TONKIN. Archive of L. Guillaumot, chief accountant in Tonkin at the end of the 19th century. 10 L.A.S. to his family, "Aboard the Anadyr" and Saigon, April 3-June 3, 1882; 65pages in-8 or in-fol. Long, fascinating correspondence on his journey from France to Tonkin, his settlement in Saigon and his discovery of Tonkin at the time of the French conquest. Extract: "Yesterday I went to Cho-Len, the Chinese town 11 kilometers away. There's nothing quite as curious and interesting as that. We don't know exactly how many inhabitants there are, but it goes from 125 to 150,000. To guard it, there's half a company of Annamite riflemen and a few gendarmes. I saw a temporary pagoda intended to remain open for one day only, for a festival of some kind. What I saw there was a heap of curiosities the likes of which the Chinese museum in Paris can't even begin to imagine. About a hundred chandeliers (unfortunately lit by oil lamps with porcelain globes), these chandeliers are made of I don't know what, gilded and sculpted, loaded with figures, statuettes, pendants, it's dazzling; there are also altars, bronze perfume burners, trees carved in the shape of fish, birds, men, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., finally in five days we'll be able to see them, etc., and in five days' time there will be a grand procession, perhaps as far away as Saigon, in which over 30,000 people, wearing historical costumes and emblems, escort huge dragons. What will make my trip even more interesting is the ease with which I can get to Cambodia, to the mountainous regions of Siam and Tonkin, with the gunboats whose officers never fail to invite their acquaintances to the departure. Several of our people have already made some very interesting excursions. Have you read about recent events in Tonkin? It was all over the news when I arrived. Our troops ended up fighting the Tonkinese troops trapped in the Hanoi citadel. The engagement didn't last more than an hour, and we didn't lose any men. Today, we're sending a hundred and fifty men as reinforcements. This, together with the 500 or so we already have, will make up a real army of occupation, very capable of conquering Tonkin for us if our deputies don't get in the way and do the work of the English and Germans"... Etc. Lexicon including a few ideograms and their translation into French; and some Indochinese notions on the seasons (1 fol. page). Map of the Hanoi area, made up of 9 unassembled printed parts (20.5 x 18 cm), to form a 61.5 x 56 cm map. File on the Poignand-Frotier affair, a case of fraud and misappropriation of public funds that took place in Saigon in the 1880s: 5 letters and notes (23p. in-4 and in-fol., 1883-1885); plus 2 copies of the newspaper Le Saïgonnais containing an article on this affair (April 13, 1884).