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Updated: September 6, 2025
During the period 240 B. C. 1260 A. D. a great civilization rose, flowered, and waned in the Far East; it had its origin in China, and spread out to include in its scope Japan, Corea, and Tibet; probably also Annam and Tonquin, though we hear less of them; while Burma, Assam, and Siam, and those southerly regions, though akin to China in language, seem to have been always more satellite to India.
The inn-keeper shook his head: "The whole neighborhood is covered with old battlefields," was his reply, "and all sorts of supernatural things take place on them after dark." In the land of Annam there once dwelt a man named Su, who sailed the seas as a merchant. Once his ship was suddenly driven on a distant shore by a great storm.
Annam is cut down to a very thin slice on the China Sea; and Tonquin, where France has kept many soldiers employed for several years, is swelled into a considerable territory. I doubt if the last change in the boundary of Siam is shown before you. The limits of Cambodia are closely defined.
The subjection of Japan would have been in the interest of the Chinese, as it would have opened a market which had been almost closed against them in the Sung period. Mongol wars followed in the south. In 1282 began the war against Burma; in 1284 Annam and Cambodia were conquered; in 1292 a campaign was started against Java.
This is the class of Chinese who, emigrating from the thickly-peopled south-eastern provinces of China, already possess a predominant share of the wealth of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Timor, the Celebes and the Philippine Islands, Burma, Siam, Annam and Tonquin, the Straits Settlements, Malay Peninsula, and Cochin China.
The first step in the spoilation of the helpless little kingdom was taken by France in 1893, when, claiming that the Mekong which the French were eager to acquire under the impression that it would provide them with a trade-route into Southern China formed the true boundary between Siam and Annam, she demanded that the Siamese evacuate the great strip of territory to the east of that river.
Annam was compelled to pay 25,000,000 francs for the expense of the war, and permit every person to enjoy his own religious belief. The missionaries were to be protected, commercial relations were established, and in 1886 a treaty was ratified at Hué, by which the country was placed under the protection of France, though the native princes were nominally continued in power.
They make their returns in gold, diamonds, birds'-nests, wax, rattans, garu, ebony, agar-agar; beside pepper, sago, camphor, cassia, tripan, &c. brought here by the prows: five Chinese junks annually visit Pontiana, bringing down produce amounting to about fifty thousand dollars. The depredations of the Pangeran Annam prevent an extension of this most useful of all trades to this country.
The king took shelter in Pegu, leaving his capital Amien at the mercy of the conqueror. The Mongol conquests were thus brought down to the very border of Assam. In Tonquin and Annam the arms of Kublai were not so successful. Kublai's son Togan made an abortive campaign in these regions.
They were very richly attired, particularly the first three, who were tres grands seigneurs in Annam, heavily embroidered silk robes, feathers, and jewels, and when they didn't open their mouths they were rather a decorative group, were tall, powerfully built men. They knew no French nor English spoke through the interpreter. My intercourse with them was very limited.
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