dition, appeared to demand. These countries, situated between the rivers Jumna, Soorsootee, and Sutluj, now form the western boundary of the British dominions in Northern Hindustan, and in that point of view become interesting to the public. DR. GILCHRIST'S Hindustanee Works. THE size to which this volume has grown, from the voluminous collection of state papers that have been inserted in it, obliges the Editor to postpone his review of Dr. Gilchrist's works. A cursory account of works, of so much practical utility, would be unseemly in itself, and no less unjust to the public than disrespectful to the author; and the limits of this Register will not admit of that full review of them which the importance of their general subject, as well as their intrinsic merits demand. But, in the next volume, the Editor will call the attention of the public to the rise and progress of the Hindustanee language, to the ability which Dr. Gilchrist has displayed in reducing it to grammatical principles, and to the systematic and perspicuous plan which he has formed for facilitating its acquisition. Colonel J. CAPPER's Note to the Editor, with the Editor's IN reviewing colonel Capper's book on the "Winds and Monsoons," we found occasion to offer some strictures on certain etymologies, and inferences deduced from them, which the author had thought proper to introduce into that work. The justness and correctness of part of these strictures the colonel explicitly denies ; and has in consequence favoured us with a note in support of his original statements and opinions. To enable our readers to judge fairly and accurately of the points at issue betwixt us, we shall lay before them, at one view, the whole of the strictures in question, colonel Capper's answer to them, and our reply to that answer. crit. "In colonel Capper's note on the origin of names of countries, "he says, Guzerat is probably derived from the Persian, or Arabic "word Gezeret, an island." The Arabic word for an island is Jazeera; but Gujerat, the name of this province, is unquestionably Sans"The word Malabar," says colonel Capper" is not known, but by adoption, to the nations of the western peninsula :" but the proper name of that country is Malaya, and the natives are acquainted with no other. "Edrisi," says colonel Capper, "remarks, that "the inhabitants of Cour, by which, perhaps, is meant Cape Como rin, are Malays." But the most cursory inspection of Edrisi's map is sufficient to shew, that by that name he understood the Comara islands, and probably also Madagascar. The words Monsum (Monsoon) and Tufan, a hurricane, which colonel Capper says are Persic, are adduced to prove, that the Persians were the earliest navigators of the eastern seas; but the truth is, both of these words are Arabic. Colonel Capper labours to establish " a great similitude between the "customs, religious ceremonies, laws, and language, of the Tar"tars, the Saxons, and the English ;" but what is not a little singular, it is from the Persians, whom, without any proof, he considers as Tartars, that most of his analogies are derived. The only custom mentioned as similar, is the Tartar method of burying the dead; traces of which are to be found in our boroughs in England. The proof on which he most relies is the analogy of language. "Num * Asiatic Register vol. IV. Accour of Books, p. 4. berless 66 "berless," says he, "are the single Persian words, precisely the "same in sound and sense with the English, and evidently received "by us from the Saxon; such as mader, a mother, brader, a brother, "ducter, a daughter, berber, a barber;" (this is a mistake, barlur, in Persic, signifies only a barbarian.) "But," continues Colonel Capper, "without dwelling on similar single terms, which abound in "both languages, we will cite the word wettenagemote as an in"stance of a compound word of high political import, that has the same sound and signification, both in Persian and Saxon. In the "former it is derived from wetten, a native country, and gemmaiet, an assembly. According to Blackstone and Hume, it is the assembly of wise men; but in both languages it literally means the "national assembly. Hence it appears, that a great similitude may "be traced between the customs, religious ceremonies, laws, and languages, of the Tartars, the Saxons, and the English." Here we must observe, that the Tartar dialects are radically and entirely different from the Persic dialect; and that not one of the words above enumerated would be understood by any Tartar nation; but we must add, that the words of which the colonel has made wettenage mote are not even Persic, but pure Arabic; though it were impossible they should ever signify a national assembly, but a collection of habitations. The similarity between the Gothic and Persic languages is a long admitted fact; but