66 E. D. Maclagan— Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. [No 1, 
the occupations of royalty in Europe, hunting, falconry, &c. Religion did 
not interest the Prince, and the Father writes of him ‘Moscheis parum 
addictus est, sed nec unquam vidit. Totus est in venando et spatiando,’ 
So far Pinheiro from Cambay. On November 6th 1595 the Pro- 
vincial at Goa received two further letters reporting the arrival of the 
Mission at Lahor, and these letters constitute the remaining enclosures 
of his communication to the General at Rome. 
The former of the two letters is from Jerome Xavier and is dated 
from Lahor the 20th August 1595. It is addressed to the General of 
the Society, and giving as it does a most interesting account of the re- 
ception of the Mission by Akbar it may be quoted m fall :— 
‘I wrote to Your Reverence,’ he says, ‘from Goa, describing how I was 
despatched under the holy discipline of our Society tothe Court of the 
Great Mogul, and with what heartfelt zeal we started on our journey. Al- 
though this place is only three month’s distance from Goa we took five 
months to reach it. Our route by land took us for nearly 230 leagues through 
the Mogul’s territory. He received us publicly with great honour and kind- 
ness, and whenever he sees us he maintains the same attitude towards us and 
has us near him among the chief lords of his Court. Hitherto he has spoken 
a little with us regarding the sum of the whole matter, but nothing regarding 
the Faith. He often times admonishes us with great kindness to learn the 
language so that he may speak to us without an interpreter on matters that 
touch his salvation. He has at the same time had us informed through one 
of his near friends whom he employs on matters of religion that if we knew — 
Persian we should loose a great knot that now holds him bound. The king 
declares himself to be well affected toward matters touching the Christian 
faith. He has images of Our Lord Christ and of the blessed Virgin, which 
are of the best kind of those which are brought from Europe, and he keeps 
them with respect and reverence. He evinces the greatest pleasure in show- 
ing them to others, holding them in his arms for a long time in spite of the 
fatigue which their size entails. One day he came to our service and while 
we recited the Litanies he remained like a Christian prince with his knees 
bent and hands clasped. He spent no little time in observing carefully our 
pictures and enquired regarding the mysteries which they portray, In the 
month of August on the occasion of the Feast of the Assumption of the 
Blessed Virgin he sent us his own pictures, although we had only hinted 
in the most distant way that we should like to have them: moreover he 
sent us very costly gold and silk cloths wherewith his own servants hand- 
somely adorned our chapel, and he showed the greatest love and affection 
for the Blessed Virgin, which in very truth he feels. I say the same with 
respect to the Prince,! for he was seriously angry with our Muhammadan 
guide for bringing with him no image of the Mother of God, and when 
bidding another to make extensive purchases, he particularly ordered him 
1 Salim, the future Emperor Jahangir. 
