1799.)(3s 7

For the Commercial and Agricultural Magazine.

A Second Letter from Sir JoHw PRINGLE to the Learned MicHAELIs;— containing farther Particulars of the late Ur. BRuUCcE?s firſt vivá voce, Account of his"TRAVELS in ABYSSINIA,|

London, of the 8th Fuly 1774-

DEAR SIR, ESTERDAY I had the favour of a viſit from Mr. Bruce. I afterwards accompanied him to the Queen's drawing- róom, and from thence to dinner in the houſe of a common âc- quaintance; where the company being mixed, I had not all the opportunity I could have wiſhed, to be informed about many things[ wanted to know, but fil] as much as will fill another ſheet, and I hope not diſagreeably to you. Previouſly however

I muſt inform you, that I had the pleaſure to make him a preſent

of your Recueil des Queſtions, and in a manner in your name; as

I told him, that you had ſent me ſeveral copies of that learned

work to give away to thoſe who could make the beſt uſe of them;

and that IL krew in particular it would afford you the greateſt ſa- tisfa@ion to think that one was now in poſſeſſion of thoſe

Queſtions who could, and, he muſt hope, would,‘the beſt anſwer

them. To this I added another preſent, which was that of the

double you had ſent me of the Ge»graphia Hebraeorum. And ſo having thus treated him in the Eaſtern manner with preſents,

not forgetting a diſh of coffee(though T confeſs my omiſſion of a

pipe of tobacco), I’ entered upon bulineſs with the king of Abyſ-

ſinia’s favourite. i

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

Hiſtory, Geography, Language. Mr. Bruce confirmed what I fid before, concerning the infidelity of all the authors he had read upon the Abyſfinian hiſtory civil and natural; but approved the Geography by the Jeſuits, and commended Mr. D’Anville?s aD.

He has brought home in the literary language(for that is his expreſſion, and not zoriting language, which 1 uſed in my laſt), an ample civil hiſtory of Abyſſinia, by which it appears, that it is the ſame people that are in poſſeſhon of that country at preſent, who poſſeſſed it many ages ago; nay as far back as the Chriſtian aer, or further. L then aſked, how they came tp have&&yo lan- guages, the common or court language, and the litéräry one, which were ſo very diferent one from the other. He faid; he could not tell. Yet different as theſe two languages are îrom one an0- ther, and from the Arabic, he acknowledges a imilarity of genius bétween them and all the oriental tongues. He obíerved, how- ever, thats the Abyſſinian common language was very caſy to learn, 2s having a great deal of regularity in the conjugation ol thgir

COM,& AG. MAG, cs