1922. | History and Ethnology of N.-E. India. 39 
by the prolonged influence of Portuguese Catholicism on Eastern 
Bengal—they would probably never dream of alleging that they 
have any admixture of European blood. 
T add as an Appendix (I) the introductory note that is found 
in a register belonging to the Hashnabad Mission, in which 
some account is given of the origin of the Mission. As it was 
only written in 1880, it merely embodies current tradition, but 
Portuguese. No earlier documentary evidence regarding the 
history of the Mission appears to be available at Hashnabad. 
I also reprint as a second Appendix (II) Dr. Wise’s histori- 
cal essay on the Portuguese of Eastern Bengal that was men- 
tioned at the beginning of this paper and to which reference 
has been made more than once in subsequent pages. This I 
do, not only to rescue it from the ill-deserved obscurity in 
which it has hitherto remained, but also because, in addition 
to supplying an excellent summary of the early history of the 
Portuguese in Bengal, the author is inclined to adopt a some- 
what different view of the origin of the Catholic Christians 
from the one T have been led to by the facts stated in this paper. 
It is reprinted from a copy of Dr. Wise’s volume on the Tribes 
and Castes of Eastern Bengal that was presented to me by 
the late Mr. Harinath De, I.E S., when I first came to Dacca in 
paper up to “date, and to correct any inaccuracies that crept 
r. Wise’s account, and for these I have to st my 
special indebtedness to the Rev. Father H. Hosten, 
A third Appendix has been added which summarises the 
work of the Propaganda Mission in Eastern Bengal. The 
figures. by comparison with those quoted by Dr. Wise, will 
furnish some indication of the progress of the Mission during 
the _ forty-five years. 
annot bring this paper to a close without a few words 
of farther acknowledgment of the help that was so freely given 
me in 1913-15 by the late Father Altenhofen, C.S.C., when the 
materials on which the paper is based were being gathered and 
sifted. Just as the present edition of Dr. Wise’s remarkable 
essay owes any merit it may possess to the generous assistance 
1 have received from Father Hosten, similarly 1 would have 
hesitated to publish my notes on the origin of the oe 
Christians of Hashnabad, if Father Altenhofen had n 
available to supply the many additional details of pee that. 
only one living in the vicinity of Hashnabad could ascertain. 
Born an Alsatian, with his home close to “ the starting point 
of the German army marching upon Longwy ”’-(letter of Aug. 
10th, 1914) he came out to India in Gotober, 1907, and from 
