There is a region of granitic highlands in the northeast, representing the last spurs of the Annam chain, and reaching a height of 2300 feet. The Mekong separates into three arms in CochinChina, and together with many smaller rivers forms a network of waterways. The Province of Saigon is watered by the rivers Saigon, Donnai, and the two Vaicos. The delta-land, almost wholly covered with rice-fields and gardens, is frequently inundated, and the peninsula of Camau is like a great deserted swamp. Canals have been and are being constructed for the joint purpose of navigation, irrigation, and drainage, vast areas thus being reclaimed for agriculture. Cochin-China lies in the region of the monsoons. Typhoons frequently work great destruction. The healthfulness of the climate varies inversely with the frequency of the rains. The severest heat is in the spring of the year. Places near the seacoast are most favorable to Europeans. The flora is like that of Indo-China in general. The gamboge-tree abounds, but palms are few. The vast forests are rich in the finest kinds of timber. There is game of every sort, from the elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, deer, and wild boar, to the smallest rodents. Among the birds are the peacock, partridge, snipe, woodcock, and pheasant. The rivers contain fish of many species; alligators are numerous. There is little mineral wealth, except phosphate of lime and salt. Most of the inhabitants are agriculturists and fishermen. About one-fourth of the area is cultivated, and the chief product is rice. Coffee-culture is rapidly growing. Sugar-cane, mulberry leaves, pepper, betelnuts, cotton, tobacco, maize, and various valuable grasses, seeds, gums, and drugs are also produced. There are 200,000 water-buffaloes and 150,000 zebus employed in labor. There are no native industries worthy of mention except the manufacture of salt and of coarse silk stuffs. There are few good roads; but the innumerable little streams give easy access to all parts of the country, and new canals have been excavated by the French to facilitate commerce. The oldest railway in Cochin-China is that from Saigon to Mytho. Other lines have been open or are under construction, and form part of the railway system of French Indo-China. In 1903 there were 2670 miles of telegraph. The chief article of commerce is rice. The minor exports consist of fish, cotton, silk, hides, and pepper. The articles imported are textiles, metals and metal implements, and liquors. The principal exports are rice (in 1904, 690,505 tons, valued at $18,144,000), fish, pepper, cotton, copra, silk, and hides. The principal commercial port of the colony is Saigon (q.v.), the capital. În 1904, 608 vessels cleared here, with 871,000 tons. Trade is almost entirely in the hands of the Chinese. There are five banks at Saigon. The local budget of 1905 balanced at $2,092,000. The colony is represented by a Deputy in the French Parliament. It is divided into four large provinces-Saigon, Mitho, Vinh-long, and Bassac -and twenty districts or inspectorates. The municipalities of Saigon and Cholon are officially designated as provinces. The Lieutenant-Governor is assisted by a Privy Council, composed of all the heads of departments as official members and several unofficial members. Under the Executive is a Colonial Council of fifteen members, seven of whom are natives, partly elected by the residents. The smaller councils in the arrondisse ments are often composed entirely of natives. Municipal councils, part French and part native, rule in Saigon and Cholon. Every chief town has a citadel and garrison, and the collection of revenue and the suppression of robbery are secured by military posts in the interior. Besides a varying number of French troops, a force of 2667 native soldiers is maintained. The population in 1901 was 2,968,529, of whom 7867 were Europeans, 2,558,000 Annamites, 232,000 Cambodians, 92,000 Chinese, and 7000 Mois. The Catholic population numbers 73,234, and the Buddhist 1,688,270. In 1897 there were 376 schools with 804 teachers and 18,760 pupils. Cochin-China before the second half of the nineteenth century constituted a part of China, Cambodia, and Annam successively. In 1861 the French took Saigon, and by treaty in the following year acquired the provinces of Saigon, Bienhoa, and Mitho. Hostilities continued until 1879. In 1888 the colony became a part of the GovernorGeneralship of Indo-China. The name CochinChina was formerly applied to the whole eastern division of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, including Tongking, Annam proper, and Lower CochinChina. Consult: Lemire. La Cochinchine française (Paris, 1887); De Lanessan, L'Indo-chine française (Paris, 1888); Norman, Peoples and Politics of the Far East (London, 1895); Baurac, La Cochinchinc et ses habitants (Saigon, 189699). COCHINEAL, kōch'i-něl (from Sp. cochinilla, cochineal, wood-louse, from Lat. coccineus, scarlet, from coccum, berry, or from Sp. cochina, sow; So called