1857.] The Remains at Pagan. 5 



Khan minded to subdue the city of Mien, [the Chinese name for 

 Burma] he sent a valiant Captain, and an army chiefly composed of 

 jesters with whom his court was always furnished. 



It is curious enough to contrast the contemptuous view of the 

 Burmese enterprise here indicated, with the history of the same 

 event as given by the Burmans in their chronicle. Instead of an 

 army of jesters they represent the emperor to have sent a host of 

 at least six millions of horse, and twenty millions of foot, to attack 

 Pagan, and to have been obliged to reinforce these repeatedly before 

 they could overcome the resolute resistance of the Burmese, who 

 encountered the enemy near the mouth of the Bamo river. 



From the mention of this locality it would appear that the 

 Chinese invasion took place by the route still followed by the main 

 body of the Chinese trade with Burma. 



Pagan surprised us all. None of the preceding travellers to Ava 

 had prepared us for remains of such importance and interest. I do 

 not find any mention of Pagan and its temples before the middle of 

 the last century, when Capt. George Baker and Lieutenant North 

 were sent on a joint embassy to Alompra from the British settlement 

 at Negrais. Lieut. North died at Pagan, or rather at Nyoung-u, 

 a considerable trading town at the northern extremity of the ruins. 

 On his way down, Capt. Baker seems to have staid a week at 

 " Pagang Youugoe." He mentions the great number of pagodas in 

 the neighbourhood, and one in particular, ** the biggest of any 

 between Dagon (Rangoon) and Momchabue (Moutshobo the resi- 

 dence of Alompra,) kept in good repair, and celebrated by the 

 people for having one of their god's teeth and a collar bone buried 

 under it."* 



Colonel Symes visited some of the temples on his way both up 

 and down the river, and gives a somewhat vague account of the 

 Anauda, which was then undergoing repair at the expense of the 

 Prince Boyal. He was told that the prince had collected gold for 

 the purpose of gilding it, an intention which the size of the building 

 renders improbable, and which certainly was not fulfilled. 



Cox also describes the Ananda, and took some measurements with 

 the intention of making a plan of the building. 



* Dalrymple's Oriental Repertory, I. 171. 



