Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
[In view of the curiosity which has been aroused by the examination of the works of Father Thomas Stephens, S.J., preserved in the Marsden Collection—which has now been transferred from King's College to the School of Oriental Studies—the following biography of this first Englishman to visit India cannot fail to be of interest to our readers. The letter addressed by Thomas Stephens to his father, in which he recounts the incidents of his voyage to India, does not appear in print for the first time, but on account of its innate charm of style, and of the vivid picture it presents of a voyage round the Cape in the second half of the sixteenth century, it certainly deserves to be better known, and no excuse is required for its reproduction. —Editor.]
1 See Bulletin, (a) Vol. II, Part IV, p. 679Google Scholar, DrAbbott, Justin, “Discovery of the Original Devanāgari Text of the Christian Purāna of Thomas Stevens.” (6) Vol. III, Part I, p. 159Google Scholar, DrAbbott, Justin, “The ‘Arte de Lingoa Canari’, the ‘Doutrina Christam’, and the ‘Adi’ and ‘Deva Puran’ of Thomas Stevens.” (c) Vol. III, Part I, p. 129Google Scholar, the Rev. H. Hosten, S.J., “The Marsden MSS. and Indian Mission Bibliography.”
1 This name was variously spelt Bubton, Busten, Bubsten, and Buston, which accounts for the learned Father being sometimes known by these names.