1812. 
THE SICHUANA LANGUAGE. 
297 
to be attended to, by those who would read correctly the Sichuana 
names and words which occur in the course of this Harrative. 
The English reader, unacquainted with foreign pronunciation, 
may complain that by not adopting the orthography of his own lan- 
guage, the difficulty of reading the names in this journal, is much 
increased ; but he might with equal propriety object to the use of 
French or German orthography in a book of travels through France 
or Germany. As an apology for the method here followed, it may 
briefly be stated, — that the vocal sounds of the two languages are 
essentially different ; that English orthography, being, in its present 
state, referrible to no general principle, is so inconsistent as to modern 
pronunciation, that in some words it designates the same sound by 
several different letters, and in others, employs the same letters for 
several very different sounds : and, that the adoption of a system 
expressly adapted to the genius of the Sichuana and following simple 
and rigid rules, is in reality attended with much less inconvenience, 
and with much more certainty, than the use of a system, if it can 
be called one, so multifarious in letters and uncertain in sound, as 
that of our own language. I have, nevertheless, for more general 
convenience, added in parentheses, wherever 4t was necessary, the 
same word spelt according to English orthography. 
29^^. The various duties of preserving what had been collected, 
of arranging the notes and recording the observations of the day, 
had employed me in the waggon the whole of the night, and this, 
added to a considerable fatigue occasioned by a long day's-journey, 
kept me so much later than usual, before I awoke the next morning, 
that my people began to fear that I was either dead or very unwell. 
At length Speelman's uneasiness increasing, he resolved to ascertain 
whether I was alive or not, and knocked against the side of the 
waggon, when he told me that, instead of morning, it was afternoon, 
and that the sun had already sunk more than two hours. I was not 
less surprised than my men ; and could only attribute this extraordi- 
nary long and sound sleep, to an effort of nature, to repair that 
exhausted state into which a too great attention to the numerous 
affairs of the journey had insensibly brought me. The oxen were 
VOL. II. Q Q 
