credulity, a pure and elevated phi- plain and fimple phrafe of that age lofophy, and inftructive intimations of moral import. The fcrolls of the Papyrus, hard and refembling rolls of portable foup, particularly ftruck us; four or five have been explicated by an elaborate process: but, inftead of the loft and regretted books of Livy and Tacitus, they unfold a dry treatife on the Epicurean philofophy; a work or two on morality and rhetoric; and a differtation on mufic, by Philodemus, containing, as fome fay, a vindication of the arithmetical proportions, in confutation of the fyftem of Ariftoxenus, or, as others ftate, fome reflections on the bad effects of mufic in a republic. Two only of thefe works have, I believe, yet been published. A third treatise is foon to appear, and the examiners will, I hope, perfevere till we recover fome of the works of which we regret the lofs, and fome of equal value with thofe which we poffefs. Letter from Robert Vaughan, the celebrated Welch antiquary, to archbishop Usher. To the most reverend James Usher, archbishop of Armagh. Reverend father, N performance of your requeft fent you the annals of Wales, as, out of the ancient copy which you faw with me, I did faithfully tranflate them into the English tongue, as near as I could, word by word; wherein (knowing my weaknefs) I laboured not fo much to render a fweet harmony of fpeech, as the wherein it was written, which I thought would pleafe you beft, though haply with others it will not fo well relish. Be pleafed to receive it as a token from him who honours your worth. As you read it, I pray you correct it, for I know it hath need. There was a leaf wanting in my book; which defect (viz. from 900 to an. 950), and fome paffages befides, I was fain to make up out of other ancient copies, whereof though we have many in Wales, yet but few that agree verbatim with one another. And I believe fome miftakings will be found in the times of fome tranfactions in this book, if they be narrowly examined, as in the very frontispiece of this author we find. In moft copies we find that Cadwalader went to Rome anno 680, or the year after, as it is in my copy; nevertheless, it is confeffed and granted by all of them, that the great mortality happened in that year that he went to Rome; but I find no mention of any great mortality of people that happened about anno 680, and therefore I think it not very likely that Cadwalader's going to Rome was deferred to that year. Moreover, venerable Bede, and other ancient writers, do affirm, that the great mortality fell about 664, about the 22d year of king Ofwi's reign over Northumberland, in whofe time Cadwalader lived and tract which is added to fome copies of Nennius (if I may give credit to that corrupt copy of it which I have) in the words following: "Ofguid, filius Edelfrid, regnavit 28 ann. et fex menfibus, dum ipfe regnabat, venit mortalitas hominum, Catgualater regnante apud Brittones, pofi · patrem patrem fuum, et in ea periit." This evidence doth perfuade with me, that Cadwalader went to Rome far before ann. 680. But if in ea periit be meant of Cadwalader, for king Ofwi ruled five or fix years, unless we grant that the plague endured twelve years, as our Welsh hiftorians do aver, it maketh fuch breach in the hiftory, that I (for my own part) knew not how to repair it; for, if it be true that Cadwalader died of that plague, then he went not to Rome; and to deny his going to Rome is no less than to deny our British and Welih antiquities in ge neral. Therefore, I defire you will vouch fafe not only to give me your fenfe of Cadwalader's going to Rome, and the time (wherchy I may reft better fatisfied than at prefent), but alfo the loan of your best copy of Nennius, with the tract before cited, which is added to fome copies thereof. And, if I be not over-troublefome to your patience already, I have another requeft unto you, which is, that you will felect all the notes and hiftories that you have that treat of the affairs of Wales, and princes thereof, and that you will candidly impart them unto me by degrees; as I fhall have done with one piece, flo be pleafed to fend another, and you may command any thing that I have, or can come by; for, it is not la-· bour, pains, or expence of money (to my power), fhall retard me in your fervice. My love and zeal for my poor country, and desire to know the truth and certainty of things paft, moves me fometimes to a paffion, when I call to mind the idle and fothful life of my countrymen, who, in the revolution of a thousand years, almost afford but only Caradoc of Lancarvan, and the continuance thereof, to regifter any thing to the purpofe of the acts of the princes of Wales that I could come