Saigon

Saigon, capital of French Cochinchina, stands on the river Saigon, a branch of the delta of the Mekhong, about 60 miles from the sea by river. The present town has grown up under French influences since 1861, and with its fine streets and squares, and boulevards, is one of the handsomest cities of the East. It has a magnificent governor's palace, a cathedral (1877), two higher colleges, an arsenal, a floating-dock and a dry-dock, administrative offices, and a botanical and zoological garden. Its population, consisting principally of Chinese, Annamites, and French, amounted to (1881) 13,481, and (1890) 16,213. But the business suburb of Cholon, 4 miles to the south-west, had (1885) 27,589, and (1890) 39,925 inhabitants, more than half Chinese. Saigon (properly Gia-dinh) is the most important port between Singapore and Hong-kong. It exports every year rice, chiefly to China, the Philippines, Japan, and the Straits Settlements, to the value of £1,440,000 to £1,720,000. The remaining exports include fish, salt, cotton, wood, beans, and lides. The port is entered by 400 to 500 vessels of 460,000 to 560,000 tons annually, of which nearly one-fourth are British; then come German and French. Previous to the French occupation (1861) Saigon, although only a collection of common Siamese huts, was the capital of the province of Lower Cochinchina.