Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/871

 VI. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. S29 their correspondence or documentary writings the Bengalis had to adopt a mixed language, into which not only Persian and Arabic but even Portuguese elements had entered in no inconsiderable degree ; for these people were a great power in Bengal, more than two centuries and a half ago; and we read the following account of their language, having been adopted, for business purposes, by Europeans and Bengalis alike. We quote from Mr. Marshman’s history of the €ri Ramapur Mission Vol. 1.* The writer refers to incidents occurring In 1759. “Portuguese came in with the Portuguese power two centuries and a half before, and survived its extinction. It was the Lingua Franca of all foreign settlements around the Bay of Bengal and was the ordinary medium of conversation between the Eu- ropeans and their domestics; while Persian was the language of intercourse with the native courts. Even in Calcutta Portuguese was more commonly used by the servants of the company and_ the settlers than the language of the country. The charter granted to the East India Company at the beginning of the 18th century contained a provi- sion that they should maintain one Minister at each of their garrisons and superior factories, and that he should be bound to acquire the Portuguese language within a twelve-month of reaching India. Clive, who was never able to give an order in any native language, spoke Portuguese with fluency. The use of this language has since died out in Portuguese elements,
 * pp. 21—22.