[29] In Chinese _Lung lae_ (7402, 6866 Mor.); this name is taken from the metropolis of this kingdom, called by the European travellers in the beginning of the seventeenth century, _Laniam_, _Laniangh_, or _Lanshang_. Robt. Kerr, General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Edinburgh, 1813, vol. viii. 446, 449.--The Burmas call this country Layn-sayn; "Buchanan on the Religion and Literature of the Burmas." Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. 226, London edition, 1810, 4to. The kingdom of Laos was conquered about the end of the year 1828, by the Siamese; the king, his two principal wives, his sons, and grandsons, amounting in all to fourteen persons, were cruelly killed at Bangkok. The Protestant missionaries, Thomlin and Guzlaff, saw nine of the relations of the king in a cage at Bangkok, the 30th of January, 1829. The First Report of the Singapore Christian Union, Singapore, 1830, Appendix xv. Is _Lang lae_ a mistake for _L[)u]h lae_, which is mentioned in the _Hae kw[)o] hëen këen_, p. 214? There occurs no _Lung lae_ in this work; where the Indo-Chinese nations are described under the title _Nan yan she_; i.e. History of the Southern ocean. [30] People living in the same state of society, have usually the same customs and manners. It is said of the celebrated _Buccaneers_, that they laid aside their surnames, and assumed nicknames, or martial names. Many, however, on their marrying, took care to have their real surnames inserted in the marriage contract; and this practice gave occasion to a proverb still current in the French Antilles, _a man is not to be known till he takes a wife_. See the Voyages and Adventures of William Dampier, and History of the Buccaneers, p. 87. Women cut the characters for common Chinese books; and, therefore, the Chinese say, so many mistakes are found in ordinary publications. The character _pa_ (8123) in _Tung hae pa_ is by such a mistake always written _p[)i]h_ (8527). [31] He called himself Hëo hëen (3728, 3676,) after having received a recompense from government for his robberies. See p. 75. [32] Our author anticipates here a little; this will be clear by a subsequent paragraph, p. 13. [33] _Shan_ is a mountain in Chinese; _Ling_ is a chain of mountains or _sierra_. The Chinese geographers say, the Mei ling mountain branches out like a tree; and they describe in particular two, the south-east and the south-west branches from Canton. They speak likewise of Woo Ling, or five sierras, in reference to five different passes by which these mountains are divided; but there are now more passes. See a compilation, already quoted, regarding Canton, made by order of the former governor _Yuen_, and printed at Canton last year, 1830, in eighty books, under the title _Ling nan y ung shuh_: i. e. _Memoirs regarding the South of the Sierra_, book 5. vol. ii, p. 1.