All these, except No. 12, are heard in the court dialect, which has now become the most common mode of writing the names of places and persons in China. Though foreign authors have employed different letters, they have all intended to write the same sound; thus _chan_, _shan_, and _xan_, are only different ways of writing 閂; and _tsse_, _tsze_, _tsz’_, _𝔷h_, _tzŭ_, and _tzu_, of 字. Such is not the case, however, with such names as _Macao_, _Hongkong_, _Amoy_, _Whampoa_, and others along the coast, which are sounded according to the local patois, and not the court pronunciation--_Ma-ngau_, _Hiangkiang_, _Hiamun_, _Hwangpu_, etc. Many of the discrepancies seen in the works of travellers and writers are owing to the fact that each is prone to follow his own fancy in transliterating foreign names; uniformity is almost unattainable in this matter. Even, too, in what is called the court dialect there is a great diversity among educated Chinese, owing to the traditional way all learn the sounds of the characters. In this work, and on the map, the sounds are written uniformly according to the pronunciation given in Morrison’s Dictionary, but not according to his orthography. Almost every writer upon the Chinese language seems disposed to propose a new system, and the result is a great confusion in writing the same name; for example, _eull_, _olr_, _ul_, _ulh_, _lh_, _urh_, _’rh_, _í_, _e_, _lur_, _nge_, _ngí_, _je_, _jí_, are different ways of writing the sounds given to a single character. Amid these discrepancies, both among the Chinese themselves and those who endeavor to catch their pronunciation, it is almost impossible to settle upon one mode of writing the names of places. That which seems to offer the easiest pronunciation has been adopted in this work. It may, perhaps, be regarded as an unimportant matter, so long as the place is known, but to one living abroad, and unacquainted with the language, the discrepancy is a source of great confusion. He is unable to decide, for instance, whether _Tung-ngan_, _Tungon hien_, _Tang-oune_, and _Tungao_, refer to the same place or not.