REVIEW OF PHILOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL RESEARCHES. 53 1 
Gessner, which may be considered, however, as an abortive 
attempt, the author having aimed at more than it was possible 
to attain in his age. The Mithridates of Adelung and Vater, 
which followed ldO years afterwards, is the last general history 
of languages which has appeared. Particular portions, how¬ 
ever, of the field of philology have been cultivated with great 
success, either by private individuals or by societies of learned 
men. 
“ 1. Much light has been thrown on the languages of Asia, 
their affinities and relations, by M. Julius Klaproth, who, in 
various journeys in Caucasus, Siberia, and the provinces of the 
Russian empire bordering on China, has enjoyed extensive op¬ 
portunities of acquiring information: he is likewise acquainted 
with the Chinese and Mongolian languages, and has made dili¬ 
gent use of the historical information extant in the works of 
Chinese annalists and literary compilers. The principal results 
of his studies are contained in his great work, entitled Asia 
Polyglotta, to which is appended a Sprach-atlas , containing 
comparative tables of vocabularies. 
“ 2. A great mass of information was collected by Dr. Seetzen, 
in reference to the languages of the African nations. On the 
geographical discoveries of this traveller in Palestine, the east¬ 
ern parts of which he was the first among modern travellers to 
explore, I have no occasion for remark. The principal theatre 
of Seetzen’s researches v r as Africa, where he spent a long time 
in collecting vocabularies and historical and geographical in¬ 
formation from intelligent men wdiom he met with among the 
woolly-haired races. Such of his papers as reached Europe 
were either put into the hands of Professor Vater of Konigsberg, 
or were published by Baron Von Zach in the Monatliche 
Correspondent. I shall briefly advert to one point, in reference 
to which he has illustrated the ethnography of Africa. The 
origin of the Felatahs, in the interior of that continent,—a red 
or copper-coloured race, who have lately made extensive con¬ 
quests over the negro nations,—was, for some time after that 
people became known, a matter of uncertain conjecture. It is 
now known that the Felatahs are a branch of the same race who 
have for many centuries inhabited the high-lands of Guinea, 
where the Gambia and the Rio Grande have their sources, and 
who have been visited in their mountainous capital of Teembo 
by more than one European adventurer. They are the Fou- 
lahs of English travellers, and the Red Poules of M. Mollien. 
Seetzen obtained a vocabulary of the Felatah language, which 
was published in the Konigsberg Archivs fur P/iilosop/lie ; and 
this led to a discovery of the real origin of the people. 
i( 3. In reference to the languages of America, which are 
