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Silent the mournful Genii lie!

But still on each loved poet's wing

They breathe the orient-coloured dye;
Unfading flowers garlanding

Their heads with beauty; Graces fling
Their incense on thy sacred tomb,
Sweet Mantuan! while perpetual spring
Sprinkles the Sabine Farm with bloom.
The tide of battle, billow'd high,

That o'er the Trojan barrier swept;
The victor's shout, the captive's cry,
The gasp of anguish-all have slept!
The musing pilgrim roams along,

With heavy heart and step of pain;
He hears alone the voice of song;

Sees but his shadow on the plain.

But thou, the mighty lord of harmony,

Old man of Scio's rocky isle,

Who, by the lone shore of the sounding sea,
The emerald columns of thy verse did'st pile :
Lord of the changeful cittern! built by thee,
The walls of Ilium tower again sublime;
The Muses guard thy home of sovereignty,
And shut the Gates of Poetry on Time!

Led by the clear Mæonian star,*

Over the waste of years we glide;
And Hector, leaping from his car,
Marches refulgent by our side :
And flower-like Helen, mournfully,
Hangs drooping on her stem of grace;
And little busy hands we see

Playing upon the warrior's face.+

Now shadows o'er our bosom roll-
No longer clothed in golden light,
But breathing horror on the soul,
The Heavenly Archer, like the Night,
Tempestuous rushes by-the quiver

Upon his glittering shoulder bound;
Under his footsteps, like a foaming river,
The Olympian hills resound.

A cloud upon the mountain hung,
A cloud of blackness and affright;
The infant to its mother clung;

Its mother, in the gloom of night,
Up-started at the ghastly sight

Of bleeding swords, and wildly flung
Her eager arms, with all her might,
About her child-the trumpets rung.§

*See Pope's Essay on Criticism.

+ Hector's well-known interview with his wife.

+ See the famous description in the first Iliad.

§ Alluding to Burke's magnificent description of Hyder's irruption into the Carnatic.

Not thus upon the hour of rest,

Thy Cloud, sweet Indian poet, beam'd,*
Lighting the mountain's purple crest:
And softer through the foliage stream'd
The beauty of thy music, deep

Along the flowry thickets gliding;
Gently, as dewy-feather'd sleep,
The summer air dividing.

Not now, a thousand soft eyes rain
Their beauty on the garland won;
Not now, the pageant's golden train
Winds out resplendent in the sun;
No horn the woodlands echoes o'er;
No palfrey at the castle gate,
Proud of the lovely form it bore,
Prances in canopy of state.

Spenser ! we muse upon thy lines—
The arena opens wide! behold!
Illumining time's shadow, shines

The rich Field of the Cloth of Gold.
White tents their silken veils unfold,
Glancing in orient hues of light;
And Surrey, gentlest of the bold,
Rivets his armour for the fight.
The blue eye of thy Queen is dark;
And Sidney's tuneful lip is cold.
Sweet poet, who, like early lark,
Awoke the misty heaven of old!
For Glory's crown the bell hath toll'd,
And Beauty slumbers on the hearse;
But, look! the veil of gloom unroll'd,
They live and sparkle in thy verse!
Blest Conqueror! the rolling year

Still finds thee joyous and serene;
And mild thy tender eyes appear,

As when the amorous Faery Queen
First shone into thy heart, and bound
Elysian flowers upon thy head;
And made thy dwelling holy ground;
And taught thee to embalm the dead!
We see thy placid face, thine eyes,
Clear as the summer-brook,
Breathing the sunshine of the skies,

The breath of heaven upon thy book:

The reader's thirsty heart inhales

The bloom of gardens green and fair; He wanders through thy glimmering vales, And bathes in the ambrosial air.

The author of the Megha Duta.

WARS BETWEEN BURMAH AND CHINA.

COLONEL BURNEY, lately our resident in Ava, has communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal an account of the wars between Burmah and China, taken from the chronicles of the kings of Prome, Pagan, and Ava, which are comprised in thirty-eight volumes, and brought down to the year 1823. This curious paper is printed in the Society's Journal :

