An American reports on French Indochina (1886)

The following report on French colonialism in Indochina (Vietnam) was written in 1886 by Augustine Heard, an American who lived and travelled extensively in Asia:

“The empire of Annam, consisting of three divisions, stretches along the sea for a distance of rather more than 1200 miles, and comprises within its limits an area somewhat exceeding 200,000 square miles, or nearly equal to the dimensions of France. The most southerly section, known as Lower or French CochinChina, with a surface of 21,600 square miles and a population of 1,600,00 souls, is entirely formed of alluvial deposits, and, being abundantly watered by the great river Mekong, which with its subsidiary streams traverses it in every direction, is of surpassing fertility.

Rice is the chief staple, but sugar, indigo, and all tropical productions grow luxuriantly. Unhappily the climate of these low, moist lands is unsuited to the white man. The mean temperature is 83 degrees, and the thermometer indoors in April and May sometimes rises to 95 and 97 degrees. Fevers abound, but the chief enemy of the stranger is dysentery. The health of Saigon, however, has much improved within late years, owing to better and more suitable buildings and a fuller knowledge of the sanitary conditions, and will continue to improve as the town gains solidity and age.

North of Lower Cochin-China, between a range of mountains and the sea, lies the kingdom of Annam proper, for the most part, a narrow strip of land hardly exceeding in width an average of fifty miles, though widening towards its southern extremity to nearly two hundred miles. It is mountainous, heavily wooded, and although the plains, well watered by numerous rapid streams, are devoted to the cultivation of rice, their extent is not sufficient to provide for the needs of its population. About the interior of the country little is known. Its principal ports, Touron and Quinhon, have been often visited by foreigners, but are of no especial importance; and Hue itself, the capital and residence of the king, has no other claim to notice.

Farther to the north again, we reach the magnificent province of Tonkin, spreading upwards and outwards like an open fan, till it touches the south-western limits of China. Plains stretch up from the sea till they reach the foot of the mountains, which then rise abruptly above them, and the country may be said to be unequally divided into two regions of an entirely and suddenly differing configuration. It comprises an area of seventy thousand square miles and has a population of 12 million souls, of which fully seven-tenths occupy the lower lands …

Of its mineral wealth little is known, but tin and copper are certainly found, and gold and silver are believed to exist. But of far more value than deposits of precious metals, and sufficient in itself to repay all the labour and cost of the conquest, coal has been discovered, of excellent quality and in abundant quantity, in close proximity to the sea. In the peculiar position of France the importance of this discovery, if substantiated, can hardly be exaggerated… The summer is hot, but there are five or six months of a good winter when the thermometer falls to forty-one or forty-two degrees… There are no roads, but communication throughout the low lands is easy and general by water. The soil is fertile, and the population more numerous, more laborious, and more energetic than that of the southern provinces. Rice is the staple food and the chief export, but the sugar-cane, the mulberry, indigo, tobacco, and all tropical plants may be cultivated to advantage.”