FATHER A. MONSERRATE’S MONGOLICAE EEGATIONLS COMMENTARIES. 
523 
text from fol. 6 a to fol. 104 b\ the 2nd, the preface, the list of geographical names, 
and the map; the 3rd, a few corrections, mostly marginal, written more boldly 
and in a blacker ink than the previous two writings ; the 4th, the Index written at 
one stretch with a very sharp quill. The remarks added at the third stage have been 
embodied in the Index. The 5th, corrections and additions written with a' bad 
spluttering pen ; the ink is oxidized and has left in many places a metallic lustre 
of gold and silver; most of the remarks in Portuguese belong to this period. The 
6th, the greatest number of the additions and corrections; these are written in a 
very small hand, and the ink is oxidized. I judge that the 5th and 6th periods 
are posterior to Monserrate’s return to India. The 6th certainly is. While editing 
the text, I have not drawn attention to these different stages, except in one or two 
cases, where it helped to understand the meaning. 
There are 140 folios, numbered on the recto only and 14 folios (unnumbered) of 
Index. References to the foil, are marked, e.g.: 6a. 4, 6b. 3, where 6 means the leaf, 
a and b the recto and verso, 4 and 3 the subdivisions of the text on each page. There 
are on an average twenty-five lines to a page. Leaf 5 a and 5 b are missing; but there 
is a separate leaf containing a map and marked 5 on recto, blank on verso. At 
verso of fol. 14 of the Index, we find the oval library seal of Fort William College 
Library having an Urdu, Hindi and Bengali inscription. The Hindi inscription runs : 
1 %cTT«r sfnfsrsr [Book of the Fort William College]. Size between covers 
(o m . 21 x o m . 15). 
We may notice further that the MS. was divided into fascicles of 32 pages, each 
fascicle bearing a different letter of the alphabet, thus: B (fol. 27a), C (fol. 33*7), 
D (fol. 49 <L, B (fol. 65c?) , F (fol. 810), G (fol. 9 ya), H (fol. ii3«), I (fol. 129a). 
There are also traces of an attempt at dividing the work into four books. Mon- 
serrate gave up the idea, however, and cancelled these divisions. At fol. 39 a. 4, 
opposite Hcec regis benevolenti a, he wrote Lib. 2; at fol. 105a. 3, opposite Fuit vero 
Rodoljus , Lib. [3 ?] ; at fol. 106&. 4, opposite Jamvero ad Zelaldinum, Lib. 3 ; finally, 
at fol. 140a. 4, Lib. 4, cancelled with the note : Ac cum Zelaldini genus , Sc. 
The Calcutta MS , as is evident from the preface and an inspection of the contents, 
constitutes only a small portion of Monserrate’s writings. 
Monserrate tells us in his preface that to the volume now before us — let us call it 
Bk. I — was added a “ short appendix” with geographical, historical and ethnological 
observations. Later, he altered the word opusculum to liber. I can account in some 
way for this correction and the fact that the “ short appendix” grew to the size of 
a ‘‘volume.” A large proportion of the pages of Bk. I. has been cancelled or bracket- 
ed by Monserrate. The information in them is mostly of a geographical and 
antiquarian character. The conclusion is this : Monserrate must have considered that 
his description of cities tombs and ruined temples, his excursions into the history of 
the past, and his considerations on Indian manners and customs broke too often the 
thread of his narrative of the Mission. He wanted to do away with these hors-d’ oeuvre, 
as he considered them, and worked them out with other materials in Bk. II, his 
“appendix.” Unfortunately, Bk. II remains to be discovered. Sometimes, Mon- 
