1896.] HE. D. Maclagan — Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. 91 
he caused many guns to be brought before them and bade them pick 
out the best for his chiefs. He received all of them that night, showing 
them great familiarity and presented four of them with a gun apiece.’ 
At the beginning of December [ 1603] they started southwards and a 
certain Armenian called Iskandar through whose villages they passed 
supplied them with a few rupees each, which enabled them ultimately 
to reach Goa, travelling by way of Ahmadabad and Cambay. Two of 
them returned in the hope that Akbar would show them favour, but he 
ignored them, recognizing ‘how worthless they must be to leave the 
service of their king so lightly.’ 
Father Jerome, then, having tried unsuccessfully to get leave to go 
to Lahor, turned his attention to some Armenians and others in his 
neighbourhood. Ten leagues from Agra, an Armenian landholder re- 
turning one night to his home ‘was beginning to drink when he was 
surprized by death and rendered his soul to his Creator without so 
much as time to cry “Jesus”:’ and the Father forthwith set out to 
comfort his relations and to help in settling his affairs. On his way he 
passed Fathpur Sikri where Prince Salim was then residing :— 
‘Qn the way,’ he writes ‘there is a city which used to be the court of the 
Emperor Akbar when Father Rodolfi was here, which is called Fatehpur : 
we might say of it “here stood Troy,” for it is totally demolished; but afew 
edifices made by the Emperor still stand firm. The Prince was there at 
the time and I went to see him. He was much pleased at my visit and 
entertained me very well, and when his second son,! who was with him, 
took no notice of my salutation, he said to him. “Ho there! the Father is 
saluting you,” and the young man then obeyed him.’ 
While with the Prince, Xavier was able to do a good turn for an 
Italian servant? of his whose pay was in arrears, and also for the widow 
of an Armenian goldsmith whose property had been seized. This 
Armenian, like his compatriot above mentioned, had died from drink: 
he had offered before the Prince to drink 5 or 6 goblets of spirits; and 
instead of drinking, like the Prince, from small cups he insisted on 
draining a large china bowl, with the result that he ‘died next day 
without recovering consciousness. On his return Xavier again visited 
the Prince and found him having copper made from peacocks’ tails in 
his presence, such copper being an excellent antidote against poison! 
The Father continues his account as follows :— 
‘That same day the Prince showed me a crucifix carved on an emerald,* 
very well wrought. He told me he had had it made to take with him. The 
1 Sultan Parwiz then sixteen years old. 
2 Perhaps the Filippo mentioned on p. 88 above. Xavier in the same letter 
says that this Italian and his wife entertained him at Fathpur. 
3 cf p. 89 above. 
