into the Grison country, to find that their native tongue was understood
by the inhabitants, and that they could comprehend most of the language
of that district.

This universality of the Romance in the French dominions during the
eleventh century, also accounts for its introduction in Palestine and
many other parts of the Levant by Godfrey de Bouillon, and the multitude
of adventurers who engaged under him in the Crusade. The assizes of
Jerusalem, and those of Cyprus, are standing monuments of the footing
that language had obtained in those parts; and if we may trust a Spanish
historian of some reputation[BJ] who resided in Greece in the thirteenth
century, the Athenians and the inhabitants of Morea spoke at that time
the same language that was used in France. And there is great reason to
imagine, that the affinity the _Lingua Franca_ bears to the French and
Italian is intirely to be derived from the Romance, which was once
commonly used in the ports of the Levant. The heroic atchievements and
gallantry of the knights of the cross also gave rise to the swarm of
fabulous narratives; which, though not an invention of those days, were
yet, from the name of the language in which they were written, ever
after distinguished by the appellation of _Romances_.[BK]

I shall now conclude this letter by observing, that far from presuming
that the Romance has been preserved so near its primitive state only in
the country of the Grisons, there is great reason to suppose that it
still exists in several other remote and unfrequented parts. When
Fontanini informs us[BL] that the ancient Romance is now spoken in the
country of the Grisons, he adds, that it is also the common dialect of
the Friulese, and of some districts in Savoy bordering upon Dauphiné.
And Rivet[BM] seriously undertakes to prove, that the Patois of several
parts of the Limousin, Quercy, and Auvergne (which in fact agrees