1812. 
AND ON SICHUANA ORTHOGRAPHY. 
309 
instances differs from all others. With respect to so remarkable a 
discrepancy, it must be concluded, either, that the natives are very 
careless and uncertain in their pronunciation, or, that the organs of 
hearing perform their duty very differently in different persons. Yet 
as that mode of spelling which is most at variance with the one 
here used, is that of a writer who, I regret that the case compels me 
to say, misunderstands even the commonest Dutch names and words, 
and spells them with extraordinary incorrectness, it may reasonably be 
supposed that his Sichuana words are still more incorrect. I have, how- 
ever, followed the only and best guide which can be found for an oral 
language, and thus have written all the words exactly as they sounded 
to my ear, and according to a strict system of orthography. I may 
be allowed therefore to assert that this orthography is the true repre- 
sentation of what I heard ; since I had never till then seen five-and- 
twenty words of it on paper, and am not aware that any considerable 
vocabulary of the Sichuana language has ever been formed before 
that which has been attempted by myself 
Jnchea I I I I I I I fi 
