Still his work was not complete.  The hissing sound of S entered into the ramifications of so many sounds, as in STA, Stu, Spa, SPE, that it would have required a large addition to his alphabet to meet this demand.  This he simplified by using a distinct character for the S (OO), to be used in such combinations.  To provide for the varying sound G, K, he added a symbol which has been written in English Ka.  As the syllable Na is liable to be aspirated, he added symbols written NAH, and KNA.  To have distinct representatives for the combinations rising out of the different sounds of D and T, he added symbols for Ta, te, Ti, and another for DLA, thus TLA.  These completed the eighty-five characters of his alphabet, which was thus an alphabet of syllables, and not of letters.

It was a subject of astonishment to scientific men that a language so copious only embraced eighty-five syllables.  This is chiefly accounted for by the fact that every Cherokee syllable ends in a vocal or nasal sound, and that there are no double consonants but those provided for the TL or DL, and TS, and combinations of the hissing S, with a few consonants.

The fact is, that many of our combinations of consonants in the English written language are artificial, and worse than worthless.  To indicate by a familiar illustration the syllabic character of the alphabet of Se-quo-yah, I will take the name of William H. Seward, which was appended to the Emancipation Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, printed in Cherokee.  It was written thus:  “O [wi] P[li] 4 [se] G [wa] 6 [te],” and might be anglicized Will Sewate.  As has been observed, there is no R in the Cherokee language, written or spoken, and as for the middle initial of Mr. Seward’s name, H., there being, of course, no initial in a syllabic alphabet, the translator, who probably did not know what it stood for, was compelled to omit it.  It was in the year 1821 that the American Cadmus completed his alphabet.

As will be observed by examining the alphabet, which is on the table in the engraving, he used many of the letters of the English alphabet, also numerals.  The fact was, that he came across an old English spelling-book during his labors, and borrowed a great many of the symbols.  Some he reversed, or placed upside down; others he modified, or added to.  He had no idea of either their meaning or sound, in English, which is abundantly evident from the use he made of them.  As was eminently fitting, the first scholar taught in the language was the daughter of Se-quo-yah.  She, like all the other Cherokees who tried it, learned it immediately.  Having completed it without the white man’s hints or aid, he visited the agent, Colonel Lowry, a gentleman of some intelligence, who only lived three miles from him, and informed that gentleman of his invention.  It is not wonderful that the agent was skeptical, and suggested that the whole was a mere act of memory, and that the symbols