the British, and in 1806 the fortifications
and public buildings were blown up by order of the authorities. The
explosion destroyed much private property, and for a long time seriously
affected the prosperity of the town. Considerable sea-borne trade is
still carried on. A lighthouse stands on the ruins of the old fort. The
chief exports are cocoanut products, for the preparation of which there
are factories, and tea; and the chief import is rice. Cochin is the only
port south of Bombay in which large ships can be built.

COCHIN-CHINA,[1] a French colony in the extreme south of French
Indo-China. The term formerly included the whole Annamese
empire--Tongking, Annam, and Lower Cochin-China, but it now comprises
only the French colony, which corresponds to Lower Cochin-China, and
consists of the six southern provinces of the Annamese empire annexed by
France in 1862 and 1867. Cochin-China is bounded W. by the Gulf of Siam,
N.W. and N. by Cambodia, E. by Annam, and S.E. by the China Sea. Except
along part of the north-west frontier, where the canal of Vinh-The
divides it from Cambodia, its land-limits are conventional. Its area is
about 22,000 sq. m.

In 1901 the population numbered 2,968,529, of whom 4932 were French
(exclusive of French troops, who numbered 2537), 2,558,301 Annamese,
231,902 Cambodians, 92,075 Chinese, 42,940 savages (Min Huong), the rest
being Asiatics of other nationalities, together with a few Europeans
other than French.

_Geography._--Cochin-China consists chiefly of an immense plain, flat
and monotonous, traversed by the Mekong and extending from Ha-Tien in
the west to Baria in the east, and from Bien-Hoa in the north-east to
the southern point of the peninsula of Ca-Mau in the south-west. The
last spurs of the mountains of Annam, which come to an end at Cape St
Jacques, extend over parts of the provinces of Tay-Ninh, Bien-Hoa and
Baria in the north-east and east of the colony, but nowhere exceed 2900
ft. in height; low hills are found in the north-western province of
Chau-Doc. Cochin-China is remarkable for the abundance of its waterways.
The Mekong divides at Pnom-Penh in Cambodia into two arms, the Fleuve
superieur and the Fleuve inferieur, which, pursuing a course roughly
parallel from north-west to south-east, empty into the China Sea by
means of the numerous channels of its extensive delta. From June to
October the inundations of the Mekong cover most of the country,
portions of whic