els_ 155.)--H.C.]

The distance from Yachi to this city of Karajang is ten days, and this
corresponds well with the distance from Yun-nan fu to Tali-fu. For we find
that, of the three Burmese Embassies whose itineraries are given by
Burney, one makes 7 marches between those cities, specifying 2 of them as
double marches, therefore equal to 9, whilst the other two make 11
marches; Richthofen's information gives 12. Ta-li-fu is a small old city
overlooking its large lake (about 24 miles long by 6 wide), and an
extensive plain devoid of trees. Lofty mountains rise on the south side of
the city. The Lake appears to communicate with the Mekong, and the story
goes, no doubt fabulous, that boats have come up to Ta-li from the Ocean.
[Captain Gill (II. pp. 299-300) writes: "Ta-li fu is an ancient city ...
it is the Carajan of Marco Polo.... Marco's description of the lake of
Yun-Nan may be perfectly well applied to the Lake of Ta-li.... The fish
were particularly commended to our notice, though we were told that there
were no oysters in this lake, as there are said to be in that of Yun-Nan;
if the latter statement be true, it would illustrate Polo's account of
another lake somewhere in these regions in which are found pearls (which
are white but not round)."--H.C.]

Ta-li fu was recently the capital of Sultan Suleiman [Tu Wen-siu]. It was
reached by Lieutenant Garnier in a daring detour by the north of Yun-nan,
but his party were obliged to leave in haste on the second day after their
arrival. The city was captured by the Imperial officers in 1873, when a
horrid massacre of the Mussulmans took place [19th January]. The Sultan
took poison, but his head was cut off and sent to Peking. Momein fell soon
after [10th June], and the _Panthe_ kingdom is ended.

We see that Polo says the King ruling for Kublai at this city was a son of
the Kaan, called COGACHIN, whilst he told us in the last chapter that the
King reigning at Yachi was also a son of the Kaan, called ESSENTIMUR. It
is probably a mere lapsus or error of dictation calling the latter a son
of the Kaan, for in ch. li. infra, this prince is correctly described as
the Kaan's grandson. Rashiduddin tells us that Kublai had given his son
HUKAJI (or perhaps _Hogachi_, i.e. Cogachin) the government of
Karajang,[1] and that after the death of this Prince the government was
continued to his son ISENTIMUR. Klaproth gives the date of the latter's
nomination from the Chinese Annals as 1