most of the words mentioned by the colonel are common to them with the Sanscrit." "We should not have adverted to this subject had not the authority of the author, as an oriental scholar, rendered it necessary to anticipate the mistakes into which others might be led, by reasoning from his premises." Such is the substance of the editor's strictures on colonel Capper's Persian etymologies; and the following is the answer to them, with which he has been pleased to favor him. 1 For the Asiatic Annual Register, 1804. The Editor of the Asiatic Annual Register has been pleased to make some cursory observations upon the Persian etymologies inserted in one of the notes of my work; and to attempt to correct what he thinks is erroneous in them. His motive for so doing is very laudable, and for which, were they well founded objections, I should feel myself infinitely obliged to him; but in this instance he has proposed emendations, which, consistently with truth, cannot be tacitly admitted. He supposes, that, without any proof, I consider the Tartars as Persians. By no means; any more than I consider the Austrians and Prussians as the same nation. My observations, to which he refers, tend solely to prove, that Samarcand and Bochara are situated in Tartary; and that the Persian is the vernacular language of that extensive tract of country; of which fact I shall now endeavor to adduce a variety of proofs. In the years 1767 and 8, whilst resident at the courts of the Mugul, and of his Vizier, Sujah, ul Dowla at Oude, I have frequently conversed with many Tartars, who spoke the Persian language with great purity; and those were not merely the officers of the Mogul cavalry, but likewise the private Tartarian troopers; who were most of them ignorant of any other language, and could neither read nor write. It will also be in the remembrance of some gentlemen now in England, that at the end of the year 1768, when I came from Bengal to Madras, I brought with me a Tartar servant, a native of Bochara, perfectly illiterate, who could speak no other language than the Persian. From him and his countrymen in general, therefore, my information came, that the Persian was the vernacular language of his native country. These facts I trust will satisfy every candid reader, that the Tartar dialects, so far from being entirely different, as the editor supposes, are, at the places above mentioned at least, precisely the same. Το To answer the other objections in the order in which they are stated; the editor begins with berber, a barber. This, says he, is a mistake; barber, in Persic, signifies only a barbarian. My word is berber, which in the first place he entirely alters, and then adds, it has a different signification; but if he will refer to Richardson's Persian Dictionary, vol. 1st, page 371, he will find, that berber is a barber, a surgeon; and ser berberi, a shaver of the head; berberi khane, a barber's shop. According to the same authority this is also a pure Persian word. But the word barber, adopted by the editor, according to Richardson, page 324, signifies not a barbarian, as he translates it, but a day-labourer, a carrier, a beast of burthen. In the same note I have suggested, that the word wittenagemote may be derived from the Persian words wetten, a country, and gemmaiet, an assembly. If the editor will again take the trouble of referring to Richardson's Dictionary, he will find, in vol. 2d page 91, jemmaict, an assembly, and, in page 403, wetten, a country; hence I have presumed to suggest, that these words, united, may be translated the national assembly, or parliament. It will readily be admitted, that these two words are also Arabic as well as Persian; but from which of these roots they are originally derived, or when they were transplanted into the other language, it does not seem necessary in this place to determine. These two languages have been long enough blended together to justify an opinion, that the Tartars of Samarcand or Bochara may have made use of the word wittenagemote, and that they brought it with them in their migration towards the northern countries of Germany; whence it was afterwards brought to England. As to the reasoning upon these facts, I feel no cause myself to revoke any thing I have before mentioned on the subject; but here of course every ingenious and candid reader will exercise his own judgment. All I contend for is, the fact of the Tartars speaking the Persian language; and that my interpretation of the words in question is correct.-The editor is so good as to give me credit for having modestly suggested my sentiments; and I thank him for his courtesy ; but, as before observed, in justice to myself, as well as to avoid misleading others, which is the avowed object of the editor's remarks, I could not silently acquiesce in his charge of |