rn neighbours of Cambodia, and
the exhaustion consequent upon all these efforts seems to have been the
immediate cause of the decadence which now set in. From the last decade
of the 13th century there dates a valuable description of Tchin-la[2]
written by a member of a Chinese embassy thereto. The same period
probably also witnessed the liberation of the Thais or inhabitants of
Siam from the yoke of the Khmers, to whom they had for long been
subject, and the expulsion of the now declining race from the basin of
the Menam. The royal chronicles of Cambodia, the historical veracity of
which has often to be questioned, begin about the middle of the 14th
century, at which period the Thais assumed the offensive and were able
repeatedly to capture and pillage Angkor-Thorn. These aggressions were
continued in the 15th century, in the course of which the capital was
finally abandoned by the Khmer kings, the ruin of the country being
hastened by internal revolts and by feuds between members of the royal
family. At the end of the 16th century, Lovek, which had succeeded
Angkor-Thorn as capital, was itself abandoned to the conquerors. During
that century, the Portuguese had established some influence in the
country, whither they were followed by the Dutch, but after the middle
of the 17th century, Europeans counted for little in Cambodia till the
arrival of the French. At the beginning of the 17th century the Nguyen,
rulers of southern Annam, began to encroach on the territory of
Cochin-China, and in the course of that and the 18th century, Cambodia,
governed by two kings supported respectively by Siam and Annam, became a
field for the conflicts of its two powerful neighbours. At the end of
the 18th century the provinces of Battambang and Siem-reap were annexed
by Siam. The rivalries of the two powers were concluded after a last and
indecisive war by the treaty of 1846, as a result of which Ang-Duong,
the protege of Siam, was placed on the throne at the capital of Oudong,
and the Annamese evacuated the country. In 1863, in order to counteract
Siamese influence there, Doudart de Lagree was sent by Admiral la
Grandiere to the court of King Norodom, the successor of Ang-Duong, and
as a result of his efforts Cambodia placed itself under the protectorate
of France. In 1866 Norodom transferred his capital to Pnom-Penh. In 1867
a treaty between France and Siam was signed, whereby Siam renounced its
right to tribute and recognized the French