4. List of Portuguese Jesuit Missionaries in Bengal 
and Burma (1576-1742). 
By Revs. L. Bsssz, 8.J., and H. Hosten, S.J. 
From the end of the XVIth century down to the middle 
of the XVIIIth, Bengal was one of the mission-fields of the 
Society of Jesus. But, the Jesuits were not alone. The 
cece who came to Bengal in 1599 and withdrew only 
n 1867, were a much larger body in these parts. They were 
the principal missionary body. About 1714, we find the 
Capuchins with a house at Chandernagore. French Jesuits 
were settled there c. 1693-1778. There was, besides, always a 
i i in t 
rissa, Bengal, Pegu, etc., all depended on ae Diocese of 
Meliapur from the time of its erection in 1606 to the modern 
times when the Vicariates Apostolic were moaked (1834). 
Of work done by the Augustinian Friars, the 
Capuchins and the secular clergy, we are less able to speak. 
ae oan on the subject, though not wanting, is difficult 
e are somewhat better situated with regard to the 
ae of the Jesuit Missions, though here, too, we wish we 
were in posses of fuller information. Printed records of 
the work done in the first decade of the XVIIth century are, 
Aeerbbas speaking, plentiful. The newly arrived missionaries 
liv imes and wrote long accounts ; but, it did 
bok Saat, After 1610 little appeared in print; after 1632, the 
history of the Portuguese Jesuits is almost a complete blank. 
way of compensation, the French Jesuits of Chander- 
nagore (1690-1778) are repeatedly heard of in Lettres édifiantes 
et curieuses. 
To write a detailed history of our early Missions in Bengal 
is yet an impossibility. The materials for such a history have 
not been collected. 
while, we must welcome, as a valuable contribu- 
tion towards that ee a list of syringe Jesuits in 
Bengal communicated by the Rev. Fr. L. Besse, S.J., and 
derived from the Cueioaies of the Malabar Prcinis eae 
have translated it from the Latin and annotated it, adding at 
times details descriptive of persons to be found in Catal. Miss. 
urensis, Trichinopoli, 1910, Appendix. However incom- 
ee this list will appear, every name, every date will serve 
 Jendninck, on. so te of the pier) 
