or Tonquin, a large kingdom of India beyond the Ganges, bordering on the Chinese provinces of Guangsee and Yunan, and separating that empire from Cochin-China and Cambodia. It is situated between the seventeenth and twenty-third degrees of north latitude. It is bounded on the east by the Gulf of Tunquin, and on the west by Laos, Lactho, and part of the province of Yunnan in China. This country is of an extremely diversified surface. The districts to the north and west, towards China, are wild and mountainous, with no very distinct boundary; and the breezes from these heights, and towards the sea, always preserve a tolerable degree of coolness. Mountains, extending from east to west, separate Tunquin into divisions, of which the northern is considerably larger than the southern. A prolongation of these ridges separates Lactho from Laos, and others separate Tunquin from Cochin-China. These mountains are of great elevation, and many of them terminate in sharp peaks. The central part of the country consists of a vast alluvial plain traversed by numerous rivers, chiefly tributaries to the great river called Sai-gong, which flows through the whole breadth of Tunquin, and on which all the principal towns are situated. The seasons or monsoons are here, as in other tropical countries, divided into wet and dry. The rains begin in May and end in August, and are accompanied with thunder loud and terrific. There are few countries better supplied with water than Tunquin and the lower parts of Cochin-China. The country of Tunquin is watered by above fifty rivers that flow towards the sea, several of which, by their union, form the large stream which passes Backing. This river, which was navigable about 150 years ago, when Dutch vessels ascended the stream to within fifteen leagues of Backing, has now thrown up many islands, and its mouth is so obstructed by a bar of sand, that the Chinese junks which trade to this country can no longer ascend the stream. The country is inundated and rendered fertile by the tropical rains, and thus yields ample crops of rice and other productions. Potatoes, yams, and other roots, furnish also a copious supply of subsistence. The usual tropical fruits abound, such as mangoes, lemons, cocoa-nuts, ananas; and the most delicious oranges, as also the peach, the plum, the pomegranate, and the citron, are produced. The tea-plant is almost as common as in China, but not being attended with the same care, is not so valuable. The areca, the betel, the indigo, the sugar-cane, also grow in these fertile plains. Vines have been planted, but the grapes do not come to maturity. Mulberry trees are plentiful, and supply food for silk-worms. The country also contains much large timber fit for building; beautiful cabinet woods, such as eagle wood, cocoanut, and other palms, bamboos, and rattans. There are mines of various metals; and iron ore is procured in a state of great purity. It is also asserted that there are tin-mines in the mountainous tract towards China, the working of which is prohibited. Particles of gold are found in many of the Tunquin rivers, and salt and saltpetre are in great plenty and of good quality.

Among the wild animals to which the woods afford ample cover, are found the elephant, which is the property of the monarch; and the buffalo, which is employed for agricultural purposes. Neither the sheep, nor the ass, nor the hare, nor the camel, is known; but the hog and the goat are abundant. The horses are a contemptible breed. The rhinoceros is occasionally discovered, and tigers of the largest size are found. There are bears of a diminutive species, and deer and monkeys of all sorts. The country is much infested with rats, and with reptiles and insects, some venomous, others innocuous. Fish are remarkably plentiful, and furnish the inhabitants with a greater supply of food than they derive from the terrestrial animals. In addition to the common sorts of fish, there are turtles, tortoises, crabs, shell-fish, and moluscas, the substance of which is gelatinous, and greatly relished by the Chinese, however distasteful to European palates. Ducks and poultry are numerous, and very cheap.

The trade of Tunquin can hardly be described as very considerable, and it is chiefly carried on by merchants from China and Siam. The chief manufactures to be obtained at Tunquin are silks and lacquered ware. The silks are both raw and wrought; they are very beautiful and cheap, while the lacquered ware is scarcely inferior to that of Japan. Gold may also be obtained in considerable quantity. Other articles of export are earthenware, drugs, Chinese paper, dyeing woods, musk, rhubarb, tortoise-shell, ginger, cassia, ebony, ivory, sugar, and molasses. In the seventeenth century the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French, had factories in Tunquin; but they have been long since abandoned. At present the Chinese experience greater favour than any other nation, and are allowed to ascend the rivers; a privilege also granted to the Portuguese at Macao; but neither are allowed to establish factories on shore. In Tunquin there are reckoned to be twelve principal cities; namely, Backing, or Keicho, said to contain 40,000 inhabitants; Hanring, 15,000 to 20,000; Tranhac, 10,000 to 15,000; Causang, 7000 to 8000; Vihoaing, a town on the river that passes through Tunquin, up to which the Chinese junks can ascend; Hunnam, a town on the same river, containing about 5000 inhabitants. There are, besides, six other towns containing from 6000 to 7000 souls.

