76 E. D. Maclagan—Jeswit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. [No.1, 
the Emperor. It is not customary in the Hast to appear before royalty 
empty-handed: accordingly when I had to lay before the Emperor the letter 
delivered to me by the Father Provincial, I presented him on the Father’s 
behalf with two exquisite pictures made in Japan: one of Christ Our 
Lord and the other of the blessed Father Ignatius.1 These were much 
admired: but the picture of the blessed Father Ignatius was especially 
pleasing to the Emperor as it was new and he had never seen it before. 
He enquired whom it represented and when I had explained this at some 
length he asked me to write his life in Persian for the good of the 
whole kingdom. Meantime the Prince came up and, seeing the picture, 
begged that it might be given to him until he could get it copied by a pain- 
ter. On another day, when I went to pay my respects to the Emperor, he 
handed to me the letter I had brought from the Father Provincial and bade 
me read it aloud; which I also did, first in Portuguese, then in Persian. 
* When I had read the letter, the Emperor showed himself much pleased at 
the Father having written that he was deeply obliged for the benefits and 
favours conferred upon us, and at his having at Goa commended him to the 
care of the Lord Jesus. I with great reverence raised my hat at the most 
holy Name of Jesus, and before I could explain the honour I rendered to 
the sacred name, he seized my hand and declared to his captains of 
thousands and of hundreds that the Christians held in the highest regard 
and reverence the holy Name of Jesus, and that this was the reason why 
I had uncovered. Then turning to me he said: ‘Is it not so?’ and [I 
answered that he had spoken truly. When I had finished the letter of the 
Father Provincial, I read that of Father Monserrat, and the Emperor asked 
me why this Father had, as he had heard from others, been captured and 
detained by the Turks. I said that the Muhammadans (Mauros) and 
Turks, were most hostile to Christians and treated them as ill as possible, 
for opposing the law and sect of Muhammad, although they should love 
and cherish them, being indeed loved greatly by them as brothers and men 
eager for salvation who had pointed out the way of truth and were ready 
to lay down their lives for the same: and that not many days had passed 
since the blessed Father Abraham de Georgiis, the Maronite, had been killed 
on his way to Prester John on account of his profession of the Christian 
faith and had won the palm of martyrdom.® This speech of mine was aud- 
ible in open court and there was no lack of hearers: but the Muhammadans 
showed by their perturbed faces and angry eyes that they ill brooked to 
hear the exaltation of the true God and the utter degradation of the crime- 
stained Muhammad. Nor were they a little shocked to hear their cursed 
Prophet so fearlessly accused and detested by us. One of them out of close 
friendship for us warned me to treat of Christianity with caution and pru- 
dence, as no Muhammadan there present ‘did not thirst for our blood,’ and 
1 T.e., Loyola This picture or a copy seems to have been preserved for some 
time in Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra. See Manachi-Catrou, p. 135. 
2 See p. 49 above. 
3 See Guzman, lL. 236. 
