lle,
was, that the fact of sounds being _written_, haunted him in a dream,
wherein he was shown a series of signs adapted to his native tongue.
These he forgot in the morning; but remembered the impression. So he
consulted his friends; and they and he, laying their heads together,
coined new ones. The king of the country made its introduction a matter
of state, and built a large house in Dshondu, as a day-school. But a
war with the Guru people disturbed both the learners and teachers, so
that the latter removed to Bandakoro, where all grown-up people, of both
sexes, can now read and write.

This alphabet is a _syllabarium_.

The books written in it are essentially Mahometan; the Koran appearing
in them much in the same way as the Bible appears in the more degenerate
legends of the middle ages.

How far the Vey alphabet will be an instrument of civilization, is a
difficult question. For my own part, I half regret its evolution; since
the Arabic that served for the Mandingo, would have served for the Vey
as well--or if not the Arabic, the English.

As a measure of African capacity it is of some value; and in this
respect, it speaks for the Negro just as the Cherokee alphabet speaks
for the American Indian. This latter was invented by a native named
Sequoyah. Like Doala, he knew what reading was. Like Doala, too, he had
a language adapted to a _syllabarium_. Hence, both the Vey and the
Cherokee, the two latest coinages in the way of alphabets, are both
syllabic.

We now move southwards to the--

_Gold Coast Settlements._--The climate of Western Africa requires
notice. It suits the native, but destroys the European. Of the two
settlements, already mentioned, the Gambia is the most deadly; though
Sierra Leone has the worst name. _Both_ are on the coast; both,
consequently, on the lower courses of the rivers, and both on low
levels. The import of these remarks applies to the Negroes of America.
At present, it ushers in a brief notice of the climate of the Gold
Coast; this district being chosen for the purpose of description because
it makes the nearest approach to the equator of any English settlement
in Africa. Consequently, it may serve as a typical sample of the
malarious parts of the coast in question.

From April till August is the rainy season, which gradually passes into
the dry; heavy fogs forming during the transition. These last till the
end of September. Occasional showers, too, continue till November. The