excesses, an ambassador from the emperor of Cochin-China was sent to the general in command, with the ostensible object of interposing in behalf of Chow-vin-chan and his family, who had fled into their territory--not from motives of compassion, I conceive, for the present emperor of Cochin-China is an ignorant, blood-thirsty savage, and pursues his enemy, where he dares, with an unrelenting hand. The object was, in truth, to prevent the conquest of the kingdom of Laos by Siam, which would give the Siamese a better chance of obtaining a larger slice at a future day, which they had long contemplated with eager and with gloating eyes. The Siamese commander, smarting with all his wounds, and red-hot from the bloody battle-field, or to speak less hyperbolically, not having filled a heavy purse from the spoils of the conquered, anticipating a golden harvest from the onward march, and feeling deeply indignant at the insidious policy of his wily neighbours, ordered an instantaneous massacre of the envoy and his suite of a hundred men, with the exception of one, who was sent back to say, “I alone am left out of all my brethren.” Highly enraged as was the emperor at the fell swoop of the embassy, and the gross violation of the law of nations, he dissembled, not daring to wage a war or revenge cruelty by cruelly; for his crazy, disjointed, and puny government would probably crumble into atoms, the moment a large force should quit the kingdom. The Cochin-Chinese government are aware that the Tung-kinese, on the north, are watching keenly for the first possible chance which offers of freeing themselves from their despotic oppressors; the Cambojans on the south are desirous also of measuring the length of their swords with their hard task-masters, and the lower class of Cochin-Chinese, which comprise nine hundred and ninety-nine of the thousand, are ripe for a revolt; being ground to the earth by the higher orders. They are ragged, filthy, and starving, from the gulf of Tung-king to the gulf of Siam, and from the coast washed by the China sea, to the boundaries of his “golden-footed majesty.” Year after year this demand has been made and evaded, and so far from his Siamese majesty ever intending to comply with it, he has lately sent this same “Meh-tap” into that part of Camboja which fell to his majesty’s share in the division of that kingdom with Cochin-China, to receive, and to protect from capture, the many thousands of Cambojans, who have recently fled into the Siamese territory. The ambassador paid his first visit a few days after his arrival, to the chow-pia-praklang, and was treated with bare civility; he was told, by order of his majesty, that a copy of the same letter which was sent to his majesty the last year, was all the answer which would be returned to the letter received from the emperor through his hands. His audience with the king, which took place a few days previously to ours, was marked by no distinguished honours; the pomp