A. These completed the eighty-five
characters of his alphabet, which was thus an alphabet of syllables,
and not of letters.

It was a subject of astonishment to scientific men that a language so
copious only embraced eighty-five syllables. This is chiefly accounted
for by the fact that every Cherokee syllable ends in a vocal or nasal
sound, and that there are no double consonants but those provided for
the TL or DL, and TS, and combinations of the hissing S, with a few
consonants.

The fact is, that many of our combinations of consonants in the English
written language are artificial, and worse than worthless. To indicate
by a familiar illustration the syllabic character of the alphabet of
Se-quo-yah, I will take the name of William H. Seward, which was
appended to the Emancipation Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, printed in
Cherokee. It was written thus: "O [wi] P[li] 4 [se] G [wa] 6 [te]," and
might be anglicized Will Sewate. As has been observed, there is no R in
the Cherokee language, written or spoken, and as for the middle initial
of Mr. Seward's name, H., there being, of course, no initial in a
syllabic alphabet, the translator, who probably did not know what it
stood for, was compelled to omit it. It was in the year 1821 that the
American Cadmus completed his alphabet.

As will be observed by examining the alphabet, which is on the table in
the engraving, he used many of the letters of the English alphabet,
also numerals. The fact was, that he came across an old English
spelling-book during his labors, and borrowed a great many of the
symbols. Some he reversed, or placed upside down; others he modified,
or added to. He had no idea of either their meaning or sound, in
English, which is abundantly evident from the use he made of them. As
was eminently fitting, the first scholar taught in the language was the
daughter of Se-quo-yah. She, like all the other Cherokees who tried it,
learned it immediately. Having completed it without the white man's
hints or aid, he visited the agent, Colonel Lowry, a gentleman of some
intelligence, who only lived three miles from him, and informed that
gentleman of his invention. It is not wonderful that the agent was
skeptical, and suggested that the whole was a mere act of memory, and
that the symbols bore no relation to the language, or its necessities.
Like all other benefactors of the race, he had to encounter a little of
the ridicule of those who, being too ignorant to comprehen