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as a possible highway for communication with the Celes- tial Empire.

Antonio de Faria next visited an island situated "in the entrance to the Bay of Cauchenchina forty degrees and a third to the northward," which was probably the island of Cham Collao. Thence he crossed over to Hainan (Ainan), and later returned to the mainland, arriv- ing at the kingdom of Tanququir, which was, of course, Tongking. Coasting thence forty leagues towards the east, he reached a port called Mutipinan (Turon?), whence, Pinto tells us, a great overland trade was carried on with the Laos and other peoples of the Hinterland. If this statement is correct the routes over the mountains from the valley of the Mekong into that of the Song Koi, which the French explorer de Lagrée ascertained had formerly been in frequent use, but in his day had been completely abandoned, must have been in existence at a very early period. From Mutipinan de Faria re- turned to Hainan, and later spent some months cruising about the coasts of Indo-China in a southerly direction with the intention of "wintering" in Siam, but some- where to the south of Quangiparu, "a fair town of 1,500 fires, as we guessed," in which there were "goodly build- ings and Temples," he met with utter shipwreck. The situation of this town cannot be determined, but it would appear to have been on the banks of a river which fell into the sea on the exposed coast of Annam, and it may perhaps be identical with the modern Quang-mai, The spot where de Faria and his fellows were cast ashore was barren and uninhabited, and for some days the survivors