"...The celebrated Venetian traveller, MARCO POLO, (see MARSDEN?S edition of his Travels, pages 441 to 451,) has given us an account of the war between the Tartars and the people of Mien (the Chinese name for Burmah), which occurred some time after 1272, and led the former to take possession of the then capital of the latter nation. SYMES and CRAWFORD, in the Journals of their Missions to Ava, as well as HAVELOCK and TRANT in their accounts of the late war, have described the extensive remains of Pagan, the former capital of the Burmese empire, lying between Prome and Ava, with its innumerable ruins of temples and columns. Perhaps the following account of the destruction of that city, translated from the 5th volume of the large edition of the Royal Chronicles of the Kings of Ava, (Maha Yazawen wen dan gyee,) may be deemed curious..."