to the Ethnological Society of London. 67 



The exile from that country of the learned and indefatigable 

 Mr Krapf, has been contingently a fortunate event for the ex- 

 tension of our knowledge, since he was induced to seek a new 

 sphere for his exertions as a Christian Missionary. Having 

 fixed his abode in the country of the Suaheli, a comparatively 

 civilised and trading people of the Kafir race, who occupy the 

 coast of Ajan and Zanzibar, Mr Krapf has studied several of 

 the languages of the native races ; and he has transmitted 

 to the celebrated philologist, Von Ewald, materials which 

 have enabled that writer to throw a new light on the ethno- 

 logy of South Africa. Some recent notices of the Kafirs, 

 near the Cape, are to be found in the narrative of Mr Bunbury, 

 a very ingenious and intelligent traveller, who has visited the 

 interior of the colony. The papers read before this Society, 

 by Mr Daniel, contain many new and original observations 

 on the native races of Kongo and the adjoining countries ; 

 and Dr T. R. Hey wood Thompson has contributed to extend 

 our knowledge of the tribes of the more northern part of 

 the same coast by two memoirs, which he has read on the 

 Adiyah of Fernando Po, and on the Kroomen of the Grain 

 Coast. Neither of these writers has added much, with the 

 exception of Dr Beke, and the Rev. Mr Krapf, to African 

 glossology; but we may expect a great extension of our know- 

 ledge of African languages, if Mr Daniel should be preserved 

 to return from his dangerous abode on the Gambia, whither 

 he lately went with a firm determination to make extensive 

 inquiries into the languages and history of the Fulahs, Man- 

 dingos, and other inhabitants of Senegambia, and Western 

 Soudan. 



I can say but little on the progress of American Ethnology 

 during the last year. In the preceding year, a very learned 

 essay was read before the Ethnological Society of New York, 

 by Mr Bartlett, the secretary of that Society, on the progress 

 of Ethnology. The second volume of the Transactions of 

 this Society has not yet reached England ; at least I have 

 not yet been able to obtain it from the American publishers, 

 though it has been reported to have made its appearance in 

 America. Some portions of it have, however, been received, 

 among which is an extensive memoir by Mr Schoolcraft, well 



