110 E. D. Maclagan —Jesuct Missions to the Emperor Akbar. [No. 1, 
energy in the promotion of Portuguese interests during the reign of 
Jahangir is sufficiently manifested by the very free comments made on 
their tactics by the Hnglish travellers of the period (See eg., Terry’s 
Voyage Ed. 1777 p. 422, and Hawkins, on p. 34 Wheeler’s Harly 
Travellers in India). 
Ultimately the Jesuits failed in thisas in their other objects. They 
failed to convert the Emperor. They failed to propagate Christianity 
in Northern India. They failed to cireumvent the English. And yet 
the episode, so full of failure, is not, I venture to think, without its 
lessons and an interest of its own. 
APPENDIX. 
Note on the Persian works of Hather Jerome Xavier. 
The opportunity may be taken here to describe shortly the Persian 
works written by Jerome Xavier,! although most of these were written after 
Akbar’s death. 
(i) Miratu-l-Quds (the Mirror of Holiness) or Dastan-i-Masth. (Life of 
Christ). The preface of this work commences with a curious conceit re- 
garding the example of ‘ Akbar Badshah Idisha’, z.e., Abgarus King of Edessa, 
who sent to make enquiries regarding Jesus and received a picture of 
Christ’s likeness. So, too, under the orders of His Majesty, this work had 
been’ written by Jerome Xavier, who having known the subject for 40 years 
and having studied Persian for 7 or 8 years had ventured to undertake the 
duty. The preface is dated Agra the 15th Urdibihisht 1602. 
Then follows the book itself divided into four parts, viz. (1) the Nativity 
and Infancy of Christ, (II) His Miracles and Teaching, (III) His Death and 
Suffering and (IV) His Resurrection and Ascension. In Xavier’s account, the 
Bible narratives are freely supplemented from the apocryphal gospels and 
elsewhere: and the writer acknowledges in his preface and conclusion that 
this is the case. 
The book seems to have been first written. out in Portuguese. Ac- 
cording to the concluding note, the translation into Persian was made 
by ‘Abdu-s-sattar ibn Qasim# of Lahor conjointly with Xavier himself 
1 See Mr. Rehatsek on p. 18 Calcutta Review, Jan. 1886: Dr. C. Rieu’s Catalogue 
of the Persian MSS. in the British Museum: and Mr. Beveridge in J. A. S. B. 1888. 
2 See the translation of the preface and the abstract of Part I given by Prof. 
Blochmann in Proc. A. 8. B., May 1870, p. 140. Also the full, though very unsym- 
pathetic, account of the work given by Mr. A. Rogers in his article on ‘ The Holy 
Mirror or the gospel according to Father Jerome Xavier,’ in the Asiatic Quarterly 
Review for July 1890. Also the same writer’s paper on ‘A Persian History of Christ 
and St. Peter by Jerome Xavier, S. J.’ read before the Royal Asiatic Society on 
March 10th 1896. 
3 Du Croze, Hist. Chr. 521. 
4 De Dien has ‘Abdu-s-sanarim Qasim’ 
