The rainfall is not nearly as plentiful in Lapoon as it is in Kiang Hsen, and the plains of Kiang Hsen are renowned for their fruitfulness: thus the people would greatly improve their prospects by the change; besides which, there are always fewer Government monopolies in the frontier districts. Kiang Hsen, being made into a separate State, would not be dependent upon Lapoon. The Chow Hluang of the latter State was therefore naturally averse to losing a large body of his people, and had consequently obstructed the emigration by all the means in his power. The chief of Kiang Hsen, tired of remonstrating with the chief of Lapoon, had appealed to Zimmé and Bangkok to have him compelled to send his adherents to Kiang Hsen. The chief of Kiang Hsen was an old acquaintance and friend of Dr M‘Gilvary, and seemed well pleased to see him. Nothing struck me more during my journeys than the high estimation in which the American missionaries were held by the chiefs. Not only were they on a kindly and friendly footing with them, but by their bold strictures upon acts of injustice, and by exposing and expostulating against the wickedness and senselessness of certain of the reigning superstitions, they had become a beneficent power in the country. During our stay the chief did all he could to make us comfortable; sent us the best fruit, fowls, and vegetables at his disposal, and allowed an ox to be killed for us, although there were at that time not more than sixty oxen amongst the settlers in the whole region. After the animal was slaughtered, cut up, and removed, its late companions, attracted by the scent, gathered round the spot in the most pathetic manner, sniffing at the ground, and time after time, when driven away, returning, and wandering uneasily about, as if aware that some ill fate had befallen their comrade. The day before we left Kiang Hsen, I took a walk to the pagoda on Loi Saun-ka-tee, the hill to the north of the city, in order to sketch the hills to the west of the plain, and, as far as possible, fix their position. The air was clear, and I got a splendid view. Loi Htong, Loi Ya Tow, and Loi Ta, which I had previously sketched on entering the Kiang Hsen plain, now lay a little to the north of west, at a distance of about seventeen miles. Farther to the north, Loi Pa Hem loomed up in the distance, and seemed not to belong to the same system of hills: this hill was passed by M‘Leod when on his way to Kiang Tung in 1837. The great plain we were looking at, in which a few hillocks outcropped, extended to the foot of the mountains, but its northern and southern extensions were hidden by the low hills on which we were standing, and the hillocks which we had skirted on our way to the city. [Illustration: _View of hills west of Kiang Hsen Plain from pagoda on hill._ ]