“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, Travels 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.