272 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
CHAPTER VIII. 
Burman History.'—Materials.—Cosmography.—Fabulous Story. 
—History and origin of Gautama.—Kings of Wethali, Majima, 
or Jaintya.—Kings of Prome.—Kings of Pugan.—Conjectures 
respecting the introduction of the Budd’hist Religion.—Kings 
of Panya.—Kings of Sagaing or Chitkaing.—Kings of Ava.— 
Alompra, and his successors.—Chinese Invasions of the Bur- 
man Empire—-British connexion. 
The sketch of Burman history contained in 
this chapter has been chiefly compiled from native 
documents or oral information, obtained during 
my residence in the Burman dominions. The 
Burmese, as will hereafter be more fully explain¬ 
ed, are not absolutely destitute of historical com¬ 
positions ; and I am indebted to translations of 
some of their narratives for a few of the details 
about to be given. The most valuable document, 
however, from which the sketch is compiled, is 
the chronological table, of which a translation will 
be found in the Appendix. The original, a neat 
modern manuscript, written on a long scroll of 
paper, folded zig-zag, according to a frequent 
practice of the Burmese and their neighbours, 
was found in one of the stockades captured by 
