which has placed it three degrees of latitude north of the Neel El Abeede, or Neel Sudan, and in the Sahara *, unconnected with any rivers. I doubt if any but a very ignorant Pagan Negro (for the Mohammedan Negroes are more intelligent,) would have given the sea of Sudan this novel situation.

Page 200. The Quolla appears to be the Negro pronunciation of the Arabic name Kulla, i. e., the Bahar Kulla, to which the Nile of Sudan is said to flow. Bahar Kulla is an Arabic word, signifying the sea altogether, or an alluvial country, the Neel of Sudan here joins the waters of a river that proceed from the Abyssinian Neel westward, and hence is formed the water communication between + Cairo and Timbuctoo.

Page 201. Quollaraba, or Kullaraba, signifies the Kulla forest as the Negroes express it. The Arabs call it Raba Kulla, i. e., the Forest of Kulla; therefore, if any farther proof of the accuracy of this interpretation be necessary, it may be added that the position agrees exactly with Major Rennel's kingdom of Kulla, for which see the Major's map, in proceedings of the African Association, Vol. I. p. 209. Lat. N. 9°. Long. W. 10.

Page 203. The lake Fittri is a lake, the waters of which are said to be filtered through the earth, as the name implies; the Neel is here said to run under ground. The Moors have a tradition, that the waters of the flood rested here, and were absorbed or filtered through the earth, leaving only this large lake.. I never understood this sea to be identified with the Bahar Heimed 1, i. e., the Hot or Warm Sea; the Hot Sea and the Filtered Sea are distinct waters, the former lays about mid-way, in a right line, between Lake Fittri and Lake Dwi. (See Laurie and Whittle's Map of Africa, published in 1813.) This is another inaccuracy of Mr. Hutchison, who appears indeed to have collected information from natives, without considering what title they had to credibility; ano

* See Mr. Bowdich's Map, in his Account of a Mission to Ashantee † See Appendix to Jackson's Marocco, enlarged edition, p. 313. See also my Letter to the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, for March 1817, p. 125.

‡ Heimed is an Arabic term signifying that degree of heat, which milk has when coming from the cow or goat,

ther error is added to the note in p. 203 and 204, viz., what he calls sweet beans are unquestionably dates, which have not the least affinity in taste, shape, growth, or quality, to beans. The Arabic name correctly converted into European letters is timmer, not tummer; the African Arabic word designating sweet-beans, is Elfoole el Hellue. The passage, signed W. Hutchison, here alluded to is this: "The Arabs eat black-rice, corn, and sweet-beans, called tummer."

Note, page 204. I do not know whence the Quarterly Review has derived its information, respecting the derivation of the word Misr, (a corruption of Massar); the word Massar is compounded of the two Arabic words, Mamother, and Sur of Walls, i. e., Mother of Walls, as Bassora is compounded of the two Arabic words, Ba and Sora, Father of a Wall. Possibly some Arabic professor, versed in bibliographic lore, to favour a darling hypothesis has transmuted Massar into Misr, to strengthen the plausibility of the etymology of Misr from Misraem.

Note, page 205. Bahar belama is an Arabic word, importing it to be a country once covered with water, but now no longer so: in the note in this page I recognize the word Sooess to designate the Isthmus of Suez. The Bahar Malee and Sebaha Bahoori are Negro corruptions of the Arabic words Bahar Elmalah and Sebah Baharet; the former does not apply particularly to the Mediterranean, but is a term applicable to any sea or ocean that is salt (as all seas and oceans assuredly are); the latter term signifies literally the seven seas, or waters; neither is this a term applicable to the Mediterranean, but to any sea supplied by seven rivers, as the Red Sea. These are, therefore, evidently other inaccuracies of Mr. Hutchison. I apprehend Mr. Hutchison's Arabic tutor at Ashantee was not an erudite scholar; the term, and the only term in Africa, applicable to the Mediterranean Sea, is the Bahar Segreer, (literally the Small Sea); and El Bahar Kabeer is the Atlantic Ocean, or literally, the Great Sea; this latter is figuratively called El Bahar Addolon, i. e., the Unknown Sea, or, the Sea of Darkness.

Note, page 206. Is it possible that the author doubts that Wangara is east of Timbuctoo? it should seem that he did, as he quotes Mr. Hutchison as authority for making it to contain Kong,

a mountainous district, many journeys south of the Nile of Sudan. Mr. Park's testimony is also called in support of this opinion, but they are both erroneous. Wangara is as well known in Africa to be east of Timbuctoo, as in England York is known to be north of London. Oongooroo is a barbarous Negro corruption of Wangara; therefore this note, if suffered to pass through the press unnoticed, would be calculated to confuse, not to elucidate, African Geography; neither can it be called, according to Mr. Horneman's orthography, Ungura, the name is which cannot with accuracy be converted into any word but Wangara. Ungura, Oongooroo, &c., are corruptions of the proper name, originating in an imperfect, and but an oral knowledge of the African Arabic.

