51S 
INTRODUCTION TO 
Baptista Egnatii, Fulgosus, Platina, Matthew Palmeyro, and Cambinus, the Floren- 
tine.” As may be seen, it is no easy matter, in a place like Calcutta, to check the 
references to this host of writers. Several of the authors quoted are not to be found 
even in J. C. Brunet’s Manuel du Libraire (Paris, 1863, 6 vols.). 
Below this catalogue, Monserrate takes as his motto: “In pondere, numero et 
mensura.” 
There is a preface to the work. Monserrate’s preface will repay reading. At first 
it took no small amount of pains to decipher the three centuries old writing. The 
text, though written as a whole in a uniform hand, is full of deletions and addi- 
tions made at a later period. These notes often run down the margins and have 
sometimes been badly mauled by the knife of the binder. 
F. la. “ Anthony Monserrate, of the Society of Jesus, to Father Claudius Aquaviva, 
General of the whole Society. Greeting. 
“Such was the diligence of the ancients that they would note down most care- 
fully the every-day occurrences of their travels. When Alexander the Macedonian 
undertook his expedition into Asia, he entrusted Eratosthenes with the care of this 
matter. Antiochus Nicator, son of Seleucus Nicator, commissioned Artemidorus to 
do the same. Julius Caesar took this labour upon himself, when he wrote the Com- 
mentaries of his wars. The Kings of Persia, as we read in Esdras, were not less 
careful; for the “Chroniclers,” who were said to record the “events,” were 
ordered to omit nothing of what happened. 1 In later times, many who journeyed 
either by land or sea imitated this diligence, and by their devotion to the excellent 
studies of Geography, History and Nautical matters, they added not a little to the 
treasures of the Republic of Letters. 
“ For this and many other reasons, ever since the days of our P'ather Ignatius of 
happy memory, who was the first to prescribe it, it has become customary in the 
Society of Jesus to write down whatever occurs. Roderic Vincentius, 2 the Superior 
of the Province of the Society in India, what time we set out to go to Zelaldin 
Equebar, King of the Mongols, charged me to record whatever would happen both 
on the way and during our stay with the King. The nature of my calling and the 
rule of the Society imposing on me the obligation of obeying to the letter, I so conformed 
to his order that, every day, at night, for full two years and a half, I committed to 
writing the events of that day. In this daily labour of a chronicler, I have described 
F. Ib the various particulars which my travels and circumstances brought under my notice. 
These are : rivers, towns, countries, the customs and manners of peoples, temples, 
religions, the leanings — simulated leanings, it is true, — which the King, when we had 
come to his court, manifested towards the religion of Christ, as also the kindness 
which, from mere self-interest, he affected towards Rodolf, to whom had been confided 
1 ''Sam, qui ab accidenlibus appellabantuv , et scvibere accidentia dicebantuv, vegum imperio nihil quod accideret 
cmcteribant, quin lilleris commendarent.” There is a reference in the left margin to Esdras 3, 2. The reference is to 
lil Esdras 2, vv. \y and 25 : “ Rathimus ab accidenlibus and “ Rathimus, qui scribebat accidentia .” The Greek has : 
ra TTpoaTTi-nTovTa. 
2 Ruy Vicente. 
