PACIFIC AND BEERI'NG’S STRAIT. 
481 
I am of opinion that the inhabitants of Loo Choo have no 
written character in use which can properly be called their own, but 
that they express themselves in that which is strictly Chinese. We May, 
certainly never saw any except that of China during our residence in 
the country. The manuscripts which I brought away with me were 
all of the same character precisely, and some were written by persons 
who did not know that I was more familiar with the Chinese character 
than with any other. 
It is very probable that the Japanese character was in use 
formerly; but it is now so long since schools have been established 
pi Loo Choo for teaching the Chinese character, viz. since 1372, and 
the Chinese, whose written character is easier to learn than the other, 
have always been the favourite nation of the Loo Choo people, that it 
is very probable the Japanese character may now be obsolete. An-yah 
would give us no information on this subject, nor would he bring us 
any of the books which were in use in Loo Choo. One which 1 saw 
in the hands of a boy at Abbey Point appeared to be written in Chinese 
characters, which are so different from those of the Japanese that they 
may be readily detected. 
M. Grosier on this subject, quoting the Chinese authors, says that 
letters, accounts, and the king’s proclamations are written in Japanese 
characters; and books on morality, history, medicine, astronomy, &c. 
in those of China. One of the authors whom he quotes adds, that 
the priests throughout the kingdom have schools for teaching the 
youth to read according to the precepts of the .Japanese alphabet 
Y-ro-fa. As we may presume they teach moralitj' in these schools, it 
would follow, as books on those subjects are all written in Chinese 
characters, that the boys must be taught both languages , but had 
this been the case, I think we should have seen the Japanese character 
written by some of them. It is to be observed that the invocations in 
the temples and on the kao-roo stones are all in the character of China. 
While upon this subject, I must observe, that the idea of Mons. 
P. S. Du Ponceau*, “ that the meaning of the Chinese characters cannot 
* See a letter from this gentleman to Captain Basil ITall, R. N., published in the 
Annals of Philosophy for January, 1829. 
