867 we reached the foot of
the last rapid. Other boats were needed to come to our
aid, to get us over this barrier, and we halted till they
arrived. We paid our men at the rate of four sous a day ;
but, in spite of the fatigue they had had, these bounties
astonished them, and the report spread everywhere, as it
had done in the past, that we scattered gold with open

92 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
hand. Great trees protected us from the rays of the sun ;
the sound of the falling water — a little sad and monotonous
— harmonised with oui' mood at the beginning of a new
year, and we rested om-selves quietly in our boats. These
Laotian canoes, narrow and long, covered with a low
rounded roof, look curious by night. When I could not
sleep, and saw before me only men, with shaved heads and
of strange figures, crouching and watching round a torch
which cast a flickering red light on them, I almost thought
myself carried away to the low-arched fosses of some town
on the Rhine. The windows had two square supports, and
I saw through them a corner of the sky, which, with the
water below, made the illusion still more complete.
We were near the village of Pimoun, which can hardly
be called one. Great plants, and trunks of trees cut off at
a man's height, still stood round the huts, and disputed the
space intended for kitchen-gardens. The head of this strag
gling infant place sent to the rice-fields for labourers liable
to forced work, and we quietly ascended the Ubone in new
canoes, finding it easily navigable to that town, where we
arrived on the 6th of January. Fifteen horses of the
country, hardly larger than the dogs of the Pyrenees,
waited us, saddled, beribboned, and with a silver ornament
on their forehead, outside the row of mandarins of every
grade, in full official costume, who had come to greet us.
In spite of all that might be imposing in Europeans with
great beards and soiled clothes, we felt a little put out by
the solemnity of such a reception; for our blue flannel frock-
coats, already threadbare and torn, contrasted too strongly
with the glory of robes of gold, and langoutis of silk, not
to give our self-love a real humiHation. It was not with
out some surprise we found, in the house which had been
made ready for us, a table covered with a white cloth, set
out with wine and finger-glasses, and with comfortable seats
round it. Calico hangings made a good imitation of plaster
ceiling. It looked as if we had been spirited away to a
farm in Normandy. Messengers from the governor arrived,
in numbers, with presents.
All this showed that he was a man who had some ideas
of civilisation, and we hastened to pay him a visit with all

THE KING OF UBONE. 93
the ceremony we could. The palace was like a bazaar, it
was so heaped up with looking-glasses, cloth, and European
carpets, recently brought from Bangkok. It turned out that
they were intended to heighten the splendour of the coro
nation fe"tes, at which we were present soon after. The
governor had, in fact, obtained the title of king. He be
longs to the family of the princes of Vien-Chan, and having
been brought up at Bangkok since the conquest of this
kingdom by the Siamese armies, had done his best to gain
the favour of the king of Siam, who had placed him at the
head of the province of Ubone. He told us naively, that it
was the grand presents he had made his sovereign that had
won him his good fortune. His countenance is not pleas
ing ; he is of middle height, lean and angular, and his shin
ing eyes throw every instant a yellow light over his cat-like
parchment-coloured face. He was, however, well enough
disposed towards us. In one of the excursions which we
made outside the town he ordered some men to follow our
horses ; and to be the more sure that nothing would hinder
their keeping up with them, they were forbidden to take
their little bag of rice with them, the chief who went with
them being, moreover, required to give any of them a beat
ing, if they felt hungry and let it be known.
The coronation ceremony was partly civil, and partly
religious. To reach the new palace which he had had built
for himself, the king crossed the whole plain where we were
encamped. Music opened the procession. Next came some
cavaliers ; and behind them marched an imposing troop of
twenty-two elephants, between two files of Laotians armed
with lances, and carrying banners. On the back of the first
sat the king in a tunic of green velvet, with a crown like a
Prussian helmet, and protected by a great parasol of silver
thread. The people followed in a crowd, and were ordered
to make holiday. I saw some collected by force, and driven
towards the royal cortege by blows of a rattan. The great
hall of the palace was full of bonzes, and their chief began
the long prayers usual on such occasions. Lustres in brass
gilt, which were a very fair imitation of a model seen at
Bangkok, hung from the ceiling, and wax-lights were burn
ing, sending their smoke up along with that of cigarettes

94 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
and the perfume of fragrant woods. The prayers, alone,
were not glowing ; for every one chatted, smoked, or chewed
his betel, except the old bonze, who, spectacles on nose,
laboured to make out his Pali. At rare intervals the audi
ence associated itself with him by a general inclination or
a murmur, which was not unlike the response to our own
prayers. The crown prince had his own part in the cere
mony. Richly dressed in a langouti of cloth of gold, and a
tunic of net starred with silver spangles, he had, in spite of
his childish age, the haughty, solemn, and tired air of a
youngster who feels his importance. He prepared to submit
to the operation of cutting his hair ; an observance in use
in Siam and Cambodgia, as well as in Laos, to mark that
the child has passed from boyhood to youth. When the
heavens had been sufficiently invoked, the sovereign took
his place under a kind of dais, raised in the court, on an
artificial rock, and communicating with the terrace of the
palace, on the same level. Then, stripping off his fine
robes, he put on white, and the bonzes proceeded to pour a
deluge of lustral water, perfumed, over him. Four doves
were set free, one after the other, by the new king, and
they flew away over the heads of the kneeling people.
This gracious symbol seemed a cruel irony. The whole, in
short, was more curious than imposing, and I could not help
thinking of those pompous Oriental ceremonies of which I
used to dream, after reading self-deluded or lying writers.
Women were altogether excluded from the solemnity. They
take advantage of chinks in the walls, in such cases, to
indulge their most imperious weakness — curiosity. It is not
the jealousy of the men which makes them hide themselves,
as in Turkey, but simply that they are not thought good
enough to appear in such fetes. Amusements were fur
nished for the public in the evening, in the court of the
palace ; but when we came there, after our dinner, they had
just finished, and the crowd was dispersing. The king, how
ever, no sooner saw us than he ordered the gates of the
court to be closed, forced all to take their places again, and
the artists to recommence their feats. Nobody had dined
except the king and ourselves ; but that did not matter.
Some acrobats exhibited simple performances before us; two

UBONE. 95
of them, however, deserve more special mention. The first
put one of the heavy troughs in which the rice is pounded,
successively on his head, on his back, and on his stomach,
three vigorous fellows doing their best to show us, by the
use they made of three pestles, that they were not con
federates. They brought us some of the rice, which was
ground to meal, as if it had come out of a mill. The other
passed and repassed over a wide carpet of glowing embers,
as quietly as if he had been walking on grass.
The province of Ubone, created by the fugitives from
Vien-Chan, the ruined capital whose remains we were soon
to inspect farther on, appears to have a population of about
100,000 souls. Its principal wealth is in beds of salt, which
are worked over a district of about fifteen leagues, round the
chief town. The rain-water, which gets saturated with the
mineral when it has soaked down to the lower part of the
soil, rises to the surface again in the dry season, through the
heat, and deposits it on the ground, which appears as if
covered with hoar-frost. The natives sweep the fields, wash
the earth, and evaporate the water. This crop of salt does
not prevent rice from growing on the same ground, as soon
as the first rains have cleansed it. As to the town, it was
the largest we had yet met. The streets are broad, and
pretty well laid out, parallel or perpendicular to the river.
In the more important, there are even wooden pavements,
which are of the greatest use to the people when the rains
have soaked the thick coat of sand with which the ways are
covered. We had frequent interviews with the king, and he
often came to see us incognito. He begged us one day to go
out and quiet a band of Btumese pedlars, who were making
disorder, and whom he could not correct, because they had a
letter from the English authorities at Rangoon. The chief
of the expedition answered that, not being an Englishman,
he had no power to mix in such a dispute. It was several
days before we could root out of the king's mind the false
idea he had taken up of our nationality, and I hardly feel
sure that we succeeded in the end. This incident, which
repeated itself several times during our journey, would, of
itself, show the necessity of being careful in this particular.
Now that we are finally settled in Indo-China, it behoves our

96 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
honour that the population of the interior should learn to
know our name, as that of the coast has already, and that
England should no longer be imagined by these ignorant
people to be the only Western power. At Ubone, this title
of English, which they persisted in giving us, procured us
more consideration than we should otherwise have met ; but
farther on, the unfortunate confusion, in two cases especiaUy,
was on the point of leading to the most disastrous results.
It had become indispensable to rid ourselves of the Euro
peans who composed our escort. The Frenchmen, who had
already created trouble for us at Bassac, might bring on
more serious complications, by their bad conduct in circum
stances easy to foresee. M. de Lagree determined to send
these men to Pnom-Penh, and he also wished to make a last
effort to get the letters from Pekin, for which we had waited
so long and so vainly. In our absolute ignorance of what
had passed in Cambodgia since our departure, it was not
prudent to go thither by the river, which is the usual route;
and the chief of the expedition directed M. Garnier to reach
Pnom-Penh by the interior of the countries bordering the pro
vinces of the protectorate. This journey, equally difficult
and perilous, was destined to have the additional advantage
of bringing to light what had been hardly suspected — the
existence of a great country, which remained absolutely Cam
bodgian, under foreign domination. In the provinces of
Suren, Coucan, Sanka, and Tchonkan, which border on
Angcor, the population preserves, still, the language of the
ancient kingdom, of which we protect what remains. This
country separates the provinces situated on the Mekong to
about the fifteenth degree of north latitude, from the other
Siamese possessions, and has preserved a kind of autonomy,
the king of Siam, in deference to the feelings of the people,
giving them no governors who are not of then own race.
Nature, herself, thus seems to have marked out the field
which we have to clear in the lower part of the Mekong-
valley. On both sides of the great river, the Se-mun or
river Ubone, 'and the Se-don, bound the zone within which
our influence behoves us to prevail. On the right bank, the
ancient Cambodgian provinces I have just named seem to be
inexhaustibly fertile. Then productiveness, stimulated by

THE FUTURE OF LAOS. 97
new markets, by the opening of roads, which the geological
structure of the country makes easy, will increase the exports
of Saigon. On the left bank, on this side of the Se-don, the
country is less favoured, as we proved during our excursion
to Attopee ; but behind the strip occupied by the Laotians,
and the narrow territory where some savage tribes live
scattered in their forests, are the Annamites, of whom one
cannot halp thinking at the sight of a soil, naturally fertile,
but only half inhabited and only half cultivated by a lazy
population, whom the mandarins devour. The intelligent
race, of whom we have already attracted a marvellous pro
portion into the six provinces of Lower Cochin-China, will,
perhaps, some day cross the mountains which separate it
from Laos, and will transform that country, at once by its
industry and by its healthful example.

CHAPTER III.
DEPARTURE FROM UBONE. JOURNEY BY LAND. HALT AT KHEMA-
RAT ON THE BORDERS OF THE MEKONG. ARRIVAL AT VEEN-
CHAN. VISIT TO THE RUINS OF THAT ANCIENT CAPITAL.
It had been predicted that we should have to pass some
months in Laos — a region of evil name, protected by the
rocks with which its river bristles, and stiU more by the
miasma exhaled by the sun's heat, from the curiosity or am
bition of its neighbours. It was not, therefore, without some
feeling of joy, almost of pride, that in thinking of the road
we had already come, we recalled our hardships, running
over them as a soldier does his wounds, and finding that we
stiU survived. Our ranks were about to be thinned, but it
was an act of our own will. M. de Lagree had sent away all
the Europeans of our escort but one, the rest having shown
that their courage was greater than then resignation, and
that they were fitter to fight visible enemies than to bear
the enforced delays of our progress, and the annoyances of
the cHmate. Attracted at first by the hope of adventure,
they soon got an inkling of the monotonous life before them,
and then enthusiasm sank, as their eyes opened to the reali
ties of the case. We fancied, moreover, that we had nothing
to fear from the Laotians; for then extreme gentleness left
us without anxiety, so far as they were concerned. We were
called, it is true, to pass through the midst of other popula
tions of very different tempers, but they were still far dis
tant ; and it was wise, since we could not in any case force
the mandarins to do what we wanted, to make sure, at least,
of the sympathy of the natives, by irreproachable conduct
and strict discipline.
About three degrees of latitude and one of longitude

THE MEKONG UNNAVIGABLE. 99
already separated us from Crache, the Cambodgian village
where we had exchanged our steamer for canoes, and which
we, therefore, regarded as our true point of departure. The
windings of the river made the distance still greater. We
had reached the limits of Lower Laos, and it may not be
without use, if, in a few words, before leaving Ubone, to ad
vance into Middle Laos, I note the results obtained in the
first part of our journey. As I have said already, these re
sults, so far as regards the hope of making the river a great
commercial highway, were unfortunately negative. The dif
ficulties it offers begin at first starting from the Cambodgian
frontier ; and they are very serious, if not insurmountable.
If it were attempted to use steam on this part of the Me
kong, the return would be very dangerous. At Khong an ab
solutely impassable barrier, as things are, stands in the way.
Between Khong and Bassac the waters are unbroken and
deep, but the channel is again obstructed a short distance
from the latter. From the mouth of the river Ubone, which we
had ascended, to Khemarat, — that is, over a distance of two-
thirds of a degree of latitude, — the Mekong is nothing more
than an impetuous torrent, whose waters rush along a chan
nel more than a hundred metres deep by hardly sixty across.
The truth began, at last, to force itself on the most sanguine
among us. Steamers can never plough the Mekong, as they
do the Amazon or the Mississippi; and Saigon can never
be united to the western provinces of China by this immense
river-way, whose waters make it so mighty, but which seems,
after all, to be a work unfinished. From other points of
view, our labours had not been so barren. If the great hope
faded away — if it seemed no longer likely that the produce
of Setchuen and of Yunan should ever come to be stored on
the wharves of Lower Cochin-China — it became, at least, cer
tain, on the other hand, that the commerce of Lower Laos
naturally flowed to Pnom-Penh, and that there was nothing
like a forced direction of it to Bangkok, as had been feared
at Saigon. The great rafts of collected bamboos, and even
canoes, guided by the sure skill of hardy crews, are already
the agency used for the transport of bales of cotton and silk,
of loads of rice, and troops of slaves. A course of exchange,
of a kind, already exists, and it is only required that this be

100 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
developed. Annamites, Chinese, and Europeans, were use
fully helping this commercial propagandism, which would
benefit our colony. An excellent plan, and one of which our
colonial government could try the effect, would be, to rouse
the Laotians from then torpor, to induce them to produce
more by the prospect of sure markets, to awaken desires, to
create wants, to force local authorities to respect our mer
chants, and thus to teach some moderation in their demands
from such of their officials as might treat with French sub
jects. Some kinds of European goods would soon make their
way among the mass of the people. The comparative se
verity of the cold season has already forced the Laotians to
use textile fabrics, of which the greater part, exported from
English manufacturers, are introduced by way of Bangkok.
The taste for brilliant colours in cloth is pretty general, and
they are, perhaps, the one luxury which may become common.
Watches and arms are sought for by the rich; and in ex
change for such gifts we obtained every possible service
from the authorities. The mandarins transform their houses
into museums, where they show off with pride the refuse of
our coarser manufactures, and think the more of them the
more they have cost.
On the other hand, the timid and gentle nature of these
people, so easily alarmed, would make it necessary to keep
up a constant or periodical watchfulness. Among our fel
low-countrymen who come to seek fortune among strangers,
there are, doubtless, many honourable men, whom it would
be very unjust to include in the sweeping and summary
condemnation too often pronounced against the whole class.
But it cannot be concealed, that, when access is easy to
a country like Laos, one will meet, among the Europeans
who come to it, men ready, if they find themselves free
from control, to lay aside the peaceful ways of the honest
trader for the successful tricks of the adventurer. This
would be a real calamity; but the governor of Cochin-China
might prevent it by organising an annual inspection in the
lower part of the river, or perhaps by placing one of his
officers at one of the important places of Lower Laos — Bas
sac, for instance. Not only wordd the advice of one of those
intelligent men, to whom our colony owes, in part, its pro-

TRUE POLICY TOWARDS LAOS. 101
sperity, be a great help to the native authorities ; the instant
repression of fraud and violence which he could enforce
would maintain the national rights we could claim. Com
plaints which reach the governor of Cochin-China, after a
long interval, through the king of Siam, will never do much.
The first difficulties we met in the village of Stung-Treng
rose from the remembrance of recent acts of brigandage
by a Frenchman who wished to make a rapid fortune. The
mandarin of Stung-Treng tried to stop his career, and thus
put an end to his depredations ; but this strange trader
having complained, on his return, the admiral then at the
head of our colony, misled by a false story, thought it his
duty to address strong remonstrances to the court of Bang
kok. This mistake must needs be repeated, till some official
agent judges things on the spot. We cannot, indeed, without
letting our prestige suffer, allow the testimony of a Siamese
functionary to prevail against a European, without a word
on the other side. These considerations should, I would
hope, be strong enough to remove the objections which the
king of Siam, who is always suspicious, would not fail to
raise against an innovation as beneficial to his own subjects
as to ours. The young prince who has lately succeeded his
father on the throne is beginning, they say, to feel the cost
of English friendship, and to show a tendency towards us ;
so that the moment seems favourable for our obtaining a
concession, which we may be able to make him see in its
true light. Beyond Ubone our political and commercial
interests seem less directly affected. That place, itself, has
frequent connection with Bangkok, byway of Korat — a vast
entrepot at about fifteen degrees of latitude, where a great
many Chinese have settled, who go out from it in all direc
tions through the Siamese territories, and carry the English
cotton-checks through every part of Middle Laos.
We, had employed our time at Bassac to the best ad
vantage during our forced stay, which proved to be the cause
of great part of our future sufferings. Our journey on the
Attopee and the other excursions in the interior had no doubt
added to the useful information obtained ; but they had, in
part, consumed our resources, without advancing our great
end. Every day lost of the season favourable for travelling

102 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
was like losing a friend, whose place was soon to be taken
by a terrible enemy. While the wish to avoid a second rainy
season in Laos was a spur to urge us forward, our impatience
beat itself vainly against the opposing ways, of the natives,
whose indolence imposed on us the most provoking delays.
It was, moreover, necessary to advance slowly, to give time
to our colleague, who had gone to Cambodgia after the cou
rier we expected, to overtake us again.
We had left the great river for more than a month, and
we wished, in returning to it and foHowing its course again,
to get to the village of Khemarat, and thus cut off the pen
insula formed by the Mekong and the Ubone. It was, there
fore, necessary to organise a land journey. Our letters from
Siam gave us no right to ask for gratuitous forced labour.
They simply invited the authorities to assist us by what help
might be needed to accomplish oiu- ends. Up to this time
they had done more than was strictly required of them, and
had of their own accord, and very wilHngly, supplied us with
means of transport. At Ubone, M. de Lagree was anxious
that the commission should do aU its own work; but the
natives refused to hire out their own shoulders, as well as
the backs of then beasts. They seemed almost indifferent
to an increase of wages Ave proposed, doubting, perhaps, if
our promises could be trusted. For men who called them
selves great mandarins to offer money Avas contrary to the
nature of things. Oui- repeated and pressing appeals awoke
no reply. If distrust of us had anything to do Avith this
annoyance, Ave have, at least, had good reason to feel, since
then, that the laziness of the Laotians had quite as much
share in it. Even Chinese merchants, themselves, have told
us that they often succeeded in hiring porters only by hea
vily bribing the governors of the province, who forthwith
use the means of constraint at their disposal, and thus assist
commerce at the cost of personal freedom. This simple fact
throws a strong light on the rudimentary civilisation of these
parts. We had to end by going to the king once more, who
Avould extricate us from our difficulty, to the great gain of
our exchequer. We had in vain attempted to make con
tracts of service ; but at a word from his majesty, fifteen
buffalo- and ox-Avagons, fifty men, and six elephants, ga-

WE LEAVE UBONE. . 103
thered one morning, as if by enchantment, round our hut.
Despotism has its advantages, when the despot is in a good
mood. On leaving Ubone, we followed a sandy road, like the
streets of the village itself. The wagons sank to the axles
in this burning dust, and we had nothing, when we alighted
at the hours of halting, but nauseous and brackish water.
We found the collection of salt going on over all the coun
try. It is very abundant, and is obtained from different
sources. The water evaporates, and the salt is deposited
in basins of common clay, lined with resin. To ascertain
the saltness of the liquid, the natives have contrived a
ball made of earth and resin, which sinks in fresh water, but
SAvims in salt. Though they have no other test but this
primitive instrument, their trained eye hardly ever deceives
them. We soon came on the forest ; but it was wretched and stun
ted, resembling oopses, interspersed with immense glades,
most often uncultivated. The roots, which strove to find
the required juices in the earth, showed everywhere the cor
rosive effect of the salt : the trunks were miserable, and the
branches knotty. There was nothing like greenness ; every
thing Avas dry, withered, burned up. A thick coat of white
dust covered the leaves of the trees; and the elephants, which
commonly feed as they go, could glean nothing but here and
there, at wide intervals, some creeper, still green, or some
hidden root which they bared with then foot. It is a time
of hunger for all nature, which seems to sigh for the rains.
Some thinly-sown trees — real burning bushes — were covered
with flaming flowers, like leaves of red-hot metal ; their very
branches were twisted convulsively.
The having men assigned us had the advantage of being
very economical ; but it had, also, the serious disadvantage,
that they would never, on any account, pass the often very
circumscribed limits of the province to which they belonged.
It was thus necessary to change both men and beasts on the
frontier of each new province we entered. It is no use striv
ing against this custom, which is the cause of great delays.
The porters laid down their loads, and ran off into the woods.
When we left the territory of Ubone, Ave dismissed the men

104 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
allotted us by the king ; and M. de Lagree, who had got us
everywhere a reputation for generosity, established it in this
instance by a liberal distribution of brass wire. The petty
mandarins who accompanied us begged that we would hand
them the whole present, which they engaged to distribute
themselves, or to get the king to distribute ; but the crowd
of unhappy porters seemed very pleased when they saw M.
de Lagree reject this perfidious advice. Not forgetting the
rank of each, we made a democratic division. The manda
rins devoured their rage. They had lost about a hundred
francs of illegitimate profit. As to the fellow who had for
his duty to attend to oui' personal wants on the road, he
managed matters in another way. He simply pocketed all
the money we had given him to buy food in the different
villages where we had stayed. The food was provided, and
we were left ignorant that it had been exacted under the
name of presents. It is the custom, always the custom ; and
what can you say? It soon becomes tiresome to play the
reformer. Elsewhere customs temper the rigour of the law ;
here, in Laos, laws are needed to soften the barbarism of
customs. The roads practicable for wagons are scarce, and extend
only a short distance from the chief centres ; and we, there
fore, replaced our conveyances, at a forced relay we made at
Amnach, by porters, who would not carry more than six or
seven kilogrammes apiece ; so that we started from the vil
lage where our caravan re-formed itself thus, with a great
part of the healthy, male population in our train. All the
villages through which we passed were bound to provision
our whole company, and, this being the case, they had no
pity for the unfortunates so suddenly subjected to so heavy
an imposition. As we got to the river, the country was less
desolate. There could be nothing more sad than the look
of immense plains covered with the straw of rice trampled
down by troops of buffaloes attracted by the salt. The great
forest reappeared at last, thin, but still green. Fires had
made gaps here and there, that looked like great spots of
ink ; but the fresh colours of the young bamboos, which the
fire had spared, looked only so much the brighter by contrast.
Our elephants gave themselves a thorough feast. We slept

KHEMARAT. 105
under huts of leaves built each night near some pool of stag
nant water, thick, and of all colours on the surface, thinking
ourselves well off if we reached one. It is the great point
at this season; and two months later, when the sun will
have dried up what moistm-e was left in the ground, it will
be a still more serious matter. It is the fate of the people
of these countries, at least when they are travelling, to be
flooded for one half the year, and for the other to die of
thirst. We reached Khemarat at last, where M. Delaporte awaited
us. He had got to it by the Mekong, of which he had made
a chart, from this point to the mouth of the Ubone. The
river presents phenomena more remarkable here than at any
other part of its com-se. It roars and boils in a bed only
sixty metres across, worn out in the rock to such a depth,
that we found no bottom at a hundred metres. Nothing can
express the horror of this spot, where the yellow waters twist
over and OA*er through the long narrow pass, breaking against
the rock with a fearful noise, and forming whirlpools which
no boat dare face. Man has fled from the banks ; great trees
hang over the abyss on both sides, into which their weight
often drags them down. There is neither village nor even
a sohtary hut to be seen. Some daring fishermen had made
a shelter for themselves in the clefts of the rocks, from which
they haA'e scarcely time to flee at the approach of the rains,
so rapidly do the waters rise. At then full height, the in
creased Arolume is more than fifteen metres in depth.
We were well received at Khemarat. The governor was
just dead, and his substitute for the time — an imbecile old
man — seemed to have a kind of veneration for us. The
people are very simple, and fancied that M. Delaporte's ob
servations, made to determine the geographical position
of the village, Avere some extraordinary freak of his for
reading in the sun. They consulted us about the future ;
and the old mandarin, who was about to start for Bangkok,
persisted in asking us to tell him Avhat hour Avould be the
luckiest for him to set out. We advised him to start after
having made a good dinner.
Grand tufted trees surrounded and sheltered our hut at
Khemarat. To come on a fine river, and to find mangoes

106 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
and tamarinds in flower, after the dusty plains of Ubone,
was Hke reaching a fine oasis after a weary march in the
desert. The people, like the authorities, lavished their sym
pathy on us, and information was given us freely. We
gathered there some exact data on the political state and
the administration of government among the Siamese Lao
tians. The organisation is the same in every proAnnce ; so
that a sketch of it in one will suffice.
The province of Khemarat, one of the smallest of Mid
dle Laos, has about 20,000 registered inhabitants. It is go
verned by six high functionaries, who live in the chief
place, and take rank under the governor, who is nominated,
like them, by the king of Siam. These great personages
receive no appointments, and have no privilege but the
right to the free service of a certain number of forced la
bourers ; yet they have a hundred extra legal ways of bring
ing money to their chest, and neglect none of them. At
the bottom of the scale come the petty mandarins, who are
the heads of villages. These render justice in the first in
stance, and their power, in civil affairs at least, is unHmited.
There is an appeal from their decisions to two tribunals, in
the chief place, successively ; and if this does not satisfy the
litigants, they can appeal, farther, to Bangkok, which is the
fourth and ultimate step in jurisdiction. The highest ma
gistrate of the province alone has the power of condemning
to death ; but it is still necessary, before the execution, to
give information to the central government. It cannot be
denied, that all this complication of protecting forms secures
certain guarantees for the parties concerned ; but, unfortun
ately, the general corruption destroys in this, as in every
thing, the effect of good institutions. The venality of the
Laotian functionaries of every rank and kind is carried to
the extreme ; and the judges, not content with their legal,
if not legitimate, source of revenue from the fines they in
flict, know no such convincing arguments as presents re
ceived in advance.
Audiences are given, Avith a degree of solemnity, in a
kind of shed, Avhich serves for a council- chamber as well.
I was present at the trial of a woman taken in the very act
of adultery. The two offenders were tied one at each end

A LAOTIAN TRIAL. 107
of the same bar, and forced to look each other in the face,
striking two sonorous bamboos together, meanwhile, to at-
tract public attention. The husband, never dreaming but
that the Frenchmen were much amused by his position,
looked very well pleased; indeed, seemed to enjoy it. As
the facts could not be denied, the woman Avas condemned
to pay a fine of seventeen ticals, something less than sixty
francs, and her paramour twenty-nine ticals, or about ninety-
six francs. In such a case the husband may keep or divorce
his wife, as he pleases. If he chooses to divorce her, he
cannot take her again for ten years ; but the fine levied on
her is paid to him, while the judges pocket that inflicted on
the man. In the affair at which we were present the husband
lost no time in getting rid of her ; and I understood very
soon the cause of his satisfaction. He had given four ticals
and a buffalo to her family for her ; but he had had her for
several years. He noAv regained his freedom — the right to
marry again, and the means of meeting the cost. What
good fortune in a climate where beauty withers so soon !
AU cases are not so favourable, hoAvever. It may happen,
for instance, that the woman cannot pay. If she cannot, she
gets two blows of a rattan for every tical of fine, which
never exceeds forty ticals. Hence, at Laos, any lady may
please her fancy, provided she do not belong to a mandarin,
for a little less than a hundred francs. The sins of a hus
band are never interfered Avith by the law ; so that a wife
has nothing for it but to shut her eyes, or to study thrift
in order to avenge herself. Formerly the punishment was
more severe; for a Avoman convicted of adultery lost her
freedom, and became her husband's slave. On this point
the law of the ancient kingdom of Tonkin was even more
rigorous still : a husband who surprised his wife in the act
Avas authorised, not, indeed, to kill her with his own hands,
as is in some measure the case with ourselves, but to cut off
her hair, and lead her in that state before the mandarin,
Avho caused her to be thrown to an elephant which was
specially trained to be the public executioner ; and it, ' lift
ing her up wi,th its trunk, squeezed her so dreadfully, and
dashed her to the ground Avith such violence, that it stifled
her, and made her die in inconceivable torments. If, after

108 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
all, it saw signs of Hfe in her, it stamped on her with its
feet, till she Avas crushed and broken in pieces.' In Cam
bodgia the elephant is stiU employed as executioner for high
offences. I have ridden one which, a few days before, had
run its tusks through the body of a state prisoner, who had
been tied to the trunk of a tree.
The woman first married to a man has, alone, the rights
and rank of lawful wife ; but this restriction does not make
polygamy any the less flourishing. ' As amongst om-selves,'
says an old traveller, rather wanting in courtesy, ' one likes
to keep dogs, another to keep horses, and stiU others to keep
wild creatures ; the Laotians have a troop of wives, some
more, some fewer, as they are able, not for the mere gratifi
cation of lust, but from an ambitious affectation of great
ness.' Property in land does not exist. As to movable pro
perty, if it have often to submit to Avrongs from all-powerful
officials, the principle is not the less sacred. The husband
and wife have distinct possessions of flocks, canoes, or nets,
which they can dispose of as they please ; but they are mu
tually responsible to the community. If the husband run
aAvay, to escape some obligation — such as the tax or forced
labour — the magistrate can seize even the person and the
goods .of his Avife. The tax which every registered inha
bitant is bound to pay to Siam is, however, no more than a
personal one, which is far from heavy, and is payable some
times in kind. We saw an instance of this at Attopee,
whence so much gold, gathered from the sands of the river,
is sent each year to Bangkok, instead of coin, for the tax.
At Khemarat we took again to the river ; for in spite of
their inconveniences, canoes are certainly the most agreeable
mode of transport in these countries. One's bones are broken
by the jerking march of an elephant; a buffalo-wagon creeps
along at a pace deplorably slow; the ox -wagon, on the
other hand, is a narrow and light affair, on an axle that
creaks continually, and though it is dragged along quickly
by its hump-backed team, and passes over eArery obstacle, it
gives one a great many violent shocks, and not a few up-
settings. The canoes, alone, let you take rest. We had ten,
with creAvs of sixty men, in all. We entered a labyrinth of

THE LANDSCAPE. 109
islets, banks of sand, and rocks, and came to a large island
which divided the river in two. The arm we ascended sub
divided itself, as well, into several smaller arms, Hke torrents
ploughing an immense bank of sandstone. This bank was
grown over by creeping plants, small and dark in the leaf,
thick and twisted in the stem. Other shrubs, of a green that
is almost black, bent by the rush of the waters, rise here and
there over the vast sandstone bed. The branches, stretched
out as if to pray or curse, seem bowed under a kind of cala
mity. As to the Mekong, it has disappeared. Our canoes
entered a narrow passage, ten metres broad, where we were
stunned by the noise of the waters, and this stream, shut
in between two walls of rock, was all Ave could discover of a
river which we had seen more than a league across lower
down. Beyond these rapids, the Mekong spreads itself out
anew in a channel apparently free from obstructions. But
our canoes struck not the less on shoals, which often forced
our men to take to the water. Farther on, the sandbanks,
the islands, and the islets reappeared, on which everything
was growing and flowering in haste, for the rising flood
would soon submerge all. The landscape was at once solemn
and imposing. Vapours of milky whiteness stretched over
the sky and the waters. Nature seemed sleeping, and as
if wrapped in a light veil. It attracts one, and absorbs him,
dreamily, in spite of himself ; ennui invades you at first, then
follows an utter indifference. Under the all-powerful con
straint of influences so fatal to human personality, thought
dies aAvay by degrees like a flame in a vacuum. The East
is the true land of Pantheism, and one must have been there
to realise the indefinable sensations which almost make the
Nirvana of the Bouddhists comprehensible.
Storms sometimes disturbed the implacable serenity of the
heavens. They snatched nature from its leaden coffin ; they
were like grand bursts of life, of which we were a part. One
night, I remember, I listened in transport to the noise of the
thunder, and the gleams of the lightning brought a deep
and inexpressible joy ; but the wind roughened the river, and
our boats, dashed rudely on the banks, filled in a moment.
The Laotians exerted themselves, without resting, to get out
the Avater, and wiped us as dry as possible, Avith the care of

110 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
benevolent old women. These brave people took no end of
trouble with us, whether from the thought of their responsi
bility, or from natural kindness : perhaps from both motives,
for they spare nothing to make any one confided to them
comfortable. When we reached a village, a Simien, or secre
tary, came to register our luggage, and the very least of our
packages was guarded as if it had been a casket of jewels.
At Ubone one of these scribes, posted, unknown to us, in
our dining-room, took note of the dishes that seemed to
please us, to let the king know them. In one of our excur
sions, a wagon having upset, a box of pins opened, and the
contents were scattered on the sand. We had to wait till
the last pin was picked up.
I shall not weary the reader Avith giving all the stations
on oui' route. We sailed most part of the day, and slept at
night in our canoes, or in a hut of bamboos. I had, at times,
for courtesy, to land, and go to see wonders related to me
by my head rower, as found in some of the villages on the
bank ; but curiosity, often deceived, died at last for want of
food. There are no other public buildings but pagodas, and
they are all alike in general construction and in decoration.
They are made of brick, and thatched, and contain one or
more gilded statues of Bouddha, standing, or with his legs
folded under him ; the countenance grave — a little sancti
monious, perhaps — and hanging ears. I noticed, however,
in a village not far from Khemarat, a statue which differed
altogether from the type uniformly adopted by the priestly
sculptors of Cambodgia, Siam, and Laos. It is in a niche of
grotto-work : heads of monsters peer from all the holes ;
and, on the two sides, two gilt dragons rise toAvards heaven,
from the red base of the recess, in the style of our adoring
angels. The god, himself, has caught some oddities from
this surrounding. His round eyes stick out of their sockets,
and his face is like that of a puffed-out frog's. The outside
of the pagoda is ornamented in a very fantastic way. I had
often seen gables, incrusted Avith glass, glittering in the
sun ; but, in this case, the building was decorated by a set of
the finest Chinese porcelain. The architect has bedded blue
plates in the thatch, and run a garland of rose-coloured
saucers round the wall. I could even distinguish European

ART IN LAOS. Ill
washing-basins and water-glasses in the place of honour.
Chinese influence begins to make itself felt in other ways,
also, in Laotian art, if such a grand word can be used in
this connection. The frescoes on the walls of the sanctuaries
are generally by Chinese artists. The subject of these gross
paintings is almost everywhere the same : first, the picture,
coarse, very coarse, of the cardinal sin of the Laotians; then,
below, the representation of the punishments which await
the impure of both sexes in the other world, which are
always inflicted on the parts that have transgressed. The
lesson is a thoroughly moral one, but it is a question if it
serve its purpose. I have been led to doubt it very much,
in seeing the rolling eyes of the young bonzes as they ran
over these compositions, in Avhich free reins seem to have
been given to an imagination as lascivious as that of some
Jules Romain. One is surprised to see European ships,
with their crew on the deck, by the side of these pious
allegories, in the middle of blue, green, red, and yellow
temples and palaces. In one subject of this kind it seemed
as if the artist had been most struck by the chimneys of a
steamboat, and by the stove-pipe hats, which have made the
round of the world.
The rounded tops of the high palms, and the far-reach
ing perfumes of the ivory-like flowers of the cabbage-palms,
which are sine signs of a village being close, announced
from a distance the chief place of the province of Banmuk,
where a complete estabHshment, prepared on the banks of
the river, aAvaited us. The Laotians can do wonders with
wood, especially with bamboo. They improvise a hut with
a marvellous sense of the wants of their hosts. The parti
tions are always made of a double trellis of bamboo slips,
between which is placed the native tapestry, large leaves ;
and the whole is made firm by bands of rattan, so that we
can change the interior arrangements at our pleasure, on
our arrival, all that is needed being to untie some knots.
We are still in one of those kingdoms created by Siamese
policy for the benefit of the deposed princes of Vien-Chan
— a convenient way to get rid of pretenders who might
be dangerous. The members of the royal family declare
themselves well satisfied with their bargain in Laos, for

112 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
nothing is needed to make them happy but a title, a para
sol, a box of betel, and a gold spittoon. Phnom, where we
arrived three days after leaving Banmuk, is not a chief
place of the province, and would have no importance but
for its being a religious centre, to which pilgrims gather. A
long narrow avenue, perpendicular to the river, and paved
with brick, stretches under palm-trees, leading to a pagoda,
which is a huge rectangular affair, surrounded by a gallery
supported by red pillars, set with decorations in gold, with
a bundle of long, sharp leaves, like Arab daggers, with the
points bent back, for capitals. Above the doors and windows
are ornaments in pyramid shape on the wall, in the Siamese
taste — a kind of royal parasols, of several stories, topped by
an interminable pointed cap, like that which our astrological
magicians are made to wear. But the most remarkable
decoration is that of a sham door. Tavo personages equally
begilt stand out in relief on a red ground, between elegant
garlands of flowers and gilt leaves. They are stiffly done,
as usual, yet one may perhaps make out a kind of smile on
their gross features and flat lips. They are supported by
two griffons, or monsters of some sort, who are performing
high above the ground some confused dance. They are
boldly designed; their hands are thrown about furiously,
and their limbs are in extraordinary postures ; but the pro
portions are good, and the whole has truth, force, movement,
and life.
The inside of the pagoda is sad. Some licentious pictures
here and there pollute the walls, from which the thatch is
falling in handfuls. The roof deserves notice, its painted
beams forming compartments, in the centre of which are
tufts of gilt foliage, which look like a large bearded root, as
if the plant were pushing upwards.
Behind the pagoda is a fantastic pyramid, which begins
in a kind of enormous cube, on which, separated from one
another by cornices, are three rectangular masses, each less
high than the other. The architect has set a second pyramid
on this base, reproducing, at first, the forms below; then
passing insensibly from square to round, substituting undu
lating lines for the salient angles, and finishing off a-top in
a sharp point. This group of monuments arrests the eye,.

A HOLY PLACE. 113
unused to grand proportions and startling colours, for ban
ners, standards, and rags of cloth of every colour, float in
the air. The sun makes the gold sparkle, and the glass, im
bedded in the walls among the red bricks, shines brilHantly.
But all this, though striking, is not worth much, after all,
for the pyramid, having been often rebuilt, is no longer what
it was formerly. One is arrested by strange irregularities,
and if it were not for the natural craving to admire some
thing, one cares not what, in a country where all the huts
are built alike, this mass of bricks and thatch, in which the
eye meets hardly a detail worth noticing, would be passed
without stopping. Besides, the gilding on the pyramid is
mostly gone, and Avould be so entirely, but for the piety of
the faithful, who stick on little leaves of gold, wherever
fancy strikes them, as offerings, or in fulfilment of vows.
They come in pilgrimage from all Laos to Phnom, the more
devoted making a retreat of some days during their stay,
and wearing dm-ing the time the saffron gown of the bonzes.
We met rafts of male and female bonzes on their way to
this holy place, beguiling the weary slowness of the sail by
chants and prayers, and other exercises made in common.
Our Laotian interpreter, who had often appeared to me to
have lost all his faith, could not resist the pious influence
of this monument, Avhich he had visited before. In a fit of
devotion he even went so far as to make an offering of the
half of the upper joint of his forefinger to Bouddha. The
attendants of the pagoda at Phnom perform operations of
this kind very cleverly, with the help of a chopper and a
foot-rule, and measure the zeal of the pilgrims by the extent
of the sacrifice. It is strange to find in Middle Laos, as a
product of Bouddhism, the aberration of mind which leads
men to self-mutilation. We had reason, too often, to regret,
in the sequel, that our interpreter, instead of confining him
self to losing his finger, had not followed the example of
Origen, and gone farther; it would have saved us from
troubles in which his failings involved us.
The river continued to fall. Huge sandbanks, Hke stranded
monsters, showed their high backs. We saw before us a for
est of mountains, made a dark leaden colour, in the distance,
by thick mists, which rolled hither and thither under a black

114 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
sky, at times in indescribable confusion. They were the
mountains of Lakhon, which were in front of our encamp
ment during our stay in this new province. The chain
commences in the south-east, in two or three soft, slow-
rising, gentle undulations, which trend northwards, and form
a vapoury background to the landscape. From them, at once
united and distinct, rise five masses, with rugged crests,
rough, and cut into shady hollows on the sides ; a faint pale
aureola, from the sun on the mists, rising over the summits
and sharp outlines. Looking to the north, an immense curved
line shows itself, growing ever greater, opening like the
arch of a gigantic bridge, and binding this first group to a
second, more complicated, each peak of which has a form
of its own, and does, in some sort, as it pleases, Avithout
troubling itself about its neighbour. The most remarkable
thing about these mountains is the kind of life they seem
to possess. It shoAvs itself in an incredible confusion. The
angles are thrown fantastically by some mad geometer,
Avho could be no other than fierce subterranean fire. A
dome raises its head curiously above the leaning shoulder
of a round hill, and a pyramid reverses itself, as if to the
music of some Avild orchestra. Seen nearer, and in detail,
these mountains are in keeping with all that the imagination
most in love Avith the fantastic, which had been attracted
by their more distant forms, could dream. Valleys, gorges,
sombre gaps, walls cut perpendicularly, rough, or polished
by water, cavities festooned with hanging stalactites, and
notched like gothic sculptures — make up a strange sight,
which cannot fail to excite admiration.
The inhabitants find in them an inexhaustible mine of
limestone. They split the stones with fire, burn them on
the spot, and then carry them to the neighbouring villages
by water. The kilns, dug in the steep banks of the river,
somewhat resemble those we often see in France. They
consist of a deep furnace, communicating Avith a vast open
kiln, into which they throw the stones. If its salt be the
wealth of the province of Ubone, lime is an equal blessing
to that of Lakhon; for not only do the pagodas absorb an
enormous quantity, it is an object of the first necessity to
every Laotian. With the leaf of the betel, and the nut of

ANNAMITE IMMIGRANTS. 115
the cabbage-palm, it is an essential part of that abominable
quid, Avhich makes the mouth look bloody, broadens the lips,
lays bare and blackens the teeth, and makes the women
hideous. The natives often add tobacco, and the bark of a
kind of tree which is the object of a great commerce.
A considerable part of the village of Lakhon, near the
dwelling of the governor, had just been burned. The leaves
of the trees were scorched, the trunks calcined, and the look
of the tall palms, in particular, was almost melancholy. This
great gap in the middle of the flowers and verdure made
me feel a kind of sadness. It seemed as if Avinter had come
all at once, in its severity, over one part of the woods,
leaving their shadows and mysteries to the rest. But this
feeling did not last. The ruined quarter had become a vast
work-yard, full of happy activity; bands of children, rejoiced
at the unaccustomed stir, adding to the noise. In a French
Adllage, such a disaster would have been irreparable; but in
Laos, where living is easy, it hardly seemed to be thought of.
Farther off, a great number of new huts had risen, by the
industry of Annamite immigrants, who, of course, fraternised
with our escort. Indeed, it was not without a Arivid pleasure
we ourselves unexpectedly encountered people like those
Avho fill the streets of Saigon. Men, women, and children
came round us familiarly, their eyes dilated with curiosity,
and no trace of ill-wiU or anger on then faces. Yet they
had fled from their country to escape defending it. Our in
vasion having forced Tu-duc to raise extraordinary levies,
many of his subjects thought it prudent to put the breadth
of a mountain between them and his recruiting sergeants.
Those settled at Lakhon are from a province above Hue, not
more than thirty-five or forty leagues off. Except Huthen,
our next station, which is not more than thirty marine
leagues from the gulf of Tonkin, Lakhon was the nearest
point to the Annamite empire at which we stopped. The
general course of the Mekong towards the west, already very
perceptible since we left Bassac, took us much farther off from
this time, by its still more pronounced course in that direction.
At the sight of this simple village, which was as busy as an
ant-hill, one could not but hope that Annamite emigration
would be still more developed in Laos; for the Annamites

116 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
would be like leaven in heavy dough, among the Laotians.
Essentially similar in both their good and bad points, they
would be the most useful, and the leading instrument of our
policy in these countries.
The chief village ofthe proAdnce of Huthen offers nothing
special, but it, nevertheless, holds a pleasant place in our
memory. One day, the 6th of March 1867, I was lying
stretched out in one of these wooden turrets, commonly built
on the top of the river-banks, near the pagodas, where the
bonzes while away the time not devoted to the repetition
of prayers, in seeing the waters flow past. At my feet, the
river, broad and smooth as a huge mirror of steel, sent back
a thousand lights from the rays ofthe sun beaming on it.
A sandbank, dotted with black by the buffaloes creeping
slowly over it to the Avater, to escape the heat, linked it to
the opposite bank. The sky was like a metal basin heated
to whiteness, and the reflection from the landscape burned
the eyes. My thoughts, in a kind of half-sleep, turned, as
always, to France, Avhen joyful cries rose suddenly to tell me
that we were going to hear from it. M. Gamier had arrived.
He had found part ofthe post at Pnom-Penh; the other,
which had been forwarded by Bangkok, was probably lost
in the forests. We had, at last, got the passports signed
by Prince Kong, regent ofthe Celestial Empire, and could
henceforth hope to be able to get into it. We learned, at
the same time, that cannon had roared in Europe, that" Ger
many was in confusion, that public opinion was excited in
France. From the tone ofthe journals, and the prophecies
in our private letters, a near and terrible war, in which our
country must needs take part, seemed, to our minds, inevit
able. To-day these prophecies make us smile, but they kept
a sad hold on our minds at the time ; and it Avas with this
heavy load on our hearts we set about starting afresh for
remote regions, where Ave had no longer the hope of any
post reaching us. We never failed to send letters by traders
descending the river, or mandarins going to Bangkok ; and
we have since learned that they all reached then address,
so great is the respect of the Laotians for anything confided
to them, especially letters. As to ourselves, not knowing-
beforehand the places we should reach, or even the way we

A TIGER AT BAY. 117
should have to go, we felt that Ave could not hear anything,
for long, of the questions debated in Europe. I never felt
more keenly the extent of the sacrifice I had undertaken, in
any other incident of a journey which proved so full of
trials. Our family letters, read, re-read, and commented
upon, rekindled our courage. The latest were ofthe date of
September 1866. We were in March 1867, and we were to
receive no more till the end of June, in the next year.
Saiabury and Phon-Pissai offer nothing of interest. Be
tween these two centres of the province, or Muongs, as the
natives call them, the banks ofthe Mekong are almost de
serted : the great forest comes down to the water's edge
on both sides ; huge trees lie fallen, here and there, and rest
on the cliffs, which have given way below them ; the waters
fret their roots, and they hold on to the land by their branches,
to be swept away, however, when the river rises.
While waiting for the daily rice, which was cooked on
the bank, we used to push into the thick tangled woods, as
chance led us. We admired the wonderful vegetation, with
its hundred-feet -high shafts, linked one to the other by
waving creepers encircling them, and hanging from the
masses of foliage. We got into the habit of these strolls,
walking about, unarmed, under these dark arches of green,
without thinking of the terrible enemies that might lie
hidden in the bamboos or the jungle. One evening, how
ever, one of us saw a tiger bound out, and stop Avithin
twenty paces of him. The ferocious eye of the brute, no
doubt, frightened our friend ; but his white skin, long beard,
and fixed stare troubled the beast as much, and he stood
still and let his foe regain the canoes. We snatched up our
rifles ; but our pursuit was unsuccessful, in spite of its tracks
deeply bedded on the moist ground, and the precise di
rections of oui' comrade. Terrified apes growled at us from
the tops of the trees, and peppered us with whatever they
could break off; but it was rather ungrateful of them; for,
if the natives were to be believed, the tiger we had just
put to flight had been on the watch for them. The plan fol
lowed by these brutes is curious. When they see the monkeys
sporting on the branches, they crawl through the grass to
the tree, give it a sudden blow Avith their shoulder, as chil-

118 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
di-en do to get doAvn apples or nuts, and the poor creatures,
which the blow shakes doAvn, are devoured forthAvith. The
Laotians feeling ill at ease after this incident, notwithstand
ing our presence, we aUowed them to put part of the river
between them and these nightly visitors, and they accord
ingly betook themselves to an island to sleep.
After a long interval of wilderness, the presence of man
was once more indicated by an attempt at a settlement. A
piece of the forest had been felled, the trees, cut down about
six feet above the ground, lying entangled with each other
as they had faUen. Banana plants had taken root along
side ; chickens, pigs, and dogs wandered through the chaos ;
and the settlers, crouched under their shanties, seemed wait
ing for the village to build itself. I could not keep from
contrasting the scene with one which M. Ampere gives, in
his Promenades en Amerique, of a town in the Union, I believe
Chicago, in its first beginnings. At the time when that
clever traveller visited it, the forest was hardly yet cleared
from the spot, and the future citizens were making use of
the trees to build their dwellings ; but Chicago is to-day an
important town of Illinois, with two hundred thousand in
habitants ! Asia, the ancient cradle of the world, produces
only tyrants and slaves. Would that the races which, spring
ing from it, have been developed under less enervating skies,
could give a little of such youthfulness to the ancient nurse
of then fathers !
Nong-Cai, the province next Vien-Chan, the ancient capi
tal of the kingdom, has gained in importance since the ruin
of the latter. The governor has given proof of some spirit,
having, for example, excused himself from attending the
funeral ceremonies of the second king of Siam, at Bangkok.
He came to see us, splendidly dressed in a silk langouti,
and a vest ofthe same stuff, braided Avith gold. He had
a numerous suite ; a magnificent parasol shaded him from
the sun, and he had spittoons, ewers, and betel -boxes in
silver-gilt; this last feature marking him as only a little
less than a king. We returned his visit at once. His palace,
though of wood, has a striking appearance, fine pillars sup
porting the timber work. The vast apartment in which he
receives is decorated with Chinese pictures. At our entrance

FESTIVAL AT NONG-CAI. 119
the band played an air, which must be the national one, for
I have never heard it but in Laos. His exceUency, seated
at a table, the first we had seen in the country, invited us to
do the same, and we began a friendly conversation, through
the interpreter.
Behind the viUage is an immense plain, over which palm-
trees have grown, at random. They have a look altoge
ther then own ; more poetical and more eastern than the
graceful cabbage-palm, or the somewhat heavy cocoa. Their
crest seems almost too weighty for them, and their trunk is
often bent. The wind makes a rustle in their leaves, as if
they were parchment crumpled in the hand. In this plain
stands the chief pagoda, which is approached by a long
road, paAred with wood. We were there on a feast-day.
The crowd flooded the space before it and the porches ; the
blue pantaloons of Chinese mingling with the fantastic lan-
goutis and many- coloured scarves ofthe Laotians. The
faithful and the curious pressed into the courtyard and the
very narrow ground of the sanctuary, where bonzes read
prayers, amidst offerings arranged round them with some
taste, decorating the temple and sharpening the appetite.
Scarlet hangings flowed from the pillars, and in the warm
Bhade, amidst flowers and perfumes, were young girls with
languishing eyes and smiles that might have turned one's
head. Every person was speaking, smoking, or laughing
loudly. None were sedate, nor even attentive, except three
young priests, who threw libertine glances under the scarves
of the young women kneeling before them.
We had retained the Frenchman who acted as Siamese
interpreter, as far as Nong-Cai. He might still have been
of use, for long, but his misconduct forced M. de Lagree to
dismiss him. We were getting on farther, and so much the
more was it necessary to tighten the bonds of discipline.
We had already repeatedly noticed a sudden and inex
plicable change in the feelings of the people and the autho
rities, which turned out at last to be traceable to the theft
of some dish, perhaps, or the A-iolation of some girl. Profit
ing by his knowledge of the language, our interpreter intro
duced himself to families, and abused our rank as mandarins,
to commit offences, of which the victims were afraid to com-

120 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
plain. The unhappy man, throAvn into Bangkok at the age
of eleven, Avithout relations or friends, had unfortunately
fallen into the hands of many passing adventurers, till he
had learned to be the instrument of all their pleasures, and
the accomplice in their frauds. Retaining the frank and
ready intelligence of his race, he had borrowed craft and
pliancy from the Asiatic air in which he had lived, and a
power of lying which I never saw equalled in my life. I
used to shudder, when at times I let my thoughts down
into the abysses of such a degraded nature, in which good
advice sank like stones in the deep sea. The slave-trade
seemed to hold the first place in the favourite dreams that
crossed the brain of this man. He intended to return to
Laos to follow it, and did not hesitate to tell us so. He
looked on it as a sure way to satisfy his three dominant
passions — the love of adventures, the love of money, and
the craving for debauchery. I have heard a man of ex
perience say, that to learn honesty in the position of an
interpreter it was necessary to be one thrice ; and if this
be true, the relief afforded us when the governor of Nong-
Cai offered to conduct our man back to Bangkok, under a
sufficient guard, may be judged. Each member of the ex
pedition set forthwith to work to learn as much of the lan
guage as was necessary; and the result was astonishing,
from the same reason as forces a man throvra into the water
to learn quickly to swim. M. de Lagree stiU, however, kept
the old bonze of Cambodgia, Laotian by birth, who had cut
off his finger at Phnom, to facilitate his intercourse with the
native authorities.
The governor of Nong-Cai put his private canoe at the
service of the chief of the expedition. It was finely modelled
and gilt profusely, and had a crew of eight rowers, in jackets
of red wool, with kepis with large shades, and of enormous
height, for head-gear. We each took possession of a less
elegant canoe, and reached, on April the 2d, a point where
the Mekong spreads out like an enormous fan. Our rowers
at once stopped, telHng us we had got to Vien-Chan; and we
landed, no little astonished, for we could see nothing on the
banks but dense forests. Vien-Chan was the name, among all
those with which I had charged my memory before start-

VIEN-CHAN. 121
ing, round which most interest had gathered. It has often
occurred in these pages already; for we had found the de
scendants of the royal family, which had formerly reigned
over the capital whose ruins we were about to explore, scat
tered all over Laos. What it had been at its best may be
judged from the fact that Van Diemen, the governor of the
Dutch Indies, thought it worth while to send an ambassador
to it in the first half of the seventeenth century.
Scaling the steep bank by the help of a bamboo ladder,
Ave found -ourselves among the prickly bushes, which always
grow thickly among ruins, as if they were a veil draAvn
by nature over the weakness of man and the vanity of his
works. A guide, bent to the ground by his sad recollections
and the weight of years, guided us with much emotion as
we hurried on. He had seen Vien-Chan, his birthplace, in
its glory. The soil was strewn with bricks, and we soon
came upon the wall of the town. It is high, and Arery broad,
with ornaments above it in the shape of a heart, set side by
side, so as to make embrasures. A huge post, on which the
principal gate hung, still stands. The wall, Avhich runs down
to the river, stretches in angles and recesses through the
bamboos. Heaps of bricks, lying here and there, are probably
the remains of bastions. After long and anxious search we
found that the town had no other monuments remaining but
the king's palace, some pagodas, and the libraries for the
sacred books ; but there were so many even of these, that Ave
gaA'e up the attempt to count them. They seemed all to
have been built on the same plan, and to have been decorated
in the same style — the proportions alone were different. The
pagoda of PM-keo was one of the largest and finest. The
trees which half hid it, and the creepers which bound its
pillars together, and spread a mysterious shadoAv over the
ruins, made one feel something of that awe which filled men
of old at the threshold of a sacred wood. The enclosm-e of
the pagoda was of sun-dried brick. Grand staircases led up
to its platform. A contorted dragon stretched along the
balusters, Hfting its head threateningly from its thrown-back
neck. The columns of the gallery are graceful, slender, light,
without a base, but ending in a capital of long, sharp leaves,
bent back, and, as it Avere, crushed by the weight above. Here

122 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
and there they stiU showed signs of gilding. The three doors
ofthe facade and the side-windows are richly chased with
ornaments, like those I had seen at Phnom. The whole out
side of this building, which was of considerable size, was
gilt. It has no roof, and the colossal statue of Bouddha,
which still sits over the forsaken altar, is exposed to aU the
injuries ofthe weather. At the side ofthe temple is a library,
built in the same style, but smaller. The artists had run
lozenge ornaments along the black base of the walls, which
looked not unlike the tatters of paper sticking to the street-
hoardings in Paris.
Pha-kdo — for the natives have religiously preserved the
name of destroyed temples — was the pagoda of the palace ;
but that building itself is no more than a mass of ruins
spread over a considerable space. From what we could see,
and from the information given by some who had known it
when standing, its plan was very little different from that of
the pagodas. It was a rectangular building, surrounded by
a gallery supported on pillars. Another pagoda, called Si-
saket, stands in an inner court, round which a cloister runs,
along which are placed some statues of Bouddha, sitting.
Their head-dress, raised to a point, is like the helmets of our
old knights, and, but for the placid face ofthe god,1 one might
think himself in some'miHtary museum.
The walls of the cloister, and those of the pagoda itself,
are pierced with thousands of little niches, regularly built,
in each of which squats a miniature Bouddha. We calcu
lated that there must be twenty thousand of these little
images. It is a veritable pigeon-house of gods. Si-saket is
the best-preserved of the temples, and still contains a great
many objects employed in the ceremonies of worship. I ad
mired, among other things, a little carving in wood. It is a
kind of screen, with a light bar still attached to it, for hold
ing the tapers lighted before the altar. It has a gilt frame,
on which fantastic figures mingle their aUegorical shapes.
Two serpents are twisted together, and from their twin-
ings rise two arms, which support the taper-stand. In the
1 This expression is hardly correct, for Bouddha never spoke of him
self as more than a man who preached perfection ; but, in spite of the
orthodox doctrine, the people at large in reality worship him as a god.

VIEN-CHAN. 123
empty space in the middle of the screen, a kind of lyre,
which blends its gilding Avith light seen through it, has the
happiest effect. There is also a chair of cement, gilt, pre
served in another pagoda. From a sculptured seat, orna
mented with lions having human heads, centaurs of a new
kind, there spring light arches, which bear up the roof.
The place where the bonze stood to read prayers is marked
by elegant little pillars. Innumerable pyramids are hidden
in the forest, which, after first half throwing them down,
keeps them from falling farther by the trees. The natural ve
getation harmonises admirably Avith this vegetation in stone
— the gray tints of the cement giving it the air of granite
darkened by the moist atmosphere. Thousands of kilo
grammes of copper and bronze run into figures of Bouddha,
heaps of bricks, no end of pagodas, and, amidst all this, the
traces of only one secular human habitation — the palace of
the king — was the sum of what I saw in a ramble of some
hours in the ruins of Vien-Chan. The inhabitants lived in
huts, like the Khmers; but one must not recall, in looking
at these ruins, which, after all, are very mediocre — the recol
lections ofthe grand Cambodgian architecture of Angcor and
Vat-Phou, else he will think there is nothing at all worth no
ticing in Laos. When the Siamese general drove out the
king, this town was still flourishing ; to-day, forty years later,
everything is destroyed — etiam periere ruince.
A great highway, broad, straight, and planted with old
trees, runs up to the chief gate, crossing marshy meadows,
which formerly were ditches. It leads to a sandy road
covered with a growth of bamboos. Every instant vestiges
of walls show where a pagoda stood, and small pyramids
abound. The unhappy Laotian who accompanied us trem
bled to lead strangers into these holy places, often bowed,
sometimes prostrated himself, exhausting his strength in
marks of respect to the guardian spirits of the ruins. He
gave a look of horror when he saw me making for a niche
covered Avith bushes. ' A spirit lives there,' said he, ' Tepada ;
he demands every one who draws near him to creep, and
will stand no trifling on this point.' No misfortune having
happened, I kept on to a monument which seemed to have
been the chief work of this Laotian architecture, but was now

124 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHLVA.
stripped of grandeur as Avell as ruined, though one could not
deny it a certain air of elegance. This monument had been
spared by the Siamese. The two outer enclosures show no
thing particular ; but there is a garland of bulging orna
ments over the cornice of the third court, like the petals of
a gigantic lotus on the point of opening. Heavy pediments,
covered with inscriptions, support twenty slender spires.
Resting on these supports, as on buttresses, the mass on
which the pyramid lies begins to develop its lines, and the
pyramid itself shoots up from a sheaf of large leaves, Hke the
stalk of a plant. It has the traditional form, and ends in a
point. Formerly, it glittered with gold laid on a covering of
lead, of which some scraps stiU remain. The cement is in
good preservation everywhere. It has a uniformly dull ap
pearance, which is deceptive, and leads one for a moment to
think the building must be of high antiquity; but from an
inscription on a stone in it, it does not go back farther than
the seventeenth century, Without going into detail, which
would be easy enough, I may say that, as a whole, the build
ing pleased me. Its fine points and graceful spires rise from
the pleasing ground of a wood of palm-trees, which cast their
shadoAvs over scattered huts of the natives. The inmates
came offering us rice, honey which might have made the bees
of Hymettus jealous, and bowls of palm-wine, an unfermented
and sweet-tasting drink, which flows from incisions in the
palm, like blood from a Avound. This hearty and sponta
neous hospitality pleased us more than if we had had the
grand reception given, two centuries before, to our prede
cessors the Dutch — companions of Van Vusthorf, from whom
I shall borrow presently some curious details as to the offi
cial ceremonies to which their embassy gave rise. I drew
little pleasure from these ruins of Vien-Chan. The temples
and the palace have left nothing to be seen under their
ruined gilding but badly-joined bricks. It is a stage deserted
by the actors, which Time, that great destroyer, despoils day
by day of its last ornaments. Besides, a civilisation which
found room only for bonzes, mandarins, and kings, is hardly
worth the study. As to the architecture it produced, the
type maybe seen to-day in most ofthe pagodas of Bangkok.
One of these, that specially set apart for the devotions of

GEOGRAPHY UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 125
the king of Siam, contains the famous emerald statue which
Pha-tajac carried off from Vien-Chan in 1777. It is a cubit
in height ; and, according to M. Pallegoix, the English value
it at more than a million francs.
In the different contributions of the various geographers
who have tried to draw up a map of Indo-China, from the
laborious collation of hints given by a few travellers, and
details wormed out ofthe natives themselves, it is, as a rule,
impossible to recognise Vien-Chan, under the double veil of
vague topographical details, and of the false spelling, which
does not always reproduce the sound of the local pronuncia
tion. To this, no doubt, is owing the uncertainty that has
long reigned as to the true geographical position of that
town. Crawfurd calls it Lang-Chang, and says that it is
situated in 15° 15' of north latitude; Low and Berghaus
give it the names of Lanchang and Lantschang ; Macleod
places it in 17° 48' of sewfck. latitude, which is somewhat near
the true position, but the indefatigable English explorer
confounds it with Muong-luan-Praban, a distinct kingdom,
through which we passed soon after. Marini, in his history
of Laos, calls the inhabitants of this country the Langians,
and gives the name of Langione to their principal town,
which, he says, is situated in the eighteenth degree of lati
tude. He makes only a slight mistake in fixing the place
thus, and his book furnishes the most exact information re
specting this kingdom, which he attempted to evangelise.
He saw the places, the men, and the things. At the same
time as Father Marini travelled in these regions, the Dutch
embassy took place, to try to arrange relations Avith the chief
king of Laos. Since then no European has penetrated so
far. These Dutchmen took eleven weeks to ascend the Me
kong, from the frontier of Cambodgia to Vien-Chan, which
they call Winkyan. They used the same narrow canoes as
we, and surmounted the same obstacles in the same way.
One even asks himself, in reading the journal of their voyage
over again at this day, how any person could ever have had
any hope of the river proving navigable. Where we found
nothing but ruins, Gerard van Vusthorf and his companions
found a flourishing town. Dubois gives the following ac-

126 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
count of their reception by the king : ' As they approached
the capital, some officials came to demand from the chief of
the embassy a sight of his letters of credence, before they
could be sent forward. These letters having been examined
and found in proper form, three large canoes, with a crew of
forty rowers each, were sent to carry the ambassador and
his suite to their destination.
' They put the letters on a gold dish set under a magni
ficent canopy, and the Dutchmen placed themselves behind
them. A mandarin Avas ordered to conduct them to the lodg
ings prepared for them by the king; and then, they were
saluted by another mandarin, in the name of the prince,
who caused refreshments and some gifts to be offered them.
There was no delay in fixing the day of the audience, to
which the ambassador was conducted with much pomp. An
elephant carried the letter ofthe governor-general in a golden
vessel, and five other elephants bore the ambassador and his
people. They passed before the palace ofthe king, through
a double line of soldiers, and at last reached one ofthe gates
of the town, with walls of red stones, surrounded by a broad
dry ditch, filled with undergrowth. After a quarter of a
league's farther march, the Dutchmen descended from their
elephants, and entered the tents pitched for them, while they
awaited the orders of the king. The plain was covered with
officers and soldiers on elephants or horses, and all encamped
under canvas. After an hour, the king appeared on an ele
phant, coming from the town with a guard of three thou
sand soldiers, some armed with muskets, the rest with pikes.
A train of several elephants followed, all ridden by armed
officers ; next, came a troop of players on instruments ; then,
some hundreds of soldiers. The king, who was saluted by
the Dutchmen as he passed their tents, did not seem, to them,
over twenty-tAvo. After a short time the women defiled, on
sixteen elephants.2 As soon as the two corteges were out
of sight of the camp, every one reentered his tent, where
the king caused the Dutchmen to dine.
2 According to Marini, the name of Langione means a thousand ele
phants. Laos is certainly one of the countries where you meet most of
these animals. A Laotian told CraArfurd that they used them even to
carry ladies. This shows clearly that they did not know what to do with
them else.

