446 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [August 1910. 



tc This is a convenient place for mentioning another point. 

 C4 Some of the earlier documents in Vol. 9853 are Reports of 

 li the Vice- Provincial of Malabar. Later ones are from the 

 *' Provincial of the Province of Malabar." 1 



The special interest which Mr. P. attached to the Annual 

 Letter of Malabar for 1603 iay in the fact that it contains the 

 earliest known account on the Todas of the Nilgiris. His re- 

 searches in this line have been given unexpected actuality by a 

 recent discussion on priority of publication. In 1907, Fr. 

 L. Besse, S.J., Rector of St. Joseph's College, Trichinopoly. 

 published in Anthropos (Vienna), pp. 970 — 5 : Un ancien document 

 inedit sur les Todas (two documents). Mr. Herbert Mueller 

 hastened to observe that the two documents had appeared in 

 Mr. W. H. R. Rivers 9 TAe Todas, Macmillan, 1906, pp.719— 730.* 

 Mr. P.'s notes show that Mr. Rivers' document — one of the 

 Marsden MSS. — was utilized at a much earlier date. It was 

 published by Mr. Joaq. Heliod. da Cunha Rivara in O Chronista 

 de Tissuary, Nova Goa, 1868, pp. 135 — 142. 3 da Cunha Rivara 

 tells us in the preface to his edition of the paper how he obtained 

 it. Here is a translation of part of his preface. 



cc The document which we produce here is, in its original, 

 among the important collection of Portuguese papers preserved 

 in the Library of the British Museum, where it was copied by 

 the Reverend Whitehouse, an Anglican minister, a man very 

 studious and well informed about the affairs of India, who, 

 after residing some time at Cochin, lived for years at Ootaca- 

 mund, the principal English town on the top of the celebrated 

 mountains and the native country of the Todas. Here in 



letters have found their way into the British Museum and other public 

 libraries. I should add that several copies were made at head-quarters, 

 and despatched by two or three different ways, in order that, in those 

 days of long and perilous navigation, at least one copy should reach its 

 destination." Cf. Fr. L. Besse, S.J., Anthropos, Vienna, 1908, pp. 799- 

 800. 



1 The Province of the Indies (Provincia Indiarum, with head- 

 quarters at Goa) was split into the Province of Goa and the Province of 

 Malabar in 1610. Malabar had become a Vice-Province in 1601. Cf. 

 L. Carrez, S.J. , Atlas Geographicus Soc. Jesu, Parisiis, 1900. The latter 

 division, writes Fr. L. Besse, S.J., had been negotiated in Rome by 

 Fr. Alb. Laerzio, who returned to India in 1602. 



* Cf. Anthropos (Wien), 1908, pp. 294 — 296, with: Another word 

 about the Todas, by Fr. L. Besse, S.J., ibid. , pp. 799-800.— Mr. Rivers' first 

 document on the M Mission of Todramala" (pp. 719-20) was translated 

 from the Portuguese (Add. MSS. 9853, ft. 464—5). The second : 4< The 

 Mission of Todamala" was translated from Add. MSS. 9853, f. 479 sqq.. 

 and occupies 9 pp. of close print in Mr. Rivers' The Todas (pp. 721—730). 

 Fr. Yacomo Fenicio wrote his account on his return to Calicut, and 

 addressed it on Apr. 1, 1603, to the Vice- Provincial "at Calicut." 

 The Annual Letter for 1603 in which it is embodied is dated : Cochin, 

 Jan. 15, 1604 



3 From: O anno passado to no corner etc., etc. 



