1896.] EH. D. Maclagan —Jeswit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. 59 
The Provincial seems to have authorized Aquaviva to obtain from 
the Emperor a temporary leave of absence, if he could not obtain per- 
mission to depart altogether. The Emperor, who appears to have 
entertained a real respect for him, was still loth to let him go, but at 
last, in February 1583, he allowed him to proceed to Goa on the under- 
standing that he should if possible return. The following is a transla- 
tion of a Portuguese version of the firman addressed by Akbar to the 
Father Provincial on this occasion! :— 
‘God is great. 
Firman of Jalalu-d-din also called Akbar, Padshah Ghazi. By the books 
of the faith and their interpretation I know that there is nothing pertaining 
to the Christian faith which remains obscure, but that it is a manifestation 
of divine secrets. The Father Provincial, whom I greatly love, must know 
that I have received the petition sent to me and look well upon it, and by it 
our friendship is increased. And concerning the leave which you ask for 
Father Rodolfi, I am delighted with the book of the faith of the Heavenly 
Jesus, and desire to possess the truth, and as the said Father is very learned 
and versed in the wisdom of the ancients, and as I love him much and see 
that he is wise and learned in the faith, I wish to devote every hour to con- 
versation with him. For these reasons I have sometimes refused the leave 
which he asked for and which your Reverence also in your letter desired. 
But now I give him leave to go: and as my intention is that our friendship 
should increase from day to day it is meet that your Reverence should do 
your part towards preserving it by sending Father Rodolfi back to me, with 
several other Fathers, as soon as possible, for I wish the Fathers of your 
Society to be with me, and I take great delight in them. I have told the 
Father many things by word of mouth that he might repeat them to Your 
Reverence, the which you will consider well. 
Done in the moon of the month of February 1583.’ 
Aquaviva, we are told, was pressed to receive a parting present, 
but the only gift he would accept was the permission to take with him 
to Goa, a family of Russian slaves who had been for a long time in 
the Emperor's household, with this parting gift from the great Mogul he 
started for Goa, and arrived there in May 1583 looking, it was said, not 
like a man from a court but like one who had come straight from the 
penances of a novitiate. In September of the same year, as has already 
been noticed, he was murdered at Salsette. 
and beat the same dogge about the Town of Ormuz: but he denyed her request, 
Saying that if it were ill in the Portugals to do so to the Alcoran, it became not a 
King to requite ill with ill, for that the contempt of any religion was the contempt 
of God, and he would not be revenged upon an innocent Booke.’ 
! See Brit. Mus. Marsd. MSS. 9854, fol. 5. 
