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arations for his last and most important journey. It is at this point that Mouhot's travels begin to assume such geographical value as can be claimed for them.

Proceeding up the Menam, he struck across country to Korat, and thence to Chaipun, where he arrived at the end of February, 1861. The governor of this place showed little inclination to assist him, and Mouhot found himself obliged to retrace his steps to Korat, the governor of which was more courteous and more amenable. With the transport here obtained, and armed with letters of introduction from the friendly governor, he set out once more to Chaipun. From this point he pushed on in a northerly direction to Muong Lui, and thence to Pak Lai,[1] the place at which he first struck the upper reaches of the Mekong, a river whose acquaintance he had already made from Pnom Penh to its mouth.

Even after he had reached the banks of the Mekong, Mouhot continued to travel, not by boat, but by bullock- waggon, following the trade-track along the right bank of the river. The arduous and difficult journey which he had accomplished had already tried him sorely, and Mouhot's journals show at this period unmistakable signs of acute mental depression. His instruments, in the rough journey across country, appear to have fared no bet- ter than their master, and an examination of the map filled in from his notes, which was the best information on the subject of upper Laos available prior to the de Lagrée- Garnier expedition, shows that he had fallen into gross errors both in distance and in direction. The value of

  1. ↑ Vide supra, p. 202.
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