70 BENGALI LITERATURE Manoel da Assumpcad). A little worm-eaten and partly mutilated copy of this work! exists im the Library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The running title is: Crepar Xaxtrer Orth,bhed or Cathe- Crepar Xaxtrer Orth a : . / ee ie LENO Wt ? ; f Biter iy cecum la Doutrina Christad. The da Doutrina Christad Copy in the Asiatic Society is want- ing in the title-page; but an interest- ing certificate of publication in Portuguese is inserted at the beginning from which we learn that it was com- pleted on August 28, 1754. It is dated from a place named Ba( )1, * which appears to be Bhawal from a reference at page 2 of the book itself, where Nagori also is mentioned. It might have been, as Father Lopes suggests on the authority of Barbosa Machado,$ printed at Lisbon by Francisco da Silva (Sylva) in 1743: but unfortunately the loss of the title-page deprives us of the most certain means of corroborating this suggestion.4 1 An account of this work on the basis of this copy was read by me at the Bahgiya Sahitya Parisat on Sept. 24, 1916: the paper is published in the Patrika (vol. 28, p. 179) of the same Society, which see for detailed information. 2 The Preface, as we have it now, is in places worm-eaten. This is what can be deciphered : Certifico eu Fr. Manoel da/ Assumpead, Reitor da Mis(si)o, de S. Nicolao Tolentino e/ (ac)tor deste comperdio; (e)star o( ) compendio tresladado ao pe (da) / letra assim o Bengalla como o (Po)- rtuguez: e certifico mais ser es( )/ Doatrina que os naturaes mais; tendem, e entre todas a mais (pu)rificada de erros, em fé de que/ esta Certidad, e se necessario/ a juro In Verbo Sacerdotis. Ba (va)l. aos. 28 de Agosto de 1734. Fr. Manoel da Assumpead. 3 Bibliotheca Lusitana Historica Critica e Chronologica, t. iii, p. 188, col, il.
- Burnell (A Tentative List of Portuguese Books and Manuscripts
1880) also gives 1743 and Lisbon as the date and place of publication, (৪. ৮. Manoel da Assumpgead) his authorities being Barbosa-Machado and Ossinger (Bibliotheca Augustiniana, p. 84). Ossinger gives the title as: Cathecismus doctrinae Christianae per modum dialogi,
