30. RICHARD THOMPSON

It is evident, however, that Mr. Bedwell and others, among his fellow-laborers, were thoroughly conversant in this part of the broad field of sacred criticism.

Mr. Bedwell also commenced a Persian dictionary, which is among Archbishop Laud's manuscripts, still preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. In 1615, he published his book, "A Discovery of the Impostures of Mahomet and of the Koran." To this was annexed his "Arabian Trudgeman." Trudgeman or truchman is the word Dragoman in its older form, and is derived from a Chaldee word meaning interpreter. This Arabian Trudgeman is a most curious illustration of oriental etymology and history.

Dr. Bedwell had a fondness for mathematical studies. He invented a ruler for geometrical purposes, like what we call Gunter's Scale, which went by the name of "Bedwell's Ruler."

This closes what we have to say of that first Westminster Company, of ten members, to whom was committed the historical books, beginning with Genesis and ending with the Second Book of Kings, once "commonly called," as its title still says, "The Fourth Book of the Kings."

EDWARD LIVELY.

The second company of King James's translators held its meetings in Cambridge.