113 



REVIEW. 



Researches and Missionary Labours among the Jews, Mahomniedans, and 

 other sects, during the years 1831 — 4. By the Rev. Joseph fVolff. 

 8vo. pp. 523. 



With the labours of Mr. Wolff, himself formerly a Jew, among his 

 Jewish brethren scattered over various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 

 the accounts which he has already published, have rendered many of our 

 readers more or less familiar. The volume now before us relates the con- 

 tinued labours of the same individual in Asia, from Hiudoostau and Cash- 

 meer, to the Arabian desert and the Mediterranean, during the years 1831, 

 2, 3, and 4. 



It is scarcely consonant with our plan to notice the reports of ordinary 

 missionaries, valuable as they frequently are, because they are suflSciently 

 dwelt upon elsewhere : but the present volume is of a character very 

 generally interesting, and is capable, from the qualifications of its author, 

 from the peculiar habits of the people among whom he travelled, from his 

 opportunities of eliciting their real character, and zeal in taking advantage 

 of such opportunities, and from the almost childish simplicity with which 

 the whole is narrated, of affording both passing amusement and permanent 

 instruction, and we think deserves to be both generally and carefully read. 



Mr. Wolff left Malta for Cairo, whence, recrossing the Mediterranean to 

 Adalyah, he passed through Asia-Minor and Armenia, along the southern 

 boundary of the Caspian, by Teheran to Bokhara and Balk. Thence he 

 ])roceeded into the Punjaub territory ; and having obtained the permission 

 of Runjeet Singh, visited the city of Cashmeer. From Cashmeer he de- 

 scended the country to Calcutta, and skirting the peninsula of Hindoostan, 

 left Bombay by sea for Suez, whence he returned to Malta after an absence 

 of about three years and a quarter. 



The subjects towards tlie elucidation of which the attention of Mr. Wolff 

 was particularly directed, while performing the above journey, were the 

 religious tenets and observances of the various tribes whom he visited, and 

 the principal object of his mission was the discovery of those tribes of the 

 Jews who Here scattered at the Babylonish captivity. 



But although the principal end of Mr. Wolff's journey forms of course the 

 subject of the greater part of his volume, it contains besides, a considerable 

 quantity of incidental information concerning tiie population, dialects, modes 

 of expression, habits, philosophy, &c. of the eastern nations. 



Mr. \Vo\f( considers it as highly probable that the ten lost tribes are 

 diepersed around Lassa and in China. His success as a missionary he re- 

 gards as considerable j but as he never stayed very long in any one place, 

 it is to be feared that many of his converts will relapse j and indeed we 

 cannot understand why, when on more than one occasion a door was opened 