by or hear of (fome few piecemeals excepted). Dr. Powel, in his Latin Hiftory of the Princes of Wales, citeth Thomas Maclorius de Regibus Gwynethia (North Wales); but I could not hitherto meet with that book, and I am perfuaded he lived not much before Henry the VIth's time; peradventure you have feen it: and I do not remember that he citeth any other author of our countrymen; it may be, there are fome extant yet, though I had not the felicity hitherto to fee them. I hope, by your good means hereafter, I fhall attain to fome hidden knowledge of antiquity. But I am too tedious; pardon me, I pray you, reverend father; think of my request, and pat me not off with excules any longer; and my prayer fhall be for your health, peace, and profperity, in this world, and everlafting felicity in the world to come. Your friend and fervant, ROBERT VAUGHAN. Hengwrt, near Dolgellen, in the county of Merioneth, April 14, 1651. An account of the game of Chefs, as played by the Chinese, in a letter from Eyles Irwin, efq. to the right honourable the earl of Charlemost, P. R. I. A. from the Irish Tran factions. My lord, Confider no apology neceffary no in publie fituation in which your talents and reputation have placed you. Whatever tends to the acceff on of knowledge, or the illuftration of anti quity, cannot prove unacceptable to your lordship, when adding a mite to the Tranfactions of the academy which is diftinguished by your fuperintendence. Why I have addreffed a fubject of this nature to the Irish academy, when there is a fociety exifting, who feems to have a title to it from its name or why the firft offering of my researches fhould proceed from the remote empire of China, are, I truft, queftions that are not neceffary for me to refolve. If a patriot with to promote the fpirit of inveftigation in my country, by the exection of my mean abilities, be not denied me, I am indifferent to cenfure or praife on this occation. I muft premife to your lordship, that, during a long refidence in the Eaft Indies, where the game of Chefs is generally fuppofed to have originated, I had often heard of its existence in China, though on a different footing, as well in refpect to the powers of the king, as to the afpect of the field of battle, The Bramins, who excel in this game, and with whom I ufed frequently to play for improvement, had a tradition of this nature, which is a further argument in behalf of what I am about to advance. But, with all my enquiries from perfons who had been there, and from the publications relative to China, I could never obtain any confirmation of the game being ever known in the country, except that Chambers, in his Dictionary, mentions it to be the favourite paftime of the ladies, but quotes no authority for the at fortion. Some unlooked-for circum:fiances in the courfe of the laft year at length brought me to the quarter, which I had once wifhed, but neVOL. XXXVI. ver expected, to vifit. I need not fay, that among other objects of curiofity, I was eager to afcertain the reality of the Bramins ftory. And if the difficulty of acquiring information here, not more from the want of interpreters, than the jealoufy of the government, were not well known in Europe, I fhould be afhamed to tell your lordship that I defpaired of fuccefs for fome time. A young Mandarin, however, of the profeflion of arms, having an inquifitive turn, was my frequent vifitor; and, what no queftions. could have drawn from him, the accidental fight of an English chefsboard effected. He told me, that the Chinese had a game of the fame nature; and, on his fpecifying a difference in the pieces and board. I perceived, with joy, that I had difcovered the defideratum of which I had been fo long in fearch. The very next day my Mandarin brought me the board and equipage; and I found, that the Bramins were neither miftaken touching the board, which has a river in the middle to divide the contending parties, nor in the powers of the king, who is entrenched in a fort, and moves only in that pace, in every direetion. But, what did I not before. hear, nor do I believe is know, out of this country, there are two pieces, whole movements are diftinct from any in the Indian or European game. The Mandarin, which answers to our bifhop, in his ftation and fidelong courte, cannot, through age, crofs the river; and a rocket-boy, full fed in the Indian armies, who is ftationed between the lines of cach party, acts literally with the motion of the rocket, by vaulting over a man, and taking his adver lary at the other end of the Lord. Except that the king has his two fons to fupport him, inftead of a queen, the game, in other respects, is like curs. As the young man who had difcovered this