I 37S ] 



Turkifh ambaffador to watch the intereft of the cargo, written in 

 the prefent year, which the latter was fo good as to give to me to 

 fliew the analogy between the modern and ancient language of 

 Greece. It will be obferved that this humble manner ufes the 

 accents with as much attention as any fcholar. 



This letter fo much refembles ancient Greek, that we might 

 almoft fuppofe it was fo, and that the writer had at fchool ac- 

 quired this faculty ; but Mr. Barthold, to whom it was addrefTed, 

 who perpetually converfed with the failors in modern Greek, 

 affured me that it was entirely modern, and that he could not 

 have corrcfponded or converfed in ancient Greek. Mr. Barthold 

 had refided a long time in Conflantinople and in the Morea, and 

 was perfedly well acquainted with the language of the modern 

 Greeks. I never faw any book in modern Greek, but I know the 

 New Teflament in that language was publifhed at Oxford in the 

 prefent century, at the time when fome modern Greeks were 

 brought there for education, who, however, by their exceflive 

 idlenefs, difappointed expedation. But what fuppofition can 

 be more flrange than that a parcel of Greek failors, or any 

 one of them, fhould choofe to correfpond in ancient Greek. And 

 I have the pofitive teftimony of Barthold, that this letter is written 

 in the common language of the country, and indeed he defired me to 

 obferve the words introduced from the Italian, fuch as ton inter ejfon ; 

 and if he had written it from his education at fchool, the termi- 

 nations 