either from the color, or, if the second derivation be preferred, from the shape). A scale-insect used as a dyestuff for scarlet and crimson, and in the preparation of carmine and lakes. Cochineal consists of the bodies of the females of a coccid (see COCCIDE) called Coccus cacti, because it feeds upon plants of the cactus family, particularly on one known in Mexico as the nopal (Opuntia cochinillifera), nearly allied to the prickly pear. (See CACTUS.) These insects are minute, 70,000, it is said, being required to weigh a pound in a dried state-when not adulterated by red lead or other heavy dust. The male is of a deep-red color, and has white wings. The female, which is wingless, is deep-brown, covered with a white powder; flat beneath, convex above. Branches of nopal covered with insects are cut off before the rainy season sets in, and carefully sheltered in a covered building. From these supplies the plantations are stocked at the close of the wet season, about the middle of October. When warmed by the sun the females soon begin to lay eggs, each female producing more than 1000 young, which soon spread themselves over the plants. The males are very few-not more than 1 to 100 or 200 females-and are of no value as a dye. The first crop of females is picked off about the middle of December, and until May successive generations are gathered from time to time. The females, full of young, lose about two-thirds of their weight in drying. The process of gathering the insects is extremely tedious, a day's picking amounting only to about two ounces of cochineal. The killing is done in three ways: (1) By placing on a hot iron; (2) by placing in a hot oven; and (3) by dipping in basket into boiling water, which is considered the best method. When killed and dried, they may be kept for any length of time without in jury. The name 'cochineal' is limited to that species first cultivated in Mexico, but long transplanted successfully to the Canary Islands, Java, and other warm parts of the Old World. Other species were known to the ancient Hebrews and Egyptians, and were largely cultivated on a species of oak. Among the Arabs this insect is known as kermes, 'red dye,' and it is largely cultivated in Algeria (Knowledge, London, 1991). Cochineal was formerly much used for coloring wool or silk a scarlet or crimson; but, owing to the cost of its production, and to the fact that the colors, although brilliant, are not very enduring, this dye has been greatly replaced by cheaper coal-tar products; and, for this reason, the cochineal industry has been rapidly declining. See CARMINE. COCHITUATE (co-chĭt'û-āt) LAKE. A lake in Middlesex County, Mass., 17 miles west of Boston. It is very narrow and irregular, with a length of about four miles, and has an area of little more than one square mile. From this lake and the connecting ponds, the city of Boston draws part of its supply of water (Map: Massachusetts, E 3). COCHLEA, kõk'lê-å. See EAR. COCHLEARIA, kõk ́lê-áʼri-å. See SCURVY GRASS. COCHRAN, JOHN (1813-98). An American soldier and lawyer. He was born in Palatine, N. Y., graduated at Hamilton College in 1831, served as Surveyor of the Port of New York from 1853 to 1857, and from 1856 to 1862 was a Democratic member of Congress, where he took a prominent part in the debates on land reform, revenue, and other public questions. At the outbreak of the Civil War he became colonel of the First United States Chasseurs, which he commanded in the Peninsular campaign. In June, 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, but resigned his commission in June, 1863, on account of failing health. In 1864 he was nominated for the Vice-Presidency on the ticket with John C. Frémont. As leader of the New York delegation to the Cincinnati Convention in 1872, he was instrumental in securing the nomination of Horace Greeley (q.v.) for the Presidency. COCHRANE, kok'ran, THOMAS, tenth Earl of Dundonald (1775-1860). A British admiral, familiarly known as Lord Cochrane. The son of the ninth Earl of Dundonald, he was born at Annsfield, Lanarkshire, December 14, 1775. His father, a scientist, ruined himself by experimental invention, and Thomas received such desultory education as was volunteered by the village minister and schoolmaster. He was destined for the army, but in his seventeenth year joined his uncle's ship, on which he had been enrolled five years previously, and, in consequence of this priority, received rapid promotion. After serving in the Norway fiords and on the North American station, he won recognition in 1801 by a successful series of daring exploits in the Mediterranean, the most brilliant being the capture of a Spanish frigate of 600 tons and 319 men, which had been sent in quest of his small brig of 158 tons and 54 men. Shortly afterwards his vessels were captured by three French line-ofbattle ships, after several hours' resistance, but he was himself immediately released on parole. In 1802 he took advantage of the peace to repair his defective early