so long, at least, as the attention of the Chinese Government should continue distracted by other still more menacing attempts to throw off its yoke; but, on arriving at Rangoon, in December last, the Panthay ambassador was met by the intelligence of a crushing disaster to his father's arms. Ta-li Fu was reported as having fallen, in consequence, most probably, of some treacherous defection from the Mahomedan ranks; and Momien, closely besieged, was almost the last remaining stronghold of the Panthay cause. A new complexion is thus imparted to affairs in Western China since communications were opened with its inhabitants by the British Indian authorities, and there seems little reason to doubt that a restoration of Imperial authority over its ancient area, including the tribes which exert control over the frontier region between China and Burmah, will now take place. It is impossible to contemplate without deep sorrow the consequences which defeat at the hands of a merciless foe must entail upon the Mahomedans of Yün-nan, whose unequal struggle, provoked by long-endured oppression, was most gallantly maintained; but the extinction of the Panthay rule will unquestionably be hailed as a blessing by a large majority of the population of Yün-nan, as the sole means by which peace can be restored to their homes. By the Burmese, who have never concealed their antipathy to the warlike neighbours who made their frontier insecure and interrupted their communications with the great empire whose friendship they sedulously cultivate, the downfall of the Panthay cause will be warmly rejoiced in; and it may be presumed that with returning tranquillity commerce will revive and once more seek its accustomed channels. The process of recovery is marvellously rapid in China, where an overflowing population, habits of intense industry, and favouring conditions of soil and climate, unite in repairing the havoc of the most exhausting contests with a celerity that has often astonished European observers. An increased degree of importance will consequently attach henceforth to the commercial facilities that have been secured for British subjects in Upper Burmah, and the experience of the next few years may decisively test the value of trading establishments at Bhamo. Already an astonishing degree of progress has been made at this point since Major Sladen's expedition, so lately as five years ago, for the first time awoke its echoes with the steamwhistle of the Yaynan-Sekia.' The navigation of the Upper Irrawaddy has now become a matter of frequent occurrence, and the Chinese trading community at Bhamô, once so jealous and apprehensive of rivalry in their petty trade on the part of

British merchants, have found to their great delight that new and hitherto undreamt-of sources of prosperity are open to them as agents for British commercial dealings. Since the date of Major Sladen's visit, the importance of Bhamô has been recognised by the Indian Government in the appointment of a Political Resident' at the spot. The functions of such an officer correspond very nearly with those discharged by the British Consuls on the seaboard of China, and a further approximation in the same direction might, we think, be productive of highly useful results. At Bhamô itself Chinese influence is so powerfully felt, as Dr. Anderson's narrative teaches, and in the region beyond it exerts so paramount a sway, as to suggest the necessity of special Chinese qualifications at the service of our agents in that quarter. A representative at Bhamô whose means of obtaining information are confined to the Indian or Burmese languages will find himself cut off from the most important sources of intelligence. For the protection of trade, moreover, if intercourse with Yün-nan should hereafter become developed on an extensive scale, communications with Chinese-speaking officials will become necessary; and in order that these may be well conducted, the British Resident on the frontier must not be left dependent upon chance assistance or secondhand interpretation. We are of opinion that the hillcountry of the Shans and Kakhyens should be regarded as a link between the domain peculiar to the Indian Government and that of the British representation in China. At Bhamô a junction might usefully be effected between two services whose linguistic resources are needed there in combination for the purpose of watching over and interpreting the progress of

events.

Limits of space permit us to do little more than glance at another geographical achievement, performed contemporaneously with Major Sladen's expedition and directed towards the same object-the discovery of a trade route into Western China, although from a widely-distant starting point. While the enthusiasm of our own countrymen has been excited during the last quarter of a century through the extension of British rule over the maritime provinces of Burmah, and the eager eyes of a host of projectors have been guided upwards along the course of the Irrawaddy and the Salwen to the central nucleus of wealth with which their waters communicate, a stimulus of the same nature has equally presented itself to French imaginations. On the opposite face of the great IndoChinese semi-circle an extensive colony has been called, almost unperceived, into existence by France on the borders of

Cochin-China and Siam. The campaign undertaken in 1859 for the protection of missionaries and their converts against the 'persecutions' of the Annamese Government was followed by the annexation of three of the most valuable provinces of Lower Cochin-China; and scarcely had French engineers concluded their task of sketching out the ground plan of a new Calcutta at Saigon, on the banks of Donnaï, before the acquisition of three additional provinces brought the whole of Lower CochinChina under the sway of France, giving her undivided control over the delta of the Mekong, and carrying her dominion to the shores of the gulf of Siam. Through its extension westward, the French frontier became contiguous with that of Cambodia, a thinly-peopled, decrepid State, barely cherishing the recollection of its former grandeur, and lingering, as it has done for more than a century past, in hopeless dependence upon neighbours who have protected and despoiled it in turn. By this new proximity, glowing visions of extended political influence and of commercial advantages were aroused, causing the necessity for a thorough exploration of the great river, upon whose accessibility to navigation much of the anticipated value of French Cochin-China as a commercial colony must depend, to be quickly recognised. While acting as governor of the new possession in 1865, the French Admiral de la Grandière 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, Tibet, and the western provinces of the Chinese Empire, thinking it by no means impossible to secure as 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 entrepôt, of easy access, and at the same time to free the route from China, shortened by 1,200 miles, from that part of the voyage in which the periodical monsoons are particularly to be dreaded, would have been no inconsiderable 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.'

