The Progress of Ethnology

27

Ibid. Oct. 31, 1846.

28

Bulletin de la Société de Géographie. Rapport par M. Roger. 1846. p. 321.

29

London Athenæum, July 4, 1846.

30

London Athenæum, July, 1845.

31

The Geography of N'Yassi, or the Great Lake of Southern Africa, investigated, with an account of the overland route from the Quanza, in Angola, to the Zambezi, in the government of Mozambique, by Wm. Desbrough Cooley, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, London. Vol. xv.

32

Notes on African Geography, by James M'Queen. —Ibid. Contributions towards the Geography of Africa, by James McQueen, in Simmond's Colonial Magazine, Vol. vi.

33

Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 15, p. 371.

34

Nouvelles Annales des Voyages: May, 1846, p. 139.

35

Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de France, for 1845, p. 251.

36

Notice sur le Progrès des découvertes Géographiques pendant l'année, 1845, par V. de St. Martin. Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, p. 245.

37

Nouvelles Annales des Voyages. Notes Ethnologiques, sur la race blanche des Aures. Par M. Guyon. Janvier, 1846, p. 116.

38

Comptes-Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, 29 Dec. 1845.

39

Revue Archæologique, Nov. 1845.

40

The incident which led to the discovery of this alphabet is deserving of notice. An Algerine named Sidy-Hamdan-Ben-Otsman-Khodja, who had gained the confidence of the Duke of Rovigo, then Governor of Algiers, was in correspondence with the Bey of Constantine. The Hadji Ahmed, to render this correspondence more sure, wrote his letters in conventional signs, known among certain Arabs by the name of romouz.

Ali the son of Sidy-Hamdan, who was the bearer of these Missives, had lived a long time in France as an officer in the employ of the Sublime Porte; and in his hands M. Boisonnet one day discovered the letters of Hadji Ahmed. On glancing his eye over one of these documents he discovered at the top (en vedette) two groups of signs, which, from their situation, he readily imagined might be the equivalents of the Arab sacramental words, Praise be to God, with which all good Musselmen generally begin an epistle. With this supposition he applied the alphabetic value to each character, and thus obtained the value of six of these strange cyphers. The next day he obtained two of these documents or letters from Ali, who little suspected what use he intended making of them. With these materials he diligently applied himself, and on the following morning sent him a complete translation of the letters. Ali was greatly alarmed that Mr. Boisonnet had solved the enigma, but more so that he had thereby become acquainted with the correspondence.

Struck with the analogy between these characters and the Lybian characters on the Thugga monument, he applied the alphabet discovered by him, and the result is known. —Revue Archæologique, November, 1845.

41

See De Saulcy. Revue des deux Mondes, June, 1846.

42

The accident which led to this second discovery deserves to be mentioned. The person into whose hands the manuscript fell, while examining the leaves which were remarkably thick, accidentally spilt a tumbler of water on it. In order to dry it he placed it in the sun in a window, when the parchment that was wet separated. He opened the leaves which had been sealed and found the Pagan manuscript between them. A farther examination showed that the entire volume was similarly formed.

43

Keppell's Borneo, vol. I. p. 233.

44

Keppell's Borneo, vol. I. p. 59.

45

Missionary Herald, vol. 42, p. 100.

46

Letter to the Hon. C.J. Ingersoll, chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, containing some brief notices respecting the present state, productions, trade, commerce, &c. of the Comoro Islands, Abyssinia, Persia, Burma, Cochin China, the Indian Archipelago, and Japan; and recommending that a special mission be sent by the government of the United States, to make treaties and extend our commercial relations with those countries: by Aaron H. Palmer, councillor of the Supreme Court of the United States.

47

See "China Mail" newspaper, for March 26, 1846.

48

Frazer's Magazine, 1846. In this Magazine is an article of much interest on the commercial relations of the Indian Archipelago.

49

Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. Sept. 1846.

50

London Evangelical Magazine, August, 1846.