________________
INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR Constantius Joseph Beschi, the Author of the following Grammar, was a Native of Italy, and from an early age was dedicated to the service of the Church. He was educated at Rome, and in due time became a Professed Brother of the Order of Jesuits. His great natural endowments, and extraordinary facility in the attainment of languages, soon pointed him out as a fit person to be employed in the Indian Mission: and in "holy obedience" to his vows, he embarked for the East, and arrived at Goa in the year 1707. In this place, rendered sacred to his mind by the memory of Francis Xavier, Beschi lost none of that zeal for his Order and for the Church, with which previous associations had imbued him. Brought for the first time in immediate contact with heathen idolatry, he was eager to commence his duties as a Christian Missionary. He lost no time therefore in proceeding to Madura. Scarcely a century had elapsed, since Robert de Nobili, a Brother of the same Order, and Nephew to the famous Cardinal Bellarmin, had landed at the same spot, and direc- ting his steps Southward, had established the Mission at Madura. The peculiarities of the people amongst whom he found himself, and the little progress made in their conver- sion by his predecessors, led him to reflect deeply, upon the probable causes for those difficulties, which, in India alone, appeared to obstruct the reception of the True Faith. With this view he studied thoroughly the language, customs,
