and in the least obtrusive manner, objects referred to in the text, the merit is solely due to her, whose name appears occasionally annexed to those Designs, and who, from the rudest documents, has afforded an elegant and faithful representation of truth.

Notwithstanding the care bestowed upon the accuracy of the text, it is highly probable that some errors have escaped the author's notice. Should this prove to be the case, it is hoped that the Public will overlook defects in the style of a mere writer of travels; from which the more responsible pages of an Addison, a Steele, and a Gibbon, have not been found exempt. In the progress of transcribing a journal written in a foreign land, remote from scenes of literature, more attention was often given to fidelity of extract, than to elegance, or even purity of composition.

The unsettled state of English orthography, as far as it affects the introduction of Russian names, produces considerable embarrassment to the writer who wishes to follow a fixed rule. Upon this subject it not only happens that no two authors agree, but that the same author is inconsistent. Jonas Hanway, whose writings are

more accurate than those of any other English traveller who has visited Russia, may be considered as affording, perhaps, the best model in this respect: but Hanway himself is not consistent1.

In the Russian alphabet there is no letter answering to our W; yet we write Moscow, and Woronetz. Where custom has long sanctioned an abuse of this kind, the established mode seems preferable to any deviation which may wear the appearance of pedantry. The author has, in this respect, been guided by the authority and example of Gibbon; who affirms, that "some words, notoriously corrupt, are fixed, and as it were naturalized, in the vulgar tongue. The Prophet Mohammed can no longer be stripped of the famous, though improper, appellation of Mahomet; the well-known cities of Aleppo, Damascus, and Cairo, would almost be lost in the strange descriptions of Haleb, Damashk, and Al Cahira." But, it may be fairly asked, where is the line to be drawn? What are the Russian

(1) The name of the same place is written Kieva in vol. I. p. 9. Khieva in p. 15, and Khiva in a note. Nagai Tartars, in p.8. vol. I. are written Nagay Tartars in p. 11. Throughout his work, the terminating vowel is sometimes i, and as often y; as, Valdai, poderosnoi, and Yakutsky, Nasorowsky.

(2) P.S. to Pref. ch. xxxix. Hist. of the Decline and Fall, &c.

names, which we are to consider as fixed and naturalized in the vulgar tongue? Are we to write Woronetz, or Voronéje; Wolga, or Volga; Kiow, or Kiof; Azow, or Azof? Lord Whitworth wrote Chioff and Asoph, although both these names have the same original termination'. It is the B (Védy) redoubled in compound words, which occasions the principal difficulty, and which has been confounded with our W. Thus, as it is mentioned by Storch, from Lévesque, the Russian word Vvédénié, signifying introduction,' consists of the preposition vo or v (into), and védénié (to conduct). The proper initial letter in English, therefore, for this word, would be V, whose power it alone possesses; and not W, which conveys a false idea of pronunciation. When this compound occurs as the termination of a word, it is best expressed by our f; as Orlof, for Orlow; which exactly answers the mode of pronunciation in Russia. Some writers use the letter doubled, as ff: the latter ƒ is however superfluous. The plan pursued by the author, but to which, perhaps, he has not regularly adhered, was to substitute a V for the Russian

(1) Account of Russia, by Charles Lord Whitworth. Strawberry Hill, 1758.

(2) Tableau de l'Empire de Russie, tom. I. p. 19. See also Histoire de Russie par Lévesque, tom. I. p. 17. Hamb. 1800.

VV, whenever it occurs at the beginning, or in the middle, of a word; and an f, whenever it is found as a termination.

There is yet another letter of the Russian alphabet, which, from its frequent recurrence as an initial, requires a perfect reconciliation to some settled law of English orthography; viz. the Tchérve: this has the power of our ch, in cheese and child, and occurs in the name of the Cossacks of the Black Sea, Tchernomorski. With regard to words terminating in ai and oi, as Valdai, Paulovskoi, perhaps it would be well to substitute ay and oy, as Valday, Paulovskoy; or y only, as Valdy, Paulovsky; which last offers a close imitation of the vulgar mode of pronunciation in general: but the variety caused by different dialects, in different parts of the empire, will, after every attention is paid to a settled rule of writing, occasion frequent perplexity and embarrassment.

In the orthography of the names of places immediately south of Moscow, frequent attention was paid to the Map of Reymann, published by Schmidt, at Berlin, in 1802. But even in that map, the territories of the Don Cossacks, Kuban Tartary, and the Crimea, appear only as a forlorn blank. Many years may expire before

Russia, like Sweden, will possess a HERMELIN, to illustrate the geography of the remote provinces of her empire; especially as it is a maxim in her policy, to maintain the ignorance which prevails in Europe, concerning those parts of her dominions. On this account, the indecision, which must appear in the perusal of this volume, to characterize the description of the country between Biroslaf and Odessa, admits of explanation. The geography of all that district is little known; the courses of the Dniester, the Bog, and the Dnieper, as well as the latitude and soundings of the coast near their embouchures, have never been adequately surveyed. The only tolerable charts are preserved by the Russian Government, but sedulously secreted from the eyes of Europe. It has however fallen to the author's lot, to interfere, in some degree, with this part of its political system, by depositing within a British Admiralty certain documents, which were a subsequent acquisition, made during his residence in Odessa. These he conveyed from that country, at the hazard of his life. They are too voluminous for insertion in the work, but may serve to facilitate the navigation of the Russian coasts of the Black Sea, if ever the welfare of Great Britain should demand the presence of her fleets in that part of the world. In making this