WITH CHRIST IN INDOCHINA - IndoChina1911

hold objects. An Annamese tailor, for instance,
will often hold the garment with his feet while he
sews with both hands.
For centuries the Annamese were vassals to China,
but in A. D. 968 they threw off this yoke and estab¬
lished an absolute monarchy. In the fifteenth cen¬
tury the country was again in bondage to China for
a time. Then two Annamese princes came into
prominence. The Chinese overlords were driven
out, but the country was divided into two kingdoms.
The Trinh family ruled Tonkin, while the Nguyen *
family was supreme in the south. In 1568 Southern
Annam became a separate kingdom, under the name
of Cochin-China. This was governed by the house
of Nguyen until 1760 when a great rebellion overthrew
that family. In 1787 one of the survivors,
Nguyen-Anh, who was afterwards known as the
Emperor Gia Long, appealed to the Roman Catholic
Bishop to obtain aid from France to recover his
throne. With this help he succeeded in conquering
not only his rivals, but he also brought Tonkin once
more under the sovereignty of Hue. In 1801 he became
Emperor of the whole of Annam, Tonkin, and
Cochin-China. In return for the assistance of the
French, the City of Tourane, on the coast of Annam
near Hue, was made a French concession, and the
islands of Toulon and Poulo Condor, off the coast
of Cochin-China, were ceded to France. This was
the beginning of the French ascendancy which cul-