TO THE COURT OF AY A. 
281 
effected the subjugation of Siam; their career, 
in short, on this occasion, greatly resembling that 
which they pursued two centuries thereafter, and 
nearly in our own times. The Burmese appear to 
have kept the Peguans in subjection down to the 
close of the seventeenth century. Towards the 
commencement of the eighteenth, the Peguans 
rebelled, in their turn, subdued the Burmese, and, 
in the year 1733, carried their king captive to 
Pegu, making themselves masters of the whole 
country. This state of things gave rise to the ad¬ 
ventures of Alompra, the founder of the present 
dynasty, and the greatest, or at least the best- 
known character in Burman story. This ambi¬ 
tious and successful leader was, before his rebel¬ 
lion, Kye-gain of Moksobo, or Monchabo, then a 
small town or village. The office was nearly 
similar to that of Myo-thugyi, or chief of a town¬ 
ship. His original name, or, more correctly, title, 
was Aong-zaya (jaya),* and he assumed that of 
Alompra after his advance to the throne. This 
name, correctly written, is Alaong-b’hura; and it 
is a term applied to any one destined, according to 
Burman belief, to become a Budd’ha. The mean¬ 
ing of this is, in short, that the conqueror bestow¬ 
ed upon himself a species of apotheosis. Alom¬ 
pra, from partiality to his native place, removed 
the seat of Government to Monchabo, which he 
* The first is a Burman, and the second a Pali word. Both 
mean victory.” 
