70 E. D. Maclagan— Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. [No. 1, 
it as a true faith. In the city there is no mosque (moschea nulla est) and 
no copy of the Quran, which is the Scripture of their own faith. The 
mosques previously erected have been turned into stables and public grana- 
ries,! and to shame the Muhammadans forty or fifty swine are brought 
every Friday into the Emperor’s presence to fight with each other, and he 
has their tushes bound with gold. The Emperor is the founder of a new 
sect and wishes to obtain the name of a prophet. He has already some 
followers, but only by bribing (sed auro corruptos). He worships God 
andthe Sun. Heisa Heathen. He follows, however, the sect of the Verteas 2 
who live together like monks in one body and undergo many penitential 
observances. They eat nothing that has had life. Before they sit down 
they clean the spot with cotton brushes, in case they should sit on and kill 
some insect. These Verteas hold that the world has existed from all eternity : 
though some of them deny this and hold that many worlds have existed in 
the past. They have also other foolish and ridiculous tenets, with which I 
need not trouble Your Reverence. We are working hard to learn the Persian 
language: for the Emperor has desired us to become acquainted with it so 
that he may treat with us alone concerning our Faith. We have opened a 
school of letters which is attended by some sons of hereditary princes and 
by three sons of a certain king who serves Akbar himself. Two of these 
pupils wish to embrace Christianity and have recently asked to be allowed 
to do so. Another is so affected that he seems to be one of our most pious 
pupils, and asks to be admitted into orders. This latter on entering our 
chapel knelt down before Our Lord Christ and casting his turban on the 
ground said: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, remember me.’ May God 
preserve him and fulfil hisholy desire. There are some catechumens and 
some already become Christians, who though not in the first rank are yet 
souls redeemed by the blood of Christ. A Muhammadan asked one of our 
pupils one day, why he drank in spite of the day being an ordained fast day. 
He answered: ‘Who ordained this fast?’ ‘Muhammad’ replied the other. 
‘But who is Muhammad, said the young man, ‘save a false prophet 
and an impostor?’ This he repeated in public at the festival of the 
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin before a number of men who were seeking 
after Christianity, and added that this was his glory. The Muhammadans 
were astonished, and presently one said: ‘If you are a Christian, join 
yourself to the Christians.’ But he returned to the chapel, and after receiv- 
ing the holy water betook himself to prayer. I could recount much of this 
nature, but I make an end for fear of wearying Your Reverence, whom I 
earnestly beg to remember us and to send us some sacred relics for ourselves 
and for these our little seedlings, and to obtain for us the blessing of Our 
Father the General of the Society. For the rest, I commend myself again 
and again to your holy ministrations’ 
1 This statement is supported by Badauni. See Noer. 1, 479. 
2 See p. 65 above, and cf. Thevenot III., ch. 36. 
8 From a subsequent letter of Xavier’s these would seem to have been the 
sons of the ruler of Badakhshan. See pp. 78 and 80 of this paper. 
