36. The Marsden MSS, in the British Museum. 



By W. R. Philipps and H. Beveridge. 

 Edited by Rev. H. Hosten, S.J. 



The importance of the Marsden MSS. for the history of the 

 Catholic Missions in India will strike anyone who studies Mr. 

 E. D. Maclagan's Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. 1 In 1896, 

 Mr. E. D. Maclagan published some of the original letters of the 

 Jesuit Missionaries in the Mogul Empire (1580-1605) ,' 2 though 

 it is a matter of some regret that he did not translate them fully, 

 but only in so far as he considered them specially significant 

 from a historical point of view. By way of compensation, we 

 were given to understand that the Marsden MSS. contained 

 much that is of interest for the subsequent period of the Jesuit 

 Missions in North India. 



Curiosity prompted us to find out what other documents 

 the Marsden collection contains, and Mr. H. Beveridge was 

 kind enough to send us a short report, which he obligingly 

 allowed us to publish. This was three years ago, and we have 

 lost little in delaying the publication of his note ; for, learning the 

 interest we took in the matter, the Right Rev. Bishop A. E. 

 Medlycott now places at our disposal some notes made for him 

 by Mr. W. Rees Philipps in June 1892. 



Our share in the present work is therefore quite a modest 

 one, all the honour of it redounding on Mr. W. R. Philipps 

 and Mr. H. Beveridge. As the two writers >>reak ground in 

 different directions, their parts in this memorandum will easily 



be distinguished. 



We begin by examining Mr. W. R. Philipps' report. The 



foot-notes are ours. 



* * 



1 Cf. Journ. As. Soc. Bengal t 1896, No. l,pp. 38—115. From notes 



corded by his father, Gen. R. Maclagan. 



* E. I). Maclagan published : (a) an original letter of Fr. Jerom 



avier (Agra, Sept. 1604), Brit. Mus. Marsden MSS. 9854, foil. 7-19; 

 (o) a letter of Fr. Emmanuel Pinheiro to Manuel da Veiga, Provincial at 

 Goa (Lahore, Aug. 12, 1605), Brit. Mus. Marsden MSS. 9854; (c) 

 extracts from a letter of Fr. Anthony Botelho, Brit. Mus. Marsden 

 MSS. 9855 ; (d) a farrnan of Akbar to the Provincial at Goa (in the 

 Moon of Febr. 1583), Brit. Mus. Marsden MSS. 9 >4, fol. 5.— None of 

 these documents is noticed by Fr. C. Sommervogel, S.J., in his Biblioth. 

 de la Comp. de Jesus, Bruxelfes, O. Schepens, 10 vols., 1890— 1909. 