وانكاة

Note, page 210. I apprehend the reason why Wassenah was not known at Ashantee by the traders is, because it was out of their trading tract. I have no doubt of the existence of Wassenah, or Massenah, and that it is a powerful country in the interior of Africa, (for where the names of African countries are recorded, we should not be particular about a letter or two, when we find so many orthographical variations are made by different authors); neither is there any reason, that I know of, to doubt Seedy Hamed's account of Wassenah in Riley's Narrative. It is not extraordinary that Wassenah, or Massenah should be unknown at Ashantee, if there were no commerce established between the two places. It is certain that the Africans neither seek, nor care for places, or countries, with which they have no trade or connexion.

It appears well deserving of observation, (for the purpose of rendering Arabic names intelligible to future travellers), that Mr. Bowdich has demonstrated, that what is called in our maps Banbarra, Gimbala, Sego, Berghoo, and Begarmee, being written in the African language with the guttural letter grain, would be quite unintelligible if pronounced to an African as they are written in our letters; the nearest approximation to the Arabic words would be as follows, taking gr for the nearest similitude that our alphabet will give of the guttural letter grain

:

The African traveller should be precise in his attention to the sound of these words, otherwise he will be quite unintelligible to the Africans and to the Mohammedans.

Richardson, in his Arabic Grammar, is certainly incorrect, when he says the letter (grain) should be pronounced gh; no man acquainted practically with the Arabic language could be of this opinion, gh having no more resemblance to the sound of the letter grain, thang has to h; and every one going to Africa with this erroneous opinion of Richardson, will, undoubtedly, be unintelligible to the Africans.

Finally, the Arabic document, if I may be allowed to call it Arabic, facing page 128, of this interesting work, is a most miserable composition of Lingua Franca, or corrupt Spanish, of unintelligible jargon, abounding in words totally incomprehensible to the Africans, whether Negroes or Arabs; the language is worse, if possible, than the scrawl in which it is written; neither is it a correct translation of the English which precedes it. But purporting to be a letter issuing from the accredited servants of the King of the English, it is certainly a disgrace to the country from whence it issues, and a rare specimen of our knowledge of African languages.

ART. XV. Chinese Cruelty.

[The following translation is taken from a periodical publication, issued quarterly from the Missionary press in Malacca, called the Gleaner.] CHINESE justice has been a topic of high eulogium; and there is often a reasonable mode of talking, and a plausibility about it, which is now and then very imposing; but the want of truth and reality in these hypocritical and specious pretences, is shockingly great. In confirmation of these remarks, I beg to submit the following translation of an original document.

"PEKING GAZETTE, AUGUST 9,1817.きいの

Chow, the Yu-she (or Censor) of Ho-nan, kneels to report, with profound respect, in the hearing of his Majesty, the following circumstances, and to pray for his sacred instructions.

८

13

"The clear and explicit statement of punishments, is a means of instruction to the people; the infliction of punishments, is a case of unwilling necessity. For all courts there are fixed regulations to rule their conduct by, when cases do occur that require punishments to be inflicted in questioning. Magistrates are not, by law, permitted to exercise cruelties at their own discretion.

"But of late, district Magistrates, actuated by a desire to be rewarded for their activity, have felt an ardent enthusiasm to inflict torture. And though it has been repeatedly prohibited by Imperial Edicts, which they profess openly to conform to, yet they really and secretly violate them.

"Whenever they apprehend persons of suspicious appearances, or those charged with great crimes, such as murder, or robbery, the Magistrates begin by endeavouring to SEDUCE the prisoners to confess, and by FORCING them to do so. On every occasion they torture by pulling, or twisting the ears, (the torturer having previously rendered his fingers rough by a powder) and cause them to kneel a long while upon chains. They next employ what they call, the Beauty's Bar, the Parrot's Beam †, the Refining Furnace 1, and other implements, expressed by other terms which they make use

твар

* A torture said to be invented by a judge's wife, and hence the name. The breast, small of the back, and legs bent up, are fastened to three cross bars, which causes the person to kueel in great pain. + The prisoner is raised from the ground by strings round the fingers and thumbs, suspended from a supple transverse beam, sito a sist Fire is applied to the body. It trods