these were changed at different stages. For two days our course was through a partially-cultivated plain, lying parallel with the river and separated from it by a narrow range of mountains. Passed through six villages, the largest of which probably contained a population of one thousand. Six days more of travel brought us to Muang-Nan. Four of these were consumed in ascending and descending mountains.
Muang-Nan, the chief city of the province of the same name, is a city of about ten thousand inhabitants. It is situated on the Nan River, one of the streams which, by uniting with others, form the eastern branch of the Menam River, where it forks at Nakawn-Soowun. The city of Nan is about on the same latitude with Cheung Mai, and the river on which it is situated is nearly as large as the one which flows past our mission-premises here. Owing to impassable rapids on the Nan River, travel between Nan and Bangkok involves a land-journey by elephants of seven or eight days.
The province of Nan is one of the most populous and important of the Laos provinces. The plain for ten or fifteen miles on every side of the city contains a considerable number of villages. There is evidence in the city and villages of comparative prosperity. The rulers seem more liberal, more desirous of the welfare and prosperity of their people, than in any other Laos province.