Tunquin is divided into ten districts, of which the central district, named Xunam, is by far the most populous, consisting of a vast plain, watered by numerous navigable streams, and in the density of its population resembling a Chinese province. We have no data for any accurate estimate of the population of the country. It has been computed by a missionary at eighteen millions; but this is probably far beyond the truth. One tenth of the inhabitants are supposed, like the Chinese, to live constantly on the water. The Tunquineese, deriving their origin from the Chinese, are distinguished by a general resemblance to them in their language and manners. Their language is a modified dialect of the Chinese, but so greatly changed and corrupted, that the spoken language is now wholly unintelligible to a native of China, though the written character is understood, being the same in both countries. Printing is known in Tunquin, but the people generally are rude and uninformed; such limited knowledge as they possess being confined to the mandarins. Their printing is of the crudest kind, their types being of wood, and not moveable; but being rather a mode of stereotype, and every additional book requiring new plates and characters, few are printed, and these have in general a reference to religion and law. The historical works are inaccurate; those on moral subjects are mostly translations from Chinese works, or commentaries on them; and the sciences have remained stationary for nearly a thousand years. The people resemble the Chinese in their shape and features; but the additional practice which they have adopted of blacking their teeth, gives them a hideous appearance. The blackness of the teeth is, however, considered as singularly ornamental, and takes place generally at the age of sixteen or seventeen. Like the Chinese, they allow their nails to grow to an immoderate length. They differ however from the Chinese in their laborious habits, being extremely indolent, and not easily roused to any vigorous exertion; and their task being accomplished, they soon relapse into their former state of sloth and repose. They are remarkably coarse in their mode of eating, using for food what among other nations is rejected with disgust. Not only are particular parts of the innocuous and the elephant eaten, but grasshoppers, monkeys, horses, and dogs, with mountain rats, lizards, and some kinds of worms and snakes. They refuse the milk of animals in any shape, holding it in extreme aversion. They have the same repugnance to fresh eggs. They eat all manner of odious reptiles and noxious animals, and prefer drinking water in a tepid state. Their laws and institutions bear all the marks of a rude and barbarous people. Punishments are decreed against all sorts of crimes with particular minuteness, but with little discrimination, being not at all proportioned to the nature of the offence; those against manners being more rigorously punished than crimes dangerous to society. There is no proper security for natural rights; nor is life and property protected against the despotic rule of the emperor. It is dangerous, for example, to excel in any profession of art, as the talents of the artist are immediately put in requisition to work gratis for the emperor, or the governor of a province, or even by common mandarin. They are restrained in many cases by species of sumptuary laws. The bulk of the people are not allowed to build their houses of stone, or more than one story high; and the larger edifices, such as temples and palaces, are generally constructed of wood, or of wood and brick mixed. The roads are generally very bad, there being only one of a superior description from Backing, the capital of Tunquin, to the capital of Cochin-China, a distance of nearly 500 miles.

Their religion is a modification of the Buddhist system, closely resembling that which prevails in China, but blended with many local and peculiar superstitions. The higher classes are described as adherents of Confucius, who submit to the worship of images and other ceremonies through deference to public opinion. Some of the more barbarous tribes worship the tiger and the dog. To the first, human flesh is offered, and other disgusting oblations to the latter. Traces of the same worship are to be found among the mountaineers on the borders of India, as well as among the Indo-Chinese nations.

The Christian religion was first introduced by the Portuguese about the beginning of the seventeenth century, and subsequently by the French, while they had commercial establishments in the country. At an early period the Jesuits sent missionaries into the country, and had made considerable progress when they were expelled. During the eighteenth century, the exercise of the Christian religion was generally prohibited, and at particular periods Turcomans persecuted with the greatest cruelty. In later times, the missionaries have suffered more from the mandarins and inferior officers than from the emperor.

Tunquin, along with Cochin-China, Cambodia, and Siam, are recorded to have anciently formed part of the Chinese empire; but on the Mogul invasion of China from Tartary in the thirteenth century, the Chinese governors of Tartary took that opportunity to throw off the badge of dependence. In this manner several distinct kingdoms were created, the rulers of which continued to acknowledge for many years a nominal subjection to the authority of China. The Tunquinese rulers gradually assumed a greater degree of independence, and, about 1553, are said to have extended their dominion over Cochin-China. The subsequent history of this country is confused and obscure, consisting of a series of assassinations and revolts, and a perpetual fluctuation of boundaries. A revolution commenced about the year 1774; and it terminated after a sanguinary warfare of twenty-eight years, leaving the empire as it at present exists. Tunquin was finally conquered in 1800 by the emperor of Cochin-China, and has ever since continued under the delegated authority of that sovereign.