106 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
belt intervening between the hills and the 
river alone, the soil being somewhat better, 
trees of considerable size were to be seen, such 
as the sacred fig, the tamarind, palmyra, and 
mango. 
As we approached Pugan, we had a view of 
the last field on which the Burmans had tried 
the fortune of war with our troops. A Chief 
of the name of Ze-ya-thuran, (Jaya-sura, bold 
in victory, Pali,) of the rank of a Wundok, had 
long importuned the King of Ava to put him 
in command of the army. When the hard con¬ 
ditions of the treaty concluded at Pa tan ago 
were announced to the Court, the King, who 
was reluctant to comply with them, was at 
length brought to yield to the wishes of Ze-ya- 
thuran, who accordingly received the command 
of the army. He took with him such troops 
as could be collected at Ava, and with these 
and the fugitives from Melloon, posted him¬ 
self to the south of Pugan, where the exten¬ 
sive Pagodas and other ruins of this ancient 
capital commence. Ze-ya-thuran, whose force 
was supposed to amount to 16,000 men, in¬ 
stead of acting on the defensive, in field-works 
or stockades, like his predecessors, attempted a 
mode of warfare apparently more judicious— 
that of opposing our army, step by step, by de- 
