River Road to China: The Search for the Source of the Mekong, 1866-73

In the mid-nineteenth century, no one in the Western world knew the full course, or indeed the source, of the great Mekong River. In 1866, however, six Frenchmen set out with an expedition to seek a trade route up the Mekong into China.In the era of great European expeditions in Africa by men such as Burton and Speke, this was judged on its conclusion to be 'the happiest and most complete of the nineteenth century', and Garnier shared an award with Livingstone. It was also a story of courage, endurance and tragedy. Great obstacles were overcome by disease-weakened men as they travelled up the river. During two years they mapped over 4,000 miles of previously unsurveyed territory, as their journey took them from Saigon, Phnom Penh, and the tropical heat of Vietnam and Cambodia to the bitter cold of the mountains of southwestern China.This historic expedition was the dramatic subject of Milton Osborne's classic study, River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition 1866-1873, first published in 1975. It is a stirring and epic story, enhanced not only by the excitement of the events, but also by the readability and drive of Dr Osborne's narrative and his academic and first-hand knowledge of Southeast Asia. This edition, only the second in twenty years, includes a new postscript by the author and features a new selection of original illustrations of the expedition by its artists, Louis Delaporte, which are reproduced here for the first time in colour.Osborne, Milton E. is the author of 'River Road to China: The Search for the Source of the Mekong, 1866-73' with ISBN 9781864482768 and ISBN 1864482761.