THE DUTCH AT VIEN-CHAN. 127
' At four in the afternoon the ambassador was led to the
audience, across a large open space in a square court sur
rounded by walls, Avith a number of embrasures, and a great
pyramid coated with plates of gold, about a thousand pounds
in weight, in the middle of it. This monument was looked
on as a god, and all the Laotians paid their adorations to
it. The presents of the Dutch were brought in, and laid
fifteen paces from the prince. They, then, presently, led the
ambassador into a temple, where they found the king amidst
all his nobles. The customary homage was then offered, the
ambassador holding a taper in each hand, and striking the
ground three times with his forehead. After the compli
ments usual on such occasions, the king presented him with
a golden basin, and some robes, and gave other gifts to the
various members of his suite.
' The spectacle of a mock battle was then shown, and a
kind of ball, ending Avith a fire of artillery, was given. They
passed that night in the town, which was an unprecedented
thing, and in the morning were led back, on four elephants,
to their lodgings. After that day, the ambassador Avas taken
several times to court, and they did their best to provide all
imaginable amusements for him. After having stayed two
months at Winkyan, he set out again for Cambodgia, Avhich
he reached only after fifteen Aveeks, much satisfied with the
success of his mission.'3
If the finances of the kingdom aUowed the sovereign to
exhibit such pomp on solemn occasions, his army seemed
able to command the respect of his ambitious neighbours.
The country was so populous, that 500,000 men were re
turned, in a military census, as fit to bear arms, exclusive of
the old — ' who were so numerous and so robust, that even of
those of a hundred years of age,' a very considerable army
might have been formed, if there had been need. These
figures, in spite of their evident exaggeration, prove that
the population ofthe kingdom was then large; but it had not
always been so. When the sovereigns of China, after effect
ing the union of then vast empire, thought of laying a yoke,
of which the effects still remain, on all their neighbours, the
3 Vie ties Gouvemeurs-generaitx aux hides Orientates. La Haye, 1763.

128 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
Laotians at first escaped the invasions of these insatiable
conquerors no more than the people of Tonkin, the Siamese,
or the Cambodgians. Dispersed along the banks of the Me
kong, with no central point to which to rally and combine
their strength, they gave only a feeble resistance ; but they
gradually dreAv together, and ultimately formed a kind of
republic. This organisation, so favourable to the development of
the virtues which make or save a country, seems to have
lasted till the fifth or sixth century of our era, and enabled
the Laotians to drive out the Chinese. At that time the
state became monarchical, and, perhaps, the origin of Vien-
Chan, Avhich Avas destined, later, to become the brilHant
capital of the most powerful Laotian kingdom, is to be re
ferred to that time. If the old writer, from whom I have
obtained these facts, can be trusted, the people of Siam came
to Laos to help the Laotians ' to people then kingdom,' and
settled in it permanently, from the fertility of the soil and
the mildness of the climate. Of a lazy and slothful nature,
at once incapable and unworthy to preserve a repubHcan
form of government, the Laotians felt the need of intrusting
a single person with the sole responsibility of power; but
they could not agree on a sovereign, through ambition, fear,
and envy. The Siamese, who are clever people, took care,
during these struggles, to divide the electors, and neglected
nothing to corrupt them. To the ambitious they promised
the government of a province, and made gilded pyramids and
pagodas glitter in the eyes of the devout. These schemes
succeeded, and the name of a member of the royal family of
Siam came from the urn in which, at the same time, the
liberty of the country was buried. 'It is believed,' adds
Marini, ' that though it is more than a thousand years since
that time, the kings of Laos are descended from that stock,
since they retain the Siamese idiom and their style of dress.'
Though this assertion is probably a tradition obtained on
the spot, it seems hardly possible to regard it seriously. The
analogy of customs, of manners, and, above all, of languages,
which exists betAveen the Siamese and the Laotians, indicates
a common origin ; but is it not equally allowable, from it, to
suppose, that the Siamese came from Laos? Some savants

HISTORY OF LAOS. 129
have thought so. It is hard to believe that the action of a
royal family, however powerful we may suppose it, could, in
all these things, have produced the results Marini attributes
to it. But however it be, that young dynasty, which soon
became despotic at home, freed Laos from all foreign subjec
tion. It was even able to force respect for its territory on
China, and to lend a helping hand, many times, to its enemies.
During the war which the emperor Tching-tsou-wen-ti waged
against Tonkin, at the beginning of the fifteenth century,
the Laotians openly gave asylum to the conquered. The
Chinese general had hardly beaten and dispersed the enemy,
before other rebels, supported by the prince of Laos, continued
the struggle. Tching-ki-Kouang, their chief, himself, sought
refuge in the Laotian territory. The Chinese general de
manded that this dangerous rebel should be delivered up to
him; and the king, fearing an invasion from two Chinese
armies, which were massed on the frontiers of Tonkin and
Yunan, drove him from his states, outside the limits of
which the unfortunate man was taken prisoner.
The Chinese were not the only adversaries of the king
of Laos. The ambition of the king of Burmah, rather ex
cited than satisfied by the conquest of Pegou, soon turned
towards Laos, of which he made himself master. Adopt
ing a custom of wholesale deportation, still in use in these
countries,4 he forced a great many Laotians to settle in Pe
gou, to people his new conquest; but they formed a vast
conspiracy, and exterminated the Pegouans, everywhere, at
the same time. The old slaves, become masters, reentered
Vien-Chan in arms, and made a fresh carnage of their con
querors, whom they surprised while defenceless. The con
quest of this part of Laos, and the annihilation of its brilliant
capital, was reserved neither for the Chinese nor the Bur
mans. The people who had triumphed over these terrible
enemies became ultimately tributary to Siam, but at what
date is not known exactly. Perhaps it was the result of the
war of 1777. It extended, however, only to the payment of
tribute, not the cession of territorial rights.
4 At the end of last century, when the king of Siam made himself
master of Battambang on the Cambodgia, he drove out all the inhabitants,
and replaced them by others. K

130 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
The Annamites, on their side, spread themselves along
the Mekong valley. The left bank belonged to them, with
out dispute, at the commencement of this century, from the
sixteenth degree of north latitude to the seventeenth degree,
so far as that, within these limits, the provinces situated be
tween the Mekong and the great chain of mountains which
ends at Cape Jacques were under the Annamite empire, and
paid tribute to its sovereign.
M. de Lagree having been specially charged by Admiral
de La Grandiere to determine the boundaries of that empire,
and to ascertain as much as possible respecting the provinces
to which they raised pretensions, had made persevering,
but unsuccessful, inquiries on these points during our visit to
Attopee, yet he had found higher up, on exploring alone the
basin of an affluent ofthe Mekong, the Se-Banghien, incon
testable proofs of the political and administrative authority
ofthe king of Annam over this part of Laos. Hence, if in
the course of years and events, France should find herself
heir to the claims of a government, which circumstances of
themselves Avill one day force her either to protect or de
stroy, she would not Avant titles to establish her domination
over these vast deserts, which European genius alone can
make fruitful.
However it may be, the king of Vien-Chan had not to
protect himself against these eastern neighbours, the cloud
laden with disaster, of which we ourselves saw the fearful ex
tent, burst on this unhappy prince and his subjects, came from
the south-west. At the close of 1827, events, with the de
tails of which I am not acquainted, caused a rupture between
the court of Bangkok and Laos, and it was followed by a
war of extermination. From accounts which, though, per
haps, not minutely, are yet essentially, correct, it appears
that an omission, either in the ceremonial of homage, or in
the payment of the amount of tribute due to the king of
Siam, was followed by the sending an army to Laos, with
orders to annihilate the unfortunate people — orders fulfilled
with a completeness and cruelty which we, Avith our manners,
can hardly comprehend. The Laotians were exterminated,
or carried off en masse, and their capital rased to the ground,
as Jerusalem once was by the Roman armies. Chao-ko-

FALL OF VIEN-CHAN. . 131
un,8 a general whose name still fills these countries, put the
seal by this horrible transaction to a military renown, gained
at the cost of Cambodgia, in the wars to the principal events
of which I have already referred.6 I saw at Houdon, before
the ancient palace of Norodom, the huge statue of this mur
derer of nations, which, by an insolent requirement of the
Siamese, abolished only by the French protectorate, the Cam
bodgians had to salute humbly, as often as they passed
— an ignominy to which this troop of slaves submitted with-
out ever feeling a sentiment of noble resistance ; so com
pletely is force, even in its most hideous excesses, accepted
among these nations as the only legitimate power.
The king of Vien-Chan, and several princes of his family,
having succeeded in escaping the vigilance of the enemy,
sought refuge in Hue" ; but the fierce Minh-man, who then
reigned over Annam, far from protecting the fugitives, as
they had hoped, sent the faUen king to Bangkok, in accord
ance with a secret agreement made with Siam; and there
the poor wretch, shut up, they say, in an iron cage along
with the instruments of torture, with which they agonised
him day by day, soon died, leaving the last survivors of his
race so utterly abased, that the conqueror could no longer
find any pretext for offence with them.
Thus a flourishing capital has been annihilated in our
OAvn days, and an entire people has, in some sort, disap
peared, without Europe ever having suspected such scenes
of desolation — without even a solitary echo of this long cry
of despair having reached her. When I, hereafter, cross
vast fields of massacre in the Chinese empire, I shall have to
lift the Areil from scenes not less bloody and not less un
known, — scenes which show human life running in bloody
streams, without leaAdng either trace or remembrance, like
the waters of a great flood lost in the sands. If the revolu
tions and Avars which turn Christian Europe upside down are
sometimes followed by beneficial changes ; if it be possible
5 The word Chao-koun means a high rank in the mUitaxy hierarchy ;
but the terror of the Laotians has made a proper name of it ; so that when
you speak of Chao-koun, witliout anything more, they tliink with trembling
of their executioner.
0 See the Introduction.

132 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
to connect them with some philosophical doctrine, or some
grand social interest, the calamities which the Bouddhist and
Mussulman populations of Asia endure remain always barren
sorrows, and disasters that have no compensation. Nothing
ever springs from these torrents of blood; for the conquerors
are destroying angels for these unfortunate peoples, and
then armies clouds of locusts, exhausting for many genera
tions the countries on which they alight.

CHAPTER IV.
THE KINGDOM OF LUANG-PRABAN. EXCEPTIONAL POSITION OF
THE KING OF THIS COUNTRY TOWARDS THE COURT OF BANG
KOK. HELP WHICH HE RENDERED THE COMMISSION. TOMB
OF HENRI MOUHOT. SPRING FEASTS.
There would be a great risk of deceiving oneself, if the de
gree of civilisation in any people were always measured by
the development of architecture among them. Of all the
monuments of Europe, those most worthy of admiration be
long to ages which many Avriters of the day call barbarous ;
for the generations ofthe middle ages, kindled to enthusiasm
by their faith, and by enthusiasm to genius, have left as a
record of their lives those noble cathedrals Avhich we imitate
without the ability to equal.
The traveller who seeks to restore the history of nations
that have disappeared, must not, however, be hindered from
interrogating the ruins buried in the sands of the desert, or
under the soil of the forest. These ruins become, often, a
fruitful source of precious information, in the absence of
written annals, or even of tradition. It was in this way
that, in exploring the wreck of Vien-Chan, the ancient Lao
tian metropolis, we came on characteristic traits of the
government which had had its seat in this ruined toAvn.
Temples and a palace were what might be called the sym
bolic columns of this strange social edifice ; and I must
add, that these pagodas and that royal dweuing had no real
grandeur. While the old Cambodgians brought the enorm
ous blocks of stone, which they knew how to build up and
sculpture with inexhaustible art, from a distance of nearly
ten leagues, the Laotians built walls of brick, badly put
together with plaster, covered with gross pictures, which

134 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
could not stand the dampness of the climate for any length
of time, for ornament. The one seem to have had no faith
in their future ; the others to have counted on centuries of
power for their country. Cambodgia has been, in fact, to aU
appearance, the first nation firmly organised in Indo-China :
it played a preponderating part for long; and its name, which
is often quoted in the sacred books, is still the object of the
veneration of Bouddhists even in countries the farthest from
its frontiers. I must not return to this subject, of which I
have spoken already; but, before leaving Vien-Chan, the
most important political centre of the old independent Laos,
it is fitting to ask, what could be the origin of this Laotian
people, whose settlement in the Mekong valley seems to have
been comparatively recent? From what point ofthe horizon
did those invaders come, who are still at times forced to
struggle with savage tribes, driven back, but not destroyed?
The resemblance which I have noticed between the Laotian
and Siamese languages — a resemblance which cannot be
ascribed to conquest — permits the inference that the two
races are branches from the same trunk; but where did the
tree grow ? what country must Ave assign as cradle to those
men, who, after having expelled the first occupants of the
Meinam and Mekong valleys, ended by mutual slaughter in
fratricidal strife ? The ignorance of the Laotians, the almost
total loss of their traditions, and, lastly, the necessities of
our journey, which had geographical aims more than any
other, made the elucidation of this problem impossible ; and
Ave can only answer these questions by pure hypothesis.
The most probable, and the only one, besides, which, so far
as I can see, is supported by the vague indications received
from the mouths ofthe natives, makes their ancestors the
descendants of the kingdom of Xieng-Mai, tributary at this
time to Bangkok. Before establishing themselves at this
place, and founding a state there, did they come from Thibet,
along the valley of one ofthe great rivers which flow be
tween the Brahmapoutra and the Yang-tse-kiang? Did
they come from the west? or are they, rather, the result of
two different races, which in early ages met, became allied,
and became one ? It would be unwise to decide the ques
tion. It will be only by a more thorough study, and by the

ORIGIN OF THE LAOTIANS. 135
comparison of the languages, that some sparks will one day
be struck into the bosom of this profound night.
None of us could commit himself to this serious under
taking ; and, therefore, it is better to be silent, at the risk of
appearing incomplete, than to run the danger of mislead
ing the investigations of men especially devoted to such
subjects, by a display of artificial learning and improvised
science. Indo-China is, besides, the most fruitful field which
the savants Avho seek to discover the lost sources of that
grand stream, whose waves are nations, and to make out,
in some sort, the genealogy of humanity, can ever explore.
Like the deep bays dug out on our shores, where opposing
currents clash against each other with violent and continu
ous agitation, this part of the world seems to have been the
point where peoples of different origins, whom constant
wars have throAvn together, without having absolutely con
founded one with the other, have met. Those bloody strug
gles, which became, at times, in Europe, the powerful agents
of civilisation, have only served, in these sad countries, to
make the passions fiercer, and the hatreds more bitter : no
fruitful germ has ever sprung on this soil, watered with so
much blood.
The Burmans and the Siamese, like the Annamites and
the Cambodgians, were irreconcilable neighbours. A long
peace was impossible between these nations, thrown into
juxtaposition by the accidents of emigration ; and European
intervention, though denounced at first by a patriotic instinct,
rooted even in the heart of savages, will, for certain, be one
day acknowledged a benefit by the populations to which it
secures repose and stability. It is to be always noted,
that if some races cannot coexist, from incompatibiHties in
a sense organic, others, kept apart only by the ambition of
princes, will probably come to blend and lose themselves in
each other. Between the Annamites, with their harshly-
accentuated language, the ideographic characters of their
Avriting, and their exclusively Chinese civilisation, and the
Cambodgians, who differ not less in then idiom than in
their national character, there is an abyss. If these last had
not, at the nick of time, been put under the protectorate of
France, they would now, like the greater part ofthe Lao-

136 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
tians, have been absorbed in the Siamese monarchy, towards
which, it must be remembered, they are drawn by many
affinities. The laws, the manners, and the faiths, seem to be the same
in these three countries, moulded by a uniform civilisation.
Besides, with the system of government which prevails in the
East, it is a question whether it would be better for the sub
jects to form independent kingdoms rather than to restore
a centralised empire ; perhaps, it is even more dangerous to
have to do with a king than with a simple prefect. However
this be, the Laotians, to whom the ruins of their capital recall
the darkest pages of then contemporary history, have lost,
seemingly for ever, the least desire for insurrection. We
knew that it was not thus in the part of this vast country
which we had yet to visit, and we hoped to find in Southern
Laos signs of independence, and traces of vitality. The sight
of the general decay of the people, among whom we had had
to live for the time, began to depress us, and we hastened to
reach Luang-Praban, the first kingdom ofthe valley ofthe
Mekong which could be regarded as a simple tributary of
Siam, and not as a province making an integral part of that
ambitious monarchy.
We left Vien-Chan in the afternoon ofthe 5th April 1867.
After leaving it, the look of the country changes. The river
buries itself between hills which soon become mountains, and
push their rocks into the waters, like rugged roots. The
narrow bed of the Mekong was literally choked with them.
In spite ofthe smallness and extreme lightness of our canoes,
we had to halt for guides to take us beyond the dangerous
parts. The current soon becomes so strong, and the steep
masses of rock are so difficult to turn, that we had to aban
don boat-hooks and paddles, and yoke ourselves to enormous
ropes of rattan. The Laotians, mounted on the blocks of red
sandstone, rising out ofthe water, had to catch with one
hand at the clefts of these ragged masses, and drag the
canoes towards them, with savage cries, with the other.
With then cables, and their long iron poles, they might have
been taken for those sea-robbers, who, in the fifteenth cen
tury, lived prosperously, in Brittany, on the produce of ship
wrecks. When a point, round which the water boiled, had to

THE MEKONG. 137
be doubled, or the other bank had to be reached through
whirlpools, the captain of our canoes never failed to address
resounding prayers to heaven.
For several days' sail the banks ofthe Mekong were nearly
deserted. It is only very rarely that huts, built in less time
than it takes to pitch a tent, reminded us that men lived in
these forests. The inhabitants of these fragile dwellings
escape in good measure from forced labour, by the difficulty
of reaching them; so that it was not without trouble we got
them to lend a hand and help our crews, who were exhausted
by fatigue. They grounded their unwillingness, mostly, on
their wish for our safety, the river being, as they said, im
practicable at this season of the year.
We were forced to confess that these brave people were
not altogether wrong. The rocks grew thicker, and the
waters rushing against them furiously, it soon became clear
that we could not advance farther without peril. We, there
fore, unloaded our canoes, and seeing some traders Avho were
passing very opportunely, the petty mandarin appointed to
conduct us forced them to lay their goods on the ground,
and to carry our baggage. They had to do so for several
kilometres ; but when we wished to pay them for their
services, they could not understand such liberality, being too
much accustomed to violence to expect anything Hke justice.
It was April, when the waters are at the lowest. The
Mekong was only a couple of torrent-like streams, of immense
depth. The part of its bed left dry was a curious sight.
Most of the rocks by which it is fretted are of bright colours,
so that it looked, sometimes, as if we were walking between
walls of polished marble. A little torrent, running over a
blue-and-white bottom, made a delicious natural mosaic,
which seemed formed of lapis-lazuli and alabaster. We en
camped, at last, on the sand, in improvised huts. From
the top of the rock, from which the national colours floated,
we had at our feet one of the greatest rivers of Asia re
duced to two arms, narrower than those of the Seine, round
the island of St. Louis ; but when we threw the lead, there
was no bottom.
Our cabins of leaves were in the midst of a vast arena,
surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills. Wild beasts called

138 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
and answered each other round us. We heard the hoarse
cry of stags, and, also, toAvards night, the sharper voice of
the tiger ; an invisible enemy, against which the Laotians
protected themselves by raising a small chapel to Bouddha
on the edge of the forest. These poor creatures, who, if we
can beHeve some commentators, were aspiring to annihila
tion, as the highest feHcity promised by then faith, held on
to life ; held on to it, like the most wretched of our peasants,
and like them, when they thought themselves in danger,
tried to protect it by an act of faith and a fervent prayer.
If the lightest canoes stop at some of the dangerous
places in ascending the river, it is very different when they
go down. A skilful pilot then abandons himself to the
cm-rent, and directs his skiff, which is carried forward with
a giddy swiftness, by a bold stroke ofthe paddle. Even
great covered rafts, some of them twenty metres in length,
are trusted to this perilous voyage; and although they have
barely room to turn in the sharp bends, where the river is
hardly forty metres across, shipwrecks are rare. I visited
one of these merchant vessels, loaded with ivory and bales
of cotton, which is cultivated in all this region on a large
scale, in spite of the fewness of the villages.
The debilitating influences of the climate had very much
weakened our ardour in hunting, and oui' table suffered cor
respondingly. We encamped as seldom, and for as short a
time as possible, at a distance from villages, to escape the
pain of hearing, Avith an empty stomach, hypothetical roasts
belling out in the thickets round us. The chief place of
the next pro-vince was Sien-Kan, which we reached on foot,
marching aU day over the burning sand, Avithout any shelter
from the heat of the sun. The heat was so great, that even
the natives could not pass a pool of water without plunging
then heads into it. My ears were ringing. I looked about
without seeing, and entirely lost command of myself; my
limbs went like a machine wound up, and Avithout con
sciously receiving any impulse from the brain. The path
plunged at last into a forest of bamboos ; but our guide
persisted in marching behind us, and if we ultimately
reached Sien-Kan, it was thanks to the river, which, moan
ing in the distance, directed our march.

SIEN-KAN. 139
Sien-Kan, — called, also, Muong-Mai, New Muong, in con
trast to Muong-Cao, Old Muong — is the chief place, but is
as destitute of anything distinctive as it is of importance.
Though the governor was away, on a visit to one of his
confreres on the borders ofthe Meinam, Ave were well re
ceived. They expected us, and our dwelling, which was
made ready beforehand, was constructed on the model of
those we had occupied before. The voyage lost, each day,
in my eyes, something of the charms with which my ima
gination had pleased itself Avith surrounding it. Illusion
Avas no longer possible. As long as we Avere in a Siamese
country, the most trivial adventure was not to be hoped for.
There would have been more chance of one in crossing the
Abruzzi. At Sien-Kan a lively sensation was, however, in store for
us. Some wandering merchants put up close to us. In
these countries, where there is no press, these traders are
peripatetic newsmongers, and supply their customers with
gossip as well as cotton checks, talking all the time they are
selling. Very soon the most astounding and most depress
ing neAvs flew from their shops, and came to overwhelm
us. The English were at Luang-Praban ; they came from the
kingdom of Xieng-Mai, and consisted of a company of ex
plorers made up of several officers and a numerous escort.
A general who sees his combinations destroyed, and a battle
of which he felt sure lost by a manoeuvre ofthe enemy; an
artist who sees his own conception in the picture of a rival,
— are not more cruelly heart-struck than we were by the an
nouncement of an event which would take the glory from
our enterprise, and deprive us of all the honour. We left
Sien-Kan under the painful influence of these rumours, think
ing of the sad figure we should make before our rivals ; we,
Avho had started a year ago, and yet were distanced by
them. Material difficulties came, besides, to help to cloud
our brows. We could not get canoes enough, and had to
go two by two in these narrow prisons.
A Laotian informed us, in passing, that the English had
left Luang-Praban, that they were rapidly descending the
river, and that we should soon see their rafts. Then they
had not continued their voyage beyond Luang-Praban? Ex-

140 TRAA'ELS IN INDO-CHINA.
cellent news ! But they were descending the Mekong — sad
counterpoise ! They will, on their return, publish their ob
servations. We shall be almost lost. It was none the less
necesssary to dissimulate, and to prepare to receive them.
Our hencoop is emptied by slaughter ; a peacock is roasted
on the brazier ; we are about to renew over a dinner hypo
critical demonstrations of cordial aUiance. 0 nature, virgin
and Avild, what profanation ! If some Alcestis had fled from
men on these desert banks, he would throw himself into one
of the AAThirlpools of the river, as he Hstened to us. For my
self, who cherish no professional hateful jealousy against
England, I shared, from duty, in the general vexation; but I
could not help laughing in my beard. Lunettes are levelled;
a raft appears in the distance, gliding carelessly over the
waters; good eyes see EngHshmen clearly, and they are
pointing then fingers at us. The raft approaches. It hails
us. It is a splendid floating house, with a verandah before
and behind, its height enormous, its proportions magnificent.
What luxury ! what comfort ! An Englishman is seen mak
ing his toilet. For myself, though short-sighted, I continue
to see nothing but Siamese crouching and smoking their
cigarettes. The most ill at ease smooth then faces, and
wait in the sun. Still, no one shows himself, except an
officer — of the king of Siam. He announces that the Eng
lish follow close behind; that there are three of them; and
that they are busy with the geography of the country.
Smiles turn to grimaces. A second raft is on the horizon,
and there is fresh anxiety. Keen eyes distinctly see the
French flag floating from the top of their vessel. It is from
courtesy; but courtesy is easy to those who have won. 0
surprise ! The French colours are Dutch, identical with ours,
as every one knows, except in the order in which they are
arranged. The raft keeps the middle of the stream, passes
openly before us, and no European answers our signals. It
is evidently a crafty, diabolical ruse of British insolence; just
Hke them! Concentrated Avrath succeeds disappointment.
At the moment the raft is about to disappear in a bend of
the river, it steers to the bank, and stops. A card is brought
us from ' M. X — , land-surveyor and architect of his Siamese
majesty's government.' M. de Lagree sends his second offi-

AN ADVENTURE. 141
cer, who finds, instead of an Englishman, a Batavian in the
service of Siam, flanked by two mulatto servants. The
poor devil seemed to have only the one thought, of escaping
the rains, which, according to him, spare no European in
these quarters. He shoAved his wonder to see that we
were ready to face them. The information he had gathered
on the way, about us, repaid for the annoyance which the
popular rumours about him had caused us. Applying the
same rule to both expeditions, Fame had given proof of an
impartial exaggeration on both sides. If she had seen in a
single Avretched creature several English officers, and in two
half negroes a numerous escort, her hundred voices had an
nounced that Ave were sixty instead of six, and that the
Annamites in our suite formed a veritable army. The Siamese
agent had been thoroughly frightened at these reports, and
trembled to meet us, I can hardly see why. He had formed
a resolution to take advantage ofthe current ofthe river
to burn oui- camp, and only laid it aside when he saw the
peaceful look of our little group. Nothing was left but to
laugh as we thought of the fable of the floating sticks.
The king of Siam, whose attention had probably been
drawn to these countries by our expedition, wished to knoAv
exactly about his kingdom. To satisfy this legitimate curi
osity, he had sent a European, provided with chronometers,
Avith a quadrant and compass, and ordered him to note the
topography ofthe provinces bordering the Meinam and the
Mekong. This trader had a thousand francs a month for his
work, and travelled as a mandarin. He had left the banks
ofthe Meinam at Utharadit, in about 17° of north latitude,
and had ascended by land to twenty leagues beyond Luang-
Praban. He had only stopped from regard for the Siamese
functionary who was with him, Avho had been near having
his head taken off within the bounds of a province that had
succeeded in shaking off the Siamese yoke. After long
months passed in the most perfect security, with no other
incidents than our daily halt, with none of those perils that
inflame the imagination, sicknesses weaken instead of rous
ing courage; and I saw with joy, in a near, though yet
dim, future, a different existence.
The passport drawn up at the chancellery of Bangkok,

142 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
which had opened every door to us, and made everything so
easy, would soon be useless, or even dangerous. We were
about, at last, to see countries where they cut off Siamese
heads. I may deserve to be accused of ingratitude, but I
confess I was delighted by the prospect. Already, it is true,
the aspect of nature was greatly changed, but it had been
so very imperceptibly. The mist, accustoming us to rapid
changes of view, had made us impatient of those slow trans
formations, which come on almost insensibly, and are pre
pared for and almost anticipated. A mountain, which would
have captivated us if it had been seen on a sudden, left us
unmoved, because it came only after a range of hills.
The people had nothing about them to disturb us ; and I
soon found, that in Laos, as in Europe, ennui is the child of
uniformity. But since leaving Vien-Chan, we felt some pride
in having before us a region that had never been explored ;
for the Dutch ambassador sent in the seventeenth century to
the king of Laos had not gone beyond the capital, where the
sovereign resided. The river alone continued to interest us
by its caprices. The changing aspect of its bed ; the colour
of its waters, here impetuous, troubled, and crowned with
foam; there calm and almost transparent; its windings to
get round obstructions; the effort it made to throw them
over : everything, in this, was fresh or imposing.
At the eighteenth degree the Mekong makes a bend
which is not on any map, and it does not turn to the north
again, tiU after having inclined for nearly two hundred miles
to the west. The village of Paclai, which marks the end of
this bend, was the point farthest from Bangkok, at which we
had rested since leaving Crache. The caravans coming from
the upper parts of the river land there, to go on to the capi
tal of the kingdom of Siam ; and the merchants going to
Luang-Praban, or the higher provinces, in the same way em
bark there. This poor village would soon grow, if commerce
were any way active ; but it is still in an embryo state.
Every one supports himself only, and Paclai sees more func
tionaries passing on the way to Bangkok, or returning, than
bales of silk or cotton. M. Mouhot, our scientific compatriot,
came to Paclai, to look at the river before continuing a jour
ney which death speedily closed. A portrait of this unfor-

PACLAI. 143
tunate naturalist, which we shoAved the head man of the
village, reminded him of some sharp suffering caused by
toilet -vinegar given him by the traveller as an exceUent
remedy for something or other, but which the too-credulous
client had rubbed into his eyes.
Magnificent forests closely hemmed in the village of Pa
clai ; streams of quick-flowing water ran under the trees ;
the birds were not contented, as in Cambodgia and Lower
Laos, Avith shoAving-off their bright plumage, but had turned
musical, and began to sing. They seemed by their concerts
to link themselves Avith the rejoicings which the festival of
spring brings back each year at that season. When the time
of celebration comes, the girls saturate their hair with an
extra quantity of hog's lard and castor-oil, and walk about
in gala dresses, Avith fragrant flowers in their hands, and a
red scarf on their bosoms, intended less to hide their breasts
than to set off the yellow saffron tint with Avhich they dye
their skin. Such manifestations were needed to remind us
that it was spring, because in those regions, so dear to the
sun, growth is so rapid, that there is no hint of the months
from the slow advance of vegetation, which in our temperate
climate raises the sap in the trees by unperceived advances,
and gives such a charm to spring. It is a sort of magic, which
one enjoys with the eye, but in which the rest of his nature
has no part. The earth elsewhere seems to be conscious of
the transformation ; it shakes off its winding-sheet of hoar
frost, and makes a visible effort to escape from its tomb.
Here, on the contrary, it seems to yield passively to secret
influences. It is not a Lazarus raised from the dead, —
coming from darkness to live again in the light, and feehng
the new life with a double intensity ; it is an odalisque, who
awakes, turns herself gently towards her mirror, and puts
flowers in her hair.
At Paclai the river is calm, and pretty broad, and is
bedded between two straight banks of rock like the sides of
a canal. But for its depth, it might seem dug out by human
hands ; at least, this is the impression it makes on a traveller
Avho sees it in April, the last month of the dry season, for its
appearance changes completely during the rains. The bed,
filled by the river when it is at its height, is fringed with

144 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
white sand, and is on a level with the trees ofthe forest;
that which contents it when it is low— that is, sixteen or
nmeteen metres beneath the high-water mark— is through
rock, and is largely streAvn -with huge stones. At a little
distance from the village are the ruins of a large fishery
estabHshment, looking like the wreck of a great town that
had been built of bamboos. Besides the sources of wealth
on its banks, the river contains in its slimy waters many
kinds of fish, which form a large part of the food of the Lao
tians, who, indolent and hating work, prefer fishing to farm
ing, and leave their rice-ground when evening comes, to visit
the nets set in the morning in favourable places, or cast
Hnes, which the current carries along at the same rate as it
bears on their boats. We bought for a tikal — a Siamese coin
worth a little more than three francs — a fish a metre and a
half long, and as fat as a fed pig, with flesh of the colour
and consistency of beef. The capture of one of these mon
sters is a piece of good fortune for a family. It is cut into
strips and smoked, and supports them for long.
We left Paclai, on the 19th of April, for the capital ofthe
kingdom of Luang-Praban, to which that poor village be
longs. The hills grow higher, come nearer, and hem-in the
river, from which a belt of gray and rugged rocks separates
them, and they are covered with fine vegetation. The white
trunks of some kinds of huge trees stand out from the green,
like marble pillars. A sharp bend of the river shut it in
before us like a lake; and at the back ofthe picture a high
mountain showed its steep outlines through a Axeil of blue
vapours, which seem to shiver in the cold.
The great charm of scenes of this kind is the brightness
of the Hght. The memory carries away from these regions,
which are characterised by a kind of monotonous grandeur
more than by anything else, only a recoUection of so many
landscapes flooded with light, a corner of the forest, or the
peak of a mountain. When you get back to northern re
gions, you have only to shut your eyes to bring back the
dazzling and luminous perspectives ; so wondrously do the
tropics fill one with their beams. The whole external world,
so little varied, so calm, so full of transparency and grandeur,
influenced me without my knowing it. I slighted enjoy-

A STORM. 145
ments which dulled my faculties. My sensations "destroyed
the power of reflecting, and I felt myself on the slope which
leads up gifted souls to a state of dreamy contemplation, but
leads others to the verge of idiocy. I hardly know to which
of these two results these fatal moods would have urged me,
had they continued long enough ; but I am very grateful to
day to the Laotians of my canoe, who were never very long
in recalling me to reality. They were in the habit of piling
up their inevitable sacks into a barrier far from fragrant,
between me and the landscape. These bags contained an
extra lahgouti, a little basket of rice, a box with the various
elements of their quids, not to speak of the rotten fish and
other ingredients, which, joined to the odour of the natives
themselves, would have moved the most callous heart. My
attention was, moreover, at times drawn off to the difficul
ties of the navigation.
This becomes once more dangerous at a short distance
from Paclai. Sharp rocks rise in the waters like needles,
and we had to get past them by a method already familiar
to us — hauling ourselves on by a rattan cable. We entered
a gorge where mountains, softly lighted, rose in a second
row behind the hills, reproducing then tossed and tumbled
shapes as if they had been their magnified shadows. The
colours of the sky all at once changed, the tints became
deeper, the water turned a strange hue like Avithered leaves,
the wind blew hard through the defile, the thunder echoed,
and the hail came down furiously. The hailstones, which
were as large as musket-bullets, rattled against our leaf
roofs; the Laotian crew sheltered itself as it best could; and
our Annamites, to whom this phenomenon was quite new,
thought it was raining pebbles on their heads. The wild
elephants, frightened, marched at random through the forest
on the river-bank, crashing the bamboos under their feet,
Avith a noise like that of bursting petards. The sky, the
earth, and the water were alike full of noise, and Nature
seemed to me more beautiful in these sudden outbreaks than
in her gloomy tranquillity..
We chose for our resting-place, that day, a little village
cowering in a fold of soil between two mountains. A river
rolls its limpid waters, now swollen by the storm, by its side
L

146 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
over a bed of flints. It is of recent erection, as may be seen
from the age of the valuable trees, which the Laotians take
care always to plant even before building their dwelHngs.
The poor people had been stripped bare of almost every
thing by the escort of the Dutch geographer we had met.
The Siamese mandarin who commanded it had plundered
all along his route, in accordance with the hateful custom
which raises spoliation to a principle, and transforms the
functionaries of the court of Bangkok into brigands. They
are not authorised, it is true, to exact more than some speci
fied things and services gratuitously, and these they can
only demand so far as they are needful for then travelling
requirements ; but they knoAv that they need fear no censure,
and they hide under a kind of seventy-fifth article — a legis
lative arrangement by which Eastern mandarinism puts
everything to rights for itself. I was thankful that the
terms of our passport, in compliance with our personal Avish,
obHged us to pay for men, boats, and proAisions. It caused
us to be less thought of; but it Avill be a pleasant recollection
in connection Avith us, and when favourable circumstances
come, it may bear good fruit.
For some time we met no more great affluents, but
numerous streams, and many brooks or torrents which fall
from the mountains. We had finaUy left the plains, and
henceforth sailed through the midst of hiHs and bluffs. Our
canoes coasted along enormous rocks. We one day came
upon corpses in rush mats, at the turning of a promontory.
They were in a cleft, where the water had, perhaps, landed
them, to bear them off after a time, or, perhaps, they were
put there by the hands of the living. However fine such a
tomb may be, it is sad, when one feels oneself dying, not to
be able to reckon on a little earth near the hut where one
has lived. Of the three elements to Avhich man commits his
remains, water, always changing and oblivious by its nature,
seems the least worthy of this mournful trust. The earth
grows green again above us, the fire leaves ashes for our
family to Arenerate. Though they surround mortal agony
and burial Avith a crowd of noisy ceremonies, the Laotians
do not look on death as we do. That grand mystery terri
fies them ; but that which they dread, above all, is lest the

LUANG-PRABAN. 147
ghost should revisit them. This danger seems less if they
annihilate or banish the body.
Masses of black shining rocks, which seemed as if they
had been varnished, encumbered the river once more so
much, as to leave it only a narrow passage, through which
it darted, writhing. We had, therefore, once more to unload
our canoes, taking off even the light rounded roofs, which
it would not have been safe to have left on them. In spite
of these precautions, one of them filled while they were
dragging it along, and we saw nothing but the captain,
erect and impassive, notAvithstanding the danger, his paddle
in his hand, and seeming to walk on the waves. When the
specially dangerous spots were thus passed, the flotilla re
sumed its way. It needed all the strength and dexterity
of oui' boatmen not to be swept away in doubling some
points, where they had nothing by which to hold on, and
a terrible current bore down on them, with a smooth wall
over their head and an abyss at their feet. As they knew
they were responsible for our lives, they threw an ardour
into their task, demanded for their self-preservation. They
could not drown such great mandarins as we with impunity.
From Nong-Cai the villages are thinly scattered, but the
country grows more populous as you approach Luang-Pra
ban — a town famous through all Laos, but whose size, in con
tradiction to the laws of perspective, grows less as we get
near it. The Mekong is clear at last, for some time, of the
rocks which till then obstruct it : the outlines of the moun
tains lose their rigidity, the hills are covered with a rich and
more varied vegetation, and the river flows round them in
soft bends. Free from obstacles, it spreads out into a broader
bed, and forms a vast sheet of calm water before the town.
Luang-Praban makes itself known by the top of a gilt
pyramid rising from amidst the trees, as our towns in Europe
are announced from a distance by the steeples of churches.
Boats are drawn up on the bank ; nets by the hundred, hung
from stakes, dry in the sun; immense rafts are being put
together ; others, smaller, in great numbers, float at anchor
from long cables. We saw at once in this mean toAvn, which
lives by the river, signs of activity ; a sight so new to us,
that we stopped to enjoy it : then, to let the authorities

148* TRAVELS IN TNDO-CHINA.
know Ave had come, we struck our bronze gong Avith extra
force, as is the way Avith mandarins. ' We waited a long
time ; the curious gathered in groups round us, but no official
presented himself to receive or direct us. M. de Lagree de
termined, at last, to march into the town, at a venture, with
aU the military following he could muster. On this, some
stir showed itself in the crowd, and we saw a functionary,
important so far as stoutness went, but mean in rank, run
ning towards us. He told us, what was hardly likely, that
we were not expected, and that nothing had been prepared
for receiving us ; and added, that the king not liking us to
occupy the caravanserai near the palace, it would be neces
sary, for the time at least, to content ourselves with the
small, black, and squalid house which he pointed out. If
the tone of this chamberlain was courteous, his language
was imperative. M. de Lagree consented to make use of
a slovenly and dilapidated lodging, but he announced his
intention to see the king next day, and have an explanation.
It was necessary to accede to the usual ceremonies; His
majesty would not rise to receive us on our entering the
throne-room ; he wished to force us to remain sitting on the
ground in his presence, and we were with difficulty allowed
to dispense with striking our foreheads on it, and crawHng
towards him, like the natives.
M. de Lagree having energetically resisted these pre
tensions, the plenipotentiary of the king yielded on all
these points, and we had the honour of being received on
the afternoon of May 1st, 1867, by the sovereign of Luang-
Praban, who condescended to take three steps forward, and
to suffer us to shake hands Avith him. His throne Avas a
sofa of gilt wood, incrusted below with glass ; and 'on this
he squatted, chewing his betel, while we took our place
on benches. He was an old man Avith a wrinkled face,
and so high an idea of his dignity, that it hardly allowed
him to open his mouth. He scarcely replied to our ques
tions, and took care never to speak to us directly. The
lords of the court and the body-guards knelt on both sides
down the Avhole length of the hall, holding their sabres
and muskets in their hands with- the martial air of sacristans
who carry the candles on a procession-day. The king con-

LUANG-PRABAN. 149
sented to examine the presents M. de Lagree offered him, and
we retired, not Avithout once more grasping the royal hand.
It was easy to see, by the stiffness of this reception, that
Ave had to do Avith a man in whose eyes the Siamese letters
were not a sufficient guarantee. We had been told that he
was tenacious in exhibiting this quasi - independence, and
that he Avished to know us before displaying his sentiments.
He authorised us, however, to stay in his toAvn, and even
invited us to mark out the site for our lodging, which he
proposed to erect at his OAvn cost. We chose a spot con
secrated by the ruins of a pagoda, which gave rise to count
less stipulations. We had to agree not to knl anything in
the enclosure of our camp, not to profane the soil by traces
of our humanity; to live, in short, like pure spirits; promises
more easy to make than to perform. Our bamboo huts were
soon ready ; a splendid banyan, the sacred tree, par excel
lence, stretching its great arms over them.
We had at last come to a collection of houses and people
meriting the name of a town. We had seen nothing like it
since leaving Pnom-Penh. Without going the length of
Mgr. Pallegoix, who sets down the population at eighty thou
sand, I am inclined to think M. Mouhot's estimate of seven
or eight thousand a little under the mark. From the top of
a knoll which serves for base to an elegant pyramid, you
overlook a plain covered with thatched roofs, shaded by a
forest of cocoa-trees. From this point, from which the eye
embraces at once the whole panorama of the toAvn, one
hears the confused hum which rises from all centres of human
activity, resembling, according to its intensity, the dull sound
of waves dying on the beach ; or, it may be, the hoarse roar
of billows dashed upon the rocks by the storm. To the ear
of the traveller, tired with vast solitudes, this confused mur
mur, in which all articulate words are lost, is a delicious har
mony. The town of Luang-Praban, which is traversed for
all its length by a great artery, parallel with the river, stretches
along the two sides of a hill, bathed on one side by the Me
kong, on the other, by the Nam-Kan. This little river throws
itself into the great one by a sharp turn at the north-west
end of the town. The side towards the Nam-Kan is not less
peopled than that towards the Mekong. A crowd of filthy

150 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
lanes abut on the principal street; some slope rapidly, or are
made into stairs, and paved -with brick, or even with blocks
of rough marble, polished by the feet of the people. Mac
adamising is not altogether unknown. It is strange that the
Laotians have so wholly neglected to take advantage of
the inexhaustible quarries of marble they have at hand, that
Avhen they have wished to use some in ornamenting, for ex
ample, the space before a pagoda, they should have thought
of bringing it from Bangkok, to which, if we can credit a
mandarin, who flattered himself that in giving us this de
tail he would excite our admiration, it had previously been
brought from China.
Luang-Praban forms a kind of rectangle, which is bounded
on three sides by running water. The fourth is shut in by
a Avail with five gates, which extends from the Nam-Kan to
the Mekong. At the point where this wall, hardly Aasible
under the growth which buries it, joins the great river, a
little sanctuary, on the very bank, white, with a round roof,
attracts attention : it protects the footprints of Bouddha,
impressed on a rock. We had seen at Angcor, on Mount Bak-
heng, and at different other places in Laos, hollows some
what like a foot, in which the faithful fancied they saw foot
steps left on the rock by the great reformer of the creed of
India — the venerated founder of their religion. The Siamese
have discovered phenomena of the same kind, and Mount
Phrabat is a place of pilgrimage to the inhabitants of Bang
kok. One can readily understand how an apostle claiming
to be inspired, and preaching a positive reHgion, should seek
to secure success by miracles: the power to work them would
assuredly be the best of warrants, given by God himself, to
the representative he had chosen ; but if Bouddha appeared
on earth only to show men the way to annihilation, it is hard
to see whence he could derive the power to change the laws
of nature ; how, for example, he could dig out a deep hollow
in a rock by simply setting his foot on it. I know very well
that we have no right to lay on Bouddha, himself, the respon
sibility of these simple credulities; but they exist, and are
common, and, fantastic contradiction, the faith of the people
has become so distorted, that they acknowledge a god in him
who was, beyond all men, an atheistic philosopher ! I re-

BOUDDHA'S FOOTSTEP. 151
spect the grave intellects, and eminent writers, who, of late
years, have expounded the theory of Bouddhism from this
point of view, too much, to dispute their conclusions. I
grant that the torch of analysis, borne Avith a firm hand into
the deepest obscurities of the Bouddhist doctrine.has revealed
a throne raised to annihilation at the bottom of the abyss ; but
I do not think there is a single Bouddhist in Laos, who would
picture its extreme consequences thus, in giving an exact
statement of his beHef. In any case, even supposing Boud
dha reaHy considered life as the supreme evil, such an idea
could not rise except in the heart of a man profoundly moved
by the miseries of his brethren; a dogma so depressing must
have needed a soil watered with blood to develop it ; and,
in this light, Indo-China was a region especiaUy well pre
pared for it.
However it may be, the legendary foot of Charlemagne
was only a miniature alongside the foot of the god, whose
steps remind one of the famous cat of Perrault. From the
river-bank where he left the mark of one of his feet, the hea
venly traveller, in visiting Luang-Praban, set down the other
on the top of a little knoll, adorned now, in memory of the
fact, with an elegant pavilion supported on ten pillars. The
roof is covered Avith coloured tiles, and edged with bells which
tinkle in the Avind : the sacred footstep is in a grotto, at its
side, and is covered with leaves of gold. From this pictu
resque spot, which is reached by a very steep stair, the view
is magnificent. On one hand, stretch the great river and the
mountains which border it; a gap in the mass ofthe first
range lets the eye lose itself over distant undulations bathed
in mist; nearer, you see the thatched roofs ofthe houses, and
the tiles of the pagodas, the trees with waving plumes, and
the tops of some pyramids ; on the other side, the eye ranges
along the valley of the Nam-Kan, which runs at the foot of
the bluff, separating a great faubourg, planted, like the rest,
with cocoas and palms, from the toAvn.
It was on the banks of the Nam-Kan, not far from the
village of Ban-Napao, that the king of Luang-Praban caused
the body of M. Mouhot, who had come there six years before,
and had died of fever, to be buried. This traveller had made
himself beloved by the natives, who still hold his memory in

152 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
respect; and the king himself paid a last homage to it, by
furnishing, at his OAvn cost, the material for a modest monu
ment, which we raised over the tomb of our brave country
man. Admiral de La Grandiere had specially charged M. de
Lagree with this sad duty. He felt that France, summoned
to resume in Indo-China the place she had lost in India, owed
recognition and regret to the hardy explorer, to Avhom she
had granted neither help nor encouragement when they could
have been of use. Leaving London in a merchant vessel, in
April 1858, with some slight assistance from an English
learned society, Henri Mouhot had resolved, after a sufficient
stay at Bangkok, to explore the basin of the Meinam and
part of that of the Mekong. Having reached Luang-Praban,
he conceived the project of attempting, by the ascent of this
latter river, the work which a near future reserved for other
Frenchmen to accompHsh, who have been happier than he,
because they could support and encourage each other. Such
an enterprise was beyond the power of any single man. M.
Mouhot died in the midst of a vast forest, leaving, in the hut
where his lonely agony sought shelter, a journal continued
almost without a break to the day of his death, the last page
of it, written with a hand already cold, containing a touch
ing expression of his sorrows, tempered by religious con
fidence. The pagodas are numerous at Luang-Praban, and there
is some variety in the architecture. Each has a bonzery, and
the yellow dress abounds in the streets. They are well sup
ported ; sometimes decorated richly, and not without taste.
In one I admired an altar incrusted with blue glass, in imita
tion of enamel : on the blue ground, pleasantly lighted by
the soft rays of evening, a rose in reHef, ftdl blown, Avith
gilt petals, spread itself. In another pagoda, which rested on
magnificent columns of wood, and was nearly circular, two of
the most beautiful elephant tusks that could be imagined,
have been placed near the principal statue. The chord of
the arc formed by these huge weapons of defence is a metre
and seventy-six centimetres across. As a rule, gilding and
vermilion are lavished on the ceilings and the pillars, and the
altar is heaped up with so many statuettes and ornaments,
that it might be taken for a shopkeeper's display.

BOUDDHIST FESTIVAL. 153
The services seemed regularly observed, and I was often
present at the evening ones in the pagoda nearest our camp.
The faithful, on their knees before a great statue ofBoud-
dha, listened, Avith the attitude of meditation, to the prayers
read by a bonze, giving the responses, themselves, at long
intervals. Lighted tapers illuminated the building ; sweet-
smelling canes burned at the feet of the god; and a charming
lace-work of flowers, woven each day by the women and chil
dren, a perfumed and beautiful drapery, hung before the
altar. The ceremony ended commonly with some notes of
music : the women beat a smallbronze timbrel ; then went out
to the porch, laid flowers on some sacred stones, and watered
them, as they murmured their prayers. Not seldom they
mingled grains of rice with the flowers; and I noticed that
the poultry ofthe neighbourhood, into whom, perhaps, the
soul of some bonzes, dead in a state of sin, had passed, had re
tained from their former existence a very exact remembrance
of the horn- of the offering. Besides the daily offices, the
Laotians have also periodical fe"tes, at some of which we had
already been present. Those of spring, which we had seen
begin at Paclai, were celebrated at Luang-Praban with a
noisy solemnity, in keeping with the size ofthe town and the
number of the population. Naturally, young people take
the greatest part in them. During the day, while the over
powering heat lasts, all is dull, for the Laotians themselves
suffer by the sun ; but hardly has this redoutable foe to plea
sure disappeared behind the mountains of the right bank of
the Mekong, than the air is full of din, from bursts of laugh
ter, and wild songs, to which the dogs add their voices. I
had the curiosity to look on from a distance at these noctur
nal rejoicings. The white light of the moon threw silver
tints on the porticoes ofthe pagodas, on the pyramids, on
the thatched roofs; the cocoas, the palms, and the light leaves
of the clumps of bamboos defined themselves sharply against
the clear sky; and though no perceptible air came to stir the
atmosphere, the whole trembled before me like a dream,
without my being able to seize the moving outlines of
this magic picture. The nights are beautiful in the East,
and the East is beautiful only at night; both men and
things gain by being seen in an uncertain light ; the land-

154 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
scape loses its monotony, and the civilisation of the spot its
grossness. Under the dim vault formed in the distance by the great
trees, a shrill and piercing voice, all at once, sent up into the
air some extraordinary notes, to which a whole chorus of
women, walking very quickly, and soon coming up to where I
stood, answered in a more serious tone. My curiosity was
keenly excited ; I was as astonished as an ancient barbarian
would have been who had met in the streets of Eleusis a pro
cession of matrons marching towards the temple of Ceres. I
resolved to be initiated into the mysteries. The solo began
again, and was followed by sharp, discordant cries, as if twenty
angry women were stamping and shrieking, in competition, at
the top of their lungs, Avithout thinking ofthe measure, only
caring that they should end at the same time. So far as the
vocal music went, this was all the concert. Young girls were
the attraction. They escorted a great pyramid of flowers,
which was laid under a canopy in the porch of the pagoda
by the men who carried it. An old bonze, Avith his face hid
den by a plume of feathers, said some prayers, and then the
crowd broke up. Young girls and young men, then rehgious
duty finished, mingled together; and I went away, for it was
easy to see that the presence of a stranger checked their
freedom. The Bouddhist priest was about to be displaced
by the eternal minister of the one worship universally prac
tised in the world, and I regained my chamber, not without
sadness. It was the first year which had had no spring for
me. I met other bands ; some went to the pagodas Avith the
same solemnity ; others did not seem to trouble themselves
Avith the sacred character ofthe fete. Young men, the worse
for Avine, chanted a Laotian bolero, or blew sounds out of
reeds tied together. Farther off, two Adolins of two strings,
a guitar, a flute, and cymbals handled like castanets, per
formed a very simple, very original, and very lively air. The
dandies who gave this concert in the moonlight had a love
rendezvous as well. It was just as in France, where those
who would on no account go to a midnight mass, will on no
account stay from a midnight party. AU these young Lao
tians, dressed in a light cloak throAvn over the shoulders, and
a large langouti which looked like huge hose, had the confi-

A GAMBLING-HOUSE. 155
dent and swaggering walk of our grand seigneurs of former
times, in pursuit of rich heiresses.
A gambling-house stood near our hut, and men and wo
men gave themselves noisily up to their passion, in it : a mat
stood for the green table, and ticals for louis. The players,
who prepare themselves by libations of rice brandy for the
sensations of the gambling-house, have a burning eye and a
shrivelled figure ; the women, especially, are hideous ; many,
who are no longer young, have enormous goitres, and these
monstrous tumours hang down on their bosoms, so that one
hardly knows whether they have three breasts, or three goi
tres. The use of opium seems more common in Luang-
Praban than in Lower Laos. The Chinese no longer come
there, but they have for long sent numerous caravans. These,
Hke a wave charged with ooze, which leaves its abomination
on the bank as it retires, have inoculated the population with
part of their vices. These indefatigable traders, who for
merly came down from Yunan to the number of two or three
hundred a year, have given up a journey, which has become
too dangerous since the revolt of the Mussulmans from the
emperor of China. They are replaced by Burman pedlars, who
supply the place with cotton and woollen goods, and with
a small number of other European articles sought after
by the natives. These Burmese may be recognised by their
features, which are more open and more intelligent than those
of the Laotians, and by a turban smartly put on on one side
of the head. They have then thighs, their stomach, and
often their chests, covered with tattooing, generally blue, but
sometimes red — fantastic arabesques, which destroy the col
our of the skin, and, at a little way off, have almost the look
of swaddling-bands. At Luang-Praban the Laotians have adopted the same
custom, whence, probably, has come the name of Black-bel
lied Laos, which is given them by ancient geographers. One
must go to the market to judge the variety of costumes and
types. At a glance at this mixed population, the least skilful
of anthropologists would see beforehand the inextricable con
fusion of races and languages, which he will meet at a short
distance from Luang-Praban. Numbers of savages, who have
submitted to the king, come every morning to the town to

156 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
sell or buy. They live in the mountains. Their dress is
extremely simple ; so much so in some cases, that it could
hardly be lessened. Their hair,' plaited over the head, and
cut horizontally along the forehead, sticks out freely behind,
and is sometimes done up into a chignon. Others, more
elegant, wear a blue vest set off with white edging. All
have the lobe of the ear perforated by a hole that measures,
sometimes, a centimetre across, in which they put an orna
ment of wood or metal; the women using a great bodkin of
silver, with the head gilt, in this way.
The costume of these good ladies consists of a vest and
jupon of blue cotton check, edged with white; and they have
a piece of some cloth on then head, of the same colour, en
circling and mingling Avith their black hair. Their little
scared figures- contrast agreeably with the masculine fea
tures of many of the Laotian women, who display a de
formed "throat without shame. Then savage sisters have
more modesty or more of the coquette. It is only through
then tight-fitting vest the eye can follow over then bosoms
the often graceful outlines of then hidden charms. The
Laotians, who are very proud of their half-civilisation, look
on the savages as much inferior to themselves, and, indeed,
as almost contemptible. Every group of three miserable huts
of theirs has a name of its own, knoAvn in the neighbour
hood; but the most important village of the people, who may
be regarded as the original oAvners of the country, is caUed
by the common and scornful name of BanJKas — a kraal of
savages. The stranger refuses to accept this estimate formed
by a perverted pride. The savages are hard workers, and
the finest fields of rice and noblest herds of cattle I have
seen have been in their parts of the country. They are all
shy at first, but they are easily brought to be familiar. How
often have I, in my walks, had to ask these children of the
woods for shelter from the sun, or water to quench my thirst,
or a mat on which to forget my fatigue ! They did not un
derstand my words, but divined, Avith the quick instinct of
hospitahty, the wants which brought me among them, and
hastened to satisfy them. I have enjoyed positive feasts in
these huts, where the bamboo, worked in a hundred ways,
spread all the luxury before me it could display; and I cannot

. THE ABORIGINES- 157
recall without gratitude the recollection of. a collation made
up of sticky rice, smoked iguana legs, and pepper, which a
savage, some sixty- years of age, whom I met in the forest, to
whom my long b'eard caused astonishment rather than fear,
offered me one day. This good old man spoke a harsh, and
sonorous language, in which the r abounded, in contrast Avith
the Laotian, in which that letter seems little used. He took
as much pleasure in shoAving me his cabin, and his fields of
maize and rice, as any civilised proprietor could. The plains
having become rare, it was necessary to grow rice on the
hills, and, by the force of circumstances, the management of
the rice-plantations ofthe forest have been brought to high
perfection. The agriculturists ofthe neighbourhood of Lu
ang-Praban avail themselves of the numerous springs which
escape from the rocks, to irrigate their grounds, and even
seem, where necessary, to dig little canals for leading the
water where it is required— a thing unheard of in Lower
Laos. The cultivated spots on the slopes of the mountains
are scattered with' a freedom possible to a people not very
numerous, and enjoying an immense extent of unoccupied
land. They burn the trees, and cut away the stumps, as" far
as they can, without pulling out the roots, and plant the rice
on the round tops of the knolls, or on the steep slopes, with
out an attempt at levelling the surface. Hence, after a short
time, the roots spring again, and invade the rice-grounds. If
they were to dig the ground deep, they Avould avoid this in
convenience; but, then, the diluvian rains would carry off all
the soil, no longer kept in its place by the roots, into the
valleys, sweeping it away in its rush. In the month of May,
during our stay at Luang-Praban, the fields were only pre
pared for planting, and looked, from a distance, like scars
on the hill-sides, or like stains on the green robe which
covered them. The obstacles which nature offers to the toil
of man have always the result of developing his energy and
activity. Though the labourer has to water the ground with
his sweat to make it fertile, he not only secures a living by
doing so, but has, without his knowing it, and, as it were, into
the bargain, acquired manly qualities, which make it impos
sible for him to remain long a slave. Agriculture exacts
more labour in the mountains of Luang-Praban than in the.

158 TRAVELS IN INDO-CfflNA.
fertile plains of Lower Laos ; and the people, though they
have not reached that insolent rudeness we soon after found
among the tributaries of Burmah, have no longer the stolid
features and the indolent ways of the people of Ubone and
Bassac. In the capital a wonderful animation prevailed every
morning in the market. I liked to go through the close
crowd, to look at the singular eatables piled on the tables ;
but especiaUy to watch the buyers and seUers. On the two
sides of the street, under the shelter of the low houses, the
sellers, of both sexes, crouched on mats or on large leaves
of banana, waited for their customers without importuning
with wearisome invitations, as is the case in our provincial
markets in Europe. The housewives go about in peace;
there are no cries or disputes ; the whole goes on gravely,
almost in silence. Everything may be found that is needed
for living — that is, for Laotian living — in its modest sense.
I have not to do here with the names of the different de-
Hcacies which tempt the curiosity of the passers-by, or
solicit their appetites; I omit, purposely, the ragouts, all
ready; the savoury drinks, consumed on the spot; for a
smell rises from one and all that won't let me think of
stopping. The Burmese offer the pubHc EngHsh stuffs,
cotton checks, printed calicoes, wooUen fabrics, buttons, and
needles ; the inhabitants of the kingdom of Xieng-Mai bring
lacker boxes, gargoulettes, and parasols; and natives sell fish,
buffalo-meat and pork — often that of beasts which have died
of disease — rice, salt, Chinese nettles, silk, and cotton. There
are, besides, tobacco-shops, where you find cigarettes and
pipes of different models. All the world smokes, men,
women, and children. The children, indeed, while stiU at
the breast, draw puffs of smoke through the pipe-shanks,
mixing it in some sort in their mouth Avith their mother's
milk. However, these appearances of a commercial Hfe
must not be allowed to deceive one, and the traveller,
anxious to see such, must guard against first impressions.
There is hardly anything at Luang-Praban but a retail
trade, and this has itself already suffered considerably from
the revolt of Yunan, which has made intercourse Avith the
Celestial Empire impossible.

