Mongoloid people, subjected to more or less continual pressure from the north, with the inevitable sequence of war, subjugation, and fusion. In the case of Cambodia, or French IndoChina, we have a fusion of the autochthonous tribes with an invading mass from the plateaus of Central Asia, producing the race known as the Khmers. From some centuries B.C. to the fifth century A.D. a Hinduizing process was also going on, which made Cambodia Brahmanical in religion. The nation grew in importance until the zenith of prosperity was attained under a really great monarch, Jayavarman III, in the ninth century. Soon after, the city of Angkor Thom1 was completed. Its ruins to-day are one of the wonders of the Oriental world. But from this time on there was decline, and the neighboring Thais of Siam not only obtained deliverance from the Cambodian yoke, but even made reprisals. The Portuguese, moreover, began to come, though in this part of the world Europeans were never of much consequence till the arrival of the French.

Of Siam a similar story may be told. Here the fusion between Thais and Khmers took place early, and we have not much in the way of authentic history till the attack by the Mongols in 1250, an attack which "profoundly affected the whole of Farther India." The building of the city of Ayuthia in 1350 was the great event of the time and, as hinted above, Cambodia suffered from Siamese aggressions. The city of Angkor Thom was taken, and even Java in all probability was invaded. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Siam in turn had to yield to the military prowess of Burmah, and Ayuthia was more than once besieged. The Portuguese came in 1511 and maintained their preeminence for about a century. Pinto was here as well as in Japan, and adventurers like De Seixas and De Mello held positions of influence under the king. Then came the Dutch, and for about fifty years carried on their trade in a grasping and at times overreaching manner. English traders also began to be in evidence, though they abandoned the Ayuthia factory in 1688 and paid no great attention to the traffic. Japanese trade 1 See Helen Churchill Candee, Angkor, the Magnificent.

was very considerable from 1592 to the closing of Japan in 1638, and many Japanese were resident in Siam. In the eighteenth century Siam was rent by civil war and another Burmese invasion led to the capture of Ayuthia in 1767. The intercourse of France and Siam began about 1680, when the notorious Cephalonian adventurer, Constantine Phaulcon,1 advised the king to send an embassy to Louis XIV. This had an unhappy result, for the envoys who returned the compliment were a little too anxious to secure conversions, and intrigues with the Jesuits led to sundry calamities, including the death of Phaulcon, after torture, with the sword. "Thus died," says the Jesuit biographer, "at the age of forty-one, in the very prime of life, this distinguished man, whose sublime genius, political skill, great energy and penetration, warm zeal for religion, and strong attachment to the King, his master, rendered him worthy of a longer life and of a happier destiny." Just before the end of the eighteenth century the present dynasty of Siam was founded by a successful general who invaded Tenasserim and otherwise upheld the prestige of his country.

The present territory of Burmah was colonized from somewhere south of the Gangetic valley by tribes who conquered the original Mongols and created "the golden land of the South," the "Golden Chersonese" of Ptolemy. As in Java, the colonization was largely the work of Kalingas (Klings) and Telingas (Telugus), who came apparently from the mouth of the Godavery, by way of the port "whence men sailed for Chryse." The two races were distinguished in their new homes as Burmese and Peguans. Missionaries sent by Açoka about 241 B.C. are said to have converted the inhabitants generally to Buddhism, but the adoption of a pacific religion did not prevent the long interracial conflicts which delayed unity for many centuries. As in the case of Siam, Kublai Khan paid his respects to the Burmese and humbled them to his satisfaction. The three hundred years of war between Burmah and Pegu have much of interest, and its incidents may be

1 See G. B. Bacon's Siam, ch. IV.

gleaned from the picturesque pages of Balbi, Frederike, and Pinto. The latter, describing the sack of Martiban, tells us that in that city there were 36,000 strangers, representative of two and forty nationalities. The halcyon days of Burmah that is, of Pegu-were coincident with the invasion of Siam and the reign of the great king, Bureng Naung. After this came days of decline, the arrival of the foreigners, and the extension of Indian factories to the southern shore. The Chinese emperor, Ch'ien Lung, invaded the land in 1765, with results. variously recorded, according to whether the source of the narrative is Chinese or Burmese. In any case, there was a treaty of peace and commerce in 1769. Our period closes with the reign of King Bodo-pra, the failure of another war with Siam, and the first encounter with the British.

Our survey of the history of continental Asia during the eighteenth century is now sufficiently complete to enable us, without cutting our communications, to essay an excursion among the islands of the Pacific.

CHAPTER XII

THE DAWN OF THE PACIFIC ERA

WITH SO much to tell of the story of Asia and so little space within which to tell it, the extension of our narrative into the vast world of the Pacific might seem a work of supererogation. Yet, whatever may be the stringency of geographical distinctions, the story of Southern Asia or Australasia is, from the historical point of view, in very truth only the continuation of the story we have so far attempted to tell. This is true of the ethnic history, since the peoples of Australasia are mainly people forced out of the holes made in the southern pockets of Asia. It is true also politically, since in large part the discovery of the Pacific in modern times was the result of voyages made to and from Cathay.

What a stimulating story of human enterprise is scattered over the waters of this wonderful ocean! On September 29, 1513, Balboa first saw the Pacific and, ignorant of its vastness, called it, from the date of its discovery, Golfo de San Miguel. Four years later the conquistador was murdered by his fatherin-law, so he had little profit from his discovery. Then came Magellan, and pushed out into the unknown waters which, with the optimism of inexperience, he christened Mer Pacifico. There followed the discovery of the Ladrones and Philippines, as already described, after which came, from opposite points of the compass, a race between the two Iberian kingdoms as to which should add new territories the faster. As for the Pacific in general, Portugal soon fell out of the running, not even holding New Guinea, to which she had first claim. The Carolines,

Solomons, Marquesas, and other groups all fell to Spain. Francis Drake toward the close of the sixteenth century carried the English flag around the world on the Golden Hind,1 "but his mission was not to discover new lands so much as to vex the Spaniard." Fifty years later the Dutchman, Tasman, made from Batavia the memorable discoveries which immortalize his name, and the Dutch kept up their repute well for the remainder of the seventeenth century. The eighteenth century saw Dutch and French and English all at work, discovering and rediscovering, charting and annexing all over the ocean, in the meantime fighting the Spaniards or one another. Then, with the last years of the century, a memorable new era is inaugurated. The principal figure of this era is Captain James Cook, one of the very greatest names in the whole history of Pacific navigation. Rising rapidly from the position of boy on a coasting collier, through the grades of able seaman and captain's mate to that of master, Cook made himself an expert astronomer and mathematician; hence he was entrusted with the expedition of 1769 to observe the transit of Venus. From that time to the day he met his fate at Kealakekua Bay, Cook was engaged in the task of creating a new world out of the hitherto unknown ocean.

Indomitable, stern,

A hard, just, patient man, and taciturn.

Cook's success stirred other nations to emulation, and many famous names star the story of these concluding years of the eighteenth century. A new nation was added to those so far on the list by the voyage of the Russian Admiral Krusenstern around the world in 1804.

It will be fairer to mention some of these names in connection with some of the groups and islands they discovered. Let us therefore make a brief summary of the lands we have set within our scope.

Australasia is conveniently surveyed under five several

1 See "Drake, an Epic," by Alfred Noyes.