1896.] HE. D. Maclagan— Jesuit Missions to the Emperor Akbar. 95 
the Christians, which they had tried to obtain in favour of the English. 
One who was on their side now made known that he had been heavily 
bribed to prepare matters with the Emperor, ! but after all this he turned 
against them, broke the agreement he had made, and in our presence tore 
up the paper each had secretly prepared. All this came of the previous 
persecution which the Lord Jesus brought to such a happy issue....... The 
Englishman tried by means of heavy bribes to obtain a firmdn from the 
Emperor allowing his people to come into the ports, promising much profit, 
and many tried to procure it for him, but ‘dominus dissipat concilia 
princupum, and, as ‘cor regis in manu Domini, the Emperor would never 
grant the request, though the Englishman persevered in asking it for two 
years, and we trust in our Lord God that many more may elapse before he 
obtains it. It is no small favour which our Lord does us in preventing a 
thing so prejudicial to the State and our Faith.’ 
At the beginning of March [1604] there had arrived in Agra from 
Lahor a ‘distinguished and learned Florentine Jo%0 Battista Vechiete’? 
~ who had travelled ‘in many eastern lands, through Hgypt, Mesopotamia 
and Persia,’ and who was much favoured by the Emperor. An interest- 
ing account of his books is then given :— 
‘He has much friendship for us, in proof of which he gave us a book 
of the Holy Gospels in Arabic with the Latin at the foot, printed in the 
Vatican, which we value very highly. He had also with him the Psalter of 
David in Persian, which he obtained with great pains and at great cost 
from a Jew who had it in Persian, but in Hebrew characters. It was 
translated two hundred years ago by an eminent Jew of Persia. We gave 
ourselves to the transcribing of these books with much delight. While the 
Italian was here, he copied in Persian character the Books of Proverbs, 
Canticles, Heclesiastes, Judith and Hsther, which he had in Persian, but in 
Hebrew character, ® and gave them to us freshly copied into the Persian 
tongue and character, but though the characters are new, the translation is 
more than two hundred years old: he obtained them from some Jews in 
Persia at a good price. We gave him the book of the four Gospels in 
Persian, which he greatly desired, for he said that they had the Gospel of 
St. Matthew in Persian at Rome, but would like very much to have the 
other three. Last year we sent to Rome another book of the Gospels in 
Persian, the translation of which is more than 300 years old. God grant 
I According to Mildenall the Jesuits had not been behind hand for they ‘had 
given to the two chiefest counsellors that the king had, at least five hundred pounds 
_ sterling a piece that they should in no wise consent unto these demands of mine,’ i.e. 
his demands for trading privileges for the English. 
2 Heis probably one of the merchants referred to by Mildenall in his letter of 
1606 from Qazwin in which he says: ‘I would have come myself when I wrote this 
letter save that there were two Italian merchants in Agra that knew of all my 
proceedings whom I doubted, as I had good cause lest they would do me some 
harme.’ 
3 The regular custom among Persian Jews. See Ind. Antiq. XVII. 115. 
