Page:Voyage from France to Cochin-China- in the Ship Henry.djvu/10

Rh laid down the river of Hué. The names of many nations, countries, towns, &c. of the east have been, and still are, strangely corrupted or otherwise altered by Europeans. Thus the vast Asiatic empire which we call China is, in Asia, called Catay, a name formerly employed in the language of poetry in Europe. The peninsula on which Europeans land, on their commercial voyages to China, at the entrance of the river of Canton, we call Macao, but the Chinese Gaumin. The proper name of Canton itself ought to be Quan-Doung. The Japan islands are called Ziendri. The kingdom of Siam is Menang-Tai, that is to say, the free independent kingdom; the capital, which we call Siam, is Si-hé-thi-ya. The proper name of the Maldive islands, near the great southern promontory of India, is Malreque. Persia, since the extension of its dominions, is called Iram; Syria, now Sham; and the Tartars of the northern regions of Asia, as if a race of their atrocious reputation among their enemies must have proceeded from Tartarus itself, are still termed Tartars. The name of Tunkin is not more correct, for the country is, by the inhabitants, called Nuok-Anam, i. e. the kingdom of Anam. Under this general denomination are comprehended not Tunkin only, but also Cochin-China, (originally a dismemberment of Tunkin), for distinction-sake termed Dang-Trong, the inner kingdom, while Tunkin Proper is called Dang-Ngay, the outer kingdom. The error has been produced by ascribing to the whole country the name of the capital once named Dong-Kinh. For in a great part of Asia the letter d being sounded as t, strangers have imitated the name in Tunkin. Dong signifies the east, and Kinh a community of men in civilized society. Since the extension of the empire of Tunkin, the ancient capital, being situated to the northward of the principal states, has been styled Bac-Kinh, the city of the north; Cambogia, or Camboja, is the proper name of that country in the east, as well as in Europe: but Tsiampa is by the people termed Binh-Tuam. The finest bay and harbour of all Cochin-China, called by Europeans Tourane, is by the inhabitants called Han or Cua-Han, the port of Han. Coming to anchor on the 24th of June in the bay of Tourane, our salute of the fort was returned; and soon afterwards the Fantou, or mandarin-of-war came on-board the Henry. Recollecting us all, he called us by our names, and informed us that the Emperor, impatient to hear of our arrival, had dispatched messengers to different parts of the coast, to enquire whether we had been seen. After a short visit he went on shore, to give notice to the Emperor of our safe arrival: he also took charge of my letters for the French mandarins at court. I was naturally anxious to know the posture of affairs there before I should proceed to the capital: but five days passed away before my letters were answered. The interval we employed in visiting various points of the magnificent bay in which we lay, and in renewing our acquaintance with many of the inhabitants: by which we were more and more confirmed in the opinion we had formed of the affable and hospitable dispositions of the people. Several officers of the Henry passed days and nights, not in the villages on the coast only, but in detached houses in the