Sir;--Seeing in your Paper of yesterday a translation of the Arabic manuscript respecting Mr. Mungo Park's death, which is deposited with the African Association, and decyphered and transcribed by me in Mr. Bowdich's account of a Mission to Ashantee, p. 480, and perceiving that the errors in that translation are thus propagated to the public through the medium of the London Papers; which although perhaps of little consequence to the general reader, yet, as they are of importance to the critic, and to the investigator of African affairs, I shall take the liberty of offering a few observations on the subject.
The following passage, in the translation above alluded to, might have passed the public eye without animadversion as the language of a foreigner, (as we have understood Mr. Salamé to be,) but from the intelligent Editor of a London daily paper, might we not have expected more correct phraseology? [233]
Footnote 233:[ (return) ] "The phrases thus objected to by our learned Correspondent, were contained in the translations furnished to us in common with other papers, and not the language of the Editor. Indeed, this appears to be admitted by our Correspondent himself, in the apparently very just comments he has thus favoured us with.--Editor."
"The ship reached a head of mountain which took her away, and the men and women of Bassa, altogether with every kind of arms, and the ship could find no way to avoid the mountain."
I have no hesitation in declaring to be incorrect the first two lines of Mr. Abraham Salamé's translation, inserted in your paper of yesterday, which runs thus:--
"This declaration is issued from the town called Yaud, in the country of Kossa."
My translation of this passage, inserted in Mr. Bowdich's account of a Mission to Ashantee, page 478, runs thus:--
"This narrative proceeds from the territory in Hausa called Ecauree."
No one, I presume, will say that there is not a manifest difference between these two translations--between the town called Yaud, in the country of Kossa, and the territory of Hausa, called Ecauree.
One of these translations must therefore necessarily be incorrect. The Arabic manuscript decyphered and transcribed by me, is inserted in Mr. Bowdich's work, page 480. Those who may feel interested in ascertaining which is the correct and precise translation, are requested to refer to the transcript above-mentioned, or to the original manuscript, in the possession of the African Association. As for myself, I presume I am right; and would submit the decision to the judgment of either Sir Gore Ousley, or to that of Sir William, or to the opinion of any Arabic scholar, to decide this question.