2 The Remains at Pagan. [No. 1 . 



established about 484 B. C. It does not appear from the authori- 

 ties whether the kingdom of Tagoung is believed to have continued 

 contemporaneously with that of Prome. 



There is no doubt that the frequent shiftings of their capitals is 

 characteristic of the Indo-Chinese nations, and is connected with 

 the facilities for migration presented by their great navigable rivers, 

 and by the unsubstantial nature of their dwellings. Still, one can- 

 not but have some suspicion that the desire to carry back to a re- 

 moter epoch the existence of the empire as a great monarchy, has 

 led to the representation of what was really the history of various pet- 

 ty principalities, attaining probably an alternate preponderance of 

 dominion, as the history of one dynasty of monarchs in various suc- 

 cessive seats. 



Pegu, it need not be said, was an independent kingdom, though 

 several times subjected for a longer or shorter period by the Bur- 

 mans previous to the last conquest by Alompra, and twice at least 

 in its turn subjecting Ava.* Toungu also appears undoubtedly to 

 have been a separate kingdom for a considerable period, two of its 

 kings or princes in succession having conquered Pegu during the 

 sixteenth century ; and Martaban was the seat of an independent 

 prince for at least 140 years. Tavoy was occasionally independent, 

 though at other times alternately subject to Pegu or Siam. Aracan, 

 bearing much the same relation to Burma that Norway did to 

 (Sweden, preserved its independence till the end of the last century. 

 But besides these, there are perhaps indications of other principali- 

 ties within the boundaries of Burma proper. Kings of Prome are 

 mentioned in the histories of the Portuguese adventurers. Eerdi- 



* In the thirteenth century three generations of Burman kings reigned over 

 Pegu. In 1554 or thereabouts, the king of Pegu, who was a Burmese prince of 

 Toungu, conquered Ava and its empire as far as Mogoung and the Shan state of 

 Thein-ni. This was the acme of Peguan prosperity, but even that was under a 

 Burmese sovereign. About 1613 the king of Ava became master of Pegu and all 

 the lower provinces. So matters continued till the Peguan revolt of 1740 and the 

 following years, which not only succeeded in the expulsion of the Burmans, but 

 in 1752 in the conquest of Ava. This brief ascendancy was upset in the same 

 year by the Hunter- Captain Alompi-a, whose dynasty still sits on the throne of 

 Ara, though Pegu has past into the hands of the Kalds. 