MONEY IN LAOS. 159
It will, perhaps, be remembered that at Stung-Treng,
our first station in Laos, we received from the natives, in
exchange for the Siamese tikal, so many little bars of iron,
varying commonly from seven to ten to a tikal. On leaving
Bassac the bar of iron was exchanged for one of copper,
lighter and more convenient ; at Phon-Pissai, copper money
entirely disappeared. We found the only money current at
Luang-Praban was in the shape of little white shells, strung
together like the sapecks of Cochin-China. Twenty-five of
these strings are worth a tikal. This piece of silver, which
reigned alone Avith its subdivisions in aU Lower Laos, finds
a redoubtable rival in the market at Luang-Praban, in the
EngHsh rupee, which has a fictitious value equal to that of
a tikal, although the latter shows an intrinsic difference in
its favour of about 93c. This anomaly comes, no doubt, from
the frequent and direct intercourse ofthe Burman traders
with this country, and would probably cease with the first
experiment of speculation in exchange. As to the Mexican
dollars, of which we had brought a number, it was very
difficult to know how to value them. The exchanges in the
market — for there are exchange offices — persisted in refusing
them, and we had to find out a good-natured person, who
wished them as curiosities, before we could get rid of them.
Several great people bought them to hang from their chil
dren's necks, who then found themselves dressed in this
piece of money, and a kind of silver heart hung by a string
tied round then loins, and serving the same end to modesty
as the vine-leaves do in Europe. A tax-gatherer passes
through at the close ofthe market, and levies so many shells
from each booth as the king's right ; for in Laos there is no
difference between the king, the state, the town, and public
and private property. Yet, however great the power of the
sovereign may be, established usages impose bounds on it,
and it meets a kind of control in the assembly of the chief
functionaries who form the royal council — knoAvn by the
native name of Sena. These functionaries being nominated
by the king, and being very proud of the honour, can exer
cise only a delusive check ; but after having passed through
a country which the sun might make so rich, and despotism
has made so poor, one clings to these shadows of guardian in-

160 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
stitutions, and offers ardent prayers that the phantoms may
take a body, and drag "the land at last from the rut in which
it will otherwise perish. The second king, who, at Luang-
Praban, as at Bangkok, sits below the first, has only a title,
with no real power. It was he who had gone to be present
at the funeral ceremonies of the second king of Siam. The
first king did not deign to trouble himself about the cere
mony, at which all the governors of the Siamese provinces
had received orders to be present, to add to the splendour.
He contents himself with sending his annual tribute, and
will not alloAv the interference of the agents of Bangkok in
the affairs of his kingdom in any way. His predecessors had
been in the habit of sending gifts to the Son of Heaven as
well ; but he profited by the revolt of Yunan to put an
end to the practice, which was simply a voluntary homage,
though it had, no doubt, at one time been a tribute. The
ambassadors who go from Luang-Praban to Pekin take not
less than three years to make the whole journey.
There is reason to beHeve that this vassalage of the king
to Bangkok would very soon change to total independence,
if his own interest did not prompt him to keep on good terms
Avith a sovereign who, if necessary, might be a powerful aHy.
The boundaries of the kingdom of Luang-Praban are, on the
south, the district of Sien-Kan ; on the west, the important
Siamese province ofMuong-Nan; from west to north-east,
a number of principalities tributary to Burmah or to China,
now one, now the other ; on the north-east, Yunan ; and from
north-east to south-east, Tonkin.
On the side of Tonkin, there have been frequent dis
putes respecting the frontiers between the emperor of Annam
and the king of Luang-Praban. Some Siamese soldiers
were still in the capital, left behind from the small army
which had come, a few years before, to aid the king to take
possession of the countries bounded by Tonkin, which were
laid claim to by the Annamites. From these ambitious ri
valries, which spring from near neighbourhood, there is con
stant hostility between the Laotians and the Tonkinese.
The route of commerce, which formerly united the two peo
ples, is nowadays wholly deserted by traders, and traveUed
only by soldiers. On both sides, they slaughter each other

POLICY OF FRANCE. 161
with equal remorselessness, so that a barrier of heads cut off
rises each day higher between these unhappy populations,
condemned to the scourge of unceasing war. Victory in
the last campaign remained with the king of Luang-Praban ;
but it may desert his flag, and the two sides may know,
in turn, the barbarous joys of triumph, and the horrors of
defeat ; and thus hatred wUl only become more intense, and
reconciliation more impossible. It is, therefore, to be hoped
that some new influence may bring a remedy for a state of
things that remains without result, imposing peace on the
princes, and healing the wounds of the peoples. If I were
asked whence this help could come, I would repeat what I
have already said of Cambodgia in the beginning of this
book. The part which France has played, under the guid
ance of an intelligent and far-seeing governor, in the ex
tremity of the valley of the Mekong, is not without some
analogy to what seems reserved, at the twentieth degree of
north latitude, to the successors of Admiral deLa Grandiere.
In the delta ofthe great river we cleverly interposed between
the Siamese and the Annamites, under cover of the Cam
bodgians ; and they are the same enemies we find face to face
as far up as Tonkin. The kingdom of Luang-Praban has, no
doubt, more life than that of Cambodgia, but it is not less
excited and sustained by the Siamese in all its enterprises
against the empire of Annam — that old enemy ofthe court
of Bangkok. I knoAv well that we are not established at
Tonkin as we are in Lower Cochin-China ; I am, moreover,
far from being convinced that it would be a real advantage
to us to take immediate possession of the direct government
of this country; but it is necessary that the emperor TuDuc
should consent to tolerate our presence in it, to protect at
tempts at any agricultural, industrial, or commercial estab
lishments which may be made by our compatriots. When
the voice of the governor of Cochin-China plays a greater
part in the councils of Hue, it will not be long before it makes
itself heard also at Luang-Praban. If, as there is some rea
son to believe, there are some unsubdued tribes of savages,
who have revolted from vassalage, and are exasperated by
hideous outrages, their misfortunes perpetuating their bar
barism — in the region occupied by those of their race who
M

162 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
have submitted to one or other of the neighbouring nations,
they AviU never be an insurmountable obstacle to the revival
of intercourse. When these men are no longer tracked Hke
AvUd beasts, and sold in the markets, they avUI at once cease
to be ferocious.
The port of Bangkok may be considered the one outlet,
at this time, of the commerce of these countries. This com
merce, as we have seen, is yet in its infancy, vegetating in
the thick poHtical atmosphere which surrounds it ; but it avUI
grow under a new regime, which will guarantee liberty and
security — the two conditions everywhere essential to the
development of public Avealth. The town of Luang-Praban
is not more than seventy leagues from the gulf of Tonkin ;
and thus it is rather on that side than to the capital of the
kingdom of Siam, which is still farther off, that the rude
labourers of these mountains seem designed by nature to
export then produce, and to receive the imports which in
dustrial Em-ope could send them. We shall not have long
to wait for more fuU enHghtenment on this question, and
those connected with it. A short time after the retm-n of
the expedition commanded by M. de Lagree, two energetic
and enterprising officers — MM. d'ArfeuiUe and Reynard —
reascended the Mekong to Luang-Praban, to cross from that
toAvn by land to the town of Hue, and thus pass obHquely
through the Indo-Chinese peninsula. If this perilous journey
be successful, it cannot fad to be richer in results, as regards
our Annamite colony, than even the expedition in which I
was caUed to take a part, which had a more general aim.1 I
shaU soon have to cross and describe the Chinese province
of Yunan, by which the great empire touches Tonkin. I
shaU sail on the river, which falls into the sea near the capi
tal of the latter kingdom, and will then be led, in the com-se
of my narrative, to state more fully the end which France
should seek to attain in that country; but before reaching
the fan plain of Yuen-kiang, where the Sonkoi flows with
brimming banks, what mountains must we yet pass, what
struggles must we have with the ill-will of the natives, to
what miseries must we submit, what sufferings endure !
1 Less fortunate than we, these two explorers were forced to return to
Saigon after some months.

RUMOURS OF DIFFICULTY. 163
The rainy season had begun ; and at that time, when even
the Laotians almost entirely give up travelling, fate required
that we should set off to penetrate a region which the rude
ness of nature, and that of man, make specially inhospitable.
The rebels of Cambodgia, who, shortly after our starting, had
pursued, but failed to overtake, us, had, without knoAving it,
prepared trials for us, the sight of which would, without
doubt, have glutted then hatred and vengeance. By hin
dering the post, which had started from Saigon to catch
us, from coming by the direct way of the river, they had
forced M. de Lagree to send after it, and to wait for it. The
fine weather had passed away in these wretched delays, and
our task, no less than our funds, so much reduced already,
made the delay most hurtful.
Our regular life, and the discipline of the men of our
escort, had excited the esteem of the king of Luang-Praban,
and concuiated his good-will. Yet he did not hide the. feel
ing, but owned it openly to M. de Lagree, that though he
liked to have us with him, our farther progress was very dis
agreeable. According to information that reached him, the
gravity of which he purposely exaggerated, rivers of blood
flowed on his frontiers. He said he was at war with his
neighbours, little independent sovereigns, who were tearing
each other in pieces. As commonly happens in times of
political confusion, brigandage had been organised on a great
scale, and bands of savages, of Chinese, of Laotians, and of
Burmese, plundered all travellers alike impartially who were
rash enough to pass through these parts. In such a state
of affairs, the king hesitated to provide us Avith means of
transport, in some measure to escape from the responsibility
of an affair, which he thought would turn out very badly for
us ; but much more from fear of seeing his horses, boats, men,
and, especially, his elephants, fall into the hands of his ene
mies. On the other hand, we learned from reports gathered
by our interpreter, that the emperor of China had begged the
king of Luang-Praban not to let any Europeans pass, who
might be trying to reach China by the valley ofthe Mekong.
This appeared quite in keeping with the weU-knoAvn habits
of Chinese diplomacy. If we succeeded in setting foot on
Chinese territory, the government would become responsible

1'64: TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.".
for the conduct of its functionaries towards the foreign man
darins, who came furnished with regular passports issued~by
itself.' It would, therefore, haA^e been a clever stroke, if not
very honourable, to get a prince long tributary to the great
empire, and still under the shadow of its venerable prestige,
to consent to detain us in his state. It was possible that the
long, playing a' double game, would dissimulate as to the
real motives for opposing our starting ; but it was also no
less possible that his fears had a very serious foundation.
Our hut, open to all comers, was the rendezvous ofthe quid
nuncs and the idlers ; the mandarins and the bonzes were a
great deal Avfth our chief, and all agreed in drawing a terri
ble picture ofthe -neighbouring countries. We had to appear
very resolved, while all the time trying to find out the truth
amidst the haze of exaggeration — an ungrateful task, which
left us commonly in cruel perplexity.
M. de Lagree devoted himself to it with an admirable
perseverance. His days were entirely filled Avith minute
interrogatories, in which he showed, at once, the patience
of a savant pursuing a difficult problem, and the sagacity
of an examining magistrate. Up to Luang-Praban his
laborious inquiries had had for their end, almost exclusively,
the coUection of all kinds of information likely to help our
labours, but from that point they bore directly on the very
success of our enterprise. Henceforth he sought not only
to obtain precise facts as to the geographical position of
places we were not able to visit, or to recover some half-for
gotten recollections from the treacherous memory of old men
and bonzes ; but rather to learn, if it would be possible for
us to get to China, or whether we should need to go back.
Dreading the enthusiasm, which leaves the resources ofthe
mind unmanned and dissipated when it passes off, M. de La
gree was readier to communicate his fears and doubts, than
his hopes, to us. He retained, besides, from his military habits,
the liking for command, and formed his resolutions as the re
sult of solitary thought ; so that if his companions sometimes
had reason to regret his silence at critical moments, it no less
becomes them to acknoAvledge that all the honom- of success
is due to him alone, since he- would have had to bear all the
weight of failure.

LEAVING LUANG-PRABAN. 165
As it was impossible to trust to the information he col
lected at Luang-Praban, M. de Lagree determined to go on
to the scene of the events itself. The difficulties in om- way
which had been intimated determined us to reduce our bag
gage as much as possible. We intrusted some arms, some
ammunition, and a quantity of clothing, to the keeping ofthe
king. This step secured us resources, in case we were forced
to beat a retreat, and leave our stores behind us, and at the
same time lightened our little column ; Avhich was a great
matter in a country where the means of transport were so
limited and expensive. We resolved to distribute among
the crowd whatever seemed not absolutely indispensable ;
and no sooner was this known than we were fairly invaded.
The greatest personages contended for the leavings of our
wardrobe; even the women became bold, and offered any
thing for a Avhite chemise ; and nothing remained for us, in
the end, but to throw our handkerchiefs to the best-looking.
They made the most sinister predictions, and pressed us to
come back again at the first attempt of the brigands to cut
our throats, for it was certain that the attempt would be
made. These sympathetic manifestations were sincere, for
we had become popular by the simple process of paying our
debts in the market, showing ourselves in the pagodas, and
respecting the laws, the faith, and the prejudices of the
people. This is the whole secret of winning over savages,
and European travellers could not keep it too well in mind.
They may feel sadness and pity in coming in contact with
infant races, but should never show contempt. It rests with
them to open and make easy the Avay for those who follow
them, or to multiply then difficulties a hundredfold. Let them,
then, reject the suggestions of a pride, Avhich their bearing
does not always justify.

CHAPTER V.
ENTRY INTO THE BURMAN TERRITORY. BAD FEELING OF THE
AUTHORITIES. THE RAINY SEASON. MUONG-LINE. SIEN-TONG.
MUONG YOU AND SIEN-HONG. FRONTIER OF CHINA.
The town of Luang-Praban had been to us what an oasis is
to a caravan wearied by a long march. We had stayed there
a month, in the midst of comparative abundance. To pass
the night under one roof, and to sit twice a day at the same
table, were pleasures which we had enjoyed there for the
first time since leaving Bassac. A wandering life is contrary
to man's nature, which attaches itself to places by a thousand
invisible ties, as the tree binds itself to the soil by its roots.
Even the races who live under tents pitched each night, to
be struck in the morning, make a native country ofthe desert,
whose every spring they know, or ofthe forest, every old
tree of which they reverence. To march on steadily, to know
that you will never see the ground you are treading again,
or the men with whom you exchange friendly words, is to
turn Wandering Jew, and causes an insurmountable sadness,
making you think, without the power of helping it, of that
immortal type of the unfortunate and accursed. We had, it
is true, the hope of aiding Science, and adding by our re
searches to the facts with which she works, and this ambi
tion acted on us, without doubt, like that which urged the
knight from his castle to redress wrongs, or to folloAV the
track of amorous dreams ; but we had in our hearts, beyond
all things else, an image bright as the star ofthe Kings — the
image of France, to which each step was now, henceforth, to
bring us nearer. The idea of dying far from her, and of lying
in a lonely grave — a sad thought, which thrust itself on me at

COLOSSAL STATUE OF BOUDDHA. 167
the beginning ofthe journey — had ceased to cross my mind ;
the past guaranteed the future. We were, besides, leaving
the boundaries of Laos, of evil name, and that calumniated
Minotaur had devoured nobody. The objections of the king
of Luang-Praban to our departure might, without doubt, have
their source in some political motive ; but the sympathetic
manifestations of the people were so pure, and so free from
all suspicion of that sort, that it was impossible for the most
distrustful to see anything in them but the signs of an anx
iety rising from sincere interest in us. We were moved with
it, without being intimidated; and on the 25th May 1867
went on board our canoes, full of ardour and confidence, and
almost glad at the sacrifices which reduced the personal bag
gage of each of us to one package. The Commandant de
Lagree, alone, was engrossed by his reflections, seeing a
sombre cloud on the horizon, and feeling that he was the
OEdipus whose words would decide the fate of all his com
panions. The Mekong, which slackens its speed, and spreads itself
out before Luang-Praban in a bed free from any obstructions,
resumes its headlong course and its troubled look not far
from the town. A colossal statue of Bouddha, seated at the
mouth of a cavern, seems to gaze impassively at the gliding
waves, the image ofthe life whose constant changes sad
dened the great teacher, and drove him to place eternal
happiness in eternal stability. The cavern is transformed
into a pagoda; but the bonzes have had the bad taste to
scrape the stalactites which adorn the arch and the walls.
Farther on, in the bosom of a vast perpendicular rock, which
plunges into the water, a second grotto is also consecrated
to worship. It is adorned by a notched balcony, reached by
a brick staircase, the lower steps of which are washed by the
water. Opposite this picturesque temple, the gate of which
looks, at a distance, Hke a rent in the rock, the Mekong re
ceives a considerable affluent on its left bank. The Nam-
Hou, before losing itself in the great river, runs through a
vast verdant prairie, bounded by a vertical wall of at least
three hundred metres, which seems as if it had been cut out.
To show tbe height of an extraordinary rise of the waters,
the inhabitants had drawn a red line, which was nineteen

168 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
metres over our heads. We looked at this river, which seems
to come from the north-east, with some curiosity ; for M. de
Lagree had resolved to get into China by this stream, if he
did not succeed in doing so by the Mekong.
We were told that there was a mountain, Avhich vomited
fire, to use the words ofthe natives, at a short distance from
the village of Tanoun. We had already met extinct A'ol-
canoes, notably in the basin of the Se-Hon, on om- way to
Attopee ; but it was the first time that we had been told of
a crater in activity, and it was a fact of too much importance
not to take steps to examine its correctness. While the other
members ofthe commission continued their voyage in the
canoes, Dr. Joubert and I set off on foot, with guides, and
struck towards the south-east. After a walk of about thirty
kilometres, along the side of mountains or through the gorges
of mountain streams, we saw, from the top ofPou-Din-Deng
(the Mountain of Red Earth), a large village surrounded by
vast rice-grounds, and standing in the middle of an immense
plain, like the basin of an ancient lake. It is the ATillage of
Muong-Luoc. We were near the source of one of the arms,
into which the Meinam separates at its rise. The Mekong,
forming a new bend to the east above Luang-Praban, comes
very close to this river, from which it is only about eight
leagues off; but there is no communication between them.
It has been thought that, farther down, these two streams,
disappearing, in some sense, amidst the inundation which
covered the country, mingled their waters during the rainy
season. It is a very natural exaggeration in the lower parts
of their course; but at the height Avhere we were in this
mountainous region, the two basins, clearly defined, remain
absolutely distinct. The opinion expressed by Martini, and
more recently reproduced by Vincendon Desmoulin, that the
two rivers unite in Laos, must be finally abandoned.
The head man of Muong-Luoc showed himself very
friendly and hearty, and had gathered to his house all the
high society of Muong, to see two curious creatures with
long beards and pale faces. As to himself, he already kneA\r
some specimens of this singular race ; for he had been to
Bangkok, where he had met European women, with their
hair tied up behind the head, and long, standing-out dresses,

VOLCANIC DISTRICT. 169
the very recollection of which made him, even yet, almost
die with laughter. He had among his concubines a young
savage of a very light colour, with a burning black eye,
which would have seemed in its • right place in an Andalu-
sian posada rather than in a Laotian hut. The conversa
tion was very animated, though there was no interpreter,
and was filled with blunders and all kinds of cock-and-bull
nonsense. Tigers being very numerous in this region, the
governor wanted to give us an escort, often men, to take us
to the Arolcano, and pushed his prudence so far as to cause
our hut, Avhich stood a little out of the village, to be sur
rounded, through the night, by an army of watchmen, who
smoked and chatted till morning, and chased away sleep
much more surely than the fear of the most terrible flesh-
eater could have done.
We sought in vain for the streams of lava, the canopy of
smoke, and all the features of desolation, which the word
volcano raises in the mind. We saw nothing but a depres
sion ofthe ground on the top of a low Avooded hill. The
earth is chapped, and has given way, as if the fire were con
suming it within. Vapours rose in the air through numerous
crevices, exhaling a smell of sulphur and of pit-coal. At
some places yellow flakes of sulphur, crystallised, covered the
soil. By day no flames could be seen; but I can suppose
that they appear at night, as happens at Vesuvius, which,
even when not in eruption, shows its flaming summit in the
splendour of the Neapolitan nights. The subterranean fire
spreads little by little, and burns the roots ofthe great trees,
whose skeletons mark its progress. The two hills where
these solfaterras are found are near each other, and are called
Pou-fai-gnai and Pou-fai-noi — the Great and Little Fire
Mountain. Having noticed a great many elephants in the plain of
Muong-Luoc, we asked the governor for the loan of two, to
take us back to the Mekong ; but the Laotian very kindly
wished to keep us by him, and persisted in not acknowledg
ing our reasons for hastening our return. Putting any value
on time is an infirmity these people cannot understand. ' I
hardly like to .give you elephants,' said he, joking; 'they go
so slowly that they wiU weary you, and you will leave them

170 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
behind, and run Hke hares. Is there something in your legs
that makes you able to do it ?' He ended, however, by ac
ceding to our Avish ; and seated on the backs of our huge
beasts, om- heads brushing through leaves of trees dripping
with rain, we took eleven hours, by paths in which two men
could not walk abreast, to cross the chain of mountains which
separates the infant Meinam from the Mekong, already a
grand and powerful stream.
At Tauoun we took to the canoes again, to rejoin the
expedition. The inhabitants ofthe AdUage of Pacgnioi, where
we had to pass the night, surrounded us in then curiosity,
and overwhelmed us with questions about the ' mountains of
fire.' They are three days off, and are thus a perfect mystery,
for no one has taken the trouble to visit them. The kind of
aureola which the imaginary flames ofthe volcano set on
our brows, and the generosity Avith which we let the house
wives cut the mother-o'-pearl buttons from om- clothes, got
us an excellent reception in the vUlage. Though they had
a caravanserai for travellers, they allowed us to spread our
mats in a wooden pagoda, a kind of public-house room closed
in, such as we had not occupied till then. In truth, the salas
where we commonly lodged, and even the huts built ex
pressly for us, were always made of a treUis of bamboo, which
often intercepted the light of day, but hardly kept out either
the wind or the rain. A little gilt statue of Bouddha, up
right and stiff like om- saints ofthe middle ages, shone in
the gloom ; and I slept that night, to dream of the wonderful
fortune of Siddartha, the young prince who, for having pre
ferred the austere life of an ascetic to the seductions of
power, attained the rank of Bouddha, and receives still, after
twenty-five centuries, the worship of a fourth part of the
human race.
M. de Lagree had stopped at Sien-Khong, a large vUlage,
from which war had driven away the inhabitants, who were
just beginning to come back, to gather behind a \Tast enclo
sure of brick. It is a chief place ofthe district, depending
on Muong-Nan, and the last important centre of Laos, on the
right bank of the Mekong, where the authority of Siam is
stiU acknowledged. The kingdom of Xieng-Mai, a vassal of
Bangkok, almost touches the river by its province of Xieng-

THE ENGLISH IN BURMAH. 171
Hai, but it possesses only one town, recently destroyed, on
the banks ofthe Mekong, Xieng-Sen, whose ruins, which have
no interest for travellers, are already buried in the rank vege
tation. We had reached the frontier of Burmese Laos, as might
easnybe seen in the scared looks of the Siamese functionaries,
who trembled lest they should be carried off by their neigh
bour, the Laotian king of Sien-Tong, the implacable enemy
of their master. The time had now come for our hiding our
letters from Siam ; but We should have been able to show
passports from the Burmese government. When Admiral de
La Grandiere applied to the emperor of Burmah for these
papers through the Catholic bishop, for France has no official
representative at Ava, the empire was passing through a
crisis, which ended in one of those revolutions ofthe palace so
common in these countries, and it had for the moment para
lysed all the influence ofthe missionaries. Deprived of those
safe-conducts, which make the mandarins responsible for any
hurt that may befall strangers in then respective districts, we
had everything to fear from the Laotians tributary to Burmah,
if the Burmese, along Avith then yoke, had succeeded in trans
ferring to them their hatreds. Every one knows the result
of the strife between the East India Company and the Bur
mese sovereigns. That long war, the origin of which I shaU
presently state, gave Tennaserim, Pegou, and the Aracan
country to England, thus taking from the Burmese the pos
session of the lower course of the Irawady, and at the same
time shutting them out from all access to the Bay of Bengal
and the Indian Ocean.
Neighbours so turbulent and ambitious as the Burmese
could not be long in fm-nishing the English Avith one of those
complaints which serve too often as a pretext for a rupture,
and enable it to punish the most insignificant violation of
international law by the annexation of a territory. They
went farther, and by a series of deliberate provocations ren
dered inevitable a war, in which they may be said to have
taken the initiative. Full of confidence in his army, and,
like all Orientals, of contempt for foreigners, who had given
ground for suspecting their good faith ever since the war
which Alom-prah the Great Avaged against the Pegouans,

172 TRAVELS IN -INDO-CHINA.
the son of that monarch bore, with impatience the sight of
the extension ofthe British empne in India. Up to the close
of the. .'eighteenth century the king of Siam, whose dominions
extended to the peninsula of Malacca, had been the enemy,
always beaten and always hated, against whom the Burmese
had vented their warlike passions and thirst of conquest ;
but after the cession of Tennaserim, Minder-Aghee-prah
turned his thoughts to the west, and endeavoured, in affiance
with the Mahrattas, to ruin the edifice raised on his frontiers
by those Europeans, whom his victorious father had treated
with as much insolence as cruelty. Lord Hastings, then
governor-general of India,' shut his eyes on this compHcity,
the proofs of which thrust themselves on him ; and the em
peror of Bm-mah, emboldened by an act of prudence which he
took for weakness, determined to place a claimant, hostile to
England, on the throne of Katchar, a principality bordering
on Assam. This daring intervention took place in 1824; and
before the close of that year, it was punished by the occupa
tion of Tavoy, Mergui, Martaban, and Rangoon. The loss of
all his ports was not compensated by the defeat inflicted on
the EngHsh at Tchittagong, by the general-in-chief Bandoola,
who was soon after recalled from the frontier, to defend the
very capital of his country, and perished by the bursting of
a shell. The Biumese troops, utterly defeated at Silhet, dri
ven from Assam and from Aracan, were forced, at the close
of the year 1825, in spite of then courage, to demand a truce
from Sir Archibald CampbeU, avHo had almost reached Patu-
nagah in his ascent of the Irawady. The convention signed
in January 1826, by the plenipotentiaries ofthe two coun
tries, was not ratified by the emperor of the Burniese, on
whose pride the conquerors wished to impose hard and
humUiating conditions, which were not finaUy accepted
till after two more battles, in which the superiority of Euro
pean arms triumphed over the undisciplined heroism of the
Burmese. The treaty of Yandabo laid the foundations ofthe
EngHsh power in Burmah, and it has since developed itself,
till the Burman empne is, to-day, surrounded lay a vast circle
of conquered territories, extending from Moulmein, in the
Gulf of Martaban, to Sodiva on the Brahmapoutra,. at the
point where that great river, leaving Thibet, bends sharply

BURMAH. 173
to the west, and throws itself at a right angle into the- Bay
of Bengal. Patriotism has survived the conquest, and hatred has
become only the keener for its impotence. It is driven back
to the heart of the conquered, as their nationality itself has
been concentrated by the force of arms round the cradle of
its ancient greatness. Realising, too late, that they were
unable, from their own resources, to expel the English, they
have tried to oppose them successfully by the help of Eu
ropeans ; but the attempts have been vain, and none of them
have remained unavenged. France has had nothing to do
with them, though Frenchmen may have taken part in them.
We had a hope that the memoiy of D'Orgoni, the last and
most famous of those of our countrymen who put their intel
ligence and courage at the disposal ofthe Burmese emperor,
would have aided our passage through the vassals of that
sovereign ; but, on the other hand, was there not reason to
fear that princes distant more than a month's march from
Ava might be unable to see any difference between the
various European nationalities, and be ready to treat us as
enemies? We were reduced to conjectures on this point,
and did not even know the nature of the political rule im
posed on the Laotian populations by the Burmese govern
ment. The mandarin chief of the village of Sien - Kong,
where the most cruel uncertainty prolonged our stay, con
sented, at last, not without difficulty, to conduct us to the
limits of his territory; but would the king of Sien-Kong, his
neighbour, let us go farther? M. de Lagree had sent him
magnificent presents, and a letter in the Oriental style, with
as many words, and as little in them as possible. If he were
absolute master, he would, probably, refuse to let us pass ; but
if he were dependent on Ava, perhaps he would fear to com
promise himself. But it would take forty days to get in
structions from the capital, and we should be with him when
he received our letter. We had to supply the want of exact
information by guesses of this kind.
At a little distance from Sien-Kong the mountains retreat
from the river, which winds along through a magnificent
plain, in the centre of which the town of Xieng-Sen has
been built within the last fifty years. We were sailing in

174 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
the waters ofthe kingdom of Xieng-Mai, a tributary of Siam,
Hke that of Luang-Praban, but we avoided any landing. The
disputes to which the use of teak-wood, by the English, had
given rise, might have caused some nl-feeling in the authori
ties towards Europeans, and M. de Lagree thought it inex
pedient to expose himself to the risk. Besides, he had pro
mised the king of Luang-Praban, who was on very friendly
terms with his neighbour of Xieng-Mai, that he would not
set foot on his territory. The valuable tree, the durabil
ity of the wood of which, according to M. Reinaud,1 was
already known and appreciated in the time of the Romans,
is found for the first time, in any abundance, on the banks of
the river at Sien-Kong, our last station ; but it is stunted
there, and badly cared for by the inhabitants. In the plain
of Xieng-Sen, on the contrary, it formed magnificent forests
on both sides ofthe Mekong, Avhich here ends its second
bend to the west, turning now directly north. From the
enormous quantity of water which this great river already
pours along, we could see that the sources must still be very
distant. It looked Arery probable that, like the great rivers
of China and India, it took its rise somewhere in the table
land of Thibet — that immense reservoir, which sends, so to
speak, the colossal tribute of its waters into three different
oceans. If it flowed out of a lake, as the savants ofthe coun
try told us in Cambodgia, that lake must be beyond Yunan,
or, perhaps, it contributed only an affluent of secondary im
portance to the river. This last hypothesis, as we shaU see
farther on, is correct. We amused ourselves Avith these con
jectures, now, when we were about finaUy to abandon the
route ofthe Mekong, which had become impracticable, and
prepare for the painful marches and aU the miseries of a
land-journey in the depth ofthe rainy season.
We installed ourselves in a caravanserai on the banks,
and sent back our canoes. It was burning our boats ; for to
reach even Muong-Line, the nearest of aU the AuUages de
pendent on Sien-Tong, means of transport were needed, and
1 Dr. Sprenger, who has lived long in India, having some years since
visited the palace of Chosroes at Ctesiphon, found that the wood-work
was of teak. {Relations politiques et commerciales de V Empire Romain, avee
VAsie Orientale, par M. Reinaud, de l'lnstitut, p. 171, note.)

A ROMANTIC JOURNEY. 175
we did not yet know if it Avould be possible for us to procure
them. We did not even know whether the mandarin of the
Muong-Line would not give his soldiers orders to expel us, as
soon as he heard of our arrival in his district. M. de Lagree
hastened to send him a message, demanding authority to
wait with him till his superior, the king of Sien-Tong, had
answered our letter. We were, in truth, very much in dan
ger of dying of hunger in our bamboo hut, built between the
stream and the forest. Hunting was hardly any easier than
fishing, for the rain fell in torrents. At last, after two days'
anxious waiting, a strange noise was heard from the woods,
and each of us pricked up his ears, and sought to pierce
the gloom of the trees. The first ox that emerged from the
path, with a double seat on its hump, was received with
transports of joy; it was, to us, what the dove and his branch
of olive had been to Noah. The chief of Muong-Line had
sent us sixteen pack-oxen. We put our baggage on their
backs without a moment's delay, and set out in such a down
fall of rain as raised the level of the river perceptibly in two
hours. Our caravan presented a picturesque sight in the
narrow path in the forest. The little humped oxen followed
each other, obeying their own whims much more than the
voice of their drivers. Subaltern mandarins escorted- us, with
a long musket on their shoulders, their heads covered with
broad-brimmed hats of banana fibre, ending in a point. Their
bronze colour, their moustaches, and their determined air,
reminded us of Calabrian brigands. All went well so long
as the road, winding through the plain, led us along the river,
under the great trees; but our difficulties began when we
reached a steep hill, which it was necessary to cross.
The rain had effaced all trace of path on the side of the
mountain, and the soil was so slippery, that we could only
advance by catching hold of the bare roots of the trees, the
creepers, and hanging branches. As for the oxen, they fell
at each step, rolling one over the other ; and, though they
made the greatest exertions, some of them, after continued
efforts, were obliged to give up the attempt, the men divid
ing their burden amongst themselves. The remainder ofthe
way was in keeping with the commencement. After having
followed the ridge of the mountains, marching several hours

176 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
in a torrent of rain, in the midst of a splendid vegetation of
palm-trees, sicas, and tree-ferns, we at last reached the bor
ders of the river of Muong-Line, which we crossed at a ford,
the water reaching up to om- shoulders. Some huts, one of
which had been prepared for us, were presently seen in a
grassyplain, surrounded by mountains. It was four o'clock in
the afternoon; we had been walking, with difficulty, since the
morning, under a veritable deluge, and the oxen which carried
our provision of rice were behind, so that we had to wait
wearily for them; and nearly all of us caught a touch of
fever. Such Avas our first stage in Burman Laos. The houses
differed from those of Siamese Laos, by being raised
higher aboA-e the ground, and by the length of roof, which
descends in such a fashion as completely to hide the house.
The one we inhabited resembled a stack of straw on trestles.
Underneath, the pigs sleep at their ease, and the oxen find
a commodious shelter. These last wander amid the fat pas
turages in large herds, but notwithstanding then great abund
ance, we could not succeed in procuring one. A more sub
stantial food than bofled rice and consumptive fowls was,
however, necessary ; but M. de Lagree, finding his funds
much reduced already, thought, with reason, that it would
be imprudent to throw away sixty francs — the relatively ex
orbitant price asked for an ox — at a time, on food. The
asking a price so much beyond us, for these precious animals,
is explained by the value of the services they render the
natives. The river ceasing to be of use, the transport by
land becomes ruinous, even for short distances; but when the
journey has to be somewhat long, and there are any risks to
run, as nearly always occur in these perpetually troubled re
gions, the proprietors of oxen raise their prices still higher.
We were obliged to submit to them; for we were not author
ised to demand, as in Siamese Laos, the cooperation of
the mandarins, Avho raise, or lower, the price of transport
according to their interests or then caprices.
The vUlage of Muong-Line occupies the centre of a plain,
of many miles in circumference, which the rain speedily con
verts into an immense SAvamp. We missed the river; we
were accustomed to see it animate our encampments, and, in

MUONG-LINE. 177
whose course we often ascended in thought, seeking to solve
the mystery of its source, and whose rapid waters, which,
before losing themselves in the sea, would bathe and fertilise
a land, now French, we often watched as they glided past.
Notwithstanding the small number of its inhabitants, the
village has a dady market. It was at Luang-Praban, for
the first time since leaving Cambodgia, that we came across
this periodical or permanent public sale of the necessaries of
life ; a notable institution, of which it is necessary to be de
prived, in order to appreciate the value. The market of
Muong-Line was not of great importance. Vegetables and
fruit were sold in it, and some peaches, which, though small
and green, we found delicious, when eaten with eyes shut
and hearts thinking of France. They also sold cotton stuffs
of all sorts, of English manufacture.
These last articles are intended expressly for the country,
Burman characters and designs being woven into the cloth.
The most important house in the market is that ofthe black
smith, who is at the same time goldsmith, and manufacturer
of money. These three professions, exercised by the same
mechanic, very closely resemble each other in this country,
where coined money does not circulate. The tikal, and its
subdivisions, ceasing to have the current price, we were com
pelled to have our Siamese silver melted in a crucible, which
gives it the form of a macaroon. For daily transactions of
small importance they cut off at hazard pieces of unequal
value, which are appraised, at a glance, by the interested
parties. They make use of scales in more serious trans
actions ; for, in default of a uniform money, the standard of
value is fixed by weight in silver.
When one passes from Cambodgia to Siamese Laos, the
transition is scarcely perceptible, and this the rather, that, for
the men at least, the costume remains the same. Here it is
quite otherwise ; the change is sudden, and the contrast
striking. The Siamese tuft of hair is replaced by a chignon,
Avhich gathers the whole of the hah- on the top of the head,
a turban, of various colours, leaving only the tip of it visible.
The langouti also gives way to wide trousers, which reach
the ankle. Smoking, even by chUdren, is still more general
amongst these tributaries of Bm-mah. N

178 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
The women, more sensitive to the cold, or more modest,
wear a tight Arest, crossing over the chest, of blue or white
cotton, sometimes of silk, dyed in different and very rich
colours. Besides this, they wear a petticoat, in horizontal
stripes of blue, yellow, and red. Their head-dress is com
posed of stuffs of all shades, rolled as a turban round the
hair, or arranged after the fashion of the NeapoHtan peasants,
and kept in its place by silver pins, the large heads of which,
with bracelets of the same metal, constitute the principal
ornaments of a Siamese beUe. To these details of costume
I would add a general remark on the language, which is
the clothing of thought. We are still in Laos, and they
always speak Laotian ; but this language is employed with
modifications, which affect, especially, the pronunciation of
the words and the construction of sentences. There are, as
yet, but a small number of new expressions. The shades of
difference, which do not appear to alter the foundation of
the language, upset the slight knowledge we have acquired
by superficial study, but do not embarrass our interpreter,
who maintains long conversations in a new dialect, M. de
Lagree, since our starting, having forced him to carry them
on Avith the natives, in order to obtain from them useful in
formation. But it was no longer thus Avith the savages, whose
number and importance increased at each of our stations till
our entry into China. They speak a language absolutely
unintelligible to him, and live grouped in tribes amongst the
mountains, where their villages present a peculiar appear
ance. Like the Laotians, the greater number have adopted
Bouddhism, with a strong mixture of superstition; but while
the former erect pagodas, the others have no temples, and
practise no outward worship. They have not the timid air
of the other aborigines scattered through the valley ofthe
Mekong ; they carry their heads high in the midst of the
Laos-Lus;3 and it is because they like it, and not because
2 The inhabitants of the northern part of Laos have many different
names; they are called indifferently Lus, Thai, or Shans. In certain
parts of this vast region they give themselves other appellations, as will
he seen, for example, at Sien-Tong. By the side of these the savages are
grouped in tribes, which in the same way bear different names. Are their
names of as little importance as those of the Laos-Lus, or can ethno-

THE SAVAGES. 179
they are forced, that they live on the hills. They appear to
consent to give up their land rather than yield to masters.
They are remarkable for then distinct physical type, for the
comparative whiteness of their skin, and for their picturesque
costumes, of which I can vouch for the endless variety. I
shaU content myself with noticing briefly the most striking.
At Muong-Line, and the next station, we received visits
from female savages, who wore on their heads semicircles
of straw, of different colours, intermixed with ornaments of
glass and sflver, which, falling from the forehead, back, form
a long veil, such as used to be worn in France, the lower
end of it being kept in right shape by a huge comb covered
with cloth. They also wore earrings, of glass beads or
hoUow silver, which fall over the shoulders, and ornaments
of the same description decorated their neck and chest;
their arms, also, were loaded with bracelets. They could not
make a movement, Avithout the whole of these decorations
producing a strange tinkling. Their short vests were of
a dark colour, as also their plaited petticoats, which only
reached the knee. Their calves, well developed by moun
tain roads, were imprisoned in gaiters of dark blue cotton.
To complete the description of this costume, must be added
a small cloak of leaves over the shoulders, and a wooden
pipe in the mouth. The dress of the men of the same tribe
was more simple, with much less ornament. They wore a
turban, a vest, large trousers, and round the neck a simple
collar of suver. They have regular features, with large black
eyes and moustaches.
The exigences of a similar life, in the same district, and
under the same climate, have given rise to very similar
habits and customs among the Laotians, and the numerous
savage tribes mixed with them. One can draw no con
clusions as to the diversity of races from the variety of
the costumes, since, even in France, we see they vary so
much in the different departments. There remains, there
fore, only the language. Men versed in the science, so
interesting and so new, of philological palaeontology, would

graphy make use of them? It seems probable, though I cannot take upon
me to give a positive opinion.

180 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
find, no doubt, a source of fruitful study, if not of satis
factory conclusions, in the documents on this subject col
lected by M. de Lagree, who, alone, could gather them, he
being the only one of us then able to communicate, through
the Cambodgian interpreter, with the Burmese Laotians, and,
through them with the greater part ofthe savage tribes.
But such documents could not find place in a work of this
nature. I shall confine myself to a general observation,
Avhich has already been made on the subject of Indo-China
as a whole, but which applies, in a special manner, to the
northern portion of that vast peninsula. The nearer one
approaches the gigantic mountains, which compose what
might be termed the backbone ofthe Asiatic continent, it
would seem that the ethnographical problem becomes more
complicated and insoluble.
From the gorges of the Himalayas, as though from the
sides of a great Tower of Babel, have issued multitudes of emi
grants, speaking all languages, and foUowing at hazard the
valleys of the rivers. If many tribes have descended even
to the shores of the sea, to form nations there, others, more
numerous still, unable to break away, have remained wander
ers round then cradle in the west of China, and the north of
Tonkin, Laos, and Burmah. As far as we had reached, the
Laotians still formed an organised nationality — compact
and comparatively powerful. Though we had heard of the
yoke imposed on them by the Burmans, we had not, as yet,
seen any signs of it ; but they were soon to appear. We
had been some days at Muong-Line, inhaling the miasma
from the inundated rice-fields ; and the chief of the vUlage,
a mandarin of an inferior order, had not yet paid a visit to
M. de Lagree. Fearing to compromise his responsibility, he
waited for the king of Sien-Tong to indicate his line of con
duct. This reserve, the motives of which we easUy discerned,
began to make us uneasy. At last he presented himself in
great pomp, dressed in striped yeUow and black sUk drawers,
like a salamander; a large white cahco dressing-gown, reach
ing below his knees, half hiding his thin calves, which were
tatooed all over; and a turban of green sUk on his head.
He was old and infirm, his heavy prominent eyelids over
shadowing his dull eyes. He brought a favourable reply from

LEAVE MUONG-LINE. 181
the king. The council of Sien-Tong had taken four days to
deliberate on our simple demand for a pass. The Burman
mandarin sent from Ava to watch the king, as we have seen
some governors of provinces watched by the court of Bang
kok, had, we were told, assisted at this council.
Thus we learnt that authority is divided in the Lao
tian countries, tributary to Ava, between a native sovereign
and a Burman mandarin, and that these two authorities,
after long debates, had agreed to let us pass. At least,
this was the meaning we put on the obscure words of the
message, and the verbose details of the messenger. We
prepared to start at once ; but lost two hours in collecting
and loading the oxen, and meanwlnle the rain had changed
a brook we had to cross into a torrent. It was necessary to
choose the moment when the stream became again fordable,
which was not till the following day. It was with limbs
bending under me, and as though intoxicated by two grains
of quinine, that I started with my companions. An officer
attacked with ulcers in his feet was carried in a hammock
by our Annamites, for the Laotians had refused to charge
themselves Avith this burden.
Sickness of any kind inspires them with a superstitious
terror : as we approached the vUlages, the inhabitants com
pelled us, by their cries and expressive gestures, to take the
hammock another road. Both oxen and men carried our
baggage, but these last measured the weight by their own
convenience, not by ours. The state of our funds, which
suffered sorely at every station, prevented us from hiring
more beasts or men. The natives would do nothing but
what they pleased, and were not afraid of our threats, for
our prestige had vanished. Any act of violence, however
justifiable, would not have been without peril. The inhabit
ants of this part ofthe country were more high-spirited, and
more to be feared, than the timid Laotians of the south, who
could be taxed and loaded at will. This independent self-
respect, which we were happy to meet with again, consoled
us a little, when we saw a porter, Avishing to rest himself,
throw his load on the ground, at the risk of breaking it, and
receive our remonstrances with an insolent laugh.
On leaving Muong-Line, we had to traverse interminable

182 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
rice-fields, over which the plough had just passed. It was a
sea of sticky mud, which, at each step, emitted fetid ema
nations. In the paths through the forest, walking was
still more painful ; we sank up to our knees in moist clay.
Leeches, lying in wait on the leaves, rushed down on their
prey; and if we stopped to free one of our legs from these
famished parasites, the other was immediately attacked.
These annelids have such an acute sense of sight, smell,
or hearing, that at the sHghtest halt we each became the
centre of attraction to a black and rapacious crowd, which
crawled toAvards us over all obstacles. At the end of seven
horrid hours' march we reached the viUage of Paleo, covered
with mud, shivering, and worn out with fatigue and hunger.
As it had suited the bearers of our breakfast to stop and
rest frequently on the journey, and take then own food, we
had to wait for them until the evening, devouring our anger ;
an aliment not very substantial. We had hitherto been spoilt,
and some of us were sorry enough at the thought that our
mandarinism was no longer of any account.
The pagoda, where we encamped, was a great shed, the
straw roof of which, supported on posts, scarcely protected
us from the rain. We were present at the offerings made,
each morning, by the women to the little statue of Boud
dha. The bonzes came every evening, to take away what
ever had been placed on the altar. These men Hve plenti
fully on such casual offerings, and their flourishing condition
bears good testimony to the piety of the faithful. Besides
these regular offerings, several times a day devotees bring
flowers or more nourishing objects. They fetch a priest from
a neighbouring monastery, who lights some candles, and re
cites prayers tiU they are burnt out, Avhen he takes possession
of the delicacies. Our presence did not seem to annoy these
worshippers of the god, who came in crowds to seU us then-
fowls, or rather to exchange them for pieces of red cotton.
The authorities were not over kind, and declared that their
viUage could not furnish us with the means of transporting
om- baggage, greatly diminished as it had been. We were
therefore compelled to reduce it stiU more, by leaving some
indispensable objects, hoping to be able to replace them in
China. The last remains of our wardrobe helped our larder;

OUR MARCH. 183
Ave gave a pair of pantaloons for a duck, and — God forgive
us such simony ! — we even exchanged, in the same way, the
medaUions and religious images which were destined for
the Christians of the missions, whom we had not, as yet, en
countered. St. Antony of Padua went for a pumpkin, St.
Pancras for a basket of potatoes, and St. Gertrude for three
cucumbers. At Paleo Ave were joined by a courier, who brought a let
ter from the king of Sien-Tong to M. de Lagree. This letter,
of which our interpreter indifferently succeeded in decipher
ing the characters and making out the sense, was taken, after
mature deliberation, to be a gracious invitation to pass through
the city of Sien-Tong ; but M. de Lagree believed it his duty
to decline the offer, which he considered as an advance in
spired at once by politeness and curiosity; for we had already
met Avith too many troubles, to allow of our lengthening our
journey. This deplorable blunder caused our most cruel
embarrassments. The same reason which had retarded our
departure from Muong-Line detained us at Paleo. The rain,
falling with incredible persistence, kept a river we had to
ford at too high a level. Before quitting the territory of
Sien-Tong, it was necessary to obtain, from the master to
the neighbouring state of Muong -You, the permission to
traverse his territory. From reports, which we afterwards
found to be false, we were led to believe in the independ
ence of this prince, who is, in reahty, subordinate to the king
of Sien-Tong. M. de Lagree sent his interpreter in advance, charging
him to announce our approaching arrival, in the first village
of this new kingdom, and to dispatch from thence to the
king a letter, accompanied by the customary presents. We
started shortly after, and soon penetrated the forest, where
the night overtook us. Each one made, for himself, a bed of
damp leaves, and went to sleep in the clothes he wore, re
signed to endure the water which poured from the sky. We
protected our papers, astronomical instruments, the powder,
and the box containing the sulphate of quinine,- as much as
we possibly could, by means of the hard skins which formed
part ofthe equipment ofthe oxen. The fires of our encamp
ment went out, notwithstanding the attention ofthe natives,

184 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
who are always uneasy in the neighbourhood of tigers. On
the folloAving day, one of these animals did us the service of
throwing down, before our eyes, a stag of large size, which
was crossing the pathway at a bound. Tavo shots from car
bines, fired in the air by our Annamites, who marched in front,
frightened the terrible hunter, who abandoned his prey to us.
To fire in the air, instead of aiming from the shoulder at a
wUd beast, is a manner of proceeding which, doubtless, ap
pears more prudent than heroic ; but those who chanced to
find themselves nearest the tiger were Annamites, and, for
men in such circumstances, showed themselves, compara
tively, courageous. Their brothers of Cochin-China, sur
prised by one of these dangerous man-eaters, treat him like
a great mandarin : give him the very respectful title of
grandfather, kneel, and beat the earth with their foreheads,
till they meet the fate of Red Riding Hood, whom her grand
mother ate.
The forest ends at the border of immense rice-fields,
which extend as far as the Mekong. The ploughs, with
shares of copper shining like gold, easily open their furrows
in the mire, in which the buffaloes, harnessed to them, sink
up to then chests. It was the plain of Siam-Leap, a small
village, where our interpreter awaited us. He had had
time to speak well of us, and the population flocked to the
pagoda, where we lodged. The women brought us food, and
asked for bits of red cloth instead of money : but when the
piece is used up, our supplies will be, once more, hard to
get. The mandarin ofthe place, after long hesitation, de
cided on paying a visit to M. de Lagree, who expressed his
desire to leave without waiting for the reply of the king of
Muong- You. The timid functionary hesitated, and finished
by declaring that he dared not decide in a matter so grave.
He came, however, on the evening of the 14th of July, to
acquaint us, that in two days' time there would be a great
festival at the viUage, on the occasion ofthe full moon. The
pagoda which we occupied would be full of people, from sun
rise to sunset ; and he feared that the tumult would annoy
us, and proposed that we should remove to a group of
houses on the borders ofthe Mekong. This would, he said,
be so much gained on the following stage of our journey ;

FESTIVAL OF THE FULL MOON. 185
and should a favourable reply arrive from Muong- You, we
should be immediately informed.
M. de Lagree was on the point of accepting this skflfully
presented proposal, which would have been disastrous ; for
in the desert place, where the crafty mandarin Avished to
confine us, we should have found no means of living. The
increasing exactions of the porters and proprietors of oxen
kept us at Siam-Leap. These last demanded three times
as much as had been asked of us since our entry into Bur
man Laos, and refused the hundred francs that we offered
them for half a day's march. The time had gone by when
Ave could give what we pleased to bearers, too happy to' aid
philanthropical mandarins; we had now to submit to burden
some conditions, and were obhged to make formal contracts
for hiring, in which we had to take precautions against the
bad faith ofthe natives, who were always ready to falsify
the weights, or to deceive as to their value. The Chinese
ingot, called ti, and the Burman ingot, also called U, do not
represent the same quantity of silver ; but both are in use ;
so that these rogues offer you one when they are your debt
ors, and require the other when they are your creditors.
This merciless dealing was accounted for, however, in a
certain measure, by the season in which we travelled. I
have already said, that the greater number of the dealers
suspend their business when the rivers overflow, and the
roads are submerged; but as we wished to proceed, a higher
price had to be paid for doing so. M. de Lagree then de
cided on awaiting, in our pagoda of Siam-Leap, the reply from
Muong- You, and we employed all our phUosophy to enable
us to support the full moon, and the festivals of which it was
the occasion.
Children dressed in yellow, and some old frequenters of
the sanctuary, to judge by the familiarity with which they
treated their god, undressed the little statue of Bouddha,
threw water over its head, sponged it with care, and then
put on its red shirt again. The cymbals, gongs, and great
drums woke us with a start, and the crowd invaded the shed,
in Avhich we occupied the smallest possible space. They
lighted candles, and burnt old rags and long cotton wicks.
The assistants made all sorts of gestures, put their hand to

186 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
their forehead, and kissed the ground, and then watered it
Avith the aid of a bottle, with which every one was supplied.
This did not prevent their chattering, laughing, and smok
ing ; not the slightest respect or meditation, or any sign of
inner religion, appeared on any of their countenances, Avith
the exception of that of the old bonze, the chief of the
pagoda. He appeared to pray Avith faith. Besides the
regular services, the time that he did not employ in sing
ing, and instructing the children confided to his care, was
devoted to his beads, which he told on and on with his
fingers. Assisted by his brethren, he recited prayers during
part ofthe day, and read to the inattentive faithful some
pages of the life of Bouddha. It was a legendary tissue of
marvels. The gifts, placed on a shelf at the foot ofthe statue
of the god, appeared to me to be of small value : a candle
perhaps, or a ball of rice ; but that which was offered to the
bonzes was more substantial. It was a feast as delicate as
their pUgrim flock could contrive, in every form of culinary
skill. The next day, parents, who had need of then children
for the important operation of picking the rice, came to take
them away from the school ; lay dresses were laid before
Bouddha, and then five or six little boys were stripped of
then yellow robes, to our great satisfaction, for they made
so many shrill voices the less in the choir that awoke us
each morning. The gravity of all these Eliakims, when they
see they are noticed as they mutter their prayers, is very
comical ; for it ceases when there is no one to admire their
fervour. Notwithstanding the inconvenience of such lodgings, we
were happy to take shelter under the stubble roofs of the
pagodas, and to sleep on their floors of beaten earth. It is in
Laos, as in certain remote places in Europe, where travellers
find repose in the cloisters, and convents take the place of
hotels. Without wishing, by a misplaced comparison, to put
the religion, which has given us our moral grandeur, on a
level with that which has produced the abasement ofthe
Asiatic races, I may be permitted to note, in this monastic
hospitality, practised 500 years before the Christian era, one
of the first effects of that law of charity which Bouddhisni
taught, though without giving it its highest sanction; a

DIFFICULTIES. 187
law very imperfect, no doubt, but sufficing to open the
temples of Indo-China to travellers, as it used to be ap
pealed to, to open to them the cells of St. Bernard.
We received from Muong- You a favourable answer ; but
the festival being over, the chief of the vUlage, though he had
no longer any motive for getting rid of us, showed us great
Ul-Avill. Spending his days in smoking opium, and indifferent
to everything, he treated the interpreter charged to arrange
for our departure very badly, for he was too inferior a person
age for M. de Lagree to enter into direct communication with.
The days glided away, the rain fell in torrents, and this im
pertinent fellow notified us that, the river having reached
already a height to which it had not risen, the preceding
year, till two months later, all the roads had disappeared
under the Avaters, and our departure was therefore impos
sible. He advised us, ironically, to wait till the twelfth
month, though we were then only in the eighth. Such a
prospect, as being blockaded for four months at Siam-Leap,
filled us with consternation. A petty mandarin, touched with
pity, and, perhaps, by the desire of making a good business
of it, told us of a road, that remained open, across the moun
tains ; a frightful road, it was true, but yet not impracticable.
' Three more days of rain,' he said to us, * and it will cease
to be available by the men with your baggage, for their
animals will not be able to pass it.' He offered to arrange
our departure for the following day, and asked 300 francs for
our porters. It was an urgent case, hesitation was not pos
sible, and M. de Lagree agreed. During our stay at Siam-
Leap, sickness had seized on our companions, like vultures
on their prey. Leaving behind us, stretched on the mats of
the pagoda, two officers and three men of our escort, unable
to rise, we left with aching hearts, taking with us their bag
gage and their arms. An unencumbered man can pass every-
Avhere. We foUowed our guides through a dense forest, for there
was no longer a trace of road; and they conducted us by the
side ofthe river Mekong, Avhich I had not seen for more than
a month, though we had encamped very near it at Paleo and
Siam-Leap. It flows between wooded hills, with a fearful
current, sending up a dull roar, and its tumultuous waters

188 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
have the colour of red copper. We penetrated, Avith much
difficulty, through the forest; the Laotians opening a way
through it with their knives when the brushwood was too
thick. Obliged to follow the undulations at the foot of the
hills, we descended into aU the raAdnes, at the bottom of
which ran torrents, at times strong enough to throw us
down ; many of them, indeed, swollen by the river damming
back their Avaters, only fordable at their source, to reach
Avhich we had to make our way through interlacing creepers.
It always rained, and most of us were without shoes.
Our feet Avere bruised by the stones, pierced by the thorns,
and bleeding from the leeches ; the fever paled our cheeks,
and, most fearful symptom of all, our spirits began to sink.
Notwithstanding the stifling closeness ofthe air, after some
hours walking, in such a state, the cold struck us in crossing-
torrents whose waters were ordinarily glacial. What, then,
Avas our surprise, on entering, for the hundredth time, into
one of these innumerable affluents of the Mekong, to find it
so hot as to be almost painful! We had discovered a sulphur-
spring of 86° centigrade, and wished this corner ofthe forest
the fortune which the first explorers of Gaul or Germany
might have predicted for Bagneres or Ems.
The leeches were a dreadful torment. Countless as the
dead leaves, on which they kept watch, they rushed from
the thickest of the wood, like vampires, and hung on, in
clusters, to the body, which they drained; squeezed them
selves even betAveen the toes, quitting then hold only when
glutted, and leaving a poisonous sting in the skin, to turn,
before long, to an ulcer. The natives advised us to fasten
to the end of a cane a plug of damp tobacco. It had a
magical effect. It sufficed to touch the leech, to enjoy, for a
moment, the agreeable spectacle of its agony; but this re
medy required constant attention, and was soon abandoned.
Like men forced to remain seated in a nest of ants, we were
obliged to be patient, and let our blood flow till we halted
in the evening, when we each had to stanch his wounds.
When we were compeUed to pass a night in the forest, we
avoided setting up om- camp amidst the large shrubs, Avhere
the leeches were still more numerous. On the more elevated
places we were less exposed to serve as pasture to these

SOP-YONG. 189
hideous worms, which, like the ghosts of Slavonic countries,
come out from their tombs at midnight, to drink the blood
of their victims, Avithout awaking them. Sometimes, to
escape them, we stretched our blankets on a narrow piece of
sand, a foot above the Mekong, where, before sleeping, we
had to place a sentry to watch the stream, that we might
not be carried away by any sudden rise of the water. But
there, if there were no leeches, the mosquitoes became mad
dening ; and, above all, the impalpable gnats of the forest,
against which no mosquito-curtain can protect, and whose
bite is fire.
At last, we perceived the five miserable and dilapidated
houses, which composed the dismal village ofSop-Yong.
They were separated from us by the pretty river of Nam-
Yong, which we crossed at its entrance into the Mekong, by
means of a raft, made of three planks, badly tied together.
The natives use the river so little, that they have nearly
lost the art of making canoes.
According to custom, we took possession of the pagoda,
furnished with its smaU altar, but unprovided with bonzes,
for they, no longer inspired with the spirit of their master,
hardly ever establish themselves among the poor. If they
still think life the supreme evil, they no longer despise its
pleasures. The women came none the less, bringing their
very modest offerings to the god. One of our Annamites —
a freethinker, like the rest of his race — placed his bed at the
foot of the statue of Bouddha, and conducted himself, in the
morning, in such a manner as to distract the pious souls
from their meditations. I was never weary of admiring the
tolerance of these excellent Bouddhists. We strove never
to wound them ; we always respected, even in the most
urgent circumstances, the enclosure of then pagodas, and
never took the Hfe of any animal Avithin it. The demands
of the bonzes went no farther, and they readily consented
to eat flesh, themselves, in spite of the doctrine of metem
psychosis. The rain never ceased, and the river visibly increased : it
rose three metres during our short stay at Sop-Yong. Every
moment a piece of the bank gave way with a dull sound,
like a subterranean explosion. Our sick companions, whom

190 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
we had left at Siam-Leap, rejoined us at last. Then hollow
eyes and pale lips gave them the appearance of walking
corpses. Those of us who were stUl strong hastened to quit
the viUage of Sop-Yong, so as not to use up the small amount
of provisions it was able to furnish. Attracted by the hope
of good wages, even the women offered to carry the bag
gage ; and the caravan, smaUer by half, foUowed first the
A-alley of the Nam-Yong, Avhich becomes very rapid a hun
dred metres from its mouth. We left the banks of this
stream, swollen by the rains, and entered a plain, which
might be called a vast savannah. Many ranges of mountains
rose one above the other around us; some of them wooded
and dark, others burned and bare, like nothing so much as a
leper's skull. The parts of the A^aUey not planted with rice,
formed, for a space of several kilometres, putrid marshes, in
which we sank to the Avaist. We were not far from Muong-
Yong, where a Burman official resided; and it behoved us
to present om-selves all together, with all our attendants, be
fore this mandarin, whose feeling towards us was unknown.
It was, therefore, necessary to await at the viUage of Pass-
ang the arrival of those we had left behind us, amongst
whom was M. de Lagree himself. We then made as impos
ing an entry into the chief town of the district, which Avas to
serve us as a prison for a month, as our bare feet and tat
tered clothes would permit.
Muong-Yong is an insignificant viUage. Facing a covered
bridge, by which Ave arrived, lay a greensward, bordered by
magnificent banyan-trees, and terminating by the enclosure
of the pagoda. An earthern wall, and a ruined monument on
a neighbouring hill, gave evidence that the place had been
inhabited for a long period. It appears, indeed, to have
been the centre of a powerful tribe of aborigines, whom
the Laotians superseded. WhUst the chief of the expedition
— an enthusiastic archaeologist, and indefatigable walker,
notwithstanding the fever — went to explore the piles of
bricks concealed under the brushwood, Ave took quiet pos
session of a large wooden house, disdaining the sola, open
to the Avind and the rain. We had scarcely instaUed our
selves, when two Burmans, armed with sabres, entered, and,
speaking to us with great animation and their hands on

WE ARE DETAINED. 191
the hUts of their weapons, summoned us, with expressive
gestures, to foUow them immediately. They spoke in Bur
man, and we did not understand a word of then- dis
course ; but, as they seemed impertinent, we simply turned
them out of doors. They were loud in their menaces, and
proceeded to attack our cook, who, in order to hold his
own, was obliged to suspend the execution of a fowl. As
nothing farther occurred, we waited patiently the return of
M. de Lagree and his interpreter, who was very soon in a
position to furnish us Avith explanations. Muong- Yong stUl
belongs to the immense province of Sien-Tong ; and Muong-
You, which we had supposed to be a separate kingdom, is
also a portion of it. In the town of Sien-Tong, as we already
knew, a grand Burman mandarin reigns, by the side of the
king, having under his command two of his compatriots,
who fiU the same functions, one with the prince of Muong-
You, and the other with the prince of Muong -Yong. It was
to the one who governs this last-named country we owed
all our difficulties.
It was the custom for aU strangers of importance to
present themselves at once on their arrival at the sala, where
the Burman comes to meet them in ceremonious state, and
there explanations are exchanged, and papers Arerified. We
were in ignorance of this custom, and the police were sent
to enlighten us. The reports of these people exasperated
then chief; and the next day, when we wanted to fulfil the
necessary formalities, he receiAred us in a haughty and indig
nant manner. He examined our papers, amongst which he
vainly looked for a passport from the emperor of Burmah,
and it was with a sarcastic smUe that he declared it was his
duty to detain us, until he had received orders from his supe
rior at Sien-Tong. That prince had, it is true, authorised us
at first to pass ; but we had entirely misunderstood a letter
from him, which we took for a polite invitation to pay him
a visit at his capital, and which, it wUl be remembered,
reached us at Pal6o, and our interlocutor told us plainly, that
the desires of a man, who had the honour to direct the affairs
of a province, for the government of Ava, even if they were
expressed discourteously, were orders it would be rash to
evade.

192 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
Nevertheless, each present we gave him seemed to
shake our enemy's resolution, — as the stroke of a battering
ram shakes a waU, — and we began to hope that he would
alter his opinion of us, and reduce some part of the three
weeks of detention Avith which he had threatened us. But
the next day he had returned to his former idea. At the end
of a long discussion, he appeared to have again abandoned
it, but catching at another string to his bow, he told M. de
Lagree he could not let him leave without announcing our
arrival to his coUeague at Muong- You; which was a useless
precaution, as that functionary had already authorised our
entering his territory. We fancied that this decisive obser
vation had terminated the debate; but we did not know our
adversary : he insisted that the step he was about to take
was simply conformable to custom, and would only delay us
a few days. We were, therefore, obHged to submit, and wait
for a letter from Muong-You. It arrived at last, but was
most vexatious. ' It is incredible,' it said, ' that, invited to
present yourselves at Sien-Tong, you neglected to do so ;
we, therefore, do not admit people, Avho are so ignorant of
good manners.' He had, however, accepted om- presents.
It was evident that these orders had been sent from Sien-
Tong itself. After having granted om- request, the sus
picious Burman mandarin had, without doubt, reflected ;
hence the invitation to visit him, that he might see what we
were like, and sound our intentions ; hence, in the end, the
order to stop us. The hour of conjecture Avas past, and M.
de Lagree decided immediately on going himself to Sien-
Tong. He asked M. de Thorel, an enthusiastic botanist, who
would have herborised even under the poniards of the Bur
mans, to accompany him ; and he also took a few men, as an
escort. The Httle box of European articles was not forgot
ten. We had already sent presents to the king ; but, being
ignorant of the existence, and, above all, of the importance,
of the Burman mandarin, nothing had been sent to him; and
this involuntary negHgence on our part had certainly con
tributed to the Ul-AvUl he bore us. The daring resolution
M. de Lagree had come to, obHged us to prolong om- sojourn
at Muong- Yong. We availed ourselves of the circumstance,
to endeavour to discover the principal elements of which

A FRIEND AT COURT. 193
the population of Burman Laos is composed, and to make as
exact an account as was possible of their respective con
ditions. UntU then, we had gone on, in great measure, at
a venture, not knowing the political constitution of these
countries, and frequently taking provinces to be kingdoms.
By the aid of the information we gained at Muong-Yong we
gained a great deal of light on these points.
China, which has hitherto exercised an effective power
over these countries, has lost ground on this side. Of the
three ancient Laotian kingdoms, where, at this time, the rule
of Burmah is supreme, the Celestial Empire, from which Sien-
Tong and Muong-Lem have seceded, does not retain at Sien-
Hong, as we shall see farther on, even sufficient influence to
seat its own candidates on the throne. Not content with
the immensity of their dominions, the kings of Siam have
always desired more ; but, repulsed by the king of Sien-Tong,
since 1852 they have left the field open to the Burman em
peror. This potentate sends representatives to each of the
Laotian sovereigns, who hold the same position as the Eng
lish residents in India. The chief Burman mandarin, who
rules over all the tributary Laotian provinces, resides at
Muong-Lem, the most northern of the three ancient Laotian
principalities. That of Sien-Tong is the second. Under
him, as I haATe already said, are mandarins of inferior rank,
who watch the prince of Muong-Yong, in whose territory
we were staying, and the prince of Muong-You, whose ac
quaintance we were soon to make. It was a sad spectacle
to see only the pale shadow of a native king, entirely put
behind, whilst the Burman mandarin swaggered in the fore
ground, making a parade of his military escort, with the
brutal insolence of a conqueror. His conduct recaUed that
of the Siamese mandarin, who occupied Cambodgia before
the establishment of the French protectorate. The soldiers,
folloAving his example, seized what they chose in the market.
The king only retained his right of precedence ; and, in con
sequence, it was to him we paid om- first official visit. It was
quite different at Sien-Tong : there the native sovereign has
not abdicated ; he still directs his affairs, and we should have
been lost, without his powerful intervention. Supported by
him, M. de Lagree had been able to hold his own against the
0

194 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
ill-will of the mandarin resident, who, pertinaciously calling
us English, refused one day what he had accorded on the
previous one, denied boldly what he had just said, and con
ducted himself like a man in whose heart hatred had left
no place for good faith.
The king, on the contrary, troubled himself very little
about our nationality, and seemed to find in the bad temper
of his watcher a good reason for treating us as friends. De
termined to facilitate our passage, notwithstanding the for
mal opposition of the Burman, he decided on writing us
the letter, inviting us to visit him, which we had so unfor
tunately misunderstood. He received MM. de Lagree and
Thorel with benevolent cordiality, and while the chief of the
expedition and his companion had the freest access to him,
his wife pleased herself in making them appreciate the re
finements of Laotian cooking. The Burman, on the contrary,
remained hostile and menacing. Satisfied with the petty
humiliations he was able to inflict on those whom he took
to be his abhorred enemies, this chief did not dare to pro
voke a conflict, in which the king's energy seemed willing
to accept all risks. The Burman emperor has to be very
circumspect in his treatment of this great tributary, who,
with his troops, has gained a victory over the war-minister
of Siam in person, from whom he took a mortar, several
pieces of cannon, and other trophies, and he is well aware
that the king of Siam would joyfully accept the advanta
geous position of sovereign protector, which he holds. Thi"
rivalry of influences, and the dualism of authority which
exists, singularly favoured the success of our journey. The
negotiations, so skilfully conducted by M. de Lagree, secured
our entry into Muong- You ; and when there, we were only
separated from China by the small kingdom of Sien-Hong,
which has a government of its own.
This good news took a long time to reach us at Muong-
Yong. It was preceded by a series of contradictory rumours,
which gave us great uneasiness. We had, however, become
completely reconciled to the Burman functionary, who, being
at last entirely satisfied as to our nationality, frequently held
long conversations with us, which were very difficult to carry
on, OAving to the absence of any interpreter. At the com-

WE START AGAIN. 195
mencement of our intercourse, this fiery mandarin always
came attended by a guard of a dozen poor Avretches, armed
with all the flint-muskets in his arsenal ; but it was not long
before he dismissed them, and came alone for an amicable
chat Avith us ; his wife also, a nice plump little woman, did
not hesitate to pass long hours in our house, at the risk
of furnishing some material for local gossip. The explana
tions we were obliged to give him, on the political divisions
of Europe, had contributed more than anything else in effect
ing this prodigious transformation. When he spoke ofthe
English {Englit), his eyes sparkled with rage, and he felt
the need of describing, with visible enthusiasm, the power
of the sovereign of Ava. The conquerors of the Burmese
had formerly pushed then reconnoitering even to these parts.
The king of Sien-Tong remembered having seen a European
officer, who passed his days in looking about him, and ab
sorbing, with the help of a curious instrument, three times
more nourishment than a vigorous Laotian. This officer,
with a robust appetite, was no other than the Major M'Leod,
who, by his friendly terms with the emperor of Burmah,
Tharawady, in 1839, got himself appointed to the post of
interim resident to that prince. His explorations in the east
of Burmah date back to 1836. He reached Sien-Hong, and
came across the Mekong at 22 degrees north latitude. It
would, no doubt, have been easy for him, at that time, to
have entered China by the road we were going. To do so
to-day, it would be enough for the English to obtain from
the emperor of Burmah, who is accustomed to the most pain
ful concessions, an imperative letter, addressed to his agents
in the Laotian provinces.
But this is not the best road for the flow of merchandise
from western China towards India and Europe. Captain
Hannay, in ascending the Irawady as far as Bahmo, followed
the correct road, which already unites Yunan to the capital
of Burmah. It is by this route that the productions of part
of this rich province will, one day, descend even to Rangoon.
I shall have occasion to notice, farther on, the obstacles
which Europeans, who may try to establish regular commu
nications betAveen these two countries will meet ; — obstacles
which appear to be more owing to man than to nature.

