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314 ANAM.
great officers of the crown, the shooa (chua, or shua-
rua] , answering, apparently, to the Mahratta peishwas,
or the ancient mayors of the palace in France,
having placed himself at the head of the army, succeeded
in making the office hereditary, and in reducing
the bova (boa) or king to the shadow of a monarch.
The subsequent history of Tong-kin presents only a
confused succession of assassinations and revolts, and
a perpetual fluctuation of boundaries.
Cochin China, or Southern Anam, is said to be indebted
for its present population to an unsuccessful
rebellion of a Tongkinese prince against his sovereign,
somewhat less than two centuries ago. The insur-
gents, being totally routed, fled before the victorious
troops of the king of Tongkin into Cochin China,
then inhabited by the Lois or Laos, a timid and peace-
ful race, who, at the approach of these intruders,
retired into the mountains of Tsiampa, abandoning
their country without a struggle, if we may believe
the story, to the Tongkinese fugitives. In a very
short time, the latter had spread themselves over the
northern section of this fertile country ; nor was it
many years ere they had penetrated southward as far
as the borders of Cambodia, where they built the city
of Sai-gon, and subsequently that of Don-nai. In
somewhat less than forty years, they had gained possession
of the whole of Cochin China, and had made
successful inroads into Cambodia. There, however,
they were opposed by a more warlike people than the
Laos; nor were the Cambodians finally subdued by
the Anamese until the reign of the monarch who still
occupied the throne in 1820.
The Cochin Chinese kingdom soon became one of
the most powerful and prosperous in Eastern Asia.
Its fertile soil, its important line of coast, and a mild