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338 AX AM.
many converts. The number of Christians in Cochin
China is 70,000 ; of which number, according to the
viceroy and the missionaries, the division of Don-nai
contains 16,000; they are all Roman Catholics. The
city of Saigon is said to contain 180,000 inhabitants,
of which about 10,000 are Chinese.
" Equidistant from the extremities of the city, near
the bank of the river, are the magazines of rice ; which
is a regular monopoly, the exportation being prohibited
on pain of decapitation. The ground is occupied in
the northern part of the city, for the space of two
miles, by about three-fifths of a mile square, as a
repository for the dead. This immense cemetery is
filled with tombs, built, like those of the Chinese, in
the form of a horse-shoe : its borders are planted, as
are many of the streets in the suburbs, with the palmaria-tree.
In the north-eastern part of the city, on
the banks of a deep creek, are the navy-yard and
naval arsenal. This establishment does more honour
to the Anamese than any other object in their country;
indeed, it may vie with many of the naval establishments
in Europe. The ship timber and planks ex-
celled any thing I had ever seen.* There were about
150 galleys, of most beautiful construction, hauled up
under sheds; they were from 40 to 100 feet long,
some of them mounting sixteen guns of three pounds
calibre ; others mounted four or six guns each, of from
four to twelve pounds calibre; all of brass, and most
beautiful pieces. There were also about forty galleys
One plank which Lieutenant White measured, was 109 feet
long, more than four inches thick, and perfectly square to the
top, where it was two feet wide ;
it was sawed out of the trunk of
a teak-tree, which here attains a most extraordinary magnitude.
It is not unusual to see trees that would make a natural mainmast
for a line of battle ship, clear of knots.