278 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
different times ; the whole of these changes, how¬ 
ever, except one, having taken place within the 
last five hundred and twenty-eight years. 
Thirteen years after the death of the last King 
of Prome, a new dynasty appears to have esta¬ 
blished the seat of Government at Pugan, where 
it continued for one thousand one hundred and 
ninety-three years, or near twelve centuries. In 
this long period there reigned fifty-five princes, 
making the duration of each reign between twen¬ 
ty-one and twenty-two years. The extensive 
ruins of Pugan afford strong presumption of the 
long continuance of this place as the seat of em¬ 
pire ; for it may fairly be assumed, that in such 
a state of society remains of such extent could 
only result from the accumulated labour of many 
ages. The following remarkable events, some of 
which have been already referred to in another 
place, are stated to have taken place while the 
seat of Government was at Pugan. In the year 
886 of Christ, a Burman priest, named Budd’ha 
Gautha, or Gausa, proceeded to Ceylon, and from 
thence brought with him a copy of the Budd’- 
hist scriptures. These, therefore, had either not 
existed before, or had existed only in an imper¬ 
fect form. This circumstance I have no doubt 
commemorates some important change in the 
form of worship, although I am by no means in¬ 
clined to date from it the first introduction of 
the Budd’hist religion. In the year 997 of Christ, 
