310 Dr Prichard on the Varieties 



"1. Much light has been thrown on the languages of Asia^ 

 their affinities and relations, by M. Julius Klaproth, who, in 

 various journeys in Caucasus, Siberia, and the provinces of the 

 Russian Empire bordering on China, has enjoyed extensive op- 

 portunities of acquiring information : he is likewise acquainted 

 with the Chinese and Mongolian languages, and has made dili- 

 gent use of the historical information extant in the works of 

 Chinese annalists and literary compilers. The principal results 

 of his studies are contained in his great work, entitled Asia 

 Polyglotta, to which is appended a Sprach-atlas^ containing 

 comparative tables of vocabularies. 



" S. A great mass of information was collected by Dr Seet^ 

 zen, in reference to the languages of the African nations. On 

 the geographical discoveries of this traveller in Palestine, the • 

 eastern parts of which he was the first among modern travellers 

 to explore, I have no occasion for remark. The principal thea- 

 tre of Seetzen's researches was Africa, where he spent a long 

 time in collecting vocabularies and historical and geographical 

 information from intelligent men whom he met with among the 

 woolly-haired races. Such of his papers as reached Europe 

 were either put into the hands of Professor Vater of Konigsberg, 

 or were published by Baron Von Zach, in the Monatliche Cor-- 

 respondenz. I shall briefly advert to one point, in reference to 

 which he has illustrated the ethnography of Africa. The ori- 

 gin of the Felatabs, in the interior of that continent, — a red or 

 copper-coloured race, who have lately made extensive conquests 

 over the Negro nations, — was, for some time after that people 

 became known, a matter of uncertain conjecture. It is now 

 known that the Felatahs are a branch of the same race who 

 have for many centuries inhabited the high lands of Guinea, 

 where the Gambia and the Rio Grande have their sources, and 

 who have been visited in their mountainous capital of Teembo 

 by more than one European adventurer. They are the Foulahs 

 of English travellers, and the Red Poules of M. Mollien. 

 Seetzen obtained a vocabulary of the Felatah language, which 

 was published in the Konisherg Archivs fur Philosophie ; and 

 this led to a discovery of the real origin of the people. 



" 3. In reference to the languages of America, which are 

 known to be very numerous and complex in their structure, 



