The following notes are taken from an account of his journey to Spain, written by an Ambassador of Muley Ismail, a copy of which is preserved in a library at Lisbon: the MS. ends abruptly, and does not contain the author's name. From the narrative it appears that the Ambassador came to treat of the exchange of prisoners, and to ask for some of the Arabic works preserved at the Escurial: he appears, however, to have imagined that these were remnants of the libraries of Cordoba, whereas they proceeded from the library of a former Emperor of Marocco, which was captured at sea whilst being transported from one port to another. The Ambassador was told that the books had been destroyed by the fire which took place about twenty years before in the Escurial, where, in fact, the greater part of the Sultan's library was burned; but about two thousand were saved, of which nothing was said to the Ambassador, and these form the actual collection of Arabic works preserved in the Escurial. M. Chenier, in his Histoire du Maroc (Paris, 1787), states that Muley Ismail took L'Arrash from the Spaniards in 1689, and that the Spanish garrison of that place was exchanged at the rate of ten Moors for each Christian: he also states that, in 1681, Hajy Themim, Governor of Tetuan, and Cassem Menino, brother of the Governor of Sallee, went to Paris in the end of December as Ambassadors, so that it is possible one of these was also employed in this Embassy ten years later.

The history of the Day of Judgment, and the canto of the death of the Prophet Muhammad, by Rabadan, were published in the preceding number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society. These two poems were received with much enthusiasm at Barcelona. With the exception of the history of Hexim and Abdulmutalib, none of Rabadan's poetry has been before published. It may be as well to remind the reader that Rabadan wrote in 1603. The following notes are given here, as it would have been inconvenient to give them as foot notes.

Every inquiry which can elucidate the history, the laws, the institutions, or the characteristics of the people of India, ought to have a very practical interest for the people of England, and especially for that small section of them which is entrusted with her government, either more directly as connected with the India Office, or less so as members of the British Parliament. Nor can it be said that information acquired by personal inquiry from people living on the spot is the most satisfactory for the purpose, or can be considered sufficient. Such is not the case. Englishmen in India, as a rule, never mix in social intercourse with the natives. They may receive friendly visits from a few; but, in ordinary, the relations between Englishmen and the higher classes of the natives of India are either purely official or purely of a business nature, and with the lower orders those of master and servant. Again, the few natives of India who have received an English education have been effectually isolated from the great body of their fellow-countrymen, with whom they have as little real sympathy as with their English rulers. In the former case, sometimes from fear, but more often from a desire to coincide with and to please or flatter his superiors, as the Hindu historians did in the reigns of Akbar and his successors,—and in the latter, sometimes from ignorance, but sometimes also from interested motives,—the opinions of natives with which Europeans are likely to be favoured are not always a safe guide.

The hill people, regarding whom I purpose saying a few words, inhabit the hill tracts of the States of Travancore and Cochin, and the base of the Annamully hills in the district of Coimbatore. They go by different names in different localities, such as Kardars, Mulliyars, Vaisharvars, Kannekarens, all of which signify “foresters,” and they are also called Mulchers or outcasts, which is probably a corruption of the Sanskrit word Mlechchha, meaning a barbarian or outcast.

The Bhojpurí dialect is spoken in the British districts of Chumparun, Sarun, Shahabad, Ghazipoor, Azimgurh, and Goruckpore, by a population which probably amounts to five millions. It is not, of course, the same in all these districts; but through all its variations it preserves the same general features, such as the use of the substantive verb bhá or bá the perfect in il, and other points of difference from the classical or literary type of Hindí. It is largely used as a written medium of communication by native merchants, and in all the transactions of the rural population, such as village accounts, leases, receipts, and so forth. The character is a variation of the Devanágarí, formed by omitting the horizontal top line, and is strikingly similar to the Gujarátí character, so much so that a work printed in that language can be read by a native of Chumparun. In the following remarks, however, I shall use the Devanágarí character as more generally understood in Europe.