Admiral Bonard had replaced Vice Admiral Léonard Charner as the head of French forces. Charner had already secured three provinces in Cochinchina and Bonard attacked and captured the important provincial town of Bien-Hoa after a four-day seige. Eventually, Bonard intimidated Vietnamese Emperor Tu-Duc into ceding these provinces as permanent French possessions at the Treaty of Saigon on June 5, 1862. (By John Osborne)