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had made himself master of his whole kingdom, and for eighteen years more he ruled it with an iron hand and extended open tolerance to the Christians. In 1820, however, he died, and his successor, Minh Meng, ex- pelled the French and persecuted the native Christians before he had been four years upon the throne. A second massacre of missionaries-for the Roman Catholic priests of the Société des Missions Etrangères returned again and again to the charge, as also did the Spanish missionaries, occurred in 1851, and a war vessel was sent to destroy the forts at Turon. In 1857 Bishop Diaz, a Spaniard, having been brutally murdered by the authorities, France and Spain took joint-action with the result that Cochin-China was invaded by a Franco-Spanish expedition. It was not, however, until the hand of France had been freed by the signing of the Treaty of Peking in 1860, which put an end to the war with China, that really effective action was taken, and Cochin-China was ceded to France.

Kambodia meanwhile had been invaded during the latter half of the eighteenth century by Siam and Annam, and had gradually become subservient to both. In 1857 her King, Ang Duong, appealed for aid to France, and a French protectorate over the kingdom was proclaimed by France shortly after the accession of his successor Norodon in 1859. Siamese influence continued to be predominant at the Court of Kambodia until 1863, when Siam was bought out by France, the provinces of Siam- reap and Batambang being ceded to her without the knowledge or consent of the unhappy Norodon, whose