[633] ‘Travels in Indo-China, Cambodia, and Laos,’ by Henri Mouhot. 2 vols. 8vo. Murray, 1864.
[634] ‘Die Völker der Oestlichen Asien,’ von Dr. A. Bastian. Leipzig, 1866.
[635] ‘Voyage d’Exploration en Indo-Chine,’ 2 vols. quarto and folio, Atlas of plates. Paris, 1873.
[636] Few things are more humiliating to an Englishman than to compare the intelligent interest and liberality the French display in these researches, contrasted with the stolid indifference and parsimony of the English in like matters. Had we exercised a tithe of the energy and intelligence in the investigation of Indian antiquities or history, during the 100 years we have possessed the country, that the French displayed in Egypt during their short occupation of the valley of the Nile, or now in Cambodia, which they do not possess at all, we should long ago have known all that can be known regarding that country. Something, it is true, has been done of late years to make up for past neglect. General Cunningham’s appointment to the post of Archæological Surveyor of India, and that of Mr. Burgess to a similar office in the Bombay Presidency, are steps in the right direction, which, if persevered in, may lead to most satisfactory results. Many years must, however, elapse before the good work can be brought up to the position in which it ought to have been long ago, and meanwhile much that was most important for the purpose has perished, and no record of it now remains.
[637] The work is translated in extenso in Abel Rémusat’s ‘Nouveaux Mélanges Asiatiques,’ vol. i. p. 78, et seqq.
[638] Bastian, loc cit., vol. i. p. 393.
[639] Bastian, vol. i. p. 429.
[640] Nakhon is only the Siamese pronunciation of the Indian Nagara, Nuggur. Thom means “great.”
[641] The French have navigated the lake in a large steamer, and published detailed charts of the river. Maps are also found in Mouhot’s ‘Travels;’ but the best are those which are found in the Atlas of Lieut. Garnier’s work above referred to.
[642] Bastian, vol. i. p. 402.