196 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
The storm which had threatened us had happily passed
over. The Burmans were not the absolute masters of the
Laotian populations, which an English traveller has not
hesitated to declare superior to them, and their obstinacy had
been vanquished by the energy of a native prince. A letter
from M. de Lagree having told us to meet him at Muong-You,
we joyfully quitted the damp house, where we had spent
thirty days, inhaling fever with the poisonous breeze which
passed over the marshes. The Burman mandarin gave us two
letters of recommendation, cut with a knife on bamboo sticks;
one addressed to his colleague of Muong-You, the other for the
chief of the village of Ban-Tap. In this viUage there is a cus
tom-house, the great end of which is to compel travellers to
quit the shortest road, that they may present themselves at
the administrative centre of the district; it is less a custom
house, in fact, in the sense we attach to the word, than a
direct robbery of the traveUer, who is compelled to purchase
the good graces of the authorities by presents. This inven
tion of a mercUess exchequer was very lucrative when the
civil war, which now desolates the country, did not prevent
the Chinese from traversing these regions, on their way to
Luang-Praban. Thanks to the passport, Ave were not trou
bled at Ban-Tap, where we arrived, after a march under a
scorching sun, through the beds of streams and of torrents.
The roads had begun to get firm on the heights, but aU
the lower parts were sloughs, where we frequently sank up
to our middle. We noticed, however, not without surprise,
certain useful pubHc works : that is to say, on the border of
a stream, under tufts of bamboos, in a sort of romantic nook,
were two benches with backs, and a wooden bridge across
a large river, uniting the two sides. We were evidently
approachmg a civilised country ; for, Avith the exception of
the salas, constructed in certain viUages at the side ofthe
pagodas, we had not seen, in all Laos, any measure taken
to facUitate travelling.
We had scarcely arrived at Muong-You, which is forty
kUometres from Muong-Yong, till M. de Lagree rejoined us.
He had travelled more than one hundred and fifty mUes to
reach Sien-Tong, which is on a very high plateau, and could
only be reached by scaling a continuous chain of mountains.

MUONG-YOU. 197
This city, which is farther from the Mekong than from the
Salween, appears placed on the line which separates the
basin of these two rivers, of which the size, thus far inland,
seems the same. It must, however, be remembered, that
the Salween is not more than one hundred leagues from its
mouth, whilst the Mekong, by latitude alone, is more than
three hundred from the sea. The valley of Sien-Tong is of
immense extent, full of inhabitants, highly cultivated, and the
most beautiful one could well see. At this height snow is
not unknown, and the temperature, which is sensibly lower,
permits a great many European fruits, if not to attain quite
the degree of perfection to which they arrive in our climates,
at least to form and ripen. The population ofthe city is
sufficiently large to allow of a daUy market, in which they
slaughter five oxen and a great many pigs. The inhabitants
of this region begin to repudiate the title of Laotian ; they
give themselves the name of Kugn, and call Sien-Tong Muong-
Kugn. The ancient maps only know it as Kemalatain. The
multiplicity of different names given to the same locality by
the races which have successively acquired even a temporary
preponderance, is not one of the least difficulties which the
future historian of these countries will meet with. The Kugns
have a whiter skin than the Burmans descended direct from
the Hindoos; but, like them, they cover the lower part of
the body with indelible designs, which show some art. What
is the origin of tattooing? Has it been borrowed by the
Laotians of the north from the aborigines, whom they have
supplanted ? Have the Burmans themselves adopted a custom
which might have been in use with the savages at a remote
period, though at this present time it has been almost entirely
abandoned by them ? This does not seem probable. As far
as the Burmans are concerned, tradition is not sUent ; it ex
plains tattooing in a manner which has, at least, the merit
of being piquant. One of their kings, it is said, becoming
alarmed by the general corruption of morals, ordered the men
to disfigure themselves, and the women not to hide their
charms, so that the perverted tastes of his subjects might be
attracted to them. M. de Lagree stayed in several -villages
inhabited by men whom the Kugns called savages, though
they were quite as civilised as themselves. They have large

198 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
well-constructed houses in general palisaded, markets, and
pagodas. They are not ignorant of agriculture, commerce,
or industrial arts ; and, like the Romans, who, when they had
taken a Carthaginian galley, made a fleet from the pattern,
they make themselves excellent flint-muskets, after European
models. We found that the crown of Muong-You was on the head
ofthe younger brother ofthe king of Sien-Tong, who showed
us so much kindness. The day foUowing the arrival of the
chief of the expedition, we commenced our visits of cere
mony. We were first conducted to the residence of the
king's brother, who complacently exhibited his deHcate white
hands. He held his fan with as much coquetry as a pretty
woman her book of hours at the noonday mass. He was
surrounded by noblemen enveloped in long white robes, bound
round the waist, according to the Burman custom, with a
piece of silk of gaudy colours. These courtiers were as grave
as Roman senators. We avoided speaking to the king's bro
ther of om- affairs, and contented ourselves with exchanging
courteous words. From him, we went to pay our respects
to the Burman mandarin. This man, the picture of solemn
foolishness, kept thinking what he should say; let drop a few
words between winks of his eyes, and gave himself great
airs. HappUy, his wife served as interpreter, and contrived
to make us forget, by her amiable disposition and grace, the
fatiguing majesty of her spouse. At last, as a termination
of our visits, we went to the king. The palace is situated
on a rounded hiU, from whence the view embraces a vast
horizon of mountains. Though it was only constructed in
wood, and covered with thatch, it showed real progress in
architecture. The carpentry was good, the partitions weU
joined; there was also, near the palace, a number of sawpits,
which are entirely unknown in southern Laos. A crowd of
mandarins, in respectful attitudes, filled the room into which
we were introduced. The light barely penetrated this spa
cious apartment, the roof of which is supported by magnifi
cent columns. In a corner of this hall, under an ornamented
canopy, the king was lazUy seated on cushions of silk, em
broidered with gold. He wore a turban, elegantly arranged
by a woman's hand, its ample folds entirely covering the

AMONG THE HILLS. 199
head, and hiding the hair. His costume was composed of a
vest and trousers of green satin, with gold ornaments. In
his ears he wore large gold cyHnders in the lobes, set off at
one end with diamonds, and with emeralds at the other.
They were a present from the king of Ava. Our host seemed
to have disposed everything for effect; his attitudes were
gracious, but studied.' A narrow window, near the throne,
was so arranged, that the sun's rays made the king's dress
sparkle like the wings of a glittering beetle. All the most
precious vases in the palace were grouped near their owner,
and the attendants brought each of us a large box in em
bossed silver, containing all the materials for the preparation
of a betel quid.
This custom is still in existence here, though less prac
tised than in Lower Laos. The areca nuts, being more rare,
one must be richer to get them to chew. The king of Muong-
You has a white skin, an intelligent, open and pleasing coun
tenance ; he never tired of asking us questions, and each of
our words appeared to open before him a new world, full of
strange visions. I realised, on seeing him, what an oriental
prince might be ; and the charming fancies, which floated
in my memory as imaginary creations, were now embodied
before me. Unfortunately, there was another side to this ele
gant picture ; for I saw empty bottles of pale ale decorating
the columns of the audience-chamber. This vulgar product
of European industry excites the same infatuation in the
king of Muong-You, which Chinese craqueles, for example,
that always look to me to be nothing but crockery dried up
by the kitchen fire — excite in our well-to-do idlers. In a
portion ofthe room, separated from the throne by lances,
whose heads formed a sort of silver grating, I remarked a
heap of elephants' teeth.
Our royal friend did not hesitate to make use of his peo
ple, in order to render his own life agreeable. He carried
them, so to speak, of his oAvn choice, on his back, as the
gentlemen did then forests and mills, on the Field ofthe
Cloth of Gold. We saw him five times, and always in a
different costume. He passed a whole day with us, insist
ing on seeing everything. Taking for aim, unknown to the
victim, the figure of a grand mandarin, he made us use a

200 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
perfume-sprinkler before the queen, who could not resist the
desire to carry it with her wherever she wished to repeat
the process. The king showed us, in return, several speci
mens of iron ore, which appeared to be rich ; he also confi
dentially told us, that there was gold in his dominions,^ but
he did not dare to let us know where it lay. He is obliged
to disclose to the Burman mandarin all the gold-fields that
are discovered, in the same way as all the inhabitants of
his kingdom are compelled to reveal to him findings of a
similar nature. ' It is necessary,' he said to us, ' on the re
ceipt of precise indications, at once to visit the place, and to
have the appearance of putting one's OAvn hand, as though
by chance, on the treasure.'
We had no time for similar researches. It was our mis
fortune to remain in places devoid of resources, in the midst
of hostile people, and only to pass through where informa
tion of all kinds offered itself to us. For this we had no
remedy ; for we were unprovided with passports, and it was
free to the lowest mandarin to retard our progress; and
M. de Lagree wished to have quitted the territory of Sien-
Tong before the Burman mandarin, who resides near the king,
could receive the orders he had secretly asked for from Ava.
It became necessary, therefore, to resist the friendly persua
sions of the young sovereign of Muong-You, who wanted to
enjoy a longer intercourse with us. Finding M. de Lagree
was not to be shaken in his resolution, he placed himself
completely at our service, made porters precede us with our
baggage, whilst he gave the orders to prepare our boats.
The current of the Nam-Loi bore us away. This river, which
is larger than the Seine, and as winding, flows first through
the plain of Muong-You; with pretty houses, sheltered by
plantations of areca-trees, on its banks; but it soon after enters
a region of varied aspect, and closed in by steep mountains.
The rain had almost completely ceased ; yet there still re
mained sufficient humidity in the air to soften the glare
of the sun, and to cast a transparent veil, beneath which the
tints were delightfully softened, over the landscape. We
greatly enjoyed the spectacle, for we did so without fatigue.
The men who carried our baggage were in waiting for
us at the point where we landed. We slept in an empty

MUONG-LONG. 201
house, open to all the winds, at the foot of the mountains,
which we began to ascend on the following day. The path
way was, in general, along their crest; and when, some
times, it descended into shallow valleys, it was only to rise
again soon after to the heights. As far as the eye could
see, there was nothing round us but deep undulations : I
might have said, immense furrows, like those the tempest
hollows on the bosom ofthe sea. The play of light, with
its changing effects, following the clouds which passed under
the sun, added to the illusion by giving an apparent motion
to the crests of these frozen Avaves. Numerous paths crossed
each other in the mountains. The one we followed, though
it was the ordinary road from Muong-Long, was overgrown
with shrubs, and while hardly traced out at first, was now
whoUy neglected. In contrast with this, when we came on
a broad road, kept as carefully as the alley of a park, we
were told that it led to a village of savages. These little
towns, built, and as it were suspended, on the slopes of the
hills, are inhabited by a laborious population, who subsist on
the rice of the forests, which they irrigate by means of long
bamboo pipes, in which they bring all the water it requires.
They do not mix with the civUised people ofthe plain, whose
language they do not speak ; in short, they keep to them
selves, intrenched in their pride, and live on the heights.
After walking for long hours in the mountains, we at
last reached the plain ; and, as elsewhere, we perceived,
grouped along the banks of the streams which traverse it,
the habitations of those whom I shall continue to caU Lao
tians. The land was cultivated far round, on every side,
the soft velvet-like green of the rice-fields delighting the eye.
Numberless villages revealed themselves by the white gables
of then pagodas, which were half hidden in clumps of large
trees. The valley is traversed by the Nam-Ga, a broad and
rapid river, which we crossed without boats, though we had
to resist a current strong enough to throw down one of our
porters. We directed our march towards a pyramid, the
point of which could be seen in the distance on a low hill,
at the foot of which lies Muong-Long.
To get into this chief place of the district, we had to go
through the market-place, between two ranges of houses,

202 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
which fined both sides of the road thickly, and showed that
the village was of some importance. I wiU not attempt to
describe our surprise on perceiving a fine stone bridge across
a tributary of the Nam-Ga. Even in the best days of their
country, when they raised the magnificent monuments of
Angcor and Vat-Phou, the Cambodgians were ignorant of
the art of constructing arches; they could only corbel out
the blocks of stone. The Chinese are more skUful ; the arch
of the bridge of Muong-Long, buUt by them, is elegant and
solid, and the parapet is ornamented with sculptured Hons,
now thrown doAvn. The keystone of the arch stiU pro
jected, on both sides, as a gargoyle. The Chinese, driven
little by Httle from the country, are no longer there to keep
up the works by which the Laotians profit, without even
being able to prop up a falling stone, or to raise a tumbling
wall. With the exception of this bridge and the paved cause
way, Muong-Long has a very Laotian appearance. The
houses, made ofthe same materials as in Laos, are always
in the same style ; the inhabitants wear the same costume —
wide trousers, vest, turban round the head, and a poniard
passed through the waistbelt. We had barely arrived, before
we were surrounded by a curious crowd ; and sellers be
sieged our doors. We distinguished amongst them two
women in long dresses, whose tiny feet were enclosed in
microscopic shoes. They were Chinese women, real Chi
nese ! There was no longer any room for doubt. These
women with mutUated feet, and the stone bridge — were
they not the signs of a different civilisation ? were we not
beyond Laos? Venus Astarte rising from the Nam-Ga, the
Parthenon appearing all at once behind the bamboos, would
not have charmed our eyes and made our hearts beat more
than this simple bridge, ten metres in length, and these
poor peddling women, with their sun-burnt skin and thin
figures. Fifteen months of fatigue, privation, and suffering,
were in a moment forgotten. China ! it was the end of our
journey, and it was also the commencement of our return.
Nevertheless, we were not yet there; for though we had
left Burman Laos, we had not in reality put our foot on
Chinese territory. Muong-Long is the first ofthe twelve

TIRESOME DELAYS. 203
Muongs which form the kingdom of Sien-Hong, the third
state founded by the Laotians of the north, and Sien-Hong
has not kept its independence, any more than the states of
Sien-Tong and Muong-Lem ; though, as a tributary to two
rival states, it in reality enjoys the privilege of self-govern
ment more than either of the others. We found ourselves
at once at the mercy of Burman, Laotian, and Chinese man
darins. The chief of the village seemed, at first, to be very
zealous in our behalf; and, at the request of M. de Lagree,
had the drum beaten to assemble porters for us ; but at the
moment of our departure, a letter arrived from the king of
Sien-Hong to the mandarin of Muong-Long, his inferior,
containing, without other explanation, these simple words :
' When the Europeans arrive at Muong-Long, you will desire
them to return by the road they came.'
This dreadful blow crushed our enthusiasm, and reminded
us that the fight was not yet over; but we were too well
accustomed to the tricks of the authorities of this country
to fear anything but a tiresome delay. M. de Lagree dis
patched his interpreter to the king of Sien-Hong, and we
awaited his return at Muong-Long.
The market, held in this place, is very considerable.
They sell a great deal of cotton, tobacco, and raw silk,
cotton stuffs imported through Rangoon, articles in sUver
and copper, clocks, weights and balances, and edible com
modities. Large restaurants were filled with a noisy and
picturesque crowd; a bar-woman offered to all those who
presented themselves a bowl of rice, rolled and cut like ver
micelli, to which she added salt, allspice, fine herbs, pork cut
up very small, with fish-broth, which is made at the side of
each table in an immense iron pot, for sauce. It was very
different from those villages of Laos where every one lives
in a state of such profound isolation, that with the exception
ofthe pagodas, one never meets a single public establishment.
We had time to visit the monuments of Muong-Long.
There are two pyramids in the vUlage, but one is not worthy
of description ; the other, on the contrary, from its origin
ality, seemed to have left the rut into which religion, the
one source of art in these countries, has sunk Laotian archi
tecture. A round tower like a skittle, supported at the

204 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
base by eight smaller towers, surmounting niches filled -with
statues of Bouddha, croAvns a low hiU a Httle out of the
village. The whole is not without a certain elegance. I
cannot comprehend the meaning of these fantastic pyramids,
which, being neither tombs nor temples, give accommoda
tion neither for the remains of the dead nor for the prayers
of the living.
After some days of forced halt at Muong-Long, the man
darin brought us a letter from Sien-Hong ; in which the king
of this province, which borders on China, sought to explain
the brutal curtness of his first message. To believe him,
the Chinese authorities had ordered him to bar the road to
travellers wishing to pass the frontier of the empire. This
was what we had previously heard said at Luang-Praban. The
king of Sien-Hong added, in a confidential manner, that if the
orders of the emperor of China did not appear sacred to us,
he, for his own part, would not oppose our journey.
Our interpreter had been charged to tell us, that we could
not pass anywhere without loading the functionaries Avith
presents of gold and silver. Had this argument been suffi
ciently strong to produce a decisive impression on the king's
mind, and was he unwUling to let a chance escape him of
an honest advantage, by making friends, if not with heaven,
at least with its son ? We could only obtain the key to this
enigma by going to Sien-Hong, which place we reached
in three days, by roads weU laid out, but much travelled
and greatly cut up. The oxen, carrying merchandise, had
poached furrows in the mud as it began to harden, which
might have been drawn by a plough, they were so deep
and regular. In haste to attain the goal, which, for three
months, had seemed to fly from us, we quickened our steps,
and confided our baggage to the porters, whose feet were
aching and shoulders swollen. These men wiU never con
sent to travel more than thirty kilometres a day, when they
are employed as porters, but when charged with a mess
age, on the contrary, they are both rapid and indefatigable
couriers. No distance frightens them; and they wUl carry
a letter forty leagues across mountains and forests as easily
as, in Europe, one sends an invitation to dinner twenty
minutes' distance from his hotel.

A ROYAL AUDIENCE. 205
A native, who had no special official character, else,
came to meet us, and conducted us to the pagoda destined
to serve as our lodgings. Mats were spread on the floor,
which was of mortar, and cords were passed from column to
column, like those seen in menageries to prevent the public
from touching the wild beasts. This precaution was not use
less ; for a crowd soon collected, and pressed into the sanc
tuary, impatient to see people who had come so far. At
the first glance at the population, it was easy to see that it
presented an incredible mixture of types and different races.
Some Chinese from Yunan, on the extreme frontier of which
we were, wore on their heads black turbans, as wide round
as a straw hat with broad brims. As for the authorities, they
continued to sulk. According to our interpreter, we were
only at Sien-Hong, through his energy and intrepidity.
When he first arrived, no one would receive him ; and the
king having sent him an order to return to Muong-Long,
he replied, in the hyperbolical language used in the East,
' I am in your hands ; you may kill me, if that will please
you ; but I have the order of the great French mandarin to
remain here ; and here I must stay till he come. If you
take away the life of your slave, you will expose yourself
to serious trouble ; for I belong to a master who never
abandons his servants. I must also inform you, if you
oblige the French to await, at Muong-Long, a reply from
China, that they are a very hasty people, and I cannot
answer for the consequences that may occur in that small
place.' This discourse, which was not devoid of abUity, was car
ried to the ruling powers, and produced on them a profound
impression. The grand council, or sina, which, in the kingdoms
tributary to Burmah, as at Luang-Praban, assists the sove
reign, assembled without loss of time. The king conferred,
for the greater part of a night, with the Chinese mandarin,
who, in concert with a Burman envoy, watches over the
affairs of the country ; and this functionary decided at once
to start for Muong-La, the first Chinese town of Yunan.
They wrote, at the same time, to the governor of Muong-
Long, that we were to remain with him, informing him, at
the same time, that if we appeared to get angry, he was

206 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
authorised to let us go. This was the explanation of what
had seemed so ambiguous. As for the pretended prohibi
tions, sent us by the Chinese government, we found out, at
a later period, the origin of these rumours. The pro-vicar
ofthe CathoHc mission of Yunan, and the viceroy of that
province, on learning our arrival on the frontier, moved by
a sincere sentiment of sympathetic interest, both Avrote to
us, each in his own language, describing the state of the
country, and the dangers of the road, and dissuaded us
from continuing our journey. Though Sien-Hong is a
tributary of China, they can barely read the Chinese charac
ters; and the letter ofthe viceroy of Yunan, not being under
stood, and being Avrongly interpreted, was considered as a
prohibition from entering the territory. As for the letter of
the missionary, no one being able to decipher it, they deemed
it prudent not to speak of it at all, and we only heard of its
existence indirectly. Removed by only a few days' march
from a town entirely Clhinese, and able already to count
on the moral effect of the passports signed by Prince Kong,
it behoved us to show ourselves confident as weU as reso
lute. To avoid violence in word and deed, never to give utter
ance to any definite menace, but to excite uneasiness — which
is more efficacious the more vague it is — in the timid minds
ofthe mandarins, whom responsibUity invariably frightens,
was a method we frequently found to succeed, and the
application of which had never been more opportune. M. de
Lagree had recourse to it. When a mandarin came officiaUy
to inquire from him his intentions, he appeared hurt at the
obstacles placed in our way by the act of the king of Sien-
Hong ; expressed no desire to see his majesty, and only
demanded to be allowed to leave for Muong -La without
delay, or else to write him the reasons for his detention,
which he would make use of as he should think best. This
conversation threw the counseUors ofthe crown into a visible
perplexity, which was very amusing to us. They, at last,
decided on making advances to us, inviting us to appear
before the sina, in the sola, where they transacted business,
after which the king would do us the honour of receiving us
in person. The principal functionaries, to the number of twelve, were

TIRESOME DELAYS. 207
ranged on each side of the prime-minister, who was en
throned on a bed-side carpet. They were attired with tur
bans, white vests, and wide trousers, or else in white calico
dressing-gowns, with a great langouti, in Burmese colours,
girt round the waist, and brought over the shoulders. To
the left ofthe prime-minister was seated the Burman manda
rin ; a place to the right, ordinarily occupied by the Chinese
mandarin, was vacant : for, as we knew, he had set out for
Muong-La. M. de Lagree made the assembly understand
that we only wanted one thing, and that was, to leave as
soon as possible. They then proceeded to the verification
of our papers, which a Chinese read, after the people had
squatted on the ground, for respect. They were found in
order, and they then introduced a subject which appeared to
be stUl more serious. We were required to enumerate, and
show to the members of council, beforehand, the presents we
intended to offer the king. Our resources, in this respect,
were much diminished; and it was the first time, besides,
that any one had made a demand of the kind, which they
now maintained with such a rude insistance. M. de La
gree refused to comply with the request. The discussion
lasted two hours, after which, the king having sent word
that he was waiting for us, we directed our steps towards
the palace. Several days had been spent in cleaning the
whole place. The dunghill, which filled the grand court of
honour, had been raked; but there had not been sufficient
time to take it away. We passed between a double row of
ragged men, armed, some with old firelocks, others with
lances and indefinable instruments of war or ofthe chase.
We recognised in the ranks our baggage-porters, who,
enrolled momentarily in the royal guard, had exchanged
the bamboo of the porter for a warrior's lance. This sight
greatly diminished the impression of respectful terror which
this military display was intended to produce on us. The
palace is a miserable house, in bad condition ; and had
been fitted up with all the hangings the wardrobe had been
able to supply. Some Chinese carpets, ornamented with
embroidery in relief, prevented the daylight from pene
trating between the badly-joined bamboos of the walls. On
each side of the platform, which served for throne, crouched

208 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
guards, carrying sabres with gilt scabbards, the handle, as
usual, on the ground, and the blade on the shoulder. The
king, who kept us a long time waiting, at last appeared
from behind a curtain. He wore an indescribable costume.
His head was covered with a Chinese hat, gUt, and orna
mented with little bells ; reminding one, if I might be so
disrespectful, of the musical instrument which is the stand
ing accompaniment, in Em-ope, to the large drum. A sort
of collar, with many friUs, which came down in half circles
on the chest, their upper sides reaching the ears, made his
majesty resemble the classic Punch. The king is a young
man about twenty years of age, who seems not aUowed to
have any will of his own ; for a mandarin asks questions,
and gives rephes for him. He has been placed on the throne
by the emperor of Burmah; and wears the smaU gold chains,
arranged in the form of a St. Andrew's cross, so much sought
after by Burmese nob! es, as a mark of honour, and which Maj or
Burney, the first EngHsh resident at the court of Ava, was
gratified with. The question of our departure was men
tioned, and decided favourably. We left the palace, as we
had entered, to the sound of music ; the orchestra consisting
of a guitar and a nasal voice. A tremendous shower of rain
had dispersed the troops ; the artillery alone were at then-
posts ; three Chinese swivel-guns, stuck into the earth verti-
caUy, and charged to the mouth, saluted us as we went off.
The town of Sien-Hong, which in PaH is called Halevi,
has still another name, — Sip-Song-Pana, which carries with
it an aUusion to a kind of dodecarchy, of which it is the
centre, and which we have seen begin at Muong-Long. The
houses, which are very thinly scattered, have all a miserable
appearance, and give one the idea of a vast temporary en
campment. The country has been desolated by war, which
has several times ruined the town; and the inhabitants, at
each new catastrophe, have gathered together on another
part of the plain. It is to this cause that the difference
of two minutes in the latitude of Sien-Hong, as given by
M'Leod in 1836, and as determined by the expedition of
M. de Lagree in 1867, is due. There remain ofthe ancient
town, at six kilometres from the present one, some old gray
bricks, hidden amongst the vegetation, not far from the Nam-

SIEN-HONG. 209
Tap, which is a tributary of the Mekong, and the remains of
a brick wall, separated by a ravine from an elegant and weU-
preserved pagoda. A fine garland, in carved wood, runs
below a ceiling supported by columns ; between these are
large and well-shaped windows, which fill the interior of the
buUding with light.
The Mekong, which runs at the foot of the town of Sien-
Hong, carried us, for the last time, on its waters, and we
landed on the left bank of the river, at which we had not
touched since leaving Luang-Praban. We entered upon one
of the most rough and broken countries in the world, the
first mountains which we had to ascend joining on to the
spurs which the Himalayas throw out across Yunan. The
natives looked at us with a mixture of suspicion and curi
osity. For the transport of our baggage we could only pro
cure weak and sickly men, taken at hazard from the troop
of emigrants, whom the Mussulman insurrection had chased
from their country. Entire A'illages are peopled by these
unfortunates, who seem to find it hard to resign themselves
to the cultivation of a strange soil. The march became more
and more painful, as we had to ascend still steeper paths.
At 1200 metres above the level of the sea, we found only
savages, and it was from them we had to ask shelter for
the night. They have no sala for traA-ellers ; and we had to
content ourselves with a badly-roofed stable, where we were
invaded by myriads of fleas. Sleep, which our great fatigue
so imperatively required, could not triumph over these un
seen enemies. It was the first time we had suffered such an
annoyance, and we recognised it as a sign that the nation, so
justly reputed to be the dirtiest in the universe, could not be
very far off. In these small vUlages we had some difficulty
in organising our transport ; so much so, that, on several
occasions, we were compelled to employ both women and
children as porters. The most vigorous men took possession
of the lightest boxes, whilst their wives, bending beneath the
load, put a strap, fixed to the heaviest packages, over their
forehead, and walked along like oxen yoked to a heavy
strain. Little by little the traits which characterise Laos pass
away from the customs, dress, and architecture of this part
P

210 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHIXA.
of the country. The language gradually alters, and melts
into another. The inhabitants of this intermediary zone are,
in reahty, neither Laotians nor Chinese ; they mix the two
idioms in then speech, and you see touches on their features
taken from both the great neighbouring races. As regards
language, one passes, especially after leaving Luang-Praban,
through a succession of shades, which do not seem to con
stitute different languages, but rather special dialects. Be
tween the first and last link ofthe chain the distance appears
considerable ; but you receive a totally different impression,
if you have come in contact with the links between.
Cultivation became more general on the mountains ; the
houses were smaU, constructed with mortar, and rested on
the ground, not, as in Laos, on posts. The door is narrow,
and ornamented with bands of red paper, on which were
traced Chinese hieroglyphics in black ink, beseeching the
evU genii to keep themselves at a distance, or recalling to
the passers-by some fine maxims ofthe moralist Confucius.
These vUlages, set on knolls, or hidden in hollows, are very
picturesque. We stopped in them twice a day, and even in
the poorest we found a table and benches, — precious furni
ture, almost unknown in Laos. The streets, the men, the
animals — are all plastered with mud, Hke the houses them
selves, the partition walls of which, made of straw, earth,
and cow-dung, exhale a sickening odour. The buffaloes had
a fine time of it, and were taking their ease ; lying in the
mire, they looked on idly at the beasts passing, loaded with
rice ; but they, too, have then hard work, for they plough
the furrow, from which the others bear home the harvest
thrashed in the field.
The mountains grew higher, and were covered with vast
forests of pine-trees. This natural ornament completely
changed the aspect ofthe country, which becomes one ofthe
most beautiful in the world. Torrents foam down the
gorges, veiled by a curtain of great trees ; sometimes, on
a ridge, a field of buckwheat shining in the sun looks as if it
were the beginning ofthe eternal snows; the strong scent of
the pine-trees was delightful. Forgetting the fatigues of a
toUsome ascent, we wished to mount higher and higher stiU,
and at last see the Celestial Empne at our feet. We were

WE REACH CHINA. 211
close to it ; at each step material proofs confirmed our con
viction of this : the tombs by the side of the road piously
kept up, the altars of stone, inscriptions in Chinese charac
ters, and even a post of soldiers, wearing the taU, with the
martial appearance so often described. At last, in the
afternoon of the 18th of October 1867, five months after
our departure from Luang-Praban, and sixteen months after
quitting Saigon, from the summit of a high mountain, a
great plain lay stretched out before our eyes, and at its
extremity, on a low hill, was a veritable town, with its
white gables, red walls, and brick roofs. We were about
to tread the soil which bears one ofthe most ancient and
least-known peoples in the world ; all our hearts beat with
emotion, and our eyes were moist with tears ; and if I had
had to die during the journey, I should have wished to ex
pire there, like Moses on Mount Nebo, embracing with his
last look the land of Canaan.

CHAPTER VI.
WESTERN CHINA.
China ! This word alone awakens the idea of a people that
has triumphed over space by the extent of its empire, and
over time by its duration. One feels in the presence of a
nation, unchanging alike in its customs and maxims; and
which, notwithstanding the revolutions which agitate it,
and the invasions it undergoes, opposes to the current of
events and ideas a sort of colossal petrifaction. Imprisoned
in the meshes of an idiom which makes intelligence subordi
nate to memory, and in a network of institutions which regu
late even the attitudes of the body, China has, nevertheless,
anticipated Europe in its social life, in science, and in art;
but the most fruitful inventions have remained sterile, as
though Providence had wiUed this race should pass abruptly
from a premature youth to an irremediable decrepitude.
Master of the half of Asia, this people might again assemble
armies as numerous as those of Gengis-Khan ; but its soldiers
fly before a handful of Europeans, after shaking at them,
in impotent menaces, the painted monsters whose hideous
shapes are to be seen on our screens and hangings. It is a
strange country, full of contrasts and mysteries, where gran
deur is side by side with the grotesque, and where apes,
justly proud of the forty centuries of their history, look
down on you from the top of a folding screen as if from the
summit of a pyramid.
To visit this sphinx in the least-known part of its do
main, was the hope which had so long sustained us, and
which we were on the point of seeing accompHshed. We
found ourselves, in fact, on that extreme frontier of China,
which, until now, had never been traversed by a European.
We had not entered the Celestial Empire by its so easUy-

OUR POSITION. 213
accessible coast, where the traveller finds more of Europe
than of China itself; we were nearly 2400 miles from the
sumptuous hotels of Shanghai, and from that consular pro
tection which extends to the confines of the habitable world
the shadow of one's native country. We arrived drained of
resources, without shoes, almost without clothes, in a coun
try where esteem for outward appearance has survived the
horrors of a civil war. But whilst fearing to compromise our
dignity in the eyes of mandarins, who might judge of out
rank by our clothes, we had firmly resolved to make use of
the imperative orders of om- passports to assure our safety,
and to make our persons respected. The letters signed by
the regent of the empire had, in reality, clothed us better
than the most brilliant official costume would have been able
to do, even in the eyes of this most formal of all races. The
representatives of the Chinese government did not justify
towards us then old reputation of perfidy; from which one
may conclude, it was to their want of power, and not to their
hostility, that the distress and the perils which the members
of the commission had to undergo during the latter part of
the journey must be imputed.
It will, perhaps, be remembered, that the Laotian king
of Sien-Hong, hesitating to let us continue our route, had
sent the Chinese mandarin, in residence Avith him, to take the
instructions of the governor of Muong-La. But the town
which lay before our eyes was no other than Muong-La itself;
so that the unworthy schemes by which, for a moment, he
had hoped to intimidate us, had not succeeded, thanks to the
firmness of om attitude. The orders of the emperor of Bur
mah could no longer affect us ; we had slipped through the
hands of his agents in Laos, and had crossed over the south
ern frontier into the province of Yunan, the least-known of
the Middle empire. Muong-La is called Seumao by the Chi
nese ; it is also, I believe, the same town that an Englishman
proposed to unite to Rangoon by a railway, in order to bring
the whole stream of commerce of western China to a port in
British India.
After the inauguration of the Suez Canal, and on the eve
of the opening of the Mont Cenis Tunnel ; in presence, above
all, of that colossal enterprise, which has joined New York to

214 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
San Francisco, notwithstanding the Rocky Mountains, — one
can assign" no limits to the power of man. If the Anglo-
Saxon race should choose, some day, to apply to the execu
tion of such a work the resources it is able to command, and
the perseA-erance which characterises it, it would, no doubt,
succeed in triumphing over all obstacles ; but I am inclined
to think it will be long ere it undertake such an enterprise.
Without enumerating the difficulties of all kinds which it
would be necessary to overcome, before linking together the
mountains of Yunan and the shores of the Gulf of Martaban
by a railway, it suffices to say, that the immense sums which
would be swallowed up in this work would remain a dead
loss, if the order of things inaugurated in 1855 by the revolt
of the Mussulmans prove permanent ; for a state, founded on
the triumph of Mahometan fanaticism, would leave such an
enterprise Avithout a future, and without a guarantee. Proofs
will not be wanting in the course of this narrative to support
this assertion. We had scarcely entered China till ruins on
every side saddened us. The scourge of which we had seen
the traces, more particularly in the province of East Laos,
had still more cruelly devastated this part of Yunan, and
deserted or destroyed villages became more numerous the
nearer we approached the town.
Paved roads crossed each other in the rice-fields. We
followed one, which led us over a stone bridge, similar to the
one that had caused us so much pleasure at Muong-Long.
Then we entered the faubourgs. Women crowded to their
doorsteps to see us pass ; children escaped from school, fol
lowed by their master, still carrying in his hand a long
rod, and wearing spectacles with round glasses ; and groups,
formed round the notices stuck up on the walls, left off read
ing to look at us. Armed guards were in waiting for us ;
they saluted us politely, and requested us to follow them.
Our escort, which augmented at each step, soon compre
hended the entire population of Seumao. We kept by the
wall ofthe town ; then turning to the right, we arrived, after
ten minutes' walk, at the pagoda where we were to stay.
The narrow court was already invaded, and the soldiers
had some difficulty in making a passage for us through the
tightly-packed ranks of the crowd ; they were even on the

CHINESE CREEDS. 215
roofs. The pagoda, a vast square building, quite open on
the side of the interior court, was in a moment filled by the
multitude, in spite of the effort of policemen, armed with
staves. These officials, finding themselves powerless to
keep back this flood let loose, were obliged to give way, at
the same time recommending us to look well after our bag
gage. Accustomed for long months to vast horizons, and
solitudes without bounds, I felt myself quite giddy amidst
this human ant-nest, crowded into a narrow space.
A movement was, at last, made in the court; the com
pact mass of the curious opened, and closed again. It was
a mandarin, preceded by soldiers in red coats, who came
officially to bid us welcome. His turned-up hat was orna
mented with a cord and tassels of silk, and surmounted with
a blue ball. He bowed gracefully, and informed us we had
been expected for some time, and that they had begun to
despair of ever seeing us. He ordered rice and pork to be
brought to us, and begged to know our wants. Notwith
standing the presence of this functionary, the public pressed
closer and closer. The police, with their sticks, kept off the
most audacious ; and two of our Annamites, placed as senti
nels, drove back the curious into the court, so that we might
have at least our room to om-selves. It, was only as night
came on that we were able to make ourselves comfortable,
having at last been left in peace. Our pagoda had three
walls, made of bricks whitened by lime ; the fourth side was
open, as I have said, and sustained by beautiful wooden
columns. Our ancient acquaintance, the Bouddha of Cam
bodgia and Laos, with its long features, hanging ears, and
contemplative and devout attitude, had given place to two
personages, life - sized, above whom a woman seemed to
hover, seated on a cloud.
Ofthe three great religions spread over China, not count
ing Islamism, only that of Confucius seems to have remained
pure from all mythological and superstitious mixture. The
learned classes, who alone profess this doctrine, trouble them
selves much less to seek religious notions in it, which indeed
they would not find if they did, than a system of positive
philosophy and practical morals. With the exception of the
tablet of Confucius, which figures in the temples erected in

216 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
his honour, and in all the schools, this worship has no images,
symbols, or priests. The belief in Bouddha, on the con
trary, introduced into China in the first century of our era,
under the reign of Ming-Ti, soon passed to the court of the
king of Tchou, prince-vassal of the empne, and to the hearts
of the poor, the miserable, and the suffering. Flattered, but
not fully satisfied, by the anathema of Bouddhism against
activity and life, these wretched people grafted on the dog
mas of Fo the superstitions which, in the absence of a weU-
founded faith and philosophic doctrines, grow so easUy in
the darkness of the human soul. Temples and images mul
tiplied countlessly; but, at the present time, the Chinese
bonzes, a race now ignorant and abject, are frequently un
able to give a reason for the belief which they profess from
necessity, and of the symbols that they worship from habit.
Finally, Lao-tseu, born at the end of the seventh century
before Christ, would appear to have played, contrary to his
contemporary, Confucius, the part of an inspired prophet.
Rising above the social horizon, going beyond the bounds of
national tradition, and despising phUosophy, he aspired to
conduct his disciples to the heights of a cosmogony to which
one cannot refuse a character of grandeur. He taught that
supreme reason was preexistent to chaos, and ' connected
the chain of beings to him whom he called one, then to two,
then to three, who, he said, made aU things.'1
What is most clear in his book is, that a triune being
formed. the universe. Was this, as some affirm, a doctrine
borrowed from the Jews by Lao-tseu, in a journey he made
in the West, or, as others pretend, a remembrance of the
ancient triune divinity of the Hindoos ? I cannot here ex
amine the point. I simply wish to indicate the three kinds
of temples in which we were from this time called to take up
our abode, and to retm-n thanks to Lao-tseu, who furnished
our first resting-place on Chinese territory.
His doctrines, disfigured by his followers, are become
absolutely unrecognisable in the present day. His temples,
like those of Fo, are filled with grotesque and grinning sta
tues, objects of ridicule to the enlightened classes, who pur
sue the Catholic images also with their iconoclastic hatred.
1 Abel Remusat.

A CHINESE AUDIENCE. 217
In the pagoda which we occupied there were, as I have said,
a group formed of two men, who appeared to be under
a female raised above them: it recalled to my mind the
words of Lao-tseu, that 'all beings repose on the femin
ine principle.' A small lamp, placed on a table, burns al
ways before the virgin, and three pans are constantly filled
with incense. An old priest and two respectable priestesses
sufficed for the care of the sanctuary. Never were vestals
more accommodating. The sacred fire served to light our
cigars ; the tables were loaded with profane objects, and we
took our meals on them.
The French flag planted at the top of the steps, the arms
fixed to the columns, the mats stretched on the ground to
serve as our beds — in fact, the thousand details of our daily
life, did not appear to disturb om- venerable hostesses, who
came regularly every day to salute the idols. After hav
ing examined the oils of the lamp and the sawdust of odori
ferous wood, they struck three strokes on a little bell, and
prostrated themselves several times. These, with the ad
dition of a pious lecture on certain days of the month, are
the whole duties of their worship. These good old women
seemed quite happy; they enjoyed their tranquil existence,
and did not refuse themselves small gratifications. They
had, for example, purchased two comfortable coffins, which
was an evident proof they had not arrived at a complete
self-denial. In Europe the Trappists dig then own graves,
and no enemy of monastic institutions has ever reproached
them for this custom, as being Epicurean. In China, on the
contrary, to furnish oneself beforehand with a coffin is a
luxury every one cannot aspire to ; they are articles of fur
niture which cost very dear, above all when they bear the
name of a renowned manufacturer.
One morning, the palace-guards brought M. de Lagree
the governor's visiting-card. Some Chinese characters on a
piece of red paper signified that he wished to see us ; such,
at least, was the explanation given by one of ourselves, who,
at the taking of Pekin, had been in the squadron of Admiral
Charner. It is one of the advantages of the intense centra
lisation of which China has given Europe the example, that
the traveUer who has spent a month in Petcheli, does not

218 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHTNA.
feel himself a stranger in Yunan, at the other end of the
empire. To reach the hall of audience, we had to pass through a
high arched doorway, which crowned two overhanging roofs,
between which is arranged a place for two military posts.
The governor received us in a room at the end of three
courts. His excellency wore in his hat a ball of coral ; but
as he was a mUitary mandarin, our respect for him was
greatly diminished. We were aware that, in China, the cedant
anna togas is pushed very far ; for civUians, as a rule, learned
or unlearned, profess even for the greatest general a dis
dain which prudence does not allow them always to exhibit,
though the prejudices of his compatriots justifies his feeling
it. Besides, learned mandarins would be of as little use in
the province of Yunan, as a university professor in a besieged
town. Our host wore the usual Chinese costume, a furred
cloak, long silk robe, and magnificent tail; he had large
features, prominent eyes, and an open rather than a fine
countenance, which bespoke benevolence and firmness. He
would fain have added a certain air of majesty, but it did
not succeed. He spoke little, smoked his pipe, and remained
impassive till the moment when M. de Lagree offered him a
revolver. As soon as he comprehended the mechanism of
this Aveapon, his eyes shone like those of a war-horse scent
ing the battle from afar ; he sprang from his seat, forgetful
of his dignity, and the six balls that he fired, one after
another, would certainly have wounded several of his sub
jects, if they had not quickly turned his arm aside. The
hall of audience was, in fact, invaded by a noisy crowd, who
elbowed us, interrupting the conversation by their shouts of
laughter, and mercilessly cutting short even the discourse of
the governor himself.
He appeared to be animated with the best intentions to
wards us, though he showed some uneasiness as to the aim
of our journey. One might have supposed he feared a secret
understanding between us and the Mussulmans. He also in
formed us that all the western portion ofthe province through
which the Mekong flows, which he called Kioulang-kiang
(river ofthe Nine Dragons), was in the hands of these enemies
ofthe empire. The experience we had gained in penetrating

RAVAGES OF WAR. 219
without passports amongst the Laotians, tributaries of Bur
mah, had taught us a lesson, and we did not feel disposed to
incur new perils. M. de Lagree, taking in the situation at a
glance, renounced, not without regret, the plan of following
the course of the Mekong, and determined, for two reasons,
to turn his steps eastward. From the first he was convinced
that, to penetrate at hazard into a disorganised country,
overrun by undisciplined bands, intoxicated with murder and
pillage, would only be to expose us to unpleasant occur
rences, and to make us objects of suspicion to the faithful
authorities of Seumao. On the other side, in presence of the
certain development that the future reserves for our colonial
establishment in Cochin-China, M. de Lagree felt it would be
useful to explore the zone watered by the Sonkoi. This river,
which is not much known at this part, has its source in
the north-west of Yunan, and falls into the sea in the Gulf
of Tonkin, where our flag would be able to secure an easy
entrance. The basin of the Mekong was, therefore, abandoned
for that of the Sonkoi, and a purely geographical interest
for a political one of the first order.
This determination, resolved on and announced at the
governor's reception, appeared to give him great satisfac
tion ; and, coming out of his diplomatic reserve, he at once
became frank and pleasant. He promised us an escort ; but
he added that we must hasten our departure, for the war,
though for a moment suspended, was on the eve of recom
mencing more furiously than ever, and the road which we
were about to take was only separated by a three days'
march from the Mussulman armies, which, chased from Seu
mao, were disposed to return again. This unfortunate town
will long bear the marks of the combats which have taken
place before its walls. The faubourgs and vUlages on the
outskirts of the town, which contained a population of at
least 30,000, have been destroyed; there does not remain
one house in twenty. The conquerors appear to have directed
their greatest violence against the pagodas ; some having
been entirely demolished, and others transformed into sta
bles, whUst all have been desecrated; altars throAvn down,
headless statues, ornaments in pieces — present the signs,
but too well knoAvn, of that horrible form of civil war called

220 TRAATELS IN INDO-CHINA.
a rehgious one. I do not speak of the massacred popu
lations, because nothing leaves less trace on the earth
than man himself: the most insignificant of his works at
tests its existence by its ruins ; but of himself there remains
nothing. The inhabitants were actively engaged in repairing the
walls of the town, and in digging a large ditch round them.
On the platform were accumulated, at equal distances,
piles of stones to shower on the enemy, and every day the
troops were exercised in firing. The siege-guns were long,
wide tubes of iron, half culverin, half musket. One soldier
attends to the gun-carriage, a second points the gun, and
the third, who stands, match in hand, fires it. AU was,
therefore, in preparation for the approaching assault. The
walls seemed to be strong enough to resist it; they were
thick, constructed of good bricks and freestone ; the gates,
cased in iron, would stand, unless a powerful artillery should
be brought against them. As to the violations of the rules
of the illustrious Vauban, the bad outline of the enceinte, the
want of bastions, the glacis of the scarp and counter-scarp,
it is not my province to speak of them. The governor's
cabinet resembled the tent of a general in the field ; at each
instant couriers arrived and left ; he himself displayed sur
prising activity ; it may be that the assurance his revolver
gave him had decided him on taking the offensive. He had
received, besides, from Burmah, a quantity of European arms,
amongst which was a musket of Russian manufacture, taken
by the English, most likely, at Sebastopol.
Numerous files of horses and mules continually arrived
in the town, bringing cotton, firewood, and, above all, rice,
to warehouse in granaries, in anticipation of a siege. The
richer classes had completely deserted the menaced town,
and there only remained shopkeepers, functionaries, and
soldiers. Shoemakers, grocers, apothecaries, taUors, sellers
of opium, small traders of all kinds, braved the chances of
the war to gain some thousands of sapeques. This was for
tunate for us ; for, whilst we provided ourselves with native
shoes, the men of our escort made us clothes of a quasi-Euro
pean style from cloth made in Burmah. We were anxious,
indeed, to make our nationality known by the cut of our

RAVAGES OF WAR. 221
coats and of our hair. Our Chinese purveyors seemed quite
indifferent to what we wore ; all they cared for was that our
money was good.
Whilst waiting our departure, I visited the shops, which
much interested me, and I spent some hours in observing
the working of the different trades, of which none exist
in Laos, and which are one ofthe signs of civilised life. I
was frequently invited by the shopkeepers, whilst strolling
through the town, to enter and take a cup of tea ; an offer
which, in China, like that of coffee in the Levant, is the com
mencement of all conversation. The mandarins saluted me by
boAving, in the same manner as European ladies ; for a well-
educated Chinese never uncovers his head. We received
numerous visits. Our interpreter succeeded in making him
self understood, by mixing with the language ofthe last Lao
tian province a small number of Chinese words; but the
rumours he had heard had frightened him so much, that he
did not dare to accompany us any farther in our journey.
We had certainly never counted on his courage, which was
easily shaken by the slightest appearance of danger ; or on
his devotion, which was not proof against money, or a wo
man's smile ; but his quick and supple turn had fallen into
new customs as insensibly as into a new language. He
always managed to make himself understood, at least, by
the lower classes, which was an immense advantage, as we
soon discovered after he had left us. In fact, travellers in
China always provide themselves with an interpreter, or, at
any rate, with a vocabulary of all essential words, before
venturing into the provinces ofthe interior. We were, on
the contrary, thrown, without either of these resources, on
the most distant frontiers of the great empire, separated, by
an invincible barrier, from a refined and exacting society,
and incapable of seizing even the Hteral meaning of edu
cated conversation, and, of course, so much the more unable
to find out what men, accustomed to make use of speech in
order to disguise their thought, wished to hideunder meta
phors and amplifications.
M. de Lagree fought against this new difficulty with the
energy of which he had afready given proof, and succeeded
in triumphing over it. With a resolute character, but a tender

222 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
and sympathetic disposition, he had always found the way
to the affections of young people. Whilst acting as governor
of Cochin-China at Cambodgia, he liked to surround himself
with the pupils ofthe Catholic mission; many of them be
came his servants, and never deceived his confiding affec
tion. He did the same in China. From the first day of our
arrival at Seumao, his benevolent manners drew towards
him a young Chinese without family or resources, like so
many others in this desolated province, and he made him
his teacher. By dint of work, patience, and gentleness, the
master and disciple became accustomed to, and finally under
stood, each other. In difficult cases, we had recourse to one
of om- Annamites, who had learnt to write, as they taught it
in his country, before the establishment ofthe French schools
and the substitution ofthe European alphabet for ideographic
writing. He knew a certain number of the Chinese charac
ters most generally in use. If a Chinese and an Annamite
cannot understand each other when they talk, they can at
any rate communicate by writing. For each of them, in fact.
these complicated signs, whose origin was the representation
of real objects, have an identical signification.
On the evening before our departure, a message came
from the governor to the chief of the expedition, begging
him to remain another couple of days. Accustomed to these
delays, M. de Lagree employed the same means he had had
recourse to in Laos, and pretended to be very angry. After
long explanations, we at last understood that this was, on
the part of the mandarin, a very courteous proceeding, and
necessary form of politeness. It was good taste to appear
grieved at om departure, and to try and retain us, at least
for another twenty-four hours. If the desire of keeping us
longer with them, expressed in such an unexpected manner
by the authorities, was only a refinement of urbanity, the
population was animated by a much more sincere sentiment.
During the whole of om- stay at Seumao, the court of our
pagoda had not ceased to be encumbered with the infirm,
the sick, and the wounded, to whom Doctor Joubert HberaUy
distributed remedies, counsel, and care. There, as every
where, sickness was the sad companion of poverty; ulcers
showed themselves oftenest under tattered clothes ; and our

CHINESE CIVILISATION. 223
estabHshment, at some hours, was almost like the porches
of Bethesda. One of the employes of the palace, who had
escaped at the moment of receiving correction for some
peccadillo, had been pursued by the soldiers, caught like
a hare, and literally hacked whilst lying on the ground,
exhausted and defenceless. Covered with deep wounds, he
was left for dead. We took him in, and repeated dressing
of his wounds soon restored him ; a prodigy of European
surgery, at sight of which the joy of the friends of the
wounded man was only equaUed by their gratitude. Our
reputation was at its height before we left, and we had the
satisfaction of leaving behind us regret and mutual good
feeling. Our baggage-porters were poor creatures, who had been
compeUed reluctantly to serve us. The commandant of the
escort was a mandarin of inferior rank, well fed, Avith a broad
straw hat, with brims sloping down, a number of cushions
below him, and his heels in the stirrups ; a veritable Sancho
Panza on horseback ; as to us, we could not afford such a
beast. Before him marched several men, carrying red flags ;
behind were soldiers, some armed with lances, and others
with muskets slung across the shoulder. These last, from
time to time, attended to the smoking-matches of their gun-
locks. It looked as if Ave were very likely to come across
armed bands, and accordingly we kept om- pistols loaded ;
for our Chinese escort did not inspire us with much confid
ence. After leaving the town by the eastern gate, we fol
lowed a road which wound between hillocks covered with
tombs. The sky was cloudless and of the deepest blue ; a
thin and scorched-up herbage covered the slight undulations
of the soil ; a few trees survived against a red wall, or a
white gable, the shining brightness of which attracted the
eye irresistibly. We might have fancied ourselves transported
into the fields of Provence.
Instead of the narrow pathway which, in Laos, served
as a road across the rice-fields, we found here a paved cause
way, which did not even end at the foot of the mountains.
It entered them, still maintaining a width varying, between
one and three metres, and recalled to mind the Roman roads.
From time to time, when the way is too steep, a few steps

224 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
facilitate the ascent. We passed the night in an abandoned
pagoda at the foot of a monstrous idol, very much mutilated,
and its inside torn open. The treasures of the pagodas
being often concealed in the body of the statues, miscreants
do not hesitate to treat them in this impious manner. Clouds
covered the summits ofthe mountains when we again started
on our journey, and the rising sun could barely pierce through
their dark veil. We perceived ruined viUages, and walls
which afforded no shelter ; not a house Avas standing, not an
acre in cultivation. The interruptions in the paving of the
road were frequent, and rendered the march difficult. Among
the blocks of stone which constituted the pavement, some
remain in the place they have occupied for centuries, and
others have sunk into the ground, or rolled into the raArines.
The time for such magnificent works has long since passed ;
the administrative machine, which, in olden times, was so
well wound up, is now quite out of order; the empire is
threatened with a general dissolution ; the government has
no longer either the money or the leisure necessary for the
keeping up of these great works, executed in times of yore
by aU-powerful emperors, whose reign they still honour.
More than twenty-two centuries before the Christian era,
Chun, a simple labourer, associated with himself, by Yao, in
the imperial dignity, had commenced making dykes, to pre
vent the waters of the rivers from overflowing the country ;
and Yu, raised to the throne, as Chun himself had been, in
consideration of his services and of his valour, achieved this
colossal enterprise. In the year 214 before Christ, Chi-
hoang-ti laid the foundations of that famous wall, whose
construction occupied several millions of men for ten years,
and is a lasting monument of the power of the Chinese. It is
to Chi-hoang-ti also that the honour is due for having laid
down these roads, which, after having first traversed the
Chensi and the Chansi, were afterwards added to, and finally
enveloped the whole of China in an immense network. Each
time a province was conquered, it was by simUar benefits they
induced it to attach itself to the empire. To amehorate by
improved laws, and enrich by works of great public interest,
the innumerable people successively grouped round the ori
ginal kernel ofthe hundred families, was the method the Chi-

A MINING TOWN. 225
nese sovereigns pursued ; it was thus that they cemented this
gigantic unity, which required so many centuries to produce.
Yunan itself, so often lost and reconquered, that one might
almost consider it as a simple military colony, has not been
forgotten by the imperial government ; and the works of art
which it has lavished upon it, lend to the Avild grandeur of
the scenery which surrounds them a singular and remarkable
appearance. In the present day the roads are out of repair,
the bridges tumbling down, and a desert is formed around
these accumulated ruins. I could not have imagined such
complete desolation. Strangers though we were, we felt our
selves overcome with sadness, and we followed in silence
the windings of a road, over which death seemed to have
passed. All at once, in a narrow valley, we came across numerous
houses, rising one above the other on the two slopes of the
mountains. A long file of horses and mules, the sound of a
waterfall, black eddies of smoke, with a powerful odour of
coal, and the hum peculiar to manufacturing towns, roused
us from our melancholy. We had, at length, reached a town
sprung out of its own ruins ; the Mussulmans had vainly
tried to destroy it, for the greater glory of the Prophet ;
the energy of the inhabitants had prevailed, life had tri
umphed over death, and industrial activity had fought for
three years against despair and misery. The secret lay
in the fact that the hidden riches of the soil could not be
carried away, neither could the enemy exhaust them. They
might burn the houses, and overthrow the pagodas; but
they could not fill up the salt-pits, or work out the coal,
or destroy the pine-forests. A population of Chinese work
men carry on the works, and make use of the resources
of all kinds which abound in this narrow space. If their
methods are not yet perfect, they are, at any rate, very in
genious. The pits go down obliquely to a depth of eighty
metres in the earth, sustained at equal distances by wooden
frames. A large pump sends the air to the workmen who
are at the bottom of the pits ; and a series of smaller ones,
each of which is worked by a man, pumps up the salt-water
through a bamboo pipe, which empties it into a large re
servoir, from whence they bring it into the caldrons. These,
Q

226 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
to the number of from twenty-five to thnty, are heated by
means of wood and anthracite. The flaming mouth of the
furnaces charm the eyes of the traveller, who arrives sud
denly in this favoured spot, after having traversed barbar
ous or devastated countries. We saw a considerable quan
tity of lumps of salt, obtained in this manner by evaporation,
warehoused, and ready to receive the stamp of the man
darin tax-collector. At the end of this small town, which is
built like an amphitheatre, the pagoda lies in a nook removed
from all noise and exhalation. Built on the side of the
mountain, and shaded by beautiful trees, its brilliant colours,
and a semicircular basin before it, covered with water-
lilies in flower, delighted us. The Chinese pagodas, whose
architecture is well known in Europe, do not in the least
resemble the Bouddhist temples of Laos, which we had so
frequently lived in. Notwithstanding that they cover a
large space, they do not show the ample and sublime forms
which give to some sanctuaries in Indo-China, as also to
those in Hindostan, such an imposing majesty. They want
that grandiose miity — noble characteristic of sacred archi
tecture — which, without excluding the richness of a luxuri
ant ornamentation, reveals the profound sentiment from
whence works, inspired by faith, appear to spring forth into
one great plan. They have neither those upshootings to
wards heaven, which are in Teutonic Europe like an image
of prayer, nor that harmonious development of architectural
lines which bear witness among the Greeks to such a serene
vision of ideal beauty. These pagodas are composed of long
suites of sanctuaries, and small retreats, connected one with
the other by terraces and gaUeries. The general appear
ance is flat, and seems on a level with the soil. One
would say that the temples feared to approach the clouds,
after the fashion ofthe Chinese belief itself; which dreads,
above all things, to lose itself in abstraction. We found
ourselves, however, as did also the men of our escort, very
comfortable in them; and we not seldom regretted the
pagodas, in places where the war has permitted some ho
tels to be kept open.
The second town in China in Avhich we stayed was called
Poheul. In order to arrive there, Ave had to traverse pine-

POHEUL. 227
forests, worked without method or measure by numerous
woodcutters, by whom this richly-wooded country wUl soon
be destroyed. Poheul is not so well situated as Seumao.
Built in a narrow valley, two high mountains enclose and seem
to crush it. On the summit a many-storied pavilion and an
isolated tower produce a strange effect. These towers, of
which the most celebrated is at Nankin, are often in China
placed near the entrance to important towns. They appear
to be connected with a religious sentiment. 'According
to Indian tradition, when Bouddha died, they burnt his
body; after which they divided his bones into eight por
tions, and enclosed them in the same number of urns, which,
in their turn, were to be placed in towers of eight stories ;
and this, it is said, was the origin of these towers, so com
mon in countries where Bouddhism has penetrated.'2 These
mountains are decidedly picturesque : the large black and
white stripes ofthe calcareous rock blend with the green
boughs of a shrub, Avhose roots are buried in the stone. The
town of Poheul has suffered from the war, even more than
Seumao. One street alone is inhabited. They had begun
to dig a ditch, of some metres in width, round the walls;
but this work of defence has been abandoned. Poheul
seemed to be resigned to its fate ; and the Mussulmans,
who have already taken it once, will find it open to them
as soon as they feel themselves strong enough to achieve
the conquest of the province.
This town, which has renounced the perilous position of
a place of war, remains an important administrative centre.
About two hundred years ago it was raised to the rank of
/om,3 and the mandarin, who resides there, is conscious of his
dignity. He had not sent any one to receive us officially ;
and M. de Lagree having expressed some surprise at this cir
cumstance, personages decorated with balls of all shades,
2 The Abbe Hue.
3 The territory of a Chinese province is divided into a certain number
of fou, of theou, and of Men, which have, all, a chief town, fortified. The
comparison that has been often made between these administrative divi
sions and our own (de'partement, arrondissement, canton) is not strictly cor
rect. The functionaries resident in the theou, in general submit, it is true,
to those of a fou, but they are dependent, notwithstanding, sometimes,
directly, on the provincial administration.

228 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
hastened to us, offering to conduct us to the prefect's palace.
The crowd followed us, but were not allowed to enter, as at
Seumao, into the court of the Yamen. The conference was
less noisy and more dignified. The governor was the type
of the Chinese mandarin, as they are represented in all om
caricatures, — short and fat, with half-closed eyes, and some
long hairs on the chin. He desired us to leave, as speedily
as possible, for Yunan-Sen, the capital city of the province,
and not to pass through Lingan; for he could not understand
the motives, which induced us to study the region ofthe
south-east, instead of marching quickly towards the north.
Strangers, who willingly lingered in Yunan, could not faU
to become objects of suspicion, when he would gladly have
paid a high price for the privUege of leaving it. In fact,
the mandarins in this part of the country feel themselves so
unsafe, that they would prefer, in place of the administra
tion of a prefecture in Yunan, a simple canton in Set-
chuen. Having, for the most part, sent away their families,
and placed their wealth in safety, they consider themselves
encamped on a soil exposed to the incursions of the enemy,
and curse the short-sighted ambition, which has placed them
in this dangerous position.
During the whole of our stay, a great number of the
principal inhabitants, dressed in holiday attire, had not
ceased to pray, in a loud voice, on the threshold of their
door, before a pan of burning incense, accompanying them
selves with monotonous beatings on a sonorous bell, and on
a piece of hollow wood, in the shape of a fish, bent into a
circle. They were members ofthe society ofthe Water-lUies,
a sort of freemasonry, whose avowed aim is to disseminate
books of morals, but who pursue, in secret, other designs.
The Pe-Hen-kiao, or white water-HHes, — for there exist sects
who hoist other colours, — expect a great conqueror, who
must ' subjugate the whole universe. They distribute among
themselves the principal offices ofthe state, in the hope that
one of them will, one day, ascend the throne, and that they
wfil then, in reality, possess the dignities which they at pre
sent only enjoy in imagination.'4
4 General History of China. Translated from the Tong-Men-kang-mou
by Father de Mailla, vol. xi.

