PACIFIC AND BEERIXG'S STRAIT. |49 



Morrison, at my own request, in case circumstances 

 should render it necessary to put into Loo Choo, and 

 they were written in Chinese characters, which Dr. 

 Morrison was well aware would be quite intelligible to 

 the literati of Loo Choo, who express themselves in 

 the same character as the Chinese, though their lan- 

 guage is totally different. They contained many in- 

 teresting inquiries, and afforded the means of asking 

 questions without the chance of misinterpretation. 

 To several of them the negative or affirmative was all 

 that was required, and these are expressions under- 

 stood by most people. It happened, however, that 

 An-yah had learned enough of the English language 

 to say something more than these monosyllables ; so 

 that what with his proficiency, and the help of these 

 sentences, besides a dictionary, vocabulary, and dia- 

 logues in both languages, which Dr. Morrison had 

 also very generously given me, \ve had the means of 

 gaining a good deal of information 5 more, probably, 

 than we could have done through an indifferent inter- 

 preter. As, however, opinions vary concerning the 

 written character of China being in general use in 

 Loo Choo, I shall hereafter offer some observations 

 on the subject. 



After our visiters had satisfied their curiosity con- 

 cerning our object in putting into Loo Choo, they sat 

 down to dinner, which was ready, and with much ad- 

 dress and good-humour showed us they had learned 

 to chin-chin, or drink healths in the English manner. 



I was very anxious to find out who my guest with 

 the vocabulary was, as it at first occurred to me that 

 it might be Madera, of whom Captain Hall so fre- 

 quently speaks in his delightful publication on Loo 

 Choo ; but then he did not seem to be so well ac- 



