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 shade. The rice could not germinate; and where by dint of labour they were able to form some rice fields and the plant came up, the torrents of ran which afterwards ensued, swept all away. I am assured that in some provinces men were reduced to feed themselves on banana leaves, which they do not even give to animals except when they have nothing else. Since the commencement of the epidemic the king has remained shut up in his palace, and gives audiance [sic] to no one; the great mandarins for more than a month have attended to nothing, and are sunk under the weight of an absorbing dread. May they open their eyes and labour to repair the evil which they have done. The people know well that it is God who thus punishes; but nothing appears to indicate in the great who govern any sentiment of amendment.

Northern Cochin-China, 14th December 1849

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