had fled to Yun-Nan fu and was
captured there. Afterwards (1261) the Twan are known as the eleven
_Tsung-Kwan_ (governors); the last of them, Twan Ming, was made a prisoner
by an army sent by the Ming Emperors, and sent to Nan-King (1381). (_E. H.
Parker, Early Laos and China, China Review_, XIX. and the _Old Thai or Shan
Empire of Western Yun-Nan_, Ibid., XX.; _E. Rocher, Hist. des Princes du
Yunnan, T'oung Pao_, 1899; _E. Chavannes, Une Inscription du roy de Nan
Tchao, J.A._, November-December, 1900; _M. Tchang, Tableau des Souverains
de Nan-Tchao, Bul. Ecole Franc. d'Ext. Orient_, I. No. 4.)--H.C.] The city
of Ta-li was taken by Kublai in 1253-1254. The circumstance that it was
known to the invaders (as appeals from Polo's statement) by the name of the
province is an indication of the fact that it was the capital of Carajan
before the conquest. ["That _Yachi_ and _Carajan_ represent Yuennan-fu and
Tali, is proved by topographical and other evidence of an overwhelming
nature. I venture to add one more proof, which seems to have been
overlooked.

"If there is a natural feature which must strike any visitor to those two
cities, it is that they both lie on the shore of notable lakes, of so
large an extent as to be locally called seas; and for the comparison, it
should be remembered that the inhabitants of the Yuennan province have easy
access to the ocean by the Red River, or Sung Ka. Now, although Marco does
not circumstantially specify the fact of these cities lying on large
bodies of water, yet in both cases, two or three sentences further on,
will be found mention of lakes; in the case of Yachi, 'a lake of a good
hundred miles in compass'--by no means an unreasonable estimate.

"Tali-fu is renowned as the strongest hold of Western Yuennan, and it
certainly must have been impregnable to bow and spear. From the western
margin of its majestic lake, which lies approximately north and south,
rises a sloping plain of about three miles average breadth, closed in by
the huge wall of the Tien-tsang Mountains. In the midst of this plain
stands the city, the lake at its feet, the snowy summits at its back. On
either flank, at about twelve and six miles distance respectively, are
situated Shang-Kuan and Hsia-Kuan (upper and lower passes), two strongly
fortified towns guarding the confined strip between mountain and lake; for
the plain narrows at the two extremities, and is intersected by a river at
both points." (_Baber_, _Trav