SECRET SOCIETIES. 229
It was to them that the emperor Yon-tching compared
the Christians, when, in 1723, he resolved to proscribe the
missionaries. Whatever may be the principles on which it
rests, every organised society is certain to have enemies in
its bosom. Despotism unites, against itself, men jealous of
their dignity; under a liberal government, one sees a league
of the envious and incapable formed. China has not only
anticipated Europe in philosophy, science, and art ; she has
also undergone, before us, political revolutions. We were
still in the height of our feudal system, when a daring
innovator tried to effect a social revolution in the Celestial
Empire. One might almost say that the human mind, left
to itself, is condemned to revolve for ever in the same circle.
In the second century of our era, towards the end of the
dynasty of the Han, a great number of mandarins were put
to death, under suspicion of belonging to a secret society.
In the eleventh century, under the Song, Ouang-ngan-che
commenced the application of a scheme which tended to
give the exclusive property of the soil to the state ; which
distributed the seed, settled the sort of cultivation the soil
should receive, according to its various qualities, fixed the
tariffs, and suppressed, by these radical means, the proleta
riat and poverty ; two problems whose solution torments
us still. The empire was profoundly disturbed by these
dangerously utopian theories, which aggravated the evils
they pretended to cure. The actual sect of the Water-lilies
has never made so much noise ; but it deserves to be noticed
as one ofthe numerous manifestations of that persistent spirit
of revolt, always ready to inscribe seductive devices on its
colours. It was thus that the Taepings, whose sole aim was
pillage, stirred up a rebellion, in the name of national inde
pendence ; saying, that they were called upon to overthrow
the dynasty of the Mantchou Tartars, as that of the Mongols
had been overthrown, five hundred years previously, by a
renegade bonze.
M. de Lagree, before advancing towards the east, and
thus going farther away from the Mekong, which flows to
the west of Poheul, desired to see it once more. The man
darin having objected to this, under pretext that it would
be necessary to pass very near a camp of Mussulmans, there

230 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
was nothing to detain us any longer in this town, celebrated
only for the fine tea which is grown in its neighbourhood.
We announced our intention of leaving, and everything was
promptly prepared. The mountains were steep, and the rain
had made the roads very slippery. We stumbled at every
step, climbing up the steep slopes, which were covered with
rime, until we reached a large village, where the working of
the salt-mines is conducted on a considerable scale. The
pits from which they obtain this precious commodity are
very common in China, especially in the north and west, and
furnish a considerable revenue. The mandarin who ruled
in this district loaded us with presents — salt, pork, capons,
and a bag of rice. The reason why this subordinate showed
himself more generous than his chief, the prefect of Poheul,
was, that the military mandarin who commanded our escort
was charged to give him orders to that effect ; and he cer
tainly carried them out: for besides serving himself from the
forced liberality of our hosts, he hoped that his zeal would
call forth a larger remuneration when he left us.
Our horizon was constantly bounded by high and barren
mountains ; raAunes and landslips veined their black masses
with red earth, which looked like the bared muscles of
flayed giants. From the top of a peak, rising 1560 metres
above the level of the sea, we saw at our feet a deep valley,
into which we had to descend by an almost perpendicular
pathway. Between two banks of white sand the troubled
waters of the Papen-Kiang flow to swell those of the Son
koi, and to lose themselves in the gulf of Tonkin. We were
soon to quit the basin of the Mekong.
Among the emotions of such a journey as ours must be
added those one experiences in passing the line which sepa
rates the basins of great rivers. At such a watershed, a
single step seems to take one on as far as if it were a week's
march. Water seems more living than the other powers of
nature, and it is doubtless to this it owes its attractions, so
strong and so mysterious. I liked to say to myself, Avhilst
crossing the smallest tributary ofthe Mekong, that its waters,
mingled with the waves of the great river, Avould reflect
farther down the tricolored flag ; and when, by the direction
of the streams, I knew that they carried the tribute of their

SALT-TRADE. 231
waters to another master, I fancied I saw the last ties severed
which had united me for twenty months to a friend.
Villages had existed a short time previously in this gorge,
send their ruins still remained. We followed, for a long time,
the course of the Papen-Kiang, which we crossed at night
fall. Our Chinese made their horses dash into the stream,
whilst others, on the opposite side, shouted with loud cries,
to show the animals, who were accustomed to this perform
ance, the place where they should land. Beyond this rapid
river, we saw, uneasily, that our road lay partly through
the bed of a winding torrent. In Laos, where bridges
are considered a useless luxury, we were resigned, before
hand, to enter all the marshes that came across our path.
Since our entry into China, such an occurrence was rare, and
made us doubly impatient, as if we were beginning to get
effeminate. Here, again, were vast pine-forests — a gloomy
setting to an occasional house in red brick, still left standing,
which seemed to solicit the paint-brush of some artist. There
was no longer anything tropical in the scenery. The aspect
of the country became more wild and severe ; we were sur
rounded by mountains, the summits of some of them being
lost in the clouds. The paved road was so bad, that, far
from helping us, it only added to the difficulties of our march.
The traffic on this road is very great, on account of the salt,
which the traders come long distances to procure. This
most necessary article of consumption alone maintains com
mercial activity in this region, numerous caravans braving
the perils of the way to bear it off. After a long ascent,
we reached a high plateau, where we found numerous vil
lages, and a cultivated soil. Fields of rice and black wheat
nourish a considerable population, grouped around Taquan,
an important village and a compulsory station on the road
from Poheul to Talan.
Four or five hundred soldiers, who were staying there,
notified their presence by the noises which are habitual to
Chinese armies in the field : crackers, musket-shots, bronze
gongs, copper cornets, and guttural cries, saluted our ar
rival. In times of peace, the journeys of the mandarins are
a heavy burden on the populations ; but when it comes to
the question of supplying the soldiers with provisions and

232 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
transport, it becomes a veritable scourge. These warriors
live by marauding, and commence by pillaging the -villages
they are appointed to defend. The detachment stationed
at Talan was about to rejoin the valiant governor of
Seumao. Our little mandarin, whose hat was adorned by
a fox's tail, which on his head might be taken as an
emblem, appeared delighted that the duty he was called
on to perform as our escort took him farther away from
the theatre of the war. He magnified our importance to
augment his own, and also, as I have said, in the hope that
the good entertainment he procured for us would likewise
benefit himself. Stimulated by him, a blue-balled mandarin,
residing at Talan, overwhelmed us with attentions, in the
shape of courteous visits and quarters of pork. On the
day of our departure this functionary headed us, without our
knowing beforehand, and had a salute fired in our honour.
Such honours puffed us up, and we blushed for our poverty,
ashamed at being unable to acknowledge this noble beha
viour better than by the offer of a small trumpet or a pewter
teaspoon. The farther we advanced towards the east, the ravages
caused by the war became less visible. Ruins were not so
frequent, and cultivation disputed the soil with the woods of
pine. Villages again appeared on all the heights, but did
not look so bright in colour as those of the Chinese vUlages
properly so called. They are peopled by mountaineers, who
recall, by their costume and the general cast of their features,
the natives of the northern frontier of Laos. The popu
lation of Yunan is composed of elements so numerous, so
different, and so changeable, that it defies all analysis. It
would be necessary, in order to give any account of them,
to remain a long while in this, perhaps the most interesting,
province of the whole empire, and to make the manners
and language of the different savage tribes a special object
of study. Yunan is one of the last provinces which has been
added to the Chinese empire. In the third century before
Christ, an epoch which may be termed recent, since the great
empire had already had two thousand years of historic ex
istence, this country, divided between several independent

CHINESE HISTORY. 233
sovereigns, who were, in reality, only the chiefs of tribes,
was included under the general and vague denomination of
country of the western barbarians, and lay beyond the fron
tiers of China, which, under the Tsin, did not, on the north
western side, go beyond the river Leao-Ho. The first em
perors ofthe Han dynasty diminished still more the extent
of their territory ; and on that portion of the dominion they
abandoned was founded the kingdom of Tchao-Sien, where
the Chinese, in difficult times, found a sure asylum. Han-
ou-ti, sixth emperor of the Han dynasty, put an end to this
state of affairs, by taking possession of the country of Tchao-
Sien, which he divided into four provinces, dependent on
China. At the same time, he reduced the two kings of Lao-
Chin and of Mimo, whose territories were situated partly in
Set-chuen, and partly in Yunan itself, and conquered the
principality of Tien, which corresponds to the toAvn of Yunan-
Sen and its dependencies. All the Chinese provinces have
passed, in different degrees, through this process of slow ag
glomeration, of which it suffices to have given an example.
Under, the influence of internal revolts, or political neces
sity, before settling into the limits which they occupy in
the present day, they have undergone many alterations,
which are scrupulously noted in long annals, to which I
can only refer the reader. But what characterises several
provinces of the empire, and, above all, those on the western
frontiers, is the existence of certain races, which have shown
a singular vitality ; remaining distinct, in spite of conquest
and annexation ; their language, costume, and even, some
times, the right of governing themselves by their own laws,
having escaped, at least in some measure, the deadly grasp
of a powerful centralisation. Yunan, from this point of
view, merits particular attention. Stretching up to the
masses of the Himalaya, it shares the wild character of that
savage region, which banishes aU effeminacy, and at the
same time protects its population by its mountain ramparts.
One must distinguish, amongst the numerous tribes, those
who, still calling themselves by the name of Tou-kia (ab
origines), have doubtless originally possessed the soil, from
those descending from voluntary emigrants, who entered
the country at a later period, and consisted of convicts, or

234 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
of soldiers who had finally renounced their original homes.
Of the first occupants of this vast territory, which to-day
bears the name of Yunan, the most numerous are the Lolos
and the Pai-y. The Lolos are divided into black Lolos,
white Lolos, red Lolos, and Lolos of the rice-fields. It is
on the colour of their clothes, and not on that of their skin,
that the three first distinctions are founded. The fourth is
easily understood. The emperors gained over these people,
by according to their chiefs the rank of Chinese mandarins,
and by giving them possession of their land. The Lolos
of to-day still submit to a sort of feudal organisation. They
have a chief of their race, whom they call Toussen ; but it
is difficult to know what they gain by him, for he stands
only in the place of a viceroy of the proAunce, and exercises
over his subjects a despotic power. Timid, lazy, and in
temperate, they shun the stranger, leave to then women
the care of cultivating their fields, and seek happiness in
intoxication. The Pai-y, separated from the Chinese, like
the Lolos, by their language, and even, it would seem,
by the characters of their writing, resemble the populations
of the south-west, and seem to be near akin to the Laotian
race. The Chinese government has equally respected their
customs. In the first rank ofthe tribes, descending from emigrants
come from other parts of the empne, must be placed the
Pentijins. This race has lost, through contact with the Lolos,
the intellectual superiority which a more advanced civili
sation had originally given it over these natives. The
Minkias, who are scattered chiefly in the western part of
Yunan, say they came from the province of Nankin. They
trace their origin to soldiers, who remained in the places
where war had called them, and there founded a colony,
comparatively civilised and even learned, which had its own
language, and was rich in literary monuments ; but the em
peror of China, not being able any longer to tolerate such a
sign of independence, gave an order to burn all the books
belonging to the Minkias. Despots, not less severe on a
book than on a conspiracy, have always proscribed thought.
It was thus that the stern warrior, who, two hundred and
fifty years before our era, inaugurated the dynasty of the

NATIVE RACES. 235
Tsin, incensed by the resistance he encountered from the
learned classes, and their criticisms of his acts, in order to
stop their mouths, had all books of history and morality burnt,
and prohibited also the different sorts of Chinese characters
then in use in the empire, allowing only one form to remain,
that called li-chou, which is in use at the present time;5 in
the same way as the Tartars of Europe are now striving to
proscribe the Polish language, by forcing the children of the
vanquished to speak Russian in their schools. Nevertheless,
in justice, it must be said, that Tsin-chi-hoang-ti, who may
be called the principal founder of the Chinese empire, was not
actuated exclusively by anger, or by pride, in this rigorous
aot of destruction, but was influenced rather by motives
of policy ; wishing, at one stroke, to efface history, always
so powerful over the imagination, and to destroy the titles
on which the vanquished feudal princes Avould have been
able to found their rights, and perpetuate their pretensions.
The Lolos, the Pai-y, the Penti, and the Minkias are not
the only tribes who live amidst the Chinese of Yunan, with
out intermingling with them, like the Khas amidst the Lao
tians ; but I will go no farther in this enumeration. It is
said, though I have had no means of proving it, that, from
an intellectual point of view, the gradation is still broadly
marked between the different inhabitants of this country.
The missionaries do not hesitate to place the "savages in the
lowest rank; after them the Metis, half-castes of Chinese and
natives ; and finally the Chinese, who have at different periods
flocked into Yunan from the neighbouring provinces, and
more particularly from Set-Chuen. The multiphcity of the
races has caused, as may be easily imagined, a great variety
of costumes, and it was only in the streets of the towns that
we ever found a crowd really Chinese as regards costume
and manners.
At the crossing of a large river we met a caravan com
posed of more than a hundred beasts, who all courageously
swam over. The water looked spiked with long ears, and
the echoes repeated the loud protestations of the asses and
mules. Scarcely had our porters finished the stage for which
they had been requisitioned, than, without leaving us time
6 Father Gaubil.

236 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
to pay them, they started off on then return home at a run ;
for since we left the territory of Burmah, at Sien-Hong, our
baggage had been carried by government porters, to whom,
according to custom, no remuneration is due for their trouble.
The mandarin sent from Talan to meet us arrived, preceded
by banners of all colours. His soldiers never tired of beating
on two gongs with different tones, which produced the effect
of two bells striking a funeral knell. This music was in
tended to enliven us, and thus render the ascent of a very
steep mountain, which separated us from the valley of Talan,
less laborious. Every person of any importance had ahorse,
or even a palanquin ; whUst our poverty obliged us to walk
always on foot, in spite of our uncomfortable shoes, and to
the great detriment of om dignity. Notwithstanding the in
equalities ofthe ground, the country in the neighbourhood
of Talan is highly cultivated. The rice-fields, arranged in
the form of an amphitheatre, cover the mountains in semi
circular terraces. They sometimes overlook a spacious val
ley, and recall the theatres of antiquity, where the gaze of
the spectator takes in a vast sweep. The houses, with then-
gray colours and closely packed appearance, would give Talan
the aspect of a European town, were it not for a vast pagoda,
whose roofs, rising one above the other, prevent the imagina
tion from wandering far from China. Our escort made the loud
est noise they were able, and the entire population, warned of
our arrival, rushed out to meet us. They would have invaded
even the court of the pagoda into which we had been con
ducted, if two of our men, placed as sentinels, had not stopped
the inquisitive crowd at the entrance to the second court,
whilst we established ourselves in the most distant part ofthe
edifice. On the altars here were no longer to be seen either
pot-beUied gods or grinning monsters ; only tablets covered
with Chinese writing, and enveloped with a Hght veU of per
fumed smoke. It was the hall of the ancestors. Not a sound
from the outer world could penetrate this sanctuary, which
was as bare as a mosque or a Lutheran church. The spnits
of the dead, hovering over our heads, filled us with respect
for the great man who placed veneration for forefathers
as the basis of his creed. Unable to raise himself, by the
clear conception of the existence of the personal and im-

FALL OF THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 237
mortal soul, to the consoling dogma ofthe communion of
the living and the dead, he contended against the nothing
ness to which every one after death was condemned, by doing
honour to their memory. The ceremonies performed by the
Chinese before the tablets of their ancestors, were, as is
known, one of the two points which gave rise to the sad con
troversies from whence began the ruin of the Catholic mis
sions, which had been so flourishing in the Celestial Empire
during the seventeenth and part ofthe eighteenth centuries.
The Dominicans, who, at that time, were the most in
tolerant defenders of a strict orthodoxy, accused the Jesuits
of authorising amongst the Christians practices which were
not only of a political or civil nature, but which, having,
above all, the character of religious observances, were tainted
with idolatry. Presently, though it would have been quite
possible to have arrived at an understanding, which, with
out sacrificing any principles,6 would have protected inter
ests of the greatest importance, personal rivalry envenomed
the dispute. Without speaking ofthe conduct of Cardinal de
Tournon, whose proceedings 'recalled the despotic temper
of a Turkish pasha, rather than the paternal spirit of an
apostolic legate ;'7 without reverting to the deplorable indis
cretion ofthe bishop of Pekin, who rekindled the quarrels
which had seemed to be dying out, I will say, whilst shel
tering my incompetence behind a writer8 not much suspected
of favouring that which the Holy See has condemned, that,
in this affair, the Roman Catholic Church lost one of the
brightest ornaments of her crown. ' The Jesuits did for the
Chinese nation what St. Paul did for the Athenians, and
what the Fathers of the Church did for all the Gentiles ;'
whilst the Dominicans sacrificed the spirit for the letter,
and gave a blow to the groAving Christianity of these vast
countries from which it has never recovered.
When one travels in a country which has served as the
theatre of historical events, imagination replaces the great
6 The mandate of Cardinal Charles-Ambroise de Mezza-Barba proves
this : whilst exhorting the missionaries to follow the Bull of Clement XI.,
it sums up and unites in eight articles the mitigations contained in it.
7 Rohrbacher, Histoire Universelle de VEglise Catholique, tome xxxi.
8 Ibid.

238 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
men who have Hved there, and, mingling the emotion of
such recoUections Avith the charm of nature, makes the en
joyment of the traveller more complete and more vivid.
This satisfaction had been wanting to us in Laos, a country
which has no history ; and it would have been the same in
China, of whose annals I knew nothing, had I not been able
to carry back my thoughts towards the time when a pleiad
of heroic men merited by their labours the gratitude of the
Church and the Hterary world. On perceiving in the pagoda
of Talan these ancestral tablets, I could not help regarding
them with a feehng of bitterness, as the rock on which so
many hopes had been wrecked.
The curiosity of the Chinese soon interrupted these recol
lections ofthe past; for they contrived, notwithstanding our
sentinels, to creep into the court through holes in the walls,
in order to peep at us. It is true that, in our quahty of manda
rins, we had a right to use the stick, without giving offence
to the populace, and thanks to this, our walks through the
town were made possible. The paltry earthen fortifications
round Talan had not prevented it from falling, like Seumao
and Poheul, into the hands of the Mussulmans ; but it had
been less badly treated by them, owing to the fact of its not
having the same commercial importance. The houses all join
together on each side of the streets ; the shops are opened
at an early hour in the morning, and there is a crowded
market. There, amongst the numerous specimens of the
savage races, certain women greatly attracted our attention.
Dressed in a picturesque costume, which showed to advant
age their vigorous and elegant figures; then marked fea
tures, and almost Grecian noses, formed an agreeable contrast
to the pale sickly Chinese women, dressed in a sort of sack,
and hobbling along on two crushed and distorted feet. The
inhabitants of Talan had, however, suffered greatly by the
frightful crisis which is taking place in this part ofthe em
pire. All the necessaries of life had reached very high prices,
and potatoes, which are not much appreciated in China, were
almost the only vegetables accessible to the poor. Our fin
ances would not have stood a prolonged residence in this
desolated region, if we had been obliged to buy everything
at the price demanded ; happily, thanks to the excellent re-

MINERAL WEALTH. 239
lations we maintained with the authorities, the presents we
received amply sufficed to support us.
The season was temperate, and the month of November
presented itself with the colours it shows in our own cli
mates. The gray sky was a little rainy, the sun could not
pierce the clouds, and the thermometer at mid-day did not
exceed thirteen degrees centigrade. This would have been
very agreeable, if we had had the means of warding off the
wet; but' sleeping on the floor of pagodas open to all the
winds, without mattresses, and sheltered only by a slight
covering, we suffered as only the poor do in France. Talan
is, nevertheless, situated very near the tropics ; but the ele
vation of the valley above the level of the sea caused this
comparatively severe temperature.
The immense mineral riches enclosed in the mountains
of Yunan have been long since discovered. For a long dist
ance round Talan there are numerons beds, and at Sio, a place
situated on the direct road to Yunan-Sen, iron is in great
abundance. At sixteen kilometres from the town, gold is to
be found; but the mines, abandoned to private industry, are
worked by miserable wretches, who shiver on the mountain,
where they have established their encampment, digging at
random, and extracting the gold from the rock, by grinding
it, and washing the dust produced by this operation. This
labour seems to bring very small profits, but it is impossible
to say what European intelligence might be able to draw
from this mine. For a long time back, the laws of the em
pire have interdicted the searching for mines of precious
metals, or opening them, in the fear that the attraction of a
rapid fortune would divert the people from agricultural la
bours. The wish to preserve their subjects from the evUs
of the gold fever does honour to the philosophical emperors
who have shown it ; nevertheless, now that China is on the
eve of entering into commercial union with the world, it
is to be regretted that the greatest portion of its metallic
riches is still unknown, or remains useless.
The mandarins of Talan, treating us as their colleagues
had done ever since our arrival in China, would not allow us
to leave without an escort. We passed along the outskirts
of the town; the women, astonished, suspended their toi-

240 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
lette, in order to look at us ; and the boys shouted after us,
without daring to come near. We had not passed the last
house in the town, when we were already on the mountain.
On the side of the road, a human head, fixed in a wooden
cage, was a warning to vice, and an encouragement to virtue.
The mountain, in which lay the gold-mines, appeared in the
distance, haughty as a parvenue proud of her riches, and
naked as though she disdained vain ornaments. A stream
which flows from it yields morsels of gold, which are col
lected by the inhabitants of a vUlage where we took a short
rest. Notwithstanding that we were accustomed to keep a
watch over our baggage-porters dm-ing the halts, one of them
had managed, by hiding behind a mat, to Hght his pipe of
opium. When his load was again fastened on his shoulders,
he reeled like a drunken man, and refused to go on. He was
indifferent to menaces; a thrashing only made him moan;
nothing could rouse him from his stupefaction. I do not
believe there has ever existed a more terrible scourge than
opium. The alcohol employed by Europeans to destroy
savages, the pestilence which ravages a country, cannot be
compared to it. It exercises an invincible attraction on all ;
the poorest beggar will smoke before dreaming of eating;
and what makes it still more frightful is, that the habit once
indulged in, one becomes fatally the prey of the poison. A
great number of Chinese came to ask us for remedies against
the temptation, to which they invariably succumb, even while
cursing it. The only remedy would be the energy capable of
enduring the sufferings of a smoker deprived of his pipe ;
but it is moral vigour, still more, perhaps, than physical
strength, that opium commences by attacking.
It was now only as we approached villages that we again
came to paved road ; so that we knew by its reappearance
that the place for a halt was not far off; and, in general, we
pined for it, for our stages were long, and our march very
laborious in this hilly country. Slopes, broken by rice-fields,
made bends and capricious zigzags, almost like the walks of
a huge garden. Sometimes a whole mountain was under
culture from base to summit, and the water, poming from
terrace to terrace, looked like a gigantic cascade. A fine

CHINESE BRIDGES.. 241
and penetrating rain, which almost froze the marrow of our
bones, feU from the low gray clouds. The cold is a cruel
enemy in a country, where the inhabitants do nothing to
combat it ; it gives fever quite as quickly as the sun. Wood
was very difficult to obtain; and when we had succeeded
in getting from the natives the means of a meagre and
smoky fire, we stretched ourselves around it; then spoke
of France, of the winter evenings, and of all that makes the
heart beat, and the blood flow more quickly in the veins.
Amongst the works of public interest Avith which the
emperors have covered China, the bridges are not the least
remarkable. On arriving near one of these solid stone roads,
boldly thrown across the torrent, we were able to realise
the difficulties which the perseverance of the Chinese have
sometimes had to overcome in their construction. Slabs of
white marble, standing near it, told its history. Accord
ing to the inscriptions, it took nine years to make it, the
waters carrying away in winter the work which had been
accomplished in summer. On the opposite bank a moun
tain covered with woods, convenient for ambuscades, stood
out almost perpendicularly. Gray ruins scattered amongst
the rocks gave a sinister appearance to this savage scenery.
Our soldiers dressed their ranks, and we ourselves renewed
the priming of om- arms, for bandits infested the environs,
and frequently attacked the caravans. A few days before
our arrival, two hundred horses or mules had become then-
prey, after their drivers had . been vanquished in a bloody
fight. The native warriors who told us this story, made
bold by our presence, had such a valiant appearance, that
we felt quite at our ease. We clambered for two hours up
so steep an ascent, that a handful of resolute men concealed
on the heights, would have been able to stop a whole army ;
but no enemy appeared.
The road, hollowed out of the sides of the mountains,
was suspended above narrow gorges ; and we passed along
through fogs, finding even in the vegetation the harsh
look of the northern regions ; but Yunan is, in this respect,
a country of the most surprising contrasts. From the
summit of a narrow mountain ridge, the view of an im
mense plain, traversed by a great river, filled us with
R

242 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
admiration. The sun, tearing open the curtain of mist, in
undated Avith light one of the most beautiful landscapes that
it was possible to conceive. Two ranges of mountains, lofty
and arid, with the warm tints peculiar to the East, bounded
the horizon before us; ravines, cut out sharply by the
streams, marking then giant sides with deep Avrinkles where
the rock stood out bare, Hke the bony frame of a Colossus;
close at hand the Sonkoi poured along its yeUow waters
between banks of white sand, and the town of Yuen-Kiang,
on the edge of the river, lay surrounded Avith half-cut rice-
fields, areca woods, and fields of sugar-cane, which gave to
the plain an incredible richness of shade, admirably blended,
and bathed, as it were, in floo*ds of Hght. We took a long
time to reach the paved road, which conducted us to the
gates of the town. There, aU the mandarins awaited us in
robes of ceremony. Banners of aU colours floated in the
wind. The noise of crackers and the firing of muskets
mingled with the sound of bronze gongs, and the lugu
brious notes of a long copper trumpet, very like that which
will be used, according to Michael Angelo, by the angels,
when they summon the dead to judgment at the last day. We
had never before received so solemn a reception; it was, there
fore, necessary to hold our heads very erect, and cast lordly
looks at the populace, to inspire them with sentiments of re
spect, for our outward guise was pitiable enough. The tem
perature had risen, and it seemed as though we had descended
into a privileged region, separated from the rest of the world.
A strange effect of om- long wanderings in the mountains,
was what I might caU the intoxication of the sun and the
plain. We found everything we could wish for in this oasis,
even to straw on which to sleep. Not content with having
come out to welcome us, the mandarins insisted on paying
us the first visits. They arrived, preceded, according to
custom, by soldiers carrying red papers, on which were
inscribed the names and quaUty of their masters, and fol
lowed by servants bringing a hog, a ram, and capons, and
loaded besides Avith packages of oranges and tea. When we
went to return the governor's visit, he received us most cor
dially. He showed us his son, an mfant in arms, and told us
it was his only child. We knew that he had several besides ;

YUEN-KIANG. 243
but they were only girls, and they do not count in the
Celestial Empire. He possessed quantities of European
articles, which took away from the value of the modest pre
sents we were disposed to give him. Watches, clocks, pistols,
stereoscopes, aU seemed to be of English providing ; for the
photographs represented scantily-attired courtesans, with the
fair skin and red hair which revealed their origin. There is
no prudery in commerce, even in prudish England.
The circumference ofthe town is great; but there are
many empty spaces, filled with briers, or cultivated with
vegetables. The market is considerable, and the shops
numerous. Nevertheless, we soon discovered at Yuen-Kiang,
notwithstanding certain appearances of prosperity, the signs
of mourning and of poverty. Epidemics are permanently
there, and a sort of cholera decimates the inhabitants. I con
tinually saw coffins carried along the streets by four men ;
perfumed rods, alight, placed round the lid, exhaling a slight
smoke as they passed. The country is also infested Avith ban
dits, against whom there is no guarantee for public security.
The mandarins limit themselves to particular measures, ac
cording to the case, and on their own personal responsibility.
As for the police, they never act seriously, unless the victim
of the robbery or assassination have some social standing.
The wealthy are always escorted by soldiers Avhen they
travel, or arm themselves and their servants; but the poor
become the prey of the brigands. A poor Lolo from the
mountains, who had come to sell us his potatoes, was seized
on his way back to his vUlage, and despoUed ofthe sapeques
he was so joyfully carrying home; and we saw him brought
back to us, his chest perforated by the stroke of a lance, to
obtain surgical aid, which the gravity of his wound rendered
useless. The governor of Yuen-Kiang, showing himself full of
kindness and expansive confidence, we endeavoured to take
advantage of his frankness, which is very rare with the
Chinese; but his ideas were confused, and his information
imperfect. We profited by it, nevertheless, to go and ex
amine a copper-mine, five days' march from Yunan-Sen, at a
considerable village called Sin-long-chan, which is surrounded
by walls, and constructed on a sort of circular mountain

244 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
ridge, between larger mountains which overlook it. It is from
these mountains they extract the copper. They are pierced
with deep cavities, where the miner has followed the metaUic
veins, but the search appears to have been discontinued
in the immediate neighbourhood of the vUlage, where
the streets are stUl paved with dross, the only works now
being at the distance of nine mUes from Sin-long-chan ; where
they were able to show us an estabHshment of small import
ance, made by poor people, incapable of conceiving or carry
ing out anything extensive. We saw several lumps of
mineral, which awaited very insufficient treatment, accord
ing to our ideas, near a simple blast-furnace. The ore
appears to be very rich, and to be spread over a considerable
area. The red earth which covers it was dotted by the
moving shadows of thinly-sown pines.
We knew that copper figured in the first rank ofthe
mineral wealth of Yunan, the most richly- endowed pro
vince of the empire in this respect. Before the present
troubles, it annually forwarded, to the treasury of Pekin,
ingots of crude copper, to the value of a mUlion of francs.
But however abundant the mines of Sin-long-chan, under
other conditions, may become, they cannot be compared
to the argentiferous lead-mines of Sin-Kai-tseu. Situated
eighteen mUes from Coqui, and near Tchao-Tong, at the
north-western extremity of the province, these mines, which
are above the level of the neighbouring river, employed, in
peaceful times, 1200 workmen, simply to draw off the water.
Money being very abundant in these parts, there was much
gambling carried on, to take part in which travellers were
stopped on their journey, only to find themselves, first, thor
oughly pillaged, and, then, forced to work in the mines, as
the price of then liberation, at the rate of forty sapeques
a day. Provisions being sold to them at high prices, they,
in this way, remained slaves for a long time. Though it
does not appertain to me to give an account of the minera
logy of Yunan — that task being reserved for Dr. Joubert
— I cannot leave the subject without noticing the mines
of zinc, tin, and sUver which exist in the plateau of Tong-
Tchouan, and also those of red and white copper (jpe-tong),
worked near Hoeli-Tcheou. The country is almost entnely

CHINESE MONEY. 245
stripped of trees; but coal, which is everywhere wasted, is
often found near the mines, whose value it increases tenfold.
Since I am describing on the spot the part of the empire
richest in mineral wealth, I find myself naturally led to ex
plain, briefly, the monetary system ofthe Chinese. Civilised,
and forming a firmly-organised society 900 years after the
Deluge, these people were already in possession of a symbol
generally adopted, which represented the value of things,
and facUitated exchanges. It is to Hoang-ti, one of the six
successors of Fo-hi,9 first sovereign ofthe empire, that the
honour is due of having invented money. He had it made
of iron, a metal we have seen render the same service in
some parts of Laos. Since then, money has changed very
often as to its form and substance : shells have been em
ployed, and also baked earth, and paper ; but in the present
day, and for a long time past, it is on the copper sapeque
that the whole system rests. Whilst silver, exclusively con
sidered as merchandise, remains in bars whose value is un
certain, copper money is coined by the state, and marked
with its stamp. The copper-mines are the only ones of which
the monopoly belongs to the emperor ; who, by his exclusive
right of coining, and of working the raw material, can, by
this double privilege, raise or lower the value ofthe sapeques
like that of the metal of which they are made, by melting-
down a quantity, or, on the other hand, by setting the mines
in more active work. ' There was a time,' says Pere Duhalde,
' when the deficiency of copper was so great, that the em
peror destroyed nearly 1400 temples of Fo, and melted all
the copper idols, in order to make money.' Formerly private
individuals were strictly forbidden to keep vases or other cop
per utensUs, and they were compelled to deliver them up at
the place where the money was manufactured. The govern
ment abused its right of coming to such a degree, at the time
when the Europeans exported rolls of sapeques, that, when
the civil war broke out in Yunan, and exhausted the princi-
9 From the time of Fo-hi to that of the Emperor Yao, the Chinese
chronology is wanting in exactitude. It was only from the reign of Yao,
2857 years before Christ, that veritable annals commenced, which from
that time bear the impress of authenticity and historic accuracy. See Pere
Duhalde.

246 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
pal resources for obtaining copper, the working of the mines
no longer sufficed for the demand. Alloy was then obHged
to be used, for which zinc was largely employed. These
small coins are circular in shape, and have a hole through
the centre, which permits of their being strung together : a
thousand are needed to make a roU. The dimensions vary
in the different provinces, and are not always identical in
neighbouring districts. Our first care, on reaching a halting-
place, was to acquaint ourselves with the rate at which we
should have to seU our sUver, on the exchange. To change
money is a much more complicated operation in China than
in Europe ; for eight francs cannot be changed without one's
being burdened with at least one kilogramme in weight of
copper coins. Mexican dollars were usually received with
favour ; and we exchanged gold in bars, and leaves, which
we had procured in Bangkok, against sUver ingots weigh
ing one Chinese ounce, and worth about eight francs.
These ingots are known by Europeans under the name of
tael. Representing, in a small bulk, a rather large value,
they advantageously replace, in all important transactions,
the copper sapeque, whose chief merit is to permit what
the Abb6 Hue so truly calls the commerce of the infinitely
small. SUver, whatever be the service it renders in the
market, is nothing more or less than an article of merchan
dise, and every one cuts it according to his requirements;
and, in consequence, every Chinese carries about Avith him a
case containing weights and scales. In busy shops, they
cut every day, Avith the aid of a hammer, a great quantity of
silver ; and the particles which escape, confounded with the
dust ofthe shop, are swept into the street, and gleaned by
the beggars.
However insufficient the geographical notions ofthe man
darin of Yuen-Kiang might be, M. de Lagree did not hesitate
to interrogate him. His experience had taught him not to
disdain any source of information. How many times, in the
course of our journey, had not some obscure piece of informa
tion been suddenly cleared up by the light of subsequent
observation ! Our expedition, besides, was not Avithout some
very valuable scientific documents, bearing the names of
illustrious and devoted Frenchmen. It was, as every one

CHINESE GEOGRAPHY. 247
knows, owing to the admiration caused by their works, that
the Jesuits, admitted to the court of Pekin, acquired the
favour of the Emperor Kanghi. They drew up, province by
province, the whole map of the empire, so carefully that the
positions ofthe principal towns were very accurately assigned.
I may add, on the statement of the missionaries of that
time, that, previous to their arrival in China, the Chinese
had made great efforts to master the topographical configu
ration of their country.
Father Amiot affirms that ' the chapter Yu-koung of the
Chou-King, which is perhaps the most ancient record of geo
graphy in the world, excepting the Pentateuch, contains a
geographical description of China in the times of Yao and
Chun,' — that is, more than 2000 years before our era. The
learned missionary also adds, that the geography composed
under Ming's dynasty served as basis to the Atlas Sinensis —
the Chinese Atlas — of Martini, which ' is only a translation
and abridgment of it.' I have myself seen a curious speci
men of Chinese maps belonging to the governor of Yuen-
Kiang. The author, anxious before anything else for the
symmetry of his maps, had everywhere streAvn them with
uniform mountains, not very unlike sugar -loaves painted
green. Whether he wished to trace a rivulet, or indicate the
bed of a river, he gave an equal width to every stream of
water, taking care to make them communicate Avith each
other. The relative positions ofthe towns were pretty exact,
which is explained by the Chinese having known the use
of the compass long before ourselves. Their measure of
distance, which they caU Li, corresponds to a tenth of our
terrestrial league. Our friend the mandarin rephed to our
questions by keeping his eye on this map, which was famiHar
to him, but which had the inconvenience of producing very
absurd ideas in his head as to the mountain system, and the
hydrography of Yunan. He confirmed our opinion, however,
that the river, which bathes the waUs of the town, empties
itself into the sea, after having traversed Tonkin. Lying
between the basin ofthe Yang-Tse-Kiang and that of the
Mekong, it has its source in one of those southern ramifica
tions of the Himalaya, which give birth at the same time to
the Meinam and the Canton river. It flows from the north-

248 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
west to the south-east, stUl bearing the name of Hoti-Kiang
at Yuen-Kiang, and only receives that of Sonkoi, at some
little distance from the Tonkin frontier. From Yuen-Kiang
to the level of the sea the barometer marks a difference of
only 400 metres, which, for such a distance, would lead one
to suppose that the Sonkoi flowed very smoothly. We
remarked the existence of several rapids, however, and the
information we received confirmed that of a cataract, impass
able for loaded barques. This obstacle occurs on the Yunan
territory ; but from the first Annamite market, which is not
more than three days' journey from Manko, the last Chinese
one, merchandise can reach Kitcho, the capital of Tonkin, in
sixteen days by the river, without having to undergo any
disembarcation. Before the war broke out, there was a good deal of com
merce, especially in metals, between Yunan and Tonkin. A
great part of the zinc, which served to manufacture the
sapeques of the Annam empire, was brought by caravans to
the first Tonkin market, where the Chinese received sUver in
exchange. This necessary and frequent intercourse had not,
however, entnely effaced the remembrance of the bitter
struggles which, in former times, distracted these two neigh
bouring countries. In the ninth century of our era, the
barbarous tribes of southern Yunan rose, at the same time as
those of Tonkin, against the authority of the Chinese em
perors. The Annamite historians, who record this fact, affirm
that even at that period a portion of Yunan belonged to
Tonkin, and was only detached from it when the emperor
of China had accepted the chief of the revolted tribes for
son-in-law. Annamites are stUl forbidden to enter Yunan.
The existence of a great number of half-subdued savages on
the frontiers of that province, explains this measure in some
degree ; but, as may already have been suspected, the danger
for China Hes no longer in that direction. At a time when
all Yunan threatens to escape from its laws, it is not against
Tu-Duc's encroachments that it behoves the court of Pekin
to arm. If my information does not mislead me, it is the
sovereign of the Annamite empire, who feels uneasy at the
stream of Chinese emigrants, who, forced to leave their
-country by its troubles, have passed through the valley of

OUR TRUE POLICY. 249
Sonkoi, to establish themselves in the north of Tonkin. The
strong position occupied by France in the southern extremity
of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, compels us not to remain in
different to the serious events, which, for different reasons,
have awakened the fears of two Asiatic sovereigns ; and our
natural role at Pekin, as at Hue, consists in levelling, in the
interests of all commercial Europe, the old barriers which
.separate the populations.
It has, perhaps, not been forgotten, that the project of
uniting the western provinces of China to our Annamite esta
blishment, was one of the motives which determined Admiral
de La Grandiere, in 1866, to propose to M. de Chasseloup-
Laubat, then Minister of Marine, to have the Mekong ex
plored. It will also have been observed, from the first pages
of this narrative, that beyond the frontiers ofthe protected
kingdom of Cambodgia, the river ceased to be practicable
for steam navigation. The illusions, which remained, after
the sad confirmation of this fact, had been dissipated little
by little, and the interest of our journey came to be, in the
end, concentrated on purely geographical questions. The
fortunate accident, which obliged us to abandon the Mekong
valley, threw open a larger field for our energies ; till then
too much confined to special studies, and it was with joy
that we found om-selves able, in giving a new direction to
our researches, to confirm a view which the men, who pre
sided over the destinies of our young colonies, had long
been led by then sagacity to entertain. The so long-looked-
for communication, by which the plethora ofthe riches of
Western China would one day flow into a French port, is
to be expected by way ofthe Sonkoi, not by the Mekong.
It was an undisputed truth, which would certainly cause the
complete exploration ofthe Tonkin river.
For the time being it is necessary to reestablish the com
mercial relations which formerly existed between the two
countries, both of whom are now suffering from the cessa
tion of traffic. It would be much wiser to make those
numerous Chinese, who, in compact masses, have left their
struggling country, assist in the restoration and develop
ment of these useful relations, than to behave suspiciously
and haughtily towards them. It is, however, these hostile

250 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
feelings, founded on inveterate hatred rather than on serious
apprehension, that led Tu-Duc to drive back the victims of
Chinese anarchy. It is no longer the time when the Celestial
Empne, at the height of its power, compelled the neighbour
ing states to move in its orbit. It is undergoing too general
and formidable a crisis for its interference in Annamite affairs
to be dreaded. This is what is necessary to be understood,
in order to cast down the artificial barriers raised, for pofiti-.
cal or other motives, between Yunan and Tonkin; but it will
be difficult to make our aUy comprehend it, tiU our influence
can combat the men of letters — those intractable enemies of
European ideas — who mould his policy. A protectorate, ex
ercised directly as at Cambodgia, with power for immediate
action, or, at least, complete commercial liberty, obtained in
the ports of Tonkin, and guaranteed by the installation at
Hu£ of an official representative of the governor of Cochin-
China, — are the only means I see for escaping from the
difficulties into which timidity without excuse, and scruples
that are much too tender, would drive us.
When one observes attentively the persevering efforts
made by England to attract to her Indian or Burman mar
kets the commerce of Western China, one feels astonished
at our indifference as to availing ourselves of an exceptional
situation, and of circumstances which wUl not always be so
opportune. To be the first arrivals, and to secure commercial
connections, is an advantage more to be prized in the East
even than in Europe, and this the present war would seem
to offer us to an unhoped-for extent. This war, in fact, im
pedes the former channels by which the products of Yunan
flowed into the valley ofthe Irawady, and opposes fresh obsta
cles to the opening of that route between India and China,
sought for by the English with more perseverance than suc
cess. When one considers that it is a question of turning
towards French possessions the products of a vast region,
which comprises, without speaking of Northern Laos, four
of the richest provinces in China, and of opening, in return,
markets to our national industry, whose customers could be
counted by millions, it must certainly be owned that such
a result is worth our taking as much trouble about as our
rivals take to obtain it. Is it a time, when, by good fortune,

OUR TRUE POLICY. 251
it depends on ourselves to precede them, that we should
stop before the touchiness of a despot, who cannot conceive
of free-trade without occupation of territory, and drives off
our merchants as though they were the forerunners of our
soldiers 1 When a war of conquest is decided on, it is clear
that one accepts beforehand the consequences of success ;
and the opening of Tonkin is a necessary sequel to our
establishment in the six provinces of Cochin-China. This
part ofthe Annamite empire appears to be one ofthe richest
countries in the world. A double harvest is annually reaped
in its plains, which are cultivated by a laborious race ; its
mountains, which would be for Europeans living in Saigon
what certain ranges of the Himalayas are for the EngHsh
residing in India — a place of repose and refuge from tropical
heat — abound in metallic veins ; and, finally, the missionary
influence, so weak in Cambodgia, utterly wanting in Laos,
and barely felt in China, shows itself there by an ever-
increasing number of conversions to Christianity. The best-
founded calculations reckon the number of Christians in the
two apostolic vicariates of Tonkin at four or five hundred
thousand. If experience teaches us not to trust too com
pletely to the devotion of converts to European interests, it
would be unwise to despise such a valuable aid.
To explore the Sonkoi, of which we had only obtained
glimpses ; to encourage the native coasting trade, already
very active, between the mouth of that river and Saigon ;
to exercise legitimate pressure on the rebelfious wUl ofthe
emperor Tu-Duc ; to obtain a treaty from this prince, which
would provide for our political and commercial interests ; to
seize, in fine, the opportunity of giving a downright contra
diction to those who accuse us of incompetency in colonial
matters, — is what should be undertaken with that confidence
which insures success. Such were the plans I liked to think
over, when, in the plain of Yuen-Kiang, I followed in thought
the now unused course of the beautiful river which lay at
my feet ; and such is also the hope which I shall not be for
bidden to express when, having returned to my country, I
find France so strong, and the time so propitious.10
10 Written in January 1870.

CHAPTER VII.
LANDSCAPES AND CHINESE SKETCHES IN YUNAN.
In 1812, dm-ing the forced marches of the disastrous Russian
retreat, our exhausted and worn-out soldiers often dropped
down, to rise no more. Repose, for them, meant death. A
danger of another description menaces travellers in distant
lands; long halts are fatal to them; they are Hke death
to the soul. When one has to labour daily, in order to sup
ply the bare necessities of life, physical activity, over-excited
by an incessant struggle, increases Avith the obstacles it en
counters ; and the mind, completely at the service ofthe body,
appears to have no wants and no requirements of its own.
But it soon avenges itself for this transitory subordination ;
and when material wants are supplied, intellectual privations
become more painful. We felt this each time that a length
ened stay in a Chinese town brought us in contact with a
civUisation which appeared complete, and yet stUl left our
most imperious desires and most ardent aspirations un
satisfied. Since the last sacrifices imposed, by the difficulty of
transport, we were without a single book which might, in
hours of lassitude, rouse up our thoughts, by making us for
get ourselves. I wUl not attempt to describe this most
cruel of our sufferings ; any one who has undergone similar
miseries — sailors wrecked on a desert island, or political pri
soners immured in cells — will understand it at once. The
last news we had received of France dated back more than
a year. How many poignant uncertainties had we not ex
perienced during this long period ! how many events, happy
or otherwise, might have befallen our famUy or country !
Our country ! We had always been confident of seeing
our efforts in these far lands contribute to her reviving great-

WE LEAVE YUEN-KIANG. 253
ness in the East ; but it was especially on the shores of the
great river, by which French influence could so easily pene
trate into Western China, that the future appeared before us
in its radiant splendour. Like those navigators who plant
the national standard on a newly-discovered land, M. de La
gree had the French colours hoisted on the barques which
bore us along the current ofthe Sonkoi; whilst the salvos of
musketry, with which the authorities of the town of Yuen-
Kiang saluted om- departure, drowned the loud hum ofthe
assembled multitude. The sound gradually ceased ; but stUl,
for a long time, we saw the banners floating in the wind, the
red umbrellas moving to and fro above the heads of the man
darins, and the lances and bayonets gleaming in the sun along
the waUs, whose battlements appeared in bold relief against
the deep blue of the sky. The Sonkoi, becoming hemmed in
between precipitous mountains, the plain and the toAvn were
soon lost in the distance, and the bright visions of a second
Indian empire also disappeared as in the misty haze of a
dream. Our barques having been stopped by a rapid, we were
obliged to land and resume our alpenstocks, to enable us to
climb the difficult slopes, which, after a month's march, were
to bring us to the high plateau on which is built Yunan-Sen,
the chief town of the province of Yunan. Half way up the
hill, in a hollow dug on the side of a barren mountain, the
village of Poupyau first appears to view, like a verdant oasis
in the midst of a desert. It is shaded by numerous arecas
and gnarled tamarinds, the age of which would seem to
carry far back the date of its foundation. The houses are
made of earth hardened by the sun : they are one story
high; and on their terraces the women turn their spin
ning-wheels, walk about, or look to their household duties.
Oxen, asses, and pigs move about at liberty in the streets.
Poupyau, which reminded me of the smaU towns in Central
Egypt, enjoys the luxury of a surrounding wall. Sentinels
keep watch every night at the gates. The inhabitants of
this little fortified town belong to the Lolos race, represented
on the banks of the Sonkoi by numerous tribes, over which
the Chinese government exercises an authority which sensi
bly diminishes as one reaches Tonkin. When the action of

254 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
imperial power over even the Chinese is notoriously weak
ened in Yunan, it is easy to understand that the yoke is
still less heavy for people of a wUd nature and different
origin, who five amongst mountains difficult of access, and
where surveiUance is an impossibiHty. Whatever be the
future fate in store for these natives, it is impossible to
deny the advantages which they, probably unwittingly,
have derived from Chinese domination ; numbers have fol
lowed their masters' example, and from wandering hunts
men have become clever agriculturists. At Poupyau, for
example, they obtain their food from the soil. They have
turned the course of a torrent, some four kUometres from
the viUage, and have brought it through the mountains
into Poupyau itself, by an aqueduct constructed Avith the
first materials at hand, for they do not trouble themselves
much about elegance ; though chance has so willed it, that
these materials are a splendid marble, whose worn blocks,
polished either by the water or the feet of the passers-
by, show the most lovely colours. The feathery plumes
of the arecas, and the strong branches of the gnarled old
trees, shade the cascade, where women come to draw water
in attitudes and costumes which recall old biblical memories.
They wear silver ornaments round then necks and arms, and
are clothed in a simple dress drawn in at the waist; a wide
plait over the forehead fastens the cap which conceals their
luxuriant hair: their beautiful proportions, their noble and
stately bearing, aU combining to distinguish them from the
grotesque Chinese women, who look like maimed dolls, de
void of strength, freshness, and grace.
At this village we had some difficulty in finding a suffi
cient number of porters for our baggage ; and it was with
surprise, soon followed by anger, that we saw the mandarins,
who were to conduct and supply us with these necessaries,
actually leading away a small caravan of government porters,
levied at their orders, and laden with merchandise gratuit
ously supplied by the vUlage. Others were carrying their
palanquins, or saddles, the honest functionaries wishing to
spare their horses as much fatigue as possible. It would
have been waste of trouble to speak to them of humanity ;
we could only insist on their fulfilling their duty towards

MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 255
us, and supplying us with what was needful, before think
ing of their own personal interests. Our rascally mandarins
took notice, however, of our remarks; and to prove to us how
zealous they were, they seized, at the evening halting-place,
on the unfortunate chief of a Lolo village, guUty of having
manifested no great desire to help us, put him into a pillory,
and beat him unmercifuUy. We lodged with two good old
women, easUy made friendly by the offer of a few pipes of
tobacco ; and we passed the evening round the fire, whilst
our hostesses, seated near us, their feet over the cinders of a
brazier, smoked, and turned then spinning-wheels. A young
female savage wandered to and fro, playing tricks on her
grandmother, and after watching us a Httle, at length ven
tured on touching our long beards. Woman, more timid
than man, is by her nature less suspicious ; her sharper and
surer instinct sooner discovers uprightness of intention, even
under the most ferocious exterior. Towards midnight the
chief, having been released from his pUlory, and rendered
tractable by the beating, woke us up to offer us a fowl.
The next day our way lay through a valley, at first
gloomy and wild. A torrent, which flowed at our feet over
a bed of marble, dashed against variegated blocks formed of
those hard concreted pebbles, called conglomerate by geo
logists. These natural mosaics, which would have adorned
the palaces of Europe, have lain there for centuries, useless,
waiting for an eye to admire them. On both sides, in the
mountains, the calcareous rock had bared itself of the thin
coating of soU to show its splendid colours. Little by Httle
this gorge widened, and became populated and highly culti
vated. Numerous viUages lay sheltered under the great
trees. The gray houses are buUt of dried earth, and the
flat roofs support straw pyramids. They could easUy be
taken for the thatched towers of some strong chateau. The
Ulusion is rendered still easier, because around the buildings
are battlemented walls, of about the same height as the
roofs. Everybody retires into his house, to defend himself
against the highway robbers ; but there is no barrier or wall
strong enough to defend the peaceful inhabitant from official
pilferers. All fled at the approach of om- mandarins and
soldiers. We suffered from these fears, of which we were

256 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
the involuntary cause, and would hardly consent to halt in
the hamlets. The following day we entered the town of
Sheu-Pin, whose beauties, at first hidden by the promon
tories, which at the same time conceal the plain, suddenly
reveal themselves to the enchanted gaze. Through an open
ing between two hills, the dazzled eye loses itself on a vast
sheet of water, blue as the sky it reflects, and as calm as the
air, undisturbed by the faintest breeze. It is a portion of
the lake of Sheu-Pin. The town itself soon appears, like a
floating city, joined to the land by broad causeways, and
narrower paths through the rice-fields. Pedestrians, horses,
palanquins, and boats move at the same time ; small islands,
covered with houses, are dotted over the azure lake : near
us are buffaloes, up to their flanks in the water, harnessed to
a species of harrow, on which an almost naked man is stand
ing, like the genius ofthe sea, drawn by some slimy monster.
At this novel spectacle, my sight became dimmed ; I hesi
tated, and became for an instant incapable of distinguish
ing the limits between the two elements, earth and water
appearing united, and confounded with each other.
The proper place for seeing, in their combined harmony,
the town, plain, and lake, is a hillock surmounted by a large
tower, which I ascended towards the evening, in order to
escape the keen curiosity of a troublesome crowd. On my
right, the sheet of water stretched out as far as the jagged
mountains which formed its boundary; the waning day threw
pale purple tints over all ; on the banks the white gables of
the numerous houses, which girdle the lake with villages,
stood out against the shadow of the mountains ; in the lake,
fishing-boats, and tufts of water-plants stretching up to the
light, sowed the surface with specks, at first scarcely seen,
but gradually thickening as the town was farther off. Small
reefs, inhabited, rose near at hand; then larger islets, crowned
with pagodas, whose fantastic style, hidden a little by great
trees, did not too much disfigure this wondrous landscape.
The town itself, generally without character or relief, but
then transfigured by the rays ofthe setting sun, appeared
to me like a conqueror over the lake, which surrounds it and
comes to die at its feet. The Chinese have had the very
Chinese idea of building at the extremity of each jetty a sort

A BOLD STROKE. 257
of entrance door, to mark where land begins and the other
element ends; not quite a superfluous precaution, and one
which, in reminding him of the city on the lagoons, makes
the traveUer regret that the generations which constructed
Venice did not send emigrants into the plain of Sheu-Pin.
The governor endeavoured to persuade us, by his coun
sels, to leave without delay for Yunan-Sen ; but we wanted
to visit Lin-ngan, and our persistence seemed to reduce him
to despair. At length he informed us that, as the Mussulmans
were hemming in this town, it would be very imprudent for
us to venture ; and, in addition, the military mandarin, who
resided there, forbade us in formal and concise terms to
enter the place. This mandarin had such a reputation for
energy and ferocity, that nobody at Sheu-Pin could enter
tain the idea of six Europeans imagining the audacious pro
ject of going contrary to his orders, and braving him in
his own town. In Yunan, those men who are stUl faithful
to the empire, serve it in their OAvn way ; Lean-Tagen,1
governor of Lin-ngan, excited by the struggle which he
alone maintains in this part ofthe province, and exasper
ated by the treacheries which weaken him, no longer obeys
the commands from Pekin. Such were the observations
of the authorities when we showed them our passports.
M. de Lagree cutting short all these discussions, which the
Chinese have the art of rendering interminable, announced
his intention of leaving, and remitted to the governor of
Sheu-Pin, more concerned for himself than for us, a declara
tion, which, if needed, would guard the responsibility of
this timid functionary with his chief. On this condition
the latter consented to authorise our embarkation on the
lake; whose waters, flowing into the vaUey of Lin-ngan, bore
us within a short distance of that town. The news of our
intended arrival had preceded us ; for a mandarin awaited
it. Gravely and silently he signed to us to follow him,
and led us into a large building, situated outside the walls.
The doors were closed, but they were immediately besieged
and hammered at by the populace. This insatiable desire
1 Tagen, that is to say, great man. It is an epithet, and sort of hono
rary title, added to the names of personages occupying high civil or mili
tary posts. S

258 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
to see us being thwarted, provoked great indignation ; and
brutal curiosity was soon transformed into furious hostiHty.
Stones flew over the waUs, and menacing shouts pursued
us in our retreat. Just thenM. Garnier rejoined us. HaAring
left the expedition at Poupyau to explore the Sonkoi, some
few miles below the obstacles which had stopped us, he had
reached Lin-ngan two days before ourselves. He had a deep
wound on his forehead ; and owed to his revolver the fact of
not being stoned by people, whose violence was unbounded.
This excitable populace did not Avish for our fives ; they
only desired one thing, but they desired that imperiously :
it was to approach, feel, and examine us at their leisure.
The most audacious cfimbed the walls, and gave us from
a distance, by gestures, orders to walk, sit doAvn, eat, and
even to sleep. They wanted to see how Europeans ac
complished all the functions of life. Besides becoming very
dangerous, if, Hke chUdren who break a watch to study its
mechanism, they took the fancy to inspect a European as
criticaUy, it may be readily conceived that this situation
was intolerable. We were obHged, however, before resorting
to force, to try every possible means of appeasing them. We
informed the mayor of the town that we perceived we were
mistaken, on entering China, to have counted upon our pass
ports, rather than our arms; and, the emperor's word not
being a sufficient guarantee against the violence of the in
habitants of Lin-ngan, we intended defending ourselves.
Whereupon a placard was posted on our door, which caused
the mob to hesitate for a moment, soon to return to the
charge Avith renewed fury. Of aU the mandarins at Lin-
ngan, there is only one, the governor of Fou, who can stUl
exact obedience and respect from the people ; but, being
annoyed at a journey, made Avithout his previous authorisa
tion, he refrained from taking any protective measures in
our behalf. He bore us a grudge, and rejoiced in his revenge.
Having, at last, been obHged to act by an energetic message
from M. de Lagree, he presented himself early one morning
before us. He was truly colossal. He seemed humUiated at
having yielded, and kept his obfique eyes fixed on the ground,
which gave a most curious and constrained expression to
his buU-Hke face. We have since been informed that this

LIN-NGAN. 259
man is possessed of herculean strength : he can knock doAvn
an ox with a blow from his fist, cannot find any horse strong
enough to bear him, and intermingles amusement Avith the
rough work of war. He has theatricals, and assists at dances
before going into battle. He abhors Mussulmans, both those
who have remained faithful to the emperor and the insur
gents. Report accuses him of having supplied himself with
the red ball which he wears on his hat; but one thing is
certain, and that is, that he refuses allegiance to the viceroy
of the province. The latter having several times commanded
him to report himself at Yunan- Se^J he replied, as one of our
great feudal barons might have done : ' If you insist, I avUI
go there, but with my soldiers.' His name is feared for twenty
leagues round ; and later on we were considered prodigies,
when we said we had passed through Lin-ngan. This terri
ble general dryly authorised us to spend a few days in his
town, and had a notice, sealed with his seal, placed on the
doors of our establishment. The disturbance diminished at
once, but even then, a large stone, passing between M.
de Lagree and myself, feU on the table at which we were
writing. Two of our men rushed out and pursued the of
fender, whom they caught, and tied by his tail, regardless of
his cries and excuses, to one of the columns ; after which Ave
delivered him up to the justice of the country. After being
imprisoned in a pillory, he had his head cut off the next day,
without our knowledge : for we should not have wished such
a severe punishment. He was, in reahty, punished for hav
ing infringed the commands of a chief, who maintains rigor
ous discipline over all those beneath him, whilst at the same
time he frees himself from the bonds of his superiors. From
that time, our abode ceased to be a prison, and it became
possible for us to visit the town.
Lin-ngan, whose name is as well known in Laos as
that of Yunan-Sen, is surrounded by a double waU. It is
larger than Sheu-Pin, but not so bright or cheerful. The
houses are low, badly buUt, and dirtily kept. A single prin
cipal street leads from one gate to the other; it is broad
and straight ; with this exception, the inhabitants are crowded
together in alleys. The pagodas are very numerous, occupy
a good deal of ground, and yet more are being constructed.

260 TRAATELS IN INDO-CHINA.
The Chinese architects have devoted their energies to the
decoration of some of these but it is more especially on
the vast garden, which comprises several hectares in the
centre ofthe town, that they haA^e combined to lavish curious
ornaments and costly futUities, such as columns supporting
nothing, series of porticoes leading nowhere, and bridges
beneath which no water flows. The garden itself is super
fluous in this fortified town, and its doors are always closed.
In all Chinese works there is something wrong and un
finished ; one would say, that wishing to push to its utmost
limits the theory of art for art's sake, they build at great
expense an arched bridge on a flat surface, solely for the
pleasure of erecting it, as in former times they raised on the
northern frontiers of their empire that stupendous waU — a
monument, at once colossal and useless, which marvellously
characterises the genius of this singular race.
As far as the eye can reach, outside the town, tombs are
clustered together, enclosing more than a hundred times the
number of the whole living population. There is great uni
formity amongst this funereal architecture. Small porticoes
of bluish marble, or simple slabs, generally rectangular, let
into the wall which supports the rising ground: are the
usual shapes of the tombs. Their dimensions vary according
to the importance and wealth of the deceased. Sometimes
a spacious enclosure, filled with statues, and decorated
with columns, to which a monumental door gives access,
separates the body of a mandarin from ordinary corpses ;
but marble tablets, covered with inscriptions, are most in
use. At Lin-ngan, these pretentious mausoleums are lost
in the immensity of the cemetery as a whole ; the columns
dotting it over alone attract the eye. No trees, no flowers,
no verdure ; nothing but tombs, whose marble sparkles in the
sun. This field of dead has no other enclosure than the
yellow cliffs and bare mountains. One might fancy oneself
transported into some necropolis of the Libyan desert. A
road crosses this cemetery, so different from those one sees
in France, leading to a lignite mine — a precious resource for
this woodless country, where the cold is intense. Small straw-
covered roofs protect the pits, at which four men work the
whole day, letting down the empty baskets into the shaft,

ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 261
and raising those the miners have filled. These pits and
the horizontal galleries under ground are strengthened by
wooden frames ; but they would not let us go doAvn.
Reassured by the visit the governor had at last favoured
us with, the other mandarins hastened to do the same, loaded
with presents. To hear them, one would have thought the
conduct of the mob at Lin-ngan had deeply grieved them,
and they sighed at not having been able to proportion the
punishment to the offence. This avowal of weakness we
did not disbelieve, when we beheld the crowd follow after
us, and invade the courts of the yamens, fill the audience-
chambers, or hold fast by the windows, and for a better Anew
tear the panes.2 The resigned and abashed functionaries had
to wait for some burst of laughter or noisy conversation to
cease before they could speak themselves. We were not
deceived as to the meaning of this astonishing tolerance,
which was better accounted for by fear than by philanthropy.
The mere caprice of a mandarin is enough to beat or behead
a man ; and yet they dare not meddle with a crowd. Things
would, doubtless, have been different in the governor's pa
lace ; but he had received us so badly, that M. de Lagree left
the town without taking leave of him.
The direct route from Lin-ngan to Yunan-Sen being cut
off by the rebels, we were obliged to return to Sheu-Pin,
where we again received a cordial and hearty welcome.
When we left it the next day, the principal mandarin wished
to accompany us to the end of the plain, and quitted his
chair to wish us good-bye.
The mountains soon assumed their usual uniform and
severe aspect; the red earth appearing in places between the
thinly-scattered cypresses and pines. Some steep decHvities
were deeply seamed by torrents. We passed along one hiU
so eaten away through this that the narrow path ran along
the very edge of an abyss. For a long time back our daUy
marches might be described in a few words : first, to ascend,
then to follow a straight road opened in the mountain-sides;
and, finally, to descend some gorge or valley, to find a rest
ing-place in the villages. The inhabitants of these hamlets,
surprised of an evening by our sudden arrival, began to fly,
2 Glass being very expensive in China, paper is often used in its place.

262 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
like the savages of Laos ; owing, it appeared, to our great
resemblance, with our long hair and wUd appearance, to the
Mussulman rebels.
' The brigands I'3 was the very flattering exclamation
which saluted om- arrival ; whereupon the women hid them
selves, and the men fled. The escort imposed on us by the
mandarins was increased at every halting-place. In fact, the
soldiers wovdd not consent to go any farther, except in force.
They kept up then courage while we were with them, but
they trembled at the thought of the retm-n. Some villages
take the most minute precautions for their safety. Some
have fortified and palisaded themselves; and have erected
towers about a hundred metres from their waUs, where ad
vanced sentries pass the night on duty. These soldiers only
have communication with the ground by means of rope-lad
ders, which they let down or draw up as they please. Shouts
and pistol-shots redoubled during our marches ; and I was
constantly followed, for my part, by an odious man with a
gong, who would not desist from deafening me with his
wretched instrument. I got more quickly over the steep
parts by the help of this diabolical music; being less tempted
to pause for breath, and fleeing from my torture as the bull
flees from the goad. Presently the green trees gave place to
red marl, dug out and cut away in a thousand forms by the
streams ; now rising in pointed pyramids held on by their
base; or now, in columns detached from the mass, rising
isolated between two cypresses like the pillars of a ruined
temple. We reached without farther incident the town of
Tong-Hay, which is situated, Hke Sheu-Pin, not far from
a lake, and is a mUitary place of some note. It is the re
sidence of a general, round whom swarmed the quilted uni
forms of battered make-believe soldiers, insolent and brutal,
who live by pUlage, and are hated by the population.
A detachment of these soldiers was appointed to guard
us, who amused themselves by pricking, with their lances
and knives, the faces ofthe inquisitive people who peeped
through the doors, purposely left on the jar. Enraged at
this treatment, the inhabitants, amongst whom were a large
3 Kouitsen, an injurious appellation, applied by the Chinese to the re
volted MnTm.TimiRi1ii.TiH of Yunan in particular, and to bandits in general.

