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322 AXAM.
by the Anamese religion. The heir-apparent, hia
pupil, died shortly after.
The young usurper of Hue*, however, still kept pos-
session of that city and part of Tongkin; but in 1802,*
Caung-shung, at the head of a formidable armament,
dislodged him; and in 1804, he was acknowledged by
the emperor of China as the undisputed sovereign of
the whole country, the name of which he changed on
this occasion from Anarn to Viet-nam.
Caung-shung died in February 1820, in the sixtythird
year of his age, and was succeeded by his second
son, who assumed the title of Minh-menh (or Mingmenff,
shining providence). The character of this
sovereign, who is compared by Mr. Barrow to Peter
the Great of Russia, certainly exhibits a very extra-
ordinary combination of talent, energy and courage.
At one time an outcast, forced to flee from the hand
of the usurper and the assassin, and to suffer the
keenest pangs of adversity, he was nevertheless able,
in the course of ten or twelve years, to recover the
whole of his possessions, and to extend them by the
acquisition of Tongkin. He undoubtedly owed much,
however, in every point of view, to the instructions,
the talents, and the efficient aid of Adran, whom he
venerated almost to adoration, distingishing him by
an epithet bestowed on Confucius
"
alone, the illustrious
master."
* In 1800, the military forces of Caung-shung are said to have
amounted to 113,000 men; viz. 24 squadrons of buffalo troops,
6,000; 16 battalions of elephants (200 animals), 8,000; 30 regiments
of artillery, 15,000 ;
24 regiments trained in the European manner,
30,000; infantry -with matchlocks, 42,000; guards, trained to
European tactics, 12,000; exclusive of a marine amounting to
26,800. Total, 139,800. BARROW, p. 283.