The French had a perfect right to be in Cochin China, and their being there would do no harm, but rather good, however questionable the benefit to themselves; for their presence amounted to the substitution of a friendly and civilised power for a rude and inhospitable one. The drawings on the table were exceedingly curious and interesting; they were admirably done, and exhibited representations of some remarkable monuments, evidently of Buddhist origin. They reminded him very much, though inferior in quality and beauty, of the monuments of the island of Java. He never heard of volcanoes when he was in Cambodia, but he had no doubt M. Mouhot’s information was correct, though it appeared he did not describe them from his own personal experience. He would add a word upon the alphabets which were on the table. The Cambodians had invented a written phonetic character, which they used at the present time; therefore there could be no difficulty in understanding a Cambodian manuscript. But there were several of those now exhibited which were of more or less antiquity. One of them seemed to be the alphabet which was used by the Cambodians in their religious rites. The figure of Buddha showed that the Cambodians were worshippers of Buddha. TO M. CHARLES MOUHOT. Montbéliard,[15] 13th June, 1862. [15] Montbéliard is the birthplace of Cuvier and of Laurillard. LETTER TO M. CHARLES MOUHOT. The members of the “Société d’Émulation” at Montbéliard desire to express the deep regret which they have experienced at the premature death of their fellow-townsman M. Henri Mouhot. After a three years’ journey in Cambodia and Siam, during which he devoted himself to researches which have been highly appreciated by the Geographical and Zoological Societies of London, he fell a victim at the early age of thirty-five to his love of science. His work remained unfinished, but it was gloriously commenced, and his name will not perish. The regret experienced by his friends is the greater from their conviction that had he lived he would have been still more an honour to his native town, and that the name of Mouhot would have ranked side by side with those illustrious ones which have already rendered Montbéliard famous in the department of Natural Science. THE END. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS. [Illustration: Map of CAMBODIA, THE LAO COUNTRY &c. _to illustrate the_ Route and Notes of M. Henri Mouhot. 1859-61. _Pub^d for the Journal of the Royal Geographical Soc^y. by J. Murray, Albemarle Str^t. London, 1862._ _NB. This Map is used by Permission of the R. G. Soc^y. to illustrate M. Mouhot’s Travels in Cambodia, &c.] * * * * * Transcriber's Note Page headers have been converted to headings. The following apparent errors have been corrected: p. 38 "ever" changed to "every" (Illustration facing p. 60) "Therond" changed to "Thérond"