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 a native prince, who can, however, exercise authority only after receiving investiture from the king of Siam.

Cheung Mai, reckoning all the territory over which the king of Cheung Mai exercises jurisdiction, is the largest and most populous of the Laos provinces. A recent census of the houses throughout the province of Cheung Mai gave the number of ninety-seven thousand, and the census was not at that time complete; the population of the entire province is not under six hundred thousand.

The city of Cheung Mai (written Zimme on English maps) is the capital, and is reached from Bangkok by boat; the distance is approximately five hundred and fifty miles, and the time required to make the journey in native boats, propelled by men, is usually fifty days.

The isolation of Cheung Mai, the long, tedious and expensive journey required to reach it, and the unwholesome climate, are considered by some sufficient arguments against retaining it as a mission-station. But there are other considerations worthy of attention, which I wish to present.

The population of the city of Cheung Mai is estimated at about twenty-five thousand; the language (with slight and unimportant dialectical differences) is common to all the Laos people; it is the commercial centre of all the Laos provinces to the north and north-east,