Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/462

 CONCLUDING REMARKS.

A few days before the last sheet of this work went to press, I had the pleasure of receiving from Monsieur Henry, a literary gentleman residing at Paris, his French translation of Lord Valentia's Travels, which appears to be executed with great ability. At the same time he was obliging enough to send me a copy of another edition of the journal of my Travels into Abyssinia, extracted from Lord Valentia's work, and published by Monsieur Prevost of Geneva, with whom I had previously corresponded on the subject: and I may here be permitted to express, so far as I am concerned, my obligations to both these gentlemen for the liberal spirit which prompted them to undertake these translations under the very untoward circumstances with which they had to contend. I find, to my great satisfaction, by the Appendices subjoined to these works, that my conjectures respecting the Adulitic inscriptions have been very candidly admitted by one of the most celebrated scholars in France, M. Sylvestre de Sacy, who, in the twelfth volume of the "Annales des Voyages," has thus expressed himself, "Il me suffit de dire qu'il (M. Salt) me parait avoir parfaitement établi que l'inscription d'Adulis forme réellement deux inscriptions qui n'ont rien de commun; que de ces deux inscriptions, celle qui est gravée sur la chaise de marbre blanc appartient incontestablement à un roi des Abyssiniens ou Axumites," &c. He afterwards proceeds to observe, that he cannot agree with me in opinion, that this was erected by Aizana, for which he gives such convincing arguments, that I am induced to think he is right: and if this be the case, the inscription must be attributed, in all probability, to the Emperor El Asguaga, no other reign intervening between him and Aizana of sufficient duration, to which it can be applied. It is worthy of observation that this correction takes it back to the period, at which I have remarked that a change appears to have occurred in the reigning dynasty of the Abyssinian emperors, as denoted by the prefixing of the article El to the names of the sovereigns, a circumstance that may hereafter lead to a still further elucidation of this part of the Abyssinian History; but I confess that, as yet, I have not sufficiently consulted the necessary authorities to enable me to enter into a discussion on the subject. M. De Sacy has also rightly determined, that the figures in the Axum inscription are formed of Greek characters, an opinion, which it will be seen I had adopted previously to meeting with his valuable remarks; and I am happy to find, that we besides generally agree as to the numerals to which the characters refer.

FINIS.