education by a six months' assiduous course at Edinburgh University. He had imprudently offended Lord Saint Vincent by a comparison, and at the renewal of hostilities in 1803 he was maliciously appointed to the stagnant Orkney station to protect non-existent fisheries. But with a change of admiralty in 1804, he received a new ship, and within ten days captured several prizes. By a daring ruse he cleverly evaded a squadron of French battle-ships and sailed his prizes into Plymouth Harbor, three golden candlesticks, each five feet high, decorating his mastheads as specimens of spoil. In 1806, after a rejection, owing to his refusal to bribe the electors, he was returned as member of Parliament for Honiton. The next year he was elected for Westminster, but his indiscriminate exposure of naval abuses led to his being immediately ordered off to the Mediterranean. During four years he added to his reputation by a sequence of minor naval exploits, and in 1809 was selected to burn out the French fleet which Lord Gambier had blockaded in Aix Roads, near Rochefort. He drove almost the whole squadron ashore, and destroyed four ships; but, as he was unsupported by his superior, Gambier, who deliberately ignored his signals, the victory was incomplete. Cochrane received the Knighthood of the Bath, but he emphatically expressed his disgust at the incompetency of Gambier, who demanded a court-martial. Through influence and a friendly court, Gambier was exonerated, while Cochrane, discredited, was forced to retire on half pay. In Parliament Cochrane continued his unsparing criticism of naval corruption, and thereby he made enemies who were glad to encompass his downfall, when, through a French officer who had applied to him for service, and whom he delivered to justice, he was implicated in an attempt to influence the stock market by spreading the rumor of Napoleon's death. His uncle and another were found guilty and punished; and Cochrane, although innocent, was fined £1000, struck off the navy list, expelled from Parliament, degraded from his knighthood, sentenced to a year's imprisonment, and to stand for an hour in the pillory. Owing to popular indignation, the pillory punishment was omitted. His Westminster constituents remained his friends and reëlected him. caped from jail in 1815, took his seat in the House, but was expelled by force, imprisoned for the rest of his term, and fined anew £100. Disgusted with vain attempts at justification, he accepted an invitation to organize the Chilean Navy, and in 1818 proceeded to Valparaiso. He put the wretched Chilean vessels into the best possible condition, and gained a series of remarkable successes over the Spanish fleet. In 1820 he took Valdivia and carried San Martin's army to Peru, having previously destroyed Spanish commerce on the Pacific coast, and performed a brilliant exploit in cutting out the Spanish frigate Esmeralda from under the enemy's guns at the Castle of Callao. Non-fulfillment of contracts and the refusal of arrears of pay caused him to resign, and soon afterwards he became admiral in the Brazilian Navy. During this appointment (1823-25) he compelled the Portuguese to evacuate Bahia, reduced Maranhão, and for his services received the marquisate of Maranhão; but the same causes as in the Chil He es ean service led to his resignation from the Brazilian. His next appointment was the command of the Greek Navy (1827-28); but an insufficiency of ships and men prevented the accomplishment of anything of importance. In 1831 he succeeded to the Dundonald peerage; in the following year, William IV. satisfied a general wish by granting him a free pardon for the offense of which he had been convicted, and in 1847 Queen Victoria reinstated him in the Order of the Bath and to his naval rank. In 1877 his heirs received compensation for his unjust condemnation in a restoration of eighteen years' loss of pay and allowances as a naval officer. From 1848 to 1851 he was commander-in-chief of the these soon gave way to the more popular red, white, and blue-the tricolor of the Revolution. See TRICOLOR. In Every nation of Europe has its own cockade. In Germany, black, yellow, and white, and black, red, and gold have been used; in Austria, black and yellow; in Russia, green and white. England the cockades worn are always blackthe old Hanoverian color; but being used, generally, as part of the livery of coachmen and footmen, they have lost all special significance. Consult: Genealogical Magazine, vols. i.