This volume includes Auguste Pavie"s reports on his work in Upper Laos to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, his vivid account of the destruction of Luang Prabang and parts of his diaries on the 1893 Paknam Gunboat Incident which was the pretext the French needed to detach the Laotian territories from Siam. An overview of exploration work and Pavie"s political dealings with the Black Flag irregulars in respect to their submission and the turning over of suzerainty to France is given. The ultimate goal-making a link suitable for use by traders between Hanoi and Luang-Prabang as well as other trade outlets on the Mekong-is also documented. Reports on Laos cover the areas inhabited by the Puan and various Thai, Meo, and Kha tribes as well as insights into the politics of local warlords and functionaries appointed by the various suzerains of these valleys which are today part of Burma, Laos, and Yunnan in southern China. Volume 2 of this series, Atlas of the Pavie Mission, contains maps accompanying these explorations and plates documenting the gunboat battle at Paknam in 1893.