cx] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [Dec., 
It is a remarkable fact that Col. Wilford, a distinguished 
orientalist, who died at Benares in 1822, should have pos- : 
8 Monserrate’s autograph copy of Bk. IJ. This is 
evident from the Latin quotations not found in the Calcutta 
MS. which he adduces, as also from the difference of pagina- 
tion in both MSS. in the case of a similar passage. The search 
which I made in our Calcutta libraries for . IT hes 
remained without result. It might be suggested that the 
book is still in the possession of Col. Wilford’s descendants. a 
If it could be found, the discovery would be scarcely inferior 
in importance to that of Bk. I. 
There is another mystery which I cannot solve. The 
Calcutta MS. was studied—in the beginning of last century, | 
believe—by an Englishman, a geographer, a scholar, a man 
with all the tastes of a Wilford, yet, I cannot determine 
by whom. 
which I know one copy among the Marsden MSS. of the British 
Museum, and another in the possession of the Society of Jesus. 
Who was this anonymous annotator 2 Wilford, Marsden, 
or some one eise? If Wilford, how is it that he never quotes — 
the Calcutta MS., though it would have been of the greatest 
Y some one else, how was he acquainted with Wilford’s Bk. II 
and Father Botelho’s report ? 
shall not analyse more fully the contents of the MS. 
In such a variety of curious information, it is difficult to make 
a choice. I may, however, say—since the subject crops up 80 
often—that no revelations are to be expected about Jobn 
Philip de Bourbon, and Akbar’s Christian wife. 
My 
18 to preserve the original from further mishaps. I do not for 
the moment contemplate undertaking a translation. Besides, 
the work of the translator and annotator will be one of no 
Pyoand difficulty. Several passages almost defy translation, 
or the simple reason that we are too little acquainted with the 
condition of many things in Monserrate’s time. As a case In 
