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102 Doubtless this report inspired Butler's reference to the Burmese king.

After Bayin Naung the glory waned. Siam became independent. Pegu was taken and destroyed by invaders from Toungoo and Arakan (1599), and a Talaing king was set up at Martaban. By degrees the empire was partly restored and a king again ruled in Pegu (1634). Some years later the capital was transferred to Ava. In the next hundred years, under feeble rulers, outlying districts were lost and disastrous wars were waged with China and with Manipur. Finally, assisted by Shans settled in Pegu (called by the Burmese Gwè Shans), the Talaings rebelled (1740). They occupied Toungoo and Prome and, after some years of desultory fighting, captured and burnt Ava and put an end to the dynasty of Bayin Naung (1752).

The ascendancy of the Talaings was of brief duration. Immediately after the fall of Ava, revolt was initiated by a petty official, afterwards known as Aungzeya, the Victorious, and even more widely renowned as Alaungpaya. His rise was more swift and miraculous than Napoleon's. Early in 1752 he was a village headman. Before the end of 1753 he was proclaimed king, received the submission of the northern Shan chiefs,