80 E. D. Maclagan— Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. [No. 1, 
After quoting Xavier’s letter on the subject of Cathay, Father 
Pimenta goes on to state that when Akbar left Lahor for Agra, Xavier 
and Goes had accompanied him, leaving Pinheiro at Lahor. Akbar had 
while at Agra, sent his son! with 50,000 men against the Deccan and 
the country of Meliquius [Malik Ambar] in which lay Chaul, not more 
than 210 miles from Goa. That son having died another? had been. 
substituted for him. Meantime Xavier had again written from Agra 
on Ist August 1599, regarding the country of Cathay, confirming his pre- 
vious account. 
Xavier's letter, which Pimenta then quotes, narrates also an inter- 
view which he had with the Emperor. Xavier asked the Emperor if 
three or four priests might be sent to Cathay and the Emperor replied 
‘Rahat met Xoda,’> ‘id est benedictio Domini super vos, adding that he 
was going to send an ambassador thither and that they had better go 
with him. Xavier notices also the circumstance that three sons of the 
king of Badakhshan, who was living in India, had been pupils of the 
mission and that their brother was now ruling in that country. * 
Pimenta also reports that Xavier had asked the Emperor’s leave 
for the admission of further priests to minister to the congregations in 
Lahor and Agra: that Akbar had granted a ‘Diploma’ or sanad accor- 
dingly, and that this sanad also gave privileges to the church at Cambay. 
The sanad had not been signed when Xavier wrote, but a copy was to 
be sent to Goa as soon as it had been signed, 
The following account of a conversation held with the Emperor on 
the 16th July 1599, is then quoted from Xavier’s letter :— 
Father Xavier said to the Emperor that with his permission he wished to 
speak to him on a matter privately. The Emperor, having moved apart and 
dismissed the bystanders, remained standing and asked him what he wanted. 
Xavier, who for two years previously had received instructions to this effect, 
began as follows: ‘Sire, we have received the following orders from our 
Superior. ‘As it isnow more than four years since you began studying the 
language, the Emperor can now doubtless understand you thoroughly, where- 
fore now beseech you His Majesty that, having called us to him to acquaint 
him with the Gospel, he should now see how he stands, so that I too may 
! Sultan Murad died near Daulatabad, 22nd Urdibihisht 1599. (Elliot VI. 97.) 
2 Sultan Daniyal. In 1609 his three sons were baptized by the Jesuits under 
the names of Philippo, Carlo and Henrico, and in the same year another grandson 
of Akbar’s was christened ‘Don Edoard.’ Herbert’s Travels (1688) p. 75. Accord- 
ing to Roe they reverted to Islam on finding they could not get Portuguese women 
as wives (M. Thevenot, Relations p. 78.) 
3 Rahat az khuda or Rahmat-i-khuda ?P 
4 See also Pinheiro’s letter of 3rd September 1595 (p. 70 above) and Xavier’s of 
1598 (p. 78.) ; 
