Note 16 — CHAP. I. On the Origin of the Gipsies.

“Should any be inclined to doubt, which I scarcely suppose possible, the identity of the Gipsy or Cingari, and Hindostanee languages, still it will be acknowledged as no uninteresting subject, that tribes wandering through the mountains of Nubia, or the plains of Romania, have conversed for centuries in a dialect precisely similar to that spoken at this day, by the obscure, despised, and wretched people in England, whose language has been considered as a fabricated gibberish, and confounded with a cant in use among thieves and beggars; and whose persons have been, till within the period of the last year, an object of the persecution, instead of the protection of our laws.”—Extract from a letter of William Marsden, Esq. addressed to Sir Joseph Banks, F. R. S., and read to the Society of Antiquaries in London, 1785.