TONG-HAY. 263
number of Mohammedans stUl faithful to the emperor, rushed
towards our dweUing, and just as we were going to dine, we
learnt that an assault was preparing outside. Lances, six
metres long, reaching to the top ofthe roof, were distributed
amongst the soldiery, who took up a position in the yard of
our lodging, whUst others Ht their matches, and filled the
pans of their guns with powder. A few slight wounds fright
ened the assaflants, and night put a stop to this revolt ofthe
inquisitive inhabitants : we insisted, besides, on the doors
being left open. Here, as at Lin-ngan, they seemed espe
cially anxious to see us eat. The European instruments,
which took the place of the Chinese chopsticks, were the
objects of thorough examination ; and I overheard one saga
cious man explain to his neighbour, that the large soup-ladle
was doubtless that of the chief of the expedition.
The town is surrounded by a rectangular brick wall weU
built. A large principal street, Avith shops on both sides,
passes through its centre. The plain around is well culti
vated, and numerous vUlages, pressing towards the lake,
seem to dispute the cultivated land with the temporary pools
of the receding waters. We could not stir out Avithout drag
ging after us some thousands of men. The civU mandarin is
a small, timid personage, who appeared terrified at occupying
a post in this much-disturbed country. He abdicated in
favour of the mifitary mandarin, a sturdy fellow, decorated
with a coral baU, and with a sUvery moustache, who, on the
contrary, appeared very confident: he laughed and spoke
noisUy, and drove away the crowd from the doors. On the
16th December the cold increased, and the next day we saw,
not without some emotion, the snow fall heavUy enough to
cover the roofs, trees, and mountains. We were none the
less obliged to leave Tong-Hay. The earth was hidden
beneath a shroud, and in the morning one could not see
twenty paces, for a thick fog. When the sun rose, the sad
aspect of nature changed to a beautiful one : the bright
colours of the pagodas and red earthen houses stood out
wonderfully beneath the snow which covered their roofs;
several trees, surprised in full leaf by this icy shower, seemed
to regret their lost summer; others, more prudent, feeling
winter approaching, had covered themselves Avith red leaves

264 TRAVELS IN INDO-CETNA.
which, mingling with the snow, produced one of those mar
vellous contrasts, which force a cry of admnation from even
the least enthusiastic. The flowers on the shrubs, with a
drop of frozen water in then cups, held down their heads, as
though dying; but the elegant palm-trees, bending under
the snow, appeared especially as if they were the true in
habitants and characteristic Ulustrations of this intermediary
zone, where extremes meet, and winter begins to strive suc
cessfully with the eternal summer ofthe intertropical regions.
This almost forgotten spectacle produced an extraordinary
sensation in us ; and was no less novel to our Annamites,
who, notwithstanding the suffering which the cold caused
them, seemed struck with amazement, like blind men, who,
opening their eyes at thnty for the first time, suddenly be
hold the curtain lifted on some grand scene of nature.
There could be few scenes more magnificent than those
we gazed upon during that march. The white summits of
the mountains were dimly visible beneath the sky, Hke pale
floating clouds, of different and curious shapes. The vUlages,
half-buried in snow, recalled those ofthe Alps; the mono
tonous rice-fields had also disappeared beneath a slight coat
ing of ice, and our eyes wandered over a transfigured and
dazzling country. We paid for these pleasures when we
halted : badly-buUt pagodas, paved with cold slabs of stone,
were our constant hotels ; the wood, difficult to get, was
damp, and one had to choose between the pure but icy air
outside, and the smoky atmosphere of the interior, warmed
Avith great trouble by a fire, lit in the centre of our impro
vised dormitory. At the same time it became necessary to
observe, in reference to the population, in which the Moham
medan element became more frequent, certain rules of mode
ration and prudence, often omitted till now by our Chinese
soldiers. They themselves, however, well knew when to
submit: for, though insolent towards peaceable folks, and
thieves when voluntary presents were the rule, they be
came humble and quiet when they thought the inhabitants
of a town were secretly disposed towards the rebels.
Tchieng-Tchouan-Hien, a third-rate city, is also situated
on a lake, whose waters spread themselves, from a river used
for irrigation, into this immense reservoir surrounded by un-

TSIN-LIN-SO. 265
cultivated mountains. This lake is different from those I have
formerly mentioned, in its larger dimensions, and the wUd
nature of the surrounding scenery. On the stones standing
out of the water, and in the grottoes formed by the black
rocks which surround it, were several coffins, placed there
to be out of the reach of the wild animals, which feed on the
bodies. I went close to this lake whilst visiting the town of
Tchin-Kiang-Fou, buUt not far from its banks; the sky was
gray, the water colourless, and on the snowy breast of the
mountains great banks of clouds floated slowly in warmer
air. The lugubrious and dismal aspect of the scenery was
enough to make one shudder ; nature seemed to have clothed
itself in funereal garments in preparation for the retm-n of
war and pestUence, for those two ministers of death give no
respite to Yunan. Farther on, the town of Tsin-Lin-So has
fallen a victim to this double scourge. The unburied coffins
lay in close rows upon the ground, and we halted amidst the
dead, waiting for the mandarins who were to precede us.
We saluted them, after which a Chinese, fat, short, squat,
and chubby as a village minstrel, went in advance, blowing
on a sort of hautboy. Our cortege resembled a viUage wed
ding passing through a cemetery ; at every step heavy biers,
borne by four men, crossed our path. At the gate of the
town, the sharp sound of our fife was lost amidst the noise
of gongs and firing of guns, with which we were deafened,
by way of honom-. The whole garrison was under arms, and
the joyous colours ofthe pennants floating at the ends ofthe
lances made a heart-rending contrast to the sad spectacle
afforded by the heap of ruins which was formerly the town
of Tsin-Lin-So. We were lodged as well as possible in the
first story of one of the few houses left standing, but even
it still bore traces of fire.
From the ramparts one could perceive the whole extent
of the work of destruction. Hardly a stone rests on a stone
in this unfortunate town : the ragged inhabitants have made
caverns for themselves under the remains of their dwellings;
and wander about amongst the ruins, appearing as far from
the resignation which ennobles grief, as from the despair
from which strength to combat it sometimes springs. ,
Outside the walls, the land for the most part remains un-

266 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
cultivated, and the dead, left exposed in the fields on whose
produce they once existed, await their burial.
Cypresses grow of then own accord, and are almost the
only trees around. Accustomed to see them shading tombs
in Europe, we were reminded of our cemeteries, when the
brilliancy and splendour of the landscape diverted our minds
from these gloomy thoughts. There is, besides, no com
parison between the few square yards reserved in our coun
try, by the municipal authorities, for the dead, and these
fields of rest, Avithout other boundary than the horizon,
where the Chinese lay their corpses ; instinctively choosing
a fine situation, as though the contemplation of nature, dis
dained during life, was to be the eternal occupation of the
dead. This liberty concerning burial proceeds from the only
elevated sentiment which exists amongst the Chinese : re
spect for the memory of those who are no more. The living
often suffer from this custom, which is a lasting and serious
evU for the public health.
We were approaching Yunan-Sen. From the summit of
a mountain we had already seen the lake which forms the
riches and beauty of this town. If the weather had per
mitted us to climb the highest peak of these mountains, we
should doubtless have seen the five lakes which marked the
different stages of om- journey across this magnificent region.
After having left the basin of the Sonkoi, and skirted that of
the Canton river, we finaUy entered the vaUey of the Yang-
tse-kiang, called by the Chinese ' the Eldest Son ofthe Ocean.'
It was with indescribable emotion that I contemplated the
humble stream, slightly swollen by the snow, flowing tran
quilly towards the north, sending its waters into Shanghai,
as though to precede us. It was barely a metre wide, and
could not have borne a canoe ; I saw it already in imagina
tion, however, rivalling the largest rivers in the world, seven
leagues from one bank to the other at its mouth, and covered
Avith European steamers. Marvellous power of imagination,
which combats, by the hope of future joys, the effect of pre
sent sufferings, and, whilst pointing out the goal to the tra
veUer, gives him strength to reach it !
Our porters, not knowing that we were in the habit of
paying for services, made forced relays at every village, and

YUNAN-SEN. 267
compelled the peasants to supply them Avith substitutes. We
still came upon barely-closed coffins, laid along the wayside,
waiting till happier times and less sickness allowed Chinese
piety to throw a little earth over them — or place them, ac
cording to custom, in a small brick cave. We spent one night
in the toAvn of Tchang-Khong, from whence we could see the
great lake, still ablaze Avith the setting sun, when the plain
was already in darkness; it was the time when demons,
riding on the moonbeams, descend to visit the dying, and
flutter around the dead. In the very pagoda we inhabited,
a crowd of men in white — a sign of deep mourning — were
keeping a funeral wake. The sound of cymbals, gongs, and
piercing shrieks, to drive away evil spirits, prevented us from
sleeping ; and morning having at last arrived, we set out with
pleasure towards the great city, where we hoped to find more
comfortable quarters. The plain lay stretched out before us
in all its magnificence, and its vast proportions appeared the
more astonishing to us, because we were 1600 metres above
the level of the sea: but the bare mountains, which sur
round it, are too low for such an expanse. The eye, always
more bewildered, than charmed, by what raises the thought
of boundless space, looked round, regretting the absence of
anything on which to rest, and seeking — vain hope ! — to dis
cover afar some high monument, the top of a dome, the spire
of a minaret, or at any rate a town-waU with its battlements
and bastions. We passed through large vUlages; a broad
paved road, edged with fine cypresses, leading us into the
highly-cultivated plain, where the numerous population buzzed
around us, and a mixture of soldiers, and petty tradesmen,
revealed the vicinity of the capital. Situated in the lower
portion of the plain, Yunan-Sen cannot be seen untU one is
within two hundred feet of its waUs, and you are in its sub
urbs whUst you are still looking out for them. It is the mis
fortune of Chinese toAvns, that they cannot be distinguished
one from the other, except by the space they occupy. The
houses are buUt each on the same plan, devoid of elegance or
grandeur. Passing their lives in loading their memories Avith
sonorous, empty formulas, or in labouring, selling, or buy
ing, the Chinese only understand and practise trifles ; essen
tially material, selfish, and calculating, they have no sort of

268 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
enthusiasm. For them, the sky is without a God, art with
out an ideal, and towns without monuments. I was indulg
ing in these reflections as I advanced along the principal
street of Yunan-Sen, now walking, now being carried by the
crowd, in the midst of which our Httle party seemed lost.
With the exception of missionaries, they had never before
seen Europeans, and the former, long obliged to hide them
selves, have continued to wear the Chinese costume. Our
beards, om- long disordered hair, our strange garb, and espe
cially our arms, excited the liveliest curiosity; and it was
with a cortege formed of a large multitude, that we reached
the palace of the baccalaureat examinations, where we were
to reside. This palace is a large building, occupying an immense
piece of ground, at the extremity of the town, and consists
of two principal sides, flanked with long rectangular budd
ings, in which it would have been possible to quarter a regi
ment. We were obliged to devote some time to a regular
topographical study, to ascertain our whereabouts, in the
midst of a labyrinth of courts, halls, and dilapidated corri
dors ; and 'could only discover, from the broken benches and
overturned tables, the places where, formerly, candidates la
boured at those literary compositions, which serve as a basis
for the political organisation ofthe empire. Diplomas are
still competitive, but the posts are generally got by intrigue.
Never, in any country, has the sale of offices, and the venality
of functionaries, been carried so far. In Yunan, in particular,
pacific strife, the courteous passage of arms, from which ora
tors, poets, and morafists came out administrators and public
functionaries, have all been abandoned. It is no longer with
arguments that they fight. Since our arrival in this unfor
tunate province, as has been seen, we have foUowed the foot
steps of the rebellion, and verified its deadly consequences,
even in the departments stUl by name faithful to the em
peror; but one had to come to Yunan-Sen, to be able to
appreciate the whole extent of the evU.
In traversing the town, we remarked, amongst the crowd,
numbers of Mussulmans who resist, or make befieve to resist,
the ambitious projects of their co-religionists. From under
their large turbans, their fiery black eyes did not quaU before

THE REBELS. 269
menaces; their straight, prominent nose attested their ori
gin, the strong imprint of which stUl survives, though they
have been intermixed for several centuries with a different
race. Their whole bearing breathes audacity, and their
haughtiness impresses a stranger all the more, because they
stand out in such strong contrast with the abject people
who surround them, like fiery Arab steeds, who have strayed
amongst a herd of beasts of burden. The mandarin Ku,
who had come to bid us an official welcome, made use of his
most winning and supplicating tones, to keep off the increas
ing crowd, at our request. This functionary, we were aware,
bore the reputation of being cruel ; so it was not Avithout
some amusement that we heard him, standing with his hands
folded, dressed in a furred sUk dress, address a robust but
ragged fellow, who was determined not to leave the place.
He implored him, caUing him his grandfather, and great
grandfather, not to be so obstinate. We were obHged, at last,
to place sentinels, and oppose, by force, all these ancestors of
master Ku, insensible to the prayers of their grandson. These
extraordinary attentions, paid to the crowd, would alone have
sufficed to enlighten us as to the condition of the country.
The mandarins have everything to fear from these in
subordinate people, whom an identity of origin, and of reli
gious fanaticism, will, sooner or later, unite Avith the insur
gents of the West, if, indeed, they are not even now leagued
with them by a secret understanding. They have already
been strong enough to foment a sedition in the city, to assas
sinate the Chinese viceroy, Pan, and proclaim in his place
their grand muphti. The military commandant, a Mussul
man, like themselves, was, during this time, shut up in Lin-
ngan, which he had gone to besiege, by the inhabitants, who,
after having opened the gates to him, had retreated into the
plains, and held him blockaded in their own town. The giant
Lean-Tagen, who had so badly received us, consented, not
withstanding the hate he felt towards a votary of Islam, to
alloAV him to make his escape, on his asking leave to go and
save Yunan-Sen. Once there, either because his attachment
to the emperor was sincere, or that he did not think it a con
venient time openly to declare himself, he reestabHshed order,
dragged the grand ulema from the mountains, where the new

270 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
court had installed itself, and ordered him, after an ephe
meral royalty which recaUs that of Cardinal Bourbon when
he was opposed by the league to Henry IV., to withdraw into
the vast domains of spiritual matters, and not leave them.
The poor old ulema, shut up thus in his yamen, pre
tends, since that period, to care only about astronomy. At
the time of our arrival, the viceroy, Lao, who had taken
Pan's place, had just died. It was to him that one of Prince
Kong's letters, of which we were the bearers, was addressed.
His successor had been already nominated by the court of
Pekin; but, not being at aU anxious to take possession of
such a perilous post, he wisely fingered at Setchuen, causing
us to have resort to his temporary substitute, Song-Tagen,
when we had any business. That dignitary received us with
great solemnity; music played at the door of the yamen,
near a brick screen ornamented with the classic dragon ; and
we were escorted, on our passage through the numerous
courts, by the body-guards, several of whom wore symboli
cal and grotesque costumes, representing fantastic animals.
The viceroy came towards us, robed in a splendid pelisse of
dark fur, and the usual mandarin hat with cocked sides, also
trimmed with fur ; a fine peacock's feather, fastened into a
clasp of jade, which was surmounted by a bright blue drop,
farther enriching this headdress. Song-Tagen is a handsome
old man, with white moustache, and a pleasing and gracious
smUe; the dignity of his deportment, which becomes his high
position, is moderated by the urbanity of his manners ; and
he is thoroughly weU-bred. As to his palace, Hke aU those
we have visited before, it betrays the precarious situation in
which the Chinese functionaries Hve at Yunan. A crowd of
mandarins in full dress, plumed hats, and embroidered silk
dresses, remained standing in the audience -chamber, where
we had tea, and exchanged, with Song-Tagen, the well-
known polite commonplaces, which, even more in China than
in Europe, are the indispensable preliminary to any serious
conversation between those who have any respect for them
selves. Having reached Yunan-Sen, we had no longer any real
difficulties to encoimter, and our return by Shanghai was
virtually assured. But it must be remembered that we had

YUNAN-SEN. 271
been obliged to abandon the Mekong at Kien-Hong, in
twenty -two degrees north latitude, 1200 males from its
mouth; and if the question of its navigabUity had been de
cided negatively, the question of its sources, which was the"
other part of our programme, remained unsolved.
Though we could no longer allow ourselves to hope com
pletely to clear up this point, it was possible, at least, to try
to see the great river again where it emerged from Thibet.
To convince the viceroy ofthe geographical aim of our jour
ney, and to make him aware, without awakening legitimate
suspicions, that we Avished to visit the west part of Yunan,
held by the rebels, without any ulterior thought of political
alliance with them, was a most difficult task, in which M. de
Lagree faUed, notwithstanding all his mental resources, which
had long been accustomed to Oriental diplomacy. In spite of
all our caution in speaking on the subject, Song-Tagen re
sisted us, declaring that every attempt of this description
would baffle and endanger us; after which he turned the
conversation, Avithout showing, however, any symptoms of
anger. We had thus ourselves warned him of our intention,
and did not act covertly ; and this sheltered us from any re
proaches of ingratitude towards a personage who had ac
quired, by a most loyal welcome, a right to our respect.
We had barely entered the garret we had chosen in the
bachelor's palace, as the best-built part in the edifice, and
the easiest to defend against a crowd or cold, when we re
ceived, on red paper, an invitation to dine from the Mussul
man general Ma-Tagen, the commander-in-chief of the im
perial troops, who was so cavalierly treated by the governor
of Lin-ngan, his subordinate. Various reports circulated as
to his secret intentions — reports often justified by his atti
tude ; it was, therefore, very important for us, if he was really
in secret league Avith the rebels, which was not at all un
likely, that we should keep in his good graces, and have his
aid, if we needed it. The toAvn was closely surrounded by
the enemy's army; the advanced posts had already faUen
into their power, and at any moment Yunan-Sen itself might
be taken. The inhabitants had already begun to make their escape.
Two contrary streams jostled at the gates. The petty trades-

272 TRAVELS LN LNDO-CHTNA.
men sought to gain the mountain, to hide their money, while
the population of the outskirts wished to get the protection
of the town walls. The rich merchants had long left the
place, and only the business people remained at their posts,
being fully aware that every closed shop was certain to be
mercUessly pillaged, in case the town were taken, or even
if there were only disturbances inside. Under such circum
stances, we accepted with pleasure Ma-Tagen's advances;
and since he chose to feast, instead of going out to fight,
there was no reason why we should pretend to be better
Chinese than he was. So we put on the different portions
of the curious costumes we had hastily contrived for our
selves, the remains of our European wardrobe being strewed
about the forests of Laos, and reported ourselves at the ya
men of the general.
We found him seated at a card-table, in the middle of
the first court, surrounded by his companions, finishing a
game of chess, which seemed to absorb all his attention. He
scarcely rose from his seat to receive us, and had us con
ducted, by one of his attendants, into a sort of smaU draw
ing-room, elegantly furnished, where we partook of tea whilst
awaiting our amphitryon. The sound of laughter and mili
tary jests reached even there, and reminded us, spite of our
selves, of those garrison scenes so often reproduced in some
of our theatres. It was impossible to feel offended at the
cavafier manners of Ma-Tagen. Having risen from a very
low position, he was weU aware of his deficiencies, and, in
stead of imitating the refinements of Chinese society badly,
he rather affected a freedom of manner and bearing, which
had the advantage of making his guests feel at their ease
with him.
We leisurely examined the different rooms of the yamen.
They were aU comfortable, and betokened the presence of a
man who felt sure ofthe future. Chinese paintings and Can
ton lanterns ornamented the walls and ceilings. In one of
the small rooms off the salon, two young misses in chalk
looked down, seemingly in astonishment at finding them
selves in the possession of an old soldier, a fervent disciple
of Mahomet. As soon as Ma-Tagen rejoined us, he began
to question us concerning Medina and Mecca. The ramadan

MA-TAGEN. 273
had commenced. The diurnal abstinence had been succeeded
by nightly orgies, of which Ma-Tagen stUl bore the traces,
in his depressed and Avrinkled appearance, his inflamed eyes,
and hoarse though powerful voice. Only one subject besides
the Prophet and the Koran interested him, and that was war
and warlike instruments. The courts of his palace were full
of piles of lances ; the corridors, of sacks of balls, buck-shot,
and long-barrelled muskets. His armoury, which he made
us visit afterwards, still more astonished us ; for it was well
stocked Avith European arms — double-barrelled guns, breech
loaders, rifled carbines, revolvers, and pistols of all kinds.
Nothing was wanting, and I even saw some things which
had not come under my eyes in Europe. Ma-Tagen is a
powerful personage. He maintains, at Shanghai and Canton,
agents who supply him with what he wants, and does not
distress himself about the very high prices which they ask.
Owing to the state of the province, he monopolises the cus
toms, especially those on salt; and, by a confusion easily made
between the public treasure and his private fortune, he dis
poses of enormous sums, which pay for the luxuries of his
house. This strange man passes whole days in practising
shooting; the walls, columns, pictures, all serve as targets
for his skill ; and I perceived that the back of the chair, on
which I was sitting, was also riddled with at least twenty
holes. The whole house is in the same condition ; and even
a servant, passing at the end of the court, has been known
to serve as a mark. Scandal accuses him of having killed
two of his children. He does not spare himself during a
fight. Being covered with wounds, he stripped himself en
tirely, to show us the scars, of which he is very proud. We
had not at all expected to meet, in China, a man of this dis
position, who would have been better placed in the court of
the ancient sultans. But, however that may be, we had come
there for dinner ; and, after having fully observed the riches
ofthe palace, and the curiosities ofthe proprietor, we sat
down to our meal.
Dry seeds of the water-melon were brought first, with
pine-apples, mandarin-oranges, in fact, a complete dessert.
Thinking we were the victims of a misunderstanding, we
resigned ourselves to seeing the dinner changed to a col-
T

274 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
lation ; but, contrary to European customs, these feasts are
always begun by dessert; and for three hours we saw the
strangest and most deficate dishes succeed each other on
the table. The resources of earth and sea are drawn upon
by this upstart soldier ; swaUows' nests, worms of every
description, fish-entraUs, lichens, &c, are the more simple
dishes which I have been able to remember ; a number of
hashed meats afterwards made their appearance, and the
soup was served at the end of the repast. We each drank
long draughts of hot tea, tasted rice-wine, and dried om
fingers on bits of paper, which were used as napkins. Faith
ful to the laws of the Koran, Ma-Tagen fasted whilst watch
ing us eat. Our want of formality delighted him ; and we
quitted him, feeling we had gained one friend more, a pre
cious friend too, whichever side he chose to take.
The third personage, who might be of some use to us,
was the old ' papa,' the venerable priest, whose ambition had
unmasked itself for a moment after the assassination of the
viceroy Pan, and who, as I mentioned before, had since lived
in his yamen, amidst telescopes and maps of the world,
making befieve to embrace earth and heaven in his studies.
These serious occupations did not suffice, however, to occupy
his time. Intrigue, and even petty faults, such as irrita-
bifity and vanity, shone through the cracks which universal
science had made in his vast brain. We kept him waiting for
our visit, and, had it not been for the vrish to see strangers,
and display his knowledge to them, he would not have for
given us this delay. Twice we presented ourselves at his
door, and twice he gave us to understand that he was at
prayers. Finally, impeUed by the desire to know what was
the exact distance which separated the earth from the sun,
or the time it would take a bird to fly from Yunan-Sen to
the moon, or a cannon-ball to reach a star (for such were
the subjects on which his conversation mainly turned), he
aUowed us to appear before him. His attendants, as gravely
as though they were waiting on a god, conducted us, respect-
fuUy, into the sanctuary, where the oracle, a short old man,
with an aquiline nose and white moustache, was enthroned.
He wore a furred bonnet on his arched forehead : his eyes
deep sunk in their orbits, and almost lustreless, but never

A PHILOSOPHER. 275
resting, gave a kind of mechanical mobUity to his austere fea
tures, their wrinkles revealing a crowd of fantastic thoughts
as they changed each moment with the play of his counten
ance. Tea and candied sugar were brought in on our arrival.
Our host, having formerly visited Stamboul, after a long time
spent in Mecca, prided himself on knoAving the habits of
Europeans, and desired us to sweeten om tea. This gave
the starting-point to a long geographical conversation, which
was aided by a large planisphere, over which he drew a
finger as lean as the leg of a pair of compasses, whilst his
mouth, stupid Avith astonishment and admiration, repeated
the different names of the foreign countries in a sUly way,
like a docile echo. At the island of Singapore, the old 'papa'
stopped his forefinger. Having heard that at this place,
being close to the equator, the days remain at the same
length all the year round, he stayed there for a year to con
vince himself of the fact, placing sun-dials and measuring
the shades. An Englishman, whom he consulted, had told
him he was an ass ; and this recoUection almost suffocated
him with rage. But it was on Arabia that he expatiated
with greatest delight. This country, containing, as it does,
the birthplace and tomb of the Prophet, assumed gigantic
proportions in his eyes. He made the r sound out as he
pronounced Arrabie, Arrabie. It Avas a magic word, like the
' Open sesame' of AH Baba. His familiars in the end only
pronounced the word Arabie in saluting us, and, when we
wanted some favour of this idiotic old parrot, we presented
him with an Algerian dagger, saying that it came from an
Arab chief. After having thus explored the world, the shape
of which was barely distinguishable on his map, we had to
teach him how to use a telescope he had bought at Pekin,
which had cost a good deal of money, but which he did not
know how to mount. So much kindness dispersed the re
mains of his ill temper, the clouds vanished from between
us, and it became possible for us to touch on the subject
which so entirely preoccupied us. The hope of seeing it
favourably looked upon had given us patience to support
the tiring chatter of a conceited fool.
Hardly had M. de Lagree explained the aim of our jour
ney, and expressed our desire to visit the western portion

276 TRAVELS L\ INDO-CHINA.
of Yunan, than the old papa repfied : 'I can perfectly under
stand you; you travel exclusively for your instruction, as
I used to do for my OAvn ; but rest assured that, Avith the
exception of mine, aU the heads in this country are too thick
for you to hope to get this fact into them. I am, however,
able to take away any obstacles. My authority, consecrated
by a pilgrimage to holy places, is equally respected by aU
Mussulmans, whether imperiaHsts or rebels. With one word
from me, you can travel freely through the whole land ; and,
thanks to the passport in the Arabian dialect, which I avUI
present you Avith, you avUI be able to penetrate, if necessary,
even into Tali.'4
It was possible that this old gentleman, being a braggart
by nature, exaggerated his authority. We were assured,
however, that it was very great. And, besides, he must have
felt convinced of his power, not to fear his relations Avith the
mutineers being noised abroad, whilst he continued to Hve
in a Chinese town, and to receive from the imperial govern
ment the annual sum about of 3200?.
' Cuncta religione moventur.' It is long since Cicero said
so, and it is true, especiaUy, of Islam. We took these offers
of service for what they were worth, and left the yamen of
the high-priest, who deigned personaUy to conduct us to the
street, an honour which he never accords even to the most
noble of his compatriots. Some few remarks on the zodiacal
signs, and observations concerning ecfipses, had sufficed to
cement our friendship.
We were, therefore, on the best of terms both Avith the
civU, military, and rehgious authorities, and Avith the faithful
or disloyal subjects. We were able to await events, and to
make use, notAvithstanding its critical position, of the re
sources the town offered to us. These must have been very
considerable in prosperous times, for, in spite of daUy panics,
we found even then, with the exception of wine, abundance
of everything at aU necessary to European fife. Wheat-flour
is only used by the Chinese in the concoction of certain
pastry cakes ; so we baked our own bread, defighted to taste
again this precious food, which rice does not replace, after
eighteen months. 4 The chief town of the rebels.

ROAD BETWEEN YUNAN AND TONG TCHOUAN DURING THE PLAGUE AND THE CHOLERA.

p. 2?6.

YUNAN-SEN. 277
The town of Yunan-Sen is built in a square, each side of
which measures about four furlongs. It is surrounded by
strong walls, pierced by six gates, the four principal ones
surmounted by roofs, one above the other, like those of a pa
goda; the other two narrow, and not so high. I discovered,
whilst visiting one of the military posts over these gates,
two heavy iron cannon ; and it was not without some sur
prise that I deciphered, beneath the dust which covered them,
a Httle bit above the touch-hole, the abridgment of that weU-
known inscription, 'Jesus hominum salvator' (J.H.S.). It showed
where they had been made ; and, notAvithstanding the shud
der it gave me to see such initials engraved on cannons, I
could not help feeling a sort of patriotic pride in it. Those
Jesuits, who knew how to influence the emperor, as much by
the worth of their labours as by their virtues, were mostly
Frenchmen. Coming there for the salvation of souls, they
turned astronomers, mechanicians, teachers of geography;
they became philosophers and men of letters, without per
mitting science, which they illustrated by their labours, to
be ever anything more with them than a humble auxiliary to
their evangelical designs. These great apostles have succes
sors at Yunan. This is not the place to relate, at length, the
work of the Cathohc missions, and this grave subject ought
not to be merely incidentally spoken of.5
And here I take the opportunity of thanking Father Prot-
teau, that humble priest, whose calm, absolute, and complete
self-renunciation at first confounds the mind, then enforces
admiration, when fully comprehended, and Father Fenouil,
the ardent pro-vicar, whose heart, vibrating still at the names
of mother and of country, joined so readUy with ours, notAvith
standing twenty years of expatriation — both for the joy we
felt on seeing them, and for the services they rendered us.
A canal draAvn from the great lake serves as moat around
the fortifications. In the plain, outside the walls, are stUl to
be seen the remains of a toAvn, equal in size to the present
6 To collect various documents, corroborated by his personal recollec
tions, as to the state of the Catholic missions in the extreme East, was the
last wish of the author. Death overtook him at the very moment when
his failing hand was beginning to compile this work, on which he would
have entered heart and soul.

278 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
one; it used to be the business quarter, and, as every one
knows, that part is the most important one of a Chinese city.
War, by stopping all traffic, has driven the Hfe out of this
exterior town, which is to-day reduced to the condition of an
immense ruined suburb.
Two small cypress-covered hUls somewhat relieved the
aspect of Ytman-Sen on this side. Numerous green trees,
many brUHantly- coloured pagodas, and some yamen roofe
with turned-up corners, decorated with curious devices, rise
above the lower houses, and break the monotony of the long
straight buddings. The principal street begins at the
southern gateway, and ends not far from the first lull. It
is very broad, and fined with regular shops, whose elegant
fronts are adorned with two sign-boards, painted black, and
covered Avith gold characters. Other signs in the same street
are fixed between two grooved posts. In this part live the
provision-merchants, over whose heads the wind shakes a gar
land of hams, fat fowls, and legs of mutton. The perfumers
show in then windows eau-de-cologne and French soaps ; and
the fashion-plates, representing fresh Parisian faces, sufficed
to restore om- courage, and take away from the Chinese women
their last chance of winning our hearts.
The women here, indeed, look like living puppets dressed
up in bags of blue cotton stuff, or particoloured sUk, with a
bull-dog's head plastered with rice-flour at the top, and legs
as thin as those of a peacock underneath. They were enough
to make one regret the sturdy daughters of Laos. I must
also add, that if the sirens of this country do not make them
selves more agreeable to their compatriots than they do to
foreigners, husbands must be perfectly happy in the Celestial
Empire ; they can live in peace, and allow their Avives' feet,
mutUated by an unjust excess of jealous distrust, to grow
properly. This jealousy is really one ofthe most plausible
explanations of the odious custom, owing to which the feet
ofthe girls are imprisoned in bands, causing the toes to double
up, so that the big toe alone being aUowed to reach its proper
size, makes it possible for the fashionable ladies to wear those
pointed shoes, which a child often could not get its feet into.
There is a great deal of poverty at Yunan-Sen. A large
number of black skinny-looking beggars, clothed, notwith-

CHINESE CORRUPTION. 279
standing the cold, merely Avith pieces of ragged felt, wander
about the streets, Hke living skeletons; imploring alms of
passers-by, or executing the most fearful music before the
counting-houses where the merchants string their sapeques.
I have seen a whole family, composed of father, mother, and
six daughters, who had no other shelter than that of a hole
in the earth, and whose only clothing was ofthe paper made
from mulberry-leaves. The government, which in time of
peace is venal and defective, is now only a heavy burden
on the people, without advantages or compensation. Even
the mandarins, placed between flight, which is ruin, and the
insurrection, by which their lives are menaced, — between a
river and a torrent, as a Chinese picturesquely called it, —
inspired us Avith pity.
In theory, the political and social organisation of the em
pire is, in some respects, a model of democratic organisation.
Hereditary and perpetual nobility exists only in favour ofthe
members of the imperial family and the descendants of Con
fucius. Contrary to western usages, a man's renown merely
reflects back on his ancestors ; so that the son of a Chinese is
not induced, as is often the case with us, to repose on his
father's laurels. Appointments are open to all ; there is only
one legal line open for obtaining honom-, that of the exami
nations, which attest the personal worth of the candidates.
Were it not that this idea is a necessary consequence of the
mere notion of justice — a notion nations, like individuals,
find deep down in their hearts — we might believe that we
had derived it from China, where the system of governing by
capacity has been carried on for centuries ; but this perfect
equality, from want of its corrective, liberty, is now more
a curse than a blessing. Officialism, that scourge of certain
European democracies, is developed, beyond measure, in
China, and the mandarins of every class constitute an essen
tially privileged order, which, even if their inteUectual apti
tude were never at fault, is generally without that other as
needful quality, morality. This virtue, a delicate flower
which one vainly seeks in the East, only flourishes in the
light of publicity. Open day and free air are all it needs for
growth anywhere ; and if we have seen it, even in Christian
countries, almost extinguished along with political liberty,

280 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
we might well be surprised to see it prosper in China. The
few newspapers printed in the empire are written to deceive
public opinion, not to enlighten it; and it is not in the hollow
speculations of their atheistical philosophy, that the Chinese
avUI find a curb to their dominant passion, the love of gain.
At this time government, at its last shift, hardly troubles
itself to put its appointments up for sale ; instead of leav
ing them to free competition, it sells its mandarin's buttons
at heavy prices ; and the one thought ofthe officials who buy
them is to reimburse themselves for the cost from their posts.
I have known a fratricide remain unpunished, because he
had sUenced the accusers, or bought the judge, with money.
Father Fenouil told us, laughing, that having been worried
by quarrelsome neighbours, he put a stop to their annoyance
by threatening to load his mule with silver, and seek a man
darin. The old papa, having sent the precious letter, which was
to open even the gates of Tali to us, we had no reason for
lingering in Yunan-Sen. A longer stay would have exposed
us to finding ourselves, to no end, in the midst ofthe sack of
the town, and another still more serious consideration was,
that we should run the risk of seeing the Mussulmans invade
the country lying between the capital and the Yang-tse-
Kiang, cutting-off our march, and making a desert before us.
In fact, their advance on Kut-sing-Fou was announced. M.
de Lagree therefore decided to leave without delay for Tong-
Tchouan, situated at no considerable distance from the great
river; wishing to penetrate from thence into the west of
Yunan, and reach the conquered and pacific part ofthe coun
try, so as to be, as soon as possible, where there were recog
nised chiefs and a responsible government. But our cash-
box, which at our departure from Saigon did not contain
more than 25,000 francs (a thousand pounds), was nearly
exhausted, and we could not, without farther resources,
begin a long and perilous journey. The terror-stricken tra
ders had hidden their money: nobody would have dared to
confess that he possessed even so much as 100 taels; the
viceroy declared himself unable to lend us anything. We
were obliged, therefore, to have recourse to our friend, Ma-
Tagen. He joyfully offered us 1000, or 10,000 taels, or what-

WE LEAVE YUNAN-SEN. 281
ever we wanted : money never troubled him. M. de Lagree
accepted 700, or about 6000 francs, payable in French rifles,
&c, at Shanghai. Our creditor had no more bounds to his
demands than to his offers, and wished to obtain from us
an agreement to send him a shipload of ball cartridges !
He interrupted his game of chess to consult us on this mat
ter; declared that we did him an injustice in offering him a
receipt for our debt; took leave of us Avith the best possible
grace, and then continued his game.
On the 8th January 1868, the commission left Yunan-Sen.
Outside the suburbs, in which a crowd of petty tradesmen
swarm and crawl, the large plain ends, between uncultivated
and bare-looking hills. On the paved road, we came across
long files of animals, and little narrow carts, laden with wood,
draAvn by buffaloes. The Yunanese, were they not so care
less, might have at then doors firing sufficient for then wants ;
but they prefer to despoil the mountains of their last shrub,
and then get wood from a great distance. They also burn
anthracite; and at the village of Ta-pan-Kiao, where we first
halted, they use a species of natural coke.
In this district, as in that we traversed before reaching
Yunan-Sen, the ravages of the plague had succeeded those
of war. Many coffins lay without burial on the ground. The
Chinese think that the corpse of a victim of this strange
malady, which makes its appearance with eruptions behind
the ears, avenges itself on the living, if they commit the
imprudence of burying it. War is, by common accord, sus
pended during the new-year festivities, by a kind of ' truce
of God ;' but the brigands give no respite, and we met with
a detachment sent out to pursue them. Nothing could equal
the disorder in which these warriors marched : each one did
as he liked, and went in advance of his comrades, or after
them, in such a way, that it was impossible, unless one
stayed behind unbearably long, to avoid these wearisome
companions. Ah, what a fine thing drill is, and how fully
I now appreciated barracks and military discipline ! We
reached the vUlage of Yan-Lin at the same time as this mob
of soldiers, and had some difficulty in defending our door
against their insolent curiosity, for they seemed disposed to
make use of their arms, and force our weak defences. Three

282 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
thousand men, vociferating loudly, demanded to see us dine,
and the six of us could hardly find space in the little room of
the inn. The staircase was narrow, however ; our sentry's
bayonet glittered in the darkness ; and we finished om meal
before the three soldiers, who were needed to form the first
rank, had dared to advance against us. The tumult having
been at length appeased, the chief of the troop hastened to
appear : he apologised, and swore that, had he been informed
before, he would have driven away the indiscreet imperti
nent fellows from our room. The poor man trembled, lest
his men should know what he had said ; but their curiosity
seemed more excusable to us, when their captain revealed
what it was that had so much excited them. They had heard
that Em-opeans had an eye in the back of their heads, but
on the other hand had no joints in their legs. On what can
the first of these two popular ideas be founded % I do not
know. As for the second, it must have been spread by a
Chinese, whose imagination had been struck by the stiffness
of some Englishman's way of walking.
Father Fenouil, who had accompanied us as far as Yan-
Lin, left us to return to Kut-sing-Fou, where he resided.
The emotion of this unfortunate priest, who perhaps, for the
last time, had heard France spoken of, affected us deeply, and
we set out sadly towards the north, across a vast damp plain,
shrouded in a thick fog, through which the dark forms of
the tall cypresses were barely visible. These large trees,
growing on the hill-sides, sway to and fro in a melancholy
way, and, like black curtains, conceal numerous vUlages, for
the most part inhabited by Mussulmans, who although still
in subjection to the emperor, spread around them such
terror, that the frightened Chinese dared not rear their pigs
except in secret, and even refused to sell us any, these
animals being considered unclean by the true believers.
Everywhere we met with ruined houses, and ragged, po
verty-stricken people. One day, being compelled by fever to
walk slowly, I was following our caravan at some distance,
when one of our porters came to warn me, by striking his
neck with the back of his hand, that I was risking my life,
and then, frightened, hurried back to rejoin the column. My
beard sufficed to keep the bandits at a distance ; but what an

FEAR OF THE MUSSULMANS. 283
existence for the labourers, who did not dare to go as far as
their fields 1 Huts, surmounted Avith a flag, on the roads, in
which crouched a trembling sentinel, and at equal distances
a patrol or two, were the only protective measures taken by
the government in the vicinity ofthe chief towns. Labour is
impossible without security, life impossible without labour;
and that is the reason in this sad country why an honest
labourer, from having a home in his village, becomes in his
turn a bandit, when the village is destroyed, and there is
nothing left of his abode but the walls.
The country was becoming desolate and wUd ; and the
ruins, which are scattered over it, recalled to one's mind the
image of a past prosperity. A stiff white plant grows up to
the foot of the arid mountains : it is eaten here and there by
large flocks of sheep, who are watched over by a shepherd
clothed in a sheepskin, and his dog.
We had great trouble in finding shelter every night; the
provisions, too, began to faU, as in the worst days of our
travel in Laos ; and the young Chinaman, whom, as soon
as we had halted anywhere, we sent out to seek for food,
often returned empty-handed. Being as much concerned
as we were in the matter, he was neither wanting in zeal nor
skill ; but, unfortunately, production was at a standstill, and
nobody would sell. The Mussulmans alone had in no way
altered their habits ; but we did not venture to treat Avith
them. Our young purveyor, after a long march had sharp
ened our appetites, having unknowingly addressed one of
these terrible followers of the Prophet, on discovering with
whom he was dealing, fled in the midst of the negotiation,
leaving behind him all the money he had been intrusted
with ; nor would any one of our escort consent to serve as
intermediary in this affair. Soldiers, porters, mandarins, and
interpreter, all trembled before a solitary man, who, with
folded arms and a smile on his face, rejoiced in his triumph.
At last, it being impossible to make ourselves understood,
and out of patience with his arrogance, we decided on turn
ing him out. To that, our Annamites did not make any ob
jection ; they had adopted our ways, habits, and prejudices,
even the idea of honour had come to be theirs as well. They
had rapidly passed from the respect which their nation pro-

284 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
fesses for the Chinese, to a profound, and often ill- disguised,
contempt. If we, with the money we had at our disposal,
and the prestige by which we were surrounded in our capa
city of foreign mandarins and our passports, had occasionally
to endure hunger, the fearful sufferings borne by the popu
lation, and the extremities to which they were reduced, may
well be imagined.
When one has seen, as we have, the livid inhabitants of
a vUlage waiting like vultures for the death of some miser
able horse, to fight for its flesh, he is inclined, without per
sonally knowing the fact, to believe even reports of cannibal
ism, which it is said often occurs in times of famine. What
ever the case may be, the Chinese government was in no
way responsible for the troubles which the poverty of the
land often caused us, since they had not engaged to pro
vide us with provisions. The mandarins, who used so often
to send us fowls, pigs, and sheep, generally did it in the
hope of receiving some present in return; it was an exchange
of friendly feeling, consecrated by usage; but our cash-box
had long been empty, and more than once unfortunate func
tionaries, who had followed some succulent capon, sent to
our lodgings, have gone away very much disappointed at
being able to take with them only the sincere expressions
of our gratitude. There was nothing of that sort to be ex
pected in this inhospitable region,- which was a very prairie,
where poor herdsmen lived on potatoes and oats. Their
welcome, however, was cordial and sympathising ; they made
room for us at their hearths, and relit their fires with small
bricks of coal; for they could not have obtained a fagot,
had they walked for miles round.
Our demoralised and home-sick porters, having taken ad
vantage of the night to make their escape, we were obliged
to procure others. Since nobody desired to let his shoul
ders, it was not without some repugnance that we found
ourselves compelled to seize on passers-by, who murmur-
ingly obeyed, and walked along, closely followed by om
bayonets. We all felt it to be an urgent necessity that we
should speedUy reach Tong-Tchouan ; and this reason was
our excuse — if, indeed, we needed one — for these acts of viol
ence, which were, however, but rarely committed, and always

A DESOLATE REGION. 285
compensated for, to the satisfaction of the victims, by pecu
niary remuneration.
In whatever direction one might choose to look, on the
people, or on the landscape, nothing was to be seen but
traces of misery or signs of barrenness. They cannot be
called houses which men construct in this region, which is
perpetually swept and parched by violent Avinds ; they are
simply fragile huts, easUy built, and as easily destroyed.
Having, at last, quitted these dismal heights, we descended,
and followed the dried-up bed of a large torrent, enclosed
by the mountains whose summits we had just trodden ; and
this led us to the village of Tay-Phou. The hotel-door was
ornamented in our honour with red paper-hangings, and
the military mandarin, who resided in this place, did his
utmost to make us forget cold, fatigue, hunger, and the
steppes. There was a fair at Tay-Phou, and the street was
crowded with men selling scented sticks, roughly-coloured
images, and dainties, which were fearful mixtures of flour,
aniseed, oil, and onions. People come from long distances
to make their purchases for the new-year feast; but it is
difficult to fancy what rejoicings can be, held under mud
roofs, battered by the winds; and I wondered how a new
year can be inaugurated with joy amidst such surroundings.
We ourselves were not unmoved in the midst of these noisy
preparations. It was the second time during our journey that we had
seen to its close one of those years which are so short, and
yet of which each of us sees so few roll by. Absence began
to weigh heavily on our minds, and the hour was not distant
when the measure of our moral torture was to be at its
height. Our health too, that blessing so necessary — we were
all, more or less, aifing — was beginning to be affected ; and
this year, which was hailed in the streets by a tumultuous
crowd, seemed, from circumstances, to open very solemnly
for us. During our last marches, the sick had followed us
on an improvised stretcher ; and M. de Lagree was at last
obliged to take his place there in his turn. The chief of
Tay-Phou, who had been ordered by the mandarin of Tong-
Tchouan to treat us well, took pity on our condition. He
could not quite make out how such titled mandarins as we

286 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
evidently were, could be so badly dressed, and appear so
poor ; but without waiting to discover the cause of this mys
tery, he fulfilled in a soldier-like manner the command which
had been given him. He thought it would spare us the
fatigue of travelling on foot as far as Tong - Tchouan, if
we went in a boat; and our satisfaction equalled our sur
prise, when he took us to the banks of the stream, down
which we were to sail. It was a thin strip of water, almost
too narrow for navigation, according to our French ideas ;
but the Chinese thought differently. We all entered a flat
boat, made of long, flexible planks, which bent, but did
not break. It was pushed into the water, and we took our
departure, now floating, and then rolling over the pebbles at
the bottom, passing by rapids and cascades, tUl the torrent
widened and became a river. The country through which
this stream flowed excelled in ugliness any that we had seen
since we left Yunan-Sen. Monotonous mountains, and no
thing but mountains, without a vestige of green, as bare and
red as though they had been cast out of the furnace below.
Narrow paths every here and there reach from their base to
their tops, seldom winding, but commonly going straight
up, as if those who had to scale their slopes would rather
bear the fatigue of the shortest road, though it were the
hardest, and spend as short a time as possible on ground so
uninviting. Once familiarised with the incidents of a mode
of navigation which had, at first, drawn our attention from
the landscape, the fearful aspect of the latter had, at last,
the effect of making us deeply discouraged. Never before
had we been so overcome by exterior influences.
Was it the effect of om- utter weariness, or the foreboding
of a sinister presentiment? Even now, after two years, I try
in vain to explain to myself the weird impression this horri
ble country stUl gives me, where everything, except the sky
and the water, was literally the colour of deep-red blood.
We had been for some time drifting along a calm, deep
stream, drawn by two men, who walked with long strides
along a towing-path, when, leaving the river to our left, our
boat entered a narrow canal, which led us to the outskirts of
the town.
There were several bridges over the stream; and in

TONG-TOHOUAN. 287
order to pass beneath the low arches, we were compelled to
lie doAvn at the bottom of the boat, whose patron repeated
imperturbably in Chinese, for at least twenty times, the same
speech at every obstacle we encountered : ' There is a bridge ;
bend your noble heads, 0 great men.' It was almost night
when we reached Tong-Tchouan. A mandarin was waiting
to lead us into an elegant pagoda, where the thousand fan
ciful designs of a superabundant decoration were lavished
upon the doors, ceilings, and platforms. Dragons and mon
sters of every description, Avinged, rampant, and corpu
lent, stood out from wood deeply carved, mingling their
golden heads and red tongues with the garlands of flowers
and flocks of birds. Even there, we preferred, instead ofthe
more spacious apartments, the small cabinets and rooms
where the air could be warmed, and the inquisitive pre
vented from spying.
We took up our abode in a garret, formerly accessible by
a staircase, but now reached by a ladder ; and there, after
having pasted paper round the windows, we made ourselves
at home amidst the old furniture and useless gods of the
pagoda — finding them a most precious resource, as they
were very dry, and the cold rendered a fire necessary.
Lean-Tagen, the governor of Fou, hastened to pay us the
first visit, notwithstanding his high rank in the military hier
archy. The following day we returned it. We had scarcely
passed the threshold of his palace, when crackers went off
in every direction; and guards wearing on their shoulders
thickly- quilted cotton by way of cuirasses, young pages
Avith rattan hats whose ugly shapes seem to have been imi
tated by Europeans, and in long dresses, the sleeves coming
over their hands, began to shout at the top of their voice. It
was a flattering reception, to show how highly they thought
of us. The master, who wore a magnificent silk robe and
white fur mantle, conducted us through the numerous courts
of his charming yamen, till we reached a luxuriously decor
ated and tastefully furnished apartment. To see the carpets,
polished consoles, gilt lounges, lackered tables, and all those
thousand nothings which make a room agreeable, we might
have befieved ourselves in a boudoir ofthe Chaussee d'Antin.
This dweUing surpassed in elegance, if not in richness, even

288 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
that of Ma-Tagen; and as for the proprietor, although as
much of a soldier as the former, he did the honours like a
gentleman, and it certainly could not interfere Avith his mili
tary 'endowments.
Lean-Tagen also possesses quite an arsenal of European
arms ; but, being without agents at Shanghai, he buys them
when they have already passed through the hands of several
intermediaries, and we drew back frightened at the prices
he named. Tong-Tchouan is a middling-sized town, whose fortifica
tions and public monuments are in good condition. It is
situated at some little distance from the Blue Kiver, on the
commercial road leading from Sutcheou-Fou to Yunan-Sen.
Every one appears to Hve happily and peaceably there, and
the inhabitants do not seem to feel at all annoyed with their
chief, to whom the Mussulmans, being acquainted with his
weak point, have dispatched a fair negotiator, whose argu
ments he evidently approves. I did not notice many coffin-
makers about the town, and even the feAV did their work very
badly. But M. de LagreVs Ulness grew worse as time went on,
and the most perfect quiet had become necessary for him.
As far as he personally was concerned, there was only one
course to be taken ; to wait at Tong-Tchouan till he should
be well enough to go on to Sutcheou-Fou, and from thence
to embark on a junk which would take him to Shanghai. He
was quite incapable of making that journey in the country
ofthe revolted Mussulmans, which he had meditated from
the time we were' at Yunan-Sen, and which he considered as
the crowning portion of his enterprise. On the other hand,
he was not unaware of the attraction which the idea of this
supplementary journey had for his companions. To study
the primitive civUisation which Islamism, transported so far
from its birthplace, had produced; to see the mosque side by
side with the pagoda ; and revisit the Mekong at Likiang,
where, having barely issued from Thibet, it flows at the foot
of a mountain, measuring 5000 metres in height, and near
Yong-Tchang, on the extreme frontiers of Burmah, where,
six centuries before us, the Venetian, Marco Polo, had tra
velled; and, finally, to reach Tali, the youthful capital of a

M. DE LAGREE'S ILLNESS. 289
growing empire, — such was the programme which had re
kindled our almost extinct ardour.
M. de Lagree could not make up his mind to force us to
renounce this expedition solely on account of his own health.
Whilst he was stUl hesitating, the Chinese authorities did
their utmost to persuade him to prevent our leaving ; and a
letter from Father Fenouil, frightened at the dangers which
he was convinced we should undergo for nothing, at the
end of a so far lucky expedition, put a climax to the anxiety
of our unfortunate chief.
Fearing the perUs which, with one accord, a hundred offi
cious mouths warned us of; dreading them all the more, too,
because he would not be there to confront them Avith us ;
fearing, at the same time, to impose a sacrifice on us; tor
mented by a thousand conflicting sentiments, which revealed
his clear-sightedness and generous disposition, — he assembled
us all round his miserable bed, harder and not so good as
even a camp one, and then gave us liberty to decide as we
liked. Had we been able to foretell the future, and perceive
the reverse which was awaiting us at Tali, and the sorrow
we should undergo at Tong-Tchouan, perhaps om- decision
would have been different ; but we were full of confidence,
and we resolved to start.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE MUSSULMAN INSURRECTION IN CHINA, AND THE KINGDOM OF
TALI.
If Europe has nothing to fear, in the future, from Islamism,
banished as it is within a decrepit empire, Africa and Asia
are less fortunate. On the first of these two continents, it has
so clearly shown us its energy, that we have always owned
it by making concessions to the rebels, whom it has excited
against us. It is not only northern Africa which the Pro
phet's standard covers with its deadly shade. It also influ
ences most of the tribes lying in Central Africa, thus dark
ening the veil which, in spite of heroic efforts, still conceals
from scientific eyes that mysterious country. The causes
which elsewhere have secured the victory ofthe Crescent,
have brought about the same results in distant parts of Asia.
Carried, after Mahomet's death, by warriors and by trading
Arabs, to the extremities of the old world, Islamism seduced
or vanquished a great number of warlike tribes, both of the
coasts and the interior. The success it has obtained among
the Malays, those ferocious pirates, whose greed is now out
witted by steam, can be understood ; but, not content with
bending under its yoke the nomads and savages, the shep
herds and pirates, it goes on attacking the oldest empires,
and threatening to overthrow, with its strong blast, struc
tures which have defied centuries. So far back as the
thirteenth century, mosques rose in Bengal by the side of
Brahmin temples, Mohammedanism having taken root on the
banks of the sacred rivers of India. It has now broken out
in China, where the ancient giant is in the throes of a re
bellion, which owes part of its strength to religious feeling.
The spectacle is not devoid of instruction.
Accustomed to profess a disdainful indifference towards
aU religions alike, the government of Pekin did not hesi-

THE REBELS. 291
tate, as we have seen, to intrust the command of the troops
sent against the rebels to a man, who could not fail to sym
pathise with his co-religionists ; and therefore seemed to be
compelled by his faith to favour the progress of those which
his political duty obliged him to combat : a strange error,
which, even in Yunan, excited the cautious censure ofthe few
generals who still remained faithful to the emperor. These
murmurings were always stifled, however, by the loud pro
testations Ma-Tagen transmitted to the deceived court. The
Chinese talk among themselves of certain battles, where the
imperial regiments never counted a wounded man in their
ranks, and fired in the air to acknowledge the good behaviour
of the enemy. They add, smiling, that a lieutenant of Ma-
Tagen, a suspicious observer, asked his chief, one day, to
exchange banners with him. The general dared not refuse,
but beat a retreat when he saw some of his guards fall round
him. But as though the sight of an inactive army, com
manded by a general1 favouring the enemy, was not enough
to show the neglect and blunders of the imperial govern
ment, the only man in Yunan who has prayed on the tomb of
the Prophet continues to receive an annual salary, and to
reside in a palace at Yunan-Sen, although he has been com
promised in a former revolt. I am in a position to state that
he was not unaware of his power, and that he neither at
tempted to conceal his relations with the western rebels, nor
his influence over the Mussulmans who still remain faithful
to the emperor. From the manner in which the latter treat
the Chinese, it is impossible not to feel assured that they are
men full of confidence in their power. They do not comprise
one-tenth ofthe total population of that part of Yunan which
they have vanquished ; but they are braver than their ene-
1 I must state, however, that recent information which I have received,
does not confirm the opinion which I formed on the spot, touching the proba
ble attitude of Ma-Tagen. Shortly after we had quitted Yunan-Sen, it was
invested by the rebel army. AU the Mohammedan soldiers commanded by
Ma-Tagen went over to the enemy ; but he remained faithfully at his post,
massacred those amongst his lieutenants whose loyalty appeared doubtful,
and bravely sustained the assault with the remainder of his army. He
was wounded on the walls. Perhaps his heart has changed, as the Chinese
say; or perhaps he is jealous ofthe role and importance ofthe sultan of
Tali.

292 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.

nues.

_ ._;, and possess, besides, pride, enthusiasm, and faith. The
generals who oppose them— men without honour or cour
age—command a low set of fellows, whose laziness is not
quickened by any patriotic sentiment. When one thinks that
the sovereign of three hundred millions of men was unable,
at the battle of Sagawane, to oppose more than fifteen thou
sand soldiers to the European armies who menaced his capi
tal, one cannot feel astonished at the success gained by a
handful of rebels in the most distant province of the empire.
If they would accept, as bounds to the independent king
dom which they aspire to found, the limits of Yunan, the
government of Pekin would act Avisely, notwithstanding the
riches it contains, in renouncing a territory which so long
stood outside Chinese unity; but it is to be feared that
they avUI not consent to this settlement. This revolt — and
it is that which makes it formidable — is condemned by its
double nature, to run its course, for those who guide it can
not check it as long as there are infidels to fight. Politics
may set Hmits to its conquests, even beforehand, but it is
very different with religious propagandism.
Report says, in fact, that the new sultan of Tali has dis
dainfully rejected the offers of the Chinese emperor, and
replied to his conciliatory overtures by expeUing the ambas
sadors charged with acquainting him with them. To engage
to respect the frontiers of the provinces round Yunan, when
they each contain a germ of dissolution, would be to betray
the Prophet, and call down God's judgment upon them
selves. For example, Kiouei-Tcheou is hardly less troubled
than Yunan-Sen by the insurrection ofthe Miao-tse, those
bold mountaineers, ' Sons of the waste,' who, though often
beaten, are never daunted, and are always ready to shake
off the yoke which the feeble hand of the Celestial Empire
is no longer able to maintain. Setchuen itself is not free
from civil war, incessantly rekindled in that beautiful coun
try by the Mau-seu, who were driven away less than two
centuries ago from Souitcheou-Fou, their capital, and forced
into Leanchan, a mountainous region traversed by the Blue
River. In the prosperous times ofthe empne, these barbarians
lived unsubdued, protected by the fastnesses ofthe Hima-

THE REBELS. 293
layas, descending from time to time into the plain, and then
quickly regaining their haunts, where they divided the spoil
among them. Their audacity increases at this time in pro
portion as the restraint is weakened, and their efforts only
too well second the designs ofthe Mussulmans, not to be
favoured by them. Ah-eady the Yunan Mohammedans have
availed themselves ofthe quarrels amongst the aboriginal
tribes, and have made use ofthe Minkias, as ofthe Lolos,
except that they have reduced and disarmed these good
savages, who claimed to be treated, after the victory, as
auxiliaries, not as slaves.
It is not only from this quarter that the Mussulmans have
received an unlooked-for help. Leaving out of the question
the social war of the Taipings, which has paralysed the
strength of the empire in the south and menaced the very
existence of the monarchy, and the capture of Pekin, which
has destroyed the prestige necessary for absolute sovereigns,
it is certain that the Yunan rebels have received mate
rial aid from their co-religionists in the northern parts, such
as the Chensi and the Kansiou, of China; besides moral
influence from their brethren in Eastern Turkistan, who took
up arms at the same time that they did. Has the coincidence
of these various combinations been accidental, or did it result
from secret arrangement % That is a question, on which no
light has yet been thrown, and which it would be rash to
touch upon. And yet the last hypothesis would appear to
be probable, when one knows, as I do, from unquestionable
private information, that Islamism recruits adherents even
in Thibet, mortally attacking Bouddhism in the holy city of
the Lamas. There are implacable enemies of the Christian
name, who now are exciting the popular feelings against our
missionaries, recently driven from Rounga2 by the bonzes;
whilst the Mohammedans, little by little, are acquiring real
power at Lhassa itself, adroitly making use, as circumstances
require, of violence or craft. They have frequent commu
nication with the Yunan rebels; and the sultan of Tali dis
tributes Arabic proclamations amongst their mountains, in
which he endeavours to explain, in mystical language, the
2 Advanced post of the Roman mission in Thibet, evacuated after the
murder of two French priests, assassinated by the Lamas.

294 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
real nature of the revolution which is being accomplished.
'The true God,' he says, 'will triumph over all idols, and
the kingdom of the believers wUl be established over the
ruins of an empire polluted by the ancient abominations of
infidels.' At what epoch was Islamism introduced into the
central empire, and what is the origin of Chinese Moham
medanism? These are connected questions which it may
be of use to glance at briefly, without any pretension to do
more than bring the help of some information obtained on the
spot to aid the solution.
From the earliest ages, dreams have been a means often
used by the heavenly powers to communicate with men.
Fable affords us many examples; and the Bible itself, if
need be, will furnish us with others. The Chinese annals are
not devoid of marvellous tales. The emperor Ming-Ti, hav
ing seen in his sleep a man in shining golden raiment, who
advanced towards him, in some way understood — and the
fact does credit to his sagacity — that there lived in the
countries west of China an extraordinary being, more power
ful than kings, and wiser than the most learned men. He
immediately sent for the statue of the unknown teacher, and
for the books containing his doctrine. The ambassadors dis
covered in India the images and precepts of Bouddha, and
brought back these treasures; and this is how Bouddhism
entered the empire in the seventh century before our era.
Several Mohammedans whom I have consulted in Yunan say
that Islamism made its entry in a somewhat similar way.
Nothing is more sterile than the imagination of a barbarous
people, which creates always the same chimeras, and con
tinually makes use of the same plagiarisms. If, instead of
shining raiment, one were to clothe the phantom in Arab
dress, and if, in place of simple curiosity, to suppose that
the emperor to whom it appeared had urgent need of help
against internal troubles and extraordinary disasters, we
should have the legendary explanation of the historical fact.
It must, thus, have been an emperor of China who, in a critical
moment, gathered round him the first Mussulmans ; and these
auxiliaries, when they had ceased to be useful, one can readily
imagine, became dangerous ; and, in accordance with the
constant practice in the East, with masses of troublesome

LEGENDS. 295
people, would be broken up throughout the empire, and con
fined to distant provinces, there to multiply. The Yunan
Mussulmans have very confused ideas concerning their origin ;
but one can trace in all their versions of it, in the midst of
fables which connect them with demons, a relation which the
unhappy Chinese, however, would be very much disposed to
admit — vague reminiscences of assistance given to the em
pire, and triumphs obtained over rebels — triumphs which
were repaid by ingratitude. And these traditions are all
confirmed by history.
The Chinese have not always been a laborious and peace
ful race, wishing to live isolated, and for itself alone, occu
pied solely in resisting the invasion of foreign ideas, by a
desperate resistance to the influence which drags it into the
universal gravitation of nations. It has often carried its
arms far beyond its immense frontiers ; and it may be said
that there is no region, throughout the continent of Asia,
which has not been compelled to respect its name. Under
the Thangs, it exercised paramount sway as far as Persia
and the Caspian Sea to the west, and to the Altai moun
tains on the north. It received ambassadors from Nepaul,
India, the Roman Empire, and protected the king of Persia
against the Arabs, in the seventh century of our era.3 From
the eighth century it fought against the Caliphs, who com
pletely defeated the Chinese emperor's troops, about the
same time the Moors succumbed, at Poitiers, to Charles Mar-
tel; and yet, notwithstanding the stUl recent recollections
of this, in the year 757 Sout-Song, menaced by a formidable
insurrection, did not hesitate to call upon the Mussulmans
and solicit the aid ofthe Caliphs against its own rebellious
subjects. Abou-Abbas and Abou-Giafar-Almanzor, chiefs of
the family ofthe Abbassides, and founders of Bagdad, dis
patched troops into China, which Father GaubU supposes to
have been Arab bands, garrisoned on the eastern frontiers
of Khorassan and Turkistan. These forces, combined with
the Chinese army, a troop of western Tartars, and the con
tingent furnished by the Oigours, formed a force powerful
enough to enable Sout-Song to rout his enemies com-
3 Klaproth, Tableaux Historiques de I'Asie.

296 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
pletely. The battle took place in Chensi, not far from Sin-
Gan-Fou, at that time the capital of the empire. Taissoung
was obliged, like his father, to invoke the aid of foreigners,
numbers of whom, wearied with their long journey across
Asia, settled on the soil they had come to defend.
On the other hand, the Chinese had commercial relations
with the West, often represented, it is true, in their annals
as the enforced tribute of vassals to their lords, but the true
character of which cannot be questioned. Among those
nations which, from the most remote ages, sent forth their
traders into the empire, the Arabs have always had a fore
most place, and at the very time when their co-religionists
were fighting in the north, under the imperial standard,
they did not shrink from sacking and burning Canton, which
was even then a great commercial city, with which they
drove a rich traffic by sea. Commerce and war were thus
the two great causes which brought the Chinese and Mus
sulmans into contact several times in those ages ; the Mussul
inroads being made at various epochs, and from different
points. This agrees both with the traditions stUl surviving
in China, though corrupted, and with the study of facts ; but
in submitting it to the reader, I can only send him to the
sources, if he is curious to learn more minutely respecting
the formidable shocks of nations of which ancient Asia has
been the theatre, and of which Europe has often felt the
reaction. About the thirteenth century, Mussulmans were so nu
merous in Yunan, that Marco Polo, Avriting in 1295, repre
sented the population of Yachi as being ' a mixture of idola
trous natives, Nestorian Christians, and Saracens, or Moham
medans.'4 The city called Yachi by the illustrious traveller,
appears to be the same as Tali, which was called Y-tcheou
by Han-Outi, who founded it, after having carried his arms
beyond the Ganges. This celebrated city, which is now
the centre of the rebellion, received the name of Yao-Tcheou
4 The learned editor of Tong-kien-kang-mou gives most curious infor
mation concerning the different religions practised at the court ofthe Tartar
Manko-Khan ; religions which Marco Polo found existing in the city of
Tali, but principally respecting the Christian sect founded in the fifth cen
tury by Nestorius.

SPREAD OF ISLAMISM. 297
under the Thang dynasty, then that of Nan-tchao,5 after it
had cast off the Chinese yoke; and, finally, it was called
Tali, after its capture by the grandson of Gengis-Khan.
Since that epoch, dynasties have changed in China; the
Mongols have been replaced by national sovereigns, and
these have, in their turn, been overthrown by Mantchou
Tartars ; but yet, in spite of all, the kingdom of Tali re
mained, for six centuries, incorporated with the empire. In
1857, it again detached itself; for what motives, and under
what circumstances, I shall endeavour to explain.
The doctrines of Islamism have not been spread in China
by the preaching of a wandering apostle; they have per
petuated themselves among the descendants of ancient im
migrants, settled in the Chinese Empire, without any consi
derable aid from the conversion of those around. There is
reason to believe that the degenerate Christianity of the
Nestorians, and the modified Islamism of those whom Marco
Polo called Saracens, have been blended into one creed,
based on the dogma of the diAnne unity, and that this common
belief has induced amongst its disciples a scorn of atheists
and polytheists, which is easUy turned to hatred. These
feelings have betrayed themselves hundreds of times, by
partial revolts, which might have sufficed to enlighten a go
vernment less blind than that of the Chinese as to the causes
and extent ofthe danger.
The first disorders appear to have broken out in 1855,
among some miners, who were ill-treated by the mandarins
superintending the works. The majority belonged to the
Mohammedan religion. Exasperated by violence, and feeling
themselves strong enough, they assassinated the Chinese
officers, and spread themselves, in armed bands, through
the country, calling upon their co-religionists to join them.
As the result of this movement, the Mussulmans grew every
where stUl more insolent, refused to pay taxes, braved the
agents of the law, and showed a profound disdain for the
Chinese population. They killed all the swine in the name
of the' Prophet, and violated the young women in that of
5 The kingdom of Nantchao is one of the four which the Chinese call
the scourges ofthe empire. It has acquired new claims to this name
since the Mohammedan revolt.