The passage we have here quoted is an extract from the touching preface which M. le Comte de Carné has added to the posthumous publication of a narrative by his son, M. Louis de Carné, of the expedition undertaken in pursuance of the views which are thus expressed. From the same source we learn that the Imperial Government was in reality dragged by the ardour of its subordinates into these projects of indefinite extension, and that before Admiral de la Grandière obtained sanction for the ascent of the Mekong by a surveying expedition,

he was called upon to oppose propositions advanced in the Emperor's councils for a total abandonment of French CochinChina as a colony more costly than advantageous. The commission which was ultimately appointed consisted in Captain de Lagrée, of the Imperial navy, with Lieutenants Garnier and Delaporte, MM. Joubert and Thorel as surgeons and scientific observers, and the young author of the work now given to the public in an English version, who was deputed to act as a reporter for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. No one better fitted for carrying the scheme of exploration into effect could probably have been found than the leader of the party, Captain de Lagrée, who for several years previously had been conspicuous among the subordinate agents to whose enthusiasm and determination France was indebted for the recent large additions to her territory. At the time when M. de Carné arrived in Cochin-China his future leader was occupied in wresting from Siam the protectorate hitherto exercised over Cambodia by that Power,* and in transforming the pitiful young ruler, King Norodom, into a vassal receiving his crown from French hands. The singular details of this transaction, hitherto but obscurely known, are revealed in M. de Carne's opening chapters; and a veil is lifted besides from dreams of further aggrandisement, in which the outlines of a new Indian Empire, a glorious and worthy rival of those possessions which had at one time seemed to be within the reach of France, were glowingly depicted. Subsequent events, indeed, have thrown a cruel chill upon these, and even upon the more sober hopes of the present generation; but the result of Captain de Lagrée's expedition itself was sufficient to dispel whatever antici

*It is not generally known that the late King of Siam despatched an agent to England in 1865 for the purpose of making known his grievances in respect of the French encroachments upon what he asserted to be an integral part of his dominions. A very curious paper, drawn up in English by the King himself, and setting forth his version of the history of Cambodia in its relations with Siam, formed part of the documents of the mission. In this paper the King endeavoured to show that since the year 1783, when a revolt of the Malays settled in Cambodia overthrew, with assistance from the Cochin-Chinese, the then reigning sovereign of the country, a regular protectorate had been established on the part of the Kings of Siam, by whom the CochinChinese were expelled, and the Cambodian prince reinstated on his throne in the character of a 'Viceroy,' or feudatory of Siam. In somewhat quaint, but quite grammatical, English, King Maha Mongkut set forth the entire course of the subsequent relations betwen the two countries; but his arguments proved powerless to counteract the 'manifest destiny' arising from the propinquity of his French rivals.

pations had been formed with reference to a possible navigation of the Mekong.

Leaving Saigon in June, 1866, the party proceeded on board a steam gunboat as far as Craché, a point in the Cambodian territory about 250 miles from the sea, beyond which it was found impossible to advance in any European vessel. Although of great width and depth for many hundreds of miles higher up, the descent of the river is so rapid and so much interrupted with rocks and cataracts, as to present insuperable bars to navigation otherwise than by native canoes. It was in boats of this description, hollowed out from trunks of trees and covered with a simple thatch of palmleaves, that Captain de Lagrée continued the ascent of the Mekong, completing, under circumstances of heavy discouragement and difficulty, a survey of the river from Craché in latitude 12° to a point some seven degrees of latitude farther north, in a region of the Laos country far beyond the utmost bounds of previous explorers. The southern point of the great Laotian belt, which we have already seen occupied in its more northern portion by the tribes whom the Burmese designate as Shans, is met with at Stung Treng, in latitude 13.30° north, where the Attopéu, the lowest considerable affluent of the Mekong, joins the great river from the eastward. From this point northward a continuous Laotian population is met with, forming the kingdoms of Bassac, Vien-chang, and Luang-Prabang, which acknowledge themselves as tributaries of the King of Siam, and beyond these again other Laotian states exist under Burmese authority. In Bassac the formidable rapids and cataracts of Khong interpose, at once giving their name to the river and completely discouraging all

The name given to the river below its point of exit from the Chinese territory (up to which it is known by the names of Lan-tsang and Kiu Lung Kiang), is said to be Nam Khong-river or water of Khong; and Mekong, the name by which French geographers have made it known to science, appears to be a compound wholly unsanctioned by native usage. This is but one among many examples of an inaccuracy respecting geographical names to which the French are sadly prone. A flagrant instance in point is the misnomer of Fleuve Bleu, which they have saddled, wholly without authority, upon the great central river of China. We may point out that the true name of this river (called Yang-tsze Kiang only for a short distance from its mouth) is Ta Kiang, or Great River, from Seu-chow Fu in Sze-chwan, near the borders of Yun-nan, and Kin-sha Kiang above this point. The only apparent justification for the French nomenclature is the name Tsing Ki-Blue or Green River-given to an insignificant stream joining the Ta Kiang below Seu-chow Fu.