ON THE KWJ, EDEEYAH, AND BIMBIA LANGUAGES. 
By B. G. Latham, M.D, 
The first of these vocabularies Is that of the Kru lauguage, or 
the language of the Krumen, of the Grand Bassa, between Cape 
Mesurado and Cape Palmas. 
The value of any philological data for these parts may be 
measured by the fact, that, with the exception of the sterile 
tracts between Benguela and the Orange Kiver, on the west, 
and the so-called kingdoms of Inhambane, Sabra, Sofala, Manica, 
and Botonga, between Delagoa Bay and the Mozambique, on 
the east coast of Africa, no portion of the whole sea-board of 
that continent is so little known to the ethnographical philologist 
as the whole tract between the Sherbro River and the Gold 
Coast. North and south of this line we have, comparatively 
speaking, a sufficiency of materials for the purposes of a rough 
philology, in the vocabularies for the tribes around Sierra Leone 
and the Ashanti country, respectively; for the intermediate 
tract we have, independent of Captain Allen’s and Dr. Thom- 
son’s vocabulary, the following data only. 
1. A Kru vocabulary, collected by Mrs, Kilham, at Sierra 
Leone, republished in the Outline of a Yocahidary of a few of the 
Princijyal Languages of Weste^'n and Central Africa^ compiled 
for the use of the Niger Expedition, — London, 1841. About 
90 words. 
2. A Bassa vocabulary. Ditto. About 90 words. 
3. A Grobo translation of the Gospels. Published by the 
American Missionary Society, at Cape Palmas. This is known 
to the present writer by report only. 
That the Bassa and Kru are dialects of oue and the same 
language is evident from the most cursory inspection of Mrs. 
Kilham’s glossaries ; and as such they are treated by Dr. Pri- 
