52S 
INTRODUCTION TO 
year before “ the good old man’s death.” (Cf. As. Res., 1807, IX, p. 212). It is 
very tempting to suggest that somehow or other Wilford obtained Monserrate’s MS. — 
Bk. II — from the old man at Lucknow. Tieffentaller having died without natural 
heirs, Wilford might have considered himself justified in keeping what no one would be 
able to turn to better use than himself. On the other hand, what tells strongly 
against this assumption is that no allusion to Monserrate’s MSS. is to be found in 
Tieffentaller’ s Beschreibung von Hindustan , and yet both Bk. I and Bk. II would 
have been most useful for his geographical disquisitions. Several other theories 
suggest themselves: that the MSS. escaped the seizure of the Jesuit papers at Goa 
in 1760; or again, that they formed part of the booty seized by the Muhammadans 
in the College of Agra before 1735. Fr. Emmanuel de Figueiredo, S.J., wrote in 
1735 from “Mogor” that the “first and original” documents of the Agra Mission 
Archives had disappeared in such a raid. 1 
Whatever explanation be true, there remains a mystery to clear up in connection 
with the Calcutta MS. At some date already distant, it was diligently studied by an 
Englishman, a geographer, a scholar, a man with all the tastes of a Wilford, and yet 
I cannot determine by whom. 
I alluded in the beginning to certain pencil-marks on the title-page. Similar 
pencil-marks, which I take to have come from one and the same hand, occur in the 
margins here and there. In certain striking passages, every line has been scored 
under. “ N.B .” the anonymous annotator writes repeatedly. In the case of two 
double entries in the Index, he strikes out one. The geographical and antiquarian 
portions in particular caught his eye. 
From fol. 2 b to fol. 4 b we have in the MS. a double column of names of towns, 
rivers, mountains and countries passed through by Monserrate in the course of his 
travels. The longitudes and latitudes are all given, and a quite scientific map drawn to 
scale — the earliest known for portions of India so far north as Lahore and Kabul, and 
a marvel of accuracy for the time— appears on the recto of the extra leaf marked 5. 
Who but an Englishman and one interested in geography wrote Right near 
“ Tanissar,” (Long.) ii6°5o', (Lat.) 29 0 43'; Right near “Sultanpur,” 114 0 20', 30° 25'; 
Right, I think, near “ Calanur,” 115 0 41J 31 0 39' ? For “ Panchangari ” 116 0 2 , ,3i°3o', 
he corrects the minutes of latitude to 40'; for “ Mancot ” he corrects (Long.) 117 0 
30" to 116 0 30'; in the case of “Ruytas” [Rotas], he puts Lat. 33 0 io' for 33 0 15b 
He was a scholar, too. In the margin of fob 6 a., — -the writing seems still the same 
—he notices in Latin that fob 5 is missing and suggests that the loss should be made 
good by an examination of the Index — a search which yields good results — or by a 
reference to A. Botelho’s De Christiana apud Mogorem religione. 
He had a knowledge of Persian or Urdu, at all events; for he transliterates 
Zelaldin and Akbar into Persian characters (fob 6 a). 
He calculates the age, the dimensions and the position (115 0 \, 33 0 J-) of 
in obelisk t attributed to Ramchandra, near Ruytas [Rotas], which Monserrate 
places in Long. 114 0 1' and Lat. 33 0 23' and describes at fob 66 a. 3. He notes with 
1 Cf. Father Stockeein’s Weltbott , No. 595. 
