110 JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
left Henzada, and at what place, and by how 
many stages you have arrived, and how many 
more stages will bring you to the presence.”— 
“The writing of the Great Wuns” 
Sept. 25 .—We repeated our visit this morn¬ 
ing to the ruins of Pugan. This place is stated, 
in Burman chronology, to have been founded 
by a king named Sa-mud-da-raj* in the year 
of the grand asra 799, of Gautama 651, of Sali- 
vana, called by the Burmans Sumundri, 29, 
corresponding with the year of Christ 107. It 
was destroyed in the year of Christ 1356, but 
appears to have ceased to be the seat of govern¬ 
ment in favour of Chit-kaing thirty-four years 
earlier. In this long interval of one thousand 
two hundred and fifteen years there reigned 
fifty-seven kings, giving an average to each 
reign of more than twenty-one years. These 
reigns, long in a barbarous state of society, 
would seem to imply that order and tranquil¬ 
lity generally prevailed while the seat of go¬ 
vernment was at Pugan; and that this was 
the case may perhaps appear probable, from the 
frequent mention made in the chronological list 
of sons and grandsons succeeding fathers and 
* This is a Pali corruption of the Sanscrit words Sa- 
mudra raja, or red king,—a name which suggests the pro¬ 
bability of a foreign lineage. 
