From Luang Prabang the river cuts its way southwards for two degrees through a lonely jungle country among receding hills of low elevation.
The southward movement of the Lao-Tai family from their original seats in south-west China is of very ancient date, the Lao states of Luang Prabang and Wieng Chan on the Mekong having been founded at least two thousand years ago.
Vigorous attacks were also made during this period on the Lao states to the northwest and north-east, followed by vast deportation of the people, and Siamese supremacy was pretty firmly established in Chiengmai and its dependencies by the end of the 18th century, and over the great eastern capitals, Luang Prabang and Vien-chang, about 1828.