298 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
Allah. They attempted, in 1856, to assassinate all the
Chinese mandarins in Yunan-Sen at once. An energetic
man, named Changsou, who had proved his valour in the
war with the Taipings in Kouang-Si, now thought the
moment had arrived to make a decisive stroke. Being the
governor of Hokin, a town situated a day's march south
of Likiang, and not far from Tali, he resolved, in concert
with the mandarin of Likiang, and another Chinese chief,
to organise, for the same day, the wholesale massacre of
Mussulmans throughout the province of Yunan. He kiUed,
in fact, some hundreds round the environs of Hokin — an act
of cruelty too incomplete not to be dangerous — and thus
provoked a general insurrection. By way of reprisals, the
numerous Mohammedans in Tali murdered all the Chinese
officers in that city, and prepared themselves for war. The
mandarin of Hokin came, in 1857, to besiege the place, which
is the second in importance in Yunan — perhaps the first, if
looked at from both a literary and commercial point of view.
He acted, in the name of the government, against rebels,
already abhorred, who had not had time to prepare, or to
procure arms, and yet he was beaten. A sortie, made by
some twenty determined Mussulmans, sufficed to disperse the
besieging army, composed of outcasts more accustomed to
the fumes of opium than those of powder. The son of a horse-
dealer, poorly educated, a native of Monghoa, bearing the
name of Tou, was then proclaimed sovereign. The Moham
medans call him Soliman; the Chinese have added to his
name the title of Uen-soai, and he governs by the aid of a
council composed of four military mandarins. The whole of
the western portion of the province has rapidly fallen under
his yoke. In the first flush of victory, his troops advanced as
far in Burmese Laos as Sien-Tong ; but, having been driven
back by the king of that country, they withdrew, as we have
seen, to the south of Yunan, towards Seumao and Poheul,
which they have taken and lost ; and they continue to hold in
check the brave governor of Lin-ngan. The Mussulmans only
kept Yunan-Sen long enough to partly destroy that large and
beautiful city.6 Owing their power more to their bravery
0 As I stated in a former note, they have again invested it. This second
siege has lasted more than eighteen months. I have just heard that they

WE SET OFF. 299
than to their numbers, they reign by the terror which they
inspire. Report says they bury or flay alive any prisoners
who fall into their hands. Wherever they have co-religionists
they have partisans ; their enemies, struck down in the dark,
amidst their own soldiers, die either by the dagger or poison.
It was thus they got rid of their implacable adversary, the
mandarin of Hokin, who, whilst shut up at Ten-Huen-Chen,
in an intrenched camp, began to quarrel with his generals,
whereupon the soldiery, profiting by these disputes, which
sprang from personal jealousies, disbanded; and, not very
long after, the terrible Changsou was found assassinated in
his bed.
Without enumerating in detail the efforts made by the
government of Pekin to stop the progress ofthe insurrection,
it may be stated that they have only served, by exposing
the poweflessness or the venality of the Chinese, to redouble
the confidence of their enemies. The military mandarins
either appropriate to themselves the money provided to raise
an army, or come to an understanding with the rebels ; as in
the case of Lean-Tagen, governor of Tong-Tchouan, whom
We visited in the month of January 1868, who fled, without
profiting by a brilliant victory he had gained, and left his
soldiers to be massacred.7
Dreading our having any communication with Mussul
mans, who might enlighten us concerning his conduct, he
never ceased offering a desperate resistance to our journey
into the west ; but our determination was not to be shaken.
Sinister prophesies, and gloomy pictures, alike remained
Avithout effect on imaginations so accustomed to sucfi things
as ours. If we had not felt M. de LagreVs hand tremble in
ours as we parted from him, and had we not seen Dr. Jou
bert, who was to remain alone with the invalid, looking pale
with apprehension, the day of our departure would have
been one of rejoicing.

have been repulsed, at last, more than thirty leagues from that capital, and
obliged to fall back on Tali. From these alternate successes and reverses,
we may infer that this portion ofthe empire will be long destined to endure
anarchy. 7 He has since been recalled from his post, had his rank taken away,
and been exiled to Setchuen.

300 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
I have already said, that, in accordance with a custom, in
use from Cambodgia to China, foreigners are not allowed to
visit these countries, unless they have taken the precaution
to provide themselves with passports. We were ignorant,
at the time we left Saigon, of even the existence of the
growing kingdom of Tali, and had, besides, no means of
communicating with it. On the other hand, we were unable
to find among the Tong-Tchouan Chinese, a creature who
would venture to go on before us, to the Mussulmans, and
be the bearer of a letter to them. We left, therefore, some
what at a risk, without any other guarantee than the note,
Avritten in Arabic by the old ulema of Yunan-Sen, and not
feeling at all too confident of success. It was possible, how
ever, that the same feeling which made the Chinese function
aries regard our journey Avith so much displeasure, would
secure us a welcome on the part of the Mussulman authori
ties. A handful of resolute men resisting an immense empire,
might give a good reception to the representatives of one of
those European governments, whose mighty power, height
ened by a mist of exaggeration, is admired by the most
savage tribes; and it was not impossible that the rebels
would hasten to make friends with us. The principal
events of the Chinese war are well known, in spite of official
lies, throughout the Celestial Empire ; and if some episodes
in that memorable campaign have confirmed the Chinese in
the belief that we are barbarians, we had yet given proof of
strength and bravery, two highly-esteemed qualities at Tali.
War having rendered the direct road from Tong-Tchouan to
Tali impracticable, we decided on making a circuit round
the enemy's country, before penetrating into it, and then
reaching their capital as soon as possible, by following the
frontiers of the Chinese proAdnce of Setchuen.
Our caravan, reduced to four officers8 and five guards, set
out at ten o'clock in the morning of the 30th January 1868.
We again entered the valley which we had long followed
before reaching Tong-Tchouan. The mountains surrounding
it still looked red and desolate. Yet when one sees them
rising behind him, and closing the horizon, it is not with-
8 MM. Garnier, Delaporte, Thorel, and De Came. The escort was
composed of two Tagals and three Annamites, — in all, nine persons.

WE BUY HORSES. 301
out a feeling of pleasm-e, the inevitable effect of distance, by
which scenery profits as well as men. The road, a rocky
path running either along the river or on the mountain,
was encumbered with palanquins, pedestrians, and gaily-
dressed horsemen, all in their holiday clothes. It is the
custom in China, as in Europe, to bid a welcome to the new
year. Even the horses and mules, laden with salt, are all
decorated Avith garlands and coloured ribbons.
We made our first halt in a village, which was being for
tified. The inn was poor and dirty ; the beds, which need
no making, were of stone, with stone pillows. We stretched
our mats over these granite couches, for we had not hitherto
taken the plan of Chinese travellers, of carrying blankets,
mattresses, &c. on the saddles of our horses. But as M. de
Lagree did not allow us much time, and as it would there
fore be necessary, if we wished to obtain any result without
going beyond it, to march very quickly, we decided on pro
curing horses. Nothing can be easier in Yunan. Horses
abound in that mountainous province, which is less provided
Avith navigable streams than other parts of China, and where
the loads are carried either by men or horses. The latter
are ' small and stand low, but are strong and hardy.'9 They
are probably, writes Marsden, of the same race as the horses
of Lower Thibet, which are brought to Hindostan for sale.
The inhabitants of Bhootan told Major Rennel that they ob
tained their horses from a country thirty days' march from
their frontiers.10 Tardy though this help was, yet it spared
us many fatigues. From Crache11 to Tong-Tchouan, M. de
Lagree had been obliged to keep within the straitened limits
of an insufficient purse; and, indeed, he had suffered more
than any of us from an economy which he was obHged to
practise whilst deploring its necessity. The loan so happily
procured from Ma-Tagen placed us, as regarded financial
difficulties, in a much better position, and permitted us to
buy horses. For my part, I have preserved most pleasing
recollections of those first days, dm-ing which I advanced at
my ease, Avithout any anxiety concerning the road, since my
horse, accustomed to guide himself, carried me with as much
9 Martini. 10 Marsden's Travels of Marco Polo.
11 Our starting-point in 1866.

302 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
composure as he had before carried bags of salt or bales of
cotton. In the beginning of the month of February, the earth,
quivering with the approaching spring, still hid the germs
within it, and remained uniformly gray. Only a rash blade,
here and there, heralded the approaching birth — the won
drous and universal breaking out — of life. Numerous fruit-
trees lined our road. They were all budding. The rising
sap burst through the bark, and the more forward were al
ready in pink or white blossom. A forest of apple, apricot,
and almond trees were preparing to sprinkle with their snow
the green carpet which the growing rice would soon stretch
out at their feet. These smiling scenes, however, were soon
to be replaced by others of a totaUy different nature.
On reaching by an almost imperceptible ascent a more
elevated position, there rose suddenly before our eyes an
immense entanglement of gray mountains, bare, and seamed
with ravines. We saw that we were amidst the sources of
a great river, towards which an irresistible attraction was
draAving all the torrents roaring down the gorges. A solemn
feeling seemed to announce its presence. The hand of God
appears to have surrounded the great arteries ofthe physical
world with impassable barriers, as it has taken care to en
velope in shade and mystery the fountains of life within us.
We were obliged to descend slowly into the gulf by narrow
paths clinging to the mountain - sides. On one hand the
smooth wall, sometimes bending over us, rose above our
heads, passing into arching vaults like those dug by the
sea out of the cliffs ; at our feet yawned an abyss deep
enough to make one giddy. However imperfect it may be,
such a road must have taken great trouble to construct.
Opened in the calcareous rock, which forms, in a great mea
sure, the body of the mountains, it is often so slippery as
to add another to the many perils of the journey. Over
large spaces the declivities are too steep to hold the earth,
and the rocks everywhere show themselves sharp and blue,
like congealed lava of a volcano which has destroyed in its
course the smallest germ of life. One feels crushed by the
immense proportions of inert nature, between the heights
which hang overhead and the abysses which draw one to-

THE BLUE RIVER. 303
wards them beneath. The caravans appeared in the dist
ance like ants hurrying home before nightfall. Horses and
badly-trained mules, walking Avithout due care and easily
alarmed, often roll over the precipices when they chance to
meet in perilous places. Hence, before venturing on such
passes, the mandarins send a scout ahead, to tell the traders
and merchants to stop and stand aside at certain parts
arranged for that purpose. The governor of Tong-Tchouan
had, of his OAvn accord, and without telling us, taken this
necessary precaution on our behalf.
Miserable habitations perched on little terraces, like eagles'
nests clinging to the rocks, shelter here and there some poor
family, which fives on the sapeque laid by each traveller,
near the bowl of cold tea which he drinks on his way. The
heat is, in fact, very great, even in the month of February.
All these stone walls, exposed to the burning rays of the sun,
which there is not a single leaf to turn aside, get heated
very quickly, and it becomes hard to breathe in the glowing
air of this immense furnace. At last, after a long and painful
march, we perceived at the bottom of the cradle, formed
for it by two steep mountains, the Yang-tse-kiang, whose
waters, notwithstanding its name of Blue River, are as green
as those of a calm sea in a creek.
Remembering the look of the Mekong, we expected to
see the Yang-tse as boiling and muddy; but, on the con
trary, it flows calmly along, glittering witfi light. It was
Avith joy we hailed this river, which alone gives life to a
region where everything is dead ; a peaceful and rich image
of life, in the midst of all that is sterile and wild. It ap
pears, however, from information we received, that there are
rocks in the bed ofthe river, a short distance above and
below the village of Manko, where we took a day's rest.
This village, one of the stations where traveUers who go by
this route to Setchuen must halt, has almost the importance
of a small town. However, it contained no functionary who
had the power to impress men to carry our baggage. We
therefore hastened to hire some ; and for the sum of two
francs twenty-five centimes a day, we had men who walked
bravely, and did not need us to be constantly watching
or urging them on. . The regular government porters often

304 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
run off, when they think they can escape the penalty which
the law inflicts for doing so. Besides, one is continually
obliged to dispute with them as to halting-places, and the
length of the march, which we should have found impossible
to do ; for we had left Tong-Tchouan absolutely dependent
on om-selves, without any interpreter, or any one we could
trust in the midst of this unknown world.
The following day, after an hour's waiting, which I
spent on the bank, watching the Blue River as it flowed
500 leagues from its mouth, a large boat left the opposite
side, and slowly advanced towards us. Our whole caravan,
including the horses, entered it. This heavy machine, with
stems of thin trees hardly shaped, for oars, was then put in
motion, and bore us to the opposite bank of the deep river,12
which serves as a boundary to the two most westerly pro
vinces of the Chinese empire, Setchuen and Yiman. Then
began one of our longest and most wearisome ascents. Oui'
horses entered a path which seemed barely practicable for
goats, and up this we climbed, almost in a straight fine,
with the river at our feet, dotted here and there with banks
of glittering sand.
Fields of sugar-canes formed green and regular patches
on the edges of the river. Manko was stUl to be seen im
mediately under us; but it grew smaUer and smaUer, fur
nishing in its lessening size the only proof of our advancing.
At last the road ran along the crest of a side valley ; the
slope became less steep; and we admired, whUst pausing for
breath, the magnificent panorama of high mountains which
marked the course of the river behind us. We stUl obtained
occasional glimpses of it, winding along like a thin green
serpent with glittering scales, gliding and turning without
disturbing the obstacles it could not pass. But it was in
the morning that I liked most to gaze on the mountains.
When the aurora, that immortal magician, threw its gold
and purple over the bare forms of these chUdren of the
Himalayas, then peaks, rising little by little from the dark
ness, became gradually surrounded with a glorious aureola,
and the light, peering at last through every veU, Uluminated
12 A cord, ten fathoms long, with a stone at the end of it, thrown into
the middle of the stream, did not reach the bottom.

TA-CHO. 305
the whole range at once, reflecting it in the river as in an
emerald mirror. We stUl kept climbing, and, having had
more than 25° of heat on the banks of the Yang-tse-kiang,
were now shivering in our cloaks, as much surprised by this
sudden change as bathers would be, plunged into vapour-
baths and then deluged with iced water.
There is something very strange about the sensation
which one feels at a great height : no sound reaches it ; the
air is rarefied, and the atmosphere seems to have attained a
sensible transparency. This calm and peaceful feeling was
in no way affected by the wild landscape beneath ; the deep
gorges, the rocks of every description heaped up around,
eloquent witnesses of past disturbances, — these things did
not matter; when one has overhead nothing but the blue
sky, he seems to participate in its high serenity. Not a
living being would willingly inhabit this chaos. I perceived,
at a great distance beneath me, a flock of yellow sheep,
driven along by a herdsman, and seeking a meagre pastur
age of scorched-up herbs. They moved slowly amidst the
blue rocks which pierced the soil, creeping, one might say,
like the vermin on the ragged coat of a beggar. My horse,
to avoid the roughness of the path, preferred walking on
the narrow strip of green where the precipice commenced :
I allowed him to do as he liked ; he cared for existence as
much as I did, and I thought my reason was less to be trusted
than his instinct.
Ta-Chao is a very picturesque village, with its wooden
bridge and white houses, sheltered by large trees. A little
verdure and a little commonplace landscape give so much
pleasure to the eye, after the grand sight of the wild, bare
zone through which we had passed 1 We lodged in one of
the numerous inns ofthe village, where caravans usually stop.
Large stables shelter considerable numbers of horses and
mules. In the evening, a long fiery serpent illuminated the
mountain ravines facing us, consuming the remainder of the
small amount of vegetation which existed there. From Co
chin-China to this place, we met everywhere -with traces of
that aimless devastation, which destroys in a few hours
what it takes nature centuries to create. Winter periodicaUy
recalls to the Chinese the necessity of keeping themselves X

306 TRAVELS IN INDO-OHINA.
warm, and they would most probably be more careful of
their wood, if they had not, everywhere, in the countries we
visited, a combustible mineral easy to extract.
Not far from Ta-Tchao, the road again enters the rugged
sides ofthe mountains. The cold seized us as before ; and an
icy wind blew in om- faces, sweeping over the snowy crests
ofthe higher peaks. These peaks, which have a vegetation
peculiar to themselves, are the last refuges of certain savage
races, who are no longer met with in the plains. Clothed
in stiff plaited felt mantles, their heads covered with a high
twisted cap, these last representatives of an oppressed race
watched us pass, motionless, and crouching sUently behind
the rhododendrons and stunted pines. They buUd their
poor vUlages in the hollows, and cultivate the slopes, but
the harvest is frequently carried away by the torrents of
rain to the bottom of the abyss, with the soil that grew it.
After having vanquished these unfortunates, the Chinese
insult them; horrid paintings cover the walls of then pa
godas, representing one of these fine savages in national
costume, chained, and without arms, enduring the outrages
of a group of Chinese soldiers : a vengeance worthy of the
cowardly people who find a gratification in it.
Our baggage porters, who had come from Tong-Tchouan
to Manko by order, but had been hired from that station,
were still gay and active, notwithstanding the fearful ascents
which tried both ourselves and horses. They are wonder
fully sure-footed, and though heavily laden, never stumbled,
even in the steep paths, the paving of which, broken con
tinually, formed a long succession of steps and quagmires.
The inns were, for the most part, sickening dens, crowded
Avith traveUers. In the best bedroom of one, candles were
needed in broad daylight, and the only window was over
the stables, — a narrow shed which served for both pigsty
and privy. We were more lucky in the village of Tchang-
Tchou, where we joyfully installed ourselves in rooms open
ing on a raised gallery above an inner court. The troubles
and fatigues ofthe day were quickly forgotten in the even
ings, where we found a good supper and good bed ; for the
rest we cared very little. At Tchang-Tchou, however, where
we arrived frozen, after a long march across the snow, we

HOELI-TCHEOU. 307
tried to make punch with the bad rum of the country. The
flame rose and flickered about at the caprice of the "wind,
which penetrated through the badly-joined partitions. We
thought of the cheerful fires, with their leaping flames,
which had thrown the same short-lived light on so many
youthful scenes ; but the reality chased away such dreams.
When we came to sip the concoction, we found it as nasty
to the taste as to our sense of smell. The people outside,
seeing through the torn paper, which adorned our Avindows,
a man with a long reddish beard, in a room devoid of any
other light, kindling a fantastic fire, which seemed to run
over the table, took us for sorcerers about to compose a
charm, and fled in terror; and the innkeeper, Avishing to
make himself agreeable towards strangers, who were versed
in occult sciences, immediately struck up the serenade with
which it is the custom to honour mandarins ; an old drum
and tin pan forming the orchestra.
After leaving Tchang-Tchou, we entered a valley shut in
by mountains, which in some places pushed out great spurs,
in others sank into green lagunes. The sky was clear, and
the snow, sparkling like sUver beneath the mid-day sun,
seemed to vie, in its metallic brightness, with the white
vapour of the clouds. This valley is full of Aollages ; the
houses are new or freshly built; and every now and then one
is reminded, by some group of buildings, of the well-cared-
for villas of our retired merchants. This part of Setchuen
seems to breathe freely, and profit by the sad condition of
the neighbouring province, depopulated by war, pestilence,
and famine.
With these consoling symptoms of calm prosperity are
combined, round Hoeli-Tcheou, signs of animation and com
mercial activity. This village is surrounded with a strong
enclosure; bastions are being completed, and other forti
fications are in course of erection : beyond this, the inhabit
ants of Hoeli-Tcheou seem very little troubled by passing
events. It was more than ten days since the new year,
and they were still celebrating this periodical event. Arches
of triumph, in painted wood, as wide as the street, arose
at short intervals amongst the stirring crowd. The small
low houses, Avith wooden facades decorated Avith many-

308 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
coloured lanterns, looked like hastily- constructed sheds of a
fair. An acrobat, his face hidden by a grotesque mask, was
performing on a pyramid of props; we passed by, and not
withstanding his efforts to keep the lookers-on around him,
the whole crowd followed us, delighted to see an exhibition
of real Europeans. It was with difficulty our horses found
room to pass up to the hotel to which we were conducted.
This establishment looked pleasant, and had an inviting air
of cleanliness, as delightful as it was rare. Above a long
narrow inner court was a wooden gallery, giving access to
cells without windows, where complete darkness reigned.
It appears that the Chinese, when they travel, only stop at
a hotel to sleep, or smoke opium. In fact, I saw through
the half-open doors, by the light of the small lamp, which
an opium-smoker is never without, men lying on mats, in
haling the white vapour, which at first seems to exhale but
little odour, but which soon affected me so much that I have
often seemed to steal part of his drunkenness from the
sleeping smoker.
Hoeli-Tcheou is essentially a town of transit, and it has
adapted itself to this destination. The houses are vast shops,
filled with lumps of copper and salt, bales of cotton, and cases
of medicinal plants and dye-stuffs. Whole streets are inha
bited by makers of pack-saddles, sellers of horse-harness, and
other things necessary for caravans. The yamen ofthe gover
nor, whom we visited, did not answer at all to the reputation
which this personage has earned for himself of being greedy
of gain and thoroughly extortionate. He levies a consider
able tax on the merchants who take goods to the copper-
mines; besides taxing on his own account many other in
dustries, to such an extent, that they have ceased to use
boats, within the limits of his circumscription, on the navi
gable parts of the Blue River. But notwithstanding all
these extraordinary resources, his yamen is very simply
furnished. We only stayed at his dwelling long enough to
repeat the few Chinese sentences of our vocabulary, appro
priate to the occasion, which was quickly finished, and we
withdrew, leaving him not much enlightened as to our pro
jects, and visibly uneasy at our resolve. In the evening a
messenger brought us a very incomprehensible letter, which

opium. 309
gave some trouble to the most learned of our Annamites to
translate. In this curious epistle,- the governor informed
us that stars had been observed making the most curious
movements in the firmament, and that they had finally disap
peared. Was this astronomical statement a delicate allu
sion to our journey to Tali, the object of the special anxiety
of the Chinese authorities, and to the fate which awaited
us amongst the Mohammedans % We never knew ; but if
this interpretation be the true one, we must confess that
the mandarin of Hoeli-Tcheou had found means to renew,
by the flattering and fanciful form he had given it, a pre
diction often before made to us. This personage, how
ever, treated us as mandarins, and took on himself, without
consulting us, to send away the baggage -porters whose
shoulders we had hired, replacing them, on our departure,
by government ones obtained at his command. Besides these,
we were escorted by five or six petty chiefs, who paid us
every attention, endeavouring to divine our wishes even be
fore they were formed, and only leaving us alone when an
occasion for drinking presented itself. These men disguised
themselves very badly in their quality of spies, under the
mask of devoted servants. We had nothing to conceal, and
plainly told them that we had resolved to enter Tafi, which
rendered their task much lighter.
The road continued very steep. The mountain-sides were
covered with bushes of pink camellias and rhododendrons,
remarkable for their various sizes and colours. Amongst
these latter shrubs some have red flowers, which stand out
in such contrast with the dark background ofthe foliage,
that the eye is quite dazzled ; others have clustering white
flowers, as exquisitely delicate as those of an azalea. In the
plains, the pale blossoms of the poppy, which is largely cul
tivated, balance themselves on their long flexible stalks,
pleasing the eye, and impregnating the air with a strong
scent which gets into one's head. Animals even, they say,
cannot resist vertigo ; bees, for example, greedUy plunder
these vegetable sirens ; and when the petals have dropped off,
and man has gathered the poison for himself, the intoxicated
and blasS bees disdain the juice of other plants, and die of in
anition. Rats, which had taken up their abode in an opium

310 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
distillery, have been found dead in great numbers, shortly
after the closing ofthe establishment; having been accus
tomed to breathe the vapour exhaled from the caldrons,
they died when it failed them. Horses and pigs, which
have tasted poppies, refuse every other food, and perish
after the opium harvest, — a striking picture of the perilous
intoxications of life !
We got as far as the village of Hompousso Avithout an
interpreter, but had been preceded by a letter from the go
vernor of Tong-Tchouan to that of Hoeli-Tcheou, whose au
thority reaches thus far — and in fact had only had to allow
ourselves to be transported and conducted. Here we reached
the limits of the provinces in subjection to the Chinese go
vernment : at a few leagues from us was war, terrible and
pitiless war, especially so for the peaceful inhabitant, equally
pillaged by both armies. It was important for us not to
enter at hazard on the route Avhich led to the capital of
the Mussulman kingdom. We had no information, and sup
posing that a Chinese could have helped us, we should have
been unable to understand what he said.
We had been told at Yunan-Sen, that at two days' jour
ney from Hompousso there lived a Chinese Catholic priest.
In the midst of our trouble it was an unlooked-for happi
ness ; and nothing can explain the deligfit I felt on receiving
a note written in Latin, in which this unexpected interpreter
announced his arrival. It was quite like a miracle to find a
Chinese, who not only spoke a known tongue, but was, in
the nature of things, of the same ideas and opinions as
om-selves, and that in the midst of an inquisitive and male
volent crowd, in a hamlet far away from the civilised world.
To whatever belief one may belong, this great result of
Catholicism, noiselessly obtained, in a place where there
was so little else of good, strikes the mind with admiration
and respect, when a fortuitous circumstance brings it sud
denly to light. Father Lu had barely entered our house be
fore he was assailed Avith questions ; which he answered Avith
a very good grace, of which his timidity heightened the
charm. He consented to accompany us as far as the village
of Machan, where he resided : but he could not go farther
without interfering with the annual visit to his converts,

THE ESCAPE. 311
and compromising himself with the imperial government :
drunken Chinese had already insulted and menaced him,
because he had made himself useful to Europeans. It was
arranged that we should go in company to Machan, and
when there, with the help of Father Lu, we should choose,
among the divers routes which lead to Tali, if not the most
direct, at any rate the safest.
We again met the Yang-tse-kiang, whose waters, always
green, flowed through a less lovely country than that which
served them as frame at Manko. After a few hours' painful
walking on the sandy bank, we saw the great stream divide,
and found ourselves in the presence of a geographical pro
blem, whose solution the Chinese for centuries have disputed,
without being able to come to any decision. The question
is, which arm — that from the north, or that from the west —
is the veritable Blue River 1 Science usually settles the ques
tion in favour of the western arm,13 which bears the name of
Kin-cha-kiang (the river with the Golden Sand) ; whilst its
rival bears that of Pe-shoui-kiang (the river with the White
Water). The name of Yang-tse-kiang is only applied, after
the confluence, to the two united streams.
On the left bank of the Kin-cha-kiang, the volume of
whose waters is much reduced above its junction, coal
abounds in many parts of the valley. We visited a pit
about two leagues from Machan. The mineral belongs to
the proprietor of the soil, who sells for 600 sapeques the
right of extracting 1000 Chinese pounds. Every one comes
to take the quantity he desires to consume, and extracts it
at his own expense. Reduced to a glutinous powder in the
shape of cakes, much employed in the native kitchen, this
coal sells for double the price of the other, 1200 sapeques, or
a half tael, the 1000 pounds. They do not trouble themselves
to push the works very far ; and, without hollowing galle
ries, are contented to scrape the surface of the soil. Some
of Father Lu's converts came on horseback to meet us, and
we made a solemn entry into Machan. Machan is a poor vil
lage, which has been destroyed several times, and is often
assaUed by bands of ferocious wolves, which, descending from
13 The western arm soon turns also to the north, and after Likiang it
flows long in a parallel direction with that of the Pe-shoui-kiang.

312 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
the mountains, carry away animals and children, and often
worry even men. We rested there a day, whilst preparing
for our departure.
We were on the borders of Yong-pe. This district be
longs to Yunan, which forms, on the left bank ofthe Kin-cha-
kiang, a curious enclosure in the Setchuen territory. This
country is in great measure peopled by turbulent savages,
who revolted in 1859 against the imperial government, and
committed the imprudence of calling the Mussulmans to their
aid, who invaded them, and imposed a new yoke, which is
harder to bear than the old one. On entering this region,
which traverses the ordinary route from Setchuen to Tali, we
should have run the risk of being stopped on om- way by a
timorous chief, who lived too far from the centre of the Mo
hammedan kingdom to enable one to appeal from his deci- -
sion to that of the sultan of Tali. By offering very high
pay, we managed to collect some courageous men, who con
sented to serve us as guides and porters. They told us of
an almost deserted route, very tedious, and destitute of re
sources, but which, not being frequented by the soldiery, had
no other inconvenience than that of being exposed to the
inroads of brigands ; and our experience made us dread the
thieves much less than the warriors charged with watching
over them. We should have 300 kUometres to go instead of
200, which is about the length by way of Yong-pe\ Although
they were ardently seconded by Father Lu, our efforts to find
a messenger who would be the bearer of a letter, and the
Arabic note of the papa, to Tali, remained unsuccessful.
By their perseverance, even more, perhaps, than by their
daring, the English have acquired a preponderating reputa
tion as explorers of the globe ; and it is no little satisfaction
to succeed in any part, where they have constantly failed.
This satisfaction, which springs from a fruitful spirit of emu
lation, and not from a feeling of petty vanity, we had already
felt at being the first to pass from Indo-China to China, and
from Laos to Yunan. Now that we are about to set foot
upon Mussulman territory, it may not be uninteresting to re
call the obstacles before which Colonel Sarel, the chief of the
last English expedition, who, on leaving Shanghai, went up
the Blue River, deemed it necessary to withdraw. That officer

FATHER LU. 313
did not go beyond Pinshang, the extreme limit of naviga-
bifity of the Yang-tse-kiang, which we have been fortunate
enough to come upon, and whose com-se we have followed
more than 300 miles above that point.
That this result was not without importance, one may
judge by the words of Dr. Barton, a member of the English
expedition, who, after having mentioned the reasons for
which Colonel Sarel was obliged to stop at Pinshang, con
cludes in the following terms, in which one can trace, not
withstanding final failure, a sort of patriotic pride : ' Thus,
after having ascended the Yang-tse-kiang for 1800 miles,
being 900 miles more than any other European, except the
Jesuits, dressed in the Chinese costume ; after having pene
trated to the extreme western frontier of the empire (for
we were only a few miles from the country occupied by the
independent tribes), we found ourselves obliged to abandon
every hope of accomplishing om- original plan of reaching
India by way of Thibet ; and we were compelled to retm-n
to Shanghai after an absence of five months.'14 'In fact,' said
an English writer, a great admirer of Colonel Sard's, ' this
officer did not abandon his enterprise till he had reached a
country plunged into rebellion and anarchy, which no guide
would venture' to cross with him.'
However, before venturing into a country a prey to rebel
lion and anarchy, we availed ourselves, for a day, of Father
Lu's hospitality. This young priest loaded us with delicate
attentions. He did not hesitate to deprive himself, for us,
of a bottle of port, which, except what was necessary for
the sacrament, was all he had in his cellar, — a precious
beverage, given to him by a former bishop of Yunan, now
living on the frontiers of Thibet. The best Johannisberg or
Tokay avUI never have such a delicious flavour for us. Father
Lu's church is about a league from Machan. It is poor, orna
mented with a few rough images, and serves both for draw
ing- and dining-room, as soon as the cotton handkerchiefs
which cover the altar have been removed, after mass, by the
native sacristan. The missionary's room is close to his church.
14 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xxxii. : Notes on the
Yang-tse-kiang, from Hankow to Pinshang, by Lieutenant-colonel Sarel
and Dr. Barton ; London, 1862.

314 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
I spent some horns, which fled only too quickly, in this mo
dest cell, looking over his library, which was contained in a
narrow trunk, and devouring the books as I chanced upon
them. The Bible— the book of books— was the first which I
came across. These pages, impregnated, as they are, with
austere philosophy and glowing poetry, where the religious
idea, alternately soft and terrible, shows itself, on one page,
under the awful form of an angry God, dictating his laws
amidst storms; on another, under the features of a fair Jewess,
invoking the burning kisses of a lover; the mixture of solemn
gravity and mystic grace it contains : all this produced on
me, after such a long abstinence from moral food, an effect
which I might in vain try to describe. What vague ideas and
mysterious sensations must have passed through the brain of
a young Chinese, meditating before the image of the holy
Magdalene, after reading the Song of Solomon ! Father Lu
was not a Chinese when at college ; and I thought, as I looked
at his gentle countenance, that the seeds of consumption had
not been the sole causes of his pallor. The charming beings
whom he had only known by his books, could not fail some
times, in his dreams, to become embodied before him ; and
though, from infancy, accustomed to refer everything to God,
above all, love, I suspect he sometimes wept over himself,
and honoured with a tenderness which would not, perhaps,
be supported by the analysis of a rigorous orthodoxy, those
saints of another race, who, with their fair hair and blue
eyes, no doubt appeared to him nearer the angels than
the dingy women of his adopted country. We conversed
with him in Latin, and in a Latin which must have made
Virgil and Cicero shudder in their distant graves. On the
morning of our departure, this excellent missionary, become
our friend so quickly, advised us to load our weapons care
fully ; and, convinced that we were playing with our lives,
left us with emotion, to go to the altar to implore the bene
diction of God upon us.
We crossed the Kin-cha-kiang in small boats, which
almost overturned at the least movement made by either of
the two horses. The waters of the stream are always green,
and the banks always free from woods. The great forests
only reappear at the height of Hokin and Likiang. They

DESOLATED TERRITORY. 315
belong to the government ; but, following a custom used,
I think, in Norway, the company which fells these forests
throw the trees into a river, after having marked them
with the imperial seal, and stop them when they reach
Souitcheou-fou. We disembarked on Yunan territory, and
determined on taking a road, which, perhaps, had existed
formerly ; but there was no trace of it left, and we each
made our way, as well as we could, through the briers,
climbing the rocks, and hanging on by the roots and
branches. Our baggage-porters — who were paid very highly,
on account of the risks to which they were liable — laid
down the law to us, and demanded to halt, after a few hours'
march, in an isolated house, from which the inhabitants had
fled on our approach. On this frontier, so often crossed by
the Mussulman bands, peaceful folks were more timid than
elsewhere. An old woman, who had exposed herself to all
sorts of dangers rather than abandon her dwelling, at length
came out from behind a box, and, reassured by our behavi
our, began to call her people. After an hour of persua
sive entreaties, six robust fellows quitted the hiding-places,
where they had crouched like hares ; and, each helping,
we soon had a table, benches, and beds made of planks.
The horses were placed beneath a shed ; and I opened
a coffin, — a piece of furniture which had already served
me on former occasions to put my horse's forage into, — but
it was occupied by the proprietor. The pigs lived under
the same roof as this corpse, and cooking was carried on
close by. After the harvest, when they have time to spare,
and money to spend on the funeral, our hosts will probably
think of burying their father.
The country was absolutely deserted ; and we journeyed
some time without meeting a single traveller. We at length
reached, not without some curiosity, the first village of the
Mussulman kingdom. It was very quiet, and did not justify
the terror of our porters. There was nothing to prevent
the insurgents from carrying their frontier as far as the
river: and yet they have left, between the Kin-cha-kiang
and their domain, a sort of neutral territory, where the red
flag of the imperial troops stUl floats, as a form ; but where
the functionaries, far from loyal to a government which had

316 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
fallen of itself by the flight ofthe mandarins, are inhabitants
ofthe country, and true chiefs ofthe national guard, enjoy
ing a half independence, and exercising, without control,
the power which they have seized for themselves. It often
happens that the constituted authorities name these mili
tary personages destined to replace them. The motive
which determined the new sultan of Tali to stop the pro
gress of his arms was solely commercial; and it is worth
while mentioning this fact, because it throws a light on
one ofthe most original sides ofthe Chinese character. The
white flag, adopted by the rebels, might have frightened
away the traders, had it been planted on the very borders
of the river ; and it was too soon to make a change. The
Chinese government has never tried to shut up its enemies
in those barriers, which are one of the most powerful means
used in Europe by belligerent nations for starving, or mutu
ally impoverishing, each other. They never have blockades.
The armies fight, and travellers are stopped ; but on either
side merchandise is a surer guarantee than a passport.
Vegetation profits from the absence of man ; and the
pine-forests, burnt up elsewhere, are here healthy and green
upon the mountains. Our eyes were refreshed and glad
dened by the sight of bushes of rhododendrons and camel
lias, which flourished in the damp soil ofthe ravines, beneath
the shade of the trees ; they looked all the more beautiful,
because we were accustomed only to see them growing in
the narrow beds and the unwholesome atmosphere of hot
houses. We passed in front of the first Mussulman custom-house,
round which several traders were assembled. A function
ary visited the bales, baskets, packages, and received the
sapeques. We made him understand that we were not
merchants, and he refrained from inspecting our baggage.
In the village of Ngadati, the population is, in great part,
formed of savages of the Lissougn race. The costume of
the women of this tribe is composed of a short petticoat,
reaching to the knees, made of hempen cloth ;15 and of a
large open bodice, trimmed, as well as the shirt, with a
15 Hemp is not generally used, except among the savages. The Chinese
dress themselves in silk or cotton only.

A MUSSULMAN CHIEF. 317
blue border. Their headdress is a sort of elegant mantUla,
whose variegated ends fall down the back.
We were amusing om*selves with watching this interest
ing fraction ofthe great human race, when firing, shouts,
and lugubrious blasts on the Chinese trumpet, announced
the arrival of the military chief of Ngadati. He was the first
Mussulman functionary we had met on our journey. He had
a free-and-easy manner, and, from a distance, appeared to
be dressed like a gentleman of the court of Louis XV. Be
neath a sort of three-cornered hat, his long black hair fell on
both sides of his shoulders, and was only caught up near the
middle, and made into a thin short queue. The sultan, who
is not unmindful of details, has already occupied himself
about his subjects' costume. He has ordered them to wear a
queue, on the double condition that they do not shave the
front of their heads like the Chinese, and that they do not
add to their natural appendage the long silk plait, which
reaches to the feet ofthe dandies in the Celestial Empire.
The military chief of Ngadati seemed anxious to visit us ; he
did not ask to see our papers, and in no way tried to give us
any trouble. We had been informed that the chief of Peyouti
was the only one powerful enough to- cause us any embarrass
ment on this deserted route. We hastened to reach this vil
lage, and encounter serious difficulties at last. We had been
warned of so many dangers, that we felt somewhat disap
pointed at not meeting with a single obstacle. In fact, a
calm tranquUHty reigned over this country, accounted for
by the poverty of the district, but which we had not ex
pected. A few merchants preceded, or followed us. They
were, for the most part, laden with salt ; a merchandise which
is the object of important, though local, commerce; for the
Chinese law, preserved by the Mussulmans, assigns limits to
each salt-mine, outside which its products cannot be sold.
Tea, opium, metals, and medicinal plants are the only con
siderable exports of Yunan. The prestige attached to us as
Europeans preserved us from any attempts on the part of
brigands, who are much dreaded, by solitary travellers, in
this country, which would seem to have been made on pur-
poso for ambuscades. A few signs were all that revealed
to us the existence of these invisible enemies. Cross-shaped

318 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
gallows, the moveable beam of which has an non hook at
each end, waved their great arms, as though calling for their
human prey. Now and then some skull reflected the rays of
the sun, like a block of rounded quartz, or marked the dark
sky with a white speck, which was not very awful-looking.
A small cold rain fell, whUst the mountains were covered
with snow, which produced on the branches of the green trees
those happy effects so often described. In this region, the only
inhabitants are herdsmen, watching their flocks, and savages,
crouching by the side of a stream, near a smoky fire, occupied
in threshing hemp. The vegetation is very healthy ; it ap
pears, in China, to be always the opposite of the population.
A dozen mud-huts, scattered, without order, on the top
of a mountain, and as many more houses in ruin, made up
the viUage of Peyouti. It has a singular appearance. The
roofs are composed of planks of wood, overlapping each other,
and kept in their places by heavy stones, in such fashion as
to give one the idea that a hailstorm of flints had fallen on
these wretched dwellings. One often sees, even in the large
towns, the same system of roofing employed. The means
of obtaining a livelihood in Yunan are so uncertain, that the
inhabitants do not even trouble themselves to construct a
dweUing- place. The rain feU in torrents into the deserted
hut where we were lodged, in . default of finding a pagoda,
or hostelry, to receive us.
As to the formidable chieftain, whose presence people,
either Ul-informed, or desiring to amuse themselves at our
expense, had announced, he never appeared. We could
easily have levelled his village with the mud from which it
had been constructed. One has to ascend, for a very long
time after quitting Peyouti, and foUow the bed of a torrent,
which looks like a black winding line in the melting snow.
At the summit of the ascent, the view embraces a splendid
collection of mountain -peaks, bathed in clouds, which re
semble the wreaths of smoke rising above a manufactory;
and these clouds shed a lurid hue over the landscape.
Numbers of peasants reside, with their families, on the bor
ders of their fields, in huts formed of intertwined branches,
and await, in abject misery, peace and sunshine, or death.
They avoid the great thoroughfares as much as possible, lest

PINCHONAN. 319
the passing soldiers should carry off their scanty harvest,
and prefer the chance of being pUlaged by robbers, as less
exacting and more humane. Men, at very long intervals
apart, are supposed to watch over the public safety. They
stand sentinel, trembling in miserable sentry-boxes, three or
four together, but seldom possess more than a single lance
between them.
After several days of long marches, sometimes amidst
deep gorges, sometimes on the tops of perpendicular ravines,
through a very poor, and almost uninhabited, country, we
arrived at the extremity of a spur of the mountain, where
the view commanded a magnificent plain, such as we had
not seen since leaving imperial China. Numerous Httle groups
of houses, on whose walls we soon discovered the deadly
traces of war, appeared to be bathed in a sea of verdure.
The imperial soldiers had only recently set fire to every
thing which the persevering proprietors had rebuilt after
a former disaster of the same kind.
We searched in succession three small towns, without
finding a single house where we could pass the night, under
shelter from the wind and snow, and, at last, only found
lodging in the fortified town of Pinchouan. It is a populous
place. The streets are filled with men, remarkable for their
costume, their long hair, marked features, and a certain
air of savage insolence, which characterises them. It was
easy at once to recognise them as Mussulmans, if only by
their haughty demeanour. One of them rudely entered our
room, while we were at our meal. Upon being desired to
leave, he replied by drawing his sword. Our Annamite ser
geant, carried away by his courage and indignation, with
out waiting for orders, rushed on the impudent fellow, dis
armed him, and thrust him violently out at the door. The
military mandarin of Pinchonan came to us, on hearing of
this occurrence, and, after a friendly conversation, requested
to have the letter of the ' papa' read to him. When he had
heard the praises with which the old astronomer had been
kind enough to write of us, a visible degree of respect was
joined to the cordiality with which he had, at first, treated
us. This Mussulman commandant had conceived the idea of
attracting merchants to the town, by guaranteeing to in-

320 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
demnify them for any robberies that might be committed on
them in his territory. This measure compelled the inhabit
ants of the viUages, upon whose shoulders the payment of
the indemnity would really fall, to trace out the brigands,
and act as police.
The proud snowy peaks ofthe mountains, which skirt the
shores of the lake of Tali, were already visible ; the other
mountains, that were nearer to us, appeared rounder and
smaUer. SmaU plains became more frequent, and gave in
dications of the great plain to which we were to come. In
the plain of Pien-ho, not a single village remained standing.
The ruins, made alternately by the imperialists and by the
rebels, stUl serve as a precarious shelter to a large number of
families, who continue to sow, because they can gather the
harvest in six months, but who do not think it worth while
to buUd. We were conducted to the house of Father Fang,
a Chinese Catholic priest, short and thick, with a flat Tartar
face. We were ignorant of his existence, and he had not
received notice of our arrival. We took him by surprise,
whilst reading his breviary ; and it would be difficult to de
scribe his astonishment. Vox faucibus hcesit; the Latin re
mained sticking in his throat, and only eventuaUy came out
in monosyllables, perfectly unintelligible. Recovering, at
length, from his surprise, he left his prayers, in order cor
dially to do the honours of his house to us. Father Fang
possesses the only house in the vUlage ; he built it himself.
He has had the opportunity of developing his talents as an
architect, for his present residence is the fourth that he has
been obliged to erect. The others had been burnt for sport
by passing soldiers. We slept in the chapel, which, as soon
as mass has been said, is devoted to common purposes.
The calendar of Father Fang informed us that it was
Shrove Tuesday. Less fortunate than the celebrated Cure'
de Gresset, who was able, in three days, worthily to perform
all the duties of Carnival and Lent, we allowed the last
hours of this day, marked by so many mad pranks in Europe,
to slip away without doing them honour of any kind. We
were as little inclined to fete the boeuf gras as to share the
doctrines of which that overfed animal seems to be the sym
bol; for I haAre, in fact, always entertained the idea that

MISSIONARIES. 321
the Catholic Church is opposed each year more and more to
the doctrine of brute force and fattened flesh. To receive
from a Chinese priest, and in the company of Chinamen,
the ashes which typify the origin, the redemption, and the
common end of humanity — what a rude lesson for the pride
which is so apt to spring up in the brain of every European
absent from home !
The memento homo quia pulvis es, Avhich must, at all times,
cause us to reflect, produces thoughts still more grave and
solemn in a time of misfortune, such as has now overtaken
this country. Civil war, famine, epidemics, and emigration,
are proved, upon reliable evidence, to have reduced the popu
lation of Yunan by more than one-half, in the space of ten
years. One has but to wander ever so little from the high
ways to run up against the mutilated bones of victims of
murder, either unknown or unpunished. It has often hap
pened to me to make such discoveries as would fill the im
perial police agents in France with joy. At some mUes from
the dwelling of Father Fang, in a spot separated from it by
a mountain, resides another priest, a Frenchman, who has
concealed his house in a dip of the ground, about half-way
up the hUl-side. He lives, as it were, from one day to an
other, without having seen, for fourteen years, a single com
patriot, adopting children, forcing himself in the midst of
danger, to sustain the sinking corn-age of some few Christians,
who surround him ; and endeavouring to coUect about him
a sufficient number of just men to save Sodom. The detaUs
which he gave us respecting the new Mahommedan empire,
which was then in course of formation, made us shudder
with horror; and one does not know whether to feel most
indignant against the sanguinary and lascivious tyrant, or
against the population, ten times more numerous, who bear
the shameful yoke, not without complaint, but without any
attempt to shake it off.
Father Leguilcher fives in complete retirement, far away
from the high-roads, holding no communication Avith the
Mussulman authorities, against whom he has no protection,
and who almost ignore his existence. When the sounds of
war, rising from the plain to his asylum in the mountain, be
come too threatening, he seeks refuge in a deep cavern, a
Y

322 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
place considered holy by the Thibetians, who make pilgrim
ages to it. Still strongly attached to France, though he has
renounced the hope of ever revisiting it, he consented, in
order to serve Frenchmen, to throw off the caution which
prudence, no less than his own tastes, had hitherto imposed
on him, and to accompany us to Tali, where we dared not
venture without an interpreter. To have penetrated, as it
were, into the suburbs of that city, without having received
any safe-conduct or authority, might appear to savour some
what of rashness ; but as no messenger would consent to
carry our letters, the only course open to us was to deliver
them ourselves. We had always been fortunate for two
years, and we counted on our lucky star. Father Leguil-
cher had, however, a very limited confidence in the success
of our enterprise ; but if it succeeded, it would have the
advantage of giving to his position, as missionary, a sort of
official sanction, by which his Christians, the sole object of
his thoughts, might hereafter benefit. It was this consider
ation that determinined him to share our fortune.
It was necessary to descend at hazard from the heights,
on which the French priest had concealed his dwelling, in
order to reach the level ofthe inhabited country; for the
capricious zigzags ofthe path, which led to the plain, had
more the appearance of being traced by the running of water
than by the feet of men. Our horses were useless to us till
we were able to regain the high-road from Yong-Pe to Tali.
A fortress, occupied by a considerable military chief, com
mands this road. We caused ourselves to be formally an
nounced, and entered the fort, without giving the mandarin
time for consideration. He was quite taken by surprise at
our sudden arrival; dropped his pipe of opium, and ap
peared half-besotted as he advanced towards us, and gave
some orders to his people, who ended in blowing with all
their might into some discordant clarionets. We were loaded
with honours. The commandant of this fortress has not em
braced Islamism ; he has remained mild and tolerant, like a
Chinese, and, without losing the confidence of tfie sultan,
has frequently opposed the Adolence of the soldiery. A band
of these Mussulman warriors having demanded of him one
day, with a purpose easily surmised, to replace the men

WE APPROACH TALI. 323
who carried their baggage by young girls, he had them
seized and bound, and ordered that they should be smeared
all over Avith hog's-lard, saying, 'You desire to defile om
women ; you shall first be defiled by our swine !' In spite
of all the efforts of this personage, the villages have been
destroyed round the citadel, which was constructed to pro
tect them, and heaps of bricks alone mark the spots which
they occupied. When night came on, we had great diffi
culty in finding a house standing ; it was a sorry place, dark
and uninhabited. We placed our horses in the inner court,
and lay down on the pavement by their side, redoubling our
usual -vigilance. At no great distance from us, on the hUls,
dwelt some savages called Chasu, who from time immemorial
have plundered travellers. The peasantry pay them an an
nual tribute, caUed in Chinese the robbers' rent, upon the
condition that the half of what has been taken from them is
reimbursed. The cultivator does not lose anything ; a hand
some benefit is still left to the brigands, and every one is
satisfied; a curious tacit understanding, a sort of camorra
connived at by the government, and accepted by all, as a
natural servitude imposed on a certain district.
On the following day our route lay through a series of
low undulations, into a narrow and long valley, which ap
peared to be hermetically sealed, at its farther end, by the
great chain of the Tien-song mountains. These seemed to
separate and recede as we advanced. At length we per
ceived right before us the magnificent expanse of the moun
tains of Tali. Their feet were bathed by the beautiful lake,
Avhilst their summits, crowned with snow, were lost amidst
the clouds. A large carpet of verdure was stretched at our
feet, in the midst of which groups of houses, built of red
brick, with then tiled roofs and white gables, gfittered in the
sun. Around us all was light, colour, and purity. If we had
been compelled to stop here, we could not have regretted
our long marches, our anxieties, and our fatigues. After a
first burst of admiration, criticism resumed its rights. If
this landscape was not one of the most magnificent which
could be imagined, it Avas entnely the fault of the Chinese,
who have not allowed a tree to remain either on the great
mountains or on the smaller hills, which would be so orna-

324 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
mented by shade and foliage. On the other hand, kitchen-
gardening is admirably understood ; we observed beans, cab
bages, and all kinds of common vegetables ; the rice-fields
also occupied a large space. The peasant population, that
resides on the borders of the lakes, is an indigenous race,
belonging, in great part, to the Minkias. Of the five hundred
villages which once stood in this plain, scarcely two hun
dred and fifty can now be counted, and of these only one is
inhabited exclusively by Chinese.
We passed along a paved road, on which workmen were
employed. It was the first time, since om- entry into Yu
nan, that we had seen a road either in course of construc
tion or repair. This road leads to a fortress, whose walls
rest against the mountains on one side, whilst on the other
they are prolonged down to the lake, so that it absolutely
closes the road. The commandant of the place informed us
that he had sent for orders to the sultan, and that we must
await the result.
These orders arrived the next day, and we felt ourselves
relieved of a heavy load of anxiety, when we heard that they
were favourable. We passed through the fortress, a regular
mouse-trap, where it would have been easy to imprison us in
a moment ; but as a mandarin had been sent from Tali with
some soldiers to act as escort, we felt reassured, and did not
suspect that any snare was laid for us. On the other side of
the fortress the plain opened out, and was traversed by the
road, which we followed. As soon as the walls of the town,
dominated by the high mountains, appeared in the distance,
our porters were seized with a panic. The Christians, who
had chosen to follow Father Leguilcher, prudently retired,
proposing to rejoin our caravan as soon as they heard what
sort of a reception we had received. Very bad reports were
brought to us : fourteen Europeans had recently been put to
death, and, according to our frightened attendants, we should
soon see their heads stuck on the walls. By the Chinese
all strangers are called Europeans. The men massacred by
order of the sultan were probably Burmans or Hindoos, for
their skin was nearly black. Nevertheless, we entered with
out obstacle into this formidable city. The main street, at
first almost deserted, became filled by degrees. We ad-

THE SULTAN OF TALI. 325
vanced, closing up to each other, Avith eyes on the watch, and
our hands on our arms. A mandarin, magnificently dressed
and mounted on a valuable horse, cast a contemptuous glance
on our woollen garments, shabby and without gold embroid
ery, and our jaded thin horses : he desired us to dismount.
We were then assailed by an enormous crowd, shouting and
excited, which swarmed from all the side streets, oscillating
backwards and forwards, like the waves of the sea, and
threatening to crush us. The soldiers pressed upon us be
hind, and violently tore off our hats. This insult was followed
by a brawl, in which we were compelled to use the butt-end
of our muskets ; our three Annamites and their two com
panions used their swords bravely, till at length the man
darin, who had at first remained passive, tardily interposed,
at the moment when a Mussulman soldier fell wounded.
This incident, which might have had such fatal results,
and ofthe origin of which we were ignorant, had been caused
by the curiosity of the sultan. He had been watching us
from the ramparts of the citadel, and it was to enable him
to examine at his ease our European features that our hats
had been so brutally pulled off, after we had been compelled
to dismount. He himself gave the order to conduct us out
of the town, and lodge us in a place which he pointed out.
We had scarcely been installed in our dwelling, when man
darins came to make excuses on the part of the sultan, to
offer an audience for the next day, and regulate the ceremo
nial, a point upon which they showed themselves very con
ciliating. They insisted, however, on one thing — a promise
that we should present ourselves without arms. They then
conversed respecting the purpose" of our journey ; but the con
versation, in spite of the courtesy of its terms, became a
regular cross-examination. Whether the exclusively scien
tific object of our expedition had not been sufficiently main
tained by us, or whether their heads were too thick to be
lieve in such disinterested motives for so toilsome an expe
dition, as the high-priest of Yunan-Sen had predicted, it is
certain that, on the following day, we found the friendly
disposition entirely changed.
At the hour which had been fixed for the audience, a
mandarin came to inform us, that there were still some

326 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
details to be arranged; that it was necessary to have a
clearer and more complete explanation ; and ended by say
ing, that the sultan required to see Father Leguilcher.
After the fortunate issue of our previous negotiations, in
which we had already received proofs ofthe wisdom and
intelligence of the missionary, we thought that the inter
view Avith the sultan would be advantageous, and without
danger. Father Leguilcher, less confident than ourselves,
nevertheless went, like a man accustomed to face all dangers.
He returned, safe and sound, after an hour's absence ; but
having heard the most violent menaces uttered, first against
himself, for having introduced people of our sort into Tali ;
then against us, who had come to reconnoitre the roads, mea
sure the distance, and to make maps ofthe country, with the
intention, evident, in spite ofthe effrontery of our denial,
of taking possession of it. ' Go and tell,' the sultan had
added, ' go and tell these Europeans, that they may take
all the country watered by the Lant-san-Kiang (Mekong)
from the sea, as far as Yunan, but they will be obliged
to stop there. Even had they conquered the whole of
China, the invincible kingdom of Tali would still prove an
insurmountable barrier to their ambition. I have already
put many strangers to death ; these insolent fellows, who
shed the blood of one of my soldiers under my very eyes
yesterday, may expect a similar fate, if they remain longer
in my country. I spare them now, because they have been
recommended to me by a man venerated by Mussulmans ;
but let them return at once to the place from whence they
came; and if they attempt to reconnoitre the river, which
flows from the lake of Tali (the Mekong), woe betide both
you and them !'
This sovereign, who reigns by terror, lives in a state of
perpetual fear. The walls of the citadel, which is con
structed in the centre ofthe town, are the strongest and
finest possible. The sultan remains shut up behind these
ramparts. Two cannon, always loaded, stand pointed at
the door ofthe hall of audience. No one, except his most
devoted servants, approaches him ; and very few of his
people even know him by sight. The suspected are sum
moned, one by one, into this den ; and seldom return alive.

THE ESCAPE. 327
When the Christians, who had mingled with the crowd, saw
Father Leguilcher on his way to the audience, they burst
into tears, quite convinced that he was going to his death.
It was not, however, so bad as that, as we have just seen.
After the account given by the missionary, we were not only
compelled to renounce all hope of seeing the Mekong again,
but even of visiting the town; and it was necessary that we
should remain close prisoners in our dwelling, till the next
day. We loaded our arms ; for there was everything to
fear from a man so much alarmed as the sultan. After the
inexplicable change which had already taken place in his
disposition to us, we felt that we might dread, in this ec
centric tyrant, some fresh impulse, which might materially
aggravate our position. We were, in truth, absolutely at his
mercy; and although we were quite determined to defend
ourselves, it was impossible to entertain any illusion respect
ing the result of the contest, if it really came to that. At
night our whole house, with the exception of the portion
in which we were actually lodged, was filled with soldiers.
Our own sentinels were, in consequence, obliged to retire into
our very rooms, and under the feeling that some great cala
mity was impending over us, we passed the night in constant
observation of the soldiers, who, on their side, were equally
watchful of our movements.
At the first glimpse of dawn our gaolers entered the
courtyard, and offering no resistance to our departure, pre
pared to escort us, armed to the teeth. Everything went
well till we came to the fortress, which commanded the
entrance into the plain. There the mandarin, commanding
our guard, ordered us to halt; and then quickly left us.
Fearing that he had gone to communicate with the com
mandant of this place, and suspecting that, in order to get
rid of ub, there might be an idea of imprisoning and making
away with us, we assembled all our baggage - porters, and
pushing them before our horses, we passed, at a hand-gallop,
all the fortifications that stopped our way, in spite ofthe
shouts ofthe sentinels and the orders of their chief. For
tunately for us they were very badly guarded ; and once out
of this dangerous spot, we had space before us, and did not
fail to profit by it.

328 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
At ten o'clock at night, when we had taken possession
of a deserted house, easily defensible, in order to pass the
night there, a small number of soldiers asked quietly to be
allowed to enter. They came to inform Father Leguilcher
that the commandant of the fort, the very same from whom
we had had such a friendly reception three days before, re
quired him to appear before him immediately. They were
also charged to purchase, in the name of the sultan of Tali,
the revolver which we had intended offering to that capri
cious personage as a present. In spite of the urgency with
which they pressed on us this double negotiation, these in
discreet ambassadors were conducted to the door. To com
promise the missionary, by making our escape in the night,
would have been a want of prudence ; and to sell a weapon
to a man who had neither deserved it as a gift, nor had had
the courage to take it for himself, would have been a want
of dignity. So the soldiers left us murmuring, and we spent
the night in consolidating bur barricades. These, however,
turned out to be unnecessary ; and this alarm was the last.
The chief of the new Mussulman empire spared us, from the
fear of provoking against himself the intervention of Eu
ropeans ; and his fanatical subjects were kept in awe by the
secret terror with which our arms had inspired them. On
returning to the hermitage of Father LeguUcher, we at once
became aware, by the consternation visible on all counten
ances, that the news of our ill-success had preceded us.
Christians were flocking to it from all parts of the mountain,
filling the chamber and the oratory, pressing round the priest,
whom they were afraid to question — silent, like persons who
felt that some great misfortune was impending. On the
following day, when Father Leguilcher, whose life would
have been endangered by a longer stay amongst them, de
parted with us, sobs burst forth ; men and children desired
to accompany their benefactor. As to the women, it was
really sad to see them, with their mutilated feet, striving to
keep pace with the horses, and bathed in tears, whilst they
labom-ed up the steep mountain. They held by the robe of
the priest, who did not turn round, for fear of giving way.
We carried away with us the soul of this little Christian
world, surrounded by enemies on the side of Thibet, as well as

OUR RETREAT. 329
on that of China, feeling that it would possibly, after our de
parture, and in consequence of our imprudence, be persecuted
on account of its faith. This was a bitter thought, which,
added to the inevitable sympathy, to which all human suffer
ing, when sincerely expressed, gives rise, drew from us the
first tears which we had shed for two years.
The mountain Li-kiang soon showed itself, with its im
posing form, on the horizon ; it looked, in the distance, like
a huge white phantom, which appeared to guard the en
trance to Thibet. We had set out, at first, from the low
plains which had been gained from the sea by the alluvial de
posits of the Mekong, and could, at length, gaze upon lofty
summits and eternal snows, and have a glimpse of that hazy
country, to which our dreams had so often led us. But at
the same moment we lost all hope of ever being able to
penetrate it; though the serious difficulties, which now
occupied our thoughts, left us little time for regret. As
long as our journey continued to be through Mussulman
territory, it was necessary to press on, and encamp only
in safe spots, and at a distance from populous places. It
was, therefore, with great satisfaction that we, at length,
arrived at the tract which was, by common consent, consi
dered by both belligerents to be neutral. Our itinerary, on
the return journey, was the same, with one trifling modifi
cation, which I have described in conducting the reader to
Tali; so that I need not lose time over it. We had the
satisfaction of obtaining from the mandarin of Hoeli-Tcheou
the punishment of a soldier who had insulted Father Lu ;
and also the publication ofthe last imperial edict in favour
of Christians — an edict of which the population had hitherto
been kept in ignorance.
Meantime, thanks to the missionary, who served us as
interpreter, the conversation of travellers, innkeepers, and
merchants — people who are, in all countries, curious and
talkative — was no longer a sealed book to us. Our adven
tures were generally the chief subject of talk ; and in the
account of them, truth already began to give way to fiction.
We listened to these stories without taking any part in them,
and it was thus that the first news of the invalid of Tong-
Tchouan came, after our long absence, to grieve our hearts.

330 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
We succeeded in unravelling from the extravagant details
with which an opium-smoker embellished his narrative, that
an operation had been performed on M. de Lagree. Of what
nature had the operation been? What had been its re
sults'? To all the questions which hurried to our lips, no
serious answer could be obtained. It was not till three days
before our arrival at Tong-Tchouan, that our apprehensions
changed to certainty. M. de Lagree had died on the 12th
of March 1868, of a liver-complaint, with which he had been
ill for more than sixty days. Dr. Joubert, who had, in the
highest degree, enjoyed the friendship and confidence of our
chief, came to meet us. He was himself much enfeebled by
the fever, and still suffering from the impression made on
him by the painful duties which he had had to perform — the
post-mortem examination and burial of the corpse. M. de
Lagree had retained his senses to the last. The feefing of
the responsibility which rested on him never left him ; when
at the point of death, his greatest grief was, to remain in
ignorance of our fate. This is not the place in which to
pay him, at length, the tribute of praises which he had so
justly earned. I will only say now, that the success of our
long journey had been his work, and that all the honour be
longs to his memory. It remained for us to gain Shanghai.
The narrative of this rapid passage through China wUl be
the subject ofthe last portion of this work.16
16 This voyage on the Blue River can be easily followed by the help of a
map of China.

CHAPTER IX.
THE BLUE RIVER. ARRIVAL AT SHANGHAI, AND RETURN TO
SAIGON.
At Tong-Tchouan, our journey of exploration ended. Our
strength, as well as our resources, was exhausted ; and,
under the heavy blow inflicted on us by the loss of our chief,
all our thoughts turned towards Shanghai. It was still ne
cessary, however, to traverse, in order to reach that city, al
most the whole of China, in its widest part ; but this seemed
easy to us with the assistance of the Yang-tse-Kiang, that
' grand chemin qui marche.' After having so long contended
against the current ofthe Mekong, through an unhealthy and
almost deserted country, we were, at length, to find com
pensation for our past fatigues ; we were about to be borne
upon one of the mightiest rivers of the world, through one
ofthe most densely-populated countries, towards a European
city. Nevertheless, we had not yet arrived at the spot where
this great artery is continuously used by junks of large ton
nage. Some stages still separated us from Souit-cheou-Fou,
an important town of Setchuen, where it was our intention
to embark ; and we were in haste, like the Hebrew captives
of old, to commence this march towards our deliverance. But
there still remained a duty for us to perform at Tong-
Tchouan itself.
The Chinese government always avoids placing at the
head of a province any individual who has been born in
it, and consequently possesses there his famUy, fortune,
and interests.1 On the other hand, respect and religious
veneration for the dead having alone, among the educated
1 The Mantchou conquerors were the authors of this policy. They
desired to prevent the Chinese functionaries from taking root in their
government, and thus to preclude any possibility of their creating round
themselves centres of insurrection.

