18. Father A. Monserrate’s Description of Delhi (1581), 
Firoz Shah’s Tunnels. 
By Rev. H. Hosten, 8.J. 
record ge a essa Though the work from which I am 
about to quote (Mong golicae Legationis Commentarius, MS.) 
was completed only in January 1591, and that under pathetic 
circumstances, the writer being then in prison at Sena in 
pees ne description of Delhi is in reality ten years older. 
There can be no doubt that Monserrate recorded his impres- 
sions of ‘Delhi in 1581,' when he passed through it in the suite 
of Akbar, then on his way to Kabul. In May 1582, ngewe 
left Tathptr Sikri for Goa never to return to Akbar 
Court. 
55a. 3] ‘‘ From Matura we arrived in six days at Deli, a 
most opulent and large city situated on the Jomanes. Here ad 
stood, from the time of the Christian Kings, the —— i = 
Indian afar Kings; here sat, after them, the Pata 
over it during the remainder of her life. Up to her death she 
1 Akbar left Fathpir Sikri on a warlike expedition against his 
brother Mirz4é Muhammad Hakim, King of Kabul, ‘on the 6th before 
r ? 
2 * As his [Akbar’s] father, whose name was Emaum, was walking 
on the terrace of the palace, he bent, as people do, over the parapet, 
leaning on a reed (arundini); his go ell, and he was precipitated 
headlong into the garden. To this awful and sudden fall he suc- 
bed.” —(Mo ey 22b. 
8 Cf. Saryap Aumap Kuan, Description des Monuments de Delhi 
en 1852, d’apres le texte "Hicaoastant: transl. ah Garcin al oh 
Reprint, Imprimerie his adhe of 1861, Pt. 
Asiat., 5¢ Série, Vol. XVI, 1860, p.445. ‘‘L Béga bab Haji, veuve 
de Huméayan, fit entreprendre, en 973 de P héjire (156s de J. C.), 1 
construction de ce tombeau, qui fut terminé dans l’espace de seize ans, 
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