116 H. HOSTEN ON 



rather than allow an incest and a crime. Leaving our Brother Benedict [Goes] 

 at home, I went with Fr. Emmanuel Pigneiro [Pinheiro] to the Court. Benedict 

 rarely set foot in the palace, but that night he longed to accompany us, in the hope 

 of sharing the sufferings and crown which our vindication of the truth was likely 

 to gain for us. Accordingly , he remained a long time hanging about the palace, 

 expecting to be informed of our sufferings and torments, and prepared to associate 

 himself in our glorious triumph ; but, when he saw that matters took a different turn, 

 he called the Christian children and catechumens together, and in a stirring exhorta- 

 tion encouraged them bravely to die for their faith; then, disciplining himself, 

 he besought Our Lord in a long and fervent prayer to give us strength and courage to 

 resist the impious machinations of our enemies, because the King insistently urged us 

 to yield to the Armenian's criminal and incestuous designs. After expostulating 

 with us, the King asked us what harm there would be for the Armenian in marrying 

 two sisters and following his [the King's] sect, which he had embraced, that so 

 he might obtain as a Moor what he was as a Christian forbidden to do. My answer 

 was that by doing so he relinquished the path leading to Heaven to tread the 

 road which would bring him to hell; wherefore, the Armenian and whosoever em- 

 braced such a Law was devoting himself to certain destruction. My bold and 

 intrepid answer was unpalatable to the King. Before the whole of his Court it 

 condemned his new-fangled teaching. Still, he tried to dissemble his annoyance and 

 displeasure, and composed nis countenance to conceal the pain and chagrin he 

 felt. Great as was the surprise which my liberty of speech caused among the bystand- 

 ers, the prestige which it conciliated to the Gospel was greater still, when they saw 

 us willing and eager to shed our blood in its assertion and vindication, an example of 

 constancy little familiar to the Moors, who shrink from the slightest discomfort 

 which the profession and defence of their law may entail. When the Prince [Salim, 

 Jahanglr] heard of these proceedings, he was indignant at the Armenian's denial 

 of Christ, and showed by unmistakable signs how he wished to visit upon him 

 the punishment which his dereliction of his faith richly deserved." l 



In another letter of Fr. Jerome Xavier, dated Agra, September 6th, 1604, we are 

 told that Akbar liberated at the request of the Fathers fifty shipwrecked Portuguese 

 captives. They started from Agra southwards, at the beginning of December (1603), 

 and a certain Armenian, called Iskandar, through whose villages they passed, supplied 

 them with a few rupees each, which enabled them to reach Goa, travelling by way of 

 Ahmadabad and Cambay. 2 



Iskandar was then, we suggest, enjoying the jagir of Sambhar, where he 

 would have been in charge of the government salt monopoly at the Salt Lake. 



Shortly after Jahangir's accession to the throne, at the end of 1605, Sikandar 

 came (from Sambhar) to Agra to pay his respects to the Emperor and give an 

 account of his administration. Jahanglr pressed him to become a Muhammadan 



1 Cf. Hayus, De rebus Iaponicis, Indicis et Peruanis, Antverpiae, MDCV, pp. 871-872, or Louis de DiEU, Hist. S. 

 Petri, I/ugduni Batavorum, 1639, pp. 133-135. 



2 J.A.S.B , 1896, p. 91. 



