But we have exhausted our space; and, after leading the reader into territories which have before them a splendid future, and following with him the course of the great Cambodian river into regions almost unknown to Europeans—regions the resources of which are immense, but need the science and energy of Europe for their development—we must bring our narrative to a close.
We have accompanied Mouhot to Luang Prabang. Thence he returned to Pak Lay, where, he says, he had the pleasure of again seeing the beautiful stream which he had come to regard as an old friend. “I have so long drunk of its waters,” he writes; “it has so long either cradled me on its bosom or tried my patience,—at one time flowing majestically among the mountains, at another muddy and yellow as the Arno at Florence.”
DEATH OF MOUHOT.
Revisiting Luang Prabang on the 25th of July, he left it again on the 9th of August. A few months later his adventurous career, as we have already stated, was terminated by an attack of jungle fever.
Hitherto, it has been to the research and adventure of French travellers that geographers have principally owed their knowledge of the Mekong. Let us hope that before long some Englishmen will follow in their steps!
THE END.
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