to me was of a communicative and obliging difpofition, and was at this time purfuing his ftudies in the college of Canton, I requested the favour of him to confult fuch ancient books as might give fome infight into the period of the introduction of Chefs into China; to confirm, if poffible, the idea that ftruck me of its having originated here. The acknowledged antiquity of this empire, the unchangeable ftate of her cuftoms and manners, beyond that of any other nation in the world; and more efpecially the fimplicity of the game itfelf, when compared to its compafs and variety in other parts, appeared to give a colour to my belief. That I was not difappointed in the event, I have no doubt will be allowed, on the perufal of the tranflation of a manufcript extract, which my friend Tinqua brought me, in compliance with my defire; and which, accompanied by the Chinese manufcript, goes under cover to your lordship. As the Mandarin folemnly affired me that he took it from the work quoted, and the tranflation has been as accurately made as poffible, I have no hesitation to deliver the papers as authentic. In the purfuit of one curiofity I flatter myfelf that I have ftumbled by accident on another, and have gone fome length to refiore to the Chinese the invention of gun-powder, fo long difputed with them by the Europeans; but which the evidence on their chefs-board, in the action of the rocket, seems to eftablifh beyond a doubt. The infiitution of the game is likewife difcovered to form the principal æra in the Chinese hiftory; fince, by the conqueft of Shenfi, the kingdom was first connected in its prefent form, and the monarch affumed the title of emperor, as may be feen in the extract which I have obtained from their annals. From thefe premises I have therefore ventured to make the following inferences:-That the game of Chefs is probably of Chinese origin. That the confined fituation and powers of the king, refembling those of a monarch in the earlier parts of the world, countenance this fuppo fition; and that, as it travelled weftward, and defcended to later times, the fovereign prerogative extended itself, until it became unlimited, as in our ftate of the game. That the agency of the princes, in lieu of the queen, befpeaks forcibly the nature of the Chinese cuftoms, which exclude females from all power or influence whatever ; which princes, in its paffage through Perfia, were changed into a fingle vizier, or minifter of ftate, with the enlarged portion of delegated authority that exifts there; instead of whom, the European nations, with their ufual gallantry, adopted a queen on their board.* That the river between the parties is expref That on the acquifition of fo ftrong a piece as the vizier, the Paö were fuppreffed, this as poffeffing powers unintelligible, at that time, to other nations; and three pawns added, in confequence, to make up the number of men; and that as difcipline improved, the lines, which are fraggling on the Chinese board, might have been clofed on ours. ve of the general face of this coun- I have the honour to remain, Your lordship's obedient,, EYLES IRWIN. Canton, March 14, 1793. Tranflation of an extract from the Concum, or Chinese annals, refpecting the invention of the game of Chefs, delivered to me by Tinqua, a foldier mandarin, of the province of Fokien. Three hundred and feventy-nine years after the time of Confucius, or one thoufand nine hundred and fixty-five years ago, Hung Cochu, king of Kiangnan, fent an expedition into the Shenfi country, under the command of a mandarin, called Hanfing, to conquer it. After one fuccefsful campaign, the foldiers were put into winter-quarters; where, finding the weather much colder than what they had been accuftomed to, and being alfo deprived of their wives and families, the army, in general, became impatient of their fituation, and clamourous to return home. Hanfing, upon this, revolved in his mind the bad confequences of complying with their wifles. The neceflity of foothing his troops, and reconciling them to their pofition, appeared urgent, in order to finifh his operations in the enfuing year. He was a man of genius, as well as a good fcholar; and having contemplated fome time on the fubject, he invented the game of Chefs, as well for an amufement to his men in their vacant hours, as to inflame their military ardour, the game being wholly founded on the principles of war. The ftratagem fucceeded to his with. The foldiery were delighted with the game; and forgot, in their daily contefts for victory, the inconveniencies of their poft. In the fpring the general took the field again; and, in a few months, added the rich country of Shenfi to the kingdom of Bb 2 Kianguan, |