Tagaung, the original seat of empire on the Eráwadí, is said to have been destroyed by the Tartars and Chinese before the birth of Christ. In the reign of Phyú-zô-dí, the third king of Pagan, who reigned between A.D. 166 and 241, the Chinese are said to have invaded his kingdom with an immense army, over which that king obtained a great victory, at a place called Kô-thăm-bí. The forty-second king of Pagan, Anôra-thá Meng:-zô, who reigned between A.D. 1017 and 1059, invaded China, for the purpose of obtaining possession of one of Gaudama's teeth; which is said, however, to have refused to quit China. This king had a meeting with the emperor of China, and the two sovereigns lived together for three months. During Anôra-thá-zô's residence in China, the emperor daily supplied him with food dressed in various gold and silver vessels, which, on the departure of the king, he is said to have delivered to the emperor of China's religious teacher, with directions to dress food in them daily, and make offerings of it to Gaudama's tooth. This proceeding induced many succeeding emperors of China to demand the presentation of the same kind of vessels from the kings of Pagan and Ava, as tokens of their tributary subjection to China. In the year 1281, during the reign of Nara-thiha-padé, the fifty-second king of Pagan, the emperor of China sent a mission to demand such gold and silver vessels as tribute; but the king having put to death the whole of the mission, a powerful Chinese army invaded the kingdom of Pagan, took the capital in 1284, and followed the king, who had fled to Bassein, as far as a place on the Eráwadí, below Prome, called Taroup-mô, or Chinese Point, which is still to be seen. The Chinese army was then obliged to retire, in consequence of a want of supplies; but in the year 1300, Kyôzuá, the son of the above-mentioned king of Pagan, having been treacherously delivered by his queen into the hands of three noblemen, brothers, who resided at Myen-zain, a town lying to the southward of Ava, and who forced the king to become a priest, and assumed the sovereignty themselves, another Chinese army came down and invested Myen-zain, for the purpose of assisting and reestablishing the king Kyô-zuá. The rebel nobles applied for advice to a priest, who recommended them, apparently as a taunt, to consult tumblers and ropedancers. Some of that profession were, however, sent for, and they, whilst exhibiting their feats before the three nobles, repeated, as customary words of no meaning, a sentence like the following: "There can be no dispute when no matter for dispute remains." The nobles seized upon these words, and applying them to their own case, observed: If King Kyô-zuá is killed, the royal line, which the Chinese have come to restore, will be extinct. Accordingly, they cut off the king's head and showed it to the Chinese, who then proposed to retire, if the nobles would send some presents to their emperor. The nobles agreed, but upon condition that the Chinese army should first dig a canal; and the Chinese generals, to show the immense numbers of their army, dug in one' day, between sunrise and sunset, a canal, 4,900 cubits long, fourteen broad, and fourteen deep, which canal, near Myen-zain, is still in existence.* The

It is called Theng-duê-myaung, and communicates with the Zô river, and is used for the irrigation of paddy lands. 2 B

Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.26.No.103.

Burmese chronicles further state, that the little pieces of skin, which the spades and other instruments the Chinese used when digging this canal had peeled off their hands and feet, being afterwards collected, were found to measure ten baskets full, when well pressed down! In the reign of King Kyô-zuá, the nine Shan towns on the frontiers of China, Maing-mô, Hō-thá, La-tha, &c. are said to have been separated from the empire of Pagan.

In the year 1412, during the reign of Men:-gaung, the first king of Ava, the Shan chief of Thein-ní, whose father had been defcated and killed that year when marching with a force to attack Ava, invited the Chinese to come and aid him against the Burmese, whilst they were besieging the city of Thein-ní. The king of Ava's son, who commanded the Burmese army, hearing of the approach of the Chinese, advanced and lay in wait for them in a wood, from which, as soon as the Chinese came up, the Burmese sallied forth and attacked them, and destroyed nearly the whole of their army. In the following year, during the same king of Ava's reign, and whilst almost the whole of the Burmese army were absent, engaged in a war with the Talains in Lower Pegu, another Chinese army entered the kingdom of Ava, and actually invested the capital, demanding the liberation of the families of two Shan chiefs, the lords or governors of Maun-toun and Mô-kay. These chiefs having committed some aggression near Myedu, a town in the king of Ava's dominions, a Burmese army had attacked and defeated them. They had escaped into China, but their families had been captured and brought to Ava. The king of Ava refused to surrender the families of the chiefs, and the Chinese general, after besieging Ava for a month, found his army so much distressed from want of provisions, that he was induced to send in to the king a proposition, to have the dispute between the two nations decided by single combat between two horsemen, one to be selected on either side. The king agreed, and selected as his champion a Talain prisoner named Tha-mein-paran. The combat took place outside of Ava, in view of the Chinese army, and of the inhabitants of Ava, who lined its walls. The Talain killed the Chinese, and, decapitating him, carried the head to the king. The Chinese army then raised the siege, and retreated into China, without the families of the Shan chiefs.

