in 2000 elephants, on each
of which was set a tower of timber full of well-armed fighting men.

"There is no reason to suppose this 'dire and parlous fight' to be
mythical, apart from the consistency of annals adduced by Colonel Yule;
the local details of the narrative, particularly the prominent importance
of the wood as an element of the Tartar success, are convincing. It seems
to have been the first occasion on which the Mongols engaged a large body
of elephants, and this, no doubt, made the victory memorable.

"Marco informs us that 'from this time forth the Great Khan began to keep
numbers of elephants.' It is obvious that cavalry could not manoeuvre in a
morass such as fronts the city. Let us refer to the account of the battle.

"'The Great Khan's host was at Yung-ch'ang, from which they advanced into
the plain, and there waited to give battle. This they did through the good
judgment of the captain, for hard by that plain was a great wood thick
with trees.' The general's purpose was more probably to occupy the dry
undulating slopes near the south end of the valley. An advance of about
five miles would have brought him to that position. The statement that
'the King's army arrived in the plain, and was within a mile of the
enemy,' would then accord perfectly with the conditions of the ground. The
Burmese would have found themselves at about that distance from their foes
as soon as they were fairly in the plain.

"The trees 'hard by the plain,' to which the Tartars tied their horses,
and in which the elephants were entangled, were in all probability in the
corner below the 'rolling hills' marked in the chart. Very few trees
remain, but in any case the grove would long ago have been cut down by the
Chinese, as everywhere on inhabited plains. A short distance up the hill,
however, groves of exceptionally fine trees are passed. The army, as it
seems to us, must have entered the plain from its southernmost point. The
route by which we departed on our way to Burmah would be very
embarrassing, though perhaps not utterly impossible, for so great a number
of elephants."--H.C.]

Between 1277 and the end of the century the Chinese Annals record three
campaigns or expeditions against MIEN; viz. (1) that which Marco has
related in this chapter; (2) that which he relates in ch. liv.; and (3)
one undertaken in 1300 at the request of the son of the legitimate Burmese
King, who had been put to death by an usurper. The Burmese Ann