332 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
classes survived the shipwreck of all other beliefs, the value
which the children of a functionary attach to the possession
of his corpse admits of easy explanation. ' A son,' says Fa
ther Duhalde, ' would live without respect, especially in his
famUy, if he did not cause the corpse of his father to be buried
in the tomb of his ancestors, and a place would never be
assigned to his name in the hall where they honour them.'
From this cause it is that one so often sees those solemn
funeral processions, which traverse the country, and weigh
down the population, which is compeUed to offer to the living
mandarins presents worthy of the personage whose corpse
they are escorting. When we wished, in the forest of Laos,
to open the tomb of Henri Mouhot, in order to assure our
selves that it contained his remains, it was opposed, as being
a sacrilege. In China, on the contrary, it was possible for
us to exhume the body of Commandant Lagree, without
doing violence to prejudices, or contravening customs ; only,
sad to relate, neither curiosity nor Ul-wUl had been arrested
by death, and the hideous populace, without any respect for
om- grief, insulted the saUor, who was fulfilling this sad
task, and went so far as to stone the coffin. On the spot,
where he had reposed for some days, in the garden of a
pagoda, Messieurs Joubert and Delaporte had raised, with
their own hands, a pyramid of stone, which will recall to
Europeans, who may hereafter visit this place, the recollec
tion of one of the longest journeys that was ever made in
Asia, and also the name ofthe Frenchman, who died before
he could gather the fruits of the success which he had in
sured. We easUy found a Chinese undertaker, who agreed to
convey the coffin to Souit-cheou-Fou, and we ourselves left
Tong-Tchouan on the 7th April 1868. We were still accom
panied by Father LeguUcher, who had been obliged, as we
have seen, to flee from a persecution which was imminent,
and was going to rejoin his bishop, on the frontier of Set
chuen and Yunan, and seek from him an asylum and instruc
tions how to proceed. He was good enough to supply the
want of any other interpreter ; and, thanks to him, we were
enabled to obtain information of the commercial movements
that were going on, the activity of which is testified by the

WRETCHED INNS. 333
number of caravans which preceded us, or crossed our road.
The inns are numerous on this frequented route, which joins
Yunan to Setchuen by Souit-cheou-Fou; but they are usu
ally mere dens, where man and beast live in promiscuous
and insupportable filth. The dungheap charms the sight of
this agricultural people, without wounding their olfactory
nerves ; and these utilitarians think there is no use seeking
privacy to do what they regard as a beneficial and produc
tive work. The beds furnished by the innkeepers consist of
thick mattresses, upon which the traveller can place cushions.
These mattresses are not fit for use, for every traveller leaves
on them his tribute of vermin ; so that they harbour myriads
of filthy insects, and we found ourselves frequently obliged
to stop and have our clothes boiled, and rub our bodies
with spirit, distilled from rice, in which tobacco had been
steeped. The greater number of inns are kept by men, who
have come from Kiangsi, the province where most of the
porcelain is manufactured, and which sends to Yunan for the
most of the salts of lead employed in the preparation of the
glazing. The town of Tchao-Tong is the last of any importance
in the province of Yunan. Its streets are filled with mud,
blackened with coal, and unceasingly pounded by the feet
of the horses and mules of the caravans. It is populous,
though the mandarin, who visited us, evidently exaggerated
when he carried the number of inhabitants up to 80,000.
Even if this number was reduced a full third, a sufficiently
large field is still left for the vanity of a municipal officer.
But what appeared to be essentially wanting in the intellect
of this high functionary, was the capacity to understand quan
tity : hence at the dinner to which he invited us, an incon
ceivable number of dishes appeared upon the table. This
festival was the last to which we were invited by a Chinese;
and, as I shall not have any other opportunity of describ
ing what is prescribed, under similar circumstances, as the
puerile but accepted code of etiquette in the Celestial Empire,
I take this one, and borrow from the book of Father Du-_
halde some ofthe formalities essential for persons of good
society when they entertain each other.
' A feast must be always preceded by three invitations,

334 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
which must be sent, in an equal number of written notes,
to the intended guests. The first invitation is sent on the
day before ; the second on the morning of the day fixed for
the repast, as a reminder, to the guests, ofthe invitation
that has been sent to them, and to beg them anew, not to
faU to attend to it; finally, the third note is sent when every
thing is ready, and the master ofthe house is free to receive
his guests. This is carried by one of his servants, and ex
presses the extreme impatience which he feels to receive his
friends. According to the ancient customs of China, the place
of honour is given to strangers, and amongst them to the
one who comes from the greatest distance: the master of
the house always occupying the lowest place. When the
giver of the repast introduces his guests into the dining-
hall, he salutes them in turn. He then pours some wine into
a porcelain cup, and, having bowed to the person of the
highest rank amongst them, he places it before him. The
guest replies to the civUity, by gestures which he makes,
to induce the host not to give himself the trouble ; and he,
at the same time, asks for wine to be brought to him in a
cup, and taking some, steps forward, to carry it to his host,
who, in his turn, stops him by some customary words of
civility. The feast is always begun by drinking unmixed
wine. The host, with one knee on the ground, in a loud
voice invites all the guests to drink. Then each one takes
his cup with both hands, and raises it to his forehead;
then lowering it beneath the table, and presently carrying
it to his lips, he drinks slowly, with three or four pauses,
the host never omitting to urge them to empty their cups,
which he does, first of all, himself; shoAving the bottom
of his cup, pointing out that it is quite empty, and beg
ging every man to do the same. At the commencement
of the second course, each guest makes his servant bring
him divers little red-paper bags, which contain trifling sums
of money, for the cook, the maitre-d, hotel, for the actors who
perform, and for the servants who wait at table. . . Little or
much is given, according to the rank of the person who en
tertains you. But this present is only given when the feast
is accompanied by comic acting. The amphitryon always
makes some difficulty about accepting what is offered to him.

CHINESE ETIQUETTE. 335
The master of the house, on showing his guests out, never
omits to say, " We have entertained you very badly," &c.'
Everything, even to simple inclinations of the head, is
prescribed by rules, in its least details ; indeed it is all set
out in printed instructions. The whole question of these
rules of good breeding is elevated to the rank of a social
science ; and at Pekin, a councU of ceremonies watches over
these grotesque customs, Avith as much jealous anxiety as
is shown by a political party, in Em-ope, for the mainten
ance of a constitution. If one has to pay a visit to a man
darin, the first step is to send him your card. This card
is a small piece of red paper, on which one writes his name,
followed by some polite but empty phrase, such as : ' The
tender and sincere friend of your lordship, and the constant
disciple of his doctrine, presents himself, in this quality,
to pay you his respects, and make a reverence, down to
the very ground.' If the mandarin is disposed to receive
you, he advances to meet you, and begs you to pass in first.
You answer, ' I dare not ;' and, after an infinity of prescribed
gestures and set phrases, the master of the house presents
the chair on which the guest is to sit, and slightly flicks it,
with a fold of his robe, to wipe off the dust. If one de
sires to write to a person of importance, it is necessary to
use white paper, which has ten or twelve folds, like a screen.
You begin the letter on the second fold, and write your name
at the end. The smaUer the writing you use, the more
respectful it is considered. When the letter is finished, you
place it in a small paper bag, outside of which is written,
' The letter is within/ If you have papers which are to
be sent to court, you fasten a feather to the packet; and
this symbol indicates, to the messenger, that he must have
wings. We have ourselves received the visit of ten man
darins at a time, and, according to custom, offered them
tea, commencing with the one of highest rank, who made
a gesture as if to offer it to the second, then to the third,
and so on to the last. Not until aU had politely refused
did he commence drinking. The second mandarin, in his
turn, presented his cup to the eight others; and so on
through the whole number, tUl the last but one, who did not
fail to receive a polite refusal from the last. AU this was

336 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
carried on with imperturbable gravity ; and, to prevent om-
selves from bursting into laughter, we were obliged to call
to mind the shades of language, and good manners, which
distinguish good society in Europe.
One thus sees that education, if a minute formafism be
dignified by that name, is pushed as far in China as with us.
How often must we have appeared, to these refined man
darins, people of coarse manners and incongruous customs !
What astonishment they must have felt, for instance, when
we took off our hats to salute them, who think it an im
pertinence to uncover the head !2 If they had been writing
in France respecting us, we should certainly haA^e had rea
son to fear, lest they should repeat the testimony which the
Lipou, or councU of ceremonies, once gave respecting the
ambassador of the Grand Duke of Muscovy. This answer,
translated, by order of the emperor, into Latin, by the mis
sionaries of Pekin, commenced thus : ' Legatus tuus multa fecit
rustice.'3 The country round Tchao-Tong is as much ravaged as
the rest of Yunan. A short time before our passage through
it, the Manseu hordes had come down from then moun
tains, and harried it with fire and sword, and the bands of
imperial soldiers completed its ruin. The population, still
very numerous, in spite ofthe calamities which decimated
it, finds shelter where it can, in mud-huts, or in caverns in
the rocks. Its misfortunes have been so great, that it sees
an enemy in every unknoAvn face. In an excess of zeal, the
mandarin of Tchao-Tong had given us an order to press por
ters, who were to be changed at every vUlage ; but we never
found a single hamlet that was not deserted on our approach,
so that we had to make a regular man- hunt. Fearing to be
retained by force, and made furious by this apprehension, our
porters went at this odious work with the keenest ardour.
Each one hunted for a man to take his place, and brought
him in triumph, often covered with bruises from the blows he
had received when caught.
2 To conform to this way of thinking, the missionaries have asked
leave from the Pope to use a special headdress, something like the caps of
ceremony of the mandarins, at the celebration of mass. The Thibetians
salute each other by pinching the ear and putting out the tongue.
3 Pere Duhalde.

THE ROADS. 337
The roads are well laid out and broad ; they only require
a little keeping up. Here and there a few old women give
an occasional stroke with a pickaxe, and hold out their hands
to travellers, who profit by their voluntary labour; an in
genious pretext for begging, and also a useful protest against
the negligence of the public authorities. The greater part of
these roads are constructed on projecting slopes above rivers
and torrents, which are affluents of the Yang-tse-Kiang, and
traverse a region, upon which the troubled appearance ofthe
mountains that bristle over it, gives the impress of a severe
kind of beauty. Some ofthe larger vUlages have the arrogant
look of our old feudal fortresses; for example, that ofTahou-
anse, built half-way up a jagged hill, and having a large en
trance-gate, recaUs the threatening profile of a strong tower.
Every here and there, the heads of decapitated brigands or
deserters serve as food to birds of prey. Coal is often visible
in the gorges, and is much used ; it does not appear, however,
that any effort is made to discover the seams, or to increase
the working of it. Those mines only, which accidental cir
cumstances have discovered, are worked, and these are quite
sufficient for the very limited local consumption. The metals
show themselves everywhere abundant ; iron at He-hi ; silver
lead at Sinkaitsen, not far from Tchao-Tong. I have already
mentioned this mine, which appears to be exceedingly rich.
On leaving a narrow defile, we saw the village of La-oua-
tan, which was separated from us by a rapid river. Below
the close rows of houses, which cover the declivities of the
mountains, there was a large number of junks in course of
building ; some lying on the sand, others firmly moored to
the bank. Thus, exactly one year after taking leave of our
canoes, and setting foot in Burmah on the banks of the Me
kong, we again found vessels in China, upon an affluent of
the Blue River.
The vicar-apostolic of Yunan resides at Long-ki, not far
from Lo-oua-tan. The friendly assistance which had been
rendered us by the priests of the mission made it our duty
to pay our respects to this old man, now approaching the ter
mination of a long career, which persecution had several times
nearly cut short. Monsignor Poucet had arrived in China
at the close of the Restoration, and had never seen France
Z

338 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
again. Since that time, he has spent his life in the mountains
of Yunan ; and it was at the summit of an almost inaccessible
height, that we had to seek the episcopal palace. The man
darins, who, for a long time, persecuted the missionaries, no
longer possess the power to protect them. At the present
moment, these last protect themselves against the invasions
of the wUd tribes, and sometimes even afford to Chinese, who
are not Christians, shelter behind their walls, which the Man-
sen do not care to approach too nearly. They are, however,
terrible enemies, these Manseu, who lie in ambush on the
borders of Setchuen and Yunan. In a single year they are
said to have reduced to slavery, or to have massacred, more
than a thousand travellers. Ferocious and intemperate,
they gorge themselves in their dens Avith meat and brandy,
the fruit of then plunder; when they are satiated they sleep
like boas, and soon afterwards start again on expeditions.
Jealous of their own independence, they seek for no sup
port outside their own tribes, and have exterminated a de
tached band of the army of the Taipings, without thinking of
forming an alliance with them against the imperialists. The
necessity of defending themselves, and especially of pro
tecting the numerous children who come to Long-ki, and to
the college of Chen-fou-chan, to seek the instruction which
is freely given to all, has developed in some missionaries
quafities, which it is strange to find under then garb. Then-
activity, their vigUance and bravery, reminded me of those
immortal types, furnished by our military orders to romance
and history. The native Catholic clergy is, in part, re
cruited from the pupils of these establishments. At Chen-
fou-chan, amongst sixteen youths admitted to, and educated
in this hospitable house, only one on an average takes orders.
The others, with hearts educated on principles of Christian
morality, and minds fashioned on the European model, by
the study of Latin, obtain employment in different occupations
at the missions, and, freed from the prejudices of their coun
trymen, place themselves in connexion with strangers in the
ports which are open to European commerce.
When we had finished this last excursion, the river La-
oua-tan, ministering to our impatience, bore us along with
furious rapidity. We shot rapids, where the water, hemmed

WE ARE RUDELY TREATED. 339
in by rocks, has a very visible fall. An oar fixed at the prow
ofthe junk serves as a rudder in these dangerous places,
where a false turn ofthe tiller would cause a catastrophe.
Soon afterwards, the river broadens out, and opposite Souit-
cheou-fou has the appearance of an arm of the sea. We
had, finally, left Yunan. On entering the territory of Set
chuen, we thought, that, furnished as we were with pass
ports, we could count upon the mandarins for protection,
and trust to them to insure us respect from the common
people. But from the first moment of our arrival at Souit-
cheou-fou, we had to give up this hope, and provide for our
own security. The town was full of aspirants to mUitary
bachelorship, who, having completed their rough exercises,
before a jury of examination, in the Champ de Mars, desired
to give themselves the pleasure of a siege at our expense.
The first, who attempted to enter our domicile by force of
arms, was a bachelor of the watch, insolent, and dressed in
rags. He received a sword-cut on the head. He was a
vigorous, fellow, come from Yunan to take his degrees. The
soldiers of Yunan have a great reputation at Setchuen, and
are renowned for their bravery. All the other candidates
took offence at his treatment, and prepared to avenge him.
Proclamations affixed to the walls, tumultuous meetings,
passionate harangues, nothing was omitted by these valiant
soldiers, to excite each other to the murder of five strangers.
All this hubbub, which the Christians came trembling to tell
us about (the Christians always tremble in China), lasted for
three days, at the end of which we received the excuses of
both infantry and cavalry.4
The mob remained quite indifferent to the quarrel, and
the mandarins did nothing to allay it. The police is, never
theless, organised in all Chinese towns, and is by no means
destitute of the power of acting. There is a special func-
4 These bold warriors watched our departure, and when they were quite
certain that the current of the great river had decidedly carried us away,
they broke into our former dwelling, fired shots, and searched every corner
to discover where we were concealed. After this glorious expedition, ofthe
stirring details of which pompous announcements were made on the walls,
the soldiers scattered themselves about the town, boasting to the people that
we had disgracefully fled. These particulars reached me only quite re
cently.

340 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
tionary for each quarter ; in every house the father of the
family acts. The inhabitants generally are, in part, respon
sible for the crimes committed by their neighbours, and in
consequence take some share in watching them. Hence arise
many violations of the sanctity of private life ; but no one
thinks of complaining.
At the present time, however, everything even in penal
affairs ends in China in a question of money. Whether the
culprit has incurred the penalty often strokes or of death,
on most occasions a Httle ingenuity, and some few taels,
enable him to get out of prison safe and sound, and be again
proclaimed an honest man.
One of us having been insulted, one day when we were out
walking, by a group of idle people, we picked out the one
who appeared, from his dress, to be the best off, and seizing
him by his tail, whUst his companions ran away, we dragged
him through the town to the palace ofthe mandarin. During
our passage to it, his relations and friends came discreetly
to offer to buy his freedom. Our compatriot might have
done a good stroke of business on that day. However, he
preferred answering these propositions by some good strokes
of a whip, to which the mandarin added at once, and in
a public place, a sound bastinadoing. This took place in
Yunan, where the mifitary mandarins possess a real suprem
acy, in consequence of the state of the province, and gener
ally, as has been seen, gave us proofs of their favour. We
encountered, on the other hand, from the learned officials
who governed those portions of the empire that were at
peace, a very different treatment, of which the impunity,
granted to the brawlers at Souit-cheou-fou, was a disquiet
ing symptom. But it is easy to explain whence arose the
favour of the generals, and the hostility of the prefects.
One regrets to observe - that the profession of arms is
valued too highly amongst many nations of the West, but it
is assuredly placed too low in the scale among the Chinese.
Since the Tartar invasion, the Mantchou emperors, placed on
the throne by then soldiers, could not fail, both from policy
and gratitude, to endeavour to secure some prestige to the
mUitary profession. It may be said that they have failed
against the league of the learned professions, who coalesced

THE CHINESE MILITARY. 341
to maintain then privileges, and that public opinion has pre
served, on this point, its philosophical disdain and preju
dices. To conquer its own conquerers, has been, in truth,
the great object of the Chinese, as it was that of ancient
Greece. If the eight Tartar banners assemble round them
selves a number of soldiers, to whom one cannot refuse to
allow a certain relative value, the remainder of the Chinese
army is composed of men ofthe lowest order, who, excepting
in courage, call to mind our old Brabant free-lances. The
officers, raised above the men, by the examinations which
they have to pass, find in these, confined as they are entirely
to professional subjects, but a very slight claim to public
consideration. Often of coarse manners, they have in general
a humble opinion of themselves ; having but little acquaint
ance Avith the classical books, they have learnt no refinement
from the past ; they are barren of knowledge, but this ignor
ance saves them from pretentiousness. They readily recog
nise the superiority of Europeans in the art of war, as well as
in the excellence of their arms, and perceive that they them
selves have nothing to lose by the opening of the empire to
strangers. Thence arose that sympathy, mixed with respect,
which the military mandarins showed us. The superiority
thus so readUy accorded to us by the military mandarins
has been for a long time disputed by the literary mandarins.
The authors of the imperial annals, as they successively
learnt the existence of the different nations of the world,
set them down without hesitation amongst the vassals of
their imperial master; the only exception being in favour
ofthe Roman empire, which they call Ta-tshin. Such pre
sumption has had its day, and the Chinese no longer inquire
whether there are any villages in Europe ; but it cost them
a struggle to abandon errors so long cherished by the na
tional vanity. They stiU cling to them as much as possible,
and they consoled themselves for the inferiority of then-
armies, by the conviction of the literary superiority, which
they still possess over us. They begin to feel to-day that
even this last resource threatens to fail them ; light breaks
in continually, and alarm has very nearly taken the place of
disdain in the minds of the educated classes.
Those mandarins, who have grown gray over their books,

342 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
and have nearly reached the term of a laborious career, spent
not in the acquisition ofthe eighty thousand characters of
their language, but in deciphering them, and themselves
painting large numbers of them (for in that consists the
whole knowledge of a learned Chinese), — foresee in European
science, ways, and writing, rivals, with which they decline to
contend, because they are aware that the struggle would
be fatal to them. If by any new process, means were found
to teach the pupils of our lyceums to read and understand
Chinese, as readily as they read and understand English or
Italian, how great would be the disgust of certain Chinese
linguists, who are well salaried by our learned bodies to give
instruction, which is little attended to, and as little over
looked !
This is the cruel extremity clearly perceived in China by
those who possess the most foresight, vaguely guessed at
by others, and, not without reason, feared by all. That which
is now passing at the very door of the Celestial Empire, in a
country long attached to it by political ties, and stUl its tri
butary in literature, and a slave to its pictorial writing,
has nothing reassuring in it. There is a newspaper now
printed at Saigon, which has substituted our phonetic cha
racters for the Chinese hieroglyphics ; and the young Anna
mites instructed in the colonial schools are enabled to read
this journal after some months of study. This reform, ef
fected without noise, contains, none the less, in spite of its
simplicity, the seed of a renaissance for this part of the ex
treme East, no less fruitful than that which, in Europe, fol
lowed the discovery of printing. In a country like China,
where one emperor has been seen burning the libraries, and
casting members of the learned class into the flames, another,
better inspired, may possibly be seen who will take the Euro
pean alphabet under his protection, without permitting him
self to be stopped by the despairing resistance of an egotistical
caste. Although this deliverance of thought does not appear
to be very near, the educated classes seem to have a pre
sentiment of it; and, in consequence, encourage, by under
hand means, violence against strangers in the lower orders,
who in all countries are so easUy made the blind instruments
of the skilful.

SOUIT-CHEOU-FOU. 343
At Souit-cheou-fou the storm had dispersed, but not Avith
out giving us a salutary lesson and a useful caution. The
anger of some, and the indiscreet curiosity of others, did not
prevent us from exploring the toAvn. It is admirably situ
ated on the Blue River, at a point where the latter receives
a very considerable affluent. It is regularly built, and over
looked by a hill, which is croAvned by a pagoda. This sanc
tuary is reached by a long flight of stairs, of easy inclina
tion, which our Yunan horses, accustomed to more difficult
ascents, mounted without difficulty. The view is splendid
from this elevated spot, and we were able to enjoy it in per
fect tranquillity, for the crowd had not foUowed us. I found
there, upon the altar, a statue of Fo, which was a reproduc
tion of the features so long familiar to us in the Cambodgian
and Laotian Bouddha. This face, calm, and with long fea
tures, from which a sort of passive, but ecstatic and contem
plative, expression has driven all animation, is rarely met
with in China. In the beginning, as we know, God made man
in his own image ; but since that time, one may say with
truth that man has certainly done the same thing to Him
on a generous scale. To speak only of the Chinese, in adopt
ing the great Indian ascetic, who lived on wild herbs and
roots, they have given him a monstrous paunch, which could
have only been produced by the most substantial nourish
ment. This beUy, however, is symbolic. A people who clothe
themselves in white when in mourning, who get angry when
one uncovers before them, who eat their soup at the end of
dinner, have a perfect right to contradict us in more im
portant matters, and to place the seat of intelligence else
where than in the brain. In fact, the stomach, if not in their
thoughts, at any rate in their manner of speaking, takes the
place with the Chinese which the head holds with us. Thus
they say: 'I keep that in my stomach;' that is to say, in
my memory. Or, again, ' This man has some stomach ;' mean
ing that he is a man distinguished for intellect. Bouddha,
therefore, has no just ground for complaint.
Placed at the entrance to Yunan, on the confines of the
country, where the mountains become lowered in height,
and separate, in order, as it were, to give liberty to the Yang-
tse-Kiang, hitherto but a colossal torrent, to take the calmer

344 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
flow of a majestic river, Souit-cheou-fou ought to have, in
times of public tranquillity, a real commercial importance.
The junks there are very numerous, and we found but little
trouble in hiring two. The captains engaged to conduct us
as far as Hankao without disembarkation. To install our
selves in these floating houses, perfectly covered in, and even
somewhat ornamented in the interior ; to leave them only at
our will ; to advance rapidly, and without fatigue ; to be able
to go to sleep at Souit-cheou, and to wake up in sight of
steamers and European consulates — was, indeed, a dream to
cast all the visions of opium-smokers into the shade. It was
on the 9th of May 1868 that its realisation commenced. Fill
ing the old office of public jester, behind the triumphal
car, Death had its place in our midst; and the coffin of Com
mandant Lagree, placed on the deck of one ofthe two junks,
cast a veil over our success, as well as over our joy.
On leaving Souit-cheou, the country changes completely
in character. Upon both banks of the river, towns and vil
lages follow in quick succession: the land is everywhere
covered with crops, and not a single acre is left uncultivated.
The population, very dense, devoted to the field and garden,
patient of labour, does not neglect even those small deposits
of earth which are found among the depressions ofthe rocks,
and which seem to have originated in the remains of nests
belonging to birds of prey. Patches no bigger than your hand
are cultivated at all heights, and one is astonished that,
without wings, the labourer can mount up to these aerial
domains. We passed near the town of Lou-Tcheou, which
was removed, because of a parricide committed within its
walls, to a considerable distance from its original site, which
has now become a refuge for bandits. In China this horrible
crime is looked upon as a public misfortune. Not only are
the towns which it has polluted razed to the ground, but
mandarins have been put to death for not having prevented
it. These unfortunates were accused of having, by their lax
administration, permitted the minds of the people to be per
verted, and their hearts to become depraved. A son who
in this country raises his hand against his father does worse
than outrage nature ; he shakes the whole state edifice, which
is raised on the double base of paternal authority and filial

TCHON-KING. 345
submission ; principles, no doubt, very respectable, but which
have the grave inconvenience of all principles, of being abso
lute. Their results are, on one side, strict dependence; on
the other, unlimited and uncontrolled power — results un
acceptable in family life, and supremely unjust in the state
adopting the doctrine, which is not less dear to the Son of
Heaven than that of divine right to our own ancient kings.
Assisted by the current, and urged on by our oarsmen,
who were ever attentive to furl or unfurl our great straw
sail, according to the direction of the breeze, we descended
so swiftly, that it was impossible to seize the details of the
vast picture which unfolded itself before our eyes. An im
mense river, whose waters, at each instant increased by the
tribute of innumerable affluents, are ploughed by fleets of
junks; banks at one time overlooked by rocky precipices,
at another, and more frequently, formed by the last undu
lations of the mountains, which, as seen from the middle of
the stream, appeared scarcely to rise above its level; white
and red houses, towers, pagodas, fortified hamlets, cultivated
fields, the incessant witnesses of human activity in the midst
of a fertile landscape — made up the spectacle which we saw
constantly renewed, day after day. At night we found a
shelter in our junk, which we infinitely preferred to the inns.
Tchon-King is a large city in Setchuen, said to contain
nearly a million of inhabitants. We could not pass by with
out making a halt at so important a commercial centre. This
populous town is built in the form of an amphitheatre ; a
happy arrangement wanting in most Chinese towns. A
large number of war-junks, decorated with the various man
darin ensigns, were at anchor before the broad and steep
stairs, which lead from the end streets to the water-side.
They formed the noisy convoy, which was escorting the body
of the viceroy of Setchuen ; and made an unpleasant en
counter for us, since we too were transporting a coffin, for
which it was more difficult to insure respect than for our
selves ; since the contrast between the splendid pomp of the
Chinese escort, and the indigent simplicity of our own, was
too great to escape the ill-natured acuteness of the assem
bled crowds. Leaving four armed men on board the junk
which contained the corpse, we succeeded, with great diffi-

346 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
culty, in forcing our way to the nearest inn. There we pro
ceeded to install ourselves quietly, disregarding the clamour
and deafening noise, from the throats of ten thousand men, out
of doors; and shouts, which appeared to be a confused mixture
of threats — when suddenly one of those unknown friends,
whom the sainted labours ofthe missionaries have raised
up for Europeans, burst into our room. According to this
man, the mob, collected from all parts of the city, finding it
impossible to reach our junks, which were anchored some
fathoms from the shore, was preparing to stone them, and a
heavy stone, hurled by some one amongst them, had already
profaned the humble bier ofthe great French mandarin. Our
men in charge had replied to this aggression of the mob by
presenting their firelocks at the ruffians, who had hesitated
at the sight ofthe pointed barrels. Our volunteer messen
ger said that he had left when this occurred, and that it
was high time for us to interfere.
In spite of frequent messages sent to them, the mandarins
persisted in not showing themselves ; so we had no hope of
help from them. Meantime, the three Annamites and the
French saUor, left in the junk, might be in serious peril.
So, three of us rushed into the street, revolvers in hand.
Surprise made the mob open a passage, which was closed as
soon as we passed. The cries, hushed for a moment, were
redoubled, and pursued us to the shore. We there found
om- men, who had had the coolness not to fire, but had
courageously landed, and seized and led off a prisoner, his
hands tied behind his back, amidst the most formidable col
lection of ruffians I have ever seen, not one among whom
had dared to attempt the rescue of their comrade from three
resolute Europeans.
I may say, in passing, that this simple fact readily ex
plained to me the meaning of the whole Chinese war. As
regards the prisoner, he was at once claimed by the prefect
of the city, who undertook to punish him. We let him go,
with a halter round his neck, quite convinced that, the mo
ment he was out of our sight, he would be set free, and, very
possibly, rewarded. At nightfall, some sedan-chairs arrived
in front of our inn. They had been sent by the Vicar-apos
tolic of East Setchuen, whose yamen we succeeded in reach-

A VICAR-APOSTOLIC. 347
ing, after passing, incognito, through the whole city. In this
vast residence, consisting, like those of the great Chinese
mandarins, of numerous buddings, separated by enormous
closed courts, we found rest, and, what had a still greater
charm in our eyes, the warmest hospitality. Beneath the
Chinese costume, Father Favent has preserved all his natural
kindness of heart, and Monsignor Desfleches,5 the Bishop of
Setchuen, all the vivacity of the French intellect. We were
disposed to judge very severely of the Chinese ; and it was
with secret pleasure that we heard these two men, indulgent
as they were, draw up, in chance conversation, an act of
accusation against this hateful race.
Tchon-King, situated, like Souit-cheou-fou, at the junc
tion of the river with an affluent, which is navigable for
several days' journey, is a vast entrepot of all the merchan
dise that goes up the Yang-tse-Kiang, or descends from
Setchuen to Shanghai. The mere local consumption and
production would cause a very considerable commercial move
ment. Since the opening of the ports to Europeans, this
movement has greatly increased. The price of certain com
modities has risen enormously,6 and many of them are now
almost beyond the means of the mass of consumers. The
Chinese foresee and dread this necessary consequence of the
treaty, imposed on them by our arms. Abundantly supplied
by nature with the most various products ; feeling no wants
which they cannot liberally satisfy from their own resources ;
on the other hand, warned of the value set by European
nations on their trade, by the efforts, humble for long, but
now more and more urgent, made to secure it — the Chinese
have obstinately refused to make modifications in their com
mercial legislation, from which they expected to realise no
6 This prelate is now in Rome. He has united, with many of his bre
thren, in attesting that the infallibility of a single person will be more
readily accepted by the populations he directs, than that of an assembly.
The projected definition, indeed, will not frighten Asiatics, as any one
feels, who knows them. As to liberty of worship, we are delighted to
believe that it will find, in the vicars-apostolic, vigorous defenders, well
stored with arguments, in the bosom of the council.
6 For instance, the oil used for varnish, and in which the tow used in
boat-building is dipped, was formerly sold at twenty sapeques the pound;
it now costs one thousand sapeques.

348 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
profit themselves. This legislation was wholly based on a
tariff rigorously prohibitive, though not intended to protect
the national industries against foreign competition ; for this
proud race believed, a priori, that all other manufactures
must be inferior to their own. The economists of the Celes
tial Empire entertained other apprehensions, and pursued
another aim. The emperor has always taken very seriously
his position as father and mother of his subjects. He is
bound to watch, in the private retirement of his palace, over
their well-being and repose. Not only does he, by fastings
and mortifications, take on himself a share of their suffering
when misfortunes overtake them, he is also considered to be,
in a certain degree, responsible for disasters he has been un
able to prevent. A local famine, or even a simple scarcity,
which frequently occurs in this vast country, where the slow
and difficult communication is farther trammelled by innu
merable internal custom-houses, is often sufficient to raise a
revolt, unless the state intervene in time, by opening its
store granaries.
Under such conditions, supposing an emperor on the
throne of China sufficiently enlightened to understand the
advantage of reforms, he may still be excused for recoiling
from the danger of originating that transitory period of suf
fering, which even the most legitimate economic revolutions
generally produce. To reserve the whole national produce
for home consumers ; to guarantee them from excessive dear-
ness of all articles of consumption, and, at the same time,
to preserve them from dangerous contact with Europeans —
were the chief objects ofthe imperial government. We know
how force has overcome these scruples, and triumphed over
resistance. Unfortunately, the first act ofthe struggle — the
war of 1840, which was to be concluded later under the walls
of Pekin — was an odious attack on morality; and the old
repugnance of the Chinese to grant free access into their
ports to European vessels, was shortly justified by the forced
introduction of opium.7 From that time, the salutary law
which prohibited the culture of the poppy in the empire,
7 In 1867, on 300 millions of francs, which represented the total im
portations at Shanghai, opium figured at 150 millions. (Eeport of M. Sieg
fried to the Minister of Commerce.)

ICHANG-FOU. 349
ceased to be applied. The poison distUled from this deadly
plant multiplied its ravages; and at the present day, in
certain localities of Setchuen and Yunan, the proprietors,
speculating on the high price of opium, have neglected the
cultivation of alimentary substances, to the great detriment
of the people, who lie, dying of hunger, on the borders of
fields where the poppy has supplanted rice.
Leaving Tchon-King behind us, and continuing to de
scend the river, we landed, for some hours, at the town of
Ichang-Fou. Here, barely 360 miles separated us from Han-
kao ; and we thought that, within so short a distance of the
first European establishments, we might display our strange
costumes and faces with impunity. We advanced, without
distrust, and unarmed, into the winding streets of the town,
but were compelled hastily to regain our junks under a
shower of stones. As soon as we had got on board, and were
in possession of our means of defence, it would have been,
assuredly, very easy for us to avenge this last insult ; but,
after accomplishing so long a journey without having the
death of a single man to weigh on our consciences, was
it not better to exercise a last effort of self-restraint, and to
avoid firing on the crowd, at the risk of killing an innocent
person 1 Something, however, had to be done. In spite of
the French flag, which floated at the stern of our junk ; in
spite of the lanterns8 at our prow, large as gourds, which
they resembled in form, — we found that we must cease to
anchor in front ofthe large towns. Between Ichang-Fou
and Hankao, there were no departmental chief towns upon
the banks of the river, which, after passing the first of these
points, flows between the two provinces ofHonan and
of Houpe. At some miles above I-chang-Fou, the mountains ap
proached so closely as to form a gorge ; and, for a moment,
the river resumed the appearance which had been so familiar
to us in the defiles of Yunan. It boils up, and precipi
tates its waters over the rocks ; amongst which our junks,
skilfully steered, descended with fearful rapidity. Below
Souit-cheou-Fou, we had passed several rapids, which are
8 These lanterns were covered with characters painted in red, and
visible from a distance, signifying, ' Great Ambassadors of the West.'

350 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
modified and altered in position according to the season,
changing with the level of the river, which is influenced
by the summer rains, and the melting of the snows in the
Thibet mountains. But what a difference between these
not very numerous obstacles, through which the largest
junks are without hesitation taken, and the long succession
of rapids that commences on the frontiers of Cambodgia, and
makes of the Mekong a stream with difficulty used, even by
canoes ! Steam navigation — which, according to treaties,
ceases at present at Hankao — is certain, some day, to break
these bounds ; and the existence of numberless coal-deposits
in the basin ofthe Yang-tse-Kiang, and even on its very
banks, makes its extension still more certain. In default
of Europeans, the Chinese themselves will be, doubtless,
tempted to employ, on the Blue River, this means of trans
port; the quickness of which they have learned to appreciate
in the passage from Hankao to Shanghai, a passage which
they make in large numbers on board the American steamers.
In what degree wiU the rapids, scattered at considerable
intervals from I-chang-Fou to Souit-cheou, be an obstacle to
the development of this navigation? This is a question
beyond my personal competence to answer; and I should
not have touched upon it, if I had not had sailors as col
leagues, whose opinions agreed with that given by Captain
Blakiston and his companions in 1861.9 According to this
double authority, it is only by adopting a particular form
of construction that steamboats could ascend the Blue River
without danger, from the rapids of I-chang-Fou, as far as
the frontiers of Yunan ; and farther, it is possible that, in
some spots, it might be always necessary to have recourse to
towing and cables. This operation, which, however, it would
not be necessary to repeat often, would be a trifling incon
venience, in comparison with the immense advantages which
would be obtained, both in a political and commercial point
of view, by the establishment of a service of steamboats
upon a river which traverses China from one extremity to
the other, and whose current is, at the present time, with
difficulty ascended by junks. When the wind renders sailing
impossible, it is by the sheer force of their arms that the
9 Five Months on the Yang-tse, by Thomas Blakiston ; London.

HANKAO. 351
Chinese go up the stream; they row standing, and keep
stroke to a regular cadenced song. Our crew, more for
tunate, had only very trifling labour ; they husbanded their
strength for the return journey. We were, in fact, approach
ing our destination; palaces on the banks and palaces on the
water, consulates and steamers — for these our eyes, wearied
with Chinese sights, were longing ; and these they at length
perceived, when we cast anchor before Hankao.
This town, situated on the left bank of the Yang-tse-
Kiang, and of a . considerable stream called the Han, flowing
into it, is, in some sort, the third quarter of an immense
city, of which the two other parts, erected on the opposite
banks ofthe same streams, are called Hanyan and Vouchang.
The Abb6 Hue estimated at eight millions the population,
packed in these three towns ; which are, he says, ' as it were,
the heart, which communicates to the whole of China its
prodigious commercial activity.' On the first point, the
exaggeration is manifest ; although the disasters, which
have fallen on this portion of the empire, have produced an
enormous decrease in the population since, the travels of the
Lazarist missionary. At present, it does not amount to two
millions; and, terrible as may have been the Taipings, it
cannot be credited that they have, in so short a space of
time, destroyed six millions of men.
As regards the importance of these places in a com
mercial point of view, it has increased, though in some
degree it has been modified, since the time of the Abbe'
Hue. It is here that European commerce, having at length
succeeded in its struggle for freedom, has planted its flag,
untU the time comes when fresh concessions open the other
ports ofthe Blue River to the enterprising ardour of western
merchants. It is not necessary to dilate on the subject ;
France retains distinguished agents at Hankao, as well as
at Shanghai, who watch with constant solicitude over her
interests, and furnish her with every useful information.
Our mission was accomplished ; and I, for my part,
neither felt courage to take notes, nor to interrogate M.
Gueneau, the acting consul, or the other Frenchmen, whom
we met at his table, respecting China. Besides, in order to
satisfy our hosts, we had to answer their questions. The

352 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
commandant ofthe English gunboat, stationed at Hankao,
not satisfied by verbal accounts of our adventures, insisted
on our donning our costume as traveUers in the Laotian
forests — a costume, by the bye, which pretty much consisted
in wearing nothing at all — and he wanted to photograph us
in this simple attire. After having so long been an object
of curiosity to the Chinese, we were now threatened with
the same fate amongst civUised people. I must not, how
ever, omit to say, that the courteous reception which we met
with upon this occasion, made the curiosity more than par
donable. It is easy to understand with what eagerness the intrepid
merchants, who have pitched their tents at 200 leagues from
the sea, on the extreme frontier of the China which is open
by treaty, scan the western horizon. We too were most
anxious for news. The last courier who had reached us in
the forests of Laos, and the first scrap of a newspaper which
had rejoiced our eyes in the house of a missionary in Yunan,
had acquainted us, the one with the catastrophe of Sadowa,
the other with the sad tragedy of Queretaro. These two
thunderclaps, followed by a long sUence, had shaken our
courage. Wounded on both continents, would France re
tain the wish, still more, would she possess the strength, to
play a part in the extreme East *? Would not om- enterprise,
begun under happier auspices, become a useless exploration,
— a work barren in results for our country, and from which
others would reap the benefit 1 Thanks be to God, the
first hour of om stay at Hankao dissipated these apprehen
sions. Not only was Cochin-China, the base of our opera
tions, not deserted by our flag, but such was- the confidence
entertained for the future of the colony, that the governor,
in spite of the European complications, occasioned by the
events in Germany, had been able almost to double its terri
tory, without causing the slightest embarrassment to France,
which would at this moment, when the pacific acquisition of
three provinces was obtained, have with difficulty denuded
herself of a single battalion. This considerable event in
creased our anxiety to arrive at Saigon — that French town
where our departure had been saluted, as a pledge of future
prosperity, and where so many friendly hands would soon

AMERICAN STEAMERS. 353
clasp our own. But we had still, before reaching the Donai,
to leave the Yang-tse, to traverse a part of the Yellow, and
the whole of the Chinese Sea.
We embarked on one of those American steamers which
ply between Hankao and Shanghai. As I went on board, I
was filled with surprise and delight at the proportions ofthe
magnificent vessel, and I felt as a savage might feel when
he for the first time gazes on the apparition of these floating
masses, propelled by neither oar nor sail, and only moved
onward by the beating of then own hearts of fire. But Avith
the first marvel of civilisation which we encountered, we also
came in contact with the prejudices of civilised men. We
were the only European passengers, and a number of first-
class berths were unoccupied. The Chinese, on the contrary,
were crowded together, and confined in a narrow space — a
kind of 'Jews' quarter.' On board these merchant-vessels,
the rale enforcing the separation of races is very stringent ;
and, in spite of all our remonstrances, our Tagals and An
namites were separated from us, and shut up apart, as if
they were lepers. Two years of peril, suffering, and rigid
self-denial, had raised these men to the level of the best ;
and they bitterly felt the outrage offered them by the Anglo-
Saxon captain's proud strictness.
Entirely given up to the pleasure of being alone in a
cabin, and finding a bed furnished with sheets ; absorbed by
the novel enjoyments to which my every movement gave
rise, I permitted myself to be carried on, for a length of time,
without troubling myself to go on deck and observe the banks
of the Yang-tse. We made a halt before Kiou-Kiang, the se
cond station of European commerce, situated near the mouth
ofthe great lake Poyang. There also, along the straight
line of the quay, are erected luxurious hotels, of which the
solidity and fine proportions should make the native archi
tects reflect on the inferiority attributed to Europeans in the
arts of peace.
After having learnt, to their cost, that we know how
to destroy, the Chinese must learn, at last, that we know
how to build. That which chiefly strikes the traveller, who,
in passing, contemplates the European establishments in the
Celestial Empire, is, the permanent character which is im-
AA

354 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
pressed on them from the beginning. The treaty had scarcely
been signed before palaces began to be erected ; and the rush
made to take possession, on a soil so long interdicted, was so
impetuous, that one cannot sometimes refrain from asking,
whether the goal has not been overshot. For example, at
Kiou-Kiang, business, so long interfered with by the rebeUion
ofthe Taipings, does not seem to have acquired, in the hands
of Europeans, a development commensurate Avith the con
siderable expenses which were necessarUy incurred in its
first establishment. In the toAvns of the interior, the native
Chinese merchants, everywhere dangerous rivals, enter into
formidable competition Avith foreigners, especiaUy since the
complete submission of the rebels. These latter inflicted on
the very richest portion of the empire ravages, of which we
have often seen the traces on the banks of the Yang-tse-
Kiang, but which were nowhere more horrible or prolonged
than in the lower basin of that great river. We arrived in
the night before Nanking ; and though this city was opened
to foreign commerce by the treaty of 1858, we did not stop
there. An ancient capital of the empire, renowned for its
schools, the guardian of the tombs of an illustrious royal
famUy, Nanking feU, in 1853, into the power ofthe Taipings,
who, dm-ing eleven years, made it the centre and focus of
the insurrection. It was there that their chief, for a moment
able to think himself finally victorious, meditated founding,
to the south of the Blue River, an independent kingdom :
a gigantic dream, Avith which, in spite of the appearance
of a strict neutrality, a portion ofthe foreign colony asso
ciated itself. Though it is already beginning to rise from
its ashes, Nanking, at the time of our passing it, was not
an object of much interest ; and had it been left to my de
cision, I would not have wasted the two hours which we
spent in visiting it, thus retarding for that time our arrival
at Shanghai. The town of Tchin-Kiang is more worthy of
attention than the ruins ofthe Porcelain Tower. In 1842,
the Tartar troops in garrison there defended it valiantly
against the English. It commands the entrance of that
famous canal, which, starting from the chief town of the
maritime province of Tche-Kiang, cuts the Blue River and
the Yellow River, traverses 300 leagues of country, and was

THE GREAT CANAL. 355
formerly the main water-highway of the empire from its ex
tremities to its centre. It was by it that far the greater part
of the taxes in kind was conveyed to Pekin. The province
of Yunan alone annuaUy sent by this route 1200 junks, laden
with ingots of copper. This colossal work, more worthy than
the Pyramids of Egypt or the Great Wall of Tartary to ex
cite the admiration of the world, has for the moment lost its
importance; but since the insurrection has been repressed,
the junks, preferring the safe and easy navigation of this
internal artery, are, by degrees, abandoning the sea, and,
resuming their old habits, again begin to crowd the channel
of the Grand Canal. Tchin-Kiang is the last port of the
Blue River in which European vessels coming from Hankao
are authorised to remain; Shanghai itself is situated more
than five leagues in the interior, at the point where the
Houang-pou joins the Vou-song, which empties itself into the
Yang-tse-Kiang, in face of the lower island of Tsoung-ming.
Our steamer anchored, on the 12th of June 1868, in front of
this great dep6t of European commerce ; and while it dis
charged the teas and the silks which it had taken in at
Hankao, we directed our steps to the French quarter, seek
ing for the French consulate, where the graceful hospitality
of Madame Bremer de Montmorand made us, in two days, .
forget the miseries of two years.
The European establishment at Shanghai is placed in a
peculiar position, not in accordance with the ordinary rules of
international law. It, in fact, constitutes a regular Euro
pean colony, divided between English, French, and Ameri
cans, administered by each, according to their own municipal
laAvs, with the assistance of a mayor and council, elected
under the superior authority of the consul.
This local organisation, independent ofthe Chinese func
tionaries, was, not without reason, considered indispensable.
Instituted at a time when the rebels surrounded Shanghai,
it has survived those difficult times, and is based on the
belief in two facts — the weakness of the Chinese govern
ment, and the incompatibility of the laws of the empire
with western civilisation. It is a decisive step on the road
which the son of the Celestial Empire has been compelled
to enter, the bayonet at his back, and one cannot but see in

356 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
it a concession which may, without rashness, be considered
as the prelude to more extended sacrifices.
It is on account of the depth of the port, and the excel
lent position which Shanghai holds in the neighbourhood of
the tea and silk-producing districts,10 that it has been chosen
as the principal entrepot of foreign commerce with the Celes
tial Empire. This choice having been made, nothing has
been neglected which could contribute to the erection of a
superb city, worthy of the mission assigned to it by its
founders, by the side ofthe Chinese town of this name. The
monotony of the site, and the moist unhealthiness of the
climate, recall the plains of Lower Cochin-China, which are
as flat and fertile as the Kiang-Sou. Nature often chooses
to unite in this manner ugliness and fertility.
Were I to pass over in silence the numerous proofs of sym
pathy so prodigally given us by the French colony, I should
be ungrateful, and my narrative would be incomplete. The
fraternal banquet, to which our compatriots were so good
as invite us, proved that France, though behind England,
America, and Russia, in that part of China, in her commercial
greatness, stUl counts at Shanghai sons both numerous and
worthy of her. But I have too often given the reader an
. account of our fatigues and sorrows, to aUow him to under
estimate the joy which a manifestation, so flattering, gave
us at the close of our journey.
The passage from Shanghai to Hong-Kong took place,
without incident, on board the Duplex, a vessel belonging
to the Messageries Imperiales, which had had the good for
tune, a short time previously, thanks to the coolness and
experience of Commander Noel, to escape one of those fearful
cyclones, which render the navigation of the Chinese seas so
perilous. The Yang-tse, seven leagues wide at its mouth,
resembles the Kin-cha-Kiang, which we had traversed at
2200 miles from this spot, as the oak resembles the acorn ;
but its waters had lost in transparency what they had gained
in volume, and the green river, which we had seen flow
ing at Han-kao, between two precipitous mountains, had as-
10 Seven-eighths of the 40,000 bales of silk, and a third of the seventy-
five million kilogrammes of tea, exported annually from China, come from
Shanghai. {Sixteen Months round the World, by M. Siegfrieds

HONG-KONG. 357
sumed the appearance of a muddy ocean Avithout shores.
The swell of the waves showed our near approach to the
sea ; and was in my case foUowed by that faint sickness,
which resembles the intoxication one would find in a cask
of cider, or adulterated wine. Present sufferings always
appear most painful ; and I anathematised the tossings of
that perfidious element, whose rude motions made me think
kindly of the rough gait of the Laotian elephants. This
was, as may be imagined, only a passing impression, soon
dissipated by the appearance of the British island ; and it
will be believed, that even when my trouble was at the worst,
I had no inclination to regain Europe by land across the
whole of Asia. A journey of 10,000 kilometres in Indo-
China and in China had satisfied my ambition as explorer.
The history of Hong-Kong is known to every one in
Europe. This island, which is not ten leagues in circumfer
ence, has become in thirty years11 the fortunate rival of its
neighbour, the ancient Portuguese colony ; and Victoria, like
a rich millionaire, appears from the summit of her rock to
look down upon Macao, over Avhich the memory of Camoens,
and the past greatness of Portugal, seem to throw a poetic
veil of melancholy. The safety and magnificence of the
roadstead induced the English to fix their choice on Hong-
Kong. They have gained a victory over nature, which does
credit to their obstinate genius, assisted as it has been by a
marvellous instinct. The increasing development of Shang
hai has notably diminished the extent of business at Canton ;
and Hong-Kong itself, placed at the mouth of the river which
connects the great mart of Southern China with the sea,
has itself suffered in its commercial prosperity. But with
resources of all kinds comprised within a narrow territory,
with its deep water overtopped and sheltered by mountains,
and its dry-docks, it has, nevertheless, continued to be the
great centre of steam navigation in these latitudes. The
French company of the Messageries Imp&iales persist in
maintaining their chief station at Hong-Kong, though it had
engaged with the government to establish it at Saigon.
Capitalists, who readily listen to the whisperings of interest,
11 It was ceded to the English government by the treaty of Nanking in
1842.

358 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
are deaf to the cries of patriotism ; and I must add that it
would be unjust, on this account, to quarrel with a great
company, which does so much honour to our flag in these
distant seas ; but still, since a dock has been built at Saigon,
one can hardly understand this delay on the part of the
Messageries, largely subsidied as they are by the State, in
the execution of an agreement, profitable to our growing
colony, and which in some degree touches the national
dignity. The consequence to us of this organisation ofthe service,
which is to be regretted for more serious reasons, was that
we had the annoyance of disembarking, and of quitting the
Dupleix, which is specially assigned to the passage from
Hong-Kong to Shanghai, and of going on board the Impera-
trice, which runs between Hong-Kong and Suez.12 China
disappeared behind us, and the shores of the Annamite
peninsula soon began to appear above the horizon. We
coasted them towards the south-west, as far as the promon
tory, which terminates them, and marks the entry of the
river of Saigon.
On an evening in December 1865, 1 had seen from a great
distance the feeble ray of light which streams from the sum
mit of Cape St. Jacques, glimmering over the water. Thirty
months afterwards, having returned to the same spot, I saw
the white column of the lighthouse glittering in the midday
sun. Yielding to the superstitious inclination, which so
readily rises in the mind of one who has long lived in in
timate communion with nature, I fancied that I saw, in such
very different spectacles, what seemed a symbol of the
modest beginning of our colony, and a presentiment of its
future development. In entering the river of Saigon, we
approached the Mekong, to which the Donai is joined by an
inland canal ; but we were not again to see the great river
that had so long borne us on its waters. I would not, indeed,
have consented to take the smallest trouble in order to pro
cure me this sentimental satisfaction. For my part, I was in
12 Since the opening of the Suez Canal, the packets run from Hong-
Kong to Marseilles. They have thus forty days consumption of fuel, while
the English are trying hard not to exceed twenty or twenty -five days. This
is another reason for making Saigon the head of the line.

RETROSPECT. 359
that frame of mind, when it even annoys one to be obliged to
turn round with the earth, if one thinks of it; for after two
years of wanderings, absolute immobility and complete re
pose seemed to me to be supreme happiness.
Warm as had been our reception by the French residing
at Hankao and Shanghai, that which greeted us at Saigon
was still more cordial. All those warm-hearted men, who
whilst courageously doing their duty in that land where they
suffer so much, but which they cannot help loving, rejoiced
with us at our safe return, and shared with us our mourning
sorrow. The entire colony, having at its head Admiral Ohier,
the successor of Admiral de La Grandiere, accompanied the
body of Commandant Lagree to the cemetery. He reposes
amidst his companions in arms, fallen, like himself, for a
cause which has already made so many martyrs. The Eng
lish have raised bronze statues in honour ofthe energetic
men who were the first to force their way into the far inland
forests and prairies, and paid -with their lives for the honour
of opening the Australian continent to their countrymen.
May we not expect from France that she will erect a durable
monument to the intrepid chief, who, struggling at once
against climate, nature, and men, lost in this grand effort
a life already distinguished by so many eminent services in
Cochin-China, and especially in Cambodgia, where he was
the chief instrument in establishing the French protectorate?
I may be permitted to stay a short time by the side of this
tomb, in order to throw a rapid glance over the results
obtained from this exploring expedition of the Mekong. It
will be the fittest funeral oration for the illustrious dead,
and the most natural conclusion for this humble work.
The readers who have been good enough to foUow me,
from the frontiers ofthe kingdom of Cambodgia to the ceme
tery of Saigon, are aware that our mission has done more
service to the general progress of science, than to the par
ticular interests of the colony, whose funds supplied its cost.
As to what concerns the first part of the programme, which
was marked out for us, our long sojourn in the valley of the
Mekong, and our numerous excursions on both banks of the
river, have corrected the errors, and set at rest, by lifting the
veU from the doubts which had hitherto led geographers to

360 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
false and uncertain conclusions, in describing the eastern
zone ofthe Indo-Chinese peninsula. The capricious windings
of the Mekong ; the prolongation of its course to the west,
at the eighteenth parallel of latitude ; the importance of its
affluents; the strength and volume of its waters, and, if I
may venture to say so, the proof of its individuality, which,
contrary to the received opinion, continues to the end of its
course ;13 the certainty of its entry into Yunan, where it receives
the waters of Lake Tali, and into Thibet, where it has its
source — all these obscure points were cleared up. In a word,
we brought back precise information respecting the whole
course of an immense river, that rises amidst the snows, and
completes its course under a burning sun. On the other
hand, there are the exact observations and seemingly well-
founded information respecting the other rivers of Indo-
China;14 as to their position in different parts of then course,
and the Hmits of their basins ; and, in addition, many par
ticulars respecting a part of China itself, which had been,
hitherto, the least known. These, I ask permission to call
the discoveries of the expedition directed by M. de Lagree,
in the domains of geography — discoveries which certainly
constitute the larger part of our booty ; and I am the more
ready to state them, from having not directly contributed to
them. Although in political and commercial matters our suc
cess was not so great, still even here our efforts were not
entirely fruitless.
Without entering into details of the subjects, thoroughly
sifted by M. de Lagree, before the commencement of our
journey, I will only call attention to the Hght which the la
bours ofthe commission have permitted him to throw on the
persevering work of absorption, which the court of Bangkok
is constantly pursuing, in Indo-China. This absorption is
effected by the aid of the embarrassments, which Europeans
13 That which supposes the union of the Mekong and Meinam.
14 The Meinam and the Tongkin rivers are, in comparison with their
powerful neighbours, only secondary streams, which take their source in the
last ramifications of the Himalaya mountains. The Irawady, Salween,
Mekong, and Kin-cha-Kiang, on the contrary, penetrate into the very heart
of the great range. These three rivers coming nearer each other as they
flow away from their sources, follow, for long, almost parallel directions.

OUR FUTURE POLICY. 361
have created, between those ancient rivals, the Burmese and
the Annamites. Its result has been, to leave nothing exist
ing of the Laotian nationality but a name, and to make of
Vien-Chan, its principal centre, a mass of ruins. It is still
this ambition, so long favoured by fortune, which, after hav
ing forced back the emperor of Annam from the valley ofthe
Mekong, to which river his dominions formerly reached, has,
by keeping alive the antipathies of races, at this day, ren
dered any resumption of commercial relations, between the
Annamites and Laotians, impossible. We have, also, been
able to obtain evidence that the yoke of Siam, in itself toler
ably light on the people, weighs heavily on the pride of cer
tain great vassals ; for instance, on the king of Luang-Pra
ban, whose friendship might be very useful for us. It will be
recollected, that his states border on Tongkin ; that they are
inhabited by a vigorous and pushing race ; and that we found
in his capital a considerable commercial activity, evinced by
a daily market, the only one, probably, which exists in the
whole of Siamese Laos. On the day when our advice, given
with prudence, and firmly pressed, shall have effected a
union of subjects by curbing the ambition of their princes,
Annamite merchants, replacing the Burmese pedlars, will
start from the banks of the Tongkin to carry to Luang-
Praban, and thus to the greater part ofthe middle and
lower valley of the Mekong, the tissues and other manu
factures of Europe, at present introduced almost exclusively
by Bangkok. The course of the great river, utUised by means of large
rafts, would then render important services to this com
merce, restored to its natural channel. As to steam navi
gation, it is useless to expect to extend it beyond its present
limits. This first delusion, which was rudely dissipated at
our very starting-point, went near to spoil our whole journey.
But there was a compensation in reserve. To enter China
in spite of the probabilities to the contrary, to escape from
the hands of the Burmese with only the sacrifice of some
health, and the loss of our whole Avardrobe, and to disap
point the English, was assuredly a success. But the colony,
which had conceived the idea of our expedition, expected
from our efforts an effective result in a material point of

362 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
view. We could say to it, it is true, that Saigon is for ever
separated from China by a long series of cascades and rapids,
and in this manner destroy the most favourite of its dreams ;
but these would have been words painful to utter, and
still more painful to hear. As often happens, we found con
solation for this disappointment in a quarter where we least
expected it, in consequence of a forced change in our pro
gramme, introduced by M. de Lagree. I must mention that
this modification, which was subsequently acknowledged to
have been necessary, was, when first announced to us, se
verely criticised by all. We were compeUed by the Mussul
man revolt to leave the Mekong, in order to gain the Sonkoi ;
to abandon geography, and solve a problem of more practical
and immediate importance. It does not appear to me now,
that there is any reason for regretting this circumstance,
especiaUy as, having sought and made acquaintance with the
rebels, we were edified by their hospitable virtues.
I have already explained the importance of the infor
mation we acquired respecting the river Tonkin at the time
of our passage to Yuen-Kiang. In my opinion this is a
principal point, which I do not think it will be useless to
mention again. In default of a protectorate over the whole
of Annam, which the change effected in the ideas of Tu-
Duc and his mandarins, since the seizure ofthe three pro
vinces of the west, may some day cause to be accepted at
Hu6, it is a first necessity that our commerce should have
free access to all parts of that empire ; that it should be able
to ascend, without being disturbed, the course of the navig
able waters of npper Cochin-China and of Tonkin. Among
the latter, the Sonkoi deserves particular attention. Both
from what we were able ourselves to see, and still more from
the reports which we heard, it promises to realise all the
hopes and expectations which the Mekong destroyed. Unit
ing China with a country which cannot long escape French
influence, it is predestined to carry to the sea the produc
tions of Tonkin itself, and the wealth of a portion of Yunan,
Setchuan, Kouei-tcheou, and Kouangsi. To speak only of
Yunan, I find by an English document, that in 1854, the year
which preceded the Mussulman insurrection, an interchange
of traffic took place between that province and Burmah, re-

ANTICIPATIONS. 363
presenting a value of half a million sterling. This commerce,,
carried on by means of caravans, which took twenty days to
go to Bahmo16 from Tali, crossing the Mekong (Lantsang-
Kiang) and the Salween (Loutse-Kiang), was fed by Yunan
and the neighbouring provinces. Russian fabrics, coming by
way of Siberia, even entered Burmah by this route. There
is reason to believe that the kingdom of Ava, which fur
nishes to the Chinese a great quantity of cotton, would con
tinue to attract a certain number of traders ; but it is easy to
perceive, that if the trade was set free from trammels and
prohibitions, and encouragement were given to it, it would
spread of itself, and be extended over the valley of Sonkoi.
The disturbance caused in Yunan by the civU war affords us
a precious occasion to make an effort, the advantages of
which may be measured beforehand by the umbrage it al
ready gives to our rivals.
There is something beyond this. Like a corpse pre
served for a long time under the bell of an exhausted re
ceiver, whose dissolution is hastened when it comes into
contact with the outward air, China is being decomposed
by the breath of European ideas. This empire, the oldest
that exists under the sun, is, in its turn, falling into ruin, its
hour is approaching, and it would have in all probability
already come, but for the mutual jealousy which is felt by its
heirs. The progress of Russia in the north, the strong posi
tion held by the EngHsh in the west, the concealed projects
entertained by other powers, of which the marks of sym
pathy given to the chiefs of the Taipings was a curious
symptom — in a word, the force of circumstances, and the
weakness of the Chinese themselves, enable us to foresee
the dismemberment of that ancient empne, whose founda
tion was laid, thousands of years ago, by Fohi. In the
presence of such an eventuality France should be prepared.
Her part is traced out by the position which she already
holds on the Annamite peninsula. It is absolutely neces-
16 Steamers can ascend the Irawady as far as Bahmo. From this place
one can reach in six days, across a mountainous country, inhabited by
independent savages, the large village of Langchankai, situated south-west
of Yonhtchang, between the Irawady and the Salween, which is the first
market in Yunan. It is this short distance which the English have, as yet,
been unable to pass.

364 TRAVELS IN INDO-CHINA.
sary that she should exercise a paramount influence at Ton
kin, which is for her the key of China, and that, Avithout
hurrying by any impatience the course of events, she should
show her flag to the people whose protectorate may some
day fall into her hands.
It requires perhaps some courage, at the present hour, to
announce such a conclusion, and to speak to France of her
interests in the East. As the wind blows towards Byzantine
discussions, and in favour of searchers for the philosopher's
stone, since the doctors, done with prescriptions, take the
course of consulting the sick man, the first comer may point
out a remedy. This remedy for the evil which oppresses
us is, assuredly, not new ; but it has the merit of having
been proved by the experience of others, and may be summed
up in two plain words — emigration and colonisation.
For more than half a century, constantly expressed in
terms, at bottom identical, the problem ofthe proletariat and
of poverty will continue to be a permanent cause of sterile
agitations for us, so long as the theorists of socialism, con
centrating their thoughts on the narrow territory of their
native country, confine their efforts to exciting those who
possess nothing against those who possess anything. A
considerable portion of the globe still remains unexplored,
and in the regions already known and described, all the pro
letariats of France, if they had the courage and the intelli
gence, might possess themselves of vast domains, by the
right of first occupation. Thanks to the solitudes of Africa,
this will remain true for a long time to come ; as regards the
remaining portion of the globe, time presses ; and the Latin
races have not a moment to lose, if they do not wish to be
permanently excluded from it. The Anglo-Saxons are grasp
ing the world; and if our destinies accomplish themselves
in the manner already predicted by men, whom an ardent
love for their country has inspired with a sad eloquence,
France, with her forty millions of inhabitants, will cease to
be anything but a school of political casuists, where the lords
ofthe universe may come to hear fine discourses on the
sovereignty ofthe people. 'China will be, according to all
probability, for Australia, what India has been for England ;
and should England be some day eclipsed, it is not less pro-

THE ANGLO-SAXON FUTURE. 365
bable that India also would fall into the hands of the Aus
tralians. But let us leave on one side all these conjectures,
though they present themselves to the mind with all the
appearance of truth, and confine ourselves to drawing the
sole conclusion which interests us from facts already estab
lished. Whether Australia or the United States, some day,
get the command ofthe Chinese seas, of India, and of Japan;
whether England continue to hold her own empire there,
or yield it up to the two young rivals, who have sprung
from her own bosom, — our children are no less certain to
see the Anglo-Saxon race mistress of Oceania, as well as of
America, and of aU parts of the extreme East, which can
be ruled, occupied, or influenced by those who hold pos
session of the sea. When things have arrived at this point
(and it is a great deal to say it will require two centuries
for this), will it be possible to avoid confessing, that from one
end of the globe to the other the world is Anglo-Saxon V
(La France Nouvelle, par M. Prevost-Paradol.)
With their enervating climate, which confines Europeans
to the transactions of commercial affairs, and forbids them,
on pain of death, to attempt labour or production, our An
namite provinces are rather a counting-house than a colony,
properly so called. But India also is a counting-house, and
yet it is far from useless to the grandeur of England. Never
theless, perspectives full ofthe deepest interest and attraction
open from Saigon, beyond the mountains of Tonkin, over the
fertile and healthy countries of Western China and Thibet.
Fortune, which has so often in our colonies made us pay for
her favours of a day by lasting betrayal, appears to have
become less cruel. Louisiana and Canada escaped from our
hands, in spite of our efforts, at two periods which were fatal
to our maritime power; Cochin-China, on the contrary, has
survived ; and has prospered notwithstanding the hesitations
ofthe government. One may say of it, that of all our distant
enterprises, this one has been the least premeditated and the
most fortunate, the most slighted and the most fruitful, the
most obscure and the most useful ; it is the work of our for
tune rather than of our will.

THE END.

LONDON!
EOBSON AND SONS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N.W.

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