GEOGRAPHY OE THE UPPER MEKONG. 
551 
The plain is a great cattle-rearing country, and to this most of 
the rather small energies of the people are devoted. Elephants are 
scarce, and ox-carts take their place. Dacoity was, and in many 
parts still is, to the misery of the poor villagers, fairly common ; and 
generally we find ourselves in a new country where all the conditions 
of life differ entirely from those we have been considering on the 
Upper Mekong. Along the river side for years past the French 
Homan Catholic priests have been paving the way for the political 
power of France, with that unostentatious energy for which they are 
famed. 
We shall soon be in better position to judge, now that power has 
come in, whether the trade lines of the Middle Mekong will follow the 
French routes from Armani or Saigon, or the mastery will he main- 
tained by the Bangkok-Korat route, by which nearly all European 
goods have hitherto passed up into the plateau, and along which the 
railway is being rapidly advanced. We may be certain that the French 
will leave no stone unturned to ensure the former, be the value of 
the trade large as the French hope, or small as I myself confess to 
thinking it as it stands at present. 
In the race for the Upper Mekong and Southern China the French 
have got the start, and England by her inactivity is allowing that start 
to get longer every day, until it begins to look to the spectator as if 
she thought she were not interested in the event. 
I say nothing of the aspect of things in Bangkok, as that brings 
us on to the verge of politics ; but I repeat that if England does not 
begin more seriously to look at tlio question of routes into the 
northern Mekong valley, and to take some action in that direction, she 
will find the French will have won the prize, through their new 
acquisitions and the Sibsong Para, over which they are already roving, 
before she is half-way over the course. 
I have cast doubts, which I believe to be well founded, on the 
present extent of the trade which both England and France are 
reaching after in those regions ; but, as a matter of fact, it is an 
unknown quantity, and a few years may completely alter its aspect. 
For England to give it up and allow France to “ row over” would 
be an act more far-reaching than it appears j it would fatally injure 
her prestige in Asia, and would put completely into French hands a 
possible market which she can ill afford to lose. 
Note on Names in Map of Mekong. 
Siamese. 
Lao. 
English. Tibetan. Chinese. 
M= Muang 
Chieng 
Town 
Ban 
Ban 
Village 
NT am 
Nam 
.River Chu Kiang 
Hoay 
Mountain stream 
Menam or 
Mei Menam 
Large river 
Klong 
Stream or canal 
Nong 
Nong 
Swamp 
Kao 
Doi or Phoo 
Mountain 
Wat 
Wat 
Monastery Gomba 
Sala 
Sala 
Rest-house 
N.B. — The pronunciation of a is long, as ar , e.g . — 
Nam (or river) 
pronounce Narm. 
Luang Frabang 
,, Luang Prabarng 
Muang Nan 
,, Muang Nam. 
Lao 
,, Lar-o. 
Shan 
„ Sharn,“&c., {& c., &c. 
