APPENDIX. ii 
information from Mr. Baser. Upon the second they have referred with great advantage 
to the work recently published by Colonel Brices. In considering the institution of 
marriage, the Committee hope to have the assistance of the same gentleman, and to be 
able to procure a clear and well arranged statement of that institution, as it prevails 
under various modifications, in different parts of India. 
Fourthly, The descendants of the different foreign nations who have from time to 
time settled in India, are the Jews at Cochin, on the Malabar coast; the Afghans in the 
northern part of India; the Parsis at Surat and Bombay; the Muhammadans in the 
north and the interior of India, and those on the coasts of Malabar, Coromandel, 
and Ceylon,—the former descended from the Moguls, the latter from the Arabs, the 
Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, the Danes, and the English. With respect to 
the history of the Jews at Cochin, the Committee will have the benefit of the advice of 
Professor Mitman, the author of the History of the Jews ; he will draw up instructions to 
guide the Committee in their researches, and to enable them to procure such informa- 
tion as may be wanted to complete that portion of the Jewish history which relates to those 
Jews who from the earliest times have established themselves in different portions of Asia. 
Lord Prupuos has numerous specimens of the ancient characters which are found upon 
Mount Sinai, and in the country through which the Jews performed their pilgrimage, 
and his Lordship will give the Committee copies of these specimens, for the purpose of 
enabling them to ascertain if the Jews at Cochin, or if any other people in India, are 
acquainted with the characters and can decipher them. With respect to the Afghans, 
the Committee will endeavour to learn, from Mr. ELpHinstone and from the translations 
which are about to be made of the history of that people, whether there be any real 
foundation for the opinions which have been circulated, that they are descended from 
the Jews, and that they are connected with the several bodies of Jews who are dispersed 
throughout India. With respect to the Parsis, the Committee will refer, through Sir 
Cuar.es Forses, who is so highly esteemed by them, to the distinguished Parsis who 
are established at Suratand Bombay. With respect to the different classes of Muham- 
madans, as well those who are established in the interior as those who are established on 
the coasts of India, the Committee will collect information from the different manuscripts 
in Arabic and Persian, which are found in India, Persia, Turkey, Russia, and England, 
and from those early works of the Portuguese which treat in a detailed manner of the 
establishment and commerce in India of the Muhammadans, who were the great rivals 
of that nation in trade and in arms when they first made their settlement in India, 
and on the coasts of Ceylon. With respect to the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, 
the Danes, and the English, the Committee will find ample sources of information 
amongst the valuable records whichare preserved in the archives of those nations, both in 
India and in Europe, and in the proceedings at Rome, in Spain, and in Portugal, of the 
different Catholic missions which have establishments in India. Such information will 
enable the public to judge of the effects of the different systems of policy which have 
been obseryed by each of the foreign nations established in India; many of which have 
encouraged the colonization of their descendants in India, and have endeavoured, upon 
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