1896.] EH. D. Maclagan—Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. 71 
From the Annual Report of the Jesuit Missions for 1597,! we 
learn that the new Church at Lahor was opened on the 7th September 
of that year with great ceremony,* and that the Governor of the City 
- attended in person. The Governor stayed for two hours conversing with 
Pinheiro in the house, and to show his favour to the new religion released 
a ‘ Chaldaean Christian’ who had been condemned to death for killing 
a cow. About this time there was a great pestilence in the City and 
many children abandoned by their parents were baptized. Among 
those seized by the plague was a Milanese gunner (fuber aenorum 
tormentorum ) who had travelled almost all over Europe and had 
contracted many vices; before he died, however, he repented of his sins, 
leaving his books? aud his money to the Church. 
Letters from Lahor, 1598-9. 
Meanwhile, the chroniclers tell us, Akbarhad gradually hardened 
his heart, setting up for himself a religion of his own and declining 
to accept that put before him by the Padres. To punish him God 
brought upon him two great misfortunes. For firstly, his son Murad 
received a severe check in his operations against the Deccan;* and 
secondly, on Haster day 1597, as he sat on the terrace of his palace at 
Lahor celebrating a feast of the sun, a fire came from heaven which 
burnt up a large part of the palace, consuming a vast mass of valuable 
carpets, jewellery, thrones and the like, and causing the molten gold 
and silver to run down through the streets of the city ! That a fire did 
occur in the palace about this time is a historical fact,5 and in order 
to allow of the rebuilding necessitated by it. Akbar determined to pro- 
ceed for the summer to Kashmir. With him went Xavier and Goes, 
leaving Pinheiro tosee to the building of the new house and church 
at Lahor. Our next letter is one addressed to the General of the 
Society, which was despatched from Lahor by Jerome Xavier in 1598, 
after his return from Kashmir. Thecontents of this letter have been 
abstracted and published by Mr. H. Beveridge in an article on ‘ Father 
Jerome Xavier,’ which appeared in the Society’s Jowrnal, as recently as 
1 Annue Littere Soe. Jesu anni 1597. (Neapoli 1607) p. 570 
2 The site of this. Church is, I believe, unknown. According to Bernier (Amst. Hd. 
1728 I1. 80) it was destroyed by Shah Jahan. When Desideri passed through on his 
way to Thibet in 1714, he found no clergy in the place at all (Lettres. Edifiantes et 
Curieuses XV. 184) 
3 These were apparently written by himself. They included some, ‘artis 
fusoriae precepta artemque diersorum operum ad bellicos usus continentes: in quibus 
erat et illud quibus artibus Mogort Diensem Armuzinamque areem tenderet.’ 
4 Defence of Ahmadnagar by Chand Bibi, 1595-6. 
5 Hilliot, Hist. Ind. VI. 132. 
