I cannot conclude these prefatory remarks without expressing my sincere thanks for the great interest shown in my proceedings by so many eminent men in this country, as well as for the distinction of the Victoria medal awarded to me by the Royal Geographical Society. As I may flatter myself that, by the success which attended my efforts, I have encouraged further undertakings in these as well as in other quarters of Africa, so it will be my greatest satisfaction, if this narrative should give a fresh impulse to the endeavours to open the fertile regions of Central Africa to European commerce and civilization. Whatever may be the value of this work, the Author believes that it has been enhanced by the views and illustrations with which it is embellished. These have been executed with artistical skill and the strictest fidelity, from my sketches, by Mr. Bernatz, the well known author of the beautiful “Scenes in Æthiopia.” I will only add a few words relative to the spelling of native names,—rather a difficult subject in a conflux of languages of very different organization and unsettled orthography. I have constantly endeavoured to express the sounds as correctly as possible, but in the simplest way, assigning to the vowels always the same intonation which they have in Italian, and keeping as closely as possible to the principles adopted by the Asiatic Society. The greatest difficulty related to the “g” sound, which is written in various ways by the Africans, and puzzled even the Arabic writers of the middle ages. While the “k” in North Africa approaches the g in “give,” it takes the sound of it entirely in the Central African languages. On this ground, although I preferred writing “Azkár,” while the name might have been almost as well written “Azgár;” yet further into the interior the application of the g, as in “Ágades,” “Góber,” and so on, was more correct. The ع of the Arabs has been expressed, in conformity with the various sounds which it adopts, by ʿa, ʿo and ʿu; the غ by gh, although it sounds in many words like an r; ج by j; the چ, which is frequent in the African languages, by ch. The alphabet, therefore, which I have made use of is the following:— _Vowels._ a as in cat. á „ father. ʿa (not English) not unlike a in dart. e as in pen. é like the first a in fatal. i as in it. í „ ravine. o „ lot. ó „ home. ʿo (not English) not unlike o in noble. u as in put. ú „ adjure, true. ʿu not unlike oo in doom. y, at the end of words, instead of i. _Diphthongs._ ai as i in tide (ay at the end of words). oi (oy), as in noise. au (aw), as ow in now. _Consonants._ b as in beat. d „ door. f[3] „ fan. g as in got. j[4] „ join. k „ keep. l „ leave. m „ man. n „ not. ñ „ the Spanish “campaña,” like ni in companion, onion.