280 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
own courage and resources, than the almost insu¬ 
perable difficulty of the wild country which sepa¬ 
rates Ava from China. 
Thirty-four years before the death of the last 
Prince of Panya, a new Government appears to 
have been established at Sagaing, or Chitkaing: 
the date of this event corresponds with the year 
of Christ 1322 . The seat of Government conti¬ 
nued at Sagaing forty-two years, during which 
period there reigned no less than six princes. In 
the year of Christ 1364, the seat of Government 
was removed to Ava, and Panya and Sagaing 
were destroyed. It continued at this place for 
three hundred and sixty-nine years, and under 
twenty-nine princes ; the average duration of each 
reign, therefore, being between twelve and thir¬ 
teen years only. It was while the Government 
was at Ava, that Europeans first became acquaint¬ 
ed with the Burmese.* This was about the 
middle of the sixteenth century, when this people 
conquered the Peguans, and had also well nigh 
* The celebrated Ferdinand Mendez Pinto visited Ava in 
1546. Amidst his egregious fictions or exaggerations, some in¬ 
dications of accuracy and good faith may now and then be disco¬ 
vered. The following is, for the most part, a very tolerable spe¬ 
cimen :—“ The kingdom of Pegu hath in circuit (frontier?) 140 
leagues; is situate on the South side in 16 degrees: and in the 
heart of the country, towards the rhomb of the earth, it hath 140 
leagues; being environed all above with a high ground, named 
Panganirau, where the nation of the Bramaas doth inhabit, whose 
country is four-score leagues broad and two hundred long.” 
