[ 69 1 ] 
difcovery of the Palmyrene alphabet. This, I told 
him, I could not then do ; being engaged in a work 
of another nature, which I was obliged to difpatch 
with all the expedition poffible. However, I allured 
him, that I would fpend now-and-then an hour or 
two upon thofe infcriptions, when tired with working, 
and try what I could make of them. Having therefore 
borrowed a copy of the Ruins of Palmyra , on Sa- 
turday, January 12, 17^4, I began, about five o’clock 
in the afternoon, to compare the i6th, 17th, and 19th 
Greek infcriptions with the 8th, 9th, and 10th Palmy- 
rene, with all the attention I was capable of ; and, in 
lefs than two hours time, did not only find out twenty 
letters of the Palmyrene alphabet, but likewife could in- 
terpret, to my own fatisfadtion, the three laft-mention- 
ed infcriptions. Between feven and eight o’clock, Mr. 
Godwyn fent me feveral words belonging to fome of 
the other infcriptions, in the Hebrew charadteF, the 
fignifications of which he had, as he apprehended, 
difcovered, and the powers of eighteen different Pal- 
myrene letters, as they appeared to him, in order to 
facilitate my inquiries. ’Tis worthy obfervation, that 
he affigned all thefe letters the fame powers and 
places in the alphabet I had done; which con- 
firmed me in my opinion, that I could not be very 
remote from truth. The form of the element Koph 
appeared to me at firft to reprefent Hheth ; but the 
word O’pN. AKIM, POSVIT, EREXIT, &c. foon 
afterwards gave me fufficiently to underftand, that I 
was miftaken. We likewife both found, that this 
charadter fometimes occupied' the place of Mem ; 
though fcarce the leaft affinity is to be obferved be- 
tween the forms of Koph and Mem, either in the 
Phoenician or the Chaldee alphabet. 
4, S 2 - 
The 
