OBSERVATION.
After giving the foregoing translation, it behoves me to inform the intelligent reader, that I wrote a letter to Mr. Bowdich, communicating to him my observations on several notes, transmitted to him by Sir William Ouseley, on the manuscript of which the foregoing is a translation, in which I informed him, that in decyphering the Arabic manuscript, I had observed the Oriental or Asiatic punctuation; knowing that Mr. Bulmer had not letters with the occidental punctuation. Several observations I made, respecting the Arabic manuscripts which could not be elucidated here without the Arabic type. I shall, therefore, omit them, and conclude by observing, that in translating this manuscript, two gentlemen (Arabic scholars) had translated akkadan Fie Asfeena, "two maids in the ship;" which words I have translated, "were tied or bound in the vessel:" the word akkadan being the preterite of the verb akkad, to bind. I was not surprised to hear that one translator had made such an interpretation; knowing that incredible errors have been frequently committed by professed Professors in the Hebrew language as well as in the Arabic. But when I heard, as I did, that another Arabic scholar had given a similar interpretation, I must confess that I was not a little surprised. However, a circumstance soon after unravelled the mystery; for I discovered that these two gentlemen, at a loss no doubt to ascertain the meaning of akkadan, had referred to Richardson's Arabic Dictionary, wherein the word is quoted to signify, in a figurative sense, a virgin. In a figurative sense! In translating an ill-written, illiterate, and ungrammatical manuscript, these two translators had had recourse to rhetorical figures, and actually substituted a trope for what was a verb, generally used in the West, signifying "to bind!"
As it has been asserted in the following extract, that my translation of the foregoing manuscript differs only in a trifling degree from that of Mr. Abraham Salamé, I here insert my answer to that assertion, leaving the intelligent reader to determine, whether they are alike or materially different.
Extract from The Times, 3d May, 1819.
MUNGO PARK.
The death of this enterprising traveller is now placed beyond any doubt. Many accounts of it have been received, and although varying as to the circumstances attending it, yet all agreeing that it has taken place. One statement was given to Mr. Bowdich, while on his mission to the King of the Ashantees, in 1817, by a Moor, who said that he was an eye-witness; and the same gentleman procured an Arabic manuscript declaratory of Mr. Park's death. This manuscript has been deposited with the African Association, formed for the purpose of extending researches in that part of the world. Two translations have been made of this curious document; one by Mr. Salamé, an Egyptian, who accompanied Viscount Exmouth in his attack on Algiers, as interpreter; and the other by Mr. Jackson, formerly consul at one of the Barbary courts. The following is Mr. Salamé's translation, from which, however, the one by Mr. Jackson only differs in a trifling degree. The words in italics have been inserted by Mr. Salamé, in order to render the reading more perfect, and are not in the original:--
A literal Translation of a Declaration written in a corrupted Arabic, from the Town of Yaud, in the Interior of Africa.
"'In the name of God, the merciful and the munificent. This declaration is issued from the town called Yaud, in the county of Kossa. We (the writer) do witness the following case (statement.) We never saw, nor heard of the sea (river) called Koodd; but we sat to hear (understood) the voice (report) of some persons, saying, 'We saw a ship, equal to her we never saw before; and the King of Yaud had sent plenty of every kind of food, with cows and sheep; there were two men, one woman, two male slaves, and two maids in the ship; the two white men were derived from the race (sect) of Nassri (Christ, or Christianity.) The King of Yaud asked them to come out to him (to land); but they refused coming out (landing); and they went to the King of the country of Bassa, who is greater than the King of Yaud; and while they were sitting in the ship, and gaining a position (rounding) over the Cape of Koodd, and were in society with the people of the King of Bassa, the ship reached (struck) a head of mountain, which took (destroyed) her away, and the men and women of Bassa all together, with every kind of arms (goods); and the ship could find no way to avoid the mountain; and the man who was in the ship, killed his wife, and threw all his property into the sea (river), and then they threw themselves also, from fear. Afterwards they took one out of the water till the news reached the town of Kanji, the country of the King of Wawi; and the King of Wawi heard of it; he buried him in his earth (grave), and the other we have not seen; perhaps he is in the bottom of the water. And God knows best.' Authentic from the mouth of Sherif Abraham.--Finis.'
"In addition to the foregoing, another corroboration has been obtained. Lieut. Col. Fitzclarence, when on his voyage down the Mediterranean on board the Tagus frigate, Capt. Dundas, with despatches from the Marquis of Hastings, learnt from the governor to the two sons of the Emperor of Marocco, who had been on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and were then returning home, that he (Hadjee Tahib) had been at Timbuctoo in 1807, and had heard of two white men, who came from the sea, having been near that place the year before; and that they sold beads, and had no money to purchase grain. This person added, that they went down the Nile to the eastward, and that general report stated that they died of the climate. There can be little doubt but the two white men here alluded to were Mr. Park and his companion, Lieutenant Martyn, who were at Sandsanding in Nov. 1805, and could, in the following year, have been near Timbuctoo. Sandsanding is the place from whence the last dispatches were dated by Mr. Park; and Amadi Fatouma, who was his guide afterwards, was sent to learn his fate, and returned with an account of Mr. Park being drowned. The statement of this person was, however, of such a nature as to excite suspicions of its correctness; and hopes were entertained that Mr. Park had not met with such an untimely fate. Fourteen years have now almost elapsed since the date of his last dispatches; and this circumstance is of itself sufficient to demonstrate, that he is to be added to the catalogue of those who have perished in their attempts to explore the interior of Africa.--Englishman."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH STATESMAN.