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 some weeks at a time at certain seasons of the year. The rains had not yet come, and the heat was intense, the thermometer registering 92° F., even after sundown.

Nong Kai itself, founded after the destruction of Vien Chan, is a very important place, the largest town which the travellers had seen since their departure from Pnom Penh nine months earlier. The Governor of Nong Kai treated the party with courtesy, and undertook to send one of the interpreters, named Seguin, overland to Bangkok, as de Lagrée had decided to dispense with his services. At a later period this man was able to furnish Garnier with some useful information concerning the country traversed by him between Nong Kai and the Siamese capital.

On April 2nd, the ruins of Vien Chan were visited. Though the town was not destroyed and forcibly aban- doned until 1828, it was already completely overgrown with jungle. From an architectural and archæological point of view this place is not more interesting than Bangkok or Ayuthia, and it claims our attention solely on account of its historical associations and the tragedy of its destruction. It was formerly the capital of a Laotine kingdom, which, founded in the thirteenth cen- tury, extended from the Khon rapids to the twentieth par- allel of latitude, thus including Luang Prabang itself. In 1528 revolutions drove from the throne the last member of the dynasty which had ruled over this great state, and thereafter a subdivision of its territories ensued. The Laos people were further weakened by protracted wars with the Gueos-hill-tribes whose identity is uncertain― and in a weak moment the aid of Siam was invoked.