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 tained that up to the time mentioned trade routes to the Annamite capital had been in constant use, and that the prosperity of the district had been considerable. In 1831, the Siamese, fresh from their reduction of the Laos States on the right bank of the river, invaded the country on the left bank, but were defeated by the Annamites. They returned to the charge, however, and this time they transported the entire population across the Mekong, leaving the left bank a desert. In this devastated and depopulated area the Annamite armies could not operate, and at a later period the Siamese began quietly to colo- nise the abandoned territory afresh. The absence of pity, which distinguishes the Oriental as opposed to the Occi- dental, stands him in good stead when he is bent upon conquest. No consideration bred of sympathy with human suffering,-let those who endure it be never so innocent and helpless, let the scale upon which it is con- ceived be neverso great,-causes him to stay his hand when ruthless action will bring about the result at which he aims. It is appalling to think of the misery which the removal of the entire population from one bank to the other must have inflicted upon its victims-agriculturists who lived from season to season by such harvests as they could garner; but by no other means, it is probable, could the Siamese have possessed themselves of the country which they coveted, and from which they had already been driven when they attempted to seize it by force.

Kamarat was left on February 13th, by boat, and the ascent of the Mekong, the bed of which is here strewn