1896.] H. D. Maclagan— Jesuit Missions’ to the Emperor Akbar. 109 
among these one which he had sent by an Armenian Christian, who had. 
given him suitable information about our power and prosperity: furthermore 
that the said Akbar wanted some men of letters to be sent to him and com- 
plained of the quick departure of the Jesuits despatched to him by Manoel de 
Sousa Coutinho when he was Governor, and that he [Albuquerque] had 
considered the matter with some prelates and monks, who were of opinion 
that two learned monks should be sent, and that the Provincial of the 
Society of Jesus forthwith offered his own ecclesiastics with the same 
zeal for the service of God and for mine with which he had given the two 
others, as well as a very learned layman, and I recommend you to thank 
the said Provincial on my part, as well as for those of his order which he 
has given to go to Ethiopia, and that you should favour these things and 
keep me always informed about them,’ 
Similarly on 5th February, 1597 the king again writes: ‘He [Albuquer- 
que] also tells me that he had a letter from Jeronimo Xavier, a friar of the 
Society, written at the court of Akbar, in which he informs him that, after 
enduring many hardships in a land-journey of five months, he had, with two 
friars in his company, arrived at the court of the Mogol, who received them 
with much pomp, and that he himself, as well as the prince with his captains, 
expressed great admiration at the taking of the Morro [a fort opposite 
Chaul which the Portuguese had conquered from the Deccan Moslems]! and 
that he asked them to make haste to learn the Persian language because he 
desired to speak to them without interpreters on the reasons which had 
induced him to invite them to his Court. I recommend you to encourage 
and to aid the friars of the Society to make progress in the mission for 
which they have been sent, and to attain the good result expected there- 
from.’ 
And again on 15th January 1598:—‘ You are also to give me an account 
how the two friars of the Society are at the court of the Moghul, and 
although they have hitherto not produced any fruit, their aid is necessary 
in continuing to give us every information about the king as they now do. 
This I approve of, for the reasons you adduce, and I have also other infor- 
mation in conformity with them. It is chiefly to be taken into consideration 
that the fruit, which has hitherto not shown itself, may appear whenever 
-God pleaseth and when human hopes are perhaps the smallest. Accordingly 
you are to make arrangements with the Provincial of the Society, in case 
these friars should die or be necessarily recalled, for sending others so that 
some may always be there as now.’ 
Writing in 1616, Sir Thomas Roe talks of Corsi as having been the 
‘Resident’ of the king of Spain. (Melch. Thevenot, Relations p.78) and 
Terry describes him as ‘ Agent for the Portugals’ (Purchas, IT. 1482). 
How far the Jesuits proved politically useful to the Goa authorities 
during Akbar’s reign’ we have no adequate means of judging. Their 
1 Cf. Fariay Sousa, ‘The Portuguese in Asia’, translated by John Stevens, 1695, 
III, 69. 