In the year 1442, during the reign of Bhuren-Narapadi, also called Du-payoun-day-aka, king of Ava, the Chinese again sent a mission to demand vessels of gold and silver, which they declared Anôra-t'há-zô, king of Pagan, had presented as tribute. On the king refusing, the Chinese again invaded the kingdom in the year 1443, and now demanded that Thó-ngan-buá, the Shan chief of Mō-gaung, should be surrendered to them. This person, together with an extensive kingdom belonging to him, had been conquered by the Burmese in 1442, and the Chinese, who styled him the chief of Maing:-mô, apparently from the circumstance of a territory of that name on the Shue-li river having been comprised within his dominions, are stated to have been at war with him for several years, when the Burmese conquered him. The king of Ava advanced with a strong force above Ava to oppose the Chinese, and drove them back to Mó:-wún.* The Chinese again invaded Ava in the year 1445, and the king again proceeded up the Erawadí to oppose them with a large force; but before the two armies met, some of the Burmese officers persuaded their king that, as the Chinese would never desist invading his dominions until Thó-ngan-buá was surrendered to them, it would be better to comply with their wishes. The king then returned to Ava with his army, and on the Chinese following and investing the city, he agreed to surrender Thó-ngan-buá; but upon condition

* Chinese, Lung-chuen.

that the Chinese army should first go and bring under subjection Ya-mì-theng, a town lying to the southward of Ava, which was then in a state of rebellion. The Chinese consented, and after taking Ya-mì-theng, and delivering it over to a Burmese force which had accompanied them, they returned to Ava, when Thó-ngan-buá killed himself by poison. The king, however, sent his body to the Chinese, who are said, after embowelling it and putting a spit through it and roasting it dry, to have taken it with them to China.

In the same king of Ava's reign, in the year 1449, the Chinese made an unsuccessful attempt to take possession of Mō:-gaung and Mō:-nhyin, which were at that time considered as portions of the Burmese empire; and the king is said to have made a very handsome present in silver to the then Tsô;-bwah of Mo-gaung, named Thó-kyein-bua, and his younger brother, Thó-pout-buá, for defeating the Chinese invading army.

In the year 1477, in the reign of Mahá-Thí-ha-thú-ya, king of Ava, a Talain champion, who had lately received the title of Tha-mein-paran, offered, if his master the king of Pegu would entrust him with forty thousand men and a favourite elephant, to march beyond Ava to Khan-tí, on the frontiers of China, and there set up an iron post as the boundary of the Talain empire. The king of Pegu acquiesced, and Tha-mein-paran succeeded in reaching Khan-tí, and marking the boundary; but on his return towards Pegu, he was attacked near Ya-mi-theng by a Burmese force, defeated, and taken prisoner to Ava. The emperor of China, as soon as he heard of Tha-mein-paran's proceeding, sent a force to remove the boundary mark, and the Chinese general, after effecting this object, sent a mission to the king of Ava, to demand gold and silver cooking vessels as before. The king refused; but agreed, on a proposition again made by the Chinese, that the right of China to those tributary tokens should be decided by a single combat between two horsemen, one to be selected by either nation. The king accordingly selected as his champion the Talain prisoner Tha-mein-paran, who defeated the Chinese champion, and the Chinese army again retreated to China. A strong suspicion as to the veracity of the Burmese historian will be excited, when it is known that not only this dispute also between China and Ava was decided by single combat, but the name and description of the Burmese champion were the same on this occasion as in that before related, in the annals of the king Men:-gaung the first.

In the year 1562, Tshen-byú-myá-yen (lord of many white elephants), the great king of Pegu, after conquering Ava, Mō:-gaung, Zen-may, Thein-ni, &c., sent a large army to the frontiers of China, and took possession of the nine Shan towns (Kó-Shan-pyì, or Kó-py-daung), Maing-mô,* Tsi-guen, Hó-thá, Lá-thá, Mó-ná, Tsan-dá, Mó:-wun, Kaing:-mah, and Maing:-Lyín, or Maing:Lyí, all of which, with the exception of Kaing:-mah, are now, and apparently were at that time, under the dominion of China. The chief of Mo:-meit, then subject to Pegu, had complained that the inhabitants of those nine Shan towns had committed some aggression on his territory, and the emperor of China, it is said, declined to assist those towns when attacked by the king of Pegu's army, because they had been once subject to the kings of Pagan. The Pegu army, after conquering the country, built monasteries and pagodas, and established the Buddhist religion there in its purity.

In the year 1601, Nyaung Men:-daráh, king of Ava, after re-building the city, and re-establishing the kingdom of Ava, which the Peguers had destroyed,

The Shans, who use the Burmese character, write Maing, but pronounce the combination Múng, which is their term for a town and province. The Burmese, hence, derive the words which they apply to Shan towns, Main, Maing, and Mo.

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