-iii. (London, 1897-99); Racinet, Le costume historique (6 vols., Paris, 1888). COCKAIGNE, kōk-an'. A name given to an imaginary land of good things-of idleness, luxury, and perfect happiness. The word appears and means the land of abundance.' In it the in a variety of spellings in English and French, rivers flowed with wine, the houses were built of dainties, and cooked fowls offered themselves for eating. Its English synonym is 'lubberland.' It is the subject of a popular satirical poem of the thirteenth century, The Land of Cockaigne, and is a burlesque term applied to London and to North American and West Indian stations, and became rear-admiral of the United Kingdom in 1854. To an advanced age he busied himself with scientific inventions for the navy, and early recognized the advantage of steam-power and of the application of the screw propeller to warships. He published: Notes on the Mineralogy, Government, and Condition of the British West India Islands (1851); Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chile, Peru, and Brazil (1859); and an Autobiography (2 vols., 2d ed., 1860); the same completed by the eleventh Earl and H. R. Fox Bourne (2 vols., London, 1869). He COCK AND THE FOX, THE. A modernized version of Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale-made died at Kensington, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Consult: Fortescue, Dundonald by John Dryden and published, with other trans(London, 1895), and Atlay, Trial of Lord Coch-lations, under the title of Fables, in 1699, shortrane Before Lord Ellenborough (London, 1897). ly before his death. COCINERO, kō'sê-nā'ro (Sp., cook). The name of various species of West Indian crévalle (q.v.). COCK, THE. A primitive tavern or alehouse on Fleet Street, near Temple Bar, London, with decorations of the period of James I. It is a famous resort, and is well known through Tenny son's "Will Waterproof's Lyrical Monologue." The same name was borne by several other London taverns, of which one on Threadneedle Street was specially renowned. COCKADE (Fr. cocarde or coquarde, from coq, cock). A word first found in the works of Rabelais, and in the early part of the seventeenth century used to designate a cocked hat or cap set jauntily on the head. Later on, however, it acquired a more restricted meaning, and was applied to the clasp or knot of ribbon which decorated the loop or cock of the hat. The word is now employed to designate a rosette or knot of ribbon, leather, or other material worn on the hat as a badge or ornament. Cockades have always been used as party badges and insignia since the War of the Spanish Succession, when the red and white cockade was adopted by the French. In England the Stuart cockade was white, the Hanoverian was black, and frequent references to the rival colors are to be met with in the literature of the time. As early as 1767, a regulation in France provided that every French soldier should 'mount the cockade,' the color being white; and a later decree, in 1782, restricted the wearing of cockades to the military. From this period till the outbreak of the French Revolution the cockade was an exclusively military emblem, and to mount the cockade' was synonymous with becoming a soldier, both in France and England. After the meeting of the States-General of France in 1789, cockades of green were worn by the advanced party, but Paris. One of COCK'ATIEL (from Dutch kakatielje, from the small, long-tailed Australian parrots of the Port. cacatilho, cacatelho, cockatoo). genus Calopsitta, sometimes called 'cockatoo parrakeets,' or 'ground parrakeets,' particularly the favorite cage-bird Calopsitta Nova-Hollandiæ. This pretty species is found wild nearly all over Australia, where it goes about in flocks, and nests in hollow trees. It is about 12 inches long, half of which belongs to the tail, which ends in two prolonged and sharply pointed feathers. "The prevailing hue is darkgray,... the forehead and cheeks are lemon-yellow, while the feathers of the crest, which cannot be depressed, are yellow at the base and gray above. A bright patch of reddish orange on the ear-coverts occupies the middle of the yellow area, and the wings are ornamented with a broad band of white." See COCKATOO, and Plate of PARROTS AND PARRAKEETS. COCK'ATOO' (Hind. kākātua, Malay kakatua, onomatopoetic from its cry). A bird of the family Cacatuidæ, of the order Psittaci (q.v.). They are closely related to the true parrots, and by some ornithologists are regarded as merely a subdivision of that family. The bill is high and curved from the base, and the tail is long, broad, and rounded. The head is also large, and in the true cockatoos is surmounted by a crest of long and pointed feathers, with their tips directed forward, which can be erected and expanded like a fan or depressed at the pleasure of the bird. The true cockatoos (Cacatua) are generally whitish in color, often finely tinged with red, orange, or other colors. The name 'cockatoo,' however, is also commonly extended to nearly allied genera, as Calyptorhynchus and Microglossus, in both of which the plumage is generally dark, and to which belong the black cockatoos of Australia and of the Indian Archipelago. 1. ROSEATE COCKATOO (Cacatus roseicapillus). 2. WESTERN BLACK COCKATOO (Calyptorhynchus stellatus). 3. BILL OF NO. 2-front view. 4. GREAT BLACK COCKATOO (Microglossus aterrimus). 5. BLUE-FRONTED MACAW (Ara chloroptera). 6. GREEN-WINGED MACAW (Ara nobilis). 7. SLENDER-BILLED COCKATOO (Lichmetis nasica). |